Latest in First Reformed

Paul Schrader is set to return to Venice Film Festival tomorrow with The Card Counter, four years after his Ethan Hawke-starring First Reformed debuted at the Italian festival to acclaim. The director's new movie stars Oscar Isaac as a wandering poker player, William Tell, who has a dark past working in military…

A four-time Oscar nominee with nods for both acting and screenplays, Ethan Hawke is certainly on a roll this awards season, having already racked up a leading 20-plus best actor wins from critics groups for his acclaimed role as a  minister in the midst of a spiritual crisis in Paul Schrader’s First Reformed. Hawke is…

Paul Schrader and Ethan Hawke did not expect to be here. The writer/director and his actor are still talking about First Reformed, 18 months on from its premiere at Venice, as they receive nominations and awards to add to the mountains of critical praise the film has drawn. Its examination of a crisis of faith for a…

Three film luminaries — Paul Schrader, Christine Vachon and Ethan Hawke — shared the stage recently at Deadline’s The Contenders New York to ruminate on a subject often left on the cutting-room floor: religion. A24’s First Reformed, written and directed by Schrader, who grew up in a strict Calvinist household, depicts…

The Phoenix Critics Circle announced their winners Friday with The Favourite taking the top prize of Best Picture. Other winners include Roma‘s Alfonso Cuaron who won for Best Director. The Lee Israel pic Can You Ever Forgive Me? took home two acting honors: Melissa McCarthy for Best Actress and Richard E. Grant for…

Paul Schrader, whose scripts for iconic movies such as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull are synonymous with what many consider a golden era of Hollywood filmmaking, discussed why the 1970s was such a potent time for cinema, his collaborations with Martin Scorsese and his latest drama First Reformed at a BAFTA Screenwriters…

The 28th annual IFP Gotham Awards offered a few surprises to kick off awards season, honoring dark horse The Rider as Best Feature, its only win of the night. First Reformed and Eighth Grade each took a pair of competitive awards. The Favourite had ample presence, taking home a previously announced ensemble acting…

First Reformed, The Favourite and Eighth Grade were among the most-recognized films in the 28th annual Gotham Awards nominations, which were announced this morning. First Reformed, from writer-director Paul Schrader, is up for Best Feature, Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Ethan Hawke). Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite…

UPDATED at 5:20PM PT with more numbers and analysis. Paul Schrader's dramatic thriller First Reformed, starring Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried, handily outpaced all new limited release titles over the weekend with a per-theater average of $25,067. The A24 newcomer played four locations Friday to Sunday, grossing…

A24 has acquired U.S. rights to Paul Schrader's thriller First Reformed which stars Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried. The film, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival followed by screenings at Telluride and Toronto, will be distributed in 2018. The thriller centers on Ernst Toller (Hawke), a…

Paul Schrader came to Toronto just last year with the barking-mad crime movie Dog Eat Dog, starring Willem Dafoe and Nicolas Cage in a violent portrait of ageing gangsters, but his follow up couldn't be more different: with its hard-hitting talk of religion, raising questions of conscience and faith, First Reformed…

Taxi Driver and Raging Bull screenwriter Paul Schrader's last film as director was last year’s Nicolas Cage crime drama Dog Eat Dog — a movie that "could not have been more antithetical to First Reformed," he told me recently. A drama about despair laced with activism, radicalism, religion and a commentary on the…