Month: February 2020

Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond’s “My Little Sister” (“Schwesterlein”) premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday to strong critical and audience receptions, with particular praise heaped on lead actors Nina Hoss and Lars Eidinger. In his Variety review, Guy Lodge praised: “This is bright, unaffected naturalism with a fluidly roving camera, but also a
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Hulu’s chief marketing officer Kelly Campbell has been promoted to president of Hulu, a move that comes in the wake of Randy Freer’s recent exit as CEO of the company. Changes have been afoot at Hulu internally, now that the streaming service is now fully under Disney’s operational control. Disney TV Studios’ Dana Walden now
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BERLIN  — Stockholm-based global distributor Eccho Rights has boarded international financial thriller series “Polaris” (formerly known as “Bankster”) from fast-rising Icelandic production outfit Grassriver. The eight-part series, now in development and commissioned by Icelandic public broadcaster RÚV, will be co-produced and distributed by the Lumiere Group in Benelux. Creators/co-writers of the high-concept series are crime
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U.K.-Irish production company Film and Music Entertainment (FAME), in Berlin with Agnieszka Holland’s “Charlatan” and Ivan Ostrochovsky’s “Servants,” has unveiled five new film projects from its Irish division, including new films by Georgian helmer Marian Khatchvani and Albanian director Fatmir Koci. “Charlatan,” which FAME co-produced with Prague-based Marlene Film Production and Kevan Van Thompson (“Jojo
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Comcast announced that it has acquired Xumo, a free advertising-supported streaming service, from previous owners Panasonic and Meredith Corp. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Comcast paid more than $100 million for Xumo, CNBC reported. Xumo will continue to operate as an independent business unit inside Comcast Cable, the company said. Xumo offers
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February 25, 2020 8:34AM PT Lauren Yee’s play draws on the music of Dengue Fever to track the fate of a fictional Cambodian band that ran afoul of the Khmer Rouge. Is there anything less politically threatening than a rock band jamming to its own vibrant music? Tell that to the Khmer Rouge, which descended
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February 25, 2020 8:30AM PT IFC Films has acquired U.S. rights to “Undine,” a reimagining of an ancient myth from Christian Petzold. The deal continues the relationship between the indie distributor and the German auteur — the two previously worked together on Petzold’s “Phoenix.” “Undine” debuted at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. IFC Films
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February 25, 2020 7:00AM PT National Geographic Documentary Films has bought the documentary “Saudi Runaway,” which follows a young woman in Saudi Arabia attempting to flee the country before her arranged marriage. The deal was announced on Tuesday prior to “Saudi Runaway” screening at the Berlin Film Festival. Directed by Susanne Regina Meures, the movie had
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Three distant mountains; three chatty encounters between long-acquainted women; three comically tiresome intrusions from self-important men shot only from behind. Prolific South Korean arthouse staple Hong Sangsoo has dealt in playful, internally rhyming triplicate before, but never with such a gently sardonic female focus, and seldom as straightforwardly as in his airy, charming Berlin competition
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When they start noticing unusual twists on reality blooming all around them in their otherwise unremarkable Philadelphia lives — leading to an elaborate scavenger hunt unlike anything they could’ve imagined — the main quartet of characters in “Dispatches From Elsewhere” think they’ve got it figured out. The charismatic Simone (Eve Lindley) embraces the phenomenon as
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REinvent Studios, the Copenhagen-based company launched last year by former TrustNordisk CEO Rikke Ennis, has pre-sold the Icelandic crime drama “Trom” to ZDF/Arte for Germany and France. ZDF/Arte will be co-producing the anticipated series which was pitched last year during the Co-Pro Series at the Berlinale Series forum. “Trom,” based on Jagvan Isaksen’s crime novels
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Actors Gerard Butler (pictured above with Soho House’s Dominic Hofer and Studio Babelsberg’s Christoph Fisser), Daniel Brühl and Tom Wlaschiha, who played Jaqen H’ghar in “Game of Thrones,” were among the guests at the Studio Babelsberg Night Friday at Berlin’s Soho House. Other actors at the party included Thomas Kretschmann, Emilia Schuele, Elyas M’Barek, Iris
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An investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct against opera singer Plácido Domingo by opera performers’ union found that he “engaged in inappropriate activity, ranging from flirtation to sexual advances, in and outside of the workplace” when he was a senior executive at the Washington National Opera and Los Angeles Opera, according to the Associated Press
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Twice Academy Award-nominated writer-director Hany Abu-Assad (“Paradise Now,” “Omar”) is teaming with Abbout Productions, Lebanon’s top indie shingle, on TV series project “The King’s Wives.” The six-episode fiction, pitched Feb. 25 at the 2020 Berlinale Co-Pro Series, is set to be the first TV drama produced by Abbout, a Beirut-set production house run by Georges
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