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In a sign of a new ebullience in Spain’s film industry, Spain’s Elamedia Estudios, founded by Roberto Butragueño is launching Sideral, an integrated production-distribution-sales label which makes its debut presenting at the Berlinale Co-Production Market the feature project “Cheaper Than Stealing.”

Titles Sideral handles either in international sales, production or distribution take in “In the Sultan’s Bedchamber,” from San Sebastian best director winner Javier Rebollo (“Woman Without Piano”), a Sideral production; “The Fantastic Golem,” Affairs” from hot Spanish duo Burning Percebes, which it sells abroad, and “I Have Electric Dreams,” Costa Rican Valerie Maurel’s Locarno best director, actor and actress winner.

Underscoring its status as a new force on Spain’s movie scene, Sideral has confirmed 22 production, distribution or sales titles.

“From several years back, Elamedia has been backing many titles. Now we’re ramping up production and domestic distribution and want to create a brand which is identifiable,...

Petites Review — Petites (2022) Film Review from the 75th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Julie Lerat-Gersant, starring Romane Bohringer, Lauréna Thellier, Pili Groyne, Victoire Du Bois, Bilel Chegrani, and Wood Victory. The denial of medical care is a human rights violation, full stop, yet conservatives and misogynists alike still love to split [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Petites: A Complex Look At Reproductive Rights and Unplanned Motherhood [Locarno 2022]...

In its first full-on post-pandemic edition, Locarno roared back into action as an industry hub over Aug. 3-9, smashing attendance records with delegates at industry arm Locarno Pro soaring from 2019’s prior record of 1,040 to 1,300.

That reflects the year-round work of festival artistic director Giona Nazzaro and industry head Markus Duffner at Locarno Pro, building on foundations laid by Nadia Dresti over 2010-19. Sky rocketing attendance also says much about the state of the international film industry as it is is rocked by titanic sea change propelled by global, regional and local streaming platforms. Following, 10 takes on Locarno as its turns its final bend towards Aug. 13’s awards announcement.

Latest Deals

A score or more of new deals announced since Sunday in exclusivity to Variety:

*Germany’s Pluto Film has been in negotiations with several theatrical distributors on Locarno Piazza Grande title “Semret,” ahead of its world premiere on Aug.

Italy’s Satine Film has picked up Julie Lerat-Gersant’s Locarno Film Festival title “Little Ones” about teen pregnancy, Variety has learned in Locarno. In the past, the company has also released such titles as “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and Golden Bear winner “There Is No Evil.”

“We aim to discover and introduce visionary and courageous cinematographic voices from all over the world,” said Claudia Bedogni, Satine Film’s founder and managing director.

“The film struck me with its gentle but secure narration and captivating, emotional performances. It’s one of these rare gems where you feel tremendous empathy for the characters as if you were there with them, sharing the same sorrows and dilemmas,” she added. The company is hoping to encourage young audiences to watch the film. “We have done the same with Stéphane Demoustier’s ‘The Girl With a Bracelet,’ also acquired in Locarno, and it...

Brussels-based sales company Be For Films has picked up international sales rights to two world premiere titles at the upcoming 75th Locarno Film Festival: Delphine Lehericey’s Piazza Grande entry “Last Dance” and Julie Lerat-Gersant’s Cineasti del Presente player “Little Ones.”

Lehericey’s third film, the dramedy “Last Dance,” is a Switzerland-Belgium co-production, teaming Lausanne-based Box Productions with Brussels’ Need Productions.

The film follows Germain, an introspective retiree who abruptly becomes a widower at 75. Suddenly, he finds himself at the heart of a contemporary dance company’s newest work, honoring a promise he made to his departed wife.

The film stars French actor François Berléand, Spanish-born choreographer, dancer and visual artist La Ribot, Kacey Mottet-Klein, Jean-Benoît Ugeux and Sabine Timoteo.

“Last Dance” is produced by Box Productions’ Elena Tatti, the producer of Lehericey’s previous features “Puppy Love” and “Beyond the Horizon” a best film and screenplay winner at the 2020 Grand Prix Swiss Award.

Ten world premieres among 17 international competition titles.

The Locarno Film Festival (August 3-13) has revealed the line-up for its 75th edition, which includes the world premiere of Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov’s Fairytale.

The international competition will comprise 17 films, including 10 world premieres, which will vie for the coveted Golden Leopard awards.

Scroll down for full line-up

These titles include Fairytale, a Belgium-Russia co-production written and directed by Sokurov, whose films have played in Competition at Cannes five times with features including Russian Ark in 2002. His debut The Lonely Voice Of a Man received the Bronze Leopard in Locarno in 1987.

The...

Returning for its milestone 75th edition, Locarno Film Festival has now unveiled its full lineup. Taking place from August 3 through 13th, the selection includes Helena Wittmann’s Human Flowers of Flesh, Jean-Paul Civeyrac’s Une femme de notre temps, Aleksandr Sokurov’s Fairytale, Patricia Mazuy’s Bowling Saturne, Abbas Fahdel’s Tales of the Purple House, Ana Vaz’s It Is Night In America, Leon Prudovsky’s My Neighbor Adolf, a massive Douglas Sirk retrospective, and much more.

“The selection of films that we have put together, after watching and appraising over 3,000 titles (of every length and format), is intended to be the mark of a time and of a cinema in motion,” Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro said. “A historic time that is moving in multiple directions simultaneously, and a cinema that is probing the issues facing the world, and how to live in it re- sponsibly, sustainably. The...

The Locarno Film Festival has announced the full line-up and juries for its 75th edition, which is due to unfold August 3-13.

The festival will get a starry kick-off on August 3 with the international festival premiere of David Leitch’s action-comedy Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt alongside an ensemble cast featuring Joey King, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Sandra Bullock, Hiroyuki Sanada, Andrew Koji and Benito A Martínez Ocasio.

The film will be given a gala screening in the festival’s trademark 8,000-seat, open-air Piazza Grande arena.

Other titles due to get a splash on the Piazza Grande include Laurie Anderson’s Home Of The Brave, U.K. director Thomas Hardiman’s Medusa Deluxe and German director Kilian Riedhof’s French-language drama You Will Not Have My Hate, based on the memoir of a man on how he and his son coped following the death of his wife in the 2015 Bataclan terror attack.