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One of the only bad things about attending a festival like TIFF is that so many great-looking movies play that it’s too easy to miss more than a few. One of the movies I tried hardest to fit into my schedule – to no avail – was The Friend, starring Naomi Watts and Bill Murray. Directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, the film is an adaptation of a book by Sigrid Nunez that focuses on a woman trying to come to terms with the death of her friend and mentor. Complicating matters is that the woman’s also been left custody of her deceased friend’s beloved Great Dane, an unwieldy pet for her tiny New York apartment.

While it earned very solid reviews at TIFF, it wasn’t one of the films that got snapped up right away for distribution. However, Bleecker Street has now stepped in to acquire The Friend,...

The fall festival season has wrapped up! Each year, dozens of movies premiere at festivals with distributors looking to launch them before they’re released in theaters or on streaming services. But dozens more are independent films without distribution that came to the festivals looking to be discovered. This year, over 200 movies made their world premieres across the Venice Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival, and we’ve seen some big name movie sales across all four.

Right as Venice got underway, we saw U.S. deals for two of the biggest competition titles on the slate, Pablo Larraín’s “Maria” to Netflix and Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” to A24. A24 also picked up the rights to Venice Silver Lion winner “The Brutalist” in a competitive situation. And some of the hottest discoveries like “Nutcrackers,” “September 5,” and TIFF Audience...

Bleecker Street has acquired North American rights to Telluride Film Festival world premiere The Friend starring Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, and Bing the Great Dane.

Scott McGehee and David Siegel co-wrote and co-directed the drama, which also played Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and New York Film Festival.

Watts plays writer and teacher Iris, whose comfortable, solitary New York life is thrown into disarray when her closest friend and mentor (Murray) dies suddenly and bequeaths her his beloved Great Dane. Iris eventually bonds with the beast and reconciles with the past and her creative inner life.

The ensemble cast includes Sarah Pidgeon,...

Bleecker Street has taken North American rights to the Scott McGehee and David Siegel directed and written feature, The Friend, starring Naomi Watts, Bill Murray and a Great Dane named Bing. A 2025 theatrical release is planned.

The film marks Bleecker Street’s second collaboration with Siegel & McGehee, having handled the US release of their 2021 neo-Western drama Montana Story, starring Haley Lu Richardson and Owen Teague.

In The Friend, writer and teacher Iris (Watts) finds her comfortable, solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor (Murray) dies suddenly and bequeaths her his beloved 150 lb. Great Dane. The regal yet intractable beast, named Apollo, immediately creates practical problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones, his looming presence constantly reminding her of her friend’s problematic choices in both life and death. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding with the animal,...

Naomi Watts and a very big dog are heading to cinemas.

“The Friend,” a touching drama about a writer and editor whose literary mentor commits suicide and leaves her with his Great Dane to care for, has been acquired by Bleecker Street. The indie studio has nabbed North American distribution rights for an undisclosed sum — the sale took some time, which is something of a surprise given that “The Friend” received strong reviews when it showed at fall film festivals like Telluride and Toronto. It’s another reminder that studios are being more cautious when it comes to buying projects post-covid. The indie and arthouse theatrical market is still struggling to fully rebound from pandemic disruptions.

“The Friend” was written and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, the team behind “The Deep End” and “What Maisie Knew,” and co-stars Bill Murray, Sarah Pidgeon, Carla Gugino, Constance Wu, Noma Dumezweni and Ann Dowd.

The Friend, a grief drama from writer/directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel about a writer mourning her late pal while dealing with the Great Dane dog he left behind, and starring Naomi Watts and Bill Murray, has been picked up by Bleecker Street.

Having taken the North American rights to the pic, Bleecker plans an early 2025 theatrical release for the adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s novel. Watts plays Iris, a writer and teacher grieving over the sudden loss of her best friend, Walter (Bill Murray), only to learn he has left her Apollo, a giant dog who almost comes up to her waist.

As Iris unexpectedly bonds with the dog, she begins to come to terms with her past, her lost friend and her own creative inner life. The ensemble cast for the film about life, death and friendship includes Sarah Pidgeon, Carla Gugino, Constance Wu, Noma Dumezweni and Ann Dowd.

Siegel and McGeheeDavid Siegel and Scott McGehee’s wondrous and sage The Friend (spiritedly adapted from the National Book Award winning novel by Sigrid Nunez and a highlight in the Spotlight programme of the 62nd New York Film Festival) stars Naomi Watts as Iris, an author in New York City who loses her best friend Walter (Bill Murray) to suicide and inherits his majestic Harlequin Great Dane Apollo (played by the scene- and heart-stealing Bing).

After already having thrown the advice by Wc Fields to never work with children or animals to the wind with their beautiful Henry James adaptation What Maisie Knew, Siegel and McGehee fully embrace the tale of a friendship that belies our dominant anthropocentrism. “How can you explain death to a dog?” Iris, as well as the nameless narrator in the Nunez novel know some important truths about...

Writer-director duo Scott McGehee and David Siegel have been working together for 30 years, since their debut thrilled Suture in 1994. Since then, they’ve only made seven films, with their latest being The Friend, a comedy-drama adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s award-winning novel. Starring Naomi Watts and a Great Dane named Bing, the film follows a woman grieving the suicide of her friend, mentor, and lover, spending the immediate aftermath with his dog who is now in her care. It’s a light film, deriving much of its emotional core from Bing, a dog with great big eyes to match his great big size. The film hinges on moments between Watts and her new pet, silences in which the two share a special bond of mourning.

McGehee and Siegel have been living in New York for decades. Siegel himself is from Brooklyn. The two attempt to capture the hectic nature of the city,...

Naomi Watts made a striking appearance alongside her son, Sasha Schreiber, 17, on the red carpet of the premiere of her new film, The Friend, in New York City. The pair sported matching all-black looks, and the teenager’s growth was on full display as he stood noticeably taller than his mother. It marked a rare public appearance for Sasha.

The 55-year-old actress, known for her roles in films such as The Impossible and King Kong, looked elegant in a black strapless dress featuring a sheer bodice with a corset-like design and a glossy, structured skirt. She completed the look with pointed black heels and statement earrings, adding to the glamorous ensemble.

However, Sasha’s height caught the attention of fans and photographers. He wore a sleek black suit paired with a simple black shirt, opting for a laid-back yet polished look that further emphasized his towering presence.

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Naomi Watts and her son, Sasha, both donned all-black ensembles for the event.Mega

Naomi Watts brought her look-alike to the premiere of her new film The Friend.

On Thursday, October 3, the Babe alum, 56, strutted the red carpet alongside her son, Sasha, 17.

Fans pointed out how much Sasha looks like his mother, Naomi Watts. Mega

At the New York Film Festival event, Watts wore a corseted black gown with a voluminous skirt, while her offspring matched in a black jacket, shirt and pants.

The youngster looked all grown up and towered quite a few inches above the actress. The mother-son duo smiled together on the carpet with their arms around each other.

After the snapshots went viral, fans couldn’t help but notice how much Sasha resembles the matriarch.

“So tall... & he got his mum's looks... & seems close to his mum which is awesome, what a cutie,” one person wrote,...

Independent filmmaking duo Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s The Friend, their newest in a 30-year collaboration, is a dog movie. Or, more aptly, it’s a film about a dog and Iris (Naomi Watts), a woman who hates dogs. Iris inherits a Great Dane, Apollo, from her late friend, mentor, and lover Walter (Bill Murray). The movie, adapted from Sigrid Nunez’s National Book Award-winning novel of the same name, is light to the touch, despite its themes of grief, suicide, and depression. It’s the type of film my parents would love––something shown on a cable network on a Sunday afternoon, easy to watch with just enough substance to make the audience feel something reminiscent of sadness. That’s a compliment, though: The Friend reminds us of the immeasurable role that dogs, and pets, play in our lives.

The film wouldn’t work without the dog, this...

Naomi Watts had a special date to the premiere of her movie The Friend – her 17-year-old son Sasha!

The Oscar-nominated actress walked the carpet with her eldest child at the 2024 New York Film Festival event on Thursday (October 3) at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York City.

Also in attendance at the premiere were Naomi‘s co-stars Constance Wu, Carla Gugino, Noma Dumezweni, Owen Teague, Felix Solis, and Josh Pais, as well as co-directors and co-writers Scott McGehee and David Siegel.

Here is the synopsis: “Novelist and creative writing teacher Iris (Watts) finds her comfortable, solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor (Bill Murray) commits suicide and bequeaths his beloved Great Dane to her. The regal yet intractable beast, named Apollo, immediately creates problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones, his looming presence constantly...

New York film festival: an adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s bestselling 2018 novel about a woman dealing with her friend’s suicide is tender and well-acted, if a little messy

It takes a certain type of person to have a dog in New York City, let alone a 180lb, questionably behaved one. Iris, played with a natural grace by Naomi Watts in The Friend, is not that type of person. She is a mostly solitary writer in a small – at least, to the eyes of her more accomplished peers – apartment in the West Village, whose schedule is at the whims of her teaching work and sputtering attempts at a novel. She has settled into an independent rhythm of middle-aged singledom in the city. Also, she prefers cats. Nevertheless, she finds herself caring for Apollo, her late best friend Walter’s (Bill Murray) beloved great dane, after his suicide.

The Friend, a...

From Italy to Canada and Colorado, the fall festivals unleashed a firehose of new films on the international landscape — the majority of which, as is ever thus, are still looking for buyers.

The Venice, Toronto, and Telluride film festivals all hosted plenty of splashy world premieres that attracted early or quick-to-respond buyers, like A24 with “Queer,” “The Brutalist,” and “Friendship,” TIFF opener “Nutcrackers” (Hulu), “Maria” (Netflix), and “September 5” (Paramount). But there are smaller films — and even some bigger, starrier ones from Naomi Watts in “The Friend” to Jude Law and Ana de Armas in “Eden” — still on the hook for stateside distribution.

While there are still plenty of industry-friendly festivals ahead to help locate buyers, like NYFF and AFI Fest, IndieWire rounds up the best films we saw at the fall fests so far that deserve distribution. Somebody, do something about these 22 titles!

Anne Thompson contributed to this story.

“April...

"It's been a good time." "Yes it has." The fall film festival season continues with the next big one - the New York Film Festival taking place at the Lincoln Center in NYC's Upper West Side. The NYFF continues to be one of the most exciting & elegant festivals, showcasing truly the best of the best of the year in cinema. NYFF is celebrating its 62nd year and has debuted this trailer to promote some of their favorites - tons of sneak footage. "Since 1963, NYFF has shaped film culture & continues an enduring tradition of introducing audiences to bold and remarkable works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent." The 62nd NYFF kicks off on September 27th, with tickets already on sale right now. The festival runs a full two weeks, ending on the 14th of October, with tons of screenings of all of their selection. The 2024 line-up's highlights including Steve McQueen's Blitz,...

Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup hit the red carpet in style while arriving at the 2024 Emmy Awards on Sunday (September 15) at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

The 55-year-old actress and the 56-year-old actor are both in attendance as nominees this year!

Naomi is up for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her role as Babe Paley in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, while Billy is nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Cory Ellison on The Morning Show. Both shows are up for several awards each.

Just last week, Naomi was in Canada for the Toronto International Film Festival to premiere her new movie The Friend.

Back in July, Naomi was seen visiting Billy on the set of the upcoming fourth season of The Morning Show. Check out the pics!

Fyi: Naomi is wearing a Balenciaga dress,...

The stars returned to Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) after last year’s Hollywood strikes. There wasn’t much business activity, films generally played well, and protests nearly stole the headlines.

Screen looks at five of the key talking points. TIFF ends on September 15.

Stars are back

After last year’s star-light edition due to the Hollywood actors strike, the glamour returned to TIFF in 2024. And while there were no arrivals on boats at the Lido or stately processions towards the Palais in Cannes, there is something to be said for hundreds of real people lining the street outside the...

The stars returned to Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) after last year’s Hollywood strikes. There wasn’t much business activity, films generally played well, and protests nearly stole the headlines.

Screen looks at five of the key talking points. TIFF ends on September 15.

Stars are back

After last year’s star-light edition due to the Hollywood actors strike, the glamour returned to TIFF in 2024. And while there were no arrivals on boats at the Lido or stately processions towards the Palais in Cannes, there is something to be said for hundreds of real people lining the street outside the...

Apocalypse in the Tropics

Venice, Telluride

Brazilian documentarian Petra Costa chronicles the dire state of democracy with this eye-opening exposé, delving into the troubling ties linking Christian evangelism and politics. Getting up close and personal with some powerful people amid a wave of social and political unrest, she shifts between the epic and the intimate, history and the present, to shed light on a phenomenon not only in her home nation, but around the world. — Jordan Mintzer

April

Venice, Toronto

Dea Kulumbegashvili’s miraculous feature centers on an Ob-gyn (a marvelous Ia Sukhitashvili) who performs secret abortions for desperate women in deepest rural Georgia. Like Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the drama emphasizes the risks of backstreet terminations as well as the shame and expense that prevent access. Offsetting the grimness of it all are bouts of transcendent beauty. — Leslie Felperin

Babygirl

Venice, Toronto

A spectacular Nicole Kidman...

Bill Murray is quite the gentleman!

The 73-year-old comedy legend escorted Naomi Watts on the red carpet at the premiere of their new movie The Friend held during the 2024 Toronto Film Festival at the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Canada.

Also in attendance were fellow costars Carla Gugino and Sarah Pidgeon along with Scott McGehee and David Siegel, who co-wrote and co-directed the movie. Fellow star of the movie, a Great Dane named Bing, also walked the red carpet!

Keep reading to find out more…Here’s the movie’s synopsis from TIFF: “Iris (Watts) has had a long, complex friendship with Walter (Murray). Walter is an irresistible charmer, a brilliant author, a lover of many women, and a master at letting down loved ones. When he dies suddenly, Iris is left to deal with all he left behind — three ex-wives with unfinished business, his interrupted literary legacy, and his...

Paramount+’s limited series JonBenét Ramsey (w/t), from MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios, has tapped Emily Mitchell (The Apprentice) for its title role, also bringing aboard Garrett Hedlund (Tulsa King), Alison Pill (Trap) and Owen Teague (The Friend) for parts.

Mitchell’s JonBenét is a girl from an affluent family and child beauty queen, whose murder is at the heart of the story. Hedlund plays Detective Steve Thomas, a seasoned detective who is brought onto the JonBenét case, with Pill as Boulder, Colorado police detective Linda Arndt, who along with partner Detective Trujillo, is first on the scene after JonBenét Ramsey is reported missing/kidnapped. Teague plays Jeff Shapiro, a cocky, risk-taking reporter for the Globe tabloid.

As previously announced, Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen lead the cast as JonBenét’s parents, Patsy and John. Others aboard include Shea Whigham, who plays District Attorney Alex Hunter, an acquaintance of the Ramsey family,...

Deadline launched its TIFF portrait studio at the Bisha Hotel on Friday, hosting talent from the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, including actors and filmmakers from the weekend’s lineup.

Opening day guests included The Last Showgirl cast Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kiernan Shipka, Dave Bautista and Brenda Song; The Cut stars Orlando Bloom and Catriona Balfe; and Went Up the Hill’s Vicky Krieps, Dacre Montgomery and director Samuel Van Grinsven. Chloe Sevigny, Aliocha Schneider, Claes Bang and Nailia Harzoune of Bonjour Tristesse also stopped by, as did Ben Foster and Cobie Smulders of Sharp Corner.

Day 2 featured visits from Unstoppable stars Jennifer Lopez, Don Cheadle, Bobby Cannavale and Jharrel Jerome, as well as the movie’s real-life inspiration Anthony Robles. Naomi Watts stopped by with The Friend writer-director duo Scott McGehee and David Siegel, plus her Great Dane co-star Bing. Amy Adams also posed for a photo with...

Falling in love with a dog can change everything. Most dog people already know this but I'll say it again just for the record: a dog is more than just a pet. They are a family member, they are your best friend, they love you unconditionally, they keep you on your toes, they make the world a better place, they bring unabashed happiness and beauty and joy and love to everyone they interact with, along with a few occasional woofs and growls. It turns out that 2024 is an extraordinary year for dog movies - more than a few favorites. After enjoying three others that I've raved about throughout the year I've found my favorite dog movie of 2024 - The Friend. Adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name written by Sigrid Nunez, this film is a much more profound and soulful story of a woman's life changing thanks to a big dog.

US filmmaker Carson Lund’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Eephus has landed sales across Asia, ahead of its screenings at the New York Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival, for Film Constellation.

The baseball comedy drama has sold to Japan (Transformer), Indonesia (Falcon) and India (BigTree), as well as to Encore for inflight/ships.

It has previously sold to Capricci for France and the Music Box Films for the US.

The New England-set comedy drama unfolds as a construction project looms over a small-town baseball field, leaving a pair of Sunday league teams to face off for the last...

American author Sigrid Nunez is having quite the showing at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Not only is “The Room Next Door,” Pedro Almodóvar’s adaptation of her 2020 novel “What You’re Going Through,” dazzling audiences (and just won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival), but “The Friend,” an adaptation of her National Book Award-winning novel from 2018, is also premiering at TIFF. Directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, the film stars Naomi Watts as Iris, a woman who is grieving the suicide of her mentor, author Walter (Bill Murray). When Walter dies he leaves Iris to clean up the various aspects of his life – and to take care of Apollo (Bing), a Great Dane with an even greater personality.

For McGehee and Siegel it had been an almost six-year journey to get the movie made, as they told TheWrap editor in chief Sharon Waxman at TheWrap’s...

By Sunday morning US acquisitions activity at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was starting to grind through the gears.

Buyers were understood to be circling Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King adaptation The Life Of Chuck and David Gordon Green’s festive festival opener Nutcrackers, while A24 announced at the start of the day its US buy on Brady Corbet’s Venice Silver Lion winner The Brutalist.

The Life Of Chuck stars Tom Hiddleston and is a drama, despite the heavyweight horror credentials of King and Flanagan. It premiered on Friday and played again as a P&i and public screening on Saturday,...

While the just-ended Venice Film Festival exploded out of the gate with two high-profile acquisition annoucements in its first 24 hours for Maria and Queer, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was staying true to form as the first major on-site deals were yet to materialise heading into Sunday.

Anticipated heavyweights like Ron Howard’s Eden, Daniel Minahan’s 1950s drama On Swift Horses, and Anderson .Paak’s K-Pops received their world premieres on Saturday, while Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl first screened on Friday and has sparked admiring talk of a possible awards play for Pamela Anderson’s lead...

Mr. Rambo deserves our all the treats and all of our love! It's a particularly impressive year for dog movies - and here is another one that goes right on the list of dog movies that deserve our admiration in 2024. Aside from the Hollywood offerings like Arthur the Dog and Dog Gone, there is a growing selection of indies that are winning over dog lovers worldwide. Black Dog (my review) from China and Dog on Trial (my review) from Switzerland both premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. The Friend with a huge great dane in it just premiered at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival. And this one from Egypt titled Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo just premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival this fall. It's an adorable, heartfelt tale of a man who goes off on an adventure to find a safe forever home for his dog after...

Almut and Tobias, the two people at the center of the new romance “We Live in Time,” are in many ways the perfect movie couple.

They meet cute when she hits him with her car when he’s coming back in his bathrobe from the store where he went on a midnight run to buy pens so he could sign his divorce papers. They date cute. Pop songs play when they have cute sex. And their cute daughter is born after not one but two separate cute we’re-having-a-baby scenes.

Oh, and she has cancer, which wouldn’t be so cute except for the most perfect of all the things about this perfect couple: They’re played by a perfect pair of actors in Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield.

In a movie whose setup that almost inevitably leads to rampant sentimentality, Pugh and Garfield are enormously charming actors who are...

Naomi Watts has appeared opposite some of the greatest stars in cinema — Sean Penn, Viggo Mortensen, Leonardo DiCaprio, even King Kong. But none of those leading men prepared her for Bing, the 145-pound Great Dane she co-stars with in “The Friend,” a drama about heartbreak, art and a very big dog that screens at this year’s Toronto Film Festival.

And getting comfortable with Bing was a six-week process that involved more than handing out a few treats. Bill Berloni, the veteran animal trainer whose job it was to prepare Bing for his close-up, insisted on having Watts meet two times a day for 20 minutes each with the dog, so she could learn how to control the lumbering giant on the streets of New York City, where “The Friend” was shot.

“Initially, I thought, is this necessary?” Watts admits. “I’m an animal lover. I’m not put off by a little fur and slobber.

The crowds of film sellers and buyers are still rolling into Toronto from Venice and Telluride, but the puck dropped Thursday night on the acquisitions marketplace with the premiere of Nutcrackers.

David Gordon Green has taken a detour from genre to serve up a Ben Stiller-starrer that proved a crowdpleaser in two opening-night showings.

That kind of movie — with promising premises with stars and directors with proven track records — is all over the schedule. There is a lot to like in this 2024 TIFF acquisitions market. But I’ve just come from an L.A. visit and cannot recall as bleak a black cloud hangover from the twin strikes of last year. It will take time for the business to recover, and this caution could factor into the dealmaking. Also on the minds of distributors is how elusive box office has become. Comparable films to the ones on sale here...

As the Toronto International Film Festival gets underway, The Hollywood Reporter’s critics weigh in on this year’s crop of titles, from biopics to documentaries, sweeping epics to intimate character studies, tear-jerking dramas to laugh-out-loud comedies.

Several of this year’s slate have already debuted at other festivals throughout the year. For those curious about the very best the TIFF calendar has to offer, a few — but not nearly all — of the highlights include the Steven Soderbergh ghost story Presence, which David Rooney hailed as “masterfully done” out of Sundance; the Icelandic grief drama When the Light Breaks, which Lovia Gyarkye described as “impossible to shake” at Cannes; and the literary adaptation Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, which Caryn James praised at Telluride for the “astonishing” child performance at its center.

In addition, the lineup includes a number of highly anticipated world premieres — we’re curious about David Gordon Green’s Nutcracker,...

With the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival now underway, we at Filmmaker picked 12 films we are anticipating seeing. Consider it a given that higher-profile Telluride and Venice premieres such as the two Sigrid Nunez adaptations (The Friend and The Room Next Door), Conclave, Saturday Night are on our list too, but don’t overlook these films, for which TIFF is either their world premiere or North American launch. Bonjour Tristesse. For her debut feature author (Too Much and Not the Mood) and cultural critic Durga Chew-Bose — she interviewed Mia Hansen-Love for Filmmaker several years back — has ambitiously adapted […]

The post 12 Films to Anticipate at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

With the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival now underway, we at Filmmaker picked 12 films we are anticipating seeing. Consider it a given that higher-profile Telluride and Venice premieres such as the two Sigrid Nunez adaptations (The Friend and The Room Next Door), Conclave, Saturday Night are on our list too, but don’t overlook these films, for which TIFF is either their world premiere or North American launch. Bonjour Tristesse. For her debut feature author (Too Much and Not the Mood) and cultural critic Durga Chew-Bose — she interviewed Mia Hansen-Love for Filmmaker several years back — has ambitiously adapted […]

The post 12 Films to Anticipate at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Exclusive: Netflix has won an auction for the Stephen Chbosky-directed comedy Nonnas in a deal Deadline hears is $20 million-plus for worldwide rights. Several bidders were in the mix on a film that had been invited to be part of the Toronto International Film Festival slate. That has changed and the film won’t make the trip. Netflix will release the film globally in 2025.

Scripted by Liz Maccie, and based on a true story, Nonnas stars Vince Vaughn, Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire, Brenda Vaccaro, Linda Cardellini, Drea De Matteo, Joe Manganiello, Michael Rispoli, and Campbell Scott.

Vaughn plays Joe, a single man in a dead-end job whose mother has spoiled him with her cooking. When she dies, he tries to pull himself out of grief mode by risking everything to open an Italian restaurants and honor his mother. He enlists a group of Italian grandmothers, who feed his love for home cooking, and they become surrogate moms. Chbosky has a knack for this kind of material, directing Wonder and The Perks of Being a Wallflower among others.

Nonnas is produced by Gigi Pritzker and Rachel Shane for Madison Wells, and Jack Turner for Matador Content. The exec producers are Alexis Garcia, Scott Budnick and Ameet Shukla for 1Community, Vince Vaughn, Jay Peterson and Todd Lubin for Matador Content, Amanda Morgan Palmer and Stacy Calabrese for Madison Wells.

Related: The 7 Best Vince Vaughn Movies To Stream From ‘The Break-Up’ To ‘Swingers’

Netflix confirmed the deal, and offered reaction from Nonnas‘ filmmaking team:

Gigi Pritzker, whose Madison Wells originated the film, said she was “delighted that Nonnas has found a great home at Netflix, where it will be widely seen and enjoyed. The film focuses on family, food and community, and in this turbulent time those are things we can all celebrate.”

Said Fifth Season Head of Film Christopher Slager: “Once again Stephen Chbosky has brought magic to the screen in this heartfelt and joyous film. We cannot wait for audiences everywhere to sit down at the table with us and share this fantastic film thanks to our partners at Netflix.”

Scott Budnick, 1Community Executive Producer added that “Nonnas is a celebration of family – the ones you’re born into and the ones you create. We are thrilled to bring this family to Netflix.”

Related: Jimmy Tatro Joins Vince Vaughn In 20th Century’s ‘Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice’

The deal was brokered by WME Independent and Fifth Season, latter of which was the studio on the film. It marks the third deal in the run-up to a Toronto Festival that is chock full of acquisition titles, including some titles that played Telluride. This after the Dito Montiel-directed Riff Raff was acquired for US by Roadside Attractions, and Sony Pictures Classics acquired Jane Austen Wrecked My Life before its TIFF premiere.

The available titles that buyers saw at Telluride include September 5, about how ABC Sports team broadcasting the 1972 Olympics in Munich, German rose to the moment and covered the kidnap and massacre of 11 members of the Israeli team in real time. The twists and turns and split-second decisions they made under Roone Arledge make for a harrowing thriller. Also in that mix is The Friend. In that film, Bill Murray plays an acclaimed writer whose companion is a Great Dane named Apollo. When he dies, the dog is adopted by one of the writer’s protegees (Naomi Watts) who tries to stash the oversized high-maintenance pooch in her Manhattan rent-controlled apartment, which has a firm no dogs allowed policy. Scott McGehee and David Siegel direct a film that was one of the buzz titles of Tellurides.

While recent TIFF deal making has been slow going each year since the pandemic, the abundance of plum titles with strong casts, and an expected buyer appetite could portend a strong atmosphere for deals. TIFF begins tomorrow night.

Related: ‘Dodgeball’ Sequel In Works At 20th With Vince Vaughn Returning; Jordan VanDina To Write The Script...

US buyers have not been in an adventurous mood as the last few markets will attest. However hope springs eternal and acquisitions teams will be on the hunt at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to bulk up pipelines following the Hollywood strikes of 2023.

How theatrical buyers fare against streamers remains to be seen. Financiers and sales agents, many of whom are avowed fans of the theatrical experience, must recoup.

The lure of a worldwide deal with a platform can be hard to resist, and while the North American summer box office rallied well and there are lucrative opportunities for the right theatrical releases,...

In keeping with annual tradition, The Hollywood Reporter’s executive editor (awards) Scott Feinberg and senior editor (film) Rebecca Keegan huddled at the end of this year’s Telluride Film Festival to discuss their Labor Day weekend in the Rockies. (Please note: THR will now be posting a written back-and-forth of this sort every month under the banner of ‘The Awards Pundits,’ with Feinberg, Keegan, deputy awards editor Beatrice Verhoeven and senior awards editor Steven Zeitchik all participating.)

Feinberg Not to sound like Saturday Night Live’s Stefon, but the 2024 edition of Telluride seemingly had everything — or, at least, everyone. There was fake Donald Trump (The Apprentice’s Sebastian Stan) and real Jack Smith (flanked by three Secret Service agents, the special counsel investigating Trump was here to support wife Katy Chevigny’s film The Easy Kind); a guy who made a movie about SNL (Saturday Night’s director Jason Reitman...

This year’s Telluride Film Festival was not short on mononyms. There was Martha, as in Stewart, the subject of R.J. Cutler’s excellent Netflix documentary “Martha.” There were Angelina, Pablo, and Maria, as in, respectively, Jolie, Larrain, and Callas, the subject of the Netflix biographical drama “Maria.” There was Trump, as in the former president, who is played to perfection by Sebastian Stan in “The Apprentice.” And there was Bing, the Great Dane who won over audiences in the tearjerker “The Friend.”

But with due respect given to the acclaimed names above, none made a bigger impact on the festival than “Anora.” Sean Baker’s bold, hilarious, exhilarating new film had its North American debut in Colorado over Labor Day weekend, and the Palme d’Or winner played to packed houses and was often mentioned as a standout among attendees. During its screening on Sunday morning at the Werner Herzog Theater,...

Elegant and confounding in equivalent measure, Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature could’ve used a finishing touch from an American script supervisor. Adapted from Sigrid Nunez’s novel “What Are You Going Through” — and the second mounting of a Nunez book this fall season alongside David Siegel and Scott McGehee’s “The Friend” — “The Room Next Door” is mannered in a way that doesn’t feel purposeful, stilted and stiff where it should be sumptuous, and aches of the feeling that the Spanish auteur passed his sensibility, and his script, through a direct-to-English transferal that lacks the nuances that, say, a bilingual literary translator would bring to a text brought from Europe to the United States. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, playing longtime friends who reunite as the latter decides to give up stage-three cancer treatment to choose euthanasia instead, move and speak as if in different films.

Moore...

Telluride – How does a dog deal with death? How does a pet deal with the death of any of its human companions for that matter? That is the tantalizing question a character asks toward the beginning of Scott McGehee and David Siegel‘s “The Friend,” a world premiere at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival. A drama about a writer (Naomi Watts) coping with the suicide of her longtime friend (Bill Murray) and how she comes to terms with his death after the responsibility of watching over his Great Dane is thrust upon her.

Continue reading ‘The Friend’ Review: Naomi Watts Shelters A Great Dane In This Bloated Drama [Telluride] at The Playlist.

There was a noticeable energy inside the Palm Theater on Saturday night at the Telluride Film Festival before the world premiere of Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night.” In a lineup of several heavy dramas and art house titles – some of which, at least anecdotally, have left attendees disappointed despite pre-festival buzz – the Oscar-nominated filmmaker’s new film about the launch of “Saturday Night Live” felt like something of a unicorn: a mainstream studio movie about one of the most important comedy institutions ever created. So when Reitman – who has been coming to Telluride for years – took the stage to introduce the film, the crowd was already primed to erupt. And when Reitman brought “SNL” legend Bill Murray, in town to support “The Friend,” up to the stage to surprise the audience, they did to the tune of a standing ovation.

But that all happened before the movie started. So in some ways,...

The 2024 Telluride Film Festival kicked off August 30 and runs through September 2 in the Colorado mountains. Deadline is on the ground to watch all the key films.

Among the films appearing in the mountains for the first time anywhere are director Saturday Night, Jason Reitman’s tale of the 1975 first episode of SNL; the film version of August Wilson’s acclaimed stage play The Piano Lesson, a Washington family affair with producer Denzel, director Malcolm and star John David; Oscar winner Edward Berger’s papal thriller The Conclave; Scott Magehee and David Siegel’s heartwarming The Friend, starring Naomi Watts, Bill Murray and a scene-stealing Great Dane Bing; and MGM, Orion and Plan B’s Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel.

Below is a compilation of our reviews from the fest. Click on the movie’s title to read our full take.

The Friend ‘The Friend’

Directors:...

Although Naomi Watts wrangles a huge Great Dane, The Friend is far from your average doggie movie. There are no slapstick scenes of the dog running away with her, and no mawkishness even though the film is about grief. This is a fresh, unsentimental yet touching story about Iris (Watts), a writer and teacher, adjusting to life without her best friend, Walter (Bill Murray), a famous, womanizing author. His suicide was a shock. But another shoe drops when she learns that he has left her Apollo, a Great Dane who almost comes up to her waist.

The drama is based on Sigrid Nunez’s novel, which, while much loved and admired, seems unadaptable on the page: It is told in the first person and Iris frequently addresses Walter directly, dropping in comments about writing and books as well as recalling the details of their past relationship. But directors Scott McGehee...

“What happens to the dog?”

That is a line that pops up throughout the new dramedy The Friend, which asks that question in different ways and plays with our own experiences in watching movies centered on man’s best friend where whether the dog lives — or dies — is front of mind. And indeed (partly) the title star of this movie is a majestic and huge Great Dane named Apollo (Bing), but “The Friend” is also a woman named Iris (Naomi Watts), a New York City professor and writer who was the best friend to Walter (Bill Murray), a celebrated author and womanizer, married three times among other relationships, but devoted to the 5-year-old Apollo and vice versa. That is until the unthinkable happens and Walter unexpectedly dies, a suicide that sends his circle into a tailspin and Apollo into unending grief and lack of understanding of what happened to his master.

A balancing act that seems to enjoy feeling as if it’s about to lose its balance, “The Friend” is a lot of different things at once. It’s a dog-and-human bonding movie, which means it’s unavoidably sentimental. It’s a Bill Murray movie, which means it’s funny in a snarky way, but it’s also a character drama in which Murray is an unseen presence most of the time. It’s a movie about grief and a movie about creativity.

And mostly, the new film from writer-directors David Siegel and Scott McGehee is all of those things at once, sliding between tones, defaulting to lightness most of the time but always ready to veer in another direction.

The film, which premiered on Friday at the Telluride Film Festival, is full of feints: a little bit of comedy, a hefty helping of loss, a touch of melodrama and a whole lot of dog,...

Before his death, French actor Alain Delon had said that he wished for his dog, Loubo, to be put down when he passed. Delon believed the bond between him and his rescued Belgian Malinois was so strong that the dog would miss him dearly when he died and preferred to spare his pet such pain.

How does one explain death to a dog? That question, and several others deeper than we might expect from a “dog movie,” give intellectual heft to “The Friend,” a gentle coping-with-grief drama that provides its audience with a 180-pound emotional support animal in the form of Apollo, a harlequin Great Dane who’s missing his master and headed for the proverbial glue factory unless a bighearted enough human agrees to adopt him. Naomi Watts plays that human in a by-the-numbers crowd-pleaser with a bit more on its mind than your typical canine-centric tearjerker.

It’s...

There’s no way to play this part cool: for the entire second half of David Siegel and Scott McGehee’s “The Friend,” this critic was reduced to a blubbering, sobbing, heaving mess, clutching damp paper towels and alternating between choking and laughing. While the filmmaking pair’s latest might sound squarely aimed at Naomi Watts super-fans and intense animal people, what they actually present in “The Friend” isn’t so very niche at all: instead, it’s the sort of witty, wise, and warm character study we seem to be running out of these days. And that’s just when it comes to its standout dog star, the Great Dane (emphasis on great) Bing.

The film opens both before and after the arrival of Apollo, the Great Dane at its center. Through shared voiceover narration, Iris (Naomi Watts) and her mentor Walter (Bill Murray) set the scene, recounting the time that Walter,...

Telluride is where it all begins. It’s the launch of a long culling process as audiences and critics watch, and judge, the carefully curated program. Some movies will land distributors; some will have the right stuff to build word of mouth, critical support, and the momentum that can sustain a lengthy Oscar campaign.

This year’s Telluride is a starrier affair than the last. With strikes in the rear view, optimism and anxiety run high in equal measure. At the annual Patrons’ Brunch, where the mountain views are sublime (see below), French auteur Jacques Audiard hung in the shade while his Cannes prize-winning “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón soaked up sun and attention. Netflix is campaigning her for Best Actress, while her costar at the brunch, Selena Gomez, will go for supporting.

A view from the Telluride brunchAnne Thompson

It was Gascón’s first Telluride, she said through an interpreter.

Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence and Stanley Tucci as Cardinal Bellini in ‘Conclave’ (Photo Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2024)

The 51st Telluride Film Festival announced its lineup just days ahead of the festival’s opening on Friday, August 30, 2024. The festival, which runs through Monday, September 2nd, will include the world premieres of Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, Edward Berger’s Conclave, and Malcolm Washington’s The Piano Lesson.

This year’s festival includes 60 feature films, shorts, and revival programs.

“This brief weekend of cinematic bliss reminds us every year that movies really are magic,” stated Telluride Film Festival director Julie Huntsinger. “The process of assembling our line-up is both daunting and rewarding, and it never fails to bring the most fantastic sense of satisfaction once we’re finished. Our anticipation matches that of the audience. We’re delighted to now share what we found to be the most exciting, interesting and...

Wie immer einen Tag vor Start hat das Telluride Film Festival sein Line-Up bekanntgegeben. Interessant aus deutscher Sicht ist die Einladung von Tim Fehlbaums „September 5“, Edward Bergers „Konklave“, „Maria“ von Pablo Larraín, „Die Saat des heiligen Feigenbaums“ von Mohammad Rasoulof, „The Outrun“ von Nora Fingscheidt , „The End“ vom Dokumentarfilmemacher Joshua Oppenheimer und „Santosh“ von Sandhyra Suri.

Tim Fehlbaums „September 5“ wird gerade in Venedig gefeiert und reist sofort weiter nach Telluride (Credit: Constantin Film)

Morgen, am 30. August, startet das 51. Telluride Film Festival. Das Boutique-Festival, das stets mit seinem exquisiten Line-up und Händchen für künftige Oscar-Contender punktet, hat auch deutsche (Ko)Produktionen eingeladen. Mit dabei sind die Venedig-Beiträge „September 5“ von Tim Fehlbaum (BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion) sowie „Maria“ von Pablo Larraín (Komplizen Film), aber auch die deutsche Oscar-Einreichung „Die Saat des heiligen Feigenbaums“ von Mohammad Rasoulof, „The Outrun“ von Nora Fingscheidt (Weydemann Bros.), „Santosh“ von Sandhyra Suri, den Razor Film mitproduziert hat, sowie „The End...