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In 2019, the original “Inhuman Kiss” was one of the first films to usher in a wave of strong and impactful Thai horror films that helped to spearhead the country’s emergence on the international scene. Seeing the country pump out titles like “The Maid,” “The Medium,” and “Leio” among others in the years since, it’s no surprise a follow-up appeared several years later that’s just now getting USA distribution from One Tree Entertainment.

After years of being apart, childhood friends Sao (Chanya McClory) and Klau (Kritsanapoom Pibulsonggram) are delighted to see each other again after their initial meets were cut short. Still worried about the fact that potential diseases that kept them apart will return even with Father Augustine’s (Joe Cummings) help, Sao and Cloud manage to rekindle their romance and begin spending time together to help find a cure along with her father Noi (Krisada Sukosol Clapp...

If you were to attempt a "Seinfeld" tour of the world, where would it take you? Plenty of fans of the beloved show have made a point to visit its most well-known landmarks, from the diner to the exterior of Jerry's apartment to the original (now replaced) Yankees Stadium. Along the way, they've all made a similar discovery: "Seinfeld" may be one of the most famous shows ever set in New York City, but its East Coast filming locations have greatly changed in the decades since the show debuted, and much of the heart of the show actually lies on the opposite U.S. coast.

"Seinfeld" was created in California just as much as New York, but there are still places you can visit to retrace the chaotic, delightfully morally bankrupt steps of Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George (Jason Alexander), and Kramer (Michael Richards). The parking lots, office buildings,...

Exclusive: Writers-creators Mauricio Katz and Pedro Peirano are getting into business with Sony Pictures Television. The duo have signed an exclusive overall deal with the studio to create, develop, and produce scripted drama series for cable and streaming.

Katz & Peirano have written pilot scripts for Apple TV+, Starz, HBO, and FX; and have collaborated with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Benicio Del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón and Ari Aster. Following their work on HBO’s Perry Mason, they are developing Miriam with Blumhouse and Prime Video.

“Mauricio and Pedro’s far-reaching creative interests and ability to execute at a high level offer a unique combination of skills,” said Andrew Plotkin, EVP Drama Development, Sony Pictures Television. “We couldn’t be more excited to have them as part of our crew and look forward to making some great television together.

Katz started in the TV space, writing on FX’s The Bridge...

Thai director Lee Thongkam is shooting “The Bride,” a horror film that marks a rare co-production between Thai and Vietnamese companies.

“The Bride” follows a young Vietnamese woman (portrayed by Rima Thanh Vy) engaged to her rich Thai boyfriend (played by “J.J.” Krissanapoom Pibulsonggram), who visit her fiance’s wealthy rural hometown in Thailand. The journey turns to terror when she tries on a traditional Thai wedding dress—an heirloom that holds sinister secrets about her fiancé’s family—and encounters the ghostly presence of another bride.

The Vietnamese cast also includes Jun Vu (“A Hundred Billion Key”) and Cong Duong (“Trang Quynh”), while the Thai ensemble features “Jomjam” Karnpicha Pongpanit (“RedLife”), “Praew” Narupornkamol Chaisang (“Master Of The House)”, “Pure” Duangjai Hiransri (“Inhuman Kiss”), and R.Nu Surasak Chaiyaat (“Love Destiny”).

The film of love, betrayal, and the supernatural, is jointly produced by Thongkham Films and Silver Moonlight Entertainment with production by Hang Trinh.

Thongkham Films and Silver Moonlight Entertainment have just announced their latest co-production The Bride, a thrilling horror film that unites creative talents and leading stars from both Thailand and Vietnam. This border-breaking project, marking the growing presence of Vietnamese stars in Thailand’s thriving horror film industry, is directed by Lee Thongkham and produced by Hang Trinh, with worldwide sales handled by Vietnam-based Skyline Media.

Shooting for The Bride began in July this year, with filming primarily taking place in Chiang Mai (Thailand) and selected locations in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). The film is expected to premiere in both countries in early 2025, with V Pictures set to release the film theatrically in Vietnam.

The Bride follows a young Vietnamese woman (Rima Thanh Vy) engaged to her rich Thai boyfriend (“J.J.” Krissanapoom Pibulsonggram), whose visit to his rural wealthy hometown in Thailand quickly turns to terror when she encounters...

Amanda Knox’s highly publicized wrongful murder conviction is still getting the limited-series treatment at Hulu, but Margaret Qualley won’t be playing her.

The Maid star has dropped out of the as-yet-untitled, based-on-a-true-story drama, according to our sister site Deadline. The exit is reportedly due to scheduling issues; the role will be recast. Qualley’s casting was first announced last month.

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Epic Pictures Group brings award-winning action/comedy Kitty the Killer to U.S. screens, and Screen Rant has a first look. The movie follows young assassin Dina in underground world of female assassins, featuring animated sequences blended with live action. The cast and crew worked tirelessly to bring Kitty the Killer to life, creating jaw-dropping action sequences and unforgettable comedic moments.

Epic Pictures Group is bringing the award-winning action/comedy Kitty the Killer to audiences in the U.S., and Screen Rant has a first look. The movie was directed by Lee Thongkham, known for his other films The Lake and The Maid, and was written by Thongkham along with Sorawi Alapach and Venus Saksiri. The movie has screened at festivals around the world and even won “Best Action Cinema” at the New York Asian Film Festival.

In addition to revealing the movie’s release date, Screen Rant is happy...

Experience the extraordinary sisterhood of three women who share one unbreakable bond when “The Color Purple” arrives for purchase Digitally at home on January 16. This bold new take on the beloved classic is directed by Blitz Bazawule and produced by Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones. The film will also be available to purchase on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray and DVD on March 12. “The Color Purple” is directed by Blitz Bazawule from a screenplay by acclaimed playwright and WGA Award winner Marcus Gardley (“The Maid”). Bazawule is a Ghanaian multimedia artist who ... Read more...

Rotting in the Sun streams exclusively on Mubi (almost) globally starting September 15, 2023.This week's episode features:Sebastián Silva (Chile), a director, screenwriter, singer, and painter. Over the past fifteen years, he has established himself as one of the most singular and prolific voices in Latin American cinema. His filmography—consisting of eight feature films to date, and characterized by a bold, dark humor—talks about contemporary issues like the clash between social classes, racial struggle, and suicide.In 2009, his second feature film, The Maid, was the first Chilean film to be nominated for a Golden Globe for best international feature, and also won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Since then, many of Silva’s films have premiered at Sundance, including Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus, Tyrel, and Nasty Baby; the latter film won the Teddy Award at the Berlinale in 2015.Catalina Saavedra (Chile), a film, theater and television actress.

An obnoxious influencer pitches a TV project to an entitled director in this deeply unflattering portrait of privilege that quickly becomes a crime story

Sebastián Silva’s slippery black comedy begins something like a cross between Curb Your Enthusiasm and Girls. Silva plays a version of himself, a film director called Sebastián Silva living in Mexico City; he’s meant to be working, but instead he idles days away on the sofa in his flat morosely snorting ketamine, Googling his own name and researching suicide methods. It’s a deeply unflattering portrait of entitled privilege from Silva and co-writer Pedro Peirano. Sebastián is mean to his dog and unforgivably rude to his housekeeper Vero. Keep an eye on Vero, she will be important later.

To escape his funk, Sebastián takes a trip to the coast – staying at a gay partying spot heaving with hot naked men. Silva packs in more...

The solipsism of artists and influencers offers infinite variations on self-lacerating lampoon, and Sebastian Silva’s new film Rotting in the Sun comes up with a dandy. Here Silva, the Chilean filmmaker best known in the States for the Michael Cera psychedelic quest movie Crystal Fairy & the Magic Cactus, creates a suicidal, ketamine-crazed Mexico City filmmaker, named for and played by Silva, and a comically, brutally self-absorbed internet personality, named for and played by the comedian (and internet personality) Jordan Firstman. Jordan wants Sebastian to collaborate on a happier variation on Curb Your Enthusiasm,...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for September, including the exclusive streaming premieres for Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children; and Lola Quivoron’s Rodeo; and Rotting in the Sun by Sebastián Silva, whose work is highlighted in a series that also includes The Maid, Life Kills Me, and Nasty Baby.

Additional selections include a mini-retro of last year’s TIFF (Pacifiction and the newest film by Sophy Romvari among them), 10 by Pedro Almodóvar, and David Lynch’s rare 1988 short The Cowboy and the Frenchman, starring Harry Dean Stanton and Jack Nance.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

September 1

Volver, directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Matador, directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Dark Habits, directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Law of Desire, directed by Pedro Almodóvar

High Heels, directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Kika, directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Live Flesh,...

Sebastián Silva’s “Rotting in the Sun” poked and prodded the 2023 Sundance Film Festival with its graphic, unsimulated gay sex scenes and full-frontal male nudity. But this dark existential meta-comedy about a filmmaker in freefall (also played by Silva) is deeper than all that chatter — as riotously funny and enjoyable as it may also be for those very same reasons. This sharp, self-flagellating satire of gay millennial life, co-starring social media star Jordan Firstman, finally opens from Mubi in theaters on September 8 before streaming on the platform September 15. Watch the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.

“Rotting in the Sun” combines a timely skewering of gay narcissism with the filthy filmmaking spirit of John Waters and even a quasi-detective story. While dooming and glooming at a Mexican gay beach town that sure looks like Oaxaca’s nude vacation mecca Zipolite, depressed director Sebastián Silva (the filmmaker plays himself) is rescued from...

Julio Torres, who has earned writing credits on over 60 episodes of Saturday Night Live and co-created the horror comedy series Los Espookys with Ana Fabrega and Fred Armisen, has made his directorial debut with the oddball comedy Problemista, which is set to receive a limited theatrical release from A24 on August 4th. A wide release will follow on August 25th. With those dates swiftly approaching, a new trailer for Problemista has arrived online, and you can check it out in the embed above.

Promising to take viewers on a “surreal adventure through the equally treacherous worlds of New York City and the U.S. Immigration system”, Problemista has the following synopsis: Alejandro is an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador, struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in New York City. As time on his work visa runs out, a job assisting an erratic art-world outcast becomes his only...

Sebastián Silva’s Mexico-set meta-comedy “Rotting in the Sun” has finally found a home in the U.S. and elsewhere after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023.

IndieWire exclusively shares that Mubi has acquired the rights to the latest button-pushing work from the filmmaker behind “The Maid,” “Nasty Baby,” and “Crystal Fairy.” The Park City premiere stars Silva as a version of himself, here a filmmaker staring down an existential crisis while adrift over his busted latest project, and comedian and social media sensation Jordan Firstman also as a version of himself, an outspokenly gay influencer who blows up the fictional Silva’s life.

This raunchy, sexually explicit satire of gay millennial life amused and provoked Sundance audiences with its graphic content, unapologetic drug use, and a narrative hairpin turn typical of Silva’s low-budget, genre-mixing indies. In a quote shared by Mubi, Bret Easton Ellis said the...

The 2023 Cherry Orchard Festival, running from June – July 2023 across the nation, presents Polina Osetinskaya at 92Ny on June 10, 2023 at 8pm at 1395 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10128. As part of her North American tour, Osetinskaya will perform some of the most enduring musical masterpieces in history featured in some of the world’s greatest films. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit https://www.92ny.org/event/polina-osetinskaya-piano.

Polina Osetinskaya

Polina Osetinskaya makes a triumphant solo return to the United States, after a critically acclaimed appearance at Carnegie Hall with Maxim Vengerov in October 2022. With her signature virtuosity, Osetinskaya brings to life seminal works by Bach, Handel and Rameau, from epic films such as Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” Anthony Minghella’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon,” and others. The dramatic qualities of the music, which had once enhanced the pivotal moments in these great films,...

The recent deluge of top-tier genre fare emerging from Thailand has been a joyous sight to behold for horror fanatics as the country has positioned itself quite nicely in the past years as a major player in the market. From the found-footage supernatural nightmare in The Medium, ghost movies in Inhuman Kiss, Cracked, and Ghost Lab to the giant monster throwback Leio, the country's output has allowed them to rise significantly in the crowded Asian scene with plenty looking for Japan, South Korea, and to a lesser extent Indonesia and China for their film output. Now, fresh on the heels of his recent hit The Maid, Lee Thongkham teams up with Aqing Xu for a new monster movie called The Lake which is now available through Epic Pictures.

Living in a remote Thai village, Lin (Suchar Manayang) is distraught when her younger sister May (Wilawan Chatborirak) discovers a giant lizard...

Florence Pugh didn’t need superpowers to realize she was being judged for joining the MCU.

The Oscar-nominated actress, who earned breakout roles in independent films like “Lady Macbeth” and “Midsommar,” recalled the reaction to her starring in Marvel’s 2021 “Black Widow” alongside Scarlett Johansson and David Harbour. Pugh went on to appear in the Disney+ Marvel series “Hawkeye” and will lead the upcoming MCU film “Thunderbolts.”

“So many people in the indie film world were really pissed off at me. They were like, ‘Great, now she’s gone forever,'” Pugh told Time magazine. “And I’m like, no, I’m working as hard as I used to work. I’ve always done back-to-back movies. It’s just people are watching them now. You just have to be a bit more organized with your schedule.”

In between her Marvel appearances, Pugh led Netflix film “The Wonder” and Zach Braff...

Paperclip Ltd and Winterlight Pictures have announced the new feature “Biter,” a dark comedy about a young woman who fantasizes about biting one of her co-workers, based on the short story of the same name from Kristen Roupenian’s acclaimed debut book “You Know You Want This.” The film will star Zoë Kravitz, who will also produce on behalf of her production company This Is Important.

“Biter” is co-produced by Paperclip Ltd. Founded in 2014 by Yeardley Smith and Ben Cornwell for the purpose of developing and producing projects with distinct points of view across all mediums, at their earliest stages, Paperclip’s expansive film portfolio includes thrillers “Possessions” and “Alone,” GLAAD Award-nominated “Gossamer Folds,” “Who Are You People,” and SXSW Audience Award-winner “All Square.”

Co-producer Winterlight Pictures brought the project to Kravitz and Paperclip Ltd. Founded by Chris Goldberg, Winterlight Pictures is also producing an adaptation of the #1 NY Times...

Exclusive: Zoë Kravitz (The Batman) has signed on to star in Biter, a new dark comedy based on the short story by Cat Person‘s Kristen Roupenian. Kravitz will also produce via her company This Is Important, with Paperclip Ltd and Winterlight Pictures co-producing.

Part of Roupenian’s debut short story collection You Know You Want This published in 2019, which Winterlight brought to Kravitz and Paperclip, “Biter” tells the story of a young woman who fantasizes about biting one of her co-workers.

Related Story Dwayne Johnson And Bob Iger Reveal Live-Action ‘Moana’ In Development Related Story True-Crime Book 'Ruxton: The First Modern Murder' In The Works As Limited Series & Podcast From Yeardley Smith's Paperclip Ltd Related Story John Hyams To Adapt David Drayer's Novella 'Attachment' For Paperclip

Kravitz comes to the project after wrapping production on her directorial debut Pussy Island — a thriller she co-wrote starring Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum,...

“Only the optimist commits suicide, optimists who no longer succeed at being optimists.” The Emil Cioran line, introduced in the first scene of Sebastián Silva’s morbid black comedy “Rotting in the Sun,” initially feels like the key to understanding the Chilean filmmaker’s latest endeavor. “The others,” the quote continues, “having no reason to live, why would they have any to die?” More than merely placing suicide at the heart of Silva’s fictionalized take on himself, the quote’s pop intellectualism sets the tone for what soon becomes, in true Silva fashion, an absurdist meditation on death wishes, social media influencers and 21st-century nihilism.

When we first see “Sebastián” reading Cioran, he’s in Mexico City. Adrift with his thoughts and seemingly uninspired, he’s more and more drawn to the idea (if perhaps not the actual reality) of killing himself. From what he gathers, it’s easy...

Some folks have it easy, and others make life difficult for themselves. Guess which type “Problemista” is about.

The perpetually unsatisfied title character, a demanding New York art critic played by Tilda Swinton as a hag with hair the color of hibiscus tea, is obsessed with archiving the life’s work of her late husband (RZA), who left behind a series of egg paintings no one seems to understand. Swinton feels like a future Halloween costume in search of a movie in writer-director Julio Torres’ overly kooky and all-too-quixotic debut — another attention-deficit comedy from the studio that made “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” except that Torres lacks the technical experience to pull off even a fraction of the ideas to which he aspires.

That’s a waste of such an up-for-anything talent as Swinton, who’s presented here as the human equivalent of a fire-breathing dragon. What isn’t remotely clear is why,...

Denver-based distributor Fathom Events and Spain’s Bosco Films are teaming to release this September in 700 U.S. theaters the Spanish documentary “Libres” (“Free”).

Portraying the cloistered life of 12 monasteries in Spain, “Free” will be the fourth feature both partners jointly release stateside.

Their distribution relationship kicked-off last year, with the U.S. release of faith-based doc “Vivo” (“Alive”), which scored $352,000 on its April 24 launch, entering into the domestic box office Top Ten.

Further recent Fathom-Bosco releases include Spanish biopic “Esclavos y reyes” (“Claret”) and French pilgrimage documentary “Lourdes.”

For “Free’s” Latin American and Mexican bows, scheduled for Sept. 21, Madrid-based Bosco Films has inked deals with key exhibition chains such as Cinemex, Cinemark and Cinépolis.

Bosco opens “Free” in Spanish theaters on April 21.

Directed by Santos Blanco and written by Javier Lorenzo, “Free” is a journey into the interior of men through the lives of those people who have...

The current slate of Thailand-based horror films hasn’t produced much in terms of stand-out offerings ever since the classic “Nang Nak” arrived just over twenty years ago. While there’s been a slew of fare released in the intervening years full of enjoyable spooks and chills, that landmark film has rarely been approached much less topped by the country’s output, outside of the stellar “Krasue: Inhuman Kiss” from 2018. Now, first-time feature director Lee Thongkham offers the next great Thai genre effort with this fantastic new offering which is widely available around the world via Netflix.

A new housemaid named Joy (Ploy Sornarin) begins working in a luxurious mansion owned by Uma (Savika Chaiyadej), a wealthy woman, and Nirach (Theerapat Sajakul), her husband. They have a young daughter named Nid (Keetapat Pongrue) who is forbidden from leaving the house, and who has been diagnosed with a mental illness due...

Few facets of Chile’s Sanfic Industria are as keenly tracked as its Works in Progress. This is the section, after all, which introduced the industry to Sebastián Lelio’s “Gloria,” which went on to win best actress at Berlin for Paulina García and see a successful remake by Lelio himself with Juliane Moore in the title.

Sundance winners “Violeta Went To Heaven,” from Andrés Wood, Marialy Rivas’ “Young & Wild” and Alejandro Fernández Almendras’ “To Kill a Man” all made auspicious debuts at Sanfic as movies in post-production.

Sanfic Industria has now released the full list of Works in Progress set to screen onsite and online over Oct 27-Nov 5. A strong jury takes in Estrella Araiza, director of Mexico’s Guadalajara Film Festival, Busan Film Festival programmer Karen Park and Anabelle Aramburu, co-ordinator of the Mafiz industry umbrella at Spain’s Malaga Festival. They will select four titles which...

The two companies will co-produce Chinese-language films directed by Kelvin Tong, Melvin Mak, Ong Kuo Sin and Tay Ping Hui.

Singapore-based Clover Films is joining forces with Chinese streaming platform iQiyi to co-produce four Mandarin-language films, from Singapore directors Kelvin Tong, Melvin Mak, Ong Kuo Sin and Tay Ping Hui.

The collaboration has been set up by Clover Films’ managing director Lim Teck and iQiyi’s Beijing-based vice president Song Jia. Both spent nine months developing the parameters of the slate during the pandemic.

The projects, budgeted at $6m in total, will be produced over the next two years. The...

France’s Manny Films has boarded Chilean feature “Maybe It Is True What They Are Saying About Us,” and will co-produce alongside leading Chilean independent label Storyboard Media and Argentina’s Murillo Cine, whose credits include Cannes sidebar entries “The Snatch Thief” and “Land of Ashes.”

“We are thrilled that Manny Films is joining as a co-producer on this exciting film,” Storyboard’s Carlos Nuñez told Variety. “Their involvement will go a long way in our continued efforts to promote this project internationally. Our idea is now to film later this year.”

Manny’s history of working with top Latin American talent is long and lauded. The company has co-produced award-winning fare such as Cannes players “Ardor” from Pablo Fendrik and “The Chosen Ones” from David Pablos, Venice competition player “Compañeros” from Alvaro Brechner and last year’s best film in a foreign language winner “Tragic Jungle” from Yulene Olaizola.

Richard Kadrey, author of the fantasy book series “Sandman Slim,” has written an original screenplay called “Dark West” that will be adapted into a movie by “Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead” writer-director Kiah Roache-Turner.

Chris Goldberg’s Winterlight Pictures has optioned “Dark West” and set Roache-Turner to write the next draft of the script. Roache-Turner is eyeing to direct the film in his native Australia. Kadrey is also working on turning “Dark West” into a graphic novel.

“Dark West” is a vampire revenge thriller set on the highways of Texas that follows two car thieves who accidentally T-bone a pair of vampires in the middle of the night. The story is in the vein of the classic ’80s horror films “The Hitcher” and Kathryn Bigelow’s “Near Dark.”

The idea for “Dark West” came about after Kadrey’s “Sandman Slim” book series was optioned by Goldberg in his role as...

Florence Pugh is attached to star in a sci-fi courtroom drama called “Dolly” about a sex robot that murders its billionaire owner. Though the film has not yet been greenlit, Apple TV+ acquired it in a bidding war, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Vanessa Taylor and Drew Pearce are writing the script, which is still being developed. No director is currently attached.

“Dolly” is inspired by a short story from Elizabeth Bear that first appeared in “Asimov’s Science Fiction” in 2011. The story follows a billionaire who is killed by a sex robot, forcing police to determine whether the robot was the murder weapon or the actual murderer. The bot then shocks the world by asking for a lawyer and pleading not guilty in the ensuing court case.

Apple Studios would produce the film along with Pearce through his production company Point of No Return Films.

Exclusive: Following competitive bidding war, Apple Studios has landed Dolly, a new feature film with Academy Award-nominee Florence Pugh attached to star with Vanessa Taylor and Drew Pearce Penning the script. Insiders close to the project stress the project is not greenlit at this time as the script still needs to penned and a director still needs to be attached. Insiders go on to add that the package caught the interest of a total of four bidders that included multiple studios and another streamer with Apple TV+ emerging as the winner earlier this week.

The film is a sci-fi courtroom drama in which a robotic “companion doll” kills its owner and then shocks the world by claiming that she is not guilty and asking for a lawyer. The film, which is inspired by Elizabeth Bear’s short story of the same name, has elements of both classic courtroom drama and sci-fi.

Latin TV personality Ana María Polo and Chile’s Forastero, producer of the Golden Globe-nominated film “The Maid,” are teaming to develop and produce a feature based on her renowned Telemundo show “Caso Cerrado.”

Polo will play a leading role in the movie.

Diego Ayala, co-scribe on Netflix musical bio series “Luis Miguel” and Nicolás López hit comedy “Sin filtro,” has been tapped to write the film.

Ángel Zambrano, a former Svp of content for Turner Latin America and founder of development company Condeco, is joining the project as executive producer.

“Caso Cerrado: La Película” will roll during the second half of the year in México, Panamá and the Caribbean, among other locations. It is planned for release in early 2021.

A popular Cuban-American lawyer, Polo has hosted her hit court show “Caso Cerrado” for more than 18 years in which it has broadcast across the U.S. and 22 Latin American countries.

Argentina’s Murillo Cine, whose credits include Cannes sidebar entries “The Snatch Thief” and “Land of Ashes,” has boarded “Quizás es Cierto lo Que Dicen de Nosotras” (“Maybe It’s True What They Are Saying About Us”), a chilling drama from Chilean producers Storyboard Media and La Jauria.

Set to start filming next year with co-scribes Camilo Becerra and Sofia Gomez at the helm, “Maybe It’s True…” stars Aline Kuppenheim (“A Fantastic Woman”), newcomer Camila Roschman and Chilean film and TV actor Alejandro Goic.

Based on real events, “Maybe It’s True…” delves into the disturbing story of a young mother whose newborn was sacrificed by the sect to which she belonged. She appeals to her estranged mother for help but the mother, in her attempt to learn the truth, realizes that her daughter may have actually been complicit in the crime.

“We want to show that something so...

Pamplona, Spain — In an early and memorable dramatic beat in “Invisible Heroes,” a Original Series of Finnish broadcaster Yle, in partnership with Chilean network Chilevision, the former head of international trade under Chile’s Salvador Allende clambers over the garden wall of the chalet of a Finnish diplomat to seek asylum after Augusto Pinochet’s bloody 1973 military coup.

Suitcase in hand, he looses his footing,, and falls straight into Tapani Brotherus’ swimming pool.

Much admired at MipTV by those who caught it, “Invisible Heroes” opened to warm applause on Monday night at Conecta Fiction, the world’s foremost Europe-Latin America TV co-production forum, which runs June.17-20 in Pamplona, Northern Spain.

Chile is one of Conecta Fiction’s two 2019 countries in focus. If the quality on paper of some of its projects is born out by their pitches, in public events or one-to-one meetings, it will also be one of its stars.

Award winning film maker and Cultural Medallion recipient Eric Khoo who helms Zhao Wei Films has been credited for reviving the Singapore film industry and for putting Singapore onto the International film map in 1995. He was the first Singaporean to have his films invited to major film festivals such as Toronto, Busan, Berlin, Telluride, Venice and Cannes. Together with 12 Storeys’ co-writer James Toh and actress Lucilla Teoh, he also wrote a White Paper which resulted in the formation of the Singapore Film Commission. Khoo was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Letters, from the French Cultural Minister in 2008. Besides his filmmaking achievements, Khoo has produced several award winning films including 15 (2003) and Apprentice (2016).

Be With Me opened the Directors Fortnight in Cannes 2005 and My Magic his fourth feature was nominated for the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2008. Khoo has been profiled in Phaidon Books, Take 100 the future of Film – 100 New directors.

Guadalajara, Mexico — Chile’s Storyboard Media has granted Variety exclusive access to the teaser for the upcoming Camilo Becerra and Sofía Gómez feature “Quizás es cierto lo que dicen de nosotras” (“Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us”).

Storyboard heads Carlos Nuñez and Gabriela Sandoval are at the Guadalajara Intl. Film Festival (Ficg), where Sandoval is a juror for the Ibero-American fiction feature film competition, looking for a minority co-producer and a sales agent.

In the teaser we get a taste of the estranged relationship between mother Ximena and her daughter Tamara, and the trauma that looms large over them.

After years apart, Tamara returns home with the ghastly news that her recently newborn baby has been sacrificed to a religious sect that she was recruited into. The police get involved and Ximena sets out on an investigation of her own to find out exactly what happened.

With...

The extraordinary success of Chilean filmmakers will be celebrated in the 2019 Week of Chilean Cinema, which launches in Madrid, then travels to Paris and Berlin. The week offers a larger narrative: the Chileans have won more awards, festival acclaim and global box office in the past decade than any other filmmaking industry in all of Latin America.

Backed by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín, Sebastián Lelio and a who’s who of Chilean cineasts who will conduct Q&As after screenings, the Week also celebrates 10 years of CinemaChile, the producer-backed international film-tv promotion org.

Titles will play May 30-June 2 at Madrid’s Golem Cinema arthouse over, then June 5-9 at Cinematheque Française and finally June 19-23 at Berlin’s Babylon Kino, another iconic arthouse. A fourth strand will unspool in a “surprise” city, says CinemaChile executive director Constanza Arena.

Chosen by programmers at the Sundance, Tribeca and Toronto festivals among others,...

Ema

Chilean director Pablo Larrain returns to Chile for his eighth feature, this time for his first contemporary set drama in his native country with Ema, an adoption issue melodrama which also reunites him for the third time with Gael Garcia Bernal (who starred in 2012’s No and 2016’s Neruda). Bernal is joined by a predominantly female cast which includes Mariana Di Girolamo, Paola Giannini, Santiago Cabrera, Giannina Fruttero, Josefina Fiebelkorn, Paula Hofmann, and Catalina Saavedra. The project is produced by the director’s brother, Juan de Dios Larrain (who has producing his films since 2006’s Fuga through their company Fabula) while his usual Dp Sergio Armstrong is also on board.…...

Jason Mitchell was the breakout star of “Straight Outta Compton,” and anyone waiting for him to get a lead role worthy of his dramatic talents will definitely want to seek out “Tyrel.” The film is the latest from “The Maid” and “Nasty Baby” writer-director Sebastián Silva and co-stars Michael Cera, Christopher Abbott, Ann Dowd, and Caleb Landry Jones.

“Tyrel” stars Mitchell in the title role, a young man who joins his friend on a weekend trip to the Catskills for a birthday party. Tyrel is tagging along as the guest of his friend, and he gets a shock when he discovers he’s the only black guy among the people he’s staying with in the Catskills. Testosterone and alcohol start to mix as the weekend turns wild and Tyler’s world starts to become a nightmare.

IndieWire’s Eric Kohn compared “Tyrel” favorably to “Get Out” after its world...

Known for an affinity of making uncomfortable, challenging provocations about alienation, class, and privilege, ever since 2009’s critically acclaimed, “The Maid,” Hollywood stars like Kristen Wiig, Micheal Cera, Juno Temple, and Emily Browning, have lined up to work with Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva. The Brooklyn-based writer/director, who tends to work at a quick clip, already has one 2018 film in the can: Sundance’s ensemble “Tyrel” poking the hornet’s nest about race and white ignorance.

Continue reading ‘Fistful Of Dirt’: Sebastián Silva’s Latest Is A Post-Hurricane Maria Tragic Fable [Telluride Review] at The Playlist.

An entrancing, unconventional mermaid story from the director of “The Maid,” Sebastián Silva’s “Fistful of Dirt” has the distinction of being the first feature produced in Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria hit the island in September 2017. The devastation is evident from the opening shot, which follows 12-year-old Yei Yei (Julio Gaston) across the storm-ravaged beachfront, and informs the rest of the film, whose impoverished characters are barely scraping by without electricity and basic resources, although the story — a dark Brothers Grimm-like fairy tale anchored by a terrific child-actor performance, but not for kids per se — is one Silva had developed years before.

It’s a credit to Silva and co-writer Pedro Peirano that they were able to revive a pre-existing idea and adapt it to such an emotionally charged milieu, giving audiences an invaluable look at Maria’s apocalyptic impact (although one could argue that there’s something perverse...

While most fall film festivals are fairly evenly spaced out as to not step on each other’s toes, that’s not the case when it comes to Telluride Film Festival, which takes place during the first weekend of Venice Film Festival. As is the case every year, they’ve unveiled their lineup just before the festival kicks off, and it includes a number of major world premieres, including Destroyer, Boy Erased, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Front Runner, The Old Man & the Gun, as well as a handful of Venice premieres, including Roma, The Favourite, First Man, Non-Fiction, Peterloo, and, most-anticipated of all, Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind.

Also in the lineup is a surprise film, Sebastián Silva’s Fistful of Dirt, which he discussed way back in 2009. “I won a big cash prize in Poland with The Maid. The money is to make...

Sunny Pang is a character actor. He is also an accomplished martial artist, action director, and fight choreographer. As a martial arts trainer, he led his team to a gold medal finish in 1995 in the Nam Hua Pai Free Sparring Competition in Singapore. He has appeared in numerous short films and TV serials (including the highly successful “Code of Law” on Singapore’s MediaCorp Ch5 in the recurring role of Insp Nick Han).

He has an impressive list of movie credits that include Call If You Need Me (2009), One Last Dance (2006), The Maid (2005), Perth (2004), Petaling Street Warrior (2012), The Collector (2012), Hantu Di Vietnam (2013), Ranh Giới Trắng Đen (Black & White) (2014), Pukulan Maut (2014) and Re:solve (2014), Siew Lup (2016) and Headshot (2016) Most notably, Sunny was nominated for Best Performance at the 2009 Singapore Film Awards for his leading role in the feature film Lucky 7.

Sunny will collaborate once again with Headshot 2016 Directors Timo Tjahjanto...

Exclusive: Will Ferrell is set to star in Captain Dad alongside Catherine Keener and Michael Cera. The dark twist on the family vacation comedy will be written and directed by Golden Globe-nominated Sebastian Silva (The Maid) and produced by Anne Carey and Archer Gray with Christine Vachon and Killer Films exec producing. Protagonist Pictures is handling international sales here at Cannes. UTA Independent Film Group packaged the film and will handle the domestic sale. This is a killer comedy combo to land on the Croisette the first day of the market.

Rich Peelman (Ferrell) gives his wife Linda (Keener) the gift of a lifetime for her birthday: a trip through the Caribbean on a sailboat with all six of their kids and their partners. Stubborn, competitive and overly confident in his sailing abilities that are clearly out of sync with reality, Rich is determined that the vacation be run on his terms.

An eclectic batch of awards offer a considerable honor in their own right, the Oscar precursors are about to start coming at us fast and furious. Starting early next week with the Gotham Awards, Spirit Award nominations, and the National Board of Review winners, and continuing steadily for the following three weeks, awards season will quickly turn from murky to nearly crystal clear. Each announcement will bring with it shifts in buzz and a new round of speculation regarding the alleged ultimate prize of them all: Oscar. So for all of you eager in anticipation, indieWIRE figured we’d leave you this Thanksgiving holiday with a guide to seven of the biggest awards announcements that are about to go down.

November 30th: Gotham Awards

Last Year’s Big Winner: “Frozen River,” taking best feature and a breakthrough acting honor for Melissa Leo.

How This Year Could Shake Down: “A Serious Man...