News

Jane Campion, Richard Linklater, Radu Jude and Ali Abbasi are among the advisors and special guests taking part in the 2025 Oxbelly screenwriting and literary retreat in Greece.

The event takes place on June 28–July 6 at Costa Navarino in Messinia and includes programs for writers working in film and literary fiction.

Golden Bear-winner Jude leads the screenwriters program – for writers working on their second features - with eight fellows selected this year. The full list of screenwriting fellows is below.

Other advisors or guests taking part include directors Annemarie Jacir and Kleber Mendonça Filho, and UK producer Tanya Seghatchian.

The lab...

Jane Campion, Richard Linklater, Radu Jude and Ali Abbasi are among the advisors and special guests taking part in the 2025 Oxbelly screenwriting and literary retreat in Greece.

The event takes place on June 28–July 6 at Costa Navarino in Messinia and includes programs for writers working in film and literary fiction.

Golden Bear-winner Jude leads the screenwriters program – for writers working on their second features - with eight fellows selected this year. The full list of screenwriting fellows is below.

Other advisors or guests taking part include directors Annemarie Jacir and Kleber Mendonça Filho, and UK producer Tanya Seghatchian.

The lab...

Exclusive: New Europe Film Sales has unveiled a fresh raft of deals for Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason’s family drama The Love That Remains, which world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The Warsaw-based company has sold the movie to Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Germany (Plaion), Japan (Gaga), Turkey (Filmarti), Czech Republic (Aerofilms), Ex-Yugoslavia (Megacom), Portugal (Alambique), Indonesia (Falcon) and Ukraine (Kyiv Music Film).

These sales follow previously announced deals to the UK (Curzon), North America (Janus) and France (Jour2Fête).

The Love That Remains follows a family as it navigates the parents’ separation, amid conflicted emotions around life-long bonds, faded love and shared life memories.

The drama is Pálmason’s fourth feature after Winter Brothers (2017), A White, White Day (2019) and Denmark-set missionary drama Godland (2022), which premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard and went on to be Oscar nominated.

The film world premiered in the non-competitive Cannes Premiere section, but clinched...

Exclusive: A year after it won Cannes’ Critics’ Week Next Step top prize at project stage, Chinese filmmaker Zou Jing’s debut feature A Girl Unknownhas begun filming and Pyramide has scooped it up for French distribution and global sales.

The film is headlined by rising actress Li Gengxi who stars in Bi Gan’s 2025 Cannes competition entry Resurrection.

A Girl Unknown follows the tumultuous life of a young Chinese woman who lives with three different families and changes her name each time, as she navigates her identity over the years.

The China-France co-production is produced by Wang Yang of Memoria Films,...

Exclusive: Curzon has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Hlynur Palmason’s The Love That Remains.

The film will launch in Cannes Premiere on Sunday, May 18.

The Love That Remains captures the year in the life of a family as the parents navigate their separation. Saga Garðarsdóttir and Sverrir Gudnason lead the cast, alongside Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Þorgils Hlynsson, Grímur Hlynsson, Anders Mossling and Ingvar Sigurðsson.

Anton Mani Svansson of Iceland’s Still Vivid and Katrin Pors of Denmark’s Snowglobe produced the film. Co-producers are are Mikkel Jersin and Eva Jakobsen at Snowglobe, Nima Yousefi at Sweden’s Hobab, Didar Domehri...

Stars: Federico Luppi, Claudio Brook, Ron Perlman, Tamara Shanath, Margarita Isabel, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Farnesio de Bernal | Written and Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos is a striking debut that foreshadows the filmmaker’s signature blend of horror, fantasy, and emotional depth. Though often overlooked in favour of his later works like Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) or The Shape of Water (2017), Cronos is a vital piece of his filmography, demonstrating his fascination with monsters, morality, and the intersection of beauty and decay.

At its core, Cronos is a vampire film, but unlike conventional entries in the genre, it eschews many of the traditional tropes. The film tells the story of Jesús Gris (Federico Luppi), an elderly antique dealer who stumbles upon a mysterious golden device hidden inside an ancient statue. This device—the Cronos mechanism—contains an insect-like creature that grants its user eternal youth but at a terrible cost.

Exclusive: New Europe Film Sales has boarded Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason’s upcoming feature The Love That Remains, his latest work after Oscar-shortlisted work Godland.

The sales acquisition sees the Warsaw-based company team once again with Icelandic production company Still Vivid and Denmark’s Snowglobe.

The new feature that was shot in Eastern Iceland under-the-radar and is due to be completed in 2025. According to the official description, the drama “tenderly captures a year in the life of a family as the parents navigate their separation. Through both playful and heartfelt moments, the film portrays the bittersweet essence of faded love and shared memories amidst the changing seasons.

New Europe will commence sales on the movie at the Berlinale’s European Film Market in February. Prior to that, the team behind the film will present first clips to attendees of Göteborg Nordic Film Market at the end of this month.

The...

Raoul Peck’s winner of the Cannes documentary prize Ernest Cole: Lost And Found is to be released in the UK and Ireland by Dogwoof.

The documentary distribution and sales specialist is eyeing a theatrical release towards the end of the year, ahead of the 2025 awards season. France’s mk2 Films represents international sales.

Ernest Cole: Lost And Found premiered in special screenings at Cannes and won the L’OEil d’Or prize jointly with Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir’s The Brink Of Dreams. It charts the life of Ernest Cole, a South African photographer who was the...

There’s a new diet trend with sinister intentions, courtesy of Jessica Hausner’s latest dark comedy “Club Zero.”

The film, which premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, stars Mia Wasikowska as a nefarious teacher who encourages her students to stop eating altogether. The reason? Other than weight loss and pseudo-environmental concerns, it’s a tactic to gain new cult members.

“Club Zero” competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes before going on to become a Best Picture nominee at both the Sitges and Munich International Film Festivals.

The official synopsis reads: “At an international boarding school, an unassuming yet rigorous Miss Novak (Wasikowska) joins the teaching staff to instruct a new class on ‘conscious eating.’ Her impressionable teenage students each have their own reasons for joining the class – to improve fitness, reduce their carbon footprint, or get extra credit. Although early lectures focus on mindful consumption, Miss Novak...

This year’s Pitch Point includes new projects from Nir Bergman, Yona Rozenkier, Hadar Morag.

Jerusalem Film Festival has confirmed the Industry Days programme for its 40th-anniversary edition, including the 10 projects for its Pitch Point Competition for Israeli co-production features.

The Industry Days will run from July 13-15, and will also include the final pitching event of the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab on July 14.

Scroll down for the full list of Pitch Point projects.

Pitch Point pitches will run on July 13, to a jury presided over by Arte Cinema France’s Olivier Pere, and including Beta Cinema’s Thorsten Ritter,...

Jerusalem Film Fest Unveils 2023 Industry Program

Nir Bergman and Yona Rozenkier will be among the Israeli filmmakers presenting new projects at the Jerusalem Film Fest’s Pitch Point event this year. The annual meeting connecting Israeli directors with international partners is one pole of the festival’s Jerusalem Industry Days, running July 13 to 15. Jurors will be Olivier Père (Arte Cinema France), Thorsten Ritter (Beta Cinema), Kevin Chan (Mubi) and Claudia Solano (The Match Factory), alongside Helge Albers and producer Yael Fogiel (Les Films du Poisson). The Industry Days will also host the final pitching session for the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab. Other highlights include a focus on Austria, accompanied by Austrian Films’ Anne Laurent-Delage and Emilie Dauptain and producers Antonin Svoboda (coop99), Oliver Neumann (FreibeuterFilm), Sabine Gruber (Golden Girls) and Barbara Pichler (Kgp Filmproduktion). Filmmakers Sebastian Meise,...

‘Triangle of Sadness’ Directed by Ruben Östlund;Ruben Östlund, Cannes Competition, Palme d’Or WinnerWhat a production! I have not seen ‘Triangle of Sadness’ yet. I want to, though it was not on the top of my list during Cannes this year. Looking at the credits, I am wondering what it took to get this produced.

IMDb synopsis of this film: A cruise for the super-rich sinks thus leaving survivors, including a fashion model celebrity couple, trapped on an island.

I could ask a few of my friends about their involvement in its production, e.g., Jim Stark, Micah Green, Philippe Bober, Lizzie Francke, Mike Goodridge…I wonder what they would tell me. Or I could guess…which is what I am doing here as a subject of this blog.

Philippe Bober: Coproduction Office is the international sales agent for the film. But the company is also, as the name suggests, a coproducer and Philippe usually takes a strong part in the development of the project as well as representing it for licensing to territories. In this case (I have to repeat that have not seen the film, but based upon what I have only heard said), I would guess that he did not do much with the development because when he does, the project is in no way formulaic; I have heard this film has traces of Ostland’s previous film, The Square, which then makes it more prosaic. Bober’s hand in film always makes the film unique.

And Philippe usually works with younger budding talent or else hardcore art house filmmakers. However, as international sales agent, perhaps some presales by him to territories helped finance the film. I am unsure that was necessary because the director Ruben Ostlund is so well known and accoladed already that I would think the money might come from other more well established sources. You can see the companies involved and get an idea of funding.

That’s where I would guess Micah Greene would enter the picture. At 30Westhe is not only producing and is best friends with the US distributor, Neon, one of the top U.S. films distributors today, but he comes from the most prestigious CAA where he was in charge of international financing for their films. He was and is still on top and deserves every good thing that comes his way. A mensch. Lizzie Francke is a true producer, has done horror and comes from the roots of arthouse films from U.K. She is now Editor-at-Large at the BFI Film Fund now. There certainly is a need for such a UK partner. Is there a need for more? Mike Goodridge, founder of the brand new production company Good Chaos, is also there. Aside from producing, Mike has worn many hats, beginning as a journalist and heading up the L.A. office at Screen International, heading up Protagonist a top U.K. international sales agency as well as a production company, heading up Beijing (?) Film Festival, all around professional and all around good guy.

Olivier Père, former head along with (now Tribeca’s Frederic Boyer) looks like he is involved in every current production these days… Check out his credits in IMDb:

La grande magie (co-producer) (post-production)

2022Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (producer)

2022Pacifiction (co-producer)

2022More Than Ever (co-producer)

2022Triangle of Sadness (co-producer)

2022Brother and Sister (co-producer)

2022Corsage (co-producer)

2022One Fine Morning (co-producer)

2022Les Harkis (co-producer)

And last but not least, Jim Stark, another with an eye, like Philippe Bober, for cutting edge talent and stories, has made 17 films as exec producer, producer, associate producer or co-producer just since 2018. That is almost four films a year! For those who might remember, he also discovered and produced for Jim Jarmusch on his first five films starting with Down by Law in 1986, done just after we all witnessed ourselves transported by Stranger Than Paradise at the New York Film Festival, the year Jim and I met and I began buying his films for Lorimar and Republic.

The Owner (executive producer) (filming)

Inside (executive producer) (post-production)

2022Triangle of Sadness (executive producer)

2021El camino de Sol (associate producer)

2021The Middle Man (executive producer)

2021/IVAlma (co-producer)

2021Prayers for the Stolen (producer)

2020Treasure City (producer)

2020The 11th Green (executive producer)

2019Not Not Jazz (Documentary) (producer)

2019Echo (co-producer)

2019The Whistlers (associate producer)

2019One Taxi Ride (Documentary) (executive producer)

2019The Operative (associate producer)

2018Our Time (associate producer)

2018Birds of Passage (co-producer)

2018/IIAdam (producer)

___

Five is not a bad number of women represented on a list of 31 producers, coproducers, associate produces, executive producers and line producers…that’s almost 20 . But the list still sounds to me like an old boys’ list and I wonder if they all got back a good share of the budget. We all know movies never make money, but the above and below the line members do. What was the budget? Was this everyone’s reward for all the times they do not get paid because they are making art built into the budget?

Or am I just being cynical? Hollywood stunts don’t surprise me but what does surprise me is that it also won the top prize in Cannes. These producers are all-round good guys who are also good business men, and networking is crucial to this business. It’s nice to see them all together; this roster is very impressive.

Writing for young talent, I would say: This is a list of acquaintances you should aspire to have, study their credits, speak to them about their projects when you meet them. But, also remember to network yourself within your own circle. This list is of people who have all known each other many years, wearing many different coats and hats. So will you if you heed these words: Network and know who you are meeting and why you are meeting them as you go through your festival circuit(s) with your dreams of making the films that will change the world, then when you reach their age, you will also be poised to profit from all your work.

‘Triangle of Sadness’ produced by:

Brina Elizabeta Blaz…executive producer

Philippe Bober…producer

Julio Chavezmontes…co-producer

Alessandro Del Vigna…executive producer

Lizzie Francke…executive producer

Dan Friedkin…executive producer

Ryan Friedkin…executive producer

Rose Garnett…executive producer

Mike Goodridge…co-producer

Micah Green…executive producer

Faruk Guven…co-producer

Per Damgaard Hansen…co-producer

Erik Hemmendorff…producer

Giorgos Karnavas…co-producer

Konstantinos Kontovrakis…co-producer

Clemens Köstlin…co-producer

Jovan Marjanovic…associate producer

Mouns Overgaard…pre-production: line producer

Marina Perales Marhuenda…co-producer

Mirsad Purivatra…associate producer

Olivier Père…co-producer

Andreas Roald…executive producer

James Benjamin Shannon…executive producer

Danae Spathara…line producer: Greece

Jim Stark…executive producer

Daniel Steinman…executive producer

Bradley Thomas…executive producer

Zahra Waldeck…line producer: Sweden

Pierre Wallon…line producer: Greece

Dan Wechsler…executive producer

Jamal Zeinal Zade…executive producer

And, just for the record, if you look at the IMDb list of production companies (rather than people) involved, you will see this is a giant of a coproduction involving private and public companies, TV stations and international film funds:

Production CompaniesImperative Entertainment (presents)Film i Väst (in association with)BBC Films (in association with)30West (in association with)Plattform Produktion (production)Essential Filmproduktion GmbH (co-production)Coproduction Office (co-production)Sveriges Television (Svt) (co-production)Zdf/Arte (co-production)Arte France Cinéma (co-production)Trt (co-production)Svenska Filminstitutet (Sfi) (support)Eurimages (support)Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (support)Det Danske Filminstitut (support)Moin — Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein (support)British Film Institute (BFI) (support)Nordisk Film (participation)Arte France (participation)Canal+ (participation)Ciné+ (participation)Heretic (in association with)Bord Cadre Films (in association with)Sovereign Films (II) (in association with)Piano (in association)

And finally, since the return on the investment, theoretically, comes from the final sources of revenues, the consumer, it is worth knowing what streamers receive, that that information is the hardest to get. Second to that is the monies paid to the Isa (international sales agents) though sales to distributors. Here are the distributors as listed in IMDb and Cinando, two sources of such information which do not always list the same information:

Distributors as listed on IMDb:Sf Studios (2022) (Sweden) (theatrical)Vertigo Média Kft. (2022) (Hungary) (theatrical)Bac Films (2022) (France) (theatrical)Avalon (2022) (Spain) (all media)Elastica (2022) (Spain) (all media)Front Row Filmed Entertainment (2022) (United Arab Emirates) (all media) (Middle East, North Africa and Iran)Neon (USA) (all media)Vertigo Média Kft. (2022) (Hungary) (all media)

Distributors as listed on Cinando and not on IMDb:

Benelux, Surinam, Dutch Antilles — September Film Distribution Belgium, Theatrical, TV, DVD-video, VOD, Airline

Baltics — Filmstop Ou, Theatrical, TV, VOD

Italy — Teodora Film, Theatrical, TV, DVD-video, VOD, Airline

South Korea — Green Narae Media Co., Ltd., Theatrical, TV, DVD-video, VOD

Lithuania — A-one Films Baltic, Theatrical, TV, DVD-video, VOD, Airline

Poland — Gutek Film Ltd, Theatrical, TV, DVD-video, VOD

Romania — Independenta Film, Theatrical, TV, DVD-video, VOD

Serbia — Five Stars Film Distribution

Singapore — Anticipate Pictures, Theatrical, TV, DVD-video, VOD

Slovenia, territories of former Yugoslavia — Demiurg — Cvetka Flakus, S.P., Theatrical, TV, DVD-video, VOD

Switzerland — Xenix Filmdistribution Gmbh, Theatrical, TV, DVD-video, VOD, Airline

Turkey — Filmarti Film, Theatrical, TV, DVD-video, VOD...

Johnson stars in David Leitch’s Bullet Train, which opened the festival.

This year’s edition of the Locarno Film Festival (August 3-13), the second one under the artistic direction of Giona Nazzaro, kicked off Wednesday evening with the presentation of the Davide Campari excellence award to the UK actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson before the screening of his latest film, David Leitch’s Bullet Train, which sees him starring opposite Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock.

In his speech, the 32-year-old Kick-Ass, Anna Karenina and Nocturnal Animals star said that he was “incredibly grateful for this opportunity and the acknowledgment of what...

Willem Dafoe and Michael Weber among creative advisors helping artistic director Athina Rachel Tsangari.

Thirteen projects from promising filmmakers selected for the Oxbelly Screenwriters and Directors Labs received guidance from mentors such as actor Willem Dafoe, Arte France’s Olivier Pere and The Match Factory founder Michael Weber when they took place in Greece from May 29-June 5.

The Labs were held in Costa Navarino under the artistic direction of Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari, whose credits include Chevalier and Trigonometry.

The Labs offer international filmmakers the opportunity to work on their first or second feature script, as well as workshop...

Streamer and distributor Mubi has acquired Ali Abbasi’s Cannes Film Festival competition title “Holy Spider” for the U.K., Ireland, Latin America (excluding Mexico) and Malaysia.

The film will be released theatrically followed by an exclusive Mubi streaming release.

The film follows family man Saeed as he embarks on his own religious quest — to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral and corrupt street prostitutes. After murdering several women, he grows ever more desperate about the lack of public interest in his divine mission.

It stars Mehdi Bajestani, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Arash Ashtiani, Forouzan Jamshidnejad, Alice Rahimi, Sara Fazilat and Sina Parvaneh.

The Variety review of the film praised it for its “laudable instinct for humanizing and dimensionalizing the victims and their families, who are poignantly depicted despite the brevity of their screen time.”

The film has been generating plenty of heat at Cannes. Feminist protestors stormed...

Mubi has acquired rights to Cannes hit Holy Spider for the UK, Ireland, LatAm and Malaysia.

Danish-Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi’s feature, which had its World Premiere in the Main Competition and has been one of the fest’s buzziest titles, follows the true story of family man Saeed, who embarked on a religious quest to “cleanse” the Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral prostitutes.

He is tracked down by a spiky young journalist, desperate to get to the truth.

Director Abbasi is a well respected auteur and his previous feature, Border, won the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes 2018.

Mubi will take rights to the key territories of the UK, Ireland, LatAm and Malaysia, with Utopia having taken U.S. rights several days ago. Wild Bunch International is handling international sales and negotiated the deal with Mubi, which has also picked up Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave and...

Italian-born Moretti was the first non-French national to head any Cannes section.

Paolo Moretti will step down as delegate general of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight after its 2022 edition as part of a move to overhaul the 60-year parallel section, its organisers the French Directors Guild announced on Wednesday.

“The board, elected in September 2021, wishes to thoroughly rethink the Directors’ Fortnight, its name, its singularity and its strategic and militant position. As such, and in order to carry out this new project, it will soon be welcoming a new general delegate,” the Srf said in a statement.

“The Srf salutes the work...

Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Titane” is coming to the U.S. on October 1.

Neon, who nabbed stateside acquisition rights to the Julia Ducournau film back in 2019, made the announcement Friday on Twitter.

The film stars Agathe Rousselle and Vincent Lindon and revolves around a woman who has sex with cars after growing up with a metal plate in her head from a car accident. The body-bending horror also features Garance Marillier, Laïs Salameh, Mara Cisse, Marin Judas, Diong-Kéba Tacu, Myriem Akheddiou, Bertrand Bonello and more.

Without a word of dialogue, the trailer for the movie flashes between harrowing scenes of a body transforming, fire spreading and people dancing.

Variety critic Peter Debruge called the film “lusty” and “dark,” writing that “Titane” is “a daringly queer and undoubtedly controversial ride, resulting in a most uncommon monster movie — a cross between David Cronenberg’s ‘Crash’ and the uterine horrors of Takashi Miike’s ‘Gozu,...

Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud star in the filmmaker's last movie, while upcoming works from Pietro Marcello and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi will also be co-produced by the French-German TV channel. The second Arte France Cinéma selection committee for 2021 (steered by Olivier Père) has opted to co-produce and pre-purchase three projects. Stealing focus among them is Arnaud Desplechin’s Frère et soeur, starring Marion Cotillard (who previously toplined Ismaël’s Ghosts) and Melvil Poupaud (who also featured in A Christmas Tale). The story revolves around a brother and sister who are nearing their fifties... Alice is an actress, Louis was a teacher and a poet. They no longer speak to one another and have been avoiding each other for over twenty years, but the death of their parents will force them to cross paths… This feature film is set to be steered by the filmmaker’s usual partner in crime Why Not Productions.

The filmmaker has cast Léa Seydoux and Gaspard Ulliel; the next film by Sophie Letourneur and the feature debut by Emmanuelle Nicot will also be co-produced by the French-German channel. Arte France Cinéma’s (headed up by Olivier Père) first selection committee of 2021 has chosen to get involved in three projects as a co-producer and pre-purchaser. Standing out among them is La bête by Bertrand Bonello, which will be the eighth feature by the filmmaker, following The Pornographer (Cannes Critics’ Week in 2001), On War (Directors’ Fortnight 2008), Tiresia (in competition at Cannes in 2003), House of Tolerance (in competition at Cannes in 2011), Saint Laurent (in competition at Cannes in 2014), Nocturama (in competition at Toronto and at San Sebastian in 2016) and Zombi Child (Directors’ Fortnight 2019). Staged by Les Films du Bélier, La bête will boast a cast including Léa Seydoux and Gaspard Ulliel, and will tell...

La Place d’une autre (The Place of Another)

Director Aurélia Georges promises to be a breakout in 2021 with her third project La Place d’une autre (The Place of Another), produced by Olivier Père of Arte France Cinema and Emmanuel Barraux of 31 Juin Films. The projects stars Lyna Khoudri (Cesar Winner for Most Promising Newcomer in 2020 for Papicha) , Sabine Azema, Maud Wyler and Laurent Poitrenaux. The film is a loose adaptation of the Wilkie Collins novel The New Magdalen, penned by Georges and Maud Ameline. Georges competed in the Acid lineup with her 2007 debut L’Homme qui marche, where she returned with sophomore feature La fille at le fleuve in 2014.…...

Upcoming films by France’s Noémie Lvovsky, Portugal’s Tiago Guedes and Greece’s Alexandros Avranas will also be co-produced by the film arm of the French-German TV network. The fifth 2020 selection committee organised by Arte France Cinéma (under the aegis of Olivier Père) has opted to involve itself in the co-production and pre-purchasing of four projects. Standing tall among these is Les pieds sur Terre by seasoned director André Téchiné, a Curiosa Films production which will unite Louis Garrel and Charlotte Gainsbourg in its cast. The story follows a lieutenant from a contingent of the French army stationed in Mali, who is seriously injured when his armoured vehicle explodes. Repatriated to France and placed in intensive care, he begins a long period of convalescence under his sister’s worried...

Exclusive: This year’s Oxbelly Labs has set creative advisors including directors Maren Ade (Toni Erdmann), Mati Diop (Atlantics), Ulrich Köhler (In My Room) and Lulu Wang (The Farewell), as well as producer-seller Michael Weber, founder of The Match Factory.

The Lab is designer to offer promising international filmmakers the opportunity to work on their first or second feature script, as well as workshop and direct one scene from it, with guidance from industry mentors.

Led by Oxbelly’s artistic director and Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg), the Lab is being hosted online this year.

Returning creative advisors include Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread), Michael Almereyda (Tesla), Ritesh Batra (Photograph), Lisa Cholodenko (Olive Kitteridge), Willem Dafoe (Tommaso), Naomi Foner (Running On Empty), Nick Kroll (Big Mouth), Jeff Nichols (Loving), Olivier Père and Eva Stefani (Manuscript).

The Labs were established...

His appointment follows the sudden departure of previous artistic director Lili Hinstin in September.

Giona A. Nazzaro has been named as Locarno Film Festival’s new artistic director.

He will take up his post officially from January 1, 2021, but will start working immediately alongside Nadia Dresti, who was appointed as the interim head of artistic direction in September and will remain in place until the end of December 2020.

Dresti will also continue to oversee the festival’s industry-focused Locarno Pro programme while the festival looks for a replacement for Valentina Merli, who left after just one edition at the helm to...

Upcoming films from Mia Hansen-Løve, Quentin Dupieux and directing duo Mina Mileva - Vesela Kazakova will also be co-produced by the cinema branch of the Franco-German channel. The 4th selection committee for 2020 of Arte France Cinéma (headed by Olivier Père) has chosen to engage in the co-production and pre-buying of four projects. Standing out among them is Les herbes sèches from Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, winner of Cannes’ Palme d'Or in 2014 with Winter Sleep and awarded several times on the Croisette. The film, set to be shot next year in Turkey and starring Deniz Celiloglu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici, will centre on Samet, a young and single school teacher finishing his mandatory service in an isolated village in Anatolia, while...

New projects by Claire Denis and Asghar Farhadi, the first fiction feature by Alice Diop and a documentary by Régis Sauder will also be co-produced by the cinema branch of the Franco-German channel. The second selection committee for 2020 of Arte France Cinéma (headed by Olivier Père) has chosen to engage in co-production and in pre-buying on five projects. Standing out among them is La Ligne, which will be the third fiction feature from Franco-Swiss director Ursula Meier following Home (Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2008) and Sister (Silver Bear special prize winner at the 2012 Berlinale). For the record, the filmmaker also presented in the Panorama section of the 2018 Berlinale the TV fiction Shock Waves – Diary of My Mind. Written by Ursula Meier together with Stéphanie Blanchoud (who will also be playing the lead role) in collaboration with Antoine Jaccoud and with the participation of Robin Campillo...

The upcoming opus by Albert Serra and the feature debut by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet will also be co-produced by the French-German channel’s film arm. Arte France Cinéma’s first selection committee of 2020 (headed up by Olivier Père) has chosen to get involved in three projects as a co-producer and by means of pre-purchases. Standing out among them is Boy from Heaven, which will be the fourth feature by Swedish director of Egyptian heritage Tarik Saleh, following Metropia (first revealed in the Venice International Film Critics’ Week in 2009), Tommy (2014) and The Nile Hilton Incident. The filmmaker will once again be working with topliner Fares Fares (winner of the 2018 Guldbagge Award for Best Actor for The Nile Hilton Incident and equally...

Upcoming films by Abderrahmane Sissako, Aurélia Georges and Bruno Podalydès will likewise be co-produced by the film subsidiary of the French-German TV channel. The fourth 2019 selection committee of Arte France Cinéma (steered by Olivier Père) has decided to co-produce and pre-purchase four projects. Standing tall amongst these is The Worst Person in the World which will be Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s 5th feature film and which is set to be shot between April and July 2020, with production also in the hands of French group Mk Productions, Norwegian firm Oslo Pictures, Denmark’s Snowglobe and Swedish outfit B-Reel Films.Starring Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie, the film will be set in present-day Oslo. As for the plot, it revolves around Julie, who’s a young and resourceful woman, but still trying to find her way at 30 years of...

The upcoming films by Julia Ducournau, Alain Guiraudie and Lav Diaz will also be co-produced by the Franco-German channel. Arte France Cinéma’s (managed by Olivier Père) third selection committee of 2019 has decided to get involved in the co-production and pre-purchasing of four projects. Standing out among them is Petrov, which will be the 8th feature film from Kirill Serebrennikov after Leto (The Summer) (in competition in Cannes in 2018), The Student, Izmena (in competition in Venice in 2012), Yurev den (in competition in Locarno in 2008), Playing the Victim (winner in Rome in 2006) and Ragin (East of the West at Karlovy Vary in 2005). This time, the filmmaker will be adapting a novel by Alexeï Salnikov and the film will follow a day in the life of a comic book artist and his family, in...

The screenwriting and directing labs run from June 21 – 28 in Greece.

Actor Willem Dafoe, filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, and Venice jury president Lucrecia Martel are among the 16 creative advisors taking part in the 2019 Oxbelly Screenwriters and Directors Lab in Greece, of which Athina Rachel Tsangari is the artistic director.

The Lab, for 10 first or second-time feature directors, is running in Costa Navarino, Greece from July 21-28.

Advisors also include filmmakers Dee Rees, Lisa Cholodenko, Jonas Carpignano and Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, along with executives including Olivier Père, head of Arte France Cinema.

The Lab has been relaunched for this year by Greek...

At Cannes, weather often provides a handy metaphor to assess the state of the market. Two years ago, downpours were an easy visual aid for the gloomy prognosis; this time, the occasional rains never lasted long, but ominous clouds loomed and an eerie chill swept through the air.

That felt about right. Netflix may not have a big presence at the festival after it made a business decision not to attend last year, but streaming platforms became the regular subject of late-night dinner table conversations, with the specter of Disney+, Apple TV+, and many others around the corner.

“The fact is everything is going to change so quickly that in a couple of years we will face a completely different situation in terms of distribution and marketing the films,” said Alberto Barberi, the artistic director of the Venice International Film Festival, from his temporary Cannes office. “It’s very curious.

Tom Mercier in SynonymsNow that the 69th Berlin International Film Festival has concluded it is even easier to see that startlingly few films in the centerpiece competition were able to escape the doldrums of average, straightforward and unsurprising cinema. There was a chance, in the lead-up to the closing ceremony, that the awards would double down on an unforgivably mediocre selection, yet as the festival ended there was a blast of hope that symbolically bodes well for next year, the 70th edition, to be newly headed by Locarno Festival’s former Artistic Director, Carlo Chatrian. German director Angela Schanalec, whose last film The Dreamed Path was at Locarno in 2016, took home the prize for best director for one of the festival’s best films, I Was at Home, But..., in a remarkable gesture of support for an approach to filmmaking that is far away from commercial concerns. And the Golden Bear went to Synonyms,...

Festival will showcase 10 European films online in 45 territories over the month of December.

UK director Deborah Haywood’s Pin Cushion and Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska’s Mug will be among ten European films competing in an expanded third edition of the ArteKino Festival, running Dec 1-31 this year.

The online festival - which is a joint venture between Franco-German broadcaster Arte and Paris-based film professionals platform Festival Scope - lasted 10-days in its first two editions.

“We really wanted to up the festival’s game this year and make it as accessible and attractive to as large a public audience as possible,...

New chief Paolo Moretti replaces Edouard Waintrop who leaves after the 2018 edition of the respected parallel sidebar.

The French Directors Guild (Société des Réalisateurs) has announced the appointment of respected Italian film programmer Paolo Moretti as delegate general of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, replacing its current head Edouard Waintrop who will step down after this year’s edition.

Moretti, who was selected by the Srf board after three-round recruitment process, will take up the role in November 2018.“The Srf put their full confidence in him to write a new chapter in the history of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight,” said the directors guild in a statement.

Since joining Arte France Cinema in 2013, producer Olivier Père has become a prolific fixture on the Croisette. Making a bow in Un Certain Regard as co-producer of Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake and Claire Denis’ Bastards, Père has quickly assumed a formidable position as one of the most notable names associated with projects by world renowned auteurs.

Continue reading...

Line-up includes Edinburgh victor Suntan, The Death Of Louis Xiv and César winner Fatima.

Franco-German broadcaster Arte and Paris-based digital film platform Festival Scope have launched the first edition of a new pan-European, online film festival called Artekino.

Arte has been developing the festival for more than a year-and-a-half, working closely with key partner Festival Scope — which has a long history of overseeing online distribution for festivals and cross-border audiences — as well as international sales agents in the region.

“Arte wanted to promote European cinema in a new way beyond what we already do through our channels and co-productions, putting the emphasis on independent, auteur cinema to spotlight new trends, new talents and even emerging territories,” Olivier Père, managing director of Arte France Cinéma, explained to Screen. “It’s the first festival of its kind focused only on European cinema.”

He added the initiative was also in keeping with Arte’s ambition to expand its digital activities...

Festival consultants to include James Schamus, Olivier Père, Huang Jianxin and Michael J. Werner.

The inaugural International Film Festival and Awards Macao (Iffam, Dec 8 – 13), spearheaded by former Venice and Rome chief Marco Mueller, will have a strong but not exclusive focus on genre titles, the festival has announced.

The event will include a number of gala and red carpet screenings, with a competition strand and special focus sections alongside an industry screening programme, masterclasses, education initiatives and a co-production event.

The festival’s screening programme will encompass the following strands:

• Competition – 10 to 12 new international films to be judged by a jury of five film professionals

• Out of Competition / Gala – a selection of 6 of the most important works from the latter half of the year

• Hidden Dragons – 6 films representing the latest trends in contemporary Asian genre cinema

• Best of Fest Panorama – 5 or 6 award-winning feature films from major international festivals

• Crossfire – 12 non-East Asian, non-us genre films...

Last year, the three-part, six-hours-and-twenty-two minutes long epic Arabian Nights by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes rejected a slot in the Cannes Film Festival’s second-rung Un Certain Regard section, opting instead to be premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs ), taking place in the same French Riviera city at the same time. Why wasn’t Arabian Nights in Cannes’ official competition? Gomes’ previous film, Tabu, won two prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival, finished 2nd Sight & Sound’s and Cinema Scope’s polls of the best films of 2012, 10th in the Village Voice’s, and 11th in both Film Comment’s and Indiewire’s; he was exactly the kind of rising art-house star who should have been competing in the most prominent part of the official festival. But organizers balked at the idea of offering such a lengthy film a slot in competition where two or three others could be chosen,...

Arte France Cinéma’s Director General Olivier Père dropped development news on future French cinema offerings with three new projects that will be supported by the entity. Thierry de Peretti will be directing Une vie violente (produced by Les Films Velvet) and The Secret of the Grain actress Hafsia Herzi will make her directorial debut with Bonnes Mères — she’ll see Quat’sous Films’ Abdellatif Kechiche on board as producer. And the focus of our interest here is: the cast and project info on Serge Bozon‘s fifth feature film. Scoring a career high with Tip Top, there are some creative pairings who’ll be doing some reuniting on Bozon’s Madame Hyde. Bozon reteams with scribe Axelle Ropert and Isabelle Huppert Tip Top, while the actress reteams with Valley of Love co-star Gérard Depardieu. Romain Duris also joins the Films Pelléas production.

Gist: Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s...

Exclusive: Drama from the Russian Ark director scores pre-sales ahead of Venice world premiere.

Aleksandr Sokurov’s anticipated historical drama Francofonia, which shot largely in the Louvre Museum, has recorded a string of pre-sales for Films Boutique ahead of the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival (Sept 2-12).

Among territories closed for Russian Ark director Sokurov’s anticipated first feature since 2011 Golden Lion-winner Faust are France (Sophie Dulac Distribution), Germany (Piffl Medien), Italy (Academy Two), Benelux (Contact Two), Japan (Kino Films) and Switzerland (Look Now!).

Sokurov’s French-German-Dutch co-production will combine narrative drama with archive material.

The reflection on art and power opens in occupied Paris in 1940 with the meeting between German officer Count Franz Wolff-Metternich - overseer of France’s art collection during the war - and Louvre director Jacques Jaujard.

Wolff-Metternich was sent by Adolf Hitler to repossess the museum’s invaluable collection, but according to Jaujard’s diary, the aristocrat...

Exclusive: Drama from the Russian Ark director scores pre-sales ahead of Venice world premiere.

Aleksandr Sokurov’s anticipated historical drama Francofonia, which shot largely in the Louvre Museum, has recorded a string of pre-sales for Films Boutique ahead of the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival (Sept 2-12).

Among territories closed for Russian Ark director Sokurov’s anticipated first feature since 2011 Golden Lion-winner Faust are France (Sophie Dulac Distribution), Germany (Piffl Medien), Italy (Academy Two), Benelux (Contact Two), Japan (Kino Films) and Switzerland (Look Now!).

Sokurov’s French-German-Dutch co-production will combine narrative drama with archive material.

The reflection on art and power opens in occupied Paris in 1940 with the meeting between German officer Count Franz Wolff-Metternich - overseer of France’s art collection during the war - and Louvre director Jacques Jaujard.

Wolff-Metternich was sent by Adolf Hitler to repossess the museum’s invaluable collection, but according to Jaujard’s diary, the aristocrat...

Filmmaker to give masterclass ahead of French theatrical release of Nymphomaniac Directors’ Cut.

Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier may not be headed to the Croisette this year but he will be touching down in France in May nonetheless for a masterclass at the Cinemathèque Française.

The special event on May 4 will tie in with the French theatrical release of Nymphomaniac Volume I and Volume II: Extended Director’s Cut by Les Films du Losange on May 6.

The distributor confirmed that it will be Von Trier’s first official visit to France since the “painful episode” at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011, at which he made an ill-judged joke about being a Nazi during the press conference for Melancholia.

The episode led to him being temporarily declared “persona non grata” by the festival as well as a French police investigation into whether he violated a law on war crime denial.

The charges were dropped six months later and Cannes...

Francofonia: Le Louvre Under German Occupation

Director: Aleksandr Sokurov // Writers: Alexei Jankowski, Aleksandr Sokurov

Russian auteur Aleksandr Sokurov is perhaps best known for his cinematic feat, Russian Ark (2002), an entire film that consists of one elaborate take. A career that began in the late 70s, Sokurov is one of the most prolific directors to emerge from Russia over the past several decades, delivering a series of masterpieces such as 1997’s Mother and Son, and most recently his zany rendition of Faust (2011), which took home the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. He’s back with Francofonia: Le Louvre Under German Occupation, and is rumored to be a companion piece to Russian Ark in that Sokurov’s filming within the actual Louvre leading us to assume the film will exist solely within that space.

Cast: Not available.

Producer: Zero One Film’s Olivier Père

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available.

Release...

John Waters and Edgar Wright have listed their top ten films of 2014 and the avalanche of nominations and awards has begun to rumble. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Interviews with Michael Haneke, Barry Gifford (Wild at Heart), Harmony Korine, Marion Cotillard and Chris Rock. Reviews of James Benning's Farocki and Shirley Clarke's Portrait of Jason and Ornette: Made in America. And Arte programmer Olivier Père reports on a visit he paid this summer to the set of Philippe Garrel's L’Ombre des femmes. » - David Hudson...

John Waters and Edgar Wright have listed their top ten films of 2014 and the avalanche of nominations and awards has begun to rumble. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Interviews with Michael Haneke, Barry Gifford (Wild at Heart), Harmony Korine, Marion Cotillard and Chris Rock. Reviews of James Benning's Farocki and Shirley Clarke's Portrait of Jason and Ornette: Made in America. And Arte programmer Olivier Père reports on a visit he paid this summer to the set of Philippe Garrel's L’Ombre des femmes. » - David Hudson...

Frank Darabont, Michael Shamberg, Pietro Scalia Set For Zurich Master Classes

The Zurich Film Festival today announced this year’s headliners for its Master Class series. Instructors will include writer-director Frank Darabont; producer Michael Shamberg; editor Pietro Scalia, producer Greg Shapiro (The Hurt Locker), screenwriter Asghar Farhadi; director Daniel Espinosa, director Benh Zeitlin (Beasts Of The Southern Wild) and UTA’s David Flynn. Additionally producer Jerry Weintraub will lead a session as well as receive a career achievement award. Espinosa, Shamberg and Scalia also will be on the fest’s fiction jury of which Darabont will serve as president. Richard Gere will receive the fest’s Golden Icon award and John Travolta will be honored with the Golden Eye award at the...