Ioncinema

Some casting news spread over the past 24 hours, Alana Haim is continuing her progression in cinema and working with choice auteurs climbing aboard the latest by Kelly Reichardt (The Mastermind) and Kristoffer Borgli (The Drama). It’s not that far-fetched to think that she’ll shore up in three major titles in 2025 – namely the new Paul Thomas Anderson film. She joined Josh O’Connor for the set in the 70s portrait by Reichardt, and for Borgli project, she joins Zendaya, Robert Pattinson and the just announced Mamoudou Athie. This third feature for the filmmaker is said to be a romance — a couple, played by Zendaya and Pattinson, who in the days leading up to their wedding, end up in a crisis when unexpected revelations derail what one of them thought they knew of the other.… Read the rest

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Katarina Zhu‘s feature debut Bunnylovr has according to Deadline wrapped up production (they were shotting in NYC) – we learn that the drama heading to next month’s American Film Festival’s 2024 edition of the US in Progress stars Austin Amelio, Perry Yung, Rachel Sennott, Jack Kilmer and Zhu herself. Bunnylovr was produced by Zhu alongside Fair Oaks Entertainment producers Rachel Sennott and Roger Mancusi with Ani Schroeter. Rhianon Jones and Tristan Scott-Behrends also produced for Neon Heart Productions, which financed the film alongside Radish, Phiphen Pictures, and RNA Pictures.

This tells the story of Rebecca (Zhu), a Chinese-American cam girl who struggles to navigate an increasingly toxic relationship with one of her clients while rekindling her relationship with her estranged, dying father.… Read the rest

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Not unlike how a young Athina Rachel Tsangari ended up being part of a Richard Linklater film, Summer Shelton has been part of the fabric of the American indie scene dating back to a bit appearance in a David Gordon Green’s All the Real Girls. After cutting her teeth as a producer (with a pair of prominent titles in the cinema of Ramin Bahrani), Shelton would put all of one’s chips on the table with her feature debut You & I. A second chance at romance or a proper visit with the past, Shelton is joined by Clayne Crawford for a drama romance that re-examines a dynamic (was it ever meant to be more?)… Read the rest

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In a double Virginie Efira casting news type of day, we learn that after dropping in Rebecca Zlotowski’s Vie Privée, the actress will move into the arms (or away) of Arieh Worthalter (from career game-changing The Goldman Case) in Thomas Kruithof’s third feature film. The cineuropa folks report that production on Les Braises has started — so this means Efira has a meatier role here. The French filmmaker has a pair of films under his belt with 2016’s The Eavesdropper (La Mécanique de l’Ombre) and Les Promesses – the 2021 film with Isabelle Huppert and premiered in Venice.… Read the rest

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Last week, we got the confirmation that Jodie Foster and Daniel Auteuil were toplining Rebecca Zlotowski’s Vie Privée and now we have a more complete picture with further casting announcements and a proper logline. Along with new team members in Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste and Luana Bajrami (who directed her feature debut in the Cannes preemed The Hill Where Lionesses Roar in 2021 – read our review), Zlotowski is re-teaming with her Other People’s Children star Virginie Efira. Production began in late September and will run all the way into late November in Paris and Normandy. We’re putting this down as a Venice Film Festival possibility.… Read the rest

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Ulrike Ottinger came out of a long gestation period for The Blood Countess and now fellow female German filmmaker Maren Ade is in early prep mode to direct her fourth feature film — which comes almost a full decade since Toni Erdmann premiered in Cannes to critical acclaim. Ade has been busy wearing the producer’s hat: some notable recent items include About Dry Grasses, Ahed’s Knee, Corsage, Exile, Spencer and The Story of My Wife. In a Screen Daily profile on power horse producers Janine Jackowski and Jonas Dornbach of Komplizen Film, they revealed that they are now tying up financing coin for Ade’s Zauberwort (aka Magic Word).… Read the rest

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She’s coming off a career-best with Other People’s Children (2022 Venice Film Festival selection) and recently was one of the scribes on Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, Rebecca Zlotowski is confirmed to be in production on her sixth feature – one that might be about couplehood and might be (as we reported a while back) an erotic thriller. After Cineuropa mentioned that veteran actor (and director) Daniel Auteuil was to topline the project, we now have the confirmation that Jodie Foster will indeed star in Vie Privée (formerly titled Nous étions deux). Production began this month on a screenplay co-written by Zlotowski, Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé.… Read the rest

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The Devil and Donald Trump: Abbasi Reconstructs the Rise of a Crony Capitalist

Among the many wise observations written by nineteenth century Englishman Lord Acton, he noted “Great men are almost always bad men…” But what if they were just plain bad to begin with? And what exactly constitutes greatness? With his fourth film, The Apprentice, filmmaker Ali Abbasi reconstructs the economic rise of Donald Trump through the 1970s and 1980s thanks to his relationship with infamous lawyer Roy Cohn, two men who fall considerably short of anything resembling greatness (at least, if humanity, integrity, and honesty are factors used to determine such a distinction), putting a surprisingly thoughtful spin on both men as logical products of environments and systems which fostered ruthlessness and abject greed.… Read the rest

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Musician turned filmmaker Boots Riley is set to begin production on that always critical sophomore feature with a quartet of players that include muse LaKeith Stanfield (toplined Riley’s debut Sorry to Bother You), Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, and the Demi Moore who is riding a nice career boost with the release of The Substance. The trades a reporting that the NEON project will shoot shortly which either means we can expect I Love Boosters to drop sometime in late 2025 or wait for a Sundance drop in 2026. This is being produced by Ryder Picture Company’s Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett, and Savage Rose Films’ Allison Rose Carter and Jon Read.… Read the rest

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Ariane Louis-Seize‘s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (winner of the Director’s Award at Giornate degli Autori section in Venice Film Festival last year) leads all nominations at the Prix Iris (aka Quebec Oscars) with a total of twenty-two including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best First Film, and seven acting nominations however it’s fiercest competition might come from Simple comme Sylvain by Monia Chokri which premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. Also known as “The Nature of Love,” Chokri’s third feature received fourteen nominations in all with Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director, and four acting nominations.… Read the rest

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