A sign of Spain’s rising profile as a top market for Prime Video, Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios, and James Farrell, the L.A.-based VP of international originals at Prime Video, flew to Madrid this week, with the world premiere of “Red Queen” (“Reina Roja”), the series adaption of the first book in Juan Gómez-Jurado’s hit trilogy, taking place on Monday night.
The streamer is rolling off the record-breaking finale of its first weekly live entertainment show “Operación Triunfo,” and has revealed that the top three of the the ten most-watched Spanish Originals of 2023 – “My Fault,” “Awareness” and “Los Farad” – have received on average 80% of streams outside of Spain, reaching a milestone for the international reach of Prime Video’s non-English language content.
“The last 12 months has been a truly remarkable time for Spanish-language content,” said Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios at Prime Video.
The streamer is rolling off the record-breaking finale of its first weekly live entertainment show “Operación Triunfo,” and has revealed that the top three of the the ten most-watched Spanish Originals of 2023 – “My Fault,” “Awareness” and “Los Farad” – have received on average 80% of streams outside of Spain, reaching a milestone for the international reach of Prime Video’s non-English language content.
“The last 12 months has been a truly remarkable time for Spanish-language content,” said Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios at Prime Video.
- 2/28/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy and John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Outside its Market, of the eleven Spanish films elected for this year’s Berlin Film Festival, five have Catalan involvement, a testament to the significant investment and creative nurturing that occurs there. Below are those five and market highlights:
“Cura Sana” (Lucía G. Romero)
Produced by Escac Films, a Generation 14plus short delving into sisters’ lives shaped by ancestral violence, exploring deep familial bonds and the lasting impact of abuse.
“The Human Hibernation” (Anna Cornudella)
A sci-fi exploration of siblings undergoing hibernation, with only the sister awakening, blurring the lines between human and animal. A narrative of survival and awakening by Catalunya’s Joponica Films and Valladolid’s Batiak Films.
“Memories Of A Burning Body,” (Antonella Sudasassi Furniss)
A Berlin Panorama player, unraveling the repressed dimensions of womanhood, produced by Playlab Films and Costa Rica’s Substance Films. Sales: Bendita Film Sales.
“Reinas,” (Klaudia Reynicke)
In 1992 Lima, Lucia, Aurora, and...
“Cura Sana” (Lucía G. Romero)
Produced by Escac Films, a Generation 14plus short delving into sisters’ lives shaped by ancestral violence, exploring deep familial bonds and the lasting impact of abuse.
“The Human Hibernation” (Anna Cornudella)
A sci-fi exploration of siblings undergoing hibernation, with only the sister awakening, blurring the lines between human and animal. A narrative of survival and awakening by Catalunya’s Joponica Films and Valladolid’s Batiak Films.
“Memories Of A Burning Body,” (Antonella Sudasassi Furniss)
A Berlin Panorama player, unraveling the repressed dimensions of womanhood, produced by Playlab Films and Costa Rica’s Substance Films. Sales: Bendita Film Sales.
“Reinas,” (Klaudia Reynicke)
In 1992 Lima, Lucia, Aurora, and...
- 2/15/2024
- by Callum McLennan
- Variety Film + TV
Ja Bayona’s Society Of The Snow was the big winner at Spain’s Goya awards on Saturday night (February 10), scooping 12 prizes including best film and director to become the third-most garlanded film in Goya history.
Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall, was named best European film, and Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams won the prizes for best adapted screenplay and feature animation.
20,000 Species Of Bees, the feature debut of Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, received three Goyas for best new director and original screenplay for Solaguren, and best supporting actress for Ane Gabarain. The 15 nominations for Bees were the...
Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall, was named best European film, and Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams won the prizes for best adapted screenplay and feature animation.
20,000 Species Of Bees, the feature debut of Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, received three Goyas for best new director and original screenplay for Solaguren, and best supporting actress for Ane Gabarain. The 15 nominations for Bees were the...
- 2/11/2024
- ScreenDaily
“20.000 especies de abejas”, “La sociedad de la nieve”, “Saben Aquell” y “Cerrar los Ojos” encabezan las nominaciones a los premios Goya 2024.
El pasado jueves se anunciaron los nominados de la próxima edición de los prestigiosos Premios Goya, el destacado evento anual que celebra lo mejor del cine español. La gala de los Goya 2024 se celebrará el 10 de febrero en Valladolid, con la actriz y cantante Ana Belén y por Los Javis como presentadores. Aquí os dejamos con la lista de los nominados de esta edición:
Mejor PELÍCULA
20.000 especies de abejas
Cerrar los ojos
La sociedad de la nieve
Saben aquell
Un amor
Mejor DIRECCIÓN
Víctor Erice, Cerrar los ojos
Elena Martín, Creatura
J.A. Bayona, La sociedad de la nieve
David Trueba, Saben aquell
Isabel Coixet, Un amor
Mejor PELÍCULA Europea
Aftersun (Reino Unido)
Anatomía de una caída (Francia)
Las ocho montañas (Italia)
Safe Place (Croacia)
Sala de profesores...
El pasado jueves se anunciaron los nominados de la próxima edición de los prestigiosos Premios Goya, el destacado evento anual que celebra lo mejor del cine español. La gala de los Goya 2024 se celebrará el 10 de febrero en Valladolid, con la actriz y cantante Ana Belén y por Los Javis como presentadores. Aquí os dejamos con la lista de los nominados de esta edición:
Mejor PELÍCULA
20.000 especies de abejas
Cerrar los ojos
La sociedad de la nieve
Saben aquell
Un amor
Mejor DIRECCIÓN
Víctor Erice, Cerrar los ojos
Elena Martín, Creatura
J.A. Bayona, La sociedad de la nieve
David Trueba, Saben aquell
Isabel Coixet, Un amor
Mejor PELÍCULA Europea
Aftersun (Reino Unido)
Anatomía de una caída (Francia)
Las ocho montañas (Italia)
Safe Place (Croacia)
Sala de profesores...
- 12/2/2023
- by Marta Medina
- mundoCine
The Society Of The Snow has garnered 13 nominations, followed by Close Your Eyes and Jokes & Cigarettes with 11.
Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s 20,000 Species Of Bees leads the nominations for Spain’s prestigious Goya awards, which will be presented on February 10, 2024.
20,000 Species Of Bees premiered in competition at Berlin, going on to win the Silver Bear for best performance for Sofía Otero, playing an eight-year-old girl who spends a summer working in the Basque Country’s beehives while exploring her identity.
The film scored 15 nominations, including best film, best director and four nods in the acting categories.
Ja Bayona’s...
Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s 20,000 Species Of Bees leads the nominations for Spain’s prestigious Goya awards, which will be presented on February 10, 2024.
20,000 Species Of Bees premiered in competition at Berlin, going on to win the Silver Bear for best performance for Sofía Otero, playing an eight-year-old girl who spends a summer working in the Basque Country’s beehives while exploring her identity.
The film scored 15 nominations, including best film, best director and four nods in the acting categories.
Ja Bayona’s...
- 11/30/2023
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
20,000 Species Of Bees, the debut film by Basque filmmaker Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, and Society Of The Snow, J. A. Bayona’s survival drama for Netflix, have dominated the nominations at this year’s Goya Film Awards.
The nominations for Spain’s premiere film awards event were released this morning. 20,000 species of bees clocked 15 noms, including best film, screenplay, and best new director. Bayona’s Society Of The Snow clocked 13 noms, also landing in best film. Veteran Spanish filmmaker Víctor Erice trails behind with 11 nominations for his comeback feature Close Your Eyes, starring Ana Torrent.
20,000 Species Of Bees debuted at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where lead actor Sofía Otero took the silver bear for best leading performance. The film is set during a summer in a village house linked to beekeeping and follows an eight-year-old and her mother experiencing revelations that will change their lives forever.
Bayona...
The nominations for Spain’s premiere film awards event were released this morning. 20,000 species of bees clocked 15 noms, including best film, screenplay, and best new director. Bayona’s Society Of The Snow clocked 13 noms, also landing in best film. Veteran Spanish filmmaker Víctor Erice trails behind with 11 nominations for his comeback feature Close Your Eyes, starring Ana Torrent.
20,000 Species Of Bees debuted at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where lead actor Sofía Otero took the silver bear for best leading performance. The film is set during a summer in a village house linked to beekeeping and follows an eight-year-old and her mother experiencing revelations that will change their lives forever.
Bayona...
- 11/30/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
There’s an unnerving veil hanging over the windswept beaches and quaint rural milieus that make up “Creatura,” a brave and remarkably self-assured personal excavation film. Hailing from Catalan filmmaker and actress Elena Martín Gimeno, whose performance as the central figure Mila is both reassuring and vulnerable, “Creatura” follows one woman’s relationship to her body, desire, and sexuality, beginning with adulthood and eventually leading to her earliest childhood memories. The film observes an erratic adult Mila as she drifts through a series of adolescent memories. As various chapters from youthful summers unfurl like dreams, she attempts to heal her relationship with her body. Elegantly crafted and brazen in perspective, the film was awarded Best European Film at the 2023 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
It’s provocative, yes, but not overly titillating. Gimeno’s film is honest about the way girls are alienated from their own desires at every stage of development.
It’s provocative, yes, but not overly titillating. Gimeno’s film is honest about the way girls are alienated from their own desires at every stage of development.
- 5/25/2023
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Creatura, the debut feature from Spanish director Elena Martín Gimeno, has won the Europa Cinemas Label prize for best European film in the 2023 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight section. The drama, about a seemingly perfect couple who can’t manage to have sex anymore, explores themes of repression and female sexual desire.
Gimeno co-wrote the screenplay for Creatura with Clara Roquet and stars in the film alongside Clàudia Dalmau, Clàudia Borràs, Oriol Pla, Alex Brendemühl, Clara Segura, Marc Cartanyà and Carla Linares.
The European Cinemas jury called Creatura a “well-written and impressive portrayal of a woman as she tries to come to terms with her sexuality and intimacy while reflecting on her childhood and teenage experiences. This is a subject that has been covered before, but each character is so multi-layered and believable that the film is easy to relate to — both the female and the male characters. There are challenging moments but there is humor,...
Gimeno co-wrote the screenplay for Creatura with Clara Roquet and stars in the film alongside Clàudia Dalmau, Clàudia Borràs, Oriol Pla, Alex Brendemühl, Clara Segura, Marc Cartanyà and Carla Linares.
The European Cinemas jury called Creatura a “well-written and impressive portrayal of a woman as she tries to come to terms with her sexuality and intimacy while reflecting on her childhood and teenage experiences. This is a subject that has been covered before, but each character is so multi-layered and believable that the film is easy to relate to — both the female and the male characters. There are challenging moments but there is humor,...
- 5/25/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“Creatura,” the feature debut of Elena Martín, exploring female sexual desire and repression, has won this year’s 20th Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for best European Film at the 2022 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
Announced Thursday by Europa Cinemas, ahead of the closing ceremony this afternoon, the prize is one of two at Directors’ Fortnight, and awarded by one of the sidebar’s partners, given the section is non-competitive.
A second partner plaudit, the Sacd Prize, handed out by France’s Writers’ Guild, will be announced simultaneously to the Europa Cinemas Label.
“Creature” hit Cannes will multiple tailwinds. Like last year’s Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” it’s made by an emerging woman director associated by the so-called Catalan New Wave of helmers and producers making films twinning a strong sense of place and universal issues.
The second feature from 2021 Málaga best director Martín (“Júlia ist”) and a “Veneno” writer and “Perfect Life” director,...
Announced Thursday by Europa Cinemas, ahead of the closing ceremony this afternoon, the prize is one of two at Directors’ Fortnight, and awarded by one of the sidebar’s partners, given the section is non-competitive.
A second partner plaudit, the Sacd Prize, handed out by France’s Writers’ Guild, will be announced simultaneously to the Europa Cinemas Label.
“Creature” hit Cannes will multiple tailwinds. Like last year’s Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” it’s made by an emerging woman director associated by the so-called Catalan New Wave of helmers and producers making films twinning a strong sense of place and universal issues.
The second feature from 2021 Málaga best director Martín (“Júlia ist”) and a “Veneno” writer and “Perfect Life” director,...
- 5/25/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Updated with Sacd prize details: Spanish director Elena Martín Gimeno’s Creatura won the Europa Cinemas prize as Best European Film, while Pierre Caton’s Le Prince scooped the Sacd for best French film at Directors’ Fortnight on Thursday.
The prizes were announced ahead of the evening closing ceremony for the non-competitive parallel Directors Fortnight section.
The Europa Cinema label and Sacd prizes are the key collateral prizes awarded to films world premiering in the section.
Under the Europa Cinema prize, the release of Creatura will receive the support of cinemas belonging to the independent exhibitor network representing 3,060 screens in 38 countries. The jury consists of four exhibitor members of the network.
Creatura revolves around a seemingly perfect couple who no longer manage to have sex, prompting one partner to probe her past and her sexual sexual awakening, from adolescence back to early childhood.
French writers guild Sacd’s prize is...
The prizes were announced ahead of the evening closing ceremony for the non-competitive parallel Directors Fortnight section.
The Europa Cinema label and Sacd prizes are the key collateral prizes awarded to films world premiering in the section.
Under the Europa Cinema prize, the release of Creatura will receive the support of cinemas belonging to the independent exhibitor network representing 3,060 screens in 38 countries. The jury consists of four exhibitor members of the network.
Creatura revolves around a seemingly perfect couple who no longer manage to have sex, prompting one partner to probe her past and her sexual sexual awakening, from adolescence back to early childhood.
French writers guild Sacd’s prize is...
- 5/25/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Creatura
Barcelonian actress turned filmmaker Elena Martín (who was among the Spain Stars of Tomorrow 2022) brought her sophomore film project to San Sebastian Film Festival’s creative lab Ikusmira Berriak and the reason why this is high up on our list is: she co-wrote the project alongside Clara Roquet. A tale about the sexual and relationship history of a young woman, Creatura stars Martín, Clara Segura, Oriol Pla and Alex Brendemühl. This was produced by Lastor, Vilaüt Films, Avalon and Elastica Films. Martín got her feature film start with 2017 drama Júlia ist. Production took place in August of last year.…...
Barcelonian actress turned filmmaker Elena Martín (who was among the Spain Stars of Tomorrow 2022) brought her sophomore film project to San Sebastian Film Festival’s creative lab Ikusmira Berriak and the reason why this is high up on our list is: she co-wrote the project alongside Clara Roquet. A tale about the sexual and relationship history of a young woman, Creatura stars Martín, Clara Segura, Oriol Pla and Alex Brendemühl. This was produced by Lastor, Vilaüt Films, Avalon and Elastica Films. Martín got her feature film start with 2017 drama Júlia ist. Production took place in August of last year.…...
- 1/11/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
The Málaga Festival has never been bigger. To help navigate it, as well as Spain’s burgeoning production output, here’s a breakdown of its main section titles.
2022 Malaga Festival Lineup:
Main Competition
“Emperor Code,”
The Malaga Fest opener, a noirish crime thriller with special services operative Luis Tosar moonlighting for the elite, here trying to dig up the dirt on a young politico. Segueing rapidly to Netflix after an A Contracorriente release in Spain.
“A Mae,”
The latest from the prolific Brazilian narrative and doc director, maker of euthanasia-themed “Antes do fim,” and 2015’s “Hunger.” In it, a humble street vendor mother searches desperately for her missing son, claiming the right to at least bury his body.
“Almost in Love,”
A father-daughter relationship drama from notable Argentine auteur Brzezicki (“Noche”), backed by top-notch Latin American outfits – Argentina’s Ruda Films, Brazil’s Rt Features, Chile’s Quijote- plus Spain’s Vertigo Films,...
2022 Malaga Festival Lineup:
Main Competition
“Emperor Code,”
The Malaga Fest opener, a noirish crime thriller with special services operative Luis Tosar moonlighting for the elite, here trying to dig up the dirt on a young politico. Segueing rapidly to Netflix after an A Contracorriente release in Spain.
“A Mae,”
The latest from the prolific Brazilian narrative and doc director, maker of euthanasia-themed “Antes do fim,” and 2015’s “Hunger.” In it, a humble street vendor mother searches desperately for her missing son, claiming the right to at least bury his body.
“Almost in Love,”
A father-daughter relationship drama from notable Argentine auteur Brzezicki (“Noche”), backed by top-notch Latin American outfits – Argentina’s Ruda Films, Brazil’s Rt Features, Chile’s Quijote- plus Spain’s Vertigo Films,...
- 3/21/2022
- by John Hopewell and Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
Does life, once you’ve lived it for a little while, always have to get in the way of love? The simple question posed by German director Lisa Bierwith’s sedate but absorbing class- and culture-clash mid-life romance “Le Prince,” is one that can’t be answered simply, in grand declaratives or sweeping generalizations. So it feels right that this sensitively put-together relationship drama, produced by Maren Ade’s Komplizen Films, deals in neither. Between a white woman who moves in the upper echelons of Germany’s artworld and a Black Congolese businessman and diamond dealer, there springs up a love story that’s told in details, in the fleeting expressions and bitten-back words of two people warily working out if this thing they have is a precious stone or just so much cut glass.
Professionally outspoken but personally reserved Monica (Ursula Strauss) is the ambitious fortysomething curator of a leading Frankfurt art gallery,...
Professionally outspoken but personally reserved Monica (Ursula Strauss) is the ambitious fortysomething curator of a leading Frankfurt art gallery,...
- 8/29/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
A psychologist is forced to confront the fallout of a past romance in a neo-noir from Ventura Durall lacking visual punch
This is a Catalan neo-noir from director Ventura Durall that has a certain literary class: it’s wrapped in Hitchcockian shadow, fascinated by questions of identity, desire and time. But it’s a shame that Durall doesn’t find his torrid and sophisticated story the visual register it deserves, leaving The Offering with a humdrum televisual ambience that’s a bit unsatisfying.
Violeta (Anna Alarcón) is an apparently thriving psychologist who is one day confronted with a client, Rita (Verónica Echegui), who makes a disturbing revelation: she has discovered that her husband Jan (Alex Brendemühl) is still obsessed with his first love from 20 years back … Violeta. The increasingly brazen Rita tries to manoeuvre her into meeting Jan, ostensibly to cure their marital problems. As Violeta pop pills and prevaricates,...
This is a Catalan neo-noir from director Ventura Durall that has a certain literary class: it’s wrapped in Hitchcockian shadow, fascinated by questions of identity, desire and time. But it’s a shame that Durall doesn’t find his torrid and sophisticated story the visual register it deserves, leaving The Offering with a humdrum televisual ambience that’s a bit unsatisfying.
Violeta (Anna Alarcón) is an apparently thriving psychologist who is one day confronted with a client, Rita (Verónica Echegui), who makes a disturbing revelation: she has discovered that her husband Jan (Alex Brendemühl) is still obsessed with his first love from 20 years back … Violeta. The increasingly brazen Rita tries to manoeuvre her into meeting Jan, ostensibly to cure their marital problems. As Violeta pop pills and prevaricates,...
- 7/27/2021
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
In today’s Global Bulletin, Warner Bros. announced the Jan. 7 theatrical release for “Operation Mincemeat”; Nigerian Oscar submission “The Milkmaid” to headline BFI African Odyssey; Sovereign Film Distribution picks up Spanish thriller “The Offering”; BBC Music documents Glastonbury presents Live at Worthy Farm; and “Friends: The Reunion” heads to Zee5 in India.
Premiere
John Madden’s Colin Firth and Kelly Macdonald-starring WWII drama “Operation Mincemeat” will release in the U.K. and Ireland on Jan. 7, 2022, just in time for awards season, as reported by Deadline. Warner Bros. is distributing in most of Europe, including the U.K. and Ireland, with Netflix taking North American and Latin American rights in a $15M deal struck in March. Possible theatrical plans or a platform release date have not yet been announced by the streamer for those territories.
“Operation Mincemeat” is the film adaptation of Ben McIntyre’s novel, adapted by screenwriter Michelle Ashford.
Premiere
John Madden’s Colin Firth and Kelly Macdonald-starring WWII drama “Operation Mincemeat” will release in the U.K. and Ireland on Jan. 7, 2022, just in time for awards season, as reported by Deadline. Warner Bros. is distributing in most of Europe, including the U.K. and Ireland, with Netflix taking North American and Latin American rights in a $15M deal struck in March. Possible theatrical plans or a platform release date have not yet been announced by the streamer for those territories.
“Operation Mincemeat” is the film adaptation of Ben McIntyre’s novel, adapted by screenwriter Michelle Ashford.
- 5/24/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
In a pioneering alliance, Starzplay is partnering with Studiocanal, Europe’s leading film-tv production-distribution-sales company, on Starzplay’s first French co-production, the series “All Those Things We Never Said.”
Adapting the bestselling novel of the same title by Marc Levy, France’s most-read living author, the comedy-drama series is commissioned by Starzplay and Studiocanal parent, Vivendi’s Canal Plus Group — Europe’s second-biggest pay TV/SVOD operator.
Written by Levy, who will also showrun, the 10-part half-hour series has just initiated principal photography, starring Jean Reno and Alexandra Maria Lara. Studiocanal will handle international sales outside Starzplay and Cpg’s extensive distribution footprints.
Levy’s original novel was published in 2008. Described by Studiocanal, Starzplay and Cpg as “a bittersweet comedy with soul” and “wryly fun,” it taps into human relations — a reconnection with a father and a lost first love; a second chance at life — which carries new meaning as...
Adapting the bestselling novel of the same title by Marc Levy, France’s most-read living author, the comedy-drama series is commissioned by Starzplay and Studiocanal parent, Vivendi’s Canal Plus Group — Europe’s second-biggest pay TV/SVOD operator.
Written by Levy, who will also showrun, the 10-part half-hour series has just initiated principal photography, starring Jean Reno and Alexandra Maria Lara. Studiocanal will handle international sales outside Starzplay and Cpg’s extensive distribution footprints.
Levy’s original novel was published in 2008. Described by Studiocanal, Starzplay and Cpg as “a bittersweet comedy with soul” and “wryly fun,” it taps into human relations — a reconnection with a father and a lost first love; a second chance at life — which carries new meaning as...
- 5/19/2021
- by John Hopewell and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Barcelona-based film-tv studio Filmax has acquired international sales rights to Cesc Gay’s new comedy “Stories Not to Be Told,” which is currently shooting.
Filmax will also handle Spanish distribution to the latest outing from Gay, whose 2021 Goya Awards contender “The People Upstairs,” has sold to major territories in Europe and North America.
Written by Gay and regular co-scribe Tomás Aragay “(“In The City,” “Truman”), Gay’s ninth feature is produced by Marta Esteban at Imposible Films and backed by Spanish pubcaster Tve, Movistar Plus and Catalan pubcaster Tvc.
The film takes in five comedic tales that criss-cross at random and focus on the emotions of the main characters, Gay said, adding that the stories are “told with a lot of rhythm and action and characterized by acerbic, yet tongue-in-cheek tone, as the title suggests.”
The short stories are sparked by a chance meeting, the suffering of public humiliation or an absurd decision.
Filmax will also handle Spanish distribution to the latest outing from Gay, whose 2021 Goya Awards contender “The People Upstairs,” has sold to major territories in Europe and North America.
Written by Gay and regular co-scribe Tomás Aragay “(“In The City,” “Truman”), Gay’s ninth feature is produced by Marta Esteban at Imposible Films and backed by Spanish pubcaster Tve, Movistar Plus and Catalan pubcaster Tvc.
The film takes in five comedic tales that criss-cross at random and focus on the emotions of the main characters, Gay said, adding that the stories are “told with a lot of rhythm and action and characterized by acerbic, yet tongue-in-cheek tone, as the title suggests.”
The short stories are sparked by a chance meeting, the suffering of public humiliation or an absurd decision.
- 2/26/2021
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Know you’re in for a wild emotional ride when the word “mother” is in the title of a movie. Darren Aronofsky wrought biblical hell upon us with “mother!,” Bong Joon Ho showed us that you could be perhaps too good a mom in “Mother,” and Pedro Almodóvar painted a ravishing ode to screen goddesses with “All About My Mother.” Enter Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “Madre” into the canon of warped movies about motherhood. What could’ve been an exploitative affair between a mother and the doppelgänger of her lost child is instead a certainly unsettling but strangely touching new movie.
Set against the clammy coastal enclave of a French beach town, “Madre” revolves around Elena (Nieto) as the mother of a missing child. Ten years prior to the central events of the movie — and presaged by a harrowing single-take sequence that contains one of the most excruciating phone calls in...
Set against the clammy coastal enclave of a French beach town, “Madre” revolves around Elena (Nieto) as the mother of a missing child. Ten years prior to the central events of the movie — and presaged by a harrowing single-take sequence that contains one of the most excruciating phone calls in...
- 10/30/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
"I saw you following me." "Were you with him?" Strand Releasing has debuted an official US trailer for the Spanish dramatic thriller Madre, from acclaimed filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen. This first premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year, where it won the Venice Horizons Award for Best Actress. It also stopped by the Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival, Seville European Film Festival, and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival last year. Ten years have passed since Elena's son, then six years old, has disappeared. Today Elena lives and works at a seaside restaurant until she meets a French teenager who reminds her of her missing son. Marta Nieto stars as Elena, with an indie cast including Jules Porier, Alex Brendemühl, Anne Consigny, Frédéric Pierrot, and Guillaume Arnault. This looks very mysterious and suspenseful, with powerful atmospheric cinematography that makes it even more tense to watch. It's definitely worth a look. Here's the...
- 10/5/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Last weekend’s fourth edition of the Spanish Independent Film Festival and Market in Albacete saw El año del descubrimiento scoop the coveted Work in Progress award. On 25, 26 and 27 October, Abycine Lanza, the Albacete International Film Festival’s market for independent cinema, returned for a fourth year, the twenty-first for the festival itself. The coveted Work in Progress award, in the form of a €7,000 grant towards post-production costs, was presented to El año del descubrimiento, the second solo feature by Murcian director Luis López Carrasco (El futuro). The project is funded by Lacima Producciones (Spain) and Alina Film (Switzerland) — find out more here. Carrasco’s film beat off competition from three other finalists: La ofrenda, by Ventura Durall (The Two Lives of Andres Rabadan), starring Alex Brendemühl and Verónica Echegui — another Spanish–Swiss co-production, this time between Nanouk Films, Fasten, Suica Productions and Bord Cadre; Pedra Pàtria, a...
- 10/30/2019
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
There are two kinds of “what if” story. One plunges viewers into an immediate, all-too-imaginable situation, and invites them to consider how they might act and react; the other casts us into realms of uncanny uncertainty, inviting us to consider the world as we don’t quite know it. Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Oscar-nominated 2017 short “Madre” was an expert example of the former, placing us inside the head of a single mother freaking out over a phone call from her young son, who’s abandoned and imperiled on an unidentified beach neither she nor he can pinpoint. A parent’s worst nightmare of the most tightly wound order, it seemed an obvious candidate for feature treatment very much in the other “what if” camp — what was a palpitating mystery gives way to a kind of metaphysical love story, eliding the roles of parent, child and lover.
Only select distributors and audiences...
Only select distributors and audiences...
- 9/1/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Christian Petzold in front of a La Dolce Vita poster on Hans Dieter Huesch's lullaby Abendlied, sung by Franz Rogowski in Transit: "It's something about childhood, home, relief, and death." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Christian Petzold's latest, shot by his longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm, stars Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer with Barbara Auer, Lilien Batman, Alex Brendemühl, Godehard Giese, Maryam Zaree, and Matthias Brandt, positions Anna Seghers's novel Transit (originally published in 1944) about a young, nameless man who escaped a concentration camp into present-day Marseille. He travels through France in 1942 in the hopes to obtain a transit visa. Like his counterpart, Georg (Rogowski) finds himself among refugees and while on a mission to deliver a letter, discovers a dead writer's unfinished manuscript.
Christian Petzold on Franz Rogowski in Transit: "Georg is a man without any ballast. He is empty. He has nothing." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
There is no place like home to return to,...
Christian Petzold's latest, shot by his longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm, stars Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer with Barbara Auer, Lilien Batman, Alex Brendemühl, Godehard Giese, Maryam Zaree, and Matthias Brandt, positions Anna Seghers's novel Transit (originally published in 1944) about a young, nameless man who escaped a concentration camp into present-day Marseille. He travels through France in 1942 in the hopes to obtain a transit visa. Like his counterpart, Georg (Rogowski) finds himself among refugees and while on a mission to deliver a letter, discovers a dead writer's unfinished manuscript.
Christian Petzold on Franz Rogowski in Transit: "Georg is a man without any ballast. He is empty. He has nothing." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
There is no place like home to return to,...
- 3/5/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Christian Petzold: "Transit is the first movie in 20 years where the main character is a male." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Christian Petzold joined me for a conversation at the Film Society of Lincoln Center when he was in New York for Carte Blanche: Christian Petzold Selects and a sneak preview screening of Transit. He brought up Claude Chabrol's work with Stéphane Audran and Isabelle Huppert. Julia Hummer and Nina Hoss, George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead, Alex Brendemühl, a Franz Kafka-like "hell construction" in Anna Seghers' novel and the books of William Burroughs also emerged.
Marie (Paula Beer) with Georg (Franz Rogowski) in Transit
Shot by his longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm, Transit is Christian Petzold's "first movie in 20 years where the main character is a male" and he found himself "very...
Christian Petzold joined me for a conversation at the Film Society of Lincoln Center when he was in New York for Carte Blanche: Christian Petzold Selects and a sneak preview screening of Transit. He brought up Claude Chabrol's work with Stéphane Audran and Isabelle Huppert. Julia Hummer and Nina Hoss, George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead, Alex Brendemühl, a Franz Kafka-like "hell construction" in Anna Seghers' novel and the books of William Burroughs also emerged.
Marie (Paula Beer) with Georg (Franz Rogowski) in Transit
Shot by his longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm, Transit is Christian Petzold's "first movie in 20 years where the main character is a male" and he found himself "very...
- 2/1/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Transit star Franz Rogowski on Christian Petzold: "Christian has a deep connection with ghosts. And ghosts keep coming back in his work over the past 20 years." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
The Film Society of Lincoln Center Christian Petzold retrospective The State We Are In includes films with actors Nina Hoss, Benno Fürmann and Ronald Zehrfeld, shot by Petzold's longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm.
Franz Rogowski as Georg in Transit: "Yeah, he's stuck. I mean, bureaucratic hell got him."
Harun Farocki's The Interview, along with Nothing Ventured and Petzold's latest, Transit, starring Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer with Barbara Auer, Lilien Batman, Alex Brendemühl, Godehard Giese, Maryam Zaree, and Matthias Brandt (Main Slate selection of the 56th New York Film Festival), will also screen in the programme.
Transit positions Anna Seghers's novel (originally published in 1944) about a young, nameless man who escaped a concentration camp and travels through France in 1942 in the hopes to.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center Christian Petzold retrospective The State We Are In includes films with actors Nina Hoss, Benno Fürmann and Ronald Zehrfeld, shot by Petzold's longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm.
Franz Rogowski as Georg in Transit: "Yeah, he's stuck. I mean, bureaucratic hell got him."
Harun Farocki's The Interview, along with Nothing Ventured and Petzold's latest, Transit, starring Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer with Barbara Auer, Lilien Batman, Alex Brendemühl, Godehard Giese, Maryam Zaree, and Matthias Brandt (Main Slate selection of the 56th New York Film Festival), will also screen in the programme.
Transit positions Anna Seghers's novel (originally published in 1944) about a young, nameless man who escaped a concentration camp and travels through France in 1942 in the hopes to.
- 11/11/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Filmax Intl. has acquired international rights to “7 Reasons to Run Away (From Society),” with “Pan’s Labyrinth” star Sergi Lopez and Emma Suarez, who toplined Pedro Almodovar’s most recent release, “Julieta.”
Filmax Intl., the Barcelona-based sales agent arm of the production-distribution-sales mini-studio Filmax Group, will introduce the title to buyers at the Toronto Festival’s market.
Playwright Esteve Soler adapted stage works produced in over 20 countries for the screenplay. “7 Reasons” comprises seven mordant black comedy tales — “Family,” “Property,” Commitment,” “Order,” “Work,” “Solidarity,” “Progress” — which portray a contemporary society that has turned its back on real progress.
The shorts also feature turns by Alex Brendemühl (2016’s “From the Land of the Moon”) and Lola Dueñas, who had major roles in Almodovar’s “Volver” and “Talk to Her.”
“7 Reasons” marks the directorial feature debuts of Soler, Gerard Quinto and David Torras, and the latest movie from two of Barcelona’s on-the-rise production houses,...
Filmax Intl., the Barcelona-based sales agent arm of the production-distribution-sales mini-studio Filmax Group, will introduce the title to buyers at the Toronto Festival’s market.
Playwright Esteve Soler adapted stage works produced in over 20 countries for the screenplay. “7 Reasons” comprises seven mordant black comedy tales — “Family,” “Property,” Commitment,” “Order,” “Work,” “Solidarity,” “Progress” — which portray a contemporary society that has turned its back on real progress.
The shorts also feature turns by Alex Brendemühl (2016’s “From the Land of the Moon”) and Lola Dueñas, who had major roles in Almodovar’s “Volver” and “Talk to Her.”
“7 Reasons” marks the directorial feature debuts of Soler, Gerard Quinto and David Torras, and the latest movie from two of Barcelona’s on-the-rise production houses,...
- 9/7/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Long-established art-house director Jaime Rosales set out to make his most accessible feature with “Petra,” a film about lies and self-discovery that indeed could well be his most popular work to date. It looks gorgeous, boasting sterling performances and an initially intriguing storyline which Rosales shuffles in an occasionally non-linear manner, not so far removed from such previous experimentations as “The Dream and the Silence.” There’s also Hélène Louvart’s elegantly fluid camerawork, gliding across and through spaces, always aware that worlds exist just outside the frame. But what begins as a psychologically and visually lush exploration of a woman’s quest to establish her paternity turns around the half-way mark into an overburdened plot set off by those constant panning shots which themselves become too rich for digestion. The disappointment is inescapable given the excitement of the first part, yet there’s enough to chew on, and indeed,...
- 5/10/2018
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
In a deal announced Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival, Vicente Canales’ Barcelona-based Film Factory has unveiled the sale of Jaime Rosales’ Directors’ Fortnight entry “Petra” to Condor Distribution in France and September Films for Benelux countries.
“Petra” is a pan-European co-production between Rosales’ Fresdeval Films and Wanda Vision – both based out of Madrid –Oberon Cinematográfica from Barcelona, Les Productions Balthazar in Paris and Copenhagen’s Snowglobe.
The film follows Petra, a woman who has always had the identity of her father hidden from her. When her mother passes away, Petra sets out on her own, and starts a residency under a famous artist named Jaume, a powerful and ruthless man she suspects may be her father. She also meets Jaume’s son Lucas, and his wife Marisa. The stories of the four then wind together and violent secrets unearth which push everyone to their limits, before a twist...
“Petra” is a pan-European co-production between Rosales’ Fresdeval Films and Wanda Vision – both based out of Madrid –Oberon Cinematográfica from Barcelona, Les Productions Balthazar in Paris and Copenhagen’s Snowglobe.
The film follows Petra, a woman who has always had the identity of her father hidden from her. When her mother passes away, Petra sets out on her own, and starts a residency under a famous artist named Jaume, a powerful and ruthless man she suspects may be her father. She also meets Jaume’s son Lucas, and his wife Marisa. The stories of the four then wind together and violent secrets unearth which push everyone to their limits, before a twist...
- 5/8/2018
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Alex Brendemühl is a well-known actor who comes from Spain but has appeared in a wide range of projects made in a wide range of countries. Currently, it is interesting to note that his latest movie will be competing for the most prestigious prize at the Berlin Film Festival, though it remains to be seen whether it will be coming out on top of the other strong contenders. Here are five things that you may or may not have known about Alex Brendemühl: He Was Born in Barcelona Brendemühl was born in Barcelona, which is one of the most populous
Five Things You Didn’t Know about Alex Brendemühl...
Five Things You Didn’t Know about Alex Brendemühl...
- 2/19/2018
- by Nat Berman
- TVovermind.com
Christian Petzold, Emily Atef, Lance Daly join Berlinale.
Source: Great Point Media
‘Damsel’
Another ten films have joined the Competition of the 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 15 - 25). Three more have also been selected for the programme of the Berlinale Special.
Joining the eight Competition films and two Berlinale Special titles are 13 productions from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong - China, Iran, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Paraguay, People’s Republic of China, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the USA.
Joining the main competition are Barbara and Phoenix director Christian Petzold’s new drama Transit, a contemporary reworking of Anna Seghers’ 1944 novel about refugees attempting to flee through Marseille after the Nazi invasion of France in 1940. The film stars Frantz breakout Paula Beer.
Also new to competition is David and Nathan Zellner’s Damsel, the western about a Us businessman who travels to join his fiancée...
Source: Great Point Media
‘Damsel’
Another ten films have joined the Competition of the 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 15 - 25). Three more have also been selected for the programme of the Berlinale Special.
Joining the eight Competition films and two Berlinale Special titles are 13 productions from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong - China, Iran, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Paraguay, People’s Republic of China, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the USA.
Joining the main competition are Barbara and Phoenix director Christian Petzold’s new drama Transit, a contemporary reworking of Anna Seghers’ 1944 novel about refugees attempting to flee through Marseille after the Nazi invasion of France in 1940. The film stars Frantz breakout Paula Beer.
Also new to competition is David and Nathan Zellner’s Damsel, the western about a Us businessman who travels to join his fiancée...
- 1/15/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- ScreenDaily
Christian Petzold, Emily Atef, Lance Daly join Berlinale.
Source: Great Point Media
‘Damsel’
Another ten films have joined the Competition of the 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival. Three more have also been selected for the programme of the Berlinale Special.
Joining the eight Competition films and two Berlinale Special titles are 13 productions from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong - China, Iran, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Paraguay, People’s Republic of China, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the USA.
Additional films for both categories are due to be revealed soon. Films announced today are:
Competition
3 Tage in Quiberon (3 Days in Quiberon)
Germany / Austria / France
By Emily Atef (Molly’s Way, The Stranger In Me)
With Marie Bäumer, Birgit Minichmayr, Charly Hübner, Robert Gwisdek, Denis Lavant
World premiere
Black 47
Ireland / Luxembourg
By Lance Daly (Kisses, The Good Doctor)
With Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Stephen Rea, [link...
Source: Great Point Media
‘Damsel’
Another ten films have joined the Competition of the 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival. Three more have also been selected for the programme of the Berlinale Special.
Joining the eight Competition films and two Berlinale Special titles are 13 productions from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong - China, Iran, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Paraguay, People’s Republic of China, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the USA.
Additional films for both categories are due to be revealed soon. Films announced today are:
Competition
3 Tage in Quiberon (3 Days in Quiberon)
Germany / Austria / France
By Emily Atef (Molly’s Way, The Stranger In Me)
With Marie Bäumer, Birgit Minichmayr, Charly Hübner, Robert Gwisdek, Denis Lavant
World premiere
Black 47
Ireland / Luxembourg
By Lance Daly (Kisses, The Good Doctor)
With Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Stephen Rea, [link...
- 1/15/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- ScreenDaily
After taking on two high-profile Hollywood projects last year with Allied and Assassin’s Creed, Marion Cotillard’s latest roles find her going back to her native country. After Ismael’s Ghosts opened Cannes this year, one of last year’s selections, Nicole Garcia’s From the Land of the Moon, arrives in limited U.S. theatrical release today and we’re pleased to debut an exclusive clip.
Set after World War II, the romantic drama follows the actress bound by a loveless and begins an affair. Also starring Louis Garrel and Álex Brendemühl, this clip, courtesy of Sundance Selects, finds the characters played by Cotillard and Garrel making a promise. Check out the exclusive preview below, along with the trailer.
Based on the international best-selling novel and starring Academy Award®-winner Marion Cotillard, From The Land Of The Moon is the story of a free-spirited woman fighting for passionate...
Set after World War II, the romantic drama follows the actress bound by a loveless and begins an affair. Also starring Louis Garrel and Álex Brendemühl, this clip, courtesy of Sundance Selects, finds the characters played by Cotillard and Garrel making a promise. Check out the exclusive preview below, along with the trailer.
Based on the international best-selling novel and starring Academy Award®-winner Marion Cotillard, From The Land Of The Moon is the story of a free-spirited woman fighting for passionate...
- 7/28/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
While she recently opened Cannes with Ismael’s Ghosts, a Marion Cotillard-led feature from last year’s festival will now get a release next month. Nicole Garcia’s From the Land of the Moon is a period weepy, set after World War II, which follows the actress bound by a loveless and begins an affair. Also starring Louis Garrel and Álex Brendemühl, Sundance Selects has now released a new U.S. trailer.
We said in our review, “We haven’t even reached the midway point of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but it’s probably safe to assume that Nicole Garcia’s From the Land of the Moon will be the least-ambitious film this year’s competition has to offer. Based on Sicilian author Melena Agus’ 2006 novella of the same name, it is a weepy Sunday matinee melodrama of the most run-of-the-mill variety, full of pretty people in pretty clothes feeling Big Emotions. A Tchaikovsky leitmotif reminds us of the protagonist’s wary heart. There are at least four shots of Marion Cotillard curled in a ball on the floor crying. You can probably see where this is going.”
Check out the trailer below.
Based on the international best-selling novel and starring Academy Award®-winner Marion Cotillard, From The Land Of The Moon is the story of a free-spirited woman fighting for passionate dreams of true love against all odds. Gabrielle (Cotillard) comes from a small village in the South of France at a a time when her dream of true love is considered scandalous, and even a sign of insanity. Her parents marry her to José (Àlex Brendemühl), an honest and loving Spanish farm worker who they think will make a respectable woman of her. Despite José’s devotion to her, Gabrielle vows that she will never love José and lives like a prisoner bound by the constraints of conventional post World War II society until the day she is sent away to a hospital in the Alps to heal her kidney stones. There she meets André Sauvage (Louis Garrel), a dashing injured veteran of the Indochinese War, who rekindles the passion buried inside her. She promises they will run away together, and André seems to share her desire. Will anyone dare rob her of her right to follow her dreams?
From the Land of the Moon opens on July 28.
We said in our review, “We haven’t even reached the midway point of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but it’s probably safe to assume that Nicole Garcia’s From the Land of the Moon will be the least-ambitious film this year’s competition has to offer. Based on Sicilian author Melena Agus’ 2006 novella of the same name, it is a weepy Sunday matinee melodrama of the most run-of-the-mill variety, full of pretty people in pretty clothes feeling Big Emotions. A Tchaikovsky leitmotif reminds us of the protagonist’s wary heart. There are at least four shots of Marion Cotillard curled in a ball on the floor crying. You can probably see where this is going.”
Check out the trailer below.
Based on the international best-selling novel and starring Academy Award®-winner Marion Cotillard, From The Land Of The Moon is the story of a free-spirited woman fighting for passionate dreams of true love against all odds. Gabrielle (Cotillard) comes from a small village in the South of France at a a time when her dream of true love is considered scandalous, and even a sign of insanity. Her parents marry her to José (Àlex Brendemühl), an honest and loving Spanish farm worker who they think will make a respectable woman of her. Despite José’s devotion to her, Gabrielle vows that she will never love José and lives like a prisoner bound by the constraints of conventional post World War II society until the day she is sent away to a hospital in the Alps to heal her kidney stones. There she meets André Sauvage (Louis Garrel), a dashing injured veteran of the Indochinese War, who rekindles the passion buried inside her. She promises they will run away together, and André seems to share her desire. Will anyone dare rob her of her right to follow her dreams?
From the Land of the Moon opens on July 28.
- 6/22/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"I am planted within you. I am alone with you." IFC Films has debuted an official Us trailer for the French drama From the Land of the Moon, which first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year (not this year). This romantic story from filmmaker Nicole Garcia stars Marion Cotillard as a French woman from a small village in the South of France who falls in love with a man she meets in the Alps. Set right at the end of World War II, she is married to a man she doesn't really love, only to find the man she really loves when she goes to a clinic in the mountains to heal her kidney stones. The full cast includes Louis Garrel, Alex Brendemühl, Brigitte Roüan, Victoire Du Bois. From the looks of it, this seems to be a very sensual, sultry thriller about a woman being allowed to be with her true love. Is that so much to ...
- 6/21/2017
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Nicole Garcia to her producer Alain Attal on Milena Agus's novel Mal Di Petra: "Tell me if the rights are free or not!" Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
After attending the morning press preview for Agnès Varda's exhibition at Blum & Poe, organized by Olivier Renaud-Clément, I walked over to Le Parker Meridien to meet with Nicole Garcia for a conversation on From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres), co-written with Jacques Fieschi and starring Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel and Alex Brendemühl. Shot provocatively by Christophe Beaucarne (Étienne Comar's Django, which stars Reda Kateb with Cécile de France; and Jacques Doillon's Rodin, with Vincent Lindon in the title role) with costumes by Catherine Leterrier, Garcia's film carefully chisels out something about women growing up in the 1950s, claiming themselves.
Marion Cotillard as Gabrielle in Mal De Pierres
Gabrielle (Cotillard) lives with her parents and sister in the post-war French countryside.
After attending the morning press preview for Agnès Varda's exhibition at Blum & Poe, organized by Olivier Renaud-Clément, I walked over to Le Parker Meridien to meet with Nicole Garcia for a conversation on From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres), co-written with Jacques Fieschi and starring Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel and Alex Brendemühl. Shot provocatively by Christophe Beaucarne (Étienne Comar's Django, which stars Reda Kateb with Cécile de France; and Jacques Doillon's Rodin, with Vincent Lindon in the title role) with costumes by Catherine Leterrier, Garcia's film carefully chisels out something about women growing up in the 1950s, claiming themselves.
Marion Cotillard as Gabrielle in Mal De Pierres
Gabrielle (Cotillard) lives with her parents and sister in the post-war French countryside.
- 3/15/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
At lunch with Reda Kateb, who plays Django Reinhardt in Étienne Comar's Django Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Étienne Comar's (co-screenwriter of Xavier Beauvois' Of Gods And Men, producer of Abderrahmane Sissako's Timbuktu) directorial debut, Django, starring Reda Kateb and Cécile de France with Alex Brendemühl (who is also in Nicole Garcia's Mal De Pierres), was the opening night film of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York.
Django (not to be confused with Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, which starred Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz, or Franco Nero's Django films) is based on the novel by Alexis Salatko, with a score by longtime Nick Cave collaborator Warren Ellis, costumes by Pascaline Chavanne, and shot by Christophe Beaucarne on the life of jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.
Étienne Comar with Cécile de France and Reda Kateb Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Étienne brought up Madeline Fontaine,...
Étienne Comar's (co-screenwriter of Xavier Beauvois' Of Gods And Men, producer of Abderrahmane Sissako's Timbuktu) directorial debut, Django, starring Reda Kateb and Cécile de France with Alex Brendemühl (who is also in Nicole Garcia's Mal De Pierres), was the opening night film of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York.
Django (not to be confused with Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, which starred Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz, or Franco Nero's Django films) is based on the novel by Alexis Salatko, with a score by longtime Nick Cave collaborator Warren Ellis, costumes by Pascaline Chavanne, and shot by Christophe Beaucarne on the life of jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.
Étienne Comar with Cécile de France and Reda Kateb Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Étienne brought up Madeline Fontaine,...
- 3/5/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Marion Cotillard stars with Alex Brendemühl and Louis Garrel in Nicole Garcia's From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres) Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
New York's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema opens with Étienne Comar’s biopic Django, starring Reda Kateb (Wim Wender's Les Beaux Jours d'Aranjuez) as Django Reinhardt with Cécile de France (Catherine Corsini's Summertime) and closes with Jérôme Salle’s The Odyssey (L'Odyssée) starring Lambert Wilson as Jacques Cousteau with Audrey Tautou and Pierre Niney (Jalil Lespert's Yves Saint Laurent).
Emmanuelle Bercot, Stéphanie Di Giusto, Caroline Deruas, Sébastien Marnier, Marina Foïs, François Ozon, Nicole Garcia, Katell Quillévéré, Justine Triet, Rebecca Zlotowski, Marc Fitoussi, Bertrand Bonello, Julia Ducournau, Christophe Honoré, Antonin Peretjatko, and Martin Wheeler are expected to attend.
La Danseuse (Soko, Lily-Rose Depp, Gaspard Ulliel, Mélanie Thierry); Nocturama (Finnegan Oldfield); Frantz (Paula Beer, Niney), and From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres - Marion Cotillard,...
New York's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema opens with Étienne Comar’s biopic Django, starring Reda Kateb (Wim Wender's Les Beaux Jours d'Aranjuez) as Django Reinhardt with Cécile de France (Catherine Corsini's Summertime) and closes with Jérôme Salle’s The Odyssey (L'Odyssée) starring Lambert Wilson as Jacques Cousteau with Audrey Tautou and Pierre Niney (Jalil Lespert's Yves Saint Laurent).
Emmanuelle Bercot, Stéphanie Di Giusto, Caroline Deruas, Sébastien Marnier, Marina Foïs, François Ozon, Nicole Garcia, Katell Quillévéré, Justine Triet, Rebecca Zlotowski, Marc Fitoussi, Bertrand Bonello, Julia Ducournau, Christophe Honoré, Antonin Peretjatko, and Martin Wheeler are expected to attend.
La Danseuse (Soko, Lily-Rose Depp, Gaspard Ulliel, Mélanie Thierry); Nocturama (Finnegan Oldfield); Frantz (Paula Beer, Niney), and From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres - Marion Cotillard,...
- 2/24/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Berlin Film Festival has announced that it will kick off its 67th edition with the world premiere of Etienne Comar’s directorial debut “Django,” according to Deadline.
The film, co-written by Comar and Alexis Salatko, is a biopic about the jazz legend Django Reinhardt. Starring Reda Kateb as the guitarist and composer, the film is set during Reinhardt’s flight from German-occupied Paris in 1943. As a beloved artist, he and his family were harassed and hounded by the Nazis. Cécile de France, Alex Brendemühl and Ulrich Brandhoff co-star.
Read More: 5 Exciting Films in the 2017 Berlin Film Festival Competition Lineup
“Django Reinhardt was one of the most brilliant pioneers of European jazz and the father of Gypsy Swing,” said Berlin festival director Dieter Kosslick. “‘Django’ grippingly portrays one chapter in the musician’s eventful life and is a poignant tale of survival. Constant danger, flight and the atrocities committed against...
The film, co-written by Comar and Alexis Salatko, is a biopic about the jazz legend Django Reinhardt. Starring Reda Kateb as the guitarist and composer, the film is set during Reinhardt’s flight from German-occupied Paris in 1943. As a beloved artist, he and his family were harassed and hounded by the Nazis. Cécile de France, Alex Brendemühl and Ulrich Brandhoff co-star.
Read More: 5 Exciting Films in the 2017 Berlin Film Festival Competition Lineup
“Django Reinhardt was one of the most brilliant pioneers of European jazz and the father of Gypsy Swing,” said Berlin festival director Dieter Kosslick. “‘Django’ grippingly portrays one chapter in the musician’s eventful life and is a poignant tale of survival. Constant danger, flight and the atrocities committed against...
- 1/4/2017
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
Etienne Comar’s directorial debut stars Reda Kateb as iconic musician.
The 67th Berlin International Film Festival will open on Feburary 9 with the world premiere of Etienne Comar’s (Of Gods And Men) directorial debut Django.
The film, which will play in competition at the Berlinale, revolves around Django Reinhardt, the iconic guitarist and composer, and his flight from German-occupied Paris in 1943 where as Sinti his family was harassed and hounded by the Nazis.
Reda Kateb (Far From Men) stars in the title role alongside Cécile de France (The Kid with a Bike), as well as Alex Brendemühl and Ulrich Brandhoff.
Director Comar is best known as the screenwriter and producer of titles including Of Gods And Men, Haute Cuisine and My King, and as a co-producer of The Women on the 6th Floor and Timbuktu.
The screenplay comes from Comar and Alexis Salatko. Django Reinhardt’s music was re-recorded for the film by the Dutch jazz band...
The 67th Berlin International Film Festival will open on Feburary 9 with the world premiere of Etienne Comar’s (Of Gods And Men) directorial debut Django.
The film, which will play in competition at the Berlinale, revolves around Django Reinhardt, the iconic guitarist and composer, and his flight from German-occupied Paris in 1943 where as Sinti his family was harassed and hounded by the Nazis.
Reda Kateb (Far From Men) stars in the title role alongside Cécile de France (The Kid with a Bike), as well as Alex Brendemühl and Ulrich Brandhoff.
Director Comar is best known as the screenwriter and producer of titles including Of Gods And Men, Haute Cuisine and My King, and as a co-producer of The Women on the 6th Floor and Timbuktu.
The screenplay comes from Comar and Alexis Salatko. Django Reinhardt’s music was re-recorded for the film by the Dutch jazz band...
- 1/4/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
★★★☆☆ The brief three-year reign of King Amadeo of Savoy is the unlikely focus of Lluís Miñarro's Stella Cadente which is new to DVD from Second Run. Miñarro's mischievous period piece is a wryly offbeat drama that explores the opaque crevasse of loneliness and despair in a hallucinatory and unhurried fashion. Amid the violent social upheavals of 1870 Amadeo of Savoy (Àlex Brendemühl) was elected King of Spain. He comes to the role with big ideas, declaring himself a "Republican king", determined to make a change by focusing on education and the redistribution of wealth. Sadly, public opinion in Spain is still strongly against the monarchy and Amadeo's trusted advisers insist that he abdicates post haste.
- 11/7/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Ten years after screening “Charlie Says” at the Cannes Film Festival, director Nicole Garcia returned this year to the Croisette with her latest drama “From the Land of the Moon” (“Mal de pierres”).
Starring Marion Cotillard, the film is based on Milena Agus’ novel of the same name and follows a French woman in post-World War II Europe who’s torn between the man she’s meant to marry (Àlex Brendemühl) and a charming war veteran (Louis Garrel).
A new international trailer released by StudioCanal shows the free-spirited Gabrielle fighting for her passionate dream of finding true love — an act that is considered scandalous in her small town in the South of France. While the sneak peek has no English subtitles, Cotillard’s performance guides the trailer forward, bringing a level of suspense and heartbreak to the clip.
Read More: ‘Allied’ Trailer: Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard Play A Game...
Starring Marion Cotillard, the film is based on Milena Agus’ novel of the same name and follows a French woman in post-World War II Europe who’s torn between the man she’s meant to marry (Àlex Brendemühl) and a charming war veteran (Louis Garrel).
A new international trailer released by StudioCanal shows the free-spirited Gabrielle fighting for her passionate dream of finding true love — an act that is considered scandalous in her small town in the South of France. While the sneak peek has no English subtitles, Cotillard’s performance guides the trailer forward, bringing a level of suspense and heartbreak to the clip.
Read More: ‘Allied’ Trailer: Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard Play A Game...
- 9/1/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
One of two Marion Cotillard-led feature at Cannes this year, Nicole Garcia‘s From the Land of the Moon is a period weepy, set after World War II, which follows the actress bound by a loveless and begins an affair. Also starring Louis Garrel and Álex Brendemühl, Sundance Selects picked it up for a likely 2017 release, but first it will arrive in France and the first international trailer has now landed.
We said in our review, “We haven’t even reached the midway point of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but it’s probably safe to assume that Nicole Garcia’s From the Land of the Moon will be the least-ambitious film this year’s competition has to offer. Based on Sicilian author Melena Agus’ 2006 novella of the same name, it is a weepy Sunday matinee melodrama of the most run-of-the-mill variety, full of pretty people in pretty clothes feeling Big Emotions.
We said in our review, “We haven’t even reached the midway point of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but it’s probably safe to assume that Nicole Garcia’s From the Land of the Moon will be the least-ambitious film this year’s competition has to offer. Based on Sicilian author Melena Agus’ 2006 novella of the same name, it is a weepy Sunday matinee melodrama of the most run-of-the-mill variety, full of pretty people in pretty clothes feeling Big Emotions.
- 9/1/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
We haven’t even reached the midway point of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but it’s probably safe to assume that Nicole Garcia’s From the Land of the Moon will be the least-ambitious film this year’s competition has to offer. Based on Sicilian author Melena Agus’ 2006 novella of the same name, it is a weepy Sunday matinee melodrama of the most run-of-the-mill variety, full of pretty people in pretty clothes feeling Big Emotions. A Tchaikovsky leitmotif reminds us of the protagonist’s wary heart. There are at least four shots of Marion Cotillard curled in a ball on the floor crying. You can probably see where this is going.
Shifting Agus’ story from Italy to France in 1943, near the end of the war, Cotillard stars as Gabrielle, the only daughter of a rural farming family. She’s introverted and likes to read, enough apparently to see...
Shifting Agus’ story from Italy to France in 1943, near the end of the war, Cotillard stars as Gabrielle, the only daughter of a rural farming family. She’s introverted and likes to read, enough apparently to see...
- 5/15/2016
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
The Cannes Film Festival is off and running having revealed their lineup last week, and it's stacked with cinephile faves, and more images have been released from the films hitting the Croisette. Marion Cotillard stars in the WWII drama "From the Land of the Moon." Based on the novel by Milena Agus, and directed and co-adapted by Nicole Garcia, the film will span two decades in the life of an unhappy married woman who falls in-love with a charming war veteran. Àlex Brendemühl and Louis Garrel co-star as the two men caught in this love triangle. Read More: Full Soundtrack Details Revealed For Nicolas Winding Refn's 'The Neon Demon,' Summer Release Scheduled Below, you'll find another enigmatic image from Nicolas Winding Refn's "The Neon Demon," his horror movie about the modeling and fashion industry. There's also a new peek at Adam Driver in Jim Jarmusch's low-key "Paterson,...
- 4/18/2016
- by Jordan Ruimy
- The Playlist
While Marion Cotillard is currently off filming Robert Zemeckis‘ WWII romantic thriller with Brad Pitt, it won’t be the only drama from the time period she’ll appear in this year. She’s also leading the French-language drama From the Land of the Moon (Mal de pierres), which we wouldn’t be surprised to see appear as part of the Cannes line-up as the first image has arrived today.
Directed and co-adapted by Nicole Garcia, the story comes from Milena Agus‘ novel, which follows a Cotillard’s character navigating a post-World War II Europe, faced with potential marriage to a man she doesn’t love (Àlex Brendemühl) and a charming war veteran (Louis Garrel). Coming from Variety, who report that Sundance Selects has picked up the film for a U.S. release, one can see the image below, along with an Amazon synopsis:
In her debut novel, Agus follows...
Directed and co-adapted by Nicole Garcia, the story comes from Milena Agus‘ novel, which follows a Cotillard’s character navigating a post-World War II Europe, faced with potential marriage to a man she doesn’t love (Àlex Brendemühl) and a charming war veteran (Louis Garrel). Coming from Variety, who report that Sundance Selects has picked up the film for a U.S. release, one can see the image below, along with an Amazon synopsis:
In her debut novel, Agus follows...
- 3/30/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Cancer, unemployment rates, the economic crisis, faith, morality, the fate of souls, pregnancy and concern for Russian orphans are the components of Julio Medem’s “Ma Ma,” a tragedy pile-on that is laughably ludicrous when it isn’t tedious. The writer/director gets an unreserved performance from Penélope Cruz (who produced the picture too), great work from cinematographer Kiko de la Rica, a could’ve-been-better score from Alberto Iglesias, in a movie that clearly involved a lot of very talented contributors. So it's too bad that none at any point questioned Medem’s movie, which falls flat on its face thanks to a severe lack of self-awareness and an air of dramatic self-importance. The film kicks off with a helluva day for Magda (Cruz). A routine visit to Raúl (Àlex Brendemühl), the handsomest singing gynaecologist ever, reveals that she has stage three breast cancer. We also learn at the same...
- 9/13/2015
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
★★★☆☆ Lucia Puenzo's chilling drama, Wakolda (2013), based on her novel, German Doctor, follows the unlikely friendship of 12-year old Lilith (Florencia Bado) and Josef Mengele (Alex Brendemühl), Auschwitz's 'Angel of Death' on the run for his war crimes. A doctor, Mengele had conducted genetic research on human subjects in Auschwitz. After the Second World War, Argentina became a haven for Nazis who lived there, unchallenged, for decades. President Juan Peron was keen to exploit the expertise of Nazi doctors and scientists and turned a blind eye to the influx of war criminals. Wakolda opens in 1960 on a remote desert road in Patagonia.
- 1/24/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
The first Fénix Iberoamerican Film Awards, (Phoenix Awards) highlighting and celebrating cinema made in Latin America, Spain, and Portugal as well as applauding the professionals involved was inaugurated by Cinema 23 this October 30th, a couple days before Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, one of the most important holidays in México. The event brought together hundreds of figures from the Iberoamerican film community who celebrated the well-deserved recognition to their work and to their dedication. At the same time, the event served to strengthen relationships among the diverse industries and will continuously help forge the region's identity.
Aside from enumerating the awards here, we wish to show how the films' dissemination throughout the world is, in fact succeeding by showing sales agents and commercial distributors, some of many festivals the films played, and some of the awards won.
Nominees in twelve categories were chosen from a shortlist of 58 feature films and 16 documentaries in the region and awarded by a jury made up of - among others - Luis Tosar, Wagner Moura, Daniel Hendler, Selton Mello, José María Yazpik, Maria de Medeiros, Paulina García, Amat Escalante, Fernando Meirelles, Rodrigo García, Sebastián Lelio, Rodrigo Pla.
Feature Film category
Winner: "The Golden Cage" ("La Juala de oro") by Diego Quemada-díez, a coproduction of Guatemala, Spain and Mexico, since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard in 2013 where Quemada-díez won A Certain Talent Award for his directing work and the ensemble cast has received a total of 67 awards, including 9 Ariel awards by the Mexican Film Academy: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best First Feature, Best Actor, Best Upcoming Actor, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Music. It also won Best Picture, Best Editing and Best Sound at the Fenix Awards. Producers sold to Benelux - Wild Bunch Benelux, France - Pretty Pictures , Mexico - Canibal Networks,, Portugal - Legendmain Filmes, Spain - Golem Distribución, Taiwan - Maison Motion, U.K. - Peccadillo Pictures.
Other contenders:
"Club Sandwich" by Fernando Eimbcke, a Mexican production, screened in Toronto International Film Festival 2013, San Sebastian 2013 among many others. International sales agent (Isa) Funny Balloons sold the film to Benelux - ABC - Cinemien, Brazil--Esfera Filmes, Mexico--Cine Pantera, Poland--Art House, Turkey--Filma Ltd.
"Heli" by Amat Escalante, a Mexican production premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2013. Isa Ndm sold to U.S.--Outsider Pictures, Belgium--Film Fest Gent, Brazil--Zeta Filmes, Canada--K Films Amerique and A-z Films, Denmark--Ost For Paradis, France--Le Pacte, Greece--Ama Films, Hungary--Cirko Film Kft., Netherlands--Amstelfilm, Norway--Filmhuset Gruppen As & Europafilm As, Poland--Spectator, Puerto Ric--Wiesner Distribution, Serbia--Mcf Megacom Film, Spain--Savor Ediciones, S.A., Sweden--Njutafilms and Maywin Films Ab, Taiwan--Pomi International, Turkey--Filmarti Film, U.K.--Network
"Jauja" by Lisandro Alonso, a coproduction of Argentina, Denmark, France and Mexico and winner of the Fipresci Award in Cannes' Un Certain Regard 2014 where it debuted. It also played in Toronto and Busan among many other festivals. Isa Ndm, sold to U.S. -- The Cinema Guild; Argentina--Distribution Company Sudamericana S.A.; Spain--Noucinemart- Festival Internacional De Cinema D'autor De Barcelona; U.K.--Soda Pictures
"Bad Hair" ("Pelo Malo") by Mariana Rondon, a coproduction of Venezuela, Peru, Germany and Argentina premiered in Toronto 2013. FiGa sold it to U.S. – Pragda, Argentina--Obra Cine, Brazil--Esfera Filmes, Bulgaria--Sofia International Film Festival - Art Fest Ltd., France--Pyramide Distribution, Hungary -- Cirko, Italy--Cineclub Internazionale, Latin America--Palmera International, Portugal -- Nitrato Filmes, Serbia--European Film Festival Palic, Switzerland --Look Now! Filmdistribution, U.K.--Axiom Films International, Venezuela--Centro Nacional Autonomo De Cinematografia
Documentary Feature category
Winner: "Sobre la Marxa: the Creator of the Jungle" by Jordi Morató from Spain debuted at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Other Contenders:
"Letter to a Father" of Edgardo Cozarinsky, a coproduction from France and Argentina screened at Mar del Plata, Cinema du reel 2014 (Competition), Vienna and Jerusalem among other festivals. Doc and FIlms has the international rights.
"Echo Mountain" ("Eco de la montaña") by Nicolás Echevarría, a coproduction of U.S. and Mexico, premiered at Guadalajara Film Festival and Cinema du Reel in 2014.
"And Now? Remember Me" ("E agora? Lembra-me") by Joaquim Pinto from Portugal premiered at Locarno Film Festival 2013, has won 16 awards and 3 nominations and is distributed in France by Epicentre and by Midas in Portugal.
"Watch & Listen" by José Luis Torres Leiva
Best Female Role:
Winner:
Leandra Leal ("A Wolf At the Door" from Brazil premiered at Toronto Ff 2013. Isa: Im Global/Mundial sold to U.S.--Film Movement and Outsider Pictures, Benelux—Cdc United Network, Canada--A-z Films, Israel--United King Video Ltd., Latin America--Palmera International, So. Korea --Korean Film Art Center Baekdu-Daegan Films Co., Ltd, Portugal--Vendetta Filmes, Spain--Betta Pictures, Turkey--Moviebox)
Other Contenders:
Marian Álvarez ("The Wound" aka "La Herida" - Isa: Imagina, premiered San Sebastian Ff where the Special jury prize / Silver Shell for best actress went to Marian Álvarez), Samantha Castillo ("Bad Hair")
Paulina García ("Illiterate" - Isa: Habanero, screened at Guadalajara Ficg 2014, Sanfic - Santiago International Film Festival - Best Picture Audience award , Venice Film Festival - Settimana della Critica - Closing Film, Chicago International Film Festival - New Directors Competition, Sao Paulo International Film Festival - New Directors Competition )
Karen Martinez ("The Golden Cage")
Best Male Role:
Winner:
Viggo Mortensen ("Cockaigne" aka "Jauja")
Other Contenders:
Fernando Bacilio ("Mute" aka "El Mudo" by Daniel Vega premiered at Toronto in 2013. Udi sold it to Encore for airlines)
Alex Brendemühl ("Stella cadente" aka "Falling Star" by Luis Miñarro from Spain screened in Bafici (Buenos Aires) 2014 Panorama, San Sebastian 2014 Made in Spain, Gent Iff 2014 Feature Films, Rotterdam Iffr 2014 (Tiger Competition). Isa: Ndm sold it to Germany--Salzgeber & Co. Medien Gmbh Puerto Rico--Wiesner Distribution, Spain--Vercine)
Brandon Lopez ("The Golden Cage")
Antonio de la Torre ("Cannibal" by Manuel Martin Cuenca, a coproduction of Spain, Romania, Russia, France premiered at Toronto and San Sebastian 2013. Isa Film Factory sold it to U.S. - Film Movement, Belgium--Film Fest Gent, Hong Kong--Encore Inflight Limited-, Japan--Broadmedia Studios Corporation, Latin America--Palmera International, Spain--Mod Producciones, Taiwan--Creative Century Entertainment Co., Ltd.)
Eight other awards (listed below) were granted in the photography category, costumes, art direction, sound, music, editing and screenplay.
Four special awards were also presented:
The Latin American Festival Award, decided by the Advisory Council Cinema23 went to the Havana Film Festival (Festival de Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano). On December 3, 1979, over five hundred film professionals, mainly from Latin America, met in Havana, Cuba, for the inaugural Festival of New Latin American Cinema, which in its own words, "sought to build a space to identify and disseminate films whose significance and artistic values enrich and reaffirm American and Caribbean cultural identity where rich dialogue between film professionals, students and the informed public and critics gather". For decades and through its multiple realities Havana has played a role in community building around film as an art form and as an incentive for social reflection.
The work of more than three decades by a team led today by Ivan Giroud and which survives the noble and generous spirit of its founder, Alfredo Guevara, and those like Santiago Alvarez and Gabriel García Márquez, who have accompanied him from his beginnings, deserves to be recognized by those who think that culture is a way that allows us to approach, meet, recognize and move away from violence towards a better world. "With this award go our admiration and our gratitude to the Festival of New Latin American Cinema of Havana."
The Critics' Award, selected by Fipresci (Federation International Film Critics) went to the Brazilian writer José Carlos Avellar for his critical work. An admired and appreciated writer, critic, teacher and programmer, Avellar worked for over twenty years for the newspaper Jornal do Brasil, and has published six books on Brazilian and Latin American cinema. The former vice-president of Fipresci is also Berlinale's delegate in Brazil. More information and examples of his work can be found in his website www.escrevercinema.com.
Recognition of the Exhibition Sector, awarded by the leading exhibitors in the region went to Mexican actor and producer, Eugenio Derbez, for "No se aceptan devoluciones" ("Instructions Not Included").
The resurgence of Mexican films which began in 2001 with the all-time hit "Amores Perros" by Alejandro González Iñárritu and which also introduced Gael Garcia Bernal to the public (U.S. box office $5,408,467, worldwide $20,908,467) and "El crimen del Padre Amaro" in 2002 (U.S. box office $5,717,044, worldwide: $26,996,738) up until the hits, "Nosotros los Nobles" and "No se aceptan devoluciones" had the highest number admissions than any other Mexican film. Twelve years later, in six weeks "No se aceptan devolucions" outgrossed both "Amores" and "El crimen" combined. México Televisa’s Videocine Mexican box office was Us $44,882,061 and U.S. box office was $44,143,000. This is truly an exhibitor's dream movie.
No sooner had "Los Nobles" swept the Mexican box-office off its feet than another Mexican movie, independently produced by Monica Lozano’s México City-based Alebrije Cine y Video, "Instructions Not Included" was released -- first in the U.S. by Pantelion on August 30, 2013, almost three weeks before its Mexican release on September 20, 2013. The two countries grossed an equal amount. Moreover, Videocine released the film on 1,500 prints similar to a major release of a film such as "Batman". Through the Cinepolis chain’s use of satellite, these 1,500 prints were able to show on 2,500 screens. This represents both a new release pattern and a new type of Mexican film.
Previously Mexican films which were meant for the Mexican and Mexican-American audience (as opposed to those targeted to the art house audiences) were perceived as too Mexican by their U.S. target and they were released in the U.S. only after the Mexican release, and by that time, piracy had done its work in the U.S. and the film lacked the prestige of an "American" film. This film and the previous film, "The Noble Family", are not typically Mexican. Their storyline could be transposed anywhere, and in fact "The Noble Family" remake rights have been sold to U.S. In addition, releasing the film first in the U.S. changes the perception of the film in México. Being such a success in U.S. paves the way for its success in México as if it were validated as a "good" film.
Added to these two elements is the third key to success, Eugenio Derbez, the director and star of "Instructions", is a major TV comedy star in México and is known by all Mexicans wherever they reside. Mexican TV is quite powerful, it has a duopoly made by Televisa and TV Azteca. Derbez comes from Televisa. The film was also shot in English and Spanish and takes place in the U.S. Finally, Derbez himself and former head of production at Pantelion, Ben Odell, have now established a production company, 3 Spas, pronounced "Tres Paz" which funnily enough sounds like "tripas" or "guts". Reese Witherspoon whose film "Wild" opened the festival said that she had approached Derbez for a film she was producing already, but he was busy. However, she hopes they will soon find a project to do together. How great that will be for the exhibitors, the distributors and the audiences around the world!
The Phoenix Lifetime Achievement Award, which is awarded by the different academies and film associations in all the differenct countries of the region and announced by the Mexican Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences, went to Arturo Ripstein. Recognized as one of the great masters in the history of Mexican cinema, Ripstein said, "I'm glad to say that a lifetime achievement award is usually given when one is finished with everything. But I am pleased to say that I still need a bit of experience, because next week I start my new film. I've been practicing this craft half a century, and this (the Phoenix Award ) symbolizes what it has really cost me over the past 50 years."
List of all winners include:
Narrative Film: Diego Quemada-Diez ("La Jaula de Oro")
Documentary Film: Jordi Morato ("Sobre la Marxa")
Screenplay: Amat Escalante y Gabriel Reyes ("Heli")
Director: Amat Escalante ("Heli")
Photography: Julián Apezteguia ("El ardor")
Art Design: José Luis Arrizabalaga y Arturo García ("Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi")
Editing: Paloma López Carrillo y Felipe Gómez ("La Jaula de Oro")
Costume Design: Chris Garrido ("Tatuagem")
Sound Design: Matías Barberis, Raúl Locatelli y Jaime Baksht ("La Jaula de oro")
Music: Joan Valent ("Las brujas de Zugarramurdi")
Lead Actor: Viggo Mortensen ("Jauja")
Lead Actress: Leandra Leal ("A Wolf at the Door")
Diego Quemada-Diez Receives the Award for Best Narrative Film for "La Jaula de Oro"
Amat Escalante Receives the Award for Best Director for "Heli"
Viggo Mortensen Receives the Award for Best Lead Actor for "Jauja"
Leandra Leal Receives the Award for Best Lead Actress for "A Wolf at the Door"...
Aside from enumerating the awards here, we wish to show how the films' dissemination throughout the world is, in fact succeeding by showing sales agents and commercial distributors, some of many festivals the films played, and some of the awards won.
Nominees in twelve categories were chosen from a shortlist of 58 feature films and 16 documentaries in the region and awarded by a jury made up of - among others - Luis Tosar, Wagner Moura, Daniel Hendler, Selton Mello, José María Yazpik, Maria de Medeiros, Paulina García, Amat Escalante, Fernando Meirelles, Rodrigo García, Sebastián Lelio, Rodrigo Pla.
Feature Film category
Winner: "The Golden Cage" ("La Juala de oro") by Diego Quemada-díez, a coproduction of Guatemala, Spain and Mexico, since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard in 2013 where Quemada-díez won A Certain Talent Award for his directing work and the ensemble cast has received a total of 67 awards, including 9 Ariel awards by the Mexican Film Academy: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best First Feature, Best Actor, Best Upcoming Actor, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Music. It also won Best Picture, Best Editing and Best Sound at the Fenix Awards. Producers sold to Benelux - Wild Bunch Benelux, France - Pretty Pictures , Mexico - Canibal Networks,, Portugal - Legendmain Filmes, Spain - Golem Distribución, Taiwan - Maison Motion, U.K. - Peccadillo Pictures.
Other contenders:
"Club Sandwich" by Fernando Eimbcke, a Mexican production, screened in Toronto International Film Festival 2013, San Sebastian 2013 among many others. International sales agent (Isa) Funny Balloons sold the film to Benelux - ABC - Cinemien, Brazil--Esfera Filmes, Mexico--Cine Pantera, Poland--Art House, Turkey--Filma Ltd.
"Heli" by Amat Escalante, a Mexican production premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2013. Isa Ndm sold to U.S.--Outsider Pictures, Belgium--Film Fest Gent, Brazil--Zeta Filmes, Canada--K Films Amerique and A-z Films, Denmark--Ost For Paradis, France--Le Pacte, Greece--Ama Films, Hungary--Cirko Film Kft., Netherlands--Amstelfilm, Norway--Filmhuset Gruppen As & Europafilm As, Poland--Spectator, Puerto Ric--Wiesner Distribution, Serbia--Mcf Megacom Film, Spain--Savor Ediciones, S.A., Sweden--Njutafilms and Maywin Films Ab, Taiwan--Pomi International, Turkey--Filmarti Film, U.K.--Network
"Jauja" by Lisandro Alonso, a coproduction of Argentina, Denmark, France and Mexico and winner of the Fipresci Award in Cannes' Un Certain Regard 2014 where it debuted. It also played in Toronto and Busan among many other festivals. Isa Ndm, sold to U.S. -- The Cinema Guild; Argentina--Distribution Company Sudamericana S.A.; Spain--Noucinemart- Festival Internacional De Cinema D'autor De Barcelona; U.K.--Soda Pictures
"Bad Hair" ("Pelo Malo") by Mariana Rondon, a coproduction of Venezuela, Peru, Germany and Argentina premiered in Toronto 2013. FiGa sold it to U.S. – Pragda, Argentina--Obra Cine, Brazil--Esfera Filmes, Bulgaria--Sofia International Film Festival - Art Fest Ltd., France--Pyramide Distribution, Hungary -- Cirko, Italy--Cineclub Internazionale, Latin America--Palmera International, Portugal -- Nitrato Filmes, Serbia--European Film Festival Palic, Switzerland --Look Now! Filmdistribution, U.K.--Axiom Films International, Venezuela--Centro Nacional Autonomo De Cinematografia
Documentary Feature category
Winner: "Sobre la Marxa: the Creator of the Jungle" by Jordi Morató from Spain debuted at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Other Contenders:
"Letter to a Father" of Edgardo Cozarinsky, a coproduction from France and Argentina screened at Mar del Plata, Cinema du reel 2014 (Competition), Vienna and Jerusalem among other festivals. Doc and FIlms has the international rights.
"Echo Mountain" ("Eco de la montaña") by Nicolás Echevarría, a coproduction of U.S. and Mexico, premiered at Guadalajara Film Festival and Cinema du Reel in 2014.
"And Now? Remember Me" ("E agora? Lembra-me") by Joaquim Pinto from Portugal premiered at Locarno Film Festival 2013, has won 16 awards and 3 nominations and is distributed in France by Epicentre and by Midas in Portugal.
"Watch & Listen" by José Luis Torres Leiva
Best Female Role:
Winner:
Leandra Leal ("A Wolf At the Door" from Brazil premiered at Toronto Ff 2013. Isa: Im Global/Mundial sold to U.S.--Film Movement and Outsider Pictures, Benelux—Cdc United Network, Canada--A-z Films, Israel--United King Video Ltd., Latin America--Palmera International, So. Korea --Korean Film Art Center Baekdu-Daegan Films Co., Ltd, Portugal--Vendetta Filmes, Spain--Betta Pictures, Turkey--Moviebox)
Other Contenders:
Marian Álvarez ("The Wound" aka "La Herida" - Isa: Imagina, premiered San Sebastian Ff where the Special jury prize / Silver Shell for best actress went to Marian Álvarez), Samantha Castillo ("Bad Hair")
Paulina García ("Illiterate" - Isa: Habanero, screened at Guadalajara Ficg 2014, Sanfic - Santiago International Film Festival - Best Picture Audience award , Venice Film Festival - Settimana della Critica - Closing Film, Chicago International Film Festival - New Directors Competition, Sao Paulo International Film Festival - New Directors Competition )
Karen Martinez ("The Golden Cage")
Best Male Role:
Winner:
Viggo Mortensen ("Cockaigne" aka "Jauja")
Other Contenders:
Fernando Bacilio ("Mute" aka "El Mudo" by Daniel Vega premiered at Toronto in 2013. Udi sold it to Encore for airlines)
Alex Brendemühl ("Stella cadente" aka "Falling Star" by Luis Miñarro from Spain screened in Bafici (Buenos Aires) 2014 Panorama, San Sebastian 2014 Made in Spain, Gent Iff 2014 Feature Films, Rotterdam Iffr 2014 (Tiger Competition). Isa: Ndm sold it to Germany--Salzgeber & Co. Medien Gmbh Puerto Rico--Wiesner Distribution, Spain--Vercine)
Brandon Lopez ("The Golden Cage")
Antonio de la Torre ("Cannibal" by Manuel Martin Cuenca, a coproduction of Spain, Romania, Russia, France premiered at Toronto and San Sebastian 2013. Isa Film Factory sold it to U.S. - Film Movement, Belgium--Film Fest Gent, Hong Kong--Encore Inflight Limited-, Japan--Broadmedia Studios Corporation, Latin America--Palmera International, Spain--Mod Producciones, Taiwan--Creative Century Entertainment Co., Ltd.)
Eight other awards (listed below) were granted in the photography category, costumes, art direction, sound, music, editing and screenplay.
Four special awards were also presented:
The Latin American Festival Award, decided by the Advisory Council Cinema23 went to the Havana Film Festival (Festival de Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano). On December 3, 1979, over five hundred film professionals, mainly from Latin America, met in Havana, Cuba, for the inaugural Festival of New Latin American Cinema, which in its own words, "sought to build a space to identify and disseminate films whose significance and artistic values enrich and reaffirm American and Caribbean cultural identity where rich dialogue between film professionals, students and the informed public and critics gather". For decades and through its multiple realities Havana has played a role in community building around film as an art form and as an incentive for social reflection.
The work of more than three decades by a team led today by Ivan Giroud and which survives the noble and generous spirit of its founder, Alfredo Guevara, and those like Santiago Alvarez and Gabriel García Márquez, who have accompanied him from his beginnings, deserves to be recognized by those who think that culture is a way that allows us to approach, meet, recognize and move away from violence towards a better world. "With this award go our admiration and our gratitude to the Festival of New Latin American Cinema of Havana."
The Critics' Award, selected by Fipresci (Federation International Film Critics) went to the Brazilian writer José Carlos Avellar for his critical work. An admired and appreciated writer, critic, teacher and programmer, Avellar worked for over twenty years for the newspaper Jornal do Brasil, and has published six books on Brazilian and Latin American cinema. The former vice-president of Fipresci is also Berlinale's delegate in Brazil. More information and examples of his work can be found in his website www.escrevercinema.com.
Recognition of the Exhibition Sector, awarded by the leading exhibitors in the region went to Mexican actor and producer, Eugenio Derbez, for "No se aceptan devoluciones" ("Instructions Not Included").
The resurgence of Mexican films which began in 2001 with the all-time hit "Amores Perros" by Alejandro González Iñárritu and which also introduced Gael Garcia Bernal to the public (U.S. box office $5,408,467, worldwide $20,908,467) and "El crimen del Padre Amaro" in 2002 (U.S. box office $5,717,044, worldwide: $26,996,738) up until the hits, "Nosotros los Nobles" and "No se aceptan devoluciones" had the highest number admissions than any other Mexican film. Twelve years later, in six weeks "No se aceptan devolucions" outgrossed both "Amores" and "El crimen" combined. México Televisa’s Videocine Mexican box office was Us $44,882,061 and U.S. box office was $44,143,000. This is truly an exhibitor's dream movie.
No sooner had "Los Nobles" swept the Mexican box-office off its feet than another Mexican movie, independently produced by Monica Lozano’s México City-based Alebrije Cine y Video, "Instructions Not Included" was released -- first in the U.S. by Pantelion on August 30, 2013, almost three weeks before its Mexican release on September 20, 2013. The two countries grossed an equal amount. Moreover, Videocine released the film on 1,500 prints similar to a major release of a film such as "Batman". Through the Cinepolis chain’s use of satellite, these 1,500 prints were able to show on 2,500 screens. This represents both a new release pattern and a new type of Mexican film.
Previously Mexican films which were meant for the Mexican and Mexican-American audience (as opposed to those targeted to the art house audiences) were perceived as too Mexican by their U.S. target and they were released in the U.S. only after the Mexican release, and by that time, piracy had done its work in the U.S. and the film lacked the prestige of an "American" film. This film and the previous film, "The Noble Family", are not typically Mexican. Their storyline could be transposed anywhere, and in fact "The Noble Family" remake rights have been sold to U.S. In addition, releasing the film first in the U.S. changes the perception of the film in México. Being such a success in U.S. paves the way for its success in México as if it were validated as a "good" film.
Added to these two elements is the third key to success, Eugenio Derbez, the director and star of "Instructions", is a major TV comedy star in México and is known by all Mexicans wherever they reside. Mexican TV is quite powerful, it has a duopoly made by Televisa and TV Azteca. Derbez comes from Televisa. The film was also shot in English and Spanish and takes place in the U.S. Finally, Derbez himself and former head of production at Pantelion, Ben Odell, have now established a production company, 3 Spas, pronounced "Tres Paz" which funnily enough sounds like "tripas" or "guts". Reese Witherspoon whose film "Wild" opened the festival said that she had approached Derbez for a film she was producing already, but he was busy. However, she hopes they will soon find a project to do together. How great that will be for the exhibitors, the distributors and the audiences around the world!
The Phoenix Lifetime Achievement Award, which is awarded by the different academies and film associations in all the differenct countries of the region and announced by the Mexican Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences, went to Arturo Ripstein. Recognized as one of the great masters in the history of Mexican cinema, Ripstein said, "I'm glad to say that a lifetime achievement award is usually given when one is finished with everything. But I am pleased to say that I still need a bit of experience, because next week I start my new film. I've been practicing this craft half a century, and this (the Phoenix Award ) symbolizes what it has really cost me over the past 50 years."
List of all winners include:
Narrative Film: Diego Quemada-Diez ("La Jaula de Oro")
Documentary Film: Jordi Morato ("Sobre la Marxa")
Screenplay: Amat Escalante y Gabriel Reyes ("Heli")
Director: Amat Escalante ("Heli")
Photography: Julián Apezteguia ("El ardor")
Art Design: José Luis Arrizabalaga y Arturo García ("Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi")
Editing: Paloma López Carrillo y Felipe Gómez ("La Jaula de Oro")
Costume Design: Chris Garrido ("Tatuagem")
Sound Design: Matías Barberis, Raúl Locatelli y Jaime Baksht ("La Jaula de oro")
Music: Joan Valent ("Las brujas de Zugarramurdi")
Lead Actor: Viggo Mortensen ("Jauja")
Lead Actress: Leandra Leal ("A Wolf at the Door")
Diego Quemada-Diez Receives the Award for Best Narrative Film for "La Jaula de Oro"
Amat Escalante Receives the Award for Best Director for "Heli"
Viggo Mortensen Receives the Award for Best Lead Actor for "Jauja"
Leandra Leal Receives the Award for Best Lead Actress for "A Wolf at the Door"...
- 11/19/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
In many territories, Lucía Puenzo’s third feature film – to follow the critically acclaimed Xxy and The Fish Child – actually goes by the name of ‘The German Doctor’. Here, in the UK, it’s called Wakolda, which represents a more fitting, symbolic title to truly capture the essence of this moving, disquieting drama. Wakolda is the name of our 12 year old protagonist’s doll, and is therefore emblematic of her innocence, which is far more poignant. After all, this picture is not about the doctor, as such, but his relationship with the young Lilith, finding a strand of intimacy amidst an otherwise comprehensive, implicative narrative.
Lilith is played by the newcomer Florencia Bado, who is remarkably small for her age, and is often the victim of much teasing at school as a result. However there appears to be a cure for her lack of growth, as a local German doctor...
Lilith is played by the newcomer Florencia Bado, who is remarkably small for her age, and is often the victim of much teasing at school as a result. However there appears to be a cure for her lack of growth, as a local German doctor...
- 8/7/2014
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The name Josef Mengele, Hitler’s so-called ‘Angel of Death’, will probably be familiar to you. He was the subject of Franklin Schaffner’s Oscar-winning thriller (and World Cup rent-a-headline) The Boys From Brazil and his clammy presence returns to the big screen with Argentine drama Wakolda. The film has a first-look trailer and a new poster to share its take on one of science’s most warped villains. Released in the Us under the name The German Doctor, Wakolda is set in Patagonia in 1960. Mengele (Alex Brendemühl), ensconced in Argentina after his escape from Nazi Germany 15 years earlier, has wormed his way into the trust of a young family who run a hotel in the icy boondocks. However, as the saying probably goes: ‘Once a Nazi scumbag, always a Nazi scumbag’, and soon he’s back pursuing his interest in eugenics on the youngest member of the clan, Lilith (Florencia Bado). Unusually,...
- 7/9/2014
- EmpireOnline
The subtle veil of horror draped over things we take for granted as good and wonderful aspects of humanity is deeply unsettling… I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
South America, 1960. You can probably guess at the background of the eponymous German doctor (Àlex Brendemühl) who befriends a Patagonian family and slowly inveigles his way into their very heart. Impressionable 12-year-old Lilith (Florencia Bado) falls for his seeming charm the moment they meet, though her mom, Eva (Natalia Oreiro), isn’t far behind. Soon he is living in the lakeside hotel the family operates, investing in dad Enzo’s (Diego Peretti) custom dollmaking business, and making medical suggestions for how undersized Lilith — who looks like an eight-year-old and is teased at school as a “dwarf” — might jumpstart her growth and kickstart her delayed adolescence.
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
South America, 1960. You can probably guess at the background of the eponymous German doctor (Àlex Brendemühl) who befriends a Patagonian family and slowly inveigles his way into their very heart. Impressionable 12-year-old Lilith (Florencia Bado) falls for his seeming charm the moment they meet, though her mom, Eva (Natalia Oreiro), isn’t far behind. Soon he is living in the lakeside hotel the family operates, investing in dad Enzo’s (Diego Peretti) custom dollmaking business, and making medical suggestions for how undersized Lilith — who looks like an eight-year-old and is teased at school as a “dwarf” — might jumpstart her growth and kickstart her delayed adolescence.
- 6/18/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
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