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Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Exclusive: Longtime IFC Films and Cinetic Media PR colleagues Laura Sok and Kate McEdwards are launching new PR and strategy firm, Track Shot.

Track Shot will be based in New York City and work across independent, foreign and genre films as well as distribution strategy. The duo brings more than two decades in the publicity and communications field as well as a deep knowledge of the distribution landscape. Sok and McEdwards have built and led hundreds of film campaigns during their careers working in-house and alongside major distributors on the agency side. Previously, they led PR efforts for IFC Films, IFC Midnight, Sundance Selects, IFC Films Unlimited (streaming service) and most recently Shudder and Rlje.

Their final campaign for IFC Films was Matt Johnson’s chart-topping BlackBerry. This year they also launched Kyle Edward Ball’s breakthrough feature Skinamarink for Shudder/IFC Films.

Among their many successful campaigns at IFC...

In the 2019 adaptation The Painted Bird, based on the controversial Holocaust memoir by Jerzy Kosinky, the sanctity of life and innocence holds little to no value. To summarize, The Painted Bird is a grueling freefall into the abyss, with a child protagonist navigating an unnamed, hostile country and encountering different degrees of evil: moral, apathetic, or conscripted. Vàclav Marhoul’s near-mythical recreation of Kosinky’s haunting source material might be the most harrowing movie you’ve ever seen. A fairytale without the possibility of a ‘free-lunch’ otherworld or a reward for the suffering endured. But to accuse the film of only resorting to knee-jerk shock tactics does it a disservice. It is unapologetically singular in style and execution and while it does share storytelling tropes with Schindler’s List, Bent, and The Pianist, it examines the atrocities of war from a different angle.

Emilia Clarke has been tapped to take on the role of Irish author and Oscar Wilde’s wife Constance Lloyd in ‘An Ideal Wife.’

Plot details are currently being kept locked up but it is said that it will shed light on Lloyd, who was an author and feminist activist who took part in the dress reform movement, which campaigned to allow women to dress in comfortable clothing rather than the stifling Victorian dresses of the era. Lloyd married Wilde in 1884 and the couple had two sons. However, after Wilde received a two-year prison term for homosexuality, which was still illegal at the time (it would only be decriminalized in England and Wales in 1967), Lloyd moved to Switzerland with their children and distanced them from the writer.

Also in news – James Gunn, Peter Safran to head up DC Studios

‘“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’ helmer, Sophie Hyde, will direct...

Emilia Clarke is set to star as Constance Lloyd, an Irish author who was married to Oscar Wilde, in “An Ideal Wife,” directed by “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” helmer Sophie Hyde.

The project, for which plot details are still being kept under wraps, is repped by Embankment Films and will be shopped at this week’s American Film Market, which kicks off on Tuesday.

“An Ideal Wife” will shed light on Lloyd, who was an author and feminist activist who took part in the dress reform movement, which campaigned to allow women to dress in comfortable clothing rather than the stifling Victorian dresses of the era. Lloyd married Wilde in 1884 and the couple had two sons. However, after Wilde received a two-year prison term for homosexuality, which was still illegal at the time (it would only be decriminalized in England and Wales in 1967), Lloyd moved to Switzerland with their children,...

Michael Shannon (The Shape of Water), Kiersey Clemons (Justice League) and Barbie Ferreira will star in drag comedy feature The Young King.

Set in the 1990s drag king scene of 1990s Las Vegas, the feature from Mister Smith Entertainment is the directorial debut of Larin Sullivan.

It stars Clemons stars as Jules, an aspiring drag king who comes to Las Vegas to reconnect with her estranged dad Mick (Michael Shannon), a legendary gambler and part-time children’s party clown, and to make her debut performance in the U.S.’s biggest drag king revue. Mick is less than excited to see his daughter ‘Julia’ presenting as masculine, wearing suits and chasing after Ronnie (Barbie Ferreira), a no-nonsense dancer.

Sullivan wrote the script for the film, which Corporate Witchcraft’s Kim Bailey and Isabel Marden are producing alongside Clemons. Songwriter Justin Tranter,...

“Dope” star Kiersey Clemons, “Euphoria” actress Barbie Ferreira and Oscar nominee Michael Shannon will star in a comedy-drama set among the drag king scene of 1990s Las Vegas for a film called, “The Young King.”

Larin Sullivan wrote the script for the film and will make her directorial debut on “The Young King,” which Mister Smith Entertainment is presenting to international buyers at the upcoming American Film Market. WME Independent is handling North American rights.

Clemons in “The Young King” will star as Jules, an aspiring drag king who comes to Las Vegas to reconnect with her estranged dad Mick (Michael Shannon) and to make her debut performance in America’s biggest drag king revue. Mick, a legendary gambler and part-time children’s party clown, is less than excited to see his daughter “Julia” presenting as masculine, wearing suits and chasing after Ronnie (Barbie Ferreira), the no-nonsense dancer who he regularly frequents.

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Click here to read the full article.

The Toronto Film Festival will rally in solidarity with Ukrainian film producers amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war by holding two industry panels at the Canadian festival’s 47th edition.

The first Sept. 12 panel will feature six Ukrainian filmmakers behind recent festival circuit hits, including Butterfly Vision producer Darya Bassel, whose film was the only Ukrainian feature in Cannes’ official selection this year; Luxembourg, Luxembourg producer Volodymyr Yatsenko, whose film will screen in Toronto after bowing in Venice; and Ihor Savychenko, who produced the 2019 film The Painted Bird, Vaclav Marhoul’s grim Holocaust drama adapted from Jerzy Kosinski’s novel.

Also in Toronto on the panel to discuss current and future film projects is Valeria Sochyvets, producer of the 2020 film Blindfold, and Egor Olesov, who produced the 2019 Ukrainian film Mr. Jones.

The second Sept. 13 panel will discuss possible co-production opportunities for Ukrainian productions and...

Feature presents view of modern Europe seen through eyes of a donkey.

HanWay Films will launch worldwide sales on the Croisette next month on Jerzy Skolimowski’s Cannes Competition selection Eo presented by Skopia Film and HanWay founder Jeremy Thomas.

The feature, which was announced in the Cannes line-up today, presents a vision of modern Europe through the eyes of a donkey who encounters on his journeys good and bad people, experiences joy and pain, and feels the wheels of fate crushing his innocence.

Ewa Piaskowska and Skolimowski co-wrote Eo, which stars Sandra Drzymalska, Isabelle Huppert, Lorenzo Zurzolo and Mateusz Kosciukiewicz...

Deals include Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Latin America and the Middle East.

UK outfit HanWay Films has closed multiple key deals ahead of the European Film Market on Václav Marhoul’s McCarthy.

HanWay Films has closed a multi-territory deal with Vértice Cine. Further deals include The Jokers (France), Paradiso (Benelux), Icon (Australia & New Zealand), Tohokushinsha (Japan), Arna Media (Cis), Front Row (Middle East), Bir (Turkey), Cinemania (former Yugoslavia) and Shaw (Singapore). HanWay Films is handling international sales and CAA Media Finance is overseeing the U.S sale.

Michael Shannon play United States senator Joseph McCarthy in a feature that looks...

HanWay Films has closed several international deals on McCarthy, Václav Marhoul’s drama about the infamous U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, ahead of this month’s virtual European Film Market.

Territory rights have been sold to: Vértice Cine. Further deals include The Jokers (France), Paradiso (Benelux), Icon (Australia & New Zealand), Tohokushinsha (Japan), Arna Media (Cis), Front Row (Middle East), Bir (Turkey), Cinemania (former Yugoslavia) and Shaw (Singapore).

CAA Media Finance is overseeing the U.S. sale.

Michael Shannon stars as McCarthy in the pic, which explores what drove a lawyer and decorated former U.S. Marine down an unprecedented path of demagoguery, show-trials and venomous populism.

The project is in pre-production and will shoot fall 2022 in Prague and the U.S. Also starring are Emilia Clarke, Dane DeHaan and Scoot McNairy. Tom O’Connor wrote the script. Producers are Zach Studin and O’Connor.

“McCarthy,” the upcoming biopic of Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, has secured multiple international deals ahead of EFM.

HanWay Films, who are handling international sales, have closed a multi-territory deal with Vértice Cine as well as The Jokers (France), Paradiso (Benelux), Icon (Australia and New Zealand), Tohokushinsha (Japan), Arna Media (Cis), Front Row (Middle East), Bir (Turkey), Cinemania (former Yugoslavia) and Shaw (Singapore).

CAA Media Finance is overseeing U.S sales.

“McCarthy” stars two-time Oscar winner Michael Shannon (“Nine Perfect Strangers”) as the Republican Senator whose name became a byword for political intolerance while “Game of Thrones'” Emilia Clarke plays his ambitious wife Jean Kerr.

Joining Shannon and Clarke are Dane DeHaan (“The Stranger”) as “ruthless young lawyer” Roy Cohn and Scoot McNairy (“Narcos: Mexico”) as Ray Kiermas, McCarthy’s trusted friend and colleague.

Václav Marhoul (“The Painted Bird”) directs from a screenplay by “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” scribe Tom O’Connor.

“[‘McCarthy’ is] the...

In a presentation delivered to buyers this week during the virtual American Film Market, the stars of biopic “McCarthy,” Michael Shannon and Emilia Clarke, as well as its director Václav Marhoul and screenwriter Tom O’Connor, explained why the story of the venomous demagogue Joseph McCarthy had to be told now.

The film, now in development, follows McCarthy’s journey from being an ambitious Republican Senator to the most powerful and feared man in the U.S., culminating in a dramatic and absolute ruin.

“Given that McCarthy is such a darkly iconic figure in our history I was shocked that there had never been a film made about him,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor relied on research to tease out details of McCarthy’s origin story, such as his fascination with Adolf Hitler. “Being from Wisconsin, with a heavy German population, McCarthy had been given a copy of ‘Mein Kampf’ by one of his supporters,...

One of the most interesting projects heading into this year’s American Film Market, McCarthy will turn the clock back some 60 years and focus on the life and times of one of the most notorious politicians in American history. From Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul (The Painted Bird) and starring Michael Shannon in the lead role, the film will chart the rise and fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy, a man who has an entire -ism named after him, one that is regularly deployed to describe demagogues and fear-stoking populists around the world.

To be shot on location in the U.S. and in studios ...

One of the most interesting projects heading into this year’s American Film Market, McCarthy will turn the clock back some 60 years and focus on the life and times of one of the most notorious politicians in American history. From Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul (The Painted Bird) and starring Michael Shannon in the lead role, the film will chart the rise and fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy, a man who has an entire -ism named after him, one that is regularly deployed to describe demagogues and fear-stoking populists around the world.

To be shot on location in the U.S. and in studios ...

“Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke and Oscar-nominated Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave”) are set to headline “The Pod Generation,” a sci-fi romantic comedy that will be directed by Sophie Barthes. MK2 Films has boarded international sales, and CAA Media Finance is handling domestic rights.

Set in a near future where AI is all the rage and nature is becoming a distant memory, the story revolves around Rachel (Clarke) and Alvy (Ejiofor), a New York couple who are ready to take their relationship to the next level and start a family. Rachel’s work gives them a chance to use a new tool developed by a tech giant, Pegasus, which offers couples the opportunity to share pregnancy on a more equal footing via detachable artificial wombs, or pods. Alvy, a botanist and devoted purist, has doubts, but his love for Rachel prompts him to take a leap of faith.

Michael Shannon will portray U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a venal politician so evil he spawned his own -ism, in the aptly named film “McCarthy.”

The two-time Oscar nominee, known for off-beat performances in the likes of “Nocturnal Animals” and “Revolutionary Road,” will try to find the dark heart of the demagogue who used show-trials and red-baiting to rise to power on a wave of anti-communist hysteria. He will be aided in that effort by director Václav Marhoul and a cast that includes “Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke and “The Place Beyond the Pine’s” Dane DeHaan. Scoot McNairy rounds out the ensemble.

“McCarthy” charts the rise and fall of notorious and powerful senator and his enablers, a group that includes his politically ambitious wife Jean Kerr (Clarke), his ruthless young lawyer Roy Cohn (DeHaan) and his trusted friend and colleague Ray Kiermas (McNairy). Long may they live in infamy.

Director Václav Marhoul (The Painted Bird) has tapped two-time Oscar nominee Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals) to star as controversial U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy in the biopic we first revealed last year.

McCarthy will look at the man behind anti-communist doctrine McCarthyism to understand what drove a lawyer and decorated former U.S. Marine down an unprecedented path of demagoguery, show-trials and venomous populism.

Emmy nominee Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Dane DeHaan (The Place Beyond the Pines) and Scoot McNairy (C’mon C’mon) will star together with Shannon.

Clarke will play McCarthy’s politically ambitious wife Jean Kerr; DeHaan will be his ruthless young lawyer Roy Cohn. Pic is slated to go into production in the fall 2022 in Prague and the U.S.

Tom O’Connor (The Hitman’s Bodyguard franchise) wrote the original screenplay. The film is produced by Zach Studin together with O’Connor. Rick McCallum, producer of the three...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2022 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...

The Boston Society of Film Critics awards is the precursor season “kickoff” for critics awards this year. The New England based group showed tremendous love for Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” which took home three awards for best picture, director and cinematography (Joshua James Richards).

Comprised of 26 film critics and journalists from the Boston city area, it offered a few inspired choices for the year’s favorite films and performances. 21-year-old Sidney Flanigan took the best actress prize for her debut turn in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” from Eliza Hittman. You have to go back to 2008 when the group rewarded Sally Hawkins’ work in “Happy-Go-Lucky” for a winner that didn’t move on to an Oscar nomination.

Anthony Hopkins won his second career prize from the 39-year-old group in best actor for his outstanding performance in “The Father” from first-time director Florian Zeller, who also won best new filmmaker. Bsfc awarded...

Thomas Vinterberg’s “Another Round,” starring Mads Mikkelsen, leads the race for the 33rd European Film Awards, alongside Jan Komasa’s Oscar nominated “Corpus Christi” and Pietro Marcello’s “Martin Eden.” Each film has four nominations.

“Another Round” took nominations for best film, director, actor for Mikkelsen, and screenwriter for Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm. The film won the Audience Award at London Film Festival, and best actor, jointly for the four male leads, at San Sebastian.

“Corpus Christi” will compete for best film, director, actor for Bartosz Bielenia, and screenwriter for Mateusz Pacewicz.

“Martin Eden” is short-listed in the best film category, as well as director, actor for Luca Marinelli (who won best actor with the film at Venice last year), and screenwriter for Marcello and Maurizio Braucci.

Three films scored two nominations each. Burhan Qurbani’s “Berlin Alexanderplatz” competes for best film, and screenwriter for Martin Behnke and Qurbani.

Nominations for feature film and documentary up from five to six.

The nominations for the 2020 European Film Awards have been unveiled, with the size of two key categories extended as a result of the virus crisis.

The categories for best feature and best documentary have each been increased from five to six to offer more exposure to titles and artists impacted by cinema closures and release delays during the pandemic.

Scroll down for full list of nominees

The films nominated in the best European Film category are Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, Berhan Qurbani’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, Jan Komasa’s Corpus Christi,...

Thomas Vinterberg’s Danish crowd-pleaser Another Round, Burhan Qurbani’s German epic Berlin Alexanderplatz and Jan Komasa’s Oscar-nominated Polish drama Corpus Christi are among the nominees for best European film at the 2020 European Film Awards.

Pietro Marcello’s Italian period drama Martin Eden, the shocking Holocaust tale The Painted Bird from Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul, and Undine, a modern-day romantic fable from veteran German director Christian Petzold, are also in the running for best European film this year.

Another Round picked up nominations for Vinterberg for best European director and best European screenwriter (together with co-writer Tobias Lindholm) as well as a best European actor nod ...

Thomas Vinterberg’s Danish crowd-pleaser Another Round, Burhan Qurbani’s German epic Berlin Alexanderplatz and Jan Komasa’s Oscar-nominated Polish drama Corpus Christi are among the nominees for best European film at the 2020 European Film Awards.

Pietro Marcello’s Italian period drama Martin Eden, the shocking Holocaust tale The Painted Bird from Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul, and Undine, a modern-day romantic fable from veteran German director Christian Petzold, are also in the running for best European film this year.

Another Round picked up nominations for Vinterberg for best European director and best European screenwriter (together with co-writer Tobias Lindholm) as well as a best European actor nod ...

Bookmark this page for all the latest international feature submissions.

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2021 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

The 93rd Academy Awards is set to take place on April 25, 2021. It was originally set to be held on February 28, before both the ceremony and eligibility period were postponed for two months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Submitted films must have been released in their respective countries between the expanded dates of October 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020. (Last year it was October-September).

In another change to the eligibility rules,...

The 33rd edition of the Pilsen-based festival has wrapped, awarding the best domestically produced oeuvres in the process. This year’s previously postponed edition of the Czech annual showcase of domestic cinema and audiovisual works, Finále Plzeň (see the news), managed to wrap successfully before the country entered a state of emergency owing to a new spike in coronavirus cases. After the festival provided an in-depth overview of domestic production from the past 2019-2020 season and offered a sneak peek at upcoming theatrical releases with a slew of premieres, the annual film gathering wrapped with its awards ceremony. The country’s nominee for the Oscars, Václav Marhoul’s The Painted Bird, Ondřej Provazník and Martin Dušek’s senior-starring revenge road movie Old-Timers and Michal Hogenauer’s English-language feature debut, the social thriller A Certain Kind of Silence, all locked horns for the Golden Kingfisher Award, but Marko Škop’s family...

K-pop event cinema title ‘Break The Silence’ performed well.

RankFilm (Distributor)Three-day gross (Sep 11-13)Total gross to date Week 1 Tenet (Warner Bros) £1.2m £12.5m 3 2 After We Collided (Shear Entertainment) £443,328 £763,330 2 3 Break The Silence (Trafalgar Releasing) £249,997 £374,060 1 4 The New Mutants (Disney) £200,502 £1.1m 2 5 The Broken Hearts Gallery (Sony) £80,000 £80,000 1

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.29

Young adult sequel After We Collided scored an enormous 152% increase on its previous weekend total, as blockbuster Tenet stayed top for a third consecutive session.

Released in the UK and Ireland through Shear Entertainment, the second in the After series grossed £443,328 from Friday to Sunday, up from £174,645 last weekend.

Despite...

From Haneke to Von Trier, the arthouse provocateur has a long, grim history. But there’s a thin line between trauma and tedium

Looking back, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when it was during The Painted Bird that I got the giggles. Most likely it happened somewhere between the child being buried up to his neck to be pecked at by crows, and the cats licking a pair of eyeballs freshly gouged from a man’s head with a spoon. Once a paedophile had met his death at the bottom of a rat-filled well and a goat had been decapitated by a boy who had discovered it was sleeping with his lover, the film had become an arthouse equivalent of the old Four Yorkshiremen sketch with its steeply competing hardships: “Tossed in t’well wi’ rats? We used to dream o’ being tossed in t’well wi’ rats …”

Like...

The story of a young Jewish boy’s odyssey through occupied Poland during the second world war is filled with almost unimaginable horror

Czech film-maker Václav Marhoul has created a monochrome epic of anguish set in wartime Poland: a gruelling odyssey of almost unimaginable horror, featuring – but not limited to – violence, disfigurement, bestiality and rape. This had audiences groping blindly for the exits at last year’s Venice film festival, and there can’t be many movies whose closing credits want to reassure you not only that no animals were harmed, but that adult body doubles were used for sex scenes involving children. It is surely intended to echo Elim Klimov’s harrowing war movie Come and See from 1985, whose star Alexei Kravechenko is given a cameo here as a fiercely partisan Red Army commander.

It is based on the 1965 novel and succès de scandale by the Polish-American author Jerzy Kosiński,...

Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” suffered a precipitous 60% decline, but stayed on top of the U.K. and Ireland box-office in its second week.

The Warner Bros. release collected £2,151,490 from 613 locations and has now amassed £10,006,540 in the territory, according to final numbers released by Comscore.

Disney’s “X-Men” universe film “The New Mutants” collected £686,407 from 538 sites on debut.

Disney holdover “Onward” declined 27%, collecting £135,669 from 456 locations, and now has a total of £6,942,823.

Altitude Film Distribution’s “Unhinged,” starring Russell Crowe, declined 14% to collect £97,221 from 351 sites and has now grossed £1,436,244 in six weeks of release.

Rounding off the top five is Vertigo U.K.’s “100% Wolf,” which declined 31% to record £96,970 from 455 locations in its sixth week of release. The film has now collected £1,026,699.

Shear Entertainment’s young adult romance “After We Collided” debuted at sixth position with £65,797 from a limited 22 site release.

Ladj Ly’s Oscar-nominee and Cannes-winner “Les Miserables,” from Altitude,...

This year’s selection will be announced over two waves to account for pandemic conditions.

The first 32 features up for the 2020 European Films Awards has been announced with a second wave of “pandemic year” titles due to be revealed in September.

Scroll down for first selection of films

The titles include Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History Of David Copperfield and Viggo Mortensen’s Falling as well as Berlinale award-winners Undine, by Christian Petzold; Hidden Away, by Giorgio Diritti; Bad Tales, by the D’Innocenzo Brothers; Dau. Natasha, by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel; and Delete History, by Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern.

Václav Marhoul’s “The Painted Bird” is an impenetrable slog, a parade of agony that begins with a treasured pet being set on fire by village bullies, continues through numerous rape scenes, and fetishizes genocide and slaughter. An adaptation of the novel by Jerzy Kosiński, “The Painted Bird” is the kind of exploitative cinema that thinks drowning its viewers in increasingly drastic scenes of torture and brutality is inherently righteous.

Continue reading ‘The Painted Bird’: A Grueling Deluge Of Human Misery With Little To Say About Life Itself [Review] at The Playlist.

Based on Jerzy Kosinski’s novel and directed by Václav Marhoul, is a 169 minute epic that centers on a young boy’s (Petr Kotlár) attempts to survive during the waning days of World War II. The black and white picture, shot on 35mm, is a tough picture to watch, as the boy suffers his share of [...]

The post CinemAddicts Podcast Spotlights Critically Acclaimed Epic ‘The Painted Bird’ appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.

July 17 is the weekend that Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” was supposed to open, but in the face of the coronavirus outbreak, the world has folded back on itself like a scene from one of the director’s mind-benders. As infection rates hit new highs in the U.S., theaters postpone or reverse their plans to reopen, and movies that planned to follow “Tenet” scramble to later spots on the calendar.

That leaves streaming platforms and on-demand services to once again pick up the slack, offering a genre-spanning selection of new offerings. There are showbiz documentaries — including one spotlighting Broadway legend Kaye Ballard, and another about animation mavens Spike and Mike — as well as Sundance-blessed indie offerings such as “Dirt Music” (with Garrett Hedlund) and “The Sunlit Night” (starring Jenny Slate).

On Netflix, there’s “The Best Years of Our Lives” meets “Boyhood” in the decade-spanning, New York Times-produced documentary “Father Soldier Son,...

I have a friend who loves to walk out of movies. He’ll give almost anything a try, but he knows his taste and can tell when he’s seen enough. It’s almost a matter of pride for him to cut bait at a certain point during the screening, once he has determined that the film is only going to disappoint him further.

That’s one approach, like the crowds who duck out of Broadway shows at intermission. Not me. I often describe myself as a “cinemasochist,” by which I mean that I’m game to suffer through nearly all movies, no matter how long, boring or bad they are out of some mixture of curiosity and duty — the exception being at film festivals, where I figure that committing to a dud means potentially depriving myself of the opportunity to find something better screening in another theater.

As a film critic,...

Adapted from Jerzy Kosiński’s novel, “The Painted Bird” comes to life through Vàclav Marhoul’s lens. Shot in black and white, the film tells the story of The Boy as he wanders around Eastern European villages during World War II struggling for survival.

As he suffers through the devastating brutality and horrors of war, it’s Vladimir Smutney’s stunning cinematography and images that sear into our minds — being buried up to his neck, being kicked and punched by bullies as he watches his pet die and watching eyes being gouged out — and those are just some of the wartime horrors he witnesses.

Smutney breaks down what it was like to frame his first film in black and white. “The Painted Bird” premieres on VOD and streaming services on July 17.

What was the first thing Vaclav told you about the film?

The first time, Václav Marhoul told me about...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Clemency (Chinonye Chukwu)

From Escape from Alcatraz to Cool Hand Luke to The Shawshank Redemption, cinema is rich with not only prison films focused on the plight of the prisoner, but also depicting wardens in an evil light. Clemency, winner of the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival, flips the script in both ways, both turning the spotlight on a warden and painting her in an empathetic, complicated light. Led by Alfre Woodard, she gives a riveting, emotional performance as the Bernadine Williams, a woman who is stuck between the demands of her grueling job and a disintegrating marriage, and can’t give her all to both.

A version of this story about “The Painted Bird” first appeared in the International Film issue of TheWrap’s Oscar magazine in November 2019.

Writer-director Václav Marhoul spent 11 years working on “The Painted Bird,” his nearly three-hour adaptation of Jerzy Kosiński’s harrowing novel about a young Jewish boy who is subjected to unimaginable horrors as he wanders through Eastern Europe during World War II.

He sat down with TheWrap to discuss his work on the film, which is the Czech Republic’s entry in the Oscars’ Best International Feature race. (IFC Films is releasing the film on VOD starting July 17.)

How difficult was it to adapt this novel?

The book adapted to the movie is a different language. We are not using the written word, we are using picture and sound. That is why I worked on the screenplay for years and wrote 17 versions until I felt it was Ok.

Graphic depictions of traumatic violence (eye-gouging with a spoon) and sexual depravity (don’t ask) had a good percentage of the audience sprinting for the exits when The Painted Bird premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year. Now available on demand, this WWII drama may have you running for cover in the privacy of your own home. In adapting Polish author Jerzy Kosiński’s bestseller, Czech writer-director Václav Marhoul spares nothing in showing the atrocities witnessed by a lost, abused and abandoned Jewish boy named Joska (Petr Kotlár), as...

Much has been made of the extreme and unrelenting violence that penetrates almost every scene of Václav Marhoul’s 169-minute “The Painted Bird,” in the grand tradition of “Come and See,” “The Tin Drum,” and “The Wrong Missy.” Following a young boy as he silently bears witness to a series of unspeakable horrors while drifting through the Slavic world at the height of World War II, this steely adaptation of Jerzy Kosiński’s allegorical horror novel (née memoir) of the same name opens with a warning shot to anyone who hit the wrong button on their way to rent “Palm Springs.”

Our unnamed protagonist is introduced as he clutches a small animal — a dog that could pass for a ferret — and sprints away from the group of children nipping at his heels. The kids catch up to him and set the animal on fire for their own amusement. This may...

There’s always one film that stirs up controversy on its way through the festival circuit, and last year, that film was Václav Marhoul’s ambitious “The Painted Bird.” The black-and-white foreign-language drama, finally out later this summer, is adapted from a Jerzy Kosinski novel and tells the story of a boy who travels across Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, all while witnessing (and often enduring) both the horror and beauty of his changed homeland.

The film screened at Toronto and Venice last year, where it reportedly caused walkouts throughout its screenings due to scenes of graphic violence, including one moment in which someone has their eyeballs gouged out. “The Painted Bird” was the Czech Republic’s entry for Best International Film at this year’s Oscars (where it made the official shortlist), and also won both the Bronze Frog and the Fipresci Award at the 2019 EnergaCAMERIMAGE International Film Festival.

Its shocking scenes had traumatised critics fighting for the exits. Yet those who stayed were moved by its portrayal of human evil – which director Václav Marhoul says is all too real

It is not often a three-hour, black-and-white Czech film makes headlines in the British tabloids, but The Painted Bird earned that dubious honour last year. “Sickened film-goers brawl to escape premiere of Holocaust epic Painted Bird featuring brutal scenes of incest, rape and mutilation,” screamed the Sun. It forgot to mention the bestiality, but others didn’t. The Daily Mail described the film as “a panoply of depravity”. The Guardian reported viewers falling over each other as they rushed for the exits during the first public screening at the Venice film festival. The scene in which a man’s eyes are gouged out with a spoon was a tipping point for many.

Speaking from his study in Prague, director...

Other winners include The Painted Bird, Queen of Hearts, Father, Two of Us, Mater, Ivana the Terrible and Vienna Hallways, the new film by Serbian director Mladen Djordjević. The 48th Belgrade International Film Festival Fest (28 February-8 March) has wrapped with Karim Aïnouz's Cannes Un Certain Regard prizewinner The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão (Brazil/Germany) picking up the Belgrade Victor Award for Best Film in the main competition. Václav Marhoul won the Best Director Award for The Painted Bird (Czech Republic/Slovakia/Ukraine), and Rita Kalnejais received Best Screenplay for Australian director Shannon Murphy's Babyteeth, both of which world-premiered at Venice. The acting prizes went to Trine Dyrholm for her role in May el-Toukhy's Queen of Hearts (Denmark/Sweden) and to Goran Bogdan for his performance in Srdan Golubović's Father (Serbia/France/Germany/Croatia). Both films previously won Audience Awards after their world premieres at Sundance and the Berlinale,...

The black-and-white World War II drama netted eight accolades while also earning its producer, writer and director, Václav Marhoul, the Award for Extraordinary Audiovisual Achievement. Three fiction features defined 2019 in Czech cinema, at least judging by the laureates of domestic awards, each one of them representing a different style and form of filmmaking. Ondřej Provazník and Martin Dušek’s revenge road-dramedy Old-Timers falls into the category of daring arthouse cinema, the absurd chamber comedy Owners by Jiří Havelka represents intelligent domestic mainstream comedy, while The Painted Bird by Václav Marhoul proved to be an ambitious and internationally acclaimed oeuvre. All three movies were frontrunners in the Czech Film Critics’ Awards as well as the annual Czech Lion ceremony, with the domestic film critics eventually favouring Old-Timers (see the news). The result of the annual Czech Lion Awards gala, organised by the Czech Film and Television Academy (Cfta), was predictable, at.

"I want to go home!" IFC Films has debuted an official Us trailer for the extra-bleak Czech war drama The Painted Bird, originally titled Nabarvené ptáce in Czechia. This originally premiered at both the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals last fall, and earned mixed reviews, praising the raw intensity of this harrowing war-is-hell feature. Written & directed by Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul, and adapted from Jerzy Kosinski's novel of the same name, it's about a young Jewish boy wandering around Eastern Europe alone during WWII. The B&w 35mm film is described as an "evocation of wild, primitive Eastern Europe at the bloody close of World War II." The Painted Bird is a dramatic story examining the immediate relationship between terror and cruelty on one side and innocence and love on the other. The film stars Petr Kotlár as The Boy, plus Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier, Harvey Keitel, Julian Sands,...

If there was one movie that made the most headlines among international cinephiles at last year’s Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival it was Václav Marhoul’s “The Painted Bird.” The black-and-white foreign-language drama is adapted from the novel of Jerzy Kosinski and tells the story of a boy who travels across Eastern Europe at the end of World War II and witnesses the horror and beauty of his changed homeland. The film is said to have caused walkouts at its festival screenings due to scenes of graphic violence, including one moment in which someone has their eyeballs gouged out. “The Painted Bird” was the Czech Republic’s official Oscar submission this year in the Best International Feature Film but missed out on a nomination.

Per IFC Films’ official synopsis, “The Painted Bird” follows “the journey of The Boy, entrusted by his persecuted parents to an elderly foster mother.

"He endured iniquity from many people." Eureka Entertainment has unveiled an official UK trailer for the Czech war drama The Painted Bird, originally titled Nabarvené ptáce in Czechia. This premiered at both the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals last fall, and is Czechia's official submission to this year's Academy Awards (for last year). Written & directed by Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul, adapted from Jerzy Kosinski's classic novel of the same name, it's about a young Jewish boy wandering around Eastern Europe alone during WWII. The raw B&w 35mm film is described as an "evocation of wild, primitive Eastern Europe at the bloody close of World War II." The Painted Bird is a deeply dramatic story examining the immediate relationship between terror and cruelty on one side and innocence and love on the other. The film stars Petr Kotlár as The Boy, along with Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier, Harvey Keitel,...

Bong Joon-ho's appealingly invasive Cannes Palme d'Or winner Parasite makes the 92nd Academy Awards International Film shortlist Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In April of 2019, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences changed the Best Foreign Language Film category to Best International Feature Film.

The 92nd Academy Awards Oscar Best International Film shortlist has been revealed with the number increased from nine to ten for this year.

From France, Cannes Jury Prize winner Les Misérables, Ladj Ly, director; Poland, Corpus Christi, Jan Komasa, director; Spain, Pain And Glory, starring Cannes Best Actor Antonio Banderas, Pedro Almodóvar, director; Czech Republic, The Painted Bird, Václav Marhoul, director; Hungary, Those Who Remained, Barnabás Tóth, director; Kazakhstan, Ayka, Sergey Dvortsevoy, director; Russia, Beanpole, Cannes Un Certain Regard Best Director Kantemir Balagov; Senegal, Cannes Grand Prix winner Atlantics, Mati Diop, director; North Macedonia, Honeyland, Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska, directors; South Korea, Cannes Palme d'Or winner Parasite,...