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“There’s no cult like celebrity” goes the tagline for “Opus,” Mark Anthony Green’s new thriller. Looking like a cross of “Don’t Blink Twice,” “The Menu,” and “Almost Famous,” the film from A24, out in theaters March 14, is about a reclusive rock star named Moretti (John Malkovich) who’s suddenly releasing a new album after almost 30 years. Watch the trailer for “Opus” below.

As part of his album release, Moretti invites select press, including Ayo Edebiri, Juliette Lewis, and Murray Hamilton to his remote compound where he lives like a prince. And he draws them into a dangerous game where his motives are sinister at best. Edebiri’s movie career has taken off since she rocketed to stardom with FX’s “The Bear.” “Opus” follows her roles in “Bottoms,” “Theater Camp,” and “The Sweet East,” and voice role in “Inside Out 2.”

“Opus” is the feature film directorial debut of Mark Anthony Green,...

Before awards season gets its annual wrap with the Oscars, the Sundance Film Festival ushers in a new year of movies every January, although it is increasingly less like the tastemaker it once was. What was once the touchstone of discovery that launched the independent film boom of the '...

The holidays are upon us, so whether you’re looking for film-related gifts or simply want to get for yourself some of the finest this year had to offer, we have a gift guide for you. Including must-have books on filmmaking, the best from the Criterion Collection and other home-video lines, subscriptions, magazines, music, and more, dive in below.

4K & Blu-ray Box Sets

There’s no better gift than an epic film collection, and 2024 was an embarrassment of riches thanks to a number of box sets. The king of them all, especially if you’re looking for a gift for a burgeoning cinephile, is Criterion’s massive CC40, collecting 40 landmark films form their 40-year history. It’s not the only stellar set from the company, of course, as I adored the essential Chantal Akerman Masterpieces, 1968–1978, Éric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons, Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, Three Revolutionary Films by Ousmane Sembène,...

The Metrograph empire is expanding from screen to page.

Metrograph announced a new biannual print publication, titled “The Metrograph,” which will cater to cinephiles and cultural connoisseurs alike. Since its founding in 2016, Metrograph has opened beloved theater Metrograph NYC, which also houses a bookstore and The Commissary restaurant, as well as launched distribution company Metrograph Pictures. Metrograph Pictures is led by former Oscilloscope and A24 executive David Laub, who previously announced that Metrograph should target 10 film releases per year with features like “Good One,” “The Black Sea,” “Santosh,” “The Kingdom,” “Gazer,” “April,” and “Miroirs No. 3” among the upcoming slate. Metrograph additionally has an At Home streaming platform and online Journal.

Now, Metrograph is expanding into print with a star-studded creative team launching “The Metrograph.”

“The Sweet East” screenwriter and former Village Voice writer Nick Pinkerton is the Editor-At-Large, whose interview with “Juror #2” director Clint Eastwood will be the tentpole of the first issue.

Athina Rachel Tsangari, the Greek director with roots in New York and Austin, Texas, does not need any convincing when an actor or crew member proposes an offbeat idea.

Her new film “Harvest” is based on Jim Crace’s interior monologue of a novel and set in the unspecified past. It feels like the middle ages, apart from the occasional anachronism. On the ramshackle set in Scotland, most of the characters were wearing wooden clogs, but Tsangari’s lead actor Caleb Landry Jones (best known to audiences as the brother in “Get Out;” he also won a Cannes prize in 2021 for the drama “Nitram”) strolled up in contemporary hiking boots.

“I loved it,” the director tells TheWrap of Jones’ footwear. “I’m open to stuff like that. It has nothing to do with what people were wearing in medieval times, but it works. Especially in a film like this one,...

Exclusive: Talia Ryder has boarded Rob Burnett’s comedy film In Memoriam alongside Marc Maron.

Burnett (The Fundamentals of Caring) wrote the script, and he will direct the film for Invention Studios (Thelma).

In Memoriam will begin shooting in Los Angeles on Monday, telling the story of a veteran Hollywood actor (Maron) who becomes obsessed with securing a spot in the Oscars’ “In Memoriam” montage after he receives a terminal cancer diagnosis. This leads to a heartfelt journey of self-exploration as well as ego, humility and legacy.

Ryder has appeared in films like Little Death (2024), The American (2023), The Sweet East (2023), Dumb Money (2023), Do Revenge (2022), Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between (2022), Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (2021) and Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020). She can next be seen in Ethan Coen’s Honey Don’t! for Focus Features.

Aside from The Fundamentals of Caring starring Paul Rudd,...

Exclusive: Utopia will be teaming with Lionsgate on the stateside theatrical release of Francis Ford Coppola’s dystopian epic, Megalopolis when it hits theatres on Sept. 27.

Utopia will create and implement specialty marketing, word-of-mouth, and non-traditional theatrical distribution initiatives targeting moviegoers.

Utopia as behind such movies as the critically acclaimed Shiva Baby and the Oscar shortlisted Holy Spider.

Said Coppola: “I am confident we are in great hands with Lionsgate, and Robert and his team at Utopia will be a tremendous addition. They have proven that there is success in an artist-first approach while also making bold moves, especially at a time when our film business often shies away from daring endeavors. I know Utopia will help Megalopolis discover untapped audiences and opportunities for its theatrical launch alongside Lionsgate.”

Added co-founder Robert Schwartzman: “The visionary, inventive, and cinematic epic that is Megalopolis is exactly the kind of film that excites us at Utopia.

Deauville American Film Festival has unveiled the 14 US features for its 50th anniversary edition running September 6-15 in the Normandy seaside town.

They include Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio’s 2024 Sundance prize-winner In The Summers, Cannes-premiering titles including Roberto Minervini’s The Damned and Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve At Miller’s Point, and Christy Hall’s taxi drama Daddio.

Eight of the films are debut features, among them David Fortune’s Color Book which world-premiered at Tribeca and Brandt Andersen’s The Strangers’ Case which made its debut at Berlin.

Benoit Magimel heads up this year’s Deauville jury alongside Ludivine Sagnier,...

Music Box Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Carson Lund’s comedy drama “Eephus,” which premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. The film was recently announced as an Official Selection of New York Film Festival, where it will have its North American premiere.

Music Box plans for a theatrical release nationwide followed by home entertainment. London- and Paris-based sales and production house Film Constellation handles worldwide sales and negotiated the deal on behalf of the filmmakers.

“Eephus” is set on a small-town New England baseball field called Soldiers Field. As an imminent construction project looms over their beloved baseball field, a pair of Sunday league teams face off for the last time over the course of a day. Tensions flare up and ceremonial laughs are shared as an era of camaraderie and escapism fades into an uncertain future.

Variety highlighted “Eephus” as one of the must-see films of the...

A film project delayed due to the pandemic, that was pushed back slightly and then leapfrogged when she shot and premiered SXSW title Soft & Quiet, it’s been confirmed that Beth de Araújo is currently in post-production (and probably gunning for a 2025 Sundance 2025 berth) with her sophomore feature. It’s been confirmed that Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan toplined Josephine — production took place this past April in San Francisco. One of our favorites in Philip Ettinger and Syra McCarthy also star while the centerpiece role belongs to newbie Mason Lily Reeves. Animal Kingdom’s David Kaplan is producing alongside Araújo.…...

Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play. Not A Movie. A Play. is in fact a documentary self-portrait, at times providing a behind-the-scenes look at the workshopping of Harris’ provocative, Tony-nominated show. Harris––with a filmography that includes co-writing Zola, co-starring in The Sweet East, and producing Pet Shop Days––likely could have adapted Slave Play with the support of his film collaborators and may still very well do that one day. But this is not that film, or even that play.

What emerges feels, with intent, like a DVD extra for much of the first act before flipping the script as Harris mirrors Slave Play’s third act and pulls back the curtain on the making of the documentary as he sits and edits with co-editor Pete Ohs. Ohs, of course, has some experience in this department, creating the maddeningly theatrical micro-budget feature Jethica with a tiny crew and a small cast.

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.Find all of our Cannes 2024 coverage here.Eephus.Founded in 2011 by a group of college friends in Boston, Omnes Films is a production company that’s quietly created some of the most unique American movies of the last half-decade. Now based in Los Angeles, Omnes came to prominence in 2019 with Ham on Rye, a magical-realist coming-of-age fable set in suburban Long Island that solidified the collective’s four main players: director Tyler Taormina, cinematographer Carson Lund, producer Michael Basta, and music supervisor Jonathan Davies—all of whom have subsequently directed their own films under the Omnes banner.Omnes’s two latest projects, Eephus and Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point (both 2024), directed by Lund and Taormina, respectively, both premiered in Cannes as part of this year’s Directors’ Fortnight—a programming decision further confirming the section’s renewed interest in American cinema following the inclusion of The Sweet East,...

Con dos de los actores de moda, Jacob Elordi y Ayo Edebiri. © Caramel Films

“The Sweet East”, la ópera prima de Sean Price Williams, ya tiene fecha de estreno en España tras su paso por la Quincena de Realizadores del Festival de Cannes 2023 y la Sección Oficial a Competición de la pasada edición de la Seminci de Valladolid.

La película muestra la otra cara del espejo de Estados Unidos a través de una alucinada y gamberra road movie por la Costa Este. Un viaje picaresco a través de las ciudades y los bosques de la costa Este emprendido por Lillian, una estudiante de último curso de secundaria de Carolina del Sur, que tiene su primera visión del mundo en un viaje de estudios a Washington DC.

La película está protagonizada por Talia Ryder, Jacob Elordi, Ayo Edebiri, Simon Rex (“Red Rocket”), Earl Cave (“La Verdadera Historia de la Banda de Kelly”), entre otros.

Paul Schrader shed tears as his new film “Oh, Canada” earned a four-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival on Friday night.

Jacob Elordi was notably absent from the premiere because he is filming Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” in which he stars as The Monster. After the ovation finished, Schrader addressed Elordi not being there, saying: “I’m very happy with Richard, Uma, Jake — not here with us –and it all worked out. Im very happy to be back here on the Croisette.”

Elordi, whose star continues to rise after acclaimed turns in “Saltburn” and “Priscilla,” made his Cannes debut last year in Sean Price Williams’ road movie “The Sweet East.”

The drama tells the life story of a troubled writer, Leonard Fife, who at the end of his life reflects on his decision to flee to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Richard Gere plays the present-day Leonard,...

On the indie side of filmmaking life, Sean Price Williams has seen it all. He’s worked with the Safdies, Alex Ross Perry, Nathan Silver, Robert Green, and Athina Rachel Tsangari, and often more than once. He’s the premier chronicler of New York City independent movies behind the camera, typically shooting on celluloid, and bringing surreal, gritty poetry to character-driven stories that feel on the ground like portraits of versions of ourselves.

One of the most unabashedly movie-loving cinematographers working today, Williams last year moved to directing for the sprawling, scratchy-edged tale of East Coast youth, “The Sweet East,” which remains in theaters and features stars like Jacob Elordi, Simon Rex, Jeremy O. Harris, and Ayo Edebiri.

But even more recently than that directorial debut, he released a “1000 Movies” book via Metrograph Editions, a simple, unadorned paperback that offers, rather than commentary, pages listing his favorite essential films and...

Exclusive: Goodfellas and Utopia are teaming up to co-sell Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl, starring Pamela Anderson as a veteran Las Vegas showgirl reinventing her life, and will launch sales in Cannes.

The partners, who say the movie is already drawing international buyer interest, have released a first look of Anderson in the starring role.

Anderson plays a seasoned showgirl who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run. As a dancer in her fifties, she struggles with what to do next. As a mother, she strives to repair a strained relationship with her daughter, who often took a backseat to her showgirl family.

Currently in post-production, the Las Vegas-set film also features Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka and Billie Lourd in the cast.

Kate Gersten wrote the screenplay, Robert Schwartzman (The Good Half) and Natalie Farrey (Her) produced.

Clockwise from top left: Eileen (Neon), Sympathy For The Devil (Rlje Films), The Promised Land (Magnolia Pictures), Ferrari (Neon)Image: The A.V. Club

As the summer movie season gets ready to kick off in theaters, Hulu highlights some A-list stars in indie films for its May calendar. In Eileen, Anne Hathaway...

Hulu’s list of new releases for May 2024 is missing a certain amount of original series firepower. In the place of a blockbuster like The Handmaid’s Tale or Shōgun, however, is some content diversity.

The first of the month sees the premiere of four-episode British series Shardlake. This mystery drama takes place during the reign of Henry VIII and features none other than Thomas Cromwell (Sean Bean) investigating a murder. Other series of note this month include the Korean drama Uncle Samsik on May 15.

Movies are bit more interesting on Hulu in May. Teen comedy Prom Dates premieres on May 3. That will be followed by the 2023 Adam Drive film Ferrari on May 24. Before all that though is the real heavy hitter. You can watch Austin Butler’s acclaimed performance as The King in Elvis as early as May 1. But get to it quick before the Baz Luhrmann film departs on...

Exclusive: Blu Hunt (The New Mutants) and Peter Vack (Pvt Chat) are in production in North Macedonia on Replay, the sophomore feature from veteran music video director Jason Lester (High Resolution), which has unveiled a first-look still.

Specifics as to the plot of the film are under wraps, though it’s been described as an unconventional romantic drama following a young couple on a trip through North Macedonia. Also starring Sara Klimoska (You Won’t Be Alone), Morgan Krantz (In the Dark), and The Ion Pack podcast’s Kj Rothweiler (Salamander Days), pic’s written by Lester and Hunt.

Manuel Inacker, Sara Ferro, Stephen Belden, Lester and Hunt are producing alongside EPs David Lipper, Robert A. Daly Jr., David Grove Churchill Viste and Jayne Sullivan.

“It’s been incredible getting to film Replay in North Macedonia, a country that could not be more thematically appropriate for the story we’re telling in the film,...

Franchise animation Kung Fu Panda 4 and creature clash Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire lead a bumper weekend of 16 new films at the UK-Ireland box office.

Universal’s Kung Fu Panda 4 has the biggest opening of the weekend in 715 sites – a significant jump for the series, after 2008’s Kung Fu Panda (448) and sequels in 2011 (514) and 2016 (585), all through Paramount.

Conversely, the total grosses of each film have dropped, with the first title making £20.4m, followed by £17m and £14.2m for the sequels. All of these were pre-pandemic; number four will look to cross the £10m mark before challenging any of those totals.

Sony’s “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £4 million ($5.1 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

In the process, the band of ectoplasm hunters ended the three-week reign of Warner Bros.’ “Dune: Part II” in pole position. The Timothée Chalamet-starring film collected £2.6 million in its fourth weekend in second place for a total of £30.7 million.

Black Bear’s “Immaculate,” starring Sydney Sweeney, scared up £522,583 in a third place debut. In fourth place, in its fifth weekend, Studiocanal’s “Wicked Little Letters” earned £373,505 and now has a total of £8.1 million.

Rounding off the top five was Universal’s “Migration” that collected £370,464 in its eighth weekend for a total of £19.5 million.

There were two more debuts in the top 10 – Vertigo’s “Late Night With The Devil” in seventh place with £220,436 and Trafalgar’s “Romeo Et Juliette – Met Opera 2023/24” in 10th with £81,880.

With the Easter holidays imminent,...

IFC’s Late Night With The Devil has scared up the distributor’s largest opening weekend ever with an estimated $2.8+ million on 1.043 screens, coming in at no. 6 at the domestic box office.

Prior to this weekend, Watcher was IFC’s top opening film at $827k, followed by Skinamarink with $819k and Blackberry at $801k. Late Night was IFC’s widest opening since The D Train, the distributor said, noting it was IFC’s highest opening day ($437k) since Skinamakink, and its highest Thursday pre-show ($317k). The film by Australian duo Colin and Cameron Cairnes unfolds almost in real-time on the set of a 1977 late-night talk show broadcast that unexpectedly transforms from amusing to sinister, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms. Stars David Dastmalchian as talk show host Jack Delroy.

The Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Spooky Pictures pic premiered at SXSW and has since played Fantasia Festival in Montreal,...

It’s fair to say that Sean Price Williams, director of last year’s “The Sweet East” and cinematographer on everything from the Safdies’ “Good Time” to Kristen Stewart’s music videos for Boygenius, has an appreciative, eclectic eye for great filmmaking. He’s honed it through his work, of course, but also through compiling a massive list of movies to watch. What initially started as a recommendation list, ever-evolving over the years and being handed out to Williams’ friends and colleagues, is now a fully-fledged book from Metrograph Editions.

To butcher an Ernst Lubitsch quote, there are a thousand “1000 Movies To Watch” type books, but now there’s really only one.

What’s interesting about the pocket-sized guide is that, unlike a lot of movie recommendation books, Williams isn’t interested in leading the reader with flowery explanations about why someone might or should love any one particular film.

A breakout from last year’s Directors’ Fortnight (where it premiered alongside The Sweet East), Joanna Arnow’s (deep breath) The Feeling That The Time for Doing Something Has Passed will open on April 26 from Magnolia Pictures, ahead of which is a first trailer.

Rory O’Connor was impressed upon the film’s Cannes premiere: “Developed from a semi-autobiographical screenplay, Passed emits a more endearing, much funnier vulnerability: the kind of jokes that seemed a bit too knowing and cynical in her earlier work now land with delightful fatalism. Arnow stars as Ann, the thirty-something woman in the kind of soulless, mid-level corporate job where a boomer boss calls a meeting to tell you to get on Spotify. Her world is a mosaic of micro-observations: an instant curry that looks like dog food, squeezed from its sachet to the very last drop; the self-satisfied chuckle of someone listening to a podcast...

The Sweet East is a 2024 movie that feels like an enchanted kingdom of a modern-day Alice in Wonderland, directed by Sean Price Williams. It follows a high school senior named Lillian as she embarks on a school trip, setting off on a journey of self-discovery. Along the way, she encounters various people who help her explore different aspects of herself, prompting her to adopt different names and personalities. As Lillian interacts with the world around her, she realizes that people and places may not be exactly as they seem. Through these experiences, she begins to understand that there is much more to both the world and herself than meets the eye. Despite not fully knowing who she is, she embraces the opportunity to explore and discover her true self through this journey.

Spoilers Ahead

How Did Caleb Influence Lillian On Her Journey?

Lillian goes on a school trip but feels...

Mubi Picks at Posteritati is a series in which we invite our favorite artists to the prestigious movie art gallery in New York City to discuss their favorite movie posters of all time.We met with celebrated cinematographer Sean Price Williams and prolific film critic Nick Pinkerton, now making waves for their first film as a writing-directing team in The Sweet East. As the film plays in theaters nationwide, they stopped by Posteritati to share their selection of the best movie posters of all time, including Raymond Savignac's cartoonish designs for Robert Bresson, Walerian Borowczyk's handwritten erotica, and more.

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

American Fiction (Cord Jefferson)

Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is in a rut. He’s still trying to get a publisher to accept his latest book in a market that doesn’t exactly embrace his erudite style. His gig as a college professor lecturing to students that are too “goddamn delicate” to embrace thorny topics of race has him ostracized from colleagues. He’s estranged from family, all of whom are juggling their own issues––health problems, divorce, the financial strain that comes with both. When Monk concocts an elaborate joke to get more fame and acceptance, it’s taken shocking seriously, setting off a series of misadventures exploring how white America is more willing to accept the most reductive, pandering stories of Black...

A few weeks ago, as The Sweet East started gracing theatres across the States, Reverse Shot ran a sprawling conversation between critic K. Austin Collins and critic-turned-screenwriter Nick Pinkerton. It’s a delightful exchange I can’t recommend enough, both for all it has to uncover about Sean Price Williams’ film––which Pinkerton wrote and which, in my book, was one of last year’s finest––but also for what it sponges of our depressingly shortsighted, quid-pro-quo relationship with the films we watch, what we expect to receive in return for the time we invest in them. “If I wanted to say something,” Pinkerton reflects on the okay-but-what’s-the-message response Sweet East routinely encountered in the months since its Cannes premiere, “I would open my mouth and the words would come out. That’s not what one makes a movie for. You make a movie to go beyond the expression of simple concepts.

“The Sweet East” is on the road again, this time heading across the pond for a theatrical release via Utopia, which has acquired the drama’s U.K. rights.

Marking celebrated cinematographer Sean Price Williams’ feature debut, “The Sweet East” stars Talia Ryder, Ayo Edebiri, Jacob Elordi, Simon Rex and Jeremy O. Harris as they embark on a road trip across the U.S. Utopia purchased the North American rights to the film last year following its Director’s Fortnight premiere at Cannes Film Festival, and has since shepherded it around the continent to play in theaters in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Toronto, Montreal, Atlanta, D.C. and more.

In addition to acquiring the U.K. rights for the film, Utopia is teaming up with Gotham Photochemical to produce new 35mm prints for “The Sweet East’s” continued theatrical expansion in North America and the U.K. The first 35mm...

Exclusive: UK-French sales company Alief has acquired world sales rights to Megan Seely’s dark comedy Puddysticks in which she co-stars alongside Mamoudou Athie and Dan Bakkedahl.

Seely plays Liz, a burned-out videogame designer who discovers a mysterious society of adults who heal their darkest secrets through childlike play.

Led by the alluring figure of Sylvester Cromwell (Bakkedahl), the group compels each member to reveal their most shameful memory as part of the process but when Liz finally musters the courage to share her darkest trauma, her world turns upside down.

Puddysticks is actress, writer and filmmaker Seely’s first feature length film after well-travelled short film My Loyal Audience, TV show Every Year On My Half Birthday and taking co-writing credits on 2017 feature The Mad Whale.

Her acting credits include the Filipino and American musical The Girl Who Left Home and Twist.

Between The Sweet East and, to some extent, American Fiction, cinephiles seem to be increasing their appetite for politically incorrect commentary. Even if you are not one such moviegoer, Stress Positions, the feature debut from Theda Hammel, does not fucking care. That’s an asset before it’s a problem, but its aimless narrative and discordant visual styles undercut this film’s sharpness.

Hammel also stars as Karla, a narcissistic trans woman in a resentment-ridden relationship with a lesbian novelist. The film primarily takes place in the brownstone where Karla’s friend Terry (John Early) is riding out the early stages of Covid with his nephew Bahlul (Qaher Harhash). Bahlul is a 19-year-old Moroccan model, and Terry’s gay circle––including his slutty ex-husband Leo (John Roberts)––is all atwitter at the news. Everyone is desperate to lay eyes on this model, who’s likewise eager to meet people besides Terry.

There’s an admirable ambition to Jack Begert’s directorial debut, Little Death. The film, which premiered at Sundance, announces its intentions with an early scene of communal complaint. At dinner, Martin Solomon (David Schwimmer), a TV writer with directorial aspirations, laments the state of his industry. In addition to their disdain for lazy and too-sensitive audiences, he and his friend, Augustus (Fred Melamed), discuss the limitations of narrative filmmaking. Augustus argues that television allows writers to explore the interiority of multiple characters, whereas films can only really sustain one point of view.

With Little Death, Begert tries to prove Augustus wrong. The director, who co-wrote the film’s screenplay with Dani Goffstein, constructs a story plunging viewers into the ravaged emotional lives of different characters. It tries to stretch the bounds of the narrative form, to upend convention and encourage us to rethink our relationship to storytelling. It aims...

The BAFTA Ee Rising Star Award, now in its 19th year, has put together a pretty stacked list of actors for the 2024 ceremony.

The Rising Star Award often gets overlooked at the BAFTAs, but over the years the prize unique to the British Academy every awards season has done a pretty good job at predicting some of the industry’s biggest names on their way to the top.

Take a look through the eventual winners of the award, determined by public vote since 2005, and you might recognise a few names. James McAvoy, Eva Green, Kristen Stewart, John Boyega and Daniel Kaluuya have all lifted the funny mask gong thing over the years, while the nominees lists are littered with everyone from Cillian Murphy to Emily Blunt – and they’re both in the same year.

Even amongst such stiff competition, though, the list of actors and films nominated this year looks particularly special.

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

From an industry standpoint, 2023 was eventful. We witnessed concurrent strikes, widespread film festival upheaval, Universal besting Disney at the box office, and much more. (I recommend Matt Belloni’s The Town podcast to keep up with this side of town.) On the indie biz side, this was a year in which I saw two small films succeed utilizing a method I long thought dead (or at least on life support): that being good old-fashioned four-walling. Al Warren’s Dogleg and Case Esparros’ The Absence of Milk in the Mouths of the Lost both captured the momentum of cross-country film touring with in-person Q&As. Distributor Utopia has mounted a similar touring strategy for Sean Price Williams’ directorial debut The Sweet East.

When it comes to the films themselves,...

Jacob Elordi is expanding his auteur collaborations and will star in Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming “Frankenstein” as the titular monster.

After starring in Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn,” and Paul Schrader’s new film “Oh, Canada,” Elordi is replacing Andrew Garfield in del Toro’s Netflix movie, as Netflix announced and IndieWire confirmed.

Garfield was originally cast; due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, the star exited the project following scheduling conflicts.

Oscar Isaac is set to play scientist Victor Frankenstein, with Mia Goth, Christoph Watlz, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, and Christian Convery rounding out the cast.

Academy Award winner del Toro is writing, directing, and producing “Frankenstein,” along with producer J. Miles Dale. The official logline reads: “Guillermo del Toro adapts Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment...

Happy New Year! As we continue to wrap up 2023 in cinema, we’re also looking toward what awaits in 2024. Ahead of more expansive 2024 previews, we’re taking an in-depth look at this first month of the year. We should also note that a batch of December favorites will continue to expand, including All of Us Strangers, The Zone of Interest, The Sweet East, and American Fiction.

10. Mambar Pierrette (Rosine Mbakam; Jan. 26)

A selection from Cannes, NYFF, and TIFF, Rosine Mbakam’s narrative feature debut will begin its U.S. run at Anthology Film Archives this month. Edward Frumkin said in his NYFF review, “Cameroonian filmmaker Rosine Mbakam uses familiar spaces as microcosms of society. After capturing her subjects in one setting, such as a mall in Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018) and the protagonist’s home in Delphine’s Prayers (2021), her narrative-feature debut Mambar Pierrette foregrounds the eponymous tailor and love for...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

It’s been a great year to be a strange little guy. We’ve rolled on from Everything Everywhere All at Once sweeping the Oscars to the auspicious release of Yorgos Lanthimos’ sexy baby drama Poor Things. Our culture’s ever-increasing appetite for horror fueled hype for blockbusters about killer robot girls and homicidal animatronics. Genres were blended and transcended on and off the festival circuit, as major distributors embraced weirdness in films like Bottoms, May December, and the aforementioned Poor Things.

This has also been a year of extremes. In January Skinamarink, a $15,000 indie horror, made $2.1 million at the box office. Every favorite for Best Picture is at least 100 minutes long. Barbenheimer… happened. New heights of camp were achieved on larger scales than ever before. Casting...

2023 had its fair share of memorable scores and music. Any year with new work from Joe Hisaishi and Mica Levi is going to be one for the books, but the last 12 months also gave us Robbie Robertson’s swan song and a Dev Hynes/Paul Schrader collaboration. In terms of performance, Bradley Cooper conducting the London Philharmonic was irresistible, but no more so than Talia Ryder’s opening number in The Sweet East or the hero of Fallen Leaves experiencing his moment of clarity while listening to a Swedish synth group. Maybe the best musical performance I saw in a movie this year comes at the beginning of Nicolas Philibert’s On the Adamant, a documentary about a psychiatric care center that sits on the river Seine and provides a port for inner storms. The singer’s name is François, an angular, middle-aged man who growls a raw rendition of...

As Martin Scorsese once said, “Music and cinema fit together naturally. Because there’s a kind of intrinsic musicality to the way moving images work when they’re put together. It’s been said that cinema and music are very close as art forms, and I think that’s true.” Indeed, the right piece of music––whether it’s an original score or a carefully selected song––can do wonders for a sequence, and today we’re looking at the 20 films that best expressed that notion in 2023.

From seasoned composers to accomplished musicians, as well as a smattering of soundtracks, each perfectly transported us. Check out our rundown of the top 20, which includes streams to each soundtrack in full where available.

20. Infinity Pool (Tim Hecker)

19. Knock at the Cabin (Herdís Stefánsdóttir)

18. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Lorne Balfe)

17. Passages (Various Artists)

16. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Daniel Pemberton)

15. Master Gardener...

Saturday Night Live is giving Jacob Elordi fans a reason to stay euphoric even after the end of the holiday season. The actor will make his SNL hosting debut when the NBC sketch comedy show returns on Saturday, January 20. Elordi, a 26-year-old from Australia, scored a breakout role as love interest Noah Flynn in Netflix’s Kissing Booth film trilogy before landing a part as violent teen Nate Jacobs in the HBO drama Euphoria. The actor is coming off a banner year in which he appeared in four films The Sweet East, He Went That Way, Saltburn, and Priscilla. In Saltburn, Elordi joins Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike in a thriller set at an aristocratic family’s estate. And in Priscilla, he plays Elvis Presley opposite Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley. January 20 Jacob Elordi RENEÉ Rapp pic.twitter.com/bR3q147y96 — Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) December 17, 2023 The musical...

Jacob Elordi and Reneé Rapp will serve as first-time Saturday Night Live host and musical guest respectively when the show returns from its holiday break.

SNL announced its January 20, 2024 plans mid-episode Saturday, with the Euphoria and Priscilla star tapped to host with the Mean Girls actress and Snow Angel singer aboard as performer. Both will be making their SNL debut.

January 20

Jacob Elordi

RENEÉ Rapp pic.twitter.com/bR3q147y96

— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) December 17, 2023

Elordi is the midst of a breakout year as the actor currently stars...

Thanks to “Priscilla,” “Saltburn,” and “The Sweet East,” “Euphoria” breakout Jacob Elordi is now a bona fide Hollywood star. But before those movies ruled the festival circuits this year, Elordi had another film on the way that was postponed due to the untimely death of its director. Now “He Went That Way” hits select theaters and on-demand to start 2024, which sees Elordi in an unnerving role in a similar vein to his “Euphoria” character Nate Jacobs.

Continue reading ‘He Went That Way’ Trailer: Jacob Elordi & Zachary Quinto Star In A Serial Killer Pic This January at The Playlist.

The first weekend in December is often a dead zone and this year it it was headed for rock bottom with abysmal results for two prime Disney films. Instead, it’s the best-grossing weekend for this date since 2017. And how we got there proves out what we’ve learned in 2023: Nontraditional titles with fervent fanbases are the new path to exhibition success.

“Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” (AMC Theatres) is #1 with $21 million; also in the top 10 this week are “Godzilla Minus One” (Toho) with $11 million, India’s “Animal” (Cinegalaxy) with $6 million, and “The Shift” (Angel) with $4.3 million. As major players vacate the release calendar, outside forces are eager to fill the gap.

“Renaissance” is a far cry from “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” which opened to $93 million, but it stands out as an opening for this date. While it shows that Swift is a unique draw (and the limited...

Three very different movies, original, with arthouse cred and in theaters for weeks, are drawing audiences showing welcome depth and breadth in the specialty market as awards season kicks off. Nicolas Cage’s nerdy character sees his life collapse when he randomly starts appearing in people’s dreams as Dream Scenario has a solid expansion, Saltburn is attracting young crowds on the coasts, The Holdovers drawing elusive older demos to theaters.

Meanwhile, Bollywood’s Animal showcases the ongoing strength of Indian films Stateside. The revenge thriller starring Ranbir Kapoor racked up an estimated $6.14 million on about 700 screens over the three days, the second biggest opening weekend of all time for a Bollywood film in North America behind Pathaan, taking the no. 7 slot at the North. American box office.

A24’s Dream Scenario has an estimated weekend gross of about $1.69 million in a major expansion...

Animal, with Thursday previews of just over $1.25 million, looks set for the biggest North American Bollywood opening day since Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva last year. Both star Ranbir Kapoor.

The Hindi revenge thriller by Sandeep Reddy Vanga about a son’s toxic relationship with a father he idolizes opens on 700 screens (nearly 100 in Canada) with the subtitled trailer below at 81 million views. Co-stars Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol and Rashmika Mandanna. Opening numbers look especially good since the film is violent (it has the equivalent of an R rating in India), likely taking some families out of the mix.

Produced by Bhushan Kumar, Pranay Reddy Vanga, Murad Khetani, Krishan Kumar. Distributors are Moksha Movies and Nirvana Cinemas.

Neon presents Sundance-premiering Eileen with Anne Hathaway from director William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth) in limited release at six theaters. Based on the 2015 debut novel by Otessa Moshfegh,...

Originally published during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, our interview with Sean Price Williams and Nick Pinkerton about their recommended feature, The Sweet East, is being reposted today as the film is in theatrical release from Utopia. America’s fraught political present meets the less savory corners of cinema’s past in The Sweet East, the first feature directed by celebrated cinematographer Sean Price Williams. Penned with typically acerbic wit by film critic Nick Pinkerton, The Sweet East stars Talia Ryder in a should-be-star-making performance as Lilian, a high school senior who impulsively runs off while on a class trip to Washington, […]

The post Cannes 2023: Sean Price Williams and Nick Pinkerton on The Sweet East first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Originally published during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, our interview with Sean Price Williams and Nick Pinkerton about their recommended feature, The Sweet East, is being reposted today as the film is in theatrical release from Utopia. America’s fraught political present meets the less savory corners of cinema’s past in The Sweet East, the first feature directed by celebrated cinematographer Sean Price Williams. Penned with typically acerbic wit by film critic Nick Pinkerton, The Sweet East stars Talia Ryder in a should-be-star-making performance as Lilian, a high school senior who impulsively runs off while on a class trip to Washington, […]

The post Cannes 2023: Sean Price Williams and Nick Pinkerton on The Sweet East first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

For the past decade-and-a-half, cinematographer Sean Price Williams has been a staple of the New York indie-film scene, lensing features for (naming just a handful) the Safdie brothers, Alex Ross Perry, Michael Almereyda, Robert Greene.

The Sweet East finds Williams moving to the director’s chair with a script from film critic Nick Pinkerton. Deliberately provocative and very funny, The Sweet East begins with a Pizzagate sequence that separates high-schooler Lillian from her classmates in D.C. From there she drifts throughout the Northeast, mingling with a cast of outsiders who all take a special, often sexual interest in her, among them a disorganized band of Antifa-esque punks, an over-eager filmmaking duo (Ayo Edebiri and playwright Jeremy O. Harris), and closeted Neo-Nazi academic Lawrence (Simon Rex).

Fans of Pinkerton’s film criticism and Twitter account will be pleased by the wordsmithery of his dialogue, especially Lawrence’s extended monologues on...

Jacob Elordi's recent movies, Saltburn and Priscilla, have broken his streak of negative Rotten Tomatoes scores. Both films have received favorable reviews, with Saltburn earning a 75% score and Priscilla holding an 82% Certified Fresh rating. Elordi's previous titles, such as The Kissing Booth 2 and Deep Water, typically received low scores, with his most recent Rotten streak lasting for six consecutive movies.

Saltburn and Priscilla have turned around Jacob Elordi's negative Rotten Tomatoes streak. Elordi, who rose to fame playing Noah Flynn in Netflix's Kissing Booth trilogy and Nate Jacobs in HBO's Euphoria, plays Elvis Presley in Priscilla, Sofia Coppola's new movie that presents his marriage to Priscilla Presley from Priscilla's perspective. He also plays the role of the irresistible and wealthy Felix Catton in the new movie Saltburn, a psychological thriller from Promising Young Woman writer-director Emerald Fennell in which he stars opposite Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan.

Sterling K. Brown and Talia Ryder will be honored with acting awards at the 46th Denver Film Festival this weekend.

Brown will receive the Excellence in Acting Award for his performance in Cord Jefferson’s satirical drama “American Fiction,” which opened the festival on Nov. 3. A second screening has been added for Nov. 11 at 10 a.m. Mst, where Brown — a three-time Emmy winner, who also starred in IFC’s “Biosphere” earlier this year — will participate in a conversation with writer, producer and podcast host Larry Wilmore.

Ryder will be on hand on Nov. 12 during the Denver Film Festival awards ceremony to accept the Rising Star Award for her role in Sean Prince Williams’ drama “The Sweet East,” which is a part of the festival’s official selection. She will also engage in a conversation after the screening of her film.

Brown and Ryder’s honors were added following the resolution...