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With his piercing on-screen appeal, Ralph Fiennes (along with his film legacy) has proven to be anything but boring. Since his feature-length film debut in the 1992 version of "Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights" Fiennes has transformed into a cinematic force, with a range that continues to surprise viewers again and again. To some, he's known primarily for playing the iconic Lord Voldemort from the "Harry Potter" franchise, yet to others, he's known for portraying everything from dashing romantic leads to terrifying real world antagonists. Needless to say, Fiennes has done it all and then some.

But which of Fiennes many beloved performances stands in a class all their own? Well, with the help of this list, we hope to solve such a complicated puzzle. Featuring everything from his notable work on lesser-known gems to his franchise accomplishments, we'll take a look into the ever-evolving career of this talented performer to determine...

Forget conquering hills, Kate Bush's 1985 song "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" has been climbing the charts since it turned up as Max's favorite song in "Stranger Things" season four - and now, it's breaking records. "Stranger Things" has been utilizing classic '80s songs since the series began, but "Running Up That Hill" has resonated with fans on a whole new level that even the famously private Bush can't ignore.

But it wasn't easy to get the song on the show. A group of Warner Music executives spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how they landed the "Running Up That Hill" deal in an Aug. 22 interview. "It's not like advertising where we get a very quick 'Can we use this song?' and we have to work out if we can and if they can afford it," said Tim Miles, senior VP sync for the UK...

As the coronavirus pandemic still rages on, precious few remain skeptical about going to the movies. But while your AMCs and others claim some godlike safety from Covid, there remains a chunk of people still uncomfortable hitting up theaters. To them, we bring you the September 2020 Criterion Channel lineup.

It starts off with quite the swath of content too. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó hits the service on September 1, and its seven-plus hours should take up a large chunk of your day. Coming soon after is a collection of more than a dozen Joan Blondell starrers from the pre-Code era, including Howard Hawks’ The Crowd Roars, three collaborations with Mervyn LeRoy, and Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley’s Dames.

For some stuff released almost a century later, the service also sees the addition of documentary bender Robert Greene. His Actress, Kate Plays Christine, and Bisbee ’17 join soon after. Janicza Bravo, director of Lemon,...

We consider the controversies surrounding BBC Two's sumptuous Wolf Hall adaptation, feat. Damian Lewis, Mark Rylance and Claire Foy...

2015’s roster of prestige dramas is particularly dense, but the BBC’s take on Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall might just have already claimed its crown as the most controversial. It arrived freighted with the baggage always attached to adaptations of acclaimed novels, and further burdened by some thorny controversies all of its own. Mantel’s spirited attack on philosopher-saint Thomas More and equally fervent defence of his nemesis and her hero, Thomas Cromwell, was always bound to ignite debate. That, of course, is before we even touch on the subject of that rogue c-word and the choice to film night-time scenes by candlelight. We want accuracy, but only on our terms; when it jars with our perceptions of the past, out it goes.

Despite its name, Wolf Hall is...

"Schindler's List" already looked like an instant classic the moment it was released 20 years ago this week (on December 15, 1993). Shot in timeless black-and-white, Steven Spielberg's based-in-fact account of Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who saved 1,200 Jews from the Polish city of Krakow during the Holocaust by putting them on his factory payroll, became a landmark film, becoming the definitive depiction of the Holocaust for many viewers around the world. It also made a star out of Ralph Fiennes, an A-lister out of Liam Neeson, and an Oscar-winner out of Spielberg, who proved once and for all that he was not just a director of kiddie fantasies.

Two decades have done nothing but burnish the film's reputation as an artistic masterpiece and educational tool. Still, even though everyone's seen it, there's plenty you probably don't know about how it got made, from the project's birth in a Beverly Hills luggage store,...

Nelson Mandela on film and TV: From Sidney Poitier to Terrence Howard (photo: Sidney Poitier as Nelson Mandela in ‘Mandela and de Klerk’) (See previous post: "Nelson Mandela Movies: ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,’ ‘Invictus.’") As found on the IMDb, here are a handful of other narrative big-screen films featuring Nelson Mandela: Darrell Roodt’s Winnie Mandela (2011), with Jennifer Hudson in the title role and Terrence Howard as Nelson Mandela. Pete Travis’ Endgame (2009), with Clarke Peters’ Mandela as less a martyred saint than a skillful realpolitik negotiator. This political drama also features Chiwetel Ejiofor, William Hurt, Jonny Lee Miller, Mark Strong, and Derek Jacobi. Zola Maseko’s 1950s-set Drum (2004), in which Mandela is played — for a change — by a South African actor, Lindani Nkosi. As reported by Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, British filmmaker Peter Kosminsky (White Oleander, Wuthering Heights) "got into hot water a couple of years ago...

The first trailer for Wes Anderson's latest film is released today, and the signs are that all those stylistic flourishes we know and love are present and correct

• Why I love ... Max Fischer's school plays in Rushmore

• Fantastic Mr Fox recap: Wes Anderson reworking well worth another look

Nothing gets us going more than the promise of a new Wes Anderson film. Will it be a funny as Rushmore? As inventive as Fantastic Mr Fox? As ambitious as The Royal Tenenbaums? Well, another one is on the way: The Grand Budapest Hotel, which despite its title seems to have less to do with Anderson's tenderly mysterious short film Hotel Chevalier than an amalgam of Anderson's predilection for jewel-box environments, giant major-name casts, and arch pseudo-professional patter.

That's not to say The Grand Budapest Hotel doesn't look great: we can safely say this is a return to the mentor...

An effective trailer can do wonders for a film. For every movie that is guaranteed to have an audience, there are many more that need to build their own buzz, and there’s no faster way to do that than with a good trailer. A well made trailer can turn a monster movie from a first-time director starring a bunch of then-unknowns into the most-buzzed about movie for weeks, while a poor trailer can doom a movie right from the start. Every year sees some trailers that, independent of the film they’re promoting, capture one’s attention, and make people keep returning to them. Here are the trailers of 2012 that were able to do that best.

30) The Avengers

The sheer impossibility of conceiving of a large screen movie about a team of Marvel superheroes even 15 years ago cannot be understated. While the technology needed to adequately show their true might may have been present,...

David Nicholls, author of the hit novel One Day, has always loved Dickens's novel. As the film version is about to be released, he reveals how he set about his adaptation

Read a book at the right age and it will stay with you for life. For some people it's Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights, but for me it is Great Expectations. I first read it at 14 or so and, apart from some infatuations with Orwell, Fitzgerald, Salinger and Hardy, it has remained my favourite novel ever since. By some miracle, a story written in the mid-1850s had captured much of how I felt in a small provincial town at the end of the 1970s.

Yet if I saw myself in the book, it wasn't a particularly flattering portrait. It's clear why a young reader might aspire to be Elizabeth Bennet, but who would want to be Pip Pirrip?...

Monthly Movie Preview – November 2012

In a very crude generalization, the last three or four months of the calendar year is like the summer movie season for “smart” movies. Instead of being overloaded with expensive “tentpole” wannabe blockbusters, we instead are bombarded with wannabe Oscar-winners, some of them demanding gold statues for their promising casting alone. In that regard, the month of November has such releases as Life of Pi, Flight, Hitchcock, The Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln, Anna Karenina, and more.

However, this is still the Hollywood we love, so there’s plenty of mainstream fare soon to be at our disposal. This month offers us the conclusion to a highly lucrative teen horror franchise (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2), a new James Bond movie (Skyfall), a remake of the ’80s masterpiece Red Dawn, and a Disney movie based on video game history (Wreck-It Ralph).

Take Our Poll November 2

Movie...

From last year’s Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights to this year’s Les Miserables and Anna Karenina, we’re seeing a regular flux of classic European literature arrive on screens and perhaps one of the more overlooked features in a new update on Great Expectations. Mike Newell, going back to more safe territory after his big-budget blockbuster Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, has helmed the Charles Dickens adaptation and we’ve got the first trailer today.

Clocking in at about three minutes, this extended international look features a look at Jeremy Irvine’s first major role post-War Horse. When it comes to the stately production aspect, Newell can certainly pull it off after having a hand in the Harry Potter universe, as he re-teams with Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter. The trailer gives off a bit of a dry tone, but it looks like he...

Stage and screen actor known for his roles in The Three Musketeers and Young Winston

In 1971 the actor Simon Ward, who has died after a long illness aged 70, was plucked from virtual obscurity by the director Richard Attenborough to play Winston Churchill in the film Young Winston, supported by actors of longstanding reputation including Robert Shaw, Anne Bancroft and John Mills. After the film's release a year later, Ward found himself a star on several continents. "That was a frightening role," he recalled. "You were playing someone whom everyone had very strong feelings about. As a movie, it had the most extraordinary mixture of adventure – the fighting, riding, running up and down mountains – and some wonderful dialogue scenes shot at Shepperton."

Swashbuckling and tongue-in-cheek slapstick were added to the mix when Ward, known for his aristocratic looks and high cheekbones, was cast as the Duke of Buckingham in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers...

We've got great news for fans of Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth — not to mention miniseries fans in general. Reelz is set to be the premiere home for the eight-part adaptation of the sequel, World Without End, which was on The New York Times bestseller list for 26 weeks.

Set in Kingsbridge 200 years after the events of Pillars, World Without End picks up with a new cast of characters. Caris, a feisty young woman played by Charlotte Riley (The Duchess, Wuthering Heights), inspires her medieval town to confront the most powerful forces of her time, the Church and the Crown, as Kingsbridge fights to save the town from ruin and, ultimately, usher in a new era of freedom, innovation, and enlightenment.

World Without End also stars Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City, The Big C) as the beautiful and deadly schemer Petranilla, Miranda Richardson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,...

Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen at Number 9 Films are delighted to confirm that Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska will star in the new adaptation of Patricia Highsmith.s novel Carol (aka .The Price of Salt.).

Directed by BAFTA winning John Crowley (Intermission, .Boy A.), the acclaimed Phyllis Nagy (Mrs Harris) has written the adaptation based on renowned suspense author Patricia Highsmith.s novella (.Strangers on a Train., .The Talented Mr Ripley.). The film will be produced by Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley from Number 9 Films, and co-developed and co-financed by Film4. Filming starts February 2013 in London and New York.

Carol is a love story about pursuit, betrayal and passion that follows the burgeoning relationship between two very different women in 1950s New York. One, a girl in her twenties working in a department store who dreams of a more fulfilling life, and the other, a wife trapped in a loveless,...

Cannes, which has announced its 2012 line-up, has some serious competition. As Tribeca begins and ahead of Sundance London, our critics examine the big hitters on the film festival circuit

It has been a quiet few months on the film festival front. The last two biggies, Sundance and Berlin, were back in the depths of winter; but now things are suddenly getting interesting. Tribeca, the New York trendoid-magnet, has just started, and Cannes, the swanky Cote d'Azur schmoozathon, has reared its finely contoured head on the horizon. The UK is even getting in on the action, with the much-anticipated arrival next week of Sundance London, an offshoot of Robert Redford's indie-maven event in Park City, Utah.

Sundance London is an example of that industry buzzword "diffusion", whereby name events set up franchises overseas. Tribeca has been doing it since 2009 in Qatar, co-organising the Doha film festival. It's a byproduct of...

Janet McTeer has been able to straddle the blurred lines of femininity and masculinity better than most throughout her career. She's donned riding pants and romanced women as bisexual writer Vita Sackville-West in Portrait of a Marriage, but she's also strolled around in gothic gowns in the 1992 film version of Wuthering Heights. She's won awards for her work on both the stage and screen, including a Golden Globe for Best Actress in Tumbleweeds and a Tony for A Doll's House.

Attention: Spoilers ahead.

There seems to be no role McTeer can't play — or hasn't played — up until Albert Nobbs. In the new film, opening in theaters January 27, McTeer plays Hubert, a woman who lives her life as a male painter and is married to a woman, Kathleen. It was announced today that McTeer is up for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the role.

If you haven't seen the film or read much about it,...

War Horse is top dog – J Edgar, W.E. and Coriolanus disappoint. Meanwhile, Haywire starts crazy and The Artist grows in stealth

The winner

With a modest decline of just 19%, Steven Spielberg's War Horse romped home to a second-leg victory at the UK box office with £3.19m, way ahead of the chasing pack. Despite not featuring prominently thus far in the various awards races – its five Bafta nominations are all in technical categories – the first world war-set film is convincingly dominating a release window that usually favours the major Oscar contenders. Total is £9.63m after just 10 days of play, which compares not unfavourably with The King's Speech (£10.76m) at the same stage of its run.

The awards-bait flops

In what is currently a highly competitive market, three films released on over 100 screens all landed outside the top 10. All had been dated in January to take advantage of possible awards nominations,...

With six children, his parents struggled to make ends meet. Now Ralph Fiennes is the toast of Hollywood – and making his directorial debut with Coriolanus. He tells Xan Brooks his story

Ralph Fiennes's trailer sits on a patch of wasteland beside the river and near the airport, in a neck of east London that's barely London. The cabbie can't find it and keeps driving in circles, his irritation rising as the planes rumble overhead. Either the satnav is scrambled or the address does not exist. "It's meant to be here but there's nothing there," he grumbles. "It's not a place, it's off the map."

It's only later, safely arrived, that it strikes me that the non-place may well be the best place to meet Ralph Fiennes, an actor who does not so much inhabit his roles as hide out in them and a man who approaches press interviews with...

To celebrate ITV Studios Home Entertainment’s fantastic Christmas DVD box set collection, including classics such as Prime Suspect, Jeeves & Wooster, Darling Buds of May and The Catherine Cookson Collection, we’ve taken a look at stars past and present – unearthing some modern-day stars with very humble beginnings on the little square box that sits in the corner of the living room…

1) Catherine Zeta-Jones

Although Catherine Zeta Jones began acting in her local theatre, she found her breakthrough role in playing Mariette Larkin in The Darling Buds of May at the tender age of 22. Jones has seen gone on to become a Hollywood A-lister, married to A List resident Michael Douglas and acting with someone of the biggest film stars including Sean Connery, Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Liam Neeson, Tom Hanks, and Billy Crystal, in such films as The Mask of Zorro, America’s Sweethearts, The Haunting, Intolerable Cruelty and Chicago,...

By Sean O’Connell

hollywoodnews.com: Organizers of the 19th Plus Camerimage film festival – held each year in Bydgoszcz, Poland – have selected Roman Polanski’s “Carnage” as their opening night film. The adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s Tony-winning stage play, will kick off the fest on Nov. 26.

Polanski’s uncomfortably comedic drama stars Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly as parents trying to smooth things out following a physical altercation between their adolescent sons. The Camerimage fest places its focus on cinematography, so expect Polanski’s cinematographer – the great Pawel Edelman (“The Pianist,” “Ray”) – to be recognized for his accomplishment in containing the “Carnage” action to one cramped, sun-drenched New York apartment.

In addition to “Carnage,” this year’s fest will screen Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life,” Steve McQueen “Shame,” Andrea Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights,” Ralph Fiennes’ “Coriolanus,” and the period rom-com “Hysteria” … all recognized for their striking visuals.

The Yorkshire landscape steals the show in Andrea Arnold's stark, uneasy adaptation of Emily Brontë's tragic romance

In the version of Cole Porter's "Let's Do It" that he used in his Las Vegas nightclub act in the 1950s, Noël Coward included a celebrated couplet that threw doubts on the much vaunted sexual prowess of America's most macho author while extolling the adventurousness of a 19th-century English country vicar's three daughters. "The Brontës felt that they must do it, Ernest Hemingway could just do it," he sang, and indeed the range of social, psychological and sexual experience Emily, Charlotte and Anne explored in their novels is remarkable. So much so that only one of the several film versions of Emily's Wuthering Heights made over the past 90 years has attempted to encompass the book's 30-odd years of pain, misery and ecstasy and its three generations of man handing on...

Few in the UK film industry want to shout about it but the evidence is clear. We are enjoying a renaissance in domestic cinema. Andrew Pulver reports on how audiences developed a taste for homegrown movies

Compared to theatre, cinema is an entirely portable medium – think what our view of film would be like if all we saw were British movies, with occasional touring productions of foreign work. No Hollywood blockbusters, no Korean ultra-violence, no Iranian minimalism. Nothing old, either – no Italian neorealism, or Czech new wave, or French poetic realism. Imagine what life for the British filmgoer would have been like, say, in 1978 – the highlight of your year would probably have been Death on the Nile, or Watership Down. And let's not forget the dark days of 1999 and 2000, when this paper felt compelled to trash the jaw-dropping wave of terrible British films in the wake of the lottery-fund bonanza.

BFI London Film Festival

Bearing in mind the state of Leicester Square right now (it's more of a construction site), and the cuts inflicted on British film in the past year, you could forgive the country's biggest film festival for toning things down a bit this year – except it hasn't. There's as much here as there ever was, from the rest of the world and, reassuringly, from Britain. It's heartening to see so many of our cherished auteurs back in action: Terence Davies (The Deep Blue Sea, which closes the festival); Andrea Arnold (her earthy take on Wuthering Heights); Michael Winterbottom (Trishna); Lynne Ramsay (We Need To Talk About Kevin), and Steve McQueen (Shame). And there are plenty here who could join their ranks, from as-yet-unknowns in the New British Cinema section to first-time directors Dexter Fletcher (Wild Bill) and Ralph Fiennes (Coriolanus).

From the international stage, there are recent...

After Sandra Hebron's nine years as artistic director, the BFI London film festival is enjoying record attendance and international acclaim. She tells Adam Dawtrey how it was done

For someone who describes her own taste in movies as "austere", Sandra Hebron certainly knows how to give audiences at the BFI London film festival a good time. Her nine-year reign as artistic director, which ends with the 55th edition, has coincided with the rising popularity of the event, an increase in glitz and red carpet glamour without ever compromising its commitment to serious cinema, and its transformation into a festival of genuine international stature.

Hebron, an elfin figure whose trademark knee-high black leather boots have their own fans, is leaving the festival on an all-time high, with last year's attendance a record 132,000, up 20% from when she took over in 2003. No wonder that the British Film Institute made sure to protect the...

More new photos of Daniel Radcliffe in The Woman in Black, Naomi Watts and Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar, Charlize Theron in Young Adult and both Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in The Rum Diary.

The Toronto International Film Festival website has trotted out new stills from a bunch of films screening there including shots of Saoirse Ronan and Alexis Bledel as assassins in Violet and Daisy, Maggie Gyllenhaal in Hysteria, Channing Tatum in Ten Year, the first photos from Wuthering Heights, Nic Cage and Nicole Kidman in Trespass.

Posters for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Machine Gun Preacher, Carnage, Vehicle 19, Safe, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Puncture.

"David Cronenberg‘s “A Dangerous Method” has finally set a North American opening - a November 23rd limited release. Meanwhile Roman Polanski‘s “Carnage" has now settled on a limited December 16th release…" (full details)

"Edgar Wright will serve as executive...

Best Picture

Frontrunners

“J. Edgar” (Warner Brothers, 11/11, ?, ?)

“War Horse” (Disney, 12/28, ?, teaser)

“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” (Paramount/Warner Brothers, 12/25, ?, ?)

“The Ides of March” (Sony, 10/14, ?, trailer)

“The Descendants” (Fox Searchlight, 11/23, R, trailer)

“Carnage” (Sony Pictures Classics, 11/18, ?, trailer)

“Midnight in Paris” (Sony Pictures Classics, 5/20, PG-13, trailer)

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (Sony, 12/21, ?, trailer)

“Like Crazy” (Paramount Vantage, 10/28, PG-13, trailer)

“The Iron Lady” (The Weinstein Company, 12/6, ?, teaser)

Major Threats

“The Artist” (The Weinstein Company, 11/23, ?, trailer)

“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” (Focus Features, 11/18, ?, trailer)

“A Dangerous Method” (Sony Pictures Classics, 11/23, ?, trailer)

“The Help” (Disney, 8/12, PG-13, trailer)

“Moneyball” (Columbia, 9/23, ?, trailer)

“We Bought a Zoo” (20th Century Fox, 12/23, ?, ?)

“Hugo” (Paramount, 11/23, ?, trailer)

“50/50” (Summit, 9/30, R, trailer)

“The Tree of Life” (Fox Searchlight, 5/27, PG-13, trailer)

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2” (Warner Brothers, 7/15, PG-13, trailer) New

“Albert Nobbs” (Liddell Entertainment/Roadside Attractions, ?/?, ?, ?)

“The Way” (Icon Entertainment, 10/7, ?, ?)

“Contagion” (Warner Brothers, 9/9, ?, trailer)

Possibilities

“Coriolanus” (The Weinstein Company, 12/2, ?, trailer)

“The Adventures of Tintin” (Paramount,...

Something For Everyone As Love Stories, Psychological Chillers, Political Thrillers, Comedies And An Autobiography Join The Festival.S Galas And Special Presentations Lineup

Toronto . The Toronto International Film Festival® announces the addition of 8 Galas and 17 Special Presentations to the high-calibre selection of crowd-pleasers premiering in September. Today.s announcement includes 14 World Premieres and reveals that Festival-goers will be treated to a programming lineup featuring world premieres from directors including Nick Murphy, Gary McKendry, Joel Schumacher, Gianni Amelio, Agnieszka Holland, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Pankaj Kapur, Anne Fontaine, Mathieu Kassovitz and Geoffrey Fletcher.

The films unveiled today feature onscreen appearances by Jason Statham, Robert De Niro, Clive Owen, Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Gerard Butler, Ralph Fiennes, Imelda Staunton, Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Deneuve, Shahid Kapur, Isabelle Huppert, Saoirse Ronan, Alexis Bledel and James Gandolfini, among others.

This announcement brings the final number of Galas to 20, and the final number of Special...

As noted in the Visions lineup announcement, the Toronto International Film Festival (September 9 through 18) has released some of its most anticipated lineups today: Wavelengths, Contemporary World Cinema, Future Projections — and here, Galas and Special Presentations. We're taking them one at a time, first posting them program by program with descriptions provided by the festival — and then returning over the coming hours and days to add links and further notes.

Galas

Marc Forster's Machine Gun Preacher, an inspirational true story, about Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing criminal who undergoes an astonishing transformation and finds an unexpected calling as the saviour of hundreds of kidnapped and orphaned children. Gerard Butler (300) delivers a searing performance as Childers in Golden Globe®-nominated director Marc Forster's (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland) moving story of violence and redemption. Machine Gun Preacher was previously announced as a Special Presentation.

David Hare's Page Eight. Tiff's Closing Night Film.

It's official. The cruelest bunch on the film festival circuit are the programmers from Tiff. Once again they make choosing what films to cover during a film festival a painstaking process. A sizeable chunk of films among the just announced Gala and Special Presentations reflect ongoing trends, heavy on world premieres of Brit offerings, red carpet bling items that will be receiving a theatrical release with weeks of the T.O premiere, and a satisfying mix of Cannes items that are definitely worth re-watching and Venice items that have been circled as must see coverage items for the Ioncinema.com team. Among the headliners, Tiff snatched away world premiere status from Sitges for Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's Intruders. From the U.K we have The Awakening, the predicted prsence of what should be an audience pleaser in Hysteria and one more film starring Rachel Weisz (she's got an impressive three...

Tiff has just announced the final batch of films slated to hit the fest in September. The number of additions is overwhelming especially found in the completed Gala and Special Presentation lineups.

Some films that really stick out in my opinion are Rebellion by Mathieu Kassovitz who directed one of my favourite films of all time La Haine and Sleeping Beauty by Julia Leigh. Here is the press release.

Toronto – The Toronto International Film Festival® announces the addition of 8 Galas and 17 Special Presentations to the high-calibre selection of crowd-pleasers premiering in September. Today’s announcement includes 14 World Premieres and reveals that Festival-goers will be treated to a programming lineup featuring world premieres from directors including Nick Murphy, Gary McKendry, Joel Schumacher, Gianni Amelio, Agnieszka Holland, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Pankaj Kapur, Anne Fontaine, Mathieu Kassovitz and Geoffrey Fletcher.

The films unveiled today feature onscreen appearances by Jason Statham, Robert De Niro,...

After three separate announcements (here, here and here), the Toronto International Film Festival has announced the final line-up for their Galas and Special Presentations, as well as a few other categories. Most notable is Andrea Arnold‘s Fish Tank follow-up Wuthering Heights, the next film from Timecrimes director Nacho Vigalondo, as well as Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos’ Alps.

We also get Whit Stillman‘s Damsels in Distress starring Greta Gerwig and Geoffrey Fletcher’s Violet & Daisy starring Saoirse Ronan and James Gandolfini. In what should be a little fun we have Gary McKendry‘s Killer Elite starring Robert De Niro, Clive Owen and Jason Statham. We also get Owen’s horror flick Intruders and Joel Schumacher‘s Trespass starring Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage. Check out the full line-ups below.

Galas

Closing Night Film

Page Eight David Hare, United Kingdom

International Premiere

Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) is a long-serving M15 officer.

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: The Toronto International Film Festival continued to fill out its slate Tuesday morning with multiple announcements of movies scheduled to screen in the Galas, Special Presentations, Contemporary World Cinema, Future Projections, and Visions programs.

As expected, the names of the talents we’re expecting to see on screen shine bright.

Tiff ’11 officially revealed that David Hare’s “Page Eight” will close the fest with a Roy Thompson gala. The spy thriller, which also plays the Edinburgh International Film Festival, stars Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes and Judy Davis.

Other galas announced for this year’s Tiff include:

The Awakening

Nick Murphy, United Kingdom (World Premiere)

Haunted by the death of her fiancé, Florence Cathcart is on a mission to expose all séances as exploitative shams. However, when she is called to a boys’ boarding school to investigate a case of the uncanny,...

Best Picture

Frontrunners

“J. Edgar” (Warner Brothers, 11/11, ?, ?)

“War Horse” (Disney, 12/28, ?, teaser)

“The Ides of March” (Sony, 10/14, ?, trailer)

“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” (Paramount/Warner Brothers, 12/25, ?, ?)

“The Descendants” (Fox Searchlight, 11/23, R, trailer)

“Carnage” (Sony Pictures Classics, 11/18, ?, ?)

“Midnight in Paris” (Sony Pictures Classics, 5/20, PG-13, trailer)

“Like Crazy” (Paramount Vantage, 10/28, PG-13, trailer)

“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” (Focus Features, 11/18, ?, trailer)

“The Iron Lady” (The Weinstein Company, 12/6, ?, teaser)

Major Threats

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (Sony, 12/21, ?, trailer)

“Hugo” (Paramount, 11/23, ?, trailer)

“The Artist” (The Weinstein Company, 11/23, ?, trailer)

“We Bought a Zoo” (20th Century Fox, 12/23, ?, ?)

“A Dangerous Method” (Sony Pictures Classics, ?/?, ?, trailer)

“Moneyball” (Columbia, 9/23, ?, trailer)

“50/50” (Summit, 9/30, R, trailer)

“The Help” (Disney, 8/12, PG-13, trailer)

“Albert Nobbs” (Liddell Entertainment/Roadside Attractions, ?/?, ?, ?)

“The Way” (Icon Entertainment, 10/7, ?, ?)

“Contagion” (Warner Brothers, 9/9, ?, trailer)

“Coriolanus” (The Weinstein Company, 12/2, ?, ?)

“The Tree of Life” (Fox Searchlight, 5/27, PG-13, trailer)

Possibilities

“The Adventures of Tintin” (Paramount, 12/23, ?, trailer)

“Martha Marcy May Marlene” (Fox Searchlight, 10/7, ?, trailer)

“Take Shelter” (Sony Pictures Classics,...

Tiff's co-directors Cameron Bailey and Piers Handling have got us salivating with the smorgasbord list of world premiere offerings for next September. Opening film comes as a surprise, as we've haven't heard much about it, but seeing that doc filmmaker Davis Guggenheim has a great relationship with the festival, From The Sky Down a doc about U2 (20 or so years after Phil Joanou's U2: Rattle & Hum) will take centre stage. Doc-programmer guru Thom Powers makes sure that the fest will be a rocking good edition by also adding Pearl Jam Twenty from fanboy Cameron Crowe. Before we get into the announcements, we can quickly take a look at titles that weren't mentioned. Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar (Nyff?) Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret (got no clue), Alps, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights (venice-bound, might be announced later), Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady (Weinsteins release it in December,...

The following forecast reflects my best sense — at roughly the mid-point of 2011 — of the Oscar landscape that awaits us. (These are my first projections to factor in the Academy’s recently-announced changes to its voting process.) Needless to say, I will be posting many updates/revisions over the coming months, but, for now, I see it as a fun discussion-starter. Your thoughts?

Best Picture

Frontrunners

“J. Edgar” (Warner Brothers, 12/14, ?, ?)

“War Horse” (Disney, 12/28, ?, teaser)

“The Ides of March” (Sony, 10/14, ?, ?)

“The Descendants” (Fox Searchlight, 12/16, R, trailer)

“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” (Paramount/Warner Brothers, ?/?, ?, ?)

“Carnage” (Sony Pictures Classics, ?/?, ?, ?)

“Young Adult” (Paramount, ?/?, ?, ?)

“Like Crazy” (Paramount Vantage, 10/28, ?, ?)

“Midnight in Paris” (Sony Pictures Classics, 5/20, PG-13, trailer)

“The Iron Lady” (The Weinstein Company, 12/6, ?, teaser)

Major Threats

“The Artist” (The Weinstein Company, 11/23, ?, trailer)

“A Dangerous Method” (Sony Pictures Classics, ?/?, ?, trailer)

“Hugo” (Paramount, 11/23, ?, ?)

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (Sony, 12/21, ?, ?)

“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” (Universal, ?/?, ?, trailer)

“Moneyball” (Columbia,...

I know, I know… it’s not yet even June, and the 84th Academy Awards ceremony is still nine months (and one day) away, but I can’t help myself… my thoughts are already turning to the coming Oscar race! Indeed, I have spent the last several weeks pouring through mountains of material and pestering dozens of knowledgable sources to try to get a sense of the the landscape that awaits us. Now, in order to provide myself and my readers with something fun to think and debate about, I have decided to share my first projections of the 2011 awards season. Needless to say, they are based on limited information and will be amended regularly over the months to come… but, if my initial projections of last year’s Oscar race (which I posted on June 23rd) are any indication, they may not prove to be all that far off,...

Venice film festival supremo eyes up British talent, while Keira Knightley gets set to play Anna Karenina

Anyone for Venice?

Interesting spot among the celeb crowd at Film4's pre-Cannes drinks last week was Venice film festival supremo Marco Mueller. The bespectacled curator was in town scouting projects for his own late-August festival and confided that he was "very impressed" with what he'd found going on in British film. He was also confident that "two or three" big British films that weren't ready for the Croisette would be gracing his Lido by the end of the summer. The biggest "poach" looks like being Andrea Arnold, whose enigmatic four-shot teaser for Wuthering Heights wowed the assembled crowd during a montage of Film4's upcoming slate. Arnold's career was kickstarted by Cannes and its support and awards for Red Road and Fish Tank, but her youthful take on the Brontë classic seems destined for Venice.

The Palais des Festivals, which is where I watched all of the press screenings

It seems there have been a lot of articles speculating as to which films will be showing at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival this year, each of them pretty much naming the same films. However, the only film confirmed is Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris which will open the fest. The rest is simply speculation and rumor, but now the most comprehensive and seemingly "in the know" list has surfaced.

Of the films currently expected to hit the Croisette, but obviously in no way confirmed yet seem to be among the most likely, are Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In, Gus Van Sant's Restless and Lars von Trier's Melancholia.

Of course, those are the big name features. The films that draw the...

Each month we breakdown which theatrical releases are worth your movie-going dollars. Now in our new recurring column, we’ll be offering Netflix Instant Watch alternatives to supplement your theater-going experience.

This week action, aliens and romance hit the theaters, and we’ve culled a list of complimentary features currently available online.

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Battle: Los Angeles

Aaron Eckhart plays a former Marine sergeant leading Los Angeles in the battle against invading alien forces in this big-budget action-thriller.

For an alien double feature, pair Battle: Los Angeles with one of these sci-fi flicks:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition (1977) – One of the ultimate alien tales, this Spielberg-directed classic follows a man (Richard Dreyfuss) who struggles to understand the visions he’s started having after his own close encounter. Whether it’s your first time or your thirtieth, you will be in awe of this sci-fi masterpiece.

Looks like urban street dancer Nichola Burley will be swapping hip-hop for the Yorkshire moors, as she takes the third lead in the new adaptation of the much loved British classic Wuthering Heights. There's still no word on who'll play the brooding hunk Heathcliff yet, but Kaya Scodelario from UK teen TV series Skins is down to play love-stricken lead Cathy Earnshaw.

The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff (rumoured to be played by Michael Fassbender) and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them. There's been several film adaptation of Bronte's great love story most recently starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes, writer Andrea Arnold is hoping to reach a younger audience this time with a Twilight style forbidden love story.

Burley's star's clearly on the rise, too, with roles in the upcoming BBC series...

BBC party? No Cannes do Senior executives at the BBC were so worried about public opinion and the election outcome that they forced the corporation's film arm to cancel the annual Cannes party. Following constant attacks on BBC salaries and expenses, the corporation decided "it wouldn't look good" to throw a glamorous party on a Cannes beach, showering journalists, executives and producers with canapes and rosé.

The BBC Films party has become a fixture in the Cannes calendar, occupying a prestigious early-evening "cocktail" slot on the festival's only Monday for many stars, directors, and journalists. "It's a victory for the moaners and the Daily Mail," complained a top source. "They've no idea how business is really done in film and just think it's all glamour and waste. That party was vital for building relationships, the brand, the message about our upcoming slate and discussing future projects." There's a feeling now...

Red Road and Fish Tank director steps in to replace Peter Webber on new film of Emily Brontë's gothic romance

Andrea Arnold, the Oscar-winning British film-maker behind Red Road and Fish Tank, is stepping in to direct the new film adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, Variety reports.

Arnold will direct from Olivia Hetreed's adaptation of the novel – a first for the director, who wrote the hard-hitting scripts for both her acclaimed feature films.

Explaining the hiring yesterday, producer Robert Bernstein said: "Andrea has previously said that the only book she would ever direct would be Wuthering Heights, because of the passionate, impossible love story at its centre and its elements of class divide," he said. "It's a very lucky coincidence for us that we've found each other."

Arnold, who won an Academy Award for best live-action short for her film Wasp in 2005, takes over from Peter Webber,...

Ta fan Ashley writes about how Twilight gives backnbspTwilight Gives Back by AshleyIf all else perished and he remained I should still continue to be and if all else remained and he were annihilated the universe would turn to a mighty stranger. These words should not be unfamiliar to Twilighters for they are found in the twentiethseven chapter Needs of Eclipse. But these are not Bellas wordsno they belong to a literary heroine onehundredsixty years before Bellas time Catherine Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights. Though the stories are worlds and ages apart Stephenie Meyers comparisons between the tumultuous Wuthering Heights and her own Eclipse are spot on. Anyone acquainted with both novels for instance could see the irony behind Bellas argument during Eclipses beginning Well I hope youre smart enough to stay away from someone so selfish. Catherine is really the source of all the trouble not Heathcliff 29. Wuthering Heights a...