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Nearly 10 years after its launch, Italian sales company True Colours is branching out from feature films into the TV content space under the new management of Elliot Gustin-Hollman, formerly with Paris-based distribution powerhouse Newen Connect.

The move into TV sales is being made by True Colours – which is co-owned by Italy’s Indigo Film and Lucky Red – after these companies increasingly ventured into scripted dramas over the past decade. And these Italian shows, made by indie producers, need to be sold outside of Italy with the proper dedication and curation.

“Ten years ago we saw the opportunity to start a film sales company and it paid off,” said Indigo Film partner Carlotta Calori, adding that True Colours has become a reliable international film distributor not just for them but for other Italian producers. And “over in time, even for producers outside Italy.”

“Now we are looking to do the same thing with TV shows,...

Houda Benyamina [pictured], Jessica Hausner and Rebecca Daly among directors due to attend the festival.

The Les Arcs European Film Festival will champion female filmmakers at its eighth edition unfolding in the heart of the French Alps Dec 10-17.

A sidebar titled The New Women of Cinema will screen features by 10 female directors including Houda Benyamina’s Caméra d’Or-winning Divines, Rebecca Daly’s Mammal and Rachel Lang’s Baden Baden.

Older titles such as Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes, Agnes Kocsis’ Fresh Air and Nanouk Leopold’s Brownian Movement are also included in the line-up

The initiative is an extension of the festival’s Femme de Cinema award introduced in 2013, the recipients of which have included Bosnian director Jamila Zbanic and Poland’s Małgorzata Szumowska.

Alongside the screenings, there will also be a presentation on a specially-commissioned study of emerging female directors, as well as round-tables and a master-class by one of the attending female directors.

The programme...

Houda Benyamina [pictured], Jessica Hausner and Rebecca Daly among directors due to attend the festival.

The Les Arcs European Film Festival will champion female filmmakers at its eighth edition unfolding in the heart of the French Alps Dec 10-17.

A sidebar titled The New Women of Cinema will screen features by 10 female directors including Houda Benyamina’s Caméra d’Or-winning Divines, Rebecca Daly’s Mammal and Rachel Lang’s Baden Baden.

Older titles such as Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes, Agnes Kocsis’ Fresh Air and Nanouk Leopold’s Brownian Movement are also included in the line-up

The initiative is an extension of the festival’s Femme de Cinema award introduced in 2013, the recipients of which have included Bosnian director Jamila Zbanic and Poland’s Małgorzata Szumowska.

Alongside the screenings, there will also be a presentation on a specially-commissioned study of emerging female directors, as well as round-tables and a master-class by one of the attending female directors.

The programme...

European premieres for Peter Berg’s Deepwater Horizon and Garth Davis’ Lion are among highlights.

The Zurich Film Festival, which has revealed its full line-up today, will screen a total of 172 productions from 36 countries, including 43 debut works, 17 world premieres and a record number of Swiss films.

Among the highlights of this year’s festival are the European premieres of Garth Davis’ Lion starring Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel alongside Rooney Mara and Nicole Kidman, which will open festival on Sept. 22; Peter Berg’s real-life oil catastrophe story Deepwater Horizon; and Lbj, Rob Reiner’s political biopic starring Woody Harrelson as the former Us president Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Among actors set to attend are Hugh Grant, Daniel Radcliffe, Woody Harrelson and Shailene Woodley while French director Olivier Assayas will be honored with a retrospective.

Deepwater Horizon producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura will also be honored with Zurich’s Golden Eye award for his life’s work. Regular guest Harvey Weinstein...

Have you been sitting around wondering why there aren't more comedies about environmental disasters? Me too. Lucky for us Variety is reporting that the Swiss based company C-Films has a new project called Global Beach in the works. The satirical film "centers on a group of people who become trapped in a modern glass house atop a mountain when sea levels suddenly rise around the world and turn the scenic peak into an island." The film will be directed by Fulvio Bernasconi and...

Many argue that boxing, among all sports, is the ultimate test of character of a sportsperson. Fulvio Bernasconi also seems to believe so. That is why Out of Bounds (Fuore Dalle Corde) directed by him uses boxing as a metaphor for the fight for survival in today's unforgiving, cruel world. Bernasconi, in this Switzerland-Italy co-production theatrically released in India by Ndtv Lumiere, has his protagonist in a boxer for whom the world of fairplay is made to move far, far away. Caught in a bind, he has to fight for his survival, literally....

• The jury composed of Walter Carvalho, Saverio Costanzo, Irène Jacob, Jia Zhang-ke, Romuald Karmakar and Bruno Todeschini gave out a bunch of leopards on the weekend. Masahiro Kobayashi (see pic above) won the Golden Leopard for his film Ai no yokan (The Rebirth). Best Director was awarded to Capitaine Achab by Philippe Ramos (France) and the Special Jury Prize went to Memories (Jeonju Digital Project 2007) by Pedro Costa, Harun Farocki and Eugène Green. Spanish actress Carmen Maura and the French actor Michel Piccoli both received an Excellence Award (Michel Piccoli also received the prize for best actor in Sous les toits de Paris, joint winner was Michele Venitucci in Fuori dalle corde). And finally (and not surprisingly), Death at a Funeral (the Brit comedy by Frank Oz) won the audience award – this making it the 5th or 6th time that it has walked away from an international festival with such honors.

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LOCARNO, Switzerland -- The Locarno Film Festival turned its eyes to its home country Tuesday with the second annual Swiss Cinema Day, an event designed to give a boost to local films.

Now in its 60th year, the Locarno event has an international reputation, which makes it easy to forget that it is also Switzerland's only important film festival, thriving largely because of public and private sponsorship from within the country.

"The Locarno Film Festival is very important to Swiss films because of the international visibility it offers," Francine Brucher, head of international promotion for the Swiss Films agency, said in an interview. "There are always Swiss films in the different competitions, and this is a natural gathering place for the industry."

This year's 19-film main competition includes one Swiss film -- "Outside the Ropes", an Italian-language drama about the struggles of a boxer who turns to the sport's underworld. Made by up-and-coming director Fulvio Bernasconi, a native of nearby Lugano, the well-received film had its third and final screening here Tuesday.