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Su nueva película, ‘Playa de Lobos’, se proyectará fuera de concurso. © Festival de Málaga

El 28 Festival de Málaga, que se celebra del del 14 al 23 de marzo, concederá al intérprete argentino Guillermo Francella el Premio Retrospectiva, que reconoce su impresionante y amplia trayectoria en el cine hispanohablante.

Francella se suma así a una lista de ilustres galardonados con el Premio Retrospectiva, en la que figuran nombres como el cineasta argentino Marcelo Piñeyro, el director español Alberto Rodríguez o la actriz argentina Mercedes Morán.

El premio lo otorga la organización junto a Málaga Hoy, que ha entrevistado al actor, que ha expresado su emoción: «Esta distinción que me otorgó el Festival de Málaga de homenajearme con una retrospectiva de mi vida, de mi carrera, me hace muy feliz, y más de poder estar ahí. […] La magnitud del festival, que nunca he estado, pero sigo los movimientos de cada festival que se produce,...

Exclusive: Film Movement have acquired North American rights for Oscar-nominated Palestinian director Scandar Copti’s timely movie Happy Holidays, which has been enjoying a prize-winning run on the festival circuit following its Venice debut last year.

The portrait of a contemporary Palestinian family and the complexities of its life in Israel premiered in Venice’s Orizzonti sidebar last September, clinching its Best Screenplay award.

Since then, it has played at a dozen festivals, clinching top awards at the Thessaloniki and Marrakech film festivals among others along the way.

The acquisition announcement was made by Film Movement President Michael Rosenberg and Nicolas Eschbach, CEO of French company Indie Sales.

“Though he’s just at the beginning of his filmmaking career, Scandar has shown an ability to create characters that portray Israeli and Palestinian life in an authentic and unforgettable manner,” says Rosenberg.

“At a time when all eyes are on the region,...

One of the most active of sales agents at this week’s Ventana Sur, Madrid-based Latido Films has closed international rights on adventure-comedy “Small Town” (“Pueblo Chico”) a parable of greed and instance of the building scale and ambition of Latin American animation co-production whether regional or reaching out to Spain.

The subject of a Ventana Sur panel on Wednesday, “Small Town,” long in the works, marks the comeback of Uruguay’s Walter Tournier (“Selkirk”), one of the most veteran of Latin American animation directors whose career stretches back to 1972’s cut-out animated short “In the Forest There Is Much to Do” and takes in Uruguay’s first animated feature, “Selkirk.”

In “Small Town,” a winner at Ventana Sur’s 2017’s Animation! which segued to a 2018 Animation! Focus at Annecy’s Mifa’s market, Tournier co-directs with another acknowledged Latin American master of stop-motion animation, Brazil’s Quirino winner Cesar Cabral.

Seen from the 14th floor of its Radisson Hotel, Montevideo’s skyline, bristling with white marble high-rises and monuments, looks like a very different scenario for Ventana Sur, Latin America’s foremost film-tv co-pro forum and market, relocated from its chic Buenos Aires setting for the first time since 2009.

Yet in many ways, this is the same Ventana Sur, playing to its strengths and galvanized by its context, Uruguay, one of Latin America’s fastest-growing film-tv hubs, both as a big-shoot locale and home-grown movie industry.

Ten takes, as producers and sales agents began to arrive at the Radisson for this year’s edition, hosted by Cannes Marché du Film and Uruguay’s public-sector film agency, Agencia del Cine y Audiovisual (Acau), and running Dec. 2-6 in the Uruguayan capital:

Attendance Holds

As of Saturday night, attendance had just passed 2,000 delegates, tracking to hit that number of jobbing professionals by market end,...

“Press play and stay” is how Netflix’s Lat Am content boss characterized the streamer’s programing strategy as he unveiled sneak peeks of two of the most anticipated TV series out of the region ever, 100 Years of Solitude and Senna, along with first-looks at the Vinicius Junior movie and some new shows.

Paco Ramos, VP of Content, Lat-Am was speaking at an international Netflix event in LA, hosted by Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer.

As well as preview videos of 100 Years of Solitude and Senna, the streamer announced a second season of Chilean drama Baby Bandito. The first season of the crime drama topped Netflix’s global chart for non-English-language shows for three weeks.

Also out of Chile is Limpia, a new film based on the Alia Trabucco Zerán novel of the same name. Dominga Sotomayor (Los barcos) writes and directs. Gabriela Larralde (El Presidente) is co-writer on the film,...

Firmly established as one of Europe’s biggest dedicated showcases for movies from Latin America, Spain and Portugal, Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival celebrates its 50th edition with a bang, with a high-caliber main Competition, a new showcase on Spain. Following, some highlights and trends at this year’s festival, which runs Nov. 15-23.

Paz Vega: A Director is Born

Paz Vega will accept at Huelva a Premio Luz at this year’s opening ceremony. It comes at an opportune time. Known to date as a performer – star of Adam Sandler comedy “Spanglish” and Julio Medem’s carnal physiological odyssey “Sex and Lucia” – Vega has just bowed her first feature, the heavily autobiographical “Rita,” to upbeat reviews. Major plaudits to not only the central performance of the eponymous Rita, a loveable seven year-old moppet growing up in 1984 working class Seville, but Vega’s helming. “Rita’ is shot with an exquisite taste for light,...

Grup Mediapro, the Barcelona-based global holding, including The Mediapro Studio, is launching and will manage a €1 billion ($1.1 billion) sports rights brokering fund, targeting established and emerging sports.

The new fund was announced Tuesday in Madrid at a Mediapro 30th anniversary celebration, which catches the company in expansive mode, coming less than a week from the unveil at Cannes Mipcom trade fair of The Mediapro Studio US & Canada’s first English-language slate of series and films.

In the mix are projects from John Turturro, Melissa Leo, “24” showrunner Evan Katz, Oscar winner Juan José Campanella (“The Secret in Their Eyes”) “Mafia Spies’” Tom Donahue, “The Floor” showrunner Anthony Carbone and Matt Hastings.

At the 30th anniversary, Grup Mediapro also announced that its 10,200 sq. meter Mediapro Yonkers Studios will open its doors in April 2025, its three sound stages occupying a total of 4,600 sq. meters of floor space.

Mediapro also lifted the lid on Tuesday on Mediapro Xperiences,...

Spanish studio Mediapro has unveiled its slate of English-language content in the U.S. and Canada at MIPCOM Cannes on Wednesday, including a new film written and directed by and starring John Turturro.

Head of Mediapro Studio in the U.S. and Canada J.C. Acosta spoke with 24 producer Evan Katz, head of unscripted at Mediapro Pam Healey, CEO Laura Fernandez Espeso, TV producer Ran Tellem and Oscar-winning writer-director Juan-José Campanella.

Espeso began: “Our strategic approach in the U.S. aligns perfectly with our initiatives in other key territories, emphasizing the creativity of the talent, but also relevance and reach and, of course, diversity, which is a priority in our company.” It was over to Acosta, who spoke optimistically and passionately about “writing a new chapter in the U.S. and Canada, doubling down on English language content,” after Mediapro North America was unveiled six months ago.

Their fully-fledged English-language content...

Mediapro’s fledgling North American studio unveiled a raft of new movies, series, docs and formats in a news-packed MIPCOM keynote this morning. John Turturro delivered a video address and spoke about his adaptation of Is There No Place on Earth for Me? as the Spanish media giant made a series of statement announcements.

Having unveiled Mediapro North America six months ago, CEO Laura Espeso introduced the session. Jc Acosta, Head of the Mediapro Studio U.S. & Canada, proceeded to unveil the LA, New York and Miami-based North American division of the Spanish company.

For Espeso, the move is more than just a push into another market. “It has the potential to resonate globally, influencing cultures and trends worldwide,” she told Deadline’s Stewart Clarke on stage at MIPCOM. “There is no way we will miss this opportunity. We have been working on this for the past 10 years.”

Acosta said...

Updated: John Turturro, Melissa Leo, “24” showrunner Evan Katz and Oscar winner Juan José Campanella will be joined by Tom Donahue, director of “Mafia Spies,” “The Floor” showrunner Anthony Carbone and Matt and Tina Hastings on the first English-language slate of The Mediapro Studio US & Canada.

Presented at Mipcom at a Media Mastermind session on Wednesday by The Mediapro Studio’s CEO Laura Fernández Espeso, Juan “Jc” Acosta, head of the Los Angeles-based The Mediapro Studio US & Canada, the slate represents a long-standing major gameplan announced by Fernández Espeso in 2021.

One highlight of the presentation was video message relayed on the big screen of Cannes’ Palais des Festival’s Grand Auditorium where Tuturro relayed his thoughts on his upcoming film, with The Mediapro Studio, turning on a brilliant woman who suffers schizophrenia and underscored its emotional relevance to him.

“I’ve always resisted doing one of these kind of films, because...

The bold economic changes introduced by Argentina’s far-right leader Javier Milei aren’t the only reason the Latin American country’s film industry is struggling, according to veteran producer Axel Kuschevatzky.

Kuschevatzky, best known for producing internationally successful Argentine projects like Argentina, 1985 and The Secret in Their Eyes, caught up with us at Iberseries & Platino Industria in Madrid, where Argentina’s industry has been a hot-button topic.

Traditionally known as one of Latin America’s most mature and prosperous film industries, Argentina’s film sector has been in freefall since March when the government of Milei, the country’s far-right leader, pushed through highly controversial plans to cut all state funding to the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (Incaa), the country’s national film body. At the same time, Argentina’s economy, the second largest in South America, has been in a semi-permanent state of crisis since...

New Zealand-based Black Mandala Films has picked up sales rights to “1978,” a horror film that starts with a soccer match.

The film will have its world premiere on Friday at the Sitges fantasy and horror film festival in Spain. It will have its U.S. festival premiere at Screamfest on Oct. 12.

Directed by Luciano and Nicolás Onetti, from a screenplay by Luciano Onetti, Nicolás Onetti and Camilo Zaffora, the story is set during the World Cup final between Argentina and Holland, and against the backdrop of a military dictatorship. A group of torturers breaks into a home and kidnaps a group of young people before taking them to a clandestine detention center. What begins as an inhumane interrogation turns into a true martyrdom: the wrong group of people has been kidnapped. They turn out to be part of a macabre cult guided by an unknown supernatural force and the...

Argentina’s National Academy has selected Kill The Jockey (El Jockey) as the country’s submission in the best international feature film Oscar category.

‘Kill The Jockey’: Venice Review

Luis Ortega’s comedy plays in San Sebastian’s Horizontes Latinos section dedicated to Latin American productions after premiering in Venice and received its North American premiere in Toronto.

Nahuel Perez Biscayart from Robin Campillo’s 120 Bpm stars in the tale of identity and reinvention as a gifted jockey who falls foul of a mobster.

The cast includes Ursula Corbero from Money Heist, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Mariana Di Girólamo, and Daniel Fanego,...

by Nathaniel R

Selena Gomez in "Emilia Perez"

We've already posted two reviews of Emilia Perez here at Tfe, from Elisa (pro) and Cláudio (con), and it's been a potential Oscar player since it's premiere at Cannes in May.  Today France announced that the buzzy drug cartel trans musical curiousity would represent them at the Oscars, beating out fellow finalists Misericordia, All We Imagine as Light, and The Count of Monte Cristo. This is the second time France has submitted the often thrilling auteur Jacques Audiard. His previous submission, Un Prophete, was nominated for the prize back in 2009 but surely split the 'critical consensus' vote with Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon, allowing Argentina to slip between them for the win for the sleeper success The Secret in Their Eyes.  France hasn't won the Oscar in this category since 1992's Indochine. Could Emilia Perez finally spell gold again for the birthplace of cinema?...

Chile’s Sebastián Freund of Rizoma Films and Argentine thesps Ernesto Alterio (“The Passenger”) and Soledad Villamil (“The Secret in Their Eyes”) have boarded the upcoming feature by Argentine filmmaker Alberto Lecchi, “A Distant Place” (“Un lugar lejano”).

Rizoma Films joins lead producer Twins Latin Films of Argentina and co-producers Filmakers Monkeys (Spain) in the drama that participates in the Iberseries & Platino Industria Co-Production Forum in Madrid.

Penned by Gerardo Pranteda, the story revolves around a pianist and a history teacher as they struggle for a second chance at love before a shattering illness impacts the musician’s grip on reality.

“We are excited to make a film that shows how love, memory, and bonds can offer comfort and hope even in the most difficult moments. It also addresses frontotemporal dementia, a condition rarely explored in cinema, providing an empathetic and sensitive perspective,” said Lorena Quevedo, CEO & producer at Twins Latin Films.

Netflix Argentina executives have been promoting the upcoming slate featuring new work from Ricardo Darin, Santiago Mitre, and Juan José Campanella including series adaptations of two of the most iconic graphic novels and comic strips in Latin America.

Leading the new productions at the Made In Argentina showcase unveiled to industry members in Buenos Aires on Monday night was 27 Nights (27 Noches), Daniel Hendler’s adaptation of the family drama novel by Natalia Zito inspired by actual events.

Mitre, who wrote and directed the 2023 Oscar-nominated Argentina, 1985, will serve as producer on 27 Nights.

Campanella, the writer-director of The Secret In Their Eyes...

Netflix has unveiled a deep slate of originals out of Argentina including an animated adaptation of iconic comic strip Mafalda from Oscar-winning director Juan José Campanella. Another adaptation is El Eternauta, based on the graphic novel of the same name. There will also be a local version of dating series Love is Blind and a three-part doc about Argentine soccer star Ángel Di María.

The streamer’s Made In Argentina slate was presented at an event in Buenos Aires and comprised a whopping 19 projects. The standout titles included Mafalda, which has iconic status in Argentina where it ran as a comic strip in various newspapers. Created by cartoonist Quino, it follows the titular little girl and her family and friends.

Campanella, who helmed the Oscar-winning The Secret In Their Eyes (Best Foreign Language Film), will be director, screenwriter and showrunner. Mundoloco CGI, the animation studio he co-founded, is producing the series.

Dirigida por el ganador del Óscar Juan José Campanella.

Netflix ha anunciado hoy en redes sociales que se encuentra en desarrollo una serie animada basada en Mafalda, que será dirigida por Juan José Campanella, el cineasta argentino ganador del premio Óscar a la Mejor película de habla no inglesa en 2010 por El secreto de sus ojos.

Mafalda es una tira periodística cómica argentina creada por el dibujante Quino y publicada entre 1964 y 1973. Se centra en una niña de seis años de clase media, Mafalda, quien se caracteriza por su aguda preocupación por problemas globales como la paz mundial y el hambre.

Esta historieta se convirtió en un símbolo cultural en Argentina y alcanzó gran popularidad tanto en Latinoamérica como en España.

Así lo han anunciado:

Buenas noticias para los fans de 'Mafalda'. La icónica historieta tendrá su propia serie animada en Netflix, de la mano del ganador del Oscar Juan José Campanella.

Twdc-Disney have secured the theatrical and streaming rights in the LatAm for Sebastian Schindel's new crime/psychological-thriller feature film A Silent Death (Una Muerte Silenciosa). In the depths of Patagonia during the 80’s, a hunting guide stumbles upon a shocking crime involving his niece, forcing him to investigate and to confront the haunting secrets of that era dark years in his pursue of justice. The new thriller from Argentina stars Joaquin Furriel, Soledad Villamil, Alejandro Awada, and Maria Marull (Wild Tales). Our friends at FilmSharks are handling international sales at March du Film in Cannes. Crime Thriller Master Sebastian Schindel's...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Famed Argentine director Daniel Burman’s new feature “Transmitzvah,” his first in nearly eight years, will receive a Cinéma de la Plage world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Burman first broke out internationally with a double Berlin Silver Bear win in 2004 for his fourth feature, “Lost Embrace,” and became one of Latin America’s most exportable box office draws in the following years. However, founding Oficina Burman, which was incorporated into The Mediapro Studio, his attention has shifted to creating and producing series for the past seven years, most notably Prime Video’s “Yosi, the Regretful Spy,” reckoned by many as the best title playing Berlinale Series in 2022.

“For 20 years, I made films. In my twenties, thirties, forties, I made a film every two years,” he recalled in a recent conversation with Variety. “Now, I went seven years only making series. When I went back to the...

Buenos Aires-based production, sales and distribution company FilmSharks has picked up all worldwide rights to the new crime thriller by Argentina’s Sebastian Schindel, “A Silent Death” (Una muerte silenciosa”), to which it has sold Latin American theatrical rights to Disney’s Star Distribution, slated for release later in the year.

Said FilmSharks CEO Guido Rud: “This is likely to become one of the biggest Latin American films of the year. Sebastian Schindel has earned his stripes as the Master of Crime after the huge international success of his films ‘The Boss,’ ‘Anatomy of a Crime,’ ‘Crimes that Bind’ and ‘The Wrath of God.’”

“There is a huge appetite for crime films across all platforms,” noted Rud who also holds the remake rights to the film.

Starring Joaquín Furriel, Soledad Villamil (“The Secret in Their Eyes”) Alejandro Awada (“Nine Queens”) and Maria Marull (“Wild Tales”), the psychological thriller is...

Shortly before a momentous vote takes place in Argentina, Deadline spoke with leading film professionals about how “devastating” reforms could derail the country’s movie sector.

On Wednesday, the country’s new far-right President Javier Milei will try to push through a legislative program in Congress that aims to deregulate industries, expand presidential powers, silence dissenters and reimagine or do away with decades-old institutions.

Often dubbed “El Loco” (The Madman) by his critics, Milei, a self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist,” only entered politics in 2021 after a colorful career as an economist and TV pundit. His election win late last year was seen by many as an anti-establishment vote fueled by anger over the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

Argentina’s economy, the second largest in South America, has been in a semi-permanent state of crisis since 2018. The country’s economic woes deepened over the past year, with inflation at a record...

Madrid — Greater than fiction. Viewed by an estimated 5 billion, the most watched event in TV history, and the climax of the most popular sport on earth, no achievement compares in epic terms to Argentina’s victory in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Yet soccer, as Atletico de Madrid manager Diego Simeone famously has it, is played match by match. It is won moment by moment. No doc feature to date perhaps captures the ever evolving drama of Argentina’s campaign – the flux and flow of psychological advantage, the huge emotional stakes, the roll call of protagonists, and the multiple narratives of universal resonance emerging moment by moment – than “Soccer Soul” (“Elijo Creer”), narrated by Ricardo Darín, star of Oscar-winning “The Secret in Their Eyes” and dropped by HBO Max on Jan. 11 in Argentina and the rest of Latin America.

It begins with the defining moment of the whole 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Content Americas, the fast-rising trade event in Miami, has unveiled the finalists for its 2024 Content Americas CoPro Pitch and Content Americas Hispanic Kids Programming Pitch.

According to event organizer C21, more than 80 submissions rolled in for the CoPro Pitch and over 50 for the Kids Pitch from seasoned producers across Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

Among the CoPro Pitch finalists are scripted series “Hot Sur,” an adaptation of the Laura Restrepo bestseller about an undocumented Mexican immigrant looking after her bipolar sister in the U.S. This hails from Chilean powerhouse shingle, Fabula, run by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larrain, in partnership with Fremantle. Spain’s The Mediapro Studio submitted “El mal,” an 8-episode thriller based on actual events. Set in Barcelona during the pandemic lockdown, a serial killer has been targeting those who literally have no refuge, the homeless.

Leading the Hispanic Kids Programming Pitch entries are animated adventure pic,...

Prime Video has pounced on Mexican comedy “Tequila Repasado” by Gabriela Tagliavini., which it premieres worldwide on Dec. 20.

Co-produced by Sony Pictures Int’l Prods and Mexico-based Itaca Films and Feel Good Films, the comedy was originally written in English by Judd Pilot (“Coach”) and Gerald B. Fillmore (“Muertos S.L.”) to be later adapted for the Spanish-language market by Joan Vives, Ilse Apellaniz and Ricardo Avilés.

Said Tagliavini: “I loved the script. It was weird and hilarious yet also spiritual. And it allowed me to use interesting VFX and create original visuals, which is always a fun challenge!”

“Tequila Repasado” revolves around a workaholic who finds himself repeatedly transported back in time by a mystical tequila, forcing him to outsmart his multiplying selves as he struggles to mend his relationships with his family.

The title, which roughly means Tequila Reviewed, is a play on the term Tequila Reposado, which...

Paramount+ hasn’t set a streaming date for The Envoys (Los Enviados) season two, but they have just released the first teaser trailer for the new season. According to Paramount+, season one was so popular on the streaming service that it ranks first among Spanish-language scripted series.

The series stars Luis Gerardo Méndez (Narcos: Mexico) as Pedro Salinas and Miguel Ángel Silvestre (Narcos) as Simón Antequera. Assira Abbate, Marta Etura, Manuel Ríos, Susi Sánchez, Charo Zapardiel, Cristina Marcos, and Ricardo de Barreiro also star.

The cast also includes Isabel Naveira, Miquel Insúa, Pepo Suevos, Guillermo Carbajo, Francis Lorenzo, Carlos Olalla, and Luis Iglesia.

Emmy and Oscar winner Juan José Campanella (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) guides the series as showrunner, producer, and director. Martino Zaidelis, Camilo Antolini, and Inma Torrente also direct, with Eduardo Sacheri, Emanuel Diez, and Juan Pablo Domenech joining Campanella as writers. 100 Bares’ Muriel Cabeza and Portaocabo’s Alfonso Blanco executive produce.

Paramount+ today released the official teaser trailer for the second season of the Spanish-language thriller series The Envoys (Los Enviados).  The original series features an all-star cast, including Luis Gerardo Méndez and Miguel Ángel Silvestre.  Oscar winner Juan José Campanella (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) serves as showrunner, producer and director. All eight episodes will be available to binge exclusively on Paramount+ soon. In the second season, Priests Pedro Salinas (Méndez) and Simón Antequera (Silvestre) delve into a web of mystery and murder in a Galician convent. With ... Read more...

by Cláudio Alves

In its long history, the Academy has awarded the Best International Film Oscar to a Latin-American country four times. The first two were from Argentina, 1985's The Official Story and 2009's The Secret in Their Eyes, followed by Chile with 2017's A Fantastic Woman, and Mexico with 2019's Roma. Looking at those dates, it's fair to say AMPAS has become more open to Latin cinema in the 21st century, even though Europe remains the category's continental champion. Hope remains eternal that voters will broaden their horizons.

I've already reviewed Chile's submission, The Settlers, when at TIFF. So, it's time to consider the films of the other two Latin victors of yesteryear. There's Argentina's newly released The Delinquents, and Mexico's Berlinale prize-winner Tótem…...

With the writers’ strike over, a new studio brand and new management in part of international, Paramount Global execs are attending Madrid’s Iberseries & Platino Industria, Rome’s Mia market and Mipcom as they talk up their competitive assets and priorities to the international market.

In one move, five months after the launch of Paramount Television International Studios in May, Paramount Global’s Darío Turovelzky delivered a keynote on Thursday at Iberseries & Platino Industria.

A rising star at Paramount, with oversight of ViacomCBS’ Argentine and Chilean broadcast networks Telefe and Chilevisión from 2019, Turovelzky himself was promoted to executive VP, Broadcast & Studios, Paramount Global, Latin America in late July.

His on-stage interview came just one day after Paramount’s U.K.’s chief marketing officer Anna Priest was announced as senior VP and head of Paramount+ for U.K. market, overseeing its “strategic vision” and pursuing growth opportunities.

Nicole Clemens, president...

It won’t be labor union demands or producers that ultimately lead to streamers releasing viewing data, according to prolific Argentine producer Axel Kuschevatzky.

The Infinity Hill partner — whose credits include Golden Globe winner Argentina, 1985, Academy Award winner The Secret in Their Eyes and Cannes Film Festival winner Paulina — was addressing the recent WGA-amptp deal during a keynote interview at Madrid’s Iberseries & Platino Industria (Ipi) event.

Part of the WGA’s new deal provides writers with more meaningful streamer residuals. Kuschevatzky said this would be based on confidential viewing data supplied to the union, which would then tally how much a writer is owed. However, it will be advertisers who force the data out into the open, he predicted.

“Most streaming platforms don’t share figures, so we have no idea what’s going on,” he said. “Every now and then you hear things have gone well — you get...

Mubi to release in US, Latin America, UK, other regions.

Argentina’s selection committee has submitted Rodrigo Moreno’s Cannes Un Certain Regard entry The Delinquents (Los Delincuentes) as this season’s international feature film contender.

The Delinquents: Cannes review

Mubi acquired rights for North America, UK & Ireland, Latin America, Turkey, Italy, India, and Benelux from Magnolia International.

The Delinquents stars Argentinian actors Daniel Elías, Esteban Bigliardi and Margarita Molfino and follows a Buenos Aires bank employee who dreams up a plan to free himself and his co-worker from the humdrum routine of their working lives.

Laura Paredes, Mariana Chaud,...

Madrid-based Latido Films has unveiled a slew of sales during the summer, led by standout deals reached on Daniel Calparsoro’s thriller “All the Names of God” and Gerardo Herrero’s comedy “Under Therapy.”

The announcement comes as the 20 year-old company Latido disclosed early sales deals to Javier Fesser’s “Championext,” the sequel to his comedy blockbuster “Champions”- which has become Spain’s biggest box office hit of 2023, scoring €7.52 million ($8.08 million) and 1.2 million tickets sold through Sept. 3, three weekends after its Aug. 18 release.

Latido deal details add some much needed granularity to the state of the non-English language sales scene as major festivals take place at Venice and now Toronto.

A Bullish Summer

“It has been a good summer for Latido. And we hope for an even better fall,” explained Latido CEO Antonio Saura.

“The way the post-covid market works is not only linked to the market events themselves.

On today’s Crew Call we talk with The English composer Federico Jusid, who came into Hollywood’s spotlight after the industry caught his score on the Oscar winning 2009 foreign film, The Secret in Their Eyes.

In the Prime Video series, Emily Blunt plays Cornelia Locke, a woman who arrives to America in 1890 to avenge her son’s death. While an Ennio Morricone sound is natural with any western’s score, Jusid went further to distinguish The English from the rest, incorporating 19th century piano and strings to represent Locke’s homeland.

But if you’re relishing The English on a big screen TV, Jusid’s score sings through, giving it a theatrical quality. Talking about achieving that style, the composer tells Crew Call, “You allow yourself to use a wider orchestra, and of course, sometimes to take a slower tempo.” Jusid expounds on how he boarded the Hugo Blick created series,...

Buenos Aires-based Meikincine has swooped on international sales rights to “The Extortion,” the biggest Argentine box office hit to date of 2023, in a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery Latin America.

“The Extortion” is backed by a pedigreed combo of Particular Crowd, Oscar winner Juan José Campanella’s 100 Bars, “Argentina, 1985” producer Infinity Hill and producer-service company Cimarrón Cine.

Headlined by Guillermo Francella, memorable in Campanella’s Academy Award winning “The Secret in Their Eyes” and star of Pablo Trapero’s “The Clan,” “The Extortion” turns on Alejandro, a pilot with a secret. Blackmailed by sinister intelligence service agents, he is plunged into a world of intrigue and corruption from which he will battle to escape alive.

Inspired by a true life Argentine crime story, “The Extortion” marks the second feature from Martino Zaidelis (“Re Loca”). Released April 6 in theaters in Argentina by Warner Bros., “The Extortion” scored 418,535 admissions last month, a...

Few European arthouse-crossover film sales agents have better weathered the ebb and flow of international market dynamics than Madrid’s Latido Films, which turns 20 in 2023.

Proof of that came at April’s Platino Awards, where Latido scored six statuettes, split between an acting double for Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Lullaby” and four for Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” which has already swept Spain’s Goya Awards and scored a French Cesar for foreign film.

Scoring €6.8 million ($7.5 million) in Spain, and 327,000 admissions in France, “The Beasts” also rates as one of the top-performing recent Spanish-language movies.

If Latido has survived for so long, insists director general Antonio Saura, it’s because of a core strategy of “working with talent, our search for talent.” Beyond that, other keys have been “collaboration with production companies that understand long-term relationships, and well-established relationships with clients.”

Companies with which Latido has held or holds...

Tubi originals for April include “Dead Hot,” co-starring Vanessa Hudgens and Gg Magree. They play witchcraft students who long to connect with the spirit world. But when a ghost hunt goes wrong, they head to Salem, Massachusetts, for a masterclass.

“A Good Man,” another streamer original, lands on April 13. A man enters a new relationship in the aftermath of his wife’s affair. But soon, things go awry when he notices familiar signs of betrayal.

The four movies that comprise “The Scorpion King” arrive April 1. A prequel and spinoff of “The Mummy,” the first movie, in 2002, is a sorcery action-adventure film starring starring Dwayne Johnson, Steven Brand, Kelly Hu, Grant Heslov, and Michael Clarke Duncan. An evil ruler wants to conquer the tribes of the desert.

Jim Carrey fans will want to revisit the two “Ace Ventura” comedies. Carrey shows off his gift for physical comedy, while creating a wacky...

Oscar award-winning veteran producer Gerardo Herrero, (“The Secret In Their Eyes”) returns to the director’s chair with “Under Therapy,” his stark and unnerving big screen rendition of playwright Matías Del Federico’s theatrical production. The project bowed in competition at the Málaga Film festival earlier this week and is set for broader theatrical release in Spanish cinemas on Friday.

Latido Films handles international sales.

Enamored with the staged rendition, Herrero was inspired to add a distinctly cinematic touch to the script, honoring its darker underpinnings amidst the narratives’ anxious banter.

“The first time that I saw the production, I fell in love with the work,” Herrero told Variety. “Despite the fact that the show’s very well directed, written and performed, for me it’s much lighter than the movie. The movie’s not a comedy, it’s a drama with humor,” he revealed. “I love that they laugh and that afterwards they freeze,...

Since 1961, Argentina has been sending films to vie in the international film race and Ricardo Darin, the country’s most celebrated actor, stars in at least seven of them, including this year’s nominee, “Argentina 1985.” That’s no mean feat but given his lifetime commitment to his craft, perhaps not surprising.

Four of them: “Son of the Bride” (2001), “The Secret in their Eyes” (2009), “Wild Tales” (2014) and now the Amazon Studios-backed “Argentina 1985,” have either been shortlisted or in the case of Juan José Campanella’s “The Secret in Their Eyes,” taken home the golden statuette. Given its wins at the Venice Film Festival, the National Board of Review and the Golden Globes as well as the growing buzz, “Argentina 1985” may again clinch the honor.

Before his international career-launching turn in 2000 heist drama “Nine Queens,” which spawned a Hollywood remake, Darin, 66, had already worked in 35 films, aside from numerous roles in television,...

Exclusive: Cleopatra Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Argentinian director and producer Nicolas Onetti’s slasher picture What The Waters Left Behind: Scars.

The picture is the sequel to Onetti’s 2017 horror hit What The Waters Left Behind about a group of youngsters whose plan to shoot a documentary about the real-life, abandoned, lakeside spa resort of Epecuén takes a terrifying turn.

The new film revisits Epecuén and follows an Anglo-American indie rock band that ends up stranded in the desolate city. Their internal conflicts and the bad luck of their tour quickly fade, when they begin to discover the bloody hell that awaits them.

Camilio Zaffora wrote the screenplays for the original and its sequel.

The drama stars social media influencer David Michigan, Mario Alarcón (The Secret In Their Eyes), Magui Bravi (The 100 Candles Game) and German Baudino (History of The Occult).

The rights deal was brokered...

Lioness is filling its ranks.

Michael Kelly has been recruited as a recurring star for Taylor Sheridan’s upcoming espionage series for Paramount+.

Lioness, which does not yet have a premiere date, is based on a real-life CIA program and follows Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveira), a “rough-around-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within.”

Kelly will play CIA Deputy Director Byron Westfield.

He joins the previously announced series star and executive producer Zoe Saldaña, Morgan Freeman and star and executive producer Nicole Kidman, along with Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, Lamonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Stephanie Nur, Hannah Love Lanier.

Saldaña will play Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives. Kidman will play Kaitlyn Meade, the CIA’s senior supervisor who...

This year’s 15-film shortlist for the best international feature Oscar was, by Academy standards, a reasonably diverse one. Four Asian films, two from the Americas and one from Africa helped to counter the branch’s traditional Eurocentric bias; of the remaining European selections, meanwhile, three came from filmmakers of color.

So, there was some disappointment today that the final nominees were somewhat less varied, with Santiago Mitre’s Argentine entry “Argentina, 1985” the only exception in a field of European titles from white male directors. That South Korea’s entry, Park Chan-wook’s critically adored romantic noir “Decision to Leave,” failed to make the cut was one of the morning’s biggest eyebrow-raisers; that the three female-directed titles on the shortlist, Marie Kreutzer’s BAFTA-nominated “Corsage,” Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer” and Maryam Touzani’s “The Blue Caftan,” were also passed over was a further disappointment.

This was as competitive...

Europe is less dominant this year, with Asia, Latin America and Africa represented.

The Academy’s 2023 international feature film shortlist manages to be both predictable and refreshing at the same time.

It’s predictable in that the 15-strong shortlist contains most of the front runners expected to make it to this stage, including France’s Saint Omer, Austria’s Corsage, Denmark’s Holy Spider, Argentina’s Argentina, 1985, Belgium’s Close, South Korea’s Decision To Leave and Mexico’s Bardo. Among the few surprising omissions are Maryna Er Gorbach’s Ukrainian war drama Klondike and Carla Simon’s Berlinale winner Alcarràs.

Film Factory Entertainment has picked up international sales rights to Victor Erice’s highly anticipated “Cerrar los ojos,” which marks the fourth feature by the legendary Spanish filmmaker, writer-director of “The Spirit of the Beehive,” reuniting him with Ana Torrent, the wide-eyed very young star of that milestone film.

Now wrapping its shoot in Granada, Almería and Asturias before moving to Madrid, “Cerrar los Ojos” is set for 2023 Spanish theatrical release by “Alcarràs” distributor Avalon.

Erice’s fourth feature, following on 30 years after Cannes Festival Jury Prize winner “El sol del membrillo” (“Dream of Light”), “Cerrar los ojos” is written by Erice and Michel Gaztambide, a Spanish Academy best screenplay Goya Award winner for “No Rest for the Wicked.” The story of a disappearance, the film revolves “around issues such as identity and memory,” its producers announced Monday.

Producer Cristina Zumárraga lead produces the production through Tandem Films, the company...

Click here to read the full article.

Argentinian director Santiago Mitre and actor and producer Ricardo Darín recently sat down for a THR Presents conversation, powered by Vision Media, to discuss their film Argentina 1985, the titular country’s submission for the best international feature Oscar.

The Amazon original film revisits the historic 1985 trial of the military junta that ruled the country with an iron grip from 1976 to 1983, ruthlessly quashing dissent and disappearing more than 10,000 people, by some estimates. Darin stars as Julio Strassera, the world-weary chief prosecutor tasked with building a case against the generals after they relinquished power following the election of President Raúl Alfonsín. Reminded of the fragility of the restored democracy by constant death threats against him and his family, Strassera deemed it essential to involve Argentinian youth in the effort to turn the page on the dictatorship and assembled a team of relatively inexperienced but...

Strange as it may seem, the Oscar for Best International Feature tends to go to movies that are universal rather than geographically specific. Last year’s winner Drive My Car spoke more about mankind’s default setting to loneliness than it did about the specifics of relationship dynamics in modern Japan, just as the Danish drunks in 2021’s Another Round got hammered in a way that was relatable to boozers in every country from Albania to Zambia. Maybe the Academy feels that real life is better left to docs, but a 2015 win for the harrowing Second World War drama Son of Saul suggests that the door is always open. And after a year that saw the whole world reeling from Vladmir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, this might be one of those years that addresses the fact.

Clearly, the abrupt nature of Putin’s surprise maneuver on February 24 caught many unawares,...

Closing Japan with Medallion and French-speaking Canada with Axiom and fielding offers for the U.S., China and the U.K, “The Beasts” is on track to shortly sell well over half the major territories in the world for sales agent Latido Films. as

The sales come as Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s rural thriller heads to this week’s Ventana Sur as one of its biggest market highlights.

In further new deals, the Spain-set modern-day Western has also now been swooped on by HBO Eastern Europe and has licensed Poland (Aurora), Hungary (Cinefil), Portugal (Outsiders) and the Baltics (Capella).

These pacts add to prior acquisitions by Movies Inspired in Italy and Imagine in Benelux, Kino Mediteran in ex-Yugoslavia territories and Transilvania Film for Romania.

A Cannes Premiere world bow co-produced by Spain’s Arcadia Motion Pictures and Sorogoyen’s Caballo Films with France’s Le Pacte, “The Beasts” ran up 327,125 ticket sales...

Executive will attend Ventana Sur in December as first market.

Veteran acquisitions and international sales executive Federico Pascua has joined Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks.

Pascua starts this week and will work alongside Matias Fontenla on world sales of completed films and remakes and alongside Santiago Migdal on international acquisitions. The executive will attend markets for FilmSharks starting with Ventana Sur in Buenos Aires next month.

He previously worked at Bernardo Zupnik’s Argentinian outfit Distribution Co., which released titles like Slumdog Millionaire, The Secret In Their Eyes, and Million Dollar Baby though a Warner Bros output deal.

After Distribution Co. Pascua...

Submissions for the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film category closed on Monday, Oct. 3, and at this point more than 80 countries have announced their submissions for this year’s Oscars.

The highest-profile entry comes from Mexico, which submitted “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” from “Birdman” and “The Revenant” director Alejandro G. Inarritu. The film received a mixed reaction after premiering at the Venice Film Festival, but Inarritu has trimmed more than 22 minutes from that version, and Netflix is releasing “Bardo” in U.S. theaters.

Other top contenders include another Netflix release, director Edward Berger’s German-language adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” as well as South Korea’s “Decision to Leave” from Park Chan-wook and Belgium’s “Close” from Lukas Dhont.

And in a year with relatively few clear favorites, other films with a good chance of making the 15-film shortlist include Austria’s “Corsage,...

Showrun and directed by Academy Award winner Juan Jose Campanella (“The Secret in Their Eyes”), burgeoning hit Paramount+ franchise “The Envoys” has gone into production on Season 2 in Galicia, North-West Spain.

Miguel Angel Silvestre (“En el corredor de la muerte”) and Luis Gerardo Méndez (“Club de Cuervos”) are reprising their roles as Vatican dispatched miracle corroborators, playing alongside Assira Abbate (“Empire of Lies”), who also starred in Season 1.

Described as a gripping thriller, Season 2 is again produced by Vis, Paramount’s international studio, in collaboration with 100 Bares, Campanella’s Buenos Aires production label and, this time round, Galicia’s A Coruña-based Portocabo. A producer on Movistar Plus+ hits “Hierro” and “Rapa,” Portocabo has also been behind pioneering premium TV co-productions with Portugal (“Dry Water”).

Released on Paramount+ on Dec. 12, Season 1 saw priests Pedro Salinas, a doctor with a scientific bent, and Simon Antequera, a looser cannon, dispatched to the...

Argentina has submitted “Argentina, 1985” for Best International Film at the 95th Academy Awards. Directed by Santiago Mitre, the Fipresci Prize winner from the Venice Film Festival is inspired by the true story of public prosecutors Julio Strassera (Ricardo Darín) and Luis Moreno Ocampo (Peter Lanzani), who dared to investigate and prosecute Argentina’s bloodiest military dictatorship in 1985. Amazon Prime Video will launch the film globally on October 21.

See 2023 Oscars: Best International Feature Predictions [Updated: September 26]

Undeterred by the military’s still considerable influence within their fragile new democracy, Strassera and Moreno Ocampo assembled a young legal team of unlikely heroes for their David-vs-Goliath battle. Under constant threat to themselves and their families, they raced against time to bring justice to the victims of the military junta. Watch the trailer below.

Seven of Argentina’s Oscar submissions have gone on to become nominees for Best International Film in the history of the Academy...