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Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Venice Strikes Back: Alberto Barbera on His Powerhouse 2025 Festival Lineup
After getting upstaged by Cannes at this year's Oscars — when Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner Anora took best picture over Brady Corbet's Lido champ The Brutalist — Venice has come roaring back. Venice's 2025 lineup, with its blend of prestige auteurs, big-name debuts and politically charged provocations, reaffirms the Lido as the premiere launchpad for award-season hopefuls. Highlights this year include Julia Roberts in Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt, Dwayne Johnson in Benny Safdie's The Smashing Machine and a triple threat from Netflix: Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein starring Jacob Elordi, Noah Baumbach's Jay Kelly with George Clooney and Kathryn Bigelow's A House of Dynamite with Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson. More from The Hollywood Reporter Jussie Smollett Speaks in Netflix Doc 'The Truth About Jussie Smollett?' Paramount Execs Tell Staff That Africa Offices and Channels May Close Amid Strategy Review (Exclusive) Disability Advocate, AGC Studios Boss, 'Poor Things' Producer, Berlinale Boss Set for Locarno Pro Add in new features from Yorgos Lanthimos, Jim Jarmusch, Park Chan-wook, François Ozon, Paolo Sorrentino, Mona Fastvold, Gus van Sant, Julian Schnabel, Mamoru Hosoda and Laszlo Nemes, and the political heft of Kaouther Ben Hania's Gaza drama The Voice of Hind Rajab and Olivier Assayas' The Wizard of the Kremlin [with Jude Law as Vladimir Putin], and you have, on paper, one of the best Venice festivals in years. That's saying something. Shortly after unveiling this year's program, Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the fierce but friendly rivalry between the major festivals, the challenge of programming two-to-three-hour epics and why politics are back on screen in a big way. This is going to sound like I'm a broken record, because I say it every year, but you have another phenomenal lineup. We in the press always pit the big festivals — Cannes, Venice, Toronto — against one another, but how much is competition, a desire to beat the other big festivals, a drive for you? I'm a good friend of [Cannes festival director] Thierry [Fremaux] and [Toronto Film Festival CEO] Cameron [Bailey]. We're colleagues. We meet each other at each other's festivals. I've got a wonderful relationship with them. But of course, it is a competition. That's just a fact. There is competition between festivals, and each of us tries to get the best films from what the market gives us. We are lucky in that we're maybe in a better position, coming at the beginning of the new season, where Cannes is at the end of the old one. And we're a week, 10 days, ahead of Toronto, so we are often lucky to get a lot of world premieres. I know Toronto tries to get as many world premieres as possible, and they don't always succeed in competing with us on certain films. But this competition is a way to push you to do your best, to get the best out of the submitted films. How do you measure success for a festival lineup? The first element is the way the film is accepted during the festival, the response of both the critics and the audience to the film. That's the first moment when you realize if you made a good choice or if you were wrong. Because when you invite one film, it means you give up the chance to invite another. And it always happens that this or the other film doesn't meet the expectations that were created when we announced the lineup. That first moment when the film screens is when I realize if I did a good job or not. Then, of course, if the film travels to other festivals or gets awards, if it goes to or wins the Oscars, which happens a lot, that helps to confirm and establish the position of the festival, of our position in the international calendar of festivals, and gives us the chance the following year to get access to the most interesting and important films of the season. In your presentation, you suggested you would have liked to have put Luca Guadagnino's in competition. Was it Amazon MGM that wanted it to run out of competition? That was a decision by Amazon MGM. From the beginning, when they showed the film to us, they told us 'We don't want to be in competition. This is a film we believe in. It's our candidate for the Oscars. It doesn't need to be in competition.' So I accepted that. I respect the decision of producers. Most of the time. star Julia Roberts will make her Venice debut this year, as will Dwayne Johnson, star of Benny Safdie's competition film . Any advice for the Lido newbies on navigating the Venice red carpet? I'm sure they know how to behave. They are great professionals, both of them. And they are delivering exceptional performances in the two films that we'll see. Both Julia Roberts and Dwayne Johnson are really outstanding. So I'm very happy to have them in Venice. As you know, we have a wonderful new audience, very warm, very gentle. I think the experience here is easier for talents than at other festivals — that's what they tell me. Partially due to the success that you've had over the years, more and more people are coming to Venice. How much pressure is that putting on the festival's infrastructure? A lot. Well, not on the festival itself, because we have a lot of seats, a lot of theaters, to accommodate everybody. The pressure is put on the infrastructure outside the festival, on the hotels, the restaurants, and so on. Venice is one of the most touristic places in the world, with a lot of events at the end of August and the beginning of September. There are a lot of people coming in, also for other events. It's difficult to find hotels, and it's becoming more and more expensive to attend. This is the main issue we have. We don't have enough hotels on the Lido, actually, just one five-star hotel, The Excelsior. The good news is that they are going to renovate the Grand Hotel Des Bains. It will take 4-5 years, but it should come back as beautiful as it was in the past. So I'm quite confident and optimistic about that, because it's from people from Dubai [Abu Dhabi's Eagle Hills is backing the $230 million renovation] who have a lot of money. So it should work, right? I've written a few times who struggle with the cost of going to Venice and also with access to the talent that they need to justify coming. Is there anything that you or the festival can do to address this problem? It's extremely difficult to do something regarding the hotels, the cost of the rooms, the restaurants and so on. The infrastructure is just not there. I know there is an issue for some independent journalists to get access to interviews with stars and so on, but again, this is out of our control. It's the decision of the production team or the press agent for each film. I try to convince them to be more open and available, but they often only stay 48 hours, 72 hours in Venice, because of the cost of staying here, so it's difficult to meet all the requests they get from journalists. It's a major problem, but I don't know what we can do to solve it. You also mentioned in your presentation how submitted films are getting longer and longer. How big a problem is that when it comes to programming? It's a big issue because we usually have four [competition] films a day, in the main theater, two in the afternoon and two in the evening. If every film is two hours long or more, it means the last film won't start until very late in the evening. It's a huge problem for everybody. From tomorrow, I'll start working on the screening schedule, and I'll see how things look, but I'm a little worried. We'll find a solution, of course, but it's not easy. This is a trend that started one to two years ago and has become a really major trend. Most of the films are more than two hours long, and many are two hours and 30 minutes long or longer. It's a problem. Venice has never avoided political films, but current events seem at the center of a lot of movies in this year's lineup, from Kathryn Bigelow's to Kaouther Ben Hania's to Olivier Assayas' . Why did you think it was important to program these movies? They are all very strong films in of themselves. Not only very emotional but excellent films dealing with contemporary issues. Most of the films this year are dealing with contemporary problems. Whether it's the use of atomic weapons [A House of Dynamite], to the horrors of the wars in Ukraine or Gaza, or looking at dictatorships in many countries in the world. It's the comeback of the cinema of reality, and I think it's important that the festival is open to the contemporary world and not closed off inside the universe of films and cinema, that cinema of dreams. There will still be a lot of entertaining films, spectacular films, at the festival, but most of the films are strongly connected to contemporary problems and issues. Some are very strong and emotional. I get emotional talking about The Voice of Hind Rajab. I was so impressed when I watched that film. Every time I think about it, I get emotional again. I think it will be one of the films that will get the most intense response from everybody, from the press and from the audience, for obvious reasons, not only political reasons but for emotional, human reasons. Netflix is also back in force this year, after . Yes, they couldn't come last year because they didn't have any films to offer, but they have three very strong films this year, from Kathryn Bigelow, from Noah Baumbach and from Guillermo de Toro. We worried if it was a good idea to have three films from Netflix in the main competition, but they are all so good, they all deserve to be in there. Do you ever worry that your streak at Venice will end, that this could be your last good year? Every time. After every festival, I tell myself, I won't be able to do as strong a lineup next year. And then we are lucky enough to get access to the most interesting films of the season. And this is the case again. For this year at least. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 40 Greatest Needle Drops in Film History The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best Solve the daily Crossword
Business Insider
20-07-2025
- Business Insider
My phone addiction is poisoning my retirement. I'm setting rules to help me reclaim my golden years.
When Orrin Onken retired in 2020, he thought his golden years would look quiet and relaxing. Instead, he realized his phone addiction was recreating the stress he experienced at work. Onken, a former lawyer, is now setting rules to prevent his phone from poisoning his retirement. Recently, I decided to watch The Brutalist — a movie that's won multiple Academy Awards and has been widely praised by critics — with my wife. I got snacks from the kitchen, snuggled into my recliner, and prepared to be mesmerized by great art. Not even 10 minutes had passed before I reached for my smartphone. No one was calling me. I wasn't expecting any texts, emails, or alerts. Yet, as the movie played, for reasons unknown even to me, I was staring at the tiny screen in my hand. Relentless phone-checking has become a regular occurrence in my life, so much so that it's poisoning my retirement. It's become an addiction, and I'm determined to overcome it. When I was a lawyer, my phone was mostly a helpful tool I retired from the practice of law in 2020. During my working years, my screen time was quite limited. My staff screened calls to the office, and I checked emails twice a day on my computer. My mobile mostly stayed in my pocket, reserved for communicating with my office on court days or for calling my wife. When the time came for me to stop working, my retirement plans were ordinary. I imagined the time-consuming demands of clients and courts would be replaced by travel, gardening, and the leisurely reading of good books. But what I didn't predict was that my handy pocket computer would turn on me and become a source of the kind of stress I retired to escape. As a retiree, I find myself checking my phone all too often My smartphone is an amazing tool. It opens and starts my car. With it, I can locate my house keys, my luggage, and even my wife. I can change the temperature in my home and see what the security cameras see. I can read books, play five-minute chess, and follow the news. But what do I really do? I check it dozens of times a day for little or no reason. I get hooked on clickbait in my news feed: "The ingredient that every grilled cheese sandwich needs," "Five exercises that will give you eternal life," and whatever else the algorithm has concocted to catch my attention. When I was still working as a lawyer, I didn't get sucked into my news feed in the same way, mostly because I didn't have the time. Nowadays, I find myself checking my phone because it relieves the anxiety I feel when I leave it unchecked for too long. In the course of my life, I've overcome difficulties with alcohol, nicotine, and overeating. With each of those addictions, I knew I was in trouble when I was no longer going for the substance to feel good, but because using gave me temporary respite from withdrawal symptoms. I was doing the same thing with my phone. Over time, I realized the relaxed retirement I'd envisioned was being sandwiched into the intervals between checking my phone. During my working days, I obsessed about my cases, and my mind would wander off to one of them at random moments. Today, it wanders off similarly to the call of social media and my news feed. Phones are too valuable a tool in our modern society for abstinence, so I knew I had to learn to regulate my screen use instead of going cold turkey. The journey to wean myself from addiction has begun I want a retirement in which I participate in the world, instead of being pulled out of it by repeatedly engaging in behaviors that don't make me happy. My first step toward this goal was to admit my dependence and then become sensitive to the difference between using my phone productively and grabbing it at every uncomfortable juncture in life. Two months ago, I set some rules I adapted from when I quit smoking twenty-five years ago. I'd notice when I felt an urge to check my phone, and then tell myself to wait 10 minutes. When that time had passed, I'd often forget about the urge or decide I could wait another 10 minutes. My aim is to be intentional about checking my phone. And it's working. Those intermittent rewards are already losing their grip on me. When I do eventually look at my phone, because I have a reason to, the cheap reward of three likes on my social media post still gives me a little thrill, but I no longer go looking for them by refreshing my feed twenty minutes after I posted. I want to learn to control my phone, rather than let it control me As I navigate healthier phone use, I won't condemn myself for watching funny videos of cats or stop playing online chess. I only want to end the mindless checking — the things that, when I am finished, make me feel stupid and sad. I didn't walk away from the pressures of the law office to replace them with pressure from my phone. I aspire to a retirement of simple tasks and quiet days. It's a vision that no one ever achieves in this day and age, but for now, I won't allow that fantasy to be destroyed by my own behaviour and a tiny screen inside my pocket.
Engadget
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
Netflix is already using generative AI in its original shows
Netflix admitted during its earnings call on Thursday that it used generative AI to create VFX in The Eternaut , a Netflix original from Argentina that was released in April 2025. The company's co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that generative AI was specifically used for a VFX shot in the post-apocalyptic drama, but the move is one of several ways Netflix is embracing AI. According to Sarandos, the creators of The Eternaut wanted to include a shot of building collapsing in Buenos Aires, and rather than contract a studio of visual effects artists to create the footage, Netflix used generative AI to create it. "Using AI powered tools, they were able to achieve an amazing result with remarkable speed," Sarandos shared during the earnings call. "In fact, that VFX sequence was completed 10 times faster than it could have been completed with... traditional VFX tools and workflows." The shot "just wouldn't have been feasible for a show on that budget," Sarandos says, as someone with some input on the show's budget. The executive says that The Eternaut features "the very first Gen AI final footage to appear on screen in a Netflix original series or film." Clearly, the show is also a prototype for how Netflix can avoid costs it doesn't want to swallow in the future. Workers in the entertainment industry have not taken kindly to the use of generative AI. Labor strikes — including the recently resolved SAG-AFTRA video game strike — have made securing protections against AI a central issue. The Oscar-nominated film The Brutalist came under fire in 2024 for using AI tools during production. Beyond that, whether generative AI models were illegally trained on copyrighted material is still an open question. Netflix plans to use generative AI to create ads for its ad-support Netflix subscription, and the company is reportedly testing a new search feature powered by OpenAI models. Using generative AI in production might seem par for the course for a company that's already invested, but it could help to normalize a technology that many creatives remain actively against.
Irish Examiner
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Cinema-goer who 'had my mind polluted' among complaints to film regulator
Appalled cinema-goers have written to complain over sex and violence being shown on Irish film screens, with one remarking they felt their 'mind was polluted' after watching a multi-Oscar winning movie. The Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO) has released details of correspondence it has received so far this year, which referenced seven different films, including award-winning movies The Brutalist and Anora. Most related to the film's age rating being too lenient, while others referenced the bad language and sexual content in them. A mother who had just brought her son to see the 15A-rated We Live In Time, a romantic drama starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, was one of those who wrote in. 'I had no idea from the advertisement that there would be sexual content and nude scenes in the movie,' she said. It was embarrassing to take my 14-year-old son to watch the movie. Being a Catholic mom, this movie in my view should not be viewed by young adults in cinema and should not be screened at all. Another went to see The Brutalist and, having seen it won many awards, assumed it 'must be good'. 'I can honestly say I feel my mind has been polluted by watching that film,' the person wrote. 'It had a 16 rating, which I feel is appalling. I am 52 years old and the extreme pornography I saw last night at that film was most certainly not suitable for me, without my consent, and [should have] an 18 rating on it.' One took exception to the Barry Keoghan film Bring Them Down, saying they found it 'extremely disturbing, with graphic scenes of animal violence and someone's head being cut off' in a 15A film. A former school principal, meanwhile, said they were 'alarmed at the misogyny towards girls and women' in Anora, whose star Mikey Madison won the Oscar for best actress at the ceremony earlier this year. 'This movie gives a false impression of prostitution,' the former principal said. 'Human trafficking of girls and women is a serious issue here. I believe we as adults need to promote wholesome values that protect the mental health and wellbeing of our teenagers. This film gives all the wrong messages.' IFCO said none of these were considered to be a complaint, as per its complaints procedure, and all were resolved. 'At IFCO, we are committed to providing trusted guidance and information to help audiences make informed decisions on what video content they — and their children — view,' its director Dr Ciarán Kissane said, adding each classification decision was "carefully considered".
Time Out
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A new A24 movie with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score is coming to streaming this week
In cinephile circles, A24 has become a symbol of quality for a certain kind of movie: edgy, thought-provoking, stylistically bold, yet still broadly accessible. Think Ex Machina, Hereditary, Moonlight and Everything Everywhere All At Once. The studio and film distributor has grown ubiquitous enough to attract some mockery from some corners of the movie world, but it's hard to argue with the success rate. Its run has continued with more recent critical and commercial hits like The Brutalist, Materialists and Friendship. Now, one of the most acclaimed A24 films of the last few months is hitting streaming – and it might be one you haven't even heard of. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, by director Rungano Nyoni, is a surreal dark comedy set in the filmmaker's home country of Zambia. One night, a woman named Shula (Susan Chardy) comes across a dead body on the side of the road: her uncle's. As funeral preparations commence, the narrative flashes back and forth, revealing the dark secrets of Shula's middle-class family. The film – Nyoni's second, after 2017's I Am Not a Witch – currently holds a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score and an 87 rating on Metacritic. Time Out's own review describes the movie as 'thought-provoking' and 'visually arresting'. It's available to stream on HBO Max starting this Friday, July 4. Two more widely seen, if less lauded, A24 releases are also premiering on HBO Max this month. Opus, starring Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich, arrives July 11. The thriller follows a young journalist (Edebiri) who's invited to a listening party for the new album from an enigmatic pop star turned possible cult leader (Malkovich). Later in the month comes Death of a Unicorn, a horror satire in which a father and daughter (Jason Bateman and Jenna Ortega) accidentally strike and kill the titular mythical beast with their car, incurring the wrath of its parents. The movie hits the streamer on July 25.
