The Cillian Murphy-starring drama Steve, from director Tim Mielants and Netflix, will open the 2025 Platform competition at the Toronto Film Festival, organizers said Tuesday.
Adapted by Max Porter from his novella Shy, Steve has Oscar winner Murphy playing a headteacher during a pivotal day for students at a last-chance reform school and in a world that has left them behind. As Steve deals with his own trauma, he meets Shy (Jay Lycurgo), a troubled teen also caught between a dark past and an uncertain future.
Tracey Ullman, Simbi Ajikawo and Emily Watson also star in Steve, which will hit Netflix on Oct. 3. On Tuesday, Toronto unveiled in all 10 features for the festival section where international films outside of the Hollywood studio orbit compete.
There’s a rare international premiere in the section for Pauline Loquès Nino, which bowed in Cannes and has rising star Theodore Pellerin playing a young man whose life in Paris is shattered over three days by a sudden cancer diagnosis that he must come to grips with.
There’s also first looks for Yoon Ga-eun’s third feature, The World of Love, about a cheerful young woman (Seo Su-bin) on a curious quest for love thwarted by a fit of anger in class and an anonymous letter; and the animated pic Bouchra, helmed by 2 Lizards directors Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani and about a 35 year-old Moroccan coyote and filmmaker making a movie about her relationship with her mother.
As well as for The Hen, a live-action film from director Gyorgy Palfi about a chicken desperate to raise a family in the face of life’s brutal pecking order; and director Kasia Adamik’s Winter of the Crow thriller, which stars Leslie Manville as a British professor caught up in a secret police conspiracy after witnessing a student’s murder in 1981 Warsaw as martial law is declared.
Adamik is the daughter of Polish writer and director Agnieszka Holland, whose new biographical film Franz, about author Franz Kafka, will also have a world premiere in Toronto this year. Holland and Adamik jointly directed the 2017 film Spoor and 1983, Netflix’s first Polish-language series. The mother and-daughter filmmakers also had Polish cinematographer Tomasz Naumiuk behind the camera on their latest films headed to TIFF.
The Platform program has booked Milagros Mumenthaler’s debut feature The Currents, about a successful fashion designer from a wealthy Argentine family who develops a severe phobia of water on returning home after falling from a bridge and into freezing river water in Geneva; and Skite’kmujuekati’kw (At The Place of Ghosts), a supernatural indigenous thriller by Bretten Hannam and starring Blake Alec Miranda and Forrest Goodluck.
Also slotted into the Platform program is Valentyn Vasyanovych’s To The Victory!, a dystopian story set in post-war Ukraine where the director is also the lead character; and Farnoosh Samadi’s Between Dreams and Hope, a queer love story where Azad (Fereshteh Hosseini), a trans man, and Nora (Sadaf Asgari) are two young lovers toggling between tradition and modernity in their society and family.
The jury for the Platform competition this year is led by Spanish director and includes Canadian director Chloe Robichaud and Oscar-nominated actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths).
The Toronto Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 4 to 14. More film lineup announcements will be made in the coming weeks.
The 2025 edition of the Locarno Film Festival’s Locarno Pro industry strand is promising a jam-packed schedule of events in the Swiss lakeside town next month.
Comedian and disability advocate Maysoon Zayid (You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, General Hospital) will kick-start the event on Aug. 7 with a session entitled “Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Making Movies That Save Lives.”
She will be followed by a panel of high-profile industry representatives, namely AGC Studios chairman and CEO Stuart Ford, Poor Things, Pillion, and My Father’s Shadow producer Ed Guiney of Element Pictures, also known as Yorgos Lanthimos’ longtime producer, and Berlin Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle.
The opening day of Locarno Pro 2025 will wrap up with a panel featuring Claudia Bluemhuber, CEO of Silver Reel, Largo AI CEO Sami Arpa, Allison Gardner, CEO of Glasgow Film, and entertainment lawyer Izzy Abidi of Freshly Ground Stories.
Another highlight of the Locarno Pro 2025 schedule is an Aug. 9 session dubbed “The Producer-Director Relationship,” a conversation between Guiney and Romanian auteur and provocateur Radu Jude. “Join us for an informal conversation between director Radu Jude (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Kontinental ’25, Dracula) and producer Ed Guiney (The Lobster, 11 Minutes, Poor Things, The Wonder, The Favourite), as they share their experiences and tips on how to turn this complex relationship into a ‘happily ever after’ – at least until the next film,” reads the description for the session.
Other events at this year’s Locarno Pro include such sessions as “Building Sustainable Film Ecosystems in Africa: Financing the Future,” “Public Meets Private: Rethinking Financing Strategies for Independent Film in Europe,” and “Promotional Strategies for Classic Films Today.”
Locarno Pro runs Aug. 7-12. The Locarno Pro awards ceremony will take place Aug. 10, with the awards for Open Doors, the co-production platform and talent development program for filmmakers from regions where artistic expression is at risk, to be handed out on Aug. 12.
With its 2025 line-up, announced Tuesday, the Venice Film Festival has (again) taken the award season pole position, with a program packed with a frankly absurd number of must-see movies.
Among the hot awards titles heading to the Lido are Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, from A24, featuring Dwayne Johnson as two‑time UFC heavyweight champion Mark Kerr and Emily Blunt as his wife Dawn; Luca Guadagnino’s #MeToo–inspired thriller After the Hunt, for Amazon MGM Studios, starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri, will premiere out of competition; and Guillermo del Toro’s dark reimagining of Frankenstein, featuring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth, a Netflix production.
This will mark the Venice festival debut for both Roberts and Johnson.
Netflix, which sat out Vence last year, is back in force for 2025. Alongside Frankenstein, the streamer has Noah Baumbach’s comedy‑drama Jay Kelly, co-written with Emily Mortimer, and headlined by George Clooney, premiering in competition, and Kathryn Bigelow’s ticking bomb geopolitical thriller A House of Dynamite, starring Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Greta Lee, Gabriel Basso, and Jared Harris.
The Venice line-up is an embarrassment of riches, for award-watchers and regular film fans alike, with the competition selection including the latest from A-list auteurs Park Chan-wook (No Other Choice), François Ozon (L’Etranger), and Laszlo Nemes (Orphan). A year after Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist launched in Venice, en route to three Oscar wins, the film’s co-writer (and producer) Mona Fastvold arrives in competition with The Testament of Ann Lee, a historical drama musical film starring Lewis Pullman, Amanda Seyfried, and Tim Blake Nelson, that she co-wrote with Corbet.
The Voice of Hind Rajab, the new film from Four Daughters director Kaouther Ben Hania, is certain to be one of the most talked-about films in Venice this year. The film tells the true story of Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old girl who, on January 29, 2024, was trapped in a car on fire in Gaza. She called Red Crescent emergency workers, who kept her on the line while they tried to get an ambulance to her. The Party Film Sales is handling worldwide sales on the film and co-representing North American rights with CAA Media Finance.
‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’
Mime Films / Tanit Films
Another politically-charged title in competition is Olivier Assayas’ The Wizard of the Kremlin, starring Jude Law as Vladimir Putin and Paul Dano as the fictional Kremlin insider Vadim Baranov.
Yorgos Lanthimos, a Venice Golden Lion winner for Poor Things, returns in competition with Bugonia, an adaptation of Jang Joon-Hwan’s 2003 South Korean sci-fi film Save the Green Planet!, featuring his frequent collaborator Emma Stone. Focus Features will release the film stateside, with Universal Pictures handling internationally outside of Korea, where CJ ENM will release.
And iconic indie director Jim Jarmusch, a Cannes regular, will make his Lido debut with Mubi’s Father Mother Sister Brother, a triptych with an all-star ensemble cast including Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Indya Moore, Vicky Krieps, Tom Waits, Luka Sabbat, and Charlotte Rampling.
The 82nd Venice competition line-up also includes the latest from A-list auteurs Park Chan-wook (No Other Choice), François Ozon (L’Etranger), and Laszlo Nemes (Orphan)
Italian Oscar-winning Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) will open this year’s festival with La Grazia (Grace), a love story starring his long-time collaborator Toni Servillo. La Grazia, co-starring Diamonds actor Anna Ferzetti, will premiere in competition on Aug. 27. Mubi picked up the film ahead of its Venice bow.
Toni Servillo in ‘La Grazia’
Venice Film Festival
Dog 51, a new action-packed French sci-fi thriller from Bac Nord director Cedric Jimenez will close the festival, out of competition.
Gus Van Sant’s return to feature films, Dead Man’s Wire, starring Bill Skarsgard, will also screen out of competition. Other out-of-competition highlights include Anders Thomas Jensen’s Danish dark comedy The Last Viking starring Mads Mikkelsen, Julian Schnabel’s long-awaited The Hand of Dante, and Scarlet, the first anime feature in four years from Japanese master Mamoru Hosoda.
Venice has selected four TV series for its small-screen sidebar: Etty, a limited series from Israeli showrunner Hagai Levi (In Treatment, The Affair), loosely based on the diary of Dutch Jewish writer Etty Hillesum, starring Julia Windischbauer and Sebastian Koch, which Studio TF1 is selling worldwide; Portobello, the first Italian original production for HBO Max in which Italian director Marco Bellocchio (The Traitor), follows the true story of the downfall of one of Italy’s most beloved TV hosts; Studiocanal’s A Prophet – The Series, a TV reboot of Jacques Audiard’s classic French prison drama from 2009, directed by Enrico Maria Artale; and Il Mostro (The Monster), a true-life serial-killer drama from Gomorrah series director, Stefano Sollima, made for Netflix.
‘Il Monstro’
Courtesy of Netflix
This year’s Golden Lion career achievement honorees are legendary German director Werner Herzog (Fitzcarraldo, Grizzly Man) and Vertigo star Kim Novak.
Venice’s Classic sidebar, which includes a selection on documentaries about cinema, this year includes Mike Figgis’ Megadoc, a behind-the-scenes look at Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-in-the-making Megalopolis.
Two-time Oscar-winner Alexander Payne heads up this year’s competition jury as president, and together with international film talents including Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, French director Stéphane Brizé, Italian director Maura Delpero, Chinese actress Zhao Tao, and Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, will pick the 2025 Golden Lion winner.
The 2025 Venice film festival runs Aug. 27 to Sept. 9.
Opening Film
La Grazia,dir. Paolo Sorrentino (Italy) (In competition)
Closing Film
Dog 51, dir. Cedric Jimenez (France)
Competition
The Wizard of the Kremlin, dir. Olivier Assayas (France) Jay Kelly, dir. Noah Baumbach (USA, UK, Italy) The Voice of Hind Rajab, dir. Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia, France) A House of Dynamite, dir. Kathryn Bigelow (USA) Sun Rises on Us All, dir. Cai Shangjun (China) Frankenstein, dir. Guillermo Del Toro (USA) Elisa, dir. Leonardo Di Costanzo (Italy, Switzerland) À pied d’œuvre, dir. Valérie Donzelli (France) Silent Friend, dir. Ildikó Enyedi (Germany, France, Hungary) The Testament of Ann Lee, dir. Mona Fastvold (UK) Father Mother Sister Brother, dir. Jim Jarmusch (USA, Ireland, France) Bugonia, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos (United Kingdom) Duse, dir. Pietro Marcello (Italy) Un film fatto per Bene, dir. Franco Maresco (Italy) Orphan, dir. László Nemes (Hungary, United Kingdom, Germany, France) The Stranger, dir. François Ozon (France) No Other Choice, dir. Park Chan-wook (South Korea) Sotto le nuvole, dir. Gianfranco Rosi (Italy) The Smashing Machine, dir. Benny Safdie (Canada, USA, Japan) Girl, dir. Shu Qi (Taipei) La Grazia, dir. Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)
Out of Competition (Fiction)
Boşluğa xütbə (Sermon to the Void), dir. Hilal Baydarov (Azerbaijan, Mexico, Turkey) L’isola di Andrea, dir. Antonio Capuano (Italy) Il Maestro, dir. Andrea Di Stefano (Italy) After the Hunt, dir. Luca Guadagnino (USA) Hateshinaki Scarlet, dir. Mamoru Hosoda (Japan) The Last Viking, dir. Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark, Sweden) Chien 51, dir. Cédric Jimenez (France) In the Hand of Dante, dir. Julian Schnabel (USA, Italy) La valle dei sorrisi, dir. Paolo Strippoli (Italy, Slovenia) Dead Man’s Wire, dir. Gus Van Sant (USA) Orfeo, dir. Virgilio Villoresi (Italy)
Out of Competition (Non-Fiction)
Kabul, Between Prayers, dir. Aboozar Amini (The Netherlands, Belgium) Ferdinando Scianna – Il fotografo dell’ombra, dir. Roberto Andò (Italy) Marc by Sofia, dir. Sofia Coppola (USA) I diari di Angela – Noi due cineasti. Capitolo terzo, dir. Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi (Italy) Ghost Elephants, dir. Werner Herzog (USA) My Father and Qaddafi, dir. Jihan K (USA, Libya) The Tale of Sylian, dir. Tamara Kotevska (North Macedonia) Nuestra Tierra, dir. Lucrecia Martel (Argentina, USA, Mexico, France, The Netherlands, Denmark) Remake, dir. Ross McElwee (USA) Kim Novak’s Vertigo, dir. Alexandre Philippe (USA) Cover-up, dir. Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus (USA) Broken English, dir. Jane Pollard, Iain Forsyth (United Kingdom) Notes of a True Criminal, dir. Alexander Rodnyansky, Andriy Alferov (Ukraine, USA) Director’s Diary, dir. Alexandr Sokurov (Russia, Italy) Back Home, dir. Tsai Ming-liang (Taipei)
Out of Competition (Series)
Un prophète – La série, dir. Enrico Maria Artale (France) Portobello, dir. Marco Bellocchio (Italy, France) Etty, dir. Hagai Levi (France, Germany, The Netherlands) Il mostro, dir. Stefano Sollima (Italy)
Out of Competition – Film & Music
Nino. 18 giorni, dir. Toni D’Angelo (Italy) Piero Pelù. Rumore dentro, dir. Francesco Fei (Italy) Newport and The Great Folk Dream, dir. Robert Gordon (USA) Francesco De Gregori Nevergreen, dir. Stefano Pistolini (Italy)
Venice Spotlight
Hijra, dir. Shahad Ameen (Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, United Kingdom) Un cabo suelto (A Loose End), dir. Daniel Hendler (Uruguay, Argentina, Spain) Made in EU, dir. Stephan Komandarev (Bulgaria, Germany, Czech Republic) Motor City, dir. Potsy Ponciroli (USA) It Would Be Night in Caracas, dir. Mariana Rondón, Marité Ugás (Mexico, Venezuela) Silent Rebellion, dir. Marie-Elsa Sgualdo (Switzerland, France, Belgium) Calle Malaga, dir. Maryam Touzani (Morocco, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium) Ammazzare stanca, dir. Daniele Vicari (Italy)
Horizons Competition
Divine Comedy, dir. Ali Asgari (Iran, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey) Hiedra, dir. Ana Cristina Barragan (Ecuador, Mexico, France, Spain) Il rapimento di Arabella, dir. Carolina Cavalli (Italy) Strange River, dir. Jaume Claret Muxart (Spain, Germany) Lost Land, dir. Akio Fujimoto (Japan, France, Malaysia, Germany) Grand Ciel, dir. Akihiro Hata (France, Luxembourg) Rose of Nevada, dir. Mark Jenkin (United Kingdom) Late Fame, dir. Kent Jones (USA) Milk Teeth, dir. Mihai Mincan (Romania, France, Denmark, Greece, Bulgaria) Pin de Fartie, dir. Alejo Moguillansky (Argentina) Father, dir. Tereza Nvotová (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland) En el camino, dir. David Pablos (Mexico, France) Songs of Forgotten Trees, dir. Anuparna Roy (India) Un anno di scuola, dir. Laura Samani (Italy, France) The Souffleur, dir. Gastón Solnicki (Austria, Argentina) Barrio triste, dir. Stillz (Colombia, USA) Mother, dir. Teona Strugar Mitevska (Belgium, North Macedonia, Sweden, Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina) Human Resource, dir. Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (Thailand) Funeral Casino Blues, dir. Roderick Warich (Germany)
The director of the latest I Know What You Did Last Summer movie knows about Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr.‘s chemistry in the new film.
Sony‘s feature reboot from director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson hit theaters over the weekend, landing in third place at the domestic box office with $12.7 million. Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers and Sarah Pidgeon round out the cast for the latest entry in the slasher franchise that kicked off with the original 1997 film of the same name.
A social media user’s post on Saturday asked fellow fans whether they thought Hewitt and Prinze — who reprise their roles from the original movie and its sequel — “filmed their scenes together” in the 2025 installment. “People are starting to notice the ‘cuts and separate shots,’” the post continued.
Robinson was quick to clear up any confusion surrounding the pair’s scenes. “They absolutely shot their scenes together. Hope this helps,” the Do Revenge filmmaker wrote, adding a heart emoji.
When the user who wrote the original post apologized and admitted to feeling embarrassed, Robinson replied, “No apology necessary! I totally get why people might think that cause of some of the coverage but they are absolutely acting off each other. It was electric!”
The new film centers on a group of five friends facing dangerous consequences after making a pact to stay silent about a tragic car accident.
In his review of the latest movie for The Hollywood Reporter, critic Frank Scheck wrote about Prinze and Hewitt, “Both are in excellent form, providing connective tissue to the original film and its sequel.”
The Busan International Film Festival has selected Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi as its 2025 Asian Filmmaker of the Year, honoring the director’s uncompromising contributions to Asian and world cinema.
Panahi will receive the award during the opening ceremony of BIFF’s 30th edition, which runs Sept. 17–26 in the South Korean port city. The accolade, one of the festival’s highest honors, is presented annually to an individual or organization that has made a significant impact on the development of Asian cinema. Past recipients include an elite roster of artists and autuers, such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung, Ann Hui, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, among others.
A central figure in Iran’s New Wave cinema, Panahi came to prominence with his debut The White Balloon (1995), winner of Cannes’ Camera d’Or. He has since built a career defined by formal rigor and fearless political critique, continuing to create films despite a state-imposed ban and multiple arrests. Earlier this year, Panahi completed the rare European festival trifecta, taking home the Palme d’Or at Cannes for It Was Just an Accident (2025). The Hollywood Reporter’s critic on the ground at the festival hailed the film as “a shrewdly crafted vengeance film” that “slowly but surely builds into a stark condemnation of abusive power and its long-lasting effects.”Panahi previously won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Taxi (2015) and the Golden Lion at Venice for The Circle (2000), making him the first Asian director to claim the top prize at all three major European festivals.
Accepting the Palme d’Or at the Cannes ceremony, Panahi said: ““At a time when making films in my country becomes more difficult every day, this recognition reminds me that cinema can still connect us beyond borders, languages, and limitations. I not only accept this award in my own name, but also on behalf of all those who, in silence, in exile, or under pressure, continue to create.”
Neon acquired North American theatrical rights to It Was Just an Accident at Cannes and plans to release the film on Oct. 15.
The 30th Busan International Film Festival will be headquartered once again at the Busan Cinema Center, with screenings and special events taking place throughout the city. BIFF’s Asian Project Market (APM), a vital incubator for emerging filmmakers across the region, runs concurrently with the festival. The event will unveil its competition selection in late August.
Jimmy Hunt, the freckle-faced youngster who appeared in Pitfall, Sorry, Wrong Number, Cheaper by the Dozen, Invaders From Mars and 31 other features before he retired from acting at age 14, has died. He was 85.
Hunt suffered a heart attack six weeks ago and died Friday in a hospital in Simi Valley, his daughter-in-law Alisa Hunt told The Hollywood Reporter.
Hunt played William Gilbreth, one of the 12 offspring of an efficiency expert (Clifton Webb) and a psychologist (Myrna Loy), in Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), then returned to play another son in the family, Fred, in the sequel, Belles on the Toes (1952).
As an orphan, his character fueled the plot in The Mating of Millie (1948), a charming romantic comedy starring Evelyn Keyes and Glenn Ford, who taught him how to shoot marbles on the set. And in The Lone Hand (1953), Hunt portrayed the son of a widowed farmer (Joel McCrea) and served as the film’s narrator in what he said was one of his favorite acting experiences.
Hunt’s onscreen parents included Jane Wyatt and Dick Powell (in 1948’s Pitfall), Claudette Colbert (1949’s Family Honeymoon), Ronald Reagan (1950’s Louisa), Teresa Wright (1950’s The Capture) and Patricia Neal (1951’s Week-End With Father).
He also played Margaret O’Brien’s brother in Her First Romance (1951).
His most memorable role, however, came as David MacLean in the cult sci-fi classic Invaders From Mars (1953), directed by famed production designer William Cameron Menzies.
In the movie — made in about 3 1/2 weeks for less than $300,000 — David spies a flying saucer from his bedroom and notices his dad (Leif Erickson) acting weird. Then he’s sucked underground, where he encounters a Martian and his green humanoid accomplices aboard the saucer. But was it all a dream? Gee whiz!
In Tobe Hooper’s 1986 remake of Invaders, Hunt came out of retirement to play a police chief. As he approaches a hill where the flying saucer may have landed, he says, “I haven’t been here for 40 years.”
It was the only movie of his career for which he received residuals. “Every once and a while, the Screen Actors Guild sends me a check for like nine dollars,” he said with a chuckle in 2022.
From left: Evelyn Keyes, Jimmy Hunt and Glenn Ford in 1948’s The Mating of Millie.
Courtesy Everett Collection
James Walter Hunt was born inLos Angeles on Dec. 4, 1939. An MGM scout visited his second-grade class at his Culver City school, which was located mere blocks from the studio, and that led to the 6-year-old redhead playing a kid version of Van Johnson’s Navy pilot in High Barbaree (1947).
Placed under contract, he would appear in five films released that year, then another eight in 1948 as he attended MGM’s Little Red Schoolhouse, where his classmates included Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor.
“We were strictly lower middle-class people,” Hunt said in 1986. “Actually, that’s the way we stayed. As long as [his parents] were satisfied that I was getting a good education, the acting was all right.”
In Cheaper by the Dozen, his character, William, weeps as he informs his siblings that their dad has died.
During the making of the movie in Seal Beach, California, his real father “was working for a company, and he went back to Kentucky to open a plant for them back there, and he was gone for a couple of months,” he recalled at the 2022 Cinecon Classic Film Festival. “In my mind, I saw him coming home on a plane and the plane crashing. So I could get myself worked up.”
His big-screen résumé also included Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster (Erickson played his dad in that, too); Fuller Brush Man (1948), starring Red Skelton; Rusty’s Birthday (1949), the last in the Columbia Pictures series about a boy and his German shepherd; The Sainted Sisters (1948), starring Veronica Lake; Top O’ the Morning (1949), starring Bing Crosby; Shadow on the Wall (1950), starring Ann Sothern; and She Couldn’t Say No (1954), starring Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons.
“I took my little lunch pail and I went to work each day, and the director told me what he wanted me to do,” he said in a 2017 interview.
While filming Douglas Sirk’s Week-End With Father, Hunt broke his arm rehearsing a potato-sack race with Van Heflin but kept working, he said. “No one made me finish the picture that way. I wanted to,” he recalled. “I considered myself a professional. In other words, I never had any really bad times as a boy actor.”
After Invaders was completed, Hunt — who said he was paid about $4,000 for his work on the movie — was called back to film some new scenes for its U.K. release, as censors there did not approve of the original ending.
Jimmy Hunt in a promotional photo for Invasion From Mars.
20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved/courtesy Everett Collection
It turned out that Invaders was the last straw.
“The older I got, the more serious I became about getting a scene right on the first take,” he said. “Adult actors all made jokes when they blew their lines. Kids just feel dumb when it was their fault. So acting became harder for me all the time.”
At the ripe old age of 14, Hunt “decided that I would rather play sports in high school than make movies, so I retired,” he explained. He went to college and served for three years in the U.S. Army, intercepting and breaking code.
Later, he served as a sales manager for an industrial tool and supply company in the San Fernando Valley that serviced aerospace firms.
He said he was still getting mail from Invaders fans some 70 years after it first hit theaters.
Survivors include his wife, Roswitha, whom he met in Germany while in the Army and married in January 1963; his sons, Randy and Ron; another daughter-in-law, Christina; his sister, Bonnie; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. His daughter, also named Roswitha, died more than a decade ago.
