Author: Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros‘ original Leonardo DiCaprio movie from Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another, is posting previews around $2.5M with potential for upside according to sources. We keep hearing that advance tickets sales in cities continues to grow. Tonight’s estimated figure isn’t far from the preview night of DiCaprio’s last movie, Apple Original Films’ Killers of the Flower Moon, which posted $2.6M on its first Thursday evening, turning into a $9.4M Friday and 3-day of $23.2M. Now that was during the 2023 strikes when the cast couldn’t promote, not to mention that Martin Scorsese directed feature take of the…

Emma Watson has revealed how she struggled to adjust to Hollywood after Harry Potter. The British actress has taken a significant step back from acting since 2019’s Little Women, and in the past couple of weeks has participated in a couple of interviews about her self-imposed exile. Last week, Watson said she found the process of selling a movie “soul-destroying.” Now, in an appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast (see video below), Watson became emotional recounting her experience of film sets post-Potter. After playing Hermione Granger for 12 years, she said the J.K. Rowling franchise gave her a warped…

Sata Cissokho, who previously led acquisitions at Paris-based Paradise City, has been named as the new head of the Berlinale World Cinema Fund (WCF) and Toolbox Program. Her appointment marks a milestone moment for the WCF, which was headed WCF by Vincenzo Bugno for 21 years. Bugno, who was instrumental in establishing and growing the WCF into one of the world’s leading film funding institutions, announced his departure over the summer and completes his tenure at the end of 2025. Cissokho takes on a newly integrated role which will see her lead strategic development and oversee both the World Cinema…

Italy has selected Francesco Costabile’s drama Familia as its candidate for the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards. The biographical drama, co-written by Costabile, Vittorio Moroni and Andriano Chiarelli, is based on Luigi Celeste’s memoir Non sarà sempre così about his youth as a far-right militant, living in the shadow of domestic violence, with a criminal father. The drama world premiered in the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti sidebar in 2024.   The selection process overseen by Italian film body Anica involved 24 films submissions this year, which also included Gianfranco Rosi’s Below the Clouds, Pietro Marcello’s Duse, and…

A second edition of SXSW London has been confirmed, running from June 1 to 6, 2026, with the organizers opening submissions for session proposals for the event’s three verticals of conference, music and screen. Confirmation of the event, which will run once again in East London, follows this year’s inaugural edition, featuring more than 400 talks, 1,067 speakers, 562 music performances and 114  film and TV screenings. Alongside the expert curation of the SXSW London programming, the open submissions process plays an integral role in the festival. It received an 9,868 submissions across its three verticals for the first edition.…

The Director’s Guild of America (DGA) has announced Christopher Nolan as its new president during Saturday’s Biennial National Convention. The 2x Oscar-winning Oppenheimer director was appointed to succeed Lesli Linka Glatter, among a new slate of officers and new members of the DGA’s National Board of Directors, chosen by 167 delegates, who represent the 19,500-strong union of directors. Also elected on Saturday were Laura Belsey as National Vice President, Paris Barclay re-elected as Secretary-Treasurer, Todd Holland as First Vice-President, Ron Howard as Second Vice-President, Gina Prince-Bythewood as Third Vice-President, Seith Mann as Fourth Vice-President, Millicent Shelton as Fifth Vice-President, Lily…

EXCLUSIVE: Swedish directorial duo’s Alexander Rynéus and Per Bifrost’s haunting documentary Once You Shall Be One Of Those Who Lived Long Ago won glowing reviews when it premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last month. The work, about a dying mining community in northern Sweden, makes its national debut this weekend in the Nordisk Panorama film festival in Malmö and Deadline can reveal the international trailer. Set in the slowly disappearing town of Malmberget in northern Sweden, the documentary explores what remains when a place vanishes – not only physically, but emotionally and culturally. Built atop one of Europe’s…

EXCLUSIVE: Léa Seydoux is set to star in Marie Kreutzer’s upcoming drama Gentle Monster alongside Jella Haase, Laurence Rupp and Catherine Deneuve, with the cast unveiled as the production gears up for principal photography. The production marks Kreutzer’s first feature since her critically acclaimed 2022 historical drama Corsage, starring Vicky Krieps as the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as Sissi.   Seydoux will lead the cast in the role of a renowned pianist who, after relocating with her family to the countryside, uncovers a life-shattering truth that forces her to confront the complexities of love, trust, and deception. The film is…

Saudi Arabia‘s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has taken a 54% stake in the MBC Group as it seeks to strengthen its position as a key player in the MENA region’s media and entertainment landscape. The Riyadh-based MBC Group announced that PIF had acquired a 54% in the company from Istedamah Holding Company’s (a subsidiary of the Saudi Finance Ministry) for an aggregate price of SAR 7,469 million ($1.9B), at a price of SAR 41.60 ($11) per share. PIF’s plan to take a stake in the group was first announced in a filing to the Saudi stock exchange in November 2024.…

Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar has announced he is pulling state funding for the country’s Ophir Awards after drama The Sea, which focuses on the struggles of a Palestinian boy living under occupation in the West Bank, won the top prize. Under Israel’s protocol, the winner of the Best Film Ophir is automatically put forward as Israel’s Oscar candidate. The production spearheaded by Israeli filmmaker Shai Carmeli-Pollak and Palestinian producer Bahaer Agbarian, follows Khaled, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy living in the landlocked West Bank on his way to visit the sea for the first time in his life, until at…