Christian Slater, Trine Dyrholm and Dree Hemingway have signed on to star in "Incidents of Intimacy," the feature project earmarked as the next installment in the Dogma25 initiative. The casting was confirmed this week, adding three internationally recognized performers to a production that has been quietly assembling its roster over recent months.
The Dogma25 banner takes its name from the filmmaking manifesto that emerged from Denmark in the mid-1990s, when a group of directors pledged to strip production down to its essentials - handheld cameras, natural light, location shooting and a refusal of artificial effects. The original movement produced a run of provocative, widely debated films that influenced independent cinema for years afterward. Dogma25, as the name suggests, is a later revival of that framework, arriving three decades after the original vows were drafted, and it is intended to apply the same austere rules to a new generation of productions.
Slater is the best-known quantity among the three new additions, at least to American audiences. He broke through as a young lead in the late 1980s and early 1990s, became a defining screen presence of that era, and has since built a career that moves fluidly between studio pictures, cable television and independent work. In recent years he has gravitated toward character roles that allow for a looser, more unpredictable register, which makes him a logical fit for a project operating under Dogma-style constraints. His involvement gives "Incidents of Intimacy" a recognizable anchor without tipping the film toward conventional star vehicle territory.
Dyrholm arrives from a very different tradition. The Danish actress has been a central figure in Scandinavian film and television for years, earning a reputation for performances that are emotionally exposed and often unglamorous in the best sense. Dogma's founding filmmakers were her countrymen, and the movement's insistence on raw, unadorned performance has shaped the Nordic screen culture she came up through. Her casting reads as a deliberate nod to the project's lineage rather than a coincidental hire.
Hemingway, meanwhile, has built a filmography rooted in independent and art-house circles, with a modeling background that gave way to acting work in both American and European productions. She has tended to choose projects with a strong directorial voice over mainstream fare. Her presence alongside Slater and Dyrholm suggests "Incidents of Intimacy" is aiming for a transatlantic cast that can move between languages and markets - a sensible strategy for a film whose title alone telegraphs an interest in the intimate, the uncomfortable and the closely observed.
That title, "Incidents of Intimacy," is itself a signal. Dogma's founding rules were preoccupied with honesty - about sex, about violence, about the messiness of ordinary human behavior - and the movement's most enduring films were often the ones that treated personal relationships as their true subject matter. A title built around the word "intimacy" suggests the new feature will follow in that vein, examining the small, charged moments between people rather than leaning on plot mechanics or spectacle.
Dogma25 as a whole appears to be positioning itself as both an homage and an update. Revisiting a manifesto that once functioned as a provocation raises an obvious question: what does it mean to adopt those rules now, in an era when digital cameras, streaming distribution and a far more crowded independent landscape have changed the terms of production entirely? The original Dogma directors were reacting against the polish and expense of mainstream filmmaking. Today's independent filmmakers are reacting to something different - algorithmic taste, franchise dominance, an attention economy that rewards speed over patience. How the Dogma25 filmmakers reconcile the old vows with that new reality will likely determine whether the initiative reads as genuine continuation or as nostalgia.
Production details for "Incidents of Intimacy" remain sparse, and no director, writer or release timing has been announced. The project is being characterized simply as a Dogma25 feature, and the three actors announced this week are the only confirmed members of the cast so far. Further announcements are expected as the production moves forward.
For Slater, the film represents another entry in a long and deliberately varied résumé. For Dyrholm, it is a return to the aesthetic territory that shaped her national cinema. For Hemingway, it is another step in a career defined by left-of-center choices. And for Dogma25, it is a test of whether a nearly thirty-year-old set of filmmaking rules still has something to say in 2026.
Source: Hollywood Reporter