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Closing a remarkable circle, TF1 espionage thriller “State of Alert,” starring legendary French singer-actor Patrick Bruel in his first major TV work, will world premiere March 27 at Series Mania.

The red carpet affair, featuring other cast and crew, will take place at the very same festival where Keshet Intl. head of drama Atar Dekel, having put through initial development, pitched the series as an Israeli project way back in 2018.

A fast-paced thriller set between Paris and the spectacular white-sand Negev Desert in Southern Israel, “State of Alert” kicks off with a taxi 43 kilometres outside Paris. Anatoly, a Russian journalist, is called on his cell-phone. When he answers, the taxi stops, on a railway crossing. The taxi doors lock, as a train thunders towards the car.

The assassination almost certainly involved software developed by Israeli intelligence services which can send a virus through a cell-phone call to take control of a car.

Renowned French actor and singer Patrick Bruel is making his TV debut in a leading role as a revered secret agent in “State of Alert,” a geopolitical thriller set in Paris.

The thriller, based on Dov Alfon’s bestselling novel “A Long Night in Paris” (“Unité 8200”), was produced by Elephant International with Keshet International (“Rough Diamonds”).

Slated to premiere later this year on TF1, “State of Alert” was directed by Dan Sachar, who notably worked as a second unit director on 36 episodes of “Fauda,” and co-directed episodes of “Tehran.”

Striking a similar chord as Netflix’s “Zero Day” with its timely techno plot and geo-political themes, “State of Alert” sees Bruel playing Israeli spy Zeey Abadi who travels to Paris for a tech summit where he embarks on an unexpected investigation to connect the dots between stolen software, the death of a Russian journalist and a mysterious disappearance three days...

The brand new Cph:Roughcut showcase, with five outstanding European documentary projects looking for distribution, sales and festival platforms, will be pitched Monday at Copenhagen’s documentary financing and co-production event Cph:Forum.

The highly-curated slate encompasses a wide variety of themes, from the genesis and rise of far-right ideology, monetized online sexual content, the impact of war in Ukraine, violence against nature and women in Montenegro, to the downfall of the Labor Party and extremists’ rise to power in Israel. All stories, told through fascinating portraits of individuals, are co-productions between two to four countries, spearheaded by top producers including Oscar-nominated Kirstine Barfod and Emilie Blezat (“Grace Jones – Bloodlight & Bambi”). Two of the titles in rough cut stage are earlier winners of the Cph:dox Eurimages Development award: “The Last Nomads” and “Four Brothers.”

Variety caught up with the five teams of filmmakers ahead of their pitches in Copenhagen.

“The Sinner” by...

The Ace Series Special is running Nov 4-9 in Brussels.

European producers organisation Ace Producers has unveiled the selection of sixteen producers who will participate in its inaugural TV drama-focused initiative, the Ace Series Special, running Nov 4-9 in Brussels.

The programme is aimed at experienced producers who want to create a series division within their film companies and, or deepen their knowledge of developing and producing TV drama series for an international audience. Each participant will attend with a series project in the early stages of development

They include Belgium’s Bart Van Langendonck at Savage Film, who will...

Projects revealed for the second edition of the New Chinese Film Talents Fund Forum.

Eight emerging Chinese film directors and their feature film projects have been invited to attend the Cannes Marche for a series of exclusive pitching sessions.

The second edition of the New Chinese Film Talents Fund Forum is an initiative developed as a partnership between Chinese distributor Champs Lis International and Cannes’ Marché du Film.

It aims to encourage and support a group of Chinese filmmakers in their understanding of the global film marketplace and of their approach of the international co-production business.

The eight selected projects went through a short-listing process before being officially selected by a committee of international film professionals including Sophie Bourdon, David Dusa, Wang Fenglin, Isabelle Glachant, Jia Qi, Winnie Lau, Michelle Lee Stefano Tealdi and Lorna Tee.

Two of the projects have been selected by the Beijing Film Market after being part in April of the Beijing Project...

Texas is known for some great film festivals. apart from SXSW and Fantastic Fest, both held in Austin – Houston also hosts some wonderful events. Among them is the Cinema Arts Festival. This year’s line-up is extremely strong, with titles that include Pina, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, The Artist and the World Premiere of Art Car: The Movie. Sadly we do not have any contributors over in Houston, but I did feel the need to quickly promote the festival. Here is the press release.

Houston – Now in its third year, Cinema Arts Festival Houston, which runs from November 9 to 13, 2011 will bring an ambitious program of films by and about artists to the vibrant Texas city known internationally for its dynamic art scene. From painting and dance to classical music and multimedia work, this edition will also include appearances by directors, actors, musicians, and special tributes to Ethan Hawke and documentary master Patricio Guzman.

Although it tells an old story, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are the real stars of the delicate romance "Flowers of Evil." David Dusa's feature-length directorial debut portrays a cross-cultural romance in intimate terms. The relationship between a French-Algerian bellhop and the Iranian fugitive he meets in Paris contains several layers of subtext, but it manages to explore these ideas while maintaining the firm exterior of an affecting love story. Set ...

Director: David Dusa Writers: David Dusa, Louise Molière, Raphaëlle Maes Starring: Rachid Youcef, Alice Belaïdi Gecko (Rachid Youcef) is a traceur (a practitioner of parkour) and break-dancer who works as a bellhop at a Parisian hotel. Living alone in an isolated apartment within earshot of the roaring sounds of the major highway it overlooks, Gecko spends much of his spare time on Facebook and YouTube. Recently Gecko has developed an interest in traffic, which in turn draws his attention towards the traffic problems in Iran. It is not without coincidence that Gecko meets Anahita (Alice Belaïdi), a young Iranian student whose parents have sent her to Paris to avoid the repressive fallout from the political uprisings in Tehran. Anahita relies solely upon social media -- Twitter, Facebook and YouTube -- to keep up to date with her family, friends and the overall situation in Iran; this quickly evolves into a...

In anticipation of the 10th Tribeca Film Festival which kicks off tomorrow, indieWIRE is again spotlighting emerging (and some veteran) filmmakers screening new work at this year's event. Today's new director interviews include profiles of James Westby ("Rid of Me," Viewpoints), Michael Collins ("Give Up Tomorrow," World Documentary Competition), and David Dusa ("Flowers of Evil," Viewpoints). In the days leading up to the festival, indieWIRE is focusing on directors with ...

In anticipation of the 10th Tribeca Film Festival which kicks off tomorrow, indieWIRE is again spotlighting emerging (and some veteran) filmmakers screening new work at this year's event. Today's new director interviews include profiles of James Westby ("Rid of Me," Viewpoints), Michael Collins ("Give Up Tomorrow," World Documentary Competition), and David Dusa ("Flowers of Evil," Viewpoints). In the days leading up to the festival, indieWIRE is focusing on directors with ...

In anticipation of the 10th Tribeca Film Festival which kicks off tomorrow, indieWIRE is again spotlighting emerging (and some veteran) filmmakers screening new work at this year's event. Today's new director interviews include profiles of James Westby ("Rid of Me," Viewpoints), Michael Collins ("Give Up Tomorrow," World Documentary Competition), and David Dusa ("Flowers of Evil," Viewpoints). In the days leading up to the festival, indieWIRE is focusing on directors with ...

Tribeca Film Festival has announced the line up of this years competition categories, including World Narrative Feature, World Documentary Feature, and the brand new Viewpoints which highlights eleven independent features and nine documentaries.

Tribeca Film Festival is one of leading film festivals located in New York City, showcasing many films not screened in any other U.S. film festival along with forty three world premieres and fifty four directorial debuts. Cameron Crowe’s premier of his concert documentary, The Union, will start the festival followed by a performance by Elton John. The rest of the lineup will be announced March 14th, and look out for coverage of the festival in April. Below you can find the complete press release on the lineup.

10th Tribeca Film Festival Announces World Narrative

And Documentary Competition Selections, And New Viewpoints Section

Tribeca Expands Awards Scope

2011 Festival to Present 88 Feature-Length and 61 Short Films April 20 – May...

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (April 20-May 1) on Monday announced the first 44 feature films of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival slate, comprising the World Narrative and Documentary Competition film selections, and one new section: Viewpoints.

In a record year for submissions, the 2011 film slate was chosen from a field of 5,624 entries. Tff 2011 will include feature films from 32 countries, including 43 world premieres, 10 international premieres, 19 North American premieres, seven U.S. Premieres and nine New York premieres.

“It’s our 10th Tribeca Film Festival, and in our relatively brief existence we have evolved dramatically,” said Tff executive director Nancy Schafer in a statement. “The festival has become an integral part of the cultural landscape of New York City as well as a globally recognized platform for storytelling.”

A complete list of the films announced Monday follows, with descriptions provided by the festival.

World Narrative Features

“Angel’s Crest”

Directed by Gaby Dellal

Written by Catherine Trieschmann

(UK,...

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (April 20-May 1) on Monday announced the first 44 feature films of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival slate, comprising the World Narrative and Documentary Competition film selections, and one new section: Viewpoints.

In a record year for submissions, the 2011 film slate was chosen from a field of 5,624 entries. Tff 2011 will include feature films from 32 countries, including 43 world premieres, 10 international premieres, 19 North American premieres, seven U.S. Premieres and nine New York premieres.

“It’s our 10th Tribeca Film Festival, and in our relatively brief existence we have evolved dramatically,” said Tff executive director Nancy Schafer in a statement. “The festival has become an integral part of the cultural landscape of New York City as well as a globally recognized platform for storytelling.”

A complete list of the films announced Monday follows, with descriptions provided by the festival.

World Narrative Features

“Angel’s Crest”

Directed by Gaby Dellal

Written by Catherine Trieschmann

(UK,...

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival revealed the World Narrative and Documentary Competition film selections for the 10th annual Tff, which will be held April 20 to May 1 in lower Manhattan.

In addition, Tff organizers unveiled the first edition of the new section — Viewpoints.

Forty-four of the 88 feature-length films that will screen during the fest have been announced. Much more information on each title can be found below.

“It’s our tenth Tribeca Film Festival, and in our relatively brief existence we have evolved dramatically,” said Nancy Schafer, Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Festival. “The Festival has become an integral part of the cultural landscape of New York City as well as a globally recognized platform for storytelling.”

So what will screen at Tribeca this year? In part, the following:

World Narrative Feature Competition

· Angels Crest, directed by Gaby Dellal, written by Catherine Trieschmann. (UK, Canada) – World Premiere.

And the festival beat marches on… nothing on this list immediately jumps out at me… no titles I recognize. These are just the World Narrative and Documentary competition selections, so, there’ll be more announcements made later. I do see representation from South Africa, Egypt and Rwanda. As I always do, I’ll be taking a closer look at the lineup for any titles worth profiling on this website. The festival runs from April 20th to May 1st. It’s in my backyard, so you know I’ll be covering it!

For now, here’s the full press release:

New York, NY [March 7, 2011] – The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (Tff), presented by American Express®, today announced the World Narrative and Documentary Competition film selections and the first edition of the new section—Viewpoints. Forty-three of the 87 feature-length films were announced. The 10th edition of the Festival will take place from April 20 to May 1 in lower Manhattan.

The Tribeca Film Festival announced selections for its World Narrative, World Documentary, and Viewpoints competitions at its 10th annual event, running from April 20 to May 1 in New York. Eighty-eight features (such as Angels Crest, with Jeremy Piven) and 61 short films from 32 different countries were selected from more than 5,600 submissions to screen at the festival. “In programming the Festival this year we had to make some incredibly difficult decisions, but we are excited about the quality, ingenuity, risk-taking and diversity of this year’s program,” David Kwok, Director of Programming, said in a statement. “We are particularly proud that we have...

Getty Robert DeNiro

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, which will run from April 20 to May 1 in lower Manhattan, has announced the films that will play in this year’s World Narrative and Documentary Competition film categories, which are both competition sections. The also named the films that will will play in its new, out-of-competition section “Viewpoints.”

Now in its tenth year, this year’s festival features movies from 32 different counties and 99 different filmmakers, who were selected from a pool of 5,624 entries.

Wedged between Sundance and Berlin is the extremely important Rotterdam film festival. Rotterdam functions as Europe's first major film fest of the year, but it seconds as a premiere destination for filmmakers such as Andrei Zvyagintsev (The Return), Amat Escalante (Sangre) and Juraj Lehotsky (Blind Loves) who make the kind of films that need a "helping hand". This list is of obvious interest because we'll be talking about this projects-turned-into-films down the road - we only need to look at Venice/Tiff for recent examples such as Samuel Maoz's Lebanon and Shirin Neshat's Women without Men to see the quality of films that got their start here. - Wedged between Sundance and Berlin is the extremely important Rotterdam film festival. Rotterdam functions as Europe's first major film fest of the year, but it seconds as a premiere destination for filmmakers such as Andrei Zvyagintsev (The Return), Amat Escalante...