Nicolas Winding Refn (“Drive,” “Only God Forgives”) told a Venice audience at his masterclass that he is working on a new movie.

The review embargo won’t lift for another couple of hours, but here’s an early reaction I got from a top-tier journalist writing for a trade:

The below is a small excerpt from an interview that Woody Allen granted exclusively to Greek magazine “K” on the occasion of “Coup de Chance” premiering at Venice.

It turns out, the concert film, distributed by AMC, sold $26 million in ticket presales in less than three hours. It has beat the previous record of “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, which made $16.9 million back in late 2021.

Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” screened at Telluride last night. It’s getting praised left and right. We now have our contender to beat as THE movie of the fall festival season.

Much of the criticisms seem to be about how "it's been done before," and that it's not as iconoclastic as “Promising Young Woman”.

Anderson was asked about the recent controversy of Dahl’s books being edited, purified, if you will, by its publishing company for today’s more sensitive minds.

Jeff Nichols is back with “The Bikeriders”. He’s coming off what’s been the longest break of his filmmaking career — Nichols hasn’t directed a film since 2016’s “Loving.”

It’s not that surprising to read about all the hate-filled reviews that Luc Besson’s “Dogman” has been getting at Venice.

What exactly is Francis Ford Coppola cooking up? His upcoming “Megalopolis, rumored to premiere at Cannes 2024, is the latest film to land an interim agreement from SAG-AFTRA.

The embargo has lifted and the reviews have been published. The consensus is that Mann has made a good, but flawed movie. Penélope Cruz keeps being cited as a major standout.

Last year, “Emancipation” drowned with critics and barely registered with audiences. It finished with a 53 on Metacritic and 46% on Rotten Tomatoes. DOA.

Pablo Larraín’s “El Conde” is dividing critics at Venice. The mixed (and semi-positive) reviews come to us from IndieWire, The Guardian, Screen Daily, Little White Lies, and Variety.

The Jury Prize winner (third place) at this year’s Cannes Film Festival was attributed to Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves,” a wonderfully realized love story told via the Finnish filmmaker’s immaculately deadpan style.

In an interview with Deadline, Pablo Larraín confirms that he’s in prep mode with his Maria Callas biopic starring Angelina Jolie. He adds that production will not be disrupted at all by the strikes:

What’s with all of these studio filmmakers wanting to release lengthy cuts of their past films? After Zack Snyder and David Ayer, this week sees another director touting his own cut.

Gary Oldman is in the cast of Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s as yet untitled new film. Whether it’s a large or supporting role remains to be seen.

This past March, Garrel won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival. His film “The Plough” was critically-acclaimed — so were his last few films which include “Jealousy,” “In the Shadows of Women” and “The Salt of Tears.”

Now that the cat’s out of the bag … A few weeks ago, I had spoken to to Telluride boss Julie Huntsinger about George C. Wolfe’s “Rustin,” but in particular Colman Domingo’s work in the film.