News

Debut film was one of 15 titles feted with a Cannes 2020 label selection last year.

Kino Lorber has acquired US and English-speaking Canada rights to French filmmaker Charlène Favier’s drama Slalom and plans to release it theatrically in April.

Set against the ski resorts of the French Alps, the debut feature stars rising French actress Noée Abita as a young alpine skiing champion who falls prey to her coach, played by Jérémie Renier.

The film was one of 15 first features to be feted with a Cannes 2020 label selection last year.

”Slalom may thrill with hyper ski action but it wins...

The Party Films Sales, the newly launched Paris-based film company, is making its market debut at the Efm with several acquisitions, including Javier Polo’s “The Mystery of the Pink Flamingos” and Jim Rakete’s “Now.”

The company brings together the international sales units of two banners, Jour2Fête, a French distribution company, and Doc & Film Intl., a world sales company that was recently acquired by Jour2Fete following the exit of its CEO Daniela Elstner, who is now UniFrance’s managing director.

“The Mystery of the Pink Flamingos” and “Now” are being delivered in two different versions, a feature-length one aimed at theatrical distributors, and a 52-minute format for TV channels. Samuel Blanc, co-head of international sales at The Party Films Sales, said the company was interested in building bridges between film and TV through the acquisitions of movies that can be viewed in different formats.

“The Mystery of the...

New production is in the vein of My Sweet Pepperland which premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2013.

Paris-based The Party Film Sales has boarded world sales on Iraqi-Kurdish filmmaker Hiner Saleem’s upcoming drama Goodnight, Soldier.

Set in contemporary Kurdistan, it revolves around a young couple who have overcome their families’ hatred for one another but find themselves facing another challenge when the husband is rendered impotent after being shot at the front.

The Party Film Sales has released a first image for the film [pictured] which is currently in post-production.

Saleem, who lives between France and his native Iraqi Kurdistan,...

Tout Le Monde M’appelle Mike

Guillaume Bonnier makes his directorial debut Tout Le Monde M’appelle Mike in 2020, produced by Eric Neve and co-produced by Charles Walter. Bonnier’s script received funding from the Gans Foundation for Cinema in late 2018 and his cast includes Abderissaak Mohamed, Daphne Patakia and Pierre Lottin. For the past two decades, Bonnier has worked as Assistant Director on a number of notable projects for some of France’s most renowned auteurs, including Patrice Chereau, Philippe Garrel (In the Shadow of Women), Xavier Beauvois (Of Gods and Men), Rachid Bouchareb (Days of Glory), Hiner Saleem, Bruno Podalydes and Jean-Pierre Mocky.…...

Playtime, the Paris-based co-production and sales company which will be presenting Francois Ozon’s anticipated “By the Grace of God” in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, has acquired three offbeat French comedies: Geraldine Nakache’s “I’ll Go Where You Go,” “The Bare Necessity” with Fanny Ardant, and Valerie Donzelli’s “Our Lady of Paris.”

“Our Lady of Paris” marks Donzelli’s fifth feature film, following “Marguerite & Julien,” which competed at the Cannes Film Festival; “Hand in Hand”; “Declaration of War,” which played at Cannes’ Critics’ Week and earned six Cesar nominations; and “Queen of Hearts.”

Donzelli stars in the film as Maud Crayon, a failing architect and single mom of two who unexpectedly wins the contest to spearhead the renovation of the esplanade of Notre-Dame de Paris, and who has to deal with a pair of exes – both of whom she still has feelings for.

Written by...

Council of Europe’s cinema fund to award €3,843,000.

Eurimages, the council of Europe’s fund for co-production, distribution and exhibition of European cinema, has announced it will support 13 films (including a documentary and an animation) for a combined €3,843,000.

The projects selected by the Eurimages board are:

Wicked Games (Austria, Germany, France) - Ulrich SeidlDouble Bind (Belgium, France) - Olivier Masset-DepassePinocchio (Italy, France) - Matteo Garrone (Italy)Memoirs From The Cell (Spain, France, Argentina, Uruguay) - Álvaro BrechnerWhere Are You, João Gilberto? (Switzerland, Germany, France) - Georges GachotAbout Endlessness (Sweden, Germany, France, Norway) - Roy AnderssonThe Crossing (France, Germany, Czech Republic) - Florence Miailhe Life Runs Over You (Italy, Iceland) - Paolo SassanelliWild Witch (Denmark, Hungary, Norway) - Kaspar MunkKings (France, Belgium) - Deniz Gamze ErgüvenVirgins (France, Israel, Belgium) - Keren Ben Rafael The Cellar (Slovakia, Russia, Czech Republic) - Igor VoloshinLady Winsley (France, Turkey, Belgium) - Hiner Saleem

Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio is a high profile film on...

Exclusive: Hiner Saleem’s Money Babe set to shoot in Erbil this autumn.

Paris-based Bac Films has picked up world sales on a trio of arthouse films by emerging talents, Hiner Saleem’s Money Babe, Babak Jalali’s Land and Bogdan Mirica’s Dogs.

“These pick-ups continue our working with emerging, new talents who we can drive up with,” said Bac general manager Mathieu Robinet.

Saleem’s Money Babe is a film noir which kicks off with an uneasy meeting between a former Kurdish resistance hero, who has made it big as a businessman, and a former comrade in arms.

The film - Saleem’s first feature since My Sweet Pepper Land which screened in Un Certain Regard in 2013 – is due to shoot in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey this autumn.

Described as a ‘modern western about Indians, Whites, distance, longing, roadwork and abuse’, Jalali’s Land explores the issue of alcoholism within a Native American...

Exclusive: Paris-based Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani will star in Qissa director Anup Singh’s upcoming drama Mantra - The Song Of Scorpions.

Farahani will play a singer and scorpion healer from the Manganiar community of Rajasthan in the Switzerland-France-India co-production.

Geneva-based Saskia Vischer is lead producer on the project, which will be co-produced by Thierry Lenouvel of France’s Cine Sud Promotion and Rakesh Mehra of India’s Kriti Productions. Lenouvel was a co-producer and Mehra the line-producer on Qissa.

Farahani was nominated as most promising actress at this year’s Cesar Awards in France for her role in Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone. Her credits also include Asghar Farhadi’s About Elly (2009) and Hiner Saleem’s My Sweet Pepper Land (2013). She also starred in Ridley Scott’s Body Of Lies (2008) alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.

Scheduled to shoot next year, Mantra - The Song Of Scorpions is a contemporary folktale set in the desert of Rajasthan. The film...

Exclusive: Germany’s Rohfilm, which co-produced The Lunchbox, is continuing its association with South Asian cinema by co-producing Iram Haq’s What Will People Say.

Produced by Maria Ekerhovd of Norway’s Mer Film, the film tells the story of a Norwegian-Pakistani girl who is forcibly taken to Pakistan by her family after she is discovered with a Norwegian boy.

What Will People Say, which has been selected for this year’s Co-production Market at Film Bazaar, is expected to start shooting in Norway and the Indian states of Rajasthan and Punjab towards the end of next year.

The producers are in talks with India’s Sikhya Entertainment, also a producer on The Lunchbox, to collaborate on the film.

Rohfilm co-founder Karsten Stoter said was impressed by Haq’s debut film, I Am Yours, which premiered at Toronto in 2013, while he described her new project as a “heartbreaking female personal drama with culture clashes between two different...

Abu Dhabi Film Festival’s fund supports Ibrahim El Batout’s Cat and Ghassan Salhab’s The Valley, among others.

Sanad has announced the first cycle of grants for 2014.

Abu Dhabi Film Festival’s fund supports the development and post-production of films from across the Arab world.

The projects receiving post-production grants are:

Ibrahim El Batout’s CatGhassan Salhab’s The ValleyAmer Shomali & Paul Cowan’s The Wanted 18Nadine Salib’s Um GhayebMerieme Addou & Rose Rogers’ Pirates of Salé

The projects receiving development grants are:

Hiner Saleem’s Money BabeMohammed Ben Attia’s HediSameh Zoabi’s Catch the MoonAhmed Amer’s Kiss Me NotRami Kodeih’s Sons of SundayAlia Yunis’ The Golden HarvestDaoud Aoulad-Siyad’s The Bird of the Mountains

Ali Al Jabri [pictured], director of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, commented: “Sanad seeks out bold, remarkable projects with the aim of encouraging intercultural dialogue and artistic innovation, while building strong networks within the region.

“Sanad has enabled...

Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox, starring Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, took home Asia Pacific Screen awards 2013 in two major categories: Best Screenplay and Jury Grand Prize. The seventh annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards were announced in Brisbane on Thursday.

The Lunchbox shared the Jury Grand Prize with Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s Television (Bangladesh), the first Bangladeshi film to win an Asia Pacific Screen award.

Palestinian film Omar directed by Hany Abu-Assad has won the Best Feature Film Award. Anthony Chen won Achievement in Directing for his debut feature film Ilo, Ilo.

International Jury President Shyam Benegal said he was very impressed with the quality of nominee films.

“More than half of the world’s films originate from the Asia Pacific region, which makes the Apsa award in Brisbane among the more important competitive film awards in the world,” he said.

Full List of Awards:

Best Feature Film...

Omar, set in the occupied West Bank, has won best film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSAs).Scroll down for full list of winners

David Gerson, who produced the film alongside Waleed F Zuaiter and writer/director Hany Abu-Assad, accepted the award at the ceremony at Brisbane’s City Hall in Australia.

Apsa organisers said Omar is the first feature to be fully funded by the film industry in Palestine.

The jury also decided to award two Jury Grand Prizes to the film Television from Bangladesh and to Ritesh Batra for his direction of The Lunchbox. Batra also won the top award for his screenplay for this film, set in Mumbai.

It was Anthony Chen who won the directing category with his debut film Ilo Ilo from Singapore, with special mentions given to Emir Baigazin for Harmony Lessons and Hiner Saleem for My Sweet Pepper Land.

Cultural worth is one of the judging criteria at the...

Bronze Horse for best film goes to The Selfish Giant. More wins for Fruitvale Station, Miss Violence and Screen Star of Tomorrow George MacKay.Scroll down for full list of winners

UK film The Selfish Giant has picked up the Bronze Horse for best film at the 24th Stockholm Film Festival (Nov 6-17).

It marks the second consecutive year a film by a female director has won the top prize at Stockholm, after Cate Shortland’s Lore picked up the award last year.

The film, about two young friends who gather scrap metal for cash, was described by the jury as “a uniquely complete film. Shattering, to the point, poetic, believable, delicate, humorous. The sensitive interaction between the two main actors has resulted in the most touching portrayal of friendship we’ve seen in film. Only someone hard-hearted could fail to love this film.”

The Selfish Giant, which debuted at Cannes, is represented...

Iffi to screen festival favorites Blue is the Warmest Colour, Ilo Ilo, The Past among others

A still from The Coffin Maker

Two Indian Films; Apu’s Song by Kaushik Ganguly and The Coffin Maker by Veena Bakshi have been selected in the International Competition section at the International Film Festival of India (Iffi) to be held in Goa from November 20-30, 2013.

Apu’s Song is a real-life story inspired by Subir Banerjee, the child actor who played the iconic role of Apu in Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali. The film released theatrically in August 1955 and it has been 58 long years hence. But ironically Subir never became a part of any film again in his entire life. On his way to receive an award in a film festival in Germany, he reminisces about his life.

The Coffin Maker by Veena Bakshi (India) is set in a small village in Goa.

Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox, Amit Virmani’s Menstrual Man and Shilpa Ranade’s The World of Goopi and Bagha have been nominated under different categories for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Rajeev Ravi has earned a nomination for Achievement in Cinematography in Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout.

The Lunchbox has been nominated for Best Screenplay while The World of Goopi and Bagha has been nominated in the Best Animated Feature Film category.

Amit Virmani’s Menstrual Man, a Singapore – India co-production, has been nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Film. The film made its Canadian Premiere at the HotDocs, the Canadian International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto and was screened at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (Idfa).

A total of 39 films from 22 countries will compete in nine different categories. The award ceremony will be held December 12, 2013 in Brisbane.

The jury is headed by Shyam Benegal and comprises South Korean director Kim Tae-yong,...

Palestine’s Omar and Bangladesh’s Television among best feature nominees in the upcoming Asia Pacific Screen Awards.Scoll down for full list of nominations

Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s Television is one of six films in the running to win best feature at the 7th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSAs) - the first film from Bangladesh to ever be nominated.

Television directly deals with issues of modernity versus tradition in rural Bangladesh, making it a film well worth debating within the context of the APSAs, which celebrate both quality cinema and the cultural importance of film.

Television closed the Busan International Film Festival last year. If it wins Apsa’s highest accolade it will have impressed the jury more than Omar from Palestine; With You, Without You from Sri Lanka; Like Father, Like Son from Japan; The Turning;, an anthology film from Australia and The Past, directed by one of Apsa’s most high-profile regular contenders, Iranian...

Abu Dhabi, Nov 1: The beauty of Hiner Saleem's "My Sweet Pepper Land" transcends beyond its simply told complex story, picturesque locales and flawless performances. A lot of its convincing power lies in scenes where the actors let their eyes speak. Silence in cinema is vital, says the Iraqi-Kurdish filmmaker.

"Silence is rhythmic, and for me, it's like music in a film. You just can't go' bla, bla, bla' with dialogues. In general also, to appreciate everything, you need silence. So I believe silence is important in a film sometimes," Saleem told Ians.

His movie "My Sweet Pepper Land", which was screened at the Cannes.

Actor prizes go to Dame Judi Dench and Jesse Eisenberg; Enough Said, starring the late James Gandolfini, wins audience award.Scroll down for full list of winners

The 7th Abu Dhabi Film Festival handed out its Black Pearl awards at a closing ceremony tonight (Oct 31), including cash prizes amounting to around $700,000.

The Black Pearl for Narrative Feature, worth $100,000, went to A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) directed by Jia Zhangke.

The film, which played in competition at Cannes where it won the best screenplay award, revolves around four threads set in vastly different geographical and social milieus across modern-day China and features random acts of violence.

The Narrative jury, presided over by two-time Oscar nominated actress Jacki Weaver, gave the special jury award ($50,000) to Hiner Saleem’s My Sweet Pepper Land, centred on a law man in a small town on the border of Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

In addition, Dame Judi Dench won best...

Actor prizes go to Dame Judi Dench and Jesse Eisenberg; Enough Said, starring the late James Gandolfini, wins audience award.

The 7th Abu Dhabi Film Festival handed out its Black Pearl awards at a closing ceremony tonight (Oct 31), including cash prizes amounting to around $700,000.

The Black Pearl for Narrative Feature, worth $100,000, went to A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) directed by Jia Zhangke.

The film, which played in competition at Cannes where it won the best screenplay award, revolves around four threads set in vastly different geographical and social milieus across modern-day China and features random acts of violence.

The Narrative jury, presided over by two-time Oscar nominated actress Jacki Weaver, gave the special jury award ($50,000) to Hiner Saleem’s My Sweet Pepper Land, centred on a law man in a small town on the border of Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

In addition, Dame Judi Dench won best actress for her performance in Stephen Frears’ [link...

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave to open festival; director Peter Greenaway to receive Visionary Award.Scroll down for full line-up

Steve McQueen’s historic drama 12 Years a Slave is to open the Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 6-17) and is nominated in the Stockholm Xxiv Competition.

Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, the drama about free black man kidnapped from his family and sold into slavery in the 1850s debuted at Telluride and has received positive reactions throughout its festival tour of Toronto, New York and London among others.

It will be released in Sweden on Dec 20 by Ab Svensk Filmindustri.

Screenwriter John Ridley, who will be present during the festival, is nominated for the Aluminum Horse in the category Best Script.

McQueen’s Hunger won Best Directorial Debut at Stockholm in 2008.

Line-up

The 24th Siff includes more than 180 films from more than 50 countries.

As previously announced, the spotlight of this year’s festival is freedom but Chinese artist...

Chicago – The 2013 49th Annual Chicago International Film Festival and Michael Kutza – Festival Founder and Artistic Director – announced the competition award winners at a ceremony in the ‘W’ Hotel City Center on October 18th. The Gold Hugo for Best Film went to “My Sweet Pepper Land,” from Iraq, France and Germany.

Kutza made the announcements along with Mimi Plauché, Head of Programming, Programmers Alex Kopecky and Penny Bartlett, plus members of the various juries who worked evaluating the competition. The W Hotel City Center is near Chicago’s financial district and the Sears (now Willis) Tower. The Festival’s highest honor is the Gold Hugo, named for the mythical God of Discovery.

International Feature Film Competition

’My Sweet Pepper Land’

Photo Credit: © Chicago International Film Festival

The Gold Hugo for Best Film: “My Sweet Pepper Land” (Iraq/France/Germany), directed by Hiner Saleem

The Silver Hugo – Special Jury Prize: “The Verdict...

The full line up has been unveiled for the 7th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

Daniel Schechter’s Life Of Crime will open the 7th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which runs Oct 24- Nov 2.

13 Arab feature films (seven of which are world premieres) will compete across different sections of the festival, including Rani Massalha’s Giraffada and Nejib Belkhadi’s Bastardo in the New Horizons Competition, Ahmed Abdallah’s Rags And Tatters and Hicham Ayouch’s Fevers in the Narrative Feature Competition, and Sherief Elkatsha’s Cairo Drive and Mohammad Soueid’s The Boy From Aleppo in the Documentary Feature Competition.

Tobe Hooper’s UAE horror Djin will screen in the festival’s Showcase section.

Films competing in the Narrative Feature Competition include Jun Robles Lana’s Barber’s Tales, Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, Danis Tanovic’s An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker, Jasmila Zbanic’s [link...

The full line up has been unveiled for the 7th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

Daniel Schechter’s Life Of Crime will open the 7th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which runs Oct 24- Nov 2.

13 Arab feature films (seven of which are world premieres) will compete across different sections of the festival, including Rani Massalha’s Giraffada and Nejib Belkhadi’s Bastardo in the New Horizons Competition, Ahmed Abdallah’s Rags And Tatters and Hicham Ayouch’s Fevers in the Narrative Feature Competition, and Sherief Elkatsha’s Cairo Drive and Mohammad Soueid’s The Boy From Aleppo in the Documentary Feature Competition.

Tobe Hooper’s UAE horror Djin will screen in the festival’s Showcase section.

Films competing in the Narrative Feature Competition include Jun Robles Lana’s Barber’s Tales, Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, Danis Tanovic’s An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker, Jasmila Zbanic’s [link...

With award season coming fast around the corner, the Chicago International Film Festival has recently revealed their full lineup, which includes a very enticing mix of well-known and new talents. With the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis closing the fest and Alexander Payne’s Nebraska as its centerpiece, the festival includes focus on “After Dark” features, Lgbtq films in their “Out-Look” category, special presentations (like Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave), and more. Below is the press release that fills in the rest:

The 49Th Chicago International Film Festival Announces Films In Competition

Chicago, Il (September 17, 2013) – The 49th Chicago International Film Festival announced today the full lineup of films selected to screen in the International Feature, New Directors, Docufest, After Dark, Q Hugo, and Short Film Competitions. The competitions feature a diverse mix of established and new filmmakers and genres as well as World, North American and Us premieres. Sixteen...

Chicago – The Chicago International Film Festival revealed their schedule for the 2013 incarnation, which runs from Oct. 10-24, 2013, and it’s their most impressive in years, including new works by Alexander Payne, Joel & Ethan Coen, Steve McQueen, John Wels, Abdellatif Kechiche, Dario Argento, Bill Condon, John McNaughton, Kore-eda Kirokazu, Stephen Frears, Tsai Ming-Liang, Errol Morris, and dozens more.

Nebraska

Photo credit: Paramount Vantage

Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” will be a centerpiece film and the fest will close with the Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis.” Dario Argento will attend with his “Dracula 3D” and Errol Morris and Bruce Dern will both accept achievement awards. Hot off its Toronto Film Festival Award win, “12 Years a Slave” will make its Chicago premiere.

Films in competition are listed below. Stay tuned to HollywoodChicago.com for all the latest news, previews, and interviews for the 2013 Chicago International Film Festival. And go here for the full schedule andto purchase tickets.

Kevin Macdonald’s How I Live Now will close the festival, which has assembled it largest programme to date.

The 33rd Cambridge Film Festival (Sept 19-29) has unveiled its 2013 line-up, comprising 150 titles from 40 countries.

As previously announced, Professor Stephen Hawking will attend the opening night gala of documentary Hawking, which will be broadcast live to more than 60 screens across the UK.

The festival will close with Kevin Macdonald’s How I Live Now, an Orwellian vision of a post-apocalyptic future starring Saoirse Ronan and George MacKay.

Alongside Hawking, other special guests to the festival will include directors Lucy Walker (The Crash Reel), Roland Klick (Deadlock), Mark Levinson (Particle Fever), Julien Temple (Oil City Confidential), Ramon Zürcher (The Strange Little Cat), Małgośka Szumowska (In The Name Of), Marzin Malaszczak (Sieniawka), Matt Hulse (Dummy Jim) and Andrew Mudge (The Forgotten Kingdom), Bob Stanley, John Pearse and actress Stephanie Stremler (Dust On Our Heart).

Strands include Young Americans, aimed at showcasing...

Chicago – The 2013 Chicago International Film Festival is almost here and the programmers have unveiled their first slate of titles, including hits from other festivals like “Blue is the Warmest Color,” “Heli,” “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete.” The 49th annual fest runs from October 10-24, 2013. Official, Ciff-provided descriptions below of what we know will play there so far:

Big Bad Wolves (Directors: Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado • Israel): When the lead suspect in a brutal child murder is released due to a police blunder, a vigilante police detective and a grieving father take the law into their own hands in this fantastically intense, darkly funny revenge thriller from one of the pioneers of Israeli horror cinema.

Blue is the Warmest Color (Director: Abdellatif Kechiche • France): Teenager Adèle’s life is turned upside down the night she meets blue-haired Emma in this scandalous winner of the top prize at Cannes.

Transmission Films collared Australian rights to Blue Is The Warmest Color (La Vie D.Adele . Chapitre 1 & 2), the French film that won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday.

Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, the 3-hour, sexually explicit drama about a teen.s lesbian love affair was only the second French film to win the coveted Palme d.Or in 46 years (the most recent was The Class in 2008).

Transmission Films joint managing director Andrew Mackie told If he expects the film to get an R rating, at most. .We're very happy with our acquisitions,. he said, reflecting the general feeling among Aussie distributors who were very active in the Cannes market.

Among the other titles in Transmission.s shopping bag are The Silence, Martin Scorsese.s passion project that he.s been working on since 1989, adapted from Shusaku Endo.s novel about Jesuits and the dawn of Christianity in...

Germany has a large number of films in Cannes this year both as coproducer and single producer. Three German co-productions are in the competition including Heli by Amat Escalante (Mexico/ Germany/ France/ Netherlands), the adaptation of the Heinrich von Kleist novella Michael Kohlhaas by Arnaud des Pallières (France, Germany) and Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive (Germany, U.K., France, Cyprus), which has always been supported by the German producer Karl Baumgartner of Pandora. U.S. gets bragging rights but has no actual credit in the film.

Screening in Un Certain Regard are Tore Tanzt, the debut feature film of German director Katrin Gebbe ♀ which is eligible for the Camera d'Or as are first films from all sections, the co-productions My Sweet Pepper Land by Hiner Saleem (France, Germany) and Bastards by Claire Denis (France, Germany).

A digitally remastered version of Fedora by Billy Wilder will be shown in Cannes Classics along with four more German co-productions.

The German short Come And Play by Daria Belova ♀ is in Semaine de la Critique which will also present the German co-production The Lunchbox by Ritesh Batra (India, Deutschland, France).

Directors Fortnight is screening The Congress by director Ari Folmann (Israel, Germany, Poland, Luxembourg, France, Belgium).

The debut feature Summer Outside by Friederike Jehn (Germany, Switzerland) will be shown in Ecrans Juniors / Cannes Cinephiles which is curated by Cannes Cinema during the festival. The Strange Little Cat by Ramon Zürcher (Dffb) will be presented in the L'Acid-series, a special program by the Association du Cinéma Indépendant pour sa Diffusion during the festival.

German Films will be presenting a total of 30 New German Films to professional visitors at Cannes' Marché du Film from 17 to 22 May. Furthermore, this will be the 13th time that German Films joins forces with Focus Germany, the amalgamation of the seven major regional film funds, to run the German Pavilion in the International Village of the Marché du Film. The German Pavilion has been a popular platform for many years for people to get know one another personally and to foster an exchange between the accredited festival delegates from the German and international film industries in Cannes.

News.

A more than welcomed alternative to Rotten Tomatoes, Critics Round Up is "the first movie review aggregator to select critics and publications based on merit instead of popularity." We're proudly among the publications cited and this is a space that will likely be a valuable source for cinephiles trying to get a sense of critical consensus amongst writers they trust (and will likely be especially handy come Cannes). Some additions to the Cannes lineup: Jim Jarmusch's vampire film, Only Lovers Left Alive, is now in the Official Competition. Claude Lanzmann's Le dernier des injustes will play Out of Competition and Un Certain Regard has added three titles from Hiner Saleem, Katrin Gebbe and Lucia Puenzo. Meanwhile, Cannes Classics has unveiled its selection of restorations and docs. Finally, 3x3D, featuring 3D shorts from Jean-Luc Godard (pictured above), Peter Greenaway and Edgar Pêra, will close Semaine de la Critique.

Confirming some last minute additions to this year’s lineup, Cannes officials announced some exciting new titles, including (which we predicted) Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, headlining Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as impassioned vampires. Also as predicted, Claude Lanzman’s latest Holocaust documentary Le Dernier De Injustes gets an Out of Competition slot, while three titles complete the Un Certain Regard’s lineup.

An intriguing debut (and under the radar addition) from German director Katrin Gebbe, Tore Tanzt, explores a young man’s dangerous relationship with a religious group known as The Jesus Freaks, while Wakolda (read our predictions piece here) a Josef Mengele inspired tale from Argentian director Luciz Puenzo and My Sweet Pepperland (formerly titled Aga – as listed here) from Hiner Saleem, which concerns a police commissioner’s reassignment to a lawless territory on the borders of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, also will be part...

The Cannes peeps have updated and finalized their lineup to include: Competition Only Lovers Left Alive by Jim Jarmusch Out of Competition Le Dernier Des Injustes by Claude Lanzmann Un...

It was originally considered it might end up being a weak lineup for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, but before today it was already shaping up to be one of the more impressive lineups I've seen in the last few years and today it just got better. Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive starring Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as centuries old vampires in love has been added to the Competition lineup. The film co-stars John Hurt, Mia Wasikowska and Anton Yelchin and with Jarmusch at the helm should prove to be the anti-vampire film compared to all the fang films we've seen storming the multiplex as of late. The new addition to the Competition lineup brings the number of films competing for this year's Palme d'Or to a round 20 and you can check out the complete Cannes lineup that has been announced so far right here. Additional titles added...

Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux has added several highly anticipated films to the festival's official lineup. Fest regular Jim Jarmusch's vampire love story "Only Lovers Left Alive" -- starring Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska -- has been added to the main competition selection. Jarmusch's breakout film "Stranger than Paradise" won the Camera d'Or in 1984. Also included --out of competition --is Claude Lanzmann's "Le Dernier des Injustes." Lanzmann directed the nine-plus-hours Holocaust documentary "Shoah" (1985) and will be revisiting that topic in "Le Dernier," a documentary about the Adolf Eichmann trial. Three films were added to the Un Certain Regard sidebar, which awards the Camera d'Or to an up-and-coming director: "My Sweet Pepperland" (Hiner Saleem), "Tore Tanzt" (Katrin Gebbe) and "Wakolda" (Lucia Puenzo).  The full Cannes Classics lineup -- already noted to include a restoration of "Vertigo" -- will be announced April 29th.

Only Lovers Left Alive - the Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston starring vampire picture from inconoclastic indie director Jim Jarmusch - has been announced as a late addition to the competition lineup at the Cannes Film Festival. Jarmusch was last in the Cannes competition lineup with Broken Flowers in 2005.Also added are Claude Lanzmann's Le Dernier des Injustes in a non-competition slot while Hiner Saleem's My Sweet Pepperland, Katrin Gebbe's Tore Tanzt and Lucia Puenzo's Wakolda join Un Certain Regard....

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Among the many surprises when the announcement of the Cannes Film Festival competition came out last week was the omission of Jim Jarmusch's Tilda Swinton-starring vampire tale "Only Lovers Left Alive" in the competition category -- a film that many pundits predicted would vie for the Palme d'Or. As it turns out, they were right. At a recent press conference, Cannes officials confirmed that the film has been added last-minute to the competition, along with a number of other titles playing in different sections, including Claude Lanzman's latest Holocaust documentary "Le Dernier Des Injustes," playing out of competition. Below find a list of the new films included in the lineup. Completion "Only Lovers Left Alive," Jim Jarmusch Out of Competition "Le Dernier Des Injustes," Claude Lanzmann Un Certain Regard "My Sweet Pepperland," Hiner Saleem "Tore Tanzt," Katrin Gebbe "Wakolda," Lucia Puenzo...

Jim Jarmusch's vampire drama Only Lovers Left Alive starring Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton, is a late addition to the Competition lineup for this year's Cannes Film Festival. Festival organizers said Friday that Jarmusch's latest film would compete for the Palme d'Or, marking the U.S. director's first Cannes Competition entry since Broken Flowers in 2005. In other late additions, Cannes announced that Claude Lanzmann's Le Dernier des Injustes will run in an Out of Competition slot at this year's fest, while three new films were added to the Un Certain Regard sidebar. They are Hiner Saleem's My Sweet Pepperland;

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#50. Hiner Saleem’s Aga

Gist: Starring Golshifteh Farahani (she was in his previous 2010 film, Si tu meurs, je te tue!), duel characters share the screen, Baran, a Kurdish independence war hero, is now police commissioner in Erbil, the capital city. No longer feeling useful in this society now at peace, he thinks about quitting the police force, but instead agrees to be stationed in a small valley, at the very borders of Iran, Turkey, and Irak. It is a lawless territory, right at the heart of illegal drug, medication and alcohol trafficking. Having arrived in the small village, he refuses to bow down to Aga Azzi, the seriously corrupt tribal chief and absolute ruler of the area. Baran meets Govend, the village school teacher, who is also rejected by the villagers.

Prediction: Un Certain Regard. Saleem took a trip to Cannes with Main Comp entry Kilometre Zero (2005) and this looks...

One of my favorite international sales agent is Memento. I wrote of them last year (See blog). Now they are representing the film of one of my favorite people in the biz, the hyphenate director-producer-writer who also was put into the role of casting director by Steve Soderbergh while casting Che.

Rodrigo (Rigo to his friends) Bellot began his career's path from his native Bolivia to U.S. with Sexual Dependency, produced by Ara Katz (Howard Zinn doc The People Speak and George Romero's Survival of the Dead).

Screen Daily recently announced Memento and Rigo's upcoming picture, We Are What We Are, a picture that actors Riley Keogh and Julia Garner will be sinking their teeth into as two sisters forced into cannibalism by their father. Read the article which is full of interesting tidbits, such as the factthat Riley Keough is the granddaughter of Elvis Presley and she has plenty of fat and juicy roles lined up already.

Memento Films International (Mfi) describes We Are What We Are as a "re-imagination" of Mexican director Jorge Michel Grau’s Somo Lo Que Hay (U.S. IFC) about a family of cannibals in Mexico City.

The director, Jim Mickle, best known for his cult vampire picture Stake Land which won Toronto’s Midnight Madness sidebar in 2010, has transposed the story to a poor part of the Catskills region in New York State.

Principal photography will begin in the Catskills on May 29. The picture will wrap the first week of July with delivery slated for January of 2013, just in time for Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin.

Mfi has already presold the project at Berlin’s Efm to E1/ Artificial Eye for the U.K. , Canada, France, Scandinavia and South Africa. Cinema Mondo prebought the film for Finland; Koch Media and Alamode have German rights, Cinefil has Hungary, Canana has Mexico, Calinos has Turkey.

A real winner as is Memento itself and Rigo too!

Memento is a select arthouse company for high-profile, director-driven independent films. They choose only 8 projects a year and offer tailor–made synergies and business expertise through four companies; from production (Memento Films Production & La Cinefacture), International Sales (Memento Films International) to French distribution (Memento Films Distribution), according to the specific needs of each project. They have recently worked with renowned and award-winning filmmakers such as Francis Ford Coppola, Laurent Cantet, Emanuele Crialese, Hiner Saleem, Jia Zhang-ke, Ramin Bahrani, Gilles Marchand, Julie Bertuccelli, Aditya Assarat, Pawel Pawlikowski and Olivier Assayas.

Memento's young and dynamic team is devoted to promoting the projects with a maximum of commitment, rather than merely selling. Whether it is high-end arthouse fare with a medium-sized budget or cutting-edge low-budget projects from emerging talents, they value originality, whether narrative or the cinematographic vision of the director.

You can see Memento's Cannes lineup on Cinando. Look for them in Cannes at 25 la Croisette - Bagatelle. Or call them at 33 4 93 38 68 19.

French director Martin Provost is re-teaming with "Seraphine" star Yolande Moreau for the heartfelt drama "The Long Falling." This comes after "Seraphine" won best film at last year's Cesar awards. The story tells of a woman who offs her husband after years of physical abuse. She forms a friendship with a widowed woman who she meets while on the run. Marc Abdelnour wrote the screenplay for the $6.1 million-budgeted film produced by F Comme Films' Julie Salvador. Luc Besson's EuropaCorp-owned Roissy Films is handling international sales. Other titles that Roissy has are Zabou Breitman's "No and Me," "Si tu meurs, je te tue!" (If You Die, I'll Kill You!") by Hiner Saleem and Thierry Benisti's "A Bottle in the Sea of Gaza."...

By Michael Atkinson

Our official "B-movie" distribution stream -- straight-to-dvd releases -- grows in number and variety every year, as fewer films can be, or at least are, affordably shown theatrically than ever before. And these titles still can't qualify for awards or polls of any kind, or often even reviews, as the number of theatrical screens continues to drop. Does this make any sense? Here're my favorites from this year, the movies that first saw American screens (big or small) on digital video in 2008, be they brand new or decades old.

1. "Sophie's Place"

Lawrence Jordan, U.S., 1986

The renowned yet all-but-forgotten avant-garde filmmaker's grand animated masterpiece, a Victorian-styled dream-collage-painting-fever-feature brimming with hundreds of inexplicable epiphanies and a sense of visual magic that is all but utterly unique to Jordan. This honey was ensconced in Facets' lavish, under-celebrated set "The Lawrence Jordan Album," which in itself is more of an...

MOSCOW -- Hiner Saleem, a director from Iraqi Kurdistan, collected the main prize of the international Andrei Tarkovsky festival in the Russian city of Ivanovo for his movie "Beneath the Rooftops of Paris".

The festival, held in the central Russian city for the second time to commemorate the prominent director, came to a close Sunday.

The jury gave Dutch director Joss Stelling a lifetime achievement award, while "Parents" by Iceland's Ragnar Bragason received the audience award.

By Michael Atkinson

The idea of a "national" cinema, expressive of a particular and coherent cultural esprit, is a standard of most cinematic intercourse . until you confront the real map, in which Kosovar cinema is now primed to forge an identity of its own (as the Serbs and Slovenians have done), the ex-Soviet nations of the Silk Road are struggling to differentiate themselves from Russian film and the nationless movies of the Basque, the Romany and the Palestinians still hunt for footing and voice. Add to this gray zone the films of Kurdistan, a non-country standing nevertheless with its own army, government and debatable borders, and a nascent cinema rising with the ascent of the Iranian new wave and from the crater of the American occupation. Even within this context, Hiner Saleem is filmmaker on the roam . an Iraqi Kurd long expatriated to France, Saleem has made seven features, two in France,...

TORONTO -- The Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday named the 13 directors who will compete for the Artistic Innovation Award in September.

This year's competition includes the Afghan film "Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame" from Hana Makhmalbaf, the youngest daughter of Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Spanish director Jose Luis Guerin's "Dans La Ville de Sylvia", a virtually dialogue-free quest film.

Also competing for the Innovation nod are Philippine director Lav Diaz's "Death in the Land of Encantos"; Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer's "Dr. Plonk", a black-and-white silent comedy shot with a hand-cranked camera; Anahi Berneri's "Encarnacia", from Argentina; and "M," a supernatural love story from South Korean director Lee Myung-se ("Duelist").

Rounding out the sidebar are Michelange Quay's "Mange, ceci est mon corps" (France); Lawrence Johnston's "Night" (Australia); Alexander Voulgaris' "Pink" (Greece); Christian Frosch's "Silent Resident" (Australia); Hiner Saleem's "Sous les toits de Paris" (France); Naqi Nemati's "Those Three" (Iran) and Dorota Kedzierzawska's "Time to Die" (Poland).

All 13 titles will screen as part of the Visions program and will be judged by a jury composed of Dutch multimedia artist Lonnie van Brummelen, Canadian photoconceptual artist Ian Wallace and hat designer Misa Harada.

COLOGNE, Germany -- There might be fewer German titles in Competition in the Berlin International Film Festival this year but the Festival's Forum sidebar is more than making up for that.

The Forum lineup, announced Wednesday, features no fewer than nine German-language features, including Madonnas, the sophomore effort from Maria Speth (The Days Between) featuring 2006 Silver Bear winner Sandra Hueller (Requiem).

Also from Germany is the family drama Hounds, from first-timer Ann-Kristin Reyels and Angela Schanelic's Afternoon, a retelling of Chekhov's The Sea Gull set in modern day Potsdam and Berlin.

Berlin-based artist Philip Scheffner will also be represented in this year's Forum with The Halfmoon Files, a look at the history of colonialism though the use of historic sound documents.

From Austria, the Forum has picked It Happened Just Before, a documentary-style drama from Anja Salomonowitz, Schindler's Houses from Heinz Emingholz which chronicles the work of architect Rudolph Schindler in Los Angeles; and The Prater, Ulrike Ottinger's portrait of Vienna's legendary fun fair with its iconic giant Ferris Wheel.

Two films from German-speaking Switzerland are also in this year's Forum lineup: Thomas Imbach's underwater fairytale I Was a Swiss Banker and Stefan Schwietert's portrayal of three traditional Swiss musicians, Heimatklaenge.

But the Berlinale Forum is hardly restricting itself to German-language cinema.

This year's Forum includes pictures from India -- Farhan Akhtar's updated version of classic Bollywood gangster film "Don" -- to the U.S., with Frederick Weisman's three-and-half-hour documentary examination of democracy in Idaho: State Legislature.

Other Forum titles include the debut feature Elvis Pelvis, a father-and-son tale from director Kevin Aduaka; Dol, a sarcastic drama from Iraqi Kurd helmer Hiner Saleem and Shotgun Stories, from Jeff Nichols, which tells the story of two feuding brothers in the southern U.S.

MUNICH -- The Berlin International Film Festival's World Cinema Fund, which provides production and distribution funding to films made in Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, will back the German theatrical release of "Zemestan" (It's Winter) from Iranian-born filmmaker Rafi Pitts and Kurdish director Hiner Saleem's "Dol", the fund's management team said Tuesday.

Saleem's "Dol", about a wedding celebration in the Turkish-military controlled Kurdish village of Balliova that ends in conflict, will be released by Berlin-based distributor MITOSFILM in April.

"Zemestan", Pitts' study of living and working conditions on the outskirts of Teheran, which ran in competition at the 2006 Berlinale, will be released by Berlin's FSK in March.

"These outstanding films give an authentic picture of the cultures in their countries of origin and should not be withheld from German or other European audiences," said Hortensia Voelckers, artistic director of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, one of the World Cinema Fund's backers.

"Dol" received €8,000 ($10,400) in distribution funding and "Zemestan" received €3,600 ($4,680) from the World Cinema Fund.

It's a road picture with a MacGuffin. Yet in this powerful, contemporary case, it's no standard generic product: The road is the dusty backways of Iraq, and the MacGuffin is a dead Iraqi soldier whom our battling, nonbuddy heroes must transport to his family. Although generically structured, Kilometre Zero offers a searing look into the horrors the people of Iraq, specifically the Kurds, suffered under the brutish tyranny of Saddam Hussein.

Its most hospitable U.S. venue might be 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., since this Competition entrant personalizes the freedom one Kurdish family attains as a result of the U.S. liberation of Iraq and the downfall of Hussein. Unfortunately, Kilometre's powerful message is delivered with often blunt aesthetics, and commercial prospects are negligible unless the Republican Party gets into the film distribution racket.

Set in 1988 amid the Iraq-Iran war, we follow a young Kurdish husband and father, Ako (Nazmi Kirik), as he is conscripted into the Iraqi Army and thrust into the front lines. Army life is brutal and hellish, and the real enemies, it seems, are his sadistic superior officers. With awful equipment, no training and boneheaded strategy, the "grand army" bungles along on its belly, generally entrenched under enemy bombardment. However, the god of the military bureaucracy shines on Ako when he is assigned to accompany a fellow soldier's corpse to his family and temporarily leave the mayhem. With a flag-wrapped coffin atop an orange GMC vehicle, Ako and an Iraqi cab driver (Robert Alazraki) set out on their mission.

Ako and the driver exchange hostile words: The hatred between the Arab and the Kurd is emblematic of the ethnic strife in that tyrannized land. Unfortunately, writer-director Hiner Saleem's filmmaking skills are not always sufficient for his theme and story. The dialogue is often expositional and the visuals somewhat crude. The epiphany these men finally reach is muddled by Saleem's uneven storytelling. Eventually, it jumps forward to the present and a maudlin last shot of Ako and his family gazing at the Eiffel Tower, representing freedom -- a bit cheeky, one might add, given France's opposition to the conflict in Iraq.

In certain instances, the film resembles a rough cut, but there is a diamond of a story beneath its modest budget constraints. A cortege of coffin-bearing cabs as they wind across the horizon is a searing correlative for the sad horrors of life in Iraq. A sobering, running gag is a towering statue of Saddam Hussein on a flatbed truck that seems to shadow our travelers' transport. There is also some contrapuntal comedic hilarity as the bombastic military music of the Iraqi Army blasts from the cab radio.

Under Saleem's hand, the technical contributions are frequently eloquent, specifically composer Nikos Kipourgos' baleful score, amplified with the wails of a sad people's plea.

KILOMETRE ZERO

Memento Films Distribution

Memento Films Production/La Cinefacture, Hiner Saleem Prods.

Credits:

Screenwriter-director: Hiner Saleem

Director of photography: Robert Alazraki

Production designer: Kamal Hamarash

Music: Nikos Kipourgos

Editor: Anna Ruiz

Sound: Freddy Loth

Cast:

Ako: Nazmi Kirik

Salma: Belcim Bigin

Taxi driver: Robert Alazraki

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 91 minutes...