Ilker Catak's Yellow Letters and Emin Alper's Salvation, two politically outspoken films that examine Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's autocratic regime, shared the top prizes at this year's Berlinale: the Golden Bear for Catak and Silver for Alper. These striking works share a lot more. Both titles are co-produced by Liman, an indie film company from Turkey.
Back to selectionLady, the titular lead of Olive Nwosu's neo-noir feature debut about a taxi driver's gradual solidarity with a group of Lagosian sex workers, possesses a piercing gaze. She's not scanning you as much as she is preemptively fending you off. In her red taxi she stalks the nocturnal streets of the largest city in Nigeria, very much her own person, the only lady cab driver in a city on the verge of revolution around eradicating gasoline subsidies.
No matter your interest, there are choices aplenty this weekend: Miami City Ballet and Palm Beach Opera; the 20th annual African American Film Festival and 40th annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival; comedians Hannibal Buress and Zarna Garg; Monster Jam and WWE's "Smackdown"; Terence Blanchard and Oigovision Superjam; Styx and Boy George; tributes to Johnny Cash and the Bee Gees; Riverwalk Chili Cook-off and Science of Chocolate.
When Penélope Cruz walked onstage at the Academy Awards last March, she uttered three words that marked a turning point for Brazilian cinema: " I'm Still Here." Presenting the award for Best International Feature, Cruz announced the film directed by Walter Salles and starring Fernanda Torres as the winner. Across Brazil, people celebrated in bars and public squares that warm Carnival Sunday night as if the country had just won the World Cup.
In a career retrospective talk at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, Mamoru Oshii spoke, if not regretfully, mournfully about "Angel's Egg." The legendary Japanese writer and director-who secured his place in animation history with "Ghost in the Shell"-said that his dreamlike, allegorical 1985 OVA film nearly killed his career: "After that, nobody gave me jobs for three years," he said.
Kicking off last week and continuing through the month, creative cinematic offerings will flicker across screens, from the Peninsula down to San Jose, this weekend and beyond. But those who seek open-air family entertainment are also in luck, with events such as the Campbell Oktoberfest, Palo Alto's Code:ART festival, the venerable Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, a witchy good time in downtown Los Altos, and events celebrating Diwali, California's newest official holiday.
Model Kaia Gerber and actor Lewis Pullman chose the high-profile red carpet of the Venice Film Festival in early September to make their relationship official one that has quickly become a favorite among the paparazzi. Just as Cindy Crawford and Bill Pullman ('Independence Day,' 'Casper') were two of Hollywood's most recognizable faces in the 1990s, their children now seem to be following in their footsteps with a similar charisma.
The poster showed the lead actor holding a bottle of beer and smoking a cigarette; unsurprisingly, the board nixed both elements and rejected the compromise of erasing them while leaving smoke still trailing out of the star's mouth. In the end, the buyer was provided with an image of the hero on a motorcycle with his love interest, a misleading visual he declined to convert into a bait-and-switch display standee.
But after years in the shadows, the country has finally found its place in the international spotlight with a number of distinctive, relationship-centred and critically acclaimed films and television shows in what many are describing as a Norwegian golden age. The last few months alone have seen the release of Dreams, the third of Dag Johan Haugerud's Oslo Stories Trilogy, which won the biggest prize at this year's Berlin film
But since the pandemic shifted how so much of the industry operates, the past few years have seen unusual variation. Coda became the first best picture winner from Sundance, Everything Everywhere All at Once the first from SXSW, Oppenheimer the first non-festival premiere to win since The Departed in 2006 and the past six years has seen Cannes with more best picture wins than any other festival.
Given the relatively shallow offerings from the major studios this year (sorry "Elio" fans), it seems very possible that this year's winner could also come from the fest circuit-either that or the phenomenon that is " KPop Demon Hunters ". It honestly could be one of the three international productions in this dispatch, all with their own notable qualities, although I would argue one works notably better than the others.
In Venice, Telluride and Toronto, the red carpets have been rolled up and the dust has settled on the film festivals which traditionally function as Oscar launchpads. Back in Hollywood, publicists are recalibrating campaigns and pundits are placing their bets on the big films and performances of the upcoming awards season. A few key contenders are still yet to be seen, but at this stage of the race, one thing seems clear: come next March, records will be broken.
The best of the three is a movie that wasn't on many radars before Venice but became a must-see at TIFF after it emotionally devastated Italian audiences. Kaouther Ben Hania's " Four Daughters" was a breakthrough for the Tunisian filmmaker, earning her an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature. She uses her skills with non-fiction filmmaking to emotional effect with the crushing "The Voice of Hind Rajab," a recounting of the events of January 29, 2024, much of which played out on social media.
I'm particularly excited about two screenings: "Paper Bag Plan" by Anthony Lucero whose debut film was "East Side Sushi," and the documentary "In The Red" by Mimi Chakarova which follows five youths of color through their training at the BAY EMT program. If you would like us to consider an event for this weekly list, please email me at azucena@oaklandside.org.
People attend the canonisation ceremony for Carlo Acutis in St Peter's Square Photograph: Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images Prince Hisahito attends his coming-of-age ceremony at the imperial palace Photograph: AP Beef is prepared to cook a traditional dish called Kuah Beulangong to commemorate the birthday of the prophet Muhammad Photograph: Hotli Simanjuntak/EPA The DJ and music producer Vladimir Cauchemar at the city's 51st American film festival Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Josh Brolin, Glenn Close and Jeremy Renner at the premiere of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, during the city's international film festival Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images Benny Safdie poses with the Silver Lion for the runner-up as best director for The Smashing Machine at the city's 82nd international film festival Photograph: Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images
That'd be a lot for any actor, but it's especially noteworthy for a musical artist whose acting roles were previously limited to voice parts in the Angry Birds and UglyDolls movies. Charli is a pop star, nightlife queen, and certified cool girl, but in the past year, she's made it clear she's also a cinephile who's very interested in making it onto the big screen.
Love, Brooklyn from Greenwich Entertainment, the feature debut of Rachael Abigail Holder, opens at NYC's Angelika Film Center. André Holland is a writer navigating complicated relationships with his ex, an art gallery owner (Nicole Beharie), and his current lover, a newly single mother (DeWanda Wise), with the support of his best friend (Roy Wood Jr.). Written by Paul Zimmerman. Holland is a producer and Steven Soderbergh EP of this modern romance set against the rapidly changing landscape of Brooklyn.
Every year, the agents tell us the sales market at festivals takes longer to materialize, and every year they turn out to be (mostly) right. Still, before each film festival kicks off, we take the time to round up the handful of movies that could still fetch those illusory bidding wars and fantastic 8-figure deals.
In just its second year in existence, The Popcorn List - a survey of acclaimed ( but still undistributed) feature films that debuted at major or regional film festivals over the past year and come highly recommended by festival programmers - is already taking a big step forward. Next month, the creators of the list will host various pop up screening events, both at theaters and virtually, to show off the very same films they've been championing. The Pop Up Series includes eight films from the 2025 list - seven from first-time feature directors, six directed by women, three documentaries, and five fiction features - and will not only provide a space for eager audiences to see this stellar films, but will also offer a unique model for both promotion and profit.
