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Exclusive: Bulgaria’s Nu Boyana Film Studios and France’s Free Dolphin Entertainment will take seven films in production this year, and have unveiled their joint EFM slate.

Since last year’s MIPCOM, Nu Boyana and Free Dolphin have been developing a strategy to release a continuous flow of movies for international distribution on ad-supported streaming services, and they are now in Berlin seeking financial and distributor partners on several projects.

The plan is to launch features “monthly” with Film Forge, Nu Boyana’s vocational training program, involved in each production.

Leading the EFM slate is Velvet Curtain (fka Fluxx) a high-concept psychological thriller that we first reported on in December 2023. It now has a U.S. theatrical release planned for this summer.

Brendan Gabriel Murphy’s pic stars Shelley Hennig and Shiloh Fernandez, with Tyrese Gibson (Fast & Furious franchise) in a key supporting role.

Stars: Liam Noble, Dean Kilbey, Perry Benson, Mark Manero, David Alexander, Juliet Cowan, Charley Burling, Barbara Smith, Steve Oram, Alan Ford | Written and Directed by Marc Coleman

Members Club is a new horror comedy about Wet Dreams, a troupe of male strippers who were at their prime back when The Full Monty was a thing. Now they’re well into middle age, their middles are well out of shape and the bookings are drying up. Drying up to the point that their manager, Deano has just dropped them. But not before managing to book them a gig at a 12-year-old’s birthday party.

Refusing to admit defeat, or face the prospect of getting a real job, Alan takes charge and soon has a well-paid gig lined up. Of course, we know there’s a catch, but all Alan, Neil, Ratboy, and Carly can think of is the promise of their first big payday in years.

Jamie Lee Curtis will be awarded with an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by the American Film Institute at the AFI Conservatory’s commencement ceremony Aug. 10 at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Curtis, who won an Oscar in 2023 for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” has appeared in plenty of films over her career, including 1978’s “Halloween,” 2018’s “Halloween,” “Freaky Friday,” “My Girl,” “Knives Out” and many more. Her television credits also include “The Bear,” “Scream Queens,” “Anything But Love” and more.

Past recipients include Michelle Yeoh, Robert Altman, Maya Angelou, Saul Bass, Angela Bassett, Kathryn Bigelow, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Clint Eastwood, Rita Moreno, Spike Lee, Jodie Foster and more.

Vashon Island Film Festival Program Includes ‘Bang Bang,’ ‘Black Dog,’ ‘I Saw the TV Glow’

The third annual Vashon Island Film Festival has announced its slate for the event set for Aug. 8-11. Located off the coast of Washington State,...

Exclusive: Michael Madsen (Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood), Jaime King (Sin City) and Michael Milligan (Outer Banks) have wrapped roles opposite Tanner Beard in Blood Behind Us, a dramatic thriller from directors Brendan Gabriel Murphy (Fluxx) and Shaun Hart (The Fall).

Supporting cast for the Texas-shot indie includes Ramsey Krull (What Did Deborah Do), Katie Leclerc (Switched at Birth), Russell Quinn (Romantic Rewrite), Wally Welch (The Magnificent Seven), and Brook Sill (Stranger Things).

The story follows Johnny Philobosian (Beard), a former Army Ranger who after the Afghanistan War joins a motorcycle gang, causing him to spiral into a life of crime and addiction. Finally breaking away from the grips of the brutal gang, he turns on his crew, bringing down the entire organization.

With the leader Ramsey (Krull) heading to prison, Johnny enters witness protection, changing his identity to Casey Hatfield and relocating to Utah. After several years of hiding,...

Exclusive: Tanner Beard, actor, writer, director and Emmy nominated producer, has signed with Link Entertainment for representation in all areas.

Beard is headed to the Nice International Film Festival as an actor with his film Fluxx. Beard has also been cast in the film Blood Behind Us. Past projects on camera include We Summon the Darkness opposite Alexandra Daddario and Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Til Dawn.

Behind the camera Beard has directed a number of westerns and has produced such projects as Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody and a number of collaborations with Terrence Malick including Song to Song starring Ryan Gosling, Knight of Cups starring Christian Bale and the animated documentary Voyage of Time narrated by Brad Pitt. Beard is also the co-founder of the Mammoth Film Festival.

Vmi Worldwide has boarded worldwide sales on the high finance satire Discussion Materials starring Tom Blyth from The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes.

Alfredo Barrios Jr. directed the existential tale about a former ice hockey player turned junior banker who navigates life at an investment bank following the death of a managing director.

The feature is based on Bill Keenan’s memoir Discussion Materials: Tales Of A Rookie Wall Street Investment Banker. Keenan, Howard Baldwin, Karen Baldwin, Andrew Sugerman, Doug Ellin, and William J. Immerman serve as producers.

Blyth portrayed the young Coriolanus Snow in the Hunger Games...

Judy Greer, Marc Menchaca, and Gaia Wise have joined Emma Thompson on Stampede Ventures and augenschein Filmproduktion’s action thriller The Fisherwoman.

Brian Kirk is directing from a screenplay by writing duo Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb.

The Fisherwoman centres on a woman (Thompson) trapped in a blizzard in Minnesota who interrupts the kidnapping of a teenager organised by a waif and her congenial husband and realises she may be the youngster’s only hope.

Greer and Menchaca will play the kidnappers.

Stampede Ventures and augenschein Filmproduktion are financing the film with the support of Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw, the Dfff,...

Vmi Worldwide has boarded worldwide sales to the thriller Fluxx starring Tyrese Gibson and Shelley Hennig and is launching sales at the EFM in Berlin next week.

Brendan Gabriel Murphy directed from a screenplay he co-wrote with Keyaunte Mayfield.

Fluxx follows Vada, an actor who awakens in her bathtub unsure how she got there and soon lerns her home has been ransacked and her husband (Shiloh Fernandez) is missing.

When she tries to leave her house, she is awakens again in her bathtub. Trapped in a seemingly never-ending loop, Vada is visited by two unwanted guests who engage her in...