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French movies had a banner 2024 on home turf with a 44% market share at the French box office, which broke a 15-year record; meanwhile, Gallic films saw a 11% year-on-year drop in international revenues, according to figures unveiled by the National Film Board (Cnc) and Unifrance during the Rendez-Vous in Paris market on Monday.

During the first 50 weeks of 2024, French movies generated 222.8 million euros ($227.2 million) from 33.4 million admissions outside France. Taking into account tickets sales during the second half of December, Unifrance anticipates the final box office for international will be closer to 38 million admissions and 250 million euros ($255.2 million) in revenues.

While it doesn’t represent France in the Oscar race, “The Count of Monte-Cristo,” a three-hour epic adventure film adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ classic, ranks as the biggest French film export in 2024.

The movie, produced by Dimitri Rassam’s Mediawan-owned banner Chapter 2 and sold internationally by Pathé, has grossed an...

Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning look at the commandant of Auschwitz and his family living blissfully on the edge of the concentration camp makes for a deeply chilling horror

• The best films of 2024 in the UK

• More on the best culture of 2024

The Zone of Interest, a British, American and Polish production directed by Jonathan Glazer, begins with a scene of bucolic bliss: a German-speaking family picnicking on a riverbank on a summer day. The specifics of character and dialogue are less important – you can barely catch the thread of conversation, anyway – than of the family’s mood: peace, tranquility, ease; on the father’s part, a note of concern. There have been a handful of recent films – Tran Anh Hung’s The Taste of Things, Annie Baker’s Janet Planet, Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt – that have excellently refuted the tyranny of story in how we evaluate cinema,...

UK arthouse theater chain and distributor Curzon has been acquired by Fortress Investment Group.

The deal was confirmed this morning, but we first reported yesterday that Fortress appeared to be the frontrunner to take control of Curzon after it was the only bidder for a handful of properties owned by Charles Cohen at a foreclosure auction Friday. Fortress bid $5 million for Curzon at the auction.

Charles Cohen acquired the Curzon brand in 2019. The deal included ownership of the company’s 16 UK cinemas, film distributor Curzon Film, and the Curzon Home Cinema streaming service.

Fortress lent Cohen $534 million backed by a handful of properties including Landmark and Curzon and sued him earlier this year for default. A New York State Supreme Court judge agreed to Fortress’ request for an auction to recoup what it could and set it for Nov 8.

Curzon said today in a statement that the Fortress deal will...

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This November, Hulu is bringing you a lot of entertainment, from the surreal action comedy-drama series Interior Chinatown to the Christmas comedy-drama film Nutcrackers. However, for this article, we only included the films that are coming to Hulu this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 7 best films that are coming to Hulu in November 2024 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Aliens (November 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% Credit – 20th Century Fox

Aliens is a sci-fi action thriller drama film written and directed by James Cameron. The 1986 film is set in a dystopian future and it follows Ellen Ripley who is sent back to the planet Lv-426 to establish communication with a terraforming colony but when she gets there she is hunted by an Alien Queen who is out for her life. Aliens stars Sigourney Weaver,...

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 2, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2, 2024.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

Things are looking up for “Emilia Pérez.” France has chosen the upcoming Netflix release as its submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. Acquired by the streaming service out of Cannes, the film won both the Jury Prize and Best Actress prize for its female ensemble at the 2024 edition of the annual international film festival along the French Riviera.

The operatic crime drama about a fearsome Mexican drug cartel leader that enlists a plucky lawyer to help coordinate their gender reassignment surgery is written and directed by French auteur Jacques Audiard, whose 2009 film “A Prophet” was one of the last of France’s submissions to receive a Best International Feature nomination.

The film was chosen by revamped Oscar committee featuring 11 French professionals on both the artistic and industry side of filmmaking, including recent Oscar-nominated producers Nadim Cheikhroua (“Four Daughters”) and David Thion (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Oscar-winning filmmaker Florian Zeller,...

France has picked Jacques Audiard’s queer crime musical Emilia Pérez as its contender for the 2025 Oscar race in the best international feature category.

Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz star alongside Spanish trans actress Karla Sofia Gascón in the genre-jumping feature about a Mexican drug lord (Gascón) who enlists the help of a lawyer (Saldaña) to undergo gender-affirming surgery.

Emilia Pérez premiered in Cannes, where it won the Jury Prize as well as a joint best actress honor for the ensemble cast.

Audiard is already an Oscar nominee for A Prophet in 2009. His filmography includes such features as Rust and Bone (2012), The Sisters Brothers (2018) and Dheepan (2015).

Traditionally, France has been a regular in the best international feature race and has won the category 12 times. But the last time the nation that invented cinema took home the trophy was in 1992 with Régis Wargnier’s Indochine. France has been shut...

France has picked Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set musical Emilia Perez to represent the country in the best international feature category at the 2025 Academy Awards as it attempts to sing its way to a victory in the category for the first time in more than 30 years.

The primarily Spanish-language song-filled film is about cartel leader Emilia, who enlists an unappreciated lawyer to help fake her death so Emilia can live authentically as her true self.

It won both the Cannes Jury prize for director Audiard and a shared best actress award for its female cast Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana...

France has selected Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez to represent it in the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.

The drama stars Karla Sofía Gascón as cartel leader Emilia who enlists the help of unappreciated lawyer Rita (Saldana) to help her fake her death so she can live authentically as her true self.

It premiered at Cannes, where it earned its four actresses – Gascón, Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz – a collective Best Actress award, and also clinched the jury prize.

The film was selected from a short list of four films which also included swashbuckler The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte; French-produced Indian drama All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia and Misericordia by Alain Guiraudie.

This year’s revamped selection committee featured sales agent Carole Baraton, producer Nadim Cheikhroua (Four Daughters), Venice Golden Lion...

France has unveiled the four titles in the running to represent it in the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.

They are:

All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard Misericordia by Alain Guiraudie

This year’s candidate is being decided by a restructured selection committee – featuring Venice Golden Lion winner Audrey Diwan and Oscar winners, writer, director and producer Florian Zeller and producer Patrick Wachsberger – as...

Celebrating the joy of watching films at TIFF, particularly in the movie theater, the poster features acclaimed actor Kikuchi Rinko, this year’s festival navigator.

Kikuchi entered the limelight in 2006, when she was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Babel by Alejandro González Iñárritu, and has since appeared in many films by foreign directors, including Norwegian Wood (2010) by Tran Anh Hung, Pacific Rim (2013) by Guillermo del Toro, and Endless Night (2015) by Isabel Coixet. Last year, she won the Best Actress Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival for Yoko by Kumakiri Kazuyoshi. For her significant commitment to the film industry as an actor, she has been appointed Festival Navigator for the 37th TIFF. Beyond her powerful gaze, we hope to present a new landscape of cinema.

The poster images were created by Japanese fashion designer Koshino Junko, who has designed TIFF’s visuals...

Throughout the years, and at least to the people who do not deal extensively with Vietnamese cinema, the local movie industry was almost exclusively represented by Tran Anh Hung, whose films like “Cyclo”, “The Scent of Green Papaya” and “Vertical Ray of the Sun” are the first that come to the mind of any cinephile. However, the Camera D’or for best first feature film Pham Tien An won at the 76th Cannes Film Festival for “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell” showed that there might be more to local cinema than the aforementioned director, who did won Best Director for “The Taste of Things”, in a production though, that is exclusively French.

Furthermore as Le Chou wrote in an article published last year in Asian Movie Pulse, “For the first time in modern Vietnam cinema since the establishment of its box office tracking, six local films topped the Vietnam box...

France’s Oscar committee, which selects the country’s submission for the best international film category, has introduced key changes affecting the size of the group and term length of its members.

In an announcement on Friday, the Cnc — France’s National Film Board — revealed that the committee will now be made up of 11 members and five alternates, a significant increase from its seven current members. The committee will also now serve a two-year term, instead of the previous one-year mandate, and the chairman of the Cnc will no longer attend meetings as an observer.

A press release states that these changes have been made to “promote the collegiality of the debates, the diversity of points of view and the secret nature of the vote of each member.”

The news comes after France’s Oscar committee faced a fair amount of backlash last year over its submission of Tran Anh Hung...

France’s Cnc has again overhauled its Academy Awards selection committee protocol following the fallout from last year’s decision not to put forward Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall in the best international feature category, thus extending a 31-year drought since a win.

Anatomy Of A Fall earned five Oscar nominations and won for best original screenplay even though it was not submitted in the best international feature category. Instead the committee chose Tran Anh Hung’s The Taste Of Things in a surprise upset that set the local industry afire with criticism about the choice.

Daniyar Salamat’s The Divorce was the first film from Kazakhstan to win the best film prize at the Shanghai International Film Festival (Siff)’s Golden Goblet Awards. It also secured the best actress award for Omarova Amira.

The 1920s-set film revolves around a husband and wife who are in a relationship crisis, while depicting the social realities that repress the role of women.

The jury praised the film for “the sophisticated form of its story which mixes comedy, farce and tragedy and moves fluidly from public sphere to the intimate relationship of a couple in crisis” and for “the...

The 26th Shanghai International Film Festival came to a glitzy conclusion Saturday as Kazakh film The Divorce, directed by Daniyar Salamat, took home the top Golden Goblet award for best feature at a star-studded closing ceremony in the Chinese commercial capital.

A period drama set in the 1920s during the establishment of Soviet authority on the Kazakh steppe, the film explores the convergence of marriage, religion and women’s rights through the story of a typical couple wrestling with the prospect of divorce.

Salamat was presented onstage with his trophy by the Oscar-nominated Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung (Scent of Green Papaya, The Taste of Things), who served as Shanghai’s competition jury president this year. Hung and his fellow jurors praised the “sophisticated form” of The Divorce‘s story, “which mixes comedy, farce and tragedy,” and they hailed Salamat’s “ability to create the feeling of innocence, which radiates...

Chinese drama Friday, Funfair, directed by Zeng Zi, was named best film of the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival’s Asian New Talent section, which honors distinguished works by emerging filmmakers from across the Asia-Pacific region.

The film is in tune with a recent trend in Chinese cinema of tackling the pressures and hardships women face in society. Zeng’s first feature, Friday, Funfair follows a female protagonist (Ying Ze) who is overwhelmed by her life’s daily grind — her husband left her, her mother seems to have aged suddenly and her daughter is facing imminent surgery, among other challenges. But Friday is her daughter’s birthday — and everything comes to a head at an amusement park where they go to celebrate.

The Asian New Talent section’s only double award winner this year was the black-and-white Indian social drama In the Name of the Fire. The film’s self-taught director,...

The promise from organizers of the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival is for a mix of the “old and the new” and to that end this year’s program offers a look at emerging contemporary filmmakers as well as movies that chart a course from the local industry’s development in the early 1900s through to today.

The bustling Chinese metropolis has been transformed by its annual celebration of cinema, with 47 theaters spread out across the city’s 16 districts hosting an estimated 1,600 screenings of 461 films across the June 14-23 event. There’s heavy promotion everywhere you look — hanging from lampposts, dominating the billboards that inform this city of more than 26 million people.

Domestic productions are taking pride of place throughout the program and — most noticeably this year — across the festival’s four central Golden Goblet competitions for feature films, which boast no less than 12 mainland Chinese films.

“As the only...

It has been commonplace in academic circles to divide up and label Chinese filmmakers into generations that reflect socio-political currents as much as cinematic style.

Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, who were educated at the end of the Cultural Revolution, are considered the leading lights of the “fifth generation.” The rebellious cluster that followed them, Zhang Yuan, Wang Xioashuai, Jia Zhangke and Lou Ye are among those labelled as “sixth generation.”

But with substantial bodies of work under their belts and international reputations already established, the sixth generation are no longer quite so new, nor so angry.

The four Chinese films selected for the main competition – all world premieres – at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival represent a showcase of directors who are also known-quantities, but who are worthy of higher profiles. (The festival’s Asian Talent selection has a further selection of six more directors seeking to break through.

Less than a decade ago, the Shanghai International Film Festival was the preeminent annual hotspot for Hollywood and European dealmakers determined to forge alliances and carve out a foothold in China’s then-booming commercial film sector. In the post-pandemic era, however, as the Chinese industry continues to mature and the Hollywood hype over the country’s market potential long ago gave way to grim reality, the festival has transitioned into a somewhat more inward-facing occasion.

That domestic focus is on display in the Shanghai event’s 2024 lineup, which features 10 Chinese movies among the 25 titles of the two main international competition sections (and not a single film from the U.S. or South Korea). For international film buffs, the Shanghai festival is now best viewed as an opportunity to take stock of current trends in Chinese filmmaking — and on that front, the event’s 2024 lineup is rich with potential.

The 26th...

Along with a red-carpet opening ceremony, a press conference with the members of the main competition jury is a staple event of major film festivals and the 26th edition of the Shanghai International Film Festival kicked off in traditional form on Friday.

Along with Vietnam-French director Tran Anh Hung, previously revealed as jury president, the other members of the decisive committee this year are: Australian director and screenwriter Rolf de Heer; German director Matthias Glasner; Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka Fai; Argentinian director Santiago Mitre; Chinese director Sonthar Gyal; and, the jury’s only woman, star actor Zhou Xun.

A packed audience lobbed familiar questions about the criteria they jurors would employ to decide the Golden Goblet prize winners, and what informs those views.

Tran, who is based largely in France, rejected the idea of an East-West clash of sensibilities. “Film is its own language, and I try to...

IFC Films has acquired the North American rights to “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” a holiday season dramedy that had its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The film was directed by Tyler Taormina (“Ham on Rye”) and stars newcomer Matilda Fleming, as well as Michael Cera (“Barbie”), Francesca Scorsese (“We Are Who We Are”), Gregg Turkington (“Ant-Man”), Elsie Fisher (“Eighth Grade”), Sawyer Spielberg (“Masters of the Air’) and Maria Dizzia (“Martha Marcy May Marlene”). IFC will release “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” later this year on Nov. 15.

The film kicks off as a rambunctious extended family arrives at their Long Island hometown for the holidays. But before the night is over, two teenage cousins use the chaos sparked by the yuletide reunion to sneak out into the wintry night and make the holiday their own.

“’Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point’ is a special treat which invites...

The Shanghai International Film Festival has unveiled a selection that is weighted heavily to world premieres and Chinese, local titles.

That gives the festival showcase screenings for the newest works by established Chinese directors Gu Changwei, Wei Shujun and Guan Hu (“Old Fish”).

Guan was rewarded in Cannes only last week for his Un Certain Regard-winning picture “Black Dog,” but will unveil his next effort “The Hedgehog in Shanghai’s main competition.

All but two of the 14 competition section films are world premiere screenings – only “Un Homme en Fuite” recently released in France, and “Le Seconda Vita,” recently released in Italy are international premieres – and all 11 films selected in the Asian New Talent Competition are debut screenings.

That makes the Shanghai lineup have little in common with other international festivals being held at this time of year. Most of those, typically, find house room for a sprinkling of standout titles from Sundance,...

The latest films by acclaimed Chinese directors Guan Hu, Wei Shujun, Gu Changwei and Zhang Dalei are among 14 features selected for the main competition at the upcoming 26th Shanghai International Film Festival.

The festival has announced a total of 50 films in contention for the Golden Goblet Awards, which further include 11 titles for the Asian New Talent competition, five each for the animated feature and documentary feature competition, and 15 for the short film competition. Between them are 38 world premieres – a new record for Siff – as well as six international premieres and six Asian premieres.

The main competition section carries four Chinese titles,...

The Shanghai International Film Festival unveiled the competition selection for its upcoming 26th edition Wednesday, featuring a lineup characteristically heavy on Chinese titles. As in recent years, the lineup also includes a bevy of European, Japanese and Central Asian movies, but not a single film from the U.S. or South Korea.

The most anticipated film from the festival’s 14-title main competition in 2024 is undoubtedly Chinese director Guan Hu’s drama A Man and a Woman, featuring a pair of lead performances from the big local stars Huang Bo and Ni Ni. Guan wowed critics at the Cannes Film Festival just a week ago with his darkly comic thriller Black Dog, which took home the French festival’s prestigious Un Certain Regard prize. Guan also is no stranger to the Shanghai festival. His WWII tentpole The Eight Hundred was scheduled to open the 2019 edition of the event, but it...

The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is pleased to announce that one of Asia's most internationally acclaimed actors, Tony Leung, will serve as the President of the International Competition jury at the 37th TIFF.

TIFF Chairman Ando Hiroyasu expressed his delight that the renowned actor would be returning to TIFF again after last year's wonderful masterclass and screening. (See further comments below)

Tony Leung has an extensive list of awards throughout a career that began in the 1980s, and has gained international recognition for collaborations with director Wong Kar-wai, with whom he has worked on seven films including In the Mood for Love (2000), which earned him the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actor Award, and 2046 (2004). He also appeared in three films that won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival: A City of Sadness (1989), directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Cyclo (1995), directed by Tran Anh Hung, and Lust, Caution (2007) by director Ang Lee.

Veteran Hong Kong actor Tony Leung will serve as the president of the international competition at this year’s Tokyo Film Festival.

“I am immensely honored to be on the jury team at TIFF this year. Japan is close to my heart in more ways than one and to be involved in celebrating film in this way, is a big deal for me,” Leung said of this appointment this morning.

“From the age of 12, growing up in Hong Kong, I remember going to see all the classic Japanese movies from that time. These exciting trips to the cinema were the start of a great love affair between Japanese film, people, and its culture for me, that has just grown and grown. I’m already expecting the festival to be full of surprises and a lot of fun to preside over, I’m sure. What I hope is that it will...

Leading Hong Kong actor Tony Leung has been set as the president of the jury that will decide the main competition prizes at the Tokyo International Film Festival later this year.

“Japan is close to my heart in more ways than one. And to be involved in celebrating film in this way, is a big deal for me. From the age of 12, growing up in Hong Kong, I remember going to see all the classic Japanese movies from that time. These exciting trips to the cinema were the start of a great love affair between Japanese film, people and its culture for me, that has just grown and grown. I’m already expecting the festival to be full of surprises and a lot of fun to preside over, I’m sure. What I hope is that it will be a bit of an adventure, with an audacious line up of quality films.

Hong Kong star Tony Leung is set to serve as president of the international competition jury at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF).

The actor, who won best actor at Cannes in 2000 for his performance in Wong Kar-wai’s In The Mood For Love, will take part in the 37th edition, which runs from October 28 to November 6.

”From the age of 12, growing up in Hong Kong, I remember going to see all the classic Japanese movies from that time,” Leung recalled. ”These exciting trips to the cinema were the start of a great love affair between Japanese film,...

Artificial Eye, the arthouse distribution company established in 1976 by Curzon Cinemas, is set for a re-launch as a theatrical and home entertainment label.

Founded by Andi and Pam Engel, the label gained recognition for releasing independent, arthouse, and foreign language films, promoting films from directors such as Béla Tarr, the Dardenne Brothers, and Trần Anh Hùng.

Artificial Eye went on hiatus in 2014, after being part of the Curzon group since 2006. In 2019, we told you Curzon Group and its subsidiaries, including Artificial Eye, had been acquired by U.S. indie distributor and exhibitor Cohen Media Group. Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure was one of the last films released under the previous version of the label.

Curzon has continued to release critically acclaimed films under the Curzon Film label led by Managing Director Louisa Dent. One of their successes has been Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever at the UK box office.

U.K. outfit Curzon — part of the Cohen Media Group — is set to relaunch Artificial Eye, the arthouse distribution label that was established in 1976 and has been on hiatus for the last decade.

The label, first founded by film enthusiasts Andi and Pam Engel and part of the Curzon group since 2006, became renowned for releasing independent, foreign-language and arthouse title to U.K. audiences, including those by Béla Tarr, the Dardenne Brothers and Trần Anh Hùng. Its library boasts over 400 critically acclaimed films from directors including Wim Wenders, Michael Haneke and Claire Denis. Ruben Östlund’s “Force Majeure” was one of the last films released under the previous incarnation.

Led by managing director Louisa Dent, who has been with the company since 2008, Curzon has continued to release critically acclaimed films under the Curzon Film label — including Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever at the U.K.

The UK’s Curzon is to relaunch its specialist UK/Ireland distribution label Artificial Eye, as a theatrical and home entertainment brand.

The first release under the banner will be Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Berlinale Competition title My Favourite Cake.

Led by Curzon managing director Louisa Dent, the acquisitions team will curate additions to the Artificial Eye catalogue, focusing on director-led world cinema and discoveries from emerging filmmakers.

Artificial Eye was founded in 1976 by Andi Engel and Pam Engel. The label released leading independent, foreign-language and arthouse titles, including films by Bela Tarr, the Dardenne brothers and Tran Anh Hung.

French Concession

Vietnamese French director and screenwriter Tran Anh Hung has been named as president of the jury for the upcoming Shanghai International Film Festival.

The festival, which runs June 14 to 23, said that his works “blend the expressions of Eastern and Western cultures, with sensitivity, delicacy, and a romantic style.” His films include: 1992’s “Scent of the Green Papaya”; 1995’s “Cyclo,” starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai; 2009 English-language thriller “I Come With the Rain,” starring Josh Hartnett; and “The Taste of Things,” which earned him the best director prize at Cannes last year.

The jury president role marks a return and a promotion for the director. He was previously on the Shanghai festival’s jury in 2011, when he also screened his “Norwegian Wood.”

Laser Focus

Sm Cinema, the largest exhibitor in the Philippines, is to open giant screen Imax cinemas in three new venues. It will also upgrade seven other cinemas to Imax with Laser installations.

To celebrate the release of The Taste of Things out now on DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital. We have a Blu-Rays to give away to two lucky winners!

The Taste of Things, a film by Tran Anh Hung Starring Juliette Binoche & Benoît Magimel and winner for Best Director at Cannes Film Festival 2023.

Peerless cook Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) has worked for the famous gourmet Dodin (Benoît Magimel) for the last 20 years.

Bonding over a passion for gastronomy and mutual admiration, their relationship develops into romance and gives rise to delicious dishes that impress even the world’s most illustrious chefs. But Eugenie is fond of her freedom and has never wanted to marry Dodin. So, he decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her.

A delectable feast for the senses, The Taste of Things is a stunningly beautiful romance that simmers with emotion.

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only.

Tran Anh Hung’s simmering gastro-romance is the latest dish in a cinematic feast ranging from The Godfather to The Lunchbox

The term “gastroporn” got thrown around a lot when The Taste of Things was in cinemas recently, but I’m not sure it’s quite right for Tran Anh Hung’s sumptuous culinary romance, seductive as all the cookery on display is. Though it has many a languid, exquisitely lit pan over the finished dishes created by Benoît Magimel’s 19th-century gourmet – including a giant, glistening vol-au-vent that I’ve been thinking about for months – it’s less about money shots than it is about foodie foreplay. The film’s greatest pleasures are in its extended sequences of preparation and process; the silently, adoringly intuitive collaboration between Magimel and Juliette Binoche’s fellow cook; the thrill of watching experts at work. Ok, and there’s a near-seamless match-cut from...

Prepare to feast. Or dance. This week’s streaming debuts include two visually sumptuous films that will whet your Easter-weekend appetite.

The contender to watch this week: “The Taste of Things“

France lost out on an Oscar nomination when the country’s selection committee chose Trần Anh Hùng‘s savory romance about a venerable chef (Benoît Magimel) and a gifted cook (Juliette Binoche) instead of eventual Best Picture nominee “Anatomy of a Fall.” But even if the movie didn’t make the Best International Feature Film category, it earned an immediate spot in the culinary canon. Like the documentary “Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros,” last year’s other great food movie, “The Taste of Things” is kitchen porn. In the warmly lit countryside, the gourmands prepare veal loins, roasted vegetables, baked Alaska, and the creamiest omelet you’ve ever seen. Select theaters are still showing the film, but it’s newly available on VOD.

Not every good film is necessarily a good time, and vice versa. On the latter front, see “Mothers’ Instinct,” a 1960s-set suburban psychodrama too silly to secure our belief and too reserved to pass muster as go-for-broke camp — but still compulsive enough, twisty enough and finally berserk enough to keep us hooked through all its tonal and narrative lane-changing. As a pair of model homemakers and next-door neighbors whose close friendship is severely undone by sudden tragedy, even stars Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain don’t always seem to be making entirely the same movie: Hathaway’s sly, high-gloss vamping points to a more brittly amusing one than Chastain’s earnest emotional commitment, turning their characters’ escalating picket-fence battle into a compelling tussle for the soul of the script itself. One wins, and not predictably so.

First-time feature director Benoît Delhomme, however, doesn’t have much command over this strange,...

India premieres of France’s “The Taste of Things” and Korea’s “Exhuma” will open and close respectively the first edition of India’s Cinevesture International Film Festival.

Tran Anh Hung won best director at Cannes 2023 for “The Taste of Things,” which was subsequently submitted as France’s official entry to the Oscars’ international feature category. Jang Jae-hyun’s “Exhuma” is Korea’s biggest box office hit of 2024.

International highlights of the program include Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning “The Zone of Interest,” Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “Monster,” Darren Aronivsky’s “The Whale,” starring Brendan Fraser, Steffi Niederzoll’s Berlinale winner “Seven Winters in Tehran,” Anthony Chen’s Singapore Oscar entry “Breaking Ice” and Prasanna Vithanage’s Busan-winning “Paradise.”

Indian films include Jayant Digambar Somalkar’s Toronto winner “Sthal,” Karan Tejpal’s Venice title “Stolen,” Rima Das’ Toronto title “Tora’s Husband,” Gurvinder Singh’s Rotterdam film “Adh Chanani Raat,” Lijo Jose Pellissery...

Crank up that steel drum cover of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P”! “Anatomy of a Fall” has scored the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Director Justine Triet and her husband and co-writer Arthur Harari took the stage at the Dolby Theater on March 10 to accept the trophy.

In winning the award, Triet and Harari beat out several other Best Picture nominees to claim the top prize. Also nominated in the category were David Hemingson for “The Holdovers,” Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer for “Maestro,” and Celine Song for “Past Lives.” The sole non-Best Picture nominee recognized in the category was “May December,” which received its sole Oscar nomination for Samy Burch’s script.

The Original Screenplay Oscar is the latest award that Triet’s courtroom drama received during the past Awards season. Triet and Harari won in the same category at the British Academy Film Awards, the Golden Globes, and the French César Awards.

Chinese comedy drama Yolo from Sony Pictures International had a yodeling good domestic debut, grossing $840k on 200 screens, making no. 9 on the weekend top 10. Directed and produced by and starring China’s top grossing female helmer, Jia Ling, it’s earned close to $482 million in China since opening Feb. 10 — and was the highest-grossing film over the Lunar New Year holiday.

The film follows Le Ying (Jia Ling), an unemployed woman in her 30s who still lives with her parents until one day she meets a boxing coach (Lei Jiayin) who may change her life. Produced by New Classics Pictures, Big Bowl Entertainment

Also new, A24’s Love Lies Bleeding by Rose Glass brought the highest per screen average of the weekend and one of the best limited openings of the year. The crime thriller starring Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian, with Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Anna Baryshnikov and Jena Malone,...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2024 Oscars Predictions:

Best Adapted Screenplay Oppenheimer, from left: Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, 2023. © Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

Weekly Commentary: Cord Jefferson stands on the brink of potentially making history in the adapted screenplay category with “American Fiction,” potentially becoming only the second...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2024 Oscars Predictions:

Best Achievement in Directing The Zone Of Interest, 2023. © A24 / Courtesy Everett Collection

Weekly Commentary: Christopher Nolan… in a walk. It’s not really worth going over any other potential upsets, but if you prefer — Jonathan Glazer for “The Zone of Interest.”

After a year hit with Hollywood...

Taking place from February 29 through March 10, this popular annual festival showcases the verve, creativity, and depth of contemporary French cinema in a variety of genres. This year's opening night film is the critical and box office hit The Animal Kingdom, starring Romain Duris and Adèle Axarchopoulos. Others in the lineup include Little Girl Blue with Marion Cotillard; Book of Solutions, Michel Gondry's first new film in eight years; and loads of films by talented newcomers, such as Ama Gloria by Marie Amachoukeli, Banel & Adama by Ramata-Toulaye Sy and Nora El Hourch's Sisterhood (Hlm Pussy). With the recent critical success of Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall and Tran Anh Hung's The Taste of Things, French cinema is having a moment with American audiences. As always,...

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

Justine Triet’s psychothriller was shut out by France’s Oscar committee, but this genre-bending courtroom procedural, marriage drama and whodunnit feels totally new

Oscars 2024: best picture nominees – reviews, awards and where to watch

Oscar season rings in the annual cycle of gossip, debate and speculation about disputed nominations and conspicuous snubs, and this year one major story concerns the case of France fumbling the bag. Anatomy of a Fall, a courtroom thriller about a writer suspected of murdering her husband, took Cannes by storm last summer to win the Palme d’Or – making director Justine Triet the third woman to win the festival’s top prize in its 76-year history – before becoming a box office hit in France. It was, in the words of the Hollywood Reporter, “one of the rare movies which checked all the boxes for a strong Oscar entry: not only was it a...

Master Tseng, Yu Hui Tseng, is truly one of a kind as the world’s only female tea master and unrivalled as the only master to operate outside of China in her renowned salon, La Maison des Trois Thés in Paris. Filmmaker Anna-Claria Ostasenko Bogdanoff offers us a tantalising glimpse into her world through her sensorial documentary short Her Scents of Pu Er which immerses its audience in rows of hidden delights, all softly lit and filmed with a considered precision as Bogdanoff takes us on a timeless journey through Master Tseng’s delicate practice, walking us through a tasting of a traditional fermented Chinese tea. Her Scents of Pu Er pays homage to the revered, intricate world of traditional tea making, which far surpasses modern day consumption, and brings us back to more traditional practices which rivalled great writing and poetry and flow through Bogdanoff’s lush visuals and subtle but concise narration.

by Cláudio Alves

The César Awards ceremony happens tomorrow, with Anatomy of a Fall poised for a sweep befitting its status as an Oscar darling. For some, its victory will taste like justice after what many have decried as a scandalous snub. After all, despite its acclaim, Justine Triet's film wasn't selected to represent France in the Best International Film race. Instead, the selection committee went with Trần Anh Hùng's The Taste of Things, which competed against Anatomy in Cannes, losing the Palme d'Or but nabbing the Best Director prize. The decision generated much press, with people decrying it as undue punishment toward Triet, who criticized Emmanuel Macron's government in her Palme acceptance speech.

However, this perceived indignity has led to its own backlash. Hùng's film has been belittled nonstop, including by Triet on social media. It all culminated with the César nominations, where France's Oscar submission...

This year’s Best International Feature Oscar race was filled with surprises, from Japan selecting a work from a German director (Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days”) as its official submission over work from homegrown legends like Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” to France picking Tran Anh Hung’s “The Taste of Things” over Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall.” And while “The Taste of Things” is remembered as one of the most acclaimed films of 2023, its star Juliette Binoche thinks that its Oscar submission led many people to unfairly criticize it.

In a new interview with the New York Times, Binoche spoke about the backlash that the film attracted for beating out Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and what she thinks critics misunderstood about it.

“First of all, we didn’t choose to be selected — we were chosen in spite of ourselves,” Binoche said...

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Feb 9-11) Total gross to date Week 1. Bob Marley: One Love (Paramount) £4.2m £6.9m 1 2. Migration (Universal) £2.8m £13.6m 3 3. Madame Web (Sony) £1.3m £2.3m 1 4. Argylle (Universal) £544,846 £5m 3 5. Wonka (Warner Bros) £424,825 £62.2m 11

Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love topped the UK and Ireland box office this weekend on £4.2m, while Sony’s Madame Web opened with a very soft £1.3m.

Reinaldo Marcus Green’s biopic played in 687 locations and racked up £6.9m including previews. The film opened above Elvis which scored £4m in its opening weekend back in June 2022, but behind Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody. Green’s...

The Avenue release Land of Bad, powered by Variance, grossed $1.8 million on 1,120 screens, landing in the top ten for the weekend as Variance noted strong word of mouth with Saturday grosses jumping 37% from Friday’ (not including Thursday sneaks). The estimate for the four days is $2.07 million.

The William Eubank film starring Russell Crowe and Liam and Luke Hemsworth is performing best on the West Coast and the heartland/Midwest, with suburban theaters delivering the biggest Fri-to-Sat growth. Thi s is the tale of a covert Special Forces operation in the South Philippines that spirals into a brutal 48-hour battle for survival.

Also strong, Oscar Nominated Short Films opened Friday for their traditional a four-week run, a 19-year ritual that packages animated, live action and documentary shorts into three feature length films. They grossed an estimated $765k on 375 screens for the three-day weekend and $915k for the four days. Packaged and...

Binoche and Benoît Magimel play a 19th-century French cook and her gourmand employer in Tran Anh Hung’s gorgeous, simmering drama

Sumptuous, sensual and impossibly handsome, at first glance French-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung’s lavish foodie romance The Taste of Things looks like just another decorous prestige period drama. But in its elegantly restrained way, Tran’s film, which is set almost entirely in the kitchen, grounds and dining room of the country chateau of famed gourmet Dodin (Benoît Magimel) in 1880s France, is every bit as radical and risk-taking as some of the showier, quirkier awards contenders this year.

Take its exquisite opening sequence. Starting with a wordless nod of approval from Dodin’s celebrated cook, Eugénie (Juliette Binoche), as the gardener hands her a gnarled, freshly exhumed celeriac root, the film then gets down to the serious business of cooking. Around 35 minutes, much of it dialogue-free, is...