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France’s Caractères Productions and Chile’s Planta Prods. have boarded Argentine Hernán Rosselli’s “Hard Boiled School,” a multi-country production that includes lead producer Un Puma (Argentina) alongside co-producers from Austria (Nabis Filmgroup), Uruguay (Tarkiofilm), Brazil (Multiverso Produções) and Portugal (Oublaum Filmes).

Selected to participate in the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, “Hard Boiled School” (“La escuela pesada”) underscores the surge in cooperation among international producers as they face a number of headwinds in their respective countries, including higher production costs, state fundings in flux and reduced budgets.

Currently at the financing stage, the drama follows real-life legendary Argentine thief Pedro Palomar who has been released from prison after serving a 10-year sentence for armed robbery. Once he gets out, he is surprised to learn that he is now in charge of a former partner’s daughter.

Said its helmer-scribe Rosselli: “Like ‘Mauro,’ my previous film,...

Exclusive: The Latino Film Institute has set its lineup for the 23rd Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, which will take place from May 29th through June 2nd at the Tcl Chinese Theatres in Hollywood.

Laliff will open with the critically acclaimed In the Summers, directed by Alessandra Lacorazza and starring René Pérez Joglar a.k.a Residente in his feature film debut, Sasha Calle, Lío Mehiel and Leslie Grace. Accolades include the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award for Lacorazza at the Sundance Film Festival.

The film tells the story of Violeta and Eva who, every summer, visit their loving but reckless father Vicente, who tries to atone for the past by creating a world of wonder for them to experience. But old wounds do not heal easily and despite the fun facade, Vicente’s battle with addiction gradually erodes the magic,...

As various critics groups and awards bodies dole out their top films of the year, it can be hard to parse which ones are actually worth paying attention to. Following our top 50 films of 2023, one such list has arrived today with Film Comment’s annual end-of-year survey. Revealed at a special live talk last night, Todd Haynes’s May December, Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up, and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon grabbed the top three spots, while Eduardo Williams’s The Human Surge 3, Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka, and Víctor Erice’s Close Your Eyes topped the best undistributed films.

“It speaks to the ongoing vitality of cinema as an art form, as well as the discernment of our critics in the year of ‘Barbenheimer,’ that this year’s top films represent some of the most boundary-pushing, complex movies of recent times—three new classics from contemporary masters,...

The particular focus of this year’s Viennale might have been Chile—the main retrospective, dedicated to Raúl Ruiz, was paired with a program exploring the country’s cinema in the half century since the 1973 coup—but its neighbor Argentina was also very well-represented. More than a specific curatorial inclination, this reflected the fact that it’s been a terrific year for Argentine film. Alongside such festival-circuit hits as Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka, Eduardo Williams’s The Human Surge 3 and Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents, the Viennale screened more modestly scaled and below-the-radar films, including Martín Shanly’s About Thirty, Martín Rejtman’s The Practice and Puan by […]

The post Popular and Political Argentinian Cinema at Viennale 2023 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The particular focus of this year’s Viennale might have been Chile—the main retrospective, dedicated to Raúl Ruiz, was paired with a program exploring the country’s cinema in the half century since the 1973 coup—but its neighbor Argentina was also very well-represented. More than a specific curatorial inclination, this reflected the fact that it’s been a terrific year for Argentine film. Alongside such festival-circuit hits as Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka, Eduardo Williams’s The Human Surge 3 and Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents, the Viennale screened more modestly scaled and below-the-radar films, including Martín Shanly’s About Thirty, Martín Rejtman’s The Practice and Puan by […]

The post Popular and Political Argentinian Cinema at Viennale 2023 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The Berlin Film Festival has revealed the 28 titles selected for its Forum strand and the 26 projects at the Forum Expanded platform.

In the Forum strand, documentaries stand alongside personal essay films, while the films and installations that make up the Forum Expanded program revolve around political and personal legacies.

The festival takes place Feb. 16-26.

Forum Titles

“Allensworth”

by James Benning

U.S.

“Anqa”

by Helin Çelik

Austria/Spain

“About Thirty”

by Martin Shanly | with Martin Shanly, Camila Dougall, Paul Dougall, Esmeralds Escalante, Maria Soldi

Argentina

“Being in a Place – A Portrait of Margaret Tait”

by Luke Fowler | with Margaret Tait

U.K.

“The Bride”

by Myriam U. Birara | with Sandra Umulisa, Aline Amike, Daniel Gaga, Fabiola Mukasekuru, Beatrice Mukandayishimiye

Rwanda

“Cidade Rabat”

by Susana Nobre | with Raquel Castro, Paula Bárcia, Paula Só, Sara de Castro, Laura Afonso

Portugal/France

“De Facto”

by Selma Doborac | with Christoph Bach, Cornelius Obonya...

The Berlin Film Festival on Monday unveiled the full lineup for its 2023 Forum section, its sidebar for independent and avant-garde cinema.

Highlights include Allensworth, a new documentary from acclaimed U.S. filmmaker James Benning (Rr, 13 Lakes), which looks at the first self-administered African-American municipality in California; the drama The Temple Woods Gang from director Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche (Story of Judas); and Being in a Place — A Portrait of Margaret Tait, a documentary by Luke Fowler on the Scottish poet and filmmaker.

Among the world premieres at the 53rd Berlinale Forum are In Ukraine, a non-fiction look at the ongoing Ukraine war from Polish directors Piotr Pawlus and Tomasz Wolski; the “coming-of-middle-age” tale Cidade Rabat from Portugese filmmaker Susana Nobre (Jack’s Ride); the Argentine comedy of errors About Thirty from director Martin Shanly (About 12); and The Bride, a debut feature from director Myriam U. Birara, which is set in Rwanda three years after the 1994 genocide.

Piotr Pawlus, Tomasz Wolski’s ‘In Ukraine’ and Vlad Petri’s ‘Between Revolutions’ both selected.

Documentaries about the Iranian and Romanian revolutions of the 1970s and 80s, and the ongoing war in Ukraine are among the final 20 titles selected for the Berlinale’s Forum strand.

Vlad Petri’s Between Revolutions shows a semi-fictional correspondence between two women: one going to Iran in 1979, the other experiencing the years of Ceausescu’s Romania.

Scroll down for the full list of Forum titles

The Romania-Croatia-Qatar-Iran co-production is produced by Monica Lazurean-Gorgan for Romania’s Activ Docs.

Piotr Pawlus and Tomasz Wolski’s In...