Austrian filmmaker Manuel Wetscher has fictionalized autobiographical experiences in his feature film debut Eklipse, which will world premiere in the Horizons section of the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 5.

The title, spelled with a “k” in both its German and English versions, means “eclipse,” signaling how the movie touches on what a solar eclipse does to our vision and understanding – it both brings darkness to Earth as the moon obscures people’s view of the sun, but it also briefly reveals things that otherwise remain hidden to the naked eye.

Eklipse is inspired by Wetscher’s experience when details of the death of his father from AIDS back in the 1990s were kept from him. The film stars Moritz Hohlrieder as Tomy and Finley Brown as his best friend Chris. The two teenagers spend a summer at an alpine dairy farm in Austria, helping Tomy’s uncle, portrayed by Hannes Perkmann, with the milking and exploring the outdoors. But their time together is not just fun and games.

“Tomy’s mother decides to continue keeping the real reason why his father is in hospital a secret from her son,” notes a synopsis for Eklipse. “When Chris learns that Tomy’s father is in hospital with ‘the gay disease,’ he becomes frightened – and Tomy is suddenly confronted with rejection and his own family’s silence.”

Lenz Moretti, Lisa Schützenberger and Barbara Romaner also feature in the film that explores fears and taboos and how they can obscure important facts.

Wetscher co-wrote the film with Bernhard Jarosch, with whom he also collaborated before on the short films Magma and Four Seasons, on which he was also a co-writer, as well as At Night When Mice Scream, in which Jarosch acted. Simone Hart is the cinematographer on Eklipse, while Anna Kirst edited the movie.

Films Boutique is handling world sales on Eklipse. Its production companies are Austria’s Eutopiafilm and Italy’s Albolina Film.

THR can today exclusively premiere a clip from the Venice-premiering movie that will take you back to the 1990s in the Alps. Get ready to meet Tomy and Chris. And get ready for a scene that will hopefully not leave your head spinning the same way that the Earth spins on its axis. Watch the exclusive clip from Eklipse right here.

Thailand has selected Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s 9 Temples to Heaven as its submission for the best international feature category at the 99th Academy Awards.

The National Federation of Motion Pictures and Contents Associations, Thailand’s Oscar selection body, chose the film from 51 eligible titles after narrowing the field to eight. According to reports in the Thai press, the committee said it held several rounds of deliberations before settling on 9 Temples to Heaven, citing its distinctiveness, overall quality, profound subject matter and the reception it received from international critics after its Cannes debut.

The film world premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section in May, becoming the first Thai feature selected for the sidebar in nearly two decades.

A gently comic family road movie, 9 Temples to Heaven follows businessman Sakol as he’s warned by a fortune teller that his ailing mother may soon die. Hoping to ward off the prophecy, he packs his mom and their extended family into a van for a single-day pilgrimage to nine Buddhist temples, where clashing beliefs and simmering tensions among the family steadily emerge as the elderly matriarch grows increasingly exhausted.

The film is Chidgasornpongse’s first narrative feature. He previously directed the documentary Railway Sleepers and spent roughly two decades working as an assistant director to acclaimed Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul on films including Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century, Cemetery of Splendour and Memoria. Apichatpong serves as a producer on 9 Temples to Heaven alongside Kissada Kamyoung.

Since Cannes, the film has picked up a number of honors on the festival circuit. Chidgasornpongse won best director in the Asian New Talent competition at the Shanghai International Film Festival, where Sompop Songkampol also took best actor. The film was picked up a jury prize at the New Zealand International Film Festival this week. It will make its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival this fall. Playtime is handling international sales.

9 Temples to Heaven is scheduled to open theatrically in Thailand on Sept. 17.

Thailand has yet to secure an Oscar nomination in the international feature category. Its closest showing came in 2024 with Pat Boonnitipat’s How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, which became the first Thai submission ever to reach the 15-title shortlist.

The 99th Academy Awards will be held March 14, 2027.

Romanian actress Alina Șerban (Housekeeping for Beginners, Alone at My Wedding, Gipsy Queen) is inviting us on a cinematic journey into the experience of being a Roma woman.

I Matter (Eu Contez), which she wrote and directed, is her feature directorial debut, and it will get its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 8.

The movie, featured in the Venice Spotlight section of the fest, looks to break new ground. After all, it is described as “the first film by a Roma woman to be selected for an A-list festival,” and it brings, as the press notes highlight, “an intimate and empowering first-person perspective to the screen” as a young woman “struggles to keep [two] worlds from colliding.”

Șerban draws on her own experience to explore identity and belonging from a Roma woman’s perspective.

“Through Rebeca’s eyes, I want to invite the audience into this world and to understand what it is like to live as a minority in a society where being ‘normal’ so often means being white and growing up in a family,” she shares in a director’s note. “As a Roma woman, I have faced many difficulties that have shaped the way I see the world, including poverty, discrimination and even eviction from my childhood home. Growing up, I was made to feel ashamed of being Roma. It took me years to let go of that shame and embrace my culture. But it took me even longer to speak freely about what spending part of my youth in a children’s home meant to me.”

So, what’s I Matter about? “As she stands on the verge of leaving the orphanage she called home, Rebeca, a young Roma girl, clings to the hope that her father’s release from prison will finally give her the family she has always longed for,” reads a synopsis. “When she is accepted into university to study acting, life finally seems to be opening up for her. But just as Rebeca begins to find her place in this new world, the life she comes from starts to catch up with her.”

In other words: Rebeca struggles to keep her two worlds from colliding. “But as those worlds begin to close in around her, she is forced to make choices she can no longer postpone and to find a new way forward.”

Denisa Farcaș stars in the movie, along with Sorin Mihai, Angelina Pavel, Vanessa Dancea, Raisa Mihai, Alexandru Stancu, Alina Berzunțeanu and Natalia Călin. Radu Voinea handled cinematography, with Ion Ioachim Stroe editing the film.

I Matter is produced by Ada Solomon’s microFILM, 2PilotsFilmproduction, Frakas Productions in coproduction with ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel in association with ARTE, Lemming Film Belgium, Avanpost Media, Orange & Be tv, Proximus, Shelter Prod, Romanian Television. Pluto Film is handling sales.

THR can now exclusively premiere a first-look clip from I Matter, plus the poster for the film (see above).

The scene from Șerban’s film stars Farcaș as Rebeca and Pavel in bed. It may be time to sleep, but they share dreams of a better future – before getting interrupted. Watch the exclusive clip from I Matter right here.