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We could tie ourselves in knots, draw party lines, and make blood oaths declaring cinema’s greatest-evers: directors, actors, screenwriters, even studios or entire national output. I have rarely heard a conversation for greatest-ever producer, so allow me to propose that this title belongs––so clearly it’s unprecedented among such conversation––to Paulo Branco. He deserves consideration for decades spent shepherding the visions of Raúl Ruiz and Manoel De Oliveira alone; remove them from the equation and there’s still major films by David Cronenberg, Chantal Akerman, Pedro Costa, Wim Wenders, or João César Monteiro, to say nothing of Christophe Honoré, Rita Azevedo Gomes, or Mathieu Amalric, or films whose exposure is still so limited they’ve not yet pierced any cinephile canon, however deserving they may be.

When I saw Branco would be at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival on behalf of The Englishman’s Papers, a new feature he’s produced,...

Armando Silvestre, a busy actor in the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema who appeared with Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine in Two Mules for Sister Sara, with Yul Brynner in Kings of the Sun and with Burt Lancaster in The Scalphunters, has died. He was 98.

Silvestre died June 2 in Coronado, California, a representative from the Aztlan Mortuary in nearby La Mesa told The Hollywood Reporter.

The powerfully built Silvestre made scores of films in Mexico, among them Here Comes Martin Corona (1952), Rossana (1953), Story of a Mink Coat (1955) with Silvia Pinal, La Sombra Vengadora (1956), The Miracle Roses (1960), Neutrón Contra el Dr. Caronte (1963), La Choca (1974) and Faith, Hope and Charity (1974).

He excelled in Westerns and action adventure movies early in his career en route to compiling more than 200 credits on IMDb.

Armando Silvestre Carrascosa was born in San Diego on Jan. 28, 1926, and raised in Tijuana. His younger brother was Eduardo Silvestre, winner of the Mr.

A few years ago, Spanish director Adrián Silvestre was approached to make a film about euthanasia and the right to die with dignity. What he didn’t expect was where the more traditional research process would give way to a personal discovery: his own father, Ricardo, became a documentary subject. After 23 years of no contact at all, their meeting became the kernel of “May Your Will Be Done.”

The film has its world premiere in the Newcomers Competition of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, where Silvestre previously won the Special Jury Prize for his feature “Sediments” in 2021. “May Your Will Be Done” is produced by the Barcelona-based Nanouk Films, the creative documentary champion behind Locarno winner “Dead Slow Ahead,” in co-production with Producciones del Barrio and Atresmedia Cine.

Speaking to Variety ahead of the premiere, the director said he found himself in a position that was both surprising and challenging at the same time.

U.K. based sales agency Film Republic has picked up Peru’s 2024 Oscar entry “The Erection of Toribio Bardelli,” the latest film from Adrián Saba, one of Peru’s most prominent auteurs on the festival scene.

Film Republic has also shared a first international trailer with Variety. The film screens this week in Los Angeles at the GuadaLAjara Film Festival LA, which runs Nov. 1-3. V&r Films distributes in Peru, Livres Distribution in Brazil.

Set in central Lima, “The Erection of Toribio Bardelli” captures the Bardelli family in deep grief at the death of the wife and mother, Toribio Bardelli, the father suffering erectile dysfunction.

Feeling out of place in a current world, clinging to old world values such as virility but, as captured in a first scene in a brothel, Toribio can’t even get it up.

He mourns the death of his wife, can’t get over...

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...

Spanish star Miguel Ángel Silvestre is set to topline in miniseries “Lucio’s Treasure,” a real-life inspired project co-produced by Spain’s Vértice360 and Friki Films with Red Arrow International Studios.

Silvestre will play the leading role of Lucio Urtubia, considered a modern Robin Hood who nearly bankrupted Citibank of America in the 1980s. Whether he was caught is another matter.

Structured as a six-episode, one-hour drama, the series is scheduled to lens in English by 2025.

Created by brothers Hugo and Roger Menduiña, “Lucio’s Treasure” is produced by Friki’s CEO Ana Manresa and Alberto Rull, Vertice’s EVP production and content.

The U.K.’s Anthony Alleyne (“Sunburn”) has joined the series as co-creator, writer and executive co-producer.

Defined by Rull as “an ambitious series, both creatively and in terms of budget,” “Lucio’s Treasure” is set in Paris and New York, “aimed at being a world-class co-production...

First Three Episodes of “Secret Invasion” Head to Hulu

Disney’s not-so-secret invasion of our streaming-centric society continues. Ahead of Marvel and Disney+’s “Secret Invasion” finale this coming Wednesday, July 26, the Disney streamer has announced it will also stream its first three episodes of the series on Hulu from Friday, July 21 through Thursday, August 17.

30-Day Free Trial $7.99+ / month hulu.com

The six-episode miniseries that stars Samuel L. Jackson debuted on Disney+ last month on June 21, and as it wraps up, both Hulu and Disney+ subscribers will get to watch the first half of the series on either platform. This is the first time a Disney+ original series will simultaneously on Hulu, as opposed to previous titles, such as “American Born Chinese” and “Andor,” that have jumped between the two platforms, or those that have moved prior to their premiere, such as “Love, Victor.”

The move comes as part of...