International Feature Film Oscar Race: What To Expect On This Year’s Shortlist

British novelist Fay Weldon, best known for her popular fiction works The Life And Loves Of A She-Devil and Praxis has died aged 91.

The most buzzed about. Will Smith, Julia Fox, Adam Levine and more stars got the meme treatment in 2022 after making headlines for viral moments.

After two truncated years of pandemic-related disruptions, film festivals around the world returned with full-flowing in-person events this year.

In Todd Field’s Tár, we meet Lydia Tár, a revered composer-conductor heading up the Berlin Philharmonic, played by Cate Blanchett. Nina Hoss, as Lydia’s wife Sharon, is concertmaster and first chair violin, and together they navigate the politics of their musical life while parenting their daughter Petra. But Lydia, who is at the top of her game, and readying for her career-pinnacle live recording, begins to self-destruct, forming an obsessive attachment to Olga, a young cellist, just as a troubling past entanglement comes to light. The target of criticism from her students and a New York Post article, Lydia’s staff and Olga desert her. Then Sharon takes flight with Petra, and Lydia finally slides into the demise of both her personal and professional life. In conversation with Antonia Blyth, Blanchett and Hoss discuss the absence of objective truth, how change is built on open-hearted discussion, and the emergence of art from the raw, painful edge of experience.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today revealed the 15-film shortlist of movies that will advance to the nominations process for the Best International Feature Film Oscar. As we have previously reported, this is a year without a hands-down front-runner, and all of the movies in our preview have made the cut. See the full shortlist below.

Best Documentary Feature front runners All That Breathes, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love, and The Territory are safely through to the next round after the Academy’s Documentary Branch whittled the list of remaining contenders to a shortlist of 15 films.

The Amsterdam-based International Coalition For Filmmakers At Risk (ICFR) has issued a statement protesting the arrest of Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti and demanding her immediate and unconditional release.

Filmmaker Alex Ross Perry is not the type of artist who aims to find mass appeal with his work. His films, typically, aren’t the most approachable features in the world.

A two-year-old boy survived a hippopotamus attack in Uganda after being partially swallowed!

Prime Video today announced that it will co-produce a new film for theatrical release with Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Leo Media Collective. The currently-untitled film is scheduled for a theatrical release on July 28, 2023. Following the theatrical release, the film will be available for streaming on Prime worldwide.

Deadline reports that the Berlin Film Festival has its titles for its Panorama section this February. And while not the Festival’s main titles in competition, it’s a stellar crop of films annually.

The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the first titles selected for its Panorama section at the upcoming in-person edition that takes place February 16-26. (Scroll down for the full list)

Alaric McAusland Tapped For MD Role At DNEG’s New Sydney HubTop Australian film exec Alaric McAusland has joined VFX and animation company DNEG’s new Sydney hub as managing director and will take up the role in January 2023. McAusland has held a number of significant entertainment industry leadership roles in both Australia and the U.S. across his 25-year career. Most recently, he served as Executive Director for the Australian Directors’ Guild and was previously Chief Operating Officer at the Emmy award-winning, Los Angeles-based production house, Grace: A Storytelling Company. He also served as Managing Director of Deluxe Entertainment Service Group Australia and is a past Chair of Ausfilm. Recently opened DNEG Sydney’s first project is leading the visual effects work for George Miller’s highly anticipated Mad Max prequel, Furiosa.  “I am delighted to welcome Alaric onboard to lead our new DNEG Sydney team,” said Merzin Tavaria, President Global Production and Operations, DNEG.

European Film Promotion Unveils 2023 European Shooting StarsBelgian actress Joely Mbundu, co-star of  Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Cannes 2022 feature Tori And Lokita, is among the eight rising talents selected for the 2023 edition of European Film Promotion’s European Shooting Stars initiative. The selection also includes Italy’s Benedetta Porcaroli, seen recently in Venice Horizons 2022 title Amanda, and Norway’s Kristine Kujath Thorp, who previously made her mark in Fanny, The Burning Sea and Ninjababy, and also won praise for her performance in Cannes Certain Regard 2022 selection Sick of Myself. The other spotlighted titles comprise Alina Tomnikov (Finland), Leonie Benesch (Germany),  Yannick Jozefzoon (The Netherlands), Judith State(Romania), Gizem Erdogan (Sweden) and Kayije Kagame (Switzerland) Thorvaldur Kristjansson (Iceland). This year’s talents were selected by an eight-person jury featuring Polish director Jan Komasa, Dutch casting director Rebecca van Unen and Norwegian producer Maria Ekerhovd. The eight talents will participate in a four-day program during the upcoming Berlin Film Festival (February 16-26), during which they will meet journalists, casting directors, producers and filmmakers.

In military parlance, the term retrograde can mean several things, among them withdrawal from a war zone, “where all or part of a deployed force voluntarily disengages from the enemy.”

Strange as it may seem, the Oscar for Best International Feature tends to go to movies that are universal rather than geographically specific. Last year’s winner Drive My Car spoke more about mankind’s default setting to loneliness than it did about the specifics of relationship dynamics in modern Japan, just as the Danish drunks in 2021’s Another Round got hammered in a way that was relatable to boozers in every country from Albania to Zambia. Maybe the Academy feels that real life is better left to docs, but a 2015 win for the harrowing Second World War drama Son of Saul suggests that the door is always open. And after a year that saw the whole world reeling from Vladmir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, this might be one of those years that addresses the fact.

reports that Searchlight Pictures has picked up Swift's original script (written by her, of course), that the singer-songwriter is also set to direct. "Taylor is a once in a generation artist and storyteller.  It is a genuine joy and privilege to collaborate with her as she embarks on this exciting and new creative journey,” Searchlight presidents David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield told Variety.

Actress, screenwriter and director Kristen Stewart has been named president of the International Jury at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival.“We’re excited about Kristen Stewart taking on this distinguished task. She’s one of the most talented and multi-faceted actors of her generation,” festival directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian said in a statement. “From Bella Swan to the Princess of Wales she has given life to everlasting characters.

Kristen Stewart is to head the International Jury of the Berlinale 2023.