“Young Stalin,” Simon Sebag Montefiore’s biography chronicling the life of Joseph Stalin as a bank-robbing gangster in pre-revolutionary Russia, is being adapted for film. The feature is being produced by Archil Gelovani and Sergey Yahontov’s Georgia-based banner Independent Film Project (IFP), producers of recent Venice special jury prize winner “April,” alongside Sam Taylor at Film […]

“Star Wars” alum Daisy Ridley is set to narrate “We Were There,” a newly-announced doc series set to explore what are described as the “remarkable human stories” from the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The series — which was announced by both FIFA and Qatar’s supreme committee, the government body that was set up to […]

“The Ritual,” the upcoming exorcism horror in which Al Pacino and Dan Stevens play troubled priests, has sold out for most international territories by XYZ Films. From director David Midell, the film was written by Midell and Enrico Natale, and produced by Andrew Stevens, Mitchell Welch and Natale. Ashley Greene and Abigail Cowen round out […]

The first edition of the U.K. Next Wave Genre Lab, the initiative founded by Film Constellation, Mason Fantastic Film Festival and Tatino Films, has found its first projects. Following an open call led by Myriam Sassine, Evrim Ersoy, and Edward Parodi that saw hundreds of filmmakers apply to be a part of the development lab, 12 […]

Artists4Ceasefire, the industry collective that has been pushing for an end to the current war in Gaza (and whose pin badges were worn by various attendees at this year’s Oscars ceremony), is spearheading a new initiative calling for a halt to illegal arms sales to Israel.   Through a partnership with artist Shepard Fairey and several […]

The first trailer for Mike Leigh’s latest feature “Hard Truths” had been unveiled, showing its lead star Marianne Jean-Baptiste embarking on an angry rampage against supermarket check out clerks, unsuspecting members of the public and her family. “People, can’t stand ’em,” she exclaims in the trailer, released ahead of the film’s world premiere in Toronto […]

Renowned showrunner Shane Byrne and Emmy-winning producer Jamie D’Alton, two of Ireland’s leading TV execs, have teamed up to launch Diffusion Media, a new production company aimed at attracting international unscripted productions to Ireland and taking advantage of mooted Irish tax incentives for the unscripted sector. D’Alton, who played a pivotal role in developing projects […]

“Oh my God, it’s so hot, I’m so hot!” exclaimed Nicole Kidman as she entered the Sala Grande, the central Venice Film Festival cinema, for the world premiere of her erotic thriller “Babygirl,” fanning her face and airing her neck under the very welcome (but not quite powerful enough) air conditioning. “It’s so much cooler […]

Asif Kapadia sees a future vision of the world where “chairwoman” Ivanka Trump is celebrating her 30th year as leader of a nightmarish fascist police state that was once America, a land mostly reduced to rubble following an unknown “catastrophe” that occurred in 2036.  “It’s kind of a joke, but it’s also not a joke,” says […]

If anyone had a particularly surreal Venice in 2023, it was Caleb Landry Jones.  Not only was the actor on the Lido for barely 24 hours — for the world premiere of Luc Besson’s “DogMan” in which he played a cross-dressing vigilante-thief with a pack of canines at his command — but the 34-year-old had effectively been […]

Midnight screenings rarely come more fitting than “Baby Invasion,” Harmony Korine’s latest experimental, unconventional and video game-like assault on the senses, which had its world premiere on Saturday night in Venice to an 8.5-minute standing ovation. The film served up a provocative array of unique visuals: We saw our heavily armed, baby-faced criminals torturing people, […]

Jude Law lit up the Lido with his powerful performance as an FBI agent fighting neo-Nazi terrorists in Justin Kurzel’s timely crime thriller “The Order” that elicited a seven-minute standing ovation at its Venice Film Festival premiere. Prior to the screening Jude Law, looking dashing in a black shirtless suit, took selfies with screaming fans […]

Israeli director Amos Gitai has pushed back against efforts for his Venice-bowing film “Why War” to be boycotted from the festival. Premiering out of the competition over the weekend, the film takes its cue from correspondence in the early 1930s between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud as they attempted to answer questions relating to the […]

It’s no coincidence that “Families Like Ours,” the climate-change disaster miniseries in which Denmark literally closes due to flooding, is premiering in Venice, a city famously battling its own crisis over rising sea levels.  “All the water here made it the obvious choice,” says Thomas Vinterberg, the series’ Danish director. “Families Like Ours” marks his […]

Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson brought sexy back to Venice Friday night at the premiere of Halina Reijn’s kinky, sex-filled “Babygirl.” In the A24 movie, Kidman plays a high-powered CEO who starts a secret affair with her new intern (Dickinson). While not a conventional art house movie, “Babygirl” stimulated the Venice audience. As the end […]

Esther McGregor was sure she’d screwed up her audition to Pedro Almodovar’s hotly-anticipated English-language debut “The Room Next Door.” Shooting a short film at the time (as a favor) and not feeling too hot about it, the hyper-creative and delightfully energetic actress, model, musician and tattoo artist (and unashamed “Nepo Baby” — more on that […]

“Angelina! Angelina! Angelina!” The Venice Film Festival loves its movie stars, and Angelina Jolie was the toast of Italy on Thursday night. The actress wept during an eight-minute standing ovation at the Sala Grande Theatre during the premiere of “Maria,” Pablo Larraín’s biographical drama about the Greek opera singer Maria Callas. The outpouring of love and emotion […]

A year on from having two films premiere in Venice and winning the Volpi Cup for best actor (for Michel Franco’s “Memory,” playing a man with early onset dementia), Peter Sarsgaard has another thought-provoking feature at the festival. This time, although he says he’d “love to come and do a little victory lap,” work and […]

The 2024 Venice Film Festival has gotten off to a green-haired, gothic bang with Tim Burton’s long-awaited sequel “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which opened the festival with a 3-minute standing ovation. The clapping would have most likely gone on much longer but the Venice programmers quickly dimmed the lights as Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’ Hara […]