Author: SD

Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap, Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding and Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun headed the nominations for the 2024 British Independent Film Awards (Bifas). Comedy Kneecap about the eponymous west Belfast hip-hop trio scored the most nominations with 14, including director, screenplay and best British independent film for Peppiatt – the latter alongside producers Trevor Birney and Jack Tarling – and joint lead performance for its stars Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin and JJ Ó Dochartaigh. Scroll down for the full list of Bifa 2024 nominations Glass – a Bifa best debut director winner in 2020 for Saint…

While Hugh Grant horror Heretic has the widest opening, it is awards contenders dominating new releases at the UK and Ireland box office this weekend as Juror #2, Anora and Blitz make their way to cinemas. Steve McQueen’s World War Two drama Blitz launches this weekend for Apple TV+ ahead of hitting the streamer later this month. Saoirse Ronan stars as a mother searching for her son, played by newcomer Elliott Heffernan, who runs away after being evacuated from London. McQueen’s last fiction feature Widows opened in 573 sites back in 2018 with £1.6m. His biggest success at the box office…

Venom: The Last Dance is this weekend’s widest opener, playing at 622 locations for Sony. This marks the end of the Tom Hardy-led trilogy, and kicks off with Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote on the run in Mexico. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans and Stephen Graham also star, with Kelly Marcel, writer of the first two films, directing. It is the widest release of the trilogy. The second film, Let There Be Carnage, opened in 596 locations in October 2021 – up by 50 from 2018’s Venom. Venom took £5.6m across its first weekend, while Let There Be Carnage…

Companies and creatives are waking up to the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and worries are easing about the negative impacts of the technology on the film and TV industry, according to delegates at this week’s AI Creative Summit, produced by Screen International and its sister titles Broadcast and Broadcast Tech on November 6. However, there remains acute concern about AI’s impact on jobs and the environment. The overwhelming message of the day was that the technology is too big and fast-growing to ignore. Analyst Cyrus Mewawalla, head of thematic intelligence at Screen’s parent company GlobalData, described generative AI as “one of the fastest growing technology cycles we’ve…

Global arthouse distributor, producer and streaming service Mubi has pulled the plug on its Istanbul festival, over concerns about censorship of its opening night film, Venice premiere Queer starring Daniel Craig. The festival was set to begin on the evening of November 7 and run until November 10. Luca Guadagnino’s drama is based on a novella by William S. Burroughs, and follows a lonely, gay American expat in Mexico City in the 1950s who becomes infatuated with a fellow expat and forms an intimate connection for the first time. Mubi posted a statement on Instagram that said: “Hours before the start of…

Khui-Taweewar Wantha’s Thai supernatural horror Death Whisperer 2 has scared up $22m (739m baht) to become the second biggest local release of all time. It has also been sold widely around the world by Bangkok-based sales and production company M Studio, which is currently at AFM promoting new horror titles Ghost Board and Kogaloak Village. Following its release on October 10, Death Whisperer 2 has smashed a string of local box-office records – highest advance ticket sales of all time for a Thai film; highest opening day revenue for a Thai film, surpassing $2.4m (80m baht); and fastest Thai film to surpass…

Fancy dining, excursions to drag shows and The Sphere, and nervy drinks on election night. This year’s inaugural edition of Las Vegas AFM promises a considerable change of pace from the more reserved events of yesteryear in Santa Monica. As buyers and sellers descend on the Nevadan desert city amid grumblings over costs, attendees are determined to shake off the jet-lag and hotfoot it down to RuPaul’s Drag Race Live, Darren Aronofsky’s immersive film Postcard From Earth at The Sphere and even, for those with a generous network, Adele’s residency at Caesars Palace. Tao, Estiatorio Milos, HaSalon, Cipriani and Superfrico…

The 68th BFI London Film Festival (LFF) recorded the highest in-person attendance for 10 years as Darren Thornton’s Four Mothers wins the audience award. This year’s edition reached an audience of 230,342. This is up by 18% from 2023 and breaks the record previously held from 2018 of 205,630 attendees.  The figure includes the 12 days of screenings in London and across the UK, and encompasses features, series, shorts, immersive art and extended reality works via LFF Expanded, LFF For Free events, and the LFF Industry Forum. Occupancy across paid-for and free screenings increased to 92% with 49% of tickets…

Worldwide box office October 18-20 RankFilm (distributor)3-day (world)Cume (world)3-day (int’l) Cume (int’l)Territories  1. Venom: The Last Dance (Sony)  $175m  $175m  $124m  $124m  65  2. The Wild Robot (Universal)  $24.1m  $232.3m  $17.6m  $121m  80  3.  Smile 2 (Paramount)  $22m  $83.7m  $12.6m  $43m  68  4.  The Unseen Sister (various)  $9.7m  $9.7m  $9.7m  $9.7m  1  5.  L’Amour Ouf (Studiocanal)  $7.1m  $16.4m  $7.1m  $16.4m  1  6.  Conclave (various)  $6.5m  $6.5m  N/A  N/A  1  7.  Terrifier 3 (various)  $5.8m  $53m  $1.5m  $9.9m  13  8.  We Live In Time (various)  $5m  $12.4m  $113,000  $658,000  6 …

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Oct 18-20)Total gross to dateWeek  1. The Wild Robot  (Universal) £3.1m £3.3m 1  2. Smile 2  (Paramount) £1.7m £2m 1  3. The Apprentice  (Studiocanal) £643,434 £746,303  1  4. Transformers One  (Paramount) £642,000 £2.8m 2  5. Terrifier 3  (Signature) £561,752 £2.2m 2 GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.30 Universal animation The Wild Robot opened top of the UK-Ireland box office, with a £3.1m weekend. Chris Sanders’ family feature, that has a voice cast including Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal and Kit Connor, played in…