The film, a sequel to 2018’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, was released on June 2 in the United States and was set for a June 22 release in the Gulf region.

However Vox, a subsidiary of retail conglomerate Majid Al Futtaim, said in response to a query via Facebook Messenger that the movie would not be released in the UAE. Majid Al Futaim did not respond to a request for comment.

Major cinema chains in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain do not list the movie on their websites’ “coming soon” sections, including Vox, Novo, and Reel cinemas.

The film has sparked debate online about whether the character Gwen Stacy is trans, and a scene in a trailer shows a sign in the background that reads “protect trans kids”.

Reuters could not determine if that was the reason the film was pulled.

The UAE Media Council on Monday said on Twitter it “will not allow the circulation or publication of content contrary to the values and principles of the UAE and the standards of media content in force in the country.” The Council gave no further details or referred to any specific content.

In the socially conservative Middle East, any deviation from traditional sexual norms is considered taboo and in many countries it is a criminal offense.

“I’m with the directive of not showing this movie. We don’t want to show the next generation that this is something normal. It’s not normal, our religion told us that there’s only male and female genders,” Abdullah Al-Oufi, a Saudi, told Reuters in Riyadh.

“I see that the decision of stopping the movie is a sovereign decision, and it’s our right to express our opinion,” said Sami al-Shoraim, a young Saudi in Riyadh, adding that movies should respect their viewers’ values.

Vox, which operates across the Gulf, had said in a Facebook post on Sunday that tickets were now available ahead of release. However, tickets on Thursday were not shown as available for purchase on Vox’s websites for Gulf countries.

Several cinema customer service lines did not say why the film was not listed and government bodies in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Kuwait’s information ministry said it had not yet received the film for consideration.

In June 2022 the UAE banned Walt Disney-Pixar’s animated feature film Lightyear from screening because it features characters in a same-sex relationship. The youth and culture ministry said it “violated the nation’s media content standard”. – Rappler.com

Extraction is the opposite, and goes against Hemsworth’s onscreen persona. Directed by Sam Hargrave and written by Joe and Anthony Russo, the 2020 film introduces Hemsworth as Tyler Rake, a black ops mercenary who, after abandoning his son dying of lymphoma, attempts to rectify his actions by saving the son of another. Here, the excitement is in the probability of death and the action, rip-roaring across Dhaka and Mumbai, is so committed to realism that it produces cuts on Hemsworth’s face and injuries on his body. So when the first film concludes with his neck shot and his body falling into the depths of a river, it subverts the decade-long image of invulnerability and immortality constructed by Marvel. Here, he is no god. He’s a human. He limps. He bleeds. He drowns. He is dead.

Extraction was created without a sequel in mind. But after its sudden success, in part due to the daring 12-minute long take that made pandemic-addled adrenaline junkies swoon, Netflix had to make a follow up. Without meaning to, writer Joe Russo and director Sam Hargrave turned Hemsworth’s plunge into murky waters into a baptism, turning him into yet another god, just in a different universe with a different name.

Such is the trade of a modern action star, and Extraction 2 begins with this rebirth. Tyler Rake is fished out of the river, and after being comatose in a hospital in Dubai, is able to make a speedy recovery through physical therapy, his arm cast being one of the few reminders of his brush with death. Nik Kahn (Golshifteh Farahani) and her brother Yaz (Adam Bessa) take Tyler to a remote cabin where he is to retire and, for a while, he acclimates to domesticity. All of this happens within the first 15 minutes.

But then a nameless agent — of course it has to be Idris Elba — arrives with a mission he cannot refuse. One from his ex-wife. Rake’s life begins to unspool for the audiences. Flashbacks of his son enter into frame more frequently. In the hopes of exorcizing this ghost from his mind, he goes to Georgia to rescue his ex-wife’s sister and two children who are trapped in a maximum security jail. But things go wrong and the destinies of all three families — Rake’s, Nik’s, and the Georgian mob boss’ — become intertwined through gunfire and blood.

If anything, Extraction 2 ups the spectacle from its predecessor. The centerpiece is an expanded 21-minute singular take that transports its audience from a maximum security prison to a moving train without any cuts perceivable to the untrained eye. Hargrave, known for his stunt work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and more, takes every possible opportunity to milk the action. A teddy bear makes the noise that alerts everyone to the break-in. The riots spread out of the cells and onto the courtyard. Hemsworth, pushing through hundreds of extras, is lit on fire with a molotov cocktail. He is punched, stabbed, and manhandled. Bullets rain on him as he traverses a high-speed train and subzero temperatures.

The camera shakes, in hopes of emphasizing the disarray. Like its predecessor, Extraction 2 films in real locations, exchanging the comfort of green screens for the grit and harsh climate that locations in the Czech Republic and Vienna can imbue the work. But while there is risk in the creation of the action, so little of that risk can be felt for its characters. The audience is acutely aware of Hemsworth’s plot immunity and this cushions the blow of each stunt, reducing the impact of the work. It isn’t as absurd as The Fast and Furious franchise, but it isn’t as enjoyable in its sheer bombast and camp, either.

The truth is that while Extraction 2 is a physical spectacle, so little of that is translated onto film, because there’s too little of a character journey to latch onto emotionally. In a press conference earlier this month, Hemsworth detailed how exploring the interiority of Rake’s character was a priority in the creation of the sequel and Russo’s attempts at providing him with a backstory — a grief-stricken wife, loving friends who function as bosses, even the ability to speak Georgian — register more as a crutch than characterization. The cold environment was meant to match Rake’s tough exterior, but his iciness doesn’t melt nor does Russo and Hargrave seem interested in making him vulnerable.

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An afternoon with Chris Hemsworth and Sam Hargrave of ‘Extraction 2’

Such are the rules that bind male action stars. Farahani is a more captivating performer because of her vulnerability. Her concern and worry is noticeable not only in her bodily movements, but her eyes and voice. Flashes of worry, of fury, of emptiness flit in and out of her eyes and her voice solidifies when needed and trembles in unexpected places, and these nuances create a window for the audience to see the complexities of her evolving relationship with the situation and with Rake. It’s easy to understand why she has so much screen time, because they’re investing in her for a sequel. But if the supporting performances are more interesting than the lead’s, if Hemsworth merely absorbs the grief and violence around him like bullets on kevlar, what is the use of following him around instead of her?

It’s not a huge ask: that great action be performed with emotional depth and rooted in character motivation. Romain Gavras’ Athena, also on Netflix, explores similar thematic territories as Extraction 2 — familial responsibilities, cross-cultural allegiances and disparities, and violence as a means of making sense of complicated grief and acquiring retribution and justice in proxy. But Extraction 2 neither has the emotional weight, nor the lightness, nor the contextual power to separate itself from any other action film. Its emotional wounds are merely scratches. Its context is merely a checklist. Its spectacle is impressive in the moment, but empty in retrospect. – Rappler.com

The Filipino-American filmmaker had minor voice acting credits in Pixar films such as Soul and Inside Out. When I entered the Palais des Festivals to watch Peter Sohn’s Elemental as the closing night film of the recent Cannes Film Festival, I didn’t know that Ronnie had a big part.

So what a pleasant surprise it was to hear Ronnie’s voice inside the Palais as Bernie Lumens in Elemental, in which writers John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, and Brenda Hsueh imagine a place called Element City where fire, water, land, and air elements live together, provided they do not mix.

The film revolves around a fire family, the Lumens, headed by Ronnie’s Bernie and Shila Ommi’s Cinder. Bernie plans to retire and turn over his shop business to his daughter, Ember (Leah Lewis). But the dad won’t do it until the fiery Ember learns to tame her hot temper.

Ember’s life dramatically changes when she meets Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), a water element. When these fire and water elements fall in love, they face a lot of challenges, especially the belief that elements should not mix, a view strongly held by Bernie.

A metaphor about race and immigration, Elemental was inspired by Peter’s years growing up as the son of Korean immigrants in New York. The urban setting of various anthropomorphic elements provides the Elemental filmmakers with a rich source to go to town on, with dazzling visuals.

In my latest interview with the Cavite City-born Ronnie, we talked about this major voice role in Elemental. It’s the latest feat of my fellow University of Santo alumnus. He cowrote Inside Out, for which he, Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, and Josh Cooley, earned an Oscar best original screenplay nomination.

He also codirected (with Pete Docter) Inside Out, the 2016 Oscar and Golden Globe best animated picture winner.

Being a family man – he’s married to Theresa, with whom he has a son and daughter – Ronnie said he identifies with Bernie.

After years with Pixar, Ronnie now works for Netflix where he plans to develop stories that reflect his identity, roots, culture, and heritage.

The following are excerpts from our video chat.

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I watched Elemental at the recent Cannes Film Festival. It was a treat to hear your voice in Cannes and in a film that was the closing night movie of the festival. Congratulations!

Oh, thank you very much. I’m so proud that Elemental is the closing movie at Cannes. I wish I was there. That was fantastic to see how people received it. And there was a standing ovation, if I read correctly.

How did you land the role?

Well, I’m good friends with Pete Sohn. He was making the movie while I was still there at the studio (Pixar). We help each other all the time with our individual movies.

He asked me to do the role casually in the early reels of the movie when they were just starting out. I would say, “Whatever you need, I’ll do it. You go and hire whoever you want to when you have to cast the actor.”

But the whole time, Pete Sohn was saying, “Ronnie, I really like your voice in the reels.” “That’s good, Pete, but you hire whoever is good for your movie.”

And then eventually one day, I got a call from Pixar. And they say, “Ronnie, you got it. You got the role.” “What are we talking about?” “You’re Bernie.” They cast me in it. Great!

You’ve done voice acting before but this is your first major role as a voice actor. Did you ever imagine that you would voice a major character in a Disney and Pixar movie someday?

No, it was never one of those aspirations. Ruben, I grew up wanting to be an artist. I’m always behind the scenes. You would never see or hear me in the movie.

But I have done little voice acting in the movies at Pixar – a line of dialogue here, a lot of dialogue there. And you can see my name credit crawl up but not as a major character in a movie.

And this is a landmark moment for me. It’s really earth-shattering. Not only that but I’m so proud to be part of a Pete Sohn story because he’s a good friend of mine and in such a heartfelt family movie, too.

And I get to play someone I feel like I’m very close to. He’s a dad so it’s fantastic.

I almost did not recognize your voice. And that’s a compliment because you really embody the character of Bernie. How did you arrive at the voice and manner of speaking of Bernie? And how did Peter guide you with his own ideas about how Bernie sounds like?

Pete actually made it very easy for me to play Bernie because he just says, “Be who you want to be. And just make sure that you can relate to your daughter,” in all of these moments and lines that I have to speak.

I didn’t have to turn myself into someone else but I did have to turn into what Bernie is. And that is a father who has a daughter in Ember and has to bequeath the store to her. There’s a certain aspect of his personality that has to enter in my voice.

And that’s as much of it that I had to do. I’m so glad actually that you can’t quite recognize my voice in it because even my wife can’t quite recognize my voice in it.

I am going to quote from a review of Elemental by Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter: “By far the most moving element in Element is the character of Bernie, a hardworking foreigner doing everything he can to support his family in the big city, breaking his back in his modest minimart while striving to preserve some of the traditions of his homeland.” Congratulations, Ronnie!

Wow. Please send me that quote. That is amazing. That is so close to my own story. That’s fascinating. That’s quite an honor.

Are you a fire element or a water element? You can guess from what I am wearing today that I identify with Bernie although I am a Gemini so I can be both fire and water.

I don’t know if you’re going by the astrological signs. I’m Capricorn which means I’m a water sign, I think (Capricorn is actually an earth sign). Right. But I wear fiery colors today, native fabrics from the Philippines, hand-woven. But very, very flame colors.

Being a fire element like Bernie, how passionate can you be about the people and things you care about? And how temperamental are you?

I am very passionate about my family. And I am known to my friends as being someone who’s very calm and also very low-key.

But my family, and some of my friends, will be able to tell you, I have a temper that not too many people see all the time. But the few people who have seen it – my close friends and, of course, my family has seen it – ah, they don’t like seeing it.

The idea of whether water and fire could connect or not was inspired by Peter Sohn’s growing up years in New York as the son of immigrants. A scene shows your character and his family getting off the boat to start their lives in a new place. How do you relate to this story?

I can relate very easily to that. My family immigrated here to the US from the Philippines. We were looking for a better life. And not only that, there was so much that’s unknown.

You don’t know what you’re going to do, if you’re going to be accepted. And that, if you have one thing that you know how to do, will you be successful at it?

All of those things were uncertain. I gave myself a year here in the US to see if I could make it, and if not, I will have to admit that I failed.

But thankfully, the country actually gave me a career. I landed in animation. And that’s really amazing to me because through animation, I got to express myself as an artist.

But here we are talking about a role I’m in. I get to play Bernie, whose story is very similar to mine. And I get to do it in an animated feature. That’s like the grand slam of dreams come true.

And you mentioned that you actually did voice performances in other films like Soul and Inside Out but can you backtrack and go through films that you did voice in? If you could just briefly describe your experiences in those.

I’ve done scratch for all of those things but then a lot of the times, I get replaced by actors. But in Inside Out, I get to be one of the characters inside Riley’s (one of the characters) mind.

And I get to say one line there. It’s like the line is, “Loneliness.” You can find that in the reels and then that will be it.

In other movies, which I have very faint memories of, I think I was in Up but I’m not sure now. Don’t talk to an old man whose memories are fading.

As a director and animation artist, you have seen talents record their scenes in animated movies. Which voice recording sessions with actors or artists were very memorable to you?

Oh, the most recent ones, for me it’s Eddie (Edward) Asner as Carl (Up) and Amy Poehler as Joy (Inside Out), Bill Hader as Fear (Inside Out). Those guys, they were just amazing to work with.

Among all the other ones, of course, that I can’t name because all of them are very special to us. Because all of those voice actors, those amazing talents, actually gave them (characters) their life, their voices.

When Amy Poehler speaks the lines for Joy, she becomes Joy for us. I can’t hear anyone else other than, well, that’s Joy.

And Bill Hader had actually done so many voices to help us out when we were making Inside Out. He did the treadmill workout of exercising almost every emotion that we were trying out. But he was definitely perfect to be the voice of Fear.

What do you consider are among the most memorable voice-acting performances in animation films?

To me, in acting, it was Robin Williams as the Genie (Aladdin). He ran away with that movie.

As a feat, that feels like it obliterated any other version of what you might think what a genie might be. For me, Robin Williams is it.

In your growing up years, did you ever work in a store or a shop like Bernie? What were you like?

I helped out in some of my uncle and aunt’s sari-sari stores. I was a kid. And every now and then, you have to go to the back room and imagine making animation. It’s fantastic.

Can you give an update on your coming projects? What’s next for you?

Personally, I have many stories that I want to tell. I’m developing as many of those as I can. And development is a very long process about what is valuable to them, to me.

It’s not one of those things where you get assigned to a movie or someone picks you to do this story or that story.

I’m developing the stories that matter to me. And I hope to one day be given the chance to make that movie and then people get to watch it. – Rappler.com

Miller portrays Barry Allen who, as superhero the Flash, uses his superspeed to travel back through time to try to prevent his mother’s death. Miller plays both The Flash and his younger self throughout the film. The Flash gets stuck in the past with Supergirl portrayed by Sasha Calle and Batman played by the original cinematic Batman, Michael Keaton. 

The film’s premiere was pushed back by the COVID-19 pandemic and by Miller’s mental health struggles and arrests in 2022, including second degree assault and burglary.

Miller, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, did not speak to press to promote the film, but did make their first public appearance in almost two years at the Monday, June 12 premiere with fellow cast members.

“Really it’s a beautiful moment for me,” Miller told Warner Bros at the premiere. “It’s really wonderful to see everybody and have a moment to celebrate this movie, that, as you say, has been sort of a journey.”

Ben Affleck, who portrays Batman in some scenes, told Warner Bros it was “nice” to play a wiser character with something to impart on younger characters.

Calle, the only actor from the film to speak with Reuters, said little about Miller’s role. When asked how audiences should approach the movie after Miller’s controversies, she said the “beautiful” film was made with thousands of people who put their hearts into it. 

The speedster story is garnering mixed reviews, currently rated 72% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. 

“Much of the advance publicity has focused on Ezra Miller’s string of controversies and legal issues,” David Rooney of the Hollywood Reporter said. “But the troubled star turns out to be the film’s chief asset, bringing humor, heart and a vulnerability not often seen in big-screen superheroes.”

An estimate from a person familiar with the release predicts The Flash will earn $70-75 million in its opening weekend, less than recent standouts this year. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse brought in $120.5 million in its opening weekend, second to the $146 million earned by The Super Mario Bros. – Rappler.com

The studio also pushed back the scheduled release dates for Thunderbolts and Blade, two Marvel films that have been disrupted by the ongoing strike by Hollywood writers.

Avatar producer Jon Landau wrote on Twitter that the filmmakers needed more time to complete the third, fourth and fifth installments in the science-fiction series set on the fictional moon of Pandora.

Avatar 3, originally scheduled to debut in December 2024, is now set for release in December 2025. Avatar 4 is slated for December 2029 and Avatar 5 for December 2031.

“Each Avatar film is an exciting but epic undertaking that takes time to bring to the quality level we as filmmakers strive for and audiences have come to expect,” Landau wrote. “The team is hard at work and can’t wait to bring audiences back to Pandora in December 2025.”

A new Star Wars movie was scheduled for December 2026, one of two in the space saga that will be released that year.

Blade starring Mahershala Ali was postponed by five months to February 2025. Thunderbolts, previously set for July 2024, was moved to December 2024.

One Marvel movie, a Deadpool sequel starring Ryan Reynolds, will be released sooner than expected. It will reach theaters in May 2024, rather than November 2024. – Rappler.com

Lawrence, 32, who took a two-year break from acting between 2019 and 2021 and had a son in early 2022, found the script too good to pass up.

“I didn’t want to tackle any genre. I didn’t want to work when I got this script, and I read it and it was the funniest script I’d ever read in my life,” she said at the film’s premiere in London on Monday, June 12.

“So, I quickly changed my tune and we were on set four months later,” Lawrence, who also produced the movie, said

In No Hard Feelings, Lawrence plays Maddie, an Uber driver who finds herself car-less and at risk of losing her home. She sees an opportunity to turn her life around when she comes across a wealthy couple’s job listing seeking someone to date their introverted son, Percy, and bring him out of his shell before he heads to college.

The film was inspired by a real-life Craigslist ad from 2013, director and co-writer Gene Stupnitsky said, with the character of Maddy written with Lawrence in mind.

Lawrence’s young co-star, Andrew Feldman, 21, put his Harvard studies on hold to take on the role of Percy.

“Jen called me to tell me that I had gotten the job and said ‘I’m so sorry, Andrew. You’re not going be able to go back to Harvard this semester’. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. I had to. And Harvard was also like ‘yeah, you have to go do it’. It was a dream come true,” he said.

No Hard Feelings will be in cinemas globally from mid-June.– Rappler.com

I’ll walk straight into the landmine here so we can detonate it and get past it. Ezra Miller’s problematic behavior has been in the news, and it’s kind of hard to get over. Obviously, I know that actors are not their characters, but living in the world that we do, it’s hard to support someone who has done some pretty problematic things. I had to make an effort to try and block that out, and it was all the more difficult when Miller would deliver lines in the film about heroism.

If you skip this because you can’t support his behavior, it’s totally understandable. Suspension of disbelief is challenging. Miller is a gifted actor and he sells it onscreen – he is believable, even lovable, as Barry Allen. So there’s a lot to navigate here, and I don’t have the answers; we each have to deal with this and make our own choices in the matter. But man, I wish that I could root for Barry Allen and enjoy his silliness and obnoxious joking without having to think that the actor had allegedly kidnapped someone. 

Okay, now that we’re past that…

There’s also the challenge of multiverse stories. Granted that, among the slew of them, The Flash actually pulls this off really well. This one might actually have the best-written explanation of a theory of a multiverse, too. But still, it drops after. Off the top of my head I can count three from Marvel in recent memory, and it seems that so many kinds of stories are turning to this trope. I guess, where we saw zombies and post-apocalypses in past years, this is where we are now, but at an even higher frequency. Who knows, maybe the next Fast and the Furious will go multiversal family at this rate. (Or is it already, with Han coming back to life!!!) But I digress. 

Then, throw in your superhero fatigue on top of all that, and it’s kind of hard to go all in for The Flash. 

HOWEVER.

And yeah, that’s an all caps however: if you can get over all those issues, which take up close to half of this review, you’re actually in for a fun time. 

While this movie is live action, it actually owes a lot to animation, which it very readily references. There’s some very strong Looney Tunes vibes going on here, and that’s a good thing. The comic timing is on point and funny when it comes to visual gags, and you can see how much of an influence cartoons are in the development of the film’s movement and visual language. While the verbal humor is hit and miss, the visual humor and the general vibrancy of this is on point. Thank goodness it’s gone into that nice, brighter, more defined color palette, which should be par for the course for the Barry Allen character. 

In addition to Looney Tunes, I couldn’t help but think of the Justice League TV series and movies. In fact, it stays pretty close in form to those, as well as balancing really upbeat heroic characters against emotionally heavy conflicts and world-ending threats. 

The story, if you’re a comics  or JL cartoon nerd, can be summed up in one word: Flashpoint. That’s shorthand for the Flash going back in time to try and change something, and that action having repercussions across the multiverse. 

In this movie version, after a cool action set piece and setups, we have Barry realizing that if he can use his powers to manipulate time by a few seconds, then he can go back in time and save his mother from being murdered. But when you change one thing, you trigger an entire series of changes, and as is the case with movies like this, chaos ensues. 

I’ll try to limit details to what’s been revealed in the trailer. But one of the things I liked was that our current-narrative Barry has to spend time and work with his 18-year-old self. And god, can you imagine how difficult it would be to hang out with that younger version of you? I feel like it’s a great idea that could have gotten a lot more play (but again, with the problems with Miller clouding it). But when it goes for humor in this regard, it’s fun. In addition, you get some of the cool stuff in the trailer, like Michael Keaton reprising his role as Batman. And whatever issues and misgivings I might have, it was an utter joy to watch him back in the role, in the suit. 

So for the majority of this movie, we get Barry, and Barry trying to fix the damage that they’ve done to the multiverse/timeline what-have-you. And they enlist as much super-powered help as they can. It’s all quite fun, if predictable. Another frustration external to this movie is that the trailer gives so much away that there could’ve been more exciting and surprising moments. 

You can see I have all these quibbles and issues. Let me throw one last one in there. The CG on this can get pretty bad. For fight sequences and the Flash running and things like that, it’s alright. But when it tries to use CG to render characters fully, I feel it pulls us way too far into the uncanny valley. 

That said, among DC movies, this is definitely one of the better ones, and comes close to being the most fun. It has very few of the hang-ups of the others, which want to look or seem cool, or want to be taken seriously. This understands the character of The Flash, understands the tragedy and the comedy that have made the character so beloved for generations, and builds a story around that effectively. 

In addition, this movie piles on the Easter Eggs and all the nerd-bait that will have fans in a frenzy. If the whooping and cheering in the screening I attended is any indication, then this is going to be a fan favorite movie. All in all, for all the challenges in its way, it’s a fun, sometimes silly, sometimes effectively dramatic and affecting movie that tells a good, if all too familiar story, very well. – Rappler.com

The filings said Marvel would drop its lawsuits against Larry Lieber and the estates of Don Heck, Gene Colan and Don Rico with prejudice, which means they cannot be refiled. A Disney spokesperson and an attorney for the artists said they had reached an “amicable resolution.”

Marvel did not appear to have settled with the estate of comic book artist Steve Ditko, which is seeking to reclaim his share of copyrights in Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. Both sides asked a Manhattan federal court for pretrial wins in that case last month.

Under the Copyright Act, a creator can terminate a copyright assignment after decades in certain circumstances. Marvel sued the artists, who wrote and illustrated Marvel comics in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, after they sought to terminate and reclaim copyrights related to several superheroes.

Other superheroes the artists said they co-created include Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Blade.

Marvel had argued the artists’ works were made for hire, which it said prevented them from being able to recapture the copyrights.

Marvel won a similar case at a US appeals court in 2013 involving illustrator Jack Kirby. That case was later settled as the US Supreme Court was set to consider whether to take it up. – Rappler.com

For its 26th edition, the European film festival will run from June 16 to 18, featuring 10 outstanding European films released from 2018 to 2022. The festival will run at the Red Carpet Cinemas at Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong City. 

Check out the lineup here:

Murina

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Croatia and Slovenia’s Murina will open the festival. The 2021 directorial debut of Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic is a coming-of-age story about restless teenager Julija, her strict father Ante, and their old family friend looking to buy their remote island home. It won the Caméra d’Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival and The Best Balkan Film Award at the Sofia International Film Festival.

Ensilumi (Any Day Now)

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Hamy Ramezan’s 2020 movie Ensilumi (Any Day Now) from Finland is another film in the lineup. It revolves around an Iranian refugee family awaiting a decision regarding their asylum status in Finland.

Rien à Foutre (Zero F***s Given)

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Rien à Foutre (Zero F***s Given) from Belgium follows Cassandra, who gets fired from her job as a flight attendant at a low-cost airline. The 2021 film is directed by Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre, and stars French actor Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Miss Viborg

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Marianne Bilcher’s Miss Viborg from Denmark is a feel-good movie about an unlikely friendship between a rebellious teenager and an old former beauty queen in a small Danish town. The film won the Best Nordic/Dutch Film at the 2022 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Sweat

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Poland’s Sweat, directed by Magnus von Horn, centers on a social media star and fitness expert who, amid her popularity, longs for a real connection. The film was an official selection at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival.

Szelíd (Gentle)

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Szelíd (Gentle) from Hungary and Germany is about a female bodybuilder who is ready to sacrifice everything to achieve the dream she shares with her partner and trainer, winning the world championship. A docu-fiction by Anna Eszter and László Csuja, it won the Grand Prix award at the 2022 Central and Eastern European Film Festival.

My Love Affair with Marriage

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In Latvia and Luxembourg’s musical comedy My Love Affair with Marriage, Zelma sets out on a 23-year quest to find perfect love and lasting marriage, learning about society’s destructive expectations for women in the process. Though it is animated, this 2022 film by Signe Baumane is meant for adult audiences.

Ramona

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Directed by Andrea Bagney, Spain’s Ramona is about a girl who meets her boyfriend in the streets and begins questioning her career and relationship with him. It is a romantic comedy that was released in 2022, and stars Lourdes Hernández, Bruno Lastra, and Francesco Carril.

Historja – Stygn för Sápmi (Historja – Stitches for Sapmi)

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Included in Cine Europa’s lineup is Sweden’s Historja – Stygn för Sápmi (Historja – Stitches for Sapmi), the 2022 documentary by Thomas Jackson. It follows Samí artist Britta Marakatt Labba and how her work depicts her people’s mythology, as well as how she preserves the culture of her indigenous community in the Arctic in the face of climate change.

The Cleaners

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Last but certainly not least, Hand Block and Moritz Riesewieck’s 2018 documentary The Cleaners will also be screening at the film festival. The German film focuses on a Manila-based organization that handles content moderation and delves into the psychological toll of the job, as well as social media as a vehicle for damaging false news and hate.

Cine Europa is organized by the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to the Philippines and the EU Cultural Institutes. Screenings will be held in various venues in Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, and Davao until July 16, according to the Delegation of the European Union to the Philippines.

For updates and inquiries regarding the screenings at the Shang, check out Shangri-La Plaza on Facebook or Instagram. – with reports from Sophia Gonzaga/Rappler.com

Huge statues of the film’s characters, Autobot leader Optimus Prime and Maximal leader Optimus Primal, towered over the red carpet where cast members Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback and Tobe Nwigwe premiered Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.

Set in 1994, the Paramount Pictures movie is the seventh installment in the series based on the popular Hasbro toys, and is a sequel to 2018 movie Bumblebee. It brings in a new faction of Transformers, the Maximals, who join forces with the Autobots to fight off planet-eating villain Unicron. 

“When you’re on movie number seven, you’re like, what can we bring fresh and what can we bring new to the table?” director Steven Caple Jr. told Reuters.

Ramos and Fishback play unemployed former military electronics expert Noah and artefact researcher Elena respectively, a duo who are unknown to each other but are both drawn into the battle for Earth.

“We had the fans (asking) ’why do we need the humans, why do we need the humans?’ So Anthony and I along with Steven, we said ‘ok how can we make the humans really necessary? How do we do that?’ And so we did our best to bring that home,” Fishback said on Noah and Elena’s key roles in the movie.

Asked about performing against computer-generated Autobots for much of the film, Ramos said: “It was interesting… you do a whole scene, emotional scenes to no one, you just use your imagination.”

The premiere took place days after Hollywood’s actors union voted to authorise a strike if contract talks break down, turning up the heat on film and television studios already grappling with a month-long work stoppage by writers. 

“Everything evolves over time and you learn more and as streaming services become really prominent in our society, I think things have to change,” Fishback said when asked about the situation. – Rappler.com