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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...

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...

Production has begun on Hatixhe and Shaban, the third feature film by Kosovar filmmaker Visar Morina. A project that won the prestigious Baumi Award in 2022, Screen Daily confirms that production began this week — we are looking at six-week shoot in capital Pristina and the village of Sllakofc. The filmmaker reteams with thesps Astrit Kabashi and Flonja Kodheli (who topline), Alban Ukaj, Tristan Halilaj and Refet Abazi are the supporting players. Vicky Bane’s Pia Hellenthal and Morina are producing along with Schuldenberg Films’ Sophie Ahrens, Fabian Altenried and Kristof Gerega.…...

Production is underway in Kosovo on Hatixhe And Shaban, the new feature from Exile filmmaker Visar Morina.

The feature will shoot for 40 days in Kosovan capital Pristina and the village of Sllakofc. Astrit Kabashi and Flonja Kodheli lead the cast, alongside Alban Ukaj, Tristan Halilaj and Refet Abazi.

Morina wrote the film with Doruntina Basha. It follows a couple living in a village with their three daughters, who must move to the capital looking for work when a family member steals their 12 cows.

The film is produced by Morina’s company Vicky Bane that he runs with Pia Hellenthal, with Sophie Ahrens,...

Feature film projects from Godland filmmaker Hlynur Palmason and Small Body director Laura Samani are among 31 titles that have received a combined €8.8m in the latest session of Council of Europe co-production fund Eurimages.

Iceland’s Palmason received €500,000 for On Land And Sea. Produced by France’s Maneki Films, Denmark’s Snowglobe and Iceland’s Still Vivid, it will shoot this autumn. Set at the turn of the 19th century, the film will follow a family which transforms its house into a raft and goes looking for a new place to live.

Scroll down for the full list or projects...

The results of the second Eurimages Project Evaluation Session for 2024 have just been announced and we are finding some major projects in the mix that have either began filming or are getting ready for a summer, fall, winter and/or 2025 calendar shoot. Of the ones we fancy the most we see that Quebecois filmmaker Geneviève Dulude-De Celles is moving swimmingly along with a Blue Flower, a film that will be shot in Bulgaria. It was among the projects selected at last year’s Venice Gap Market. We have Visar Morina (filmmaker of 2020’s Exil – read review) working on Hatixhe and Shaban – a project that has been on our radar since 2022.…...

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Filmmakers Dea Kulumbegashvili (Beginning) and Visar Morina (Exil) are this year’s joint winners of the 2022 Baumi Script Development Award, an indie film bursary set up in honor of the late German producer Karl Baumgartner (Le Havre, Clouds of Sils Maria).

Georgian filmmaker Kulumbegashvili won for her treatment for her next feature project, Historia, which follows a female obstetrician in a rural part of Georgia who performs illegal abortions. German-Kosovar filmmaker Morina got the nod for the pitch for his upcoming feature Hatixhe and Shaban, which looks at a family in rural Kosovo, which loses its farm and is forced to move to the city to earn a living.

The two will share the 21,000 (20,000 eduro) cash prize, to be put toward developing their respective scripts.

Kulumbegashvili’s debut feature, Beginning, a story of a woman caught in an isolated community of Jehovah’s Witnesses in rural Georgia,...

Hive, the debut feature from writer-director Blerta Basholli that won a trio of awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, has been submitted by Kosovo for this year’s International Feature Oscar race.

The Albanian-language drama, which won the World Cinema Audience, Directing and Grand Jury Prize honors in Park City, is based on the true story of Fahrije (Yllka Gashi), who, like many of the other women in her patriarchal village, has lived with fading hope and burgeoning grief since her husband went missing during the war in Kosovo.

In order to provide for her struggling family, she pulls together the other widows in her community to launch a business selling a local food product. But the men in the village condemn Fahrije’s efforts to empower herself and the women around her, starting a feud that threatens their newfound sovereignty — and the financial future of Fahrije’s family.

European Shooting Stars 2021

This year’s ten European Shooting Star actors are Seidi Haarla (Finland), Nicolas Maury (France), Albrecht Schuch (Germany), Natasa Stork (Hungary), Fionn O’Shea (Ireland), Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė (Lithuania), Martijn Lakemeier (The Netherlands), Sara Klimoska (North Macedonia), Alba Baptista (Portugal) and Gustav Lindh (Sweden). The selection jury included U.S. casting director Cassandra Han, Kosovan director Antoneta Kastrati and Danish producer René Ezra. European Film Promotion’s 24th edition of the program will take place digitally, from 23 to 25 February 2021. Previous Shooting Stars have included Carey Mulligan, Alba Rohrwacher, Alicia Vikander, Maisie Williams and Riz Ahmed.

Nent Group Chair

Nent Group Chair David Chance has decided not to stand for re-election this year. The Nent Group Nomination Committee has proposes the election of Pernille Erenbjerg as the new Chair of the Board. Erenbjerg has served as member of the Nent Group Board since May 2020, and was previously President and CEO of Tdc,...

Indian premieres include Massoud Bhakshi’s Yalda – A Night For Forgiveness, which took the Grand Jury prize at Sundance.

India’s Dharamshala International Film Festival (Diff) is taking place as an online event (October 29-November 4) with a line-up of Indian premieres and talk events with Asif Kapadia and Venice best screenplay-winning director Chaitanya Tamhane (The Disciple).

Indian premieres include recent festival award winners such as Massoud Bhakshi’s Yalda – A Night For Forgiveness, which took the Grand Jury prize at Sundance; Babyteeth, winner of the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actor at Venice; and Visar Morina’s Exile, which...

These should be the best of times for the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category. After all, last year’s winner, “Parasite,” went on to win additional Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. The year before, “Roma” won in the category that was then called Best Foreign Language Film, then added Best Director and Best Cinematography awards.

With the Academy adding more members outside the United States every year, the international category is becoming more and more of a powerhouse. But can it continue that clout this year, when production and exhibition has been curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic and there may well be fewer entries than usual? And regardless of the number of entries, is there anything out there that feels like the next “Roma” or “Parasite”?

The answer is almost certainly no on the second question, but it’s premature to draw any conclusions on the first.

This is the list of the films that have been submitted in the Oscars race for Best International Feature Film. Each country is permitted to enter a single film, as selected by an Academy-approved international board.

A spot on this list does not guarantee that a film will be eligible because entries have to be vetted by the Academy to make sure they qualify.

An asterisk indicates that TheWrap has seen the film. This list will be updated as additional films are submitted. Links to trailers are provided when those trailers are available.

Algeria

“Heliopolis”

Director: Djaafar Gacem

Algeria has a pretty good record at the Oscars, with five nominations and one win (for 1969’s “Z”) in its 21 previous entries. But it hasn’t received a nomination since 2010, a dry spell it’s hoping to end with this drama about a family in northeastern Algeria on Victory in Europe Day,...

Kosovo has selected Visar Morina’s “Exil” as its official entry in the International Feature Film category of the 93rd Academy Awards, while Georgia has chosen Dea Kulumbegashvili’s “Beginning.” It follows submissions by Bhutan, Taiwan, Ukraine, Bosnia, Ivory Coast, Luxembourg, Poland and Switzerland.

“Exil” had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition and also screened at the Berlinale as part of the Panorama section. The film won the Heart of Sarajevo, the top prize of Sarajevo Film Festival.

The film centers on Xhafer (played by Misel Maticevic), a Kosovan expat in Germany, who finds himself the subject of relentless xenophobic bullying. Sandra Hüller, the star of “Toni Erdmann,” plays his German wife, who slowly distances herself from what she perceives as his paranoia.

In his review for Variety, Guy Lodge describes the film as “painfully exact in dramatizing the quiet xenophobia (Xhafer) experiences on a daily basis,...

More than half of all competition titles directed by women.

Switzerland’s Zurich Film Festival (Zff) has unveiled the full programme for its 2020 edition, which is set to go ahead as a physical event from September 24 to October 4.

Scroll down for list of competition titles

The 16th edition of the festival will comprise 165 films, of which 23 are world premieres and more than half of the competition titles are directed by women. Zff also revealed that Oscar-winning UK actress Olivia Colman will receive an honorary award and Johnny Depp is set to attend the festival with a new documentary.

The feature...

New releases scarce in the week before ‘Tenet’ hits many markets.

UK-Ireland, opening Friday August 21

It is a quiet weekend for new releases in UK and Irish cinemas, with just two new titles on screens: Sam Quah’s Chinese crime thriller Sheep Without A Shepherd and Grégory Magne’s Perfumes.

Sheep Without A Shepherd reached number one at the Chinese box office following a December 2019 release, and was one of the last blockbuster hits in the country before Covid-19 forced the closure of venues in January. It was re-released on July 20, following the reopening of some cinemas.

Released by Trinity Film...

New releases scarce in the week before ‘Tenet’ hits many markets.

UK-Ireland, opening Friday August 21

It is a quiet weekend for new releases in UK and Irish cinemas, with just two new titles on screens: Sam Quah’s Chinese crime thriller Sheep Without A Shepherd and Grégory Magne’s Perfumes.

Sheep Without A Shepherd reached number one at the Chinese box office following a December 2019 release, and was one of the last blockbuster hits in the country before Covid-19 forced the closure of venues in January. It was re-released on July 20, following the reopening of some cinemas.

Released by Trinity Film...

Visar Morina's drama won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature and Cineuropa Award, Ru Hasanov received the Best Director award, and Merry Christmas, Yiwu was crowned Best Documentary. Kosovo-born and Germany-based filmmaker Visar Morina's Sundance and Berlinale title Exile, starring Michel Maticevic and Sandra Hüller, triumphed at the online, 26th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival, winning the Heart of Sarajevo for best feature film as well as the Cineuropa Award. Azerbaijan's Ru Hasanov received the Heart of Sarajevo for best director for his second feature film, The Island Within, which had its world premiere at the festival. Croatia's Marija Škaričić won the Heart of Sarajevo for best actress for her role in Andrea Štaka's Mare, repeating her 2006 success when she triumphed for her role in Fräulein, the first feature film by the same director. Mare also received the Cicae Award. The Heart of Sarajevo for best actor.

After being forced to pivot entirely online last-minute due to a Covid spike, Bosnia’s Sarajevo Film Festival is coming to a close and has unveiled its prize winners for this year’s edition.

A jury chaired by Michel Hazanavicius and featuring Berlinale director Carlo Chatrian, actress Jadranka Đokić, director Srdan Golubović and the Morelia Film Festival’s Andrea Stavenhagen, awarded the festival’s top prize, the Heart of Sarajevo, to Visar Morina’s Exile. The pic stars Misel Maticevic and Sandra Huller in the story of a chemical engineer of foreign origin who plunges into an identity crisis. It debuted at Sundance this year.

The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Director went to Ru Hasanov for The Island Within, while Best Actress went to Marija Škaričić for Mare, and Best Actor went to Vangelis Mourikis for Digger. You can see the list of awards below, as well as the festival’s industry winners.

Ceremony took place remotely, after festival shifted online week before opening.

Psychological thriller Exile has won the best film prize at the 26th Sarajevo Film Festival, which took place online this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Scroll down for full list of winners

In a virtual awards ceremony, streamed on the festival’s VoD platform, Kosovo-born writer-director Visar Morina accepted the Heart of Sarajevo prize via a video message after jury president Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) made the announcement from his own home in France. The award includes a prize of €16,000.

Exile, first seen at Sundance and in the Berlinale’s Panorama strand,...

Visar Morina’s “Exile,” a tense psychodrama about a Kosovan pharmacologist in Germany who becomes increasingly paranoid over a series of menacing events, won the top prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival, earning the Kosovo-born German director the Heart of Sarajevo.

The award ceremony took place online Thursday night, with Morina winning top honors from a jury led by Academy Award-winning director Michel Hazanavicius (“The Artist”) and comprised of Carlo Chatrian, artistic director of the Berlin Intl. Film Festival; Croatian actress Jadranka Đokić; Serbian director Srdan Golubović; and Andrea Stavenhagen, head of industry and training projects at the Morelia Film Festival.

Director Michel Franco and actor Mads Mikkelsen were given honorary Heart of Sarajevo awards.

The timely drama from Morina, who was named one of Variety‘s 10 Europeans to Watch earlier this year, is a poignant study of identity and belonging at a time of ongoing uncertainty in Europe over...

Xhafer is a 45-year-old pharmacologist who left Kosovo to live in Germany, where he has a comfortable, middle-class life with his German wife and children. But one day a dead rat mysteriously appears hanging from the garden gate in front of his home, setting off a bizarre series of menacing events. Xhafer believes he’s being targeted by his co-workers because he’s a foreigner, but before long it becomes impossible to tell whether the threats are real, or if he’s become a victim of his own paranoia.

“Exile” is the sophomore feature from Kosovo-born director Visar Morina, whose 2015 debut “Babai” won the best director prize at Karlovy Vary. Starring Mišel Matičević (“Babylon Berlin”) and Sandra Hüller (“Toni Erdmann”), the film premiered in the world cinema dramatic competition in Sundance before playing in Berlin. This week it screens in the official competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The Germany-Belgium-Kosovo...

For many of the visitors who descended on the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, packing their day planners with meetings at the Gropius Bau and red-carpet premieres at the Berlinale Palast, there was a surreal sense of business as usual. But with coronavirus already ravaging Italy—and soon to be sweeping across the rest of Europe—Sarajevo Film Festival director Mirsad Purivatra knew that he and his team had little time to spare.

“We started immediately to think what to do with our festival,” Purivatra told Variety on the eve of Sarajevo’s 26th edition, which runs Aug. 14-21. Even though the festival’s opening night was still months away, “we had [in mind] the worst-case scenario that it could be a bad situation with the numbers of Covid-19” cases in Bosnia.

As spring turned to summer, Purivatra and his colleagues were confident that a scaled-down version of the physical festival...

The Hong Kong International Film Festival has taken the unusual decision of revealing the pictures it selected for its now canceled 44th edition. It also plans to award prizes in its competition sections, though there will be neither in-person or online screenings for the public.

The festival had previously rescheduled its 44th edition from its usual slot in March, due to the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak. And then set Aug 18-31 Aug. dates instead. But, with the city now facing a third wave of the virus, organizers last Friday bowed to the inevitable and announced the cancellation of HKIFF44 and the smaller Cine Fan activities in September and October.

Now it says that this year’s Firebird Awards and Fipresci prize competitions will proceed with online judging. Winners will be announced on Aug. 20.

“The decision to announce the original program is intended to pay tribute to filmmakers whose...

The 26th Sarajevo Film Festival has revealed a lineup of 49 films which will compete for the Heart of Sarajevo awards, whose main competition jury is being overseen by The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius. Scroll down for full lineup.

Set to take place from August 14-21, the Balkan event will be the biggest physical festival to take place in Europe since the coronavirus shut down most film and TV gatherings after Berlin in March.

Cinemas in Bosnia re-opened May 28 with numerous protocols including cleaning footwear before entering auditoria. International travel is permitted to the country, though in a limited form and providing travelers are tested for coronavirus. The event traditionally attracts tens of thousands of visitors and a couple of hundred films, but this year’s lineup is reduced and international attendance is likely to be significantly down.

Sarajevo’s four competition sections – for feature, documentary, short and student film – will comprise 29 world premieres,...

Festival will world premiere 12 features across its dramatic and documentary competitions.

Eight features have been selected for the main competition of the Sarajevo Film Festival, which is taking place as a physical event from August 14-21.

They include the world premieres of More Raça’s Andromeda Galaxy; Fatih Özcan’s Mavzer; Ruxandra Ghițescu’s Otto The Barbarian; and Ru Hasanov’s The Island Within. A further three films played in the Berlinale’s Panorama section earlier this year: Visar Morina’s Exile; Andrea Staka’s Mare; and Georgis Grigorakis’ Digger, which won the strand’s Cicae Award.

Scroll down for...

The winners of the International New Talent Competition will be announced online as overseas filmmakers can’t visit Taiwan.

This year’s Taipei Film Festival has confirmed that it will go ahead as scheduled as a physical event from June 25 to July 11, but due to Taiwan’s border restrictions in response to the Covid-19 coronavirus, is not likely to have any international guests.

The festival will open with the world premiere of Ko Chen-nien’s debut feature The Silent Forest, and close with Tsai Ming-liang’s Days, which won the Teddy Jury Award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The Taipei Film Festival will go ahead in June, making it one of the first significant festivals to do so in the post-coronavirus era. While its film selection is international, audiences will be entirely local.

Organizers announced Monday that the festival will open on June 25 with the world premiere of Taiwan-made “Silent Forest.” It will close on July 11, with a screening of “Days,” by Tsai Ming-liang, which appeared in competition in Berlin and earned a special mention in the Teddy section for gay film.

Based on real events, “Silent Forest describes a cruel game in which deaf teenagers discover the last row of the school bus, and how the joy of integrating into a new life instantly becomes fear. Festival organizers called it “one of the most stunning and shocking movies of 2020.”

Berlin, in late February, was one of the last major film festivals to take place before the Covid-...

"Where are you from again?" The Match Factory has debuted the first official promo trailer for the indie drama Exile, also titled just Exil. This is a German film produced and made in Germany, but it's directed by a Kosovan filmmaker named Visar Morina. The film just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and is playing at the Berlin Film Festival now, seeking international distribution at the market. The sweltering (literally) drama is about a Kosovan man who now works as a chemical engineer in Germany. He starts to feel discriminated and bullied at work, plunging him into an identity crisis. Starring Misel Maticevic and Sandra Hüller, along with Rainer Bock, Thomas Mraz, Flonja Kodheli, Stephan Grossmann, and Nicole Marischka. It's a complex, fascinating examination of how biased perspectives can warp the truth. Here's the first promo trailer (+ promo poster) for Visar Morina's Exile, direct from Tmf's YouTube:...

Variety’s “10 Europeans to Watch” were feted Saturday night at a party held by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg at Berlin’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Co-hosting the evening were Kirsten Niehuus and Helge Jürgens, managing directors of Medienboard, the regional film, TV and digital-media funding body.

Pictured above are U.K. filmmaker and rapper Andrew Onwubolu, known by his alias Rapman, Irish producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Italian director Carlo Sironi (“Sole”), German director Leonie Krippendorff (“Cocoon”), Estonian director Tanel Toom, Germany-based Kosovan director Visar Morina (“Exile”), and Hungarian actor Abigél Szõke (“Those Who Remained”).

Before welcoming to the stage some of Europe’s most promising stars of tomorrow, Variety executive VP of content Steven Gaydos noted: “Variety is celebrating our 115th year covering international entertainment, before people were watching movies.”

He also shared the story of local producer Sol Bondy, who met Russian producers Ilya Stewart and Murad Osmann at Variety’s “10 Producers to...

There’s much talk these days of microaggressions: words and gestures of disrespect toward others, particularly those of other social groups, that betray prejudice even when everyday or unintentional. It’s a term that sounds almost scientific, though as a unit of measurement, it’s frustratingly inexact: how many microaggressions add up to plain, violent, not-so-small oppression? How many seemingly accidental slights must one endure before crying malice? And if it makes you feel unsafe, can any aggression be called micro? In Kosovan-born director Visar Morina’s fine-cut sophomore feature “Exile,” these are the considerations that drive a mild-mannered Kosovan expat to the brink of madness in staid German suburbia.

Slicing into its protagonist’s psyche with surgical finesse and discomfort, this queasy-comic character study pulls off a subtly perilous balancing act: It’s painfully exact in dramatizing the quiet xenophobia he experiences on a daily basis, even as the...

It's the little indignities that get you. Not that the inciting incident in writer-director Visar Morina's very fine Exil is in any way trivial. While walking home from work, Kosovo-born, Germany-residing engineer Xhafer (Mišel Matičević) finds a dead rat hanging on the fence outside his home. The racist implications are undeniable, as is the likelihood of the deceased animal's origins. (Xhafer's office houses a lab where experiments on rats frequently take place.)

There's nonetheless an evident degree to which this affront is "same scheisse, different day" for our protagonist. Patronizing looks and xenophobic slights ...

It's the little indignities that get you. Not that the inciting incident in writer-director Visar Morina's very fine Exil is in any way trivial. While walking home from work, Kosovo-born, Germany-residing engineer Xhafer (Mišel Matičević) finds a dead rat hanging on the fence outside his home. The racist implications are undeniable, as is the likelihood of the deceased animal's origins. (Xhafer's office houses a lab where experiments on rats frequently take place.)

There's nonetheless an evident degree to which this affront is "same scheisse, different day" for our protagonist. Patronizing looks and xenophobic slights ...

Fugee Fugue: Perceptions and Paranoia Make Bitter Bedfellows in Morina’s Drama

For anyone who’s ever experienced the phenomenon of ‘otherness,’ Visar Morina’s terrific sophomore film Exil plants its fair share of universally familiar triggers. In a contemporary world where blatant harassment, prejudice and various isms are punishable by policy and or law, we’ve come to the murky battlefield of microaggressions and the hostility and hysteria potentially born out of them. Morina once again tackles a stranger in a strange land angle through the lens of a Kosovar in modern Germany (his 2015 debut Babai also charts a similar dichotomy), a country with a fantastically dark history now poised as one of the most progressive minded nations in the world.…...

In the very first scene of The Social Network, Rooney Mara memorably informs Jesse Eisenberg that he may go through life thinking that girls don’t like him because he’s a nerd, but “that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.” That line rang through my head all through Visar Morina’s Exil, the first time Komplizen Films has brought a world premiere to Sundance, and was finally directly echoed near its end by Sandra Hüller, star of Komplizen co-founder Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, here the long-suffering wife of Albanian immigrant Xhafer (Misel Maticevic), who’s spent the whole movie convinced he’s being discriminated […]...

In the very first scene of The Social Network, Rooney Mara memorably informs Jesse Eisenberg that he may go through life thinking that girls don’t like him because he’s a nerd, but “that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.” That line rang through my head all through Visar Morina’s Exil, the first time Komplizen Films has brought a world premiere to Sundance, and was finally directly echoed near its end by Sandra Hüller, star of Komplizen co-founder Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, here the long-suffering wife of Albanian immigrant Xhafer (Misel Maticevic), who’s spent the whole movie convinced he’s being discriminated […]...

Variety has unveiled its sixth edition of 10 Europeans to Watch, spotlighting 10 rising talents from across the continent who are poised for breakthroughs in 2020. The selection includes emerging actors, directors, writers and producers. The group will be feted at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival. They are:

U.K. actor Sam Adewunmi, star of Sundance film “The Last Tree” who was nominated at the British Independent Film Awards and won the most promising newcomer prize from the org. He’s filming the BBC adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s “The Watch” in South Africa.

Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly produced William Oldroyd’s “Lady Macbeth,” Florence Pugh’s powerful film debut. She’s got Francis Lee’s “Ammonite,” with Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, on her docket.

German writer-director Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher” debuted at the Berlin Film Festival last year and repped Germany in the international film race. She is now helming Sandra Bullock...

Exil

Kosovo’s Visar Morina embarks on another co-production (Kosovo/Germany/Belgium) for sophomore feature, Exil, a project produced by the high-profile trio of Janine Jackowski (we profiled her in 2018), Jonas Dornbach and Toni Erdmann helmer Maren Ade. Mišel Matičević is joined by Sandra Hüller and Rainer Bock in the cast and Morina reunites with his Bibai (2015) Dp, Italy’s Matteo Cocco. Morina’s Babai competed in Karlovy Vary, winning him Best Director and the Label Europa Cinemas award. His 2013 short “Of Dogs and Wallpaper” was programmed in Locarno.

Gist: A chemical engineer who feels discriminated against and bullied at work falls into an identity crisis.…...

Matteo Garrone to present ‘Pinocchio’ as the first Berlinale Special Gala.

The Berlinale has revealed the first films set to be screened at the 70th edition of the festival.

They include the live-action adaptation of Pinocchio, from Italian director Matteo Garrone, which is the first Berlinale Special Gala to be announced – a category that replaces ‘out of competition’. It will mark the international premiere of the film, starring Roberto Benigni, which is released in Italy this weekend.

Scroll down for full list of titles

The first 18 films selected for the Panorama strand have also been named, including 11 world premieres.

Among...

Matteo Garrone to present ‘Pinocchio’ as the first Berlinale Special Gala.

The Berlinale has revealed the first films set to be screened at the 70th edition of the festival.

They include the live-action adaptation of Pinocchio, from Italian director Matteo Garrone, which is the first Berlinale Special Gala to be announced – a category that replaces ‘out of competition’. It will mark the international premiere of the film, starring Roberto Benigni, which is released in Italy this weekend.

Scroll down for full list of titles

The first 18 films selected for the Panorama strand have also been named, including 11 world premieres.

Among...

Panorama gives voice to a young, headstrong generation of filmmakers, while the newly-conceived Berlinale Special Gala welcomes Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio. The first titles selected for the 70th Berlin International Film Festival (20 February-1 March 2020) have finally been revealed. The announcement includes the first batch of titles in the Panorama section, which features ten European productions and three co-productions involving EU countries. In total, the strand as it now stands will host 11 world premieres, five directorial debuts and three international premieres. Panorama section head Michael Stütz’s selection embodies “filmmakers of a young, headstrong generation” willing to “deliver pluralistic, post-migration viewpoints.” The section will welcome the new titles by directors such as Austria’s Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, France’s Sébastien Lifshitz and Kosovo’s Visar Morina, among others. Speaking about the first announced titles, artistic director Carlo Chatrian said: “Announcing the first films, it is important to note that the programme.

Matteo Garrone’s “Pinocchio,” starring Roberto Benigni, will have its international premiere at the 70th Berlin Film Festival the event announced Tuesday as new artistic director Carlo Chatrian unveiled the first titles for his debut edition.

“Pinocchio” will play as part of the Berlinale Special Gala section, which replaces the Out of Competition category.

Chatrian, who co-heads the Berlinale with executive director Mariette Rissenbeek, said: “Garrone succeeds in re-telling the well-known story with his very own world of images. Although he is faithful to Carlo Collodi’s ideas, he has nevertheless created a very personal Pinocchio that is much more cheerful than we’ve experienced before.”

The first films selected for the Panorama, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, Generation and Forum Expanded sections were also announced (links attached).

Among other titles, Michael Stütz, the new head of the Panorama section, has picked films by Faraz Shariat (“No Hard Feelings”), Uisenma Borchu (“Black...

18 European co-productions will be debuting in competition at the Us gathering, including movies by Zeina Durra, Amanda Kernell and Visar Morina. Three UK co-productions – Zeina Durra’s romance Luxor, Aneil Karia’s robbery yarn Surge and Brandon Cronenberg’s avatar thriller Possessor – make up a quarter of the films selected for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival (23 January-2 February 2020). They shall be competing against the Swedish divorce drama Charter by Amanda Kernell; writer-director Maïmouna Doucouré’s Cuties, about young French dancers; writer-director Zoé Wittock’s Jumbo, a French-Luxembourgish-Belgian tale set in an amusement park; and the German-Belgian-Kosovar co-production about bullying in the workplace Exil, written and directed by Visar Morina. There is also Italian involvement in Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s African-set story This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection, and French, German and Swiss involvement in Massoud Bakhshi’s Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness. Ten of the.

Throughout the year Los Angeles hosts a great number of festivals focused on highlighting the cinema of specific geographic regions or countries. Among them, the annual South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles allows American audiences the opportunity to experience films from about 18 countries of South East Europe, showcasing diversity of cultures and cinematic talents.

SEEfest was twice the recipient of the prestigious festival grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and five other awards for programming excellence from the State of California, County and City of Los Angeles, and Cities of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.

The 2016 edition of the festival runs April 28 – May 5 at Ahrya Fine Arts and Music Hall in Beverly Hills, the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles and West Hollywood Council Chambers/Library. This year the program focuses on the many faces of exile, both external and internal, and includes stories both piercing and lifting that share as many facets of the human experience of exile as there are films. A full slate of high quality features and timely documentaries will begin on Opening night April 28 at Ahrya Fine Arts theater with the premiere of Bosnia’s Oscar entry "Our Everyday Life," directed by Ines Tanović, who will attend the screening.

The festival was designed to showcase the cinema from South East Europe, a part of the world that is as tumultuous as it is fascinating. “We are deeply honored to have several wonderful films on the program that do what cinema does best, take us up close and personal with real people on a perilous trek toward uncertain future,” says SEEfest Founder and Artistic Director, Vera Mijojlić.

The list of acclaimed features and documentaries include a young boy’s journey across hostile borders in search of a father in Visar Morina’s "Babai," which was Kosovo's Oscar entry at the most recent Academy Awards; a documentary about refugees "Logbook_Serbistan"" by the celebrated Serbian director and lifelong rebel, Želimir Žilnik; a romantic comedy from Australia about Greek-Muslim love, "Alex & Eve" by Peter Andrikidis; Bulgarian coming-of-ager "Losers," a self-deprecating reference to the society at large by Ivaylo Hristov; Serbian morality tale about corrosive hidden truths, "A Good Wife" by celebrated Eastern European actress-turned-director Mirjana Karanović and which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival; a love story on the mine fields dotting the border-crossings between Turkey and Greece, "Riverbanks" by Greek director Panos Karkanevatos; a photographer’s album of the 20th century in "The Eye of Istanbul" from Turkey, by Binnur Karaevli and Fatih Kaymak; the riveting political thriller "Why Me?" by Tudor Giurgiu from Romania; Serbia's moving Oscar entry "Enclave" by veteran helmer Goran Radovanović, and more films ranging in cinematic sensibility from quiet observation to irreverent humor.

For more information and tickets visit Here.

Producer Cedomir Kolar among signatories of Pristina Declaration, which calls for free movement for Kosovan film-makers in Europe and access to European funding.

Delegates at the 2016 Pristina Film Festival have issued a petition to the Kosovan government in the form of the Pristina Declaration, a call for support for the country’s film industry.

The document outlines four key issues that signatories see as critical to the industry’s future success:

Kosovo’s citizens are the only ones in Europe who need Visas to travel around the continent, prohibiting ease of movement for film-makers to festivals etc.Kosovo has no access to the Council of Europe’s Eurimages funds for the co-production, distribution and exhibition of European films.Kosovo has no access to Creative Europe funds.Kosovo has no access to the European Commission’s Media sub-programmes funds.

Signatories included Oscar-winning producer Cedomir Kolar (No Man’s Land), Torino Film Lab’s head of programmes Matthieu Darras, and PriFest...

Embrace Of The Serpent director Ciro Guerra and We Are Young. We Are Strong. director Burhan Qurbani among winners.

Projects from Germany, the Netherlands and Colombia have picked up awards at CineMart (Jan 31-Feb 3), the co-production market of International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr).

German production Berlin Alexanderplatz was awarded the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award of €20,000, which is given to a project presented by a European producer.

Directed by German filmmaker Burhan Qurbani, known for 2014 feature We Are Young. We Are Strong., his new films is produced by Sommerhaus Filmproduktion.

The story centres on friendship and betrayal between a Nigerian refugee and a German drug dealer in Berlin and is based on the eponymous book by Alfred Döblin.

A jury statement said: “The project gives us a new and relevant view on a classic piece. The talented director has already made several films about urgent and relevant topics, that currently affect all our countries. Here he will...

The CineMart 2016 awards have been announced marking the close of the 33rd edition of the co-production market. German production "Berlin Alexanderplatz" was awarded the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award of €20,000, which is given to a project presented by a European producer. Colombian production "Birds of Passage" was awarded the €6,000 Arte International Prize and the Wouter Barendrecht Award went to Christopher Radcliff’s new project "The Strange Ones." The prize of €5,000 is given by the Wouter Barendrecht Film Foundation. The jury for the Arte and Eurimages awards is comprised of the Netherlands Film Fund’s Dorien van de Pas, producer Annamaria Lodato and Fabien Westerhoff, head of international licensing, production and finance company Ffwd (formerly with Hanway and WestEnd). The Wouter Barendrecht Award is decided on by representatives of the Wouter Barendrecht Film Foundation, Nelleke and Ellis Driessen.

CineMart selected 25 international projects to participate in the four day event which has been one of the most successful in recent years. Multiple conferences and panels covering topics ranging from “Making the most of a film festival” to “The Micro-Budget Talent Programmes” were held in front of packed audiences who were invited to be involved in the debates and receive advice. Mike S. Ryan (Greyshack Films), Michael Weber (The Match Factory), Winnie Lau (Jettone Films Ltd) and Bero Beyer (Director Iffr) discussing ‘The Creative Thunder of Cinema’ proved one of the highlights of Iffr 2016.

On making the announcement, Head of Industry and CineMart, Marit van den Elshout commented: “This year’s line-up was exceptional and inspiring. I speak on behalf of the entire team when I say that we could not be more proud – we have seen so many great projects, and so many talented teams behind them, the winners really exemplify this. I am also pleased to say that we hosted multiple extremely well attended panels and conversations, discussing the current state and possible future of the cinema that we love and cherish in Rotterdam.”

This year’s Eurimages Co-Production Development Award winner, "Berlin Alexanderplatz" by Burhan Qurbani (Germany) is a Sommerhaus Filmproduktion production. On the jury’s decision, Dorien van de Pas commented: “The project gives us a new and relevant view on a classic piece. The talented director has already made several films about urgent and relevant topics, that currently affect all our countries. Here he will combine elements of genre film with more political and emotional layers, which makes it accessible for a younger audience. The project leads to an ideal co-production scenario and the money of this award will be well employed for casting and further development.”

The Arte International Prize winner is "Birds of Passage" (Colombia) by Ciro Guerra, who is currently nominated for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award for "Embrace of the Serpent," produced by Ciudad Lunar Producciones and Blond Indian Films. On presenting the award, Annemaria Lodato commented: “We decided to give the Arte International Prize to a young South American filmmaker who has already produced a strong and convincing body of work. The project takes us into the heart of an indigenous community, a time and place never explored on screen.”

The Wouter Barendrecht Award winner is "The Strange Ones" (USA), directed by Christopher Radcliff and Lauren Wolkstein, produced by Sébastien Aubert. "Mysterious events surround the travels of two brothers as they make their way across a remote American landscape. On the surface all seems normal, but what appears to be a simple vacation soon gives way to something more complex, dark, and potentially deadly." On presenting the award Managing Director of Fortissimo Films, Nelleke Driessen commented: “The short film on which this film project is based, convinced the jury of the potential for the feature. We trust that the makers will succeed to translate this apparent simple story into an intriguing, multi layered psychological thriller.”

Hbf+Europe Distribution Support for International Co-productions

Next to these awards, Iffr’s Hubert Bals Fund is proud to announce the first selection of its brand-new distribution scheme: Hbf+Europe Distribution Support for International Co-productions. The scheme is designed to boost the distribution of internationally co-produced films from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe.

The Hbf is pleased to announce that the first Hbf+Europe Distribution grant of 20.000 Euro has been awarded to Heretic Outreach from Greece to support the distribution of "Babai" by Visar Morina (Kosovo, Germany, Macedonia and France) in Greece, Bulgaria and Egypt.

Full selection list for CineMart 2016:

"The Announcement" - Mahmut Fazil Coskun - Turkey/Bulgaria - Filmotto Production/The Chouchkov Brothers "Berlin Alexanderplatz" - Burhan Qurbani - Germany - Sommerhaus Filmproduktion GmbH "Birds of Passage" - Ciro Guerra - Colombia - Ciudad Lunar/Blond Indian Films "Bloody Marie" - Guido van Driel - the Netherlands/Germany - Family Affair Films/Schiwago Film GmbH "Bootlegger" - Caroline Monnet - Canada - Microclimat Films "Dark Room" - Itamar Alcalay - Israel/Germany - Lama Films/Komplizen Film "The Devil Outside" - Andrew Hulme - UK - Ipso Facto Productions "Is this What You Were Born For?" - Radu Jude - Romania - Hi Film Productions "Jessica" - Ninja Thyberg - Sweden - Plattform Produktion "The Last Harem" - Maryam Keshavarz - France/Portugal - Neon Productions/ Ítaca Films/MaraKesh Films (Art:Film) "The Notebooks" - Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige - Lebanon/France - Abbout Productions "Over the City" - Emir Baigazin - Kazakhstan/Germany - Emir Baigazin Production/Augenschein Filmproduktion "Pompei" - John Shank, Anna Falguères - Belgium/Italy - Tarantula/Solaria Film "Rafaël" - Ben Sombogaart - the Netherlands/Italy/Belgium/Tunisia - Rinkel Film/Verdeoro/Entre Chien et Loup/Nomadis Images/Cinetelefilms "Sick, Sick, Sick" - Alice Furtado - Brazil - Estúdio Giz/Oceano "Slam" - Partho Sen-Gupta - Australia - Invisible Republic "Sleep." - Jan-Willem van Ewijk - the Netherlands - Waterland Film/Propellor Film "The Strange Ones" - Christopher Radcliff, Lauren Wolkstein - France/USA - Adastra Films "Teenage Jesus" - Marie Grahtø - Denmark - Beofilm "Under the Sun" - Qiu Yang - France/China - House on Fire/Colorful Age Culture & Media "Der Unschuldige" - Simon Jaquemet - Switzerland - 8Horses "Ursa Major"- Benjamin Crotty - USA/France - AgX/Les Films du Bal "Vikings" - Daniel Hoesl - Austria - Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion GmbH "Wild Princess" - Ester Martin Bergsmark - Sweden - Garagefilm International (Art:Film) "What if Women Ruled the World?" - Yael Bartana - UK - Jacqui Davies Limited...

A lead up to the evening’s most perplexing event, was the switcheroo announcement crowning the top film of the festival first (Very Big Shot) and once that was out of the way, the big “move” from the jury was to make sure that everyone gets a trophy, and that no one wins second place (or it can be certainly read this way). During a time where the Paris events have still in public consciousness, the 15th edition will be looked back as one that unites. Unfortunately for me, there would be no after party and Todd Haynes’ Carol will have to wait as my battle with stomach demons continued. Here is the complete tally of the prizes. I wonder what airport security thought about the statute.

L’ÉTOILE D’Or – Le Grand Prix Du Festival

The Golden Star – Festival Grand Prize

Very Big Shot (Film kteer kbeer) de/by...

Francis Ford Coppola’s jury awards all other competition entries a jury prize.

The 15th Marrakech International Film Festival (Dec 04-12) saw jury president Francis Ford Coppola and his fellow jurors award all films in competition the event’s jury prize, apart from Lebanese-Qatari feature Very Big Shot, which won the Golden Star Festival Grand Prize.

Coppola announced the joint prize in a speech during the closing ceremony: “This year’s jury prize is for cinema itself,” said the director, adding that the decision was made by the “majority vote of the jury”.

In Jean Bou Chaaya’s Very Big Shot a small-time Lebanese drug-dealer slyly manipulates public opinion with the help of a filmmaker.

The best directing prize went to Gabriel Mascaro for his film Neon Bull.

Gunnar Jonsson snapped up the best actor prize for his performance in Virgin Mountain.

The best actress prize went to Galatea Bellugi for her performance in Guillaume Senez’s [link...

Dalibor Matanic’s The High Sun wins hat trick at Cottbus.

Croatia was the big winner at the 25th edition of FilmFestival Cottbus (Nov 3-8) with Dalibor Matanić’s The High Sun taking home three awards, including the Main Prize and Fipresci Prize.

The €25,000 Main Prize was shared equally between Matanić and his producer Ankica Jurić Tilić for the Croatian-Slovenian-Serbian co-production which had its world premiere in San Sebastian in September.

The film’s actress Tihana Lazović was in Cottbus to accept the Main Prize on behalf of Matanić and Tilić, and subsequently picked up the €5,000 Special Prize for Best Actress for her portrayal of three women in three consecutive decades.

The High Sun premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar where it won the Jury Prize; international sales are handled by Cercamon World Sales for the film which is now Croatia’s submission for the Foreign-Language Film Oscar.

Meanwhile, another Croatian...

The East-West co-production market has selected 10 projects this year, down from 13 in 2014.

New films by Slovakia’s Ivan Ostrochovský, and Israel’s Evgeny Ruman are among 10 projects selected for a slimmed down version of Germany’s East-West co-production market Connecting Cottbus (CoCo) (November 5-6).

Last year, the East-West co-production market presented 13 projects.

This year’s line-up includes Romanian director Bogdan Muranescu’s 1985, which was the winner of the CoCo Award at the Transilvania Pitch Stop during Cluj’s Transilvania International Festival in June, and Danyael Sugawara’s When Fucking Spring Is In The Air, to be produced by Trent of Oak Motion Pictures, as part of FilmFestival Cottbus’ Global East focus on The Netherlands.

Ostrochovský will be coming to Cottbus on the back of the success of his boxing drama Koza to pitch The Disciple about the extent aspiring priests were prepared to go in collaborating with the Communist regime in Slovakia of the 1980s, while Ruman will...