News

Part of Brazil’s rapidly building international film scene, Vdf Connection, a new São Paulo-based consultancy, training and sales agency, will launch at the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film with a Fantastic Cuts horror showcase and a second dedicated to titles from Brazilian state Minas Gerais.

Vdf Connection has also helped organize a screening of “O Barulho da Noite,” the narrative feature debut of Brazil’s Eva Pereira which won three awards at the 2024 Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival.

The company is founded by partners Mónica Trigo, a consultant and fest curator, and Javier Fernández, longtime head of Blood Window, Latin American mart-meet Ventana Sur’s pioneering genre platform.

Said Fernández: “Vdf Connection is a new consulting and sales agency focused on connecting filmmakers and producers — from development to post-production — with international festivals and markets,”

“Our mission is to empower the global launch of audiovisual content, primarily from Brazil and Latin America,...

Netflix has lifted the lid on a quartet of new movies out of Brazil.

The four projects are all in production and the streamer, keen to underscore its contribution to Brazilian cinema and the local production biz, was quick to note they are filming across four Brazilian states.

Rafael Vitti and canine star Amendoim will appear in Caramelo, billed as a heartwarming drama that pays tribute to a Brazilian cultural symbol, the stray mutt. Filmed in São Paulo, the story follows Pedro, an ambitious chef whose life is upended by unexpected diagnosis. With the help of a stray four-legged friend, he embarks on an emotional journey.

Migdal Filmes is producing, its first partnership with Netflix. Diego Freitas, who created the idea, directs.

There will also be an adaptation of Valter Hugo Mãe’s novel The Son of a Thousand Men hitting Netflix screens. Starring Rodrigo Santoro in the lead role,...

Breaking out of traditional, male, Rio de Janeiro/São Paulo strongholds to finally embrace regional, Black and Indigenous writer-directors, Brazil’s next generation of cinematic talent tackles a huge gamut of themes, styles and concern about social issues. Variety profiles 10 figures who look set to help shape the future of Brazilian filmmaking.

Caru Alves de Souza

Alves de Souza has such films as 2020 Berlin Generation winner “My Name Is Baghdad,” a plucky tale of adolescence on the fringes of society, and 2013’s San Sebastian Horizontes Latinos debut “Underage,” a riveting look at juvenile justice under her belt. She shreds ignorance with her belief “in the power of a cinema that questions established norms but also offers some alternative.”

At this year’s Berlin Co-Production Market, her “Lonely Hearts” deals with the fate of a family porn theater business, its characters “contradictory, flawed, idiosyncratic, and on the other hand, extremely empathetic,...

Legal docudrama Saint Omer was voted Best Picture at the 34th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, which announced this year’s juried award winners today.

Saint Omer wins for its ability “to expertly interrogate issues of society, culture, race, and gender,” the festival release stated. “Alice Diop, as screenwriter and director, delivers a film that explores different dynamics of Black women in contemporary France, drawing empathetic lead performances from Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanga. By harnessing the skills of her technical team, Diop turns Saint Omer into a shrewd, cogent, ambitious, and overwhelming film which teases a metafictional awareness while remaining clear-eyed and unsentimental.”

The Palm Springs festival took place from January 5-16 and screened 134 films from 64 countries, including 27 premieres. The lineup includes 35 of the International Feature Film Oscar submissions.

The jury award categories included the Fipresci Prize for films...

If you told me that the director Gabriel Martins thought exclusively in images, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Mars One, his gracefully composed observation of a working-class Brazilian family, is littered with arresting shots. Take the one of Tércia, the matriarch played by Rejane Faria, cleaning a window: Her curly mop of bleached blonde hair remains static as her right hand slides across the glass, her back muscles flexing in response to the laborious task. Or the scene of her daughter Eunice (Camilla Damião) consummating her love with her girlfriend on the floor of an empty penthouse apartment. Her dark skin gleams against the sharp, white-tiled floor as the baby-blue colored braids of her lover slither across her skin. These scenes are occasions — charged flashes of the director’s loving preoccupation with his story. And who wouldn’t be obsessed with such a humane, well-calibrated tale?

Mars One, which premiered...

Sometimes, the simplest stories are the most monumental. A boy wants to be an astronaut, a girl falls in love, a father lives out his dreams through his son. This is the stuff of life — nothing more, nothing less. Watching a film like “Mars One,” from Brazilian filmmaker Gabriel Martins, is a humbling experience. Why over-complicate this storytelling business when a gifted storyteller can make such moving magic out of everyday experiences?

Set in the wake of the election of Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, “Mars One” follows a single working-class family as they long for more, love each other, self-reflect, and struggle to make ends meet. Where a lesser film might pick one character to focus on, “Mars One” All relatable, flawed, and charming in their own ways, they antagonize each other without anyone losing their humanity.

Martins strikes a delicate balance that’s unusually satisfying from a narrative perspective.

Mars One Trailer — Gabriel Martins‘s Mars One / Marte Um (2022) movie trailer has been released by Array Releasing. The Mars One trailer stars Cícero Lucas, Carlos Francisco, Camilla Damião, Rejane Faria, Russo Apr, and Robson Vieira. Crew Gabriel Martins wrote the screenplay for Mars One. Plot Synopsis Mars One‘s plot synopsis: “The Martins family are optimistic [...]

Continue reading: Mars One (2022) Movie Trailer: A Father Pins his Hopes on his Soccer-playing Son who Dreams of Being a Astrophysicist...

Ava DuVernay’s distribution banner Array Releasing has unveiled the official trailer for “Mars One,” Gabriel Martins’ film which represents Brazil in the Oscar race.

The film world premiered at Sundance and will debut on select screens and on Netflix beginning Jan. 5. Array Releasing has nabbed the film for distribution in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

“Mars One” revolves around the Martins, a lower-middle-class Black family who are living in the margins of a major Brazilian city. A far-right extremist president has just been inaugurated, and the Martins feel the strain of their new reality as the political dust settles. Tércia, the mother, thinks she’s cursed after an unexpected encounter. Her husband puts all of his hopes into the soccer career of their son who secretly aspiring to study astrophysics and colonize Mars. Meanwhile, their older daughter falls in love with a young...

“Mars One,” Brazil’s submission for the International Oscar category this year, is a family drama about a boy who wants to colonize the red planet. The title that suggests sci-fi, which director Gabriel Martins found intriguing.

“It’s interesting that at first, it came just as the title of the true mission that (real-life people) were planning to do to colonize Mars,” Martins told TheWrap’s JoeMcGovern during a Q&a following a screening of “Mars One” that was part of TheWrap’s 2022-2023 Awards Season Screening Series. “And that gave me an interesting perspective that we want to get to know the universe, the expansion and traveling to other planets, even though we are still having a lot of problems to do here on Earth. So that was intriguing to me.”

The film tells the story of the Martins, a lower-middle-class Black family living in the margins of a major Brazilian city.

Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Sally Field star in ’80 For Brady’ from Paramount Pictures.

The world premiere of 80 for Brady starring Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Rita Moreno, and Lily Tomlin will open the 34th Annual Palm Springs International Festival on Friday, January 6, 2023, and The Lost King from director Stephen Frears will close the festival on Sunday, January 15th. In between, Psiff will screen 132 films including the world premiere of the documentary Shot in the Arm.

“We are beyond excited to welcome back our beloved audience and filmmakers in Palm Springs. We’re especially thrilled to be joined by all four leads of 80 For Brady. The film is brimming with joy and heart, and it’s a perfect film to kick off our 34th edition,” said Artistic Director Lili Rodriguez. “Our programmers have dedicated almost a year to scouting the world for the films that make up this edition.

Brazilian drama Mars One follows the Martins family, optimistic dreamers who are quietly leading their lives on the margins of a major Brazilian city following the disappointing election of a far-right extremist president. They are a lower middle-class Black family who feels the strain of its new reality as the political dust settles.

Tercia (Rejane Faria), the mother, finds her world turned upside down after an unexpected prank where a man threatens to blow himself up in a café, leaves her wondering if she’s cursed. Her husband, Wellington (Carlos Francisco), puts all of his hopes into the soccer career of their son, Deivinho (Cícero Lucas), who reluctantly follows his father’s ambitions despite secretly aspiring to study astrophysics and colonize Mars. Meanwhile, their older daughter, Eunice (Camilla Damião), falls in love with a free-spirited young woman and ponders whether it’s time to leave home.

Related: The Contenders International...

Ava DuVernay’s distribution banner Array Releasing has bought “Mars One,” Gabriel Martins’ film which represents Brazil in the Oscar race.

The film world premiered at Sundance and will debut on select screens and on Netflix beginning Jan. 5. Array Releasing has nabbed the film for distribution in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

“Mars One” revolves around the Martins, a lower-middle-class Black family who are living in the margins of a major Brazilian city. A far-right extremist president has just been inaugurated, and the Martins feel the strain of their new reality as the political dust settles. Tércia, the mother, thinks she’s cursed after an unexpected encounter. Her husband puts all of his hopes into the soccer career of their son who secretly aspiring to study astrophysics and colonize Mars. Meanwhile, their older daughter falls in love with a young woman and ponders whether...

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Brazilian director, screenwriter and cinematographer Gabriel Martins has signed with CAA for representation.

Martins’ working class family drama Mars One (Marte Um) was selected as Brazil’s submission for best international feature film at the next Academy Awards, and marks the first film helmed by a Black Brazilian director to represent the South American country.

Mars One, which bowed in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, portrays a family on the margins of Belo Horizonte as they quietly reinvent themselves while reconciling themselves to life under extremist president Jair Bolsonaro in late 2018.

The Portuguese language film, which also marked Martins’ solo feature directorial debut, stars lead Rejane Faria, Cicero Lucas, Carlos Francisco and Camilla Damiao. Martins’ first feature film, In the Heart of the World, which debuted at the Rotterdam Film Festival, was written and co-directed with Maurilio Martins.

The duo also directed the short film,...

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

Albania

A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On

Director: Gentian Koçi

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

International Sales: M-Appeal

Algeria

Our Brothers

Director. Rachid Bouchareb

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

Intl. Sales: Wild Bunch

Argentina

Argentina , 1985

Director: Santiago Mitre

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

U.S. Distributor: Amazon...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Gabriel Martins' Oscar submission Mars One tells the story of a working class Brazilian family on the brink of the election of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. The family is composed of a father working at a high-rise, a mother dealing with trauma, a daughter on the verge of coming out to her family, and a young boy who dreams of going to Mars. The film is a beautifully restrained examination of contemporary Brazil through the lens of class, race, and gender.

Mars One is Brazil's contender for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. In our interview, writer/director Gabriel Martins discusses the development of his film coinciding with the rise of Bolsonaro's divisive politics, how the long-gestating journey of the film helped him shape the final output, and how recent developments in Brazilian cinema have given him hope...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

“Please Baby Please” and “Mars One” are among the winners of the 40th Anniversary Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival. The organization announced the honorees during its award ceremony Wednesday.

The L.A.-based nonprofit, which promotes LGBTQ filmmakers and projects, ran its 40th edition festival from July 14-24. Over the course of the festival, 30,000 people attended its programming and more than 200 films screened, including 42 world premieres. The festival opened with Billy Porter’s directorial debut “Anything’s Possible” and closed with the LGBTQ slasher film “They/Them.”

“Please Baby Please,” directed by Amanda Kramer and starring Andrea Riseborough and Henry Melling, took the outstanding North American feature prize, while Brazilian director Gabriel Martins’ family drama “Mars One” won the outstanding international feature award. Audience award winners included “Unidentified Objects” by Juan Felipe Zuleta and documentary feature “Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story.” Select award winners will be available to stream...

The 32nd annual Inside Out Toronto 2S (two spirit) LGBTQ+ Film Festival, which champions innovative 2Slgbtq+ filmmakers from across the globe, has revealed its full film lineup that will take place both in-person and virtually from May 26 to June 5 in Toronto, showcasing 128 films from 28 countries, including 38 feature films, 3 episodic series, and 7 world premieres.

The announcement was made today by Inside Out’s Interim Co-Heads, Andrew Murphy and Elie Chivi.

The festival’s opening night film will be the Canadian premiere of Gabriel Martin’s critically acclaimed family drama Mars One, which opened the World Cinema program at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and topped several lists of best films seen at the festival.

Mars One explores the hopes and expectations, the anxieties and foibles, of a Brazilian family against the backdrop of the 2018 election of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. Closing the festival will be the world premiere of the...

Argentina’s “Ayelén and the Forest Shadow,” Uruguay’s “The Eagle Heist,” Mexico’s “Journey to the Land of the Tarahumara,” Brazil’s “Berg’s Books”and Spain’s “Upiro” proved top winners at a Ventana Sur prize ceremony which in its very form stressed just how much the biggest film-tv market in Latin America has expanded.

Prior to the pandemic, prize winners were allowed acceptance speeches. This year, with more awards than ever to doll out, recipients just got to pose for a photo. Prizes – mostly in kind from service companies or invitations to festivals, markets and other awards ceremonies – ranged widely. Some winners and awards stood out, however.

There was large curiosity, for instance, to see which series would receive the first ever Netflix Award at Ventana Sur, an Incentive for Argentine Women Creators. The cash endowment for further development went to “Ayelén and the Forest Shadow.” A...

Growing up is never easy. Especially if you’re a parent. Winner of Ventana Sur’s $10,000 Paradiso Wip Award, one of the biggest prizes at the event, and one of the buzzed up titles this year in its Copia Final pix-in-post section, “Mars One” ‘Mars One’ portrays a lower middle-class Black family keeping its dreams alive in a vertiginous changing present-day Brazil. But its parents’ dreams for their children are not shared by their offspring, forcing the older generation to adapt to a more unpredictable world where old values are replaced by new.

“Mars One” is produced by Filmes de Plástico’s Thiago Macêdo Correia who’s had four films selected for Cannes, three in Directors’ Fortnight and “The Dead and the Others,” winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2018. Such big fest success has established Filmes de Plástico – and writer-directors André Novais Oliveira, Gabriel Martins...

Gabriel Martins’ family drama “Marte Um” (“Mars One”) has won Ventana Sur’s Paradiso Wip Award, the new prize jointly instituted by Brazil’s Projeto Paradiso and the Cannes-backed Argentine market-festival.

Produced by Thiago Macêdo Correia at Filmes de Plástico, “Mars One” will receive a $10,000 prize and a special screening during the upcoming edition of Ventana Sur, running Nov. 29-Dec. 3.

For Ventana Sur, only projects in post-production with a majority or minority Brazilian participation were able to apply for the Paradiso Wip Award. These projects can also apply to Ventana’s Primer Corte sidebar.

A special jury appointed by Ventana Sur chose the winning film.

The Paradiso Wip Award is a philanthropic initiative unveiled in July by the Olga Rabinovich Institute’s org Projeto Paradiso. It forms part of its program, Brasil no Mundo.

Dubbed a “Brazilian tale of hope and stars,” “Mars One” revolves around the Martins, a lower-middle-class...

Ela Bittencourt's column explores South America’s key festivals and notable screenings of Latin films in North America and Europe.Murder Me, Monster“Making a film is close to dreaming,” Carlos Reygadas said in his Master Class at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. “When you’re dreaming, you’re not thinking is this a traveling or a close-up. Film has a unique logic, it’s not logical.” The last phrase is an oxymoron, but filmmakers can surely be both intuitive and calculating. Reygadas envisions entire scenes before filming them, but goes with the flow on the set. And indeed it’s this mix of the planned and the strange, the utterly unpredictable, perhaps even superfluous, that informs some of the best films in this year’s Neighboring Scenes: Latin American Cinema festival.In addition to Reygadas’s pictorially striking Our Time (2018), which opens the festival, daydreams are also palatable...

Ela Bittencourt's column explores South America’s key festivals and notable screenings of Latin films in North America and Europe.In The Heart of the World“Our cinema is maximalist,” Gabriel Martins and Maurílio Martins told me at the 48th edition of the International Film Festival of Rotterdam (Iffr). The two (unrelated) Martins hail from the periphery of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, which these days boasts a booming film industry. In addition to the two, André Novais de Oliveira, also present at the festival with a short, Quintal (2015), and a new feature, Temporada (2018), and in the past, filmmakers such as Affonso Uchoa of Araby (2017) and Juliana Antunes of Baronesa (2018), all have come from Minas. In the case of Gabriel and Maurílio, their intense cinefilia, which encompasses the love for fluid camerawork of James Gray, for Sergio Leone’s westerns, for comedy and the 1970s and ‘80s American movies,...

Four Iffr titles will play on the streaming platform.

International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) has launched a collaboration with Mubi that will see four Iffr titles play on the streaming platform.

One of the titles – Gabriel Martins and Maurílio Martins’ Heart of The World (No Coração Do Mundo) – is from the 2019 edition of the festival, where it had its international premiere in the Tiger competition.

It follows the inhabitants of a poor neighbourhood in the Brazilian city of Contagem as they attempt to make life easier − something the women tackle with strikingly more energy than the men.

The other three – Obayashi Nobuhiko’s Hanagatami,...

Madrid — Continuing its strong line in Brazilian films, often from first feature or emerging talent, Sandro Fiorin’s Miami-based FiGa Films has acquired world sales rights to ‘Temporada,” directed by André Novais Oliveira, one of Brazil’s foremost young social realists.

FiGa Films will introduce “Temporada” to buyers at next week’s Locarno Festival, where it world premieres in the Swiss festival’s Filmmakers of the Present section, reserved for newer auteurs. Variety had had exclusive access to the film’s first international trailer.

Sneak-peeked in rough cut at Toulouse’s 33rd Films in Progress, “Temporada,” Novais Oliveira’s second feature, follows on shorts “About a Month” and “Quintal,” both chosen for Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, and his feature debut, “Ela Volta na Quinta” (She Comes Back On Thursday), which won a Special Jury Prize in main competition at Argentina’s 2015 Bafici festival.

“She Comes Back on Thursday” was set in the suburbs of Belo Horizonte,...