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Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili, a mentor to the 10 young European filmmakers taking part in the Future Frames program at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival this year, urged young filmmakers to “create your own rules,” during a discussion at the Variety Lounge presented by Allwyn at the festival.

Kulumbegashvili said being the Future Frames mentor was “a very humbling experience, because not long ago I was also aspiring to make my first feature, and what happened and the experiences are still very fresh in my memory.”

Kulumbegashvili made her feature debut with “Beginning,” which won best film at San Sebastian in 2020, and followed that with “April,” which won the Special Jury Prize at Venice last year.

Sharing her advice about how to leap from shorts to features, she said, “I wanted everybody to know that it’s a very precious process, and no matter how anxious you are and how difficult it is,...

Exclusive: Independent Film Company has acquired North American rights to John-Michael Powell’s revenge thriller Violent Ends, which stars Billy Magnussen from No Time To Die and is being shopped by Upgrade to international buyers in Cannes.

Set in the Ozark Mountains, the film follows Lucas Frost, an honest man brought up in a crime family, who tries to live a peaceful life with his fiancée and is pulled back into the family business when his cousin carries out an armed robbery with brutal consequences.

The cast includes Alexandra Shipp from Barbie, Nick Stahl, James Badge Dale, Kate Burton, and Ray McKinnon.

At the Karlovy Vary Film Festival this week, the Future Frames program, which acts as a springboard for up-and-coming European directors, celebrated its 10th anniversary. During a panel discussion staged by Variety, organizers and backers of the program explained how Future Frames transforms the lives of young filmmakers.

Kicking off the discussion, Sonja Heinen, managing director of European Film Promotion, which organizes the initiative, explained that the 37 film institutes that are represented by Efp nominate up to two young filmmaker each. “These are outstanding people from their country,” she said. Then the programmers from Karlovy Vary select the 10 filmmakers who take part in the Future Frames program, and their short films screen at the festival.

While they are at the festival, the participants get to meet a range of industry professionals. “We can help them with their entrée into the international market, so we match-make them with producers, funds, sales...

Oscar-winning writer Christopher Hampton is in talks to write a screenplay with French director Anne Fontaine about iconic feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Nelson Algren’s transatlantic affair.

The playwright and screenwriter, who has won Oscars for The Father (2021) and Dangerous Liaisons (1989) and was also nominated for Atonement (2008), revealed he was in the early stages of the project during a masterclass at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event on Monday.

“We had an initial discussion followed by a more detailed discussion a week ago. I really want to do it,” he told Deadline in an interview after the talk.

De Beauvoir and Algren met in Chicago in 1947 and immediately embarked on a passionate affair that endured for more than 20 years in spite of the complications of transatlantic travel and communication at the time.

Paris-based intellectual de Beauvoir was in the midst of completing her seminal...

Film premiered at Tribeca Festival.

Vmi Worldwide has picked up international rights and launched talks at TIFF on Joachim Back’s dark comedy Corner Office starring Jon Hamm.

The film received its world premiere earlier this year at Tribeca Festival and follows Orson, a corporate employee trying to move up the ladder who discovers a secret room in his drab office building, which causes problems with his new colleagues.

Rounding out the cast are Danny Pudi, Sarah Gadon and Christopher Heyerdahl. Ted Kupper adapted the screenplay from Jonas Karlsson’s novel The Room.

Producer credits on the Kafkaesque tale are...

“Witch Hunt,” the genre thriller and 2021 SXSW Film Festival entry, has sold domestic rights to Momentum Pictures.

Gideon Adlon, Abigail Cowen and Elizabeth Mitchell star in the bleak tale of the last stop on an underground railroad of refugee witches hiding in a small U.S. border town to Mexico. As time passes, uneasiness turns into paranoia when authorities close in on a seemingly normal family sheltering the witches along their journeys to freedom. The project was written and directed by Elle Callahan.

Momentum, a subsidiary of Entertainment One, acquired the project from Defiant Studios. It was produced by Defiant’s Eric B. Fleischman and Maurice Fadida of Kodiak. Chris Abernathy was co-producer, with EP’s including Victor Shapiro, Raphael Swann and André Druskeit.

“We’re thrilled to bring the timely and relevant story of ‘Witch Hunt’ to audiences this fall. We were drawn to the fresh take on a classic tale,...

Exclusive: Gravitas Ventures has secured the North American rights to distribute Elyse, the directorial debut drama from Stella Hopkins starring her husband, Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins. Lisa Pepper, Aaron Tucker, Tara Arroyave, Fran Tucker, Anthony Apel, Julieta Oritiz, and Danny Jacobs also star in the film, which will get a theatrical and on-demand release on December 4.

Written by Stella, the drama follows the titular character (Pepper) who, in a psychotic blackout, commits vehicular manslaughter of her son and his nanny. Memory and hallucination intertwine to expose a history of trauma, revealing the truth: Elyse is Catatonic and institutionalized in a State Hospital. Her recovery is reliant on the dissolution of her marriage, the restoration of the relationship with her mother, and the mutual absolution with the nanny’s daughter, Carmen. It’s the care from Dr. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins) and the unconditional love from her nurse, David, that promise Elyse a new life.

UTA has promoted nine agents and five executives across seven divisions in Los Angeles, New York and London, the company announced on Monday. Tessie Lammle, James Masters, Daniel McCartney, Ron Perks, Angie Rance and Chris Visconti are now agents in Music, Lucas Barnes in Television Talent, John McGrath in Independent Film and Kristen Sena in Speakers. Allyson Chung and Ally Diamond are now executives in the UTA Foundation; Rachel Hall and Caroline Long in UTA Marketing and Brendan Mulroy in UTA Iq.

UTA also announced that twelve new coordinators have been named across its Los Angeles, New York and London offices in Music, Speakers, Fine Arts, Independent Film, Emerging Platforms, Video Games, Corporate Communications, Digital Talent and Brand Partnerships.

“We’re incredibly proud of this outstanding group of colleagues,” said UTA’s Co-President David Kramer. “Each of them personifies exceptional performance and commitment to client service. We’re especially pleased...

United Talent Agency has promoted nine agents and five executives across seven of their divisions in Los Angeles, New York and London.

Tessie Lammle, James Masters, Daniel McCartney, Ron Perks, Angie Rance, and Chris Visconti have been named music agents; Lucas Barnes has been appointed to television talent agent; John McGrath is now a independent film agent; and Kristen Sena will be an agent in the speakers bureau. Allyson Chung and Ally Diamond have been upped to executives in the UTA Foundation; Rachel Hall and Caroline Long in marketing; and Brendan Mulroy in the Iq division.

UTA also announced that 12 new coordinators have been named across its Los Angeles, New York and London offices in music, speakers, fine arts, independent film, emerging platforms, video games, corporate communications, digital talent and brand partnerships.

“We’re incredibly proud of this outstanding group of colleagues,” said UTA’s co-president David Kramer. “Each of...

UTA has promoted nine agents and five executives across seven divisions in Los Angeles, New York and London. The agency is also bringing aboard a dozen new coordinators in nine divisions in all three offices.

Tessie Lammle, James Masters, Daniel McCartney, Ron Perks, Angie Rance and Chris Visconti are now UTA agents in Music; Lucas Barnes in Television Talent; John McGrath in Independent Film; and Kristen Sena in Speakers.

Allyson Chung and Ally Diamond are now executives in the UTA Foundation; Rachel Hall and Caroline Long in UTA Marketing; and Brendan Mulroy in UTA Iq.

“We’re incredibly proud of this outstanding group of colleagues,” UTA co-president David Kramer said in a release Monday announcing the news. “Each of them personifies exceptional performance and commitment to client service. We’re especially pleased that the vast majority of our new agents and executives began their careers at UTA as assistants, which...