News

Brainstorm Media has acquired North American rights to Tolga Karaçelik’s “Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer.” The dark comedy, which stars Steve Buscemi, premiered at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival where it won an Audience Award. It will be released in cinemas and on VOD in April.

The movie is about a struggling writer. In the midst of a divorce, he befriends a retired serial killer, who becomes his marriage counselor by day, and killing counselor for his next book by night. The film is Karaçelik’s English-language directorial and screenwriting debut. In addition to Buscemi, it co-stars John Magaro (“Past Lives”) and Britt Lower (“Severance”).

“Tolga Karacelik has crafted a film full of twists and turns (and an all-star cast) that will keep people on the edge of their seat throughout,” Michelle Shwarzstein, Brainstorm Media CEO, said in a statement.

Production has officially begun on Tolga Karacelik‘s fourth feature film. Following 2018’s Sundance/Rotterdam preemed Butterflies – winner of the Grand Jury Prize (Ruben Östlund was part of the trio), the Turkish filmmaker (and Sundance habitual) is ow venturing onto the streets of New York City with Steve Buscemi as either the lead or supporting player who is possibly in the writer’s seat. Originally titled The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write about a Serial Killer, the dramedy received some Co-Production Development Fund coin back in 2020. The film is produced by a team that consists of Wren Arthur, Scott Aharoni, Mustafa Kaymak, Sinan Eczacibasi and Özge Bulut Marasli.…...

“Golda” director Guy Nattiv has joined the Oscar-shortlisted short film “The Criminals” as executive producer.

Written and directed by Serhat Karaaslan, a Kurdish director from Turkey, the film centers on a young couple in a small Turkish town looking for privacy. Shortlisted in the live-action short category for the 2022 awards, the film uses genre to discuss the way an oppressive society pushes its civilians to police each other, ultimately turning sex into a subversive act.

“The Criminals” is produced by Laure Dahout through her French production company Tiresias Films. The film world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020, where it won the Short Film Special Jury Award. Since then, it has garnered over 90 selections and more than 40 awards. It was nominated for a César award on Wednesday.

Nattiv, the director of the upcoming Helen Mirren-led biopic about Golda Meir, is now lending his bona fides to the film.

Exclusive: Colman Domingo is executive producing Scott Aharoni and Dennis Latos’ short Leylak.

The short, shot during the pandemic, follows an immigrant gravedigger, a frontline worker, who buries his pain in order to shelter his daughter from an unspeakable loss but learns that the only way forward is together.

Also joining The Candyman and Fear the Walking Dead actor as EP is is Oscar nominated filmmaker Doug Roland, whose film Feeling Through was nominated for Best Live Action Short at the 93rd Academy Awards.

Leylak made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Prize, going on to garner top awards at such international film festivals as Galway Film Fleadh in Ireland, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, Port Townsend Film Festival, Leiden International Film Festival, Tacoma Film Festival, New York Shorts International Film Festival, and many more.

Domingo said,...

Two years ago, Suzanne Andrews Correa and Mustafa Kaymak were making final preparations to shoot “Green,” a heartrending story about two brothers who must contend with the possibility of deportation and endure the physical and emotional pain of racial violence.

But casting on the short film, a finalist in TheWrap’s ShortList film festival, proved to be an unexpected challenge — but for reasons out of their control. In an on-the-nose turn of events, one of the lead actors — Erol Afsin, a German citizen of Turkish descent who plays the title character — was initially denied a visa to the U.S. because he had visited one of the Muslim-majority countries that were targeted by the administration’s immigration ban. It wasn’t until the day before the shoot began that Andrews Correa knew whether Afsin could come to the U.S. for the film.

Still, finding actors who shared the...

The semifinalists have been named for the 13th annual NBCUniversal Short Film Festival, which celebrates diverse stories in a search for the next generation of storytellers.

Chosen from more than 3,400 submissions, the semifinalists feature stories about people of ethnically diverse backgrounds, the Lgbtq community, and women. Of the 15 projects that made the cut this year, 11 are directed and/or directed by women, topping 2017’s record inclusion rate, and about half feature stories centered on female protagonists.

“In a time where female storytellers are powerfully calling on the industry for more opportunities and recognition, it is fitting that our Short Film Festival has set a new record for female writers and directors represented in our semifinal shorts,” said Karen Horne, Svp programming talent development & inclusion at NBC Entertainment. “I’m proud that our festival not only puts more female storytellers into the spotlight but also features an array of impactful shorts about diverse people.