News

Anonymous Content is entering Italy with a major local player, Indigo Film, the Rome-based film and TV production company behind Mario Martone’s Cannes competition entry “Fuori.”

As part of the new joint venture between the new company, Indigo Film will tap into Anonymous Content’s ecosystem and will be working closely with AC Studios to develop and produce premium film and television projects. Anonymous Content will be able to access Italy’s creative industries, which ranks as one of Europe’s most vibrant.

This partnership marks the latest international joint venture for Anonymous Content, which has recently launched Anonymous Content Germany, Anonymous Content Australia with Brouhaha Entertainment, Anonymous Content Brazil, Anonymous Content España, France- based Anonymous Federation, Anonymous Content Nordic and U.K. based AC Chapter One.

David Davoli, Anonymous Content’s president of international, will oversee the new banner alongside Indigo Film principals Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima, Carlotta Calori and Viola Prestieri.

Berlin Film Festival Artistic Director Tricia Tuttle and a group of artists and filmmakers held vigils Thursday, as the Berlin Film Festival kicked off, to call for the release of David Cunio, an Israeli actor who was one of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, from the Nir Oz kibbutz.

Cunio is also the subject of the documentary “A Letter to David,” by filmmaker Tom Shoval, which premieres Feb. 14 in the Berlinale Special section.

A first vigil was held on the Potsdamer Platz. Tuttle joined a subsequent vigil held on the Berlinale Palast red carpet where she held up a photo of Cunio alongside German actors Christian Berkel, Andrea Sawatzki, and Ulrich Matthes.

Vigil for David Cunio

The group behind the vigil, called Bring David Home Now, has published on open letter whose more than a hundred signatories includes directors Michel Franco and Ari Folman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and...

Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel is heading up The Inquest Of Pilot Pirx – a new film adaptation of a Stanislaw Lem story.

Perhaps best known for his World War II drama Downfall, director Oliver Hirschbiegel is set to make a new sci-fi film based on a short story by Polish author Stanislaw Lem.

First announced last year, The Inquest Of Pilot Pirx is based on Lem’s short story The Inquest, originally published in 1968. Its lengthier title comes from an earlier 1979 Polish adaptation (pictured), also based on the same tale. It tells the story of a routine repair mission to one of Saturn’s rings that has a fascinating additional purpose.

The ship’s crew, led by one Commander Pirx, is a mixture of humans and androids. What follows is essentially a Turing Test in space – if the androids prove to be indistinguishable from humans, then the company that makes them will put them into production.

Anonymous Content has partnered with independent production company btf (Bildundtonfabrik) on a new joint venture in Germany, one of Europe’s leading markets.

The partnership will kick off with Ari Folman’s anticipated next project, “Death and the Penguin,” which is based on a novel by Andrey Kurkov.

Btf is a well-established German banner whose credits include “How to Sell Drugs Online,” “King of Stonks” and “Buba” for Netflix, “Pauline” for Disney+ and “Perfekt Verpasst” for Amazon Prime Video.

Anonymous Content will be able to leverage btf’s stronghold in the German marketplace, while btf will tap into Anonymous Content’s ecosystem, in particular the banner’s sales arm AC Studios, to develop and produce premium film and TV projects.

The joint venture in Germany furthers Anonymous Content’s strategy to build alliances with local producers and companies in key territories around the world, including Anonymous Brouhaha in Australia/New Zealand,...

Life isn’t too short — it’s long, as Robert Zemeckis’ brisk, inventive, and earnest latest experiment, “Here,” ponders in an hour and 40 minutes that span multiple centuries and lifetimes unfolding on the same spot on Earth. The Oscar-winning, ever-envelope-pushing filmmaker opens on prehistoric times as dinosaurs stalk the Earth, charts the arrival of Indigenous people in that very spot, gives us the birth of Benjamin Franklin, his kid, and his kid’s kid, and then takes us through the life and times of a midcentury American family led by a de-aged Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. It’s a “Forrest Gump” reunion for Zemeckis in more ways than one, as his Forrest and Jenny, here Richard and Margaret Young, are joined by that film’s Oscar-winning scribe, Eric Roth, in adapting Richard McGuire’s celebrated graphic novel.

For all the good and bad of what I am about to say,...

If an animated film turns up in the Competition at Cannes, chances are it’s not going to be another Bambi — although, if it were made today, the traumatic shooting of Bambi’s mother would certainly tickle the selection committee. No, Cannes prefers its animation to be skewed towards adults, like René Lalou’s surreal sci-fi Fantastic Planet (1973), Robert Taylor’s raunchy sequel The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974) or Ari Folman’s wartime docudrama Waltz with Bashir (2008). And with The Most Precious of Cargoes, actor turned director and now graphic artist Michel Hazanavicius has turned to the most controversial topic it is possible to approach with pen and ink: the Holocaust.

Five long years in the making, Hazanavicius’s adaptation of the 2019 novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg arrives in Cannes two years after the death of its narrator, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and, unfortunately, a year after the debut of Jonathan Glazer...

Michel Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning director of “The Artist,” makes a first foray into animation with “The Most Precious of Cargoes” which world premieres at the Cannes Film Festival on May 24. Adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s bestselling novel, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is the first animated feature to vie for a Palme d’Or since Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir” in 2008; and it will be the last movie watched by the competition jury, presided over by Greta Gerwig, before the closing ceremony.

Hazanavicius developed the project for years and wrote the script with Grumberg, as well as created the drawings. Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat created the original score. The drama intertwines the fate of a Jewish family, including newborn twins, deported to Auschwitz, with that of a poor and childless woodcutter couple living deep in a Polish forest. On the train to the death camp, the young father wraps...

Studiocanal has unveiled the first clip of Michel Hazanavicius’s “The Most Precious of Cargoes,” an allegorical hand-drawn animated feature which is competing at the Cannes Film Festival. The first animated film to vie for a Palme d’Or since Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir” in 2008, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s bestselling novel of the same name.

Set during World War II against the backdrop of the Holocaust,” the film has been developed by Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “The Artist,” for many years.Hazanavicius penned the script with Grumberg and created the drawings, with Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat providing the score.

The drama intertwines the fate of a Jewish family, including newborn twins, deported to Auschwitz, with that of a poor and childless woodcutter couple living deep in a Polish forest. On the train to the death camp, the young father wraps...

As part of the 2025 Oscar rule changes for the 97th Academy Awards, animated movies can be simultaneously submitted for Best International Feature and Best Animated Feature. This will simplify the qualifying method for the latter and specifically help animated international films that may not have access to U.S. distribution.

“Previously, animated movies selected as a country’s international feature selection [which do not require U.S. theatrical distribution] were not qualified to enter for animated feature consideration unless they also met the qualifying standards for general entry [which require U.S. theatrical distribution],” an Academy insider told IndieWire.

“This consisted of separate submission forms. Submitters will still need to complete different forms, but now animated movies selected as a country’s international feature selection no longer need to meet general entry standards to be considered for the Animated Feature award. They would, however, still need to be ruled eligible under the Academy’s definition of ‘animation.'”

Two examples of animated international feature...

Michel Hazanavicius is back on the Croisette - with animated wartime drama The Most Precious of Cargoes Photo: © Ex Nihilo, Les Compagnons du Cinéma, Studio Canal, France 3 Cinéma, Les Films du Fleuve) The Oscar-wining director of The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius returns to the Cannes Film Festival Competition with his new animated feature The Most Precious of Cargoes, adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s best-selling novel of the same name.

It is set during the Second World World War against the backdrop of the Holocaust and will be the first animated feature to compete in the official selection in more than a decade, since Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir in 2008.

Described as “a passion project” for Hazanavicius the story intertwines the fate of a Jewish family, including newborn twins, who are arrested in Paris and deported to Auschwitz, with that of a poor and childless woodcutter couple living in the depths of a Polish forest.

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof is finally making his way back to the Cannes Film Festival following the controversy surrounding his Un Certain Regard 2023 jury appointment.

Rasoulof was invited to serve on the jury last year but was unable to attend due to Iran’s travel embargo on him. The “There Is No Evil” filmmaker was banned from leaving Iran after being arrested in July 2022 for posting statements criticizing government-sanctioned violence against protesters. Rasoulof was later temporarily released in February 2023 due to ongoing health concerns. He was later pardoned and sentenced to one year of penal servitude and a two-year ban from leaving Iran on the charge of “propaganda against the regime.”

Now, Rasoulof is debuting his latest feature “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in competition at the festival. While the plot remains under wraps, there is no word on whether Rasoulof will attend the festival. Variety first reported the news.

After announcing a whopping number of English-language films in competition, Cannes Film Festival has added some international titles: Michel Hazanavicius’ animated feature “The Most Precious of Cargoes” and Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Variety has learned.

An auteur-driven allegorical feature, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” (first-look still below) is adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s bestselling novel of the same name, set during World War II against the backdrop of the Holocaust. It will be the first animated feature to compete in more than a decade, since Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir” in 2008.

The film is co-produced and represented internationally by Studiocanal, which also has Gilles Lellouche’s “Beating Hearts” in competition. “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is a passion project for Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “The Artist,” who has been developing the project for years. Hazanavicius penned the script with Grumberg and created the drawings,...

Exclusive: Paris-based Superprod Group has acquired top Luxembourgish animation companies Studio 352 and Mélusine Productions in a move that consolidates its position as one of Europe’s leading animation production groups.

Based in Contern in Southern Luxembourg, the sister companies were founded by Belgian producer Stéphan Roelants in the late 1990s.

Mélusine Productions develops, finances and manages the projects, while Studio 352, which has built up a local team of top-level artists and technicians, executes the work.

The sister companies have been involved in some of the most important animated feature films produced out of Europe in the past 27 years.

At the same time, they have also cemented Luxembourg’s position as an animation production hub, with strong support from the Luxembourg Film Fund.

Latest credits include Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry’s Michael Morpurgo-adaptation Kensuké’s Kingdom, which won Best Feature Film at the 2024 British Animation Awards in February.

Other...

Radu Jude’s aptly and immensely titled new film, “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World,” only vaguely touches on the existential threat — or promise? — of artificial intelligence. But for any filmmaker, AI is a no-longer-looming reality one must tangle with. In fact, it’s an agent of chaos for the creative community even though machine learning has long been used to enhance productions.

So while artificial intelligence has been with us for a long time, it’s now taken on a scarier late-capitalist dimension, with ChatGPT and other AI-driven means to industry cost-cutting feeding fears about consent (with protections against AI a major point for SAG-AFTRA in its recent strike negotiations out of the strikes) and compressed job opportunity for actual human beings.

Suddenly, a self-navigating car seems more viable than an underpaid driver running late and exhausted. Suddenly, digitally capturing the likeness of an...

Uri Marantz graduated from the Film School in Tel Aviv in mid- 1990s. He directed a number of short films, and was involved in several television projects, both as a writer and creator. He is best known for the hit series “Daddy” that aired on Hot. “Since filmmaking is more or less a hobby in Israel, I had to compromise a lot”, explains the Israeli helmer why it took him that long to direct a feature length movie, adding that he always had a project here and there happening, but that he ended up working in the advertising industry as a copy- and content writer. “My dream of filmmaking was somehow ebbing away”, he says.

When we met in the hotel lobby of Nordic before the world premiere of his debut feature “King Khat” which competes in the Rebels With A Cause program of Tallinn Black Nights film festival, Marantz...

The Oscar-nominated director of Waltz with Bashir talks about the hypocrisy of the UK’s response to war, his project to help the relatives of those taken hostage by Hamas and why he’s still hopeful of a solution

Ari Folman, the Oscar-nominated director of Waltz With Bashir and Where Is Anne Frank, has said he believes the UK’s response to the Israel-Hamas war is grounded in “hypocrisy” and ignorance.

“I think there is a lot of hypocrisy,” said Folman, who lives in Tel Aviv and is filming testimonies of the relatives of Jewish people taken hostage by Hamas. “You cannot be aware of what is going on in Gaza and not pay empathy to the other side.”

In the west, he says, there is a “total unawareness that Hamas is a fundamentalistic [organisation]. They are not freedom fighters. They are sick monsters who slaughtered babies and chopped [off] heads. They...

Leading European artists, including Maria Choustova (“Donbass”), Sergei Loznitsa (“Donbass”), Pawel Lozinski (“Film balkonowy”) and Radu Jude (“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”), have taken a stand to support the Israeli film community as it seeks to rally voices and help free over 220 hostages in Gaza.

These names penned a heartfelt letter addressing the resurgence of antisemitism across Europe and the significant part that European artists must play in raising the alarm. The letter will be sent to the European Film Academy with a request to circulate it among its 3,000 members ahead of the European Film Awards ceremony on Dec. 9.

In Israel, prominent filmmakers such as Ari Folman, Hagai Levi, Jasmine Kainy, Eliran Peled and Joseph Cedar (“Footnote”) have spearheaded an online campaign called Bring Them Home Now, documenting the stories of relatives whose loved ones, including children and elderly people, were abducted during the Hamas terror attack on Oct.

More than 2,000 Israeli film and TV industry figures have signed the letter.

More than 2,000 Israeli film and TV industry figures have penned an open letter to the international entertainment community urging their support in a push to release hostages taken by Hamas during the terror attacks on October 7.

Filmmakers Hagai Levi, Ayelet Menahemi, Ari Folman, Joseph Cedar, Michal Vinik, Jasmine Kainy, Eliran Peled and Nadav Lapid joined Euphoria creator Ron Leshem, Israel Film Fund CEO Noa Regev and a slew of other executives and talent for the letter addressed to “our dearest friends in the international film and television community...

The ‘Waltz With Bashir’ director is working with a collective of Israeli filmmakers to keep up global awareness of the hostages’ situation.

Oscar-nominated Waltz With Bashir filmmaker Ari Folman has partnered with other Israeli filmmakers for a collective project bringing together testimony from families of hostages kidnapped during the October 7 terror attack by Hamas to urge their release.

Folman and documentary director Jasmine Kainy are spearheading the initiative titled #BringThemHomeNow that is produced by Ophir-winning director and filmmaker Eliran Peled and director Smadar Zamir.

The more than 40 videos of families of hostages were filmed in a studio in Tel Aviv...

The ‘Waltz With Bashir’ director is working with a collective of Israeli filmmakers to keep up global awareness of the hostages’ situation.

Oscar-nominated Waltz With Bashir filmmaker Ari Folman has partnered with other Israeli filmmakers for a collective project bringing together testimony from families of hostages kidnapped during the October 7 terror attack by Hamas to urge their release.

Folman and documentary director Jasmine Kainy are spearheading the initiative titled #BringThemHomeNow that is produced by Ophir-winning director and filmmaker Eliran Peled and director Smadar Zamir.

The more than 40 videos of families of hostages were filmed in a studio in Tel Aviv...

A romantic comedy about an Israeli-Palestinian couple based on the real life story of creators Nayef Hammoud and Gal Rosenbluth, the development series “Non-Issue” won the Paramount+ drama prize at this year’s Mia Market, which wrapped its ninth edition on an optimistic note. Of course, well before Friday’s closing award ceremony, the heartbreaking crisis in the Middle East cast a heavy pall over an otherwise ebullient audiovisual market, often informing conversations professional and otherwise.

While a number of industry execs were unable to travel from Israel, and though slated speaker Ari Folman was even forced to cancel a remote interview, attendance was otherwise up across the board. The Roman film and television market welcomed 2,600 industry participants – marking a 10% increase on last year’s record, and encompassing more than 65 countries.

Running five days in Rome’s Palazzo Barberini, in the adjacent Cinema Barberini, and on an online platform that...

“We’re trying to introduce entirely new filmmakers into the repertoire of our company,” Anonymous Content’s David Levine said today.

Levine also revealed that Anonymous is is looking to expand internationally into Poland, Germany and Australia, adding: “We’re totally open to all forms of partnerships.”

Addressing the Mia Market, the Revenant and Mr Robot outfit’s Chief Creative Officer, who used to run HBO drama, said viewers to Anonymous’ projects will soon see the fruits of this strategy. Upcoming projects include the likes of Time Bandits, the Apple TV+ series from Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement and Iain Morris.

“The integrity of who we’re working with hasn’t changed but the spirit of openness and the new people who haven’t worked with us before, well, people will see that,” he said. “We’re trying to introduce entirely new filmmakers into the repertoire of our company.”

Levine was...

A European TV project will soon be on the same quality level as American but for half the cost, predicted Mediawan and Sony execs today.

As the TV world gets set to emerge from the dual U.S. labor strikes, Mediawan CEO Elisabeth D’Arvieu said European production now has a “big competitive advantage” over America, pointing to tax credits across the continent during a panel at the Mia Market.

“We have a very favorable environment in terms of cost in places like Spain, Italy, Greece and Belgium,” she added. “The combination of a very cost-effective system and pool of talent is an incredible competitive advantage for European studios such as ours.”

Brendan Fitzgerald, Sony Pictures Television’s SVP International Co-Productions in Spain, pointed to shows from Sony labels Bad Wolf, Left Bank and Eleven shooting in Cee and Greece, which “work well in terms of location, crew, talent and tax credit.

With a budget less than 20 times that of The Boys and “barely” any marketing, Amazon Prime Video’s Invincible has succeeded through word of mouth and attracting new viewers to the genre, according to its EP Marge Dean.

Dean, who runs Walking Dead maker Skybound Entertainment’s Animation Studio, claimed in a Mia Market keynote today that the streamer spends around 20 times more per episode on The Boys, its smash hit superhero series.

Invincible, however, has at times joined The Boys in Amazon’s top-five most-watched shows, Dean said. The first season of the adult animation from Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman launched in 2021 and a second will premiere in November. Based on the Image Comics series of the same name by Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley, the show follows 17-year-old Mark Grayson and his transformation into a superhero under the guidance of his father Omni-Man, the most powerful superhero on the planet.

Introduced last year, Mia’s dedicated animation program heads into its sophomore edition with a more firmly entrenched industry position and a resoundingly global outlook. With the program scaffolding already in place, Mia curators spent the past year shoring up support and scouting for projects at key markets in Berlin, Cannes and Annecy, resulting in a program of roughly 30 co-production pitch projects and works-on-progress that altogether spans more than 40 countries.

The rise in animation studios across the African continent will be a major theme of this year’s edition, with nearly one third of the co-production pitch projects coming from Africa-based studios. Among them, titles like Ama Adi-Dako’s “Drumland,” Jérémie Becquer and Julien Becquer’s “Mia Moké,” Esmail Zalat’s “The Prey” and Kay Carmichael’s “Troll Girl” will bring studios based in Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, Egypt and South Africa into the fold.

Meanwhile, on the conference side, an Oct.

All local Israeli TV productions, excluding broadcasts providing news updates, have been placed on hold following a directive from the Israeli army as the bloody conflict between the country and Hamas fighters heads into a third day.

Working under a similar official directive, theater owners across Israel have shut their doors. Cinemas halted operations on Saturday, the first day of the conflict. A senior Israeli exhibition exec told Deadline that he expects theaters to remain closed “until further notice.”

Israel formally declared war on Hamas on Sunday after its fighters launched an unexpected attack that has so far killed more than 700 people in Israel, according to local officials. In response, Israel launched a series of air strikes on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. Palestinian health officials have reported more than 400 casualties, including 20 children. Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that he has ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza strip,...

Rome’s Mia Market, dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films, documentaries and more, kicked off Monday in the Eternal City’s 17th century Palazzo Barberini. There were some 2,300 registered industry execs on day one – roughly 300 of which are buyers – more than 120 selected projects on display, and plenty of panels.

At a press conference, Mia director Gaia Tridente noted that, sadly, a group of industry execs who were expected to arrive from Israel, including “Waltz With Bashir” director Ari Folman, are being forced to stay in the country by the war that has broken out with Palestinian militant group Hamas. “Our thoughts go out to them and we hope to be able to welcome them in Rome in a context of peace and security for all,” Tridente said.

The pre-Mipcom event, taking place Oct. 9 to 13, has expanded its scope this year, adding a full-fledged section dedicated to animation and...

Rome’s upcoming Mia market dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films and documentaries is set to run Oct. 9-13 in central Rome’s Palazzo Barberini, which besides being Italy’s National Ancient Art gallery, is also the market’s main hub.

Now at its ninth edition, this innovative pre-Mipcom event (the Mia acronym stands for the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo or International Audiovisual Market) aims to boost the Italian industry by strengthening its international ties. It will feature 62 projects of all shapes and sizes from 36 countries with an accent on “inclusion and diversity,” says its director Gaia Tridente.

As previously announced, Mia has recruited a roster of high-caliber speakers at Mia that includes Nicole Clemens, president of Paramount Television Studios and Paramount+ original scripted series; Sara Bernstein, president of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Documentaries; Marge Dean, head of Skybound Entertainment’s animation studio and president of...

As Italy has ramped up its efforts in the last year to lure in international productions, so too has Rome’s Mia Market been making big strides in attracting global companies and executives to its annual five-day industry confab. The innovative Italian event, which has fast become a top destination in the TV market calendar, is returning for its ninth edition on October 9-13, 2023 and this year looks set to be bigger than ever with top execs from Paramount, Imagine, Banijay and Skybound Entertainment all set to attend.

“We have been prepping for this edition for a while and I think it’s even better than last year because we started working much further in advance,” says Mia director Gaia Tridente of this year’s event, which will be the second one with her at the helm.

Tridente is proud of last year’s attendance, which was up by 20% with...

Rome’s Mia market dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films, and documentaries is set to feature a panoply of 62 projects from 36 countries for its upcoming 9th edition.

Though European content remains the core of the curated pre-Mipcom event that will run Oct. 9-13 in the central Rome’s Palazzo Barberini – which besides being Italy’s National Ancient Art gallery, is also the market’s main hub – organisers on Thursday announced that this year more than 500 entries were submitted from 80 countries which they said marks a 30% increase in terms of national provenance.

Mia (whose whose acronym stands for the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo or International Audiovisual Market) is headed by Gaia Tridente.

Standout projects that made the cut for Mia comprise groundbreaking Romanian animator Anca Damian’s “Motherhood,” described as a poetic journey into female body and desire, illustrated by Italian artist Virginia Mori and co-produced by French studio Miyu Productions...

Market

Mia, the international market held annually in Rome, has announced the first confirmed speakers for its ninth edition.

This year, speakers at the industry event — which focuses on co-production, financing strategies and sales and distribution — include Nicole Clemens, president of Paramount of Paramount Television Studios and Paramount+ original scripted series; Sara Bernstein, president of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Documentaries; Marge Dean, head of Skybound Entertainment’s animation studio and president of Women in Animation; “Waltz With Bashir” director Ari Folman; Nicholas Weinstock, founder and president of Invention Studios and “Severance” producer; and James Townley, chief content officer of development at Banijay.

Clemens’ upcoming productions at Paramount include Taika Waititi’s “Time Bandits” and Billy Crystal’s “Before” as well as “Cross” starring Aldis Hodge. Bernstein will give a keynote on her career, focusing on recent Imagine productions including “Judy Blume Forever” and “Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming With Dave Letterman...

Paramount’s Nicole Clemens, Imagine Documentaries boss Sara Bernstein and Severance producer Nicholas Weinstock are among the first tranche of speakers for this year’s Mia market in Italy.

The Rome-held confab, which takes place in the week prior to Mipcom, has also added Skybound Entertainment’s Animation Studio boss Marge Dean and Waltz with Bashir writer-director Ari Folman.

Clemens lead the lineup. She is President of Paramount Television Studios (Ptvs) and Paramount+ Original Scripted Series, with shows in the offing including Taika Waititi’s Time Bandits and Billy Crystal’s Before, both for Apple TV+.

Bernstein runs the docs business of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine, while Weinstock is the Founder and President of Invention Studios, with past credits including Apple hit Severance and Showtime’s Escape at Dannemora.

The American execs will speak at a difficult time for the industry, with the dual Hollywood strikes impacting sectors around the world.

Schory was head of the Israel Film Fund for 21 years.

Katriel Schory, former long-time head of the Israel Film Fund, has received a lifetime achievement award from the Israel Academy of Film and Television.

Schory was presented with the award at a special event on August 27, ahead of the Ophir Awards ceremony on September 10 – the main ceremony for the Israeli Academy.

“Israeli cinema would not look the same without Katriel Schory,” read a statement from the Academy, which selected the executive for the award “for his work and public achievements over the past 30 years, with great respect and endless appreciation.

“We want to sample you … to preserve you … to own this thing, this thing called Robin Wright.” As much as it might sound like it, that quote isn’t leaked dialogue from recent talks between SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP. No, it’s a line from The Congress, a ten-year-old movie that predicted with unnerving accuracy the lengths corporate Hollywood will go to pad their bottom line.

In Ari Folman’s 2013 sci-fi film, Robin Wright — playing an alternate version of herself — is an aging actress who had and lost it all. Robin is given the opportunity for a final contract that will secure her financial future; all she must do is give up her identity. The not-so-subtly named Miramount Studios and slimy executive Jeff Green want to scan Robin so they can use her likeness in perpetuity; it's a digital puppet that can do anything the studio sets its mind to.

Most...

Spanish animation shows off its serious side in Cannes’ “Revelations!” showcase, dedicated to new shorts both by promising beginners and acclaimed filmmakers, such as Alberto Mielgo, who scored an Academy Award for “The Windshield Wiper.”

In June, four of the presented titles will also head to Annecy: María Lorenzo’s “Fashion Victims 2.0,” “Lost at Sea,” directed by Lucija Stojevic and Andrés Bartos, Pablo Río’s “Conej Steps Out” and Carla Pereira and Juanfran Jacinto’s “All Is Lost.”

“Animators, or just artists in general, tend to reflect on their times. Some of these films were born during the pandemic and yes, there is this melancholy to them. They are tackling multiple serious subjects,” says animation curator Carolina López Caballero.

That includes elderly suicide, like in the case of Diego Porral’s tender “Leopoldo from the Bar,” where a lonely man walks through ever-changing streets of Madrid accompanied by a massive pigeon.

As the writers' strike pushes against Hollywood's embracing of A.I., one underseen drama, "The Congress," reminds us why humanity in filmmaking matters.

After months of speculation and failed negotiations, the Writers Guild of America put down their pens and went on strike this month. The entertainment industry has shifted exponentially in the past 15 years since the last WGA strike, thanks to the dominance of streaming services and changes in the residual process. One of the key areas where the guild is fighting for security is the growing presence of artificial intelligence in their field. In a list of their proposals, sent to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the WGA sought to regulate the use of A.I. in writers' rooms and wanted assurances from studios that it would not be used to write or rewrite material. They also want to block it from being used as source material.

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including David Easteal’s The Plains (one of the best films we saw on the festival circuit last year), Christophe Honoré’s Winter Boy, Koji Fukada’s 10-part series The Real Thing, Bruce Labruce’s Saint-Narcisse, and more.

Additional highlights include three films by Joan Micklin Silver, additions to their Lars von Trier series, Sylvain Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville, Sally Potter’s Orlando, Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms, and more.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

April 1 – Henry Fool, directed by Hal Hartley

April 2 – Waltz with Bashir, directed by Ari Folman

April 3 – The All-Round Reduced Personality – Redupers, directed by Helke Sander | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema

April 4 – Saint-Narcisse, directed by Bruce Labruce

April 5 – Jaime Francisco, directed by Javier Rodríguez | Brief Encounters

April 6 – Hester Street, directed by Joan Micklin...

Aardman Animations’ founder Peter Lord and “Waltz With Bashir” director Ari Folman are set to receive Pulcinella Career Awards at Italy’s Cartoons On The Bay TV animation festival which is broadening its scope.

The event launched in 1996 by Italian state broadcaster Rai has now expanded beyond TV toons to comprise video game productions, the comic book world, transmedia storytelling and metaverse animation content.

Reflecting its more high-tech horizons, the fest’s 27th edition – which will run May 31-June 4 in the Southern seaside city of Pescara – will also be celebrating “Cuphead,” the hit Canadian video game that’s become a Netflix series, and bestowing its creator Maja Moldenhauer with its new Transmedia Award.

In another high-caliber get, British puppet studio Mackinnon and Saunders, which worked with Guillermo del Toro on “Pinocchio,” will be feted by Cartoons on the Bay with its Studio of the Year Award. The studio’s co-founder...

For a festival traditionally not keen on animation, Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee” has surprisingly garnered remarkable accolades. The Danish-French-Swedish-Norwegian production marked the first acquisition of Sundance (sold to Neon for seven figures!), and eventually closed out as the winner of this year’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. At the same time, however, maybe this is to be expected. Out of ten entries, three this year in the World Cinema: Documentary section concerned the plight of refugees. “Flee” truly stands out here, as it tells a story beyond refugee status.

“Flee” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema

“Flee” recounts the years-long journey of an anonymous gay Afghan refugee (hereon referred to as Amin Nawabi). Nawabi seems to have it all. He is an accomplished academic with a postdoc waiting for him at Princeton University; his significant other is madly in love with him; and now,...

The Israeli government’s efforts to reserve state funding only for films that uphold the regime’s far-right agenda is causing growing alarm among local filmmakers.

Since taking office in December, culture minister Miki Zohar has pushed for new requirements that would force artists and filmmakers to guarantee their works will not tarnish Israel’s reputation or that of its military. He also examined the possibility of forcing the producers of the documentaries “H2: The Occupation Lab” and “Two Kids A Day” to pay back state funding for the films.

The move comes against the backdrop of planned reforms by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — which is believed to be the most right-wing regime in Israel’s history — that include the possible gutting of public television in the name of free market competition.

Israel’s communications ministry has since said it will freeze plans to defund public broadcaster Kan,...

Ari Folman (“Waltz With Bashir”), Nadav Lapid (“Ahed’s Knee”) and Hagai Levi (“Our Boys”) are among a group of 250 Israeli filmmakers that has signed an open letter to protest against the recently launch of the Shomron (Samaria/West Bank) Film Fund.

The Fund, which held its inaugural film festival in the occupied West Bank in July , was founded by Miri Regev, the controversial former culture minister of Israel who was highly criticicized within the local film community for her right-wing views. Regev was believed to have put pressure on the Israel Film Fund to ban films that were critical of Israel from receiving subsidies.

The signatories of the public letter said they will not seek funding from, nor cooperate with the Shomron (Samaria/West Bank) Film Fund and have urged the Israeli Academy of Film and Television not to partake in “whitewashing the Occupation” ahead of the Ophir Awards, the...

More than 250 of Israel’s top filmmakers have signed an open letter, saying they will not seek funding from, nor cooperate with the recently–established Shomron (Samaria/West Bank) Film Fund, following the fund’s inaugural film festival in the occupied West Bank.

The filmmakers call on the Israeli Academy of Film and Television not to partake in “whitewashing the Occupation” ahead of the Ophir Awards — Israel’s Academy Awards — later this month. Read the full text of the letter below.

Among the signatories are multiple Academy Award winners and nominees. They have signed a public letter in which they state that they will not receive grants and will not participate in “lectura” (selection of films for development and production) or in professional events held by the Shomron (Samaria) Film Fund. The goal of the Shomron (Samaria) Film Fund, write the filmmakers, is “to invite Israeli filmmakers to actively participate...

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New Sarajevo Film Festival director Jovan Marjanović is promising “a vintage edition” for the 28th Sff.

“We had a great opening film — Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund — and we have a great closing film — May Labour Day by the Bosnian director Pjer Žalica, who’s one of the most beloved local filmmakers — so it’s going to be an emotional end to the festival,” says Marjanović who took over from Mirsad Purivatra, the festival’s original founder who started the festival in 1995 during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War.

Marjanović joined the Sff team in 1999, straight after high school, and started the top job after two years running the festival’s industry section and two years serving as Sff co-director alongside Purivatra. From the start, the Sff staked out its claim to be the premier festival for cinema from Southeastern Europe.

Ostlund advocated for cinema over the “individualistic” perspective of phones.

Ruben Ostlund advocated for “putting people in their context” through the communal experience of cinema, in opening the 28th Sarajevo Film Festival with his Palme d’Or-winning Triangle Of Sadness.

Receiving his honorary Heart of Sarajevo award, Ostlund said, “It’s great to be back here, in a big room with an audience that is together. Today I was thinking about the telephone, and the way that we are holding the telephone when we are watching things. We hold it like this [he motioned a ‘portrait’ mode], and we are holding like this when we...

Moviegoing Memories is a series of short interviews with filmmakers about going to the movies. Ari Folman’s Where Is Anne Frank is Mubi Go's Film of the Week in the United Kingdom and Ireland for August 12, 2022. Notebook: How would you describe your movie in the least amount of words?Ari Folman: Surprising, unexpected, animation movie. A coming-of-age story during World War II.Notebook: Where and what is your favorite movie theater and why? Folman: My favorite movie theater is by far the Louis Lumière in Cannes. I think when I first screened a movie over there, in 2008 in competition with Waltz with Bashir, I was having an ecstasy of a religious experience. Notebook: What is the most memorable movie screening of your life, and why is it memorable?Folman: The most memorable screening was a screening of Waltz with Bashir in Sarajevo, Bosnia. It was an open-door screening...

‘Eiffel’ with Emma Mackey, ‘Where Is Anne Frank’ also starting.

Nope, the latest horror from US filmmaker Jordan Peele, is the leading title opening at UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend; as Indian Forrest Gump remake Laal Singh Chaddha receives the widest opening ever for a South Asian film.

Opening in 681 locations, Universal’s Nope is Peele’s third feature, and centres on the residents of a lonely California valley who bear witness to a chilling discovery. Screen Star of Tomorrow 2009 Daniel Kaluuya leads the cast, which also includes Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun and Brandon Perea.

Peele is frequently credited with the...

Sony’s Brad Pitt vehicle “Bullet Train” debuted at the top of the U.K. and Ireland box office with a £2.8 million (3.4 million) opening weekend, according to numbers released by Comscore.

As the school holidays continue, in second place, Warner Bros.’ family friendly “DC League Of Super-Pets” took £1.2 million in its second weekend for a total of £6.2 million. Another animation, Universal’s “Minions: The Rise Of Gru,” in third position, collected £1.1 million in its sixth weekend and now has a total of £36.7 million.

In fourth place, Disney’s “Thor: Love And Thunder” earned £938,257 in its fifth weekend for a total of £33.2 million. Rounding off the top five was Warner Bros.’ “Elvis” with £737,845 in its seventh weekend for a total of £22.6 million.

Paramount’s Tom Cruise vehicle “Top Gun: Maverick” finally dropped out of the top five and collected £609,409 in its 11th weekend in sixth position. With a total of £77.5 million,...

In-person Screenings

The Melbourne Film Festival will return to cinemas after two turbulent years caused by Covid-related disruptions – the city endured one of the world’s longest pandemic lockdowns – and will run Aug 4-21, 2022. It will open with powerful Australian-u.K.-Serbian-made first film “Of An Age,” by renown shorts director Goran Stolevski. Festival organizers pitch it as “a heart-meltingly tender, quintessentially Melbourne queer coming-of-age tale that will make you swoon from beginning to end.” The Mff is scheduled to close with another Aussie title, documentary “Clean.” Directed by Lachlan McLeod, it examines how so-called trauma cleaner Sandra Pankhurst responded to an unseen world with radical kindness. The festival has also teased some of the titles that it will program between the gala bookend events. They include: Kamila Andini’s “Yuni”; Ari Folman’s “Where Is Anne Frank”; John Hughes and Tom Zubrycki’s “Senses of Cinema”; Ulrich Seidl’s...

Upcoming animated features on the company’s slate include The Character Of Rain and Sheba.

France-based animation sales company Gebeka International, which was launched as a joint venture between Wild Bunch International (Wbi) and Gebeka Films last June, has hired Jason Bressand to pilot sales.

He reports to Wbi head of sales Eva Diederix and joins Wbi and Gebeka Films staffers Livia Van der Staay and Marion Delord who oversee acquisitions.

Bressand arrives from Paulo Branco’s Paris-based company Alfama Films, where he was head of international sales and festivals from 2018.

During his time there, he handled titles including German...

The Danish film “Flee,” with Oscar nominations in animated, documentary and international film categories, tells the tale of Amin, a gay refugee from Afghanistan who is separated from his family.

Director Jonas Poher Rasmussen says that when his school friend opened up about his childhood, the helmer had intended to make a short, which grew to feature length as more details were spilled. “It really started out as a conversation between two friends,” he says.

“We are exposed to so many of these stories in the media so I think a lot of people, me at least, I have a tendency to block things out because it becomes too much,” he says. “If you take everything in, you’re not able to get up in the morning.”

Using animation also helped re-create Amin’s childhood in Afghanistan that the doc obviously couldn’t depict.

“The fact that you don’t...