This list only includes films that have confirmed release dates from May through August, though a few of IndieWire’s most-anticipated 2022 films have yet to announce their release plans. We’re talking about new films from Jordan Peele, Baz Luhrmann, Claire Denis, Alex Garland, Jeremiah Zagar, Peter Strickland, and Quinn Shephard, and that’s just the start. There are festival hits in the mix, too, like Venice winner “Happening,” Sundance crowd-pleasers “Cha Cha Real Smooth” and “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” and gems like “Poser” and “Neptune Frost.” Comedy isn’t in short supply, thanks to films like “Fire Island” and “Official Competition,” but thrills and chills are also on offer, with “Men,” “The Black Phone,” “Watcher,” “Resurrection,” and more arriving soon. The coming months feature the kind of fare long associated with the summer season, from a brand-new Marvel joint to a long-awaited “Top Gun” sequel, the latest entry into the “Jurassic World” franchise and even a new Pixar outing, but there’s even more to find among the bombastic and just plain big titles. While the movie-going experience has shifted dramatically over the past couple of years - the days of big-bucket-of-popcorn multiplex-going still exist, but they are no longer the primary option for enjoying massive blockbusters or high-brow hits and everything in between - the thrill of a season spent soaking up a wide variety of new films has not abated. The Ministry considered that film about the territorial conflict between the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic in 2018 “contains materials that violate Russian legislation on counter-terrorism and extremist activities“.Ah, summer at the movies.
However, the alleged promotion of pornography is not the only argument levelled by the Ministry of Culture against filmmakers as a reason to refuse a film the exhibition license.Īt the beginning of this year, Maryana Kalmykova, one of the students of Alexander Sokurov’s studio, saw her documentary Doazuv/Border denied a license and then banned from screening at the Artdocfest in April. The film had been shown once in Russia in a surprise late-night screening at MIFF at the end of June only a few weeks after its premiere in Cannes.Īnd Serbian first-time filmmaker Maja Milos’ Clip did not make it into Russian cinemas in the summer of 2012 after the Ministry condemned the Rotterdam prize-winner for “foul language, scenes of drug and alcohol use, as well as pornographic material“ and refused distributor Kino Bez Granits’ thet all-important exhibition license. Similarly, “numerous scenes of a pornographic nature“ in Gaspar Noé’s Love led the Ministry of Culture to refuse to issue a license for Premium Film”s planned release in September 2015 with an 18+ certificate and in a “softer“ version. Moscow’s Arbitration Court upheld the decision in September 2020, confirming the films would not be released because of “material promoting pornography”. Natasha, which made its world premiere at the Berlinale in 2020. The film’s production company Phenomen Films unsuccessfully appealed twice against the decision. In 2019, the ministry blocked plans for the theatrical release of four of the films from Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s Dau extravaganza including Dau. However, others have been less successful. Supernova’s Russian distributor World Pictures had originally released the film in a shortened version - which removed a sex scene between Firth and Tucci’s characters – to obtain an exhibition license, but then bowed to pressure from the film’s director, local film critics and the LGBTQ community in Russia, to successfully apply for a license to then show the unexpurgated version from mid-April in 10 cinemas. Russia’s ban on propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations, which was signed into law by President Vladimir Putin in June 2013, has affected productions as diverse as Harry McQueen’s Supernova, starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci, and the animated short Out, the first Pixar film to feature a gay main character.
It is not yet known if Capella will appeal the decision. “We are permitted to show the film without a censorship permit,” festival programme director Kirill Razlogov told Screen at the time.
The Russian government has banned the release of Radu Jude’s Golden Bear winner Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn in the country due to its “promotion of pornography”.ĭistributor Capella Film has been refused an exhibition license for the film by the Ministry of Culture despite its inclusion in full at the state-backed Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF) in April.