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Over the last century, the small but mighty island Republic of Malta has cemented itself as an appealing global destination for major film productions, with features such as Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator,” Robert Altaman’s “Popeye,” and Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” shooting there. Scott recently wrapped production on the long-awaited follow-up to his 2000 Roman epic, and the country is prepping for the upcoming shoot of the newest installment of the “Jurassic World” franchise.

Speaking with Variety, director and co-founder of Maltese service provider Valletta Pictures, Joshua Cassar Gaspar, said that the requests to film on the island have “come in like crazy” following the U.S. strikes in 2023. “It’s an incredibly busy time. The next two years will be huge for us.”

“The strikes didn’t affect us because the independent productions kept going, and many of us in Malta service TV shows, which were also unaffected,” Gaspar continued.

Line-up for the 25th edition of the market includes 16 completed features, 15 Wip, 17 films in development.

Films by Sweat director Magnus von Horn and Margrete: Queen of the North filmmaker Charlotte Sieling will be presented at the 25th Nordic Film Market (January 31-February 2), the film marketplace of Goteborg Film Festival.

The projects are among the 15 Nordic films in post-production being showcased in the Works in Progress strand.

Scroll down for the full Market selection

Swedish director von Horn attends with The Girl With The Needle, a horror story set in 1910s Denmark, starring Trine Dyrholm and produced by Creative Alliance’s Malene Blenkov.

The Toronto drama took seven prizes including best director, actor, supporting actor.

Axel Petersen’s Malta-set drama Shame On Dry Land won a record seven prizes at the Guldbagge awards, Sweden’s national film ceremony, held on Monday, January 15 in Stockholm.

The film, about a con man who becomes entangled in a Swedish online gambling community while in Malta, took best director for Petersen, best actor for Joel Spira, and best supporting actor for Christopher Wagelin.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

It also received prizes for best editing, cinematography, sound design and original score. Its seven awards...

The Toronto drama took seven prizes including best director, actor, supporting actor.

Axel Petersen’s Malta-set drama Shame On Dry Land won a record seven prizes at the Guldbagge awards, Sweden’s national film ceremony, held on Monday, January 15 in Stockholm.

The film, about a con man who becomes entangled in a Swedish online gambling community while in Malta, took best director for Petersen, best actor for Joel Spira, and best supporting actor for Christopher Wagelin.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

It also received prizes for best editing, cinematography, sound design and original score. Its seven awards...

Mika Gustafson’s social drama Paris Is Burning has won the top prize for best film at the Guldbagge Awards, Sweden’s top film honors.

The feature, which premiered in Venice’s Horizons section this year, follows three sisters who left to their own devices by their absent mother, live a life of anarchic freedom. But when social services come calling, the oldest has to find someone to impersonate their mum to avoid being shipped off to foster care. It was picked as the best Swedish film of the past year at the Guldbagge Awards ceremony in Stockholm on Monday night. Paris is Burning also scooped the Guldbagge for best set design for Catharina Nyqvist Ehrnrooth.

But the night’s big winner was Axel Petersén’s Shame on Dry Land. The neo-noir set in the world of online gamblers picked up 7 Guldbagge awards, including for best director and best actor for lead Joel Spira,...

The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the 34 projects, hailing from 27 countries and selected from 318 submissions, that will be showcased at its Berlinale Co-Production Market, running from February 17 to 21. (scroll down for full list)

The 18 projects in the official selection include upcoming works from Ukrainian directors Kateryna Gornostai (Stop-Zemila) and Antonio Lukich as well as Italian filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro (Monica), Turkey’s Burak Çevik (Hesitation Wound), Serb director and actor Mirjana Karanović (A Good Wife) and Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka (Stonewalling).

The Official Selection projects are already partly financed and have budgets between 600,000 and five million euros.

The Berlinale Directors section showcasing new projects from festival habitués in the early funding stages includes Sally Potter’s upcoming production Alma about a family on an expedition to scatter the ashes of an archaeologist.

Two projects by Andreas Fontana and Fradique have also been selected as part of the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express initiative,...

The Swedish Film Institute on Wednesday announced the nominations for the Guldbagge (Golden Bug) awards, Sweden’s top film prize, with politics taking center stage among the feature contenders.

Axel Petersén’s Shame on Dry Land, a neo-noir set in the world of online gamblers who fled Sweden for refuge in Malta, lead the pack with 9 Guldbagge nominations. But it was snubbed in the best film category. Per Fly’s cold war thriller Hammarskjöld, starring Mikael Persbrandt as the titular Swedish diplomat, and former Un Secretary-General, who died in a mysterious plane crash, received seven nominations, including best film, tying with Opponent, Milad Alami’s drama about a family who flee Iran for Northern Sweden.

Alongside Hammarskjöld and Opponent, best film nominees include Mika Gustafson’s social drama Paris Is Burning, the relationship drama 100 Seasons from director Giovanni Bucchieri, and The Gullspång Miracle, a documentary from director Maria Fredriksson about...

Around midway through this unique Swedish-Maltese co-production, Shame On Dry Land, a question is asked of the main character, “Been a long day?” Dimman, the uncertain, never in control, anti-hero responds, “Yea, it never ends.” This is not a bug in Axel Petersen’s sweaty oblique Euro-noir. It is a feature. Tension is due to the unknown. We see things happening, but cannot quite keep up. Joel Spira (Snabba Cash) has a visage that is a perpetually moist 5-o’clock shadow. Dimman is out of his element, but fleet with his wits. He is not above killing two birds on one rock. On second thought, he may know more than we think, one is never quite sure. Arriving in Malta to do some surveillance work at...

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

Exec only took up role in April 2022.

Anette Novak is leaving her post as CEO and executive director of the Swedish Film Institute (Sfi).

Novak’s departure is unexpected as she only took up the role in April 2022. Local media has reported she was pushed out by the board.

In a statement on the Sfi website, board chairman Gunilla von Platen said: “Anette Novak has made good contributions to Swedish film, but the board believes that there is a need for different leadership. The intention is not to change the direction of the business.”

Von Platen told the Swedish news...

Anette Novak is out at the Swedish Film Institute.

The Institute announced today that Novak will leave her role as CEO with a statement on their website. The reason for Novak’s departure was not disclosed. Speculation in local media suggests Novak’s departure was without warning and instructed by the Institute’s board.

“The board considers that there is a need for new leadership. The intention is not to change the direction of the business,” board chairwoman Gunilla von Platen said in the statement.

Novak joined the Swedish Film Institute in April 2022 from her role as the director and agency head of The Swedish Media Council, which, among other things, is responsible for the Swedish film classification. Novak also worked as the Swedish Government’s appointed investigator for the Media review. She also served as CEO at Rise Interactive Institute, a Swedish state-owned It and research Institute.

Since 2022, Sweden...

“American Fiction” has won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced at an awards brunch on Sunday.

The Orion/MGM film by first-time director Cord Jefferson is a barbed satire that stars Jeffrey Wright as a writer who, to his dismay, achieves enormous success after as a joke writing a book filled with what he feels are the worst and most pandering cliches of Black representation. In its review, TheWrap called the film “an outlandishly assured directorial debut, a beautifully modulated film that takes a great actor, Jeffrey Wright, and gives him a spectacular showcase.”

While the film did not come into the festival as one of its highest profile selections, it was an immediate sensation after its Friday night premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre, drawing some of TIFF’s most positive reviews. It currently stands at 86% positive on Rotten Tomatoes...

If storytelling has taught us anything, it’s that even if a protagonist doesn’t complete their hero’s journey, there is, at the very least, the attempt of a redemption arc. On a search for redemption is where we find Dimman in Axel Petersén’s most recent film, “Shame on Dry Land.”

Read More: TIFF 2023 Announces Its Centrepiece Programme, Featuring Brian Helgeland’s ‘Finestkind,’ ‘Quiz Lady,’ ‘The Promised Land’ & More

While the Toronto International Festival may be a bit odd this year due to the ongoing SAG and WGA strikes, there are still plenty of films to look forward to, “Shame on Dry Land” being one of them.

Continue reading ‘Shame On Dry Land’ Exclusive Trailer: A Wedding Is One Man’s Chance At Redemption In Axel Petersén’s TIFF Drama at The Playlist.

Next Goal Wins (Taika Waititi, 2023).The lineup is being unveiled for the 2023 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, starting with 60 selections from the Gala and Special Presentations programs. The festival takes place from September 7–17, 2023.Gala PRESENTATIONSConcrete Utopia (Um Tae-Hwa)Dumb Money (Craig Gillespie)Fair Play (Chloe Domont)Flora and Son (John Carney)Hate to Love: Nickelback (Leigh Brooks)Lee (Ellen Kuras)Next Goal Wins (Taika Waititi)Nyad (Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin)Punjab ’95 (Honey Trehan)Solo (Sophie Dupuis)The End We Start From (Mahalia Belo)The Movie Emperor (Ning Hao)The New Boy (Warwick Thornton) The Royal Hotel (Kitty Green)The Holdovers.Special Presentationsa Difficult Year (Éric Toledano, Olivier Nakache)A Normal Family (Hur Jin-ho)American Fiction (Cord Jefferson)Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)Close to You (Dominic Savage)Days of Happiness (Chloé Robichaud)The Rescue (Daniela Goggi)Ezra (Tony Goldwyn)Fingernails (Christos Nikou)Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania...

It is the feature directorial debut from Fawzia Mirza.

LevelK has boarded international sales for the Canadian/Pakistani dramedy The Queen Of My Dreams, which will have its world premiere in Toronto’s Discovery section. Signature Move’s Fawzia Mirza writes and directs.

Azra, a Pakistani woman living in Toronto, is worlds apart from her conservative Muslim mother. When her father suddenly dies on a trip home to Pakistan, Azra finds herself on a Bollywood-inspired journey through memories, both real and imagined, from her mother’s youth in Karachi to her own coming-of-age in rural Canada.

Amrit Kaur from HBO...

The Toronto Film Festival on Wednesday revealed the 10 titles in its Platform program, a sidebar that will tee off with A24’s Kristoffer Borgli comedy Dream Scenario starring Nicolas Cage. This year’s Platform includes movies from 12 countries across three continents, all of which are making their world premiere at TIFF, which this year runs from September 7-17.

In addition, the fest today unveiled this year’s Platform jury, which includes Oscar-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins as chair; Cannes Jury Prize–winning director, writer, and actor Nadine Labaki; and 2022 Platform Prize–winning filmmaker Anthony Shim.

The Platform program, going into its eighth year, is curated for its bold directorial visions. The movies in the 2023 program are eligible for the Platform Prize, an award of CA$20,000 selected by the in-person international jury.

Barry Jenkins

“I am delighted to announce that we have an international dream jury with acclaimed filmmakers Barry Jenkins, Nadine Labaki,...