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Estonia’s Vallo Toomla – whose debut “Pretenders,” penned by “Compartment No. 9’s” Andris Feldmanis and Livia Ulman, wooed reviewers when it premiered at 2016’s San Sebastian – is due to start filming next spring his sophomore feature “Beatrice.”

Set in a near-future devastated by climate change, the story of loss, love and hope will be pitched by Stellar Film’s pedigreed producer Evelin Penttilä (“The Exalted”) at the upcoming Nordic Co-Production Market in Haugesund, Norway.

Winner of the Trieste When East Meet West Lab’s Italian-Baltic co-development award in 2024, the project is co-produced by high-profile Giovanni Pompili for Kinoproduzioni, co-producer of the 2025 Palme d’Or entry “The History of Sound.”

It has just attached two new European partners: the seasoned Finnish producer Aleksi Bardy of Oxymoron Imagination, and Lithuania’s Dagne Vildziunaite of Just a Moment, which collaborated with Stellar Film on Arte’s “Dance + City” series.

“I admire Estonian cinema for its imagination and innovation,...

Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen – awarded the Grand Prix at Cannes for “Compartment No. 6” – has joined forces with Finland’s Elisa Viihde on upcoming six-episode series “Yours, Margot.” Elisa Viihde is an entertainment service of Elisa, which has been commissioning original drama series since 2014.

“The project has been in stand-by mode and I’m happy to see it proceed with Elisa. We are still writing, because the script is crucial – even more in TV than in cinema,” he told Variety.

“We are not interested in making a TV series; we are interested in making a good TV series. And that takes time.”

What makes a good TV series? “A good script and a great ensemble. And a brilliant location scout,” he added. Previously, Kuosmanen directed series “Zone B” and “Alice & Jack,” the latter starring Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson. He also served as the show’s executive producer.

“Yours,...

Drawn from an exciting Locarno Pro lineup, these talents – directors, producers and industry execs – impacted at Locarno, and will often in the future. Nine are women, which says a lot about cutting-edge innovation in Europe and beyond.

Despina Athanassiadis, France

Born in France and with Greek roots, Athanassiadis is currently focusing on her Alliance4Development project “The Young One,” about female truck drivers – “It’s a story of transmission, from older to younger generation” – which was awarded script consultancy residency at DreamAgo. “As a filmmaker, I’m interested in people who struggle. I find it fascinating, watching how they find ways to fix their problems. I want to see them on screen,” she states. In her next film, she will focus on a middle-aged French woman, whose life changes forever when she goes to Greece. “It’s a movie with inner and outer journeys, and with lots of international characters.

Lille, France — “Yours, Margot,” from “Compartment No 6’s” Juho Kuosmanen, Guatemalan Cannes Camera d’Or winner César Díaz (“Our Mothers”) and Brazil’s Beatriz Seigner (“Los Silencios”) have won the three prizes on offer at the first edition of Seriesmakers.

A mentoring program for filmmakers making their TV creator debut, after an inaugural edition delivering one of the most talent-packed project lineups at any festival, film or TV, in 2023, Seriesmakers backers Beta Group and Series Mania opened on Wednesday a call for admissions for a second edition.

Though all three series range hugely in setting and creators, all three see their protagonists go back to a recent past to explore events that have impacted their family, their modern-day country (“The Invisible Ink”), or traumas in the present (“Amigas”).

Doing so they form part of one of the biggest trends in current issue-driven series, through the resort to an alternative, future...

Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen, behind “Compartment No. 6” and “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki”– both awarded in Cannes – will now turn his attention to new series “Yours, Margot.”

The upcoming series is one of the 10 projects chosen for Series Mania and Beta Group’s Seriesmakers.

Based on Meri Valkama’s novel, “Yours, Margot” will be produced, just like his previous films, by Helsinki-based Aamu Film Company, with “Compartment” scribes Andris Feldmanis and Livia Ulman also on board. This time Kuosmanen dissects the experiences of Vilja, who spent her childhood in East Berlin, following her foreign correspondent father. After his death, she finds old letters to “Erich,” all from mysterious “Margot.” Now, as an adult, she decides to return to Berlin and track her down.

“It’s a great story about a person who looks for the truth about her childhood years, but finds only different interpretations and contradictory memories.

Exclusive: The Europe-based Pop Up Film Residency mentorship program has unveiled the filmmakers and mentors who will participate in its summer 2022 edition.

The program, which is among a number of feature development initiatives spearheaded by former TorinoFilmLab artistic director Matthieu Darras, consists of three-week residences focused on one project only in different locations across Europe.

Mentors for the upcoming edition include French director Lucile Hadžihalilović, who won San Sebastian’s Special Jury Prize last year for gothic psychological horror Earwig; Paraguayan filmmaker Marcelo Martinessi, whose debut film The Heiresses broke out with a Berlinale Silver Bear victory in 2018, and Marie Amachoukeli, a Caméra d’Or winner in 2014 for first film Party Girl, who is currently completing her first solo feature.

Confirmed feature directors joining the programme include Brazil’s Caru Alves de Souza, whose joint work with Raffaella Costa, My Name Is Baghdad won best film in the Berlinale...

January Tribeca Festival International Narrative Competition Reviewed for Shockya.com by Abe Friedtanzer Director: Viesturs Kairiss Writer: Viesturs Kairiss, Co-writers Andris Feldmanis, Livia Ulman Cast: K?rlis Arnolds Avots, Alise Dzene, Sandis Runge, Baiba Broka, Aleksas Kazanavi?ius, Juhan Ulfsak Screened at: Critics’ link, NY, 4/18/22 Opens: June 10th, 2022 Circumstances often don’t allow for the pursuit of […]

The post Tribeca 2022: January Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Coming-of-age drama Good Girl Jane, written and directed by Sarah Elizabeth Mintz, took the Tribeca Festival Founders’ Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature on Thursday while its star Rain Spencer won for Best Performance at the fest, which announced its winners ahead of wrapping this weekend.

The film follows lonely teenager Jane, bullied out of private school and at odds with her divorced parents, who spirals out of control after falling in with a hard-partying crowd and becoming smitten with a dangerously charismatic bad boy, played by Patrick Gibson. Andie MacDowell is Jane’s beleaguered mom. It’s produced by Fred Bernstein, Dominique Telson, Lauren Pratt, Mintz and Simone Williams.

January (Janvaris) by Viesturs Kairiss, from Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, about an aspiring filmmaker searching for identity against the backdrop of Latvian independence, was named Best International Narrative Feature.

Best Documentary Feature and Editing awards went Laura Checkoway’s The Cave of Adullam.

History currently repeating itself lends a particular frisson to Latvian theater, opera and film director Viesturs Kairiss’ “January.” It takes place in early 1991, when the nation’s push for independence (alongside other Baltic states) met with armed Soviet resistance even as the Ussr was falling apart. Those historical events are interwoven with vaguely autobiographical fiction revolving around a mildly nonconformist Riga film school student, one admittedly drawn much as the director was himself in that time and place.

With Moscow leadership again hawkish toward retaining and/or regaining territories of a former empire, this flashback has particular resonance, amplified by the use of archival news and activist-shot footage. Less compelling, if still diverting, are the more conventionally indulgent, nouvelle vague-influenced scenes that comprise a Portrait of the Artist as a Sulky Young Man. The history lesson seems fresher than this protagonist’s stale angst — he is, frankly, a bit of a pill,...

“January,” Viesturs Kairiss’s autobiographical film set in the former Soviet Union, has been acquired for world sales by The Yellow Affair. The movie will have its world premiere at Tribeca in the international narrative competition.

The coming-of-age film sheds light on the political upheaval in the early 1990’s. It follows a Jazis, a 19 year-old aspiring cinematographer who, along with his friends, is trying to pursue his dreams of making movies and enjoy the freedom of young adulthood. His world is thrown into chaos as he is dragged into the people’s peaceful protests against the Soviet Army’s attempted takeover of power in his country.

Kairiss, who co-wrote “January” with Andris Feldmanis and Livia Ulman, said it was a highly personal film for him.

“I was 19 in January 1991, so I am very familiar with the protagonists and events of the film. At that age, I was fighting for my...

European Film Promotion has been playing host at the Cannes Film Festival to 20 up-and-coming European producers, selected for its Producers on the Move program. Variety invited the producers to share details of their upcoming projects.

Maarten Schmidt, Belgium

Project: “Under the Surface”

Director: Guido Verelst

Anne, born premature, has Asperger’s and wants nothing more than to be able to live underwater as a mermaid. But she has to learn how to live independently above the surface with her new boyfriend.

Katya Trichkova, Bulgaria

Project: “Gambit”

Writers: Konstantin Bojanov and Petar Krumov

Director: Konstantin Bojanov

Nina, a criminally minded young woman, spots a weakness in the security system of an art museum and concocts a plan to rob it. Soon, however, she finds herself caught between her desire to cash in on the bounty and her deepening feelings for her lover Philip, whom the police unjustly accuse of being part of the heist.

Riding the high of a production-servicing boom, Estonia’s domestic industry has likewise shown no signs of slowing down. Here’s a roundup of top local productions in the pipeline, from producers who are searching for international partners in Cannes:

The Invisible Fight

Director: Rainer Sarnet

Producers: Katrin Kissa, Homeless Bob Production (Estonia), Alise Gelze, White Picture (Latvia), Amanda Livanou, Neda Film (Greece), Helen Vinogradov, Helsinki-filmi (Finland)

Sarnet, whose fantasy-drama “November” played at Tribeca in 2017, returns with a ‘70s-set kung-fu comedy about a guard on the Soviet-Chinese border who, after surviving a deadly attack, decides to become a monk but must continually prove along the way that he’s capable of becoming the enlightened man he set out to be.

Lioness

Director: Liina Trishkina-Vanhatalo

Producers: Ivo Felt (Estonia), Guntis Trekteris (Latvia)

The sophomore feature from Trishkina-Vanhatalo, whose debut “Take It or Leave It” was Estonia’s submission for the international feature Oscar,...

GameStop: Rise of the Players, Adrien Brody passion project Clean, Cannes winner Compartment No. 9, Danish upscale restaurant drama A Taste of Hunger, Michel Franco’s Sundown and Woody Allen’s latest Rifkin’s Festival hit theatres crowded by Oscar contenders in a specialty market consumed by awards season (and as a major storm looks set to pummel the Northeast).

There’s more new content than the market has seen in many weeks, although these can be hard frames for indie distributors to find available screens. But it’s easier now than it will be after Feb. 8 and a crush of actual Oscar nominees, said one distribution executive. “We’re going in,...

After his debut feature “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki” won the top Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in 2016, Finnish filmmaker Juho Kuosmanen found similar success when he returned to the festival this year with his sophomore effort “Compartment No. 6.” The film, which follows the journey of two strangers brought together in a tiny sleeper car during their train ride to the Arctic, shared the Cannes Grand Prix, was selected as Finland’s Oscar entry, and this week was shortlisted for Best International Feature. Below, watch the first trailer for the movie, exclusively on IndieWire.

“Compartment No. 6.” stars Seidi Haarla as a young Finnish woman who escapes an enigmatic love affair in Moscow by boarding a train to the Arctic port of Murmansk. She’s forced to share the ride in a tiny sleeping car with a larger-than-life Russian miner (Yuriy Borisov). The pair find their...

For Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen, it was always an ambition of his to shoot a film on a train as well as a film in Russia. So, when he first read the 2011 novel Compartment No. 6 by Rosa Liksom, he was immediately compelled to take it to the big screen.

“I read this book when it came out and I felt in this book that there were lots of cinematic qualities like the train where most of the story takes place and the fact that it happens in Russia, where there are lots of cinematic locations to be found,” Kuosmanen said during the film’s panel at Contenders Film: International. “That was one of my dreams – to make a film in Russia. I felt that this book would be leading me to a film where I can actually make my dream come true and make a film in a train in Russia.

Last year, the pandemic forced organizers to call off the full-fledged Cannes Film Festival. This year, the festival staged a comeback and welcomed industry players, including distributors looking for completed films at the buzzy festival, back to the Croisette July 6-17.

There was plenty of market activity from the start. Some of the buzzy titles that scored early distribution include Leos Carax’s English-language debut and festival opener “Annette.” Amazon scooped that up four years ago. Another Cannes favorite director, Paul Verhoeven, saw his latest effort, lesbian nun drama “Benedetta,” acquired by IFC Films.

IFC announced another acquisition, Mia Hansen-Løve’s”Bergman Island,” the day after the festival lineup was announced.

Last year’s Cannes included a list of official selections that allowed films to display the festival’s laurels, including Oscar winner “Another Round.” But actual activity was limited to a very abbreviated “special edition” staged in October, plus...

Juho Kuosmanen’s latest shared Cannes’ Grand Prix with Asghar Farhadi’s ‘A Hero’, and also scooped the Ecumenical Prize.

Paris-based Totem Films has unveiled a slew of sales on Finnish writer-director Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment No.6 following its Grand Prix win at the Cannes Film Festival last weekend.

In Europe, it has sold to Austria (Polyfilm), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Denmark (Filmbazar), Greece (One From the Heart), Italy (Bim Distribuzione), Norway (Mer Film), Portugal (Legendmain Filmes), Spain (La Aventura), Sweden (Folkets Bio) and UK (Curzon).

Deals to the rest of the world so far comprise Australia/New Zealand (Sharmill Films...

Deal on Juho Kuosmanen’s Cannes competition entry also covers Latin America and Easter Europe.

Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has acquired Finnish writer-director Juho Kuosmanen’s Cannes competition entry Compartment No.6 for North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

The deal was signed with Paris-based sales agent Totem Films, which is currently offering the film at Cannes after its competition screening last week. Kuosmanen won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in 2016 for his debut feature The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki.

Inspired by Rosa Liksom’s novel of the same name,...

Sony Pictures Classics announced Thursday it has acquired rights for North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East for “Compartment No. 6,” the Finnish film that premiered in competition in Cannes.

Acquired from Totem Films, it’s the second feature directed by Juho Kuosmanen, and is based on the novel by Rosa Liksom. Seidi Haarla and Yuriy Borisov star in the story of a Finnish woman who escapes a love affair in Moscow and connects with a Russian miner she meets in a small train compartment on the way to the Arctic port of Murmansk. The unexpected encounter during the long trip leads the occupants of Compartment No. 6 to face major truths about human connection.

Kuosmanen’s feature debut, “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki,” won the Un Certain Regard prize in 2016.

“’Compartment No.6′ is a treasure. One of the great train movies with humor and romance,...

Sony Pictures Classics said Thursday that it has acquired North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Middle East rights to Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment No. 6, the Finnish film that just had its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The deal was struck with Totem Films.

Kuosmanen’s second feature film (in Finnish the title is Hytti No. 6), inspired by the novel of the same name by Rosa Liksom, centers on a Finnish woman (Seidi Haarla) who escapes an enigmatic love affair in Moscow by boarding a train to the arctic port of Murmansk. Forced to share the long ride and a tiny sleeping car with a larger-than-life Russian miner (Yuriy Borisov), the unexpected encounter leads them to face major truths about human connection.

Andris Feldmanis, Livia Ulman and Kuosmanen penned the screenplay for the pic, which follows Kuosmanen’s debut The Happiest Day In The Life of Olli Maki,...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the rights to “Compartment No. 6,” which is in competition at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

Juho Kuosmanen’s film was produced by Jussi Rantamäki and Emilia Haukka for Aamu Film Company, based on the novel by Rosa Liksom. Andris Feldmanis, Livia Ulman and Kuosmanen wrote the script.

“Compartment No. 6” stars Seidi Haarla and Yuriy Borisov and will compete for the Palme d’Or. It’s about a young Finnish woman who boards a train in Moscow to the arctic port of Murmansk to escape a love affair. She is forced to share the long ride and a tiny cabin with a larger Russian miner, and during their journey they face truths about human connection.

“Compartment No. 6 is a treasure,” SPC said in a statement. “One of the great train movies with humor and romance, full of surprises. Just the kind of fresh movie audiences want to embrace right now.

Sony Pictures Classics has nabbed multi-territory rights, including North America, for Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s Palme D’Or contender Compartment No. 6 after its debut in Cannes.

Sony Pictures Classics also picked up Latin America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East rights for the Arctic road movie about human connection from Totem Films and produced by Jussi Rantamäki and Emilia Haukka for Aamu Film Company. Inspired by the novel Compartment No.6 by Rosa Liksom, the script was written by Andris Feldmanis, Livia Ulman and Kuosmanen.

The film, which stars Seidi Haarla (Force of Habit, Love & Order) and Yuriy Borisov (Petrov’s ...

Sony Pictures Classics has nabbed multi-territory rights, including North America, for Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s Palme D’Or contender Compartment No. 6 after its debut in Cannes.

Sony Pictures Classics also picked up Latin America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East rights for the Arctic road movie about human connection from Totem Films and produced by Jussi Rantamäki and Emilia Haukka for Aamu Film Company. Inspired by the novel Compartment No.6 by Rosa Liksom, the script was written by Andris Feldmanis, Livia Ulman and Kuosmanen.

The film, which stars Seidi Haarla (Force of Habit, Love & Order) and Yuriy Borisov (Petrov’s ...

There are few things more aggravating than critics lazily comparing an emerging filmmaker to one of the best-known directors from their country, a shorthand to mask ignorance of cinema from a specific region. For Juho Kuosmanen that means facing various comparisons to Aki Kaurismäki, the best-known Finnish director on the world stage. When announcing that his sophomore feature Compartment No. 6 would be making its bow in the Cannes competition, the festival’s President Thierry Fremaux even reached for the same point of reference.

While not as immaculately stylized as Kaurismäki’s work, the biggest surprise with Compartment No. 6 might be this comparison actually holding some weight. Kuosmanen’s film is both a period piece set in a very specific era (Russia at the end of the millennium and the dawn of Vladimir Putin’s Presidency) yet seemingly exists entirely elsewhere, its period details all tied towards earlier eras, an intoxicating...

For three small nations tucked away in a far corner of Northeastern Europe, wedged between the sprawling tundra of Scandinavia to the north and the lumbering bear of Russia in the east, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have long realized their strength in numbers: In 1989, amid mass protests calling for independence from the Soviet Union, up to two million people joined hands in a human chain stretching from Tallinn to Vilnius. Less than two years later, the three independent Baltic states were born.

While Baltic filmmakers might not have quite the same robust presence in Cannes this year, joint efforts by Latvia’s National Film Center, the Estonian Film Institute, and the Lithuanian Film Institute are a sign that the three countries are committed to bolstering their ties as they work to collectively strengthen their growing industries.

“In a lesser form, the cooperation between the Baltic film industries has always been there,...

The award-winning Estonian director is now shooting his new fiction film at Tallinn’s Haven Kakumäe Marina and in Toila. Estonia’s Ilmar Raag is now working on a new project, penned by Livia Ulman and Andris Feldmanis. The Kuressaare-born director is best known for his socio-critical film The Class (2007) and his recent drama I Won’t Come Back (2014) as well as his work as a media executive, actor, screenwriter and journalist. The new fiction film, entitled Erik Stoneheart, revolves around an 11-year-old boy called Erik (Herman Avandi), who is convinced that he has a stone for a heart. That’s why he doesn’t mind that his parents have no time for him or that he has no real friends. When his family moves to a villa they inherited from Aunt Brunhilda, he discovers another family living there – Maria and her dad, whom Erik’s...

The Finnish director managed to wrap filming for his new effort in March, despite the Covid-19 outbreak. Juho Kuosmanen’s drama Compartment No 6 is now in post-production. The Finnish helmer, who is best known for The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (screened in Un Certain Regard at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and the recipient of its top prize), managed to wrap filming last March, despite the impending Covid-19 outbreak. The news was first reported by Estonian Film magazine. The project, shot in Saint Petersburg, Murmansk and other Russian cities, was penned by Estonian writers Livia Ulman and Andris Feldmanis. The story is set in 1996 and revolves around Laura (played by Seidi Haarla), a Finnish student who leaves Moscow with loss in her heart and a mess in her head. She decides to take a train to Murmansk to see some 10,000-year-old rock paintings. During her...