Baloji Constructed ‘Omen’, His Feature Debut And Belgium’s Oscar Entry, Using A Wall Of Mirrors – Contenders International

There are few producers in live television with the kind of career Don Mischer has had in television, a career spanning six decades and just about every major event from the Oscars to the Olympics to Obama and all in between. Just a sampling of his credits include the Opening Ceremonies of both the 1996 Summer Olympics and 2002 Winter Olympics; the Super Bowl Halftime Shows with Michael Jackson, Prince, Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen; the Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial; Motown 25; the Democratic National Convention; the 100th anniversary of Carnegie Hall; the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards; and so many many other events in our lives.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic It’s one thing to direct an episode of the sitcom on which you appeared for six seasons. “Schitt’s Creek” star Daniel Levy aced that exercise back in 2020, earning an Emmy for co-helming the series finale. But it’s an entirely different challenge to write and direct a smart, sensitive original feature in which you also play the lead character — a feat Levy deftly achieves with New Year’s tearjerker “Good Grief,” giving those unsatisfied with the rest of Netflix’s fluffy Christmas fare something substantial to kick off 2024.

Hello, and welcome to the Scene to Seen Podcast. I am Valerie Complex Associate editor and film writer at Deadline. 

Chris Hemsworth and his brothers Luke and Liam celebrated the holidays with a rock session. In a new video shared online, Chris, Luke and Liam rock out to Green Day’s “Good Riddance,” as the three try their hands at different intruments. Elsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth go on another epic family vacation to FijiElsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth share photos of family ChristmasA post shared by Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth)The video shows Chris at the drums, Luke taking the role of lead singer, and Liam playing the guitar.

Instagram. “Some special guests at show #97,” the “Everybody Loves You Now” singer captioned the snaps, which also featured a pic with fellow musician Elvis Costello. Joel shares both children with his fourth wife, Alexis Roderick, whom he married during his Fourth of July party in 2015.

J. Kim Murphy Filmmaker Michael Goorjian set out to create a different kind of film about Armenian nationality when developing “Amerikatsi,” the country’s submission in the international feature category for this year’s Academy Awards. Along with directing, Goorjian also stars as Charlie, an American who repatriates to Armenia after World War II — but ends up in a Soviet prison for simply wearing a tie.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor When writer-director Mohamed Kordofani first conceived of the film “Goodbye Julia,” he realized that he didn’t have a single friend from South Sudan — “and there are millions who live in Khartoum.” Now he has hundreds, he tells Variety. The first Sudanese film to premiere in the Un Certain Regard sidebar in Cannes, his debut feature won the Prix de la Liberté and is now the official Sudanese entry for the Academy Awards, with Lupita Nyong’o on board as an executive producer. The film had its Middle East and North Africa premiere this week at El Gouna Film Festival, where Kordofani was awarded the Variety MENA Region Talent Award.

Daniel Kaluuya has consistently proven that he is one of the best actors working today. Now, it appears he wants to try to add to his Hollywood repertoire by going behind the camera for the new film, “The Kitchen.” READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2024 As seen in the trailer, “The Kitchen” is a dystopian sci-fi film about a relatively near future London where the gap between the haves and the have-nots has only grown.

Jacob Elordi is headed to Saturday Night Live!

The official German Oscar entry for Best International Feature is an insular, pulse-pounding thriller set within the confines of a school that, for cinematic purposes, doubles as a microcosm of society in general circa 2023 where facts don’t matter, misinformation is rampant, suspicions run hot, divisions run deep, racism still rears its ugly head, and no one can be quite sure where, and even if they want to, fit in.

Mark Wahlberg, he’s embracing the unavoidable. The actor and former singer turned 52 in June, and he’s ready to play the roles that accurately represent his age.Wahlberg has a new film coming out on Apple TV+ on December 15, called The Family Plan.

Swiss writer-director Carmen Jaquier’s Swiss-language debut feature Thunder, is about adolescent sexual awakening set at the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries. It’s the story of Elisabeth (Lilith Grasmug), a teenage novitiate who, as she’s about to take her vows, is told of her elder sister Innocente’s sudden death.

Beginning as a simple two-hander in which a young working-class caretaker comes under the spell of his returning boss — a charismatic military man who has designs on getting into local politics — Makbul Mubarak’s debut film Autobiography soon develops into a tense psychological thriller about the way populist leaders groom and abuse their people. It works on its own terms, as a simple yet dark father-son allegory set within Indonesia’s military culture, but there’s a universality here that’s hard to miss.

2018 Everyone Is a Hero writer-director Jude Anthany Joseph was a victim of the 2018 Kerala floods in southern India, a catastrophic natural disaster that was the worst flood to hit the region in more than a century.

Filmmaker Stephan Komandarev, whose credits include two previous Bulgarian Oscar entries including the shortlisted The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner, wrapped a movie trilogy about the social ills of post-communist society with Blaga’s Lessons, about the harrowing journey of a retired teacher through the dangerous world of phone scams.

Bosnian-Dutch director Ena Sendijarević’s satire Sweet Dreams unfolds on a plantation in the Dutch East Indies that is falling into decay in step with the crumbling of the Netherlands’ colonial power.

The husband-and-wife team behind 2019 feature animation Oscar nominee Loving Vincent, DK and Hugh Welchman, is back in the awards race this season with The Peasants.

Like the Japanese with their Godzilla movies, the Koreans are partial to a bit of post-apocalyptic social satire, and Um Tae-Hwa’s box office hit Concrete Utopia follows a path trailblazed in 2013 by Bong Joon-ho’s cult sci-fi Snowpiercer. Adapted from the popular webtoon Pleasant Outcast by Kim Soong Nyung and partly inspired by British writer J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel High-Rise, it centers on a Korean apartment block whose residents become lawless after a terrifying earthquake rips through the country.

Ilker Çatak’s The Teachers’ Lounge world premiered to acclaim in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section in February, then swept the board three month later at the German Film Awards, scooping best film, director, screenplay, editing and actress for Leonie Benesch.

For Iranian-Australian filmmaker Noora Niasari, her debut feature Shayda has served as an authentic and honest exploration into her own personal childhood trauma. The film, which is being released by Sony Pictures Classics and won the World Cinema Dramatic Competition Audience Award in Sundance earlier this year, is Australia’s Oscar submission for the Best International Feature Oscar.