News

Exclusive: Studiocanal, The Picture Company, Entertainment 360 & Zaftig Films are out to buyers on a TV series based on the acclaimed 2021 documentary The Lost Leonardo, about how a crumbling painting depicting Christy in the Renaissance called The Salvador Mundi was restored and found to possibly be the final work of Leonardo Da Vinci around the time the master painter did the Mona Lisa. Juliane Moore will star as Dianne Modestini, an art restorer who saw something special in the painting, and painstakingly restored it. She and everyone else were surprised to watch it go from a $1000 estate sale item to the priciest painting ever bought, fetching $450 million by the time the auctioneer banged the gavel at the New York auction house Christie’s.

In between the restoration and sale, there were numerous mysterious twists, turns and controversies from the underbelly of the fine art world. But it all started with...

Taskovski Films has acquired world rights to the Danish doc “Daughter of Genghis,” produced by “The Lost Leonardo’s” Andreas Dalsgaard for Elk Film. The debut feature of award-winning photo-journalists Kristoffer Juel Poulsen and Christian Als, who have teamed up with leading Danish journalist Knud Brix, will world premiere in the F:act competition section of the leading international documentary festival Cph:dox in Copenhagen. Variety has secured the trailer in exclusivity.

“‘Daughter of Genghis’ is a compelling exploration of global extremism, delving into emotional dynamics and pathways to radicalization,” said Irena Taskovski, CEO of U.K.-based Taskovski Films. “Against the backdrop of Mongolia’s struggle for sovereignty amidst geopolitical tensions, the film highlights the resilience of its main character, Gerel Byamba.”

“With its potent blend of geopolitical relevance and nuanced character portrayal, the film promises significant commercial potential and wide audience appeal,” she added.

The huge collective filmmaking effort, which...

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Swan Song, the ballet-themed documentary that will open Lincoln Center’s 52nd Dance on Camera Festival Friday evening.

The film – a Dogwoof, Visitor Media, Mercury Films, and Quiet Ghost production, directed and co-written by Chelsea McMullan – premiered last September at the Toronto International Film Festival. Greenwich plans to release Swan Song in theaters in the fall.

“Swan Song immerses viewers inside one of the world’s leading ballet companies as it mounts a legacy-defining new production of Swan Lake, directed by ballet icon Karen Kain on the eve of her retirement,” notes a description of the film. “The verité-driven feature documentary closely follows Kain and a group of young dancers drawn from the National Ballet of Canada’s ranks, weaving Swan Lake’s dramatic creation process with intimate scenes from the subjects’ personal lives as they push toward one of...

Due to world premiere in IDFA’s international competition program on Monday, the Danish doc “As the Tide Comes In” is a collaborative work between Basque-born director Juan Palacios, and the team behind the multi-awarded film “The Lost Leonardo”: Sofie Husum Johannesen, making her debut here as co-director, Andreas Dalsgaard, acting as executive producer and idea initiator, editor Nicolas Nørgaard Staffolani and producer Kasper Lykke Schultz.

With their shared anthropological perspective, the filmmaking team have captured the extraordinary life of the 27 residents of the tiny Danish Wadden Sea island of Mandø, which can only be reached at low tide. The islanders – including Gregers, the only farmer and youngest of all – are stoically fighting off severe weather conditions and the risk of flooding, like survivors of a doomed refuge, waiting for the inevitable catastrophe to happen. “It is a metaphor for where we are as human beings and the challenges...

Copenhagen-based Elk Film’s hunger for global reach with quality creative docs was fully-achieved with the art world mystery “The Lost Leonardo,” one of the most buzzed about documentaries of 2021, released in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics.

Elk Film’s co-founders, director/producer Andreas Dalsgaard and editor Nicolás Nørgaard Staffolani (“Cold Case Hammarskjöld”) are on the verge of inking a deal for a fiction series take of “The Lost Leonardo” with Studiocanal, The Picture Company, Entertainment 360, together with Vestigo Films’ Christoph Jörg. At the same time, the partners are gearing up for the world premiere of “As the Tide Comes In” at IDFA in the International Competition section.

The Danish film is helmed by Basque-born Juan Palacios with co-director Sofie Husum Johannesen, a trained anthropologist like most of Elk’s creatives. The feature-length doc is a portrait of the Danish Wadden Sea island of Mandø and its 27 dwellers,...

Exclusive: The series adaptation of C.J. Cooke’s supernatural family novel The Lighthouse Witches has moved a step closer to fruition after Two Sentence Horror Stories creator Vera Miao boarded the project.

Miao, who created The CW drama series, which ran for three seasons, will create and serve as showrunner on the series, which comes from The Picture Company and Studiocanal.

It is the latest television project for The Picture Company, which is behind feature films including Gunpowder Milkshake and Sam Taylor-Johnson’s A Million Little Pieces. The company is also working with Studiocanal and Entertainment 360 on a scripted series adaptation of art documentary The Lost Leonardo.

Published in 2021 by Penguin Random House, the book follows young mother Liv and her three daughters who arrive on a mysterious Scottish island to run a decrepit lighthouse.

When single mother Liv is commissioned to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island,...

Venice Film Festival title “Music for Black Pigeons,” directed by Danish filmmakers Jørgen Leth, best known for “The Five Obstructions,” and “The Lost Leonardo” helmer Andreas Koefoed, has debuted its trailer with Variety.

The documentary, which premieres on Tuesday in Venice’s Out of Competition section, explores the lives and processes of some of the world’s most renowned and prolific jazz musicians, including Jakob Bro, Bill Frisell, Lee Konitz, Paul Motian and Midori Takada.

Leth, who has directed more than 40 films including landmark works such as “A Sunday in Hell” (1977) and the surrealist short “The Perfect Human” (1968), returns to Venice after his feature documentary “The Five Obstructions,” which he co-directed with Lars von Trier, screened on the Lido in 2003.

The footage in “Music for Black Pigeons” was shot over the course of 14 years, throughout North America, Europe and Japan. From the hours of recordings, Leth and Koefoed discovered intimate,...

Dda is making a series of key hires and promotions. Ryan Langrehr recently joined the entertainment communications company as U.S. head of awards, based out of Los Angeles. He joins from Block-Korenbrot Public Relations and will work alongside Dda partner Dana Archer and awards strategist Mj Peckos, who formed an exclusive partnership with Dda in 2021 and collaborated on a slate of films in the international and documentary category. These included Spain’s “The Good Boss” and Germany’s “I’m Your Man,” both of which were shortlisted for international feature Oscars.

The Dda L.A. awards offering is a complement to the company’s existing U.K. awards business, which it says will offer studios and filmmakers a “cohesive strategy across both sides of the Atlantic.” The U.K. offering is led by Sam Ross in his newly upped role of director of awards, and his team works closely with Dda partner Neil Bhatt.

You could say, going back to Hitchcock or the silent-film era, that the thriller is the quintessential form of cinema. You could also say that the quintessential moment of a thriller is one that makes you go “Oh. My. God.” When that happens (kind of a rare occurrence these days), it’s a privileged and intoxicating feeling, one that lifts you right out of yourself. Recently, though, I’ve been experiencing that sensation in what may sound like a highly unlikely place: documentaries about the art world.

In a way, it’s not really a surprise. Art-world documentaries often tap into the human audacity of forgery and thievery, the suspense of finding and unmasking fakes, not to mention the sheer sticker shock of it all. But I’ve also found that an art-world doc that has the quality of a thriller, like “The Lost Leonardo” or “The Price of Everything,...

CAA Media Finance is representing worldwide distribution rights to a new documentary feature from the producers of “The Lost Leonardo,” Variety can reveal.

The untitled project follows a Swiss art dealer and Russian oligarch caught in a web of secrets, lies and mad money, telling the inside story of an international, billion-dollar game where power is the ultimate currency. The film is produced by Andreas Dalsgaard for Elk Film (Denmark) and Christoph Jörg for Pumpernickel Films (France) and directed by Dalsgaard, whose previous credits include “The Lost Leonardo” and “The War Show.”

The pulled-from-the-headlines documentary follows the scandal that erupted in 2015 with the arrest of the Swiss businessman and free port magnate Yves Bouvier, “a very discreet guy who was suddenly arrested in Monaco, accused of swindling a billion dollars from the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev…[through] the purchase of 38 masterworks,” according to Dalsgaard.

The director described it as “the biggest...

London-based documentary specialists Dogwoof and Danish production company Elk Film have revealed a commercial partnership to develop and produce documentary projects.

The deal will involve a project slate of eight to 10 feature documentaries and documentary series where Dogwoof, Elk Film and the Danish Growth Fund Vaekstfonden will co-fund development. This will be The Danish Growth Fund’s first venture into documentary film development and production. Dogwoof and Elk will co-produce the projects, with Dogwoof’s fund T-Dog also acting as financiers on some of them.

Dogwoof and Elk previously worked together on “The Lost Leonardo,” which Elk produced and Dogwoof acted as financiers, EPs, sales agent, striking a multi-territory deal with Sony Pictures Classics, and also distributed the film theatrically in the U.K.

Dogwoof CEO Anna Godas said: “Dogwoof has been aggressively growing its financing and production arm in the last few years. Elk is the first of several...

In documentary film “The Fall,” Danish director Andreas Koefoed tells the story of Estrid, who fell out of a fifth floor window when sleepwalking at the age of 11. Koefoed, whose “The Lost Leonardo” was released last year by Sony Pictures Classics, speaks to Variety about his latest film, which has its world premiere Thursday at the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox) in Dox:Award, the main international competition category.

Estrid survived the accident but suffered 17 fractures. Through hard work and will-power, she regained her mobility, but the trauma of the fall stays with her and her family. Koefoed first met Estrid a few months after the fall when shooting a short film for a rehabilitation center for war veterans where she was getting treatment.

“I was touched by her personality, her story, the aura around her. I felt it was both a miracle and a tragedy at the same time:...

The remaining previously non-home available titles among Best Picture and acting Oscar nominees by tomorrow will all arrive either on PVOD, VOD, streaming, or some combination. “West Side Story” hits HBO Max and Hulu and PVOD, “Drive My Car” VOD and HBO Max (the latter tomorrow), while “Licorice Pizza” is out on PVOD only.

Meanwhile, Tyler Perry’s blockbuster Madea franchise moved to Netflix in one of the streamer’s most significant franchise acquisitions, with “A Madea Homecoming” immediately taking the top position.

“Drive My Car” is making the most interesting news. As of today, it is listed at Vudu and Amazon Prime to rent at $5.99 and iTunes $6.99. Google Play lists is still as not released.

The interesting play here is that Janus, whose 179-minute Japanese arthouse title is approaching a stunning $2 million in gross, and score four key nominations including Best Picture, is skipping the higher return PVOD price,...

2021 was another annus horribilis for cinemagoing in the Nordics, due to on-going and strict Covid restrictions that halved admissions compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Released late September/early October when cinemas for once ran at full capacity, “No Time to Die” literally saved the film year, and even ranked No. 1 among all James Bond movies ever released in Denmark.

Aside from Sweden, strong homegrown offers such as “Checkered Ninja 2” in Denmark, “Class Reunion 3” in Finland, “Cop Secret” in Iceland, “Three Wishes for Cinderella” in Norway enabled the Nordic nations to secure bullish market shares.

Denmark

In 2021, “No Time to Die” smashed all B.O. records for a James Bond movie in Denmark. That, however, didn’t prevent overall ticket sales from plummeting 45% from 2019, due to the pandemic.

The Danish film year opened and ended with closed cinemas, and faced a record 138 days of full cinema lockdown, according to the cinema association Danske biografer.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday revealed the 276 feature films that are eligible for consideration at the 94rd Oscars, which are set to air live March 27 on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

The number is 90 fewer than last year’s 366, but this year’s eligibility period was only 10 months.

To be eligible for Best Picture consideration, films must have submitted a confidential Academy Representation and Inclusion Standards entry as part of the submission requirements. Nominations voting begins January 27 and concludes on February 1. The Oscar nominations will be revealed on Tuesday, February 8.

Today’s news comes about a month after the Academy released its shortlists in the International Film, Documentary Feature, Original Score, Original Song, Makeup & Hairstyling, Visual Effects, Sound and the Live-Action, Documentary and Animated Shorts categories.

Here is the full list of films eligible for Best Picture at the 94rd annual Academy Awards,...

Spanish sales agent Liliana Bravo of Soul Pictures has boarded Diego “Parker” Fernández’s upcoming soccer drama, “The Signing” (“El Fichaje”).

His latest narrative feature, “The Broken Glass Theory,” represented Uruguay at the Oscars’ international feature category and has been a local smash hit, bowing in Uruguay just a month after the theaters reopened post-lockdown. “It played for 14 weeks, more than what we expected, and I heard that some people went to see it more than once,” said Fernandez.

Fernandez has also delved into non-fiction filmmaking with his debut documentary “Asi Pasamos” which vies for the top prize at Uruguay’s inaugural arts film festival, Arca (Jan. 9-14). Here he traces the life and art of graphic artist and painter Javier Gil who happens to be the older brother of his wife. “He gave me about 20 years of mainly home video footage and said: ’Do what you will with these,...

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has revealed its longlist of nominees across 24 categories for its upcoming film awards.

“No Time to Die,” “Belfast,” and “West Side Story| are among the leading films announced on Wednesday following the first round of votes.

As revealed on Monday, not included in the long-list is “Spider-Man: No Way Home” after “failing to meet eligibility criteria,” according to BAFTA. The film had originally sought consideration for the best picture and best special effects categories. Sony declined to comment.

Round Two voting, to determine the nominations in the member voted categories, will open between Feb. 14 and 27 2022. Nominations will be announced on Feb 3.

Round Three voting, to determine the winners, will open between Feb. 9 and March 8.

The BAFTA Awards are set to take place in central London on March 13.

Check out the full longlist below:

Best Film

15 films go through to the Round Two of voting,...

BAFTA has unveiled the longlists across all categories for its 2022 Film Awards. Scroll down to see them in full.

These lists have been compiled via Round One of BAFTA’s voting. Round Two, which determines the nominations, opens on January 14 and closes on January 27.

The Rising Star Award nominations will be announced on February 1. The full nominations will then be unveiled February 3. Round Three, to determine the winners, runs February 9 – March 8. The 2022 BAFTA Film Awards take place March 13, with a physical ceremony planned.

The below field paints a wide picture of the films participating in the current awards campaign, and gives a moment in the sun to a handful of titles that may not make the final cut for nominations.

While drawing conclusions from the below lists in regards to the likely winners is largely a guessing game, a few notable takeaways include: Spider-Man: No Way Home is entirely absent...

Animation, documentary submissions also tallied.

The Academy has confirmed it has received 93 country submissions for the international feature film category in the run-up to the 94th Oscars on March 27, 2022.

The Academy said on Monday (December 6) it had also received 26 animated feature and 138 documentary feature submissions.

The entire list of international feature film submissions can be viewed here and includes a first submission from Somalia. The Academy said some of the films have not yet had their required qualifying release and must fulfil that requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in the voting process.

Animation, documentary submissions also tallied.

The Academy has confirmed it has received 93 country submissions for the international feature film category in the run-up to the 94th Oscars on March 27, 2022.

The Academy said on Monday (December 6) it had also received 26 animated feature and 138 documentary feature submissions.

The entire list of international feature film submissions can be viewed here and includes a first submission from Somalia. The Academy said some of the films have not yet had their required qualifying release and must fulfil that requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in the voting process.

The Critics Choice Association awarded “Summer of Soul” the top prize at the sixth annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards, which honors the best achievements in nonfiction released in theaters, on TV, or on major digital platforms. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s look at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival took home the most awards of any film, with five in total.

This year’s nominees were led by “Ascension” and “Summer of Soul,” two films by first-time documentarians. Each had six nominations. But “Ascension,” Jessica Kingdon’s look at the pursuit of the Chinese dream, failed to score any prizes November 14.

“Summer of Soul,” which won the top documentary prize and an Audience Award following its Sundance premiere earlier this year, won five of the six awards it was nominated for at the critics awards: Best Documentary Feature, Best First Documentary Feature, Best Editing, Best Archival Documentary, and Best Director, a prize Thompson...

Less than a decade ago the campaign to win an Academy Award for feature documentary did not include billboards on Sunset Boulevard, six-figure one-page ads in the New York Times and incessant screenings at New York’s Crosby Hotel or Los Angeles’ Four Seasons followed by free food and cocktails for Academy documentary branch members. Nowadays it’s customary.

While the docu Oscar race has never been a completely level playing field, all the money and attention being thrown at documentaries these days has made garnering a little gold man for nonfiction a big business. And although there are policies in place within the Academy to counter and compensate for films without big backers, there is no denying that the influx of streaming services and their growing appetite for doc fare has made it that much more difficult to be the indie underdog come Oscar season.

Streaming services officially entered...

The Critics Choice Association has announced nominees for the sixth annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards.

The awards cover documentaries released in theaters, on TV and on major digital platforms. The awards gala takes place Nov. 14 in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“Ascension” and “Summer of Soul, both from first-time documentarians, led the nominations with six each. “Becoming Cousteau” and “The Rescue” both received five nods each.

“This has been and continues to be a fantastic year for documentary storytelling. And the number of first-time feature documentarians in the mix of nominees, alongside proven veterans, shows that nonfiction cinema continues to have a very bright future,” said Christopher Campbell, President of the Critics Choice Association Documentary Branch. “Our world, from its most amazing wonders to its greatest challenges, is being reflected back on the screen so immediately and creatively by today’s filmmakers, and it’s a tremendous honor for us to recognize all of their achievements.

Notably leading the pack of nominees revealed Monday for the sixth annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards are a pair of films from directors making their debut as documentarians. Ascension’s Jessica Kingdon and Summer of Soul’s Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson pulled off the impressive feat, with both films receiving six nods apiece. On their tails however are a pair of docus from Nat Geo with five nods each: The Rescue. whose directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi took the Oscar for their previous effort Free Solo; and Becoming Cousteau, whose director Liz Garbus is also a docu veteran with two Oscar nominations and two Emmys to her credit.

All will compete in the Best Documentary Feature and Best Director categories, with Thompson and Kingdon also facing off for Best First Documentary Feature along with such indie film giants as Todd Haynes and Edgar Wright.

The Critics Choice Association (Cca) has announced the nominees for the sixth annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards (Ccda). This year’s winners will be revealed at a gala on Sunday, November 14, 2021, in Brooklyn, NY. The awards honor the best achievements in nonfiction released in theaters, on TV, or on major digital platforms.

Both films by first-time documentarians, “Ascension” and “Summer of Soul” lead this year’s nominations with six each. “Ascension,” a look at the Chinese dream across social classes, is also up for Documentary Feature, Director (Jessica Kingdon), First Feature, Cinematography, Editing, and Score. Meanwhile, “Summer of Soul” is up for Documentary Feature, Best Director (Ahmir “Questlove’ Thompson), First Documentary, Editing, Archival Documentary, and Music Documentary.

“Becoming Cousteau” and “The Rescue” also picked up five nominations each.

Last year, “Dick Johnson Is Dead” took home the Cca’s top award for Best Documentary as well as the Best Director award for Kirsten Johnson.

(Editor’s Note: IndieWire’s coverage of the 2021 IDA Documentary Screening Series is presented by the Amazon Original Documentaries “Val” and “My Name is Pauli Murray.“)

IndieWire and International Documentary Association have again partnered for the organization’s annual Screening Series, which will take place virtually, in addition to select screenings in various venues in Los Angeles including the Hollywood Legion Theater and the Landmark Theatre in West LA. Following the screenings, IndieWire will be posting written and video coverage of moderated Q&As featuring filmmakers and subjects.

“IDA is proud to present a thoughtful selection of films that represent a multiplicity of voices, perspectives, and styles,” said IDA Director Rick Perez. “Our inclusive curatorial approach reflects our values and commitment to recognizing the role that the documentary form plays in helping audiences better understand the world around them.”

Theatrical screenings are as follows.

“The Rescue” (Hollywood Legion Theater), Monday,...

Dianne Modestini and Ashok Roy inspecting the Naples copy of the Salvator Mundi (2019).

Copyright The Lost Leonardo – Photo by Adam Jandrup. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

“This is the most improbable story that has ever happened in the art world,” is how the subject of the documentary The Lost Leonardo is described by one of its expert interviewees. Few artworks as valuable as those by Leonardo DaVinci, so the possibility that a known but long lost painting by the great master has been found generates headlines far beyond the art world. But an interest in art is not needed to be fascinated by the twisty, shocking tale told by The Lost Leonardo, a tale more about money and power than art. This top-notch documentary documentary takes us deep into the murky, hidden world of Old Masters art, a story involving extreme wealth, shady financial dealing, greedy institutions, ambition academics, clever auction houses,...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review on the new documentary about the art world, “The Lost Leonardo,” in select theaters, including Chicago’s Music Box Theatre, on August 27th, 2021.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

This film is the story of the “Salvador Mundi,” latin for Savior of the World, a painting which may or may not have been created by Leonardo da Vinci. It originally was discovered in 2005 when a pair of art specialists bought it from a New Orleans estate for $1175 dollars. At first thought to be a copy, on closer inspection it was found to have characteristics of an authentic da Vinci, and was brought back to life by a restoration artist. This began years of high dollar speculation, culminating in a Saudi Prince buying it for a world record $450 million.

“The Lost Leonardo” premieres on August 27th, in select theaters including The Music Box Theatre, 3733 North Southport, Chicago.

“Salvator Mundi” is an enigma. It’s a painting by Leonardo Da Vinci that may or may not be painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, sold for record amounts of money.

Read More: The 20 Best Documentaries Of 2020

“The Lost Leonardo” is the latest documentary about the painting, and it might as well be a “whodunnit?.” To inject some suspense into this tale, director Andreas Koefoed has taken the story and wrapped it in a mysterious investigation that morphs into a marvelous revelation.

Continue reading ‘The Lost Leonardo’: A Compelling Art World Whodunnit [Review] at The Playlist.

Sean Penn’s Flag Day raised a $1,656 per screen average from 24 runs this weekend, a glum opening for the father-daughter family drama from United Artists Releasing.

The film, directed and starring Penn as the most notorious counterfeiter in U.S. history, along with daughter Dylan Penn, targeted an older, sophisticated demo that’s proving hard to get back. Deadline’s heard that 56% of the audience that did show up was over age 55 – a hefty percentage.

Uar’s president, distribution, Erik Lomis told Deadline on Friday the industry is struggling to crack that code, a proposition not made any easier by the Delta variant. The struggle is clearly ongoing.

The film grossed $10,853 on Friday, $18,002 Saturday and an estimated $11,895 on Sunday in ten markets. It has a 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, but with only 50 ratings.

It expands...

Even if you think you know about the Salvator Mundi painting that may or may not have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci at the turn of the 15th century, there’s always more to learn about the sketchy corners of the art world that can cook up its record $450.3 million Christie’s Auction House sale to Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. How a painting of uncertain provenance wound up heading toward a new Louvre Abu Dhabi is told in Danish filmmaker Andreas Koefoed’s elegantly riveting potential Oscar contender “The Lost Leonardo”.

The documentarian got ahead of a pack of filmmakers chasing the story, but was slowed down by pandemic protocols and finally debuted the finished film at Tribeca 2021. A friend from film school tipped Koefoed to the story back in 2018. The director was fascinated by the “idea of finding a rare treasure,” said Koefoed on the phone from Copenhagen,...

Even if you think you know about the Salvator Mundi painting that may or may not have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci at the turn of the 15th century, there’s always more to learn about the sketchy corners of the art world that can cook up its record $450.3 million Christie’s Auction House sale to Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. How a painting of uncertain provenance wound up heading toward a new Louvre Abu Dhabi is told in Danish filmmaker Andreas Koefoed’s elegantly riveting potential Oscar contender “The Lost Leonardo”.

The documentarian got ahead of a pack of filmmakers chasing the story, but was slowed down by pandemic protocols and finally debuted the finished film at Tribeca 2021. A friend from film school tipped Koefoed to the story back in 2018. The director was fascinated by the “idea of finding a rare treasure,” said Koefoed on the phone from Copenhagen,...

When I saw The Lost Leonardo at the Tribeca Film Festival, I expected a documentary about art history, restoration techniques and how paintings are authenticated. I was vaguely aware of the film’s subject—the painting “Salvator Mundi,” a portrait of Jesus discovered in a New Orleans estate sale in April 2005 and later deemed a lost work by Leonardo da Vinci. What I was unaware of was the controversy over the painting’s authorship, its journey through the world of high finance and unfettered capitalism and how this made it an object of desire, a status symbol, for political actors like Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed […]

The post “The Truth is Lost As Well”: Andreas Koefoed on his Art Documentary The Lost Leonardo first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

When I saw The Lost Leonardo at the Tribeca Film Festival, I expected a documentary about art history, restoration techniques and how paintings are authenticated. I was vaguely aware of the film’s subject—the painting “Salvator Mundi,” a portrait of Jesus discovered in a New Orleans estate sale in April 2005 and later deemed a lost work by Leonardo da Vinci. What I was unaware of was the controversy over the painting’s authorship, its journey through the world of high finance and unfettered capitalism and how this made it an object of desire, a status symbol, for political actors like Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed […]

The post “The Truth is Lost As Well”: Andreas Koefoed on his Art Documentary The Lost Leonardo first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Sony Pictures Classics’ The Lost Leonardo had a notable debut on three screens on a quiet weekend for specialty openings.

The film about da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi painting opened to $13,209 with a per screen average of $4,403 ahead of a national release. The distributor has been a steadying presence a tough arthouse climate. Its Nine Days ranked 17 in North America for week 3 on 391 screens, and 12 Mighty Orphans was 23 in week 10 on 30 screens.

Directed by Andreas Koefoed, the film is the inside story behind the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June.

Greenwich Entertainment’s 2021 SXSW Audience Award Winning portrait of liberal activist Ady Barkan debuted solidly in NY (Angelika) and LA (Town Center/Encino) with the latter including Thursday night opening numbers in an estimated weekend cume of $12,000, for a $6,000 per screen average. It...

Documentaries about a da Vinci and a dictator, a Pablo Larraín drama with Gael Garcia Bernal, a Donnie Yen martial arts thriller by the late Benny Chan, and Coda — Apple’s record-busting Sundance acquisition — make specialty bows this weekend as the arthouse sector fights through a slow reopening.

“The market is still finding a balance right now,” said Kyle Westphal, theatrical sales manager for Music Box Films (and programming associate for Chicago’s Music Box Theatre). The distributor debuts Larraín’s Ema in 11 theaters in nine markets with plans to expand thereafter — to maybe another 20, but it’s hard to say. “The normal [criteria] like what’s your opening per-screen average right now, those are all upside down,” Westphal tells Deadline.

He said a strong perf by Anthony Bourdain doc Roadrunner (Focus Features) and The Green Knight (A24) “doing as well as it has over the past few weeks, are good signs.

There are three new wide releases this weekend, but the question is whether they can pull the box office out of the downward trend it has been on. Last weekend had an overall box-office total of $65 million which, despite the opening of a big budget comic book franchise film, was the weakest overall weekend gross since June. It’s not easy to say exactly how much the resurgence of Covid-19 has impacted the box office in recent weeks, as there are other variables to factor in, from shortened or nonexistent theatrical windows, to content that perhaps isn’t quite “Must See” status, to get people out the door.

However, at this point it’s hard to deny that the Delta variant could set back the industry’s recovery, as Covid cases are the highest they’ve been in over six months and double where they were just a few weeks ago.

Early in “The Lost Leonardo,” there is one of those whoa! moments that can make you think no movie is more gripping than a great documentary about the art world. In 2005, two dealers stumble onto an obscure painting of Jesus Christ, his hand raised in a sacramental gesture; the painting is being offered at auction in New Orleans. They think the painting has…something. So they team up to purchase it for $1,175.

Much of the canvas has been painted over, and after they bring it to the noted art restorer Dianne Modestini, she goes to work on it, removing layers of varnish and overpainting to uncover an image that is striking but damaged, dotted with white blotches and streaks, like emanations of a lightning flash. But as she starts the process of restoration, filling in the colors, teasing out a buried layer that shows the thumb in a different position...

In 2005, an art scavenger named Alexander Parish bought a High Renaissance painting from a small New Orleans auction house for $1,175. In 2017, Christie’s sold a heavily restored version of that same painting — the provenance of which had since become the art world’s hottest controversy — to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia for a cool $450,300,000 (presumably outbidding Kenneth Branagh’s character from “Tenet”). Mohammad bin Salman’s record-shattering purchase consecrated the idea that “Salvator Mundi” is an original Da Vinci better than any historian ever could, but if the origins of this oil-on-walnut portrait weren’t so intensely disputed, perhaps no one would have spent as much to assert its value. If only Orson Welles were still alive to have a hearty chuckle over the whole thing.

So did it come from the master’s hand, or is it a “fake”? Spoiler alert: Andreas Koefoed’s “The Lost Leonardo” is...

The documentary awards race always begins at Sundance, where “Flee” (Neon) and “Summer of Soul” (Searchlight) broke out as Oscar frontrunners; Tribeca debuted high-profile “The Lost Leonardo” (Sony Pictures Classics) and “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” (Focus), while Todd Haynes’ “Velvet Underground” (AppleTV+) and “Val” (A24/Amazon) played well at Cannes.

Every September, the Toronto International Film Festival documentary lineup introduces more top non-fiction titles to the list of Oscar contenders — and this year, without many clear frontrunners, TIFF’s influence will be greater than ever. In the good old days when the TIFF selection was a sprawling smorgasbord, Thom Powers lead the TIFF documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. In the slimmed-down pandemic era, his team had to winnow TIFF Docs down to 13 features (announced so far)..

“Every year it’s a painful part of the process,” Powers told IndieWire, who is able...

The documentary awards race always begins at Sundance, where “Flee” (Neon) and “Summer of Soul” (Searchlight) broke out as Oscar frontrunners; Tribeca debuted high-profile “The Lost Leonardo” (Sony Pictures Classics) and “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” (Focus), while Todd Haynes’ “Velvet Underground” (AppleTV+) and “Val” (A24/Amazon) played well at Cannes.

Every September, the Toronto International Film Festival documentary lineup introduces more top non-fiction titles to the list of Oscar contenders — and this year, without many clear frontrunners, TIFF’s influence will be greater than ever. In the good old days when the TIFF selection was a sprawling smorgasbord, Thom Powers lead the TIFF documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. In the slimmed-down pandemic era, his team had to winnow TIFF Docs down to 13 features (announced so far)..

“Every year it’s a painful part of the process,” Powers told IndieWire, who is able...

Greenwich Entertainment has landed North American distribution rights to Savior for Sale: da Vinci’s Lost Masterpiece?, a documentary about the controversy surrounding the most expensive artwork ever sold.

Antoine Vitkine directed the film about the Salvator Mundi, a portrait of Christ as “Savior of the world” that Leonardo da Vinci painted more than 500 years ago. For hundreds of years the painting’s whereabouts remained a mystery, but in 2005 the lost masterpiece suddenly resurfaced at an auction in New Orleans. Or so some art historians, speculators and other interested parties asserted.

Savior for Sale documents the twists and turns of the story, which involved a painstaking restoration and vigorous disputes over whether the painting on wood panel was indeed made by da Vinci, or partially painted by him, or by one or more of his students. Its authenticity in dispute, the Salvator Mundi sold at auction in 2017 for $450 million, with...

In 2017, a painting sold for $450.3 million, making it the most expensive painting ever sold at public auction. The painting was Salvator Mundi, and it’s thought to be a lost painting by none other than Leonardo da Vinci, a name you might recognize from the 100% historically accurate film The Da Vinci Code. But here’s the […]

The post ‘The Lost Leonardo’ Trailer: It’s The Most Expensive Painting Ever Sold, But Is It Legit? appeared first on /Film.

"It's not even a good painting!" Sony Pictures Classics has unveiled the first official trailer for a fascinating art documentary titled The Lost Leonardo, which was supposed to open last year but was delayed until this year. It's now set to open in theaters in the US this August. The film examines the mystery surrounding the Salvator Mundi, the first painting by Leonardo da Vinci to be discovered for more than a century, which has now seemingly gone missing. It was the most expensive painting ever sold, at $450 million, but is it actually authentic? "Unravelling the hidden agendas of the richest men and most powerful art institutions in the world, The Lost Leonardo reveals how vested interests in the Salvator Mundi are of such tremendous power that truth becomes secondary." This looks like more than investigative documentary, with recreations and revelations about how greedy and insane the art market is.

An art object is not just art—it can also be a tool that confers power. The contemporary art world has often come under fire as a marketplace of assets for the wealthy, but your average layperson won’t know how when proceedings are carried out behind closed curtains. In the slick new documentary The Lost Leonardo, director Andreas Koefoed pulls back the veil and tells audiences the winding, tortuous tale behind the Salvator Mundi. Supposedly one of the last lost works of Leonardo da Vinci, the painting is subject to controversy that lies not just in its contested origin but its exchanges through powerful hands.

The Lost Leonardo is set up like a good mystery thriller, complete with the appropriate scoring and cold color grading to establish its tone. And like all good mysteries it begins simply enough: in 2005, Alexander Parish, a sleeper hunter—or one who looks for...

Tribeca may have been the first big in-person film event of 2021, but it wasn’t clear what it told us about the year ahead. From anticipated premieres to lower-profile films, ambiguity loomed large.

The 20th edition launched June 9 with the world premiere in all five boroughs of Jon M. Chu’s movie of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “In the Heights,” from relaxed lawn chairs on the Oval in Battery Park to the mask-free 91-year-old United Palace in Washington Heights. Mostly, outdoor venues at The Battery and a reopened Pier 76 at the Hudson River Park were the main attractions during the festival, which offered 56 world premieres out of 66 feature titles. Many of them were also available online, along with shorts, VR offerings, podcasts, and conversations with the likes of Gina Prince-Bythewood and Bradley Cooper and his “Nightmare Alley” director Guillermo del Toro.

Needless to say, movies were only part of the equation,...

Tribeca may have been the first big in-person film event of 2021, but it wasn’t clear what it told us about the year ahead. From anticipated premieres to lower-profile films, ambiguity loomed large.

The 20th edition launched June 9 with the world premiere in all five boroughs of Jon M. Chu’s movie of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “In the Heights,” from relaxed lawn chairs on the Oval in Battery Park to the mask-free 91-year-old United Palace in Washington Heights. Mostly, outdoor venues at The Battery and a reopened Pier 76 at the Hudson River Park were the main attractions during the festival, which offered 56 world premieres out of 66 feature titles. Many of them were also available online, along with shorts, VR offerings, podcasts, and conversations with the likes of Gina Prince-Bythewood and Bradley Cooper and his “Nightmare Alley” director Guillermo del Toro.

Needless to say, movies were only part of the equation,...

The Hamptons International Film Festival’s SummerDocs series is returning for its 13th year this summer.

The HamptonsFilm SummerDocs series is set to open with Searchlight Pictures and Hulu’s music documentary Summer of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a directorial debut for The Roots founder Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson.

The Sundance doc that mined around 40 hours of never before seen archival footage of 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival, which has come to be known as the Black Woodstock, will screen on June 26.

The HamptonsFilm series, featuring post-pandemic in-theater screenings, will also show Sony Pictures Classics’ The Lost Leonardo, directed by ...

The Hamptons International Film Festival’s SummerDocs series is returning for its 13th year this summer.

The HamptonsFilm SummerDocs series is set to open with Searchlight Pictures and Hulu’s music documentary Summer of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a directorial debut for The Roots founder Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson.

The Sundance doc that mined around 40 hours of never before seen archival footage of 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival, which has come to be known as the Black Woodstock, will screen on June 26.

The HamptonsFilm series, featuring post-pandemic in-theater screenings, will also show Sony Pictures Classics’ The Lost Leonardo, directed by ...

Sony Pictures Classics Updates Release Information for Summer Slate

Sony Pictures Classics has updated its summer release plans for “I Carry You With Me,” “12 Mighty Orphans” and “The Lost Leonardo.” All three films are set to screen at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival both in person and virtually.

The world premiere of the art documentary “The Lost Leonardo” will screen at Tribeca on June 13 at The Battery. Set to open in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, the film will expand to other markets shortly after. “The Lost Leonardo” tells the story behind the Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million. Produced by Andreas Dalsgaard for Copenhagen-based Elk Film and Christoph Jörg for Paris-based Pumpernickel Film, the documentary was directed by Andreas Koefoed. Sony Pictures acquired the rights to the film back in March.

“12 Mighty Orphans,” which stars Luke Wilson, Martin Sheen, Vinessa Shaw,...