South African filmmaker Kurt Orderson’s “Apetown,” one of 20 projects selected for this year’s CineMart, the co-production market at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, describes it as a “hard-hitting love letter to Cape Town.” The film is a South African urban story “weaving together hip-hop, graffiti, segregation and camaraderie,” told…
international
Several top international directors, including Alice Diop, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and Cristian Mungiu are demanding that their films be pulled from Iran’s Fajr Film Festival after learning that they had been sent to the fest by a regional distributor without their permission. Middle East distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment…
Taylor Lautner said on a recent episode of “The Toast” podcast that his relationship with Robert Pattinson was “definitely” impacted by the rivalry between their “Twilight” characters, the vampire Edward Cullen (Pattinson) and the werewolf Jacob Black (Lautner). The “Twilight” fandom created a massive frenzy over the rivalry, with “Team…
Stephen Fry has joined the cast of “Iron Box,” a multi-generational comedy about a New York businesswoman who journeys with her father to Poland in an effort to explore their roots. The film is being directed by Julia Von Heinz, best known for her work on “And Tomorrow the Entire…
The theatrical market across the Nordics recovered in 2022 without reaching pre-pandemic levels, driven predominantly by U.S. fare, such as “Top Gun: Maverick,” the biggest hit in Denmark, Finland and Sweden, “Minions: The Rise of Gru” No 1 in Iceland, and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” No 1 in Norway. As…
Bill Kong, Asia’s leading film producer, has turned quietly optimistic about the prospects for Chinese cinema. The sales and distribution arm of his Hong Kong-based Edko Films has picked up international sales rights to “Full River Red,” the Chinese film that’s the world’s highest grossing movie with a 2023 release.…
Toni Collette and Odessa Young have joined writer and director Nathan Silver’s “The Prima Donna,” a twisted and darkly funny revenge thriller about two feuding opera singers and the lengths they’ll go for the limelight. The film will reunite Collette and Young, who previously worked together on the acclaimed HBO…
‘MOTORWAY’ DIRECTOR IN THE DRIVING SEAT Cheang Pou Soi (better known as Soi Cheang) whose latest film “Mad Fate” will premiere this month at the Berlin Film Festival, will be further honored next month when the Hong Kong International Film Festival makes him its Filmmaker in Focus. He was born…
Paris-based MPM Premium has snagged the international sales rights to French-Colombian documentary “Transfariana” ahead of its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama section. The documentary, by French director-cinematographer Joris Lachaise, explores the unusual collaboration between the since-disbanded Colombian guerrilla group FARC and the trans activist movement in Colombia that led to changes in local…
India’s Reliance Entertainment, a producer on Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” has pacted with T-Series and Anubhav Sinha’s Benaras Mediaworks to distribute Sudhir Mishra’s “Afwaah,” Sinha’s “Bheed” and Hansal Mehta’s “Faraaz” internationally. First up is Mehta’s hostage drama “Faraaz,” starring Zahan Kapoor, Aditya Rawal, Juhi Babbar Soni, which releases Feb. 3.…
After exploring the tumults of French politics in “Baron Noir,” Oscar-nominated French-Lebanese filmmaker Ziad Doueiri (“The Insult,” “The Attack”) immerses audiences into the rough world of French Special Forces in Iraq in “Black Hearts.” Ordered by Amazon Prime Video in France, “Black Hearts” is set on the eve of the…
Prominent U.S. producer Christina Wayne, who shepherded “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad,” has been appointed managing director of MBC Studios, the expanding production arm of top Middle East broadcaster MBC Group. Wayne will replace Peter Smith, the former president of NBCUniversal, who over the past four years has overseen a…