The 2024 Cannes Film Festival was officially closed yesterday, on May 25, 2024, as the prizes for the movies and the actors were awarded at the closing ceremony. It was a very exciting and content-filled event, and we have also reported on numerous movies that had their premiere at Cannes, some of which were received well, while others… not so much. But, naturally, everyone wants to know who won and who lost at Cannes, and that is what we are going to report about in this article.
The article will be divided into two main sections. The first one will list all the juries at Cannes, since they are the ones who chose the winners at the film festival, so we think that it is only fair that you know who picked the winners. After that, we are going to list all the winners in each of the categories.
As we have said,...
The article will be divided into two main sections. The first one will list all the juries at Cannes, since they are the ones who chose the winners at the film festival, so we think that it is only fair that you know who picked the winners. After that, we are going to list all the winners in each of the categories.
As we have said,...
- 5/26/2024
- by Arthur S. Poe
- Fiction Horizon
Belgian-Congolese rapper and film director Baloji is back on the Croisette for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
The director of 2023 Un Certain Regard entry Omen this year is a member of the Caméra d’Or, or Golden Camera, jury.
Before heading to Cannes, he shared with THR some tips and insights into his experience at the festival.
What makes Cannes unique?
You can have specialists in South Korean art house movies, next to people signing film deals, right beside TikTok influencers reporting on red carpet stars and the next bling bling. Bringing all these worlds together is what makes Cannes so special.
Favorite “only in Cannes” moment?
My favorite moment was, of course, screening Omen at the Debussy Theatre. But the strangest “only in Cannes” moment was doing the red carpet. Because we didn’t have a red carpet for our film, the crew and I got to walk the red...
The director of 2023 Un Certain Regard entry Omen this year is a member of the Caméra d’Or, or Golden Camera, jury.
Before heading to Cannes, he shared with THR some tips and insights into his experience at the festival.
What makes Cannes unique?
You can have specialists in South Korean art house movies, next to people signing film deals, right beside TikTok influencers reporting on red carpet stars and the next bling bling. Bringing all these worlds together is what makes Cannes so special.
Favorite “only in Cannes” moment?
My favorite moment was, of course, screening Omen at the Debussy Theatre. But the strangest “only in Cannes” moment was doing the red carpet. Because we didn’t have a red carpet for our film, the crew and I got to walk the red...
- 5/16/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cannes Critics’ Week has appointed French producer Sylvie Pialat as president of the jury for its upcoming edition after Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who was originally announced for the role, was forced to cancel for personal reasons.
French director Iris Kaltenbäck has also been been named as a new jury member. Her first film The Rapture premiered to acclaim in Critics’ Week last year. The drama, starring Hafsia Herzi as a midwife who passes off her best friend’s newborn child as her own, won the Prix Sacd.
Previously announced members of the jury include Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (Augure by Baloji, My New Friends, Haven of Grace), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej (The Blue Caftan, Our Mothers, Casablanca Beats), and Canadian film critic and journalist Ben Croll.
Producer Pialat spent the first part of her cinema career collaborating with her husband Maurice Pialat, co-writing the screenplays for a number of...
French director Iris Kaltenbäck has also been been named as a new jury member. Her first film The Rapture premiered to acclaim in Critics’ Week last year. The drama, starring Hafsia Herzi as a midwife who passes off her best friend’s newborn child as her own, won the Prix Sacd.
Previously announced members of the jury include Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (Augure by Baloji, My New Friends, Haven of Grace), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej (The Blue Caftan, Our Mothers, Casablanca Beats), and Canadian film critic and journalist Ben Croll.
Producer Pialat spent the first part of her cinema career collaborating with her husband Maurice Pialat, co-writing the screenplays for a number of...
- 5/11/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the eight jurors who will be joining jury president Greta Gerwig for the event’s 2024 edition (May 14-25).
They are American actress Lily Gladstone, French actress Eva Green, French actor and producer Omar Sy, Lebanese director and screenwriter Nadine Labaki, Spanish director and screenwriter Juan Antonio Bayona, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, Turkish screenwriter and photographer Ebru Ceylan, and Italian actor Pierfrancisco Favino.
The jury will award the Palme d’Or to one of the 22 films in competition at the closing ceremony on May 25. Anatomy Of A Fall picked up the top prize last year.
They are American actress Lily Gladstone, French actress Eva Green, French actor and producer Omar Sy, Lebanese director and screenwriter Nadine Labaki, Spanish director and screenwriter Juan Antonio Bayona, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, Turkish screenwriter and photographer Ebru Ceylan, and Italian actor Pierfrancisco Favino.
The jury will award the Palme d’Or to one of the 22 films in competition at the closing ceremony on May 25. Anatomy Of A Fall picked up the top prize last year.
- 4/29/2024
- ScreenDaily
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.
Anyone But You (Will Gluck)
If anything, Anyone But You‘s spirit is encapsulated in having a running joke about “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield (gags involving that artist’s back catalog seeming to be the Will Gluck auteurist touch) as if the movie’s wholly bland pop soundtrack puts it above that at-least-memorable 2000s ditty. Slight self-awareness with no effort to actually do anything new is the definition of unearned arrogance. This is why it fails as a romcom: too much smarm and not enough charm. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Garrett Bradley: Devotion
If you’ve only seen Garrett Bradley’s staggering, Oscar-nominated documentary Time, it’s prime time to catch up on a pair of her earlier work.
Anyone But You (Will Gluck)
If anything, Anyone But You‘s spirit is encapsulated in having a running joke about “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield (gags involving that artist’s back catalog seeming to be the Will Gluck auteurist touch) as if the movie’s wholly bland pop soundtrack puts it above that at-least-memorable 2000s ditty. Slight self-awareness with no effort to actually do anything new is the definition of unearned arrogance. This is why it fails as a romcom: too much smarm and not enough charm. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Garrett Bradley: Devotion
If you’ve only seen Garrett Bradley’s staggering, Oscar-nominated documentary Time, it’s prime time to catch up on a pair of her earlier work.
- 4/26/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Musician and film-maker’s story about a Belgian-Congolese man who takes his white wife to Drc to meet the family is complex, risky and bold
Congolese-born rapper, musician and film-maker Baloji (né Serge Baloji Tshiani) was a prizewinner at Cannes last year with this feature directing debut: a dynamic, teemingly populated, multistranded and tonally elusive picture which I initially thought would benefit from comparisons with Jordan Peele’s horror classic Get Out. In fact, it’s more complicated than that.
Koffi (Marc Zinga) is a Congolese man living in Belgium and married to a white woman, Alice (Lucie Debay). They are about to have twins and Koffi feels that he cannot put it off any further: whatever his family will think, the couple must journey back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to let them see Alice and let them get used to the idea. It particularly means propitiating...
Congolese-born rapper, musician and film-maker Baloji (né Serge Baloji Tshiani) was a prizewinner at Cannes last year with this feature directing debut: a dynamic, teemingly populated, multistranded and tonally elusive picture which I initially thought would benefit from comparisons with Jordan Peele’s horror classic Get Out. In fact, it’s more complicated than that.
Koffi (Marc Zinga) is a Congolese man living in Belgium and married to a white woman, Alice (Lucie Debay). They are about to have twins and Koffi feels that he cannot put it off any further: whatever his family will think, the couple must journey back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to let them see Alice and let them get used to the idea. It particularly means propitiating...
- 4/24/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Baloji and Emmanuelle Béart will oversee this year’s Golden Camera jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, organizers said on Tuesday.
Organizers said French actress Béart and director and songwriter Baloji will serve as president of the jury that selects the best first film from across the official selections of the film festival.
“Being a self-taught filmmaker and a filmmaker from the Congolese diaspora, it’s a great honor to be able to witness the vitality of first-time directors, to discover their strong singularities and their inaugural work, which will have a lasting impact on the identity of their filmography,” Baloji said in a statement.
Béart added in her own statement: “A first film is about the impossibility of doing anything other than delving into the depths of one’s being to find out what we can’t keep quiet about. A deeply moving and terribly free birth:...
Organizers said French actress Béart and director and songwriter Baloji will serve as president of the jury that selects the best first film from across the official selections of the film festival.
“Being a self-taught filmmaker and a filmmaker from the Congolese diaspora, it’s a great honor to be able to witness the vitality of first-time directors, to discover their strong singularities and their inaugural work, which will have a lasting impact on the identity of their filmography,” Baloji said in a statement.
Béart added in her own statement: “A first film is about the impossibility of doing anything other than delving into the depths of one’s being to find out what we can’t keep quiet about. A deeply moving and terribly free birth:...
- 4/16/2024
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
French actress Emmanuelle Béart and Belgian-Congolese director/songwriter Baloji will co-preside over the Caméra d’Or jury of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
The Caméra d’Or is awarded to the best first feature film in Cannes’ Official Selection, or in the parallel Critics Week or Directors’ Fortnight sections.
Béart’s long list of credits include 8 Women (2002), Mission: Impossible (1996), Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (1995), Heart In Winter (1992), La Belle Noiseuse (1991) and Manon Des Sources (1986).
Baloji won the New Voice Prize in Un Certain Regard last year for his debut feature Omen.
This year’s Caméra d’Or jury includes director of photography Gilles Porte,...
The Caméra d’Or is awarded to the best first feature film in Cannes’ Official Selection, or in the parallel Critics Week or Directors’ Fortnight sections.
Béart’s long list of credits include 8 Women (2002), Mission: Impossible (1996), Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (1995), Heart In Winter (1992), La Belle Noiseuse (1991) and Manon Des Sources (1986).
Baloji won the New Voice Prize in Un Certain Regard last year for his debut feature Omen.
This year’s Caméra d’Or jury includes director of photography Gilles Porte,...
- 4/16/2024
- ScreenDaily
Belgian rapper and filmmaker Baloji and French film actress Emmanuelle Béart have been announced as co-presidents of the Cannes Film Festival’s Caméra d’Or jury for the upcoming 77th edition, running from May 14 to 25.
The award for the best first film is open to all the debut feature films presented in Official Selection and the parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.
The Caméra d’Or Jury has been co-chaired three times before: by actress Françoise Fabian and director Daniel Schmid in 1996, by Marthe Keller and Géraldine Chaplin in 2002, and by brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne in 2006.
Announcing the pair today, the festival described Baloji and Béart as “free spirits with no limits, who rely on their art to achieve creative freedom.” Baloji is best known for his directorial debut Omen, which debuted at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it picked up the New Voice Prize in Un Certain Regard.
The award for the best first film is open to all the debut feature films presented in Official Selection and the parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.
The Caméra d’Or Jury has been co-chaired three times before: by actress Françoise Fabian and director Daniel Schmid in 1996, by Marthe Keller and Géraldine Chaplin in 2002, and by brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne in 2006.
Announcing the pair today, the festival described Baloji and Béart as “free spirits with no limits, who rely on their art to achieve creative freedom.” Baloji is best known for his directorial debut Omen, which debuted at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it picked up the New Voice Prize in Un Certain Regard.
- 4/16/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
When considering a film, it can be healthy to have some skepticism, no matter what genre or subject matter is at hand. With regards to Omen, we have a Belgian-Congolese co-production, a highly intriguing contradiction to consider between the colonizer and the colonized that is itself part of the film’s text. Seeing a bevy of Western names in the end credits didn’t do much to ease these concerns about playing into the assumptions of a, say, European festival audience. Yet Omen is a respectable work all the same, an assured first feature by rapper-turned-actor Baloji Tshiani that never falters in ambition or surprise.
Our main character is Koffi (Marc Zinga), introduced with his afro being trimmed by his pregnant fiance Alice (Lucie Debay) as we see the pressure of assimilation haunting him, even though the film largely excises whiteness outside of Alice (in what seems like a somewhat...
Our main character is Koffi (Marc Zinga), introduced with his afro being trimmed by his pregnant fiance Alice (Lucie Debay) as we see the pressure of assimilation haunting him, even though the film largely excises whiteness outside of Alice (in what seems like a somewhat...
- 4/12/2024
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage
The powerful forces of family and fable, old and new, intertwine and vie for supremacy in Belgian-Congolese director Baloji’s visually striking debut. A film that is all about showing us how slippery perspectives can be and which has no problem in blending the real and surreal with energetic verve, it unfolds in four interconnected parts, each from a specific character’s viewpoint.
Chief among them is Koffi (Mark Zinga), who is about to become a dad with his white Belgian fiancee Alice (Lucie Debay). The pair of them are planning a trip back to his Democratic Republic of Congo homeland in order to make peace with his family, who have previously labelled him “a sorcerer” due to a facial birthmark. Baloji captures the liminal situation many who have lived away from home for a long time will relate to. The sense of not fitting in either in the new place or.
Chief among them is Koffi (Mark Zinga), who is about to become a dad with his white Belgian fiancee Alice (Lucie Debay). The pair of them are planning a trip back to his Democratic Republic of Congo homeland in order to make peace with his family, who have previously labelled him “a sorcerer” due to a facial birthmark. Baloji captures the liminal situation many who have lived away from home for a long time will relate to. The sense of not fitting in either in the new place or.
- 4/11/2024
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Cannes Critics’ Week has unveiled the jury members for its upcoming 63rd edition, who join previously announced jury president Rodrigo Sorogoyen.
They are Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (Augure by Baloji, My New Friends, Haven of Grace), French producer Sylvie Pialat (Timbuktu, Staying Vertical, The Whistlers), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej (The Blue Caftan, Our Mothers, Casablanca Beats), and Canadian film critic and journalist Ben Croll.
The section, which is overseen by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, focuses on first and second features as well as shorts by emerging talents.
Sorogoyen and his jury will decide the winners of the Semaine de la Critique Grand Prize for best feature film, the French Touch Prize of the Jury, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for best actor and actress and the Leitz Ciné Discovery for best short film.
The traditionally compact selection of 11 features, seven in competition, and a competitive and non-competitive shorts line-up,...
They are Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (Augure by Baloji, My New Friends, Haven of Grace), French producer Sylvie Pialat (Timbuktu, Staying Vertical, The Whistlers), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej (The Blue Caftan, Our Mothers, Casablanca Beats), and Canadian film critic and journalist Ben Croll.
The section, which is overseen by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, focuses on first and second features as well as shorts by emerging talents.
Sorogoyen and his jury will decide the winners of the Semaine de la Critique Grand Prize for best feature film, the French Touch Prize of the Jury, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for best actor and actress and the Leitz Ciné Discovery for best short film.
The traditionally compact selection of 11 features, seven in competition, and a competitive and non-competitive shorts line-up,...
- 4/10/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
In Omen, one fractured family attempts to reconcile two irreconcilable yet inextricable realities, that of the Republic of the Congo and its one-time colonial possessor, Belgium. In his feature directorial debut, Belgian-Congolese rapper Baloji avoids romanticizing either, preferring to depict their uneasy relation as it manifests in family squabbles.
The film is broken up into four sections, each with their own mood and color palette, titled after the central characters: Koffi (Marc Zinga), Paco (Marcel Otete Kabeya), Tshala (Eliane Umuhire), and Mujila (Yves-Marina Gnahoua). These sections intersect one another, though Koffi remains the overall protagonist. Ostracized for a port-wine stain birthmark that his family sees as a sign of evil sorcery, he returns from Belgium to the Congo after many years, hoping to obtain his parents’ blessing to marry Alice (Lucie Debay), his white Belgian fiancée, who’s pregnant with twins. From the outset, nothing goes as planned.
Omen makes...
The film is broken up into four sections, each with their own mood and color palette, titled after the central characters: Koffi (Marc Zinga), Paco (Marcel Otete Kabeya), Tshala (Eliane Umuhire), and Mujila (Yves-Marina Gnahoua). These sections intersect one another, though Koffi remains the overall protagonist. Ostracized for a port-wine stain birthmark that his family sees as a sign of evil sorcery, he returns from Belgium to the Congo after many years, hoping to obtain his parents’ blessing to marry Alice (Lucie Debay), his white Belgian fiancée, who’s pregnant with twins. From the outset, nothing goes as planned.
Omen makes...
- 4/7/2024
- by William Repass
- Slant Magazine
The New Directors/New Films lineup boasts a slew of 2024 festival breakout features.
The annual festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, will take place from April 3 to April 14 at Film at Lincoln Center. Sundance premiere “A Different Man,” Berlinale best first feature winner “Cu Li Never Cries,” and Locarno Film Festival winner “A Good Place” are among this year’s standout titles.
The 53rd annual festival celebrates rising filmmakers who redefine the state of cinema. The 2024 lineup includes 25 features and 10 short films, including one world premiere. “A Different Man,” directed by Aaron Schimberg and co-starring Berlinale best actor winner Sebastian Stan, will open the festival April 3. Theda Hammel’s “Stress Positions,” which also premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, will close New Directors/New Films April 14. Both features were directed by New York City-based filmmakers.
“It just feels right for us to bookend...
The annual festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, will take place from April 3 to April 14 at Film at Lincoln Center. Sundance premiere “A Different Man,” Berlinale best first feature winner “Cu Li Never Cries,” and Locarno Film Festival winner “A Good Place” are among this year’s standout titles.
The 53rd annual festival celebrates rising filmmakers who redefine the state of cinema. The 2024 lineup includes 25 features and 10 short films, including one world premiere. “A Different Man,” directed by Aaron Schimberg and co-starring Berlinale best actor winner Sebastian Stan, will open the festival April 3. Theda Hammel’s “Stress Positions,” which also premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, will close New Directors/New Films April 14. Both features were directed by New York City-based filmmakers.
“It just feels right for us to bookend...
- 2/29/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Omen is the official submission from Belgium for the International Feature Oscar category and comes from multi-hyphenate interdisciplinary artist Baloji, who makes his feature directing debut. The film had its world premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section this year where it won the New Voice Prize, before going on to play myriad festivals. Utopia is the North American distributor.
Omen uses magical realism to examine the intricacies of identity, culture and belief systems. It kicks off with, and often returns to, the story of Koffi (Marc Zinga), a young Congolese man who has spent years living in Belgium. With his pregnant wife in tow, he returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa to confront his family and homeland culture. But secrecy and sorcery erupt when a nosebleed is mistaken for a curse.
His family includes independent spirit sister Tshala played by Eliane Umuhire, and mother Mama Mujila (Yves-Marina Gnahoua). Along...
Omen uses magical realism to examine the intricacies of identity, culture and belief systems. It kicks off with, and often returns to, the story of Koffi (Marc Zinga), a young Congolese man who has spent years living in Belgium. With his pregnant wife in tow, he returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa to confront his family and homeland culture. But secrecy and sorcery erupt when a nosebleed is mistaken for a curse.
His family includes independent spirit sister Tshala played by Eliane Umuhire, and mother Mama Mujila (Yves-Marina Gnahoua). Along...
- 12/9/2023
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Deadline’s Contenders Film: International award-season event launches Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. Pt, the latest in our series of showcases that this time turns the focus toward global cinema via discussions with the casts and creatives of 12 movies submitted by their countries for the 2024 Academy Awards’ International Feature race.
Click to sign up for and watch today’s livestream.
The 2023 Oscar ceremony was a triumph for international film. Going into the ceremony, Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front was a winner already, having earned a spectacular seven nominations. If that wasn’t enough, it came away with four statuettes: one for International Feature, and three for Cinematography, Music and Production Design. Clearly this can’t happen every year, but, like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite before it, Berger’s World War I epic proved that boundaries are being broken down, and international film, once synonymous with arthouse,...
Click to sign up for and watch today’s livestream.
The 2023 Oscar ceremony was a triumph for international film. Going into the ceremony, Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front was a winner already, having earned a spectacular seven nominations. If that wasn’t enough, it came away with four statuettes: one for International Feature, and three for Cinematography, Music and Production Design. Clearly this can’t happen every year, but, like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite before it, Berger’s World War I epic proved that boundaries are being broken down, and international film, once synonymous with arthouse,...
- 12/9/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
At first glance, “Omen” appears to be another entry in the long tradition of immigrant narratives dedicated to the old adage that you can’t go home again. Returning to the country of his birth, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belgian resident Koffi (Marc Zinga) finds himself not just a stranger in a strange land, but a pariah in his own family. But things are more nuanced than that in this hazy, head-turning first feature from Belgian-Congolese rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji: The deeper it delves into and across Koffi’s tortured family history, the clearer it becomes that his homeland was never a home to him at all. In “Omen,” cultural tradition is as much a force in dividing families as the gentrifying pull of the west, though Baloji lets viewers draw their own political conclusions amid a mist of vividly realized folklore.
A boldly outward-looking pick from Belgium as...
A boldly outward-looking pick from Belgium as...
- 12/8/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
he Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea Iff) marked the closing of its third edition with a screening of Micheal Mann's Ferrari, a Red Sea International Film Financing project, and revealed the winners of its highly anticipated Yusr Awards. The festival also welcomed Hollywood icon Nicolas Cage, receiving a Red Sea Honoree award, and joining the 2023 Honoree line-up of Diane Kruger, Ranveer Singh, and Abdullah Al-Sadhan. Kristoffer Borgli's comedy horror Dream Scenario, starring Nicolas Cage, will screen as the Final Festival Gala on Saturday 9th December.
Two juries deliberated to finally select winners across 14 categories; led by Jury President Baz Luhrmann. Seventeen films in competition, as well as 23 shorts, were in the running for the coveted awards.
The festival this year celebrated its biggest year yet in terms of attendance – welcoming almost 6,000 accredited guests and selling more than 40,000 tickets across all screenings and In Conversations.
The Closing Ceremony...
Two juries deliberated to finally select winners across 14 categories; led by Jury President Baz Luhrmann. Seventeen films in competition, as well as 23 shorts, were in the running for the coveted awards.
The festival this year celebrated its biggest year yet in terms of attendance – welcoming almost 6,000 accredited guests and selling more than 40,000 tickets across all screenings and In Conversations.
The Closing Ceremony...
- 12/8/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Oscar winner Nicholas Cage received a Red Sea Honouree award
Zarrar Kahn’s Karachi-set thriller In Flames won the $100,000 Golden Yusr award for best feature film at the 2023 Red Sea International Film Festival, which announced its winners on Thursday evening (December 7).
A Canada-Pakistan co-production and Pakistan’s entry to the Oscars, In Flames is the story of a mother and daughter trying to survive after losing the family patriarch. It world premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
Indian production Dear Jassi, directed by Tarsem Singh, won the $30,000 Silver Yusr. Based on the true story of an Indian couple who fell foul of the class system,...
Zarrar Kahn’s Karachi-set thriller In Flames won the $100,000 Golden Yusr award for best feature film at the 2023 Red Sea International Film Festival, which announced its winners on Thursday evening (December 7).
A Canada-Pakistan co-production and Pakistan’s entry to the Oscars, In Flames is the story of a mother and daughter trying to survive after losing the family patriarch. It world premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
Indian production Dear Jassi, directed by Tarsem Singh, won the $30,000 Silver Yusr. Based on the true story of an Indian couple who fell foul of the class system,...
- 12/8/2023
- by Mona Sheded
- ScreenDaily
The third annual Red Sea Film Festival handed out its Yusr Awards on Thursday night, with Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames taking Best Feature and Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher scoring a pair of wins including Best Actor for Saleh Bakri. See the full list below.
Elvis director and two-time Oscar nominee Baz Luhrmann headed the Rea Sea jury, which handed out awards in 17 categories.
The Saudi Arabian fest also gave a Red Sea Honorary Award to Nicolas Cage. The Oscar winner, whose Dream Scenario will close the festival on December 9, joined fellow 2023 honorees Diane Kruger, Ranveer Singh and Abdullah Al-Sadhan.
“Over the past eight days, we have welcomed the world to Jeddah and celebrated this vibrant global film community together – with a goal of bridging cultures and creating new ties,” said Jomana Al-Rashid, Chairwoman of the Red Sea Film Foundation. “We’ve done that with over 125 films from Saudi Arabia,...
Elvis director and two-time Oscar nominee Baz Luhrmann headed the Rea Sea jury, which handed out awards in 17 categories.
The Saudi Arabian fest also gave a Red Sea Honorary Award to Nicolas Cage. The Oscar winner, whose Dream Scenario will close the festival on December 9, joined fellow 2023 honorees Diane Kruger, Ranveer Singh and Abdullah Al-Sadhan.
“Over the past eight days, we have welcomed the world to Jeddah and celebrated this vibrant global film community together – with a goal of bridging cultures and creating new ties,” said Jomana Al-Rashid, Chairwoman of the Red Sea Film Foundation. “We’ve done that with over 125 films from Saudi Arabia,...
- 12/7/2023
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
At the closing ceremony of the 3rd edition of the Red Sea Film Festival Thursday, which took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in front of an audience that included Hollywood stars Nicolas Cage, Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Jason Statham and Adrien Brody, the Golden Yusr for best film and a $100,000 cash prize went to Pakistani-Canadian horror film “In Flames,” directed by Zarrar Kahn.
The director said that the indie movie was shot for “just $300,000 — the size of a Red Sea Fund production grant.” He urged “everyone who gets a grant to go make a movie, because this was made for nothing.”
The Silver Yusr prize for best feature film went to Tarsem Singh for “Dear Jassi.” The film, an India/Canada/U.S. co-production, is based on the true story of a Canadian Punjabi woman who ran afoul of her family’s expectations when she chose to marry a working-class...
The director said that the indie movie was shot for “just $300,000 — the size of a Red Sea Fund production grant.” He urged “everyone who gets a grant to go make a movie, because this was made for nothing.”
The Silver Yusr prize for best feature film went to Tarsem Singh for “Dear Jassi.” The film, an India/Canada/U.S. co-production, is based on the true story of a Canadian Punjabi woman who ran afoul of her family’s expectations when she chose to marry a working-class...
- 12/7/2023
- by Nick Holdsworth
- Variety Film + TV
Zarrar Khan’s In Flames has picked up the Yusr Award for best competition film at the third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The festival, which attracted such Hollywood stars as Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Chris Hemsworth and Sharon Stone, on Thursday evening unveiled the winners of its Red Sea competition honors, the so-called Yusr awards, as well as other prizes.
Khan’s Pakistani-Canadian horror pic that bowed in Cannes portrays a mother and daughter having to navigate loss, oppression and vulnerability after the death of the family patriarch. The debut feature is rendered as a ghost story as they must find strength in each other if they are to survive the malevolent forces that threaten to engulf them.
The Silver Yusr award for best feature went to Tarsem Singh’s modern day tragic drama Dear Jassi, which bowed in Toronto, where it won the 2023 Platform Prize.
The festival, which attracted such Hollywood stars as Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Chris Hemsworth and Sharon Stone, on Thursday evening unveiled the winners of its Red Sea competition honors, the so-called Yusr awards, as well as other prizes.
Khan’s Pakistani-Canadian horror pic that bowed in Cannes portrays a mother and daughter having to navigate loss, oppression and vulnerability after the death of the family patriarch. The debut feature is rendered as a ghost story as they must find strength in each other if they are to survive the malevolent forces that threaten to engulf them.
The Silver Yusr award for best feature went to Tarsem Singh’s modern day tragic drama Dear Jassi, which bowed in Toronto, where it won the 2023 Platform Prize.
- 12/7/2023
- by Georg Szalai and Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival, taking place in Jeddah between Nov. 30 – Dec. 9, will be the culmination of a highly successful funding cycle for the Red Sea Film Foundation. Created in 2019 following the lifting of Saudi Arabia’s 30-year cinema ban, the foundation aims to support the local and regional film industry through the organizing and championing of the festival, plus a focus on education and grants.
In 2021, the foundation launched the Red Sea Fund, a financing arm focused on supporting emerging filmmakers and established directors from the Arab world and Africa. Grants were distributed between projects in development, production and post-production. The fund supported 94 projects in the first year and over 250 films in the two years since, including films by acclaimed filmmakers such as Abderrahmane Sissako, Haifaa Al-Mansour and Kaouther Ben Hania.
The impact of the fund was felt throughout the biggest festivals in the world...
In 2021, the foundation launched the Red Sea Fund, a financing arm focused on supporting emerging filmmakers and established directors from the Arab world and Africa. Grants were distributed between projects in development, production and post-production. The fund supported 94 projects in the first year and over 250 films in the two years since, including films by acclaimed filmmakers such as Abderrahmane Sissako, Haifaa Al-Mansour and Kaouther Ben Hania.
The impact of the fund was felt throughout the biggest festivals in the world...
- 12/1/2023
- by Rafa Sales Ross
- Variety Film + TV
Belgian Oscar Entry ‘Omen’ Opens In France, Director Baloji Releases Soundtrack Inspired By Film
Filmmaker-musician Baloji has released a five-track EP with McA Records (under Universal Music Group) in support of the French release of his feature Omen. The film, set primarily in the Congo, is a braided narrative of four main characters, who are all accused of witchcraft or sorcery and must contend with the social implications of this denouncement. Baloji has said the soundtrack “is a complementary backstory of the characters and a musical piece in its own right.” The EP contains the tracks ‘La Tâche,’ ‘Arcade (Feat Swazzi),’ and ‘Auto Psy (Feat Chrystel),’ along with ‘Matrone (feat. Maya Andrade).’ Baloji is represented by UTA (U.S.) and As Talents (France).
Ellie Kemper To Narrate Audiobook Edition Of Katherine Center’s ‘Happiness For Beginners’
Exclusive: Ellie Kemper has signed on to...
Filmmaker-musician Baloji has released a five-track EP with McA Records (under Universal Music Group) in support of the French release of his feature Omen. The film, set primarily in the Congo, is a braided narrative of four main characters, who are all accused of witchcraft or sorcery and must contend with the social implications of this denouncement. Baloji has said the soundtrack “is a complementary backstory of the characters and a musical piece in its own right.” The EP contains the tracks ‘La Tâche,’ ‘Arcade (Feat Swazzi),’ and ‘Auto Psy (Feat Chrystel),’ along with ‘Matrone (feat. Maya Andrade).’ Baloji is represented by UTA (U.S.) and As Talents (France).
Ellie Kemper To Narrate Audiobook Edition Of Katherine Center’s ‘Happiness For Beginners’
Exclusive: Ellie Kemper has signed on to...
- 11/30/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Fund to invest a total of €360,000 in latest funding of financing
The Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund (Wcf) is to provide a total of €360,000 in funding for 14 international projects.
In its latest funding round, the Wcf has recommended production funding for 11 projects and distribution grants for three films.
The 14 independent projects hail from Argentina, Chile, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Republic of Belarus, Rwanda, Senegal and Thailand.
The production funding recipients include Demba by Senegalese writer-director Mamadou Dia, whose feature debut Nafi’s Father won the best first feature prize Locarno in...
The Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund (Wcf) is to provide a total of €360,000 in funding for 14 international projects.
In its latest funding round, the Wcf has recommended production funding for 11 projects and distribution grants for three films.
The 14 independent projects hail from Argentina, Chile, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Republic of Belarus, Rwanda, Senegal and Thailand.
The production funding recipients include Demba by Senegalese writer-director Mamadou Dia, whose feature debut Nafi’s Father won the best first feature prize Locarno in...
- 11/24/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
"Here they tell you to do something, and you do it." Utopia has unveiled the first trailer for an atmospheric thriller from Africa titled Omen, the feature directorial debut of the artist / filmmaker known as "Baloji". This premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year as one of the most unique discoveries from the fest. It's also now Belgium's submission to the 2024 Academy Awards. "Zabolo. It means the mark of the Devil." After years in Belgium, a young Congolese man comes back to his hometown of Kinshasa to face the complexities of his family and his culture. Omen is an ensemble film about people accused of being witches & sorcerers. Despite their misfortune they find the way to guide each other away from their destinies and into the phantasmagoria of Africa. Starring Marc Zinga, Lucie Debay, Eliane Umuhire, Yves-Marina Gnahoua, and Marcel Otete Kabeya. This trailer plays like a full-on horror movie,...
- 11/10/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
How does belief change a person’s destiny? The new film “Omen” tackles the complicated topic through several stories — a man who returns to his birthplace to confront family prejudices and four people suspected of witchcraft. This intriguing project premiered in 2023 as part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section. The film went on to win the coveted New Voice prize there before being chosen as Belgium’s Oscar entry for Best International Film.
Continue reading ‘Omen’ Trailer: Witchcraft & Buried Traumas Come To Life In Filmmaker Baloji’s Striking, Upcoming 2024 Drama at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Omen’ Trailer: Witchcraft & Buried Traumas Come To Life In Filmmaker Baloji’s Striking, Upcoming 2024 Drama at The Playlist.
- 11/9/2023
- by Valerie Thompson
- The Playlist
The submissions for this year’s Oscar for best international feature include some of the best of world cinema. Below is a rundown of the entries for the 96th Academy Awards. The 15-title shortlist is slated to arrive on Dec. 21, prior to the nominations announcement on Jan. 23 and the ceremony itself, which is dated for March 10.
Albania
Alexander
Director: Ardit Sadiku
Logline: A documentary about an engineer who, after being fired by the navy for dissidence, hijacked a warship to get himself an dhis family to freedom.
Prodco: Ardit Sadiku Film
Argentina
The Delinquents
Director: Rodrigo Moreno
Logline: A ticklish, gently surreal saga following two colleagues who collude in robbing the bank where they work.
U.S. distribution: Mubi
Armenia
Amerikatsi
Director: Michael A. Goorjian
Logline: An Armenian-American relocates to Armenia after WWII and ends up in a Soviet prison for the crime of wearing a tie.
U.S.
Albania
Alexander
Director: Ardit Sadiku
Logline: A documentary about an engineer who, after being fired by the navy for dissidence, hijacked a warship to get himself an dhis family to freedom.
Prodco: Ardit Sadiku Film
Argentina
The Delinquents
Director: Rodrigo Moreno
Logline: A ticklish, gently surreal saga following two colleagues who collude in robbing the bank where they work.
U.S. distribution: Mubi
Armenia
Amerikatsi
Director: Michael A. Goorjian
Logline: An Armenian-American relocates to Armenia after WWII and ends up in a Soviet prison for the crime of wearing a tie.
U.S.
- 11/7/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Tunisian Youssef Chebbi’s “Plague,” Moroccan Adnane Baraka’s “We Don’t Forget” and Meryam Joobeur’s “Motherhood” feature among buzz titles at this year’s Marrakech Festival Atlas Workshops, which will have Martin Scorsese as their official patron.
Consolidated as a key platform for Moroccan, Arab and African projects and pix in production made by a new generation of filmmakers and created by Marrakech Festival artistic director Remi Bonhomme, the Atlas Workshops unspool Nov. 27-30. They take place alongside the 20th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival, which runs from Nov. 24-Dec. 2.
In a definite potential highlight of the Atlas Workshops, Meryjam Joubeur, whose “Brotherhood” was Oscar nominated for best live action short, will present 10 minutes of “Motherhood,” one of the awaited feature debuts of 2023. It is sure to spark major festival interest.
“Plague” marks Chebbi’s second feature after acclaimed Cannes Directors’ Fortnight genre blender “Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation,...
Consolidated as a key platform for Moroccan, Arab and African projects and pix in production made by a new generation of filmmakers and created by Marrakech Festival artistic director Remi Bonhomme, the Atlas Workshops unspool Nov. 27-30. They take place alongside the 20th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival, which runs from Nov. 24-Dec. 2.
In a definite potential highlight of the Atlas Workshops, Meryjam Joubeur, whose “Brotherhood” was Oscar nominated for best live action short, will present 10 minutes of “Motherhood,” one of the awaited feature debuts of 2023. It is sure to spark major festival interest.
“Plague” marks Chebbi’s second feature after acclaimed Cannes Directors’ Fortnight genre blender “Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation,...
- 11/3/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar voters in the Best International Feature Film category have received their group assignments for this year’s initial round of voting, with 89 films included on the seven lists that the Academy has sent to members.
The lists, which were obtained by TheWrap, include presumed favorites “The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom), “The Taste of Things” (France), “The Promised Land” (Denmark) and “Perfect Days” (Japan), along with a number of documentaries, among them Estonia’s “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” Brazil’s “Pictures of Ghosts” and Ukraine’s “20 Days in Mariupol.”
The 89 films are four short of the record of 93 qualifying films in the category. The list of group assignments does not make up the Academy’s official list of eligible films; it’s possible that assigned films might still fail to qualify before first-round voting begins on Dec. 18. For the most part, though, films that are included in the group...
The lists, which were obtained by TheWrap, include presumed favorites “The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom), “The Taste of Things” (France), “The Promised Land” (Denmark) and “Perfect Days” (Japan), along with a number of documentaries, among them Estonia’s “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” Brazil’s “Pictures of Ghosts” and Ukraine’s “20 Days in Mariupol.”
The 89 films are four short of the record of 93 qualifying films in the category. The list of group assignments does not make up the Academy’s official list of eligible films; it’s possible that assigned films might still fail to qualify before first-round voting begins on Dec. 18. For the most part, though, films that are included in the group...
- 10/31/2023
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Exclusive: United Talent Agency (UTA) has signed up Belgium’s buzzy rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji.
Baloji, who made his directorial debut earlier this year with Omen, has signed with UTA for representation in all areas and will continue to be represented by Juanita Fellag at As Talents.
Omen debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it picked up the New Voice Prize in Un Certain Regard. The pic has also secured 13 nominations from the African Movie Academy Awards, the highest number of nominations from Amaa this year.
Described as a “magical-realist drama” and set in Baloji’s native Congo, the film follows Koffi, a young Congolese man who — after spending years living in Belgium — returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa to confront the intricacies of his family and culture.
A Belgian-Dutch-Congolese-French-South African co-production, Omen stars Marc Zinga, best known for his work with the Dardenne brothers alongside Lucie Debay, Eliane Umuhire,...
Baloji, who made his directorial debut earlier this year with Omen, has signed with UTA for representation in all areas and will continue to be represented by Juanita Fellag at As Talents.
Omen debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it picked up the New Voice Prize in Un Certain Regard. The pic has also secured 13 nominations from the African Movie Academy Awards, the highest number of nominations from Amaa this year.
Described as a “magical-realist drama” and set in Baloji’s native Congo, the film follows Koffi, a young Congolese man who — after spending years living in Belgium — returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa to confront the intricacies of his family and culture.
A Belgian-Dutch-Congolese-French-South African co-production, Omen stars Marc Zinga, best known for his work with the Dardenne brothers alongside Lucie Debay, Eliane Umuhire,...
- 10/24/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Memento International has scored further deals on “Omen,” the feature debut of artist and musician turned director Baloji. The film world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, where it won the New Voice Award, and was acquired by Utopia for North America.
“Omen” follows Koffie, who after spending years in Belgium, returns home to the Congo to find himself confronted by his past and culture at a family event. Koffie visits his birthplace after being mysteriously ostracized by his family and spending years abroad in Europe. With his soon-to-be wife and unborn child in tow, Koffie’s arrival sets in motion a sprawling, nightmarish and psychedelic fairy tale about ancestry, belief, wrestling, witchcraft and sorcery in Africa today.
The movie was acquired for France (Pan Distribution), Italy (I Wonder), Spain (Filmin), Germany and Austria (Grandfilm), the U.K. (Aya Films), Switzerland (Outside the Box) and Eastern Europe (HBO). The movie...
“Omen” follows Koffie, who after spending years in Belgium, returns home to the Congo to find himself confronted by his past and culture at a family event. Koffie visits his birthplace after being mysteriously ostracized by his family and spending years abroad in Europe. With his soon-to-be wife and unborn child in tow, Koffie’s arrival sets in motion a sprawling, nightmarish and psychedelic fairy tale about ancestry, belief, wrestling, witchcraft and sorcery in Africa today.
The movie was acquired for France (Pan Distribution), Italy (I Wonder), Spain (Filmin), Germany and Austria (Grandfilm), the U.K. (Aya Films), Switzerland (Outside the Box) and Eastern Europe (HBO). The movie...
- 10/9/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
China’s Pingyao International Film Festival has announced the line-up for its seventh edition (October 11-18), which will open with Wei Shujun’s Only The River Flows and close with the world premiere of Fei Yu’s Football On The Roof.
Wei’s 1990s-set noir thriller, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at this year’s Cannes film festival, is also one of 11 titles competing in Pingyao’s Hidden Dragons competition for emerging Chinese filmmakers. Football On The Roof tells the story of a female soccer team fighting against the odds in the remote mountains of Yunnan province.
The Hidden Dragons line-up also includes Geng Zihan’s A Song Sung Blue, which premiered in Cannes Directors Fortnight, along with world premieres including Hao Feihuan’s Records Without Words, Li Binbin’s The Night Rain South Township and Yang Pingdao’s A Romantic Fragment (see full line-up below).
Pingyao has also...
Wei’s 1990s-set noir thriller, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at this year’s Cannes film festival, is also one of 11 titles competing in Pingyao’s Hidden Dragons competition for emerging Chinese filmmakers. Football On The Roof tells the story of a female soccer team fighting against the odds in the remote mountains of Yunnan province.
The Hidden Dragons line-up also includes Geng Zihan’s A Song Sung Blue, which premiered in Cannes Directors Fortnight, along with world premieres including Hao Feihuan’s Records Without Words, Li Binbin’s The Night Rain South Township and Yang Pingdao’s A Romantic Fragment (see full line-up below).
Pingyao has also...
- 10/8/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
2023 Wallonia-Brussels: Woodworth, Lafosse, Guit Bros., Baloji, Mitevska & Laura Wandel Receive Coin
The folks at the Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles folks are throwing some coin support towards 27 fiction feature films. We find several top Belgian filmmakers setting up projects for 2024 shoots and for probable 2025 playdates. At the top of the list we find sophomore features from the likes of Harpo and Lenny Guit (Sundance preemed Mother Schmuckers (2021) and Laura Wandel (Cannes Un Certain Regard breakout Playground) joining established vets such as Jessica Woodworth (who is now working on L’Incubatrice), Joachim Lafosse (who is setting up Les Petits Voleurs for a Spring 2024 shoot) and Baloji (an Un Certain Regard winner this year) who is already moving into his sophomore feature.…...
- 10/3/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees for Best International Feature is made difficult by the three-step process that begins after the October 2, 2023 deadline for countries to submit entries. To be part of the selection process for this category, which was called Best Foreign Language Film before 2020, requires a great deal of dedication. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2024 Oscars Best International Feature predictions.)
In the days following the deadline for submissions, the academy determines each film’s eligibility. Then the several hundred academy members who serve on the International Feature screening committee are divided into groups and required to watch all their submissions over a six-week period that ends in early December. Their top 15 vote-getters will make it to the next round. That list of semi-finalists will be revealed on December 21, 2023.
These 15 films will be made available to the entire academy membership who can cast ballots for the final five...
In the days following the deadline for submissions, the academy determines each film’s eligibility. Then the several hundred academy members who serve on the International Feature screening committee are divided into groups and required to watch all their submissions over a six-week period that ends in early December. Their top 15 vote-getters will make it to the next round. That list of semi-finalists will be revealed on December 21, 2023.
These 15 films will be made available to the entire academy membership who can cast ballots for the final five...
- 9/25/2023
- by Paul Sheehan and Jacob Sarkisian
- Gold Derby
The Oscars Best International Feature Film race landed two major frontrunners on the same day on Thursday, with the United Kingdom submitting Jonathan Glazer’s chilling World War II drama “The Zone of Interest” and France following with Tran Anh Hung’s rapturous “The Taste of Things” in the one-film-per-country competition.
“The Zone of Interest,” set among German families who live on the outskirts of Auschwitz, won the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and won raves as one of the most original and unnerving films to deal with the Holocaust since “Son of Saul,” which won the Oscar in this category eight years ago. It was considered the obvious choice for the U.K. to submit.
France, on the other hand, had an extremely difficult choice between Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall,” starring Sandra Huller as a woman on trial for murdering her husband,...
“The Zone of Interest,” set among German families who live on the outskirts of Auschwitz, won the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and won raves as one of the most original and unnerving films to deal with the Holocaust since “Son of Saul,” which won the Oscar in this category eight years ago. It was considered the obvious choice for the U.K. to submit.
France, on the other hand, had an extremely difficult choice between Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall,” starring Sandra Huller as a woman on trial for murdering her husband,...
- 9/21/2023
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Belgium has picked Omen, the first feature from rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji to be its official entry for the 2024 Oscars in the best international feature category.
The magical realist drama follows Koffi (Marc Zinga), a young Congolese man who, after years of living in Belgium, returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa hoping to reconnect with his family. Koffi was born with a large Rorschach-esque birthmark that frightened his mother, Mujila (Yves-Marina Gnahoua), who labeled him a sorcerer and banished him to Europe. Over the course of the film, Baloji intertwines four stories of people ostracized by their communities and navigating accusations of witchcraft and sorcery. Lucie Debay, Eliane Umuhire and Marcel Otete Kabeya co-star.
A Belgian-Dutch-Congolese-French-South African co-production, Omen premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, where it won Baloji the New Vision Award. In her review, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Lovia Gyarkye called the film “an artful and intriguing take on the African diasporic experience.
The magical realist drama follows Koffi (Marc Zinga), a young Congolese man who, after years of living in Belgium, returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa hoping to reconnect with his family. Koffi was born with a large Rorschach-esque birthmark that frightened his mother, Mujila (Yves-Marina Gnahoua), who labeled him a sorcerer and banished him to Europe. Over the course of the film, Baloji intertwines four stories of people ostracized by their communities and navigating accusations of witchcraft and sorcery. Lucie Debay, Eliane Umuhire and Marcel Otete Kabeya co-star.
A Belgian-Dutch-Congolese-French-South African co-production, Omen premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, where it won Baloji the New Vision Award. In her review, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Lovia Gyarkye called the film “an artful and intriguing take on the African diasporic experience.
- 9/14/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Belgium has selected Omen, the debut feature from rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji, as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars.
The pic, which debuted in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes 2023, follows Koffi, a young Congolese man who — after spending years living in Belgium — returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa to confront the intricacies of his family and culture.
A Belgian-Dutch-Congolese-French-South African co-production, Omen picked up the New Vision Award at Cannes. Starring is Marc Zinga, best known for his work with the Dardenne brothers alongside Lucie Debay, Eliane Umuhire, Yves-Marina Gnahoua, and Marcel Otete Kabeya.
The film is set for a theatrical release in Belgium on November 15. Pan Distribution is the French distributor, while Memento International is handling world sales. Production companies are Special Touch Studios, Wrong Men, New Amsterdam Film Company, Tosala Films, RadicalMedia, Serendipity Films, and Big World Cinema.
Belgium’s Oscar pick...
The pic, which debuted in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes 2023, follows Koffi, a young Congolese man who — after spending years living in Belgium — returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa to confront the intricacies of his family and culture.
A Belgian-Dutch-Congolese-French-South African co-production, Omen picked up the New Vision Award at Cannes. Starring is Marc Zinga, best known for his work with the Dardenne brothers alongside Lucie Debay, Eliane Umuhire, Yves-Marina Gnahoua, and Marcel Otete Kabeya.
The film is set for a theatrical release in Belgium on November 15. Pan Distribution is the French distributor, while Memento International is handling world sales. Production companies are Special Touch Studios, Wrong Men, New Amsterdam Film Company, Tosala Films, RadicalMedia, Serendipity Films, and Big World Cinema.
Belgium’s Oscar pick...
- 9/14/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Tana Gilbert’s ‘Malqueridas’ the other key winner.
Luna Carmoon’s debut feature Hoard led the winners of the 38th Venice Critics’ Week, taking three prizes including the audience award.
The UK film, about a young girl living with her hoarder mother who then reconsiders her youth when a teenager, also won the prize for most innovative film. Lead actress Saura Lightfoot Leon shared a special mention for the grand prize with actress Ariane Labed for The Vourdalak.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The main grand prize went to Tana Gilbert’s Malqueridas, selected by a jury of Belgian musician Baloji,...
Luna Carmoon’s debut feature Hoard led the winners of the 38th Venice Critics’ Week, taking three prizes including the audience award.
The UK film, about a young girl living with her hoarder mother who then reconsiders her youth when a teenager, also won the prize for most innovative film. Lead actress Saura Lightfoot Leon shared a special mention for the grand prize with actress Ariane Labed for The Vourdalak.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The main grand prize went to Tana Gilbert’s Malqueridas, selected by a jury of Belgian musician Baloji,...
- 9/8/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Memento International and Anonymous Content have boarded “Woman Of,” a bold Venice competition entry written and directed by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert. The film is a pioneering trans drama set in against the landscape of the Polish transformation from communism to capitalism.
“Woman Of” stars Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik as Aniela Wesoły, who lived more than half of her adult life in a provincial Polish town as a man. “Woman Of…” spans 45 years of the life of Aniela as she aspires to find personal liberty as a trans woman and faces hardships in marriage and parenthood, strained family relations and complicated attitudes in her environment.
“‘Woman Of’ is the result of many years of work, a film that tells a story of a mature trans woman living in Poland, who does not fit the social norms of a traditional family,” said Szumowska and Englert, who have been working on movies together for over 20 years.
“Woman Of” stars Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik as Aniela Wesoły, who lived more than half of her adult life in a provincial Polish town as a man. “Woman Of…” spans 45 years of the life of Aniela as she aspires to find personal liberty as a trans woman and faces hardships in marriage and parenthood, strained family relations and complicated attitudes in her environment.
“‘Woman Of’ is the result of many years of work, a film that tells a story of a mature trans woman living in Poland, who does not fit the social norms of a traditional family,” said Szumowska and Englert, who have been working on movies together for over 20 years.
- 8/25/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Memento International has acquired international sales rights to Nora El Hourch’s debut feature “Sisterhood” (“Hlm Pussy”) ahead of its world premiere at Toronto. The timely film will play in the competitive Platform section.
“Sisterhood” follows three inseparable teenagers who face a public outcry after posting a video that exposes someone who attacked them. Faced with threats, they must choose between deleting the video or continuing to fight.
“Sisterhood” boasts a cast of newcomers, including Léah Aubert, Médina Diarra and Salma Takaline, as well as Bérénice Bejo, the Cannes and Cesar award-winning of “The Past” and “The Artist.” Philippe Gompel is producing for Manny Films and La Prod in Morocco is co-producing. Paname Distribution will be handling French distribution.
“Nora El Hourch’s energetic debut feature boldly puts the spotlight on the way sexual harassment is dealt with in the French projects,” said Memento Intl. The company said “Sisterhood” deftly addresses social discrepancies.
“Sisterhood” follows three inseparable teenagers who face a public outcry after posting a video that exposes someone who attacked them. Faced with threats, they must choose between deleting the video or continuing to fight.
“Sisterhood” boasts a cast of newcomers, including Léah Aubert, Médina Diarra and Salma Takaline, as well as Bérénice Bejo, the Cannes and Cesar award-winning of “The Past” and “The Artist.” Philippe Gompel is producing for Manny Films and La Prod in Morocco is co-producing. Paname Distribution will be handling French distribution.
“Nora El Hourch’s energetic debut feature boldly puts the spotlight on the way sexual harassment is dealt with in the French projects,” said Memento Intl. The company said “Sisterhood” deftly addresses social discrepancies.
- 8/22/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety 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
Cannes may get all the attention, but France’s summer film festivals are essential launchpads for local features ready to hit the international market. Here are the ones to look out for.
In August of 2011, a little French film about the bond between a wealthy quadriplegic and his fun-loving caretaker premiered at a festival in a small Southwestern town in France.
Now in its 16th edition, The Angouleme Francophone Film Festival was the first stop for global sensation The Intouchables, which went on to gross more than $445m at the box office worldwide and even get its own US remake...
In August of 2011, a little French film about the bond between a wealthy quadriplegic and his fun-loving caretaker premiered at a festival in a small Southwestern town in France.
Now in its 16th edition, The Angouleme Francophone Film Festival was the first stop for global sensation The Intouchables, which went on to gross more than $445m at the box office worldwide and even get its own US remake...
- 8/9/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
This year’s Un Certain Regard selection was a pretty sturdy class and the jury comprised of John C. Reilly, Alice Winocour, Paula Beer, Davy Chou and Émilie Dequenne made some excellent palmares decisions here. One of the most unforgettable award ceremonies in recent time due to the winner being “on her way back”, the charismatic John C. Reilly charmed the audience.
Un Certain Regard Prize
How To Have Sex directed by Molly Manning Walker
New Voice Prize
Augure (Omen) directed by Baloji
Ensemble Prize
CROWRÃ (The Buriti Flower) directed by João Salaviza & Renée Nader Messora
Freedom Prize
Goodbye Julia directed by Mohamed Kordofani
Directing Prize
Asmae El Moudir in Kadib Abyad (The Mother Of All Lies)
Jury’s Prize
Les Meutes (Hounds) directed by Kamal Lazraq
…...
Un Certain Regard Prize
How To Have Sex directed by Molly Manning Walker
New Voice Prize
Augure (Omen) directed by Baloji
Ensemble Prize
CROWRÃ (The Buriti Flower) directed by João Salaviza & Renée Nader Messora
Freedom Prize
Goodbye Julia directed by Mohamed Kordofani
Directing Prize
Asmae El Moudir in Kadib Abyad (The Mother Of All Lies)
Jury’s Prize
Les Meutes (Hounds) directed by Kamal Lazraq
…...
- 7/24/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSConann.The lineup for the 76th Locarno Film Festival is now online, and it includes new films from Radu Jude, Eduardo Williams, Bertrand Mandico (a feature and two shorts), Leonor Teles, Lav Diaz, and Denis Côté, plus many more. The festival runs from August 2 through 12.Following Barbie, which releases later this month, Greta Gerwig will next direct two Chronicles of Narnia adaptations for Netflix. This news comes as a side detail in a wide-reaching New Yorker piece on Mattel Films by Alex Barasch, which details the toy company’s plans to develop more than 45 films using its properties, including a Hot Wheels film by J.J. Abrams and a Daniel Kaluuya-led, "surrealistic" reboot of the children's show Barney.REMEMBERINGThe great comic actor Alan Arkin died last week at age 89. For the New York Times,...
- 7/5/2023
- MUBI
The festival closed on July 1.
Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s experimental mix of documentary and fiction Four Daughters won the main €50,000 Arri award for best international film in the CineMasters competition at Filmfest München on July 1.
The film’s German co-producer Thanassis Karathanos of Berlin-based Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion quipped he had written so many cheques to Arri in the past and it was nice to be having one now coming in the other direction, when accepting the award at the festival’s closing ceremony,
Four Daughters is the second collaboration between Karathanos and Martin Hampel’s Twenty Twenty...
Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s experimental mix of documentary and fiction Four Daughters won the main €50,000 Arri award for best international film in the CineMasters competition at Filmfest München on July 1.
The film’s German co-producer Thanassis Karathanos of Berlin-based Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion quipped he had written so many cheques to Arri in the past and it was nice to be having one now coming in the other direction, when accepting the award at the festival’s closing ceremony,
Four Daughters is the second collaboration between Karathanos and Martin Hampel’s Twenty Twenty...
- 7/3/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Belgian rapper and director Baloji is poised to make his feature directorial film ‘Omen’, a supernatural folk-drama. The movie is derived from his personal experiences as a Congolese-born European and deals with the complexities and emotions that come with inheriting two cultures, one of both his birth and the other of adopted homeland.
Witchcraft and magic are the centerpieces of the film.
Speaking to ‘The Hollywood Reporter’, Baloji said: “My name, Baloji, means ‘sorcerer’ in Swahili, which is a difficult name to live with. It’s like being an American named ‘devil’.”
“I did a lot of reading about witchcraft and the culture of witches in different societies. The origin of my name, actually, had meant man of science or woman of science. A healer might be the best translation in English,” he added.
He continued: “But when Christianity and the colonizers came, they gave the local science negative connotations,...
Witchcraft and magic are the centerpieces of the film.
Speaking to ‘The Hollywood Reporter’, Baloji said: “My name, Baloji, means ‘sorcerer’ in Swahili, which is a difficult name to live with. It’s like being an American named ‘devil’.”
“I did a lot of reading about witchcraft and the culture of witches in different societies. The origin of my name, actually, had meant man of science or woman of science. A healer might be the best translation in English,” he added.
He continued: “But when Christianity and the colonizers came, they gave the local science negative connotations,...
- 7/2/2023
- by Agency News Desk
- GlamSham
Kaouther Ben Hania’s heartbreaking Tunisian documentary Four Daughters has taken the top prize of best international film at the 2023 Munich International Film Festival.
The film tells the story of Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian mother whose two eldest daughters left the country to join the Islamic State in Libya, never to be seen again. In her exploration of Hamrouni’s story, Ben Hania hires two actors to play Olfa’s missing daughters. The docu-drama hybrid premiered in Cannes, where it won the Golden Eye for best documentary (shared with Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies).
Another hybrid feature from Cannes, The Buriti Flower, took Munich’s CineVision Award for best international emerging director for helmers João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora. The film, made in close collaboration with the Krahô people of Brazil, is a fusion of ethnography and poetic narrative, exploring the group’s tribal memories.
The film tells the story of Olfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian mother whose two eldest daughters left the country to join the Islamic State in Libya, never to be seen again. In her exploration of Hamrouni’s story, Ben Hania hires two actors to play Olfa’s missing daughters. The docu-drama hybrid premiered in Cannes, where it won the Golden Eye for best documentary (shared with Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies).
Another hybrid feature from Cannes, The Buriti Flower, took Munich’s CineVision Award for best international emerging director for helmers João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora. The film, made in close collaboration with the Krahô people of Brazil, is a fusion of ethnography and poetic narrative, exploring the group’s tribal memories.
- 7/1/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mubi Podcast host Rico Gagliano traveled to the Cannes Film Festival, camera crew in tow, to chat it up with a cross-section of filmmakers debuting their movies there. Our Cannes Conversations mini-season continues this week with two new interviews.Belgian rapper-turned-auteur Baloji was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—where for some, his name literally means “demon.” So it’s no surprise that his mind-bending first feature Omen is all about characters society considers to be cursed.Baloji tells host Rico Gagliano about this kaleidoscopic debut, the pressures of competition at Cannes, and the scene in Pulp Fiction that broke his brain.Filmmaker Joanna Arnow’s shorts and docs are funny, fearless looks at people at their most excruciatingly vulnerable—especially herself. In her debut feature, she ratchets up the deadpan humor to tell the story of a woman navigating the alternately mundane and surreal worlds of work,...
- 6/28/2023
- MUBI
The 2023 Cannes Market is behind us, and like clockwork, Neon managed to buy the winner of the Palme d’Or for the fourth straight year, Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall.”
But that wasn’t the only major sale. This year’s Marché du Film netted major domestic deals for some of the buzziest competition titles such as Todd Haynes’ “May December” and Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves,” as well as hot packages like “Paddington 3.” But uncertainty over the writers strike still loomed large, and distributors favored completed projects over packages.
Below are some of the deals we’ve tracked out of Cannes so far, and we’ll be updating this space with more sales as they come in.
Title: “Anselm”
Section: Special Screenings
Distributor: Sideshow and Janus Films
Wim Wenders had not one but two separate films play at this year’s Cannes, and now each have found a home.
But that wasn’t the only major sale. This year’s Marché du Film netted major domestic deals for some of the buzziest competition titles such as Todd Haynes’ “May December” and Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves,” as well as hot packages like “Paddington 3.” But uncertainty over the writers strike still loomed large, and distributors favored completed projects over packages.
Below are some of the deals we’ve tracked out of Cannes so far, and we’ll be updating this space with more sales as they come in.
Title: “Anselm”
Section: Special Screenings
Distributor: Sideshow and Janus Films
Wim Wenders had not one but two separate films play at this year’s Cannes, and now each have found a home.
- 6/28/2023
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
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