The Berlin Film Festival has appointed Tricia Tuttle, the former head of the BFI London Film Festival, to become the new director of the international film event starting in 2024.
Tuttle will succeed Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek, who have co-led the Berlinale as artistic and executive directors since 2020 and will step down after this year’s edition when their respective mandates end.
The Berlin Film Festival is the world’s second biggest international film festival after Cannes. It also hosts the European Film Market, a crucial industry gathering where independent films are pitched and sold.
Tuttle was the director of the BFI London Film Festival during a fast-growing five-year era in which audiences nearly doubled before she stepped down after the 2022 edition. She worked as the festival’s deputy for five years before that to her predecessor Clare Stewart. She helped the festival expand outside of London with venues set up across the U.
Tuttle will succeed Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek, who have co-led the Berlinale as artistic and executive directors since 2020 and will step down after this year’s edition when their respective mandates end.
The Berlin Film Festival is the world’s second biggest international film festival after Cannes. It also hosts the European Film Market, a crucial industry gathering where independent films are pitched and sold.
Tuttle was the director of the BFI London Film Festival during a fast-growing five-year era in which audiences nearly doubled before she stepped down after the 2022 edition. She worked as the festival’s deputy for five years before that to her predecessor Clare Stewart. She helped the festival expand outside of London with venues set up across the U.
- 12/12/2023
- by Erik Kirschbaum and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Former Lff director will take over after February 2024 edition
Tricia Tuttle, former festival director of the BFI London Film Festival (Lff), has been named as the new director of the Berlin International Film Festival from the 2025 edition.
Tuttle will start in the new role on April 1 2024 and will have sole charge of the Berlinale. She will replace co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek who are stepping down after the 74th edition of the festival in February 2024.
She led the Lff for five editions, stepping down after the 2022 festival. She is currently head of directing fiction at the UK’s National Film and TV School.
Tricia Tuttle, former festival director of the BFI London Film Festival (Lff), has been named as the new director of the Berlin International Film Festival from the 2025 edition.
Tuttle will start in the new role on April 1 2024 and will have sole charge of the Berlinale. She will replace co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek who are stepping down after the 74th edition of the festival in February 2024.
She led the Lff for five editions, stepping down after the 2022 festival. She is currently head of directing fiction at the UK’s National Film and TV School.
- 12/12/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
The German culture ministry has unveiled the new head of the Berlin International Film Festival, who will take over from co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek, who are stepping down after next year’s Berlinale. Tricia Tuttle, formerly director of the BFI London Film Festival, will take over as the sole director of the Berlinale from after next year’s event.
The Berlinale announced the replacement on Tuesday, following months of speculation and media chatter surrounding Germany’s number-one film festival. Chatrian and Rissenbeek have announced they will be leaving when their contracts expire next year. The German Ministry for Culture and Media, the main financier of the Berlinale, had previously said it would scrap the dual director set-up and revert to a single festival director from 2025 on.
Tuttle, who was BFI festivals director from October 2018 to April of this year, is currently Head of Directing Fiction at the UK...
The Berlinale announced the replacement on Tuesday, following months of speculation and media chatter surrounding Germany’s number-one film festival. Chatrian and Rissenbeek have announced they will be leaving when their contracts expire next year. The German Ministry for Culture and Media, the main financier of the Berlinale, had previously said it would scrap the dual director set-up and revert to a single festival director from 2025 on.
Tuttle, who was BFI festivals director from October 2018 to April of this year, is currently Head of Directing Fiction at the UK...
- 12/12/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Tricia Tuttle has been named director of the Berlin Film Festival.
Tuttle takes over from Executive Director Mariette Rissenbeek and Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian, who are due to step down after the 2024 edition. She will take over the directorship from 1 April 2024. The announcement was made at a press conference in Berlin this afternoon featuring German Culture Minister Claudia Roth.
Tuttle was chosen by a selection committee chaired by Roth, including All Quiet on the Western Front filmmaker Edward Berger, Film Academy director Anne Leppin, actress Sara Fazilat, producer Roman Paul, and Florian Graf, head of the Berlin Senate Chancellery. Tuttle was most recently head of festivals at the British Film Institute, where she led the London Film Festival. After leaving the BFI, she joined the UK’s National Film and Television School where she taught in the directing department.
“I have attended the Berlinale for many years as a professional...
Tuttle takes over from Executive Director Mariette Rissenbeek and Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian, who are due to step down after the 2024 edition. She will take over the directorship from 1 April 2024. The announcement was made at a press conference in Berlin this afternoon featuring German Culture Minister Claudia Roth.
Tuttle was chosen by a selection committee chaired by Roth, including All Quiet on the Western Front filmmaker Edward Berger, Film Academy director Anne Leppin, actress Sara Fazilat, producer Roman Paul, and Florian Graf, head of the Berlin Senate Chancellery. Tuttle was most recently head of festivals at the British Film Institute, where she led the London Film Festival. After leaving the BFI, she joined the UK’s National Film and Television School where she taught in the directing department.
“I have attended the Berlinale for many years as a professional...
- 12/12/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
The German film industry is eagerly awaiting the appointment of the Berlin Film Festival’s new director, expected to be announced tomorrow, and as the guessing game surrounding the choice shifts into high gear, one thing looks increasingly clear: the new head will face considerable financial and political challenges at the Berlinale.
Speculation in the local industry has been rife with likely candidates to succeed Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek, who have co-led the Berlinale as artistic and executive directors since 2020 and will step down after this year’s edition when their respective mandates end.
A number of potential contenders have now quashed those rumors, among them Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and director of the European Film Academy, who made it clear to Variety that he was not in the running and was very content in his current post; Kirsten Niehuus, head of funding org Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, who said she...
Speculation in the local industry has been rife with likely candidates to succeed Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek, who have co-led the Berlinale as artistic and executive directors since 2020 and will step down after this year’s edition when their respective mandates end.
A number of potential contenders have now quashed those rumors, among them Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and director of the European Film Academy, who made it clear to Variety that he was not in the running and was very content in his current post; Kirsten Niehuus, head of funding org Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, who said she...
- 12/11/2023
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Germany’s state minister for culture and media said: “the Berlinale shouldn’t be left behind, but be in the same league as Cannes, Venice and Toronto.
Claudia Roth, Germany’s state minister for culture and media, expects the decision to be made by the end of this year about a new director for the Berlinale to succeed co-incumbents Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian.
“We are well on the way with the process so that we can present a new personality this year, achieve a good Berlinale 2024 and put all our efforts into ensuring that the Berlinale continues to be...
Claudia Roth, Germany’s state minister for culture and media, expects the decision to be made by the end of this year about a new director for the Berlinale to succeed co-incumbents Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian.
“We are well on the way with the process so that we can present a new personality this year, achieve a good Berlinale 2024 and put all our efforts into ensuring that the Berlinale continues to be...
- 9/19/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
The director of ‘All Quiet On The Western Front’ will help choose the next head of the Berlinale.
Edward Berger, the Oscar-winning director of All Quiet On The Western Front, has been named by Claudia Roth, Germany’s state minister of Culture and Media, as one of the members of a six-person selection committee to appoint a successor to the Berlinale’s management team of executive director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian.
The committee will be chaired by Roth and will also include Anne Leppin, co-managing director of the German Film Academy, the Iranian-born actress-producer-screenwriter Sara Fazilat whose...
Edward Berger, the Oscar-winning director of All Quiet On The Western Front, has been named by Claudia Roth, Germany’s state minister of Culture and Media, as one of the members of a six-person selection committee to appoint a successor to the Berlinale’s management team of executive director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian.
The committee will be chaired by Roth and will also include Anne Leppin, co-managing director of the German Film Academy, the Iranian-born actress-producer-screenwriter Sara Fazilat whose...
- 9/12/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
“Parsing the difference between movies, TV and streamers – it’s becoming really difficult.”
Producers should make the most of collapsing boundaries between feature film and television content, according to Killer Films producer Christine Vachon, speaking today (February 18) in Berlin.
Speaking on a European Film Market industry sessions talk titled ‘Producers Embracing New Horizons’, Vachon said, “To start parsing the difference between movies, TV and streamers – it’s becoming really difficult. I don’t know what makes something television anymore.”
Vachon has produced two films at this year’s Berlinale – Rebecca Miller’s opening title She Came To Me, and Celine Song...
Producers should make the most of collapsing boundaries between feature film and television content, according to Killer Films producer Christine Vachon, speaking today (February 18) in Berlin.
Speaking on a European Film Market industry sessions talk titled ‘Producers Embracing New Horizons’, Vachon said, “To start parsing the difference between movies, TV and streamers – it’s becoming really difficult. I don’t know what makes something television anymore.”
Vachon has produced two films at this year’s Berlinale – Rebecca Miller’s opening title She Came To Me, and Celine Song...
- 2/18/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
ProducerLAND, a curated training and networking program for producers from South Asia, is bowing Ascent – a project accelerator designed to help experienced producers by providing them with global expertise and support to maximize their project’s potential.
Ascent is an immersive three-module program where six selected producers will develop their projects for international markets and audiences. The modules will focus on creative producing, audiences, funding, coproductions, positioning, markets and impact producing.
The first module is a residency in Goa, India from Jan. 29 – Feb. 5 where participants will interact with mentors and industry experts that have been brought on board to suit their specific projects, and develop them to be mounted as international projects.
The program’s lead mentor and curator is France’s Tanja Meissner, who was previously VP International Sales at Celluloid, and head of international sales at Memento.
Mentors also include Ajay Rai, U.K.-based producer and faculty...
Ascent is an immersive three-module program where six selected producers will develop their projects for international markets and audiences. The modules will focus on creative producing, audiences, funding, coproductions, positioning, markets and impact producing.
The first module is a residency in Goa, India from Jan. 29 – Feb. 5 where participants will interact with mentors and industry experts that have been brought on board to suit their specific projects, and develop them to be mounted as international projects.
The program’s lead mentor and curator is France’s Tanja Meissner, who was previously VP International Sales at Celluloid, and head of international sales at Memento.
Mentors also include Ajay Rai, U.K.-based producer and faculty...
- 1/23/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
U.S.-Pakistani director Iram Parveen Bilal has wrapped principal photography at Pakistan locations on her fourth film “One of a Kind” (aka “Wakhri”).
Inspired by and offering tribute to unapologetic social media influencers like the slain Qandeel Baloch, the film is set in the world of patriarchal social media trolling and the burgeoning underground scene of the so-called “misfits” in modern-day Pakistan. It follows a Pakistani schoolteacher who accidentally unleashes the power of social media, unabashedly challenging the patriarchy. As she tries to keep her online identity a secret, she’s gradually exposed to society’s dangerous underbelly and forced to manage the repercussions.
Bilal describes the project as a “grounded masala” film that promises thought-provoking subject matter whilst also featuring loud Punjabi-language club tracks and Urdu-language rap songs to dance and chant with.
Bilal was named one of the directors to watch by the Alliance of Women Directors in 2020. Her previous film,...
Inspired by and offering tribute to unapologetic social media influencers like the slain Qandeel Baloch, the film is set in the world of patriarchal social media trolling and the burgeoning underground scene of the so-called “misfits” in modern-day Pakistan. It follows a Pakistani schoolteacher who accidentally unleashes the power of social media, unabashedly challenging the patriarchy. As she tries to keep her online identity a secret, she’s gradually exposed to society’s dangerous underbelly and forced to manage the repercussions.
Bilal describes the project as a “grounded masala” film that promises thought-provoking subject matter whilst also featuring loud Punjabi-language club tracks and Urdu-language rap songs to dance and chant with.
Bilal was named one of the directors to watch by the Alliance of Women Directors in 2020. Her previous film,...
- 12/5/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
One Fine Morning Trailer — Mia Hansen-Løve‘s One Fine Morning (2022) movie trailer has been released by Sony Classics. The One Fine Morning trailer stars Léa Seydoux, Pascall Greggory, Melvil Poupard, Nicole Garcia, and Camille Leban Martins. Crew Mia Hansen-Løve wrote the screenplay for One Fine Morning. “Produced by Philippe Martin, Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul, and [...]
Continue reading: One Fine Morning (2022) Movie Trailer: Léa Seydoux stars in Mia Hansen-Løve’s Drama Film...
Continue reading: One Fine Morning (2022) Movie Trailer: Léa Seydoux stars in Mia Hansen-Løve’s Drama Film...
- 12/3/2022
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Cameroon’s Cyrielle Raingou has won the Kirch Foundation Award, which comes with a €5,000 cash prize, for her film project “I’m Coming for You.”
The award comes at the conclusion of the first edition of Munich Film Up!, an eight-month mentoring and residency program for film school graduates that started in November.
The program was created by the Pop Up Film Residency, in partnership with the University of Television and Film Munich (Hff München) and the Munich Film Festival.
The six filmmakers who took part in the program were:
Lana Bregar, Slovenia (Film school: Agfrt Ljubljana) with “Dark Head”
Erec Brehmer, Germany (Film school: Hff München) with “Lightness and Weight”
Anastasiya Gruba, Ukraine (Film school: Kyiv University) with “Women Suicide Season”
Loïc Hobi, Switzerland/France (Film school: Ecole de la Cité) with “Crypto Lover”
Cyrielle Raingou, Cameroon (Film school: Doc Nomads Master) with “I’m Coming for You”
Pratik Thakare,...
The award comes at the conclusion of the first edition of Munich Film Up!, an eight-month mentoring and residency program for film school graduates that started in November.
The program was created by the Pop Up Film Residency, in partnership with the University of Television and Film Munich (Hff München) and the Munich Film Festival.
The six filmmakers who took part in the program were:
Lana Bregar, Slovenia (Film school: Agfrt Ljubljana) with “Dark Head”
Erec Brehmer, Germany (Film school: Hff München) with “Lightness and Weight”
Anastasiya Gruba, Ukraine (Film school: Kyiv University) with “Women Suicide Season”
Loïc Hobi, Switzerland/France (Film school: Ecole de la Cité) with “Crypto Lover”
Cyrielle Raingou, Cameroon (Film school: Doc Nomads Master) with “I’m Coming for You”
Pratik Thakare,...
- 6/24/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
On Saturday, film and TV funder Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg celebrated the six films that it funded running in the official program of the Cannes Film Festival.
These were Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness,” in Competition, Ali Abbasi’s “Holy Spider,” in Competition, Emily Atef’s “More Than Ever,” in Un Certain Regard, Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Un beau matin,” in Directors’ Fortnight, Sergei Loznitsa’s “The Natural History of Destruction,” in Special Screening, and Mantas Kvedaravicius’ “Mariupolis 2,” in Special Screening.
Commenting on the role Medienboard played in funding the films in Cannes, the organization’s chief Kirsten Niehuus said: “Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and other film funds play an important role in sustaining high quality cinema in Europe and in international co-productions around the world.”
Speaking about the type of films Medienboard likes to fund, she said: “Not very original but true – we prefer films that bring something original to an audience.
These were Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness,” in Competition, Ali Abbasi’s “Holy Spider,” in Competition, Emily Atef’s “More Than Ever,” in Un Certain Regard, Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Un beau matin,” in Directors’ Fortnight, Sergei Loznitsa’s “The Natural History of Destruction,” in Special Screening, and Mantas Kvedaravicius’ “Mariupolis 2,” in Special Screening.
Commenting on the role Medienboard played in funding the films in Cannes, the organization’s chief Kirsten Niehuus said: “Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and other film funds play an important role in sustaining high quality cinema in Europe and in international co-productions around the world.”
Speaking about the type of films Medienboard likes to fund, she said: “Not very original but true – we prefer films that bring something original to an audience.
- 5/25/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Producers will learn about sustaining business foundations.
Match Factory Productions’ Michael Weber is one of 12 producers and film professionals on the inaugural Ace Leadership Special, a workshop to improve business prospects for industry leaders.
Supported by Creative Europe Media and the Netherlands Film Fund, the programme will take place in the Netherlands in June and in France in September this year.
Scroll down for the full list of producers
In a workshop format, the selected producers will learn how to sustain sound business foundations, improve performance and prospects for their teams, and develop personal leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
Eve Gabereau,...
Match Factory Productions’ Michael Weber is one of 12 producers and film professionals on the inaugural Ace Leadership Special, a workshop to improve business prospects for industry leaders.
Supported by Creative Europe Media and the Netherlands Film Fund, the programme will take place in the Netherlands in June and in France in September this year.
Scroll down for the full list of producers
In a workshop format, the selected producers will learn how to sustain sound business foundations, improve performance and prospects for their teams, and develop personal leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
Eve Gabereau,...
- 5/4/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Komplizen Film, the German studio behind Princess Diana biopic “Spencer,” have joined The Creatives, an alliance of independent production companies.
The alliance was formed to increase the companies’ “collective power in the face of the changing landscape.”
Film and TV production outfit Komplizen, which was founded in 1999 by Janine Jackowski and Maren Ade, joins eleven other companies from across the world including Razor and Haut Et Court, the latter of which initiated the collective.
The companies work closely together in a number of ways, from sharing information, combining talent and networks and negotiating with common rules to co-production and partnerships. The Creatives also have a three-year development and funding partnership with Fremantle.
Komplizen, whose managing director is Jonas Dornbach, has worked with directors including Miguel Gomes, Nadav Lapid and Valeska Grisebach. Three years ago it expanded into limited series with “Skylines” for Netflix, which was produced by David Keitsch.
Alongside “Spencer,...
The alliance was formed to increase the companies’ “collective power in the face of the changing landscape.”
Film and TV production outfit Komplizen, which was founded in 1999 by Janine Jackowski and Maren Ade, joins eleven other companies from across the world including Razor and Haut Et Court, the latter of which initiated the collective.
The companies work closely together in a number of ways, from sharing information, combining talent and networks and negotiating with common rules to co-production and partnerships. The Creatives also have a three-year development and funding partnership with Fremantle.
Komplizen, whose managing director is Jonas Dornbach, has worked with directors including Miguel Gomes, Nadav Lapid and Valeska Grisebach. Three years ago it expanded into limited series with “Skylines” for Netflix, which was produced by David Keitsch.
Alongside “Spencer,...
- 2/9/2022
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Germarny’s Komplizen is a key player on the international arthouse scene.
Germany’s Komplizen Film has become the 10th member of The Creatives alliance of independent production companies, that works together to co-produce, form strategic partnerships and share information and talent and buyer networks.
All the companies work across film and TV and the alliance has sealed a three-year partnership for developing and funding select series with Fremantle.
Komplizen, comprised of Janine Jackowski, Maren Ade and Jonas Dornbach, is one of the key players on the international arthouse film scene, working with directors including Radu Jude, Miguel Gomes, Nadav Lapid,...
Germany’s Komplizen Film has become the 10th member of The Creatives alliance of independent production companies, that works together to co-produce, form strategic partnerships and share information and talent and buyer networks.
All the companies work across film and TV and the alliance has sealed a three-year partnership for developing and funding select series with Fremantle.
Komplizen, comprised of Janine Jackowski, Maren Ade and Jonas Dornbach, is one of the key players on the international arthouse film scene, working with directors including Radu Jude, Miguel Gomes, Nadav Lapid,...
- 2/9/2022
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Indian auteur Anurag Kashyap’s Good Bad Films (“Choked”) has boarded debutant Indian filmmaker Suman Sen’s “Eka” (“Solo”) as a producer.
The project was selected as one of the participant’s at this year’s La Fabrique Cinéma de l’Institut Français, a tailored program helping talented young directors from emerging countries increase their international exposure.
France’s Dominique Welinski (“House of my Fathers”) is already on board as a producer via outfit Dw, as are Bangladesh’s Arifur Rahman and Bijon Imtiaz through their company Goopy Bagha Productions (“Kingdom of Clay Subjects”).
The film follows Biplab, a 56-year-old long-term diabetic insurance agent. Every morning, on his way to his office in a crowded bus, he witnesses a huge human toe of a massive under-construction statue in the middle of the main city square. Fully covered in blue tarpaulin, the statue is supposed to represent the Common Man. The...
The project was selected as one of the participant’s at this year’s La Fabrique Cinéma de l’Institut Français, a tailored program helping talented young directors from emerging countries increase their international exposure.
France’s Dominique Welinski (“House of my Fathers”) is already on board as a producer via outfit Dw, as are Bangladesh’s Arifur Rahman and Bijon Imtiaz through their company Goopy Bagha Productions (“Kingdom of Clay Subjects”).
The film follows Biplab, a 56-year-old long-term diabetic insurance agent. Every morning, on his way to his office in a crowded bus, he witnesses a huge human toe of a massive under-construction statue in the middle of the main city square. Fully covered in blue tarpaulin, the statue is supposed to represent the Common Man. The...
- 7/14/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Music Box Films has acquired the North American rights to “The Perfect Candidate” from Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al-Mansour, an individual with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap.
The distributor plans to release the film theatrically in 2020 followed by a home entertainment release.
“The Perfect Candidate” premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in 2019 and was Saudi Arabia’s official submission to the Best International Feature race at the 92nd Academy Awards. It will next make its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival later this month.
Al-Mansour is the director of “Wadjda,” which was the first Saudi film to be directed by a woman and the country’s first-ever submission to the Oscars. “The Perfect Candidate” is Al-Mansour’s return to her home country after a few projects in the English language.
The distributor plans to release the film theatrically in 2020 followed by a home entertainment release.
“The Perfect Candidate” premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in 2019 and was Saudi Arabia’s official submission to the Best International Feature race at the 92nd Academy Awards. It will next make its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival later this month.
Al-Mansour is the director of “Wadjda,” which was the first Saudi film to be directed by a woman and the country’s first-ever submission to the Oscars. “The Perfect Candidate” is Al-Mansour’s return to her home country after a few projects in the English language.
- 1/17/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Exclusive: Haifaa Al-Mansour’s political parable The Perfect Candidate has been picked up for North America by Music Box Films ahead of the movie’s U.S. premiere at Sundance.
The Venice title is the latest film from pioneering director Haifaa al-Mansour, who made the first Saudi Arabian feature Wadjda in 2012. The film marks a directorial return to her homeland.
The Perfect Candidate follows Maryam, a young Saudi doctor, who runs for city council after the male incumbent repeatedly ignores her request to fix the muddy road leading to her clinic. However, as the campaign slowly garners broader appeal, Maryam’s candidacy challenges her more traditional family, as she becomes a symbol for a much larger movement.
Producers include Al-Mansour, Brad Niemann, Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul.
Music Box Films, which acquired all film rights in the U.S. and Canada, plans a theatrical run later this year followed by a home entertainment release.
The Venice title is the latest film from pioneering director Haifaa al-Mansour, who made the first Saudi Arabian feature Wadjda in 2012. The film marks a directorial return to her homeland.
The Perfect Candidate follows Maryam, a young Saudi doctor, who runs for city council after the male incumbent repeatedly ignores her request to fix the muddy road leading to her clinic. However, as the campaign slowly garners broader appeal, Maryam’s candidacy challenges her more traditional family, as she becomes a symbol for a much larger movement.
Producers include Al-Mansour, Brad Niemann, Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul.
Music Box Films, which acquired all film rights in the U.S. and Canada, plans a theatrical run later this year followed by a home entertainment release.
- 1/17/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Haifaa Al Mansour’s “The Perfect Candidate,” about a Saudi doctor who challenges the patriarchal system in her country by running in municipal elections, has been selected as Saudi Arabia’s contender for the international feature film Oscar.
The tale of female empowerment and individualism, which screened at Venice and Toronto, is Saudi Arabia’s first Oscar submission after a longstanding religious ban on cinema in the kingdom was lifted in 2017. The selection was made by the Saudi Academy Awards Committee, an independent group of filmmakers and cinema figures chaired by local director and producer Abdullah Aleyaf.
Al Mansour’s acclaimed debut feature, “Wadjda,” was the first film that Saudi Arabia submitted to the Academy in 2012, before the ban was lifted.
Produced by La-based Al-Mansour and Brad Niemann, with Berlin-based Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul of Razor Film Produktion, “The Perfect Candidate” is the first film to be supported by the Saudi Film Council,...
The tale of female empowerment and individualism, which screened at Venice and Toronto, is Saudi Arabia’s first Oscar submission after a longstanding religious ban on cinema in the kingdom was lifted in 2017. The selection was made by the Saudi Academy Awards Committee, an independent group of filmmakers and cinema figures chaired by local director and producer Abdullah Aleyaf.
Al Mansour’s acclaimed debut feature, “Wadjda,” was the first film that Saudi Arabia submitted to the Academy in 2012, before the ban was lifted.
Produced by La-based Al-Mansour and Brad Niemann, with Berlin-based Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul of Razor Film Produktion, “The Perfect Candidate” is the first film to be supported by the Saudi Film Council,...
- 10/4/2019
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Of my list of 34 Must-Sees for the Toronto International Film Festival 2019, how many did I actually see, what other films did I see and what else? The list was based on my personal interests, not on commercial value or what I guess will be voted “The Best”. Here are my notes from this list.
1.Les Miserables directed by Ladj Ly. Les Misérables isn’t based on Victor Hugo’s classic story, but it’s set in the same region in France and has the spirit of the original. Ly originally directed an acclaimed short in 2017 of the same name that set the stage for this larger feature focused on police brutality and crime. This is a powerful, powerful film coming from the inner city of Paris. The relationship between the cops and the youth deteriorates beyond repair. Opening with a new cop being introduced to the neighborhood where the high school is called Victor Hugo,...
1.Les Miserables directed by Ladj Ly. Les Misérables isn’t based on Victor Hugo’s classic story, but it’s set in the same region in France and has the spirit of the original. Ly originally directed an acclaimed short in 2017 of the same name that set the stage for this larger feature focused on police brutality and crime. This is a powerful, powerful film coming from the inner city of Paris. The relationship between the cops and the youth deteriorates beyond repair. Opening with a new cop being introduced to the neighborhood where the high school is called Victor Hugo,...
- 9/29/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Razor Film Produktion shot both Haifaa Al-Mansour’s ’Wadjda’ and her new Venice title.
Speaking in Venice this weekend, German producers Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul, co-founders of Razor Film Produktion, have expressed their optimism about the future prospects for the Saudi film industry.
Meixner and Paul broke new ground by producing Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjda (2013), the first feature shot entirely in Saudi Arabia as well as the first feature-length film made by a Saudi female director. Now, they’ve been back to Saudi Arabia to produce Al-Mansour’s new feature The Perfect Candidate, sold by The Match Factory, which...
Speaking in Venice this weekend, German producers Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul, co-founders of Razor Film Produktion, have expressed their optimism about the future prospects for the Saudi film industry.
Meixner and Paul broke new ground by producing Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjda (2013), the first feature shot entirely in Saudi Arabia as well as the first feature-length film made by a Saudi female director. Now, they’ve been back to Saudi Arabia to produce Al-Mansour’s new feature The Perfect Candidate, sold by The Match Factory, which...
- 9/1/2019
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Haifaa Al-Mansour, one of only two women directors in this year’s Venice Film Festival Competition, made history in 2012 as the first female Saudi filmmaker with her award-winning debut Wadjda. The film was the first internationally-acclaimed movie shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the kingdom’s first submission to the Oscars.
Al-Mansour’s new film The Perfect Candidate also breaks ground as the first to be supported by the fledgling Saudi Film Council. Written and produced by La-based Al-Mansour and Brad Niemann, with Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul of Razor Film Produktion in Berlin also producing, the drama tells the story of a young female doctor (newcomer Mila Alzahrani) who controversially runs for municipal office while her father is off touring the country with the re-established Saudi National Band, which had been banned under law prohibiting public music performances.
UTA Independent Film Group handles North America. The Match Factory has international.
Al-Mansour’s new film The Perfect Candidate also breaks ground as the first to be supported by the fledgling Saudi Film Council. Written and produced by La-based Al-Mansour and Brad Niemann, with Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul of Razor Film Produktion in Berlin also producing, the drama tells the story of a young female doctor (newcomer Mila Alzahrani) who controversially runs for municipal office while her father is off touring the country with the re-established Saudi National Band, which had been banned under law prohibiting public music performances.
UTA Independent Film Group handles North America. The Match Factory has international.
- 8/29/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The Fund has awarded production and distribution funding of €386,400 to 13 films.
Thirteen projects from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Iran, Nigeria, the Philippines, Senegal and South Africa have received production or distribution support from the latest funding round of the Berlinale World Cinema Fund (Wcf).
The Fund is run by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival, in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office, with further support from the Goethe-Institut, Creative Europe - Media programme and the German Federal Foreign Office.
The 30th session jury was composed of curator Anna Hoffmann (Germany), documentary producer Marta Andreu...
Thirteen projects from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Iran, Nigeria, the Philippines, Senegal and South Africa have received production or distribution support from the latest funding round of the Berlinale World Cinema Fund (Wcf).
The Fund is run by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival, in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office, with further support from the Goethe-Institut, Creative Europe - Media programme and the German Federal Foreign Office.
The 30th session jury was composed of curator Anna Hoffmann (Germany), documentary producer Marta Andreu...
- 7/12/2019
- by Tofe Ayeni
- ScreenDaily
Imtiaz Bijon Ahmed, whose “Live From Dhaka” won two Silver Screen Awards in Singapore in 2016, has brought Germany’s Razor Film on board his new film “Paradise.” Set on a small, isolated island off the coast of Bangladesh, the film will follow a 14-year-old student at an Islamic school whose duty and faith are tested. Principal photography on “Paradise” will start shooting in the last quarter of 2019.
Mohammed Arifur Rahman will co-produce for Bangladesh’s Goopy Bagha Productions. Ahmed previously directed 2016’s “Kingdom of Clay Subjects” that was produced by Goopy Bagha.
Razor will serve as co-producer. The company has credits that include the Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe winning “Waltz With Bashir,” and 2018 Cannes title “Rafiki.”
“We were very impressed by the audacity of the director and producer, and the artistic strength of the early draft of the screenplay that we read,” Razor’s Roman Paul told Variety. “It is...
Mohammed Arifur Rahman will co-produce for Bangladesh’s Goopy Bagha Productions. Ahmed previously directed 2016’s “Kingdom of Clay Subjects” that was produced by Goopy Bagha.
Razor will serve as co-producer. The company has credits that include the Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe winning “Waltz With Bashir,” and 2018 Cannes title “Rafiki.”
“We were very impressed by the audacity of the director and producer, and the artistic strength of the early draft of the screenplay that we read,” Razor’s Roman Paul told Variety. “It is...
- 11/30/2018
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization responsible for awarding the Oscars, has announced that 12 Arab filmmakers have become members in the categories of Writing, Directing, Acting, Documentary, Animation and Production. Six of the Academy’s new members were on The 100 Most Important Names in the Arab Film Industry list that was featured in the eighth issue of the Arab Cinema Magazine launched by the Arab Cinema Center (Acc) at the 71st Cannes Film Festival.
The New Arab Members Who Joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:
Writing and Directing: Lebanese Director Ziad Doueiri
Writing: Lebanese Screenwriter Joelle Touma
Directing: Palestinian Director Annemarie Jacir, Lebanese Director Nadine Labaki
Acting: Algerian Actress Sofia Boutella, Palestinian Actress Hiam Abbass
Documentary: Tunisian Producer Dora Bouchoucha Fourati,Syrian Director Feras Fayyad, Egyptian Director Mohamed Siam
Production: Lebanese Producer Antoun Sehnaoui, Tunisian Producer Saïd Ben Saïd
Animation: Egyptian Disney Animator...
The New Arab Members Who Joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:
Writing and Directing: Lebanese Director Ziad Doueiri
Writing: Lebanese Screenwriter Joelle Touma
Directing: Palestinian Director Annemarie Jacir, Lebanese Director Nadine Labaki
Acting: Algerian Actress Sofia Boutella, Palestinian Actress Hiam Abbass
Documentary: Tunisian Producer Dora Bouchoucha Fourati,Syrian Director Feras Fayyad, Egyptian Director Mohamed Siam
Production: Lebanese Producer Antoun Sehnaoui, Tunisian Producer Saïd Ben Saïd
Animation: Egyptian Disney Animator...
- 7/31/2018
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
International directors Luca Guadagnino, Annemarie Jacir, Ruben Ostland, Nadine Labaki and Lee Chang-Dong also invited.
Rose Garnett, the head of BBC Films, Lizzie Francke, senior development and production executive at the BFI, and Tessa Ross, the former head of Film4 and now an independent producer at House Productions, are among the leading UK figures invited to join AMPAS on Monday June 25.
The Us Academy said this is its most diverse membership drive with a record 928 people invited to join the Academy from 59 countries. The invitation list comprised 49% females and 38% people of colour.
Further international executive invitees included renowned sales people Sharon Harel-Cohen,...
Rose Garnett, the head of BBC Films, Lizzie Francke, senior development and production executive at the BFI, and Tessa Ross, the former head of Film4 and now an independent producer at House Productions, are among the leading UK figures invited to join AMPAS on Monday June 25.
The Us Academy said this is its most diverse membership drive with a record 928 people invited to join the Academy from 59 countries. The invitation list comprised 49% females and 38% people of colour.
Further international executive invitees included renowned sales people Sharon Harel-Cohen,...
- 6/26/2018
- by Louise Tutt
- ScreenDaily
Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker, and one of the country’s most hotly debated, Haifaa Al-Mansour, is directing her next film, “The Perfect Candidate,” with support from the General Culture Authority of Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Film Council.
“The Perfect Candidate,” will be the first film in the film council’s slate, according to United Talent Agency, which reps Al-Mansour.
The Saudi government has audacious plans to build out a massive entertainment industry and invest more in the country’s film and entertainment, as the powers that be attempt to modernize.
Also Read: At Glitzy Promo, Saudi Arabia Invites Hollywood to Join Its $80 Billion Leap Into Entertainment
The film will also have financing from German public funds and television.
“I believe that change must ultimately be sustained and driven by the people who are most in need of improvements and increased mobility in their daily lives,” Al-Mansour said in a statement. “I want to help lead this positive change by telling a story that is full of hope and celebrates the power of resiliency and hard work. I want to encourage Saudi women to seize the moment, to take a chance, and break away from the system that for so long has held us back.”
“The Perfect Candidate” will be produced by Al Mansour Productions in Saudi Arabia and Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul of Razor Film Produktion in Berlin.
The drama tells the story of a young female doctor who runs for municipal office while her father is off touring the country with the re-established Saudi National Band, which has been banned under law prohibiting public music performances. The story applauds women’s ambitions in politics while celebrating Saudi’s lost arts and the return of music to its small towns. The film’s protagonist draws similarities form Al-Mansour, as she is prompted to disrupt the societal constructs that permeate her conservative, male-dominated culture.
Also Read: Cannes' Female Troubles: Women Directors Have Always Been Scarce
The co-production was negotiated by UTA Independent Film Group which will handle sales in North America. The Match Factory will handle sales internationally. Al-Mansour will direct from a script she wrote with Brad Niemann. Filming is expected to start in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by mid-September.
Al-Mansour’s 2012 award-winning film “Wadjda” was the first film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, and was the desert kingdom’s first submission for the Academy Awards.
Following the success of Wadjda, Al-Mansour filmed two other features, including “Mary Shelley,” based on the late Frankenstein author, and “Nappily Ever After,” based on the book by Trisha R. Thomas.
Al-Mansour is repped by UTA, Anonymous Content and Loeb & Loeb.
Read original story Saudi Film Council Announces First Project: ‘Wadjda’ Director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s ‘The Perfect Candidate’ At TheWrap...
“The Perfect Candidate,” will be the first film in the film council’s slate, according to United Talent Agency, which reps Al-Mansour.
The Saudi government has audacious plans to build out a massive entertainment industry and invest more in the country’s film and entertainment, as the powers that be attempt to modernize.
Also Read: At Glitzy Promo, Saudi Arabia Invites Hollywood to Join Its $80 Billion Leap Into Entertainment
The film will also have financing from German public funds and television.
“I believe that change must ultimately be sustained and driven by the people who are most in need of improvements and increased mobility in their daily lives,” Al-Mansour said in a statement. “I want to help lead this positive change by telling a story that is full of hope and celebrates the power of resiliency and hard work. I want to encourage Saudi women to seize the moment, to take a chance, and break away from the system that for so long has held us back.”
“The Perfect Candidate” will be produced by Al Mansour Productions in Saudi Arabia and Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul of Razor Film Produktion in Berlin.
The drama tells the story of a young female doctor who runs for municipal office while her father is off touring the country with the re-established Saudi National Band, which has been banned under law prohibiting public music performances. The story applauds women’s ambitions in politics while celebrating Saudi’s lost arts and the return of music to its small towns. The film’s protagonist draws similarities form Al-Mansour, as she is prompted to disrupt the societal constructs that permeate her conservative, male-dominated culture.
Also Read: Cannes' Female Troubles: Women Directors Have Always Been Scarce
The co-production was negotiated by UTA Independent Film Group which will handle sales in North America. The Match Factory will handle sales internationally. Al-Mansour will direct from a script she wrote with Brad Niemann. Filming is expected to start in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by mid-September.
Al-Mansour’s 2012 award-winning film “Wadjda” was the first film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, and was the desert kingdom’s first submission for the Academy Awards.
Following the success of Wadjda, Al-Mansour filmed two other features, including “Mary Shelley,” based on the late Frankenstein author, and “Nappily Ever After,” based on the book by Trisha R. Thomas.
Al-Mansour is repped by UTA, Anonymous Content and Loeb & Loeb.
Read original story Saudi Film Council Announces First Project: ‘Wadjda’ Director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s ‘The Perfect Candidate’ At TheWrap...
- 5/10/2018
- by Trey Williams
- The Wrap
Director reteams with Wadjda producers Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul of Razor Film Produktion in Berlin.
Ground-breaking Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour will return home to shoot her next film, The Perfect Candidate, about a young female doctor with political ambitions who runs for municipal office while her father is away touring the country.
Al-Mansour made history in 2012 as the first female Saudi filmmaker with the award-winning picture Wadjda, her first film that shot entirely in Saudi and was the kingdom’s first submission to the Oscars.
Her subsequent features Mary Shelley and Nappily Ever After were shot outside Saudi Arabia.
Ground-breaking Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour will return home to shoot her next film, The Perfect Candidate, about a young female doctor with political ambitions who runs for municipal office while her father is away touring the country.
Al-Mansour made history in 2012 as the first female Saudi filmmaker with the award-winning picture Wadjda, her first film that shot entirely in Saudi and was the kingdom’s first submission to the Oscars.
Her subsequent features Mary Shelley and Nappily Ever After were shot outside Saudi Arabia.
- 5/10/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s “The Perfect Candidate,” a comedic drama about a young female physician who maneuvers through her conservative, male-dominated society to run in municipal elections, will be the first film supported by the Arab kingdom’s new national film organization, the Saudi Film Council.
“Candidate” will be produced by the director’s own Al Mansour Productions in Saudi Arabia and by Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul’s Berlin-based Razor Film Produktion. They have described the film as a somewhat ironic look at the new developments in Saudi Arabia caused by women being allowed to contest local elections.
The film’s Saudi protagonist is frustrated after being turned back at the airport because her travel permission from her male guardian isn’t up to date. She then embarks on an absurd campaign that juggles strict social norms, gender segregation and the influence of her eccentric family, according to the film’s synopsis,...
“Candidate” will be produced by the director’s own Al Mansour Productions in Saudi Arabia and by Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul’s Berlin-based Razor Film Produktion. They have described the film as a somewhat ironic look at the new developments in Saudi Arabia caused by women being allowed to contest local elections.
The film’s Saudi protagonist is frustrated after being turned back at the airport because her travel permission from her male guardian isn’t up to date. She then embarks on an absurd campaign that juggles strict social norms, gender segregation and the influence of her eccentric family, according to the film’s synopsis,...
- 5/10/2018
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Saudi Arabia’s new national film organization the Saudi Film Council is supporting its first feature in the shape of Wadja director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s upcoming The Perfect Candidate.
The movie will be produced by Al Mansour Productions in Saudi Arabia and Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul of Razor Film Produktion in Berlin. The co-production was negotiated by UTA Independent Film Group which will handle sales in North America. The Match Factory will handle sales internationally.
Al-Mansour will direct from a script she wrote with Brad Niemann. Filming is expected to start in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by mid-September.
The drama tells the story of a young female doctor who runs for municipal office while her father is off touring the country with the re-established Saudi National Band, which had been banned under law prohibiting public music performances.
Al-Mansour said: “I believe that change must ultimately be sustained and driven by...
The movie will be produced by Al Mansour Productions in Saudi Arabia and Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul of Razor Film Produktion in Berlin. The co-production was negotiated by UTA Independent Film Group which will handle sales in North America. The Match Factory will handle sales internationally.
Al-Mansour will direct from a script she wrote with Brad Niemann. Filming is expected to start in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by mid-September.
The drama tells the story of a young female doctor who runs for municipal office while her father is off touring the country with the re-established Saudi National Band, which had been banned under law prohibiting public music performances.
Al-Mansour said: “I believe that change must ultimately be sustained and driven by...
- 5/10/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Cannes competition title Loveless wins best international film.
Films by Andrey Zvyagintsev, Pedro Pinho and Tom Lass were among the winners at the 35th Filmfest München which came to a close on Saturday evening with a gala awards ceremony before the German premiere of Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest with actor Bill Nighy and producer Stephen Woolley in attendance.
The €50,000 Arri/Osram award for the best international film in the CineMasters sidebar went to Zvyagintsev’s Cannes competition film Loveless which opened in Russian cinemas through Wdssr on June 1 and will be released in Germany by Wild Bunch.
Producers Alexander Rodnyansky and Serguey Melkumov accepted the award in Munich from the hands of the international jury comprising German director Valeska Grisebach (whose latest feature Western premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in May), producer Markus Zimmer, and actress Nastassja Kinski.
This is the second time Zvyagintsev received the Munich award after his previous feature Leviathan had won...
Films by Andrey Zvyagintsev, Pedro Pinho and Tom Lass were among the winners at the 35th Filmfest München which came to a close on Saturday evening with a gala awards ceremony before the German premiere of Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest with actor Bill Nighy and producer Stephen Woolley in attendance.
The €50,000 Arri/Osram award for the best international film in the CineMasters sidebar went to Zvyagintsev’s Cannes competition film Loveless which opened in Russian cinemas through Wdssr on June 1 and will be released in Germany by Wild Bunch.
Producers Alexander Rodnyansky and Serguey Melkumov accepted the award in Munich from the hands of the international jury comprising German director Valeska Grisebach (whose latest feature Western premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in May), producer Markus Zimmer, and actress Nastassja Kinski.
This is the second time Zvyagintsev received the Munich award after his previous feature Leviathan had won...
- 7/3/2017
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Dubai/Exclusive: Acclaimed French actress Isabelle Huppert is in line to make her starring debut in an Arab film, playing a Morocco-born French woman in Abdellah Taïa’s The Treasure.
The $1.6m feature is one of several high-profile projects that are seeking completion funding as part of the Dubai Film Connection co-production forum. Representing the film here is Roman Paul, co-head of Razor Films, the Berlin production company involved in both Paradise Now and Wadjda.
Taïa, the Moroccan writer and filmmaker, said Huppert will play the role of the newly destitute Janine who goes in search of hidden treasure in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, accompanied by her building’s superintendent.
“It’s a confrontation between two worlds, the Orient and the West, in a French postcolonial Morocco,” explained Taïa. This will be his second narrative feature after his adaptation of his own largely autobiographical novel Salvation Army that told the story of a gay man negotiating his way...
The $1.6m feature is one of several high-profile projects that are seeking completion funding as part of the Dubai Film Connection co-production forum. Representing the film here is Roman Paul, co-head of Razor Films, the Berlin production company involved in both Paradise Now and Wadjda.
Taïa, the Moroccan writer and filmmaker, said Huppert will play the role of the newly destitute Janine who goes in search of hidden treasure in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, accompanied by her building’s superintendent.
“It’s a confrontation between two worlds, the Orient and the West, in a French postcolonial Morocco,” explained Taïa. This will be his second narrative feature after his adaptation of his own largely autobiographical novel Salvation Army that told the story of a gay man negotiating his way...
- 12/10/2016
- ScreenDaily
Nazi hunter thriller wins best film at the annual ‘Lolas’.
Lars Kraume’s Nazi hunter thriller, The People Vs. Fritz Bauer, won six Lola statuettes at this year’s German Film Awards after being tipped as the evening’s hot ticket with nine nominations.
The co-production between Berlin’s zero one film and Cologne-based Terz Film picked up the evening’s top award - the Lola in Gold for Best Film - as well as the statuettes for Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Ronald Zehrfeld), Best Production Design (Cora Pratz), and Best Costume Design (Esther Walz).
Accepting the Gold statuette from the hands of Germany’s State Minister for Culture and Media Monika Grütters, producer Thomas Kufus dedicated the award to the memory of Fritz Bauer.
Kurth knocks out Klaußner
While many thought that it was foregone conclusion that Burghart Klaußner would take the Lola home for his portrayal of the state prosecutor Fritz Bauer, nobody...
Lars Kraume’s Nazi hunter thriller, The People Vs. Fritz Bauer, won six Lola statuettes at this year’s German Film Awards after being tipped as the evening’s hot ticket with nine nominations.
The co-production between Berlin’s zero one film and Cologne-based Terz Film picked up the evening’s top award - the Lola in Gold for Best Film - as well as the statuettes for Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Ronald Zehrfeld), Best Production Design (Cora Pratz), and Best Costume Design (Esther Walz).
Accepting the Gold statuette from the hands of Germany’s State Minister for Culture and Media Monika Grütters, producer Thomas Kufus dedicated the award to the memory of Fritz Bauer.
Kurth knocks out Klaußner
While many thought that it was foregone conclusion that Burghart Klaußner would take the Lola home for his portrayal of the state prosecutor Fritz Bauer, nobody...
- 5/31/2016
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Bespoke event nurtured development of 33 Dfi grantee projects.
The Doha Film Institute’s bespoke project development event Qumra, unfolding in Qatar’s seafront capital March 4-9, proved a hit with attendees for a second year running.
Aside from a series of freak storms and an escaped pet tiger, which brought traffic on Doha’s Corniche highway to a standstill as guests were transiting from one event to another, the event unfolded in the same intimate, cinema-focused atmosphere as last year.
A total of 33 Dfi grantee projects were invited to Qumra’s programme of master-classes, seminars and work-in-progress screenings, taking place between the modern palatial atrium of the Museum of Islamic Art and the boutique hotels of Doha’s old Souk quarter.
Industry mentors, who numbered around 100, included German producer Roman Paul, Protagonist Pictures CEO Mike Goodridge, Front Row Filmed Entertainment MD Gianluca Chakra and Beirut-based exhibitor and distributor Hania Mroué as well as the festival heads and representatives...
The Doha Film Institute’s bespoke project development event Qumra, unfolding in Qatar’s seafront capital March 4-9, proved a hit with attendees for a second year running.
Aside from a series of freak storms and an escaped pet tiger, which brought traffic on Doha’s Corniche highway to a standstill as guests were transiting from one event to another, the event unfolded in the same intimate, cinema-focused atmosphere as last year.
A total of 33 Dfi grantee projects were invited to Qumra’s programme of master-classes, seminars and work-in-progress screenings, taking place between the modern palatial atrium of the Museum of Islamic Art and the boutique hotels of Doha’s old Souk quarter.
Industry mentors, who numbered around 100, included German producer Roman Paul, Protagonist Pictures CEO Mike Goodridge, Front Row Filmed Entertainment MD Gianluca Chakra and Beirut-based exhibitor and distributor Hania Mroué as well as the festival heads and representatives...
- 3/14/2016
- ScreenDaily
Netflix, Sundance and Efm are among new delegates attending the second edition of the Dfi’s Qumra.
The Doha Film Institute today launched the second edition of Qumra, which is dedicated to supporting Dfi-backed first- and second-time filmmakers on both a creative and practical level.
Festival directors, producers, sales executives, fund managers, script consultants, distributors and other experts attend to meet with and mentor the new talents, discuss their forthcoming projects and see works in progress. This year’s emerging filmmakers represent 33 projects from 19 countries.
Returning industry delegates attending Qumra include Cameron Bailey from Toronto, Mirsad Purivatra from Sarajevo, Melbourne-based script consultant Claire Dobbs, Christophe Leparc of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Selim El Azar from Gulf Films, Gianluca Chakra of Front Row, Paul Baboudjian of Screen Institute Beirut, French producer Marie-Pierre Macia of Mpm Film, Frederic Corvez of Urban Distribution International, and representatives from Wild Bunch.
New delegates joining the second edition include Funa Maduka from Netflix, producer...
The Doha Film Institute today launched the second edition of Qumra, which is dedicated to supporting Dfi-backed first- and second-time filmmakers on both a creative and practical level.
Festival directors, producers, sales executives, fund managers, script consultants, distributors and other experts attend to meet with and mentor the new talents, discuss their forthcoming projects and see works in progress. This year’s emerging filmmakers represent 33 projects from 19 countries.
Returning industry delegates attending Qumra include Cameron Bailey from Toronto, Mirsad Purivatra from Sarajevo, Melbourne-based script consultant Claire Dobbs, Christophe Leparc of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Selim El Azar from Gulf Films, Gianluca Chakra of Front Row, Paul Baboudjian of Screen Institute Beirut, French producer Marie-Pierre Macia of Mpm Film, Frederic Corvez of Urban Distribution International, and representatives from Wild Bunch.
New delegates joining the second edition include Funa Maduka from Netflix, producer...
- 3/4/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
The Robert Bosch Stiftung, which continues the charitable pursuits of the founder of the company and the foundation Robert Bosch (1861 - 1942), has revealed the three Film Prize winners during Berlinale Talents.
The Film Prize for the documentary film project went to the Lebanese-German documentary "Miguel 's War" by director Eliane Raheb and co-producers Lissi Muschol and Margot Haiböck. The Film Prize for the short fiction project went to "Tshweesh" (Lebanon-Germany) by director Feyrouz Serhal and producer Stefan Gieren, whereas the Film Prize for the animation film project went to "Four Acts for Syria" (Syria-Germany) by directors Waref Abu Quba and Kevrok Mourad, and producer Eva Illmer.
This year's Jury encompassed; George David, Director of the Royal Film Commission of Jordan; Johannes Ebert, General Secretary of Goethe-Institute; Doris Hepp, Commissioning Editor ofZDF/Arte, Producer Roman Paul, Founder of Razor Film Production Berlin; Hania Mroué, Director of Metropolis Art Cinema Beirut; DirectorMarianne Khoury, Co-manager of Misr International Films Cairo and Florian Weghorn, Programme Manager of Berlinale Talents.
Before the start of the Berlin International Film Festival, the jury met during two days in the Representative Office of the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Berlin, where each nominated team of filmmakers pitched their project's idea within 15 minutes to the Jury. The Nominees have been previously prepared for this pitch during an intense training with experts at the Nominee Forum, which was held last November and December.
Since 2013, the Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung for international cooperation targets film co-production between young German filmmakers and their partners from the Arab World, encouraging intercultural exchange. Applying for the competition starts annually in May and closes by the end of July. The three winning films will benefit from the value of the Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung in funding the film project.
The Film Prize for the documentary film project went to the Lebanese-German documentary "Miguel 's War" by director Eliane Raheb and co-producers Lissi Muschol and Margot Haiböck. The Film Prize for the short fiction project went to "Tshweesh" (Lebanon-Germany) by director Feyrouz Serhal and producer Stefan Gieren, whereas the Film Prize for the animation film project went to "Four Acts for Syria" (Syria-Germany) by directors Waref Abu Quba and Kevrok Mourad, and producer Eva Illmer.
This year's Jury encompassed; George David, Director of the Royal Film Commission of Jordan; Johannes Ebert, General Secretary of Goethe-Institute; Doris Hepp, Commissioning Editor ofZDF/Arte, Producer Roman Paul, Founder of Razor Film Production Berlin; Hania Mroué, Director of Metropolis Art Cinema Beirut; DirectorMarianne Khoury, Co-manager of Misr International Films Cairo and Florian Weghorn, Programme Manager of Berlinale Talents.
Before the start of the Berlin International Film Festival, the jury met during two days in the Representative Office of the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Berlin, where each nominated team of filmmakers pitched their project's idea within 15 minutes to the Jury. The Nominees have been previously prepared for this pitch during an intense training with experts at the Nominee Forum, which was held last November and December.
Since 2013, the Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung for international cooperation targets film co-production between young German filmmakers and their partners from the Arab World, encouraging intercultural exchange. Applying for the competition starts annually in May and closes by the end of July. The three winning films will benefit from the value of the Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung in funding the film project.
- 2/16/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
My major discovery -- though it may yet win the Audience Prize at Sundance in the World Dramatic Competition, is the new “Divorce, Italian Style”. Or as my friend Gary Meyer said, maybe it’s more like the great Norman Lear’s “Divorce, American Style”. “Divorce, Sharia Style” is actually entitled “Halal Love (and Sex)” and depicts four tragi-comic interconnected stories about devout Muslim men and women as they try to manage their love lives and desires without breaking any of their religion’s rules.
“Halal Love (and Sex)” is hilarious and eye-opening, culturally open and sharing, and God knows, we all need a good laugh about what we spend 90% of our mental life wishing for…good sex.
The film opens in an elementary school classroom as the teacher begins to explain to the young girls how babies are made.
In Beirut, Awatef is recruiting a second wife to help her satisfy her overly loving husband. The jealous Mokhtar needs to find his ex-wife another man to be able to marry her again, for the 4th time. Lubna, freshly divorced, can finally marry her true love, but on a short-term contract only. Everyone tries to live and love, by the rules of Islam.
This is a sophisticated, bourgeous comedy, somewhat French in character but most likely 100% Lebanese in its warm humor and its depiction of love and sex in civilized society today. Assad Fouadkar, the writer and director and the two Razor Film producers Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner are all fully educated in the U.S. as well as their own respective countries of Lebanon, Australia and Germany and their understanding the meaning of cross-cultural brings special veritas to this comedy of manners.
Assad Fouladkar was born in Lebanon where he taught at the Lebanese American University before going to study filmmaking at Boston University. His thesis short, “God Have Mercy” was a finalist at the Student Academy Awards. Fouladkar’s debut feature, “When Maryam Spoke Out” won major awards worldwide and was selected as Lebanon’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Recently he has also directed the sitcom “Ragel W Sit Sitat”.
He originally took the treatment of his idea to Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors and while it attracted interest, no company came aboard definitively until the script was developed.
Roman Paul says, "We met Assad via the commissioning editor of 'Wadjda', Layaly Badr. Then we teamed up with Sundance to further develop the script."
That development took place with the Sundance Institute’s own Paul Federbush who felt it merited his personal efforts outside of any Lab. Assad was already an alumnus of the Sundance Institute. Being head of the international labs however, Paul had the protection of a firewall between the lab and the festival, so its ultimate selection for this year’s festival was not a result of his involvement or the lab’s involvement. The film was accepted on its own merits. The Guardian gave it four out of five stars. Assad will be interviewed by Newsweek Magazine; the BBC has taken note of the film and U.K. is now awakening to the film’s attractive merits. And I was not alone in my surprise at encountering such a fun film here in Sundance; I have heard many others buzzing about it too.
Producers Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner have been focused on international feature film production for worldwide distribution since forming Razor Film Produktion in 2002. Their movies have premiered and been awarded at major festivals all over the world. They have won two Golden Gloves and one Emmy, were nominated twice for an Academy Award and received the Bernd-Eichinger Award for Outstanding Achievements in Production at the German Film Awards in 2014. They have been codirectors of the International Productions Masterclass “Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris” at Filmakademie Ludwigsburg and La Femis Paris. Roman Paul studied at the Goethe University in Frankfurt and in Paris, the U.S., and Japan. He holds a Masters Degree in Theater, Film and Media Studies and American and German Literature. He started his career in the film business as an assistant of acquisitions for the arthouse distributor Prokino in Munich which is, I think, where I met him one year at the Hof Film Festival. In 1999 he took over as head of international acquisitions at Senator Film Distribution in Berlin and Los Angeles. He is a member of the European and the German Film Academy and Ace (Atelier du Cinema Europeen) initiated by the late Claudie Cheval.
Gerhard Meixner originally trained in economics before working in marketing. He went on to study film production and media studies at the Hochschule fur Fernsehen and Film in Munich and at UCLA in Los Angeles. He worked for MGM/ United Artists. After graduating, he worked as a freelance story editor and script reader for various companies in film and TV. He began working as a producer for Senator Films in Berlin before setting up Razor Film. He too is a member of the German and European Film Academy.
Razor’s past films, the Uruguayan coproduction "Mr. Kaplan" 2014, the groundbreaking "Wadjda" 2012, the sleeper of Tiff 2012 "The Patience Stone" (coprod), "The Future" 2011, "Goodbye First Love" 2011 (coprod), "Womb" 2010 (coprod), "Paradise Now" 2005, the debut film they coproduced, "The Wind Journeys" by Cirro Guerro (current nominee for Oscar Award Best Foreign Language Film "Embrace of the Serpent") 2009 prove that Roman and Gerhard have a sharp eye for talent and good material as well as the broad cross-cultural understanding which makes for international film successes.
"Halal Love" was not produced by Razor alone however. Sabbah Media is the Lebanese production company, a company established in the 1950s. Aside from producing they distribute for Dreamworks, Warner Bros., BBC and others and have two other media companies. Sadek and Ali Sabbah currently lead and manage the full line of the whole business, to preserve a leading market position and carry on their ancestors' dear mission: honoring the past and promoting the future.
It is refreshing to see a comedy from the region and particularly one that bucks traditional stereotypes and depicts strong women in control of their own lives within their respective relationships.
“Halal Love (and Sex)” is edgy but it just skirts the far edge of propriety and never oversteps what is halacha or kosher. I think Americans and other citizens of the world will get great enjoyment out of these human stories and it will soften the hard edges of mistrust growing around religious factions today much to the rest of our collective distress. Laughter is the best medicine and this provides plenty of laughs.
Sundance 2016 – World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Rt: 94min
International Premiere
Lebanon
Director: Assad Fouladkar
Writer(s): Assad Fouladkar
Producer: Roman Paul, Gerhard Meixner, Sadek Sabbah
Starring: Darine Hamze, Rodrigue Sleiman, Mirna Moukarzel, Ali Sammoury, Zeinab Khadra, Hussein Mokadem, Fadia Abi Chahine
International sales agent: Films Distribution.
“Halal Love (and Sex)” is hilarious and eye-opening, culturally open and sharing, and God knows, we all need a good laugh about what we spend 90% of our mental life wishing for…good sex.
The film opens in an elementary school classroom as the teacher begins to explain to the young girls how babies are made.
In Beirut, Awatef is recruiting a second wife to help her satisfy her overly loving husband. The jealous Mokhtar needs to find his ex-wife another man to be able to marry her again, for the 4th time. Lubna, freshly divorced, can finally marry her true love, but on a short-term contract only. Everyone tries to live and love, by the rules of Islam.
This is a sophisticated, bourgeous comedy, somewhat French in character but most likely 100% Lebanese in its warm humor and its depiction of love and sex in civilized society today. Assad Fouadkar, the writer and director and the two Razor Film producers Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner are all fully educated in the U.S. as well as their own respective countries of Lebanon, Australia and Germany and their understanding the meaning of cross-cultural brings special veritas to this comedy of manners.
Assad Fouladkar was born in Lebanon where he taught at the Lebanese American University before going to study filmmaking at Boston University. His thesis short, “God Have Mercy” was a finalist at the Student Academy Awards. Fouladkar’s debut feature, “When Maryam Spoke Out” won major awards worldwide and was selected as Lebanon’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Recently he has also directed the sitcom “Ragel W Sit Sitat”.
He originally took the treatment of his idea to Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors and while it attracted interest, no company came aboard definitively until the script was developed.
Roman Paul says, "We met Assad via the commissioning editor of 'Wadjda', Layaly Badr. Then we teamed up with Sundance to further develop the script."
That development took place with the Sundance Institute’s own Paul Federbush who felt it merited his personal efforts outside of any Lab. Assad was already an alumnus of the Sundance Institute. Being head of the international labs however, Paul had the protection of a firewall between the lab and the festival, so its ultimate selection for this year’s festival was not a result of his involvement or the lab’s involvement. The film was accepted on its own merits. The Guardian gave it four out of five stars. Assad will be interviewed by Newsweek Magazine; the BBC has taken note of the film and U.K. is now awakening to the film’s attractive merits. And I was not alone in my surprise at encountering such a fun film here in Sundance; I have heard many others buzzing about it too.
Producers Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner have been focused on international feature film production for worldwide distribution since forming Razor Film Produktion in 2002. Their movies have premiered and been awarded at major festivals all over the world. They have won two Golden Gloves and one Emmy, were nominated twice for an Academy Award and received the Bernd-Eichinger Award for Outstanding Achievements in Production at the German Film Awards in 2014. They have been codirectors of the International Productions Masterclass “Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris” at Filmakademie Ludwigsburg and La Femis Paris. Roman Paul studied at the Goethe University in Frankfurt and in Paris, the U.S., and Japan. He holds a Masters Degree in Theater, Film and Media Studies and American and German Literature. He started his career in the film business as an assistant of acquisitions for the arthouse distributor Prokino in Munich which is, I think, where I met him one year at the Hof Film Festival. In 1999 he took over as head of international acquisitions at Senator Film Distribution in Berlin and Los Angeles. He is a member of the European and the German Film Academy and Ace (Atelier du Cinema Europeen) initiated by the late Claudie Cheval.
Gerhard Meixner originally trained in economics before working in marketing. He went on to study film production and media studies at the Hochschule fur Fernsehen and Film in Munich and at UCLA in Los Angeles. He worked for MGM/ United Artists. After graduating, he worked as a freelance story editor and script reader for various companies in film and TV. He began working as a producer for Senator Films in Berlin before setting up Razor Film. He too is a member of the German and European Film Academy.
Razor’s past films, the Uruguayan coproduction "Mr. Kaplan" 2014, the groundbreaking "Wadjda" 2012, the sleeper of Tiff 2012 "The Patience Stone" (coprod), "The Future" 2011, "Goodbye First Love" 2011 (coprod), "Womb" 2010 (coprod), "Paradise Now" 2005, the debut film they coproduced, "The Wind Journeys" by Cirro Guerro (current nominee for Oscar Award Best Foreign Language Film "Embrace of the Serpent") 2009 prove that Roman and Gerhard have a sharp eye for talent and good material as well as the broad cross-cultural understanding which makes for international film successes.
"Halal Love" was not produced by Razor alone however. Sabbah Media is the Lebanese production company, a company established in the 1950s. Aside from producing they distribute for Dreamworks, Warner Bros., BBC and others and have two other media companies. Sadek and Ali Sabbah currently lead and manage the full line of the whole business, to preserve a leading market position and carry on their ancestors' dear mission: honoring the past and promoting the future.
It is refreshing to see a comedy from the region and particularly one that bucks traditional stereotypes and depicts strong women in control of their own lives within their respective relationships.
“Halal Love (and Sex)” is edgy but it just skirts the far edge of propriety and never oversteps what is halacha or kosher. I think Americans and other citizens of the world will get great enjoyment out of these human stories and it will soften the hard edges of mistrust growing around religious factions today much to the rest of our collective distress. Laughter is the best medicine and this provides plenty of laughs.
Sundance 2016 – World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Rt: 94min
International Premiere
Lebanon
Director: Assad Fouladkar
Writer(s): Assad Fouladkar
Producer: Roman Paul, Gerhard Meixner, Sadek Sabbah
Starring: Darine Hamze, Rodrigue Sleiman, Mirna Moukarzel, Ali Sammoury, Zeinab Khadra, Hussein Mokadem, Fadia Abi Chahine
International sales agent: Films Distribution.
- 1/28/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Cairo Film Connection (Cfc) has revealed the list of prizes for its new edition within 37th Cairo International Film Festival (Ciff) (November 11 - 20). The program also unveiled the film projects and names of cinema industry figures who will attend the Cfc course for 3 days during the Ciff.
Cfc jury includes Paul Baboudjian, director of Screen Institute Beirut, Catherine Buresi who has been working in the media and film industry for almost 20 years in addition to Intishal Al Timimi, Director of the Arab Programming at Sanad Film Fund.
Cfc offers $ 10.000 monetary prize in the name of the Sanad Abu Dhabi Film Fund, in addition to another prize from Aroma for a color grading package for one film project only. Mohamed Hefzy's production company, Film Clinic, along with The Producers of Hany Osama are offering a joint co-production prize.
Cfc is hosting representatives of 12 projects in development and production phases to be part of the three-day course in Cairo to communicate with cinema industry delegates, local and international producers and distributors including:
- Roman Paul from the German Razor Films, producer of the Saudi film "Wadjda" and the Palestinian film "Paradise Now," the film which was nominated for the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Film.
- Laetitia Gonzalez from Films Du Poisson, producer of the award-winning film (12 awards) "Depuis Qu'Otar Est Parti" (Since Otar Left) and "The Tree," "Voyages" and "Tournee" the two times Cannes Film Festival awards winner.
On a later date, Cfc will announce the full list of delegates participating in the connection's new edition. On the last day of Cfc, there will be a special opportunity for project representatives to meet with English producer Paul Webster Head of Ciff Jury and the producer of "The Motorcycle Diaries," "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen," "Atonement" and "Anna Karenina."
Cfc is hosting filmmakers from all over the world, who have a project with an Arab connection (director, producer, co-producer, main talent, location, subject matter, etc.) Producers and directors are encouraged to apply with feature-length projects either at the development or post-production phase. Feature-length creative documentaries are also encouraged to apply.
The goal of the co-production platform is to act as a channel opening opportunities for talented filmmakers to meet and network with other entities that may be potential project partners. In addition, several cash prizes will be offered to help the projects throughout their development and completion.
Cfc was held for the first time in 2010 during the 34th Cairo International Film Festival and proved its importance as a worthwhile experience to the participants. In 2012, Cfc held its second edition hosting a higher number of successful meetings between filmmakers and industry delegates. Many of the filmmakers who were invited to attend the two previous editions of Cfc completed their films, all notable works which achieved various successes in festivals all over the world. Cfc will continue as a platform that empowers Arab filmmakers to take their projects to the widest audiences possible.
Cfc jury includes Paul Baboudjian, director of Screen Institute Beirut, Catherine Buresi who has been working in the media and film industry for almost 20 years in addition to Intishal Al Timimi, Director of the Arab Programming at Sanad Film Fund.
Cfc offers $ 10.000 monetary prize in the name of the Sanad Abu Dhabi Film Fund, in addition to another prize from Aroma for a color grading package for one film project only. Mohamed Hefzy's production company, Film Clinic, along with The Producers of Hany Osama are offering a joint co-production prize.
Cfc is hosting representatives of 12 projects in development and production phases to be part of the three-day course in Cairo to communicate with cinema industry delegates, local and international producers and distributors including:
- Roman Paul from the German Razor Films, producer of the Saudi film "Wadjda" and the Palestinian film "Paradise Now," the film which was nominated for the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Film.
- Laetitia Gonzalez from Films Du Poisson, producer of the award-winning film (12 awards) "Depuis Qu'Otar Est Parti" (Since Otar Left) and "The Tree," "Voyages" and "Tournee" the two times Cannes Film Festival awards winner.
On a later date, Cfc will announce the full list of delegates participating in the connection's new edition. On the last day of Cfc, there will be a special opportunity for project representatives to meet with English producer Paul Webster Head of Ciff Jury and the producer of "The Motorcycle Diaries," "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen," "Atonement" and "Anna Karenina."
Cfc is hosting filmmakers from all over the world, who have a project with an Arab connection (director, producer, co-producer, main talent, location, subject matter, etc.) Producers and directors are encouraged to apply with feature-length projects either at the development or post-production phase. Feature-length creative documentaries are also encouraged to apply.
The goal of the co-production platform is to act as a channel opening opportunities for talented filmmakers to meet and network with other entities that may be potential project partners. In addition, several cash prizes will be offered to help the projects throughout their development and completion.
Cfc was held for the first time in 2010 during the 34th Cairo International Film Festival and proved its importance as a worthwhile experience to the participants. In 2012, Cfc held its second edition hosting a higher number of successful meetings between filmmakers and industry delegates. Many of the filmmakers who were invited to attend the two previous editions of Cfc completed their films, all notable works which achieved various successes in festivals all over the world. Cfc will continue as a platform that empowers Arab filmmakers to take their projects to the widest audiences possible.
- 11/27/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Co-production between Germany and France is set to be given an additional boost with the creation of two new development funds.
A development fund with an annual budget of €200,000 has been installed by the German Federal Film Fund (Ffa) and France’s Cnc targetting young producers who want to make their first or second co-production between Germany and France.
Announcing the creation of the fund, the Ffa’s CEO Peter Dinges said that discussion about extending the German-French mini-traité co-production fund to include development support had been underway since 2007.
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, producer Gerhard Meixner, co-director with Roman Paul on the German side of the Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris training programme, said that this new development fund would be of particular importance for the Atelier’s graduates to give them “the possibility to make the difficult first steps – for they don’t only need intellectual, but also genuine seed money in order to get cracking.”
“The new funding...
A development fund with an annual budget of €200,000 has been installed by the German Federal Film Fund (Ffa) and France’s Cnc targetting young producers who want to make their first or second co-production between Germany and France.
Announcing the creation of the fund, the Ffa’s CEO Peter Dinges said that discussion about extending the German-French mini-traité co-production fund to include development support had been underway since 2007.
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, producer Gerhard Meixner, co-director with Roman Paul on the German side of the Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris training programme, said that this new development fund would be of particular importance for the Atelier’s graduates to give them “the possibility to make the difficult first steps – for they don’t only need intellectual, but also genuine seed money in order to get cracking.”
“The new funding...
- 6/16/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Winners of the Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung were announced on Sunday [Feb 8].
The Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung handed out awards of up to €70,000 to three German-Arab projects at a gala held at the Berlinale Talents on Sunday night.
The three winning projects – selected from a shortlist of 15 – are Mohamed Siam’s documentary Amal; Amjad Al Rasheed and Darin Salam’s short fiction film The Parrot; and Ghassan Halwani’s animation Clean Up The Living Room, We’ve Got Visitors Coming.
Produced by Sara Bökemeyer, Amal (Germany-Egypt) revolves the impact of the Egyptian revolution on a young girl. The Parrot (Germany-Jordan), produced by Roman Roitman, is about a Moroccon Jewish family trying to settle into their new lives in Palestine in 1948.
Clean Up The Living Room (Germany-Lebanon), produced by Inka Dewitz, mixes animation and live action in a story about people who disappeared during the Lebanese Civil War.
Launched in 2012, the...
The Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung handed out awards of up to €70,000 to three German-Arab projects at a gala held at the Berlinale Talents on Sunday night.
The three winning projects – selected from a shortlist of 15 – are Mohamed Siam’s documentary Amal; Amjad Al Rasheed and Darin Salam’s short fiction film The Parrot; and Ghassan Halwani’s animation Clean Up The Living Room, We’ve Got Visitors Coming.
Produced by Sara Bökemeyer, Amal (Germany-Egypt) revolves the impact of the Egyptian revolution on a young girl. The Parrot (Germany-Jordan), produced by Roman Roitman, is about a Moroccon Jewish family trying to settle into their new lives in Palestine in 1948.
Clean Up The Living Room (Germany-Lebanon), produced by Inka Dewitz, mixes animation and live action in a story about people who disappeared during the Lebanese Civil War.
Launched in 2012, the...
- 2/10/2015
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
Colombian filmmaker, Ciro Guerra announced that his next film,"Embrace of the Serpent”, due out next year, will star U.S. actor Brionne Davis (“Savaged”) and Belgium’s Jan Bijvoet, the lead in Cannes Competition entry “Borgman” a really creepy dark comedy. Two other stars are non-pro actors, Nilbio Torres, from the Cubeo Vaupes people, and Antonio Bolivar, one of the last of the Ocainas. Both are from tribes living in the Amazon where this film will shoot in Mitu, San Jose del Guaviare and Puerto Inirida. As in his previous film “The Wind Journeys”, landscape will play a major role. “Embrace of the Serpent” draws inspiration from the travel journals of German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grunberg and American Richard Evans Schultes, a celebrated pioneer researcher into indigenous peoples’ use of plants.
His "The Wind Journeys" was produced by our German friends Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner at Razor Film Production, by Burning Blue's prolific Diana Bustamente -- who is now also heading the Carthagena Film Festival. It received some funds from Films From the South in Norway. It premiered in 2009 Cannes Un Certain Regard and was sold by Paris’ Elle Driver to 19 countries including Film Movement for North America, Madman for Australia, Eye, Film 1 and Sundance Channel for The Netherlands, Interior 13 Cine for Mexico, Cine Ojo for Argentina, Rcn CIne and Cineplex for Colombia, Camera for Denmark, Arthaus for Norway.
Guerra's next project "Taganga” was chosen to be in the Coproduction Forum in Los Cabos this past November. "Taganga" is about a fisherman from a small village by the Colombian coast where many foreign-owned scuba diving centers have been established. A new law requiring local fisherman to change the motors of their boats forces him to earn quick money, so he chooses to dynamite to fish. The owner of the largest scuba diving center opposes this use of explosives. When the fisherman receives a death threat if he continues the dynamiting of fish, he assumes the center's owner is behind the threat. In order to prove it, he begins a series of fateful actions.
Here is the official image of "Embrace of the Serpent"...
His "The Wind Journeys" was produced by our German friends Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner at Razor Film Production, by Burning Blue's prolific Diana Bustamente -- who is now also heading the Carthagena Film Festival. It received some funds from Films From the South in Norway. It premiered in 2009 Cannes Un Certain Regard and was sold by Paris’ Elle Driver to 19 countries including Film Movement for North America, Madman for Australia, Eye, Film 1 and Sundance Channel for The Netherlands, Interior 13 Cine for Mexico, Cine Ojo for Argentina, Rcn CIne and Cineplex for Colombia, Camera for Denmark, Arthaus for Norway.
Guerra's next project "Taganga” was chosen to be in the Coproduction Forum in Los Cabos this past November. "Taganga" is about a fisherman from a small village by the Colombian coast where many foreign-owned scuba diving centers have been established. A new law requiring local fisherman to change the motors of their boats forces him to earn quick money, so he chooses to dynamite to fish. The owner of the largest scuba diving center opposes this use of explosives. When the fisherman receives a death threat if he continues the dynamiting of fish, he assumes the center's owner is behind the threat. In order to prove it, he begins a series of fateful actions.
Here is the official image of "Embrace of the Serpent"...
- 12/31/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
On December 17, El Dia de St. Lazaro, something extraordinary happened! Equivalent to the “Fall of the Wall”, President Barak Obama simultaneously with Raul Castro of Cuba announced that diplomatic relations between our two countries was being restored; the last of the Cuban Five imprisoned for 15 years in the U.S. for spying (on Cuban terrorists based in Miami) would be returned to Cuba in exchange for Alan Gross (imprisoned for 5 years for bringing Cuba forbidden internet technology), and an unnamed CIA agent incarcerated for 20 years, along with other Cuban political prisoners; And that this would be the first step in finally normalizing relations between Cuba and the U.S.A.
Read More: Sydney Levine's First Impression at the 2014 Havana Film Festival
As my friends and I were driving from Trinidad to visit a sugar plantation which was the basis for the Cuban wealth of the 19th century, we got a message that in one hour Raul Castro would make the formal announcement and President Obama’s address would also be broadcast.
As we entered the former plantation home, now a restaurant, we heard the singing and jubilation coming from the bar and immediately joined in as the only Americans to share the joy; the Scotch (not rum) was flowing and the dancing and singing continued until the address came on the television.
I realized that in my 15 years of coming to Cuba, this was the moment I had been waiting for. We watched Raul Castro explain, and we watched President Obama explain, and as I watched the faces of the beautiful Cuban people as they listened, some with tears and others with smiles, all with great intensity, I understood the meaning of “rapprochement”. We turned toward each other in pure happiness and felt ourselves united after 55 years of separation.
This is The Place and I am here.
We knew when the Mercosur Heads of State were gathered under tight security at the Hotel Nacional during the first days of the festival that something was afoot. We heard that not only were they planning a possible counter boycott of U.S. in their upcoming May meeting, shutting out U.S. from attending, but the Hotel Nacional’s guest roster included the name of an American who was negotiating something much bigger.
Some speak of the idealism behind this long-wished-for move of U.S.; others speak of the economic necessity. Looking back at my most incredible year of traveling around Latin America, I understand that with the new expansion of the Panama Canal enabling the huge Chinese container ships to pass through, the most convenient next-stop-port for them is Havana. And from Havana, the most convenient port is not Cartagena or Cali in Colombia but New Orleans! And so we may see the rapprochement bring back the glorious days when music and adventure were equated with the Louisiana-Cuban connection. My hope is that the values held so dear in Cuba spread to U.S. and that we Americans don’t spread our U.S. arrogance when we land on the shores of the country which has managed 55 years with no help from us.
There is still more to this tale of reunion, but I am sworn to secrecy for the moment. But you will read it in papers other than this blog. Thirteen months of secret negotiations took place in Canada with the help of the Pope. At a wonderful dinner at a newly opened up Cuban-Russian restaurant on the Malecon, “Nostrovia”, our friend the restaurant owner, Rolando Almirante, whom we know as a documentary filmmaker and host of a weekly Cuban TV show, introduced us to a Canadian and an American both of whom had been involved with the long negotiations. Together we toasted the event with vodka.
To return to the Hotel Nacional and the festival:
Exceptionally quiet for those political reasons, it was also quiet because but there was none of the active debating over the new Law of Cinema which so excitedly animated the festival here last year. There was a low-key conference about the law of cinema and audiovisual culture held by the Cuban Association of Cinema Press with Fipresci and other invited guests to discuss and express opinions about whether most countries by now have a law of cinema, whether developing countries are planning on establishing a law of cinema, whether a law of cinema is necessary for a country aspiring to a higher level of culture for its population, and in what way would a law contribute to the development of production and to the appreciation of cinema. But you do not see everyone gathering in groups to discuss these ideas as they did last year.
Some of last year’s top filmmakers – producers like Ivonne Cotorruelo and Claudia Calvino are so busy preparing their next coproductions that they have no time for such discussions. Others shrug and resignedly express Cuban forbearance as usual.
I asked my friends what is the status of the law being established here in Cuba where only one law of cinema exists, which is the establishment of Icaic, the government institute that determines everything about film behind closed doors. Their answer was “Nothing”. Nothing has changed since last year. Discussions are continuing, and there will be a law established, but not yet…and so I learned that once the first big step is taken here, the next steps are very slow to follow.
So here is what happened on Day 3, December 7 of the my festival:
Our friend Pascal Tessaud whose short from France “City of Lights” brought him to Los Angeles several years ago, had a screening of his new film “Brooklyn”. Its premiere screening here (It premiered in Cannes’ Acid section earlier this year) was to an odd audience of older people. No doubt they were expecting a film about “Brooklyn” (which used to be the name of a bar in Central Havana) but instead got a film about a young Afro-Swiss rapper-girl named “Brooklyn” who enters the rap scene of Paris, made up of Arabs and Africans.
“Afronorteamericano” films were also spotlighted with Oscar Micheaux’s “Assassination in Harlem” (1935), “Within our Gates” (1920), “Body and Soul” (1926) starring Paul Robeson, “Underworld” (1937), “Swing” (1938), and Spencer William’s “The Blood of Jesus” (1941).
Also showing were North American documentaries “Citizen Koch”, “The Notorious Mr. Bout”, “The Overnighters”, and an homage to filmmaker, Eugene Jarecki (“Capturing the Friedmans” 2003, “Arbitrage” 2012, “The Trials of Henry Kissinger” 2002, “Why We Fight” 2006, Emmy Award winning “Reagan” 2011 and 2012’s “The House I Live In” about the war against drugs which along with “Why We Fight” won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance) and a retrospective of Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck. Trinidad & Tobago’s annual showcase featured “Creole Soup” from Guadalupe and “Legends of Ska” by American DJ and ska specialist Brad Klein. And of course there was the latest crop of new films from Latin America and the newest films from Cuba, and much, much more.
Today Benecio del Toro, a regular at this festival, won the Coral of Honor for his role as “Che” in Steven Soderbergh’s movies and for his role as the narcotraffiker, Pablo Escobar in the NBC miniseries “Drug Wars: The Camarena Story” and here now, as Escobar in “Escobar: Paradise Lost” directed by the Italian Andrea Di Stefano. For Benecio, Cuba is “a dream come true”.
Day 4, December 8.
There seems to be a trend toward films about children. The prize winning film “Conducta” and Cuba’s submission for Academy Award Nomination as Best Foreign Language Film has already won awards around the world including The Coral for Best Picture and Best Actor here in Havana. This young boy loses every government protection because of his family’s dysfunctions and yet he maintains the spirit of survival and transcendence. Another story from Argentina, Poland and Colombia, France and Germany, “Refugiado” directed by Diego Lerman, also deals with a child who returns home from a birthday party to find his mother unconscious on the floor. The mother then flees seeking a safe place for them and he experiences fear in all the formerly secure places he has known. “Gente de Bien” a Colombia-France coproduction directed by Franco Lolli also explores the world of a young boy, abandoned by his mother and placed in the disheveled home of his impecunious father, who is taken in by a teacher who means well but whose family refuses to accept him. This little kid reaches his limit when his dog dies; but thrown back to his caring if off-kilter father, you get the feeling he too will be all right after all.
A couple of new gay films showed: Cuba’s “Vestido de Novia” was so crowded I could not get near it. Lines around blocks and blocks to get into the 1,000 seat theater were incredible proof of how much Cubans love cinema. Winner of last year’s prize for a work-in-progress, “Vestido de Novia” (“Wedding Dress) will soon be on the festival circuit. Two years ago, at Guadalajara’s coproduction market “Cuatro Lunas” by Sergio Tovar Velarde was being pitched. A sort of primer on gayness, four stories tell the tale of 1) discovery of one’s gayness, 2) first gay love, 3) first gay betrayal of love and 4) love at a mature stage of life. Producer Fernando … hung out with us a bit as we all come from L.A. and have friends in common.
What – aside from the new rapprochement between Cuba and U.S.A. – is “good for the Jews”? A wonderful film from Uruguay, Spain and Germany, “Mr. Kaplan” directed by Alvaro Brechner and produced by my most helpful friend Mariana Secco, and my German friends Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner (Isa: Memento) brought a new understanding for the good and the bad in our recent history. Almost a comedy and almost a tragedy, the film’s resolution served to transform our propensity to see and judge in black and white.
Read More: Sydney Levine's First Impression at the 2014 Havana Film Festival
As my friends and I were driving from Trinidad to visit a sugar plantation which was the basis for the Cuban wealth of the 19th century, we got a message that in one hour Raul Castro would make the formal announcement and President Obama’s address would also be broadcast.
As we entered the former plantation home, now a restaurant, we heard the singing and jubilation coming from the bar and immediately joined in as the only Americans to share the joy; the Scotch (not rum) was flowing and the dancing and singing continued until the address came on the television.
I realized that in my 15 years of coming to Cuba, this was the moment I had been waiting for. We watched Raul Castro explain, and we watched President Obama explain, and as I watched the faces of the beautiful Cuban people as they listened, some with tears and others with smiles, all with great intensity, I understood the meaning of “rapprochement”. We turned toward each other in pure happiness and felt ourselves united after 55 years of separation.
This is The Place and I am here.
We knew when the Mercosur Heads of State were gathered under tight security at the Hotel Nacional during the first days of the festival that something was afoot. We heard that not only were they planning a possible counter boycott of U.S. in their upcoming May meeting, shutting out U.S. from attending, but the Hotel Nacional’s guest roster included the name of an American who was negotiating something much bigger.
Some speak of the idealism behind this long-wished-for move of U.S.; others speak of the economic necessity. Looking back at my most incredible year of traveling around Latin America, I understand that with the new expansion of the Panama Canal enabling the huge Chinese container ships to pass through, the most convenient next-stop-port for them is Havana. And from Havana, the most convenient port is not Cartagena or Cali in Colombia but New Orleans! And so we may see the rapprochement bring back the glorious days when music and adventure were equated with the Louisiana-Cuban connection. My hope is that the values held so dear in Cuba spread to U.S. and that we Americans don’t spread our U.S. arrogance when we land on the shores of the country which has managed 55 years with no help from us.
There is still more to this tale of reunion, but I am sworn to secrecy for the moment. But you will read it in papers other than this blog. Thirteen months of secret negotiations took place in Canada with the help of the Pope. At a wonderful dinner at a newly opened up Cuban-Russian restaurant on the Malecon, “Nostrovia”, our friend the restaurant owner, Rolando Almirante, whom we know as a documentary filmmaker and host of a weekly Cuban TV show, introduced us to a Canadian and an American both of whom had been involved with the long negotiations. Together we toasted the event with vodka.
To return to the Hotel Nacional and the festival:
Exceptionally quiet for those political reasons, it was also quiet because but there was none of the active debating over the new Law of Cinema which so excitedly animated the festival here last year. There was a low-key conference about the law of cinema and audiovisual culture held by the Cuban Association of Cinema Press with Fipresci and other invited guests to discuss and express opinions about whether most countries by now have a law of cinema, whether developing countries are planning on establishing a law of cinema, whether a law of cinema is necessary for a country aspiring to a higher level of culture for its population, and in what way would a law contribute to the development of production and to the appreciation of cinema. But you do not see everyone gathering in groups to discuss these ideas as they did last year.
Some of last year’s top filmmakers – producers like Ivonne Cotorruelo and Claudia Calvino are so busy preparing their next coproductions that they have no time for such discussions. Others shrug and resignedly express Cuban forbearance as usual.
I asked my friends what is the status of the law being established here in Cuba where only one law of cinema exists, which is the establishment of Icaic, the government institute that determines everything about film behind closed doors. Their answer was “Nothing”. Nothing has changed since last year. Discussions are continuing, and there will be a law established, but not yet…and so I learned that once the first big step is taken here, the next steps are very slow to follow.
So here is what happened on Day 3, December 7 of the my festival:
Our friend Pascal Tessaud whose short from France “City of Lights” brought him to Los Angeles several years ago, had a screening of his new film “Brooklyn”. Its premiere screening here (It premiered in Cannes’ Acid section earlier this year) was to an odd audience of older people. No doubt they were expecting a film about “Brooklyn” (which used to be the name of a bar in Central Havana) but instead got a film about a young Afro-Swiss rapper-girl named “Brooklyn” who enters the rap scene of Paris, made up of Arabs and Africans.
“Afronorteamericano” films were also spotlighted with Oscar Micheaux’s “Assassination in Harlem” (1935), “Within our Gates” (1920), “Body and Soul” (1926) starring Paul Robeson, “Underworld” (1937), “Swing” (1938), and Spencer William’s “The Blood of Jesus” (1941).
Also showing were North American documentaries “Citizen Koch”, “The Notorious Mr. Bout”, “The Overnighters”, and an homage to filmmaker, Eugene Jarecki (“Capturing the Friedmans” 2003, “Arbitrage” 2012, “The Trials of Henry Kissinger” 2002, “Why We Fight” 2006, Emmy Award winning “Reagan” 2011 and 2012’s “The House I Live In” about the war against drugs which along with “Why We Fight” won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance) and a retrospective of Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck. Trinidad & Tobago’s annual showcase featured “Creole Soup” from Guadalupe and “Legends of Ska” by American DJ and ska specialist Brad Klein. And of course there was the latest crop of new films from Latin America and the newest films from Cuba, and much, much more.
Today Benecio del Toro, a regular at this festival, won the Coral of Honor for his role as “Che” in Steven Soderbergh’s movies and for his role as the narcotraffiker, Pablo Escobar in the NBC miniseries “Drug Wars: The Camarena Story” and here now, as Escobar in “Escobar: Paradise Lost” directed by the Italian Andrea Di Stefano. For Benecio, Cuba is “a dream come true”.
Day 4, December 8.
There seems to be a trend toward films about children. The prize winning film “Conducta” and Cuba’s submission for Academy Award Nomination as Best Foreign Language Film has already won awards around the world including The Coral for Best Picture and Best Actor here in Havana. This young boy loses every government protection because of his family’s dysfunctions and yet he maintains the spirit of survival and transcendence. Another story from Argentina, Poland and Colombia, France and Germany, “Refugiado” directed by Diego Lerman, also deals with a child who returns home from a birthday party to find his mother unconscious on the floor. The mother then flees seeking a safe place for them and he experiences fear in all the formerly secure places he has known. “Gente de Bien” a Colombia-France coproduction directed by Franco Lolli also explores the world of a young boy, abandoned by his mother and placed in the disheveled home of his impecunious father, who is taken in by a teacher who means well but whose family refuses to accept him. This little kid reaches his limit when his dog dies; but thrown back to his caring if off-kilter father, you get the feeling he too will be all right after all.
A couple of new gay films showed: Cuba’s “Vestido de Novia” was so crowded I could not get near it. Lines around blocks and blocks to get into the 1,000 seat theater were incredible proof of how much Cubans love cinema. Winner of last year’s prize for a work-in-progress, “Vestido de Novia” (“Wedding Dress) will soon be on the festival circuit. Two years ago, at Guadalajara’s coproduction market “Cuatro Lunas” by Sergio Tovar Velarde was being pitched. A sort of primer on gayness, four stories tell the tale of 1) discovery of one’s gayness, 2) first gay love, 3) first gay betrayal of love and 4) love at a mature stage of life. Producer Fernando … hung out with us a bit as we all come from L.A. and have friends in common.
What – aside from the new rapprochement between Cuba and U.S.A. – is “good for the Jews”? A wonderful film from Uruguay, Spain and Germany, “Mr. Kaplan” directed by Alvaro Brechner and produced by my most helpful friend Mariana Secco, and my German friends Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner (Isa: Memento) brought a new understanding for the good and the bad in our recent history. Almost a comedy and almost a tragedy, the film’s resolution served to transform our propensity to see and judge in black and white.
- 12/27/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Los Cabos International Film Festival took place this month of November. It was a brave move to keep it going after Cabo had been so hard hit by Hurricane Odile with winds of 125mph less than a month earlier. The vast destruction in our part of town was quickly being repaired though traces remained visible and repairs still to be done necessitated cutting the normal invitation list by half and doubling up hotel rooms for a few unlucky journalists. That being said, there were 15,000 attending the festival. Volunteers wore the worthy words on their t-shirts: #Unstoppable, and they were that.
For all the infrastructure problems of the city in the midst of rebuilding itself, the festival seemed to thrive with all sorts of invitees showing up from all over the world. It seemed like gala events, panels, master classes, coproduction meetings, works in progress, screenings and interviews were constantly taking place. It was a great team and we all felt part of it.
The festival is overseen by the executive board members Eduardo Sánchez Navarro, Alfonso Pascal Barcenas, Scott Cross and Sean Cross (who also founded Vail Film Festival) and is organized by the festival team of Alonso Aguilar (General Director), Alejandra Paulin (General Coordinator) - who was a great market director in Guadajalara before coming here, Maru Garzon (Head of Programming), Ana Molinar Trujillo (Communication Manager), and Monica Herrera (Film Programmer). My friend from Guadalajara, normally an English teacher, Fabian Cruz was also there working for the festival.
When Eduardo Sánchez Navarro Redo remembers how he first came to Los Cabos, there is no doubt in his mind that destiny and luck played an important part. When he married his wife 30 years ago, he decided to travel along the entire Pacific Coast, from Acapulco to Mazatlan, where he crossed over to La Paz eventually driving to Los Cabos. The beauty of the area impressed him and it was during this trip that he and his wife decided to buy a vacation home in Los Cabos, thus beginning a distinguished career as a principal player and developer of what is Los Cabos today. Over the course of more than 20 years, his company, Grupo Questro, has emerged as one of the most highly respected developers in all of Mexico. He, together with Juan Gallardo Thurlow, Scott Cross, and Sean Cross, founded the festival in 2012.
My job as a journalist was to explore and write, hard to do when you are having such fun 24/7. We journalists were all in one hotel where we were given space and time to bond. Travel writers mixed with trade writers: from Film Journal David Noh, whose article is worth sharing here, my colleagues Peter Rainer from NPR and Christian Science Monitor, Anne Thompson from Thompson on Hollywood on Indiewire, Godfrey Cheshire of RogerEbert.com and many others met and mixed. Also Ira Deutchman of Colombia University Film School and Emerging Pictures and Robin Brock of Creative Coalition were there with time to share dinners.
The filmmakers, in another hotel, mixed by day and at the communal lunches and parties. I will write more on them in an upcoming blog! After all, filmmakers are the backbone of our industry. Without them, we have nothing!
The agents, mostly from CAA, were placed in another hotel, luxurious and far away. As someone said, Cabos is like Cannes, only in November. If so, perhaps they were at the Eden Roc in Cap d’Antibes. (Actually they were at Hacienda Beach Club & Residences) CAA has always been an honored part of this festival. I have heard that that is because someone with lots of money from Mexico invests it in cinema through CAA and even started the festival. That is, however, pure conjecture. Under the guidance of CAA agent, Micah Green, people can be assured that the directions he sees and the decisions he makes about investing private individuals' capital into filmed entertainment is priceless. I could think of no one I would trust more --in this untrustworthy business we are in-- than Micah.
At least two other agents – Bec Smith and Rena Ronson from UTA -- were also there. Rena and Micah were on the Film Financing Panel moderated by Variety’s expert in all things Iberoamerican and my idol, John Hopewell. Other participants on the Film Finance Panel were Jonathan King, Evp of Production at Jeff Skoll’s Participant Media whose partnership with Canana formed Participant PanAmerican production fund. “No” by Pablo Lorrain was their first investment. Pp also financed "El Ardor" which played in Cannes and “Cesar Chavez”, directed by Diego Luna. Also on the panel were Mark Musselman of Canada’s 10X2yinc, the exec producer of “Eastern Promises” and most recently of “Remember” by Atom Egoyan which was also produced by Robert Lantos and son, also in Los Cabos. It went into production in 2014 and is tipped for Cannes. Other panelists included Raul Del Alto of Mexico’s Ag Studios (Itaca Films Mexico, Itaca Films USA, Itaca Films Colombia and Itaca Filkms Brazil, and Rena Ronson of UTA who, like Micah Green of CAA focuses on global film finance, distribution and marketing strategies for Independents and co-financed features and is fluent in Spanish because of her long time experience with Latin America.
At one point I looked up and found the European fund chiefs there as well, Laufey Gudjonsdottir from Iceland (where Interstellar was filmed), Katriel Schory from Israel Film Fund and Edith Sepp-Dallas from the Estonian Film Institute. They were there for Bpx. Best Practice Exchange is an initiative that brings together the leaders of film funding agencies from across the world to take part in high-level-workshops – one or two each year – designed to promote new standards of excellence in the provision of public funding for the support of film production, development and distribution. The aim of Bpx is to ensure that policies and procedures adopted by film funding agencies will act together, positively and proactively, to stimulate and sustain practices of international coproduction and cofinancing worldwide.
Triggered by the situation in which filmmaking outside the main production centers of Hollywood and Bollywood now finds itself, Bpx was created by Simon Perry, president of Ace (Ateliers du Cinéma Européen), in collaboration with Katriel Schory, executive director of the Israel Film Fund. It held its first workshop in February 2013 in Israel, and two further workshops in Toronto (September 2013) and Berlin (February 2014) and this was the third! Bravo!
Among the Mexican, Canadian and U.S. films that showed, the winners were as follow:
Mexico First
Mexico First winning film was ¨Llevate mis amores” ("All of Me") by Arturo Gonzalez. The film narrates the story of the generosity of the women of Las Patronas who feed the immigrants who ride La Bestia. The director was awarded a cash Prize of Usd $15,000. This film made me cry. I thought of it again when reading the L.A. Times article about the murder of Adrian Rodriguez and his assistant, Mexican good Samaritans who dedicated their scarce resources to feeding Central American migrants passing by on La Bestia, which is what the women in this movie do. And one of the women was at the festival too.
Los Cabos Competition
The Los Cabos Competition winner was “Güeros” by Alonso Ruizpalacios, also a winner at the Berlinale, Jerusalem Film Festival, Tribeca, Toronto and San Sebastian. Being sold internationally by Mundial, the joint venture of Canana (again!) and Im Global, the film has sold to Kino Lorber for U.S., Cannibal for Mexico, Dreams Hill for Italy, Noori for So. Korea and Maison Motion for Taiwan … "Güeros" is the undeniable triumph of a nouveau director who dares to pay homage the French New Wave on a wild detective hunt through Mexico City. In light of the 43 murdered students, this film, about students on strike, strikes a chord within the watcher. The film´s producer won a Usd $15,000 cash prize.
Work In Progress Mexico
The second Work in Progress Mexico prize was awarded to "Los Herederos," by Jorge Hernandez, a film that describes adolescent effervescence and idleness through a group of friends who spend their vacations adrenaline-seeking through parties, sex and alcohol. The winner received a Usd $10,000 cash prize.
Mexico-usa-canada Co-production Forum
The winner of the first Mexico- USA- Canada Co-production Forum was also announced: "Afronauts" by Frances Bodomo, based on the real life story of the Academia Nacional de Ciencias, Investigación Espacial e Investigación Astronómica of Zambia. Writer- Director Frances Bodomo received a Usd $8,000 cash prize. It also received funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Mexico First: Fox +
In its second year running the México Primero: Fox+ chose one of the films that participated to have its distribution rights pre-bought for the Latin American and Caribbean (Except Brazil) markets. The México Primero: Fox+ prize consists of Usd $40,000 and was awarded to Isaac Ezban´s "El Incidente" ("The Incident"), two M.C. Escher-maze-like parallel stories about characters trapped in illogical endless spaces: two brothers and a detective locked on an infinite staircase, and a family locked on an infinite road… for a very long time. The international sales agent, Shoreline, will be showing the film at Ventana Sur December 3rd at 17:00 at Cinemark 3.
Work In Progress Mexico Fox +
In its second year running as well, Work in Progress México Fox+ selected a participating film to have its distribution rights pre-bought for the Latin American and Caribbean (Except Brazil) markets. The Usd $30,000 prize was awarded to Katina Medina Mora’s "Sabras que hacer conmigo" aka "En Contraluz", produced by Gerardo Gatica and Alberto Muffelmann.
Work In Progress Mexico Chemistry
This Third edition of the Festival also witnessed the first Work In Progress México –Chemistry award. Chemistry post-production studios granted the winner, Jorge Hernandez’s "Los Herederos", $45,000 Usd in color correction services.
Mexico – USA – Canada Splendor Omnia Mantarraya Co-production Forum
On its first year running, the Coproduction Forum Mexico- USA- Canada Splendor Omnia – MANTArraya will be granting a $30,000 Usd equivalent prize worth 40 hours of color correction, 40 hours of sound mixing, as well as a paid stay in Tepoztlan Morelos, site of their studios, to the winner "Afronauts" by Francez Bodomo (U.S.).
The key phrase to understanding Cabo is "Seeing what the neighbors do" as the festival and market connects Canada, U,S, and Mexico in showing of films and exploring coproduction. And the mixing of filmmakers and journalists from all three Americas was exciting in the possibilities it offered to everyone.
As for the hard-core business done there:
Mark Kassen will be directing "Criminal Empire for Dummies" written by Cliff Dorman. Kassen will also be producing the film along with James Gibb of Cutting Edge Group and Greg Hajdarowicz of Gremi Films. The deal took place at the exclusive resort Hacienda Beach Club & Residences and was reported by Variety.
Actor and producer Luis Gerardo Mendez ("Nosotros Los Nobles") signed a representation agreement with Paradigm. Reported by Variety. So I guess Paradigm also sent agents to Los Cabos.
Pat Saperstein of Variety also attended Los Cabos and scooped a story, that “Wolverine Hotel” from director Patricia Chica who was participating in the Coproduction Forum, is closing in on production with a "recent financing commitment from Jean-Guy Després, who will serve as exec producer. The edgy crime thriller is produced by Canada-based Byron Martin. Looking to cast a Latino actor as co-star, Chica met with rising Mexican thesp Luis Gerardo Mendez ('We Are the Nobles') during Afm though he has not yet been attached. 'A Latino star opens up a market', said Martin."
Celebrated producer Monica Lozano announced the launch of Alebrije Distribución. She has had her hand in 23 productions since her first film, "Amores Perros". "Instructions Not Included" the Us$ 5.5 million film that grossed Us$ 100 million worldwide was also her production. With this Pan-American initiative, the company will acquire distribution rights for the Latin and North American markets. Reported by Variety again!! You would think John was the only real reporter there. Pinske should be proud of him! Most of us got no scoops, but then, I guess we have to prove ourselves worthy - which I am not because at heart, I am not a reporter hunting for news, but rather a gatherer of information and a writer.
Speaking of Monica Lozano, the Germany-based international sales agent, Media Luna, acquired world rights to Internet Junkie, directed by Alexander Katzowicz and produced by Monica Lozano. Variety reports on this again!
"Yamaha 300", a participating project of the 1st Mexico – USA- Canada Coproduction Forum, produced by Valerium Arts (Mayra Espinosa y Jorge Michel Grau, producer and writer-director of the horror hit "Somos lo que hay" respectively, and Grau, the writer of the remake "We Are What We Are") and Uncorked Productions (Andrew Corkin, the producer of the horror film "What We Were"), will be one of the first projects to receive the development stage and postproduction support offered by The Good Film Fund, an initiative of Media Darling (Amy Darling) and The Chatanooga Film Festival. See Variety.
New York producer Dodgeville Films ("To Be Takei") will be joining Varios Lobos in Mexico to produce "Ya no estoy aquí", Fernando Frias’s second film, which was also a winner during Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund second edition. This film in the Coproduction Forum was reported on in Variety.
"Siete Horas" ("Seven Hours"), one of the winning projects of the second Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund edition, which will be directed by Chema Rodriguez and produced by Francisco Vargas, the renowned director of the film "El violin", made an alliance with the Spanish production companies Sin un Duro and Noodles Prods to co-produce the project. (Variety)
CineTren closed deals to handle Latin American distribution for Spring, a Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead film, whose Latin American Premiere was held at Los Cabos International Film Festival. Negotiations between Nate Bolotin and Marie Katz fromLos Angeles-based Xyz and Manuel Garcia from CineTren, took place at the Hotel Grand Solmar. Next time, I'll have to visit all the hotels!! See Variety article.
BH5 Group, which participates in the executive production of "Remember" by Atom Egoyan, will be working with Alonso Ruizpalacios, director of Güeros, in his second movie: Museo, a project that participated in the Ist Mexico- USA- Canada Co-production Forum. Even though Variety wrote about this, my blog on the three year old conglomerate of companies, BH5, was more complete:
BH5 Group Makes a Splash with Three Impressive Films at Los Cabos Int'l Film Fest
BH5, a conglomerate of five formerly independent production companies all run by various friends from the same film school, will be working the international markets much more. Besides the Toronto hit, Jodorowsky's "Dance of Reality", they are working with larger companies like Pathe now. Their work in progress, "You Will Know What To Do With Me" ("Sabras que hacer conmigo" aka "En Contraluz") which just won the The Usd $30,000 prize of Fox+, is seeking an international sales agent.
"Entrevero" by Max Zunino, also winner of the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund second edition, was selected in the development project category by Ibermedia. See Variety.
And though Colombian Ciro Guerra, whose "The Wind Journeys" was produced by our German friends Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner at Razor Film Production and by Burning Blue's prolific Diana Bustamente -- who is now also heading the Carthagena Film Festival -- showed in 2009 Cannes Un Certain Regard and was sold by Paris’ Elle Driver to 19 countries including Film Movement for U.S., announced to Variety's John Hopewell that his next film, "Embrace of the Serpent" will star U.S. actor Brionne Davis (“Savaged”) and Belgium’s Jan Bijvoet, the lead in Cannes Competition entry “Borgman” a really creepy dark comedy, he did not discuss his next project "Taganga" in the Coproduction Forum. "Taganga" is about a fisherman from a small village by the Colombian coast where many foreign-owned scuba diving centers have been established. A new law requiring local fisherman to change the motors of their boats forces him to earn quick money, so he chooses to dynamite to fish. The owner of the largest scuba diving center opposes this use of explosives. When the fisherman receives a death threat if he continues the dynamiting of fish, he assumes the center's owner is behind the threat. In order to prove it, he begins a series of fateful actions.
Finally, while it seems like Variety wrote all the news, I have one item which no one has reported on. Reese Witherspoon stated at her press conference in Los Cabos, where her film "Wild" premiered in a red carpet gala, that she is talking to Eugenio Derbez ("Instructions Not Included") to make a movie with him. I heard her say it and later spoke of this to Ben Odell (my next blog on Los Cabos features him). Ben (now partners with Eugenio at 3Pas Studios) said, Actually that would be a great idea but they had not spoken about it. However, they are both represented by CAA, so it would seem like a natural and really exciting pairing. After all, aren't "Legally Blond" and "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" the same film? She is certainly on a role as a producer with "Wild" and David Fincher's "Gone Girl" as he is with his U.S. career. The studios are all courting her now, she said. More to come on this...
For all the infrastructure problems of the city in the midst of rebuilding itself, the festival seemed to thrive with all sorts of invitees showing up from all over the world. It seemed like gala events, panels, master classes, coproduction meetings, works in progress, screenings and interviews were constantly taking place. It was a great team and we all felt part of it.
The festival is overseen by the executive board members Eduardo Sánchez Navarro, Alfonso Pascal Barcenas, Scott Cross and Sean Cross (who also founded Vail Film Festival) and is organized by the festival team of Alonso Aguilar (General Director), Alejandra Paulin (General Coordinator) - who was a great market director in Guadajalara before coming here, Maru Garzon (Head of Programming), Ana Molinar Trujillo (Communication Manager), and Monica Herrera (Film Programmer). My friend from Guadalajara, normally an English teacher, Fabian Cruz was also there working for the festival.
When Eduardo Sánchez Navarro Redo remembers how he first came to Los Cabos, there is no doubt in his mind that destiny and luck played an important part. When he married his wife 30 years ago, he decided to travel along the entire Pacific Coast, from Acapulco to Mazatlan, where he crossed over to La Paz eventually driving to Los Cabos. The beauty of the area impressed him and it was during this trip that he and his wife decided to buy a vacation home in Los Cabos, thus beginning a distinguished career as a principal player and developer of what is Los Cabos today. Over the course of more than 20 years, his company, Grupo Questro, has emerged as one of the most highly respected developers in all of Mexico. He, together with Juan Gallardo Thurlow, Scott Cross, and Sean Cross, founded the festival in 2012.
My job as a journalist was to explore and write, hard to do when you are having such fun 24/7. We journalists were all in one hotel where we were given space and time to bond. Travel writers mixed with trade writers: from Film Journal David Noh, whose article is worth sharing here, my colleagues Peter Rainer from NPR and Christian Science Monitor, Anne Thompson from Thompson on Hollywood on Indiewire, Godfrey Cheshire of RogerEbert.com and many others met and mixed. Also Ira Deutchman of Colombia University Film School and Emerging Pictures and Robin Brock of Creative Coalition were there with time to share dinners.
The filmmakers, in another hotel, mixed by day and at the communal lunches and parties. I will write more on them in an upcoming blog! After all, filmmakers are the backbone of our industry. Without them, we have nothing!
The agents, mostly from CAA, were placed in another hotel, luxurious and far away. As someone said, Cabos is like Cannes, only in November. If so, perhaps they were at the Eden Roc in Cap d’Antibes. (Actually they were at Hacienda Beach Club & Residences) CAA has always been an honored part of this festival. I have heard that that is because someone with lots of money from Mexico invests it in cinema through CAA and even started the festival. That is, however, pure conjecture. Under the guidance of CAA agent, Micah Green, people can be assured that the directions he sees and the decisions he makes about investing private individuals' capital into filmed entertainment is priceless. I could think of no one I would trust more --in this untrustworthy business we are in-- than Micah.
At least two other agents – Bec Smith and Rena Ronson from UTA -- were also there. Rena and Micah were on the Film Financing Panel moderated by Variety’s expert in all things Iberoamerican and my idol, John Hopewell. Other participants on the Film Finance Panel were Jonathan King, Evp of Production at Jeff Skoll’s Participant Media whose partnership with Canana formed Participant PanAmerican production fund. “No” by Pablo Lorrain was their first investment. Pp also financed "El Ardor" which played in Cannes and “Cesar Chavez”, directed by Diego Luna. Also on the panel were Mark Musselman of Canada’s 10X2yinc, the exec producer of “Eastern Promises” and most recently of “Remember” by Atom Egoyan which was also produced by Robert Lantos and son, also in Los Cabos. It went into production in 2014 and is tipped for Cannes. Other panelists included Raul Del Alto of Mexico’s Ag Studios (Itaca Films Mexico, Itaca Films USA, Itaca Films Colombia and Itaca Filkms Brazil, and Rena Ronson of UTA who, like Micah Green of CAA focuses on global film finance, distribution and marketing strategies for Independents and co-financed features and is fluent in Spanish because of her long time experience with Latin America.
At one point I looked up and found the European fund chiefs there as well, Laufey Gudjonsdottir from Iceland (where Interstellar was filmed), Katriel Schory from Israel Film Fund and Edith Sepp-Dallas from the Estonian Film Institute. They were there for Bpx. Best Practice Exchange is an initiative that brings together the leaders of film funding agencies from across the world to take part in high-level-workshops – one or two each year – designed to promote new standards of excellence in the provision of public funding for the support of film production, development and distribution. The aim of Bpx is to ensure that policies and procedures adopted by film funding agencies will act together, positively and proactively, to stimulate and sustain practices of international coproduction and cofinancing worldwide.
Triggered by the situation in which filmmaking outside the main production centers of Hollywood and Bollywood now finds itself, Bpx was created by Simon Perry, president of Ace (Ateliers du Cinéma Européen), in collaboration with Katriel Schory, executive director of the Israel Film Fund. It held its first workshop in February 2013 in Israel, and two further workshops in Toronto (September 2013) and Berlin (February 2014) and this was the third! Bravo!
Among the Mexican, Canadian and U.S. films that showed, the winners were as follow:
Mexico First
Mexico First winning film was ¨Llevate mis amores” ("All of Me") by Arturo Gonzalez. The film narrates the story of the generosity of the women of Las Patronas who feed the immigrants who ride La Bestia. The director was awarded a cash Prize of Usd $15,000. This film made me cry. I thought of it again when reading the L.A. Times article about the murder of Adrian Rodriguez and his assistant, Mexican good Samaritans who dedicated their scarce resources to feeding Central American migrants passing by on La Bestia, which is what the women in this movie do. And one of the women was at the festival too.
Los Cabos Competition
The Los Cabos Competition winner was “Güeros” by Alonso Ruizpalacios, also a winner at the Berlinale, Jerusalem Film Festival, Tribeca, Toronto and San Sebastian. Being sold internationally by Mundial, the joint venture of Canana (again!) and Im Global, the film has sold to Kino Lorber for U.S., Cannibal for Mexico, Dreams Hill for Italy, Noori for So. Korea and Maison Motion for Taiwan … "Güeros" is the undeniable triumph of a nouveau director who dares to pay homage the French New Wave on a wild detective hunt through Mexico City. In light of the 43 murdered students, this film, about students on strike, strikes a chord within the watcher. The film´s producer won a Usd $15,000 cash prize.
Work In Progress Mexico
The second Work in Progress Mexico prize was awarded to "Los Herederos," by Jorge Hernandez, a film that describes adolescent effervescence and idleness through a group of friends who spend their vacations adrenaline-seeking through parties, sex and alcohol. The winner received a Usd $10,000 cash prize.
Mexico-usa-canada Co-production Forum
The winner of the first Mexico- USA- Canada Co-production Forum was also announced: "Afronauts" by Frances Bodomo, based on the real life story of the Academia Nacional de Ciencias, Investigación Espacial e Investigación Astronómica of Zambia. Writer- Director Frances Bodomo received a Usd $8,000 cash prize. It also received funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Mexico First: Fox +
In its second year running the México Primero: Fox+ chose one of the films that participated to have its distribution rights pre-bought for the Latin American and Caribbean (Except Brazil) markets. The México Primero: Fox+ prize consists of Usd $40,000 and was awarded to Isaac Ezban´s "El Incidente" ("The Incident"), two M.C. Escher-maze-like parallel stories about characters trapped in illogical endless spaces: two brothers and a detective locked on an infinite staircase, and a family locked on an infinite road… for a very long time. The international sales agent, Shoreline, will be showing the film at Ventana Sur December 3rd at 17:00 at Cinemark 3.
Work In Progress Mexico Fox +
In its second year running as well, Work in Progress México Fox+ selected a participating film to have its distribution rights pre-bought for the Latin American and Caribbean (Except Brazil) markets. The Usd $30,000 prize was awarded to Katina Medina Mora’s "Sabras que hacer conmigo" aka "En Contraluz", produced by Gerardo Gatica and Alberto Muffelmann.
Work In Progress Mexico Chemistry
This Third edition of the Festival also witnessed the first Work In Progress México –Chemistry award. Chemistry post-production studios granted the winner, Jorge Hernandez’s "Los Herederos", $45,000 Usd in color correction services.
Mexico – USA – Canada Splendor Omnia Mantarraya Co-production Forum
On its first year running, the Coproduction Forum Mexico- USA- Canada Splendor Omnia – MANTArraya will be granting a $30,000 Usd equivalent prize worth 40 hours of color correction, 40 hours of sound mixing, as well as a paid stay in Tepoztlan Morelos, site of their studios, to the winner "Afronauts" by Francez Bodomo (U.S.).
The key phrase to understanding Cabo is "Seeing what the neighbors do" as the festival and market connects Canada, U,S, and Mexico in showing of films and exploring coproduction. And the mixing of filmmakers and journalists from all three Americas was exciting in the possibilities it offered to everyone.
As for the hard-core business done there:
Mark Kassen will be directing "Criminal Empire for Dummies" written by Cliff Dorman. Kassen will also be producing the film along with James Gibb of Cutting Edge Group and Greg Hajdarowicz of Gremi Films. The deal took place at the exclusive resort Hacienda Beach Club & Residences and was reported by Variety.
Actor and producer Luis Gerardo Mendez ("Nosotros Los Nobles") signed a representation agreement with Paradigm. Reported by Variety. So I guess Paradigm also sent agents to Los Cabos.
Pat Saperstein of Variety also attended Los Cabos and scooped a story, that “Wolverine Hotel” from director Patricia Chica who was participating in the Coproduction Forum, is closing in on production with a "recent financing commitment from Jean-Guy Després, who will serve as exec producer. The edgy crime thriller is produced by Canada-based Byron Martin. Looking to cast a Latino actor as co-star, Chica met with rising Mexican thesp Luis Gerardo Mendez ('We Are the Nobles') during Afm though he has not yet been attached. 'A Latino star opens up a market', said Martin."
Celebrated producer Monica Lozano announced the launch of Alebrije Distribución. She has had her hand in 23 productions since her first film, "Amores Perros". "Instructions Not Included" the Us$ 5.5 million film that grossed Us$ 100 million worldwide was also her production. With this Pan-American initiative, the company will acquire distribution rights for the Latin and North American markets. Reported by Variety again!! You would think John was the only real reporter there. Pinske should be proud of him! Most of us got no scoops, but then, I guess we have to prove ourselves worthy - which I am not because at heart, I am not a reporter hunting for news, but rather a gatherer of information and a writer.
Speaking of Monica Lozano, the Germany-based international sales agent, Media Luna, acquired world rights to Internet Junkie, directed by Alexander Katzowicz and produced by Monica Lozano. Variety reports on this again!
"Yamaha 300", a participating project of the 1st Mexico – USA- Canada Coproduction Forum, produced by Valerium Arts (Mayra Espinosa y Jorge Michel Grau, producer and writer-director of the horror hit "Somos lo que hay" respectively, and Grau, the writer of the remake "We Are What We Are") and Uncorked Productions (Andrew Corkin, the producer of the horror film "What We Were"), will be one of the first projects to receive the development stage and postproduction support offered by The Good Film Fund, an initiative of Media Darling (Amy Darling) and The Chatanooga Film Festival. See Variety.
New York producer Dodgeville Films ("To Be Takei") will be joining Varios Lobos in Mexico to produce "Ya no estoy aquí", Fernando Frias’s second film, which was also a winner during Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund second edition. This film in the Coproduction Forum was reported on in Variety.
"Siete Horas" ("Seven Hours"), one of the winning projects of the second Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund edition, which will be directed by Chema Rodriguez and produced by Francisco Vargas, the renowned director of the film "El violin", made an alliance with the Spanish production companies Sin un Duro and Noodles Prods to co-produce the project. (Variety)
CineTren closed deals to handle Latin American distribution for Spring, a Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead film, whose Latin American Premiere was held at Los Cabos International Film Festival. Negotiations between Nate Bolotin and Marie Katz fromLos Angeles-based Xyz and Manuel Garcia from CineTren, took place at the Hotel Grand Solmar. Next time, I'll have to visit all the hotels!! See Variety article.
BH5 Group, which participates in the executive production of "Remember" by Atom Egoyan, will be working with Alonso Ruizpalacios, director of Güeros, in his second movie: Museo, a project that participated in the Ist Mexico- USA- Canada Co-production Forum. Even though Variety wrote about this, my blog on the three year old conglomerate of companies, BH5, was more complete:
BH5 Group Makes a Splash with Three Impressive Films at Los Cabos Int'l Film Fest
BH5, a conglomerate of five formerly independent production companies all run by various friends from the same film school, will be working the international markets much more. Besides the Toronto hit, Jodorowsky's "Dance of Reality", they are working with larger companies like Pathe now. Their work in progress, "You Will Know What To Do With Me" ("Sabras que hacer conmigo" aka "En Contraluz") which just won the The Usd $30,000 prize of Fox+, is seeking an international sales agent.
"Entrevero" by Max Zunino, also winner of the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund second edition, was selected in the development project category by Ibermedia. See Variety.
And though Colombian Ciro Guerra, whose "The Wind Journeys" was produced by our German friends Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner at Razor Film Production and by Burning Blue's prolific Diana Bustamente -- who is now also heading the Carthagena Film Festival -- showed in 2009 Cannes Un Certain Regard and was sold by Paris’ Elle Driver to 19 countries including Film Movement for U.S., announced to Variety's John Hopewell that his next film, "Embrace of the Serpent" will star U.S. actor Brionne Davis (“Savaged”) and Belgium’s Jan Bijvoet, the lead in Cannes Competition entry “Borgman” a really creepy dark comedy, he did not discuss his next project "Taganga" in the Coproduction Forum. "Taganga" is about a fisherman from a small village by the Colombian coast where many foreign-owned scuba diving centers have been established. A new law requiring local fisherman to change the motors of their boats forces him to earn quick money, so he chooses to dynamite to fish. The owner of the largest scuba diving center opposes this use of explosives. When the fisherman receives a death threat if he continues the dynamiting of fish, he assumes the center's owner is behind the threat. In order to prove it, he begins a series of fateful actions.
Finally, while it seems like Variety wrote all the news, I have one item which no one has reported on. Reese Witherspoon stated at her press conference in Los Cabos, where her film "Wild" premiered in a red carpet gala, that she is talking to Eugenio Derbez ("Instructions Not Included") to make a movie with him. I heard her say it and later spoke of this to Ben Odell (my next blog on Los Cabos features him). Ben (now partners with Eugenio at 3Pas Studios) said, Actually that would be a great idea but they had not spoken about it. However, they are both represented by CAA, so it would seem like a natural and really exciting pairing. After all, aren't "Legally Blond" and "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" the same film? She is certainly on a role as a producer with "Wild" and David Fincher's "Gone Girl" as he is with his U.S. career. The studios are all courting her now, she said. More to come on this...
- 12/1/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The Golden Lola for best feature film went to veteran director Edgar Reitz’s Home From Home - Chronicle of a Vision at the German Film Awards.Scroll down for full list of winners
The black-and-white epic, set in a fictitious village in Germany’s Hunsrück region in the mid-19th century, also received awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay (shared with co-author Gert Heidenreich) after being nominated by the members of the German Film Academy in a total of six categories.
The co-production with Margaret Ménégoz’s Les Films du Losange is handled internationally by Arri Media Worldsales and was released theatrically in Germany by Concorde Filmverleih.
The prizes were handed out at the 64th annual film awards, held in Berlin.
Austrian accent to ceremony
The night belonged to Austrian film-maker Andreas Prochaska and his producers Helmut Grasser of Allegro Film and Stefan Arndt of X Filme Creative Pool with their Alpine western The Dark...
The black-and-white epic, set in a fictitious village in Germany’s Hunsrück region in the mid-19th century, also received awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay (shared with co-author Gert Heidenreich) after being nominated by the members of the German Film Academy in a total of six categories.
The co-production with Margaret Ménégoz’s Les Films du Losange is handled internationally by Arri Media Worldsales and was released theatrically in Germany by Concorde Filmverleih.
The prizes were handed out at the 64th annual film awards, held in Berlin.
Austrian accent to ceremony
The night belonged to Austrian film-maker Andreas Prochaska and his producers Helmut Grasser of Allegro Film and Stefan Arndt of X Filme Creative Pool with their Alpine western The Dark...
- 5/10/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave pulled a five finger discount at the 2014 Indie Spirit Awards grabbing hardware in the Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress and Best Cinematography categories. Apart from the larceny in the Best Doc category, the winners in the above mention category (excluding Bobbitt’s work) and the double win pairing of Leto and McConaughey along with Cate Blanchett’s perf win in Blue Jasmine will likely repeat itself less than 24 hours later at tomorrow’s Academy Awards celebrations obviously begging many to ponder the following: who needs the 86th Academy Awards when we have the Indie Spirit Awards? While today’s most pleasurable wins come from the truly indie kudos for Best First Feature (Ryan Coogler for Frutivale Station) the John Cassavetes award for Chad Hartigan’s This is Martin Bonner, and the Piaget Producers Award to Ain’t Them Bodies Saints...
- 3/2/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Celebrating the top films from the past year, the 2014 Ee British Academy Film Awards took place in London, England tonight (February 16).
Snagging wins in the Best Supporting Actor/Actress categories were Barkhad Abdi ("Captain Phillips") and Jennifer Lawrence ("American Hustle"), respectively.
Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett and Chiwetel Ejiofor took home trophies for Best Actress and Best Actor. In addition, "We're the Millers" star Will Poulter was recognized in the Ee Rising star category.
The Best British Film went home to the cast and crew of "Gravity," while "12 Years a Slave" scored the prize for Best Film.
Check out the full list of 2014 BAFTA winners below!
Best Film
Winner 12 Years A Slave - Anthony Katagas, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen
American Hustle - Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon
Captain Phillips - Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca
Gravity - Alfonso Cuarón, David Heyman
Philomena - Gabrielle Tana,...
Snagging wins in the Best Supporting Actor/Actress categories were Barkhad Abdi ("Captain Phillips") and Jennifer Lawrence ("American Hustle"), respectively.
Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett and Chiwetel Ejiofor took home trophies for Best Actress and Best Actor. In addition, "We're the Millers" star Will Poulter was recognized in the Ee Rising star category.
The Best British Film went home to the cast and crew of "Gravity," while "12 Years a Slave" scored the prize for Best Film.
Check out the full list of 2014 BAFTA winners below!
Best Film
Winner 12 Years A Slave - Anthony Katagas, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen
American Hustle - Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon
Captain Phillips - Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca
Gravity - Alfonso Cuarón, David Heyman
Philomena - Gabrielle Tana,...
- 2/17/2014
- GossipCenter
The BAFTA Awards, honoring the best of British and world film, are given out Sunday, Feb. 16 in London. Handed out by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the 2014 Ee British Academy Film Awards are often a preview of the Oscars.
Who are the big winners for 2013 films? Check out the full nominee and winner list below.
Note: Winners are noted by bold font.
Best film
"12 Years a Slave" -- Anthony Katagas, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen
"American Hustle" -- Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon
"Captain Phillips" -- Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca
"Gravity" -- Alfonso Cuaron, David Heyman
"Philomena" -- Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan, Tracey Seaward
Outstanding British film
"Gravity" -- Alfonso Cuaron, David Heyman, Jonas Cuaron
"Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" -- Justin Chadwick, Anant Singh, David M. Thompson, William Nicholson
"Philomena" -- Stephen Frears, Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan,...
Who are the big winners for 2013 films? Check out the full nominee and winner list below.
Note: Winners are noted by bold font.
Best film
"12 Years a Slave" -- Anthony Katagas, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen
"American Hustle" -- Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon
"Captain Phillips" -- Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca
"Gravity" -- Alfonso Cuaron, David Heyman
"Philomena" -- Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan, Tracey Seaward
Outstanding British film
"Gravity" -- Alfonso Cuaron, David Heyman, Jonas Cuaron
"Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" -- Justin Chadwick, Anant Singh, David M. Thompson, William Nicholson
"Philomena" -- Stephen Frears, Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan,...
- 2/16/2014
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Welcome, gorgeous people, to the biggest night in British Film. We’re here at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and we’ll be liveblogging as the night rolls on.
12 Years a Slave, Gravity, American Hustle, Captain Phillips and Philomena have the majority of nominations and are all competing for Best Picture. It is an undeniably strong year for British Film and we’re grateful for a spotlight as wide and as bright as this one to be shone this evening.
If you haven’t already checked out our BAFTA competition, do so now - the prizes are worth £700. Blimey.
We’ll be updating this liveblog minute by minute until my fingers fall off with the most recent update being shown at the top of the top so do keep refreshing.
Great to have you with us.
- – - – - -
We’re at the end of another BAFTA...
12 Years a Slave, Gravity, American Hustle, Captain Phillips and Philomena have the majority of nominations and are all competing for Best Picture. It is an undeniably strong year for British Film and we’re grateful for a spotlight as wide and as bright as this one to be shone this evening.
If you haven’t already checked out our BAFTA competition, do so now - the prizes are worth £700. Blimey.
We’ll be updating this liveblog minute by minute until my fingers fall off with the most recent update being shown at the top of the top so do keep refreshing.
Great to have you with us.
- – - – - -
We’re at the end of another BAFTA...
- 2/16/2014
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced the nominations for the British Academy Film Awards and Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity" led the pack with 11 nominations including Best Film, British Film (who knew "Gravity" was a British movie?), Director for Cuaron, Screenplay for Cuaron and his son Jonas, and Actress for Sandra Bullock.
The biggest snub in my humble opinion was "Dallas Buyers Club" which appeared nowhere on the nominations list. Apparently, the British Academy did not deem Matthew McConaughey or Jared Leto award-worthy!
The BAFTA Awards will take place on Feb. 16 at the Royal Opera house in London. Will "Gravity" emerge as the victorious movie that night? And by the way, "Gravity" was my No. 1 favorite film of 2013!
Here's the complete list of BAFTA nominations:
Best Film
12 Years A Slave Anthony Katagas,Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen
American Hustle Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison,...
The biggest snub in my humble opinion was "Dallas Buyers Club" which appeared nowhere on the nominations list. Apparently, the British Academy did not deem Matthew McConaughey or Jared Leto award-worthy!
The BAFTA Awards will take place on Feb. 16 at the Royal Opera house in London. Will "Gravity" emerge as the victorious movie that night? And by the way, "Gravity" was my No. 1 favorite film of 2013!
Here's the complete list of BAFTA nominations:
Best Film
12 Years A Slave Anthony Katagas,Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen
American Hustle Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison,...
- 1/8/2014
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
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