Month: August 2021

You have to feel for Léa Seydoux, the star who was slated to be the all-but-official face of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, with four vehicles in the official selection. COVID intervened, preventing her representing any of them in person (as it turned out, none was the greatest of showcases for Seydoux’s talents anyway). But
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Without Wendy Chinchilla Araya, the dancer and first-time film actress playing the title role, “Clara Sola” would be a finely wrought tale of a later-life coming-of-age, in which mysticism, marginalization and sudden sexual jealousy collide on the fringes of a teeming Costa Rican forest. With her, and her feral movements and her keen but wary
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The term “forced assimilation” has a violence encoded into it that brutalizes the bleak heart of Vladimir Munkuev’s “Nuuccha,” a meticulously re-created if unevenly dramatized portrait of the hardships and humiliations suffered by the indigenous peoples of Eastern Siberia’s Yakutia region in the waning years of the Russian Empire. Based on a short story by
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Seven-time Emmy-winning actor Ed Asner, who starred as Lou Grant on both sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and hourlong drama “Lou Grant” before a late-career rejuvenation through his poignant voicework in 2009 animated film “Up,” has died. He was 91. His publicist confirmed the news to Variety, writing that he died on Sunday surrounded by
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Portugal’s SPi and Iceland’s Glassriver have attached Sérgio Graciano to direct Icelandic-Portuguese crime drama “Cold Haven,” a project which links two of the fastest-expanding TV producers on the western Europe seaboard. Lisbon-based SPi is the company behind Portugal’s first Netflix Original series, the upcoming  “Gloria.” It also co-produced “Dry Water,” a pioneering drive into premium
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Seven-time Emmy-winning actor Ed Asner, who starred as Lou Grant on both sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and hourlong drama “Lou Grant” before a late-career rejuvenation through his poignant voicework in 2009 animated film “Up,” has died. He was 91. His publicist confirmed the news to Variety, writing that he died on Sunday surrounded by
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SignUp, a new Google Chrome extension, overlays ASL captions on three Disney Plus movies — “Moana,” “Zootopia” and “The Incredibles.” Founded by Mariella Satow, the free tool was created because many members of the deaf community find that written captions lack vibrancy or aren’t descriptive enough, or are absent from media sites entirely. According to
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Keshet International (KI) has completed high-profile licensing deals with WarnerMedia Latin America and Spain’s Filmin TV on “Pørni,” the heartwarming Norwegian comedy-drama created by and starring “Lilyhammer” actor Henriette Steenstrup. Steenstrup, who won a Dragon Award at Goteborg Festival in 2020 for her performance in “Beware of Children,” stars in the bittersweet series as a
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In its continued bid to explore new fiction content, Spain’s Mediacrest has joined forces with Chilean shingle Maria Wood Prods. to co-produce sci-fi series, “Humanity.” This is the fledgling three-year-old company’s first collaboration with a Chilean producer and also its first with a Latin American company. To be presented at Series Mania, the Mars-based series
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Newen Connect, the distribution arm of the TF1-owned group Newen Group, has boarded “Balaton Brigade,” a prestige historical spy thriller series directed by Ildikó Enyedi, the Oscar-nominated Hungarian director of “On Body and Soul” and “The Story of My Wife” which competed at Cannes. Created by Gábor Krigler (“Terapia”), Balázs Lengvel (“Thos Janos”) and Balázs
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Lee “Scratch” Perry, the eccentric, revolutionary Jamaican producer, songwriter and performer whose influence extended far beyond his historic role in the development of reggae music, died Sunday at a hospital in Lucea, Jamaica at age 85. No cause of death was immediately given. The news was confirmed in a tweet from Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew
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In the run up to Series Mania, European network Arte and German public broadcaster NDR have boarded “Helsinki Syndrome,” a contemporary Nordic Noir thriller series headlined by “Vikings” star Peter Franzén and created by Mikko Oikkonen (“Bordertown”). “Helsinki Syndrome” is the first series jointly produced by Beta Film and leading Finnish production banner Fisher King
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After five weeks, four official public listening sessions and millions of words of speculation from the media, Kanye West finally released his “Donda” album to streaming services on Sunday morning. It is unclear when the album was actually posted, but a press release from West’s label, Def Jam, arrived at around 8:15 a.m. ET. The
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The industry centerpiece at Series Mania’s Forum, Monday’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions take on a special relevance this year as the number of admissions have almost doubled – up to 560, near twice the usual number, says Series Mania director Francesco Capurro. “Producers have had more time to develop with COVID-19. Projects run a wide gamut. The idea is tat there
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Chosen as this year’s recipient of the President’s Award at Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Ethan Hawke discussed his career, projects – including a potential new film with his long-time collaborator Richard Linklater – and the ongoing pandemic. At a roundtable discussion with journalists, Hawke opened up about his next possible movie project with Linklater. The
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