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The fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia brought out big stars, from Wicked‘s Cynthia Erivo and Michelle Yeoh to Jeremy Renner, Michael Douglas and Benedict Cumberbatch, as well as new movies from the Middle East, Asia and Africa along with festival favorites of the year.

It also presented an opportunity to bring together six filmmakers who have made names for themselves as game changers and innovators for the second annual Hollywood Reporter roundtable at the Red Sea International Film Festival.

Rsiff 2024 jury president Spike Lee took time out of his busy festival schedule to take part in the discussion at the historic Nassif House Museum in Jeddah’s Old Town Al-Balad. Representing host nation Saudi Arabia was Meshal Al Jaser, whose humorous thriller Naga, which tells the story of a young woman who sneaks out for a date that goes wrong, screened...

Last week the Sffilm Rainin Grant announced the recipients of much-needed coin support (see the complete list of finalists), and today we learn the identity of this year’s 2024 Rathaus Film Grant recipient: Arrielle Sadé Mock. The coin will go towards developing Mock’s short film. Founded by Madeleine Askwith, Alexandra Byer, Shabier Kirchner, and Kevin Steen, Rathaus is a production company based in Brooklyn and Detroit who’ve helped produced films such as Tim Sutton’s Dark Night and this year’s big Venice Film Festival winner in Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch. More info available here.

From the jury:

“Arrielle represents the very best of Detroit’s artistic spirit—a powerful blend of creativity and activism that has been woven into the city’s history for generations.…...

Music Box has acquired North American rights to “Familiar Touch,” Sarah Friedland’s feature debut which won three major awards in Venice including the Lion of the Future prize.

Represented by Memento International, “Familiar Touch” also won best actress for Kathleen Chalfant, and best director in the Horizons section at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Friedland is now nominated in the “Someone to Watch” award category ahead of the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards.

“Familiar Touch,” which could be described as a “coming-of-old age film,” stars Ruth as Chalfant, an older woman who faces dementia and transitions into assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship with herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity and desires. Chalfant stars in the film opposite Carolyn Michelle, Andy McQueen and H. Jon Benjamin.

“Music Box has been a steadfast champion of bold, artist-driven, independent cinema and I’m delighted to...

After a great debut at the Venice Film Festival, a poignant indie movie about ageing and memory is gaining notice in the international film market. Sarah Friedland directed “Familiar Touch,” which has gained critical acclaim and significant distribution deals, making it a remarkable hit in independent film.

The film portrays the story of an octogenarian woman living in an assisted living facility and dealing with the realities of dementia. This intimate portrayal has sparked interest among festival juries and international distributors alike. At the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section, “Familiar Touch” received three major awards: the Lion of the Future for Best Debut Film, Best Director for Friedland, and Best Actress for lead actress Kathleen Chalfant.

Friedland directed the film and wrote and produced it alongside Alexandra Byer of Rathaus Films and Matthew Thurm of Go For Thurm. Their collaborative approach featured genuine residents and staff from Villa Gardens,...

Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch, which won a trifecta of awards when it premiered at Venice, has been picked up for key territories.

Memento International has closed sales for Spain (Flamingo Films), China (HugoEast), Indonesia (Pt Falcon) and airlines (Skeye). It was previously acquired by Gulf Film for the Middle East and will screen at the Red Sea International Film Festival this week.

The story follows an octogenarian woman adjusting to life in an assisted living facility as her dementia causes her to shift between age identities. It won a trifecta of trophies when it premiered in Venice’s Horizons...

Sean Baker’s Anora and Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow lead the 2025 Independent Spirit Award nominations with six each.

Both films were nominated in best feature, best director, best lead performance, best supporting performance and the producers award while I Saw The TV Glow also picked up best screenplay.

Sean Wang’s Didilanded four nominations including best first feature and best first screenplay. The Apprentice is up for three awards – best directing, best editing and best lead performance for Sebastian Stan.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Santa Monica on February 22, 2025.

Earlier this week...

Memento International has soldGuillaume Nicloux’s The Divine Sarah Bernhardtto Immina in Canada, Rialto for Australia and New Zealand, Aurora in Poland, Panda in Austria, BestFilm in the Baltics and KinoArt Pro for Cis.

These follow more than 20 territories previously sold ahead of the film’s French release on December 18 via Memento’s distribution arm.

The Divine Sarah Bernhardt starsSandrine Kiberlain as the actressnicknamed “La Divine”, who appeared in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was considered to be the world’s first celebrity.Laurent Laffite and Amira Casar also star.

“Home” is the theme of the 4th edition of the Red Sea Film Festival as it returns to its original location, but in a sleek custom-built venue, in the recently renovated Al-Balad district in Jeddah, a Unesco World Heritage site.

Kaleem Aftab, the fest’s head of international programming, says that home is a fitting theme for this year’s edition since the festival increasingly serves as a key platform for Africa, Arab and Asian cinema, and its impact is now all-year-round through the work of the Red Sea Film Foundation.

“We’re focusing on what we can achieve as a foundation rather than just as a festival,” he explains, adding that 11 of the 122 films screening at this year’s edition have been developed within the Red Sea eco-system, including the opening film, “The Tale of Daye’s Family,” which is a Saudi Egyptian co-production.

“We are the best place...

Lithuanian drama Toxic, the debut feature of Saule Bliuvaite, has picked up the Golden Peacock award for best film at the 55th International Film Festival of India.

At the closing ceremony of the festival in Goa, the film also scooped the best actress award, shared between co-leads Vesta Matulyte and Ieva Rupeikaite.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Toxic follows two teenage girls from a bleak industrial town who join an extreme local modelling school. Featuring a cast of non-actors, it premiered at Locarno in August where it won the Golden Leopard for best film as well as the best first feature award.

Lithuanian filmmaker Saulė Bliuvaitė’s “Toxic” took home the best film award at the 55th International Film Festival of India (Iffi) in Goa. The jury, headed by Indian director Ashutosh Gowariker, recognized the film for its portrayal of adolescence and economic hardship.

Previously, at Locarno, “Toxic” won not only the Golden Leopard for Best Film in the fest’s premier International Competition — from a jury chaired by Austrian auteur Jessica Hausner — but also, in an unusual double, the top prize in the separately juried First Feature Competition.

Variety‘s positive review of “Toxic” described the film as “sobering but not without glimmers of tenderness and humor as female friendship takes root in a hopeless place,” adding that its “alternation between chilly composure and kinetic movement roughly corresponds with [the protagonist’s] wavering sense of self.”

Romanian director Bogdan Muresanu nabbed the best director prize for “The New Year That Never Came,” a multi-narrative feature set during a revolution.

Miles Levin’s drama “Under the Lights” received the coveted Polish Film Institute Award at the American Film Festival’s industry event U.S. in Progress, as well as $50,000 cash prize for post-production in Poland.

“It has been an incredibly rewarding and inspiring project to work on. Miles is a force of nature with a clear vision and relentless drive to bring this story to life,” said Natalie Metzger, VP of production and development at Vanishing Angle.

“I’m so honored to have produced it and for it to be part of U.S. in Progress. There’s nothing like this program in America, so we are very grateful it exists. It’s much needed for American indie filmmakers.”

Levin added: “This film has been a 10-year journey and to have the support of U.S. in Progress to help it shine has been very meaningful.”

Miles Levin and Natalie Metzger

In the film,...

Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia,” Carlos Marqués-Marcet “They Will be Dust” and Yeo Siew Hua’s “Stranger Eyes” all won big at Spain’s auteurist haven Valladolid Film Festival on Saturday, in a second edition under José Luis Cienfuegos whose prizes served as a vindication of the changes he has wrought at the festival as well as an indication of some ways European arthouse is going.

All three directors’ awards build on prior upbeat reception. Playing Cannes Premiere, “Misericordia,” which scooped Valladolid’s best picture Golden Spike and its screenplay trophy, was hailed by Variety as a “darkly comic backwoods fable of pansexual desire and small-town sociopathy” which marks a “welcome re-embrace of the streamlined murdery perversities of his terrific ‘Stranger by the Lake.'”

The Valladolid jury, made up of Greek director Sofia Exarchou, Spanish actress Aida Folch, critic and editor Devika Girish, German producer Ingmar Trost and Spanish director and writer Luis López Carrasco,...

The Red Sea International Film Festival is holding its fourth edition from December 6 through 14 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The festival aims to bring acclaimed international movies to Arab audiences while also providing a stage for regional filmmakers. This year’s selection of “Festival Favorites” demonstrates how the event highlights African and Arab storytelling alongside global cinema.

The line-up features 18 films that have stood out on the international festival circuit. Leading the selections is the British crime thriller “Santosh” by director Sandhya Suri. The movie was chosen as the UK’s entry for the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film category. Two Egyptian films made the cut: Hala Elkoussy’s allegorical “East of Noon” and Jaylan Auf’s “Inevitable Journey of a Wedding Dress.” Both titles were fresh from screenings at Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival.

African cinema takes the spotlight with movies from Nigeria. “The Legend of the Vagabond:...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival has unveiled a first batch of titles that will screen as part of its “Festival Favorites” lineup, showcasing the cream of the international fest crop for Arab audiences.

Besides including recent Cannes standouts such as Sandhya Suri’s crime thriller “Santosh” (pictured) –which will represent the U.K. in the international Oscars race — and Chinese auteur Guan Hu’s noir “Black Dog,” this year’s selection has a strong accent on titles from Africa and the Arab world.

Arabic titles span from Tunisian auteur Ala Eddine Slim’s atmospheric drama “Agora,” which launched from Locarno, to Egyptian director Hala Elkoussy’s allegorical tale “East of Noon” and Jaylan Auf’s drama “Inevitable Journey of a Wedding Dress” that is bowing from Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival.

African entries being showcased include two films that bowed in Toronto: “The Legend of the Vagabond: Queen of Lagos,...

Venice Prize Winner ‘Familiar Touch’, ‘ ‘Black Dog & ‘Eephus’ Set For Red Sea Fest

In the first film program announcement for its upcoming edition, Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival has unveiled the 12 titles in its Festival Favourites line-up. The sidebar celebrates films that have enjoyed a high-profile outing on the festival circuit in recent months such as Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch, which won the Luigi de Laurentiis prize for best first film at Venice, and Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Black Dog by Guan Hu. The other titles comprise Agora (Tunisia), East Of Noon (Egypt), Eephus (U.S.), Freedom Way (Nigeria), The Inevitable Journey To Find A Wedding Dress (Egypt), The Legend Of The Vagabond Queen Of Lagos, Little Jaffna (France), Quiet Life (Greece), Santosh (UK) and U Are The Universe (Ukraine). “This year’s selection continues to demonstrate our commitment to showcasing diverse...

The Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has picked 12 movies for its Festival Favorites selection of standouts from the fest circuit, including U.K. Oscar submission Santosh, an Indian police procedural about two women who form an unlikely alliance directed by Sandhya Suri; and Chinese auteur Guan Hu’s Black Dog, which won the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes.

Representing the U.S. in the lineup is Familiar Touch from director Sarah Friedland whose synopsis reads: “Arriving at an aged care facility, Ruth thinks she is in a fancy hotel on a date — with a man who is actually her son. Gradually, she reconciles herself to the life she has now.” The film had its world premiere in the Horizons lineup of the Venice Film Festival.

The Festival Favorites program also includes two films from Africa that played at the Toronto International Film Festival: The Legend...

The Valladolid International Film Festival celebrates its 69th edition from Nov. 18, and according to fest director José Luis Cienfuegos, it’s one of the most modern and international editions the festival, known locally as Seminci, has ever hosted.

Nestled snuggly into an autumn lull after the breakneck run from Venice through Toronto and into San Sebastian, Seminci has long stood out as a bastion for independent cinema in Spain, while San Sebastian has often catered to more big-name, big-budget fare, especially in recent years.

Set in the capital city of the Spanish region Castilla-Leon, Valladolid’s 69th edition is the second under director Cienfuegos, who boasts an illustrious nearly 30-year career as a festival director at the Seville European Film Festival (2012-2023) and Gijon Intl. Film Festival (1995-2011).

“Valladolid is a city absolutely dedicated to the festival that demands and needs to open the doors to a new generation of filmmakers,...

The 2024 fall film festivals — Venice, Telluride, TIFF, and NYFF — are behind us, but critics deliberating their riches continues. IndieWire has polled 66 critics who attended one or more of these festivals to name their picks for best film, best screenplay, best director, and best first feature, and the results are fascinating, if not exactly shocking.

No films that played at Cannes or festivals earlier than Venice were eligible for consideration here. That means that “Anora,” which won best film, best screenplay, and best director on our Best of Cannes 2024 Critics Survey, was not eligible here. Nor was “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” or “The Substance,” other films that a few of the critics tried to sneak in on their ballots.

But looking at just the films that actually premiered at the fall fests, there was a clear victor: Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” received the most overall votes for both Best Film and Best Director,...

While there’s a few more fall film festivals popping up in the next month, the major ones are behind us, which means we have a strong sense of the films to have on your radar in the coming months and even through 2025. We’ve asked our writers from across the globe to weigh in on their favorite world premieres from Locarno Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and BFI London Film Festival.

Our coverage will continue with a few more reviews this week, and far beyond as we provide updates on the journey of these selections, so continue to explore all of our festival coverage here. In the meantime, check out top picks from our writers below and return soon for our extensive year-end coverage.

Soham Gadre (@SohamGadre)

1. April (Dea Kulumbegashvili)

2 and 3. Youth (Homecoming and Hard Times) (Wang Bing...

Festival hits Anora, Emilia Perez and Maria, a new Stockholm Series strand for TV works, and a theme of ‘Men in Crisis’ are among the highlights of this year’s Stockholm International Film Festival (November 6-17), the programme of which has been announced today (October 9).

The international feature competition includes Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Berlin title La Cocina; RaMell Ross’ Telluride premiere Nickel Boys; and Gustav Moller’s Denmark-Sweden-France co-production Sons. It has an even split of 10 titles directed by women, and 10 by men.

Scroll down for the full list of Stockholm Competition titles

The 16-title documentary competition includes the world premiere of Garbo: Leave Me Alone,...

Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch, about a woman adjusting to life in an assisted living facility, has sold widely in Europe and the Middle East for Memento International following a trifecta of wins in Venice including the Lion of the Future award for best debut film.

The film has been scooped up by Arizona Distribution in France, Fandango in Italy, Vedette in Benelux, Edge in Scandinavia and the Baltics, Imovision in Brazil and Gulf Film for the Middle East.

Familiar Touch debuted in the Horizons section at Venice in September. Friedland won the best director prize in the section and...

Familiar Touch Photo: Courtesy of Venice Film Festival London Film Festival starts on October 9 and there are plenty of eye-catching films in the line-up, from Cannes winners Anora and All We Imagine As Light to celebrated Sundance film Sujo and Berlin Golden Bear winner Dahomey. When it came to selecting these films to catch, we've chosen some of those which, at the time of writing, still have tickets remaining, so you have the opportunity to judge for yourself. The festival runs until October 20 - and you can see all the films that still have ticket availability left here.

Familiar Touch

As populations age globally, memory loss continues to provide a rich seam for filmmakers and Sarah Friedland's quietly observational and moving drama is one of the best from recent years. Veteran star Kathleen Chalfant has arguably never been better as she takes centrestage as Ruth. Once a cookbook author -.

Antonio Vivaldi, the Italian Baroque composer and violinist who penned “The Four Seasons,” will be portrayed in “Primavera,” the feature debut of Damiano Michieletto, a leading opera director. Memento International has boarded the film which begins shooting this month in Rome and Venice.

“Primavera” was penned by Ludovica Rampoldi, the award-winning screenwriter of movies such as “The Traitor” and “Gomorrah – the series,” among others. The script is loosely adapted from Tiziano Scarpa’s critically acclaimed novel “Stabat Mater.”

Set in 18th century Venice, “Primavera” follows Cecilia, a 20-year-old violin virtuoso who lives at the Pièta orphanage. Despite her talent, Cecilia remains confined within the orphanage, knowing that marriage is the only way out. Yet, her life takes a turn after she meets Antonio Vivaldi, a brilliant and ambitious composer who becomes the new violin teacher. Guided by Vivaldi and his music, Cecilia “finds the strength to challenge the destiny that once seemed inevitable,...

Paddy Duffy’s The UnHolylands starring James Nesbitt is among the world premieres at the 24th Belfast Film Festival (October 31-November 9).

Duffy’s coming-of-age comedy sees two brothers attempt one last house party before their university days are over. It also stars Ciaran McCourt, Peter Jeffries and Sean Daly.

Further world premieres include Michael Head’s comedy The Spin starring Derry Girls’ Tara Lynne O’Neill and Will McConnell’s experimental drama Beautiful And Loud And Clear.

Competition

Eight films comprise Belfast’s third annual international competition including Xiaoxuan Jiang’s To Kill A Mongolian Horse, winner of best directing and...

Following a standout 2023 edition, where critically acclaimed films like India Donaldson’s Good One premiered at Sundance and Cannes, and Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch swept three major awards in Venice, the U.S. in Progress team in Wrocław continues to elevate American indie cinema on the global stage. The fourteenth edition of the U.S. in Progress co-production forum will take place from November 7-9, 2024, as part of the fifteenth American Film Festival in Wrocław, Poland. Among the eight selected projects are new works by filmmakers such as Amanda Kramer (Please Baby Please), Pete Ohs (Jethica), and Mark Webber (The Place of No Words), who will profile their projects alongside films from emerging first-time directors including Under the Lights by Miles Levin with the backing of the Vanishing Angle folks.…...

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.The first film I saw on the Lido this year wasn’t a feature but a twenty-minute VR project: Mammary Mountain. Playing in the Venice Immersive sidebar, and directed by Tara Baoth Mooney, Camille C. Baker, and Maf’j Alvarez, it promised an “embodied haptic experience” of breast cancer treatment, as remembered by a few survivors. I’d never worn a VR set before, much less a mammography gown, which was strapped around my chest after a nurse sat me down to explain the procedure and its possible complications. I signed the consent form, followed her into another room, and pressed play. All through the film, a multi-sensorial journey designed to stoke the fantasy of being in someone else’s body, I kept thinking about Roger Ebert’s characterization of cinema as an empathy machine. The voices of chemotherapy patients, discussing their relationship with the illness and its treatment,...

Depicting aging and diminishing mental acuity, with increasing candor about same, essentially has become its own subgenre—the drama of descent or disappearance. Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch feels like something different, eschewing the conventions of linear decline to stay rooted in the present-tense bodily experience of its protagonist: Ruth Goldman, played by a galvanizing Kathleen Chalfant. Beyond the subjective design of the filmmaking—comprising not just what we hear, but how we understand the premise of any given scene—this is a catalyzing collaboration between Chalfant, storied veteran of both stage (Wit) and screen, and Friedland, a student of choreography who sought out […]

The post “We Ascribe this Cuteness to Older Women”: Sarah Friedland on Familiar Touch first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Depicting aging and diminishing mental acuity, with increasing candor about same, essentially has become its own subgenre—the drama of descent or disappearance. Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch feels like something different, eschewing the conventions of linear decline to stay rooted in the present-tense bodily experience of its protagonist: Ruth Goldman, played by a galvanizing Kathleen Chalfant. Beyond the subjective design of the filmmaking—comprising not just what we hear, but how we understand the premise of any given scene—this is a catalyzing collaboration between Chalfant, storied veteran of both stage (Wit) and screen, and Friedland, a student of choreography who sought out […]

The post “We Ascribe this Cuteness to Older Women”: Sarah Friedland on Familiar Touch first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

by Nathaniel R

Pedro Almodóvar and his actresses Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton working on The Room Next Door which is now a Golden Lion winner

The 81st annual Venice Film Festival has ended and the two perceived frontrunners The Brutalist and The Room Next Door took home major prizes, as did Babygirl, The Quiet Son, and Brazil's possible Oscar submission I'm Still Here. The "Competition" films are the headlining titles of course but they aren't the only films that get major mileage from applause and kudos as any festival wraps up. Outside of the main competition films like Familiar Touch (US), Familia (Italy), Iddu (Italy),  Mon Inséparable (France), Paul and Paulette Take a Bath (UK) and The New Year That Never Came (Romania) all won fanbases if the awards that flew around this week are indication.

The prizes went like so... ...

Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in ‘The Room Next Door’ (Photo Credit: Sony Classics)

The 2024 Venice Film Festival winners were announced on September 7th, with Oscar-winner Pedro Almodóvar (Talk to Her) earning the Golden Lion for Best Film for The Room Next Door. Almodóvar took home the coveted prize for this first English-language film, and he dedicated the win to his family. “It is my first movie in English but the spirit is Spanish,” said the acclaimed filmmaker.

Academy Award-winner Nicole Kidman was named Best Actress for her starring role in director Halina Reijn’s Babygirl. Kidman wasn’t able to attend the ceremony, and Reijn read a statement accepting the award. “Today, I arrived in Venice to find out shortly after that my brave and beautiful mother Janelle Ann Kidman has just passed. I’m in shock and I have to go to my family. But this award is for her.

Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door won the Golden Lion for best film at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

Almodóvar’s first English-language feature marks the first time he has won the top award at one of the three major film festivals. Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore star in the story of a woman who makes the decision to end her life, and the friend who re-enters her world around this time.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Sony Pictures Classics will release the film in the US on December 20, with Warner Bros handling multiple international territories including UK-Ireland.

The Venice awards ceremony had a political edge on Saturday evening as multiple winners used their acceptance speeches to express sympathy for the Palestinian people and condemn Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

“As a Jewish American artist working in a time-based medium, I must note, I’m accepting this award on the 336th day of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and 76th year of occupation,” said U.S. director Sarah Friedland as she accepted the Luigi de Laurentiis prize for best first film for Familiar Touch.

“I believe it is our responsibility as filmmakers to use the institutional platforms through which we work to redress Israel’s impunity on the global stage. I stand in solidarity with The people of Palestine and their struggle for liberation,” she continued.

Friedland’s film, which played in the Horizons competition, also won the section’s best director award, while Kathleen Chalfant, clinched...

Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door” won the Golden Lion at the 81st Venice Film Festival. The Spanish auteur’s first feature in English took the top prize at the awards ceremony on Saturday, where he accepted the honor in person. Based on Sigrid Nunez’s novel “What Are You Going Through,” the film stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore as friends who reunite after several years.

Though Almodóvar’s latest was not reviewed as enthusiastically as most of his films (a high bar to cross), the drama was still favored to do well at the Venice awards. When it premiered earlier this week, it was met with a lengthy standing ovation of almost 20 minutes — a warm reception even for festival audiences. And few are the cinephiles in Europe who do not consider the director of “All About My Mother,” “Talk to Her,” “Volver,” “Bad Education” and “Parallel Mothers” a living great.

The 81st Venice Film Festival comes to a close today with the awards ceremony, held at the Sala Grande in the Palazzo del Cinema.

Starting at 7pm Cet (6pm BST), viewers can watch the ceremony live in the video above; Screen will be updating this page with the winners as they are announced.

Scroll down for the latest winners

The ceremony will be hosted by Italian actress Sveva Alviti, who also hosted the opening ceremony on August 28. A Competition jury led by Isabelle Huppert will award eight prizes, including the Golden Lion for best film. There are further awards in the Horizons,...

While last year’s strikes created a somewhat subdued energy on the Lido with very few talent able to be present, this year’s 2024 Venice Film Festival proved to hot and steamy. And we’re not just talking about the excessive heat movie stars and fan alike were subjected to. Films like Halina Reijn’s erotic thriller “Babygirl” and Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of William S. Burrough’s short novel “Queer” aroused audience interest with career-best performances from Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and highly revealing sexual interplay. However it was Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door” that took home the coveted Golden Lion, marking the first time the filmmaker has won a top prize at any major festival throughout his career.

Brady Corbet returned to the Palazzo del Cinema with his four-hour post-wwii epic “The Brutalist,” which screened to rave reception and earned the director the Silver Lion,...

The 2024 Venice Film Festival awards ceremony has wrapped up after a sweltering week and a half on the Lido.

The prestigious Golden Lion award for best film went to Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door. The Spaniard’s first-ever English-language feature received a whopping 17-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the festival. Almodóvar said in his acceptance speech Saturday: “I would like to dedicate it to my family, who is here now… This movie The Room Next Door, it is my first movie in English.. but the spirit is Spanish.”

His film, an adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through, follows best-selling writer Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) as they rekindle their friendship after losing touch. As they immerse themselves in past memories, anecdotes, art and movies, Martha, battling terminal cervical cancer, wants to die with dignity and asks Ingrid to be...

As late-life dates go, for octogenarian widow Ruth, it seems like a good one. The guy is younger, quite personable, and has an interesting job in sustainable architecture, even if she’s embarrassed to initially admit that she’s forgotten his name. She prepares them her favorite brunch — salmon and cream cheese on toast — before he takes her on a surprise getaway. Arriving at the hotel, the lobby looks polished and comfortable, though she’s thrown by the pacifying tone of the staff, and by her date referring to her as his mother. “I’m not a mother,” she clarifies. “I didn’t want kids.” It’s a moment of intense discomfort and acute tenderness — a fine balance that Sarah Friedland’s remarkable debut “Familiar Touch” sustains across a tight but searching 91 minutes.

As viewers will have surmised some time before Ruth (an extraordinary Kathleen Chalfant), she’s being checked into Bella Vista,...

Poland’s American Film Festival is continuing to bet on U.S. independent films, ignoring the Hollywood blockbusters and bigger budget auteur films from the mini-majors.

“The fest selects a very precise type of project – they are real independent films, not in that Independent Spirit Award, less-than-$40 million sense,” says director and producer Rob Rice.

“The people that come with them have a kind of shorthand with each other. We are all up against the same things and we are all trying to trick the industry into mistaking our films for ‘real movies.’”

“There are always lots of interesting things happening in American independent cinema. It’s enough to mention three alumni of [fest’s industry sidebar] U.S. in Progress: Anu Valia (“We Strangers”), India Donaldson (“Good One”) and Sarah Friedland. These are great examples of new female voices speaking about female experiences, and keeping things intimate and personal,” says artistic director Ula Śniegowska.

The challenge is on: the industry sidebar of Poland’s American Film Festival, U.S. in Progress, is ready to top its “exceptionally successful” 2023 edition in November.

“U.S. in Progress alumni are taking festivals by storm,” says Aff’s artistic director Ula Śniegowska.

Presented as works-in-progress, India Donaldson’s “Good One” – awarded at the event last year – went on to premiere at Sundance and Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in May. Tyler Taormina’s “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” was also shown at the French fest, described by Variety’s Jessica Kiang as “a sweet, nostalgic love letter to suburban holiday-season rituals.”

“We Strangers” by Anu Vaila and Cutter Hodierne’s “Cold Wallet” screened at SXSW, and “Familiar Touch” was shown in Venice. Monica Sorelle’s “Mountains” and Shane Atkinson’s “Laroy, Texas” were selected for Tribeca, Georden West’s “Playland” for IFFR, while “Falling Stars,” directed by Richard Karpala and Gabriel Bienczycki,...

In a sunny kitchen in California, Ruth prepares a sandwich with the muscle memory that only a lifetime allows. Bread is toasted and left to cool; dill is picked and chopped efficiently; sour cream, radish, and salmon are arranged to resemble a blooming flower. After going to get ready, she serves it to a man named Steve (H. Jon Benjamin) who she doesn’t seem to recognize. When he tells her he’s an architect, she responds, “My father builds homes. Maybe you’ll meet him one day.” Caught off-guard, her son can only offer a loving smile and say “I’d like that.”

This uncertain space––part clarity, part blur––is the subject of Sarah Friedland’s moving debut feature Familiar Touch. It’s the story of an older woman whose dementia causes her to shift between age identities, occasionally around her 80-something self, though sometimes a more gregarious...

Sarah Friedland’s debut film Familiar Touch delves gently into the experiences of Ruth Goldman, an octogenarian grappling with dementia. Played with empathy and strength by veteran stage actress Kathleen Chalfant, Ruth must adjust to life in an assisted living center.

Director Friedland, who also wrote the sensitive script, anchors viewers firmly in Ruth’s perspective. We see the world unfold through her eyes as she navigates an uncertain situation.

Premiers took place at the renowned Venice Film Festival, a testament to the film’s nuanced handling of a challenging topic. Ruth’s journey taps into universal themes of identity, connection, and finding purpose in life’s later chapters, told with warmth and understanding.

The Heart of Ruth

Familiar Touch tells the moving story of Ruth Goldman, a woman living with dementia. Played brilliantly by Kathleen Chalfant, Ruth was once a wife, mother, and chef with a vibrant personality. Now,...

Most coming-of-age stories deal in the vagaries of adolescence — that confusing time defined by dramatic confrontations with unfamiliar feeling. But Sarah Friedland’s affecting debut Familiar Touch, remixing the genre, considers the emotional valence of older adulthood.

The film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in the Horizons section, follows Ruth Goldman, an inquisitive octogenarian played by Kathleen Chalfant, as she grapples with the realities of her dementia and comes to terms with moving into an assisted living facility.

Movement guides Familiar Touch. From the opening moments of this graceful feature, Friedland zeroes in on the minor details of bodies in motion. We meet Ruth as she rummages through her closet. The camera (cinematography by Gabe C. Elder) stays on the nape of her neck as the slow screech of clothing hangers sliding across a rod accelerates into a frenzied rattle, a measure of her desperation. The film cuts,...

Sarah Friedland isn’t done talking about the body just yet.

“My next film will be centered around it too. I’m working on a script that blends dance with narrative storytelling. I’ll probably do it for the rest of my life. At this point, I am too attuned to the rhythms of the body and its politics,” debuting director tells Variety.

In “Familiar Touch,” premiering in Venice’s Orizzonti section, she’s celebrating sensuality of older adults, especially Ruth (“The Affair”), transitioning to life in assisted living. Carolyn Michelle, Andy McQueen and H. Jon Benjamin also star.

“So often, we talk about older adults ‘fading away’ and things getting ‘blurry.’ But as some of their cognitive functions decline, other senses intensify. Touch, taste, smell – it can all become very vivid,” she says.

“For Ruth, I was inspired by the ‘no bullshit’ line of women. What is it like for them to lose autonomy,...

“Amour” or “The Father” this is not. Where the much-lauded of the few films tackling dementia without sentimentality take us to the worst horizon of degenerative disease, “Familiar Touch” adopts a more delicate approach. Writer/director Sarah Friedland’s deftly choreographed — literally, as Friedland comes to the film as a choreographer herself who works with aging adults — follows character actress and Tony winner Kathleen Chalfant as Ruth. She’s a once-vibrant Southern California octogenarian now slipping away to dementia.

After her son (H. Jon Benjamin) moves her into a Los Angeles memory care facility, Ruth, a former cook who still knows her recipe for Borscht note by note, must become acquainted with her surroundings — and with connections made with patient, nonjudgmental care workers (Carolyn Michelle and Andy McQueen). Even as she, in her dementia, feels betrayed by the son she had already started to forget.

“Familiar Touch” is a sales...

Georgian drama The Antique by Rusudan Glurjidze has been suspended from screening in Giornate degli Autori, the independent sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, following a court ruling over copyright dispute.

A press and industry screening scheduled for today (August 28) has been pulled and public screenings that were due to take place today, August 30 and September 6 have been removed from the line-up.

It follows an emergency decree by the Court of Venice obtained by production companies Viva Film in Russia, Croatia’s Avantura Film and Cyprus’ Pygmalion over a copyright dispute regarding the film’s script.

A statement from Giornate...

France’s Memento International has added the English-language Venice Horizons title Familiar Touch to its festival slate.

Familiar Touch is the debut feature from US filmmaker Sarah Friedland and is about a woman’s transition to assisted living and the impact it has on her identity and desires.

Kathleen Chalfant, Carolyn Michelle, Andy McQueen, and H. Jon Benjamin star.

“It is a coming-of-age film that reimagines the genre for an older woman,” explained Friedland. “It is both a character study and a portrait of caregiving relationships.”

Friedland wrote the script and produces with Alexandra Byer’s Rathaus Films and Matthew Thurm’s Go For Thurm.