News

Independent international production company and financier Gold Rush Pictures has signed a deal with Ilya Stewart’s Hype Studios to participate in financing and co-producing a slate of at least five feature films, Variety can exclusively reveal.

The news comes ahead of the world premiere of Tom Tykwer’s contemporary German drama “The Light” (pictured), which was co-produced by Gold Rush Pictures and will open the Berlin Film Festival on Feb. 13.

Two of the five titles on the companies’ slate will be collaborations with the Polish screenwriter-director and two-time Berlinale prizewinner Małgorzata Szumowska, including “The Gambler Wife,” a dark comedy about Russian literary figures Anna and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The anticipated feature, which was announced in Variety, is due to begin principal photography this spring. A second feature from Szumowska is currently in development.

Rounding out the slate are three titles with long-time Hype Studios collaborator Kirill Serebrennikov, whose previous four...

Tom Tykwer’s “The Light” will open the 75th Berlin International Film Festival. The German-French production, Das Licht (“The Light”) will be presented as a Berlinale Special Gala out of competition in the Berlinale Palast.

The film marks Tykwer’s return to the big screen after seven years and four seasons as writer and director of the hit series “Babylon Berlin.”

“We knew as soon as we saw ‘Das Licht’ (‘The Light’) that we wanted to have it open the 75th Berlinale,” said festival director Tricia Tuttle. “Tom Tykwer finds beauty and joy in our often fractured and challenging world, and magically captures the essence of our modern life on screen. It is our great pleasure to welcome Tom back to the Berlinale with ‘Das Licht’ (‘The Light’),” she continued.

“The Light” stars Lars Eidinger, Nicolette Krebitz, Elke Biesendorfer, Julius Gause and Elyas Eldridge.

Set in present day in Berlin,...

Exclusive: Filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov has signed with Artist International Group for management.

Bekmambetov, who remains repped by WME, most recently wrapped the Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson starring sci-fi feature Mercy for Amazon MGM Studios. Produced by Oscar-nominated producer Charles Roven (Oppenheimer), Mercy is set in the near future when capital crime has increased. The pic follows a detective (Pratt) who is accused of a violent crime and forced to prove his innocence. 

The filmmaker broke through with his supernatural action-adventure feature Night Watch which spawned the sequel Day Watch. His first big Hollywood project was the blockbuster Wanted for Universal. That film starred James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, and it grossed $342 million worldwide. He had become smitten with the Screenlife film format by then, and set a five-picture deal for Universal to make films in that low cost format.

That lead to Screenlife film successes including Searching,...

Dark Castle Entertainment has come on board to produce and finance Zealot, Variety reports, and it’s set to star Djimon Hounsou and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

WestEnd Films announced the claustrophobic thriller at Cannes and continues sales this week at AFM.

Zealot is, “a film about privilege, paranoia, and the assumptions we make about one another. The film follows Hassan, a Somali-American airport shuttle driver in Minneapolis, who is struggling to make ends meet. When Lloyd, a stranded twenty something at the airport, offers to pay Hassan to take him overland to Chicago, it seems worth the risk. But as the realization grows that his passenger is not what he seems, Hassan finds he is trapped in a terrifying ride which he can’t escape from, knowing that to save himself might put countless others in danger.”

The thriller is directed by Vadim Perelman and written by playwright Bennett Fisher. Zealot...

Oscar nominees Kodi Smit-McPhee and Djimon Hounsou are set to star in claustrophobic thriller “The Zealot.”

The two-hander, being introduced to buyers in Cannes by WestEnd Films, comes from director Vadim Perelman working from a screenplay by Bennett Fisher, and touches on themes involving privilege, paranoia, and the assumptions we make about one another.

“The Zealot” follows Hassan, a Somali-American airport shuttle driver in Minneapolis, who is struggling to make ends meet. When Lloyd, a stranded twentysomething at the airport, offers to pay Hassan to take him overland to Chicago, it seems worth the risk. But as the realization grows that his passenger is not what he seems, Hassan finds he is trapped in a terrifying ride which he can’t escape from, knowing that to save himself might put countless others in danger.

Jib Polhemus (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” “The Mechanic”) produces alongside Michael Helfant and Bradley Gallo (“The Green Hornet and Kato,...

International independent production company and financier Gold Rush Pictures has signed a deal with Germany’s X Filme Creative Pool to participate in financing and co-produce the next three projects written and directed and/or produced by Tom Tykwer, including features and TV series.

The partnership follows Gold Rush Pictures recent investment in Tykwer’s German contemporary drama “The Light,” the filmmaker’s return to the big screen after seven years and four seasons as writer and director of the hit series “Babylon Berlin.” It is the writer-director’s first feature film since his 2016 adaptation of “A Hologram for the King,” starring Tom Hanks.

Currently in production, “The Light” (“Das Licht”) centres on a troubled family who take on a mysterious woman as a housekeeper. When she successfully shakes up the lives of the family, she then confronts them with the dark fate of her own. The film stars Lars Eidinger,...

There are so many questions surrounding the search for identity and one's own place under the sun that I can relate to in Nele Wohlatz' dreamy drama “Sleep With Your Open Eyes” that I don't even know where to start. As an immigrant who changed houses so many times that every move involved more costs, logistic planning and emotional investment than it was healthy, I felt an instant connection with the film's protagonists who dream big, while struggling to make ends meet pressured by the big question of where they really belong to. I also understood that Wohlatz, who herself has lived for 12 years far away from her native Germany, to study and work in Argentina, knew how to tell the story of a double-sided cultural alienation and solidarity among those ‘lost in translation', right from the film's opening scene which didn't even reveal much about what was going to happen.

Adapted from Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Netflix’s limited series “All the Light We Cannot See” sets two unlikely kindred spirits on a collision course as World War II begins in France when Germany occupied the country. Shawn Levy directed all four episodes of Steven Knight’s scripts.

Marie-Laure LeBlanc (Aria Mia Loberti) and Werner Pfennig (Louis Hoffman) share curiosity and empathy, which translates across their opposing countries and positions in the war. Werner’s skill for fixing and translating radios leads him to a high position in the Nazi effort to decode secret broadcasts that their targets might send. Marie-Laure herself becomes a broadcaster after her father moves her to her uncle’s home in a small, seaside French town.

Here are the cast and characters of “All the Light We Cannot See”:

Aria Mia Loberti in “All the Light We Cannot See” (Netflix)

Marie-Laure LeBlanc...

Exclusive: Award-winning House of Sand & Fog filmmaker Vadim Perelman has been attached to direct the movie Marinus, we hear, about the heroic rescue of 14K Korean evacuees by sea toward the end of the Korean War.

Adapted by J. Craig Stiles (Miranda’s Victim) off the book Ship of Miracles, Marinus follows a merchant marine captain, who along with a Korean doctor, commanded a ship that was rated to carry 65 passengers and ended up saving thousands – all while being pursued by enemy subs, fighter planes and contending with a Communist spy on board.

Despite the odds, not one soul perished. In fact, five babies were born during the journey, and they arrived safely at a South Korean harbor on Christmas Day. The captain was so touched by the experience that he later became a Benedictine monk. He has passed on, but is currently up for sainthood with the Catholic Church.

When Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) is arrested by Nazis and put on a train to a concentration camp, he has every reason to believe that his life is over. It’s 1942 in Nazi-occupied France, and all of his Jewish traveling companions are making peace with their inevitable deaths. When a stranger on the train begs him to trade half of a sandwich for a book of Persian myths, he makes the deal out of mere charity as much as anything else.

That chance encounter that kicks off “Persian Lessons” ends up saving his life, as Gilles is the only passenger spared. As it turns out, the Nazi officer who controls his destiny has been “looking for a Persian.” Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger) is already thinking ahead to the end of WWII — the former chef plans to move to Tehran and open a German restaurant in the desert. But before he can do that,...

Two from Magnolia Pictures, the story of an iconic record album design firm back and a sighting of Brian Cox usher in a specialty weekend with smoke clearing over New York City. Acrid plumes from Canadian wildfires have smothered the key arthouse market over the past few days in an unusual air quality event that had Mayor Eric Adams urging people to home.

Friday the sky was visible and air fresher, a boon for all — including the ongoing Tribeca Festival, which opened Wednesday night and will be unspooling 100+ features and events through June 17.

New openings: From Magnolia, Dalíland by Mary Harron starring Ben Kingsley as the iconic artist in 20 markets (including Quad in NYC and Nuart in LA) and on VOD. Written by John C. Walsh. With Christopher Briney, Barbara Sukowa, Ezra Miller, Andreja Pejic. Premiered as TIFF’s closing night film, see Deadline review here. Follows the later years...

"You just make sure the murderers eat well." Cohen Media Group has revealed another official US trailer for the German WWII drama Persian Lessons, made by Ukrainian filmmaker Vadim Perelman. This first premiered back in 2020 just before the pandemic at the Berlin Film Festival, before getting lost in all the shutdowns. It played at various fests over the next few years, and opened in Germany in late 2020 already. The US release has finally been set - over three years later - for this June in select theaters. Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) is arrested by Nazis alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to the Head of Camp Koch. Through an ingenious trick, he manages to survive...

In Bpm (Beats Per Minute), Robin Campillo found in Nahuel Pérez Biscayart a face and voice to communicate the by turns ecstatic and wrenching role of being an activist for Act Up Paris during the early 1990s. Now, in House of Sand and Fog director Vadim Perelman’s latest, Persian Lessons, the Argentine actor, who exudes an unwavering and mournful certainty whenever he’s on screen, has found another project worthy of his talent.

Persian Lessons concerns a young Belgian Jew named Gilles (Biscayart) who’s arrested in occupied France in 1942 by SS soldiers. On the way to a concentration camp in Germany, he avoids execution by swearing that he’s Persian. Subsequently, he’s tasked with teaching Farsi to the head of Camp Koch, Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger), who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran after the war. What results is an intense game for survival, as Gilles pretends to know Farsi,...

I have been tracking producer Sol Bondy since 2016 when co-production The Happiest Day in the Life of Ölli Mäki won the Un Certain Regard Grand Prize and the European Film Award for Best Debut. He and Fred Burle have been developing The Girl from Köln (aka Köln 75) with writer-director Ido Fluk, the filmmaker behind 2016 Tribeca selection The Ticket since 2019. "This project has been very close to our hearts in the last few years and we're very excited with the way it's been shaped so far," said Bondy, a Variety Producer to Watch in 2018. "It's been such a joy working with Ido on this exciting story and we're thrilled to have put an amazing team together," added Burle, Brazilian born producer who was just made a partner in One Two Films, alongside co-founders Sol Bondy and Christoph Lange. Burle joined One Two in January 2017, having graduated from the German Film and Television Academy (dffb) the previous year. He has previously worked as a film critic, at The Match Factory, and as curator of the inaugural dffb film festival. One Two Films has produced and co-produced award-winning films such as Holy Spider (Read my blog about it here), Vadim Perelman's Persian Lessons (Read my blog about it here), Jennifer Fox's Sundance breakout The Tale, Isabel Coixet's The Bookshop and Juho Kuosmanen's The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki.Other titles in the pipeline include Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson's dark comedy Northern Comfort, which premieres in SXSW later this month, Annemarie Jacir's survival drama The Oblivion Theory, Sarah Arnold's debut feature Wild Encounters and Michiel ten Horn's romantic comedy Any Other Night. In Berlin this year it was announced that Bankside would be The Girl from Köln's international sales agent and was launching sales. Alamode Film already has German-speaking territories and is a coproducer, who have very recently secured funding through the Fff, the local fund in Bavaria. It is in early pre-production and will shoot this year in Poland and Germany. The Girl from Köln tells the little-known story of Vera Brandes, who, in 1975, at the age of 17, staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett, which became the top-selling jazz solo album of all time. With Polish Film Institute backing, Oscar-winning Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska (Ida, Cold War) of Extreme Emotions is co-producing along with Annegret Weitkämper-Krug of Germany's Gretchenfilm (Seneca). Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Oren Moverman (Love & Mercy, Bad Education) serves as executive producer. Moverman also produced Fluk's previous feature, The Ticket. The Tale writer-director Jennifer Fox also serves as executive producer. Stephen Kelliher and Sophie Green executive produce for Bankside. It stars Mala Emde (Skin Deep, And Tomorrow the Entire World) in the lead role, alongside John Magaro (Past Lives) as Jarrett. Magaro was also in Cannes last year with Kelly Reichardt's competition title Showing Up.Other cast attached include Alexander Scheer (Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush), Ulrich Tukur (The Life of Others), Susanne Wolff (Sisi & I, Styx), Jördis Triebel (Dark), Jan Bülow (Lindenberg) and Marie-Lou Sellem (Tar, Exit Marrakesh). The NYU-graduate Fluk was dubbed "a talent to watch" by Variety following his feature debut Never Too Late, the first crowd-sourced Israeli film ever made. His American debut, the Tribeca competition selection, The Ticket, starred Dan Stevens and Malin Akerman. Upcoming projects include 24 Hours in June, a retelling of the final day in the life of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union, to be produced by Academy Award winner James Schamus (Brokeback Mountain) and Joe Pirro (Driveways). Fluk is repped by Amotz Zakai, Amy Schiffman, and Kegan Schell at Echo Lake Entertainment. He is also created the recently-announced HBO series Empty Mansions for Fremantle with director Joe Wright (Atonement, Darkest Hour) attached to direct the pilot. "From the moment I heard Vera's story, about how as a high school teenager she organized one of the greatest concerts in history, I knew her story had to be told," said Fluk. "We were immediately exhilarated by Vera Brandes' remarkable female empowerment story. Her strength, courage and sheer belief in herself and the music of Keith Jarrett will entertain and inspire audiences around the world," added Kelliher.

Denmark’s Oscar© 2023 Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Holy Spider’ directed by Ali AbbasiThis crime genre drama labeled “Persian Noir” is based on a 20 year old case but is shockingly relevant, as is noted in this interview with producer Sol Bondy conducted by Marina Dallarosa.

US Theatrical Release October 28, 2022.

Producer Sol Bondy’s explanation of Holy Spider’s genesis and progress through the Covid infected era details the difficulties this film met at every step. However, once finished, it premiered in Cannes Competition and went on to play in the Jerusalem Film Festival, and in Toronto International Film Festival. He noted that the audience in Toronto; was 30–40% Iranians. Their ability to understand nuances and “code words” brought an element of laughter to an otherwise bloody crime film, labeled “Persian noir”.

The filmmaker Ali Abbasi is Iranian and lives in Denmark, the country submitting the film to the Motion Picture Academy for Oscar nomination. It could never have been shot in Iran due to its subject matter, though they did try, as they did in Turkey as well before shooting in Jordan. The production faced years of Covid‑19 surges, shooting delays, location changes and government resistance.

Holy Spider is based upon a true story of the infamous “spider killings” which took place while the director, Ali Abbasi, was living in the country between 2000 and 2001. It is produced by Germany’s Sol Bondy whose previous film Persian Lessons was also based on a provocative story and was Belarus’ 2020 submission for Oscars. Abbasi’s film Border was a Cannes winner of Un Certain Regard and 2018 Oscar nominated film.

A coproduction of Denmark, Germany, France, and Sweden, Holy Spider tells the story of Saeed Hanaei, a family man who 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. In all, he murdered 16 women.

This genre film, with misogyny being the core theme, comes at a time where massive protests in Iran, following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini have unified the country in an unprecedented manner. While more and more protesters, many underage, are being killed by the regime, Holy Spider has met Iranian diaspora audiences with cheers.

During Cannes, film and TV funder Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburgcelebrated the six films that it funded running in the official program of the Cannes Film Festival. These were Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider in Competition, Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness in Competition, Emily Atef’s More Than Ever in Un Certain Regard, Mia Hansen-Løve’s Un beau matin in Directors’ Fortnight, Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History of Destruction in Special Screenings, and Mantas Kvedaravicius’ Mariupolis 2, in Special Screenings. Commenting on the role Medienboard played in funding these films in Cannes, the organization’s chief Kirsten Niehuus said: “Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and other film funds play an important role in sustaining high quality cinema in Europe and in international co-productions around the world.”

At their celebration, I spoke with one of the most outstanding young actresses who played Zinab, a sex worker in the Holy Spider. German-based, Iran-born Sara Fazilat is also German Film’s Face To Face ambassador 2022. She is also the lead cast in Nico by Eline Gehring that was shown almost worldwide at numerous film festivals. Unfortunately Nico is not available online in the U.S…yet. It is about Nico who is enjoying the summer in Berlin with her best friend Rosa until a racist attack pulls her out of her carefree everyday life. Traumatized by the crime, the geriatric nurse decides never to be a victim again and begins to train with a karate world champion.

I also saw Sol Bondy of One Two Films, one of the lead producers of Holy Spider. Produced along with Jacob Jarek of Denmark’s Profile Pictures, coproducers were Nordisk Film Production, Wild Bunch International, Film i Väst, Why Not Productions, Zdf/Arte and Arte France Cinéma.

Sol Bondy and Jacob Jarek also stand out as alumni of Berlinale Talents. They both co-produced Icelandic films The County and Under The Tree previously.

Jarek, who went to the National Film School of Denmark with Abbasi and was one of the producers of his debut feature Shelley, says the director “had this story in his mind for a long time but we officially started developing it in 2016”. After Abbasi’s second feature Border was an international success at Cannes and beyond in 2018, the filmmaker was in demand. He told Jarek, “Now’s our chance to make Holy Spider,” a project always close to his heart.

An Interview with Sol Bondy by Marina Dalarossa

Marina: So the first question is just about you and the producer Jakob Jarek. Could you talk a bit about how you actually came to work together?

Sol: We didn’t do the Berlinale Talents the same year. I did it relatively late in my career, and truthfully, mainly because of the woman who runs the program, she urged me to do it. I had worked for the talents for many, many years and quite a few of my friends had done it during film school and by the time I did it, I’d been out of film school running my company for 6 years already.

But we didn’t meet there. Jakob and I were both minor coproducers on an Icelandic film called Under the Tree. That’s how we met. And then we also were both minor coproducers on another Icelandic film called The County.

We knew of each other before, I knew some people that he worked with and thought they were doing really interesting films. And then in Cannes 2018, Border had just premiered a couple of days before, everybody was talking about it and Jakob asked me if I wanted to join the next film of Ali? I didn’t read a script or ask any questions; I also didn’t know what I was getting myself into but I said yes immediately. I sensed this could be a great opportunity.

And that instinct was right. The film was financed relatively quickly and within a year we had most of the budget together. But then Covid came. I’m sure we’ll get into that later!

Marina: Yes thanks. I want to know if you think being in Talents helped your career at all?

Sol: Well, given the very specific timing of it, I think it would have helped my career much more if I had done it earlier. But there are also other great intiatives out there, postgraduate training for producers. Before Talents, I did a program called Transatlantic Partners in 2013. That was really helpful and actually generated two big projects for me. One was Angry Indian Goddessesand the other was The Tale.

A couple of years later I did a program called Inside Pictures. It was also extremely valuable and really helped me make some really important business decisions going forward. Jacob also did this program but again, in another year. There are many great initiatives. Also I’ve always loved going to festivals. They make your network bigger and stronger.

Marina: You talked about how you came on board to produce Holy Spider, but what do you think made Jakob decide you should come in at that point?

Sol: He had a hard task producing and financing a film set in the Middle East without any Middle Eastern money. Also, with this topic it was clear you can’t just roll into Iran and make a film there.

On top of that, there had been a shift in the Danish government. Suddenly, to reach a certain amount of financing from the Danish Film Institute, the film had to be culturally relevant to Denmark. So I believe that halved the financing opportunities for Jacob in Denmark. He needed money from outside Denmark to make this film; he needed coproducers.

He’s well versed in international coproductions, so he knew when is a good time to attach coproducing partners and also how much time it can take. For instance, we often get approached with projects and they tell us they will be shooting in three months. We have to tell them that when we coproduce in Germany, we have deadlines and a lot of bureaucracy, so while we can do a lot — we’re very lucky with that — it still takes time.

To get back to the first question: We were ready to go, we had the budget we thought we needed to make the film and when Covid came and then Jakob found himself in a situation where two of his projects, a series and a feature film, were hit by Covid. And it was unclear how these massive losses were going to be covered. The world was in turmoil and Jakob’s projects in limbo.

It became clear, he could currently not commit to the project — such a challenging production by a very demanding director. Ali (the director) on the other hand, who could have chosen any project after his widely successful and much loved Border, was saying, “Guys, I get it, but I don’t care about circumstances. If you guys can’t figure out how we can make this film now, then it’s over, I’m out.”

And that put me under maximum pressure because making films is squarey our only source of income. I had three employees to pay, was expecting my second child, and at that pont, we didn’t know that the German government would be helping out companies like ours. Without this film, it seemed I would have to close my shop. So Jacob and I looked at what options we had and decided I would go for it. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know when, but I said, Ok, I’ll do it.

What was unfortunate at that time is that Jordan, during the first wave, basically closed the borders and would not let anyone in. So the country that we had scouted and wanted to shoot in was essentially shut down. We couldn’t really plan a production there because nobody knew when the borders would open again or if they might close again at some point.

So it was decided to go to Turkey. It didn’t look like Erdogan was going to close Turkey. So we went into Turkey and we scouted for weeks with a big crew, the cinematographer, the production designer, the line producers from Germany, the Turkish line producer who we hired to service the production. There was a big gang scouting different cities in Turkey. And although it was harder to match Iran, we found the right locations a couple of weeks later.

The crew was growing; we were exploring how to bring period cars over the border. Pre-production was basically in full swing, at the same time, we were waiting for a shooting permit, and this shooting permit never came. So I decided to do some more digging because this was making me very uncomfortable. I knew I couldn’t shoot without the permit. I was about to spend a significant amount of more money and I’d already spent around €50,000. Not being able to shoot the film in Turkey would mean that money would just be down the drain. Plus the entire production plan. You can imagine, with everything there, where we came from, the delays that we had already encountered, it was nerve-wracking.

We then basically found out behind the scenes that our application had gone from the Ministry of Culture to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Turkish Ambassador and he got the feedback that this film should not be supported.

I then took Ali and my two line producers and we flew to Ankara to meet with the Ministry of Culture. And they told us to speak to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The next day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told us that to get shooting permits we hd to speak with the Ministry of Culture. They basically used us like a pinball. We realiaed that we had been censored in Turkey. And it was a huge blow. I fet so hepless. Everyone was upset. Ali was furious.

It took some time to get the whole demoralized team back into the mental state to give it another go back in Jordan, where the borders had re-opened but which was logistically much more complicated.

And we went for it. We found new locations, hired local crews, got visas for our Iranian players and even managed to import Iranian cars to Jordan. You could make a documentary feature about just this aspect of the production of importing these cars. They arrived after a huge delay, when we were already shooting, but we managed to make it work.

Marina: This sounds intense. Were there other significant issues?

One of the most challenging aspects of the film was the casting, which was very complex, as we were mainly looking for Iranians who didn’t live in Iran. We knew participating in this film would be challenging for their future in the country. But Ali was adamant that his two main roles needed to be perfect in terms of their body language and the dialect. So we essentially needed people from Iran. We had found two who were willing to take the risk with all the consequences even potentially relocating after the shoot. The lead actress finally came for the makeup and hair test about 10 days before shooting. Couple days later she came to my hotel room crying and said, “I can’t do it. It’s too much.”

So we were a week before shooting and we didn’t have a lead actress. It was another massive blow. And this is when it was decided after bit of back and forth and deliberation that our casting director Zar Amir-Ebrahimi would step in and play the role. And she was rewarded in Cannes with the Best Actress Golden Palm. It’s a pretty crazy story.

And then, just two days before we were Finally going to shoot the film, Covid hit us in a way where couldn’t start shooting. I felt like I didn’t know if I was making a film or if I was in “Lost in La Mancha — Part 2”. My wife for months kept telling me I should have a documentary crew filming all this madness. I told her I was going to murder someone if I had a documentary crew around.

Marina: Wow! And after the film was completed, Denmark’s decided to submit your film to the Academy Awards. Do you know what went into their decision?

Sol: Well, the Danes may have one of the best track records in recent years when it comes to choosing the film and then being nominated or even winning. I think in the last 11 years they won twice. They got 7 nominations and I think 9 made the shortlist.

So this speaks to two things: First of all, the quality of the films they make in this small country. And then, they really look carefully at which films has the biggest chances. In our case: no other Danish film had been to Cannes competition. No other film had US distribution and played Telluride and TIFF. And already in Cannes, we had the fantastic PR of past successes like Drive My Car and Flee, so it made a lot of sense for them to choose Holy Spider. It’s still a very brave choice because it’s not a very Danish film on the outside. On the inside it looks different, you know the composer is Danish, the editor is Danish, the production designer, ok she’s Swedish, but Ali also has a Danish passport. Jakob is like me, a delegate producer and is Danish. So it has a strong Danish footprint.

Many outlets, like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter included the film in their predictions to get the nomination. So I guess all this helped the Danes come to this decision.

Marina: How does it feel to be chosen by the Danes and also to be chosen for Cannes and have gotten so many prizes already?

Sol: What can I say? It feels great! At the same time, it’s also a lot of hard work. And it’s something that we always had our eyes upon, also because Border won the Un Certain Regard. So after that, the next step is to be in Cannes Competition. Now I’ve seen this go both ways, The Icelandic film where Jacob and I were minority producers together: the filmmaker had previously done the film Rams, which had also won Un Certain Regard. We all hoped to go to Cannes Competition with this new film, The County. But we didn’t get into Cannes at all. We premiered in Toronto, which is good, but it’s not the same So looking coldly at that, you could say we failed.

Another example would be a finished film, that I was happy to be a coproducer on, called The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki . It won Un Certain Regard the year after Rams did. And so the director wanted his next film, Compartment No. 6, to go to Cannes Competition — and it did. It even won the Jury Prize! Sadly, I wasn’t involved in that production.

This is something we were discussing throughout this entire production. We were always saying the film was our chance to show the world Ali was not a one-hit wonder. You know, many people refer to Border as Ali’s first film, which it’s not. It’s his second film, his first film Shelley did well, but it wasn’t a massive breakout hit like Border was. It’s hard to follow up on a success like that.

So that fact that we succeeded in following up the Certain Regard win with getting into Competition was very exciting and rewarding. I also have to give credit to our French co-producers Wild Bunch and Why Not Productions. While they didn’t really have a lot to do with the physical production, they really helped in securing the world premiere. They gave us invaluable advice in the last stretch.

I can say that until now, we have achieved every goal that we had, and there are a few exciting steps ahead. The US release had a great limited opening weekend, the nominations at the European Film Awards are coming up and then there’s of course the Oscar shortlist of 15 films just before Christmas. We’re crossing our fingers!

Marina: I also have to ask, with the recent events in Iran, was this something you were thinking of making the film?

Sol: Well no, of course not! But the fact that our film is based on a 20 year old case — and has become so shockingly timely is incredible. Showing the film at festivals where many Iranians attend has been such an intense experience. People have thanked us for our courage to finally make a film that shows a (big) portion of their reality, one they don’t get to see in Iranian cinema. And of course the film’s main theme, misogyny, is squarely what is firing up this revolution in Iran. It really feels like the days of the Islamic Republic will be over, the different groups withing the Iranian society are more united then ever before, men are supporting women on the street and the next generation isn’t willing to give up. It’s insane what is happening there and honestly, more people should be talking about this. They are killing teenagers in the street.

Marina: The next couple questions I want to ask you are more general about your career. What did you think when you chose your career?

Sol: My parents are both filmmakers, but I never really cared too much about their work. I was quite oblivious to what was what was going on right in front of me.

But through my parents connections, I was cast as a child actor and did quite a bit of acting, so I always thought that after high school I would become an actor. But then I realized maybe I should also look for something behind the camera, because I remembered as a child actor, people were so nice and the jobs seemed fun and interesting and so I did an internship. And it became clear to me that I needed to become a director! I thought this would be the perfect way to combine all my talents.

It took three or four years and a lot of failed applications for directing to realize that I would not be studying film directing at any film school. But Reinhad Hauff, the head of the dffb, the Berlin Film School, said at some point after my second failed application that he thought I might be good for his producing class. And that’s how I got into producing after never having given it a thought before.

And I really came to terms with my profession the end of my second year while working with this one director, Grzegorz Muskala, I realized if I could find people like him, with an exceptional level of talent and tenacity and foresight I could be the right person to support them. I just needed to be very picky about who I chose to work with.

On the other hand, I also realized I have a real knack for distribution, because many producing students in my film school would just produce a film and then they would just produce the next film. And this was always crazy for me, because when the film is finished, finding distribution for your film is the most exciting moment. Like now we can do something, even for shorts! We can take the film to festivals, we can sell it to TV, this is the fun part. Of course you need to have the right film.

But I quickly earned a reputation of being somebody who took very good care of his films. All my films went to many festivals and won awards and did well. So at the end of my studies I graduated with a 1.2 million feature, which was a big achievement at that time, this was 2010. I also launched my company more or less at the same time. Since then we’ve produced or coproduced 16 films.

Marina: What do you think drives you now to continue?

Sol: There was a moment, a couple of years ago where I realized I needed to shift gears. I separated from my previous business partner with whom I had had set up the company. We built the company together, but I realized our visions weren’t really aligned anymore. I had this urge to do slightly bigger films and my little family was growing and I simply needed to make more money — while staying true to the films that I love.

So rather than diversifying with many small projects, I wanted to make fewer films but larger ones. That is also a bigger risk in a way. I wanted to take it a bit slower than the previous 10 years. Maybe also because my wife is a filmmaker. We’ve had two kids, and now it’s also her turn to go to the forefront and make more films.

Marina: And so now I guess one could say you’ve kind of made it to the top or at least you’ve checked off all those goals that you wanted to reach.

Sol: Everything that has happened with Holy Spider is really great. And having a film in Cannes Competition is quite special — who knows if it’s going to happen again? So maybe, maybe this is the top.

Marina: Do you have different kinds of goals now?

Sol: No I think I have similar goals. I like to aim high. I’m ambitious. But I also know what’s within reach. I wouldn’t set goals that are completely unrealistic in that sense.

Marina: And can you talk about what you are working on right now, so that we can start tracking it?

Sol: Yeah, so Northern Comfort is a is a fear of flying comedy by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson, the same Icelandic director of Under the Tree. And this is his English language debut because his previous films have been remade in the US. We thought, why not just shoot in English language in the first place?

A diverse group of people with a chronic fear of flying are stranded in the wintry north. That film is a lot of fun for a change! And I know there’s appetite in the market for comedies. We’re in the final stages of postproduction and hoping to show the film sometime early next year.

Köln 75 is our real passion project. It’s set in Germany. The story came to us through Oren Moverman who approached us because we had worked on The Tale together. He felt that we would be the right people to be producing this. It’s a beautiful and inspiring great true story about a 17 year old school girl who organizes one of the the world’s most famous concerts on German soil, the Cologne concert from Keith Jarrett in 1975 which is widely regarded as his masterpiece and sold nearly 5 mil. copies worldwide. It really was the soundtrack of an entire generation. So it’s really exciting. An uplifting and fun story with a fantastic script by Ido Fluk. We already have amazing partners to work on this film.

Marina: Is it different now working on German soil?

Sol: Well it’s not the first time, but it’s the first time in a couple years and it is different, yes. Production has exploded across the world with the arrival of the streamers. In Germany we really feel it. All the actors, all the crews, everybody is just like working like crazy. So you could say of course it’s a great time to be a producer. But for us it’s always hard to make a film. Always has been, always will be, there are really no free rides if you’re producing independent films.

Marina: And last question, what advice do you have for young filmmakers?

Sol: The most simple and striking advice that I received myself at some point, though at first I nearly missed it, was from Katriel Schory who ran the film fund in Israel for a long time.

Sydney knows him well I’m sure.

He gave this one inspirational speech at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2006, when I was a film student. He said the most important thing for a producer is you always have to be nice, open and friendly. And I was like, well yeah… But the way that he explained it got to me. He said that everybody who’s in a certain position of power has a free choice who he wants to work with.

And these people are always going to choose to work with the people who are nice, open and friendly and if you are that person and if you are nice, open and friendly all the time, then you’re just more likely to climb the steps of your career. And at the same time you will make this industry a better place to work in.

I found it very compelling and striking and I’ve realized that that really is what brings you forward. And so I always tried to be that person. I haven’t thought about it in a long time, so I wonder if maybe I’ve lost it a little bit on the way. Producing Holy Spider was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and has surely made me very cynical at times, but that is definitely a good piece of advice for young filmmaker, I think.

Holy Spider, 115 minutes

Germany, Denmark, France, Sweden

Directed by: Ali Abbasi

Screenplay: Ali Abbasi, Afshin Kamran Bahrami

Cast: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Mehdi Bajestani, Arash Ashtiani, Forouzan Jamshidnejad, Nima Akbarpour, Sara Fazilat, Sina Parvaneh, Alice Rahimi, Mesbah Taleb

Cinematography by: Nadim Carlsen

Film Editing: Olivia Neergaard-Holm

Production Designer: Lina Nordqvist

Costumes Cesigner: Hanadi Khurma

Music: Martin Dirkov

Produced by: Sol Bondy, Jacob Jarek

Co-producers: Fred Burle, Eva Åkergren, Vincent Maraval, Calle Marthin, Peter Possne, Olivier Père, Rémi Burah

Production Cos: Profile Pictures, One Two Films, Why Not Productions, Nordisk Film Production Ab

Backing: Danish Film Institute, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Moin Filmförderung, Dfff, Ffa, Nordisk Film + TV Fund, Swedish Film Institute, Eurimages, Film I Väst, Zdf, Arte, Arte France Cinéma

Isa Wild Bunch has thus far sold Holy Spider to Utopia for U.S., Cinéart for Benelux, A-One Films Baltic for Baltics, Academy 2 ror Italy, Alamode Filmsfor Germany, BTeam Pictures for Spain, Bir Film for Turkey, Camera Film for Denmark, Canibal for Mexico, Cinobo for Greece, Edko Films for Hong Kong, Falcon Pictures for Indonesia, Film Europe for Czechia and Slovakia, Fivia/Cenex for Yugoslavia, Gaga for Japan, Gutek Film for Poland, Independenta Film for Romania, Karma for Spain, Metropolitan Filmexportfor France, Mubi for UK Ireland, Malaysia, India; Nordisk and Mer for Norway, Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais for Portugal, Pancinema for South Korea, United King Films for Israel, Vertigo for Hungary, Xenix for Switzerland, Front Row for Mena.

Producer Ilya Stewart has launched an independent studio based in Europe that will operate on a global scale, working with international talent and focusing on English-language feature films and television series, Variety can exclusively reveal.

Hype Studios is the new venture from Stewart, the formerly Moscow-based producer who in recent years has been a fixture at the Cannes Film Festival, where his collaborations with Russian auteur Kirill Serebrennikov, including “Petrov’s Flu” and “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” have premiered in competition.

Among the co-productions with American and European partners currently on Hype Studios’ slate is Zach Wigon’s “Sanctuary,” starring Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott, which premieres as a Special Presentation next month at the Toronto International Film Festival and was produced with Rumble Films and Mosaic Films, along with Charades. Also on the slate is Pietro Marcello’s French-language “Scarlet,” produced in partnership with CG Cinéma’s Charles Gillibert, which opened this...

Berlin-based One Two Films, in Cannes this week with Ali Abbasi’s competition title “Holy Spider,” is prepping a new feature from writer-director Ido Fluk, the filmmaker behind 2016 Tribeca selection “The Ticket.”

“Köln 75” tells the true story of Vera Brandes, who, in 1975 and at the age of 17, staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett, which became the top-selling jazz solo album of all time. It stars Mala Emde (“And Tomorrow the Entire World”) in the lead role, alongside John Magaro (“First Cow”) as Jarrett. Magaro is also in Cannes with Kelly Reichardt’s competition title “Showing Up.”

Oscar-winning Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska of Extreme Emotions will co-produce, with Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Oren Moverman serving as executive producer. Moverman also produced Fluk’s previous feature, “The Ticket.”

Other cast attached include Alexander Scheer (“Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush”), Ulrich Tukur (“The Life of Others”), Susanne Wolff...

Exclusive: Ukrainian-Canadian-American filmmaker Vadim Perelman has inked with Artist International Group for management.

Perelman made his directorial debut in 2003 with House Of Sand And Fog, which went on to be nominated for three Oscars including Best Actor Ben Kingsley, Best Supporting Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo and Best Original Score James Horner.

The pic, which also starred Jennifer Connelly, repped Perlman’s first screenplay credit. Drawn to the story, having been shaped by his own immigrant experience, Perelman adapted the screenplay alongside Shawn Otto from Andre Dubus III’s international bestseller of the same name. DreamWorks acquired domestic distribution rights and released the film to great critical acclaim.

Perelman’s second feature film, The Life Before Her Eyes, starred Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood. Also an adaptation, the pic followed a woman whose survivor’s guilt from a Columbine-like event twenty years ago causes her present-day idyllic life to fall apart.

An open letter against the war in Ukraine has been signed by prominent Russian cinematographers, spearheaded by Fedor Lyass (“Hardcore Henry”).

The signatories include Roman Vasyanov, Mikhail Krichman, Pavel Kapinos (“Hardcore Henry”), Vladislav Opelyants and Pavel Fomintsev (“Unclenching the Fists”).

Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine began on Feb. 24, Russian filmmakers and animators have bravely rallied and spoken out against their government’s actions and have called upon the international community for support. In doing so, the signatories have put themselves at risk on both personal and professional levels. Alexander Rodnyansky, the two-time Oscar-nominated producer of “Leviathan,” “Loveless” told Variety last week that he felt “unbearably ashamed” and “incredibly, deeply sad” when news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine broke.

The letter’s full translated text and list of the signatories are below:

We, Russian cinematographers, demand a stop to military aggression against Ukraine, an immediate ceasefire, and a withdrawal...

Two-time Berlinale prize winner Małgorzata Szumowska will write and direct “The Gambler Wife,” a revelatory portrait of novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s wife Anna Snitkina, to be produced by Russia’s Hype Film, Variety can reveal.

Adapted from Andrew D. Kaufman’s book “The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky,” the film tells the story of the courageous woman who saved the life of the Russian literary icon and, as the first Russian woman to found her own publishing house, became a pioneer in the country’s literary history.

Ilya Stewart of Hype Film will produce in collaboration with Polish production company Nowhere. Nick Shumaker of Anonymous Content will executive produce along with Hype Film’s Elizaveta Chalenko.

“As a young, troublemaking Polish girl, I became obsessed with the world of Dostoyevsky, his books, and his imprint on society,” said Szumowska, who’s...

China’s government-backed Golden Rooster Awards honored Oscar-winning drama “The Father” with the event’s first-ever prize for best international film in the coastal city of Xiamen on Thursday.

Beijing hopes that its star-studded awards ceremony can rival and surpass the Taipei-based Golden Horse Awards, once known as the “Oscars of Asia” for Chinese-language content. This year, the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival, which kicked off Tuesday, added the international film competition category for the first time.

This year’s 34th iteration honors films screened theatrically in China between July 1, 2020 and July 15, 2021.

“The Father” beat out animation “Wolfwalkers,” World War II drama “Persian Lessons,” Italy’s live-action “Pinocchio” and the Thai drama “Happy Old Year.” The film grossed $4.14 million in China in June — nearly double the $2.12 million it earned in the U.S.

Veteran helmer Zhang Yimou was the most decorated of this year’s ceremony, with his...

China has released the list of nominees for its upcoming Golden Rooster Awards, a set of government-approved film industry prizes that it wants to be seen as rivaling the Taipei-based Golden Horse Awards, historically considered as the “Chinese-language Oscars.”

The winning Roosters will be announced amidst a film festival running Dec. 28-30 in the port city of Xiamen in coastal Fujian province, just a short boat ride away from Taiwanese soil. Established in 1981, the event was previously held biannually until China’s rift with the Golden Horse prizes occurred in 2018 following a pro-Taiwanese independence acceptance speech and prompted the Roosters to become an annual occurrence.

This year’s twenty different Rooster Awards will honor films screened theatrically between July 1, 2020 and July 15, 2021. As the event is backed by China’s propaganda department, only local and foreign titles that have received official censorship approvals will be considered.

“As we all know, the...

Uruguayan filmmaker Manuel Nieto’s social thriller “The Employer and the Employee,” starring Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (“Persian Lessons” and “Bpm” (Beats Per Minute), comes to the San Sebastian Film Festival to close the Horizontes Latinos sidebar on Thursday, Sept. 23. It’s a journey that began at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight where it world premiered after winning development prizes at Toulouse’s Latin Film Festival, Mar del Plata’s LoboLab and San Sebastián’s Wip Latam.

Picked up by Latido Films in the run-up to Cannes in July, “The Employer and the Employee” is Nieto’s third feature after his debut “The Dog Pound,” followed by “The Militant.” If there’s a thru line to find among his films, Nieto sees several: “The leads are masculine, the father figure is always present, they deal with youth in different stages and weights of responsibility and invariably touch on the concepts of legacy, identity,...

Hype Film, the production company behind Kirill Serebrennikov’s Cannes competition title “Petrov’s Flu,” has signed a first-look deal with Ivi, the largest Russian VOD platform.

As part of the two-year deal, Hype Film will develop 10 and produce at least two Russian-language scripted shows exclusively for Ivi, which boasts more than 59 million unique visitors per month.

Vadim Sokolovsky, head of Ivi Originals, said: “Hype Film is a recognizable brand name in the Russian and international film industry. For the last 10 years the company has been producing such critically acclaimed projects as Vadim Perelman’s ‘Persian Lessons’ and Kirill Serebrennikov’s ‘Leto,’ to name a few. Ivi Originals’ strategy is to give emerging and established artists an opportunity to realize their most ambitious projects with Ivi. We are happy that Hype Film shares this vision with us.”

“Content is king right now. We hope that with Hype Film’s projects we...

Led by “Persian Lessons” and “Bpm (Beats Per Minute)” star Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Manuel Nieto’s “The Employer and Employee” has been snapped up for world sales by Latido Films.

The Madrid-based sales agent has also dropped a trailer for the film. The deal was made in the run-up to July’s Cannes Festival where the feature, Nieto’s third, will world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight.

One of the biggest new Latin American films at Cannes, “The Employer and the Employee” marks a step-up in scale for Uruguayan writer-director Nieto and enhances his reputation as one of the region’s major directors on the rise.

Also written by Nieto, “The Employer and The Employee” (“El Empleado y El Patrón”) charts the two parallel lives of an employer, Rodrigo (Pérez Biscayart), and an employee, teen Carlos (Cristian Borges), who is the son of a grizzled land laborer scratching out a living...

Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov is banned from leaving his home country and thus cannot legally attend the Cannes Film Festival this summer, where his film “Petrov’s Flu” will debut in competition, his lawyer told Afp Monday.

The 51-year-old helmer was sentenced in June 2020 to a three-year suspended prison sentence and issued a fine over a case of embezzlement.

His supporters argue that the case against him was politically motivated, since his daring work engages with politics, sex and religion in ways frowned upon by the Russian state, which is calling for a return to more conservative “traditional” values.

“Kirill cannot leave Russian territory,” his lawyer Dmitri Kharitonov confirmed, noting that the director’s travel ban will remain in place until June 2023. His suspended sentence means that he does not have to spend time in prison.

This year will mark his second Cannes no-show. He was also absent from the festival...

Seventeen Russian projects and nine international projects from eight countries have been selected to take part in Wemw Goes to Russia, a new international co-production forum organized by Russian state film promotion body Roskino and When East Meets West, the Trieste Film Festival’s co-production platform.

The projects will be presented to potential co-production partners during the Key Buyers Event, which will take place online from June 8-10, with three additional days of screenings and matchmaking.

The Key Buyers Event was conceived in 2019 as a showcase for new Russian content, primarily geared toward foreign buyers. But the addition of a co-production market—expanded this year through the collaboration with When East Meets West—highlights what Roskino topper Evgenia Markova saw as growing demand to create a platform for Russian producers and their foreign counterparts to come together.

“It was the right choice,” Markova told Variety last month. “We saw it from the [Russian] market.

“Better Days” is Hong Kong’s first Oscar submission to be nominated for best international feature film since 1993, but its nod has only inflamed political tensions at home. Many members of the Hong Kong public believe that “Better Days” does not represent them.

Although it was directed by Hong Kong’s Derek Tsang, produced by Jojo Yuet-chun Hui, and counts Hong Konger Lam Wing Sum among its three main screenwriters, “Better Days” features over a hundred Chinese cast members and one Thai, but no Hong Kong actors. It also unfolds in Mandarin, not Cantonese. Adapted from an eponymous Chinese novel, it is set in China’s Chongqing. Its examination of schoolyard bullying is set against the backdrop of the “gaokao,” the mainland’s brutal college entrance examination that doesn’t exist in Hong Kong.

“Even if ‘Better Days’ wins, I won’t feel much… it’s too far removed from the people of Hong Kong.

Exclusive: Memento International has boarded international sales rights to Tribeca Film Festival thriller Catch The Fair One, Oscar-nominated producer Mollye Asher’s follow-up to Nomadland.

The movie, about a former champion boxer who embarks on the fight of her life when she goes in search of her missing sister, marks the acting debut of real-life boxer, Kali “Ko” Reis, the first Native American woman to win a major world title. Reis is the current Wba Super Lightweight World Champion and fought in the first televised women’s bout on HBO.

As announced by Tribeca yesterday, the film will get its world premiere in the festival’s U.S. narrative competition. Above is a first look image from the movie.

Pic is written and directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka and stars Reis in the lead role. Reis also shares a story by credit with Wladyka. Other cast include Daniel Henshall, Tiffany Chu,...

Exclusive: The Matrix and Joker co-producer Village Roadshow Pictures is teaming with Matt Reeves’ 6th & Idaho (The Batman) and XYZ Films (Mandy) for the English-language remake of recently-released Russian sci-fi-thriller Sputnik.

Set in the Soviet Union in the 1980s during the Cold War, the film follows a young female doctor who is recruited by the military to assess a cosmonaut who survived a mysterious space accident and returned to Earth with a dangerous organism living inside him. The English-language remake is currently in development.

Producers for the remake include Matt Reeves, Adam Kassan and Rafi Crohn for 6th & Idaho, Mikhail Vrubel and Alexander Andryushenko for Vodorod Pictures, Fedor Bondarchuk for Art Pictures and Ilya Stewart for Hype Film.

Egor Abramenko, Murad Osmann, Pavel Burya, Alina Tyazhlova and Mila Rozanova are executive producers. XYZ Films also serves as executive producers. Jillian Apfelbaum (Late Night) will oversee for Village Roadshow Pictures.

The...

Even though Chinese consumers are arduously calling for a boycott of Western brands concerned about potential human rights abuses in the country’s Xinjiang region, they apparently had no qualms about supporting Hollywood.

Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s “Godzilla vs. Kong” crushed its competitors in China this weekend with a $70 million debut, marking the biggest premiere for a foreign title in both 2020 and 2021. Its sales marked 82% of the weekend market share, coming from 42,000 screens and more than 11.8 million admissions.

Its $20.9 million (RMB137 million) opening day was also the biggest for a foreign film in the same period — more than double Tenet’s $8.7 million (RMB57 million) first day last September, the previous record-holder. “Tenet” had grossed $30 million in its first China weekend.

“Godzilla vs. Kong” is also now the foreign film with the most opening day pre-sales since cinemas shuttered due to Covid, having sold $6.88 million (RMB45 million) in tickets before its debut.

James Cameron’s “Avatar” once again led the China box office this weekend, with sales of $14 million over the three-day period.

The 2009 film has held its own as the top title every day since its March 12 re-release in China. It has grossed a total of $44 million so far, ten days into its re-run. When it screened in China in 2010, it was a massive hit, raking in $203 million.

Thanks to recent China sales, the sci-fi epic has now regained its crown from “Avengers: Endgame” as the highest grossing movie in history. “Avatar” had held that title for a decade with $2.7897 billion in global sales. But in April 2019, “Avengers” squeaked past it with a $2.7902 billion cume. The recent re-release now puts “Avatar” squarely back in position as the title to beat once again.

“We are proud to reach this great milestone, but Jim and I are most thrilled that the film is...

Vadim Perelman’s modestly budgeted holocaust drama Persian Lessons has been set for release in China on March 19 — in the shadow of James Cameron’s surprise Avatar re-release.

The well-regarded Belarusian-Russian film will pose a test of China’s market for emotionally potent foreign indie filmmaking, which had been growing steadily before the disastrous onset of the pandemic.

Persian Lessons premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2020, where it was greeted warmly by critics and audiences. The film tells the story of a Jewish prisoner who pretends to be Iranian to escape being shot and is then forced to teach Farsi ...

Vadim Perelman’s modestly budgeted holocaust drama Persian Lessons has been set for release in China on March 19 — in the shadow of James Cameron’s surprise Avatar re-release.

The well-regarded Belarusian-Russian film will pose a test of China’s market for emotionally potent foreign indie filmmaking, which had been growing steadily before the disastrous onset of the pandemic.

Persian Lessons premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2020, where it was greeted warmly by critics and audiences. The film tells the story of a Jewish prisoner who pretends to be Iranian to escape being shot and is then forced to teach Farsi ...

China is belatedly scrambling to fill in its post-Lunar New Year screening calendar, announcing Tuesday that it would round out its March offerings with foreign title “Persian Lessons” and a re-release of “Avatar.”

“Avatar” will hit in just three days’ time on March 12. The official screening green light comes so close to the film’s actual re-release date that it appears the Dcp hard drives might not even make it to some cinemas in time. Photos circulated on social media showing piles of boxes of them at an express courier awaiting deployment across the country.

While the six-day Chinese New Year holiday saw a bonanza of seven new releases and sales of a record-breaking $1.2 billion, the lineup in their wake has been relatively empty. The lack of fresh competition so far hasn’t been much of a boon to Hollywood: Both Warner Bros.’ “Tom and Jerry” and Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon...

The Moscow-based company is looking for partners at EFM.

Moscow’s Hype Film, whose credits include Mona Fastvold’s Venice Competition contender The World To Come and Kirill Serebrennikov’s buzzy Petrov’s Flu (sold by Charades), is lining up a project exploring the lives of contemporary Russians with disabilities.

The Carpenter is to be directed by Avdotya (Dunya) Smirnova, whose previous filmmaker credits include Two Days (2011) starring Fedor Bondarchuk, and Andrei Konchalovsky’s 2007 comedy drama Gloss, which she co-wrote.

Smirnova’s drama will look at the experiences of parents who make huge sacrifices to give their disabled child a comfortable life.

China’s $1.2 billion Lunar New Year box office broke world records earlier this month, but Chinese film buyers and sales agents are not jumping to interpret that as a sign of lasting market recovery, particularly for arthouse productions and indie firms.

Despite astonishing ticket sales, some 80% of the six-day holiday box office went to just the top two out of seven titles — “Detective Chinatown 3″ and ‘Hi, Mom” (pictured) — causing the others to underperform.

This, coupled with the fact that the Chinese New Year release window is uniquely popular, means that the trumpeted success “is therefore no indication that after the holiday, the theatrical market will return to what it was before the pandemic,” says Cindy Lin, CEO of indie distributor Infotainment China, which imports foreign arthouse fare.

Numerous insiders observed that one of the big impacts of the pandemic on the Chinese film market has been a greater polarization. Like the wider global economy,...

Lars Eidinger is one of Germany’s greatest stars, and turns in yet another powerful performance, this time in World War Two drama Persian Lessons, alongside the equally brilliant Nahuel Pérez Biscayart. To mark the film’s release, we had the pleasure of speaking to the German on Zoom, as we delved into this brilliant piece of cinema, based on a true story.

Eidinger talks in depth about why he took on this role, as he admits he often turns his nose up at WW2 dramas, wanting the right part to fall on his lap. He also talks about getting into the head of a Nazi, while speaking candidly about Germany’s troubled history. He speaks about the urgency in confronting his nation’s past, and how he believes that the right-wing resurgence in politics of late does bear similarities to Nazism.

Watch the full, and fascinating interview with Lars...

Deadline kicks off the New Year and movie awards season with our first edition of Contenders International, which gets underway this morning at 8 a.m. Pt. The event showcases 22 titles from 15 studios, streamers and distributors with presentations including clips and filmmaker/talent Q&As. In all, 19 of the films are official submissions to the Best International Film category at the 93rd Academy Awards.

Due to the pandemic Contenders International will be presented virtually, so click here to register and join the livestream. You can additionally follow along for the day on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram via @Deadline and #DeadlineContenders. See the full schedule of panels below.

While international markets have been a profit center for the studios for many years, local films have begun to take on greater importance outside festivals and indeed their home countries. That was particularly the case in 2019 with South Korea’s Parasite, which went on...

The Academy on Friday unveiled to its voters a record 93 films will compete in the Best International Feature Film category — which will no doubt leading to a busy four weeks of viewing before first-round voting begins on Feb. 1.

Helped by Covid-inspired rules that relaxed the usual entry requirements, the films topped the record of 92 entries set in 2017, as TheWrap suggested they likely would in December. The films include a record 34 female directors, seven more than the previous high of 27 set last year.

This is not the official list of qualifying films, which is expected to be released by the Academy later in January. But these 93 films are all in the members-only online screening room devoted to the category, and each of them has been put on a “required viewing” list for one-fourth of the voters. It is unlikely that any of the films will be disqualified at this point, although...

Vadim Perelman’s “Persian Lessons” has been pulled from the international feature film Oscar race, where the acclaimed WWII drama was representing Belarus.

As part of the international feature film submission process, a country’s selection committee is required to provide a list of credits in key creative positions, both above and below the line. Variety understands that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences removed the film from consideration because it didn’t meet the category’s eligibility requirements for the majority of creative control to originate from residents of the submitting country.

The WWII drama, which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year, is set in occupied France in 1942 and stars Nahuel Perez Biscayart (“Beats Per Minute”) as a Belgian Jew who narrowly avoids execution by a Nazi firing squad when he claims to be Persian. He is then enlisted to teach Farsi — which he...

Belarus’ Oscar© 2020 Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Persian Lessons’ Directed by Vadim Perelman

The story of the journey of this film — a highly suspenseful drama full of twists and turns telling a compelling and emotional story of…

Continue reading on SydneysBuzz The Blog »...

While the Academy has not yet released the full official list, these are the films Variety has learned have been submitted by various countries in the international film race. The shortlist will be announced Feb. 9 and the nominations on March 15. The Academy Awards ceremony takes place on April 25.

Albania Open Door

Director: Florenc Papas

Key Cast: Luli Bitri, Jonida Vokshi, Gulielm Radoja

Logline: Pregnant woman and her sister try to find a man to pretend to be the mom-to-be’s husband before visiting their traditional father.

Prodco: Bunker Film Plus

Algeria Héliopolis

Director: Djaâfar Gacem

Key cast: Souhila Mallem, Mehdi

Ramdani, Cesar Duminil

Logline: Algerians fight for independence punctuated by the 1945 massacre in the ancient city of Héliopolis.

Prodco: Centre Algérien de Développement du Cinéma

Argentina The Sleepwalkers

Director: Paula Hernández

Key Cast: Érica Rivas, Ornella D’elía, Marilu Marini, Daniel Hendler

Logline: A family drama encompasses the sexual awakening...

Vadim Perelman’s “Persian Lessons” will represent Belarus in the best international feature film race at the 2021 Oscars, Variety has learned.

The WWII drama, which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival this year, stars Nahuel Perez Biscayart (“Beats Per Minute”) as a Belgian Jew who narrowly avoids execution by a Nazi firing squad when he claims to be Persian. Desperate to save himself, he offers to teach Farsi — a language he does not know — to the head of the camp, played by German star Lars Eidinger (“Clouds of Sils Maria”).

Perelman (“House of Sand and Fog”) directed from a script by Ilya Zofin, based on the story “Erfindung Einer Sprache” by Wolfgang Kohlhaase. “Persian Lessons” is produced by Moscow-based Hype Film (“Leto”) and co-produced by Berlin-based Lm Media and One Two Films in association with Belarusfilm. Memento Films International is handling world sales.

“The film is especially important and relevant in our time,...

Bookmark this page for all the latest international feature submissions.

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2021 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

Scroll down for the full list

The 93rd Academy Awards is set to take place on April 25, 2021. It was originally set to be held on February 28, before both the ceremony and eligibility period were postponed for two months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Submitted films must have been released in their respective countries between the expanded dates of October 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020. (Last year it was October-September.

The feature film from Kosovo-born filmmaker Fatos Berisha win the Grand Prix at the 8th edition of the festival. Persian Lessons wins the Audience Award and a Special Mention. A unique festival dedicated to the cinematic exploration of conflicts and their consequences, War on Screen has successfully concluded its 8th edition, the audience of Châlons-en-Champagne proving to be very faithful despite restricting health measures. Unveiled yesterday, the 2020 list of winners saw the jury (which included among others director Manele Labidi and actor Damien Bonnard) hand out the Grand Prix to The Flying Circus from Kosovo-born filmmaker Fatos Berisha. Discovered at the Tallinn Black Nights film festival, the film is set in the early days of the war in Kosovo and follows a theatre group from Pristina which puts up a play inspired by the Monty Python. Trying to illegally cross the border so that they can participate in a...

Cinemas are looking to bounce back from a week of bad news.

France, opening Wednesday September 23

UFO Distribution and Potemkine Films joined forces this week for a rare general release of a medium-length film to launch Gaspar Noé’s 51-minute work Lux Æterna on 47 prints. Co-starring Beatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a director and actress locked in a hellish shoot, the work debuted Out of Competition in Cannes in 2019.

Noé’s cult status at home ensured plenty of press and according to France’s Cbo Box Office the picture came in fifth out of 15 new releases on its first day in cinemas,...

Memento International has unveiled the trailer for “Persian Lessons,” the anticipated WWII drama directed by Vadim Perelman (“House of Sand and Fog”), ahead of its theatrical roll-out in Germany later this month.

Alamode Films Distribution will release the film in Germany on Sept. 24 in Germany and will present it on the opening night of the Jewish Film Festival. The movie world premiered at Berlin last year, in the Panorama section, and was a festival highlight.

One of the rare arthouse movies scheduled for a theatrical release during the pandemic, “Persian Lessons” will be released in Russia in mid-October by Hype Films, and in the U.S., France and the U.K. in January by Cohen Media Group, Kmbo and Signature, respectively.

The German-Russian movie is nominated in many categories at the European Films Awards and Cohen Media Group intends to position it for the Awards season, starting with the Golden...

Principal shooting is set to begin next month on the latest feature from critically acclaimed Russian director Yury Bykov, whose sophomore film “The Major” played in Cannes’ Critics’ Week, Variety has learned.

“The Owner” is produced by Ilya Stewart, Pavel Buria, and Murad Osmann of Moscow-based Hype Film, in their first collaboration with Kinopoisk, Russia’s leading streaming platform. Olga Filipuk is producing for Kinopoisk, which is owned by search engine Yandex.

Also co-producing are Dan Wechsler and Jamal Zeinal Zade of Switzerland’s Bord Cadre Films and Andreas Roald of the U.K.’s Sovereign Films, who are both co-producers on Cannes Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund’s upcoming feature “Triangle of Sadness.” Mexico’s Pimienta Films headed by Nicolas Celis (“Roma”), and Jim Stark are on board as executive producers.

Handling world sales and boarding the film as co-producers are Carole Baraton, Yohann Comte, and Pierre Mazars of Paris-based Charades.

Feature is produced by long-time Kirill Serebrennikov collaborator Hype Film in Moscow.

Paris-based Pulsar Content is launching sales on Russian-language serial killer crime thriller The Execution at TIFF, with XYZ Films on board to handle North American sales. It started shooting in Russia on September 9.

The thriller is inspired by the case of an infamous Soviet-era serial killer who eluded police for a decade.

It is the latest production from Moscow-based company Hype Film, the producer of Kirill Serebrennikov’s Leto and upcoming Petrov’s Flu as well as titles such as Persian Lessons and Sputnik.

The thriller marks the...