Month: September 2023

The state government of Australia’s New South Wales has reversed some of its recently announced plans to cut subsidy to the film and TV industries. NSW Minister for the Arts, John Graham said on Tuesday that three important screen industry programs – the post digital and visual effects (PDV), the digital games development rebate program and the ‘Made in

Signature Entertainment has acquired U.K. and Ireland rights to writer-director Warwick Thornton’s Australian drama “The New Boy” from The Veterans. The film follows a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun, disturbing the delicately balanced world. Debutant Aswan Reid leads the film

It’s FOMO no more for global Taylor Swift fans. The singer and AMC Theatres announced Tuesday morning that the “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” concert film will open in more than 100 countries worldwide on Oct. 13, the same day previously announced for the its North American bow. Tickets for showings in most of

SAN SEBASTIAN – Top International business execs gathered on Tuesday at a rooftop venue, glistening in the Basque sunlight, for the second Creative Investors Conference at this week’s San Sebastian International Film Festival.  The second panel of the day at this two-day confab, The Global Film Industry: State of the Union 2023 round table, was moderated

A first trailer has been unveiled for Indonesian filmmaker Yosep Anggi Noen’s “24 Hours With Gaspar.”  The film will world premiere at the Busan Film Festival where it is in the prestigious Jiseok competition. Set in 2032 and based on the novel of the same name by Indonesian author Sabda Armandio, the film follows Gaspar,

Baz Luhrmann is set to preside over the main jury of the third edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival. The event, which is rapidly becoming the top fest and market in the region and a key driver in Saudi Arabia’s ongoing effort to build a film and TV industry, will run Nov.

The Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival’s Cinemed industry section has teamed up with Beirut-based cultural nonprofit Aflamuna on a new initiative, under which 10 film and doc projects from a wide range of Arab countries will soon be unveiled to prospective partners. The new program, called Cinemed and Aflamuna Professional Encounters, features 10 Arab works in

Frenetic and high-flying ‘90s rock emblem Mauricio Aznar trades his position as enigmatic frontman of Zaragoza’s Más Birras for a journey towards the soul of his craft in Spanish writer-director Javier Macipe’s highly-anticipated second feature, “The Blue Star” (“La Estrella Azul”) saw its world premiere in the New Directors strand of the San Sebastian Film

Spain’s Basque Country, an ever-evolving film hub, continues to see a consolidation of talent driven by an animation boom alongside an increase in the production of ambitious genre cinema, marked by the colossal success of recent projects on streaming platforms and pick-ups by labs and festivals. As San Sebastian unspools, the sequel to “The Platform,”

Film Factory Entertainment has swooped on international sales rights to “Marco,” the next film from Basque filmmaking trio Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga.  Their latest follows a high caliber run consisting of 2014 San Sebastian competition player “Flowers,”  2017’s San Sebastian Special Jury Prize winner “Giant,” and lockdown hit “The Endless Trench”

European production-distribution giant Studiocanal is teaming with Spain’s Mr. Fields and Friends and Bambú, both led by producer Ramón Campos, on dramatic comedy “Rondallas,” written-directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo (“BlueDarkAlmostBlack,” “Cousinhood,” “Seventeen”). Sánchez Arévalo, one of Spain’s foremost crossover filmmakers, is coming back with “Rondallas” to a movie project oriented to classic cinema theater exhibition

At this year’s Annecy, the most important animation festival in the world, Basque animations were out in force.  With a diverse showcase ranging from the nostalgic cartoon charm of “Conej Steps Out” by student outfit Funnie Fantasies, to UniKo’s tantalising taster excerpts for feminist story “Sultana’s Dream” by Isabel Herguera and the short “Body of

In his staggering 2012 film “Our Children,” Belgian writer-director Joachim Lafosse turned an unthinkable true-life tragedy — the story of a mentally ailing mother who, one hitherto ordinary afternoon, single-handedly murdered all five of her children — into deeply compassionate drama, focusing not on the lurid whats of the event, but its more intimate, less

A salute to Basque cinema, the 71st edition of the San Sebastian Festival has once again unfurled its Zinemira section, a brainchild conceived in collaboration with the Basque government’s Department of Culture. Serving as more than just a showcase, Zinemira comes wrapped in the financial backing of sponsors Irizar and EiTB, with collaborative support from

Ryuji Otsuka and Huang Ji, the husband and wife, Japanese-Chinese directing duo behind “Stonewalling” and “Egg and Stone” have secured multi-national backing for their upcoming fourth film project “A Woman Builds.” The film will depict a Chinese woman forced to live apart from her Japanese husband and their daughter during the pandemic and learning to

A Touch More, the production company founded by world-renowned athletes Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe, has announced the hiring of industry veteran Camille Bernier-Green as its head of development. Last December, Variety exclusively revealed that Bird, a five-time Olympic gold medalist and basketball legend, and Rapinoe, a two-time FIFA World Cup-winning soccer superstar, would expand

It’s time to take a trip back to everyone’s favorite Halloween store.   AMC Network has officially licensed the rights for David Poag’s “Spirit Halloween: The Movie” to stream on its streaming service Shudder. The film will creep its way onto the streamer on Oct. 2 just in time for spooky season. “Spirit Halloween” follows the

The WGA West will extend health care benefits through year’s end to members who were facing an Oct. 1 expiration of coverage because of the strike. The extension was worked out as a part of the tentative contract agreement reached Sunday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which will bring an end