Scottish actor Peter Mullan, whose credits include The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Westworld, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, passed through Series Mania in Lille this week, where he participated in what turned out to be one of the festival’s most raucous masterclass sessions.  …

Danny Cohen, executive producer of Jonathan Glazer‘s Holocaust drama The Zone Of Interest, has said he “fundamentally disagrees” with the director’s politically-orientated Oscars acceptance speech.  Accepting the International Feature Oscar last Sunday, Glazer spoke at length and highlighted what he described as the shared ideology behind the film’s subject matter …

With four TV and film projects in as many years, few filmmakers right now are more prolific than Hirokazu Kore-eda.  The veteran Japanese filmmaker behind titles like the Palme d’Or-winning Shoplifters and Still Walking continued his hot streak after landing his third directing honor from the Asian Academy Sunday night …

EXCLUSIVE: Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson, now best known as the director behind beautiful, taut features like Let the Right One In and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, wrote to Swedish screen legend Ingmar Bergman sometime in the early 2000s with an idea. Bergman’s response was characteristically colorful.  “What the hell is …

A high-politicized edition of the Berlin Film Festival ended Saturday, but divisions surrounding political messaging during the festival appear to be ongoing.  Sunday afternoon, the official Berlinale shared a statement on its social media account announcing that it plans to “file criminal charges against unknown persons” who it said shared …

With his debut feature Last Swim, an ambitious and quietly radical portrait of young life in London, Sasha Nathwani has achieved one of the most difficult tasks for a new filmmaker: cutting through with a festival audience.  Last Swim debuted last week at the Berlin Film Festival, where it opened …

Raine Allen Miller’s debut feature Rye Lane, Adjani Salmon’s Dreaming Whilst Black, and Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical were among the top winners at the sixth edition of the CDG Casting Awards. Scross down for the full list of winners.   Kharmel Cochrane picked up the Best Casting in an Independent …

“The first shape I had in mind for this film was fiction,” filmmaker Mati Diop told a Berlin Film Festival presser this morning when quizzed on the structure of her inventive documentary Dahomey.  The doc — which screens in the Berlinale competition this afternoon — borrows its name from the …

“It’s about a whole bunch of things,” Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios says when quizzed on the subject of his latest feature, La Cocina, debuting this evening at the Berlin Film Festival. “In equal parts, it explores the topic of work, the American dream, the failure of the American dream, and …

The Berlin Film Festival officially kicked off Thursday evening with an eventful opening ceremony at the Berlinale Palast theater in the German capital.  After a divisive build-up to the fest, the opening ceremony was, in contrast, a relatively conventional affair. High-profile attendees included veteran German filmmakers Wim Wenders and Fatih …

A group of Berlin Film Festival workers have released a statement calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, the “release of all hostages”, and “stronger institutional leadership”, including from the Berlinale, in response to what they describe as the “current assault on Palestinian life”. The open letter, published last night …

EXCLUSIVE: A growing list of 200+ film professionals, largely from within the German industry, have signed an open letter protesting the Berlin Film Festival’s decision to invite members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to this year’s opening ceremony. The open letter was launched Friday evening. Signatories (who …