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With longer days and—at some more progressive places of employment—Summer Fridays in full effect, daily agendas are now suddenly awash with temporal real estate. Should you use these extra hours to reconnect with family, go to museums or explore the natural world in all its holy wonders? No! You should be watching movies, and lots of ’em! Luckily, June is a rock-solid month with plenty of great Don’t-Miss Indies titles to enjoy.

Padre Pio

When You Can Watch: Now

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)

Director: Abel Ferrara

Cast: Shia Labeouf, Cristina Chiriac, Marco Leonardi

Why We’re Excited: A two-time Film Independent Spirit Award nominee for Bad Lieutenant (1992) and The Funeral (1996), indie veteran Abel Ferrara’s new biographical drama is based on the Irl story of Italian Franciscan Capuchin friar and priest Francesco Forgione, who was venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1999. It...

You might think Shia Labeouf portraying a 20th-century Italian saint under the direction of perpetual bad-boy expat Abel Ferrara is a pretty strange prospect. But that’s just the iceberg tip of the oddities in “Padre Pio,” which, despite the American star’s casting in the title role, often appears uninterested in its own venerated ostensible subject.

Instead, much of this awkward English-language period piece focuses on peasants’ struggle to overthrow padrone control just after the First World War. Depicting that conflict often feels beyond the modest production’s scale — and, in any case, is never meaningfully connected to the angsty histrionics of Labeouf, who seems to be in his own separate, indulgent, semi-improvised movie. Though coherent relative to Ferrara’s last narrative feature, the impenetrable espionage tale “Zeroes and Ones,” this eccentric misfire will likely puzzle fans of his past cult favorites, while flummoxing Catholic viewers who expect straightforward religious uplift.

A tormented priest arrives in an Italian village where a looming election pits angry peasants against wealthy landowners. Padre Pio, the latest from auteur Abel Ferrara, chronicles the formative years of a future Catholic saint with a bizarrely unbalanced narrative. What could have been a gripping portrayal of faith in times of crisis devolves into a dull slog. The protagonist never interacts with the socioeconomic upheaval happening around him. Injustice plays second fiddle to tedious religious dogma in a film that severely tests your patience.

Padre Pio (Shia Labeouf) rides a donkey towards the Franciscan Capuchin monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo. He devoutly prays for guidance under the searing son. God can be his only savior from heavy burdens. In the village below, soldiers return bearing the brutal scars of World War I. Giavanni (Cristina Chiriac) clutches her two young children as she looks for her husband. He's nowhere to be found as others weep,...

Shia Labeouf makes his big screen return in Padre Pio, a new movie from Abel Ferrara that made waves during the 2022 Venice Film Festival and is now set to be released to theaters by Gravitas Ventures. In an exclusive clip, Labeouf appears as the titular Franciscan monk. You can check it out below.

The movie has already received glowing praise from its film festival appearances, but it's certainly something deeper than your usual summer blockbuster, which could see it struggle to gain box office standing among some of the big attention grabbing movies out in the cinematic landscape at the moment. Considering Ferrara's previous films, and Labeouf's spiritual and artistic choices, that's probably besides the point for them. The synopsis for Padre Pio reads as follows:

“It is the end of World War I and the young Italian soldiers are making their way back to San Giovanni Rotondo, a land of poverty,...

Shia Labeouf makes his big screen return in Padre Pio, a new movie from Abel Ferrara that made waves during the 2022 Venice Film Festival and is now set to be released to theaters by Gravitas Ventures. In an exclusive clip, Labeouf appears as the titular Franciscan Monk. You can check it out below.

The movie has already received glowing praise from its film festival appearances, but it certainly something deeper than your usual summer blockbuster, which could see it struggle to gain box office standing in among some of the big attention grabbing movies out there right now. According to the synopsis:

“It is the end of World War I and the young Italian soldiers are making their way back to San Giovanni Rotondo, a land of poverty, historic violence and the iron clad rule of the church and its wealthy landowners. Families are desperate, the men are broken, but victorious.

In less than a month, Shia Labeouf will return to the big screen thanks to acclaimed director Abel Ferrara (Zeros and Ones) in Padre Pio, a film that inspired the actor to convert to Catholicism since he plays a priest in it.

A few weeks ago, it was confirmed that Gravitas Ventures would be the company in charge of distributing this new project, which will hit theaters on June 2. After the announcement of the release date, the full trailer for the film is now out:

Check out the synopsis for Padre Pio:

“In this powerful drama directed by acclaimed filmmaker Abel Ferrara, a young priest, Padre Pio (Shia Labeouf), begins his ministry at a remote Capuchin monastery in Italy’s San Giovanni Rotondo. WWI has ended and Italian soldiers — broken but victorious — are returning to the impoverished village ruled by wealthy land owners. As events surrounding the first free...

Padre Pio, Abel Ferrara’s Shia Labeouf-starring follow-up to 2021’s Zeroes and Ones, finally gets a trailer ahead of its theatrical release next month. The biopic, co-written by Ferrara and Maurizio Braucci, depicts the early life of the titular Catholic saint as he begins his ministry at a monastery in a remote Italian village that becomes rocked by political tension in the wake of WWI. The film premiered last year during the Venice Film Festival in Italy, fitting for the film’s subject matter and the director’s longtime residence in the country. Alongside Labeouf, Padre Pio stars Cristina Chiriac, Marco Leonardi, Asia […]

The post Trailer Watch: Abel Ferrara’s Padre Pio first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Padre Pio, Abel Ferrara’s Shia Labeouf-starring follow-up to 2021’s Zeroes and Ones, finally gets a trailer ahead of its theatrical release next month. The biopic, co-written by Ferrara and Maurizio Braucci, depicts the early life of the titular Catholic saint as he begins his ministry at a monastery in a remote Italian village that becomes rocked by political tension in the wake of WWI. The film premiered last year during the Venice Film Festival in Italy, fitting for the film’s subject matter and the director’s longtime residence in the country. Alongside Labeouf, Padre Pio stars Cristina Chiriac, Marco Leonardi, Asia […]

The post Trailer Watch: Abel Ferrara’s Padre Pio first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

"It feels like a sin to question these things, it feels like a sin to be angry with the Lord." Gravitas Ventures has revealed an official trailer for Padre Pio, a new film from American director Abel Ferrara, who now lives and works in Italy. This premiered at the Venice Days sidebar of the Venice Film Festival last year (did anyone even see it?) and opens in the US this June. This biopic from Ferrara follows Roman Catholic Saint Padre Pio in his early years. At the end of World War I, Padre Pio begins his ministry at a remote monastery in southern Italy. Soon, his charisma and storied visions bring him fame. Shia Labeouf stars alongside Cristina Chiriac, Marco Leonardi, Asia Argento, Vincenzo Crea, Luca Lionello, Brando Pacitto, Stella Mastrantonio, and Salvatore Ruocco. Some may remember that this role "saved" Labeouf's life, as he claimed in an interview last...

Exclusive: Gravitas Ventures has nabbed North American rights to the Shia Labeouf-led drama Padre Pio from filmmaker Abel Ferrara, slating it for a day-and-date release on June 2nd.

Related Story Neon Acquires Domestic Rights To Anne Hathaway Sundance Movie ‘Eileen’ Related Story Gravitas Ventures Acquires Sophie Lane Curtis Drama 'On Our Way' Starring Micheál Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave And Jordana Brewster Related Story Jennifer A. Goodman Thriller 'The Unseen' Starring 'Breaking Bad's Rj Mitte Acquired By Gravitas Ventures

In the film penned by Maurizio Braucci and Ferrara, which world premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival, it’s the end of World War I and the young Italian soldiers are making their way back to San Giovanni Rotondo, a land of poverty, historic violence and the ironclad rule of the church and its wealthy landowners. Families are desperate; the men are broken, but victorious.

At 70, Abel Ferrara lives with his partner Cristina Chiriac and their little daughter Anna in Rome, Italy. Far from the city that made him a legendary filmmaker, he makes fictions and documentaries with absolute creative freedom, personal works that don’t follow narrative conventions. Zeros and Ones, his most recent film and for which he won Best Direction at the Locarno Film Festival, is sure to frustrate those who expect the “political thriller” that the synopsis sells. Ethan Hawke plays an American soldier and cameraman who returns to Rome, where he learns that his revolutionary brother (also played by Hawke) is "in prison." Inquiring about his whereabouts, he’ll notice that in a world of American and Italian soldiers, and Russian agents, it’s impossible to trust...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Lionsgate has provided /Film with an exclusive clip from "Zeros and Ones," the intense new thriller from acclaimed director Abel Ferrara which is scheduled to hit select theaters, Apple TV+, VOD and digital on November 19, 2021 before it arrives on Blu-ray and DVD January 4, 2022. The film stars Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke in the dual roles of JJ and Justin, along with Cristina Chiriac ("Tommaso") as Laughing Russian agent and Valerio Mastandrea ("We All Fall Down") as Luciano.

Hawke is a fascinating actor who always makes eclectic choices...

The post Ethan Hawke Gets Intense in New Clip From Abel Ferrara's Zeros and Ones [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.

The thriller Zeros And Ones stars Academy Award winner Ethan Hawke, Cristina Chiriac and Valerio Mastandrea. It was written and directed by the critically acclaimed director, Abel Ferrara.

Here’s the trailer:

Zeros And Ones is available in Select Theaters, on Apple TV and Everywhere You Rent Movies on November 19th! Available on Blu-ray and DVD on January 4th!

Ethan Hawke (Training Day) and director Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant) join forces for this gritty, tense political-thriller set on one deadly night in Rome. Called to the city to stop an imminent terrorist bombing, soldier J.J. (Hawke) desperately seeks news of his imprisoned rebel brother, Justin (also Hawke), who holds knowledge that could thwart the attack. Navigating the capital’s darkened streets, J.J. races to a series of ominous encounters, hoping to keep the Vatican from being blown to bits.

The post Watch the Trailer for Ethan Hawke in...

"You wouldn't last 10 minutes on the street knowing what he knows." Lionsgate has revealed the official trailer for Zeros and Ones, another awkward new Abel Ferrara movie releasing this year (in addition to Siberia with Willem Dafoe). This one, however, came out of nowhere and it only recently premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. An American soldier stationed in Rome watches the Vatican blown up, then embarks on a hero's journey to uncover and defend against an unknown enemy threatening the entire world. How exciting?! I mean come on, what a boring plot. Ethan Hawke stars, with Valerio Mastandrea, Cristina Chiriac, and Babak Karimi. This looks terrible. The trailer is full of grainy can't-even-see-anything close-up shots, plus tons of stock footage, and that's about it. Move along folks, there's really nothing to see here. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Abel Ferrara's Zeros and Ones, direct from Lionsgate's YouTube:...

The pandemic has slowed some of us down, but Abel Ferrara isn’t a guy to let an opportunity go to waste, even if it’s not clear what he’s actually doing with it. After his Covid-era documentary self-portrait “Sportin’ Life” last September comes “Zeros and Ones,” a murky — in every sense — apocalyptic spy thriller shot at night during the strict lockdown in his adopted city of Rome. Starring Ethan Hawke in dual roles as a military man of uncertain allegiance and his revolutionist brother, the film will have viewers grasping for Ferraraesque judgments on the politics of pandemic protocols, though the director’s own statements clearly place him among the sane.

His acolytes know best not to struggle too hard to parse a story that’s designed more as sensory mind play than straightforward (or even meandering) narrative. St. Peter’s Basilica gets blown up, but this is hardly “Angels and Demons.

Abel Ferrara on Willem Dafoe in Siberia: “That’s so Willem! He’s the darkness and I’m the dancer.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Abel Ferrara has kept himself active over the past 16 months, after presenting the world premiere (at the 2020 Berlinale) of Siberia, co-written with Christ Zois, shot by Stefano Falivene (Pasolini), scored by Joe Delia and starring Willem Dafoe with Cristina Chiriac, Anna Ferrara, Dounia Sichov, Simon McBurney, Laurent Arnatsiaq, Phil Neilson, Valentina Rozumenko, Fabio Pagano, and Ulrike Willenbacher.

Clint (Willem Dafoe) with his Inuit friend (Laurent Arnatsiaq)

Abel has Zeros And Ones, starring Ethan Hawke, Valerio Mastandrea, and Cristina Chiriac waiting to go and his must-watch Sportin' Life, sponsored by Saint Laurent, and shot by Sean Price Williams, which intimately documents the Berlin festivities, including musical performances, with Abel singing and playing guitar in clubs. The initial tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic in...

Abel Ferrara on his selections for Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village: “Desperate Living by John Waters, one of my favorite directors. Then we got a couple of films by the guys that I worked with. My editor and my Dp Sean Williams, Stephen Gurewitz, Michael Bilandic. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village starts on Tuesday, June 29 at 7:30pm with a free screening of The Projectionist on Nicolas Nicolaou, followed by a Q&a with Abel. Tommaso; Pasolini; Siberia (Dafoe); Ms. 45; 4:44 Last Day On Earth, and Driller Killer will have $5 screenings.

John Waters’ Desperate Living; Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist; Stephen Gurewitz’s Honky Kong; Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo, and Jim Sharman’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show are among the films selected by Ferrara to be screening during his celebration of the reopening...

Making what is by far the most reassuring news about our future to arrive in the past week, Abel Ferrara has cast Ethan Hawke in Zeros and Ones, a war picture generated from Ferrara’s own script. Per Variety, it concerns “an American soldier stationed in Rome as it’s under siege, with the Vatican blown up [who] embarks on a hero’s journey to uncover and defend against an unknown enemy threatening the entire world.” Ferrara’s wife, Cristina Chiriac (who recently put in great work in both Tommaso and Siberia), co-stars with Phil Neilson.

In a distinctly Ferrara-esque statement, the filmmaker said “Zeros and Ones is a film of lockdown and war, danger and espionage, American soldiers, Chinese middlemen, Mid Eastern holy men, provocateurs, diplomats, rogue elements of the CIA and Kgb. I cannot wait to roll the cameras next week in a way that is safe because this...

Ethan Hawke, Cristina Chiriac and Phil Neilson will star in the upcoming war thriller “Zeros and Ones,” with Abel Ferrara directing from his own script.

Filming begins in Italy later this month. Hawke will portray an American soldier stationed in Rome as it’s under siege, with the Vatican blown up. He embarks on a hero’s journey to uncover and defend against an unknown enemy threatening the entire world.

Christian Mercuri’s Capstone Group will launch sales at the virtual American Film Market this week under its Blue Box International label and will co-rep domestic with CAA Media Finance.

“Zeros and Ones” is produced by Diana Phillips of Rimsky Productions, and Philipp Kreuzer from Maze Pictures. Sean Price Williams, who most recently lensed “Good Time” — starring Robert Pattinson, and directed by Benny and Josh Safdie — is heading the production team. Executive producers are Danny Chan of Almost Never Films,...

Ethan Hawke will star in the next film from director Abel Ferrara, a war-time thriller called “Zeros and Ones.”

Hawke joins a cast that also includes Cristina Chiriac and Phil Neilson, and “Zeros and Ones” will begin filming in Italy later this month.

“Zeros and Ones” is both written and directed by Ferrara, and it stars Hawke as JJ, an American soldier stationed in Rome under siege, locked down and at war who witnesses an attack on The Vatican. He must then defend against an unknown enemy threatening the lives of the entire world.

Christian Mercuri’s Capstone Group will launch sales on the film at AFM this week under its Blue Box International label and will co-rep domestic with CAA Media Finance.

“Zeros and Ones” is produced by Diana Phillips of Rimsky Productions and Philipp Kreuzer from Maze Pictures. Cinematographer Sean Price Williams (“Good Time”) anchors the production below the line team.

CAA Media Finance, Capstone to jointly represent US rights.

In one of the most tantalising projects to come together for AFM 2020 Online, Ethan Hawke will star for Abel Ferrara in the contemporary thriller Zeros And Ones, which Capstone’s Blue Box International is introducing to buyers today.

CAA Media Finance will jointly represent US rights with Capstone on the project, which Ferrara will direct from his original screenplay.

Ferrara, whose career includes such noted films as King Of New York, Bad Lieutenant, The Addiction, Siberia, Pasolini, and Mary, is gearing up for a production start in Italy later this month.

Ethan Hawke will star in war thriller Zeros and Ones from writer-director Abel Ferrara.

Hawke will play JJ, an American soldier stationed in a Rome that is under siege, locked down, and at war. The Vatican being blown into the night sky is only the beginning of our hero’s journey to uncover and defend against an unknown enemy but threatening the lives of the entire world.

Cristina Chiriac and Phil Neilson will star alongside Hawke in the feature, which is due to begin in Italy later this month.

Diana Phillips of Rimsky Productions and Philipp Kreuzer from Maze Pictures will produce. Christian Mercuri’s ...

Ethan Hawke will star in war thriller Zeros and Ones from writer-director Abel Ferrara.

Hawke will play JJ, an American soldier stationed in a Rome that is under siege, locked down, and at war. The Vatican being blown into the night sky is only the beginning of our hero’s journey to uncover and defend against an unknown enemy but threatening the lives of the entire world.

Cristina Chiriac and Phil Neilson will star alongside Hawke in the feature, which is due to begin in Italy later this month.

Diana Phillips of Rimsky Productions and Philipp Kreuzer from Maze Pictures will produce. Christian Mercuri’s ...

Roger Ebert often paraphrased what his onscreen sparring partner Gene Siskel said about films he didn’t enjoy: Wouldn’t it have been better to watch a documentary about the same actors having lunch together? It’s a thought experiment that might come to mind watching “Sportin’ Life,” a rambling, hour-long documentary directed by Abel Ferrara. These days, Ferrara’s fiction films rarely go far beyond the festival circuit, even those starring his friend and frequent collaborator Willem Dafoe. It’s been some time since the likes of “Bad Lieutenant” and “King of New York” reached a wider audience. But .

Most of the documentary was shot while Ferrara was promoting his last film with Dafoe, “Siberia,” at the Berlin Film Festival in February. Not that he bothers to explain that with anything as commonplace as captions or voiceovers. All the film offers is the chance to hang out with Ferrara for a while,...

Abel Ferrara will be awarded the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Ferrara, who is based in Rome these days, will be handed the award honoring an artist’s original mark on contemporary cinema during a ceremony on Sept. 5 prior to the screening of his latest doc titled “Sportin’ Life.” The doc is described in a Venice statement as an “intimate and lush” look at his own life.

It’s Ferrara’s “world refracted through his art – music, filmmaking, his collaborators and inspirations… his partner Cristina Chiriac and their daughter Anna, their life in the eternal city, Roma… as the corona virus descends and paralyses the world,” the statement said.

“Sportin’ Life,” which is screening out-of-competition and runs 65 minutes, features turns by Abel Ferrara, Willem Dafoe, Cristina Chiriac, Anna Ferrara, Paul Hipp, and Joe Delia.

Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera in the statement praised Ferrara...

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is anything but coincidental in Abel Ferrara’s Tommaso; short of giving the protagonist (“hero” might be pushing it) the same name as the Bad Lieutenant director, the connection between Willem Dafoe’s wiry, wound-up cineaste in front of the camera and the living legend behind it couldn’t be more explicit. The title character is a New Yorker now living in Rome, much like Ferrara himself, who’s gingerly feeling his way around his adopted city and culture. During the day,...

Willem Dafoe lifts a scrappy portrait of An American In Rome into something of subtle intensity. Abel Ferrara’s first feature in six years is an uneven effort, perhaps a warm-up for his and Dafoe’s next film, Siberia, but fans of the man will find enough to chew on. Playing the eponymous lead, Dafoe is an obvious stand-in for his director, not least made blatant from the casting of Ferrara’s own young wife (Cristina Chiriac) and toddler in the same roles as in their real life.

Like many of Ferrara’s films, Tommaso starts out with seemingly insignificant details, but stacks them until they mount ominously. But there’s little of the awkward sleaze of films like Bad Lieutenant or Welcome To New York. Tommaso finds Ferrara making peace with domesticity, before considering how said home-life might cause the unravelling of a reformed, self-confessed wild-man.

At first, Tommaso looks to be a straightforward.

Abel Ferrara is debuting his newest film with longtime collaborator Willem Dafoe, Tommaso, as a virtual cinema release due to the ongoing conditions Covid-19 unleashed on moviegoing. It’s the closest thing the prolific director has come to a slowdown in recent years. Last year, his long-delayed 2014 film Pasolini received distribution, Tommaso debuted at Cannes, and The Projectionist, about New York City’s Nicolas Nicolaou premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. After his other new project, Siberia, played for thousands of people at Berlinale in February, Ferrara’s globetrotting hit a pause.

Tommaso stars Dafoe as a movie director living with his young wife Nikki (Cristina Chiriac) and Dee Dee (Anna Ferrara) in Rome. Tommaso is in recovery after a long, unbridled addiction. If you know anything about Ferrara—including that Dafoe is his real-life next-door neighbor—it’s clear Tommaso is even more than his amalgamation, it’s his mirror.

Following his role in Tommaso, the actor is once again playing the Us director’s alter-ego as Ferrara returns to compete in the Berlin Film Festival 25 years after The Addiction. After bagging a starring role in the intimate and self-reflective Tommaso (shown in a Special Screening in Cannes 2019), Willem Dafoe is returning as Abel Ferrara’s alter-ego in the director’s new project Siberia. The film tells the story of Clint, a broken man who lives alone in the heart of a frozen tundra. But despite his isolation, he can neither escape from the world nor find peace. One evening, he embarks upon a journey, travelling through his dreams, memories and imagination, trying to make his way through the darkness and into the light. Starring in the cast alongside Dafoe are Cristina Chiriac and the director’s real-life daughter Anna Ferrara - who also appeared in Tommaso - as well as Dounia.

The Berlinale lineup already includes films from Jia Zhangke, Matías Piñeiro, and more, but now the competition slate has arrived and it’s an incredibly promising selection. Headed by Carlo Chatrian, it includes many of our most-anticipated films of the year with Christian Petzold’s Undine, Hong Sang-soo’s The Woman Who Ran, Tsai Ming-Liang’s Days, Philippe Garrel’s The Salt of Tears, Abel Ferrara’s Siberia, and Caetano Gotardo & Marco Dutra’s All the Dead Ones, plus recent festival favorites: Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow and Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always.

Check out the lineup below and return for our coverage.

Competition

Berlin Alexanderplatz

Germany / Netherlands

by Burhan Qurbani

with Welket Bungué, Jella Haase, Albrecht Schuch, Joachim Król, Annabelle Mandeng, Nils Verkooijen, Richard Fouofié Djimeli

World premiere

Dau. Natasha

Germany / Ukraine / United Kingdom / Russian Federation

by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Jekaterina Oertel

with Natalia Berezhnaya, Olga Shkabarnya, Vladimir Azhippo,...

The Berlin International Film Festival on Wednesday morning revealed the main competition lineup and gala selections for festival’s 70th edition.

The festival, which begins February 20, will screen 18 films in competition, including movies from Sally Potter, Kelly Reichardt, and Eliza Hittman. Six are from female directors.

Among the gala presentations is Pixar’s” Onward.” The Dan Scanlon-helmed urban fantasy includes the voices of Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, Mel Rodriguez, Kyle Bornheimer, Lena Waithe, and Ali Wong.

Here is the complete list:

Competition

“Berlin Alexanderplatz” (Germany/Netherlands)

Director: Burhan Qurbani

Cast: Welket Bungué, Jella Haase, Albrecht Schuch, Joachim Król, Annabelle Mandeng, Nils Verkooijen, and Richard Fouofié Djimeli

“Dau. Natasha” (Germany/Ukraine/United Kingdom/Russia)

Directors: Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel

Cast: Natalia Berezhnaya, Olga Shkabarnya, Vladimir Azhippo, Alexei Blinov, and Luc Bigé

“Domangchin yeoja” (“The Woman Who Ran”) (South Korea)

Director: Hong Sangsoo

Cast: Kim Minhee,...

The Berlin International Film Festival has unveiled its 2020 line-up, with 18 films playing in competition from directors such as Abel Ferrara, Sally Potter, Christian Petzold, Hong Sangsoo, Kelly Reichardt and Eliza Hittman.

Abel Ferrara’s Willem Dafoe starrer “Siberia” is a world premiere in competition, as is Sally Potter’s “The Roads Not Taken.”

Among the U.S. films at the Berlinale, Reichardt’s “First Cow” is an international premiere, and so too is Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.”

Pixar’s latest animation, “Onward”, also has its international premiere out of competition in the Special Galas section.

Previous Berlin Silver Bear winner Christian Petzold’s latest, “Undine”, world premieres, while Iranian director Mohammed Rasoulof, who is not allowed to travel outside his home country, world premieres his latest, “There is No Evil.”

Six out of the 18 films in competition are helmed by female directors.

The 70th edition of the festival...

Kino Lorber has picked up the North American rights to two upcoming films by cult filmmaker Abel Ferrara, including Tommaso, a Rome-set drama starring Willem Dafoe that bowed in Cannes.

Kino Lorber also nabbed The Projectionist — Ferrara's documentary about a Greek Cypriot immigrant, Nicolas "Nick" Nicolaou, trying to keep New York City art house cinemas open in competition with the multiplex — which bowed at Tribeca.

The autobiographical drama Tommaso about a director and recovering addict recalls Ferrara's life in Rome. Ferrara's real-life daughter Anna Ferrara and wife Cristina Chiriac also star in the drama....

Kino Lorber has picked up the North American rights to two upcoming films by cult filmmaker Abel Ferrara, including Tommaso, a Rome-set drama starring Willem Dafoe that bowed in Cannes.

Kino Lorber also nabbed The Projectionist — Ferrara's documentary about a Greek Cypriot immigrant, Nicolas "Nick" Nicolaou, trying to keep New York City art house cinemas open in competition with the multiplex — which bowed at Tribeca.

The autobiographical drama Tommaso about a director and recovering addict recalls Ferrara's life in Rome. Ferrara's real-life daughter Anna Ferrara and wife Cristina Chiriac also star in the drama....

Tommaso is a work of unusually personal autoficition by its director, Abel Ferrara. Shooting in his own flat in Rome, to which the great but underfunded New York director decamped many years ago, casting his wife (Cristina Chiriac) and their young daughter (Anna Ferrara) to play themselves, and having Willem Dafoe act as his stand-in sharing personal details—including being a recovering addict and working on the long-gestating film project Siberia—the film finds the universal in the confessional. Shot guerrilla-style with the most minimal budget possible—Werner Herzog’s cinematographer, Peter Zeitlinger, ensures a raw and immediate look—the film offers vivid flashes of the energetic but conflicted life of the titular director as he swings from joy with his four-year-old daughter to flashes of anger over his young wife’s self-sufficiency, the strength granted by confessions at AA meetings to constant erotic dreams of other women.Like Ferrara...

Everyone knows that Willem Dafoe is one of our greatest actors. But because the film industry often shoehorns him into “character” roles, he is also one of our wiliest, most resourceful actors. Dafoe never just shows up — he’ll grab even the sketchiest part and burrow into it.

Take “Tommaso,” the first scripted drama in five years from the writer-director Abel Ferrara. (He’s been making off-the-cuff documentaries.) It’s in the genre of confessional autobiographical films about filmmakers, though this one is the shot-on-a-shoestring home-movie version. Dafoe, who also starred in Ferrara’s “Pasolini,” plays Tommaso, an American indie director living in Rome. The film was shot in Ferrara’s own apartment there, and it costars his wife, Cristina Chiriac, as Tommaso’s wife Nikki, and the couple’s real-life three-year-old daughter, Anna Ferrara , as three-year-old Deedee. Given the semi-scandalous details of life on the edge that have made Ferrara,...