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German drama film “Every You Every Me” (aka “Alle Die Du Bist”) was Saturday named best film winner at the 7th edition of the Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest). The festival’s prizes are known as the Golden Global Awards.

Directed by Michael Fetter Nathansky, the film about a woman trying to reconnect with her partner in a failing relationship, had its world premiere in February at the Berlinale. At Miffest, the film additionally earned the best actress award for Aenne Schwarz and saw Nathansky also pick up the best screenplay award.

The film, “boldly confronts the real-life challenges faced by the working class, particularly the struggles associated with monetary deficits [and] skillfully transforms these harsh realities into cinematic excellence,” said a jury statement.

Every You Every Me

Best director honors went to the duo of Alireza Ghasemi and Raha Amirfazli for their film “In the Land of Brothers.” About three...

Michael Fetter Nathansky’s Every You Every Me scooped three prizes including best film at the 7th Malaysia International Film Festival (Miffest) while Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda and renowned Indonesian actress Christine Hakim received lifetime achievement awards.

German director Nathansky came on stage to receive the awards for best film and best screenplay and his leading lady Aenne Schwarz was in attendance to collect the best actress award. The romantic social drama, which premiered in the Panorama section of this year’s Berlinale, follows a single mother and factory worker as she falls in and out of love.

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Malaysia Festival Selections

The Malaysia International Film Festival (Miffest), which runs July 21-28, will open with horror film “Indera” by local director Woo Ming Jin and starring Shaheizy Sam and Azira Shafinaz. The festival will conclude with the double feature of “Love Lies” by Ho Miu Ki and “Peg O’ My Heart” by Nick Cheung.

The festival’s nine films in competition include: “Abang Adik” by Jin Ong; “Betania” by Marcelo Botta; “Every You Every Me” by Michael Fetter Nathansky, a critical exploration of personal identity and a highlight of German cinema; Afghan refugee tale “In the Land of Brothers” by Alireza Ghasemi and Raha Amirfazli; “Rapture” by Dominic Sangma, set in a mystically charged village and exploring oppressive themes through a child’s perspective; “Sujo” by Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, a gritty tale of youth amidst cartel violence; “The Editorial Office” by Roman Bondarchuk, a satirical take on...

Malaysian director Woo Ming Jin’s local horror Indera will open the Malaysia International Film Festival (Miffest), which will be closed by two Hong Kong features, Ho Miu Ki’s Love Lies and Nick Cheung’s Peg O’ My Heart.

The 7th edition of Miffest will take place in Malaysia’s capital of Kuala Lumpur from July 21-28. It will pay tribute to Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda and celebrated Indonesian actress Christine Hakim with lifetime achievement awards, as well as honour Hong Kong actor-director Cheung with an award for excellent achievement in film.

In a press conference held yesterday (June...

Cinema Icons Hirokazu Kore-eda and Christine Hakim to be Honoured with Lifetime Achievement Awards

Kuala Lumpur, 24 June — The Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) has announced its programme lineup for the much-anticipated 7th edition, set to transform Kuala Lumpur into a cinematic paradise from 21-28 July 2024. With an exceptional array of films, MIFFest continues to celebrate the spirit of both Malaysian and international cinema.

Opening and Closing Nights

This year's festival will kick off with the spine-tingling Malaysian horror film “Indera” by acclaimed director Woo Ming Jin, featuring the talented Shaheizy Sam and Azira Shafinaz. The festival will conclude on a high note with the double feature of “Love Lies” by Ho Miu Ki and “Peg O' My Heart” by Nick Cheung.

Honouring Cinema Masters Hirokazu Kore-eda and Christine Hakim

At the pinnacle of this year's festival, MIFFest proudly confers its esteemed Lifetime Achievement Awards upon two cinematic titans: Hirokazu Kore-eda...

Top Brazilian titles at the Berlin Festival and EFM:

“Betânia,” (Marcelo Botta)

Botta’s feature debut, produced by Salvatore Filmes, associate produced by Ventre Studio, selected for Berlin’s Panorama. Set in stunning but barren Brazilian sand dunes, Betânia, 65, rebuilds amid global collapse. After losing her husband to a salty diet common in electricity-deprived areas, she seeks solace in a new village, cherishing its traditions. Sales: MPM Premium

“The Best Friend,” (Allan Deberton)

By Deberton, director of award-winning “Pacarrete,” co-produced by Ceara-based Deberton Filmes and Telecine. During a quiet beach trip to Canoa Quebrada, Lucas reunites with his old college friend Felipe, whose free-spirited nature sparks feelings of nostalgia. Sales: Deberton Filmes

“Carnival is Over,” (Fernando Coimbra)

A much awaited title from helmer-scribe, now in post. Winner of a Sundance Institute global filmmaking award, the thriller centers on Regina and Valerio who live an opulent lifestyle in Rio as heirs...

Brazil’s film industry hits Berlin with a new stride in its step, bringing 46 producers and 80-plus films and projects, according to promotional org Cinema do Brasil, led by chairman André Sturm and manager, Maria Marta.

It is also in the process of receiving part of Brazil’s Paulo Gustavo Law funding, which is pouring RS2.8 billion ($571.1 million) into Brazil’s audiovisual sector, from rich states such as São Paulo to small town video stores.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s box office is beginning to return to pre-covid levels, as regional industries fire up in its Northeast and South.

At Berlin, São Paulo City film-tv agency Spcine, which has worked closely with Cinema do Brasil in recent years, is participating in a slew of activities, including AfroBerlin, aimed at bolstering Brazilian-African cooperation, the EFM’s Co-Production Market and Toolbox, a program focusing on diversity and inclusion, says Luiz Toledo, Spcine director of investments and strategic partnerships.

The sprawling sand dunes of the Brazilian Lençóis Maranhensesshine on the trailer for Marcelo Botta’s feature debut “Betânia,” set to have its world premiere at the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival. Paris-based MPM Premium, known for supporting burgeoning Brazilian talent, is handling sales on the title.

Comprising a majority of first-time actors and shot amongst the scenic dunes in the northeast of Brazil, “Betânia” tells the story of its titular character, a 65-year-old staunch matriarch forced to move out of her agrarian village after the premature death of her husband. Through exploring generational conflicts within Betânia’s family and the clash between tradition and modernity, director Botta creates a nuanced drama prodding at themes of over-tourism, sustainability, queerness and identity.

“’Betânia’ is a love letter to Brazil’s ancestral music, to festive traditions, and to communities from the sandy dunes of Lençois National Park that resist the...

A Different Man.The Berlinale have begun to announce the first few titles selected for the 74th edition of their festival, set to take place from February 15 through 21, 2024. This page will be updated as further sections are announced.COMPETITIONAnother End (Piero Messina)Architecton (Victor Kossakovsky)Black Tea (Abderrahmane Sissako)La Cocina (Alonso Ruiz Palacios) Dahomey (Mati Diop)A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)The Empire (Bruno Dumont)Gloria! (Margherita Vicario)Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas)From Hilde, With Love (Andreas Dresen)My Favourite CakeLangue Etrangère (Claire Berger)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)Who Do I Belong To (Meryam Joobeur)Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias)Shambhala (Min Bahadur Bham)Sterben (Matthias Glasner)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)A Traveler’s Needs (Hong Sang-soo)Sleep With Your Eyes Open. ENCOUNTERSArcadia (Yorgos Zois)Cidade; Campo (Juliana Rojas)Demba (Mamadou Dia)Direct ActionSleep With Your Eyes Open (Nele Wohlatz)The Fable (Raam Reddy...

Berlinale co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek are going out with a bang in their final year, with a lineup unveiled today featuring the latest works by Olivier Assayas, Bruno Dumont, Mati Diop, Hong Sang-soo, Abderrahmane Sissako, Jane Schoenbrun, Alonso Ruizpalacios, Matias Pineiro, Travis Wilkerson, Kazik Radwanski, Annie Baker, and more.

When the co-directors were asked by Screen Daily about their departure, Chatrian said, “It’s quite simple. Mariette and I had a mandate of five years. It is true that at the beginning I said that I was willing to go on because there was a shared will with the [German] Ministry [of Culture] to go on. But then the people who have the responsibility to see the future of the Berlinale thought this structure of two leaders was not the right one and I don’t consider myself able to run the festival alone. And that was the decision of the Ministry.

Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze’s drama The Antique has joined MPM Premium’s 2024 line-up.

The Antique is set in 2006 amidst the unlawful deportation of thousands of Georgians from Russia. It stars Salome Demuria alongside Sergey Dreyden and Vladimir Vlovichenkov and is produced by Georgia’s Cinetech.

The Paris-based seller has also unveiled more sales for Caye Casas’ Spanish-language black comedy horror The Coffee Table, selling it to Second Sight Films for the UK, Australia and New Zealand, Exit Media in Italy and HBO for Eastern and Central Europe. The film comes off a festival run at Tallinn Black Nights, the...

Deportation drama The Antique is the newest addition to MPM Premium’s 2024 line-up that also includes Brazilian environmental drama Betania, Saudi Arabian thriller Mandoob, Spanish LGBTQ+ comedy On The Go, horror The Coffee Table, plus Tunisian trauma-centred story Red Path.

Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze’s The Antique is set in 2006 amidst the unlawful deportation of thousands of Georgians from Russia. It stars 2024 European Shooting Star actress Salome Demuria alongside Sergey Dreyden and Vladimir Vlovichenkov and is produced by Georgia’s Cinetech. The film is currently in post and expected to premiere later in the year.

The Paris-based seller has also...

The Berlin Film Festival is staying true to its political roots.

The 74th Berlinale on Wednesday unveiled its Panorama, Generation and Forum sidebars, and the selection is packed with features and documentaries with a strong political bent, as is to be expected from a fest that prides itself on the social relevance of its official lineup.

Gender roles and gender politics are in focus in several of the Panorama titles, including the section’s opening film Crossing from director Levan Akin (And Then We Danced), in which an unlikely duo travels to Istanbul in search of a young trans woman; the Norwegian feature Sex from Dag Johan Haugerud, about two chimney sweeps living in monogamous, heterosexual marriages whose experiences change their views on sexuality; Bruce Labruce’s The Visitor, a provocative remake of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1968 classic Teorema; and Anthony Schatteman’s debut feature Young Hearts, a Generation Kplus title,...

The Berlinale has completed the lineup for its Panorama, Generation, Forum and Forum expanded sections, with new films from Levan Akin and Andre Techine, plus the debut feature of US playwright Annie Baker.

Swedish filmmaker Akin, who scored an international hit in 2019 with And Then We Danced, will open the Panorama strand with Crossing, about two people travelling from Georgia to Istanbul in search of a young transgender woman.

Scroll down for the full list of Panorama, Generation and Forum features

Also among the 31 films in Panorama are My New Friends from French filmmaker Techine, starring Isabelle Hupert, Hafsia Herzi...

In a vibrant move reinforcing its commitment to Brazilian cinema, Paris-based MPM Premium has announced its acquisition of “Betânia,” prior to its Berlinale bow. The film will world premiere in the diverse Panorama strand of the festival.

The announcement marks another stride in MPM Premium’s journey of accompanying new and established Brazilian directors, having previously supported works from Sundance-selected Iuli Gerbase’s “The Pink Cloud” to Berlinale hits like Flavia Neves’ “Fogaréu” and renowned Karim Aïnouz recent experimental docs (“Nardjes A.” “Mariner of the Mountains.”)

“Set in a magical place – the sand dunes of Lençois in Northern Brazil – Betânia is a heartfelt portrait of a community observing the end of the world as they know it,” Quentin Worthington, head of sales and acquisitions at MPM Premium, told Variety.

“Far from playing a sad tone, we got euphoric with self-affirmed characters larger than life, a catchy music playing to our...

Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun, a Scotland-set drama starring Saoirse Ronan, will have its world premiere at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, screening in Berlin’s Panorama section.

The drama is adapted from Amy Liptrot’s best-selling memoir about a recovering alcoholic — played by four-time Oscar nominee Ronan — who returns to her home on the windswept wilderness of Scotland’s Orkney Islands. Fingscheidt made her debut with System Crasher at the 2019 Berlinale. Her English-language follow-up was 2021’s The Unforgivable, a Netflix drama starring Sandra Bullock.

The Outrun is among the first 11 titles picked by Panorama for its 2024 lineup.

Other Panorama highlights include Andrea Gets a Divorce, an Austrian drama from famed actor and comedian Josef Hader, starring Birgit Minichmayr (Everyone Else) as policewoman Andrea trying to escape the confines of her provincial town; Paradises of Diane from Swiss directing duo Carmen Jaquier and Jan Gassmann, about the antihero Diane, who...

Films starring Saoirse Ronan and Justice Smith are set for Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section.

Panorama announced its first 11 titles on Thursday, seven of which are world premieres. The lineup includes Nora Fingscheidt’s “The Outrun,” which stars Ronan as an antihero who must embark on a journey to find herself. “After years of excess in London, she seeks silence and self-reflection in her Scottish homeland,” the film’s logline reads.

Directed by Jane Schoenbrun, “I Saw the TV Glow” — which stars Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine and Danielle Deadwyler, among others — is also part of the program. In a press release, the festival called the film “one of the most idiosyncratic and fascinating works of the year, effortlessly crossing boundaries of genre, gender and trauma in this eye- and soul-opening trip.”

The annual Panorama Audience Award will be presented on Feb. 25. Berlin Film Festival is set to take place beginning Feb.

Eleven titles revealed including Panorama returnees Ray Yeung and Aslı Özge

The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the first 11 titles to play in its Panorama section, seven of which are world premieres.

The line-up includes Josef Hader’s second film Andrea Gets a Divorce, following on from his 2017 Berlinale competition film Wild Mouse. The Austrian feature centres on a rural policewoman Andrea who commits a hit-and-run after her drunken soon-to-be ex-husband runs out in front of her car.

Ray Yeung returns to Panorama with Hong Kong-China production All Shall Be Well, having world premiered Suk Suk in the section in...

The Berlin Film Festival today unveiled the first titles set for the 2024 edition of its Panorama sidebar section. Scroll down for the full list of titles announced today.

The lineup includes eleven titles, seven of which are world premieres. A total of 16 countries have been involved in their production. The fest said the topics connecting the titles are rebellion and antiheroes.

Among the set is Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun, centered around antihero Rona, played by Saoirse Ronan, who has to go on a long journey to find herself: after years of excess in London, she seeks silence and self-reflection in her Scottish homeland. The film also stars Paapa Essiedu.

Danielle Deadwyler stars in I Saw the TV Glow from Jane Schoenbrun. The pic follows a teenager called Owen who is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night...

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

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

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

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

Twelve projects have been selected for the two work-in-progress sections.

Organised by Argentina’s national film body Incaa and the Cannes Marché du Film, Latin America’s premiere film market Ventana Sur has announced 12 works-in-progress for this year’s edition (November 28-December 2).

The market’s post-production competition Primer Corte contains three Mexican titles: Goodbye Love from director Indra Villaseñor, about a deported immigrant torn between a drug lord and a peaceful life; Manuela Irene’s summer-set coming-of-age tale Xibalba Monster; and Mexico-Peru co-production The Innocents, a story of sex, rock music and the end of innocence from Germán Tejada, a...