News

Belén Cuesta y Karra Elejalde protagonizan la nueva película de Mariano Barroso para Netflix. © Netflix

Netflix ha puesto el broche final al rodaje de El niño, la nueva película escrita y dirigida por Mariano Barroso, que culmina su producción en Madrid tras recorrer varias localizaciones del País Vasco.

El filme adapta la novela del mismo título escrita por Fernando Aramburu (Patria), que está inspirada en hechos reales: la explosión de gas en un colegio del municipio vizcaíno de Ortuella, ocurrida en octubre de 1980, en la que perdieron la vida varios niños. La tragedia marcó profundamente a la comunidad local y tuvo un fuerte impacto en todo el país. En el núcleo del relato figuran Mariaje y Nicasio, madre y abuelo de uno de los menores fallecidos. ¿Cómo se supera la pérdida de un hijo y de un nieto?

El reparto reúne a dos pesos pesados del cine español. Belén Cuesta,...

Principal photography is set to begin in April on “The Captive” (“El Cautivo”), the period adventure epic from Alejandro Amenábar, whose “The Sea Inside” won an Oscar for best foreign language film. Film Constellation has boarded worldwide sales, and will introduce the project to buyers at the European Film Market.

The film centers on the origin story of Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the iconic novel “Don Quixote.” At the age of 28, Cervantes was taken captive by the Moors in Algiers, leading to his creative birth.

The $15 million production will shoot at locations in Spain including Valencia, Alicante and Seville.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is on board to release the film in Spain next year.

The film is set in Algiers in 1575 when Cervantes, a wounded 28-year-old Spanish Navy soldier, is held prisoner by Ottoman corsairs. Faced with a ticking clock, a cruel death awaits him should his...

London- and Paris-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation is launching sales on the remake rights of Spanish thriller “Fatum.”

Directed by Juan Gualinanes and produced by Vaca Films, the outfit behind box office successes “Sky High” and “Cell 211,” “Fatum” was released in Spain by Universal Studios on April 28. Film Constellation has already reported sales to 50 territories on the original Spanish version.

A compulsive gambler and an elite sniper’s destinies meet on a fateful day when the local betting house gets robbed. When a single gunshot is fired, the next 24 hours will set them on a race against time that will define their lives forever.

The film is headlined by a strong cast including Luis Tosar, Álex García, Elena Anaya and Arón Piper.

“Fatum” is produced by Borja Pena and Emma Lustres of Vaca Films, in association with Playtime, with the participation of Prime Video, Rtve, Crtvg,...

Studiocanal is collaborating with Sixteen Films’ Rebecca O’Brien and Morena Film’s Juan Gordon to develop a series created by longtime Ken Loach scribe Paul Laverty and to be directed by Spain’s Iciar Bollaín.

The drama series will be the first for both Laverty and Bollaín after writing and directing respectively 19 and nine feature films, including collaborations on Bollaín’s multi-prized “Yuli,” “The Olive Tree” and “Even the Rain,” movies that established her as one of Spain’s top film directors.

Over the last few years, Cannes’ MipTV trade fair, once a strict TV silo, is now ever more MipFilm. Signs of an ever-building crossover between the two sectors look indeed to make up one of the hallmarks of this year’s event.

In multiple different moves, iconic film talent is plunging ever more into series.

Conceived for TV, content can sell to film distributors, such as has been...

Disney Plus has acquired Latin American broadcast rights to animated musical “Turu and the Wackies,” a 26-episode CGI spin-off series from the hit 2019 toon movie “Turu, the Wacky Hen,” a Spanish Academy best animated feature winner that Filmax has sold to 75 countries.

In further deals, Spanish public broadcaster Rtve has taken broadcast rights in Spain and A’Punt those to Spain’s Valencia region.

An ode to diversity, “Turu, the Wacky Hen” turns on a hen which can’t lay eggs but, when taken in by Isabel, an elderly lady and ex music teacher, discovers that it can speak to humans. Also, it sure can sing.

In the Spanish-Argentine series, which is being sold internationally by Filmax, Turu sets up a band with his farm friends: the elegant little pig Rhythm, who plays guitar, and energetic sheep Beat, on drums. Together they discover the world around them through adventures and...

Photo: 'Alta Mar'/'High Seas'/Netflix Best Spanish movies/TV shows on Netflix: I have spent the past ten years attempting to become fluent in Spanish. I was the best student in all of my middle/ high school Spanish classes, so naturally, I was always a bit frustrated that I could never speak the language conversationally. Even the adorable mascot of Duolingo wasn’t working completely. I never thought I’d ever be let down by a green owl with giant eyes who teaches people to conjugate verbs. But recently, I’ve found a key to speeding up this process and its name is Spanish Netflix. If you are a Spanish speaker or working on learning the language, here are five shows and movies in Spanish on Netflix that I highly recommend. Best Spanish Movies/TV Shows: #1 - Tambien la Lluvia (Even the Rain) (2010) 'Tambien la Lluvia' is...

’Wonder Park’, ’Wild Rose’ among other new openers.

Lionsgate’s superhero title Hellboy will look to overcome predominantly negative reviews for the film in its first weekend at the UK box office.

After a reviews embargo that lifted at 10pm UK time on Wednesday 10, the film opened wide around the country yesterday (Thursday 11).

Directed by Neil Marshall, the film is based on the Dark Horse Comics character, who battles an undead sorceress trying to destroy the world. Stranger Things star David Harbour plays the title role, alongside Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim and Thomas Haden Church.

Chicago – One of the oldest Latino Film Festivals is right here in the Windy City, as the 35th edition of the Chicago Latino Film Festival (Clff) kicks off with a Cuban/Spain/UK/German film entitled “Yuli” on March 28th, 2019, at the AMC River East 21 in the Streeterville neighborhood. This Opening Night and its gala after celebrates a Night of Cuba. Although the event is sold out, click here for additional information.

Opening Night of the 35th Clff Celebrates Cuba Night with ‘Yuli’

Photo credit: ChicagoLatinoFilmFestival.org

Spanish director Icíar Bollaín (“Even the Rain”) and her partner Paul Laverty (Ken Loach’s longtime collaborator) try something completely different with this adaptation of acclaimed Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta’s autobiography. Yuli, the nickname given to Acosta by his father Pedro, runs wild in the streets of Havana where he participates in dance-offs with other kids. Recognizing Yuli’s natural talent,...

Bolivia’s Gory Patiño, writer-director for his country’s Academy Award submission “The Goalkeeper” – also the highest grossing Bolivian film in 15 years – and his frequent filmmaking partner, Spain’s Luis Reneo, are participating in this year’s Ventana Sur films in progress section with their socio-political thriller “Pseudo.”

The project was also selected as a finalist for a post-production award at the Havana Film Festival and, in before production, was awarded development prizes by Spain’s Ibermedia and the Bolivia Lab. It also tapped funding from La Paz city hall and comes as the Bolivian government is in the process of introducing federal funding regulation, the last country in the region to provide such state incentives.

All that’s left now is to secure completion finance for post-production. The film will be ready for a 2019 release.

“’Pseudo’ is the reason I went back to my country after 12 years living in the States,...

Director Gory Patino debuts with ‘The Goalkeeper’ (‘Muralla’) now screening in Los Angeles.

Did you know that approximately eight children a day disappear from the streets of La Paz in Bolivia as human trafficking becomes a serious international business? This story is not about that but about a man who seeks redemption after his one brush with this as he does the unthinkable to save his desperately ill son. Racked with guilt and haunted by ghosts, Jorge seeks to rescue the young girl he sold, even if it means his own downfall.

This fiction feature is actually a spin-off of a 10 episode TV series called La Entrega that Patino has created about a missing girl sold to the human trafficking network. Muralla, a broken man who was a former soccer star, an incidental character in the series becomes a fully developed character in this movie, Bolivia’s Official Submission for...

Read More: San Sebastian Film Festival Announces 2015 Competition Titles The 63rd San Sebastian International Film Festival has announced the eight films that will compete for the Irizar Basque Film Award in this year's Zinemira program. The section is dedicated to films produced in the Basque country and includes four world premieres. The Irizar Award will be decided by a specific jury and comes with €20,000 gross for the producers of the winning film. Additionally, makeup artist Karmele Soler will be honored with the Zinemira Award at the Basque Film Gala on September 22. Soler was born in San Sebastian and became an apprentice of the makeup artist Romana González on José Luis Garci's film, "Sesión continua" (1984). Her work includes foreign titles such as "También la lluvia (Even the Rain)," "Sin vergüenza (No Shame)" and "Palmeras en la nieve (Palm Trees in the...

World Bank study recommends 51 films using development as a plot device - sometimes at expense of accuracy and complexity

International development is just about at the bottom of the list of things that the average westerner thinks about each day. News organisations are closing their foreign bureaus. One of the big Us television networks turned down more money for global health reporting after a series, entirely funded by grants, led to a dip in viewers. In other words ratings were so bad that the network turned down millions of dollars. It is that tough.

Aside from advocacy efforts like (the much-criticised) Kony 2012 and Oxfam advertisements, how do people learn about the world around them? The answer could be Hollywood. Reporting on Africa does not get much attention in the Us, but a film staring Leonardo DiCaprio about Sierra Leone does.

A film like Blood Diamond, setting aside its problems, brings...

Movies At The Mansion, Luton

A classier interpretation of pop-up cinema here: screenings in the opulent state rooms of Wrest Park, recently reopened after a major restoration of its gardens. After a free screening of The Gruffalo for kids, there's a choice of movies by Stanley Kubrick (whose own mansion wasn't far from here). The epic 18th-century sweep of Barry Lyndon should look right at home in these surroundings, while The Shining at least offers labyrinthine topiary for the gardening set. Kubrick's producer Jan Harlan introduces the screenings.

Wrest Park, Sat

The Passion Of Carl Dreyer, London

Most of Carl Dreyer's films were considered failures at the time; today many of them are considered masterpieces, particularly his best-known works, The Passion Of Joan Of Arc and Vampyr. Beautifully crafted, grippingly dramatic and infused with an uncanny spiritual intensity, his movies seem to come from another place – or at least...

Preview

“One Happy Island,” One Illustrious Fest

The second annual Aruba International Film Festival celebrates the art of cinema with film screenings, special guests and hands-on training

Blogs

Aruba Confidential I: Hot Stars on a Hot Night

The Caribbean island’s second annual film festival kicks off with Kim Cattrall walking the red carpet

Reviews

“The Guard”

Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle star in an independent Irish film that puts a fresh spin on the fish-out-of-water-meets-interracial-buddy-comedy

“The Son of No One”

Dito Montiel ‘s film is a jumbled mess — add to that a ridiculous premise, absurd storytelling choices, and you get a cinematic disaster

“Meet Monica Velour”

Kim Cattrall stars as an ’80s-era porn star who’s reached middle age in this sweet coming-of-ager with unwitting social commentary

“Kites”

Indian director Anurag Basu and producer Rakesh Roshan bring their Hindi sensibility to a largely English- and Spanish-language production set in...

Preview

“One Happy Island,” One Illustrious Fest

The second annual Aruba International Film Festival celebrates the art of cinema with film screenings, special guests and hands-on training

Blogs

Aruba Confidential I: Hot Stars on a Hot Night

The Caribbean island’s second annual film festival kicks off with Kim Cattrall walking the red carpet

Reviews

“The Guard”

Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle star in an independent Irish film that puts a fresh spin on the fish-out-of-water-meets-interracial-buddy-comedy

“The Son of No One”

Dito Montiel ‘s film is a jumbled mess — add to that a ridiculous premise, absurd storytelling choices, and you get a cinematic disaster

“Meet Monica Velour”

Kim Cattrall stars as an ’80s-era porn star who’s reached middle age in this sweet coming-of-ager with unwitting social commentary

“Kites”

Indian director Anurag Basu and producer Rakesh Roshan bring their Hindi sensibility to a largely English- and Spanish-language production set in...

If today's political activists are seeking inspiration from history, they should look no further than the 16th-century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas. As one of the early Spanish settlers in the West Indies, Las Casas participated in many of the atrocities -- slavery, torture and murder -- the settlers committed against the indigenous peoples. But Las Casas later saw the error of his ways, gave up his slaves, and devoted his life to fighting for the rights of the Indians, whom his fellow colonists considered less than human. Through his writings and activism, Las Casas is considered one of the first advocates for universal human rights.

Sadly, Las Casas probably would be very disillusioned by the state of today's world, where oppressed peoples continue to suffer in so many ways. But he also might find hope, for his modern-day activist brethren are still raging against their oppressors.

El Infierno, Chicogrande, and the other nominations of the 2011 Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) have been announced. The 53rd Annual Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) are presented by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences. “The Ariel is the Mexican Academy of Film Award. It has been awarded annually since 1947. The award recognizes excellence in motion picture making, such as acting, directing and screenwriting in Mexican cinema. It is considered the most prestigious award in the Mexican movie industry.” The 53rd Annual Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) “ceremony will take place on May 7 [, 2011] at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.” The full listing of the 2011 Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) nominations is below

Best Picture

Abel

Chicogrande

El infierno (Hell)

Best Director

Felipe Cazals, Chicogrande

Luis Estrada, El infierno (Hell)

Diego Luna, Abel

Best Actress

Karina Gidi, Abel

Mónica del Carmen, Año bisiesto (Leap Year)

Maricel Álvarez, Biutiful

Úrsula Pruneda, Las...

Nader and Simin, a Separation and the other winners of the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival have been announced. The 61st Annual Berlin International Film Festival, often called the Berlinale, is “one of the world’s leading film festivals and most reputable media events.With 274,000 tickets sold and 487,000 admissions it is considered the largest publicly-attended film festival worldwide. Up to 400 films are shown in several sections, representing a comprehensive array of the cinematic world.” The full listing of the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival winners is below.

Golden Bear for Best Film

Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader And Simin, A Separation) by Asghar Farhadi

Silver Bear – The Jury Grand Prix

A torinói ló (The Turin Horse) by Béla Tarr

Silver Bear – Best Director

Ulrich Köhler for Schlafkrankheit (Sleeping Sickness)

Silver Bear – Best Actress

to the actress-ensemble in Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader And Simin, A Separation) by Asghar Farhadi

Silver Bear – Best...

We haven't mentioned the Berlinale at all in the heat of Oscar week. So let's do that, shall we? Better late than never. The festival closes tomorrow but the awards were handed out over the past two days.

"Nader and Simin: A Separation" Golden Bear

Asghar Fahradi, who got a lot of Oscar buzz a couple years back (though no nomination) for About Elly, won this year's Golden Bear for Nader & Simin: A Separation (2011). The Hollywood Reporter explains the film like so.

Farhadi's drama traces the breakup of a Iranian family set against the political tensions in Tehran. While not overtly political, Nader and Simin is starkly critical of conditions in Iran, notably the country's huge class divide. It was widely tipped to win Berlin's top prize, not least because of the current upheaval in the Middle East.

Fahradi dedicated his prize to jailed filmmaker Jafar Panihi who was also...

The 61st edition of Berlinale kicked off late last week, and with the inclusion of four spanish films, four less than the last year. The already well known “También La Lluvia” (“Even The Rain”) by Icíar Bollaín, “Amador” by Fernando León de Aranoa and “Medianeras” by Gustavo Taretto, all presented out of competition at the panorama section. The fourth film, “Escuchando Al Juez Garzón”, by cult filmmaker Isabel Coixet (“My Life Without Me”) is a documentary shot on black and white based on a popular figure in a Spanish judge -- this will be showcased at Specials section of the Berlinale. Although we have covered before films like “También La Lluvia” and “Amador”, the film “Medianeras” comes from out of nowhere. Directed by Argentinian Gustavo Taretto, this is an adaptation of its 2005 short film of the same title that won over forty international awards. This coproduction between Spain and Argentina...

Black Bread, Buitful, and the other winners of the 2011 Goya Awards (Premios Goyas) have been announced. The 25th Annual Goya Awards “known in Spanish as los Premios Goya, are Spain’s main national film awards, considered by many in Spain, and internationally, to be the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards.” The full listing of the 2011 Goya Awards (Premios Goyas) winners is below.

Film

Pa negre (Black Bread)

Director

Agustí Villaronga, Pa negre (Black Bread)

New Director

David Pinillos, Bon Apetit

Production Supervision

Cristina Zumárraga, También la lluvia (Even the Rain)

Photography

Antonio Riestra, Pa negre (Black Bread)

Original Screenplay

Chris Sparling, Buried

Adapted Screenplay

Agustí Villaronga, Pa negre (Black Bread)

Art Direction

Ana Alvargonzález, Pa negre (Black Bread)

Leading Actress

Nora Navas, Pa negre (Black Bread)

Leading Actor

Javier Bardem, Biutiful

Supporting Actress

Laia Marull, Pa negre (Black Bread)

Supporting Actor

Karra Elejalde, También la lluvia (Even the Rain)

New Actress

Marina Comas,...

Alex de la Iglesia's A Sad Trumpet Ballad Best Film Balada triste de trompeta / A Sad Trumpet Ballad Buried * Pan negro / Black Bread También la lluvia / Even the Rain Best Spanish-Language Foreign Film Contracorriente / Undertow (Peru) El hombre de al lado (Argentina) El infierno (México) * La vida de los peces (Chile) Best European Film * The King's Speech (UK) The Ghost Writer (France) The White Ribbon (Germany) A Prophet (France) Best Director Alex de la Iglesia for A Sad Trumpet Ballad Rodrigo Cortés for Buried * Agustí Villaronga for Black Bread Iciar Bollaín for Even the Rain Best Actress Elena Anaya for Room in Rome Emma Suárez for La mosquitera Belén Rueda for Los ojos de Julia / Julia's Eyes * Nora Navas for Black Bread Best Actor Antonio de la Torre for A Sad Trumpet Ballad * Javier Bardem for Biutiful Ryan Reynolds for Buried [...]...

Director Iciar Bollain's political drama También La Lluvia is up for fourteen Goya Awards, Spain's equivalent of the Academy Awards, and now American audiences will be able to see the must-see Spanish import.

Spanish director Bollain tells CineMovie, Alejandro Gonzales Iñarritu was attached to the project before he left to direct and write the Oscar nominated Biutiful and how she came to the project as well as casting Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal in her first big budget film. 

Watch our video interview with the Spanish director.

Movie Clip:  Gael Garcia Bernal in También La Lluvia

También La Lluvia's Goya nominations include Best Picture and Best Director for Bollain, and Best Actor for the film's Luis Tosar who will compete with Javier Bardem's performance in Biutiful.  Bolivian and first-time actor Karra Elejalde also received a nomination for Best New Actor

Read more...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? También la lluvia (Even The Rain) Trailer Director, and native Spaniard, Icíar Bollaín certainly has picked someone unique to talk about the Bolivian Cochabamba water...

Nine films will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 83rd Academy Awards. Sixty-six films had originally qualified in the category.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Algeria, Hors la Loi (Outside the Law), Rachid Bouchareb, director

Canada, Incendies, Denis Villeneuve, director

Denmark, In a Better World, Susanne Bier, director

Greece, Dogtooth, Giorgos Lanthimos, director

Japan, Confessions, Tetsuya Nakashima, director

Mexico, Biutiful, Alejandro Gonz&#225lez I&#241&#225rritu, director

South Africa, Life, above All, Oliver Schmitz, director

Spain, Tambien la Lluvia (Even the Rain), Ic&#237ar Bolla&#237n, director

Sweden, Simple Simon, Andreas Ohman, director

Foreign Language Film nominations for 2010 are again being determined in two phases.

The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based members, screened the 66 eligible films between mid-October and January 13. The group's top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy's...

2010 was the weakest year at the Spanish box office in a decade – proof that the films with the most box office potential fell flat. Actually, very few have performed decently. Ironically the biggest flops and the most coldly received by critics films are the ones top lining the nominations for this year's Spanish Academy Awards, the Goyas. Alex de la Iglesia's “Balada Triste de Trompeta” gathered 15 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor (Antonio De La Torre), Best Supporting Actress (Terele Pávez) and Best Newcomer Actress (Carolina Bang). “Pan Nere” follows with 14 nominations, the surprise hit by Agustí Villaronga will compete for Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Sergi López), Best Actress (Nora Navas), Best Newcomer Actor (Francesc Colomer) and Best Supporting Actress (Laia Marull). Following Agustí Villaronga's film we find “También la Lluvia” by Icíar Bollaín with 13 nominations fighting for Best Film,...

See the trailer here. Today I was treated to, or better expressed, awarded, an intimate lunch where I got to sit at a table for six which included Even the Rain's director Iciar Bollain ♀ and its producer Juan Gordon, its U.S. distributor Vitagraph's David Schultz, and one of its most important theatrical exhibitors Landmark Theater's buyer David McAllister, Maya's Tonantzin Esparza and a critic (whose name I did not catch). The discussion was sociable, stimulating and sometimes acutely focused on the film itself. Luckily for Vitagraph, a small and very well connected distributor whose output is some 15 films…...

Manolo Cardona, Cristian Mercado in Javier Fuentes-León's Undertow / Contracorriente (top); Gael Garcia Bernal, Luis Tosar in Iciar Bollain's Even the Rain (middle); Sibel Kekilli in Feo Aladag's When We Leave (bottom) Oscar 2011: Best Foreign Language Film Predictions: Biutiful, The First Beautiful Thing, Carancho Here are a few other possibilities for the 2011 Oscar's Best Foreign Language Film list of semi-finalists: Iciar Bollain's También la Lluvia / Even the Rain (Spain), about two filmmakers (Gael Garcia Bernal and Luis Tosar) exploiting Bolivian extras. The film also offers an analogy to Christopher Columbus' exploitation of American natives. Oliver Schmitz's mother-daughter drama Life, Above All (South Africa). South Africa has done well in the past decade, with a nomination for Yesterday (2004) and a victory for Tsotsi (2005). Javier Fuentes-León's Sundance Film Festival Audience Award winner Undertow / Contracorriente (Peru), which deals with ghosts, forbidden gay love, and social conformism.

Vitagraph Films, a film distributor that services only one to a trio of titles per year, have made the rare pick-up. Following last year's purchase of Germany's The Baader Meinhof Complex, the company have grabbed yet another Foreign Oscar hopeful for a theatrical release sometime next year -- as Spain's Even The Rain will only play in it's host country in January. The film had to beat out other hopefuls such as Daniel Monzón's Celda 211 and Andrucha Waddington's Lope for the country's nomination (worth noting, Luis Tosar star of Even the Rain appeared in all three nominated films) and will now have to go through the two step nomination process for the Oscars: where a longlist is made into a shortlist. Icíar Bollaín directed Tosar in the dark relationship drama, Take My Eyes. Bollaín's Even The Rain, a.k.a “También la Lluvia” was recently presented at...

By asking whether it’s possible to make a feature film about poverty and remain morally consistent, “Even the Rain” bravely calls into question its own existence. A powerful, richly layered indictment of the plight of Latin America’s dispossessed that cunningly parallels the Spanish conquest of the Americas with the 20th-century spread of capitalism, Iciar Bollain’s fifth feature is her most ambitious and best, driving its big ideas home through a tightly knit Paul Laverty script that only falters over the final reel. Offshore sales are guaranteed, though mainstream auds might find the pic’s moral convictions too preachy.

The thought-provoking opening scene features an immense wooden cross being helicoptered into the Bolivian highlands for the shoot of a revisionist drama about the arrival of Columbus in the New World.

Hard-nosed producer Costa (Luis Tosar), director Sebastian (Gael Garcia Bernal) and their team, including actors Anton (Karra Elejalde...

Lights. Cameras. Birthday Action (for this, the 30th of November). Only one month left to go and it's 2010. How crazy is that?

Ridley, Terrence (in the 70s) and Marc

1835 Mark Twain's books have been adapted into movies ever since the movies began. Most notably The Prince and the Pauper and any tale of Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer

1920 Virginia Mayo 40s and 50s star, frequent Danny Kaye foil

1926 Richard Crenna, character actor

1927 Robert Guillaume, "Benson"

1929 Dick Clark, seemingly immortal creature who may finally be destroyed by the rise of his spiritual offspring Ryan Seacrest. It's all very Cronos vs. Zeus, only without the thunderbolts

1937 Ridley Scott, manly director whose movies are usually way better when they're shot through with a strong female presence. Consider the three classics: Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Alien. The rest of the filmography surely has its moments but that's the trinity right there.

1943 Terence Malick,...

• You have to admire European film industry folks - they go to bat for their filmmakers. Further proof that European filmmakers do have it good, the Board of Management of the Council of Europe's Eurimages Fund agreed to support 13 feature films with some Euros and among the featured projects and filmmakers we have veterans Istvan Szabo (Being Julia), Nanni Moretti (Quiet Chaos) and Bent Hamer (O'Horten) receiving some coin for their latest. Danis Tanovic, who just preemed his film Triage at Tiff will receive once again multi-territory support for Cirkus Columbia, while A Town Called Panic pair Vincent Patar & Stéphane Aubier team for another animated project. Spanish director Iciar Bollain (see pic) is prepping her film Even the Rain - a biopic on Christopher Columbus with actors Luis Tosar and Belén Rueda. Here is the full list below of films to watch out for in late 2010, 2011 and beyond.  Kai

...

• France-based Wild Bunch are the masters of their domain – we can forget about the horrible way Che fell victim to a bad market by remembering the success story of The Wrestler. They come to Cannes as usual with a ton of items in competition and a slate of films that gives buyers way too many options. I'll be checking out Cristian Mungiu's Tales From the Golden Age, Gabe Ibanez's Hierro, Looking for Eric by Ken Loach, the probably banned from filmmaking in China again director Lou Ye's Spring Fever, the already controversial (will it be ready on time?) Enter the Void by Gasper Noe and I will hope to fit in Marina De Van's thriller Don't Look Back and Un Certain Regard selected No One Knows About Persan Cats from Iranian filmmaker Bahmann Ghobadi. Wild Bunch also have some savoury titles in post production which I expect

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