News

Exclusive: Melissa Barrera is no longer with WME.

The actress signed on with talent agency around 2019 as her feature career was taking off with a big role in Jon M. Chu and Warner Bros’ feature take of Broadway musical In the Heights.

The actress remains represented Sugar 23 management, ImPRint and Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman.

Deadline understands that Barrera herself decided to exit WME. The decision comes a little more than a year after she was dropped from the upcoming Scream VII by Spyglass Media over her social media posts about the Israel-Hamas conflict. Spyglass perceived the actress’ posts as antisemitic. Barrera responded to the firing on her Instagram Stories, exclaiming “First and foremost I condemn Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. I condemn hate and prejudice of any kind against any group of people.” Barrera was part of a big reboot of the Dimension horror comedy franchise with Scream in...

After becoming a lightning rod for controversy last year thanks to her comments on the Israel-Hamas war, Melissa Barrera spent the next 365 days feeling like her "life was over," and for good reason. After being unceremoniously fired from the Scream franchise, the once sought after actress suddenly found herself in the position of Hollywood outcast, and wasnt even sure if shed ever work again. Thankfully, she managed to dig herself out of what she called "the darkest" time in her life, but it wasnt easy.

In an in depth interview with The Independent, Barrera recalled what life was like following her viral Instagram posts in which she came out in support of Palestine, while at the same time condemning the Western media for fueling hatred and antisemitism. The controversial comments led to Spyglass the production company behind the two most recent Scream movies firing her from Scream 7, and after that,...

Scream (2022) and Scream VI star Melissa Barrera was fired from Scream 7 when comments she made about the Israel-Hamas war didn’t go over well with executives at Spyglass Media, but that doesn’t appear to be slowing her career. She recently starred in the horror rom-com musical Your Monster, which was given a PVOD release earlier this week. She’ll be starring with Simu Liu of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in an untitled espionage techno-thriller series for the Peacock streaming service and producer James Wan. And Deadline reports that she’ll be starring in a Western thriller called In the Cradle of Granite.

The English-language debut of Costa Rican director Ariel Escalante (Domingo and the Mist), In the Cradle of Granite is based on an original screenplay by Jay Holmes and set in the brutal American west of the late 1800s. The film will see...

Its been almost a year since Melissa Barrera was unceremoniously dropped from the Scream franchise for sharing her thoughts on the Israel-Hamas war on social media, but her career hasnt slowed down in the slightest. Her most recent release, Your Monster, has been a critical hit, and now shes set to take on the Old West in the new thriller In the Cradle of Granite, which marks the English-language debut of director Ariel Escalante.

Per Deadline, Barerra is set to star in the Western thriller from Escalante (Domingo and the Mist), which has a whole host of producers attached to it, including Joel David Moore, Rishi Bajaj and Daniel Taborga of Balcony 9 Productions, Gregory Thomas, and Jonathan Sadowski and Daniel Pancotto of Ad Lunam Entertainment. Set in the late 1800s, Barrera will play a young widow who wants to do right by her family, only to find herself...

Its been almost a year since Melissa Barrera was unceremoniously dropped from the Scream franchise for sharing her thoughts on the Israel-Hamas war on social media, but her career hasnt slowed down in the slightest. Her most recent release, Your Monster, has been a critical hit, and now shes set to take on the Old West in the new thriller In the Cradle of Granite, which marks the English-language debut of director Ariel Escalante.

Per Deadline, Barerra is set to star in the Western thriller from Escalante (Domingo and the Mist), which has a whole host of producers attached to it, including Joel David Moore, Rishi Bajaj and Daniel Taborga of Balcony 9 Productions, Gregory Thomas, and Jonathan Sadowski and Daniel Pancotto of Ad Lunam Entertainment. Set in the late 1800s, Barrera will play a young widow who wants to do right by her family, only to find herself...

Melissa Barrera is saddling up for a new Western thriller, In the Cradle of Granite. The Scream star will appear in the film which is set against the unforgiving landscape of the late 1800s American frontier. In the film, Barrera will play a young mother on a desperate quest for survival. The movie also marks the English-language debut of acclaimed Costa Rican director Ariel Escalante (Domingo and the Mist), who directs from a script by Jay Holmes.

Exclusive: Melissa Barrera (Scream VI) is set to lead In the Cradle of Granite, a new Western thriller marking the English-language debut of Ariel Escalante (Domingo and the Mist).

An adaptation of the novel from Jay Holmes, who adapted the screenplay, the film is set in the brutal American west of the late 1800s, where a young mother (Barerra) struggles to provide for her family after her husband dies and the local town folk won’t do business with her. But when she finds the body of a notorious wanted outlaw on her homestead, she strikes a deal with the bounty hunter who killed him — setting out across the dangerous frontier in hopes of a big reward and a better future.

Producing the picture are Joel David Moore, Rishi Bajaj and Daniel Taborga of Balcony 9 Productions, Jonathan Sadowski and Daniel Pancotto of Ad Lunam Ent,...

Films Boutiques has boarded Amr Gamal’s “The Burdened” ahead of its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.

Slated for the Panorama section, “The Burdened” will be the first Yememi film to play in the official selection of the Berlinale.

The movie takes place in Aden, Yemen, where Isra’a and Ahmed put all their efforts offering a normal life and education to their three young children. When they find out that Isra’a is pregnant again, they have to make difficult decisions guided only by their family’s interest. “The Burdened” stars Khaled Hamdan and Abeer Mohammed.

Gamal previously directed “10 Days before the Wedding” and the series “Last Chance.” “The Burdened” is produced by Mohsen Alkhalifi and Amr Gamal at Adenium Productions, Yemen-based company.

Co-producers are Amjad Abu Alala, Mohammed Alomda at Station Films, Sudan, and Red Sea International Film Festival at Saudi Arabia. The movie was lensed by Mrinal Desai,...

A truncated Panama Int’l Film Festival (Iff Panama) wrapped Dec. 4 on a high note, with the debut doc-feature “Nación de Titanes” by Panamanian Joaquín Horna Sosa snagging the Audience Award, a good indication of its box office potential.

One of only four Panamanian features in competition, “Nación de Titanes” follows six wrestlers during Panama’s golden age of wrestling during the ‘60s through the ‘80s. Doc-feature stars wrestlers Sandokan, Ricardo Díaz, El Greco, El Titán, Cronox II and Johnny González as it chronicles the ups and downs of their respective careers and digs into the origins of the sport.

The three-day festival had encouraging news from Culture Minister Giselle Gonzalez and Panama City Deputy Mayor Judy Meana who both pledged their continued support for the festival.

Pituka Ortega Heilbron, chair of the festival board and foundation, noted that the festival was operating at a fraction of its normal size...

Co-director Jérôme Paillard says market ”exceeded our expectations, especially regarding the quality of the projects proposed in the different sections”.

Horror When Evil Lurks, drama León – both from Argentina – and fantasy drama Almamula, a co-production between Argentina, Italy and France, were among the winners as Ventana Sur came to a close on Friday in Buenos Aires.

The prizes come with development and/or completion funds, or attendance at partner events, underscoring Ventana Sur’s reputation as a critical support platform for Latin American content.

Demian Rugna’s Blood Window Screenings Award winner When Evil Lurks, the first Spanish-language production for...

French auteur filmmaker Claire Denis returns to Panama to open the 11th Panama Int’l Film Festival Dec. 2 with her Cannes Grand Prix winner “Stars at Noon.”

While set in Nicaragua, the drama shot primarily in Panama last year and is associate produced by Hypatia Films, run by Pituka Ortega Heilbron and Marcela Heilbron, which provided production services. Fest – the Iff Panama as it is also known – closes Dec. 4 with “Tito, Margot y Yo,” an intriguing documentary about the 20th century’s greatest ballerina, Dame Margot Fonteyn, and her marriage to Panamanian politician, Tito Arias.

Some changes are afoot at the festival where, starting this year, Bernardo Ordás Guardia takes over festival duties from Ortega Heilbron who is now chair of the festival board and foundation. Ortega Heilbron plans to devote more time to directing and producing although she will continue to be involved with programming, guests and expanding the festival’s reach.

The deadline to submit films in the international feature Oscar category was Oct. 3, but the Academy has not yet announced the full list of accepted titles, so it is a provisional report. AMPAS will release a shortlist of 15 movies on Dec. 21 and the nominations will be announced Jan. 24. The Oscar ceremony will take place March 12 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Albania

A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On

Director: Gentian Koçi

Logline: Deaf-mute twins in Tirana discover they have a genetical disease that will take away their sight slowly. They have a decision to make.

International Sales: M-Appeal

Algeria

Our Brothers

Director. Rachid Bouchareb

Logline: Mixing documentary and fiction, pic explores police violence and the deaths of student Malik Oussekine and bar patron Abdel Benyahia.

Intl. Sales: Wild Bunch

Argentina

Argentina , 1985

Director: Santiago Mitre

Logline: Lawyers battle Argentina’s military junta in the 1980s.

U.S. Distributor: Amazon...

The film is directed by Costa Rica’s Ariel Escalanta Meza.

Berlin-based Films Boutique has made a significant early sale on Ariel Escalante Meza’s Un Certain Regard title Domingo And The Mist to Epicentre in France.

“It’s exciting to have a French distributor on board ahead of the market, as it is also reassuring to be working again with our long-term partners at Epicentre Film,” said Films Boutique CEO Jean-Christophe Simon.

Costa Rican director Meza is a Berlinale Talents alumnus and recipient of the National Prize for the Arts from Costa Rica’s Ministry of Culture in 2018. A renowne deditor,...

The film is directed by Costa Rica’s Ariel Escalanta Meza.

Berlin-based Films Boutique has made a significant early sale on Ariel Escalante Meza’s Un Certain Regard title Domingo And The Mist to Epicentre in France.

“It’s exciting to have a French distributor on board ahead of the market, as it is also reassuring to be working again with our long-term partners at Epicentre Film,” said Films Boutique CEO Jean-Christophe Simon.

Costa Rican director Meza is a Berlinale Talents alumnus and recipient of the National Prize for the Arts from Costa Rica’s Ministry of Culture in 2018. A renowne deditor,...

Berlinale Talents Alumni Prepare to Shine in Cannes

It’s slowly edging towards summer here in Berlin and that means one thing: Cannes is close! And as the sun gets ever brighter, many of Berlinale’s former Talents are also preparing to dazzle on the Croisette!

Three alumni are starring in films in Competition; Sherwan Haji in Tarik Saleh’s Boy from Heaven, Sara Fazilat in Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider, which was produced by Sol Bondy and Jacob Jarek, and finally Nadia Litz joins the glittering cast of David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future. Also in Competition is Lukas Dhont’s Close, co-written by Angelo Tijssens. Un Certain Regard provides a stage for more Talents to shine, with 17 alumni involved in 9 films, including Ariel Escalante’s Domingo y la niebla, to name one example. The film was edited by Lorenzo Mora Salazar, music composed by Alberto Torres, with Nicolás Wong Díaz acting as both producer & cinematographer. Abinash Bikram Shah’s Lori screens in the Short Films Competition, alongside two films with Zuolong Shan as executive producer, Bi Gan’s A Short Story and Story Chen’s The Water Murmurs.

Critic’s Week features 11 former Talents who have contributed their creativity to 8 films in the selection. The Woodcutter Story was in fact developed at our Script Station by writer and director Mikko Myllylahti, edited by Jussi Rautaniemi and produced by Jussi Rantamäki, the short Cuerdas was shot by Lara Vilanova and there will also be a special screeing of Goutte d’Or, produced by Jean-Christophe Reymond.

Excitingly, the Director’s Fortnight will show the debut feature films of three Talents alumni: Manuela Martelli’s 1976, edited by Camila Mercadal and produced by Dominga Sotomayor, Elena López Riera’s El agua and Pamfir by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk. Included in the selection is Un Varón by Fabian Hernández, which Louise Bellicaud produced.

To see the complete picture of all Berlinale Talents alumni at Cannes, including those selected for the Cinéfondation’s Atelier, Les cinémas du monde’s La Fabrique and the Acid programme, click here.

Reconnect in Cannes — Register now!

Building lasting relationships across all disciplines and editions is a crucial part of what we do. And since Cannes offers plenty of opportunities for long awaited informal encounters over a coffee or rosé, we’d love to build up the group again. If you are a Berlinale Talents alumni please register your attendance at the festival, market (or just on the beach) by clicking here. Who else is in Cannes? Find out here.

Dedicated to Discovery

The 17th edition of Talents Buenos Aires took place from April 19–23. Borrowing from Luis López Carrasco’s film of the same name, this year’s theme was ‘The Year of Discovery’. Drawing inspiration from the film’s exploration of Spain’s political and social crisis in the early 1990s, the programme’s aim was to promote critical and aesthetic thinking regarding recent world events and their influence on the film world. It was an engaging 5 days of events for the 55 Talents from all over South America, from workshops on non-traditional distribution with Maui Alena or on acting with Maria Laura Berch, to a dialogue on cinema as discovery with Darío Aguirre, and plenty of networking sessions. Welcome to the skilled film professionals who are now part of the Talents family, and congratulations to the team of Talents Buenos Aires on another great edition.

The preparations for Talents Guadalajara in June, Talents Durban in July and Talents Sarajevo in August are currently in full swing, and further out on the horizon, the 13th Talents Tokyo will be held from October 31 to November 5 within the Tokyo FILMeX Festival 2022.

Thanks for staying tuned and catching up!

The Berlinale Talents team

Upcoming Dates

May 6, 2022: Application deadline for Talents Guadalajara

May 31, 2022: Application deadline for Talents Sarajevo

May 31, 2022: Application deadline for Talents Tokyo

June 11–15, 2022: Talents Guadalajara takes place

Early July, 2022: Call for entries for Berlinale Talents 2023

July 22–26, 2022: Talents Durban Takes place

August 13–18, 2022: Talents Sarajevo takes place

October 31 — November 5, 2022: Talents Tokyo takes place

Photo credits:

1) Still from Close, co-written by Angelo Tijssens © Lukas Dhont / Diaphana Distribution

2) Talents Buenos Aires key visual 2022Berlinale Talents

Berlin International Film Festival

Potsdamer Platz 11, 10785 Berlin, Germany

Tel: +49 30 25920–515

www.berlinale-talents.de...

The line-up includes films by David Cronenberg, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ruben Östlund, Kelly Reichardt, Park Chan-Wook and Claire Denis.

The Official Selection of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival has been announced.

Scroll down for the line-up

The selection includes films by David Cronenberg, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ruben Östlund, Park Chan-Wook, Kelly Reichardt and Claire Denis. The 18-strong competition features three female directors (Reichardt, Denis and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi).

Michel Hazanavicius’ zombie comedy Z will open the festival out of competition.

47 titles were unveiled today (plus the previously announced Elvis and Top Gun: Maverick), significantly down on last year’s 83, though more titles will...

The 10th Panama Int’l Film Festival wrapped Sunday, Dec. 5 with Michel Franco’s Acapulco-set drama “Sundown” closing the event.

Winners of the rough-cut sidebar Primera Mirada were announced at closing night, which took place at festival venue, La Manzana de Santa Ana. Costa Rican entries took home the top prizes this year, indicative of the tiny Central American nation’s outsized filmmaking talent.

The Primera Mirada jury, led by Diana Sánchez, Marcelo Quesada and Paula Gastaud, bestowed the top prize to Costa Rican supernatural drama “Domingo and the Mist” by Ariel Escalante who took home the $10,000 cash prize; Mauricio Morales of El Salvador won the second cash prize of $5,000 for his docu “Milo, Breaking Frontiers.”

“I’m enormously thankful to Iff Panama for having not only supported ‘Domingo and the Mist,’ both in Primera Mirada as well as in the Panama Film Match a year and a half ago,...

Iff Panama’s co-production forum, the Panama Film Match, launched in 2020 in a virtual format. It’s now holding its first in-person format between Dec. 2-4 as part of the 10th Panama Intl. Film Festival (Iff Panama).

Creating a co-production forum has been a long-standing goal for Iff Panama, the highest-profile film event in Central America. The Pfm is a sister event to Iff Panama’s pix-in-post sidebar, Primera Mirada, which are already showing synergies.

One of the projects that received a special mention in last year’s edition of the Pfm, Ariel Escalante’s Costa Rican supernatural drama “Domingo and the Fog” is returning this year as one of the five films competing in Primera Mirada.

The forum is supported by the Idb Lab, the innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank Group.

“Panama Film Match seeks to be a meeting place for artistic, economic and creative cooperation between...

Launched in 2015, Iff Panama’s rough-cut sidebar Primera Mirada has proved a vital launch pad for Central American and Caribbean films in post, providing that all-important impetus towards their final completion.

A jury led by Diana Sánchez, Marcelo Quesada and Paula Gastaud along with head curators, festival director Pituka Ortega Heilbron and Iff Panama industry head Karla Quintero, selected five projects out of 13 applications this year.

Reflecting on the criteria they used to choose the finalists, Ortega Heilbron said: “Aside from quality, we seek new voices that will represent our region. Central America is influenced by U.S. and European cultures so these mélange of cultures makes for a unique identity; we’re looking for projects that speak to our identity as Central American and Caribbean.”

“Our region’s cinema is often overlooked, but it has so much vibrance and power; even with the pandemic, our filmmakers were generating new cinema,...

Costa Rican documentary “Los Últimos,” by Álvaro Torres Crespo, won the $10,000 Iff Panama Film Match Award, in the first edition of Iff Panama Film Match – the Panama Film Festival’s Cinematographic Co-Production Forum for Central America and the Caribbean, supported by the Idb Lab.

Initially planned as an integral part of the on-site film festival, the event was restructured as a virtual forum, with 10 projects in development – from Costa Rica, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Panama, including four Panamanian projects.

The jury members – top Colombian producer Diana Bustamante, Thierry Lenouvel, one of France’s key co-producers with Latin America, and Inti Cordera, director of DocsMX, one of Latin America’s key doc events – said that “Los Últimos” was chosen “due to the relevance of its issues, history and central character, [as] ever more than before, messages from drawn from the knowledge of our indigenous peoples must be disseminated and promoted through...

The Panama Intl. Film Festival, (Iff Panama) the highest-profile film event in Central America, is using online tools to develop existing and new initiatives.

In one move, it has just completed its pix-in-post competition Primera Mirada, its new Su Mirada sidebar for women filmmakers from the region, and is now launching a new Virtual Co-Production Forum – the Panama Film Match – and a streamlined five-day online festival.

All initiatives are sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank.

Iff Panama was initially slated to run from March 26 to April 1, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Undeterred, the festival has used online tools to maintain its crucial role in supporting new projects from the region.

Launched in 2015, Primera Mirada has served as an important springboard for projects from the region, providing vital post-production funding.

This year’s $10,000 first prize went to Dominican Republic revenge thriller “Rafaela,” by Tito Rodríguez (“Una fiesta inolvidable...

Panama City — Five films from Central America and the Caribbean are screening at the 5th Primera Mirada, Iff Panama’s pix-in-post sidebar, which has become a major springboard for upcoming films from the region.

The sidebar is particularly important for the region’s filmmakers who often desperately require post-production completion finance and mentoring advice.

The winning film receives a $15,000 cash prize from the Inter-American Development Bank and will be screened at the 2019 Cannes Film Market.

The pics in competition this year are Ana Elena Tejera’s “Panquiaco”, Sofía Quirós’ debut feature “Ceniza Negra”, Héctor Valdez’s “Malpaso” (Dominican Republic), Anaïs Taracena’s documentary “The Silence of the Mole” (Guatemala) and Fernando Blanco’s documentary “Por eso vengo al río” (Dominican Republic).

Variety spoke with the representatives from each project – who answered the following questions: 1) What is the background to this project?; 2) What are your expectations from attending Primera Mirada?; 3) Will...

Berlinale Talents

Fest Chief, Dieter Kosslick at Dine & Shine Dinner, copyright Peter Himsel, Berlinale 2017Pity for all you upcoming filmmakers who might be eligible to further your careers through the Berlinale Talents because now the 2018 application period is closed, but come next July 2018, you should plan to apply!Talents, copyright Peter Himsel, Berlinale 2017

Berlinale Talents is aimed at film and television professionals in the first 10 years of their careers. To find out if you are eligible to apply for Berlinale Talents or one of their project labs: Doc Station, Talent Project Market, Script Station and Short Film Station; and to get a quick overview of the application process, check out the information Here.

One in five contenders for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is a Berlinale Talents alum. An impressive 17 films by Berlinale Talents alumni have been nominated as their countries’ contenders for the 2018 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

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.

The Costa Rica International Film Festival has announced the full list of winners from its fifth edition. An initiative of the Ministry of Culture and Youth’s Film Center, this year’s festival included 72 films from around the world and ran from December 8 to December 17 in San Jose.

Read More: Costa Rica’s Big Movie Dreams: How a Country With 150 Theaters Plans to Improve the Central America Film Industry

The jurors of the 2016 fest announced the competition and audience award winners in each of the festival’s three categories at the closing ceremony Saturday at the Magaly Theater.

“After 10 intense days, the 2016 edition of the Costa Rica International Film Festival comes to an end, having firmly established that it is committed not just to national and Central American cinema, but to strengthening its ties with audiences, whose numbers swelled this year compared to the 2015 edition,” Crfic Artistic Director Marcelo Quesada said in a statement.

Life is a mundane ritual for Claudia (Liliana Biamonte), the lonely young nurse at the center of Costa Rica director Ariel Escalante’s thoughtful debut “The Sound of Things” (“El sonido de cosas”). This quiet, unassuming character study offers no big gestures or fancy tricks, but its subtle attention to behavior and inexpressible feelings reflects the intelligence of a promising storyteller attuned to cinema’s unique powers.

See MoreCosta Rica’s Big Movie Dreams: How a Country With 150 Theaters Plans to Improve the Central America Film Industry

Suffering from the suicide of her cousin just a few months earlier, Claudia leads a drab life helping patients on a tight schedule, riding the bus home at the end of each day, and wandering quietly around her apartment. Either bored or baffled by histrionic group therapy sessions she attends with her grieving aunt, Claudia finds herself more at home with denial. She...

The Costa Rica International Film Festival (Crfic) has announced its complete lineup for its fifth edition. This year, 72 films have been chosen to represent the world’s best in independent cinema, with four world premieres and three Latin American premieres taking place, and over 60 features to be presented for the first time in the region.

“At Crfic we are interested in approaching the idea of artistic diversity; covering a broad spectrum of styles and proposals found in contemporary national and international cinema,” said Marcelo Quesada, Artistic Director for the Festival. “Our identity and our program is built around a free, coherent and risky cinema that moves away from the usual places and bring us closer to different voices and world visions from over 30 countries.”

Read More: Costa Rica Selects Esteban Ramirez’ ‘Presos’ as Oscar Submission

Taking place at the capital city of San José, the festival will run from December...

Central American cinema is the focus of two competitive sections at the sixth Costa Rica International Film Festival, set to run in San José from December 8-17.

The competitive Central American Feature Film roster comprises Costa Rican titles Abrázame Como Antes (pictured) by Jurgen Ureña, El Sonido De Las Cosas by Ariel Escalante, and La Sombra Del Naranjo by Patricia Velásquez and Oscar Herrera; Marcela Zamora’s Los Ofendidos (El Salvador-Mexico); and Guido Bilbao’s Es Hora De Enamorarse from Panama.

Non-competitive sections include Panorama, Radar, Youth, Bridges and Special Presentations. The festival will also pay tribute to director Kelly Reichardt.

“At Crfic we are interested in approaching the idea of artistic diversity; covering a broad spectrum of styles and proposals found in contemporary national and international cinema,” said artistic director Marcelo Quesada. For full details click here.

Production has begun in Winnipeg on genre bending horror, Trench 11. Rossif Sutherland plays a First World War tunneller...

Plus: Dirty 30 gets Us release; The Sound of Things to premiere in Moscow.

Michael Herr, the American writer and war correspondent who got an Oscar nomination for his work on Full Metal Jacket, has died at age 76.

Best known for his 1977 book of Vietnam war reporting Dispatches, Herr passed away in a New York hospital after what his publisher reported was a long illness.

Herr collaborated with Francis Ford Coppola on the narration for the latter’s 1979 Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now and wrote the script for Stanely Kubrick’s 1987 war drama Full Metal Jacket with Kubrick and Gustav Hasford. The three writers were nominated for the best adapted screenplay Oscar in 1988.

Herr also wrote the narration for 1997 John Grisham adaptation The Rainmaker.

• Lionsgate has set comedy Dirty 30 for a September 23 Us release in select cinemas and on digital platforms. The film features YouTube stars Mamrie Hart, Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart, with [link=nm...

"Princesas Rojas" (Red Princesses), directed by Laura Astorga, is Costa Rica’s submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film 2014. It is the first feature of Laura Astorga through which she recreates her own childhood mixed with elements of fiction.

The story begins at the Nicaraguan border in the 1980s. 11 year old Claudia and her younger sister experience the street fighting first-hand outside their car window. Their parents are Sandinista activists and, although the family is now escaping Nicaragua to neighboring Costa Rica, the struggle continues. Their parents fire off terse commands and the girls are packed off to their relatives. There's no other way. Claudia hordes her treasured collection of revolutionary badges and longs for the time when she was a young pioneer. She doesn’t really know what her parents do. Passports are forged, there are nocturnal meetings and car number plates are switched. One day, her mother disappears. They say she’s gone to Miami. The children piece together fragments that give them an insight into their parents’ dilemma of trying to balance their political struggle with family life. The film focuses on the point of view of the two sisters who are very close, as they learn more than they are able to cope with, but too little really to understand. The film is of revolutionary struggle as seen through the eyes of children.

"Red Princesses" was supported by Cinergia, the Audiovisual Promotion Fund of Central America and Cuba) in 2007 in script development and again in 2010 in the category of Feature Film Production. The project was first presented internationally at the International Film Festival of Guadalajara (Ficg[1]) 2012 En Construye (Works in Progress). It was one of four productions which received support from Ibermedia in 2013. It was a coproduction of Costa Rica, Spain and Venezuela.

The film had its world premiere at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival in the section dedicated to children and adolescents, Generation 14plus. It later competed as part of the official selection of feature films from the 25th International Festival Cinelatino: Rencontres de Toulouse, held in the French city of Toulouse in March 2013, one of the most important film festivals in the world for Iberoamerican film coproduction.

It went on to receive awards in the category of Debut Film in Festivals in Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (Laliff), in Venezuela (Festival de Cine de Margarita), at the Festival de Cine Paz con la Tierra San José Costa Rica where it won the Audience Award, and the Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Production, Icaro where it won for Best Script and Best Art Production. It has also shown in Festival Filmar Switzerland, and Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata.

This writer met producer Marcela Esquivel Jiménez and Carlos I. Benavides, credited as the film’s Technical Director, when they attended Ficg Market in March 2013 where they were presenting their newest work in progress and showing "Princesas Rojas" (Red Princesses) in the official selection.

Marcela Esquivel Jiménez and Carlos Benavides work with other recent film school graduates. The following interview with them gives an insight into the state of film today in Costa Rica, and by deduction, the state of the art in all the Americas in the near future.

Although Costa Rica has no formal film commission, the government through several different agencies has always been very supportive of film activities and audiovisual production in Costa Rica. Non-union Costa Rican film crews, no minimums on foreign crews, competitive rates on rooms, and easy international access offered by all major U.S. airline carriers make Costa Rica a location destination to consider. [2]

Sl: What stands out in my mind as we talk about what you all are doing, is the idea that many people -- together since film school -- from all over Latin America are working together as a team in a company. It is not the mere fact of coproduction which is unique as much as the mix of people which is unique.

Carlos: I’ll explain: Bisonte Producciones is a collective we founded about ten years ago. Its members are all from Costa Rica. We met while studying here and started making short films. After a while, many of us went to study in different schools and countries: Eictv, Nyu in Singapore, Chapman University while others went to work and study in places like Spain, Argentina and México. A couple of years ago, many of us returned to Costa Rica, and we have continued working together with short films under the Bisonte banner. We are also working on each other’s feature films and commercials. And on top of all that, many of us are preparing our own first features as well.

There is another group named Best Picture System. This is a production company founded while I was studying in Cuba at Eictv. (Eictv stands for Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV, also known as Los Baños. It is the international film school founded in1986 by the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez with his Nobel Prize money on land donated by Fidel Castro in San Antonio Los Baños, Cuba just outside of Havana.) The faculty and student body includes people from Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Venezuela, México, Panamá, Cuba, Costa Rica. While I was with them, I worked as a script supervisor in Puro Mula[3], directed by Enrique Pérez of Panamá, written by Pérez and Ariel Escalante of Costa Rica and shot in Guatemala, and Ovnis en Zacapa (UFOs in Zacapa),[4] another Guatemalan film, directed by Marcos Machado of Costa Rica and written by Pérez of Panamá which raised money on Indiegogo. Vilma Liella from Puerto Rico produced both films.

Sl: Who are other key people in these production companies?

Carlos: Marcela Esquivel, the producer of Princesas Rojas, a film which premiered at the 2013 Berlinale, trained at Eictv as I did.

Sl : Red Princesses was a first for everyone. The director, co-director, producer and Dp were all classmates together at Eictv?

Carlos : Marcela, Julio Costantini (Dp) and I were classmates at the Eictv and had worked together on many of our school projects. Marcela and I met Laura Astorga, the director of Red Princesses, here in Costa Rica when we began working on the film. Oh, for which I was credited as Technical Director.

Sl : Red Princesses was a first for everyone. The director, co-director, producer and Dp were all classmates together at Eictv? [5]

Carlos : Marcela, Julio Costantini (Dp) and I were classmates at the Eictv and had worked together on many of our school projects. Marcela and I met Laura Astorga, the director of Red Princesses, here in Costa Rica when we began working on the film. Oh, and the credit I have in that film is as Technical Director.

Red Princesses is the first feature of Costa Rican filmmaker Laura Astorga, and through which she recreates her childhood. It's my story, yes, but mixed with elements of fiction, she says.

This Costa Rican-Venezuelan coproduction in 2013 received awards in the category of Debut Film in Festivals in Los Angeles (Laliff), in Venezuela (Festival de Cine de Margarita), at the Festival de Cine Paz con la Tierra San José Costa Rica where it won the Audience Award, and the Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Production, Icaro where it won for Best Script and Best Art Production. It has also shown in Toulouse, Berlinale Generation Plus, Festival Filmar Switzerland, and Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata.

Sl : I understand that the filmmakers are currently [at the time of this interview] developing a thriller called The Hunt. Can you tell me about it?

Carlos: It is the first new noir film in Central America. In this film the characters are based in Costa Rica where the investigator, a stripper and a doctor (so as not to reveal what’s going on) play in an obsessive story in the underworld in which each undergoes a transformation.

The script’s third draft was just completed this April [2013]. The Hunt is co-writtenEnrique Pérez Him, the Panamanian whose earlier film, Puro Mula[6], was a box office success in Guatemala and which was picked up as one of twenty films by Ibermedia for TV throughout Latin America in a program launched a couple of years ago. The writer-director of Pura Mula, Enrique, is also the writer of UFOs en Zacapa, now in post. Enrique and Carlos will cowrite it.

Although the film is not “ethno”, it is still very Latin American. However, the issue of funding this $400,000 film is more difficult. This is not a “typical” Latin American film which means that the typical European funds will not be available for it. The filmmakers might raise 15% for development from Ibermedia and the rest of the development money from Costa Rica, plus in-kind work. They might look for coproduction partners in Colombia and perhaps México, going to the pre-markets offered by those countries. Perhaps a special European producer, interested in Latin American coproduction could come aboard if only they could find that person.

They might crowdfund from Vodo which is a sort of cross between Kickstarter and Netflix. They will first fund a short film to try that out and to have as a calling card.

Sl : Thank you so much for this insight.

Sl: At the rate you all are going, I expect to see you succeed in making that long sought-after American Latino indie which will be smart enough to grab a large Latino set of moviegoers from all the countries. Your English is fine and you are an integral part of such cross cultures as Argentina, Spain, México, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama and Cuba all working together to bring your visions to appreciative audiences throughout Latin American and the world. If anyone can make that ever-elusive, ever-sought-for Latino film which brings that unique mixture of Latinos for all countries, including those who are living in the U.S., I would say you and your colleagues would be the one to do it.

Suerte!!

[1] Festival Internacional de Cinema at Guadalajara

[2] Sergio Miranda, http://www.costaricaproductionservices.com/

[3] http://www.promofest.org/en/films/puro-mula

[4] http://bit.ly/1mp3lCm

[5] Eictv stands for Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV, also known as Los Baños. It is the international film school founded in1986 by the Colombian Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez on land donated by Fidel Castro in San Antonio Los Baños, Cuba. For more information see the chapter on Cuba. For more information, see the Chapter Seven on Cuba.

[6] Pura Mula

Director: Enrique Pérez Him (Writer-Director Chaos in the City aka Caos en la ciudad)

Writers: Ariel Escalante (Editor on Pura Mula, Editor on El Huaso) | Enrique Pérez Him

Producers: Vilma Liella | Vilma Lopez

Cinematographer: Arturo Juarez (Dp on Chaos in the City)

Editor: Enrique Pérez Him...