Andrew Haigh: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: Avalon-backed The Agency, which represents the likes of Russell T Davies and Sally Wainwright, has promoted Katie Haines and Judy Edmonds to run the company.

Sean Baker’s Anora and Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist have topped the nominations for the 45th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards, making it into seven categories each.

European sales, production and finance company mk2 films has announced a multi-year slate financing deal with investment fund manager IPR.VC, which will provide “significant financial backing for a slate of future projects”.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent MK2 Films, the European sales, production and finance powerhouse behind movies by Justine Triet and Joachim Trier, is getting ready to ramp up its global scope and move further in the English-language space. Following its appointment of Protagonist’s former managing director Vanessa Saal as executive consultant and U.K.

Venice Film Festival jury president Isabelle Huppert expressed support for Nicole Kidman after the actress was unable to accept her Best Actress prize for Babygirl in person, due to her mother’s death.

Jessica Kiang The Venice Film Festival draws to a close this evening with its glamorous awards gala, and though the feeling on the ground was that the 21-title-strong main competition was a touch off the pace of recent years, still the festival is looking pretty good for an 81-year-old. Especially one who has spent the past 11 days stewing in the scorching humidity of the Lido.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent MK2 Films has tapped Vanessa Saal, the former managing director at Protagonist Pictures, as executive consultant and U.K. lead. The key strategic hire underscores the company’s ambitions to scale up co-productions and acquisitions, including with English language projects.

Ellise Shafer The full international jury for this year’s Venice Film Festival has been unveiled. The lineup joining president Isabelle Huppert is director-heavy, consisting of James Gray (“Ad Astra”), Andrew Haigh (“All of Us Strangers”), Agnieszka Holland (“Green Border”), Kleber Mendonça Filho (“Bacurau”), Abderrahmane Sissako (“Bamako”), Giuseppe Tornatore (“Cinema Paradiso”) and Julia von Heinz (“Treasure”). “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” star Zhang Ziyi rounds out the jury.

The Venice Film Festival has unveiled the names who will join Isabelle Huppert on the main Competition jury of its 81st edition, running 28 Aug 2024 – 7 Sept 2024. 

Marta Balaga Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” won the Fipresci award at Cannes. The jury of the International Federation of Film Critics called it “a courageous story set in modern-day Iran that deals with the conflict between tradition and progress, depicted in a very powerful and imaginative way.” Following a rapturous screening and 2024 record 12-minute standing ovation, the film became a Palme d’Or frontrunner, reported Variety.

Alex Ritman Vanessa Kirby has amassed an impressively starry ensemble cast for the first feature out of the gates for Aluna Entertainment, the production company she established in 2021 with former Film4 exec Lauren Dark. “Night Always Comes,” which Oscar nominee Kirby will lead, is set to star Jennifer Jason Leigh (“The Hateful Eight,” “Fargo”), Zack Gottsagen (“The Peanut Butter Falcon”), Stephan James (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), Julia Fox (“Uncut Gems”), Eli Roth (“Inglourious Basterds,” “The Idol”), Randall Park (“Always Be My Maybe,” “WandaVision”) and Michael Kelly (“House of Cards,” “Jack Ryan”).

Marta Balaga International filmmakers are calling for solidarity with Mohammad Rasoulof and persecuted filmmakers in Iran in an open letter, shared with Variety. Rasoulof – about to screen his latest film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in Cannes’ main competition – was sentenced to imprisonment and torture by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Glastonbury’s Palais Cinema has unveiled its line-up for this year’s edition of the festival and it features a star-studded list of guests including Paul Mescal, Florence Pugh and Andrew Scott.In a video unveiling the line-up with Radio 1’s Ali Plumb, EMPIRE’s Helen O’Hara and Bastille’s Dan Smith who is a patron and supporter of the area, it was revealed that film showings at the event include a mixture of pre-released screenings, recent cinema hits, music documentaries and classic film showings.Some of those on show include Despicable Me 4, Furiosa, Dune Part Two, All Of Us Strangers, Barbie, The Fall Guy, The Greatest Showman, Baby Driver and Shaun Of The Dead in its 20th anniversary year.Guests at the event include Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright who will be taking part in a Q&A about Shaun Of The Dead; Wright will also introduce his film Baby Driver.Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott will reunite with director Andrew Haigh for a Q&A about their emotive film All Of Us Strangers, which was released earlier this year, while Florence Pugh will speak about Dune Part 2 ahead of the screening.Other guests there include Tilda Swinton, who will take part in a Q&A for Only Lovers Left Alive and will introduce her new film Problemista while Cate Blanchett will talk about I’m Not There, the film she starred in about Bob Dylan.Both Swinton and Blanchett also appeared at last year’s Glastonbury, with Swinton joining Max Richter on stage while Blanchett danced on stage with Sparks. There will be a screening of the first two episodes of new Star Wars series The Acolyte, while Kneecap will talk about their new documentary film.

Universal Pictures has tapped renowned British filmmaker Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers) to write and direct a Leonardo da Vinci film based on Walter Isaacson‘s bestselling 2017 biography of the artist, Deadline can confirm.

Ellise Shafer “The Zone of Interest” director Jonathan Glazer has donated signed posters to the Cinema for Gaza auction, which has collected gifts from major names in the U.K. entertainment industry to raise money for Medical Aid for Palestinians. Before the fundraiser officially began on Tuesday, Glazer and “Zone of Interest” producer James Wilson donated seven “Zone of Interest” posters and a selection of posters from his 2014 film “Under the Skin.” The posters will be signed by Glazer, Wilson and composer Mica Levi, who scored both films.

Alex Ritman Wednesday’s announcement that the British government would be introducing the new Independent Film Tax Credit sparked a response that was nothing short of jubilant across the entire sector. The incentive — a 53% expenditure credit that equates to a tax relief of approximately 40% for U.K.

EXCLUSIVE: Napoleon star Vanessa Kirby will reunite with The Crown’s Benjamin Caron on a movie based on Willy Vlautin’s 2021 novel The Night Always Comes, about a working-class woman in the Pacific Northwest who embarks on a 24-hour quest to call in old debts and raise enough money to keep a roof over her head. 

Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers won Film of the Year and LGBTQ Film of the Year honors from the Dorian Film Awards, the annual honors bestowed GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics.

Ellise Shafer Hugh Grant channeled his inner Oompa Loompa at the BAFTA Awards on Sunday night, where the “Wonka” actor was on hand to present the award for best director. After taking the stage, Grant dryly recited a spoken-word version of his character’s song: “Oompa Loompa doompity dee/ now the best director category.

Christopher Nolan has won the BAFTA Award for best director for “Oppenheimer.” In his acceptance speech, he said that while his film ended on a “dramatically necessary note of despair,” he wanted to spotlight the “individuals and organizations who have fought long and hard to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world.” “In accepting this I do just want to acknowledge their efforts and point out they show the necessity and potential of efforts for peace,” he added. The British director also said that it was an “incredible honor to be back home, to get this from BAFTA, in the festival hall where my my mum and dad used to drag me to make me have some culture.

The 2024 BAFTAs are here!