News

The European Film Academy has revealed the nominations in the animated feature film category of the European Film Awards.

The nominated films are Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow,” Kristina Dufková’s “Living Large,” Claude Barras’

“Savages,” Isabel Herguera’s “Sultana’s Dream,” and Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s “They Shot the Piano Player.”

“Flow” won the main jury and audience awards at Annecy, and the award for original music. It played in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

“Sultana’s Dream” won Annecy’s Contrechamp Award, while “Living Large” won the Contrechamp Jury Award.

“Savages” played in competition at Annecy and also screened at Locarno. Barras was Oscar nominated for “My Life as a Courgette.”

Mariscal and Trueba were Oscar nominated for “Chico & Rita.” Trueba’s live-action drama “Belle Epoque” won an Oscar for best foreign-language film.

The committee that decided on the nominations was comprised of representatives of the European Film Academy and Cartoon,...

Bei seiner Premiere auf dem Filmfestival in Malaga Anfang März wurde „Segundo premio“ dreimal ausgezeichnet, u.a. als bester spanischer Film. Nun wurde das von der Geschichte der Indie-Rockband Los Planetas inspirierte Drama ins Rennen um eine Oscarnominierung in der Kategorie „Bester internationaler Film“ geschickt.

Spanischer Oscaraspirant: „Segundo premio“ (Credit: Bteam)

Spanien schickt „Segundo premio“ von Isaki Lacuesta und Pol Rodriguez ins Rennen um eine Oscarnominierung in der Kategorie „Bester internationaler Film“.

Das Drama, das in den späten 1990er Jahren im spanischen Granada spielt und von der Geschichte der Indie-Rockband Los Planetas inspiriert wurde, feierte im März beim Filmfestival in Malaga seine Premiere und wurde dort als bester spanischer Film, für die beste Regie und den besten Schnitt ausgezeichnet.

Spanische Filme waren bis dato 21 Mal in der Kategorie „Bester internationaler Film“/„Bester nicht-englischsprachiger Film“ für einen Oscar nominiert, zuletzt Juan Antonio Bayonas „Die Schneegesellschaft“ in diesem Jahr.

Viermal ging der...

The dogged pursuit of the relationship unicorn that is the good break-up informs the wit and winking wisdom of Jonás Trueba’s “The Other Way Around,” a delightful showcase for the Spanish director’s lithe, airy style, here accented with glistening strands of Madrileño meta-melancholy. A hip, popular twosome decide to call it quits after 14 years, cuing a very funny yet properly grown-up portrait of the ideal couple trying to smoothe, and even to celebrate, their transition into ideal exes. It’s the celebration aspect that will prove their undoing. If the good breakup is rare, the joyous breakup is completely mythical.

Filmmaker Ale (Itsaso Arana) and her actor boyfriend of 14 years Alex (Vito Sanz) have decided — mutually, they insist — to pack their bags for Splitsville. They lie in the dark in their still-shared bed with a poignant politeness recognizable to anyone who has similarly ended a longterm relationship prior to canceling a longterm lease.

“The Other Way Around” from Spanish director Jonás Trueba has won the Europa Cinemas Label for best European film in the Directors’ Fortnight section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The film turns on Ale (Itsaso Arana – who co-wrote the screenplay with Trueba) and Alex (Vito Sanz), who have been together for 15 years. Now, though, the duo is ready to split, but not without throwing a hell of a fiesta to celebrate their time together.

“The idea of a ‘separation party’ can be scary, but I just kept hearing about it,” Trueba told Variety in a recent interview. “I even suggested it to a friend of mine, but every time, people’s faces just drop. You can see fear creeping in. It’s crazy and silly, and at the same time, it could be something beautiful. It’s a great idea for a film, if not for real life.

Spanish director Jonás Trueba wants you to celebrate the endings, not just the beginnings.

That includes the demise of a serious relationship, because Ale and Alex (Itsaso Arana and Vito Sanz) have been together for 15 years. Now, they want only two things: to go their separate ways and to have a proper fiesta.

“The idea of a ‘separation party’ can be scary, but I just kept hearing about it. I even suggested it to a friend of mine, but every time, people’s faces just drop. You can see fear creeping in. It’s crazy and silly, and at the same time, it could be something beautiful. It’s a great idea for a film, if not for real-life.”

In “The Other Way Around,” premiering at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, the couple in question still has a lot of affection for each other.

“It’s a love story, but another kind of love story,...

A Deadly Invitation is a Mexican mystery thriller movie directed by José Manuel Cravioto. It stars Maribel Verdú, Stephanie Cayo, and Manolo Cardona. The film is based on the novel “Invitación a un Asesinato” by best-selling author Carmen Posadas.

The film follows Agatha, a true crime podcast host who is invited to a gathering at her sister’s, Olivia’s, luxurious yacht for a weekend getaway together with a group of her closest friends. The reason for the gathering is unknown to all. As the guests arrive on the yacht, tensions begin to rise culminating in… a murder.

A Deadly Invitation A Quick Review

If you are into Agatha Christie, and however many film and series adaptations of her novels have been produced over time, I recommend this movie.

It follows close to the exact same patterns, and production style as A Knives Out Mystery (2019); a contemporary multi-character murder mystery...

Films by Carolina Markowicz, Isabel Coixet, Jaione Camborda and Isabel Herguera all have international potential.

Highly anticipated features from Isabel Coixet, Lucía Puenzo and Jaione Camborda are among the buzziest Spanish and Latin American titles screening across all strands of this year’s San Sebastián film festival. Here is a flavour of what festival audiences can expect.

Blondi (Argentina)

Dir: Dolores Fonzi

The debut feature from Argentinian actress Dolores Fonzi plays in the Horizontes Latinos section, which screens premieres entirely or partially produced in Latin America and not yet released in Spain. Fonzi also stars in the film which is...

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics releases the film in select theaters on Friday, November 24, with a nationwide rollout to follow in early 2024.

The one thing you can’t accuse “They Shot the Piano Player” of is talking down to its audience. Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s animated documentary about the 1976 disappearance of pianist Francisco Tenorio Jr. demands your absolute attention with its encyclopedic index of talking heads, and pretty much requires you to have substantial existing knowledge of bossa nova and the South American geopolitics of the 1960s and ’70s. Woe to those who do not. The result is an aggravating missed opportunity to tell a story that absolutely needs to be told to an audience that needs to hear it.

Trueba is a legendary director in Spain. Those who don’t know him for his 1992 Academy...

Jazz and animation make for strong bedfellows in “They Shot the Piano Player,” a film from Spanish directors Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal that represents an intriguing hybrid in all sorts of ways. It’s a love letter to the bossa nova movement that peaked in the 1960s, while at the same time it’s a sobering procedural that looks into the state murder of a musician that occurred as fascistic regimes rose to power in Latin America in the ’70s. It’s a documentary, or at least more nonfiction than not, although it has a wholly concocted framing device. And above and beyond the movie’s somewhat incongruous mixture of gritty political realism and giddy music appreciation, yes, it’s completely hand-drawn.

So if you like movies that draw outside the lines, so to speak, then “They Shot the Piano Player” will be for you, even if it offers...

Oscar winner Fernando Trueba (“Belle Epoque”), “The Secret Life of Words” director Isabel Coixet and “Veneno” writer-director-producers Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo feature among talent behind Spanish titles at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival, the highest profile film event in the Spanish-speaking world.

Coixet will compete for the first time in San Sebastian’s main competition with “Un Amor,” a probing village-set tale of emotional dependence starring Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) and “Money Heist’s” Hovik Keuchkerian.

Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal will present as a special screening animated feature “They Shot the Piano Player,” a joyful and finally devastating portrait of the life and fate of pianist Francisco Tenorio Jr. narrated by Jeff Goldblum.

Ambrossi and Calvo – popularly known as Los Javis – will world premiere “La Mesías,” the most awaited Spanish series of the year, a big-scale, period-hopping Movistar Plus+ original, chronicling the devastating effect of a childhood education,...

Director Fernando Trueba and artist Javier Mariscal previously collaborated on Oscar-nominated ‘Chico & Rita’.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights in the US and key territories around the world to They Shot The Piano Player, the highly-anticipated animation from Spanish director Fernando Trueba and artist Javier Mariscal, who previously collaborated on the Oscar-nominated Chico & Rita.

In a deal with Film Constellation, SPC has also secured all rights for Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and airlines within those territories. The distributor plans to qualify the film for year-end awards.

Paramount+ has bowed the trailer and key art of Colombian actor-producer Manolo Cardona’s directorial debut, “Death’s Roulette” (“Uno para morir”) ahead of its May 5 launch. The Spanish-language suspense thriller will stream on Paramount+ in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia and Latin America. It will also be available to stream in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and South Korea.

Based on the original script “La Terminal” by Frank Ariza, “Death’s Roulette” is written by Julieta Steinberg, Gavo Amiel and Cardona. The story revolves around seven kidnapped strangers who wake up in an isolated mansion to find that they are part of a deadly game. They are given 60 minutes to select one person to die but he or she has to agree to be sacrificed. The grim alternative is for all of them to lose their lives. As the clock winds down, their darkest secrets are revealed...

After wowing a home crowd at the opening night of the San Sebastián Film Festival on Friday, looking dazzling at 48, Spain’s best-known actress, Penélope Cruz, spoke to a packed auditorium at the city’s Tabakalera culture center on Saturday when she was honored with Spain’s National Cinematography Prize.

“It is truly an honor for me to receive this National Cinematography Prize,” said Cruz speaking in Spanish.

“Cinema is and has been my passion since I was a child. Since I dreamed in the living room of my parents’ house of worlds to explore beyond our neighbourhood. The streets of my neighborhood sometimes became sets for incredible stories,” she went on. “My childhood was fantasizing about acting, living life so intensely to be able to encompass many lives through dozens of characters.”

Cruz received two standing ovations during the ceremony. Cruz was presented the award by Spain’s Minister of Culture and Sports,...

They were all so incredibly young. Caetano Veloso opened Salvador’s Vila Velha Theater, a milestone event for the city, at the age of 21. Pianist Francisco Tenório Jr., the subject of Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s “They Shot the Piano Player,” recorded one record as band leader, in March 1964, when he was 23 years old.

But he played piano on some of the greatest samba jazz records of all time, some with Raul de Sousa on trombone and J.T. Meirelles on tenor sax.

“These guys were the geniuses of Brazil music and they were only 23 years old,” Oscar winning writer-director Fernando Trueba (“Belle Epoque”) told Variety at Annecy.

If Tenório isn’t better known, it is partly because he was murdered, “desaparecido,” in 1976 in Argentina while on tour, a full life suddenly annulled at the age of 35, as a military coup d’etat took hold of the country.

Nobody...

Fernando Trueba’s Cannes Official Selection drama Forgotten We’ll Be has scored U.S. and UK deals via a joint acquisition from Cohen Media Group and Artificial Eye.

The acquisition is the first joint buy from the two firms after Ae was acquired by Cmg last year.

The film will be released theatrically in the U.S. and the UK in 2021. The distribution deal was negotiated by Robert Aaronson, Cmg’s Senior Vice President, and Vicente Canales, Managing Director of Spanish international sales agency Film Factory Entertainment

Belle Époque and Chico & Rita director Trueba’s latest is adapted from Héctor Abad Faciolince’s novel about his father, Colombian human rights activist Dr. Héctor Abad Gómez. Starring Javier Cámara (Talk To Her), the story follows a man torn between the love of his family and his political fight set in the violence-riddled Colombia of recent decades. The film also stars Juan Pablo Urrego...

Updated: Nominations for the 45th César Awards were unveiled this morning in Paris, led by Roman Polanski’s Dreyfus Affair drama An Officer And A Spy with 12 including Best Film, Director and Actor (for Jean Dujardin). While Polanski remains a controversial figure owing to his 1977 child sex conviction and subsequent flight from the United States, as well as a more recent allegation (which he has denied), there has been a divide between U.S. and European perspectives in the #MeToo era. An Officer And A Spy premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019, winning the Grand Jury Prize. In November, it opened No. 1 at the French box office.

France’s equivalent to the Oscars, the Césars are handed out by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma. In 2017, the Académie made headlines over its appointment of Polanski as President of that year’s ceremony. The move was followed by...

Buenos Aires — Caracol Televisión is introducing to select sales agents at Ventana Sur “El Olvido que Seremos,” the latest feature film from Academy Award-winning director Fernando Trueba (“Belle Epoque”), which is written by David Trueba (“Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed”) and stars Javier Cámara (“Truman”) and adapts one of the most loved of recent Spanish-language books.

Now in post-production and ready for delivery and potential festival berths in 2020, said a Caracol source, “El Olvido que Seremos” is being introduced to select sales agents at Ventana Sur.

Produced by Dago García Producciones for Caracol TV, which fully funded the feature, “El Olvido que Seremos” shot this year in Medellín, Bogotá, Milán and Madrid. It marks the latest ambitious feature film from the Caracol Television, the Colombian broadcast group whose films in a bold line of big international auteur titles take in Ciro Guerra’s Oscar-nominated “Embrace of the Serpent” and...

Production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has come on board to finance musical animation film “They Shot the Piano Player,” directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, Oscar-nominated for their 2012 animation “Chico & Rita.”

Jeff Goldblum is attached to voice the lead character, a New York music journalist on a quest to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of young Brazilian piano virtuoso Tenorio Jr.

Film Constellation describes the film as “a celebratory origin story” of the Bossa Nova movement that “captures a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning point in Latin American history in the 60s and 70s, just before the continent was engulfed by totalitarian regimes.”

The pic features a who’s who of the best of Brazilian music, including João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Vinicius de Moraes and Paulo Moura.

Trueba, whose credits include music films “Calle 54,” “Bebo Y Cigala” and “The Miracle of Candeal,...

Madrid — Four years in the making, Agustí Villaronga’s “Born a King,” starring Ed Skrein (“Deadpool”) and Hermione Cornfield (“Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”) and produced by Andrés Vicente Gómez, has caught box office fire in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Released wide on Sept. 26, the true events-based historical drama – framing the coming of age of Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia, against the background of a diplomatic mission he led to London in 1919 at the tender age of 13 – has earned an exceptional first-four-day $972, 962 in UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, according to figures from its distributor, Dubai’s-based Vox Film Distribution.

The lion’s share of that was made in UAE, where it grossed $547,725.

However execrating for an independent film, the results are not totally surprising. “Born a King” is a Spain-u.K. production, whose producers, director and crew pack huge experience: Gómez, producer of Fernando Trueba’s...

Antonio Méndez Esparza’s “Que nadie duerma,” Fernando Franco’s “La consagración de la primavera” and Agustí Villaronga’s “3.000 obstáculos” figure among the seven projects to be pitched at Paris’ Small Is Biutiful forum.

The closing event for the alternative Spanish film festival Dífferent 12!, Small Is Biutiful takes place June 26, bringing together French distributors and sales executives around a selection of Spanish feature projects seeking partners.

Backed by the Cannes Film Market, Different! is organised by Espagnolas en Paris and the Ile-de-France Film Commission.

Past projects presented at Small Is Biutiful take in Oliver Laxe’s “Mimosas,” which won Cannes 2016 Critics’ Week; Carlos Vermut’s “Magical Girl,” San Sebastián’s top Golden Shell Award in 2014, and Arantxa Echevarría’s “Carmen & Lola,” winner of breakout director and supporting actress nods at February’s Goya Awards, as well as a Cannes Directors’ Fortnight contender.

“Que nadie duerma” is produced by Pedro Hernández...

“The dead don’t die,” Constantin CEO Martin Moszkowicz joked on Thursday afternoon on Cannes’ Grand Hotel terrace, one of the Cannes Film Festival’s favorite industry haunts.

Moszkowicz wasn’t just quoting the title of Jim Jarmusch’s Festival Cannes opening movie, a zombie film set in small-town America. He was also implying that there are more movies coming to Cannes with commercial potential. And the good news for distributors like Moszkowicz is that these movie are cheaper to buy. To be sure, that’s not such a positive development for producers hoping to make a big profit on their latest projects.

After several years of cautious dealmaking at Cannes, there are signs that a larger number of movies are being sold at this year’s festival. Whether that points to full market rebound, however, is questionable. The larger picture is mixed. You could almost hear the industry collectively...

Barcelona – Agustina Macri’s feature debut “Soledad” (Solitude) won Best Feature award at the 3rd Barcelona Film Festival, which ran April 22-30.

Produced by Italy’s 39Films and Argentina’s Cinema 7 Films, and inspired by true events, the film follows titular Soledad Rosas who moved to Italy in 1997 to a squatters community. There she met a militant anarchist with whom she had a brief and intense love affair. A year later the couple was arrested and accused of terroristic acts meant to halt the construction of a railway.

The screenplay was penned by Paolo Logli and Macri –the daughter of Argentine president Mauricio Macri. “Soledad” world-premiered at the Warsaw Film Festival and will be released in Argentina and Italy through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Walt Disney Company Italia respectively.

The Acec Critic’s Award went to another debut, this time from actress-turned-director Laura Jou. Produced by longtime...

Earlier in the week, the lineup for this year’s Cannes Film Festival was revealed. Every year, this announcement is hotly anticipated, as it’s one of the signifiers that we’re going to soon get some looks at potential Academy Award players. 2019 will be no exception, as a handful of possible contenders are poised to launch in France next month at the 72nd incarnation of the event. From May 14th until May 25th, the South of France will be home to some of cinema’s finest offerings, that much goes without saying. Some will be Oscar hopefuls, some will be flops, but all will contribute to getting us even more excited for the rest of the cinematic year. Cannes looks to premiere some very interesting titles this year. Some of the highest profile offerings include The Dead Don’t Die from Jim Jarmusch, which will open the festival, Frankie from Ira Sachs,...

Santiago De Chile — Spanish actress Maribel Verdu is the toast of the 14th Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic), which pays homage to her stunning 30-year career in the entertainment biz. Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Verdu took gleeful charge of the event from the get-go, introducing “fellow guests” festival co-directors Carlos Nunez and Gabriela Sandoval as well as Francisca Florenzano, head of fest organizer CorpArtes Foundation, who flanked her at the podium.

Verdu, who has the distinction of being the most nominated actress in the history of Spain’s Goya Awards (11) and the winner of two, has been a tour de force in Spain’s film and TV industry, having worked with most of the leading lights in the Ibero-American film industry and starred in Oscar-nominated or winning gems led by Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 dark fantasy “Pan’s Labyrinth” and Alfonso Cuaron’s 2001 coming-of-age road movie “Y Tu Mama Tambien.

Locarno, Switzerland — After “Jeanette,” “Jeanne.” Bruno Dumont, one of France’s big name auteurs and recipient later this week of a Locarno Lifetime Achievement Award, will roll from next Monday on “Jeanne,” the movie sequel to “Jeanette, the Childhood of Joan of Arc,” which premiered at Cannes last year. Paris-based Luxbox handles world sales on “Jeanne.”

The new movie shoot comes just days after Dumont will also world premiere at Locarno broadcaster Arte mini-series “CoinCoin and the Extra Humans,” sold by Paris-based Doc & Film Intl., and his sequel to his biggest more-mainstream hit to date, 4-part series “P’tit Quinquin.”

Written by Dumont, “Jeanne” will once more be a musical, adapting the second and third parts of Belle Epoque writer Charles Peguy’s “The Mystery of the Charity of Joan of Arc.” These take Joan of Arc’s story through her victorious battles against the English, court case and death,...

As the surprise box-office success story of the last six months or so, Michael Gracey’s “The Greatest Showman” indicated that contrary to the film’s sniffy critical reception, there is indeed an audience for glitzy, period-inflected, fanfare-filled stories of life beneath the Big Top. But its word-of-mouth slow build to moneymaking, cult-spawning juggernaut status is unlikely to be replicated by Brazilian veteran Carlos Diegues’ return to the directing fray with “The Great Mystical Circus.”

After a decade spent nurturing other talents from the region (including an associate producer credit on Kleber Mendonça Filho’s superb “Aquarius”) Diegues, a Cinema Novo pioneer with such titles as “Bye Bye Brazil,” “Ganga Zumba,” and “Quilombo” under his belt, essays his own take on circus maximalism, but delivers a magical realist misfire; an uncomfortably soapy high-wire act that stumbles right out the gate and never stops tumbling.

Based on a poem by celebrated Brazilian polymath Jorge de Lima,...

Saudi Arabia’s dive into the world of entertainment continues apace.

Ten days after “Black Panther” ended the country’s 35-year cinema ban, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday inaugurated construction of the new Qiddiya entertainment complex outside the capital, Riyadh, on a site described as being two-and-a-half times the size of Disney World. The complex will offer everything from theme parks to car-racing.

And on Monday, what’s being touted as the country’s first full-service production facility, Nebras Films, announced that it is now up and running, and hoping to attract international productions.

The Qiddiya ground-breaking ceremony on Saturday, attended by about 300 dignitaries from around the world included a recitation from the Quran, a live orchestra, fireworks, and an opening address from Qiddiya CEO Michael Reininger, who called it a watershed moment, according to a press statement.

“In creating Qiddiya, we are building a brighter future,...

Despite its critical acclaim, Robin Campillo’s “Bpm (Beats per Minute),” was left out of the Best Foreign Language Film line-up at this year’s Golden Globes. While that snub was shocking, a Golden Globes bid is not essential for an Oscar win. Indeed, since the Golden Globes introduced this category in 1965, 19 of the 51 Academy Awards winners for Best Foreign Language Film were snubbed for this precursor prize:

1965: “The Shop on Main Street” (Czechoslovakia)

1971: “The Garden of the Finzi Continis (Italy)

1975: “Dersu Uzala” (Soviet Union)

1976: “Black and White in Color” (Ivory Coast)

1979: “The Tin Drum” (West Germany)

1980: “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears” (Soviet Union)

1981: “Mephisto” (Hungary)

1982: “To Begin Again” (Spain)

1987: “Babette’s Feast” (Denmark)

1990: “Journey of Hope” (Switzerland)

1991: “Mediterraneo” (Italy)

1993: “Belle Époque” (Spain)

1994: “Burnt by the Sun” (Russia)

1995: “Antonia’s Line” (The Netherlands)

1997: “Character” (The Netherlands...

Moulin Rouge! The Musical is on its way to Broadway.

The previously announced project, based on Baz Luhrmann's 2001 film starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, will premiere in summer 2018 at Boston's newly restored Emerson Colonial Theatre, which is now part of Ambassador Theatre Group. The production is then expected to segue to Broadway, though exact dates remain to be set.

Luhrmann's film followed the love story of an English poet and a beautiful courtesan, the star cabaret performer at the decadent Montmartre nightclub in Belle Epoque Paris. John Logan, a Tony Award winner for Red, has...

Drake had a lot more than one dance during his ultra star-studded party on the eve of his 31st birthday on Monday night.

After dining in style at L.A. hotspot Catch, the Grammy-winning rapper rang in his big day at The h.wood Group’s newest nightclub, Poppy, alongside A-list celeb pals like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Hailey Baldwin, Tobey Maguire, G-Eazy, Kelly Rowland, Madison Beer and more.

The guests — which also included Lamar Odom, Usain Bolt and Odell Beckham Jr. — channelled their inner child with sports-themed arcade games and a basketball photo booth, while sipping from red hard...

Drake knows how to throw a party!

The rapper celebrated his 31st birthday on Monday night at West Hollywood hot spot Poppy, and a slew of his celebrity friends showed up to party. Et has learned that the star-studded guest list included Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, G-Eazy Jamie Foxx, Kelly Rowland and Hailey Baldwin, who was recently romantically linked to Drake.

Other stars seen entering the nightclub were Lamar Odom, Usain Bolt and Halsey. Going all out, the venue's signage was even changed from "Poppy" to "Papi" as a tribute to Drake, who sometimes goes by Champagne Papi.

Watch: Yolanda Hadid Responds to Romance Rumors Between Daughter Bella and Drake

An eyewitness at the invitation-only event tells Et that the party was sports and Bar Mitzvah-themed, and included photos and videos of Drake as a child displayed on monitors. The dress code for the soiree was semi-formal and guests were treated to pizza and Dippin' Dots, as they...

Cannes grand prix winner 120 Beats Per Minute in selection for the European Parliament’s Lux Prize Photo: Courtesy of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival With the aim of ensuring European films receives as wide a showing as possible in cinemas all over the continent, the organisers of the 11th edition of the Lux Prize revealed the nominees for this year’s accolade at the 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

The official selection includes the much admired Cannes Competition entry and grand prix winner 120 Beats Per Minute by Robin Campillo from France; Amanda Kernell's indigenous drama Sámi Blood; and migrant story The Other Side of Hope, by Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki.

The Prize is bestowed every year by the European Parliament to cast “a spotlight on the diversity of European cinema and its importance in building social and cultural values”.

The selection was unveiled last night (July 2) in the...

Maverick French director Bruno Dumont returns after Slack Bay with this baffling, deliberately disconcerting musical that won’t have your toes tapping

One of the Cannes film festival’s favourite aging enfant terribles, especially since Lars Von Trier seems to be still banned for life, Bruno Dumont returns to the Croisette this year with his latest assiette de wackitude, Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc. Hopefully, distributors outside of France will see sense and drop the formality of the subtitle and just rename this Jeanette! – because it is, of all things, a musical about young Jeanne d’Arc and everyone knows musicals are better with exclamation points.

Having dipped a toe into more commercial waters with his last two outing – miniseries Li’l Quinquin and the star-led feature Slack Bay, both black but broad comedies – Dumont returns to more familiar sombre, avant-garde territory with this adaptation of a play...

Penélope Cruz rescues this frequently silly comedy, set on a 1950s film set in Franco’s Spain, as a larger-than-life actor in an entertaining, at times exasperating story

There’s a kind of excitable silliness in this disposable, film-within-a-film comedy from Fernando Trueba, starring Penélope Cruz – to whom Trueba gave her big break in his 1992 film Belle Epoque. In fact, it’s maybe the nearest thing that this year’s Berlin film festival has to a Carry On. There are one or two groans and finger-drumming moments of impatience, due to its sentimentality, perverse nostalgia and knowingly retro sexual politics. But it also has a kind of puppyish excitability, one or two laughs, and a lovely song, when Cruz sings Granada on a movie set. In fact, Cruz saves the film. The cinephilia and movie-studio fetishism are picturesque, though Almodóvar has given us the same thing with more intensity and feeling.

Exclusive: Paris-based company reshuffles sales team as Carole Baraton steps down as head of sales.

Wild Bunch will launch sales on new films by Jean-Luc Godard, Christian Carion, Michel Ocelot, Raymond Depardon as well as a feel-good, Senegal-set drama starring Omar Sy at Unifrance’s upcoming Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris (Jan 12-16).

The event will also mark the first outing for the company’s reconfigured sales team following Carole Baraton’s decision to step down as head of sales to set-up her own company.

Baraton’s long-time territories the Us, France and the UK will be carved up between the sales team, now consisting of Silvia Simonutti, Emilie Serres, Olivier Barbier, recent hire Fanny Beauville and Esther Devos for festivals.

Notably, Beauville will co-handle Canada and the Us in partnership with La’s Creative Artist Agency (CAA), working closely with the agency’s film finance and sales group co-chief Roeg Sutherland and his team.

Bilingual...

Et has details on what some of your favorite celebs were up to recently that might have flown under your radar.

Throughout the evening of Madonna's ultra-vip charity event at Miami's Art Basel on Dec. 2, guests were urged by the hostess to take advantage of the ever-flowing Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque at their tables to help them dig deeper into their pockets to contribute to the cause.

Read: Madonna Jokingly Offers to Remarry Sean Penn for Charity: 'I'm Still in Love With You'

Madonna's celeb friends like Ariana Grande, Sean Penn, Chris Rock, Alex Rodriguez, Dave Chappelle, Karolina Kurkova, and David Blaine participated in the auction where over $7.5 million funds were raised. James Corden served as Master of Ceremonies and kicked off the night saying, "let's toast with Perrier-Jouët for Raising Malawi," at Madonna's star-studded charity bash with cuvées provided by the iconic champagne house.

The day before on the opposite coast, [link...

Kendall Jenner rang in her 21st birthday with a bang … and lots of champagne!

To kick things off on Wednesday night, Jenner and an intimate group of friends and family dined at hot spot Catch L.A. restaurant for dinner and drinks. For her celebratory night out on the town, she wore a low-cut, lace-up, semi-sheer jumpsuit with a black bodysuit and green fur stole.

“It was a really fun party atmosphere,” a source told People of the festivities. “Everyone was happy to celebrate Kendall. The dinner was rustic chic and there were flower crowns on the table. Guests enjoyed multiple appetizers (sashimi,...

Goat

Paramount and The Film Arcade have announced a September 23rd release date for "Goat," Andrew Neel's fraternity drama which was a hit at Sundance. Nick Jonas and Ben Schnetzer star in the film which will open on September 23rd in New York, Los Angeles, and other select U.S. cities along with a digital and on demand release on that date. [Source: EW]

Who Am I

David Goyer is set to direct a remake of Baran bo Odar's German film "Who Am I". The story follows a man who falls in with a group of hackers in Berlin who attempt to gain notoriety by disrupting the public order. Dan Wiedenhaupt ("The Solutrean") is penning the script for the remake. [Source: Deadline]

Euphoria

Charlotte Rampling ("45 Years") is set to join the cast of Swedish writer and director Lisa Langseth's "Euphoria" alongside Alicia Vikander and Eva Green. Vikander and Green play estranged...

Paris is putting on The Ritz again - after its most celebrated hotel re-opened Monday. The Hotel Ritz, where Princess Diana spent her last evening in 1997, opened its doors to customers following four years of renovations and a delay caused by a major fire in January. Owned today by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed, whose son Dodi was Diana's boyfriend and died in the same car crash that killed the princess, the Ritz has been a Paris landmark since opening on Place Vendome in 1898. Among its celebrity clientele, The Ritz has counted icons as diverse as Charlie Chaplin, designer Coco Chanel,...

The once world-renowned but now relatively obscure Belle Epoque dancer Loie Fuller (1862-1928), formerly the toast of the Folies Bergère, gets the full biopic treatment in The Dancer (La Danseuse), an airy, prettily accoutered but essentially vapid feature debut for writer-director Stephanie De Giusto. Tabloid interest is pretty much guaranteed in this otherwise fairly inconsequential costume drama by its casting: Fuller herself is played by indie-musician-turned-actor Soko (star of Alice Winocour’s Augustine), who until recently was dating Kristen Stewart (they allegedly split up just before the Cannes Film Festival). Meanwhile, Lily-Rose Depp, the

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Kirk D’Amico and his team will introduce Cannes buyers to the upcoming drama from Fernando Trueba starring Penelope Cruz.

Myriad Pictures holds world rights excluding Spain and Andorra to the project, currently shooting in Spain and Budapest.

Trueba and Cruz unite after Belle Epoque and The Girl Of Your Dreams. Cruz plays a WWII-era Spanish actress who returns from Hollywood to her home country to play Isabella I of Castille.

On the set she encounters the main characters from The Girl Of Your Dreams, played by Antonio Resines, Jorge Sanz, Rosa Maria Sarda, and Santiago Segura.

The cast includes Mandy Patinkin, Cary Elwes, Clive Revill, and Chino Darin.

“We are delighted to be able to work with director Fernando Trueba, one of Spain’s best directors today, and with international star Penelope Cruz on this comedic and poignant film with a great cast and great international production team,” said Myriad president D’Amico.

Cristina Huete and [link...

Billed as the largest festival in Hollywood dedicated to foreign film, the City of Lights, City of Angels (Col•Coa) Festival will be bringing the best in contemporary French cinema from Paris to Los Angeles in what will be its 20th year. Of note, films you should be familiar with by now, given how much coverage they've received here on S&A, that are scheduled to screen include Omar Sy's latest French-produced feature film "Chocolat," which is based on the life of Rafael Padilla - a former Cuban-born slave, who became a performer in France during the Belle Epoque era. In short, nicknamed "Chocolat," Padilla was born in...

The two directors have joined the cast of Fernando Trueba’s film, which is now shooting in Budapest.

Directors Arturo Ripstein (La Calle De La Amargura) and Juan Antonio Bayona [pictured] (The Impossible) will step in front of the camera for Fernando Trueba’s The Queen Of Spain, his Penelope Cruz-starring sequel to The Girl Of Your Dreams.

It’s an acting first for Bayona, having accepted a brief cameo in the shoot that is now taking place in Budapest. Veteran Mexican director Ripstein will play the more sizable role of a fictional film producer, Sam Spiegelman, who wants to shoot a film in 1950s Spain.

Given that The Queen Of Spain is a comedy, but also a love letter to film history, it’s only fitting that two auteurs as diverse as Bayona and Ripstein have joined Trueba’s cast.

The action is set in 1956, 18 years later in the life of Macarena Granada, the Spanish...

The two directors have joined the cast of Fernando Trueba’s film, which is now shooting in Budapest.

Directors Arturo Ripstein (La Calle De La Amargura) and Juan Antonio Bayona [pictured] (The Impossible) will step in front of the camera for Fernando Trueba’s The Queen Of Spain, his Penelope Cruz-starring sequel to The Girl Of Your Dreams.

It’s an acting first for Bayona, having accepted a brief cameo in the shoot that is now taking place in Budapest. Veteran Mexican director Ripstein will play the more sizable role of a fictional film producer, Sam Spiegelman, who wants to shoot a film in 1950s Spain.

Given that The Queen Of Spain is a comedy, but also a love letter to film history, it’s only fitting that two auteurs as diverse as Bayona and Ripstein have joined Trueba’s cast.

The action is set in 1956, 18 years later in the life of Macarena Granada, the Spanish...

The Notebook is the North American home for Locarno Film Festival Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian's blog. Chatrian has been writing thoughtful blog entries in Italian on Locarno's website since he took over as Director in late 2012, and now you can find the English translations here on the Notebook as they're published. The Locarno Film Festival will be taking place August 3 - 13. Howard Shore. © Benjamin Ealovega Film music is a subject that requires very delicate handling. As if music, more so even than sound itself, had arrived in the cinema with the table laid and the party already begun, requiring it therefore to be a very discreet guest.It makes little difference that we know that the movies – well before they became the talkies – needed musical accompaniment; it makes little difference that film music, whether by pioneering pianists or great composers, has given greater depth to the moving image and developed...

Wash Westmoreland’s period biopic Colette has set sights on Keira Knightley for the star role, according to Deadline.

Should the pieces fall into place, the two-time Academy Award nominee will assume the role of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, the French novelist celebrated for penning Gigi back in 1944 – during the twilight years of World War II, no less. It was a novel that proved to be a timeless classic, even nabbing an Oscar when it was adapted into a musical feature in 1958 with Leslie Caron.

Born in Belle Epoque, Colette “lived through both World Wars, including the Nazi occupation of Paris; her Jewish husband Maurice Goudeket was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941.” Living in fear of the Nazi regime, experiencing the throes of war first hand ought to make for a meaty role for Knightley to tackle.

In terms of Colette, Deadline notes that the project is poised to reunite Killer Films and Number 9 Films,...

Spain and Hungary shoot readied for sequel to The Girl Of Your Dreams; additional cast includes Clive Revill (Avanti!).

Director Fernando Trueba (Chico & Rita) is readying Spanish comedy-drama The Queen Of Spain (La Reina De España) for a February shoot.

Produced by Trueba’s Fernando Trueba PC and Atresmedia Cine, shoot is due to get underway in Hungary at the end of February and carry on in Spain in April. Post-production is due to be finalised late 2016 or early 2017.

The feature marks the third collaboration between Oscar-winning writer-director Trueba (Belle Époque) and Oscar-winner Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), following their work together on Belle Epoque and 1998 film The Girl Of Your Dreams, the latter serving as a prequel to The Queen Of Spain.

In The Girl Of Your Dreams Cruz played Macarena Granada, an imaginary Spanish actress of the 1930’s who goes to Nazi Germany to shoot a coproduction. At the end of the film she flees the country...

"Shark Tank" shark Kevin O'Leary dropped $13,000 at Bagatelle Miami Beach Thursday night to help his friend celebrate a birthday.  Kevin treated his crew of 7 to a 500gr of Osetra Caviar -- for a measly $6,000. His crew then devoured ribeye steak, turbot fillet and cake.   As for what rich people do when they're thirsty ... they drink $1,000 Magnum Perrier-Jouet Belle Epoque Rose bottles delivered by servers dressed as Superman and Supergirl. Duh!  Earlier this week he told...

Here's the English language trailer for Omar Sy's next film, "Chocolat," in which the French actor plays a former Cuban-born slave who became a circus entertainer in France during the late 1800s. After the trailer, read Tambay's previous updates on the upcoming film, including a summary of the story. Read Tambay's summary of the project below. *** Omar Sy stars in the upcoming French-produced feature film "Chocolat," which is based on the life of Rafael Padilla - a former Cuban-born slave, who became a performer in France during the Belle Epoque era.  In short, nicknamed "Chocolat," Padilla was born in Cuba in 1868 and was...

'The Grandfather': Fernando Fernán Gómez as the 'abuelo' of the title. 'The Grandfather' movie review: Gorgeous, surprisingly effective sentimental family drama with strong central performance The Grandfather / El abuelo is a film with a pedigree. It is based on a novel by Benito Pérez Galdòs, considered by many the greatest Spanish writer of the 19th century. Its director, José Luis Garci, took home the 1982 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award for Beguin the Beguine / Volver a empezar. Its star, veteran Fernando Fernán Gómez, whose film career spanned more than six decades, was one of the most admired actors in Spain. Add to that the stunning work of cinematographer Raúl Pérez Cubero and Manuel Balboa's evocative score, and the sum total should be a cinematic masterpiece. Well, not quite. Garci had perhaps been watching too many Mexican soap operas, for that is the feel he gives to this gorgeous-looking tale...