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Ventana Sur’s Animation! WIPs by Annecy, curated by the prestigious French festival, has unveiled the five features set to participate in its 2024 edition, coming later this month.

Titles selected for this year’s Montevideo-set get-together come from across Latin America and feature co-producers from Europe and North America. Countries with producers involved in this year’s lineup include Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Canada, France and the U.S.

According to the selection’s organizers, “This year’s selection brings together proposals that stand out for their narrative and technical diversity, confirming the moment of growth that the region’s animation industry is experiencing.”

Below, we take a closer look at the diverse and promising slate of feature titles that will be presented at this year’s Animation! WIPs by Annecy.

“Heart of Darkness” Rogério Nunes

‘Heart of Darkness’

Based on the classic 19th-century novel but set in modern-day Brazil,...

The 2024 US Presidential Elections saw the victory of Donald Trump as he took charge of the Oval Office for the second time. As of now, it has become the biggest news all over the world, and his fans are quite happy for him. However, what his fans don’t know is that Trump has been a part of one of the biggest anime and manga franchises in the world.

Donald Trump | Credit: Instagram@realdonaldtrump

This franchise is none other than Death Note, created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. Death Note is a well-known name, and even individuals who aren’t interested in the anime and manga industries may have heard of it. It is the story of a mythical book that grants its users the ability to kill anyone, anywhere, as long as they know the names of the people they want to kill.

In 2020, a special one-shot of...

Animation from Spain is attending the Ottawa International Animation Festival’s Tac (The Animation Conference) for the first time this year and has brought with it three of Spain’s hottest up-and-coming animation producers for a roundtable to discuss the current state of Iberian animation and pitch their pipelines to the international and North American markets.

A Spanish government-backed presence at North America’s most important animation festival and the leading indie-dedicated animation event on the global calendar indicates a desire to become a bigger player in Canada and the U.S. while bolstering the country’s global reputation.

International ambitions are being fueled by increased activity in Spain. According to Icex Spain Trade and Investment, the Spanish government body that spearheads this year’s Ottawa involvement, in 2023, Spanish companies produced six animated features, 25 short films and 68 seasons of animated TV series.

Commercial and critically, Spanish animation is also reaching new heights.

“A New Dawn,” the feature debut of Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, an animator on Makoto Shinkai’s blockbuster “Your Name,” is one draw in a five-title Annecy Animation Showcase which involves producers of real impact on the global independent animation scene.

The showcase will unveil a second brand-new animation project, “Mu-Ki-Ra,” co-produced by “Unicorn Wars” backer Abano Producións. The Showcase also features two key French prestige animation titles: “Conference of the Birds,” now backed by Le Pacte, and “In Waves,” from Silex Films, Anonymous Content, and leading sales agency Charades. Rounding up the selection is the anticipated Mexican feature “The Language of Birds.”

The Annecy Festival has long been the most important date on the international animation calendar, unfolding on the picturesque shores of Lake Annecy in France each summer.

In 2016, Cannes’ Marché du Film started providing a spring sneak peek at a small collection of work-in-progress titles that would...

Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (Gea) has launched a new film fund called Big Time Investment to boost production of quality Arabic movies and announced a slate of Egyptian feature films toplined by a biopic of Egyptian icon Umm Kulthum who is considered the Arab world’s greatest singer.

Prominent Egyptian director Marwan Hamed, whose epic “Kira and El Gen” about local resistance to British occupation, is recent hit, will direct the film titled “El Set.” Egyptian star Mona Zaki will play Kulthum who from the late 1920s onwards became the first prominent Arab singer to disseminate her work to the masses via the new technologies of the times: radio, the phonograph, cinema and television.

The fund was announced in Cairo by Gea chairman Turki Alalshikh who said Gea will serve as the roughly $130 million fund’s primary sponsor with the Ministry of Culture acting as a co-sponsor, according...

Prominent Egyptian director Marwan Hamed, whose epic “Kira and El Gen” about local resistance to British occupation recently scored at the local box office, is being feted with a career award by the El Gouna Film Festival.

The Egyptian fest, running Oct. 13-20 in the Red Sea resort roughly 250 miles south of Cairo, is also paying tribute to the Sudanese Film Group, a groundbreaking collective of filmmakers, and is planning an homage to late great British-French icon Jane Birkin.

Hamed (pictured above) broke out internationally in 2006 with his bold adaptation of Alaa Aswany’s bestselling novel “The Yacoubian Building” that became a game-changer in Egytian cinema due to the way it depicted homosexuality, Islamic fundamentalism and government corruption. After “Yacoubian” become a local hit and travelled widely Hamed scored again big time with “The Blue Elephant,” a thriller with supernatural elements and its sequel “The Blue Elephant 2” that more...

The El Gouna Film Festival (Gff) will honor Egyptian director Marwan Hamed with a life Career Achievement Award at its upcoming sixth edition, running from October 6 to 12.

It marks the first element of the program to be announced as the Egyptian Red Sea festival returns this year following a one year hiatus in 2022.

Hamed studied film at the Higher Institute of Cinema in Cairo. His first short Li Li, adapted from a short story by Yusuf Idris, played at numerous festivals, winning the Audience Award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the Golden Award at the Carthage Film Festival.

He broke out with his 2006 first feature The Yacoubian Building, adapted from Alaa Al-Aswany’s best-selling novel, which captures Egyptian society in the 1990s and the consequences of its extremes of wealth and poverty.

Featuring an ensemble cast, including Egyptian icons Adel Imam, Nour El-Sherif and Yousra alongside then...

Cannes, France – 18 May 2023 – In celebration of female voices in film, the Red Sea International Film Festival (RedSeaIFF) and Vanity Fair Europe hosted the Women's Stories Gala event this evening, shining a light on the achievements of women both on and behind the camera who are helping shape the film industry and inspire a new generation of talent in Saudi Arabia, Africa, and India.

During the event held alongside the 76th Cannes Film Festival at the spectacular Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d'Antibes, the RedSeaIFF and Vanity Fair Europe honoured six women making significant strides, breaking down barriers and paving the way for future generations.

They include; Fatima AlBanawi – Saudi actor, director and writer who received international acclaim for her leading role in Barakah Meets Barakah (2016) and broke cinema records with her latest AlHamour (2023). She has played an array of roles ranging from the road-trip thriller Route 10, family drama Champions,...

Exclusive: Tunisian-Egyptian actress Hend Sabry has signed with CAA for representation.

Sabry is among the most respected contemporary actresses from North Africa, with a career spanning more than 50 projects in film, TV and radio.

She will next be seen in Kaouther Ben Hania’s new film Four Daughters, which has been selected to premiere as an official selection at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Sabry began her acting career aged 14 in the 1994 Tunisian movie Samt Al Qosour (Silences Of The Palace), and won her first Best Actress Award from the Carthage Film Festival at the age of 15.

Since then, she has won more than 30 awards, including prizes for her performance in the 2019 Tunisian film Noura’s Dream which played at Cannes, Carthage, and El Gouna.

Among Sabry’s films to have achieved commercial success are Blue Elephant 2 and Kira And El Gin, both of which broke Egyptian box office records on release.

Egypt, which is home to the Middle East and North Africa’s biggest film industry, will not participate in the Best International Film Oscar race this year.

According to Egyptian media reports, confirmed by Deadline, the committee of critics and cinema professionals responsible for selecting the country’s submission decided not to send a film for the lack of a credible candidate.

The four films on the final shortlist comprised Marwan Hamed’s Kira & El Gin, Hadi El-Baghoury’s Full Moon, Sherif Arafa’s The Crime and Magdy Ahmed Ali’s 2 Talaat Harb.

Two films generating potential submission buzz — Nadine Khan’s Abu Saddam and Omar El Zohairy’s Cannes 2021 Critics’ Week winner Feathers — could not be taken into consideration because they did not meet the 2022 theatrical release requirements.

The decision for Egypt to opt out of the race was made at the end of September, but the news has...

Egyptian filmmaker Marwan Hamed, the director of “The Yacoubian Building,” “The Blue Elephant” and “The Blue Elephant 2,” which last year became the highest-grossing Egyptian film in history, is shooting “Kira and El Gen,” based on Ahmed Mourad’s book “1919,” about Egyptian resistance to British occupation. He spoke to Variety about the project at the Cairo Film Festival.

Produced by Ahmed Badawy, managing director of Tamer Morsi’s Synergy Films, the budget is north of $10 million, making it the most expensive film in Egyptian cinema history. The film stars some of the biggest names in Arab cinema, including Karim Abdel Aziz, Ahmed Ezz, Hind Sabri and Ahmad Malek. British actor Sam Hazeldine also appears.

Hamed says that the opening of cinemas in Saudi Arabia with its sizeable box-office potential has created a landscape where Arab financiers can plan for better returns on films. “What actually encouraged such an investment...

Andrew Dominik’s 2007 historical epic “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” was a flop for Warner Bros. at the box office, grossing just under $4 million domestically against a $30 million production budget. The movie’s $15 million worldwide total wasn’t great either. In the year’s since, “Jesse James” has emerged as a cult favorite thanks to its strong central performance from Brad Pitt and its cinematography by Roger Deakins. The Dp’s work on the film is often credited as some of the best cinematography of the 21st century. In a new interview with Collider, Deakins reveals there is an over three-hour “Jesse James” cut he hopes will get a release.

“It should be [on Criterion],” Deakins said. “I would really like to see the long version, the first cut that I saw, released on Criterion. That’s what I’d hope for. It was over three hours.

Andrew Dominik’s 2007 historical epic “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” was a flop for Warner Bros. at the box office, grossing just under $4 million domestically against a $30 million production budget. The movie’s $15 million worldwide total wasn’t great either. In the year’s since, “Jesse James” has emerged as a cult favorite thanks to its strong central performance from Brad Pitt and its cinematography by Roger Deakins. The Dp’s work on the film is often credited as some of the best cinematography of the 21st century. In a new interview with Collider, Deakins reveals there is an over three-hour “Jesse James” cut he hopes will get a release.

“It should be [on Criterion],” Deakins said. “I would really like to see the long version, the first cut that I saw, released on Criterion. That’s what I’d hope for. It was over three hours.