Gregg Goldstein: Last News

Gregg Goldstein Since 2007, Venice’s Queer Lion Award has reflected and elevated the best in LGBTQ cinema. Fifteen years later, founder Daniel N. Casagrande said this year’s Venice Film Festival will be “the most queer edition ever.” Among the fest’s 30 LGBTQ-themed titles, 19 are competing for the Queer Lion, including a record six films from the main competition. They include Todd Field’s orchestra conductor drama “Tár,” starring Cate Blanchett; Darren Aronofsky’s estranged gay father study “The Whale,” featuring Brendan Fraser; Laura Poitras’ doc “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” chronicling bisexual artist Nan Goldin’s life and anti-opioid crusade; Andrea Pallaoro’s trans woman family drama “Monica”; Emanuele Crialese’s “L’immensità,” starring Penélope Cruz as the mother of a transgender child; and Gianni Amelio’s “Il signore delle formiche,” the true story of an Italian artist jailed under an infamous anti-gay law.

Gregg Goldstein Documentaries have flooded streaming services and arthouse theaters for years, with good reason: They’re usually the most inexpensive indie films to produce and can spark cultural conversations that attract big audiences. But with so many to choose from, how can filmmakers set theirs apart from the pack? In Toronto, directors are taking some unconventional approaches: inserting new theatrical scenes to present unfilmable histories, capturing mind-bending aerial stunts that go far beyond typical doc photography, using aural techniques that duplicate protagonists’ experiences and even bringing doc elements into other genres.

Gregg Goldstein For more than two decades, French auteur Christophe Honoré has made provocative features, frequently exploring romantic entanglements or focusing on gay characters that reflect his sexuality. His third Palme d’Or-nominated film premiering May 21, “Marcello Mio,” is a comic change of pace that may be his most commercial and entertaining project to date. After Honoré’s longtime collaborator Chiara Mastroianni, playing a version of herself, gets compared to her movie star father, Marcello Mastroianni, she decides to adopt his look and personality, creating chaos with her mother, Catherine Deneuve, and co-stars like Melvil Poupaud, who also play themselves.

Gregg Goldstein Raoul Peck‘s life is as fascinating as his films, filled with unexpected twists and turns. From his early stints as a cab driver and journalist, to a minister of culture post in his native Haiti, to teaching, to founding his Velvet Film production shingle to his breakthrough when he earned an Oscar nomination as producer/director with the James Baldwin doc, “I Am Not Your Negro,” the common denominator is Peck’s drive to make life better through his work.

Gregg Goldstein When film and TV talents collide on the Santa Monica beach at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, anything can happen. Just ask “American Fiction” nominee Jeffrey Wright.

Gregg Goldstein Few directors have had greater success exposing the harsh realities of American life than Debra Granik. But after a drug abuse-themed first feature, “Down to the Bone,” the Jennifer Lawrence-led poverty saga “Winter’s Bone” and a documentary (“Stray Dog”) and drama (“Leave No Trace”) about haunted military vets, her new multipart doc, “Conbody VS Everybody” might be her most upbeat take on a tough topic to date.

Gregg Goldstein When crowds gather to watch cars speed through retrofitted streets in Las Vegas Nov. 19, they’ll be looking at more than just the Formula 1 Heineken Silver Grand Prix.

Gregg Goldstein When Hayao Miyazaki’s semi-autobiographical fantasy “The Boy and the Heron” has its international premiere Sept. 7, it won’t just be the first animated film to open TIFF, or the master director’s first in a decade. It will be part of an unexpected resurgence of animated work for cineastes at major international festivals.

Gregg Goldstein When you think of Rupert Friend, chances are you remember his five seasons as CIA operative Peter Quinn on “Homeland” or his turn as the Grand Inquisitor on “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” But recently he’s become the latest member of Wes Anderson’s acting troupe, following up his role in 2021’s “The French Dispatch” with the Cannes Palme d’Or contender “Asteroid City” and the Roald Dahl anthology “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” now in post-production at Netflix. Variety spoke with the U.K.-born actor about his eclectic career, his upcoming feature writing/directing debut and why he had a “revelation” that he should be the next James Bond. What’s your role in “Asteroid City,” and what can we expect from the film?

Gregg Goldstein “I never really wanted to be a cinematographer,” says Sean Price Williams, who has nevertheless shot nearly 60 indie features, some 50 shorts and seven series since 1999. “I didn’t even know what that job was. I’ve always wanted to direct, but didn’t have the means to make a movie.” At age 45, the widely respected lensman is finally getting around to his solo feature directorial debut, “The Sweet East,” pictured above, premiering in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. The Match Factory is repping sales. Why the wait? “I wasn’t putting it off,” he says. “I just didn’t think anybody would ever give me money to do it.” Through his longtime collaborator and “Sweet” producer Alex Ross Perry’s agency connections, they enlisted stars like Jacob Elordi and Talia Ryder to secure financing. His adventure comedy follows a South Carolina high school senior (Ryder) who breaks away from a class trip to start her own journey. “She guides us through different scenarios that illustrate idealogues in contemporary America,” he says. “They’re representations of current beliefs and situations.” The lineup includes Elordi as a Robert Pattinson-type star trying his hand at an indie film and Simon Rex as a white supremacist college professor.

Gregg Goldstein From the most commercial movies to the artiest of arthouse fare, all of the year’s best picture Oscar nominees have one thing in common: themes of power struggles and an anti-authoritarian streak. This reporter spoke with the filmmakers behind “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” “Triangle of Sadness” and “Women Talking” about how they explored these topics and why they’re so relevant today. “Our world is at an inflection point where we’re questioning hierarchical power,” says “Tár” writer-director Todd Field. “There’s a reason we’re seeing movements against authority and people that have held power: for a long time, no one questioned it.”

Gregg Goldstein Belgian director Lukas Dhont is in rare company. His 2018 Un Certain Regard debut, “Girl,” won the Caméra d’Or and three more Cannes prizes, besting the number of first-time feature wins from the likes of Steven Soderbergh and Steve McQueen. And while his rise has come with some controversy, he earned a place in competition with the May 26 Lumière gala premiere of his sophomore effort, “Close.” The story of two 13-year-old boys whose powerful friendship ends when their relationship comes under scrutiny “started from a very personal place,” says the out director, who penned the script with “Girl” co-writer Angelo Tijssens.

Gregg Goldstein Casting films is an unlikely path to writing and directing them, but Lise Akoka and Romane Guéret didn’t only succeed on that journey, they made the experience the basis of their first feature, “Les Pires (The Worst Ones),” earning a berth in Un Certain Regard.The French filmmakers met on the set of Rudi Rosenberg’s 2015 teen comedy “Le Nouveau (The New Kid).” Akoka worked as a casting director and acting coach, Guéret was a casting trainee, and the two became fast friends. “We were in the north of France, in those old mining territories, and found these two amazing children,” Akoka recalls through a translator.

Gregg Goldstein Australian native Thomas M. Wright is no stranger to dark material.