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Exclusive: Fresh from its Terrifier 3 box office success, next-gen entertainment studio Cineverse has acquired English-speaking distribution rights for Mira Shaib’s Lebanese Academy Award entry Arzé.

Cineverse will distribute the film across its wide distribution footprint – including its own streaming channel Fandor – in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

The deal was brokered by the film’s Cairo and L.A.-based executive producer and international rights-holder Ambient Light Films, which has also sold the film to Indonesia (Pt Falcon) and ex-Yugoslavia (Discovery Film & Video Distribution).

Arzé is Shaib’s feature film debut. It is written and produced by Faissal Sam Shaib and Louay Khraish. Zeina Badran at Spotless Mind Films lead produced the film with Ali El Arabi at Ambient Light Films and Tarek Al Naama on board as executive producers.

The drama follows titular single mother Arzé who takes her teenage son on...

Exclusive: Marvel’s Moon Knight Director Mohamed Diab has revealed fresh details about his new feature Lion, starring Egyptian megastar Mohamed Ramadan in a role inspired by Ancient Rome rebel slave Spartacus.

“It’s a period piece, a kind of Spartacus meets Braveheart set in 1850s Egypt,” said Diab, talking to Deadline on the fringes of Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival.

Currently mid-way through shooting in Cairo, Lion marks Diab’s first picture back in his native Egypt since 2016 breakthrough Clash. In between times, he made the Palestine-set drama Amira, followed by directing Moon Knight for Marvel.

Diab has revealed very little about the new movie, which was originally announced under the title of Black Lion and is being billed as his most ambitious Arab-language production to date.

“It’s about slavery in the 1850s. It’s an epic film. It’s not based on a real person but inspired by true events.

Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir, whose latest documentary “The Brink of Dreams” became the first Egyptian film to win the Golden Eye Award for best documentary at Cannes earlier this year, have received the Variety Middle East and North Africa Talent of the Year Award. The ceremony was held at the El Gouna Film Festival, where their film is also playing as part of the Feature Narrative Competition.

“The Brink of Dreams” is a moving coming-of-age story following the Panorama Barsha Troupe, an all-female theater group in a remote village in southern Egypt who take to the streets to act out their plays denouncing underage marriage, domestic violence and patriarchy in a deeply conservative society.

“It’s wonderful to get this award and truly meaningful for us as filmmakers. We deeply respect the creatives who received the award before us and are so very happy to join them,” said Riyadh.

Das an mehr als 20 Locations in Beirut gedrehte Sozialdrama um eine alleinerziehende Mutter, die sich und ihren Teenager-Sohn in Beirut mit einem Pizzadienst über Wasser hält, ist aus dem Libanon für die Oscarkategorie „Bester internationaler Film“ eingereicht worden.

Oscarhoffnung aus dem Libanon: das Sozialdrama „Arzé“ (Credit: Ambient Light Films)

Mira Shabis Sozialdrama „Arzé“, das nach seiner Weltpremiere auf dem Filmfestival in Peking auch in Tribeca lief, wurde aus dem Libanon für eine Oscarnominierung in der Kategorie „Bester internationaler Film“ eingereicht.

In dem Drama, das von der in Los Angeles und Kairo ansässigen Produktionsfirma Ambient Light produziert wird, spielt die libanesische Schauspielerin Diamand Abou Abboud die titelgebende Hauptfigur, eine alleinerziehende Mutter, deren Pizzalieferdienst in Gefahr gerät, als ihr Motorroller gestohlen wird.

Entschlossen, ihre Haupteinnahmequelle wiederzuerlangen, nimmt sie ihren Sohn im Teenageralter mit auf eine Reise durch Beirut, wo der Film an mehr als 20 Locations gedreht wurde.

Für Regisseurin Mira Shabi ist...

Exclusive: Against the odds, Lebanon has submitted Mira Shaib’s social dramedy Arzé as its candidate for the Best International Feature category at the 97th Academy Awards.

The drama – produced by L.A. and Cairo-based production company Ambient Light – stars Lebanese actress Diamand Abou Abboud as the titular Arzé, a single mother whose home-cooked pizza delivery business is jeopardized when her scooter is stolen.

Determined to retrieve their main source of income, she takes her teenage son on a journey across sectarian Beirut.

The drama is billed as both a gripping family tale and a tribute to Beirut, as a “a kaleidoscopic portrait of the city, rich in complexity and resilience”.

Shaib as well as writers/producers Faissal Sam Shaib and Louay Khraish describe the feature – filmed in more than 20 locations across Beirut – as an ode and love letter to the city.

The selection of the picture...

Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired global distribution rights for anthology film Disorder exploring Lebanon’s recent tumultuous years through the eyes of four directors.

The picture, which is due to premiere at Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival later this month, brings together Lebanese writers and directors Lucien Bourjeily (Heaven Without People), Bane Fakih (Keep It Together), Wissam Charaf, and Areej Mahmoud (Beirut 6:07).

The launch comes as the global spotlight is on Lebanon due to the flare-up in the conflict between Israel and Shiite Muslim political party and militant group Hezbollah, which has resulted in close to 2,000 deaths, and also displaced more than 350,000 people over the last two weeks.

The feature is curated and produced Bechara Mouzannar under the banner of Unbranded, in collaboration with Nadine Labaki and Khaled Mouzanar who take executive producer credits. The trio previously collaborated on Labaki’s 2018 film Capernaum

Blending drama and dark comedy,...

Exclusive: Amazon has acquired world rights for Beirut-set dramedy series Self Modulation from producers Falcon Films and Arna Media, in its first ever Arabic TV series acquisition.

The series is the first project in a multi-show deal partly financed by Arna Media, which plans to invest in two projects annually with Falcon Films.

It is produced by Sobhi Sannan, Rami Sannan and Raed Sannan for Dubai and Beirut-based Falcon Films and Nadezda Motina and Aram Hovhannisyan for Moscow-based Arna Media. The ten-part, 50-minute episode series will air in Q2 2024.

The show follows Ahmad, a Syrian man living illegally in Lebanon whose life takes a dramatic turn after witnessing a tragic event. As he navigates his way through a job at a suicide hotline centre, Ahmad’s dreams of fame and recognition lead him down a path of deception and destruction.

The cast features Maxim Khalil, Carole El Hajj, Foad Yammine, Natasha Choufani, Leen Gherra and Abbas Al Nouri.

The series is written by Foad Yammine, Rami Awad and director Mayar Al Nouri, who makes his television directing debut.

“I am thrilled to collaborate with Nadezda Motina on this extraordinary project. When I introduced the concept to Arna Media, they were captivated by its originality, particularly as no similar project has been undertaken, especially within the Middle East region,” said Falcon Films Managing Director Rami Sannan.

“We are eagerly anticipating the imminent release of the series on Amazon and are eager to hear the audience’s response. From the outset, our goal has been to showcase our capability to produce content with global appeal, reaching audiences beyond the Middle East.”

Arna Media President Motina said the project had been born out of long-standing professional relationship with Sannan.

“When I decided to invest in a series for the Middle East market, I could not think of a better partner. I was sure he could create a unique product which will appeal to local and global players. When you see it, you may think this is A24 in Middle East,” said Arna Media President Nadezda Motina.

Falcon Films is an independent production and distribution company working across the Middle East.

To date it has produced more than 15 local films and five series, including for Downtown, which played on Jawwy Stc; 8 Days for Mbc Shahid, and The Chamber, which debuted on Starzplay Arabia.

On the theatrical front, the company is gearing up for the summer releases of Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 & 2 and A Weekend In Taipei, produced by Luc Besson.

Disney+ has revealed the official trailer for Character 7’s upcoming UK original darkly comic crime series ‘Culprits.’

The eight-episode series kicks off where most crime stories end: after a high-stakes heist, when the crew of elite criminals have gone their separate ways and have tried to leave their old lives behind. Past and present collide when a ruthless assassin starts targeting them one by one. Why are they being stalked, who is behind the mayhem, and will they be able to find one another in time to protect themselves and the people they love?

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Gemma Arterton, Kirby (“Cruella” “The Good Place”), Niamh Algar, Kamel El Basha (“The Insult”), Tara Abboud, Kevin Vidal, Ned Dennehy, and Eddie Izzard star.

‘Culprits’ is executive produced by Stephen Garrett & J Blakeson, created by J Blakeson, directed by J Blakeson and Claire Oakley (“Make up”) and produced by Morenike Williams (“Killing Eve”). Culprits...

Series creator J Blakeson enjoys heist films but wanted to do something different with the subgenre. The trailer for Hulu’s Culprits shows that he did just that, setting the story years after a heist when the robbers have put their former criminal ways behind them and have established new lives.

“Heists have been done so many times, the great thing about this is that you can sort of play in that sandbox with the tropes and the expectations and the iconography of the heist, but actually tell a story, which is much more about these people who are dealing with this bad thing they’ve done and the consequences of their actions and trying to escape who they were and are trying to become a person who they’d like to be,” said Blakeson in an interview with Variety.

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Candyman) and Gemma Arterton (The King’s Man) lead...

The Hulu Original Series Culprits is set to begin streaming on the Hulu service on Friday, December 8th, and all eight episodes of the show will be available to binge on that date. With a little over a month left to go before we reach the release date, a trailer for the series has arrived online and you can check it out in the embed above! Wikipedia notes Culprits will also be released “on Star via Disney+ in several countries around the world as a Star Original.”

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (the Candyman reboot), Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace), Niamh Algar (Raised by Wolves), Kirby (a.k.a. Kirby Howell-Baptiste of The Good Place), Kamel El Basha (The Insult), Tara Abboud (Amira), Kevin Vidal (Working Moms), Ned Dennehy (Good Omens), and Eddie Izzard (Six Minutes to Midnight) lead the cast of Culprits, which has the following synopsis:

Culprits kicks off where most...

Disney+ has revealed first-look images for Character 7’s upcoming UK original darkly comic crime series ‘Culprits.’

The eight-episode series kicks off where most crime stories end: after a high-stakes heist, when the crew of elite criminals have gone their separate ways and have tried to leave their old lives behind. Past and present collide when a ruthless assassin starts targeting them one by one. Why are they being stalked, who is behind the mayhem, and will they be able to find one another in time to protect themselves and the people they love?

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Gemma Arterton, Kirby (“Cruella” “The Good Place”), Niamh Algar, Kamel El Basha (“The Insult”), Tara Abboud, Kevin Vidal, Ned Dennehy, and Eddie Izzard star.

‘Culprits’ is executive produced by Stephen Garrett & J Blakeson, created by J Blakeson, directed by J Blakeson and Claire Oakley (“Make up”) and produced by Morenike Williams (“Killing Eve”). Culprits is...

Gemma Arterton in ‘Culprits’ (Photo: Character 7 Productions/Hulu)

Hulu’s released the first batch of photos from Culprits, an upcoming thriller set to stream this fall. The first-look photos tease what Hulu describes as a darkly funny crime series without giving much away.

Culprits stars Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Generation), Gemma Arterton (The King’s Man), Kirby (The Good Place), Niamh Algar (Raised by Wolves), and Kamel El Basha (The Insult). Tara Abboud, Kevin Vidal (Working Moms), Ned Dennehy (The Peripheral), and Eddie Izzard (Victoria and Abdul) also star.

The eight-episode season was created by J Blakeson (The Disappearance of Alice Creed), who also serves as an executive producer and director. Disney+ Emea’s Johanna Devereaux and Stephen Garrett (The Night Manager) executive produce, Claire Oakley (Make Up) directs, and Morenike Williams (Killing Eve) is a producer.

The series is a Character 7 production.

Eddie Izzard in ‘Culprits’ (Photo: Character 7 Productions/Hulu)

The Plot,...

After starring in Mona Achache’s “Little Girl Blue” which played at Cannes, Marion Cotillard will work with another daring French female auteur, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, on her next film “La tour de glace.”

The long-gestated film marks the first collaboration between Hadzihalilovic and Muriel Merlin, producer at 3B Productions. Hadzihalilovic’s follow up to “Earwig,” which won the jury prize at San Sebastian, “La Tour de glace” is expected to be the director’s most accessible and ambitious film to date. The movie will reteam Hadzihalilovic with Cotillard who had starred in her 2004 film “Innocence.”

Co-written by Geoff Cox, “La tour de glace” is set in the 1970s and follows Jeanne, a teenage girl who runs away from her orphanage located in a mountain village. She flees to Paris with big dreams to fulfill and finds shelter in a warehouse which turns out to be used as a studio where...

While unveiling its slate of new French originals and acquisitions on Monday, Prime Video announced that it would skip a French theatrical release for “Challengers,” Luca Guadagnino’s anticipated tennis drama. The film, which stars Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and “West Side Story” star Mike Faist, will still be released in theaters in all other territories.

During a posh press event hosted at the Pavillon Royal on the outskirts of Paris, Brigitte Ricou-Bellan, Prime Video’s country managing director for France, said the strategic move by the Amazon streamer resulted from France’s notoriously strict windowing rules, which demands streamers to wait 15 to 17 months after a theatrical roll out before making a new film available on their services. The rule has led other studios to opt to skip French cinemas for new releases before, such as Disney’s decision to debut “Strange World” on streaming.

“We’re a strong partner for French cinema and well-established talent.

Showtime has announced its forthcoming spy drama, “Ghosts of Beirut,” will make its debut on Friday, May 19, on Showtime’s streaming site and will air on linear on May 21 at 10 p.m. Et/Pt.

The four-part limited series tells the origin story of 21-year old Mughniyeh (who is also referred to as “The Ghost”), an elusive Lebanese terrorist who evaded capture from the CIA and Mossad for two decades. He was responsible for more American deaths than any other individual prior to 9/11.

“Told from the American, Israeli and Lebanese perspectives, the series traces Mughniyeh’s origins from the Shiite slums of South Beirut to his masterminding of the concept of suicide bombers, a deadly tactic that led to his swift rise as the world’s most dangerous terrorist. Based on extensive research of still-classified events, the drama spans decades and weaves in first-hand, real-life interviews with prominent officials from the CIA and Mossad,...

Exclusive: Showtime has set Ghosts Of Beirut, a four-part spy drama based on the real-life espionage story of the manhunt for Imad Mughniyeh, the elusive Lebanese terrorist who outwitted his adversaries in the CIA and Mossad for over two decades. The limited series, from Fauda creators Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz, features an international cast led by Dina Shihabi (Jack Ryan), Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding), Garret Dillahunt (12 Years a Slave), Iddo Goldberg (Snowpiercer), Hisham Suleiman (Fauda), Amir Khoury (Image of Victory) and Rafi Gavron (A Star is Born).

Emmy winner Greg Barker (Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden), who directs all four episodes, and Daniel Dreifuss (All Quiet on the Western Front) executive produce Ghosts Of Beirut alongside Issacharoff and Raz. The series will debut on streaming and on demand May 19 for Showtime subscribers, before making its on-air debut on the network May 21.

Ghosts Of Beirut,...

After exploring the tumults of French politics in “Baron Noir,” Oscar-nominated French-Lebanese filmmaker Ziad Doueiri immerses audiences into the rough world of French Special Forces in Iraq in “Dark Hearts.”

Ordered by Amazon Prime Video in France, “Dark Hearts” is set on the eve of the battle for Mosul in October 2016 and follows the lives of men and women who are part of a commando group deployed in Iraq to fight Isis. They are tasked with exfiltrating the daughter and grandson of an important Isis leader who will only cooperate with them on this condition.

Doueiri, who started his career in Hollywood working as a first assistant camera on movies like Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs,” was always curious about war movies but thought of them as a genre pre-empted by American filmmakers. So when French producer Gilles de Verdière at Mandarin Télévision approached him with the pitch for “Dark Hearts,...

Saudi Arabia’s rapidly expanding Telfaz11 Studios is teaming up with France’s Easy Riders Films to develop and produce a slate of four features directed by emerging Saudi talents with international ambitions.

The first title expected to go into production is “Night Courier,” a comedy about a young man named Fahad who winds up in possession of six crates of illicit booze in an Arab city known for its hidden delights and dangers. This project was first presented last year at the inaugural Red Sea Film Festival’s Red Sea Souk projects market.

The four-picture pact between Telfaz11 and Easy Riders was forged at the Cannes Film Festival.

Founded by Alaa Yousef Fadan, Ali Al Kalthami, and Ibrahim Al Khairallah, Telfaz11 is an innovative content company that started out in the YouTube space and has since seen rapid growth in both production and distribution. They recently closed a funding pact with strategic investors.

Snd is teaming up with Easy Riders Films to develop a premium limited series loosely based on “The Family,” Suzanne Privat’s best-selling investigative book on a French cult which has existed for more than 200 years.

“The Family” is penned by rising French screenwriter Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat, whose recent credits include “Nona and Her Daughters,” as well as the Amazon Original show “Mixte.” She led the writing team for season 2 of “In Treatment.”

Set in Paris’s underworld, the thriller series will shed right on the rites and customs of this enigmatic religious sect from diverse perspectives, focusing on the experiences of those inside and outside the community. The book, whose French title is “La Famille, itinéraires d’un secret,” was published by Les Avrils editions in 2021.

Madeleine-Perdrillat said “The Family” “offers the incredible opportunity to untangle the torments, paradoxes and quiet loyalties at the root of all families — all in...

Linking to Paris-based Nadia Turincev and her producer partner Omar El Kadi to develop and produce two new Swiss films, Geneva-based Akka Films is also ramping up TV production, with Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond, writer-directors of the acclaimed “My Little Sister,” Switzerland’s Oscar submission, teaming to create a new TV series .

Headed by Nicolas Wadimoff and Philippe Coeytaux, Akka is readying with Turincev and El Kadi “O Jacaré,” the third feature from Swiss-Portuguese filmmaker Basil Da Cunha whose debut, “After the Night” played the Cannes Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight in 2013. Its follow-up, “O film do mundo,” screened in main competition at Locarno in 2019.

Presented at 2021’s online Industry Village, part of France’s Les Arc Film Festival, “O Jacaré” concludes Da Cunha’s trilogy set in the humble district of Reboleira on the outskirts of Lisbon. Described by its producers as a breathless ensemble thriller in the line of his previous features,...

Alexander Rodnyansky’s Ar Content is developing a slate of new series as the two-time Oscar-nominated producer continues his push into high-end episodic content.

Rodnyansky revealed details of two new projects to Variety during the Berlinale Series Market, just days after Fox Entertainment acquired U.S. rights to Ar Content’s upcoming epic action show “Khan: The Series,” as Variety previously reported.

“The Doghead” is a series loosely based on the book of the same name by best-selling author Alexey Ivanov, whose previous works adapted for the big screen include Cannes Un Certain Regard prize winner “Tsar.”

The series follows Kirill, a homebody historian who prefers stability to change or adventure, but who travels to a remote village to look for his lost girlfriend. Her disappearance is just the first in a chain of mysterious events that started in the 17th century around an enigmatic fresco of an ancient spirit known as the Doghead.

Gemma Arterton and Eddie Izzard are the latest additions to the original Disney series ‘Culprits.’

Also joining Arterton and Izzard on the cast list are Kirby Howell-Baptiste (“Cruella”) who plays Officer, Niamh Algar (“Deceit”, “Raised by Wolves”) who plays Psycho, Kamel El Basha (“The Insult”) who plays Youssef, newcomer Tara Abboud who plays Azar, Kevin Vidal (“Strays”, “Working Moms”) who plays Jules, Ned Dennehy who plays Devil.

The eight-episode series, which is described as a darkly funny, whip-smart series follows the aftermath of a heist follows what happens after a heist, when the crew have gone their separate ways, but are being targeted by a killer one by one.

Also in news – R.I.P Ivan Reitman

The series comes from series from acclaimed executive producer Stephen Garrett (The Undoing; The Night Manager) and film-maker J Blakeson. Directors for the series are J Blakeson and Claire Oakley (“Make Up”) who...

Gemma Arterton (“The King’s Man”) and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (“The Good Place”) have joined the cast of Disney Plus series “Culprits.”

Described as a “dark and funny heist series,” the show follows the aftermath of a heist, with the crew being picked off one-by-one by what appears to be a serial killer. Principal photography has already kicked off.

“Candyman’s” Nathan Stewart-Jarrett has previously been announced as the eight-episode show’s lead, Joe.

Arterton will play Dianne while Howell-Baptiste will play Officer.

Joining them are Niamh Algar (“Deceit”) as Psycho, Kamel El Basha (“The Insult”) as Youssef, newcomer Tara Abboud as Azar, Kevin Vidal (“Strays”) as Jules, Ned Dennehy (“Good Omens”) as Devil and Eddie Izzard (“Victoria and Abdul”) as Vincent.

“Cuprits” is a Character 7 production.

It is executive produced by Stephen Garrett (“The Undoing”) and filmmaker J. Blakeson (“I Care A Lot”). Johanna Devereaux will executive produce for Disney Plus.

Amid ongoing disruption in the Arab world’s unstable fest landscape, Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival is staying the course and increasingly proving its mettle in promoting the cream of the region’s cinematic crop while also providing key support in nurturing new works.

El Gouna chief Intishal Al Timimi proudly points out that the fifth edition of the Oct. 14-22 event has secured eight high-profile features from Arab directors, most of which will be having their Middle Eastern premieres in the Egyptian Red Sea resort after bowing in Cannes and Venice.

They comprise French-Moroccan veteran Nabil Ayouch’s high-energy hip-hop drama “Casablanca Beats”; and two works from Lebanon: Mounia Akl’s dramedy “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” which targets Lebanon’s political malaise; and Ely Dagher’s “The Sea Ahead,” about a young woman who returns from Paris to Beirut and reconnects with the life she had left behind. There...

Guatemala has only submitted three films for Oscar consideration in the history of the Best International Feature category. In 1995 it entered “The Silence of Neto” and in 2016 “Ixcanul,” but neither advanced in the race toward a nomination. This year, the director of “Ixcanul” Jayro Bustamante is back in the race with Guatemala’s third-ever submission “La Llorona.” In February the film became the country’s first submission to make the 15-title shortlist and is now on pace to be its first nominee.

The supernatural drama film reimagines a Latin American fable using magical realism and horror to examine Guatemala’s dark past in a story of cultural guilt and justice. “La Llorona” had its world premiere at the 2019 Venice Film Festival where it won the Best Film prize at the Venice Days sidebar and then screened at TIFF shortly after, a full year before it was made available stateside via...

Three years after the first movie theater reopened in Saudi Arabia – following removal of a religion-related ban – the kingdom has become the top theatrical market in the Middle East and is turning into a major driver for Arabic film production.

“At the moment Saudi is on a different path from the rest of the world,” says David Hancock, an analyst at London-based Omdia, which sees this new market as having the potential to be ranked among the top 10-15 territories for box office worldwide by 2024.

By 2024 Omdia estimates there will be 1,400 screens in Saudi Arabia, up from a current count of less than 300 screens in 2020 with more than 600 screens expected in 2021. In 2020 Saudi box office was up 3% to $115 million, bucking the downward trend in the rest of the world.

But besides growing box office and screen count, just like in other parts of the world such as China where there is moviegoing growth,...

Indie Sales has acquired Jimmy Keyrouz’s feature debut “Broken Keys,” which was part of Cannes 2020’s official selection and represented Lebanon in the Oscar race.

“Broken Keys” is a follow-up of Keyrouz’s short “Nocturne in Black,” winner of a flurry of international awards, including the BAFTA Los Angeles Student Film Award.

The movie was scored by music composer Gabriel Yared (“The English Patient”) and produced by Antoun Sehnaoui at Ezekiel Film Production, whose credits include “The Insult,” “Raw” and “Clouds of Sils Maria.”

Set in 2013 in a war-torn village in Islamic-State controlled Syria, the film follows Karim, a pianist who placed his last hopes in his instrument. When an Isis soldier destroys his piano, he leaves his home to embark on a dangerous journey to find the missing parts he needs to rebuild his piano.

“Broken Keys” was partly shot in Mosul, Iraq, in the last Islamic State stronghold.

Cameras are set to roll in February on the long delayed Arabic adaptation of hit Italian concept movie “Perfect Strangers” with a high-caliber ensemble cast now in place comprising star Lebanese director/actor Nadine Labaki (“Capernaum”).

After being postponed due to both Covid-19 and political turmoil in Lebanon, the latest in a slew of remakes of the dramedy involving cellphones and personal secrets, is now on track for principal photography to start February 2. It will be directed by Lebanese first-timer Wissam Smayra who has co-written the Arabic “Perfect Strangers” screenplay with Gabriel Yammine.

Along with Labaki, the pan-Arabic “Perfect Strangers” cast also features Egypt’s Mona Zaki; Egypt-based Jordanian actor/director Eyad Nassar (“The Blue Elephant 2”); Lebanon’s Diamand Bou Abboud (“The Fixer”), Adel Karam (“The Insult”), and fellow Lebanese actor/director/playwright/composer Georges Khabbaz, who co-wrote “Capernaum.”

The original “Perfect Strangers” was directed by Italy’s Paolo Genovese...

Cast has been set and shoot scheduled for the Arabic-language remake of Italian box office smash hit Perfect Strangers.

Lebanese actress and filmmaker Nadine Labaki (Capernaum) has been cast alongside Egyptian star Mona Zaki (30 Years Ago), Adel Karam (The Insult), Eyad Nassar (The Looming Tower), Diamand Bou Abboud (The Insult) and George Khabbaz (Under the Bombs).

Wissam Smayra is directing and co-wrote the screenplay with Gabriel Yammine. Producers are Gianluca Chakra, Mohamed Hefzy and Mario Haddad. Production companies are Front Row Filmed Entertainment, Empire Entertainment and Film-Clinic. Filming on the delayed pic, which has been postponed by Covid-19 and also political turmoil in Lebanon, has now been scheduled for February 2. Mayada Hiraki is executive producing.

Italian comedy-drama Perfect Strangers, released in 2016, was a box office hit, grossing north of $30M. The film has since achieved a Guinness World Record by becoming the most remade movie in history with 18 versions and...

Nadine Labaki, the Lebanese actress and filmmaker who landed an Oscar nomination as director of 2018’s record-smashing feature Capernaum, has been cast in the upcoming Arabic language remake of hit Italian drama Perfect Strangers.

Labaki joins an impressive lineup of Arabic stars, including Mona Zaki (30 Years Ago, Scheherazade: Tell Me A Story, Escaping Tel Aviv), Adel Karam (The Insult, Caramel, Netflix’s Live From Beirut), Eyad Nassar (The Looming Tower, Sons of Rizk 2, The Blue Elephant 2), Diamand Bou Abboud (The Insult, The Sculptor, The Fixer) and Lebanese legend, actor screen and playwright George Khabbaz (Under the Bombs, Ghadi, and co-writer of Capernaum).

First announced in late 2018, the Perfect ...

Nadine Labaki, the Lebanese actress and filmmaker who landed an Oscar nomination as director of 2018’s record-smashing feature Capernaum, has been cast in the upcoming Arabic language remake of hit Italian drama Perfect Strangers.

Labaki joins an impressive lineup of Arabic stars, including Mona Zaki (30 Years Ago, Scheherazade: Tell Me A Story, Escaping Tel Aviv), Adel Karam (The Insult, Caramel, Netflix’s Live From Beirut), Eyad Nassar (The Looming Tower, Sons of Rizk 2, The Blue Elephant 2), Diamand Bou Abboud (The Insult, The Sculptor, The Fixer) and Lebanese legend, actor screen and playwright George Khabbaz (Under the Bombs, Ghadi, and co-writer of Capernaum).

First announced in late 2018, the Perfect Strangers...

Bookmark this page for all the latest international feature submissions.

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2021 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

Scroll down for the full list

The 93rd Academy Awards is set to take place on April 25, 2021. It was originally set to be held on February 28, before both the ceremony and eligibility period were postponed for two months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Submitted films must have been released in their respective countries between the expanded dates of October 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020. (Last year it was October-September.

One of the major figures at this year’s Venice Film Festival, Academy Award-nominated “Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino will serve as president of the main competition official jury at Spain’s 68th San Sebastian Festival.

The announcement comes as Guadagnino world premieres two films at Venice: the doc feature “Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams,” about extraordinary Italian luxury shoe designer-entrepreneur Salvatore Ferragamo, and a more personal 122-minute short “Fiori, Fiori, Fiori,” in which Guadagnino looks up childhood friends to see how they’re faring during Covid-19.

At San Sebastian, Guadagnino will also be on double duty as he will also present out of the competition the world premiere of his series “We Are What We Are,” an HBO/Sky Italia production sold by Fremantle.

Acclaimed for his often glamorous movies directed with a high-style, and set in glorious locations and featuring marvelous houses – Guadagnino nevertheless maintains he has no style,...

Bron Studios, whose film credits include “Joker,” “Bombshell,” “The Way Back” and “Greyhound,” has partnered with director Kornel Mundruczo, and Alexander Rodnyansky, producer of Oscar-nominated films “Leviathan” and “Loveless,” to produce the television drama series about a woman who becomes a pioneer in the changing porn industry of the 2000s, while struggling to raise a teenage daughter.

The pilot was developed by Mundruczo and screenwriter Kata Weber, who previously collaborated on “White God,” “Jupiter’s Moon,” and the upcoming “Pieces of a Woman,” starring Shia Lebouf and Vanessa Kirby, also produced by Bron.

The first season follows a hyper-intelligent woman who, finding herself in dire straits, enters the porn industry in Budapest, Hungary as a performer, but soon sees an opportunity to evolve the way pornographic content is consumed. Research conducted for the series revealed that the advent of social media and digital content in the 2000s dramatically changed the porn industry,...

Rithy Panh, Karim Ainouz, Annemarie Jacir, Tala Hadid, Ghassan Salhab join efforts to continue key project development activities.

The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has set up an online mentorship programme to replace its Qumra talent and project development event which was cancelled earlier this month due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A total of 46 projects were to have received support and advice from some 100 industry professionals at the sixth edition of the meeting, originally scheduled to run March 20-25 in Doha.

French director Claire Denis, Greek cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, Us director James Gray, Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner and Oscar-winning sound editor...

This year, with some mighty titles from the Maghreb evaluated alongside the rest of continental Africa, the competitive potential of the Middle East lineup handicapped here may seem a tad diminished. Nevertheless, the territory boasts a possible short-list contender in Palestinian helmer Elia Suleiman’s wry travelog “It Must Be Heaven,” which nabbed the international critics award at 2019 Cannes.

Back in 2003, Suleiman’s second feature, “Divine Intervention,” marked the first of 12 submissions made by Palestine over the years. During that time, the entries resulted in two nominations, both for films helmed by Hany Abu-Assad: “Paradise Now” (2005) and “Omar” (2013). Now, Suleiman, like Abu-Assad, is recognized as an elder statesman of Palestinian filmmaking as well as an accomplished auteur whose films continue to bear witness to the surreal and the absurd in Palestinian life at home and abroad. Although his work is better-known in Europe than in the U.S., “It Must Be Heaven...

Alexander Rodnyansky’s Ar Content – in partnership with Kevin Macdonald, an Oscar winner with “One Day in September,” and Rosanne Korenberg – has tapped Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning director Rory Kennedy, best known for “Last Days in Vietnam,” to direct its untitled documentary centering on a little-known refugee crisis immediately preceding World War II.

The film will center on the voyage of the transatlantic liner St. Louis in 1939, which was carrying Jews fleeing Nazi but was turned away by Cuba and the U.S. and forced to return to Europe. Later, 254 of its passengers died in the Holocaust. The film will compare that episode with today’s global refugee crisis.

Alongside Rodnyansky – who was Oscar-nominated for “Leviathan” and “Loveless” – Macdonald and Korenberg, Kennedy and the documentary’s writer Mark Bailey, a WGA nominee for “Last Days in Vietnam” and a three-time Emmy nominee, will produce the film under their production banner Moxie Films.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

San Sebastian — Rouge International co-founder Nadia Turincev, whose credits included the Oscar-nominated “The Insult,” “Raw” and “Mimosas,” has teamed with Omar El Kadi, head of acquisitions and sales, Emea, at Lebanon’s Mc Distribution, to launch Easy Riders Films, a new Paris-based production company.

If Easy Riders Films first titles are anything to go by – Latin American co-production “Perros,” 1941 Lebanon-set comedy “The Fifteen,” political romantic drama series “L’Âge d’Or,” Easy Riders looks set to pursue the adventurous, unconventional production line which has come to distinguish Turincev.

At the same time she and El Kadi have linked from the get-go with prestigious production partners around the globe and are backing projects put through the most illustrious of development programs.

“Perros,” for example, is directed by Cannes Cinéfondation Résidence 2019 winner Vinko Tomičić, is also produced by Chile’s Jirafa Films, behind Christopher Murray’s “The Blind Christ” and Alicia Scherson’s “Il Futuro,...

Eric Névé, a prominent French producer whose credits include Ziad Doueiri’s Oscar-nominated “The Insult,” has died. Névé, 57, was the founder of the Paris-based production banner La Chauve-Souris and co-founder of the international sales company Indie Sales and its sister outfit Indie Prod. He died Sunday.

Through La Chauve-Souris, which he launched in 1995, Névé produced several popular and daring films from a mix of established and emerging directors, notably Jan Kounen’s “Doberman,” Jean-Paul Salomé’s “Les femmes de l’ombre,” Romain Gavras’ “Notre jour viendra,” Moussa Touré’s “La Pirogue” and Daouda Coulibaly’s “Wùlu.”

Névé was well-known for his contribution to the flourishing of new talents in West Africa, in particular Senegal, through his other production company, Astou Films.

In 2013, Névé launched the banner Indie Sales with former TF1 International executive Nicolas Eschbach. The sales and co-production company boasts a library of about 60 movies, among which are Jean-Pierre Améris’s “Marie Heurtin,...

China’s Huanxi Media has acquired a slate of recent film titles that played prominently on the international festival circuit and collected multiple prizes.

They include Julian Schnabel’s “At Eternity’s Gate”; Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s “Never Look Away”; Marcus H. Rosenmueller’s “The Keeper”; Ziad Doueiri’s “The Insult”; Andrzej Zulawski’s “Cosmo”; Frederic Tellier’s “Serial Killer 1” from 2017; Dom Lenoir’s 2018 title “Winter Ridge”; and Mina Shum’s “Meditation Park,” starring Sandra Oh.

Huanxi, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, is best-known as a producer backed by some of China’s leading talent. Its principal shareholders include directors Ning Hao and Xu Zheng, whose films “Crazy Alien” and “Dying to Survive” it has released in the past year.

However, the company sees its future as a specialist subscription-only video streaming platform. The platform’s lineup is a mix of tiles produced by Huanxi’s own directors and producers,...

Dumont writes and directs the drama, his seventh feature-length fiction after Joan Of Arc which premieres in Un Certain Regard this year.

Paris-based Indie Sales has boarded international sales on Bruno Dumont’s upcoming drama On A Half Clear Morning, starring Léa Seydoux as a celebrity journalist juggling her busy career and personal life whose life is over-turned by a freak car accident.

Dumont writes and directs the drama, his seventh feature-length fiction after Joan Of Arc which premieres in Un Certain Regard this year.

Seydoux – who is also in Cannes this year in Arnaud Desplechin’s Palme d’Or contender Oh Mercy!

Best Friend Forever (Bff) was launched by Martin Gondre and Charlie Bin.

New Brussels-based sales and production services company Best Friend Forever (Bff) has boarded sales on Ukrainian producer and director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s dystopian drama Atlantis ahead of Cannes.

Set in near future, war-torn eastern Ukraine, the drama revolves around a former soldier suffering from Ptsd, working at a local smelter and struggling to adapt to the reality of a life in pieces and a land in ruins.

When the smelter shuts down and he loses his job he finds salvation by volunteer Black Tulip mission dedicated to exhuming war corpses.

Indie Sales, the French international sales boutique behind the Oscar-nominated “My Life as a Zucchini” and Ziad Doueiri’s “The Insult,” is set to branch out with the launch of Best Friend Forever, a new Brussels-based outfit dedicated to festival-driven world cinema.

Best Friend Forever is kicking off with the acquisition of Juris Kursietis’ sophomore outing, “Oleg,” which will world premiere at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight. The movie follows Kursietis’ feature debut, “Modris,” which received San Sebastian’s special mention for the New Directors Award in 2014.

Produced by Tasse Film (“Dogs Don’t Wear Pants”) with Iota Productions (“Song of the Sea”) and In Script & Arizona Productions (“The Gentle Indifference of the World”), “Oleg” follows the story of a young Latvian butcher who immigrates to Brussels to work at a meat factory, hoping for a better life, but instead quickly falls under the yoke of Andzejs, a Polish criminal.

Best Friend...

The series is expected to start production in the first half of 2019.

Continuing a trend at this year’s Filmart for high-profile episodic series, China’s Huanxi Media has teased a few details of Wong Kar Wai’s upcoming web series, which has the working title Paradise Guesthouse.

Expected to start production in the first half of 2019, the series will revolve around the female proprietor of a guesthouse in a coastal town in mainland China. The story will follow her interactions with different guests, who will be introduced across the 12 x 45 minute episodes of the series.

“We think the project...

Directors of this year’s foreign-language Oscar nominees felt compelled to tell tales of universal themes.

Capernaum Lebanon

The Oscar race has fueled the ongoing protest against the industry’s sidelining of woman directors, serving up no female-helmed films in the best picture or director categories. That leaves Lebanon’s Nadine Labaki as the only distaff director nominated for a narrative feature film this year. “Capernaum,” a sprawling, dirt-on-the-lens labor of love about refugee children surviving on the mean streets of Beirut, is the most emotionally abrasive contender in the category. Centered on a destitute 12-year-old Syrian boy suing his parents for giving him life, it left many hardened critics weeping in the aisles at Cannes, where it duly won the Jury Prize. Variety’s Jay Weissberg was among them, deeming it “a splendid addition to the ranks of great guttersnipe dramas”; an Oscar nomination was widely predicted then and there.

During a heady morning for filmmakers situated from Los Angeles to Lebanon, Poland and beyond, directors of the five Oscar-nominated Best Foreign Language Film contenders took time to share reactions with Deadline.

Capernaum helmer Nadine Labaki “screamed and danced” with part of her team in attendance as they watched the big reveal from Beirut, and contacted her actors all over the world while Ida Fl winner Pawel Pawlikowski juggled a barrage of calls in Warsaw, particularly given he’s also in the Best Director race for the first time with Cold War. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, also a previous Foreign Language laureate, for 2006’s The Lives Of Others, was in La and had great praise for Caleb Deschanel who scored his 6th Best Cinematographer nomination with the helmer’s German entry, Never Look Away.

Here are the musings of the group of five — which also includes Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma...

It’s been a big morning for foreign language films — and their filmmakers. Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma today became the 11th foreign language movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar (though not all previous titles were nominated in the Foreign Language race). It also tied with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the most nominations for a film not in English. Roma scored 10 overall, including in the Best Foreign Language Film category which is rife with titles that spread out across several key races. There’s been crossover before, but today’s is a remarkable result as the Academy leans into becoming a more global enterprise. There’s a reason that all season we’ve been calling this one of the strongest Fl years in recent memory.

Along with Roma, the Best Foreign Language Film field includes Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War from Poland, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away from Germany,...

The nomination of Nadine Labaki's gut-wrenching drama Capernaum in the foreign-language Oscars category has lifted Lebanon into the league of countries to have made the final shortlist twice (alongside Chile, China, South Africa, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom).

However, the film – set in the world of Beirut's growing refugee crisis, which has forced many children onto the streets – has also given Lebanon the rare accolade of earning back-to-back nominations in the category, with Ziad Doueiri's The Insult having made the grade in 2018.

As such, Lebanon becomes the first Arab-speaking country to achieve this ...