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The Guadalajara International Film Festival (Ficg) is proudly celebrating its 40th edition with a milestone: Mexico’s first-ever stop-motion animated feature, “I Am Frankelda” (“Soy Frankelda”), which opens the festival.

Running June 6-14, the country’s most prominent film festival launches a new genre section that features five pics led by Pablo Stoll’s zombie dramedy “Summer Hit” (“El tema del verano”) and Emilio Portes’ “Don’t Leave the Kids Alone.” This new by invitation only sidebar would be the 10th competitive section of the fest.

“It’s never been easy to put on a festival in Mexico – there are a lot of people who don’t really understand the work that goes into it. But what truly matters is that, for 40 years, through changing tides, shifting governments and opposition from both inside and out, we’ve kept the festival alive. And what we’ve come to realize is that...

Exclusive: The Latino Film Institute has announced the lineup for the 24th edition of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (Laliff), from May 28 through June 1, 2025, at the Tcl Chinese Theatres. This year’s festival will feature the return of the Laliff Eastside programming at Regal L.A. Live, the Laliff Film Market, and an expanded Laliff Industry Forum.

The festival will open with Asco: Without Permission, written and directed by Travis Gutiérrez Senger, executive produced by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, and featuring special appearances by Zoe Saldaña and Michael Peña. Laliff will close with Serious People, co-written and co-directed by Pasqual Gutierrez and Ben Mullinkosson, which is being shown for the first time on the West Coast.

Asco: Without Permission is a film that tells the story of the pioneering Chicano art collective Asco, whose activism and artistic vision challenged mainstream representation in the art world,...

They crop up all around the world, the special places where everybody wants to claim they lived, after the fact. London’s Soho, New York City’s Lower East Side, Friedrichshain in Berlin – places where people like that were afraid to be when it was really happening. There’s a familiar cycle that sees artists, writers and musicians moving into the only places they can afford; coping with the drugs and the violence; producing, in their concentration, something remarkable; and then being forced out again by rising rents as wealthy wannabes arrive to try to siphon off their cool. Screened as part of 2025’s South by Southwest, José María Cabral’s 42nd Street captures this cycle at an earlier stage than usual, as it happens to a once-shunned district in the heart of the Dominican Republic – a place where new sounds and new language are being born.

This is La 42,...

The Dominican Republic’s Jose Maria Cabral, best known for his reality-grounded prison drama “Woodpeckers” (“Carpinteros”), has ventured into documentary filmmaking for the fourth time with his bracing portrait of Santo Domingo’s titular “42nd Street” (“La 42”). He debuts its trailer exclusively in Variety ahead of its SXSW world premiere on March 7.

It is here on 42nd Street of the infamous Capotillo neighborhood where the cacophony of music, art and dance clash with local police who sweep into the area, two to a motorbike, and arrest people willy-nilly, many times for simply dancing late at night.

“When we think of La 42, yes, we know there is crime, we know there is drug trafficking, but that’s not the only reality. There are many good people there, many artistic, creative and talented individuals who just want to move forward,” says Cabral.

“For me, that is the role of my documentary—to...

In a sterling example of the globalized nature of the international film business, Barcelona-based Cornelius Films, behind Basque Country-set “Negu Hubrilak” and buzzy upcoming stop-motion feature “Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake,” has boarded “My Uncle’s Movie,” a Dominican Republic feature starring “Better Call Saul’s” Steve Bauer.

Now in pre-production and set to shoot in 2024, ““My Uncle’s Movie” (“La Película de Mi Tío”) marks the follow-up of Dominican Natalia Cabral and Catalan Oriol Estrada’s auspicious fiction feature debut “Miriam Lies” (2018) and multi-prized “Una Película Sobre Parejas” (2021). It is Cabral’s first solo directorial outing without Estrada since her 2005 short “DiscoDecada.”

Set to be presented mid-August at Locarno’s networking initiative Match Me!,“My Uncle’s Movie” is now set up as a production of Faula Films, Estrada and Cabral’s label, based between the Dominican Republic and Barcelona; mega filming facility Lantica Studios, whose now sole owner...

Among the Copia Final titles in Ventana Sur, the Dominican Republic’s “Tiger” (“Tiguere”) by lauded filmmaker José María Cabral (“Woodpeckers”) casts a harsh light on the machismo culture of the Caribbean nation and by extension, Latin America.

Shot in a lush mountain retreat, “Tiger” is set in a boot camp where families drop off their teenage sons with the hope that they learn to become “real men.” It is led by boot camp head Alberto, who decides that his son Pablo, an aspiring artist, is ready to join the camp. Naturally, Pablo rebels, which leads to some dire consequences.

Drawing from his own personal experience at a similar boot camp and inspiration from such classics as “Beau Travail,” “The Rider” and “Honey Boy,” Cabral co-penned his semi-autobiographical drama with Cuban writers Arturo Arango, Nuri Duarte, Xenia Rivery and Alan González.

“Towards the end of the ’90s, my parents sent...

The Dominican Republic (Dr) has been making bold strides in its film industry, reporting dynamic growth and earning kudos both at home and internationally. Ironically, what spurred its growth was a global pandemic. As many countries remained in lockdown, Dr opened its borders to more location shoots by June 2020.

“It was precisely during the pandemic that we began to present record-breaking levels in terms of production service earnings. We went from collecting revenues amounting to $50 million in a good year to over $250 million,” said Marianna Vargas, director general of national film institute, DGCine.

With health and safety protocols firmly in place, Dr began to lure a number of high-profile projects, led by M. Knight Shyamalan’s “Old,” Jennifer Lopez-led romcom “Shotgun Wedding” and Channing Tatum-Sandra Bullock action-comedy caper, “Lost City of D.”

A more recent production is Netflix’s “Nyad,” starring Jodie Foster and Annette Bening, where...

Backed by the Cannes Film Market and Argentina’s Incaa film agency, the 15th Ventana Sur and its much anticipated works in progress sections, Primer Corte and Copia Final, unspool over Nov. 27-Dec. 1 in Buenos Aires.

This year’s crop of films, either in post-production or completed, make scant reference to the region’s brutal historical past, perhaps with the exception of “Pepe” by Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias, which begins with the capture of drug lord Pablo Escobar who sowed terror and chaos for years in Colombia, or José María Cabral’s “Tiguere,” set in a ‘90s Dominican Republic.

In contrast, they focus more on human interest stories as in the territorial dispute in “El Casero”; family clashes in “November” and “Una casa con dos perros” – also a reference to Argentina’s economic crisis – as well as issues of identity and intergenerational relationships.

In Mexican filmmaker Rigoberto Perezcano’s poignant black-and-white drama,...

One of the most robust of Latin America’s emerging film industries, Dominican Republic cinema boasts a standout presence at this year’s Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival.

On Monday, Nov. 13, following a two-year alliance inked at the Cannes Festival by Dominican Republic film commission DGCine and the Huelva Festival, four Dominican projects at development stage will be presented at an event intended for film producers interested in Ibero-American co-production.

“The four projects are representative of the current Dominican cinema landscape, made by a new generation of filmmakers which demonstrates the diversity of voices and issues [addressed] in our film industry,” says Marianna Vargas Gurilieva, general director at DGCine.

“Víctor Piñeyro’s ‘El sueño’ is a universal and popular story, interesting for its references; Karlina Veras’ ‘La mansa’ has a singular tone, with passages through Spain; a striking project, Juliano Kunert’s “Maguana Racing” offers a tremendously peculiar premise, and Yinna de la Cruz...

Actor and producer Jimmy Jean-Louis has signed with CAA.

Best known for playing René (a.k.a. the Haitian) in NBC’s “Heroes” and “Heroes: Reborn,” Jean-Louis will next appear opposite Henry Golding, Noomi Rapace, and Sam Neill in the upcoming action movie “Assassin Club.”

The Haitian American actor was most recently seen in “The Gray Man” and also stars in the Netflix feature “Citation,” which won two National Film Awards in the UK, as well as “Detective Knight: Rogue.”

Jean-Louis’ acting career spans more than 25 years, kicking off in 1998 when he moved to Los Angeles after building successful musical theater and modeling careers in France, Spain, Italy, South Africa and England. Jean-Louis has appeared in films including “Tears of the Sun,” opposite Bruce Willis; “Joy”; “Phat Girlz” and “Monster-in-Law.” His television credits include the CW’s “Arrow,” TNT’s “Claws” and CBS’ “Extant,” starring Halle Berry and produced by Steven Spielberg.

The 48th edition of the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival will honor Spanish actress Nathalie Poza with a City of Huelva Award, an acknowledgment whose previous recipients included filmmaker Oscar-winning director Fernando Trueba (“Belle Epoque”) and actors Dario Grandinetti, Eduard Fernández and Edward James Olmos.

Running Nov. 11-18, Huelva 2022 will also homage young thesp Greta Fernández, a best actress winner at San Sebastian for Belén Funes’ “A Thief’s Daughter,” and Andalusian writer-director Juan Miguel del Castillo (“Food and Shelter”) with two Light Awards.

Meanwhile, Seville-born director Santi Amodeo will receive a Rtva Award for best Andalusian filmmaker.

Launched 48 years ago, Huelva represents Europe’s oldest confab dedicated exclusively to movies from Ibero-America: Spain, Latin America and Portugal, and a traditional launchpad for Latino filmmakers in Spain and Europe.

Over the years other festivals have been adding parallel sections of Latin American cinema, a symptom of its growing international relevance.

“Our...

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The Black Guelph, a powerful, if bleak, look at the plight of the Irish Travellers, Ireland’s indigenous ethnic population, and the legacy of generations of neglect and abuse by the Irish state and Catholic Church, has won the German Independence Award for best film at the 2022 Oldenburg International Film Festival, Germany’s leading indie film fest.

The film’s star, Graham Earley, also won Oldenburg’s best actor honor, the Seymour Cassel Award. Earley stars as Kanto, a small-time drug dealer trying to get off the streets of Dublin and reconnect with his mother of his young daughter, who is caught short by a visit from his long-absent father Cormac (Barry John Kinsella), an abuse survivor who returns home looking for forgiveness and reconciliation.

Best actress honors went to Cyndie Lundy for her starring performance as a pregnant woman who tries to...

iHeartMedia, the No. 1 podcast publisher globally according to Podtrac, today announced details for Sisters of the Underground -- the newest podcast from Eva Longoria and her UnbeliEVAble Entertainment’s exclusive slate of shows with iHeartMedia’s My Cultura Podcast Network, a network dedicated to elevating Latinx voices and stories -- launching August 31, 2022. Executive produced by celebrated actresses Eva Longoria and Dania Ramirez, who will also voice a character in the show, the 8-part scripted series tells the true story of the courageous Latina siblings, known as the Mirabal sisters, whose lifelong activism in the Dominican Republic and state-orchestrated assassination led to the downfall of one of the most brutal and enduring dictators of the 20th Century, Rafael Trujillo (aka El Jefe). Fans can listen to the official trailer for “Sisters of the Underground” now, here.

"I’m so excited for listeners to hear the incredible story of the Mirabal sisters...

Dania Ramirez (Sweet Tooth) has been tapped as the lead in Fox’s Alert, a character-driven police procedural from The Blacklist showrunner John Eisendrath and Jamie Foxx. Written by Eisendrath, Alert is a co-production between Sony Pictures Television, where Eisendrath is under an overall deal, and Fox Entertainment.

Alert is about the Lampu — the Los Angeles Police Department’s missing person’s unit. When police officer Nikki Parker’s (Ramirez) son goes missing, she joins the LAPD’s Missing Person’s Unit to help other people find their loved ones, even as she searches for her own. Six years later, her world is turned upside-down when her ex-husband, Devon Zoellner, shows up with a proof-of-life photo of their missing boy. Or is it? The series is a procedural drama with a search for a missing person in each episode, that runs alongside the overarching storyline of Nikki and Devon’s...

History, sadly, is filled with massacres, and other disastrous events in which one group of humans inflicts terrible violence upon another group, for reasons that - well, it doesn't matter why. They are called massacres for a reason. And a question lingers when trying to put such a horrific event to film: how do you portray this story? Do you find the macro or the micro in the tale? Do you focus on a single character or a multitude? Do you tell a real person's story, or find a fictional one within the larger historical context? For his eighth feature film, Dominican filmmaker José María Cabral tackles just such issues. Parsley (which won the Audience Feature Film Award) tells the harrowing story of the Parsley...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Closing in on one of the leading voices in Caribbean cinema, Sony Pictures Television has acquired from Latido Films Latin American rights to “Hotel Coppelia,” directed by Dominican filmmaker José María Cabral.

Produced by Santo Domingo-based Rafael Elías Muñoz at Lantica Media and Cabral’s outfit Tabula Rasa, “Hotel Coppelia” is a real events-inspired drama, set during the 1965 Revolution in Dominican Republic.

The story focus on a forlorn band of prostitutes, forced to pick sides when the American military invades and the soldiers hole up in their seaside brothel.

“It would be impossible to think of a better house to have ‘Hotel Coppelia’ seen in Latin America,” Latido Films CEO Antonio Saura told Variety about the Sony Pictures deal.

“The film deals with great intelligence with important issues of the history not only of the Dominican Republic but of all the region, but seen through the eyes of unexpected protagonists,...

The Santa Barbara Film Festival on Thursday revealed the lineup for its 37th edition, which is set to run March 2-12 in-person in its customary spot in the heat of Oscar season.

The festival will kick off with The Phantom of the Open, the Sony Pictures Classics comedy directed by Craig Roberts and starring Mark Rylance in the true story of Maurice Fitcroft, who entered the 1976 British Open despite never having played a round of golf before. Sally Hawkins and Rhys Ifans also star in the BBC Films pic.

The documentary Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over is the closing-night film, with Warwick set to be in attendance.

Overall, the festival in the beach city just north of Los Angeles will present 48 world premieres and 95 U.S. premieres from 54 countries, with a lineup that features films from directors Neil Labute, Ramin Bahrani, François Ozon, Eva Husson and more.

Also...

Boosting one of the key upcoming titles coming out of Latin America, renowned Haitian-American actor-producer Jimmy Jean-Louis, also an increasing driving force on the Latin American and African production scene, is coming on board to executive produce director José María Cabral’s historic drama “Parsley” (“Perejil”).

In parallel news, New York-based Visit Films is handling world sales rights on the feature, which is set during the 1937 Parsley Massacre, when Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the execution of Haitian families and Dominicans of Haitian descent on the country’s frontier with Haiti.

With Cabral in post-production on his next film, the Latido-sold “Hotel Coppelia,” again for Lantica Media, Visit Films will initiate a fall festival campaign for “Parsley.”

“Parsley’s” true-event background is shocking, and little known. “ ‘Parsley’ is a story about human tragedy where race takes the center stage and represents a part of history that needs to be told,...

The roads of revolution and the fight for democracy is drenched in blood. And often it's the blood of those who end up forgotten. While those on the front lines are necessary, often acts of heroism, whether intentional or not, come from those far (sometimes metaphorically) from those front lines, those who are simply trying to keep themselves and their loved ones alive, those whose names are long lost and forgotten. Award-winning filmmaker José María Cabral returns to tales of his native Dominican Republic, this time to the revolution of the 1960s, and the fight against American Imperialism. But rather than focus directly on the rebels, he instead turns his attention to those forgotten by history, mainly women. The hotel, set beside...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Bolstered by generous incentives that have sparked a production boom, Dominican filmmakers are exploring a diversity of genres, both mainstream and alternative.

Growing in equal measure are the ranks of below-the-line crew working on both local and international projects. Training programs abound for grips, lighting technicians, and so on. Pinewood Dr holds workshops in underwater filming as well as in production accounting, location management, Upm, production design and set construction, among others. More film workshops and courses have been introduced at universities or technical institutes, giving rise to a new generation that have studied at home.

“My generation had to go abroad to study film, this latest crop will have a new perspective,” says Andres Farias, an assistant director on such Dominican films as “Cocote” and “Carpinteros.”

He has taught his craft at the Chavon School of Design, which will transfer its campus to Santo Domingo by September, says its film studies director Tanya Valette,...

Suggesting there’s still traction in international markets, Latido has announced a raft of major territory sales on top Cannes titles, led by ”The Heist of the Century,” “Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles” and “Hotel Coppelia.”

Derails of the sales, closed in the long-run up to Cannes or in Cannes early days if trading, comes as Latido’s new Cannes title and A Demain Platform player “Virus 32,” a zombie breakout horror-thriller, is sparking large interest from international distributors e-attending Cannes after the spectacular success if Latido-sold “The Platform,” which Netflix stepped in promptly t acquire after its world-premiere at Toronto last year.

An Argentine blockbuster, notching up in January the fifth best opening weekend in Argentine history, Ariel Winograd’s true facts based bank robbery “The Heist of the Century,” starring Guillermo Francella, has closed Japan (Ak Company), Russia/Cis (Red Castle), the U.K. (Sky UK), South...

Earlier in the week, we finally learned which films would be selected by all of the countries in search of Academy Award love in Best International Feature. Not only did we get the answers to some questions regarding what each nation would pick, but we found that a record breaking 93 submissions have been made here in 2019. It’s truly the largest slate ever for voters to sift through. Talk about a good problem to have! Below you can see all of the titles in competition for the Best International Feature Oscar. Right now, only Parasite from South Korea and Pain and Glory from Spain seem like safe bets, with the former almost assured of winning the Academy Award. Aside from them? Anything goes in this category, which has potential nominees like Atlantics from Senegal, Beanpole from Russia, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind from the United Kingdom, The Chambermaid from Mexico,...

A record 93 countries submitted entries in the International Feature Film race at the 2020 Oscars. That is up by six from last year,when the category was still called Best Foreign-Language Film, and eclipses the record 92 submissions in 2018. The nations represented ranged from A (Albania) to V (Vietnam). Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees is made difficult by the two-step process.

First, the several hundred academy members of the Foreign-Language Film screening committee are required to watch a number of the submissions (upwards of a dozen) over a two-month period that ends in mid December. They will rate them from 6 to 10 and their top six vote-getters make it to the next round, as will three films added by the 20 members of the executive committee.

Those nine semi-finalists will be screened three per day beginning in early January by select committee members in Gotham, Hollywood, London and San Francisco. These 40 folks will...

Expanded shortlist of 10 films to be announced on December 16.

The Academy on Monday (7) confirmed that 93 countries have submitted films for consideration in the international feature film category for the 92nd Academy Awards.

Ghana, Nigeria and Uzbekistan are first-time entrants with Kwabena Gyansah’s Azali, Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, and Umid Khamdamov’s Hot Bread, respectively.

Earlier this year, the Academy board voted to rename the category formerly known as foreign language film, and expand the shortlist from nine to 10 films.

The shortlist will be announced on December 16. Nominations for the 92nd Oscars will be unveiled on January 13, 2020, and the Oscars...

A record-breaking total of 93 countries have submitted entries to be considered for best international film nominations at the Academy Awards.

The Academy announced the full list of eligible films and countries on Monday. Ghana, Nigeria and Uzbekisztan are competing for the first time in the category, which was previously known as the best foreign-language film category.

The previous high for submissions was 92 in 2017. A total of 87 films were submitted last year. Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” won the category this year, becoming the first Mexican entry to win the award.

High-profile entries include South Korea’s “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho’s black comedy which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival; Spain’s “Pain and Glory” from Pedro Almodovar with Antonio Banderas starring as a film director; Japan’s “Weathering With You,” the country’s first animated entry since “Princess Mononoke”; Senegal’s “Atlantics” from director Mati Diop,...

The 2020 foreign-language Oscar nominees will come from submissions from 93 countries, up from last year’s 87, and breaking the record 92 from 2017. A contender for the renamed Best International Feature must be a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes) produced outside the United States with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.

Ghana, Nigeria, and Uzbekistan are first-time entrants, but Uganda did not qualify. China (Yu Yang’s “Ne Zha”) and Senegal (Mati Diop’s “Atlantics”) submitted their films under the wire on the deadline of October 1.

Earlier this year, the Academy’s Board of Governors voted not only to rename the Foreign Language Film category, but to expand the shortlist from nine films to 10.

The 2019 submissions, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Albania, “The Delegation,” Bujar Alimani, director;

Algeria, “Papicha,” Mounia Meddour, director;

Argentina, “Heroic Losers,” Sebastián Borensztein, director;

Armenia, “Lengthy Night,” Edgar Baghdasaryan, director;

Australia, “Buoyancy,” Rodd Rathjen, director;

Austria, “Joy,...

The 2020 foreign-language Oscar nominees will come from submissions from 93 countries, up from last year’s 87, and breaking the record 92 from 2017. A contender for the renamed Best International Feature must be a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes) produced outside the United States with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.

Ghana, Nigeria, and Uzbekistan are first-time entrants, but Uganda did not qualify. China (Yu Yang’s “Ne Zha”) and Senegal (Mati Diop’s “Atlantics”) submitted their films under the wire on the deadline of October 1.

Earlier this year, the Academy’s Board of Governors voted not only to rename the Foreign Language Film category, but to expand the shortlist from nine films to 10.

The 2019 submissions, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Albania, “The Delegation,” Bujar Alimani, director;

Algeria, “Papicha,” Mounia Meddour, director;

Argentina, “Heroic Losers,” Sebastián Borensztein, director;

Armenia, “Lengthy Night,” Edgar Baghdasaryan, director;

Australia, “Buoyancy,” Rodd Rathjen, director;

Austria, “Joy,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the full list of countries that have submitted a pic for consideration for the new International Feature Film Oscar category.

Here are the 93 nations and their hopefuls, in alphabetical order:

Albania, The Delegation, Bujar Alimani, director;

Algeria, Papicha, Mounia Meddour, director;

Argentina, Heroic Losers, Sebastián Borensztein, director;

Armenia, Lengthy Night, Edgar Baghdasaryan, director;

Australia, Buoyancy, Rodd Rathjen, director;

Austria, Joy, Sudabeh Mortezai, director;

Bangladesh, Alpha, Nasiruddin Yousuff, director;

Belarus, Debut, Anastasiya Miroshnichenko, director;

Belgium, Our Mothers, César Díaz, director;

Bolivia, I Miss You, Rodrigo Bellott, director;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Son, Ines Tanovic, director;

Brazil, Invisible Life, Karim Aïnouz, director;

Bulgaria, Ága, Milko Lazarov, director;

Cambodia, In the Life of Music, Caylee So, Sok Visal, directors;

Canada, Antigone, Sophie Deraspe, director;

Chile, Spider, Andrés Wood, director;

China, Ne Zha, Yu Yang, director;

Colombia, Monos, Alejandro Landes, director;

Costa Rica, The Awakening of the Ants,...

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track, and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track, and can include animated and documentary features.

Madrid — Madrid’s Latido Films, one of the Spanish-speaking world’s top sales companies for arthouse and crossover films, acquired world sales rights to Dominican director José María Cabral’s in progress “Hotel Coppelia.”

The news comes as Latido has revealed a slew of sales on top titles. Their number suggests a larger depth to this year’s Cannes Film Market, allowing the company to push out two dozen or more deals in largely major territories.

“The Realm,” the latest feature from Oscar nominated Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“The Mother”) and Spanish Academy Award submission “Champions” lead many of the sales with “The Realm” going to Somos in the U.S., Impacto in Argentina, Vision in China, A-z Films in Canada and Cineplex in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.

Cabral’s “Hotel Coppelia” is based on the true stories of five women who, during the 1965 Dominican Civil War, made tremendous personal sacrifice to protect their own liberties.

Panama City — Fueled by one of the strongest film tax incentive schemes in the world – with a 100% break for national productions, 25% break for international productions, and 1.5% withholding tax – the Dominican Republic has seen a surge in film production since the new film law was enacted in 2010.

This phenomenon has been further leveraged by the creation of the Pinewood Dominican Republic Studios, operated by Lantica Media, as part of a partnership with the Pinewood Studios Group.

The favorable fiscal climate has attracted a rising number of English-language shoots including Netflix’s series “The I-Land,” the BBC-NBC three-part series “The Long Song,” and Barry Jenkins’ “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

The Dominican Republic’s film industry, with around 25 films produced per year and average budgets close to $1 million, stands out in the Central American and Caribbean region, where filmmakers are often forced to resort to guerrilla filmmaking techniques to get their films made.

Celluloid romanticism and 35mm nostalgia aren’t merely exploited to validate cinematic purism in Dominican director José María Cabral’s most accomplished feature to date, “The Projectionist,” which had its world premiere at the Miami International Film Festival. Instead, the tangible format is put at the service of a fiction that is cleverly intuitive about the narrative value of analog technology and conscious of the socioeconomic situation of its location.

Showing greater stylistic ambition, this substantially more mature work differs from Cabral’s previous drama, “Woodpeckers” (which screened at Sundance 2017), in that the filmmaker suppresses melodramatic outbursts, exchanging them for more symbolic and subdued character construction. Relationships in “The Projectionist” are not grounded on survival instincts, unlike in his last movie, about a prison love triangle. On the contrary, unresolved conflicts and ambiguous attractions take center stage.

Resourceful but lonesome Eliseo (actor-filmmaker Félix German) honors his late father’s laborious...

The gradual death of celluloid is wistfully mourned in the cine-manic thriller “The Projectionist,” and that’s before it takes on an altogether darker metaphoric resonance — as both physical and psychological projections are spliced in the mind of a lonely traveling cinema manager. The latest feature from prolific young Dominican writer-director José María Cabral — whose last film, “Woodpeckers,” competed at Sundance in 2017 — is his most ambitious and invitingly polished to date, doffing its cap to such intricate Av-based puzzles as “The Conversation” and “Blow Out” while working its own surprising brand of melodrama. Though the drama collapses a little in its cluttered final reels, this is still an inventive vision, carried by the crumpled soulfulness of leading man Felix Germán and vibrant, sweat-soaked visuals: Never has the richness of Kodak stock been more thematically vital to a film’s success.

“The Projectionist’s” cinephilic leanings and nifty genre gymnastics should...

German world sales company Media Luna has snagged international sales rights to Dominican helmer-scribe Jose Maria Cabral’s latest film, “The Projectionist.”

Cabral is best known for his 2017 acclaimed prison-set drama “Woodpeckers” (“Carpinteros”), the first Dominican film to compete at the Sundance Film Festival and the country’s official submission to the 90th Academy Awards’ foreign language film category. In 2012, Cabral’s kidnapping drama, “Checkmate,” represented the country at the Oscars.

Now in post, “The Projectionist” turns on a man who spends many lonely hours operating a projector. His only solace is a woman he sees on a film reel. After an accident with the projector destroys his only connection to her, he travels deep into the remotest and poorest parts of the Dominican Republic to find her.

“José María Cabral is confirming his talent with a maturity that is just impressive,” said Media Luna CEO Ida Martins who closed the deal in Cannes.

The final deadline for submitting each country’s film for consideration for the foreign-language Oscar was October 2. Last year 85 were finally deemed eligible by the Academy; this year the number is a record 92. Haiti, Honduras, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mozambique, Senegal and Syria are first-time entrants. These films are vying for the initial shortlist of 9, and final five nominations to be announced on January 23. See the final list below.

Read More:Oscar Announces Changes for Foreign-Film Voting: Now Simpler! (Sort Of.)

The frontrunners include Sweden selected Ruben Östlund’s hilarious Palme d’Or-winner “The Square” (October 27, Magnolia Pictures), an art-world satire shot in majority Swedish with some English from stars Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, and Dominic West, thus giving Östlund another shot after “Force Majeure” was a surprise 2015 Oscar omission.

Germany’s choice, Fatih Akin’s “In the Fade” (December 27, Magnolia Pictures), won Best Actress for Diane Kruger at Cannes.

The final deadline for submitting each country’s film for consideration for the foreign-language Oscar was October 2. Last year 85 were finally deemed eligible by the Academy; this year the number is a record 92. Haiti, Honduras, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mozambique, Senegal and Syria are first-time entrants. These films are vying for the initial shortlist of 9, and final five nominations to be announced on January 23. See the final list below.

Read More:Oscar Announces Changes for Foreign-Film Voting: Now Simpler! (Sort Of.)

The frontrunners include Sweden selected Ruben Östlund’s hilarious Palme d’Or-winner “The Square” (October 27, Magnolia Pictures), an art-world satire shot in majority Swedish with some English from stars Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, and Dominic West, thus giving Östlund another shot after “Force Majeure” was a surprise 2015 Oscar omission.

Germany’s choice, Fatih Akin’s “In the Fade” (December 27, Magnolia Pictures), won Best Actress for Diane Kruger at Cannes.

Ruben Ostlund’s Palme d’Or winner The Square is Sweden’s choice to represent it in the race for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. This is Ostlund’s third time at the rodeo for the Scandinavian country; his Involuntary was in the running in 2009 and he made the shortlist with 2014’s Force Majeure — before being shockingly omitted from the nominations.

When the filmmaker did not get a nom in 2015, he released a video that included what he called a “worst man-cry.” Today, he said, “I had a terrible experience last time. Watch the YouTube clip ‘Swedish director freaks out when he misses out on Oscar nomination’ and you’ll see what I mean. I really hope it’s less painful this time round.”

The Square stars Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss and Dominic West. The...

Why Sundance Goers, and Audiences at Every Festival, Should Embrace World Cinema Over Popular Main-Slate Titles“God’s Own Country”

Eager to brave the extreme amounts of snow piling on every sidewalk and road in Park City, scores of freezing, malnourished, and often overworked film journalists and industry professionals line up hours in advance in order to secure a satisfying seat to that star-studded, Oscar-friendly, English-language stunner people have been raving about at every party or bus top around town. It’s understandable, they are desperate to become conquerors and be the first to plant their flag on the year’s big discovery. Trendsetting is a currency that in film criticism, like in many other occupations, is vital to acquire a certain level of recognition and validation.

However, even though being able to predict the future and to see the merits of a film before the crowd has sunk their...

Exclusive: Dominican filmmaker José María Cabral, just off the Sundance debut of his film Carpinteros (Woodpeckers), has signed with Apa for agency representation. The pic, which Cabral wrote and directed, was one of the 12 films chosen to premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Shot in an actual jail with real inmates and prison guards, the film follows Julián (Jean Jean), who finds love and a reason for living in the last place imaginable: the Dominican…...

Dominican writer/director José María Cabral has made several feature films at the age of just 28. His latest, Woodpeckers (Carpinteros), tells a love story inside the Najayo Prison in the Dominican Republic. As he’s done on most of his features to date, Cabral served as the editor on Woodpeckers. Below, Cabral discusses the challenges of editing this film, which relies heavily on a form of prison sign language (or wood-pecking) for communication. Woodpeckers premiered in competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to […]...

January 19 Update: Heading into Park City’s opening night screening of An Inconvenient Sequel on Thursday, we take a look at a dozen acquisition titles likely to spark deals once the action gets underway.

The Sundance Film Festival will unveil 120 features over the course of ten days, setting the tone of Us independent cinema in 2017, unearthing international gems and launching several potential awards contenders.

While a certain number of films arrived with distribution already in place, others have sparked deals in the last few weeks (we’re thinking of you, Call Me By Your Name, Casting JonBenet, Berlin Syndrome and Long Strange Trip).

Then there are the acquisition titles. Sundance inevitably sparks a multitude of deals during and after the event and buyers expect modestly priced transactions in the $3-5m range. This has been a common refrain every year since 2008. Watch the numbers soar on a handful of titles.

What follows...

January 19 Update: Heading into Park City’s opening night screening of An Inconvenient Sequel on Thursday, we take a look at a dozen acquisition titles likely to spark deals once the action gets underway.

The Sundance Film Festival will unveil 120 features over the course of ten days, setting the tone of Us independent cinema in 2017, unearthing international gems and launching several potential awards contenders.

While a certain number of films arrived with distribution already in place, others have sparked deals in the last few weeks (we’re thinking of you, Call Me By Your Name, Casting JonBenet, Berlin Syndrome and Long Strange Trip).

Then there are the acquisition titles. Sundance inevitably sparks a multitude of deals during and after the event and buyers expect modestly priced transactions in the $3-5m range. This has been a common refrain every year since 2008. Watch the numbers soar on a handful of titles.

What follows...

Heading into Park City’s opening night screening of An Inconvenient Sequel on Thursday, we take a look at a dozen acquisition titles likely to spark deals once the action gets underway.

The Sundance Film Festival will unveil 120 features over the course of ten days, setting the tone of Us independent cinema in 2017, unearthing international gems and launching several potential awards contenders.

While a certain number of films arrived with distribution already in place, others have sparked deals in the last few weeks (we’re thinking of you, Call Me By Your Name, Casting JonBenet, Berlin Syndrome and Long Strange Trip).

Then there are the acquisition titles. Sundance inevitably sparks a multitude of deals during and after the event and buyers expect modestly priced transactions in the $3-5m range. This has been a common refrain every year since 2008. Watch the numbers soar on a handful of titles.

What follows is a list of 12 films we believe...

The Sundance Film Festival is soon approaching and that means many will be able to catch the first premieres of 2017. One of the films that will premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition is “Carpinteros (Woodpeckers),” about a young man who finds love in a Dominican Republic Prison. When Julián (Jean Jean) steps off the bus and becomes fresh meat in Najayo Prison, he didn’t know that he would become a Woodpecker, prisoners who romance ladies incarcerated at the women’s prison 150 meters across the way, or find the love of his life. But soon, he encounters Yanelly (Judith Rodriguez Perez) and must find a way to win her love, all while keeping it a secret and escaping the walls that trap his heart. Watch an exclusive trailer from the film below and check out the poster as well.

Read More: Sundance 2017 Announces Competition and Next Lineups, Including Returning...

The Guadalajara International Film Festival (Ficg) is taking part in the year’s first celebration of the seventh art—the Palm Springs International Film Festival—where it is slated to present the Cine Latino Award to the best Iberoamerican film screened at the 24th edition of the California festival, which will run from January 3rd to 14th, 2013.

The award is accompanied by a cash prize of Us$5,000 contributed by the Guadalajara International Film Festival and the University of Guadalajara Foundation/USA located in Los Angeles, California.

The Cine Latino Award highlights the enormous creativity of new talents in the world of Iberoamerican cinema, at the same time underlining the commitment of the Ficg and the University of Guadalajara Foundation/USA to the consolidation of culture and the arts in the region and to the wider interchange of ideas within a global context.

I will have the pleasure of being on the jury along with Juan Carlos Arciniegas (Ccn en Español), a journalist with an established career in the area of motion picture and entertainment criticism and analysis—and Iván Trujillo Bolio, director of the Guadalajara International Film Festival.

Listed below are the 22 films eligible for the award. They include some of the productions from Iberoamerican countries nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Foreign Language Film category of the 85th Academy Awards, to be held on February 24th, 2013.

7 Boxes (Paraguay), (Isa:Shoreline Entertainment)

Director: Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schémbori

After Lucia (Mexico), (Isa: Bac Films)

Director: Michel Franco

Beauty (Argentina), (Isa: Campo Cine)

Director: Daniela Seggiaro

Blancanieves (Spain/France) (Dreamcatchers)

Director: Pablo Berger

Checkmate (Dominican Republic)

Director: José María Cabral

Clandestine Childhood (Argentina/Brazil/Spain)

Director: Benjamín Ávil

The Cleaner (Peru) (Isa: Flamingo Films)

Director: Adrian Saba

The Clown (Brazil)

Director: Selton Mellobr

The Dead Man and Being Happy (Spain) (Isa: Udi)

Director: Javier Rebollo

Drought (Mexico) (Isa:imcine)

Director: Everardo González

The Girl (USA/Mexico) (Isa: Goldcrest Fims)

Director: David Riker

Here and There (Spain/USA/Mexico) (Isa: Alpha Violet)

Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza

La Playa D.C. (Colombia/Brazil/France) (Isa: Cineplex)

Director: Juan Andrés Arango García

Multiple Visions (The Crazy Machine) (Mexico/France/Spain)

Director: Emilio Maillé

The Passion of Michelangelo (Chile/France)

Director: Esteban Larraín

Sadourni’s Butterflies (Argentina)

Director: Darío Nardi

The Sleeping Voice (Spain) (Isa: The Match Factory)

Director: Benito Zambrano

The Snitch Cartel (Colombia)

Director: Carlos Moreno

Tabu (Portugal/Brazil/France/Germany)

Director: Miguel Gomes

The End (Spain)

Director: Jorge Torregrossa

Una Noche (Cuba/UK/USA)

Director: Lucy Mulloy

White Elephant (Argentina/Spain/France)

Director: Pablo Trapero

Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara.

Nebulosa 2916, Jardines del Bosque C.P. 44520 Guadalajara, Jal., México

Teléfonos: +52 (33) 3121-7461, 3122-7827, 3121-6860

Fax: 3121 7426

www.ficg.mx

Todos los derechos reservados ® Pficg | Patronato del Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara.

For the first time in Academy Award history, 71 countries are vying for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The submissions for 2012 include director Michael Haneke’s Amour, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival; France’s global box office sensation The Intouchables; and Nairobi Half Life, the first film ever submitted by Kenya. Check out the full list below:

Afghanistan: The Patience Stone, Atiq Rahimi, director

Albania: Pharmakon, Joni Shanaj, director

Algeria: Zabana!, Said Ould Khelifa, director

Argentina: Clandestine Childhood, Benjamín Ávila, director

Armenia: If Only Everyone, Natalia Belyauskene, director

Australia: Lore, Cate Shortland, director

Austria: Amour,...

The Oscar season is almost upon us, and the submissions list is in for the Best Foreign Language Film category, featuring a record 71 entries, including the first submission from Kenya.

Last year, Iran’s Asghar Farhadi came away with the top prize for his acclaimed film, A Separation, and the year before, it was Denmark’s Susanne Bier with her In a Better World.

This year, there are already a handful of strong contenders amongst the pack, most notably Michael Haneke’s Amour, for Austria, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes; Olivier Nakache’s and Éric Toledano’s The Intouchables, for France, which has been breaking records at the global box office; Pablo Larráin’s No, for Chile, which also came away from Cannes with an award in hand; Kim Ki-duk’s Pieta, for South Korea, which took four awards at Venice, including (controversially) the Golden Lion; and...

The Intouchables

A record 71 countries, including first-time entrant Kenya, have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 85th Academy Awards®. In May, Michael Haneke.s Amour (Love) won the Palme d.Or at the 65th Cannes Film Festival and was shown this past weekend at the 50th New York Film Festival. However the film I was happiest to see make the list below is from France – The Intouchables from directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano. Check out our review Here.

In the Academy’s rules, only one picture will be accepted from each country. Plus the Academy Statuette (Oscar) will be awarded to the motion picture and accepted by the director on behalf of the picture.s creative talents. Ultimately five foreign language motion pictures are nominated for this award.

Director/writer Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation from Iran won the Oscar for the Best...