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Exclusive: Winning an Emmy for October 7 doc We Will Dance Again was a moment to take stock for Emilio Schenker, the co-founder of MGM-backed Israeli studio Sipur.

While he was delighted to be recognized with a gong that all TV producers dream about winning, the moment was bittersweet as it came just 48 hours after the death of Sipur President Michael Peter Schmidt.

Schmidt was a legend of the international TV game, a hugely popular, larger-than-life personality who Schenker said was nicknamed “the oracle.”

“Michael was in this industry for 35 years and he never won an Emmy,” Schenker told Deadline, sitting down with us in a coffee shop in Soho earlier this month. “And he won his first Emmy 48 hours after he died. So it was bittersweet. We dedicated the Emmy to him. He dedicated so much time and energy to this project.”

More tragedy arose around the time of...

Michael Peter Schmidt, president of Sipur Studios and the former chief creative officer for Red Arrow Studios, died June 22 at his home in Syracuse, New York. He was 52.

Schmidt was known for his work on documentaries such as “We Will Dance Again,” “The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes,” and the scripted series “Bad Boy.”

Previously a writer, producer and director, Schmidt began his career as a performer in a German comedy troupe. He went on work in the TV industry with roles on both the network and production side of the business, working as a producer at Wdr, a TV director at entertainment producer Brainpool, creative producer for Rtl Television’s entertainment department; executive producer and consultant for Granada Germany and the editorial director at youth entertainment station Viva.

In 2005, Schmidt moved to Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1, where he held a number of senior management roles such as head of development,...

Michael Peter Schmidt, an international TV force who was president of Israel’s Sipur Studios and a co-founder of Red Arrow Studios, has died aged 52.

Schmidt died at home in New York surrounded by family on Sunday. No cause of death was given.

Speaking on behalf of Sipur chairman Gideon Tadmor and the team, CEO Emilio Schenker said: “We are heartbroken by this loss of our beloved friend and colleague, and our thoughts are with Michael’s family, friends and all those around the world who had the privilege of working with him and learning from him. He was our mentor and our dear friend – the heart and soul of a young company trying to rise up. He was our guiding source, our compass and our spark.”

Schenker called Schmidt a “driving force who has been with me since the beginning in shaping our expanding international strategy.” “He was as a visionary,...

Exclusive: Israeli series Bad Boy has its Netflix premiere date.

The show from Euphoria creator Ron Leshem and Hagar Ben-Asher has just swept up at the Israeli Television Academy Awards and will now drop on Netflix on May 2.

Bad Boy launched on Israeli network Hot late last year. From Peter Chernin’s North Road and Israeli studio Sipur, Bad Boy tells the story of Dean, who is imprisoned in a cruel juvenile detention facility. While in jail, Dean bonds with Zoro, a grim and mysterious teenage prisoner serving time for murder. He also learns to harness his unique intelligence and creativity and, 20 years later, these traits define Dean as a star comedian, while his time in jail is a secret threatening to resurface and tear his life apart.

Netflix acquired global streaming rights after the series had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023.

The show...

Entertainment tech company Gathr has announced a full Api (Application Performance Interface) integration with Artinii.Pro, a software service aimed at secure delivery and exhibition of films worldwide. Gathr and Artinii.Pro’s new collaboration combines film booking, event management, ticketing, and exhibition into a “fully automated system for non-theatrical screenings.”

“This partnership exemplifies Gathr’s mission to remove the barrier between storyteller and audience by empowering filmmakers, connecting audiences, and transforming how independent films are experienced globally,” said Gathr founder and CEO Scott Glosserman. “Our unique approach ensures that even in countries where certain web browsers and third-party video players are restricted, audiences can still host screenings and engage with impactful content.”

Films slated for global screenings and discussions under the new collaboration include Monument Releasing’s “Dinner in America,” Vanessa Hope’s “Invisible Nation,” and Stephen Maing’s “Union.”

Friday, March 7 Marc Maron Documentary ‘Are We Good?’ to...

Pop superstars in Israel and Argentina are coming together for a global romcom series.

Noa Kirel and Agustín Bernasconi are starring in Noa, a fun, playful series in which, after months of a long-distance relationship, Noa travels to Argentina to meet her boyfriend. She then meets Tomy (Bernasconi), a young man trying to reconcile with his past and forge a new life away from music, all while Noa begins a journey of discovery in search of her musical identity, while dealing with the pressure of her parents and her new reality in Buenos Aires.

The 25-episode series is filming on location in Buenos Aires next month and brings together Dori Media Group founder Yair Dori, who originated the project, Werthein Group’s Dario Werthein, Argentinian indie Fam Contenidos and Israeli Bad Boy studio Sipur. Showrunners are Alejandro Cacetta and Mili Roque Pitt, and director is Mauro Scandolari.

Kirel and Bernasconi...

Prominent industry insiders are gathering support for Oscar consideration for the documentary “We Will Dance Again,” which chronicles the horror that unfolded at Israel’s Nova International Music Festival on Oct. 7, 2023.

Producer Marc Platt, Sean Penn, music mogul Scooter Braun and former HBO and MTV documentary chief Sheila Nevins are voicing support for the film, produced by Sipur, Bitachon 365 in collaboration with MGM Television, Hscc and Susan Zirinsky’s See It Now Studios with BBC Storyville. “We Will Dance Again” has aired on the BBC Storyville plaform in the U.K. and on Israel’s Hot Channel 8. The 90-minute documentary, written and directed by Yariv Mozer and produced by Hscc’s Michal Weits, is available in the U.S. on Paramount+.

Platt, Braun and others are hosting an invitation-only screening for the documentary on Sunday on the Paramount Pictures lot. A survivor of the terrorist attack by Hamas...

Netflix has picked up Bad Boy, the Israeli series from original Euphoria creator Ron Leshem and Hagar Ben-Asher that is North Road’s first international co-pro.

The streamer, which has a big library of Israeli content, will launch Bad Boy globally after its first run on Israeli network Hot early next year. The show launched on Hot this week.

Unveiled in March 2023, Bad Boy tells the story of Dean, who is imprisoned in a cruel juvenile detention facility. While in jail, Dean bonds with Zoro, a grim and mysterious teenage prisoner serving time for murder. He also learns to harness his unique intelligence and creativity and, 20 years later, these traits define Dean as a star comedian, while his time in jail is a secret threatening to resurface and tear his life apart.

The show stars Daniel Chen, Havtamo Farda and Guy Manster. Leshem is showrunner and Ben-Asher is writer-director.

Bad Boy...

Exclusive: Peter Chernin’s North Road Company is returning to the Israeli TV market with a medical thriller starring Tehran’s Niv Sultan.

North Road has re-teamed with Israeli producer Sipur and local network Hot – its partners on juvenile prison series Bad Boy – for Heart of a Killer, the outfit’s second international co-pro. Endemol Shine Israel is also producing.

Now in principal photography, Heart of a Killer follows Dr. Dasi Nakash, played by Sultan, a promising transplant surgeon who turns to illicit organ harvesting after a desperate act to save a friend wronged by the hospital. This incident draws her into a whirlwind of moral dilemmas, patient rescues and conflicts with the underworld of the medical establishment.

The show is created by Liad Shoham, Gal Zaid (Valley of Tears) and Roni Yaddor, and directed by Evgeny Ruman (East Side).

Sultan is a big draw. She is best known for Apple TV+ hit Tehran,...

Paramount+ will premiere We Will Dance Again on Sept. 24. The film documents the Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack at the Nova Music Festival last year.

The premiere date is tied near to the first anniversary of the attack that killed about 1,200 Israelis and took roughly 250 hostages. To retaliate against Hamas after the attacks, Israel launched an offensive military action in Gaza with considerable loss of life in the region.

The project from See It Now Studios features new interviews with more than a dozen survivors who were able to chronicle their harrowing experience to stay alive with exclusive cell phone footage. The doc also includes footage captured by other victims and Hamas ahead of the wider Israel-Gaza conflict.

“The human cost of the Hamas attack in Israel and the war that followed in Gaza has been catastrophic for both Israelis and Palestinians,” Susan Zirinsky, president of See It Now Studios, said in a statement.

Paramount+ will premiere its Oct. 7 documentary “We Will Dance Again” on Sept. 24. The film will feature interviews with survivors of the Hamas attack that took place at the Nova Music Festival.

“This film is a document of history, of one of the attacks that began on October 7th at 6:29 in the morning,” See It Now Studios president Susan Zirinsky said in a Thursday press release. “The human cost of the Hamas attack in Israel and the war that followed in Gaza has been catastrophic for both Israelis and Palestinians … it is a painful story of unfathomable tragedy, but also of bravery, sacrifice and heroism.”

Directed by Yariv Mozer, “We Will Dance Again” will include the experiences and anecdotes of those who attended the Nova Music Festival in 2023, with footage straight from survivors’ cell phones.

The official synopsis reads: “The Nova Music Festival was supposed to be a celebration of life,...

Paramount+ announced today that the award-winning film We Will Dance Again, a shocking documentary about the October 7th Hamas terror attack on the international Nova Music Festival, will have a two-day theatrical run nationwide in partnership with Iconic Events Releasing.

The film will first open in Los Angeles at Laemmle Encino for a week-long Oscar-qualifying run beginning on August 23, ahead of the advanced event screenings on Friday, August 29, and Sunday, September 1, in select theaters across the country. The See It Now Studios Original Documentary will launch on Paramount+ exclusively in the U.S. this fall.

We Will Dance Again won two awards at Doc Edge in June, including Best International Editing and the In Truth We Trust category award.

The Nova Music Festival was supposed to be a celebration of life, love, and music for thousands of young people but became one of the first targets when Hamas launched the...

Ahead of its exclusive streaming premiere on Paramount+ planned for this fall, the documentary We Will Dance Again examining Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel has been slated for a two-day theatrical run nationwide in partnership with Iconic Events Releasing.

The film will first open at Laemmle Encino in Los Angeles for a week-long Oscar qualifying run beginning on August 23, ahead of advanced event screenings on Friday, August 29, and Sunday, September 1, in select theaters across the country. Watch a trailer above.

As recounted in the forthcoming documentary from director Yariv Mozer (The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes), the Nova Music Festival was supposed to be a celebration of life, love and music for thousands of young people but became one of the first targets when Hamas launched the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history on October 7th of last year. Told through the eyes of more than a dozen survivors,...

Australia’s Nine Network has become the latest buyer of powerful Israeli doc We Will Dance Again about the Nova Music Festival.

The channel has scheduled the award-winning feature documentary to air October 7, marking the one-year anniversary of the tragedy.

Commissioned soon after October 7 by Bad Boys studio Sipur, We Will Dance Again tells the stories of more than a dozen survivors in their own words. The documentary pieces together their exclusive video footage with that of the perpetrators themselves and CCTV cameras, telling the story of innocent young people forced to fight for their survival in the breathtaking intensity of real time.

We Will Dance Again has already sold to Paramount+ in the U.S., co-producers BBC Storyville in the UK, Hot Channel 8 in Israel and Norway’s Vgtv. Fulwell 73 label Bitachon 365 and MGM Television also boarded the doc in March.

Distributor Osmosis Global struck the deal with Nine.

BritBox has dropped the trailer for its miniseries “The Confessions of Frannie Langton,” which will premiere all four episodes March 8 in North America, Australia, South Africa, and the Nordic territories.

Starring Karla-Simone Spence in the lead role, “The Confessions of Frannie Langton” depicts a woman who is forcibly employed as a maid in a wealthy London household. When the estate’s owners are suddenly murdered, Frannie is perceived as the culprit and brought to prison, where she attempts to uncover the truth.

“This is my story, and it’s a story of love,” Spence says in a voiceover omnipresent throughout the trailer. “Though everyone expected it to be a story of murder and truth. No one ever expects any kind of story from a woman like me.”

In a particularly heated moment from the one-minute teaser, Spence exchanges a passionate kiss with co-star Sophie Cookson, hinting at the threads of...

Amazon’s Prime Video has acquired the Holocaust-centered docuseries “The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes.” It is now exclusively available to stream in the U.S.

The three-part docuseries presented by MGM Television and Sipur in association with Kan11, Toluca Pictures, and Alice communications, brings to light the audio recordings of Nazi SS officer Adolf Eichmann, which detail his role as one of the leading perpetrators of the Holocaust’s “Final Solution.”

It features 28 hours of taped interviews with Eichmann, long believed to be lost, recorded in 1957 while he was in hiding in Argentina, as well as interviews from Holocaust survivors, key witnesses at the Eichmann trial, historians and experts on the Holocaust.

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In the interviews, conducted by Nazi journalist William Sassen, Eichmann confesses to his own role in the genocide perpetrated against the...

Rock Salt Releasing has boarded Kate Bosworth-starrer “Nona.”

TriCoast Media launched arthouse-focused Rock Salt last year. It will present both films to buyers with screenings in Berlin.

Michael Polish’s “Nona” – also known as “No Fame” – follows two strangers who travel from Honduras to the U.S. border. Touching on issues surrounding illegal immigration and human trafficking, it stars Kate Bosworth, and Sulem Calderon as the titular Nona. Calderon will be seen next year in Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson movie “Jungle Cruise.”

Another title on Rock Salt’s slate is Guilhad Emilio Schenker’s “Madam Yankelova’s Fine Literature Club,” which follows events at a secretive women-only society whose members lure in unwitting dates, before their fate is revealed. Alex Ansky, Ania Bukstein and Razia Israeli star.

“Films that feature women don’t have to be dramas, and the women don’t even have to be heroines,” said Daisy Hamilton,...

The Haifa Script Distillery will support Israeli writers.

Israel’s Haifa International Film Festival (September 22 - October 1) has launched a script development programme called the Haifa Script Distillery to support Israeli writers to develop English-language film and TV scripts.

The initiative has been unveiled during this year’s festival where 20 projects chosen from 400 entries are being presented (See full list below). Six to eight works will be shortlisted and will each receive a development grant of 50,000 Nis. Each writer will be mentored and receive training from tutors and supporting partners.

Once fully developed, the selected works will be presented to...

Just a few weeks ago, we wrote about the first wave of films playing at Austin’s renowned Fantastic Fest. Featuring amazing titles like J.J. Abrams’ Overlord, Gareth Evans’ Apostle, Guilhad Emilio Schenker’s Madam Yankelova’s Fine Literature Club, and more, the “keep it weird” city will be blessed by some amazing cinema from around the world. […]

The post Fantastic Fest 2018: Halloween Comes to Austin! appeared first on Dread Central.

Short extract from the film will be shown at Jerusalem Film Festival’s Pitch Point.

Tel Aviv-based Transfax is set to unveil extracts today from Guilhad Emilio Schenker’s Madame Yankelova’s Fine Literature Club, about a women’s reading club with a secret feminist and cannibalistic agenda.

The picture is Schenker’s debut feature after his award-winning short Lavan, which toured some 70 festivals.

“I’m curious to see the response. It’s very different from what people normally expect of Israeli cinema, it’s very stylised,” said Transfax founding chief Marek Rozenbaum, adding that the décor and costumes had a period 1950s and 1960s feel although it was not set in a specific time.

A 10 to 20-minute subtitled extract will be shown in a industry work-in-progress session at Israeli feature-focused Pitch Point today at the Jerusalem Film Festival.

Adapted from Shmuel Yosef Agnon’s novella The Mistress and the Peddler, the film revolves...

The festival is laying on a packed programme of film industry events this year, headlined by the Jerusalem Pitch Point meeting.

The meeting revolves around a central pitching event on July 14, open to both industry professionals, film students and the public, aimed at connecting Israeli filmmakers with international partners on their upcoming projects.

Participants this year include celebrated experimental director Nina Menkes, established filmmakers Nir Bergman and Dina Zvi Riklis and up and coming director Eitan Gafny, whose Lebanon-set zombie picture debut Cannon Fodder has sold well internationally.

For the first time, the event will also screen a selection of Israeli works-in-progress to selected industry professionals, including Madame Yankelova’s Fine Literature Club, the feature debut of Guilhad Emilio Schenker, whose 2010 short Lavan screened in more than 70 festivals and won numerous prizes.

The projects will compete for a trio of prizes meted out by France’s National Cinema Centre, Franco-German broadcaster...