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UK Indie Taking Korean Format ‘Battle In The Box’ To U.S.

Interstellar, the UK indie that made the British version of Something Special’s format Battle in the Box in the UK, is to take the Korean format into the U.S. The format, initially from Nmedia for Mbn in Korea, sees two celebrity teams enter an empty box for 24 hours divided by a moveable wall and armed with just a toothbrush. They earn space and luxuries by conquering mental and physical challenges. Interstellar made the UK version of the show for BBC Studios-owned network U&Dave, with comedian Jimmy Carr the host. The company will now take the format to the U.S. after striking a deal with Something Special, which has the international distribution rights. “We cannot wait to take everything we’ve learned about this groundbreaking reality and gameshow format and apply it to a...

Zdf Studios’ Off the Fence, the company behind Oscar-winning doc My Octopus Teacher, has acquired worldwide rights excluding North America and Latin America to rainforest documentary We Are Guardians.

We Are Guardians is executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions and produced by Highly Flammable, co-founded last year by Oscar winner Fisher Stevens whose credits include Beckham, The Cove and Tiger King.

The documentary centres on Indigenous forest guardians in the Amazon Rainforest fighting to protect their ancestral lands from invasions and deforestation.

It is the feature debut of directors Edivan Guajajara, co-founder of Mídia Indígena, the leading...

The Bentonville Film Foundation, in collaboration with founding partner Walmart and presenting sponsor Coca-Cola, have announced the winners of their narrative, documentary, short film and episodic categories from this year’s competition program.

The festival, which ran from June 10-16 in Bentonville, Ark., aims to amplify female, non-binary, Lgbtqia+, Bipoc and people with disabilities’ voices in entertainment.

“Suze” from Linsey Stewart and Dane Clark won the award for best narrative feature, and “Daughters,” directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, took home the prize for best documentary feature.

Additionally, The See It, Be It Award, was presented to Phoebe-Rae Taylor, star of “Out of My Mind.” This award, which has been presented every year since the beginning of the festival, is given to someone who has opened doors for people like them through their work and influenced the entertainment industry and pop culture through the creation of content that empowers stories that are otherwise underrepresented.

The Bentonville Film Festival, this year celebrating its tenth anniversary, has announced its award winners to close out its latest edition. In collaboration with its founding partner, Walmart, and presenting sponsor, Coca-Cola, the fest’s winners include films and episodic offerings in narrative, documentary, short film, and episodic categories. The annual festival is a globally recognized platform amplifying female, non-binary, Lgbtqia+, Bipoc, and people with disabilities’ voices in entertainment.

The festival’s top two awards went to Linsey Stewart and Dane Clark’s “Suze” (Best Narrative Feature) and Natalie Rae and Angela Patton’s “Daughters” (Best Documentary Award), with the festival’s See It, Be It Award going to Phoebe-Rae Taylor, the star of festival opener “Out of My Mind.” This award, which has been presented every year since the beginning of the festival is, per the festival, “given to someone who has opened doors for people like them through...

Los Angeles, Nov 17 (Ians) Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio’s film ‘We Are Guardians’ based on the Amazon rainforest is set to make its India premiere at the All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (Alt Eff), 2023.

‘We Are Guardians’, directed by Chelsea Greene, Rob Groman, and Edivan Guajajara, follows Indigenous forest guardian Marçal Guajajara and activist Puyr Tembe as they valiantly battle against deforestation, illegal logging activities, and the encroachment of their territories by extractive industries.

Speaking of this, the directors of ‘We Are Guardians’, said, “The state of the Amazon and the situation for Indigenous peoples in Brazil is extremely urgent. Truly it’s a matter that concerns the whole world. It’s incredible to have Leonardo DiCaprio join our team.”

“He has been a huge advocate for environmental and human rights issues throughout his life and an inspiration in the way he uses his worldwide platform to speak out about what’s happening.

Los Angeles, Nov 17 (Ians) Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio’s film ‘We Are Guardians’ based on the Amazon rainforest is set to make its India premiere at the All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (Alt Eff), 2023.

‘We Are Guardians’, directed by Chelsea Greene, Rob Groman, and Edivan Guajajara, follows Indigenous forest guardian Marçal Guajajara and activist Puyr Tembe as they valiantly battle against deforestation, illegal logging activities, and the encroachment of their territories by extractive industries.

Speaking of this, the directors of ‘We Are Guardians’, said, “The state of the Amazon and the situation for Indigenous peoples in Brazil is extremely urgent. Truly it’s a matter that concerns the whole world. It’s incredible to have Leonardo DiCaprio join our team.”

“He has been a huge advocate for environmental and human rights issues throughout his life and an inspiration in the way he uses his worldwide platform to speak out about what’s happening.

Kit Vincent’s debut ‘Red Herring’ also won best UK feature

US actor Michael Pitt was among the winners at the UK’s 31st Raindance Film Festival (October 25-November 4).

Pitt won best performance for his portrayal of a once-renowned boxer on a path to redemption in Jack Huston’s directorial debut Day Of The Fight. The UK drama premiered in Venice’s Horizons Extra strand earlier in September.

Best UK feature was won by Kit Vincent’s debut Red Herring, a documentary about his diagnosis with a terminal brain tumour. It is also one of the five films nominated for the Bifa Raindance Maverick award.

Kit Vincent’s debut ‘Red Herring’ also won best UK feature

US actor Michael Pitt was among the winners at the UK’s 31st Raindance Film Festival (October 25 – November 4).

Pitt won best performance for his portrayal of a once-renowned boxer on a path to redemption in Jack Hutson’s directorial debut Day Of The Fight. The UK drama premiered at Venice Horizons Extra earlier this year.

Best UK feature was won by Kit Vincent’s debut Red Herring, a documentary surrounding his diagnosis of a terminal brain tumour. It is also one of the five films nominated for the Bifa Raindance Maverick award.

Bangladeshi filmmaker Nuhash Humayun’s “Pett Kata Shaw” won best international feature at the 31st Raindance Film Festival’s jury awards. British documentary filmmaker Kit Vincent won best U.K. feature for his debut feature “Red Herring.”

Some 75% of this year’s features are debuts and debut features swept the board at the jury awards with all eight award-winning films being debuts.

Michael Pitt won best performance for British actor Jack Huston‘s directorial debut “Day of the Fight.” Fisnik Maxville was named best director for his debut feature “The Land Within,” which previously won awards at Tallinn Black Nights, Galway Film Fleadh and PriFest. Catalan directors Alejandro Rojas and Sebastián Vasquez won the discovery award for their debut feature “Upon Entry.”

Chelsea Greene, Rob Grobman and Edivan Guajajara’s “We Are Guardians” won best documentary while David Wyte won best cinematography for “All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White.

“A Batalha da Rua Maria Antonia,” directed by Vera Egito, nabbed the main Redentor prize for fiction film at the 2023 Rio de Janeiro International Film Fest which wrapped this year’s edition last weekend, consolidating its position as South America’s largest fest and world’s main showcase of Brazilian productions.

The fest held the world premieres of 40 Brazilian features and four TV series. Its competition, reflecting the country’s production strength, included 54 local features, selected from 318 submissions.

With a series of 21 long takes shot in 16 mm black and white film, “A Batalha da Rua Maria Antonia” (“The Battle”) depicts the true-life 1968 police massacre of Sao Paulo State University Philosophy School’s students who rose up in opposition to the military dictatorship then in place in Brazil.

Carolina Markowicz’s “Toll” scooped both best actress, for Maeve Jinkings, shared with Grace Passo of “O Dia que te conheci,” and actor...

The 31st edition of London’s Raindance Film Festival will open with the U.K. premiere of British actor Jack Huston’s directorial debut “Day of the Fight.”

The film comes to Raindance fresh off its Venice debut, where Huston was honored by Variety as a breakthrough director.

The story of a once-renowned boxer who takes a redemptive journey through his past and present on the day of his first fight since he left prison stars Michael Pitt alongside a cast including Ron Perlman, Joe Pesci, and a cameo from Steve Buscemi.

The U.K. premiere of Isabel Coixet’s “Un Amor” will close the festival after it bows at San Sebastian. Based on Sara Mesa’s bestselling novel, Laia Costa plays a young woman who escapes her stressful life in the city and relocates to rural Spain. When she accepts a disturbing sexual proposal, it gives rise to an all-consuming and obsessive passion.

“Seven Winters in Tehran,” about a 19-year-old Iranian woman sentenced to death for killing the man who tried to rape her, will open the 34th annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival on May 31 in New York City.

The festival, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, will feature 10 documentaries about humanitarian challenges around the world. This year’s edition spotlights themes and topics including the Ukraine conflict (“When Spring Came to Bucha”), climate gentrification and justice (“Razing Liberty Square”), women’s rights (“Draw Me Egypt”) transgender rights (“Into My Name”) freedom of the press (“The Etilaat Roz”) and access to health care in the United States (“Pay or Die”).

“From the war in Ukraine to women’s rights and bodily autonomy, to environmental gentrification and freedom of the press, these films span some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time,” says John Biaggi,...

The folk music documentaries Joan Baez I Am a Noise and Alexandria Bombach’s Indigo Girls documentary It’s Only Life After All are getting international premieres as part of the Hot Docs Festival, which unveiled its 2023 lineup on Tuesday.

Co-directors Miri Navasky, Karen O’Connor and Maeve O’Boyle’s portrait of Baez, the American folk singing legend and civil rights activist, bowed in Berlin. Bombach’s film about Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, who became folk-rock duo Indigo Girls and eventually environmental activists, premiered at Sundance.

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival’s 30th edition will be filled with a host of films about activists, as the festival is set to open with a screening of Twice Colonized, Danish director Lin Alluna’s film about Greenlandic Inuit lawyer and protector of her ancestral lands, Aaju Peter.

The Danish film, which had a world premiere at Sundance, will also launch the Copenhagen documentary film festival Cph:dox.