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That Time of the Month: Halla Offers Ringside Seats to the Courts – Both On and Off

In one’s timeline, it’s the pre-adulthood teenage years that ought to be a moment to learn not curb your enthusiasm. Self-expression, embracing the torpedo speed changes and being careless at the time. You actually want to make mistakes but in Brazilian filmmaker Lillah Halla’s debut, this time period is yellow card level-high dangerous. Coming off the heals of Anita Rocha da Silveira’s Medusa (which also looks at the overreach from the religious right from the perspective of tomorrow’s youth), micro drama Levante (Power Alley) is a thorny look at the political and social snowball effects of unwanted pregnancy – think Citizen Ruth with even fewer option for female healthcare than Never Rarely Sometimes Always.…...

Carolina Markowicz’s Toll earns four awards.

Vera Egito’s The Battle (A Batalha Da Rua Maria Antonia) won best fiction feature in the Première Brasil section at the 25th Rio International Film Festival closing ceremony.

As with most years, the ceremony showcased some of the strongest voices in Brazilian cinema. Unlike previous editions, however, the top winner received its world premiere at the festival and had not already enjoyed successful runs in international festivals like Cannes, Venice or Toronto.

The film’s title refers to Rua Maria Antônia, a street in the centre of Brazilian city São Paulo which...

Carolina Markowicz’s Toll earns four awards.

Vera Egito’s A Batalha da Rua Antônia (translated as The Battle Of Rua Antonia) won best fiction feature in the Première Brasil section at the 25th Rio International Film Festival closing ceremony on Sunday night.

As with most years, the ceremony showcased some of the strongest voices in Brazilian cinema. Unlike previous editions, however, the top winner received its world premiere at the festival and had not already enjoyed successful runs in international festivals like Cannes, Venice or Toronto.

The film’s title refers to Rua Maria Antônia, a street in the...

Anita Rocha da Silveira’s genre-bending tale of masked religious vigilantes is a genre film with something to say

With its squishy synth soundtrack, candy-coloured teen environs and role-playing girl-gang violence, this second feature from Brazilian writer-director Anita Rocha da Silveira feels like a time-warped precursor to Heathers, Clueless and The Neon Demon. It’s a satirical nightmare inspired by the giallo of Dario Argento, fired by the rise of former president Jair Bolsonaro’s reactionary populism and campily refracted through the televangelising aesthetic of The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Having racked up a string of international festival prizes since premiering at Cannes in 2021, Medusa builds on the promise of Da Silveira’s genre-subverting 2015 feature debut, Kill Me Please, confirming its creator as a killer talent to watch.

We open with a video of spider-walking strangeness; a writhing dance watched on a phone by a black-fingernailed figure who is promptly...

Annecy animation ‘The Tunnel To Summer…’ has 100+ location release.

Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One heads into its first weekend at the UK-Ireland box office, as the first of several summer blockbusters that will compete for audiences in the coming weeks.

Having started previews on Monday, July 10, Dead Reckoning Part One already has almost £4.1m in the bank. It will play in 717 locations this weekend – Paramount’s second-widest UK-Ireland release of all time, after the 741 of 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, also starring Tom Cruise. 52 of those sites will be Imax, with Paramount looking to make the most...

Anita Rocha da Silveira has dreamed up an unconventional, shaky but interesting swipe at Bolsonaro’s authoritarianism

It’s flawed and all over the place in conventional script terms, but there’s real interest in this freaky, peculiar, interestingly directed psychodrama satire from Rio-born artist and film-maker Anita Rocha da Silveira, which takes aim at the conformist-authoritarian patriarchy of Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil.

Mari (Mari Oliveira) is a member of an evangelical Christian young women’s singing group called Michele and the Treasures of the World, who (like the Barden Bellas in Pitch Perfect) sometimes squabble when one of their number does some unrehearsed freestyling in performance; their leader Michele (Lara Tremouroux) is impossibly glamorous and blond with a YouTube channel, discussing topics such as “How to take the perfect Christian selfie”.

Projeto Paradiso has announced in Cannes that Daniel Bandeira has won the Pop Up Film Residency Paradiso. The program is created exclusively for Brazilian professionals.

Bandeira, currently developing “Red Express,” is also behind “Property”, which premiered at the Berlinale’s Panorama back in February. Born in Pernambuco, he has been a filmmaker since 2001, making his feature debut with “Peer Pressure.”

The three-week Pop Up Film Residency – carried out in partnership with Matthieu Darras of Tatino Films – will take place in the Faroe Islands in Denmark, with Jón Hammer of Kyk Pictures joining as local partner.

“In so many ways, this project will be a step up for me. In terms of production, but also creatively. It’s a complex story,” Bandeira told Variety.

“I really want to think about my potential audience this time. Who are they? It’s the kind of concern I didn’t have in the past,...

The Loads‘ Ognjen Glavonic, Autobiography‘s Makbul Mubarak & Medusa‘s Anita Rocha da Silveira are among the selected filmmakers for TorinoFilmLab’s ScriptLab Participants. Glavonic will be at the lab with In The Shadow Of The Horns – his sophomore fiction feature. Indonesian filmmaker Mubarak comes with Watch It Burn – his sophomore feature while Brazilian filmmaker Anita Rocha da Silveira will be workshopping her third feature in I Can’t Dance. The 20 projects come from 20 writer-directors and eight co-writers, and have been selected from 550 submissions. Here are the ScriptLab 2023 projects and participants:

A Perfect Family – Writer: Adriano Valerio / Co-writer: Aude Py

All The Crows In The World – Writer: Yi Tang

Alma – Writer: Laura Herrero Garvin / Co-writer: Jorge Gil

Amari – Writer: Domien Huyghe, Co-writer: Wendy Huyghe

Blind Spots – Writer: Ely Chevillot

Brilliant Melody – Writer: Carlo Francisco / Co-writer: Jeremie Dubois

Counting Cards With My Father – Writer: Lydia Rui

Detour – Writer: Jakub Piatek / Co-writer:...

There is a particular focus on comedies.

TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has selected 20 projects for its ScriptLab 2023, plus five story editors, in what it describes as the first ‘fully international’ iteration of the annual development scheme.

The 20 projects come from 20 writer-directors and eight co-writers, and have been selected from 550 submissions.

Scroll down for the full list of participants

Those selected will take part in three week-long residential modules in April, June and November; with two online modules in September and October. The participants will be divided into five groups, and tutored by script consultants Philippe Barriere, Severine Cornamusaz, Aleksandra Swierk, Marietta von Hausswolff and Gino Ventriglia.

2022 has been an excellent year for horror movies. From new entries in well-established franchises like Scream to independent movies that became box office monsters, like Barbarian and Terrifier 2, there’s something for everyone in 2022’s crop. The only problem with a year filled to the brink with exciting horror productions is that it becomes easier to completely miss some great movies that didn’t have extensive marketing campaigns. That’s the case of Anita Rocha da Silveira's Medusa, a Brazilian horror movie that deserves much more love than it got.

Festival

Zurich Film Festival has revealed the lineup for its Hashtag section, which is devoted to “a topic that is trending on social media,” the event said Thursday. This year’s section screens films under the title #MyReligion, and deals with “questions of faith, euphoria and modern deities.”

“Whether in the U.S.A., Russia or the Middle East, we are seeing a comeback of religions,” Christian Jungen, Zff artistic director, said. “This often leads to conflicts in coexistence within multicultural societies. That’s why this year we are concentrating our efforts on the topic of faith, its merits and its dark sides. But we are also highlighting the substitute religions that are out there now for secular people, such as the Tiktok cult.”

The selected films are Adamma Ebo’s comedy “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.,” Tarik Saleh’s thriller “Boy From Heaven,” Tarik Saleh’s coming-of-age drama “The Realm of God,...

After recently unveiling its gala premieres program, the Zurich Film Festival has set its Hashtag section with movies to screen under the title “#MyReligion.” Since 2018, the fest has annually dedicated the strand to showcase a hot topic that is also trending on social media. #MyReligion will deal with questions of faith, euphoria and modern deities.

Among the pictures screening, Focus comedy Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul. will have its European premiere. From director Adamma Ebo and starring Regina Hall and Sterling K Brown, the film originally debuted at Sundance. It releases in domestic theaters and on Peacock September 2.

Also in the section are Tarik Saleh’s Egyptian thriller Boy From Heaven; Claudia Sainte-Luce’s Mexican coming-of-age tale The Realm Of God; Sara Dosa’s documentary Fire Of Love narrated by Miranda July; Orit Fouks Rotem’s docufiction Cinema Sabaya; Anita Rocha Da Silveira’s horror pic Medusa; Shalini Kantayya’s Sundance doc TikTok,...

The first word we hear in “Medusa” is a spat-out “slut,” and the first song is Siouxsie and the Banshees’ forever haunting “Cities in Dust.” So we know immediately that writer-director Anita Rocha da Silveira isn’t messing around. And neither are her anti-heroines, a group of young Brazilian evangelicals who take their work for the Lord very seriously.

How He would feel about their approach is never addressed — at least, not by them. The girls attend a devoutly religious college, sing as the Treasures of the Lord choir at their megachurch and, when the mood happens to strike, anonymously attack strangers who stray from their idea of feminine purity.

The leaders of the group are Michele (Lara Tremouroux) and her second-in-command Mari (Mari Oliveira), though the latter slips in stature once she’s maimed by a victim who fights back. The scar on her cheek is barely noticeable, but...

A group of friends are puritanical by day but practice masked vigilantism by night in Medusa, the new fantasy horror film from writer/director Anita Rocha da Silveira, and we've been provided with an exclusive clip to share with Daily Dead readers!

Below, you can watch our exclusive clip from Medusa ahead of the film's July 29th release in New York City's Angelika Film Center and in Los Angeles' Laemmle NoHo and Drafthouse Dtla (followed by a national release).

To learn more about Medusa, visit:

https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/medusa/

Synopsis: "Mari and her friends broadcast their spiritual devotion through pastel pinks and catchy evangelical songs about purity and perfection, but underneath it all they harbor a deep rage. By day they hide behind their manicured facade, and by night they form a masked, vigilante girl gang, prowling the streets in search of sinners who have deviated from the rightful path.

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired international sales rights to Mihai Mincan’s drama thriller “To The North” which will world premiere at Venice in the Horizons section.

Inspired by true events, the film follows Joel, a religious Filipino sailor, who finds a Romanian stowaway, Dumitru, hidden between some containers during his shift on a transatlantic ship. Joel decides to hide him and subsequently starts feeling tormented by his crew, friends and even God.

“To The North” stars Soliman Cruz, Niko Becker, Bart Guingona and Olivier Ho Hio Hen (“Stillwater”). The topnotch crew includes cinematographer George Chiper-Lillemark (“Immaculate”), sound designer Nicolas Becker (“Sound Of Metal”) and sound mixer Cyril Holtz (“The Sister Brothers”).

“To The North” is produced by De Film Production (“Alis”), Remora Films, Studio Bauhaus, Screening Emotions and Background Films.

“We can’t be prouder to represent the film. It is surprisingly masterful for a debut, an immersive cinematographic experience,...

Writer/Director Anita Rocha da Silveira discusses a few of her favorite films with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Medusa (2022)

Switchblade Sisters (1975) – Jack Hill’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Blue Velvet (1986) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Mulholland Drive (2001) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Clueless (1995)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

All That Jazz (1979) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – Darren Lynn Bousman’s trailer commentary

Last Night In Soho (2021)

Carrie (1976) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Suspiria (1977) – Edgar Wright’s American and international trailer commentaries, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Kill Me Please (2015)

Blood and Black Lace (1964) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentaries, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Suspiria (2018)

The Virgin Suicides (1999) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Somewhere (2010)

Goodfellas (1990) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary,...

When director Anita Rocha da Silveira felt paralyzed by the rise of conservatism and the ultra-right advance in her native country of Brazil, she transformed this paralysis into a fantastical metaphor of a comatose house, which serves the setting for her new horror-satire film, “Medusa.”

“Medusa,” which opens in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles July 29, follows Mari, who preaches purity and perfection through evangelical songs with her friends while harboring a deep rage. By night, the young women form a masked, vigilante girl gang who condemn sinners through violence and humiliation.

After an attack goes wrong and Mari is fired from working at a plastic surgery center due to a scar on her face, she gets a job as nurse at an institution for comatose patients in hope of encountering Melissa — a beloved celebrity figure who went into hiding after becoming one of the vigilante’s victims.

Medusa Trailer — Anita Rocha da Silveira‘s Medusa (2022) movie trailer has been released by Music Box Films. The Medusa trailer stars Mari Oliveria, Lara Tremouroux, Joana Medeiros, Felipe Frazão, Bruna G, Carol Romano, and Thiago Fragoso. Crew Anita Rocha da Silveira and Érica Sarmet wrote the screenplay for Medusa. Plot Synopsis Medusa‘s plot synopsis: “Mari and her [...]

Continue reading: Medusa (2022) U.S. Movie Trailer: A Repressed Gang Member has an Awakening After an Attack Goes Wrong...

You can run but you cannot hide — not even behind a blank mask of devotion.

“Medusa,” Anita Rocha da Silveira’s long-awaited follow-up to her 2015 film “Kill Me Please,” follows Mari (Mari Oliveira) as she harnesses her spiritual devotion into a “Purge”-esque rage against sexually active sinners alongside an all-female gang led by a male cult-like figure, played by Thiago Fragoso. Yet after an attack leaves Mari physically scarred, her entire worldview is torn apart. The film premieres July 29. Watch the trailer exclusively on IndieWire below.

“Nightmares of repressed desires and haunting visions of alluring temptation become undeniable and the urge to scream and release her paralyzing inner demons is more powerful than ever before,” the official description of the film reads. “A neon-tinged genre-bender that gives provocative form to the overwhelming feminine fury coursing through modern life, ‘Medusa’ dares us not to look away.”

Lara Tremouroux, Joana Medeiros,...

Korean festival returns as a full in-person event for the first time since 2019.

The 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival opened with chairman Kim Seung-su announcing a new cinema centre to be built on the spot of the Jeonju Dome, where the opening ceremony was held last night (April 28).

Stars and filmmakers walked the red carpet to applause from an excited audience as in pre-pandemic years, albeit many with masks on at the ever-safety-conscious film festival.

The Jeonju Dome is a temporary structure traditionally erected for the opening and closing ceremonies and other popular events during the annual film festival. Tickets...

Music Box Films has acquired the North American rights to writer-director Martika Ramirez Escobar’s genre-bending “Leonor Will Never Die,” which won the Special Jury Prize for Innovative Spirit in Sundance this year after premiering in the festival’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

The film tells the story of Leonor Reyes, once a major player in the Filipino film industry during its ragtag action cinema glory days, but now in her golden years and struggling to pay her bills. When she reads an advertisement for a screenplay contest, Leonor begins tinkering with an unfinished script about a young man avenging his brother’s murder at the hand of thugs.

But after a falling television knocks her unconscious and sends her into a coma, Leonor finds herself inside her incomplete movie, re-writing and editing on the fly in a fantastical bid to complete the film while her body lies in limbo.

Adding to its notable lineup in Latin American movies, Paris-based sales agent MPM Premium has taken international sales rights to “Fogaréu,” from writer-director Flávia Neves, part of Brazil’s new wave of female filmmakers, which is one of the most exciting developments the country’s cinema currently has going for it.

MPM Premium is introducing the film at this week’s Berlin Festival, where it world premieres in Panorama on Feb. 15.

First glimpsed at 2020’s Ventana Sur project market, “Fogaréu” shares a sense of attitude and a feminist agenda and a visual verve with fellow Brazilian Ventana Sur titles “The Pink Cloud,” Iuli Gerbase’s a sci-fi character-driven thriller, and “The Joy of Things,” Thais Fujinaga’s portrait of motherhood, also playing at the same market.

It begins, for example, with menacing shots of the Klu Klux Klan, marching towards the Brazilian colonial town of Goiás, or so it seems...

Mexico’s Oscar-shortlisted Prayers For the Stolen directed by Tatiana Huezo won the Fipresci Prize for Best International Feature Film at the Palm Springs Film Festival, which revealed its juried winners Wednesday despite being forced to cancel its 2022 edition.

The festival, which had been scheduled to run January 6-17 before being scrapped amid the latest Covid surge, is considered a must-stop for International Feature Oscar contenders, with 36 of the 93 official submissions this year slated for the lineup.

The Fipresci jury also awarded Asghar Farhadi’s Iranian Oscar hopeful A Hero two prizes, for Farhadi’s screenplay and best actor for Amir Jadidi. It won three prizes overall, also taking a Mozaik Bridging the Borders Award.

Agathe Roussell, the star of France’s Palme d’Or winner Titane, was named best actress by Fipresci jurors.

Huezo’s Prayers for the Stolen, which was released by Netflix in theaters and on the streaming platform in November,...

Answering the SunInternational Film Festival Rotterdam have announced the full lineup for their "scaled-down" 51st edition, which will take place online between January 26 — February 6. As part of a full, nationwide lockdown, cinemas will remain closed in the Netherlands until at least 14 January. Tiger COMPETITIONAchrome (Maria Ignatenko)The Cloud Messenger (Rahat Mahajan)The Child (Marguerite de Hillerin/Félix Dutilloy-Liégeois)Eami (Paz Encina)Excess Will Save Us (Morgane Dziurla-Petit)Kafka for Kids (Roee Rosen)Malintzin 17 (Mara Polgovsky/Eugenio Polgovsky)Met mes (Sam de Jong)The Plains (David Easteal)Proyecto Fantasma (Roberto Doveris)Le rêve et la radio (Renaud Després-Larose/Ana Tapia Rousiouk)Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish (Lei Lei)To Love Again (Gao Linyang)Yamabuki (Juichiro Yamasaki)Big Screen COMPETITIONAssault (Adilkhan Yerzhanov)Broadway (Christos Massalas)Third Grade (Jacques Doillon)Daryn’s Gym (Brett Michael Innes)Drifting Petals (Clara Law)The Harbour (Rajeev Ravi)The Island (Anca Damian)Kung Fu Zohra (Mabrouk El Mechri...

World Productions Boss and YouTube Emea Head Win Rts Fellowships

Line of Duty (pictured) producer World Productions CEO Simon Heath (pictured) and YouTube Regional Director, Emea, Ben McOwen Wilson are among the six winners of this year’s Royal Television Society (Rts) Fellowships. Cpl Productions MD Danielle Lux, BBC News At Ten‘s Clive Myrie, ITV Continuing Drama MD John Whiston and retiring Screen Yorkshire CEO Sally Joynson see out the crop, who were described as “leaders in their fields” by Rts CEO Theresa Wise. Rts Fellowships recognise industry luminaries who have made an outstanding, sustained and exceptional contribution to the industry.

Bollywood’s ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’ Trailer Launched

Ahead of Abhishek Kapoor’s Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’s December 10 release, a trailer has dropped showing a passionate couple, played by Ayushmann Khurrana (Badhaai Ho) and Vaani Kapoor (Bell Bottom), whose lives change after the main character hints at a gender-related issue with his partner.

Luana Bajrami has won best director and the Discovery Award for best debut feature for “The Hill Where Lionesses Roar” at the 29th Raindance Film Festival (Oct. 27 – Nov. 6).

The film was nominated for the Golden Camera and Queer Palm at Cannes, and has also won awards at the Sarajevo and Warsaw festivals.

The debut feature by YouTuber and short filmmaker Luke Cutforth, “The Drowning Of Arthur Braxton” won best U.K. feature, while Anita Rocha da Silveira’s San Sebastián and Sitges winner “Medusa” won best international feature.

Daniel Lombroso’s “White Noise” was named best documentary feature, while Matthew Walker’s “I’m Wanita” won best music documentary.

Portuguese actor Lucia Moniz won best performance for her lead role in Ana Rocha’s “Listen,” for which she has won several awards previously.

Known for his work on “Frances Ha” and Lady Bird,” DoP Sam Levy won best cinematography for Karen Cinorre’s “Mayday.

Grants

The International Documentary Association (IDA) will award grants totalling $105,000 to five films through its Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund on the theme, “Challenging White Supremacy.”

The films are “Aanikoobijigan”; “Brigidy Bram: The Life and Mind of Kendal Hanna”; “Home Is Somewhere Else”; “The Quiet Part” (working title); and “Yintah”.

In addition, filmmakers Ilse Fernandez (“Exodus Stories”) and Sundance winner Rintu Thomas (“Writing with Fire”), will receive IDA’s Logan Elevate Grants of $25,000 each.

Highlighting IDA’s support for diversity, among the Pare Lorentz grants, one project is directed and/or produced by a non-binary filmmaker and four are directed and/or produced by a woman. Four have a Bipoc director and/or producer and four directors and/or producers identify as LGBTQ+.

Since 2011, IDA has provided over $5.9 million in grants through its documentary funds.

Festival

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (Jan. 26 – Feb. 6) has revealed the first confirmed titles for its 51st edition,...

Music Box Films has picked up North American rights to Medusa, a fantasy horror film with a sharp satirical bite from Brazilian director Anita Rocha da Silveira.

Medusa, da Silveira’s follow-up to her well-received debut Kill Me Please, premiered in Cannes in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar and had its North American premiere in Toronto. The film will screen at the AFI festival in Los Angeles on November 13.

Medusa stars Mari Oliveira as Mariana, a 21-year-old trying to keep up appearances and resist temptation, particularly of a sexual nature. At night, she and her girlfriends team up, put on masks, and head out to hunt ...

Music Box Films has picked up North American rights to Medusa, a fantasy horror film with a sharp satirical bite from Brazilian director Anita Rocha da Silveira.

Medusa, da Silveira’s follow-up to her well-received debut Kill Me Please, premiered in Cannes in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar and had its North American premiere in Toronto. The film will screen at the AFI festival in Los Angeles on November 13.

Medusa stars Mari Oliveira as Mariana, a 21-year-old trying to keep up appearances and resist temptation, particularly of a sexual nature. At night, she and her girlfriends team up, put on masks, and head out to hunt ...

Exclusive: Music Box Films has acquired North American rights to Medusa, the well-received thriller-satire by Brazilian writer and director Anita Rocha da Silveira.

The feature debuted at Cannes in the Directors’ Fortnight strand before getting its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

Medusa follows Mariana (Mari Oliveira), a 21-year-old who belongs to a world where she must do her utmost to keep up the appearance of a perfect woman. In order to resist temptation, she and her girlfriends try their best to control everything and everyone around them. And that includes the town sinners. At night, their girl squad put on masks, hunt and beat up all women who have deviated from the right path. However, the day will come when the urge to scream will be stronger than it ever has been.

The social and political critique, which touches on themes of sexual liberation, violence, and religious fixation in Brazil,...

Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Icelandic-Swedish-Polish drama “Lamb,” starring Noomi Rapace was awarded best film and actress for Rapace at the 54th edition of Sitges’ International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, which wrapped Sunday.

The prizes add to an Originality Prize which the film received when competing at July’s Cannes Un Certain Regard.

“Lamb,” a horror-comedy combo, follows protagonist Maria, played by Rapace, a woman living with her husband in the total loneliness of the Icelandic countryside. According to a Variety review, “creepy-funny-weird-sad ‘Lamb’ proves just how far disbelief can be suspended if you’re in the hands of a director — and a cast, and a SFX/puppetry department — who really commit to the bit.” Lamb is produced by Go to Sheep, Black Spark Film & TV and Madants with New Europe Film Sales and A24 attached.

Rapace shared best actress honors with Susanne Jensen in Peter Brunner’s “Luzifer.” Justin Kurzel...

An in-person Guadalajara Film Festival (Ficg), which has moved its traditional spring dates to the fall, runs Oct. 1-9 this year. It opens with Dennis Villeneuve’s “Dune,” following its splash in Venice, and closes with the North American premiere of the first two episodes of Netflix’s animated series “Maya and the Three” from Mexico’s Jorge Gutiérrez.

Given the ongoing pandemic that is still hampering some travel, the festival expects fewer participants. Speaking to Variety in mid-September, festival director Estrella Araiza said that at that moment the Festival had about 300 confirmed participants while it normally had as many as 1,500.

Cinemas will be at 50% capacity at the festival even though Mexico has seen most cinemas opening at 100% capacity. “We want to adhere to the strictest protocols to keep our guests safe,” Araiza noted.

Some activities, such as the Masterclasses, will be available online. A novelty this year, the live...

Writer-director Anita Rocha da Silveira has created an evangelical town of purity in her Brazilian-set sophomore film Medusa. It’s the type of place all Christians wish they could send their children because they know they will be carried into God’s light. The young men form a militia group to honor His will against deviants that dare embrace sin. The young women form a gang in the likeness of their heroine angel, donning white masks to confront and assault the so-called “sluts” and “whores” who dare walk alone at night in search of carnal pleasure. Their violence? All part of God’s plan. Their chastity? A test to prove themselves worthy of pairing off with a like-minded believer to be married and live according to God’s unyielding law.

This existence becomes Mari’s (Mari Oliveira) calling. She’s second-in-command of their virginal posse and best friend to their leader,...

BenedictionThe lineup has been unveiled for the 2021 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, which will take place over 10 days (September 9-18) both in-person and physically in Toronto, and digitally across Canada. Wavelengths - FEATURESFutura (Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher)The Girl and the Spider (Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher)Neptune Frost (Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman)A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)Ste. Anne (Rhayne Vermette)The Tsugua Diaries (Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes)Wavelengths - SHORTSThe Capacity for Adequate Anger (Vika Kirchenbauer)Dear Chantal (Querida Chantal) (Nicolás Pereda)earthearthearth (Daïchi Saïto)Inner Outer Space (Laida Lertxundi)Polycephaly in D (Michael Robinson)“The red filter is withdrawn.” (Minjung Kim)Train Again (Peter Tscherkassky)Midnight Madness After Blue (Dirty Paradise) (Bertrand Mandico)Dashcam (Rob Savage)Saloum (Jean Luc Herbulot)Titane (Julia Ducournau)You Are Not My Mother (Kate Dolan)Zalava (Arsalan Amiri)TIFF DOCSAttica (Stanley Nelson)Beba (Rebeca Huntt)Becoming Cousteau...

The UK and Ireland-based distributor acquires Cannes’ titles.

UK and Ireland-based distributor Peccadillo Pictures has acquired the rights to French director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Anaïs In Love, Brazilian director Anita Rocha da Silveira’s Medusa, and Clara Sola by Costa Rican and Swedish director Nathalie Álvarez Mesen.

The deals were done with sales outfits BeFor Films, Best Friend Forever and Luxbox respectively.

Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Cannes Critics’ Week selection and Camera d’Or nominated debut film Anaïs In Love, follows a woman as she leaves Paris to move to Brittany for a fast-evolving friendship.

It is produced by Igor Auzépy, Stéphane Demoustier,...

New TIFF Rewind features filmmakers in conversation about memorable selections from the past.

World premieres of Ruth Paxton’s UK horror A Banquet, Agustina San Martín’s Argentinian genre tale To Kill The Beast and Sébastien Pilote’s Canadian period drama Maria Chapdelaine are among Contemporary World Cinema and Discovery selections announced by Toronto International Film festival.

Scroll down for full list of new titles

The festival also unveiled additional Gala and Special Presentations titles, and introduced TIFF Rewind featuring filmmakers in conversation about memorable selections from the past.

Gala screenings include the world premiere of Camille Griffin’s UK...

Paris-based sales agency Luxbox has added sales to the U.K., Australia and Brazil to previous deals with the U.S. and France on Directors’ Fortnight title “Clara Sola,” making good on its upbeat critical reception at the Cannes Festival this month.

London-based Peccadillo Pictures has acquired U.K. rights. Sydney’s Rialto Distribution, has scooped rights to Australia; Brazil’s Imovision, another classic arthouse distributor, has secured those to Brazil. Turkey (Bir Film) and Switzerland (Trigon) have also closed, Luxbox partner Fiorella Morretti told Variety.

At Cannes, Luxbox confirmed that Epicentre had picked up rights to France while Oscilloscope Laboratories swooped on rights to North America after the film’s world premiere.

One of a brace of features from young Latin American female directors selected for Cannes, like Mexican Tatiana Huezo’s “Prayers for the Stolen,” in Un Certain Regard, and Brazilian Anita Rocha da Silveira’s “Medusa,” in Directors’ Fortnight,...

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired Bolivian director Kiro Russo’s “El Gran Movimiento” which will world premiere at Venice in the Horizons section.

“El Gran Movimiento” marks Russo’s follow up to his 2016 feature debut “Dark Skull” which won a prize at Locarno and played at San Sebastian, among other festivals. “Dark Skull” went on to represent Bolivia in the Oscar race.

Set in contemporary Bolivia, the movie follows Elder and his companions who arrive in La Paz after a seven-day walk and seeks to be reinstated in his work at the mine. Once in the city, Elder gets a job but his health starts to deteriorate. An elderly woman known as Mama Pancha connects him to Max, a witch doctor, hermit, and clown, who will try to bring the young man back to life.

The movie is produced by Russo and Pablo Paniagua at Socavón and Alexa Rivero...

Brussels-based sales agency Best Friend Forever has closed a deal for France with ambitious distributor Wayna Pitch on Anita Rocha da Silveira’s “Medusa,” which plays in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

The drama, set in contemporary Brazil, centers on 21-year-old Mariana, who belongs to a world where she must do her utmost to keep up the appearance of a perfect woman. In order to resist temptation, she and her girlfriends try their best to control everything and everyone around them, including those they see as sinners. At night, their girl squad put on masks, hunt and beat up women who they believe have deviated from the righteous path.

Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Rocha da Silveira has written, directed and edited three short films: “The Noon Vampire” (2008), “Handball”, and “The Living Dead”.

Her first feature “Mate-Me Por Favor” (Kill Me Please) (2015) was screened in the...

A group of masked girls go on a night hunt. They are targeting those who break out of the ideal model of a Christian woman who ought be beautiful, undefiled and serve her husband. This is how Anita Rocha da Silveira opens her Medusa, in which a strict Christian morality is at full intensity and Brazil appears as a state of religious authoritarianism.

When one of the girls in the masked militia, 21-year-old Mariana (Mari Oliveira), is wounded during an attempt to lynch an accidental sinner, her belief in these religious values will change dramatically. Against her will, the girl will be pushed beyond the ideal world, in which she no longer fits, having lost her beauty. The hypocrisy of both her friends and the community, requiring young girls to follow a life pattern in which there is no room for individual decisions, becomes more and more apparent. Mariana, however,...

O Kill, All Ye Faithful: Da Silveira Kills the Teen Dream in Capricious Sophomore Film

If there’s anything for certain in approaching Medusa, the extravagantly administered sophomore film from Brazil’s Anita Rocha da Silveira, it’s the director’s delightful penchant for giallo flourishes. Following her similarly dreamy take on young women and violence with 2015’s Kill Me Please, Da Silveira turns on an interesting reversal of “Take Back the Night” with her latest exercise, which is as much a social satire as it is a horror film concerned with the ills of religion and nationalism. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "ioncinema03-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_design = "enhanced_links"; amzn_assoc_asins = "B07RGMR8RH"; amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit"; amzn_assoc_linkid = "0e1abb00ab4010943ce8120ab0c598d8";

Referencing a bevy...

In “Medusa,” the latest film from Brazilian director Anita Rocha da Silveira, the main character and a gang of her female friends don creepy white masks to attack other women in the street whom they deem to be “promiscuous.”

Silveira draws amply from both fictional and real tales of women-on-women violence to portray a snake pit society where religion, toxic masculinity and right-wing politics intertwine in an all-too-familiar fashion.

“Medusa” invokes the most famous depiction of the Gorgon: the Caravaggio painting in which she is emitting a deathly scream, blood spurting from her severed head. However, Medusa is not “scared or terrified,” according to Silveira, but rather “pissed.”

Silveira’s film is about that scream.

“For me, it represents releasing this anger that women have been putting aside for years, for generations. We can release this anger that we have to keep inside because you’re told you can’t speak out loud,...

“Medusa,” the latest film from rocketing Brazilian director Anita Rocha da Silveira, has released a twisted, neon-soaked trailer ahead of its debut at the Cannes Film Festival next week.

Set in contemporary Brazil, “Medusa” tells the story of 21-year old Mariana, who belongs to a world where women must always look perfect. In the trailer, we see her and her girlfriends try their best to control everything and everyone around them, even going to such extreme lengths as beating up women who have deviated from the right path.

“Mariana, I once read that girls’ names starting with the letter M are names of malicious women,” whispers a friend of Mariana’s into her ear in the opening moments.

The trailer, obtained exclusively by Variety, reveals that at night, Mariana and her friends form a vigilante girl squad put on creepy animal masks to hunt down the local girls who have sinned.

The lineup for the 2021 Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) at Cannes has been announced. See also the full lineups of the Official Selection and Critics’ Week.Our MenFEATURE Films A Chiara (Jonas Carpignano): The story of 15-year-old Chiara whose close-knit family falls apart after her father abandons them in Calabria. Chiara starts to investigate to understand why her father disappeared and as she gets closer to the truth, she is forced to decide what kind of future she wants for herself.Ali & Ava (Clio Barnard): Both lonely for different reasons, Ali and Ava meet through their shared affection for Sofia—the child of Ali’s Slovakian tenants, whom Ava teaches. Over a lunar month, sparks fly and a deep connection begins to grow.Between Two Worlds (Emmanuel Carrère)The Braves (Anaïs Volpé)A Brighter Tomorrow (Yassine Qnia)Clara Sola (Nathalie Álvarez Mesen)The Employer and the Employee (Manuel...

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired “Medusa,” a timely drama directed by rising Brazilian helmer Anita Rocha da Silveira. The film will world premiere at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.

“Medusa” marks Da Silveira’s follow up to her critically acclaimed feature debut “Kill me Please” which premiered at Venice in 2015 and went on to play at SXSW and New Directors/New Films, among other festivals. Da Silveira was previously at Directors’ Fortnight with her 2012 short “The Living Dead.”

Set in contemporary Brazil, “Medusa” tells the story of 21-year old Mariana, who belongs to a world where women must always look perfect. She and her girlfriends try their best to control everything and everyone around them, and that includes beating up women who have deviated from the right path. At night, their vigilante girl squad put on masks and hunt down the sinners.

“Medusa” is headlined by newcomers, including Mari Oliveira (“Kill me Please”), Lara Tremouroux,...

The lineup for the Cannes Directors Fortnight was revealed on Tuesday, featuring new films by Clio Barnard, Joanna Hogg and Alice Rohrwacher. Of the 24 films selected for the lineup, exactly half have at least one woman director.

The 12 of 24 films in the Cannes Directors Fortnight, which is the independent arm of the Cannes Film Festival kicking off next month, dwarfs the number of female directors in the Cannes main competition lineup, in which only four of the 24 selected movies were directed by women. However, some of the movies for the Directors Fortnight feature women as co-directors, so 12 of 29 of the total directors are women.

The Directors Fortnight will host a special screening of Hogg’s “The Souvenir Part 1,” as “Part 2” will be playing in competition. Other notable films include “A Night of Knowing Nothing,” the first feature by actress Payal Kapadia, and “Hit the Road,” another debut feature by Panah Panahi,...

On the heels of yesterday’s announcement of the Cannes Critics’ Week lineup, now comes confirmation of the 25 movies that will screen in the festival’s other prestigious sidebar section, Directors’ Fortnight. The lineup includes eight debut features, including “Hit the Road” by Jafar Panahi’s son, Panah Panahi. Directors’ Fortnight 2021 opens with Emmanuel Carrère’s “Between Two Worlds,” starring Juliette Binoche as an author experiencing job insecurity. Other notable titles include “A Chiara,” the latest movie from “Mediterranea” and “A Ciambra” director Jonas Carpignano.

Perhaps the biggest draw for U.S. audiences will be the world premiere of Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir Part II,” starring Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Charlie Heaton, Harris Dickinson, and Joe Alwyn. The film is executive produced by Martin Scorsese, who is also an executive producer on Fortnight title “Murina” (directed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović). Hogg’s original “The Souvenir” was one...

A full picture of the Cannes Film Festival is now coming into focus with the unveiling of the Directors’ Fortnight lineup. Following the Official Selection and the Critics’ Week lineups, this sidebar features Joanna Hogg’s highly-anticipated sequel The Souvenir Part II, as well as new films by Miguel Gomes, Jonas Carpignano, Clio Barnard, Pietro Marcello, Alice Rohrwacher, Matías Piñeiro, and more.

See below.

Features

A Chiara (Jonas Carpignano)

Ali & Ava (Clio Barnard)

Between Two Worlds (Emmanuel Carrère)

The Braves (Anaïs Volpé)

A Brighter Tomorrow (Yassine Qnia)

Clara Sola (Nathalie Álvarez Mesen)

The Employer and the Employee (Manuel Nieto)

Europa (Haider Rashid)

Futura

Întregalde (Radu Muntean)

The Hill where Lionesses Roar (Luàna Bajrami)

Hit the Road (Panah Panahi)

Magnetic Beats (Vincent Cardona)

Medusa (Anita Rocha da Silveira)

Murina (Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović)

Neptune Frost

A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)

Our Men (Rachel Lang)

Returning to Reims (Fragments) (Jean-Gabriel Périot...

The Directors’ Fortnight parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival has unveiled its lineup for the 2021 edition which runs from July 7-17. Scroll down for the full list.

Fortnight chief Paolo Moretti, who took over the reins in 2019, presented the roster from the Forum des Images in Paris, saying, “After a very painful year for everyone, we are happy to present a selection of discovery.” Out of 24 features, 22 filmmakers are showing their films for first time at Cannes. Half of the films this year are directed or co-directed by women including Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava; documentary Futura from Alice Rohrwacher, Pietro Marcello and Francesco Munzi; and Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir: Part II with Tilda Swinton and Richard Ayoade.

There are eight debut features in the lineup, including Jadde Khaki (Hit the Road), the first film from Jafar Panahi’s son Panah Panahi, and Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s Murina...

Parallel Cannes section will unveil 24 new films.

Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava and Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II will be among the 24 features world premiering in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, running July 7-17 this year.

The non-competitive Cannes parallel section, overseen by French directors guild the Société des Réalisateurs (Srf), has unveiled an eclectic 2021 line-up of new films by established directors and emerging talent at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (June 8).

Scroll down for the full selection

UK directors Barnard and Hogg were hotly tipped for Cannes 2020 until the main festival and parallel selections were cancelled due to the pandemic.