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The Annecy International Animation Film Market (MIFA) will host the Namaste MIFA! India’s Partner Pitch event on June 11, featuring six animation projects from eight Indian creators during the festival’s 40th anniversary celebration.

The curated pitching session is organized by India’s AniMela Festival.

The showcase presents a diverse slate of contemporary Indian animation projects spanning multiple formats and genres. Featured works include “Work in Progress,” a 70-minute animated documentary directed by Subarna Dash and Sneha Das that follows young urban Indian women navigating womanhood in their mid-late 20s through six chapters of “hilarious, relatable, and sometimes awkward stories.”

Among the short films is “My First Kiss,” a 15-minute social and emotional drama by director Shrobontika Dasgupta that addresses child sexual abuse through the story of Little Rani and her imaginary friend Mr. Chicken. The film aims to “evoke conversations around good touch and bad touch in every household through a personal story.

The 37th European Film Awards, which take place annually in the lakeside Swiss city of Lucerne, have unveiled their nominations for 2024. Unsurprisingly, the list is led by French director Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language cartel musical “Emilia Pérez” with four nominations including European Film and Best Actress for Karla Sofia Gascón. Surprisingly, Audiard, previously a five-time Efa nominee, has never won a prize from the European Film Academy, which boasts more than 5,000 members across the continent. Getting a boost is Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iranian family thriller “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” with three nominations including European Film. It’s Germany’s submission for the International Feature Oscar this year due to its dominantly European production despite filming in secret in banished director Rasoulof’s home country.

European Film Award staple Pedro Almodóvar’s Venice Golden Lion winner “The Room Next Door” notched four noms including European Film, Director, Actress for Tilda Swinton,...

Jacques Audiard‘s “Emilia Pérez” and Pedro Almodóvar‘s “The Room Next Door” topped Tuesday’s 37th European Film Awards nominations with four apiece.

Both are up for Best European Film, Best European Director, and Best European Screenwriter prizes, while their leads, Karla Sofía Gascón in “Emilia Pérez” and Tilda Swinton in “The Room Next Door,” will face off in Best European Actress.

Mohammad Rasoulof‘s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” nabbed three nominations for film, director, and screenwriter. Coralie Fargeat‘s word-of-mouth hit “The Substance” scored two bids for film and screenwriter honors.

For the first time, films nominated for Best European Documentary and Best Animated Feature Film are eligible in the Best European Film category, leading to an expanded list of 15 nominees. Also making the cut for the top prize are Italy’s Oscar entry “Vermiglio,” Senegal’s entry “Dahomey,” and Latvia’s entry and animated film “Flow.

The nominees for this year’s European Film Awards have been unveiled, with “Emilia Pérez,” “The Substance” and “The Room Next Door” all up for best European film.

Movies also in the running for the ceremony’s top award — which was expanded this year to documentaries and animated features — include Lina Soualem’s “Bye Bye Tiberias”; Mati Diop’s “Dahomey”; Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow”; Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra and Hamdan Balla’s “No Other Land”; Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”; and Maura Delpero’s “Vermiglio.”

“Emilia Pérez” and “The Substance” lead the nominees overall, with each film scoring four respective nominations. The winners will be revealed during an awards ceremony on Dec. 7 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

See all the nominees below.

European Film

“Bye Bye Tiberias” — documentary film, directed by Lina Soualem, produced by Jean-Marie Nizan, Guillaume Malandrin and Ossama Bawardi

“Dahomey” — documentary film, directed by Mati Diop,...

The Substance by Coralie Fargeat, Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard, The Room Next Door by Pedro Almodóvar, and The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof are among the nominees for the 2024 European Film Awards (EFAs), organizers unveiled on Tuesday.

Emilia Pérez and The Room Next Door earned four noms each, including for best European film and best director. Sacred Fig is up for the best film, best director, and best screenwriter prizes. The Substance is in the running for the best film and best screenwriter honors.

In the best actress race, Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón faces Renate Reinsve, Tilda Swinton for her role in The Room Next Door, and The Girl With the Needle actresses Trine Dyrholm and Vic Carmen Sonne. For The Girl With the Needle, Magnus von Horn and Line Langebek are also nominated in the best screenwriter category.

Queer star Daniel Craig and...

The European Film Academy has announced the nominees in key categories of the 37th European Film Awards ahead of the ceremony in the Swiss lakeside city of Lucerne on December 7.

French Oscar entry Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard and The Room Next Door by Pedro Almodovar lead the nominations making it into four categories each. Both films were nominated for best European film, director and screenplay as well as actress, for Karla Sofia Gascón in Emilia Pérez and Tilda Swinton in The Room Next Door.

Other frontrunners included Germany’s Oscar entry The Seed of the Sacred Fig by exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, which was nominated for best film, director and screenplay.

A slew of films clinched two nominations including Maura Delpero’s Italian Oscar entry Vermiglio, Halfdan Ullmann Tondel’s Norwegian Oscar entry Armand as well as Andrea Arnold’s Bird and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance.

For the first time this year,...

The European Film Academy has revealed the nominations in the animated feature film category of the European Film Awards.

The nominated films are Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow,” Kristina Dufková’s “Living Large,” Claude Barras’

“Savages,” Isabel Herguera’s “Sultana’s Dream,” and Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s “They Shot the Piano Player.”

“Flow” won the main jury and audience awards at Annecy, and the award for original music. It played in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

“Sultana’s Dream” won Annecy’s Contrechamp Award, while “Living Large” won the Contrechamp Jury Award.

“Savages” played in competition at Annecy and also screened at Locarno. Barras was Oscar nominated for “My Life as a Courgette.”

Mariscal and Trueba were Oscar nominated for “Chico & Rita.” Trueba’s live-action drama “Belle Epoque” won an Oscar for best foreign-language film.

The committee that decided on the nominations was comprised of representatives of the European Film Academy and Cartoon,...

European Film Promotion is playing host at the Cannes Film Festival to 20 up-and-coming European producers, selected for its Producers on the Move program. Variety invited the producers to share details of their upcoming projects.

Katharina Posch, Austria

“I’m Not Here to Make Friends”

Director: Julia Niemann

“I’m Not Here to Make Friends” is a sleek and sunny psycho thriller about a reality TV show set on a remote island. Playing with elements of horror and satire it asks the question: Why do we want to be seen so badly?

Elisa Heene, Belgium

“Nightshade”

Director: Leni Huyghe

“Nightshade” by Cinéfondation talent Leni Huyghe is a psychological thriller about Leanna, a chemist, who starts experimenting with the poisonous plant Nightshade and discovers its hallucinatory powers. Leana gets addicted and loses herself in a dreamlike world, where the midwife Marta is accused of witchcraft.

Kalin Kalinov, Bulgaria

“Axis of Life”

Director:...

European Film Promotion has revealed the participants for its Producers on the Move program, which runs before and during the Cannes Film Festival.

The promotion and networking program, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, brings together 20 of Europe’s most promising producers. This year, Efp will also put a spotlight on the numerous collaborations that have developed between the around 500 participants from 37 European countries over the past quarter century.

The 20 producers were selected for the program from the nominations submitted by Efp’s member organizations, which are all European national film promotion institutes.

They are Katharina Posch (Austria), Elisa Heene (Belgium/Flanders), Kalin Kalinov (Bulgaria), Tibor Keser (Croatia), Tonia Mishiali (Cyprus), Kristýna Michálek Květová (Czech Republic), Lina Flint (Denmark), Delphine Schmit (France), Fabian Driehorst (Germany), Maria Kontogianni (Greece), Sara Nassim (Iceland), Evan Horan (Ireland), Giedrė Žickytė (Lithuania), Katarzyna Ozga (Luxembourg), Angela Nestorovska (North Macedonia), Anita Rehoff Larsen (Norway), Isabel Machado...

The producers of festival-winning titles Lamb, Holly and Our Mothers are among those selected for European Film Promotion’s (Efp) Producers On The Move programme, which showcases rising talent and fosters international co-productions.

Some 20 European producers have been selected for the 2024 Efp programme, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

Scroll down for full list

The group will take part in a programme that aims to foster international co-productions, share experiences and create professional networks. The Pre-Festival online programme, starts today and runs until 3 May, and includes speed meetings, roundtables and pitching sessions. The producers will then meet in...

Butterfly Vision producer Darya Bassel and Call Me By Your Name executive producer Naima Abed are among 17 independent producers selected for Ace Animation Special, the animation business programme of European network Ace Producers.

The 17 producers will take part in the workshop from March 19-24 in Dingle, Ireland, in collaboration with the Animation Dingle festival.

Scroll down for the full list of producers

Now in its fifth edition, the workshop aims to show how to diversify business by developing and producing feature and series animation productions, for theatrical, broadcast and streaming release.

Producers will attend with animated features and series projects in early development,...

The German festival posted its biggest ever audience in 2023.

Filmfest Hamburg came to a close on October 7 with an awards ceremony that saw the Cicae’s arthouse cinema award presented to UK filmmaker Molly Manning Walker’s directorial debut How To Have Sex which premiered in Un Certain Regard in Cannes in May

The cash prize €5,000 is provided by Hamburg’s local film fund Moin to be spent on the film’s PR campaign by its German distributor capelight pictures which will release the film in German cinemas on December 7.

The €5,000 Ndr young talent award, sponsored by local public broadcaster Ndr,...

Focus turns to ”how to run a company, manage employees, draw up a business plan and think about the future and how to produce in a sustainable way.”

As the four international producers participating in the inaugural Port of Production residency programme moved to Hamburg this week to take part in events at this week’s Filmfest Hamburg, Fabian Driehorst of the German animation studio Fabian&Fred revealed what the group has achieved following stints in Copenhagen and Montreal.

“Since we spend so much time together - we are all living together for the residency, cook together and visit exhibitions, and...

The 2D animation depicting a feminist utopia is premiered at San Sebastian before moving to Filmfest Hamburg.

Films That Matter, the nascent social impact label of Hamburg-based distributor Luftkind Filmverleih, has picked up German rights to Spanish director Isabel Herguera’s feminist animation Sultana’s Dream which made its world premiere last week in San Sebastian and is now screening at Filmfest Hamburg.

Sultana’s Dream is about a young Spanish woman´s globe-spanning journey to intellectual and spiritual awakening. It is based on a 1905 feminist parable by Bengali writer Begum Rokeya, or Rokeya Sahkawat Hossain

“We loved the world of Sultana’s Dream,...

Isabel Herguera’s upcoming feature debut “Sultana’s Dream” will be divided into three parts, San Sebastián-born animation artist said at Annecy.

“Innocently enough, I thought it would make things much easier. It didn’t,” she deadpanned, comparing the process to walking a tightrope.

“You don’t know if you are going to fall or not.”

In the film, Inés, a Spanish artist living in India, stumbles upon “Sultana’s Dream” – a story by real-life feminist thinker Rokeya Hossain, written in 1905. It describes Ladyland, a place where women rule the country while men live in seclusion, responsible for household chores.

“Here, we do the logical thing. It’s men that pose a danger to women, not the other way around,” it was explained in the clip presented at the fest, to the applause of the audience.

Each part comes with its own visual style, said Herguera.

While Inés’ journey is rendered in 2D,...

The producers hail from Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Canada.

Four innovative rising producers from Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Canada have been selected for the inaugural ’Port of Production’ residency programme.

They are: Danielle Guirguis of the Netherlands’ Smart House Creative Impact Studio, whose Number Eighteen is playing in the Tiger Competition at this year’s Rotterdam festival; Mette Mikkelsen of Denmakr’s New Tales, Patricia Bergeron of Canada’s Production Leitmotiv; and Fabian Driehorst of Germany’s Fabien&Fred.

The programme has been created and backed by Hamburg’s regional film fund Moin, the Danish Film Institute, National Film School of Denmark,...