#Red Sea Film Fest Books ‘Black Dog,’ ‘Santosh,’ ‘Familiar Touch’ for Festival Favorites Program

#Red Sea Film Fest Books ‘Black Dog,’ ‘Santosh,’ ‘Familiar Touch’ for Festival Favorites Program

The Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has picked 12 movies for its Festival Favorites selection of standouts from the fest circuit, including U.K. Oscar submission Santosh, an Indian police procedural about two women who form an unlikely alliance directed by Sandhya Suri, and Chinese auteur Guan Hu’s Black Dog, which won the Un…

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#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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#‘Pavements’ Review: Alex Ross Perry’s Multifaceted Portrait of the Influential ’90s Band Is All-Encompassing and a Bit Exhausting

#‘Pavements’ Review: Alex Ross Perry’s Multifaceted Portrait of the Influential ’90s Band Is All-Encompassing and a Bit Exhausting

You don’t have to be a major fan of Pavement, or director Alex Ross Perry, to enjoy his exhaustive and enthusiastic two-hour-plus love letter to the beloved ’90s alt-rock band. But it certainly helps. This multifaceted meta-movie is at once documentary, musical comedy, faux biopic and real museum exhibition. In its attempts to capture the…

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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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#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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#‘September 5’ Review: Peter Sarsgaard Stars in a Gripping Newsroom Thriller About the 1972 Munich Terrorist Attacks

#‘September 5’ Review: Peter Sarsgaard Stars in a Gripping Newsroom Thriller About the 1972 Munich Terrorist Attacks

At a time when world events are instantaneously reported on social media and news sites, arriving on your phone as they unfold, it’s an enlightening, altogether gripping experience to watch September 5, which depicts how a dedicated crew at ABC Sports managed to broadcast the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attacks live. It was no small…

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