BERLIN: First time director Alex Russell’s film Lurker screens in a Special Gala at the Berlin Film Festival this year after its premiere screening earlier this year at Sundance Film Festival. He also wrote the script.

BERLIN: Director Mary Bronstein’s second feature If I Had Legs I’d Kick You screens in the main competition at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. It’s a pleasant and surprising leap forward in the director’s development after her 2008 debut film Yeast ,which didn’t really garner much of a following. So she is back after a 17 year break between her first and second features.

BERLIN: For some completely unknown reason film directors usually choose an actor who is not a singer at all when they are casting rock music biopics. But James Mangold has opted for singer Timothée Chalamet to star in his Bob Dylan biopic and the result is a stunning performance.

BERLIN: Director Richard Linklater has a long history of artistic collaboration with actor Ethan Hawke so the premiere of Blue Moon, a film about the artistic collaboration between legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart and the breakdown of his relationship with his partner Richard Rogers has raised high expectations for this Berlinale competition entry.

CANNES: Feminist horror film Her Will Be Done / Bądź wola moja by French-Polish director Julia Kowalski had its world premiere in the parallel section Directors’ Fortnight at the 78th Cannes Film Festival (13 – 24 May 2025).

CANNES: The new project by László Nemes is a French biopic of the French Resistance hero Jean Moulin, starring French actor Gilles Lellouche and German actor Lars Eidinger. The film’s rights have been acquired by newly-launched 193, which is showcasing the project in the Cannes Film Market (13 – 21 May 2025).

BUDAPEST: István Szabó’s Sunshine (1999) will screen in the Cannes Classics programme at the 78th Cannes Film Festival (13 – 24 May 2025), and the great Hungarian director will attend the event presented by the National Film Institute – Hungary (NFI) and Serendipity Point Films.

CANNES: The Croatian director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam Vanja Kaludjercic will be a member of the Un Certain Regard Jury at the 78th Cannes Film Festival (13 – 24 May 2025).

BUCHAREST: The Portuguese/Romanian/French/Brazilian coproduction I Only Rest in the Storm / O riso e a faca directed by Pedro Pinho will have its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival (13 – 24 May 2025).

NICOSIA: The new film by Israeli director Nadav Lapid, Yes, has been added to Cannes’ Quinzaine des Cinéastes. The film is a French/Israeli/Cypriot/German coproduction with the Deputy Ministry of Culture Cyprus Cyprus and Invest Cyprus – Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency among its supporters.