Author: Deadline

Belgian artist and filmmaker Johan Grimonprez, whose latest documentary Soundtrack To a Coup D’Etat is expected to be an Oscar contender, has been named Guest of Honor at the upcoming International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. The honor recognizes a distinguished career that includes Blue Orchids, and his debut feature film, the 1997 documentary dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y. IDFA, which runs from Nov. 14-24, will be highlighting the filmmaker’s “uncompromising approach to challenging narratives and reinterpreting historical events through a critical, contemporary lens,” the festival said in a statement. ‘dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y‘ Courtesy of IDFA “Grimonprez first gained international acclaim with his 1997 film dial…

In one of the most explosive documentary premieres in TIFF history, a film sharply critical of Benjamin Netanyahu bowed before a packed house in Toronto Monday night, despite a last-ditch effort by the Israeli prime minister to block it. The Bibi Files, produced by Alex Gibney and directed by Alexis Bloom, contains never-before-seen video of Netanyahu being interrogated by Israeli police on corruption allegations – an investigation that led to Netanyahu’s indictment in 2019. In footage leaked to Gibney late last year, Netanyahu is seen locking horns with interrogators, denying he improperly accepted expensive gifts from wealthy supporters, including Hollywood…

EXCLUSIVE: Zana Gankhuyag and Joseph Carlson are star in Historical Film, an indie flick marking the debut of director Will Bryan. The film also features Gregg Turkington (Marvel’s Ant Man, Fremont), Emily Uribe and Kene Holliday (Great World of Sound, Matlock) among others.   The story follows a Mongolian-American college student who, in order to save his student visa, gets roped into participating in a recreation of the manhunt of John Wilkes Booth while making a zero-budget film about the assassin’s last days. It’s set in and around historic sites in Richmond, Virginia, and made with the participation of members of the Mongolian…

Jude Law’s appearance as rich, beautiful playboy Dickie in the 1999 film The Talented Mr Ripley secured his international film stardom, but now the British actor has shared why he almost turned down the role.  Law told The Times of London that he was panicking about being typecast at that stage in his career. He said: “It was delusion and madness. There was a panic in my head that I was going to be typecast as this good-looking guy. That’s where my 23-year-old brain was. What I missed, idiotically, were the complexities of that role, but honestly? I just wanted…

The Toronto Film Festival kicked off September 5 with a multi-move opening night that included David Gordon Green’s family comedy Nutcrackers starring Ben Stiller. It kicked off a slate of world premieres and buzzy movies across 11 days for the 49th edition of one of North America’s biggest film festivals. Other key titles making their debuts in Toronto include The Luckiest Man in America starring Paul Walter Hauser, the Amy Adams-starring Nightbitch, theatre guru Marianne Elliott’s The Salt Path, DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot and Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck. Documentaries set to make a splash include Elton John:…

Afternoon Insiders, here we are once again, another week and another busy one in the world of international film and TV. Sign up to the newsletter here. Or read on. Splashy Last Week On The Lido Uncharacteristically buzzy: The Venice Film Festival ends tomorrow after an uncharacteristically buzzy second week. The festival is usually front-loaded, with the splashiest titles playing early. This year, however, Alberto Barbera, who dished to Andreas, said the lengthy runtimes of some competition titles meant the spoils had to spread across both weeks. Enter Brady Corbet’s 215-minute post-WWII epic The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe…

South Korea has selected historical action film 12.12.: The Day as the country’s Oscar entry for best international film. The film was the highest-grossing film last year at the Korean box office and the decision to select it for the Oscars was a unanimous one, the Korean Film Council (Kofic) said. Set against the backdrop of the December 1979 military coup, the film stars Hwang Jung-min, Jung Woo-sung, Lee Sung-min, Park Hae-joon and Kim Sung-kyun. Directed by Kim Sung-su, the film was released in November last year. 12.12: The Day‘s domestic success marked the first time in four years since…

EXCLUSIVE: Iconic British director David Lean, whose credits included Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, is being given the feature documentary treatment by Sky, with Embankment Films launching sales at TIFF. The Barnaby Thompson-directed Epic – The Life & Times of David Lean will profile the double Oscar winner, who helmed some of the most well-respected movies of all time, via never-before-seen archive and contributions from leading film directors. Haunted by the shadow of his dismissive father and his puritan upbringing, Lean was married six times, and he created layered and complex narratives in his work while struggling to find…

EXCLUSIVE: MUBI, the global distributor, streaming service and production company, has acquired all rights in UK, Germany and Austria to Joshua Oppenheimer’s (The Act of Killing) new feature The End, which had its world premiere at Telluride this weekend. The ambitious film is imagined as a Golden Age-style musical and cautionary tale about the last human family. Starring are Oscar winner Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton), Oscar nominee Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), BAFTA-nominee George Mackay (1917), and Emmy-nominee Moses Ingram (The Queen’s Gambit). Screenplay is by Oppenheimer and Rasmus Heisterberg (A Royal Affair), with songs by Joshua Schmidt (music) and Oppenheimer…

Sílvia Abril’ Leads SkyShowtime‘s ‘Mamen Mayo‘ Sílvia Abril (Padre no Hay Más que Uno) has been cast to lead SkyShowtime drama series Mamen Mayo. She will play the title character act opposite fellow leads Pablo Capuz (Merlí. Sapere Aude), Mona Martínez (La Novia Gitana) and Clara Sans (Cardo). Abril’s character is billed as an “extremely intelligent inheritance mediator, who is at the pinnacle of her career.” She leads a team of mediators who in each episode attempt to resolve the conflicts of interest within families entangled in inheritance disputes. Also cast are Oscar de la Fuente, Francisco Reyes, Javier Pereira,…