Month: December 2022

BUENOS AIRES — Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” Manuela Martelli’s “The Meltdown” and Demián Rugna’s Shudder co-pro “When Evil Lurks” were three highlights at 2022’s Ventana Sur. Wrapping Dec. 2, it offered a dazzling myriad of projects, bold initiatives in genre and from Spain and confirmation that the sector has still to emerge from the pandemic

Nuns, the wrongfully interned and supernatural forces converge on an asylum, playing duelling protagonists, in “Auxilio,” the latest film from Argentina’s multi-faceted genre darling, Tamae Garateguy (“She Wolf”). Del Toro Films has provided Variety with sometimes exclusive, behind-the-scenes stills from the project, currently in the final phases of post-production. In true Garateguy fashion, the film promises a

“Bruiser” builds to a massive brawl that, in a different kind of film, would be the main attraction. But director Miles Warren has other priorities than sensationalizing violence between Black men in a movie that is instead preoccupied with where such aggression comes from. Insightful and universal in so many ways, Warren’s first feature is

“My need to work on monologues originates from my love of literature. I usually pick novels that have little or no dialogue, so that I perceive the book as a very long monologue. Since I make films where plot twists are rare, if not entirely absent, monologues help me to have something masquerade as a

Gurinder Chadha, the BAFTA-nominated filmmaker behind “Bend It Like Beckham” and “Blinded By the Light,” is very much aware of the rumors surrounding “Bullet Train” star Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s bid to be the next James Bond, and she’d like to take the credit if it happens, she said Saturday at the Red Sea Film Festival in

BUENOS AIRES  — Tinta Oscura winner Juan Bernardo Sánchez Mejía, Netflix awardee “Convince Me,” Argentine art film “León,” animated series “Choco” and the Shudder-coproduced “When Evil Lurks” walked off with some of the biggest prizes on Dec. 2 at a multitudinous Ventana Sur prize ceremony whose whooped applause at each and every winner attested also to

“Violent Night” is receiving some holiday cheer with a second place opening on domestic charts, but Santa and his reindeer won’t be able to sleigh the reigning box office leader “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Universal’s action film, which stars David Harbour as a cranky Kris Kringle that takes on a team of mercenaries, is debuting

“It’s amazing because I never expected the festival to grow like this,” says Antoine Khalife, director of Arab programs and film classics at the Red Sea Film Festival, which kicked off its sophomore edition this week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. “We are only on our second edition and have done great research to create different

“We have a strong program that deals with global capitalism, the economic situation of today, the story of the movement of people, how the movement of people has nourished culture around the world, how it has strengthened culture.” This is how Kaleem Aftab, director of international programming of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival introduced

The Red Sea Souk, the four-day industry market of the Red Sea Film Festival, is positioning itself as the principal film market for the Middle East and North Africa. This year’s second edition includes two development competitions, a work-in-progress competition, and the Red Sea 360º event, held in association with Winston Baker, with 13 industry

“When I was invited to the Red Sea Film Festival, I saw it as a big opportunity,” says Oscar-nominated director Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth,” “Bandit Queen”) of his romantic comedy “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” opening the sophomore edition of the Red Sea Film Festival. “For all the politics, and let’s leave that aside,

CEO of Desert Rose Films Nancy Paton has joined forces with Meredith Brett of Flying Tiger Entertainment to produce a family-friendly adaptation of Michele Ziolkowski’s children’s book trilogy “The Boy Who Knew the Mountains,” to be titled “Mountain Boy.” The project is supported by Creative City Fujairah and the Abu Dhabi Film Commission. Emirati filmmaker

As jury president of the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, Oliver Stone is taking his role seriously. He sees the festival as an opportunity to explore the cinema being made in a region of the world he views as being misunderstood: “It’s a chance to really dip into the very fascinating Asian and

Prominent film distributor MAD Solutions has taken pan-Arab rights to abortion-themed Yemeni drama “The Burdened” (“Al Murhaqoon”), which is among works-in-progress presented at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Souk project market. Produced and directed by Amr Gamal, “The Burdened” scooped an award among works-in-progress at the industry section of the Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival in July. 

Locarno Film Festival artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro has come to Saudi Arabia for the first time to serve on the jury panel for the works-in-progress showcase at the Red Sea Film Festival’s industry section, the Red Sea Souk. A former head of the Venice Critics’ Week, Nazzaro has been tracking Arabic cinema for a while

Staying true to the D.H. Lawrence classic, theater actor Matthew Duckett, who has cerebral palsy, made his feature film debut with “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” — the first disabled actor to play the part of Clifford on a Netflix production. The film started to stream Dec. 2 on the platform. “I’ve been in a great many