Matteo Garrone’s refugee drama Io Capitano, an Oscar nominee this year for Italy in the best international feature category, was the big winner of this year’s 2024 David Di Donatello Awards, Italy’s equivalent to the Oscars, winning best film and director for Garrone.
Io Capitano also picked up prizes for best cinematography, editing, sound, and visual effects.
Paola Cortellesi’s There’s Still Tomorrow, a black-and-white feminist dramedy that became the top-grossing film in Italy last year, won Cortellesi the Donatello honors for best actress, directorial debut, and original script for the screenplay she co-wrote with Furio Andreotti and Giulia Calenda.
“I want to thank those who gave me the opportunity to write this role as I wanted it,” she said, accepting her actress honor.
Cortellesi’s film, a dramedy about an abused woman in post-wwii Rome that manages to combine serious social drama with situational comedy, sight gags and even a musical number,...
Io Capitano also picked up prizes for best cinematography, editing, sound, and visual effects.
Paola Cortellesi’s There’s Still Tomorrow, a black-and-white feminist dramedy that became the top-grossing film in Italy last year, won Cortellesi the Donatello honors for best actress, directorial debut, and original script for the screenplay she co-wrote with Furio Andreotti and Giulia Calenda.
“I want to thank those who gave me the opportunity to write this role as I wanted it,” she said, accepting her actress honor.
Cortellesi’s film, a dramedy about an abused woman in post-wwii Rome that manages to combine serious social drama with situational comedy, sight gags and even a musical number,...
- 5/3/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Franz Rogowski continues to prove a master of unpredictable performance in this trippy and kinetic debut from Giacomo Abbruzzese. He plays Belarussian Aleksei, who is hit by tragedy when he loses his best friend (Michal Baliki) as they make the dangerous and illegal crossing from Poland to France. Once there, he signs up to the Foreign Legion, which gives recruits access to a new identity and - after five years - French citizenship. When asked about his attitude to risk, Aleksei says: “Those who are afraid, they stay at home.”
What he doesn’t realise, perhaps, is that it's not just his body that he’s putting on the line but his mental state and, as his life collides with those of guerrilla fighter Jomo (Morr Ndiaye putting in a memorably muscular performance) and his sister Udoka (Laetitia Ky), while he is on a hostage-rescue mission to the Niger Delta.
What he doesn’t realise, perhaps, is that it's not just his body that he’s putting on the line but his mental state and, as his life collides with those of guerrilla fighter Jomo (Morr Ndiaye putting in a memorably muscular performance) and his sister Udoka (Laetitia Ky), while he is on a hostage-rescue mission to the Niger Delta.
- 3/29/2024
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Disco Boy, directed by Giacomo Abbruzzese, is about the search for independence and its subsequent consequences. Aleksei/Alex (Franz Rogowski) is an illegal Belarusian immigrant in Paris, who enlists in the French Foreign Legion to legalize his stay. This trade has him cross paths with Jomo (Morr Ndiaye) in Nigeria, a man defending his delta from exploitation. The last main character who yearns for freedom is his sister, Udoka (Laetitia Ky), who wants to leave the village for city life. It's a bit of a ghost story, too. Alex takes center stage, is plagued by his actions, his decisions, his debts. Alex is the first one we meet as the audience, watching him cross a river into France. Disco Boy could absolutely not work with a French citizen...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/6/2024
- Screen Anarchy
Mal Travaille: Abbruzzese Finds the Rhythm of the Night in Hypnotic Debut
“E’en hell hath its peculiar laws,” remarked Faust in Goethe’s eternal classic, the wellspring of the cursed, compromising dealing with the devil in which all similar narratives are indebted. A captivating take on the Faustian parable arrives in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s feature debut, Disco Boy, inextricably uniting two lost souls struggling to make better lives for themselves.
Franz Rogowski headlines with another fascinating, internalized performance as a Belarusian refugee who has to sell his soul for the chance at a better life. Expectedly, the situation waxes Biblical, for even if he gains the world, what does it matter if it means losing his soul?…...
“E’en hell hath its peculiar laws,” remarked Faust in Goethe’s eternal classic, the wellspring of the cursed, compromising dealing with the devil in which all similar narratives are indebted. A captivating take on the Faustian parable arrives in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s feature debut, Disco Boy, inextricably uniting two lost souls struggling to make better lives for themselves.
Franz Rogowski headlines with another fascinating, internalized performance as a Belarusian refugee who has to sell his soul for the chance at a better life. Expectedly, the situation waxes Biblical, for even if he gains the world, what does it matter if it means losing his soul?…...
- 2/2/2024
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall was named best film of the year at France’s Lumiere Awards on Monday evening.
Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari also took home the best screenplay award and lead Sandra Hüller earned the prize for best actress at the 29th edition of the awards, considered to be France’s version of the Golden Globes and voted on by international correspondents from 36 countries.
The courtroom drama about a woman on trial for her husband’s death in the French Alps was nominated in six categories, but Lumiere voters spread their votes across the board...
Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari also took home the best screenplay award and lead Sandra Hüller earned the prize for best actress at the 29th edition of the awards, considered to be France’s version of the Golden Globes and voted on by international correspondents from 36 countries.
The courtroom drama about a woman on trial for her husband’s death in the French Alps was nominated in six categories, but Lumiere voters spread their votes across the board...
- 1/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall continued its prize-winning run on Monday at France’s 29th Lumière Awards clinching Best Film and Best Screenplay, while its German star Sandra Hüller won Best Actress.
The Lumières fete the best films, performances and technical achievements of French cinema across 13 categories.
The French equivalent of the Golden Globes, they are voted on by the Académie des Lumières which is made up of France-based international journalists representing 36 countries.
In other key prizes, Thomas Cailley won Best Director for Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard opener The Animal Kingdom, while Arieh Worthalter won Best Actor for his performance in Cédric Khan’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener The Goldman Case.
Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, which was nominated in six Lumière categories, is on an award-winning streak.
The movie swept the board at the European Film Awards in Berlin last December...
The Lumières fete the best films, performances and technical achievements of French cinema across 13 categories.
The French equivalent of the Golden Globes, they are voted on by the Académie des Lumières which is made up of France-based international journalists representing 36 countries.
In other key prizes, Thomas Cailley won Best Director for Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard opener The Animal Kingdom, while Arieh Worthalter won Best Actor for his performance in Cédric Khan’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener The Goldman Case.
Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, which was nominated in six Lumière categories, is on an award-winning streak.
The movie swept the board at the European Film Awards in Berlin last December...
- 1/22/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
“Kingdom of the Blind,” “Little Trouble Girls” and “Wind, Talk To Me” were among the projects which won prizes at the milestone 15th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival‘s Industry Village.
The event, held in a popular French Alps resort, was attended by more than 700 professionals, including top sales agents, distributors and festival programmers, on top of high profile talent, such as two-time Palme d’Or winning Ruben Ostlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) who was the festival’s guest of honor.
The growing popularity of Les Arcs’s industry sidebar underscores “the resilience of the independent European film market and the continued interest in original stories along with feature debuts,” said Jeremy Zelnik, an indie producer (“Kubrick by Kubrick”) who heads the Industry Village and co-founded the festival with Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin, Guillaume Calop and Fabienne Silvestre.
This year, the Coproduction Village and Work in Progress section received a record 680 projects...
The event, held in a popular French Alps resort, was attended by more than 700 professionals, including top sales agents, distributors and festival programmers, on top of high profile talent, such as two-time Palme d’Or winning Ruben Ostlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) who was the festival’s guest of honor.
The growing popularity of Les Arcs’s industry sidebar underscores “the resilience of the independent European film market and the continued interest in original stories along with feature debuts,” said Jeremy Zelnik, an indie producer (“Kubrick by Kubrick”) who heads the Industry Village and co-founded the festival with Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin, Guillaume Calop and Fabienne Silvestre.
This year, the Coproduction Village and Work in Progress section received a record 680 projects...
- 12/21/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
France’s awards season has officially kicked off with Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” landing six nominations at the Lumières Awards, including best film and director.
The courtroom drama, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is the season’s frontrunner. The Lumières are voted on by Paris-based correspondents working for foreign outlets across 36 countries.
Sandra Huller, who stars in the film as a German novelist put on trial after her French husband dies mysteriously, is nominated for best actress, while Milo Machado Graner, who plays her astute, low-vision son, is nominated for best male newcomer.
“Anatomy of Fall” has been on a roll, garnering a raft of international prizes at the European Film Awards, Gothams, as well as Los Angeles and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, along with four Golden Globe nominations for best film, screenplay, actress and foreign film. The movie that was...
The courtroom drama, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is the season’s frontrunner. The Lumières are voted on by Paris-based correspondents working for foreign outlets across 36 countries.
Sandra Huller, who stars in the film as a German novelist put on trial after her French husband dies mysteriously, is nominated for best actress, while Milo Machado Graner, who plays her astute, low-vision son, is nominated for best male newcomer.
“Anatomy of Fall” has been on a roll, garnering a raft of international prizes at the European Film Awards, Gothams, as well as Los Angeles and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, along with four Golden Globe nominations for best film, screenplay, actress and foreign film. The movie that was...
- 12/15/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Naturally, all focus and the most nominations would go to Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall (it leads in six categories) but this did not take away from Cedric Kahn’s The Goldman Case and the real dark horse for this gala (but the future Cesars as well) Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom landing their share with five nominations. Catherine Breillat’s Palme d’Or comp title Last Summer grabbed four nominations and two films two watch out for would be Critics’ Week fave Iris Kaltenback’s The Rapture and one of our top film discoveries this year in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Berlinale comp title Disco Boy.…...
- 12/14/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall is the frontrunner for France’s Lumiere awards, the country’s answer to the Golden Globes, with 6 nominations, including for best film and best director.
The courtroom drama, starring Sandra Hüller as a writer who may have murdered her husband, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year and swept the European Film Awards on the weekend, taking 5 trophies, including best film. Anatomy of Fall, a Neon release in the U.S., has been nominated for 4 Golden Globes.
Tran Anh Hung’s foodie period drama The Taste of Things, which was picked over Anatomy of a Fall as France’s country’s official Oscar contender in the best international feature category, received just one Lumiere nom, for best cinematography.
Another French courtroom drama, Cedric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, picked up 5 Lumiere noms, tying with Thomas Cailley’s sci-fi tale The Animal Kingdom.
The courtroom drama, starring Sandra Hüller as a writer who may have murdered her husband, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year and swept the European Film Awards on the weekend, taking 5 trophies, including best film. Anatomy of Fall, a Neon release in the U.S., has been nominated for 4 Golden Globes.
Tran Anh Hung’s foodie period drama The Taste of Things, which was picked over Anatomy of a Fall as France’s country’s official Oscar contender in the best international feature category, received just one Lumiere nom, for best cinematography.
Another French courtroom drama, Cedric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, picked up 5 Lumiere noms, tying with Thomas Cailley’s sci-fi tale The Animal Kingdom.
- 12/14/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Lumieres are voted on by international correspondents from 36 countries.
Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winning Anatomy Of A Fall leads the nominations for France’s Lumiere awards, nominated in six categories, including best film and best director.
Cedric Kahn’s courtroom drama The Goldman Case and Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom, have each received five nominations.
All three films have been nominated in the best film category alongside Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer that earned four nominations and Clément Cogitore’s Son of Ramses with three.
The filmmakers of all five of those titles have also been nominated for best director.
Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winning Anatomy Of A Fall leads the nominations for France’s Lumiere awards, nominated in six categories, including best film and best director.
Cedric Kahn’s courtroom drama The Goldman Case and Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom, have each received five nominations.
All three films have been nominated in the best film category alongside Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer that earned four nominations and Clément Cogitore’s Son of Ramses with three.
The filmmakers of all five of those titles have also been nominated for best director.
- 12/14/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
"Are you willing to take risks?" Big World Pictures has revealed an official US trailer for an indie thriller titled Disco Boy, marking the narrative feature debut of an Italian filmmaker named Giacomo Abbruzzese. This premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival earlier this year to mostly positive reviews, and layer played at the New Directors/New Films Festival in NYC. The film stars acclaimed German actor Franz Rogowski as a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. After fleeing Belarus, he joins the French Foreign Legion and goes through hell at boot camp to make it out as a soldier & gain his French citizenship. It also stars Morr Ndiaye, Laetitia Ky, Leon Lucev, Robert Wieckiewicz, and Matteo Olivetti. Disco Boy will open at The Quad in New York City on February 2nd, and at Laemmle Theaters in LA on February 9th. The "ambitious film is a jarring,...
- 12/13/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Coming off one of the best performances of the year in Ira Sachs’ Passages, Franz Rogowski will next be seen in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s stylish debut Disco Boy, which picked up the Silver Bear at Berlinale earlier this year and was a New Directors/New Films selection. Acquired by Big World Pictures, who will release it on February 2 in NYC at the Quad and February 9 in LA at Laemmle Theaters, they’ve now debuted the new trailer and poster.
Here’s the synopsis: “Aleksei is a young Belarusian on the run from a past he must bury. In a form of Faustian pact, he becomes a member of the French Foreign Legion in exchange for the promise of French citizenship. Far away, in the Niger Delta, Jomo is a revolutionary activist, engaged in armed struggle to defend his community. Aleksei is a soldier, Jomo a guerrilla fighter. Because of one more senseless war,...
Here’s the synopsis: “Aleksei is a young Belarusian on the run from a past he must bury. In a form of Faustian pact, he becomes a member of the French Foreign Legion in exchange for the promise of French citizenship. Far away, in the Niger Delta, Jomo is a revolutionary activist, engaged in armed struggle to defend his community. Aleksei is a soldier, Jomo a guerrilla fighter. Because of one more senseless war,...
- 12/12/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
German actor Franz Rogowski is on the rise after winning Best Actor from the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle for his performance as a toxic bisexual in Ira Sachs’ “Passages.” The “Happy End” breakout actor’s turn also featured in IndieWire’s Critics Poll of the best films and performances of 2023.
That means you shouldn’t ignore his performance in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature “Disco Boy,” winner of the 2023 Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. In this vividly dreamlike postwar drama, Rogowski plays a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. Comparisons to Claire Denis’ similarly themed “Beau Travail,” as Ben Croll pointed out in his Berlinale review for IndieWire, are inevitable and apt. After all, there’s a movie that made another unusual European actor — French actor Denis Lavant — an everlasting arthouse favorite.
In “Disco Boy,” following a difficult journey across Europe,...
That means you shouldn’t ignore his performance in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature “Disco Boy,” winner of the 2023 Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. In this vividly dreamlike postwar drama, Rogowski plays a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. Comparisons to Claire Denis’ similarly themed “Beau Travail,” as Ben Croll pointed out in his Berlinale review for IndieWire, are inevitable and apt. After all, there’s a movie that made another unusual European actor — French actor Denis Lavant — an everlasting arthouse favorite.
In “Disco Boy,” following a difficult journey across Europe,...
- 12/12/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Swedish director Ruben Östlund has been announced as a guest of honor at the 15th edition of France’s Les Arcs Film Festival, in the role of its Talent Village Ambassador.
The two-time Cannes d’Or winner has a strong connection with the festival’s Alpine setting, having shot his breakthrough 2014 feature Force Majeure in and around the Les Arcs ski resort, and he has also attended the festival as its jury president in 2018.
Previously announced high-profile guests of this year’s edition of Les Arcs, running from December 16 to 23, include Iranian director Asghar Farhadi as president of the jury.
In his role of Talent Village Ambassador, Östlund will meet with eight emerging directors selected for the sixth edition of Les Arcs’ Talent Village and also give a masterclass.
The Talent Village takes place under the auspices of the Les Arcs Industry Village, running from December 16 to 19.
The program has...
The two-time Cannes d’Or winner has a strong connection with the festival’s Alpine setting, having shot his breakthrough 2014 feature Force Majeure in and around the Les Arcs ski resort, and he has also attended the festival as its jury president in 2018.
Previously announced high-profile guests of this year’s edition of Les Arcs, running from December 16 to 23, include Iranian director Asghar Farhadi as president of the jury.
In his role of Talent Village Ambassador, Östlund will meet with eight emerging directors selected for the sixth edition of Les Arcs’ Talent Village and also give a masterclass.
The Talent Village takes place under the auspices of the Les Arcs Industry Village, running from December 16 to 19.
The program has...
- 11/2/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker will share advice and experiences with up and coming directing talents.
Two-time Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker Ruben Ostlund will be guest of honour at the sixth Talent Village of France’s Les Arcs Film festival and will mentor this year’s selection of eight first-time feature directors.
Part of the festival’s Industry Village, the four-day development initiative is aimed at helping emerging filmmakers make their feature debuts and will run from December 16-19 in the French Alps mountain town.
The eight directors taking part in the development initiative have made short films that have played...
Two-time Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker Ruben Ostlund will be guest of honour at the sixth Talent Village of France’s Les Arcs Film festival and will mentor this year’s selection of eight first-time feature directors.
Part of the festival’s Industry Village, the four-day development initiative is aimed at helping emerging filmmakers make their feature debuts and will run from December 16-19 in the French Alps mountain town.
The eight directors taking part in the development initiative have made short films that have played...
- 11/2/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
When Franz Rogowski tries to pinpoint the moment he went from being a struggling unknown to an in-demand art house star — the 37-year-old German actor is still basking in critical acclaim for his performances in Ira Sachs’ Passages alongside Ben Whishaw and Adèle Exarchopoulos, as well
as Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Berlin festival sleeper Disco Boy and will be walking the Lido red carpet with Giorgio Diritti’s Venice competition title Lubo — he goes back to Berlin 2018.
“That was the year I had a double pack: Two films in competition, with [Christian Petzold’s] Transit and [Thomas Stuber’s] In the Aisles,” says Rogowski, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter via a shaky Zoom connection from France, where he’s spending a few days after wrapping his latest, Bird from American Honey director Andrea Arnold.
“I was also one of the European Shooting Stars that year. So it was a bit of a turning point.
as Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Berlin festival sleeper Disco Boy and will be walking the Lido red carpet with Giorgio Diritti’s Venice competition title Lubo — he goes back to Berlin 2018.
“That was the year I had a double pack: Two films in competition, with [Christian Petzold’s] Transit and [Thomas Stuber’s] In the Aisles,” says Rogowski, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter via a shaky Zoom connection from France, where he’s spending a few days after wrapping his latest, Bird from American Honey director Andrea Arnold.
“I was also one of the European Shooting Stars that year. So it was a bit of a turning point.
- 8/30/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature is a hazily seductive, frequently dreamlike study of life in the French Foreign Legion, fixated on masculine bodies in synchronized and sometimes violently clashing motion. It is also called “Disco Boy.” You almost certainly wouldn’t choose that subject, tone and title for a film if you didn’t want viewers’ minds to immediately wander to “Beau Travail,” Claire Denis’ seminal Foreign Legion cine-ballet, with its climactic solo number set to a thumping Eurodance classic; even if you somehow made that error, you wouldn’t compound it with electro-scored terpsichorean interludes of your own. Choosing homage this direct for a first feature is a brazen move, but notwithstanding its openly derivative qualities, “Disco Boy” doesn’t want for boldness or surprise — Abbruzzese’s hot, fluxional command of sound and image keeps us curious.
One feature of “Disco Boy,” at least, plays as expected: the reliably fragile,...
One feature of “Disco Boy,” at least, plays as expected: the reliably fragile,...
- 8/17/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Finally, it is Big World Pictures that have landed one of the best films from the 2023 edition of the Berlinale. Featuring Franz Rogowski, a winner at the festival (Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution: cinematography) Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Disco Boy (per Deadline) is set to be launched in 2024 but will have some U.S fall film festival showings. Our Nicholas Bell was a fan of the film:
“Franz Rogowski headlines with another fascinating, internalized performance as a Belarusian refugee who has to sell his soul for the chance at a better life. Expectedly, the situation waxes Biblical, for even if he gains the world, what does it matter if it means losing his soul?…...
“Franz Rogowski headlines with another fascinating, internalized performance as a Belarusian refugee who has to sell his soul for the chance at a better life. Expectedly, the situation waxes Biblical, for even if he gains the world, what does it matter if it means losing his soul?…...
- 8/15/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Exclusive: Big World Pictures has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights from Paris-based sales firm Charades to Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature, Disco Boy.
Winner of the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution earlier this year, the largely French-language film stars rising German actor Franz Rogowski as a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. Above is an English-language trailer for the movie.
An early 2024 theatrical release is being lined up following fall festival play. France’s Films Grand Huit produces.
Rogowski is best known for Ira Sachs’ Passages, Christian Petzold’s Transit and Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom. Upcoming he will star in Andrea Arnold’s Bird and David Michôd and A24’s Wizards!.
In Disco Boy, Rogowski plays Aleksei, who reaches Paris following a difficult and undocumented journey across Europe. In Paris he enlists in the French Foreign Legion,...
Winner of the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution earlier this year, the largely French-language film stars rising German actor Franz Rogowski as a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. Above is an English-language trailer for the movie.
An early 2024 theatrical release is being lined up following fall festival play. France’s Films Grand Huit produces.
Rogowski is best known for Ira Sachs’ Passages, Christian Petzold’s Transit and Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom. Upcoming he will star in Andrea Arnold’s Bird and David Michôd and A24’s Wizards!.
In Disco Boy, Rogowski plays Aleksei, who reaches Paris following a difficult and undocumented journey across Europe. In Paris he enlists in the French Foreign Legion,...
- 8/15/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow and Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
18 films across three Kinoscope sections.
Sarajevo Film Festival has selected 18 features for its Kinoscope strand, composed of festival hits from the past year.
Titles include Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Disco Boy starring Franz Rogowski and Morr Ndiaye, which had its world premiere in competition at this year’s Berlinale; as did Lila Aviles’ Totem, about a seven-year-old girl who comes to understand her changing world.
Dani Rosenberg’s The Vanishing Soldier arrives at Sarajevo following a world premiere last weekend at Locarno Film Festival. The thriller centres on an 18-year-old Israeli soldier who flees back to his girlfriend in Tel Aviv...
Sarajevo Film Festival has selected 18 features for its Kinoscope strand, composed of festival hits from the past year.
Titles include Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Disco Boy starring Franz Rogowski and Morr Ndiaye, which had its world premiere in competition at this year’s Berlinale; as did Lila Aviles’ Totem, about a seven-year-old girl who comes to understand her changing world.
Dani Rosenberg’s The Vanishing Soldier arrives at Sarajevo following a world premiere last weekend at Locarno Film Festival. The thriller centres on an 18-year-old Israeli soldier who flees back to his girlfriend in Tel Aviv...
- 8/9/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The Melbourne International Film Festival has confirmed that it will provide $202,000 will go to the winner of its Bright Horizons competition for features by first- and second-time directors. Bragging rights to being the richest film competition in the country previously belonged to the smaller CinefestOZ festival in West Australia, which follows later in August.
The Melbourne festival (in cinemas Aug. 3-20) has this year added two significant prizes: the inaugural First Nations Film Creative Award in collaboration with Kearney Group, and the return of the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award, worth $47,500 recognizing an outstanding Australian creative within a film playing in the Melbourne 2023 program.
Winners across long-form awards categories will be announced at Melbourne’s closing night gala on Aug. 19, These will include the juried prizes and the Miff Audience Award.
The First Nations Film Creative Award supports First Nations talent and storytelling with the recipient awarded a $13,500 cash prize and $16,900 worth of financial services.
The Melbourne festival (in cinemas Aug. 3-20) has this year added two significant prizes: the inaugural First Nations Film Creative Award in collaboration with Kearney Group, and the return of the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award, worth $47,500 recognizing an outstanding Australian creative within a film playing in the Melbourne 2023 program.
Winners across long-form awards categories will be announced at Melbourne’s closing night gala on Aug. 19, These will include the juried prizes and the Miff Audience Award.
The First Nations Film Creative Award supports First Nations talent and storytelling with the recipient awarded a $13,500 cash prize and $16,900 worth of financial services.
- 7/27/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Cannes titles and debut features make strong appearances throughout the programme.
Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) has revealed the 11 titles in the running for its $93,400 competition prize, and will open with Shayda by Australian-Iranian director Noora Niasari.
The festival, which runs August 3-20, unveiled the titles at a programme launch this evening (July 11). Debut and second features are eligible for the Bright Horizons competition, which was introduced last year for the 70th edition, but debuts undoubtedly dominate this year.
Scroll down for full list of competition titles
In fact, the only undeniably second film is Mexican director Lila Avilés’ Tótem.
Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) has revealed the 11 titles in the running for its $93,400 competition prize, and will open with Shayda by Australian-Iranian director Noora Niasari.
The festival, which runs August 3-20, unveiled the titles at a programme launch this evening (July 11). Debut and second features are eligible for the Bright Horizons competition, which was introduced last year for the 70th edition, but debuts undoubtedly dominate this year.
Scroll down for full list of competition titles
In fact, the only undeniably second film is Mexican director Lila Avilés’ Tótem.
- 7/11/2023
- by Sandy George
- ScreenDaily
Cannes titles and debut features make strong appearances throughout the programme.
Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) has revealed the 11 titles in the running for its $93,400 competition prize, and will open with Shayda by Australian-Iranian director Noora Niasari.
The festival, which runs August 3-20, unveiled the titles at a programme launch this evening (July 11). Debut and second features are eligible for the Bright Horizons competition, which was introduced last year for the 70th edition, but debuts undoubtedly dominate this year.
Scroll down for full list of competition titles
In fact, the only undeniably second film is Mexican director Lila Avilés’ Tótem.
Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) has revealed the 11 titles in the running for its $93,400 competition prize, and will open with Shayda by Australian-Iranian director Noora Niasari.
The festival, which runs August 3-20, unveiled the titles at a programme launch this evening (July 11). Debut and second features are eligible for the Bright Horizons competition, which was introduced last year for the 70th edition, but debuts undoubtedly dominate this year.
Scroll down for full list of competition titles
In fact, the only undeniably second film is Mexican director Lila Avilés’ Tótem.
- 7/11/2023
- by Sandy George
- ScreenDaily
The Melbourne International Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup for its 2023 edition, with “Shayda,” by Iranian-Australian director Noora Niasari, set as the opening title.
The festival will run as a live event August 3-20, at venues around the city and its suburbs, and online Aug 18 – 27. The hybrid format was developed during the Covid pandemic and Miff found it useful as a tool to reach further away audiences and wider demographics than a strictly in-theater edition.
The ‘Bright Horizons’ competition section open to films by first- or second-time feature directors contains an 11-title mix of new and recently-debuted works.
As well as opening the festival, “Shayda” will play in competition. The competition’s other Australian-made title was announced as “The Rooster,” from actor turned writer-director Mark Leonard Winter.
International titles in competition include “Banel & Adama,” by Franco-Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy, which played in competition in Cannes; “How to Have Sex,...
The festival will run as a live event August 3-20, at venues around the city and its suburbs, and online Aug 18 – 27. The hybrid format was developed during the Covid pandemic and Miff found it useful as a tool to reach further away audiences and wider demographics than a strictly in-theater edition.
The ‘Bright Horizons’ competition section open to films by first- or second-time feature directors contains an 11-title mix of new and recently-debuted works.
As well as opening the festival, “Shayda” will play in competition. The competition’s other Australian-made title was announced as “The Rooster,” from actor turned writer-director Mark Leonard Winter.
International titles in competition include “Banel & Adama,” by Franco-Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy, which played in competition in Cannes; “How to Have Sex,...
- 7/11/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Franz Rogowski stars as a young Belarusian who ends up in the heart of the Niger Delta.
Conic has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature Disco Boy starring Franz Rogowski.
The film premiered in competition at the Berlinale in February, winning the Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution for Helene Louvart’s cinematography.
Conic acquired the film from Paris-based sales agent Charades. Rogowski stars as Aleksei, a Belarusian who enlists in the French foreign legion in pursuit of a passport. He is sent to the Niger Delta where he crosses paths with Jomo, a revolutionary who...
Conic has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature Disco Boy starring Franz Rogowski.
The film premiered in competition at the Berlinale in February, winning the Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution for Helene Louvart’s cinematography.
Conic acquired the film from Paris-based sales agent Charades. Rogowski stars as Aleksei, a Belarusian who enlists in the French foreign legion in pursuit of a passport. He is sent to the Niger Delta where he crosses paths with Jomo, a revolutionary who...
- 6/30/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature stars Franz Rogowski.
Paris-based sales company Charades has inked a slew of deals for Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature following the film’s February world premiere in Berlin’s Competition and ahead of the film’s Wednesday (May 3) release in France via Kmbo.
Disco Boy has been sold to Madman in Australia and New Zealand, New Cinema in Israel, Adso in Spain, First Hand Films in Switzerland, Filmladen in Austria, Non Stop Entertainment in Scandinavia, Film Europe for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Mars in Turkey, Av Jet in Taiwan, Edko in Hong Kong, Pandora...
Paris-based sales company Charades has inked a slew of deals for Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature following the film’s February world premiere in Berlin’s Competition and ahead of the film’s Wednesday (May 3) release in France via Kmbo.
Disco Boy has been sold to Madman in Australia and New Zealand, New Cinema in Israel, Adso in Spain, First Hand Films in Switzerland, Filmladen in Austria, Non Stop Entertainment in Scandinavia, Film Europe for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Mars in Turkey, Av Jet in Taiwan, Edko in Hong Kong, Pandora...
- 5/2/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Gabriele Mainetti on the streets of Rome with Anne-Katrin Titze: “In Once Upon A Time In America you don’t even have the American Dream like Scarface does.”
In the second instalment with Gabriele Mainetti we touch upon Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Brian De Palma’s Scarface, Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In America, John Ford and John Wayne, Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City, Michael Haneke’s comment on Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Tod Browning, and the painful process of accepting yourself in Freaks Out, co-written with Nicola Guaglianone.
Gabriele Mainetti on Franz (Franz Rogowski): “Franz says no and Matilda can’t say no and says yes with all the pain.”
There’s Franz, the German pianist blessed with 12 fingers and the ability to see the future. He wants the “freaks” on his side. But what exactly is his side?...
In the second instalment with Gabriele Mainetti we touch upon Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Brian De Palma’s Scarface, Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In America, John Ford and John Wayne, Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City, Michael Haneke’s comment on Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Tod Browning, and the painful process of accepting yourself in Freaks Out, co-written with Nicola Guaglianone.
Gabriele Mainetti on Franz (Franz Rogowski): “Franz says no and Matilda can’t say no and says yes with all the pain.”
There’s Franz, the German pianist blessed with 12 fingers and the ability to see the future. He wants the “freaks” on his side. But what exactly is his side?...
- 4/15/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Spike Lee, Chantal Akerman, Wong Kar-wai, Steven Spielberg, Claire Denis, Pedro Almodóvar, Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Nolan, Kelly Reichardt, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Charles Burnett, Lynne Ramsay, Lee Chang-dong, Yorgos Lanthimos, Mia Hansen-Løve, Bi Gan, Michael Haneke, and Hou Hsiao-hsien. Those are just a few of the directors who have been featured at New Directors/New Films throughout its 52-year history.
With this year’s edition, taking place at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center at the Museum of Modern Art, kicking off this Wednesday, we’ve rounded up 17 features worth seeing––some of which we caught at Sundance, Berlinale, Locarno, and beyond, and others new to us at the festival. All in all, this 52nd edition presents another exciting example of the boundless creativity of emerging filmmakers and points to a bright future for the medium.
Check out our picks to see below and learn more here.
Astrakan (David Depesseville)
Astrakhan fur is unique: dark,...
With this year’s edition, taking place at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center at the Museum of Modern Art, kicking off this Wednesday, we’ve rounded up 17 features worth seeing––some of which we caught at Sundance, Berlinale, Locarno, and beyond, and others new to us at the festival. All in all, this 52nd edition presents another exciting example of the boundless creativity of emerging filmmakers and points to a bright future for the medium.
Check out our picks to see below and learn more here.
Astrakan (David Depesseville)
Astrakhan fur is unique: dark,...
- 3/28/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
A new year means a new New Directors/New Films lineup.
The 2023 festival, presented by the Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center, is set to take place from March 29 through April 9 and boasts films from 41 directors. The 52nd edition of the festival kicks off with Savannah Leaf’s A24 drama “Earth Mama” and concludes with Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s trans coming-of-age story “Mutt.” Both premiered at Sundance to acclaim.
In total, the festival boasts 27 features and 11 short films, with screenings taking place at theaters both at MoMA and Flc. Nations represented range from Argentina to Angola, Nigeria to Ukraine.
“This geographically diverse lineup brings together new directors from all over the world presenting works that make bold and creative statements on everything from identity and family to political repression and postcolonial discourse,” MoMA film curator and 2023 Nd/Nf co-chair La Frances Hui said in a press statement. “The...
The 2023 festival, presented by the Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center, is set to take place from March 29 through April 9 and boasts films from 41 directors. The 52nd edition of the festival kicks off with Savannah Leaf’s A24 drama “Earth Mama” and concludes with Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s trans coming-of-age story “Mutt.” Both premiered at Sundance to acclaim.
In total, the festival boasts 27 features and 11 short films, with screenings taking place at theaters both at MoMA and Flc. Nations represented range from Argentina to Angola, Nigeria to Ukraine.
“This geographically diverse lineup brings together new directors from all over the world presenting works that make bold and creative statements on everything from identity and family to political repression and postcolonial discourse,” MoMA film curator and 2023 Nd/Nf co-chair La Frances Hui said in a press statement. “The...
- 2/28/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art have set Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama and Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s Sundance Special Jury Award winner Mutt, both debut features, as opening and closing film at the 52st edition of their collaboration, New Directors/New Films, running March 29–April 9 in NYC.
The festival will introduce will showcase 27 features and 11 shorts from 41 directors at theaters in both venues.
Mutt star Lio Mehial was awarded a U.S. Special Jury Award for acting at Sundance Film festival for their portrayal of Feña, a twentysomething trans man contending with an onslaught of aggravation, surprise encounters and emotional choices over the course of a single hectic day in New York City. “We were charmed, seduced, and compelled by this fresh new performer as we watched them navigating the intimate complexities of their everyday life and relationships in his search for acceptance,” the jury citation said.
The festival will introduce will showcase 27 features and 11 shorts from 41 directors at theaters in both venues.
Mutt star Lio Mehial was awarded a U.S. Special Jury Award for acting at Sundance Film festival for their portrayal of Feña, a twentysomething trans man contending with an onslaught of aggravation, surprise encounters and emotional choices over the course of a single hectic day in New York City. “We were charmed, seduced, and compelled by this fresh new performer as we watched them navigating the intimate complexities of their everyday life and relationships in his search for acceptance,” the jury citation said.
- 2/28/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
The gender-neutral acting prize was won by Spain’s Sofía Otero for ’20,000 Species of Bees’.
Nicolas Philibert’s documentary On The Adamant, about a floating care centre in Paris, was awarded Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival tonight (February 25).
The film, which is being handled internationally by Les Films du Losange, is the fourth documentary to take top honours at the Berlinale.
German films found particular favour with the jury, presided over by Kristen Stewart, with no less than three of the Bear statuettes going to local productions: the Silver Bear Grand Jury award for Christian Petzold’s Afire,...
Nicolas Philibert’s documentary On The Adamant, about a floating care centre in Paris, was awarded Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival tonight (February 25).
The film, which is being handled internationally by Les Films du Losange, is the fourth documentary to take top honours at the Berlinale.
German films found particular favour with the jury, presided over by Kristen Stewart, with no less than three of the Bear statuettes going to local productions: the Silver Bear Grand Jury award for Christian Petzold’s Afire,...
- 2/26/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
After the misery of the 2022 Berlin Film Festival, held toward the tail-end of the pandemic and with strict social distancing and Covid testing regulations still in place, it was back to normal at this year’s 73rd edition.
Festivalgoers were so pleased to return to a proper, physical event that they were remarkably tolerant toward a competition programme that was very patchy, at least by comparison with those found in rival events like Cannes and Venice.
The Berlinale launched with Rebecca Miller’s quirky new romantic comedy, She Came to Me, starring Peter Dinklage as an opera composer with writer’s block, Anne Hathaway as his neurotic therapist wife, and the scene-stealing Marisa Tomei as a salty, seafaring but very amorous tugboat captain. This was a film with such oddball charm that it was easy to overlook its self-indulgence. Festivals can take themselves far too seriously. She Came to Me...
Festivalgoers were so pleased to return to a proper, physical event that they were remarkably tolerant toward a competition programme that was very patchy, at least by comparison with those found in rival events like Cannes and Venice.
The Berlinale launched with Rebecca Miller’s quirky new romantic comedy, She Came to Me, starring Peter Dinklage as an opera composer with writer’s block, Anne Hathaway as his neurotic therapist wife, and the scene-stealing Marisa Tomei as a salty, seafaring but very amorous tugboat captain. This was a film with such oddball charm that it was easy to overlook its self-indulgence. Festivals can take themselves far too seriously. She Came to Me...
- 2/25/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- The Independent - Film
Winners have been announced at the 73rd Berlin Film Festival, with On the Adamant by Nicolas Philibert scooping the coveted Golden Bear prize as the best film of the festival’s International Competition. Scroll down for the full list of winners, which were revealed Saturday evening at the Berlinale Palast.
The film chronicles a unique day-care center in the heart of Paris that welcomes adults suffering from mental disorders, offering the kind of care that grounds them in time and space and helps them to recover or keep up their spirits.
Introducing the film, jury head Kristen Stewart said the pic is “masterfully crafted” and acts as “cinematic proof of the vital necessity of human expression.”
Other winners in the International Competition included Philippe Garrel, who picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director for his latest pic Le grand chariot (The Plough). Garrel dedicated the award to the late filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard.
The film chronicles a unique day-care center in the heart of Paris that welcomes adults suffering from mental disorders, offering the kind of care that grounds them in time and space and helps them to recover or keep up their spirits.
Introducing the film, jury head Kristen Stewart said the pic is “masterfully crafted” and acts as “cinematic proof of the vital necessity of human expression.”
Other winners in the International Competition included Philippe Garrel, who picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director for his latest pic Le grand chariot (The Plough). Garrel dedicated the award to the late filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard.
- 2/25/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
On the Adamant, a documentary by French director Nicolas Philibert that gives an intimate look at the patients and caregivers in a mental health center located on the Seine River in the heart of Paris, has won the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival’s Golden Bear for best film.
For his 11th feature, the 72-year-old Philibert spent months aboard a barge anchored on the Seine in Paris, chronicling a mental health care facility that caters specifically to its patients’ creative needs. His documentary explores issues of creativity and art, of sanity and madness, but does so without applying labels or clear-cut distinctions.
“I don’t like partitions or labels,” Philibert said. “In this film on psychiatry, we were always [careful] to not always distinguish very clearly between patients and carers. I tried to reverse the image we always have of mad people [which I see] as discriminating and stigmatizing. I wanted us to be able,...
For his 11th feature, the 72-year-old Philibert spent months aboard a barge anchored on the Seine in Paris, chronicling a mental health care facility that caters specifically to its patients’ creative needs. His documentary explores issues of creativity and art, of sanity and madness, but does so without applying labels or clear-cut distinctions.
“I don’t like partitions or labels,” Philibert said. “In this film on psychiatry, we were always [careful] to not always distinguish very clearly between patients and carers. I tried to reverse the image we always have of mad people [which I see] as discriminating and stigmatizing. I wanted us to be able,...
- 2/25/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
To be blunt about it, we’re reaching the sad, maybe inevitable stage where Beau Travail and its famous closing sequence are becoming subject to the dreaded “Seinfeld Effect,” coined to note where the original value of something is diminished by successive imitations. It’s not that Denis’ film and Denis Levant’s death dance would ever lose their impact for those new or returning to it, but that a prospective viewer could see a weaker future rendering or a jaded, comic social-media reference to the scene first, and then afterward eventually seek out Beau Travail, greeting it with a bit of a “huh, that’s where that’s from” or underwhelmed reaction.
To Disco Boy’s credit, while its core themes and imagery are second-hand, it does attempt to build, expand on, perhaps modernize Beau Travail, not unlike Helena Wittmann’s recent Human Flowers of Flesh, which premiered last...
To Disco Boy’s credit, while its core themes and imagery are second-hand, it does attempt to build, expand on, perhaps modernize Beau Travail, not unlike Helena Wittmann’s recent Human Flowers of Flesh, which premiered last...
- 2/22/2023
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
Donna Summer could hit notes more thrillingly beautiful than any other pop singer of her time, or since. I’m not sure even Whitney Houston, as great as she was, quite reached the glistening heights that culminate “Last Dance” (though she comes very close in “I Will Always Love You”). Mariah Carey (no relation to me) performs impressive vocal acrobatics, yet to my ear she can’t match the bell-like shimmer of Donna in the higher registers. And Donna in the lower registers – well, the voice thrums with visceral resonance.
Related Story Berlin: ‘Love To Love You, Donna Summer,’ From Roger Ross Williams & Summer’s Daughter, Brooklyn Sudano, Provides Complex Portrait Of Pop Superstar Related Story Rutina Wesley On Playing Maria In 'The Last Of Us': "It's Terrifying Playing A Character That's Been Established" Related Story Berlin Review: Giacomo Abbruzzese's 'Disco Boy'
In the documentary Love to Love You,...
Related Story Berlin: ‘Love To Love You, Donna Summer,’ From Roger Ross Williams & Summer’s Daughter, Brooklyn Sudano, Provides Complex Portrait Of Pop Superstar Related Story Rutina Wesley On Playing Maria In 'The Last Of Us': "It's Terrifying Playing A Character That's Been Established" Related Story Berlin Review: Giacomo Abbruzzese's 'Disco Boy'
In the documentary Love to Love You,...
- 2/21/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The documentary Love to Love You, Donna Summer, about one of the world’s greatest pop stars, constitutes a kind of duet – between two filmmakers. The film, making its world premiere in Berlin, comes from directors Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano, daughter of the subject of the film, the legendary Donna Summer.
Related Story Berlin Review: ‘Love To Love You, Donna Summer’ Offers Moving Portrait Of Brilliant Singer Who Struggled With Fame And Faith Related Story Rutina Wesley On Playing Maria In 'The Last Of Us': "It's Terrifying Playing A Character That's Been Established" Related Story Berlin Review: Giacomo Abbruzzese's 'Disco Boy'
“I was such a huge, massive fan of Donna’s and nothing made me feel the way she made me feel on the dance floor,” Williams, the Oscar-winning director of Music By Prudence, tells Deadine. “I thought, I want to make a music documentary.
Related Story Berlin Review: ‘Love To Love You, Donna Summer’ Offers Moving Portrait Of Brilliant Singer Who Struggled With Fame And Faith Related Story Rutina Wesley On Playing Maria In 'The Last Of Us': "It's Terrifying Playing A Character That's Been Established" Related Story Berlin Review: Giacomo Abbruzzese's 'Disco Boy'
“I was such a huge, massive fan of Donna’s and nothing made me feel the way she made me feel on the dance floor,” Williams, the Oscar-winning director of Music By Prudence, tells Deadine. “I thought, I want to make a music documentary.
- 2/21/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
What do a Belarusian emigrant and an African freedom fighter have in common? It’s a question that Giacomo Abbruzzese’s feature debut, which had its world premiere in Competition at the Berlin Film Festival, answers in a beguilingly magic-realist and digressive way that sort of adds up, even though it requires a lot of good faith from the viewer to make it do so. To illustrate its strangeness, Disco Boy could be loosely described as a mash-up of Beau Travail and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, two very different movies. While both are firmly anchored in arthouse history, neither resembles the other, and it’s that contrast—the rich potential opened up by the space in between—that’s in play here.
The opening, which serves as a kind of mood-setting overture, presents a vision of sleeping Black men in a primitive natural environment. We then...
The opening, which serves as a kind of mood-setting overture, presents a vision of sleeping Black men in a primitive natural environment. We then...
- 2/21/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Eight films have screened with 11 more to come.
As the Berlinale Competition nears the halfway point, Celine Song’s Past Lives is leading Screen’s Berlin 2023 jury grid with an average score of 3.6.
The romantic drama is way out in front after receiving five four-star ratings from critics – the highest mark meaning “excellent”.
Anton Dolin from Meduza and Katja Nicodemus from Die Zeit marked it lower, at three and two stars respectively.
Song’s debut feature follows two childhood friends from South Korea who reconnect for a few days in New York. It had its world premiere at Sundance last month.
As the Berlinale Competition nears the halfway point, Celine Song’s Past Lives is leading Screen’s Berlin 2023 jury grid with an average score of 3.6.
The romantic drama is way out in front after receiving five four-star ratings from critics – the highest mark meaning “excellent”.
Anton Dolin from Meduza and Katja Nicodemus from Die Zeit marked it lower, at three and two stars respectively.
Song’s debut feature follows two childhood friends from South Korea who reconnect for a few days in New York. It had its world premiere at Sundance last month.
- 2/20/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Giacomo Abbruzzese’s drama follows Belarusian Aleksei on his journey into the French Foreign Legion and a very strange epiphany in the Niger Delta
Italian director Giacomo Abbruzzese makes a really stylish debut with Disco Boy, a visually thrilling, ambitious and distinctly freaky adventure into the heart of imperial darkness, or into something else entirely: the heart of an alternative reality, or a transcendent new self. This is bold film-making: a movie that wants to dazzle you with its standalone setpieces, but also to carry you along with its storytelling.
Franz Rogowski, a German actor who always brings a compelling sort of chemical instability to his films (like a piece of smoking sodium exposed to the air), here plays Aleksei, a guy from Belarus who has arrived in Poland with his buddy Mikhail (Michal Balicki) and a bunch of other Belarus nationals on a short tourist visa, supposedly to see a football match.
Italian director Giacomo Abbruzzese makes a really stylish debut with Disco Boy, a visually thrilling, ambitious and distinctly freaky adventure into the heart of imperial darkness, or into something else entirely: the heart of an alternative reality, or a transcendent new self. This is bold film-making: a movie that wants to dazzle you with its standalone setpieces, but also to carry you along with its storytelling.
Franz Rogowski, a German actor who always brings a compelling sort of chemical instability to his films (like a piece of smoking sodium exposed to the air), here plays Aleksei, a guy from Belarus who has arrived in Poland with his buddy Mikhail (Michal Balicki) and a bunch of other Belarus nationals on a short tourist visa, supposedly to see a football match.
- 2/20/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival. Big World Pictures releases the film in select theaters on Friday, February 2 with expansion to follow.
It might be reductive to call “Disco Boy” a kind of club kid cousin to “Beau Travail,” but the comparisons aren’t entirely off. Like Claire Denis’ Sight and Sound chart-topper, here is a tour with the French Foreign Legion, another dissection of colonial roleplaying spent among a taciturn lot who find best expression in the rhythms of the night. So let’s dispense those comparisons up front, and with a degree of military efficiency befitting both films: While director Giacomo Abbruzzese does indeed pay homage to a direct artistic forbearer, his debut film stands (and writhes and shimmies) all on its own.
Pushed and pulled by another intensely physical Franz Rogowski turn, “Disco Boy” follows a man ever on the move,...
It might be reductive to call “Disco Boy” a kind of club kid cousin to “Beau Travail,” but the comparisons aren’t entirely off. Like Claire Denis’ Sight and Sound chart-topper, here is a tour with the French Foreign Legion, another dissection of colonial roleplaying spent among a taciturn lot who find best expression in the rhythms of the night. So let’s dispense those comparisons up front, and with a degree of military efficiency befitting both films: While director Giacomo Abbruzzese does indeed pay homage to a direct artistic forbearer, his debut film stands (and writhes and shimmies) all on its own.
Pushed and pulled by another intensely physical Franz Rogowski turn, “Disco Boy” follows a man ever on the move,...
- 2/19/2023
- by Ben Croll
- Indiewire
A young Belorussian attempts to make the dangerous trip across the EU to sign up for the French Foreign Legion while a young rebel leader in Niger and his sister attempt to help their people survive the ravages of post-colonialism in wildly uneven Berlinale competitor Disco Boy.
A committed, intensely physical lead performance by German actor Franz Rogowski (recently seen in Ira Sachs’ Passages), luminous cinematography courtesy of ace Dp Helene Louvart, and stirring electronic music by composer Vitalic all come together to make this a sensuous, striking film experience. But, yeesh, that script by director-screenwriter Giacomo Abbruzzese is a mess — a lumpy mix of silly supernatural elements and indigestible arthouse pretension, all garnished with an outright steal from Claire Denis’ infinitely superior 1999 French Foreign Legion-feature Beau Travail. But by all means, you might as well steal from the best.
Rogowski’s Aleksei is first met traveling to Poland from...
A committed, intensely physical lead performance by German actor Franz Rogowski (recently seen in Ira Sachs’ Passages), luminous cinematography courtesy of ace Dp Helene Louvart, and stirring electronic music by composer Vitalic all come together to make this a sensuous, striking film experience. But, yeesh, that script by director-screenwriter Giacomo Abbruzzese is a mess — a lumpy mix of silly supernatural elements and indigestible arthouse pretension, all garnished with an outright steal from Claire Denis’ infinitely superior 1999 French Foreign Legion-feature Beau Travail. But by all means, you might as well steal from the best.
Rogowski’s Aleksei is first met traveling to Poland from...
- 2/19/2023
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Danger Zone
Director: Vita Maria Drygas
Producer: Vita Żelakeviciute
Production companies: Drygas Film Production
Sales: Dogwoof
Documentary is a journey to places devastated by military conflicts, seen through the eyes of thrill-seeking tourists.
Delegation
(Generation 14plus)
Director: Asaf Saban
Cast: Yoav Bavly, Neomi Harari, Leib Lev Levin, Ezra Dagan, Alma Dishy
Producers: Agnieszka Dziedzic, Yoav Roeh, Aurit Zamir, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad
Production companies: Koi Studio, Gum Films, In Good Co.
Sales: New Europe Film Sales
Three Israeli friends visit Holocaust sites in Poland before their stints in the army, and deal with love, friendship and politics.
Disco Boy
(Competition)
Director: Giacomo Abbruzzese
Cast: Franz Rogowski, Morr Ndiaye, Laëtitia Ky, Leon Lučev
Producers: Lionel Massol, Pauline Seigland
Production companies: Films Grand Huit, Dugong Films, Panache Productions, La Compagnie Cinématographique, Donten & Lacroix, Division
Sales: Charades
Aleksei reaches Paris to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, which allows any foreigner, even undocumented, to be granted a French passport.
Director: Vita Maria Drygas
Producer: Vita Żelakeviciute
Production companies: Drygas Film Production
Sales: Dogwoof
Documentary is a journey to places devastated by military conflicts, seen through the eyes of thrill-seeking tourists.
Delegation
(Generation 14plus)
Director: Asaf Saban
Cast: Yoav Bavly, Neomi Harari, Leib Lev Levin, Ezra Dagan, Alma Dishy
Producers: Agnieszka Dziedzic, Yoav Roeh, Aurit Zamir, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad
Production companies: Koi Studio, Gum Films, In Good Co.
Sales: New Europe Film Sales
Three Israeli friends visit Holocaust sites in Poland before their stints in the army, and deal with love, friendship and politics.
Disco Boy
(Competition)
Director: Giacomo Abbruzzese
Cast: Franz Rogowski, Morr Ndiaye, Laëtitia Ky, Leon Lučev
Producers: Lionel Massol, Pauline Seigland
Production companies: Films Grand Huit, Dugong Films, Panache Productions, La Compagnie Cinématographique, Donten & Lacroix, Division
Sales: Charades
Aleksei reaches Paris to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, which allows any foreigner, even undocumented, to be granted a French passport.
- 2/19/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Paris-based Italian director Giacomo Abbruzzese says making the Berlin Film Festival competition cut with his first feature, “Disco Boy,” which toplines German star Franz Rogowski, is “certainly a dream come true.”
But he also points out that his remarkable debut was a long time coming.
A graduate of several film schools, including France’s prestigious Le Fresnoy, Abbruzzese started developing “Disco Boy” in 2013 following an encounter in a French disco with a classical dancer who had been a soldier.
“I realized that beyond their apparent contradiction, these two worlds had a lot in common, especially when it comes to classical ballet,” the director said, citing “the extreme physical exertion and discipline that they both involve.”
That chance meeting was just a starting point for the film’s complex narrative, which Abbruzese developed at the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinefondation and during a Clermont-Ferrand Festival residency.
But then the film took 10 years to make.
But he also points out that his remarkable debut was a long time coming.
A graduate of several film schools, including France’s prestigious Le Fresnoy, Abbruzzese started developing “Disco Boy” in 2013 following an encounter in a French disco with a classical dancer who had been a soldier.
“I realized that beyond their apparent contradiction, these two worlds had a lot in common, especially when it comes to classical ballet,” the director said, citing “the extreme physical exertion and discipline that they both involve.”
That chance meeting was just a starting point for the film’s complex narrative, which Abbruzese developed at the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinefondation and during a Clermont-Ferrand Festival residency.
But then the film took 10 years to make.
- 2/19/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Charades has secured a flurry of deals on Charlotte Regan’s British dramedy “Scrapper,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
Starring Harris Dickinson (“Triangle of Sadness”) as a downbeat dad, “Scrapper” has been sold to Spain (Caramel), Australia (Madman), Poland (Against Gravity), Baltics and Cis (Arthouse), Greece (Cinobo) and Airlines (Aardwolf). “Scrapper” has already sold to the U.K. (Pictures House). Charades is currently negotiating deals for Japan, Israel, USA, Scandinavia and South Korea.
The film follows Georgie, a dreamy 12-year-old girl who lives happily alone in her London flat, filling it with magic. Suddenly, her estranged father turns up and forces her to confront reality.
“Scrapper” bowed in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance and earned unanimous critical praise with Variety’s Guy Lodge describing it as a “sweet, pastel-colored spin on British Realism. The movie is produced by Theo Barrowclough, and executive produced by Eva Yates,...
Starring Harris Dickinson (“Triangle of Sadness”) as a downbeat dad, “Scrapper” has been sold to Spain (Caramel), Australia (Madman), Poland (Against Gravity), Baltics and Cis (Arthouse), Greece (Cinobo) and Airlines (Aardwolf). “Scrapper” has already sold to the U.K. (Pictures House). Charades is currently negotiating deals for Japan, Israel, USA, Scandinavia and South Korea.
The film follows Georgie, a dreamy 12-year-old girl who lives happily alone in her London flat, filling it with magic. Suddenly, her estranged father turns up and forces her to confront reality.
“Scrapper” bowed in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance and earned unanimous critical praise with Variety’s Guy Lodge describing it as a “sweet, pastel-colored spin on British Realism. The movie is produced by Theo Barrowclough, and executive produced by Eva Yates,...
- 2/16/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Charades and WTFilms have teamed on “Vermin,” a horror movie set in the French projects with a cast of local up-and-coming actors, who star alongside real spiders.
The movie will mark the feature debut of Sébastien Vaniček, who previously directed critically acclaimed shorts such as “Mayday.” Harry Tordjman at My Box Films is producing.
“Vermin” stars Théo Christine (“Suprêmes”), Finnegan Oldfield (“Final Cut”), Jérôme Niel (“Smoking Causes Coughing”), Sofia Lesaffre (“Les Misérables”) and Lisa Nyarko.
The film is currently in shooting in Paris, with a March 3 end date. It will distributed in France by Tandem. France Télévisions pre-bought the movie and Netflix got the pay TV window in France.
“Vermin” is set in an underprivileged suburb that has been thrown into chaos following an invasion of venomous spiders. Ordered to be placed in quarantine, the project sees inhabitants living on lockdown alongside terrifying spiders that are becoming bigger and bigger.
The movie will mark the feature debut of Sébastien Vaniček, who previously directed critically acclaimed shorts such as “Mayday.” Harry Tordjman at My Box Films is producing.
“Vermin” stars Théo Christine (“Suprêmes”), Finnegan Oldfield (“Final Cut”), Jérôme Niel (“Smoking Causes Coughing”), Sofia Lesaffre (“Les Misérables”) and Lisa Nyarko.
The film is currently in shooting in Paris, with a March 3 end date. It will distributed in France by Tandem. France Télévisions pre-bought the movie and Netflix got the pay TV window in France.
“Vermin” is set in an underprivileged suburb that has been thrown into chaos following an invasion of venomous spiders. Ordered to be placed in quarantine, the project sees inhabitants living on lockdown alongside terrifying spiders that are becoming bigger and bigger.
- 2/16/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Franz Rogowski stars in the film which is based on real events.
Italy’s True Colours is launching pre-sales at the EFM of Giorgio Diritti’s Italian-Swiss co-production Lubo, starring Franz Rogowski, for which it has acquired worldwide rights.
Now in post, Lubo is set on the eve of Second World War. Rogowski stars as a young Caucasian man of nomadic ethnicity called to serve in the Swiss army to defend the border with Austria from the threat of the Nazi army who hears his children have been taken away by the authorities and his wife killed in the scuffle.
Italy’s True Colours is launching pre-sales at the EFM of Giorgio Diritti’s Italian-Swiss co-production Lubo, starring Franz Rogowski, for which it has acquired worldwide rights.
Now in post, Lubo is set on the eve of Second World War. Rogowski stars as a young Caucasian man of nomadic ethnicity called to serve in the Swiss army to defend the border with Austria from the threat of the Nazi army who hears his children have been taken away by the authorities and his wife killed in the scuffle.
- 2/16/2023
- by Alina Trabattoni
- ScreenDaily
Franz Rogowski stars in the film which is based on real events.
Italy’s True Colours is launching pre-sales at the EFM of Giorgio Diritti’s Italian-Swiss production Lubo, starring Franz Rogowski, for which it has acquired worldwide rights.
Now in post, Lubo is set on the eve of Second World War, Rogowski stars as a young Caucasian man of nomadic ethnicity called to serve in the Swiss army to defend the border with Austria from the threat of the Nazi army who hears his children have been taken away by the authorities and his wife killed in the scuffle.
Italy’s True Colours is launching pre-sales at the EFM of Giorgio Diritti’s Italian-Swiss production Lubo, starring Franz Rogowski, for which it has acquired worldwide rights.
Now in post, Lubo is set on the eve of Second World War, Rogowski stars as a young Caucasian man of nomadic ethnicity called to serve in the Swiss army to defend the border with Austria from the threat of the Nazi army who hears his children have been taken away by the authorities and his wife killed in the scuffle.
- 2/16/2023
- by Alina Trabattoni
- ScreenDaily
Charades has dropped the trailer for “Disco Boy,” the anticipated feature debut of Giacomo Abbruzzese, starring Franz Rogowski (“Passages”) which is competing at the Berlin Film Festival.
The movie is produced by the rising French production company Films Grand Huit. Shot across two continents by Hélène Louvart, the movie boasts a diverse international cast and a soundtrack by electronic music artist Vitalic.
“Disco Boy stars Rogowski as Aleksei, who embarks on a difficult journey across Europe and reaches Paris to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, a highly selective military corp that allows any foreigner, even undocumented, to be granted a French passport. In the Niger Delta, Jomo (Morr Ndiaye) fights against oil companies that threaten the survival of his village. His sister Udoka (Laëtitia Ky), meanwhile, dreams of escaping, knowing that all is already lost here. Beyond borders, life and death, their destinies will intertwine.
The film marks the feature debut of Abbruzzese,...
The movie is produced by the rising French production company Films Grand Huit. Shot across two continents by Hélène Louvart, the movie boasts a diverse international cast and a soundtrack by electronic music artist Vitalic.
“Disco Boy stars Rogowski as Aleksei, who embarks on a difficult journey across Europe and reaches Paris to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, a highly selective military corp that allows any foreigner, even undocumented, to be granted a French passport. In the Niger Delta, Jomo (Morr Ndiaye) fights against oil companies that threaten the survival of his village. His sister Udoka (Laëtitia Ky), meanwhile, dreams of escaping, knowing that all is already lost here. Beyond borders, life and death, their destinies will intertwine.
The film marks the feature debut of Abbruzzese,...
- 2/15/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.