There are so many questions surrounding the search for identity and one's own place under the sun that I can relate to in Nele Wohlatz' dreamy drama “Sleep With Your Open Eyes” that I don't even know where to start. As an immigrant who changed houses so many times that every move involved more costs, logistic planning and emotional investment than it was healthy, I felt an instant connection with the film's protagonists who dream big, while struggling to make ends meet pressured by the big question of where they really belong to. I also understood that Wohlatz, who herself has lived for 12 years far away from her native Germany, to study and work in Argentina, knew how to tell the story of a double-sided cultural alienation and solidarity among those ‘lost in translation', right from the film's opening scene which didn't even reveal much about what was going to happen.
- 2/21/2024
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
Tucked deep into Don DeLillo’s Underworld is an exchange between the novel’s protagonist, Nick Shay, and one of his teachers, a Jesuit priest. It concerns language. The priest, to make a point about the boy’s abysmally poor vocabulary, taunts him to name the parts that make up his shoe. Aglet, grommet, vamp, quarter; Nick has never heard of them, but instead of shrugging it off, he turns the lecture into a wake-up call. He runs back to his dorm wanting to look up words, memorize them, spell them, learn them––for this, DeLillo quips in one of his most fulminating sentences, “is the only way in the world you can escape the things that made you.” Time and again during Nele Wohlatz’s Sleep with Your Eyes Open, I found myself going back to that line. Language serves in Wohlatz’s cinema the same function it plays...
- 2/19/2024
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Asia Argento and Melvil Poupaud will star in French crime thriller “Stronger Than the Devil.”
The project will be pitched for the first time at the European Film Market, attached to the Berlin Film Festival, by All Rights Entertainment, the Hong Kong, Paris and Los Angeles-based film sales agency which has picked up the rights.
The picture, which heads into production later this month, is written and directed by Graham Guit. The finished film is expected to be completed by the autumn.
Valentin, a man with a shady past but who is trying to turn over a new leaf, reunites with his estranged son Joseph and his son’s girlfriend Alice after years apart. But what seems at first like a heartwarming reunion, soon goes to hell as Jp and Mila, nefarious acquaintances of Valentin, turn up with bloody plans.
Other cast includes Marine Vacth, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Raika Hazanavicius,...
The project will be pitched for the first time at the European Film Market, attached to the Berlin Film Festival, by All Rights Entertainment, the Hong Kong, Paris and Los Angeles-based film sales agency which has picked up the rights.
The picture, which heads into production later this month, is written and directed by Graham Guit. The finished film is expected to be completed by the autumn.
Valentin, a man with a shady past but who is trying to turn over a new leaf, reunites with his estranged son Joseph and his son’s girlfriend Alice after years apart. But what seems at first like a heartwarming reunion, soon goes to hell as Jp and Mila, nefarious acquaintances of Valentin, turn up with bloody plans.
Other cast includes Marine Vacth, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Raika Hazanavicius,...
- 2/16/2024
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Today we feature an exclusive clip of veteran French filmmaker André Téchiné‘s latest oeuvre in My New Friends (aka Les Gens d’à côté) which will be unveiled in the Berlinale’s Panorama section. Formerly going by the title Dans le viseur or La révocation and filmed in late 2022, this drama stars Isabelle Huppert, Hafsia Herzi and Nahuel Perez Biscayart. Huppert plays the role of Lucie who is finds herself in a catch-22 type of situation where her moral linings clash with her ethical beliefs — it goes against her duties as a specialized technical and scientific police officer. Huppert and Herzi would actually re-team shortly after in Patricia Mazuy’s next directing gig, but here, as we see in the clip, we follow Herzi’s character confessing to Huppert’s Lucie that she is up to her neck with her better half not being able to walk in a straight...
- 2/1/2024
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
China-based sales agent Rediance has boarded Nele Wohlatz’s Sleep With Your Eyes Open and Huang Shuli’s short Goodbye First Love, ahead of their premieres at the Berlinale next month.
Sleep With Your Eyes Open will play in the festival’s competitive Encounters section, which was announced today. The comedy is set in a coastal city in Brazil over one hot summer, during which bonds grow between a heartbroken traveller from Taiwan, a man who runs an umbrella store and a woman who used to live in the city.
The cast combines newcomers with professional actors, including Wang Shin-Hong...
Sleep With Your Eyes Open will play in the festival’s competitive Encounters section, which was announced today. The comedy is set in a coastal city in Brazil over one hot summer, during which bonds grow between a heartbroken traveller from Taiwan, a man who runs an umbrella store and a woman who used to live in the city.
The cast combines newcomers with professional actors, including Wang Shin-Hong...
- 1/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Berlinale has completed the lineup for its Panorama, Generation, Forum and Forum expanded sections, with new films from Levan Akin and Andre Techine, plus the debut feature of US playwright Annie Baker.
Swedish filmmaker Akin, who scored an international hit in 2019 with And Then We Danced, will open the Panorama strand with Crossing, about two people travelling from Georgia to Istanbul in search of a young transgender woman.
Scroll down for the full list of Panorama, Generation and Forum features
Also among the 31 films in Panorama are My New Friends from French filmmaker Techine, starring Isabelle Hupert, Hafsia Herzi...
Swedish filmmaker Akin, who scored an international hit in 2019 with And Then We Danced, will open the Panorama strand with Crossing, about two people travelling from Georgia to Istanbul in search of a young transgender woman.
Scroll down for the full list of Panorama, Generation and Forum features
Also among the 31 films in Panorama are My New Friends from French filmmaker Techine, starring Isabelle Hupert, Hafsia Herzi...
- 1/17/2024
- by Ben Dalton¬Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Peter Lanzani, star of some of the greatest films and series to come out of Argentina of late – “Argentina, 1985,” “El Angel,” “The Clan,” “4X4,” “Un Gallo Para Esculapio” – is set to make his directorial debut, helming a biopic of Argentine ‘80s rock icon Luca Prodan. Lanzani will also play Prodan.
Two other movers and shakers on Argentina’s film-tv scene, Argentina’s Armando Bo, an Academy Award winner for the screenplay of Alejandro González Inárritu’s “Birdman, or, Sergio Olguín, Lanzani and Fisner are writing the screenplay.
The big question is what through line they will drive between ‘70s class-bound, punk-energized Britain and an Argentina of the early ‘80s emerging from a bloody dictatorship.
The biopic is set up at Bo’s Rebolución, behind his 2012 Sundance hit, “The Last Elvis,” and his second feature as a director, “Animal,” and Bo’s About Entertainment, founded in 2020 to focus on high quality...
Two other movers and shakers on Argentina’s film-tv scene, Argentina’s Armando Bo, an Academy Award winner for the screenplay of Alejandro González Inárritu’s “Birdman, or, Sergio Olguín, Lanzani and Fisner are writing the screenplay.
The big question is what through line they will drive between ‘70s class-bound, punk-energized Britain and an Argentina of the early ‘80s emerging from a bloody dictatorship.
The biopic is set up at Bo’s Rebolución, behind his 2012 Sundance hit, “The Last Elvis,” and his second feature as a director, “Animal,” and Bo’s About Entertainment, founded in 2020 to focus on high quality...
- 7/20/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Vix has begun production on 7 new original titles during the second quarter of the year including 6 series and one film. They include the Sofia Vergara-led Koati: Animated Series and the Benicio del Toro-produced film Matar Al Jockey (Kill The Jockey).
“With these 7 new productions we continue to increase our original content offerings on Vix, with stories that appeal to the diverse tastes of our audiences,” said Rodrigo Mazón, Chief Content Officer ViX for TelevisaUnivision, in a statement. “Since the launch, we have been working on a path of constant development and production that we know today strongly reflects and resonates with the audience’s preferences and generates great successes in our service,” he added.
Matar Al Jockey (Kill The Jockey) follows Remo Manfredini, a legend in the world of turf racing whose self-destructive behavior overshadows his great talent. Abril, an up-and-coming jockey, is pregnant by Remo and...
“With these 7 new productions we continue to increase our original content offerings on Vix, with stories that appeal to the diverse tastes of our audiences,” said Rodrigo Mazón, Chief Content Officer ViX for TelevisaUnivision, in a statement. “Since the launch, we have been working on a path of constant development and production that we know today strongly reflects and resonates with the audience’s preferences and generates great successes in our service,” he added.
Matar Al Jockey (Kill The Jockey) follows Remo Manfredini, a legend in the world of turf racing whose self-destructive behavior overshadows his great talent. Abril, an up-and-coming jockey, is pregnant by Remo and...
- 6/22/2023
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
When Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) is arrested by Nazis and put on a train to a concentration camp, he has every reason to believe that his life is over. It’s 1942 in Nazi-occupied France, and all of his Jewish traveling companions are making peace with their inevitable deaths. When a stranger on the train begs him to trade half of a sandwich for a book of Persian myths, he makes the deal out of mere charity as much as anything else.
That chance encounter that kicks off “Persian Lessons” ends up saving his life, as Gilles is the only passenger spared. As it turns out, the Nazi officer who controls his destiny has been “looking for a Persian.” Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger) is already thinking ahead to the end of WWII — the former chef plans to move to Tehran and open a German restaurant in the desert. But before he can do that,...
That chance encounter that kicks off “Persian Lessons” ends up saving his life, as Gilles is the only passenger spared. As it turns out, the Nazi officer who controls his destiny has been “looking for a Persian.” Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger) is already thinking ahead to the end of WWII — the former chef plans to move to Tehran and open a German restaurant in the desert. But before he can do that,...
- 6/9/2023
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
There’s an irony to the title “No Love Lost”: that the gaping hole left in a lover’s wake can still shape a person’s whole existence. In short, there’s plenty lost. Erwan Le Duc (“The Bare Necessity”) writes and directs the 2023 Cannes Critics Week closing film that was billed by the festival as a “bittersweet comedy about paternity and filiation with a poetic and off-beat angle,” and delivers on most fronts.
Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart stars as Étienne, a hopeful football player who has a whirlwind romance à la “Up” with protester Valérie (Mercedes Dassy) in the first five minutes of the feature. The duo have an immediate connection after both evading the police at a demonstration, but their fearless young love (they’re in their very early twenties) soon becomes more complicated once Valérie discovers she’s pregnant. A wordless montage captures their love story up until...
Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart stars as Étienne, a hopeful football player who has a whirlwind romance à la “Up” with protester Valérie (Mercedes Dassy) in the first five minutes of the feature. The duo have an immediate connection after both evading the police at a demonstration, but their fearless young love (they’re in their very early twenties) soon becomes more complicated once Valérie discovers she’s pregnant. A wordless montage captures their love story up until...
- 5/25/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
"You just make sure the murderers eat well." Cohen Media Group has revealed another official US trailer for the German WWII drama Persian Lessons, made by Ukrainian filmmaker Vadim Perelman. This first premiered back in 2020 just before the pandemic at the Berlin Film Festival, before getting lost in all the shutdowns. It played at various fests over the next few years, and opened in Germany in late 2020 already. The US release has finally been set - over three years later - for this June in select theaters. Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) is arrested by Nazis alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to the Head of Camp Koch. Through an ingenious trick, he manages to survive...
- 5/23/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
In Bpm (Beats Per Minute), Robin Campillo found in Nahuel Pérez Biscayart a face and voice to communicate the by turns ecstatic and wrenching role of being an activist for Act Up Paris during the early 1990s. Now, in House of Sand and Fog director Vadim Perelman’s latest, Persian Lessons, the Argentine actor, who exudes an unwavering and mournful certainty whenever he’s on screen, has found another project worthy of his talent.
Persian Lessons concerns a young Belgian Jew named Gilles (Biscayart) who’s arrested in occupied France in 1942 by SS soldiers. On the way to a concentration camp in Germany, he avoids execution by swearing that he’s Persian. Subsequently, he’s tasked with teaching Farsi to the head of Camp Koch, Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger), who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran after the war. What results is an intense game for survival, as Gilles pretends to know Farsi,...
Persian Lessons concerns a young Belgian Jew named Gilles (Biscayart) who’s arrested in occupied France in 1942 by SS soldiers. On the way to a concentration camp in Germany, he avoids execution by swearing that he’s Persian. Subsequently, he’s tasked with teaching Farsi to the head of Camp Koch, Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger), who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran after the war. What results is an intense game for survival, as Gilles pretends to know Farsi,...
- 5/19/2023
- by Ed Gonzalez
- Slant Magazine
Luis Ortega has wrapped production in Argentina on “Kill the Jockey,” starring Úrsula Corberó, “Money Heist’s” Tokyo, and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (“120 Bpm”), which is shaping up as one of the biggest upcoming movies from Latin America.
Ortega’s follow-up to 2018 Un Certain Regard hit “El Angel,” which sold worldwide and set a box office record in Argentina, “Kill the Jockey” has been snapped up for overseas sales by Vicente Canales’ Film Factory Entertainment, which also sold “El Angel.”
TelevisaUnivision VOD service ViX will roll out “Kill the Jockey” in the U.S. and Latin America. Scanbox handles distribution in Scandinavia.
“Kill the Jockey’s” top-notch cast also features Daniel Giménez Cacho, Mariana Di Girólamo, Daniel Fanego (“El Ángel”) and Roly Serrano (“Youth”).
It turns on Remo (Pérez Biscayart), the best jockey of his generation, whose addictions, however, have gradually cast a shadow over his glory. Like Abril (Corberó), another jockey,...
Ortega’s follow-up to 2018 Un Certain Regard hit “El Angel,” which sold worldwide and set a box office record in Argentina, “Kill the Jockey” has been snapped up for overseas sales by Vicente Canales’ Film Factory Entertainment, which also sold “El Angel.”
TelevisaUnivision VOD service ViX will roll out “Kill the Jockey” in the U.S. and Latin America. Scanbox handles distribution in Scandinavia.
“Kill the Jockey’s” top-notch cast also features Daniel Giménez Cacho, Mariana Di Girólamo, Daniel Fanego (“El Ángel”) and Roly Serrano (“Youth”).
It turns on Remo (Pérez Biscayart), the best jockey of his generation, whose addictions, however, have gradually cast a shadow over his glory. Like Abril (Corberó), another jockey,...
- 5/17/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Paris-based Playtime has unveiled a strong Cannes film market sales slate, which includes competition titles “About Dry Grasses” and “Homecoming.”
“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.
“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...
“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.
“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...
- 5/2/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The 2023 Cannes Critics Week lineup has officially been unveiled.
Hot off of the world premiere of first-time filmmaker Charlotte Wells’ Oscar-nominated “Aftersun,” this year’s Critics Week marks seven highly-anticipated feature debuts from directors like Amanda Nell (“Tiger Stripes”) and Jason Yu (“Jam”).
The lineup kicks off with opening night film “Ama Gloria,” directed by French filmmaker Marie Amachoukeli, who previously won Cannes’ Camera d’Or for 2014’s “Party Girl” which Amachoukeli co-directed with Claire Burger and Samuel Theis. (Critics Week allows for both first and second films in its lineup.) “Ama Gloria” centers on six-year-old girl Cléo who copes with her nanny Gloria leaving to return to Cape Verde.
The closing night film is Erwan le Duc’s “La fille de son père,” billed as a “bittersweet comedy about paternity and filiation with a poetic and off-beat angle.” Le Duc previously helmed “Perdrix”; Nahuel Perez Biscayart and Céleste Brunnquell star as father and daughter.
Hot off of the world premiere of first-time filmmaker Charlotte Wells’ Oscar-nominated “Aftersun,” this year’s Critics Week marks seven highly-anticipated feature debuts from directors like Amanda Nell (“Tiger Stripes”) and Jason Yu (“Jam”).
The lineup kicks off with opening night film “Ama Gloria,” directed by French filmmaker Marie Amachoukeli, who previously won Cannes’ Camera d’Or for 2014’s “Party Girl” which Amachoukeli co-directed with Claire Burger and Samuel Theis. (Critics Week allows for both first and second films in its lineup.) “Ama Gloria” centers on six-year-old girl Cléo who copes with her nanny Gloria leaving to return to Cape Verde.
The closing night film is Erwan le Duc’s “La fille de son père,” billed as a “bittersweet comedy about paternity and filiation with a poetic and off-beat angle.” Le Duc previously helmed “Perdrix”; Nahuel Perez Biscayart and Céleste Brunnquell star as father and daughter.
- 4/17/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Cannes Critics’ Week, a parallel film festival sidebar selected by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, has unveiled its 2023 selection of 11 features, including seven competition titles and four special screenings.
The section focuses on first and second features from emerging directors. The 62nd edition runs alongside the main Cannes festival May 17-25.
This year’s competition lineup includes two Asian horror movies: the Korean horror film Sleep (Jam) from first-time director, and former Bong Joon Ho assistant, Jason Yu, and Tiger Stripes from Malaysian director Amanda Eu. The former features Parasite star Lee Sun-kyun and Train to Busan‘s Jung Yu-mi as newlyweds whose lives descend into horror triggered by the husband’s strange behavior while asleep. Tiger Stripes, which draws inspiration from Southeast Asian folklore, is a coming-of-age tale about a 12-year-old girl whose body starts to change in alarming and horrifying ways as she hits puberty.
Physical changes...
The section focuses on first and second features from emerging directors. The 62nd edition runs alongside the main Cannes festival May 17-25.
This year’s competition lineup includes two Asian horror movies: the Korean horror film Sleep (Jam) from first-time director, and former Bong Joon Ho assistant, Jason Yu, and Tiger Stripes from Malaysian director Amanda Eu. The former features Parasite star Lee Sun-kyun and Train to Busan‘s Jung Yu-mi as newlyweds whose lives descend into horror triggered by the husband’s strange behavior while asleep. Tiger Stripes, which draws inspiration from Southeast Asian folklore, is a coming-of-age tale about a 12-year-old girl whose body starts to change in alarming and horrifying ways as she hits puberty.
Physical changes...
- 4/17/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sidebar devoted to first and second films runs May 17-25.
Cannes Critics’ Week, the sidebar devoted to first and second films, has unveiled the selection for its 62nd edition running May 17-25.
Scroll down for full list of titles
A selection committee led by Ava Cahen, now in her second year in the position, chose 11 titles from 1,000 films screened and seven were selected for the competition.
All of the films in selection are world premieres. Seven are first films that will vie for the Camera d’Or and six are directed by women, including four of the seven films in competition.
Cannes Critics’ Week, the sidebar devoted to first and second films, has unveiled the selection for its 62nd edition running May 17-25.
Scroll down for full list of titles
A selection committee led by Ava Cahen, now in her second year in the position, chose 11 titles from 1,000 films screened and seven were selected for the competition.
All of the films in selection are world premieres. Seven are first films that will vie for the Camera d’Or and six are directed by women, including four of the seven films in competition.
- 4/17/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Rolling off a successful edition that premiered Charlotte Wells’ celebrated film “Aftersun” with Paul Mescal, Cannes Critics’ Week is back with an international lineup spanning South Korea and Malaysia to France and Jordan, among others.
The Critics’ Week sidebar runs parallel to the Cannes Film Festival, and focuses on first and second films. Under the leadership of artistic director Ava Cahen since last year, the lineup will boast 11 feature films chosen from 1,000 submitted movies.
Out of these 11 movies, seven are feature debuts and six are directed by women. Among them is the opening night film, “Ama Gloria,” directed by French helmer Marie Amachoukeli, who previously won Cannes’ Golden Camera for “Party Girl” which she co-directed with Claire Burger and Samuel Theis.
“Ama Gloria” tells the story of Cléo, a six-year old girl who sees her beloved nanny, Gloria, leave town to return to Cape Verde.
This 62nd edition will wrap...
The Critics’ Week sidebar runs parallel to the Cannes Film Festival, and focuses on first and second films. Under the leadership of artistic director Ava Cahen since last year, the lineup will boast 11 feature films chosen from 1,000 submitted movies.
Out of these 11 movies, seven are feature debuts and six are directed by women. Among them is the opening night film, “Ama Gloria,” directed by French helmer Marie Amachoukeli, who previously won Cannes’ Golden Camera for “Party Girl” which she co-directed with Claire Burger and Samuel Theis.
“Ama Gloria” tells the story of Cléo, a six-year old girl who sees her beloved nanny, Gloria, leave town to return to Cape Verde.
This 62nd edition will wrap...
- 4/17/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
La fille de son père
For his sophomore feature (which received some Fondation Gan coin), Erwan Le Duc moves his narrative around following the displacement of the family nucleus. Production took place in June of last year in the city of Paris and in Portugal on La fille de son père — a project that sees Le Duc reteam with Maud Wyler and lassoed Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart to topline with supports perfs from Céleste Brunnquell, Mercedes Dassy, Alexandre Steiger and Camille Rutherford. In a nutshell this sounds like a drama about small fissures and attempting to heal past wounds in the present.…...
For his sophomore feature (which received some Fondation Gan coin), Erwan Le Duc moves his narrative around following the displacement of the family nucleus. Production took place in June of last year in the city of Paris and in Portugal on La fille de son père — a project that sees Le Duc reteam with Maud Wyler and lassoed Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart to topline with supports perfs from Céleste Brunnquell, Mercedes Dassy, Alexandre Steiger and Camille Rutherford. In a nutshell this sounds like a drama about small fissures and attempting to heal past wounds in the present.…...
- 1/12/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
- 9/1/2022
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
- 8/30/2022
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Producer Ilya Stewart has launched an independent studio based in Europe that will operate on a global scale, working with international talent and focusing on English-language feature films and television series, Variety can exclusively reveal.
Hype Studios is the new venture from Stewart, the formerly Moscow-based producer who in recent years has been a fixture at the Cannes Film Festival, where his collaborations with Russian auteur Kirill Serebrennikov, including “Petrov’s Flu” and “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” have premiered in competition.
Among the co-productions with American and European partners currently on Hype Studios’ slate is Zach Wigon’s “Sanctuary,” starring Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott, which premieres as a Special Presentation next month at the Toronto International Film Festival and was produced with Rumble Films and Mosaic Films, along with Charades. Also on the slate is Pietro Marcello’s French-language “Scarlet,” produced in partnership with CG Cinéma’s Charles Gillibert, which opened this...
Hype Studios is the new venture from Stewart, the formerly Moscow-based producer who in recent years has been a fixture at the Cannes Film Festival, where his collaborations with Russian auteur Kirill Serebrennikov, including “Petrov’s Flu” and “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” have premiered in competition.
Among the co-productions with American and European partners currently on Hype Studios’ slate is Zach Wigon’s “Sanctuary,” starring Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott, which premieres as a Special Presentation next month at the Toronto International Film Festival and was produced with Rumble Films and Mosaic Films, along with Charades. Also on the slate is Pietro Marcello’s French-language “Scarlet,” produced in partnership with CG Cinéma’s Charles Gillibert, which opened this...
- 8/25/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Claudia Sainte-Luce’s “El reino de Dios” (“The Realm of God”) and “Carajita” by Silvina Schnicer and Ulises Porra took home the bulk of the prizes in their respective categories, the Mayahuel for best Mexican film and best Ibero-American film at the 37th Guadalajara Int’l Film Fest (Ficg), which wrapped June 18.
Festival highlights included a conversation, albeit by remote, between festival director Estrella Araiza and Guadalajara native Guillermo del Toro who talked about the making of his upcoming stop-motion animation feature, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” The film, set to bow on Netflix in December, was filmed with 20 animators in more than 60 sets in Canada and Guadalajara, Del Toro revealed.
Sainte-Luce’s coming-of-age drama about a young boy’s struggle with his faith as he’s about to take his first communion, which world premiered at the Berlinale’s Generation Kplus sidebar, also won Ficg’s Mezcal awards for best cinematography,...
Festival highlights included a conversation, albeit by remote, between festival director Estrella Araiza and Guadalajara native Guillermo del Toro who talked about the making of his upcoming stop-motion animation feature, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” The film, set to bow on Netflix in December, was filmed with 20 animators in more than 60 sets in Canada and Guadalajara, Del Toro revealed.
Sainte-Luce’s coming-of-age drama about a young boy’s struggle with his faith as he’s about to take his first communion, which world premiered at the Berlinale’s Generation Kplus sidebar, also won Ficg’s Mezcal awards for best cinematography,...
- 6/20/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Erwan Le Duc will be reuniting with his The Bare Necessity actress Maud Wyler and has set Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart Bpm (Beats per Minute) as the patriarch parenting newbie Céleste Brunnquell in his sophomore film – which began production last week. Also starring Mercedes Dassy, Alexandre Steiger and Camille Rutherford, La fille de son père will eventually move to Portugal after the Paris and Metz. Produced by Domino Films’ Alexis Dulguerian and Stéphanie Bermann. The project was awarded the Prix à la Création de la Fondation Gan in 2021.
Etienne was barely twenty years old when he fell in love with Valérie, and hardly more when their daughter Rosa was born.…...
Etienne was barely twenty years old when he fell in love with Valérie, and hardly more when their daughter Rosa was born.…...
- 6/11/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Exclusive: Ukrainian-Canadian-American filmmaker Vadim Perelman has inked with Artist International Group for management.
Perelman made his directorial debut in 2003 with House Of Sand And Fog, which went on to be nominated for three Oscars including Best Actor Ben Kingsley, Best Supporting Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo and Best Original Score James Horner.
The pic, which also starred Jennifer Connelly, repped Perlman’s first screenplay credit. Drawn to the story, having been shaped by his own immigrant experience, Perelman adapted the screenplay alongside Shawn Otto from Andre Dubus III’s international bestseller of the same name. DreamWorks acquired domestic distribution rights and released the film to great critical acclaim.
Perelman’s second feature film, The Life Before Her Eyes, starred Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood. Also an adaptation, the pic followed a woman whose survivor’s guilt from a Columbine-like event twenty years ago causes her present-day idyllic life to fall apart.
Perelman made his directorial debut in 2003 with House Of Sand And Fog, which went on to be nominated for three Oscars including Best Actor Ben Kingsley, Best Supporting Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo and Best Original Score James Horner.
The pic, which also starred Jennifer Connelly, repped Perlman’s first screenplay credit. Drawn to the story, having been shaped by his own immigrant experience, Perelman adapted the screenplay alongside Shawn Otto from Andre Dubus III’s international bestseller of the same name. DreamWorks acquired domestic distribution rights and released the film to great critical acclaim.
Perelman’s second feature film, The Life Before Her Eyes, starred Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood. Also an adaptation, the pic followed a woman whose survivor’s guilt from a Columbine-like event twenty years ago causes her present-day idyllic life to fall apart.
- 5/13/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
It took seven years before any filmmaker dared touch the Utøya massacre; then in 2018, all of a sudden, we had two too many. It probably didn’t help that the films weren’t very good. 22 July‘s Hollywood simplicity seemed crass, not least for the awkward fact that it was made by Paul Greengrass; Erik Poppe’s Utøya, a visceral account of the atrocity presented in real-time, and from the eyes of a victim, appeared queasily excited by its own design. You didn’t have to be from the surrounding area to feel a bit uneasy.
This November will mark the seven-year anniversary of the attacks in Paris, most infamously at an Eagles of Death Metal concert in the Bataclan theatre, where 90 were killed and many others critically injured. At this year’s Berlinale we are confronted with two films that take those terrors (and the bus attack that happened...
This November will mark the seven-year anniversary of the attacks in Paris, most infamously at an Eagles of Death Metal concert in the Bataclan theatre, where 90 were killed and many others critically injured. At this year’s Berlinale we are confronted with two films that take those terrors (and the bus attack that happened...
- 2/24/2022
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
It’s been nearly seven years since the devastating November 2015 terrorist attacks on Paris that left 137 dead, and while the effects of the tragedy have been indirectly felt in a surge of French films centered on terrorism, security fears and cultural conflict, filmmakers have largely shied away from direct dramatizations of the events and their fallout. Isaki Lacuesta shows no such hesitation in his ambitious, windingly structured “One Year, One Night,” which provides an explicit anatomy of trauma as experienced over the course of a year by a Franco-Spanish couple who survived the Bataclan nightclub massacre — itself reconstructed in claustrophobic, stomach-knotting flashbacks. Fictional but drawn from first-hand accounts, it’s a sprawling, empathetic work that sometimes loses clarity amid its sheer weight of feeling.
Poised to be an international arthouse breakthrough for its Spanish writer-director — who has twice won the top prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival, but remains...
Poised to be an international arthouse breakthrough for its Spanish writer-director — who has twice won the top prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival, but remains...
- 2/14/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Isaki Lacuesta’s drama One Year, One Night, about survivors grappling with trauma following the devastating terrorist attack at Paris’ Bataclan theater on November 13, 2015, world premieres in competition at the Berlin Film Festival today. Check out a clip above as a group of friends discusses messages of support they received in the wake of the tragedy.
Nahuel Pérez (120 Battements Par Minute) and Noémie Merlant (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) star in the film. Pérez is Ramón and Merlant plays Céline, a young couple who attended the concert that fateful night, and while they survived, they are no longer the same. The event leaves a deep scar on both their lives as each tries to cope with the aftermath as best they can. Céline desperately strives to leave it behind her, clinging to her previous life, while Ramón repeatedly revisits the events, trying to remember and understand what happened.
Nahuel Pérez (120 Battements Par Minute) and Noémie Merlant (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) star in the film. Pérez is Ramón and Merlant plays Céline, a young couple who attended the concert that fateful night, and while they survived, they are no longer the same. The event leaves a deep scar on both their lives as each tries to cope with the aftermath as best they can. Céline desperately strives to leave it behind her, clinging to her previous life, while Ramón repeatedly revisits the events, trying to remember and understand what happened.
- 2/14/2022
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Since 2018, Spain’s film and TV industries has gone through a revolution. Accustomed to the success of standout movie auteurs – Almodóvar, Amenabar and Trueba – for two decades or more Spain has blown U.S. shows out of its domestic free-to-air primetime and been one of the world’s most successful exporter of fiction TV formats.
Now, Spain’s place on the periphery of global TV business is history. Through October, four Netflix Spanish shows or movies – “Money Heist”, “The Platform,” (56 million), “Below Zero” (47 million) and “Elite” – were some of the most watched non-English language Netflix titles of all time.
Spain’s Canary Islands boasts one of the highest shoot incentives – 50% of a first €1 million ($1.1 million) spend – anywhere in the world.
Capping that, in March 2021 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the most ambitious film-tv incentive drive in history: the Spain Avs Hub Plan, worth a total €1.6 billion ($1.81 billion) in investment or state engineered financing.
Now, Spain’s place on the periphery of global TV business is history. Through October, four Netflix Spanish shows or movies – “Money Heist”, “The Platform,” (56 million), “Below Zero” (47 million) and “Elite” – were some of the most watched non-English language Netflix titles of all time.
Spain’s Canary Islands boasts one of the highest shoot incentives – 50% of a first €1 million ($1.1 million) spend – anywhere in the world.
Capping that, in March 2021 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the most ambitious film-tv incentive drive in history: the Spain Avs Hub Plan, worth a total €1.6 billion ($1.81 billion) in investment or state engineered financing.
- 2/11/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
The complete lineup for the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place February 10-20, 2022, has been unveiled and it’s a major collection of some of our most-anticipated films of the year. As teased yesterday, Claire Denis’ Fire (which now has the title Avec amour et acharnement (aka Both Sides of the Blade)) will premiere in competition, alongside Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 follow-up Alcarràs, Ulrich Seidl’s Rimini, Rithy Panh’s Everything Will Be Ok, and more.
Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...
Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...
- 1/19/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (February 10-20) revealed its Competition line-up on Wednesday, scroll down for the full list.
As previously announced, the International Competition opens this year with François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant. Joining the Ozon pic today were 17 further features, including new films from Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl, and Rithy Panh.
This marks Denis’ first time in Berlin’s Competition, having been a regular at Cannes over the years, while her last film High Life debuted at Toronto. The director’s new movie Both Sides of the Blade (previously known as Fire) stars Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon.
South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2020 for movie The Woman Who Ran. His latest pic is The Novelist’s Film, which Berlin Artistic Director today said celebrates chance encounters.
The Competition program is 17 world premieres plus one international premiere,...
As previously announced, the International Competition opens this year with François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant. Joining the Ozon pic today were 17 further features, including new films from Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl, and Rithy Panh.
This marks Denis’ first time in Berlin’s Competition, having been a regular at Cannes over the years, while her last film High Life debuted at Toronto. The director’s new movie Both Sides of the Blade (previously known as Fire) stars Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon.
South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2020 for movie The Woman Who Ran. His latest pic is The Novelist’s Film, which Berlin Artistic Director today said celebrates chance encounters.
The Competition program is 17 world premieres plus one international premiere,...
- 1/19/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Films by auteurs Claire Denis, Hong Sangsoo and Rithy Panh are part of the lineup in competition at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival.
Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.
Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.
The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.
The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.
Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.
Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.
The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.
The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.
- 1/19/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Uruguayan filmmaker Manuel Nieto’s social thriller “The Employer and the Employee,” starring Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (“Persian Lessons” and “Bpm” (Beats Per Minute), comes to the San Sebastian Film Festival to close the Horizontes Latinos sidebar on Thursday, Sept. 23. It’s a journey that began at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight where it world premiered after winning development prizes at Toulouse’s Latin Film Festival, Mar del Plata’s LoboLab and San Sebastián’s Wip Latam.
Picked up by Latido Films in the run-up to Cannes in July, “The Employer and the Employee” is Nieto’s third feature after his debut “The Dog Pound,” followed by “The Militant.” If there’s a thru line to find among his films, Nieto sees several: “The leads are masculine, the father figure is always present, they deal with youth in different stages and weights of responsibility and invariably touch on the concepts of legacy, identity,...
Picked up by Latido Films in the run-up to Cannes in July, “The Employer and the Employee” is Nieto’s third feature after his debut “The Dog Pound,” followed by “The Militant.” If there’s a thru line to find among his films, Nieto sees several: “The leads are masculine, the father figure is always present, they deal with youth in different stages and weights of responsibility and invariably touch on the concepts of legacy, identity,...
- 9/23/2021
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Madrid-based Latido Films has sold a slew of major territories on its banner titles, including Cannes Directors’ Fortnight player “The Employer and the Employee,” Berlin winner “The Fam,” village crime drama “The Replacement” and auteur genre movie “Baby.”
Chalking up its first major sale, Uruguayan Manuel Nieto’s “The Employer and the Employee” has closed France with Eurozoom. A rural thriller starring Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (“Bpm (Beats Per Minute)”), Nieto’s third feature world-premieres at Cannes on July 10.
Swiss drama “The Fam,” Fred Baillif’s portrait of the residents and staff of a Geneva teen girl care home, has licensed France with Atelier des Images and sold to Cassette Stories for Benelux and to HBO Eastern Europe. The Generation 14plus winner was bought for the U.K. and Ireland by BFI Distribution in a deal announced earlier at Cannes.
Wild Bunch/Wild Side has picked up “The Replacement,” a village-set...
Chalking up its first major sale, Uruguayan Manuel Nieto’s “The Employer and the Employee” has closed France with Eurozoom. A rural thriller starring Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (“Bpm (Beats Per Minute)”), Nieto’s third feature world-premieres at Cannes on July 10.
Swiss drama “The Fam,” Fred Baillif’s portrait of the residents and staff of a Geneva teen girl care home, has licensed France with Atelier des Images and sold to Cassette Stories for Benelux and to HBO Eastern Europe. The Generation 14plus winner was bought for the U.K. and Ireland by BFI Distribution in a deal announced earlier at Cannes.
Wild Bunch/Wild Side has picked up “The Replacement,” a village-set...
- 7/10/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
All relationships are to some extent transactional, but none more than that between employer and employee. One provides capital, the other labor. This dynamic would be symbiotic in a perfect world since one can’t exist without the other: a boss cannot acquire the means necessary to run a business without workers on the ground; those workers cannot live without a job with which to earn a steady wage. Even so, the disparity between them has grown exponentially throughout the past few decades. Executives reward themselves for no longer having to risk getting callouses on their fingers while laborers have become the casualty of a warped system of occupational supply-and-demand that’s subsequently transformed them into the product being bought and sold for perpetually cheaper prices.
The result is a fabricated veil of empathy to acquire that which each side desires. Bosses feign interest in their employees’ lives and promise...
The result is a fabricated veil of empathy to acquire that which each side desires. Bosses feign interest in their employees’ lives and promise...
- 7/9/2021
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Last month, Catalan auteur Agustí Villaronga swept pretty much every prize out at Spain’s Malaga Film Festival with “The Belly of the Sea.”
The plaudits prized Villaronga’s large artistic ambition in re-creating arguably the most ghastly shipwreck in history — the 1816 sinking of French frigate Meduse off the coast of modern Mauritania — in a film shot in an abandoned wine cellar. It mixes historical re-creation, contemporary photo and doc footage and sea sculptures of the barnacled bodies of the drowned.
Next up for Villaronga, however, is what he describes as a tender comedy, “3,000 Obstacles,” about a former elite athlete now suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Director of resonant features that are elliptical (“Pau and His Brother”) or pointedly meandering (“August Days”), Marc Recha is now developing a quirky comedy thriller about a blind man helping a friend to find some religious relics hidden by two Slovenian monks.
Ibon Cormenzana...
The plaudits prized Villaronga’s large artistic ambition in re-creating arguably the most ghastly shipwreck in history — the 1816 sinking of French frigate Meduse off the coast of modern Mauritania — in a film shot in an abandoned wine cellar. It mixes historical re-creation, contemporary photo and doc footage and sea sculptures of the barnacled bodies of the drowned.
Next up for Villaronga, however, is what he describes as a tender comedy, “3,000 Obstacles,” about a former elite athlete now suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Director of resonant features that are elliptical (“Pau and His Brother”) or pointedly meandering (“August Days”), Marc Recha is now developing a quirky comedy thriller about a blind man helping a friend to find some religious relics hidden by two Slovenian monks.
Ibon Cormenzana...
- 7/7/2021
- by Emilio Mayorga and John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Led by “Persian Lessons” and “Bpm (Beats Per Minute)” star Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Manuel Nieto’s “The Employer and Employee” has been snapped up for world sales by Latido Films.
The Madrid-based sales agent has also dropped a trailer for the film. The deal was made in the run-up to July’s Cannes Festival where the feature, Nieto’s third, will world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight.
One of the biggest new Latin American films at Cannes, “The Employer and the Employee” marks a step-up in scale for Uruguayan writer-director Nieto and enhances his reputation as one of the region’s major directors on the rise.
Also written by Nieto, “The Employer and The Employee” (“El Empleado y El Patrón”) charts the two parallel lives of an employer, Rodrigo (Pérez Biscayart), and an employee, teen Carlos (Cristian Borges), who is the son of a grizzled land laborer scratching out a living...
The Madrid-based sales agent has also dropped a trailer for the film. The deal was made in the run-up to July’s Cannes Festival where the feature, Nieto’s third, will world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight.
One of the biggest new Latin American films at Cannes, “The Employer and the Employee” marks a step-up in scale for Uruguayan writer-director Nieto and enhances his reputation as one of the region’s major directors on the rise.
Also written by Nieto, “The Employer and The Employee” (“El Empleado y El Patrón”) charts the two parallel lives of an employer, Rodrigo (Pérez Biscayart), and an employee, teen Carlos (Cristian Borges), who is the son of a grizzled land laborer scratching out a living...
- 6/21/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Lars Eidinger is one of Germany’s greatest stars, and turns in yet another powerful performance, this time in World War Two drama Persian Lessons, alongside the equally brilliant Nahuel Pérez Biscayart. To mark the film’s release, we had the pleasure of speaking to the German on Zoom, as we delved into this brilliant piece of cinema, based on a true story.
Eidinger talks in depth about why he took on this role, as he admits he often turns his nose up at WW2 dramas, wanting the right part to fall on his lap. He also talks about getting into the head of a Nazi, while speaking candidly about Germany’s troubled history. He speaks about the urgency in confronting his nation’s past, and how he believes that the right-wing resurgence in politics of late does bear similarities to Nazism.
Watch the full, and fascinating interview with Lars...
Eidinger talks in depth about why he took on this role, as he admits he often turns his nose up at WW2 dramas, wanting the right part to fall on his lap. He also talks about getting into the head of a Nazi, while speaking candidly about Germany’s troubled history. He speaks about the urgency in confronting his nation’s past, and how he believes that the right-wing resurgence in politics of late does bear similarities to Nazism.
Watch the full, and fascinating interview with Lars...
- 2/2/2021
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Claiming to be inspired by true events, the story of a young Jewish man who stays alive by pretending to be half-Iranian strains credibility
Here’s a superbly acted, though worryingly polite, Holocaust survival drama by the Ukrainian film-maker Vadim Perelman. It’s the story of a Jewish man from Belgium called Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), who stays alive in a transit camp by pretending to be half-Iranian and teaching Farsi to a savage-tempered SS officer, Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger). In truth, Gilles doesn’t know a word of Farsi; the language he makes up is gibberish, and he lives in constant terror of slipping up, forgetting one of the words he’s invented – almost 600 in six months.
The film opens with the line “inspired by true events”, but given the plausibility issues here surely it is safe to prefix that claim with “very loosely”. The setting is France, 1942; Gilles,...
Here’s a superbly acted, though worryingly polite, Holocaust survival drama by the Ukrainian film-maker Vadim Perelman. It’s the story of a Jewish man from Belgium called Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), who stays alive in a transit camp by pretending to be half-Iranian and teaching Farsi to a savage-tempered SS officer, Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger). In truth, Gilles doesn’t know a word of Farsi; the language he makes up is gibberish, and he lives in constant terror of slipping up, forgetting one of the words he’s invented – almost 600 in six months.
The film opens with the line “inspired by true events”, but given the plausibility issues here surely it is safe to prefix that claim with “very loosely”. The setting is France, 1942; Gilles,...
- 1/19/2021
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
While the Academy has not yet released the full official list, these are the films Variety has learned have been submitted by various countries in the international film race. The shortlist will be announced Feb. 9 and the nominations on March 15. The Academy Awards ceremony takes place on April 25.
Albania Open Door
Director: Florenc Papas
Key Cast: Luli Bitri, Jonida Vokshi, Gulielm Radoja
Logline: Pregnant woman and her sister try to find a man to pretend to be the mom-to-be’s husband before visiting their traditional father.
Prodco: Bunker Film Plus
Algeria Héliopolis
Director: Djaâfar Gacem
Key cast: Souhila Mallem, Mehdi
Ramdani, Cesar Duminil
Logline: Algerians fight for independence punctuated by the 1945 massacre in the ancient city of Héliopolis.
Prodco: Centre Algérien de Développement du Cinéma
Argentina The Sleepwalkers
Director: Paula Hernández
Key Cast: Érica Rivas, Ornella D’elía, Marilu Marini, Daniel Hendler
Logline: A family drama encompasses the sexual awakening...
Albania Open Door
Director: Florenc Papas
Key Cast: Luli Bitri, Jonida Vokshi, Gulielm Radoja
Logline: Pregnant woman and her sister try to find a man to pretend to be the mom-to-be’s husband before visiting their traditional father.
Prodco: Bunker Film Plus
Algeria Héliopolis
Director: Djaâfar Gacem
Key cast: Souhila Mallem, Mehdi
Ramdani, Cesar Duminil
Logline: Algerians fight for independence punctuated by the 1945 massacre in the ancient city of Héliopolis.
Prodco: Centre Algérien de Développement du Cinéma
Argentina The Sleepwalkers
Director: Paula Hernández
Key Cast: Érica Rivas, Ornella D’elía, Marilu Marini, Daniel Hendler
Logline: A family drama encompasses the sexual awakening...
- 12/23/2020
- by Shalini Dore
- Variety Film + TV
Co-production funds to support the directorial debuts of the two actresses.
The feature directorial debuts of actresses Charlotte Le Bon and Veerle Baetens and a drama about the Bataclan terrorist attack have secured a share of €4.1m ($5m) from European cultural support fund Eurimages.
The Melting is being directed and co-written by Baetens, who is best known internationally for her performance in Felix van Groeningen’s Oscar-nominated The Broken Circle Breakdown.
The Belgium-Netherlands co-production has received €310,000 in Eurimages support, adding to a financial boost from Screen Flanders last week and the ARTEKino International Prize at the Berlinale Co-Production Market earlier this year.
The feature directorial debuts of actresses Charlotte Le Bon and Veerle Baetens and a drama about the Bataclan terrorist attack have secured a share of €4.1m ($5m) from European cultural support fund Eurimages.
The Melting is being directed and co-written by Baetens, who is best known internationally for her performance in Felix van Groeningen’s Oscar-nominated The Broken Circle Breakdown.
The Belgium-Netherlands co-production has received €310,000 in Eurimages support, adding to a financial boost from Screen Flanders last week and the ARTEKino International Prize at the Berlinale Co-Production Market earlier this year.
- 12/15/2020
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
In today’s Global Bulletin, Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing shares the trailer for Takeshi Fukunaga’s “Ainu Mosir,” Fremantle and Viacom deal on “Tough as Nails,” Eccho Rights and Born Wild team on a new output deal, King of Sunshine Productions announces two holiday musical specials for Channel 5, StudioCanal gets its second lead for “Un año, una noche,” and Amazon Prime Video scoops LatAm streaming rights for “Dignity.”
Distribution
Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing is set to launch Takeshi Fukunaga’s sophomore feature “Ainu Mosir,” a Tribeca Film Festival premiere, which garnered a special jury mention, on Nov. 17 on Netflix and in select theaters.
A coming-of-age story, “Ainu Mosir” follows 14-year-old Kanto through his world of centuries-old traditions as he questions long-standing beliefs after the loss of a parent. Set in Hokkaido, Japan among the indigenous Ainu people, the story and characters were developed with input from the community,...
Distribution
Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing is set to launch Takeshi Fukunaga’s sophomore feature “Ainu Mosir,” a Tribeca Film Festival premiere, which garnered a special jury mention, on Nov. 17 on Netflix and in select theaters.
A coming-of-age story, “Ainu Mosir” follows 14-year-old Kanto through his world of centuries-old traditions as he questions long-standing beliefs after the loss of a parent. Set in Hokkaido, Japan among the indigenous Ainu people, the story and characters were developed with input from the community,...
- 11/11/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
European production-distribution-sales powerhouse Studiocanal is on board the Paris Bataclan attack feature “Un año, una noche,” with Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, breakout star of “Bpm (Beats Per Minute),” set to topline.
A Spanish-French co-production, “Un año, una noche” is produced by Bambú Producciones, creator of hit Spanish drama series such as “Gran Hotel,” “Velvet” and “Cable Girls”; Mister Fields and Friends, Bambu’s movie production label; and La Termita, the shingle run by the film’s director, Isaki Lacuesta. Lacuesta is best-known for left-of-field features such as San Sebastian Golden Shell winners “The Double Steps” and “Between Two Waters.”
Jérôme Vidal and Julien Naveau’s Paris-based Noodles Production produces out of France in collaboration with Studiocanal, which will handle international sales and distribution.
Inspired in large part by the autobiographical book written by Ramon González, a survivor of the attack, “Un año, una noche” depicts the Bataclan terrorist attack but also...
A Spanish-French co-production, “Un año, una noche” is produced by Bambú Producciones, creator of hit Spanish drama series such as “Gran Hotel,” “Velvet” and “Cable Girls”; Mister Fields and Friends, Bambu’s movie production label; and La Termita, the shingle run by the film’s director, Isaki Lacuesta. Lacuesta is best-known for left-of-field features such as San Sebastian Golden Shell winners “The Double Steps” and “Between Two Waters.”
Jérôme Vidal and Julien Naveau’s Paris-based Noodles Production produces out of France in collaboration with Studiocanal, which will handle international sales and distribution.
Inspired in large part by the autobiographical book written by Ramon González, a survivor of the attack, “Un año, una noche” depicts the Bataclan terrorist attack but also...
- 11/6/2020
- by John Hopewell and Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Like many films at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, Natalia Meta’s The Intruder enjoys toying with what is real and what is supernatural in this Argentine psychological thriller. Reality becomes the dream and vice versa with apparent ease. Even lead character, Buenos Aires choir singer and a voice artist Ines (Erica Rivas from Wild Tales) becomes steadily confused and distressed by her experience of ‘something’ happening inside of her. This ‘something’ is the narrative’s mystery that we all hope to uncover in the end.
However, as curious as Ines’ investigation gets, the overplay of ambiguity favoured in filmmaker Meta’s second feature masks any truly satisfying resolutions – as fun as the film’s darkly playful and off-kilter nature is, even ending with a complete curve ball of something akin to Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin.
Whether alien invasion is the intended explanation, Meta’s muted...
However, as curious as Ines’ investigation gets, the overplay of ambiguity favoured in filmmaker Meta’s second feature masks any truly satisfying resolutions – as fun as the film’s darkly playful and off-kilter nature is, even ending with a complete curve ball of something akin to Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin.
Whether alien invasion is the intended explanation, Meta’s muted...
- 10/28/2020
- by Lisa Giles-Keddie
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
“You are surrounded by intruders,” a strange, inexplicably knowing old woman tells a haunted voice actor and singer named Inés. “You have to get in the dream and kick them out before they take hold of you.” On paper, those lines from Natalia Meta’s The Intruder promise wicked, wild supernatural warfare. The reality is something far more disappointing––and sadly, rather dull. Still, this Argentina-set thriller has offbeat humor to spare, and some legitimately clever moments. It never coalesces into anything resonant, and lacks even a single scare. Yet there are far less interesting ways to spend 95 minutes.
One rather endearing quality is The Intruder’s obvious winks at many cinematic influences. Certain moments call to mind psychological horror entries like Berberian Sound Studio and filmmakers like Dario Argento. But the figure whose presence looms largest over The Intruder is unquestionably Brian De Palma. The influence of the bearded,...
One rather endearing quality is The Intruder’s obvious winks at many cinematic influences. Certain moments call to mind psychological horror entries like Berberian Sound Studio and filmmakers like Dario Argento. But the figure whose presence looms largest over The Intruder is unquestionably Brian De Palma. The influence of the bearded,...
- 10/20/2020
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
"You would die with that nameless horde?" "They're only nameless, because you don't know their names." Memento Films has released an official trailer for Persian Lessons (feat. English subtitles), a German-Russian WWII thriller from filmmaker Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog). This premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to Head of Camp Koch. Through an ingenious trick, he manages to survive by inventing words of "Farsi" every day and teaching them to Koch. A harrowing story of survival during the Holocaust. The cast features Lars Eidinger as Koch, Jonas Nay, David Schütter, Alexander Beyer, Andreas Hofer,...
- 10/13/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
In today’s Global Bulletin, ITV’s “I’m a Celebrity…” relocates, San Sebastián announced WIPs, Mikkelsen is honored, My Entertainment hires, Banijay finishes German setup and Formula 1 gets an anniversary docuseries.
Relocation
ITV tentpole reality program “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!” will trade the jungles of down under for a rundown castle in the U.K. after Covid-19 travel restrictions have made producing the show in its traditional New South Wales home too challenging a prospect.
First launched in 2002, the series has become one of the most important in ITV’s catalog and this February received a three-season renewal. It boasts an average audience of more than 9 million viewers per season and dominates the social media landscape during and after broadcasts. It has spawned several local formats in other territories and an ITV2 spin-off, “I’m a Celebrity: Extra Camp,” which was dropped by the...
Relocation
ITV tentpole reality program “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!” will trade the jungles of down under for a rundown castle in the U.K. after Covid-19 travel restrictions have made producing the show in its traditional New South Wales home too challenging a prospect.
First launched in 2002, the series has become one of the most important in ITV’s catalog and this February received a three-season renewal. It boasts an average audience of more than 9 million viewers per season and dominates the social media landscape during and after broadcasts. It has spawned several local formats in other territories and an ITV2 spin-off, “I’m a Celebrity: Extra Camp,” which was dropped by the...
- 8/7/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Danish writer Karen Blixen, whose memoir “Out of Africa” and short story “Babette’s Feast” were both turned into Academy Award-winning films, is now the subject of another big-screen makeover with an adaptation of her short story “The Immortal Story” set to be penned by Argentina’s Daniel Rosenfeld and Lucía Puenzo.
Argentine-French actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (“Bpm (Beats per Minute)”) and Leonardo Sbaraglia have signed letters of intent to head up the cast, along with an international actor and actress, which have yet to be confirmed, Rosenfeld told Variety.
Director-producer of Idfa player “Piazzola, the Years of the Shark,” which won best documentary at Argentina’s 2018 Academy Awards, Rosenfeld has purchased rights to the story, which was adapted by Orson Welles in 1968.
Rosenfeld is currently writing the screenplay adaptation with Puenzo, one of Latin America’s most courted film directors and showrunner on Amazon’s “La Jauría,” produced by Fabula and Fremantle.
Argentine-French actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (“Bpm (Beats per Minute)”) and Leonardo Sbaraglia have signed letters of intent to head up the cast, along with an international actor and actress, which have yet to be confirmed, Rosenfeld told Variety.
Director-producer of Idfa player “Piazzola, the Years of the Shark,” which won best documentary at Argentina’s 2018 Academy Awards, Rosenfeld has purchased rights to the story, which was adapted by Orson Welles in 1968.
Rosenfeld is currently writing the screenplay adaptation with Puenzo, one of Latin America’s most courted film directors and showrunner on Amazon’s “La Jauría,” produced by Fabula and Fremantle.
- 7/6/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Charles C. Cohen's Cohen Media Group has acquired North American rights to Persian Lessons, from House of Sand and Fog director Vadim Perelman, which had its world premiere earlier this week at the Berlinale.
The acquisition was negotiated by John Kochman, Cmg executive vice president, and Mathieu Delaunay, head of sales for Paris-based Memento Film International. Cmg acquired all rights for the U.S. and Canada and plans to release the film in late 2020.
The darkly comic drama, inspired by a true story of the Holocaust, sees Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (If You Saw His Heart) play a Belgian Jew ...
The acquisition was negotiated by John Kochman, Cmg executive vice president, and Mathieu Delaunay, head of sales for Paris-based Memento Film International. Cmg acquired all rights for the U.S. and Canada and plans to release the film in late 2020.
The darkly comic drama, inspired by a true story of the Holocaust, sees Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (If You Saw His Heart) play a Belgian Jew ...
- 2/27/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Charles C. Cohen's Cohen Media Group has acquired North American rights to Persian Lessons, from House of Sand and Fog director Vadim Perelman, which had its world premiere earlier this week at the Berlinale.
The acquisition was negotiated by John Kochman, Cmg executive vice president, and Mathieu Delaunay, head of sales for Paris-based Memento Film International. Cmg acquired all rights for the U.S. and Canada and plans to release the film in late 2020.
The darkly comic drama, inspired by a true story of the Holocaust, sees Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (If You Saw His Heart) play a Belgian Jew ...
The acquisition was negotiated by John Kochman, Cmg executive vice president, and Mathieu Delaunay, head of sales for Paris-based Memento Film International. Cmg acquired all rights for the U.S. and Canada and plans to release the film in late 2020.
The darkly comic drama, inspired by a true story of the Holocaust, sees Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (If You Saw His Heart) play a Belgian Jew ...
- 2/27/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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