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Italy’s The Open Reel has taken on international sales for Mónica Taboada-Tapia’s documentary Soul Of The Desert which premieres in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori sidebar as a special event.

Filmed in the arid landscapes of La Guajira in Colombia, it is the story of a transgender Wayúu woman in the third act of her life who knows that her time is running out and sets out to meet her siblings. None of them speak Spanish and barely survive on the fringes of Colombian society.

Soul Of The Desert is the feature film debut of Taboada-Tapia, whose short...

He may've just won Hollywood's attention by snagging the coveted trophy for best actor in a television series, comedy or musical, but Gael García Bernal has long been an indie darling. Though it's his first Golden Globe win, it definitely wasn't the actor's first impressive performance. Wondering where you've seen Mozart in the Jungle's intense New York Symphony maestro before? Here's a primer on the Mexican heartthrob making headlines this awards season. 1. He revved our engines in The Motorcycle Diaries.Bernal made a lasting impression in the 2004 biopic The Motorcycle Diaries, where he played the young Che Guevara on...

As the red carpets are rolled up and the screening rooms shut for another year, a final few nuggets of casting news reach us from Cannes. First, via The Wrap, is some news on “Rosewater,” the film Jon Stewart is taking 12 weeks off "The Daily Show" this summer to shoot (don’t panic, John Oliver will be hosting in his absence). Despite Stewart’s comedic day job, "Rosewater" is a drama, based on a true story about Maziar Bahari, a journalist who was detained in Iran while covering the 2009 elections there. The news: Gael Garcia Bernal has just been cast as Bahari. It seems awfully close to the start of shooting to be casting your leading man, but nevertheless Bernal has strong dramatic and political chops (“Fidel”, “No”), so this seems like a good pick.Still in international thriller territory, The Wrap is also reporting the casting of Paddy Considine...

It doesn’t matter what the awards are for – expect to see Avatar on the list. And so as another list of industry nominations have been made, so it follows that James Cameron’s 3D record-breaker gets a mention and that’s precisely the case with the Costume Designers Guild gongs. The annual prize-giving sorts costuming contenders into three categories – fantasy, period and contemporary and now in its 12th year, the sci-fi smash has muscled in to secure a nom for designers Mayes C. Rubeo (a previous nominee for her work on TV’s Fidel in 2002) and Deborah Lynn Scott (an Oscar-winner for her clothes on previous Cameron blockbuster, Titanic). But they face some stiff competition in their category, to see who they’re against and how it shapes up in the other two groupings, click over.

Patricia Velazquez, who next stars in Renny Harlin's actioner Mindhunters, is set to star as the wife of Emilio Zapata in Alfonso Arau's long-in-development biopic Zapata. The project is in production in Morelos, Mexico. The independent biopic sees Latin singing star Alejandro Fernandez topline as the late Mexican revolutionary hero elected leader of his village, San Miguel Anenecuilco, in 1909. He went on to organize an army, fighting against repression and for the socialization of the land. Lured to a meeting with government officials, Zapata was assassinated in April 1919. Arau is producing through his Comala Films along with Ricardo Del Rio from a script by Arau. Velazquez is repped by the Gersh Agency and Mosaic Media Group. Her credits include the miniseries Fidel and the features Turn It Up, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns.