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In this episode, we dive into the relationship between writing and editing. Soledad Salfate is a Chilean editor with a 25-year career and over thirty edited films. She began her career working with Alicia Scherson and Rodrigo Sepúlveda and later became a frequent collaborator of Sebastián Lelio, for whom she edited Navidad, Gloria and Una mujer fantástica, winner of the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.In addition to working with renowned Chilean directors like Fernando Guzzoni, Cristián Jiménez and Alejandro Fernández Almendras, her experience also includes projects from edited films from other Latam countries including Plaza Catedral, by Abner Benaim; Delirio, by Alexandra Latishev; Pedro Páramo, by Rodrigo Prieto, and Horizonte, by César Augusto Acevedo,—both of which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. On the other hand, Alejandra Márquez Abella is a Mexican director with fifteen years of experience in film and television. In 2015 she presented in...

Buenos Aires-based boutique sales outfit Compañía de Cine has acquired international rights to Mauro Colombo’s contemplative second feature, “Wild Gleaming Space,” (“Luminoso Espacio Salvaje”) ahead of its global bow on Wednesday at Toronto’s Hot Docs, which runs April 25 to May 5.

Shot in Panama, Chile, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium, the film weaves together intimate and resounding first-person accounts from its subjects and dynamic natural backdrops in an ambitious attempt to reach out and document the abstract confluence of life and death.

Parents in mourning, children with terminal illness, doctors and scientists and those who’ve experienced near death experiences are plumbed for their roving and mind-bending wisdom.

“‘Wild Gleaming Space’ explores uncharted territories in an intimate journey, delving into the complexities of death with a unique approach. Compañía de Cine was extremely impressed by the film’s visual treatment and Mauro’s handling of such a difficult subject matter.

Panama’s Abner Benaim, writer-director of Oscar shortlisted “Plaza Catedral,” and one of Central America’s most prominent filmmakers, has set its follow-up, “The Simple Life” (“La vida simple”), which will make its market debut at the 2024 Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (Maff) this March, one of the key co-production forums for Spanish-language art films.

Set up at Benaim’s Panama City label, Apertura Films, “The Simple Life” (“La Vida Simple”) and co-produced by Montevideo-based U Films or endemic juvenile violence among narrative features, or a Latin American icon, “Ruben Blades Is Not My Name” (2018) and Panama’s 1989 U.S. invasion among doc features or hybrids.

“Ruben Blades” “will definitely be related to the history of Latin America in the past 50 years,” Benaim told Variety while in prep.

In contrast, “The Simple Life,” is more related to the reality of Benaim himself. In it, a film director – envisaged as...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Mubi Podcast: Encuentros returns for a fourth season.The first episode features:Ilse Salas (Mexico), a film, TV, and theater actress who is internationally recognized for her leading role in Alejandra Márquez Abella's The Good Girls, a selection of the Toronto International Film Festival and a prizewinner in Malaga. Winner of the Ariel for Best Actress, and a two-time Platino Award nominee, Salas has worked with important Latin American directors such as Abner Benaim, Lucía Puenzo, and Alonso Ruizpalacios.Guillermo Calderón (Chile), a playwright with a deep political commitment and the screenwriter of some of his country's most important films from the last decade, such as Pablo Larraín's The Club (2015), Neruda (2016), and Ema (2019). These films' festival screenings include the Venice Film Festival, the Berlinale, and the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes. In this first episode, the hosts talk about theatricality as an expressive possibility that’s poorly explored in Latin American cinema.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is expanding its membership.

According to a press release, the organization that hands out Oscars each year at the Academy Awards has extended invitations to join the Academy to 398 artists and executives who have made notable contributions to the motion picture industry.

“The Academy is proud to welcome these artists and professionals into our membership. They represent extraordinary global talent across cinematic disciplines and have made a vital impact on the arts and sciences of motion pictures and on movie fans worldwide,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang in a joint statement.

Read More: The Academy Announces 2024 Oscars Date As Well As Submission Deadline

There are some big names and familiar faces among the invitees, including musicians Taylor Swift and David Byrne, and numerous actors, ranging from Selma Blair to Keke Palmer to “Elvis” Oscar nominee Austin Butler.

Exclusive: Oscar-shortlisted Panamanian filmmaker Abner Benaim (Plaza Catedral) is gearing up to direct a feature adaptation of Nemesis, the final bestseller by Philip Roth to be published prior to the famed author’s 2018 passing.

Dealing with such timely themes as an epidemic and antisemitism, Nemesis was described in The New Yorker as having “the elegance of a fable and the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama.” The novel published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in October of 2010 is set in the summer of 1944, examining the impact of a polio epidemic on a Newark, NJ community and its children.

Peter Glanz (The Longest Week) adapted the screenplay. Pablo Larraín, Juan de Dios Larraín and Andrew Hevia will produce for Fabula — the production company behind Foreign Language Oscar winner A Fantastic Woman, the Kristen Stewart starrer Spencer, and the upcoming drama Maria starring Angelina Jolie. Fernando Loureiro produces for Tigresa.

A truncated Panama Int’l Film Festival (Iff Panama) wrapped Dec. 4 on a high note, with the debut doc-feature “Nación de Titanes” by Panamanian Joaquín Horna Sosa snagging the Audience Award, a good indication of its box office potential.

One of only four Panamanian features in competition, “Nación de Titanes” follows six wrestlers during Panama’s golden age of wrestling during the ‘60s through the ‘80s. Doc-feature stars wrestlers Sandokan, Ricardo Díaz, El Greco, El Titán, Cronox II and Johnny González as it chronicles the ups and downs of their respective careers and digs into the origins of the sport.

The three-day festival had encouraging news from Culture Minister Giselle Gonzalez and Panama City Deputy Mayor Judy Meana who both pledged their continued support for the festival.

Pituka Ortega Heilbron, chair of the festival board and foundation, noted that the festival was operating at a fraction of its normal size...

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...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

by Nathaniel R

Panama is fairly new to the Oscar game. They've been submitting since 2014 and last year they got close to a nomination for the first time with a finalist spot for Abner Benaim's Plaza Catedral. This year they're submitting Cumpleañero (or Birthday Boy) starring Albi De Abreu. While we don't yet know what it's about (though those of you who know Spanish can see the trailer here) the Spanish-language poster (to the right) is very intriguing with its upside down solo figure in the waves above group joy and it's tagline "Suffering is not an option." This is the second submission for Panama from director Arturo Montenegro after the trans drama Everybody Changes (2019). He's now tied with Abner Benaim as the most often submitted Panamanian director.

Oscar predictions and submission charts here...

Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival will present its 39th annual edition from March 4-13, featuring a mix of in-theater and virtual presentations. With more than 120 films from 35 countries on display, ranging from features to documentaries to shorts, the event will be filled with premieres and special screenings and events.

“Last year we did the hybrid event, with reduced capacity and no parties and limited guests. But this year, we’re back to a normal festival,” says executive director and co-director of programming, Jaie Laplante. “Covid has helped us figure out what we value the most with the festival, and how we reach our ultimate mission, which is to connect art and artists with the audience.”

The festival opens with Fernando León de Aranoa’s Spanish comedy “The Good Boss,” and closes with Abner Benaim’s Panamanian drama “Plaza Catedral,” both films were shortlisted for the international film Oscar.

In a new series, Variety catches up with the directors of the films shortlisted for the International Feature Oscar to discuss their road to the awards, what they’ve learned so far, and what’s taken them off guard.

Two of Abner Benaim’s films, documentaries “Invasion” (2014) and “Ruben Blades Is Not My Name” (2018), were Panamanian entries to the Oscars, but his “Plaza Catedral” is the first time a film from the country has been shortlisted. The film, which portrays a violent society with a gulf between the rich and poor, won major awards at the Guadalajara and Panama film festivals. It follows a grief-stricken woman (Ilse Salas) whose life changes when a wounded teenage street kid (Fernando Xavier de Casta) shows up at her doorstep. Tragically, Xavier de Casta was shot dead months before the film’s premiere.

What does it mean to you to be shortlisted for the best international feature Oscar?...

Panama makes its debut on the International Feature Oscar shortlist with the character-driven thriller Plaza Catedral. This contender from Abner Benaim (Ruben Blades Is Not My Name) is a taut two-hander between a grieving mother and a young street hustler, with a sobering message about corruption and violence. Samuel Goldwyn Films recently acquired the title.

Alicia (Ilse Salas) is a well-heeled Mexican architect working in Panama, who moves into a swish new apartment in Plaza Catedral. A young teen known as “Chief” (Fernando Xavier De Casta) offers her “VIP parking” and she haggles wearily, assuring him she’s no “gringa.” Over the coming days, they develop a grudging understanding. When he shows up on the stairs of her building bleeding from a gunshot wound, she has a choice. Help the boy and risk her own safety, or turn a blind eye?

It’s a palpable moral dilemma in a city...

The Miami Film Festival has announced its opening and closing titles for its upcoming 39th edition.

The festival, which showcases works from filmmaker’s in the Ibero-American diaspora, will premiere and end with two films listed on the Oscar shortlist for international feature film. “The Good Boss” (El Buen Patrón), a comedy written and directed by Spain’s Fernando León de Aranoa, will open the festival, which will close with “Plaza Catedral,” the sophomore narrative feature of Panamanian director Abner Benaim.

“The Good Boss” stars Javier Bardem as Blanco, the owner of a family business up for consideration for a local award for business excellence. Determined to win the award, Blanco begins meddling in the lives of his employees, setting off a chain of events that leads to shocking repercussions. In Spain, the film was nominated for a record-breaking 20 Goya Awards, which will be held on Feb. 12. León de Aranoa...

Panama’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2022 Oscars, “Plaza Catedral,” tells the story of Alicia (Ilse Salas), a 42-year old grief-stricken woman who has become estranged from society. Her world is turned upside down when a 14-year-old boy named Chief (Fernando Xavier De Casta) stumbles into her house, bleeding. Abner Benaim wrote and directed the film and says he is honored to be selected to represent Panama for the first time on the Oscar shortlist. Watch the exclusive video interview above.

“I thought I was having a heart attack for a little bit,” Benaim recalls about hearing “Plaza Catedral” had been shortlisted for the Oscars. “It’s really good for the film. We were a very small film from a very small country and, like any independent film, just struggling to get some visibility. All of the sudden we have that visibility. We’re on the shortlist.

Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees for Best International Feature is made difficult by the three-step process that began after the November 1 deadline for countries to submit entries. To be part of the selection process for this category, which was called Best Foreign Language Film before 2020, requires a great deal of dedication. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2022 Oscar predictions for Best International Feature.)

First, the several hundred academy members of the International Feature screening committee were divided into groups and required to watch a minimum of 12 of the submissions over a six-week period that ended in mid December. They rated them from 6 to 10 and their top 15 vote-getters made it to the next round. That list of semi-finalists was revealed on December 21, 2021.

These 15 films are made available to the entire academy membership who can cast ballots for the final five nominees provided they attest to having watched all the entries.

Mexico’s Tatiana Huezo and Abner Benaim of Panama, whose respective dramas, “Prayers for the Stolen” and “Plaza Catedral,” made the coveted shortlist in the Oscars’ international feature category, have quite a few things in common. Both have mainly worked in documentary filmmaking, although in the case of Benaim, he made a hit comedy in 2009, “Chance,” before focusing on nonfiction films.

Neither are strangers to the Oscar experience. Benaim has represented Panama twice. With its first submission to the Oscars in 2014, an account of the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, “Invasion,” and in 2018 with “Ruben Blades Is Not My Name,” which gets up close and personal with the actor, multi-Grammy winner and activist who also served as minister of tourism and ran for president of Panama.

“Prayers for the Stolen” is Huezo’s first narrative feature and her second turn at representing Mexico, the first time was with her documentary...

If you wanted to name a winner from the Oscar international film shortlist right now, it would be the Cannes Film Festival. Nine of the 15 titles that made the cut came from the fest, even though the Palme d’Or winner, France’s submission “Titane,” did not. But then only those who were not paying attention to past trends in stage one voting assumed that it would be included.

Although a record 93 countries put forward an entry, only 15 are moving on. The ones selected for the shortlist come from almost every continent, although Africa, despite some exciting entries such as Somalia’s “The Gravedigger’s Wife,” Chad’s “Lingui: The Sacred Bonds” and Morocco’s “Casablanca Beats,” was ignored (all three titles premiered at Cannes).

Cannes players that are in the mix include Iran’s “A Hero,” helmed by previous Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi; Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World...

Drama premiered at Guadalajara, won lead actor awards.

Abner Benaim’s Panamanian drama Plaza Catedral has become the final 2022 Oscar shortlisted international feature contender to get US distribution following a North American deal with Samuel Goldwyn Films.

The film premiered at Guadalajara International Film Festival in October last year and won the Mexcal awards for best actress and best actor. It won the audience award at the International Film Festival of Panama in December.

Plaza Catedral centres on Alicia, a mother in mourning who lives an isolated life in the old quarter of Panama City when an injured teenager who...

Exclusive: Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired Plaza Catedral, the Oscar-shortlisted film from writer-director Abner Benaim, which looks to represent Panama at the 94th Academy Awards, in the category of Best International Feature. The company’s release plan has not yet been disclosed.

The drama centers on Alicia (Ilse Salas), a woman who had a perfect life before her 6-year-old son died in a tragic accident. Plagued by grief, she becomes estranged from society – until one night a street-smart 13-year-old boy named Chief (Fernando Xavier de Casta) arrives at her door bleeding from a gunshot wound, and begs her to let him inside.

Plaza Catedral made its world premiere at the Guadalajara International Film Festival, where it won the awards for both Best Actress and Best Actor. The film then went on to win the Audience Award for Best Film at the International Film Festival of Panama. Benaim produced it with...

Paolo Sorrentino, director of the 86th Academy Awards winner The Great Beauty, has his latest The Hand Of God (a Netflix release) shortlisted for the 94th Academy Awards Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

From Kosovo, Hive, Blerta Basholli director; Belgium, Playground, Laura Wandel director; Bhutan, Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom, Pawo Choyning Dorji director; Austria, Great Freedom, Sebastian Meise director; Germany, I’m Your Man, Maria Schrader director; Italy, The Hand Of God, Paolo Sorrentino director (also of the Oscar-winning The Great Beauty at the 86th Academy Awards); Japan, Drive My Car, Ryusuke Hamaguchi director; Panama, Plaza Catedral, Abner Benaim director; Norway, The Worst Person In The World, Joachim Trier director; Iran, A Hero, Asghar Farhadi director; Spain, The Good Boss, Fernando León de Aranoa director; Denmark, Flee, Jonas Poher Rasmussen director; Mexico, Prayers For The Stolen, Tatiana Huezo director; Finland, Compartment No. 6, Juho Kuosmanen director, and Iceland, Lamb, Valdimar Jóhannsson director...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today unveiled its shortlist of 15 films that will advance to the next stage of voting in the International Feature Film category at the Oscars. Notable among omissions is Julia Ducournau’s Titane, the entry from France which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or — becoming only the second movie directed by a woman to scoop that prize.

Elsewhere, there are no major shocks, though neither Costa Rica’s well-received Clara Sola nor Chad’s Lingui: The Sacred Bonds factor.

Overall, 12 of the movies on the shortlist are ones we recently put forth as strong contenders. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car from Japan made the roster today, and has picked up great momentum in the past few weeks, scoring overall Best Film honors from both the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Circle.

Other international...

The striking opening shot of Abner Benaim’s plangent drama “Plaza Catedral” induces slight vertigo. The camera rises on an elevator attached to the outside of a partially built skyscraper, looking out across Panama City’s high-rise apartment complexes, and eventually, at the bay beyond. It should be uplifting, but a chilly, murmured voiceover and the opening drone of Matthew Herbert’s rueful score, are like the rainclouds that edge the blue sky in foreboding gray. The view ascends, but it evokes a sinking feeling.

The voice belongs to Alicia, who introduces herself and speaks elliptically, in her emotionless, removed way, of a loss she has suffered in her recent past, that has put her at odds with the world around her. She is an architect by training but a salesperson for an upscale property developer by profession, hence her visit to this half-finished penthouse, with the young family who are thinking of buying it.

Latin America has submitted 15 contenders in the Academy Awards’ international feature category this time, not quite as big a haul as last year’s tally of 18.

Leading the hopefuls is Mexico’s “Prayers for the Stolen,” the fiction debut of Tatiana Huezo, one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch in 2022. Her tale follows three girls as they come of age in a remote village afflicted by the drug trade and human trafficking. The Cannes Un Certain Regard winner is now streaming on Netflix, which is putting all its promotional heft behind it. The film’s producers are Jim Stark (“Coffee and Cigarettes”) and Nicolas Celis, the latter a key producer of Mexico’s first-ever international feature Oscar winner, “Roma,” by Alfonso Cuarón.

Huezo’s 2016 documentary, “Tempestad,” represented Mexico at the 90th Academy Awards. Since 1957, when Mexico started participating in the Oscars, 10 of its entries have been nominated, culminating in “Roma’s” win in 2019.

Chile,...

The first screenings in the programme are the Oscar entries for Luxembourg, Ukraine, Panama, Netherlands and Algeria.

Screen International is hosting a series of online screenings, focused on - but not limited to - the international feature awards race.

This initiative is designed to enable each country to organise an event around their submission.

Sign up for the screenings here

For the second year, Screen is partnering with Archipel Market, a film market platform powered by Cascade8, enabling industry professionals to interact and replicate film market activities online, all year round.

Find out more about the titles below:

Hong Kong:...

The 10th Panama Int’l Film Festival wrapped Sunday, Dec. 5 with Michel Franco’s Acapulco-set drama “Sundown” closing the event.

Winners of the rough-cut sidebar Primera Mirada were announced at closing night, which took place at festival venue, La Manzana de Santa Ana. Costa Rican entries took home the top prizes this year, indicative of the tiny Central American nation’s outsized filmmaking talent.

The Primera Mirada jury, led by Diana Sánchez, Marcelo Quesada and Paula Gastaud, bestowed the top prize to Costa Rican supernatural drama “Domingo and the Mist” by Ariel Escalante who took home the $10,000 cash prize; Mauricio Morales of El Salvador won the second cash prize of $5,000 for his docu “Milo, Breaking Frontiers.”

“I’m enormously thankful to Iff Panama for having not only supported ‘Domingo and the Mist,’ both in Primera Mirada as well as in the Panama Film Match a year and a half ago,...

Throughout the pandemic that has ravaged Central America, the region’s most prominent film event, the Panama International Film Festival (Iff Panama), has forged on virtually in its continued bid to bolster local projects and talent.

To mark its 10th anniversary this year, a smaller hybrid edition kicks off on Dec. 3 with “Plaza Catedral,” Panama’s submission to the Oscars, and wraps Dec. 5 with Michel Franco’s “Sundown,” starring Tim Roth, which competed for the Golden Lion at Venice.

“We couldn’t pass up celebrating our 10th anniversary, even if it were on a smaller scale this year,” said festival director Pituka Ortega Heilbron, who cites encouragement from the international and local industry as key reasons to push onward, notwithstanding the setbacks from the pandemic.

“We’re still very much in the mind of the industry, especially Central America,” she asserted, pointing out that two films spawned by the festival’s rough cuts sidebar,...

The first screenings in the programme are the Oscar entries for Luxembourg, Ukraine, Panama, Netherlands and Algeria.

Screen International is hosting an exclusive series of online screenings focused on the international feature awards race.

This initiative is designed to enable each country to organise an event around their submission.

The first screenings in the programme are the Oscar entries for Luxembourg (Io Sto Bene), Ukraine (Bad Roads), Panama (Plaza Catedral), Netherlands (Do not Hesitate) and Algeria (Heliopolis). More titles will be added during this year’s awards season.

Sign up for the screenings here

For the second year, Screen is partnering with Archipel Market,...

In a ceremony marked by laughter, tears, a lot of hugs and a celebration of a return to watching films al vivo, the 36th Guadalajara International Film Festival (Ficg) came to a close with the presentation of a long list of prizes to some of Latin America’s top filmmakers, many whose names are well-known in Mexico and across the region and many whose names will, no doubt, be well-known in the future.

In a contradiction fit for the movies, Rodrigo Guardiola and Gabriel Nuncio’s “The Comedian,” a film all about failure, took top honors as this year’s best Mexican film in competition with cinematographer Mario Secco scooping the best cinematography prize for his work on the film.

“It’s wonderful that this movie exists,” said Nuncio at the ceremony. “The truth is, I got to work with very talented people on this movie and I think that...

Elie Samaha’s Luminosity Entertainment and Mike Karz’s Gulfstream Pictures have snagged the worldwide rights to Abner Benaim’s dramatic thriller, “Plaza Catedral.”

The deal, forged by Luminosity partner and co-president Daniel Diamond and Karz, closed just ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (Ficg) on Oct. 3. “Plaza Catedral” is in competition at Ficg’s main category, the Mezcal Awards.

“Plaza Catedral is a very powerful, moving film with superb performances and outstanding direction by Benaim. We are proud to be a part of bringing this film to worldwide audiences,” said Diamond.

This is the first non-English pickup by Luminosity, which was launched in September. “I haven’t represented many, if any, non English-language films but audiences in the U.S. and around the world are demonstrating their interest in content of all nationalities and languages, as evidenced by the success of shows like ‘Lupin,...

Attempting to guess the less than a dozen titles in Sundance’s World Dramatic comp section is a true crapshoot but seeing that Panamanian filmmaker Abner Benaim‘s last picture Ruben Blades Is Not My Name had it’s world premiere at Sundance’s competing festival SXSW means they are keeping tabs on this project. Benaim signed up the very choosey cinematographer Lorenzo Hagerman (Amat Escalante’s Heli and Rick Alverson’s last two features) and by enlisting the excellent Ilse Salas (featured in The Good Girls – check out our portrait of her in our TIFF studio) he assures that there’ll be interest for all Spanish speaking film territories and beyond. …...

The Panama Intl. Film Festival, (Iff Panama) the highest-profile film event in Central America, is using online tools to develop existing and new initiatives.

In one move, it has just completed its pix-in-post competition Primera Mirada, its new Su Mirada sidebar for women filmmakers from the region, and is now launching a new Virtual Co-Production Forum – the Panama Film Match – and a streamlined five-day online festival.

All initiatives are sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank.

Iff Panama was initially slated to run from March 26 to April 1, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Undeterred, the festival has used online tools to maintain its crucial role in supporting new projects from the region.

Launched in 2015, Primera Mirada has served as an important springboard for projects from the region, providing vital post-production funding.

This year’s $10,000 first prize went to Dominican Republic revenge thriller “Rafaela,” by Tito Rodríguez (“Una fiesta inolvidable...

Alexander Abaturov’s “Paradise,” Lola Arias’ “Reas” and Yosep Anggi Noen’s “Voice of Baceprot” figure among 15 documentary features set to be pitched over April 27-28 at the 51st Pitching du Réel.

A co-production forum for creative documentaries, the Pitching is an industry centerpiece at Visions du Réel, one of Europe’s most prestigious documentary festivals.

These titles are joined by 12 others in a lineup which boasts well-known filmmakers, for example, Egypt’s Mohamed Siam, whose “Amal” opened 2017’s Idfa, Argentina’s Gaston Solnicki, director of Venice Horizons player “Kékszakállú, and Nelson Carlo de lo Santos, a Locarno Golden Leopard winner with “Cocote.”

It also takes in an extraordinary range of countries of origen led by France, with three titles in the section, and Switzerland, Argentina and Lebanon with a couple but including 18 territories, marked by a strong Middle East showing with further productions from Egypt, Syria and Quatar.

Projects...

Panama’s internationally best-known helmer, Abner Benaim (“Ruben Blades Is Not My Name”) has just completed the shoot for his second fiction feature film, “Plaza Catedral,” starring Mexico’s Ilse Salas (“The Good Girls”), and Manolo Cardona (“Narcos”).

Salas plays a 42-year old grief-stricken woman, Alicia, who has severed her ties with married life and society. Her life is turned upside down when a 14-year old boy, “Chief,” who looks after people’s cars, comes bleeding into her house.

The boy is played by first time actor, Fernando de Casta, who was chosen from over 250 kids who came in for open casting in the same neighborhoods in Panama´s old town where the film’s plot takes place.

“What started out as a very small production quickly turned into medium-size, and sometimes large for Latin American standards,” explained Benaim.

“We had a very demanding schedule, many locations, and Panama’s tropical weather to deal with.

Amazon’s upcoming series about Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II has made some high-profile additions to its creative team.

Actors Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna have come onboard the series as executive producers, while Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego are now attached to direct all four episodes of the series. Production designer Eugenio Caballero, an Oscar winner for his work on “Pan’s Labyrinth,” has also joined the production along with costume designer Anna Terrazas and casting director Luis Rosales. Caballero, Terrazas, and Rosales all previously worked together on the Oscar-winning film “Roma.” The Mexican production will be overseen by Stacy Perskie and local production company Redrum.

The untitled limited series was announced last year, with Javier Bardem attached to star as Cortés. Steven Zaillian is writing the series based on the screenplay by Dalton Trumbo. Zaillian and Bardem will executive produce along with Bernal,...

Panama’s internationally best-known helmer, Abner Benaim (“Ruben Blades Is Not My Name”) has moved into pre-production on his second fiction feature film, “Plaza Catedral,” which is set to star Mexico’s Ilse Salas, who has just won Mexican Academy’s Ariel Award for best actress for her performance in Alejandra Marquez’s Toronto hit “The Good Girls.”

Salas has also starred in both movies to date from Alonso Ruizpalacios, with Marquéz Mexico’s fasting-rising new director, whose “Museum”proved a standout at the Berlin and Toronto Festivals last year.

“Plaza Catedral” is scheduled to begin its six-week shoot in Panama City in August. In it, Salas plays a 42 year old grief-stricken woman who has severed her ties with married life and society.

“This complex, melancholy character finds herself in the tropical paradise that Panamá pretends to be, with its primary colors and a society obsessed with economic success and having a good time,...

Panama City — Prior to the launch of Iff Panama in 2012, Panama’s film production was virtually non-existent. With the aid of the festival, the national film fund, and impetus created by an influx of foreign shoots, local productions have secured an increasingly important role at the domestic box office.

Several projects now enjoy multi-territory releases – such as Abner Benaim’s “Ruben Blades Is Not My Name” and Arturo Montenegro’s “Frozen in Russia,” both released in 2018.

Iff Panama has increased visibility for local films and helped local helmers set their sights on the international market.

Seven Panamanian films are screening at the 8th Iff Panama; other promising projects are in production or pre-production.

All projects explore the complex, multi-faceted dimensions of Panamanian culture, ranging from tropical rainforests and indigenous tribes to the legacy of decades of U.S. presence.

Miguel González’s half-hour documentary, “The Fourth Estate,” turns on corruption...

Panama City — The 8th Iff Panama has further reinforced its industry dimension, with a record number of submissions to the Primera Mirada pix-in-post sidebar and more sales agents and festival programmers attending the event, which this year includes the Locarno Industry Academy and a new Fipresci Award for the 12-pic Stories from Central America and the Caribbean competition.

2019 boasts a record number of guests and, according to the organizers, advance ticket sales are higher than ever.

23 films were submitted to Primera Mirada, covering different genres from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Panama.

“The selection is powerful and has strong voices,” says Karla Quintero, co-ordinator of Iff Panama’s Industry and Educational Programs. “The films have a consolidated discourse and pay testimony to incredibly sensitive filmmakers in whose films the region’s identity definitely shines through.

She added: “These are exactly the voices this award is meant to amplify and empower.

Madrid — After years of marked box-office growth, Central American box office dipped 5.6% in 2018, from $144.34 million in 2017, to $136.3 million last year – which is nonetheless almost 50% higher than the regional box office recorded in 2012, according to comScore figures.

Honduras bucked the trend, with 8.5% growth, whereas the biggest drop was recorded in one of the smallest markets – Nicaragua – with a 34.5% fall.

Notwithstanding the dip in admissions, 56 new screens in 14 theaters opened in 2018, headed by Guatemala which bowed 25 new screens at six sites, followed by Costa Rica with 13 new screens, Panama with seven, Honduras with six and El Salvador with one.

Having emerged from decades of instability and war, Central America has prospered in recent years with low inflation rates, rising prosperity, and an increasingly stable middle class, which has fueled cinema-going habits. Nonetheless, box office revenues plateaued in 2017 and the dip in admissions in 2018 places a question mark for the future.

According to Luis Vargas,...

As was widely anticipated, Alfonso Cuaron’s triple Oscar-winning “Roma” dominated the 6th Premios Platino nominations, unveiled Thursday at Hollywood’s legendary Roosevelt Hotel, the site of the very first Oscars. It snagged a total of nine nominations, including best film, director, art direction, cinematography, and acting for its two Oscar-nominated actresses, Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira.

“Roma,” which won Mexico’s first best foreign-language film Oscar, is up against pics that were also submitted for their respective countries in the Academy Awards’ foreign-language category: Colombia’s “Pajaros de Verano,” Uruguay’s “La Noche de 12 Años,” and Spain’s “Campeones.” The first two titles nabbed six Premios Platino noms each while “Campeones” took five. Paraguay’s Oscar submission “Las Herederas” took five nominations.

The ceremony streamed live on Facebook with Premios Platino ambassador and CNN Español journalist Juan Carlos Arciniegas hosting the event alongside actors Joaquin Cosio, Angie Cepeda,...

Belize City, Belize – Mexican films and shorts dominated the winners of the 13th Belize Intl. Film Festival on Sunday in a brisk closing ceremony punctuated by pulsing reggae music performances by the likes of Ras Indio & Boss Lady, Ernestine Carballo and Jah Art.

The event was broadcast live on local television station, Channel 5.

“Guerrero,” Ludovic Bonleux’s harrowing documentary about the disappearance of 43 students and the protests that paralyzed the Mexican state, won best film in the festival’s Collective Memories section.

“You wouldn’t know it, but it’s a feel-good musical,” quipped juror Dan Mirvish, co-founder of Slamdance, who presented the award.

Mexican short films also beat out other contenders from the region with Toronto-based multihyphenate-juror Nicole Brooks – who showed off her prodigious dancing skills to kick off the event – giving out the best short prizes.

Mexican short “The Good Man” (“El Hombre Bueno”) by Jose Luis Solis,...

Ever since 2009 when two Latin American films, Argentine winner “The Secret in Their Eyes” and Peru’s “The Milk of Sorrow,” were shortlisted for the foreign-language film Oscar, roughly every other year a Latino movie has secured a nom in that category.

However, only three pics since the 1940s have brought home the top prize, as Chile’s “A Fantastic Woman” did earlier this year, preceded by Argentina with “The Secret in Their Eyes” in 2009 and “The Official Story” in 1985.

But the region’s native sons have done better in other categories. In recent years, a Mexican director has won the Academy Award for direction and snagged a best picture win or nomination for his film. Alfonso Cuaron won multiple Oscars for “Gravity” in 2014, followed by Alejandro G. Inarritu, who triumphed in 2015 and 2016 and Guillermo del Toro for “The Shape of Water” in March.

Cuaron’s evocative black-and-white opus “Roma...

First-time submissions come from Malawi and Niger as Austrlia and New Zealand join the list.

Eighty-seven countries have submitted films for this year’s foreign language film Oscar, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has revealed - a drop from the record 92 that submitted last year.

Countries submitting films in the category for the first time include Malawi - which has entered Shemu Joyah’s The Road to Sunrise - and Niger, whose submission is Rahmatou Keïta’s The Wedding Ring.

Submissions that had not previously been confirmed include Australian entry Jirga, from director Benjamin Gilmour, and New Zealand contender Yellow Is Forbidden,...

First-time submissions come from Malawi and Niger as Austrlia and New Zealand join the list.

Eighty-seven countries have submitted films for this year’s foreign language film Oscar, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has revealed, a drop from the record 92 that submitted last year.

Countries submitting films in the category for the first time include Malawi, which has entered Shemu Joyah’s The Road to Sunrise, and Niger, whose submission is Rahmatou Keïta’s The Wedding Ring.

Submissions that had not previously been confirmed include Australian entry Jirga, from director Benjamin Gilmour, and New Zealand contender Yellow Is Forbidden,...

First-time submissions come from Malawi and Niger as Austrlia and New Zealand join the list.

Eighty-seven countries have submitted films for this year’s foreign language film Oscar, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has revealed, a drop from the record 92 that submitted last year.

Countries submitting films in the category for the first time include Malawi, which has entered Shemu Joyah’s The Road to Sunrise, and Niger, whose submission is Rahmatou Keïta’s The Wedding Ring.

Submissions that had not previously been confirmed include Australian entry Jirga, from director Benjamin Gilmour, and New Zealand contender Yellow Is Forbidden,...

Eighty-seven countries have submitted films for consideration in the foreign language category for the 91st Academy Awards.

Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 22 and the ceremony will be held on Feb. 24 at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre. Malawi and Niger are first-time entrants. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made the announcement on Monday.

High-profile titles include Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” the Mexican entry; Denmark’s “The Guilty”; Germany’s “Never Look Away,” from previous Oscar winner Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters,” the Japanese entry that won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival; Nadine Labaki’s “Capernaum,” the Cannes jury prize winner from Lebanon; and Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War,” the Cannes best director prize winner from Poland.

The 2018 submissions are:

Afghanistan, “Rona Azim’s Mother,” Jamshid Mahmoudi, director;

Algeria, “Until the End of Time,” Yasmine Chouikh, director;

Argentina, “El Ángel,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the official list of submissions for the 2019 Oscar for best foreign language film. There are 87 countries vying for the prize this awards season, including first-time entrants Malawi and Niger. Included among the titles are high-profile contenders such as Mexico’s “Roma” and Poland’s “Cold War,” both of which are vying to break out of the foreign race and earn nominations for best picture, best director, and more.

Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2019. The 91st Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 24, 2019. Click here to view predictions for the foreign language Oscar race from IndieWire’s awards editor Anne Thompson.

2018 Foreign Oscar Submissions

Afghanistan, “Rona Azim’s Mother,” Jamshid Mahmoudi, director

Algeria, “Until the End of Time,” Yasmine Chouikh, director

Argentina, “El Ángel,” Luis Ortega, director

Armenia, “Spitak,” Alexander Kott, director

Australia, “Jirga,...