There’s something about the high-pressure nature of the migrant experience that can make films about it elicit more anxiety than your average thriller. So it is with Lloyd Lee Choi’s Lucky Lu. Set in New York’s Chinatown—a backdrop captured by DOP Norm Li as a caliginous labyrinth of alleyways and sepulchral rooms—Lee Choi’s feature debut centers on the titular Lu (Chang Chen), a Chinese delivery rider who’s spent years away from his wife and daughter, and now, having drummed up enough cash to secure an apartment for three, readies to welcome them to the city. Title notwithstanding, however, Lu might […]

The post “Anytime I Could Minimize the Use of Verbal Language and Rely on Other Means to Advance the Story, That’s What I Did”: Lloyd Lee Choi on His Cannes-Premiering Lucky Lu first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

For most viewers, sharks and horror cinema were permanently conjoined with Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws, one of the first wide release summer blockbusters, and one with shocks far more intense than its PG rating would indicate. Today, shark horror has migrated to the small (and vertical) screen, with TikTok’s algorithm serving many of us — me, somewhat inexplicably, included — a never ending gallery of shark attacks, menacing underwater shark approaches and the occasional gliding shark beauty shot. Australian director Sean Byrne’s Cannes-premiering Dangerous Animals confidently mines these lingering fears and fascinations as it mashes up the shark horror […]

The post “You Think You’re Scared of These Creatures, Well, Look Into Our Own Dark Hearts”: Sean Byrne on His Cannes-Premiering Shark Attack Horror Film, Dangerous Animals   first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Pedro Pinho’s Cannes-premiering I Only Rest In The Storm follows Sergio, a naive do-gooder who, as the film’s title implies, finds inner peace in places of chaos. In this case it’s the hurly-burly of Guinea-Bissau, where the Portuguese environmental engineer has been hired to produce an impact report that will pave the way for a road-building project to commence. There he meets two charismatic characters, party-loving besties Diara and Guillermhe, the former a native, the latter a Black Brazilian expat. And thus begins a bizarre triangle of love-hate attraction – fueled by a colonialist past, a capitalist present, and an […]

The post “At the Same Time that We’re Fighting for our Lives, We Are Also Agents of Exploitation, of Domination, of violence”: Pedro Pinho on his Cannes-Premiering I Only Rest In The Storm first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s Cannes-premiering A Useful Ghost is a multilayered cinematic extravaganza (and feat) that manages to seamlessly combine several deep themes: toxic pollution, soulless capitalism, the perils of prioritizing self-interest over the good of the community, and the beauty of unconventional romantic relationships. And that’s all while doing so in the guise of a love story equal parts poignant and bonkers involving a man named March and his recently deceased wife Nat, who has now taken the form of a very sleek vacuum cleaner. Just prior to the film’s Cannes’ Critics Week premiere, Filmmaker caught up with the Bangkok-based writer-director […]

The post “A Human-Ghost Relationship Perfectly Fits Within a Queer Framework”: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke on his Cannes-Premiering A Useful Ghost first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Clueless and a bit pathetic, the American video crew in Magic Farm, writer-director Amalia Ulman’s new satirical comedy, embody the vices of Western media companies that exoticize, exploit and sanitize the stories of the developing world for views. Set in small-town Argentina, the film, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, mostly follows the crew — Edna (Chloë Sevigny), Jeff (Alex Wolff), Justin (Joe Apollonio) — as they try to fabricate the story of a non-existent music act by enlisting the locals’ help. Meanwhile, the more pressing narrative of how the use of glyphosate, sprayed overhead by crop-dusting planes, […]

The post “There’s So Much Evil Done Because People Are Just Doing their Job”: Writer/Director Amalia Ulman On Her Satirical Comedy/Drama, Magic Farm first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

It’s always a dangerous business when entertainment journalists and film critics feel the need to wade into political commentary, but the Trumpian shadow hovering over everything makes people feel like they have to say something even if they don’t want to. At The Hollywood Reporter, a headline captures the exasperated tone: “Cannes Dealmakers Are Already Sick of Talking About Trump’s Tariffs.” Everyone would prefer to gossip and go about their usual routines even as the theoretically imminent global recession seems to already be in effect. Purely based on visual tells—crowd sizes, the increased number of party invites I’ve gotten—attendance is […]

The post Cannes 2025: Sound of Falling, Two Prosecutors first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Each year Filmmaker invites the The Gotham’s Cannes Producer Network Fellows to post about their experiences attending the Cannes Film Festival. This year’s entries begin with a post by Daniel Tantalean, who produced the 2024 Sundance Grand Jury Dramatic Prize Winner, In the Summers. My Love, It took 13 hours, but I finally landed in Nice and perhaps against better judgment, made the bold decision to take a bus and a train with two large suitcases in a city I don’t know, telling myself I’d be “adventurous.” I was met with confusion, crying babies, annoyed passengers and signage in a […]

The post “Do You Want To Be a Producer Today?” Daniel Tantalean’s Cannes Producer Diary #1 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

It’s a full eight-and-half minutes into Sister Midnight before newlyweds Uma (Radhika Apte) and Gopal (Ashok Pathak) even say a word to each other; conflict immediately ensues. Confined to a cramped, one-room apartment after moving to Mumbai, the spitfire Uma finds herself ill-suited to the rigid traditional roles expected of Indian brides. Her bashful husband, on the other hand, rebuffs her attempts to seduce him with a polite handshake. In this lonely arranged marriage of stifled desires and out-of-sync conversations, even bangles soon begin to feel like shackles. Despite this, Karan Kandhari’s Hindi-language directorial debut unfolds as a domestic drama […]

The post “I’m Not Interested in Horror Films”: Karan Kandhari on Sister Midnight first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

With the Cannes Film Festival underway until May 24, here are 17 films our editors and writers are keenly anticipating. As always, look throughout the festival for reviews from Vadim Rizov and Blake Williams as well as interviews and festival reports. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt) For her return to Cannes following 2022’s Showing Up, Kelly Reichardt latches onto Josh O’Connor’s rising star; after his profile-elevating turns in La chimera and Challengers, he’s in two competition titles this year (the other is Oliver Hermanus’s The History of Sound). Here he’s opposite Alana Haim, who also has a lot to promote with […]

The post 17 Films We’re Looking Forward to at Cannes 2025 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

We’re pleased to premiere the poster for ACID 2025 selection A Light That Never Goes Out. From the Cannes section’s website: Lauri-Matti Parppei, who has recorded several albums in a parallel life, takes us to their hometown in Northern Finland, a place where people speak little and depression is a taboo – this is Pauli’s illness, as he returns home to heal his wounds. With a melancholic tone, the film, through its precise, no-frills directing style, weaves its story like a musical score. Pauli rejects success and returns to life thanks to a chaotic lineup of outcasts. Friendship, stronger than anything, […]

The post Poster Premiere: ACID 2025 Selection A Light That Never Goes Out first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.