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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...

French international sales veteran Agathe Valentin has joined The Match Factory in the newly created role of Sales Director with immediate effect.

She will report to the Germany-based film sales and production company’s long-time VP International Sales Thania Dimitrakopoulou.

Working out of Brussels, Valentin’s remit is to be a key driver in executing initiatives that expand the organization’s international footprint and meet its goals, the company said.

Valentin has racked up sales experience at a number of top sales companies over the course of her two-decade career, working on a host of award-winning films in the process.

She was Head of Sales at Les Films du Losange for eight years, selling titles such as Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winners The White Ribbon and Amour, which also won the Best Foreign Language Film of the Year Oscar in 2013.

She headed to Pyramide in the same role...

Exclusive: Eric Martin, head writer and executive producer for Loki Season 2, will join Tobias Weymar in producing I’m Not a Robot, a feature adaptation of rising Dutch filmmaker Victoria Warmerdam’s Oscar-qualified short of the same name, through their production company, Rearview Pictures.

In the original work, which won Best Short at the 2023 Sitges Film Festival, music producer Lara faces an existential crisis after repeatedly failing a routine Captcha test, leading her to question whether she might actually be a robot. As her day spirals out of control, she desperately searches for answers in a darkly comedic exploration of identity and self-perception.

The film’s festival run has also seen it secure wins at Cannes Lions and multiple Oscar-qualifying festivals, including Bengaluru, Leuven, and Flickerfest, as well as Bucheon. So far, it’s been selected for over 100 festivals worldwide, including 15 Oscar-qualifying festivals such as HollyShorts, Palm Springs, and Hawaii International Film Festival.

South Africa has gotten its Oscar contender in under the wire, picking Muneera Sallies’s music-themed drama Old Righteous Blues as its contender for the 97th Academy Awards in the best international feature category.

South Africa’s National Film and Video Foundation (Nfvf) announced the pick, which was chosen by the South African Academy Awards Selection Committee. Sallies’ drama follows a young man who tries to unite his divided community through the power of music.

Ayden Croy stars as Hantjie Jansen, a young man who plays in his town’s Kerskoor (Christmas choir) who is passed over for the choir’s top job as trommelmajoor (drum major) when his uncle, Oom Jakwes (Ivan Abrahams) retires. The snub is a result of a decades-old feud going back to a choice by Croy’s father that split the fabulous Old Righteous Blues Kerskoor into two rival bands and has divided the community every since.

Those who know their Bible may find elements of this South African tale - highly Old Testament in nature, even if it does deal with more modern issues - familiar. A scrutiny of the patriarchy, it employs elements of the tale of Isaac and his sons, although the outcome is somewhat different.

London-based writer/director Nakhane has made a name for himself as a musician but many may be familiar with from his acting days when, under the name Nakhane Touré, he took on one of the lead roles in The Wound). With B(l)ind The Sacrifice, he creates an immersive atmosphere from the start, as a family gathers round a fire at night. The mother (Nandi Nyembe) and father (Treasure Nkosi) are speaking about God and the need to obey him, even as their son (Sihle Mnqwazana) is sneaking off to drink alcohol in one of the tents.

Exclusive: Stowe Story Labs announced the 2024 Stowe Launch Fellows and selected projects, with the support of the National Endowment of the Arts.

The 2024 Fellows are Alexandra Hensley (Hearts and Minds), Arianna Ortiz (The Bastard Children of Javier Ortiz) Sebastien Tobler (Bodies of Water), Brandon Vedder (Miracle Man) and Keith Walker (Greenwood). Read more about them below.

Each Launch participant receives up to one year of ongoing mentoring and program participation, with no fees or travel costs. The goal of the program is to get projects ready for market.

“Projects like Stowe Launch exemplify the creativity and care with which communities are telling their stories, creating connection, and responding to challenges and opportunities in their communities — all through the arts,” said Nea Chair Maria Rosario Jackson. “So many aspects of our communities such as cultural vitality, health and wellbeing, infrastructure, and the economy are advanced and improved through investments in art and design,...

Dubai-based sales company Mad World has taken global rights to feminist drama “The Wound,” which marks the directorial debut of Morocco’s Seloua El Gouni, who has experience as a production manager on Hollywood titles such as “A Hologram for the King” and “Men in Black: International.”

“The Wound” (“La Plaie”) stars rising Arab talent Oumaïma Barid, who gained global notice in Sofia Alaoui’s 2023 Sundance title “Animalia.” Barid plays a young woman named Leila who is trying to pursue her passions and ambitions while contending with Morocco’s societal constraints and becomes pregnant in an extramarital love affair.

The promising drama’s Moroccan A-list cast also comprises rising star Brice Bexter; Amal Ayouch (“Eye on Juliet”); Mansour Badri (“Ghosts of Beirut”); Soraya Azzabi (“Billie’s Magic World”); Abdelhak Saleh (“Hounds”); and Sami Fekkak (“Testament: Story of Moses”).

“The Wound” is being produced by El Gouni and Taha Benghalem through their Marrakech-based company Pink Sheep Productions,...

“White Lies,” a murder mystery series starring Natalie Dormer, has been acquired by Sundance Now for North America.

A collaboration between production company Quizzical Pictures and Pan-African broadcaster M-Net in partnership with Fremantle, “White Lies” is set in the wealthy Bishopscourt neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa. Dormer (“Penny Dreadful: City of Angels”) stars as an investigative journalist called Edie Hansen alongside Brendon Daniels (“Four Corners”), who plays detective Forty Bell.

“Following her estranged brother’s murder in his luxury home, Edie’s world plunges deeper into chaos when her brother’s teenage children become prime suspects for the crime,” reads the logline. “As Edie investigates, she finds herself at loggerheads with veteran detective Forty Bell, and grapples with the crumbling local police force, a corrupt political system and the secretive world of extreme Cape wealth.”

The eight-part series is written by Darrel Bristow-Bovey with John Trengove (“The Wound”) as lead director,...

Wrecked Ralph: Trengove Gazes into the Weaponization of Masculinity in Unsettling Character Study

Playwright and activist Eve Ensler commented on a 2017 panel regarding how “the tyranny of masculinity and the tyranny of patriarchy…has been much more deadly to men than it has to women. It hasn’t killed our hearts. It’s killed men’s hearts.” Ralphie, the troubled protagonist of John Trengove’s sophomore feature, Manodrome, is at this very precipice, on the verge of losing his heart. Like his 2017 debut, The Wound (read review), in which a tribal ritual unleashes sexual repressions with dire consequences, he focuses on a similar homosocial sphere in the US, creating a fictional libertarian masculinity cult utilizing a now commonplace rhetoric amongst several groups vocalizing a desire to reclaim something they believe they’ve lost, which is undaunted dominion.…...

Manodrome explores toxic masculinity, a topic that is also depicted in other films of 2023 like Barbie and Fair Play, highlighting the importance of critiquing male supremacist mindsets in society. Unlike other films, Manodrome focuses on Ralphie's mentality and doesn't make apologies for the characters' behaviors, providing an unsettling exploration into the effects of toxic masculinity. Manodrome is a serious film that tackles the troubling appeal and consequences of a men's rights mentality, offering a unique perspective on the subject. The film's release in theaters starts on November 10.

Manodrome is the sophomore film from South African writer and director John Trengove, whose debut feature, The Wound, was South Africa’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. Manodrome stars Jesse Eisenberg as Ralphie, who finds himself welcomed into a self-styled family of men led by Dad Dan, one of Adrien Brody’s most anticipated upcoming roles. The...

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...

Manodrome

The tale of a father-to-be who finds himself losing his grip after losing his job on a construction site, Manodrome explores toxic masculinity from the inside out. A floundering relationship with a woman, a desperately repressed attraction to a man and an inability to cope with society at large sees Ralphie (Jesse Eisenberg) fall under the sway of a male isolationist cult led by the self-styled ‘Dad Dan’ (Adrien Brody), but nothing ever really seems to make the pain go away. It’s South African writer/director John Trengove’s follow-up to 2017’s The Wound, and we found time for a chat about it just ahead of its US cinematic release.

Opening the discussion, I tell him that my favourite scene in the film is one where Ralphie is driving an Uber and takes it upon himself to give manly advice to a boy (Matthew Lamb) who is travelling in the.

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...

Academy Award nominee Jesse Eisenberg stars in the intense thriller Manodrome as Ralphie, an out-of-work Uber driver struggling with his masculinity. Ralphie joins a cult-like group of men who embrace physical dominance, leading to a newfound empowerment that brings along its own set of problems. Director John Trengove drew inspiration from the book Kill All Normies to explore themes of internet culture, the alt-right, and the rejection of societal roles in the film.

Lionsgate has dropped the adrenaline-fueled first trailer for the upcoming thriller Manodrome. Academy Award nominee Jesse Eisenberg stars in the film as Ralphie, an out-of-work Uber driver who is expecting a baby with his girlfriend, Sal (Odessa Young). To add to his struggles, Ralphie goes through life feeling disrespected and ridiculed by other men. Cue a charismatic older man named Dan (portrayed by Academy Award winner Adrien Brody) who appears at just the right time and implores...

It’s not quite “Fight Club,” and it’s not quite “Toxic Masculinity: The Movie” or “Incels R Us,” but the new trailer for the film, “Manodrome” definitely seems like it’s trying to tap into the world of white men struggling emotionally and psychologically, coupled with issues of insecurity and powerlessness, who take the wrong lessons from their troubles and perhaps mental health worries.

In “Manodrome,” by South African filmmaker John Trengove, known for “The Wound” and the TV series “Swartwater,” Academy Award-acclaimed actors Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”) and Adrien Brody (“The Pianist”), star in a thriller about one man’s desperate quest to reinvent himself, and his chilling descent into a world of destruction.

Continue reading ‘Manodrome’ Trailer: Jesse Eisenberg & Adrien Brody Are Giving ‘Fight Club’ Vibes In New Toxic Masculinity Thriller at The Playlist.

Premiering earlier this year at Berlinale, John Trengove’s The Wound follow-up Manodrome sets Jesse Eisenberg and Adrien Brody in a Fight Club-esque tale following a man wrestling with his own demons who gets welcomed into a mysterious family of men. Ahead of a November release from Lionsgate, the first trailer has now arrived.

Rory O’Connor said in his Berlinale review, “In Manodrome, cinema’s enduring love for frustrated male loners is brought, kicking and screaming, into the cold light of the present day. Set in an unnamed, crumbling city in the Northeast, it stars an against-type Jesse Eisenberg as a jacked-up, emotionally stunted gym bro who joins a cult of voluntarily and involuntarily celibate men. The director is John Trengrove, whose previous feature The Wound used a very real Xhosa rite of passage as a way to examine the ever-knotted rituals of male bonding. The subcultures in Manodrome...

"Take back your power, Ralph!!" Lionsgate has revealed an official trailer for a film called Manodrome, an indie creation from South African filmmaker John Trengove (director of The Wound previously). This premiered at the Berlin Film Festival to mostly mixed to positive reviews - its a very slick film, although it doesn't particularly stand out much. Conflicted about his girlfriend's pregnancy, Ralphie's life spirals out of control when he meets a mysterious family of men. Manodrome is a clever criticism of toxic masculinity and fragile men who are obsessed with being men (you know the ones). Jesse Eisenberg stars as one of these guys who falls into this kind of cult for men, run by Adrien Brody. Then it gets really crazy... The cast also features Odessa Young, Philip Ettinger, Sallieu Sesay, Ethan Suplee, Evan Joningkeit, and Caleb Eberhardt. I saw this at Berlinale earlier in the year - it's a good film,...

The Animated World is a regular feature spotlighting animation from around the globe.Joy Street.When T.S. Eliot famously asked “Do I dare to eat a peach?” in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, he was alluding to social and bodily anxiety, and the sticky traps that can ensnare the unsuspecting. Eliot’s J. Alfred finds a reason to be anxious about even the most mundane objects or situations—though eating in public (especially syrupy fruits) is a common anxiety. And while a peach should be an innocuous, enjoyable object, in practice a ripe peach can spontaneously turn an ordinary person into a spectacle. Or so Eliot and others assume. Anxiety is a powerful and nebulous force that affects most people some of the time, and some people all of the time, and whether or not it is generated by body issues, it is always felt in the body.

In Manodrome, cinema’s enduring love for frustrated male loners is brought, kicking and screaming, into the cold light of the present day. Set in an unnamed, crumbling city in the Northeast, it stars an against-type Jesse Eisenberg as a jacked-up, emotionally stunted gym bro who joins a cult of voluntarily and involuntarily celibate men. The director is John Trengrove, whose previous feature The Wound used a very real Xhosa rite of passage as a way to examine the ever-knotted rituals of male bonding. The subcultures in Manodrome are ostensibly a work of fiction but, exaggerated as they may be, are no less plausible or rife with intrigue.

What Manodrome suffers from is a case of spreading itself too thin. Eisenberg stars as Ralphie, a taxi driver with money problems and a meds addiction. Though they might be the least of his worries. Out shopping for baby supplies with his...

Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer is leading a thriller for South African network M-Net.

Filming will commence next month on White Lies, which will star Dormer alongside Brendon Daniels (Four Corners) as investigative journalist Edie Hansen and detective Forty Bell respectively. Set in the wealthy neighbourhood of Bishopscourt, Cape Town, Hansen gets caught up in the ugly underbelly that lies beneath the picturesque beauty of the city, dragging her back to a turbulent past. Following her estranged brother’s murder in his luxury home, her world plunges deeper into chaos when her brother’s teenage children become prime suspects for the crime, as she finds herself at loggerheads with Bell.

Having previously combined on International Emmy Award-nominated M-Net drama Reyka, South African indie Quizzical Pictures is producing with Fremantle.

Dormer is a great get. She is best known for her role as Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones and...

Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games star Natalie Dormer is set to lead the cast of White Lies, a South African crime thriller from M-Net, Quizzical Pictures and Fremantle.

The Hollywood Reporter can reveal that the British actress — who became a fan favorite for playing Margaery Tyrell across 26 episodes of Game of Thrones — is now in Cape Town, where shooting is due to start on March 6. Dormer also had major roles in Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Tudors, and moved into producing and writer with 2018 thriller In Darkness.

Joining Dormer is award-winning South African actor Brendon Daniels, whose credits include the acclaimed film Four Corners, Skemerdans and Trackers, another M-Net international co-production.

Created by Sean Steinberg and written by award-winning scriptwriter Darrel Bristow-Bovey, White Lies is described as an “urgent exploration of race and privilege, inequality and identity.”

Set in the wealthy neighbourhood of Bishopscourt, Cape Town, the...

There’s a rich history of movies being entirely at odds with their cryptic titles—step forward Quantum of Solace—but for his follow-up to The Wound, South African director John Trengrove has picked a doozy, a title that sounds more like a dystopian Adam Sandler comedy than the dour story of urban disintegration that it actually is. Images of star Jesse Eisenberg sporting a mop of red hair for the film have been also something of a misdirect, perhaps giving some the impression that Manodrome, which premiered in Competition at the Berlin Film Festival, could be some kind of satirical emo Fight Club for sad-sacks. Fight Club comparisons actually do turn out to be (lightly) relevant, as are callbacks to Taxi Driver, but Manodrome is so achingly laborious and serious that it won’t be encroaching on either for virtual shelf space in the Toxic Masculinity section of anyone’s streaming library.

The first rule of “Manodrome” is you don’t talk about “Fight Club.”

“Fight Club” looms large over writer-director John Trengrove’s unsettling second feature, even if no one overtly mentions David Fincher’s provocative late-’90s movie in this dark psychological-thriller-cum-social-critique, which finds the state of masculinity even more fraught than Fincher did a quarter-century ago. Trengrove, who is gay and hails from South Africa, brings a queer sensibility to his otherwise unsatisfying analysis of contemporary manhood, enlisting Jesse Eisenberg to play yet another scrawny white guy seeking an outlet for deep wells of festering aggression.

Here, he finds it in a secret society of like-minded dudes, spearheaded by Adrien Brody as a self-appointed father figure who calls himself “Dad Dan,” and who teaches Eisenberg’s character, Ralphie, to “man up.” In what feels like a case of lazy (type)casting, “Manodrome” finds its once-shrimpy star back in “The Art of Self-Defense” mode,...

John Trengove’s searing 2017 debut, The Wound, explored the complex world of Xhosa masculinity via adolescent initiation rites that exposed thorny conflicts of sexuality and personal identity. The protagonist of the South African writer-director’s first English-language feature, Manodrome — played by a febrile Jesse Eisenberg in an eye-opening performance simmering with rage — is already fully inducted into the uneasy halls of manhood and finding it an uncomfortable fit. Barely scraping by financially and staring ahead at an unpromising future, the damaged Ralphie reaches for a lifeline with a shadowy cult of male separatists, which only makes his hold on reality unravel faster.

What Ralphie goes through over the course of this absorbing enough but bludgeoning portrait of corrosive masculinity makes him both victim and monster. Recently laid off from a corporate maintenance job, he’s struggling to make ends meet as an Uber driver and wondering how he’s going...

’Manodrome’ plays in competition at the Berlinale.

South African director John Trengove’s Berlinale competition title doesn’t seem like an obvious choice to set during the festive period.

Manodrome sees Jesse Eisenberg playing a troubled taxi driver who finds himself becoming lured into a mysterious and cult-like ‘family’ of men.

“It’s a strange kind of Christmas movie, in a way,” said Trengove, while discussing the film with cast members including Eisenberg and Adrien Brody at the Berlinale.

“That was very much intentional. I wrote the first draft of the screenplay over Christmas. There was something about the perversity...

Given recent news about self-described misogynist and TikTok star Andrew Tate — currently being detained in Romania and being investigated over allegations of human trafficking, rape and organized crime offenses — many might assume that Manodrome, the Berlinale competition entry starring Jesse Eisenberg that dives into toxic masculinity and incel culture, was a creative reaction to such figures.

Not so, claimed writer and director John Trengove in making his return to the festival six years after his well-received 2017 debut The Wound.

“I actually only found out about Andrew Tate very recently,” he explained at the press conference for the film ahead of its world premiere on Saturday night. “The kernel for the idea precedes him.”

Trengove said he set out not to make a commentary or documentary-style film about the so-called online “manosphere” of misogynistic, anti-female websites, but instead draw on ideas from this world and create something more mythical and imagined for his story,...

Five years ago, South African director John Trengove’s feature debut, “The Wound,” scored coveted berths at Sundance and Berlin before being short-listed for an Academy Award — even as the powerful gay drama set in the secretive world of Xhosa initiation ceremonies faced angry protests in his home country.

His sophomore effort, “Manodrome,” which plays in competition in Berlin, stars Jesse Eisenberg as a down-at-the-heels Uber driver and expecting father who begins to lose his grip on reality. He’s taken under the wing of a charismatic, self-styled father figure (Adrien Brody), who inducts him into a libertarian masculinity cult, even as his repressed desires — suddenly awakened — push him toward a terrifying descent into violence.

It’s a zeitgeisty exploration of toxic masculinity with a tour-de-force performance by Eisenberg, playing opposite a gripping Odessa Young as his pregnant girlfriend. Trengove spoke to Variety ahead of the film’s Feb. 18 premiere.

Exclusive: South African director John Trengove’s crisis of masculinity drama Mandrome, which world premieres in Competition at the Berlinale this weekend, is one of the most topical Golden Bear contenders this year.

Jesse Eisenberg stars as Ralphie, a disenfranchised young man whose life spirals out of control when he falls under the spell of a cultish ‘family of men’.

Money pressures and his own difficult childhood have left Ralphie conflicted about impending fatherhood with his girlfriend (Odessa Young) as he struggles to find his place in society.

When he is embraced by a group of supportive older men, led by a charismatic father figure (Adrien Brody), he is hooked but an initiation ceremony unleashes dangerous emotions within him

Deadline unveiled a first teaser ahead of the world premiere which you can watch here.

The film is Trengove’s second film after his award-winning debut The Wound, about a closeted...

Berlin Film Festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian and executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeck unveiled the International Competition and Encounters lineups on Monday for the festival’s 73rd edition, running February 16-26.

“It’s quite an eclectic selection,” Chatrian told the press conference in Berlin this morning. “You will see we tried to include as many genres and cinematic forms as possible.”

Related Story Berlin Film Festival Lineup: Sean Penn, Philippe Garrel, Margarethe Von Trotta & Christian Petzold In Competition — Full List Related Story Sean Penn Documentary On Ukraine And Volodymyr Zelenskyy To Debut At Berlin Film Festival Related Story Berlin Film Festival: Watch Competition Lineup Revealed Live

The International Competition features 18 titles, 15 of them world premieres, involving 19 different territories. Encounters, the Berlinale’s equivalent of Un Certain Regard which was launched in 2020, will showcase 16 films.

Chatrian has stuck with his love of mixing established names, including Philippe Garrel (The Plough), Margarethe von Trotta...

18 titles selected for competition, including films by Christian Petzold, Emily Atef, Margarethe Von Trotta and Philippe Garrel.

The 18-strong Competition line-up for the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival has been announced by festival heads Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek.

Scroll down for full list

New films from Christian Petzold, Margarethe Von Trotte, Emily Atef and Lila Avilés are among those selected. Some 15 of the 18 titles are world premieres, with international premieres for Celine Song’s Past Lives after debuting to strong reviews at Sundance; Makoto Shinkai’s animation Suzume, released in Japan last November; and Australia’s The Survival Of Kindness by Rolf de Heer,...

Sean Penn, Jesse Eisenberg, Canadian actor-director Matt Johnson, South Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo, and Korean-Canadian director Celine Song are headed to the upcoming Berlin Film Festival.

Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian and executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeck on Monday unveiled the main Competition and Encounters selections for the fest’s 73rd edition, which will feature a rich mix of known names and newcomers, as well as a strong political emphasis.

Penn will be in Berlin with “Superpower,” the doc he co-directed with Aaron Kaufman that depicts the struggle between Volodymyr Zelensky, the actor and comedian who became president of Ukraine, and Russian president Vladimir Putin, as Russia deploys a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Penn was in Kiev shooting a film with Zelensky when the war in Ukraine burst,” Chatrian said at a press conference in Berlin. “Reality made the film change into something less comfortable and more meaningful,” he added. “We...

Two Basque movies screen in San Sebastian main competition, multiple others, from ever more notable and noted filmmakers, play other sections or grace Basque showcase Zinemira. A drilldown:

“Blue Files” (“Karpeta Urdinak”, Ander Iriarte, Spain-France)

Iriarte directs a doc investigating his father’s potential torture while in police custody. The investigations take the doc deeper into findings from Basque’s “Research project on torture and ill-treatment in the Basque Country between 1960-2014.” Produced by Gastibeltza, Filmak, and Iriarte’s own Mirokutana.

“Bi Arnas,” (Jon Mikel Fernandez Elorz, Spain)

A debut documentary from Basque journalist and teacher Elorz. Bi Arnas, meaning “two breaths,” features mother Maria Nieves Diaz and her daughter, Iratxe Sorzabal, who was a former head of Eta. It explores the alleged use of torture of Sorzabal by Spanish Police while in custody.

“Black is Beltza II: Ainhoa,” (Fermin Muguruza)

The sequel to Muguruza’s 2018 animated feature, following Ainhoa,...

Rising South African filmmaker Thati Pele, the director of the hit Netflix teen drama “Blood and Water” and the streamer’s new original series “Savage Beauty,” is preparing her first feature film, which will be produced by the team behind the Oscar-shortlisted LGBTQ drama “The Wound.”

“Brace Yourself” unspools on a failed romantic island getaway, where straitlaced orthodontist Dr. Shaloba Molefe decides to kidnap her unravelling family and won’t let them leave until they love her again. The film is produced by Elias Ribeiro and Cait Pansegrouw for Urucu Media, in co-production with Frank Hoeve, a 2018 Efp Producer on the Move, for the Netherlands’ Baldr Film.

“Brace Yourself” was selected for North American streamer Topic and Statement Films’ program to support, develop and finance projects from female African filmmakers. It was also selected for Thuthuka, a co-development collaboration between the Netherlands Film Fund and the National Film and Video Foundation (Nfvf) of South Africa.

Seville’s Ferdydurke Films, the label of San Sebastian and Goya-winning director Fernando Franco, will join forces with San Sebastian’s Kowalski Films and Madrid’s Lazona Films to produce “The Rite of Spring” (“La consacración de la primavera”), Franco’s awaited third feature as a director.

Delayed by Covid-19 – the project was originally presented at Paris forum Small is Beautiful in 2019 – “The Rite of Spring” is scheduled to shoot in the first quarter of 2022.

Also written by Franco, “The Rite of Spring” is backed by Spain’s Icaa film agency, the regional government of Andalusia and Madrid and Andalusian public broadcaster Canal Sur. It turns on Laura, 18, who arrives in Madrid to begin university and, alone, strikes up a friendship with the slightly older David. The film is a coming of age story: While Stravinsky’s work portrayed a sacrificial rite, Franco’s film will look more at the...

Jesse Eisenberg, Adrien Brody and Riley Keough are set to star in John Trengove’s Manodrome, to be unveiled at the Cannes virtual market.

The nihilistic thriller tells the story of Ralphie, played by Eisenberg, an Uber driver and aspiring bodybuilder who is inducted into a libertarian masculinity cult and loses his grip on reality when his repressed desires are awakened. Felix Culpa’s Keough, Gina Gammell and Ryan Zacarias are producing with Ben Giladi’s Liminal Content.

CAA Media Finance arranged financing and will handle the sale of the domestic rights. An international rights deal is understood to be in the works ahead of Cannes.

Trengove is making his English-language debut after his Xhosa-language debut feature, The Wound, screened at Sundance and Berlin. Eisenberg is best known for his star turns in The Social Network and the Now You See Me film franchise.

Brody won an Oscar for his role in The Pianist.

India’s Oscar entry is screening from Jan 27, 3pm UK time.

Screen International has partnered with film market platform Archipel Market on an exclusive series of screenings focused on the international feature awards race.

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

The upcoming screenings are listed below, with more titles set to be added during this year’s awards season.

The screenings are open to awards voters and industry professionals and will be available for 24 hours after the start time.

Click here to RSVP or fill out the form below

For more...

Nigeria’s Oscar entry is screening from Jan 22, 3pm UK time.

Screen International has partnered with film market platform Archipel Market on an exclusive series of 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 India (Jallikattu); Latvia (Blizzard Of Souls); Nigeria (The Milkmaid); and South Africa (Toorbos). More titles will be added during this year’s awards season.

The screenings are open to awards voters and industry professionals and will be available for 24 hours after the start time.

The first titles are the Oscar entries for India, Latvia, Nigeria, and South Africa.

Screen International has partnered with film market Archipel Market on an exclusive series of 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 India (Jallikattu); Latvia (Blizzard Of Souls); Nigeria (The Milkmaid); and South Africa (Toorbos). More titles will be added during this year’s awards season.

The screenings are open to awards voters and industry professionals and will be available...

Orange Studio has boarded “Tanzanite,” a female-centric thriller from Swiss-Rwandan filmmaker Kantarama Gahigiri, Variety has learned exclusively.

“Tanzanite” takes place in the year 2045 in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, a lawless city where temperatures have become dangerously high and the government has imposed a curfew to tame brewing unrest. One day, a bright and feisty 11-year-old girl working in an illegal mine discovers a precious tanzanite gemstone, which is believed to hold the soul of the region and give hope and protection to its bearer.

But the gemstone’s discovery sets off a scramble to possess it and harness its powers, pitting a psychopathic cult leader and his private army against an all-female militia and a jaded detective on the downward slope of her career.

“Tanzanite” is co-produced by Urucu Media and Close Up Films, with development funding from Orange Studio and Switzerland’s Migros. The film is co-written by Gahigiri...

Madrid — Producer of Academy Award nominated “7.35 in the Morning” and “One Two Many” and then signature features by Nacho Vigalondo, Borja Cobeaga and Koldo Serra, Basque cinema driving force Sayaka Producciones has boarded Alauda Ruíz de Azúa’s “Five Little Wolves” as a producer.

Etb, the Basque Country’s public broadcaster, is also backing the project, pre-buying rights in March 2020.

Sayaka joins Madrid-based Encanta Films, producer of “The Wound,” a San Sebastian Special Jury Prize and best actress winner, on one of the most awaited of Spanish feature debuts, and also one of five projects selected from more than 200 submissions for the Ecam Madrid Film School’s second edition in 2019 of its Screen Incubator.

A leading Spanish development initiative, the Incubator is supported by Netflix, Movistar Plus, Tve and Atresmedia which all sent representatives to talk to the producers and directors.

“Five Little Wolves” also won the first prize for...

The dearth of African contenders in the main competition at this year’s Berlinale might come as no surprise to the continent’s perennially disappointed filmmakers. One could argue — not unfairly — that Africa is still underrepresented at the world’s top film festivals.

But you wouldn’t have to look hard to find emerging African voices in festival strands like Berlin’s Panorama, Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema, or Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. That many of these films are from first- and second-time directors bodes well for a continent still grappling to reclaim its own narrative.

Three years after Senegal’s Alain Gomis won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for his Kinshasa-set drama “Félicité,” other kudos for African filmmakers have followed. The past 12 months alone have seen Sudanese director Suhaib Gasmelbari’s documentary “Talking About Trees” scoop a pair of prizes in last year’s Berlinale; Sudan’s Amjad Abu Alala...

Six prizes awarded this year at CineMart closing night.

Argentinian director Natalia Garagiola’s Infanta, produced by Rei Cine, won the Eurimages Co-production Development Award, worth €20,000, at the Iffr Pro award ceremony at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on January 29, the closing night of co-production market CineMart (January 29).

The award Eurimages award is open to CineMart or BoostNL projects that are or will be a European co-production. Infanta is Garagiola’s second feature after 2017’s Hunting Season. The jury said: “[This] project promises to be an intense drama, with a starting point in real historical events.”

The Filmmore Post-production Award, presented...

Durban–When Ros and Teddy Sarkin raised the curtain on the first Durban Intl. Film Festival 40 years ago, the odds were long that their scrappy fest would survive its inaugural edition.

The apartheid government and its draconian censorship board had a stranglehold on the films that reached South African theaters, banning the sorts of subversive movies the Sarkins hoped to screen. Cinemas across the country were forced to segregate audiences. For the festival’s first edition, just seven films unspooled at Durban’s historic, independent Avalon Cinema, whose mixed-race audience had no way of knowing if the police would bust down the door at any moment.

Four decades on, South Africa has grown into a vibrant democracy and the economic engine of the continent, and the Durban film fest – whose 40th edition runs from July 18-28 – is no longer a window onto the world for South Africans living under the shadow of apartheid.

The 10th edition of the Durban FilmMart, which unspools parallel to the 40th Durban Intl. Film Festival, will feature 10 fiction and 10 documentary works-in-progress taking part in its annual Finance Forum. The leading co-production market on the continent, the Forum brings together producers, distributors, sales agents, broadcasters, funding bodies, and other industry players from across the globe for four days of pitching sessions and networking opportunities from July 19-22.

“The Dfm Finance Forum was always intended as a springboard platform for African filmmakers to access global markets,” says Durban Film Office and Dfm head Toni Monty. “When we began 10 years ago, only a handful of the filmmakers submitting to Dfm really understood how to prepare for the international market. Ten years on the applications have become much more sophisticated and competitive.”

Recent editions of the Finance Forum have helped launch the festival careers of films like Un Certain Regard selection “Rafiki,...

Moez Masoud will helm “Hello Brother,” a movie about the deadly terror attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The film will follow a family facing death and destruction in Afghanistan who escape with their lives. Their story meshes with that of the recent attacks by a 28-year-old white supremacist on the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic center. The shootings claimed the lives of 51 worshipers and were partly live-streamed on social media. The title of the project is based upon the words of the gunman as he entered the first mosque.

Masoud is a producer, Cambridge scholar and noted public speaker. His movie, “Clash,” was the opening film in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2016.

“In Christchurch, on March 15, the world witnessed an unspeakable crime against humanity,” Masoud said. “The story that ‘Hello Brother’ will bring to audiences is just one step in the healing process, so that we...

For the second straight year, a record eight African films were submitted to the Academy for consideration, vying for a chance to bring home just the third statue for the continent in the nearly 50 years since Costa-Gavras won for the Algerian-French political thriller “Z.”

This year’s submissions aren’t likely to get the buzz of 2017 hopefuls “Felicité,” which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize in Berlin for Franco-Senegalese helmer Alain Gomis, or fest darling “The Wound,” by South Africa’s John Trengove. Both were shortlisted for the Oscar but failed to make the final cut.

Related Content Critical Analysis: Prior Nominees Canada and Australia

Even as recent years have showcased a wealth of burgeoning talent in sub-Saharan Africa, moviemaking on the continent remains a challenge, and few countries find the resources to produce Oscar-worthy candidates year after year. Tellingly, it took funding from five countries to power “Felicité...

Pluto Film takes rights to Cape Town-set drama.

Berlin-based sales outfit Pluto Film Distribution has picked up rights to South African debut feature The Tree.

The film is from producers Elias Ribeiro and Cait Pansegrouw of Urucu Media, whose previous feature The Wound premiered at Sundance 2017 in the World Competition strand and also played as the opening film of Berlinale Panorama that year. The film was South Africa’s foreign language Oscar entry for 2018 and made the shortlist.

The Tree marks the debut of writer-director Louw Venter. Production is now underway in South Africa and is scheduled to wrap imminently.

Screen’s regularly updated list of foreign language Oscar submissions.

Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards are not until Tuesday January 22, but the first submissions for best foreign-language film are now being announced.

Last year saw a record 92 submissions for the award, which were narrowed down to a shortlist of nine. This was cut to five nominees, with Sebastián Lelio’s transgender drama A Fantastic Woman ultimately taking home the gold statue.

Screen’s interview with Mark Johnson, chair of the Academy’s foreign-language film committee, explains the shortlisting process from submission to voting.

Submitted films must be released theatrically...

Screen’s regularly updated list of foreign language Oscar submissions.

Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards are not until Tuesday January 22, but the first submissions for best foreign-language film are now being announced.

Last year saw a record 92 submissions for the award, which were narrowed down to a shortlist of nine. This was cut to five nominees, with Sebastián Lelio’s transgender drama A Fantastic Woman ultimately taking home the gold statue.

Screen’s interview with Mark Johnson, chair of the Academy’s foreign-language film committee, explains the shortlisting process from submission to voting.

Submitted films must be released theatrically...

Or Else It Gets the Hose Again: Qubeka Recuperates a Rebel from Apartheid South Africa

South Africa’s film industry remains somewhat on the fringe of itself, a place explored as a subject due to its infamous history of Apartheid rather than a landscape conducive to filmmakers and storytellers. That’s not to say there aren’t a diverse multitude of perspectives deserving of their own narrative coming out of South Africa or that a larger majority of them aren’t being produced and distributed—it’s just few get beyond the festival circuit, and those that do are most often directed by white men. While Neill Blomkamp came blazing out of Joburg like Paul Verhoeven’s ascension from the Netherlands, a smaller coterie of burgeoning auteurs have slowly been gaining critical acclaim, among them the likes of Oliver Hermanus and John Trengove with last year’s The Wound.…

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