Aki Kaurismaki’s ‘Fallen Leaves’ Voted Best Film of the Past Year by International Film Critics Federation Fipresci

Ayelet Menahemi’s family comedy Seven Blessings swept the board at Israel’s Ophir Awards on Sunday evening, triumphing in nine categories including in best film.

For an hour, Finestkind is the kind of movie they don’t make any more, and just when you’re starting to adapt to its gentle, circadian rhythms (which is about halfway through), it becomes the kind of movie they make all the time. Though it just about works, it’s a curious hybrid of emotional felladrama and  gangster realism, something writer Brian Helgeland has essayed before, notably with his script for Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River. A few years back, this could have been a Malpaso production too, and it’s not hard to imagine Eastwood in the role played here by Tommy Lee Jones, an awards-friendly supporting role that gives the veteran actor his very own mini-Gran Torino.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent British director Luna Carmoon’s first feature “Hoard” has scored three prizes at the Venice Critics’ Week where the other standout title is Chilean documentary “Malqueridas.” In “Hoard,” which is set in 1984 London, 7-year-old Maria and her mother live in their own loving world built on sorting through bins and collecting shiny rubbish. One night, their world falls apart, and the film joins Maria a decade later, living with her foster mother.

Brent Lang Executive Editor The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off its 48th edition with the North American premiere of “The Boy and the Heron,” the first feature from animation icon Hayao Miyazaki in a decade and the picture that is likely to serve as his cinematic swan song. The 82-year-old filmmaker isn’t doing any promotion for the film, so he wasn’t on hand at the Princess of Wales Theater on Thursday to look out at the adoring crowd of film lovers, who cheered every time his name or that of Studio Ghibli, his creative home, was invoked.

In cinema, few names are as iconic as Hayao Miyazaki, and his latest adventure carries the weight of expectation. Drawing inspiration from the mysticism of Japanese folklore and grounded in the pain of personal loss, The Boy and the Heron, which opened the 2023 Toronto Film Festival, is a visual spectacle that rekindles the art of 2D animation in an era dominated by the digital.

EXCLUSIVE: House of the Dragon star Emma D’Arcy has produced their first short film with production partner Ellen Spence (The Essex Serpent) at new shingle Second Name Productions.

Israel has defied the international film community by striking a filmmaking pact with Russia.

Japan has selected Perfect Days, the Tokyo-based fiction feature from German filmmaker Wim Wenders, as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars.

Naman Ramachandran The European Film Academy has revealed the nominations for Lux – The European Audience Film Award. The nominated films are: “20,000 Species of Bees” by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren (Spain); “The Teacher’s Lounge” by İlker Çatak (Germany); “Fallen Leaves” by Aki Kaurismäki (Finland, Germany); “On the Adamant” by Nicolas Philibert (France, Japan); and “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” by Anna Hints (Estonia, France, Iceland).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The international trailer for “A Whole Life,” which will have its world premiere in the Gala section of the Zürich Film Festival (Sept. 28 to Oct. 8), has debuted with Variety (below).

Bertrand Bonello is a director, like Bruno Dumont, whose ascent to date has been quite closely associated with the Cannes Film Festival, so it is a surprise to see his latest — a two-hander starring French movie queen Léa Seydoux — make its debut on the Lido. It is sure to be just as divisive here as it would on home turf, but, for those willing to accept its longueurs and absurdities, The Beast is a provocative piece of sci-fi that follows Twin Peaks: The Return down the rabbit hole of dream logic, spanning three time zones in a surreal but compelling examination of human relationships.

Paramount+ has announced it will premiere William Friedkin’s last film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial in all international markets where the service is currently live.

Tunisia has picked Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters, which debuted in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars. 

Pakistani actress Mahira Khan discusses depression and anxiety triggered by the backlash following her first Bollywood film “Raees” in 2016.

Arguably the most famous or well-known filmmaker out of Finland, director Aki Kaurismäki, has made a career out of the deadpan; absurdist comedies with minimalism, sometimes defined by Shakespearean tragedy, very still minimal camera and witty drollery. The films of his that have a larger comedic bent have said to have a lot of kinship with the films of Jim Jarmusch.

Coronation Street stars Robert James-Collier and Gaynor Faye may be taking on brand new roles in Channel 5's The Inheritance, however the actors have revealed that they swapped stories from their soap days whilst filming the drama. Gaynor is best known for playing Judy Mallett on the cobbles from 1995 until 1999, while Robert appeared on the show sometime later, starring as Liam Connor from 2006 until the character's untimely death in 2008.

EXCLUSIVE: Sources tell Deadline that the Toronto International Film Festival’s opening night film on Sept. 7, The Boy and the Heron from Hayao Miyazaki, has sold out in record time.

Ilker Çatak’s drama The Teachers’ Lounge will represent Germany in the Best International Film Category at the 2024 Oscars.

Estonia has selected the Sundance prize-winning doc Smoke Sauna Sisterhood as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars.

Korea has selected the disaster thriller Concrete Utopia starring Lee Byung-hun and Park Seo-jun as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars.