Author: SD

The second edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival under the aegis of festival director and CEO Paul Ridd and producer Emma Boa closed this week, with attendees welcoming a decent selection of world premieres and improved screening venues, including the return of the Edinburgh Filmhouse. Abdolreza Kahani’s Canada-set Mortician won the main £50,000 Sean Connery Prize for feature filmmaking excellence, and further competition titles generating interest on the ground included UK filmmaker Helen Walsh’s sophomore feature On The Sea and Elliot Tuttle’s camboy drama Blue Film. The general feeling, as a source told Screen, was the competition line-up was…

Iranian filmmaker Abdolreza Kahani’s Canada-set Mortician has scooped the £50,000 Sean Connery prize for feature filmmaking excellence at the second edition of the revamped Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF). Kahani serves as writer, director, producer, director of photography, and editor on the feature, which made its world premiere at the festival. It follows a reclusive specialist who washes corpses before burial, in accordance with Islamic tradition, and receives an unusual request from a dissident Iranian singer in hiding. Nima Sadr and Mehdi Salar star. Mortician marks a return to EIFF for Kahani after his film A Shrine, also starring Sadr, premiered…

Paramount confirmed on Tuesday that it has struck a multi-year exclusive deal with Stranger Things creators The Duffer Brothers to create film, television, and streaming projects. The arrangement calls for Matt and Ross Duffer to “fulfill an ambition to write, produce, and direct large-scale theatrical films”, and will commence after the brothers’ Netflix deal ends in April 2026. The siblings will develop through their Upside Down Pictures alongside company president Hilary Leavitt. Projects will receive the full weight of Paramount’s support including franchise development and marketing. They will continue to work on Stranger Things and other projects at Netflix, and…

A new Buyers In Focus series of conversations exploring the dynamic international distribution landscape is among the highlights of TIFF’s Industry Conference running September 5-9. The programme will offer attendees access to decision-makers from Constantin Film, Mongrel Media, Curzon Film, Sony Pictures Classics, NonStop Entertainment, RAI Cinema and others, and lays the groundwork for TIFF: The Market launching in 2026. Industry Conference programming sees the returning Perspectives roster of panel conversations on which Screen International is the media partner. Topics will explore producing elevated arthouse series with Baltasar Kormákur, Sameer Nair, and Gwen Gorst; best practices on accessible productions; inclusive…

Terence Stamp, the British actor who made his name in 1960s British cinema and starred as villain General Zod in the original Superman films, has died aged 87. Stamp died on the morning of Sunday, August 17, according to his family. “He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come,” said a family statement, published by Reuters. “We ask for privacy at this sad time.” London-born Stamp started his career on the stage in the UK, before significant acclaim for his…

Japanese filmmaker Sho Miyake’s Two Seasons, Two Strangers has won the top prize, the Golden Lion, at Locarno’s 2025 edition. Based on a manga by surrealist artist Yoshiharu Tsuge, the film stars Korean actress Shim Eun-kyung as a screenwriter who reflects on her life through a journey sparked by a chance encounter with a stranger. The Golden Leopard for best film comes with a cash prize of CHF 75,000 ($86,650) to be shared equally between the film’s director and producer. The special jury prize was awarded to Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter’s Austria-Germany co-production White Snail, which comes with a prize…

EXCLUSIVE: Petersen Vargas’ Some Nights I Feel Like Walking is set for a local release in the Philippines and has sold to key territories. The coming-of-age drama has received an R18 rating for its sexual content and LGBTQ+ themes and will open locally on August 27 through Black Cap Pictures, also a co-producer of the film. It follows a band of young male street hustlers who brave the dark corners of the Manila night, who fulfil their friend’s last wish of bringing his body home.  “It’s a rare arthouse release especially with the landscape where cinema attendance is super down.…

Mubi CEO Efe Cakarel has written an open letter in response to criticisms of controversial US firm Sequoia Capital’s investment in the company. Cakarel said accusations that Mubi is complicit in events in Gaza are “fundamentally at odds with the values we hold as individuals and as a company” and pledged to create both an ‘Ethical Funding and Investment Policy’ and establish an ‘Artists At Risk Fund’. Read the letter in full Mubi has received significant criticism from across the film industry following the $100m investment it received from US firm Sequoia in May. Since then, details have emerged of investments…

Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich’s documentaryThe Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue had its invitation withdrawn to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) because it did not meet “conditions that were requested” by the festival, TIFF organisers said today (August 13). The film tells the story of retired Israel Defense Forces General Noam Tibon who went on a mission to rescue family members during the October 7 attacks. In a statement, TIFF claimed the filmmakers did not secure “legal clearance of all footage”, which was among the conditions requested to mitigate “known risks around the screening of a film”.  The film was not…

The world premieres of Claire Denis’ The Fence and Argentinian director Pablo Trapero’s English-language debut & Sons have been added to Special Presentations at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, September 4-14), bringing the total count to 291 including 209 new features and six Classics. The Fence stars Matt Dillon and Isaach de Bankolé and takes place over the course of one night at a white-run construction site in Africa where the site foreman hides the truth surrounding a worker’s death. The film is based on Bernard-Marie Koltes’ play Black Battles With Dogs. Bill Nighy, George McKay, Johnny Flynn, and Noah…