Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master was set to receive the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter's inside source, until a decision to allow only two major awards per film forced jury members to re-assign the top honor to another contender. When the awards were doled out earlier today by Venice jury president Michael Mann, the best picture prize went to Kim Ki-Duk's ultraviolent mother-son flick Pieta while Best Director went to Anderson. (Full list of winners follows.)
more »
Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival is still days away, but festival-goers in Venice will catch the world debut Wednesday and already the film is making some initial waves with "raunchy" and "raucous" being just two operative words to describe the feature about a quartet of sexy college girls whose plan to rob a fast food joint to fund their spring break getaway goes awry. And that is just the beginning. The film stars Selena Gomez, James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens and Heather Morris.
more »
The Master, the latest from Paul Thomas Anderson starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix, has captured the zeitgeist of Venice Film Festival talk in the first half of the festival, but perhaps more quietly, director Haifaa Al Mansour is making celluloid history with her film Wadjda. Al Mansour is Saudi Arabia's first female director, in a country that forbids movie theaters. The film follows the story of a determined 10 year-old girl living in the country's capital, Riyadh.
more »
Also in Tuesday morning's round-up of news briefs, a 3-D newcomer tops the weekend's Specialty Box Office among newbies. Roman Coppola's second directorial effort with Charlie Sheen is headed to theaters. And, the Locarno Film Festival appoints a new Artistic Director following the sudden departure of its former head.
more »
Also in Wednesday morning's round-up of news briefs, David Lynch will travel to Poland to receive festival honors. Filmmaker Béla Tarr to lead Asian film jury. And considering the future of the Venice Film Festival's film market as the event opens Wednesday.
more »
Also in Thursday morning's round up of news briefs, Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock scores a CNN show. For the first time, the Venice Film Festival will screen some of its films via the internet alongside their premieres. And a boxing pic is in the works for a Red Riding Hood actor.
more »
Also in Friday morning's round-up of news briefs, filmmaker Michael Cimino is set to receive Venice Film Festival honors. Heather Graham will return to The Hangover, while Yancy Butler heads back to one of her former characters. And an Ohio man faces charges for brining a cache of weapons into a theater during a showing of The Dark Knight Rises.
more »
After much speculation, the Venice Film Festival officially said Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master will join the event's Competition as its 18th title. Organizers of the 69th annual event taking place August 29th to September 8th, added four more titles in all Wednesday to the festival's roster.
more »
The Venice Film Festival released details about its 69th edition Thursday morning, with 17 films debuting in competition, competing for its top Golden Lion award. Among the new features headed to the Italian city are Brian De Palma's Passion with Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace and Paul Anderson. Harmony Korine's latest, Spring Breakers with James Franco, Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens joined the lineup along with Terrence Malick's To the Wonder, starring Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Javier Bardem and Olga Kurylenko. As previously announced, the festival, which runs August 29 - September 8 will open with the world premiere of Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
more »
The world premiere of international political thriller The Reluctant Fundamentalist will launch the Venice Film Festival August 29th. The film is based on the best-selling novel of the same name about a young Pakistani man chancing corporate success on Wall Street, but becomes embroiled in a conflict between his American Dream, a hostage crisis, and the enduring call of his family's homeland. The feature will screen out of competition stars Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schreiber, Martin Donovan, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, Haluk Bilginer and Meesha Shafi.
more »
Also in Monday morning's brief roundup, the American Black Film Festival will celebrate Think Like a Man, Moonrise Kingdom and Best Exotic Marigold Hotel reign in the specialty box office, while The Avengers passes a new milestone. And the team behind 21 Jump Street take on resuscitating a floundering project.
more »
Apparently some people felt an apology was in order after Madonna was overheard dissing a gift she received from an ambushing fan at a Venice Film Festival press conference for her new, lovingly panned movie W.E.. "I absolutely loathe hydrangeas," she purred, adding, "[The fan] obviously doesn't know that." You know what I say to that? LEGEND. She is a LEGEND. Also: Madonna is a prim English rose, you simpering plebe! She is not a baroque tolerator of hydrangeas! But her publicist would like to address her offending comments anyway.
more »
Two hours after seeing Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights, screening here in competition, I'm still fighting my way across this rugged moor of a movie, a vast, wild place where Arnold's vision and Emily Brontë's meet eye to eye and claw to claw. Arnold's reading of Bronte's weird, unabashedly sick novel is daring for sure: This is a film filled with interesting choices that, in the end, may not be all that interesting -- it's more self-conscious than Arnold's other films, Red Road and Fish Tank, perhaps partly because, unlike those movies, it's based on familiar source material.
more »
With a whimper (and some killer sharks and space madness), the summer movie season drew to a close this week. Which is why we were looking to the future here at Movieline with our Fall Preview guide, chock full of first looks and predictions for the coming months! As you head into your long holiday weekend, take a moment to look back on our week spent looking forward to an action-packed fall movie season!
more »
