For the 20th edition 33 films projects from 26 countries will take part.
New features from Palestinian filmmaker Muayad Alayan and German director Leonie Krippendorff are among those to be presented at the 20th Berliane Co-production Market (February 18 to 22), the first in-person edition since 2020.
The market will provide the opportunity for 33 projects from 26 countries to secure financing and get fired up as international co-productions in the next few years, with sales agents, broadcasters, funding bodies, streaming platforms, film distributors and other financing partners in attendance.
For the official project selection, 17 fiction feature projects with budgets between €600,000 and €5m and chosen from among 302 submissions will take part.
New features from Palestinian filmmaker Muayad Alayan and German director Leonie Krippendorff are among those to be presented at the 20th Berliane Co-production Market (February 18 to 22), the first in-person edition since 2020.
The market will provide the opportunity for 33 projects from 26 countries to secure financing and get fired up as international co-productions in the next few years, with sales agents, broadcasters, funding bodies, streaming platforms, film distributors and other financing partners in attendance.
For the official project selection, 17 fiction feature projects with budgets between €600,000 and €5m and chosen from among 302 submissions will take part.
- 1/9/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
The Berlin Film Festival has revealed a raft of titles across strands and also 33 film projects vying for coin at the coproduction market.
Selections for the topical Perspektive Deutsches Kino strand from emerging German talent include “Seven Winters in Tehran” by Steffi Niederzoll, “Elaha” by Milena Aboyan, “Ararat” by Engin Kundag, “The Kidnapping of the Bride” by Sophia Mocorrea, Fabian Stumm’s “Bones and Names,” “Long Long Kiss” by Lukas Röder, Tanja Egen’s “On Mothers and Daughters,” “Ash Wednesday,” by João Pedro Prado and Bárbara Santos, “Nuclear Nomads” by Kilian Armando Friedrich and Tizian Stromp Zargari and “Lonely Oaks” by Fabiana Fragale, Kilian Kuhlendahl and Jens Mühlhoff.
All the selected films in the strand will compete for the Heiner Carow Prize and the Compass-Perspektive-Award, both of which are endowed with €5,000.
A 4K restoration of David Cronenberg’s “Naked Lunch” will open the Berlinale Classics section, which also includes Oliver Schmitz’ “Mapantsula,...
Selections for the topical Perspektive Deutsches Kino strand from emerging German talent include “Seven Winters in Tehran” by Steffi Niederzoll, “Elaha” by Milena Aboyan, “Ararat” by Engin Kundag, “The Kidnapping of the Bride” by Sophia Mocorrea, Fabian Stumm’s “Bones and Names,” “Long Long Kiss” by Lukas Röder, Tanja Egen’s “On Mothers and Daughters,” “Ash Wednesday,” by João Pedro Prado and Bárbara Santos, “Nuclear Nomads” by Kilian Armando Friedrich and Tizian Stromp Zargari and “Lonely Oaks” by Fabiana Fragale, Kilian Kuhlendahl and Jens Mühlhoff.
All the selected films in the strand will compete for the Heiner Carow Prize and the Compass-Perspektive-Award, both of which are endowed with €5,000.
A 4K restoration of David Cronenberg’s “Naked Lunch” will open the Berlinale Classics section, which also includes Oliver Schmitz’ “Mapantsula,...
- 1/9/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The Berlin Film Festival today unveiled the titles selected for its retrospective section chosen by a collection of international directors and actors, including Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Nadine Labaki, and Tilda Swinton.
This year the theme of the retrospective sidebar is “Coming of Age at the Movies,” and each invited artist was tasked with submitting their personal favorite film that either deals with “being young and growing up” or had a “decisive role in the evolution or development” of their own artistic practice. The retrospective section will also exclusively screen films that have been newly restored.
The full list of invited artists includes Maren Ade, Pedro Almodóvar, Wes Anderson, Juliette Binoche, Lav Diaz, Alice Diop, Ava DuVernay, Nora Fingscheidt, Luca Guadagnino, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, Ethan Hawke, Karoline Herfurth, Niki Karimi, Nadine Labaki, Nadav Lapid, Sergei Loznitsa, Mohammad Rasoulof, Céline Sciamma, Martin Scorsese, Aparna Sen, M. Night Shyamalan, Carla Simón, Abderrahmane Sissako,...
This year the theme of the retrospective sidebar is “Coming of Age at the Movies,” and each invited artist was tasked with submitting their personal favorite film that either deals with “being young and growing up” or had a “decisive role in the evolution or development” of their own artistic practice. The retrospective section will also exclusively screen films that have been newly restored.
The full list of invited artists includes Maren Ade, Pedro Almodóvar, Wes Anderson, Juliette Binoche, Lav Diaz, Alice Diop, Ava DuVernay, Nora Fingscheidt, Luca Guadagnino, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, Ethan Hawke, Karoline Herfurth, Niki Karimi, Nadine Labaki, Nadav Lapid, Sergei Loznitsa, Mohammad Rasoulof, Céline Sciamma, Martin Scorsese, Aparna Sen, M. Night Shyamalan, Carla Simón, Abderrahmane Sissako,...
- 1/9/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Buenos Aires-based Meikincine Entertainment has acquired international sales rights to Sabrina Campos’ first feature, Argentine drama “Ven a mi casa esta Navidad” (“Come to My Place This Christmas”).
In post, the film is produced by Juan Pablo Miller at Tarea Fina, the Buenos Aires outfit whose hallmark of exacting, carefully crafted movies which break out to big festival prizes and even global art house distribution is well known.
“Come to My Place This Christmas” toplines Argentine actors Leonora Balcarce, whose credits take in Lucrecia Martel’s “La Ciénaga,” Manuel Callau (“Gasoleros”) and Marita Ballesteros (Netflix original “La Corazonada”).
The film turns on Inés, a single woman who has no children, meeting her brother’s in-laws on Christmas Eve. As the evening progresses, Inés feels the judging gaze of the other guests for being single in her forties, which confronts her with her life choices and her place as a woman.
In post, the film is produced by Juan Pablo Miller at Tarea Fina, the Buenos Aires outfit whose hallmark of exacting, carefully crafted movies which break out to big festival prizes and even global art house distribution is well known.
“Come to My Place This Christmas” toplines Argentine actors Leonora Balcarce, whose credits take in Lucrecia Martel’s “La Ciénaga,” Manuel Callau (“Gasoleros”) and Marita Ballesteros (Netflix original “La Corazonada”).
The film turns on Inés, a single woman who has no children, meeting her brother’s in-laws on Christmas Eve. As the evening progresses, Inés feels the judging gaze of the other guests for being single in her forties, which confronts her with her life choices and her place as a woman.
- 11/25/2022
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Buenos Aires-based sales agency Meikincine has acquired the international rights to “Sublime,” the first feature film from Argentine director Mariano Biasin,
A coming-of-age drama, the title screened at Buenos Aires’ Cinemark Puerto Madero cinema to sales agents, fest heads and buyers on Tuesday. It did so as part of Ventana Sur’s Copia Final pix-in-post section, hitting the market as one of its buzz titles, rated as one of the strand’s productions with most commercial potential.
Struck between producer Juan Pablo Miller at Tarea Films and Meikincine’s Lucia and Julia Meik, the deal reps one of the first known sales pacts stick on-site at this year’s Ventana Sur, the biggest film-tv market in Latin America.
“Sublime” follows Manuel, 16, as he struggles with desire, tangled relationships and a coalescing identity in a coastal Argentinian town. Anchored by a soundtrack played out on screen by Manuel’s band, the...
A coming-of-age drama, the title screened at Buenos Aires’ Cinemark Puerto Madero cinema to sales agents, fest heads and buyers on Tuesday. It did so as part of Ventana Sur’s Copia Final pix-in-post section, hitting the market as one of its buzz titles, rated as one of the strand’s productions with most commercial potential.
Struck between producer Juan Pablo Miller at Tarea Films and Meikincine’s Lucia and Julia Meik, the deal reps one of the first known sales pacts stick on-site at this year’s Ventana Sur, the biggest film-tv market in Latin America.
“Sublime” follows Manuel, 16, as he struggles with desire, tangled relationships and a coalescing identity in a coastal Argentinian town. Anchored by a soundtrack played out on screen by Manuel’s band, the...
- 12/1/2021
- by JD Linville and John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
María Elena Wood, producer of Turner’s “Mary & Mike,” Joyn’s “Dignity” and now “News of a Kidnapping” for Amazon Studios, is re-launching her own production house, María Wood Producciones.
Shaping up already as a key Latin American production partner for top high-end fiction producers in Europe and the U.S., Maria Wood Producciones will focus, as in past series produced by Wood, on premium scripted drama of substance, with a social or political underbelly and frequent recourse to creative film talent.
“It’s what we’ve always done and know how to do,” Wood told Variety in the run-up to Mipcom. In contrast to the past, however, she said that “rather than talk about villains, despicable people,” Maria Wood Producciones will “cherry pick more luminous, happier content which talks about how we are today.”
First up on Maria Wood Producciones’ slate is “Mujeres Grandes” (Big Women), an original half-hour...
Shaping up already as a key Latin American production partner for top high-end fiction producers in Europe and the U.S., Maria Wood Producciones will focus, as in past series produced by Wood, on premium scripted drama of substance, with a social or political underbelly and frequent recourse to creative film talent.
“It’s what we’ve always done and know how to do,” Wood told Variety in the run-up to Mipcom. In contrast to the past, however, she said that “rather than talk about villains, despicable people,” Maria Wood Producciones will “cherry pick more luminous, happier content which talks about how we are today.”
First up on Maria Wood Producciones’ slate is “Mujeres Grandes” (Big Women), an original half-hour...
- 10/12/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
‘American Animals’, ‘The Miseducation Of Cameron Post’ also opened.
Rank Film / Distributor Three-day gross (Sept 6-9) Running gross Week 1 The Nun (Warner Bros) £3.4m £4.1m 1 2 Christopher Robin (Disney) £880,000 £12.4m 7 3 BlacKkKlansman (Universal) £788,154 £4.5m 3 4 Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (Universal) £724,357 £63.2m 8 5. Incredibles 2 (Disney) £610,000 £54.4m 8
Source: Screen International
Warner Bros
Warner Bros’ Us horror title The Nun took the UK box office crown from Disney’s Christopher Robin with a three-day gross of £3.4m from 547 sites for a site average of £6,259. The Nun grossed £4.0m including previews.
The Nun is a spin-off from the successful The Conjuring franchise and follows a...
Rank Film / Distributor Three-day gross (Sept 6-9) Running gross Week 1 The Nun (Warner Bros) £3.4m £4.1m 1 2 Christopher Robin (Disney) £880,000 £12.4m 7 3 BlacKkKlansman (Universal) £788,154 £4.5m 3 4 Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (Universal) £724,357 £63.2m 8 5. Incredibles 2 (Disney) £610,000 £54.4m 8
Source: Screen International
Warner Bros
Warner Bros’ Us horror title The Nun took the UK box office crown from Disney’s Christopher Robin with a three-day gross of £3.4m from 547 sites for a site average of £6,259. The Nun grossed £4.0m including previews.
The Nun is a spin-off from the successful The Conjuring franchise and follows a...
- 9/10/2018
- by Louise Tutt
- ScreenDaily
Marc Turtletaub with his Puzzle star Kelly Macdonald at Sony Pictures Classics Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
First-time director and long-time producer Marc Turtletaub, with a screenplay co-written by Oren Moverman and Polly Mann, based on Natalia Smirnoff's film Rompecabezas, sets up his protagonist's life with an elegant and surprising opening sequence that makes us understand in a flash the dynamics between Agnes (Kelly Macdonald) and her nearest and dearest and propels us into the personal riddles to be explored. So clearly the focus of the story, Agnes resembles even earlier movie heroines whose names became titles of the films - Kitty Foyle or Mildred Pierce may come to mind.
Marc Turtletaub on working with Kelly Macdonald, David Denman and Irrfan Khan: "These are some of our great actors." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Although Puzzle takes place in the present, a sense of the past prevails. The houses, work of production designer.
First-time director and long-time producer Marc Turtletaub, with a screenplay co-written by Oren Moverman and Polly Mann, based on Natalia Smirnoff's film Rompecabezas, sets up his protagonist's life with an elegant and surprising opening sequence that makes us understand in a flash the dynamics between Agnes (Kelly Macdonald) and her nearest and dearest and propels us into the personal riddles to be explored. So clearly the focus of the story, Agnes resembles even earlier movie heroines whose names became titles of the films - Kitty Foyle or Mildred Pierce may come to mind.
Marc Turtletaub on working with Kelly Macdonald, David Denman and Irrfan Khan: "These are some of our great actors." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Although Puzzle takes place in the present, a sense of the past prevails. The houses, work of production designer.
- 8/29/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
(l-r) Kelly Macdonald and Irrfan Khan star in Puzzle. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
Competitive jigsaw puzzle solving does not sound exciting but the surprisingly engrossing Puzzle is more about a woman discovering herself than completing a puzzle. The real puzzle she is solving is who she is.
Puzzle opens with a woman in an old fashioned dress preparing her home for a birthday party. After we see her waiting on guests, cleaning up after them and bringing out the cake she baked, we discover it is her birthday. Her dress and the decor of the house suggest it is the 1930s or ’40s, so we are again surprised when, after the guests are gone and she is opening gifts, one of them is a smart phone – revealing we are in the present. She doesn’t seem too pleased with the phone but is more interested in the next gift – a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.
Competitive jigsaw puzzle solving does not sound exciting but the surprisingly engrossing Puzzle is more about a woman discovering herself than completing a puzzle. The real puzzle she is solving is who she is.
Puzzle opens with a woman in an old fashioned dress preparing her home for a birthday party. After we see her waiting on guests, cleaning up after them and bringing out the cake she baked, we discover it is her birthday. Her dress and the decor of the house suggest it is the 1930s or ’40s, so we are again surprised when, after the guests are gone and she is opening gifts, one of them is a smart phone – revealing we are in the present. She doesn’t seem too pleased with the phone but is more interested in the next gift – a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.
- 8/17/2018
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Kelly Macdonald on working with Puzzle director Marc Turtletaub and Irrfan Khan, David Denman, Bubba Weiler, Austin Abrams, and Liv Hewson: "It's very much on the day, on set, I believe that's when it really begins for me." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second half of my conversation with Kelly Macdonald at the Langham Hotel in New York we go from Natalia Smirnoff's Rompecabezas to Anna Karenina, Robinson Crusoe, and Philippa Lowthorpe's Swallows And Amazons based on the book by Arthur Ransome. Kelly's feelings about jigsaw puzzles are revealed: "I love them"; and she talks about her upcoming projects which include working again with The Child In Time director Julian Farino on a BBC and Netflix mini-series Giri/Haji, created by Joe Barton, and a Sherlock Holmes comedy directed by Etan Cohen, starring Will Ferrell and John C Reilly as Holmes and Watson with Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Laurie,...
In the second half of my conversation with Kelly Macdonald at the Langham Hotel in New York we go from Natalia Smirnoff's Rompecabezas to Anna Karenina, Robinson Crusoe, and Philippa Lowthorpe's Swallows And Amazons based on the book by Arthur Ransome. Kelly's feelings about jigsaw puzzles are revealed: "I love them"; and she talks about her upcoming projects which include working again with The Child In Time director Julian Farino on a BBC and Netflix mini-series Giri/Haji, created by Joe Barton, and a Sherlock Holmes comedy directed by Etan Cohen, starring Will Ferrell and John C Reilly as Holmes and Watson with Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Laurie,...
- 8/7/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
A wife and mother in her 40s is at the center of Sony Pictures Classics’ Sundance fest acquisition Puzzle starring Kelly Macdonald and making its theatrical bow this weekend in New York and Los Angeles. Directed by Marc Turtletaub, the feature, which also stars Irrfan Khan, is based on an Argentine film from 2009. Greenwich Entertainment is taking doc Scotty And the Secret History of Hollywood to select locations this weekend. Based on a best-selling memoir, the film spotlights Scotty Bowers who provided for the sexual needs of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars during its Golden Age. And Music Box Films is going out with its Toronto ’17 fest feature The Captain, based on a true story about a German army deserter who finds a captain’s uniform in the waning days of World War II. The film will have an exclusive New York run this weekend before heading to other cities.
- 7/26/2018
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline Film + TV
For some people, a hobby is a way to pass the time. For others, it’s the only way. You can see that divide in many movies, where a character’s personal preoccupations are either a charming quirk, an obvious metaphor, or — in the small but enjoyable hobbyist subgenre — secretly the most important part of their lives.
Marc Turteltaub’s “Puzzle” is a quiet, zen-like story of a stifled housewife named Agnes, played by Kelly MacDonald. She exerts all of her energy taking care of her husband Louie and their two sons. Agnes has got their routine down to such a science that she even knows when Louie’s alarm is about to go off, without checking the clock first. She decorates and caters her own birthday party and spends the whole night working so they can have a good time. It’s not an exciting life.
So it would seem that a jigsaw puzzle,...
Marc Turteltaub’s “Puzzle” is a quiet, zen-like story of a stifled housewife named Agnes, played by Kelly MacDonald. She exerts all of her energy taking care of her husband Louie and their two sons. Agnes has got their routine down to such a science that she even knows when Louie’s alarm is about to go off, without checking the clock first. She decorates and caters her own birthday party and spends the whole night working so they can have a good time. It’s not an exciting life.
So it would seem that a jigsaw puzzle,...
- 7/26/2018
- by William Bibbiani
- The Wrap
Marc Turtletaub (with producer Wren Arthur) on Catholicism in Puzzle and an Alfonso Cuarón film: "I want it to be in the background, much like when you watch Y Tu Mamá También." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Puzzle, co-written by Oren Moverman and Polly Mann, stars Kelly Macdonald (Joe Wright's Anna Karenina), Irrfan Khan (Ang Lee's Life Of Pi), and David Denman with Bubba Weiler, Austin Abrams, and Liv Hewson. Based on an Argentinian film, Natalia Smirnoff's Rompecabezas, starring María Onetto (Damián Szifron's Wild Tales), first-time director and long-time producer Marc Turtletaub, sets up his protagonist's life with an elegant and surprising opening sequence that makes us understand in a flash the dynamics between Agnes (Kelly Macdonald) and her nearest and dearest and propels us into the personal riddles to be explored.
Puzzle co-screenwriter Oren Moverman with his The Dinner and Time Out of Mind star Richard Gere Photo:...
Puzzle, co-written by Oren Moverman and Polly Mann, stars Kelly Macdonald (Joe Wright's Anna Karenina), Irrfan Khan (Ang Lee's Life Of Pi), and David Denman with Bubba Weiler, Austin Abrams, and Liv Hewson. Based on an Argentinian film, Natalia Smirnoff's Rompecabezas, starring María Onetto (Damián Szifron's Wild Tales), first-time director and long-time producer Marc Turtletaub, sets up his protagonist's life with an elegant and surprising opening sequence that makes us understand in a flash the dynamics between Agnes (Kelly Macdonald) and her nearest and dearest and propels us into the personal riddles to be explored.
Puzzle co-screenwriter Oren Moverman with his The Dinner and Time Out of Mind star Richard Gere Photo:...
- 7/24/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In his debut feature as a director, producer Marc Turtletaub offers a slow-paced, charming and hugely engaging story about a downtrodden housewife who finds a new lease of life when she discovers that she has a talent for completing jigsaw puzzles with greater ease than most. Adapted from Natalia Smirnoff’s much-loved 2009 Argentinian movie of the same name, and from a script by Oren Moverman, Puzzle offers a rare starring role for British actress Kelly Macdonald who is as fantastic here as anyone who has seen her turn in the critically acclaimed HBO series Boardwalk Empire, would have hoped.
Agnes (Kelly Macdonald) has never been anything but a docile suburban housewife from the moment she married mechanic Louie (David Denman). For years, the mother of two teenage boys spent every waking hour at the beck and call of her brood and their loving, yet ungrateful, father. The daughter of Catholic Hungarian immigrants,...
Agnes (Kelly Macdonald) has never been anything but a docile suburban housewife from the moment she married mechanic Louie (David Denman). For years, the mother of two teenage boys spent every waking hour at the beck and call of her brood and their loving, yet ungrateful, father. The daughter of Catholic Hungarian immigrants,...
- 6/20/2018
- by Linda Marric
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The Sundance premiere is directed by Marc Turtletaub and co-stars Irrfan Khan.
Marc Turtletaub’s Puzzle, starring Kelly Macdonald, has been named as the opening film of the 2018 Edinburgh Film Festival (20 June - 1 July).
The film premiered at Sundance in January and is a remake of Argentinian director Natalia Smirnoff’s 2009 Berlinale title The Puzzle. It will be released in the UK by Sony this summer.
Macdonald stars as Agnes, a woman in her 40s who leads a quiet life until discovering she is very good at jigsaw puzzles. Stepping out of her domestic bubble to pursue her new hobby,...
Marc Turtletaub’s Puzzle, starring Kelly Macdonald, has been named as the opening film of the 2018 Edinburgh Film Festival (20 June - 1 July).
The film premiered at Sundance in January and is a remake of Argentinian director Natalia Smirnoff’s 2009 Berlinale title The Puzzle. It will be released in the UK by Sony this summer.
Macdonald stars as Agnes, a woman in her 40s who leads a quiet life until discovering she is very good at jigsaw puzzles. Stepping out of her domestic bubble to pursue her new hobby,...
- 4/25/2018
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Kelly Macdonald in Puzzle. Dustin O'Halloran: 'The film’s never about being big, it’s about what’s happening inside her and her journey' Photo: Chris Norr
Marc Turtletaub's English-language adaptation of Natalia Smirnoff's The Puzzle - co-written by Oren Moverman - tells the story of under-appreciated mum Agnes (Kelly Macdonald), whose life revolves around her husband Louie (David Denman) and her two sons Ziggy (Bubba Weiler) and Gabe (Austin Abrams), who are on the brink of flying the nest. When Agnes receives a jigsaw for her birthday, it opens a surprising new avenue in her life that leads her to meet Robert (Irrfan Khan), an avid competitive puzzler who triggers a reassessment of her situation.
Turtletaub's film is a subtle character study that allows Agnes to retain her shyness while also evolving her outlook and it is matched by a gently moving, lyrical score from Dustin O'Halloran.
Marc Turtletaub's English-language adaptation of Natalia Smirnoff's The Puzzle - co-written by Oren Moverman - tells the story of under-appreciated mum Agnes (Kelly Macdonald), whose life revolves around her husband Louie (David Denman) and her two sons Ziggy (Bubba Weiler) and Gabe (Austin Abrams), who are on the brink of flying the nest. When Agnes receives a jigsaw for her birthday, it opens a surprising new avenue in her life that leads her to meet Robert (Irrfan Khan), an avid competitive puzzler who triggers a reassessment of her situation.
Turtletaub's film is a subtle character study that allows Agnes to retain her shyness while also evolving her outlook and it is matched by a gently moving, lyrical score from Dustin O'Halloran.
- 3/6/2018
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Sweet, low-key drama Puzzle stars the always watchable Kelly Macdonald as a downtrodden working-class housewife who discovers she has an incredible aptitude for assembling jigsaw puzzles. This directing debut for experienced producer Marc Turtletaub (Little Miss Sunshine, Loving) ticks along pleasantly, driven by an efficient if slightly bland script by Oren Moverman and Polly Mann, adapted from an Argentinian film called The Puzzle by Natalia Smirnoff. Other assets include a fine supporting cast, led by Bollywood superstar and now in-demand Hollywood supporting player Irrfan Khan (The Life of Pi, The Lunchbox) as an extramarital love interest for Macdonald’s character. The...
- 1/29/2018
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
With its methodically tidy structure and a script that, beat for beat, lays the pieces to be a quintessential crowd-pleaser, Puzzle fits together like a perfect, well… you know. Directed by Marc Turtletaub, the powerhouse indie producer behind Little Miss Sunshine, Safety Not Guaranteed, Loving, and more, it’s easy to see the appeal of Oren Moverman’s unchallenging, but no less compassionate script, and he found the perfect actress to carry it. Kelly Macdonald’s Agnes prioritizes every need before her own, mostly those of her husband Louie (David Denman) and their two teenage sons. However, when she sparks a newfound obsession with puzzles, it opens up an unforeseen world, and, as with any heart-warming tale, a path of self-discovery that will change her forever.
Yes, it might sound like TV movie of the week material, but considering how much cheering and jeering I did during all the right places,...
Yes, it might sound like TV movie of the week material, but considering how much cheering and jeering I did during all the right places,...
- 1/27/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
It starts with one piece: a woman, readying her home for a party, straightening a tablecloth and vigorously vacuuming a room, hanging a “happy birthday” banner. Another piece: the party is in full swing, and she’s dutifully attending to everyone, checking in to make sure her husband is having fun. Final piece: she emerges from the kitchen carrying a huge, lit birthday cake, only to have everyone break into song, wishing her a happy birthday. In the minimum of time, “Puzzle” director Marc Turtletaub and writer Oren Moverman have provided a full picture of the woman – Agnes, played by the extraordinary Kelly Macdonald – and her life. It is so very small.
But something small changes it. Turtletaub’s film – his second feature, though he’s got a slew of producing credits, including previous Sundance favorites “Jack Goes Boating” and “Safety Not Guaranteed” — revels in the possibilities of finding something...
But something small changes it. Turtletaub’s film – his second feature, though he’s got a slew of producing credits, including previous Sundance favorites “Jack Goes Boating” and “Safety Not Guaranteed” — revels in the possibilities of finding something...
- 1/24/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
It began quietly enough. I met with Maria Julia Antuna Acosta, the coordinator of international relations of Eictv, the international film school in Havana which is the most acclaimed international film school of the world founded by Gabriel Garcia Marquez with this Nobel Prize money on land donated by Castro. Eictv is a three year film school hosting students from all over the world where they are creating the possibility of creating companies of former students working together to create real Iberoamerican cinema. The “real” University for cinema is University of the Arts, the subject of the 2012 documentary “Unfinished Spaces”. It is a four year university with a faculty of cinema (along with a faculty of dance, of pictorial arts, architecture and plastic arts).
Day One
I spent the day into the evening with Luisa Crespo, my good friend and a board member of L.A.’s Latino Queer Festival and formerly of Laliff. We are celebrating her new freedom as she has just retired as Director of the Senate of the University of California at Irvine. She has not been back to Cuba since 1975 when, as a student, she came with the Vinceremos Brigade to help build the newly liberated nation. We think it is a momentous occasion for that and for other reasons we will explain later.
I was surprised at the quietness in the Hotel Nacional where the festival headquarters are. The usual cars and cabs parked in the driveway are gone and certain passages in the hotel are blocked off. And the streets in front of the Nacional where our apartment is are very quiet as well, and all the surrounding streets are filled with police. We were flattered to think it was all for the film festival, but it was not.
12:30 after changing money and picking up our festival newspaper, the only way to know which films are playing today and tomorrow, we proceeded to see the Argentinian film about the mix and mixing of cultures taking place in an outdoor market in Buenos Aires. “ La Salada” directed by Juan Martín Hsu is a coproduction of Argentina and Spain. It is a mosaic of experiences for new immigrants in Argentina. Three tales of people from different races who struggle with loneliness and alienation during "La feria de La Salada" weave together to form a very moving and effective dramedy.
In 2013, the sixth year of the Havana Film Festival’s Works in Progress, the Post Production Award, Nuestra América Primera Copia an international competition for films from Latin America and from Cuba went to four films: one from Argentina, “La Salada” which went on to premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and then San Sebastian International Film Festival 2014; one from Chile, “Yo Soy Lorena”, also screening in the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and here in Havana; and two from Cuba – independent film, “Venezia” (“Venice”) which was also in the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and one Icaic film, “Vestido de Novia” (“Wedding Dress”) both screening here as well.
At 3:00, after a soggy pizza in the café Frescas y Chocolate across from the Charlie Chaplin Theater, we went to see “ Los Hongos”, directed by Óscar Ruiz Navia, a Colombia-Argentina-France-Germany coproduction being sold internationally by FiGa Films. This Colombian art house film was produced by Diana Bustamente’sBurning Blue (she is now director of Carthagena Film Festival) and Contravia Films. It was workshopped at the Cannes Cinefondation, funded by World Cinema Fund in Berlin. (30,000 €), Hubert Bals Fund, Ibermedia and seemingly every other European fund that could contribute was beautifully shot in Cali, Colombia and starred two skateboarding, bike-riding graffiti artists whose parents and grandparents you would want in your life. The film premiered in Toronto this year.
“Los Hongos” is beautiful to watch, engaging, funny and also eye-opening to the street culture which is actively engaged in Cali and in the affairs of the world. However, it skirted the edge of “too much of a good thing”, that is, you could almost see the European marks of inspiration shaping the almost gritty world of both poor, Christianized Afro-Colombians and bourgeous but bohemian, educated and left leaning whites living in Cali. The father of the white boy, an art-school student gone rogue, was hyper-political, famous locally as a Neapolitan type singer.
Gustavo Ruiz, who played the father was in Havana and introduced the film. He is an elegant man who deservedly is proud of his work in this film. He attended as many films as possible and while we were watching “El Cerrajero” (“The Lock Charmer”) directed by Natalia Smirnoff, we reintroduced ourselves and set up a time for an interview.
Unfortunately we were unable to get into the next film at the Charlie Chaplin Theater, “Vestido de Novia”, a film which won last year’s Work in Progress Award of Nuevas Miradas of Eictv. The huge lines around two blocks of people anxious to enter the 1,000 seat theater attest to the Cuban’s love of cinema.
Later that night, with our newfound friend, Kyle Walcott of Tobago, a 21 year old film student at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad + Tobago whose short film, “Glass Bottom Boat”, screened as part of trinidad + tobago film festival's annual showcase of Caribbean films here, we had dinner in Castropol, one of the new restaurants along the Malecon overlooking the Caribbean. Afterward we went to dance at Café Cantante and Casa de la Musica. However, because the next day (Sunday) was Day of the Martyrs, dedicated to Antonio Maceo and other heroes who died fighting for freedom in Cuba, all entertainment stopped at midnight, which allowed me to get to bed at a decent hour and actually get eight hours of sleep.
Day Two
This morning we handled the stressful logistics of scheduling our time for the upcoming day and people-hunting at the Nacional, no easy task as few who are not Cuban have cel tels that work here. I introduced Kyle to Anne Cross who comes from Scotland every year to find Cuban films to bring to the U.K. for her Cuban film festival. Anne is the mother of Kyle’s colleague, Nicola Cross, a Trinidadian who works with the t+tff and teaches at the University of West Indies.
We three went off to see the Infanta Theater where Kyle’s “Glass Bottom Boat” will screen. Typical of Havana, there on the street, my friend Rolando Almirante (one of Havana’s foremost documentary filmmakers) called to me. With him was Catherine Murphy of “Maestras” the doc about the teachers who went after the Cuban Revolution to the countryside to teach literacy. They are both on the jury awarding a prize to films concerning violence against women or its solutions. She invited us to go later that night to La Fabrica, a new art space opened by singer-composer X Alfonso’s parents of the group Sintesis to hear a concert.
Later that afternoon we walked on to Callejon de Hamel, a street that looks like a combination of Watts Towers and Berlin’s Tacheles and where every Sunday they have that special Cuban music called Rumba. There we found that because it was Antonio Maceos’ Day of the Martyrs, there would be no rumba there or at Casa de la Musica later. I bought a small but beautiful lithograph called 100% Cuban by a local artist showing on “Jon de Hamel”. We had a Boringa (rum drink) with two locals, talked and then walked home along the Malecon. At the statue of Antonio Maceo we watched local members of the Freemasons and veterans place a memorial wreath. As we approached the Nacional from behind, we discovered limousines and chauffeurs from all the embassies along with a cadre of police dressed in their best ceremonial uniforms quietly waiting while whatever was happening at the hotel continued...
Luisa and I grabbed a bite at the palador Los Amigos (palador is the name of restaurants which operated only semi-legally in earlier days but which are now totally legal). After dinner we went to the Cuban Communist Youth Center, Pabellion Cuba, to see Natalia Smirnoff’s Lock Charmer (El Cerrajero) (Isa: Memento), a lovely art film from Argentina which premiered at Sundance January 2014 and went on to screen in Cartagena Film Festival in March 2014 with three other Argentine features, Natural Sciences (Ciencias Naturales) (Isa: Urban Distribution International) after its Berlinale premiere and also showing here in Havana, The Color That Fell From Heaven (El Color que cayó del cielo ),and The Third Bank of the River (La tercera orilla) after its Berlin premiere and which is showing here as well.
At 10 pm went to La Fabrica, a great art space in a former factory, next to a great palador inside the huge factory chimney itself. There we saw the producer Rosa Bosch who has moved from Mexico to Cuba and her friends including a young producer whose short “The Malecon” we hope to catch. La Fabrica exhibits art, artist-inspired jewelry and other “objets”, like clothes made of recycled tabs that open cans or computer wires, designer chairs and furniture. It has several patio bars and performing areas with great acoustics. In one area, we caught three short acts. One large (and gorgeous) man in a small black and gold beaded dress, high heels and a cowboy hat sang a hot song as he posed and strutted. He was incredibly charismatic and enthralled me with his grace alternating between gorgeous female and gorgeous male. – a true gender bender.
Next an elegant petit black woman in a small red dress sang with great gusto a R&B spoof, going overboard with emotions and the tremor in her voice, exaggerated as she sang her lament. It was a hilarious well done performance. Great entertainment is instantly understandable even though I could not understand the words being sung. And the feeling that “only in Cuba” would someone create acts like these was also strong. The familiarity but at the same time the foreignness of Cuba and its people is a contradiction we constantly experience here.
Later we listened to the concert given by the youngest daughter of the renowned balladeer, Pablo Milanese. Catherine was taken by surprise because she had told us the songs were from her latest album, but what she actually was singing were songs Catherine’s own (ex) husband had written which were all about Catherine and love and Catherine and divorce. What a magical world Cuba offers.
Day Two ended on that high note. Onward to tomorrow and more surprises.
Day One
I spent the day into the evening with Luisa Crespo, my good friend and a board member of L.A.’s Latino Queer Festival and formerly of Laliff. We are celebrating her new freedom as she has just retired as Director of the Senate of the University of California at Irvine. She has not been back to Cuba since 1975 when, as a student, she came with the Vinceremos Brigade to help build the newly liberated nation. We think it is a momentous occasion for that and for other reasons we will explain later.
I was surprised at the quietness in the Hotel Nacional where the festival headquarters are. The usual cars and cabs parked in the driveway are gone and certain passages in the hotel are blocked off. And the streets in front of the Nacional where our apartment is are very quiet as well, and all the surrounding streets are filled with police. We were flattered to think it was all for the film festival, but it was not.
12:30 after changing money and picking up our festival newspaper, the only way to know which films are playing today and tomorrow, we proceeded to see the Argentinian film about the mix and mixing of cultures taking place in an outdoor market in Buenos Aires. “ La Salada” directed by Juan Martín Hsu is a coproduction of Argentina and Spain. It is a mosaic of experiences for new immigrants in Argentina. Three tales of people from different races who struggle with loneliness and alienation during "La feria de La Salada" weave together to form a very moving and effective dramedy.
In 2013, the sixth year of the Havana Film Festival’s Works in Progress, the Post Production Award, Nuestra América Primera Copia an international competition for films from Latin America and from Cuba went to four films: one from Argentina, “La Salada” which went on to premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and then San Sebastian International Film Festival 2014; one from Chile, “Yo Soy Lorena”, also screening in the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and here in Havana; and two from Cuba – independent film, “Venezia” (“Venice”) which was also in the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and one Icaic film, “Vestido de Novia” (“Wedding Dress”) both screening here as well.
At 3:00, after a soggy pizza in the café Frescas y Chocolate across from the Charlie Chaplin Theater, we went to see “ Los Hongos”, directed by Óscar Ruiz Navia, a Colombia-Argentina-France-Germany coproduction being sold internationally by FiGa Films. This Colombian art house film was produced by Diana Bustamente’sBurning Blue (she is now director of Carthagena Film Festival) and Contravia Films. It was workshopped at the Cannes Cinefondation, funded by World Cinema Fund in Berlin. (30,000 €), Hubert Bals Fund, Ibermedia and seemingly every other European fund that could contribute was beautifully shot in Cali, Colombia and starred two skateboarding, bike-riding graffiti artists whose parents and grandparents you would want in your life. The film premiered in Toronto this year.
“Los Hongos” is beautiful to watch, engaging, funny and also eye-opening to the street culture which is actively engaged in Cali and in the affairs of the world. However, it skirted the edge of “too much of a good thing”, that is, you could almost see the European marks of inspiration shaping the almost gritty world of both poor, Christianized Afro-Colombians and bourgeous but bohemian, educated and left leaning whites living in Cali. The father of the white boy, an art-school student gone rogue, was hyper-political, famous locally as a Neapolitan type singer.
Gustavo Ruiz, who played the father was in Havana and introduced the film. He is an elegant man who deservedly is proud of his work in this film. He attended as many films as possible and while we were watching “El Cerrajero” (“The Lock Charmer”) directed by Natalia Smirnoff, we reintroduced ourselves and set up a time for an interview.
Unfortunately we were unable to get into the next film at the Charlie Chaplin Theater, “Vestido de Novia”, a film which won last year’s Work in Progress Award of Nuevas Miradas of Eictv. The huge lines around two blocks of people anxious to enter the 1,000 seat theater attest to the Cuban’s love of cinema.
Later that night, with our newfound friend, Kyle Walcott of Tobago, a 21 year old film student at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad + Tobago whose short film, “Glass Bottom Boat”, screened as part of trinidad + tobago film festival's annual showcase of Caribbean films here, we had dinner in Castropol, one of the new restaurants along the Malecon overlooking the Caribbean. Afterward we went to dance at Café Cantante and Casa de la Musica. However, because the next day (Sunday) was Day of the Martyrs, dedicated to Antonio Maceo and other heroes who died fighting for freedom in Cuba, all entertainment stopped at midnight, which allowed me to get to bed at a decent hour and actually get eight hours of sleep.
Day Two
This morning we handled the stressful logistics of scheduling our time for the upcoming day and people-hunting at the Nacional, no easy task as few who are not Cuban have cel tels that work here. I introduced Kyle to Anne Cross who comes from Scotland every year to find Cuban films to bring to the U.K. for her Cuban film festival. Anne is the mother of Kyle’s colleague, Nicola Cross, a Trinidadian who works with the t+tff and teaches at the University of West Indies.
We three went off to see the Infanta Theater where Kyle’s “Glass Bottom Boat” will screen. Typical of Havana, there on the street, my friend Rolando Almirante (one of Havana’s foremost documentary filmmakers) called to me. With him was Catherine Murphy of “Maestras” the doc about the teachers who went after the Cuban Revolution to the countryside to teach literacy. They are both on the jury awarding a prize to films concerning violence against women or its solutions. She invited us to go later that night to La Fabrica, a new art space opened by singer-composer X Alfonso’s parents of the group Sintesis to hear a concert.
Later that afternoon we walked on to Callejon de Hamel, a street that looks like a combination of Watts Towers and Berlin’s Tacheles and where every Sunday they have that special Cuban music called Rumba. There we found that because it was Antonio Maceos’ Day of the Martyrs, there would be no rumba there or at Casa de la Musica later. I bought a small but beautiful lithograph called 100% Cuban by a local artist showing on “Jon de Hamel”. We had a Boringa (rum drink) with two locals, talked and then walked home along the Malecon. At the statue of Antonio Maceo we watched local members of the Freemasons and veterans place a memorial wreath. As we approached the Nacional from behind, we discovered limousines and chauffeurs from all the embassies along with a cadre of police dressed in their best ceremonial uniforms quietly waiting while whatever was happening at the hotel continued...
Luisa and I grabbed a bite at the palador Los Amigos (palador is the name of restaurants which operated only semi-legally in earlier days but which are now totally legal). After dinner we went to the Cuban Communist Youth Center, Pabellion Cuba, to see Natalia Smirnoff’s Lock Charmer (El Cerrajero) (Isa: Memento), a lovely art film from Argentina which premiered at Sundance January 2014 and went on to screen in Cartagena Film Festival in March 2014 with three other Argentine features, Natural Sciences (Ciencias Naturales) (Isa: Urban Distribution International) after its Berlinale premiere and also showing here in Havana, The Color That Fell From Heaven (El Color que cayó del cielo ),and The Third Bank of the River (La tercera orilla) after its Berlin premiere and which is showing here as well.
At 10 pm went to La Fabrica, a great art space in a former factory, next to a great palador inside the huge factory chimney itself. There we saw the producer Rosa Bosch who has moved from Mexico to Cuba and her friends including a young producer whose short “The Malecon” we hope to catch. La Fabrica exhibits art, artist-inspired jewelry and other “objets”, like clothes made of recycled tabs that open cans or computer wires, designer chairs and furniture. It has several patio bars and performing areas with great acoustics. In one area, we caught three short acts. One large (and gorgeous) man in a small black and gold beaded dress, high heels and a cowboy hat sang a hot song as he posed and strutted. He was incredibly charismatic and enthralled me with his grace alternating between gorgeous female and gorgeous male. – a true gender bender.
Next an elegant petit black woman in a small red dress sang with great gusto a R&B spoof, going overboard with emotions and the tremor in her voice, exaggerated as she sang her lament. It was a hilarious well done performance. Great entertainment is instantly understandable even though I could not understand the words being sung. And the feeling that “only in Cuba” would someone create acts like these was also strong. The familiarity but at the same time the foreignness of Cuba and its people is a contradiction we constantly experience here.
Later we listened to the concert given by the youngest daughter of the renowned balladeer, Pablo Milanese. Catherine was taken by surprise because she had told us the songs were from her latest album, but what she actually was singing were songs Catherine’s own (ex) husband had written which were all about Catherine and love and Catherine and divorce. What a magical world Cuba offers.
Day Two ended on that high note. Onward to tomorrow and more surprises.
- 12/12/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The 54th International Film Festival of Cartagena de Indias in Colombia has invited me to attend March 13 - 19, 2014.
One of Ficci's main goals is supporting the development of Colombian cinema. With that in mind, the festival will open with the world premiere of Ciudad Delirio, inviting the audience to get to know Cali, the only city in Latin America that loves all Latin American music, a center of creative development for Colombia's cinema, splendidly and authentically presented through the passion and flavor of salsa. Ficci is once again betting on the kind of cinema that speaks locally and globally, cinema that invites, seduces and embraces all kinds of audiences.
Starring Carolina Ramírez , Cauca Valley dancer and actress renown for her performance in soap operas such as La hija del mariachiand La Pola and Spaniard Julián Villagrán, winner of a Goya for his performance in Grupo 7, Ciudad Delirio also features Colombian actors of such caliber as Vicky Hernández Jorge Herrera , Margarita Ortega and John Alex Castillo. Thanks to a world-class team lead by Spanish dancer, choreographer and filmmaker Blanca Li, who has worked for The Berlin State Ballet, Kylie Minogue, Beyoncé and Daft Punk, and by multiple time Salsa World Champion Viviana Vargas, Cartagena will get to experience the madness of one of the most sensual dances on earth.
Ciudad Delirio was produced by Diego F. Ramírez, head of 64-a Films in Colombia, which has produced such films as Perro come perro,Todos tus muertos, Dr. Alemán, En coma, and180 segundos and Spaniard Elena Manrique, founder of Film Fatal and renown for her production of movies such asEl laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth), El orfanato and Transsiberiano, to name just a few.
For seven weeks during the making of Ciudad delirio, 45 locations in Cali, Colombia and Madrid, Spain were overrun by salsa. More than 3,200 extras from Cauca Valley helped to tell this love story that revolves around the show Delirio, a long-standing cultural tradition in Sultana del Valle.
In Ciudad Delirio, Javier, a shy, reserved Spanish doctor, attends a medical conference in Cali, Colombia. There, through a chance meeting, he shares a magical night with Angie, a dancer and choreographer who dreams of being part of the world's most famous salsa show, Delirio, if only she can pass the audition. Javier and Angie begin an impossible romance full of obstacles, surrounded by salsa, and accompanied by a cast of characters that are as authentic as they are hilarious.
The festival's guest of honor will be the prolific British actor Clive Owen, who is known for his diverse roles in films like Closer Children of Men, and The International . The Latin American premier of his latest film, Guillaume Canet's Blood Ties (2013), will be a highlight of the Friday, March 14th event, taking place at 6:00 pm in the Adolfo Mejía Theater, where, after being presented with the India Catalina prize, the actor will be interviewed by Ficci's director, Monika Wagenberg.
Another special honoree will be Mexican director Alejando Gonazlez Iñárritu, who has garnered international acclaim throughout the years with films such as Amores Perros , 21 Grams , Babel, and Biutiful . Established within the film industry as one of Latin America's most important directors of the new century, Iñárritu is currently in-production for Birdman (2014), a film he wrote and directed starring Emma Stone and Edward Norton . Participants of the 54th Ficci will have the opportunity to attend the Tribute honoring this Academy Award-nominated filmmaker on Sunday, March 16th, as well as his Master class the following day during Salón Ficci – the festival's academic program.
In regards to the festival's line-up, it is interesting to note that several of the filmmakers that will take part in the Dramatic Competition are directors who have participated at Ficci with their previous films and have established themselves in the international festival circuit winning prestigious awards. Others will arrive to Cartagena for the first time with their operas primas.
"2014 promises to be a good year for Iberoamerican cinema and we are proud to feature several of the most recent films of the region in our Official Dramatic Competition, in which half of the chosen movies are Latin American Premieres (movies that come directly to Cartagena after their world premieres at Sundance and Berlin Festivals). Eight of the twelve films in the Colombian Official Competition (known before as Colombia al 100%) are World Premieres. This way, we have managed to achieve the goal we set four years ago: becoming the main national and international launching platform of local films", stated Ficci's Director Monika Wagenberg.
Wagenberg also addressed some chances in the festival's rules that will allow for more experience filmmakers to partake in the event.
"One of the big news of Ficci 54 is that this time we have not limited the Official Dramatic Competition to first, second and third time Ibero-American films. Ending this restriction will make possible for those directors from this region who are producing feature films at a fast pace not, to be excluded from the competition" Wagenberg added.
The Official Dramatic Competition will feature the Latin American premieres The Lock Charmer (El Cerrajero) by Natalia Smirnoff (Argentina), Natural Sciences (Ciencias Naturales) by Matías Lucchesi(Argentina), The Way He Looks (Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho) by Daniel Ribeiro(Brazil), Celina Murga's Berlin Official Competition, The Three Sides of the River (La tercera orilla) (Argentina), recent Sundance and Rotterdam winner, To Kill a Man (Matar a un hombre) by Alejandro Fernández Almendras (Chile), Mateo, first film by Maria Gamboa (Colombia), and the world premiere of Dust on the Tongue (Tierra en la lengua) by Ruben Mendoza (Colombia).
This section also includes other outstanding films such as Bad Hair (Pelo malo), written and directed by Mariana Rondón (Venezuela) which comes to Ficci after its triumph at the San Sebastián Film Festival; The Mute (El Mudo), directed by brothers Daniel and Diego Vega (Perú), which had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival and are coming back to Ficci after competing winning Best Director award in 2010; premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival and awarded the Concha de Plata for Best Director in San Sebastián, comes Club Sándwich by Fernando Eimbcke(México), and the 12th film in this section is Root (Raíz) by Matías Rojas Valencia (Chile), the winner of Best Chilean Film winner at the Valdivia Film Festival.
The Official Documentary Competition will showcase the world premieres of El color que cayó del cielo by Sergio Wolf (Argentina) and Heaven or Hell (Infierno o paraíso) de German Piffano(Colombia); as well as the Latin American premiere of The Silence of the Flies (El silencio de las moscas) by Eliezer Arias (Venezuela), Marmato by Mark Grieco (Colombia, USA), and Apples, Chickens and Chimeras (Manzanas, pollos y quimeras) de Inés París (España). The rest of the program includes Argentine Street Years (Años de calle) by Alejandra Grinschpun, I Feel Much Better Now (E-agora? Lembra me) by Joaquim Pinto(Portugal), Naomi Campbel by icolas Videla and Camila José Donoso (Chile), Cesar's Grill (El Grill de Cesar) by Dario Aguirre, I Will Be Murdered (Seré asesinado) by Justin Webster (Spain), Mexican documentary, Elevator (Elevador) by Adrián Ortizl and the most recent work by talented Brazilian documentary film director Maria Ramos , Hills of Pleasures (Morro dos Prazeres).
Lastly, in the Colombian Official Competition we will present the world premieres of Banished (Desterrada) by Diego Guerra, Manos sucias by Joseph Wladyka, Memorias del calavero and Tierra en la lengua by Rubén Mendoza, Monte adentro by Nicolás Macario Alonso, Parador Húngaro by Aseneth Suarez and Patrick Alexander, Infierno o paraíso by Germán Piffano; as well as the Latin American premieres of Inés, memorias de una vida by Luisa Sossa; Gente de papel, con el alma en la selva by Andrés Felipe Vásquez, Mateo by Maria Gamboa, Marmato by Mark Grieco and the Colombian premiere of Mambo Cool by Chris Gude.
One of Ficci's main goals is supporting the development of Colombian cinema. With that in mind, the festival will open with the world premiere of Ciudad Delirio, inviting the audience to get to know Cali, the only city in Latin America that loves all Latin American music, a center of creative development for Colombia's cinema, splendidly and authentically presented through the passion and flavor of salsa. Ficci is once again betting on the kind of cinema that speaks locally and globally, cinema that invites, seduces and embraces all kinds of audiences.
Starring Carolina Ramírez , Cauca Valley dancer and actress renown for her performance in soap operas such as La hija del mariachiand La Pola and Spaniard Julián Villagrán, winner of a Goya for his performance in Grupo 7, Ciudad Delirio also features Colombian actors of such caliber as Vicky Hernández Jorge Herrera , Margarita Ortega and John Alex Castillo. Thanks to a world-class team lead by Spanish dancer, choreographer and filmmaker Blanca Li, who has worked for The Berlin State Ballet, Kylie Minogue, Beyoncé and Daft Punk, and by multiple time Salsa World Champion Viviana Vargas, Cartagena will get to experience the madness of one of the most sensual dances on earth.
Ciudad Delirio was produced by Diego F. Ramírez, head of 64-a Films in Colombia, which has produced such films as Perro come perro,Todos tus muertos, Dr. Alemán, En coma, and180 segundos and Spaniard Elena Manrique, founder of Film Fatal and renown for her production of movies such asEl laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth), El orfanato and Transsiberiano, to name just a few.
For seven weeks during the making of Ciudad delirio, 45 locations in Cali, Colombia and Madrid, Spain were overrun by salsa. More than 3,200 extras from Cauca Valley helped to tell this love story that revolves around the show Delirio, a long-standing cultural tradition in Sultana del Valle.
In Ciudad Delirio, Javier, a shy, reserved Spanish doctor, attends a medical conference in Cali, Colombia. There, through a chance meeting, he shares a magical night with Angie, a dancer and choreographer who dreams of being part of the world's most famous salsa show, Delirio, if only she can pass the audition. Javier and Angie begin an impossible romance full of obstacles, surrounded by salsa, and accompanied by a cast of characters that are as authentic as they are hilarious.
The festival's guest of honor will be the prolific British actor Clive Owen, who is known for his diverse roles in films like Closer Children of Men, and The International . The Latin American premier of his latest film, Guillaume Canet's Blood Ties (2013), will be a highlight of the Friday, March 14th event, taking place at 6:00 pm in the Adolfo Mejía Theater, where, after being presented with the India Catalina prize, the actor will be interviewed by Ficci's director, Monika Wagenberg.
Another special honoree will be Mexican director Alejando Gonazlez Iñárritu, who has garnered international acclaim throughout the years with films such as Amores Perros , 21 Grams , Babel, and Biutiful . Established within the film industry as one of Latin America's most important directors of the new century, Iñárritu is currently in-production for Birdman (2014), a film he wrote and directed starring Emma Stone and Edward Norton . Participants of the 54th Ficci will have the opportunity to attend the Tribute honoring this Academy Award-nominated filmmaker on Sunday, March 16th, as well as his Master class the following day during Salón Ficci – the festival's academic program.
In regards to the festival's line-up, it is interesting to note that several of the filmmakers that will take part in the Dramatic Competition are directors who have participated at Ficci with their previous films and have established themselves in the international festival circuit winning prestigious awards. Others will arrive to Cartagena for the first time with their operas primas.
"2014 promises to be a good year for Iberoamerican cinema and we are proud to feature several of the most recent films of the region in our Official Dramatic Competition, in which half of the chosen movies are Latin American Premieres (movies that come directly to Cartagena after their world premieres at Sundance and Berlin Festivals). Eight of the twelve films in the Colombian Official Competition (known before as Colombia al 100%) are World Premieres. This way, we have managed to achieve the goal we set four years ago: becoming the main national and international launching platform of local films", stated Ficci's Director Monika Wagenberg.
Wagenberg also addressed some chances in the festival's rules that will allow for more experience filmmakers to partake in the event.
"One of the big news of Ficci 54 is that this time we have not limited the Official Dramatic Competition to first, second and third time Ibero-American films. Ending this restriction will make possible for those directors from this region who are producing feature films at a fast pace not, to be excluded from the competition" Wagenberg added.
The Official Dramatic Competition will feature the Latin American premieres The Lock Charmer (El Cerrajero) by Natalia Smirnoff (Argentina), Natural Sciences (Ciencias Naturales) by Matías Lucchesi(Argentina), The Way He Looks (Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho) by Daniel Ribeiro(Brazil), Celina Murga's Berlin Official Competition, The Three Sides of the River (La tercera orilla) (Argentina), recent Sundance and Rotterdam winner, To Kill a Man (Matar a un hombre) by Alejandro Fernández Almendras (Chile), Mateo, first film by Maria Gamboa (Colombia), and the world premiere of Dust on the Tongue (Tierra en la lengua) by Ruben Mendoza (Colombia).
This section also includes other outstanding films such as Bad Hair (Pelo malo), written and directed by Mariana Rondón (Venezuela) which comes to Ficci after its triumph at the San Sebastián Film Festival; The Mute (El Mudo), directed by brothers Daniel and Diego Vega (Perú), which had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival and are coming back to Ficci after competing winning Best Director award in 2010; premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival and awarded the Concha de Plata for Best Director in San Sebastián, comes Club Sándwich by Fernando Eimbcke(México), and the 12th film in this section is Root (Raíz) by Matías Rojas Valencia (Chile), the winner of Best Chilean Film winner at the Valdivia Film Festival.
The Official Documentary Competition will showcase the world premieres of El color que cayó del cielo by Sergio Wolf (Argentina) and Heaven or Hell (Infierno o paraíso) de German Piffano(Colombia); as well as the Latin American premiere of The Silence of the Flies (El silencio de las moscas) by Eliezer Arias (Venezuela), Marmato by Mark Grieco (Colombia, USA), and Apples, Chickens and Chimeras (Manzanas, pollos y quimeras) de Inés París (España). The rest of the program includes Argentine Street Years (Años de calle) by Alejandra Grinschpun, I Feel Much Better Now (E-agora? Lembra me) by Joaquim Pinto(Portugal), Naomi Campbel by icolas Videla and Camila José Donoso (Chile), Cesar's Grill (El Grill de Cesar) by Dario Aguirre, I Will Be Murdered (Seré asesinado) by Justin Webster (Spain), Mexican documentary, Elevator (Elevador) by Adrián Ortizl and the most recent work by talented Brazilian documentary film director Maria Ramos , Hills of Pleasures (Morro dos Prazeres).
Lastly, in the Colombian Official Competition we will present the world premieres of Banished (Desterrada) by Diego Guerra, Manos sucias by Joseph Wladyka, Memorias del calavero and Tierra en la lengua by Rubén Mendoza, Monte adentro by Nicolás Macario Alonso, Parador Húngaro by Aseneth Suarez and Patrick Alexander, Infierno o paraíso by Germán Piffano; as well as the Latin American premieres of Inés, memorias de una vida by Luisa Sossa; Gente de papel, con el alma en la selva by Andrés Felipe Vásquez, Mateo by Maria Gamboa, Marmato by Mark Grieco and the Colombian premiere of Mambo Cool by Chris Gude.
- 2/27/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The annual indie showcase known as the Sundance Film Festival just closed this weekend. Of the more than 100 movies that premiered at the fest this year five were Latino. In the U.S. Documentary competition was Cesar's Last Fast on the labor leader and United Farm Workers co-founder Cesar Chavez, and Marmato, a look at gold mining in Colombia. Natalia Smirnoff's second film Lock Charmer (El cerrajero) and the Chilean thriller To Kill a Man rounded out the World Cinema Dramatic section. In Frontier Films, a showcase of movies that experiment with traditional storytelling, was Living Stars a fun peek into different people's homes in Buenos Aires as they dance to well-known pop songs.
In case you missed out on the action in Park City, Utah this past week we got to sit down with Natalia Smirnoff, director of the Argentinian film Lock Charmer, fresh off its world premiere at Sundance. She shares the time that she locked herself in her home and had to call a locksmith to open the door. Trapped inside her house and with nothing else to do she started writing Lock Charmer that very day.
Where are you from?
Argentina
What city do you call home?
Buenos Aires
When did you know you wanted to be a filmmaker?
At 21 first, but really at 32
How did you find out your film got accepted to Sundance?
I received an email from my sales agent with a beautiful letter. It was amazing. I was at home.
What's a movie you are embarrassed to admit you really like?
The Avengers
You studied engineering, worked as a journalist and in theater -- how do these different experiences inform your storytelling?
I think there's always some things related to systems engineering in my scripts, some mechanism or mathematics in some way. For the other side, doing interviews could be similar to directing actors, it has the same procedure in common. And well, I learned a lot being an Assistant Director and a Casting Director. I learned how to play, how to break the rules on the set, how to shoot, and how to make it a better place for better performance.
How did the idea of this film come to you? What was your inspiration for this story?
One time I locked myself in at home, in a strange way. I woke up and when I tried to open the door, it was completely locked. With a second lock I hadn’t locked the night before. After a few friends tried to help me open the door with other keys, etc., I had to call a locksmith, on a Sunday. It was expensive but he could open it. During the three hours I heard a lot of voices from outside, including my son (5 years old) and my mother (he had slept at her house that night), a friend's neighbor and even when the locksmith arrived and started to say that he would open, I could't do much more than sit, wait, try to understand who locked the 2nd lock and start to write Lock Charmer.
This is your second film was it any easier or harder to make this movie? Did you feel any pressure to live up to the success of your first film?
It's a mix. It was easier and more complicated at the same time. Easier because I'd already made one but in the middle the rules of sales and distribution on cinema change a lot. All markets got more difficult and a lot of funds disappeared or reduced their help. That part was difficult.
What do you hope to achieve with your film? What sort of impact do you think it will have?
I hope that many people will see the film and feel empathy with it. If they feel or could understand and put on the skin of the main characters, I'm really happy! I always think that it's incredible how cinema allows us to know and to be close to people that are really far from us.
Written by Vanessa Erazo. LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook.
In case you missed out on the action in Park City, Utah this past week we got to sit down with Natalia Smirnoff, director of the Argentinian film Lock Charmer, fresh off its world premiere at Sundance. She shares the time that she locked herself in her home and had to call a locksmith to open the door. Trapped inside her house and with nothing else to do she started writing Lock Charmer that very day.
Where are you from?
Argentina
What city do you call home?
Buenos Aires
When did you know you wanted to be a filmmaker?
At 21 first, but really at 32
How did you find out your film got accepted to Sundance?
I received an email from my sales agent with a beautiful letter. It was amazing. I was at home.
What's a movie you are embarrassed to admit you really like?
The Avengers
You studied engineering, worked as a journalist and in theater -- how do these different experiences inform your storytelling?
I think there's always some things related to systems engineering in my scripts, some mechanism or mathematics in some way. For the other side, doing interviews could be similar to directing actors, it has the same procedure in common. And well, I learned a lot being an Assistant Director and a Casting Director. I learned how to play, how to break the rules on the set, how to shoot, and how to make it a better place for better performance.
How did the idea of this film come to you? What was your inspiration for this story?
One time I locked myself in at home, in a strange way. I woke up and when I tried to open the door, it was completely locked. With a second lock I hadn’t locked the night before. After a few friends tried to help me open the door with other keys, etc., I had to call a locksmith, on a Sunday. It was expensive but he could open it. During the three hours I heard a lot of voices from outside, including my son (5 years old) and my mother (he had slept at her house that night), a friend's neighbor and even when the locksmith arrived and started to say that he would open, I could't do much more than sit, wait, try to understand who locked the 2nd lock and start to write Lock Charmer.
This is your second film was it any easier or harder to make this movie? Did you feel any pressure to live up to the success of your first film?
It's a mix. It was easier and more complicated at the same time. Easier because I'd already made one but in the middle the rules of sales and distribution on cinema change a lot. All markets got more difficult and a lot of funds disappeared or reduced their help. That part was difficult.
What do you hope to achieve with your film? What sort of impact do you think it will have?
I hope that many people will see the film and feel empathy with it. If they feel or could understand and put on the skin of the main characters, I'm really happy! I always think that it's incredible how cinema allows us to know and to be close to people that are really far from us.
Written by Vanessa Erazo. LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook.
- 1/29/2014
- by Vanessa Erazo
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth also on board in-demand drama for which Memento has secured several major deals with key territories.
Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin and Kate Bosworth are now confirmed alongside Julianne Moore in Memento Films International’s hot -selling drama Still Alice.
The project was one of the most in-demand at the American Film Market (Afm), with Memento locking pre-sales at the market and since with Curzon for the UK, Splendid’s Polyband for Germany, Icon Film for Australia, Frenetic for Switzerland, Svensk for Scandinavia, Baltics and Iceland, Sun Distribution for Latin America, Falcon Film for Middle East, Bir for Turkey, Golden Scene for Hong Kong, GreenNarae for South Korea to and Catchplay to Taiwan.
Moore will play a renowned professor of neuroscience who discovers she’s suffering from an early onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Stewart will play Lydia, her youngest daughter, who bonds with her mother during her illness in a way that...
Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin and Kate Bosworth are now confirmed alongside Julianne Moore in Memento Films International’s hot -selling drama Still Alice.
The project was one of the most in-demand at the American Film Market (Afm), with Memento locking pre-sales at the market and since with Curzon for the UK, Splendid’s Polyband for Germany, Icon Film for Australia, Frenetic for Switzerland, Svensk for Scandinavia, Baltics and Iceland, Sun Distribution for Latin America, Falcon Film for Middle East, Bir for Turkey, Golden Scene for Hong Kong, GreenNarae for South Korea to and Catchplay to Taiwan.
Moore will play a renowned professor of neuroscience who discovers she’s suffering from an early onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Stewart will play Lydia, her youngest daughter, who bonds with her mother during her illness in a way that...
- 1/28/2014
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Set in a chaotic period in 2008 when a disrupting layer of smoke covered the city of Buenos Aires, Natalia Smirnoff’s sophomore directing effort "Lock Charmer” is a subdued character study about a locksmith’s newfound gift to see hidden aspects of people around him. Heavily marked by superstition and his unwilling journey into self-discovery, the film’s protagonist exhibits an absorbing complexity, which is central to making this uncanny mix of credible performances and magic realism work. Surrounded by a group of opinionated middle-aged coworkers, Sebastian (Esteban Lamothe) is a charismatic man in his 30s whose relationships are marked by his inability to commit. While certainly vocal about his fondness for having multiple partners, his intimate friend Monica (Erica Rivas) is probably the most constant presence in his life. Thus, when she confesses that she's pregnant and doesn't know the identity of the father, Sebastian’s first instinct is to suggest an abortion.
- 1/27/2014
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The Sundance Film Festival has unveiled its 2014 Competition lineup, made up of several categories. The 30th edition of the event will take place between January 16th-26th in the new year.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Camp X-Ray (Peter Sattler)
Cold in July (Jim Mickle)
Dear White People (Justin Simien)
Fishing Without Nets (Cutter Hodierne)
John's Pocket (John Slattery)
Happy Christmas (Joe Swanberg)
Hellion (Kat Candler)
Infinitely Polar Bear (Maya Forbes)
Jamie Marks is Dead (Carter Smith)
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (David Zellner)
Life After Beth (Jeff Baena)
Low Down (Joe Preiss)
The Skeleton Twins (Craig Johnson)
The Sleepwalker (Mona Fastvold)
Song One (Kate Barker-Froyland)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
U.S. Documentary Competition
Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory (Michael Rossato-Bennett)
All the Beautiful Things (John Harkrider)
Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart (Jeremiah Zagar)
The Case Against 8 (Ben Cotner, Ryan White)
Cesar's Last Fast (Richard Ray Perez, Lorena Parlee...
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Camp X-Ray (Peter Sattler)
Cold in July (Jim Mickle)
Dear White People (Justin Simien)
Fishing Without Nets (Cutter Hodierne)
John's Pocket (John Slattery)
Happy Christmas (Joe Swanberg)
Hellion (Kat Candler)
Infinitely Polar Bear (Maya Forbes)
Jamie Marks is Dead (Carter Smith)
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (David Zellner)
Life After Beth (Jeff Baena)
Low Down (Joe Preiss)
The Skeleton Twins (Craig Johnson)
The Sleepwalker (Mona Fastvold)
Song One (Kate Barker-Froyland)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
U.S. Documentary Competition
Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory (Michael Rossato-Bennett)
All the Beautiful Things (John Harkrider)
Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart (Jeremiah Zagar)
The Case Against 8 (Ben Cotner, Ryan White)
Cesar's Last Fast (Richard Ray Perez, Lorena Parlee...
- 12/6/2013
- by Notebook
- MUBI
The 2014 Sundance Film Festival is right around the corner, and the Sundance Institute has released the full line-up for the competition films that will be premiering!
This year there were 12,218 total submissions, and 117 films were accepted from 37 countries around the world. It looks like there's a lot of good selection of films this year.
The Sundance Film Festival 2014 runs from January 16th to the 26th, and the GeekTyrant team will be there to cover as many movies as we possibly can.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
The 16 films in this section are world premieres and, unless otherwise noted, are from the U.S.
“Camp X-Ray” — Directed and written by Peter Sattler. A young female guard at Guantanamo Bay forms an unlikely friendship with one of the detainees. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Payman Maadi, Lane Garrison, J.J. Soria, John Carroll Lynch.
“Cold in July” — Directed by Jim Mickle, written by Nick Damici.
This year there were 12,218 total submissions, and 117 films were accepted from 37 countries around the world. It looks like there's a lot of good selection of films this year.
The Sundance Film Festival 2014 runs from January 16th to the 26th, and the GeekTyrant team will be there to cover as many movies as we possibly can.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
The 16 films in this section are world premieres and, unless otherwise noted, are from the U.S.
“Camp X-Ray” — Directed and written by Peter Sattler. A young female guard at Guantanamo Bay forms an unlikely friendship with one of the detainees. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Payman Maadi, Lane Garrison, J.J. Soria, John Carroll Lynch.
“Cold in July” — Directed by Jim Mickle, written by Nick Damici.
- 12/5/2013
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
It’s among the two sections that we usually don’t put much focus on (yes, we love subtitles, but we’re more concerned, naturally more inclined to cover the deluge of American Indie film offerings) but among the dozen film selections in the World Cinema Dramatic Comp section we find the latest from Argentinean director Natalia Smirnoff (she gave us the Berlin Film Fest winner The Puzzle) who returns with Lock Charmer, we find the highly anticipated film from Hong Khaou (Lilting) and a title which we start speculating on last year in Stuart Murdoch’s God Help the Girl which stars Emily Browning, Olly Alexander and Hannah Murray (see pic above). Also worth the mention is the directing debut from writer Eskil Vogt – who co-wrote Reprise and Oslo, August 31st for Joachim Trier. Here are the dozen selected.
“52 Tuesdays” (Australia) — Directed by Sophie Hyde, written by Matthew Cormack.
“52 Tuesdays” (Australia) — Directed by Sophie Hyde, written by Matthew Cormack.
- 12/4/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Now that Sundance and Berlin are over, what do we have to look forward to? Cannes of course. However, in terms of continuing business, I want to put a spotlight on what to look forward to next Sundance (and Berlin) as an example of long lasting effects of filmmakers/ actors/ buyers and sellers. I will begin this depiction of a long journey beginning with my friend, Rodrigo Bellot -- writer, director, producer and casting agent . Rodrigo made his first film, Sexual Dependency, in 2003 with producers Ara Katz and Sam Engelbart who brought us on to find festival and international representation. Rigo was pleased with the work and we have become fast friends since then. When I first spoke with Rigo about We Are What We Are, he referred me to Memento, his international sales agent.
During Cannes 2012, I went to Memento to write more about this film which is the first remake in a long time of a film from Mexico, Somos lo que hay by Mexican director Jorge Michel Grau. At Memento, Tanja Meissner ♀ and Emilie Georges ♀ referred me to their American colleague and producer of the film, Nicholas Shumaker who gave me more of the film's history. During Afm 2011, Rodrigo and his professional partner Andrew D. Corkin who previously produced Martha Marcy May Marlene had come to Memento with the idea of remaking the English language version of this Mexican (Spanish language) film about a family of cannibals. They were, predictably, looking for financial partners. Memento said they would support the remake. They had wanted to work with the director Jim Mickle since seeing the Tiff 2010 Midnight Madness Audience Award winner, Stake Land which has become a cult vampire picture. Mickle has transposed the story to a poor part of the Catskills region in New York State. Memento sees the horror genre as an ambitious genre when it is created with good ideas, not exploitative but an elevated sort of horror, along the lines of Let the Right One In. Memento wants to do horror films only with directors and authors they like. It has taken seven years to establish their brand, and the principals Emilie Georges and Tanja Meissner are not looking for horror per se. They long for smart horror because there is a consistent market for intelligent horror stories. Their horror films will stand out for their buyers because of the director-driven aspect, not for the horror itself. Memento is putting together two other films with bigger budgets for Jim which will go over the next six to nine months. These next two, Night Hunter and Cold in July were announced during by Screen International around the time of Cannes 2012 and are both being produced with Linda Moran's ♀ and Rene Bastian's New York company Belladonna. To hear Jim Mickle speak about the use of Adobe technology in the making We Are What We Are, visit Adobe TV at Sundance. More on Mickle is in Screen. We Are What We Are will costar Ambyr Childers ♀ who was the milk skinned blonde in Gangster Squad and played Elizabeth Dodd in The Master, and Julia Garner ♀, who recently picked up rave reviews for her performance as a naïve Morman girl in Rebecca Thomas’ Electrik Children, a Berlinale 2012 hit. She will next be seen in Stephan Chobsky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower and is in StudioCanal’s The Last Exorcism 2. Film industry veteran Jack Turner is also producing. Mfi chief Emilie Georges and international sales head Tanja Meissner are executive producing alongside Mo Noorali and Linda Moran ♀ of Belladonna Productions, who previously produced Mickle’s other films, and Brett Fitzgerald. Mfi’s Nicholas Kaiser has a co-producer credit. We Are What We Are was shot in the Catskills, starting May 29, 2012 for a January 2013 delivery in time for its projected Sundance premier. With that intent, Mfi began carefully preselling the film, first at Berlin’s Efm 2011 where it was prebought by Entertainment One for U.K, Scandinavia, South Africa and France. Koch Media prebought Germany. New York and Los Angeles-based Three Point Capital and Hsbc provided additional funding. At Afm 2013, the film sold to Transformer for Japan and Zamie for So. Korea. Middle East is also been sold along with Turkey (Callinos Films). Memento's marketing and finance plan allowed for the U.S. to be sold during Sundance 2013 and as we all know now, (From Deadline Hollywood): "In a low seven-figure deal for U.S. rights, eOne acquired the Jim Mickle-directed We Are What We Are, which premiered last Friday at the Library Center Theatre in the Park City At Midnight section. The plot: a devastating storm washes up clues that lead authorities closer to unraveling the dark secrets of the Parker family, who are cannibals. That premise is Not treated as slasher fare, it’s far more stylish and the buyer crowd and audience at the premiere screening ate it up and feel they’ve found a director with a voice worth hearing. The film stars Ambyr Childers, Bill Sage, Julia Garner, Michael Parks, Wyatt Russell and Kelly McGillis. It has gotten strong reviews beyond the genre crowd, and it gives eOne a good theatrical offering. Deal was finished on the flight back to Los Angeles. I’ve heard both the Wme Global and eOne teams were on the same flight back from Park City. They haggled but by the time the plane landed, eOne hit the asks made by the agents, who denied this colorful story. Somehow, it fits with the frenzied pace of deals due to the influx of new buyers. eOne will put it out in a platform theatrical release." Since Cannes 2012, eOne acquired Alliance and is poised to make a very splashy release of this film. EOne had not pursued the film for U.S. until Sundance and the deal was verifiably finalized and upped on the plane as described above. Memento has consistent relations with its directors. It is now transitioning though natural growth into handling larger films. It will still handle about 8 films a year and it will maintain the same strategy, though films of second and third time directors will be larger. Memento still wants newcomers and so it has 2 divisions with Artscope aiming more for the festival circuit for new directors like Natalia Smirnoff ♀ of The Puzzle which premiered in '09 at San Sebastian and was picked up for U.S. by IFC, Circles (see my past blog), In the Name Of by Malgorzata Szumowska ♀ which won the 2013 Teddy Award for daring to “challenge the stereotypes of homosexuality versus religion with a personal story, told in a deeply humane way”. It was picked up in Berlin where it premiered in Competition by Film Movement, and Lore by Cate Shortland ♀.
During Cannes 2012, I went to Memento to write more about this film which is the first remake in a long time of a film from Mexico, Somos lo que hay by Mexican director Jorge Michel Grau. At Memento, Tanja Meissner ♀ and Emilie Georges ♀ referred me to their American colleague and producer of the film, Nicholas Shumaker who gave me more of the film's history. During Afm 2011, Rodrigo and his professional partner Andrew D. Corkin who previously produced Martha Marcy May Marlene had come to Memento with the idea of remaking the English language version of this Mexican (Spanish language) film about a family of cannibals. They were, predictably, looking for financial partners. Memento said they would support the remake. They had wanted to work with the director Jim Mickle since seeing the Tiff 2010 Midnight Madness Audience Award winner, Stake Land which has become a cult vampire picture. Mickle has transposed the story to a poor part of the Catskills region in New York State. Memento sees the horror genre as an ambitious genre when it is created with good ideas, not exploitative but an elevated sort of horror, along the lines of Let the Right One In. Memento wants to do horror films only with directors and authors they like. It has taken seven years to establish their brand, and the principals Emilie Georges and Tanja Meissner are not looking for horror per se. They long for smart horror because there is a consistent market for intelligent horror stories. Their horror films will stand out for their buyers because of the director-driven aspect, not for the horror itself. Memento is putting together two other films with bigger budgets for Jim which will go over the next six to nine months. These next two, Night Hunter and Cold in July were announced during by Screen International around the time of Cannes 2012 and are both being produced with Linda Moran's ♀ and Rene Bastian's New York company Belladonna. To hear Jim Mickle speak about the use of Adobe technology in the making We Are What We Are, visit Adobe TV at Sundance. More on Mickle is in Screen. We Are What We Are will costar Ambyr Childers ♀ who was the milk skinned blonde in Gangster Squad and played Elizabeth Dodd in The Master, and Julia Garner ♀, who recently picked up rave reviews for her performance as a naïve Morman girl in Rebecca Thomas’ Electrik Children, a Berlinale 2012 hit. She will next be seen in Stephan Chobsky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower and is in StudioCanal’s The Last Exorcism 2. Film industry veteran Jack Turner is also producing. Mfi chief Emilie Georges and international sales head Tanja Meissner are executive producing alongside Mo Noorali and Linda Moran ♀ of Belladonna Productions, who previously produced Mickle’s other films, and Brett Fitzgerald. Mfi’s Nicholas Kaiser has a co-producer credit. We Are What We Are was shot in the Catskills, starting May 29, 2012 for a January 2013 delivery in time for its projected Sundance premier. With that intent, Mfi began carefully preselling the film, first at Berlin’s Efm 2011 where it was prebought by Entertainment One for U.K, Scandinavia, South Africa and France. Koch Media prebought Germany. New York and Los Angeles-based Three Point Capital and Hsbc provided additional funding. At Afm 2013, the film sold to Transformer for Japan and Zamie for So. Korea. Middle East is also been sold along with Turkey (Callinos Films). Memento's marketing and finance plan allowed for the U.S. to be sold during Sundance 2013 and as we all know now, (From Deadline Hollywood): "In a low seven-figure deal for U.S. rights, eOne acquired the Jim Mickle-directed We Are What We Are, which premiered last Friday at the Library Center Theatre in the Park City At Midnight section. The plot: a devastating storm washes up clues that lead authorities closer to unraveling the dark secrets of the Parker family, who are cannibals. That premise is Not treated as slasher fare, it’s far more stylish and the buyer crowd and audience at the premiere screening ate it up and feel they’ve found a director with a voice worth hearing. The film stars Ambyr Childers, Bill Sage, Julia Garner, Michael Parks, Wyatt Russell and Kelly McGillis. It has gotten strong reviews beyond the genre crowd, and it gives eOne a good theatrical offering. Deal was finished on the flight back to Los Angeles. I’ve heard both the Wme Global and eOne teams were on the same flight back from Park City. They haggled but by the time the plane landed, eOne hit the asks made by the agents, who denied this colorful story. Somehow, it fits with the frenzied pace of deals due to the influx of new buyers. eOne will put it out in a platform theatrical release." Since Cannes 2012, eOne acquired Alliance and is poised to make a very splashy release of this film. EOne had not pursued the film for U.S. until Sundance and the deal was verifiably finalized and upped on the plane as described above. Memento has consistent relations with its directors. It is now transitioning though natural growth into handling larger films. It will still handle about 8 films a year and it will maintain the same strategy, though films of second and third time directors will be larger. Memento still wants newcomers and so it has 2 divisions with Artscope aiming more for the festival circuit for new directors like Natalia Smirnoff ♀ of The Puzzle which premiered in '09 at San Sebastian and was picked up for U.S. by IFC, Circles (see my past blog), In the Name Of by Malgorzata Szumowska ♀ which won the 2013 Teddy Award for daring to “challenge the stereotypes of homosexuality versus religion with a personal story, told in a deeply humane way”. It was picked up in Berlin where it premiered in Competition by Film Movement, and Lore by Cate Shortland ♀.
- 2/21/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
National Geographic Channel, together with Coca-Cola Latin America, has announced the launch of documentary series “Viviendo Positivamente” (Living Positively). The series premiered in 19 countries across Latin America on Nov. 6, 2012.
The documentary covers 40,000 kilometers, five countries and eight stories in the course of four episodes about the lives of everyday heroes who have overcome major social, environmental and economic challenges to make an impact on their communities and the world. All of the protagonists are supported by Coca-Cola Latin America’s Living Positively program, part of the company’s commitment to social and environmental values.
The documentaries were directed by world-renowned Latin American filmmakers: Kátia Lund (“City of God”) from Brazil, Carlos Carrera (“The Crime of Father Amaro”) from Mexico, Natalia Smirnoff (“Puzzle”) from Argentina, and Ciro Guerra (“The Wandering Shadows”) from Colombia. Each of the four installments will focus on a different social cause: creating opportunities for work and education in impoverished communities, encouraging healthy bodies and minds, recycling, and agriculture. The heroes and their projects are based countries throughout the region, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Mexico and Peru.
“The stories in ‘Viviendo Positivamente’ inspire viewers to become aware, to get involved, to change, to contribute to their community and improve their own lives,” said Guido Rosales, Integrated Marketing Communications Director for Coca-Cola Latin America. “Together with the National Geographic Channel and high-caliber directing talent, we are conveying these messages in a compelling and powerful way. Our organizations share a lot of synergy, and we’re pleased to be working with a leader of innovative and educational programming with such impressive scale in the region.”
“We found in each protagonist a powerful human and social value that deserved to be documented and shared with society,” said Fernando Semenzato, Svp of Content for Fox International Channels Latin America. “Nat Geo and Coca-Cola share a passion for sustainable development and environmental preservation, and we’re thrilled we had the opportunity to work together to produce special content that aims to inform, entertain, and educate audiences about our world and the environment in which we live.”
The documentary series was first introduced with stories from Argentina and Mexico, directed by Natalia Smirnoff and Carlos Carrera.
In Argentina, high in the mountains of Rosario de Lerma, live extremely isolated communities. There, Ana Virasoro leads the Alfarcito Foundation and a school that provides technical education and the only possibility for young people to improve their lives. Nat Geo followed their work, and shares this source of inspiration.
Later, the Nat Geo team tells the story of Salvador Casteñeda, whose life was changed radically by education. Even though he had to struggle against his education to preserve his indigenous language and customs, it made it possible for him to fight for the rights of indigenous groups today.
The documentary serves as the latest example of Coca-Cola’s innovative approach to creating content, and highlights the company’s commitment to sustainability and sharing happiness. You can download the trailer reel and a sneak peek of the first episode here.
For more information on Coca-Cola’s Live Positively program, visit http://livepositively.com or http://viviendopositivamente.com.
For more information on National Geographic Channels, visit www.natgeotv.com.
The documentary covers 40,000 kilometers, five countries and eight stories in the course of four episodes about the lives of everyday heroes who have overcome major social, environmental and economic challenges to make an impact on their communities and the world. All of the protagonists are supported by Coca-Cola Latin America’s Living Positively program, part of the company’s commitment to social and environmental values.
The documentaries were directed by world-renowned Latin American filmmakers: Kátia Lund (“City of God”) from Brazil, Carlos Carrera (“The Crime of Father Amaro”) from Mexico, Natalia Smirnoff (“Puzzle”) from Argentina, and Ciro Guerra (“The Wandering Shadows”) from Colombia. Each of the four installments will focus on a different social cause: creating opportunities for work and education in impoverished communities, encouraging healthy bodies and minds, recycling, and agriculture. The heroes and their projects are based countries throughout the region, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Mexico and Peru.
“The stories in ‘Viviendo Positivamente’ inspire viewers to become aware, to get involved, to change, to contribute to their community and improve their own lives,” said Guido Rosales, Integrated Marketing Communications Director for Coca-Cola Latin America. “Together with the National Geographic Channel and high-caliber directing talent, we are conveying these messages in a compelling and powerful way. Our organizations share a lot of synergy, and we’re pleased to be working with a leader of innovative and educational programming with such impressive scale in the region.”
“We found in each protagonist a powerful human and social value that deserved to be documented and shared with society,” said Fernando Semenzato, Svp of Content for Fox International Channels Latin America. “Nat Geo and Coca-Cola share a passion for sustainable development and environmental preservation, and we’re thrilled we had the opportunity to work together to produce special content that aims to inform, entertain, and educate audiences about our world and the environment in which we live.”
The documentary series was first introduced with stories from Argentina and Mexico, directed by Natalia Smirnoff and Carlos Carrera.
In Argentina, high in the mountains of Rosario de Lerma, live extremely isolated communities. There, Ana Virasoro leads the Alfarcito Foundation and a school that provides technical education and the only possibility for young people to improve their lives. Nat Geo followed their work, and shares this source of inspiration.
Later, the Nat Geo team tells the story of Salvador Casteñeda, whose life was changed radically by education. Even though he had to struggle against his education to preserve his indigenous language and customs, it made it possible for him to fight for the rights of indigenous groups today.
The documentary serves as the latest example of Coca-Cola’s innovative approach to creating content, and highlights the company’s commitment to sustainability and sharing happiness. You can download the trailer reel and a sneak peek of the first episode here.
For more information on Coca-Cola’s Live Positively program, visit http://livepositively.com or http://viviendopositivamente.com.
For more information on National Geographic Channels, visit www.natgeotv.com.
- 11/7/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Getty Argentine director Natalia Smirnoff
Western filmmakers, critics and academics have a thing for categorizing. There’s nothing that gives them more pleasure than assigning films to genres and then further dividing them by philosophical ideal and country. (“The Bicycle Thief”? Italian neo-realism!) Of course, that tendency can be optimistic. When “Tulpan,” the 2008 Kazakh film, came out, there were rumbles of a Kazakh New Wave, a movement that has to materialize.
For Argentine director Natalia Smirnoff, the “Argentine New Wave” label is a tiresome one.
Western filmmakers, critics and academics have a thing for categorizing. There’s nothing that gives them more pleasure than assigning films to genres and then further dividing them by philosophical ideal and country. (“The Bicycle Thief”? Italian neo-realism!) Of course, that tendency can be optimistic. When “Tulpan,” the 2008 Kazakh film, came out, there were rumbles of a Kazakh New Wave, a movement that has to materialize.
For Argentine director Natalia Smirnoff, the “Argentine New Wave” label is a tiresome one.
- 5/27/2011
- by Julie Steinberg
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
Of course there'll be another roundup on The Tree of Life. But first, let's give a little breathing room to some of the other films opening this Memorial Day Weekend.
"The extreme leftists of the 1960s and 70s who sought to change the world one bomb at a time might have been unhappy to know that their revolutionary legacy is doing nice business at that bourgeois temple, the art house," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "It's a legacy that in recent years and specifically since 9/11 has been romanticized and critiqued in movies like The Motorcycle Diaries (a prehistory involving the young Che Guevara); Che (about his campaigns in Cuba and Bolivia); The Baader Meinhof Complex (German leftists who embraced violence); Good Morning, Night (the kidnapping of the former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades); Carlos (the Venezuelan Marxist turned mercenary). United Red Army tells much the same story,...
"The extreme leftists of the 1960s and 70s who sought to change the world one bomb at a time might have been unhappy to know that their revolutionary legacy is doing nice business at that bourgeois temple, the art house," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "It's a legacy that in recent years and specifically since 9/11 has been romanticized and critiqued in movies like The Motorcycle Diaries (a prehistory involving the young Che Guevara); Che (about his campaigns in Cuba and Bolivia); The Baader Meinhof Complex (German leftists who embraced violence); Good Morning, Night (the kidnapping of the former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades); Carlos (the Venezuelan Marxist turned mercenary). United Red Army tells much the same story,...
- 5/27/2011
- MUBI
The marvelous Argentinean actor María Onetto is adept at playing women whose facades are on the verge of crumbling in ways evident to the audience, even if the characters around them don’t notice. Puzzle, the feature debut of writer-director Natalia Smirnoff, isn’t as ambitious, confounding, or excellent as the last film in which Onetto appeared on U.S. screens, Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless Woman. But it does offer another showcase for Onetto to have what’s essentially an unnoticed breakdown amid an affectionate but oblivious family. In the opening sequence, Onetto’s meek housewife is frantically ...
- 5/26/2011
- avclub.com
Reviewed by Amanda Georges
(May 2011)
Directed/Written by: Natalia Smirnoff
Starring: Maria Onetto, Gabriel Goity and Arturo Goetz
It is her 50th birthday, and Maria del Carmen (Maria Onetto) is collecting the shards of a broken dinner plate. With maternal care, she arranges the fragments in a circle in a matter of seconds. There is a piece missing, but there is no time to search for it as she needs to bring out the cake, one that she baked and decorated for her own birthday and will clean up after her guests have departed.
Natalia Smirnoff’s film “Puzzle” (“Rompecabezas”) tells you most of what you need to know about its protagonist in the first few minutes: Maria is enslaved by her domestic life, to the point that she prepares and serves her birthday meal to a room of oblivious family and friends, and does it all with a smile that hides her aggravation.
(May 2011)
Directed/Written by: Natalia Smirnoff
Starring: Maria Onetto, Gabriel Goity and Arturo Goetz
It is her 50th birthday, and Maria del Carmen (Maria Onetto) is collecting the shards of a broken dinner plate. With maternal care, she arranges the fragments in a circle in a matter of seconds. There is a piece missing, but there is no time to search for it as she needs to bring out the cake, one that she baked and decorated for her own birthday and will clean up after her guests have departed.
Natalia Smirnoff’s film “Puzzle” (“Rompecabezas”) tells you most of what you need to know about its protagonist in the first few minutes: Maria is enslaved by her domestic life, to the point that she prepares and serves her birthday meal to a room of oblivious family and friends, and does it all with a smile that hides her aggravation.
- 5/25/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
Reviewed by Amanda Georges
(May 2011)
Directed/Written by: Natalia Smirnoff
Starring: Maria Onetto, Gabriel Goity and Arturo Goetz
It is her 50th birthday, and Maria del Carmen (Maria Onetto) is collecting the shards of a broken dinner plate. With maternal care, she arranges the fragments in a circle in a matter of seconds. There is a piece missing, but there is no time to search for it as she needs to bring out the cake, one that she baked and decorated for her own birthday and will clean up after her guests have departed.
Natalia Smirnoff’s film “Puzzle” (“Rompecabezas”) tells you most of what you need to know about its protagonist in the first few minutes: Maria is enslaved by her domestic life, to the point that she prepares and serves her birthday meal to a room of oblivious family and friends, and does it all with a smile that hides her aggravation.
(May 2011)
Directed/Written by: Natalia Smirnoff
Starring: Maria Onetto, Gabriel Goity and Arturo Goetz
It is her 50th birthday, and Maria del Carmen (Maria Onetto) is collecting the shards of a broken dinner plate. With maternal care, she arranges the fragments in a circle in a matter of seconds. There is a piece missing, but there is no time to search for it as she needs to bring out the cake, one that she baked and decorated for her own birthday and will clean up after her guests have departed.
Natalia Smirnoff’s film “Puzzle” (“Rompecabezas”) tells you most of what you need to know about its protagonist in the first few minutes: Maria is enslaved by her domestic life, to the point that she prepares and serves her birthday meal to a room of oblivious family and friends, and does it all with a smile that hides her aggravation.
- 5/25/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Pune International Film Festival poster
The Pune International Film Festival 2011 will be held from 6 to 13 January 2011. Silent Souls / Ovsyanki directed by Aleksei Fedorchenko of Russia, a film competing in World Cinema section will be the opening film of the festival.
The Government of Maharashtra will present the “Prabhat” Best International Film award comprising of $20,000 and “Prabhat” Best International Film Director comprising of $10,000.
The other awards in the festival are: Government of Maharashtra’s – “Sant Tukaram” Best International Marathi Film (Rs 5Lac), Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Maha Mandal Best Marathi Film Director (Rs.25,000), Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Maha Mandal – Best Marathi Film Actor( Rs.25,000) and Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Maha Mandal – Best screenplay Rs.25,000.
Life Time Achievement Awards will also be presented for outstanding contribution to Indian cinema.
For Whistling Woods International, Student Competition, the awards are: Best Film ($ 2000), Best Director ($ 1000) and Best Screen Play (Us $ 1000). There is a special award for student cinematographers...
The Pune International Film Festival 2011 will be held from 6 to 13 January 2011. Silent Souls / Ovsyanki directed by Aleksei Fedorchenko of Russia, a film competing in World Cinema section will be the opening film of the festival.
The Government of Maharashtra will present the “Prabhat” Best International Film award comprising of $20,000 and “Prabhat” Best International Film Director comprising of $10,000.
The other awards in the festival are: Government of Maharashtra’s – “Sant Tukaram” Best International Marathi Film (Rs 5Lac), Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Maha Mandal Best Marathi Film Director (Rs.25,000), Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Maha Mandal – Best Marathi Film Actor( Rs.25,000) and Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Maha Mandal – Best screenplay Rs.25,000.
Life Time Achievement Awards will also be presented for outstanding contribution to Indian cinema.
For Whistling Woods International, Student Competition, the awards are: Best Film ($ 2000), Best Director ($ 1000) and Best Screen Play (Us $ 1000). There is a special award for student cinematographers...
- 1/4/2011
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Among those they have tapped for the fest they have a premium Midnight Screening for Gilles Marchand's Black Heaven and they are closing the festival with Julie Bertuccelli's The Tree. - The Sales/Distribution/Production company continually pluck from a batch of interesting U.S independent film auteurs (they are back on board with So Yong Kim for her to be released in the Fall title, For Ellen), grabbing select Euro titles Natalia Smirnoff's Puzzle (a Berlin) along with French films which we've been talking non-stop for the better half of year. Among those they have tapped for the fest they have a premium Midnight Screening for Gilles Marchand's Black Heaven and they are closing the festival with Julie Bertuccelli's The Tree. (see Charlotte Gainsbourg in pic above). On the sales side of things, they are working with Marchand's partner in crime Dominik Moll...
- 5/13/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
The Sales/Distribution/Production company continually pluck from a batch of interesting U.S independent film auteurs (they are back on board with So Yong Kim for her to be released in the Fall title, For Ellen), grabbing select Euro titles Natalia Smirnoff's Puzzle (a Berlin) along with French films which we've been talking non-stop for the better half of year. Among those they have tapped for the fest they have a premium Midnight Screening for Gilles Marchand's Black Heaven and they are closing the festival with Julie Bertuccelli's The Tree. (see Charlotte Gainsbourg in pic above). On the sales side of things, they are working with Marchand's partner in crime Dominik Moll's filmed in Spain fantasy pic and are onboard Pawel Pawlikowski's new project – a helmer who's sabbatical has lasted a tad too long. Black Heaven (L'autre Monde) by Gilles Marchand - Completed The Monk...
- 5/12/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
This year's Guadalajara Film Festival (Ficg - Festival International de Cine Guadalajara) has so many events, sections and sidebars that one barely knows where to begin. Established in 1986 it now has an attendence of about 66,000 with industry attendence at about 3,000 all of whom are interested in interacting with one another and with filmmakers in an extremely friendly upbeat environment. Its festival has a competition for Mexican and Iberoamerican fiction, docs and shorts, French features with a focus on Agnes Varda, animation, alternative, childrens, and of course gala sections. It has a film market, numerous panels and has incorporated several key international initiatives.
About my ever active Women Directors' Tally: Of 160 new features at the festival, 27 are by women, equalling 16%. Those women are the ones who are currently playing the most important festivals: Paz Fabrega, Natalia Smirnoff, Florence Jaugey, Maria Novaro, Renate Costa, Urszula Antoniak, Elizabeth Chi Vasarhelyi, the ones not...
About my ever active Women Directors' Tally: Of 160 new features at the festival, 27 are by women, equalling 16%. Those women are the ones who are currently playing the most important festivals: Paz Fabrega, Natalia Smirnoff, Florence Jaugey, Maria Novaro, Renate Costa, Urszula Antoniak, Elizabeth Chi Vasarhelyi, the ones not...
- 3/25/2010
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Guadalajara, Mexico -- Carlos Gaviria's Colombian road movie "Portraits in a Sea of Lies" and Nicolas Pereda's minimalist drama "Perpetuum Mobile," a Mexico-Canada co-production, took top honors on Friday at the 25th edition of the Guadalajara International Film Festival.
"Portraits," Gaviria's freshman feature, revolves around a mute teenager who discovers dark secrets of her past while on a road trip with her cousin. Produced by Producciones Erwin Goggel, the film is seeking international distribution. Actress Paola Baldion nabbed best actress.
The austere drama "Perpetuum Mobile," produced by En Chinga Films, marks the second big victory on the Mexican film circuit for Pereda. His previous work, "Donde Estan Sus Historias?" won the jury prize at the Morelia International Film Festival in 2007.
The jury gave best director nods to Mexican helmer Carlos Carrera for his ghost story "Of Childhood," while the Ibero-American prize went to Ecuadorian filmmaker Sebastian Cordero for "Rabia,...
"Portraits," Gaviria's freshman feature, revolves around a mute teenager who discovers dark secrets of her past while on a road trip with her cousin. Produced by Producciones Erwin Goggel, the film is seeking international distribution. Actress Paola Baldion nabbed best actress.
The austere drama "Perpetuum Mobile," produced by En Chinga Films, marks the second big victory on the Mexican film circuit for Pereda. His previous work, "Donde Estan Sus Historias?" won the jury prize at the Morelia International Film Festival in 2007.
The jury gave best director nods to Mexican helmer Carlos Carrera for his ghost story "Of Childhood," while the Ibero-American prize went to Ecuadorian filmmaker Sebastian Cordero for "Rabia,...
- 3/19/2010
- by By John Hecht
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Until women reach a 50-50 parity with men directors, my mission continues to count the women directors in upcoming and recent film festivals (and an occasional informal glance at what’s selling in the markets). Women’s films in Berlin reflect women’s place in the world both in content and in the numbers of women represented as directors, producers, writers, etc. John Cooper of Sundance stresses the increasing and possibly 50-50 parity of women producers, but I am looking at the directors. As March is Women’s History Month (and all the other months are Men’s History Month according to Gloria Steinem’s L.A. Times Article of March 4, 2010) this blog is in honor of all women everywhere.
Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow for winning the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture. La Times puts into perspective the fact that the Best Director Oscar went to Kathryn Bigelow...
Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow for winning the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture. La Times puts into perspective the fact that the Best Director Oscar went to Kathryn Bigelow...
- 3/8/2010
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
The Hollywood Reporter announced that IFC Films has acquired North American rights to the Berlin International Film Fest title, Puzzle, directed by Natalia Smirnoff. The Argentine film will be released this year after the fall festival roundup via IFC's In Theaters platform--making the VOD version available the same day as the theatrical premiere.
Puzzle follows forty-something housewife Maria del Carmen (Maria Onetto) who has doted on her husband and children for the past twenty years. When she receives a puzzle as a birthday present, she suddenly discovers she has a gift for assembling them at lightning speed--something her family ignores. As her passion for puzzles grows, the bonds of her relationships are tested.
We can add this title to the long list of narrative films and documentaries that pay homage to the geeky hobbies and games many of us love. Puzzle takes its place alongside fictional films like Mazes and Monsters,...
Puzzle follows forty-something housewife Maria del Carmen (Maria Onetto) who has doted on her husband and children for the past twenty years. When she receives a puzzle as a birthday present, she suddenly discovers she has a gift for assembling them at lightning speed--something her family ignores. As her passion for puzzles grows, the bonds of her relationships are tested.
We can add this title to the long list of narrative films and documentaries that pay homage to the geeky hobbies and games many of us love. Puzzle takes its place alongside fictional films like Mazes and Monsters,...
- 2/22/2010
- by Alison Nastasi
- Cinematical
IFC Films has picked up North American rights to "Puzzle," a favorite at this year's Berlin Film Festival. Story follows a woman who learns she's gifted at puzzling. Natalia Smirnoff made this her first film and it had irs Berlinale competition debut on last Thursday night. Maria Onetto stars as a middle-aged, family-devoted housewife who, after is given a puzzle, finds she can solve it quickly and takes on a tournament training partner (played Arturo Goetz). Jonathan Sehring of IFC said, "'Puzzle' completely charmed our entire team at the Berlinale. It is one of the rare crowd pleasers that manages to respect its audience and deliver profound thrills."...
- 2/21/2010
- Upcoming-Movies.com
IFC Films has acquired North American rights to the Argentine film "Puzzle," directed by Natalia Smirnoff, which had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Produced by Carousel Films' Gabriele Pastore and Caroline Dhainaut from La Ninas Pictures, the film stars Maria Onetta as an older housewife who discovers she has a knack for solving puzzles.
IFC Films will release "Puzzle" this year via its IFC in Theaters platform, which combines a theatrical release with simultaneous VOD availability.
The deal was negotiated by IFC's Elizabeth Nastro with Emilie Georges and Tanja Meissner of Memento Films International.
Produced by Carousel Films' Gabriele Pastore and Caroline Dhainaut from La Ninas Pictures, the film stars Maria Onetta as an older housewife who discovers she has a knack for solving puzzles.
IFC Films will release "Puzzle" this year via its IFC in Theaters platform, which combines a theatrical release with simultaneous VOD availability.
The deal was negotiated by IFC's Elizabeth Nastro with Emilie Georges and Tanja Meissner of Memento Films International.
- 2/21/2010
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Natalia Smirnoff, an art director-turned casting director-turned filmmaker will see her debut film, what appears to be a Berlin Film Festival favorite, get a theatrical run via the IFC folks. Smirnoff, who's worked with Lucrecia Martel and Pablo Trapero, saw her debut film Puzzle receive a Films In Progress screening at the San Sebastian Film Festival, just prior to landing a main comp spot in Berlin. - Natalia Smirnoff, an art director-turned casting director-turned filmmaker will see her debut film, what appears to be a Berlin Film Festival favorite, get a theatrical run via the IFC folks. Smirnoff, who's worked with Lucrecia Martel and Pablo Trapero, saw her debut film Puzzle receive a Films In Progress screening at the San Sebastian Film Festival, just prior to landing a main comp spot in Berlin. IFC is planning to release the film in the Fall, in my estimation a Toronto Int. Film...
- 2/20/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
By Wrap Staff
IFC Films has acquired North American rights to "Puzzle," the debut feature from Argentine director Natalia Smirnoff, a former casting director.
Produced by Carousel Films’ Gabriele Pastore and Caroline Dhainaut from La Ninas Pictures, "Puzzle" had its world premiere in competition at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival.
IFC Films plans to take the film to upcoming fall film festivals and release the film shortly thereafter as part of its IFC in...
IFC Films has acquired North American rights to "Puzzle," the debut feature from Argentine director Natalia Smirnoff, a former casting director.
Produced by Carousel Films’ Gabriele Pastore and Caroline Dhainaut from La Ninas Pictures, "Puzzle" had its world premiere in competition at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival.
IFC Films plans to take the film to upcoming fall film festivals and release the film shortly thereafter as part of its IFC in...
- 2/20/2010
- by Lisa Horowitz
- The Wrap
IFC Films has announced that it has acquired North American rights to the Berlin competition title "Puzzle," the debut feature from Argentine director Natalia Smirnoff. The film is produced by Carousel Films' Gabriele Pastore and Caroline Dhainaut from La Ninas Pictures. IFC Films plans to take the film to upcoming fall film festivals and release the film shortly thereafter. "'Puzzle' completely charmed our entire team at the Berlinale," Jonathan Sehring, President ...
- 2/19/2010
- Indiewire
Cologne, Germany – The Berlin International Film Festival has added the documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop" from British street artist Bansky to its official 60th anniversary program, completing its 2010 lineup.
"Exit Through The Gift Shop," which debuted in Sundance, will have an out of competition screening in Berlin.
Included among the films competing for this year's Berlinale Gold and Silver Bears, previously announced, include Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer;" Noah Baubach's "Greenberg" starring Ben Stiller; Oskar Roehler's period drama "Jew Suss – Rise and Fall" and "Apart Together" from Chinese director Wang Quan'an, which opens the Berlinale Feb. 11.
Japanese film "About Her Brother" from Berlinale veteran Yoji Yamada will close the festival Feb. 20. It will be the seventh Berlin entry for the prodigious filmmaker, who will receive an honorary lifetime achievement Berlin Camera prize at the festival on Feb. 20.
The 60th Berlin International Film Festival will also feature the world premiere,...
"Exit Through The Gift Shop," which debuted in Sundance, will have an out of competition screening in Berlin.
Included among the films competing for this year's Berlinale Gold and Silver Bears, previously announced, include Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer;" Noah Baubach's "Greenberg" starring Ben Stiller; Oskar Roehler's period drama "Jew Suss – Rise and Fall" and "Apart Together" from Chinese director Wang Quan'an, which opens the Berlinale Feb. 11.
Japanese film "About Her Brother" from Berlinale veteran Yoji Yamada will close the festival Feb. 20. It will be the seventh Berlin entry for the prodigious filmmaker, who will receive an honorary lifetime achievement Berlin Camera prize at the festival on Feb. 20.
The 60th Berlin International Film Festival will also feature the world premiere,...
- 2/1/2010
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Berlin -- The Berlin International Film Festival is going indie for its 60th anniversary with new films from Michael Winterbottom, Noah Baumbach, Thomas Vinterberg and other independent filmmakers among this year's competition lineup.
Baumbach's comedy "Greenberg" starring Ben Stiller as a New Yorker house sitting for his brother in Los Angeles, will have its world premiere in Berlin as will Vinterberg's latest, "Submario," a Danish drama that sees the director of "The Celebration" returning to the treacherous landscape of familial relationships.
Winterbottom's Western thriller "The Killer Inside Me" starring Casey Affleck will head to Berlin after its world premiere in Sundance, one of several titles catching the Park City-Berlin express this year. These include "Howl," a drama from famed documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman centered on poet Allen Ginsberg's 1957 obscenity trial; Nicole Holofcener's comedy "Please Give" starring Catherine Keener and Amanda Peet and Lisa Cholodenko's "The Kids Are Alright.
Baumbach's comedy "Greenberg" starring Ben Stiller as a New Yorker house sitting for his brother in Los Angeles, will have its world premiere in Berlin as will Vinterberg's latest, "Submario," a Danish drama that sees the director of "The Celebration" returning to the treacherous landscape of familial relationships.
Winterbottom's Western thriller "The Killer Inside Me" starring Casey Affleck will head to Berlin after its world premiere in Sundance, one of several titles catching the Park City-Berlin express this year. These include "Howl," a drama from famed documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman centered on poet Allen Ginsberg's 1957 obscenity trial; Nicole Holofcener's comedy "Please Give" starring Catherine Keener and Amanda Peet and Lisa Cholodenko's "The Kids Are Alright.
- 1/20/2010
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian -- Sir Ian McKellen picked up the Donostia lifetime achievement award late Wednesday at the 57th San Sebastian International Film Festival, thanking the festival for recognizing his 50-year acting career, rather than just one performance.
"If I'm in competition, it's with myself alone," McKellen said, after receiving the statue from Spanish actor Josep Maria Pou.
Also Wednesday, Imanol Uribe received the first Zinemira award, newly created by the festival to reward a Basque filmmaker.
Spanish Film Academy president Alex de la Iglesia -- a native of the Basque region, where the festival is held on Spain's northern coast -- gave Uribe the award.
Elsewhere, Federico Veiroj's Uruguayan "La Vida Util," won the grand prize at the Films in Progress sidebar, securing post-production financing to a finished 35 mm copy of the film. Actor Daniel Hendler's directorial debut "Norberto Apenas Tarde," from Uruguay, won the Tve Award --...
"If I'm in competition, it's with myself alone," McKellen said, after receiving the statue from Spanish actor Josep Maria Pou.
Also Wednesday, Imanol Uribe received the first Zinemira award, newly created by the festival to reward a Basque filmmaker.
Spanish Film Academy president Alex de la Iglesia -- a native of the Basque region, where the festival is held on Spain's northern coast -- gave Uribe the award.
Elsewhere, Federico Veiroj's Uruguayan "La Vida Util," won the grand prize at the Films in Progress sidebar, securing post-production financing to a finished 35 mm copy of the film. Actor Daniel Hendler's directorial debut "Norberto Apenas Tarde," from Uruguay, won the Tve Award --...
- 9/24/2009
- by By Pamela Rolfe
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Madrid -- Six unfinished films from Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina will screen at the 57th San Sebastian International Film Festival in the Films in Progress sidebar, competing for post-production financing and a foothold in the international festival circuit.
The increasingly popular sidebar, which has garnered an energetic following from buyers looking to get a first glimpse at nearly finished, promising projects from Latin America, has seen many of its winners screen at the world's top festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and San Sebastian.
Answering to the growing popularity of the section, organizers said they received 115 projects from 21 countries -- significantly up from the 64 titles submitted last year.
Backed by a wide-range of professional entities, the top film wins post-production financing until receiving a 35mm English subtitled print. Other awards include €60,000 ($86,000) from pubcaster Television Espanola in exchange for Spanish broadcast rights and the Casa de America award with...
The increasingly popular sidebar, which has garnered an energetic following from buyers looking to get a first glimpse at nearly finished, promising projects from Latin America, has seen many of its winners screen at the world's top festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and San Sebastian.
Answering to the growing popularity of the section, organizers said they received 115 projects from 21 countries -- significantly up from the 64 titles submitted last year.
Backed by a wide-range of professional entities, the top film wins post-production financing until receiving a 35mm English subtitled print. Other awards include €60,000 ($86,000) from pubcaster Television Espanola in exchange for Spanish broadcast rights and the Casa de America award with...
- 8/25/2009
- by By Pamela Rolfe
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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