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Tag: The Secret Agent

  • Video: ‘The Secret Agent’ | Anatomy of a Scene

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    My Name is Kleber Mendonça Filho and I wrote and directed “The Secret Agent.” This sequence takes place in 1977 and it comes quite late in the film. I kind of knew it would be an important sequence for “The Secret Agent,” because this is where we finally get to spend some time with the people who are staying at Sebastiana’s building, and it would always be a challenging sequence from the point of view of writing and also of shooting. So we have Isabél Zuaa playing Tereza Victória. We have Licínio Januário, who plays her husband. Hermila Guedes plays Claudia. João Vitor Silva plays Haroldo. Tânia Maria, of course, who’s playing Dona Sebastiana. We have Lula Terra and also Gal, who’s asleep, and we have Robson, who plays Clóvis. The whole sequence was incredibly challenging because we had one night. This is a night shoot. We shot from 7 p.m. until 4:30 a.m. and my biggest concern was that I wouldn’t be able to do justice to each and every character and to honor them, because I love each and every one of these characters. And also these actors. And with two cameras, anamorphic Panavision lenses, three mics, about 30 crew, three dogs, a cat. We had a lot to get done, not only in terms of the shots, but also dramatically because the sequence begins very light hearted and then it moves towards a change in the atmosphere in the room. But the whole sequence, I think, works because of the great acting and also because of quite a lot of affection that comes through in the text. Wagner’s character, he takes a “why not, what the hell” attitude towards hiding his name. He just reveals who he is and that has an effect on his friends. Licínio always very skeptical as Antonio, Tereza Victória’s husband in the film. They are from Angola. And slowly we bring new layers of meaning in terms of what it means to be getting by in an authoritarian regime, in a situation where you’re under threat. [TELEPHONE RINGING] The telephone, the way it rings, we mixed it a little louder than it would probably sound. Nadia Comaneci, the great Romanian gymnast, is in the background there with Wagner. And this is when Sebastiana truly shows how much she cares for these people. She actually says, I don’t want you to feel sad. Let me show you my little museum. And this moment, I think, it really opens up a new window into the film because we now realize that Sebastiana herself, she has a history in another country, and she has gone through a lot in life, much like everybody else in the film and much like all these characters. I never really wanted to do this sequence handheld. I always thought that it should be exactly the way it looks: very precise shots, well composed. I really wanted the actors and the characters to live within the frame without any extra energy coming from the camera itself and the Panavision aspect ratio, really, I think it’s amazing to get people into the frame. And Gal, little Gal, she was supposed to have a few lines in the film, but she was so sleepy and I thought, let’s just let her sleep. And then at some point I asked Evgenia, let’s get a few shots of her actually sleeping. And sure enough, when we were editing the sequence, we had a look at her sleeping, and I think it’s a beautiful way to end the sequence. She’s actually sleeping and maybe dreaming of a better Brazil.

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    Mekado Murphy

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  • Oscar Predictions: International Feature — Neon Dominates With ‘Sirât’ and ‘Sentimental Value’ as ‘Late Shift’ and Sneaks Onto Shortlist

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    Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety chief awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

    Late Shift

    “Late Shift” (Credit: Boo Productions)

    Oscars Best International Feature Commentary (Updated Dec. 16, 2025): The international feature film category offered few surprises on the shortlist, though distributor Neon secured a record five of the 15 available slots. Switzerland’s “Late Shift” edged out the United Kingdom’s “My Father’s Shadow,” despite the latter’s recent Gotham Award win for lead actor Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù.

    Women directors also made their mark in this year’s selections: seven of the 15 international feature films are directed by women.

    The roster of contenders aligned almost identically with predictions, though Switzerland’s “Late Shift” emerged as a notable surprise, securing a spot many expected would go to the United Kingdom’s “My Father’s Shadow” — particularly after its strong Gotham Award win for leading performer Sopé Dìrísù. Critical acclaim and festival momentum don’t always translate to Academy recognition, especially in a category known for its unpredictability.

    Neon’s impressive five-film presence (“The Secret Agent,” “Sirât,” “It Was Just an Accident,” “Sentimental Value,” and “No Other Choice”) shows the distributor’s is gearing up for a bloodbath of its own in the international space. Will they nab all five slots? Tunisia’s masterful “The Voice of Hind Rajab” is in the running for a spot after the Golden Globe nom.

    In other news, streaming giants Netflix (“Left-Handed Girl”) and Amazon MGM Studios (“Belén”) maintain their competitive footing. Meanwhile, Watermelon Pictures’ dual representation with entries from Jordan (“All That’s Left of You”) and Palestine (“Palestine 36”) highlights the continued push for representation from Middle Eastern cinema on the global stage.

    The international feature film category drew 86 eligible submissions from countries and regions around the world. The Academy defines an international feature film as a feature-length picture (more than 40 minutes) produced outside the U.S. with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.

    Academy members from all branches were invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting, though eligibility required meeting a minimum viewing requirement. In the nominations round, members from all branches may opt in to participate but must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote. From this shortlist of 15 titles, five films will advance to the final nomination ballot.

    Final nominations in the shortlisted categories will be determined in the coming weeks. Oscar voting opens Monday, Jan. 12, and closes Friday, Jan. 16. Nominations will be announced Thursday, Jan. 22.

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    Clayton Davis

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  • Jia Zhangke Talks Pingyao Festival Growth; Expanding China Distribution Slate & Upcoming Road Movie

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    Celebrating its ninth edition this year, Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF), founded by Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke, has become a key event for promoting Chinese cinema at home and overseas, as well as bringing international cinema to Chinese audiences. 

    Held at Pingyao Festival Palace – a purpose-built screening complex in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Pingyao Ancient City in Shanxi province – the festival has been hosting packed screenings over the past week for international films including One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, My Father’s Shadow and The President’s Cake.

    Chinese films drawing attention in the festival include Cai Shangjun’s The Sun Rises On Us All, which screened as the ‘Pingyao Surprise’ after its Venice bow and best actress win, while Bi Gan’s Cannes award-winning Resurrection screens as the closing film today. 

    Cinephiles from all over China travel to Pingyao in the west of China for the festival, which especially for young people, has the advantage of being cheaper to find food and accommodation than bigger cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. 

    One of Jia’s aims for the festival is to get more international films distributed in Chinese theatres and he says several of the titles that screened last year were subsequently acquired by Chinese distributors. “Over the past two years, there’s been a clear rise in the number of international films screening in China, especially an increase in independent movies, and the genres have become more diverse,” Jia tells Deadline. 

    In March this year, Jia became a Chinese distributor himself, launching Unknown Pleasures Pictures (UPP) with veteran distributor Tian Qi and scoring a hit with the company’s first release, Italian drama There’s Still Tomorrow, which grossed $6M. Since then, UPP has also distributed Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush, marking 100 years since the classic film’s first release. To mark the occasion, the film’s China premiere was held in Shanghai’s Grand Cinema, a historic site bedecked with marble and a sweeping staircase, where the film had its first Chinese premiere in the 1920s. 

    “We were encouraged by the fact that the film didn’t just have a few screenings in festivals or archives, but was embraced by a bigger audience in a wide release,” says Jia, who seems quietly amused by the fact that, in a market where young people are consuming vast quantities of micro-drama, there’s also a space for silent cinema classics. 

    UPP’s upcoming slate including Cannes award winners The Secret Agent, from Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value; Japanese films Love On Trial, directed by Koji Fukada, and Two Seasons, Two Strangers, from Sho Miyake, which just won Locarno’s Golden Leopard; and Andrea Segre’s historical biopic The Great Ambition, about Italian Communist Party leader Enrico Berlinguer.

    All of these films are receiving Gala or Special Screenings here at PYIFF and will be released by UPP in Chinese theatres in the latter part of 2025 and early next year.

    In addition to showcasing international films, PYIFF aims to promote Chinese arthouse cinema, a task Jia says is as essential as ever at a time when Chinese cinemas and social media are focused on big commercial hits. “Chinese arthouse films are able to get theatrical distribution, that’s not the major problem, but we want to help them achieve the kind of commercial success that matches their artistic value,” Jia explains.

    It’s been a good year for Chinese cinema internationally with Huo Meng’s Living The Land winning a Silver Bear for Best Director in Berlin and The Sun Rises On Us All and Resurrection taking prizes in Cannes and Venice. “But we can’t claim that there’s an overall change in the cinematic environment in China,” says Jia. “Nor can we claim a big revival. But we can see that, in a complex environment, some Chinese directors still manage to demonstrate their creativity.” 

    PYIFF invites international festival programmers – Cannes’ Christian Jeune is a regular visitor – and the Asia-based heads of international sales agencies to support distribution of Chinese cinema in international markets. The festival has a big emphasis on emerging filmmakers and features two section that give out awards to first, second and third-time feature directors – the Crouching Tigers section, which is dedicated to international titles, and is this year screening films such as My Father’s Shadow, Lost Land and The President’s Cake, and the Hidden Dragons section, which focuses on Chinese-language movies.

    This year, Hidden Dragons is screening 11 films, of which five are world premieres, including Shen Ko-shang’s Deep Quiet Room, and the Asian premieres of films including Tan Siyou’s Toronto title Amoeba and Li Dongmei’s IFFR premiere Guo Ran.

    Jia acknowledges it’s a busy time in the international, and especially Asian, film festival calendar, but that this current slot in the last week of September is working well. For one thing, it’s much more comfortable to sit through screenings in the festival’s Platform open-air theatre, compared to some previous editions held in October and November. 

    The timing this year means that PYIFF is taking place immediately after Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which moved forward a few weeks due to holidays and other events in South Korea (although it’s expected to move back to October next year). “We’ll probably hold to the same slot next year,” says Jia. “We have a good communication with Busan and would like to support them. We were less stringent this year in terms of requirements for premieres, so that films could screen in Busan before coming here”. 

    PYIFF is also presenting this year’s International Contribution to Chinese Cinema Award to BIFF co-founder Kim Dong-ho and hosting a Masterclass Dialogue ‘Once Upon A Time In Busan’ tomorrow, with speakers including Kim, Jia, BIFF director Jung Hanseok and Korean Chinese filmmaker Zhang Lu, who just won BIFF’s Best Film Award for Gloaming In Luomu. 

    In addition to being a distributor, Jia is also planning to get involved in the financing of international films through the Wings International fund, which aims to provide support to about five films from non-Chinese directors each year. Jia says the initiative, which was first announced at PYIFF in 2023, finished raising the necessary finance from private investors last month and is in talks with Hong Kong International Film Festival about a joint collaboration starting in 2026.

    Somehow, in the midst of wearing all these caps, Jia also has time to write a script for his next film as director, following his 2024 Caught By The Tides, which premiered in Cannes competition. Describing his new project as a “road movie without cars”, the as-yet-untitled film follows a journey from China’s northwest to the south of the enormous country. Jia says he plans to start shooting in December. Further details are still under wraps. 

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    Liz Shackleton

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  • Wagner Moura on Oscar Buzz and Returning to Brazil With ‘The Secret Agent’: ‘It Was Liberating to Act in Portuguese Again’

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    Wagner Moura is no stranger to intense roles, but his latest performance in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent” may be the one that defines his career, at least to U.S. audiences.

    The Brazilian actor, known to American audiences from Netflix’s “Narcos,” won the best actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of Marcelo, a technology expert swept up in the political turmoil of Brazil’s waning dictatorship in 1977. Since then, the film has been on the festival circuit, making stops at the Telluride Film Festival, and now TIFF, building more buzz and launching Moura into serious contention for best actor.

    Set during Recife’s carnival, the historical political thriller follows Marcelo as he attempts to flee persecution while reconnecting with his estranged son. For Moura, the role was both a homecoming and a reckoning.

    “It was liberating to do something in Portuguese again,” Moura tells Variety. “The last time I acted in my language was more than a decade ago. To return to my home, to Recife, to work with Kleber — it was like going back to the roots of why I became an actor.”

    Moura and Mendonça Filho’s connection dates back nearly two decades, when the actor first encountered the director’s shorts and, later, his breakthrough “Neighboring Sounds.” Moura recalls meeting him at Cannes in 2005, when Mendonça Filho was still a critic.

    “He’s my cinematic soulmate,” Moura shares. “He’s deeply political, but also deeply Brazilian. He can take influences from American films of the 1970s — the lenses, the structure — and make it something that belongs only to Brazil. That’s rare.”

    That creative fusion paid off at Cannes. “The Secret Agent” was one of the festival’s most celebrated titles, winning best director, the FIPRESCI Prize and the Art House Cinema Award, alongside Moura’s own acting honor. It would be picked up by Neon, and is now getting a full-court Oscar campaign, seeking noms for international feature and even, best picture.

    Though Marcelo is the central character, the film’s emotional heart lies in his fractured relationship with his son Fernando. Moura admits he approached the roles in stages, first inhabiting Marcelo fully before considering Fernando.

    “I wanted people to feel like they were watching two different people,” he says. “For me, it was about imagining what it meant for a child to grow up not knowing his father. I have three sons myself. My father passed away. That father-and-son theme — that’s what moves me the most as an actor.”
    He compares the emotional intensity to playing Hamlet in his early 30s. “That was the greatest acting experience of my life. And this film touched the same part of me.”

    If Moura’s performance in “The Secret Agent” translates into an Oscar nomination, it would mark a historic milestone. In nearly a century of the Academy Awards, only five Latino men have ever been nominated for best actor — including José Ferrer, Anthony Quinn, Edward James Olmos, Demián Bichir and Colman Domingo. Moura would not only join their ranks as the sixth, but he would also be the first Brazilian ever recognized in the category, coming one year after Fernanda Torres from “I’m Still Here” became the second in best actress, following her mother Fernanda Montenegro 30 years earlier. “I’m Still Here” also picked up a surprise (and earned) best picture nomination, and went on to win international feature, the first for the country of Brazil.

    Since “Narcos,” Moura has been selective about his roles in the United States. “Can you imagine the amount of offers I got to play drug dealers after that?” he says, shaking his head. “I felt a responsibility as a Latino actor not to reinforce stereotypes. I want the same kinds of roles any white American actor would be offered. That’s the real fight.”

    He recalls constantly pushing for his characters to be Brazilian rather than generically “Latino.” “It’s strange — people rarely think of Brazilians when they say Latino. But I insist on it. Why not Brazilian?”
    Beyond acting, Moura is stepping behind the camera again. His 2017 feature “Marighella” tackled dictatorship head-on. Next up is “Last Night at the Lobster,” an English-language adaptation of Stewart O’Nan’s novel, produced by Peter Saraf (“Little Miss Sunshine”). The film, which he describes as an “anti-capitalist Christmas movie,” will star Elisabeth Moss, Brian Tyree Henry and Sofia Carson. Set in a Red Lobster franchise about to close during a snowstorm a week before Christmas, the story blends American holiday traditions with European realism.

    “It’s about empathy and generosity. There’s no magic from Santa Claus. The magic comes from people,” Moura says.

    The themes of “The Secret Agent” — memory, truth and resilience — resonate beyond Brazil. Moura sees echoes between his country’s recent struggles and the United States’ own democratic challenges.
    “Brazilians know what dictatorship is. Americans don’t,” he says bluntly. “That’s why we were efficient in defending democracy when our institutions were attacked. Here in the U.S., people sometimes take democracy for granted. That scares me.”

    He worries about truth itself becoming malleable. “Facts don’t exist anymore. There are only versions, narratives. That’s dangerous.”

    With “The Secret Agent” opening in Brazil this November through Vitrine Filmes, Moura stands at a new crossroads in his international career. Still, he remains grounded. “It’s about sticking to your values in tough times,” he shares. “That’s what this film is about. That’s what I want my sons to remember.”

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    Clayton Davis

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  • Telluride Awards Analysis: ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Sentimental Value’ Join ‘Sinners’ Atop List of Oscar Frontrunners

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    The 52nd Telluride Film Festival is now in the books. Margot Robbie, Ryan Coogler, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Rian Johnson, Janet Yang, Kathy Kennedy and Frank Marshall were among those who came just to watch movies. Screenings were introduced with a group meditation (Chloé Zhao), a song (Jesse Plemons) and a wave (man of few words Bruce Springsteen). Adam Sandler and Emma Stone posed for photos in the streets with ecstatic local schoolkids. And the Oscar race came into clearer focus.

    Below, you can read my biggest awards-related takeaways from the fest.

    Four high-profile films that already have U.S. distribution had their world premieres in Telluride: Ballad of a Small Player (Netflix), Bugonia (Focus), Hamnet (Focus) and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (20th Century). How did they go over?

    Focus has plenty of cause for celebration, as both Bugonia and Hamnet played like gangbusters and look almost certain to land Oscar noms for best picture and plenty else.

    Zhao’s Hamnet, an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling 2020 novel of the same name, which centers on the Shakespeare family and its tragic loss that allegedly inspired the play Hamlet, garnered rave reviews (it’s at 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 95 percent on Metacritic), including particularly strong notices for leading lady Jessie Buckley, who plays William’s wife Agnes. Some are already proclaiming it to be the best picture Oscar frontrunner. I certainly think it will be a big factor in the season. I would just caution that numerous Academy members quietly expressed to me their feeling that the film has tonal issues — some called it “trauma porn” — and that it has been so hyped by critics that other Academy members will inevitably feel disappointed when they catch up with it. We’ll see.

    As for Bugonia, which reunites filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and actress/producer Stone in a dark comedy about people who “do their own research,” reactions have been nearly as enthusiastic. It played, for me, like a high-end Black Mirror episode — I mean that as a major compliment — and it also has been likened to a prior off-the-wall Lanthimos/Stone collab, Poor Things. Like that 2023 film, it could land multiple acting noms (Stone and Plemons are great), if less recognition for below-the-line work.

    Scott Cooper’s Springsteen, meanwhile, is not what a lot of people expected it to be — a jukebox musical in the vein of Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman or Elvis — but rather an examination of the causes and effects of a deep depression that engulfed The Boss (The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White) in the early 1980s and resulted in his iconoclastic 1982 album Nebraska. It remains to be seen if/how that will impact the film’s box office appeal, but reviews have been solid, and White and Jeremy Strong, who plays Springsteen’s manager, stand a real shot at lead and supporting actor Oscar noms, respectively.

    Then there’s Edward Berger’s Ballad of a Small Player, which comes a year after Conclave and three years after All Quiet on the Western Front, Berger films that were of a large scale and about matters of social import (and landed a bunch of Oscar noms, including best picture). Ballad is neither of those things — it’s about a gambling addict in present-day Macao who grows increasingly desperate as his luck runs out — and the no-holds-barred performance of its lead actor, Colin Farrell, is its best bet for a nom.

    Of films that came directly from world premiering in Venice to make their North American debut in the Rockies, did anything pop?

    Yes, La Grazia (Mubi) and Jay Kelly (Netflix). And it was striking to me how differently people reacted to those two films in Telluride versus in Venice.

    Ironically, La Grazia, the Italian film that opened both fests, was far better received in America. The seventh collab between filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino and actor Toni Servillo, it centers on an Italian president during the last six months of his term. (Maybe Americans were just happy to be reminded that dignified leaders still exist?) I suspect that Italy will eventually submit it for the best international feature Oscar, as it previously did two other Sorrentino films, 2013’s The Great Beauty (which won) and 2022’s The Hand of God, and also that Servillo could make a run at a long-overdue first Oscar nom.

    A similar thing happened with Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, a film about a movie star (George Clooney) who experiences an existential crisis that forces him and his “team” to question their life choices. It was written off on the Lido, but rebounded in a major way — along with its Rotten Tomatoes score — in Telluride, where Baumbach was fêted with a career tribute, Billy Crudup’s big scene received mid-movie applause at each screening, Adam Sandler cemented his status as a frontrunner for the best supporting actor Oscar, and Clooney, who was absent due to illness, was talked up by his collaborators. I think the film is tailor-made for the Academy.

    The reverse sort of happened with Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, which played through the roof in Venice — it got a 14-minute standing ovation — and then came to Telluride as a surprise late-night screening, and engendered a more muted response. It’s certainly well made, with a knockout score by the great Alexandre Desplat that the Academy’s music branch will surely nominate. But, even given how much people love del Toro, I think that the film’s bloated story and runtime (two-and-a-half hours, versus 70 minutes for the 1931 original) will make it hard for it to crack the top Oscar categories.

    What about films from earlier fests, including Sundance, Berlin and Cannes?

    In Telluride, as far as I could discern, only one film accumulated as many hardcore fans as Hamnet, and that was the Norwegian dramedy Sentimental Value (Neon), which reunites Oscar nominee The Worst Person in the World’s filmmaker Joachim Trier and actress Renate Reinsve, and which won Cannes’ Grand Prix (second-place award). Festival attendees ate it up, to the extent that I think it deserves to be grouped with Coogler’s Sinners (Warner Bros.) and Hamnet in the top tier of best picture contenders.

    Like Jay Kelly, Sentimental Value is about a filmmaker who neglected his family in order to focus on his career — a character played by the veteran Swedish thespian Stellan Skarsgård, who will probably duke it out with Sandler for the best supporting actor Oscar. Unlike Jay Kelly, Sentimental Value also devotes a significant amount of attention to the filmmaker’s children, played by Reinsve (who I see as neck and neck with Buckley for best actress at the moment) and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas. Elle Fanning also stars.

    Neon also had two other films — both political thrillers — that were celebrated at Cannes and then proved popular in Telluride, as well.

    Iranian dissident Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, which underscores how the brutality of Iran’s current regime haunts the republic’s citizens, won Cannes’ Palme d’Or over Sentimental Value, and was widely admired here as well. (Panahi, visiting the U.S. for the first time in nearly 20 years, enlisted the audience at one screening to join him in recording a video singing “Happy Birthday” to his script consultant, Mehdi Mahmoudian, who is currently incarcerated in Iran, as Panahi himself was until recently.) Obviously, Iran will not submit It Was Just an Accident for the best international feature Oscar, but France, from which the film drew much of its financing, might. More on that in a moment.

    People also couldn’t stop raving about Wagner Moura, the Brazilian best known for TV’s Narcos, who was awarded Cannes’ best actor prize for his tour-de-force turn in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent. Moura should not be underestimated in the best actor Oscar race, and Brazil, which won best international feature last year with I’m Still Here, might well make another run for it with this smart and funny epic.

    The film that is probably an even bet with It Was Just an Accident to be the French entry is Nouvelle Vague (Netflix), Richard Linklater’s black-and-white homage to the French New Wave. Cineastes loved it in Cannes — I was shocked that it wasn’t awarded a single prize there — and again in Telluride, ahead of which I discussed it with Linklater.

    Other titles that came to Telluride and held their own, even if they didn’t set the world on fire, were, via Cannes, The History of Sound (A24), The Mastermind (Mubi), A Private Life (Sony Classics), Pillion (A24) and Urchin (1-2 Special); via Berlin, Blue Moon (Sony Classics); and via Sundance, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (A24).

    What about the sales titles?

    THR exclusively broke the news of the two deals that have come out of the fest thus far: Netflix bought Oscar nominee Joshua Seftel’s All the Empty Rooms, a powerful doc short about an effort to memorialize children killed in school shootings; and Amazon/MGM nabbed Oscar winner Morgan Neville’s energizing doc feature about Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles life, Man on the Run.

    Of the films that are still on the table, I’ve heard a lot of enthusiasm for Tuner, the narrative directorial debut of Navalny Oscar winner Daniel Roher, which stars Leo Woodall and Dustin Hoffman; one Academy member even likened it to Whiplash. Hamlet, Aneil Karia‘s reimagining of the Shakespeare play in present-day London, is all about Riz Ahmed’s compelling performance as the title character, and will probably find a buyer. And Philippa Lowthorpe’s H Is for Hawk features a committed turn by the great Claire Foy as a falconer, but is way too long at 130 minutes; I suspect that any potential partner will insist on tightening it up.

    Among the distributorless documentaries that played at the fest, the most talked about was surely Ivy Meeropol’s Ask E. Jean, a portrait of the former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault and twice won legal judgments against him — but is any potential distributor willing to risk the wrath of Trump? I hope and suspect so.

    Mark Obenhaus and Citizenfour Oscar winner Laura Poitras’ Cover-Up profiles another muckraker, Seymour Hersh, and won a lot of admirers both in Venice, where it debuted, and in Telluride. I heard a lot of chatter about The White Helmets Oscar winner Orlando von Einsiedel’s tearjerker The Cycle of Love. And if the turnout of doc branch Academy members at screenings of Robb Moss’ The Bend in the River is any indication, it, too, will soon find a home.

    The bottom line

    Much of the awards-industrial complex, including yours truly, has just returned home from Telluride, and is laying low today and tomorrow before decamping to Canada for the 50th Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday. There, many titles that played in Telluride will resurface. A few that debuted in Venice but then skipped Telluride will have their North American premieres, including The Smashing Machine (A24) and The Testament of Ann Lee (still seeking U.S. distribution). And most excitingly, the Canadians will host the world premieres of a bunch of potential awards contenders, including Rental Family (Searchlight), The Lost Bus (Apple), Hedda (Amazon/MGM), Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix), Roofman (Paramount) and Christy (still seeking U.S. distribution).

    There are 194 days, or six months and 13 days, between now and the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 15, 2026. A lot can still happen. Stay tuned.

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    Scott Feinberg

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