Industry biggies, including the likes of Timothée Chalamet, Kate Winslet, and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Greta Gerwig, have shared regret over working with controversial filmmaker Woody Allen. While Allen, who was accused of s-xually molesting his daughter Dylan Farrow, wasn’t convicted of anything in the ’90s, Farrow once again spoke against the alleged incident in an open letter in 2014.
As the allegations resurfaced, several actors shared remorse over associating themselves with the director. But in a recent episode of Club Random podcast, Bill Maher seemingly defended Allen against the allegations and even took shots at actors, who’ve distanced themselves from the director.
Bill Maher Criticizes Actors for Distancing Themselves From Woody Allen
Woody Allen | Credit: Wikimedia Commons
With allegations against Woody Allen resurfacing in the wake of the #MeToo movement, most of Hollywood distanced itself from the filmmaker. This was followed by the HBO documentary series, Allen v. Farrow, which...
As the allegations resurfaced, several actors shared remorse over associating themselves with the director. But in a recent episode of Club Random podcast, Bill Maher seemingly defended Allen against the allegations and even took shots at actors, who’ve distanced themselves from the director.
Bill Maher Criticizes Actors for Distancing Themselves From Woody Allen
Woody Allen | Credit: Wikimedia Commons
With allegations against Woody Allen resurfacing in the wake of the #MeToo movement, most of Hollywood distanced itself from the filmmaker. This was followed by the HBO documentary series, Allen v. Farrow, which...
- 4/18/2024
- by Santanu Roy
- FandomWire
Paris-based sales outfit Cat&Docs has acquired “Unclickable,” Greek director Babis Makridis’ investigation into the murky world of digital ad fraud, ahead of its world premiere March 10 at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Variety has been given exclusive access to the film’s trailer (see below).
“Unclickable” follows a former tech executive who gathers a team of software developers and sets out to build a digital advertising fraud operation. Working from a basement in an undisclosed location, they manage to defraud a number of high-profile advertisers — including the Trump campaign and a series of pro-Biden organizations — in just a matter of weeks during the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
As the operation unfolds, the film lifts a lid on the shadowy world of digital advertising and the role played by tech giants Google and Facebook, while also spotlighting the known and lesser-known victims of ad fraud and addressing its impact on the internet economy.
“Unclickable” follows a former tech executive who gathers a team of software developers and sets out to build a digital advertising fraud operation. Working from a basement in an undisclosed location, they manage to defraud a number of high-profile advertisers — including the Trump campaign and a series of pro-Biden organizations — in just a matter of weeks during the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
As the operation unfolds, the film lifts a lid on the shadowy world of digital advertising and the role played by tech giants Google and Facebook, while also spotlighting the known and lesser-known victims of ad fraud and addressing its impact on the internet economy.
- 3/8/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Taking place just weeks after the historic passage of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Greece, the 26th edition of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival — which runs March 7 – 17 — pays tribute to that watershed moment in the long-running fight for equal rights for the country’s LGBTQ community, while also issuing a rallying cry for diversity, inclusion and empowerment across the globe.
“Our festival aspires to map out a detailed and thorough overview of our world’s complexity, welcoming films from the four corners of the world, which outline the radical changes, the challenges and the problems of our times,” says festival general director Elise Jalladeau. The program spotlights “the urgent call for diversity, stories of women’s empowerment [and] the visibility not only of the Lgbtqi+ community, but of all marginalized and oppressed groups of people who have suffered discrimination due to their identity,” she adds.
Following on the historic victory for...
“Our festival aspires to map out a detailed and thorough overview of our world’s complexity, welcoming films from the four corners of the world, which outline the radical changes, the challenges and the problems of our times,” says festival general director Elise Jalladeau. The program spotlights “the urgent call for diversity, stories of women’s empowerment [and] the visibility not only of the Lgbtqi+ community, but of all marginalized and oppressed groups of people who have suffered discrimination due to their identity,” she adds.
Following on the historic victory for...
- 3/7/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Mr. T or Bad Attitude (B.A) Baracus, if you dig the famous 1980s TV series The A-Team, is known for the line “Pity The Fool”. But long before becoming an actor, Mr. T was quite popular. From his time in the Army as a military police officer to a bodyguard for high-profile celebrities, he’s quite interesting. Needless to say, Mr. T has left quite a trail of history since he came into the limelight. That history is worth exploring. With that in mind, here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about him. 1. Mr. T Won His High School Wrestling...
- 4/23/2023
- by Iniobong Uyah
- TVovermind.com
Sunday marks Bono’s 60th birthday, and to celebrate the U2 singer has unveiled his “60 Songs That Saved My Life” playlist.
“These are some of the songs that saved my life,’ Bono wrote of the playlist. “The ones I couldn’t have lived without… the ones that got me from there to here, zero to 60… through all the scrapes, all manner of nuisance, from the serious to the silly… and the joy, mostly joy.'”
Bono also penned a “fan letter” of gratitude to each of the artists included on his playlist,...
“These are some of the songs that saved my life,’ Bono wrote of the playlist. “The ones I couldn’t have lived without… the ones that got me from there to here, zero to 60… through all the scrapes, all manner of nuisance, from the serious to the silly… and the joy, mostly joy.'”
Bono also penned a “fan letter” of gratitude to each of the artists included on his playlist,...
- 5/10/2020
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Hong Kong film director Philip Yung and his cast were in Shanghai on Monday to promote their upcoming film “Where the Wind Blows.” They revealed new details while cautiously sidestepping — for the most part — the awkward issue of last week’s massive civil protests in Hong Kong against a controversial bill that would have deepen ties with China, which have been entirely censored from mainland Chinese media.
The film, which used to be titled “Theory of Ambitions” in English, stars Hong Kong’s Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Aaron Kwok, Patrick Tam and Michael Chow and Chinese actress Du Juan. The actors play four notoriously corrupt police officers who rose to power in 1960s Hong Kong, and Du one of their wives. The stylish crime thriller covers a particularly long time span, said Kwok, saying he had to play officer Lui Lok from age 20 up until around 80.
“As a born and bred Hong Konger,...
The film, which used to be titled “Theory of Ambitions” in English, stars Hong Kong’s Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Aaron Kwok, Patrick Tam and Michael Chow and Chinese actress Du Juan. The actors play four notoriously corrupt police officers who rose to power in 1960s Hong Kong, and Du one of their wives. The stylish crime thriller covers a particularly long time span, said Kwok, saying he had to play officer Lui Lok from age 20 up until around 80.
“As a born and bred Hong Konger,...
- 6/17/2019
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Babis Makridis’ film expected to be Greek Oscars entry.
The Greek-Polish co-production Pity, an existential drama by Babis Makridis, was crowned best film at the Iris Hellenic Film Academy (Helfiac) awards on Tuesday evening (April 23).
Steve Krikris’ debut feature The Waiter won four awards, whilst Her Job by Nikos Labot, and Angelos Frantzis’ Still River won three each, including best director for Frantzis and best first film for Her Job.
Pity arrived at the awards after appearing at festivals including Sundance, Rotterdam, Odessa (best film and direction), Valetta (best director) and Montenegro (best film). It also won best sound for...
The Greek-Polish co-production Pity, an existential drama by Babis Makridis, was crowned best film at the Iris Hellenic Film Academy (Helfiac) awards on Tuesday evening (April 23).
Steve Krikris’ debut feature The Waiter won four awards, whilst Her Job by Nikos Labot, and Angelos Frantzis’ Still River won three each, including best director for Frantzis and best first film for Her Job.
Pity arrived at the awards after appearing at festivals including Sundance, Rotterdam, Odessa (best film and direction), Valetta (best director) and Montenegro (best film). It also won best sound for...
- 4/25/2019
- by Alexis Grivas
- ScreenDaily
Looking to find quality European cinema in the streaming universe? These six services yield rich rewards
The discerning streaming service for those overwhelmed by the mass of content on Netflix and its ilk, Mubi offers a curated, rotating selection – one in, one out, every day – of 30 classic and contemporary arthouse films, with an array of themed seasons and mini-retrospectives dedicated to certain film-makers or movements. While its remit is global, European cinema obviously features heavily. On the menu at time of writing: Greek film-maker Babis Makridis’s vicious, Sundance-acclaimed black comedy Pity; Wim Wenders’ early existential thriller The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick; and the little-seen Ingmar Bergman chamber piece Crisis. A subscription is £7.99 a month; in the Rentals section, non-subscribers can access more than 150 pay-per-view films – from Jean-Luc Godard to Portuguese post-modernist Miguel Gomes – for £3.49 a go.
The discerning streaming service for those overwhelmed by the mass of content on Netflix and its ilk, Mubi offers a curated, rotating selection – one in, one out, every day – of 30 classic and contemporary arthouse films, with an array of themed seasons and mini-retrospectives dedicated to certain film-makers or movements. While its remit is global, European cinema obviously features heavily. On the menu at time of writing: Greek film-maker Babis Makridis’s vicious, Sundance-acclaimed black comedy Pity; Wim Wenders’ early existential thriller The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick; and the little-seen Ingmar Bergman chamber piece Crisis. A subscription is £7.99 a month; in the Rentals section, non-subscribers can access more than 150 pay-per-view films – from Jean-Luc Godard to Portuguese post-modernist Miguel Gomes – for £3.49 a go.
- 2/11/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Babis Makridis's Pity (2018), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from January 11 – February 9, 2019 as a Special Discovery.The bone-dry humor and flat affect that characterize the informal movement known as the “Greek Weird Wave” finds—somehow—even bleaker expression in Babis Makridis’s Pity, in which a nameless father and lawyer (Yannis Drakopoulos) becomes addicted to unhappiness while mourning his comatose wife. Equipped with the stilted language of Efythmis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos’s co-writer for practically every one of his films prior to this year’s The Favourite, Pity is a deceptively low-key entry into a national arthouse cinema distinguished by the work of Lanthimos and Athina Rachel Tsangari. Makridis’s second feature film is not a sweeping work so much as one with a fixed target: Pity intimately navigates the state of...
- 1/11/2019
- MUBI
Variety has been given exclusive access to the first teasers for Syllas Tzoumerkas’ female revenge story “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” – being sold at Afm by Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales.
Set in a small eel-farming town in the west of Greece it’s a story of two women, who live solitary lives while dreaming of getting away. One of them is Elisabeth, a once-ambitious policewoman forced to relocate from Athens 10 years ago and now living a joyless, hung over life; the other is Rita, a quiet, mysterious sister of a local music star. When a sudden suicide case upsets the town and turns the local community upside-down, the two women who have been ignoring each other’s existence so far begin drifting toward each other. As the secrets hidden in the swamps begin to surface, they will have a chance to become each other’s saviors.
Set in a small eel-farming town in the west of Greece it’s a story of two women, who live solitary lives while dreaming of getting away. One of them is Elisabeth, a once-ambitious policewoman forced to relocate from Athens 10 years ago and now living a joyless, hung over life; the other is Rita, a quiet, mysterious sister of a local music star. When a sudden suicide case upsets the town and turns the local community upside-down, the two women who have been ignoring each other’s existence so far begin drifting toward each other. As the secrets hidden in the swamps begin to surface, they will have a chance to become each other’s saviors.
- 11/1/2018
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Ewa Puszczyńska, the producer behind Pawel Pawlikowski’s Oscar-winner “Ida” and the director’s Cannes best director award winner and Toronto Film Festival entry “Cold War,” is setting up a new production company, Nem Corp., with Klaudia Śmieja, the producer of Claire Denis’ Toronto film “High Life” and Agnieszka Holland’s upcoming “Gareth Jones,” and sales agent Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales.
Nem Corp. intends to attract “prestigious international film projects” to Poland, both as co-productions and service work, as well as develop projects of its own with top Polish talent. The company, which is already working on a slate of projects, wants to take advantage of the 30% tax incentive newly introduced by the Polish parliament as well as the soft money and private funding opportunities available in Poland.
Puszczyńska co-produced Robert Schwentke’s “The Captain” and Rezo Gigineishvili’s Berlinale-selected “Hostages,” and works as an expert for the Torino Film Lab.
Nem Corp. intends to attract “prestigious international film projects” to Poland, both as co-productions and service work, as well as develop projects of its own with top Polish talent. The company, which is already working on a slate of projects, wants to take advantage of the 30% tax incentive newly introduced by the Polish parliament as well as the soft money and private funding opportunities available in Poland.
Puszczyńska co-produced Robert Schwentke’s “The Captain” and Rezo Gigineishvili’s Berlinale-selected “Hostages,” and works as an expert for the Torino Film Lab.
- 8/31/2018
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outfit New Europe Film Sales has announced multiple sales for Paweł Maślona’s black comedy “Panic Attack,” which had its international premiere this week in Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s main competition.
The film, which was a box-office hit in Poland this year, has been sold to Greece (Neo), Lithuania (Kino Pavasaris), Iceland (Bio Paradis), and Central and Eastern Europe (HBO Central Europe). Further deals, including U.K., are under negotiation. The film is also attracting interest from producers looking to remake it for their local markets, according to the sales agency.
“Panic Attack” comprises six stories about ordinary people put in extreme situations, which cause them to experience a panic attack. “We experience a roller coaster of events: a woman meets her two exes during one night, a couple picks the worst seat on an airplane, a young girl risks having her girlfriends expose her as a porn star,...
The film, which was a box-office hit in Poland this year, has been sold to Greece (Neo), Lithuania (Kino Pavasaris), Iceland (Bio Paradis), and Central and Eastern Europe (HBO Central Europe). Further deals, including U.K., are under negotiation. The film is also attracting interest from producers looking to remake it for their local markets, according to the sales agency.
“Panic Attack” comprises six stories about ordinary people put in extreme situations, which cause them to experience a panic attack. “We experience a roller coaster of events: a woman meets her two exes during one night, a couple picks the worst seat on an airplane, a young girl risks having her girlfriends expose her as a porn star,...
- 7/5/2018
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The “American Idol” revival on ABC is following the same format as it did on Fox for 15 seasons. After five episodes focused on auditions, the show shifted to Hollywood week on the March 26 episode. The April 1 installment will continue that part of the process. Expect plenty of fireworks as the three judges — pop princess Katy Perry, country superstar Luke Bryan and Oscar-winning singer/songwriter Lionel Richie — decide which of the hopefuls to take forward in the competition and which will get a farewell hug from host Ryan Seacrest.
Over the course of the three episodes devoted to Hollywood Week the contestants sing in three rounds: lines of 10, groups, and solos. The judges will winnow the list down to 50 who will sing in a showcase set to air on April 2. They will be culled down to two dozen and those Top 24 will be judged on both solo performances and celebrity duets...
Over the course of the three episodes devoted to Hollywood Week the contestants sing in three rounds: lines of 10, groups, and solos. The judges will winnow the list down to 50 who will sing in a showcase set to air on April 2. They will be culled down to two dozen and those Top 24 will be judged on both solo performances and celebrity duets...
- 4/2/2018
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
Yannis Chalkiadakis has been an editor of advertisements, shorts and feature films since 1993. His recent credits include Interruption (2015, Venice), A Woman’s Way (2009, Berlin) and L (2012, Sundance). He edited that last film for Babis Makridis, who returned to Sundance this year for his dark comedy Pity. Chalkiadakis speaks with Filmmaker below on the parallels between editing and sculpture, the influence of Hitchcock on his work and why, when it comes to editing, “it’s not the software that counts.” Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and […]...
- 1/30/2018
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
We cover so much stuff here at /Film, but sometimes a trailer slips through the cracks. That’s where a trailer round-up comes in handy! This latest trailer roundup features the biblical epic Samson, the new HBO series Barry, the horror sequel/reboot Victory Crowley, the Sundance film Pity, May It Last, a documentary about the Avett Brothers, and the comedy The Female […]
The post Trailer Round-up: ‘Samson’, ‘Barry’, ‘Victory Crowley’, ‘Pity’, ‘May It Last’, ‘The Female Brain’ appeared first on /Film.
The post Trailer Round-up: ‘Samson’, ‘Barry’, ‘Victory Crowley’, ‘Pity’, ‘May It Last’, ‘The Female Brain’ appeared first on /Film.
- 1/11/2018
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
Exclusive: German sales outfit boards Hagar Ben-Asher film set in the days following WWII.
The Match Factory is reuniting with Israeli filmmaker Hagar Ben-Asher for her third feature film The War Has Ended.
The Cologne-based company will handle world sales on the film while managing director Michael Weber will co-produce the film through his Pola Pandora Filmproduktion outfit in Berlin alongside Poland’s Madants and Israel’s Transfax Film Productions.
Pitching the €3.5m project at this week’s Polish Days in Wroclaw, Madants’ Beata Rzezniczek said the planned Polish majority production - which received development funding from the Polish-German Fund at the beginning of 2017 - is set to begin shooting at locations in Poland from late 2018.
Set in the days following the Second World War, The War Has Ended sees a marionette puppeteer rescuing a 13-year-old girl from verge of death and subsequently teaching her the art of puppeteering. Their lives become intertwined through circumstances and the...
The Match Factory is reuniting with Israeli filmmaker Hagar Ben-Asher for her third feature film The War Has Ended.
The Cologne-based company will handle world sales on the film while managing director Michael Weber will co-produce the film through his Pola Pandora Filmproduktion outfit in Berlin alongside Poland’s Madants and Israel’s Transfax Film Productions.
Pitching the €3.5m project at this week’s Polish Days in Wroclaw, Madants’ Beata Rzezniczek said the planned Polish majority production - which received development funding from the Polish-German Fund at the beginning of 2017 - is set to begin shooting at locations in Poland from late 2018.
Set in the days following the Second World War, The War Has Ended sees a marionette puppeteer rescuing a 13-year-old girl from verge of death and subsequently teaching her the art of puppeteering. Their lives become intertwined through circumstances and the...
- 8/10/2017
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: German sales outfit boards Hagar Ben-Asher film set in the days following WWII.
The Match Factory is reuniting with Israeli filmmaker Hagar Ben-Asher for her third feature film The War Has Ended.
The Cologne-based sales company will also serve as a co-producer on the film through its Pola Pandora Filmproduktion outfit in Berlin alongside Poland’s Madants and Israel’s Transfax Film Productions.
Pitching the €3.5m project at this week’s Polish Days in Wroclaw, Madants’ Beata Rzezniczek said the planned Polish majority production - which received development funding from the Polish-German Fund at the beginning of 2017 - is set to begin shooting at locations in Poland from late 2018.
Set in the days following the Second World War, The War Has Ended sees a marionette puppeteer rescuing a 13-year-old girl from verge of death and subsequently teaching her the art of puppeteering. Their lives become intertwined through circumstances and the belief that the war may never...
The Match Factory is reuniting with Israeli filmmaker Hagar Ben-Asher for her third feature film The War Has Ended.
The Cologne-based sales company will also serve as a co-producer on the film through its Pola Pandora Filmproduktion outfit in Berlin alongside Poland’s Madants and Israel’s Transfax Film Productions.
Pitching the €3.5m project at this week’s Polish Days in Wroclaw, Madants’ Beata Rzezniczek said the planned Polish majority production - which received development funding from the Polish-German Fund at the beginning of 2017 - is set to begin shooting at locations in Poland from late 2018.
Set in the days following the Second World War, The War Has Ended sees a marionette puppeteer rescuing a 13-year-old girl from verge of death and subsequently teaching her the art of puppeteering. Their lives become intertwined through circumstances and the belief that the war may never...
- 8/10/2017
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: The project is co-written byDogtooth writer Efthimis Filippou.
Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has signed Babis Makridis’ black comedy Pity for world sales. The director’s follow-up to 2012 Sundance selection L is co-written by Makridis and Yorgos Lanthimos’ screenwriting collaborator Efthimis Filippou (Dogtooth, The Killing of a Sacred Deer).
Pity is billed as the absurd story of a lawyer who feels happy only when he is unhappy. When his wife falls into a coma, he notices how much better his life is when the people around him pity him. When she recovers, he becomes obsessed with being sad again.
Set for delivery later this year, the film is a Greek-Polish coproduction between Neda Film, Faliro House Productions, Madants and Beben Films, supported by Eurimages, The Onassis Foundation, Ert Sa, the Greek Film Center, & Polish Film Institute.
New Europe Film Sales’ past sales line-up has included Cannes Acid selection Scaffolding by Matan Yair, Berlinale Generation...
Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has signed Babis Makridis’ black comedy Pity for world sales. The director’s follow-up to 2012 Sundance selection L is co-written by Makridis and Yorgos Lanthimos’ screenwriting collaborator Efthimis Filippou (Dogtooth, The Killing of a Sacred Deer).
Pity is billed as the absurd story of a lawyer who feels happy only when he is unhappy. When his wife falls into a coma, he notices how much better his life is when the people around him pity him. When she recovers, he becomes obsessed with being sad again.
Set for delivery later this year, the film is a Greek-Polish coproduction between Neda Film, Faliro House Productions, Madants and Beben Films, supported by Eurimages, The Onassis Foundation, Ert Sa, the Greek Film Center, & Polish Film Institute.
New Europe Film Sales’ past sales line-up has included Cannes Acid selection Scaffolding by Matan Yair, Berlinale Generation...
- 5/17/2017
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
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