Connect with us

movies

Switzerland Selects “Who Is Still Alive’ For International Oscar Race

Published

on

Switzerland has selected Nicolas Wadimoff’s documentary Who Is Still Alive (Qui Vit Encore) as its official submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature. The film, which explores the loss of home against the backdrop of the Gaza War, had its world premiere in Venice at the 2025 Giornate degli Autori. 

Who Is Still Alive tells the story of Gaza through the eyes of nine Palestinian refugees: Through their eyes, we discover a reality far removed from the images in the news. They move through a setting reduced to a sketchy chalk map with the outline of Gaza and the words of the protagonists. They recount life in the Gaza Strip before the war and their escape from hell – but also their resilience, creativity and hope. The protagonists were filmed in South Africa, one of the few countries where Palestinians from the Gaza Strip can enter without a visa. 

In early 2026, the film received the Prix de Soleure at the Solothurn Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary at the Swiss Film Awards. It continues to screen at numerous international festivals, most recently in the Panorama Suisse section of the Locarno Film Festival. 

The film is Wadimoff’s third project that deals with Palestine, following 2010’s Still Alive in Gaza and 2018’s The Apollo of Gaza

Who Is Still Alive was produced by Wadimoff, Philippe Coeytaux and Ketsia Stocker of Geneva-based production company Akka Films, where Wadimoff is a founder and producer. Co-producers include Paris-based Easy Rider Films, Palestine-Jordan company Philistine Films, UK outfit Cocoon Films and RTS Radio Télévision Suisse. 

Watermelon Pictures, the distributor of last year’s Oscar-nominated pic The Voice of Hind Rajab, is set to release the film theatrically in the U.S. this fall. Swiss distributor is First Hand Films while Una Mattina is set to release the project in France in October. The title has also sold to countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America. 

“Representing Switzerland at the Oscars with our film Qui Vit Encore is a great honor that fills us with joy,” said Wadimoff. “At the same time, it is a great responsibility to make the bodies and voices of the film’s protagonists visible and audible – all of them survivors of the hell of Gaza who were confronted with the unspeakable, yet remain alive and standing tall. It is also an opportunity to loudly and clearly champion the values that have made Switzerland what it should continue to be: a country of humanism and humanity, of dialogue, and of respect for others. We will do our best to live up to this selection.” 

Previous films announced for the Best International Feature race include Dua for Kosovo, Flood for Slovakia and Like a Limbless Tree for Turkey. 

The 99th Academy Awards takes place on March 14, 2027.

>

Continue Reading

movies

Stephan James & Colton Ryan Join Paramount+ Legal Drama ‘Discretion’

Published

on

Paramount+ legal drama Discretion is expanding its cast as production gets underway. Stephan James (I Play Rocky, If Beale Street Could Talk) and Colton Ryan (The Girl From Plainville) will join Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning and Josh Lucas as series regulars in the upcomng series from Chandler Baker and A24.

Written and executive produced by Chandler Baker and executive produced by Susannah Grant, Discretion is a legal thriller about a summer associate Lenny (Fanning) at a prestigious Dallas law firm who uncovers a web of NDAs masking a dark truth. When she realizes she signed the same agreement, her discoveries put her in the crosshairs of the firm’s most powerful female partner Sharon (Kidman)—upending their mentor-protégé dynamic and raising the question: who gets to keep secrets, and at what cost.

James will play “Logan,” a sharp corporate associate who becomes a mentor to Lenny. Ryan will star as “Boone,” Lenny’s (Fanning) ex-boyfriend, a recovering addict from an affluent Dallas family, now nine months sober living at a halfway house while quietly trying to rebuild his life.

Matt Shakman serves as executive producer and will direct the first four episodes. Kidman and Per Saari (Blossom Films), Elle Fanning, Dakota Fanning and Brittany Kahan Ward (Lewellen Pictures), Joe Hipp (CUT TO) and Jordan Cerf (Linden Entertainment) also serve as executive producers along with A24.

James starred in Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk and in the Prime Video thriller series Homecoming, James will next be seen portraying Carl Weathers in I Play Rocky, which will premiere at TIFF next month. James recently signed with the Gersh Agency and continues to be repped by Range Media Partners, HillTop Entertainment, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

Ryan, known for his starring role opposite Elle Fanning in Hulu miniseries The Girl From Plainville, is repped by The Gersh Agency and TFC Management.

>

Continue Reading

movies

‘Protective Custody’ TV Series Cast Adds Amy Sedaris (EXCLUSIVE)

Published

on

Amy Sedaris, the comedic multi-hyphenate behind truTV’s Emmy-nominated At Home with Amy Sedaris, is set to star alongside Ben Stiller and Benicio Del Toro in Protective Custody, the Apple TV comedy series that we scooped in May.

No word yet on Sedaris’ role.

Hailing from Mike Judge, Steve Hely and Dave King, Protective Custody follows a disgraced financier accused of massive fraud who is thrown into protective custody, where he must navigate prison politics, salvage his reputation, and confront the consequences of his actions while awaiting trial.

The show will be co-written, co-showrun and exec produced by Judge, Hely and King, with Judge also attached to direct. Ben Silverman, Howard Owens and Rodney Ferrell exec produce for Propagate Content, alongside Stiller and John Lesher for Red Hour, Michael Rotenberg and Oly Obst for 3 Arts Entertainment, Nanette Burstein, and Blair Breard.

An actress, comedian, and writer known for Strangers with Candy and At Home with Amy Sedaris, Sedaris has recently appeared in projects like Doctor OdysseyElsbeth and the Netflix rom-com Office Romance. Earlier this week, we announced her as starring alongside SNL‘s Veronika Slowikowska in the indie comedy Stephanie, Bride to Be. She is repped by CAA and attorney James Adams.

>

Continue Reading

movies

Kingston Rumi Southwick, Arthur Conti Join ‘Egg Baby’ Movie From Amazon

Published

on

EXCLUSIVE: Widow’s Bay star Kingston Rumi Southwick and Arthur Conti, of Mike Flanagan’s upcoming Carrie, have joined Ariana Greenblatt in Egg Baby, Amazon MGM’s new romantic comedy from director Natalia Anderson and XYZ Films.

Written by Sawyer Perry, Egg Baby follows a rebellious artist (Greenblatt) and a golden-boy quarterback (Southwick) who are forced to co-parent an egg for health class, only to find that raising “Yolk-o” might crack open something real between them.

Conti’s role hasn’t been disclosed. XYZ Films is producing with Allison Friedman (The Mortuary CollectionThe Fix), in association with BuzzFeed Studios. The film is set to stream globally on Prime Video.

Southwick is a fast-rising actor who broke out with roles in two recent buzz titles. Most recently, he’s been seen playing Matthew Rhys’ son in Widow’s Bay, the breakout horror comedy from Apple TV, which scored the most Emmy nominations of any freshman series this year. Prior to that, he was seen playing the son of Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Negga in Apple’s hit legal drama Presumed Innocent. Also seen in Amazon’s thriller series 56 Days, Southwick is repped by Untitled Entertainment and attorney Erik Hyman of Paul Hastings.

Currently, Conti can be seen opposite Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, the Mubi slasher from Jane Schoenbrun that nabbed the Queer Palm at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Previously playing a key role in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Conti’s upcoming slate includes Ti West’s Ebenezer, in addition to Flanagan’s series adaptation of the Stephen King classic Carrie. He is repped by WME, The Artists Partnership, and Myman Greenspan.

>

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2017 Zox News Theme. Theme by MVP Themes, powered by WordPress.