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Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s Hot Milk, Ira Sachs’ Peter Hujar’s Day and James Griffiths’ The Ballad Of Wallis Island are among the 28 features programmed for the third edition of Malta’s Mediterrane Film Festival (June 21-29).

The festival has programmed 10 films in its main competition strand; with 12 out of competition titles; and six films in the environmentally-focused Mare Nostrum section.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

The festival will also present an honorary Golden Bee lifetime achievement award to UK producer Jeremy Thomas.

Thomas will participate in a masterclass conversation with Film London chief executive Adrian Wootton.

Other...

Animated works from Spain, Brazil and Uruguay topped the eighth Quirino Awards, the premier celebration of Ibero-American animation.

Spain’s David Baute scored best feature with his debut “Black Butterflies,” a migration-themed climate drama that has already won praise at Annecy, the Goyas and the Platino Awards. Brazil’s irreverent “Jorel’s Brother” clinched best series for its fifth season, while Uruguay’s Alfredo Soderguit took best short for “Capybaras,” an allegory of prejudice and friendship.

Known for his documentary background, Tenerife-born director Baute crafts a sweeping tale of three women from different corners of the world, each forced into migration by the climate crisis. The feature builds on Baute’s 2020 doc Climate Exodus and has already claimed prizes at the Goya and Platino Awards. Co-written with Yaiza Berrocal, “Black Butterflies” is produced by Spain’s Ikiru Films and Tinglado Film, in collaboration with Panama’s Anangu Grup.

Brazil’s beloved...

The 12th edition of the Madrid-hosted Platino Awards, honoring the highest in Ibero-American film and television, saw major wins for the Oscar-winning Brazilian film I’m Still Here, as well as director Walter Salles and star Fernanda Torres (who were not in attendance). The night also featured three accolades for Netflix’s Colombian serialized adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude, which took home best actor and supporting actor categories, as well as best television series overall.

Other notable winners included Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, which clinched the original score and cinematography categories.

The Platino Awards followed February’s Goya ceremony, which also saw wins for the aforementioned projects, in addition to other winners honored today, including El 47, La Infiltrada and Segundo Premio.

A standout from the evening was also Eva Longoria’s acceptance of the Platinum of Honor Award as an example of Latin excellence in Hollywood,...

I’m Still Here, the first Brazilian film to win the international feature film Oscar, added the Platino Award for best Ibero-American film to its trophy cabinet at the Platino Awards in Madrid on Sunday night.

Brazilian master Walter Salles earned best director and Oscar-nominated Golden Globe winner Fernanda Torres was named best actress as the film took top prizes at Ifema Municipal Palace.

The Brazilian and French (MacT Productions) co-production follows a mother’s struggle to support her family after her husband disappears during the Brazilian dictatorship in the 1970s. Goodfellas represents sales and Sony Pictures Classics distributed in the US,...

Walter Salles’ political drama “I’m Still Here” swept top honors at the 12th edition of the Premios Platino, Ibero-America’s most prominent awards event.

The Brazilian drama, winner of the Best International Feature Film Oscar this year, took home prizes for Best Iberoamerican Feature, Director for Salles and Actress for its Oscar-nominated lead, Fernanda Torres, at the glittering event held in Madrid.

On the television side, Netflix’s ambitious Colombian series “100 Years of Solitude” beat out another equally large-scale Netflix series, Brazil’s “Senna,” as well as O2 Filmes’ “City of God: The Fight Rages On” and Endemol Shine Boomdog-hbo Max’s lush “Like Water for Chocolate.”

“100 Years of Solitude” director Alex Garcia Lopez thanked Netflix VP of Content Paco Ramos and the company “for having the vision, the guts, the crazy idea of buying the rights to this book and giving all of us the opportunity to...

Walter Salles‘ I’m Still Here was the big winner at Madrid’s Platino Awards on Sunday night, honoring the best of Ibero-American film and television.

The Brazilian filmmaker took home the best director and best Ibero-American fiction film awards, while the Oscar-nominated Fernanda Torres won best actress for her performance.

Elsewhere, Daniel Fanego won the best supporting actor performance for Luis Ortega’s Kill the Jockey, and Clara Segura of El 47 won in the equivalent category for women. Eduard Fernández took home the best actor prize for his role in Marco.

There were also two wins for Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut, The Room Next Door, as Edu Grau and Alberto Iglesias won the best cinematography and best original score awards, respectively.

Eva Longoria, star of Desperate Housewives and Only Murders in the Building, picked up the prestigious Platino honorary award — past recipients of which include Benicio Del Toro,...

In a bid to grab the attention of younger audiences, the 13th Panama International Film Festival (Iff Panama) has included a mélange of comedies, thrillers, animation and genre pics amid the docs, dramas and arthouse fare in its program.

“We aim to engage and inspire younger generations to return to the cinema,” said Karla Quintero, who took over festival director duties last year from Iff Panama board president Pituka Ortega-Heilbron who has been focusing on her film projects.

To captivate them even more, outdoor screenings are free as always. The festival has a number of lauded animation pics this year, led by award-winning “Olivia & the Clouds,” “Ainbo – Spirit of the Amazon” and biopic “Hola, Frida!”

“El Brujo: Julio Zachrisson” by Panama’s Felix “Trillo” Guardia is an animated docu-feature world premiering at the fest while Luis Tosar rom-com “Samana Sunrise” is having its international premiere following its debut in...

The Quirino Awards, the prestigious trans-Atlantic ceremony recognizing excellence in Ibero-American animation, has officially unveiled its finalists for this year’s 8th edition.

With 26 nominated works across ten categories, this year’s competition highlights the creative strength of the Ibero-America’s animation industry. Spain, Brazil and Portugal have emerged as the frontrunners in nominations, setting the stage for a May 10th awards ceremony in the Spanish Canary Island co-capital of Tenerife.

Spain continues to dominate the competition, securing or sharing all nominations in the best feature film and best school short film categories. Meanwhile, Chile, Portugal and Argentina each boast two nominations in the best series, best short film, and best music video categories. Brazil leads in the technical categories, with five nominations across visual development, animation design, sound design and original music.

This year’s feature category includes “Buffalo Kids” – a high-grossing kids and family feature set in the...

The 39th Goya Awards, Spain’s equivalent to the Oscars, came down to a photo finish, with two films: Marcel Barrena’s true-life drama El 47, and the thriller Undercover from Arantxa Echevarría sharing the top prize for best film.

El 47, the story of the bus driver who helped create modern Barcelona, led the Goyas going into the event, which was held Saturday night in Granada, with 16 nominations. It ended up with five trophies, including both supporting acting honors for Salva Reina and Clara Segura. Carolina Yuste took the best actress for Undercover, where she plays a police officer who infiltrates the Eta terrorist group.

Eduard Fernández won best actor for his leading role in Aitor Arregi and Jon Garaño’s Marco, the true-life tale of Enric Marco, a Spanish trade unionist who falsely claimed to be a concentration camp survivor.

Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez won the best director for Saturn Return,...

Transatlantic distribution company Pink Parrot Media has acquired global rights to David Baute’s animated feature “Black Butterflies” following a successful summer festival run, which included an Annecy Contrechamp competition world premiere.

Pink Parrot is meeting with distributors around the world and has already closed a deal with Sideral Cinema in Spain, co-producers of this year’s Spanish Oscars submission “Saturn Returns.”

“Black Butterflies” will be released in Spanish theaters on Dec. 5 after getting its domestic premiere on Oct. 4 in the official selection at Sitges. Baute will attend the Catalan screening with screenwriter Yaiza Berrocal, composer Diego Navarro, production designer and animation director Pepe Sánchez and director of photography and art María Pulido.

Other upcoming festival appearances include Animasyros, DocsMx and the Manchester Animation Festival.

A 2D-animated climate change documentary, “Black Butterflies” is inspired by Baute’s live-action 2020 film “Climate Exodus.” The new film merges intimate and personal narratives from women climate refugees from Kenya,...

Patra Spanou Film has taken international sales rights to Johanné Gómez Terrero’s coming-of-age story “Sugar Island,” which makes its world premiere in Venice Days, an independent sidebar to the Venice Film Festival. The first trailer has been released (above).

In the film, an unplanned pregnancy pushes Makenya into adulthood, forcing her to prematurely take on responsibilities for her body and life, which stretches her limits and allows her to unlock new levels of understanding about the society she inhabits, as well as her spirituality.

In a statement, Gómez Terrero said: “When my teenage niece became pregnant as a result of statutory rape, I witnessed how her surroundings shamed her instead of supporting and protecting her. At that time, I was immersed in research in the Bateyes, the communities of sugarcane workers. I extrapolated this family situation to the context of the Bateyes, and realized how common early pregnancy is in peripheral areas.

Spanish Animation is ready for more international collaborations in the near future, but there is one stipulation: “Passion is mandatory,” said Hampa Studio’s Álvaro García González. Behind “The Treasure of Barracuda,” the company is currently eyeing Latin America.

“Anybody who makes animation needs passion. Otherwise, you would work in a different industry. We are a great country to co-produce with. Also because of very competitive prices, compared with the rest of Europe.”

Speaking at Annecy’s Animation from Spain: The Spanish Animation Industry in the Spotlight panel, González was accompanied by Daysi Cruz Cid of Morgana Studios, which joined forces with ReachStar and ReDefine Originals on upcoming Dominican Republic-set baseball pic “Diamante.”

“We care a lot about people and about culture. That’s why ‘Diamante’ was born. We wanted to give back to the Dominican Republic. It’s about passion, again, and the pursuit of happiness. We are proud...

David Baute’s searing animated climate crisis drama “Black Butterflies” (“Mariposas Negras”) bows to audiences at Annecy this week, competing in its Contrechamp strand alongside Isabel Herguera title “Sultana’s Dream.”

Based on Baute’s live-action inquiry, “Climate Exodus,” the film merges highly intimate and personal narratives from women across the globe forced to leave their homelands when natural forces render them uninhabitable. Baute and scriptwriter Yaiza Berrocal teamed with art director María Pulido (“Ámome”) and production designer and animation director José Sanchez Alonso (“Run Ozzy Run”) to dutifully curate the narrative and images.

“For nearly 10 years we’ve followed stories of forced emigration that occur worldwide due to climate issues. This work opened up many possibilities for us when conceiving the script. It was more a job of grooming than conceiving new sequences, we tried to incorporate those other layers that the film has, that make the viewer approach...

Twelve-time Grammy-winning Panamanian musician, actor and human rights activist Ruben Blades has provided an original song for the Spanish-Panamanian animated climate change movie “Black Butterflies” from director David Baute. The film will world premiere in the Contrechamp competition at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival.

Animated in 2D, and painstakingly researched by Baute, “Black Butterflies” is a timely feature about the real-world consequences of global warming as experienced by communities in the areas most impacted by the man-made phenomenon.

The film tells three separate but related stories about Lobuin, Vanesa and Soma, three women from very different parts of the world who face the same problem: climate change. The women and their families are condemned to lose everything because of the effects of climate change and are forced to emigrate to survive.

Explaining why the film was important to him, Blades said, “Climate change as a reason for human immigration...

Catalan animation is in a fantastic place and at this year’s Annecy Festival, the region will demonstrate its vitality to the whole world with an impressive lineup of films and projects selected in major sections.

Featuring in this year’s main competition lineup, Maria Trenor’s rock and roll musical “Rock Bottom” is a psychedelic trip inspired by the life and music of U.K. artist Robert Wyatt.

One of the most ­topical films to come out of Catalonia in recent years, “Black Butterflies,” is an animated documentary about three women from very different parts of the world whose lives are dramatically impacted by climate change. The film is directed by David Baute and produced by Ikiru Films, Televisió de Catalunya, Tinglado Film, Anangu Grup and Tunche Films.

Screening in this year’s non-competitive Annecy Presents section, “Buffalo Kids” is a CG family feature produced by Jordi Gasull’s...

Global animation has seen a significant uptick in the production and dissemination of titles produced for mature audiences. Catalonia is no exception, and the Spanish community’s adult animation industry is thriving as artists look to tell more mature stories with their work.

Several high-profile examples stand out at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival. Maria Trenor’s psychedelic musical “Rock Bottom” is world premiering in the festival’s main competition, and David Baute’s global warming documentary “Black Butterflies” is playing in the Contrechamp section. “The Doctor’s Wife,” a Catalonia-Portugal co-production, will feature in the festival’s Tribute to Portuguese Animation – A New Generation showcase.

Trenor’s “Rock Bottom” is produced by Catalan producer Alba Sotorra, who is recognized for her fearlessness in backing adventurous local productions made by women filmmakers, and often with international partners. In this case, she produces a psychedelic rotoscoped story inspired by the life and music of U.

Boosted by world-class incentives, Spain’s Canary Islands has attracted the shoots of some of the higher-profile movies on earth from “In the Heart of the Sea” to “Wonder Woman 1984” and “Eternals.”

Now, however, a homegrown Canary Islands cinema is bursting onto the scene, a Canary Island New Wave cinema lifting off, hitting festivals and making ever more insistent production news.

If a date can be attributed to the event, it may be March’s Malaga Film Festival.

Already playing Berlin’s Forum, Macu Machín’s “Undergrowth” won ZonaZine, Málaga Festival’s edgier main sidebar.

Two Canary Islands projects were pitched at the Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (Maff): Lucía Pérez’s Locarno hit “Ever & the Sharks” and Víctor Moreno’s anticipated fiction feature debut “The Outside.”

Malaga’s Spanish Screenings featured Canary Island production “I’m Gonna Disappear,” Coré Ruiz’s tale of two estranged brothers. Another Spanish Screenings title,...

Catalan films routinely punch above their weight at high-profile international festivals: Think 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs.” That trend looks primed to continue in 2024.

Catalan auteur Albert Serra will debut “Afternoons of Solitude,” co-produced by Catalan companies Andergraun Films and Lacima, with Ideale Audience and Tardes de Soledad.

A fall fest bet, “They Will Be Dust,” from Carlos Marqués- Marcet, is produced by Catalonia’s Lastor Media alongside Chile’s Alina Film and Kino Produzioni in Italy.

Few regions boast a lineup of female filmmakers as impressive as Catalonia. This year, new films from Goya Award winners Pilar Palomero (“Glimmers”) and Belén Funes (“The Turtles”) are strong contenders for festival recognition.

With the backing of Catalonia’s Minority Co-Production Fund, four international co-prods are poised to make a significant impact on this year’s festival circuit. Keep an eye out for Javier Rebollo’s “Close to the Sultan”, Calia Atan...

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 2024 edition, running from June 9 to 15. (scroll down for full list of titles and events)

Highlights announced on Thursday include Terry Gilliam as guest of honor to receive an Honorary Cristal and give a masterclass. He joins previously announced honorary guest Wes Anderson.

The main Competition and the Contrechamps sections will showcase 23 new animated features.

Features in the main competition include Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius’ first ever animated feature The Most Precious of Cargoes, which will also open the festival.

The drama follows the fate of baby boy who is thrown from an Auschwitz-bound train by his French-Jewish father. The picture will world premiere first in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Other Cannes films in Annecy’s main competition include Un Certain Regard selection Flow by Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis and Ghost Cat Anzu by Japan’s Yoko Kuno,...

The Most Precious of Cargoes, the first animated feature from Oscar-winning French director Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist), will open this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

The feature is a 2D animated adaptation of the best-selling book by French author Jean-Claude Grumberg. Set during World War II, it tells the story of a French Jewish family deported to Auschwitz. On the train to the death camp, in a desperate gesture, the father throws one of his baby twins out into the snow, where he’s discovered by a childless Polish couple living deep in the forest.

Hazanavicius presented the film as a work-in-progress at Annecy two years ago. French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant narrates the film with voice acting from Dominique Blanc, Denis Podalydès, and Grégory Gadebois. Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water) composed the score. Animation is from 3.0 Studio – formerly Prima Linea — the group behind the...

Macu Machín’s “The Undergrowth” (“La Hojarasca”) took home the top MiradaCanaria prize at the 17th MiradasDoc, which ran March 15-22 in Tenerife, Spain.

Produced by El Viaje Films, Machin’s debut feature has been picking up accolades since its world premiere at Berlinale’s Forum, snagging Best Spanish Picture and director at the Malaga Film Festival’s Zonazine, a sidebar for edgier and sometimes smaller pics.

The jury praised the doc for its “sensitive and evocative portrayal of three sisters and their deep bond of love for each other and their homeland.” In it, two elderly sisters join a third to hash out their shared inheritance of a plot of land as the rumble of an active volcano echoes close by.

Part of a burgeoning Canary Islands cinema, “The Undergrowth” explores questions of “identity, belonging, and the dynamics of the place where me and my family came from,” Machín told Variety.

Ikiru Films, Tinglado Film (“Ona”) and Anangu Grup (“Mummies”) are readying David Baute’s “Black Butterflies” (“Mariposas Negras”), an animated climate exodus film three years in the making that illustrates the journey of three women fleeing uninhabitable terrain towards new lives that prove far from welcoming. The trials and tribulations of each are relayed via 2D renderings.

“I’m thrilled to be producing David Baute’s “Black Butterflies” with Tinglado Film, Anangu Grup and Tunche Films. It’s a global tale necessary to relay, with the focus placed on people whose tragedies are largely unknown to our society,” asserted Ikiru Films founder, Edmon Roch.

Sharing an exclusive first look image with Variety, he adds, “The World Bank projects that climate change will drive 143 million people in Latin America, Africa, and South Asia alone to leave their homes by 2050. Most of them come from poor regions that have contributed little to global warming.

One of Europe’s first 2021 on-site festivals, held at Guía de Isora on the west coast of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, top Spanish doc festival MiradasDoc awarded its best film prize on Saturday to Argentina’s “Shady River,” directed and lensed by Tatiana Mazú González.

The 14th MiradasDoc’s festival awards were unveiled Saturday as its heads reported substantial growth in its MiradasDoc Market. That can be put down in part to the market’s online edition, which allowed many more decision-makers to view projects, hiking both one-to-one meetings and festival-sponsored prizes at the event, said David Baute, MiradasDoc artistic director.

Produced by Argentina’s Antes Muerto Cine, “Shady River,” Mazú González’s third feature, which took the Prix Georges de Beauregard at last year’s FIDMarseille, plumbs the collective misogyny of Patagonia’s mining towns where men are miners and women silent and legend still has it...

The Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival has announced the projects set to participate in this year’s digital Mifa Pitches, Territory Focus Pitching and brand-new Comics Mifa Pitches.

This year saw a record number of 631 project submissions, “But not at the expense of quality, which made the selection even more tricky!” Mifa head of projects Géraldine Baché told Variety. 38 were eventually selected to participate.

She added: “We felt the same about each of the categories: Creativity is definitely not lacking, and talents keep believing in their projects, doing their best to be different and innovative.”

Two recurrent themes among this year’s projects are women’s and environmental issues, often overlapping and helping define a very of-the-moment selection.

One of this year’s highest-profile titles is “Saba,” the next family feature from Maybe Movies, producers of 2009’s Oscar-nominated “Ernest & Celestine” and Annecy’s 2017 opening film “Zombillenium.” Maybe also participated...

Until Friday 7 February, Tenerife is playing host to the International Documentary Film Market, attended by a plethora of African, Latin American and European filmmakers. As part of the MiradasDoc festival, Guía de Isora (Tenerife) is hosting the MiradasDoc Market International Documentary Film Market, coordinated by David Baute. The event started on Monday 3 February and is set to unspool until 7 February. “It’s back after two trying years, consolidating its commitment to non-fiction film that’s being made in Africa and Latin America. Our responsibility to serve as a platform and a launch pad for projects that are starting to take their baby steps, and to provide distribution options to the ones that are already completed, remains paramount,” Baute stated. And so, this Friday will see the presentation of the ten projects selected from among the 120 that were submitted: the teams behind them will be able to show them...