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BAFTA-winning “Sex Education” star Aimee Lou Wood and Oscar-nominee Matt Dillon (“Crash”) have been tapped to star as Anna and Fyodor Dostoyevsky in “The Gambler Wife,” a dark comedy about one of world literature’s most towering figures, by two-time Berlinale prize winner Małgorzata Szumowska.

“The Gambler Wife” follows the Russian novelist and his much younger, pregnant wife, Anna, as they travel to Switzerland for their honeymoon. Anna tolerates her husband’s gambling addiction, which will serve as inspiration for his burgeoning literary career. However, Fyodor’s compulsive roulette playing continues to cause problems for the couple until they are forced to return to a Russia that is not quite as they remember.

“This dark comedy explores the patriarchal, nationalistic Russian identity which keeps on waging war between the West and the East, which is as relevant today as it was two hundred years ago,” said Szumowska.

Pic is produced...

Naomi Watts has had a penchant for highly physical roles unusual among female stars not particularly associated with action movies. It made her acrobatics the most special effect amidst so many CG wonders in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong,” and a vividly plausible victim of grueling crises in films like “Funny Games” and “The Impossible.” Of course, one can always get too much of a good thing, as when recent, regrettable “The Desperate Hour” seemed to reduce the hot-button topic of school shootings to a gimmicky “Watch this fearless actress run the gamut of emotions while Jogging!”

Fortunately, there is nothing gratuitous about the physicality demanded of Watts by “Infinite Storm,” which is based on a real-life incident that took place in New Hampshire’s White Mountains a dozen years ago. Visually splendid, Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska’s second English-language feature (following 2019’s “The Other Lamb”) is an impressive outdoor...

"Now that you're saved, we can be sisters." 1091 Pictures has revealed an official trailer for an indie horror thriller about a cult titled Hell is Empty, made by filmmaker Joe Shaffer. This one is arriving on VOD in March. A self-styled messiah initiates a teenage runaway into his cult of sister-wives, upsetting the delicate balance of their community fixated on sin and salvation. As the family descends into violence, two of the women plot a daring escape. Hell is Empty stars Spencer Peppet, Nia Farrell, Travis Mitchell, Laura Resinger, Aya, Meredith Antoian, and Liam Ouweleen. There's way too many cult movies recently, but I guess it's part of the zeitgeist considering the crazy times we're living in with lots of people losing their minds. This seems like a direct-to-video remake of this cult horror The Other Lamb. Doesn't look that good. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Joe Shaffer's Hell is Empty,...

Like most streaming services, Hulu is not the place to go if you're looking for older movies. Its 20th century horror selection is limited, at best. However, its selection of recent horror films is excellent. Hulu is also a great home for women-directed horror films, including "The Other Lamb," "Sea Fever," "Little Joe" and "Saint Maud" (to name some of the best ones). 

However, I have been tasked with choosing the scariest horror films on Hulu, and we all have different definitions of what makes a scary movie. For some, it's gore and body horror....

The post The 15 Scariest Horror Movies on Hulu Right Now appeared first on /Film.

Ghost stories have been a staple of the horror genre since its inception. It’s the fact that these films deal with an enemy unseen that frightens many and has kept these stories around for so long. But how many ways can you tell a ghost story? They can all be similar, but it’s even more frightening when the film involves children. What makes kids, kids – their innocence and trust-worthiness – makes them unaware of the dangers that are out there. Ruth Platt’s Martyrs Lane centers on two children and their friendship, one dead and one living. It's a ghost story mixed with fairy tale elements to emphasize how children see the world differently – until it turns dark. Built upon Platt’s short film of the same name, Martyrs Lane explores love and grief through the lens of a captivating and unsettling haunting, with many secrets to uncover.

A...

Conecta Fiction, Spain’s still expanding Europe-Latin American TV Forum, revealed the finalists for five of its six pitching categories at an opening online session of its 2021 4th edition.

Running June 28-3o, the online Conecta Fiction will be followed by a hybrid edition over Sept. 13-17 in Pamplona when the now selected projects will be pitched on site at sessions available online for delegates, especially from Latin America, who will not be able to attend in person.

Few details of projects have been given beyond titles, producers, key creatives and genre. Among series in the key international CoPro and Short-Form categories are titles from top Chilean animation producer Zumbastico Studios (“Paper Port”), Mr. Miyagi Films, co-producer of Netflix smash hit “The Platform,” and Spain’s Aqui y Alli Films, the company behind the the acclaimed “Life and Nothing More” and San Sebastian Golden Shell winner “Magical Girl.”

Also in...

Exclusive: Osy Ikhile (The Kill Team) and Caoilinn Springall (The Midnight Sky) are set as series regulars opposite Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in Citadel, Agbo’s upcoming global thriller multi-series for Amazon Studios. Additionally, Stanley Tucci, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Susan Lynch, Sara Martins, Leo Woodall, Gráinne Good and Leo Ashizawa will recur in the series, a co-production with Midnight Radio.

The epic Citadel is described as action-packed spy series with a compelling emotional center.

Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg of Midnight Radio serve as writers and executive producers. Patrick Moran, Mike Larocca, and Joe and Anthony Russo serve as executive producers. The Italian series will be co-produced with Amazon Studios and Cattleya (Gomorrah), part of ITV Studios, and the Indian series will be developed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. (The Family Man) and produced with Amazon Studios.

Ikhile’s recent credits include Donmar Warehouse’s Olivier-nominated production of Sweat,...

by Nathaniel R

Though it's easy to lose track of great cinema, especially in this strange time of virtual festivals and very little traditional moviegoing, you won't want to miss Never Gonna Snow Again, when it arrives this Spring. The Polish hopeful in this year's Oscar's International Feature Film race is a hard-to-describe elusive wonder about a Ukranian massage therapist (Stranger Thing's Alec Utgoff) who a suburban community becomes obsessed with. We were thrilled to jump on the phone with its talented 47 year-old director Malgorzata Szumowska. She's forged a long and international career for herself with award winning films like Elles (with Juliette Binoche), Body, the LGBT drama In the Name of, and her first English language picture last year, the cult drama The Other Lamb. 

She goes by 'Malgo'. "It's easier," she offers quickly, surely having heard her name mangled before. The director lives up to our expectations with...

Naomi Watts is set to headline “Infinite Storm,” the highly anticipated film from Polish helmer Malgorzata Szumowska (“Never Gonna Snow Again”), with Bleecker Street and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions on board.

Bleecker Street will take U.S. rights while Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions is handling international rights on the film. Production will begin later this month.

“Infinite Storm” is written by Josh Rollins, and based on Ty Gagne’s article “High Places: Footprints in the Snow Lead to an Emotional Rescue,” about the story of Pam Bales, a mother, nurse and mountain guide who was on a solitary trek up Mount Washington when she got caught in a blizzard, leading to the daring rescue of a stranger.

“Infinite Storm” is being produced by Maven Screen Media’s Celine Rattray, Trudie Styler and Jenny Halper with Naomi Watts for JamTart Productions, as well as Peter and Michael Sobiloff. Executive producers are Nic Marshall,...

The number of films available to Oscar voters in a screening room devoted to the Best Picture category hit the 200 mark on Wednesday, which means that $2.5 million has entered the Academy coffers from films paying $12,500 each to be represented in the screening room.

The members-only Academy Screening Room hit the milestone with the addition of more than a dozen movies this week, including Fisher Stevens’ “Palmer,” Lee Daniels’ “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” John Lee Hancock’s “The Little Things,” the Russo brothers’ “Cherry,” Josh Trank’s “Capone,” the documentary “Coup 53,” the Studio Ghibli animated film “Earwig and the Witch,” the international films “Funny Boy” and “Bacarau” (neither eligible in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category) and some off-the-wall selections, including “Snake White – Love Endures” and “Soorarai Pottru.”

Other late additions to the screening room have included “Minari,” “Promising Young Woman,” “The White Tiger” and “Cherry,” which were not added until January.

While it’s annoying to hear people declare that there were “no great films this year” under any circumstances, it’s even more outrageous in 2020 when put into context. Why? Because what we lost during this pandemic wasn’t what’s indelible to the cinematic artform. Seeing theaters close (some permanently) is a horrible tragedy that may reshape how we consume our favorite medium moving forward, but it didn’t destroy the content, creativity, or genius of the product itself. It may have conversely worked to expand our access (via virtual cinemas in support of local theaters and online film festivals moving beyond geographical borders) and prove what it is film fans truly crave: quality over quantity.

What then are those people talking about? What titles did we lose? There are a few that exist on the edge of critical acclaim and box office profits (see A24 holding back three...

It’s obvious by the end of every calendar year which movies got the most buzz over the last 12 months and which movies must be seen in the lead up to the awards season. This year, the majority of cinephiles out there know they need to check out the likes of “Nomadland,” “Minari,” and “Promising Young Woman” ahead of nomination announcements, among other titles. Films such as “Da 5 Bloods,” “The Invisible Man,” and “Borat 2” opened with a ton of publicity and garnered millions of eyeballs. But where is all the love for “Babyteeth,” “The Other Lamb,” and other low-profile indie films that just couldn’t fight to the top of the always-growing pile of content? That’s what the end of the year is for: catching up on the movies that fell through the cracks.

Fortunately, IndieWire has rounded up 20 well reviewed films released over the last 12 months...

Wealthy, curtain-twitching suburbanites have formed the basis for many a TV show, but the Polish feature Never Gonna Snow Again proves the setting can be profoundly cinematic and esoteric, as well as darkly funny. Co-directing and writing with director of photography Michal Englert, Malgorzata Szumowska revels in blending genres in this acutely observed festival hit that is Poland’s submission for the 2021 International Oscar race.

Most of the action takes place in a gated community made up of identikit white mansions. We enter along with Zenia (Alec Utgoff), a quiet but charismatic Ukrainian masseur. Arriving in Warsaw with his massage bed slung over his shoulder, he hypnotizes an official into a slumber before rubber-stamping his own permit. As Zenia leaves the man’s office, the camera pans to show the needle of a record player, which magically springs into action.

The music? Shostakovich: the waltz that Stanley Kubrick used memorably in Eyes Wide Shut.

Shelley Birse has taken home the Australian Writers’ Guild’s (Awg) 2020 John Hinde Award for Science Fiction Writing for Stan Original series The Commons.

Birse, the creator of the show, receives $10,000 for the drama which offers a glimpse into a not-too-distant future where climate change and biotechnology raise important ethical questions for humanity.

The annual award, first presented in 2008, is funded by a bequest from the late film critic John Hinde. It was Hinde’s wish that future generations of Australian science-fiction screenwriters be nurtured through industry opportunities.

Highly commended in the produced category were Antony Webb’s Awgie-nominated short film Carmentis and episode 13 of The Unlisted, written by Mithila Gupta.

David Peterson’s feature script Untethered won in the unproduced category.

The screenplay follows a former refugee on a mission to Mars who must confront her lack of trust in her crew when their ship is damaged and grapple...

Hulu's Palm Springs and HBO's Lovecraft Country lead the nominations for the inaugural Critics Choice Super Awards, which are best described as being more pop culture and genre-oriented version of the Critics Choice Awards.

These awards are a special event honoring the most popular, fan-obsessed genres across both television and movies, including Superhero, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Horror, Action, and Animation.

The winners will be revealed in a special television presentation, which will be produced remotely following Covid safety protocols, hosted by writer/director/podcaster Kevin Smith and actress/writer Dani Fernandez.

The ceremony will air on The CW Network on Sunday, January 10, 2021 (8:00-10:00pm Et/Pt) and will stream the next day for free on The CW App and cwtv.com.

Film Nominations

Best Action Movie

Bad Boys For Life (Sony)

Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)

Extraction (Netflix)

Greyhound (Apple TV+)

The Hunt (Universal)

Mulan (Disney+)

The Outpost...

Kino Lorber has acquired the North American rights to “Never Gonna Snow Again,” Poland’s submission to the Oscars race for Best International Film, and the indie distributor is planning a release in spring 2021.

Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert directed “Never Gonna Snow Again,” and the two also co-wrote and produced, with Englert also serving as the cinematographer. The film premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival this year and won the Premio Fondazione Fai Persona Lavoro Ambiente Award, and it was also an official selection of the canceled Telluride Film Festival.

“Never Gonna Snow Again” stars “Stranger Things” actor Alec Utgoff as Zhenia, a Russian-speaking immigrant from the East who enters the lives of the rich residents of a bland, walled-off community as a masseur. Despite their wealth, the residents emit an inner sadness and a longing. The mysterious newcomer’s hands heal and his eyes seem to penetrate their souls.

Kino 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.

Szumowska directed, produced and co-wrote alongside Englert, who co-directed, co-wrote, produced and served as cinematographer. Mariusz Włodarski, Viola Fügen, Agnieszka Wasiak and Michael Weber also produced the Lava Films and Match Factory production, which was co-produced by Kino Świat, Bayerischer Rundfunk/Arte,...

The Andy Samberg comedy “Palm Springs” led all films in nominations for the first annual Critics Choice Super Awards, a new honor from the Critics Choice Association devoted to superhero, sci-fi/fantasy, horror, action and animated films and television series. “Lovecraft Country” was the most nominated program in the television categories.

The winners will be announced during a special on The CW on Jan. 10, 2021, with Kevin Smith and Dani Fernandez hosting.

The Critics Choice Association, which has been presenting the Critics Choice Awards for 25 years and the Critics Choice Documentary Awards for five years, added the Critics Choice Super Awards during a year in which many of the big genre films that would have been competing for prizes — among them the James Bond film “No Time to Die” and Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” — were rescheduled for 2021 releases because of coronavirus-prompted theater closings.

In addition, the early timeline for...

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, who co-wrote and co-directed with cinematographer Michał Englert, making his directorial debut.

The film, which world premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival, screens at El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt on Saturday. It is produced by Poland’s Lava Films and Germany’s Match Factory Productions, in co-production with Poland’s Mazovia Film Fund,...

Malgorzata Szumowska's films have always been an intriguing blend, often mixing mordant humour with more weighty ideas - as with Body/dilm] - and incorporating a spiritual element, most recently with the more serious cult drama [film]The Other Lamb. Her latest, which sees her regular cinematographer Michal Englert named as co-director, returns to the playfulness of her earlier work as they present a satire of suburbia that, at times, also has the quality of a fable.

The action centres on Zhenia. Zhenia is a Ukrainian emigre to Poland - something almost everyone seems keen to remind him of - who plies his massage trade around a wealthy gated community. It's the sort of well-heeled but competitive place where the jangle of one-upmanship can be heard in the competing musical...

Małgorzata Szumowska's The Other Lamb is exclusively showing October 16, 2020 - November 14, 2020 on Mubi in the United Kingdom.“Would anyone like more lamb?,” a jolly voice proclaims, as pairs of arms pass around the dish in question. Arranged in an orderly fashion, the seats around this scant dining table are gendered and color-coded—a single male figure in the center separates girls in blue from women in red. This strict hierarchy makes up the world of The Other Lamb, a male-dominated religious cult led by a charismatic leader. The less the Shepherd (Michiel Huisman) speaks, the more suffocating this social circle seems, and his power, as is made evident early on, is bestowed via gestures of violent touch, gazes, or merely his presence. The women appear complacent, like lambs headed to the slaughter, all except Selah (Raffey Cassidy), whose tremendous (but blind) devotion proves most prone to disillusionment. Polish filmmaker Małgorzata...

Monica Zanetti’s screenplay of Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt), Ben Lawrence and Beatrix Christian’s Hearts and Bones and Ally Burnham’s Unsound have been nominated for best original feature in the 53rd annual Awgie Awards.

The contenders for the feature film adaptation prize are Thomas M. Wright and Erik Jensen’s Acute Misfortune, Lisa Hoppe’s H is for Happiness, Shaun Grant and Harry Cripps’ Penguin Bloom and C.S. McMullen’s The Other Lamb.

The TV series prize promises to be a close race between episodes of Glen Dolman’s Bloom, Michael Petroni’s Messiah for Netflix, Belinda Chayko’s Stateless, Samantha Strauss’ The End and Pip Karmel’s Total Control.

Timothy Hobart, John Ridley, Jeremy Nguyen, Alan Nguyen and Michele Lee’s Hungry Ghosts will square off against Matthew Cormack and Niki Aken’s The Hunting for best miniseries.

In the TV serial category it must...

The BFI London Film Festival has added a new, annual works-in-progress showcase as part of its industry program, and has invited seven projects to participate, including two featuring “Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker” and “The End of the F***ing World” actor Naomie Ackie and “ZeroZeroZero” actor Andrea Riseborough.

The showcase features works made for cinema, television and immersive platforms by U.K. emerging talent and will be presented to an invited audience of international buyers and festival programmers.

The projects include psychological thriller “Here Before” by Stacey Gregg (“Little Birds”), produced by Sophie Vickers (“Surge”) and Julia Godzinskaya (“The Other Lamb”), starring Riseborough, Martin McCann (“Wildfire”) and Jonjo O’Neill (“Pennyworth”); and heist film “The Score,” directed by Malachi Smyth (“Nocturne”), produced by Matthew James Wilkinson (“Yesterday”), Ben Pullen (“Light of the World), alongside co-producer Isabelle Georgeaux (“Calibre”), starring Johnny Flynn (“Stardust”), Ackie and Will Poulter (“Midsommar”).

Experimental filmmaker Baff Akoto,...

Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s “Never Gonna Snow Again,” one of the buzziest titles out of the Venice Film Festival, has found distribution in the U.K., Italy and Germany.

Following what’s understood to have been a competitive process with wide interest, Picturehouse Entertainment has swooped for U.K./Eire rights. I Wonder has bought the film for Italy, and Real Fiction are on board for Germany. The film is sold internationally by The Match Factory.

“Never Gonna Snow Again” world premiered in Venice on Sept. 7 to critical acclaim. The film tells the story of masseur Zhenia, who hails from the Ukrainian city of Pripyat, which was deeply affected by the nearby Chernobyl blast. Zhenia enters the lives of the rich but troubled residents of a bland, walled-off community in Poland, where he begins to heal them with his hands and companionship, and changes their lives for good.

How much healing can a good massage provide? A fast-fading hour or so of relaxation, or a more sustained sense of general well-being and peace with the world, so long as it’s topped up with repeat appointments? In “Never Gonna Snow Again,” a searching, cryptic satire of bourgeois insularity in modern Poland, the magic hands of an immigrant Ukrainian masseur are tasked with easing a litany of woes, from middle-class guilt to climate change anxiety to terminal cancer — though no one thinks to ask him about his own interior aches and pains. 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.

With a run of variously provocative, distinctively styled films through the 2010s — including the Juliette Binoche starrer...

New arrival’s Curzon Artifical Eye credits include Oscar winner Parasite, A Fantastic Woman, Ida.

Global streaming platform Mubi has hired Cate Kane from Curzon Artificial Eye to join its global acquisitions team.

Kane will co-head the team with Kevin Chan, who joined the platform from Thunderbird Releasing in March 2019.

The executive most recently served as head of acquisitions at Curzon Artificial Eye, where she had been since 2011, and acquired UK rights to such films as Oscar winner Parasite, A Fantastic Woman, Ida, The Handmaiden, and 45 Years.

Prior to that she worked at Content Film, BBC Films and Casarotto Ramsay.

Poland has officially kicked off the 2021 Best International Feature Film Oscar race by submitting Malgorzata Szumowska‘s “Never Gonna Snow Again.” The comedy-drama hybrid will premiere in competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The Italian-held event is the first major overseas fest to take place during the coronavirus pandemic, with dates spanning Sept. 2-12.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 93rd Academy Awards will take place on April 25 — the latest date for the telecast since the show was first broadcast on TV in 1953. The submission deadline for international features has also been delayed, pushed back to December 1 from the usual October 1. Earlier this year, South Korea’s “Parasite” won the newly renamed Foreign Language Film trophy and also became the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture.

See Glory to the holy WiFi! 7 ways ‘Parasite’ made history with its Oscar wins

“Never Gonna Snow Again” stars Alec Utgoff...

Exclusive: And they’re off! Poland is first out of the blocks this year by naming its submission to the 2021 International Oscar race – Malgorzata Szumowska’s Never Gonna Snow Again.

The comedy drama is set to premiere in Competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The Italian event is pressing on with plans to become the first major international fest to take place in the pandemic era, running September 2-12.

Szumowska has become one of Poland’s most recognized working directors since her 2001 feature debut Happy Man. Her credits include 2013 pic In The Name Of, which won prizes at the Berlin and Polish film festivals, the 2015 feature Body which won its director the Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Director and also the European Film Awards’ People’s Choice Award, and 2018 movie Mug, which again was a Berlinale winner, this time the Silver Bear Jury Grand Prix. Szumowska’s English-language debut,...

Before we bid yet another month adieu, we do have one final round of horror and sci-fi home media releases to look forward to before we head right into August in just a few days. Scream Factory is keeping busy this week with their new releases of Thir13en Ghosts and Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift and Severin Films is resurrecting Revenge of the Living Dead Girls this Tuesday as well. If you haven’t had a chance to catch up with it, HBO is releasing the first season of The Outsider (another King story!) on both Blu and DVD, and Universal is set to haunt homes everywhere with You Should Have Left as well.

Other releases for July 28th include The Other Lamb, James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, Dead Dicks, and Old Dracula.

The Other Lamb

For her entire life, the cult she was born into has been...

In this strange new moviegoing ecosystem, IFC Films is one indie distributor doing well despite the hurdles of releasing content amid the ongoing pandemic. Not only did the arthouse platform just cross the $2-million mark overall at the drive-in box office with the release of “Relic,” but IFC also is currently in the lead in getting out films to Oscar voters on the Academy’s new screening platform.

Right now, nine films out of 19 contending for Academy eyeballs in the online screening room come from IFC, and they include “Premature,” “Swallow,” “Resistance,” “The Other Lamb,” “True History of the Kelly Gang,” “The Wretched,” “How to Build a Girl,” “The Trip to Greece,” and “Babyteeth.” IFC has had a strong 2020 slate, earning critical buzz and solid VOD returns including for “Relic,” which with drive-in play and digital play combined has earned more than $580,000 since opening on Friday, July 10. Next up, IFC...

Catherine S. McMullen with ‘The Other Lamb’ producer Stephanie Wilcox and director Małgorzata Szumowska (Photo credit: Stephanie Wilcox).

Screenwriter Catherine S. McMullen addresses the challenges of making a living in the genre space in Australia and for females to be recognised in the profession.

A former production freelancer, she wrote an episode of the second season of Playmaker Media/Stan’s Bloom, two episodes of Fremantle’s Wentworth Vr and Princess Pictures’ digital series Parked before her international breakthrough, scripting The Other Lamb.

The English-language debut of Polish director Małgorzata Szumowska, the horror movie follows a group of girls and women who live in a mysterious secluded compound with a man they call “Shepherd,” hailed by critics as combining elements of The Witch, The Handmaid’s Tale, Rosemary’s Baby and Carrie.

Q: In the recent Australians in Film webinar with Zak Hilditch, Ben Young and Natalie Erika James, you said it...

Natalie Erika James, Ben Young and Zak Hilditch.

Australian directors working on productions in the Us get far more time, money and resources than they were accustomed to at home.

But there’s a downside: Loss of creative freedom.

“I liken working in the American studio system to working on a two-hour television commercial where you have a lot of different voices telling you that you are not allowed to do things the way you want to,” says Ben Young, who directed Extinction for Netflix and was co-directing Clickbait for the streamer when production was shut down.

“In making an American film you have way less freedom but way more support. The level of support and resources you get in the Us is amazing but I miss the control I had in Australia.

“What I’m desperately searching for is that middle ground where I can have the toys and...

We're back with another edition of Horror Highlights! In today's installment: a look at the latest Billy doll from Mezco and Living Dead Dolls, two interviews with the composers of The Other Lamb and The Wretched, details on the Hollywood Critics Association's trivia event, and new of Well Go USA's acquisition of Broil:

Ldd Presents Saw: Billy

"Let the game begin…

Often used by John Kramer, better known as the Jigsaw Killer, Billy would inform Jigsaw’s victims about the rules and instructions they had to follow in order to survive his deadly games.

Billy wears his signature tuxedo, bowtie, and red shoes. His all-new head sculpt features protruding cheeks with spiral detailing, and red lips that form a maniacal grim. His dark eyes and red irises see every move you make.

The Ldd Presents Saw: Billy stands 10” tall and features 5 points of articulation. He is packaged in a die-cut window box,...

C’mon film fans. let’s shake off the stuck-at-home isolation blues with this week’s new release. Yup, it’s not an “indie” full of despair and drama. So, it’s a rollicking comedy? Well..uh uh. A toe-tappin’ musical, perhaps?, Nah…it’s a horror flick. Well. at least you can feel good that all the weirdness isn’t directed at you as you stare out the window. And this is indeed an independent film, another in the subgenre of “art-house” horror led by The Witch, The Babadook, and the very recent The Other Lamb, though, in spirit, it may be closest to the retro thrills of It Follows. This one owes a lot to that 70s homage, though it has more of the 1980’s thriller vibe of the Netflix hit “Stranger Things”. So with all the real-world scares outside can The Wretched deliver the shivers?

Speaking of that past decade,...

The story of the notorious outlaw Ned Kelly is dropping on digital and on-demand today with the Justin Kurzel-directed True History of the Kelly Gang starring George MacKay, Russell Crowe and Nicholas Hoult.

The grimy western crime drama, which was adapted by Kurzel from the novel of the same name by Peter Carey, features MacKay as the titular Aussie outlaw Ned Kelly and has a foundation of a love story between a mother and a son. The film was acquired by IFC Films ahead of its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019.

More from DeadlineComing-Of-Age Foodie Comedy 'Abe' Fires Up, 'The Booksellers' Makes Virtual Premiere - Specialty Streaming PreviewCrime Thriller 'Stray Dolls' With Cynthia Nixon Debuts, Deepak Chopra Brings Peace With 'The Mindfulness Movement' - Specialty Streaming PreviewRom-Com 'Almost Love' Makes Debut, IFC Serves Horror...

Indie title topped the Us box office chart in April thanks to drive-in cinema screening.

Paris-based sales company Charades has sealed a trio of key deals on Carlo Mirabella-Davis’s drama Swallow to mk2 Mile End (Canada), La Aventura Audiovisual (Spain) and Koch Films (Germany).

Swallow premiered a year ago at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.

Further older unannounced sales include to Cineart (Benelux), Volga (Russia), Velvet Spoon (Poland), Ads (Hungary), Fabula (Turkey), Empire (Middle East), Klockworx (Japan), Watcha (Korea), Benchmark (Taiwan), Machete (Mexico), Tiller and Tide (New Zealand).

“They’re all the distributors of Parasite in their respective territories,” said...

Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp is going from the world of the Upside Down to world of the culinary arts in the newly released comedy Abe from Brazilian director Fernando Grostein Andrade.

The film, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival last year, features Schnapp as the food-obsessed titular pre-teen Abe — although that is not his only name. The Israeli-Jewish side of his family calls him Avram while the Palestinian-Muslim side Ibrahim. Meanwhile, his first-Generation agnostic lawyer parents call him Abraham. Then there are the readers of his food blog that know him simply as Abe.

More from DeadlineCrime Thriller 'Stray Dolls' With Cynthia Nixon Debuts, Deepak Chopra Brings Peace With 'The Mindfulness Movement' - Specialty Streaming PreviewRom-Com 'Almost Love' Makes Debut, IFC Serves Horror With 'The Other Lamb' - Specialty Streaming Preview'Resistance' Pivots To Digital Release, 'Tape' Sets Virtual Premiere,...

This weekend’s slate of specialty streaming titles is a variety pack of a crime thriller, a documentary about mindfulness, an obsessive-compulsive dark comedy and…a movie titled Butt Boy.

Sonejuhi Sinha’s feature directorial debut Stray Dolls is set debut this weekend on a multitude of VOD platforms. The crime thriller, which bowed last year at the Tribeca Film Festival, follows Riz (Geetanjali Thapa), who has left her life of petty crime in India and is now working as a housekeeper at the Tides Plaza Motel managed by Una (Cynthia Nixon).

More from DeadlineRom-Com 'Almost Love' Makes Debut, IFC Serves Horror With 'The Other Lamb' - Specialty Streaming Preview'Resistance' Pivots To Digital Release, 'Tape' Sets Virtual Premiere, Kino Lorber And Music Box Films Launch Online Exhibitions - Specialty Streaming PreviewSearchlight, A24, Focus Features Alter Release Slate; 'Dosed', 'Human Capital' And More Shift Theatrical Plans - Specialty Box...

A parasitic infection plagues a fishing boat in a low-budget Irish B-movie that provides modest entertainment before a damp ending

There’s going to be an understandable portion of audiences who will instantly reject the mere idea of watching the low-budget sci-fi horror Sea Fever, its gloopy tale of a deadly infection proving to be familiar, if fantastical, territory for this very moment. But beneath the shuddering use of words like “quarantine” lives a solid, slithering little B-movie, one that openly cribs from the blueprints of Alien and The Thing but does so with just about enough skill to warrant a midnight viewing, if not quite enough to justify itself at any other time of the day.

Related: The Other Lamb review – artful cult drama simmers with unease...

Michiel Huisman as Shepherd in Malgorzata Szumowska’s The Other Lamb. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films Release.

The surreal horror/drama The Other Lamb centers on a teen-aged girl in a cult led by a man called Shepherd (Dutch actor Michiel Huisman of “Game of Thrones”), who has a striking resemblance to traditional depictions of Jesus. But there is little that is lamb-like in this charismatic autocratic leader of a flock of obedient wives as they live a communal pastoral existence hidden deep in the woods, until their lives are disrupted by an event that send them on a journey with a violent end.

The girl, Selah (Raffey Cassidy), is one of the daughters of the Shepherd, although it is unclear whether they are all his actual offspring. Indeed, Shepherd barely looks old enough to have fathered a teen, much less so many. The “wives” are clad in...

‘The Other Lamb’ panel (top) Krista Carpenter, Catherine S. McMullen, (bottom) Chris Deckard, Stephanie Wilcox.

Responding to the Covid-19 crisis, Australians in Film (AiF) is giving existing members two months free membership and extending that offer to new members.

To help members to stay connected and to support each other, the organisation is running a series of online events including sessions with Bloom creator Glen Dolman and Truant Pictures’ Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt.

AiF executive director Peter Ritchie tells If: “One of AiF’s core values is community. Our strength comes from our members and partners internationally and together we will get through this.

“The staff with the support of the board pivoted very quickly to move our entire programming online. We are having global networking events twice a week with our members in La and Australia, meditation classes with writer Chris Phillips in Byron Bay and our Hollywood...

To put it lightly, it is a very strange time in the world right now. With many of us working from home and (hopefully) implementing social distancing, it’s left us antsy without a lot of our usual stress relief balms at the ready – things such as going to the movies. With so many of the upcoming theatrical releases moving their release dates and theaters shuttered for the foreseeable future, it’s a good time (if you’re given the time to do so) to explore options you may not have previously explored.

Continue reading 8 Movies to See in April: ‘The Other Lamb,’ ‘Sergio’ & More at The Playlist.

In “The Other Lamb,” Raffey Cassidy plays a young woman whose first period coincides with the discovery of a miscarried lamb fetus. Such is the territory we’re in with Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska and screenwriter Catherine S. McMullen’s allegorical slice of folk horror, and boy are we in for it. Though hardly subtle in its metaphoric intent,

Cassidy stars as Selah, one of the “sisters” in the Flock, as its deemed by their overseer, the Shepherd (Michiel Huisman). While he certainly fits the bill of the Charismatic Cult Leader, he’s a bit more brooding as he smothers his acolytes with kindness. Almost all of them are brainwashed blondes he’s either plucked out of civilization, or bred in-house using his stable of wives, who’ve spiritually expired. Selah isn’t especially close to any of the other sisters, and it’s a testament to Cassidy’s gifts that,...

Arriving on VOD and various digital platforms today is Małgorzata Szumowska’s coming-of-age cult thriller, The Other Lamb, which follows a teenage woman named Selah (Raffey Cassidy), who comes to terms with her burgeoning womanhood and her devotion to a man she only knows as “Shepherd” (Michiel Huisman), the enigmatic and dangerous messianic leader who presides over a group of women who blindly follow him and his teachings.

Daily Dead recently spoke with Szumowska about what initially drew her to the script for The Other Lamb, as well as her approach to this story and how she wasn’t looking to vilify the decisions of the female characters in the film as well. Szumowska also discussed her organic casting process for The Other Lamb and the deep unspoken bond she shared with the film’s star, Raffey Cassidy.

I'd love to start off by talking a little bit about the story of The Other Lamb.

As evidenced in Stephen King's short story "I Am the Doorway," sometimes it's not what you encounter in space that's scary, but what you bring back with you. Such is the case in Egor Abramenko’s feature-length debut Sputnik, which has been acquired for North American distribution by IFC Midnight, with a release planned for August 14th:

Press Release: New York, NY – IFC Midnight announced today that it is acquiring North American rights to Egor Abramenko’s directorial debut Sputnik from Xyz Films. Abramenko’s sci-fi thriller short film The Passenger played in the 2017 Fantastic Film Festival in Austin, and was the inspiration for his feature debut. The film stars Oksana Akinshina who debuted in Lukas Moodysson’s award-winning film Lilya 4-ever, alongside Fedor Bondarchuk, Pyotr Fyodorov, and Anton Vasilev. The script was written by Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev. Producing is Vodorod Pictures, Art Pictures Studio, Hype Film,...

There are more than enough streaming and VOD titles of all genres in the specialty arena making their debut this weekend as they shift from theatrical to streaming for your quarantine entertainment. For those who need to quench their thirst for a rom-com, Mike Doyle’s Almost Love is set to premiere.

The Vertical Entertainment film made its debut in 2019 at Toronto’s Lgbtq film fest Inside Out and already took a bow in the UK in March under the title Sell By. Now, audiences stateside can stream the ensemble pic starring Scott Evans.

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The...

Lamb Tied to (Mis)Take: Szumowska Gets Culty with English Language Debut

Cults seem to be making something of a comeback in popular film culture, which is beneficial considering they are all microcosms for any kind of organized religion. They also make for fascinating film subjects, usually all the more compelling thanks to a lack of exacting rules and parameters defining their beliefs beyond their devotion to the (usually) masculine deity or supreme leader. On the heels of Ari Aster’s web of complexities in Midsommar, Polish auteur Malgorzata Szumowska turns her macabre gaze to a similar scenario of women in the woods with The Other Lamb, an Irish-Belgian-us co-pro which also has the distinction of being her English language debut.…...

The English language debut from Małgorzata Szumowska tells of a toxic male leader of an all-female cult with striking visuals and patchy intrigue

At the outset of The Other Lamb, a disquieting little drama landing online this week, we’re dropped into familiar yet fertile territory. A charismatic and handsome male leader has assembled a group of subservient female followers living together in the wild, hanging on his every word. Like most cults, it’s one based on a rigid and regressive set of gender norms. He speaks, they listen. He demands, they comply. He takes, they give.

Related: Elephant review – Meghan Markle adds schmaltz to Disney yarn...

Hello again, dear readers. Right now, we’re living in unprecedented times, and it’s nice that, if nothing else, we still have entertainment to help us through all of this. Most of us are preparing for another month of self-isolation and thankfully we have a ton of horror and sci-fi titles hitting various VOD and Digital platforms throughout the month of April. Also, I decided to feature some special streaming events here as well, beyond the regular digital releases we usually get, as I thought it might be helpful to have as many distractions as we could possibly get over the next few weeks or so.

Later today, the Salem Horror Fest is hosting a virtual premiere for Mass Hysteria over on Facebook Live and the very next day, Shudder’s new series, Cursed Films, kicks off with their first episode on The Exorcist. The next installment of Blumhouse’s Into the Dark series,...

One clear sign that a group of women are in a cult is if they start singing in unison. Take Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. If I just turned on my TV without context and saw them all singing while dumpster diving, I would know that those girls weren’t simply just hanging out. This also goes for The Other Lamb. If I went in blind, I would know there was something much more sinister afoot once all the girls in similar dresses started singing hymns. Following recent films like the former, Midsommar, Mandy, and Charlie Says, to name a few, director Małgorzata Szumowska looks to add another must-watch to the canon of films about cults.

The film follows Selah (Raffey Cassidy), who was born into a cult known as the Flock. The cult is made up of women who are referred to as daughters and mothers. The women are all similarly made up,...