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Rúnar Rúnarsson’s latest film, “When the Light Breaks,” has found distribution in major markets around the world ahead of its North American premiere. The drama tells a universal story about loss and transformation through its main character Una, played by Elín Hall. Shot on film, the movie draws from Rúnarsson’s own experiences with grief.

The film first screened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where it received critical acclaim. Since then, distribution deals have brought the movie to audiences in key territories like Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Taiwan, Australia, and Brazil. Paris-based sales company The Party Film Sales secured these agreements.

This international success underscores Rúnarsson’s growing reputation as a director. His past works such as 2011’s “Volcano” and award-winning “Sparrows” and “Echo” have earned him praise on the festival circuit. “When the Light Breaks” marks his fourth full-length feature.

The movie will focus...

In the run up to its North American premiere at Toronto Film Festival, Rúnar Rúnarsson’s Icelandic film “When the Light Breaks” has been picked by international distributors. The critically acclaimed movie world premiered at Cannes and is being handled by Paris-based The Party Film Sales.

Shot in 16mm, the movie stars Elín Hall (“Let Me Fall”) as Una, whom Rúnarsson previously described in an interview with Variety as an “outsider in the events that unfold around her, even though she is in fact at their center.” It marks Rúnarsson’s fourth feature. He broke through internationally in 2008 with his Oscar-nominated short “Two Birds.” He went on to helm the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2011 entry “Volcano,” San Sebastian 2015 winner “Sparrows “ and 2019 Valladolid and Lübeck fest winner “Echo.”

Following its premiere at Cannes and screenings at Karlovy Vary and Munich FilmFest, The Party Film Sales closed theatrical deals for “When the Light Breaks...

The dark loss of grief expands to fill the long magic-hour light of an Icelandic summer day in this delicately worked study of a youth cut short by Rúnar Rúnarsson. The Icelandic director has long had a handle on what makes young people tick and their unpredictable energies - exploring them in the likes of 2 Birds and Sparrows - and they are again to the fore here in a film that is also stylish in terms of its repeated imagery and elegant framing.

The hopefulness of new beginnings is emphasised by a conversation at sunset between fellow students Una (Elín Hall) and Diddi (Baldur Einarsson). They’re in the flush of a first love that they’ve been keeping to themselves. But the morning will see Diddi make the trip back to his hometown to tell his girlfriend Klara (Katla Njálsdóttir) that it's over.

When morning comes, it brings a tunnel,...

In our first encounter with Una (Elín Hall) and Diddi (Baldur Einarsson) in the long dusk of a Reykjavik spring night, they are thinking only of the future. The immediate future: will they be able to sleep overnight together without Diddi’s flatmate noticing? The near future, meaning the next couple of days, when Diddi officially breaks off his longstanding relationship with his high-school sweetheart Klara and starts a new life with Una. And the long term. A trip to Japan. A different life with a wider scope than Iceland can provide. “Should we make babies?” Diddi murmurs into Una’s ear as they lie, wrapped around each other like kittens, in his single-pillowed bed.

But when Diddi is killed in a freak fire in a road tunnel the next morning – a national disaster that claims upwards of a dozen lives – Una finds herself alone with her searing grief. Diddi...

The longest days in your life are those where a loved one dies. Exhausting waves of feeling lap each other over the hours, stretching and blurring them as disbelief gives way to panic, to fatigue, to deep and paralyzing sadness, all while practical tasks mount and accelerate. As you struggle through forms, travel plans and an immediate onslaught of phone calls, the memory of yesterday taunts you with its nearness and distance. How could life have been so different then? Will it ever be so ordinary again? In “When the Light Breaks,” Rúnar Rúnarsson poignantly dramatizes the vastness, smallness and strangeness of one such day, following rawly bereaved art student Una (Elín Hall) through the immediate, suffocating aftermath of her lover Diddi’s sudden passing — with spiraling emotions further confused by unresolved secrets between her and the dead.

For Una cannot openly speak of her love for Diddi (Baldur Einarsson...

In his fourth feature “When the Light Breaks,” Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson starts with a heartbreaking tragedy. Una (Elín Hall) finds out that the boy she loves was in an accident. What follows is a day full of grief — and sunlight. The film opens Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section.

As proven by “Sparrows,” you are not afraid to tells stories with younger protagonists. Is it easy for you to go back to that mindset?

Everything I write is based on my first- or second-hand experiences, which I then mix with fiction. I also had an amazing cast, which is probably one of the first things you have to have. There is a lot of talent in Iceland, but we wanted the crème de la crème. It was crucial to find the right people to portray these characters and turn them into human beings.

It’s different when you work with young adults,...

After three wildly entertaining seasons, Netflix’s eccentric superhero series The Umbrella Academy is coming to an end. On August 8th, 2024, fans will be treated to the sixth and final episode, providing a “sexy, wacky” conclusion to the Hargreeves’ dysfunctional journey. Though plot details remain tightly under wraps, Netflix and the cast have dropped some major hints about what to expect from the imminent fourth season.

How Will The Siblings Regain Their Powers?

The Umbrella Academy

According to Variety, when we last saw Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, Ben, and Vanya, they had created and become trapped in an alternate 2019 timeline ruled by a villainous version of their adoptive father Sir Reginald Hargreeves. His Sparrow Academy is sure to create conflicts that will drive much of the action this season. According to showrunner Steve Blackman, the final season will pick up right where season three left off, finding the siblings...

“Hey – you Molly! Git them brats back to work! Them veg-tables is wuth money. Quit a-tramplin’ ’em or I’ll run the lot of yer into the swamp!”

The Arkadin Cinema, a local independent theater scheduled to open soon, is hosting an film series that takes place in the back lot at The Heavy Anchor (5226 Gravois Ave in St. Louis). Mary Pickford in Sparrows (1920) screens Wednesday May 11th. Showtime is 8:00. Sparrows is presented by Silents, Please Stl, a local group that aims to promote and preserve the art of silent filmmaking from the early 20th Century through community programming and education. Enter through the front of The Heavy Anchor. Admission is 10 and can be purchased in advance Here. Bring your own chair. First come, first served. Seating is limited. Food and drinks and available there at The Heavy Anchor. This is a 21+ event, so leave the kids home. The...

The doors of the Sparrow Academy are about to open at last, a little birdie (aka Netflix) told us on Sunday.

Nearly two years after The Umbrella Academy‘s second season dropped, the streaming service has announced a Wednesday, June 22 release date for the long-awaited Season 3. Showrunner Steve Blackman first broke the news at the SXSW festival in Austin.

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Season 2 of the comic book adaptation ended, way back in July 2020, with the Hargreeves siblings successfully stopping the apocalypse…...

Gen. Mark Naird will return to action this winter: Space Force Season 2 will premiere on Feb. 18, Netflix announced Monday.

The series, which was renewed in November 2020, likely will feel a bit different in its sophomore run. As part of a “creative revamp,” Norm Hiscock (Parsks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) has joined Greg Daniels as co-showrunner; Jimmy O. Yang, who plays Dr. Chan Kaifang, now also is a member of the show’s writing staff. In addition, production on the comedy has moved from Los Angeles to Vancouver.

More from TVLineHow Cobra Kai Pulled Off Country Star [Spoiler]'s Surprise PerformanceCobra Kai...

The new year is indeed off to a happy start for The Umbrella Academy fans: Netflix on Saturday released teaser posters for the seven Sparrows that will populate Season 3.

The Umbrella Academy has been on hiatus since Season 2 dropped in July 2020, with only a few details known about Season 3. In October, Netflix revealed that new episodes would at least partially take place at Hotel Oblivion, an unsettling locale that first appeared in the third volume of the comics from which the series is adapted.

More from TVLineUmbrella Academy Confirms 'Hotel Oblivion' Setting for Season 3Umbrella Academy Boss Unveils Episode Titles...

Review by Sam Moffitt

I love silent films! I have to say that from the beginning I have been fascinated with the silent years of film making. When I was growing up in the St. Louis area in the sixties there was a syndicated show called Who’s The Funnyman? Hosted by Cliff Norton this was a kid’s show which presented silent slapstick comedies, Hal Roach, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Harold Lloyd, The Keystone Cops. These were short versions, cut to fit a Saturday morning time slot and with voice over by Mr. Norton. He would always introduce the films as a record of his family members, cousins, uncles, brothers, sisters, and describe the predicaments we could see being acted out on camera.

How I loved that show! It made me want to see the complete films, I could tell they had been edited just as Channel...

Mary Pickford Building: The Lot aka Pickford-Fairbanks Studios Los Angeles just got uglier. Despite protests, the Mary Pickford Building on West Hollywood's The Lot has been destroyed by its current owner, the Cim Group. (See video below.) The Lot, as previously reported on this site, was built in the 1910s, when it was known as The Hampton Studios. Silent-era superstars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks purchased the place, which they renamed the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios. That's where Pickford's and Fairbanks' 1920s blockbusters — Robin Hood, Rosita, Sparrows, and The Thief of Bagdad among them — were shot. Renamed the United Artists Studios, it also became the workplace for the likes of Charles Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, Norma Talmadge, Constance Talmadge, Gloria Swanson, and others. Independent producer Samuel Goldwyn also worked on the lot, where he made most of his later films: Frank Tuttle's Roman Scandals with Eddie Cantor, Titanic's Gloria Stuart, and...

Silent All Quiet On The Western Front: TCM's Library of Congress Tribute [Photo: Kay Francis, Leslie Howard in British Agent.] Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 8:00 Pm The Constant Nymph (1943). A composer finds inspiration in his wife's romantic cousin. Dir: Edmund Goulding. Cast: Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, Alexis Smith. Bw-112 mins. 10:00 Pm Baby Face (1933). A beautiful schemer sleeps her way to the top of a banking empire. Dir: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook. Bw-76 mins. 11:30 Pm Two Heads On A Pillow (1934). Once-married attorneys face off during a heated divorce case. Dir: William Nigh. Cast: Neil Hamilton, Miriam Jordan, Henry Armetta. Bw-68 mins. 12:45 Am All Quiet On The Western Front (1930). Young German soldiers try to adjust to the horrors of World War I. Dir: Lewis Milestone. Cast: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray. Bw-134 mins. 3:15 Am : Will Rogers Winging Around Europe (1927). Bw-0 mins. 3:30 Am...

Joan Fontaine-Charles Boyer in Rare The Constant Nymph on TCM. [Photo: Miriam Jordan, Neil Hamilton in Two Heads on a Pillow.] Besides the Edmund Goulding-directed Joan Fontaine-Charles Boyer-Alexis Smith movie The Constant Nymph, other Library of Congress Film Archive entries on Turner Classic Movies tonight include Two Heads on a Pillow (1934), a B comedy directed by William Nigh, an important late silent-era director (Lon Chaney's Mr. Wu, Ramon Novarro's Across to Singapore) later stuck with second-rate fare. Apparently a sort of Adam's Rib predecessor, Two Heads on a Pillow features former silent-era leading man Neil Hamilton (Batman's Commissioner Gordon) and minor leading lady Miriam Jordan as once-married attorneys involved in a divorce case. It's probably worth watching even if only because of its cast, which also includes silent-era veterans Betty Blythe (the title role in the now-lost The Queen of Sheba) and Claire McDowell (Ramon Novarro's leprosy-stricken mom in Ben-Hur,...

As you may have heard, Michel Hazanavicius’s “The Artist” (The Weinstein Company, 11/23, ?, trailer) — which made a big splash at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (where it was a serious contender for the Palm d’Or and its star Jean Dujardin was named best actor), and which will soon be seen again at the Toronto International Film Festival — is not only in black-and-white, but also silent!

Many credible analysts — including Harvey Weinstein, who is as savvy an Oscar-prospector as anyone, and whose studio purchased the film’s rights shortly after Cannes – believe that it is visually beautiful/emotionally powerful enough to seriously factor into this year’s Oscar race.

But could a silent film, in this day and age, actually catch on with the public and/or Oscar voters?

Most people today dismiss silent movies as lacking something — namely, sound — but that’s not a particularly enlightened position. After all,...

Given the recent furore over certain Sky Sports presenters being a bunch of sexist bastards, it seems a relevant time to celebrate the female contribution to cinema – which is still largely unappreciated with women directors still making up a small percentage of directors and other creatives. But they’re awesome and they’ve now got their own festival to show off their work.

We’ve been sent over the press release and festival line up. The Bird’s Eye View Film Festival takes place in London from March 8th – 17th. The programme includes new films, documentaries, retrospectives and panel discussions.

From the press release:

The hotly anticipated Birds Eye View Film Festival 2011 (Bev) programme has been announced by Rosamund Pike at a private launch event on 25 January. The Festival returns for its seventh annual celebration of women filmmakers from 8-17 March at BFI Southbank, the Ica the Southbank Centre, with...

Celebrating the centennial of actress Mary Pickford, the Library of Congress is co-hosting a series of classic films in which she stars in theaters around the country through December.

On Saturday, three films will play at San Francisco's Castro Theatre as part of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival: "They Would Elope," "Getting Even" and "The Trick That Failed."

On Sunday, three Pickford films -- "Elope," "Trick" and "Sparrows" -- will screen at the Alex Theater in Glendale, Ca. Co-sponsors include the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Glendale Arts and the Alex Film Society.

"Mary Pickford has been called the 'Founding Mother of Hollywood,' because she was so instrumental in establishing the early film industry in that part of California," Library film historian Christel Schmidt said. "She was a shrewd businesswoman, and not only worked wisely to earn a spectacular salary for her acting, but also...