News

Argentina’s Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (“120 Bpm”) and Spain’s Mona Martínez (“Adios”) play pivotal roles in the international co-production, “Narciso” by Paraguay’s Marcelo Martinessi, whose feature debut “The Heiresses,” (“Las Herederas”) took home two Silver Bears and a Fipresci award at the 2018 Berlinale.

Originally titled “Who Killed Narciso?,” Martinessi’s second feature was presented at the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum in 2020.

The drama’s Asunción-based lead producer La Babosa has re-teamed with the film’s sales agent, Paris-based Luxbox Films, as well as some key producers of “The Heiresses”: Germany’s Pandora Filmproduktion, France’s La Fábrica Nocturna Prods., Esquina Filmes (Brazil) and Mutante Cine (Uruguay). They are joined by Bteam (Spain) and Oblaum Filmes (Portugal).

Thrilled to continue Luxbox’s collaboration with Martinessi and producer Sebastian Peña Escobar, Luxbox president Fiorella Moretti said: “In this new film, Martinessi portrays a universe full of music,...

Paris-based Luxbox, a sales company on a multiple standout Spanish-language debuts bowed at big festivals – from “1976” to “20,000 Species of Bees,” “Clara Sola,” “Song Without a Name” and “The Heiresses” – has swooped on international sales rights to “Simon of the Mountain” (“Simon de la Montaña”), in the run-up to the Cannes Film Festival.

The anticipated first feature of Argentina’s Federico Luis, “Simon of the Mountain” was announced Monday as one of seven movies confirmed for main competition at this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week.

Co-written by Federico Luis, the film’s editor Tomás Murphy and Agustín Toscano, helmer of Directors’ Fortnight title “The Snatch Thief” who also figures in the film’s key cast, “Simon of the Mountain” stars Lorenzo “Toto” Ferro, one of Argentina’s most rated young actors after his breakout performances as Argentina’s most notorious serial killer in Cannes 2018 Un Certain Regard player “El Angel...

A revolution is working through Latin American filmmaking. It’s powered by new gen cineastes, educated at top film schools, very often women, who are questioning pretty much everything everywhere all at once, re-representing themselves and questioning what can make up a movie these days.

Locarno’s Open Doors is a case in point. Five takeaways on this year’s lineup:

Recalibration of a Sense of Self

“Three Bullets,” at Open Doors Projects Hub, is made by Dominican Génesis Valenzuela, an alum of San Sebastian’s prestigious Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, which plumbs the murder of Dominican immigrant Lucrecia Pérez, shot and killed by four neo-Nazis, the same year that Spain celebrated its conquest of Latin America. Valenzuela will come in at the film as she reconstructs her own identity as a “human being/woman/Afro-Caribbean/filmmaker.” “The driving force of this film is the desire for emancipation, both from...

Uruguay-based Agustina Chiarino, one of the drivers of the new Latin American cinema industry and at the forefront of pan-regional co-production, is kicking-off early projects at her recently launched production-distribution company Bocacha Films.

Chiarino attended last week’s Malaga Film Festival edition to present Pablo Solarz’s official section contender comedy “Desperté con un sueño” (“I Woke Up With a Dream”), which she produced at Mutante Cine, the Montevideo-based outfit Chiarino and editor-producer Fernando Epstein co-founded in 2011.

After “I Woke Up With a Dream,” two feature debuts are finishing production stage under the Mutante Cine brand: Vanina Spataro’s “Naufragios,” teaming with Kino Films in Argentina, and Sebastián Peña Escobar’s documentary “The Last” in partnership with Paraguay’s La Babosa Cine.

They will be “the last three movies Mutante Cine will be launching before disbanding,” Chiarino said.

Having produced more than 15 Latin American films, Chiarino is now embarking on a solo project,...

Martinessi’s debut The Heiresses won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale in 2018.

Narciso, the second feature from Paraguay’s Marcelo Martinessi, has attracted a crop of new co-producers: Spain’s Bteam Prods, Portugal’s Oublaum, Brazil’s Esquina Films and Uruguay’s Mutante Cine.

Martinessi’s debut The Heiresses won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale in 2018.

The four companies will team with the same production team that backed The Heiresses on Narciso; Paraguay’s La Babosa Films, Germany’s Pandora Filmproduktions and France’s La Fábrica Nocturna Prods.

France’s Luxbox handles international sales.

Based on the novel...

Paris-based La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma, producer of Chema García Ibarra’s 2021 Locarno winner “Sacred Spirit,” has boarded Gabriel Azorin’s “Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes,” marking another financing milestone for his buzzy, poetic and time blending Spanish project.

A Locarno Match Me! hit. “Thebes” has been put through both San Sebastián’s Ikusmira Berriak and Madrid’s Ecam Incubator, rapidly consolidating as Spain’s foremost development labs which each attract about 270 applications a year.

La Fabrica Nocturna, whose credits also take in “The Heiresses,” joins Madrid’s Dvein Films, A Coruña’s Filmika Galaika (“They Carry Death”) and Lisbon’s Primeira Idade (“The Metamorphosis of Birds”) as a producer partner on “Thebes,” which won a Rtp Award, consisting of the pre-buy of rights from the Portuguese public broadcaster, at late 2020’s Seville European Film Festival.

“We’ve known Gabriel for a very long time and we have...

Projeto Paradiso, operated by the Olga Rabinovich Institute, has renewed its partnership with Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur, backed by Cannes Festival and Film Market and Argentina’s Incaa film-tv agency.

The move is one of several unveiled at Cannes Marché du Film, as go-ahead orgs in Brazil continue to attempt to stem the ravages of three years of President Jair Bolsonaro’s state incentive slow down as well as map out institutional backing for an industry in what is hoped to be a post-Bolsonaro age after October’s general elections. Some of the new initiatives:

Projeto Paradiso Broadens Its Alliance With Ventana Sur

The Projeto Paradiso-Ventana Sur alliance cuts two ways. For the second year running, the Brazilian philanthropic org will hand out a Paradiso Wip Award, worth 10,000 in last-money-in to the best Brazilian fiction project in post-production at Ventana Sur, Latin America’s biggest film-tv event.

Launched in 2021, the...

Prestige French distribution house Dulac Distribution has closed rights to France on “1976,” one of the most awaited of films to come out of Chile this year, which will world premiere next month at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

The buzzed up title represents the first feature from young Chilean actor-turned-director Manuela Martelli, star of Andrés Wood’s “Machuca” and Alicia Scherson’s “Il Futuro.”

Worldwide sales rights on “1976” are represented by Paris-based Luxbox, adding to its lengthening list of high profile pick-ups from Latin America which include Nathalie Alvarez Mesén’s “Clara Sola,” Alejandra Márquez’s “The Good Girls,” Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses” and Benjamín Naishtat’s “Rojo.”

The acquisition in a key territory for non English-language art films comes just weeks after “1976” walked off with three of the biggest awards at the Toulouse Latin American Festival’s Films in Progress, including the pix-in-post competition’s Grand Prix and Cine Plus...

French genre specialists La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma (“The Heiresses”) and Basque indie label Sayaka Producciones (“70 Big Ones”) have joined previously announced producers Sr. & Sra. – an up-and-coming San Sebastian-based production house owned by Moreno and producer-director Leire Apellániz – on director Pablo Hernando’s (“Berserker”) genre thriller “One Whale.”

Madrid-based Latido Films has also signed on as international sales agent for the buzzy new project.

Early announced casting includes Spanish Academy Goya-nominated actors Ingrid García-Jonsson and Eneko Sagardoy, two of the most exciting and busiest rising stars in Spanish cinema.

“One Whale” follows Ingrid, a crack assassin known for her ability to get out of even the most seemingly hopeless situations. How she manages to always escape is a secret she guards closely. Utilizing a power with origins from another world, inhabited by monstrous creatures, Ingrid always escapes without a trace. However, the power extracts a toll, and each time she emerges from that dark place,...

Panel of award-winning directors and producers discussed ongoing challenges.

Gender equality within filmmaking cannot be achieved until the finances that power productions are evenly split, according to a Sarajevo CineLink panel of producers and directors.

Watch the session above.

Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, who won the Camera d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with her debut feature Murina, said a major “disbalance” still exists between the number of men and women making films and that “quotas are absolutely necessary in financing” to correct this.

“Still, in 2019, 84% of the public money in Europe was assigned to men,” said the Croatian filmmaker,...

Los Angeles-based 1844 Entertainment has acquired international sales rights and U.S. distribution for Jorge Cuchí’s 2020 Venice Critics’ Week player, “50 o Dos Ballenas se Encuentran En la Playa” (“50 (or Two Whales Meet on the Beach)”).

“50” stars young actors José Antonio Toledano as Félix and Karla Coronado as Elisa, two 17-year-olds who together embark on the 2016 social media phenomena Blue Whale Challenge together. In the “game,” players are assigned tasks over a 50-day period which start as trivial or innocuous activities, but eventually mutate into self-harm and, at its conclusion, suicide.

“When people decide to commit suicide it is not because they want to put an end to their lives, but because they want to put an end to their sadness,” explained Chuchí of the spark that ingnited his feature debut.

Describing his protagonists, he remembered that Felix and Elisa started as “two kids who came to life inside my...

Los Angeles-based company 1844 Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution and international sales rights to Argentine Betania Cappato’s feature debut “Una escuela en Cerro Hueso” (“A School in Cerro Hueso”).

The autism-themed film, inspired in Cappato’s direct family events, earned a special mention at March’s Berlinale Generation Kplus sidebar.

1844 Entertainment plans to release the movie in U.S. theaters in fourth quarter 2021, supported by a virtual cinema in the case of theaters not yet running by then at a full capacity.

“A School in Cerro Hueso” narrates the inner journey of Ema, a six-year-old girl diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

When Ema reaches school age, her parents move with her from Argentina’s Santa Fe to a humble coastal town at the shore of the Paraná River, where the only school that accepted her application is located.

There, the family will begin a new life as Ema...

Further prizes awarded to Isabel Sandoval and Marcelo Martinessi projects.

Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir has won the top prize at the Berlinale Co-Production Market to develop her upcoming feature The Oblivion Theory.

The Eurimages co-production development award of €20,000 went to the project, which was presented at the market by France’s Incognito Films and Germany’s One Two Films.

Adapted from José Eduardo Agualusa’ novel A General Theory Of Oblivion, the film relocates the drama to Gaza City in 1987, during the first Palestinian Intifada. Jacir is known for directing When I Saw You, which won the Netpac award when it...

Further prizes awarded to Isabel Sandoval and Marcelo Martinessi projects.

Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir has won the top prize at the Berlinale Co-Production Market to develop her upcoming feature The Oblivion Theory.

The Eurimages co-production development award of €20,000 went to the project, which was presented at the market by France’s Incognito Films and Germany’s One Two Films.

Adapted from José Eduardo Agualusa’ novel A General Theory Of Oblivion, the film relocates the drama to Gaza City in 1987, during the first Palestinian Intifada. Jacir is known for directing When I Saw You, which won the Netpac award when it...

Announced on Tuesday as one of 10 films playing the 2021 Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Competition, “El Perro Que No Calla” (“The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet”), from distinguished Argentine auteur Ana Katz, has been acquired by Paris-based Luxbox.

A doyen of French sales agents of Latin American films, handling high-profile, multi-prized art titles such as Benjamín Naishtat’s “Rojo” and Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses,” Luxbox will handle international sales rights to “The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet.”

A midlife coming of age comedy-drama come political parable, “The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet” turns on Sebastian, in his 30s, devoted to his loyal dog, who haltingly initiates adulthood, navigating love, loss and fatherhood.

In a narrative that captures the current Zeitgeist, Sebastian’s turbulent life is suddenly turned upside-down by catastrophe. He spends his life battling to adjust and transform in a vertiginous world that might be coming to an end.

In a nod to the exponentially growing interest in premium TV content and the swelling number of content-ravenous platforms, the Guadalajara Film Festival (Ficg)’s industry section has launched a competitive television section dubbed Episode 0: Series in Development.

Its participants will be given the opportunity to network and vie for prizes that consist of post-production services worth a combined total of some $35,000 from Cinecolor Mexico and Shalala Studios. In addition, Colombia’s Pontifical Xavierian University offers a scholarship worth $2,800 to its prestigious The Series Lab, which aims to train showrunners and TV professionals, as well as accreditation in the Bogota Audiovisual Market (Bam).

The inaugural Episode 0 features seven Ibero-American projects in development, encompassing various genres: animation, dramas, thrillers and non-fiction. “This takes place now in November along with our Co-Production Encounter, while the other sections, DocuLab, Guadalajara Construye and Talents, were held in August or September,” said the festival’s industry head,...

Paraguay’s Marcelo Martinessi, director of “The Heiresses,” a 2018 double Berlin Silver Bear winner, is re-teaming with the film’s sales agent, Paris-based Luxbox Films, as well as two of its key producers — Germany’s Pandora Filmproduktions and France’s La Fábrica Nocturna Prods. — for Martinessi’s second feature, film noir “Who Killed Narciso?”

As was the case with “The Heiresses” (“Las Herederas”), “Who Killed Narciso?” will be lead produced by producer-director Sebastian Peña Escobar at Asunción-based La Babosa Cine, the company he and Martinessi set up in 2009, initially called Mira, to produce Martinessi’s shorts.

Written by Martinessi, “Who Killed Narciso?” weighs in as one of the most anticipated Latin American art-film titles to be presented at the San Sebastian Festival’s Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum, which runs online Sept. 19-21.

A slice of Paraguayan period noir, “Who Killed Narciso?” is based on the novel and historical research of Paraguayan writer Guido Rodríguez Alcalá,...

Uruguay’s already expanding industry still has plenty of room to grow and looks primed to do so with its new financing pilot program about to be extended until 2025 and a host of companies who cut their teeth in international co-production.

Below, Variety highlights twelve Uruguayan companies with outstanding resumes in both domestic and international production likely to usher in a new era of film and TV prominence.

Cimarrón –

Cimarrón is a pan Latin-American alliance between established producers Hernán Musaluppi, Diego Robino and Santiago López. From their offices in Montevideo, Buenos Aires and São Paulo, the company has backed six films since 2017, including Argentine Academy Award and San Sebastian Horizons-winner “The Snatch Thief” and Miguel Cohan’s Netflix Original feature “Blood Will Tell.” Currently Cimarrón has two films in post-production, Martín Boulocq’s “El visitante” and Rafa Russo’s “El año de la furia.”

Coral Cine –

Coral Cine focuses on...

Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years. Photo: Agatha A. Nitecka © 45 Years Film Ltd

Earlier this week, the Berlin International Film Festival announced that it will be switching to gender neutral acting awards from its 2021 edition. Whether the pitting of women directly against men will lead to more parity is a matter of debate - although the festival has a strong record on equality in its programming and staffing - but it got us thinking about some of the great performances, both male and female that have been rewarded down the years. Not all are available to stream - including Nina Hoss' magnetic performance in Christian Petzold's 2007 metaphysical thriller Yella, Requiem (2006), which put Toni Erdmann's Sandra Hüller on the map and Sidney Poitier's breakthrough role in The Defiant Ones in 1958 - but here's some of the best that are.

The Heiresses, Mubi and available to rent on other...

Three of Argentina’s foremost auteurs – “Rojo’s” Benjamin Naishtat, “The Third Side of the River’s” Celina Murga, and “Two Shots Fired’s” Martin Rejtman – will present new movie projects at a 9th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, the industry centerpiece at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival.

They will be joined by up-and-coming directors such as “The Heiresses’” Marcelo Martinessi, “The Sharks’” Lucia Garibaldi and “The Future Perfect’s” Nele Wohlatz in a lineup that is long on strong and fairly established Argentine talent, has a clutch of new Colombian directors, and presses the urgent social-issue concerns that have come to characterize Latin American cinema.

Catapulted to fame when Martin Scorsese executive produced “The Third Side of the River,” Murga will present “The Smell of Freshly Cut Grass,” a high-concept gender drama starring “Paulina’s” Dolores Fonzi and co-written with partner and fellow film director Juan Villegas (“Las...

The GLAAD Media Awards winners were announced on Thursday, with “Booksmart” and “Pose” taking home the top honors.

The winners were announced in a virtual ceremony hosted by comedians Fortune Feimster and Gina Yashere. The event streamed on GLAAD’s Facebook and YouTube accounts, with a taped version set to air on Logo on Monday. Performers included Chloe x Halle, Shea Diamond and Ben Platt.

Among the winners highlighted on the stream were “Old Town Road” singer Lil Nas X, who took home the award for Outstanding Music Artist; the cast and producers of “Pose” and “Schitt’s Creek,” which won the top awards for drama and comedy series, respectively; “Booksmart,” which won Outstanding Film – Wide Release; and Rachel Maddow, who received the award for Outstanding TV Journalism Segment for her one-on-one interview with Pete Buttigieg.

Also Read: Why Are There Still So Few LGBTQ Characters in Gaming? (Guest Blog)

During the ceremony,...

Acclaimed Taiwanese actor/director Leon Dai will headline the cast of Singapore-Taiwan-France co-production “Tomorrow Is a Long Time”.

Dai will play a middle-aged widower whose relationship with his sensitive teenage son in the densely packed spaces of contemporary Singapore slowly becomes unbearable.

Singaporean shorts filmmaker Jow Zhi Wei (“After the Winter”) will make his feature directorial debut with the film.

Fran Borgia for Singapore’s Akanga Films Asia (Locarno winner “A Land Imagined”), Jeremy Chua for fellow Singaporean outfit Potocol (Rotterdam title “A Love Unknown”), Stefano Centini for Taiwan’s Volos Films (“Loma — Our Home”) and Xavier Rocher for France’s La Fabrica Nocturna Cinema (Berlin winner “The Heiresses”) are producing.

Dai won several prizes at Taiwan’s Golden Horst Awards with 2009’s “Cannot Live Without You,” including best director and film. It was Taiwan’s entry to into the foreign-language Oscar race.

“This story combines happiness and grief and...

Maura Delpero’s drama premiered in competition at Locarno.

Paris-based Charades has sold northern American rights to Argentinian filmmaker Maura Delpero’s drama Maternal to Los Angeles-based distribution and production company 1844 Entertainment

The drama, about a young nun working in a religious shelter for unmarried teenage mothers in Buenos Aires, premiered in competition at Locarno last year and has since played at a number of festivals.

1844, which specialised in arthouse features, especially hailing from Latin America and Italy, has previously released Marcelo Martinessi’s The Heiresses and Benjamin Naishat’s Rojo.

In other deals, Charades has also sold German and Austrian rights to Berlin-based missingFILMS.

Fiorella Moretti and Hedi Zardi’s Paris-based sales agency Luxbox has closed several territory deals on Carlos Sironi’s “Sole,” which screened in Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti section and Toronto Film Festival’s Discovery sidebar. The film just won the audience award at Pingyao Intl. Film Festival in China and a Special Jury Mention for the lead actors at Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal.

The film, which will be released in Italy this week by Officina Ubu, has been picked up in France by Damien Megherbi and Justin Pechberty’s Les Valseurs. In the U.S., the film has been acquired by 1844 Entertainment, which previously enjoyed success with Luxbox’s “The Heiresses” and “Rojo.”

Luxbox also sealed deals on “Sole” with Fabula in Turkey and Cine Colombia in Colombia. Further deals will be announced soon.

In “Sole,” Sandra Drzymalska and Claudio Segaluscio star as a couple who pose as parents to be,...

Neither a hot-blooded tale of sexual discovery like 2013 Palme d’or winner “Blue Is the Warmest Color” nor a coolly alluring bauble like Todd Haynes’ “Carol,” Italian director Filippo Meneghetti’s debut feature “Two of Us” is an entirely unique and uniquely vital lesbian love story. The tale of two older women whose decades-long secret relationship is threatened after tragedy strikes covers emotional and thematic ground that transcends the sexual preferences of the two main characters.

This often-moving film, which premiered as part of the 2019 Toronto Film Festival’s Discovery program, is an affirmation of our universal desire for emotional intimacy and how the right connection can overcome all social and physical limitations. The fact that the relationship is between two lesbians well into their retirement years only makes the film even more quietly groundbreaking. This is big-city art-house cinema all the way, not only for the subject matter but...

Barcelona – Paris-based production house La Fabrica Nocturna, a co-producer on Marcelo Martinessi’s Berlin prize winner “The Heiresses,” has boarded Spaniard Chema García Ibarra’s awaited feature debut “Sacred Spirit,” Variety learnt during the closing events at top Spanish development program The Incubator, run by the Madrid Ecam Madrid Film School.

Produced by San Sebastian’s Apellániz y de Sosa and Alicante’s Jaibo Films, “Sacred Spirit” moves between local detail and dystopic surrealism, in which half of Spain sets out in search of a missing girl while a Spanish Ufology association— UFO-Levante— prepares for a night of sightings. The fate of humanity depends on one of its members: the morbidly obese José Manuel, who hides a secret.

Chosen by Variety as a Spanish talent to track, Chema García Ibarra’s shorts – “The Attack of the Robots from Nebula-5,” “Protoparticles,” “Mystery” – have been screened and awarded at festivals such as Cannes,...

Films include Queen Of Hearts, Only You and When Tomatoes Met Wagner

Danish filmmaker May el-Toukhy’s Sundance hit and local box office sensation Queen Of Hearts, is one of 10 features by European female directors selected to screen as part of the fourth edition of Europe! Voices of Women in Film at the Sydney Film Festival (Sff) in June.

Trine Dyrholm stars in the film about a happily married woman who falls in love with her teenage stepson. Dyrholm also features in the zombie film Endzeit-Ever After by Swedish-born, Berlin-based Carolina Hellsgard which is also screening at Sff as part of the programme.

Damon Gameau.

Disney’s live action update of 1992 animated blockbuster Aladdin cast its spell over cinemas in Australia and worldwide last weekend while Damon Gameau’s feature documentary 2040 attracted appreciative audiences and is positioned for a long run.

Gameau’s journey, which explores what the world could look like by 2040 if the best solutions already available to improve the planet are adopted, raked in $198,000 on 92 screens, which brings the total including extensive previews and festival screenings to $321,000.

Takings on Sunday were up 5 per cent on Saturday, reversing the usual trend. The Palace circuit, which offered free tickets to students aged up to 18 on Saturday and Sunday, accounted for more than 30 per cent of total admissions.

The distributor, Madman Entertainment MD Paul Wiegard expects a first-week take of $400,000, telling If: “The Sunday uptick is super encouraging, indicating the film is playing well with family audiences.

“We are very pleased with where the film has landed.

Cannes — Argentina’s La Unión de los Ríos, Portugal’s Rosa Films –a co-producer on Albert Serra’s Un Certain Regard entry “Liberté”– Chile’s Forastero, Netherlands’ The Film Kitchen, Germany’s Pandora Films and Mexico’s Interior Xiii have teamed to co-produce “The Practice” from Argentine director-screenwriter and writer Martín Rejtman.

A pedigree multi-lateral international co-production is often these says a sign of prominent big art film – think Lucrecia Martel’s “Zama” – on which producers will seek to finance via partners’ equity finance rather than pre-sales.

The five-country co-production agreement was signed Monday in Cannes. A naturalistic comedy about the drama of approaching middle age, “The Practice” follows Gustavo, an Argentine yoga instructor living in Chile who recently lost his wife and home while an injury prevents him from continuing with his yoga practice.

“It’s a comedy about the yoga world. It’s been over 20 years since I...

Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron's Roma topped the sixth edition of the Platino Awards, a ceremony honoring the best in Latin American and Ibero-American cinema and TV.  

Cuaron's black-and-white semiautobiographical film won five Platinos at the awards event held in Mexico on Sunday, including best picture, director, cinematography, screenplay and sound.

Other nominees picking up multiple awards were Paraguay's The Heiresses, winner of best first work and best actress for Ana Brun; and the Spanish thriller The Realm, which scored best actor for Antonio de la Torre.

But the night belonged to Roma, a Mexico City-set story based on the hardships ...

Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron's Roma topped the sixth edition of the Platino Awards, a ceremony honoring the best in Latin American and Ibero-American cinema and TV.  

Cuaron's black-and-white semiautobiographical film won five Platinos at the awards event held in Mexico on Sunday, including best picture, director, cinematography, screenplay and sound.

Other nominees picking up multiple awards were Paraguay's The Heiresses, winner of best first work and best actress for Ana Brun; and the Spanish thriller The Realm, which scored best actor for Antonio de la Torre.

But the night belonged to Roma, a Mexico City-set story based on the hardships ...

Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” made a sweep of the 6th Premios Platino on Sunday, May 12, trouncing its fellow nominees in direction, cinematography, screenplay, sound, and best Iberoamerican film.

The annual Iberoamerican awards ceremony, held once again at the Teatro Gran Tlachco within the sprawling Ecotourist Xcaret Park in Mexico’s Riviera Maya coast, was beamed live on TNT Latin America and by 19 free-to-air television networks from Latin America and Spain.

“Roma” was a shoo-in given its nine noms and all the prominent awards it has collected since its Golden Lion win at the 75th Venice Film Fest and culminating in its capture of Mexico’s first-ever best international film Oscar (formerly known as the best foreign language film award), as well as best director and best cinematography Academy Awards for Cuaron.

In a glittering ceremony opened by iconic Spanish crooner Raphael, who received a lifetime achievement award a day prior,...

The upcoming Beijing International Film Festival will give space to high-profile Hollywood franchise movies with screenings of all films in both the “Mad Max” and “Bourne Identity” series. Classic Hollywood fare will also feature prominently in a lineup that, as usual, features an eclectic grab-bag of titles.

The local government-backed festival opens April 13 and runs through April 20.

The list of films nominated in the festival’s competition section, and jury members has not yet been released. Winners of the Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) Award will be announced at the closing ceremony.

Since this year is the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, the theme of both the opening and closing ceremonies will be “home and country,” the festival said on its website, so as to make the event “a birthday blessing for the motherland.”

This benediction is so far scheduled to include “Mad Max” (1979), “Mad Max 2” (1981), “Mad Max:...

This year’s FilMart marks the international sales debut of Beijing-based distributor Times Vision, which brings to Hong Kong a slate led by crime thriller “Savage” and animated feature “Nezha.” The company will be presenting nine live action films, including one documentary, and seven animated titles.

Times Vision is led by CEO Nathan Hao, who co-founded Chinese indie distributor Lemon Tree and led its international division before joining the newly established Times Vision in 2017. Times Vision imports foreign titles – primarily arthouse films, but it also has begun delving into the remake rights market – and is now getting into production as well. It is currently at work with Chinese partners on pre-production for a remake of 2016 Japanese Oscar entry “Her Love Boils Water.”

“We are famous for being good buyers of festival titles,” Hao told Variety. “Tvod is a new thing for Chinese audiences for foreign films. Streaming is a better...

Paris-based Luxbox, whose films “The Heiresses” and “Museo” won three of the seven Silver Bears on offer at last year’s Berlinale, has acquired sales rights to three movies bowing later this year: Carlos Sironi’s “Sole,” Shahrbanoo Sadat’s “The Orphanage” and Melina Leon’s “Song Without a Name.”

Luxbox is also unveiling first images on Feb. 7 of Bruno Dumont’s “Joan of Arc,” above, about the French woman warrior’s trial, “an incredible modern portrait of a feminine heroine facing an institution ruled by men,” said Luxbox’s Fiorella Moretti and Hédi Zardi.

Afghan Sadat won the biggest prize at Cannes 2016 Director’s Fortnight for debut “Wolf & Sheep.” Her second feature, “The Orphanage,” is set in 1980s Kabul as it sinks into civil war and follows one orphan who dreams of being a Bollywood star but ends up stuck in the conflict. It’s produced by Adomeit Film and La Fabrica Nocturna.

One of the major winners at last year’s Berlin Film Festival — and widely distributed worldwide — was a quiet, intimate Paraguayan drama, “The Heiresses,” one of the latest fruits of the World Cinema Fund, a program nurtured by festival chief Dieter Kosslick.

Kosslick is being honored at the Berlin Film Festival with Variety‘s Achievement in International Film Award.

This year there are a record six Wcf-supported films in the Berlin festival, including South Africa’s “Flatland,” which opens the Panorama section. In addition, nine Wcf films will screen at the European Film Market as part of the Wcf Screenings.

Films supported by the fund are not obliged to premiere at Berlin, nor do they receive preferential treatment at the festival. Many premiere at other events, such as Thailand’s “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives,” which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

When Kosslick set up...

The 30th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival will open on Jan. 3 with historical drama “All Is True,” starring Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, and Ian McKellen.

Branagh, who will be in attendance at the opening night screening, directed from Ben Elton’s script about the little-known period in the final years of William Shakespeare. Branagh portrays the playwright with Dench as his wife Anne, while McKellen plays the Earl of Southampton. Sony Classics bought worldwide rights in October.

The festival will close with “Ladies in Black,” directed by Bruce Beresford, on Jan. 13. The movie, starring Angourie Rice, Rachael Taylor, Julia Ormond, Ryan Corr and Shane Jacobson, centers on a group of department store employees in 1959 Sydney. Beresford will attend.

The festival will screen 223 films from 78 countries, including 48 premieres. It will screen 43 of the 87 official submissions in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the 91st Academy Awards. A jury of...

It won’t exactly be on a par with Oscars nominations morning, but Monday will be one of the biggest December days in the history of the Academy Awards.

That’s because for the first time, the Academy isn’t systematically doling out the short lists of films that remain in contention. Instead, they’re dropping all the lists at once in a single press release that will trim the fields in Best Documentary Feature, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Song and six other categories.

One drop, nine categories, a total of 101 films that’ll get good news and far more that’ll be disappointed.

The strategy of dumping all the Oscars short lists at once has not been greeted with universal approval. For one thing, contenders in the different categories were used to having their individual moments in the spotlight. Music Branch voters, who are facing a pair...

Buenos Aires — 1844 Entertainment, an emerging player on the U.S. distribution scene, has acquired North American rights to Argentine writer-director Alejandro Fadel’s “Muere monstruo muere”, sold by The Match Factory. The deal was negotiated by 1844 Entertainment’s Tommaso Cerqueglini, The Match Factory’s Michael Weber and Thania Dimitrakopoulou. As on two other high-profile Latin America 1844 pick-ups, Benjamin Naishtat’s “Rojo” and Paraguay’s Oscar submission “The Heiresses,” the theatrical, non-theatrical and home entertainment releases will be handled by Distrib Films Us, headed by François Scippa-Kohn. The North America deal follows sales to Japan (The Klockworx) and Hong Kong (Edko). UFO will distribute in France, Cdi in Chile. An Argentine theatrical distribution deal will be closed imminently,“Murder Me, Monster” producer Agustina Llambi Campbell said at Ventana Sur. Set in a remote part of Mendoza, backed by stark bleak Andean mountains, “Murder Me, Monster” begins with rural police officer...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAmy Heckerling on the set of the Off Broadway musical of her film Clueless.We are delighted by the news shared by the New York Times that American auteur Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) is producing an Off-Broadway musical of her pop culture landmark film (and so much more!), Clueless. For more on the director, read our 2016 interview.Recommended VIEWINGMarcelo Martinessi's lovely debut film The Heiresses, a delicate drama focusing on the self-discovery of a wealthy, middle-aged queer women in Paraguay, gets an English trailer. We reviewed the film at the 68th Berlinale held earlier this year.The Criterion Collection produced this lovely video exploring the birth and programming vision of New York's Walter Reade cinema. Recommended READINGIt's that time of the year again: Year-end lists of the best films of 2018 have...

Madrid — 1844 Entertainment has acquired U.S. rights to Benjamín Naishtat’s “Rojo,” whose theatrical and home entertainment release will be handled by Distrib Films Us, headed by François Scippa-Kohn.

Theatrical releases in New York and Los Angeles are planned for spring 2019, followed by main other markets nationwide, said Distrib Films Us president Scippa-Kohn.

Closed in the run-up to Ventana Sur, the deal builds on a budding U.S. release partnership already in place for Paraguay Oscar entry “The Heiresses,” acquired like “Rojo” from Luxbox, Hedi Zardi and Fiorella Moretti’s Paris-based sales agent.

The partnership between 1844 Entertainment and Distrib Films Us forms part of a wider deal including other titles such as Iranian Oscar submission “No Date No Signature.”

Taking in two of the biggest Latin American arthouse titles of the year, the sales confirm 1844 Ent. and Distrib Films as a burgeoning U.S. outlet for Latin American and...

"Dare yourself..." Distrib Films has debuted an official Us trailer for an drama from Paraguay titled The Heiresses (or originally Las Herederas in Spanish), which is Paraguay's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category for the Academy Awards this year. This originally premiered at the Berlin Film Festival at the beginning of this year, then went on to play at a great number of festivals all over the world throughout 2018. The film is about a woman who decides to start a local taxi service when she runs out of her inherited money, meeting a young new friend along the way. Described as a "character study with shrewd commentary on class, desire, and the lingering privileges of Paraguay's elite." The film stars Ana Brun, Margarita Irún, Ana Ivanova, Nilda Gonzalez, María Martins, & Alicia Guerra. See below. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for Marcelo Martinessi's The Heiresses, from...

Every year, there are films that play the festival circuit that come out of nowhere and surprise us. This year was no different. While films like “A Star is Born,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” and “Roma” grabbed all the headlines coming out of the festivals, films like “The Heiresses” debuted to critical acclaim and should be on your radar.

Continue reading ‘The Heiresses’ Trailer: Berlin Festival Standout From Filmmaker Marcleo Martinessi Hits Theaters In 2019 at The Playlist.

Premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, Marcelo Martinessi’s debut film The Heiresses went on to win both the Best Actress prize (for Ana Brun’s lead performance) and the Alfred Bauer Prize. Since its Berlinale debut, the drama has enjoyed a lengthy, acclaimed festival run and is Paraguay’s Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film. Courtesy of Distrib Film Us, it will now arrive in the U.S. this January and we’re pleased to premiere the new trailer.

Martinessi’s film follows an upper-class couple in Paraguay who hit financial troubles as they adjust to the hardships of their new situation. Variety said in their review that it’s “a finely-crafted, beautifully realized debut that exquisitely balances character study with shrewd commentary on class, desire, and the lingering privileges of Paraguay’s elite.” Also starring Margarita Irún and Ana Ivanova, see our...

Love, the only possible salvation for humanity is explored in a different way in the Paraguayan film The Heiresses directed by Marcelo Martinessi. This is his first feature though he has made shorts and TV series.

This story of Chela and Chiquita, both descended from wealthy families in Asunción who have been together for over 30 years as their financial situation has worsened and they begin selling off their inherited possessions.

When their debts lead to Chiquita being imprisoned on fraud charges, Chela is forced to face a new reality alone. Driving for the first time in years, she begins to provide a local taxi service to a group of elderly wealthy ladies. As Chela settles into her new life, she encounters the much younger Angy, forging a fresh and invigorating new connection. Chela finally begins to break out of her shell and engage with the world, embarking on her own personal,...

Ofir Raul Graizer ‘s poignant feature debut, ‘The Cakemaker’, is Israel’s official Oscar® entry for Best Foreign Language Film. I rank it among the top contenders ‘Never Look Away’, ‘Burning’, ‘Cold War’, ‘Roma’, ‘The Heiresses’, and ‘Birds of Passage’.

I was so moved by the film and so identified with it that I jumped at the chance to interview Ofir and actor Tim Kalkhof. Our interview became a conversation that lasted several hours as we first sipped wine and then ordered pizza at the wonderful Caffé Roma in Beverly Hills.

The Cakemaker is an extraordinary movie for many reasons. First and foremost, its emotional resonance is so in tune to many people. Film writer-director Ofir Raul Graizer and the costar of his film Tim Kalkhof, can recount many stories of people coming up to them tearfully or hugging them spontaneously after having seen the film at some point since...

Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s “Birds of Passage,” Colombia’s official entry to the Oscars’ Foreign-Language category, took home the best picture Fenix Award in a glittering ceremony held in Mexico City on Nov. 7. Its lead actress, Carmiña Martínez, clinched the best actress Fenix.

However, Argentine period drama “Zama” by Lucrecia Martel snagged the most awards, including cinematography, editing, sound and art design.

In a nod to the boom in premium TV series, the Fenix have included included television nominees since last year. Alex Pina’s Atresmedia-produced Netflix heist thriller series, “La Casa de Papel” (“Money Heist”), nabbed best series while Gael Garcia Bernal and Kyzza Terraza’s “Here on Earth” won best ensemble cast for a family drama-thriller series which toplines some of the most renowned actors in the Spanish-speaking world, such as Mexico’s Daniel Giménez Cacho, Chile’s Luis Gnecco and Spain’s Ariadna Gil.

Marcelo Martinez...

Ever since 2009 when two Latin American films, Argentine winner “The Secret in Their Eyes” and Peru’s “The Milk of Sorrow,” were shortlisted for the foreign-language film Oscar, roughly every other year a Latino movie has secured a nom in that category.

However, only three pics since the 1940s have brought home the top prize, as Chile’s “A Fantastic Woman” did earlier this year, preceded by Argentina with “The Secret in Their Eyes” in 2009 and “The Official Story” in 1985.

But the region’s native sons have done better in other categories. In recent years, a Mexican director has won the Academy Award for direction and snagged a best picture win or nomination for his film. Alfonso Cuaron won multiple Oscars for “Gravity” in 2014, followed by Alejandro G. Inarritu, who triumphed in 2015 and 2016 and Guillermo del Toro for “The Shape of Water” in March.

Cuaron’s evocative black-and-white opus “Roma...

Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s “Manta Ray” won the Mumbai Film Festival’s Golden Gateway award in the international competition on Thursday. It previously won best film at Venice’s Horizon section and has toured the Toronto, Thessaloniki, San Sebastian festivals.

Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses” won the Silver Gateway award in the competition, after winning accolades worldwide, including three awards at Berlin. Another globally lauded film, Gabrielle Brady’s, “Island of the Hungry Ghosts,” won the international competition’s grand jury prize.

Rima Das’ “Bulbul Can Sing” won the Golden Gateway in the India Gold competition section. Das’ “Village Rockstars” was feted in Mumbai in 2017, and is India’s entry to the Oscars foreign language category. The Silver Gateway in the Indian competition was split between Ridham Janve’s “The Gold-Laden Sheep & the Sacred Mountain” and Rotterdam title “Jonaki”, by Aditya Vikram Sengupta.

“Jonaki” also won a special mention at the...

Films presented last year include Golden Bear wiunner Touch Me Not and Critics’ Week winner Diamantino.

This year’s Torino Film Lab (Tfl) will once again showcase 10 films developed within its programmes at the upcoming Meeting Event (23-24 November).

The projects, to be presented at the Coming Soon night, are all works in progress in their final stages of completion, half of which are still looking for a sales agent.

2018 has been an important year for many of the films previewed at last year’s Coming Soon event. Adina Pintilie Touch Me Not went on to win the Golden Bear at the Berlinale,...