#Venice: Japanese Director Neo Sora’s Acclaimed Debut ‘Happyend’ Sells to Metrograph for U.S. Distribution

#Venice: Japanese Director Neo Sora’s Acclaimed Debut ‘Happyend’ Sells to Metrograph for U.S. Distribution

Metrograph Pictures has snapped up North American distribution rights to Japanese director Neo Sora’s fictional feature debut Happyend, a high school delinquent drama with shades of political dystopia. The film has proved a hit with critics at the Venice Film Festival, where it premiered earlier this week in the event’s Horizons section.  Following its debut in…

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#Ethan Hawke Compares Acting to “the Joys of Doing Drugs,” Talks About Being “Slightly Disappointed That I’m Not a Wizard or a Jedi”

#Ethan Hawke Compares Acting to “the Joys of Doing Drugs,” Talks About Being “Slightly Disappointed That I’m Not a Wizard or a Jedi”

The joys, magic and business side of filmmaking, his take on independent and blockbuster movies, including Star Wars and Harry Potter, as well as his collaborations with directors Richard Linklater and Peter Weir, and his lack of work with many female filmmakers, were all part of a Venice Film Festival master class featuring actor-director Ethan…

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#African Content Is Ready for Its “Global Moment,” MultiChoice Executive Tells MIP Africa (Exclusive)

#African Content Is Ready for Its “Global Moment,” MultiChoice Executive Tells MIP Africa (Exclusive)

“There’s a good chance that Africa’s film industry is about to have its own global moment.” That’s the bullish take shared on Monday about the state of African film and TV programming by Nomsa Philiso, CEO of general entertainment at African pay-TV giant MultiChoice Group, the owner of African streamer Showmax, in her opening speech at…

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#Director Brady Corbet Gets Emotional Discussing Staggeringly Ambitious Post-War Epic ‘The Brutalist’

#Director Brady Corbet Gets Emotional Discussing Staggeringly Ambitious Post-War Epic ‘The Brutalist’

The Venice Film Festival is buzzing over director Brady Corbet’s monumental historical drama The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce. The film won’t officially premiere until Sunday night, but the thunderous applause and rapt excitement that followed the film out of its first press screenings on the Lido has many festival-goers speculating that it’s the…

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#Nicolas Winding Refn on Revisiting His Origin Story With ‘Pusher’ and Why He Won’t Be Making That ‘Barbarella’ Adaptation

#Nicolas Winding Refn on Revisiting His Origin Story With ‘Pusher’ and Why He Won’t Be Making That ‘Barbarella’ Adaptation

Nicolas Winding Refn, is one of the few directors who deserves the enfant terrible label. The Danish filmmaker, best-known for his neon-drenched tales of sex, violence and revenge — Drive, Only God Forgives, The Neon Demon — is at the Venice Film Festival this year with two works that, he says, represents both his “classic…

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