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The folks at the Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles folks are throwing some coin support towards 27 fiction feature films. We find several top Belgian filmmakers setting up projects for 2024 shoots and for probable 2025 playdates. At the top of the list we find sophomore features from the likes of Harpo and Lenny Guit (Sundance preemed Mother Schmuckers (2021) and Laura Wandel (Cannes Un Certain Regard breakout Playground) joining established vets such as Jessica Woodworth (who is now working on L’Incubatrice), Joachim Lafosse (who is setting up Les Petits Voleurs for a Spring 2024 shoot) and Baloji (an Un Certain Regard winner this year) who is already moving into his sophomore feature.…...

Composers including Howard Shore, Patrick Doyle and Daniel Pemberton have taken part.

The World Soundtrack Awards (Wsa), taking place annually at Film Fest Gent, is pairing 25 composers with 25 filmmakers for a short film project called 25 x 2 to celebrate the festival’s 50th anniversary.

Composers including Howard Shore, Patrick Doyle and Daniel Pemberton have composed a short piece of music (1-2 minutes) with many recorded by the Brussels Philharmonic orchestra. Filmmakers Including Terence Davies, Radu Jude, Paul Schrader, Naomi Kawase and Ildikó Enyedi are now creating shorts based on the scores.

The shorts will be presented at this year’s Film Fest Gent,...

Composers including Howard Shore, Patrick Doyle and Daniel Pemberton have taken part.

The World Soundtrack Awards (Wsa), taking place annually at Film Fest Gent, is pairing 25 composers with 25 filmmakers for a short film project called 25 x 2 to celebrate the festival’s 50th anniversary.

Composers including Howard Shore, Patrick Doyle and Daniel Pemberton have composed a short piece of music (1-2 minutes) with many recorded by the Brussels Philharmonic orchestra. Filmmakers Including Terence Davies, Radu Jude, Paul Schrader, Naomi Kawase and Ildikó Enyedi are now creating shorts based on the scores.

The shorts will be presented at this year’s Film Fest Gent,...

Composers including Howard Shore, Patrick Doyle and Daniel Pemberton have taken part.

The World Soundtrack Awards (Wsa), taking place annually at Film Fest Gent, is pairing 25 composers with 25 filmmakers for a short film project called 25 x 2 to celebrate the festival’s 50th anniversary.

Composers including Howard Shore, Patrick Doyle and Daniel Pemberton have composed a short piece of music (1-2 minutes) with many recorded by the Brussels Philharmonic orchestra. Filmmakers Including Terence Davies, Radu Jude, Paul Schrader, Naomi Kawase and Ildikó Enyedi are now creating shorts based on the scores.

The shorts will be presented at this year’s Film Fest Gent,...

Films Boutique, the Berlin-based company behind “Pacifiction” and “The Burdened,” has come on board three international movies slated for the Cannes Film Festival. These include a pair of films set for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, “Terrestrial Verses” and “The Buriti Flower,” as well as “Tiger Stripes” which will bow at Critics’ Week.

“Terrestrial Verses,” directed by Alireza Khatami and Ali Asgari, is the sole Iranian film premiering in the Official Selection. The movie marks the first collaboration between these two critically acclaimed directors.

Khatami previously wrote and directed “Oblivion Verses” which won best screenplay and the Fipresci prizes at Venice in 2017. Asgari, meanwhile, previously directed “Until Tomorrow” which premiered at Berlin last year, and presented two shorts at Cannes, “More Than Two Hours” in 2013 et “Il Silenzio” in 2016.

While the plot remains under wrap, the film’s title is a reference to a poet by famed Iranian Poet Forugh Farrokhzad.

It’s not a coincidence that Volker Schlöndorff’s latest film The Forest Maker, the environmental essay documentary about Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo, who found a way to grow trees in the most barren areas of Africa, is opening the 27th Sofia International Film Festival kicking off Thursday in the Bulgarian capital.

One of the major film festivals in Eastern Europe is going green, and the veteran German filmmaker, winner of the Palme d’Or and what was then called the best foreign language Oscar for The Tin Drum (1979), will plant the first tree of the future Sofia Film Festival Forest.

“We wanted to remind ourselves of our deep connection to the land and our power to be agents of change together. We wish to engage the public in the global vision of sustainable development of society and a responsible attitude towards nature”, the festival organizers said about the green...

Films Boutique are close to further deals in China and Italy.

Animated sci-fi film White Plastic Sky has scores sales in Europe and Asia by Films Boutique following its world premiere at last month’s Berlinale.

The Berlin-based sales agent has sold the Hungarian feature to Kmbo for France and Flash Forward Entertainment for Taiwan. Films Boutique is in talks for the feature at Hong Kong Filmart and deals in China and Italy are expected to close shortly.

Directed by Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó, the film is set in 2123 and follows one man’s risky attempts to save his...

Slate includes features in Competition, Encounters, Forum and Panorama sections

Berlin-based sales outfit Films Boutique has unveiled a six-title Berlinale slate, including Zhang Lu’s competition title The Shadowless Tower as well as features playing in the festival’s Encounters, Forum and Panorama sections.

Films Boutique is representing two films playing in Encounters: Leandro Koch and Paloma Schachmann’s The Klezmer Project and Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó’s White Plastic Sky.

It is also handling director Claire Simon’s Forum documentary Our Body and Amr Gamal’s Panorama film The Burdened.

Rounding out Films Boutique’s EFM slate is Jessica Woodworth’s Luka,...

After films like “Khadak,” “La Cinquième Saison,” and most recently, “The Barefoot Emperor” (all co-directed with Peter Brosens), Belgian-American filmmaker Jessica Woodworth goes solo with the black and white festival gem “Luka,” which premiered as part of Rotterdam’s Big Screen Competition. In a co-production between Armenia, Belgium, Italy, and Bulgaria, the film is delightfully angsty and bursting with desire: for power, togetherness, and a world at its breaking point.

Continue reading ‘Luka’ Review: Jessica Woodworth Crafts a Carnally Sublime World Of Men, Power & Desire [Iff Rotterdam Review] at The Playlist.

”It’s good for there to be someone between the actor and the director,” said Dutch actor Joy Delima.

When actor Markoesa Hamer first started working as an intimacy co-ordinator on Dutch film and TV sets five years ago, she was concerned the industry would not think there was a need for her role in the way there was in North America and the UK.

“I was worried that in Holland people would never want that,” Hamer recalled.

Now they have become common place, although older Dutch actors initially felt they had no need of intimacy coordinators, Hamer told a...

The ambitious film is based on the classic Italian novel, Dino Buzatti’s ’The Desert Of The Tatars’

US-Belgian director Jessica Woodworth shot her ambitious new film Luka in Sicily, in black and white and in 16mm, as a complex European co-production.

The film has its world premiere this week in the Big Screen competition of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

Geraldine Chaplin and Jonas Smulders star in the English-language film, about a young man, played by Smulders, who heads off to join the army at the remote and desolate Fort Kairos. Under the command of the General, played by Chaplin,...

“I knew from day one it was Geraldine Chaplin who needed to play The General,” says director Jessica Woodworth about having Charlie Chaplin’s daughter play one of the central characters in her latest drama, “Luka,” which is having its world premiere in the Big Screen Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

“Not because she’s female, however,” emphasizes the director. “This had nothing to do with it. In fact, my intention was to have her incarnate a male character, but our working relationship is so strong, I told her I couldn’t make a film without her. In the end, it became totally irrelevant whether she was male or female.”

The film is inspired by Dino Buzzati’s classic novel “The Tartar Steppe,” and stars Chaplin and Jonas Smulders, a previous European Shooting Star, as the titular character. “I studied Italian literature at university, and lived in Italy for a while,...

The trailer has debuted for Jessica Woodworth’s sci-fi epic “Luka,” which has its world premiere in the Big Screen Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Films Boutique is handling international sales.

The film is Woodworth’s take on Dino Buzzati’s “The Tartar Steppe,” in which she crafts a fantasy of post-truth lunacy. Geraldine Chaplin plays the twisted General in a drama tinged with the conjured terrors of George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” and the rapturous brotherly love of Jean Genet’s “Un chant d’amour.”

In the film, Luka, a young and ambitious soldier, embeds himself in Fort Kairos where heroic warriors defend the remains of civilization. His hopes to serve as an elite sniper are crushed when he is assigned to maintenance and must submit to the code of Kairos: obedience, endurance and sacrifice. As he rises through the ranks, Luka finds joy and strength in friendships with Konstantin,...

Luka

Shot in glorious B&w and Super 16mm, Belgian-American filmmaker Jessica Woodworth mounted this solo adventure utilizing the backdrop of Sicily back in October of ’21. Before being selected for the upcoming edition of Rotterdam, Luka was known as “Fortress” and was in the works dating back to 2017’s TorinoFilmLab. Jonas Smulders toplines the project sharing the screen alongside Geraldine Chaplin, Samvel Tadevossian, Jan Bijvoet, Sam Louwyck, Django Schrevens and Hal Yamanouchi. As we already know Woodworth was part of the filmmaking team with Peter Brosens beginning with Khadak which preemed at the Venice Days, followed by 2009’s Altiplano in the Cannes Critics’ Week, 2012’s The Fifth Season as a comp title in Venice, The King of the Belgians in Venice’s Orizzonti and The Barefoot Emperor a Toronto selection.…...

Following the lineups from Slamdance and Sundance, an early look at 2023 in cinema has come into further focus with the announcement of the competition lineup for the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Taking place January 25 through February 5, the festival will open with Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken’s Munch, an experimental biopic of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Along with the Tiger and Big Screen competition, seen below, the festival will also Steve McQueen’s latest artwork Sunshine State, a two-channel video projection.

Check out the lineup below via THR.

Opening Film

Munch, dir. Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken

Tiger Competition

100 Seasons, dir. Giovanni Bucchieri

Gagaland, dir. Teng Yuhan

Geology of Separation, dirs. Yosr Gasmi, Mauro Mazzocchi

Indivision, dir. Leïla Kilani

Letzter Abend, dir. Lukas Nathrath

Mannvirki, dir. Gústav Geir Bollason

Munnel, dir. Visakesa Chandrasekaram

New Strains, dir. Artemis Shaw, Prashanth Kamalakanthan

Notas sobre un verano, dir. Diego Llorente

Numb, dir. Amir Toodehroosta

Nummer achttien, dir.

Munch.International Film Festival Rotterdam have announced the lineup for their 52nd edition, which will take place between January 25 through February 5. The festival will be held in-person for the first time since 2020.Opening FILMMunch (Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken)Tiger COMPETITION100 årstider (Giovanni Bucchieri)Gagaland (Teng Yuhan)Geology of SeparationIndivision (Leïla Kilani)Letzter Abend (Lukas Nathrath)Mannvirki (Gústav Geir Bollason)Munnel (Visakesa Chandrasekaram)New StrainsNotas sobre un verano (Diego Llorente)Numb (Amir Toodehroosta)Nummer achttien (Guido van der Werve)La Palisiada (Philip Sotnychenko)Playland (Georden West)Le spectre de Boko Haram (Cyrielle Raingou)Thiiird (Karim Kassem)three sparks (Naomi Uman)Big Screen COMPETITIONAvant l’effondrementBefore the Buzzards Arrive (Jonás N. Díaz)Copenhagen Does Not Exist (Martin Skovbjerg)Drawing LotsEndless Borders (Abbas Amini)Le formiche di Mida (Edgar Honetschläger)Four Little Adults (Selma Vilhunen)La hembrita (Laura Amelia Guzmán Conde)Joram (Devashish Makhija)Luka (Jessica Woodworth)My Little Nighttime Secret (Natalya Meshchaninova...

It will be artistic director Vanja Kaludjercic’s first full physical event since being appointed three years ago.

Norwegian director Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken’s Munch will open the 2023 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), taking place from January 25-February 5 in the Netherlands. It is the first in-person festival following two online pandemic events and the first physical one for festival director Vanja Kaludjercic since taking over from Bero Beyer after the 2020 event.

Munch, which will screen out of competition, explores the life of the tortured Norwegian artist, celebrated for his painting of ‘The Scream’, and who endured mental turmoil throughout his life.

This year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled the 16 films selected for its flagship Tiger Competition. Scroll down for the full list.

As always, the competition selection is a global affair, with features from Sweeden to Sri Lanka. The 2023 jury will grant three prizes: the Tiger Award, plus two special jury awards. On the jury are: Alonso Díaz de la Vega, Anisia Uzeyman, Christine Vachon, Lav Diaz, and Sabrina Baracetti.

Running from January 25 to February 5, the fest is set to return for its first full-scale physical edition since the pandemic. The event will open with Munch, an experimental feature biopic of the Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken (Returning Home).

The honorary Robby Müller Award will go to French cinematographer Hélène Louvart. Louvart is best known for her work with Claire Denis, including the 1999 classic Beau Travail. Louvart has also worked with directors such as Wim Wenders,...

Click here to read the full article.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on Monday unveiled its full line for its 2023 event.

After two all-virtual festivals, the IFFR is finally returning in-person fest, running January 25-February 5 in the Dutch port city. Rotterdam is one of the last major festivals to return post-pandemic, its 2022 event having been forced to go online-only at the last minute when Dutch authorities imposed a new lockdown in December last year, just weeks before the IFFR kicked off.

The resulting revenue shortfall —closed theatres equals zero ticket sales —meant IFFR had to slash its budget, cutting 15 percent of its staff and restructuring.

Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic, who runs the IFFR together with managing director Marjan van der Haar, told The Hollywood Reporter the cuts were made “in order to avoid having to make big changes to the festival.” The 2023 edition, however, will be significantly smaller than the pre-pandemic versions,...

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will open on Jan. 25 with “Munch,” Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken’s take on the Norwegian artist behind “The Scream.”

“Bringing to life the inner world of such a complex character has been a very rewarding experience. We are thrilled to show audiences what inspired [Edvard] Munch and what kept his inner flame alive,” noted the helmer.

Produced by The Film Company and sold internationally by Viaplay Content Distribution, it will premiere in Norwegian cinemas on Jan. 27 and on Viaplay on March 24.

IFFR, set to return for its first full-scale physical edition since the pandemic, will present 16 films in its flagship Tiger Competition. Jurors Sabrina Baracetti, Lav Diaz, Anisia Uzeyman, Christine Vachon and Alonso Díaz de la Vega will grant three prizes: the Tiger Award, worth €40,000, and two Special Jury Awards, worth €10,000 each.

Ukraine’s Philip Sotnychenko “La Palisiada,” “New Strains” by Artemis Shaw and Prashanth Kamalakanthan, and...

For some cinephiles, Sicily may still conjure images from “The Godfather” franchise, but the Italian isle has long moved on.

When you see Sicily on screen these days in movies and TV series made for global audiences, the narratives now seldom involve Cosa Nostra tropes as they once used to. What’s taking precedence for producers now is the sheer beauty of the Sicilian landscape in its plethora of forms.

“For decades Sicily was where you would come to film stories that were centered around the Mafia and organized crime; but now this is changing,” says Sicilian Film Commission chief Nicola Tarantino. He notes that only 10 of the roughly 45 projects supported by the commission last year have anything to do with the mob.

While the crime angle may have boosted Sicily’s profile as a location, productions that chose the island for filming are just “less and less interested in this theme,...

Geraldine Chaplin, Jonas Smulders star.

Berlin-based sales firm Films Boutique has boarded Jessica Woodworth’s Belgian feature Fortress starring Geraldine Chaplin and Jonas Smulders.

It has released a first-look image of the film, which is in post-production, above.

Fortress shot for six weeks in Sicily in autumn 2021, with filming in black-and-white on Super 16mm film. US-Belgian filmmaker Woodworth wrote the screenplay, adapted from Dino Buzzati’s 1940 novel The Tartar Steppe.

It is about a young soldier, hungry for battle, who embeds himself in an isolated fort where men wait in vain for an enemy to strike. Jan Bijvoet and Sam Louwyck also star.

Fortress

They’ve been sharing co-directing duties since their inception with 2006’s Khadak, but there was only one director’s chair on set of Fortress. Jessica Woodworth has now gone solo but Peter Brosens is not too far behind – he wears the producer’s hat on what is their six feature film collab. A 2017 TorinoFilmLab project, filming took place last summer running up until October in Sicily, and from what we can tell from this Euro co-production is that Geraldine Chaplin (who is credited as The General) will steal some scenes (she was in Woodworth’s last film) but she is joined by Dutch actor Jonas Smulders (he had a bit role in Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s Murina) who likely toplined the project.…...

Italy, which has always been attractive for international film and TV productions, is now making huge strides as a shooting destination mainly due to its Covid safety measures and smart rebate, on top its stunning locations.

The number of high-profile Hollywood shoots that since the pandemic have flocked to Italian sites — from the Alpine Alto Adige area to Sicily and Sardinia — has increased exponentially.

Productions taking advantage of Italy’s attractive incentives and deep crew base include “Mission: Impossible 7,” Netflix’s Dwayne Johnson-starrer “Red Notice,” Amazon’s “The Wheel of Time,” Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” “Indiana Jones 5” and also Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci,” Showtime’s “Ripley” series and Joe Wright’s “Cyrano.”

These last three productions have the distinction of being lensed almost entirely in the country.

Foreign production spend this year in Italy is estimated at roughly $250 million and is expected to double...

Six years on, the legacy of Connext can be seen at festival awards ceremonies and in international theatrical and TV deals.

Cannes prizes, international festival plaudits and a social media thumbs up from Ricky Gervais are among the profile -raising moments enjoyed by projects that have participated in Connext, the annual film and TV showcase run by Flanders Image in Belgium.

The event serves as an export platform for film and TV drama made in Flanders and Brussels and has been mounted virtually under the banner Re>Connext for the last two years amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite being forced online and virtual,...

Six years on, the legacy of Connext can be seen at festival awards ceremonies and in international theatrical and TV deals.

Cannes prizes, international festival plaudits and a social media thumbs up from Ricky Gervais are among the profile -raising moments enjoyed by projects that have participated in Connext, the annual film and TV showcase run by Flanders Image in Belgium.

The event serves as an export platform for film and TV drama made in Flanders and Brussels and has been mounted virtually under the banner Re>Connext for the last two years amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite being forced online and virtual,...

Further new openers include ‘Our Ladies’, ‘The Nest’.

Universal’s franchise title Candyman leads this weekend’s new openers at the UK-Ireland box office, looking to join the list of horror films to have made strong debuts since cinemas reopened.

Candyman is directed by Nia DaCosta and written by DaCosta, Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld. It is a direct sequel to the 1992 film of the same name, and the fourth film in the Candyman series, based on Clive Barker’s 1985 short story The Forbidden.

The film has been delayed several times due to the pandemic, having been first scheduled for June,...

Further new openers include ‘Our Ladies’, ‘The Nest’.

Universal’s franchise title Candyman leads this weekend’s new openers at the UK-Ireland box office, looking to join the list of horror films to have made strong debuts since cinemas reopened.

Candyman is directed by Nia DaCosta and written by DaCosta, Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld. It is a direct sequel to the 1992 film of the same name, and the fourth film in the Candyman series, based on Clive Barker’s 1985 short story The Forbidden.

The film has been delayed several times due to the pandemic, having been first scheduled for June,...

The film is a Belgian-Italian-Dutch-Bulgarian-Armenian co-production.

US actor Geraldine Chaplin and the Netherlands’ Jonas Smulders have joined the cast of US-Belgian filmmaker Jessica Woodworth’s drama Fortress.

Filming on the drama got underway this week in Sicily, and will run until October 5.

Woodworth has written the screenplay for the film, adapted from Dino Buzzati’s 1940 Italian novel The Tartar Steppe. It is about a young solder, hungry for battle, who embeds himself in an isolated fort where men wait in vain for an enemy to strike.

Woodworth is also producing with Peter Brosens for Belgium’s Bo Films and Krater Films.

New projects by the Dardenne brothers, Milcho Manchevski, Jessica Woodworth, Michel Hazanavicius and Pablo Berger, among the selection. At its 162nd meeting held online, the Board of Management of the Council of Europe's Eurimages Fund agreed to support 24 feature film projects, including 3 documentaries and 3 animation films, for a total amount of €5,822,000. The share of eligible projects with female directors examined at this Eurimages Board of Management meeting was 39.80%. 45.83% of the projects supported were directed by women and €2,213,000 was awarded to these projects, representing 38.01% of the total amount awarded. The films supported include the new title by Belgian masters Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne after their 2019 Cannes Best Director winner Young Ahmed, Tori and Lokita (Tori et Lokita) (Belgium/France) and the new film by North Macedonia’s Milcho Manchevski after his Oscar submission Willow, Kaymak (North Macedonia/Denmark/Bulgaria); the new films by...

Milcho Manchevski, Pablo Berger.

Co-productions from French director Michel Hazanavicius and Belgian filmmaking duo Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are among 24 selected for funding in the latest Eurimages round.

Hazanavicius, whose 2011 title The Artist which won five Oscars including best picture and director, receives €470,000 towards Franco-Belgian animation The Most Precious Of Cargoes.

Adapted from a 2019 novel by French writer Jean-Claude Grumberg, the animated film is set during the Second World War, when a Jewish father throws one of his twins from the train to Auschwitz in a desperate attempt to save him. The boy is then discovered by a childless Polish couple.

New films from Vincent Bal, Koen Mortier and Caroline Strubbe among 47 films at virtual showcase.

A new drama from Cannes award-winner Lukas Dhont (Girl) and a film produced in lockdown by Milo Rau are among 47 projects to be showcased at Re>Connext, the annual film and TV showcase run by Flanders Image.

The event, which serves as an export platform for film and TV drama made in Flanders, will run online from October 5-31 after the physical showcase was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Usually taking place over three days under the banner Connext, the virtual edition has been...

For the first time ever, the gathering will screen dozens of titles in its selection online. It would be hard to find a festival more severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic than the Sofia International Film Festival, the 24th edition of which was cancelled just three days before it was supposed to start in March. But the gathering is now back on track, favouring as many as three different strands in order to make the world's newest films available to its audience. The festival is splitting into two physical editions, Siff Summer and Siff Autumn. The first will start on 25 June with the Bulgarian premiere of Bong Joon-hoo's Parasite and will end on 6 July with a screening of Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens' The Barefoot Emperor, a Bulgarian minority co-production. Siff Autumn will take place in September and October, with dates to be announced soon. For the first...

Conference speakers to include Rikke Ennis, Philip Knatchbull and Walter Iuzzolino.

The Broken Circle Breakdown and Tabula Rasa actress Veerle Baetens will pitch her directorial debut, The Melting, at the fourth edition of Flanders Image’s annual film and TV showcase CONNeXT (October 6-9).

The Melting is adapted from Lize Spit’s novel about a woman looking back on one pivotal summer with the two boys who were her best friends in the small Flemish town of Bovenmeer.

CONNeXT invites international experts to Ghent to preview or screen features and TV series made in Flanders and Brussels. In past years,...

Barefoot and Stagnant: Woodworth & Brosens Continue Their Belgian Political Satire

While one doesn’t necessarily have to be readily familiar with the 2016 film King of the Belgians from directing duo Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens, a recent viewing might assist with enjoying the flavor, intention and orientation of their fifth feature, The Barefoot Emperor, which is for all intents and purposes, a sequel (or perhaps continuation is a better word). The former film featured the fictional king of Belgium, Nicholas III, or rather disparagingly referred to as “Nicholas the Silent,” a somewhat estranged and ineffectual ruler who gets stuck leaving Istanbul during a detrimental passage back home to address the rebellion of the Wallonia faction in his empire—instead he’s grounded by a cosmic storm and forced to endure a comical road trip through the Balkans.…...

The festival also adds more Gala and Special Presentations to its line-up, and announced its Masters and Wavelengths sections. The 44th Toronto International Film Festival (5-15 September) has announced the selection of its Contemporary World Cinema section, this year hailing from 48 countries. The section will open with Atiq Rahimi’s third feature Our Lady of the Nile​ and will also include the world premieres of The Barefoot Emperor by​ Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens (King of the Belgians), Maria’s Paradise​ by Zaida Bergroth (Miami), Nobadi by ​Karl Markovics (Superworld), and Resin​ by Daniel Joseph Borgman. Furthermore, two more titles were added to the Gala selection and 16 to Special Presentations, including the world premieres of Jason Lei Howden‘s Guns Akimbo and Gregor Jordan‘s Dirt Music, rounding up the programmes for a total of 20 and 55 films respectively. On the other hand, eleven films by acclaimed and established auteurs were.

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for political satire “The Barefoot Emperor,” which has been selected for the Contemporary World Cinema section at the Toronto Film Festival.

Directed, written and produced by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth, the film is a sequel of “King of the Belgians,” which had its world premiere in Venice. Pamela Leu at Be for Films is handling international sales on the film.

The film follows the King of the Belgians, who is on his way home from a state visit to Istanbul, when he suffers a gunshot wound to the ear during an unfortunate incident in Sarajevo.

When he wakes up in a sanatorium on a Croatian island, once Tito’s renowned summer residence, the confused King learns that the recent collapse of his kingdom has led to the implosion of the European Union.

An envoy arrives from Vienna and Mama Wakolux,...

Tiff Co-Heads Cameron Bailey and Joana Vicente added several more films in the Gala and Special Presentations sections of the 44th Toronto International Film Festival that runs September 5-15.

Here are the new ones:

Gala Premieres

The Tom Harper-directed Aeronauts will make its Canadian premiere, with Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne starring.

The Giuseppe Capotondi-directed Burnt Orange Heresy will make its North American premiere.

Special Presentations

The Kenny Leon-directed American Son makes its world premiere.

The Quentin Dupieux-directed Deerskin ( Le Daim ) makes its international premiere.

The Gregor Jordan-directed Dirt Music makes its world premiere.

The Geetu Mohandas-directed The Elder One makes its world premiere

Guns Akimbo, directed by Jason Lei Howden, makes its world premiere

Human Capital, directed by Marc Meyers, makes its world premiere;

Jungleland, directed by Max Winkler makes its world premiere;

Lucy in the Sky, directed by Noah Hawley, makes its world premiere;

Lyrebird, directed by Dan Friedkin,...

The Barefoot Emperor

Belgian directing duo Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens have forged full speed ahead into their fifth feature, The Barefoot Emperor, which appears to be a follow-up to 2016’s The Kings of the Belgians. Having moved from documentary filmmaking to narrative cinema with 2006’s Khadak, Woodworth and Brosens have established themselves as something of an idiosyncratic mix of ethnological interests with a dose of either light comedy or unsettling social ills. Their debut Khadak premiered in Venice Days, while 2009’s Altiplano premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week. Their underappreciated genre entry The Fifth Season competed for the Golden Lion in 2012, before they went back to Venice in Horizons with The King of the Belgians, which sought to examine the troubled journey of King Nicolas II across the Balkans to get home during his country’s worst political crisis.…...

The chosen projects include 23 fiction films, 6 documentaries and 1 animation.

Thirty feature projects will receive production support from European cinema support fund Eurimages, it was announced in Montreal.

A total of €6,447,783 will be invested in 23 fiction films, six documentaries and one animated feature. Contemporary political themes are prominent.

See below for selected projects

Ahmed is the 11th feature to be directed by the Dardennes brothers, which is about a Belgian teenager who plots to kill his teacher after embracing an extremist interpretation of the Koran. Wild Bunch launched the film at Cannes last month.

Also receiving funding is Daniel, the new...

The chosen projects include 23 fiction films, 6 documentaries and 1 animation.

Thirty feature projects will receive production support from European cinema support fund Eurimages, it was announced in Montreal.

A total of €6,447,783 will be invested in 23 fiction films, six documentaries and one animated feature. Contemporary political themes are prominent.

See below for selected projects

Ahmed is the 11th feature to be directed by the Dardennes brothers, which is about a Belgian teenager who plots to kill his teacher after embracing an extremist interpretation of the Koran. Wild Bunch launched the film at Cannes last month.

Also receiving funding is Daniel, the new...

“The Square” was the big winner at the European Film Awards, taking nearly every top prize: Best Film, Director, Actor, Screenwriter, even Best Comedy for good measure. It continues a very good year for Ruben Östlund’s art-world satire, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and is considered a likely nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film.

Also represented were “On Body and Soul,” which won the Golden Bear at Berlinale and earned Alexandra Borbely the Best Actress award, and “Communion,” which took the Documentary prize.

This year’s ceremony, the 30th, took place in Berlin. Avail yourself of the winner list below.

Read More:2017 European Film Awards Nominations: ‘The Square,’ ‘Bpm,’ ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer,’ and More Lead the Way Best European Film

“Bpm (Beats per Minute),” (Robin Campillo, France)

“Loveless,” (Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia, Belgium, Germany, France)

“On Body and Soul,” (Ildiko Enyedi,...

The European Film Awards nominations have been released, with a number of festival favorites landing high-profile nods. Among them are “The Square” and “Bpm,” which were both nominated for Best European Film, and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” which missed out on the top category but was recognized in the Director, Actor, and Screenwriter fields.

Read More:‘The Square’ Director Ruben Östlund Wants to Push Cultural Boundaries, But Won’t Read Any Scripts With Killing

This year’s ceremony, the 30th, takes place in Berlin on December 9. Here are all the nominees:

Best European Film

“Bpm (Beats per Minute),” (Robin Campillo, France)

“Loveless,” (Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia, Belgium, Germany, France)

“On Body and Soul,” (Ildiko Enyedi, Hungary)

“The Other Side of Hope,” (Aki Kaurismaki, Finland, Germany)

“The Square,” (Ruben Ostlund, Sweden, Germany, France, Denmark)

Best European Director

Ildiko Enyedi, (“On Body and Soul”)

Aki Kaurismaki, (“The Other Side of Hope”)

Yorgos Lanthimos,...

Keep up with the glitzy awards world with our weekly Awards Roundup column.

– The Broadcast Film Critics Association (Bfca) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (Btja) have announced that Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris as the recipient of the Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award. Morris will receive his award at the second annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards gala event, set to take place on Thursday, November 2 at Bric in Brooklyn, New York, hosted by Penn Jillette.

Journalist and author Kathryn Schulz will present the Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award to Morris. Damien Echols will present the previously announced Critics’ Choice Impact Award to filmmaker Joe Berlinger. Additional award presenters include: Clive Davis, Matt Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Barbara Kopple, Lawrence O’Donnell, Linda Perry, and Fisher Stevens, Diane Warren, among others.

Read More:Helen Mirren Set for Chaplin Award, European Film Academy Honors Newcomers, and More — Awards Roundup

Netflix will release Morris’ newest offering,...

Ruben Ostlund's The Square, winner of the Palme d'Or in Cannes, has also picked up a nomination for this year's European Film Awards.

Ostlund's satire of the international art world, starring Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss and Dominic West, is one of four nominees for best European comedy, announced Wednesday by the European Film Academy. The other contenders in the category are Simon Verhoeven's box- office hit Welcome to Germany, Christophe Van Rompaey's Vincent and the End of the World and King of the Belgians, from directors Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens.

In the best European animation category, this year's nominees...

The European Film Academy has set nominees in the Animated Feature Film and Comedy categories for this year's awards. In the European Comedy race are Ruben Ostlund's Palme d'Or winner The Square (Sweden/Germany/France/Denmark) which is also Sweden's Foreign Language Oscar entry; and smash German comedy Welcome To Germany by Simon Verhoeven. Figuring too are King Of The Belgians (Belgium/Netherlands/Bulgaria) helmed by Jessica Woodworth & Peter Brosens, and Vincent And The…...

Summer 1993 and My Happy Family also take home prizes from Ukrainian festival.

Peter Brosen and Jessica Woodworth’s fourth feature King Of The Belgians received the Golden Duke Grand Prix - based on voting by festival-goers - at the eighth Odesa International Film Festival (Oiff, July 14 - 22), which came to a close on Saturday evening.

The International Competition jury, headed up by German director Christian Petzold and including actress Sibel Kekilli and Romanian producer-director-festival organiser Tudor Giurgiu, awarded the prize for best international feature film to Catalan director Carla Simón’s autobiographical film Summer 1993.

Handled internationally by New Europe Film Sales, Simón’s film had its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Generation Kplus sidebar where it won the international jury’s grand prix and the Gwff best first feature award.

Meanwhile, My Happy Family by the directorial duo Nana & Simon continued its successful international festival career by picking up the jury’s awards for best director...

King of the Belgians, directed by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth, was awarded the Grand Prix of Odessa International Film Festival at the closing ceremony held in the Ukrainian port city July 22.

Spanish director Carla Simon's Summer 1993 collected the international competition's best film award.

Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross picked up the best director award for the Georgia/Germany/France co-production My Happy Family. The movie's stars Ia Shugliashvili and Tsisia Qumsashvili also collected the best performance award.

Free and Easy by Chinese director Jun Geng received the jury's special mention.

The Leading Role by Ukraine's Sergey Bukovsky was awarded the best...

10 films selected for award announced at Karlovy Vary.

The films selected for the 11th edition of the European Parliament’s Lux Film Prize have been revealed at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff).

At an event hosted at Karlovy Vary’s Grandhotel Pupp on Sunday (July 2), the 10 films were unveiled by Helga Trüpel, vice chair of the committee on culture and education, Martina Dlabajova, vice chair of the committee on budgetary control, Bogdan Wenta, member of the committee on culture and education and Doris Pack, Lux Film Prize coordinator.

The films are:

The Last Family (Ostatnia Rodzina), Jan P. Matuszyński (Poland)Glory (Slava), Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov (Bulgaria, Greece)Western, Valeska Grisebach (Germany, Bulgaria, Austria)King Of The Belgians, Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth (Belgium, Netherlands, Bulgaria)A Ciambra, Jonas Carpignano (Italy, Brazil, United States, France, Germany, Sweden)Bpm (Beats per Minute), Robin Campillo (France)Heartstone, Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson (Iceland, Denmark)Sámi Blood...

While it may not be that rare to see your arthouse cinema stacked to the rim with the latest and greatest from the world of European cinema, there are cavalcades of superlative motion pictures from every corner of the continent that rarely see the light of day here stateside, if ever at all. Thus, festivals like this year’s Panorama Europe Film Festival draw great importance.

Now in its ninth iteration, Peff sees Museum of the Moving Image in New York City teaming with the European Union National Institutes for Culture to bring to attendees some recent gems from throughout Europe. Be it a new documentary from Austrian auteur Ulrich Seidl or a science-fiction picture from director Kuba Czekaj, there are no films quite like the 17 fiction and non-fiction features that have been collected in this wonderfully curated series.

Leading the pack in my own estimation is the new film...