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Laura Baumeister’s sophomore feature “What Follows is My Death” (“Lo Que Sigue Es Mi Muerte”) has lined up new co-producers in Spain’s burgeoning La Vida and newly launched Somos Maravillosa, joining Mexico’s Tarco Estudio and Catatonia Cine.

The production has also confirmed two key cast members in prominent Mexican-Polish actor Ludwika Paleta (“Carrusel”) and Wendy Chinchilla (“Clara Sola”).

The film, scheduled to shoot in the second semester of 2026, follows Virginia, a young Nicaraguan migrant who escapes from her captors and ventures into the Mexican desert on a full moon night. After falling into an animal trap, she is rescued by Aurora, a sheep shearer, who takes her to her ranch. As they fall in love, they must confront the hostilities of an old masculine world, while Virginia completes her transformation into a nahual woman.

The production is Baumeister’s follow-up to “Daughter of Rage” (“La Hija de...

Winners included ’Mannequins’, ’Most People Die On Sundays’ and ’These Were All Fields’.

The key industry awards at the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff) went to Michael Fetter Nathansky’s Mannequins, Iar Said’s Most People Die On Sundays and Daniela Abad Lombana’ These Were All Fields. The awards were announced at a ceremony on Wednesday 27.

Mannequins (working title) took both the Wip Europa Industry Award and the Wip Europa Award. Germany’s Contando Films and Studio Central/Network Movie are producing Nathansky’s second feature, which is a romantic social drama set in Europe’s largest coal mining area.

Iair Said’s “Most People Die On Sundays” and Michael Fetter Nathansky’s “Mannequins” took two prizes each as Daniela Abad Lombana’s “These Were All Fields,” also triumphed Wednesday at San Sebastian Festival’s prize ceremony for winners at its main industry competitions: the Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum and Wip Latin America and Wip Europa pix-in-post showcases.

Also among winners at the Forum were two high-profile Argentine projects, Bárbara Sarasola-Day’s “Little War” and Lucila Mariani’s “The Days Off.”

Meanwhile, Naomi Pacifique’s “After the Night, the Night” headed home home with the trophy at San Sebastián’s development program Ikusmira Berriak, seen as a pivotal young talent residency in Spain.

Said’s second film uses a sweet and sour comedy tone to follow the vicissitudes of a young homosexual Jew when he has to go home to face his father’s last days. Prizes galore go to the winning film,...

San Sebastian — Paris-based Luxbox has clinched major territory pre-sales on anticipated San Sebastian competition title “Puan,” an original attempt by its writer-directors, María Alche (“A Family Submerged”) and Benjamín Naishtat (“Rojo”) to deliver a state of the nation take on Argentina – and any country in thrall of European ideas – but in a notably lighter tone than most Latin American arthouse fare.

Key first major territory buyers take in Condor for France, whose release lineup has featured major auteurs such as Kelly Reichardt, Casey Affleck, Agnieszka Holland, Paul Schrader, Denis Villeneuve, Michel Franco and Ira Sachs.

With a strong line in Spanish-language titles – “The Permanent Picture” this year, “The Rite of Spring” in 2022 – Barcelona-based La Aventura Cine has closed rights for Spain.

Releasing films by star auteurs in Brazil since 2010 and Spain from 2020, Vitrine has clinched rights for Brazil.

“Puan” – affectionate shorthand for Buenos Aires U’s Faculty of Philosophy and...

Fifteen projects have been selected for the forum, seven from first or second-time directors.

Juan Pablo González and Sergio Castro San Martín are among the filmmakers returning for San Sebastian’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production forum, which runs from September 25-27.

Mexican filmmaker González is back with Agua Caliente after his first work Dos Estaciones went on to win the best acting award for lead actor Teresa Sánchez in the world cinema dramatic competition at Sundance, following its participation in the forum in 2019 and Wip Latam in 2022. Agua Caliente is co-directed with Ana Isabel Fernández de Alba.

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Multi-prized Latin American directors Federico Veiroj, Theo Court, Alicia Scherson and Daniel Hendler head a muscular project lineup at September’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, the Spanish festival’s industry centerpiece which underscores this year a welling sea-change in the region’s filmmaking.

“The Moneychanger,” the latest film from Uruguay’s Veiroj, was selected for Toronto’s 2019 Platform; “White on White,” from Chile’s Court, won a best director Silver Lion at 2019’s Venice Horizons; Chile’s Alicia Scherson’s debut “Play” snagged new narrative director at Tribeca in 2005: multi-hyphenate Hendler, from Uruguay, scooped best director at Miami for “The Candidate” in 2017.

Also making the cut are Mexico’s Juan Pablo González and Ana Isabel Fernández, director and co-writer of 2022 Sundance Special Jury Prize winner “Dos Estaciones.” Ezequiel Yanco’s “La vida en común” took best documentary at the Biarritz Latin American Festival in 2019.

Mixing top cineasts...

Paris-based Luxbox has snapped up sales rights on “Puan,” the awaited new film from María Alche and Benjamín Naishtat, two of Argentina’s fastest-rising directors.

The new title co-stars Leonardo Sbaraglia.

“Puan” catches Alché after she won San Sebastian’s prestigious Horizontes Award in 2018 for her Visit Films-sold feature debut, “A Family Submerged,” before teaming on “Puan” with Naishat who, the same year at San Sebastian, won director, actor (Dario Grandinetti) and cinematography (Pedro Sotero) in main competition for “Rojo,” sparking a rave Variety review.

“Rojo” denounced the tacit collusion of many Argentineans in the violence of Argentina’s extreme right just months before the coup d’etat which brought the Junta to power.

Also written by Alché and Naishtat, “Puan” looks like another state of the nation take, delivered, however, in lighter comic terms, set at the “weirdly amazing” – Naishtat’s words – Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Buenos Aires,...

International Film Festival Rotterdam has unveiled its selection of 20 feature film projects and five immersive projects for the 40th edition of CineMart, the festival’s co-production market, which runs from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1. Following two online editions, the market is hosted in-person for the first time since 2020.

Filmmakers from Indonesia, Paraguay, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ukraine are among the lineup, which features subjects such as hip-hop, migration and gender fluidity, as well as a cowboy.

Head of IFFR Pro, Inke Van Loocke, said: “In fragmented times, bringing together incredible filmmakers and projects from so many different territories continues to be an invaluable contribution to filmmaking across the world.

“Together with producers in the Rotterdam Lab, filmmakers in the selection, and our wider press and industry family, it will be a heartwarming feeling to experience the buzz of a proper IFFR in De Doelen again.”

Sweden’s Plattform...

20 features and five immersive projects will be presented at the co-production market.

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has selected 20 feature projects for the 40th edition of its CineMart co-production market, including Eldorado, the next feature from The Unknown Saint director Alaa Eddine Aljem.

The project follows a group of migrants seeking to reach the secret utopian island of Eldorado, who actually end up in a factory of the same name that produces tomato sauce.

Scroll down for the full CineMart 2023 selection

The project is being produced by Francesca Duca for Morocco’s Le Moindre Geste.

Aljem’s debut feature The...

Online market ran from November 30-December 3.

Nico Manzano’s Venezuelan entry Me And The Beasts picked up three out of the six Primer Corte awards at Friday’s (December 4) online awards ceremony marking the conclusion of 2020 Ventana Sur.

Beasts took home the Sofia Films Award, Nmf Y Color Front Award, and La Mayor Cine Award offering various post-production services.

Juan Carve’s Uruguayan project Olivia And The Shadows triumphed in the Animación sidebar, picking up The MIFA / Annecy Award and La Liga de la Animactón Iberoamericana Award.

Sebastian Perillo’s The Nights Belong To The Monsters from Argentina won three...

The miraculous prospects of international funding initiatives and the opportunities and pitfalls offered by streaming platforms were among the topics discussed by leading Argentine producers during an online Ventana Sur panel on Thursday.

Diego Dubcovsky of Varsovia Films, Santiago Gallelli of Rei Cine and Paula Zyngierman of Maravillacine also looked back at the dynamic New Argentine Cinema wave that characterized the 1990s, and addressed the role of state funding for the sector, and the silver lining of the Covid-19 crisis.

Already racked by crippling inflation and a plunging peso, the Argentine film industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, which has led to a sharp decline in the cinema admissions and TV advertising that fund the country’s Instituto Nacional de Cinematografia y las Artes Audiovisuals (Incaa).

Dubcovsky, whose credits include “The Motorcycle Diaries,” Daniel Burman films like “Lost Embrace” and “Empty Nest,” as well as such recent pics...

Presenting to the industry for the first time at Ventana Sur’s Proyecta event, “Puán,” a comedy, is a joint creative venture between Argentine directors María Alché, a 2018 San Sebastián Horizontes winner for “A Family Submerged,” and Benjamín Naishtat, who took three top main competition prizes at the same year’s San Sebastian for his third feature, “Rojo.”

Through the chaotic world of the University of Buenos Aires’ overpopulated, underfunded philosophy and literature department – affectionately known to all as ‘Puán’ – the duo’s script explores the state of their home nation.

The script tells a “coming-of-middle-age” story about a multitasking professor and father who finds himself with little time for abstract thought when a much-coveted philosophy chair arises following the death of a close mentor.

Producers of this Є800,000 budget project are Barbara Francisco’s ten-year old firm Pasto Cine – which made “Familia Sumergida” – and Federico Eibuszyc and Barbara Sarasola-Day...

Cannes — Programmed by France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema, Cannes’ Acid section turned its spotlight this year on Argentine cinema.

As access to talent – creative and crews – becomes a predominant challenge for producers worldwide, given the huge production demand driven by global platforms, the radar can hardly be spread too wide in search of young emerging writer-directors Rich in talent and benefiting from a distinguished national cinema heritage, Argentina’s independent sector faces, however, the immediate challenge of finding an audience in and outside its domestic market. Acid, a parallel section at Cannes, provided an invaluable international platform.

One of three features in its Argentine focus, “Sangre blanca” (“White Blood”) marks the sophomore feature of Barbara Sarasola-Day (“Belayed”). It also underscores how much upscale foreign-language cinema is developing a genre edge.

A drug trade-thriller and father-daughter drama, it turns on Martina (Eva De Dominici) who becomes a drug mule,...

The lineup for the 2019 Cannes Acid has been announced. See also the full lineups of the Official Selection, Directors' Fortnight and Critics’ Week.Feature FILMSBlind Spot (Pierre Trividic, Patrick-Mario Bernard): Dominick Brassan has the power to turn invisible, but rarely uses it. Instead he has kept it a shameful secret, hidden even from Viveka, his fiancée. But when his ability to control his gift gets out of hand, his life, friendships and relationships will be forever turned inside out.Des Hommes (Jean-Robert Viallet, Alice Odiot): Thirty thousand square meters and 2,000 inmates, half of them under 30 years old. The Baumettes jail tells about misery, violence, abandonment, and also hopes. It is a story with its screams and its silences. A concentrate of humanity.Indianara (Aude Chevalier-Beaumel, Marcello Barbosa): Bigger-than-life revolutionary, Indianara and her group lead a fight for the survival of transgender people in Brazil. She gathers her...

Following the first batches of Cannes Film Festival lineup announcements, the slate has now been unveiled for the sidebar Directors’ Fortnight. Once again a stellar-looking lineup, it includes Robert Eggers’ The Witch follow-up The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, Bertrand Bonello’s Zombi Child, plus new films from Takashi Miike, Lav Diaz, Bas Devo, and Rebecca Zlotowski (pictured above).

There’s also two Sundance films we’ve already reviewed: Wounds and Give Me Liberty. Premiering as a Special Screening is Luca Guadagnino’s new short The Staggering Girl starring Julianne Moore, Mia Goth, KiKi Layne, Alba Rohrwacher, Marthe Keller, and Kyle MacLachlan. See the lineup below, along with the Acid slate.

Directors’ Fortnight Lineup

Feature Films

Deerskin (Quentin Dupieux) – Opening Film

Yves (Benoît Forgeard) – Closing

Alice and the Mayor (Nicolas Pariser)

And Then We Danced (Levan Akin)

The Halt (Lav Diaz)

Dogs Don’t Wear Pants (Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää...

The International Film Festival and Awards Macao drew to a close Sunday with South Korea writer-director Kwon Man-ki's debut feature, the psychological drama Clean Up, taking the best film prize and Argentine director Barbara Sarasola-Day's drug-trafficking thriller White Blood awarded the jury prize.

The seven-day festival concluded with an awards ceremony and the screening of Chinese legendary director Zhang Yimou's reimagining of one of the Three Kingdoms tales, Shadow.

Swedish director Gustav Moller was named best director for The Guilty, Denmark's best foreign-language film entry for the 2019 Oscars, with the film's leading man, Jakob Cedergren, picking up best actor....

ustThe Competition line-up included 11 features from first- and second-time filmmakers.

The 3rd International Film Festival & Awards Macao (Iffam) unveiled its winners today (December 14), with Kwon Man-Ki’s redemption drama Clean Up receiving the best film prize.

The award, presented by filmmaker and Iffam jury president Chen Kaige, follows the film’s shared victory in the New Currents awards at Busan International Film Festival, where it premiered in October.

The Iffam jury awarded the jury prize to Barbara Sarasola-Day’s South America drug-trafficking story White Blood.

Gustav Möller’s Sundance 2018 hit The Guilty – Denmark’s foreign-language Oscar entry – won two awards:...

Korean drama movie, “Clean Up” took the best film prize on Friday night at the closing ceremony of the International Film Festival and Awards Macao.

The jury, which comprised Chen Kaige, Danis Tanovic, Mabel Cheung, Paul Currie, and Tillotama Shome, said: “’Clean Up’ is a powerful, visceral film which is symbolic and naturalistic at the same time… The director unfolds a psychological drama with simmering intensity, and humanists the criminal without condoning the heinous crime in any way.”

The festival, completing its third edition, wrapped up with another breezy and efficient closing ceremony, kept largely on schedule thanks to its local live broadcast.

Celebrities on the red carpet included Phillip Noyce, Aaron Kwok and Ben Wheatley. Industry executives in attendance included Ellen Eliasoph, Michael J. Werner and Shekhar Kapur.

The closing ceremony was also the occasion for Variety and the festival to present awards to Asia’s next wave of talent.

“Rojo,” a noirish retro drama-thriller by fast-rising Argentinean helmer Benjamin Naishtat, has closed a number of territories, including France and China, after scooping three prizes at the San Sebastian Film Festival following its Toronto world premiere. The distribution pacts sold by Paris-based sales agent Luxbox are for Benelux (September); Brazil (Vitrine Film); China (Time Vision); France (Condor); Greece (Spentzos); Switzerland (Filmcoop); and the U.K. (New Wave). Primer Plano will distribute in Argentina. Discussions are ongoing in Spain and other key territories. Described by Variety in its review as “a witheringly provocative examination of temporary moral eclipse becoming permanent moral apocalypse,” “Rojo” features a star-studded Latin American lineup, including Argentina’s Dario Grandinetti, and Chile’s Alfredo Castro, a favorite thesp of compatriot Pablo Larrain. Unspooling in a rustic province in 1975, the film is set against an ominous backdrop of mounting political violence that foreshadows Argentina’s approaching coup and Dirty War.

Other titles include Bad Times At El Royale and Park Chan-Wook series The Little Drummer Girl;

The 13th Rome Film Fest (18-28 October) has unveiled its line-up. It will feature in its non-competitive official selection 38 films, including the world premieres of Fede Alvarez’s The Girl In The Spider’s Web with Claire Foy and Gilles De Maistre’s Mia Et Le Lion Blanc, featuring Melanie Laurent.

Scroll down for the full line-up

Opening with Drew Goddard’s Bad Times At El Royale, Antonio Monda’s fourth edition confirms itself as a “fest” and not a “festival” as the director specifies.

Madrid — Swooping in on a just-announced San Sebastian main competition title, Paris-based Luxbox has picked up world sales rights to the noirish retro drama-thriller “Rojo,” from Benjamin Naishtat, one of Argentina’s most highly-rated on-the-rise auteurs.

Also one of the biggest titles now coming out of Argentina and a Naishtat passion project developed over years, “Rojo” is set in an Argentine province in 1975 against a expanding wave of political violence, often perpetrated by illegal police squads.

Its prologue kicks off with Dr. Claudio Mora, an upstanding lawyer being attacked outside a restaurant by a stranger who pulls a gun, shoots himself but doesn’t die. In a fateful decision, Mora abandons the still-living stranger in the nearby desert. Consumed by guilt, he begins to discover a whole world of subterfuge, corruption and violence beneath the placid surface of provincial Argentina….

Naishtat’s follow-up to his debut, “History of Fear,” which...