The Cannes Film Festival is shifting things for its 71st edition next year, starting one day earlier. Festival organizers announced Wednesday that the 2018 festival will start on May 8 and run through May 19, 2018 (ending on a Saturday instead of a Sunday). The awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 19.

“Following 2017’s anniversary edition, the Festival is beginning a new period in its history,” Festival President Pierre Lescure said in a statement. “We intend to renew the principles of our organization as much as possible, while continuing to question the cinema of our age and to be present through its upheavals.”

The new schedule, the statement read, will allow festival organizers to “rebalance” the two weeks of the event and bring “new energy” to the festival.

Exclusive: Director Jameson Brooks’ feature film debut Bomb City has landed at Gravitas Ventures. The distribution company announced today that it acquired the North American rights to the punk rock crime drama. "Watching Bomb City, you'll find yourself on a roller coaster of emotions, ultimately questioning the very morality of America's justice system," said Gravitas Ventures' Manager of Acquisitions, Zach Hamby. "Jameson Brooks' feature film debut is as powerful as…

Jessica Szohr has broken her silence on the harassment and rape allegations against her “Gossip Girl” co-star Ed Westwick. Actress Kristina Cohen accused the actor of rape in a detailed Facebook post published November 6, in which she described an alleged sexual assault that occurred three years ago at Westwick’s apartment. Cohen’s post was followed by a similar accusation from former actress Aurélie Wynn.

Read More:Ed Westwick Accused of Rape By Second Woman, Former Actress Aurélie Wynn

In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Szohr said she was shocked to hear the allegations against her former co-star and friend and that she would never think Westwick would be any woman in the type of position described by Cohen and Wynn.

“ have known Ed for years and know how lovely he is, and don’t think he would ever put someone in a position like that,” Szohr said. “It’s difficult,

It could be the name of a seniors-only a capella group, but the chummy, sunny title is misleading. If “Golden Dawn Girls,” which premiered in the main competition at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (Idfa), represents any celestial event, it might well be an eclipse. The film follows a brief moment in recent Greek political life during which, with the (almost exclusively male) leaders of the movement all imprisoned, the womenfolk of the nation’s far-right party, Golden Dawn, literally stepped up to the mic.

Continue reading Greece’s Right Wing Women Step Up In Chilling Doc ‘Golden Dawn Girls’ [Idfa Review] at The Playlist.

When director Joe Wright, the filmmaker behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Atonement,” “Hanna” and “Anna Karenina,” finished the movie “Pan,” and it was released into the world, he felt shattered. The expensive, big budget spectacle bombed at the box office and he wasn’t sure he’d go on.

‘Darkest Hour’: Gary Oldman Is Simply A Force Of Nature As Winston Churchill [Review]

“I had just made this $100 million flop.

Continue reading Joe Wright’s ‘Darkest Hour’: Nearly Quitting Movies After ‘Pan,’ ‘Dunkirk’ Connections & More at The Playlist.

It’s no secret that dedicated cinephile and 70mm advocate Quentin Tarantino is not a fan of Netflix. After all, this is a director who still watches VHS and tapes things off television. However, Tarantino’s resistance to the digital future isn’t simply borne from an irrational nostalgia to the past. Instead, the former video store employee believes that Netflix has created in audiences an unwillingness to take a chance on something completely unknown to them and stick with it to the end, instead of tuning out if it doesn’t grab their attention immediately.

Continue reading Quentin Tarantino Talks Netflix And Why He Doesn’t Like It at The Playlist.

For a time, “Chasing Coral” director Jeff Orlowski was worried he wouldn’t actually be able to capture the climax of his film.

Thanks to technical malfunctions and other mishaps, which are documented in the film, he and his team weren’t able to capture the coral bleaching they set out to record. After a showing of the movie at the International Documentary Association’s annual screening series, he told IndieWire Special Projects Editor Steve Greene that he expected to finish it an entire year before he actually completed it.

Read More:‘An Inconvenient Sequel’ Filmmakers on Modifying Their Film After Donald Trump’s Climate Policy Changes

“We weren’t capturing the bleaching and the cameras didn’t work,” he said in a post-film Q&A. “We knew that, unfortunately for the planet, more opportunities were coming up, that the bleaching was only scheduled to continue, and that’s what

At last week’s “Coco” premiere at the El Capitan in Hollywood, John Lasseter had a look of sadness in his eyes. The usual gregarious charm didn’t come as easily. Maybe he was tired: he’d been running both Pixar and Disney Animation as chief creative officer for the last 11 years.

That was the explanation when Lasseter first stepped down as director of “Toy Story 4” earlier this year. Then came Tuesday’s shocking revelation of alleged unwanted advances, forcing the animation mogul — who was known for his warm hugs — to take a six-month leave of absence from the studios, apologizing for “missteps” in a memo to his Disney/Pixar staff.

Lasseter, by far the most powerful and influential figure in contemporary animation, joins a growing list of big-name players in Hollywood, the media, and politics accused of sexual misconduct (including Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and Charlie Rose). This

Pedro Almodóvar has been making movies for nearly 30 years, and for much of that time, he’s been seen as one of the world’s greatest living filmmakers. In the meantime, he’s also occasionally helped other directors realize their visions, most recently as a producer of Argentina’s Lucrecia Martel on her new period drama “Zama.” IndieWire recently spoke to Almodóvar about “Zama,” which is currently in contention for the foreign language Oscar, but the director also mused on the way the filmmaking process has evolved since he first got into the game.

“I feel as passionate as when I directed my first movie,” he wrote in an email. “To write and to direct a film are still the most important experiences in my life. Everything else has changed though, particularly the way films are shown nowadays, the very many different ways someone can actually see something.”

Read More:How

It’s no secret that the film industry is dominated by men. Even the indie game mostly touts male-led films by male directors. As a result, there are a lot of slice-of-life films out there that bravely explore what a bummer it is to be a white dude with depression. While I adore some of those movies, they can be petri dishes for poorly-written women, as the aforementioned dudes usually relearn the value of life from Manic Pixie Dream Girls.

Continue reading Noël Wells’ ‘Mr. Roosevelt’ Is An Original, Endearing First Feature [Review] at The Playlist.

It’s not often that single character from a TV series becomes a meme, but Jude Law‘s titular “The Young Pope” enjoyed a brief life on the Twittersphere earlier this year. Cinephiles in particular were charmed by the eccentric character. And while that probably had little bearing on Marvel‘s decision to recruit the actor for their cinematic universe, it does remind us that the only superhero we want Law to play is The Young Pope.

Continue reading Jude Law Joins ‘Captain Marvel’ at The Playlist.

Look, it’s a stressful time of year, even if Thanksgiving politics discussions weren’t already right on the horizon.

So it’s probably perfect timing for HBO to remind everyone that “High Maintenance” is coming back to mellow everyone out next year. (And maybe even make some people happy in the process!)

Read More:‘High Maintenance’ Review: The First Great Web Series Is Now HBO’s Best New Show

One of the first shows to successfully make the jump from web series to TV, “High Maintenance” stars Ben Sinclair as The Guy as he makes weed deliveries to a wide-ranging clientele. Judging by this teaser, a lot of his customers are a little anxious about things happening out in the world, but a few of them are offering some hope, too.

This is the second round of HBO-released episodes from Katja Blichfeld and Sinclair, who originally created the show back in 2012 for the web.

The canon of movies about passionate, yet awful filmmakers isn’t very large, but Tim Burton‘s terrific “Ed Wood” is about to be joined by James Franco‘s “The Disaster Artist.” The story about the making of Tommy Wiseau‘s cult favorite “The Room” is both hilarious and heartbreaking, with Franco going full Franco, not only directing the movie, but taking the lead role.

Continue reading James Franco Shot 25 Minutes Of Recreated Scenes From ‘The Room’ at The Playlist.

Movies that center around writers tend to vary. The process of writing is so inherently introspective that trying to make that narratively interesting can be tricky. There are exceptions, of course. There are great movies, like Spike Jonze‘s “Adaptation,” that found ingenious, heartbreaking ways to depict what it means to be a writer without overdoing the showmanship. There are films, like “Barton Fink” and “The Shining,” that use different genres and dark comedy to translate the madness that comes in trying to jot down your thoughts.

Continue reading ‘The Man Who Invented Christmas’ Gives Dan Stevens A Charming Yet Formulaic Holiday Biopic [Review] at The Playlist.

Every movie starts with a handful of distributor and producer logos, and most of the time, they give you a few extra seconds to get comfortable before the film actually starts. However, every now and then filmmakers use that corporate branding as one more element to pull viewers into the world of their movie. And Denis Villeneuve accomplished that very thing with “Blade Runner 2049.”

With Warner Bros., Sony, Columbia, and Alcon Entertainment logos to run through, the director had the team at Prodigal Pictures gave them a glitchy, noir-ish, futuristic sheen.

Continue reading Alternate Studio Logo Treatment For ‘Blade Runner 2049’ Revealed at The Playlist.

For this year’s 20th anniversary of Ridm, the Montreal International Documentary Film Festival teamed up with Visions, the city’s experimental documentary film series, for a truly cutting edge retrospective titled “James N. Kienitz Wilkins: Vessels/Containers.” Wilkins, a 25 New Face” of 2016, was honored with four programs containing seven of his works, created from 2012 through 2017. This includes 2012’s nearly two hour Public Hearing, a 16mm, B&W-filmed performance of the transcript from a town hall debate about replacing a Walmart with a Super Walmart, all the way to 2017’s 38-minute Mediums, a medium-length movie made up entirely of medium […]

Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon’s upcoming collaboration for Amazon and Funny or Die might be one of the holiday season’s funniest media experiments. The duo, in character as local Los Angeles broadcasters “Cord Hosenbeck and Tish Cattigan,” will host a live broadcast of the 2018 Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day for the streaming platform.

As announced by Amazon in an impressively sneaky press release on Wednesday, “Cord Hosenbeck and Tish Cattigan are no strangers to the Rose Bowl, having covered the event for the past 25 years. However, their move this year to Amazon from a local station will allow their fans from around the world to stream the event live.”

No network has exclusive TV rights to the Rose Parade, which is why Amazon will be able to join the other broadcasters carrying it on New Year’s Day. The characters of Cord and Tish

Adult Swim has released a new “Rick and Morty” short film just in time for Thanksgiving, and it might just be the most emotional thing the show has ever done. Entitled “The Poop In My Pants,” the short tells the emotional life story of the fan-favorite character Mr. Poopybutthole, who first made his “Rick and Morty” debut in the Season 2 episode “Total Rickall.”

Read More:‘Rick and Morty’ Creators Are Giving One Fan the Chance to Record Season 3 DVD Commentary With Them

The short finds Mr. Poopybutthole reading a photo album that takes the viewer through the ups and downs of his life. The clip is similar to the opening of “Up” and packs an unexpected emotional wallop.

“Rick and Morty” recently wrapped up its third season as the most watched show in Adult Swim history. The video may run less than two minutes, but you might need a tissue.

In 1986, Spike Lee wowed the world with “She’s Gotta Have It,” an homage to black female sexuality. With its jazzy score, sumptuous visuals, and a frank attitude toward sex, the film perfectly combined arthouse innovation and contemporary cool. Its characters were unique without seeming overwrought, and its story was fresh without seeming too precocious.

Over 30 years later, Lee and Netflix have attempted to revive that classic by adapting it into a miniseries.

Continue reading Spike Lee’s ‘She’s Gotta Have It’ Can’t Charm Its Way Out Of Its Flaws [Review] at The Playlist.

Running November 9th-19th, this year’s 20th edition of Ridm (or the Montreal International Documentary Film Festival for us non-Québécois) once again proved that big things come in small(ish) packages. Though not nearly as big as that other international doc fest directly on its heels, Ridm’s charm lies precisely in the fact that it’s both wide-ranging and easily navigable. In other words, a docuphile can relax and focus on the inspiring work in front of their eyes at any given moment instead of lamenting over the dozen other screenings, panels and events they’re inevitably missing. Which is not to say there […]