Kicking off on May 15-17 with the LA Independents, with a heavyweight Spanish-language presence, the LA Screenings then host Hollywood studio presentations. To help cut through the slates, – especially at the LA Independents but including some big studio plays – here’s Variety’s pick of 20 top titles:
“The Americas,” (NBCU, BBC Studios)
Narrated by Tom Hanks, his first unscripted narrator gig, and billed as an epic natural history series from “Planet Earth” producer BBC Studios Natural History Unit in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio. Scored by two-time Oscar winner Hans Zimmer and using groundbreaking technology to reveal the continent’s natural wonders. Previewed at MipTV, in a presentation which was one of the biggest events of the whole market.
“Amia,” (Dori Media Group)
Unfolding against the background of the terror attacks of 1992 on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and in 1994 against Amia, the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, the...
“The Americas,” (NBCU, BBC Studios)
Narrated by Tom Hanks, his first unscripted narrator gig, and billed as an epic natural history series from “Planet Earth” producer BBC Studios Natural History Unit in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio. Scored by two-time Oscar winner Hans Zimmer and using groundbreaking technology to reveal the continent’s natural wonders. Previewed at MipTV, in a presentation which was one of the biggest events of the whole market.
“Amia,” (Dori Media Group)
Unfolding against the background of the terror attacks of 1992 on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and in 1994 against Amia, the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, the...
- 5/14/2024
- by John Hopewell and Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Disquieting thriller “Lateral Thinking” (“Pensamiento Lateral”) enjoyed a private Buenos Aires preview screening alongside key Latin American film market, Ventana Sur.
Argentine director Mariano Hueter (“El Legado”) and lead actress Spain’s Itziar Ituño (“Money Heist”) fielded audience questions ahead of its wider release in the coming months.
The film revolves around a school of thought presented by psychologist Edward de Bono, which speaks to solving problems in an unconventional, indirect manner. When a psychologist is kidnapped after giving a lecture, she relies on the very theories she teaches to thwart her captors and escape further torment.
Scenes play out slowly and build in intensity. The shots are precise and achieve a claustrophobic, frantic urgency frame-to-frame. There’s an astutely raw vulnerability to Ituño’s character Julia, who develops supreme agency in her attempt at accessing her captors’ weaknesses. In Julia, they’ve met a venerable match, and Ituño plays...
Argentine director Mariano Hueter (“El Legado”) and lead actress Spain’s Itziar Ituño (“Money Heist”) fielded audience questions ahead of its wider release in the coming months.
The film revolves around a school of thought presented by psychologist Edward de Bono, which speaks to solving problems in an unconventional, indirect manner. When a psychologist is kidnapped after giving a lecture, she relies on the very theories she teaches to thwart her captors and escape further torment.
Scenes play out slowly and build in intensity. The shots are precise and achieve a claustrophobic, frantic urgency frame-to-frame. There’s an astutely raw vulnerability to Ituño’s character Julia, who develops supreme agency in her attempt at accessing her captors’ weaknesses. In Julia, they’ve met a venerable match, and Ituño plays...
- 12/15/2022
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
It is the debut feature from Brazilian writer-director Carolina Markowicz.
Signature Entertainment has acquired UK and Ireland rights for satire Charcoal – the feature debut of Brazilian writer-director Carolina Markowicz.
The rights were picked up from Paris-based Urban Sales at this year’s American Film Market (AFM), with a theatrical release in the UK and Ireland planned for March 10 2023, followed by a digital release on March 20.
It is produced by Zita Carvalhosa’s Superfilmes (Brazil), alongside Karen Castanho of Bionica Filmes (Brazil) and Alejandro Israel of Ajimolido Films (Argentina).
A family in São Paulo’s countryside accept a mysterious guest into their home,...
Signature Entertainment has acquired UK and Ireland rights for satire Charcoal – the feature debut of Brazilian writer-director Carolina Markowicz.
The rights were picked up from Paris-based Urban Sales at this year’s American Film Market (AFM), with a theatrical release in the UK and Ireland planned for March 10 2023, followed by a digital release on March 20.
It is produced by Zita Carvalhosa’s Superfilmes (Brazil), alongside Karen Castanho of Bionica Filmes (Brazil) and Alejandro Israel of Ajimolido Films (Argentina).
A family in São Paulo’s countryside accept a mysterious guest into their home,...
- 12/13/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Hailed as a discovery by many critics who caught it at Toronto, where it world premiered in the Platform section, “Charcoal” adds Markowicz name very firmly to that of an exciting new young generation of women cineastes in Brazil.
It follows a family stretched thin in the smoke-enveloped Brazilian countryside, surrounded by numerous coal mines. When life becomes monotonous, matriarch Irene cuts a ludicrous deal with a local nurse. Shrugging familial responsibilities, she callously agrees to put her ailing father out of his misery to house a fleeing fugitive, earning a lump sum of money.
Darkly humorous, the film is a grim depiction of humans with nothing left to lose, coming to terms with the world around them that’s fallen deeper into roiling apathy and brutality. The project bleakly portrays a protagonist who can no longer beat back the systems that oppress them, so they figure they ought to join them instead.
It follows a family stretched thin in the smoke-enveloped Brazilian countryside, surrounded by numerous coal mines. When life becomes monotonous, matriarch Irene cuts a ludicrous deal with a local nurse. Shrugging familial responsibilities, she callously agrees to put her ailing father out of his misery to house a fleeing fugitive, earning a lump sum of money.
Darkly humorous, the film is a grim depiction of humans with nothing left to lose, coming to terms with the world around them that’s fallen deeper into roiling apathy and brutality. The project bleakly portrays a protagonist who can no longer beat back the systems that oppress them, so they figure they ought to join them instead.
- 10/4/2022
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
Carolina Markowicz’s dark satire “Charcoal,” which world premieres on Sept. 11 at Toronto Film Festival, has debuted its teaser trailer with Variety (below). World sales are being handled by Urban Sales.
The film, which plays in the festival’s Platform section, centers on a poor family living in a remote area in Brazil, who earn a pittance from their charcoal business. When a shady nurse asks them to host a mysterious foreigner they accept. The home soon becomes a hideout as the so-called guest happens to be a highly wanted drug lord. The mother, her husband and child will have to learn how to share the same roof with this stranger, while keeping up appearances of an unchanged peasant routine.
Diana Cadavid at Toronto Film Festival commented: “For her unsettlingly precise feature-film debut, writer-director Carolina Markowicz blends biting social commentary on the pervasive forces that prey on the least fortunate...
The film, which plays in the festival’s Platform section, centers on a poor family living in a remote area in Brazil, who earn a pittance from their charcoal business. When a shady nurse asks them to host a mysterious foreigner they accept. The home soon becomes a hideout as the so-called guest happens to be a highly wanted drug lord. The mother, her husband and child will have to learn how to share the same roof with this stranger, while keeping up appearances of an unchanged peasant routine.
Diana Cadavid at Toronto Film Festival commented: “For her unsettlingly precise feature-film debut, writer-director Carolina Markowicz blends biting social commentary on the pervasive forces that prey on the least fortunate...
- 8/31/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Paris-based Urban Sales has swooped on international sales rights to Brazilian writer-director Carolina Markowicz’s awaited debut feature film “Charcoal” (“Carvão”), which is set for its world premiere at at Toronto’s prestigious Platform showcase before heading to San Sebastian for a Europe bow as part of its just-revealed Horizontes Latinos lineup.
Urban Sales has also shared with Variety a first look still from the film.
Distribution in Brazil is handled by Pandora Filmes, founded by André Sturm, which launched the country’s first classic film streaming platform Belas Artes in 2019, bringing big-name, cult, and regional classics to audiences nationwide.
Markowicz has written and directed six short films that have been selected by 400 festivals including Locarno, SXSW, Toronto and AFI. Her short film,“The Orphan,” a gritty tale about a young queer boy who tries to navigate his most recent adoption after being placed with a well-off conservative family, premiered...
Urban Sales has also shared with Variety a first look still from the film.
Distribution in Brazil is handled by Pandora Filmes, founded by André Sturm, which launched the country’s first classic film streaming platform Belas Artes in 2019, bringing big-name, cult, and regional classics to audiences nationwide.
Markowicz has written and directed six short films that have been selected by 400 festivals including Locarno, SXSW, Toronto and AFI. Her short film,“The Orphan,” a gritty tale about a young queer boy who tries to navigate his most recent adoption after being placed with a well-off conservative family, premiered...
- 8/11/2022
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
New York-based Kino Lorber has acquired all North American rights to horror pic “Virtual Reality,” from Argentine director-producer Hernán Findling (“Impossible Crimes”).
Other deals on the pic closed by FilmSharks include Media 4 Fun (Poland), Av Jet (Taiwan) and Laon-i (South Korea). Japan, Latin America, the U.K. and France are under discussion.
“Just a few horror stories attain such a high degree of talent in merging so many different stories within the same feature, incorporating well-known genre cinema classics to make an absolutely new feature. This small-budgeted film has surprised everyone,” FilmSharks CEO, Guido Rud told Variety.
Starring Vanesa González, César Bordón, Christian Sancho and Federico Bal, “Virtual Reality” has screened at Sitges and Bifan. In it, a cast and crew arrive at their director’s house for their film’s first cut screening. They soon find out that he has struck a sinister pact to ensure his career really takes off.
Other deals on the pic closed by FilmSharks include Media 4 Fun (Poland), Av Jet (Taiwan) and Laon-i (South Korea). Japan, Latin America, the U.K. and France are under discussion.
“Just a few horror stories attain such a high degree of talent in merging so many different stories within the same feature, incorporating well-known genre cinema classics to make an absolutely new feature. This small-budgeted film has surprised everyone,” FilmSharks CEO, Guido Rud told Variety.
Starring Vanesa González, César Bordón, Christian Sancho and Federico Bal, “Virtual Reality” has screened at Sitges and Bifan. In it, a cast and crew arrive at their director’s house for their film’s first cut screening. They soon find out that he has struck a sinister pact to ensure his career really takes off.
- 5/21/2022
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
The following article was produced as part of the 2018 Locarno Critics Academy, a workshop for aspiring film critics that took place during the Locarno Film Festival.
The annual Filmmakers Academy at the Locarno Festival in Switzerland selects some of the most promising talents in contemporary film from around the world, offering them vital networking opportunities, screenings at the festival for their existing short films, and masterclasses with a line-up of guest directors. This year’s talks from established filmmakers included musings from Bruno Dumont and festival jurors Jia Zhangke and Sean Baker.
During the festival, five participants spoke about their work to date, their aspirations, how the conditions for filmmaking in their home countries have informed their career progress so far, and what they expect to do next.
Carolina Markowicz
Based in and originally from São Paulo, Brazil, Carolina Markowicz has written and directed five short films to date. “Tatuapé...
The annual Filmmakers Academy at the Locarno Festival in Switzerland selects some of the most promising talents in contemporary film from around the world, offering them vital networking opportunities, screenings at the festival for their existing short films, and masterclasses with a line-up of guest directors. This year’s talks from established filmmakers included musings from Bruno Dumont and festival jurors Jia Zhangke and Sean Baker.
During the festival, five participants spoke about their work to date, their aspirations, how the conditions for filmmaking in their home countries have informed their career progress so far, and what they expect to do next.
Carolina Markowicz
Based in and originally from São Paulo, Brazil, Carolina Markowicz has written and directed five short films to date. “Tatuapé...
- 8/18/2018
- by Josh Slater-Williams
- Indiewire
Nancy Buirski [pictured], Valeria Golino and Hernán Musaluppi to decide on the Best First Feature Award; 18 films are in contention.
Berlinale has unveiled the three-person jury for its Best First Feature Award.
Us director and producer Nancy Buirski, Italian actress and director Valeria Golino and Argentinian producer Hernán Musaluppi will decide the award, with the winner announced at the official award ceremony in the Berlinale Palast on Feb 15.
The award comes with a €50,000 prize, donated by the Gwff, and will be split between the producer and director of the winning film, while the director will also be awarded with a high-quality viewfinder.
A total of 18 directorial debuts have been nominated by the heads of the Competition, Panorama, Forum, Generation and Perspektive Deutsches Kino section.
They are:
Competition
´71 - United Kingdom
By Yann Demange
With Jack O’Connell, Sean Harris, Richard Dormer
Historia del miedo (History of Fear) – Argentina / Uruguay / Germany / France
By Benjamin Naishtat
With Jonathan Da Rosa, [link...
Berlinale has unveiled the three-person jury for its Best First Feature Award.
Us director and producer Nancy Buirski, Italian actress and director Valeria Golino and Argentinian producer Hernán Musaluppi will decide the award, with the winner announced at the official award ceremony in the Berlinale Palast on Feb 15.
The award comes with a €50,000 prize, donated by the Gwff, and will be split between the producer and director of the winning film, while the director will also be awarded with a high-quality viewfinder.
A total of 18 directorial debuts have been nominated by the heads of the Competition, Panorama, Forum, Generation and Perspektive Deutsches Kino section.
They are:
Competition
´71 - United Kingdom
By Yann Demange
With Jack O’Connell, Sean Harris, Richard Dormer
Historia del miedo (History of Fear) – Argentina / Uruguay / Germany / France
By Benjamin Naishtat
With Jonathan Da Rosa, [link...
- 1/23/2014
- by ian.sandwell@screendaily.com (Ian Sandwell)
- ScreenDaily
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