News

Filmmaker Andy Chen, the writer-director behind the body horror short “The Spider,” is gearing up to make his feature film debut with psychological horror movie Another. Production gets underway next week in Los Angeles.

Bob Morley (“The 100”) and India de Beaufort are set to lead the ensemble cast that also includes Anna Akana (A Million Little Things), Doug Jones, and Heather Langenkamp.

Another follows “Joey (de Beaufort), a grief-stricken author haunted by the death of her husband, Ben (Morley), a brilliant physicist. When Ben inexplicably appears one morning, alive and well, making breakfast in their kitchen, Joey is thrust into a waking nightmare where grief, memory, and reality begin to unravel.”

Chen co-wrote the screenplay with Alexander Hernandez-Maxwell. The film is produced by Chen’s longtime collaborators Artin John and Kealani Kitaura.

“Another is more than a horror film—it’s a meditation on grief, love, and fractured reality,...

After putting out our predictions for the Critics’ Week, Directors’ Fortnight and Un Certain Regard programmes we now look at the Cannes Premiere section. Launched four years directly after the lost, pandemic edition, the section helped re-frame the Un Certain Regard section as a section for discovery from mostly new auteurs and it allows the fest to cast a bigger net grabbing a good quartet of French cinema items that would normally have fought to a place at le Grand Théâtre Lumière. Previously we’ve seen Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts, Víctor Erice’s Close Your Eyes, Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka and Alain Guiraudie’s Miséricorde.…...

Chicago – The year between gets shorter. Welcome to the annual Oscar Predictions on HollywoodChicago.com, for 2025 (the 97th Academy Awards). The film/entertainment contributors of Hc – Patrick McDonald and Spike Walters – are joined by filmmaker treasure Michael Glover Smith (“Relative”) and film critic Jeffrey L. York of “The Establishing Shot.”

Michael Glover Smith is a locally-based Chicago filmmaker. “Relative” is his most recent fourth feature film. His latest short film “Handle With Care,” received awards in four film fests. Mgs is in preproduction for his next feature film. Jeffrey L. York is a film writer/critic and artist whose specialty is the film and celebrity caricature. Click Jeffrey York to see his art. This article is privileged to use some of his illustrations below.

The Predictors! The Oscars are on ABC-tv, March 2nd, 2025

Photo credit: File Photo

Ten films of 2024 – “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Dune: Part Two,...

Over the last six years, thanks in the main to the SVOD revolution, Spain, once known for select auteurs – Pedro Almodóvar, J.A. Bayona, Fernando Trueba – has stepped fully onto the world stage as a European film and TV power.

Appropriately then, Spain is the Country in Focus 2025 at Berlin Festival’s European Film Market. Its movie strand says much about Spanish cinema, while Berlin, at large, points up Spain’s larger film industry challenges, shared by much of Europe.

The Focus’ biggest takeaway is Spain’s dramatic explosion of new talent, both producers and directors. In a Spain at the Forefront showcase, 10 Spanish producers making up a Producers Program will talk up their companies and current projects. Another 10 producers form part of Visitors Program at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Launched in 1995, Morena Films will unveil “8,” the latest from “Sex and Lucía” helmer Julio Medem. Avalon, producer of Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,...

Arte/Zdf, the German arm of European public broadcaster Arte, and German production company Port au Prince have boarded “Ivan & Hadoum,” the feature debut of Ian de la Rosa, one of Spain’s top emerging talents.

Now casting, “Ivan & Hadoum,” will be presented Friday at the EFM’s Spain in Focus Showcase by Emilia Fort at Avalon, one of the film’s Spanish producers.

Arte/Zdf will support “Ivan & Hadoum” via its Das Kleine Fernsehspiel initiative for new and artistically ambitious filmmakers.

“Ivan & Hadoum,” which won a Eurimages Co-production Development Award at the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2023, is set in an industrial greenhouse in Almería, Spain. Iván falls in love with co-worker Hadoum, a young Spanish-Moroccan woman. Ivan’s desired job promotion is challenged by the relationship, however, forcing him to decide what kind of man he wants to be.

Port au Prince and Arte/Zdf join Spain’s Avalon and Pecado Films,...

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.

Close Your Eyes (Víctor Erice)

Eríce’s latest is the ultimate cinephile catnip: the triumphant return of a director known to only make masterpieces, a film filled with in-group references and nods to cinema history (including a lengthy performance of a song from a Howard Hawks film), and an ending that hinges on the literal power of cinema itself. Thankfully, these qualities are hardly gimmicks; there’s real pathos in this story of a missing director that’s aided by these loving reminders of what makes the seventh art so important to so many. Close Your Eyes commands a secular, cynical audience to remember that art was born out of religion and miracles can still happen if one believes. – Z.W. L.

"I watched these tapes over and over again. They never got old..." And here we go! It's time for Ehrlich's video. One of the best 2024 recaps is a video countdown made by my colleague David Ehrlich (follow him @davidehrlich). He recaps his 25 best films of the year in a video edited together with footage and music from the films. It's one of the best looks back at the year, including footage from plenty of other movies from last year. Have you seen All of his favorites from last year? David's Top 25 of 2024 is as vibrant and fun as always, and you will likely agree with many of his top picks. I'm happy to see tons of underrated favorites: The Outrun, Between the Temples, Furiosa, The Last Showgirl, Close Your Eyes, Hard Truths, Juror #2, The First Omen, and others. Plus all the usual suspects from 2024: Nosferatu, The Substance, The Brutalist,...

Even though we may have moved on from 2024, it's still worthwhile to look back at the many excellent films from last year. Yet another new video countdown has debuted - this one is created by a young film critic named Will Bjarnar. This video featuring his 25 Best Films of 2024 is inspired by David Ehrlich's usual Top 25 Countdown (which will be out next week) and follows the same kind of editing. Bjarnar counts down his favorites from 2024, featuring tons of our own favorites as well. I'm so glad to see Furiosa, Hit Man, Bird, The Room Next Door, Close Your Eyes, and Challengers showing up on best of the year lists. These are some of the best of last year along with all the usual: Nickel Boys, Anora, The Brutalist, No Other Land, and Dune: Part Two. We've also featured a few other great 2024 video countdowns: Clementine's 2024 in Film,...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

The point is not to be fair, but to deliver gut-level reactions; to find the films that made me swivel my head and throw up my arms in frustration. 2024 was an uneasy year and I was naturally attracted to films that disquieted me. Well-made exercises in genre craft and compact auteurist style like Juror #2 and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga often failed to deliver more than easy admiration and placid acknowledgment of their skill. One of the biggest runner-ups to my top 10 list, The Brutalist, won me over not as the epic statement on American identity that it has been advertised as, but as a punkish anti-film with a grating penchant for blunt transgression and risible politics. The world is at war and politics have failed us.

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

As always, what is considered best is first determined by what can be seen, and this year there were many films that I missed. When it came to popular releases, for example, some took too long to be released in the UK; some were showing while I was reviewing other films; and others just simply passed me by. And the same problems were even more pronounced when it came to watching short/experimental films. Nevertheless, there was much that I enjoyed this year, and several films that did not make the final cut might well do so if I were to make the list again at a later date. I hope that my current selection will point you towards something informative and/or entertaining, and that it will add,...

The theaters might be full of trash, but the January physical media world is thriving. Each month The A.V. Club does our part to keep you up to date on the best of what’s coming out on Blu-ray and 4K Uhd, which is especially important as streaming services become...

Image courtesy of Day for Night

As though to provide a measure of solace in a year when the world news could hardly have been more depressing, 2024 has provided far more cinema of quality than has been seen for a very long time. I can come up with no less than twenty-five titles that count as exceptional works, at least half of which are close to perfection. Even so, that does not mean that 2024 has been a year without worries about where cinema is going. The great films are there but how readily can they be seen? This is a time when the range of what is on offer at mainstream cinemas fails to satisfy as many tastes as one would wish, when many films play mainly or exclusively on platforms too numerous for subscribers to embrace all of them and when the number of releases is so high that,...

"We're about to go into the deep end of the pool here... This is serious..." Another look back at some indie gems and other cinema highlights from 2024. The esteemed film magazine called Little White Lies from the UK has revealed their official list of their the 30 Best Films of 2024. In addition to their article (a list created by all of their writers together) they've also published an excellent countdown video of all 30 films as well. Their picks are based on UK release dates, so they include a handful of big 2023 films including The Zone of Interest, The Iron Claw, The Taste of Things (so good!), and La Chimera (already my #1 last year). They also highlight many other top notch 2024 favorites including The Brutalist, Nickel Boys, Hard Truths, Challengers, Hit Man, Close Your Eyes, Furiosa, Juror #2, and Kneecap. The editing in the first portion of this video is fabulous - mashing...

2024 was a year filled with many film releases, most of them based on pre-existing IPs or sequels. However, there were a few exceptions that completely stole the hearts of critics, moviegoers, and even fellow people in the entertainment industry.

In a feature piece on IndieWire with 65 directors sharing their favorite films of 2024, comedian and director of the critically acclaimed series Barry, Bill Hader, also weighed in. With a multitude of films to choose from, Hader opted for an animated indie film: Flow. The Latvian-directed animated film received critical acclaim and won numerous awards and nods, including a Critics' Choice Award nomination and a Golden Globes nomination.

Related Mufasa Takes Top Box Office Spot Over the Christmas Stretch, Nosferatu Debuts Strong

Mufasa: The Lion King takes the top spot over the 5-day holiday stretch at the box office.

Flow tells the heartwarming story of a black cat that finds itself in a flood.

Like many years before it, 2024 was a year with a generous amount of blockbuster hits, but there were also some surprising films. For every Dune: Part Two, there was a Didi. For each Wicked, we saw a Summer Solstice. Although you may not have heard of those counterparts and they may have flopped hard at the box office, it doesn't make those surprising films of 2024 any less compelling.

Trust us, Oscar and the Hollywood Foreign Press will pay attention to a few movies you may not know that made an impact at the movies. Here are Bam Smack Pow's Top 10 Most Surprising Films of 2024.

10. Hippo

This is a delirious arthouse film that makes you second guess watching it in the first place. Imagine "Napoleon Dynamite" having meth delusions and no boundaries. The film follows two home-school kids, Hippo (Kimball Farley) and Buttercup (Lilla Kizlinger) who go on a dark comedic...

“The sun is sinking in the West / The cattle go down to the stream / The redwing settles in her nest / It’s time for a cowboy to dream.”

Those immortal lyrics from Paul Francis Webster kick off one of the loveliest scenes in movie history, from one of the greatest Westerns of all time: When Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson sing “My Rifle, My Pony, and Me” in “Rio Bravo” — a glorious moment when the plot of the movie more or less comes to a halt and you just spend some time hanging out with these characters and the extraordinary talents inhabiting them. After all, cinematic artistry expresses itself through so very much more than just plot. And the pleasures of cinema so much more than just the sum of “what advances the story.”

Victor Erice clearly feels the same way and pays magnificent tribute to this “Rio Bravo” moment...

Mubi has unveiled their first streaming lineup of the new year and they are kicking things off in a major way with the streaming debut of Víctor Erice’s masterpiece Close Your Eyes. Additional highlights include the first digital release of Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias’ Berlinale and NYFF selection Pepe, with the debuts of Luca Guadagnino and James Gray also in the lineup. After releasing the biggest album of 2024, one can get a deeper glimpse into the life and work of Charli Xcx with the documentary Charli Xcx: Alone Together.

Recently naming Close Your Eyes one of the best films of 2024, Z.W. Lewis said, “Eríce’s latest is the ultimate cinephile catnip: the triumphant return of a director known to only make masterpieces, a film filled with in-group references and nods to cinema history (including a lengthy performance of a song from a Howard Hawks film), and...

After a year of big changes, The A.V. Club’s roster of film critics has added a slew of new faces and brought back some old favorites. That state of flux—a net positive to be sure—means our final voting roster of regulars is a little smaller than in years past.

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.

Banel & Adama (Ramata-Toulaye Sy)

A directorial debut programmed into the main Cannes competition is typically viewed with suspicion, if not overlooked altogether. Very rare is that lightning-in-a-bottle moment like the arrival of Son of Saul some years back. Typically, the only conversation these debuts generate is the critical debate as to why they’ve been elevated to the top of the pile when there are far more striking debuts buried deeper within the festival. This often means that accomplished films are overlooked and underappreciated by those on the ground, who may be subconsciously comparing a striking feature to the work of more established names it’s competing against for the Palme d’Or, approaching each debut with a “show me” attitude it...

In a week full of a few embarrassing selections included in the likes of National Board of Review and AFI’s picks for the top films of 2024, leave it to BFI’s Sight and Sound to deliver a top 10 films of the year worth paying attention to. Led by Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix winner All We Imagine as Light, the list also includes Anora, La Chimera, Dahomey, Hard Truths, Caught by the Tides, No Other Land, Nickel Boys, and more, while the top 50 includes The Beast, The Shrouds, Close Your Eyes, A Different Man, The Brutalist, I Saw the TV Glow, Evil Does Not Exist, and more. A great year for cinema, indeed.

Director Payal Kapadia said: “When I was at film school, at The Film & Television Institute of India, we used to get a copy of Sight and Sound. We were all excited when the new edition...

Let’s say you’re an American Beatles fan in the Sixties, Seventies, or Eighties. You chat with a British fan about your favorite albums. But you have no idea what they’re talking about — what is Beatles for Sale? Or With The Beatles? Meanwhile, they’ve never heard of U.S. classics like Meet the Beatles or Something New or Yesterday and Today. You both agree how great Rubber Soul is — but you’re discussing two different Rubber Souls. How can this be?

That’s because the Beatles albums...

Una fantasía medieval con un reparto de caras conocidas. © Sony Pictures

Ha finalizado el rodaje de Sin cobertura, el segundo largometraje de Mar Olid, una fantasía medieval con un guion de Olatz Arroyo.

En Sin cobertura, Rita es la menor de la familia y está harta de que sus padres y hermanos siempre estén mirando el móvil y no le hagan caso. En un viaje al pueblo de su abuela para celebrar su cumpleaños, conoce a una pitonisa que le concede un deseo. Rita lo tiene claro: quiere que desaparezcan los móviles. A la salida del pueblo, una intensa niebla rodea el coche y se quedan sin cobertura. El deseo de Rita se ha hecho realidad, pero no exactamente como ella había imaginado… Acaban de viajar en el tiempo y están en la Edad Media.

La película está protagonizada por Alexandra Jiménez, y Ernesto Sevilla, quienes dan vida a los padres de esta familia,...

Una inspectora de la Agencia Tributaria en su misión más importante antes de jubilarse. © Movistar Plus+

Movistar Plus+ ha anunciado cuándo llegará Celeste, su nueva serie original que se proyectó en la 72 edición del Festival de San Sebastián.

Celeste sigue a Sara Santano (Carmen Machi), inspectora de la Agencia Tributaria, que se enfrenta a su caso más importante cuando está a punto de jubilarse: demostrar que Celeste, la gran estrella latina, reside en España y tiene que pagar aquí sus impuestos. Una misión de la que dependen veinte millones de euros para las arcas españolas. Para ello, Sara tendrá que aparcar su vida para recorrer la de Celeste y demostrar que pasó aquí 184 días. La mitad del año más uno.

La serie de ficción de seis episodios, protagonizada por Carmen Machi, está escrita y creada por Diego San José (Superlópez) y dirigida por Elena Trapé (Els Encantats). Acompañan a Carmen...

Exclusive: Indie studio Wiip has optioned Amanda Eyre Ward’s 2022 novel The Lifeguards. In Sue Tenney’s followup to the Netflix hit Virgin River, which she developed and served as executive producer/showrunner on for four seasons, she will tackle The Lifeguard‘s TV adaptation with fellow former Virgin River writer-producer Amy Palmer Robertson for what the duo are promising to be “a sexy, soapy, domestic suspense series.”

Combining three mothers’ points of view in a narrative tale with commentary from neighborhood listservs, secret text messages, and police reports, The Lifeguards, is both a story about the secrets we tell to protect the ones we love, and a riveting novel of suspense filled with half-truths and betrayals, fierce love and complicated friendships, and the loss of innocence on one hot summer night.

“The mothers and teenage sons of The Lifeguards are close to my heart,” Ward said. “From the moment...

Spoiler Space offers thoughts on, and a place to discuss, the plot points we can’t disclose in our official review. Fair warning: This article features plot details of Megalopolis.

It’s a great time for Old Man Cinema. Legendary filmmakers are leaning into their late eras in order to...

San Sebastian — Is this the San Sebastián Catalan Film Festival? Always boasting a sterling presence at San Sebastián, Catalonia has a massive 27 titles this year, counting five projects in doc forum Lau Haizetara and including four of the five Spanish movies in main Competition and 10 in Made in Spain. Following a break-down of major section titles:

Main Competition

“Afternoons of Solitude,” (Andergraun Films, Ideale Audience, Lacima Producciones)

Albert Serra’s not at all obvious follow-up to Cannes competition player “Pacifiction,” a portrait of star bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey at work. The results remain to be seen. Serra has shot the disc feature “with respect and innocence, without prejudice nor provocation,” he tells Spain’s ABC Cultural.

“Glimmers,” (Inicia Films, Mod Producciones, Misent Producciones)

The latest from Pilar Palomero. A top-notch Spanish cast led by Patricia López Arnaíz and Antonio de la Torre drive the tale of a woman asked by...

New York-based indie sales outfit Visit Films has acquired international distribution rights to Cecilia Atán and Valeria Pivato’s pensive second feature “Surfacing” (“La Llegada Del Hijo”) ahead of its global debut on Sunday as part of the San Sebastián Film Festival’s prestigious New Director’s Competition.

“We have had the privilege of helping launch films in San Sebastián for many years and are so pleased to be working on ‘Surfacing.’ Atán and Pivato have crafted a delicately balanced film that threads the fine needle of emotional subtlety and full-blooded passion. It exists as an example of the duality of human existence and will be a thrilling watch for audiences,” Visit President Ryan Kampe said in a statement.

The Argentine directors previously worked on 2017’s “The Desert Bride,” (“La novia del desierto”) which screened at Cannes as part of its Un Certain Regard section, going on to stun audiences...

Following a group of small-town, DIY Indian filmmakers, Reema Kagti’s “Superboys of Malegaon” is a moving crowd-pleaser that constantly reaffirms its importance through its central theme. Although the film, which is based on real events, often tries to cover too much ground, it continually circles back to the idea that people must see themselves reflected in art, not just out of want, but out of deep desire stemming from need, in order to live with dignity.

Spanning events from 1997 through the early 2010s, the Bollywood biopic primarily follows photographer and wedding videographer Nasir Sheikh (Adarsh Gourav), a lovelorn man in the tiny city of Malegaon, whose few-hundred-mile distance from Mumbai, India’s financial and cinematic capital, may as well be measured in lightyears. Nasir runs a failing movie theater with his older brother Nihal (Gyanendra Tripathi), where he insists on showing Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin classics rather than the latest Bollywood fare,...

Indie distributor Film Movement has snapped up North American rights to Swiss director Ramon Zürcher’s “The Sparrow in the Chimney” following its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival.

Described by Variety’s Guy Lodge as a “darkly engrossing psychodrama of pent-up domestic tensions,” the film explores the tumultuous relationship between two sisters, Karen and Jule, whose reunion at a family gathering reignites old conflicts and deep-seated emotional turmoil.

Zürcher, thrilled by its pending North American release, explained: “This film is an exploration of the invisible forces that shape us, particularly within the family structure.”

Sold worldwide by Cercamon, the family drama “should be an arthouse breakthrough” per Variety‘s review.

“This film offers a beautifully crafted, intimate story that will resonate with audiences who appreciate cinema that is both emotionally authentic and visually captivating,” said Sebastien Chesneau of Cercamon, who negotiated the deal with Film Movement.

“What drew...

Film Movement has acquired North American rights from Charades to Hiroshi Okuyama’s upcoming TIFF Centrepiece selection My Sunshine.

‘My Sunshine’: Cannes Review

The film premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard and receives its North American premiere on Tuesday (September 10), with a press and industry scheduled for Monday.

It follows two promising young ice skaters who form a bond while training as a pair for an upcoming competition. Keitatsu Koshiyama, Kiara Nakanishi, and Sōsuke Ikematsu star.

Film Movement will distribute My Sunshine theatrically in 2025 followed by a roll-out on digital platforms and the home entertainment market.

The drama from...

Film Movement has acquired North American rights from Charades to Hiroshi Okuyama’s upcoming TIFF Centrepiece selection My Sunshine.

‘My Sunshine’: Cannes Review

The film premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard and receives its North American premiere on Tuesday (September 10), with a press and industry scheduled for Monday.

It follows two promising young ice skaters who form a bond while training as a pair for an upcoming competition. Keitatsu Koshiyama, Kiara Nakanishi, and Sōsuke Ikematsu star.

Film Movement will distribute My Sunshine theatrically in 2025 followed by a roll-out on digital platforms and the home entertainment market.

The drama from...

Close Your Eyes marks a stunning return to cinema for revered Spanish auteur Vctor Erice after a long three-decade absence. A brilliantly structured and deeply personal mystery is slowly unveiled like a master's paintbrush on a canvas of thoughtful artistic expression. Erice's elegantly crafted protagonist sorts through the pieces of his broken life to solve a puzzle that instigated his melancholic decline. Love, loss, and reconciliation are addressed on a profound journey of understanding. The two-hour and 50-minute runtime requires a degree of patience sometimes lost on modern audiences, but this story shouldn't be rushed.

A Mysterious Disappearance in the Movie World

Close Your Eyes (2023) 4.5/5 DramaMysteryInternational

Julio Arenas, a famous actor, disappears during the filming of a movie. Although his body is never found, the police conclude that he has suffered an accident at the seaside. Years later, this kind of mystery comes back to the news.

Release Date August 23, 2024Director Victor EriceCast Manolo Solo,...

The first 20 minutes of Close Your Eyes are better than almost every other movie this year, and they’re merely the memories of its main character—a ghost story written in celluloid. This prelude details a call to adventure, a request to seek out a dying rich man’s daughter...

Some five decades separate director Victor Erice’s debut film, The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), and his latest, Close Your Eyes. In between these twin professional highlights, there are two other features — El Sur (1983), a work haunted by the fact that filming was halted before a key scene was shot, and the brilliant documentary Dream of Light (1992) — as well as a half dozen or so shorts and anthology contributions, video installations and several potential projects snuffed out before they could start. That first movie, however, had already secured the Spanish...

La película está protagonizada por Martin Scorsese. © Beta Fiction

Escape, la nueva película de Rodrigo Cortés, producida por Martin Scorsese y basada en la novela homónima de Enrique Rubio, se presentará en el Festival de San Sebastián, dentro de las galas de Rtve.

Escape sigue a N. (Mario Casas), un hombre estropeado. Algo no va bien en su interior. No quiere tomar una sola decisión más, sólo apearse del mundo. Dejar de tener opciones. El psicólogo a quien visita no sabe cómo abordarlo. Tampoco su hermana, que intenta apoyarlo sin frutos. N. sólo quiere vivir en la cárcel, y hará cuanto sea necesario para conseguirlo. ¿Lograrán sus allegados que desista de cometer delitos cada vez más graves? ¿Hasta dónde será capaz de llegar el juez para no concederle su propósito?

La película está protagonizada por Mario Casas (3 metros sobre el cielo). Completan el reparto Anna Castillo (Nowhere), José Sacristán (La...

by Cláudio Alves

Miracles haven't existed in movies since Dreyer.

So says a gruff film editor to his aged director friend in Víctor Erice's first feature in three decades, a work brilliant enough to make a lie of that line. Well, it was miraculous to me, though there must be some dissenters out there. Folks like Thierry Frémaux who infamously conned Erice into opening the flick at Cannes under the assumption it would play in competition. Only, Close Your Eyes didn't get to vie for the Palme d'Or, getting shafted into the newborn Premiere section. At this point, that farrago must be water under the bridge, though one presumes a big Cannes victory would have helped Close Your Eyes get to theaters sooner. For American audiences, it only now made it to screens, enjoying a limited release courtesy of Film Movement…...

Two very different indies circling a cantor and slasher debut in moderate to wide release along with a handful of limited openings from Close Your Eyes to Paradise Is Burning on this late summer weekend with the fall festival season about to kick off.

Sony Pictures Classics launches Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane-starring Between The Temples on 576 screens. Directed by Nathan Silver, written by Silver and C. Mason Wells with Schwartzman as a cantor losing his voice, and maybe his faith. His world turns upside down when his grade school music teacher (Kane) re-enters his life as his new adult Bat Mitzvah student. SPC acquired the thoughtful comedy out of Sundance. Also stars Robert Smigel (Leo), Madeline Weinstein (Beach Rats), and Matthew Shear (Mistress America). It played Sundance and Berlin to strong reviews (sits at 87% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes) and made its New York debut at Tribeca.

Veteran...

La película tuvo su premiere mundial en el Festival de Málaga. © Vértice360

Ya se ha publicado el tráiler de Puntos suspensivos, un thriller dirigido por David Marqués y escrito por el propio Marqués y Rafa Calatayud Cano (Parecido a un asesinato), que tuvo su estreno mundial, dentro de la Sección Oficial Fuera de Concurso, en el 27º Festival de Málaga de Cine Español y fue galardonada con el Black Raven al Mejor Thriller en el 42º Festival Internacional de Cine Fantástico de Bruselas.

Puntos suspensivos sigue a Leo, un exitoso escritor de novelas de misterio que se esconde bajo el seudónimo de Cameron Graves. Mientras escribe su próximo libro en un chalet aislado, recibe la extraña visita de Jota, un inquietante personaje que dice ser periodista. Nadie conoce la identidad de Leo y solo Victoria, su agente, sabe que está allí, así que ¿cómo ha llegado Jota hasta él y cuáles son sus intenciones?...

Una inspectora de la Agencia Tributaria en su misión más importante antes de jubilarse. © Movistar Plus+

Movistar Plus+ ha publicado el primer tráiler de “Celeste”, su nueva serie original que se proyectará en la 72 edición del Festival de San Sebastián.

“Celeste” sigue a Sara Santano (Carmen Machi), inspectora de la Agencia Tributaria, que se enfrenta a su caso más importante cuando está a punto de jubilarse: demostrar que Celeste, la gran estrella latina, reside en España y tiene que pagar aquí sus impuestos. Una misión de la que dependen veinte millones de euros para las arcas españolas. Para ello, Sara tendrá que aparcar su vida para recorrer la de Celeste y demostrar que pasó aquí 184 días. La mitad del año más uno.

La serie de ficción de seis episodios, protagonizada por Carmen Machi, está escrita y creada por Diego San José (“Superlópez”) y dirigida por Elena Trapé (“Els Encantats”). Acompañan...

¿Qué tiene que hacer un hombre honrado para que lo metan en la cárcel? © Beta Fiction

Ya se ha publicado el primer tráiler de “Escape”, la nueva película de Rodrigo Cortés, producida por Martin Scorsese y basada en la novela homónima de Enrique Rubio.

“Escape” sigue a N. (Mario Casas), un hombre estropeado. Algo no va bien en su interior. No quiere tomar una sola decisión más, sólo apearse del mundo. Dejar de tener opciones. El psicólogo a quien visita no sabe cómo abordarlo. Tampoco su hermana, que intenta apoyarlo sin frutos. N. sólo quiere vivir en la cárcel, y hará cuanto sea necesario para conseguirlo. ¿Lograrán sus allegados que desista de cometer delitos cada vez más graves? ¿Hasta dónde será capaz de llegar el juez para no concederle su propósito?

La película está protagonizada por Mario Casas (“3 Metros sobre el Cielo”). Completan el reparto Anna Castillo (“Nowhere”), José Sacristán...

"I lost my best friend, but I also lost my movie." Film Movement has revealed the official US trailer for an exceptionally great Spanish indie film titled Close Your Eyes, the first feature film in more than 30 years from an acclaimed Spanish filmmaker named Víctor Erice (The Spirit of the Beehive). It first premiered last year at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, though only out of competition despite being such a strong film that many said should've been in competition. After playing at festivals all over the world all last year, FM will debut Close Your Eyes in limited US theaters end of August to start. A reflective culmination of Erice's career in film, Close Your Eyes is a haunting meditation on memory, absence, and the enduring resonance of the moving image. A Spanish actor disappears during the filming of a movie. Although he is never found, the police believe he went off a cliff.

Despite being seen exclusively on the festival circuit, Víctor Erice’s first feature in 30 years, Close Your Eyes, ended up at #20 on our best-of-2023 list. One imagines it’ll land higher when we take stock of 2024: it’s finally getting a stateside from Film Movement on August 23, and we now have a U.S. trailer.

As David Katz said in his Cannes review, “Curious, self-referential, and rich, Close Your Eyes has had a difficult passageway into the world, with its Cannes world premiere dogged by reports of conflicts over its runtime, its non-competition placement, and Erice’s own in-person boycott of the screening. Its final form also is a scarcely believable one, singular and self-possessed even amidst all the latter-day auteur work that’s screened in recent days: although it’s studded with other media, such as an unfinished film of Garay’s and trashy Spanish primetime TV, the...

Famed Spanish filmmaker Victor Erice has finally returned with his first solo directorial feature film in 30 years. In those intervening decades, he only made one other film, co-directed with the late Abbas Kiarostami. Now, Erice is back and making a meta statement with mystery feature “Close Your Eyes.”

The “El Sur” and “The Spirit of the Beehive” helmer directs this reflective career culmination that is set in contemporary Madrid. Watch the trailer below.

“Close Your Eyes” follows aging filmmaker Miguel Garay (Manolo Solo) who is called upon to recount his memories of working on his final and still unfinished film titled “The Farewell Gaze.” During its production, the lead actor and Miguel’s close friend Julio Arenas (José Coronado) disappeared without a trace, leaving in his wake a mystery that would haunt the lives of everyone associated with the film. Miguel never directed another project, instead living a quiet life...

Protagonizada por la debutante Kiara Arancibia, junto a Julián Villagrán, Janet Novás y Petra Martínez. © Avalon

Arranca en Barcelona el rodaje de la película “Harta”, de la cineasta Júlia de Paz (“Ama”) y basada en su cortometraje homónimo de 2021.

En “Harta”, tras la separación de sus padres, Carmela y su madre se mudan a casa de la abuela. Mientras intenta adaptarse a su nueva situación, Carmela anhela pasar más tiempo en casa de su padre, un artista plástico al que admira e idolatra. La sombra de éste llevará a las tres generaciones de mujeres de la familia a decidir el futuro que se merecen.

La película está protagonizada Kiara Arancibia, en su debut como actriz, Julián Villagrán (“Tratamos Demasiado Bien a las Mujeres”), Janet Novás (“O Corno”) y Petra Martínez (“Cerrar los Ojos”).

En palabras de su directora, Júlia de Paz: «la película nace de la necesidad de reclamar un...

“Red Island,” the latest film by “120 Bpm” director Robin Campillo, has been acquired by New York-based company Film Movement for North American distribution following its run in the festival circuit.

“Red Island,” which is produced by Marie-Ange Luciani, the Oscar-nominated producer of “Anatomy of a Fall,” world premiered at San Sebastian Film Festival. Film Movement will open the film theatrically on Aug. 16 at Film at Lincoln Center, followed by a wider release and a rollout on digital and home entertainment platforms.

Set at the beginning of the ’70s in Madagascar, “Red Island” follows the lives of a few armed forces and their families living in one of the last French military bases abroad, a relic of the fading French colonial empire. Influenced by his reading of the comic book heroine Fantômette, Thomas, a 10-year-old boy, explores his surroundings and gradually opens another reality.

“Red Island” marks Campillo’s follow up to “120 Bpm,...

Twdc-Disney have secured the theatrical and streaming rights in the LatAm for Sebastian Schindel's new crime/psychological-thriller feature film A Silent Death (Una Muerte Silenciosa). In the depths of Patagonia during the 80’s, a hunting guide stumbles upon a shocking crime involving his niece, forcing him to investigate and to confront the haunting secrets of that era dark years in his pursue of justice. The new thriller from Argentina stars Joaquin Furriel, Soledad Villamil, Alejandro Awada, and Maria Marull (Wild Tales). Our friends at FilmSharks are handling international sales at March du Film in Cannes. Crime Thriller Master Sebastian Schindel's...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Madrid-based producer José Alba of Pecado Films gets the Cannes Close-Up treatment, revealing his plans for finding international co-production partners, and an “amazing moment” at last year’s Cannes.

Alba is in Cannes selling May I Speak With The Enemy, a biopic of stand-up comedian Miguel Gila based on an original idea by Alba.

Pecado Films was a producer on Victor Erice’s 2023 Cannes competition title Close Your Eyes and 2016 romantic war drama Guernica, distributed by Sony.

This year Alba is on the lookout for new international partners at Cannes: “We are going to meet, above all, Japanese and Indian...

Filmax has nabbed sales rights to “May I Speak With the Enemy,” a biopic focusing on the Spanish Civil War years of Miguel Gila, who went on to pioneer stand-up in Spain. Gila developed a comedy of the absurd informed by his experiences in the conflict.

“May I Speak With the Enemy” is produced by Pecado Films, a producer on Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes,” and Arcadia Motion Pictures, behind Oscar-nominated “Robot Dreams” and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts.”

Co-written by Alexis Morante from an original idea by Pecado producer José Alba, “May I Speak” stars newcomer Oscar Lasarte, a comedian and magician, as a young Gila, just 17 when he heads for the trenches, to suffer through battles, hunger and a botched execution by a drunken firing squad.

The experiences inspired one of his most famous sketches, where he phones up the enemy to ask them to stop the war and,...

J.A. Bayona’s Netflix epic Society of the Snow swept Saturday night’s Platino Awards, picking up a total of six trophies including the top award of the night for best Ibero-American fiction film.

Bayona’s film follows the tragic events that take place after Uruguayan Air Force flight 571, chartered to fly a rugby team to Chile, crashes on a glacier in the heart of the Andes in 1972. Only 16 of the 45 passengers ultimately made it out alive as a handful of others perished on the mountain during the 72 days from the time of the crash until rescuers arrived.

Bayona also made his way to the stage to accept a trophy for best director, and his film’s haul also included best male performance for star Enzo Vogrincic, best editing for Jaume Marti and Andres Gil, best cinematography for Pedro Luque, and best sound for Oriol Tarragó, Marc Orts and Jorge Adrados.

20,000 Species Of Bees, the debut film by Basque filmmaker Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, and Society Of The Snow, J. A. Bayona’s survival drama for Netflix, dominated the top honors at the eleventh Platino Awards Saturday evening.

The Mexican award show took place this year at the El Gran Tlachco theater in Xcaret Park, Riviera Maya. Bayona took best director on the night for Society Of The Snow. The film also won Best Feature while 20,000 Species Of Bees nabbed Best Screenplay and Best First Feature.

20,000 Species Of Bees debuted at the Berlin Film Festival, where lead actor Sofía Otero took the silver bear for best leading performance. The film is set during a summer in a village house linked to beekeeping and follows an eight-year-old and her mother experiencing revelations that will change their lives forever.

Bayona’s Society Of The Snow closed last year’s Venice Film Festival.