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Denmark-based firm LevelK has boarded international sales rights on Aaron Rookus’ Idyllic ahead of its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

Idyllic will debut in the Big Screen Competition at IFFR on Saturday, January 1. The film depicts three generations of a Dutch family as they question their lives and relationships.

It is Dutch director Aaron Rookus’ second feature, after 2023 IFFR title Goodbye Stranger.

Idyllic is produced by Maarten van der Ven and Layla Meijman for the Netherlands’ Studio Ruba, in co-production with Xavier Rombaut of Belgium’s Polar Bear, Ivo Felt of Estonia’s Allfilm and Dutch broadcaster Bnnvara.

“The Possessed,” the third feature film from Bosnian-Dutch filmmaker Ena Sendijarević and her English-language debut, has been greenlit and is set to shoot in Spain at the start of 2026.

The project, which was selected for Cinemart last year, will be presented to buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. International casting is underway. The project, which has 1.2 million Euros in place through the Netherlands Film Fund, has secured majority production funding.

Sendijarević’s second feature “Sweet Dreams,” which was in the main competition at Locarno, was chosen as the official Dutch submission for this year’s Academy Awards. The colonial satire was deemed a “startlingly accomplished sophomore film” by Variety’s reviewer. She signed with Black Bear’s management arm in January and was selected as one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch this year.

Sendijarević’s 2019 feature debut, “Take Me Somewhere Nice,” an absurdist European road trip movie, won...

International Film Festival Rotterdam has revealed its selection of 16 feature film projects for the 41st edition of CineMart, running Jan. 28-31.

In Another Journey Without Women six chain-smoking know-it-alls embark on a tragi-comedic polar expedition in Greenland in 1918. The film is directed by Illum Jacobi, whose The Trouble With Nature appeared at IFFR in 2020. The film features Greenlandic actor Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen in the lead role, alongside David Dencik and Claes Bang as the famed explorer Knud Rasmussen.

“Lucia,” directed by Irish filmmaker Aisling Walsh, concerns the talented but troubled daughter of author James Joyce. The director’s “Maudie” (2016), starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, world premiered in Telluride.

In “Les Diplomates,” two diplomatic counterparts from Austria and Switzerland secretly negotiate the contours of history as the Eastern Bloc disintegrates – fueled by a petty personal grudge. The project is directed by Swiss filmmaker Andreas Fontana, whose eerie thriller “Azor” (2021) picked...

Selection includes new projects by Aisling Walsh, Ena Sendijarević, Andreas Fontana and Beatrice Gibson

Projects by directors including Aisling Walsh, Ena Sendijarević, Andreas Fontana and Beatrice Gibson are among the 2024 line-up for CineMart, the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

CineMart has revealed 16 feature film projects and four immersive projects for its upcoming 41st edition, which runs from January 28-31. Cinemart is also presenting six works-in-progress, of which four are features and two immersive, as part of its Darkroom strand.

The project selection includes Lucia from Irish filmmaker Aisling Walsh whose Maudie (2016), starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke,...

We've made it to another spooky season. The coming October will bring plenty of new horror movies, but that's never enough. We'll also disturb all the old bones of horror movies gone by. Today we're digging up The Possessed, which belongs to the category of "1970s Exorcist ripoffs." It was made for television and originally aired on NBC in 1977, only a few weeks before one of its supporting cast blew up to become one of the biggest movie stars of all time. That's right, The Possessed features Harrison Ford as sleazy high school chemistry teacher Mr. Winjam, before the world got to know him as Han Solo.

Having recently shifted away from their one-film-a-day approach, Mubi has now unveiled their October lineup, which is headlined by Ira Sachs’ stellar drama Passages following its theatrical run this summer. The slate also features handpicked selections by Sachs, with work by Maurice Pialat, Luchino Visconti, Jack Hazan, Shirley Clarke, and Tsai Ming-liang.

Also arriving in October is “Watch If You Dare: Horror Halloween,” a series featuring a trio of giallo classics, with The Fifth Cord, The Possessed, and Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion, alongside Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone and more. The service will also spotlight the work of underseen Japanese director Yasuzô Masumura, including his aching melodrama Red Angel, his biting workplace satire Giants and Toys, his thrilling noir Black Test Car, and more.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

October 1

The Infiltrators, directed by Alex Rivera, Cristina Ibarra | National Hispanic Heritage Month

The Vanished Elephant,...

Whether helping to contain a demonic presence alongside John Jarratt and Lincoln Lewis in Chris Sun's 'The Possessed', or serving up a memorable cameo in Kiah and Tristan Roache-Turner brothers’ zombie action-thriller 'Wyrmwood: Apocalypse', Lauren Grimson has never shied away from showcasing her talents in horror.

The post Scream queen Lauren Grimson answers the call for Corey Pearson’s ‘Cry Baby’ appeared first on If Magazine.

Baozi (Leopard), an “expert” in making short-form videos who is determined to be famous, is confronted with the twin dilemma of his company going bankrupt and compensation payments. His partners, Gouzi (Dog) and Houzi (Monkey), also propose to call it quits. When the three friends receive a special invitation to the set of a horror movie, they decide to secretly film there for their “final gig”. To their surprise, they unexpectedly capture exclusive footage of the movie’s heroine suffering an accident. As they adapt to changing circumstances and continue their secret filming, never did they expect the series of frightening screams and hilarity to intensify …

(Source: Translated from Douban)

Ma Kai, whose last movie was the horror flick The Possessed (2016), is the director with cast members including Fan Chengcheng, Jiang Long, Jiang Yi and Wang Zixuan. This comedy-horror premiered in China on March 31, 2023.