Noticias

Maria Bakalova, the Oscar-nominated star of “Borat Subsequent Movie Film,” is set to star in the action-comedy “My Masterpiece” for Sylvester Stallone and Braden Aftergood’s Balboa Productions. Cassandra Brooksbank will make her feature directorial debut from a script by Jason Hellerman. The Veterans and CAA Media Finance will introduce the film to buyers at Cannes this week.

According to the official description, “My Masterpiece” follows a hitwoman hellbent on dismantling an unfair system within her industry, but she gets stuck on the second floor of an office building after she takes vengeance on a corporate overlord. That means she has to fight her way through fellow murderers and her past to ensure justice prevails. If all goes well, this might just be her masterpiece.

Production is expected to begin in fall 2023 in Canada. The Veterans are handling international sales. CAA Media Finance represents domestic distribution rights.

After her scene-stealing...

Few European arthouse-crossover film sales agents have better weathered the ebb and flow of international market dynamics than Madrid’s Latido Films, which turns 20 in 2023.

Proof of that came at April’s Platino Awards, where Latido scored six statuettes, split between an acting double for Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Lullaby” and four for Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” which has already swept Spain’s Goya Awards and scored a French Cesar for foreign film.

Scoring €6.8 million ($7.5 million) in Spain, and 327,000 admissions in France, “The Beasts” also rates as one of the top-performing recent Spanish-language movies.

If Latido has survived for so long, insists director general Antonio Saura, it’s because of a core strategy of “working with talent, our search for talent.” Beyond that, other keys have been “collaboration with production companies that understand long-term relationships, and well-established relationships with clients.”

Companies with which Latido has held or holds...

Spanish distributors, who have enjoyed a strong track record selling remake rights to local pics, have received a major boost this year with the Malaga Festival Industry Zone’s (Mafiz) inaugural Remake Day event on Thursday.

Leading film sales companies, among them Cinema Republic, Latido Films, Filmax and Feel Content, presented showcases of films considered particularly adaptable to foreign markets. Not surprisingly, comedies and genre pics made up most of the selections.

David Castellanos’ Cinema Republic offered one strong example with Borja Cobeaga’s hit 2009 romantic comedy “Pagafantas,” which has over the years sold to Germany, Italy and Mexico.

Cinema Republic also touted Icíar Bollaín’s “Rosa’s Wedding” (“La Boda de Rosa”), about a woman in her mid-40s who decides to finally take charge of her life and fulfill her dream of starting a business.

In Robert Bellsolà’s 2014 laffer “Dos a la Carta” (“Menu for Two”), another Cinema Republic title,...

Exclusive: Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, the Argentinian filmmakers behind Official Competition, My Masterpiece and other acclaimed festival titles, have signed with CAA.

Cohn and Duprat wrote and directed their third feature, Official Competition, which premiered in competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The comedy starring Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas watches as a wealthy businessman hires a famous filmmaker to help him make a hit film. IFC acquired U.S. distribution rights in October and plans to release the film in 2022. CAA Media Finance brokered the deal.

The duo’s credits also include My Masterpiece (Mi Obra Maestra), which Duprat directed with Cohn producing, and The Distinguished Citizen, which they helmed together. The latter title was selected to compete at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, where its star, Oscar Martínez, won the Best Actor award. It was also selected as Argentina’s Academy Awards entry that year and...

Darius Rucker’s new tour doesn’t start until February 17, 2022, in Philadelphia but we’re pretty confident that we already know what the country singer is going to be wearing that night. Call us shocked if the 55-year-old musician isn’t actually donning a Sherpa-lined Eagles vest when he hits the stage.

The fashion decision makes sense seeing as how the garment is one of the new pieces in the three-time Grammy winner’s just-debuted NFL x Darius Rucker Collection by Fanatics, available now on Fanatics.com.

Fanatics/NFL

Buy:...

Argentina’s Aleph Cine, led by Fernando Sokolowicz, one of the country’s most established film producers, has taken an undisclosed co-production stake in Romina Paula’s project “Gente de noche” (“People by Night”), produced by New Argentine Cinema icon Diego Dubcovsky at Varsovia Films.

Selected for San Sebastian Festival’s 9th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, “Gente” marks Paula’s return to the Spanish festival after winning the 2019 Horizontes Award with her feature debut “Again Once Again” and co-directing 2020 Official Section omnibus player “Unlimited Edition.”

Toplining Agustina Muñoz (“Viola”) and Margarita Molfino (“Wild Tales”), the project follows Agustina, a woman who travels with her newborn baby to Selva Misionera to meet her wife’s family.

Selva Misionera owes its name to the Jesuit missions that began in the 17th Century in Guaraní territory -comprising current northeastern Argentina plus Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil- by the Society of Jesus to evangelize the region.

Darius Rucker has released the breezy new song “My Masterpiece” as his latest single. It’s the country artist’s first new music of 2021 and follows the single “Beers & Sunshine.”

“My Masterpiece” was written by Rucker with Ross Copperman, Jt Harding, and Josh Osborne and features a spacious, piano-driven arrangement of laid-back drumming, tambourine, and wisps of pedal steel that’s meant to go down as sweetly as Rucker’s romantic words of praise. He describes his love for someone as a work of art that he hopes outlives all...

Following the presentation of exclusive footage at the European Film Market last week, highly anticipated title “Official Competition” – reuniting Spanish stars Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz – has seized sales to major distributors for sales agency Protagonist Pictures and producer The Mediapro Studio.

Banderas, Cannes best actor winner and Academy Award nominee for “Pain and Glory,” and Cruz, Academy Award winner for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” star alongside Argentinian actor Oscar Martínez, Venice best actor winner for “The Distinguished Citizen,” in the comedy about the fierce rivalry between two actors with massive talent but even bigger egos.

Lucky Red has acquired the film for Italy, Studiocanal for Germany/Austria, Scanbox for Scandinavia, Pathe Films Ag for Switzerland, MK2 Mile End for Canada, Madman for Australia/New Zealand, Golden Scene for Hong Kong/Macau, and Sahamongkol Film for Thailand, with further deals closed previously at EFM 2020 for Benelux (September Film), Portugal (Lusomundo), Cee...

Madrid — Spain’s two most recognizable cinematic faces, Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz, will co-star in a new film from Madrid’s The Mediapro Studio, titled “Competencia Oficial” (Official Competition), directed by Argentine filmmakers Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat.

The pair recently both starred in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory,” although they never appeared together on screen. Banderas went on to win best actor at the Cannes Festival, a Spanish Academy Goya Award, and is now nominated for best actor at the Oscars.

Although the two have seen plenty of each other over the past year, promoting “Pain and Glory,” the last time they shared a scene was in 2013’s “I’m So Excited.”

Cohn and Duprat have recruited one of their most popular Argentine mature leading men to join the endeavor as well in Oscar Martínez, a Venice best actor winner for his work in “The Distinguished Citizen...

The Mediapro Studio production to start shoot in Spain at end of February.

Spanish superstars Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas are to take the relatively unusual step of starring together in a film and have signed on to Competencia Oficial (Official Competition) from Argentinian duo Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat.

While both actors have collaborated with Pedro Almodóvar for many years and starred (without sharing the screen) in Almodóvar’s fresh Goya winner Pain & Glory, the pair have rarely been seen together at the same time on screen, The last time this happened was, briefly, in Almodóvar’s 2013 film I’m So Excited.

Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas are to topline Spanish-language feature Competencia Oficial, which is due to get underway in Spain at the end of next month. Veteran Argentine actor Oscar Martínez will also star.

The movie is co-written and co-directed by Argentine filmmaking duo Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat. Andrés Duprat also scripted. The MediaPro Studio is producing.

Banderas and Martínez will play actors with very different track records whose methods clash during the preparation for a movie financed by a notorious and over-eager millionaire. Cruz will play the film’s prestigious but eccentric director.

Additional cast includes José Luis Gómez, Carlos Hipólito, Koldo Olabarri, Irene Escolar, Nagore Aramburu, Pilar Castro and Juan Grandinetti.

This will be The MediaPro Studio’s third co-production with Cohn and Duprat after My Masterpiece and 4×4.

Madrid-based Latido Films is officially launching Latido Remakes, having closed a flurry of early sales, and capitalizing on the ever-building success of redos of box office movie hits outside their country of origin.

In first deals, Latido has sold remake options on Javier Fesser’s “Champions” to China’s Funhigh, India’s 200NotOut and Sausalito for the Middle East.

Remake options are about to be closed for France and Brazil, said Latido Films CEO Antonio Saura.

France’s Axel Films has optioned “The Distinguished Citizen” while Kinovista has snapped up “My Masterpiece.”

Other titles in Latido Films remake sales slate are “4×4” and “May God Save Us,”

Going forward, Latido will focus primarily on acquiring titles titles with potential from Spain and Latin America, looking for “highly original, high-concept box office hits in their local markets, especially comedies and thrillers,” Saura said.

Spain’s 2018 Oscars submission, “Champions,” fits that bill perfectly...

Buyers respond to 4x4, The Weasels’ Tale, Bunuel In The Labyrinth Of The Turtles.

Madrid-based powerhouse Latido Films has struck a raft of key deals on its prestige Efm slate, led by further business on Argentine-Spain duo 4x4 and Oscar winner Juan Jose Campanella’s The Weasels’ Tale.

Mariano Cohn’s thriller 4x4 (Argentina-Spain) was the talk of Ventana Sur in Buenos Aires in December and stars Juan Pedro Lanzani from Argentine smash The Clan as a petty crook who breaks into a car, only to discover he has been lured into a trap.

Latido has licensed rights to...

Buenos Aires — Lucia and Julia Meik’s Buenos Aires boutique sales company Meikincine has acquired international sales rights to two of the more mainstream Argentine propositions at this year’s Ventana Sur: Andy Caballero and Diego Corsini’s “Just Love,” and “Re Loca,” the Argentine remake of Chile’s “Sin Filtro.”

The “Re Loca” deal is for world rights outside Latin America, where Paramount will handle distribution, as previously announced.

Teen comedy-musical “Solo el Amor” (“Just Love”) turns on the across-the-tracks romance between a pop band lead singer-writer Noah and Emma, a young over-achiever female lawyer, who literally bump into each other. Their love gives Noah’s songs an authentic edge they previously lacked. But Noah’s fame, millions of online followers and manipulating manager threaten to wreck their passionate affair. Can “just love” pull them through?

Making its market debut at Ventana Sur on Dec. 12, “Just Love” stars 24-year-old Franco Masini,...

Madrid-based Latido Films has closed high-profile deals on two flagship titles, licensing Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Toronto-San Sebastian player “The Realm” to China’s Heyday, Rialto for Australia and the U.K.’s Signature Entertainment, as well as selling Spain’s Oscar submission “Champions” to Japan’s Synca Creations.

The sales mark part of a score or more new territory deals confirmed or near to fruition as Latido hits this week’s American Film Market, having already announced near 3o territory sales off Cannes, Venice, Toronto and San Sebastian.

The Synca Creations accord also takes in “Ni Distintos, ni diferentes: Campeones,” Alvaro Longoria’s docu-feature profile of the special needs actors starring in “Champions.”

In further sales deals, playing off a strong line in first features from standout women directors, Latido has licensed Colombian Laura Mora’s revenge thriller “Killing Jesus” to France’s Bobine Films and Germany’s Waystone Film.

Madrid — Making good on the largely overlooked achievement of debut feature “The Demons,” Québécois Philippe Lesage’s “Genesis” swept the 63rd Valladolid Intl. Film Festival, winning its top Golden Spike, director and actor on Saturday.

One of Spain’s top three or four festivals, and a bastion of auteur cinema, Valladolid closed its official section Friday with an out-of-competition sneak peek screening of a preliminary version of Til Schweiger’s “Honey in the Head,” still to totally finalize post-production, starring Nick Nolte as a grandfather suffering Alzheimer who is taken off by his 10-year-old daughter to Venice where he lived the love of his life with his wife. Initial local press reactions speak of a “brilliant” performance from Nolte. Matt Dillon, who plays Nolte’s son was in Valladolid to accept an Honorary Spike for his career.

Valladolid’s main competition Audience Award, the prize many distributors are most interested in,...

San Sebastian — Everybody agrees: World markets for arthouse films have contracted, first in prices paid, now in number of territories sold.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no arthouse market at all. A case in point: Latido Films. Headed by Antonio Saura, the Madrid-based sales house heads into this year’s San Sebastian Festival reporting 23 higher profile deals across seven titles struck from Cannes through Venice, Toronto and multiple festivals in between.

Only one of these titles, only Javier Fesser’s “Champions,” can be said to be anywhere near selling out. But, with foreign-language movies so dependent these days on scoring berths at big fests, and sales cycles lengthening given ever-more cautious buyers, none of the films are anywhere near the end of their sales cycle. Among deals:

*Caca Diegues’s Cannes Special Screening “The Great Mystical Circus,” a five-generation circus saga, has closed three major markets: the U.

Latido is bringing onto the Toronto market “The Weasels,” the first live-action film from Argentina’s Juan José Campanella since he won a foreign-language Oscar for “The Secret in Their Eyes” in 2010.

Latido will introduce the film to buyers via what Latido head Antonio Saura describes as a “pre-trailer.”

“The Weasels” reunites the sales agent and most of the high-pedigree production team behind “The Secret in Their Eyes:” Campanella’s Buenos Aires label 100 Bares and top Argentine network Telefe, which is a Viacom Intl. Media Networks company, produce the pic, in co-production with Spain’s Tornasol (“The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”) and Argentina’s Jempsa, whose late head, Jorge Estrada Mora, produced five of Campanella’s films.

“The Weasels” returns Campanella to the semi-comedic mode, but hardly same comic tone, of 2001’s Oscar-nominated “The Son of the Bride.”

Based on an Argentine classic, 1976’s “Los muchachos de antes no usaban arsénico,...

The complex professional relationship and years-long friendship of a cranky painter and a crafty gallery owner in Buenos Aires are the subject of the prickly comedy My Masterpiece (Mi obra maestra). This is the latest work from Argentinean filmmaker Gaston Duprat (The Distinguished Citizen), who again works from a screenplay written by his brother, Andres, while Duprat’s regular co-director, Mariano Cohn, here only has a producer credit. Though the foibles-filled script is always diverting, the way in which it withholds certain information from the audience until the big twist can be revealed feels like a bit of a cheat as ...

The complex professional relationship and years-long friendship of a cranky painter and a crafty gallery owner in Buenos Aires are the subject of the prickly comedy My Masterpiece (Mi obra maestra). This is the latest work from Argentinean filmmaker Gaston Duprat (The Distinguished Citizen), who again works from a screenplay written by his brother, Andres, while Duprat’s regular co-director, Mariano Cohn, here only has a producer credit. Though the foibles-filled script is always diverting, the way in which it withholds certain information from the audience until the big twist can be revealed feels like a bit of a cheat as ...

On the heels of yesterday’s Tiff lineup announcement, the Venice Film Festival has announced their 2018 lineup and it’s a doozy. We’ll start with the films not part of Tiff (yet): Orson Welles’ long-awaited The Other Side of the Wind, the Coens’ anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria, Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook follow-up The Nightingale (first look below), and Brady Corbet’s musical drama Vox Lux.

Also in the lineup is S. Craig Zahler’s Dragged Across Concrete, Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, Carlos Reygadas’s Neustro Tiempo, Paul Greengrass’ July 22, Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate and Rick Alverson’s The Mountain, plus new documentaries from Frederick Wiseman, Sergei Loznitsa, Errol Morris, Tsai Ming-Liang, and Gaston Solnicki.

There’s also the previously-announced First Man and A Star is Born, as well as Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, Laszlo Nemes’ Sunset, Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers,...

Non-FictionThe programme for the 2018 edition of the Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, and includes new films from Tsai Ming-liang, Frederick Wiseman, Sergei Loznitsa, Olivier Assayas, the Coen Brothers, and many more.COMPETITIONFirst Man (Damien Chazelle)The Mountain (Rick Alverson)Non-Fiction (Olivier Assayas)The Sisters Brothers (Jacques Audiard)The Ballad of Buster ScruggsVox Lux (Brady Corbet)Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)22 July (Paul Greengrass)Suspiria (Luca Guadagnino)Werk ohne autor (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)The Nightingale (Jennifer Kent)The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)Peterloo (Mike Leigh)Capri-revolution (Mario Martone)What You Gonna Do When the World's On Fire? (Roberto Minervini)Sunset (László Nemes)Frères ennemis (David Oeloffen)Where Life is Born (Carlos Reygadas)At Eternity's Gate (Julian Schnabel)Acusada (Gonzalo Tobal)Killing (Shinya Tsukamoto)Out Of COMPETITIONFeaturesThe Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles)They'll Love Me When I'm Dead (Morgan Neville)L'amica geniale (Saverio Costanzo)Il diario di angela - noi...