Author: Deadline

Irish-Scottish filmmaker Mark Cousins will curate the 38th European Film Awards ceremony to create “a live film essay” alongside a creative team also including film composer Dascha Dauenhauer and stage director Robert Lehniger. The announcement by the European Film Academy, which oversees the awards, comes as it attempts to reposition and expand the footprint of the European-cinema focused prizes and event within the wider awards season. The 38th ceremony will take place at the House of World Culture in Berlin on January 17 2026, rather than its previous traditional December slot. The date change first announced in 2023 to come…

EXCLUSIVE: Sam Spruell, Honor Swinton Byrne and Jessica Madsen will topline Tidepools, a coming-of-age wartime feature from Marius D’Gasco. International sales will kick off at AFM. The pic was filmed along Croatia’s Adriatic coast. Set during a time of escalating war in Europe, the story follow two boys from opposite sides of a modern-day conflict who form an unlikely bond. Alongside Spruell (A Knight of the Seven Kingdom), Swinton Byrne (The Souvenir), and Madsen (Bridgerton), an ensemble cast includes rising stars Charlie Hodson-Prior (Dune: Prophecy) and Tom Mulheron (Black Mirror) as the two 13-year-old protagonists. The film follows Pasha (Mulheron), a young refugee sent to live with his aunt (Swinton-Byrne). He befriends Misha (Hodson-Prior), the son…

The Red Sea Film Festival is set to make cinema history for Saudi Arabia at its upcoming edition as it hosts the country’s first silent film screening accompanied by a live musical accompaniment. The UK’s silent film musical specialist Neil Brand will provide live accompaniment to three silent slapstick shorts from Buster Keaton (One Week), Charlie Chaplin (The Immigrant) and Laurel & Hardy (Liberty). The live music screening event comes as Saudi Arabia continues to grow its film culture and industry in the wake of the lifting of its 35-year cinema ban in 2017. It was announced as part of…

Recently elected Writers Guild of America West President Michele Mulroney delivered a rousing speech at the No Kings protest in Los Angeles, decrying President Donald Trump and his administration’s recent actions curtailing Hollywood writers’ freedom of expression, specifically via the targeting of late-night shows. “I’m here today representing our union, the Writers Guild of America West, and its 11,000 film, television, and news writers,” Mulroney began. “As writers, our currency is words and stories. The freedom to express ourselves is a fundamental American right and the very core of our democracy. And it’s under attack by this administration. They are using…

EXCLUSIVE: The creator of Tilly Norwood, the AI actress who got Hollywood hot under the collar, has stressed that she was not developed using funding from the British Film Institute (BFI). Eline Van Der Velden, the UK-based technologist, shared a statement with Deadline clarifying how her company, Particle6, used a grant from the BFI’s UK Global Screen Fund. Her intervention comes amid concerns in the acting community about the creation of Norwood and how avatars like her could ultimately replace lower profile performers. Alexa Morden, an actress who hosts The 98% Podcast, spotted the Particle6 grant and said she was…

Veteran Korean actors Yoo Hae-jin, Park Hae-il and Lee Min-ho will star in thriller Assassins, directed by Hur Jin-ho (A Normal Family). Set in 1974, the film follows the attempted assassination of Korean president Park Chung-hee on August 15 that year — one of the most consequential days in the country’s history. On track for a release in 2026, the film is produced by Hive Media Corp, the studio behind box office hits 12.12: The Day, Yadang: The Snitch, The Man Standing Next and Inside Men. In Assassins, Park will play the role of a news editor who delves into…

EXCLUSIVE: Quiver Distribution has acquired the North American distribution rights to Noseeums, the feature debut from Austin-based director Raven DeShay Carter, following its U.S. Premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival and World Premiere at FrightFest in London. Shot entirely in Florida, Noseeums is described as a socially charged horror feature that blends supernatural tension with a deep-rooted Southern Gothic atmosphere. The film follows Ember, a Black college student invited to a rural estate for a weekend with her white classmates, where she encounters spectral retribution tied to the historic loss of Black land ownership in the American South. Noseeums…

The Smashing Machine may not have been a box office knockout, but Dwayne Johnson‘s turn as UFC fighter Mark Kerr has a big admirer in Christopher Nolan. The Oppenheimer director lavished praise on Johnson during an interview with The Smashing Machine helmer Benny Safdie on The Director’s Cut, the Directors Guild of America’s podcast. Nolan said the performance was “heartbreaking,” adding: “I think it’s an incredible performance. I don’t think you’ll see a better performance this year or most other years.” Nolan and Johnson have not worked together, but they have spoken with admiration about each other’s work in the…

EXCLUSIVE: Watermelon Pictures – which was launched in 2024 by siblings Hamza Ali and Badie Ali with its roots in Palestinian culture and to amplify underrepresented filmmakers – continues to expand. The Chicago-based company has announced the appointment of Nabil Kazi as Executive Vice President of Marketing & Brand Development. The respected marketing and brand strategist previously held roles at The Walt Disney Company, 20th Century Fox, and Illumination Entertainment. His appointment comes as the company continues to grows its presence in the independent film and production space. In its second year of operations, the company is gearing up for…

EXCLUSIVE: The Coven, sales agent of Terrifier 3, has secured worldwide sales rights to thriller Violence, starring Halloween Ends and The Monkey actor Rohan Campbell, Malignant and The Recruit actress Maddie Hasson and The Order star Sarah Grey. Violence will play Brooklyn Horror Film Festival next week and will be on sale for The Coven ahead of this year’s AFM in Los Angeles. Genre vet Steven Schneider (Strange Darling) executive-produces. The synopsis reads: “Henry Violence, an anti-hero in an alternate 1980s world, becomes entangled in a brutal drug war as rival cartels battle for supremacy, forcing him to make difficult choices to navigate the treacherous…