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In this episode, we discuss cinema as an intense personal drive. Lila Avilés is a Mexican director who debuted in 2018 with La camarista, a film selected for the Toronto, San Sebastian, BFI and Morelia festivals. It was also nominated for the Goya Awards and received nine nominations and one Ariel Award.In 2023, she premiered her second feature film, Totem, as part of the Official Competition at the Berlinale, where it won the Ecumenical Jury Award. Totem was subsequently selected for festivals such as San Sebastian, Toulouse and Telluride. With acute sensitivity, her films expose the vitality, narrative richness and intimacy of minimal universes.On the other hand, Laura Citarella is an Argentine director and producer, co-founder of El Pampero Cine, one of the most prolific production companies in Argentina. Her work has been presented and awarded at festivals such as Rotterdam, Locarno, Venice and Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. She has produced...

Despite the glass-ceiling-smashing success of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, gender parity in the global film sector remains a distant goal. Re-Framing the Picture, a recent study from an international and multidisciplinary research team looking at the German, British and Canadian film industries, projects that, at the current rate of progress, true 50-50 equality in key creative positions won’t be reached until 2041 in Germany, 2085 in the U.K., and 2215 (!) in Canada. It’s not an optimistic forecast for the producers, managers, film executives and talents picked by THR as the most influential women in international cinema, but they continue to find new models to produce, finance and distribute movies that amplify diverse voices. More than ever, it’s their efforts that are required if the promise of a more representative and inclusive film industry is ever to be realized.

Mo Abudu

CEO, EbonyLife Media (Nigeria)

Africa’s production industry was...

Mexican director Lila Avilés, whose meteoric rise on the international stage, with just two feature films, both of which have represented Mexico at the Oscars, is among eight women storytellers selected by Mattel to be immortalized with Barbie dolls in their likeness.

Avilés joins Academy Award-winning actors Helen Mirren and Viola Davis along with Canadian country-pop artist Shania Twain, Australia’s Kylie Minogue, German comedian Enissa Amani, Japanese model Nicole Fujita and Brazilian Indigenous influencer Maira Gomez who have been selected as Barbie role models in honor of International Women’s Day. Their dolls will be one of a kind and not for sale.

Said Mattel in a statement: “Since the brand’s inception, Barbie has helped girls explore their limitless potential through different roles and narratives – from encouraging self-expression through dress-up to playing out any of her 250+ careers. With Barbie by their sides, countless children have been able to...

Life and Death of the Party: Aviles’ Bustling Ensemble Piece Balances Pain & Profundity

Taking place over the course of one frenetic day, Lila Avilés’ sophomore film Tótem plays like the inverse scenario of her celebrated 2018 debut The Chambermaid. Whereas the former dealt with significant class disparities from the perspective of a maid’s experiences at a luxury hotel in Mexico City while trying to obtain her Ged, Aviles’ herds a more intimate cast of eclectic characters in one claustrophobic space where preparations are taking place for a birthday celebration. In short order, it appears the celebration will likely serve as a farewell party for its subject, a twenty-seven-year old artist dying of cancer.…...

A handful of indies bow or expand this weekend as Oscar hopefuls from Poor Things to The Holdovers and American Fiction crowd theaters after nominations earlier this week. Anatomy Of A Fall is getting a big bump. Oppenheimer is back on Imax.

New specialty releases include Daisy Ridley-starring Sometimes I Think About Dying by Rachel Lambert, and Tótem by Lila Avilés. Separately, Sundance has just wrapped up announcing winners from a new crop of independent films.

What we have post Oscar-nomination Tuesday, is this: Searchlight Pictures’ Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos going wide on 2,226 screens, up from 1,400. The film starring Emma Stone had 11 nominations, second only to Oppenheimer. That Christopher Nolan blockbuster summer release from Universal is returning to 750 Imax screens worldwide, including iconic 70mm film theaters. Oppenheimer led all nominees for the 96th Oscars on Tuesday, with 13.

Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction from Amazon MGM Studios moves to 1,500 theaters from 850. Released Dec.

Pressure often mounts on directors with a breakout debut to double down on what made their first feature so acclaimed. Lila Avilés, on the other hand, ran in the opposite direction. Her debut feature, 2019’s The Chambermaid, follows a quiet hotel housekeeper in Mexico City from an austere remove as she strives to improve her station in life. Avilés’s follow-up, Tótem, leans into chaos by capturing the rambunctious energy of a family over a single day as they attempt to prepare for a big celebration.

And yet, the two films, aesthetically different as they may be, feel of a piece with one another. Be it through a claustrophobic close-up or from a sterile long shot, Avilés always brings us into an emotional communion with her characters’ innermost thoughts and desires. She’s comfortable operating within paradoxes, such as the central one at the core of Tótem: the birthday party...

This year’s Palm Springs Film Festival saw not one but two international feature panel discussions hosted by The Hollywood Reporter. The first, moderated by THR’s own Kevin Cassidy, highlighted some of the most exciting non-English-language films of the year.

Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano is Italy’s submission for the Oscar this year and follows two boys on a fairytale-like adventure across continents. The Monk and the Gun, Bhutan’s official selection, is directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji and tells the story of an American treasure hunter who crosses paths with a monk in the Bhutanese mountains. Morocco’s The Mother of All Lies, from Asmae El Moudir, sees the director imaginatively exploring her own family history in tandem with the history of her nation via clay figurines standing in for the real people in her life, who also appear onscreen.

J.A. Bayona helms Society of the Snow,...

Signing on to executive produce “Tótem,” the sophomore feature from writer-director Lila Avilés that was chosen to be Mexico’s submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar, was a no-brainer for Salma Hayek Pinault. “For me, it’s very important to support women, especially if they’re Mexican. And to support talent. And Lila’s talent is rare. It’s special, it’s unique, it’s bold, it’s brave. And also it’s delicate and personal,” said the Academy Award-nominated “Frida” actress during a conversation with IndieWire over Zoom. “I just want the world to feel her through this movie, and to be touched and moved by her talent.”

Premiering at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Ecumenical Jury Prize, “Tótem” is a chamber piece centered on seven-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes) observing her family prepare to throw what she begins to understand to be...

Salma Hayek Pinault has joined José Tamez and Siobhan Flynn, her partners in Ventanarosa Productions, as an executive producer on Tótem, writer-director Lila Avilés’ follow-up to her international breakthrough The Chambermaid, which has been shortlisted as Mexico’s entry for the Best International Feature Oscar.

Poised for release by Sideshow and Janus Films, the companies behind Eo and Drive My Car, the film is set to open in New York theaters on January 26th. It will unspool in Los Angeles on February 2nd and expand nationwide in the weeks to follow.

Named one of the Top 5 International Films of the Year by the National Board of Review, Tótem is told largely from the perspective of 7-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes), as her aunt (Montserrat Marañón) and extended relatives prepare for the birthday party of the girl’s father (Mateo Garcia). As the hours wear on, building to an event both anticipated and dreaded,...

Representing Mexico once more at the Oscars with her second film, “Totem,” Lila Avilés has proven that the critical success of her debut feature, “The Chambermaid,” was not a fluke.

The former actress, who worked in virtually all areas of film production and directed theater before venturing into filmmaking, has been hailed as part of the new wave of female talent shaping Mexican cinema. “Since I was a little girl, I always loved writing, creating my plays. And obviously, I’ve always had a fixation with photography. I hope to hold an exhibition someday, too,” she says.

Aside from racking up a slew of accolades since its world premiere at the Berlinale, “Totem” has been selected by the Independent Spirit Awards as one of five major contenders for its international film category.

Unlike the quiet, almost minimalist “The Chambermaid,” “Totem,” which Avilés also wrote, has a chaotic feel as it...

Among the titles competing for the Golden Bear at the 2023 Berlinale, the sophomore feature by Mexican filmmaker Lila Avilés brims with vitality. It delves into our place among the living, pinching the viewer to reconsider the essence of life and the connections we form and the individuals we impact. Tótem (read review) unfolds through the eyes and ears of a diminutive young protagonist who, like any child, navigates the adult world—a realm that is both inviting and sheltered by protective barriers. And while there is the commonality with her solid feature debut (The Chambermaid) in terms of an unfiltered look at those existing in the peripheries, Avilés expands her vocabulary by working with a template that feels different.…...

The Berlin prize-winner from Lila Aviles has secured a number of international sales.

Mexico has selected Berlin festival prize-winner Totem, written and directed by Lila Avilés, as its submission for this year’s international feature Oscar.

The family drama premiered in competition at this year’s Berlinale and won the Ecumenical Jury Prize. It also screened at the recent Telluride festival and at this week’s San Sebastian festival and is part of the line-up for next week’s BFI London festival.

Since Berlin, Paris-based Alpha Violet has sold the film to distributors including New Wave Films, for the UK and Ireland,...

Mexico has selected the Berlin competition title Tótem, the latest film from Lila Avilés, as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars.

The family drama is Avilés’s second film after the award-winning feature debut The Chambermaid, which debuted in Toronto in 2018 and then traveled the international festival circuit before being selected as Mexico’s Oscar submission.

Tótem stars newcomer Naíma Sentíes as a 7-year-old girl navigating the strange atmosphere of a special surprise party being held for her dying artist father, from whom she herself feels temporarily estranged.

Further cast members include stars Montserrat Marañon (Bardo), Marisol Gasê, Saori Gurza, Mateo García Elizondo, Teresita Sánchez, Francisco Maldonado, Iazua Larios and Alberto Amador. The picture was produced by Tatiana Graullera, Avilés, and Louise Riousse.

After playing Berlin, Tótem made its North American bow at New Directors/New Films and played Telluride earlier this month,...

Mexico’s Teresa Sánchez, winner of a 2022 Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for acting in Juan Pablo González’s “Dos Estaciones,” is set to star in the follow-up, his sophomore outing “Warm Water.”

Co-directed with Ana Isabel Fernández, co-writer of “Dos Estaciones,” “Warm Water” will also star Rafaela Fuentes, who played opposite Sánchez in “Dos Estaciones.”

Set up at Mexico’s Sin Sitio Cine, whose partners are González, Ilana Coleman, Makena Buchanan and Jamie Gonçalves, “Warm Water,” produced by Bruna Haddad and Gonçalves, will be brought onto the market at the San Sebastian Europe-Latin American Co-Production Forum, where it ranks as one of its highest-profile projects.

In development and scheduled to shoot in fall 2024, “Warm Water” turns on Ana María, a renowned actress who, after a devastating break-up, reluctantly travels to the rural countryside in Mexico to lead an acting workshop.

When an enthusiastic participant with whom she...

Picture Tree Intl. has picked up global sales rights to “Gina” (working title), by Ulrike Kofler, which follows her Netflix debut “What We Wanted.”

“Gina” tells the story of a 9-year-old girl longing for a home and family while having to take care of her younger siblings and mother, who is too overwhelmed to take care of herself, let alone her children.

The film, produced by Film Ag, is the second feature by Kofler, who is a long-time editor for Austrian director Marie Kreutzer. Kofler’s editing work includes “Corsage,” which won best film at the London Film Festival and three nominations for the European Film Awards in 2022, “The Ground Beneath My Feet”, and Josef Hader’s “Wild Mouse”.

Kolfer’s directorial debut “What We Wanted,” starring Elyas M’Barek and Lavinia Wilson, was sold by Pti exclusively to Netflix, and was Austria’s official entry for the Academy Awards in...

Alfonso Quijada’s feature follows a young woman gifted with an extraordinary sense of smell. It looks great, but fails to satisfy

This drama from El Salvador has several commendable features, starting with a tender, sympathetic central performance from Laura Osma as Josefina, a sweet young woman who discovers she has an exceptional sense of smell. However, something doesn’t quite smell right about the way the film clumsily layers uplift and violence, served up with excessively stylised visuals and sound. It’s as if writer-director Alfonso Quijada, better known hitherto as an actor and producer, doesn’t know if he wants to make a telenovela-style melodrama or something more elevated and arty – in the tradition of Claudia Llosa’s The Milk of Sorrow or Lila Avilés’s films The Chambermaid and Tótem – with long takes and oblique storytelling strategies. In the end, it fails to satisfy either ambition.

Josefina...

Uruguay-based Agustina Chiarino, one of the drivers of the new Latin American cinema industry and at the forefront of pan-regional co-production, is kicking-off early projects at her recently launched production-distribution company Bocacha Films.

Chiarino attended last week’s Malaga Film Festival edition to present Pablo Solarz’s official section contender comedy “Desperté con un sueño” (“I Woke Up With a Dream”), which she produced at Mutante Cine, the Montevideo-based outfit Chiarino and editor-producer Fernando Epstein co-founded in 2011.

After “I Woke Up With a Dream,” two feature debuts are finishing production stage under the Mutante Cine brand: Vanina Spataro’s “Naufragios,” teaming with Kino Films in Argentina, and Sebastián Peña Escobar’s documentary “The Last” in partnership with Paraguay’s La Babosa Cine.

They will be “the last three movies Mutante Cine will be launching before disbanding,” Chiarino said.

Having produced more than 15 Latin American films, Chiarino is now embarking on a solo project,...

Exclusive: Paris-based Alpha Violet has posted fresh sales on Mexican director Lila Avilés’s family drama Tótem, which world premiered in competition at the Berlinale to acclaim in February.

In new deals, the film has been acquired for Japan (Bitters End), China (Beijing Hugoeast Media), Germany (Piffl Medien), Greece (Cinobo), Poland (New Horizon Associations), Italy (Officine Ubu) and Romania (August Film).

Previously announced deals include to North America (Sideshow and Janus Films), UK (New Wave), Spain (Adso Films), Taiwan (Hooray Films), Benelux (Vedette Film) and Ex-Yugo (McF Megacom Film).

The film was warmly received at Berlin and went on to win the Ecumenical Jury Prize.

It is produced by Tatiana Graullera, Avilés and Louise Riousse.

The movie is the second film from Avilés after award-winning feature debut The Chambermaid, which debuted in Toronto in 2018 and then travelled the international festival circuit before being selected as Mexico’s Oscar submission.

Cast led by newcomer Naíma Sentíes in first role.

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired North American rights to Lila Avilés’ Berlin Competition selection Tótem.

‘Totem’: Berlin Review

The Ecumenical Jury Prize winner follows a family in crisis as a young girl from a large Mexican family prepares for her father’s surprise birthday party.

The cast is led by newcomer Naíma Sentíes in her first role alongside Montserrat Marañon, Marisol Gasê, Saori Gurza, Mateo García Elizondo, Teresita Sánchez, Francisco Maldonado, Iazua Larios and Alberto Amador.

Tatiana Graullera, Avilés and Louise Riousse produced the Limerencia Films, Laterna, Paloma Productions and Alpha Violet production,...

Sideshow & Janus Films have snapped up North American rights for Mexican director Lila Avilés’s family drama Tótem following its world premiere in competition at the Berlinale last week.

The movie is the second film from Avilés after award-winning feature debut The Chambermaid, which debuted in Toronto in 2018 and then travelled the international festival circuit before being selected as Mexico’s Oscar submission.

Tótem stars newcomer Naíma Sentíes as a seven-year-old girl navigating the strange atmosphere of a special surprise party being held for her dying artist father, from whom she herself feels temporarily estranged.

Further cast members include stars Montserrat Marañon (Bardo), Marisol Gasê, Saori Gurza, Mateo García Elizondo, Teresita Sánchez, Francisco Maldonado, Iazua Larios and Alberto Amador.

The picture is produced by Tatiana Graullera, Avilés and Louise Riousse.

“We were fans of Lila Avilés’ The Chambermaid, but we were not prepared for the overwhelming...

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired North American rights to the Berlin-premiering family drama “Tótem,” written and directed by “The Chambermaid” helmer Lila Avilés.

Winner of the festival’s Ecumenical Jury Prize, the film follows seven-year-old Sol, who spends the day at her grandfather’s home, helping her aunts Nuri and Alejandra with the preparations for a surprise party they’re throwing for her father, Tonatiuh, who is terminally ill. However, as night descends, a strange and chaotic atmosphere takes over, shattering the bonds that hold the family together, and Sol will come to understand that her world will change dramatically.

Sideshow and Janus Films are planning a theatrical release later this year.

“Intimate, emotionally rich Berlin competition entry ‘Tótem’ immerses audiences in a boisterous family gathering,” wrote Variety’s Peter DeBruge about the film.

“Tótem” is produced by Tatiana Graullera, Avilés and Louise Riousse. The film introduces young actor...

Tótem, the 2023 Berlinale competition title that amassed solid reviews and eventually won the festival’s Ecumenical Jury Prize, has found a home in North America.

Frequent art house distribution bedfellows Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the feature, from Mexican filmmaker Lila Avilés and the follow-up to The Chambermaid. A theatrical release later this year is planned.

The family drama — produced by Tatiana Graullera, Lila Avilés and Louise Riousse — introduces newcomer Naíma Sentíes in her first role and also stars Montserrat Marañon (Bardo), Marisol Gasê, Saori Gurza, Mateo García Elizondo, Teresita Sánchez (The Chambermaid, Dos Estaciones), Francisco Maldonado, Iazua Larios and Alberto Amador. Tótem follows 7-year-old Sol, who spends the day at her grandfather’s home, helping her aunts Nuri and Alejandra with the preparations for a surprise party they are throwing for her father, Tonatiuh. As daylight fades, a strange and chaotic atmosphere takes over, shattering the bonds that hold the family together.

Naíma Sentíes as Sol in Tótem. Lila Avilés: 'Working with actors is powerful. They are the tribe and it’s only for me to guide them' Photo: Limerencia Taking place over the course of a single day in an extended household, Lila Avilés Tótem explores the different realms inhabited by children and adults - often at the same time. Our guide is little Sol (Naíma Sentíes bringing intensity to her first role), who is preparing for her dad Tona’s (Mateo Garcia) birthday. The preparations alongside her aunts are tinged with melancholy as Tona has cancer and the party also offers an opportunity for his friends to say a last goodbye.

The film had its premiere earlier this week in the main competition at Berlin Film Festival.

Lila Avilés: 'I need freedom to work and I’m a super-freedom girl but I’m also a control freak' Photo: Limerencia...

On the face of it, Lila Avilés' second film doesn’t have much in common with her first - but dig a bit deeper and you’ll find some of the same DNA. The Chambermaid was set within a hotel, with its crisp white bed sheets, daily routines and pecking order, not to mention the negative space that was negotiated by cleaner Eve (Gabriel Cartol). Tótem, on the other hand, occupies the chaotic rooms of an extended household on the day of a party where the idea of any sort of space that isn’t occupied by something or someone feels vaguely absurd.

But what both of these environments have in common is the different worlds they can represent. In The Chambermaid, each door opened not just into a room but into the specific universe of its occupier while in Tótem there are also different worlds at work, but this time they.

The characters of Tótem don’t just appear onscreen; they take it over. From the top there’s the patriarch Roberto (Alberto Amador), who speaks using an electrolarynx and, when not dryly cajoling his flock, enjoys pruning a handsome Bonsai. There are his daughters Alejandra (Marisol Gasé), who we meet mid-phonecall, mid-ciggie, and covered in hair dye, and Nuria (Montserrat Marañon); their children, the young Marthe (Saori Gurza) as well as a gamer and a stroppy teen whose names I lost track of. There is Alejandra’s brother, an artist named Tona (played by the screenwriter Mateo García Elizondo), and his partner Lucia (Iazua Larios), with whom he has a daughter, Sol (Naíma Sentíes). This lively ensemble are joined here and there by a mystic, a party of friends, a cat named Monsi, two dogs, three snails, a parrot, a scorpion, enough plants to fill a modest botanical garden, and a pestering drone.

Mexican writer-director Lila Aviles’ justly acclaimed 2018 debut The Chambermaid unfolded in a fancy Mexico City hotel whose rooms the titular heroine was always striving to clean, perpetually trying to erase the evidence of guests. Her follow-up, Totem, in the main competition at this year’s Berlinale, also unfurls mostly in one large space, but it’s a kind of looking-glass inversion of Chambermaid’s clinical austerity. This time, the environment is not an anonymous hostelry, but a well-loved, thoroughly lived-in family home teeming with relatives, clutter, pets, foodstuffs and memories that drift through the sunlight like dust motes.

Noisy, joyous and as exhausting as the multi-generational bash at the heart of its story, Totem packs a hefty wallop for a film that’s only 95 minutes, and should further solidify Aviles’ reputation as an auteur with a unique vision and remarkable skills with actors, especially non-professionals.

True to her name, eight-...

The family of a young father dying of cancer organise a party for him in this tender story from director Lila Avilés that lacks dramatic weight

There is a beautiful, but for me also rather placid, sadness at the centre of this new movie from Mexican actor-turned-director Lila Avilés, whose 2018 debut The Chambermaid I very much admired, and which I think had more dramatic weight and bite than this followup, heartfelt as it is.

The question arises: what is the “totem” of the title? Is it one of the many objects to which people attach significance here, objects with significance in Mesoamerican history? Or more everyday objects, including a bonsai tree and an elaborately decorated cake? Or is the “totem” the lead character: Tona (Mateo Garcia), a talented young artist dying of cancer? His extended family and friends are throwing Tona a big party at his house, defiantly celebrating his...

With her feature debut, “The Chambermaid,” Mexican writer-director Lila Avilés materialized a graceful character study of a hardworking mother. Though enriched via the meaningful interjections of its supporting players, the narrative had a singular focus. For her follow-up, “Tótem,” Avilés has now confected an intimate ensemble piece from a family’s acts of tenderness as experienced through the sorrowful gaze of a young girl. A luminous and soul-nourishing microcosm built on profound love in the face of impending grief, the film reveals itself in the charged interactions between its multiple characters.

Continue reading ‘Tótem’ Review: Mexican Director Lila Avilés Stuns With A Soul-Nourishing Microcosm Built On Profound Love In The Face Of Grief [Berlin] at The Playlist.

Picture Tree Intl. has taken global sales rights for “The Peacock” by Lutz Heineking Jr. The black comedy is based on the best-selling novel of the same title by German author Isabel Bogdan, which has been published in key European territories. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer (below).

The film’s cast is filled with German stars including Lavinia Wilson, Tom Schilling, David Kross and Jürgen Vogel. Tobis Film releases the film in Germany on March 9.

When investment banker Linda Bachmann and her team arrive at the country estate of Lord and Lady McIntosh for a team building seminar, the prospects for having a relaxing weekend in Scotland are not good: the annual balance sheet is lousy, the team is keeping a suspicious eye on each other and their boss, and there are rumors that a compliance officer will soon be restructuring the department.

To make matters worse,...

Urban love story is the debut feature of the Austrian director.

Screen can reveal the first trailer of Chris Raiber’s First Snow Of Summer, which has just been boarded for international sales by Picture Tree International (Pti).

The urban love story world premieres on Tuesday (January 31) at the Göteborg Film Festival and is the debut feature of the Austrian director.

It’s the story of a young man, Alexander, who is determined never to fall in love until he meets the beautiful and vivacious Caro in her small subway hatter store.

The film’s Austrian cast includes Verena Altenberger...

Urban love story is the debut feature of the Austrian director.

Screen can reveal the first trailer of Chris Raiber’s Snow Of Summer, which has just been boarded for international sales by Picture Tree International (Pti).

The urban love story world premieres on Tuesday (January 31) at the Göteborg Film Festival and is the debut feature of the Austrian director.

It’s the story of a young man, Alexander, who is determined never to fall in love until he meets the beautiful and vivacious Caro in her small subway hatter store.

The film’s Austrian cast includes Verena Altenberger (The...

The film is making its world premiere as the opening film of Ostend Film Festival on January 27.

Screen can reveal the trailer for The Chapel by Oscar-nominated Belgian director and writer Dominique Deruddere, which has just been boarded for international sales by Picture Tree International (Pti).

The Chapel will world premiere as the opening film of the Ostend Film Festival on January 27. Deruddere’s satirical comedy Everybody’s Famous! was nominated for best foreign language film at the 2000 Oscars.

The Chapel will be part of Pti’s Berlinale/EFM slate alongside the recently announced John Malkovich vehicle Seneca – On The Creation Of Earthquakes.

The Berlin International Film Festival unveiled the competition lineup for its 2023 edition on Monday morning, naming the 18 movies that will compete for the coveted Gold and Silver Bears at the 73rd Berlinale.

Berlinale executive director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian presented a very international and arthouse-heavy lineup, with a strong focus on politically-charged cinema.

In a late addition, Superpower, Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman’s documentary on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Russian invasion of the country and the ongoing war, will have its world premiere in Berlin’s out-of-competition Berlinale Special section. The doc, made for Vice Studios, Aldamisa Entertainment and Fifth Season, is being sold internationally by Fifth Season.

Berlin 2023, taking place a year after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, will have a major focus on Ukraine. Even the festival’s official pin will be in the Ukraine colors of blue and yellow.

In competition, German auteur...

Global streamer Starzplay and L.A.-based Spanish-language streaming platform Pantaya have re-teamed with U.K. production-distribution giant Fremantle and the Larraín brothers’ Fabula on sci-fi miniseries “The Shelter” (“El Refugio”).

Starring Alberto Guerra (“La Jauria”) and Ana Claudia Talancón (“Como Caído del Cielo”) and directed by Argentina’s Pablo Fendrik (“El Ardor”), “The Shelter” wraps principal photography this week after 10 weeks of filming in rural areas around Santiago de Chile.

In industry terms, “The Shelter” forms part of a burgeoning axis between like-minded and complementary players in the U.S., Latin America and the U.K. who have been involved in some of the most exciting, relevant and artistically ambitious of recent Spanish-language dramas hitting screens or in the pipeline, whether “La Jauría,” “Señorita 89” – where all four companies partner – or “Express.”

The series captures Fendrik on tremendous TV form after making “Amongst Men” and “The Bronze Garden,” both for HBO Latin America.

Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” swept the 7th Platino Xcaret Awards, winning best Ibero-American film, as well as the best director and screenplay for Almodovar. It also took home three other awards: Original music for Alberto Iglesias, editing for Teresa Font and best actor for Antonio Banderas, Oscar-nominated for his role in Almodóvar’s semi-autobiographical opus.

Relegated to an online announcement by the Covid-19 pandemic, Ibero-America’s most prestigious awards ceremony unveiled the winners on its YouTube channel on Monday, June 29 where Platinos ambassador and CNN Español journalist Juan Carlos Arciniegas teamed up with Mexican actor-comedian Omar Chaparro and Colombian actress-singer Majida Issa to read out the winners.

Enrique Cerezo, president of the Premios Xcaret, said: “We regret that we couldn’t be present on site because of a nightmare we hope to wake up from soon.”

It was a banner year for Spanish productions which went home with...

Following our top 50 films of 2019, we’re sharing personal top 10 lists from our contributors. Check out the latest below and see our complete year-end coverage here.

To paraphrase Drake, “Where should I even really start?” 2019 was a year full of cinematic riches informed by dominant forces of the day: global politics, streaming (with an endless river of tech money), and an increased push across the board to include diverse voices at both festivals and in studios, which has led to more innovative storytelling across the board. Certainly, there is more work to be done but 2019’s global filmmakers went to work reflecting our collective dreams, fears, and anxieties. Streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple TV+ created and distributed content in a kind of arms race that truly benefits consumers.

Streaming and the need for prestige content like The Irishman and Marriage Story (typically the domain of studios or their...

The annual Palm Springs International Film Festival in California is always an opportunity to catch up on many of the contenders for the Best International Feature — née Best Foreign-Language — Film Academy Award. Now in its 31st edition, the festival this year has 51 of them, from favorite-to-beat “Parasite” from South Korea and Senegal’s “Atlantics,” to other films quietly making strides in the race: Czech Republic’s “The Painted Bird,” Sweden’s “And Then We Danced,” Russia’s “Beanpole,” Romania’s “The Whistlers,” North Macedonia’s documentary contender “Honeyland,” Norway’s “Out Stealing Horses,” and many more.

The festival will screen 188 films from 81 countries, including 51 premieres, from January 2-13, 2020. The Awards Buzz section includes a special jury of international film critics, who will review these films to present the Fipresci Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, as well as Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay in this category.

One hundred eighty-eight films films from 81 countries including 51 premieres highlight the lineup for the 31st annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, which kicks off January 2 with a star-studded gala that has become a must-stop during awards season for Oscar hopefuls. The festival, which runs through January 13, also is known for showcasing a large number of submissions in the Motion Picture Academy’s International Film (formerly Foreign Language) competition and will feature 51 of those entries.

The opening-night film on January 3 is the Italian farce An Almost Ordinary Summer, while the closer is director Peter Cattaneo’s heartwarming dramedy Military Wives in which Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan and Jason Flemyng lead a superb ensemble cast. The film had its world premiere at September’s Toronto International Film Festival and became an instant crowd-pleaser. Bleecker Street releases it in 2020.

Among the previously announced honorees at the January 2 gala are Antonio Banderas, Renee Zellweger,...

The 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival will open on Jan. 3 with Simone Godano’s Italian farce “An Almost Ordinary Summer” and close on Jan. 12 with Peter Cattaneo’s Kristin Scott Thomas/Sharon Horgan film “Military Wives,” Psiff organizers announced on Tuesday.

The festival will screen 188 films from 81 different countries, including 51 of the 91 Oscar entries in the Best International Feature Film category. Those films will include Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory,” Ladj Ly’s “Les Miserables,” Karim Ainouz’s “Invisible Life,” Halina Reijn’s “Instinct,” Yaron Zilberman’s “Incitement,” Vaclav Marhoul’s “The Painted Bird,” Kantemir Balagov’s “Beanpole,” Lila Aviles’ “The Chambermaid” and Antoneta Kastrati’s “Zana.”

Other programs will include the Talking Pictures series of conversations with filmmakers and authors from “Hustlers,” “Jojo Rabbit” and “Motherless Brooklyn”; Focus on Italy, featuring seven Italian films including “The Traitor”; Modern Masters, which will present new films from Roy Andersson,...

While we aim to discuss a wide breadth of films each year, few things give us more pleasure than the arrival of bold, new voices. It’s why we venture to festivals and pore over a variety of different features that might bring to light some emerging talent. This year was an especially notable time for new directors making their stamp, and we’re highlighting the handful of 2019 debuts that most impressed us.

Below, one can check out a list spanning a variety of different genres and many are available to stream here. In years to come, take note as these helmers (hopefully) ascend.

Aniara (Pella Kågerman & Hugo Lilja)

The title shares its name with a city-size spacecraft ferrying humans from Earth to Mars in barely three weeks. It’s a routine trip that’s never run into problems with many passengers already having family on the red planet to greet them upon arrival.

Buenos Aires — Paris-based Alpha Violet has acquired international rights to Fernanda Valadez’s feature debut, “Identifying Features,” which world premieres in World Dramatic Competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Announced this week, the Sundance selection comes on top of a Films in Progress Prize at this September’s San Sebastian Festival.

Studying at Mexico’s Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica, (Ccc), Valadez directed the short film “400 Maletas,” that earned nominations for the Student Academy Awards and Mexico’s Ariel Awards.

“Identifying Features” follows a mother searching desperately for her son, who has gone missing en route to the U.S.-Mexico border. Instead, she meets the young Miguel, recently deported from the U.S., who is eager to be reunited with his mother in Mexico, a country he hardly recognizes.

The two strike up a sense of companionship as they wander through a desolate, violence-ravaged townships and landscapes of today’s Mexico,...

Sex in all its permutations dominates this year’s crop of Latin American submissions, whether it be intersex issues in Venezuela’s “Being Impossible,” Bolivia’s homophobia in “Tu Me Manques,” or a transgender’s person’s plight in Panama’s “Everybody Changes.”

“Retablo,” set in a mountaintop hamlet in Peru, is Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio’s nuanced portrait of a young indigenous teen as he struggles with a revelation about his devoted father, exacerbated by the ultra-conservative, religious community they live in.

The Dominican Republic’s Jose Maria Cabral, representing his county for the third time with “The Projectionist,” also dwells on unsettling revelations about parents in the context of a road movie.

Colombian Alejandro Landes’ “Monos” is a breed apart although one of its child soldiers is androgynous in this haunting tropical mash-up of “Apocalypse Now” and “Lord of the Flies.”

Out of the 15 entries this year, four are by women,...

Eight years ago, self-taught Mexican filmmaker Lila Avilés came across a photography book by visual artist Sophie Calle titled “Hotel.” It featured images of the garbage and objects guests left behind at a hotel in Venice, Italy. From these traces of absence, Avilés realized she could construct a profile of the person who once stayed there.

As Avilés considered the people who enter these private spaces, collect the remnants of their lives, and fix them up for the next occupant, these ingredients became the basis for a stage play — and that, in turn, gave way to the screenplay for her first feature, “The Chambermaid,” which she co-wrote with Juan Carlos Marquéz.

The captivating film is now Mexico’s Oscar contender in the newly renamed Best International Feature Film category, after premiering at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival followed by an extensive, globe-trekking festival run. Picked up by Kino Lorber, “The Chambermaid” opened in U.

In today’s film news roundup, Adam Driver is honored, Robocop will be reborn and Hola Mexico Film Festival and The Montalbán Theatre are teaming for a screening series for potential Oscar nominees.

Honors

Sffilm has selected Adam Driver as the recipient of the Sffilm award for acting, formerly the Peter J. Owens Award.

Driver, who received an Oscar nomination this year for “BlacKkKlansman,” will be honored at the organization’s annual fundraising celebration honoring achievement in filmmaking craft on Dec. 3 at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts Exhibition Center. Other honorees are Chinoye Chukwu, Marielle Heller and Lulu Wang.

“There are times when a world-class actor takes over the consciousness of the film-loving audience, and 2019 is the year of Adam Driver,” said Sffilm’s Rachel Rosen. “The range and scope of his work this year is just incredible, from the epic scale of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker...

Mexico’s Morelia Intl. Film Festival (Ficm) and Locarno Academy are hosting the fifth edition of their joint academy for young professionals at this year’s festival, supported by the Mexican Film Institute (Imcine) and the Ibermedia program.

The Morelia/Imcine-Locarno Intl. Industry Academy – it’s official name . counts as one of a series of Academies hosted by the Locarno Film Festival, which takes in Brazil, at the Sao Paulo Iff; in Santiago, Chile– previously in Valdivia; Iff Panama; in Greece at the Thessaloniki Festival; at the Lincoln Center in New York; and in Beirut, Lebanon.

The workshop’s main objective is to support young professionals in the areas of sales, marketing, online and traditional distribution, and exhibition and programming.

With only four days to fit in everything, the Locarno Academy at Morelia is always more sprint than marathon. Attendees arrived Monday and meet from 9am – 6:30pm each day this week.

The long list for the coveted best international picture prize at the British Independent Film Awards includes Cannes Palme d’Or and London Film Festival winners, as well as pictures from Pedro Almodovar, Robert Eggers and Noah Baumbach. Multiple titles that have been submitted to compete for the Oscar for best international feature film are also in the mix.

The long list for the Best International Independent Film at the BIFAs, shared exclusively with Variety, includes Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or-winning “Parasite,” and Alejandro Landes’ child soldier saga “Monos,” which was named best picture at the London Film Festival.

Other titles that launched at Cannes and on the Bifa long list include Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher” and Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory,” which are Germany’s and Spain’s Oscar entries, respectively. Other national entries to the Oscars that are also on the Bifa long list include...

Mexican Oscar-nominated actress Marina de Tavira (“Roma”) is receiving the Premio Cuervo Tradicional, a career recognition award from Morelia Int’l Film Festival (Ficm) sponsor Jose Cuervo Tradicional. The prize ceremony will take place on Saturday, Oct. 19.

The award has been given out for more than 12 years at Ficm to a Mexican actor or actress who has contributed to the national and international film industry. It includes a cash award of over $6,000 towards the completion of any future project.

De Tavira, who stars in competing Mexican film “This is Not Berlin” by Hari Sama, is also among the jurors of the 17th Morelia Int’l Film Festival, which runs October 18-27.

Prior to the award ceremony at the Teatro Ruben Ramiro in Morelia, Jose Cuervo Traditional tequila will be screening its inaugural mini-documentary about the lakeside town of Patzcuaro, which kicks off its docu series on Mexico’s Day of the Dead tradition.

The 28th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (Sliff) — held Nov. 7-17 — provides St. Louis filmgoers with the opportunity to view the finest in world cinema: international films, documentaries, American indies, and shorts that can only be seen on the big screen at the festival. Sliff will screen 389 films: 81 narrative features, 63 documentary features, 227 shorts, and 18 film programs exclusive to the Cinema for Students program. The fest also will feature 12 special-event programs, including our closing-night awards presentation. This year’s festival has 63 countries represented.

Sliff will present our usual array of fest buzz films and Oscar contenders, including “The Apollo,” “Atlantics,” “The Chambermaid,” “Clemency,” “Cunningham,” “A Faithful Man,” “Frankie,” “A Hidden Life,” “Just Mercy,” “The Kill Team,” “Little Joe,” “Marriage Story,” “Nomad,” “Olympic Dreams,” “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” “Premature,” “The Report,” “The Rest,” “Seahorse,” “The Song of Names,” “Sorry We Missed You,” “Synonyms,” “A Tramway in Jerusalem,” “The Traitor,...

A record 93 countries submitted entries in the International Feature Film race at the 2020 Oscars. That is up by six from last year,when the category was still called Best Foreign-Language Film, and eclipses the record 92 submissions in 2018. The nations represented ranged from A (Albania) to V (Vietnam). Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees is made difficult by the two-step process.

First, the several hundred academy members of the Foreign-Language Film screening committee are required to watch a number of the submissions (upwards of a dozen) over a two-month period that ends in mid December. They will rate them from 6 to 10 and their top six vote-getters make it to the next round, as will three films added by the 20 members of the executive committee.

Those nine semi-finalists will be screened three per day beginning in early January by select committee members in Gotham, Hollywood, London and San Francisco. These 40 folks will...

Expanded shortlist of 10 films to be announced on December 16.

The Academy on Monday (7) confirmed that 93 countries have submitted films for consideration in the international feature film category for the 92nd Academy Awards.

Ghana, Nigeria and Uzbekistan are first-time entrants with Kwabena Gyansah’s Azali, Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, and Umid Khamdamov’s Hot Bread, respectively.

Earlier this year, the Academy board voted to rename the category formerly known as foreign language film, and expand the shortlist from nine to 10 films.

The shortlist will be announced on December 16. Nominations for the 92nd Oscars will be unveiled on January 13, 2020, and the Oscars...