news and reports from the scene
Three days before wide release, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil walked into Fantastic Fest and left with the kind of early buzz studios chase all year. Premiere-goers describe a film that starts hot and rarely cools down—gory, tense, unexpectedly funny, and, for more than a few voices in the room, the strongest theatrical swing the franchise …
Halfway through the 51st Toronto International Film Festival (September 10–20), the chatter is less about red-carpet photo ops than about which premieres actually stick. This year’s slate mixes awards-season features with an unusually muscular TV lane, and mid-fest audiences are already picking favorites that could harden into fall watchlists. On the television side, Mike Flanagan’s …
Venice answered Florian Zeller’s Bunker with a roar: a sixteen-minute standing ovation, the longest of the festival so far. Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem lead the film, and the reaction put the title squarely on the awards-season map before most audiences have even seen a trailer cut. Zeller’s name still carries the afterglow of The …