Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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Cannes 2025: The Phoenician Scheme, Nouvelle Vague
Though Wes Anderson’s last consensus-acclaimed feature was 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, his subsequent, progressively more divisive films have been profitable enough to emerge at a regular clip. I’m guessing this is thanks to the purchasing power of elder millennials who had Rushmore and Royal Tenenbaums imprinted on them in their teen years and now faithfully show up for each new work. For those unshakeable fans, myself included, the question of whether Anderson’s entered an era of baroque and inadvertent self-parody is a non-issue, and The Phoenician Scheme is unlikely to change anyone’s mind in either direction. Even by his […]
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Cannes 2025: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning; Eddington; Sirât
Eight years after Cannes dipped its toes into VR waters with their presentation of Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s ultra-haptic empathy machine Carne y Arena (2017), the festival’s general delegate Thierry Frémaux continues to promote cinema’s expanding XR toolbox. In addition to bringing back the festival’s Immersive Competition for a second year—from what I saw of the press tour held a few hours before the Opening Ceremony, it would be difficult to justify a third—Frémaux also, per an interview with Screen International, trained this year’s festival staff using an AI version of his own voice when he couldn’t be present to address them […]
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Cannes 2025: Sound of Falling, Two Prosecutors
It’s always a dangerous business when entertainment journalists and film critics feel the need to wade into political commentary, but the Trumpian shadow hovering over everything makes people feel like they have to say something even if they don’t want to. At The Hollywood Reporter, a headline captures the exasperated tone: “Cannes Dealmakers Are Already Sick of Talking About Trump’s Tariffs.” Everyone would prefer to gossip and go about their usual routines even as the theoretically imminent global recession seems to already be in effect. Purely based on visual tells—crowd sizes, the increased number of party invites I’ve gotten—attendance is […]
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“Do You Want To Be a Producer Today?” Daniel Tantalean’s Cannes Producer Diary #1
Each year Filmmaker invites the The Gotham’s Cannes Producer Network Fellows to post about their experiences attending the Cannes Film Festival. This year’s entries begin with a post by Daniel Tantalean, who produced the 2024 Sundance Grand Jury Dramatic Prize Winner, In the Summers. My Love, It took 13 hours, but I finally landed in Nice and perhaps against better judgment, made the bold decision to take a bus and a train with two large suitcases in a city I don’t know, telling myself I’d be “adventurous.” I was met with confusion, crying babies, annoyed passengers and signage in a […]
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17 Films We’re Looking Forward to at Cannes 2025
With the Cannes Film Festival underway until May 24, here are 17 films our editors and writers are keenly anticipating. As always, look throughout the festival for reviews from Vadim Rizov and Blake Williams as well as interviews and festival reports. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt) For her return to Cannes following 2022’s Showing Up, Kelly Reichardt latches onto Josh O’Connor’s rising star; after his profile-elevating turns in La chimera and Challengers, he’s in two competition titles this year (the other is Oliver Hermanus’s The History of Sound). Here he’s opposite Alana Haim, who also has a lot to promote with […]
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Poster Premiere: ACID 2025 Selection A Light That Never Goes Out
We’re pleased to premiere the poster for ACID 2025 selection A Light That Never Goes Out. From the Cannes section’s website: Lauri-Matti Parppei, who has recorded several albums in a parallel life, takes us to their hometown in Northern Finland, a place where people speak little and depression is a taboo – this is Pauli’s illness, as he returns home to heal his wounds. With a melancholic tone, the film, through its precise, no-frills directing style, weaves its story like a musical score. Pauli rejects success and returns to life thanks to a chaotic lineup of outcasts. Friendship, stronger than anything, […]
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UFO Announces Spring, 2025 Short Film Lab Cohort
UFO (Untitled Filmmaker Org) announced today the three new filmmakers comprising its 2025 Short Film Lab cohort. Selected filmmakers Daisy Friedman, Carin Leong (a Filmmaker 2025 25 New Face), and Emilio Subía will begin the Lab experience this month as they develop new scripted (Friedman and Subía) and nonfiction (Leong) projects. Filmmakers Emily May Jampel, Arielle Knight, and Samuel Wright Smith from the second Short Film Lab cohort announced last spring will continue in the program through December to develop their second projects engaging scripted narrative, hybrid nonfiction, and animation, in keeping with the Lab’s staggered enrollment model. The UFO […]
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Nominees Announced for 2025 Gotham Television Awards
The Gotham Film & Media Institute, Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced today the nominations in twelve competitive award categories for the 2025 Gotham Television Awards, recognizing a range of series, including Adolescence, The Pitt, The Studio as well as performances from Kathy Bates, Sterling K. Brown, Ted Danson, Linda Lavin, Cristin Milioti, and Michelle Williams, among others. “Building on the success of last year’s inaugural ceremony, the Gotham Television Awards returns with new categories, expanded tributes, and a larger stage to celebrate the creators and artists making their mark on today’s television landscape,” said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of The Gotham. “As […]
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The Popcorn List Releases Second Annual Survey of 19 Recommended Feature Films
The Popcorn List has released its second annual survey of recommended feature films. From the press release: The Popcorn List (TPL), an annual survey of acclaimed feature films returns for its second year with 19 film recommendations. TPL was founded in 2024 as a discovery and visibility initiative to amplify independent films that deserve to be seen more widely, highlight the discovery nature of film festivals and the craft of film curation, and respect audiences’ desire for story-driven movies. The result is an open-source database of acclaimed films without U.S. distribution (theatrical, VOD, self-distributed), as recommended by festival programmers across […]
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Visions du Réel 2025: Choose Your Illusion
In 2002, a George W. Bush aide coined the phrase “reality-based community”—a label meant pejoratively, anticipating the present belligerent moment. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” that (still!) anonymous official ranted. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors… and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” This psychotic assertion is paraphrased—nearly word-for-word, surely inadvertently—by the […]
