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French actor and producer Julie Gayet will preside over the jury for Cannes Film Festival’s documentary prize, L’OEil d’or.

Gayet is best known for Bertrand Tavernier’s The French Minister and TV series Call My Agent, while her producer credits include Julia Ducournau’s Raw and Oliver Laxe’s Mimosa.

Gayet previously served on the Cannes Un Certain Regard jury in 2013.

Joining Gayet are Chilean director Carmen Castillo, French producer Juliette Favreul Renaud, Cinémathèque Suisse director Frederic Maire and Belgian-Congolese actor Marc Zinga.

The documentary prize, created by Cannes and La Scam, awards €5,000 to a film playing in official selection,...

Belgian director Laura Wandel’s child custody drama Adam’s Interest, starring Anamaria Vartolomei and Léa Drucker, will open the 64th Cannes Critics’ Week, which unveiled its 2025 selection today.

The second feature from Wandal after gritty childhood bullying drama Playground, the handheld camera-shot feature follows three characters in a paediatric ward: a helpless mother (Vartolomei), her malnourished son, and a nurse (Drucker).

The film, which premieres out of competition, is one of 11 first and second feature films, seven in competition, selected out of 1,000 submitted film for the upcoming edition running from May 14 to 22.

Another 13 short films selected from 2,340 submissions will be announced on April 17.

Competition

Competition seven titles include Taiwanese director Shih-Ching Tsou’s Taipei-set urban melodrama Left-Handed Girl. It marks a first solo feature for Tsou, a long-time collaborator of Sean Baker, who co-wrote and edited the work.

The tragicomedy follows the odyssey of a single mother and her...

Raoul Peck, who will be at the Cannes Film Festival next month with his George Orwell documentary, “Orwell: 2+2=5,” delivered a blistering warning about the global rise of autocracy this week at documentary festival Visions du Réel, where he is guest of honor.

“Orwell: 2+2=5,” which will debut in Cannes‘ Première section, is made in collaboration with the Orwell estate and delves deep into the British writer’s final months and legacy, including his bestselling novel “1984.”

On Thursday, Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux said at the festival’s press conference that Peck’s film would look at “the strength and relevance of his ideas, and his anticipation of what will become of societies if we don’t take care of them. That was in the ’30s and ’40s. We didn’t pay enough attention to that and maybe we’re not very far from it now; that’s the thesis of this film.

Visions du Réel, one of Europe’s leading documentary film festivals, shines the spotlight on France this year, celebrating its deep-rooted documentary tradition powered by a robust public funding model, global co-production appeal, and a receptive local audience.

The country is a key presence at VdR again this year: among the 156 films selected are 32 French productions and co-productions, including 26 world premieres.

VdR is a major launchpad for auteur-driven documentaries with festival and theatrical ambitions, and France has plenty of those.

“The Attachment”

Eugénie Michel Villette, founder of boutique doc production outfit Les Films du Bilboquet, has four projects featured across Visions du Réel’s festival and industry sections – all international co-productions. “Anamocot” by Marie Voignier and “The Attachment” by Mamadou Khouma Gueye are vying for the festival’s top prize, while “I Eat With Two Hearts” by Natyvel Pontalier and “Alea Jacaranda” by Hassen Ferhandi are presented at the pitching and work-in-progress strands.

Known Associates Entertainment has acquired all African rights to Raoul Peck’s “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” the Cannes prize-winning documentary about the fearless apartheid-era South African photographer that opens the Joburg Film Festival on March 11.

The acquisition by the fast-growing South African media company is part of a broader plan to ramp up its distribution efforts both on the African continent and in the U.S., beginning with the March 26 theatrical rollout of “Lost and Found” in South Africa.

“It’s probably one of the most important films to come out of South Africa in the last 30 years,” said Known Associates chairperson Joel Chikapa Phiri. “We’re very excited about it, and we’ve got lots of partners that are coming to join with us.”

Described by Variety’s Owen Gleiberman as a “penetrating portrait” of the iconic photographer, “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” traces the career and life of Cole,...

The Marrakech Film Festival, which opened Friday with Justin Kurzel’s timely thriller “The Order,” has more than 70 films in its lineup, which, as is customary, mixes known titles and fresh fare.

“The Order” is part of the event’s gala screenings that also comprise French-Moroccan auteur Nabil Ayouch’s feminist musical drama “Everybody Loves Touda,” Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” and Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” all of which will be accompanied by their directors.

The 14-title competition dedicated to first and second works includes Moroccan director Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s melodrama “Across the Sea,” about North African exiles in Marseilles, and Hind Meddeb’s doc “Sudan, Remember Us,” which pays homage to Sudanese people and culture by chronicling their 2019 revolution. “Sudan, Remember Us” is among films supported by the fest’s Atlas Workshops industry initiative, aimed at fostering and supporting the emergence of a new generation of Moroccan,...

First and second feature projects in advanced development from Ukraine, India, Philippines and Brazil won the four €40,000 production prizes of the 17th Meeting Event of TorinoFilmLab in the Italian city of Turin on November 23.

The three first features were Indian filmmaker Ashmita Guha Neogi’s Cold Ashes Can Cause Forest Fires, Filipino filmmaker Jarell Serencio’s The Boy And The Fight Of The Spiders and Brazil filmmaker André Hayato Saito’s Yellow Chrysanthemum.

The second feature was Kateryna Gornostai’s Ukrainian project Antonivka.

They were chosen from the Tfl’s 10 FeatureLab projects by a jury comprised of Didar Domehri of France’s Maneki Films,...

The Marrakech Film Festival unveiled its 2024 lineup on Thursday and set that Luca Guadagnino would replace Thomas Vinterberg as its jury president. The other jury members will be Andrew Garfield, Jacob Elordi, Virginie Efira, and Ali Abbasi. Vinterberg “had to excuse himself for family reasons,” festival organizers said.

The Marrakech fest on Thursday also unveiled the lineup for its competition, 11th Continent, and Moroccan Panorama sections, as well as gala and special screenings. In the competition, 14 films will compete for the Étoile d’Or, or Golden Star.

The 21st edition of the fest in Morocco will also honor Sean Penn, David Cronenberg and, posthumously, pay homage to Moroccan star Naïma Elmcherqui. The Marrakech fest takes place Nov. 29-Dec. 7.

Check out the full lineup for the 2024 edition below.

Competition

Across The Sea (LA Mer Au Loin)

by Saïd Hamich Benlarbi / France, Morocco, Belgium

with Ayoub Gretaa, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin, Omar Boulakirba,...

Jonathan Millet’s thriller about Syrian exiles in France “Ghost Trail” took the Golden Star for narrative film at this year’s El Gouna Film Festival, with Julien Colona’s “The Kingdom” and Shuchi Talati’s “Girls Will Be Girls” taking the Silver and Bronze Star awards respectively. The awards ceremony wrapped the seventh edition of the prestigious Egyptian festival, held at the resort town of El Gouna between Oct. 24-Nov. 1.

Adam Bessa also took the best actor award for “Ghost Trail,” with Laila Abbas’s comedy about the Islamic Sharia Law “Thanks for Banking With Us!” and Meryam Joobeur’s drama about a Tunisian family navigating their son’s strenuous return from war “Who Do I Belong To” received the El Gouna Star for the best Arab film. Documentary-wise, Farah Kassem’s “We Are Inside” received the Golden Star for documentary film, with Johan Grimonprez’s “Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat...

French filmmaker Jonathan Millet’s thriller Ghost Trail won El Gouna Film Festival’s $50,000 Golden Star award for best narrative film. The festival ran October 24-November 1.

Lead Adam Bessa also won best actor for his performance as a young man on a mission to track Syrian regime leaders in France, where he must confront his former torturer. The film world premiered at Cannes’ Critics’ Week sidebar.

The $25,000 Silver Star award went to Julien Colonna’s war drama The Kingdom, while Indian romantic drama Girls Will be Girls by Shuchi Talati won the $15,000 Bronze Star and the Fipresci award.

The latter...

Egyptian filmmaker Jad Chahine’s magical realism drama The Masters Of Magic And Beauty and Libyan-us filmmaker Jihan’s feature documentary My Father And Qaddafi have scooped the top prizes at the CineGouna industry platform of the El Gouna Film Festival.

Running October 25-31, the platform’s CineGouna Funding component showcased 21 projects in development and post-production.

Chahine’s debut feature The Masters Of Magic And Beauty won the $15,000 CineGouna award for best project in development. The feature follows the magical circumstances surrounding the birth of a little girl. A couple seeks counsel from the Oracle, only to discover that a...

El Gouna Film Festival has made significant enhancements to its industry platform CineGouna (October 25-31) to provide increased support for regional filmmakers.

Now in its seventh edition, the CineGouna platform includes CineGouna Funding (formerly CineGouna Springboard) to support Arab projects in development and post-production; CineGouna Forum (formerly CineGouna Bridge) which offers professional development through industry discussions, masterclasses and workshops; and CineGouna Market, which features 22 exhibitors in this year’s sophomore edition.

In addition, the newly-launched CineGouna Shorts supports short filmmakers through talent development and a funding competition. And the CineGouna Emerge programme, now in its second edition, is hosting 200 emerging filmmakers from Egypt.

Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir, whose latest documentary “The Brink of Dreams” became the first Egyptian film to win the Golden Eye Award for best documentary at Cannes earlier this year, have received the Variety Middle East and North Africa Talent of the Year Award. The ceremony was held at the El Gouna Film Festival, where their film is also playing as part of the Feature Narrative Competition.

“The Brink of Dreams” is a moving coming-of-age story following the Panorama Barsha Troupe, an all-female theater group in a remote village in southern Egypt who take to the streets to act out their plays denouncing underage marriage, domestic violence and patriarchy in a deeply conservative society.

“It’s wonderful to get this award and truly meaningful for us as filmmakers. We deeply respect the creatives who received the award before us and are so very happy to join them,” said Riyadh.

After canceling the 2022 edition for a “reset” and postponing the 2023 edition from October to December due to the war in Gaza, the El Gouna Film Festival is back in full force for its seventh edition, taking place between Oct. 24-Nov. 1 in the Egyptian resort town.

The postponements and uncertainty challenged artistic director Marianne Khoury, who started at the job a few months before the festival’s sixth iteration and took over from Amir Ramses. “Last year was difficult because we had to postpone it three times but, in the end, we had a really nice edition,” Khoury told Variety.

“I think I joined at a good time when there was a need to change,” she added. “El Gouna started strong. The program was always strong but the media always concentrated the coverage on the glamor and red carpet. When I joined, I wanted to rebalance that a little bit and...

Payal Kapadia’s Cannes grand prix winner All We Imagine As Light and Mohammad Rasoulof’s special prize recipient The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, along with Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Venice selection Harvest are among the international competition selections at the 60th Chicago International Film Festival running October 16-27.

A packed line-up also brings Joshua Oppenheimer’s Telluride entry The End to the International Feature Competition, along with the North American premiere of The Quiet Son from Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, which debuted on the Lido.

There are world premieres for Clarissa Campolina and Sérgio Borges’s Suçuarana...

Payal Kapadia’s Cannes grand prix winner All We Imagine Is Light and Mohammad Rasoulof’s special prize recipient The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, along with Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Venice selection Harvest are among the international competition selections at the 60th Chicago International Film Festival running October 16-27.

A packed line-up also brings Joshua Oppenheimer’s Telluride entry The End to the International Feature Competition, along with the North American premiere of The Quiet Son from Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, which debuted on the Lido.

There are world premieres for Clarissa Campolina and Sérgio Borges’s Suçuarana...

Matt Dillon, Alice Diop and Karla Sofia Gascon will bring their springtime spirit to this month’s Nouvelles Vagues Film Festival, now running from June 18 – 23 in Biarritz. Launched last year with the support of Chanel, the nascent festival invites both established and emerging talents to share an expansive vision of youth, hosting a competition dedicated to young adult stories overseen by a jury all under the age of 35.

“Across all sections, this festival shines the spotlight on younger generations and celebrates young characters on screen,” says programing director Lili Hinstin. “We wanted to look to the future through the prism of the next generation, and to interrogate the questions and contemporary issues important to them.”

To that end, this sophomore edition kicked off with the world premiere of “Night Call,” a Brussels-set thriller, taking place over the course of one heated night, foisting an unsuspecting locksmith into a criminal underworld...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Foundation has announced that Mohammed Al-Turki is stepping down as its CEO to focus on personal projects and his career as an independent film producer and businessman.

The body, which was created in the wake of Saudi Arabia’s lifting in late 2017 of its cinema ban, oversees the Jeddah-set Red Sea International Film Festival and is also charged with helping to build a cinema ecosystem in the country.

Under Al Turki’s watch, the foundation held the first three editions of the Rsiff and supported 250 projects from Saudi, Mena and Africa and Asia.

The foundation said the search for a successor was underway and that in the interim, former Red Sea Film Foundation board member Mohammed Asseri was stepping in as acting CEO.

Shivani Pandya Malhotra remains in place as managing director of the foundation and Al-Turki will continue to support the leadership team in an advisory role.

Cannes awards have become hugely influential in subsequent awards races, especially the Oscars. The top honor, the Palme d’Or, confers prestige and a stamp of approval — this year from the Competition jury led by multi hyphenate Greta Gerwig — that awards voters take seriously.

Palme winners “Parasite,” “Triangle of Sadness,” and “Anatomy of a Fall” were all Best Picture Oscar contenders and won Oscars. And they were all picked up by specialty distributor Neon before they won their Cannes prize. Neon did not break its streak. It acquired two eventual prize-winners before the closing ceremony: Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner “Anora,” the first American film to win the prize since Terence Malick’s “Tree of Life” in 2011, and Iranian dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which took home a special award.

Thus “Anora,” from veteran indie filmmaker Baker (Cannes entry “The Florida Project...

For the second year in a row, the L’Oeil d’or prize – the top award for documentary at the Cannes Film Festival – is being shared by two films.

The award announced on the Croisette today went to Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck, and The Brink of Dreams, directed by Ayman El Amir and Nada Riyadh.

Peck’s film centers on the titular South African photographer who documented life under apartheid for his country’s oppressed Black population. Actor Lakeith Stanfield voices writings from the late artist in the film. Ernest Cole: Lost and Found premiered in the Special Screenings section of Cannes.

Director Raoul Peck at the Deadline Studio during the 77th Cannes Film Festival presented by Neom on May 22, 2024.

The L’Oeil d’or jury – comprised of president Nicolas Philibert, as well as Dyana Gaye, Elise Jalladeau, Francis Legault and Mina Kavani – wrote,...

Raoul Peck’s Ernest Cole: Lost And Found and Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir’s The Brink Of Dreams have jointly won Cannes’ documentary award, the L’Œil d’or.

Ernest Cole: Lost And Found played in official selection as a Special Screening, while The Brink Of Dreams played in Critics’ Week.

Ernest Cole: Lost And Found is the latest film from Peck, whose body of work includes the Oscar-­nominated I Am Not Your Negro and Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Lumumba. The documentary is an account of the life of Ernest Cole, one of the first Black photo...

Three days after its Critics’ Week world premiere, “The Brink of Dreams” director-producer team of Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir delved into the making of their documentary in an exclusive, behind-the-scenes conversation at the Palais des Festivals.

Hosted by the Cannes Docs sidebar of the Marché du Film, the conversation saw the Cairo-based Felucca Films duo offer insider intel and tips on their sophomore feature. Their debut feature, “Happily Ever After,” premiered at IDFA in 2016.

“The Brink of Dreams” follows the compelling coming-of-age story of an all-female theatre troupe in a remote village in southern Egypt, who take to the streets to act out their plays denouncing underage marriage, domestic violence and patriarchy in a deeply conservative society.

Shot over four years, the film takes viewers on a compelling journey from childhood to womanhood, featuring intimate scenes within the girls’ families and close-up conversations between the protagonists and their fiancés,...

“Are you happily married?” “Were you married off way too young?” “Are girls not allowed to love?” Few people dare to ask similar questions in southern Egypt – except for the all-female street theater troupe in remote Barsha village.

“They surprise their audience, but I clearly remember the first time they surprised me. I thought: ‘How are these girls so free, so eloquent and so daring? In every way?’” recalled Nada Riyadh, who directed “The Brink of Dreams” with Ayman El Amir.

“These young women, brought up in very conservative communities and economically restrictive situations, seemed freer than us. We went: ‘What is happening?!’ Even in Cairo, people don’t confront others like that.”

“With them, it’s always interactive. They are expressing themselves, but they also demand interaction, challenging long-standing traditions,” added El Amir.

“We are married, so they were asking us about that too. We would answer honestly and...

Following the main lineups for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, a handful of sidebar slates have been unveiled, featuring Directors Fortnight, Critics Week, and Acid. Notable highlights include the Sundance favorite Good One (read our review here), Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point starring Michael Cera, the first film in over a decade from James White director Josh Mond, the Christopher Abbott-led It Doesn’t Matter, Eat the Night from Jessica Forever duo Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel, Carson Lund’s Eephus, Patricia Mazuy’s Visting Hours, The Hyperboreans, a new film from The Wolf House directors Cristobal Leo & Joaquin Cocina, Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century follow-up Universal Language, and more.

Check out the lineups below.

Cannes Directors Fortnight

Feature films:

“Ma Vie Ma Gueule,” Sophie Fillieres (France) – opening film

“A Son Image,” Thierry de Peretti (France)

“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” Tyler Taormina (USA)

“Desert of Namibia,...

The Cannes Critics’ Week, the parallel film festival sidebar organized by the French film critics’ union, has unveiled its 2024 selection.

The psychological thriller Ghost Trail, the first feature from acclaimed French shorts director Jonathan Millet, will open the 2024 sidebar. Adam Bessa (star of 2022’s Un Certain Regard winner Harka) plays the lead in the manhunt drama about a man pursuing his former torturer, using only his sensory memories to guide him.

The competition lineup includes Brazilian drama Baby from director Marcelo Caetano, a portrait of a young outsider growing up in São Paulo; Constance Tsang’s Blue Sun Palace, which looks at the lives of Chinese immigrants in Queens; and the Egyptian/French/Danish/Qatari/Saudi Arabian drama The Brink of Dreams about a group of girls from the disenfranchised Christian Copts who defy tradition and set up an all-female street theater troupe.

Baby

Other competition titles include Antoine Chevrollier’s Block Pass,...

Cannes Critics’ Week, spotlighting first and second features, has unveiled the competition and special screenings selection for its 63rd edition running May 15-23.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Artistic director Ava Cahen, now in her third year in the position, announced the selection of 11 features chosen from 1,050 films screened. Seven films will vie for four top prizes in competition, chosen by a jury led by Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen. Nine are first films that will vie for the Camera d’Or and three are directed or co-directed by women.

The sidebar will open with French director Jonathan Millet...

Cannes Critics’ Week, the sidebar dedicated to first and second films, will open with Jonathan Millet’s psychological thriller “Ghost Trail” and wrap with Emma Benestan’s genre film “Animale.”

“Ghost Trail” and “Animale” are two of the 11 features slated for Critics’ Week, which runs alongside the Cannes Film Festival.

The sole U.S. film of the selection is Constance Tsang’s “Blue Sun Palace,” a bittersweet film about two Chinese immigrants living in Queens who bond following a tragic death and find meaning in each other’s company. “As humble and dignified as its characters, this first, realistic and intimate, film sheds light on a community that is little seen,” said Ava Cahen, Critics’ Week’s artistic director. “Blue Sun Palace” stars Lee Kang-sheng whose recent credits include “Twisted Strings.”

Besides the opening and closing films, the Special Screenings section will comprise of Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s “Across the...

Cannes Critics’ Week championing work by emerging filmmakers has unveiled the line-up for its 63rd edition running from May 15 to 23.

The traditionally compact parallel selection will showcase 11 features, seven in competition, as well as 13 short films, selected from 1,050 features and 2,150 short films. (scroll down for full list)

The 2024 edition marks Artistic Director Ava Cahen’s third at the helm, with buzzy discoveries under her directorship to date including Tiger Stripes, The Rapture, Aftersun and Love According To Dalva.

Opening and closing films

French director Jonathan Millet’s psychological manhunt thriller Ghost Trail (Les Fantômes) will open the section. It marks his first feature after half a dozen shorts including Tell Me About The Stars.

Adam Bessa, who won the Un Certain Regard prize for his performance in Harka in 2022, stars as a man in pursuit of his former torturer. He never saw his oppressor’s face, but knows his smell,...

TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has selected three international co-productions as winners of its 2024 Audience Design Fund, which provides financial aid and coaching for films at the distribution stage.

The three awarded projects are Indian director Kapadia Payal’s All We Imagine As Light; Egyptian directors Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir’s The Brink Of Dreams; and US-based Nepalese director Deepak Rauniyar’s The Sky Is Mine.

Each film is currently in post-production and will receive a €45,000 grant plus three online consultancy sessions to advise on innovative audience engagement and outreach strategies.

All We Imagine As Light is the second film from Kapadia Payal,...

Filmmaker Mohammed Almughanni’s project Son of the Streets, about a Palestinian child living in a refugee camp in Beirut, has been awarded Best Pitch at the IDFA Forum Awards. The world’s largest documentary film festival presented two additional prizes on Wednesday, including the IDFA Forum Award for Best Rough Cut to Coexistence, My Ass!, and the DocLab Forum Award to Turbulence. Each of the winners receives a cash prize of €1,500.

The logline for Almughanni’s film reads, “Against all odds, a stateless Palestinian child in a Beirut refugee camp embarks on a courageous journey for recognition, education, and a brighter future in Son of the Streets.” The project is listed as a co-production of Poland and Palestine. Almughanni was born in Gaza and studied cinema at the renowned Łódź Film School in Poland.

In a statement about the awards, Best Pitch jurors Zdeněk Blaha and Nada Riyadh explained...

Mohammed Almughanni’s film about a boy coming of age in a Beirut refugee camp won the €1,500 cash prize.

Mohammed Almughanni’s Son Of The Streets has won the IDFA Forum award for best pitch, including a €1,500 cash prize, at the co-production and co-financing market of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) today, November 15.

A co-production between Palestine and Poland, the film follows a stateless Palestinian boy in a Beirut refugee camp who is coming of age while trying to also get documented. It is produced by Glib Lukianets.

“To be a jury at the Forum means seeing lots of great,...

Amber Fares’ “Coexistence, My Ass!” took home the prize for Best Rough Cut during the awards ceremony for Forum, the industry section of documentary film festival IDFA, on Wednesday. Mohammed Almughanni’s “Son of the Streets” won the award for Best Pitch, and the DocLab award went to “Turbulence” by Ben Joseph Andrews and Emma Roberts.

“Militantropos,” created by a collective of Maksym Nakonechnyi, Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova and Simon Mozgovyi, received the Rough Cut Award Honorable Mention.

The festival’s head of industry office Adriek van Nieuwenhuyzen opened the ceremony by underscoring the need for dialogue. “I hope when you go home, you leave what we like to call the hope for documentary in good spirits, and that you feel that you have been listened to and that we have had good conversations. I know times are not easy, but I hope you can continue speaking, listening and trying...

Selection includes new projects from prize winning directors Martika Ramirez Escobar, Leonardo Martinelli and Le Bao.

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)’s Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf) has selected ten feature film projects for its 2023 Script and Project Development Support scheme.

The ten projects, which will receive a grant of €10,000 to support their development, were selected from more than 760 applications. The fund aims to support new and diverse voices from across the globe, mainly backing those on their debut or second fiction feature projects.

Filipino director Martika Ramirez Escobar follows her Sundance-winning Leonor Will Never Die (2022) with Daughters Of The Sea,...

The new initiative brings together five international filmmakers with feature films in development and three composers.

Cannes’ Critics Week has expanded its shorts-to-features Next Step programme with inaugural workshop Next Step Volume II that runs September 25-30 in the Corsican mountains.

The new initiative brings together five international filmmakers with feature films in development and three composers for what organisers call “the vital stage of script rewriting”.

The selected directors and composers will spend a week at the Northern Corsican creative hub founded by filmmaker Antoine Viviani to hone their scripts and integrate a score with the help of international experts and consultants.

Moving towards a more equitable and accountable curation in film programming and selection processes, ethical representation in storytelling and the challenges posed by the lack of awareness and accountability was at the heart of a panel discussion at Cannes Docs, the Cannes Film Market event dedicated to documentary film, on May 20.

Panelists included Egyptian director and producer Nada Riyadh, British-Chinese writer and director Paul Sng, Brazilian producer Yolanda Maria Barroso and Swedish producer Malin Hüber; it was moderated by the BFI’s Race Equality Lead Rico Johnson-Sinclair.

Opening on a positive note, Riyadh said that, “as an Arab woman,” she welcomed the presence in the official selection at Cannes this year of docs by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania and Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir (“The Mother of All Lies,” Un Certain Regard), even though “in the real world I still get asked whether I do docs or real films,...

The prestigious Visions du Réel film festival in Nyon, Switzerland wraps up this weekend, after hosting the world premiere of dozens of documentaries.

One of those world premieres, the feature documentary Amany, Behind the Lines, centers on Amany Al-Ali, considered to be the first female cartoonist in Idlib, Syria. Her city became a hotbed of protest against the regime of Bashar al-Assad beginning in 2011 in the midst of the Arab Spring and, despite enormous risk, Al-Ali has used her cartooning skill to critique the chaotic developments in Idlib for a dozen years now.

Alisar Hasan and Alaa Amer directed the 73-minute long feature documentary.

Cartoonist Amany Al-Ali

Amany Al-Ali “draws the life of her town, a bastion of jihadist groups that are attempting to overthrow President Assad since 2011,” the Visions du Réel program notes. “Armed with her pen, she is struggling against Islamist authority and traditional patriarchy. But for how...

The trailer (below) for “Draw for Change!” – which was named best documentary series at Canneseries this week – has debuted. The feature film version of the first of its six episodes, “Behind the Lines,” will world premiere at Visions du Réel Film Festival on April 28.

The series, from creators Guillaume Vandenberghe and Vincent Coen, profiles six female cartoonists working in six geographic areas of the world, in six individual films and broadcast episodes. Female directors with close connections to each of the societies represented were chosen to tell the stories.

Autlook Film Sales is handling international sales.

“After decades of male directed series on male artists, this series brings us stories about female artists from a female perspective,” producer Hanne Phlypo said. “The stakes are very high for these artists, and championing them by telling their stories is our contribution to empowering global democracy – one laugh at a time.”

Vandenberghe and...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Fund has unveiled its latest round of feature film grantees from the Arab world and Africa.

The announcement comes just days after the fund revealed it had boarded French director Maïwenn’s upcoming costume drama Jeanne du Barry starring Johnny Depp, in its first European investment as executive producer.

In its latest funding round for Arab and African filmmakers, it is getting behind 36 productions by Saudi, Arab and African filmmakers, 25 in or on the verge of production, 11 in post-production.

The 25 production grant winners include upcoming films by established directors such as Abderrahmane Sissako’s The Perfumed Hill, Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Miss Camel, Annemarie Jacir, Kaouther Ben Hania’s Mime, Cherien Dabis, and Karim Moussaoui’s The Vanishing.

The fund has also gotten behind buzzy, emerging talents such as Saudi Arabian filmmaker Sara Mesfer, who is gearing up for her first solo feature Habibi And I In Eden.

Further projects come from Mehdi M. Barsaoui, Ameer Fakher Eldin, Haifaa Al-Mansour and Annemarie Jacir.

The Red Sea Film Festival Foundation has unveiled the 36 recipients of the Red Sea Fund’s 2022 production and post-production funding cycles.

All titles are from Arab and African filmmakers, who will receive grants to help them complete films that shine a light on narratives and new talents emerging from the region.

Two films selected have previously received support at the development stage by the Red Sea Fund. Captain Mbaye from Rwandan filmmaker Joel Karekezi follows a Un observer sent to Rwanda as genocide breaks out.

Venice Film Festival’s Final Cut, dedicated to films in post-production from African and Arab countries, wrapped its anniversary 10th edition on Sept. 5. As fest director Alberto Barbera welcomed the audience to “the final stage of the Final Cut,” La Biennale di Venezia Prize – and cash award of € 5,000 – went to “Inshallah a Boy,” directed by Amjad Al Rasheed.

Jurors Claire Diao, Rasha Salti and Gaetano Maiorino praised it for “brilliant direction and performances, tackling a really dramatic social issue and for honoring the resilience of women in a conservative context.”

The film, a co-production between Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, is overseen by Rula Nasser for The Imaginarium Films.

“We are just proud we made something that speaks to people,” she told Variety after the ceremony.

“We are still a conservative society, but this protagonist, this woman, she’s strong. She decides she needs to stand up and say:...

Final Cut, a workshop supporting films in post-production from African and Arab countries – launched by the Venice Film Festival’s industry section, Venice Production Bridge – celebrates its 10th anniversary this week.

Its goals have remained the same, however, as it continues to provide emerging filmmakers with concrete assistance as well as visibility, all the while strengthening Venice’s role as “bridge builder,” says Alessandra Speciale, its curator. The final selection features titles made by directors from nine different countries: Algeria, Jordan, Guinea, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Central African Republic and Tunisia.

This year, two additional projects were added to the usual six work-in-progress films, thanks to the France in Focus initiative, supported by Unifrance: Karim Bensalah’s debut “Black Light,” sold internationally by The Party Film Sales, and “The Cemetery of Cinema,” directed by Thierno Souleymane Diallo and marking Guinea’s first presence at the workshop.

Diallo, who has been...

The selection includes Amjad Al Rasheed’s Inshallah A Boy.

The dark comedy Inshallah A Boy, from former Screen Arab Star of Tomorrow Amjad Al Rasheed, is one of eight feature projects selected for the 10th edition of Venice’s Final Cut, supporting work-in-progress films from Africa and the Middle East.

The progarmme will run as part of the Venice International Film Festival’s Venice Production Bridge.

The selected projects, which include three fiction and five documentaries, will be shown to producers, buyers, distributors, post-production companies and film festival programmers during a three day workshop from September 3-5.

Inshallah A...

The selection includes Amjad Al Rasheed’s Inshallah A Boy.

The dark comedy Inshallah A Boy, from former Arab Screen Star of Tomorrow Amjad Al Rasheed, is one of eight feature projects selected for the 10th edition of Venice’s Final Cut, supporting work-in-progress films from Africa and the Middle East.

The progarmme will run as part of the Venice International FIlm Festival’s Venice Production Bridge.

The selected projects, which include three fiction and five documentaries, will be shown to producers, buyers, distributors, post-production companies and film festival programmers during a three day workshop from September 3-5.

Inshallah A...

Six feature documentaries currently in post-production are selected.

Film Independent has revealed the 12 filmmakers and six projects selected for its 2022 Documentary Lab, with subjects including Baltimore police law, young women in Egypt and the legacy of a Lakota family.

The lab is designed for filmmakers currently in post-production on their feature-length documentary films and provides creative feedback from film professionals.

This year’s lead creative mentors are Chris Shellen, Jeff Malmberg and Anayansi Prado. Mentors and guest speakers include Oscar nominee Jessica Kingdon, Emmy winner Ali Johnes and Sundance Institute’s Carrie Lozano.

Projects supported by the Documentary Lab in...

Film Independent has set the filmmakers and projects for its 2022 Documentary Lab. The list includes Alissa Figueroa, Shalon Buskirk and Drew Swedberg, Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir (Land of Women), Kit Vincent and Ed Owles, Alix Blair, Lauren Kushner and Elise McCave (Untitled Helen Project) and Jonathan Olshefski and Elizabeth Day (Without Arrows).

The Lab is an intensive program that provides creative feedback to filmmakers currently in post on feature-length docs, advancing the careers of its Fellows by introducing them to professionals who can advise on both the craft and business of documentary filmmaking. Chris Shellen and Jeff Malmberg (Marwencol) and Anayansi Prado (Maid in America) will this year serve as its Lead Creative Mentors, with additional Lab Mentors and Guest Speakers to include Sara Dosa and Shane Boris (Fire of Love), Academy Award nominee...

The Industry Program of documentary festival IDFA launches Friday as an in-person event, while also offering remote access for those who are unable to get to Amsterdam. Head of industry Adriek van Nieuwenhuijzen and market manager Selin Murat speak to Variety about what participants can expect.

What was learned from the digital experimentation put in place last year has not been lost, van Nieuwenhuijzen says, and what has been delivered this year is a hybrid. “We know that, for the whole industry, these personal encounters, in-person meetings, are crucial,” she says. “But we also learned that we are far more accessible for many people [through remote access]. So that’s why I’m happy that we still have the opportunity to offer some visibility for [the producing] teams who cannot come to Amsterdam.” The online passes that IDFA is offering are “a great opportunity for people around the world to see what’s happening and to stay up to date,...

Re>Connext is the annual film and TV showcase run by Flanders Image.

The first footage from Netflix drama Soil, directed by Bad Boys For Life duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, is to be presented at Re>Connext, the annual film and TV showcase run by Flanders Image.

It is one of 26 upcoming television projects selected for the event, which serves as an export platform for film and TV drama made in Flanders and will run online from October 5-31. The physical showcase has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Scroll down for full list of projects

Soil,...

Sarajevo CineLink panel included Matthijs Wouter Knol, outgoing director of Berlin’s European Film Market.

The European film industry needs to reckon with its own racism and evolve its attitudes to people of colour, according to a panel of speakers at Sarajevo’s CineLink Talks.

While the Black Lives Matter movement was born out of the US, it is Europe that is “the mother of the problem,” according to UK producer Paula Vaccaro (On The Milky Road).

Vaccaro, who curated and moderated the session, said: “It’s curious how, in Europe, we hear so many times that this is not our problem.

While the murder of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement triggered months of protests in the U.S. and kicked off a roiling debate about institutional racism, much of Europe has struggled to initiate a similar reckoning about race—something European film industries have been particularly slow to grapple with.

How that might change in the months and years ahead was the subject of “Anti-Racism and White Supremacy: Will the Market Catch Up with Much-Needed Change?,” a conversation held on Tuesday as part of the Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Talks discussion series.

Moderated by producer Paula Vaccaro (“On the Milky Road”), the discussion included Sarah-Tai Black, a film programmer, arts curator, writer, and co-director of The Royal Cinema in Toronto; Nada Riyadh, a director and producer from Cairo; Matthijs Wouter Knol, head of the European Film Market and incoming director of the European Film Academy...

Next Step programme helps directors make move from shorts to first feature.

French director Camille Degeye has won the second €5,000 Cannes Critics’ Week Next Step prize, for her debut feature project Sphinx.

The drama is about a young medical intern who is excluded from the neurosurgery department where she works. She finds a job as a medic for a trendy Paris nightclub, where she embarks on a passionate love affair with an enigmatic figure on the Paris drag queen cabaret scene.

Spearheaded by outgoing Critics’ Week manager Rémi Bonhomme, the Next Step initiative was launched in 2014 to help directors of...