16 h. ago Balomania review – those magnificent Brazilians and their flying balloons

Documentary follows the baloeiros, who illegally build and release huge decorated balloons in cities, from where they can travel hundreds of milesAn intriguing film set in Brazil, first shown last year at the CPH:DOX documentary festival in Copenhagen, in which expatriate Danish film-maker Sissel Morell Dargis takes a look at a unique grassroots cultural phenomenon: the baloeiros, the ballooners. These are groups of young men, as secretive and loyal to each other as Freemasons, who (illegally) build and release huge decorated balloons in cities, from where they can travel hundreds of miles. Why? As kind of graffiti, or a community self-expression, or situationist artform, or just a subversive gesture of pure joie de vivre that does not need or admit of any explanation.The baloeiros are harassed by the police, on the ostensible grounds that they are part of gang culture, and the authorities encourage local people to inform on those they suspect of building and transporting a balloon....

Politics

5 d. ago What to know about Boulder, Colorado, the Sundance Film Festival's new home

After four decades in Park City, Utah, the Sundance Film Festival is relocating to Boulder, Colorado

Culture

5 d. ago 'Woke' Sundance film festival shockingly moves location after 40 years as fans rejoice

The annual cinematic event will relocate after a bidding process that included locations in Salt Lake City, Utah and Cincinnati, Ohio , Deadline reported earlier Thursday.

Culture

6 d. ago Sadiq Khan launches £10m investment in London's creative industries

City Hall expects funding to leverage £2.5bn in film investment alone, with British Fashion Council and London Design Festival among those to benefit

Economics

6 d. ago Sundance Film Festival finds new home after yearlong relocation search

The independent film festival, which has been hosted in Utah since its inception, has been seeking a new location for the past year

Culture

6 d. ago Reaction to the Sundance Film Festival's announcement it's leaving Park City, Utah

The Sundance Film Festival announced Thursday that its new home will be Boulder, Colorado, starting in 2027, after spending 40 years in Park City, Utah

Culture

6 d. ago Boulder, Colorado, to be new home for the Sundance film festival

The festival, started by Robert Redford in 1978, will move from its previous home in Park City, Utah, for 2027Boulder, Colorado, has been named as the new home for the Sundance film festival starting in 2027.The festival, which was started in 1978 by Robert Redford, will move from its home in Park City, Utah. Sundance brings more than 20,000 people a year to the ski town, which many had seen as too small to house something of this size. Continue reading...

Culture

6 d. ago The Sundance Film Festival will move to Colorado in 2027 after spending 40 years in Utah

After a yearlong search, the Sundance Film Festival announced Thursday that its new home will be Boulder, Colorado, keeping Sundance in the mountains but moving it out of Park City, the Utah ski town that had for decades provided the premiere independent film gathering its picturesque snowy backdrop

Culture

6 d. ago Win tickets to a private screening of QUANT in London on 7 May

There are 10 pairs of tickets to be won for this exclusive event at London’s Cine International Film Festival

Politics

6 d. ago Win tickets to a private screening of QUANT in London on 6 May

There are 10 pairs of tickets to be won for this exclusive event at London’s Cine International Film Festival

Politics

9 d. ago David Cronenberg says Brutalist AI controversy was a ‘campaign against’ the film by rival Oscar nominees

The director was discussing the row over Adrien Brody’s AI-enhanced Hungarian accent, saying ‘we mess with actors’ voices all the time’David Cronenberg has suggested the AI controversy over Adrien Brody’s Hungarian accent in The Brutalist was an issue manufactured by the campaign of a rival Oscar film.Cronenberg was speaking at the London Soundtrack festival alongside composer Howard Shore, and in remarks reported by the Hollywood Reporter, said that film-makers “mess with actors’ voices all the time”. Cronenberg said: “There was a discussion about Adrien Brody [and] apparently they used artificial intelligence to improve his accent. I think it was a campaign against The Brutalist by some other Oscar nominees. It’s very much a Harvey Weinstein kind of thing, though he wasn’t around.” Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago ‘It was chaotic but beautiful’: Warda Mohamed and Kosar Ali on filming the British

As the award-winning short is released on BBC iPlayer, the director and star talk about grief, breaking Somali stereotypes and a career-changing social media postWhen Warda Mohamed posted a message on social media that she had completed her feature film script, she never expected it to change her career. “I genuinely thought it was just going to be a few people saying, ‘Oh my God, well done’,” she says. “I posted it at nine o’clock at night and thought nothing of it.” By morning, a commissioner at BBC Film had reached out, setting the wheels in motion for what would become Muna – an 18-minute short film that screened at more than 60 international film festivals, won multiple awards, and has now made its way to BBC iPlayer.Muna tells the story of a British-Somali teenager, played by Kosar Ali (Bafta-nominated for Rocks), who navigates a complex mother-daughter relationship while mourning a grandfather she never met. Her grief mirrors Mohamed’s own experience growing up. “There isn’t ...

Events

1 week ago Budding Lanarkshire starlet shines at world premiere of dream debut film

Seven-year-old Ethan Docherty features in Scottish fairytale Faithful which is being submitted for Cannes Film Festival.

Politics

1 week ago Tom Cruise: Hollywood superstar to be honoured with a BFI Fellowship and career retrospective

The Hollywood superstar joins Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese as a BFI Fellow

Politics

2 w. ago Ridley Scott's 'best ever film' hardly anyone has heard of is now on Amazon Prime

The Last Duel made its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2021 and was directed by Ridley Scott and co-written by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Nicole Holofcener

Politics

2 w. ago ‘He threw body piercing parties and lay on a bed of nails’: the wild life of body modification guru Fakir Musafar

A new documentary explores how the pioneer of the ‘modern primitive’ subculture used painful BDSM practices to access new spiritual planes – outraging conventional societyIn the opening moments of A Body to Live in, a documentary by American film-maker Angelo Madsen, we are confronted with two black-and-white photographs. Taken in 1944 by the teenage Roland Loomis, they show him stripped to his underwear, his waist heavily restricted by a leather belt, a rope wrapped several times around his neck.Loomis later renamed himself Fakir Musafar and became one of the founders of the modern primitive movement – a subculture that revolves around body modification practices including branding, suspension, contortion and binding. A Body to Live in, which premieres internationally at London’s BFI Flare film festival this week, dissects Musafar’s body of work, which explored the tension between masculinity and femininity, pain and pleasure, spirituality and S&M. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago The Cine International Film Festival: the most exciting thing to happen to London cinema in years?

A new film festival is coming to Soho which aims to stimulate the independent sector and support the capital’s future stars

Culture

2 w. ago ‘Musicals can be quite sinister’: Tilda Swinton and Joshua Oppenheimer on bonkers bunker singalong The End

Inspired by a Russian tycoon’s survival bunker, the pair’s post-apocalyptic tale takes in environmental collapse, our facades and delusions – and big ol’ show tunesTime is short for the family at the heart of Joshua Oppenheimer’s new film. Mother, Father and their adult son eke out their days in an underground bunker with the walls decorated with priceless old masters, fine wine on the table and half a mile of bedrock above their heads. They gather each evening for formal dinners. They sing upbeat songs to keep the darkness at bay. “We thrive in our happily-ever-after,” they burble. “Together our future is bright.”Time is similarly tight for the writer-director and his star when they beam in via video link from Berlin. It’s the last day of the film festival, a late scramble towards the finish line, and Oppenheimer and Tilda Swinton are each working to a separate stopwatch. Oppenheimer is scheduled to take part in a panel discussion; Swinton is booked on a plane out of town...

Politics

3 w. ago ‘80 years of lies and deception’: is this film proof of alien life on Earth?

The Age of Disclosure, a provocative new documentary that argues for the existence of extraterrestrials, has drawn gasps and criticism at the SXSW film festivalA splashy new documentary that asserts the presence of extraterrestrial life on Earth and alleges a US government effort to hide information on possible alien activity is making waves at SXSW.The Age of Disclosure expounds upon years of congressional activity and testimony surrounding the presence of Unexplained Anomalous Phenomena (or UAP, a rebranding of the stigmatized UFO), in the United States, drawing both buzz and skepticism at the Austin, Texas-based cultural festival. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago ‘It’s supposed to be intense’: inside the experimental film that ‘truly captures’ autism

It stars a roaming shapeshifter – and a cat-faced soldier fighting a zombie in a swamp. We go behind the scenes of The Stimming Pool, the first ever feature film to be made by autistic directors Do you know how many autistic people there are in the UK? The answer is an estimated 700,000. Yet until now, there has never been a single feature-length film directed by autistic people. Or at least not one that has secured a theatrical release in the UK and slots at festivals worldwide.The film is The Stimming Pool, an experimental feature shot over just 12 days that puts on screen the interests, passions and perspectives of its five young autistic creators. They worked alongside Steven Eastwood, professor of film practice at London’s Queen Mary University, funded initially by the Wellcome Trust. “We asked why autistic people are always required to explain or illustrate their experience,” says Eastwood. “What about just having neurodivergent authors behind the cameras, doing the creativity...

Politics