Woody Allen Considers Retirement After Latest Film, Still Maintains Innocence and Calls Cancel Culture ‘Silly’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Yellow Veil Pictures, the U.S.-based arthouse genre distribution company, has acquired North American rights to Belgian director Claude Schmitz’s deadpan detective thriller “The Other Laurens.” The feature debut world premiered at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and will have its North American Premiere at Fantastic Fest which kicks off Sept. 23 in Austin, Texas. Yellow Veil Pictures plans for a theatrical release in 2024.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Prime Video and Gaumont (“Intouchables”) are teaming up on an uplifting mother-son drama tackling disability, directed by Ken Scott (“Starbuck”), and starring French actors Leïla Bekhti (“All Your Faces”) and Jonathan Cohen (“Sentinelle”). Scott penned and will be directing the film which is titled “Ma mère, Dieu et Sylvie Vartan” and is based on Roland Perez’s novel by the same name. The project is the first theatrical film that Amazon Prime Video is co-financing as part of the French decree that kicked off in July 2021 and stems from the implementation of the European Commission’s legislation called Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier will next direct “Sentimental Value,” a family drama starring Renate Reinsve, who won best actress in Cannes for her role in Trier’s Oscar-nominated 2021 film “The Worst Person of the World.” “Sentimental Value” will follow Nora (Reinsve), an actor, and her sister Agnes, who are grieving the loss of their mother while their father Gustav reappears in their lives after a long absence. Gustav, a once-celebrated filmmaker, has written a script for a comeback movie and offered the main part to his daughter Nora, but she categorically refuses the role.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The political backlash surrounding Agnieszka Holland’s Venice Special Jury Prize-winning refugee drama “Green Border” hasn’t kept the movie from being a hot seller. The film explores the injustice and terror perpetrated at the Polish-Belarusian border from the perspective of refugees, Polish activists and border guards.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Paris-based leading distribution company ARP Selection has bought a pair of U.S. indie gems from the fall festival circuit, Shane Atkinson’s feature debut “LaRoy” and Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla.” “LaRoy,” a neo-noir Western comedy with Coen brothers influences, just won three major prizes at the Deauville Film Festival, including the Grand Prize, Audience Award and Critics Prize; while “Priscilla” world premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won best actress for Cailee Spaeny.

EXCLUSIVE: Distributor-producer Lucky Red is one of Italy’s most respected independent film and TV companies. Run by former actor Andrea Occhipinti since 1987, the firm has released more than 500 titles and produced more than 50 films.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Vogter,” a psychological thriller directed by Gustav Möller, whose previous film “The Guilty” won the Audience Award at Sundance, has been pre-sold by Les Films du Losange to multiple territories. “Vogter,” which was just completed and is now in post, has been picked up for Germany, Austria, Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Spain (La Aventura), Italy (Movies Inspired), Japan (Happinet Phantom Studios), Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg (Cineart), Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (Kino Pavasaris) and Hungary (Vertigo). Les Films du Losange has closed these deals since unveiling the project at Cannes and is negotiating further sales in other key territories.

Christopher Vourlias Three-time Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland has called out a hard-right Polish minister who compared her refugee drama “Green Border” to Nazi propaganda, accusing him of “hate speech” and insisting that the Eastern European nation’s right-wing ruling party is “afraid” of her film’s damning portrayal of its response to the refugee crisis. The movie is competing for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival this week. “We expected that they would be furious.

Woody Allen‘s film Coup de Chance was interrupted by protesters, who urged the Venice Film Festival to “turn the spotlight off on rapists”.As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, a group of around 20 people began demonstrating at the event on Monday (September 4) just as Allen stepped onto the red carpet. As they lined up just beyond the carpet, the group took off their shirts and chanted slogans like “no rape culture” and “no spotlight for rapist directors”.As documented by film journalist Luke Hearfield on X, the protesters handed out fliers headlined “turn the spotlight off on rapists”.

Woody Allen has maintained his innocence regarding longstanding sexual abuse allegations from his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow.The film director was asked about the allegations during an interview with Variety ahead of his appearance at the Venice Film Festival on Monday (September 4), where he premiered his 50th feature film Coup de Chance.Asked about the allegations that he molested Dylan as a child, detailed in the 2021 series Allen v. Farrow, Allen said: “My reaction has always been the same. The situation has been investigated by two people, two major bodies, not people, but two major investigative bodies.

While promoting his 50th – and quite possibly, last — movie at the Venice Film Festival, Woody Allen weighed in cancel culture, the #MeToo Movement, and whether any woman has ever complained about his behavior on set.

after being dogged by decades-old sex abuse allegations from his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.The 87-year-old filmmaker made the statement Sunday in an interview with Variety at the Venice Film Festival, where he is promoting his new movie, “Coup de Chance.”“I feel if you’re going to be canceled, this is the culture to be canceled by. I just find that all so silly,” Allen told the outlet, after the interviewer asked if he felt like he had been “canceled.” “I don’t think about it,” he added.

Woody Allen is speaking out about cancel culture in a new interview with Variety. 

Woody Allen received a three-minute standing ovation at the Venice premiere of “Coup de Chance” on Monday night, which would have gone on longer had the filmmaker not started to exit. After two minutes and 30 seconds of sustained applause once the film finished, Allen began to make his way toward the door, cutting the standing ovation short.

Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Monday. The film, which was directed and written by Allen himself, received a five-minute ovation from the audience.

Woody Allen isn’t concerned about being cancelled.

Exactly who are these people? They’re rich, obviously. They’re Parisian, which means that they are already fantasy figurines in the European curiosity shop of Woody Allen’s imagination. But does any actual modern man, no matter how rich and unfathomably French, come home from work in 2023 to request a cognac from his wife, who then calls out to the maid to bring Monsieur a cognac while she configures herself into a glamour position on the couch? Is this actually 1953? Or maybe 1923 – the Gatsby era, where Woody Allen is clearly a very enthusiastic visitor?

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French director Edouard Bergeon, whose Cesar-nominated debut feature “In the Name of the Land” was a box office hit in 2019, has penned another eco-thriller, “The Green Deal.” The movie, which is partly set in the Indonesian forest, has been boarded by Playtime and will be pitched to buyers at the Toronto Film Festival. “The Green Deal” explores crimes and colliding interests in the exploitation of a palm oil and the production of biofuels.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French director Edouard Bergeon, whose Cesar-nominated debut feature “In the Name of the Land” was a box office hit in 2019, has penned another eco-thriller, “The Green Deal.” The movie, which is partly set in the Indonesian forest, has been boarded by Playtime and will be pitched to buyers at the Toronto Film Festival. “The Green Deal” explores crimes and colliding interests in the exploitation of a palm oil and the production of biofuels.

Woody Allen is opening up about what he thinks of cancel culture.