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Adding to the run-up of pre-Locarno business, in one key distribution deal, Zurich-based Frenetic Films, one of Switzerland’s most highly-regarded arthouse/crossover distribution houses, has secured Swiss rights to “Solomamma,” a buzz title which will have its world premiere in main International Competition at the Locarno Film Festival, which runs Aug 6-16.

The deal has been struck by prestigious pan-European sales agent and production force Playtime, which has also closed additional pre-sales to Italy (Teodora), Benelux (Imagine), Israel (New Cinema) and Hungary (Budapest Film). “Solomamma” lead producer, Bacon Pictures Oslo, has already struck an distribution deal with Scanbox for Scandinavia, in a larger slate arrangement between the two companies.

The first feature from Norway’s Janicke Askevold, after the made-for-tv “Sammen Alene,” “Solomamma” marks the first time a Norwegian film has been selected for Locarno since 1975’s “Wives.”

That said, its selection is hardly surprising. Starring Lisa Loven Kongsli...

The new film from Japanese director Naomi Kawase (Embracing, The Mourning Forest) that stars Vicky Krieps (Corsage, The Dead Don’t Hurt, Hot Milk) has been added to the competition lineup of the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival.

Yakushima’s Illusion (L’Illusion de Yakushima) is a French, Japanese, Luxembourgish, and Belgian co-production.

Past plot descriptions of the movie have said that it tells the story of Corry, a French heart transplants department coordinator who gets sent to a hospital in Japan to help improve its transplants department given that organ transplants are still largely taboo. She lives with a photographer, Jin, who is originally from the island of Yakushima in the south of Japan.

“When I make a movie, I follow an invisible thread – one woven into the larger tapestry of dreams,” said Krieps. “This particular thread led me deep into the ancient forests of Yakushima and back...

Set to take place August 6-16, the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival has now unveiled its promising lineup. Among the highlights are the world premieres of Radu Jude’s second feature of 2025, Dracula; Alexandre Koberidze’s Dry Leaf; Sophy Romvari’s Blue Heron; Maureen Fazendeiro’s The Seasons; Le Lac from Jean-Luc Godard’s collaborator Fabrice Aragno; Ben Rivers’ Mare’s Nest; Abdellatif Kechiche’s long-awaited sequel Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due; Sho Miyake’s Two Seasons, Two Strangers; and many more.

“Building the program of the Locarno Film Festival means engaging with the living matter of contemporary cinema. A cinema that unfolds while the world is undergoing violent upheavals, while we witness – in real time – horrors that we had only read about in history books or studied in archival footage,” said Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director.

He continues, “The question is simple, and brutal in its inevitability:...

The Locarno Film Festival (August 6-16) has unveiled the line-up for the 2025 edition, with world premieres including Radu Jude’s Dracula.

Romanian filmmaker and Berlinale Golden Bear winner Jude’s Romania-Austria-Luxembourg co-production, which competes in the international competition, is a comedy drama shot and set in Transylvania that explores the legend of Dracula through multiple lenses. Luxbox represents sales. Jude returns to Locarno after two films played out of competition last year – Eight Postcards From Utopia, co-directed with Christian Ferencz-Flatz, and Sleep #2.

Locarno’s international competition comprises of 17 world premieres, which will vie for the Golden Leopard awards. Among them...

Get ready for Dracula, a movie made with the participation of the late filmmaking legend David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, this year’s Cannes winner It Was Just an Accident, and much more, as the Locarno International Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled the lineup for its 78th edition. Dracula by Romanian director Radu Jude will get its world premiere as part of the Swiss fest’s competition program, while Duwayne Dunham (Return of the Jedi, Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet) will bring the debut of Legend of the Happy Worker, executive produced by Lynch, to the out-of-competition lineup.

Locarno, taking place Aug. 6-16, will also present the latest works from the likes of Abdelletif Kechiche, Vincent Grashaw, Sho Miyake, Ben Rivers, and Rosanne Pel, among others.

Locarno’s Concorso Cineasti del Presente (“Filmmakers of the Present”) sidebar, which puts the spotlight on first and second features, will include the...

New projects from Lone Scherfig and Hlynur Palmason are among the 55 projects selected for Goteborg Film Festival’s Nordic Film Market (January 29-31).

Scherfig will present Honeytrap in the Discovery - Films In Development strand. The film is produced by Rebecka Hamberger for Sweden’s Art & Bob, with few details currently available on the project. Scherfig’s last feature was 2023’s The Movie Teller, with 2019 Berlinale opener The Kindness Of Strangers prior to that.

Scroll down for the full list of projects

Icelandic director Palmason will present The Love That Remains in the Works in Progress strand. The film is...

Göteborg’s prime Nordic Film Market where last year’s Cannes sensations “The Girl with the Needle,” “Armand” and “When the Light Breaks” were first showcased as works in progress, has announced exclusively to Variety its full 2025 program.

Over Jan. 29-31, more than 60 completed films, titles in development and post-production will be showcased to 500-plus industry delegates from 38 countries.

As always, several acclaimed-directors will share the spotlight with promising newcomers, as reflected in the centre-piece 15-title Works in Progress lineup.

Five years after his Cannes selection with “Godland,” Iceland’s festival darling Hlynur Pálmason makes a comeback with “The Love that Remains,” a vignette-driven family drama toplining Sverrir Guðnason and Saga Garðarsdóttir (“Balls”).

A Cannes Directors’ Fortnight habitué, Afghan-born Shahrbanoo Sadat (“The Orphanage”) will bring “No Good Men,” her first romcom, set inside a Kabul newsroom in 2021 pre-Taliban ruled-Afghanistan.

Sweden’s Lisa Langseth (“Pure”) returns to feature length after her...

The 16th edition of the Les Arcs Film Festival’s Industry Village concluded positively, highlighting Norwegian filmmaker Janicke Askevold’s breakthrough feature, “Solomamma.” This film, which depicts the moving story of a single mother reaching out to her sperm donor, received much attention and won the €10,000 22D Music Award for its creative musical composition.

“Solomamma,” starring Lisa Loven Kongsli from “Force Majeure” and Herbert Nordrum from “The Worst Person in the World,” proved to be a commercial success. It set a festival record with 42 meeting requests and 14 open slots. The jury, which included MK2 Films managing director Fionnuala Jamison, lauded the film for its perceptive commentary on modern family dynamics and skillful use of music in the storyline.

“The many great meetings in Les Arcs are opening up exciting opportunities for our project,” said Rebekka Rognoy, producer at Norway’s Bacon Pictures. The film is projected to be finished editing by the end of January,...

Solomamma, a Norwegian feature about a single mother who makes contact with her sperm donor, was one of the projects that stood out to attendees at Les Arcs Film Festival’s Industry Village this week.

The film is the directorial debut of Paris-based Norwegian filmmaker Janicke Askevold andstars Lisa Loven Kongsli, who starred inRuben Ostlund’s 2014 featureForce Majeurewhich filmed in Les Arcs.The Worst Person In The Worldstar Herbet Nordrum co-stars. Solomamma isscheduled to finish its edit by the end of January before a hoped-for festival debut in the first half of 2025.

RebekkaRognoy, Gary Cranner, Magnus Nygaard Albertsen and Magne Lyngner...

Thom Lunshof’s “First Zone,” Jaume Claret Muxart’s “Strange River” and Janicke Askevold’s “Solomamma” picked up a trio of post-production prizes out of this year’s Les Arcs Film Festival Industry Village, which ran from December 14 – 17.

Capping its 16th edition, the industry event brought together 700 professionals – among them leading sales agents, festival programers, producers and distributors – for three days of collective pitches and one-and-one meetings, all with a healthy amount of skiing (and fondue) thrown in.

Held at a mountaintop resort high in the French alps, the industry event has leaned it to its getaway status, forgoing formal public pitches in order to prioritize one-on-one connections via unique networking activities. “We’ve calculated that the time spent on ski lift is perfect for a pitch,” says industry head Jeremy Zelnick.

While French sales and distribution outfits often flock to the Industry Village, the Les Arcs remains focused on...

Dutch filmmaker Floor Van der Meulen’s drama Happy Days, about a woman who suffers a burnout after she commits to looking after grandchildren several days a week, has scooped one of the top prizes at the Les Arcs Coproduction Village.

It is one 18 feature film projects selected for the 16th edition of the project market unfolding within the framework of the Les Arcs Film Festival in the French Alps, from December 14 to 17.

Happy Days won the €20,000 Eurimages Coproduction Development Award, decided by a jury consisting of Emilia Fort, producer at Avalon (Spain); Eleni Chandrinou, Consultant and Greek representative for Eurimages, and Victor Pothevin, co-head of Acquisitions at Diaphana.

Produced by Keplerfilm, Happy Days is inspired by the phenomenon of grandparents increasingly giving up their retirement to help their offspring with childcare.

Van der Meulen says the premise was sparked by a conversation with a friend who complained that her...

Les Arcs Industry Village, the professional platform of Les Arcs Film Festival, handed out 14 awards at its 16th edition on Monday, December 16).

Winners included Floor Van der Meulen’s Happy Days, recipient of the €20,000 Eurimages co-production development award in the coproduction village.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Produced by the Netherlands’ Keplerfilm, Happy Days follows a grandmother who risks burnout in trying to care for her grandchildren.

The film has €101,000 of a projected €2.6m budget in place, and is aiming for a late 2025 shoot ahead of a summer 2026 delivery.

The jury praised “a character rarely seen onscreen but omnipresent in our societies.

Visar Morina’s Hatixhe And Shaban, Alexandra Makarová’s Perla, and Ivan Ostrochovský’s The Springare among 13 feature projects in post-production selected for the 2024 Les Arcs Film Festival Work in Progress session.

The strand is designed to help the films find international sales agents, distributors and festival premieres. The projects will be presented to industry professionals on Sunday, December 15 as part of the Industry Village (December 14-17) at the 16thedition of the festival (December 14-21).

Scroll down for the full list of projects

Kosovo-born German filmmaker Visar Morina will pitch his third feature Hatixhe And Shaban about a family living...

Line-up for the 25th edition of the market includes 16 completed features, 15 Wip, 17 films in development.

Films by Sweat director Magnus von Horn and Margrete: Queen of the North filmmaker Charlotte Sieling will be presented at the 25th Nordic Film Market (January 31-February 2), the film marketplace of Goteborg Film Festival.

The projects are among the 15 Nordic films in post-production being showcased in the Works in Progress strand.

Scroll down for the full Market selection

Swedish director von Horn attends with The Girl With The Needle, a horror story set in 1910s Denmark, starring Trine Dyrholm and produced by Creative Alliance’s Malene Blenkov.

In the 1960s, economic high times in the West triggered the rise of so-called “Europuddings,” tortured contractual liaisons between international talents whose feature-film products were often the cinematic equivalent of Esperanto — something intended to appeal to everyone, but so culturally disconnected and artistically generic as to typically wind up pleasing no one.

Today’s emerging equivalent may be represented by “China Salesman,” which is apparently what happens when umpteen private investors (those companies and producers listed below are just the tip of an iceberg) plus the Prc government pool their resources to make a popcorn extravaganza both populist and propagandistic. How that resulted in a largely Africa-set action adventure jumble involving industrial-political espionage, not to mention the inimitable starring combo of Mike Tyson and Steven Seagal (actually billed here as “Steve”), is anyone’s guess. Indeed, a tell-all chronicle about how this movie came into existence might be more compelling than the film itself,...

The China Salesman pits Mike Tyson against Steven Seagal, and it looks just as awesome as you're imagining. The action thriller was made by China's Wanda Corporation and is written and directed by Tan Bing. China Salesman also stars Dong-Xue Li, Janicke Askevold, Zijian Wang, Li Ai, and Eriq Ebouaney. If the first trailer is any indication, China Salesman will be an intense action rollercoaster, but that's not what really matters here. Mike Tyson vs. Steven Seagal is the real reason why we're all going to show up.

Based on a true story, China Salesman is a film about the dangerous and epic adventure to Africa where a Chinese engineer/salesman comes face-to-face with a corrupt competitor over the contract for the first African mobile telecom technology. Local tribesman Kabbah (Mike Tyson) and mercenary Lauder (Steven Seagal) get drawn into the conflict in a classic, brutal hand-to-hand fight while the...