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“Don’t you want to be, like, a full man?” The ditzy, coke-addled Jenny (Sarah Hermann) isn’t being figurative when she asks that question to Feña (Lio Mehiel), a trans man, in Mutt, writer-director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s feature debut. She wants to know whether or not Feña has a penis. “I don’t need a dick for that,” Feña answers.

The didactic cadence of that exchange is the order of the day throughout this film, in which ignorant dolts are prone to sticking their feet in their mouths, followed by Feña responding with an edifying retort. Lungulov-Klotz’s screenplay evinces an obvious sincerity, aiming to examine the difficulties of post-transition experience, but these admirable ambitions are significantly limited by the writing’s often literal-minded dramatizing of its central concerns.

Part of what’s peculiar about Mutt is how it unfolds as if trans discourse hasn’t become widespread in the past decade,...

Having earned Sundance’s first Best Actor award for a trans performer, Lío Mehiel, Mutt arrives with a bit of buzz more historic than critical. Following a festival run that also included Berlinale and New Directros/New Films, Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s feature debut will open next month from Strand Releasing, ahead of which is a first trailer briefly encapsulating the film’s view of trans experience.

While recognizing its necessary social impacts we were somewhat mixed on the film’s overall form. Writing out of Sundance, Dan Mecca said in his review, “This is the feature debut for Lungulov-Klotz, and in some moments a preciousness shows. The saying ‘kill your darlings’ might come to mind: confessional dialogue that’s telling us what’s already been shown, lingering close-ups that run out of steam before we cut away. Yet there is both an honesty and urgency to what’s onscreen that proves essential.

"Don't get caught up in these momentary feelings." Strand Releasing has unveiled an official trailer for an acclaimed indie drama titled Mutt, marking the feature directorial debut of the NYC-based filmmaker Vuk Lunglov-Koltz. This initially premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival to many positive reviews, and it'll get a small theatrical release starting in August. Within the space of 24 hours, Feña is swept through the extremes of human emotion when people who seemed to disappear when he transitioned are suddenly back in his life. Starring Lío Mehiel, Cole Doman, MiMi Ryder, and Alejandro Goic. Vuk Lunglov-Koltz's directorial debut is "at once precise in its specificity and wholly relatable in its grand humanity. A "visceral performance by Mehiel embodies inbetweenness in many forms. Mutt earns its most difficult discussions through its tenderness towards each character's struggle with the complexity of trans life, Latinx life in America, and of human life at large.

Sundance breakout queer coming-of-age film “Mutt” is finally unleashed stateside. Writer-director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s debut film stars Lío Mehiel as a young trans man named Feña, and the film won Mehiel a Special Jury Award for Acting at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Strand releases the film in the U.S. this summer, beginning at New York’s Film Forum, and IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer premiere below.

“Mutt” follows Feña across his romances, friendships, and family over the course of one hectic day in New York City, where three people from Feña’s past are thrust back into his life. Having lost touch since transitioning from female to male, he navigates the new dynamics of old relationships while tackling the day-to-day challenges of living life in between. Cole Doman, MiMi Ryder, and Alejandro Goic also star.

“Mutt” details Lungulov-Klotz’s own personal experience growing up in New York City as...

It’s said that just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you, but in the case of Carmen (Aline Küppenheim), the protagonist of Manuela Martelli’s Chile ’76, paranoia may be a self-fulfilling prophesy. After all, as its title indicates, the film is set during Augusto Pinochet’s right-wing military dictatorship, three years after the coup that toppled Salvador Allende’s democratically elected left‐wing Popular Unity Government.

Carmen is a young grandmother, wife of a hospital administrator (Alejandro Goic), and former Red Cross nurse. She lives a complacent bourgeois life, insulated from anti-communist suspicion but not from her own neuroses, which she self-medicates with a steady intake of pills, alcohol, and cigarettes. When she and her family pay a visit to their seaside vacation house, the local priest, Father Sanchez (Hugo Medina), recruits her to secretly nurse a communist insurgent, Elías (Nicolás Sepúlveda...

Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Sundance award-winning trans drama “Mutt” in the run up to its screening on closing night of New Directors/New Films in New York.

Penned and directed by Vuk Lungulov-Klotz, “Mutt” world premiered at Sundance where it won a Special Jury Acting Award for Lio Mehiel. It went on to have its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.

Described as an emotional drama overlapping past, present and future, “Mutt” follows Feña, a young trans man bustling through life in New York City. Over the course of a single hectic day, Feña is swept through the extremes of human emotion, when people who seemed to have disappeared when he transitioned are suddenly back in his life. He unexpectedly reconnects with an estranged ex-boyfriend (Cole Doman), is suddenly saddled with his wayward little sister (MiMi Ryder), and nervously awaits their father (Alejandro Goic...

"I'm not a common criminal." "What are you then?" Kino Lorber has debuted their official trailer for Chile '76, an acclaimed Chilean drama based on a true story, from actress turned director Manuela Martelli. This premiered in the Quinzaine des Cinéastes sidebar at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival last year, and is also playing at New Directors/New Films in NYC on April 7th. Set in Chile, 1976. Carmen heads off to her beach house. When the family priest asks her to take care of a young man he is sheltering in secret, Carmen steps onto unexplored territories, away from the quiet life she is used to. Aline Kuppenheim stars as Carmen, as she is "inadvertently drawn into the world of the Chilean political opposition and must face real-world threats she is unprepared to handle, with potentially disastrous consequences for her and her entire family." The cast also includes Alejandro Goic, Hugo Medina,...

Taking place between March 29 and April 9 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center, the 52nd edition of New Directors/New Films will commence with Savanah Leaf’s superb debut (and Sundance stand-out) Earth Mama, close with Vuk Lungolov-Klotz’s Mutt (winner of Best Actor at Sundance), and in-between showcase films from 41 directors––27 features, 11 shorts, and (I just counted) most continents.

So says La Frances Hui, Curator at MoMA’s Department of Film and Nd/Nf’s Co-chair: “This geographically diverse lineup brings together new directors from all over the world presenting works that make bold and creative statements on everything from identity and family to political repression and postcolonial discourse. The power of cinema to inspire imagination and explore perspectives is evident in the wide range of styles, ideas, and voices in the selection.”

See the full lineup below, including links to our reviews where available,...

A compelling character-based drama that reveals the interior life of a young trans man over roughly 24 hours in New York City, “Mutt” follows Feña (Lío Mehiel) as he tries to navigate a series of events that would be stressful for anyone. Piling on setbacks that specifically challenge someone still working out how to reintroduce himself to old friends and family members, writer-director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz — who is also trans — makes audiences acutely conscious of Feña’s emotional state at every turn. “Mutt,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, sees the first-time helmer creatively using the medium to illustrate how small incidents can chip away at a trans person’s self-confidence and the strength it takes to stay true to that identity.

Feña’s day starts simply enough, focused on trying to borrow a car to pick up his Chilean father (Alejandro Goic) from the airport. Before long,...

“Mutt,” the Sundance prize-winning feature debut of New York-based filmmaker Vuk Lungulov-Klotz, has been boarded by Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever.

“Mutt,” which just won the Special Jury Award for actor Lío Mehiel (“WeCrashed”) at Sundance, will next play at the Berlin Film Festival in the Generation 14+ strand. CAA Media Finance is handling North American rights, while Best Friend Forever represents the rest of the world.

Lungulov-Klotz is a Chilean-Serbian filmmaker who previously participated in the Sundance Institute Labs, the Tribeca Film Institute, and the Ryan Murphy Half Initiative Program. His award winning trans-themed short film “Still Liam” played at several festivals and was championed by queer filmmakers Ira Sachs and Silas Howard, who have both become mentors.

Described as an emotional drama overlapping past, present and future, “Mutt” follows Feña, a young trans guy bustling through life in New York City. Over the course of a single hectic day,...

An eventful New York City day in the life of Feña, a recently transitioned trans man (Lio Mehiel, an artist and filmmaker), is depicted with honesty, tenderness and wit in this Sundance U.S. Dramatic Competition entrant, a feature debut for Vuk Lungulov-Klotz.

Drawing on his own background as a child of Chilean and Serbian parents and his own experience of transition, Lungulov-Klotz adeptly distills a lot of complex thematic material around gender identity, queer lifestyles and ethnic intersectionality into one crisply folded package. The end result feels both authentic and accessible, and — thanks in part to the ensemble’s compelling performances, especially that of Mehiel — has potential to cross over from the arthouse/festival circuit and reach viewers further afield, especially through a streaming service.

In his mid-20s, Feña, whose birth name is Fernanda, has recently started using testosterone and had top surgery. So with his square jaw...

The history of transgender representation in cinema has been pretty damn horrible in retrospect. Outside of some significant outliers, one can easily summarize trans cinematic history as being full of cruel jokes, miscasting, and fearmongering. Thankfully, we are slowly but surely entering an age where trans filmmakers can freely tell their own stories for the screen. Unfortunately, it also comes at a dangerous time that seeks to strip them of their humanity.

"Mutt" feels especially critical given how the home state of the Sundance Film Festival, Utah, has recently introduced potential laws that severely limit healthcare access for trans individuals. However, Vuk Lungulov-Klotz's directorial debut shouldn't just be a political tool. It captures how identity is so integrated into many facets of life while also showing how lively trans narratives in film can be. Young New Yorker Feña (Lío Mehiel) is just trying to navigate life – he's got a...

There is an energy to the opening minutes of Mutt, written and directed by Vuk Lungulov-Klotz, that fades away and never really recovers. Early on we meet Feña (Lio Mehiel), a young trans man just learning that his ex John (Cole Doman) is back in New York City. To make matters worse, Feña is expected to retrieve his estranged father (Alejandro Goic) from the airport later in the day. To make matters even worse, Feña’s younger sister (MiMi Ryder) has run away from home and needs a place to crash. Unfortunately, the available tension in this driving plot is undercut by a languid pace and some inert sequences. So much happens in one day, yet there seems to be so much downtime anyway.

New York City is captured in a special way. We are shown corners of the metropolis that are quickly evaporating. The film’s aesthetic feels handmade and earnestly lovely.

Chronicling three encounters over the course of 24 hours, “Mutt” follows Feña, a transgender man finally comfortable in his own skin but still grappling with how his choice to live authentically recalibrated, for better or worse, his closest relationships.

Chilean-Serbian writer-director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz, who himself is trans, introduces Feña (the gender-neutral name he’s chosen) during a night out at a club where he spots John, his straight ex-boyfriend from before he transitioned. The two haven’t seen each other in over year. Once the initial awkwardness dissipates, the embers of their past romance are rekindled under the effects of alcohol and pent-up desire.

Presented in a boxy aspect ratio, the compositions that cinematographer Matthew Pothier dons on “Mutt” sway between those that convey a living-in-the-moment exuberance to get lost in (such as a brief slow-motion sequence in the rain) and other static, peculiarly angled shots that hold the conversations Feña...

Chile’s Oscar entry, “Blanquita” by Fernando Guzzoni, is based on the infamous “Spiniak Case,” the exposure in the early 2000s of a child prostitution/pedophilia ring involving powerful Chilean politicians and businessmen. After a year-long investigation of the case, Guzzoni zeroed in on the most interesting character in the child sex scandal, Gema Bueno, a key witness whose story began to unravel as prosecutors began to poke holes in her testimony.

In his thought-provoking thriller, Guzzoni bases his titular character Blanquita on Bueno. Played by Laura Lopez, Blanquita is now 18 and has returned to the shelter for victims of sexual violence with a baby in tow. Living there in exchange for domestic chores, she becomes the most credible witness in the case against the pedophile ring. Coaxed by the priest (Alejandro Goic) who runs the shelter, she claims to be a victim of sex trafficking and accuses a senator of participating in the ring.

From its triumphant world premiere (with seven-minute standing ovation) at the Venice Film Festival, A24 opens Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale in theaters this weekend amid a whirl of Oscar buzz around star Brendan Fraser. The former action star carries the psychological drama as Charlie, a reclusive and severely obese English teacher trying to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.

Deadline critic Damon Wise said Fraser’s “all-in performance… makes adjectives such as ‘brave’ and ‘fearless’ seem almost meaningless” and that The Whale is “cutting the line to put a never-better Brendan Fraser at the front of the Best Actor race.” See full review.

It opens on six screens total in NYC and LA and plans to hold there next week, expanding in a limited national footprint on Dec. 21 for the holidays.

The Whale looks set to do...

Chile's submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2023 Oscars, Blanquita, is a heavy watch that somehow lasts less than an hour and forty minutes, yet manages to leave a searing impact. Inspired by true events, writer-director Fernando Guzzoni unspools a tale of sexual assault and the fight for justice, which never seems to be as cut and dry as one might hope. Blanquita doesn't give the audience easy answers, nor does it aim to put a hopeful spin on its all-too realistic ending. Instead, Blanquita is a film that forces its viewers to confront the harsh truths behind systems of power through a sympathetic, unreliable viewpoint.

The titular Blanquita (Laura López) lives in a shelter for lost, abused kids with her infant daughter. Violent outbursts among the residents aren't uncommon, and many are too traumatized to stand as witnesses against those who hurt them. When a prominent...

“Blanquita,” Chile’s official Oscar entry for Best International Film from rising star Fernando Guzzoni, is a cinematic and narrative revelation. Taking its cues from the real-life child prostitution and pedophilia scandal known as the “Spiniak Case” that rocked Chile in the early 2000s, “Blanquita” revolves around the young lady at the center of the scandal.

Blanca (first-time actress Laura López), more commonly referred to as Blanquita, has been subjected to abuse — emotional, sexual and physical — all her life. Poor and largely unprotected, the 18-year-old Blanquita is rarely championed; rooting for her, as Guzzoni reveals, does not always end where we hope it will.

Backed by Manuel, the priest of the home where she resides with her baby girl, Blanca alleges that a powerful businessman and a noted politician are part of a child-prostitution ring. As we watch her undergo psychological evaluations, holding her head high with a steely stare...

The Sundance Institute has released its lineup for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The annual festival will take place January 19-29 in Park City, Utah and will feature the “upcoming year’s most impactful independent stories.”

To kick off the event, IMDb will present “Opening Night: A Taste of Sundance” to raise funds for the organization, in addition to “Day One Features” which will show 11 features and a short film program. Over the course of the festival, the Institute will show 101 feature films which were selected from over 15,000 submissions, both from the U.S. and internationally. The films fall into a number of categories.

Tickets for the festival can be purchased here.

Here is the lineup for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, as announced by The Sundance Institute:

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Presenting 12 world premieres of fiction feature films, the Dramatic Competition offers audiences a first look at groundbreaking new voices in American independent film.

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival’s lineup of 101 feature films includes contributions from 23 countries. The Sundance Institute notes 28 of the festival’s slate comes from first-time feature filmmakers, and 94 of the films will be making their world premieres at the 2023 festival.

More than 4,0000 feature films were submitted for consideration.

“Maintaining an essential place for artists to express themselves, take risks, and for visionary stories to endure and entertain is distinctly Sundance,” said Robert Redford, Sundance Institute Founder and President. “The Festival continues to foster these values and connections through independent storytelling. We are honored to share the compelling selection of work at this year’s Festival from distinct perspectives and unique voices.”

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 19-29th. 2022’s festival was canceled due to a surge in Covid-19, but barring any setbacks, the 2023 event will once again return to in-person screenings. Some films will also be available online...

Setting the stage for the year in cinema, the 2023 Sundance Film Festival will take place January 19-29, both in person in Utah as well as virtual viewings kicking off five days into the festival. Ahead of next month’s festivities, the festival has now unveiled its features lineup, which features 99 films.

Initial highlights of the lineup include Ira Sachs’ Passages, starring Franz Rogowski, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Ben Whishaw, William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth follow-up Eileen, Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, produced by Barry Jenkins, Bad Behaviour, the directorial debut of Jane Campion’s daughter Alice Englert, Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool, starring Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth, Nicole Holofcener’s’ You Hurt My Feelings starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and more.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

The 12 films in this section are all world premieres. All 12 will be available to stream online.

The Accidental Getaway Driver (Director and Screenwriter: Sing J. Lee,...

L.A.-based Outsider Pictures, one of the most avid U.S. distributors of Spanish-language movies, has picked up Chile’s Oscar entry “Blanquita.”

“It’s a critical look at a sordid part of Chilean social history, but also a political thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat,” enthuses company’s founder and CEO Paul Hudson, who closed the deal, noting that the decision continues Outsider’s ongoing support of Latin-themed independent cinema.

The film, directed by Fernando Guzzoni, will be released theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on Dec. 9, 2022.

“Blanquita” celebrated its world premiere at Venice Film Festival in the Horizons section, scoring Guzzoni an award for best screenplay. It also won the Golden Colon for best film at Spain’s Huelva Latin America Film Festival.

Giancarlo Nasi of Quijote Films produced the affecting drama, with Pablo Zimbrón (Varios Lobos), Donato Rotunno (Tarantula), Pascal Guerrin,...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Exclusive: Chile has submitted Fernando Guzzoni’s Blanquita, exploring a real-life child prostitution scandal that rocked the country in the early 2000s, as its official entry to the best international film category of the Oscars.

The film was chosen as Chile’s official entry by members of the Chilean Film Academy, in its third selection since its creation in 2018.

“Once again we are witnessing both the quality and diversity of our cinema, as well as the criteria and commitment of our partners: 70 of them voted in this process, the most participatory since we as an Academy have been in charge of choosing the film that represents Chile at the Oscars”, said the body’s executive director Josefina Undurraga.

Blanquita world premiered in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival this year, winning the best screenplay prize for Guzzoni.

Big screen debutant Laura López stars as an 18-year-old resident of a foster home,...

In a groundbreaking move, Constanza Arena, the former executive director of CinemaChile, has established Agencia La Luz, an agency and project incubator that will represent in international markets many of Chile’s foremost writing, directing and acting talents.

Many writers are connected to Chile’s fast-growing premium drama/audio scene. Julio Rojas, one Agencia La Luz client, created and wrote “Case 63,” Spotify’s most-listened-to scripted original podcast in Latin America, with an English-language version I the works starring Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac, and co-wrote Pablo Fendrik’s Latino sci-fi series ‘The Shelter,’ from Starzplay, Pantaya, Fabula, Fremantle.

Enrique Videla and Paula del Fierro co-wrote Lucia Puenzo’s “La Jauría” for Fabula and Fremantle, while Videla, one of Chile’s biggest go-to scribes, co-wrote “Dignity” for Germany’s Joyn, “42 Days of Darkness” for Fabula and Netflix, “The Shelter” and “The Cliff” for The Mediapro Studio.

Agencia La Luz’s director...

Coinciding with its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has provided Variety with an exclusive peek at the trailer for Chilean writer-director Fernando Guzzoni’s (“Jesus”) thriller, “Blanquita.”

Based on the young witness at the center of the Spinak case, a scandal involving Chilean pedophilia and prostitution networks that rocked the country, the film grapples with morality and the struggle towards justice for those without means.

In the film, Blanca (Laura López) leads investigators, and the public, on a baffling journey as she plants herself at the center of a trial against powerful politicians.

“I think that what seduced me about the case is how a girl who was an outsider kept the entire Chilean community on edge for almost a year,” relayed Guzzoni.

“Her appearance in the case seemed very performative to me and how she, to some extent, built a character that...

A theatrical release is planned for the end of the year or early 2023.

New Wave Films has picked up Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title 1976 for UK-Ireland distribution from Paris-based sales agent Luxbox.

The drama is the directorial debut of Chilean actor Manuela Martelli. An upper middle-class woman has a secret awakening during the early years of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime, and gets drawn into the political opposition when she is asked by the family priest to take care of an injured man who is in hiding.

A theatrical release is planned for the end of 2022/early 2023.

Chilean writer-directors Omar Zuniga...

Distributor plans theatrical release next winter.

Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights from Luxbox Films to Manuela Martelli’s Chilean drama and Cannes Directors’ Fortnight selection 1976, which has been renamed Chile 1976.

‘1976’: Cannes Review

Actor Martelli’s directorial debut takes place in the early years of the Augusto Pinochet regime as an upper middle-class woman gets drawn into the political opposition when she is asked by the family priest to take care of an injured man who is in hiding.

Aline Kuppenheim stars alongside Nicolás Sepúlveda, Hugo Medina and Alejandro Goic and acted with Martelli in Machuca. Martelli co-wrote the screenplay with Alejandra Moffat.

Prestige French distribution house Dulac Distribution has closed rights to France on “1976,” one of the most awaited of films to come out of Chile this year, which will world premiere next month at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

The buzzed up title represents the first feature from young Chilean actor-turned-director Manuela Martelli, star of Andrés Wood’s “Machuca” and Alicia Scherson’s “Il Futuro.”

Worldwide sales rights on “1976” are represented by Paris-based Luxbox, adding to its lengthening list of high profile pick-ups from Latin America which include Nathalie Alvarez Mesén’s “Clara Sola,” Alejandra Márquez’s “The Good Girls,” Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses” and Benjamín Naishtat’s “Rojo.”

The acquisition in a key territory for non English-language art films comes just weeks after “1976” walked off with three of the biggest awards at the Toulouse Latin American Festival’s Films in Progress, including the pix-in-post competition’s Grand Prix and Cine Plus...

These are the submissions for the international film Oscar by country. The deadline for entries was Nov. 1. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced Dec. 21 and the nominations will come out Feb 8. The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27 at the Dolby Theatre. The Academy has not yet released a final list of entries; Variety compiled this list from individual country’s announcements.

Albania

Two Lions Heading to Venice

Dir. Jonid Jorji

Key cast: Vasjan Lami, Alessandra Bonarotta

Logline: A pair of filmmakers heading to the Venice festival are sidetracked from their destination after meeting two adult film actors.

Prodco: Bajo Films

Algeria

Heliopolis

Dir. Djaafar Gacem

Key cast: Souhila Mallem, Mehdi Ramdani, Cesar Duminil

Logline: True story of an uprising in the Algerian town of Guelma that was violently put down by the colonial French rulers.

Prodco: Hewes Pictures

Argentina

The Intruder

Dir. Natalia Meta

Key cast: Guillermo Arengo,...

France’s Manny Films has boarded Chilean feature “Maybe It Is True What They Are Saying About Us,” and will co-produce alongside leading Chilean independent label Storyboard Media and Argentina’s Murillo Cine, whose credits include Cannes sidebar entries “The Snatch Thief” and “Land of Ashes.”

“We are thrilled that Manny Films is joining as a co-producer on this exciting film,” Storyboard’s Carlos Nuñez told Variety. “Their involvement will go a long way in our continued efforts to promote this project internationally. Our idea is now to film later this year.”

Manny’s history of working with top Latin American talent is long and lauded. The company has co-produced award-winning fare such as Cannes players “Ardor” from Pablo Fendrik and “The Chosen Ones” from David Pablos, Venice competition player “Compañeros” from Alvaro Brechner and last year’s best film in a foreign language winner “Tragic Jungle” from Yulene Olaizola.

"You have too much on your mind, buddy..." Netflix has unveiled an official trailer for a Chilean film titled Nobody Knows I'm Here, marking the feature debut of a filmmaker named Gaspar Antillo. He's backed by the award-winning, acclaimed Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain who produced this. "Lost" star Jorge Garcia plays Memo Garrido, a lonely former child singer now living in seclusion in southern Chile. When Marta arrives, his life changes forever, forcing him to face his past and take an opportunity for redemption. That's a vague synopsis, but this trailer sets up the story better. The cast includes Juan Falcón, Nelson Brodt, Julio Fuentes, Luis Gnecco, Alejandro Goic, María Paz Grandjean, Solange Lackington, and Millaray Lobos. This looks really good! I especially like the cinematography - gorgeous shots in this. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Gaspar Antillo's Nobody Knows I'm Here, on Netflix's YouTube: Memo lives on a remote Chilean sheep farm,...

Argentina’s Murillo Cine, whose credits include Cannes sidebar entries “The Snatch Thief” and “Land of Ashes,” has boarded “Quizás es Cierto lo Que Dicen de Nosotras” (“Maybe It’s True What They Are Saying About Us”), a chilling drama from Chilean producers Storyboard Media and La Jauria.

Set to start filming next year with co-scribes Camilo Becerra and Sofia Gomez at the helm, “Maybe It’s True…” stars Aline Kuppenheim (“A Fantastic Woman”), newcomer Camila Roschman and Chilean film and TV actor Alejandro Goic.

Based on real events, “Maybe It’s True…” delves into the disturbing story of a young mother whose newborn was sacrificed by the sect to which she belonged. She appeals to her estranged mother for help but the mother, in her attempt to learn the truth, realizes that her daughter may have actually been complicit in the crime.

“We want to show that something so...

Following up hit Chilean Netflix series “Bala Loca,” David Miranda Hardy, head of content development at Santiago-based Filmo Estudios, is developing a new crime thriller set against the backdrop of the ongoing dispute between the Mapuche indigenous people and the Chilean state.

“En la Frontera” (“The Frontier”) – one of the 10 finalist projects taking part in Pitch Copro Series at the Conecta Fiction TV co-production event in Pamplona, Spain, this year – grew out of a concept by novelist and screenwriter Simón Soto.

Soto approached Filmo Estudios following the release of “Bala Loca” with the idea of a crime thriller set at the center of the Mapuche conflict, said Hardy.

“We immediately clicked and started developing this story about a fascinating struggle that connects us with the whole continent and its history: From Canada and the U.S. to Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, we all share these cultural and territorial disputes in our DNA as Americans.

Guadalajara, Mexico — Chile’s Storyboard Media has granted Variety exclusive access to the teaser for the upcoming Camilo Becerra and Sofía Gómez feature “Quizás es cierto lo que dicen de nosotras” (“Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us”).

Storyboard heads Carlos Nuñez and Gabriela Sandoval are at the Guadalajara Intl. Film Festival (Ficg), where Sandoval is a juror for the Ibero-American fiction feature film competition, looking for a minority co-producer and a sales agent.

In the teaser we get a taste of the estranged relationship between mother Ximena and her daughter Tamara, and the trauma that looms large over them.

After years apart, Tamara returns home with the ghastly news that her recently newborn baby has been sacrificed to a religious sect that she was recruited into. The police get involved and Ximena sets out on an investigation of her own to find out exactly what happened.

With...

Madrid — Isolation: Chile’s distance, the walls of the Andes, make it one of the topoi of its culture. It also threads multiple Sanfic shorts this year, as lead characters – the housekeeper- wife in “The Lighthouse Builder,” the lonely janitor of “Swimmer,” the father in “Descansar,” the Colombian immigrant in “Gala,” the ex anti-Pinochet guerrillero of “” – live out varying forms of withering solitude. Another more strident theme: Sexual abuse by men in power, whether a movie maker (“Danger & Alone”), a cult leader (“The Summer of the Electric Lion”), a priest (“Deliver Us From Evil”) or a father (“Más allá de la duda”). The shorts boast performances by some of the greatest actors working in Chile today: Francisca Gavilán (“Violeta”), Alejandro Goic (“The Club”) to cite just two. Sometimes made by established talent – animator Tomás Welss, with “Magic Dream” – they also flag potential major new talent to come. Here’s a...

JESÚS Breaking Glass Pictures Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B Director: Fernando Guzzoni Written by: Fernando Guzzoni Cast: Nicolás Durán, Alejandro Goic, Gastón Salgado, Sebastían Ayala, Esteban González Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 9/14/17 Opens: September 1, 2017 with September 19, 2017 DVD/VOD In the superb episodic TV drama “Homeland,” a 16-year-old girl involved […]

The post Jesus Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Jesús premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last autumn.

Breaking Glass Pictures, who acquired North American rights to Chilean writer-director Fernando Guzzoni’s Jesús last November, has unveiled release dates for the film.

Jesús will open theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on September 1, New Orleans on September 8, with other markets to follow leading up to the DVD/VOD release on September 19.

Nicolás Durán and Alejandro Goic star in the film that centres on eighteen-year-old Jesús, who is trapped in a dead end cycle of drugs, sex, apathy, and an obsession with violence.

After he and his friends attack a young boy, Jesús has no choice but to turn to his father for help, despite their troubled relationship.

The film held its Us premiere at the Neighboring Scenes Series held by the Film Society of the Lincoln Center in New York City.

Jacques Bidou, Marianne Dumoulin, Giancarlo Nasi produced, while [link=nm...

The distributor has picked up North American rights to Fernando Guzzoni’s thriller, which premiered in Toronto last autumn.

Jesús went on to screen at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and will receive its Us premiere at the Neighboring Voices Series held by the Film Society of the Lincoln Center in New York City.

Nicolás Durán stars alongside Pablo Larrain collaborator Alejandro Goic in the story of a Santiago teenager who gets involved in an incident that may tear him apart from his father, with whom he has a fraught relationship.

Breaking Glass CEO Richard Wolff and Amanda Rae Simon negotiated the deal with Premium Films CEO Jean-Charles Mille and Leslie Saussereau.

“Fernando Guzzoni has crafted an intense and unrelenting thriller about the strained relationship between a dysfunctional father and son, which implodes when the boy commits a heinous act and turns to his father for help,” said Richard Ross, co-president of [link...

When a few hundred films stop by the 41st Toronto International Film Festival, it’s certainly impossible to cover everything, but we were able to catch over 120 features — and, with that, it’s time to conclude our experience, following the festival’s own award winners. We’ve rounded up our top 20 films seen during the festival, followed by a list of the complete coverage.

Stay tuned over the next months (or years) as we bring updates on films as they make their way to screens. Note that we didn’t include films screened at other festivals in our “best of” round-up, but you can see Venice, Cannes, Berlin, and Sundance wrap-ups at those links, which feature some of the most-praised films of the festival, including La La Land, Arrival, Manchester by the Sea, Certain Women, Elle, Things to Come, Nocturnal Animals, and many more.

One can also click here for...

Adolescent hijinks turn tragic on multiple fronts in Fernando Guzzoni‘s Jesús despite my not being sure there was going to be a solid point to the film until mid-way through. Everything previous merely sat as a slice of life for the titular character, a normal everyday Chilean punk named Jesús (Nicolás Durán) with too much autonomy and not enough direction. He’s practically raising himself after the death of his mother, Dad (Alejandro Goic‘s Héctor) constantly out of town working. So the eighteen-year old roams the streets dancing with a Korean Pop band for kicks, breaking into parks at night to drink and do whippits, or cruising for girls at parties to earn a blowjob. He means well most times, but his malleability when drunk inevitably spells trouble.

And it’s a good thing trouble comes — not for him, but the audience. Before then the only real action occurs off-screen,...

The trailer is now online for Pablo Larrain's upcoming film Neruda, starring Gael García Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Alfredo Castro, Alejandro Goic, Jaime Vadell, Marcelo Alonso, Roberto Farías, Mercedes Morán and Pablo Derquí.

The film follows an inspector (Gael García Bernal) who hunts down Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) after Neruda becomes a fugitive in his home country of Chile in the late 1940s for joining the Communist Party.

Currently the film is seeking Us distribution and is screening at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Hopefully it will get some kind of Us release since Larrain has another interesting film coming out next year titled Jackie, starring Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard. The film is an account of the days of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy during the immediate aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

You can check out the trailer for Neruda below. 

Kellvin...

The Club (El Club) Music Box Films Reviewed by: Harvey Karten for  Shockya. Databased on Rotten Tomatoes. Grade: A- Director:  Pablo Larraín Written by:  Pablo Larraín, Guillermo Calderón Cast: Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers, Jaime Vadell, Alejandro Goic, Alejandro Sieveking, Marcelo Alonso, José Soza, Francisco Reyes Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 1/27/16 Opens:  February 5, 2016 If you have ever been a New York City teacher in the public school system, you will be familiar with the now defunct rubber room.  This was a place that functioned as a halfway house, as it were, for tenured teachers who had been brought up on charges by their principals.  They were  [ Read More ]

The post The Club Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Living Under Your Spotlight: Larrain Paints it Black with Catholic Crisis Comedy

For his first film following the finale of his narrative trilogy documenting the virulence of the Pinochet dictatorship (Tony Manero; Post Mortem; No), Chilean auteur Pablo Larrain returns with a macabre tale of sacerdotal infringements within the Catholic Church in the ludicrous, perverse, and vibrantly entertaining The Club. Starring his usual collaborator, Alfredo Castro, Larrain, along with screenwriters Daniel Villalobos and Guillermo Calderon (2011’s Violeta Went to Heaven) concoct a bizarre tale concerning a cloister of ex-Catholic priests holed up within the confines of an isolated seaside monastery. Relocated out of circulation as punishment by the church, the disparate men languish in all the comforts of an unassuming retirement home community on the church’s dime.

On the coastal extremity of Chile, four men (Alfredo Castro; Jaime Vadell; Alejandro Goic; Alejandro Sieveking) reside together in a home under...

Films include Shepherds and Butchers with Steve Coogan; Don’t Call Me Son from Anna Muylaert; and a documentary about a director and actress who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il.

The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.

A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.

Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer who faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself, in a case...

Films include Shepherds and Butchers, starring Steve Coogan; Don’t Call Me Son from Anna Muylaert; and a documentary about a director and actress who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il and forced to make films.

The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.

A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.

Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself...

When Chilean director Pablo Larraín showed up at this year’s Berlin Film Festival with “The Club,” no one knew quite what to expect. Indeed, details of the film’s very existence had been kept quite fairly quiet — but the picture turned out to be a resounding success. It took home of the Silver Bear in Berlin, earned more prizes on the festival circuit, was selected as Chile’s Oscar contender, and recently landed a Golden Globe nomination. Now the picture is headed to cinemas, and the first trailer has arrived. Starring Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers, Jaime Vadell, Alejandro Goic, Alejandro Sieveking, Marcelo Alonso, José Soza, and Francisco Reyes, the film is set in a remote seaside town where priests have been exiled to atone for their sins. But soon, they must face an incursion from the outside world. Here’s the official synopsis: In a secluded house...