Month: January 2023

COMMISSION Reese Witherspoon‘s production company Hello Sunshine, which is a part of Candle Media, has secured its first U.K. commission. Fronted by TV presenter and bestselling author Stacey Solomon, Channel 4 DIY series “Bricking It” gives viewers easy and helpful tips to makeover their homes themselves. Hello Sunshine’s U.K. unscripted division opened last year and
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“When capital grows, do the middle and working classes inevitably have to grow poorer?” asks Salla Nurminen, a smart economics student delivering her PhD dissertation on the need to control money markets. Two years later, having gotten a job with Finland’s Bank Inspectorate, which investigates financial skullduggery, she returns to her native town, Pello, in northern
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Distributed by ITV Studios, “Blackwater,” the new banner series from Apple Tree producer Piv Bernth – behind iconic Scandinavian series “The Killing,” “The Bridge” and “Borgen” – opens in premonitory mode with the camera panning away from a falcon to take in the Lobber River’s white water and churning slate grey currents as a supernatural horror-movie chant
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“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” harks back to an era of gentle storytelling and hand-drawn animation but its inception, by British illustrator Charlie Mackesy, was entirely modern: blossoming from social media to print to streaming. The book of the same name — based on Mackesy’s WhatsApp and Instagram illustrations — did
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Göteborg Film Festival, running from Jan. 27-Feb. 5, will welcome back some familiar faces during its 46th edition. But it keeps on looking out for skillful newcomers, says Josef Kullengård, head of industry at the festival and the Nordic Film Market. “We want to be the place where you discover new Nordic talent,” he tells
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Damian Kocur’s 2022 Venice Film Festival winner “Bread and Salt” will open the 21st Kinoteka Polish Film Festival. “Bread and Salt” follows the journey of two brothers, played by real-life siblings Tymoteusz Bies and Jacek Bies, in a small Polish town during one hot summer. The closing gala will be Feliks Falk’s 1977 classic “Top
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Filmmaker Kenneth Karlstadt has conjured a chaotic coming of age story, “Kids In Crime,” for Norway’s TV2. The writer-director grew the project out from his well received short, “The Hunger,” into eight short episodes.  It’s a format hoped to attract younger audiences aged 16-22, who are surrounded by many alternative forms of entertainment through social
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In the run-up to February’s Berlin Film Festival, Madrid-based Latido Films has pounced on “Sica,” the fiction feature debut of Carla Subirana, one of a hard-to-miss vibrant new generation of Barcelona-based women directors and producers now galvanizing the Catalan film scene. In a frequent alignment between the two companies, Spanish distribution will be handled by
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Director, writer, actor, producer and author Spike Lee is being accorded a BFI Fellowship, the highest honor bestowed by the British Film Institute. The Fellowship will be presented to Lee at a celebratory event at BFI Southbank, hosted by BFI chair Tim Richards and BFI chief executive Ben Roberts on Feb. 13. The event will
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Bowfinger Int’l Pictures, run by Spanish actor-director Santiago Segura and producing partner María Luisa Gutiérrez, and Beta Fiction Spain (BFS), the Spanish affiliate of Germany’s Beta Film, have teamed up to produce “Infiltrada” (“Infiltrated”) the true story of a young Spanish policewoman who infiltrated the Basque separatist group, ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, translated as Basque
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ITV Studios’ head of global distribution Ruth Berry has been promoted to lead both of the company’s global commercial divisions. ITV Studios’ global distribution and global entertainment arms have been brought together under a single leadership and organizational structure, led by Berry, who will work closely with COO David McGraynor. Due to the restructure, Arjan
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If, partway through Nicole Newnham’s extraordinary new documentary, you find yourself fighting the urge to do a bit of Googling — just to make sure that Shere Hite was a real person and you are not the victim of some wildly elaborate deepfake prank — don’t be alarmed. Be a little ashamed, perhaps, but not
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Slamdance Film Festival has revealed the winners of its annual Sparky Awards, with “Waiting for the Light to Change” and “Where the Road Leads” taking home the narrative feature grand jury prize and audience award, respectively. Directed by Linh Tran, narrative feature grand jury prize winner “Waiting for the Light to Change” is an “exceptional
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DATES Project Brazen and PRX released their new podcast, “The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome Podcast” with international journalist, Nicky Woolf, on Jan. 23. The eight part investigative narrative podcast will peek behind the curtain, and uncover the unsettling global medical mystery affecting American diplomats and spies. “The Sound” will transport listeners to Havana, Cuba
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Nikole Hannah-Jones has given hundreds — or perhaps thousands — of interviews since she first published “The 1619 Project” in The New York Times Magazine in 2019. But when speaking to Variety ahead of the launch of the project’s six-part Hulu docuseries adaptation, the journalist says she’s feeling anxious. “This is a time of great
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Veteran Fox News war correspondent Benjamin Hall will release his memoir “Saved: A War Reporter’s Mission to Make It Home” on March 14, HarperCollins Publishers announced Thursday. Throughout “Saved,” Hall recounts how he survived his ground-level view of the war in Ukraine, as well as his dramatic rescue and arduous recovery. Hall shares stories about
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Colleen Hoover’s bestselling romance novel “It Ends With Us” is getting a film adaptation with Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni attached to star, Variety has confirmed. The film is in development at Sony Pictures, with Baldoni set to direct and executive produce under his Wayfarer Studios banner, which is co-financing. Lively is also executive producing
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“Spider-Man: No Way Home” brought Tobey Maguire back to the web-slinging role for the first time in 15 years. Maguire always intended to return for a fourth Spider-Man movie after 2007’s divisive “Spider-Man 3,” but creative differences between director Sam Raimi and Sony Pictures prevented him from doing so. “No Way Home” finally gave Maguire
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One week ago, Boygenius — the indie-rock “supergroup” consisting of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker — announced the impending arrival of their highly-anticipated debut full-length, “The Record,” set for release on Interscope Records March 31. With no advance warning, last week a three-song teaser dropped, along with the reveal of the album’s 12-song
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Every so often, you’ll see a portrait-of-the-artist documentary that’s so beautifully made, about a figure of such unique fascination, whose art is so perfectly showcased by the documentary format, that when it’s over you can’t believe the film hadn’t existed until now. It feels, in its way, essential. “Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest
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