News

Full list of 15 projects from emerging filmmakers seeking completion funding revealed.

Bulgarian director Stephan Komandarev’s drama project Made In EU and Egyptian Ahmed Fawzi Saleh’s Hamlet From The Slums are among 15 projects selected for the 2022 L’Atelier co-production forum, set to be held during the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Part of Cannes’ Cinefondation film development initiative, L’Atelier was launched in 2005 to support emerging filmmakers, from newcomers to high-profile names, who are offered expert advice and the opportunity to meet potential co-production partners and funding sources during the festival.

This year’s projects include Made In EU, a...

Back in 2009, James Cameron's ethereal vision propelled "Avatar" into becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time. An unforgettable moviegoing experience, the film was teeming with technological firsts which attributed to its success. The immersive world of Pandora, along with its otherworldly scenery, flora, and fauna, as well as the 3D graphics on the silver screen, ensured that "Avatar" would climb to the top of the charts everywhere.

The epic sci-fi film follows humans struggling with a severe energy crisis on Earth after having depleted the planet's natural resources. In an attempt to mine the valuable mineral unobtanium, they...

The post The Real Forest That Inspired Avatar's Pandora appeared first on /Film.

Things like drinking games and “RiffTrax” were invented for movies like “In the Forest,” which are very bad but need a little participatory help to become so-bad-they’re-good. This quasi-horror tale of bickering vacationers running afoul of disturbed locals strings together various well-worn clichés with a notable lack of suspense, plausibility and style, while excelling in the realm of characters behaving like complete idiots. Simultaneous with streaming-platforms release on Jan. 28, Vertical Entertainment is opening Hector Barron’s feature on a couple dozen screens nationwide. That might normally seem a modest number, but in this particular case it represents a considerable leap of faith.

Among the bad ideas enthusiastically embraced straight off here is making our ostensible protagonists as irritating as possible. Senior Stan (Lyman Ward) is piloting the Rv as he drives middle-aged daughter Helen (Debbon Ayer) and her young-adult offspring Emily (Cristina Spruell) on a camping vacation intended to...

Paris-based MPM Premium is bringing onto the market “Eami,” the latest film from Paraguay’s Paz Encina whose debut “Hamaca Paraguay” won a Cannes Un Certain Regard Fipresci Prize.

A timely ecological fable and tale of the pain of exile, “Eami” will be presented to select buyers in person at Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur this week as well as online by MPM Premium’s Quentin Worthington.

He used 2020’s Ventana Sur market to unveil “The Pink Cloud,” from Brazil’s Iuli Gerbase, which went on to become a hit at this year’s Sundance Festival.

It would not be surprising if “Eami” figures at a significant festival in early 2021. Encina’s third feature, after 2006’s “Hamaca Paraguaya” and 2016 doc “Memory Exercises,” “Eami” delivers full immersion in the worldview mindset, forest and tragedy of Eami, aged 5, a member of the Ayoreo Totobiegosode community whose homeland is invaded by white hired-hands intent...

Films include Emerald Fennell’s ‘Promising Young Woman’ and Blerta Basholli’s ‘Hive’.

More films than ever before are eligible for this year’s European Film Awards’ feature film and documentary film selection, with 40 feature films and 15 documentary films, and further feature film titles to be revealed in September.

Titles in the feature film selection include Blerta Basholli’s Sundance hit Hive and Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman. The latter is eligible despite being listed as a film of US origin. The European Film Academy (Efa) told Screen this was because the film reaches the number of points in...

An epic love story will not be taking flight at ABC.

The network has officially scrapped its fairytale drama from Once Upon a Time creators Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis.

The cast of the potential series was set to be led by Brittany O’Grady (Little Voice), who played cynical princess Luna, and Eleanor Fanyinka (Holby City), who played a mysterious character known as The Seer.

Modern Family's Sarah Hyland was also set to appear in the project as a princess named Rose.

O'Grady was set to be the lead as Luna, with it being revealed that the character is changed by a broken heart.

She does not believe in love stories, but “she is about to find herself caught in the most epic one of all — her own.”

Epic was described as “a romantic anthology series set in the fairytale universe of Disney… taking place in a Disney-like Enchanted Forest.

A new TV series will chart the rise and fall of Finnish cell phone company Nokia.

Rabbit Films has begun production on “Mobile 1.0” (working title), a six-part scripted drama that explores the meteoric rise of Nokia to become the world’s leading manufacturer of mobile phones before a dramatic fall from grace.

The Finnish and English-language series, shot in Finland and the U.S., will launch in early 2022 on Scandinavian streamer C More, with a linear premiere to follow on MTV3. C More has also picked up the first-window VOD rights for the Nordic and Baltic regions. Rabbit Films is handling international distribution.

“Mobile 1.0” is the first account of the Finnish electronics company’s expansion from a small business into a global player in the mobile phone industry, beating huge established brands. The first season will focus on the years 1988-1990, when technology for mobile phones was in its infancy.

A fairytale drama of epic proportions is brewing at ABC.

Brittany O'Grady has landed the lead role of Luna in the network's pilot, Epic, which comes from Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis (Once Upon a Time).

Deadline first reported the news, revealing that Luna is a princess changed by a broken heart.

She does not believe in love stories, but “she is about to find herself caught in the most epic one of all — her own.”

It's an intriguing hook, but we should make one thing clear:

This is not a Once Upon a Time spinoff. It's a standalone series that will put a new spin on classic Disney fairytales.

The cast also includes Eleanor Fanyinka, who is set to play a character named The Seer.

Epic is described as “a romantic anthology series set in the fairytale universe of Disney… taking place in a Disney-like Enchanted Forest.”

Also on...

‘Forest – I See You Everywhere’ and ‘What Do We See When We Look At The Sky?’ also rated by critics panel.

Petite Maman, the latest film from Girlhood and Portrait Of A Lady On Fire director Céline Sciamma, has scored consistent marks on the Screen jury grid for an average of 2.6.

Petite Maman received no scores lower than a two (average), although that was its modal score with four critics making that choice.

It did receive one four (excellent) from The Morning Star’s Rita Di Santo; and currently sits in fifth place with three of the 15 films still to score.

‘Forest – I See You Everywhere’ and ‘What Do We See When We Look At The Sky?’ also land.

Petite Maman, the latest film from Girlhood and Portrait Of A Lady On Fire director Céline Sciamma, has scored consistent marks on the Screen jury grid for an average of 2.6.

Petite Maman received no scores lower than a two (average), although that was its modal score with four critics making that choice.

It did receive one four (excellent) from The Morning Star’s Rita Di Santo; and currently sits in fifth place with three of the 15 films still to score.

Sciamma’s film centres on eight-year-old Nelly,...

For the first time ever, two Hungarian films are competing for the Berlinale’s Golden Bear: “Forest – I See You Everywhere,” a standalone sequel to the 2003 Berlinale hit “Forest,” from veteran auteur Bence Fliegauf, and “Natural Light” from feature debutant Dénes Nagy. Csaba Káel, chairman of the National Film Institute of Hungary (Nfi), says, “I believe it demonstrates the vitality and strength of the Hungarian industry flourishing despite the unprecedented circumstances caused by the pandemic worldwide.”

The two films represent opposite poles of current Hungarian filmmaking. Brimming with discourse, the independently funded “Forest” tells multiple complex, engaging stories of contemporary life in Hungary. And as he did in his Berlinale-winner “Just the Wind” (2012), Fliegauf creates deep empathy for his characters who deliver standout performances.

On the other hand, “Natural Light,” with its minimal dialogue, harks back to an older tradition in Hungarian cinema where stunning cinematography leads the other formal elements.

Hungarian auteur Bence Fliegauf made a head-turning debut in 2003 with his microbudget portmanteau drama “Forest,” which strung together a series of intensely performed two-hander vignettes depicting relationships in various forms of crisis. As a collection of miniatures, it promised intriguing things from Fliegauf, once given a larger canvas to work with — a promise largely fulfilled by such variously ambitious, unusual works as his Eva Green-starring sci-fi oddity “Womb,” the shattering massacre study “Just the Wind” and the mournful, reality-blurring mood piece “Lily Lane.”

In returning to the formal and thematic terrain of “Forest” for a standalone spiritual sequel, however, the director has taken an odd step backwards. Intermittently impressive on a granular level, “Forest – I See You Everywhere” is another claustrophobic collage of human dysfunction, jumping between heady themes of grief, abuse and retribution — though it never exceeds the sum of its many parts, lacking its predecessor’s vital shock of the new.

Produced by Fraktál Film and M&m Film, and sold by Films Boutique, the Hungarian director’s most recent opus will see him sail into the Berlinale for the 4th time. After scooping the Grand Jury Prize in Berlin 2012 courtesy of Just The Wind, having appeared in the German festival’s Forum section with Forest in 2003 when he was taking his first steps in film, and later with his more recent opus Lily Lane in 2016, Bence Fliegauf is set to battle it out for the Golden Bear for the second time in his career by way of Forest - I See You Everywhere (Rengeteg - mindenhol látlak), which is scheduled to enjoy its world premiere in the 71st Berlinale’s Industry Event (running 1 – 5 March). This is the 7th full-length film offered up by the Hungarian director whose body of work includes the multi-award-winning work from 2004 Dealer, the...

An arthouse-orientated Berlin line-up could ultimately reveal some pleasant surprises.

“Apprehension” was the word used by artistic director Carlo Chatrian to describe the mood of the films at the Berlinale 2021. Given the precarious state of the world this pandemic midwinter, that’s possibly the best we could expect as he announced the titles under the gaze of the festival’s stern, bespectacled black bear..

But there was a sense of resilience as well. Chatrian and his co-chief, the festival’s managing director Mariette Rissenbeek, have responded to lockdown constraints with their second selection planted firmly in the European arthouse. It...

Pity this year’s Oscar voters. The Academy screening portal is already overwhelmed by hundreds of indie wannabes, international submissions, and documentaries. And just when film festivals, critics groups, and online screenings started to solidify frontrunners like “One Night in Miami,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “Nomadland,” this crazy year brings a second wave of brand-new movies.

More titles will screen in the weeks before the February 28 Oscar eligibility deadline. Some were caught in the uncertainty of releasing during a pandemic, as distributors kept pushing back for a proper theatrical release that never came. Others were pressing toward completion.

Since fresh entries often surge to the front of voters’ minds, last-second bids can be successful (see: Clint Eastwood with Oscar-winners like “American Sniper” and “Million Dollar Baby”). This year, these titles could see another advantage: When people can’t gather, there’s no word of mouth and that makes 2021 the least-predictable award season.

Pity this year’s Oscar voters. The Academy screening portal is already overwhelmed by hundreds of indie wannabes, international submissions, and documentaries. And just when film festivals, critics groups, and online screenings started to solidify frontrunners like “One Night in Miami,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “Nomadland,” this crazy year brings a second wave of brand-new movies.

More titles will screen in the weeks before the February 28 Oscar eligibility deadline. Some were caught in the uncertainty of releasing during a pandemic, as distributors kept pushing back for a proper theatrical release that never came. Others were pressing toward completion.

Since fresh entries often surge to the front of voters’ minds, last-second bids can be successful (see: Clint Eastwood with Oscar-winners like “American Sniper” and “Million Dollar Baby”). This year, these titles could see another advantage: When people can’t gather, there’s no word of mouth and that makes 2021 the least-predictable award season.

by Eric Blume

Yesterday, Variety leaked word that STX will provide a late-entry film into the Oscar race.  The Mauritanian, which was formerly titled Prisoner 760 (going from one bad title to another), is The Last King of Scotland director Kevin Macdonald's latest film.  It stars A Prophet's leading man Tahir Rahim as a tortured captive in Guatanamo Bay and Jodie Foster as his lawyer. Variety critic Clayton Davis claims that Rahim and Foster deliver electrifying performances, and that they could find themselves in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress races, respectively.

Macdonald has had a bit of an erratic career since he directed Forest Whittaker to an Oscar back in 2006.  His last film, the documentary Whitney, profiled the singer with limited depth but curiosity and sympathy.  It'll be good to see him return to the arena of global politics, which seems to be his strength...

Following complaints by disability rights advocates, Warners issued a statement, regarding their feature "The Witches", starring Anne Hathaway ("The Dark Knight Rises") as the 'Grand High Witch', now streaming on HBO Max: 

...We the filmmakers and Warner Bros. Pictures are deeply saddened to learn that our depiction of the fictional characters in 'The Witches' could upset people with disabilities, and regret any offense caused.

"In adapting the original story, we worked with designers and artists to come up with a new interpretation of the 'cat-like' claws that are described in the book. 

"It was never the intention for viewers to feel that the fantastical, non-human creatures were meant to represent them. This film is about the power of kindness and friendship. 

"It is our hope that families and children can enjoy the film and embrace this empowering, love-filled theme..."

"The Witches", directed by Robert Zemeckis of "Back To The Future" and "Forest Gump" fame,...

In today’s Global Bulletin, Atresmedia commissions a Spanish version of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Steve McQueen’s “Lovers Rock” trailer drops, Lightbox will produced a three-part docu-series about Sophie Toscan du Plantier for Netflix, Hardcash announces a new coronavirus doc for ITV, and the Seville and Zagreb festivals announce their 2020 winners.

Format

¡Hola Hola Hola! Media company World of Wonder is teaming with Spanish broadcaster Atresmedia and production company Buendía Estudios on “Drag Race Spain,” a new Spanish version of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” for Atresmedia’s SVOD platform Atresplayer Premium. The Spanish update adds to the list of previous format deals in Thailand, Chile, Canada, Netherlands, and “RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K.,” recently renewed for a second and third season.

Passion Distribution brokered the deal with Atresmedia and will distribute internationally, including an exclusive deal with Wow Presents Plus in the U.S., U.K and internationally, which will...

Finance conference addresses producing without completion bond, low-budget films with huge profit potential.

A post-Covid world will be like “the roaring twenty-ones” for content creators, a veteran producer told an AFM finance conference panel on Wednesday (November 11).

Brad Krevoy, the CEO of Motion Picture Corporation Of America whose personal producer credits include the Dumb And Dumber franchise, said content will come back strong and noted that ad-supported VoD will be key.

“That is going to give life to us for many years,” said Krevoy. “AVOD will be the ship we all ride on for a while.”

Cinetic Media founder John Sloss,...

"The Witches", directed by Robert Zemeckis of "Back To The Future" and "Forest Gump" fame, adapts author Roald Dahl's 1983 novel, starring Anne Hathaway ("The Dark Knight Rises") as  the 'Grand High Witch', streaming October 22, 2020 on HBO Max:

"...in "The Witches'. a young boy goes to live with his Norwegian grandmother after his parents are lost in a car accident.   "The boy loves all his grandmother's stories, but enthralled by the one about 'witches', which she says are horrific creatures who seek to kill humans. She tells him how to recognize them, and that she herself is a retired 'witch hunter'.

"As specified in the parents' will, the boy and his grandmother return to England to live in an inherited house. But the grandmother warns the boy to be on guard, since English witches are among the most vicious in the world.

"The grandmother also reveals witches in different countries...

The nominations for the 35th Independent Spirit Awards have been announced, and it was a big morning for “The Lighthouse” and “Uncut Gems.” The annual indie awards ceremony is presented by Film Independent and takes place the day before the Academy Awards on the beach in Santa Monica, California. The Spirit Awards have become known over the last decade for showcasing nominees that are a mix of underdog films and higher-profile awards contenders.

It’s important to note the Indie Spirit Awards has a budget ceiling of $22.5 million, meaning any movie made for more than this amount is ineligible for nominations. For this reason, Martin Scorsese’s Netflix-backed “The Irishman” was not eligible for 2020 nominations (the film had a budget north of $150 million). Netflix’s other top Oscar contender, Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” is eligible for Spirit Awards and landed a Best Feature nomination. As has become common over the last several years,...

Universal Pictures has let another trailer for Cats out of the bag, and nothing, I mean nothing, can prepare you for all the feline frivolity that ensues. The upcoming musical based on the award-winning musical from Andrew Lloyd Webber is about to get its first feature film adaptation thanks to Tom Hooper (Les MISÉRABLES), and I don't know whether I should be grateful…...

Infinite Fest is a monthly column by festival programmer and film critic Eric Allen Hatch, author of the “Why I Am Hopeful” article for Filmmaker Magazine, tackling the state of cinema as expressed by North American film festivals.Suns CinemaIndependent film—true, actual, literal independent film production, the narrow interlocking strata of the art form that drift untrammeled atop the massive bedrock of corporate curation—isn’t only a subculture, but is also in a state of confusion. Seemingly in defiance of the homogenizing pressure the internet applies on all other aspects of society, the film landscape looks quite different from city to city. Many of those differences speak to population size and resources, but others sprout from resilient regional taste, individual initiative, and old-fashioned scene-building centered around activity from a key filmmaker, curator, organization, and/or venue. Time and time again, today’s cinema brings me back to one...

The 72nd Cannes Film Festival will get underway next month and today Thierry Frémaux has unveiled the lineup. Some festival alums will return, including Terrence Malick, who last came to Cannes with his Palme d’Or winner The Tree of Life and will now debut his three-hour-long A Hidden Life (formerly known as Radegund). Also returning is Jim Jarmusch, Dardennes, Bong Joon-ho, Arnaud Desplechin, Pedro Almodóvar, Corneliu Porumboiu, Ken Loach, Marco Bellocchio, Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Xavier Dolan.

In competition this year are a number of highly-anticipated from up-and-coming directors as well, including Jessica Hausner’s Amour Fou follow-up Little Joe and Mati Diop’s directorial debut Atlantics. Diao Yinan will also bring his new drama The Wild Goose Lake to competition, along with Ira Sachs’ Isabelle Huppert-led Frankie and Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

In other sections, Bruno Dumont’s sequel Jeanne, Olivier Laxe...

Agnès Varda, the French director who helmed films including La Pointe Courte and Cleo from 5 to 7 and won an Honorary Oscar and multiple Cannes Film Festival awards, died Thursday evening due to complications from cancer. She was 90.

“She was surrounded by her family and friends,” the family said in a statement.

Despite ill health, she was at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where she presented Varda by Agnès and received an award.

From her first film, La Pointe Courte in 1954, Varda’s style reflected elements of what would become the French New Wave although because she preceded that movement her work is more Left Bank in style. Her next feature, Cleo From 5 to 7, was a documentary style look at a singer awaiting results of a biopsy, which foreshadowed Varda’s fascination with human mortality. Her films also tended to focus on women and her subsequent Vagabond examined the investigation...

Jacques Audiard’s dark comedy western won best film and best director.

Jacques Audiard’s dark comedy western The Sisters Brothers, co-starring John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix, won best film and best director at the 24th edition of France’s Lumière awards on Monday evening.

In a third prize for Audiard’s English-language debut, Benoît Debie, who was also nominated for his work on Gaspar Noé’s Climax, won best cinematography.

The Sisters Brothers was a front-runner at the nomination stage alongside comedy of manners Mademoiselle de Joncquières, adoption drama Pupille and Venice-winning divorce drama Custody although there were no stand-out favourites this year.

If a director and composer have success on their first film together, they typically work together again. But it is unprecedented for a composer to score that second project 40 years after the film is shot… and 30-plus years after the director’s death.

That’s what happened with French composer Michel Legrand, who — 44 years after completing the music for Orson Welles’ “F for Fake” — has now written the music for Welles’ long-awaited, finally completed 1970s film “The Other Side of the Wind,” which Netflix is releasing Friday.

“I loved Orson,” the composer, 86, tells Variety by phone from Paris. “I worked with him for almost a year on ‘F for Fake,’ and then he told me he was starting another one. I didn’t hear about that movie for 40 years.” Upon very, very belatedly getting the gig, “I asked myself constantly, ‘How would Orson have reacted?’ The very subject of the...