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Oscars: Thailand Picks ‘9 Temples to Heaven’ as Best Int’l Feature Submission

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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.

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Venice 2026 Film Clip for ‘I Matter’ on Young Roma Woman (Exclusive)

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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.”

‘I Matter’ poster, courtesy of Pluto Film

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.

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Jack Osbourne Gives Update On Ozzy Movie

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A year after Ozzy Osbourne‘s death, his family is working on preserving his legacy on the big screen.

Jack Osbourne recently revealed that the script is “done” for a biopic about his father and they’re “currently going out to directors” after the Black Sabbath rocker died at age 76 last July.

It’s gung-ho,” he told E! News, revealing the family also has someone in mind to play the late Prince of Darkness. “We do. I’m not allowed to say, but conversations have been had, and if it all works out, it’s gonna be awesome.”

Jack explained, “I have this mantra, and I always say it, when in meetings with my mom or doing anything with the family business. It’s, ‘give the fans what they want.’ That’s our people, that’s who we’re catering for, that’s what my dad wrote music for, that’s what he toured for, it’s why we did the shows we did. It’s been a big theme.

“Because we’re doing the Ozzy movie with Sony, and I’m always saying in the meetings, ‘We’ve got to give the fans what they want. We can’t make this artsy, esoteric biopic,’” he added. “No, we’re not doing that—for many reasons—but it’s not what the fans want.”

In 2021, Ozzy’s official Twitter account announced in a statement that Sony Pictures and Polygram Entertainment were “developing a biopic chronicling the extraordinary life of rock legend Ozzy Osbourne, and the great love story between him and his wife, Sharon,” with Oscar nominee Lee Hall attached to write.

Ozzy died at age 76 on July 22, 2025 of a heart attack, having been diagnosed with coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease.

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Chris Hansen Buys Ad Space Before ‘Primetime’ Screenings

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Although Chris Hansen was not involved with the making of A24’s Primetime, he has something to gain from the film’s potential success.

The former To Catch a Predator host, who is portrayed by Robert Pattinson in the Ajon Singh-penned thriller, has purchased ad space before upcoming screenings of the film promoting his true-crime streaming network TruBlu, where Hansen continues his sting investigations.

“We see it as an opportunity to reach a very concentrated group of people who either know Chris or are going to know some version of Chris,” TruBlu President Shawn Rech told Entertainment Weekly.

“A lot of people, because we’re a small network, don’t know that he has done hundreds of new episodes, working in partnership with law enforcement,” added Rech. “And the cases are crazier than ever.”

The spot will run for four weeks before screenings of Primetime and in movie theater lobbies. If the movie does well at the box office, they could renew the ad.

Robert Pattinson in 'Primetime' trailer

Robert Pattinson in ‘Primetime’

Video screen capture

After Hansen recently confirmed he’s “going to see” the movie, following an invite from the production team to a private screening, he appeared last week on Fox News, claiming he was asked to sign “a very restrictive agreement” to attend the advanced screening. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” he said.

“The lawyers at A24 wanted me to sign away my rights to my name, image and brand essentially, as well as any potential legal rights that would come out of the movie,” added Hansen. “I couldn’t sign that, so they didn’t show me the film. I went all the way over there.”

The form was an NDA that all preview audiences are asked to sign a week in advance to view in an unreleased film, in order to prevent spoilers and protect IP. Hansen reportedly refused to sign, and therefore, wasn’t allowed to screen the film.

Premiering Sept. 25 in theaters, Primetime follows Chris Hansen (Pattinson) as he attempts to make television history with NBC’s To Catch a Predator (2004-’07), a hidden camera show that set up stings for adult men seeking sex from minors online.

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