Movies

SAN SEBASTIAN  —  Lucía Alemany’s “The Innocence” could be called coming of age, a knowing portrait of Lis, 15, hanging out with her friends and carrying in with her older boyfriend in Traigera, a village perched on the Castellón plains of Eastern Spain. Come fall, one of the last full summers she may spend in

SAN SEBASTIAN —  Hinde Boujemaa might have started her filmmaking career later than others, but she hasn’t lost any time in the subsequent years. The Tunisian director’s 2012 documentary “It Was Better Tomorrow” premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and she now returns with her feature-length fiction debut, “Noura’s Dream,” which follows a working-class woman

SAN SEBASTIAN —   Ángeles Cruz, one of Mexico’s highest-profile indigenous cineasts, screened for the first time a nearly-finished version of her feature debut “Nudo Mixteco” at the San Sebastian Films in Progress sidebar. Having won two Mexican Academy Ariel Awards for her first two shorts, “Nudo Mixteco” arrived in Spain buzzing. It deftly intertwines

SAN SEBASTIAN —    Paul Hudson’s Outsider Pictures has picked-up U.S. distribution rights to César Díaz’s “Nuestras madres” (“Our Mothers”), Belgium’s submission for the international feature film Academy Award. Sold by Pyramide International, “Our Mothers” world premiered at Cannes’ Critics Week, winning the Golden Camera for best first film at the Cannes Festival. Outsider Pictures

SAN SEBASTIAN — The Noka Mentoring program, a local initiative to support up-and-coming Basque female filmmakers, kicked off on Monday morning at this year’s 67th San Sebastian Film Festival. The program was co-developed by the Basque Government’s Department of Culture and Language Policy and Zineuskadi, a non-profit org set up by the department and the two

‘+90dB’ A Basque rock band travels the globe playing to diehard fans from Japan, the U.S., Germany and France. Marina Lameiro’s second film, produced by Arena Comunicación and Txalap.art. ‘918 NIGHTS’ Arantza Santesteban writes and directs her first feature documentary in which she explores the experience of being incarcerated for what seemed to be 918

SAN SEBASTIAN — Basque cinema is attacking the future with higher industrial and creative expectations than ever, playing off two motors: Co-production with other parts of Spain, international equity partnerships. Two game-changers in the Basque film landscape, “Handia,” winner of 10 Spanish Academy Goya Awards in 2018, and “Loreak,” Spain’s 2016 Oscar submission, have contributed

Poland’s New Europe Film Sales is handling worldwide sales rights to Mariko Bobrik’s feature debut “The Taste of Pho.” The food drama’s trailer is launching exclusively in Variety ahead of its world premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Culinary Cinema sidebar. Described as a story about love, misunderstanding and food, “The Taste of Pho” follows Long,

SAN SEBASTIAN  —  Filmax is handling international rights to Asier Altuna and Telmo Esnal’s “Bye Bye Mr. Etxebeste!,” produced by the Basque Country’s Irusoin, one of the main companies behind Jon Garaño, Aitor Arregi and José Mari Goenaga’s “The Endless Trench,” a main competition contender at the 67th San Sebastian Film Festival. “Bye Bye Mr.

In today’s film news roundup, “Abominable” gets a Chinese-language version, “The Mandela Effect” gets a home, Buffalo 8 expands its post-production services and “Miracle on Grass” is becoming a movie. SPECIAL RELEASE Universal Pictures has partnered with audio tech company TheaterEars to offer a Mandarin-language version of “Abominable” for Chinese-speaking moviegoers. “Abominable,” produced by DreamWorks

September 23, 2019 4:22PM PT Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver are starring in the drama “The Good House” for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners. The duo previously starred together in “Dave” and “The Ice Storm.” “The Good House,” based on the adaptation of Ann Leary’s New York Times bestseller of the same name, is beginning production

Behind-the-scenes-industry-player-turned-movie-director Marc Meyers took multitasking to a new level this month, debuting two wildly different films at corresponding fall festivals. Meyers helmed “Human Capital,” a hit-and-run drama told from numerous perspectives that stars Liev Schreiber, Marisa Tomei and “Stranger Things” breakout star Maya Hawke, which debuted in the official selection in Toronto. A week later,

In a city where film festivals often struggle for stability and longevity, the City of Lights, City of Angeles (Colcoa) French Film Festival has long been a happy outlier, scheduling a week of French film premieres in Los Angeles every April, year after year. That makes it all the more disorienting to see the fest’s

Robert Pattinson’s Batman might have found his first co-star. Sources tell Variety that Jonah Hill is in talks to join Pattinson in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman.” Insiders also say Jeffrey Wright is in talks to play Commissioner Gordon. According to sources, producers had long wanted Hill for the project, but casting decisions were put on

September 23, 2019 2:44PM PT “How to Train Your Dragon” director Dean DeBlois has come on board to direct and write “Micronauts” for Paramount Pictures and Hasbro. DeBlois’ hiring is a major step forward for the project, which has been in the works at Paramount for a decade. The film will be based on the

SAN SEBASTIAN — On Monday at the San Sebastian Film Festival the European Film Forum hosted a presentation and two panels highlighting new financing and collaboration models for promoting European works. Both panels were hosted by Rafael Lambea of Spanish non-profit Crea Sgr. In 2016 Crea Sgr was the first agency to make use of

SAN SEBASTIAN — On Jan. 14, 2015 prosecutor Alberto Nisman went on TV to accuse Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of negotiating the impunity of Iranians accused of the Buenos Aires’ 1994 AMIA bombing, the biggest terrorist attack in the Western hemisphere before 9/11. “There was an alliance with terrorists, negotiation with a state

SAN SEBASTIAN —  On Monday afternoon, leading figures from the Chinese and Spanish industries gathered to discuss future plans, sitting for a panel called “China/Spain: The Belt and Road Initiatives: The New Era for Co-Production.” Moderated by producer Ying Liu, the panel brought together executives Marta Ezpeleta (The Mediapro Studio), Lu Wei (Beijing East Purple

Netflix has rounded out the cast of its upcoming action movie “Kate,” starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, with the addition of Tadanobu Asano, Michiel Huisman, Jun Kunimura, Miyavi Lee Ishihara and newcomer Miku Martineau. Woody Harrelson is also on board to star in the film, which is directed by “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” helmer Cedric Nicolas-Troyan.

September 23, 2019 10:52AM PT “Stray Dolls,” a Tribeca Film Festival entry from up-and-coming director Sonejuhi Sinha, has sold North American distribution rights to Samuel Goldwyn Films. Eyeing an early 2020 release, the film stars breakout Geetanjali Thapa, Olivia DeJonge (Netflix’s “The Society”), Robert Aramayo (young Eddard Stark on “Game of Thrones”) and Cynthia Nixon.

HanWay Films has closed out worldwide sales on “The Burnt Orange Heresy,” the art-heist film that screened in Venice and Toronto. The movie stars Mick Jagger, Claes Bang, and Donald Sutherland. It closed the Venice Film Festival. In addition to North America, where Giuseppe Capotondi’s film will open in spring 2020, SPC has acquired rights

Nicolas Cage is a truffle hunter who wants his pig back in “Pig,” which started production Monday in Oregon. The film, which Michael Sarnoski will direct from his own script, will also star Alex Wolff (“Hereditary”). Pulse Films, BlockBox Entertainment, Valparaiso Pictures and Cage’s Saturn Pictures are producing in association with Escape Artists and Sweet

Sid Haig, known for his role as Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie’s “House of 1000 Corpses” trilogy, died Saturday. He was 80. His wife announced the news on Instagram. Haig had a fall several weeks ago and suffered serious breathing complications after arriving at the hospital. He died of a lung infection. “On Saturday, September

France, Europe’s No. 1 movie-going nation, still boasts the continent’s highest number of screens per capita, according to a new study conducted by the French National Film Board (CNC). As of last year, France had 2,040 theaters and 6,000 screens – 69 more screens than in 2017. Out of the 2,040 theaters, 226 are multiplexes.

Just as Netflix tries to gain traction in the Middle East by backing local genre series, such as its first Arab original, “Jinn,” from Jordan, and Egypt’s upcoming “Paranormal,” Beirut’s Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival is launching the region’s first platform dedicated to genre films. Five Arabic-language projects, ranging from a zombie comedy to a supernatural

As China gears up for a big political anniversary and national holiday, its box office has been dominated by innocuous animal films and local fare capable of keeping censors happy but unable to make that huge of a splash. None of the top four weekend titles has scored more than 7 out of 10 on

SAN SEBASTIAN — “Death Will Come And Shall Have Your Eyes” Italy’s Cesare Pavese wrote memorably in a poem that enchanted Chilean film director José Luis Torres Leiva a decade or so back. Now he delivers a film of that title which world premieres at San Sebastian in main competition and talks about death without,

Older audiences still care about going to the movies. That’s the takeaway after Hollywood profited by providing cinephiles of drinking age with compelling content last weekend. Three new nationwide releases — Focus Features’ “Downton Abbey,” Disney-Fox’s “Ad Astra” and Lionsgate’s “Rambo: Last Blood” — catering to these crowds enjoyed a promising start. Most notably, “Downton Abbey,”

SAN SEBASTIAN —    Warner Bros. Pictures Intl. has grabbed near-worldwide distribution rights to “El verano que vivimos,” a romantic melodrama directed by “Fariña” Carlos Sedes and co-produced with Atresmedia Cine, Bambú Producciones and La Claqueta. One of the most awaited local releases of next year, “El verano que vivimos” rolls from August for nine

SAN SEBASTIAN —  Sales house The Match Factory is launching exclusively via Variety the trailer of “Patrick,” Gonçalo Waddington’s debut feature, as the film world premieres in the Official Selection at the San Sebastian Festival. Screening in main competition, “Patrick” recounts the story of an eight-year old Portuguese boy, Mario, who is re-discovered years later