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We’ve got questions, and you’ve (maybe) got answers! With another week of TV gone by, we’re lobbing queries left and right about Saturday Night Live, Only Murders in the Building, Power Book II: Ghost and Emily in Paris!

1 | As much as we (deeply!) love dogs, wasn’t Selling Sunset‘s handling of Niko’s death/funeral a little over-the-top… even for that show? (Other, bigger losses in past seasons were given less airtime!)

More from TVLineBig Brother Eviction Recap: Who Became the First Jury Member? And How'd Jerry O'Connell Do as Host?Big Brother Host Julie Chen Moonves...

Beim bedeutenden deutschsprachigen Nachwuchspreis First Steps Award sind heute die Nominierungen bekannt gegeben worden. Der Film „Vena“ wurde dabei gleich dreifach bedacht.

Der First Steps Award (Credit: Clemens Porikys)

Aus mehr als 200 Einreichungen haben die First-Steps-Jurys des so wichtigen Nachwuchspreises für Abschlussfilme von Filmschulen in den deutschsprachigen Ländern die Nominierungen 2024 herauskristallisiert und jetzt bekannt gegeben. Am 30. September findet die Preisverleihung mit Moderator Daniel Zillmann im Theater des Westens statt und wird auch im Live-Stream der Ard-Mediathek übertragen.

Der Film „Vena“ von Regisseurin Chiara Fleischhacker über eine Crystal-Meth-Süchtige (Emma Nova), die ungewollt schwanger wird, hat dabei gleich drei Nominierungen erhalten. Es ist eine Produktion von Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg und Neue Bioskop Television. Besonders stark vertreten auf der Nominierungsliste sind die Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf und die Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.

„Es geht um elementare, zeitgenössische Themen: Familie, Krieg, Selbstfindung, Klimawandel und weibliche Selbstbestimmung. Erzählt aus unterschiedlichsten Perspektiven bieten die diesjährigen Talente der...

How do the makers of Bridgerton keep a fandom as dedicated as theirs guessing? How does the Netflix show surprise a core of fans who are so intimately familiar with Julia Quinn’s source books that they’re anticipating every blush and ball before it even gets to the screen?

One solution, as has happened in season three, is to play with the established order of things. Though Benedict Bridgerton’s romance follows on from that of his brother Anthony’s in Quinn’s book series, the TV show has (rightly!) vaulted over that to first show the love story between Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington.

Their other answer? Invention. In addition to TV-only characters Madame Delacroix, Will and Alice Mondrich and Queen Charlotte herself, a new raft of invented-for-the-show characters appear in season three. Here they all are, along with info on the actors playing them, plus a couple...

For loyal Netflix users who have been booting up the Big N since before Blockbuster went the way of the Dodo, it must feel like deja vu. If you go to your streaming app right now in the U.S., the available movie selection is still dominated by Netflix originals that the algorithm desperately wants you to be aware of. Maestro; Society of the Snow; maybe the new Dan Levy project, Good Grief. However, if you scroll past those—or look simply at the top 10 movies on the app at the moment—you see a more striking story being told.

The Equalizer 3; The Meg 2; The Super Mario Bros. Movie. All are major studio-released intellectual property, and all of the films came out in the last year—in the last six months in the cases of The Equalizer 3 and The Meg 2. And if you broaden the net to 18 months ago,...

Say goodbye to those little red envelopes. Netflix announced today that they will be shutting down their original DVD-by-mail business later this year. It’s an end of an era, folks.

“After an incredible 25 year run, we’ve decided to wind down DVD.com later this year,” Netflix co-ceo Ted Sarandos said in a statement. “Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members but as the business continues to shrink that’s going to become increasingly difficult. So we want to go out on a high, and will be shipping our final discs on September 29, 2023.” Before Netflix began streaming movies and TV shows, their service delivered DVDs to customers, who would mail them back in those red envelopes when they were done. Blockbuster was still king of the DVD rental market at the time, but the iconic company would soon feel the power of Netflix and ultimately shut down.

At last count, Pyramide is selling the most films (6) which are showing in the Festival and its satellites. Four are in the Official Selections of the Cannes International Film Festival (Cannes Ff Premiere, Cannes Ff Special Screening, and Cannes Ff Un Certain Regard); one is in Critics’ Week / La Semaine de la critique and one is in Directors’ Fortnight/ Quinzaine des realisateurs.

Throughout the festival, we will watch not only their films to report on, but will keep an eye on the sales to some 60 international territories.

Pyramide International is part of the Pyramide Group which is also a domestic distribution company in France (Pyramide Distribution) and a French production company (Pyramide Productions). The company was founded in 1989 by Claudie Cheval, Fabienne Vonier, Francis Boespflug, Louis Malle and Michel Seydoux. Claudie also founded Ace which is still going strong today. (see current blog on Ace in Cannes).

Claudie brought Eric Lagesse into Pyramide International as a young man and, typically for everyone who is involved with Pyramide, he continues to work with them today as their CEO. Claudie was one of the most wonderful, warm and creative women in the business and unfortunately for us all, she died much too soon, on July 30, 1999 at age 48. Claudie set a tone of willing cooperation and support among the French film business colleagues. One can see at a glance when entering the Unifrance umbrella offices how the French international sales agents at the markets cooperate with each other. When reading how films in the Cannes Film Festival and the sidebars seem to be apportioned out to them when the titles are announced and there is no international sales agent attached yet, one surmises that there is a special kind of sharing going on among them.

Pyramide is one of the oldest and most respected of some 450 interntional sales agents. Last year they represented one of my favorite films of the festival, the Critics’ Week film A Tale of Love and Desire. Please read my blog about it here. The French government support of film as a cultural heritage allows the French sales agents to serve as the best examples of agents for the 7th Art to all other countries. As a world sales agent, Pyramide International has deliberately focused on the “film d’auteur” and promotes international sales of young directors.

As distributors in France itself as well as international sales agents, they also can boast of one of the top acquisitions executive in the business, Christine Ravet buys the films the French public lines up to see at their theaters as well as those that are sold internationally.

This year’s Cannes titles are described here:

Cannes Ff Premiere Dodo directed by Panos H. Koutras is a coproduction of Greece, France, and Belgium.

Dodo directed by Panos H. Koutras

Cannes Ff Special Screenings My Imaginary Country/ Mi país imaginario directed by Patricio Guzmán is a production of Chile. Sales have already been made for UK and Ireland to New Wave; Benelux to Cineart; Italy to I Wonder, Ex-Yugo to Discovery.

My Imaginary Country/ Mi país imaginario directed by Patricio Guzmán

Cannes Ff Un Certain Regard Metronom is eligible for the Camera d’Or as it is the third film, but the first fiction feature of director Alexandru Belc of Romania.

Metronom is eligible for the Camera d’Or as it is the third film, but first fiction feature of director Alexandru Belc

Cannes Ff Un Certain Regard The Worst Ones/Les pires is also eligible for the Camera d’Or. It is directed by Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret of France.

Directors’ Fortnight Harkis/ Les Harkis directed by Philippe Faucon of France tells the story set during the Algerian War 1954–1962, when impoverished young Algerian men known as “Harkis” volunteered to join the French Army.

Critics’ Week in Competition The Pack/ La jauría directed by Colombian Andrés Ramírez Pulido is a coproduction of Colombia and France. It tells of a country boy, Eliú, incarcerated́ in an experimental juvenile correction center in the heart of the Colombian jungle after he committed a crime with his friend El Mono. Ordered to perform manual labour and undergo intensive group therapy, Eliú discovers that El Mono has been transferred to the same center, bringing with him a past that Eliú is trying to escape.Pulido’s feature directorial debut follows a distinguished track record in short films that saw Damiana premiere in Competition in Cannes in 2017 a year after El Edén played in the Berlinale.

And in the Marche: I Love Greece. And who doesn’t?...