Visit Films has announced a torrent of recent deals on its slate led by a further key territory sale on Cannes Directors’ Fortnight entry Good One.
India Donaldson’s feature debut starring newcomer Lily Collias as a 17-year-old who goes on an awkward backpacking trip with her father and his best friend has gone to Cherry Pickers for Benelux after a previously reported deal with New Story for France.
Multiple territories remain in active negotiation after Cannes, and Metrograph Pictures holds North American rights.
SXSW documentary Mogwai: If The Stars Had A Sound about the cult post-rock band has been...
India Donaldson’s feature debut starring newcomer Lily Collias as a 17-year-old who goes on an awkward backpacking trip with her father and his best friend has gone to Cherry Pickers for Benelux after a previously reported deal with New Story for France.
Multiple territories remain in active negotiation after Cannes, and Metrograph Pictures holds North American rights.
SXSW documentary Mogwai: If The Stars Had A Sound about the cult post-rock band has been...
- 5/30/2024
- ScreenDaily
Cate Blanchett is to receive San Sebastian’s highest honorary award, the Donostia Award, at the Spanish film festival’s 72nd edition which runs from September 20-28.
It will be Blanchett’s first visit to San Sebastian, but the festival has already screened a number of her films including Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Babel in 2007 and Joel Schumacher’s Veronica Guerin in 2003.
Blanchett is the second Australian actor to receive the Donostia award after Hugh Jackman in 2013.
Blanchett will also feature on San Sebastian’s official poster, created by graphic designer José Luis Lanzagorta based on a photograph by Gustavo Papaleo.
It will be Blanchett’s first visit to San Sebastian, but the festival has already screened a number of her films including Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Babel in 2007 and Joel Schumacher’s Veronica Guerin in 2003.
Blanchett is the second Australian actor to receive the Donostia award after Hugh Jackman in 2013.
Blanchett will also feature on San Sebastian’s official poster, created by graphic designer José Luis Lanzagorta based on a photograph by Gustavo Papaleo.
- 5/9/2024
- ScreenDaily
The San Sebastian Film Festival will fete Cate Blanchett with its honorary Donostia Award at its forthcoming 72nd edition.
Blanchett, the second Australian actor to receive San Sebastian’s highest honorary award after Hugh Jackman, will also serve as the image for the festival’s main poster. Check out the poster below.
Blanchett will receive the award in person in San Sebastian and it will be her first visit to the festival. But she has had several films screen at the fest, including Babel and Veronica Guerin.
Over a career spanning more than three decades, Blanchett has racked up more than 200 awards, including two Oscars, two Volpi Cups at the Venice Festival, four Baftas and four Golden Globes, an honorary César, and Goya for lifetime achievement. Her credits include collaborations with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg,...
Blanchett, the second Australian actor to receive San Sebastian’s highest honorary award after Hugh Jackman, will also serve as the image for the festival’s main poster. Check out the poster below.
Blanchett will receive the award in person in San Sebastian and it will be her first visit to the festival. But she has had several films screen at the fest, including Babel and Veronica Guerin.
Over a career spanning more than three decades, Blanchett has racked up more than 200 awards, including two Oscars, two Volpi Cups at the Venice Festival, four Baftas and four Golden Globes, an honorary César, and Goya for lifetime achievement. Her credits include collaborations with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg,...
- 5/9/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Taiwan International Co-Funding Program (Ticp) from Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca) continues to make an impact at the 74th Berlinale. Black Tea and Shambhala enter the main competition, while Sleep With Your Eyes Open competes at Encounters. Festival veteran Tsai Ming-Liang scored two official selections with his latest documentary Abiding Nowhere in Berlinale Special and The Wayward Cloud at Berlinale Classics Special.
Black Tea is Abderrahmane Sissako's follow up feature after Timbuktu with Taiwan as a key location and two Taiwanese actors Chang Han from A Brighter Summer Day and Wu Ke-Xi of Nina Wu playing alongside Nina Mélo in this cross-cultural romance. The film also received investment from Kaohsiung Film Fund.
Also in the main competition is Shambhala, the second feature from Nepal's Min Bahadur Bham, which sees a woman journey across the Himalayas to prove her innocence. Liao Ching-Sung and Roger Huang are two executive producers from...
Black Tea is Abderrahmane Sissako's follow up feature after Timbuktu with Taiwan as a key location and two Taiwanese actors Chang Han from A Brighter Summer Day and Wu Ke-Xi of Nina Wu playing alongside Nina Mélo in this cross-cultural romance. The film also received investment from Kaohsiung Film Fund.
Also in the main competition is Shambhala, the second feature from Nepal's Min Bahadur Bham, which sees a woman journey across the Himalayas to prove her innocence. Liao Ching-Sung and Roger Huang are two executive producers from...
- 2/16/2024
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
Telefonica’s Movistar Plus+, Spain’s biggest pay TV-svod operator, is set to co-produce new movies from Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Iciar Bollaín, Alberto Rodríguez, Óliver Laxe and Ana Rujas. It’s a move which sees the high-end Spanish TV powerhouse become one of Spain’s most significant movie players.
Titles in the slate are backed by top Spanish producers such as Agustín Almodóvar and Esther García at El Deseo – backing Laxe’s next – and Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo at their high-flying new production house Suma Content, producing what will be Rujas’ debut feature as a director.
The acclaimed “La Mesías,” the latest series from Los Javis – as Ambrossi and Calvo are known – will have its international premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it will the only European series at this year’s event.
In a fillip for Spain’s box office, still 26% down on pre-pandemic levels, Movistar Plus+ will...
Titles in the slate are backed by top Spanish producers such as Agustín Almodóvar and Esther García at El Deseo – backing Laxe’s next – and Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo at their high-flying new production house Suma Content, producing what will be Rujas’ debut feature as a director.
The acclaimed “La Mesías,” the latest series from Los Javis – as Ambrossi and Calvo are known – will have its international premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it will the only European series at this year’s event.
In a fillip for Spain’s box office, still 26% down on pre-pandemic levels, Movistar Plus+ will...
- 1/18/2024
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
A screening of Isabel Herguera’s San Sebastian winner “Sultana’s Dream” will kickstart the inaugural edition of AniMela, India’s first-ever international festival for animation, VFX, Xr, gaming and comics, in Mumbai.
The screening will be followed by a Q&a with Herguera, alongside her Spanish and Indian crew, including Indian animation expert Upamanyu Bhattacharyya. AniMela’s film program includes features “The Peasants,” “Slide,” “Josep,” “Calamity,” “Unicorn Wars,” “Hokkyoku Hyakkaten No – Concierge San,” “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” and shorts under the thematic headings “India Collection,” “Queer Collection” and “Diversity & Identity: Dutch Shorts.”
AniMela’s Knowledge Center hosts workshops, panel discussions and masterclasses with Indian and international stalwarts from the animation, VFX and gaming industries including Annecy Festival director Mickaël Marin, Annecy Film Market director Veronique Encrenaz, VFX Supervisor Srinivas Mohan and filmmaker and educator Nina Sabnani. Highlights include a behind the scenes look at Milind D. Shinde’s “Bandits...
The screening will be followed by a Q&a with Herguera, alongside her Spanish and Indian crew, including Indian animation expert Upamanyu Bhattacharyya. AniMela’s film program includes features “The Peasants,” “Slide,” “Josep,” “Calamity,” “Unicorn Wars,” “Hokkyoku Hyakkaten No – Concierge San,” “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” and shorts under the thematic headings “India Collection,” “Queer Collection” and “Diversity & Identity: Dutch Shorts.”
AniMela’s Knowledge Center hosts workshops, panel discussions and masterclasses with Indian and international stalwarts from the animation, VFX and gaming industries including Annecy Festival director Mickaël Marin, Annecy Film Market director Veronique Encrenaz, VFX Supervisor Srinivas Mohan and filmmaker and educator Nina Sabnani. Highlights include a behind the scenes look at Milind D. Shinde’s “Bandits...
- 1/18/2024
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Paris-based The Party Film Sales has boarded renowned Icelandic auteur Rúnar Rúnarsson’s fourth pic, “When the Light Breaks,” which is selected for Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market’s works in progress session.
Rúnarsson serves as producer together with Heather Millard of Iceland’s Compass Films, in co-production with local banner Halibut, Holland’s Revolver, France’s Eaux Vives/Jour2Fête and Croatia’s MP Film.
Lauded for his coming-of age tales set against Iceland’s majestic scenery, Rúnarsson saw his international breakthrough in 2008 with his Oscar-nominated short “Two Birds.” Since then, he has delivered equally poetic fare in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2011 entry “Volcano,” San Sebastian 2015 winner “Sparrows “ and 2019 Valladolid and Lübeck fest winner “Echo.”
As in his earlier works, Rúnarsson was inspired by a personal event for “When the Light Breaks”. “Ever since experiencing the loss of a friend as a young man, I wanted to deal with the...
Rúnarsson serves as producer together with Heather Millard of Iceland’s Compass Films, in co-production with local banner Halibut, Holland’s Revolver, France’s Eaux Vives/Jour2Fête and Croatia’s MP Film.
Lauded for his coming-of age tales set against Iceland’s majestic scenery, Rúnarsson saw his international breakthrough in 2008 with his Oscar-nominated short “Two Birds.” Since then, he has delivered equally poetic fare in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2011 entry “Volcano,” San Sebastian 2015 winner “Sparrows “ and 2019 Valladolid and Lübeck fest winner “Echo.”
As in his earlier works, Rúnarsson was inspired by a personal event for “When the Light Breaks”. “Ever since experiencing the loss of a friend as a young man, I wanted to deal with the...
- 1/16/2024
- by Annika Pham
- Variety Film + TV
Berlin-based sales agent Pluto Film has pounced on international sales rights to Brazil’s “Malu,” the only completely non-European production in this year’s Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Competition, inspired by first feature director Pedro Freire’s troubled relationship with his mother Malu Rocha, a Brazilian actor.
“Since we love to work with new voices in global cinema, we were immediately convinced, that ‘Malu’ would fit perfectly to Pluto Film’s line-up,” said Pluto Film’s Benjamin Cölle, its managing director and head of sales.
“The film offers a unique storytelling approach from an up-and-coming director, who tackles complex themes like ambition, family, and survival in a specific cultural context with boldness. The film‘s narrative is rich with interpersonal drama and cultural context and its multi-dimensional characters add depth,” he added.
Freire has taken the personal and structured it around the relationship between three generations of women, the daughter,...
“Since we love to work with new voices in global cinema, we were immediately convinced, that ‘Malu’ would fit perfectly to Pluto Film’s line-up,” said Pluto Film’s Benjamin Cölle, its managing director and head of sales.
“The film offers a unique storytelling approach from an up-and-coming director, who tackles complex themes like ambition, family, and survival in a specific cultural context with boldness. The film‘s narrative is rich with interpersonal drama and cultural context and its multi-dimensional characters add depth,” he added.
Freire has taken the personal and structured it around the relationship between three generations of women, the daughter,...
- 1/4/2024
- by Callum McLennan
- Variety Film + TV
Bossa Nova-themed animation from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal received awards-qualifying run in November.
Sony Pictures Classics will release Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s Bossa Nova-themed animated feature They Shot The Piano Player theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on February 23, 2024.
‘They Shot The Piano Player’: San Sebastian Review
The film received a one-week awards-qualifying run in November following its premiere at Telluride and Toronto International Film Festival. It will expand nationwide in the weeks following the release.
Jeff Goldblum narrates the story of a New York music journalist who sets out to uncover the truth behind...
Sony Pictures Classics will release Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s Bossa Nova-themed animated feature They Shot The Piano Player theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on February 23, 2024.
‘They Shot The Piano Player’: San Sebastian Review
The film received a one-week awards-qualifying run in November following its premiere at Telluride and Toronto International Film Festival. It will expand nationwide in the weeks following the release.
Jeff Goldblum narrates the story of a New York music journalist who sets out to uncover the truth behind...
- 12/13/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Sarvnik Kaur’s documentary “Against the Tide” has won the Golden Gateway Award at the Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival. The film previously won awards at Sundance, Sydney and Seattle and best documentary at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards on the same evening as Mumbai.
Diwa Shah’s San Sebastian winner “Bahadur: The Brave” received Mumbai’s Silver Gateway Award. The festival’s Gender Sensitivity Award, for a film that challenges gender stereotypes and norms, which is decided by India’s Film Critics Guild, was won by Leesa Gazi’s “Barir Naam Shahana” (“A House Named Shahana”). The Special Jury Award went to Kanu Behl’s “Agra,” which premiered at Cannes earlier this year.
The Rashid Irani Young Critics’ Choice Award, a program created by the festival to nurture young writers on cinema, was won by Shahrukhkhan Chavada’s “Kayo Kayo Colour?” Dominic Sangma’s Locarno title “Rimdogittanga” (“Rapture”) won the Netpac Award.
Diwa Shah’s San Sebastian winner “Bahadur: The Brave” received Mumbai’s Silver Gateway Award. The festival’s Gender Sensitivity Award, for a film that challenges gender stereotypes and norms, which is decided by India’s Film Critics Guild, was won by Leesa Gazi’s “Barir Naam Shahana” (“A House Named Shahana”). The Special Jury Award went to Kanu Behl’s “Agra,” which premiered at Cannes earlier this year.
The Rashid Irani Young Critics’ Choice Award, a program created by the festival to nurture young writers on cinema, was won by Shahrukhkhan Chavada’s “Kayo Kayo Colour?” Dominic Sangma’s Locarno title “Rimdogittanga” (“Rapture”) won the Netpac Award.
- 11/4/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Singaporean writer-director Nicole Midori Woodford is on a roll with her debut feature, Last Shadow At First Light, which premiered in New Directors at San Sebastian film festival and has two nominations at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSAs) for best screenplay and best performance (Mihaya Shirata).
Filmed in Singapore and Japan, the film follows a Singaporean teenage girl with a special connection to the spiritual world who goes on a road trip to uncover the mystery of her Japanese mother’s supposed death. She has been told her mother died by suicide during the recovery effort following the Japan 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed her maternal grandparents. But she doesn’t believe this to be true.
Meeting up with an uncle in Tokyo, they travel together to a town that was swept away by the tsunami although her uncle is more interested in the local pachinko parlour than helping with the quest.
Filmed in Singapore and Japan, the film follows a Singaporean teenage girl with a special connection to the spiritual world who goes on a road trip to uncover the mystery of her Japanese mother’s supposed death. She has been told her mother died by suicide during the recovery effort following the Japan 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed her maternal grandparents. But she doesn’t believe this to be true.
Meeting up with an uncle in Tokyo, they travel together to a town that was swept away by the tsunami although her uncle is more interested in the local pachinko parlour than helping with the quest.
- 11/2/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
Noah Pritzker’s San Sebastian competition feature ‘Ex-Husbands’ stars Griffin Dunne and James Norton
Luxbox has picked up international sales rights to Noah Pritzker’s San Sebastian competition feature Ex-Husbands and has sold the film to Avalon in Spain and September Films in Benelux.
UTA is handling North American rights for Pritzker’s second feature about three generations of men in the same family simultaneously experiencing marital disappointment.
Griffin Dunne stars as a man floundering after his father (Richard Benjamin) leaves his mother after 65 years of marriage and his own wife (Rosanna Arquette) leaves him after thirty-five. With the wedding...
Luxbox has picked up international sales rights to Noah Pritzker’s San Sebastian competition feature Ex-Husbands and has sold the film to Avalon in Spain and September Films in Benelux.
UTA is handling North American rights for Pritzker’s second feature about three generations of men in the same family simultaneously experiencing marital disappointment.
Griffin Dunne stars as a man floundering after his father (Richard Benjamin) leaves his mother after 65 years of marriage and his own wife (Rosanna Arquette) leaves him after thirty-five. With the wedding...
- 10/9/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
The Golden Shell winner at the San Sebastián––the Basque film festival’s top prize––went to home-grown filmmaker Jaione Camborda for this absorbing and sensual Galician-language abortion drama The Rye Horn, an urgent film about women in a totalitarian environment that has potent echoes today.
It’s 1971 and the late stages of the Franco regime on an island off the northwest coast of Spain, the same Galicia region that provided the untamed landscapes of The Beasts and Olivier Laxe’s Fire Will Come. Maria, perhaps in her late 30s or early 40s, makes a living in this rustic part of the world picking shellfish, in touch with nature and the tactile world of her surroundings. But in this tight-knit community, she’s also an unofficial midwife, perhaps a symbol of how the centralized, male-led Spain of the regime has neglected this far-flung end of the country––only women protect women here.
It’s 1971 and the late stages of the Franco regime on an island off the northwest coast of Spain, the same Galicia region that provided the untamed landscapes of The Beasts and Olivier Laxe’s Fire Will Come. Maria, perhaps in her late 30s or early 40s, makes a living in this rustic part of the world picking shellfish, in touch with nature and the tactile world of her surroundings. But in this tight-knit community, she’s also an unofficial midwife, perhaps a symbol of how the centralized, male-led Spain of the regime has neglected this far-flung end of the country––only women protect women here.
- 10/4/2023
- by Ed Frankl
- The Film Stage
It’s Friday, aka Insider Day. Jesse Whittock back again to run you through the international film and TV stories dominating the headlines this week.
BBC’s Social Media Guide
Steadying the flagship: Easily one of the BBC’s biggest ongoing headaches is around how the broadcaster’s most popular stars and presenters engage on social media platforms. The issue blasted back into life earlier this year when Match of the Day presenter and Twitter/X fanatic Gary Lineker tweeted to liken the language used by the British government around its asylum seeker policy to that of Germany in the 1930s and was temporarily suspended by the BBC. After an outcry over the suspension, which included many of Lineker’s colleagues stopping work in solidarity, he was reinstated and the BBC plunged into an existential crisis over how it remains impartial while allowing freedom of expression to its biggest stars.
BBC’s Social Media Guide
Steadying the flagship: Easily one of the BBC’s biggest ongoing headaches is around how the broadcaster’s most popular stars and presenters engage on social media platforms. The issue blasted back into life earlier this year when Match of the Day presenter and Twitter/X fanatic Gary Lineker tweeted to liken the language used by the British government around its asylum seeker policy to that of Germany in the 1930s and was temporarily suspended by the BBC. After an outcry over the suspension, which included many of Lineker’s colleagues stopping work in solidarity, he was reinstated and the BBC plunged into an existential crisis over how it remains impartial while allowing freedom of expression to its biggest stars.
- 9/29/2023
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
Clearly the Covid-19 scenario’s been on Cristi Puiu’s mind. After all, the Romanian director loudly voiced his opposition to mask mandates when on the publicity trail of his previous outing, the more impressive turn-of-the-century period drama Malmkrog. While his latest work is hardly a call-to-arms, Puiu is all-too-keen to bring up his disdain for bureaucracy, its concoction of corrupt officials and untrustworthy political leadership that brings forth the societal (or personal) fragility at the heart of his films. Mmxx‘s four pandemic vignettes mark alluring, somewhat wayward film that’s in turns provocative and frustratingly opaque.
The medley of pandemic anecdotes are a psychotherapy session helmed by Oana (Bianca Cuculici), whose questioning of a new patient appears to reveal more her own discomforts than the person she’s treating; a nighttime scene in which Oana’s brother (Laurențiu Bondarenco) prepares a party, interrupted by a medical emergency involving...
The medley of pandemic anecdotes are a psychotherapy session helmed by Oana (Bianca Cuculici), whose questioning of a new patient appears to reveal more her own discomforts than the person she’s treating; a nighttime scene in which Oana’s brother (Laurențiu Bondarenco) prepares a party, interrupted by a medical emergency involving...
- 9/28/2023
- by Ed Frankl
- The Film Stage
Matteo Garrone’s talent for weaving stories out of the fabric of real events––especially those involving desperate or violent people––gets another airing in Io Capitano, an engrossing, visceral portrait of one young man’s brutal journey from Senegal to the coast of Italy. The director won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2008 for Gomorrah, his defining, excoriating portrait of the Camorra crime syndicate, and he performed the trick again ten years later in Dogman, inspired by a gruesome gangland murder in Rome. He’s also had success in comedies (Reality) and fantasy (Tale of Tales), but his new film is an epic embracing the defining issue of Italian politics right now––the flow of refugees crossing the Mediterranean heading for Europe––making a potentially abstract, no-less-urgent topic tactile and approachable.
The migrant crisis is having a moment this year in European cinema, with Agnieszka Holland’s recent Green Border,...
The migrant crisis is having a moment this year in European cinema, with Agnieszka Holland’s recent Green Border,...
- 9/27/2023
- by Ed Frankl
- The Film Stage
Isabel Coixet recounts that she vowed to never to do another literary adaptation after her 2017 English-language feature The Bookshop based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s critically acclaimed 1978 novel of the same name.
Then the Spanish director read compatriot writer Sara Mesa’s dark 2021 novel Un Amor at the tail-end of the pandemic.
The unsettling work follows troubled translator Nat who quits life in the city for a dilapidated, leaky house in a remote village in Spain’s depopulated rural interior.
It is not exactly clear what prompted the move but she appears to be suffering from some sort of vicarious post-traumatic stress disorder connected to the harrowing refugee accounts she translates for her job.
A figure of curiosity as a lone woman, Nat lives as an outsider and then embarks on an unexpected and inexplicable passionate affair with a local social outcast.
“Sara Mesa is one of the most powerful voices in young Spanish literature.
Then the Spanish director read compatriot writer Sara Mesa’s dark 2021 novel Un Amor at the tail-end of the pandemic.
The unsettling work follows troubled translator Nat who quits life in the city for a dilapidated, leaky house in a remote village in Spain’s depopulated rural interior.
It is not exactly clear what prompted the move but she appears to be suffering from some sort of vicarious post-traumatic stress disorder connected to the harrowing refugee accounts she translates for her job.
A figure of curiosity as a lone woman, Nat lives as an outsider and then embarks on an unexpected and inexplicable passionate affair with a local social outcast.
“Sara Mesa is one of the most powerful voices in young Spanish literature.
- 9/26/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
J.A. Bayona was given a homecoming hero’s welcome at the San Sebastian Film Festival over the weekend as he touched down for the Spanish premiere of air crash survival drama Society Of The Snow.
The drama – recounting the experiences of the Uruguay rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes mountains in Argentina in 1972 – was the closing film of Venice but in many ways its San Sebastian outing was a more momentous affair.
The screening came just three days after the film was announced as Spain’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy awards. The picture is Bayona’s first Spanish-language film since the 2007 title The Orphanage, which also represented Spain.
The director was given a rapturous reception on Friday night as he took to the stage in the company of one of the survivors Gustavo Zerbino. He was then feted over the weekend by...
The drama – recounting the experiences of the Uruguay rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes mountains in Argentina in 1972 – was the closing film of Venice but in many ways its San Sebastian outing was a more momentous affair.
The screening came just three days after the film was announced as Spain’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy awards. The picture is Bayona’s first Spanish-language film since the 2007 title The Orphanage, which also represented Spain.
The director was given a rapturous reception on Friday night as he took to the stage in the company of one of the survivors Gustavo Zerbino. He was then feted over the weekend by...
- 9/25/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Neo Sora’s concert documentary “Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus,” a standout at the Venice Film Festival, has sold for theatrical distribution in North America to Janus Films ahead of its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival.
The theatrical release will be followed by a Blu-ray Disc release on the “Janus Contemporaries” label.
This is the latest deal inked by London and Paris-based production, finance and sales outfit Film Constellation, following a slew of sales to Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Midas Filmes), Germany and Austria (Rapid Eye), Scandinavia (NjutaFilms), Baltics (Kino Pavasaris), South Korea (Media Castle), China (Jl Vision Films), Hong Kong and Macau (Edko Films), Taiwan (Cai Chang) and Singapore (Anticipate Pictures). Bitters End will release the film in Japan in 2024.
On March 28, 2023, legendary composer Sakamoto Ryuichi died after his struggle against cancer. In the years leading up to his death, Sakamoto could no longer perform live. Single concerts,...
The theatrical release will be followed by a Blu-ray Disc release on the “Janus Contemporaries” label.
This is the latest deal inked by London and Paris-based production, finance and sales outfit Film Constellation, following a slew of sales to Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Midas Filmes), Germany and Austria (Rapid Eye), Scandinavia (NjutaFilms), Baltics (Kino Pavasaris), South Korea (Media Castle), China (Jl Vision Films), Hong Kong and Macau (Edko Films), Taiwan (Cai Chang) and Singapore (Anticipate Pictures). Bitters End will release the film in Japan in 2024.
On March 28, 2023, legendary composer Sakamoto Ryuichi died after his struggle against cancer. In the years leading up to his death, Sakamoto could no longer perform live. Single concerts,...
- 9/25/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
“All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt” director Raven Jackson is taking her time.
“I’m interested in patience,” she says ahead of her feature debut’s San Sebastian screening, following the Sundance premiere earlier this year.
“I am interested in slow cinema, even though in the U.S. it’s not as prominent. When I was in the edit [with Lee Chatametikool], I knew that many audience members are not used to such a pace. But that challenge excited me.”
“My short ‘Nettles’ took its time too, but I wonder to what degree it will continue with my next feature. There’s no world where it makes sense for a hug to last 15 seconds [like in ‘All Dirt Roads’] and I’m not sure if every one of my films will ask for such patience. If they do, I’m going to give it to them.”
In the A24 release “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt” – produced by Maria Altamirano,...
“I’m interested in patience,” she says ahead of her feature debut’s San Sebastian screening, following the Sundance premiere earlier this year.
“I am interested in slow cinema, even though in the U.S. it’s not as prominent. When I was in the edit [with Lee Chatametikool], I knew that many audience members are not used to such a pace. But that challenge excited me.”
“My short ‘Nettles’ took its time too, but I wonder to what degree it will continue with my next feature. There’s no world where it makes sense for a hug to last 15 seconds [like in ‘All Dirt Roads’] and I’m not sure if every one of my films will ask for such patience. If they do, I’m going to give it to them.”
In the A24 release “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt” – produced by Maria Altamirano,...
- 9/23/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
San Sebastian’s pix-in-post showcases have often launched standout movies, such as Sebastian Lelio’s “Gloria,” winner of the Films in Progress Award at the 2012 edition, plus notable directors, such as Jayro Bustamante, whose praised debut “Ixcanul” played at the festival in rough cut in 2015 before winning the Alfred Bauer prize for innovation at 2016’s Berlinale, breaking out handsome sales.
San Sebastian’s 2023 Co-Production Forum registers two trends: Films that are genre pics or enrol genre tropes or genre blend; an exploration of identity.
Thus year’s San Sebastian Wip Latam skews in another direction. “The films and stories are very grounded in reality, either by there hybrid formal move between fiction and non-fiction, their singular take on daily matters or the very social issues they address,” Javier Martín, San Sebastian Latin American delegate, told LatAmCinema.com.
Yet genre surfaces in disparate ways: the mix of coming of age, apocalypse...
San Sebastian’s 2023 Co-Production Forum registers two trends: Films that are genre pics or enrol genre tropes or genre blend; an exploration of identity.
Thus year’s San Sebastian Wip Latam skews in another direction. “The films and stories are very grounded in reality, either by there hybrid formal move between fiction and non-fiction, their singular take on daily matters or the very social issues they address,” Javier Martín, San Sebastian Latin American delegate, told LatAmCinema.com.
Yet genre surfaces in disparate ways: the mix of coming of age, apocalypse...
- 9/23/2023
- by Emiliano De Pablos and John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Third edition of talent showcase to be unveiled at the start of the San Sebastian Film Festival on September 22.
The 2023 line-up of Spain Stars of Tomorrow, part of Screen International’s prestigious talent-spotting series, will be unveiled at the San Sebastian Film Festival on September 22.
A launch event will take place during the festival on September 26 to introduce the 10 rising actors and filmmakers with the potential for breakout international careers to the industry.
The third edition of Spain Stars welcomes the Spain Film Commission as headline partner, and the San Sebastian Film Festival as supporting partner.
A dedicated Spain Stars...
The 2023 line-up of Spain Stars of Tomorrow, part of Screen International’s prestigious talent-spotting series, will be unveiled at the San Sebastian Film Festival on September 22.
A launch event will take place during the festival on September 26 to introduce the 10 rising actors and filmmakers with the potential for breakout international careers to the industry.
The third edition of Spain Stars welcomes the Spain Film Commission as headline partner, and the San Sebastian Film Festival as supporting partner.
A dedicated Spain Stars...
- 9/14/2023
- by Elisabet Cabeza
- ScreenDaily
’No Me Llame Ternera’ features interview with a former leader of the Basque terrorist group Eta.
The San Sebastian Film Festival has rejected public calls for it to withdraw a Netflix documentary from its line-up that features an exclusive interview with a former leader of Basque terrorist group Eta.
Directed by Jordi Évole and Màrius Sánchez, No Me Llame Ternera is set to open the festival’s Made in Spain section on September 22.
The documentary explores some of Eta’s decisive moments until it disbanded in 2018, and has an interview between Évole and Josu Urrutikoetxea, also known as Josu Ternera,...
The San Sebastian Film Festival has rejected public calls for it to withdraw a Netflix documentary from its line-up that features an exclusive interview with a former leader of Basque terrorist group Eta.
Directed by Jordi Évole and Màrius Sánchez, No Me Llame Ternera is set to open the festival’s Made in Spain section on September 22.
The documentary explores some of Eta’s decisive moments until it disbanded in 2018, and has an interview between Évole and Josu Urrutikoetxea, also known as Josu Ternera,...
- 9/13/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
San Sebastian Fetes Veteran Director Victor Erice
Veteran director Víctor Erice will be honored with the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Donostia Award at its upcoming 71st edition, running from September 22 to 30. Actress Ana Torrent will present the Basque filmmaker with the prize at a ceremony on September 29, preceding a screening of his new film Close Your Eyes. The tribute coincides with the 50th anniversary of Erice winning San Sebastian’s top Golden Shell award for first solo feature The Spirit of the Beehive. Torrent made her big screen debut at the age of seven years old in the film and recently reunited with him in Close Your Eyes. San Sebastian has accompanied Erice across his career. Prior The Spirit of the Beehive, his 1969 directorial debut Los Desafíos, co-directed with José Luis Egea and Claudio Guerín, was selected for Official Selection and received the Silver Shell for Best Director. His...
Veteran director Víctor Erice will be honored with the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Donostia Award at its upcoming 71st edition, running from September 22 to 30. Actress Ana Torrent will present the Basque filmmaker with the prize at a ceremony on September 29, preceding a screening of his new film Close Your Eyes. The tribute coincides with the 50th anniversary of Erice winning San Sebastian’s top Golden Shell award for first solo feature The Spirit of the Beehive. Torrent made her big screen debut at the age of seven years old in the film and recently reunited with him in Close Your Eyes. San Sebastian has accompanied Erice across his career. Prior The Spirit of the Beehive, his 1969 directorial debut Los Desafíos, co-directed with José Luis Egea and Claudio Guerín, was selected for Official Selection and received the Silver Shell for Best Director. His...
- 8/22/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
UK director James Marsh’s literary biopic Dance First, starring Gabriel Byrne as iconic Irish writer Samuel Beckett, will close the 71st San Sebastian Film Festival.
The film is sold by London and Paris-based Film Constellation.
As per its synopsis, the biopic touches on various phases in Beckett’s life from “Parisian bon vivant, to World War II Resistance fighter, Nobel Prize-winning playwright, philandering husband and recluse.”
Its focus, however, is on Beckett’s reaction to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, which was a turning point in his life as he grappled with his own inner demons.
Byrne is joined in the cast by French actress Sandrine Bonnaire as Beckett’s wife.
Marsh has a long relationship with San Sebastian.
His Academy Award-winning documentary for Man on Wire (2009), directed with Simon Chinn, played at the festival in 2008.
Prior to that his early work Wisconsin Death Trip screened in...
The film is sold by London and Paris-based Film Constellation.
As per its synopsis, the biopic touches on various phases in Beckett’s life from “Parisian bon vivant, to World War II Resistance fighter, Nobel Prize-winning playwright, philandering husband and recluse.”
Its focus, however, is on Beckett’s reaction to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, which was a turning point in his life as he grappled with his own inner demons.
Byrne is joined in the cast by French actress Sandrine Bonnaire as Beckett’s wife.
Marsh has a long relationship with San Sebastian.
His Academy Award-winning documentary for Man on Wire (2009), directed with Simon Chinn, played at the festival in 2008.
Prior to that his early work Wisconsin Death Trip screened in...
- 8/21/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
San Sebastian Festival to Screen ‘May December,’ ‘Zone of Interest,’ ‘Past Lives’ in Best-of Sidebar
The San Sebastian film festival has again selected top picks of this year’s festival season for its Perlak sidebar, which screens recent, critically acclaimed movies that have not yet been released in Spain.
The 2023 Perlak lineup, unveiled Friday, includes Celine Song’s Sundance hit Past Lives and Maite Alberdi’s Grand Jury winning documentary The Eternal Memory, Christian Petzold’s Berlin breakout Afire and the Cannes sensations The Zone of Interest from Jonathan Glazer, Todd Haynes’s May December, Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy, Monster from Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall.
Les indésirables, the latest social drama from French director Ladj Ly (Les Misérables), which premieres in Toronto next month, will close the Perlak section, screening out of competition. Another Toronto-bound feature, Dumb Money, also made the Perlak cut. The...
The 2023 Perlak lineup, unveiled Friday, includes Celine Song’s Sundance hit Past Lives and Maite Alberdi’s Grand Jury winning documentary The Eternal Memory, Christian Petzold’s Berlin breakout Afire and the Cannes sensations The Zone of Interest from Jonathan Glazer, Todd Haynes’s May December, Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy, Monster from Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall.
Les indésirables, the latest social drama from French director Ladj Ly (Les Misérables), which premieres in Toronto next month, will close the Perlak section, screening out of competition. Another Toronto-bound feature, Dumb Money, also made the Perlak cut. The...
- 8/18/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, The Boy and the Heron, has a busy schedule for September. The hand-drawn animated feature, which was released in theaters in Japan on July 14, will open the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 7 and then, just two weeks later, will kick off San Sebastian Festival, opening the 71st edition of the famed Spanish festival Sept. 22.
The movie will screen out of competition at San Sebastian, unspooling at the Kursaal Auditorium after the opening gala.
Producers Studio Ghibli have described the film as “a grand fantasy” loosely inspired by Japanese author Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 novel How Do You Live?, a coming-of-age story about the emotional and philosophical development of a young boy after the death of his father. But they have been uncharacteristically secretive about the movie’s content. Ghibli took the unprecedented step of doing no marketing in Japan for the film, releasing no trailers and no plot summary,...
The movie will screen out of competition at San Sebastian, unspooling at the Kursaal Auditorium after the opening gala.
Producers Studio Ghibli have described the film as “a grand fantasy” loosely inspired by Japanese author Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 novel How Do You Live?, a coming-of-age story about the emotional and philosophical development of a young boy after the death of his father. But they have been uncharacteristically secretive about the movie’s content. Ghibli took the unprecedented step of doing no marketing in Japan for the film, releasing no trailers and no plot summary,...
- 8/17/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Boy And The Heron Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film The Boy And The Heron (Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka) will have its European premiere as the opening night film of San Sebastian Film Festival on September 22.
The animation - which has been described as "a grand fantasy" by Studio Ghibli and which is loosely based on Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 coming-of-age novel How Do You Live? - will also open Toronto Film Festival earlier in the month.
Miyazaki founded Studio Ghibli with Isao Takahata in 1985 and has gone on to direct critically acclaimed animations including My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, which was Oscar nominated. He also received an Oscar nod for his 2013 feature The Wind Rises, which screened at the festival. San Sebastian has also shown Spirited Away and Ponyo. His latest film will screen out of competition....
The animation - which has been described as "a grand fantasy" by Studio Ghibli and which is loosely based on Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 coming-of-age novel How Do You Live? - will also open Toronto Film Festival earlier in the month.
Miyazaki founded Studio Ghibli with Isao Takahata in 1985 and has gone on to direct critically acclaimed animations including My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, which was Oscar nominated. He also received an Oscar nod for his 2013 feature The Wind Rises, which screened at the festival. San Sebastian has also shown Spirited Away and Ponyo. His latest film will screen out of competition....
- 8/17/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Fifteen projects have been selected for the forum, seven from first or second-time directors.
Juan Pablo González and Sergio Castro San Martín are among the filmmakers returning for San Sebastian’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production forum, which runs from September 25-27.
Mexican filmmaker González is back with Agua Caliente after his first work Dos Estaciones went on to win the best acting award for lead actor Teresa Sánchez in the world cinema dramatic competition at Sundance, following its participation in the forum in 2019 and Wip Latam in 2022. Agua Caliente is co-directed with Ana Isabel Fernández de Alba.
Scroll down for the...
Juan Pablo González and Sergio Castro San Martín are among the filmmakers returning for San Sebastian’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production forum, which runs from September 25-27.
Mexican filmmaker González is back with Agua Caliente after his first work Dos Estaciones went on to win the best acting award for lead actor Teresa Sánchez in the world cinema dramatic competition at Sundance, following its participation in the forum in 2019 and Wip Latam in 2022. Agua Caliente is co-directed with Ana Isabel Fernández de Alba.
Scroll down for the...
- 8/14/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Multi-prized Latin American directors Federico Veiroj, Theo Court, Alicia Scherson and Daniel Hendler head a muscular project lineup at September’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, the Spanish festival’s industry centerpiece which underscores this year a welling sea-change in the region’s filmmaking.
“The Moneychanger,” the latest film from Uruguay’s Veiroj, was selected for Toronto’s 2019 Platform; “White on White,” from Chile’s Court, won a best director Silver Lion at 2019’s Venice Horizons; Chile’s Alicia Scherson’s debut “Play” snagged new narrative director at Tribeca in 2005: multi-hyphenate Hendler, from Uruguay, scooped best director at Miami for “The Candidate” in 2017.
Also making the cut are Mexico’s Juan Pablo González and Ana Isabel Fernández, director and co-writer of 2022 Sundance Special Jury Prize winner “Dos Estaciones.” Ezequiel Yanco’s “La vida en común” took best documentary at the Biarritz Latin American Festival in 2019.
Mixing top cineasts...
“The Moneychanger,” the latest film from Uruguay’s Veiroj, was selected for Toronto’s 2019 Platform; “White on White,” from Chile’s Court, won a best director Silver Lion at 2019’s Venice Horizons; Chile’s Alicia Scherson’s debut “Play” snagged new narrative director at Tribeca in 2005: multi-hyphenate Hendler, from Uruguay, scooped best director at Miami for “The Candidate” in 2017.
Also making the cut are Mexico’s Juan Pablo González and Ana Isabel Fernández, director and co-writer of 2022 Sundance Special Jury Prize winner “Dos Estaciones.” Ezequiel Yanco’s “La vida en común” took best documentary at the Biarritz Latin American Festival in 2019.
Mixing top cineasts...
- 8/14/2023
- by John Hopewell and Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
‘Love Is A Gun’ set to play in competition in Critics’ Week at Venice.
Chinese sales agent Parallax Films has boarded actor Lee Hong-Chi’s directorial debut Love Is A Gun, ahead of its premiere at Venice, and Liang Ming’s Carefree Days, the opening film of San Sebastian’s New Directors strand.
Love Is A Gun, also starring and written by Lee, follows a young man who is determined to start afresh after getting out of jail, but his turbulent past comes back to haunt him, including a gun of which he cannot get rid.
It will premiere in...
Chinese sales agent Parallax Films has boarded actor Lee Hong-Chi’s directorial debut Love Is A Gun, ahead of its premiere at Venice, and Liang Ming’s Carefree Days, the opening film of San Sebastian’s New Directors strand.
Love Is A Gun, also starring and written by Lee, follows a young man who is determined to start afresh after getting out of jail, but his turbulent past comes back to haunt him, including a gun of which he cannot get rid.
It will premiere in...
- 8/11/2023
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
Argentine director Paula Hernández’s “The Ravaging Wind,” toplined by Latin American star Alfredo Castro, will be the opening night film of Horizontes Latinos sidebar at the 71st edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival, which runs Sept. 22-30.
Carolina Markowicz’s “Toll,” whose producers include Brazilian giant Globo Filmes, will close the section, one of the biggest examples of San Sebastian’s long-term commitment to Latin American cinema.
In total, Horizontes will present this year 12 stories, set in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Brazil.
Traditionally, the sidebar showcases feature films not yet released in Spain, either totally or partially produced in Latin America directed by Latino filmmakers or which are set against the backdrop or subject of Latino communities in the rest of the world.
The contenders list of the 2023 edition takes in two films who walked off with prizes at San Sebastian’s Latin American Work In Progress initiative...
Carolina Markowicz’s “Toll,” whose producers include Brazilian giant Globo Filmes, will close the section, one of the biggest examples of San Sebastian’s long-term commitment to Latin American cinema.
In total, Horizontes will present this year 12 stories, set in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Brazil.
Traditionally, the sidebar showcases feature films not yet released in Spain, either totally or partially produced in Latin America directed by Latino filmmakers or which are set against the backdrop or subject of Latino communities in the rest of the world.
The contenders list of the 2023 edition takes in two films who walked off with prizes at San Sebastian’s Latin American Work In Progress initiative...
- 8/7/2023
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
The San Sebastian Film Festival is shining the light on female filmmakers from across Latin America with the lineup for its Horizontes Latinos sidebar section. Eight of the 12 features in this year’s program, which San Sebastian unveiled on Thursday, are from female directors, including A Ravaging Wind from Argentine filmmaker Paula Hernández, which will open the section. All 12 films come from directors of Latino origin and were entirely or partially produced in Latin America but have not yet been released in Spain.
A Ravaging Wind is Hernández’s adaptation of Selva Almada’s novel of the same name and follows the story of a preacher and his daughter whose car breaks down during their latest mission to spread the gospel. Hernández’s 2019 feature The Sleepwalkers also screened in San Sebastian’s Horizontes Latinos sidebar.
Also returning to Horizontes Latinos are Tatiana Huezo (2021’s Prayers for the Stolen), who will...
A Ravaging Wind is Hernández’s adaptation of Selva Almada’s novel of the same name and follows the story of a preacher and his daughter whose car breaks down during their latest mission to spread the gospel. Hernández’s 2019 feature The Sleepwalkers also screened in San Sebastian’s Horizontes Latinos sidebar.
Also returning to Horizontes Latinos are Tatiana Huezo (2021’s Prayers for the Stolen), who will...
- 8/3/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The line-up includes Niclas Larsson’s Mother, Couch! starring Ewan McGregor, Taylor Russell and Ellen Burstyn
San Sebastian International Film Festival has unveiled the 11 first and second features competing for the New Directors award.
Among the selection is Niclas Larsson’s Mother, Couch! starring Ewan McGregor, Taylor Russell and Ellen Burstyn. The film is a co-production between the US, Sweden and Denmark and sees three estranged siblings brought back together by their mother’s bizarre behaviour.
The strand will open with Miang Ling’s second film Carefree Days which follows a 25-year-old woman with a terminal illness who embarks on...
San Sebastian International Film Festival has unveiled the 11 first and second features competing for the New Directors award.
Among the selection is Niclas Larsson’s Mother, Couch! starring Ewan McGregor, Taylor Russell and Ellen Burstyn. The film is a co-production between the US, Sweden and Denmark and sees three estranged siblings brought back together by their mother’s bizarre behaviour.
The strand will open with Miang Ling’s second film Carefree Days which follows a 25-year-old woman with a terminal illness who embarks on...
- 7/27/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Swedish pic Mother, Couch! starring Taylor Russell and Ewan McGregor alongside Ellen Burstyn is one of the titles San Sebastian has set to compete for its New Directors award during its 71st edition, running September 22 — 30.
The film is from the debut feature filmmaker Niclas Larsson and follows three estranged children who are brought together when their mother refuses to move from a couch in a furniture store. The previously unannounced film is a US – Danish – Swedish co-production. Unlike the other titles announced today, the mystery project had no accompanying image.
Eleven productions from nineteen countries will compete for San Sebastian’s Kutxabank-New Directors Award. Of all the selected movies, seven are debut works, while the rest are second features. The Kutxabank-New Directors Award comes with a 50,000 euro cash prize divided equally between the director and the distributor of the film in Spain. Films in the New Directors section are also...
The film is from the debut feature filmmaker Niclas Larsson and follows three estranged children who are brought together when their mother refuses to move from a couch in a furniture store. The previously unannounced film is a US – Danish – Swedish co-production. Unlike the other titles announced today, the mystery project had no accompanying image.
Eleven productions from nineteen countries will compete for San Sebastian’s Kutxabank-New Directors Award. Of all the selected movies, seven are debut works, while the rest are second features. The Kutxabank-New Directors Award comes with a 50,000 euro cash prize divided equally between the director and the distributor of the film in Spain. Films in the New Directors section are also...
- 7/27/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Taylor Russell, Ewan McGregor Title ‘Mother, Couch!’ to Bow at San Sebastian’s New Directors Sidebar
Starring “Bones and All’s” Taylor Russell, Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn, “Mother, Couch!” the feature debut of Sweden’s Niclas Larsson, features in a currently 11-title lineup of San Sebastian’s 2023 New Directors section, the most important sidebar at the highest-profile movie event in the Spanish-speaking world.
Notable in Trey Edward Shults’ raved-reviewed debut “Waves,” Russell stars in “Mother, Couch,” billed as dark dramedy that, produced by Lyrical Media and Suris/Bishop Films, has largely flown under the radar. Though “Mother, Couch!” Is his feature debut, Larsson is a high-profile short filmmaker, his Vatten (2013) earned the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Göteborg, and 2015’s “The Magic Dinner” starred Alicia Vikander and Anna Wintour.
Section’s other highest-profile title is supernatural art house drama “Last Shadow at First Light,” shot between Singapore and Japan and directed by Nicole Midori and described by Variety as examining “the intangible nature...
Notable in Trey Edward Shults’ raved-reviewed debut “Waves,” Russell stars in “Mother, Couch,” billed as dark dramedy that, produced by Lyrical Media and Suris/Bishop Films, has largely flown under the radar. Though “Mother, Couch!” Is his feature debut, Larsson is a high-profile short filmmaker, his Vatten (2013) earned the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Göteborg, and 2015’s “The Magic Dinner” starred Alicia Vikander and Anna Wintour.
Section’s other highest-profile title is supernatural art house drama “Last Shadow at First Light,” shot between Singapore and Japan and directed by Nicole Midori and described by Variety as examining “the intangible nature...
- 7/27/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Spain’s San Sebastian film festival unveiled its first group of competition titles Friday, naming a typically eclectic mix of established art house favorites — Cristi Puiu, Joachim Lafosse, Robin Campillo — and rising talents, including Maria Alche, Benjamín Naishtat and American debutant Raven Jackson whose first feature, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, will be competing for San Sebastian’s Golden Shell this year.
Produced by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is described as a lyrical exploration of the life of a Black woman in Mississippi and stars The Woman King‘s Sheila Atim.
A second American title, the comedy Ex-Husbands from director Noah Pritzker (Quitters), also made the San Sebastian cut. Rosanna Arquette, Griffin Dunne, Miles Heizer, James Norton and Eisa Davis are part of the ensemble cast in a story focused on a father (Dunne) overwhelmed by the twin crises of an impending divorce...
Produced by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is described as a lyrical exploration of the life of a Black woman in Mississippi and stars The Woman King‘s Sheila Atim.
A second American title, the comedy Ex-Husbands from director Noah Pritzker (Quitters), also made the San Sebastian cut. Rosanna Arquette, Griffin Dunne, Miles Heizer, James Norton and Eisa Davis are part of the ensemble cast in a story focused on a father (Dunne) overwhelmed by the twin crises of an impending divorce...
- 7/7/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Javier Bardem is the first recipient of San Sebastian’s prestigious Donostia Award for this year’s 71st edition.
He will accept the prize, San Sebastian’s highest accolade, granted for career achievement, at the festival’s opening gala on September 22. His image will also feature on the poster of this year’s edition, unveiled today in San Sebastian.
The only surprise about Bardem’s Donostia Award is that it hasn’t come earlier. A rugby player for Spain’s national team, Bardem first came to fame as a local village hulk playing opposite his now spouse Penélope Cruz in Bigas Luna’s 1992 flamboyant social critique “Jamón, Jamón.”
Bardem wanted, however, to be an actor, not a sex symbol. Refusing to be typecast, his full international breakthrough came in 2000 thanks to a tearaway performance as gay Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in Julian Schnabel’s “Before Night Falls,” and in Spain,...
He will accept the prize, San Sebastian’s highest accolade, granted for career achievement, at the festival’s opening gala on September 22. His image will also feature on the poster of this year’s edition, unveiled today in San Sebastian.
The only surprise about Bardem’s Donostia Award is that it hasn’t come earlier. A rugby player for Spain’s national team, Bardem first came to fame as a local village hulk playing opposite his now spouse Penélope Cruz in Bigas Luna’s 1992 flamboyant social critique “Jamón, Jamón.”
Bardem wanted, however, to be an actor, not a sex symbol. Refusing to be typecast, his full international breakthrough came in 2000 thanks to a tearaway performance as gay Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in Julian Schnabel’s “Before Night Falls,” and in Spain,...
- 5/12/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Seven European film festivals have joined forces to launch an alliance called ’Smart7’.
Debut features by Austėja Urbaitė, Telmo Churro and Sebastian Mihailescu are among seven films selected by the ‘Smart7’ network of seven European film festivals for the first edition of its competitive section of films by emerging filmmakers.
The seven titles will be first shown together at the forthcoming Vilnius Iff (March 16-26), before being screened at IndieLisboa (April 27-May 7), Filmmadrid (June 6-11), Transilvania (June 9-18), New Horizons (July 21-31), Reykjavik (September 28 - October 8) and Thessaloniki (November).
A jury of university students from each country will decide on the winner of the €5,000 prize.
Debut features by Austėja Urbaitė, Telmo Churro and Sebastian Mihailescu are among seven films selected by the ‘Smart7’ network of seven European film festivals for the first edition of its competitive section of films by emerging filmmakers.
The seven titles will be first shown together at the forthcoming Vilnius Iff (March 16-26), before being screened at IndieLisboa (April 27-May 7), Filmmadrid (June 6-11), Transilvania (June 9-18), New Horizons (July 21-31), Reykjavik (September 28 - October 8) and Thessaloniki (November).
A jury of university students from each country will decide on the winner of the €5,000 prize.
- 3/6/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Laura Ferrés’ “The Permanent Picture” has been acquired by Be For Films. The deal is announced a fortnight before the film screens at Malaga Wip where it ranks as the most buzzed of the section’s titles.
The debut follows Ferrés success with short “The Disinherited,” which won the 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week Leica Cine Discovery Prize, in addition to grabbing Goya and Gaudi gongs. It depicts the director’s own father reluctantly facing the end of the family business.
“The Permanent Picture” is produced by Spain’s Fasten Films, in co-production with Le Bureau (France), and Volta Production (Spain).
Selected by Variety as a Spanish talent to track, Ferrés studied at Barcelona’s prestigious Escac film school. Part of the inspiration for this film, though it’s not autobiographical, stems from the director’s years working as a casting director in the advertising sector.
Ferrés wrote the film in collaboration...
The debut follows Ferrés success with short “The Disinherited,” which won the 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week Leica Cine Discovery Prize, in addition to grabbing Goya and Gaudi gongs. It depicts the director’s own father reluctantly facing the end of the family business.
“The Permanent Picture” is produced by Spain’s Fasten Films, in co-production with Le Bureau (France), and Volta Production (Spain).
Selected by Variety as a Spanish talent to track, Ferrés studied at Barcelona’s prestigious Escac film school. Part of the inspiration for this film, though it’s not autobiographical, stems from the director’s years working as a casting director in the advertising sector.
Ferrés wrote the film in collaboration...
- 2/28/2023
- by Callum McLennan
- Variety Film + TV
The slate showcases emerging Chilean and international filmmakers.
Chilean producer Giancarlo Nasi of Santiago and Los Angeles-based Quijote Films has revealed details of his international slate of Ibero-American productions, showcasing emerging Chilean and international filmmakers. Quijote is one of the five companies selected for the five-label Company Matching Programme at the EFM.
Rodrigo’s Susarte genre’s film Invunche, a co-production with Florencia Larrea’s Forastero Films, and Diego Céspedes’ feature debut The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo are both set to shoot this year.
Nasi is also producing his first doc feature Texas Soul Sisters, to be directed by France-South Africa filmmaker Pascal Lamche,...
Chilean producer Giancarlo Nasi of Santiago and Los Angeles-based Quijote Films has revealed details of his international slate of Ibero-American productions, showcasing emerging Chilean and international filmmakers. Quijote is one of the five companies selected for the five-label Company Matching Programme at the EFM.
Rodrigo’s Susarte genre’s film Invunche, a co-production with Florencia Larrea’s Forastero Films, and Diego Céspedes’ feature debut The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo are both set to shoot this year.
Nasi is also producing his first doc feature Texas Soul Sisters, to be directed by France-South Africa filmmaker Pascal Lamche,...
- 2/20/2023
- by Emilio Mayorga
- ScreenDaily
The drama has sold widely across Europe and Latin America.
UK sales outfit Reason8 has sealed key deals across Europe and Latin America on Mikel Gurrea’s San Sebastian award-winning drama Suro.
Screen Spain Star of Tomorrow Gurrea’s debut has sold for theatrical distribution to Tamasa Distribution for French-speaking Europe and J&j Films for Dutch-speaking Benelux.
Encripta acquired all rights for Latin America, while HBO Cee took pay TV and SVOD rights for Central and Eastern Europe, to air in June.
As previously announced, A Contracorriente Films has Spanish rights.
Suro stars Vicky Luengo and Paul Lopez and follows...
UK sales outfit Reason8 has sealed key deals across Europe and Latin America on Mikel Gurrea’s San Sebastian award-winning drama Suro.
Screen Spain Star of Tomorrow Gurrea’s debut has sold for theatrical distribution to Tamasa Distribution for French-speaking Europe and J&j Films for Dutch-speaking Benelux.
Encripta acquired all rights for Latin America, while HBO Cee took pay TV and SVOD rights for Central and Eastern Europe, to air in June.
As previously announced, A Contracorriente Films has Spanish rights.
Suro stars Vicky Luengo and Paul Lopez and follows...
- 2/16/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
The award comes with 38,000, making it one of the world’s largest film prizes.
Goteborg’s lucrative Dragon Award for best Nordic film has gone to Danish director Malou Reymann’s second feature Unruly.
The drama premiered at Toronto and had its Swedish premiere at Goteborg. TrustNordisk handles sales and the Danish cinema release is planned for spring 2023.
Reymann previously directed Rotterdam Big Screen winner A Perfectly Normal Family.
Unruly is about the Sprogø Women’s Institution in the 1930s, when “morally feeble” girls and women were sent to the island to become more compliant. The story focuses on Maren,...
Goteborg’s lucrative Dragon Award for best Nordic film has gone to Danish director Malou Reymann’s second feature Unruly.
The drama premiered at Toronto and had its Swedish premiere at Goteborg. TrustNordisk handles sales and the Danish cinema release is planned for spring 2023.
Reymann previously directed Rotterdam Big Screen winner A Perfectly Normal Family.
Unruly is about the Sprogø Women’s Institution in the 1930s, when “morally feeble” girls and women were sent to the island to become more compliant. The story focuses on Maren,...
- 2/6/2023
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Rotterdam Competition Title ‘Joram’ Addresses Enforced Development Malaise in Survival Thriller Form
Throughout his career, Indian filmmaker Devashish Makhija has been a chronicler of social inequities and “Joram” continues the trajectory.
Makhija’s short films examine subjects as varied as misogyny, corruption, land grab and patriarchy. Amongst his features, “Ajji” (2017) tackles rape and its aftermath, while “Bhonsle” (2018) looks at a host of subjects including loneliness, social justice and the plight of the migrant worker.
With “Joram,” Makhija returns to themes explored in his debut feature “Oonga” (2013). Eminent actor Manoj Bajpayee, who previously starred in Makhija’s 2016 short “Taandav” and played the title role in “Bhonsle,” plays Dasru, a tribal migrant worker in Mumbai whose past catches up with him and he must flee with his infant daughter Joram. Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub plays Ratnakar, the weary Mumbai cop in pursuit of Dasru. Also in the mix is sinister tribal lawmaker Phulo Karma, played by Smita Tambe (Netflix series “Sacred Games”).
Acclaimed actors Tannishtha Chatterjee...
Makhija’s short films examine subjects as varied as misogyny, corruption, land grab and patriarchy. Amongst his features, “Ajji” (2017) tackles rape and its aftermath, while “Bhonsle” (2018) looks at a host of subjects including loneliness, social justice and the plight of the migrant worker.
With “Joram,” Makhija returns to themes explored in his debut feature “Oonga” (2013). Eminent actor Manoj Bajpayee, who previously starred in Makhija’s 2016 short “Taandav” and played the title role in “Bhonsle,” plays Dasru, a tribal migrant worker in Mumbai whose past catches up with him and he must flee with his infant daughter Joram. Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub plays Ratnakar, the weary Mumbai cop in pursuit of Dasru. Also in the mix is sinister tribal lawmaker Phulo Karma, played by Smita Tambe (Netflix series “Sacred Games”).
Acclaimed actors Tannishtha Chatterjee...
- 1/30/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Carlota Pereda, director of Piggy, a Magnet release. Photo: Jorge Fuembuena. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.
One of the most talked-about films on the festival circuit this year and now screening as part of San Sebastian, Piggy (aka Cerdita) is, on the one hand, a thriller about a serial killer and, on the other, an absorbing character study focused on a teenager who is faced with a moral crisis. That teenager is Sara, played by Laura Galán. She has been bullied all her life because of her shape, and the stranger who kidnaps two of her classmates is one of the first people ever to show her kindness.
The film first took form as a short (with the same title), back in 2018. At that stage it was simply focused on Sara herself, and consisted of a single sequence which is replicated in the feature. In it, we see Sara visit...
One of the most talked-about films on the festival circuit this year and now screening as part of San Sebastian, Piggy (aka Cerdita) is, on the one hand, a thriller about a serial killer and, on the other, an absorbing character study focused on a teenager who is faced with a moral crisis. That teenager is Sara, played by Laura Galán. She has been bullied all her life because of her shape, and the stranger who kidnaps two of her classmates is one of the first people ever to show her kindness.
The film first took form as a short (with the same title), back in 2018. At that stage it was simply focused on Sara herself, and consisted of a single sequence which is replicated in the feature. In it, we see Sara visit...
- 9/21/2022
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The presence of Movistar Plus+, Spain’s biggest pay-tv/SVOD operator, is hard to ignore at this year’s San Sebastian film festival, with two original TV series and one feature film helmed by the streamer scattered throughout the program. The Telefonica-owned platform also had a hand in every Spanish feature in the festival’s Official Selection. Domingo Corral, director of original fiction at Movistar Plus+, caught up with Deadline at San Sebastian to discuss the company’s drive into original production, the current boom in local Spanish productions, and how he competes with global streamers like Netflix and HBO.
Deadline: Domingo, how’s business?
Domingo Corral: We are in very good shape. We are presenting two shows here in San Sebastian: Fácil and Offworld, which is part of the Official Section. It’s the only show that’s part of the festival’s Official Selection. And...
Deadline: Domingo, how’s business?
Domingo Corral: We are in very good shape. We are presenting two shows here in San Sebastian: Fácil and Offworld, which is part of the Official Section. It’s the only show that’s part of the festival’s Official Selection. And...
- 9/21/2022
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Playing in Official Selection at San Sebastian, the film is based on a novel Kawamura penned in 2019.
A Hundred Flowers, playing in Official Selection at San Sebastian, marks the first time Japan’s Genki Kawamura has sat in the director’s chair.
Kawamura is a familiar name to fans of recent Japanese cinema, having helped shepherd live-action films including Confessions and Parasyte, plus anime hits such as Your Name and Belle, to success as producer. He’s also an accomplished novelist; his debut novel If Cats Disappeared From The World has sold over two million copies worldwide.
A Hundred Flowers...
A Hundred Flowers, playing in Official Selection at San Sebastian, marks the first time Japan’s Genki Kawamura has sat in the director’s chair.
Kawamura is a familiar name to fans of recent Japanese cinema, having helped shepherd live-action films including Confessions and Parasyte, plus anime hits such as Your Name and Belle, to success as producer. He’s also an accomplished novelist; his debut novel If Cats Disappeared From The World has sold over two million copies worldwide.
A Hundred Flowers...
- 9/20/2022
- by Matt Schley
- ScreenDaily
Two Basque movies screen in San Sebastian main competition, multiple others, from ever more notable and noted filmmakers, play other sections or grace Basque showcase Zinemira. A drilldown:
“Blue Files” (“Karpeta Urdinak”, Ander Iriarte, Spain-France)
Iriarte directs a doc investigating his father’s potential torture while in police custody. The investigations take the doc deeper into findings from Basque’s “Research project on torture and ill-treatment in the Basque Country between 1960-2014.” Produced by Gastibeltza, Filmak, and Iriarte’s own Mirokutana.
“Bi Arnas,” (Jon Mikel Fernandez Elorz, Spain)
A debut documentary from Basque journalist and teacher Elorz. Bi Arnas, meaning “two breaths,” features mother Maria Nieves Diaz and her daughter, Iratxe Sorzabal, who was a former head of Eta. It explores the alleged use of torture of Sorzabal by Spanish Police while in custody.
“Black is Beltza II: Ainhoa,” (Fermin Muguruza)
The sequel to Muguruza’s 2018 animated feature, following Ainhoa,...
“Blue Files” (“Karpeta Urdinak”, Ander Iriarte, Spain-France)
Iriarte directs a doc investigating his father’s potential torture while in police custody. The investigations take the doc deeper into findings from Basque’s “Research project on torture and ill-treatment in the Basque Country between 1960-2014.” Produced by Gastibeltza, Filmak, and Iriarte’s own Mirokutana.
“Bi Arnas,” (Jon Mikel Fernandez Elorz, Spain)
A debut documentary from Basque journalist and teacher Elorz. Bi Arnas, meaning “two breaths,” features mother Maria Nieves Diaz and her daughter, Iratxe Sorzabal, who was a former head of Eta. It explores the alleged use of torture of Sorzabal by Spanish Police while in custody.
“Black is Beltza II: Ainhoa,” (Fermin Muguruza)
The sequel to Muguruza’s 2018 animated feature, following Ainhoa,...
- 9/20/2022
- by Callum McLennan and John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Ulrich Seidl is a director of curiosities, of shabby characters, pursued with an uncompromising and sometimes unfashionable gaze. Yet Sparta arrives in competition at the San Sebastian film festival at the head of considerable controversy not from its disturbing themes of pedophilia, but from incidents off-screen.
The Spanish event debuts the movie after the Toronto film festival scrapped its world premiere at the last minute in the fallout of allegations made in Germany’s Der Spiegel. The weekly magazine’s lengthy investigation said Seidl didn’t tell the underage cast and their guardians of the story’s themes and that he underprepared his mainly non-professional performers of the film’s nudity, alcoholism, and violence. Seidl denies the accusations, but canceled his appearance and the accompanying press conference in the Basque Country to support the film.
As to the charges against Sparta, on screen there is adult nudity in the space...
The Spanish event debuts the movie after the Toronto film festival scrapped its world premiere at the last minute in the fallout of allegations made in Germany’s Der Spiegel. The weekly magazine’s lengthy investigation said Seidl didn’t tell the underage cast and their guardians of the story’s themes and that he underprepared his mainly non-professional performers of the film’s nudity, alcoholism, and violence. Seidl denies the accusations, but canceled his appearance and the accompanying press conference in the Basque Country to support the film.
As to the charges against Sparta, on screen there is adult nudity in the space...
- 9/20/2022
- by Ed Frankl
- The Film Stage
Star Ana de Armas and director Andrew Dominik will attend.
Andrew Dominik’s Blonde will be the surprise film at this year’s edition of San Sebastian, following its world premiere at Venice.
The Marilyn Monroe biopic will screen on the festival’s closing night, Saturday (September 24), with the film’s lead Ana de Armas and Dominik in attendance.
Blonde is based on the book of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. It also stars Adrien Brody and Bobby Cannavale, and is produced by Plan B’s Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Brad Pitt, alongside Tracey Landon and Scott Robertson.
Andrew Dominik’s Blonde will be the surprise film at this year’s edition of San Sebastian, following its world premiere at Venice.
The Marilyn Monroe biopic will screen on the festival’s closing night, Saturday (September 24), with the film’s lead Ana de Armas and Dominik in attendance.
Blonde is based on the book of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. It also stars Adrien Brody and Bobby Cannavale, and is produced by Plan B’s Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Brad Pitt, alongside Tracey Landon and Scott Robertson.
- 9/19/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
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