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Exclusive: The Mentalist actor Simon Baker, Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories and Australian agent-producer Lee-Anne Higgins are taking to adapt Emily Perkins’ novel ‘Lioness.’

The trio have optioned the hot book, which comes from bestselling Aotearoa New Zealand author Perkins and won the recent Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Baker, who took his first full TV series starring role since The Mentalist in Netflix’s Boy Swallows Universe earlier this year, will direct all episodes. Papandrea, Steve Hutensky and Katie Amos will produce for Made Up Stories, along with Higgins, Baker and Perkins.

Lioness follows Therese Thorne, a woman who has married a wealthy older man and built a successful career, but now finds a fraud investigation threatening her sense of loyalty as well as her reputation. She faces a midlife reckoning about love and complicity, while being drawn to her neighbour,...

Heather Graham’s chosen family is growing.

The actress-turned-filmmaker’s latest big-screen effort, Chosen Family, has been acquired by Brainstorm Media for North America with a theatrical release set for Oct. 11.

Written, directed by and starring Graham, the Verdi Prods. film also stars John Brotherton, Ella Grace Helton, Andrea Savage, Michael Gross, Julie Halston, Thomas Lennon and Julia Stiles. Chosen Family follows a yoga teacher named Ann (Graham) who is on a path to find inner peace amidst the chaos of her manic family and miserable dating life. The situation is complicated by an inability to say no and her relentless desire to fix everyone’s problems. She also struggles to save her sister Clio (Stiles) from addiction, leading to disastrous results.

Graham said she can’t wait for audiences to see her film, which she describes as a labor of love. “I’m so excited that Brainstorm is releasing...

IFC’s Late Night With The Devil has scared up the distributor’s largest opening weekend ever with an estimated $2.8+ million on 1.043 screens, coming in at no. 6 at the domestic box office.

Prior to this weekend, Watcher was IFC’s top opening film at $827k, followed by Skinamarink with $819k and Blackberry at $801k. Late Night was IFC’s widest opening since The D Train, the distributor said, noting it was IFC’s highest opening day ($437k) since Skinamakink, and its highest Thursday pre-show ($317k). The film by Australian duo Colin and Cameron Cairnes unfolds almost in real-time on the set of a 1977 late-night talk show broadcast that unexpectedly transforms from amusing to sinister, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms. Stars David Dastmalchian as talk show host Jack Delroy.

The Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Spooky Pictures pic premiered at SXSW and has since played Fantasia Festival in Montreal,...

Bye-bye Bunya

Australian TV producer Bunya Entertainment says that Sophia Zachariou will step down as co-managing director, after a five-year stint. Bunya Entertainment is one part the Bunya Group of companies and was established by Zachariou, David Jowsey and Greer Simpkin in 2019.

Zachariou is currently in post-production on “The Office” (Amazon) and “Ladies in Black” (ABC) and will deliver these series before she departs the company. Other productions from Bunya Entertainment include the six x half-hour sketch comedy series “The Moth Effect” (Amazon) and the comedy series “Nice Shorts.”

In 2020 Zachariou also created the Bunya Talent Indigenous Hub, in partnership with Netflix and Screen Australia, which funded and developed 10 First Nations writers and directors to further develop their TV projects. The Hub was later extended to include a partnership with Safc, Screen Nt and Screen Nsw.

Jowsey and Simpkin will continue as co-MDs of Bunya Entertainment. The separate Bunya Group entities,...

Desert Fury: Sen Gets Bleak in the Heat of a Cold Case Mystery

Despite it being the title of innumerable films from around the world, Limbo happens to feel like the most felicitous description for Indigenous Australian filmmaker Ivan Sen’s seventh film, a denuded black and white genre brood-fest which conjures an actual sense of oblivion on the border between heaven and hell.

Strangely, it plays like the inverse, in many ways, of his most well-traveled title, 2013’s Mystery Road, where an Indigenous detective is trying to solve a young girl’s murder in the Australian outback. He returns to the same zone of interest with a similar narrative thrust, except this time the detective is a grizzled, white man idly trying to dig up clues about a twenty year old case of a missing Aboriginal girl whilst nursing his heroin addiction.…...

In writer-director Ivan Sen’s incisive anti-detective film Limbo, Travis Hurley’s (Simon Baker) job isn’t to solve the murder of an Aboriginal girl. It’s to determine whether or not to reopen the cold case in the Australian outback mining town of Limbo—or, rather, to determine whether some other detective should even attempt to crack it.

Travis’s investigation certainly doesn’t get off to an auspicious start. After checking into a motel and shooting up, he tracks down the victim’s brother, Charlie (Rob Collins) and sister, Emma (Natasha Wanganeen). Having little reason to trust a “whitefella” cop, both refuse to speak with him. Travis is ready to pack it in when a computerized component is boosted from his car. He finds himself stuck in Limbo while he waits for the replacement part to ship.

That the investigation proceeds only because Travis is forced to wait...

While most audiences are likely familiar with the television work of Simon Baker from The Mentalist, the Australian actor recently went back to his roots for one of his most acclaimed performances yet. Ivan Sen’s Outback noir Limbo, which premiered at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival, and also stopped by Karlovy Vary, TIFF, and more, follows the actor as a jaded detective who heads to a remote Australian town to investigate the cold case murder of a local indigenous girl 20 years earlier. Now set for a theatrical release from Music Box Films and Brainstorm Media beginning on March 22 at Film Forum in New York City and in Los Angeles, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the new trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “Set within the amazing underground mining town of Limbo in South Australia. Outback detective Travis Hurley (Simon Baker) is handed a murder cold case file from 20 years ago,...

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) handed out its 2024 awards on Saturday, and Talk to Me won big, including for best film and best director, while Margot Robbie was honored with the Trailblazer Award.

Barbie, Oppenheimer and The Bear were among the Hollywood honorees, with big Australian winners including the likes of The Newsreader, Deadloch and The New Boy.

“Talk to Me is the biggest winner of the night, adding a further three awards to its collection and taking its total wins to eight, following the Aacta Industry Awards earlier in the week,” the Australian Academy noted. The honors include the one for best direction in film for sibling-YouTubers-turned-directors Danny and Michael Philippou.

Among acting talent earning trophies, rising star Sophie Wilde won the best lead actress in film award for her performance in Talk to Me, while Aswan Reid got the best lead actor in film...

“Talk to Me” was the runaway winner at this year’s main awards from the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts.

The native production, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival last year and was acquired by A24 for North American distribution, scored three of the evening’s top prizes, including wins for best film, best lead actress for Sophie Wilde and best direction for the filmmaking duo of brothers, Danny Philippou and Michael Philoppou.

Other winners from this year’s edition include “The New Boy” stars Aswan Reid and Deborah Mailman in lead actor and supporting actress, respectively, and Hugo Weaving in supporting actor for “The Rooster.”

The Aacta Awards were held Saturday evening at the Home of the Arts, Gold Coast in Queensland. Rebel Wilson served as host, while Australian star Margot Robbie was honored with the group’s trailblazer award.

See the full list of winners below.

Talk to Me was named Best Film at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, which were handed out today on the Gold Coast. The teen horror pic also won Best Director for Danny and Michael Philippou and Best Lead Actress for Sophie Wilde.

Talk to Me took eight total statuettes, including five from the Aacta Industry Awards earlier in the week. The Newsreader and Deadloch also won five AACTAs each, including the Industry nods.

The group also revealed its winners in TV, online and other categories. See the full list from both Aacta Awards ceremonies below.

Aswan Reid took Best Lead Actor in a Film for The New Boy, and his co-star Deborah Mailman won the Supporting Actress prize. Hugo Weaving scooped Best Supporting Actor for The Rooster and added a Best Lead Actor in a Drama trophy for Love Me.

On the TV side, The Newsreader took Best Drama Series,...

Production expenditure on scripted screen production in Australia in 2022/23 was the second highest on record at $1.49Bn (A$2.34Bn) across 213 titles, according to Screen Australia’s annual drama report, but spend on Australian theatrical features declined by 54% from last year.

Spend on scripted screen production was down 4% on last year’s record expenditure but was still significantly above the five-year average, the report found. Australian titles made up $718M (A$1.13Bn) of that expenditure with decreases in spending by Australian subscription TV and SVOD services.

However Free-to-Air (Fta) TV and Broadcaster Video-On-Demand (Bvod) providers helped offset those declines with spend on titles such as Total Control Series 3, Rfds Series 2 and While The Men Are Away.

Meanwhile, Australian theatrical features saw total expenditure of $231M (A$363M) in 2022/23, down 54% compared to the previous year and 17% below the five-year average. Australian features produced during this period include Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy,...

Festival has programmed 75 films from 36 countries.

The Marrakech International Film Festival has unveiled the full line-up for its 20th edition, which runs from November 24-December 2.

The festival is opening with Richard Linklater’s action comedy Hit Man, starring Glen Powell, and is screening 75 films in total from 36 countries.

Marrakech’s official competition, which comprises first and second feature films, includes Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s Cannes Competition title Banel & Adama, Lina Soualem’s Venice Giornate degli Autori documentary Bye Bye Tiberias and Moroccan director Kamal Lazraq’s feature debut Hounds, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.

Scroll down for full line-up

Johnny Barrington,...

Richard Linklater’s action comedy “Hit Man” is set to open the Marrakech International Film Festival, which has announced its lineup of more than 70 films mixing known titles and fresh fare.

The fest is forging ahead with its 20th edition, which will run Nov. 24- Dec.2 in the ancient Moroccan city despite the Israel-Hamas conflict that has caused cancellations of several other fests in the region, as well as the earthquake that hit the country in September.

“Hit Man,” for which organizers declined to specify whether talent will attend, will screen as part of Marrakech’s red carpet gala screenings. Italian director Matteo Garrone is expected to make the trek for the gala of his Venice prizewinning immigration drama “Io Capitano” and Michel Franco will be coming to present another Venice prizewinner, “Memory,” starring Jessica Chastain, who is presiding over the fest’s main jury.

Also expected on hand for...

The 20th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival has announced its selection, opening with Richard Linklater’s comedy Hit Man.

The event, running from November 24 to December 24, will unfold two months after the devastating earthquake in the nearby Atlas Mountains in September, which killed more than 2,000 people.

The management team has decided to push on with the event to support Marrakech, which suffered very little damage and relies heavily on tourism for its livelihood.

Hit Man will play as part of the festival’s six picture red carpet Gala selection which also includes Matteo Garrone’s Italian Oscar entry Me Captain and Michel Franco’s Memory.

Previously announced high-profile guests due to attend this year include Martin Scorsese, who will act as a mentor to emerging filmmakers attending the industry-focused Atlas Workshops, and Jessica Chastain as president of the jury.

She will be joined by Iranian actress and director Zar Amir,...

The pull quotes filling the open sky here say as much about the film as they do about Australian Carnival Studio's design ethos for the film's key art. Ivan Sen's striking, monochrome new cold case, outback noir Limbo is a firmly coiled spring. One that is held perfectly in, well, limbo, via the landscape, the architecture, the characters and their situations being placed intentionally in every frame. Fitting for a film about crime, and race, and truth, Limbo is a film where nothing is black and white, and yet everything is black and white. Mountains, or rather piles of dirt, dot the landscape from the many open-pit opal mines, exposed for all to see. The resulting (or perhaps remaining) holes, and deep shafts, go the...

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

Brainstorm Media has picked up Ivan Sen’s crime drama Limbo ahead of its North American premiere at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival on Monday.

The Australian noir, which bowed in Berlin, will be released as part of a partnership between Brainstorm Media and Music Box Films. Limbo has Simon Baker starring as a jaded detective investigating the cold case murder of a local Indigenous girl.

As truths about the murder begin to unfold, Baker’s character gains more insight into the unsolved case from the victim’s fractured family, the surviving witnesses and the reclusive brother of the chief suspect.

“Limbo explores the deeper impact of a crime on an Indigenous family through the eyes of a white policeman. The source of these ideas has largely come from my personal experience, from family members and friends who have been victims of crime. I have witnessed their struggle not only for justice,...

Auteurs Agnieszka Holland, Wim Wenders, Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Aki Kaurismaki are among the filmmakers featured in the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Centrepiece program.

The strand, previously known as Contemporary World Cinema, which honors and celebrates global cinematic achievements, features 47 titles from filmmakers representing 45 countries.

TIFF has also revealed the additional lineup of galas, special presentations and documentaries, which feature star wattage from around the world including Tommy Lee Jones and Anil Kapoor.

“We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece program, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF chief programming officer. “The rebranding of the TIFF program, formerly Contemporary World Cinema, is a reflection of the festival’s vision to provide an elevated platform for international cinema, acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.

Ahead of Toronto International Film Festival kicking off in less than a month, the festival announced more additions, including Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, Close Your Eyes by Víctor Erice, Fallen Leaves by Aki Kaurismäki, Green Border by Agnieszka Holland, Perfect Days by Wim Wenders, About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and more.

“We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece programme, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer. “The rebranding of the TIFF programme, formerly Contemporary World Cinema, is a reflection of the Festival’s vision to provide an elevated platform for international cinema, acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.”

See the lineup below.

Centrepiece Programme 2023

100 Yards Xu Haofeng, Xu Junfeng | China

International Premiere

About...

The programme comprises 47 films from 45 countries.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has unveiled the line-up for its Centrepiece programme, with 47 titles screening from filmmakers representing 45 countries.

Included in the programme (previously known as Contemporary World Cinema) are Victor Erice’s Close Your Eyes, getting its North American premiere; Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, receiving its Canadian premiere; and Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border, a North American premiere.

Scroll down for the full list of Centrepiece titles

TIFF also announced additional titles for its Galas, Special Presentations and Documentaries programmes, among them the world premiere of Brian Helgeland’s Finestkind.

The Toronto International Film Festival has added 59 more films to the lineup of its 2023 festival, including 47 international films in the Centrepiece program, which in previous years was known as Contemporary World Cinema. New films were also added to the Galas, Special Presentations and Documentary sections.

World premieres among the new selections include “Finestkind,” a crime thriller from Brian Helgeland (screenwriter of “L.A. Confidential”) starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ben Foster; The Movie Teller,” a film set in Chile starring Berenice Bejo from “An Education” director Lone Scherfig; and Jessica Yu’s “Quiz Lady,” with Sandra Oh and Awkwafina.

The Centrepiece selections include a number of films from May’s Cannes Film Festival, among them Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “About Dry Grasses,” Aki Kaurismaki’s “Fallen Leaves,” Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s “Banel & Adama,” Amjad Al Rasheed’s “Inshallah a Boy,” Joanna Arnow’s “The Feeling That the...

The Toronto International Film Festival continues to expand its 2023 lineup with 47 films from 45 countries in the Centerpiece program, previously known as Contemporary World Cinema. The highlights include Cannes Film Festival winners “Fallen Leaves” from Aki Kaurismäki and “Perfect Days” from Wim Wenders as well as Agnieszka Holland’s Venice-bound “Green Border.” See the full lineup below.

“We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece program, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer, in an official statement. “The rebranding of the TIFF program, formerly Contemporary World Cinema, is a reflection of the festival’s vision to provide an elevated platform for international cinema, for acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.”

Centerpiece Program 2023

About Dry Grasses (Kuru Otlar Üstüne) Nuri Bilge Ceylan...

"As hard boiled as the ground is hard-baked." Madman Films in Australia has released an official trailer for an indie crime thriller titled Limbo, from filmmaker Ivan Sen. This initially premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival earlier this year in the Main Competition section, but it didn't win any awards; it also played at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival this summer. In a small Australian outback town Travis Hurley, a detective, arrives to review a 20-year-old unsolved homicide of a young Indigenous girl. Travis discovers a collection of unpleasant truths hiding around this dusty town, highlighting the intricacies of loss and injustice faced by Indigenous Australians. Limbo is an Australian indie mystery-crime film directed by Ivan Sen, starring Simon Baker, Rob Collins, Natasha Wanganeen, and Nicholas Hope. This is a very sleek dialogue-free trailer, relying entirely on critics' quotes and the vivid B&w images to sell this film. This tricky...

Simon Baker revealed his new look in the new Australian film Limbo, in which he has short brown hair and a beard.

The 53-year-old Aussie actor posted a series of black-and-white screenshots of Limbo on Instagram, promoting his film that is screening in Australian cinemas. The Mentalist star has been known for his long blond hairstyle, and the new short hair look definitely shocked the fans.

“I love your rugged appearance in this film, different but strong ,” one Instagram user wrote under his movie promotion post

“Congratulations! You are almost unrecognizable with that extremely short hair,” added another fan.

In the newly released movie Limbo, made by Australian indigenous filmmaker Ivan Sen, Baker plays a detective who is visiting a small town to investigate an old unsolved murder of an Aboriginal woman.

The talented auteur Sen is known for the films Mystery Road and Goldstone.

>Watch Simon Baker’s uBIO Now!

In reviewing Ivan Sen’s Limbo, many critics have noted the parallels between the film and the auteur’s previous features Mystery Road and Goldstone. All fit within the “outback noir” genre – following a cop who heads into a remote outback town to solve a mystery – and have First Nations themes. However, whereas the Mystery Road franchise’s Jay Swan was an Indigenous police officer, the lead character in Limbo, the jaded and damaged detective Travis, is white. Simon Baker is...

The post “True auteurism”: Ivan Sen and Simon Baker on their collaboration in ‘Limbo’ appeared first on If Magazine.

The cast are uniformly excellent in the auteur’s latest outback noir, with his star playing a tough, sorrowful detective investigating the murder of an Indigenous girl 20 years before

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After making last year’s Loveland, a heavily ponderous and unsubtle sci-fi film set in Hong Kong, the Indigenous auteur Ivan Sen – most famous for directing the Mystery Road movies – has returned to crime in the sunscorched desert. And damn it’s great to have him back doing outback noir, because Sen is so bloody good at it. His latest work, Limbo, is an eerily meditative production with top-notch performances and a harshly beautiful monochrome veneer.

Simon Baker leads the cast as Travis Hurley, a tough, sorrowful, heroin-injecting detective with a buzz cut and a downbeat, Walter White-ish demeanour. At one point a child accurately observes that he looks more like a drug dealer...

’Suzume’, ’On The Adamant’, and ’Art College 1994’ all land in joint fourth place with a score of 2.7.

Celine Song’s feature debut Past Lives has finished top of Screen’s 2023 Berlin jury grid after the final five titles failed to match its average score of 3.6 from seven critics.

The romantic drama has the highest score of a Berlin jury grid winner since 2017’s The Other Side Of Hope by Aki Kaurismaki, which scored 3.7.

Click top left to expand

Past Lives stars Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro, and follows two childhood friends from South Korea who reconnect...

There’s a parched austerity to the landscape of the Australian outback, along with an embedded history of conflict between Indigenous and invading occupants, that makes it irresistibly well-suited to screen westerns. But there’s a loneliness to it, too, a sense that its quiet vastness could swallow you whole and without trace, that lends itself as easily to moody, smoky mystery.

Aboriginal filmmaker Ivan Sen has twice before dabbled in the harsh, dry space where those genre possibilities overlap, in his features “Goldstone” and “Mystery Road.” In his latest, most accomplished film “Limbo,” he once more surveys the region with a critical eye, finding a history of racial injustice in its sharp cracks and long shadows. But the genre styling this time has been pushed all the way to stark, monochromatic stylization. This is outback noir — oblique, secretive and as hard-boiled as the ground is hard-baked — and Sen wears it well.

Simon Baker plays a ruined cop investigating a cold-case murder in this tough, sandblasted thriller that coolly lays out the racism and discrimination the Indigenous population face

Indigenous Australian film-maker Ivan Sen brings to Berlin a terrific outback noir, a cold-case crime procedural that he has written and directed – and also shot in a stark monochrome, which makes the vast skies and cratered earth of South Australia’s abandoned opal mines look like another planet.

The setting is the town of Umoona, where a grizzled cop arrives, broodingly listening to a Christian talkshow on the car radio, and checking into a place unsubtly called the Limbo Motel, where his room is a bizarre stone grotto, apparently repurposed from one of the disused mines. This is detective Travis Hurley, played in careworn, weatherbeaten style by Simon Baker – very much resembling Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad. Hurley is a former drug squad...

Odd people turn up in deserts. People are also inclined to disappear. A strange moonscape of opal prospectors’ digs and slurry heaps helps to set a bleak mood in Australian filmmaker Ivan Sen’s Limbo, shot in gently faded black and white in the South Australian mining town of Coober Pedy, repurposed here as Limbo. Limbo, says the preacher whose radio show seems to be the only thing available on the local airwaves, is the edge of hell. Here, unpurged sinners may be “in friendship with God.” Damnation, however, isn’t far away.

Visiting detective Travis (Simon Baker) doesn’t seem to be in friendship with anyone. Baker, an Australian actor familiar as a suave presence in The Mentalist and other U.S. series, carries himself here as if he had spent his entire life facing a dusty headwind; he sinks into the role to become unrecognizable. When Travis checks into Limbo Hotel – which,...

Ivan Sen’s transfixing detective story takes its title from a remote, fictional opal mining town in the South Australian desert, surrounded by a ravaged landscape of craters and dirt mounds that evokes some barren, faraway planet in the stunning drone shots that punctate the film. The bone-dry, pockmarked earth, where many locals live in underground dugouts to escape the extreme heat and dust clouds, provides a bracingly atmospheric setting for this distinctive cold-case procedural. Led by an almost unrecognizable Simon Baker as a jaded cop, Limbo weaves in themes of racial inequity, broken individuals and fractured families to build quiet potency.

Indigenous Australian filmmaker Sen used the genre tropes of the Western to reflect on Aboriginal identity and the uneasy relationship of First Nations people to the country’s justice system in Mystery Road and Goldstone. In Limbo, he veers closer to noir in a film that has similarities...

Berlin Film Festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian and executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeck unveiled the International Competition and Encounters lineups on Monday for the festival’s 73rd edition, running February 16-26.

“It’s quite an eclectic selection,” Chatrian told the press conference in Berlin this morning. “You will see we tried to include as many genres and cinematic forms as possible.”

Related Story Berlin Film Festival Lineup: Sean Penn, Philippe Garrel, Margarethe Von Trotta & Christian Petzold In Competition — Full List Related Story Sean Penn Documentary On Ukraine And Volodymyr Zelenskyy To Debut At Berlin Film Festival Related Story Berlin Film Festival: Watch Competition Lineup Revealed Live

The International Competition features 18 titles, 15 of them world premieres, involving 19 different territories. Encounters, the Berlinale’s equivalent of Un Certain Regard which was launched in 2020, will showcase 16 films.

Chatrian has stuck with his love of mixing established names, including Philippe Garrel (The Plough), Margarethe von Trotta...

The Berlin Film Festival, held every year in February, the cruelest month of the German winter, has never been able to match the Mediterranean flair of Cannes or Venice, or the laid-back indie cool of Sundance. But when it comes to serious movies, few festivals, big or small, can match the Berlinale.

In place of the big blockbuster movies, Berlin has doubled down on political dramas and documentaries that focus on the real troubles of the world. The war in Ukraine — launched by Russia’s invasion a year ago — will be on screens everywhere this Berlinale. Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufmann’s documentary Superpower, shot just before and after Russia’s invasion, and featuring several interviews with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, will have its world premiere in Berlin’s Special Screening section and there are three more Ukraine documentaries — Roman Liubyi’s Iron Butterflies, Vitaly Mansky and Yevhen Titarenko’s doc Eastern Front,...

2023 truly begins taking shape with next month’s Berlinale, which will run from February 16 to February 26 and feature more than a few of our most-anticipated films this year. Among them are Christian Petzold’s Afire (Roter Himmel), starring new muse Paula Beer; Hong Sangsoo’s In Water, which will appear in the Encounters section; and Philippe Garrel’s The Plough, once known as La lune crevée starring his three children Louis, Esther, and Lena, and (judging from the still) his first color feature since 2011’s A Burning Hot Summer. Meanwhile: Angela Schanelec will return with Music, and––six years after the wonderful Person to Person––it’s nice spotting a new feature from Dustin Guy Defa, The Adults.

Find the lineup below and head back next month for our coverage of the festival headed by Kristen Stewart’s jury.

Competition

20,000 Species of Bees (Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren)

The Shadowless Tower (Zhang...

Ivan Sen's 'Limbo' and Rolf de Heer's 'Survival of Kindness' will be in the mix for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival next month, the first Australian films to screen in the official competition since 2006's 'Candy'.

The post ‘Limbo’, ‘Survival of Kindness’ in Berlin competition line-up appeared first on If Magazine.

The Berlin Film Festival on Monday unveiled the titles selected for its official competition as well as its sidebar Encounters competitive section.

A total of 18 films have been selected for the international competition with highlights including Christian Petzold’s latest film Roter Himmel (Afire), Margarethe von Trotta directing Phantom Thread star Vicky Krieps in Ingeborg Bachmann — Journey Into the Desert, and Philippe Garrel returns with a new feature titled The Plough.

Scroll down for the full lineup.

This morning the festival also revealed an extra special screening: Actor and filmmaker Sean Penn will debut a documentary titled Superpower, a film shot in Ukraine last year at the outbreak of Russia’s invasion and follows president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Berlin Film Festival takes place February 16-26.

Organizers have already announced more than 100 titles across sidebars spanning Panorama, Forum, and Berlinale Special. The festival had initially done a good job of increasing...

The Berlin International Film Festival unveiled the competition lineup for its 2023 edition on Monday morning, naming the 18 movies that will compete for the coveted Gold and Silver Bears at the 73rd Berlinale.

Berlinale executive director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian presented a very international and arthouse-heavy lineup, with a strong focus on politically-charged cinema.

In a late addition, Superpower, Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman’s documentary on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Russian invasion of the country and the ongoing war, will have its world premiere in Berlin’s out-of-competition Berlinale Special section. The doc, made for Vice Studios, Aldamisa Entertainment and Fifth Season, is being sold internationally by Fifth Season.

Berlin 2023, taking place a year after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, will have a major focus on Ukraine. Even the festival’s official pin will be in the Ukraine colors of blue and yellow.

In competition, German auteur...

Sean Penn, Jesse Eisenberg, Canadian actor-director Matt Johnson, South Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo, and Korean-Canadian director Celine Song are headed to the upcoming Berlin Film Festival.

Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian and executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeck on Monday unveiled the main Competition and Encounters selections for the fest’s 73rd edition, which will feature a rich mix of known names and newcomers, as well as a strong political emphasis.

Penn will be in Berlin with “Superpower,” the doc he co-directed with Aaron Kaufman that depicts the struggle between Volodymyr Zelensky, the actor and comedian who became president of Ukraine, and Russian president Vladimir Putin, as Russia deploys a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Penn was in Kiev shooting a film with Zelensky when the war in Ukraine burst,” Chatrian said at a press conference in Berlin. “Reality made the film change into something less comfortable and more meaningful,” he added. “We...

Stars: Ryan Kwanten, Hugo Weaving, Jillian Nguyen, David Field, Michael Chan | Written and Directed by Ivan Sen

Set in a crowded and pulsating urban metropolis, our story begins with Jack (Ryan Kwanten) – a demoralised and demotivated assassin who aspires for more and struggles to define his place in the world as he moves from one assassination to the next. His monotonous days are filled with robotic lovers and a lack of intimacy – but when Jack meets soulful karaoke geisha April (Jillian Nguyen), life as he knows it changes forever… As he and April’s relationship grows stronger and stronger – Jack grows mysteriously weaker. Just as Jack’s life seems to come together, it begins to fall apart – and his body begins to break down. In need of answers – about both his inexplicable present and unknown past – Jack turns to enigmatic scientist Dr Bergman (Hugo Weaving). Can Dr Bergman help Jack before it’s too late?...

Indonesian thriller ‘Autobiography’ and Mexican documentary ‘Sanson And Me’ among line-up.

Australia’s Adelaide Film Festival (Oct 19-30) has unveiled its first line-up since shifting from a biennial to an annual event, including 12 titles in competition.

This year’s event comprises 129 films, of which 22 world premieres, from more than 40 countries.

The competition features include Indonesian thriller Autobiography, which scooped a Fipresci prize at the weekend after playing in the Horizons strand of the Venice Film Festival. The debut feature of film critic-turned-director Makbul Mubarak is about a young man who keeps house for a retired general, finding himself torn between...

A total of 11 titles to compete at 70th anniversary edition of festival.

The 70th Melbourne International Film Festival (August 4-28) has unveiled the 11 titles set to compete in its first ever international competition.

The Miff Bright Horizons competition has a focus on first and second features, and a prize of A140,000 – the biggest film prize in Australia.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Miff artistic director Al Cossar’s line-up includes several debut features from female directors including Aftersun from UK director Charlotte Wells and magical realist eco drama The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future from Chilean filmmaker Francisca Alegría.

Ryan Kwanten plays a weary assassin working in a futuristic Hong Kong who calls on Weaving’s enigmatic doctor after a romance leaves him mysteriously ill

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Australian film-maker Ivan Sen’s sci-fi Loveland asks some very Philip K Dickian questions, about the nature of consciousness and posthuman evolution. Ryan Kwanten is Jack, a dead-eyed hitman who – like so many screen assassins before him – is glum and self-hating but yearns for something greater. His backstory justifies his emotional emptiness, though this does little to warm the audience to an unsympathetic lead, played with bleary-eyed moroseness.

Films led by similar characters often use a love interest with distinct vulnerabilities to soften the hatched man’s misanthropy: like the woman hurt by Chow Yun-fat’s assassin in John Woo’s classic The Killer, fated to go blind without an operation, or...

Ivan Sen came in 2016 when I watched his outback police detective drama Goldstone. Sen's work, be it TV or film, has a striking quality of featuring small stories nestled among larger backdrops and storylines.

Sen's latest project Expired is quite a bit different than anything he's done before. Gone is the Australian Outback, and in its place is the crowded, neon-laden Hong Kong of the near future. It's both a familiar and foreign place where robots look and feel human, life expectancy has increased significantly, and where technology is both advanced and lo-fi. It's in this world that we meet Jack (Ryan Kwanten), a man searching for answers; April (Jillian Nguyen), an entertainer finds hope and love with Jack; and Dr. Bergman (Hugo Weaving), a scientist who is desperate...

Check out this cyberpunk-ey trailer and poster for Expired a new film by Ivan Sen starring Ryan Kwanten, Hugo Weaving and Jillian Nguyen.

The film hits select Theaters and On Demand March 18.

Synopsis:

Ryan Kwanten (“True Blood”) and Hugo Weaving (The Matrix series) star in this futuristic thriller about a hitman who meets a mysterious woman and comes down with a deadly illness.

Check out the trailer!

Australian director Ivan Sen has reunited with his Mystery Road stars Ryan Kwanten and Hugo Weaving. They are back together for the futuristic thriller Expired, a "futuristic thriller about a hitman who meets a mysterious woman and comes down with a deadly illness".   Lionsgate is releasing Expired in theaters and On Demand on March 18th! They released the trailer yesterday, you will find it and some key stills below.    There is no lack of spit and polish to the look of Expired as Sen and company make the most of the backdrop of Hong Kong. The effects team was all hands on deck to create some nice looking landscapes too. The influence of a certain dystopic Los Angeles, circa 2019/2049, is definite.  ...

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

"There isn't much time... and you're deteriorating very quickly. Lionsgate has revealed an official US trailer for Expired, an intriguing sci-fi thriller from Australia set in the future in a "neon-drenched" world similar to Blade Runner. In a futuristic Hong Kong, young assassin Jack crosses paths with a nightclub singer. As Jack becomes increasingly drawn to April, his body mysteriously deteriorates. Jack tracks down reclusive life extension scientist Dr. Bergman, who unearths Jack’s long buried secret and is forced to confront his own murky past. "Every frame encourages life and emotion, an optimism as much as heartache, of what could be, and what will be." Ryan Kwanten and Hugo Weaving star with Jillian Nguyen as April. This looks very cool, I can't deny with this footage, I just hope the rest holds up. This trailer also has a rad score. Here's the official US trailer (+ poster) for Ivan Sen's Expired,...

Hugo Weaving, Rose Byrne and Zac Efron star in some of this year’s big movie releases, with directors George Miller, Ivan Sen, Baz Luhrmann and Gracie Otto at the helm

The last couple of years have surely reminded us that nobody can predict the future and nobody knows what’s coming around the corner. We can safely assume, however, that whatever troubles befall us, artists will struggle on, fighting the good fight, telling stories and taking us to places of imagination and illumination.

As always, the new year offers a range of Australian films to look forward to. Here are 10 of them.

Bunya Productions’ Mystery Road: Origin is underway in Western Australia’s Kalgoorlie-Boulder for the ABC, with a stacked ensemble cast to join Mark Coles Smith as a young Jay Swan.

They include Toby Leonard Moore, Daniel Henshall, Lisa Flanagan, Clarence Ryan, Steve Bisley, Caroline Brazier, Hayley McElhinney, Dubs Yunupingu, Kelton Pell, Leonie Whyman, Salme Geransar, Nina Young and rising stars Jayden Popik and Tuuli Narkle, who will play Jay’s first love Mary.

The third season of the series is set in 1999 and follows Constable Jay Swan, a charismatic young officer who arrives at his new station. Fresh from the city and tipped for big things, Jay might be the new copper, but he’s not new to this town. His estranged father Jack lives here, as does the woman who will change his life forever, Mary.

The Mystery Road franchise stems back to Ivan Sen’s 2013 film by the same title,...

Mark Coles Smith is set to take the baton from Aaron Pedersen and play a young Jay Swan in Mystery Road: Origin, ABC/Bunya Productions’ latest instalment in the crime drama franchise.

Set in 1999, the series will see Constable Jay Swan as young charismatic officer at his new station. Fresh from the city and tipped for big things, Jay might be the new copper, but he’s not new to this town. His estranged father Jack lives here, as does the woman who will change his life forever, Mary.

Mystery Road: Origin will explore how a tragic death, an epic love, and the brutal reality of life as a police officer straddling two worlds, form the indelible mould out of which will emerge Detective Jay Swan.

“Audiences have long been intrigued with the enigmatic detective,” said producer Greer Simpkin.

“Now we peel back the layers of Jay Swan, to discover...

Ivan Sen’s latest feature Loveland, starring Ryan Kwanten, Jillian Nguyen and Hugo Weaving, will land in cinemas October 28 via Dark Matter Distribution.

In a futuristic Hong Kong, assassin Jack (Kwanten), crosses paths with a nightclub singer, April (Nguyen). As Jack becomes increasingly drawn to April his body mysteriously deteriorates. Jack tracks down reclusive life extension scientist Doctor Bergman (Weaving), in a search for answers. Doctor Bergman unearths Jack’s long buried secret and is forced to confront his own murky past. As the net that connects them tightens, Jack and April struggle for love as they face their past in a loveless world that is on the cusp of immortality and extinction.

Loveland is produced by Bunya Productions’ David Jowsey, Greer Simpkin, Angela Littlejohn and Ivan Sen, who is also the film’s Dop, editor and composer.

The post ‘Loveland’ (Trailer) appeared first on If Magazine.

Outgoing Screen Australia head of First Nations Penny Smallacombe is set to join Bunya Media Group as a producer.

Smallacombe will produce a number of the company’s upcoming projects, including Sbs drama series Copping It Black, working with directors Erica Glynn and Steven McGregor, who both penned the script with Danielle Maclean.

While at Screen Australia, Smallacombe helped shepherd to screen several Bunya Productions projects, including ABC series Mystery Road, Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country and Ivan Sen’s Goldstone, as well as helping to facilitate Bunya Talent Hub LA.

Smallacombe, a Maramanindji woman from the Northern Territory, tells If she has loved Bunya’s “big, bold” output over the past few years, and considers it a privilege to join the team. She is keen to use her new role to continue to bring authentic First Nations stories to screen, particularly from exciting new talent.

“They’re a trusted...