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Exclusive: Sony Pictures International Productions has picked up worldwide theatrical rights to ¡Que Viva México! — the latest in a series of political satires from filmmaker Luis Estrada — slating it for release on more than 3,000 screens across Mexico, via Sony Pictures Releasing International, on March 23.

The film follows Pancho Reyes (Alfonso Herrera), a prosperous and “aspirational” middle class man who 20 years ago, abandoned his hometown and entirely forgot all about his very large and very poor family. One day, he receives unexpected news, when his father informs him that his grandfather, Don Francisco Reyes (Joaquín Cosío), a rich old miner, just passed away, and that he is part of his will and possible heir.

Motivated by greed, Pancho decides to go back to the remote town of La Prosperidad to meet with his estranged and resented family, taking his wife, kids, and maid with him. But the mere presence of Pancho,...

A transgender woman fights to be accepted by her dead lover’s family in a magic-realist Oscar contender from Sebastián Lelio

Oscars 2018: all the winners, speeches and highlights so far – live

Beyond the high-profile title fight between The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Lady Bird, the most intriguing battle at tonight’s Oscar ceremony will be for best foreign language film. The diverse contenders include Ildikó Enyedi’s ethereal On Body and Soul from Hungary; Ziad Doueiri’s provocative The Insult from Lebanon; and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s bleak Loveless from Russia. The bookies’ favourites, however, are Ruben Östlund’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner The Square from Sweden, and the Chilean entry A Fantastic Woman, a bold and moving love story from Gloria director Sebastián Lelio with a mesmerising central performance by rising star Daniela Vega.

Vega plays Marina Vidal, a waitress and aspiring singer...

Sebastián Lelio could become the first Chilean director to win Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards this Sunday. A Fantastic Woman stars Daniela Vega in what Lelio calls a “transgenre” drama about a transgender woman’s struggle to grieve her lover Orlando’s (Francisco Reyes) death.

The film chooses classical cinematic storytelling over the gritty, social realism used for documentaries like The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson. In the film, after Orlando dies, his family mistreat and abuse Vega’s Marina, barring her from his funeral. Instead of using Vega’s transgenderism to move the plot, Lelio focuses on the inhumane treatment Marina receives from characters on-screen and a mythic fight against gravity.

In our conversation, Lelio discusses the subversive casting of Chilean actor Francisco Reyes as Orlando, Daniela Vega’s influence on his script, and pushback against the film.

I read you shied away from...

MaryAnn’s quick take… A quiet yet resolute portrait of bravery and resilience in the face of unconscionable bigotry, and distressingly moving. Specific yet universal, and wonderfully human. I’m “biast” (pro): I’m desperate for movies about women

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto) women’s participation in this film

(learn more about this)

In some ways, what happens when 20something Marina’s (Daniela Vega) much older boyfriend, Orlando (Francisco Reyes), dies unexpectedly in their home is a familiar tale: His ex-wife and adult children — some of whom are probably older than Marina herself — rebel at the idea of his new partner attending the wake and funeral. But there’s another issue: Marina is transgender, which just adds an extra layer to what his family considers her inappropriateness. So now the constant battle she faces for acceptance every day,...

Daniela Vega stars in A Fantastic Woman. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics © All rights reserved.

Chilean director Sebastian Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman is indeed a fantastic film, with a fantastic performance by its star Daniela Vega, who plays a fantastic woman of dignity and grit facing prejudice because she is transgender, as she copes with the loss of her older lover. A Fantastic Woman is one of the nominees for the Oscar in the Foreign Language category and the lead contender to win the award.

Marina (Daniela Vega) is a waitress and singer who has just moved in with her older lover Orlando (Francisco Reyes). Marina is graceful, elegant and golden-voiced, and at first she appears to be a pretty young woman like any other. But when Orlando suffers what turns out to be an aneurysm in the middle of the night, her gruff treatment at the hospital reveals that she is transgender.

Blame the lack of a box-office hit, or the new Academy rules, but the Oscar frontrunners for the best foreign film of 2018 are as clear as mud.

New Academy president John Bailey has made changes to widen the number of voters participating in the foreign-language Oscar nominating committee, with the final five available to the full membership online. (Links went to voters on January 23, weeks before DVD screeners arrived in the mail.)

More people signed up for the first round of foreign-language voting (many of them previously ineligible publicists and marketers), but the opened-up London, New York, and San Francisco shortlist committee screenings saw minimal increases in attendance. And while there’s a sense that the international voters invited to watch screeners online skewed European, no one knows how many voters watched the shortlisted entries to come up with the final five.

For this year, the changes mean way more...

Blame the lack of a box-office hit, or the new Academy rules, but the Oscar frontrunners for the best foreign film of 2018 are as clear as mud.

New Academy president John Bailey has made changes to widen the number of voters participating in the foreign-language Oscar nominating committee, with the final five available to the full membership online. (Links went to voters on January 23, weeks before DVD screeners arrived in the mail.)

More people signed up for the first round of foreign-language voting (many of them previously ineligible publicists and marketers), but the opened-up London, New York, and San Francisco shortlist committee screenings saw minimal increases in attendance. And while there’s a sense that the international voters invited to watch screeners online skewed European, no one knows how many voters watched the shortlisted entries to come up with the final five.

For this year, the changes mean way more...

The five Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language Film have been revealed and, as is usual for the foreign-language film branch, they’ve thrown us a few curveballs. When the shortlist of nine semi-finalists was revealed in December, Oscar pundits were surprised when Cannes favorite “Bpm (Beats Per Minute),” the French entry, was left off the list. But even more surprising when the final five nominees were announced was that the powerhouse Argentinian entry “Foxtrot” was snubbed, as well as this year’s Golden Globe winner “In the Fade,” starring Cannes Best Actress winner Diane Kruger.

Still, we have a strong race for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. So let’s take a closer look at the final five contenders for Oscars 2018, in order of their current Gold Derby odds.

1. “A Fantastic Woman” (Chile); current Gold Derby odds 4/9

Sebastian Lelio‘s acclaimed film from Chile focuses on...

A few months ago, I found myself feeling sorely disappointed by a film I had long waited to see. The time was August, the place was Locarno, and the movie was Nadir Moknèche’s Lola Pater, screened in the festival’s iconic Piazza Grande. Featuring legendary French actress Fanny Ardant as a transgender woman reunited with her long-lost son (a plot that, unoriginal as it may have been, promised plenty of drama), I thought I was in for a treat. But Lola Pater never met my expectations. In fact, I felt as though it mocked the transgender lead it purported to celebrate, and in ways I couldn’t fully articulate then, I began wondering whether Ardant was herself somehow part of the problem. The actress’s legendary portfolio may have made her look like a bullet-proof choice, but in the context of the recent renaissance of Lgbtq cinema, with storytellers...

For more than 20 years, Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio has been trying to figure out a way to use the Alan Parsons Project's "Time" in one of his movies. "When I made my first short film in 1996, I tried to buy that song and I couldn't afford it," the filmmaker says of the British art-rock band's 1981 easy-listening hit, a celestial lament about a love affair torn asunder by distance and circumstance. "I have loved it forever. I consider it a masterpiece. It perfectly combines human [connection] with a cosmic backdrop." Told that...

Who gets to grieve? At the core of that question is who we consider fellow human beings, and who we think of as less than. The transphobia in “A Fantastic Woman,” Chile’s worthy nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, takes the form of denying sorrow to a trans woman, because the relatives of her deceased older boyfriend are incapable of believing that she could love or be loved. In their few scenes together, pretty much the only thing we see between Marina (Daniela Vega) and Orlando’s (Francisco Reyes) is their gentle but lusty affection for each other....

At the core of this indelibly moving film – Chile's entry in the Oscar race for Best Foreign-Language feature – is a performance of surpassing beauty and tenderness. Daniela Vega is the first openly transgender actress and model in Chile, and her portrayal of Marina Vidal, a trans woman who works as a waitress in Santiago to support her career as a cabaret singer, signals her as a world-class talent. With such cisgender actors as Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl), Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent) and Hillary Swank (Boys Don't Cry) scoring career triumphs in trans roles,...

So far, the big breakthroughs have all been on the younger end of the spectrum: the first transgender winner of an Indie Spirit award for acting arrived in 2015, the first transgender person to be nominated for an acting-centric Primetime Emmy dates back to 2014, and there’s still never been a transgender actor nominated for an Oscars. For many of them, getting any kind of role in Hollywood is worth celebrating, but it’s rarer still for them to lock down a seemingly obvious next step: getting cast as a transgender person.

Few trans-centric stories have made it to the screen over the years, and the vast majority of them have seen pivotal roles go to cisgender actors, from Elle Fanning to Matt Bomer, Eddie Redmayne to Hilary Swank. The tide, however, is starting to turn. Here are a dozen talented transgender actors who have also played transgender roles on the screen,...

Sebastian Lelio was drinking coffee in Santiago with his producers, Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín, when the filmmaker learned he had been nominated for an Oscar. “A Fantastic Woman,” the evocative portrait of a transgendered Chilean woman played by rising star Daniela Vega, was the instant frontrunner in the foreign-language category. “We were like trapped animals,” Lelio said, recalling the moments leading up to the announcement. “Then, suddenly, the cups went flying in the air. It was a good day.”

Lelio has down this road before with less satisfying results. His 2013 drama “Gloria,” which starred Paulina Garcia in as another unorthodox female lead — in this case, a middle-aged divorcee who finds new love — followed a similar trajectory to “A Fantastic Woman”: Both movies premiered to great acclaim at the Berlin International Film Festival and landed rave reviews. However, despite the prevalent enthusiasm, “Gloria” didn’t even make the shortlist.

Tuesday morning’s Academy Award nominations included several historic nomination for women and people of color, including Rachel Morrison, Jordan Peele, and Greta Gerwig. However, the biggest victory may belong to the transgender representation of two smaller films, Best Documentary nominee “Strong Island” and Best Foreign Film nominee “A Fantastic Woman.”

With Yance Ford’s “Strong Island,” a powerful and deeply personal film about the murder of Ford’s brother, he became the first transgender director of an Oscar-nominated film. After many years producing documentaries, “Strong Island” is Ford’s first feature-length film.

Read More:‘A Fantastic Woman’ Star Daniela Vega Deserves to Be the First Transgender Actress Nominated for an Oscar

“A Fantastic Woman” stars Chilean transgender actress Daniela Vega, and the significance of her casting cannot be overstated; playing trans has long been a one-way ticket to Oscar glory for cisgender actors like Jared Leto and Hillary Swank.

A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica) Sony Pictures Classics Director: Sebastián Lelio Screenwriter: Sebastián Lelio, Gonzalo Maza Cast: Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco, Aline Küppenheim, Nicolás Saavedra Screened at: Critics’ DVD, NYC, 11/25/17 Opens: In December for awards consideration. February 2, 2018 At first when you see Marina (Daniela Vega) with her boyfriend Orlando […]

The post A Fantastic Woman Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Sebastian Lelio is making a return to Foreign Language Oscar consideration as the representative from Chile, this year with A Fantastic Woman. The film stars Daniela Vega as Marina, a young transgender waitress and singer who has just moved in with Orlando (Francisco Reyes), an older man who suddenly falls ill and dies. Marina is forced to confront Orlando’s family and society’s suspicion and contempt, and to fight to show them who she truly is: complex, strong…...

Daniela Vega’s career-making performance in A Fantastic Woman is something rare: a wondrously mature and sophisticated star turn from a young screen novice. Thanks to her, Chilean director Sebastian Cielo’s stylish thriller about the ostracism suffered by a recently bereaved transgender woman blossoms into a shattering and intimate portrait of loss, queer pride and grace under pressure.

Vega plays Marina, a lounge singer and waitress whose blissful romance with middle-aged divorcee Orlando (Francisco Reyes) is cruelly curtailed when he suffers a fatal aneurysm. Viewed as a gold-digging freak and potential murder suspect by medical staff, police and Orlando’s family,...

When we meet Marina Vidal (Daniela Vega), she is crooning a sultry number at a Santiago nightclub. A handsome older man circles her admiringly, the warmth radiating from his eyes. In that moment it is clear not only that they are lovers, but madly in love. It’s only revealed later that Marina is transgender, and by then, their bond goes unquestioned. Such is the brilliance of a Sebastián Lelio film — the couple says so much with so little, and answers to no one. Of course, it takes hard work to make something look so simple.

“The heart of the film’s identity resonates with its own character. I was trying to make a film as complex and as free as its main character, and I owe that to Dani,” Lelio said after a recent screening of “A Fantastic Woman,” one of two films about complicated women opening in the...

"I'm just looking out for my loved ones, that's all." Sony Pictures Classics has unveiled an official Us trailer for Sebastián Lelio's acclaimed drama A Fantastic Woman, from Chile, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival this year to quite a bit of international acclaim. The films stars transgender actress Daniela Vega as Marina, a transgender woman living in Chile who must deal with the challenges of oppression and hate when her older lover suddenly passes away. His family rejects her and everything seems to start falling apart in her life. The cast includes Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco, Aline Küppenheim, and Nicolás Saavedra. I saw this film at Berlinale and it's good, but it didn't totally win me over. It's still an important film for trans actors and trans storytelling, and deserves attention for that reason. Definitely worth a look. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for Sebastián Lelio's A Fantastic Woman,...

Author: Stefan Pape

To begin Sebastian Lelio’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to his striking debut Gloria, we indulge in a fleeting, yet beautiful romance. It might only be a night we experience in the company of Orlando (Francisco Reyes) and his younger partner Marina Vidal (Daniela Vega), but the way he watches her when she performs in her secondary job as a nightclub singer, and the comfortability between the two, so genuine, so ineffably passionate, it’s a relationship we invest in – until the former dies suddenly. From this point onwards it transpires nobody else took their relationship for what it was – but we know, and that’s vital as we progress throughout this well-crafted narrative.

A waitress by day, Marina is transgender, and it’s this very fact which prevents the authorities and the family of the deceased to believe in Orlando’s love for her, instead claiming it...

Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s follow-up to his 2013 hit Gloria is a dazzling companion piece that once again focuses on a woman’s resilience in a world where what doesn’t kill you doesn’t necessarily make you stronger. Timely issues of transgender rights both in Latin and North America help make A Fantastic Woman a bolder, brasher film, fiery in comparison with Gloria’s relatively tenderness, but anchored once more by a stellar central performance. Gloria’s Paulina Garcia won the Berlinale’s Best Actress award here four years ago, and trans actress Daniela Vega could repeat the feat in what would be a watershed moment for mainstream cinema’s treatment of transgender actors.

Vega is superb as Marina, a 30-something waitress who moonlights as a singer in upmarket bars. On the surface she keeps to a relatively normal life, in a healthy, caring relationship with sensible 57-year old,...

Rising Chilean director Sebastián Lelio celebrates the endurance of a woman under suspicion of murder in a film that could bring the first major acting award for a transgender performer to Daniela Vega

The dynamic Chilean comedy Gloria went down a storm at the 2013 Berlinale where Paulina García was named best actress for her portrayal of a divorcee hitting the Santiago singles circuit. Now its director, Sebastián Lelio, is back at this year’s festival with another story of a resilient female refusing to live her life according to the demands of others. A Fantastic Woman has emerged as the mid-festival favourite for the Golden Bear, with the newcomer Daniela Vega likely to get her hands on the same prize as García. Such a win would be not only deserved but unprecedented, since it would make Vega the first transgender performer to scoop a major acting award.

Although A Fantastic Woman reunites the Gloria team,...

Sebastián Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” settles into a defiantly grounded drama about a trans woman fighting through her grief, but it starts with some incredible sleight of hand.

Set at the height of a Santiago summer, the film begins with a man named Orlando (“The Club” actor Francisco Reyes) as he gets a massage at his local sauna. Fifty-seven years old and looking like a gentler Jeremy Irons, Orlando leaves the health club and steps into the tired Chilean sun, eventually making his way to a nearby nightclub. He locks eyes with the singer onstage as soon as he steps inside, and she returns his attention with interest. Her name is Marina (first-time actress Daniela Vega), she’s roughly half Orlando’s age, and she’s very much in love with him. The feeling is mutual.

Later that night, the two of them have sex against the floor-to-ceiling window...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights in North America, Australia and New Zealand to Sebastian Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantastica) from Participant Media.

The film will make its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the Competition section on Feb. 12.

Written by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza, A Fantastic Woman stars Daniela Vega and Francisco Reyes. The story revolves around waitress-singer Marina and her older boyfriend Orlando. When Orlando suddenly falls ill and dies, Marina is forced to confront his family and society and fight to show them who she is: complex, strong, forthright, fantastic.

The...

Sebastián Lelio’s latest, exec produced by Pablo Larrain, is set to premiere in Berlin on Sunday.

Sony Pictures Classics (Spc) has acquired North America, Australia and New Zealand rights to Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantastica).

The film is set to premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s competition on Sunday, Feb 12.

Jackie director Pablo Larraín was a producer on the project alongside Fabula’s Juan de Dios Larraín, with German banner Komplizen Film. It was exec produced by Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King of Participant Media.

Participant’s King and Gabriel Brakin struck the deal with Spc.

A Fantastic Woman stars Daniela Vega and Francisco Reyes in the story of Marina, a waitress and singer, and Orlando, an older man, who are in love and planning for the future. After Orlando suddenly falls ill and dies, Marina is forced to confront his family and society, and to fight...

Sebastián Lelio’s latest, exec produced by Pablo Larrain, is set to premiere in Berlin on Sunday.

Sony Pictures Classics (Spc) has acquired North America, Australia and New Zealand rights to Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantastica).

The film is set to premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s competition on Sunday, Feb 12.

Jackie director Pablo Larraín was a producer on the project alongside Fabula’s Juan de Dios Larraín, with German banner Komplizen Film. It was exec produced by Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King of Participant Media.

Participant’s King and Gabriel Brakin struck the deal with Spc.

A Fantastic Woman stars Daniela Vega and Francisco Reyes in the story of Marina, a waitress and singer, and Orlando, an older man, who are in love and planning for the future. After Orlando suddenly falls ill and dies, Marina is forced to confront his family and society, and to fight...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American, Australian and New Zealand rights to Sebastián Lelio's A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujur Fantastica), ahead of its world premiere in competition Sunday at the Berlin Film Festival. The deal was struck with Participant Media. Written by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza, the Spanish-language pic stars Daniela Vega as Marina, a waitress and singer, and Orlando (Francisco Reyes), an older man, who are in love and planning for the future…...

The 2017 Berlin Film Festival has revealed its first slate of 14 films for the Competition and Berlinale Special sections, including new work from Aki Kaurismaki (“The Man Without a Past”), Oren Moverman (“Time Out of Mind”) and Sally Potter (“Ginger & Rosa”). The festival will also screen a restored version of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1972 TV series “Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day.”

Read More: The 2016 Indiewire Berlin International Film Festival Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During Run of Festival

So far, ten films have been invited to screen in Competition, and four films have been selected for Berlinale Special. These productions and co-productions are from the United State, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Belgium, Poland, Senegal and more.

The 67th Berlin International Film Festival will run from February 9 through 19. Further films will be revealed in the coming weeks. For more information, visit the official website.

Read More: The...

After Sundance Film Festival concludes in late January, the next big cinematic event on the globe is the Berlin International Film Festival. With Paul Verhoeven serving as jury president for the 67th edition of the festival, they’ve now announced their first line-up of titles, including Aki Kaurismäki‘s The Other Side of Hope (pictured above), Oren Moverman‘s Richard Gere-led The Dinner, Sally Potter‘s The Party (pictured below), and Agnieszka Holland‘s Spoor, as well as a restoration of a Rainer Werner Fassbinder TV show.

Check out the first titles below, and return for our coverage from the festival.

Competition

A teströl és a lélekröl (On Body and Soul)

Hungary

By Ildiko Enyedi (My 20th Century, Simon the Magician)

With Géza Morcsányi, Alexandra Borbély, Zoltán Schneider

World premiere

Ana, mon amour

Romania/Germany/France

By Călin Peter Netzer (Child‘s Pose, Maria)

With Mircea Postelnicu, Diana Cavallioti,...

Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Sally Potter among Competition lineup.

The first 14 films have been announced for the Competition and Berlinale Special sections of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

Among directors with movies in competition are Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Andres Veiel, Sebastián Lelio and Sally Potter.

Festival veteran Kaurismäki will debut new film The Other Side Of Hope about a Finnish travelling salesman who meets a Syrian refugee.

Moverman’s (The Messenger) mystery-drama The Dinner stars Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall and Chloë Sevigny. Based on the novel by Herman Koch, the film looks at at how far parents will go to protect their children.

Oscar-nominated Holland, who was nominated for the Golden Bear in 1981, will be at the Berlinale with crime-drama Pokot.

Potter returns to Berlin with ensemble comedy-drama The Party starring Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas and [link...

Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Sally Potter among competition lineup.

The first 14 films have been announced for the Competition and Berlinale Special sections of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

Among directors with movies in competition are Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Andres Veiel, Sebastián Lelio and Sally Potter.

Moverman’s (The Messenger) mystery-drama The Dinner stars Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall and Chloë Sevigny.

Fernando Trueba’s comedy-drama The Queen of Spain, starring Penelope Cruz, will get its international premiere in the Berlinale Special strand.

More to follow…

Competition

A teströl és a lélekröl (On Body and Soul) (Hungary)

By Ildiko Enyedi (My 20th Century, Simon the Magician)

With Géza Morcsányi, Alexandra Borbély, Zoltán Schneider

World premiere

Ana, mon amour (Romania / Germany / France)

By Călin Peter Netzer (Child‘s Pose, Maria)

With Mircea Postelnicu, Diana Cavallioti, Carmen Tănase, Adrian Titieni, Vlad Ivanov

World premiere

Beuys - Documentary (Germany)

By Andres Veiel ([link...

The Club (El Club) Music Box Films Reviewed by: Harvey Karten for  Shockya. Databased on Rotten Tomatoes. Grade: A- Director:  Pablo Larraín Written by:  Pablo Larraín, Guillermo Calderón Cast: Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers, Jaime Vadell, Alejandro Goic, Alejandro Sieveking, Marcelo Alonso, José Soza, Francisco Reyes Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 1/27/16 Opens:  February 5, 2016 If you have ever been a New York City teacher in the public school system, you will be familiar with the now defunct rubber room.  This was a place that functioned as a halfway house, as it were, for tenured teachers who had been brought up on charges by their principals.  They were  [ Read More ]

The post The Club Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

When Chilean director Pablo Larraín showed up at this year’s Berlin Film Festival with “The Club,” no one knew quite what to expect. Indeed, details of the film’s very existence had been kept quite fairly quiet — but the picture turned out to be a resounding success. It took home of the Silver Bear in Berlin, earned more prizes on the festival circuit, was selected as Chile’s Oscar contender, and recently landed a Golden Globe nomination. Now the picture is headed to cinemas, and the first trailer has arrived. Starring Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers, Jaime Vadell, Alejandro Goic, Alejandro Sieveking, Marcelo Alonso, José Soza, and Francisco Reyes, the film is set in a remote seaside town where priests have been exiled to atone for their sins. But soon, they must face an incursion from the outside world. Here’s the official synopsis: In a secluded house...

Arthouse fans already know the name Pablo Larrain is one to pay attention to, thanks to "Post Mortem," "Tony Manero," and "No." But even his most ardent devotees might not be prepared for "The Club," which the Playlist's Jessica Kiang called in no uncertain terms his finest film to date, one that's "a gripping thriller, an incendiary social critique and a mordant moral fable" all rolled into one.  Read More: Interview: Pablo Larrain On Catholicism, 'The Club' And Keeping His Actors In The Dark   Starring Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers, Jaime Vadell, Alejandro Goic and Francisco Reyes and shot beautifully in Cinemascope, the story centers on five men and one woman who live together in a rundown house, and the secrets they keep cloistered. Here's the synopsis:  A group of priests of various ages lives together with Mónica, a nun, in a house on the Chilean coast. When they are not praying and atoning for.

Read More: Berlin Review Pablo Larraín's 'The Club' is a Bracing Critique of the Catholic Church Music Box Films has acquired the North American rights to Pablo Larraín's Berlinale 2015 Grand Jury Prize Winner, "The Club." The film marks the filmmaker's follow-up to his 2012 Oscar-nominated film, "No." The cast of "The Club" features stars from Larraín’s various previous films, including, Alfredo Castro ("Tony Manero,"" "Post Mortem," "No"), Antonia Zegers ("Post mortem," "No"), Jaime Vadell ("No"), Alejandro Goic ("Gloria”), and Francisco Reyes ("Profugos"). Here's the official synopsis per Music Box: "Four men live together in a secluded house in a small seaside town. Each of them has been sent to this place to purge sins from the past. They live according to a strict regime under the watchful eye of a female caretaker,...

HBO Latino imports their Chilean original series Profugos to the United States and CineMovie is with Profugos star Francisco Reyes. Meet the Spanish-speaking actor as he tells us why you should watch Profugos.

HBO Latino premieres their new original series, Profugos from Chile September 24th. In the vain of the "Sopranos" and "Boardwalk Empire," HBO first series in Spanish and set in Chile around the world of drug trafficking. PRÓFUGOS is the story of a failed drug trafficking operation that started on the border between Bolivia and Chile, the four men who met to carry it out and the real actors behind the business. A complex web of ambitions, interests and corruption move the threads of this story, where no one is who they appear to be, everyone hides a past and human wretchedness unites them in the imperious need to flee without

Read more...