BAFTAs awards producer Nick Bullen believes Twitter criticism of Ariana DeBose’s opening number at Sunday’s awards show was “incredibly unfair.” Speaking to Variety the morning after the telecast, the producer — who was backstage during the London awards ceremony honoring the best movies of the year — shared that the “West Side Story” star “put
New Zealand-based Black Mandala Films is handling world sales on “Mother Superior,” a gothic horror fairy tale linked to World War II and the Nazi experiments on the purity of the lineage. It is the first feature by Marie Alice Wolfszahn, a director, screenwriter, and multimedia artist, currently residing in her hometown of Vienna, Austria.
Why complicate matters? “The Swarm” – which premiered its first three episodes at the Berlinale Series – is one of those expensive pan-global coproductions necessitating copious logistics, not least a carefully observed quota of performers from each territory pumping money into the production pot. Its opener generates a not inconsiderable carbon footprint, whisking us from
VESOUL UNVEILS ASIAN LINEUP The Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema has unveiled its 85-title lineup for the edition that starts later this month (February 28 to March 7, 2023). Elements include a 10-film competition section, a 10-film documentary film section, a tribute to the Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu; a thematic section “Asian Diaspora
Oscar-winning actor Helen Mirren refused to address the controversy around her casting as Israel’s iconic Prime Minister Golda Meir in Guy Nattiv’s biopic during the movie’s press conference at the Berlinale. When asked to comment on the backlash and the issue of authentic casting, Mirren left it to Nattiv and her co-star Lior Ashkenazi (“Footnote”) to stand
Channel 5 news anchor Dan Walker is set to miss Monday evening’s broadcast after he was involved in a bike accident. Bit of an accident this morning. Glad to be alive after getting hit by a car on my bike. Face is a mess but I don’t think anything is broken. Thanks to Shaun and
Egyptian director Abu Bakr Shawky, whose first feature “Yomeddine” had the rare distinction of making the competition cut for Cannes, has completed his followup, the Saudi-set travel movie “Hajjan” which is expected to soon surface on the festival circuit. Somewhat similarly to “Yomeddine,” which made a splash in 2018, the hotly anticipated “Hajjan” involves a
Growth of premium video services in Southeast Asia accelerated in the second half of 2022, to reach 48.4 million paid subscriptions, according to a new report. But the same analysis sees growth slowing and costs accelerating. The latest report from Media Partners Asia, “SEA Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics” shows 48.4 million paid online
Leading Japanese manga artist Matsumoto Leiji, whose space operas became known to fans globally in animated incarnations, died on Feb. 13 in Tokyo at age 85. His representatives announced on Monday that the cause of death was heart failure. Born Matsumoto Akira in 1938 in Kurume, a city on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu,
Madrid-based Aquí y Allí Films, one of Spain’s most successful auteur movie production houses, is joining forces with popular Spanish actor turned writer-director Daniel Guzmán (“Nothing in Return,” “Canallas”) to produce drama thriller “La deuda.” Backed by Spain’s pay TV giant Movistar+ and public broadcaster RTVE, “La deuda” will be produced by Aquí y Allí’s
“Delegation,” a coming-of-age film about an Israeli school trip to Holocaust memorial sites in Poland, has debuted its trailer (below). Israeli writer-director Asaf Saban’s film world premiered at Berlinale Sunday in the Generation 14plus section. Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales is handling international sales. In the film, three Israeli high-school friends take part in
Total spend on content will “flatten and slightly decline” this year. This tendency might continue for “at least” the next couple of years, according to Ampere Analysis’ Guy Bisson, a speaker at Monday’s opening panel of the Berlinale Series Market, which runs through Feb. 22. “We are entering a phase of market maturity in streaming: Growth
Though the world watched — often in silence — as a decade-long civil war tore Syria apart, exiled filmmakers Talal Derki (“Of Fathers and Sons”) and Heba Khaled say an equally brutal but less visible war is still raging. In “Under the Sky of Damascus,” which premieres Feb. 20 in the Panorama strand of the
Spanish TV production house Mediacrest is joining forces with Helsinki-based outfit ReelMedia and Finnish public broadcaster YLE to develop climate change thriller series project “17kHz.” The co-production model resulting from the “17kHz” development deal will be one focus at the showcase “Spanish Fiction Contents: New Releases & Financial Opportunities,” which takes place Feb. 20 at
The Berlinale Special section of the Berlin Film Festival is a showcase for movies that are intelligent, but less arty than those in the main competition or festival sidebars. And in showcasing mainstream non-English-language films the section is also a springboard for performers who may be big news at home, but who are little-known outside
For Indian filmmaker Sreemoyee Singh, world premiering her Iran documentary “And, Towards Happy Alleys” at the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand is the culmination of a journey that began in 2015. Singh completed a masters degree in film studies at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India and went on to pursue a PhD on The Exiled Filmmaker
To set a 100-minute drama entirely inside the confines of a single apartment — and to have just a solitary character performing for the camera — might not seem like the most obvious template for an edge-of-your-seat thriller. But when that character is played by a versatile actor with the range of multi-Oscar-nominated Willem Dafoe,
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” topped the box office chart in mainland China on its opening weekend, with a $19.4 million start. But the much-discussed arrival of the Marvel movie was weak compared its franchise predecessor. And its debut was not enough to reignite the China box office market. The film arrived in a fashion
DR Sales has closed a deal with Walter Presents on the popular drama series “Carmen Curlers.” The company has picked up the show for the U.K. and Ireland, as well as taking North American rights for PBS Masterpiece. Based on true events and kick-starting in the 1960s, the show chronicles the invention of the electric
German powerhouse ZDF Studios and U.K.-based Factual Fiction are reteaming for “#DorianGray,” an updated social media spin on Oscar Wilde’s classic, “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” In Wilde’s original, first published as a novella in 1890 in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, the self-besotted Dorian Gray sells his soul in exchange for eternal youth, a picture painted
Berlinale Series, established in 2015, keeps offering new shows proper cinema treatment. But it’s not just about that “dark room and the level of concentration you hardly get when you sit on a sofa,” explains head of the event Julia Fidel, noting a surge in stories with a “reasonable” budget. “We want to screen very different
The latest series from Alex de la Iglesia and “Veneno” creators Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo feature at a first-look Next from Spain Showcase which marks a massive step-up in the country’s presence at the Berlinale Series Market. Running Feb. 20-22, the showcase also unveils “Rapa” Season 2, with its first season proving Movistar+’s biggest
The Berlin Festival’s ever larger three-day Berlinale Series Market kicks off today, Feb. 20. Below just a small selection of the series screening at the Market or in Berlinale Series, the festival strand. The selection could have been much larger. About Antoine Berlinale Series Market Selects Canada Creator: Cathleen Rouleau Production company: ComediHa! Broadcaster: Club
Hit Tamil-language romantic comedy “Love Today” will be remade in the Hindi-language by Phantom Studios in association with its original producers AGS Entertainment. Directed by Pradeep Ranganathan, the Tamil film features Ranganathan in his acting debut, Sathyaraj, Raadhika Sarathkumar, Yogi Babu, Raveena Ravi and Ivana in lead roles. The film followed two young lovers who
One of Japan’s most commercially successful and highly acclaimed animators, Shinkai Makoto has been called a successor to anime titan Miyazaki Hayao. Known for his mix of photo-realistic visuals and gorgeously realized fantasies, Shinkai surpassed the master when his 2016 smash “Your Name” became the highest-earning Japanese film of all time worldwide, beating Miyazaki’s 2001
Croatia’s 4Film has joined France’s Ciné Sud Promotion and Italy’s Kineofilm on Italian director Rodolfo Bisatti’s next feature film, “On Life,” starring Andree Ruth Shammah and Paolo Bonacelli. Bisatti, who co-wrote and helmed the acclaimed 2020 drama “To the Unknown God,” will direct “On Life” from a screenplay he his writing with actress-producer Laura Pellicciari.
The powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake that recently struck the Turkish-Syrian border, becoming the deadliest disaster in the region’s modern history, is not reverberating much at the Berlin Film Festival. At least not according to the co-chiefs of Turkey’s Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. “The festival’s opening ceremony started with Ukraine, ended with Ukraine and touched
Breaking into the world of filmmaking is never an easy prospect. And when you are a queer filmmaker who wants to focus on LGBTQ subjects, and lives in a traditional, Catholic, former Soviet Eastern European country, the bar to success is set pretty high. Romas Zabarauskas’ career proves that with grit, determination — and,
Following her stint in Berlinale Series’ competition with “The Architect,” a Norwegian Viaplay limited series set in the near future, Kerren Lumer-Klabbers will focus on a feature film next, which has the working title of “School of Women.” The project, produced by Søs Thøstesen, will be inspired by her own life, admits the filmmaker. Or
The battle for success on the new drama series scene is the battle for talent, led by screenwriters. Following, portraits of Spanish TV scribes or creators, sometimes writing teams, who’ve made an impact, or look set to do so: Fran Araujo 2022 was Araujo’s year. He co-wrote Berlin Competition’s “One Night, One Day” and “Rapa,”