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As the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s industry arm, Agora, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, organizers are looking to maintain the right balance for an event that continues to grow in stature while retaining its carefully curated, almost intimate feel.

To that end, industry head Angeliki Vergou — an Agora veteran who assumed her current post in 2022 — is pragmatic in her approach to the Thessaloniki event and where it fits into the broader marketplace. While several thousand exhibitors and industry professionals will descend on Las Vegas next week for a whirlwind, new-look AFM, Vergou stresses that the Agora is determined to maintain its “friendly,” personal approach.

“We really want to keep having this scale of a market — not too big, but the right amount of professionals coming and meeting with each other,” Vergou tells Variety. “Our specialty is to nurture talents and offer them their first experience in a market. An...

Exclusive: The Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s industry-focused Agora section has selected 15 projects from 17 countries for this year’s Crossroads Co-production Forum. Scroll down for the full list of projects.

Hailing from across southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean region, the projects are in various stages of development. The selection features debut and sophomore feature films alongside more experienced directors.

Among the notable projects is the latest feature film by prolific Romanian director Adrian Sitaru. There are also sophomore film projects from Yorgos Goussis, Kaltrina Krasniqi, Diego Llorente, Nikola Mijović, Ahu Ozturk, Sonia Liza Kenterman, and Ahmad Ghossein. Debut feature filmmakers are Neritan Zinxhiria and Thelyia Petraki.

The selected projects hail from countries including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Jordan, Kosovo*, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, Palestine, Romania, Spain, and Turkey. This year’s selection was co-curated by an advisory committee featuring industry consultant Thibaut Bracq...

Across more than two decades as the parallel arm of the Sarajevo Film Festival, CineLink Industry Days has grown into the leading film and TV industry event in the Balkan region, an incubator of talent from Southeast Europe — and, increasingly, beyond — and a crucial stop for globetrotting industry executives looking to discover fresh cinematic voices.

The mid-summer event, which this year takes place Aug. 17 – 22, traditionally comes on the heels of the Locarno Film Festival and wraps in the run-up to Venice and Toronto, occupying a perhaps fitting slot in the calendar. “Not too big, but not small at all,” is how Maša Marković, now in her third year as the festival’s head of industry, characterizes it. As a result, Sarajevo “manages to create this sense of being the place to be.”

Marković credits the event’s “curatorial approach” for ensuring that both the selection of projects for its influential...

Nine feature-length projects in the CineLink Work in Progress selection of Sarajevo Film Festival include the new feature from Ukrainian filmmaker Alisa Kovalenko.

Kovalenko will present Frontline, a documentary filmed during her four-month stint in the Ukrainian army following the increased Russian invasion in February 2022.

Scroll down for the full list of Work in Progress projects

The project has previously participated in Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival’s Inspiration Forum, and the IDFA Forum, both in 2022.

It is produced by Kasia Kuczynska for Poland’s Haka Films, with Monica Hellstrom of Strom Pictures as co-producer.

Kovalenko has previously directed...

Arthouse streaming platform Mubi has pounced on Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World, the new satire from Romanian director Radu Jude (Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn), picking up the film for multiple territories, including North America.

The film, a feminist satire that looks at two women fighting the patriarchy in Romania, in the past and present, Do Not Expect Too Much premiered in Locarno and is screening at the Toronto International Film Festival this week. Romania has picked it to be its official entry for the 2024 Oscars in the best international feature category.

Mubi has scored rights for the film in the U.S., Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, India, Turkey and Latin America in a deal with sales company Heretic. Heretic has also secured sales across Europe with multiple indie buyers, including with Filmin in Spain, I Wonder Pictures in Italy, Njutafilms for the Nordic territories,...

Exclusive: Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, which has just been submitted as Romania’s official entry into the Best International Feature Film Oscar race, has been picked up by Mubi for multiple key territories.

Related: Best International Feature Film Oscar Winners: Photo Gallery

The streamer has taken all rights for U.S. and streaming rights for Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, India, Turkey and Latin America in advance of its North American premiere at Toronto on September 9.

Sales company Heretic has also cinched distribution deals in a flurry of territories: I Wonder Pictures (Italy); Filmin (Spain); Njutafilms; Films4U (Portugal); Aurora (Poland); Filmgarten (Austria); European Film Forum Scanorama (Lithuania); and Cinobo (Greece). Warner Bros. Discovery has picked up Eastern and Central European rights and will be shown on HBO, HBO Max and Cinemax in Czech Republic, Slovak Republic,...

Sovereign has acquired the U.K. and Ireland rights to Radu Jude’s latest feature, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” which won the special jury prize at Locarno Film Festival.

Written and directed by Jude, the comedy stars Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrșan, Dorina Lazăr, László Miske, Katia Pascariu and Sofia Nicolaescu, with cameos from Nina Hoss and Uwe Boll. According to its official synopsis, the film follows an overworked production assistant who is instructed to “film a workplace safety video commissioned by a multinational company. But an interviewee makes a statement which forces him to reinvent his story to suit the company’s narrative.”

“Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” recently premiered at Locarno, where it was nominated for the Golden Leopard Award for best film and won the festival’s special jury prize. The film was well-received by critics at the fest,...

Berlin Golden Bear winner Radu Jude, whose latest feature, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” premieres Aug. 4 in competition at the Locarno Film Festival, is in post-production on his next film, Variety can reveal.

“Eight Postcards From Utopia” is a found-footage documentary assembled from advertisements made during the post-socialist period in Romania. Co-directed by Jude and the philosopher Christian Ferencz-Flatz, and edited by long-time collaborator Catalin Cristutiu, the film turns the fictional and often ludicrous medium of advertising clips into a lens on the desires, beliefs, hopes and fears of a country making the turbulent transition to democratic capitalism.

The documentary, which will be completed by the end of the year, is a continuation of a “preoccupation of mine about how images are constructed in the world,” Jude told Variety. “The use of images, the way they are made, the way they are used.”

The...

Athens-based Heretic has acquired worlds sales rights for “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” the latest film from Berlinale Golden Bear winner Radu Jude (“Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn”), who is serving on the international jury at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

Divided into two parts, Jadu’s latest follows an overworked and underpaid production assistant who must drive around the city of Bucharest to film the casting for a workplace safety video commissioned by a multinational company. In the film’s second half, one of her interviewees makes a statement that ignites a scandal, forcing him to re-invent his story to suit the company’s narrative.

Borrowing from a phrase by Polish aphorist and poet Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” is “part comedy, part road movie, part montage,” looking at different aspects of work,...

Upcoming animation from ’My Life As A Courgette’ director Claude Barras also among recipients.

Berlin Golden Bear winner Radu Jude’s upcoming feature A Case History is one of 24 features to receive a share of €6.5m (6.87m) in the latest round of Eurimages co-production support funding.

The film, a co-production between Romania and Croatia, has received €150,000 and marks the Romanian filmmaker’s next feature after winning the Golden Bear in 2021 with Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn.

Produced by Ada Solomon and Adrian Sitaru of Bucharest-based 4Proof Film, the story will be told in two parts. The first follows a...

Berlin Golden Bear winner Radu Jude (“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”) is set to begin production in Romania on his next feature, Variety can reveal.

“A Case History” analyzes the relations between individuals and multinational companies in the mad dash of new Romanian capitalism, starting from the real story of preparing and shooting a problematic work safety video. Principal photography is slated to begin in summer or early fall.

“The film is composed of two parts which respond to each other, forming a diptych of sorts,” Jude told Variety. “Each of them explores a certain aspect of the main theme, and the final picture is obtained by juxtaposing the two of them in what we can call ‘a tale of cinema and economy.’” It is a film about work relations, but also a film about images and the way they are made and their place in society.

The first...

German sales outfit Patra Spanou Film has acquired the international sales rights to “Blue Moon,” the feature debut of Romanian director Alina Grigore, which will world premiere in main competition at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival.

“Blue Moon” follows the psychological journey of a young woman, played by Ioana Chitu, who struggles to receive a higher education and escape her dysfunctional family. An ambiguous sexual experience with an artist will spur her intention to fight the family’s violence.

Pic stars Chitu alongside Mircea Postelnicu, Mircea Silaghi, and Vlad Ivanov, and is produced by Gabi Suciu for InLight Center (“Illegitimate”), in co-production with Atelier de Film, Forest Film, Smart Sound Studios (“Monsters”) and Avanpost. It’s Grigore’s second feature as a writer, after she wrote and starred in Adrian Sitaru’s Berlinale prize winner “Illegitimate.”

“Romanian cinema has been in the focus of the international arthouse film scene for a while,...

Film+ supports emerging filmmakers from Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Moldova.

The Film + programme that supports independent micro-budget film production by filmmakers from Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and the Republic of Moldova, has seen films by seven alumni, including five world premieres, selected for this year’s Transilvania (TIFF) programme.

Two of the films premiering in Cluj this week had been developed in one of the Film + modules over the past five years.

Alex Pintica’s musical short No Singing After 8, which is being shown in one of the Romanian Shorts programmes, had participated in Film +’s first Production Llab in 2016, while...

The Italian event showcases European arthouse fare to potential local distributors.

Italy’s Bergamo Film Meeting (Bfm) opens on Saturday April 24, a month later than usual as organisers had hoped to run it as a physical edition. Although it is now running entirely online, festival director Angelo Signorelli is undiminished in his enthusiasm for the edition which will showcase the first and second films of international directors in its feature narrative and documentary competitions.

The festival has made a name for itself by hosting the Italian premieres of European arthouse films (and sometimes European premieres) with the purpose of helping them find Italian distribution.

The drama explores the relationship between victim and abuser in a dysfunctional, rural family. Best known for Adrian Sitaru’s Berlinale-selected Illegitimate, actress-screenwriter Alina Grigore is putting the finishing touches to her directorial debut, Blue Moon. The independent feature follows a dysfunctional family in rural Romania, exploring how a victim can become an abuser. The exclusively Romanian project is being produced by Gabriela Suciu and Robi Urs through InLight Center, and co-produced by Atelier de Film, Forest Film, Unfortunate Thespians, Smart Sound Production and Avanpost. The screenplay, written by Grigore, centres on the relationship between Liviu, a man trying to make a family-run business successful in rural Romania, and his younger cousin, Irina (Ioana Chiţu). He doesn’t believe in education, while she dreams of studying in Bucharest. Soon, Irina will discover that she is ready to do anything in order to smash Liviu’s preconceptions about...

All have projects at the Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink industry strand.

With the CineLink industry programme in full swing at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Screen profiles five producers from the region with an international outlook.

Jelena Angelovski (Serbia/Montenegro)

Serbian-born actress and producer Angelovski began to make her mark internationally when she produced Tamara Drakulić’s feature debut Wind through her Belgrade-based Monkey Production in 2016. It played at various international festivals including Torino and Goteborg.

Angelovski followed it up with two freelance projects: Ivan Salatić’s 2018 Venice Critics Week entry You Have the Night. made through Podgorica-based Meander Film,...

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This March will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

To sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Friday, March 2

Friday Night Double Feature: The Ladykillers and La poison

Criminal schemes take unlikely targets in these two pitch-dark comedies from the 1950s. In Alexander Mackendrick’s Ealing Studio farce The Ladykillers (1955), a team of thieves (led by Alec Guinness) descends on a boardinghouse run by an elderly widow, who becomes the victim of their misdeeds. In Sacha Guitry’s brisk, witty, and savage La poison (1951), a gardener (Michel Simon) and his wife, fed up after thirty years of marriage, find themselves plotting each other’s murder.

Tuesday, March 6

Tuesday’s Short + Feature: Art* and In...

Current Mpm Film and Premium Films sales executives Ricardo Monastier and Leslie Saussereau will combine forces on the international sales front.

Paris-based auteur-focused Mpm Film and shorts specialist Premium Films have joined forces to create a single sales entity called Mpm Premium, combining their industry know-how and network.

Under the new structure, current Mpm Film and Premium Films sales executives Ricardo Monastier and Leslie Saussereau will combine forces on the international sales front.

Mpm Film founding chief Marie-Pierre Macia and producer Claire Gadéa and Premium Films founder Jean-Charles Mille will oversee management of the company.

“The market is evolving and we have to adapt. The fusion allows us more flexibility and better reactivity thanks to a bigger team, with complementary abilities and a wide expertise. We plan to optimise our investments and be more present on the international markets,” Macia, Gadéa and Mille said in a joint statement.

“It’s more and more difficult for auteur films to find...

European Film Promotion highlights 28 European films for the 90th Academy AwardsPutting a spotlight on a record number of 28 European Oscar® entries, Efp (European Film Promotion) offers additional screenings of the films in L.A. for Academy members, journalists, U.S. distributors and international buyers. With the special support of the Efp member organizations, the event helps the productions to stand out among a record number of 92 submissions for the 90th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

This year the Efp Screenings Of Oscar® Entries From Europe were held from November 2–15 at the state of the art Dick Clark Screening Room. The campaign is financially supported by the Creative Europe — Media Programme of the European Union and the participating Efp member organizations.

Many of the European Oscar submissions feature European Shooting Stars or were made by Efp-related filmmakers. Notably four films were realized by participants of this year’s edition...

A report on human trafficking is the ostensible high-road pursuit in The Fixer (Fixeur), but the journos on the case are more concerned with the "get" — an interview with a teenage prostitute — than with the person and her suffering.

Turning a steady gaze on a favorite subject of many Romanian filmmakers — societal indifference and the slow rot of corruption — Adrian Sitaru's low-key examination of careerist ambition is straightforward and well observed. The understated performances keep the proceedings involving even when the film draws ultra-obvious parallels between its protagonist's professional maneuvers and his achievement-focused parenting.

Tudor...

The final deadline for submitting each country’s film for consideration for the foreign-language Oscar was October 2. Last year 85 were finally deemed eligible by the Academy; this year the number is a record 92. Haiti, Honduras, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mozambique, Senegal and Syria are first-time entrants. These films are vying for the initial shortlist of 9, and final five nominations to be announced on January 23. See the final list below.

Read More:Oscar Announces Changes for Foreign-Film Voting: Now Simpler! (Sort Of.)

The frontrunners include Sweden selected Ruben Östlund’s hilarious Palme d’Or-winner “The Square” (October 27, Magnolia Pictures), an art-world satire shot in majority Swedish with some English from stars Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, and Dominic West, thus giving Östlund another shot after “Force Majeure” was a surprise 2015 Oscar omission.

Germany’s choice, Fatih Akin’s “In the Fade” (December 27, Magnolia Pictures), won Best Actress for Diane Kruger at Cannes.

The final deadline for submitting each country’s film for consideration for the foreign-language Oscar was October 2. Last year 85 were finally deemed eligible by the Academy; this year the number is a record 92. Haiti, Honduras, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mozambique, Senegal and Syria are first-time entrants. These films are vying for the initial shortlist of 9, and final five nominations to be announced on January 23. See the final list below.

Read More:Oscar Announces Changes for Foreign-Film Voting: Now Simpler! (Sort Of.)

The frontrunners include Sweden selected Ruben Östlund’s hilarious Palme d’Or-winner “The Square” (October 27, Magnolia Pictures), an art-world satire shot in majority Swedish with some English from stars Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, and Dominic West, thus giving Östlund another shot after “Force Majeure” was a surprise 2015 Oscar omission.

Germany’s choice, Fatih Akin’s “In the Fade” (December 27, Magnolia Pictures), won Best Actress for Diane Kruger at Cannes.

Romania has selected Adrian Sitaru's drama The Fixer as its candidate for the best foreign-language film award at the Oscars.

The film, a Romanian-French co-production, follows the fortunes of Radu (Tudor Aaron Istodor), a young trainee journalist at a French press agency in the Romanian capital Bucharest. When Radu comes across the story of an underage prostitute who has been repatriated from France, he is driven by ambition to prove himself as a reporter. But the further he follows the story — tracing the girl, who has gone into hiding, to a remote nunnery, the more he begins to question...

All the winners from the event in Cluj.

Nana & Simon’s (Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross) My Happy Family was the big winner this weekend at the Transilvania International Film Festival (Tiff) in Romania’s Cluj, clinching the $16,822 (€15,000) Transilvania Trophy.

In addition, the film’s lead actress Ia Shugliashvili was presented with the best performance award for her first acting role as a woman giving her life a radical change on her 52nd birthday.

The competition jury, which included producers Andras Muhi and Elizabeth Karlsen and film critic Geoff Andrew, presented the best directing award to Icelandic film-maker Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson for his debut Heartstone which was also voted by the festival-goers as the winner of this year’s Audience Award.

The jury gave its special jury award to UK film-maker Francis Lee’s debut God’s Own Country (pictured) and made a special mention of Glory, the second feature by the Bulgarian co-directing team of [link...

All the winners from the event in Cluj.

Nana & Simon’s (Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross) My Happy Family was the big winner this weekend at the Transilvania International Film Festival (Tiff) in Romania’s Cluj, clinching the $16,822 (€15,000) Transilvania Trophy.

In addition, the film’s lead actress Ia Shugliashvili was presented with the best performance award for her first acting role as a woman giving her life a radical change on her 52nd birthday.

The competition jury, which included producers Andras Muhi and Elizabeth Karlsen and film critic Geoff Andrew, presented the best directing award to Icelandic film-maker Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson for his debut Heartstone which was also voted by the festival-goers as the winner of this year’s Audience Award.

The jury gave its special jury award to UK film-maker Francis Lee’s debut God’s Own Country and made a special mention of Glory, the second feature by the Bulgarian co-directing team of Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov...

Internationally Acclaimed The Constitution Opens South East European Film Festival April 27 at the Writers Guild in Beverly Hills

Largest-Ever Selection with 56 Films from and about South East Europe

The eight-day SEEfest 2017 runs April 27 — May 4, and includes 12 features, 8 documentaries, 1 special out-of-competition screening, and 36 shorts films (short features, short docs, and animation shorts). Festival audience comprises filmmakers and international art house aficionados, industry professionals and cultural dignitaries from Los Angeles and South East Europe. Screenings are held at the Writers Guild Theater and Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills, the Goethe-Institut in Miracle Mile area and West Hollywood Council Chambers @ Library campus.

The 12th annual South East European Film Festival (SEEfest) has selected Montreal’s Grand Prix of Americas and Santa Barbara’s Best International Feature Film Winner, “The Constitution” by Croatian director Rajko Grlić to open 2017 Festival with a gala event on Thursday, April 27, at 7:00 pm at the Writers Guild Theater theater in Beverly Hills.

This first feature of Kirsten Tan premiered in Sundance ‘17 World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Its provenance is Singapore but it takes place in Thailand. It continued onward to the Hivos Tiger Competition at Iffr (R’dam).

The thrill of interviewing here in Sundance is that you see a film; you have an impression and while it is still fresh you meet the filmmakers without having much time for any research or reflection. And then you get to see them again as “old friends” when you meet again in Rotterdam.

As Kirsten, her producer Weijie Lai and I sat down at the Sundance Co-op on Main Street here in Park City, I really had little idea of where the interview would take us, somewhat analogously to her film in which an architect, disenchanted with life in general, being put aside as “old” in his own highly successful architectural firm and in a stale relationship with his wife,...

Other big winners were Home, Layla M, The Fixer and Lady Macbeth.

Glory won best film at the 8th Les Arcs European Film Festival, which finished Friday (December 16) in the French Alps.

The second feature by Bulgarian directorial tandem Kristina Groseva and Petar Valchanov, it was awarded the festival’s top prize by the jury headed by filmmaker Radu Mihaileanu.

Produced by Abraxas Film, Graal Sa, Screening Emotions and Aporia Filmworks (sales handled by Wide), this story about a railroad worker who accidentally finds a lot of money on the tracks and decides to give it back to the police also won the Press Prize.

Another big winner at the festival was the Belgian production Home (by Prime Time Entertainment and Communication Versus Production). Directed by Fien Troch, it picked up the grand jury prize. Troch is an experienced Flemish director in the international film festival circuit and former participant at the Cannes Cinéfondation.

The best actress...

Houda Benyamina [pictured], Jessica Hausner and Rebecca Daly among directors due to attend the festival.

The Les Arcs European Film Festival will champion female filmmakers at its eighth edition unfolding in the heart of the French Alps Dec 10-17.

A sidebar titled The New Women of Cinema will screen features by 10 female directors including Houda Benyamina’s Caméra d’Or-winning Divines, Rebecca Daly’s Mammal and Rachel Lang’s Baden Baden.

Older titles such as Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes, Agnes Kocsis’ Fresh Air and Nanouk Leopold’s Brownian Movement are also included in the line-up

The initiative is an extension of the festival’s Femme de Cinema award introduced in 2013, the recipients of which have included Bosnian director Jamila Zbanic and Poland’s Małgorzata Szumowska.

Alongside the screenings, there will also be a presentation on a specially-commissioned study of emerging female directors, as well as round-tables and a master-class by one of the attending female directors.

The programme...

Houda Benyamina [pictured], Jessica Hausner and Rebecca Daly among directors due to attend the festival.

The Les Arcs European Film Festival will champion female filmmakers at its eighth edition unfolding in the heart of the French Alps Dec 10-17.

A sidebar titled The New Women of Cinema will screen features by 10 female directors including Houda Benyamina’s Caméra d’Or-winning Divines, Rebecca Daly’s Mammal and Rachel Lang’s Baden Baden.

Older titles such as Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes, Agnes Kocsis’ Fresh Air and Nanouk Leopold’s Brownian Movement are also included in the line-up

The initiative is an extension of the festival’s Femme de Cinema award introduced in 2013, the recipients of which have included Bosnian director Jamila Zbanic and Poland’s Małgorzata Szumowska.

Alongside the screenings, there will also be a presentation on a specially-commissioned study of emerging female directors, as well as round-tables and a master-class by one of the attending female directors.

The programme...

French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Beineix to head jury for Tokyo competition section, which includes five world premieres.

French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Beineix will head the jury of this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival (Tiff), which has unveiled its 16-strong competition section, including five world premieres.

The jury also includes Spotlight producer Nicole Rocklin, Japanese director Hideyuki Hiayama, Italian actor Valerio Mastandrea and Hong Kong director Mabel Cheung.

World premieres in competition include Japanese director Kiki Suginos’ Snow Woman, Chris Kraus’ The Bloom Of Yesterday (Germany-Austria), Jun Roble Lana’s Die Beautiful (Philippines) and two films from China – Mei Feng’s Mr. No Problem and Roy Szeto’s Shed Skin Papa.

The competition section includes one other Japanese title – Daigo Matsui’s Japanese Girls Never Die (see full competition line-up below).

This year’s Crosscut Asia section is focusing on Indonesia, screening three films by Teddy Soeriaatmadja, along with works from Nia Dinata, Ifa Isfansyah, [link...

Some people can’t help themselves from striving to be the best whether that means winning a contest, getting a promotion, earning accolades, or proving you’re the only one able to accomplish an impossible task. They want to be relied upon for results. Radu (Tudor Istodor) is all the above. Doing what he’s told isn’t enough — he looks beyond what’s asked to discover what’s needed. And when it comes to career this character trait has served him well. He possesses the connections, intelligence, and skills to operate in Romania as a “fixer” and believes those attributes assist his aspirations to become a journalist. But somewhere along the line he discovers how gray the area is in which he excels. Suddenly his bullish insistence takes on an air of exploitation.

Director Adrian Sitaru‘s The Fixer is a story about this realization, Radu’s return to...

Nigerian metropolis Lagos is the focus of the eighth City To City showcase at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) as top brass anoint two international Rising Stars.

Tiff’s latest line-up announcement also featured extra selections in Galas and Special Presentations, among them Walter Hill’s (Re)Assignment, Philippe Falardeau’s The Bleeder, David Leveaux’ The Exception (pictured), Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake and Terry George’s drama The Promise.

A vibrant crop of Contemporary World Cinema entries includes Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Aquarius, Danis Tanović’s Death In Sarajevo, Marie Noëlle’s Marie Curie, The Courage Of Knowledge and Akin Omotoso’s Vaya.

Hirokazu Kore-eda brings After The Storm to the Masters showcase, alongside Marco Bellocchio’s Sweet Dreams, Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta, Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation, Gianfranco Rosi’s Berlin Golden Bear winner Fire At Sea and Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Once Again.

Rounding out the...

Nigerian capital Lagos is the focus of the eighth City To City showcase at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) as top brass anoint two international Rising Stars.

Tiff’s latest line-up announcement also featured extra selections in Galas and Special Presentations, among them Walter Hill’s (Re)Assignment, Philippe Falardeau’s The Bleeder, David Leveaux’ The Exception (pictured), Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake and Terry George’s drama The Promise.

A vibrant crop of Contemporary World Cinema entries includes Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Aquarius, Danis Tanović’s Death In Sarajevo, Marie Noëlle’s Marie Curie, The Courage Of Knowledge and Akin Omotoso’s Vaya.

Hirokazu Kore-eda brings After The Storm to the Masters showcase, alongside Marco Bellocchio’s Sweet Dreams, Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta, Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation, Gianfranco Rosi’s Berlin Golden Bear winner Fire At Sea and Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Once Again.

Rounding out the...

The Toronto International Film Festival is mere weeks from kicking off, yet the annual fall fest is showing zero sign of slowing down when it comes to announcing the titles that will round out this year’s event. Today’s announcement brings with it a number of Cannes favorites, including Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or-winning “I, Daniel Blake,” Olivier Assayas’ divisive Kristen Stewart-starring “Personal Shopper” and Pedro Almodovar’s “Julieta.”

Read More: Tiff Reveals First Slate of 2016 Titles, Including ‘Magnificent Seven,’ ‘American Honey,’ ‘La La Land’ and ‘Birth of A Nation’

The slate will also play home to the Dardenne Brothers’ latest, “The Unknown Girl,” which has reportedly been through an edit since it debuted at Cannes earlier this year. Other standouts from Cannes include Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “Aquarius,” Boo Junfeng’s “Apprentice,” Cristian Mungiu’s “Graduation,” Brillante Ma Mendoza’s “Ma’ Rosa” and Cristi Puiu’s “Sieranevada.

Exclusive: Wroclaw moves 2017 dates to accommodate World Games; Polish festival reveals 2016 New Horizons winners.

The film festivals in Wroclaw and Locarno are set for a collision course as both festivals will be held concurrently for the first time next year.

A Locarno spokesperson confirmed to Screen that the Swiss festival’s 70th edition will be held from Wednesday 2 to Saturday 12 August, while New Horizons will kick off its 17th outing a day later, from Thursday 3 August, according to the New Horizons press department.

New Horizons’ organisers were obliged to change its dates from the traditional slot in the last two weeks in July as the Polish city will be hosting the 10th edition of sports event the World Games.

Speaking exclusively to Screen, New Horizons festival president Roman Gutek explained that the decision to move to August for 2017 had been made two years ago in order to avoid a strain on resources in the city.

¨We have consulted...

Directors Chanya Button, Adrian Sitaru, Xavier Seron scoop prizes; festival reveals works in progress winners.

UK filmmaker Chanya Button’s debut feature as director and producer, Burn Burn Burn, was voted by the audience at the Odessa International Film Festival (Oiff) as the winner of this year’s Grand Prix.

Producer Daniel-Konrad Cooper accepted the Golden Duke statuette on behalf of the production team from Oiff’s festival president Victoria Tigipko during the gala closing ceremony in the Black Sea city’s historic National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet.

Button’s melancholic comedy had premiered at last year’s London Film Festival and is being handled internationally by Urban Distribution International.

International Competition

Meanwhile, the International Competition jury - headed by the UK writer Christopher Hampton and also including Oiff 2015 winner Eva Neymann, Us writer-director-actor Alex Ross Perry, producer Rebecca O’Brien and producer-director Uberto Pasolini - gave the Golden Duke statuette for Best Film to...

★★★★☆ Can time heal all wounds, or are certain indiscretions immune to the sympathetic ebb and flow of life? That's the quandary posed in Illegitimate, the eye-catching incest drama from Romanian director Adrian Sitaru. Despite tackling one of society's last remaining taboos, Illegitimate avoids sensationalism, presenting the topic of sibling incest in an earnest and nonjudgmental manner, with Sitaru far more interested in how prejudices shape our perspectives. Locked almost entirely within the cramped confines of a Bucharest apartment, the film opens with a family dinner, where talk of Plato and philosophy turns sour once it's revealed the father reported women during the Ceausescu regime who tried to get abortions.

Seven Croatian features comprise the main competition, while Independence Day: Resurgence and Ghostbusters play in the international strand.Scroll down for the full list of titles

Croatia’s Pula Film Festival has revealed the line-up for its 63rd edition, which will take place July 9-16.

Croatian titles

Receiving 105 submissions from Croatian film-makers, festival president Hrvoje Pukšec and artistic directors Mike Downey and Tanja Miličić have selected 16 features and 18 shorts for the Croatian programme.

In competition will be Ivan–Goran Vitez’s second feature Shooting Stars [pictured], after his debut Forest Creatures premiered in Pula in 2010, and Berlinale premiere On The Other Side, the latest feature from Zrinko Ogresta, who has received multiple accolades at Pula for previous features including 1995’s Washed Out and 1999’s Red Dust.

The festival will also host the out-of-competition world premiere of Rade and Danilo Šerbedžija’s Second World War drama The Liberation Of Skopje.

Minority Croatia co-pros selected to play include Mirjana Karanović...

With the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival wrapping up this week, we’ve highlighted our five favorite films from the slate. Make sure to stay tuned in the coming months as we learn about distribution news for the titles. Check out our favorites below, followed by our complete coverage, and one can see the winners here.

Creepy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

One has to appreciate Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s winking self-awareness in calling his new feature Creepy. It’s as if the Coen brothers released a film entitled Snarky, or Eli Roth named his next stomach-churner Gory. Kurosawa, who’s still best known for Cure (1997) and Pulse (2001), two rare outstanding examples of the highly variable J-Horror genre, instills a sense of creepiness into virtually anything he does, regardless of subject matter. His latest, which sees him return to the realm of horror after excursions into more arthouse territory, certainly lives up to its name...

Illegitimate, helmed by Adrian Sitaru, is a dark exploration of family that stands along recent notable Romanian titles. The debate over abortion unfolds across the dinner table between a father and children here in Sitaru’s film. Gradually, these beliefs are tested by the acerbic secrets the family has kept for too long. Using only first takes and improvisation, Sitaru has crafted a daring film that pushes his ensemble and the audience into uncomfortable confrontations. We talked to Sitaru about the unique process of making Illegitimate, the jazz-like quality of the film, and how the film is merely the start of a larger conversation about cinema and society.

The Film Stage: Is this your first time in Berlin?

Adrian Sitaru: No actually I came in 2010 or 2011 with a short film in competition The Cage, it’s called. And it won the main award, it was the Daad award, and it was nice,...

Cruel Intentions: Sitaru Aims to Provoke with Abortion Drama

Director Adrian Sitaru makes his most galling effort yet with his fourth film, Illegitimate, a social drama engaging two hot-button taboo topics all rolled up into one unsightly experience. At its core, the film is an abortion drama, which automatically places the title in an arena with the hailed juggernaut of the New Romanian Wave, 2007’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, which famously netted Cristian Mungiu the Palme d’Or. It’s perhaps an unfair comparison since this rudimentary scenario aims to convey nagging intergenerational discord by complicating the issue of abortion as the result of incest. Unfortunately, the end result is as visually putrid as its subject matter is repugnant, never necessitating the narrative extremities which it assumes will shock or unnerve.

While enjoying a family meal with his grown children, widower Victor Anghelescu (Adrien Titieni), an aging obstetrician, gets...

Programme includes 34 world premieres.

The line-up for the 46th Berlinale Forum has been announced and will feature a total of 44 films in its main programme, of which 34 are world premieres and nine international premieres.

One focus of this year’s programme is the Arab region, with films shot by mainly young directors from an area that stretches between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, exploring both the past and present of their homelands.

In A Magical Substance Flows into Me, artist Jumana Manna sets out in search of the musical diversity of the Palestinian region.

Tamer El Said’s feature In the Last Days of the City (Akher ayam el madina) sends his alter-ego Khalid through the director’s home city of Cairo, which is in a state of uproar.

Maher Abi Samra’s documentary A Maid for Each (Makhdoumin) grapples with the employment of maids from the Global South in middle-class Lebanese households, a practice...

It’s become a great breaking in the new year traditional here at Ioncinema.com. We begin our countdown to the our most anticipated foreign films (anything outside the U.S.) with our own Nicholas Bell curating the best bets for 2016. Here are the titles and filmmakers that didn’t make our final Top 100 cut, but are nonetheless “radar” worthy.

101. El Rey del Once – Daniel Burman

102. The Dancer – Stephanie Di Giusto

103. Le Cancre – Paul Vecchiali

104. While the Women are Sleeping – Wayne Wang

105. Tomorrow – Martha Pinson

106. Spring Again – Gael Morel

107. Crowhurst – Simon Rumley

108. Le Garcon – Philippe Lioret *

109. Marie and the Misfits – Sebastien Betbeder

110. Le Caravage – Alain Chevalier

111. Night Song – Raphael Nadjari

112. Réparer les vivants – Katell Quillevere *

113. Project Lazarus – Mateo Gil

114. Afterimages – Andrzej Wajda

115. Don’t Knock Twice – Caradog James

116. Detour – Christopher Smith

117. The Bride of Rip Van Winkle – Shunji Iwai

118. Three on the Road – Johnnie To

119. Le Vin et le Vent...

Acting awards split between casts of Mustang and Chevalier, Son Of Saul wins Special Jury Prize.Scroll down for full list of winners

The 21st Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 14-22) wrapped tonight with Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang winning the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film.

The film also received the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress, which went to its whole female cast: Güneş Şensoy, Doga Doğuşlu, Tuğba Sunguroğlu, Elit İşcan, and Ilayda Akdoğan.

László Nemes picked up the Special Jury Prize for Holocaust drama Son Of Saul.

Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Chevalier won a Special Jury Mention, and its male ensemble, consisting of Yorgos Kéntros, Vangelis Mouríkis, Panos Kóronis, Makis Papadimitríou, Yorgos Pyrpassópoulos, and Sakis Rouvás received the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actor.

The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary went to Alexander Nanau’s Toto And His Sisters, while the same award in the short film competition went to A Matter Of Will...

Acting awards split between casts of Mustang and Chevalier, Son Of Saul wins Special Jury Prize.Scroll down for full list of winners

The 21st Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 14-22) wrapped tonight with Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang winning the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film.

The film also received the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress, which went to its whole female cast: Güneş Şensoy, Doga Doğuşlu, Tuğba Sunguroğlu, Elit İşcan, and Ilayda Akdoğan.

László Nemes picked up the Special Jury Prize for Holocaust drama Son Of Saul.

Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Chevalier won a Special Jury Mention, and its male ensemble, consisting of Yorgos Kéntros, Vangelis Mouríkis, Panos Kóronis, Makis Papadimitríou, Yorgos Pyrpassópoulos, and Sakis Rouvás received the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actor.

The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary went to Alexander Nanau’s Toto And His Sisters, while the same award in the short film competition went to A Matter Of Will...

Elle Driver, Wide Management and European film funds on what brings them back to the Sarajevo Film Festival’s development and financing platform.

The Sarajevo Film Festival has launched the 13th edition of CineLink (Aug 19-22), a development and financing platform that provides the backbone of its industry section, featuring around 25 projects suited for co-production.

The selection - split between a co-production market and work in progress event - has traditionally focused on Southeast Europe but has opened up in recent years to projects from the Caucasus region, while this year will see two projects from Doha and one from Russia.

Click here for the co-production market titlesClick here for the Work in Progress titles

“From the very beginning, the Sarajevo Film Festival always aimed to be relevant for the film industry,” says Jovan Marjanović, head of industry at Sff.

And it is, thanks especially to the CineLink Industry Days, which essentially...

The Fixer among five projects selected for the CineLink Work in Progress sessions.

The Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 14-22) has unveiled five projects selected for this year’s CineLink Work in Progress sessions - an industry preview of upcoming films from Southeast Europe.

The presentations are open for invited guests who may engage in the projects completion or distribution, and will run Aug 19-20.

Scheduled to attend are representatives from Wild Bunch, The Match Factory, Pyramide, Memento, Fortissimo as well as the Cannes, Berlin, Sundance and Rotterdam film festivals.

The 2015 project line-up consists of three fiction projects, one animation and one documentary, selected from the festival’s documentary workshop Docu Rough Cut Boutique.

They include The Fixer (Fixeur) from Adrian Sitaru, the Romanian filmmaker who won best director at Locarno in 2011 with Best Intentions and the Daad Short Film Award at the 2010 Berlinale with The Cage (Colivia).

The Fixer is inspired by true events and centres on a young...

The Fixer among five projects selected for the CineLink Work in Progress sessions.

The Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 14-22) has unveiled five projects selected for this year’s CineLink Work in Progress sessions - an industry preview of upcoming films from Southeast Europe.

The presentations are open for invited guests who may engage in the projects completion or distribution and will run Aug 19-20. Scheduled to attend are representatives from Wild Bunch, The Match Factory, Pyramide, Memento, Fortissimo as well as the Cannes, Berlin, Sundance and Rotterdam film festivals.

The 2015 project line-up consists of three fiction projects, one animation and one documentary, selected from the festival’s documentary workshop Docu Rough Cut Boutique.

They include The Fixer (Fixeur) from Adrian Sitaru, the Romanian filmmaker who won best director at Locarno in 2011 with Best Intentions and the Daad Short Film Award at the 2010 Berlinale with The Cage (Colivia).

The Fixer is inspired by true events and centres on a young...

Gazing into the crystal ball, Screen rounds up its Cannes predictions.

With the unveiling of Cannes Film Festival’s Official Selection now exactly three weeks away buzz over the titles that Thierry Fremaux and his team will select for the 68th edition is hitting fever pitch.

Official teaser announcements have started to roll this week, led by the confirmation on Wednesday that George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road would premiere in an Out of Competition screening on May 14.

Earlier the week, Cannes unveiled its poster featuring Ingrid Bergman to mark the centenary of the late big screen’s birth and it was announced that Stig Bjorkman’s documentary Ingrid Bergman – In Her Own Words would show in Cannes Classics as part of the commemorations.

For the rest of the Official Selection, except perhaps the opening film which is traditionally revealed in advance, Cannes watchers will have to wait for the announcement press conference in Paris on April...