Tag: Entertainment – Variety

Warner Bros. Discovery president of international Gerhard Zeiler has been tapped to receive the 2026 International Emmy Directorate Award. He joins Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria, who was previously announced as this year’s honoree for the org’s founders award. Zeiler and Bajaria will acceot their awards at the 54th International Emmy Awards Gala on Monday, Nov. 23, in New York.

“Gerhard Zeiler has built and led some of the world’s most influential media businesses, helping shape the international television industry through periods of profound change,” said International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences president/CEO Bruce L. Paisner in a statement. “Throughout his career, his commercial acumen has been grounded in a deep appreciation for the creative talent and storytelling that define our business.”

Per the International Emmys, the directorate award “is presented to organizations or individuals in management, administration, engineering, news, programming, and/or international relations for outstanding contributions over a period of time to the arts and sciences of international television.”

Recent winners include Grupo Globo president João Roberto Marinho (2025), Gaumont CEO Sidonie Dumas (2024), Balaji Telefilms’ Ekta Kapoor (2023), CJ ENM’s Miky Lee (2022) and ZDF’s Thomas Bellut (2021).

Zeiler first joined Time Warner’s Turner in 2012, expanding the company’s international operations, including its regional sports and pay-TV businesses. He was named WarnerMedia International presidnet in 2020, and as president of international for Warner Bros. Discovery, Zeiler has expanded HBO Max footprint to more than 130 countries in just over three years and helped oversee the integration of WarnerMedia and Discovery.

Prior to Turner, he was CEO of RTL, and earlier in his career held senior leadership roles at Austria’s public broadcaster, ORF.

“I am deeply honored to be recognized by the International Academy with the International Emmy Directorate Award,” Zeiler said in a statement. “My passion for media began before I can even remember, and from a young age I understood the power of television to bring people together and open a window into different cultures and ideas. The role of media in connecting the world requires a deep understanding of distinct cultures – global trends and local nuances alike – and I feel very fortunate to have had a career filled with learnings and perspectives across the world on what makes compelling television. This is an industry like no other, driven by passion, ambition, and the desire to create stories that audiences can connect with. I receive this recognition with great appreciation for the colleagues, partners and creative talent who have inspired that journey.”

Marine Atlan’s coming-of-age drama “La Gradiva,” a French hopeful eyeing to represent the country in the international feature Oscar race, has set its U.S. release date.

The Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize winner will open at Film at Lincoln Center and IFC Center in New York on Dec. 18, followed by an expansion the next week to the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles, Variety can exclusively reveal. A national rollout will follow, with 1-2 Special handling U.S. distribution.

Variety has also obtained an exclusive new image from the film, which stars Antonia Buresi alongside newcomers Colas Quignard, Suzanne Gerin and Mitia Capellier-Audat.

The release comes after a strong run on the international festival circuit for the feature directorial debut from Atlan, who’s career started as a cinematographer. Beyond its Cannes prize, “La Gradiva” won the audience award at the New Horizons International Film Festival and the Prix d’Ornano-Valenti at the Deauville American Film Festival. It will make its North American debut at the Toronto International Film Festival before screening in the main slate of the New York Film Festival.

“La Gradiva” currently holds a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 98 on Metacritic and a 4.0 average on Letterboxd, making it the best-reviewed film of this year’s Cannes by those measures.

The film recently held a week of Oscar-qualifying screenings in France, drawing 1,000 admissions across sold-out showings. Its official French theatrical release is set for Oct. 21.

“La Gradiva” follows a French class trip to Pompeii, where a group of teenagers explore the ancient city’s ruins and the bodies of those petrified by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Set against the sun-soaked landscape of southern Italy, the film unfolds as a melodrama that pairs youthful discovery with the ghosts of a civilization frozen in time.

The project marks Atlan’s first feature as a director following an acclaimed career behind the camera. Her cinematography credits include “The Innocents,” which earned her a César Award nomination.

Atlan co-wrote “La Gradiva” with Anne Brouillet, and their screenplay won the grand prize at the 2024 Fondation Gan. The pair previously collaborated on “Green Romances” and “Daniel.”

The international rollout begins in France on Oct. 21, followed by Austria, Belgium and Italy in November, the U.S. in December, and Poland and Bulgaria in January 2027.

Here is the current international release schedule with the country’s distributor.

France: Oct. 21, 2026 (Tandem)
Austria: Nov. 6, 2026 (Stadtkino)
Belgium: Nov. 11, 2026 (Cineart)
Italy: Nov. 18, 2026 (Fandango)
United States: Dec. 18, 2026 (1-2 Special)
Poland: Jan. 15, 2027 (Cinobo)
Bulgaria: Jan. 22, 2027 (Beta)
Romania: Jan. 22, 2027 (Good Time)
Lithuania: Jan. 28, 2027 (A-One)
Germany: Feb. 25, 2027 (Grandfilm)
Hungary: March 4, 2027 (Budapest Film)
Finland: April 2, 2027 (BKS)
Sweden: April 9, 2027 (Lucky Dogs)
Denmark: May 5, 2027 (Angel Films)
Netherlands: May 20, 2027 (Cineart)

Additional territories, including Australia and New Zealand, Canada, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, South Korea, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, have been sold, with release dates to be announced.

When it comes to Will Smith‘s shocking Oscars slap, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is sticking with her “King Richard” co-star.

The Oscar nominee, who played Smith’s on-screen wife as the mother of Venus and Serena Williams in the biopic, told The Daily Beast’s “Obsessed” podcast that she understands why Smith stormed the stage in 2022 and smacked Chris Rock after he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head.

“I know that he wanted to protect his wife,” Ellis-Taylor said of Smith. “I stand by that. I stand with him for that.”

After Rock made a joke comparing Pinkett Smith (who has alopecia) to G.I. Jane, Smith slapped Rock and returned to his seat, yelling, “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth!” Very shortly after, Smith won the Academy Award for best actor, but the surprise act of violence later earned him a 10-year ban from all events hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Ellis-Taylor continued, “I think that, you know, this idea that First Amendment rights should protect everybody? I don’t think it should necessarily protect assholes. I don’t. I don’t. I really don’t, especially if you’re causing harm.”

Being from Mississippi, the actor said she is used to hearing protected speech defending the Confederate flag. “I know blanket First Amendment valorization. I don’t buy into that. I just don’t,” she added. “To say the least, it needs to be nuanced. You can’t use it as an excuse to harm someone.”

Because it was caught on live television, the Oscars slap became a national scandal that affected Smith’s career. He was banned from attending the Oscars for a decade, and his film “Emancipation” was delayed.

Smith issued a formal apology in a video posted to social media the day after the Oscars, calling his actions “unacceptable” and “inexcusable.” He addressed Rock directly: “I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”

On the “Obsessed” podcast, Ellis-Taylor made a point to praise Smith for how he “took care of everybody” on the set of “King Richard.”

“He just would not allow anybody to be treated poorly in his presence. He would just not allow it. And I cannot tell you how rare that is in this job,” she said. “I will always have a great deal of affection and care for him because he acted that way.”

Netflix has set the release date for “The Altruists,” inspired by Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison’s rise and fall from financial power.

“The Altruists” hits Netflix November 19. Netflix has also released the first-look photos for the drama, which can be seen below.

The logline for the show reads, “The story of Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, two hyper-smart, ambitious young idealists who tried to remake the global financial system in the blink of an eye – before they were accused of stealing $8 billion and became Gen Z’s own Bonnie & Clyde.”

At his peak, Bankman-Fried was listed as the 41st-richest American in the Forbes 400. (He was on the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 list, but also included on its 2023 Hall of Shame list as a selection Forbes wished it could take back.) In November 2022, evidence of fraud surfaced and FTX was forced to go bankrupt. Bankman-Fried was arrested in December 2022.

Ellison was the CEO of Alameda Research, a trading firm affiliated with FTX. She lost that job after FTX and Alameda filed for bankruptcy. Prior to their fall from grace, Bankman-Fried and Ellison were in a relationship. She later went on to testify against Bankman-Fried in court.

The eight-episode series stars Julia Garner as Caroline Ellison and Anthony Boyle as Sam Bankman-Fried. Joining them are Alex Lawther as Sam Trabucco, Karan Soni as Nishad Singh, Naomi Okada as Claire Watanabe, Madison Hu as Constance Wang, Matt Rife as Ryan Salame and Eugene Young as Gary Wang.

Hudson Williams, Paul Reiser, Robin Weigert, Maddie Hasson, Marianna Phung, Jennifer Grey, Terry Chen, William Mapother, Jack Greenlees, Elizabeth Adams, Hannah Galway, Donald Heng, David James Lewis and Jasmine Lukuku also star.

“The Altruists” is created by Graham Moore and inspired by the New York Magazine articles written by Kevin T. Dugan and Jen Wieczner. 

Moore serves as writer and showrunner along with Jacqueline Hoyt. James Ponsoldt, Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Mairzee Almas, Moore and Silver Tree are directors.

Moore, Hoyt and Barack and Michelle Obama are executive producers. Jessie Dicovitsky and Vinnie Malhotra executive produced for Higher Ground Productions, with Scoop Wasserstein for New York Magazine/Vox Media Studios. Tonia Davis, Ponsoldt, Lauren Morelli and Garner are also executive producers.

Read this article on Variety’s sister website Sportico.

The record-breaking Los Angeles Lakers sale, announced Wednesday to a largely unsuspecting audience, is packed with intrigue. 

The seller, Mark Walter, is facing federal investigations across his business empire. The buyer, Joshua Kushner, is Trump family-adjacent, recently tried to invest in FIFA in what became a true international scandal and could soon become the youngest control owner in the NBA. The deal, which is still a long way from closing, has implications for the NBA’s potential multibillion-dollar sale of an expansion franchise 300 miles east of LA, the ownership future of baseball’s richest team and much more. 

To unpack the biggest topics, Sportico complied six things to know about the agreement and its fallout:

1. The price

Yes, $12.5 billion is the highest valuation ever for control of a sports team in a transaction, but Kushner’s group is not forking over $12.5 billion to make it happen. Nor did Walter actually pay $10 billion when he consolidated control less than a year ago. It’s important context, particularly as sports team values soar to numbers unfathomable for all but the world’s absolutely richest people.

Walter and Todd Boehly already owned 27% of the Lakers before they agreed to that “$10 billion takeover,” a slice they purchased in 2021 at a $5.5 billion valuation. What’s more, the team’s long-time control owners, the Buss family, retained an approximately 15% stake in the club. In rough math, that $10 billion transaction was really less than $6 billion, and that’s before you get into the debt and the financing specifics.

For this deal, Kushner has already clarified that the Buss family will remain involved. So right off the bat, that lowers the transaction to $10.6 billion. The team’s exact cap table is not public and it is unclear who is exiting, so that number is an absolute max. The NBA’s debt limit is $475 million, and the league allows teams to have up to 30% of their equity held by institutional funds (no one fund can have more than 20%), which means more than $3.5 billion of this total could come via private equity funds like Kushner’s Thrive. 

That back-of-napkin math helps explain how Kushner and Bob Iger—who have a combined net worth of about $6 billion—can buy an NBA team in a $12.5 billion deal. 

2. The buyer

As team prices have skyrocketed, there’s been lots of chatter about who is rich enough to actually own these franchises. Tech has seemingly come to the rescue.

Venture investor Vinod Khosla is leading the $9.6 billion takeover of the Seattle Seahawks. Jeff Bezos is reportedly a notable part of a consortium looking to buy a significant minority stake in Liverpool, along with Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

Earlier generations of Silicon Valley leaders largely turned their noses up at sports. But no longer. The development of AI in particular appears to have increased tech billionaires’ interest in the artificially scarce entertainment assets that will continue to draw attention (and dollars), even if other segments of the economy are turned upside down by sudden surplus. Khosla has predicted a world in which today’s 5-year-olds won’t ever need jobs. That would give them more time for football. 

AI can produce information and entertainment for basically free. But it can’t match the local team when it comes to generating passion.

Kushner, 41, has overseen Thrive’s investments in tech companies including Instagram, Spotify and OpenAI. He explained his philosophy for a new Thrive Eternal fund this spring alongside an investment in the San Francisco Giants.

“These are assets with qualities that cannot be replicated by technology,” he said at the time. “In a world shaped by abundant intelligence where creation scales and distribution fragments, we believe they will matter even more.”

Potential OpenAI and Anthropic IPOs could mint a new generation of billionaires—and sports investors.

3. The politics

Kushner isn’t just known as a tech investor these days. He’s also recognized as the brother of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law who remains active in global relations after serving as a top advisor during Trump’s first term in office. Jared divested from Thrive Capital after Trump’s election in 2016. Their father serves as the U.S. ambassador to France. 

Those political connections were a key driver in the backlash to the proposed FIFA investment deal.

Joshua Kushner reportedly donated $250,000 to the Growth Democrats political action committee during the 2024 election cycle. Iger was briefly considered a potential 2020 presidential candidate after switching his party affiliation from Democrat to no party preference in 2016. He largely avoided direct confrontation with the President during his recent stint as Disney CEO, which ended in March, even as the company and administration collided over allegations of defamation and concerns over press freedom at ABC.

Iger has long been a power player within the sports world and is known to be close with NBA commissioner Adam Silver. 

4. The financing

There’s been very little disclosed about how this deal is being financed. Sportico’s assumption is that it’s being backstopped by Thrive, which has more than $60 billion under management, and that Kushner and Iger will now begin the process of building a group of investors—almost certainly a mix of wealthy individuals and institutional funds, likely with notable celebrities mixed in too.

Fifteen years ago, this timeline would have felt backwards, but this is largely how modern sports transactions unfold today. It’s what happened with the sales of the Boston Celtics and Portland Trail Blazers, and it’s currently underway for the pending acquisitions of the San Diego Padres and Seattle Seahawks. The sale agreement comes first, then the financing comes together.

That helps explain at least part of what is perhaps the most shocking piece of this very shocking story. Iger said Wednesday that the deal came together in just three days. But that’s really just an agreement on a price. Now the much harder work begins to syndicate a group that has the money and can pass the NBA’s background checks.

That will all have to be wrapped up before the deal is officially approved by the NBA, in a process that could take a few months. The exact close date has big ramifications on the level of taxes Walter will owe for the deal.

5. The seller

Walter flipping the Lakers in less than a year, for a tidy 25% profit, came as a shock to the sports business industry. If he sells another team from his portfolio, it will be less of a surprise.

Walter is “in talks with investors to raise money to help pay down loans on the books of its insurers that had drawn scrutiny from the Justice Department,” according to recent reporting from Bloomberg. The DOJ is reportedly investigating loans Walter-owned insurance firms made to holdings of his within the TWG Global holding company, which also includes his sports portfolio. 

“Mark Walter and TWG have always acted in good faith, and those who have done business with Mark know him as honest and straightforward,” TWG Global said in a statement in July. “We are cooperating with authorities, and we are confident these matters will be resolved favorably.”

Those investigations have put an extra spotlight on Walter’s relationship to The White House. Walter visited 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in July with the Los Angeles Dodgers, delivering a personalized World Series ring to Trump on behalf of the team.

Walter is the Dodgers’ controlling owner. He also owns part of the Chelsea Football Club, Cadillac Formula 1 Team and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. He is the primary backer of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

6. NBA expansion

The NBA formally launched its expansion process in May with only two cities under consideration: Las Vegas and Seattle. Adam Silver has been clear that expansion is not guaranteed, and the league might choose only one market.

The Vegas opportunity has attracted more interest, with four known groups interested and more unknown parties certainly kicking the tires. Kushner and Iger hired an investment bank and spent months exploring a Vegas bid. Their group and one fronted by Nancy Walton Laurie and Bill Laurie were considered the frontrunners, according to multiple sources.

Kushner and Iger pivoting to Los Angeles reshapes the bidding and potentially clears the path for Walton Laurie, a Walmart heiress who brings deep pockets and a local flavor to the Vegas process. She and her husband live just outside Sin City in Henderson, Nev., and are worth $18.4 billion, according to Forbes.

Other known contenders in Las Vegas include a bid fronted by Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley. A group dubbed the Las Vegas Jacks revealed plans to bid with a cap table that includes former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo, former Turner Sports executive David Levy, American Century Investments CEO Jonathan Thomas and Prime Capital Financial chairman Scott Colangelo.

Media biz veteran Mary Murcko has joined Fixated, an agency that provides support services for creators ranging from talent representation to creator economy support services.

Murcko has been tapped to steer the company’s global revenue organization, overseeing brand partnerships, direct media sales, podcast sales, clipping and other brand and sponsorship activities. Launched in 2024, Fixated is designed to be a next-generation talent agency plus production services plus distribution partner for promising creators emerging from the wild west of the creator economy.

Murcko reports to Zach Katz, Fixated’s CEO & founding partner, and Jason Wilhelm, president and co-Founder.

“Mary is exactly the kind of executive we look for at Fixated—strategic, entrepreneurial and relentlessly focused on growth,” Katz said. “She has repeatedly built modern revenue organizations, expanded commercial partnerships and helped media businesses evolve during periods of transformation. As we continue scaling our platform at Fixated, Mary’s leadership and experience will help us create even more opportunities for creators, brands and advertising partners.”

Wilhelm pointed to Murcko’s range of experience as being a good fit with Fixated’s mission to build a media firm for the creator economy generation.

“Mary understands both the needs of today’s creators and the expectations of the world’s leading advertisers,” Wilhelm said. “Her experience building innovative commercial organizations across digital media and the creator economy will help us deepen our relationships with brands and agencies while creating new opportunities for our creators to grow sustainable, long-term businesses.”

Murcko comes to Fixated after holding senior business and revenue posts for digital firms as Skimm, Fullscreen, Catch+Release and traditional publishing giants including Condé Nast, Gannett and Rodale.

“I’m excited to join Fixated at such a pivotal moment for the creator economy,” Murcko said. “The company has built an incredibly differentiated platform that brings together talent, content, distribution and monetization in ways that create meaningful value for creators and brands. I look forward to working with the team to deepen our relationships with advertisers and agencies while developing innovative partnerships that help creators build enduring businesses.”

The world premieres of two major German films, Andreas Dresen’s “Love, After All” and Doris Dörrie’s “How Can I Help?,” are among 10 titles to feature in the Gala Premieres section of Zurich Film Festival.

The selection also includes Oscar contenders “I Play Rocky” and “Josephine,” and Switzerland’s most anticipated film, “111 – Echoes From Halifax.”

Christian Jungen, CEO of the festival, said the section is “dedicated to auteur cinema for a broader audience.”

“We are particularly delighted that two major figures of German auteur cinema, Andreas Dresen and Doris Dörrie, have entrusted us with the world premieres of their new films,” Jungen said. “Their films are grounded in everyday life and, with a little wink, reflect on the state of our society.”

He added, “We present films that will play an important role later in the award season, such as ‘I Play Rocky.’” The film tells the story behind the making of the cult classic starring Sylvester Stallone, which won the Academy Award for best picture in 1977.

Jungen explained that, from a Swiss perspective, “111 – Echoes From Halifax” deserves special mention. “From multiple perspectives, the film sheds light on a major event that shook our nation: the crash of a Swissair aircraft near Halifax,” he said.

The full program of the 22nd Zurich Film Festival, which runs Sept. 24 to Oct. 4, will be revealed on Sept. 9.

I PLAY ROCKY
European Premiere
Biography
U.S., 2026
Director: Peter Farrelly
Cast: Anthony Ippolito, Matt Dillon, Stephan James, AnnaSophia Robb, PJ Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Jay Duplass
Unknown actor Sylvester Stallone is writing a screenplay titled “Rocky” that a studio is desperate to acquire. But Stallone refuses to sell the rights – unless he gets to play the lead himself. Despite numerous setbacks and rejections, he remains determined to make his dream a reality: playing Rocky Balboa. The result is the ultimate underdog story behind the legendary underdog film.

JOSEPHINE
Drama
U.S., 2026
Director: Beth de Araújo
Cast: Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan, Mason Lily Reeves
When 8-year-old Josephine witnesses a violent crime, her world is out of joint. She is trying to find a way to regain a sense of security. While her emphatic mother (Gemma Chan) wants to help her process what happened, her father (Channing Tatum) believes in preparing Josephine for the harsher realities of life but increasingly finds himself overwhelmed by the situation. With the suspense of a thriller, director Beth de Araújo tells a deeply empathetic family drama about fear and the limits of parental care. Channing Tatum gives one of his strongest performances in this year’s great Sundance Film Festival sensation.

111 – ECHOES FROM HALIFAX
European Premiere
Drama
Switzerland, Canada, 2026
Director: Mauro Mueller
Cast: Ursina Lardi, Kris Holden-Ried, Djebril Zonga, Fathia Youssouf, Natalie Brown
On Sept. 2, 1998, the crash of Swissair Flight 111 off Halifax changes the lives of many people forever: relatives struggle for certainty about their loved ones, helpers try to offer comfort, and the residents of the Canadian coast are confronted with the traces of tragedy. As time passes and questions remain unanswered, the film shows how grief connects, relationships change, and new perspectives emerge. Mauro Mueller’s film is a quiet, poignant drama about loss, memory and the power of human closeness.

COMPANY
Mystery
Canada, U.S., UAE, 2026
Director: Casey Affleck
Cast: Nick Nolte, Ben Mendelsohn, Adelaide Clemens, Scoot McNairy, Emily Alyn Lind, Caylee Cowan
On a winter night in 1975, a mysterious woman named Evelyn arrives uninvited at a holiday gathering and tells the story of Tom, an aging hermit who rescues a stranded actress during a Colorado blizzard in 1953. To pass the night, the actress recounts an older tale of a farming couple who take in a troubled young drifter as a series of grisly murders spreads fear across the frontier. As the stories intertwine across generations, “Company” becomes a meditation on grief, vengeance, forgiveness and the quiet acts of compassion that can heal even the deepest wounds.

POSSIBLE LOVE
Drama
South Korea, 2026
Director: Lee Chang-dong
Cast: Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, Cho Yeo-jeong
“Possible Love” follows the intertwined relationship of two married couples facing different paths and hidden desires. Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon) lives quietly with her laid-off husband Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu) and their young son Cheol until a funeral brings them into the orbit of Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong), a documentary filmmaker chronicling laid-off workers, and her husband Sang-woo (Zo In-sung) – a couple whose affluent lifestyle stands in sharp contrast to their own. When Mi-ok agrees to be filmed, she grows close to Ye-ji, and finds herself uneasily drawn to the unreadable Sang-woo. As their worlds collide, fractures begin to appear in their daily existence. Marking his first release in eight years, highly acclaimed director Lee Chang-dong (“Burning,” “Poetry,” “Secret Sunshine”) brings his signature nuance to “Possible Love,” capturing shifting emotions, conflicts, and contrasting outlooks that shape these relationships.

LOVE, AFTER ALL
World Premiere
Tragicomedy
Germany, 2026
Director: Andreas Dresen
Cast: Dagmar Manzel, Joachim Król
Lore (Dagmar Manzel) and Harry (Joachim Król) have been married for nearly 40 years and there is rarely a moment of silence between them. Old stories, missed chances and the uncertainties of retirement fuel heated discussions. Lore is afraid of growing old and bitter in the garden alongside Harry while he longs for stability and peace. There is only one thing they agree on: Their daughter Gloria has little luck in love. Now, she wants to get married for the third time – this time to a wealthy man who is almost the same age as Harry. A warm-hearted love story inspired by real life, drawing the audience in with its authentic characters and lots of humor.

IT WILL HAPPEN TONIGHT
Romance
Italy, France, Spain, 2026
Director: Nanni Moretti
Cast: Louis Garrel, Jasmine Trinca, Hippolyte Girardot, Angela Finocchiaro, Melina Åkerman Kvie, Elena Lietti, Andrea Lattanzi, Antonio De Matteo, Nanni Moretti
I’ll wait for you, for as long as you want me to. But will it ever happen?

BURGUNDY
Documentary
France, 2026
Director: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
Cast: Enzo Ferraroli, Céleste Kalis, Eric Goettelmann, Patrick Maniere, Guillaume Baroin, Bertrand Devillard
Burgundy is one of the world’s most famous wine regions. Through the eyes of novices in hospitality and viticulture, the film offers a fascinating glimpse into its unique wine culture, where time-honored traditions live on in rituals centered on luxury and indulgence. Blending documentary and fictional elements, directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw pay homage to the remarkable and charming people whose zest for life shapes and preserves this unique region and its centuries-old culture.

HOW CAN I HELP?
World Premiere
Drama/Comedy
Germany, 2026
Director: Doris Dörrie
Cast: Angela Winkler, Laura Tonke, Josef Ellers, Via Jikeli, Eugene Boateng, Zoë Baier
Mrs. Winkler has a fall and becomes a nursing case. Her daughter, overwhelmed by her needs, hires a care robot. After some initial resistance, Mrs. Winkler grows quite fond of him. He takes perfect care of her and keeps her entertained – except that he is also supposed to kill her in case her condition deteriorates further…

THE HAMMER
World Premiere
Documentary
France, U.S., 2026
Director: Simon Wallon
Cast: Simon de Pury, Jeff Koons, Marina Abramović, Chloe Wise, Lou Zhenggang
A documentary portrait of famed auctioneer Simon de Pury, whose career saw him leading auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Phillips, being the curator of major world collections, an artist, even a DJ, and always being an unavoidable personality “the Mick Jagger of auctions” takes us behind the curtain of the extravagant art market. Art fairs, collectors’ homes, artists’ studios, galas… The film is a welcoming and entertaining dive amongst the 1% and explores the complicated relationship between artists and commerce. Ultimately, it questions what it means to be an artist today. It was shot between New York, Tokyo, London, Cannes, Miami and Monaco.

Most Deep Purple fans had long since given up any hope of seeing the band ever share a stage with founding guitarist Ritchie Blackmore again, due to a well-know, decades-long estrangement. But that’s exactly what took place near the end of the group’s show Wednesday night at Jones Beach in New York, as hatchets were buried and Blackmore rejoined his old mates for a rendition of the group’s most famous song, “Smoke on the Water.”

“It’s gonna be interesting,” Blackmore said in a podcast appearance the night before the show, in which the 81-year-old guitar legend leaked news of his imminent appearance. “i have not played rock music in 25 years.”

At the conclusion of “Smoke in the Water” Wednesday, singer Ian Gillan showered praise on his ex-bandmate before he left the stage. “A couple of days ago I got a message from a local lad… saying ‘I only live around the corner, do you mind if I come and jam with you?’ It was an absolute pleasure to have back on stage the founding member, the great legend,”the immortal Ritchie Blackmore. Thanks, Ritchie. i have to say, it was a great pleasure. I’ll see you in the bar.”

Probably few in the audience were taken by complete surprise by Blackmore’s cameo, since the previous night, the guitarist had spilled some of the beans in a livestream conversation with his wife, singer Candice Night, the evening before the Jones Beach gig. Blackmore said on Tuesday’s live podcast that he was revealing the secret in advance because he wanted fans who had waited for this moment for decades to at least have a shot at making it to New York in time for Wednesday’s show.

Blackmore, who co-founded Deep Purple in 1968, had a fallout with other members in 1993 that resulted in him leaving the lineup in 1993 for the second and last time. The fallout was bad enough that Blackmore did not show up at the band’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2016, after being told that the currently touring lineup — which still includes three original or near-original members in Gillan, drummer Ian Paice and bassist Roger Glover — would not reunite with him under any circumstances, even for a short, one-off performance at the ceremony.

So hell seemed to have frozen over when Gillan recently sent a message gingerly asking if he could come up on stage for one number at a tour date… and the band proved surprisingly agreeable to that notion, after so much water under the bridge.

“it is a secret and i don’t want anybody to know, but I’m probably going to go up and do an encore with the band, Deep Purple,” Blackmore blurted about eight minutes into the livestream with his wife, singer Candice Night. “But you can’t tell anybody, and I know this will be kept a secret. won’t it?” he joked, even as the web lit up with the news quickly being spread among hard rock buffs.

Blackmore explained the genesis of this unexpected reunion: “I sent my AI pigeon to Ian Gillan in Portugal, where he lives at the moment, and I said, ‘How would you feel if I got up just for an encore on one of the songs. Don’t want to intrude.’ And I said, ‘No pressure, just kind of old times’ sake.’ You know, I’m 81 now. So (Gillan) seemed to li0e the idea, put it to the band, got a thumbs up, and it looks like we might be doing that.”

The guitarist admitted he was hardly in practice for a performance with Deep Purple, given the drift in his musical focus since 1993, as he moved on to gentler brand of folk-rock with Blackmore’s Night, the band fronted by his wife.

“I changed my strings on my Strat, which i haven’t done in over 25 years,” he revealed. “It’s kind of frightening. I haven’t played rock in 25 years. I’ve been playing acoustic guitar for 25 years. And at first i was very uncomfortable playing (acoustic guitar), but i got used to it, and now I’m more used to playing the acoustic, more so than the electric.”

He said he needed some medical assistance in being able to withstand “Smoke on the Water.”

“I did have my injection in my lumbar area yesterday,” he explained on the podcast, of needing a steroid shot. “it’s a special injection i have that enables me to stand in one spot, because if I’m playing a Strat, i have a hard time… I have four herniated discs, if anybody wants them. And I had my injection yesterday of a steroid which helps me get through standing on stage. But I have kind of a stool there, just in case I start toppling over or something.”

Of his reasons for giving fans 24 hours’ notice, he said he “wanted to warn the people living in Romania, so they could fly over… Not really. I just thought it might be an idea to let a few people know because I think a lot of people would like to see that.”

His announcement of sitting in with the group concluded with the thoughts: “I hope people enjoy it.” And: “it will be good to see the old guys again.”

Fans from afar turned to the web to look for footage of the show. Perrin Wolfson and Jimmy Kay of the Metal Voice podcast livestreame through the latter part of Deep Purple’s set, waiting for confirmation that it had gone down, and putting up photos and video that were shared with them from inside the show. “History has been made,” Wolfson and Kay crowed as they first got word “Smoke in the Water” was in progress with Blackmore aboard. “I feel like we just walked on the moon.”