Directors’ Fortnight Launches Cannes’ First Audience Award In Memory Of Chantal Ackerman

The Cannes Film Festival is around the corner next month, so all the satellite sidebar festivals that orbit it are preparing their line-ups. The latest is Cannes Critic Week, organized by France’s Film Critics Union, which will run May 15-23.

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival was unveiled this morning, meaning there will be many first looks at some of the year’s most anticipated films. The most notable of the day is a first-look image of Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as his legal enforcer Roy Cohn in Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice.” Screening in competition at Cannes, “The Apprentice,” is a dive into the underbelly of the American empire.

Carolyn Giardina Belgian cinema tech developer Barco launched its anticipated HDR By Barco theater projector at CinemaCon in Las Vegas with specially graded trailers from movies such as Parmount’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” video testimonials from “Maverick” producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joe Kosinski, and the launch of the projectors’ pilot program with exhibitors including AMC and Regal. Barco is set to announce on Wednesday that the new HDR laser projectors — what Barco’s Gerwin Damberg called “a premium experience that we want to bring to the mainstream” — will be installed at select AMC Theatres, B&B Theatres and Regal Cinemas in the U.S., as part of a commercial pilot program aimed at bringing its imagery to moviegoers in time for 2024 holiday season.

Cannes Critics’ Week has unveiled the jury members for its upcoming 63rd edition, who join previously announced jury president Rodrigo Sorogoyen.

Alex Ritman Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (“Augure by Baloji,” “My New Friends”), French producer Sylvie Pialat (“Timbuktu,” “Staying Vertical”), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej (“The Blue Caftan,” “Our Mothers,” “Casablanca Beats”) and Canadian film critic, journalist and frequent Variety contributor Ben Croll have been named on the jury for the Critics’ Week section of the Cannes Film Festival. The four will now join Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who last week was named Critics’ Week jury president, with the group set to choose the sidebar competition’s award winners, including the Grand Prize for best feature film, the French Touch Prize of the Jury, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star award for best actor or actress and the Leitz Ciné Discovery Prize for best short film.

Annika Pham Norwegian broadcaster NRK has excelled in recent years at bringing bold and thought-provoking shows to the world. After their latest Canneseries winners “Power Play” (2023), “Afterglow” (2022), “Countrymen” (2021) and “State of Happiness” (2018), their latest bet “Dumbsday” (“Dummedag”) has its international premiere April 8 in the French TV festival’s main competition. It first aired on the Norwegian pubcaster Nov.

Adventure travel series Destination X has been officially picked up to series by NBC.

Thomas Vinterberg said that “Another Round,” the Academy Award 2021 international feature winner, celebrates not just drinking alcohol but life and awakening to life. Billed as an epic family drama, “Families Like Ours ” – his first TV drama series and one of the big market launches at MipTV, sold by Studiocanal – looks set to ask what life is worth living for. Its logline kind of answers that question: “A country perishes, but love prevails.” If the emotionally engrossing early stretches are anything to go by, that is both embodied in Laura (Amaryllis August), who is in love for the first time with fellow high-school student Elías (Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt); and in family love, represented at first remove by Laura’s relationships with her divorced parents.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Running April 4-7, the IFF Panama brings to this year’s edition a rich mix of standout director driven titles from Europe, the Spanish-speaking world and beyond, spangled by highlights from Central America, including Panama: “Bila Burba,” (Duiren Wagua, Panama) Documentary. Wagua’s debut feature. The Gunadule nation’s ties with the Panamanian government were fraught with territorial and cultural disputes.

Ellise Shafer “The Killing” star Sofie Gråbøl will serve as the president of this year’s Canneseries competition jury, it was announced on Tuesday. The Danish actor kickstarted her career with the 1986 film “Barndommens gade” (“The Streets of My Childhood”) and is known for her TV roles including “The Killing,” “Nikolaj og Julie” and “Taxa.” Joining Gråbøl on the jury are “Madame Hollywood” director, screenwriter and producer Olivier Abbou; “Four Daughters” composer Amine Bouhafa; “City of God” actor Alice Braga; “Blancanieves” actor Macarena García; and “Samber” actor Alix Poisson.

Jack Dunn The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation has revealed the winners of the 49th annual Gracie Awards, which recognizes outstanding achievements by women in news, entertainment and digital media. This year’s honorees include Michelle Obama, Glennon Doyle, Selena Gomez, Gayle King, Sydney Sweeney, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nicole Kidman and Angela Yee.

Busan Hires Deputy Director

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Bettina Blümner’s “Vamos a la playa” won ArteKino Festival’s European Audience Award at a ceremony co-organized by the iconic French fashion house Chanel in Paris. Held at La Femis, Paris’ prestigious film school, the event also included a conversation with French filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski (“Other People’s Children”), followed by a ceremony honoring Blümner and a screening of “Vamos a la playa,” as well as a posh cocktail which brought together film talent, executives and students.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Ariana DeBose will host the Tony Awards for the third consecutive year. Broadway‘s biggest night will take place on June 16 in New York City at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe might face disappointment in the transfer market with rivals Manchester City tipped to beat them to their top summer target. Sir Jim has already discussed his key targets with senior figures at Old Trafford, ahead of an expected summer transfer splurge.

Karen Bliss Elliot Page criticized Canada’s rollback of LGBTQ rights on the stage of the Juno Awards in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Sunday night. “We are at a time in history where the rights of LGBTQ2+ people are being revoked, restricted and eliminated throughout the world, and the effects are devastating,” Page, a transgender Halifax native, said in a speech presenting twin singer-songwriters Tegan and Sara with the Junos’ humanitarian award.

Andrew Scott has been awarded Best Actor at the 33rd Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards. The win makes the Irish actor the first performer to be handed top honors from both of the UK’s national critics bodies. 

The wait for Max‘s European launch is nearly over.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent In one of the most anticipated keynotes at Series Mania Festival, JB Perrette, president/CEO of global streaming and games at Warner Bros. Discovery, dropped the launch date for Max across the first nine European countries on May 21.

French commercial broadcast giant TF1 is taking its streaming service international. CEO Rodolphe Belmer told Series Mania on Thursday that TF1+ will start rolling out in the middle of this year before a wider series of launches in 2025.