Ioncinema

Just ahead of the annual Black List (can you believe the list has been with us for two decades now) to be unveiled in mid-December, the Black List has named the projects and writers for its inaugural Projects Lab (with the important distinction is that they plan to direct the project). And among the six writers are developing feature projects we find Alexandra Qin – her amazing 2024 Sundance short Thirstygirl is being worked into a feature film. This year’s other writers include Dylan James Amick (The Estranged), Steve Anthopoulos (My Summer in the Human Existence), Meghan Lennox (Gay For Amy), Alex Murawski (Walking In Iowa) and Gabriella Mykal (Fuzzy).… Read the rest

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A total of seventeen awards were handed out at this year’s American Film Festival’s U.S. in Progress industry showcase, an event focused on connecting American independent film projects with Polish post-production resources. The two standout winners were first-time feature filmmakers Miles Levin and Katarina Zhu. Their debut films, Under the Lights and Bunnylovr, respectively, took home the top honors – Levin’s tale about a late teen with epilepsy wanting to hit the prom despite the likelihood of having a seizure stars Pearce Joza, Tanzyn Crawford, Lake Bell, Randall Park and Nick Offerman is produced by Vanishing Angle’s Natalie Metzger. Bunnylovr – a NYC set drama about online personas, strained relationships dealing with both isolation and connection stars Zhu in the lead with an ensemble that includes Austin Amelio, Perry Yung, Jack Kilmer, Clara Wong and Rachel Sennott (who also produces).… Read the rest

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At the American Film Festival in Wrocław, teams behind the projects selected for the U.S. in Progress—a festival industry event—pitched their films to potential buyers, film festival programmers, and Poland-based post-production companies. Under the guidance of Artistic Director Ula Śniegowska, the event acts as a matchmaking platform — think tinder-like linking between Polish post-production talent with American indie producers. Last year’s edition proved highly fruitful: several selections went on to make waves in the 2024 film festival circuit. We began the year with India Donaldson’s critical darling Good One preeming at Sundance and Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, where Tyler Taormina also screened Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point.… Read the rest

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One of the more important recently new development labs on the film circuit have just unveiled their 2024 line-up. Les Arcs Film Festival’s Co-Production Village have eighteen European projects and in contention we find the likes of Sofia Alaoui, Claire Fowler and Anastasiia Solonevych. Alaoui is currently developing her sophomore feature film in Tarfaya – it finds her re-teaming with Margaux Lorier for a third time out after netting world premieres at Sundance. And speaking of Sundance, Claire Flower will be presenting her Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab workshopped Toad in France as well. Ukrainainen filmmaker Anastasiia Solonevych who worked with Under the Volcano filmmaker Damian Kocur on the Palme d’Or comp short “As it Was” is mounting what will be her feature debut film.… Read the rest

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Despite having gone into production in the summer of 2023 (in Mexico City and San Francisco), Dreams was not a film that Michel Franco wanted to rush for a 2024 drop. Today, The Match Factory officially launches sales on the project (easily be among our most anticipated features for 2025) and provides us with a better breakdown on what to expect. As we already knew, Jessica Chastain, newbie Isaac Hernández and Rupert Friend were part of the cast, but learn that Hernández plays a more significant role in the film and as was the case with Memory, Chastain will more or less be equal footing with – here we go with the synopsis:

Fernando (Hernández), a young ballet dancer from Mexico, dreams of being internationally recognized and living in the US.… Read the rest

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The Marrakech International Film Festival have announced its complete line-up and in the official competition (first and second feature films) film titles we find a handful of Cannes and Venice Film Festival sidebar items most notably Venice’s own Orizzonti section with Neo Sora’s Happyend, Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays and Murat Fıratoğlu’s One of Those Days When Hemme Dies as part of the fourteen films selected in pursuit of the Étoile d’Or. The selection of 70 films is also spread across the Gala Screenings, Special Screenings, the 11th Continent, Moroccan Panorama, Cinema for Young Audiences & Families, and the Tributes program.… Read the rest

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Dole Days: Arnold Flutters About with Strange Bedfellows

There’s certainly a definable emotional core in Andrea Arnold’s fifth narrative feature, Bird, but the ideas and themes tying it all together are about as wispy and freewheeling as scattered feathers drifting along the course of a gently idling wind. Once again mixing anthropomorphic inspired motifs with working class realities, Arnold’s new marriage of social miserabilism and magical realism sadly feels a bit exploitative as it rushes through thinly drawn characters and connections before gliding into a pat, feel-good resolution. Whether due to methods of improvisation without a clearly defined script or a rushed edit to make the demands of its world premiere, Arnold’s latest is something of a disappointment, playing as it does so fiercely into the eternally forgiving arena of the sentimental.… Read the rest

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All the Small Things: Mielants Mines the Evils of Complicity

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” The oft cited quote from Edmund Burke is the ultimate essence of Small Things Like These, the latest from Belgian director Tim Mielants. Adapted from the 2021 novella by Claire Keegan (who also wrote The Quiet Girl), it’s a subtle exploration of the infamous Magdalene Laundries, torturous institutions run by the Roman Catholic Church intended to house ‘fallen women.’ While many films have explored the dreadful details of this culturally sanctioned terror, Mielants expounds upon Keegan’s prose to highlight the communal complicity which allowed this institutionalization to prosper.… Read the rest

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Last Train to Zhili: Bing Brings Youth Cycle to Circular Close

Wang Bing completes his ‘Youth’ trilogy with finale Youth (Homecoming), which features the most forgiving running time of the three segments at only two and a half hours. The Cannes premiered Youth (Spring) (read review) was an hour longer and Youth (Hard Times) (read review), which premiered several weeks earlier at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival, clocked in at nearly four hours. The entire project was shot between 2014 to 2019, mostly in China’s Zhili province, home to a multitude of garment workshops. The final chapter appropriately begins with some 2014 footage and ends in 2019, but most of its integral moments transpire at the end of 2015 and into the 2016 Chinese New Year.… Read the rest

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Coming off what could be a career-best in Dear Jassi and a recent 4K restoration of the passion project of all passion projects in The Fall, Tarsem Singh is now setting his sights on a thriller project set up by the AGC Studios folks, producer Scott Franklin and with the full participation of Dev Patel who will topline and produce The Journeyman. Variety reports that the crime thriller would move into production next year — so this would fall on our laps in 2026.

Written by Bryan and Alexis Roberts (aka The Roberts), Patel plays a down-on-his-luck tennis pro who is lured into an illegal match-fixing ring to support his family and finds himself trapped in a ruthless world of corruption and violence he may never escape.… Read the rest

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