News

Exclusive: Brussels-based, pan-European co-production and financing company Umedia has acquired a 15% stake in Belga Studios, an affiliate of Belgium’s oldest film company Belga Films Group.

Umedia, which is a major player in the European audiovisual sector, overseeing €35M in Tax Shelter funds, and financing and producing around 50 audiovisual projects a year, described the move as “a milestone” in its collaboration with Belga Studios.

It said the partnership would bolster collaboration on features initiated in Belgium, while aiming for international reach, beginning with a quartet of high-profile projects announced by Belga Studios over the past year.

They span The Yellow M, an adaptation of the iconic ‘Blake and Mortimer’ comics series, The Magician of Auschwitz, an English-language feature film by Jaco Van Dormael; The Einstein Enigma, an adaptation of the bestseller by José Rodrigues dos Santos, and the fantasy trilogy The Book with no Name, based on a cult series...

Exclusive: Belgian distribution and production company Belga Films Group is reuniting with award-winning director Jaco Van Dormael to produce The Magician of Auschwitz, which will be his first English-language feature in 15 years after shooting mainly in French.

Van Dormael will direct from a screenplay adaptation by Jacob Marx Rice of Portuguese journalist and writer José António Dos Santos’ twin novels ‘The Magician of Auschwitz’ and ‘The Birkenau Scrolls’, about a Portuguese soldier, Russian girl and Jewish magician thrown together in the horror of Auschwitz.

Dos Santos drew the novels from authentic manuscripts written by members of the Sonderkommando during the Holocaust and found hidden near death camp crematoria post-liberation. They shed light on the harrowing experiences of the members of special command units composed of prisoners who were forced to help run the gas chambers and crematoria.

“Dos Santos casts a rare historical spotlight on the delusional beliefs on which...

Hermès is making fashion fairytales come true. The French luxury house’s “On The Wings of Hermès” experience kicked off July 15 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, where the free event runs through July 23.

Guests will be transported into a dreamy, mythical universe inspired by the fable of Pegasus in the show created by Belgian duo, director Jaco Van Dormael and choreographer Michèle Anne De Mey, together with the Astragales dance company. The performance blends dance, moving objects, music and cinema in a seven-part play where Kelly bag puppets sing, where attendees get a birds-eye view of dancers who appear to “float” through the sky and where giant horses play with perspective in a living room diorama, to name just a few fantastical scenes.

The show began a day after the death of Jane Birkin, the Anglo-French singer, actress and fashion icon who passed away at 76 and for whom...

Belgian-Congolese TV personality Kody Kim has signed with CAA for representation.

Kim is best known for hosting a flagship program on Belgian broadcaster La Deux from 2015 to 2017. The presenter, who was born in Belgium to Congolese parents, stood out for his impersonations of famous French stars such as Gérard Depardieu and Jean Paul Belmondo.

He’s also a comedian, actor and radio personality. Kim first appeared in the 2015 fantasy dark comedy “The Brand New Testament,” which was directed by Jaco Van Dormael and screened as part of Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. The French-language movie, which also stars Catherine Deneuve and Benoît Poelvoorde, is centered on a cruel Belgian man who plays God from his tiny apartment in Brussells.

Since then, Kim has played various roles in multiple films, including “Lucky” in 2019, and “Losers Revolution” in 2020. He most recently wrapped Gaetan Liekens and David Mutzenmacher’s burlesque thriller “Music Hole.”

Kim...

Legendary French stage and screen actor Michel Bouquet has died. He was 96. The César Award winner passed away today at a Paris hospital, his spokesperson confirmed to Afp. A tribute on the official website of the Elysée Palace did not cite a cause of death.

Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery

Born in 1925, Bouquet began his film career in 1947 and went on to appear in more than 100 movies. In the 1960s and ’70s, he collaborated with New Wave directors François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol in such films as Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black and Mississippi Mermaid and Chabrol’s The Unfaithful Wife and Just Before Nightfall, among others.

Later in his career, Bouquet won a European Film Award for Jaco Van Dormael’s Toto Le Héros (1991) and took two Best Actor Césars for Anne Fontaine’s How I Killed My Father (2001) and Robert Guédiguian’s The Last Mitterand...

Way back in 1998, before Marvel made metaverses a household concept, Gwyneth Paltrow starred in a lovely parallel-realities drama called “Sliding Doors,” in which a woman’s life split along two paths, depending on whether or not her character caught a specific train. At the time, juggling these competing fates was considered to be so demanding that the filmmakers obliged one of the two Gwyneths to get a haircut, so audiences could tell them apart.

Nearly a quarter-century later, our collective cine-literacy has gotten so sophisticated that “Sliding Doors” seems no more challenging than a simple game of tic-tac-toe. But that doesn’t necessarily mean audiences can handle the gnarly three-dimensional sudoku puzzle that is “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a mile-a-minute mind-bender from absurdist duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — aka the Daniels — that argues every conceivable variation of our lives exists in some alternate universe or other, then proceeds...

Past winners of the first feature prize include Jim Jarmusch, Mira Nair, Naomi Kawase, Steve McQueen, Houda Benyamina and Lukas Dhont.

The Cannes Film Festival has named French actress Mélanie Thierry as jury president for the 2021 Caméra d’Or award reserved for all first features premiering across Official Selection and the parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.

”Nothing is as fragile or as miraculous as a first movie. This testifies to the courage and the faith of all the directors who, after such a long period of seclusion, succeeded in providing us with a window on the outside world,...

The Belgian comedy drama now hopes to secure an Italian distributor.

Raphaël Balboni and Ann Sirot’s feature debut Madly In Life won the top prize of the international competition at Italy’s Bergamo Film Meeting (Bfm), which ran online this year from April 24 - May 2. The award, chosen by the festival audience, is worth €5,000.

The Belgian comedy-drama revolves around a couple played by Jean Le Peltier and Lucie Debay, who put their plans for a family on hold to care for Alex’s monther who is diagnosed with dementia. It was produced by Helicotronc and had its international premiere at Tallinn in 2020.

Furthermore,...

First production to receive backing is Netflix’s ‘1899’ by ‘Dark’ creators.

The German federal states of Berlin and Brandenburg are investing €13m annually to develop the region as an international hub for digital film and TV production.

Administered by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, its first investment has been made in Dark creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar 1899 for Netflix. The eight-part mystery series began shooting at a custom-built virtual production studio called Dark Bay on the Studio Babelsberg lot yesterday (May 3). The studio has been set up by Friese and bo Odar’s own company Dark Ways with Studio Babelsberg and backing from Netflix.

This snuck up on us but our friends at Suspenso in Chile are preparing for their third annual festival and lab. Run by director Patricio Valladares the event will run online this coming week, from the 25th through the 28th. Chile - at least parts where my friends are - is still under a strict lockdown during this time of Covid, but at least the festival is able to provide something this year.    There will be online screenings of Antrum, Adrian Garcia Bogliano's Dark Circle, Juan Martínez Moreno's horror comedy Game of Werewolves, wacky Argentine omnibus Terror 5, a rep screeing of the 1989 film Violent Shit from German filmmaker Andreas Schnaas, and two films from Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael:...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Eight feature debuts stand out in the Basque festival’s parallel section, while directors such as Ignas Jonynas, Svetla Tsotsorkova and Delphine Lehericey are making a welcome return to New Directors. Fourteen first or second films by European, American and Asian filmmakers will be going head to head in the New Directors section of the 67th San Sebastián Film Festival (20-28 September), according to an announcement made in the Basque city earlier today by the director of the event, José Luis Rebordinos, and Kutxabank representative Idoia Elurbe. The festival’s most prominent parallel section, which over the course of its existence has given a huge boost to the debut works by filmmakers of the likes of Olivier Assayas, Isabel Coixet, Jaco Van Dormael, Nicolas Winding Refn, Laurent Cantet and Jonathan Glazer, will continue to invest in strengthening its commitment to discovering new talents who are bound to change the face of cinema.

Paris-based Why Not Productions, Pan-Européenne in post on French version of Leila Slimani’s book.

Legendary, Why Not Productions and Pan-Européenne will produce an English-language adaptation of the international bestseller The Perfect Nanny (Chanson Douce).

Paris-based Why Not Productions and Pan-Européenne are currently in post on a French version of Leila Slimani’s book, which was originally published by Gallimard in France in 2016, and by Penguin in the Us last year.

The Perfect Nanny centres on Myriam, a married lawyer who returns to work after childbirth and hires a seemingly ideal nanny for the couple’s boy and girl. The...

In keeping with its aims toward greater global inclusion, the Cannes Market’s initiative Shoot the Book will present its most diverse selection to date when hosting its annual pitch session on May 21.

Of the 11 publishers invited to pitch, seven come from France, two from Canada, one from Switzerland and one from Norway — and all will present their selected texts before an industry-wide cross-section of producers eager for new material.

Whittled down to 11 choices from a larger number of entries, the selected titles come courtesy of a particularly cosmopolitan jury that encompassed 10 film industry professionals from almost as many countries.

Although event organizer Nathalie Piaskowski is pleased with the lineup selected by this year’s jury — which includes Belgian filmmaker Jaco Van Dormael, Argentine producer Benjamin Domenech and Greco-American screenwriter Christina Lazaridi — she’s already looking to start afresh next year.

“The jury changes every year, and that’s important for us,...

Actress-director Noémie Lvovsky’s “Tomorrow And Thereafter,” a heartfelt homage to the director’s own mother, and Fabien Gorgeart’s “Diane Has the Right Shape,” about one woman’s surrogate motherhood, both won big at the 2019 UniFrance MyFrenchFilmFestival which skewed female in its winners and viewership, making particularly notable inroads into South East Asia and Latin America.

Opening Switzerland’s 2017 Locarno Festival to mixed reviews, “Tomorrow and Thereafter” came good at MyFFF, scoring on Tuesday both its best feature Lacoste Audience Award and International Press Award for the fantasy laced family tale of an increasingly not quite there mother and her precocious eight-year-old who is advised on how to cope with maman, whom she adores, by her talking pet owl.

The Directors Jury prize – adjudicated by Houda Benyamina (“Divines”), Coralie Fargeat (“Revenge”), Mikhael Hers (“Amanda”), Canada’s Kim Nguyen and Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael – went to “Diane Has the Right Shape,...

Talks on the proposed agreement within the digital single market are drawing to a close.

Leading European filmmakers including Alejandro Amenabar, Marco Bellochio, Amma Asante, the Dardenne brothers, Cristian Mungiu, Pawel Pawlikowski, Alan Parker, Ada Solomon, Betrand Tavernier and Susanna White, have signed and sent an open letter calling on the European Union (EU) to honour a key part of the pending Copyright Directive.

Article 14 calls for “fair and proportionate” payment for their work throughout its commercial life.

The open letter has been sent as negotiations on the proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market are drawing to a conclusion.

Paris — Two Cannes Critics’ Week hits – ‘Guy,” “Sauvage” – and Erick Zonca’s comeback, “Black Tide,” are three potential highlights in a still-expanding MyFrenchFilmFestival, French promotion org UniFrance’s annual online selection of French and French-language films.

Unveiling MyFFF’s 2019 edition in Paris on Wednesday, UniFrance also revealed that this year’s ninth edition will bow a TV strand, showcasing espionage thriller “The Bureau,” a recent and game-changing Canal Plus Création Originale. The international filmmakers’ jury – unveiled by UniFrance’s president Serge Toubiana and co-managing director Isabelle Giordano on Wednesday morning at Google’s offices in Paris — comprises Jaco Van Dormael (“The Brand New Testament”), Houda Benyamina (“Divines”), Coralie Fargeat (“Revenge”), Mikhaël Hers (“Amanda”) and Kim Nguyen (“Rebelle”). Citing “Divines” which sold to Netflix, and “Revenge” which was acquired by AMC’s Shudder, Toubiana and Giordano said all the filmmakers on the jury have had a connection with a digital service.

Once upon a time, neither event would touch a Hollywood blockbuster with a bargepole – now Oscar hopefuls are eagerly sought for a touch of glamour

For most of the Venice film festival’s 75 years, its interests have intersected only occasionally with those of the Academy Awards. Even when they have, no one’s made much of a circus about it: in 2008, future best picture winner The Hurt Locker premiered on the Lido to strong reviews, but so muted was the industry reception that its release was deferred until the next year. The next year, I attended my first Venice as a critic: awards prognosticators had only Tom Ford’s A Single Man to nibble at, while the rest of us feasted on new works by Claire Denis, Jessica Hausner and Jaco Van Dormael. The Venice film festival is part of the Biennale, after all: art is the operative word.

Fast-forward...

Streaming services have opened the door for multilingual series like worldwide Netflix hit “Narcos,” but dramas in English still dominate TV’s Golden Age, travel the most widely and draw the biggest distribution deals. International companies are scrambling for a piece of the action — including, perhaps surprisingly, producers in France, despite the country’s perceived snobbery about other languages.

Federation Entertainment, the 5-year-old firm behind Netflix’s first French show, “Marseille,” and Canal Plus spy show “The Bureau,” is the latest French player to step into the competitive U.S. market, with nearly a dozen English-language projects in the pipeline. Unlike outfits such as Gaumont or EuropaCorp, Federation is one of the few sizable, fully independent TV outfits left in France, and not only has opened an office in L.A. but is also developing projects with Paramount TV and other American companies.

Even so, breaking into the U.S.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Beauty and the Beast (Bill Condon)

The near-ubiquitous familiarity with the majority of Disney animations make the financial proposition of a live-action remake a no-brainer greenlight. In aiming to appeal to those experiencing these stories for the first time, the generation prior, and the generation that brought that generation to the theater, it can also be as creatively risk-averse as one might imagine. As these cultural touchstones get dusted...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Assassin’s Creed (Justin Kurzel)

Over three-dozen times has Hollywood tried their hand at the videogame adaptation, and the results, to say the least, have left much to be desired. Perhaps it’s the lack of venerable source material, but translating the entertainment factor of videogames — an experience in which the user often repeatedly fails until some enjoyment is ultimately had — has most adaptations feeling like one is watching characters play in God mode,...

There are a multitude of reasons why any film may get unfairly overlooked. It could be a lack of marketing resources to provide a substantial push, or, due to a minuscule roll-out, not enough critics and audiences to be the champions it might require. It could simply be the timing of the picture itself; even in the world of studio filmmaking, some features take time to get their due. With an increasingly crowded marketplace, there are more reasons than ever that something might not find an audience and, as with last year, we’ve rounded up the releases that deserved more attention.

Note that all of the below films made less than $1 million at the domestic box office at the time of posting — VOD figures are not accounted for, as they normally aren’t made public — and are, for the most part, left out of most year-end conversations. Sadly, most...

“La La Land” (Lionsgate) more than met its high-end expectations. It scored $855,000 in five theaters with an astounding per theater average of $171,000: beat only by “Grand Budapest Hotel,” opening against far less competition early in the year.

The critically hailed Hollywood musical already won Best Film from the New York Film Critics, and is primed to shine during the ongoing awards season. But part of any major Oscar contender’s profile is its popular reception. And it scored a huge initial audience response this weekend in New York and Los Angeles. Likely to factor in both Sunday’s Critics’ Choice Awards and Monday’s Golden Globes nominations Monday, “La La Land”‘s Oscar momentum just got stronger.

This early December weekend is a dead zone except for just this type of top-of-the-line awards entry. “The Big Short” opened this weekend in 2015 in eight multi-city initial dates and grossed $705,000. “La...

The Brand New Testament Music Box Films Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B Director: Jaco Van Dormael Written by: Jaco Van Dormael, Thomas Gunzig Cast: Pili Groyne, Benoît Poelvoorde, Yolande Moreau, Catherine Deneuve Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 11/21/16 Opens: December 9, 2016 Donald Trump called Brussels “a hell-hole,” so how could God possibly reside there? Easy. In the creative minds of director and co-writer Jaco Van Dormael and of co-scripter Thomas Gunzig, God may well reside in such a place as he is not a nice fella, but a jerk. He is so bored (can’t blame him after having lived longer than today’s Okinawans) he dreams up ways [ Read More ]

The post The Brand New Testament Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

"'What to do with the rest of our lives?' is now the question." Music Box has debuted a new trailer for the film The Brand New Testament from Belgium, directed by filmmaker Jaco Van Dormael who last made Mr. Nobody. His new film is religious parody about a man in Brussels who is apparently God - as played by Benoît Poelvoorde. He lives with his family and the story focuses on his ten-year-old daughter Ea, played by Pili Groyne, who decides to text everyone in the world with their date of death. The full cast includes Catherine Deneuve, François Damiens, Yolande Moreau, Laura Verlinden and Serge Larivière. There's some really wacky scenes in this, but I like the concept and it seems like a totally one-of-a-kind film. Here's the first trailer (+ poster) for Jaco Van Dormael's The Brand New Testament, from YouTube: God exists! He lives in Brussels,...

After the wildly ambitious sci-fi feature Mr. Nobody (which we named one of the best of the century thus far), director Jaco Van Dormael is back with The Brand New Testament, a comedy which imagines what would happen if God exists on Earth, and he’s not exactly what you might assume he would be. Having premiered at Cannes last year and earning a Golden Globe nomination as well as nearly making the final Oscar cut, it’ll finally arrive next month in the United States and now Music Box Films have released a new trailer.

We said in our positive review, “If you were to take the charm and playful visual language of Jean-Pierre Jenuet’s Amelie and pair it with a blistering satire of religious dogma, the end result would look something like The Brand New Testament, a new film from Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael. His previous feature,...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Full Lineup Announcements

– “3-D Auteurs,” a 19-day, 34-film festival spotlighting stereoscopic movies by some of history’s most distinguished directors, will run at Film Forum November 11 – 29. The festival spans 3-D’s earliest days (including some turn-of-the-century films by pioneer Georges Méliès) to the present, and represents virtually every genre, including Westerns, Film Noir, and Science Fiction. Hollywood’s first big 3-D craze (sometimes called 3-D’s “golden era”), intended to offset the threat of television, came in the early 1950s, with such movies as Hitchcock’s “Dial M For Murder,” André De Toth’s “House of Wax” and Jack Arnold’s “Creature From the Black Lagoon” (all included in the series).

Hollywood produced roughly 50 movies in the process from 1952 to 1954, before fizzling out and being overtaken by...

Belga Films Fund (Bff) has raised more than $5.6m (€5m) for Ben Stassen’s new animated feature, The Son Of Bigfoot.

The Belgian tax credit company was launched last year by production and distribution outfit Belga Films, which will release The Son Of Bigfoot in Benelux late summer 2017. The total budget is undersood to be $26m (€23m).

Studiocanal will release in France, UK, Germany and Australia/New Zealand.

Produced by Studiocanal’s nWave Pictures and Waterman Ent. (Alvin and the Chipmunks), the film centres on a teenage outsider who uncovers the truth that he is the son of the mysterious Bigfoot and as such has super powers, which he needs to save his family.

Belga fund boost

Bff founder and general manager Fabrice Delville revealed in Cannes that the fund raised a record $6.7m (€6m) in tax shelter financing during 2015 and expects to double that amount this year.

As the tax credit company expands, Belga has now...

Hilarious satire about rebooting religion with a goddess in charge this time. A little bit Douglas Adams, a little bit Terry Gilliam, a whole lot irreverent. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

God is real. He lives in Brussels. Also, he is a real jerk: cruel, mean-spirited, and capricious, deploying his most ultimate of power to spread fear and hatred, and to make sure that your toast always lands butter side down. None of this should come as any surprise. But you probably weren’t aware that God (Benoît Poelvoorde: Coco Before Chanel) has a wife (Yolande Moreau: Amelie) and a 10-year-old daughter, Ea (Pili Groyne: Two Days, One Night), whom he keeps crushed under his abusive thumb. Ea, though, has had enough, and in the way of many a fed-up tween, she rebels,...

In this unruly Belgian satire, God is a sadistic, filing-fixated resident of Brussels

In Jaco Van Dormael’s playfully blasphemous Belgian fantasy, God exists, lives in Brussels, and is a total bastard to his wife and daughter. Locked in a Gilliam-esque room of filing cabinets, his unholiness (played by Benoît Poelvoorde, who once turned heads and stomachs in Man Bites Dog) spends his days sadistically abusing the world’s population. Then, resourceful, resentful daughter Ea (Pili Groyne) commandeers his computer, texts the time and date of their deaths to every living soul, and escapes through a washing machine into the wonderland of the world. Here, she must assemble six random apostles while steering clear of her wrathful dad, who is getting a taste of his own earthly medicine. It’s divertingly unruly stuff, which comes on like a cross between Powell and Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death...

It doesn’t take long, when you’re talking to Jaco van Dormael, to get a sense that he is a director or artist who sees the world in a pretty interesting and eccentric way. Full of gentle, innocuous humour and amusing turns of phrase, you quickly build up a picture of a creative individual whose process of conceiving and producing films is pretty fascinating. This is certainly what you see in his latest film to reach UK cinemas, The Brand New Testament. This movie is perhaps best be described as an episodic, patch-work quilt of biblical short stories, which is full of kooky little visual techniques and dream-like tropes that means this film will certainly appeal to your inner child, if nothing else. Except the movie...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

★★★☆☆ Madcap invention is nothing new to Belgian Jaco Van Dormael, who takes on the Almighty himself in his new high-concept comedy The Brand New Testament. Concept is certainly king in this instance, giving the filmmaker with a corking elevator pitch that is mined for genuine amusement but never quite manifests as something with the provocative credentials that it originally threatens to. You've heard the supposition that God is in fact dead? Or perhaps that he doesn't exist? Well, how about the other one that God exists, is very much alive, and he's a schlubby, bitter wretch living in a three-bedroom flat in Brussels?...

The distributor has acquired Us rights from Le Pacte to Jaco Van Dormael’s Belgian ensemble and Golden Globe foreign language nominee.

The Brand New Testament reimagines God as a jerk living in Brussels as he interacts with the daughter intent on saving humanity from him.

Daniel Marquet produced the film and worked with Music Box on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Music Box Films plans an autumn release for The Brand New Testament.

The release slate includes Seasons, A Man Called Ove, and The Innocents, and Norman Lear: Just Another Version Of You.

The distributor has acquired Us rights from Le Pacte to Jaco Van Dormael’s Belgian ensemble and Golden Globe foreign language nominee.

Brand New Testament reimagines God as a jerk living in Brussels as he interacts with the daughter intent on saving humanity from him.

Daniel Marquet produced the film and worked with Music Box on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Music Box Films plans an autumn release for Brand New Testament.

The release slate includes Seasons, A Man Called Ove, and The Innocents, and Norman Lear: Just Another Version Of You.

Music Box Films has acquired the Brussels-based film The Brand New Testament, a black comedy directed by Jaco Van Dormael that reimagines God as a total jerk living in Brussels and the daughter intent on saving humanity from him. The distributor is planning a fall release for the film which was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language film this past year and also premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015. The film was produced by Daniel Marquet. "For…...

Lorenzo Vigas’ Venice Golden Lion winner From Afar and César Augusto Acevedo’s Cannes Critics Week France 4 Visionary Award winner Land And Shade will screen at the International Film Festival of Panama.

Both selections will play in the Ibero American Showcase under the auspices of Iff Panama 2016, which runs from April 7-13.

Italian actress Lucía Bosé will be guest of honour at the festival’s fifth edition when three of films will screen — Death Of A Cyclist, Story Of A Love Affair, and No Peace Under The Olive Tree. High Heels will screen in special presentation.

Ibero American Showcase entries include Anna Muylaert’s Brazilian foreign language Oscar submission My Second Mother, Álex de la Iglesia’s My Big Night (Spain), 3 Beauties (Venezuela) by Carlos Caridad-Montero, and Spy Time (Spain) by Javier Ruiz Caldera.

Rounding out the section are: The Apostate (Spain-France-Uruguay) by Federico Veiroj; Road To La Paz (Argentina) by Francisco Varone; Semana Santa (Mexico) by [link...

Exclusive: Berlin competition entry Being 17 among six titles acquired by Metrodome at Efm.

UK distributor Metrodome has finalised six deals from the Efm in Berlin including André Téchiné- Celine Sciamma drama Being 17 and fantasy-romance Angel, both from Elle Driver for all UK and Irish distribution rights.

Téchiné directs the Berlin competition title Being 17, a project he co-wrote with Girlhood director Sciamma.

The French-language film follows the tense relationship between two boys whose lives intertwine until they unexpectedly find themselves living under the same roof.

Sandrine Kiberlain, Kacey Mottet Klein and Corentin Fila star. Producers are Marc Missonnier and Olivier Delbosc of Fidélité Films, co-producers are Wild Bunch and France 2 Cinema.

Fantasy romance Angel is directed by actor-director Harry Cleven and stars Elina Lowensohn, Fleur Geffrier, Hannah Boudru and Maya Dory.

The screenplay is written by Thomas Gunzig (The Brand New Testament) and the film is produced by Jaco Van Dormael and Terra Incognita Films’ Olivier Rausin and Daniel Marquet...

We’re very proud to be debuting the new trailer for Jaco Van Dormael’s forthcoming film The Brand New Testament, which arrives in UK cinemas on the 15th of April. Taking a closer look at Van Dormael’s latest film reveals a delightfully subversive take on religion. God is real, lives in Brussels and isn’t doing a

The post Here’s an Exclusive Look at the hilarious new trailer & poster for The Brand New Testament appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Exclusive: German-speaking Europe and Switzerland deal for upcoming Martin Provost title.

Ascot Elite has pre-bought all rights for German speaking Europe and Switzerland to writer-director Martin Provost’s (Séraphine) upcoming comedy-drama The Midwife (La Sage Femme), set to star Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Frot and Olivier Gourmet.

Ascot Elite inked the deal with Memento Films International (marking the first collaboration between the two companies), whose anticipated script was among the buzz projects at UniFrance’s Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris last month.

The Midwife tells the story of a passionate midwife named Claire (Frot) who one day, after decades of silence, is unexpectedly called upon by her late father’s ex-lover Beatrice (Deneuve), who informs her of some important news. Claire and Beatrice couldn’t be more different from one another but despite their differences, they slowly but surely grow closer and nothing remains, what it once was.

Fidelite/Curiosa Films (Marguerite) produce the film which is due...

Exclusive: German-speaking Europe and Switzerland deal for upcoming Martin Provost title.

Ascot Elite has pre-bought all rights for German speaking Europe and Switzerland to writer-director Martin Provost’s (Séraphine) upcoming comedy-drama The Midwife (La Sage Femme), set to star Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Frot and Olivier Gourmet.

Ascot Elite inked the deal with Memento Films International (marking the first collaboration between the two companies), whose anticipated script was among the buzz projects at UniFrance’s Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris last month.

The Midwife tells the story of a passionate midwife named Claire (Frot) who one day, after decades of silence, is unexpectedly called upon by her late father’s ex-lover Beatrice (Deneuve), who informs her of some important news. Claire and Beatrice couldn’t be more different from one another but despite their differences, they slowly but surely grow closer and nothing remains, what it once was.

Fidelite/Curiosa Films (Marguerite) produce the film which is due...

Exclusive: German-speaking Europe and Switzerland deal for upcoming Martin Provost title.

Ascot Elite has pre-bought all rights for German speaking Europe and Switzerland to writer-director Martin Provost’s (Séraphine) upcoming comedy-drama The Midwife (La Sage Femme), set to star Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Frot and Olivier Gourmet.

Ascot Elite inked the deal with Memento Films International (the first collaboration between the two companies), whose anticipated script was among the buzz projects at UniFrance’s Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris last month.

The Midwife tells the story of a passionate midwife named Claire (Frot) who one day, after decades of silence, is unexpectedly called upon by her late father’s ex-lover Beatrice (Deneuve), who informs her of some important news. Claire and Beatrice couldn’t be more different from one another but despite their differences, they slowly but surely grow closer and nothing remains, what it once was.

Fidelite/Curiosa Films (Marguerite) produce the film which is due...

Deniz Gamze Erguven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang also among nominated titles.Scroll down for list of nominations

Arnaud Desplechin’s My Golden Days (Trois Souvenirs De Ma Jeunesse) and Xavier Giannoli’s Marguerite topped the nominations list for France’s annual César Awards, announced this morning (Jan 27).

France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences unveiled the nominations for the 41st edition of the awards at its annual news conference at Le Fouquet’s restaurant on the Champs Elysées.

Desplechin’s romantic drama My Golden Days clocked 11 nominations as did Giannoli’s Marguerite, starring Catherine Frot as a society singer with a terrible voice.

Other features picking up multiple nominations included Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan and Deniz Gamze Erguven’s Mustang, which both secured nine nods.

There was widespread consternation last year in some quarters of the French film industry when five times Palme d’Or nominee Arnaud Desplechin’s My Golden Years was not given a Competition...

If the Academy Awards are consistently good at one thing, it’s the extent (however limited) to which they can highlight foreign-language films for audiences who’d otherwise never hear of them. Before clips from László Nemes‘ Son of Saul, Naji Abu Nowar‘s Theeb, Deniz Gamze Ergüven‘s Mustang, Ciro Guerra‘s Embrace of the Serpent, and Tobias Lindholm‘s A War are broadcast into homes around the world, take a moment to sit down with their creators — as well as The Brand New Testament‘s Jaco Van Dormael, The Fencer‘s Klaus Haro, and Viva‘s Paddy Breathnach — for a glimpse into the how and why of their films, along with an understanding of what it means to get the nomination.

And while you’re at it, read our reviews of (or comments concerning) each nominee at the above links. This is the rare year where we’ve...

Foreign-Language Oscar-shortlisted Labyrinth Of Lies took the Mercedes Benz Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Director Giulio Ricciarelli’s film chronicled the coverup of German war crimes. Runners-up in the category included: Elmo Nüganen’s 1944 (Estonia), Jaco Van Dormael’s The Brand New Testament (Belgium), Gavin Hood’s Eye in the Sky (UK), Klaus Härö’s The Fencer (Finland), Fina Torres’ Liz in September…...

"The Brand New Testament" is absolutely hilarious. And yes, the great Catherine Deneuve falls in love with a big gorilla and they have a passionate affair. Who'd have thunk it?

God exists. He lives in Brussels today. He’s odious to his wife and daughter. He's a real jerk who has a talented computer and thus he gets to create reality - at his stupid whims.

We know a lot about his son, the famous Jc, but very little about his daughter. Her name is Ea and she’s 10 years old. One day, she rebels against her father, hacks his computer and texts everyone in the world the date they will die. Then she escapes out their apartment door to Earth / reality, where she recruits six really strange Apostles to create a Brand New Testament.

Laugh-out-loud funny, this is from Jaco Van Dormael ("Toto the Hero" and "Mr. Nobody") mixes religious satire and ironic fantasy to hilarious effect.

No longer subject to God’s all-seeing eye, the general populace feels free to act on their basest instincts and hidden desires.

For Catherine Deneuve, that means going to bed with a gorilla.

Meanwhile, now outcast, the former God is a snarling Benoit Poelvoorde playing God as a grumpy bastard, formerly given to managing Earth’s affairs while clad in a bathrobe and pajama bottoms.

Wonderful French comedienne Yolande Moreau is his mild wife who comes into her own when given God like powers (e.g. the design she decides on for the sky above - hilarious!!)

Dormael's latest is one of nine shortlisted films in the running for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award and is nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Language Film.

Isa: Le Pacte. U.S. Distribution : None Yet.

How would you program this year's newest, most interesting films into double features with movies of the past you saw in 2015?Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2015—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2015 to create a unique double feature.All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2015 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...

The 27th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (Psiff) will launch on Friday, January 1 with Klaus Härö’s Golden Globe-nominated and Academy Award-shortlisted "The Fencer." The Festival’s closing night film will then screen on Sunday, January 10 with the U.S. premiere of "Last Cab to Darwin," directed by Jeremy Sims. The Festival announced its complete lineup of films including Talking Pictures, Special Presentations and additional programming. A total of 176 films will screen in this year’s festival from January 1-11.

“Bookending the festival are two films from opposite sides of the globe, both of which promise an emotionally stirring film-going experience,” said Artistic Director Helen du Toit. “'The Fencer' is the ideal opener for Palm Springs – not just because it is a beautifully made film, and a crowd-pleaser, but also because Finnish director Klaus Härö has become a festival favorite over the years. We are equally excited to be wrapping the festival with the Us premiere of Jeremy Sims’ 'Last Cab to Darwin,' a road movie/comedy set in the Australian outback and featuring the irresistible Michael Caton as a man who, while trying to expedite his own demise, finally learns how to live.”

Opening and Closing Screenings

Opening night title "The Fencer" is a Golden Globe nominee for Best Foreign Language Film and Finland’s Best Foreign Language Oscar® submission. The film is about a young fencer in the early 1950s who, while hiding from the Russian secret police, becomes a physical education teacher in an Estonian village. His after-school sporting club brings inspiration to students and teacher alike, but the past catches up and faces him with a difficult choice.

The Festival will close with the U.S. premiere of "Last Cab to Darwin" directed by Jeremy Sims. In this warm-hearted road movie Rex is a loner, and when he’s told he doesn’t have long to live, he embarks on an epic drive through the Australian outback from Broken Hill to Darwin to die on his own terms. But his journey reveals to him that before you can end your life, you have to live it, and to live it, you've got to share it. The film stars Michael Caton and Jackie Weaver.

Talking Pictures

Every year, the Festival presents a series of special programs devoted to exploring the careers and creative choices of the top talents in the world of cinema, including Oscar®-caliber actors and directors in conversation with leading entertainment journalists. Each program includes a film screening and an on-stage conversation.

Golden Globe nominee Lily Tomlin will attend the screening of Sony Pictures Classics’ "Grandma" and participate in an on-stage interview immediately following, presented by Tribeca Short List. Elle Reid has just gotten through breaking up with her girlfriend when her granddaughter Sage unexpectedly shows up needing 600 dollars before sundown. Temporarily broke, Grandma Elle and Sage spend the day trying to get their hands on the cash and their unannounced visits to old friends and flames end up rattling skeletons and digging up secrets.

Director Asif Kapadia will attend the screening of his documentary "Amy," a sympathetic and revealing portrait of Amy Winehouse which employs the singer’s own candid footage and creative visualizations of her lyrics to illuminate the story of her all-too-short life and career.

“The Talking Pictures program creates once in a lifetime opportunities for audiences to hear directly from some of the year’s hottest Oscar ®contenders — and this year is no exception,” said Festival Director Darryl Macdonald. “Golden Globe nominee Lily Tomlin will discuss her widely acclaimed work in 'Grandma' following the film’s screening; and director Asif Kapadia will join us to unpack his heartbreaking, intimate documentary 'Amy.' ”

Special Presentations

The Festival will hold three special presentations. Golden Globe-nominated "The Brand New Testament," which is also the Best Foreign Language Oscar submission from Belgium, directed by Jaco Van Dormael and starring Pili Groyne, Benoit Poelvoorde and Catherine Deneuve. The film is a high-concept satire in which God accidentally sets off a panic after his disgruntled daughter leaks the apocalyptic plans stored on his computer. The U.S. premiere of "Eye in the Sky," directed by Gavin Hood and starring Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman and Aaron Paul, is a thriller set in the world of remotely piloted aircraft warfare. "The Revenant," directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as frontiersman Hugh Glass, is nominated for three Golden Globe awards including Best Picture-Drama, Best Actor-Drama and Best Director.

Dinner and a Movie

The festival will screen the documentary "Cooking Up a Tribute," directed by Luis Gonzalez and Andrea Góme, as part of its Dinner & a Movie program. The film follows famed restaurateurs Josep, Jordi and Joan Roca as they take their renowned El Celler de Can Roca on the road, exploring and incorporating the native cuisines of Mexico, Colombia and Peru in their cooking. And the screening will be followed by a dinner at Mr. Lyons restaurant with a menu by chef Tara Lazar and Masterchef finalist Stephen Lee...

After his last film, the ambitious Mr. Nobody, unfortunately seemed to fly under the radar of many, barely getting a release here in the United States, thankfully more attention is being paid to Jaco Van Dormael‘s follow-up The Brand New Testament. Although it’s still seeing U.S. distribution, it recently made the Best Foreign Oscar shortlist of just nine films, and now we have a new trailer.

We said in our positive review, “If you were to take the charm and playful visual language of Jean-Pierre Jenuet’s Amelie and pair it with a blistering satire of religious dogma, the end result would look something like The Brand New Testament, a new film from Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael. His previous feature, Mr. Nobody, starring Jared Leto as the last living human on Earth, also showcased a penchant for high concepts that veer towards the absurd rather than the literal.

The entire Academy Awards endeavour seems to expand every year, as more and more often, shortlists are announced during the behind-the-scenes nominations process, ahead of the final nominations announcement. While that tends to make the awards season feel even longer, it does much to raise the profile of films that might otherwise be little noticed by general audiences – including those submitted to the Academy for consideration as Best Foreign Film.

The Academy accepts one submission from each country, and the deadline for those submissions was October 1st this year. The selection process then has two phases. In the first phase, the Foreign Language Film Award Committee screens each submission, and selects six for shortlisting, with an additional three selected by the Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee. This set of nine films is then announced as the shortlist, and this is the announcement we have seen today.

The shortlisted films...

Our first impression of Jaco Van Dormael's "The Brand New Testament" came from the above image, released circa the Cannes Directors' Fortnight where it premiered, and it's certainly an arresting visual. To be honest, we didn't otherwise give much thought to the Catherine-Deneuve-ape-movie, as it became known around the office, but the joke is on us because with the year winding down, the film has become a major awards season contender. Read More: Karlovy Vary Review: 'The Brand New Testament' With Catherine Deneuve Gently Blasphemes With Wit And Style Nominated for a Golden Globe, and on the Oscar shortlist for Best Foreign Film, the movie also stars Benoît Poelvoorde, Yolande Moreau, François Damiens and Pili Groyne, and tells an alternate theology tale in which God exists, and lives in Brussels. Here's the synopsis: God exists! He lives in Brussels. He’s a real bastard, odious with his wife and daughter.

It's now down to nine. We're weeks away from the Oscar nominations being announced, which means the hard decisions are being made in various branches of the Academy, about which contenders have made the grade, and the others that will be left behind. In the Foreign Film category some big films have moved ahead, while others didn't make the grade. Among the critically acclaimed films named in the nine strong shortlist are Cannes breakout "Son Of Saul," French arthouse fave "Mustang," and Tobias Lindholm's "A War." But perhaps the biggest omission is Hou Hsiao-Hsien's celebrated "The Assassin." That's the way the cookie crumbles, and I'd presume the director's methodically paced picture didn't catch on with the majority of voters. Check out the shortlist below. [EW] Belgium, The Brand New Testament, Jaco Van Dormael, directorColombia, Embrace of the Serpent, Ciro Guerra, directorDenmark, A War, Tobias Lindholm,...