News

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has selected 16 films including seven world premieres for its Baltic Film Competition.

The section will open with the world premiere of Second World War drama Never Alone, from Finnish stalwart Klaus Haro.

Scroll down for the full list of Baltic Film Competition titles

Partly filmed in Estonia, the film tells the true story of Finnish Jewish businessman Abraham Stiller who struggled to protect Jewish refugees seeking shelter from the Nazis in Finland. The Playmaker Munich handles world sales, with Nordisk Film Distribution releasing in Scandinavia.

Haro has represented Finland four times in the Oscar best...

Africa filmmaking agency Realness Institute has selected 15 participants for the 4th edition of the Creative Producer Indaba (Cpi), a training scheme for advancing the work of independent producers both from and working with the African continent.

Participants for the latest Cpi run include South Africa’s Ephraim Gordon, who produced Amy Jephta’s Barakat, South Africa’s submission to the international feature award at the 2022 Oscars. Gordon produces through Nagvlug Films, and has also directed for TV series including comedy Taktiek.

Scroll down for the full list of Cpi participants

Also selected from South Africa is Vanessa Sinden, senior producer at Triggerfish Animation,...

Warner Bros has acquired global rights to Emerald Fennell’s upcoming Wuthering Heights, after what the studio describes as a “fierce bidding war”.

The film, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, will play in cinemas worldwide through Warner Bros.

Fennell has written and will direct and produce the feature adaptation of Emily Bronte’s novel. MRC is financing the film, which Robbie’s LuckyChap is producing. Production dates are not yet confirmed.

Run by Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara, LuckyChap has a multi-year first look feature film deal with Warner Bros. The companies collaborated on last year’s mega-hit Barbie.

The world premiere of David Dietl’s Long Story Short will open the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Poff) on November 8.

It is one of 15 new German films as part of a focus programme on Germany at this year’s festival.

Long Story Short is a comedy drama about the parties, tragedies, love and friendship experienced by a close group of friends. German stars Laura Tonke and Ronald Zehrfeld are among the cast. With a script by Elena Senft, it is adapted from May el-Toukhy’s 2015 Danish feature of the same name.

Dietl’s film is produced by Quirin Berg,...

The world premiere of David Dietl’s Long Story Short will open the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Poff) on November 8.

It is one of 15 new German films as part of a focus programme on Germany at this year’s festival.

Long Story Short is a comedy-drama about the parties, tragedies, love and friendship experienced by a close group of friends. German stars Laura Tonke and Ronald Zehrfeld are among the cast. With a script by Elena Senft, it is adapted from May el-Toukhy’s 2015 Danish feature of the same name.

Dietl’s film is produced by Quirin Berg,...

Newen Studios has partnered with Berlin-based Flare Film to set up Spark Studios, an umbrella banner which will bundle its German production activities. The new banner will be headed by Flare Film chief Martin Heisler and Eva Kemme, who will be co-CEOs.

As its first acquisition, Spark Studios has purchased a majority stake in Dog Haus, a production company based in Berlin and Munich with credits including the series “The Gryphon,” which was ordered by Amazon Prime.

Dog Haus was created in 2021 by producer André Zoch, scriptwriter Erol Yesilkaya and director Sebastian Marka. Together, the trio has written and produced numerous crime dramas, including “Tatort” and “Exit” for Ard. The three founders serve as managing and creative directors for the company.

“Dog Haus is a production label for creatives who aspire to tell exceptional stories. We aim to consistently produce television, multimedia, cinematic films and series with the highest artistic standards and thematic relevance,...

’The Light’ is one of a slate of features to receive backing from German regional fund Film-und Medienstiftung Nrw.

The Light, Tom Tykwer’s first film for the cinema since his 2016 German-us comedy A Hologram For The King is one of 10 feature film projects allocated almost €6m in production support by the Düsseldorf-based regional fund Film-und Medienstiftung Nrw.

Tykwer’s original screenplay for The Light (Das Licht) centres on a troubled family who take on a Syrian immigrant as a housekeeper. When she successfully shakes up the lives of the family she then confronts them with the dark fate of her own.

Turkish director Erdem Tepegöz’s social drama The Particle (Zerre) has won the Golden George for Best Film at the 35th Moscow International Film Festival (Miff).

The film’s lead actress, Jale Arikan, also picked up the Best Actress Silver George for her performance as Zeynep, trying to make ends meet in the dusty and dim atmosphere of abandoned apartments evacuated for clearance.

The International Jury under the presidency of Iranian film-maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf awarded the Silver George for Best Director to South Korea’s Jung Young-Heon for Lebanon Emotion (Le-Ba-Non Kam-Jeong).

The Best Actor prize went to Russia’s Alexey Shevchenkov for his title role as Judas in Andrey Bogatyryov’s Judas (Iuda).

The Special Jury award went to The Ravine Of Goodbye (Sayonara Keikoku) by Japan’s Tatsushi Omori.

The Documentary Competition jury - which included Claas Danielsen, director of Dok Leipzig - gave its award to Poland’s Pawel Lozinski for Father And Son (Ojciec...