News

Brazil’s O2 Play, the distribution arm of O2 Filmes group, will host a Cannes market screening for director Marcelo Gomes’ latest feature, “Portrait of a Certain Orient,” on Friday, May 17 at 1:30 p.m. in Lerins 4. Ahead of the screening, O2 has given Variety exclusive access to the romantic period drama’s international trailer.

Kicking off in Lebanon in the late 1940s, “Portrait” is a black-and-white adaptation of Milton Hatoum’s novel of the same name. It follows Catholic siblings Emilie and Emir, who decide to emigrate to Brazil. While on the ship taking them across the Atlantic, Emilie falls for Omar, a Muslim merchant. Emir, jealous by nature, becomes enraged and finds Emile’s new relationship intolerable. Emir’s actions and Emili’s choices eventually lead to disastrous consequences after their arrival in South America.

According to Gomes: “In my film, I try to show that the...

Sex and Candy: Gomes’ Wise, Intricate Character Study

Arriving over two years after its world premiere at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival, Brazilian director Marcelo Gomes’ sophomore effort Once Upon a Time, Veronica (receiving a slightly tweaked new title) finally arrives stateside. Picking up several notable awards back home and through its round on the festival circuit, with a little luck the film should position Gomes as one of the most promising new voices from Brazil, and place him in the ranks of Karim Ainouz (with whom he co-directed a film in 2009), and Kleber Mendonca Filho, whose 2012 title Neighboring Sounds seems to have eclipsed Gomes’ title and stole some of his thunder with its rapturous critical reception.

Veronica (Hermila Guedes) has just passed her exams and has retained a position as a psychiatrist in a Recife public hospital. However, dealing with people face to face is not what she had expected,...

The Weinstein Company’s The Imitation Game is the big kid on the block among this holiday weekend’s batch of newcomers. The title is following in the footsteps of past TWC heavyweights The King’s Speech and The Artist, both of which opened to solid box office numbers and eventually scored Oscars for Best Picture. The distributor is expecting good numbers for Imitation Game over the Thanksgiving frame. IFC Films’ horror pic The Babadook has some good buzz heading into the weekend, though it might show its biggest heft via VOD with its day-and-date rollout. Remote Area Medical is one of those films one hopes everyone will see. Timed perfectly for this time of the year’s focus on thanks and giving, the documentary shows the underbelly of America’s healthcare crisis by way of people who provide free medical services to needy people in pop-up clinics around the country.

From its opening frames depicting group sex on the beach, Brazilian writer-director Marcelo Gomes's Once Upon a Time Veronica announces itself as a sensual experience.

Indeed, the title's Veronica (Hermila Guedes), who has just passed her exams and begun a position as a psychiatrist in a Recife public hospital, muses in voice-over, "I vent everything through sex," just as she sticks her tongue into a stranger's mouth.

The interest of Gomes's film lies in the collision between these pressure-free hook-ups and the crushing malaise that soon plagues Veronica's life. Unable to commit to her most consistent suitor (João Miguel), and still living with her retired-banker father (W.J. Solha), Veronica finds her new job — which is more about prescribin...

Film by Texas-based Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini recently screened in Lincoln Center and Moma’s New Directors/New Films season.

Brooklyn-based Big World Pictures has acquired Us rights for Roberto Minervini’s drama-documentary Stop the Pounding Heart from Paris-based Doc & Film International.

“We’re pleased to start our collaboration with Big World Pictures on such an exciting film as Stop the Pounding Heart. It is a great opportunity for the film,” said Doc & Film CEO Daniela Elstner.

Big World Pictures plans to open the film at the Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center on September 19, 2014, before hitting other Us cinemas as it makes the rounds of the Us festival circuit.

The English-language drama-documentary hybrid is set against the backdrop a devout Christian community in East Texas and revolves around a teenage girl who falls for a rodeo rider and rebels against her family’s desire for an arranged marriage.

The feature...