Month: February 2021

Leading Spanish sales company Latido Films has snapped up international sales rights to Violeta Salama’s directorial debut, “Alegria.” Argentina’s Leonardo Sbaraglia (“Wild Tales,” “Pain and Glory”) joins a stellar European-Latino cast that includes Mexico’s Cecilia Suárez (“La Casa de las Flores”), Spanish actresses Laia Manzanares (“Merlí”) and Mara Guill (“Caronte”) as well as French-born Sarah

Netflix and Federation Spain, the Spanish division of Paris and L.A.-based Federation Entertainment, are teaming to produce “Las niñas de cristal,” a psychological drama set against the world of classical ballet that toplines “Money Heist” and “Elite” star Maria Pedraza. The movie is one highlight in Netflix’s first announcement of a production-distribution slate focused entirely

After Sundance, which saw sustained dealmaking activity on select titles, the film industry is gearing up for the virtual European Film Market, incorporating industry and press screenings of Berlin Film Festival’s program. With little sense of when the theatrical business can restart across the world, anxiety in the independent sector is edging up, added to

For nearly two decades the European Film Market has had, at its core, the Berlinale Co-Production Market, where hundreds of producers, sales agents, distributors, broadcasters and, more recently, some streamer execs have been drawn to a bunch of curated projects. The EFM has always been Europe’s quintessential co-production germinator. But the pandemic has made it much tougher

Reel Suspects has boarded “Vampir,” the popular Serbian actor-turned-filmmaker Branko Tomovic’s feature debut, in the run up to the European Film Market. Penned by Tomovic, the film follows Arnaut, a man from London who is offered a job in Serbia to look after a cemetery in a small remote village. Arnaut soon starts having nightmarish

Two Indian art house films, “The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs” and “The Village House” head the joint slate of a pair of new distribution companies addressing the North American market. Deaf Crocodile and Gratitude Films aim to give the two titles theatrical and digital releases in the second half of 2021, when it is

Jack Giarraputo, the veteran Hollywood executive who co-founded Happy Madison with Adam Sandler, is launching advertising agency Slice Collective at the upcoming European Film Market in Berlin. The company, co-founded with former Lazard private equity executive Abhishek Som, is a full-service creative advertising agency aiming to produce Hollywood-level campaigns for clients around the world. Films

Russian heartthrob Danila Kozlovsky (“Vikings”) admits he “never wanted or thought to make a movie about Chernobyl.” But that changed the moment the actor-turned-director laid eyes on a script, written by Aleksey Kazakov and Elena Ivanova, for a big-budget action film about the aftermath of the nuclear power plant meltdown. “When the synopsis came to

There’s a spectacular contradiction at the heart of art forgery. Forgeries, which pretend to be paintings by timeless artists, hang in museums all over the world; there are more of them than anyone knows, all hiding in plain sight. When a case of forgery comes to light, it tends to be greeted with moral outrage.

Christine D’Souza Gelb, the veteran independent film financing and sales executive, has launched a new production and management venture with Killer Films executive David Hinojosa and Kevin Rowe as founding partners. Named 2AM, the venue brings together a trio of considerable indie film players and boasts backing from one of the space’s most premium brands:

Demián Bichir says he didn’t mince words when he told Robin Wright that he had to play Miguel in her feature film directorial debut “Land.” “When I read the script, it was so powerful and it talked to me right away. And I felt the need to do it because of the times we live

For the first time in nearly a year, New York-based movie theater operator Nicolas Nicolaou can breathe a sigh of relief. That’s because Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that cinemas across the five boroughs could reopen starting next month, a potential reprieve for a sector of the entertainment industry that’s been walloped by the coronavirus pandemic.

When Robin Wright first read the script for “Land,” she thought the story was a perfect antidote to troubling times and the “encouragement to be mean over the last four years.” The film not only marks Wright’s feature directorial debut, but she also stars in the drama as Edee, a woman who decides to go

Mark Duplass was suffering from some serious quarantine fatigue. “With the pandemic going on I started thinking, what are the things I can do to better myself besides watch ‘Groundhog Day’ again with my children,” the indie filmmaker remembers. “I decided to take some Spanish lessons and ended up developing sort of an interesting rapport

Tues. Feb. 23 Gravitas Ventures Acquires U.S. Distribution Rights for ‘The Oak Room’ Gravitas Ventures, a Red Arrow Studios company, has acquired U.S. rights to distribute the Black Fawn Films thriller “The Oak Room.” Directed by Cody Calahan, written by Peter Genoway, and produced by Chad Archibald and Ari Millen, the film stars RJ Mitte