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Taskovski Films Sales has picked up documentary “To Close Your Eyes and See Fire,” directed by Nicola von Leffern and Jakob Carl Sauer. The film will have its world premiere at the Zurich Film Festival.

The film follows the after-effects of the explosion in Beirut, which left the city in ruins. Collective trauma rises to the surface. How can life succeed after such a tragedy?

The film carefully observes the following three years and zooms in on the lives of Aya – a Syrian refugee girl, Selim – an activist and painter, the Aladdin family – mourning a tragic loss, Yasmin – picking up calls at a suicide prevention hotline, and Andrea – who still believes in the city‘s spark for change. Meanwhile, a smoldering fire keeps on lingering in the port’s silos like a cautionary tale. Is it time to leave?

The film is directed and produced by Jakob Carl Sauer and Nicola von Leffern.

Der von der Hamburger Red Balloon Film koproduzierte „Happy Holidays“ von Scandar Copti wurde bei den Orizzonti Awards für das beste Drehbuch ausgezeichnet. Der Publikumspreis von Orizzonti Extra ging an die deutsch-österreichische Koproduktion „Shahed“/„The Witness” von Nader Saeivar.

„Happy Holidays“ (Credit: Fresco Films – Red Balloon Film – Tessalit Productions – Intramovies)

Gestern wurden nicht nur die Löwen des Hauptwettbewerbs vergeben in Venedig, sondern auch die Preise des Orizzonti-Wettbewerbs. Hier wurde der palästinische Regisseur und Autor Scandar Copti für seinen zweiten Spielfilm, „Happy Holidays“, mit dem Preis für das beste Drehbuch geehrt. Sein in Israel angesiedeltes Familiendrama, das auch nach Toronto eingeladen wurde, ist Koproduktion der Hamburger Red Balloon Film von Dorothe Beinemeier. Coptis Debüt „Ajami – Stadt der Götter“ von 2009 wurde bei der 82. Oscarverleihung als bester fremdsprachiger Film nominiert.

Mit gleich drei Preisen wurde der Orizzonti-Beitrag „Familiar Touch“ von Sarah Friedland ausgezeichnet: für die beste Regie, die beste Darstellerin (Kathleen Chalfant...

“The Witness,” premiering at the Venice Film Festival, has sold to Benelux (Edgy), France (Jour2fete) and No.mad Entertainment (Italy). The film’s German distributor is Missing Films as previously reported. The film, which is directed by Nader Saeivar, and co-written by Saeivar and Jafar Panahi, is debuting its trailer (below).

“I’ve been working with Jafar Panahi since 2017 and ‘3 Faces.’ He taught me it’s possible to make a good film with a small group of people, in secret. Perhaps this type of filmmaking was actually invented by Panahi himself?” wondered Saeivar. Repeatedly persecuted and arrested, Panahi was recently released from jail in 2023 after he went on hunger strike.

“I am proud he’s been by my side, like a teacher, in all three films I’ve made. I learnt not to be afraid, not to make excuses and just make movies.”

In “The Witness,” a retired dance teacher...

Exclusive: Female and non-binary filmmaker-focused international training initiative Circle has kicked off its inaugural Circle Fiction Orbit initiative at a meeting in Montenegro and unveiled the participants.

The new program extends Circle’s activities beyond its founding Woman Doc Accelerator program, which has supported some 50 non-fiction projects since its launch five years ago.

Employing the same methodology as the Doc Accelerator, the inaugural fiction initiative is supporting five fiction projects in development.

They include Greenlandic birthday party-set drama Kaffemi, from director Pipaluk Jørgensen, whose short film Ivalu was Oscar nominated this year, and screenwriter-actress Nukâka Coster Waldau.

Italian director Irene Dionisio participates with Idda about two childhood friends who reconnect as they scale the perilous slopes of Mount Etna. Dionisio previously made waves with Pawn Streets which played in Venice Critics’ Week.

Finnish director Laura Hyppönen and producer Merja Ritola (Greenlit Productions) are attending with Lex Julia, exploring the dynamics...

Further titles include ‘Eismayer’ and ’You Can Live Forever’.

UK LGBTQ+ specialist Peccadillo Pictures has picked up The Lost Boys from Paris-based Indie Sales for distribution in the UK and Ireland, following its premiere in the Generation strand at the Berlinale, plus a raft of other titles off the back of the European Film Market (EFM).

Belgian filmmaker Zeno Graton’s The Lost Boys sees two young men attempt to keep their burgeoning relationship under wraps at a tough juvenile detention centre. It stars Peter Von Kant’s Khalil Ben Gharbia alongside Julien De Saint Jean. It is produced by...

Austrian director David Wagner’s feature debut “Eismayer,” which has its world premiere in Venice Critics’ Week on Sunday, has been picked up for international sales by Paris-based Loco Films. The trailer for the film debuts here (below).

In a statement, Loco’s chiefs Laurent Danielou and Arnaud Godart said: “From this true and extraordinary story, [Wagner] managed to make a very subtle and cinematic film.”

The film centers on Sergeant Major Eismayer, who is known and feared as the toughest training officer in the Austrian armed forces, ruthless with recruits and unwavering in his discipline, order and macho toughness. But when he starts to fall in love with Falak, a new recruit who unashamedly embraces his homosexuality, Eismayer’s closeted existence is shaken to the core. To a man like Eismayer, loving another man cannot be reconciled with the understanding of what a model soldier should be. Will he choose to protect his badass,...

Producers will learn about sustaining business foundations.

Match Factory Productions’ Michael Weber is one of 12 producers and film professionals on the inaugural Ace Leadership Special, a workshop to improve business prospects for industry leaders.

Supported by Creative Europe Media and the Netherlands Film Fund, the programme will take place in the Netherlands in June and in France in September this year.

Scroll down for the full list of producers

In a workshop format, the selected producers will learn how to sustain sound business foundations, improve performance and prospects for their teams, and develop personal leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

Eve Gabereau,...

The aim is to shoot in summer next year with a mix of UK and European actors.

UK-based sales agency Bankside Films has boarded worldwide rights on Terrence Davies’ upcoming feature The Post Office Girl, adapted from the Stefan Zweig novel.

Davies has been scouting locations on the project in Vienna this week, with the aim to shoot in summer next year with a mix of UK and European actors.

The Post Office Girl screenplay has already been fully developed by UK producers, Sheryl Crown of Rubicon Pictures and Ruth Caleb.

The project is being put together as an Austrian/UK co-production with Austrian Producers,...

The presentation will take place during Mia on October 14.

Projects from the UK, Germany and Belgium are among the nine chosen for SeriesLab, a training programme for international TV series projects run by TorinoFilmLab (Tfl).

The nine projects, selected from 120 entries, will be presented to attendees at the Mia market in Rome on October 14, moderated by Tfl pitching trainer Luigi Ventriglia.

The series include UK drama Coalville, about five teenagers in a working-class village near Nottingham, who have six weeks of freedom after finishing high school. The project is written and directed by Margo Roe, and produced by Lucy Meer for Strive Films.

Drama series from the UK, Belgium and Austria among development line-up.

Italy’s TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has unveiled the nine projects selected for its upcoming TV development platform SeriesLab, including a new period thriller from the Riahi brothers.

The industry programme, which mentors European scriptwriters, directors and producers, selected this year’s cohort from 125 projects. A total of 10 European countries are represented across the nine projects, which are brought by 12 female participants and eight men.

The titles include 30 Bullets by Iranian-born, Austrian-based filmmakers Arash T. Riahi and Arman T.Riahi. Set in the 1990s, the drama series is described as “the...

Visions du Reél world premiere feature “The Bubble,” playing in the festival’s International Competition, provides a candid look at the often-surreal senior citizen life within The Villages, America’s largest retirement community, in Central Florida. More than 150,000 retirees call The Villages home, and have access to its 96 recreation centers, 54 golf courses, 70 pools, three town squares and nearly 3,000 recognized social clubs.

Beneath the surface, however, the film asks important questions of class – according to one resident in the film 80% of the nation’s private wealth belongs to people over 65 years old, race – the overwhelming majority of retired people in the U.S. are white, and the impact The Villages has on surrounding communities. The film also examines how society treats those who age out of the workforce. Often neglected by family and their communities at home, many who settle in The Villages rediscover their own agency and find a new...

For its first edition the International Migration Film Festival has assembled a diverse lineup of eight titles tackling the plight of refugees and migrants around the world and running the gamut from feelgood comedy to gut-wrenching dramas and docs.

They will vie for a best feature film award worth €15,000 and also a prize for most inspiring script worth €5,000, both to be decided by a prestigious international jury comprising Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who serves as jury president, American actor Danny Glover, Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini, Bosnian actor Emir Hadzihafizbegovic, Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig, and British costume designer Sandy Powell.

The selection, which will be visible in Turkey June 14-21 on the FestivalScope platform, serves as a nice primer of recent pics tackling the topic, but also as “a reminder to not let people forget about refugees” during this time when the coronavirus pandemic – which has also greatly added to...

Turkey, which hosts the largest number of migrants in the world, is launching the International Migration Film Festival that aims to boost awareness of their plight and will also serve as a primer of global cinematic output on this timely topic.

There are currently an estimated roughly 4 million migrants in Turkey, most of whom are refugees from war-torn Syria. The festival is a Turkish government initiative being organized by a team of independent local film event professionals. For its first edition the team has assembled a rich lineup of more than 40 films from 25 countries and recruited some big names including Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who serves as jury president (see interview), F. Murray Abraham, Danny Glover, Lone Scherfig, Matt Dillon and Turkish star Tuba Buyukustun, her country’s first International Emmy Award Nominee, also known across the Middle East as Lamiss.

Abraham, who is the son of a Syrian migrant and...

New York-based sales agent Cargo Film & Releasing has snapped up U.S. rights to feature documentary “Once Upon a Time in Venezuela” ahead of its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Rise and Shine holds international rights to the doc, which bows in the World Cinema Documentary Competition in Park City later this month.

The film, which is shot over seven years, centres on the Venezuelan fishing village of Congo Mirador, a once prosperous commercial and social hub that has spiralled into chaos and violence – reflecting the turbulent political climate that has ravaged the South American country in recent years.

At the center of the village’s existential fight stands two female leaders, including a Chavez-worshipping coordinator who is not above bribery and intimidation, and her most vocal critic – a local school teacher.

“Once Upon a Time in Venezuela” is directed by Venezuelan filmmaker Anabel Rodríguez Ríos and produced by Sepp R. Brudermann.

The Ace Series Special is running Nov 4-9 in Brussels.

European producers organisation Ace Producers has unveiled the selection of sixteen producers who will participate in its inaugural TV drama-focused initiative, the Ace Series Special, running Nov 4-9 in Brussels.

The programme is aimed at experienced producers who want to create a series division within their film companies and, or deepen their knowledge of developing and producing TV drama series for an international audience. Each participant will attend with a series project in the early stages of development

They include Belgium’s Bart Van Langendonck at Savage Film, who will...

Meda Or The Not So Bright Side Of Things takes best director and best actor.Scroll down to see the full list of winners.

Ana Urushadze’s Gerogia-Estonia drama Scary Mother has won the top prize at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival, which concludes today (Aug 18).

The film took the Heart of Sarajevo for best feature film, which comes with a financial award of €16,000. It stars Nata Murvanidze as a 50-year-old housewife who experiences family struggles as she tries to complete her first novel.

The main competition saw Romanian director Emanuel Pârvu take the Heart of Sarajevo for best director for his film Meda Or The Not So Bright Side Of Things, which comes with €10,000.

Best actress went to Ornela Kapetani for Daybreak and best actor went to Şerban Pavlu for Meda Or The Not So Bright Side Of Things.

The jury, led by Michel Franco and featuring Mark Adams, Gordan Bogdan...

If you asked me what films I'd like to see in the final 5 tally, I would love to see the Academy embrace non-mainstream items such as the Romanian pic from Corneliu Porumboiu (Police, Adjective) and Bong Joon-ho's Mother (South Korea)... - Finally. With a disqualification here and there, the official list of countries competing for a nomination and then Oscar gold have been submitted and now its time to make some prognostications as to who among 65 will make the final five, or final three, since Sony Pictures Classics have a slam dunk in Palme d'or winner Haneke's The White Ribbon and Jacques Audiard's A Prophet - a "second place" winner at Cannes. If you asked me what films I'd like to see in the final 5 tally, I would love to see the Academy embrace non-mainstream items such as the Romanian pic from Corneliu Porumboiu (Police, Adjective) and...

The October 1st deadline for all countries wanting into the Academy Award's foreign-language film category has come and gone, but you wouldn't know it since no official list of films submitted has been published. - The October 1st deadline for all countries wanting into the Academy Award's foreign-language film category has come and gone, but you wouldn't know it since no official list of films submitted has been published. You could go tooth and nail on the web and film trades and you'd come up with nada, nothing, zero and zilch – and that goes for the official site. The Lemon of the Week goes to the Oscars for not publishing an official list, which sounds like a trivial complaint, but how difficult can it be for them to collect the titles, include the last minute additions and proudly issue a press release listing all participating nations/first round of nomination hopefuls.

From Albania to Vietnam, 65 countries are hoping that their film entries will get picked to fill one of the five slots for Best Foreign Language Film for the 82nd annual Academy Awards.

Five slots, 65 countries, the competition is fierce! Our friends from Variety gave us this list, is your country of choice one of the 65 hopefuls?

I'm happy that my home country, the Philippines, has a fighting chance with the dramedy "Ded na si Lolo" ("Grandpa is Dead"). Take a look at the complete list.

Albania

Alive!

(Artan Minarolli)

Synopsis: A carefree Albanian student gets drawn into an ancient blood feud when he returns home for a funeral, only to find himself a wanted man.

Awards: Belgrade Film Festival B2B development grant

Sales: Wildart Film

Argentina

El secreto de sus ojos

(Juan Jose Campanella)

Synopsis: An ambitious, complex work that combines two generation-spanning love stories, a noirish thriller, some...

London -- A slew of European Oscar wannabes will be hoping influential eyes from the Academy are among the attendees at next month's American Film Market in Santa Monica.

Trade promotions body, European Film Promotion, said it is supporting the screening of eight movies looking to secure a foreign language Oscar nomination slot.

Movies submitted by countries Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland and The Netherlands will unspool during the AFM from Nov. 4 through 11 at the Wilshire Screening Room in Beverly Hills, EFP said.

Screened for film professionals, selected press and Academy members, the octet of titles will be shown over five days in the afternoon and evening and supported with cash from the European Union's Media program.

The eight titles are Austria's entry "For A Moment Freedom," directed by Arash T. Riahi, the snappily titled "The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner," from Bulgaria and directed by Stephan Komandarev,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences unveiled the long list of 65 countries vying for a Best Foreign Language nomination Oscar.

Variety says that a shortlist of nine semi-finalists will be unveiled in January, with the complete nominees to be announced Feb. 2 along with the contenders in the other categories.

The Academy Awards will be presented March 7 at the Kodak Theater.

And now, from Albania to Vietnam, see the complete list right now (I.m proud that my home country of the Philippines has an entry!!!):

Albania, "Alive!," Artan Minarolli, director

Argentina, "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," Juan Jose Campanella, director

Armenia, "Autumn of the Magician," Rouben Kevorkov and Vaheh Kevorkov, directors

Australia, "Samson & Delilah," Warwick Thornton, director

Austria, "For a Moment Freedom," Arash T. Riahi, director

Bangladesh, "Beyond the Circle," Golam Rabbany Biplob, director

Belgium, "The Misfortunates," Felix van Groeningen, director

Bolivia, "Zona Sur," Juan Carlos Valdivia, director

Bosnia and Herzegovina,...

Jacques Audiard's French film "A Prophet," Michael Haneke's German film "The White Ribbon" and Korea's "Mother" -- three films that have figured prominently on this year's festival circuit -- are among the 65 films being considered for the foreign-language film Oscar.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released its list Thursday of the 65 countries that have submitted films for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.

Nominations will be announced on Feb. 2, and the awards ceremony will be held March 7.

The 2009 submissions follow (click the links on select countries for full stories):

Albania, "Alive!," Artan Minarolli, director;

Argentina, "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," Juan Jose Campanella

Armenia, "Autumn of the Magician," Rouben Kevorkov and Vaheh Kevorkov

Australia, "Samson & Delilah," Warwick Thornton

Austria, "For a Moment Freedom," Arash T. Riahi

Bangladesh, "Beyond the Circle," Golam Rabbany Biplob

Belgium, "The Misfortunates," Felix van Groeningen

Bolivia, "Zona Sur," Juan Carlos Valdivia

Bosnia and Herzegovina,...

Sixty-five countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 82nd Academy Awards®, Academy President Tom Sherak announced today. The 2009 submissions are: Albania, Alive! , Artan Minarolli, director; Argentina, El Secreto de Sus Ojos , Juan Jose Campanella, director; Armenia, Autumn of the Magician , Rouben Kevorkov and Vaheh Kevorkov, directors; Australia, Samson & Delilah , Warwick Thornton, director; Austria, For a Moment Freedom , Arash T. Riahi, director; Bangladesh, Beyond the Circle , Golam Rabbany Biplob, director; Belgium, The Misfortunates , Felix van Groeningen, director; Bolivia, Zona Sur , Juan Carlos Valdivia, director; Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nightguards , Namik Kabil, director; Brazil, Time of Fear ,...

The October 1st deadline for all countries wanting into the Academy Award's foreign-language film category has come and gone. According to IndieWIRE [1], The United Kingdom, which has predominantly submitted Welsh films over the years (if submitting at all), has surprisingly chosen the documentary Afghan Star as its 2009 submission for the Academy Awards. The last time the country received a nomination in this category was in 1999, when Paul Morrison's Welsh and Yiddish Solomon and Gaenor lost out to Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother. Synopsis After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, pop Idol has come to Afghanistan. Millions are watching the TV series 'Afghan Star' and voting for their favorite singers by mobile phone. For many this is their first encounter with democracy. This timely film follows the dramatic stories of four contestants as they risk all to become the nation's favorite singer. But will they...

A number of feature films have been unraveled to be vying for a 2010 Oscars nomination. With the closing date of submissions for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards' foreign language category fast-approaching, Philippine, Austria, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia are uncovered to have selected their candidate.

The Philippines will be represented by Soxie Topacio's dark comedy "Grandfather Is Dead (Ded na si Lolo)". The movie centers its story on one family's reaction to the sudden death of the patriarch. Austria brought forth "For a Moment Freedom", a movie about Iranian refugees and their journey to Austria by Iranian-Austrian filmmaker Arash T. Riahi.

Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia were fielding "Dawson, Isla 10", "Libertador morales, el justiciero" and "Southern Zone (Zona Sur)" respectively. Chosen to compete in Spain's Goya awards, "Dawson" is based on the autobiography of politician Sergio Bitar. "Libertador" follows a motorcyclist on a Robin Hood-style mission, and "Southern" revolves around a...