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Fernando Franco’s “Lorca,” Caru Alves de Souza’s “A City for Christine” and Diana Toucedo’s “To Live in a Shout” look like possible standouts at next week’s 2025 Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (Maff), one of Europe’s principal forums for projects from Spain and Latin America seeking new partners and distribution.

Also sparking good word of mouth are “A Decorous Woman,” headlined by “The Maid” star Catalina Saavedra, Fernando Tato’s family drama “Goodbye Berta,” Alvaro López Alba’s “Three Summer Days,” an intimate three-parter, and LGBTQ coming of age story “Her Ocean.”

The 25-title selection also boasts a notable line in buzzy genre movies from Latin America from young women directors: Paula Martel’s Argentine teen Western “First We Take Anillaco,” the Dominican Republic’s “Maguana Racing” from Maia Otero and Juliano Kunert and immigration horror tale “The Tenants,” from Peru’s María Paz Barragán.

Nine...

Tiffcom, the content market affiliated with the Tokyo International Film Festival, closed its doors on Friday, but not before it unveiled the winners of the 2024 pitching contest winners.

Now in its seventh year, the MPA/Dhu/Tiffcom Masterclass Seminar and Pitching Contest is co-hosted by the Motion Picture Association, the Digital Hollywood University and Tiffcom to support young filmmakers looking to take their first steps into the international film industry.

After Friday’s first session, the master class seminar, the pitching contest saw five young filmmakers selected from a public call for entries as well as two entrants from the 2024 Kafa-tua Collaboration Film Development Workshop — a joint project development workshop for art universities in Japan and Korea, organized by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs.

The MPA grand prize went to Shion Koreeda for AI Within, with the Japanese filmmaker receiving a study trip to the Global Film & Television Immersion...

The 66th edition of the Blue Ribbon Awards, presented by the Association of Tokyo Film Journalists, has announced its winners on January 24, 2024. The nominees are selected from movies released in 2023. The trifecta wins for “Godzilla Minus One” come as no surprise, sweeping the Best Film, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories. Yuya Ishii picks up the Best Director award for both his movies “The Moon” and “Masked Hearts”.

Best Film

Masked Hearts

Ichiko

Egoist

Monster

The Dry Spell

Godzilla Minus One

Mom, Is That You?!

(Ab)normal Desire

The Moon

One Last Bloom

Perfect Days

Bad Lands

September 1923

Do Unto Others

As Long as We Both Shall Live

Best Director

Yuya Ishii – The Moon, Masked Hearts

Hirokazu Koreeda – Monster

Daishi Matsunaga – Egoist

Takashi Yamazaki – Godzilla Minus One

Yoji Yamada – Mom, Is That You?!

Best Actor

Goro Inagaki – (Ab)normal Desire

Ryunosuke Kamiki – Godzilla Minus One, We're Broke, My Lord!