International Film, TV Breakthroughs of the Year for 2024

While 2024 will be remembered by many in the entertainment world as an uphill battle and a time of transition, for some talent working in international film and TV, it will be considered the year that changed everything: a outbreak period. as new doors opened, phone calls were answered and bigger projects came their way. Some were catapulted into the spotlight from relative obscurity and soon found themselves landing major awards shows and lucrative studio deals. Others were already rising names at home, but suddenly found themselves on Hollywood’s radar.

VarietyInternational breakthroughs – actors and filmmakers – include the creator and stars of one of the most talked about TV shows of the year (and one that could leave Netflix with a tasty legal bill), the writer/director of Wild Body – horror that took Cannes by storm and could give a beloved star her first taste of the Oscars, and a debut feature director that enjoyed a record-breaking opening weekend at the box office.

See the list of 12 (well, 11, but you’ll see) international outbreaks of the year below.

Maura Delpero – ‘Vermiglio’

Young Italian director Maura Delpero rose from relative obscurity to become Europe’s new indie darling after her second film ‘Vermiglio’ scored the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was chosen over Paolo Sorrentino’s ‘Parthenope’ to win the Italian – now shortlisted placed – to become an International Oscars candidate. ‘Vermiglio’ is set at the end of the Second World War in a mountain village where the arrival of a soldier disrupts the dynamic between three sisters. Delpero’s drama was praised by him as “quietly breathtaking”. Variety critic Jessica Kiang, who noted that the film “unfolds from small tactile details of furniture and fabrics and the skin of a dairy cow to a memorable vision of everyday rural existence in the high Italian Alps.”

Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov – ‘Anora’

Mikey Madison may have gotten much of the plaudits for her starring role as a sex worker in Sean Baker’s Cannes-winning Oscar hopeful “Anora,” but the strip club rom-com has also added fuel to the careers of her two Russian co-stars. Mark Eydelshteyn, who plays Madison’s wild, son-of-a-billionaire-oligarch love interest, and Yura Borisov, who plays the more calming henchman-with-a-heart, were both already in-demand rising stars on home soil (Eydelshteyn compared to a “Russian Timotheé Chalamet” and Borisov, winner of the best actor at the Russian Golden Eagle Awards). But “Anora” – which Neon released in October – has seen their profile rise dramatically in the United States. Borisov recently picked up Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Independent Spirit nominations, among a string of awards, for his performance and is expected to continue with this all the way to the Oscars. Eydelshteyn, meanwhile, was recently cast in the second season of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”

Coralie Fargeat — ‘The Fabric’

Coralie Fargeat stormed onto the international stage with ‘The Substance’, a pulsating body horror film that made waves at the Cannes Film Festival, won best screenplay and put Demi Moore back on the map as a leading actress. In the film, Fargeat shows her love for genre cinema with references to Stanley Kubrick and David Cronenberg, among others, and focuses on patriarchy, ageism and sexism, but peppers it all with bad humor that reflects her bold and outspoken personality. Fargeat made her debut with the horror-action film ‘Revenge’, another female-driven film.

Richard Gadd, Jessica Gunning – ‘Baby Reindeer’

When the Netflix series “Baby Reindeer” dropped in April, no one expected the seven-episode limited series about a wannabe stand-up who deals with a stalker to take the world by storm. But within weeks of its release, ‘Baby Reindeer’, based on Gadd’s own experiences, was the hot topic of conversation both in Britain and abroad, and it wasn’t long before the identity of the real stalker was revealed. Gadd wrote and played himself in the show, while Gunning co-starred as stalker Martha. Even a $170 million defamation lawsuit against Netflix, filed by the woman claiming to be the real Martha, hasn’t stopped the duo’s dizzying rise in Hollywood, earning Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and, for Gadd, a lucrative first-look deal with the streamer. .

Karla Sofía Gascón – ‘Emilia Perez’

Fearless Spanish actor Karla Sofía Gascón showed the extent of her range in “Emilia Perez,” Jacques Audiard’s crime musical in which she plays two roles, starting with Manitas del Monte, a notorious cartel leader who fakes her own death to authentically appear as transgender to live. woman. The elegant Gascón, who made her transition at the age of 46 and was previously best known as a TV actor, marked history at the Cannes Film Festival, where she became the first trans performer to win the Best Actress award (shared with the female cast Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz). Already vying for a Golden Globe, Gascón is now on track to land an Oscar nomination and could now become the first trans lead actress to win an Academy Award.

Payal Kapadia — ‘Everything we imagine as light’

Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia has cemented her global reputation in 2024 with “All We Imagine as Light,” a striking follow-up to her Cannes-winning feature debut, “A Night of Knowing Nothing.” The film, which earned Kapadia her second prize at Cannes earlier this year, continues to gain international acclaim, winning the Gotham Award for Best International Feature Film. Adding to the momentum, the film received two Golden Globe nominations, including Best Director, reflecting Kapadia’s growing influence in world cinema. Her introspective storytelling and deft blend of documentary and fiction have resonated widely, marking her as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary filmmaking.

Anna Sawai – ‘Shogun’

Japanese actor Anna Sawai’s impressive performance in “Shogun” earned her an Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy and made her a global star. While she turned heads in Hollywood with ‘F9: The Fast Saga’, ‘Pachinko’ and ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’, it is the FX series that has truly showcased her reach and presence on an international stage. Sawai played a nuanced leading role in the epic drama, bringing depth to a complex role, to much acclaim.

Dougal Wilson — ‘Paddington in Peru’

For their feature debut, very few filmmakers are given the keys to one of the world’s most beloved – and successful – family franchises. Dougal Wilson was already a much-heralded name in the advertising world, but even he would admit that “Paddington in Peru” – the highly anticipated third installment in StudioCanal’s CGI/live-action film series about the marmalade-loving Peruvian bear – was a significant step up. And yet the film, starring returnees Hugh Bonneville, Julie Walters and Ben Whishaw (who voice Paddington), plus newcomers Olivia Colman and Antonio Banderas, broke box office records when it was released in Britain in November, marking he delivered the biggest opening of the franchise and the biggest opening of the franchise. biggest opening of the year for a British-produced film since “No Time to Die” in 2021.

Leo Woodall – ‘One Day’

Leo Woodall looks set to capitalize on a stellar 2024 – in which he stole audiences’ hearts as the arrogant yet lovable Dexter in the Netflix adaptation of ‘One Day’ – with a double whammy in the first quarter of 2025. First, in January, You take the lead in Apple TV+’s “Prime Target” as a math genius who becomes embroiled in a global conspiracy before succeeding it the following month as Renée Zellweger’s new love interest in the highly anticipated fourth installment of the ‘Bridget Jones’ franchise, ‘Mad About the Boy’. His increasing success follows scene-stealing roles in “The White Lotus” (2022) and “Citadel” (2023). Not bad for an actor whose first IMDB credit only dates back to 2019.

And finally… Elly Conway – ‘Argylle’

Mysterious writer Elly Conway even overshadowed her on-screen alter ego Bryce Dallas Howard shortly after rumors about Conway’s identity reached a fever pitch ahead of the release of “Argylle,” the feature film adaptation of her debut novel. To deepen the mystery even further, Conway, described only as a first-time author whose manuscript about a traveling spy had caught the attention of director Matthew Vaughan before it was even published, was not just a character in the meta-movie (played by Dallas Howard ) but had a near-zero online footprint. But despite the clues, Vaughn – and the film’s cast, including Henry Cavill and Bryan Cranston – continued to insist that Conway was real. Until the week of the film’s release, when writers Terry Hayes and Tammy Cohen finally revealed that they were the real writers behind the spy thriller. Still a good year for Elly Conway.