Barbara Rupik’s “Cherub” was awarded the Eurimages New Lab Awards for Innovation at CineMart, the co-production market arm of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, with Lilian Hess’ “Duchampiana” taking home the Eurimart New Lab Award for Outreach.
Rupik’s project follows the titular creatures, shape-shifting angelic beings with human heads and birdlike wings, as they descend to a forgotten village to claim the soul of a dying girl. The director’s statement says that “Cherub” will blend “elements that are grotesque, musical, dramatic and horror in the genre, woven out of folklore and rural traditions.” Rubik, the author of the puppet animation in Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s “Silent Twins,” and whose shorts have been awarded at Cannes and Dok Leipzig, also took home the Wouter Barendrecht Award worth €5,000.
“Duchampiana” is an artistic VR experience focused on body politics and inspired by Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase.” The installation will...
Rupik’s project follows the titular creatures, shape-shifting angelic beings with human heads and birdlike wings, as they descend to a forgotten village to claim the soul of a dying girl. The director’s statement says that “Cherub” will blend “elements that are grotesque, musical, dramatic and horror in the genre, woven out of folklore and rural traditions.” Rubik, the author of the puppet animation in Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s “Silent Twins,” and whose shorts have been awarded at Cannes and Dok Leipzig, also took home the Wouter Barendrecht Award worth €5,000.
“Duchampiana” is an artistic VR experience focused on body politics and inspired by Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase.” The installation will...
- 1/30/2024
- by Rafa Sales Ross
- Variety Film + TV
Polish animation project Cherub won two of the seven prizes of the CineMart co-production market of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
The winners were selected from 20 projects in development presented at CineMart and six projects nearing completion taking part in the Darkroom work-in-progress programme.
Cherub, by debut feature director Barbara Rupik and produced through Madants, won the Eurimages New Lab Award for Innovation, worth €20,000, and the Wouter Barendrecht Award, worth €5,000.
The Polish animation tells of shape-shifting angelic beings who descend from the sky to a small, forgotten village to claim the soul of a dying girl.
The CineMart jury hailed...
The winners were selected from 20 projects in development presented at CineMart and six projects nearing completion taking part in the Darkroom work-in-progress programme.
Cherub, by debut feature director Barbara Rupik and produced through Madants, won the Eurimages New Lab Award for Innovation, worth €20,000, and the Wouter Barendrecht Award, worth €5,000.
The Polish animation tells of shape-shifting angelic beings who descend from the sky to a small, forgotten village to claim the soul of a dying girl.
The CineMart jury hailed...
- 1/30/2024
- ScreenDaily
Polish animation project Cherub won two of the seven prizes handed out tonight (January 30) at CineMart, the co-production market of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
The winners were selected from 20 projects in development presented at CineMart and six projects nearing completion taking part in the Darkroom work-in-progress programme.
Cherub, by debut feature director Barbara Rupik and produced through Madants, won the Eurimages New Lab Award for Innovation, worth €20,000, and the Wouter Barendrecht Award, worth €5,000.
The Polish animation tells of shape-shifting angelic beings who descend from the sky to a small, forgotten village to claim the soul of a dying girl.
The winners were selected from 20 projects in development presented at CineMart and six projects nearing completion taking part in the Darkroom work-in-progress programme.
Cherub, by debut feature director Barbara Rupik and produced through Madants, won the Eurimages New Lab Award for Innovation, worth €20,000, and the Wouter Barendrecht Award, worth €5,000.
The Polish animation tells of shape-shifting angelic beings who descend from the sky to a small, forgotten village to claim the soul of a dying girl.
- 1/30/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Berlin Film Festival, which runs Feb. 15-25, has revealed the lineup of its Berlinale Co-Production Market.
Producers of 34 film projects from 27 countries will be pitching to potential financing and co-production partners at the 21st Berlinale Co-Production Market, which runs Feb. 17-21. Seventeen projects are directed by women. There were 318 submissions, a slight increase from last year.
Eighteen of the projects are already partly financed with budgets ranging between Euros 600,000 and Euros 5 million ($5.47 million). Among the directors whose new works are likely to spark interest are Ukrainian filmmakers Kateryna Gornostai, who won a Crystal Bear for “Stop-Zemlia” in 2021, and Antonio Lukich, the director of “Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” which played in Venice in 2022, Italy’s Andrea Pallaoro, Serbian director and actor Mirjana Karanović, and the Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka.
The Berlinale Directors section features three brand-new projects by directors who have had films at the Berlinale in the past: “Alma” from Sally Potter,...
Producers of 34 film projects from 27 countries will be pitching to potential financing and co-production partners at the 21st Berlinale Co-Production Market, which runs Feb. 17-21. Seventeen projects are directed by women. There were 318 submissions, a slight increase from last year.
Eighteen of the projects are already partly financed with budgets ranging between Euros 600,000 and Euros 5 million ($5.47 million). Among the directors whose new works are likely to spark interest are Ukrainian filmmakers Kateryna Gornostai, who won a Crystal Bear for “Stop-Zemlia” in 2021, and Antonio Lukich, the director of “Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” which played in Venice in 2022, Italy’s Andrea Pallaoro, Serbian director and actor Mirjana Karanović, and the Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka.
The Berlinale Directors section features three brand-new projects by directors who have had films at the Berlinale in the past: “Alma” from Sally Potter,...
- 1/9/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
International Film Festival Rotterdam has revealed its selection of 16 feature film projects for the 41st edition of CineMart, running Jan. 28-31.
In Another Journey Without Women six chain-smoking know-it-alls embark on a tragi-comedic polar expedition in Greenland in 1918. The film is directed by Illum Jacobi, whose The Trouble With Nature appeared at IFFR in 2020. The film features Greenlandic actor Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen in the lead role, alongside David Dencik and Claes Bang as the famed explorer Knud Rasmussen.
“Lucia,” directed by Irish filmmaker Aisling Walsh, concerns the talented but troubled daughter of author James Joyce. The director’s “Maudie” (2016), starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, world premiered in Telluride.
In “Les Diplomates,” two diplomatic counterparts from Austria and Switzerland secretly negotiate the contours of history as the Eastern Bloc disintegrates – fueled by a petty personal grudge. The project is directed by Swiss filmmaker Andreas Fontana, whose eerie thriller “Azor” (2021) picked...
In Another Journey Without Women six chain-smoking know-it-alls embark on a tragi-comedic polar expedition in Greenland in 1918. The film is directed by Illum Jacobi, whose The Trouble With Nature appeared at IFFR in 2020. The film features Greenlandic actor Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen in the lead role, alongside David Dencik and Claes Bang as the famed explorer Knud Rasmussen.
“Lucia,” directed by Irish filmmaker Aisling Walsh, concerns the talented but troubled daughter of author James Joyce. The director’s “Maudie” (2016), starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, world premiered in Telluride.
In “Les Diplomates,” two diplomatic counterparts from Austria and Switzerland secretly negotiate the contours of history as the Eastern Bloc disintegrates – fueled by a petty personal grudge. The project is directed by Swiss filmmaker Andreas Fontana, whose eerie thriller “Azor” (2021) picked...
- 12/14/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Selection includes new projects by Aisling Walsh, Ena Sendijarević, Andreas Fontana and Beatrice Gibson
Projects by directors including Aisling Walsh, Ena Sendijarević, Andreas Fontana and Beatrice Gibson are among the 2024 line-up for CineMart, the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
CineMart has revealed 16 feature film projects and four immersive projects for its upcoming 41st edition, which runs from January 28-31. Cinemart is also presenting six works-in-progress, of which four are features and two immersive, as part of its Darkroom strand.
The project selection includes Lucia from Irish filmmaker Aisling Walsh whose Maudie (2016), starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke,...
Projects by directors including Aisling Walsh, Ena Sendijarević, Andreas Fontana and Beatrice Gibson are among the 2024 line-up for CineMart, the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
CineMart has revealed 16 feature film projects and four immersive projects for its upcoming 41st edition, which runs from January 28-31. Cinemart is also presenting six works-in-progress, of which four are features and two immersive, as part of its Darkroom strand.
The project selection includes Lucia from Irish filmmaker Aisling Walsh whose Maudie (2016), starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke,...
- 12/13/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: For the second time this week, we can reveal a milestone performance for a Mubi film, with the update that Park Chan-wook’s Decision To Leave has become the company’s most streamed film in North America.
We’re told the Cannes 2022 hit has now surpassed North America engagement for films such as Lars Von Trier’s The Kingdom, Gotham nominee Azor, Werner Herzog’s Family Romance and Terrence Malick’s Voyage Of Time.
Decision To Leave is also the company’s best-performing title on transactional platforms in the market.
Tang Wei and Park Hae-il (The Host) star in the story of a detective investigating a man’s death in the mountains who meets the dead man’s mysterious wife in the course of his dogged sleuthing.
Voracious arthouse streaming platform and theatrical buyer Mubi kicked on a gear last year with the splashy Mg it paid for all U.
We’re told the Cannes 2022 hit has now surpassed North America engagement for films such as Lars Von Trier’s The Kingdom, Gotham nominee Azor, Werner Herzog’s Family Romance and Terrence Malick’s Voyage Of Time.
Decision To Leave is also the company’s best-performing title on transactional platforms in the market.
Tang Wei and Park Hae-il (The Host) star in the story of a detective investigating a man’s death in the mountains who meets the dead man’s mysterious wife in the course of his dogged sleuthing.
Voracious arthouse streaming platform and theatrical buyer Mubi kicked on a gear last year with the splashy Mg it paid for all U.
- 2/10/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Rather like the arc of the moral universe, “Argentina, 1985” is long, but bends toward justice. Effectively dramatizing the country’s landmark Trial of the Juntas, history’s first instance of a civilian justice system convicting a military dictatorship, Santiago Mitre’s broad, sprawling, heart-on-sleeve courtroom saga may draw from the same nightmarish period of history that has informed much of Argentine cinema’s most essential, haunting works — from 1985’s Oscar-winning “The Official Story” to last year’s “Azor” — but eschews any subtle arthouse stylings for a storytelling sensibility as robustly populist as anything by Sorkin or Spielberg.
Small wonder, then, that Amazon Studios has boarded a film clearly aiming to be both a domestic smash and an international crossover hit — buoyed by the reliable star power of Ricardo Darín, his signature suaveness tempered by a walrus mustache and boxy ‘80s frames as Julio Strassera, the dogged prosecutor who took on this charged,...
Small wonder, then, that Amazon Studios has boarded a film clearly aiming to be both a domestic smash and an international crossover hit — buoyed by the reliable star power of Ricardo Darín, his signature suaveness tempered by a walrus mustache and boxy ‘80s frames as Julio Strassera, the dogged prosecutor who took on this charged,...
- 9/3/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The American myth-making machine’s love for pumping out heroes, like so many cape-wearing sausages, finds its antithesis in “Argentina, 1985,” that takes the baton from Shakespeare’s idea that “some men have greatness thrust upon them.” This is very much the case for Julio Strassera (Ricardo Darín), a family man who is aghast at his appointment as lead prosecutor in what became known as “The Trial of the Juntas.”
Director Santiago Mitre raises the curtain at a moment in his nation’s history when there is but a glimmer of a possibility of making a break from the military dictatorship that operated from 1976-1983, torturing, kidnapping, and terrorizing anyone it deemed a threat. Mitre presents self-determination as hinging on what kind of trial the nine generals who ruled the military government will experience. With their power still casting a long shadow, they lobby for a military trial where they will...
Director Santiago Mitre raises the curtain at a moment in his nation’s history when there is but a glimmer of a possibility of making a break from the military dictatorship that operated from 1976-1983, torturing, kidnapping, and terrorizing anyone it deemed a threat. Mitre presents self-determination as hinging on what kind of trial the nine generals who ruled the military government will experience. With their power still casting a long shadow, they lobby for a military trial where they will...
- 9/3/2022
- by Sophie Monks Kaufman
- Indiewire
Focusing on female protagonists, Spanish director Elena López Riera shies away from old tropes of promiscuity, desire, and the sealed fates they typically dictate in her first feature film, “El Agua.”
Sold by Adeline Fontan-Tessau-headed Elle Driver for international and distributed in Spain by Filmin (“Lucas”) and producer Maria Zamora and distributor Enrique Costa’s Elastica Films (“Alcarrès”), the film keeps one foot planted firmly in reality, using found and documentary-style footage dispersed throughout to highlight a raw narrative. The other foot loosely traces the boundaries of ominous lore that’s woven through the narrative like fine thread, ever-beneath the surface of scenes dealing with young love, strong feminine bonds, and the urge to escape it all and begin anew.
“El Agua” is a co-production between Switzerland’s Alina FIlms (“Azor”), Spain’s Suica Films (“Lobster Soup”) and France’s Les Films du Worso (“Tumbuktu”), in conjunction with Swiss public broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse.
Sold by Adeline Fontan-Tessau-headed Elle Driver for international and distributed in Spain by Filmin (“Lucas”) and producer Maria Zamora and distributor Enrique Costa’s Elastica Films (“Alcarrès”), the film keeps one foot planted firmly in reality, using found and documentary-style footage dispersed throughout to highlight a raw narrative. The other foot loosely traces the boundaries of ominous lore that’s woven through the narrative like fine thread, ever-beneath the surface of scenes dealing with young love, strong feminine bonds, and the urge to escape it all and begin anew.
“El Agua” is a co-production between Switzerland’s Alina FIlms (“Azor”), Spain’s Suica Films (“Lobster Soup”) and France’s Les Films du Worso (“Tumbuktu”), in conjunction with Swiss public broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse.
- 5/19/2022
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
At long last, Cannes returns to its proper May slot. With the event kicking off next week, running from the 17th through the 28th, much cinematic greatness awaits.
Ahead of the festivities we’ve rounded up what we’re most looking forward to—and while we’re sure many surprises await, per every year, one will find twenty films that should already be on your radar. Check out our picks below and be sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest updates from the festival.
20. Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi)
Following his one-of-a-kind, Oscar-nominated fantasy drama Border, Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi is heading into Cannes competition with his next feature, Holy Spider. Based on a true story, it follows a female journalist (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi) investigating a serial killer who believes it is his righteous duty to murder sex workers and cleanse society. We imagine a provocative feature is in store from Abbasi,...
Ahead of the festivities we’ve rounded up what we’re most looking forward to—and while we’re sure many surprises await, per every year, one will find twenty films that should already be on your radar. Check out our picks below and be sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest updates from the festival.
20. Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi)
Following his one-of-a-kind, Oscar-nominated fantasy drama Border, Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi is heading into Cannes competition with his next feature, Holy Spider. Based on a true story, it follows a female journalist (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi) investigating a serial killer who believes it is his righteous duty to murder sex workers and cleanse society. We imagine a provocative feature is in store from Abbasi,...
- 5/12/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2021, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
It’s challenging to contextualize 2021, a year that largely felt like a gradual restart to moviegoing and, maybe, a new normal. Cinema, to that end, remains largely escapist, even if some pictures like Radu Jude’s Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn and Stop and Go (nee Recovery) directly confronted some of the anxiety—perhaps even some of the absurdity—of Covid times. 2020 was slated to be a year of big films and many of those (F9 and No Time to Die) surfaced in 2021, while some (Licorice Pizza and Spider-Man: No Way Home) were freshly made under extensive safety protocols. In some ways the multiplex in 2021 felt a lot like outlet shopping: certain films were fresh and on-trend, others felt like relics from another time.
On the festival front,...
It’s challenging to contextualize 2021, a year that largely felt like a gradual restart to moviegoing and, maybe, a new normal. Cinema, to that end, remains largely escapist, even if some pictures like Radu Jude’s Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn and Stop and Go (nee Recovery) directly confronted some of the anxiety—perhaps even some of the absurdity—of Covid times. 2020 was slated to be a year of big films and many of those (F9 and No Time to Die) surfaced in 2021, while some (Licorice Pizza and Spider-Man: No Way Home) were freshly made under extensive safety protocols. In some ways the multiplex in 2021 felt a lot like outlet shopping: certain films were fresh and on-trend, others felt like relics from another time.
On the festival front,...
- 1/12/2022
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSBetty White in Golden Girls. The iconic Betty White, best known for her comedic prowess on television shows like Golden Girls and the Mary Tyler Moore Show, died on New Year's Eve at the age of 99. The first woman to produce a sitcom, White also starred in films from a small part in Otto Preminger's Advise and Consent to Toy Story 4 (as a teething ring named Bitey White), and as Nell Minow writes in her obituary, "she was just as deliriously funny as herself."Steven Soderbergh has published his annual list of everything he's seen and read in 2021, ranging from the 2020 Olympic Games to "Magic Mike Live" and multiple viewings of The Maltese Falcon. Recommended VIEWINGYann Gonzalez (Knife + Heart) has directed a new short film, Fou de Bassan, which is available to view online.
- 1/5/2022
- MUBI
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2021, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
Two years into the pandemic, we’re still living through a collective nightmare, a cycle of crisis/reprieve/next-wave that can be so demoralizing. All the more reason, then, to be thankful for the filmmakers who soldiered on, telling stories that helped to make things feel less bad.
What a joy it was to travel through Siberia with the protagonists of Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment Number 6 and be reminded of the sparks of chemistry we share with random passers-by in our lives. How healing it felt to see a deep, life-changing bond develop between two strangers in Japanese filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s poetic Murakami adaptation Drive My Car. And bless Norwegian auteur Joachim Trier for the bittersweet ride that is The Worst Person in the World,...
Two years into the pandemic, we’re still living through a collective nightmare, a cycle of crisis/reprieve/next-wave that can be so demoralizing. All the more reason, then, to be thankful for the filmmakers who soldiered on, telling stories that helped to make things feel less bad.
What a joy it was to travel through Siberia with the protagonists of Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment Number 6 and be reminded of the sparks of chemistry we share with random passers-by in our lives. How healing it felt to see a deep, life-changing bond develop between two strangers in Japanese filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s poetic Murakami adaptation Drive My Car. And bless Norwegian auteur Joachim Trier for the bittersweet ride that is The Worst Person in the World,...
- 1/5/2022
- by Zhuo-Ning Su
- The Film Stage
Ivan de Wiel, private banker from Geneva, Switzerland, arrives in Buenos Aires with his wife Inès. A military coup has plunged the country into turmoil. De Wiel is in Argentina to take over the business left behind by his banking partner René Keys (Alain Gegenschatz), who had disappeared without a trace in Andreas Fontana’s haunting Azor, co-written with Mariano Llinas.
1977 in A Book of Common Prayer Joan Didion writes: “The day Luis was shot Elena flew to exile in Geneva, a theatrical gesture but unnecessary, since even before her plane left the runway the coup was over and Little Victor had assumed temporary control of the government.” The characters inhabiting Didion’s invented Central American nation Boca Grande could...
1977 in A Book of Common Prayer Joan Didion writes: “The day Luis was shot Elena flew to exile in Geneva, a theatrical gesture but unnecessary, since even before her plane left the runway the coup was over and Little Victor had assumed temporary control of the government.” The characters inhabiting Didion’s invented Central American nation Boca Grande could...
- 12/30/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Andreas Fontana’s haunting Azor, co-written with Mariano Llinas, stars Fabrizio Rongione and Stéphanie Cléau: “The cinematography was done by Gabriel Sandru and we were talking a lot about that.”
Andreas Fontana’s Azor, co-written with Mariano Llinas, shot by Gabriel Sandru with costumes by Simona Martínez, stars Fabrizio Rongione and Stéphanie Cléau.
Andreas Fontana with Anne-Katrin Titze on Jorge Luis Borges: “Borges of course in terms of literary inspiration is very important.”
In my discussion with the director we touch on the influence of Howard Hawks and Jorge Luis Borges, Joan Didion’s codes and games, casting director Alexandre Nazarian, the cinematography, costumes, and filming in Argentina with non-professional actors, “men who are very impressive”.
Boredom is seen as “divine punishment,” old money...
Andreas Fontana’s Azor, co-written with Mariano Llinas, shot by Gabriel Sandru with costumes by Simona Martínez, stars Fabrizio Rongione and Stéphanie Cléau.
Andreas Fontana with Anne-Katrin Titze on Jorge Luis Borges: “Borges of course in terms of literary inspiration is very important.”
In my discussion with the director we touch on the influence of Howard Hawks and Jorge Luis Borges, Joan Didion’s codes and games, casting director Alexandre Nazarian, the cinematography, costumes, and filming in Argentina with non-professional actors, “men who are very impressive”.
Boredom is seen as “divine punishment,” old money...
- 12/29/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Five Inspirations is a series in which we ask directors to share five things that shaped and informed their film. Andreas Fontana's Azor is exclusively showing on Mubi in many countries starting December 3, 2021 in the series Debuts.Inspiration #1I need to do research to write. During this research I take a lot of pictures. It's my way of finding something. For Azor, I have dozens and dozens of photos that served as references and that I had stuck in a large notebook that I carried with me on the set. Unfortunately this notebook is now stored in a cellar. This photo was taken during a horse race at the San Isidro Hippodrome, Buenos Aires, in 2017.Inspiration #2This book was given to me by Mariano Llinás during one of our meetings to work on the Azor script. It is a biography of one of the darkest, most troubled and ambiguous...
- 12/23/2021
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSWerner Herzog is set to publish his first novel, a semi-fictional retelling of the story of Hiroo Onda. A friend of Herzog, Onda is a former Japanese soldier known for spending 29 years in the jungle on an island in the Philippines, refusing to surrender at the end of World War II. Penguin Random House states that the novel is written in "an inimitable, hypnotic style—part documentary, part poem, and part dream." Following his erotic nunsploitation film Benedetta, Paul Verhoeven is making the erotic political thriller Young Sinner. The film, according to Verhoeven and RoboCop co-writer Edward Neumeier, will take place in Washington DC and focus on a young staffer "drawn into a web of international intrigue and danger." As this is a Verhoeven film, Neumeir promises that there will be "also be a little sex.
- 12/13/2021
- MUBI
An eerie, unsettling conspiracy drama about the ultra-wealthy from director Andreas Fontana, in which a Swiss banker navigates Argentina’s dirty war
50 best films of 2021 in the UKMore on the best culture of 2021
Pure evil is all around in this unnervingly subtle, sophisticated movie; it is a conspiracy drama-thriller, shot with a kind of desiccated blankness, about the occult world of super-wealth and things not to be talked about. The title is a Swiss banker’s codeword in conversation for “be silent”. It is set in 1980 in Argentina, at the time of the junta’s dirty war against leftists and dissidents. Azor gives a queasy new perspective on the horror of those times, and there is even a nauseous echo of the Swiss banks’ attitude to their German neighbours in the second world war.
Yvan (Fabrizio Rongione) is a private banker from Geneva – elegant, discreet, an excellent speaker of Spanish,...
50 best films of 2021 in the UKMore on the best culture of 2021
Pure evil is all around in this unnervingly subtle, sophisticated movie; it is a conspiracy drama-thriller, shot with a kind of desiccated blankness, about the occult world of super-wealth and things not to be talked about. The title is a Swiss banker’s codeword in conversation for “be silent”. It is set in 1980 in Argentina, at the time of the junta’s dirty war against leftists and dissidents. Azor gives a queasy new perspective on the horror of those times, and there is even a nauseous echo of the Swiss banks’ attitude to their German neighbours in the second world war.
Yvan (Fabrizio Rongione) is a private banker from Geneva – elegant, discreet, an excellent speaker of Spanish,...
- 12/8/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Andreas Fontana's Azor is exclusively showing on Mubi in many countries starting December 3, 2021 in the series Debuts.In Carol Reed's The Third Man, Harry Lime—for so much of the film a semi-mythic spectre—reaches about for a metaphor for worthy, peaceable dullness to contrast with the culturally fertile ferment of Renaissance-era Italy. He comes up with Switzerland. "In Switzerland," he drawls, in that infuriatingly amused, contemptuous baritone of his, "They had brotherly love, and they had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." Swiss director Andreas Fontana's Azor, an impossibly accomplished feature debut in which the character of René Keys becomes a structuring absence to rival Lime's, challenges that assertion. And not just because, as we've all been made aware by the tsk-ing of a thousand pedants since, the cuckoo clock actually originates in Bavaria.
- 12/3/2021
- MUBI
The 31st annual Gotham Awards is a key stop in the awards season marathon, especially for lower-budget indies looking for some traction for the Oscars race. However, not every likely Oscar contender found itself up for Gothams, including “The Power of the Dog,” “Tick, Tick… Boom!” and “The Harder They Fall,” as they exceeded the $35 million budget limit for nominees.
For the first time, international documentaries were eligible in the best documentary feature category. Additionally, the new award breakthrough nonfiction series is among category updates for the year, as well as outstanding lead performance, outstanding supporting performance and outstanding performance in a new series, from the television side. Outstanding lead performance, breakthrough performance and outstanding supporting performance were all gender neutral categories, with eight men and 14 women nominated.
Netflix’s “The Lost Daughter” ran away with the evening, scoring the most amount of wins with prizes in best feature, breakthrough director for Maggie Gyllenhaal,...
For the first time, international documentaries were eligible in the best documentary feature category. Additionally, the new award breakthrough nonfiction series is among category updates for the year, as well as outstanding lead performance, outstanding supporting performance and outstanding performance in a new series, from the television side. Outstanding lead performance, breakthrough performance and outstanding supporting performance were all gender neutral categories, with eight men and 14 women nominated.
Netflix’s “The Lost Daughter” ran away with the evening, scoring the most amount of wins with prizes in best feature, breakthrough director for Maggie Gyllenhaal,...
- 11/30/2021
- by Katie Song
- Variety Film + TV
The Gotham Awards were handed out on November 29 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. So who won at these annual indie film kudos from The Gotham Film and Media Institute, which streamed on YouTube and Facebook? Scroll down for the complete list of winners in all categories.
Netflix’s “The Lost Daughter” and “Passing” went in as the two most nominated films with five apiece, but that didn’t automatically mean they were the front-runners. Categories at these awards are judged by panels of just a handful of industry insiders, often leading to unexpected, under-the-radar winners. You can’t count anyone out at an event where unique juries review all the nominated material.
Seersvp now for November 30: Film producers panel with ‘Being the Ricardos,’ ‘Belfast,’ ‘The Power of the Dog,’ ‘tick, tick… Boom!’
That means these awards can be quite idiosyncratic — they’re independent thinkers, and not...
Netflix’s “The Lost Daughter” and “Passing” went in as the two most nominated films with five apiece, but that didn’t automatically mean they were the front-runners. Categories at these awards are judged by panels of just a handful of industry insiders, often leading to unexpected, under-the-radar winners. You can’t count anyone out at an event where unique juries review all the nominated material.
Seersvp now for November 30: Film producers panel with ‘Being the Ricardos,’ ‘Belfast,’ ‘The Power of the Dog,’ ‘tick, tick… Boom!’
That means these awards can be quite idiosyncratic — they’re independent thinkers, and not...
- 11/30/2021
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
The Gotham Awards took place on November 29 in Lower Manhattan, back in their usual prime slot at the start of the awards season. The event marks the first significant awards ceremony of the season, ahead of most critics groups and guilds.
Films with budgets exceeding $35 million are automatically disqualified from Gotham Awards consideration. For this reason, major Oscar contenders from Netflix, such as Jane Campion’s Venice winner “Power of the Dog,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s feature directorial debut “Tick Tick Boom,” Jeymes Samuels’ “The Harder They Fall,” and Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” did not make the cut.
Kristen Stewart received this year’s Performer Tribute thanks to her performance in “Spencer.” Other...
Films with budgets exceeding $35 million are automatically disqualified from Gotham Awards consideration. For this reason, major Oscar contenders from Netflix, such as Jane Campion’s Venice winner “Power of the Dog,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s feature directorial debut “Tick Tick Boom,” Jeymes Samuels’ “The Harder They Fall,” and Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” did not make the cut.
Kristen Stewart received this year’s Performer Tribute thanks to her performance in “Spencer.” Other...
- 11/30/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Indie titles include ‘Azor’, ‘The Football Monologues’.
Edgar Wright’s London-set psychological horror Last Night In Soho leads the openers at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, broaching new ground for the director as his first 18-rated title.
Released by Universal, the film is playing in 519 locations – the third-widest opener of Wright’s career, after Baby Driver with 544 and The World’s End with 531.
Wright’s highest-grossing opening weekend is still Hot Fuzz, which took £4.4m from 427 sites – an outstanding figure for a 2007 release.
That title is also his highest-grossing total, with £21.2m; other highlights include Baby Driver (£13.1m), The World’s End...
Edgar Wright’s London-set psychological horror Last Night In Soho leads the openers at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, broaching new ground for the director as his first 18-rated title.
Released by Universal, the film is playing in 519 locations – the third-widest opener of Wright’s career, after Baby Driver with 544 and The World’s End with 531.
Wright’s highest-grossing opening weekend is still Hot Fuzz, which took £4.4m from 427 sites – an outstanding figure for a 2007 release.
That title is also his highest-grossing total, with £21.2m; other highlights include Baby Driver (£13.1m), The World’s End...
- 10/29/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
“The Green Knight,” “The Lost Daughter,” “Passing,” “Pig” and “Test Pattern” will compete for best feature film at the 31st annual Gotham Awards. The event is key stop in the awards season marathon, particularly for lower-budgeted indie fare that is looking to elbow into the Oscars race.
At the Gothams, “Passing,” a black-and-white drama that examines racism and colorist, and “The Lost Daughter,” a searing look at motherhood, led the pack with five nominations apiece. Close behind was “Coda,” a tender look at a teenager who is the only hearing member of a deaf family, earned three nominations including one of breakthrough performer for its star Emilia Jones. “Red Rocket,” the story of a washed-up porn star who returns to his hometown, also nabbed three nominations.
Nominees for the best documentary prize include “Ascension,” “Faya Dayi,” “Flee,” “President,” and “Summer Of Soul.” Best international feature is a race between “Azor,...
At the Gothams, “Passing,” a black-and-white drama that examines racism and colorist, and “The Lost Daughter,” a searing look at motherhood, led the pack with five nominations apiece. Close behind was “Coda,” a tender look at a teenager who is the only hearing member of a deaf family, earned three nominations including one of breakthrough performer for its star Emilia Jones. “Red Rocket,” the story of a washed-up porn star who returns to his hometown, also nabbed three nominations.
Nominees for the best documentary prize include “Ascension,” “Faya Dayi,” “Flee,” “President,” and “Summer Of Soul.” Best international feature is a race between “Azor,...
- 10/21/2021
- by Brent Lang and Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
The annual Gotham Awards is, once again, the first prominent awards ceremony out of the gate during Oscar season, thanks to this morning’s nominations announcement. Films with budgets exceeding $35 million are automatically disqualified from Gotham Awards consideration. For this reason, major Oscar contenders from Netflix, such as Jane Campion’s Venice winner “Power of the Dog,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s feature directorial debut “Tick Tick Boom,” Jeymes Samuels’ “The Harder They Fall,” and Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” did not make the cut.
Prior to the nominations announcement, the Gotham Awards confirmed that Kristen Stewart would be the recipient of this year’s Performer Tribute thanks to her performance in “Spencer.” Other honorees include Eamonn Bowles (who is receiving the Industry Tribute), the cast of “The Harder They Fall” (receiving the Ensemble Tribute), and Campion (who is receiving the Director’s Tribute).
The Gotham Awards don’t always line up with the Oscars,...
Prior to the nominations announcement, the Gotham Awards confirmed that Kristen Stewart would be the recipient of this year’s Performer Tribute thanks to her performance in “Spencer.” Other honorees include Eamonn Bowles (who is receiving the Industry Tribute), the cast of “The Harder They Fall” (receiving the Ensemble Tribute), and Campion (who is receiving the Director’s Tribute).
The Gotham Awards don’t always line up with the Oscars,...
- 10/21/2021
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Arthouse streamer and distributor Mubi is launching a U.S. in-theater offering this month letting members see one film a week that it selects at participating cinemas starting in New York City. It said Mubi Go will roll out nationwide in selected markets with LA next in early 2022.
Mubi Go (available in the U.K. and India) will launch Oct. 29 with Netflix’s Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall, that premiered at Sundance and screened at the New York Film Festival. Subscribers can get a free ticket during the film’s theatrical engagement at the Paris Theater and IFC Center ahead of its Nov. 10 streaming release on Netflix.
Adapted from the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, Passing is the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), who can pass as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the height of the Harlem Renaissance.
Mubi Go (available in the U.K. and India) will launch Oct. 29 with Netflix’s Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall, that premiered at Sundance and screened at the New York Film Festival. Subscribers can get a free ticket during the film’s theatrical engagement at the Paris Theater and IFC Center ahead of its Nov. 10 streaming release on Netflix.
Adapted from the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, Passing is the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), who can pass as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the height of the Harlem Renaissance.
- 10/19/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Andreas Fontana’s debut feature is an unnervingly subtle drama about a Swiss private banker visiting clients in Argentina during the period of the military junta and ‘disappearances’
Pure evil is all around in this unnervingly subtle, sophisticated movie; an eerie oppression in the air. Andreas Fontana is a Swiss director making his feature debut with this conspiracy drama-thriller, shot with a kind of desiccated blankness, about the occult world of super-wealth and things not to be talked about. The title is a Swiss banker’s code-word in conversation for “Be silent”.
It is set in 1980 in Argentina, at the time of the junta’s dirty war against leftists and dissidents, and you could set it alongside recent movies including Benjamín Naishtat’s Rojo (2018) and Francisco Márquez’s A Common Crime (2020), which intuited the almost supernatural fear among those left behind when people they knew had vanished and joined los desaparecidos,...
Pure evil is all around in this unnervingly subtle, sophisticated movie; an eerie oppression in the air. Andreas Fontana is a Swiss director making his feature debut with this conspiracy drama-thriller, shot with a kind of desiccated blankness, about the occult world of super-wealth and things not to be talked about. The title is a Swiss banker’s code-word in conversation for “Be silent”.
It is set in 1980 in Argentina, at the time of the junta’s dirty war against leftists and dissidents, and you could set it alongside recent movies including Benjamín Naishtat’s Rojo (2018) and Francisco Márquez’s A Common Crime (2020), which intuited the almost supernatural fear among those left behind when people they knew had vanished and joined los desaparecidos,...
- 10/13/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The 17th Zurich Film Festival concluded Saturday with wins for Jonas Carpignano‘s “A Chiara” and Fred Baillif’s “La Mif,” with Renato Borrayo Serrano’s “Life of Ivanna” named best documentary.
The jury, led by Daniel Brühl, and featuring director Stéphanie Chuat, former Berlinale chief Dieter Kosslick and producer Andrea Cornwell, decided to award “A Chiara” with the prize for the best film of the Feature Film Competition. The Italian-French-Swedish-Danish co-production sees a teenage girl in a Calabrian town discovering her father’s criminal involvement.
“We were swept away by the modern take on the Italian neorealist tradition, the exceptional use of music and sound design and the outstanding performances by Swami Rotolo and her family, all making their film debuts. This film is nothing less than a cinematic masterpiece,” argued the jury, calling the decision “unanimous.”
Clint Bentley’s “Jockey” – praised for “an incredible performance” by Clifton Collins Jr.,...
The jury, led by Daniel Brühl, and featuring director Stéphanie Chuat, former Berlinale chief Dieter Kosslick and producer Andrea Cornwell, decided to award “A Chiara” with the prize for the best film of the Feature Film Competition. The Italian-French-Swedish-Danish co-production sees a teenage girl in a Calabrian town discovering her father’s criminal involvement.
“We were swept away by the modern take on the Italian neorealist tradition, the exceptional use of music and sound design and the outstanding performances by Swami Rotolo and her family, all making their film debuts. This film is nothing less than a cinematic masterpiece,” argued the jury, calling the decision “unanimous.”
Clint Bentley’s “Jockey” – praised for “an incredible performance” by Clifton Collins Jr.,...
- 10/2/2021
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
“Show, don’t tell,” says conventional wisdom. “Conceal, conceal, conceal” responds director Andreas Fontana, whose debut feature “Azor” paints a portrait of fear using palpable gaps in conversation. As a Swiss banker, Yvan (Fabrizio Rongione) follows in the footsteps of his missing colleague, and Fontana’s self-assured filmmaking captures a chilling atmosphere against the backdrop of Argentina’s Dirty War. The film seldom wavers from its singular idea and feeling; tonally, it’s a stroll across a plateau by design, but it teeters constantly over that plateau’s edge.
A false tropical backdrop and washed-out footage of a well-dressed man with a forced smile yank us into the story and its permeating sense of artifice. Perhaps this man is Yvan’s missing business partner, or perhaps he is the idea of an influential outsider under the thumb of vastly more influential local forces. This is the world Yvan enters with...
A false tropical backdrop and washed-out footage of a well-dressed man with a forced smile yank us into the story and its permeating sense of artifice. Perhaps this man is Yvan’s missing business partner, or perhaps he is the idea of an influential outsider under the thumb of vastly more influential local forces. This is the world Yvan enters with...
- 9/8/2021
- by Siddhant Adlakha
- Indiewire
Movistar Plus, the pay TV/VOD operator of Spanish telco Telefonica, and the San Sebastian Festival, the biggest film event in the Spanish-speaking world, are bowing a multi-year alliance to simulcast select titles bowing at the festival in a Movistar Plus virtual screening room.
Imitating the limited access of a festival, the films will only be available for viewing on the days that they screen in San Sebastian.Movistar Plus subscribers will be able to purchase tickets on a VOD basis at a San Sebastian Festival Virtual Screening Room on the platform. Titles will include not only movies to which Movistar Plus has purchased pay TV rights for Spain, but also third-party titles, Cristina Burzako, Movistar Plus CEO, said Wednesday at a presentation of novel exhibition system in Madrid.
Films to which clients will be able to purchase virtual fest tickets include some of the strongest toitles screening at San Sebastian this year,...
Imitating the limited access of a festival, the films will only be available for viewing on the days that they screen in San Sebastian.Movistar Plus subscribers will be able to purchase tickets on a VOD basis at a San Sebastian Festival Virtual Screening Room on the platform. Titles will include not only movies to which Movistar Plus has purchased pay TV rights for Spain, but also third-party titles, Cristina Burzako, Movistar Plus CEO, said Wednesday at a presentation of novel exhibition system in Madrid.
Films to which clients will be able to purchase virtual fest tickets include some of the strongest toitles screening at San Sebastian this year,...
- 9/8/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
The 65 British Film Institute (BFI) London Film Festival has unveiled its full program and the headline galas include several films that have been gaining fame recently.
Among the galas are Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer,” with Kristen Stewart; Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” with Benedict Cumberbatch; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “King Richard,” with Will Smith; and Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” featuring a host of stars including Timothée Chalamet, Tilda Swinton and Léa Seydoux.
The galas also include Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta,” Eva Husson’s “Mothering Sunday,” Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter,” Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir: Part II” and Sarah Smith and Jean Philippe-Vine’s “Ron’s Gone Wrong.”
Special presentations include Clio Barnard’s “Ali & Ava,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria,” Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” Jacques Audiard’s “Paris, 13th District,...
Among the galas are Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer,” with Kristen Stewart; Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” with Benedict Cumberbatch; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “King Richard,” with Will Smith; and Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” featuring a host of stars including Timothée Chalamet, Tilda Swinton and Léa Seydoux.
The galas also include Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta,” Eva Husson’s “Mothering Sunday,” Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter,” Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir: Part II” and Sarah Smith and Jean Philippe-Vine’s “Ron’s Gone Wrong.”
Special presentations include Clio Barnard’s “Ali & Ava,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria,” Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” Jacques Audiard’s “Paris, 13th District,...
- 9/7/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The Sundance Institute on Thursday announced 10 participants for its upcoming weeklong Producers Lab — emerging producers behind five nonfiction and five fiction feature projects who will get a year of mentorship, creative support, and networking opportunities.
Additionally, Sundance also announced some of the lineup for its Producers Summit, which runs from August 2-5 on the online Sundance Collab platform. The event brings together financiers, agents, and distributors, alongside emerging and mid-career producers for discussions around issues in the field. Hasan Minhaj will deliver a keynote on the critical role of bold, personal storytelling.
The Producers Lab will take place July 25-29, and represent the beginning of a year of support participants will receive. On the fiction side, this year’s advisors include Mollye Asher (“Nomadland”), Amy Lo (“Nancy”), Paul Mezey (“After Yang”), and Laura Rister (“The Tale”). Nonfiction advisors include Violeta Bava (“Azor”) Jannat Gargi (Vice Studios), Andrea Meditch (“Fathom”), and...
Additionally, Sundance also announced some of the lineup for its Producers Summit, which runs from August 2-5 on the online Sundance Collab platform. The event brings together financiers, agents, and distributors, alongside emerging and mid-career producers for discussions around issues in the field. Hasan Minhaj will deliver a keynote on the critical role of bold, personal storytelling.
The Producers Lab will take place July 25-29, and represent the beginning of a year of support participants will receive. On the fiction side, this year’s advisors include Mollye Asher (“Nomadland”), Amy Lo (“Nancy”), Paul Mezey (“After Yang”), and Laura Rister (“The Tale”). Nonfiction advisors include Violeta Bava (“Azor”) Jannat Gargi (Vice Studios), Andrea Meditch (“Fathom”), and...
- 7/22/2021
- by Chris Lindahl
- Indiewire
The story of a Swiss banker traveling Argentina during the junta, “Azor” takes place in the cloistered world of private banking. A world one is often born into, with special codes of conduct and dialect, private bankers prefer to operate out of public view – that’s why the banks endure and build fortunes over centuries while their criminal clients may rise and fall. Azor itself is a code word meaning “to not say too much” or “to keep one’s cards close,” a trait that the film and its protagonist so excel at, viewers will be kept guessing until the last moment.
Read More: ‘Liborio’: Nino Martínez Sosa’s Debut Is A Moving Drama About Belief [Nd/Nf Review]
Yvan de Wiel (Fabrizio Rongione) is a third-generation Swiss banker traveling to Argentina for the first time after the disappearance of his partner, Rene Keys.
Continue reading ‘Azor’: Andreas Fontana’s Debut...
Read More: ‘Liborio’: Nino Martínez Sosa’s Debut Is A Moving Drama About Belief [Nd/Nf Review]
Yvan de Wiel (Fabrizio Rongione) is a third-generation Swiss banker traveling to Argentina for the first time after the disappearance of his partner, Rene Keys.
Continue reading ‘Azor’: Andreas Fontana’s Debut...
- 5/14/2021
- by Joe Blessing
- The Playlist
Above: What Do You See When You Look at the Sky?Awards: Golden Bear for Radu Jude's Bad Luck Banging or Loony PornTOP Picksdaniel KASMAN1. What Do You See When You Look at the Sky?2. Petite maman3. Limbo4. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn5. The Girl and the Spider6. Azor7. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy8. Mr. Bachmann and His Class9. Fabian - Going to the Dogs10. Just a MovementELA BITTENCOURT1. Fury is a Feeling Too2. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn3. What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?4. We5. Tzarevna Scaling6. The Girl and the Spider7. Taste8. Ski9. Manual for an Occupation: The First 54 Years10. Tie: Mr. Bachmann and His Class | As I WantCOVERAGEDANIEL KASMANFrom Where They Stood (Christopher Cognet, France)Fabian - Going to the Dogs (Dominik Graf, Germany)The Girl and the Spider (Ramon and Silvan Zürcher, Germany)What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (Alexandre Koberidze,...
- 3/17/2021
- MUBI
European Film Promotion, a network of 37 film promotion bodies from across the continent, is gathering 29 European sales companies from nine nations under the Europe! Umbrella at the virtual edition of the Hong Kong Intl. Film & TV Market (FilMart).
For the second year running the annual event has been moved online because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s edition, which is taking place from March 15-18, features a host of hot titles fresh off the recently concluded Berlin Film Festival, repped by leading European sales agents such as Germany’s Beta Cinema, Spain’s Latido Films, and Denmark’s LevelK.
Among the movies on offer are “I’m Your Man,” from Emmy Award-winning director Maria Schrader (“Unorthodox”), and “Next Door,” the directorial debut of German star Daniel Brühl, which both premiered in competition in Berlin, and are being sold by Beta. Other buzz titles include Maria Speth’s documentary “Mr. Bachmann and His Class,...
For the second year running the annual event has been moved online because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s edition, which is taking place from March 15-18, features a host of hot titles fresh off the recently concluded Berlin Film Festival, repped by leading European sales agents such as Germany’s Beta Cinema, Spain’s Latido Films, and Denmark’s LevelK.
Among the movies on offer are “I’m Your Man,” from Emmy Award-winning director Maria Schrader (“Unorthodox”), and “Next Door,” the directorial debut of German star Daniel Brühl, which both premiered in competition in Berlin, and are being sold by Beta. Other buzz titles include Maria Speth’s documentary “Mr. Bachmann and His Class,...
- 3/16/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Following hot on the heels of the recently wrapped Berlin Film Festival, this year’s online edition of the Hong Kong Intl. Film & TV Market (FilMart) will include a host of buzzy titles and award winners gathered under the Europe! Umbrella, which brings together 29 European sales agents in a virtual pavilion organized by European Film Promotion (Efp).
Beta Cinema will be presenting two Berlin competition titles which already closed a flurry of deals during the European Film Market. Emmy Award-winning director Maria Schrader’s (“Unorthodox”) wry romcom “I’m Your Man” (pictured), starring Dan Stevens (“Downton Abbey”), Maren Eggert and Sandra Hueller (“Toni Erdmann”), earned stellar reviews and a leading performance Silver Bear for Eggert. The company is also repping the dark comedy “Next Door,” the directorial debut of German star Daniel Brühl, who plays a version of himself in the film.
Also with two Berlinale competition selections on offer, Films Boutique...
Beta Cinema will be presenting two Berlin competition titles which already closed a flurry of deals during the European Film Market. Emmy Award-winning director Maria Schrader’s (“Unorthodox”) wry romcom “I’m Your Man” (pictured), starring Dan Stevens (“Downton Abbey”), Maren Eggert and Sandra Hueller (“Toni Erdmann”), earned stellar reviews and a leading performance Silver Bear for Eggert. The company is also repping the dark comedy “Next Door,” the directorial debut of German star Daniel Brühl, who plays a version of himself in the film.
Also with two Berlinale competition selections on offer, Films Boutique...
- 3/16/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The European Film Promotion organization is poised to return to Hong Kong’s FilMart with a virtual booth that befits this year’s online-only edition of the film rights market. Its umbrella stand will host 29 smaller European sales agencies, including four newcomers.
One of those, the French sales company Reel Suspects, will be pitching “Bliss” by Germany’s Henrika Kull, which recently made its festival debut in the Panorama section of the Berlin film festival.
The other first-time participants are: Rise and Shine World Sales from Germany, which will be promoting the Austrian documentary “Vienna Symphony” by Iva Svarcova and Malte Ludin; Spain’s Feelsales with the Italian-German coproduction “Hong Kong, Ga Yau,” a documentary by Marco Di Noia; and Media Move from Poland, which will be looking to attract buyers’ interest in the Serbian drama “Loan Shark” by Nemanja Ceranic.
Other films which made recent Berlinale debuts are Maria Schrader...
One of those, the French sales company Reel Suspects, will be pitching “Bliss” by Germany’s Henrika Kull, which recently made its festival debut in the Panorama section of the Berlin film festival.
The other first-time participants are: Rise and Shine World Sales from Germany, which will be promoting the Austrian documentary “Vienna Symphony” by Iva Svarcova and Malte Ludin; Spain’s Feelsales with the Italian-German coproduction “Hong Kong, Ga Yau,” a documentary by Marco Di Noia; and Media Move from Poland, which will be looking to attract buyers’ interest in the Serbian drama “Loan Shark” by Nemanja Ceranic.
Other films which made recent Berlinale debuts are Maria Schrader...
- 3/14/2021
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
The first thing one notices about “Azor” is how real it feels: the entitlement, the encyclopedic knowledge of “good” families, the multilingual fluency, the bonhomie of power. The main characters are a Swiss private banker and his wife, and it comes as no surprise to learn that director Andreas Fontana is himself the grandson of a Swiss private banker – he knows this milieu very well, and how those inside look at the world. It’s because every line uttered, every glance and body gesture, is so right that Fontana can take such a hermetic bubble, connect it with Argentina in 1980 when the military junta was flexing its murderous muscle, and turn it into a supremely confident debut. Even if this environment will be foreign to most viewers, “Azor” builds the mystery with such engrossing cleverness that the film should easily attract art-house audiences.
Private banker Yvan De Wiel (Fabrizio Rongione...
Private banker Yvan De Wiel (Fabrizio Rongione...
- 3/12/2021
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
The sleeper hit of the Berlinale. Very sly film! Filmed in Buenos Aires and Balcarce in November and December 2019, ‘Azor’, the first fiction feature film written and directed by Andreas Fontana, was selected in the Encounters section of Berlinale. Luxurious and ominous, a highly accomplished film for a debut, this feature film is an international co-production between Alina Films (Switzerland), Local Films (France) and Ruda Cine (Argentina).
Continue reading on SydneysBuzz The Blog »...
Continue reading on SydneysBuzz The Blog »...
- 3/4/2021
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.