Latest news with #StellanSkarsgård
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
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Cannes 2025 Palme d'Or Contenders Ranked: Who Will Win the Top Prize?
Updated, May 24: My final ranking of how this year's Cannes Film Festival titles will shake out while vying for the Palme d'Or is below. Reviews and reactions to late premieres 'The Mastermind' (Kelly Reichardt) and 'Young Mothers' (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne) haven't startled the race too much at this point. The Palme is Neon's to lose, with either 'Sentimental Value,' or the company's mid-festival acquisitions comprising 'It Was Just an Accident,' 'Sirât,' or 'The Secret Agent' taking the top prize. My money is on 'Sentimental Value,' which delivers on the emotion the jury looks for, but who can really be sure? If not Neon, then the Palme could go to MUBI for Mascha Schilinski's avant-garde tone poem of generational female anguish, 'Sound of Falling.' Expect this film to win something. As for Neon, if they win the 2025 Palme, it's their sixth in a row after 'Parasite,' 'Titane,' 'Triangle of Sadness,' 'Anatomy of a Fall,' and 'Anora.' 'Sentimental Value' star Stellan Skarsgård could win Best Actor from the jury; so could 'The Secret Agent' star Wagner Moura. Neon will clean up on Saturday. More from IndieWire These Cannes 2025 Prize Winners Will Inspire Oscar Campaigns Cowboys vs. Accountants: The Real World of International Production Financing | Future of Filmmaking Summit at Cannes Jury president Juliette Binoche is not a stranger to elliptical, emotionally sparse films, including her work with Abbas Kiarostami, Michael Haneke, and Claire Denis, all Cannes prize winners or contenders for her collaborations. She may steer the jury away from something that's purely about heightened, operatic feeling, like 'Sentimental Value,' and more toward something heady and recalcitrant, like 'Sirât.' Jafar Panahi's 'It Was Just an Accident' dances somewhere between the two polar categories, but the narrative of this filmmaker fleeing his country after making his most accessible movie yet can't be denied. (After filming in Iran, 'It Was Just an Accident' completed post-production in France.) See IndieWire's final Palme d'Or contenders ranking at the bottom of this story. The awards ceremony takes place on Saturday night in Cannes. Updated, May 23: Neon now looks primed to win the company's sixth consecutive Palme d'Or with multiple contenders in its war chest. Beyond earlier Brazilian premiere 'The Secret Agent,' two Neon films vying for the Palme with extraordinary reviews are 'It Was Just an Accident,' which we discuss below, and Joachim Trier's 'Sentimental Value.' The Thursday premiere earned raves for the Norwegian filmmaker's sprawling, Bergmanesque family portrait, starring Stellan Skarsgård as an arthouse auteur trying to jumpstart his career and recover his fractured relationship with his daughters, played by Renate Reinsve (2021 Best Actress Cannes winner for Trier's 'The Worst Person in the World') and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas. IndieWire's Anne Thompson called 'Sentimental Value' a 'surefire Oscar contender,' while Skarsgård could give Cannes Best Actor frontrunner Wagner Moura a run for his money with one of the deepest and most sensitive roles of the Swedish veteran's career. Elle Fanning co-stars as the American actress his Gustav hires to play a role he originally wrote for his theater-actress daughter Nora (Reinsve), who turns him down. The film received a reported 19-minute standing ovation — while these recorded lengthy bouts of applause are often arbitrary, as in-house cameras move leisurely from talent to talent to capture everyone's reactions after the credits, it's allegedly one of the longest in the festival's history. Last year, Neon's Palme winner 'Anora' also premiered late in the festival. I'm calling 'Sentimental Value' the Palme frontrunner at this point, as it delivers on the big emotions the jury often looks for in a winner. Neon meanwhile acquired 'It Was Just an Accident' during the festival, suggesting Tom Quinn and his team have faith in Panahi's bruising portrait of Iranian dissidents to win a prize. (It's not going home empty-handed, I can assure.) Still to screen are the Dardennes' 'Young Mothers' and Kelly Reichardt's 'The Mastermind.' Bi Gan's bewildering cinematic epic 'Resurrection' stunned and baffled critics with its expansive, genre-crossing, sci-fi-tinged filmmaking, making the Chinese filmmaker a possible Cannes Best Director contender for his boundary-pushing vision. Earlier, May 21: The raves are in for dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi's 'It Was Just an Accident,' with the asylum filmmaker in attendance at Cannes for Wednesday's press conference and Tuesday night's premiere. The powerful drama — less reflexive than Panahi's recent films like 'No Bears' or 'Taxi' in which the director, by virtue of his outsider and formerly incarcerated status in Iran, is forced to become a character himself — has some of the best reviews out on the Screen International jury grid. It follows an ever-growing group of Iranians who kidnap and consider killing their former captor under the regime. In an affecting move, Panahi shows women without hijab, such as a wedding photographer roped into being a part of the man's captivity, to reflect the shifts in his native country's society post-Woman, Life, Freedom movement. Panahi spoke openly during the press conference and in a Variety interview about how his experience in prison under interrogation and torture-like tactics inspired this politically rousing film. It's tough and dark but also features plenty of humor, and there's seemingly no one at Cannes who doesn't think it's a second-week Palme frontrunner. Panahi previously won the Camera d'Or for his 1995 debut 'The White Balloon' and the Best Screenplay prize in competition for '3 Faces' in 2018. 'It Was Just an Accident,' as it's titled in English, is a sales title currently looking for U.S. distribution. I've spoken to a few buyers who loved the movie. Based on early reviews, including IndieWire's rave, someone will want to snap this one up quickly before Saturday's awards ceremony. Carla Simón's autobiographical 'Romería' out of Spain, about an aspiring filmmaker who ventures into learning about her family history and especially her late father, who died of AIDS in the early 1990s when she was young, also debuted Wednesday to supportive reviews. The superb cinematography from Hélène Louvart, who also shot Scarlett Johansson's Un Certain Regard premiere 'Eleanor the Great' but is a regular at Cannes with her work ('La Chimera,' 'Motel Destino'), deserves consideration from the jury. Premiering today in Cannes are 'The History of Sound' and 'Sentimental Value,' which screened for reviewers earlier on Saturday and could be up for prizes themselves. Reviews, which just broke, for 'The History of Sound' are mixed, though Paul Mescal could be a Cannes Best Actor contender for his moving portrayal of a music student enamored with Josh O'Connor. They go on the road together, falling in love and collecting music after bonding as fellow Boston Conservatory students. MUBI has distribution rights and will release the queer World War I-adjacent romance later in the year. It will no doubt make the rounds at regional fall festivals on the way to an Oscar campaign. Oliver Hermanus' film doesn't feel like a Palme winner, though. It's not hugely giving in terms of emotions, which are what the juries go for. We'll keep updating the below ranking. Earlier, May 20: We are exactly a week into the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, and on a day of severe, soaking rain hailing down upon the Croisette. In other words, ideal moviegoing weather. At this point, we've seen 13 competition titles, with Julia Ducournau's divisive epidemic-horror-meets-grief-drama 'Alpha' debuting Monday night to wildly mixed reactions (including a pan from IndieWire's own critic and established Ducournau fan David Ehrlich). Ducournau won the Palme in 2021 for 'Titane' and is unlikely to repeat this year; Neon releases the AIDS-allegorical domestic drama later in 2025. Tuesday night brings the premiere of asylum filmmaker Jafar Panahi's 'It Was Just an Accident' out of Iran, with the dissident director set to appear in person for a press conference on Wednesday. Could this film follow the pattern of another Iranian director, Mohammad Rasoulof, who won a prize last year for eventual Oscar nominee 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig'? Yet to come are Oliver Hermanus' 'The History of Sound,' Joachim Trier's 'Sentimental Value,' Saeed Roustaee's 'Woman and Child,' Bi Gan's 'Resurrection,' Carla Simón's 'Romeria,' the Dardennes' 'Young Mothers,' and Kelly Richardt's 'The Mastermind.' That film will be the last to premiere in competition, as Cannes awaits the arrival of Josh O'Connor, who is currently in production duties in the United States on Steven Spielberg's upcoming sci-fi film. That meant he had to miss the 'History of Sound' press junket on Tuesday (stay tuned for IndieWire's coverage), with his co-star Paul Mescal holding court. So far, there is no clear, universally praised standout, though early premieres 'Sound of Falling' from Mascha Schilinski and 'Two Prosecutors' from Sergei Loznitsa are holding high on the Screen International critics' jury grid. There was a lot of praise, too, for Oliver Laxe's tough sit 'Sirât,' a sales title that follows a father and his small son into the Moroccan desert to find his missing daughter amid drug-fueled raves that cross 'Mad Max' with Burning Man. Richard Linklater's black-and-white French New Wave love letter 'Nouvelle Vague' was also adored on the ground, appealing to the European and American cinephile set with its gorgeous cinematography and who's-who of the Parisian filmmaking scene in 1959. It's more a New Wave hangout movie than a strict chronicle of the making of Jean-Luc Godard's 'Breathless,' though it peels back the curtain on how Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) put together his groundbreaking movie with stars Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch, who nails Seberg's wobbly French accent) and Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin, a dead ringer for the late French star). Kleber Mendonça Filho's lively, nearly three-hour epic 'The Secret Agent,' set in 1970s Brazil and following Wagner Moura as a tech expert on the run during the country's carnival week, also picked up great reviews. I could see Moura ('Narcos,' 'Civil War'), speaking his native Portuguese throughout this energetically directed political thriller, picking up the Best Actor prize from Juliette Binoche's jury — which includes actors like Jeremy Strong and Halle Berry, who surely responded to the best big-screen performance showcase of Moura's career. Still splitting everyone on the ground are Ari Aster's 'Eddington' and Lynne Ramsay's 'Die, My Love,' which scored the biggest sale of the festival so far, $23 million at MUBI with eyes on an Oscar campaign for Jennifer Lawrence, a Cannes Best Actress contender for her character's postpartum depression spiral. It's Aster's first Cannes, and European audiences took more to his COVID-era Western satire than some Americans. Scottish auteur Ramsay, meanwhile, won Best Screenplay in 2017 for 'You Were Never Really Here' and is a regular at Cannes despite being less regular in terms of her output ('Die My Love' is her first film since that year). Getting so-so reviews was Wes Anderson's 'The Phoenician Scheme,' an espionage comedy starring Benicio del Toro and breakout Mia Threapleton, who got emotional during the standing ovation on Sunday night. The painterly, tweezer-precise compositions from production designer Adam Stockhausen and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel are all on vivid display here, but the narrative leaves something to be desired, and signals it might be time for Anderson to shake up his schtick. Less buzzy but picking up praise, Chie Hayakawa's 1980s-set Tokyo coming-of-age drama 'Renoir' and Egyptian film industry political satire 'Eagles of the Republic,' from 2022 Best Screenplay winner Tarik Saleh ('Boy from Heaven'), also make a bid for the Palme. Hayakawa won the Camera d'Or out of 2022's Un Certain Regard for 'Plan 75,' making 'Renoir' her competition debut. Hafsia Herzi's French-Algerian coming-out chronicle 'The Little Sister' was a day four premiere that could pick up a lower-end jury prize or even Best Actress notices for breakout Nadia Melliti, who got a nice interview spread from Vulture's Rachel Handler. Based on conversations with distributors, executives, critics, and industry attendees, I've ranked below which films are likely so far to score the Palme d'Or. Past winners like 'Anora' have popped during the second week, so don't rule out any of the remaining films. There's still much to see. 1. 'Sentimental Value'2. 'It Was Just an Accident'3. 'Sound of Falling'4. 'The Secret Agent'5. 'Sirât'6. 'Nouvelle Vague'7. 'Two Prosecutors'8. 'Resurrection'9. 'Young Mothers'10. 'The Mastermind'11. 'Eddington'12. 'Die My Love'13. 'Renoir'14. 'Romería'15. 'Woman and Child'16. 'The History of Sound'17. 'Eagles of the Republic'18. 'The Little Sister'19. 'Dossier 137'20, 'Fuori'21. 'The Phoenician Scheme'22. 'Alpha' Best of IndieWire Nightmare Film Shoots: The 38 Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from 'Deliverance' to 'The Wages of Fear' Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Movies: 65 Films the Director Wants You to See The 19 Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in May, from 'Fair Play' to 'Emily the Criminal'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Neon's Tom Quinn Reveals His Oscar-Whisperer Secrets Ahead of the Cannes Awards
At IndieWire's annual 'Screen Talk' live podcast at the American Pavilion in Cannes, Neon CEO Tom Quinn returned to share his Oscar whisperer secrets after his victory lap on 'Anora,' which won the Palme d'Or last year followed by five Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actress, Editing, and Original Screenplay. Quinn is the talk of Cannes because, as anticipated, the movie he acquired at last year's festival, Joachim Trier's 'Sentimental Value,' starring Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve, is the frontrunner for the Palme. While Quinn talked about the four films he brought to the festival (listen below), after our podcast, he acquired three Competition titles: Jafar Panahi's family drama 'It Was Just an Accident,' Brazil's popular entry 'The Secret Agent,' from Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Oliver Laxe's tragic French-Spanish production 'Sirât,' which polarized many Cannes watchers. Even if these four Neon titles don't win Cannes prizes — several will, we guarantee it — they should wind up submitted for the Best International Feature Oscar. More from IndieWire These Cannes 2025 Prize Winners Will Inspire Oscar Campaigns Cowboys vs. Accountants: The Real World of International Production Financing | Future of Filmmaking Summit at Cannes Quinn is at the top of his game and has the confidence to make bold moves and the experience to know how to make the most of them. And he calls it like he sees it. There's no corporate overlord telling him to watch his mouth. (Hear his no-holds-barred interview below or via your preferred podcast platform.) And check the podcast for Ryan Lattanzio and Anne Thompson's candid assessment of the Cannes selection mid-festival: top of class is Spike Lee's Oscar-worthy Akira Kurosawa update 'Highest 2 Lowest' (A24/Apple TV+), which should have been in Competition. We were less wowed by Ari Aster's neo-Western 'Eddington' (A24), which is carried by the exemplary Joaquin Phoenix but wastes Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone. Same goes for Wes Anderson's B-tier 'The Phoenician Scheme' (Focus), carried by Benicio del Toro and Mia Threapleton (scion of Kate Winslet) while underutilizing its sprawling ensemble. Then, there's the grief-addiction drama 'Alpha' (Neon), Julia Ducournau's less-than-stellar follow-up to Palme d'Or winner and French Oscar submission 'Titane,' which inspired Anne and Ryan to debate the plot without coming to any clear conclusions. Not good. Anne was over the moon about 'Nouvelle Vague,' Richard Linklater's breezy black-and-white love letter to Paris in 1959; he recreates the making of Jean-Luc Godard's 'Breathless' with a cast of unknowns who look like the critics and filmmakers who were there at the time. Ryan calls it 'shallow enjoyment' and compares it to Woody Allen's 'Midnight in Paris.' 'It's good as a New Wave hangout movie where you see people like Bresson and Rivette and Rohmer and all these people you know running around Paris. I did like Zoey Deutch. She nails Jean Seberg's terrible French accent,' he said. We also disagree on Kristen Stewart's debut feature and sales title 'The Chronology of Water' (Un Certain Regard), which eschews a standard three-act narrative for five free-flowing chapters. Anne thinks British actress Imogen Poots anchors the audacious film, while Ryan dismisses it as 'navel-gazing at female misery.' We agree it could use some time in the editing room, but Stewart told me she wasn't going back. On a more positive note, we both admired body-horror flick 'The Plague' (Un Certain Regard), an assured debut from Charlie Pollinger that is for sale. A24 is developing a movie with him, 'The Masque of the Red Death,' with Sydney Sweeney. Ryan admired Lynne Ramsay's 'Die My Love' more than Anne, who does predict an Oscar nomination for Jennifer Lawrence's slow descent into madness. MUBI won a bidding war and paid $23 million. Will they make their money back with the combined star power of Lawrence and Robert Pattinson? MUBI did a great job with 'The Substance,' and they obviously think they can work with this cast and this subject to create some interest from audiences. But will it play? We doubt this film is as entertaining as 'The Substance.' Anne and Ryan both love rising actor Harris Dickinson's directing debut 'Urchin,' which breaks out [eventual Un Certain Regard Best Actor winner] Frank Dillane as an unhoused Londoner who can't ditch his addictions. Ryan compared it to Mike Leigh's 'Naked.' Hopefully, the movie will land a buyer who will make the most of it. When Tom Quinn took the stage, he explained how 'Anora' scored 'the largest theatrical bump post- Oscar win since 'Oppenheimer,'' he said. 'The significant bump was on home entertainment, which it had been on since Christmas, and that was seismic. The end result of that is probably somewhere around 125-to-150% of our original expectation, which is great. But coming up with our plans, post-winning the Palme d'Or, we intentionally built a large, wide release film. While we platformed it, we knew that we would move into a wide release, that we'd try to reach an audience that wasn't paying attention to the review-driven specialized independent sector, and possibly this would be the first Sean Baker film that they'd ever seen. But all in all, we kept to our guns.' On Oscar night, Quinn was moved by the overwhelming warmth in the room. 'I always liken the Oscars to the high school cafeteria,' said Quinn, 'because you're sitting there with people who may or may not like you, who want to stick you in the back, and so you're sitting next to Warner Bros. and all the other studios. Sitting in front of us was A24, and they were exceptionally gracious. Sitting behind us was MUBI, and I can't say that it was the same feeling.' When Quinn arrives in Cannes, he always has next year in mind. 'We came here with two films under our belt ['Alpha' and 'Sentimental Value'], and two other films that are playing here: Raoul Peck's 'Orwell: 2+2=5,' as well as Kyle Marvin and Mike Covino's 'Splitsville.' The only thing that outdid the screening was that party. It's the greatest party that Cannes has ever witnessed, the amount of dancing that was happening. Mike Covino said, 'We're bringing back comedies to the theater, folks.'' Of course, Quinn was in the hunt for more buys. 'There's always room for more,' he said. 'I have a voracious appetite for incredible cinema, and I hate saying no to stuff, but we also want to do right by films… We've seen a lot here this year, and it reminds me of years past, where it's a ton of challenging cinema, and you can fall on either side of what you think of these movies. We've had some fierce conversations internally. We don't always agree, and when we all agree, maybe that's the movie you don't buy.' Neon did get in the bidding for 'Die My Love,' even though Quinn didn't love it. 'We certainly fought for it, but at a reasonable level,' he said. As for MUBI's $23-million winning bid: 'That's a press release, right? That's not buying movies. And good for them.' Winning the Palme d'Or this year would be Neon's sixth in a row. Last year, before 'Anora' won, they acquired 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig' at the last minute, too. 'The truth is, and I know no one believes us,' said Quinn, 'we've never been that cynical, and while we are extremely competitive, we adore our filmmakers. We're desperate to work with them. We never get over losing movies. It's always an open wound. But I've never felt any pressure. I came here for 20 years and didn't win a thing.' Quinn said, though, that the 'year that I thought we might win something,' when he was SVP of Magnolia Pictures, 'it fell apart miraculously at the press conference for 'Melancholia.' We stayed up all night celebrating. I was, 'Man, we're going to go all the way, look at this.' And then the car just went off and veered off the cliff. [Director Lars von Trier made a comment about Hitler that led to him being exiled from Cannes.] Lars von Trier was quite apologetic about it.' Quinn values the granddaddy of festivals: 'We feel fully ensconced in Cannes. It means a lot to film, it means a lot to us as a company, but I feel no pressure. And the reality is, I feel that there might be more pressure on the selection committee, because four of the last five Palme d'Or winners have been Best Picture nominees, and two of those have won. That's extraordinary.' Why has this shift occurred? 'It's operating from a place of confidence and platforming these movies,' he said. 'And taking your time and knowing that we can sustain a campaign for a quality film (like the ones that have won the Palme d'Or) over the course of six months, and everybody else is burning hot and bright and quick. That jury represents the Academy. They are an eclectic group of talent: actors, directors from all over the world.' Quinn added, 'And while they are not the entire 9,000-plus body, it's a great sample size. And so the triangle of the selection committee here in France, the birthplace of cinema, an incredible festival, a selection of all kinds of movies, 20-plus, it's the best representation of cinema. These wins across the Academy are merit-based. The nominations may not be. I'm not going to call out any single film or any single company who does it very well every single year, but I do think the wins are merit-based, and that Palme d'Or and the other selections, whether it's director, screenplay, actor, actress, we've enjoyed the benefit.' Joachim Trier's 'Sentimental Value' played late in the festival, like 'Anora.' 'Well, someone said to me that most of the Palme d'Or winners of late have premiered in the second week,' said Quinn. 'So I'm excited to go to its premiere on Wednesday.' (We recorded on Tuesday). The rest is history. We will find out at the awards on of IndieWire Nightmare Film Shoots: The 38 Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from 'Deliverance' to 'The Wages of Fear' Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Movies: 65 Films the Director Wants You to See The 19 Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in May, from 'Fair Play' to 'Emily the Criminal'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Stellan Skarsgård Finds One of His Best Roles in ‘Sentimental Value': The Actor on His Cannes Hit and What He Thinks of Son Alexander's Sexy ‘Pillion'
On a shaded rooftop above the Croisette, Stellan Skarsgård deflected praise for his performance in Joachim Trier's 'Sentimental Value,' a rare Cannes consensus pick. 'Proud?' he told IndieWire quietly, rolling the word with audible distaste. 'I'm not usually proud of things. I don't know about that. Joachim's way of working is very special, very beautiful, and quite brave. And it fucking works. That's good.' More from IndieWire These Cannes 2025 Prize Winners Will Inspire Oscar Campaigns Cowboys vs. Accountants: The Real World of International Production Financing | Future of Filmmaking Summit at Cannes In the film, Skarsgård plays Gustav Borg, a once-lauded arthouse director who abandoned his wife and daughters in pursuit of his career. Fifteen years have passed since his last film, and longer still since his last success. Now, he's written a screenplay exploring his emotional distance from his family and his mother's suicide, centred on a role he wants his estranged daughter Nora, played by 'The Worst Person in the World' star Renate Reinsve, to take on. Cinephiles may recognise Gustav Borg's type, the faded auteur with a loyal cinematographer and a career documentary about which he is quietly proud. But Skarsgård insists there was no single point of inspiration. 'I've made about 150 films and worked with a lot of directors,' said Skarsgård. 'There's no particular one I based him on. He could be a composer, conductor, even a banker. It's about a man whose work is his life. And that's the problem: it competes with his family life.' 'He is conservative in a way and doesn't have the tools to break the scar tissue that comes from not being present. As a father, he's more traditional than me because I have no hierarchy with my kids,' he said, referring to his seven sons and one daughter, offspring that include three employees of the film and television industry, a doctor and the acting fraternity of Alexander, Gustaf, Bill and Valter. 'I was very pleased when they became actors because we had at least found something in common that we could talk about,' he said with a smile. 'But I don't have a weaker relationship with my doctor son than with the others.' 'They're doing different things and they're very different kinds of actors. The important thing that they have understood is, 'fuck the world'. It's what you experience on the set that is important, and you can have a good experience on a small budget film or in a big budget film and you can become famous from it or be unknown after it.' His son Alexander is also at Cannes, starring in Harry Lighton's poignant and explicit BDSM romance 'Pillion', which the elder Skarsgård admits he is 'dying to see'. Critics have called the performance revealing and brave, descriptors that make Skarsgård smile. 'Oh good,' he said. 'I want him to be like that.' The character of Gustav Borg is already being discussed as a possible first Oscar nomination for Skarsgård, who already has an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe award for his performance in the HBO miniseries 'Chernobyl.' Described by Trier as 'one of the great Nordic actors of all time,' the role of Borg gives Skarsgård the rare opportunity to show the depth of his talent, creating a warm, complex, funny and deeply melancholy character. 'I like getting awards because I like,' he said, miming receiving a statue, ''I liked what you did. Here, have an award.' That's fun.' He sips on a glass of water and looks over the bustle of the Croisette below. 'I used to party all night at festivals and do press all day. I had an enormous appetite for that because I'm a very social being. But with age, you can't go on like that. I have to go to bed early, and I've got to get up and produce something.' Skarsgård has been acting since 1968, and in that time has seen the industry reshape itself around streaming, franchises, and finance. Over the last decade, he has been involved in some of the most financially successful film franchises, including 'Dune,' the Marvel universe, and 'Mamma Mia,' as well as series like 'Andor' and 'Chernobyl.' While his methods have changed little, the industry around him has transformed. When he considers how the industry has changed over his long career, Skarsgård singles out money as the root of all change. 'Everything is owned by investment companies now, and they need 15% return on their invested capital to be happy. Before, you could have a film studio and have 5% return of the capital, and they were happy too, but that doesn't work anymore. So, you get those fucking big machines — like Netflix,' he said, citing the company that his 'Sentimental Value' character makes his deeply personal film for. 'Since Netflix won the competition about streaming services, they don't throw away money anymore,' he said. 'They fired their head of film because he wanted to support artists, so now they're starting to do reality shows instead,' he shrugged. 'AT&T owns Time Warner, you know? What have they got to do with it? But I suppose I am good for business.' Skarsgård reserves a special place for anyone who loves and cares about film, such as director Joachim Trier. In the past, Skarsgård has cited his favorite performances as those devoid of the process of acting. Trier, he said, is a director whose methods are 'exemplary' when it comes to creating performances like these. 'What I want is the absolute truth in expression, and that cannot be planned,' said Skarsgård. 'You can plan the surface of it, you can make a very beautiful performance of it, but it will be like a beautiful diamond; totally cold. It doesn't have the irrationality of life,' he paused. 'But Joachim sees what you're doing, even if you're not doing it. He does a lot of takes, but he doesn't push you in any direction. He lures out the experience, the reflection of the experience and the different kinds of emotions that are created in the moment, so you don't know what's going to come, and sometimes you surprise yourself. I used to say, 'I'm very technical, but I want to be as good as an amateur when I act'. Like Björk, she's an amateur, but [in Lars von Trier's 'Dancer in the Dark'], she's got a rich inner life that pours out of her when she's acting.' It is this sense of on-set spontaneity and surprise that Skarsgård credits with keeping him excited and engaged with acting. This can come on any size of set, he said, it depends on the people with whom he's working, and there are few people he's worked with more often than the director of 'Dancer in the Dark.' 'It's the same with the other Trier, Lars von Trier,' he continued. 'He doesn't even block the scene. He says, 'Good?,' he starts, and things come. He's not working in detail as much as Joachim, so they're different in that way. Joachim has a much more solid script.' A few days earlier at Cannes, on IndieWire's Screen Talk podcast, Neon head and 'Sentimental Value' producer Tom Quinn recalled a moment of Cannes infamy. Back in 2011, when he was working on Lars von Trier's film 'Melancholia,' which starred Skarsgård, his son Alexander, Kiefer Sutherland, Brady Corbet, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Kirsten Dunst, Quinn believed it would be a breakout hit in the U.S. Then, came the infamous press conference, where von Trier declared, 'I understand Hitler.' The comment, later apologized for and taken out of context, irreversibly damaged his reputation. 'You can see the moment he says it,' Quinn recalled. 'The actresses' faces just fall. That was the moment it was all over.' Since his debut in the late 1980s, von Trier has built one of cinema's most viscerally powerful and galvanizing filmographies and built a partnership with Skarsgård that has included films such as 'Breaking the Waves', 'Nymphomaniacs I and II,' and 'Dogville.' In 2022, the director was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and it seems unlikely he'll direct again. These days, von Trier doesn't pick up the phone, but the two still text. 'I mean, when Lars calls, I don't even read the script,' said Skarsgård. 'I know the staff that he's going to work with, and I know what he makes will be good or it will be a totally unseen film,' he laughs. 'Before he said to me, 'Stellan, I know what kind of films I'm making, they're the films that haven't been made.'' When it comes to the question of his own forthcoming projects, Skarsgård replies with a firm 'no, nothing.' For someone who works as much as you, does that seem a little scary? 'Not as scary as some of the projects that I'm offered,' he replied with a smile. 'Sentimental Value' premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Neon releases the film later this year. Best of IndieWire Nightmare Film Shoots: The 38 Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from 'Deliverance' to 'The Wages of Fear' Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Movies: 65 Films the Director Wants You to See The 19 Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in May, from 'Fair Play' to 'Emily the Criminal'
Gizmodo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Disney Went to the Emmys and Said for Your Consideration: ‘Andor,' All of It
With Andor's second and final season now complete, Disney is hoping to turn the show's critical raves and thoughtful discourse into award-season triumphs. It's submitting the show for consideration in 23 categories at this year's Emmys. Among the honors Andor hopes to compete for: Outstanding Drama Series, which it was nominated for back in 2023 but ended up losing to Succession. The 2025 race is again a strong one, with Severance the likely frontrunner. But even if Andor doesn't claim the top prize, it still has excellent chances to not only be nominated in, but win several other categories. According to Variety, these are the categories in which Disney is submitting Andor for Emmy consideration: Outstanding Drama Series Directing for a Drama Series: Janus Metz for episode 208, 'Who Are You?' Writing for a Drama Series: Dan Gilroy for episode 209, 'Welcome to the Rebellion' Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Diego Luna (Cassian Andor) Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Stellan Skarsgård (Luthen Rael); Kyle Soller (Syril Karn) Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Genevieve O'Reilly (Mon Mothma); Denise Gough (Dedra Meero); Adria Arjona (Bix Caleen); Faye Marsay (Vel Sartha); Elizabeth Dulau (Kleya Marki) Guest Actor in a Drama Series: Ben Mendelsohn (Orson Krennic); Forest Whitaker (Saw Gerrera); Benjamin Bratt (Bail Organa) Guest Actress in a Drama Series: Varada Sethu (Cinta Kaz) Character Voice-Over Performance: Alan Tudyk (K-2SO) The rest of the categories are: Casting for a Drama Series, Cinematography for a Series (One Hour), Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes, Period of Fantasy/Sci-Fi Makeup (Non-Prosthetic), Period or Fantasy/Sci-Fi Hairstyling, Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program (One Hour or More), Music Composition for a Series (One Hour or More), Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score), Original Music and Lyrics ('We Are the Ghor'), Picture Editing for a Drama Series, Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour), Sound Mixing for a Drama Series (One Hour), Special Visual Effects in a Season or a Movie, Stunt Coordination for Drama Programming, and Stunt Performance. Star Wars series are no strangers to Emmy wins; The Mandalorian is currently the live-action show with the most trophies, having won 15 total across its three seasons in mostly technical categories. This year's Emmy nominations are announced July 15, and the ceremony will be held September 14 in Los Angeles. What are your predictions?
BBC News
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Cannes Film Festival: Why Sentimental Value is being called 'the best film you might see all year'
Following a record 15-minute standing ovation at its world premiere, Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value is winning rave reviews and generating the biggest buzz from the Cannes Film Festival. Did the Cannes Film Festival save the best for last? Norwegian Joachim Trier is one of the last directors to premiere in its main competition this year, but he's getting rave reactions for the film, Sentimental Value, starring Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning, and Trier's longtime actor collaborator, Renate Reinsve. The film about a fractured Norwegian family is now a favourite to take the coveted Palme d'Or prize. Actor Stellan Skarsgård had a hoarse voice at the press conference for the film, which he attributed to the post-premiere party the night before. The cast and crew had every right to celebrate – the film received a 15-minute standing ovation at its world premiere, the longest the festival audience has delivered to any film in competition this year so far. For comparison, even Bong Joon Ho's Parasite, which went on to win the Palme and four Oscars, only got eight minutes. If applause was a barometer for what might win at Cannes, this would make Sentimental Value the clear frontrunner, although the decision ultimately lies with the 2025 International Jury and its president, Juliette Binoche. But the film also has the potential, like last year's top prize-winner, Sean Baker's Anora, to hit the sweet spot between auteur cinema, commercial viability, and attracting Gen Z to cinemas. Elle Fanning appeared at the press conference wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with "Joachim Trier Summer", a nod to Charli XCX's Coachella set shout-out to the director, in which Trier's name appeared alongside other artists, of whom Charli declared 2025 would be their summer. "I was stoked that you made that," Trier said to Fanning at the press conference. "Charli XCX gave a little hello to us, and we are super grateful. I love her music, she's awesome. I know Elle's a fan too. The problem is, I've been working so much for the last three years I don't even know what a Joachim Trier summer is anymore. But I'd like to have one." Twenty-seven-year-old Fanning declared that the Norwegian director was on her "bucket list" of film-makers to work with, and Trier's ability to speak through his cinema to younger generations was established with his last feature film, The Worst Person in the World, which was a hit at Cannes in 2021, winning Renate Reinsve the best actress prize and going on to get two Oscar nominations. It has been described as perfectly capturing so-called "millennial unrest" as Reinsve's character Julie tries to navigate her career choices and love life over four years. Sentimental Value, Trier's sixth film, is set in a beautiful historical house in Oslo, designed to be an inherent part of the film, and is an intergenerational story, about an estranged father, Gustav Borg, played by Skarsgård, and his two daughters. The younger, Agnes, (played by Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) has a family and a nine-year-old son, while the elder daughter, Nora, played by Reinsve, is an actor. Gustav is a film-maker, though he hasn't made a film for some time, and tries to repair his relationship with Nora by writing a script for her. When she'll have none of it, he asks a young Hollywood star, Rachel Kemp (played by Elle Fanning) to look at it instead. 'Tenderness is the new punk' While the film has insider jokes about the industry (Gustav gives his young grandson a DVD copy of the erotic arthouse drama The Piano Teacher for his ninth birthday) the script is being praised for its emotional depth in how it depicts the sisterly bond between Nora and Agnes, and the bittersweet father-daughter relationship between Nora and Gustav. It was co-written by Trier and his long-term writing partner, Eskil Vogt. "I think what we wanted to do was something about reconciliation, family, and time," Trier told the Cannes press conference. "We're in the middle of life now and have a bigger perspective on the life span of a human being and realise that often inside any complicated parent there's a wounded child. And we realised that in the character of Gustav Borg, even if he's a complicated father, because he's an artist he has two languages. We wanted to talk about the vulnerability of communication, the lack of ability to talk in a family and seeing if art could play into that." "Often families can't speak directly about important things, and we find indirect ways of communicating," Vogt added. "Art is a way of expressing that, and that's the best shot this family has about communicating well and figuring out their issues, not having the standard sitting-down scene of the family blow out and finally reaching a verbal catharsis." More like this:• Why The Secret Agent cold be an Oscar contender• Gay romance The History of Sound is 'too polite' • The sensational breakout star of The Phoenician Scheme Some critics are already calling Sentimental Value "the best film you might see all year," and in the US it has been bought by Neon, an independent film production and distribution company with an impressive track record in choosing winners, including Parasite, Titane, Triangle of Sadness, Anatomy of a Fall and Anora, which all took home the Cannes Palme d'Or. And even if Sentimental Value doesn't win the top award at Cannes on Saturday night, inclusion at Cannes is still a historical predictor of wider awards season success – last year Cannes premiered multiple Oscar nominees and winners like controversial Mexican musical Emilia Peréz, Coralie Fargeat's body horror The Substance and the Latvian animation Flow, as well as Anora. Ultimately Sentimental Value's longevity will depend on its resonance with audiences, but in a time of worldwide political and social upheaval, perhaps a film centred around family reconciliation will fit the cultural mood. "I need to believe that we can see the other, that there is a sense of reconciliation," Trier said at the press conference. "Polarisation, anger and machismo aren't the way forward." Pithily, he added that "tenderness is the new punk", explaining: "We come from a punk background, Eskil and I. We were counterculture, we didn't want to make soppy movies. But we realised through the films we've made that we've grown older and that world is a place where we can be vulnerable." -- For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
