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Teodora Ana Mihai’s “Traffic” was named the winner of the 40th Warsaw Film Festival on Saturday. The film was written by Cristian Mungiu, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes with “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” and stars “Happening” lead actor Anamaria Vartolomei.

“Traffic” focuses on Romanian immigrants in Belgium, who go from unwanted second-class citizens to very much wanted criminals, as they decide to stage a heist that will change their lives forever.

You can watch the trailer here:

“I was excited about the opportunity to work closely with Cristian Mungiu, as he was also co-producing the project. I anticipated it would be an intense and challenging experience, but I don’t shy away from challenges, as I demonstrated with [previous film] ‘La Civil,’” Mihai told Variety.

“I believe Cristian and I have always shared a similar understanding of the themes explored in this film, which camouflages...

There are few modern filmmakers with a voice as distinctive as Quentin Tarantino’s, a former video-store clerk who transformed his movie love into blockbuster, arthouse, genre-redefining masterpieces that kept grindhouse cinema alive while pushing nostalgia in bold directions.

With a career spanning 27 years and ten feature films (depending on how you count), Tarantino has made an indelible mark on cinema. And his hard-hitting, playful directorial style has, in all that time, made good films great, great films classics, and the faults in bad films sometimes harder to recognize.

Here, then, are Quentin Tarantino’s films from “Reservoir Dogs” to “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood,” ranked from the very worst to the very, very best:

10. “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood” (2019)

Sharon Tate is a meaningless footnote in her own life story in Quentin Tarantino’s baffling and insulting ode to 1960s Hollywood. Tate is played by Margot Robbie,...

Exclusive: UTA has signed award-winning actor, director, writer and producer Steve Buscemi and his Olive Productions banner for representation in all areas.

Buscemi currently co-stars opposite Daniel Radcliffe in the TBS anthology comedy series Miracle Workers that’s executive produced by Lorne Michaels. He starred in the HBO drama, Boardwalk Empire, which earned him a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy nominations.

He was also nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Emmy for his role as Tony Blundetto in season five of The Sopranos and was nominated for Guest Actor Emmy nominations for his appearances on NBC’s 30 Rock and IFC’s Portlandia.

Some of his film credits include Martin Scorsese’s New York Stories; Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train for which he received an IFP Spirit Award Nomination; Alexandre Rockwell’s Sundance Film Festival Jury Award-winner In the Soup; Judd Apatow’s The King of Staten Island...

New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve are not exactly known for having movies made about them, at least compared to the volumes of movies made about Christmas. However, there are some movies about that transition time and some of them are great to watch during that short period after Christmas and before life returns to the usual humdrum of work and responsibilities. Here are a few of our favorites:

Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! (1986)

Seemingly, every major holiday has a Charlie Brown special. Well, almost. New Year’s is not to be left out and got its own Charlie Brown special in 1986. While most folks will think of Charlie Brown as a Christmas cartoon or a Halloween one, this special is actually quite good. In the story, Charlie Brown doesn’t want to celebrate, he wants to be left alone so he can read “War and Peace”, however,...

The mean-spirited children’s books of Roald Dahl have, rather oddly, become indelible classics. That’s probably because Dahl — a former British espionage agent, and writer of even grimmer short stories for adults — was under no illusion that childhood was a wonderful time.

Books like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Matilda” and “The Witches” confirm what most children already suspected: that adults have a general disdain for kids, and that if kids were going to survive, they’d have to save themselves. At their best, adaptations of Dahl’s work capture that cynical spirit. At their worst, they fall prey to Dahl’s basest instincts, an unfortunate tendency towards bigoted portrayals and unhealthy themes.

When exploring every Roald Dahl movie, however, you can’t stop at the kids’ films. Dahl was also a screenwriter who adapted the works of other authors to the big screen, and not every filmmaker was...

Charlotte Wells’ breakout moment has been a long time coming. Over the past decade, the 35-year-old Scottish filmmaker attended film school with business aspirations, directed a handful of short films, and produced a low-budget feature. By the time her feature-length debut “Aftersun” made waves at Cannes, scored distribution with A24, and established her as a major new filmmaking talent, she had been tinkering with the project for years.

“There was a mystery to the process of discovering exactly what it was,” Wells said in an interview with IndieWire from A24’s New York offices this month. “It was a challenging project to describe to people and a challenging script to read.”

That’s because “Aftersun” hovers in a state of poetic mystery from start to finish. The layered drama finds 12-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) on vacation at a Turkish resort with her father Calum (Paul Mescal) in the 1990s, while...

Prime Video has released the official teaser trailer for the upcoming dark comedy-drama series “Mammals,” starring James Corden and Sally Hawkins. All six episodes will drop Nov. 11.

Directed by Stephanie Laing and written by Jez Butterworth, “Mammals” follows Jamie (Corden), a chef who discovers shocking secrets about his pregnant wife, Amandine (Melia Kreiling). Jamie searches for answers with the help of his brother-in-law Jeff (Colin Morgan), but stumbles upon cracks in Jeff’s marriage to Jamie’s sister Lue (Hawkins) along the way.

The series is produced by Street Hassle, in association with Vertigo Films and Fulwell 73. Watch the teaser below.

Also in today’s TV news:

Trailers

Apple TV+ has released the official trailer of the original preschool series “Slumberkins,” premiering globally on the streamer Nov. 4.

From The Jim Henson Company, the series follows the adventures of Bigfoot, Unicorn, Sloth, Yak and Fox as they empower the emotional...

Exclusive: The Halloween franchise actor is reuniting with Kevin Costner for the fourth time after No Way Out, The Postman, and the Paramount+ series Yellowstone for the 2x Oscar winner’s New Line’s Civil War epic Horizon.

Will Patton boards alongside previously announced Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jena Malone, Alejandro Edda, Tatanka Means, Michael Rooker, Isabelle Fuhrman, Ella Hunt, Luke Wilson, Thomas Haden Church, Tom Payne, Abbey Lee, Wasé Chief, Tim Guinee, Michael Angarano, Colin Cunningham, Scott Haze, Angus Macfadyen, Douglas Smith and Jon Beavers. This weekend Patton had a No. 1 movie alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in Universal/Blumhouse/Miramax’s Halloween Ends which debuted to 58.4M worldwide and was also the most watched piece of programming ever in a two-day period on Uni streaming service Peacock. Patton previously starred in the horror franchise previous pics, Halloween and Halloween Kills.

Horizon, which returns Costner to the...

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Apple TV+ is ramping up its slate of kids and family programming for the fall.

The tech giant’s streaming service will debut four new series in the fall and offer up new seasons of five returning shows, including Ghostwriter — with an entirely new cast for its third installment — and Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show. Apple TV+ will also add eight Peanuts specials to its library as part of its partnership with rights holder WildBrain.

The four new series are preschool animated show Sago Mini Friends, based on characters from the Sago Mini World app; Slumberkins, a mix of animation and puppetry from the Jim Henson Company; Interrupting Chicken, based on the award-winning children’s book by David Ezra Stein; and Circuit Breakers, a kid-friendly sci fi show.

The additions to Apple TV+’s slate for kids and families stand in contrast to...

The 37th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards were handed out Sunday at the Santa Monica Pier, with comedy power couple Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally serving as hosts.

There weren’t too many surprises throughout the night. Troy Kotsur won the first award of the evening, Best Supporting Male Actor for “Coda,” very much as predicted. Taylour Paige took home Best Female Lead Actor, for “Zola,” while Simon Rex, of “Red Rocket,” walked away with Best Male Lead. Ruth Negga won Best Supporting Female Actor for “Passing,” beating out Jessie Buckley from “The Lost Daughter.”

But Maggie Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of the Elena Ferrante book won the three other categories in which it was nominated — Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Feature — and was the night’s biggest victor. Gyllenhaal gave three effusive thank you speeches, spreading her appreciation around to her cast, crew, financiers, publicist, husband and mother. “Women in film!

The following conversation between directors Quentin Tarantino and Alexandre Rockwell was published in Filmmaker‘s Winter, 1993 issue, as these films hit commercial release. It is being reprinted today, as Reservoir Dogs celebrates the 30th anniversary of its premiere at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival. Friendship, loyalty, and honor–all are classic film themes which, ironically, can sometimes be hard qualities to find in the world of filmmaking. For every film that beats the odds and manages to get made, independent or otherwise, there are a hundred shattered deals, broken promises, and crushed filmmakers left in the shadows. This year two filmmakers […]

The post Band of Outsiders: A Conversation between Reservoir Dogs Director Quentin Tarantino and In the Soup Director Alexandre Rockwell first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The following conversation between directors Quentin Tarantino and Alexandre Rockwell was published in Filmmaker‘s Winter, 1993 issue, as these films hit commercial release. It is being reprinted today, as Reservoir Dogs celebrates the 30th anniversary of its premiere at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival. Friendship, loyalty, and honor–all are classic film themes which, ironically, can sometimes be hard qualities to find in the world of filmmaking. For every film that beats the odds and manages to get made, independent or otherwise, there are a hundred shattered deals, broken promises, and crushed filmmakers left in the shadows. This year two filmmakers […]

The post Band of Outsiders: A Conversation between Reservoir Dogs Director Quentin Tarantino and In the Soup Director Alexandre Rockwell first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

With fears our winter travel will need a, let’s say, reconsideration, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming could hardly come at a better moment. High on list of highlights is Louis Feuillade’s delightful Les Vampires, which I suggest soundtracking to Coil, instrumental Nine Inch Nails, and Jóhann Jóhannson’s Mandy score. Notable too is a Sundance ’92 retrospective running the gamut from Paul Schrader to Derek Jarman to Jean-Pierre Gorin, and I’m especially excited for their look at one of America’s greatest actors, Sterling Hayden.

Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.

See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020

5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952

After Migration: Calabria,...

A24 is the leading film distributor with 13 nominations, followed by Neon and Netflix on nine.

Janicza Bravo’s Zola led the Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations with seven nods, followed by Lauren Hadaway’s The Novice with five and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter on four.

All three are competing for best feature and best director, with Ninja Thyberg for Pleasure and Mike Mills for C’mon C’mon rounding out the latter category. It’s the second year in a row that four women have been nominated for best director.

The other best feature nominees are C’mon C’mon...

Distributor A24 and Zola led nominations as the Film Independent Spirit Awards revealed their 37th annual nods in a pre-taped presentation hosted by Beanie Feldstein, Regina Hall and Naomi Watts. The Spirit Awards are skedded for Sunday, March 6, 2022 — live and in-person this year back on the beach in Santa Monica, and broadcast on IFC.

A24’s Zola, by Janicza Bravo and based on a Twitter chain from a riotous road trip, was recognized for Best Feature Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Female Lead and Supporting Male. Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon with Joaquin Phoenix took four nods including feature, director and screenplay. Accolades were rounded out by two nominations for Sean Baker’s Red Rocket, for Best Male Lead, Simon Rex ,and Best Supporting Female, Suzanna Son. The Humans, directed by Stephen Karam based on his one-act play, was nominated in cinematography.

Netflix and Neon took nine nods each, with...

Following the announcement of their new curated theatrical venture Mubi Go, next month’s U.S. streaming lineup at Mubi has now been unveiled. Highlights include Terrence Malick’s heartbreakingly raw romantic drama To the Wonder and its Javier Bardem-focused counterpart, Eugene Richards’ Thy Kingdom Come.

Also in the lineup is Julian Faraut’s terrifically entertaining documentary Witches of the Orient, the Werner Herzog double bill of Grizzly Man and Lo and Behold, John Carpenter’s Escape From New York, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Blue, Sandra Wollner’s controversial feature The Trouble With Being Born, Alexandre Rockwell’s latest film Sweet Thing, and much more.

See the full lineup below and get 30 days of Mubi free here.

November 1 | The First Lap New | Kim Dae-hwan | South Korean Cinema

November 2 | L’innocente | Luchino Visconti

November 3 | 80,000 Years Old | Christelle Lheureux

November 4 | Liebelei | Max Ophüls

November 5 | Maelström | Denis Villeneuve | A Cosmic Trajectory: Early Films by...

Shelley Surpin, the entertainment lawyer who produced a half-dozen movies and championed such independent filmmakers as Allison Anders, Nicole Holofcener and Gregg Araki, has died. She was 72.

Surpin died Friday in Santa Monica of complications from a stroke, her law firm, the Century City-based Surpin, Mayersohn & Coghill, announced.

Surpin was a producer on The Doom Generation (1995) and Nowhere (1997), both written and directed by Araki; Louis & Frank (1998), written and directed by Alexandre Rockwell; Prague Duet (1998), written and directed by Roger L. Simon; Sound of My Voice (2012), directed and co-written by Zal Batmanglij and starring Brit Marling; and Jake Squared (2013), written and ...

Shelley Surpin, the entertainment lawyer who produced a half-dozen movies and championed such independent filmmakers as Allison Anders, Nicole Holofcener and Gregg Araki, has died. She was 72.

Surpin died Friday of complications from a stroke, her law firm, the Century City-based Surpin, Mayersohn & Coghill, announced.

Surpin was a producer on The Doom Generation (1995) and Nowhere (1997), both written and directed by Araki; Louis & Frank (1998), written and directed by Alexandre Rockwell; Prague Duet (1998), written and directed by Roger L. Simon; Sound of My Voice (2012), directed and co-written by Zal Batmanglij and starring Brit Marling; and Jake Squared (2013), written and directed by Howard ...

Alexandre Rockwell’s semi-improvised film, which stars his wife and children, is imperfectly plotted but brilliantly acted

Here is a drama about kids trying to escape abusive environments, shot mostly in black and white, written and directed by Alexandre Rockwell, who was once going to be the next big thing after early hit In the Soup and contributing a quarter to portmanteau work Four Rooms. But he struggled to get his subsequent films airborne: none were big, or even medium-sized, hits. Tiny and intimate, Sweet Thing isn’t likely to do boffo box-office either, but this small, delicate, late-blooming film is quite lovely, and a throwback to the 1990s/2000s craze for semi-improvised, rough and ready indie film-making.

Related: Sweet Thing director Alexandre Rockwell: ‘Weinstein was eating hot dogs like sushi, while a student rubbed oil on his lemon-sized boils’...

After winning Sundance in 1992, the director’s career stalled, thanks in part, he says, to Harvey Weinstein. It was making films with his family that saved him

When Alexandre Rockwell’s basement flooded a few years ago, he spotted an opportunity. Why not do the repairs himself and put the $80,000 insurance payout towards making a new film? He hired graduate students from New York University, where he is the head of directing at the graduate film school, as crew and cast his children, Lana, 18, and Nico, 15, in the leading roles. Lana is on our video call, too, laughing at her dad as he finishes the story. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to make a film,” he jokes. “I just hope I don’t have to burn my house down next time, or cut my leg off.”

Lana was 15 when the family shot Sweet Thing. It is the...

While seasons such as winter and fall may be associated with heavy drama and melancholia, a story taking place during summer is connected to love, passion and possibly growth. With the end of summer, the passing of a relationship approaches, the insecurity whether it can grow into something more and lasting, giving this particular brand of story its own, very special kind of melancholia. In their collaborative feature “I Water A Cactus” directors Yuki Sugiyama, Shohei Hisamitsu and Minori Oka aim to tell such a story, a tale about a relationship and its development and whether it is meant to last.

I Water a Cactus is screening at Japan Filmfest Hamburg

It is summer and Akira (Reio Takahashi), a student, works in a second-hand-bookstore, making very little money but nevertheless enjoying the work, as it gives him much time to read. One day, while waiting for the train to take him back home,...

Alexandre Rockwell’s Sweet Thing could be pulled from any era. Shot in striking 16mm black-and-white, the coming-of-age film—Rockwell’s first feature since 2013—is an intimate story about childhood, connection, freedom, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. Starring Rockwell’s own children Lana and Nico as, respectively, Billie and Nico, Sweet Thing keeps its lens on two children maturing before they should and forced into situations of adulthood.

Billie and Nico live with their alcoholic father (a tremendous WIll Patton). They see their mother (Rockwell’s wife Karyn Parsons) sparingly, as she’ll even brush them aside on Christmas. They bounce around life, taking care of their parents and each other, Billie shouldering the majority of that load and the excessive brunt of the consequences. Each scene exists through the eyes of Billie and Nico, almost moving in slow motion, the utter smallness and closeness of their lives on display.

Three children are left on their own in Sweet Thing, an evocative coming-of-age drama written and directed by Alexandre Rockwell. Returning from his previous feature, Little Feet, are Rockwell’s children Lana (playing Billie) and Nico. Joining them is newcomer Jabari Watkins as the kids’ neighbor Malik; Will Patton as their alcoholic father Adam; and Karyn Parsons (Rockwell’s wife) as their largely absent mother Eve. Shot over one summer in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Sweet Thing travels through a bleak world of poverty and despair, depicted with surprising empathy by Rockwell and through the cinematography of Lasse Tolbøll. The writer/director’s script strings […]

The post “I Wanted to Have a World I Could Paint in Broad Strokes”: Director Alexandre Rockwell on Creating the Full-of-Life Family Drama, Sweet Thing first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Three children are left on their own in Sweet Thing, an evocative coming-of-age drama written and directed by Alexandre Rockwell. Returning from his previous feature, Little Feet, are Rockwell’s children Lana (playing Billie) and Nico. Joining them is newcomer Jabari Watkins as the kids’ neighbor Malik; Will Patton as their alcoholic father Adam; and Karyn Parsons (Rockwell’s wife) as their largely absent mother Eve. Shot over one summer in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Sweet Thing travels through a bleak world of poverty and despair, depicted with surprising empathy by Rockwell and through the cinematography of Lasse Tolbøll. The writer/director’s script strings […]

The post “I Wanted to Have a World I Could Paint in Broad Strokes”: Director Alexandre Rockwell on Creating the Full-of-Life Family Drama, Sweet Thing first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

"Run away with us..." Film Movement has released the official trailer for a low key indie drama titled Sweet Thing, made by Massachusetts native filmmaker Alexandre Rockwell. This initially premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year, and it also played at the Tokyo Film Festival. The story revolves around two siblings and their struggle to find solid ground in the homes of their alcoholic father and negligent mother. The three children ultimately run away and make up a temporary life for themselves. They discover freedom and enchantment among New Bedford's boats and railway tracks. They fantasize about a life of luxury when they break into a posh home, and are able to carry the taste of affluence into their adventures. The film celebrates their ability to make poetry and a joyful life out of hardship. Starring Lana Rockwell, Nico Rockwell, Will Patton, Karyn Parsons, Jabari Watkins, M.L. Josepher, & Steven Randazzo.

Some 16 months after its quiet debut at Berlinale 2020, Sweet Thing—the new film by Alexandre Rockwell, he of In the Soup and one-fourth of (in)famous anthology Four Rooms—will arrive this Friday from Film Movement. Its trailer is one of the best we’ve seen in some while, an eye-popping mix of colors, film stocks, and faces scored to Karen Dalton’s perennially melancholic “Something on Your Mind.” We should also mention it has express approval of Rockwell’s old collaborator Quentin Tarantino, who offered this bit of praise:

“Alexandre Rockwell’s Sweet Thing is one of the most powerful new films I’ve seen in years. The whole film has soul, but the fact that Rockwell didn’t go the easy way and shoot it on digital, but instead (like a real filmmaker) shot it on black and white 16mm film makes it a divine soul. But it...

Film Movement has acquired North American rights to “Wildland,” Jeanette Nordahl’s debut feature starring Sidse Babett Knudsen (“Borgen”) as a mafia ringleader.

The gripping crime drama, which was part of the Berlinale 2020 selection, will next premiere at New York City’s Film Forum, followed by a wide theatrical release and roll out on all digital and home entertainment platforms.

The announcement was made by Michael Rosenberg, president of Film Movement, and Andrea dos Santos for Bac Films Distribution.

Set in the Danish countryside around an old industrialized farming town, “Wildland” follows a 17-year old girl, Ida, who moves in with her aunt and cousins after the tragic death of her mother in a car accident. The home is filled with love, but outside of the home, the family leads a violent and criminal life.

Produced by Snowglobe, the film was written by Ingeborg Topsoe, whose recent credits include Milad Alami’s “The Charmer.

Luxbox Films handles international sales.

Film Movement has picked up North American rights to Berlinale selection Moon, 66 Questions, which is currently screening at New Directors/New Films.

Greek filmmaker Jacqueline Lentzou’s feature directorial debut was a Teddy nominee in Berlin and also played at Mexico’s Ficunam earlier this year.

Moon, 66 Questions will open theatrically this year follow by home entertainment and digital platforms and centres on twentysomething Artemis (Sofia Kokkali) who returns to Greece to care for her father (Lazaros Georgakopoulos) after he suffers a debilitating illness.

“Starting with her startling shorts, we’ve eagerly followed Jacqueline’s career,...

Film Movement has acquired North American rights to Alexandre Rockwell’s “Sweet Thing,” which won the Berlin Film Festival’s Crystal Bear in 2020.

The movie is slated for a theatrical release this summer, followed by a rollout on all digital and home entertainment platforms. An ode to childhood, “Sweet Thing” marks Rockwell’s directorial comeback since his 2013 movie “Little Feet.”

“Sweet Thing,” which stars Lana and Nico Rockwell, Karyn Parsons and Will Patton, follows two children in contemporary New Bedford, Mass., who spend an eventful summer in a beach house with their mother and her boyfriend. They soon meet up with another adolescent, who’s run away from home, and together roam the area free from their parents’ watchful gaze, discovering freedom and enchantment among New Bedford’s boats and railway tracks.

After world-premiering at the Berlinale, the movie went on to play at the Tribeca, Mill Valley and Tokyo film festivals.

Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” is set as the opening movie of the Melbourne International Film Festival. The event was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, before being revived online under the label Miff 68 ½. The festival will unspool virtually Aug 6-23, 2020.

“First Cow” is an unlikely story of friendship and free enterprise on the American frontier, involving a skilled cook, a Chinese immigrant and a wealthy landowner’s prized milking cow. It previously played at the Telluride, New York and Berlin festivals.

In total, the festival will present 60 feature films, including 3 in a retrospective section, and 44 shorts. They hail from 56 countries and territories and 49% include at least one female director. All film screenings are geo-blocked to play only within Australia, but are available nationwide.

“Despite the extraordinary circumstances of 2020, Miff’s ‘radical act’ is to keep going and continue on our mission to bring (to audiences) the world through unforgettable screen experiences,...

This Independence Day weekend sees the fittingly timed release of “Hamilton,” with the hit Broadway show about the United States’ founding fathers making the jump to living rooms on Disney Plus. Beyond that, a bounty of other releases are also coming out to tide audiences over for the holiday weekend.

With theaters shuttered due to the coronavirus pandemic, many of the tentpole films originally scheduled to release this summer have been pulled for the time being. This includes “In the Heights,” an adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first musical hit on Broadway, which was supposed to come out on June 26 and has been pushed nearly a fully year to June 18, 2021. However, fans of the playwright can instead catch a filmed version of his original Broadway production of “Hamilton” on Disney Plus beginning Friday.

Aside from a small theatrical release, “The Outpost” is also making the jump to video-on-demand services. Though...

Time tugs strangely on the sleeve of “Sweet Thing,” a heartfelt, hopeful yet slightly hollow black-and-white coming-of-ager from American indie stalwart Alexandre Rockwell. A lively, bittersweet meditation on an impoverished childhood that is still rich in innocence and imagination, it feels old-fashioned in a way that does not quite gel with its bid for contemporary grit. In form too, it feels more like a quaint reminder of Rockwell’s early-’90s heyday than a product of our modern times. With verve and vitality it pays a dreamy-eyed retrospective debt to films past, and largely due to the beguiling performance from Rockwell’s own daughter Lana, ultimately delivers a moving, tousled journey of discovery — but it’s through an America that has not existed for decades, if it ever did.

Lana Rockwell plays Billie, the daughter of unreliable, alcoholic but loving Adam (a terrific Will Patton) and older sister to Nico.

Tucked away from the limelight at the Berlinale is the diverse and well-attended Generation section, themed on films devoted to depicting children. This, it is clear, is not the same thing as movies for children, though the two categories certainly and frequently joyfully overlap. Here, naivety, wonder, play, and confusion can be pursued in a way that might seem foolish in the so-called adult cinema found elsewhere at the festival. Polina Gumiela’s nearly feature-length Blue Eyes and Colorful My Dress shows how radical children’s cinema can be, following the wandering play of Zhana, a three-year-old girl (the director's daughter), around chunky, labyrinthine apartment blocks in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv. Plotless in so far as the start-and-stop nature of a child’s play is plotless, and characterized by the several other self-minded children and animals—cats and dogs are half friends and half foes—Zhana encounters during her freedom,...

Paris-based company unveils new team’s first Berlinale world sales acquisition.

Paris-based film company Urban Distribution International (Udi) has revamped its team following the departure of former sales and acquisitions chief Delphyne Besse in December to focus on personal projects.

Louise Ronzet, who worked with Besse as a sales executive, has been promoted to head of sales. She will be assisted by international sales and marketing executive Jennyfer Gautier.

Udi has also hired Agathe Corbin as acquisition manager. She arrives from Paris-based sales company WTFilms where she was an acquisitions and production executive.

Irène Cadavid has also joined the company as festivals manager.

Matteo Garrone to present ‘Pinocchio’ as the first Berlinale Special Gala.

The Berlinale has revealed the first films set to be screened at the 70th edition of the festival.

They include the live-action adaptation of Pinocchio, from Italian director Matteo Garrone, which is the first Berlinale Special Gala to be announced – a category that replaces ‘out of competition’. It will mark the international premiere of the film, starring Roberto Benigni, which is released in Italy this weekend.

Scroll down for full list of titles

The first 18 films selected for the Panorama strand have also been named, including 11 world premieres.

Among...

Matteo Garrone to present ‘Pinocchio’ as the first Berlinale Special Gala.

The Berlinale has revealed the first films set to be screened at the 70th edition of the festival.

They include the live-action adaptation of Pinocchio, from Italian director Matteo Garrone, which is the first Berlinale Special Gala to be announced – a category that replaces ‘out of competition’. It will mark the international premiere of the film, starring Roberto Benigni, which is released in Italy this weekend.

Scroll down for full list of titles

The first 18 films selected for the Panorama strand have also been named, including 11 world premieres.

Among...

The 2020 Berlin Film Festival, the first edition under new artistic director Carlo Chatrian, has unveiled its first wave of titles.

Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio, starring Roberto Benigni, will have its international premiere at the festival as a Berlinale Special Gala. The team have removed the ‘out of competition’ classification this year and those films will now play as Special Galas. Pinocchio is released theatrically in Italy this weekend and Berlin will mark its festival premiere.

“Garrone succeeds in re-telling the well-known story with his very own world of images. Although he is faithful to Carlo Collodi’s ideas, he has nevertheless created a very personal Pinocchio that is much more cheerful than we’ve experienced before,” commented Carlo Chatrian on the selection.

Also announced today were four films in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino program, which presents debut features. The section will open with Kids Run from Barbara Ott, whose graduation...

Shane may be the resident heartthrob of “The L Word,” but no character more embodies Showtime’s Los Angeles-set lesbian melodrama than Bette Porter. Accomplished, stubborn, magnetic, and self-destructive, Bette instantly became the archetypical 21st century “power dyke.” She fills out a Jil Sander power suit as confidently as she tops her pregnant wife; casually drops names of the myriad women artists in her private collection; and now — added to her resume for the show’s next iteration, “The L Word: Generation Q” — runs a savvy mayoral campaign.

Of course, there would be no Bette Porter without Jennifer Beals. A luminous and deeply intelligent actor, Beals’ naturalism, humor, and deeply felt performance grounded the original series, spearheading its ascension beyond mere sexy soap opera, and cementing its place as the most influential piece of lesbian culture of the 21st century.

The role has defined the last decade of Beals’ career...

Shaggy Manhattan auteur Onur Tukel’s latest film isn’t entirely new: Originally conceived as an ongoing TV series, “Black Magic for White Boys” premiered at Tribeca a couple of years ago as several preliminary episodes. But when prospects didn’t pan out in that format, he shot additional footage to create the current feature. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the result still has a loose, episodic feel, with a somewhat casual attitude toward the concept of “narrative arc” — qualities not at all at odds with Tukel’s prior output.

This ensemble comedy with a silly supernatural angle, centered on a decrepit Off Off Broadway theater, won’t be its maker’s belated breakthrough. But for those who grok his amiably misanthropic, offhand brand of humor, it will comprise another satisfyingly idiosyncratic chapter in a singular career that carries forward a trail previously blazed by the likes of Woody Allen, Henry Jaglom and...

It’s that post-Cannes time of year again and the Us In Progress folks have selected eight film projects for the 2019 8th edition of Usip Paris – 2019 Champs-Elysées Film Festival edition. Among the recognizable names we find veteran filmmaker Alexandre Rockwell, Danny Madden (was a winner at 2018 SXSW for Krista) and David Gutnik (Before You See the Light) who now has a pair in post-production. One of these could very well end up at Sundance next year, not to mention SXSW and Tribeca.…...

Seymour Cassel, the veteran character actor known for his work with directors John Cassavetes and Wes Anderson, has died at the age of 84.

Cassel died Sunday in Los Angeles, Variety reported, adding that the actor suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in recent years.

A longtime character actor with over 200 credits on his resume, Cassel first appeared onscreen in Cassavetes’ 1958 directorial debut Shadows, with Cassel serving as both actor and crewmember on the independent production.

The film was the first in a nearly 30-year-long collaboration and friendship between Cassavetes and Cassel,...

Seymour Cassel, the Academy Award-nominated actor who regularly collaborated with Wes Anderson and John Cassavetes, died Sunday following complications from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 84, according to multiple media outlets including the Associated Press.

Born in Detroit in 1935, Cassel’s career in film began alongside Cassavetes’ as he took a role as a crew member on the legendary filmmaker’s 1959 debut film “Shadows,” a job which turned into an uncredited onscreen role and then into a credit as associate producer.

Also Read: Nadja Regin, 'From Russia With Love' and 'Goldfinger' Actress, Dies at 87

Cassel would go on to appear in six more of Cassavetes’ films, receiving a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance as the hippie Chet in the 1968 drama “Faces.” Other films they worked on together included “Minnie and Moskowitz,” “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” and “Opening Night.”

The 1980s...

Prolific actor Seymour Cassel, who received an Academy Award nomination for “Faces” and appeared in Wes Anderson films including “Rushmore,” died Sunday in Los Angeles of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 84.

Cassel was a veteran of dozens of independent films, appearing in multiple roles in films directed by John Cassavetes and Anderson. In addition to playing Bert Fischer in “Rushmore,” he appeared in “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.”

Cassel was born in Detroit on Jan. 22, 1935. His early career was tied to Cassavetes and he made his movie debut in an uncredited role in Cassavetes’ first film, “Shadows,” in 1958 and became an associate producer on the project. He co-starred with Cassavetes in “Too Late Blues” and “The Webster Boy” and appeared on “The Lloyd Bridges Show” in the episode “A Pair of Boots” directed by Cassavetes. His early TV credits included “Twelve O’Clock High,” “Combat!,...

American independent cinema has gone through several generations since the end of the 1990s. The accelerated evolution might mirror the technological advances of the past 20 years, from the easy availability of early, consumer-grade digital cameras to the ubiquity of streaming platforms, as well as new social networks and the rising impact of regional film festivals.

You can put all that in perspective by spending a week in, of all places, Wrocław, Poland, where the ninth edition of the American Film Festival concluded this fall. The festival thoughtfully reframes highlights from the preceding year’s run of major (and minor) film gatherings, cherry-picking selections out of Sundance, South by Southwest, Tribeca, and others, as well as more multiplex-friendly items getting a premium introduction to the Polish market.

But the festival isn’t a rehash. While accounting for work along an auteurist arc from Frederick Wiseman to Alex Ross Perry (“Her Smell...

Everyone remembers the best among the scrappy 1980s films that started American “indie film” in earnest — particularly those over-stylized, wink-wink comedies by Jim Jarmusch, Susan Seidelman, Alexandre Rockwell, and so on that were among the movement’s most influential early successes. Similarly, few could forget how much fun “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction” were, revitalizing the crime-caper genre with wit and outsized directorial personality.

What we’d prefer to forget is just how many labored comedy quirkfests and effortfully wiseass capers the above films “inspired” for years afterward — wannabe movies straining for the same qualities without any original inspiration, failing to find their own voice while deliberately or unconsciously mimicking somebody else’s. The majority of these pale imitations wound up a blip on the Sundance Festival radar — if they were lucky — then were forgotten ever after.

Unfortunately, those happily buried cinematic memories come rolling back with the arrival of “Blue Iguana,...

Current Berlin director Dieter Kosslick will step down next year.

Torsten Neumann, co-founder and director of the Oldenburg International Film Festival since 1994, has become the latest name to be connected with the ongoing quest for a successor to Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick from May 2019.

Neumann, who is currently planning the 25th anniversary edition of his festival for this September, has hosted such international guests as Nicolas Cage, Mira Sorvino, Jim McBride, Matthew Modine, Alexandre Rockwell and Lou Diamond Phillips as well as leading lights from the local German industry – from Nicolette Krebitz through Jürgen Vogel and Oskar Roehler to Corinna Harfouch...

Among the many American independent films made in the ‘90s, few reflect the climate better than “In the Soup.” Director Alexandre Rockwell’s black-and-white comedy, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, follows wannabe New York filmmaker Adolpho Rolo (a young Steve Buscemi) as he attempts to turn his 500-page screenplay into a movie starring his next-door neighbor Angelica (Jennifer Beals). Adolpho’s ambitions are exploited by the mysterious Joe (Seymour Cassel in one of his most endearing performances). The alternately charming and confrontational cigar-chomping raconteur proclaims his desire to produce Adolpho’s movie, while forcing him into a series of strange criminal antics, as Adolpho’s project drifts further away from his original intentions.

The scrappy movie resembles the indie-filmmaking energy at the time — not for nothing does Jim Jarmusch make a cameo — and remains a charming statement on the conflict between artistic passion and...

Next week sees the arrival of New York’s 17th annual Tribeca Film Festival, running 18th-29th April, boasting a vast array of film and TV screenings, starry anniversary reunion events, concerts, on stage interviews and discussions, as well as a focus on games and Vr experiences. Below are just some of this year’s highlights, for the full lineup and to purchase tickets for films and events visit the official Tribeca website: https://www.tribecafilm.com/

Stars and filmmakers set to attend this year’s festival include Steven Spielberg, Liam Neeson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sam Rockwell, Alec Baldwin, Bradley Cooper, Jamie Foxx, Spike Lee, Brian De Palma, Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Viola Davis, Thandie Newton, Saoirse Ronan and Tribeca Co-Founder Robert De Niro.

Opening Night

2018 Tribeca Opening Night ‘Love Gilda’

The 2018 edition opens with the World Premiere of documentary Love, Gilda, directed by Lisa D’Apolito, saluting the career...

Directors Series includes Alexander Payne, Laura Poitras.

Anniversary screenings of Schindler’s List, Scarface and In The Soup are among the Tribeca 2018 line-up of anniversary films and Tribeca Talks series announced on Monday (March 19).

Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List came out 25 years ago and the April 26 screening will be followed by a conversation with Spielberg and cast members Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Embeth Davidtz.

Scarface receives a 35th anniversary screening on April 19 followed by a conversation led by director Brian De Palma with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer.

In The Soup by Alexandre Rockwell is also in its...

Directors Series includes Alexander Payne, Laura Poitras.

Anniversary screenings of Schindler’s List, Scarface and In The Soup are among the Tribeca 2018 line-up of anniversary films and Tribeca Talks series announced on Monday (March 19).

Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List came out 25 years ago and the April 26 screening will be followed by a conversation with Spielberg and cast members Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Embeth Davidtz.

Scarface receives a 35th anniversary screening on April 19 followed by a conversation led by director Brian De Palma with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer.

In The Soup, by Alexandre Rockwell is also in its...