Alec Utgoff: Last News

You probably remember “Never Gonna Snow Again” from the Venice Film Festival last year, where it was met with much acclaim. Then Poland chose it as their Official Submission to the 93rd Academy Awards.

Poland has generated some fresh class distinctions since communist days, a development examined with a shrewd and merciless eye in the country’s Oscar-submitted feature Never Gonna Snow Again. The central figure is a mysterious private masseur, played by the UK-based actor Alec Utgoff, who goes door-to-door carrying with him a folding massage table through a wealthy gated community to offer is services to the numerous and invariably dissatisfied people living in the virtually identical houses.

Never Gonna Snow Again co-directors and co-writers Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s professional collaboration is an unusual one — the pair are ex-husband and wife. But Szumowska says their enduring partnership shows “collaboration is possible.”

Kino Lorber has picked up North American rights for Polish comedic drama Never Gonna Snow Again from Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert, for North America. The film stars Alec Utgoff of Stranger Things fame as a Russian-speaking immigrant from the East who becomes a masseur for the rich residents in a bland, gated community.

Dave McNary Film ReporterKino Lorber has acquired the North American rights to Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert’s drama “Never Gonna Snow Again,” Poland’s Academy Awards entry.“Never Gonna Snow Again” follows a Russian masseur — played by Alec Utgoff of “Stranger Things” — who enriches the lives of the rich, unfulfilled residents living in a walled-off community. Kino Lorber will release the pic in spring 2021.“After last year’s moody but mildly received English-language diversion ‘The Other Lamb,’ prolific Polish auteur Malgorzata Szumowska returns to home turf in this Venice competition entry, and the result is her most compelling and hauntingly realized film to date,” Guy Lodge wrote in his review for Variety.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterKino Lorber has picked up North American rights to Never Gonna Snow Again, Malgorzata Szumowska’s Polish drama which is representing the country in this year’s International Oscar race. The distributor is lining up a theatrical release in Spring, 2021.The film debuted in competition at Venice this year.

Emptiness and longing afflict the sad residents of a wealthy gated community outside an ugly Polish city, until a mysterious visitor arrives offering massages with his strong, healing hands. At that point they realize what is missing from their lives and find it almost within their grasp.

Close your eyes and imagine what Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin” would evolve into if its tone were more uplifting than unsettling and its protagonist wasn’t preying on humans but trying to heal them. That new material would remain a film about a mysterious entity coming into a foreign land, or planet, and peculiarly engaging with its inhabitants—who may never unearth the origin or exact motivations of their unannounced guest.

Christopher Vourlias An enigmatic man from the East arrives in a drab, anonymous Eastern European city one foggy morning, bearing little more than a massage bed. As he earns the confidence of the residents of an exclusive gated community, he becomes equal parts confessor and healer, his Russian accent carrying hints of a longed-for past, his therapy offering the promise of a salve for more than just their aching bodies.“Never Gonna Snow Again” stars Alec Utgoff (“Stranger Things”) as Zhenia, the mysterious masseur at the center of the latest feature from two-time Berlinale Silver Bear winner Malgorzata Szumowska (“Body,” “Mug”), who co-wrote and co-directed with cinematographer Michał Englert, making his directorial debut.

Alec Utgoff, who played the disheveled Russian scientist Dr. Alexei in Season 3 of Netflix's Stranger Things, has gotten a lot sexier, and, if possible, even weirder, for his new film, Never Gonna Snow Again.

Jamie Lang In today’s Global Bulletin, Poland makes its Oscars pick, VIS gets a new VP, Transilvania closes its ceremonies, the Barbican plans to reopen its doors, BlackBox Multimedia supports suicide prevention NPO Calm, and Studio 100 readies “SeaBelievers” for Mipcom.Poland has submitted Malgorzata Szumowska’s “Never Gonna Snow Again” as the country’s 2021 Oscar submission, making it the first country out the gate in this year’s Academy Awards race.Set to premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival, the comedy stars “Stranger Things” alum Alec Utgoff and “Ida” actress Agata Kulesza in the story of a Ukrainian masseuse in Poland who rises to cult-like status among wealthy clientele amassed while working in a gated community.

STRANGER Things scriptwriters have dropped a huge hint over the "cool" guest cameo appearances for the fourth series of the hit Netflix show. Creators the Duffer brothers have confirmed there will be a handful of famous faces hot on the heels of The Princess Bride actor, Cary Elwes, who delighted viewers when he starred in the previous instalment.

NETFLIX fans are convinced that when Stranger Things returns, it will be Murray Bauman who gets the chop in season four. Ever since season three came to an end, viewers have been speculating about what the next series' plot could entail, and it could be a grisly end for the private investigator.