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Reuniting two of the producers behind Walter Salles’ Oscar winning “I’m Still Here,” “Queen of the South” lead Alice Braga will star in an adaptation of Cannes jury member Leila Slimani’s debut novel “In the Garden of the Ogre,” produced by Conspiraçao, one of Brazil’s top producers, and Globoplay, the VOD service of Brazilian TV giant Globo.

To be directed by Carolina Jabor (“Liquid Truth”), the big screen makeover of the renowned Moroccan-French author figures as the second title in a four-pic co-production pact announced in 2023 by Globoplay and the Walt Disney Company, with Disney’s Star Original Productions, its label dedicated to Brazilian productions, co-producing the feature.

Announced by Variety at the Cannes Festival, the adaptation turns on Júlia, a successful journalist lives comfortably in São Paulo with her surgeon husband and young son. However, she hides a secret: her addiction to risky sex.

“When her husband...

Grupo Globo, the biggest production force in Latin America, has sold the format of the major hit drama series “The Others” for Greece and German-speaking territories and the format for the anthology series “Justice” for Greece, Variety can exclusively announce.

In Greece, “Justice: Life is Not Fair” will be produced by Primavisione and broadcast by Alpha. In “the case of The Others”, the agreement provides for production and exhibition by Alpha.

For German-speaking territories, ndF (neue deutsche Filmgesellschaft) takes over production on “The Others” and may add a partner for exhibition.

Created by Manuela Dias (“A Mother’s Love”), “Justice: Life is Not Fair” was nominated for the International Emmy for Best Actress with Adriana Esteves and for Best Drama Series. “The Others”, by Lucas Paraizo (“Under Pressure”), follows two neighboring couples who clash after their teenage sons’ fight with absurd and escalating consequences.

Angela Colla, head of international business and coproductions,...

Spain’s Zeta Studios, the company behind Netflix hit “Elite,” has partnered with leading Brazilian indie Conspiração to create “Bajo Presión,” a Spanish remake of the hit Brazilian TV medical drama, “Sob Pressão”(“Under Pressure”).

Set in the emergency room of a public hospital, Brazil’s “Under Pressure” hit a sweet spot, mixing large suspense – about the fate of patients, and the series’ long term relationship – and a bracing social realism. The story revolves around a surgeon (Julio Andrade) and doctor (Marjorie Estiano) battling not only for their relationship but also against the severe lack of hospital resources. As they navigate this challenging landscape, their professional values, ingenuity and mounting desperation collide.

The original five-season series for Brazilian media giant Globo was developed by Claudio Torres, Jorge Furtado, Renato Fagundes, and Luiz Noronha and penned by Lucas Paraízo.

It draws inspiration from “Me You Them” director Andrucha Waddington’s film of the same name,...

Globoplay, the freemium streaming service of Brazilian media giant Globo, has renewed flagship series “Dissident Archangel” for a fourth season as Latin America’s biggest local streamer is hitting pay dust forging franchises of its own making, led by stylish crime action thrillers which question their own brutality.

“Sessão de Terapia,” Brazil’s equivalent of “In Treatment,” both re-versioning Israeli original “BeTipul,” has also been re-upped for a sixth season.

The renewals come after acclaimed ER drama “Under Pressure,” screened at Toronto, ran to five instalments over 2017-22; “The Others” returns this August and “Rensga Hits!” later this year, with a third season completing production.

Brazil’s First ‘Afroverso’: ‘Anti-Kidnapping Unit,’ ‘Dissident Archangel,’ ‘The Game’

Why Globoplay homegrown franchises are lifting off is another question. The most impactful answer is three series made with AfroReggae Audiovisual, the film-tv offshoot of Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, a Rio-based Ngo created to offer...

A violent courtyard scuffle between teens roils into a string of increasingly devious and vengeful acts perpetrated by their parents in creator Lucas Paraízo’s “The Others.” Slated to screen at this week’s Mipcom market in Cannes, the Globoplay original series tackles masculinity and miscommunication with urgency.

Paraízo, whose prior medical drama “Under Pressure” sold to more than 60 countries, expressed an interest in breaking down the intricacies surrounding the frail state of human connection and points to intolerance for a lack of constructive everyday dialogue.

“The series brought this idea to a scenario in which neighbors don’t know how to live with differences and are unable to accept the view of the ‘other.’ In that sense, I consider the series to be quite universal. We all live surrounded by neighbors anywhere in the world, but we’re increasingly less willing to dialogue and negotiate points of view,” Paraízo told Variety.

Few Brazilian series have won such plaudits abroad as high-end medical procedural ”Under Pressure,” which was selected for the Toronto Festival, swept French Fipa TV festival awards, and is hailed as a signature series in the drive by Globo, Latin America’s biggest media company, into non-escapist, international standard social issue series.

As Brazil has become one of he three countries with the most Covid-19 infections in the world, Globo aired an “Under Pressure” two-episode special that tackles head on the experience of the medical staff during its hard times.

The series, which has already been licensed in more than 65 countries, managed to produce both episodes in just four months between the first writers’ meeting and the episodes airing. In between, the death toll of the country has skyrocketed from 36,000 to over 150,000.

Co-produced by Globo and Conpiraçao, “Under Pressure – Covid Special” was written by Lucas Paraizo and directed by Andrucha Waddington.

In this week’s International Newswire “Cupcake & Dino” head down under, “Aruanas” gets a second season at Globo, South Africa’s Via commissions local “Date in Reverse,” Channel 4 announced 20th anniversary special season for “Location, Location, Location” and Magnify announces a Swedish version of “Fittest Family.”

“Cupcake & Dino” Land in Australia, New Zealand

Entertainment One (eOne) announced that WarnerMedia Entertainment Networks has acquired pay-tv broadcast rights to Season 1 of animated kids’ series “Cupcake & Dino: General Services” in Australia and New Zealand. A co-production between Brazil’s Birdo Studios and eOne, the series was created by Brazilian cartoonist Pedro Eboli, and follows ambitious Cupcake and his big brother Dino as they work to build their own general services company. While the series is aimed primarily at kids 6-11, it has been a hit with adult audiences as well thanks to its off-the-wall humor and heartfelt relationships. Episodes will begin...

“Under Pressure,” the highest-profile international series from Latin America’s biggest TV player, Brazil’s Globo, will turn in Season 4 on the Covid-19 crisis, feature the death of one key cast member, and stress the need for social transformation.

Season 4’s coronavirus focus was announced early May by newspaper O Globo. Further details, revealed by “Under Pressure” lead writer Lucas Paraizo, come as Globo prepares to unleash its latest sales slate of telenovelas, mini-series and series at the 2020 Virtual Screenings from May 12, with one undoubted highlight in “Under Pressure” Season 3.

Breaking years-old time-slot records when it bowed in July 2017 in Tuesday 10.30 pm late primetime – a day and grid berth it will retain for Season 4, said Paraizo – “Under Pressure” (“Sob Pressão”) signaled part of a revolution at Globo as the TV giant embraced the formats and concentration of ideas and length of international drama, but grounding them in an action-defining Brazilian reality.

The Austin Film Festival said Friday that Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, the Harriet Tubman biopic Harriet and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s The Truth will be in the lineup for the 26th annual fest, which is set for October 24-31.

The first wave of films also includes the world premieres of the documentary Cowboys, written and directed by Austin natives John Langmore and Bud Force; The Animal People, from executive producer Joaquin Phoenix; The Vice Guide to Bigfoot; and the Texas crime thriller Sleeping in Plastic, from writer-director Van Ditthavong.

Also set for the fest is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Oh My God I Think It’s Over, a documentary that follows the making of the show’s series-finale episode which aired in April. Rachel Bloom, Aline Brosh McKenna and director Katie Hyde will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&a.

Here’s the first round of films set for the lineup,...

Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro excels at digging inside distinctive worlds and transforming them into poetry. His first two narrative features, “Neon Bull” and “August Wind” are lyrically transcendent works that blur the lines between reality and fiction. That makes the premise of his latest effort a welcome surprise: While “Neon Bull” depicted nomadic rodeo performers and “August Winds” reveled in the romance of a remote fishing village, “Divine Love” is an allegorical sci-fi story set in the near future.

Nevertheless, Mascaro and cinematographer Diego García have crafted a lush, intricate sociopolitical commentary that builds on the filmmaker’s inquisitive approach even as it sometimes overextends its ambition.

The movie takes its time developing its setup. At its center is Joana (Dira Paes), a devout Evangelical woman who works in Brazil’s notary office in 2027. Keen on talking would-be divorced couples into salvaging their crumbling marriages, she often coaxes them into...

Exclusive: Here’s an atmospheric first teaser trailer for Neon Bull director Gabriel Mascaro’s latest film, Divine Love (Divino Amor), which will be playing at Sundance and Berlin.

Set in a theocratic Brazil in the year 2027, the film follows a deeply religious woman who uses her position in a notary’s office to try to prevent couples from divorcing. Whilst waiting for a divine sign in recognition of her efforts, she’s confronted with a crisis that ultimately brings her closer to God.

Mascaro’s debut August Winds premiered at Locarno in 2014 and the Brazilian director’s most recent effort Neon Bull (2015) played to acclaim at Venice, Toronto and London. Dp is Diego Garcia (Wildlife) and cast includes Dira Paes, Julio Machado and Emilio de Mello.

A co-production between Brazil, Uruguay, Denmark, Norway, Chile and Sweden, the film is produced (and co-written) by Rachel Ellis with a bevy of co-producers.

Brazil’s Fellipe Barbosa and Clara Linhart are following up the success of their Cannes Critics’ Week player “Gabriel and the Mountain,” with “Domingo,” an intimate look at a bourgeoisie Brazilian family over New Year’s weekend during the 2003 inauguration of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The film will compete in the main competition at this year’s Venice Days, then segues to the Toronto Festival’s Contemporary World Cinema showcase.

“Domingo” follows two sides of an old money family, together for a weekend in a poorly-maintained mansion where the family matriarch spent much of her childhood. What starts as a typical barbeque finds its drama amongst the raging hormones of teenage boys, a rainstorm which drives the family into the confines of the home, and too much champagne, mixed with a hidden box of cocaine.

Just as the house from a bygone era shows signs of deterioration,...

An attractive male swimming instructor is accused of inappropriately kissing a six-year-old boy in Carolina Jabor’s perceptive, handsomely made “Liquid Truth.” Comparisons are inevitable with Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Hunt,” but the topic was hardly exhausted by that one film, and Jabor’s Brazilian take is less focused on the insidiously oppressive social atmosphere, though it hardly shies away from demonizing unproven accusations.

Taking inspiration from a play by Catalan author Josep Maria Miró and Ventura Pons’ 2015 film “Virus of Fear,” screenwriter Lucas Paraizo (“Gabriel and the Mountain”) brings heightened awareness to the pernicious conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia, and while some tightening is in order, “Liquid Truth” delivers a satisfying cinematic experience that resulted in several awards at the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival, including the audience prize.

Something’s bothering little Alex (Luiz Felipe Mello), but like most six-year-olds, he’s not very verbal. More likely than not,...