David Puttnam To Be Honored By Rome Film Festival
Renowned UK producer David Puttnam will receive an Industry Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening night of the Rome Film Fest in October. Puttnam, whose credits include Chariots of Fire, The Killing Fields, The Mission, Midnight Express and Local Hero, has won a total of ten Oscars, ten Golden Globes, twenty-five BAFTAs, nine Emmys, and a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival across his career. His longtime collaborator, the producer, director and screenwriter Uberto Pasolini will present the award. The 20th Rome Film Fest runs from October 15 to 26, 2025.
Charlie Polinger’s ‘The Plague’ Tops Deauville Winners
Charlie Polinger’s psychological thriller The Plague starring Joel Edgerton won the Grand Prize at the 51st edition of the Deauville American Film Festival over the weekend. The film, which premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in May, follows a boy who is bullied during a water polo camp. The jury, presided over by French-Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, also feted Fernando Eimbcke’s Plan B-produced drama Olmo and Cole Webley’s Omaha with jury prizes ex aequo. Kristen Stewart’s feature directorial debut The Chronology of Water won the Revelation Award from a separate jury presided over by actor-director Jean-Pascal Zadi. Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor the Great clinched the audience award.
Cate Blanchett Set For El Gouna Film Festival Honor
Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) had named actor and producer Cate Blanchett as the guest of honor of its upcoming edition in October, in an invitation extended in collaboration with its impact partner, the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD). Blanchett who is a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) through which she has worked to raise awareness on issues of forced displacement. She will be presented with the festival’s Champion of Humanity award and also participate in an in-conversation event within the context of the festival’s industry-focused Cinegouna meeting.
Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Eleanor The Great’ To Open UK Jewish Film Festival
Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut Eleanor The Great will open the 29th edition of the UK Jewish Film Festival (UKJFF). The film which world premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard is due to be released in the UK by Sony Pictures. June Squibb stars as a woman who moves back to New York after many years of living in Florida after her best friend dies. Spending her days wandering around Manhattan, she inadvertently attends a Holocaust survivors group, and makes an impromptu speech that will dramatically change the course of her life. The UKJFF described the film as “a charming and accomplished portrait of Jewish family life”. The festival runs in cinemas across London from November 6 to 16.
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