News

Twenty-three years and one Broadway musical later, and “Real Women Have Curves” is finally getting its sequel… kind of. “20 Pounds to Happiness” is billed as being the “companion piece” to the iconic 2002 Sundance feature.

López collaborates with actress/director Yelyna De León for “20 Pounds to Happiness,” which centers on a “full-figured Latina in a Real Women Have Curves Support Group who must decide between staying loyal to her girlfriends and risk losing the man of her dreams.” Carlo Mendez, Riley Shanahan, Christiana Leucas, Soledad St. Hilaire, Iyari Limon, Rafael Sigler, and Tricia Cruz co-star.

“20 Pounds to Happiness” will screen at the Cannes marketplace with MultiVisionnaire Pictures handling worldwide sales. The feature will debut at the Marché du Film at Cannes with a market screening on Tuesday, May 14 in Screening Room Palais C.

López co-wrote the 2002 film with George Lavoo, basing it on the play “Real Women Have Curves” that she wrote in 1988-90. Recently,...

Yelyna De León will star in and direct the romantic comedy “20 Pounds to Happiness” from “Real Women Have Curves” writer Josefina López.

Carlo Mendez and Riley Shanahan co-star in the film, which also features Christiana Leucas, Soledad St. Hilaire, Iyari Limon, Rafael Sigler and Tricia Cruz.

“20 Pounds to Happiness” marks De León’s debut as a feature film director. The movie follows a full-figured Latina in a “Real Women Have Curves” support group who must decide between staying loyal to her girlfriends or risking the loss of her dream man. López and De León serve as producers.

De León’s credits as an actor include “Will and Grace,” “Snowfall,” “Ray Donovan,” “Shamelsss,” “A Better Life” and “East Side Story.” She also wrote, produced and acted in the murder mystery film “Murder in the Woods” alongside Danny Trejo.

Mendez is a Cuban-American actor with television roles in “9-1-1,” “Superior Donuts,” “Parks and Recreation...

Exclusive: Netflix has rounded out its cast for Gentefied, its 10-episode half-hour Latinx dramedy, from Gente-fied: The Digital Series creators Marvin Lemus and Linda Yvette Chávez, showrunner Monica Macer, America Ferrera, Teri Weinberg and Macro. Julissa Calderon, Annie Gonzalez, Laura Patalano, Felipe Esparza, Rafael Sigler, Jaime Alvarez (Grey’s Anatomy Shameless), Bianca Melgar, Michelle Ortiz, and Alejandro Patiño are set for recurring roles. They join previously announced cast members Karrie Martin, Jj Soria, Carlos Santos and Joaquín Cosio.

Sigler, Alvarez and Patalano all appeared in Gente-fied: The Digital Series.

Written by Lemus and Chávez, Gentefied is adapted from the web series which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Described as a badass bilingual series about family, community, brown love, and the displacement that disrupts it all, Gentefied...

The Sundance Film Festival continues to embrace the diversity of great content being made today, with a full roster of special events programming that features established festival favorites like Jill Soloway, Rashida Jones and Gina Prince-Bythewood.

Read More: Sundance 2017 Announces New Frontier Lineup, Including 22 Vr Experiences and 11 New Installations

Making its world premiere at the fest is “I Love Dick,” Soloway’s Amazon comedy featuring Kevin Bacon as the titular Dick, a “charismatic artist” who upends the marriage of Kathryn Hanh and Griffith Dunne. In addition, the Netflix documentary “Hot Girls Wanted” gets a sequel directed by Rashida Jones; “Turned On” explores “the intersection of sex and technology,” per the official release.

Broadcast networks find themselves surprisingly well-represented in the line-up, with the ABC comedy “Downward Dog” (featuring Allison Tolman as a young woman with a special relationship with her dog) as well as the Fox limited series “Shots Fired,...