Michel Franco Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

After earning rave reviews after its recent Venice premiere, “Memory” (read our review here) has become one of the most buzzed-about films of the festival season. And it made people anxious to see whether or not Jessica Chastain would reteam with director Michel Franco in the future.

Naman Ramachandran Jessica Chastain will receive the Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Icon Award. Chastain will present her latest film “Memory” at the festival alongside director Michel Franco and co-star Peter Sarsgaard on Oct. 1.

Jessica Chastain is continuing the press tour for new movie!

EXCLUSIVE: After showing her strong support for interim agreements while promoting her film Memory on the festival circuit, Jessica Chastain is backing that up with Dreams, which has received a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement last month. The Teorema pic reunites her with her Memory director Michel Franco and recently finished filming in San Francisco, where some 60 actors and 50 below-the-line crew members were employed for the shoot. Rupert Friend among those featured in the cast.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor It’s time for Peter Sarsgaard to finally shatter the Oscar glass. Once upon a time, actor Peter Sarsgaard won the most precursors prizes during the 2003-2004 awards season for his supporting turn in Billy Ray’s “Shattered Glass.” In the film, he plays Charles Lane, a newly promoted editor who suspects one of his revered writers (played by Hayden Christensen) could have fabricated some of his stories. It was a breakout performance in the early days of online Oscar punditry that had everyone buzzing.

The Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion has been given to a winner!

Peter Sarsgaard and Cailee Spaeny were among the winners at the 2023 Venice Film Festival!

With three competition titles across the last four editions, no contemporary filmmaker has been more present on the Venice Lido than director Michel Franco. 

Ellise Shafer Michel Franco’s heartbreaking drama “Memory” earned a strong eight-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival on Friday night as stars Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard wiped away tears. Franco, Chastain and Sarsgaard embraced as the audience cheered them on, with each taking their turn in the spotlight to accept the applause. After the crowd clapped for several minutes, Chastain was visibly emotional, dabbing at her eyes as she smiled with pride.

Jessica Chastain is looking stunning at the premiere of her new movie!

Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) lives behind an exceptionally well-locked door. Her apartment has three locks of different kinds, keeping out anyone who managed to get past the intercom protecting the front entrance. As a woman living alone with a teenage daughter, perhaps she has her reasons. Just tonight, a man followed her home from her high school reunion, catching the same train, shadowing her from the station and finally sleeping outside her building under a plastic bag. Strangely, she is quite blasé about that: In the morning, she deals with it, demanding this man’s phone and finding someone in his contacts who can come and pick him up.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic “Memory” feels like the “Silver Linings Playbook” of Michel Franco’s career: an unexpectedly accessible romance between two damaged human beings, from an independent director who’s been known to put characters through some of life’s most punishing indignities. The previous film of Franco’s that it most resembles is “Chronic,” though the tough-love auteur spares us the bummer ending this time around. In that movie, he followed a hospice nurse through his rounds, then abruptly cut to black when the guy was sideswiped by a car.

It’s hard to encapsulate the cinema of a particular filmmaker in just one word, but if one were to try their hand at it with Mexican maverick Michel Franco, a word that’d come to mind is violence. The filmmaker’s work is built upon the looming expectation of violent transgression, society standing flimsy atop the fragile idea of cordiality.

Jessica Chastain is making a statement while promoting her new movie.

Oscar winner Jessica Chastain and Emmy nominee Peter Sarsgaard are here in Venice today for the world premiere of Michel Franco’s Memory, which on Thursday was officially confirmed for an interim agreement. At the press conference today, Chastain, sporting a SAG-AFTRA On Strike t-shirt, was asked if she had considered not attending amid the ongoing labor action. She began by saying, “Yes, I was incredibly nervous to be here today, and actually there are some people on my team who advised me against it.” However, she opted to come in support of her union.

Jessica Chastain made an impassioned appeal to U.S. actors, urging them to promote indie movies on Friday at the Venice Film Festival press conference for Michel Franco’s drama “Memory.” “I was very nervous about coming,” said Chastain, who was wearing a black “SAG-AFTRA on Strike” T-Shirt, revealing that “there were actually some people on my team who advised me against it.” Chastain then noted that actors are “often made to keep quiet in order to protect future working opportunities, and we are often told and reminded how grateful we should be.

French filmmaker Claire Denis has been announced as the jury president for the Official Section of the 71st San Sebastian Film Festival, running from September 22-30.

EXCLUSIVE: It’s not a given that talent will attend premieres if their movie gets an interim agreement but we can confirm that Oscar winner Jessica Chastain and Emmy nominee Peter Sarsgaard will be on hand to spice up the premieres of new movie Memory both tomorrow in Venice and next week in Toronto.

It’s officially September. Summer is winding down, school is starting, and the Fall film festival circuit has kicked off.

Naman Ramachandran Mexican auteur Michel Franco’s latest film, “Memory,” starring Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, world premieres in competition at the Venice Film Festival. The film is his third successive bow on the Lido after “New Order” (2020), which won the grand jury prize, and “Sundown” (2021). “Memory” follows Sylvia (Chastain), a social worker who leads a simple and structured life revolving around her daughter, her job and her AA meetings.

Naman Ramachandran The 67th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full lineup, which includes galas and special presentations of films by contemporary masters. As previously announced, Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn” will open the festival and Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s “The Kitchen” will close it.

Venice Film Festival. But the SAG-AFTRA strike made it impossible for the tennis drama, which MGM pushed to a 2024 release date, to come to the Lido. So instead, Venice kicked off with World War II drama “Comandante” by young Italian auteur Edoardo De Angelis.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The 80th Venice Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday with World War II drama “Comandante” by young Italian auteur Edoardo De Angelis packing a strong political punch. Tensions due to the SAG-AFTRA strike lurked in the background, though without stealing the thunder of strong expectations for this year’s lineup.

With nearly one week to go until the Toronto International Film Festival 2023 (or TIFF 2023) kicks off, the A-listers who are and aren’t attending have been revealed.

EXCLUSIVE: Last week we brought you news of which A-listers would and wouldn’t be attending Venice. This week, the Toronto talent picture is taking shape ahead of its September 7th kick off.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The 80th Venice Film Festival kicks off tomorrow with a robust roster of awards season hopefuls making their bows, such as Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Sophia Coppola’s “Priscilla” and David Fincher’s “The Killer,” accompanied by a smattering of stars. As previously reported by Variety, the festival has confirmed that Adam Driver will be in Venice to promote “Ferrari” while Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, who play Priscilla and Elvis Presley in “Priscilla,” as well as Priscilla Presley herself, are also expected to be on the Lido.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent It’s official: Adam Driver, Caleb Landry Jones, Mads Mikkelsen and Jessica Chastain are among the stars set to attend the upcoming Venice Film Festival. Following multiple unsourced reports, the festival has confirmed that Driver is expected on the Lido’s red carpet to promote Micheal Mann’s “Ferrari,” in which he plays the titular character, Italian car racing pioneer Enzo Ferrari; Landry Jones is coming for Luc Besson’s “Dogman”; Mikkelsen will make the trek for Danish director Nikolaj Arcel’s “The Promised Land” and Chastain for Mexican auteur Michel Franco’s “Memory,” her first role since her Oscar-winning performance in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” Also expected on the Lido are Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, who play Priscilla and Elvis Presley in Sophia Coppola’s “Priscilla.” as well as Priscilla Presley herself.

The Venice Film Festival confirmed to us today it is hopeful that movies with SAG-AFTRA ‘interim agreements’ will bring their casts to the Lido.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Roughly a month before Venice Film Festival’s 2023 lineup announcement, the buzz around the competition is heating up with several star-studded films by heavyweight directors in the mix, including Pablo Larrain (“El Conde”), Michael Mann (“Ferrari“), Sofia Coppola (“Priscilla“), Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”) and Michel Franco (“Memory”). These titles are believed to have been officially invited to the Lido in competition, according to inside sources. Larraín’s follow-up to “Jackie,” “El Conde” depicts dictator Augusto Pinochet as a Vampire with a cast led by Chilean star Alfredo Castro.