News

Tea Shop Productions, whose psycho-thriller The Surfer starring Nicolas Cage premiered in Cannes Midnight, has unveiled a dynamic development slate featuring Ruth Paxton and Nicolas Winding Refn projects.

Paxton is lining up her next directing feature after Toronto 2021 title A Banquet with Brock Norman Brock attached to write, while producer Refn and Vertigo are collaborating with Tea Shop on a long-gestating remake of horror classic Witchfinder General.

Also in the pipeline are a co-production with Merman and Searchlight and the debut feature from Jimmy Dean based on the Julia Armfield short story Manti.

Tea Shop, co-founded in 2010 by Los Angeles-based...

Everybody loves a good indie-rock origin story — like Paul Westerberg holding it down as a janitor in the office of a Minnesota senator before joining the Replacements, or Dayton, Ohio’s Robert Pollard teaching grade school while biding his time before Guided By Voices became a thing. Here’s a new one for you: Meet Mike Maple, a mailman in the small college town of Marquette, Michigan who spends his time walking the postal beat dreaming up relentlessly fun punk-rock tunes to play in his band Liquid Mike. “Given what...

Disney's "The Little Mermaid" is filled with plenty of familiar faces, including Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy, and Javier Bardem. But the film also features a handful of fresh faces, like Jessica Alexander, who plays Ursula's human alter ego, Vanessa.

Alexander wanted to pursue acting from a young age and landed her first major role on the Italian teen drama, "Penny on M.A.R.S.," which aired on Disney Channel in Italy from 2018 to 2020. Following her success on the show, Alexander went on to star in the BBC iPlayer series "Get Even," which helped her gain popularity onscreen and land roles in "Glasshouse," "A Banquet," and "Into the Deep" between 2021 and 2022.

In March 2021, Alexander got her big break stateside when she was cast to play Vanessa in the live-action adaptation of "The Little Mermaid" and has been on everyone's radar ever since. Touching on being a part of the film, the actor told Something About Rocks,...

Nicolas Cage has been set to lead the cast in the new psychological thriller ‘The Surfer.’

Cage takes on the role of a man who returns to his hometown in Australia and takes on a local gang of surfers.

The synopsis reads; When a man (Cage) returns to his beachside hometown in Australia, many years since building a life for himself in the U.S., he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a local gang of surfers who claim strict ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, “The Surfer” decides to remain at the beach, declaring war against those in control of the bay. But as the conflict escalates, the stakes spin wildly out of control, taking “The Surfer” to the edge of his sanity.

Also in news – Aimee Lou Wood & Matt Dillon join cast of ‘The Gambler Wife’

Lorcan Finnegan is directing from a screenplay by Thomas Martin.

Cage is hitting the beach!

Having recently saddled up for his first Western, Nicolas Cage looks set to ride some waves for the first time on screen, having been cast to lead elevated psychological thriller The Surfer from director Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium, Nocebo) and screenwriter Thomas Martin.

Mossbank, the partnership between Sculptor Media and Raven and headed by Michael Rothstein and Sam Hall, is handling international sales and introducing The Surfer to buyers at the Cannes Market. Domestic sales will be repped by WME Independent.

In The Surfer, when a man (Cage) returns to his beachside hometown in Australia, many years since building a life for himself in the U.S., he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a local gang of surfers who claim strict ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, “The Surfer” decides to remain at the beach, declaring war against those in control of the bay.

Signature Entertainment have released a first-look image of Joe Keery and Camila Morrone in crime romance “Marmalade” ahead of launching global sales at Berlin’s European Film Market (EFM).

“Marmalade” is the directorial debut of actor and director-screenwriter Keir O’Donnell. The film centers on the recently imprisoned Baron (Keery) who strikes up a friendship with cellmate Otis, a man with a history of prison breaks. As the pair hatch an escape plan together, Baron recalls the story of how he met Marmalade (Morrone), the love of his life, and their Bonnie and Clyde scheme to rob a bank in order to care for his sick mother and give the couple the life they’ve always dreamed of.

Keery is best known for his role as Steve Harrington in Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” was in Disney’s “Free Guy and led comedy horror “Spree,” which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Jessica Alexander, who starred in the recent psychological horror movie A Banquet (pictured above) and the dystopian thriller Glasshouse, is now playing the lead role in Fallen, a supernatural series being made for the Brazilian streaming service Globoplay. Fallen is now filming, and given the fact that most of the cast are not Brazilian I have a feeling the show is going to be available on other services than Globoplay at some point.

Alexander’s co-stars include Alexander Siddig (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Sarah Niles (Ted Lasso), Gijs Blom (The Letter for the King), Timothy Innes (The Last Kingdom), Josefine Koenig (My Name Is Josy), Lawrence Walker (The ReZort), Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness (Days of the Bagnold Summer), Laura Majid (Five), Courtney Chen (FBI: International), and newcomers Esme Kingdom, Maura Bird, Samantha Bell, and Julian Krenn.

Inspired by Lauren Kate’s bestselling Fallen series of novels, the first season of the...

Hello, everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday weekend (or regular weekend for those of you outside of the States). We’re back today with a brand new round-up of horror and sci-fi home media releases that are headed home today, and it includes quite the array of titles. One of my favorite movies of the year - Everything Everywhere All At Once from The Daniels - is being released to 4K as well as Blu-ray and DVD and if you’re looking to indulge in even more 4K entertainment, Edge of Tomorrow is also getting the 4K treatment, too.

Kino Lorber is keeping busy this week with an array of classic titles headed to Blu, including Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo, Ants! (aka It Happened at Lakewood Manor) and Terror Out of the Sky (aka Revenge of the Savage Bees), and IFC is also releasing Ruth Paxton’s...

After the 2000s seemingly kickstarted a new wave of independent horror, the 2010s (and beyond) were an exceptional time for new and emerging, as well as established, filmmakers to leave their own mark on the landscape of genre storytelling. One of the most notable aspects, or even trends, that I noticed while doing research for this entire series of retrospectives is how out of all of the decades, it feels like the 2010s was one of the best times for female filmmakers to get the opportunity to take the helm in comparison to other decades. The 1980s had a handful of women directors working in independent horror, but during both the ’90s and ’00s, it felt like the industry as a whole had taken a few steps backwards in providing female filmmakers the opportunity to tell the stories they wanted to tell.

Thankfully, though, the door swung back open in...

The AMC+ streaming service will be host to new movies every Friday. Films on the service will feature an array of titles from distributors IFC Films, IFC Midnight, Rlje Films and Shudder, serving as the streaming home following the theatrical releases of films from these distributors, AMC Networks announced on Tuesday.

Films will be streaming on AMC+ 90 days after they first hit theaters thanks to a new agreement with AMC Networks Film Group through which AMC+ is the exclusive streaming home of the company’s full slate of films following their theatrical and digital distribution.

While most titles will be streaming 90 days after their theatrical release, select titles will be premiering day-and-date in theaters and on AMC+.

The first film to kick off this new agreement is the IFC Films feature “Clean,” starring Adrien Brody, which will be streaming on AMC+ on Friday, May 6. Additionally, the last Friday of every...

IFC Films is moving its first pay television window to AMC+, in a bid by AMC Networks to carve out a weekly exclusive movie premiere every week of the year for its in-house streaming service. Under the new deal, announced on Tuesday, AMC+ will be the exclusive streaming home of movies from AMC Networks Film Group — which includes IFC Films, IFC Midnight and Rlje Films — in the “Pay 1” window, following theatrical and digital distribution.

The films, premiering each Friday on AMC+, will stream 90 days after their initial theatrical release, but select titles will premiere day-and-date in both theaters and simultaneously on AMC+. IFC Films had previously held distribution pacts with Showtime and Hulu.

The new pact starts on May 6, with the streaming premiere of IFC Films’ “Clean,” starring Adrien Brody and RZA. “Clean” was released in theaters on January 28.

As part of the 52-week premiere strategy, the last Friday of...

Adrien Brody thriller Clean, Keira Knightley comedy horror Silent Night on the roster.

AMC Networks is bulking up its streaming platform and has announced AMC+ will carry weekly streaming premieres of films from sister companies IFC Films, IFC Midnight, Rlje Films and Shudder.

The arrangement starts on May 6 with the streaming premiere of IFC Films’s Adrien Brody thriller Clean. The platform will serve as the exclusive pay 1 partner for AMC Networks Film Group’s stable of IFC Films, IFC Midnight and Rlje Films.

Most of the Friday releases on AMC+ will stream 90 days after their initial theatrical release, with...

‘BTS Permission to Dance On Stage’ was the number three title across the weekend.

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Mar 11-13)Total gross to date Week 1. The Batman (Warner Bros) £7.4m £26.5m 2 2. Uncharted (Sony) £1.1m £21.8m 5 3. BTS Permission to Dance On Stage (Trafalgar Releasing) £899,127 £899,127 1 4. Sing 2 (Universal) £818,617 £31.3m 7 5. The Duke (Pathé) £496,681 £3.9m 3

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.31

Warner Bros’ The Batman dominated the UK-Ireland box office for a second weekend, adding £7.4m to its total to reach £26.5m from 10 days in play.

The Batman dropped 44.5% - a relatively steep fall with little competition in the market, although it was coming from a strong start.

‘BTS Permission to Dance On Stage’ was the number three title across the weekend.

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Mar 11-13)Total gross to date Week 1. The Batman (Warner Bros) £7.5m £27m 2 2. Uncharted (Sony) £1.1m £21.8m 5 3. BTS Permission to Dance On Stage (Trafalgar Releasing) £899,127 £899,127 1 4. Sing 2 (Universal) £818,617 £31.3m 7 5. The Duke (Pathé) £283,213 £7.2m 3

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.31

Warner Bros’ The Batman dominated the UK-Ireland box office for a second weekend, adding £7.5m to its total to reach £27m from 10 days in play.

The Batman dropped 44.5% - a relatively steep fall with little competition in the market, although it was coming from a strong start.

Indie titles ‘Foscadh’, ‘A Banquet’, ‘Great Freedom’ also out.

Universal Pictures’ US indie drama Red Rocket opens in a busy weekend at the UK-Ireland box office, with 12 new films arriving in cinemas but none on wide release as Warner Bros’ The Batman moves into its second week on screens.

Opening in 171 sites, Sean Baker’s Red Rocket is the biggest release of the weekend. It is about a washed-up porn star who returns to his small Texas hometown where no-one really wants him back. The film premiered in Competition at Cannes 2021, and has since played festivals including Telluride, New York,...

A director’s feature debut is a chance to make a statement and A Banquet from Ruth Paxton does this emphatically.

It is one of the most anticipated films showing at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival.

This physiological-thriller sees a family endure one trauma after another in a story that questions your beliefs. We see a mother-daughter relationship pushed to the extremes all whilst exploring issues of mental health and anxiety.

This screenplay from Justin Bull stars Sienna Guillory alongside Jessica Alexander, Ruby Stokes as well as Lindsay Duncan in a tense family drama that keeps you on edge.

We caught up with Sienna to talk about peas, dealing with trauma and working with Ben Wheatley again for The Meg 2.

Signature Entertainment presents A Banquet in Cinemas & Digital Platforms 11th March and showing at Glasgow Film Festival on March 5th – tickets are available here

The post Sienna Guillory on A Banquet,...

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.

A Banquet (Ruth Paxton)

It’s a question we ask through the duration of our lives: what’s the point? Maybe you say these words in search of meaning where humanity as a species is concerned. Maybe it’s to find purpose as an individual when nothing seems to be going right. Jason (Richard Keep) wonders what the point of surviving is when his fate has already been sealed. His wife Holly (Sienna Guillory) is being forced into the role of caretaker while also wading through the reality that she’s now a single mother, regardless of breath remaining in his lungs. Is hers and their daughters’ (Jessica Alexander’s Betsey and Ruby Stokes’ Isabelle) suffering worth it? Will ripping the Band-Aid...

What’s going on with Betsey? That’s the crux of Ruth Paxton‘s feature debut, the intense family psychodrama “A Banquet,” for which she, and writer Justin Bull, provide many alluring choices but no definitive answer. Instead, the film—about a family that experiences a major trauma and tragedy and the teenage daughter who is forever, radically altered and “enlightened” afterward—flirts with several compelling subtexts, dresses them up in genre psycho-horror garb, and then rushes to a climax that provides no conclusive key to its central riddle.

Continue reading ‘A Banquet’ Review: Ruth Paxton’s Feature Debut Needs A Little Less Seasoning at The Playlist.

Jessica Alexander in A Banquet

The story of a mother, Holly (Sienna Guillory), who panics when one of her daughters, Betsey (Jessica Alexander) suddenly stops eating, but whose situation becomes still more disconcerting when the teenager doesn’t seem to be losing weight, A Banquet, which opens in the US on Friday 18 February and will soon be screening as part of the 2022 Glasgow Film Festival, marks the feature début of Ruth Paxton, an Edinburgh-based filmmaker whose work has been on our radar here at Eye For Film for some years. In fact, she tells me when we meet, we gave her her first ever professional review, for 2008’s surreal short She Wanted To Be Burnt. A Banquet is one of my personal favourites of the past year, and I ask her if her short film experience was useful in approaching it given that, structurally, it resembles a short, having an ostensibly.

After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, IFC Midnight is bringing first-time filmmaker Ruth Paxton‘s A Banquet to theaters and VOD platforms on February 18. In A Banquet… “Widowed mother Holly (Sienna Guillory) is radically tested when her teenage daughter Betsey (Jessica Alexander) experiences a profound enlightenment and insists that her body is no longer […]

The post ‘A Banquet’ Clip – Things Get Weird During a Blood Moon [Video] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“We’ve all got problems, darling, don’t be the show.” At about the midpoint of A Banquet, a grandmother frames her granddaughter’s mental health crisis as an elaborate psychodrama. June is always on the periphery, undermining her own daughter’s approach to parenting. Underestimating the seriousness, and thinking spending money is the best way to expedite the whole situation, feels like a specifically Baby Boomer solution to a GenZ problem. Three generations of women, their outlook, attitude and crisis-mindset are on naked, acutely uncomfortable display in Ruth Paxton’s debut feature. A Banquet begins the with the strange death of Holly’s husband. He is bedridden with some kind of painful wasting disease, and dies...

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

A couple of studios rightfully got nervous about the increased Covid numbers over the holidays and moved their marquee titles away from the wintry months. You do still get Moonfall (February 4), Uncharted (February 18), and the long-awaited release of a sequel embroiled in cannibalism controversy (see below), though. If you’re someone in dire need of a blockbuster escape from the snow.

That means more space for the continued presence of Oscar hopefuls and independent features to go along with a pretty robust crop of streamers from the likes of Steven Soderbergh (Kimi hits HBO Max on February 10) and Tyler Perry (A Madea Homecoming hits Netflix on February 25). The poster game is thus a crucial avenue towards steering eyes to smaller scale work you might otherwise miss.

Embrace

First up is Leroy and Rose with their sheet for Josephine Decker’s The Sky is Everywhere. The similarities to a couple of...

The 2022 Glasgow Film Festival unveils an exciting programme with the UK premiere of The Outfit kicking it off.

Undoubtedly a highlight in the festival calendar, Gff this year will show 10 world premieres including Monstrous as part of FrightFest and the European premiere of Alan Cumming’s My Old School.

Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s Camera D’ or winning, Murina, will close the festival in what will be its UK premiere.

The 18th annual festival will exclusively show the first episode of season six of the worldwide hit series, Outlander. Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta is among the Scottish premieres as well as Ruth Paxton’s A Banquet, to name but a few.

Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta.

In-person events also return with the legendary Armando Iannucci who will look back on his varied career to date.

As well as the 1962 retrospective showing classics including Cape Fear, which we reported here, the festival will...

The festival takes place from March 2-13.

The 18th edition of the UK’s Glasgow Film Festival (Gff) will open with the UK premiere of Graham Moore’s US title The Outfit, and close with the UK premiere of Croatian director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s Camera d’Or-winning Murina, when the festival runs as an in-person event from March 2-13.

The line-up includes 10 world premieres, four European premieres and 65 UK premieres.

Scroll down for the full list of world premieres

The Outfit will receive its world premiere as a gala screening in Berlin and is the directorial debut of The Imitation Game writer Graham Moore.

The festival takes place from March 2-13.

The 18th edition of the UK’s Glasgow Film Festival (Gff) will open with the UK premiere of Graham Moore’s US title The Outfit, and close with the UK premiere of Croatian director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s Camera d’Or-winning Murina, when the festival runs as an in-person event from March 2-13.

The line-up includes 10 world premieres, four European premieres and 65 UK premieres.

Scroll down for the full list of world premieres

The Outfit will receive its world premiere as a gala screening in Berlin and is the directorial debut of The Imitation Game writer Graham Moore.

Glasgow Film Festival opening film The Outfit Photo: courtesy of the Glasgow Film Festival

The full line-up for this year’s Glasgow Film Festival has been announced, including 10 world premières and no fewer than 65 UK premières. The festival will open with Graham Moore’s tale of a tailor caught between gangster factions, The Outfit, which stars Mark Rylance and Zoey Deutch. It will close with Murina, in which Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic explores the relationship between a teenager and her controlling father – the winner of last year’s Camera D’Or.

Other highlights of the festival are Ruth Paxton’s compelling exploration of despair and abstinence, A Banquet, Paul Verhoeven’s spiritually complex lesbian nun drama Benedetta, and Sundance award winner Hive, whose director, Blerte Basholli, recently told us how excited she is by how it’s travelling the world.

“‘I can’t begin to describe our joy at being able to have our loyal,...

After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, IFC Midnight is bringing first-time filmmaker Ruth Paxton‘s A Banquet to theaters and VOD platforms next month. Bloody has an exclusive look at brand new art that offers a difficult choice: family or famine? Described as “a slow-burning psychological horror that layers apocalyptic elements underneath familial […]

The post ‘A Banquet’ Poster Could Starve for Family [Exclusive] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Alone With You: "As a young woman painstakingly prepares a romantic homecoming for her girlfriend, their apartment begins to feel more like a tomb when voices, shadows, and hallucinations reveal a truth she has been unwilling to face."

Starring: Emily Bennett, Emma Myles, Dora Madison and Barbara Crampton

Co-Written and Co-Directed by: Emily Bennett & Justin Brooks

In Theaters - February 4, 2022, On Demand, Digital and DVD - February 8, 2022

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The Last Thing Mary Saw: "Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thrillers and the supernatural, unveils today the first trailer and new poster art for the upcoming Shudder Original The Last Thing Mary Saw, premiering exclusively on the platform on Thursday, January 20.

The film stars Rory Culkin, Stefanie Scott (Insidious: Chapter 3) and Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan), and is written and directed by Edoardo Vitaletti, making his feature length film debut.

Southold, New York, 1843: Young Mary (Scott), blood trickling...

'She didn't eat ... this gnawed at her mother.' From watching the new trailer for A Banquet, I am seized with a sense of unease and uncertainty which, as it happens, are usually good indicators for something good on the way. We shared a clip from the film back in September, when it screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, and now that it's heading for release next month, the trailer teases tantalizing thrills. Or something. According to the official synopsis: "Widowed mother Holly (Sienna Guillory) is radically tested when her teenage daughter Betsey (Jessica Alexander) experiences a profound enlightenment and insists that her body is no longer her own, but in service to a higher power. "Bound to her newfound faith, Betsey refuses to...

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

IFC Midnight generally has the horror goods, and the distributor is starting the year right with “A Banquet,” a new nightmarish family psychodrama from newcomer Ruth Paxton who makes her feature-length debut with this film. The film was an official selection title at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, received major acclaim and it stars Sienna Guillory, Jessica Alexander, Ruby Stokes, and Lindsay Duncan.

Continue reading ‘A Banquet’ Trailer: Sienna Guillory Stars In A New Nightmarish Psychodrama For IFC Midnight at The Playlist.

A Banquet Trailer — Ruth Paxton‘s A Banquet (2021) movie trailer has been released by IFC Midnight. The A Banquet trailer stars Sienna Guillory, Jessica Alexander, Ruby Stokes, Lindsay Duncan, Kaine Zajaz, Rina Mahoney, Jonathan Nyati, Walter van Dyk, Andrew Steele, Hannah Zoé Ankrah, and Suzie Voce. Crew Justin Bull wrote the screenplay for [...]

Continue reading: A Banquet (2021) Movie Trailer: Jessica Alexander May be Called by a Higher Power in Ruth Paxton’s Film...

"I can feel something inside of me..." IFC Midnight has revealed the official trailer for an indie horror film from the UK titled A Banquet, made by a Scottish filmmaker named Ruth Paxton. This premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year, and hit a bunch of others including Fantastic Fest, Beyond Fest, Montclair, and London. Widowed mother Holly is radically tested when her teenage daughter Betsey experiences a profound enlightenment and insists her body is no longer her own, but in service to a higher power. Bound to her newfound faith Betsey refuses to eat, but loses no weight. The film stars Sienna Guillory, Jessica Alexander, Ruby Stokes, Lindsay Duncan, & Kaine Zajaz. TIFF adds: "Between discomforting body horror and simmering psychodrama, Paxton skillfully escalates a common [dinner table] dynamic towards the upsetting but profound parental fears of being unable to understand one's own child, what they want or need, and how to protect them from.

The creepy new trailer has landed for A Banquet.

The movie is in theaters and On Demand February 18.

Ruth Paxton’s women-led horror sees a mother tested when her daughter insists that her body is no longer her own, but in service to a higher power. Stars Sienna Guillory, Jessica Alexander and Ruby Stokes.

https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/a-banquet

The movie had it’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

In Ruth Paxton’s spellbinding debut feature, widowed mother Holly (Sienna Guillory) grapples with eldest daughter Betsey’s (Jessica Alexander) disturbing conviction that her body has become a vessel for an unknown higher power, one that has ominously robbed her of any appetite, and which Betsey believes heralds a cataclysmic upheaval.

At first, her condition is suspected to be an act of adolescent rebellion or a psychological break. But despite her refusal to eat, Betsey loses no weight...

A mother-daughter bond takes a turn for the possessed and the apocalyptic in Scottish filmmaker Ruth Paxton’s feature directorial debut “A Banquet.” Originally a Toronto International Film Festival premiere in the Discovery section, this horror movie will release in select theaters and on digital platforms on February 18 from the genre folks at IFC Midnight. Exclusive to IndieWire, check out the official trailer for the film below.

Here’s the official synopsis, courtesy of IFC: “Widowed mother Holly (Sienna Guillory) is radically tested when her teenage daughter Betsey (Jessica Alexander) experiences a profound enlightenment and insists that her body is no longer her own, but in service to a higher power. Bound to her newfound faith, Betsey refuses to eat but loses no weight. In an agonizing dilemma, torn between love and fear, Holly is forced to confront the boundaries of her own beliefs.”

The cast of the film includes Sienna Guillory,...

The programme is now in its seventh year and will run October 8-11.

The British Film Institute (BFI) Network has announced the 12 filmmakers who will take part in the London Film Festival’s (Lff) annual professional development programme, Network@Lff.

The programme, now in its seventh year, is supported by the BFI with National Lottery funding, and will take place from October 8-11.

The 12 filmmakers were selected from 360 applicants. The BFI said the programme “celebrates difference in approach and perspective, and seeks out filmmakers looking to disrupt conventions”.

This year’s line-up includes Bifa-nominated writer, director and producer Jessi Gutch,...

The programme is now in its seventh year and will run October 8-11.

The British Film Institute (BFI) has announced the 12 filmmakers who will take part in the London Film Festival’s (Lff) annual professional development programme, Network@Lff.

The programme, now in its seventh year, is supported by the BFI with National Lottery funding, and will take place from October 8-11.

The 12 filmmakers were selected from 360 applicants. The BFI said the programme “celebrates difference in approach and perspective, and seeks out filmmakers looking to disrupt conventions”.

This year’s line-up includes Bifa-nominated writer, director and producer Jessi Gutch, whose...

At over sixty years old now and screening over three hundred movies over the course of two weeks, the London Film Festival is a huge event on the film festival calendar. And it’s no surprise that female-directed horror movies will be ever present at this year’s London Film Festival. Not only has Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor taken the festivals by storm this year but in the last five year’s or so, Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation, Julia Ducournau’s Raw, Anna Biller’s The Love Witch, Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge and many other great genre movies have been well received and made viewers take a closer look at female directors.

With that in mind, two debut features and a returning genre director will be at this year’s festival.

She Will, directed by Charlotte Colbert, stars both Malcom McDowell and John McCrea but it’s experienced actor...

Exclusive: Following its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, UK horror film A Banquet has sold to Signature for the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

The deal was negotiated between Signature’s Elizabeth Williams and Hanway’s Nicole Mackey. Release is set for 2022.

A Banquet follows widowed mother Holly (played by Resident Evil actress Sienna Guillory) who is pushed to breaking point when her daughter Betsey develops an extreme eating disorder. She claims she has experienced a profound enlightenment where her body is in service to a higher power. Tormented by Betsey’s illness, her family are faced with an agonizing dilemma, torn between love and fear, and Holly is forced to confront the boundaries of her own belief. Also starring are Ruby Stokes (Bridgerton) and Lindsay Duncan (About Time).

The movie will next play at the BFI London Film Festival in the Cult strand.

There’s a lot going on in “A Banquet,” an atmospheric horror about a family who’s put to the test while attempting to heal from tragedy. Compelling themes centered on anxiety, possession, motherhood, nourishment (and the lack thereof), doomsday dread, hysteria and faith are funneled through the lens of multi-generational feminine trauma. And while having myriad plates spinning is perfectly pleasing in this cinematic buffet, director Ruth Paxton and screenwriter Justin Bull bite off more than they can chew, struggling to bring their salient commentary into focus.

Holly (Sienna Guillory) is slowly approaching her wits’ end. Still reeling from the shocking suicide of her terminally-ill husband months prior, the worried widow is trying to get her family’s life back in order, maintaining some semblance of normalcy despite the slow drain of the family’s finances. Her eldest daughter Betsey (Jessica Alexander) is also having a tough go at...

It’s a question we ask through the duration of our lives: what’s the point? Maybe you say these words in search of meaning where humanity as a species is concerned. Maybe it’s to find purpose as an individual when nothing seems to be going right. Jason (Richard Keep) wonders what the point of surviving is when his fate has already been sealed. His wife Holly (Sienna Guillory) is being forced into the role of caretaker while also wading through the reality that she’s now a single mother, regardless of breath remaining in his lungs. Is hers and their daughters’ (Jessica Alexander’s Betsey and Ruby Stokes’ Isabelle) suffering worth it? Will ripping the Band-Aid off now render their ability to cope with his loss easier? Easy answers don’t exist.

They don’t when it comes to love, either—we are creatures of the moment. We...

Betsey (Jessica Alexander) has stopped eating. The pretty British teen isn’t hungry, she says, and who can really blame her, what with the recent passing of her father and the pressures of figuring out the next chapter in her own life. It’s not just that she doesn’t want to eat — not even the lavish feasts dutifully prepared by her mother Holly (Sienna Guillory) each night and happily consumed by her precocious younger sister Isabelle (Ruby Stokes) — but all food repulses her. Her body no longer wants it, and as eventually lets on, her body may no longer even need it.

The family’s home serves as the film’s primary location, an awkward suburban residence with a second-story entrance, a first-floor kitchen, and a baffling living room. Here, claustrophobia and disconnection rage, and “A Banquet” attempts to weave together a compelling assortment of absolute terrors. There’s the body horror,...

A psychological horror tale built around a mysterious eating disorder and unusually fraught mother-daughter dynamics, Ruth Paxton’s feature debut, A Banquet, shares key ingredients with several much-discussed recent indies by and/or about women, from Swallow to, in its end-of-everything theme, Amy Seimetz’s arresting She Dies Tomorrow.

Paxton acquits herself well, making the most of Sofia Stocco’s chilly interiors and some committed performances from stars Jessica Alexander and Sienna Guillory. But Justin Bull’s screenplay comes up short, failing to adequately capture the depth of its teen’s encounter with the abyss — her anorexia is the aftermath of an apocalyptic revelation — and to integrate ...

A psychological horror tale built around a mysterious eating disorder and unusually fraught mother-daughter dynamics, Ruth Paxton’s feature debut, A Banquet, shares key ingredients with several much-discussed recent indies by and/or about women, from Swallow to, in its end-of-everything theme, Amy Seimetz’s arresting She Dies Tomorrow.

Paxton acquits herself well, making the most of Sofia Stocco’s chilly interiors and some committed performances from stars Jessica Alexander and Sienna Guillory. But Justin Bull’s screenplay comes up short, failing to adequately capture the depth of its teen’s encounter with the abyss — her anorexia is the aftermath of an apocalyptic revelation — and to integrate ...

Filmmaker Ruth Paxton makes her feature debut with psychological horror film “A Banquet,” set to world premiere at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival. The Scottish helmer has already won accolades for her short films, and she is developing feature “The Flaming Heart.” HanWay reps worldwide rights to “A Banquet,” which will be released by IFC Midnight in the U.S. In the film, widowed mother Holly (Sienna Guillory) is pushed to the limit when her teenage daughter Betsey (Jessica Alexander) experiences a supernatural enlightenment, and insists that her body is no longer her own but in service to a higher power. Betsey refuses to eat but loses no weight as the family wrestles with questions of faith and manipulation. Paxton gives her producers tons of credit for the success they shot during the pandemic as well. ‘A Banquet’ screens Sept. 10 at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival.

What was the genesis of the film?...

It’s hard to know what to call Ruth Paxton’s female-led horror pic A Banquet.

Yes, the Scottish filmmaker’s debut feature is a discomforting body horror movie, but it has no jump scares or ghosts or demons in the ether. More of a slow-burn psychological thriller, Paxton uses an apparent eating disorder to convey the anxiety and paranoia that descends on a once-healthy family.

The indie, based on a screenplay by Justin Bull and bowing at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 10 as part of the Discovery program, tells the story of a widowed mother, Holly (Sienna Guillory), who struggles to ...

It’s hard to know what to call Ruth Paxton’s female-led horror pic A Banquet.

Yes, the Scottish filmmaker’s debut feature is a discomforting body horror movie, but it has no jump scares or ghosts or demons in the ether. More of a slow-burn psychological thriller, Paxton uses an apparent eating disorder to convey the anxiety and paranoia that descends on a once-healthy family.

The indie, based on a screenplay by Justin Bull and bowing at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 10 as part of the Discovery program, tells the story of a widowed mother, Holly (Sienna Guillory), who struggles to ...

Fantastic Fest returns this September (September 23 - September 30) and had already announced a killer first wave of programming, including screenings of Titane, Lamb, and Gigi Saul Guerrero's Bingo Hell! Today, they announced their final wave of programming, which includes the world premiere of The Black Phone, and much, much more!

The entire press release is included below and you can learn more at: http://fantasticfest.com/

Austin, TX — September 9, 2021 — Fantastic Fest is proud to announce the final wave of programming for the festival’s 16th edition, featuring the widest selection of weird and wonderful films gathered from across the globe to screen in Austin, TX, from September 23rd - 30th.

“Working on this second wave has been a pure joy for the programming team,” says Fantastic Fest Director of Programming Annick Mahnert. “With films coming from as far as Senegal, Latvia, Iran and Kazakhstan, and topics ranging from teenage assassins,...

The 65 British Film Institute (BFI) London Film Festival has unveiled its full program and the headline galas include several films that have been gaining fame recently.

Among the galas are Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer,” with Kristen Stewart; Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” with Benedict Cumberbatch; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “King Richard,” with Will Smith; and Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” featuring a host of stars including Timothée Chalamet, Tilda Swinton and Léa Seydoux.

The galas also include Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta,” Eva Husson’s “Mothering Sunday,” Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter,” Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir: Part II” and Sarah Smith and Jean Philippe-Vine’s “Ron’s Gone Wrong.”

Special presentations include Clio Barnard’s “Ali & Ava,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria,” Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” Jacques Audiard’s “Paris, 13th District,...

IFC Films has acquired North American rights to “Huda’s Salon,” a drama written and directed by Hany Abu-Assad, the award-winning filmmaker behind “Paradise Now” and “The Mountain Between Us.”

The film is described as a “feminist thriller,” one that unfolds against the backdrop of geopolitical conflict. It follows Reem, a young mother married to a jealous man, who goes to Huda’s salon in Bethlehem for a haircut and an attentive ear. But this visit turns sour when Huda, after having put Reem in a shameful situation, blackmails her.

“Huda’s Salon” will have its world premiere as an official selection at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival in September. IFC Films is planning a release in 2022. The indie studio has two other films playing in Toronto, Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Bergman Island” and Ruth Paxton’s “A Banquet.”

“To finally have the chance to work with IFC Films...

BenedictionThe lineup has been unveiled for the 2021 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, which will take place over 10 days (September 9-18) both in-person and physically in Toronto, and digitally across Canada. Wavelengths - FEATURESFutura (Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher)The Girl and the Spider (Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher)Neptune Frost (Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman)A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)Ste. Anne (Rhayne Vermette)The Tsugua Diaries (Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes)Wavelengths - SHORTSThe Capacity for Adequate Anger (Vika Kirchenbauer)Dear Chantal (Querida Chantal) (Nicolás Pereda)earthearthearth (Daïchi Saïto)Inner Outer Space (Laida Lertxundi)Polycephaly in D (Michael Robinson)“The red filter is withdrawn.” (Minjung Kim)Train Again (Peter Tscherkassky)Midnight Madness After Blue (Dirty Paradise) (Bertrand Mandico)Dashcam (Rob Savage)Saloum (Jean Luc Herbulot)Titane (Julia Ducournau)You Are Not My Mother (Kate Dolan)Zalava (Arsalan Amiri)TIFF DOCSAttica (Stanley Nelson)Beba (Rebeca Huntt)Becoming Cousteau...