News

Berlin — ITV Studios push into European drama has been boosted by pre-sales on “Romulus” and a slew of deals across a burgeoning slate of non-English language productions as ITV Studios aims to position as a world-class player in global content production.

Announced at this week’s Berlinale Series Market, the sales play off ITV Studios acquisition of stakes in European companies – such as France’s Beaubourg Stories, a label at ITV majority-owned “Profilages” producer Tetra Media Studio, and its minority stake in Italy’s high-flying Cattleya (“ZeroZeroZero”) – as well as early partnerships on single titles from fast-escalating production forces in Europe, such as Telefonica’s Movistar Plus.

Produced by Cattleya, Groenlandia and Sky, shot in archaic Latin, and reworking Rome’s creation story into ambitious high-end drama, “Romulus” has been acquired by HBO Europe and Sbs in Australia.

The Sbs deal takes in two further crime procedurals from Cattleya, one...

Madrid — Movistar Plus’ upcoming original series “Tell Me Who I Am,” based on Julia Navarro’s popular Spanish novel “Dime Quien Soy,” has finished shooting and will head to post-production for delivery later this year.

Set across multiple decades of the 20th century, the story kicks off with 30-something internet journalist Javier, tasked by his aunt to investigate the life of his great-grandmother, Amelia Garayoa, who left her husband and son behind her as she fled Spain as a result of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

Amelia becomes embroiled in some of the most important historical events of the century, from Franco’s ascent in Spain, the uprising and liberation of Berlin, the rise of Stalin’s communist U.S.S.R., the barbarity of Warsaw’s ghettos, Rome in the final years of Mussolini and the decline of Nazi Germany in occupied Athens. With a foot in both the past and future,...

Libertad

A burgeoning screenwriter on such films as 10,000 Km (2014) and Jaime Rosales’ excellent Petra (2018), Clara Roquet workshopped this project at the 2019 January Screenwriters Lab. Filming took place this summer in Barcelona with players Nora Navas, Maria Rodríguez Soto and Vicky Peña onboard. Set on Catalonia’s gorgeous Costa Brava, the feature turns on the Vidal family which is spending a summer with their Alzheimer-affected grandmother Ángela. Overprotected and shy, 14 year-old Nora goes through a difficult time after her parents’ separation, but what looked like another tedious, sad summer for Nora, turns into a dangerous coming of age experience with the arrival of Libertad, the wild 15-year daughter of Ángela’s Colombian caretaker.…...

Pan-European pay-tv giant Sky has hit Venice with two of its original series in tow, “The New Pope” and “ZeroZeroZero,” the only TV shows with premieres on the Lido this year. Both are Italy-based but conceived with global audiences in mind, and come from the new Sky Studios in-house production unit headed by Gary Davey.

Nicola Maccanico, Sky Italia’s executive vice president for programming and the managing director of the company’s Vision Distribution unit, which releases movies theatrically in Italy, spoke to Variety about Sky’s ambitions and investments in original content under its new owner, Comcast. (The interview has been edited for clarity and concision.)

How is Sky Studios going to impact Italian production?

It’s clear that we want to produce more and better content, and have more control and ownership of our content. But at the same time, we want this to be a single...

Cattleya, the Italian company behind hit series “Gomorrah” and Amazon’s upcoming “ZeroZeroZero,” is making its first foray into the detective genre with “Petra,” featuring a hard-boiled female inspector played by actress Paola Cortellesi.

The four-part Italian-language series is being produced as an original for Sky Italia.

Production has kicked off in Genoa with Italy’s Maria Sole Tognazzi (“A Five Star Life”) directing the adaptation of prominent Spanish writer Alicia Giménez-Bartlett’s book “Death Rites,” a bestseller in Italy and Spain which has also been published in the U.S.

Cattleya and Sky’s TV adaptation of “Petra” transposes the setting to Italy. It sees titular character Petra Delicado, a twice-divorced sleuth chained to a tiresome desk job among sexist colleagues, suddenly thrust onto the front line to solve violent crimes with newly assigned partner Antonio Monte, an old-school cop close to retirement. Her sidekick is played by Andrea Pennacchi,...

Escort In Love and Do You See Me? star Paola Cortellesi is to front Sky’s latest Italian original Petra, based on Alicia Giménez-Bartlett’s novels.

The European pay giant has commissioned the series from ITV-owned Gomorrah producer Cattleya and it will be directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi.

The series, which is produced in association with Bartlebyfilm, has started shooting in Genoa, Italy. It features four episodes about the famous woman detective.

Petra, played by Cortellesi, is a twice-divorced detective working a desk job for Genoa’s prestigious criminal investigatory squad when she is suddenly thrust into the frontlines, charged with solving violent crimes and murders. Her newly assigned partner is Antonio Monte – an old-fashioned policeman close to retirement, with years of experience, wisdom and insight. Monte, will be played by Andrea Pennacchi.

Cortellesi said, “Petra is a highly skilled yet imperfect woman, who has the courage to free herself from female clichés,...

Pawel Pawlikowski’s “”Cold War” swept the European Film Academy Awards on Saturday, winning five of its bids: Best Picture, Director, Actress (Joanna Kulig), Screenplay and Film Editing. This Polish picture contended for the top prize against three other films that are also entered in this year’s Oscar race for Foreign-Language Film — Sweden’s “Border,” Poland’s “Cold War,” Italy’s “Dogman” and Belgium’s “Girl.” The fifth nominee was “Happy as Lazzaro,” which is also from Italy.

Winners of the 31st edition of these awards were decided by the 3,000 plus members of the academy, drawn from all parts of Europe. Scroll down to see all the winners (and nominees).

Last year Ruben Ostlund‘s satire “The Square” swept the EFAs with six wins including both Best Picture and Best Comedy. Ostlund claimed both the writing and directing awards for his savage satire set in the high stakes art...

“Cold War” was the big winner at the European Film Awards, picking up the prizes for Best European Film, Actress (Joanna Kulig), Director, and Screenwriter (both Paweł Pawlikowski). Best actor went to Marcello Fonte of “Dogman,” while Armando Iannucci’s “The Death of Stalin” was named Best European Comedy.

“Cold War” also led all films with five nominations, continuing a strong year for the black-and-white drama — Pawlikowski, whose “Ida” won the Foreign-Language Oscar, also took home Best Director laurels from Cannes.

Ali Abbasi’s “Border” and Alice Rohrwacher’s “Happy as Lazzaro” left the ceremony empty-handed despite picking up four nominations apiece.

The full list of winners:

Best European Film

“Border,” Ali Abbasi

“Cold War,” Pawel Pawlikowski

“Dogman,” Matteo Garrone

“Girl,” Lukas Dhont

“Happy as Lazzaro,” Alice Rorhwacher

European Comedy

“C’est La Vie,” Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano

“Diamantino,” Gabriel Abrantes, Daniel Schmidt

“The Death of Stalin,” Armando Iannucci

European Director

Ali Abbasi,...

“Cold War,” Pawel Pawlikowski’s black-and-white romance set in the 1950s, scooped the prizes for best film, director and screenplay at the 31st edition of the European Film Awards on Saturday.

“Cold War” star Joanna Kulig also won the award for best actress. Marcello Fonte, the star of Matteo Garrone’s “Dogman,” won for best actor.

Armando Iannucci’s political satire “The Death of Stalin” won for best European comedy. Adapted from the French graphic novel by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, “The Death of Stalin” is a comic look at how Joseph Stalin’s stroke in 1953 threw the U.S.S.R. into chaos and inspired a mad power grab among his top advisors.

“This is very brave of you. This movie was banned in Russia,” Iannucci said upon picking up his award onstage. The British writer-director added that he loved Europe and made a joke about Brexit.

Lukas Dhont’s “Girl,...

Nominations for the European Film Academy Award were announced on Saturday (Nov. 10) at the Seville film festival in Spain. Four of the entries in this year’s Oscar race for Foreign-Language Film — Sweden’s “Border,” Poland’s “Cold War,” Italy’s “Dogman” and Belgium’s “Girl” — are up for Best Picture. The fifth nominee is “Happy as Lazzaro” from Germany (which submitted “Never Look Away” at the Oscars).

Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War” leads with five nominations: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Tomasz Kot), Actress (Joanna Kulig) and Screenplay. “Dogman” and “Border” have four nominations apiece as does “Happy as Lazzaro.”

Winners of the 31st edition of these awards will be decided by the 3,000 plus members of the academy, drawn from all parts of Europe. The ceremony is scheduled for Dec. 15 in Seville.

Last year Ruben Ostlund‘s satire “The Square” swept the EFAs with six wins including both Best Picture and Best Comedy.

San Sebastian — Pablo Fendrik’s “Hermano Peligro,” Jayro Bustamante’s “La Llorona,” Matthias Huser’s “The Jungle” and Clara Roquet’s “Libertad” took one prize a piece at San Sebastian’s 7th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, which wrapped Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, “The Sharks,” the first feature of Uruguay’s Lucia Garibaldi, swept San Sebastian’s Films in Progress.

While awards in the past have sometimes gone to little-known projects, this year saw plaudits shared by four of the strongest projects at the market in terms of director reknown, prestige producer backing or even, in the case of “La Llorona,” a sales market deal.

Winner of the Co-production Forum Best Project Award, “Hermano Peligro,” for instance, comes from a director. Pablo Fendrik, whose first three films, “The Mugger,” “Blood Appears” and “Ardor” have all been selected for the Cannes Festival, before he went on to co-direct two of the most distinguished...

San Sebastian — A prestige combination of Barcelona-based Lastor Media, Madrid’s producer-distributor Avalon (“Summer 1993”) and Snowglobe is teaming to develop “Libertad,” from writer-director Clara Roquet. The film also has development backing from the Catalonia Film Institute Icec, and from Movistar+ and Spanish public broadcaster Tve.

Project will be pitched at the 7th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum running Sept 23-26 at the San Sebastian Intl. Film Festival.

A coming-of-ager set on Catalonia’s gorgeous Costa Brava, the feature turns on the Vidal family which is spending a summer with their Alzheimer-affected grandmother Ángela. Overprotected and shy, 14 year-old Nora goes through a difficult time after her parents’ separation, but what looked like another tedious, sad summer for Nora, turns into a dangerous coming of age experience with the arrival of Libertad, the wild 15-year daughter of Ángela’s Colombian caretaker.

A story about class differences, the meaning of freedom and who grants it,...

The Miami Film Festival’s fall edition, called Gems, has unveiled its lineup including Colombia’s Oscar entry “Birds of Passage” as opening night selection and Spain’s Oscar submission “Champions” as closing night film.

Miami Dade College organizes the festival, which takes place Oct. 11-14 at the college’s Tower Theater Miami. The Miami Film Festival’s 36th edition will run March 1-10, 2019.

Spanish actress Barbara Lennie will accept the Precious Gem Award before the screening of her latest film, “Petra.” Cinematographer Diego Garcia, who shot Paul Dano’s directing debut “Wildlife,” will receive the Art of Light award before the Florida premiere of the film.

Films screening in the Spotlight Stage section are “El Angel,” “Animal,” “Ben is Back,” “Border,” “Burning,” “Capernaum,” “Cold War,” “Everybody Knows” and “Petra.”

The Discovery Stage section will screen “Boys Cry,” “Diamantino,” “Dry Martina,” “The Heiresses,” “Hopelessly Devout,” “Soufra,” “Wildlife” and “Woman at War.

Blizzard Entertainment is celebrating the two-year anniversary of its popular online hero shooter “Overwatch” with a plethora of new cosmetics, a new deathmatch map, and more.

Over 50 new cosmetic items are now available in-game, including eight new legendary skins: Stealth Bastion, Shieldmaiden Brigitte, Formal Doomfist, Buccaneer Junkrat, Sherlock McCree, Forest Spirit Orisa, Magician Symmetra, and Cybjörn Torbjörn. Unlockables from previous events are also available again and can be bought with credits or found in anniversary loot boxes. As a bonus, Blizzard is giving out one legendary anniversary loot box, which contains at least one guaranteed legendary item, to people who log in between now and June 11.

The anniversary event also marks the launch of the new Petra map. It, along with Château Guillard, will be available in an optional competitive free-for-all deathmatch mode. The mode will have placement matches, skill ratings, and leaderboards, and it will award competitive points.

Additionally,...

An early hit with festivalgoers who prefer to look outside the Official Selection, Jaime Rosales’s Directors’ Fortnight entry Petra proved the Spanish director to be a fluid and unpredictable talent. Arguably most famous—or perhaps infamous—for the almost entirely dialogue-free 2008 Basque terrorist drama Bullet in the Head, Rosales this time presents a very subtle mystery-thriller. Sharing DNA with the work of his compatriot Pedro Almodóvar—not least because it features a supporting turn by Almodóvar regular Marisa Paredes—Petra sees rising star Bárbara Lennie in the title role, as a woman who enrolls in a mentoring project with a famous artist, Jaume (a terrific debut by the non-professional Joan Botey).

Told using chapters that appear in non-chronological order, the film plays games with time before reaching a wholly unexpected climax. Rosales told Deadline that taking such an experimental approach to an otherwise conventional story was part of the project’s appeal.

For the first time in festival history, Spanish productions — Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows,” Terry Gilliam’s “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” — will both open and close Cannes. In all, five Spanish titles made the festival cut, a recent record.

Such films speak of foreign auteurs’ fascination with Spain and its culture. They remain, however, “a minority” in Spain, says Juan Gordon at Morena Films, whose Alvaro Longoria produced “Everybody Knows.”

Spain’s industry “is driven by broadcasters investing in commercial films,” Gordon adds, acknowledging “a vitality in the industry” due to “the number of drama series getting made.”

“Two key factors are at work: Netflix, and the contraction of cinema-going arthouse audiences,” says Vicente Canales at Film Factory Ent., which represents Luis Ortega’s “El Angel,” in Un Certain Regard, and Jaime Rosales’ “Petra,” a Directors’ Fortnight player.

“Many Spanish films have sold to Netflix, some have functioned very well,...

Long-established art-house director Jaime Rosales set out to make his most accessible feature with “Petra,” a film about lies and self-discovery that indeed could well be his most popular work to date. It looks gorgeous, boasting sterling performances and an initially intriguing storyline which Rosales shuffles in an occasionally non-linear manner, not so far removed from such previous experimentations as “The Dream and the Silence.” There’s also Hélène Louvart’s elegantly fluid camerawork, gliding across and through spaces, always aware that worlds exist just outside the frame. But what begins as a psychologically and visually lush exploration of a woman’s quest to establish her paternity turns around the half-way mark into an overburdened plot set off by those constant panning shots which themselves become too rich for digestion. The disappointment is inescapable given the excitement of the first part, yet there’s enough to chew on, and indeed,...

In a deal announced Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival, Vicente Canales’ Barcelona-based Film Factory has unveiled the sale of Jaime Rosales’ Directors’ Fortnight entry “Petra” to Condor Distribution in France and September Films for Benelux countries.

“Petra” is a pan-European co-production between Rosales’ Fresdeval Films and Wanda Vision – both based out of Madrid –Oberon Cinematográfica from Barcelona, Les Productions Balthazar in Paris and Copenhagen’s Snowglobe.

The film follows Petra, a woman who has always had the identity of her father hidden from her. When her mother passes away, Petra sets out on her own, and starts a residency under a famous artist named Jaume, a powerful and ruthless man she suspects may be her father. She also meets Jaume’s son Lucas, and his wife Marisa. The stories of the four then wind together and violent secrets unearth which push everyone to their limits, before a twist...

Exclusive: Production company works with Danish debut director but brings in international expertise.

Danish production company Snowglobe, whose co-production credits include festival hits Ralitza Petrova’s Godless and Amat Escalante’s The Untamed, has greenlit its first Danish production.

Martin Skovbjerg’s Sticks & Stones (Brakland) will shoot in July and August on the southern Danish island of Langeland and Funen.

Theatrical distributors already on board are Denmark’s Reel Pictures, Iceland’s Bio Paradis and Norway´s Mer Film.

The story is about a teenage boy from Copenhagen who moves to a provincial area, where he is an outsider until he meets the local 15-year-old alpha male. The pair challenge each other in transgressive actions but when one boy’s family is blamed for a local scandal, their friendship is threatened. Jonas Bjerril and Vilmer Trier Brøgger will star.

The script is based on an original story by writer Christian Gamst Miller-Harris (Follow The Money, Oscar-winning short Helium...

Nicole Garcia to her producer Alain Attal on Milena Agus's novel Mal Di Petra: "Tell me if the rights are free or not!" Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

After attending the morning press preview for Agnès Varda's exhibition at Blum & Poe, organized by Olivier Renaud-Clément, I walked over to Le Parker Meridien to meet with Nicole Garcia for a conversation on From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres), co-written with Jacques Fieschi and starring Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel and Alex Brendemühl. Shot provocatively by Christophe Beaucarne (Étienne Comar's Django, which stars Reda Kateb with Cécile de France; and Jacques Doillon's Rodin, with Vincent Lindon in the title role) with costumes by Catherine Leterrier, Garcia's film carefully chisels out something about women growing up in the 1950s, claiming themselves.

Marion Cotillard as Gabrielle in Mal De Pierres

Gabrielle (Cotillard) lives with her parents and sister in the post-war French countryside.