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Sometimes films highlight little-known events in their country of origin that wind up catalyzing a re-evaluation of their nation’s history. Finnish director Klaus Härö’s “Never Alone” is shaping up to be that sort of film. It follows the deportation from Finland of eight Austrian-Jewish refugees by the Gestapo during World War II and the work of Abraham Stiller, a pillar of the Helsinki Jewish community, who tried to stop it from happening.

Despite Finland’s uneasy alliance with Nazi Germany during the early years of the war, Jewish citizens of Finland had their government’s protection in spite of some Finnish officials who would have preferred to comply with the Gestapo’s requests to expel them all.

It’s the first cinematic treatment of this subject, which producer Ilkka Matila says was too painful a story for the Finnish state and the entire society to speak about publicly.

French Canadian directing trio Rkss are back with new movie Wake Up, and Deadline reports this afternoon that Blue Fox Entertainment has picked up the North American rights.

The film will “release across the U.S. and in Canada later this year.”

“We are thrilled to add Rkss’s next film to our theatrical slate,” said Blue Fox Entertainment’s Lisa Gutberlet. “With Wake Up, these incredibly talented filmmakers demonstrate another side to their unique style. The result is a timely, violent yet fun thrill ride that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats until the very end.”

In Wake Up, group of hot-headed Gen Z activists find themselves brutally hunted after they become trapped in a furniture superstore during an act of environmental protest gone wrong.

The film features an impressive cast of young and emerging talent that includes Benny O.Arthur (Sky and Canal + Django series), Jacqueline Moré...

Exclusive: Blue Fox Entertainment has acquired North American rights from StudioCanal to Wake Up, a horror thriller from the filmmaking trio Rkss (Turbo Kid), which it will release across the U.S. and in Canada later this year.

Recently premiering at Austin’s Fantastic Fest, the film watches as a group of young activists set out to make an environmental statement by vandalizing a home superstore as it closes. But their plan goes terribly wrong when they become trapped inside and must face a deranged security guard with a gruesome passion for primitive hunting. As the night fills with violence and terror, the teenagers find themselves in a desperate fight for their lives.

Alberto Marini (Retribution) wrote the script, with Laurent Baudens (We Are Zombies) and Gaël Nouaille (Spoiled Brats) producing for Borsalino Productions. Pic’s cast includes Turlough Convery (Black Mirror), Benny O. Arthur (Django), Jacqueline Moré (The Anarchist...

Cillian Murphy obtained one of acting’s most coveted achievements when he won an Oscar for his leading role in “Oppenheimer.” But his award season run for the acclaimed Christopher Nolan film didn’t end with his big night at the Dolby Theater. The Irish actor went on to receive his home country’s highest acting honor on Sunday at the Irish Film and TV Academy Awards when he won the Lead Actor — Film category for “Oppenheimer.”

The ceremony honored the best Irish film and television of 2023, with Pat Collins’ “That They May Face the Rising Sun” winning Best Film. Other notable winners included Paul Mescal taking Supporting Actor for “All of Us Strangers” and Alison Oliver winning Supporting Actress for “Saltburn.”

Keep reading for a complete list of winners from the 2024 Irish Film and TV Academy Awards.

Best Film

“Double Blind”

“Flora and Son”

“Lies We Tell”

“Lola”

“That They May Face the Rising Sun...

The 21st Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) Awards, which highlight Irish filmmakers, television creators and performers, saw Pat Collins’ That They May Face The Rising Sun win Best Film in an upset. Despite earning a second-best 11 nominations, the top award was its only win.

Lies We Tell all with three wins: for Director Lisa Mulcahy, Lead Actress Agnes O’Casey, and Best Script. It came in with 13nominations.

Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy repeated his Best Actor win at the Academy Awards for Oppenheimer with a win for Lead Actor. In the supporting categories, Paul Mescal won for All of Us Strangers and Alison Oliver topped all for Saltburn.

Oppenheimer was named Best International Film, Emma Stone was Best Actress, and Paul Giamatti won International Actor for The Holdovers.

In the television drama categories, Kin was the winner for series, directing, script, lead actress Clare Dune, and supporting actress Maria Doyle Kennedy.

Filmmaker...

Cillian Murphy, Kin season two and Paul Mescal were among the winners of the Irish Film & Television Awards 2024, which were handed out during a ceremony in Dublin on Saturday.

Lies We Tell, about an orphaned teenage heiress in 19th-century Ireland who is forced to embrace the dark legacy of her family, led the nominations for the movie portion of the awards with 13 and went home with three. It was followed by That They May Face the Rising Sun, which took home the best film prize, and Double Blind, with 11 each. Rising Sun is an adaptation of John McGahern’s novel about passion, war and migration, while Double Blind is a horror film about an experimental drug trial that goes wrong.

Among the lead acting nominees were such big names as Murphy, Barry Keoghan, Andrew Scott, Pierce Brosnan, Saoirse Ronan, Eve Hewson and Jessie Buckley. Murphy took home the best actor...

Fresh from his Academy Award win for best actor, “Oppenheimer” star Cillian Murphy now has a chance to claim the same honor at his local awards.

The Irish Film and TV Academy (IFTA) has unveiled the nominees for its 2024 awards, with Murphy going up against “Saltburn’s'” Barry Keoghan and “All of Us Strangers” star Andrew Scott in the best actor category. Elsewhere, Jessie Buckley (“Fingernails”) and Saoirse Ronan (“Foe”) are among those nominated for best actress, while Paul Mescal (“All of Us Strangers”) and Kenneth Branagh (“Oppenheimer”) are in the running for best supporting actor.

But it was actually Irish features leading the pack of nominees, with Lisa Mulcahy’s “Lies We Tell” landing 13, followed by “That They May Face the Rising Sun” and “Double Blind.”

The IFTAs ceremony will be take place on April 20 at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre with Irish TV personality Baz Ashmawy on hosting duties.

Nominations are out for the 21st Irish Film & Television Awards with Lisa Mulcahy’s thriller Lies We Tell leading the pack on the feature side at 13, and crime drama Kin heading up the TV fields with 11 (scroll down for the ful list of nominees). The Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) will hand out its prizes on April 20 in Dublin.

Alongside Lies We Tell in the Best Film category are Double Blind, Flora and Son, Lola, That They May Face the Rising Sun and Verdigris. Each of those films also scored a mention for their directors.

In what was a banner year for Irish talent, there are several awards season notables vying for Best Actor as well, including Oppenheimer Oscar winner Cillian Murphy, Saltburn’s Barry Keoghan and All of Us Strangers’ Andrew Scott.

The Best International Film race includes All of Us Strangers, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things, Saltburn and The Holdovers.

Lies We Tell, with 13, That They May Face the Rising Sun and Double Blind, with 11 each, are leading the nominations for the movie portion of the Irish Film & Television Awards 2024.

Lies We Tell is about an orphaned teenage heiress in 19th-century Ireland who is forced to embrace the dark legacy of her family when she becomes the ward of an uncle determined to marry her off. Rising Sun is an adaptation of John McGahern’s novel of passion, war, and migration. Double Blind is a horror film about an experimental drug trial that goes horribly wrong. Andrew Legge’s Lola, a science fiction drama set in 1940, received seven noms on Thursday.

Among the lead acting nominees are such big names as Cillian Murphy, Barry Keoghan, Andrew Scott, Pierce Brosnan, Saoirse Ronan, Eve Hewson, and Jessie Buckley. The best supporting film actor category, meanwhile, includes Kenneth Branagh and Paul Mescal.

And...

Assest Sales Disclosure

Rights to the second season of Irish crime drama series “Hidden Assets” have been licensed by Dcd Rights. Buyers include the BBC for the U.K., Sbs and Stan for Australia, TV4 for Sweden and TV2 for Norway.

The 12-part series is produced by Saffron Moon, Facet4Media & Potemkino for Rte, Super Channel & Acorn TV, and was written by Peter McKenna, Morna Regan, Mary Fox and Marthy Thornton. It was co-directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan and leading Belgian director Kadir Ferati Balci (“Cold Courage”). The second season, which had co-funding from Screen Ireland and Creative Europe Media, was first transmitted on Rte Ireland in September this year.

It stars Nora-Jane Noone, Wouter Hendrickx and Simone Kirby. Series One also starred Angeline Ball.

The story picks up from the first season in which Irish investigators probed a series of bombings in Belgium. Personnel changes mean that the Criminal Assets Bureau...

Never Alone received the Screen International Best Pitch Award at the 2011 edition of the Baltic Event co-production market.

Shooting has wrapped in Finland on Klaus Harö’s Second World War drama Never Alone, starring Ville Virtanen, based on the true story of how a prominent member of the Jewish community in Finland, tried to stop the police handing over Jewish refugees to the Gestapo to be deported to the death camps.

The film is produced by Ilkka Matila of Helsinki-based Mrp Matila Röhr Productions, as a €4.9m co-production with Austria’s Samsara Filmproduktion, Estonia’s Taska Film, Germany’s Penned Pictures and Sweden’s Hobab.

We probably won’t see this week’s streaming debuts on the Oscars’ nomination roster come January, but they offer a variety of genres that will satisfy whatever mood you find yourself in this weekend.

The contender to watch this week: “Pain Hustlers“

The opioid epidemic has fueled a wave of movie and TV shows in the last few years, from “Dopesick” and “Ben Is Back” to the gorgeous Oscar-nominated documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.” Hollywood’s latest Big Pharma indictment is a star-studded dramedy directed by “Harry Potter” alum David Yates. Based on a book by journalist Evan Hughes, “Pain Hustlers” features Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Catherine O’Hara, and Andy Garcia in a crime saga revolving around a pharmaceutical start-up whose founder served two years in prison. Reviews have been tepid, but “Hustlers” is now streaming on Netflix following a limited theatrical release.

Other contenders:

“My Sailor, My Love...

Explore where to stream the best films of 2023.

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.

Amerikatsi (Michael A. Goorjian)

If “Rear Window meets Life Is Beautiful” sounds like an all-timer of a cursed elevator pitch, then there’s nothing Michael A. Goorjian’s well-intentioned crowd-pleaser Amerikatsi will be able to do to win you over. A stubbornly unfashionable blend of broad comedy and highly sentimental prisoner-of-war drama, it’s paint-by-numbers middlebrow cinema of the kind the Weinstein Company would release regularly, albeit on a much more contained budget. While there is some brief novelty factor that movies of this distinctively Weinsteinian vintage are still getting made outside Hollywood, even as the broader cinematic landscape has moved past emulating that studio’s tried-and-tested formula in the hopes of awards success,...

Frankie Corio becomes youngest-ever Bafta Scotland nominee.

Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun leads the nominations for the Bafta Scotland Awards 2023, recognised in five categories: actor film, actress film, director fiction, feature film and writer film/television.

The UK-us co-production has acting nominations for Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio, with Corio becoming the youngest-ever nominee at Bafta Scotland.

Scroll down for the full list of nominations

Wells receives the other three nominations, with producers Mark Ceryak, Amy Jackson, Barry Jenkins and Adele Romanski nominated alongside her for feature film.

Aftersun previously received four nominations at the Bafta Film Awards earlier this year, winning...

The filmmaking trio collectively known as Rkss (François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell) put their stamp on the slasher subgenre with the brutal Wake Up, which made its World Premiere last week at Fantastic Fest (our review) before heading to Sitges this week.

Bloody Disgusting spoke with Rkss after the debut about their slasher with a severe mean streak.

Wake Up is written by Alberto Marini (Sleep Tight), based on an original idea by Martin Soudan, and stars Benny O.Arthur (Sky and Canal + Django series), Jacqueline Moré (The Anarchist’S Dream), Charlotte Stoiber (Downfall), Kyle Scudder (Netflix’s upcoming In Love All Over Again), and newcomers Alessia Yoko Fontana and Tom Gould along with celebrated Irish film and television actors Turlough Convery (Black Mirror, Killing Eve) and Aidan O’Hare (My Sailor, My Love).

The setup is simple: Gen Z activists sneak into a big box furniture store after...

French Canadian directing trio Rkss are back with Wake Up, which World Premiered at Fantastic Fest over the weekend. Deadline shares a first-look preview clip out of the fest.

In Wake Up, which combines a strong timely message with a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse, a group of hot-headed Gen Z activists find themselves brutally hunted after they become trapped in a furniture superstore during an act of environmental protest gone wrong.

“As soon as we read the script, the core concept and the timely subject were so compelling to us, that we immediately could visualize the film and we knew we had to direct it and bring our own signature into the project,” said Rkss. “A slasher in a closed furniture store and warehouse makes an exciting playground for sure!”

Rkss —short for Roadkill Superstars— are based in Montreal, Quebec and have had their shorts and features screened around the...

Exclusive: Here’s a first clip for Studiocanal slasher pic Wake Up, which debuts today at Austin’s Fantastic Fest.

Heralding from the French-Canadian directing trio Rkss, comprising Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell and François Simard, the film follows a group of hot-headed Gen Z activists who find themselves brutally hunted after they become trapped in a furniture superstore during an act of environmental protest gone wrong.

Pic is written by Alberto Marini, based on an original idea by Martin Soudan, and presented by Borsalino Productions and Studiocanal. The film will next screen at Spain’s Sitges Film Festival as part of the Oficial Fantàstic Competition.

Starring are Benny O.Arthur (Sky and Canal + Django series), Jacqueline Moré (The Anarchists’s Dream), Charlotte Stoiber (Downfall), Kyle Scudder (Netflix’s upcoming In Love All Over Again), and newcomers Alessia Yoko Fontana and Tom Gould along with Irish actors Turlough Convery (Black Mirror) and...

David Byrne met A24’s young fans as the Talking Heads Stop Making Sense is set to gross $800,673 from 264 Imax screens in North America this weekend. Its cumulative gross of $1.43 million includes Thursday screenings and a live event at TIFF for this remastered version of the 1984 Jonathan Demme-directed concert film ranked by critics as one of the best ever.

Nearly 60% of the audience was under 35 — not alive when the movie came out — and more than half said it was their first time seeing the film.

Stop Making Sense ran on a limited schedule with less than two shows on average at each location, and many screenings turning into dance parties. It expands nationwide next weekend to about 500 theaters and will play out like a regular release — an unusually long tail for a 40-year-old film. A footprint of theaters plans to keep playing it on weekends after its run.

The...

Stop Making Sense, the remastered concert film that sowed delight at TIFF, opens on 300 Imax screens in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland. Locations Stateside number 260 ahead of a nationwide release next week.

The 1984 Talking Heads extravaganza from Jonathan Demme is presented in its new iteration by A24 — meaning the decades-old movie can now extend its reach to a new, younger audience that is A24’s core fan base. Opening numbers are hard to gauge since there aren’t many comps but there are parties, discos, stars and sellouts with film looking at about $1.5 million, including Thursday previews.

A 40th anniversary large-format special premiere screening at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month had people dancing in the aisles and broke Imax records. It was the company’s highest grossing live event, earning $640.8k and selling out 25 screens across 165 Imax locations in North America and the BFI Imax in London.

’Silent Roar’, ‘Shoshana’ and ’How To Have Sex’ will also play at the French seaside festival that spotlights UK and Irish cinema.

France’s Dinard Festival of British Film has unveiled the line-up of its 34th edition, which includes Cannes titles Ken Loach’s The Old Oak, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest and Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex.

Also on the line-up is Charlotte Regan’s Sundance title Scrapper. The comedy drama stars Harris Dickinson and follows a young girl forced to confront reality when her estranged father returns, and is currently on release in...

Estonia’s Taska Film, the production company behind local box-office hits such as medieval crime thriller “Melchior the Apothecary,” hits Locarno’s Match Me! industry sessions with a slate that includes Jaak Kilmi’s “Dirt in Your Face,” a coming-of-age rock drama set in the twilight of the Soviet Union backed in part by Apollo, the largest cinema chain in the Baltic region.

The film follows 17-year-old Mihkel and his band as they go on a journey full of alcohol, protest and music to impress a Western producer visiting a rock festival in 1980s Soviet Estonia. In their struggle to keep the band together, the group inadvertently help split the Soviet Union apart.

“Dirt in Your Face” is written by Martin Algus and based on the bestseller of the same name by Mihkel Raud, a former member of the ’80s band Golem (pictured) on whom the movie is based. It...

Most festivals don’t want protests. This one encouraged a picket line to form.

The Nantucket Film Festival, which took place June 21-26 on the foggy isle 30 miles off the Massachusetts coast, is uniquely oriented toward the craft of screenwriting. Stars certainly appear — Allison Williams brought the glamour this year — but pen and paper are more important here than primping and pompadours.

The WGA has been a longtime partner of the festival, and the biggest gala event was a Screenwriters Tribute honoring Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, the “To All the Boys I Loved Before” scribe Jenny Han, and Nicole Holofcener, whose “You Hurt My Feelings” screened in the lineup. That film is literally about an author, and so were several others that showed, including Christian Petzold’s “Afire.” And the biggest competition isn’t built around established names at all, but a screenplay contest geared toward finding new talent.

Global Screen has closed further presales for “Lassie — A New Adventure,” the sequel featuring the most famous dog in the history of cinema.

The film, directed by Hanno Olderdissen, has sold to A Contracorriente for Spain; Ads Service for Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Moldavia; Turkey’s Bir Film; Gpi for the Baltic states; Bulgaria’s Pro Films; Karantanija for ex-Yugoslavia; and Greece’s Zinos Panagiotidis. Poland and Benelux are in negotiation.

Sales were previously concluded with Lucky Red (Italy), Ab Svensk Filmindustri (Scandinavia) and Film House (Israel).

The prequel “Lassie Come Home,” which was also directed by Olderdissen, was sold to every territory around the world.

“Lassie — A New Adventure” tells a heartwarming story about the friendship between a boy and his dog. The family entertainment film will be released in German cinemas in July by Leonine, which also served as a co-producer on the film.

Inspired...

Munich-based sales agency Global Screen has acquired “You’re Not Me,” the debut feature of the directors Moisés Romera and Marisa Crespo, for worldwide theatrical distribution. It is a dark elevated genre thriller with elements of satire, focusing on two of the filmmakers’ obsessions: family relationships and social differences.

In the film, Aitana returns home for Christmas, for the first time in three years, to find that her parents have replaced her with an unknown woman. She is her own age, sleeping in her bed, wearing her clothes, living in her house, and treated by her parents as if she were their daughter.

From that moment on, torn by jealousy, suspicion, and misunderstanding, Aitana tries to find out what is happening and who the intruder is that has taken her place in the family – until she discovers an unexpected and disturbing truth that is darker and way bloodier than she would ever have thought possible.

German film and TV distribution and licensing company Telepool, which is owned by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook, is moving into lead producing movies and series, its CEO Yoko Higuchi-Zitzmann tells Variety exclusively in her first interview since joining the company in January.

Munich-based Telepool is celebrating its 60th anniversary on Wednesday, and although it has a barrel-load of experience in selling, distributing, licensing, financing and co-producing movies and series, this shift into initiating and lead producing represents a significant step for the company. It also forms part of Westbrook’s broader strategy for international expansion, which – in part – lay behind its acquisition of Telepool in December 2021.

Higuchi-Zitzmann seems ideally suited to the task as she has worked for several leading German film and TV companies, giving her experience in both distribution and production. Most recently, she served as the managing director of Pantaleon Films, whose founders include German star Matthias Schweighöfer,...

The feature recently won best Irish film at the Dublin International Film Festival.

Germany’s Global Screen has sold the North American rights on Finnish filmmaker Klaus Härö’s English-language debut and Toronto International Film Festival premiere My Sailor, My Love to Music Box Films.

It stars James Cosmo, Bríd Brennan and Catherine Walkera, and follows a retired sailor and widower who falls in love with his home help. His adult daughter disapproves and feels she is losing the father she never had.

My Sailor, My Love has just been released in the UK and Ireland by Signature and will...

Theatrical release planned for Toronto Contemporary World Cinema selection.

Germany’s Global Screen has closed a first major deal with Signature for UK & Ireland rights to Klaus Härö’s English-language debut and TIFF premiere My Sailor, My Love.

Signature plans an theatrical release early this year on the story starring James Cosmo, Bríd Brennan and Catherine Walker about a retired sailor and widower who falls in love with his home help. His adult daughter disapproves and feels she is losing the father she never had.

Kai Nordberg and Kaarle Aho for Making Movies Oy (Finland) and David Collins...

Glasgow Film Festival ran from March 1-12, screening 123 features.

A joy-filled Glasgow Film Festival (Gff) drew to a close last night (March 12) with the UK premiere of Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society, while Riceboy Sleeps scooped the festival’s only prize, the audience award, in what co-director Allan Hunter described as the “tightest” voting race in Gff’s audience award history.

Riceboy Sleeps is directed by Anthony Shim, and premiered at Toronto last year. It follows a South Korean family’s attempts to adapt to a new life in Canada, produced by Shim, Rebecca Steele and Bryan Demore. The family...

Glasgow Film Festival ran from March 1-12, screening 123 features.

A joy-filled Glasgow Film Festival (Gff) drew to a close last night (March 12) with the UK premiere of Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society, while Riceboy Sleeps scooped the festival’s only prize, the audience award, in what co-director Allan Hunter described as the “tightest” voting race in Gff’s audience award history.

Riceboy Sleeps is directed by Anthony Shim, and premiered at Toronto last year. It follows a South Korean family’s attempts to adapt to a new life in Canada, produced by Shim, Rebecca Steele and Bryan Demore. The family...

’65’ came in third place for Sony in its opening weekend.

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Mar 10-512 Total gross to date Week 1. Creed III (Warner Bros) £2.7m £9.4m 2 2. Scream VI (Paramount) £2.4m £3m 1 3. 65 (Sony) £1.3m £1.3m 1 4. Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Universal) £902,045 £23.2m 6 5. Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania (Disney) £722,279 £18.3m 4

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.21

Michael B. Jordan’s Creed III continued strongly in its second weekend at the UK-Ireland box office, taking £2.7m for Warner Bros, and beating Paramount’s three-day takings for new opener Scream VI.

Creed III’s total now boasts £9.4m and it looks...

Sony’s ’65’ and Universal’s ’Champions’ are also new this weekend.

This weekend’s widest opener at the UK-Ireland box office is Scream VI, the latest offering from the iconic horror franchise, hitting 624 locations for Paramount.

It is slightly up on locations to Scream – the fifth film in the slasher series – which opened to an impressive £2.5m from 622 sites in January 2022, at an average of £3,955, making it the highest-performing horror title since the pandemic at the UK-Ireland box office.

Recent horrors to do well in the territory includes Universal’s M3GAN, the second best-performer for the genre since the pandemic,...

Warner Bros’ “Creed III” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with a knockout £5 million ($5.9 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

In its third weekend, Disney’s “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania” moved down a slot to second place with £1.4 million for a total of £17.2 million.

Universal’s “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish” collected £1.1 million in its fifth weekend in third position for a total of £22.1 million. In fourth place, another Universal title, “Cocaine Bear,” snorted £1.09 million in its second weekend for a total of £3.6 million.

Rounding off the top five was Studiocanal’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It?,” which charmed its way to £845,838 in its second weekend for a total of £2.7 million.

Sony’s “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – To The Swordsmith Village” debuted in sixth place with £567,638 and the weekend’s other debut was Magnetes’ “Heaven in Hell,” which bowed in 10th...

Exclusive: Oscar-nominated director Whit Stillman (Metropolitan) is turning his hand to big budget rom-com adventure TV with The Splendid Affinities, a series set across Paris, Madrid and London.

Global Screen is co-producing and will feature The Splendid Affinities on its Berlinale slate and Stillman has teamed with Argentina 1985 producer Infinity Hill and Lauranne Bourrachot (A Prophet) on the project, which is one of Stillman’s first major TV offerings.

The show is set 30 years after the end of the Soviet era, where the fictional Baltic republic of Vronyia is under threat along with the life of its beloved Prince Michael, elder statesman of the country’s return to democracy. Violence extends to London, Paris and Madrid and the main characters have to save the nations in the most stylish way possible, with dreams of finding love while doing so.

Stillman said the once popular rom-com adventure genre has “become rarer.

"I'll tell you a secret - I'm actually quite enjoying myself." Signature Ent. in the UK has revealed an official trailer for an indie film titled My Sailor, My Love, an Ireland-Finland co-production from director Klaus Härö. This old age romantic drama premiered at TIFF 2022 last year, and just played at the Palm Springs Film Festival in the US earlier this year. Howard, a retired sea captain, refuses any help from his daughter Grace. When she hires Annie as domestic help for him, Howard unexpectedly falls in love. He gives all his affection to Annie and her family, but rejects his own daughter. My Sailor, My Love is a story about a guilt-affected daughter-father relationship. But it's also a love story between two elderly people, proving a new beginning is never too late. James Cosmo co-stars with Brid Brennan, joined by Catherine Walker, Nora-Jane Noone, Aidan O'Hare, & Molly McCann. Early...

Dublin International Film Festival will run from February 23 - March 4.

World premieres of Fintan Connolly’s Barber and Claire Dix’s Spotlight are among the line-up for the Dublin International Film Festival.

Connolly’s Barber stars Aidan Gillen as a private investigator investing the disappearance of a wealthy widow’s granddaughter. Gillen previously led Connolly’s 2005 film Trouble With Sex which was nominated for eight Irish Film and Television awards.

Sunlight follows a recovering addict who is caring for his terminally ill sponsor. The cast includes Barry Ward and Liam Carney. Dix was last as Diff in 2013 with audience award-winner Broken Song.

As the Finnish Film Affair embarks on the start of its second decade, the organizers of the annual industry event, which runs parallel to the Helsinki International Film Festival — Love & Anarchy, can both reflect on 10 years of success and look ahead for ways to continue to serve both the Finnish and the Nordic film industries.

“Finnish Film Affair started in 2012 with 240 participants. This year, for our 11th edition, we have nearly 500 delegates attending from over 20 countries, with a third of them being international guests and buyers,” Finnish Film Affair director Maria Pirkkalainen told Variety on the eve of the event, which runs from Sept. 21 – 23.

It’s a return to form for a Nordic showcase that, like other industry events around the world, has faced a range of disruptions since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

“The past years haven’t been the easiest for the Nordic film industry, and...

Festival runs October 12-23.

Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, and Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History Of Destruction are among the international competitions line-up at the 58th Chicago International Film Festival next month.

This year’s competitions include 10 films receiving their North American premiere and 17 getting their US premiere as the entries vie for the festival’s Gold Hugo award in the categories of international feature, international documentary, and new directors.

The festival runs October 12-23. The full international competition line-ups are below.

Playing in International Feature Competition are: The Beasts (Sp-Fr), Rodrigo Sorogoyen, US premiere; Before,...

Buyer plans early 2023 theatrical release.

Germany’s Global Screen has reported a strong response in Toronto to Klaus Haro’s TIFF Contemporary World Cinema selection My Sailor, My Love and has struck a deal with Signature for UK & Ireland.

Härö’s English-language debut premiered last Friday (September 9) and stars James Cosmo and Bríd Brennan as a retired sea captain and the home help he falls for, much to the chagrin of his grown-up daughter who feels she has never truly known her father. Catherine Walker also stars.

Jimmy Karlsson and Kirsi Wikman wrote the screenplay. Haro’s 2015 Finnish drama The Fencer...

Finnish director Klaus Härö makes his English-language debut with Toronto Film Festival premiere “My Sailor, My Love.” A gentle drama about a retired sea captain falling in love one last time will be spotlighted at the Helsinki-based event Finnish Film Affair next. Global Screen is handling the sales.

Härö, an experienced filmmaker behind Golden Globe-nominated “The Fencer,” didn’t feel “desperate” to make a movie in English, he says.

“I hope it doesn’t feel forced. With English, there is always this thought that maybe this way, it will reach more people. But it just felt natural to set it in Ireland.”

“I love the loneliness of this landscape, its proximity to the sea. Also, ‘The Fencer’ was shot in Estonia and my next film will be in Finnish, German, Hebrew and Yiddish.”

Produced by Kai Nordberg and Kaarle Aho for Making Movies, as well as David Collins for Ireland...

Howard (James Cosmo) lives what appears to be a hermitic life of unwavering obstinance. He doesn’t even open the door when his daughter Grace (Catherine Walker) and her husband Martin (Aidan O’Hare) arrive—a seemingly inconsequential fact until you realize it’s his birthday and she’s there to ready for the celebration. It would be easy to dismiss his demeanor as immovable then. Why would he act like this with his loved ones if that wasn’t how he acts with everyone? Except attending the local bar afterwards to celebrate more inexplicably sees Howard suddenly sparkling to life. He regales the children with tales at sea, enjoys a slice of their cake (not Grace’s), and seems a decade younger. Where then is the disconnect? What are we missing?

While Jimmy Karlsson and Kirsi Vikman’s script keeps the particulars of Howard’s relationship with his family hidden for a short while,...

The Finnish Film Affair’s 11th edition runs September 21-23.

The Finnish Film Affair’s 11th edition (September 21-23) will showcase around 30 Nordic films in development or production and four Finnish TV series projects in early development.

Some of the projects being presented are Selma Vilhunen’s Four Little Adults, a polyamory drama now in post; Katja Gauriloff’s second fiction feature Je’vida, the first feature film in the Skolt Sámi language; Teemu Nikki’s fantasy comedy for all ages Snot And Splash; the third instalment in the Niko animations, Niko - Beyond The Northern Lights, by Kari Juusonen...

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The Toronto Film Festival has announced new titles for its TIFF Docs and Contemporary World Cinema sections.

The TIFF Docs section will open with the previously announced Sacha Jenkins’ Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues, and there’s a North American premiere for Laura Poitras’ opioid epidemic doc All the Beauty and the Bloodshed from Participant.

The festival will also feature newly-added world bows for Cine-Guerrilas: Scenes from the Labudovic Reels, by director Mila Rurajlic; Documentary Now!, by Alex Buono, Rhys Thomas and Micah Gardner; Sam Soko and Lauren DeFilippo’s Free Money, about a Kenyan village being given a universal basic income by an American organization; The Grab, from Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite; and Stephanie Johnes’ Maya and the Wave.

Other documentary first looks headed to Toronto include Mark Fletcher’s Patrick and the Whale; Sinead O’Shea’s Pray for our Sinners; Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot,...

Includes new work from Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Werner Herzog and Klaus Hӓrӧ.

New work from Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Werner Herzog and Klaus Hӓrӧ are among TIFF Docs and Contemporary World Cinema line-ups announced on Wednesday (August 17).

In TIFF Docs, Cowperthwaite’s The Grab exposes the systematic acquisition of food and water resources by international governments and private companies. Herzog returns to the fray with Theatre Of Thought, in which he explores the cutting edge of brain research.

The selection includes Mark Fletcher’s nature documentary Patrick And The Whale (pictured) and opens with Sacha Jenkins’ Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues.

James Cosmo, Catherine Walker, Brid Brennan star.

Germany sales agent Global Screen has acquired worldwide sales rights to Finnish filmmaker Klaus Haro’s English-language debut My Sailor, My Love.

The film shot last year in Ireland. It stars James Cosmo, Catherine Walker and Brid Brennan.

My Sailor, My Love tells the story of a retired sea captain who falls in love with his home aid; but his middle-aged daughter does not approve of the relationship.

The film is written by Jimmy Karlsson and Kirsi Wikman.

It is produced by Kai Nordberg and Kaarle Aho for Finland’s Making Movies ; and...