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New features by Sophie Linnenbaum and Bruce Labruce were among nine German and Canadian projects pitched during the CineCoPro Conference at this week’s Munich International Film Festival.

Britta Strampe and Laura Klippel of Berlin-based Bandenfilm presented Linnenbaum’s The Nose which will be the director’s first film shot in English and with an international cast. It is a satire about an activist who rips off a president’s nose and holds it hostage in an attempt to achieve world peace, thereby plunging the world into chaos. It has already received script funding from the German Federal Film Board...

It’s safe to call Canadian artist and filmmaker Bruce Labruce a Panorama mainstay; it’s been two decades and counting since Hustler White premiered in this Berlinale strand in 1996. Between The Misandrists and his latest, The Visitor (Panorama 2024), there was the indie feature Saint-Narcisse (TIFF/Venice 2021) and the porn feature The Affairs of Lidia (2022), to prepare us for what was to come––certainly a visit one’d have a hard time forgetting. A reimagining of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s acclaimed 1968 film Teorema wherein a handsome, nameless man infiltrates a bourgeois family to then change their lives forever through sex. Naturally, Labruce would pay tribute to a film that’s already queer and treats sex as a political tool for change. Even more so, he’d do it much more explicitly (with porn), provocatively (with political critique), and playfully (with campy humor).

Labruce shapes his artistic practice through a continuous...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including David Easteal’s The Plains (one of the best films we saw on the festival circuit last year), Christophe Honoré’s Winter Boy, Koji Fukada’s 10-part series The Real Thing, Bruce Labruce’s Saint-Narcisse, and more.

Additional highlights include three films by Joan Micklin Silver, additions to their Lars von Trier series, Sylvain Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville, Sally Potter’s Orlando, Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms, and more.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

April 1 – Henry Fool, directed by Hal Hartley

April 2 – Waltz with Bashir, directed by Ari Folman

April 3 – The All-Round Reduced Personality – Redupers, directed by Helke Sander | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema

April 4 – Saint-Narcisse, directed by Bruce Labruce

April 5 – Jaime Francisco, directed by Javier Rodríguez | Brief Encounters

April 6 – Hester Street, directed by Joan Micklin...

"I was born into a boring Presbyterian cult, which is the most bland and uninspiring religion. Catholicism is glamorous and baroque. I'm exploring the interaction of religious and sexual ecstasy, which are kind of interchangeable" - Bruce Labruce

Badass Canadian filmmaker Bruce Labruce returns with his latest outre outing, Saint-Narcisse, the story of a young narcissist who discovers himself in more ways than one. In 1970s Quebec, Dominic (Felix-Antoine Duval) cares for his elderly grandmother and, in his spare time, obsesses over his good looks, taking polaroid selfies and flirting with his own reflection. He indulges in erotic daydreams while hanging out at the local laundrette but is haunted by visions of himself in a monastic robe and hood. Following his grandmother's dea...

Leave it to Bruce Labruce, aka Canada’s “King of Kink,” to kick off the fall movie season with a portrait of a unique fetish that falls on the blasphemous side. Saint-Narcisse follows Dominic, a young man with a fetish… for himself. When his loving grandmother dies, he discovers a deep family secret: his lesbian mother didn’t die in childbirth and he has a twin brother, Daniel, raised in a remote monastery by a depraved priest, held captive against his will. So begins a surprisingly sincere twincest drama. Ahead of a release in NYC’s Quad Cinema and in Virtual Cinemas on September 17, we’re pleased to debut the exclusive trailer, courtesy Film Movement.

C.J. Prince said earlier this year, “Leave it to Bruce Labruce to take the Narcissus myth and adapt it into a soapy twincest drama. Set in 1970s Canada, Saint-Narcisse follows the journey of a young,...

Bruce Labruce’s queer comedy fantasy “Saint-Narcisse” has been sold by the Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever to the U.S., along with a string of other key territories.

Film Movement has acquired U.S. rights to “Saint-Narcisse,” which was the closing film of Venice’s Giornate Degli Autori (Venice Days) and played as part of Toronto’s Industry Selects.

Best Friend Forever has also scored deals for France (Optimale Distribution), Germany, Austria and Switzerland (OUTtv – Cinemien Germany) and Benelux (OUTtv – Cinemien). Northern Banner and Az Films will release the film in Canada.

Set in 1972 Canada, “Saint-Narcisse” follows Dominic, a handsome narcissistic young man who discovers the existence of his twin brother, living in a remote monastery led by a depraved priest. Dominic sets out to save him and reunite once and for all. The two beautiful, identical brothers are soon embroiled in a strange web of sex, revenge and redemption.

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired “Mother Schmuckers,” which will world premiere at Sundance. The film marks the feature debut of Lenny and Harpo Guit, and is the first Belgian movie set to play in Sundance’s midnight section.

Set in contemporary Brussels, the film tells the story of two brothers in their twenties, supremely stupid and never bored. When they lose their mother’s beloved dog, they have 24 hours to find it — or she will kick them out. The film’s cast features French star Mathieu Amalric, along with a string of newcomers such as Maxi Delmelle, Harpo Guit and Claire Bodson (“Young Ahmed”).

“We hadn’t laughed that much since ages. The film’s creativity is so refreshing; it’s full of ideas and boasts obvious cult potential,” said Martin Gondre and Charles Bin, Best Friend Forever’s co-founders. “It reminded us of John Waters in a way,...

Making a movie about our age’s self(ie)-obsessed culture that riffs on the myth of Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection in the water, seems like quite an obvious move. But only queer Canadian iconoclast Bruce Labruce (Hustler White, L.A. Zombie) would filter this story through the lens of 1970s cult movies and then throw in Sapphic lovers who have gone off the grid; a young monk who turns out to be a cigarette-smoking, volleyball-averse lookalike of the protagonist; and an abusive gay priest obsessed with Saint Sebastian.

All these things and more — many more — are the ...

“Nomadland” has received the Golden Lion Award as the best film of the 2020 Venice International Film Festival, a jury headed by Cate Blanchett announced on Saturday.

The Searchlight drama, a simultaneous premiere by the Venice, Telluride and Toronto festivals, was directed by Chloe Zhao and stars Frances McDormand as a woman who travels through the American West in a van after losing her job and her home. Apart from McDormand and David Strathairn, almost all of the actors in the film are actual “nomads” that Zhao cast on her own travels through the area.

“Nuevo Orden” (“New Order”) by Mexican director Michel Franco won the Silver Lion, the festival’s second-place award, while acting prizes went to Vanessa Kirby for “Pieces of a Woman” and Pierfrancesco Favino for “Padrenostro.”

Kiyoshi Kurosawa was named the festival’s best director for “Wife of a Spy.”

Ahmad Bahrami’s “The Wasteland” won the...

Egyptian drama follows two teenage sisters who escape conversative reality via the social networks.

Brussels-based Best Friend Forever has acquired world sales rights to Ayten Amin’s second feature Souad, a Cannes 2020 selection.

The Alexandria-set drama revolves follows two teenage sisters growing up within a conservative family, the older of whom escapes into a secret life via the virtual world of social networks. When real-life catches up with her, tragedy strikes and her younger sister embarks on a journey looking for answers.

The cast features non-professional newcomers Bassant Ahmed, Basmala El Ghaiesh and Hussein Ghanem.

Amin’s debut feature...

Newcomer Felix-Antoine Duval plays amorous twins.

Northern Banner Releasing has acquired Canadian rights to Bruce Labruce’s upcoming Venice Giornate degli Autori closing night gala Saint-Narcisse.

Best Friend Forever handles world sales on the film, which takes place in 1972 Canada as a 22-year-old man with a fetish for himself finds the identical twin brother he never knew he had and the mother he thought had died in childbirth.

Once he finds his brother raised by a depraved priest in a remote monastery they reunite with their mother and become embroiled in a web of sex, revenge and redemption.

Saint-Narcisse stars...

While the coronavirus pandemic has canceled major festivals such as Cannes and Telluride, the 2020 Venice Film Festival is moving ahead as planned and will be the world’s first major film festival since Sundance and Berlin at the start of the year. Venice 2020’s main selection will be split into three sections: Venezia 77 (aka the main competition), Out of Competition, and Horizons. The titles selected for the main competition will compete for the Golden Lion, which was awarded last year to Todd Phillips’ “Joker.”

As previously announced, Daniele Luchetti’s drama “Lacci” will open the 77th Venice Film Festival on September 2. The movie is the first Italian title to open Venice in 11 years. The last Italian opener was Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Baarìa” at the 2009 festival. “Lacci” is included in this year’s Out of Competition section. Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider” follow-up “Nomadland” was also confirmed for a world premiere...