Disney+ has shared the official trailer for ‘Cristóbal Balenciaga,’ the original drama series that recreates the life and legacy of the Guetaria-born Spanish creator, one of the most iconic fashion designers of all time.
In the series, created by Lourdes Iglesias and 12-time Goya award winners Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño, and Jose Mari Goenaga (“The Endless Trench”), actor Alberto San Juan plays Cristóbal Balenciaga, an enigmatic and extraordinarily talented man who defied the social conventions of the time and revolutionized the world of fashion.
The original series begins as the designer presents his first Parisian haute couture collection in 1937. He has left behind a successful career in his ateliers in Madrid and San Sebastian dressing the Spanish elite and aristocracy. However, the designs that had set the trend in Spain don’t quite work in the sophisticated fashion empire that Paris has become, where Chanel, Dior and Givenchy are the benchmark of haute couture.
In the series, created by Lourdes Iglesias and 12-time Goya award winners Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño, and Jose Mari Goenaga (“The Endless Trench”), actor Alberto San Juan plays Cristóbal Balenciaga, an enigmatic and extraordinarily talented man who defied the social conventions of the time and revolutionized the world of fashion.
The original series begins as the designer presents his first Parisian haute couture collection in 1937. He has left behind a successful career in his ateliers in Madrid and San Sebastian dressing the Spanish elite and aristocracy. However, the designs that had set the trend in Spain don’t quite work in the sophisticated fashion empire that Paris has become, where Chanel, Dior and Givenchy are the benchmark of haute couture.
- 12/18/2023
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Films by Carolina Markowicz, Isabel Coixet, Jaione Camborda and Isabel Herguera all have international potential.
Highly anticipated features from Isabel Coixet, Lucía Puenzo and Jaione Camborda are among the buzziest Spanish and Latin American titles screening across all strands of this year’s San Sebastián film festival. Here is a flavour of what festival audiences can expect.
Blondi (Argentina)
Dir: Dolores Fonzi
The debut feature from Argentinian actress Dolores Fonzi plays in the Horizontes Latinos section, which screens premieres entirely or partially produced in Latin America and not yet released in Spain. Fonzi also stars in the film which is...
Highly anticipated features from Isabel Coixet, Lucía Puenzo and Jaione Camborda are among the buzziest Spanish and Latin American titles screening across all strands of this year’s San Sebastián film festival. Here is a flavour of what festival audiences can expect.
Blondi (Argentina)
Dir: Dolores Fonzi
The debut feature from Argentinian actress Dolores Fonzi plays in the Horizontes Latinos section, which screens premieres entirely or partially produced in Latin America and not yet released in Spain. Fonzi also stars in the film which is...
- 9/26/2023
- by Emilio Mayorga
- ScreenDaily
The San Sebastian Film Festival added six movies to its competition lineup on Friday.
Joining the list of contenders for the Golden Shell award at the Spanish fest’s 71st edition are the latest films from directors Kitty Green (The Assistant), Isabella Eklöf (Holiday), Xavier Legrand (Jusqu’à la garde/Custody), Kei Chika-Ura (Complicity) and Christos Nikou (Apples), as well as the debut from Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang. Nikou’s new movie features a star-studded cast, including Riz Ahmed, Jessie Buckley, Luke Wilson, Jeremy Allen White and Annie Murphy.
They join a competition program that includes two American titles in Ex-Husbands from director Noah Pritzker (Quitters) and Raven Jackson’s first feature, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt.
In addition, Thomas Lilti’s Un métier sérieux (A Real Job) will be part of the special screenings in the San Sabastian official selection, fest organizers said. The new film from...
Joining the list of contenders for the Golden Shell award at the Spanish fest’s 71st edition are the latest films from directors Kitty Green (The Assistant), Isabella Eklöf (Holiday), Xavier Legrand (Jusqu’à la garde/Custody), Kei Chika-Ura (Complicity) and Christos Nikou (Apples), as well as the debut from Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang. Nikou’s new movie features a star-studded cast, including Riz Ahmed, Jessie Buckley, Luke Wilson, Jeremy Allen White and Annie Murphy.
They join a competition program that includes two American titles in Ex-Husbands from director Noah Pritzker (Quitters) and Raven Jackson’s first feature, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt.
In addition, Thomas Lilti’s Un métier sérieux (A Real Job) will be part of the special screenings in the San Sabastian official selection, fest organizers said. The new film from...
- 8/25/2023
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian Fetes Veteran Director Victor Erice
Veteran director Víctor Erice will be honored with the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Donostia Award at its upcoming 71st edition, running from September 22 to 30. Actress Ana Torrent will present the Basque filmmaker with the prize at a ceremony on September 29, preceding a screening of his new film Close Your Eyes. The tribute coincides with the 50th anniversary of Erice winning San Sebastian’s top Golden Shell award for first solo feature The Spirit of the Beehive. Torrent made her big screen debut at the age of seven years old in the film and recently reunited with him in Close Your Eyes. San Sebastian has accompanied Erice across his career. Prior The Spirit of the Beehive, his 1969 directorial debut Los Desafíos, co-directed with José Luis Egea and Claudio Guerín, was selected for Official Selection and received the Silver Shell for Best Director. His...
Veteran director Víctor Erice will be honored with the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Donostia Award at its upcoming 71st edition, running from September 22 to 30. Actress Ana Torrent will present the Basque filmmaker with the prize at a ceremony on September 29, preceding a screening of his new film Close Your Eyes. The tribute coincides with the 50th anniversary of Erice winning San Sebastian’s top Golden Shell award for first solo feature The Spirit of the Beehive. Torrent made her big screen debut at the age of seven years old in the film and recently reunited with him in Close Your Eyes. San Sebastian has accompanied Erice across his career. Prior The Spirit of the Beehive, his 1969 directorial debut Los Desafíos, co-directed with José Luis Egea and Claudio Guerín, was selected for Official Selection and received the Silver Shell for Best Director. His...
- 8/22/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The San Sebastián Film Festival has revealed the lineup of Spanish titles that will screen as part of the Official Selection of its latest edition, which is due to unfold from September 22 — 30. Scroll down for the full list.
Selected titles include Un Amor from Isabel Coixet, who competes for the festival’s Golden Shell for the first time with the pic based on the book of the same name by Sara Mesa and starring Laia Costa at the head of a cast also featuring Hovik Keuchkerian, Hugo Silva, Luis Bermejo, Ingrid García-Jonsson and Francesco Carril.
Filmmaker Fernando Trueba, of the Oscar-nominated feature Chico & Rita (2012), will present his latest project, They Shot the Piano Player, directed alongside Javier Mariscal in the fest’s Special Screening sidebar. The film, narrated by the voice of Jeff Goldblum, follows the figure of Brazilian musician Tenorio Jr. during the early days of the musical movement known as bossa nova.
Selected titles include Un Amor from Isabel Coixet, who competes for the festival’s Golden Shell for the first time with the pic based on the book of the same name by Sara Mesa and starring Laia Costa at the head of a cast also featuring Hovik Keuchkerian, Hugo Silva, Luis Bermejo, Ingrid García-Jonsson and Francesco Carril.
Filmmaker Fernando Trueba, of the Oscar-nominated feature Chico & Rita (2012), will present his latest project, They Shot the Piano Player, directed alongside Javier Mariscal in the fest’s Special Screening sidebar. The film, narrated by the voice of Jeff Goldblum, follows the figure of Brazilian musician Tenorio Jr. during the early days of the musical movement known as bossa nova.
- 7/14/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Japan’s Hiroshi Teshigahara, who seemed on track for greatness after winning two Oscar nominations for “Woman in the Sands,” will be the subject of a San Sebastian Festival retrospective.
Nominated for best foreign-language film in 1964, and winning Teshigahara a best director Academy Award nomination a year later, “Woman in the Sands” was just Teshigahara’s second feature, a social and erotic allegory which yoked the political convictions of Teshigahara and screenwriter Kobo Abe, both members of Japan’s communist party in their youth, with Abe’s penchant for the darkly surreal.
Turning on an entomologist from Tokyo who discovers a young widow living at the bottom of an enormous sandpit on a deserted beach, it also won a Cannes Special Jury prize. Hailed as a masterpiece, and building on 1961’s “The Pitfall,” a political allegory which won Teshigahara fans, with Abe adapting his TV play, it looked like Teshigahara...
Nominated for best foreign-language film in 1964, and winning Teshigahara a best director Academy Award nomination a year later, “Woman in the Sands” was just Teshigahara’s second feature, a social and erotic allegory which yoked the political convictions of Teshigahara and screenwriter Kobo Abe, both members of Japan’s communist party in their youth, with Abe’s penchant for the darkly surreal.
Turning on an entomologist from Tokyo who discovers a young widow living at the bottom of an enormous sandpit on a deserted beach, it also won a Cannes Special Jury prize. Hailed as a masterpiece, and building on 1961’s “The Pitfall,” a political allegory which won Teshigahara fans, with Abe adapting his TV play, it looked like Teshigahara...
- 6/29/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Hot projects new to Screenbase include Nicolas Winding Refn feature The Neon Demon, Pope Francis biopic Francisco, Brady Corbet’s directorial debut The Childhood Of A Leader and a new adaptation by Wim Wenders.Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon
Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks, Abbey Lee, Bella Heathcote and Jena Malone have signed on to co-star in Nicolas Winding Refn’s next feature.
“After making Drive and falling madly in love with the electricity of Los Angeles, I knew I had to return to tell the story of The Neon Demon,” Winding Refn said.
Principal photography will begin in Los Angeles on March 30. Gaumont and Wild Bunch are co-selling the title.
Wim Wenders’ Les Beaux Jours D’Aranjuez
This adaptation of the play by Peter Handke was announced by Alfama’s Paulo Branco during the Efm. It will star Reda Kateb and Sophie Semin. Wenders is expected to shoot in June.
Brady Corbet’s [link...
Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks, Abbey Lee, Bella Heathcote and Jena Malone have signed on to co-star in Nicolas Winding Refn’s next feature.
“After making Drive and falling madly in love with the electricity of Los Angeles, I knew I had to return to tell the story of The Neon Demon,” Winding Refn said.
Principal photography will begin in Los Angeles on March 30. Gaumont and Wild Bunch are co-selling the title.
Wim Wenders’ Les Beaux Jours D’Aranjuez
This adaptation of the play by Peter Handke was announced by Alfama’s Paulo Branco during the Efm. It will star Reda Kateb and Sophie Semin. Wenders is expected to shoot in June.
Brady Corbet’s [link...
- 2/18/2015
- by maud.le-rest@sciencespo-toulouse.net (Maud Le Rest)
- ScreenDaily
MADRID -- The latest films from Daniel Burman, Christopher Honore, Kim Ki-duk and Jaime Rosales will compete at the 56th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival, organizers said Thursday as they revealed the first seven titles in the official section.
Burman, who won the Silver Bear at Berlin in 2004 with "Lost Embrace", comes to San Sebastian with "The Empty Nest".
Honore's "La Belle Personne", transports the classic novel "La Princesse de Cleves" to present-day Paris, starring Louis Garrel, while Korean director Kim will screen his look at hidden desires, "Bi Mong" (Dream), and Rosales returns to San Sebastian with "Tiro en la Cabeza" (Shot in the Head).
Danish director Kristian Levring's "Fear Me Not", co-written with Oscar winner Anders Thomas Jensen, and Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi's look at daily life in Ramallah, "Laila's Birthday", also will compete, along with U.S. director Courtney Hunt's directorial debut, "Frozen River".
Also rumored to be screening at this year's fest is Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". Festival organizers had no comment on local media reports that the comedy, which filmed in Spain and debuted at May's Festival de Cannes, will unspool in the seaside town.
Burman, who won the Silver Bear at Berlin in 2004 with "Lost Embrace", comes to San Sebastian with "The Empty Nest".
Honore's "La Belle Personne", transports the classic novel "La Princesse de Cleves" to present-day Paris, starring Louis Garrel, while Korean director Kim will screen his look at hidden desires, "Bi Mong" (Dream), and Rosales returns to San Sebastian with "Tiro en la Cabeza" (Shot in the Head).
Danish director Kristian Levring's "Fear Me Not", co-written with Oscar winner Anders Thomas Jensen, and Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi's look at daily life in Ramallah, "Laila's Birthday", also will compete, along with U.S. director Courtney Hunt's directorial debut, "Frozen River".
Also rumored to be screening at this year's fest is Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". Festival organizers had no comment on local media reports that the comedy, which filmed in Spain and debuted at May's Festival de Cannes, will unspool in the seaside town.
- 6/26/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MADRID -- The 56th San Sebastian International Film Festival said Friday that it will honor British director Terence Davies with a retrospective showcasing his work when the festival runs Sept. 18-27.
Festival organizers said Davies, who also wrote all of his own films, is a "pioneer in the search for new languages between fiction, autobiography and the documentary" and "achieves a connection between image and sound only rarely achieved, surpassing the subsequent feats in this area of filmmakers as widely differing as Quentin Tarantino or Wong Kar Wai."
The festival will screen the director's full body of work, including his latest film, "Of Time and the City", which screened in the Festival de Cannes' official selection in May -- and prize-winning works including "Distant Voices, Still Lives" (1988), "The Long Day Closes" (1992) and "The House of Mirth" (2000).
The festival will offer two other previously announced retrospectives on Italian director Mario Monicelli and Japan in Black, an overview of Japanese film noir since the 1920s.
Festival organizers said Davies, who also wrote all of his own films, is a "pioneer in the search for new languages between fiction, autobiography and the documentary" and "achieves a connection between image and sound only rarely achieved, surpassing the subsequent feats in this area of filmmakers as widely differing as Quentin Tarantino or Wong Kar Wai."
The festival will screen the director's full body of work, including his latest film, "Of Time and the City", which screened in the Festival de Cannes' official selection in May -- and prize-winning works including "Distant Voices, Still Lives" (1988), "The Long Day Closes" (1992) and "The House of Mirth" (2000).
The festival will offer two other previously announced retrospectives on Italian director Mario Monicelli and Japan in Black, an overview of Japanese film noir since the 1920s.
- 6/20/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MADRID -- The 56th San Sebastian International Film Festival will honor Japanese film noir and Italian director Mario Monicelli with retrospectives.
This year's festival, set for Sept. 18-27 in Spain's northern Basque region, will showcase about 40 comedies and dramas from Monicelli's filmography.
Organizers said Monicelli is "responsible for what was perhaps the most coveted piece of comical effervescence, 1958's "Big Deal on Madonna Street".
The Japan in Black sidebar will focus on Japan's prolific detective and criminal movie production, which remains largely unknown in the West.
"Japan skillfully endowed its detective stories with a national touch: the gangster sense of honor, the patient research work carried out by the police, the torment of the outcast criminal or the portrayal of a society badly hit by postwar chaos," festival organizers said.
This year's festival, set for Sept. 18-27 in Spain's northern Basque region, will showcase about 40 comedies and dramas from Monicelli's filmography.
Organizers said Monicelli is "responsible for what was perhaps the most coveted piece of comical effervescence, 1958's "Big Deal on Madonna Street".
The Japan in Black sidebar will focus on Japan's prolific detective and criminal movie production, which remains largely unknown in the West.
"Japan skillfully endowed its detective stories with a national touch: the gangster sense of honor, the patient research work carried out by the police, the torment of the outcast criminal or the portrayal of a society badly hit by postwar chaos," festival organizers said.
COLOGNE, Germany -- Peter Schonau's "The Art of Crying", a drama about a dysfunctional family in rural Denmark, has added to its trophy case, winning best Danish film and best actor for star Jesper Asholt at Denmark's Bodil Awards.
Set in the 1970s, "Crying" is a portrait of a violent and disturbed family seen through the eyes of a precocious 11-year-old boy.
The film already has won acclaim on the international festival circuit, winning the audience award at the Mannheim-Heidelberg Festival, the youth jury award at San Sebastian, the Nordic Vision award at Goteborg and a grand jury special mention at the AFI Festival in Los Angeles.
The Bodil award for best actress went to Noomi Rapace for her role as a young mother who dreams of becoming a film star in Simon Staho's "Daisy Diamond".
The documentary prize went to Pernille Rose Gronkjaer's "The Monastery", which follows the efforts of an 82-year-old bachelor and a group of Russian Orthodox nuns to convert a Danish castle into a holy sanctuary.
Set in the 1970s, "Crying" is a portrait of a violent and disturbed family seen through the eyes of a precocious 11-year-old boy.
The film already has won acclaim on the international festival circuit, winning the audience award at the Mannheim-Heidelberg Festival, the youth jury award at San Sebastian, the Nordic Vision award at Goteborg and a grand jury special mention at the AFI Festival in Los Angeles.
The Bodil award for best actress went to Noomi Rapace for her role as a young mother who dreams of becoming a film star in Simon Staho's "Daisy Diamond".
The documentary prize went to Pernille Rose Gronkjaer's "The Monastery", which follows the efforts of an 82-year-old bachelor and a group of Russian Orthodox nuns to convert a Danish castle into a holy sanctuary.
- 2/27/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MADRID -- Spanish actor, writer and director Fernando Fernan-Gomez, one of Spain's most emblematic faces in international cinema, died Wednesday in Madrid at the age of 86 after two days in hospital. The family declined to detail the exact cause of death.
With a career that spanned the Franco dictatorship, the transition to democracy and the recent boom of Spanish cinema, the Peruvian-born Fernan-Gomez boasted a filmography second to none in Spain, including Victor Erice's "The Spirit of the Beehive", Fernando Trueba's "Belle Epoque", Jose Luis Garci's "The Grandfather" and Pedro Almodovar's "All About my Mother".
Author of 11 novels and nine plays, and director of 28 films, the versatile thespian starred in more than 200 films and won more than 38 awards during his film career.
Honors include three awards from the Berlin International Film Festival -- among them a 2005 honorary Golden Bear -- Spain's National Film Award, six Goya Awards from the Spanish Film Academy and two awards from the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
With a career that spanned the Franco dictatorship, the transition to democracy and the recent boom of Spanish cinema, the Peruvian-born Fernan-Gomez boasted a filmography second to none in Spain, including Victor Erice's "The Spirit of the Beehive", Fernando Trueba's "Belle Epoque", Jose Luis Garci's "The Grandfather" and Pedro Almodovar's "All About my Mother".
Author of 11 novels and nine plays, and director of 28 films, the versatile thespian starred in more than 200 films and won more than 38 awards during his film career.
Honors include three awards from the Berlin International Film Festival -- among them a 2005 honorary Golden Bear -- Spain's National Film Award, six Goya Awards from the Spanish Film Academy and two awards from the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
- 11/22/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Controversial documentary director Nick Broomfield, who unveiled his Iraq War narrative drama "Battle for Haditha" at the recent Toronto fest, has signed with ICM.
Broomfield gained notoriety with such investigative docus as "Kurt & Courtney," "Biggie & Tupac" and two features on serial killer Aileen Wuornos that helped inspire the feature "Monster". His docus often take a personal approach, showing him tracking down his subjects and often coming to inflammatory conclusions.
"Haditha" re-creates the 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians, allegedly at the hands of U.S. Marines. It won Broomfield best director honors at last month's San Sebastian International Film Festival. ICM is repping the FilmFour feature's North American distribution rights.
The Los Angeles and London-based Broomfield is repped by U.K.-based Charles Finch and attorney Shani Hinton.
Broomfield was repped by WMA.
Broomfield gained notoriety with such investigative docus as "Kurt & Courtney," "Biggie & Tupac" and two features on serial killer Aileen Wuornos that helped inspire the feature "Monster". His docus often take a personal approach, showing him tracking down his subjects and often coming to inflammatory conclusions.
"Haditha" re-creates the 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians, allegedly at the hands of U.S. Marines. It won Broomfield best director honors at last month's San Sebastian International Film Festival. ICM is repping the FilmFour feature's North American distribution rights.
The Los Angeles and London-based Broomfield is repped by U.K.-based Charles Finch and attorney Shani Hinton.
Broomfield was repped by WMA.
- 10/26/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian, Spain -- Woody Allen is on the wanted list for two more projects with Spanish producer Mediapro, co-producer of the auteur's untitled Barcelona-set film, Mediapro chief Jaume Roures said late Wednesday.
Roures said at a dinner that he has a "verbal agreement" with Allen and is in negotiations with Allen's sister Letty Aronson's production house Gravier to co-produce two more features with his company.
Allen is in postproduction on his Spanish project starring Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, which he has described as a "love letter to Barcelona," offering few other details.
Roures' announcement is just an outline at this point with plans for one film in Europe, outside Spain and another elsewhere. But Roures said the Barcelona project also began as a verbal agreement and that he was positive the deal would come to fruition.
Mediapro has launched an aggressive campaign in the past year to become Spain's leading media group, taking on the present title holder -- Prisa -- on nearly every front.
Roures said at a dinner that he has a "verbal agreement" with Allen and is in negotiations with Allen's sister Letty Aronson's production house Gravier to co-produce two more features with his company.
Allen is in postproduction on his Spanish project starring Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, which he has described as a "love letter to Barcelona," offering few other details.
Roures' announcement is just an outline at this point with plans for one film in Europe, outside Spain and another elsewhere. But Roures said the Barcelona project also began as a verbal agreement and that he was positive the deal would come to fruition.
Mediapro has launched an aggressive campaign in the past year to become Spain's leading media group, taking on the present title holder -- Prisa -- on nearly every front.
- 9/28/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian -- Guatemalan director Julio Hernandez Cordon's unfinished Gasolina, about three teenagers on a road trip, took top prize at San Sebastian's Films in Progress sidebar Wednesday, picking up the Industry Award and the 10,000 ($14,000) Casa de America Award.
Sponsored by half a dozen post-production facilities in Spain, the Industry Award foots the bill for all the remaining costs to deliver a 35mm copy of the winning film, subtitled in English.
Films in Progress, a venture created by the Rencontres Cinemas d'Amerique Latine in Toulouse and the San Sebastian International Film Festival, is intended to facilitate the completion of films by independent Latin American and Spanish filmmakers at the post-production stage. It also guarantees winners a slot at San Sebastian.
Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj's Acne, about a 13-year-old boy's effort to overcome his shyness and acne to kiss a girl, and Brazilian Werner Schumann's Sol na Neblina, which deals with child prostitution, won the TVE Award. Sponsored by Spanish pubcaster Television Espanola, the award buys broadcast rights in Spain for the two films.
Sponsored by half a dozen post-production facilities in Spain, the Industry Award foots the bill for all the remaining costs to deliver a 35mm copy of the winning film, subtitled in English.
Films in Progress, a venture created by the Rencontres Cinemas d'Amerique Latine in Toulouse and the San Sebastian International Film Festival, is intended to facilitate the completion of films by independent Latin American and Spanish filmmakers at the post-production stage. It also guarantees winners a slot at San Sebastian.
Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj's Acne, about a 13-year-old boy's effort to overcome his shyness and acne to kiss a girl, and Brazilian Werner Schumann's Sol na Neblina, which deals with child prostitution, won the TVE Award. Sponsored by Spanish pubcaster Television Espanola, the award buys broadcast rights in Spain for the two films.
- 9/27/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian, Spain -- Spain's biggest exhibitor has filed for the country's equivalent of Chapter 11, citing difficulties in meeting upcoming bank payments.
Abaco, which owns 42 multiplexes in Spain -- with 450 screens and 1,200 employees -- said it requested a suspension of payments to creditors last week.
"The measure is a direct consequence of the profound crisis the Spanish sector is going through," a spokesman for Abaco said in an interview Tuesday, citing plummeting ticket sales, rampant pirating, shorter theater windows and growing free-time alternatives.
The deal allows Abaco to suspend payments to creditors so that can afford its operating costs and will permit renegotiating with a pool of creditors, rather than one on one.
The spokesman said the company resorted to the measure after previously trying to address the situation using an attack plan designed by KPMG, which called for additional bank credit, refinancing the loan and selling off non-productive assets.
Last year, the group bought Cinebox for about €60 million looking to raise its profits by growing the size of its circuit.
Abaco, which owns 42 multiplexes in Spain -- with 450 screens and 1,200 employees -- said it requested a suspension of payments to creditors last week.
"The measure is a direct consequence of the profound crisis the Spanish sector is going through," a spokesman for Abaco said in an interview Tuesday, citing plummeting ticket sales, rampant pirating, shorter theater windows and growing free-time alternatives.
The deal allows Abaco to suspend payments to creditors so that can afford its operating costs and will permit renegotiating with a pool of creditors, rather than one on one.
The spokesman said the company resorted to the measure after previously trying to address the situation using an attack plan designed by KPMG, which called for additional bank credit, refinancing the loan and selling off non-productive assets.
Last year, the group bought Cinebox for about €60 million looking to raise its profits by growing the size of its circuit.
- 9/26/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian, Spain -- Snow-covered landscapes and dark brooding emotions seem as out of place here in sunny San Sebastian as icy reserve would in a film by Pedro Almodovar.
But in Cold Fever, the Scandinavian cinema sidebar featured at this year's festival, San Sebastian film fans can dip into a region known for its cold dark winters and its psychologically dark cinema.
The 38 films screening in the Cold Fever sidebar are a "best of" selection from Copenhagen to Helsinki from 1995 -- the start of Denmark's Dogme revolution -- to the present.
Some of the titles -- "Cabin Fever", "Cold Light", "Frozen Land", "Zero Kelvin" -- hardly sound inviting, but if the queues stretching outside the screening theaters are any indication, the locals seem to have warmed to Nordic films.
"The reaction to my film was mixed but it was very interesting," said Bjorn Runge, in San Sebastian with his 2003 Berlinale Silver Bear winner "Daybreak". "The film didn't sell here, so it the first time a Spanish audience could see it."
Bard Breien brought his dark comedy debut, "The Art of Negative Thinking", to San Sebastian's Cold Fever showcase after winning the best director's prize in Karlovy Vary this year.
But in Cold Fever, the Scandinavian cinema sidebar featured at this year's festival, San Sebastian film fans can dip into a region known for its cold dark winters and its psychologically dark cinema.
The 38 films screening in the Cold Fever sidebar are a "best of" selection from Copenhagen to Helsinki from 1995 -- the start of Denmark's Dogme revolution -- to the present.
Some of the titles -- "Cabin Fever", "Cold Light", "Frozen Land", "Zero Kelvin" -- hardly sound inviting, but if the queues stretching outside the screening theaters are any indication, the locals seem to have warmed to Nordic films.
"The reaction to my film was mixed but it was very interesting," said Bjorn Runge, in San Sebastian with his 2003 Berlinale Silver Bear winner "Daybreak". "The film didn't sell here, so it the first time a Spanish audience could see it."
Bard Breien brought his dark comedy debut, "The Art of Negative Thinking", to San Sebastian's Cold Fever showcase after winning the best director's prize in Karlovy Vary this year.
- 9/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian, Spain -- Universal Pictures Iberia and Spain's A. Zeta Cinema on Monday announced a distribution agreement that will see Universal handle the physical distribution of the Spanish company's video and DVD catalog.
The deal, signed by A. Zeta CEO Alvaro Zapata and Universal's administrative board chair, Edgar Adelmund, includes all of A. Zeta's production, as well as acquired international titles including "August Rush", "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," "The Red Baron", "The Edge of Love" and "Then She Found Me".
The first film to be released under the new accord will be Josetxo San Mateo's comedy "Atasco en la Nacional" (Traffic on the Highway) on Nov. 21.
The deal, signed by A. Zeta CEO Alvaro Zapata and Universal's administrative board chair, Edgar Adelmund, includes all of A. Zeta's production, as well as acquired international titles including "August Rush", "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," "The Red Baron", "The Edge of Love" and "Then She Found Me".
The first film to be released under the new accord will be Josetxo San Mateo's comedy "Atasco en la Nacional" (Traffic on the Highway) on Nov. 21.
- 9/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- France's Center National de la Cinematographie and Germany's Filmforderungsanstalt have signed a joint declaration urging the digitization of films in cinemas across the continent.
The agreement gives priority to European films and aims to establish standards of quality and security for digital screenings, in addition to the uniformity of technology among movie theaters.
"These positions are founded upon the particular conception that we share in Europe, that of cinema as an artistic expression whose diversity and creative independence need to be preserved in the move to digital," the groups said in a statement.
The CNC and the FFA have invited national film organizations all over Europe, in addition to the European Commission, to join their "desire to strengthen the European film industry."
The new initiative was the topic du jour at Monday's European Agency Film Directors meeting at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
The CNC-FFA alliance will be reassessed at the Franco-German "Rendez-Vous" in Versailles on Nov. 22.
The agreement gives priority to European films and aims to establish standards of quality and security for digital screenings, in addition to the uniformity of technology among movie theaters.
"These positions are founded upon the particular conception that we share in Europe, that of cinema as an artistic expression whose diversity and creative independence need to be preserved in the move to digital," the groups said in a statement.
The CNC and the FFA have invited national film organizations all over Europe, in addition to the European Commission, to join their "desire to strengthen the European film industry."
The new initiative was the topic du jour at Monday's European Agency Film Directors meeting at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
The CNC-FFA alliance will be reassessed at the Franco-German "Rendez-Vous" in Versailles on Nov. 22.
- 9/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian, Spain – Politics always play a part at big European film festivals but with a new award, Europe's politicians are looking to play a direct role in choosing the best in new European cinema.
The new prize, the Prix LUX, will be the first to be picked directly by the 785 elected members of the European Parliament in Brussels. The Parliament will then pay to subtitle and produce prints of the winning film in all 23 of the E.U.'s official languages.
The European Parliament unveiled the new prize on Sunday at the 55th San Sebastian international film festival.
The three films selected by a panel of European industry professionals to compete for the inaugural Prix LUX are Cristian Mungiu's Palme d'Or winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" from Romania; Fatih Akin's "The Edge of Heaven" from Germany/Turkey and Manoel de Oliveira's "Belle toujours", a Portuguese/French co-production.
All three were chosen, according to an E.U. spokesman, for their role in "illuminating the public debate on European integration."
The politics are evident in Mungiu's drama, which follows two desperate women trying to arrange an illegal abortion amid the terror of the Chauchesku dictatorship.
The new prize, the Prix LUX, will be the first to be picked directly by the 785 elected members of the European Parliament in Brussels. The Parliament will then pay to subtitle and produce prints of the winning film in all 23 of the E.U.'s official languages.
The European Parliament unveiled the new prize on Sunday at the 55th San Sebastian international film festival.
The three films selected by a panel of European industry professionals to compete for the inaugural Prix LUX are Cristian Mungiu's Palme d'Or winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" from Romania; Fatih Akin's "The Edge of Heaven" from Germany/Turkey and Manoel de Oliveira's "Belle toujours", a Portuguese/French co-production.
All three were chosen, according to an E.U. spokesman, for their role in "illuminating the public debate on European integration."
The politics are evident in Mungiu's drama, which follows two desperate women trying to arrange an illegal abortion amid the terror of the Chauchesku dictatorship.
- 9/24/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian, Spain -- Oscar- and Bafta-nominated film composer Alberto Iglesias was awarded the Spain's National Film Award for lifetime achievement at a ceremony in San Sebastian Saturday.
For Iglesias (Volver, The Constant Gardener), perhaps best-known for his work with Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, it was a crowning achievement in a career that began in this small Basque city by the sea.
"I was born in San Sebastian, I did my studies here," Iglesias told The Hollywood Reporter. "My first piano teacher was sitting right there in the front row with my family, so it is a very special moment for me."
The National Film Award is presented every year at the San Sebastian International Film Festival to a Spanish talent judged to have made a lasting contribution to the county's cinematic culture.
Spain's new culture minister, Cesar Alberto Molina, presented the prize, which comes with a 30,000 cash purse, saying Iglesias' film scores "bring poetry" to the films he works on.
At 52, Iglesias said he has no plans to slow down.
For Iglesias (Volver, The Constant Gardener), perhaps best-known for his work with Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, it was a crowning achievement in a career that began in this small Basque city by the sea.
"I was born in San Sebastian, I did my studies here," Iglesias told The Hollywood Reporter. "My first piano teacher was sitting right there in the front row with my family, so it is a very special moment for me."
The National Film Award is presented every year at the San Sebastian International Film Festival to a Spanish talent judged to have made a lasting contribution to the county's cinematic culture.
Spain's new culture minister, Cesar Alberto Molina, presented the prize, which comes with a 30,000 cash purse, saying Iglesias' film scores "bring poetry" to the films he works on.
At 52, Iglesias said he has no plans to slow down.
- 9/24/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian, Spain -- Richard Gere received the Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday at the 55th San Sebastian International Film Festival and set off a frenzy in the streets as crowds chased his car.
Earlier in the day, Gere held forth at a news conference on subjects ranging from Latin America's dirty wars to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing to his first experience of cinema.
"I remember myself as a child, sitting in the theaters and eating popcorn. I remember the actors I looked up to," Gere said to fans inside a packed auditorium as he sipped green tea. "Now, after 40 years into my career, to be considered in the same stratosphere is humbling."
Gere charmed a pack of international journalists, spontaneously hugging a television reporter after she stumbled nervously with her question.
Then he waxed political about his recently released film "The Hoax", about a fabricated autobiography of Howard Hughes, screening in the Zabaltegi section. Gere linked the small lies "that people don't take responsibility for" to the "big lies" that lead to history-altering moments, like the decision to invade Iraq.
Earlier in the day, Gere held forth at a news conference on subjects ranging from Latin America's dirty wars to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing to his first experience of cinema.
"I remember myself as a child, sitting in the theaters and eating popcorn. I remember the actors I looked up to," Gere said to fans inside a packed auditorium as he sipped green tea. "Now, after 40 years into my career, to be considered in the same stratosphere is humbling."
Gere charmed a pack of international journalists, spontaneously hugging a television reporter after she stumbled nervously with her question.
Then he waxed political about his recently released film "The Hoax", about a fabricated autobiography of Howard Hughes, screening in the Zabaltegi section. Gere linked the small lies "that people don't take responsibility for" to the "big lies" that lead to history-altering moments, like the decision to invade Iraq.
- 9/24/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian -- Directors David Cronenberg, Paul Auster and Christian Mungio graced the stage as the 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival got underway Thursday night.
Cronenberg -- presenting his Russian gangster film "Eastern Promises", hot off the audience award in Toronto -- was accompanied by the film's star and one of Spain's favorite actors, Viggo Mortensen.
"Auster", whose "The Inner Life of Martin Frost" will run out of competition in the Official Section, chairs the main competition jury.
Mungio was on hand to receive the Fipresci Grand Prize for best film of 2007 for his "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", which depicts the last days of communism in a small Romanian town through the eyes of a young couple.
"I think we should make films for audiences, but it is the critics that allow us to get to the audience," Mungio said, as he thanked Fipresci for the honor.
Winner of the Palm d'Or at Cannes, Mungio's film will open the Zabaltegi-Pearls Section at San Sebastian, which showcases the year's top films from previous festivals.
Cronenberg -- presenting his Russian gangster film "Eastern Promises", hot off the audience award in Toronto -- was accompanied by the film's star and one of Spain's favorite actors, Viggo Mortensen.
"Auster", whose "The Inner Life of Martin Frost" will run out of competition in the Official Section, chairs the main competition jury.
Mungio was on hand to receive the Fipresci Grand Prize for best film of 2007 for his "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", which depicts the last days of communism in a small Romanian town through the eyes of a young couple.
"I think we should make films for audiences, but it is the critics that allow us to get to the audience," Mungio said, as he thanked Fipresci for the honor.
Winner of the Palm d'Or at Cannes, Mungio's film will open the Zabaltegi-Pearls Section at San Sebastian, which showcases the year's top films from previous festivals.
- 9/21/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian -- Richard Gere, Demi Moore, Viggo Mortensen and Samuel L. Jackson are a few of the famous faces adding star power to the 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday and runs through Sept. 29.
While locals appreciate the star power, it is the festival's focus on political and social issues and committment to its Latin flavor that make San Sebastian unique.
"We look to create a varied, balanced lineup that reflects the different kinds of cinema being made right now," festival director Mikel Olaciregui said. "There's a cross section of new and veteran directors, different genres from a variety of countries and languages."
A total of 16 films will vie for the festival's Golden Shell, awarded by a jury presided over by U.S. writer-director Paul Auster.
Politics is never far from the fore in San Sebastian and this year's festival is heavy with features focusing on Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Iraq conflict gets a high-profile billing with Nick Broomfield's Battle for Haditha in the official competition.
While locals appreciate the star power, it is the festival's focus on political and social issues and committment to its Latin flavor that make San Sebastian unique.
"We look to create a varied, balanced lineup that reflects the different kinds of cinema being made right now," festival director Mikel Olaciregui said. "There's a cross section of new and veteran directors, different genres from a variety of countries and languages."
A total of 16 films will vie for the festival's Golden Shell, awarded by a jury presided over by U.S. writer-director Paul Auster.
Politics is never far from the fore in San Sebastian and this year's festival is heavy with features focusing on Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Iraq conflict gets a high-profile billing with Nick Broomfield's Battle for Haditha in the official competition.
- 9/20/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Toronto International Film Festival
HONG KONG -- Blue Beard gets his comeuppance in Pan Ho Cheung's "The Exodus" ("Chu Aiji Ji"), a suave black-comedy thriller about men-killing women. The Hong Kong director's 6th feature has climbed onto the festival bus that takes off in Toronto, gears up for competition at San Sebastian and will make stops at Pusan and Tokyo.
"The Exodus" opens with a surreal non-dialogue sequence accompanied by a haunting adagio by Mozart and a mesmerizingly long take that lasts a full five minutes, with a photo of Queen Elizabeth II occupies the first frame (a pre-1997 setting that also signifies female sovereignty). The camera gradually tracks down a corridor to reveal "snorkelers" hammering a man into a bloody pulp, but the scene's symbolic significance does not hit home until later.
Back in the present, Sergeant Tsim Kin Yip (Simon Yam) interrogates suspect Kwan Ping Man (Nick Cheung), arrested for filming women in toilets. Kwan claims to be investigating a "syndicate of men-killing women" who make their crimes look like natural or accidental deaths. Yip dismisses him as a lunatic -- until his statement goes missing and he retracts his words.
Despite warnings from his superior Mdm. Fong, Tsim latches on to the case, causing a growing rift with his wife Amy (Annie Liu). Kwan goes missing, and is found dead. Tsim tracks down Kwan's foxy ex-wife Pun Siu Yuen (Irene Wan), but his ardour for investigation dissipates when Pun seduces him. Meanwhile, Amy's buried past, including the ritual meaning of her collection of figurines, begins to surface.
Since "Isabella", Pang has been straining at seriousness. The film's music is composed with a classical resonance and the pace and editing has slowed down, with non-dialogue, geometrically-composed and arty long takes replacing his early, frenetically edited, spoofy and coarsely wacky romps.
A sense of women's omniscience and omnipotence is effectively conveyed. The characters' interactions are mostly captured stealthily in long and medium shots through a window or from a height, to simulate the view from a surveillance camera. The dominant visual tone is steely blue and gloomy green, with occasional outbursts of red – evoking on a sensory level the predominance of yin. Actors display a deliberate opacity of expression that enhances the mysterious lurking beneath the mundane.
Tsim is initially depicted like a "Twilight Samurai" who'd rather go home to his wife than drink with the boys. So his infidelity is too sudden and unconvincing, unless Pang's is trying to make the point that men are by nature corrigible, which puts him on as morally dodgy grounds as the inference that women have a murderous axe to grind.
Is this radical feminism or the paranoia of a misogynist? The film does not delve into such issues. It's more of an exercise in polished structure and clever twists. Pay attention to the dialog or you won't get the ending.
EXODUS
Filmko Entertainment/Making Film
Director: Pang Ho Cheung
Writers: G C Goobi, Jimmy Wan, Pang Ho Cheung
Producers: Stanley Tong, Cheung Hong Tat
Executive producers: Harvey Wong, Song Dai
Director of photography: Charlie Lam
Production designer: Man Lim Chung
Music: Gabriele Roberto
Editor: Stanley Tam
Cast:
Tsim Kin Yip: Simon Yam
Amy Cheung Fong: Annie Liu
Pun Siu Yuen: Irene Wan
Kwan Ping Man: Nick Cheung
Maggie Shiu: Mdm. Fong Chi Tsing
No MPAA, running time 94 minutes...
HONG KONG -- Blue Beard gets his comeuppance in Pan Ho Cheung's "The Exodus" ("Chu Aiji Ji"), a suave black-comedy thriller about men-killing women. The Hong Kong director's 6th feature has climbed onto the festival bus that takes off in Toronto, gears up for competition at San Sebastian and will make stops at Pusan and Tokyo.
"The Exodus" opens with a surreal non-dialogue sequence accompanied by a haunting adagio by Mozart and a mesmerizingly long take that lasts a full five minutes, with a photo of Queen Elizabeth II occupies the first frame (a pre-1997 setting that also signifies female sovereignty). The camera gradually tracks down a corridor to reveal "snorkelers" hammering a man into a bloody pulp, but the scene's symbolic significance does not hit home until later.
Back in the present, Sergeant Tsim Kin Yip (Simon Yam) interrogates suspect Kwan Ping Man (Nick Cheung), arrested for filming women in toilets. Kwan claims to be investigating a "syndicate of men-killing women" who make their crimes look like natural or accidental deaths. Yip dismisses him as a lunatic -- until his statement goes missing and he retracts his words.
Despite warnings from his superior Mdm. Fong, Tsim latches on to the case, causing a growing rift with his wife Amy (Annie Liu). Kwan goes missing, and is found dead. Tsim tracks down Kwan's foxy ex-wife Pun Siu Yuen (Irene Wan), but his ardour for investigation dissipates when Pun seduces him. Meanwhile, Amy's buried past, including the ritual meaning of her collection of figurines, begins to surface.
Since "Isabella", Pang has been straining at seriousness. The film's music is composed with a classical resonance and the pace and editing has slowed down, with non-dialogue, geometrically-composed and arty long takes replacing his early, frenetically edited, spoofy and coarsely wacky romps.
A sense of women's omniscience and omnipotence is effectively conveyed. The characters' interactions are mostly captured stealthily in long and medium shots through a window or from a height, to simulate the view from a surveillance camera. The dominant visual tone is steely blue and gloomy green, with occasional outbursts of red – evoking on a sensory level the predominance of yin. Actors display a deliberate opacity of expression that enhances the mysterious lurking beneath the mundane.
Tsim is initially depicted like a "Twilight Samurai" who'd rather go home to his wife than drink with the boys. So his infidelity is too sudden and unconvincing, unless Pang's is trying to make the point that men are by nature corrigible, which puts him on as morally dodgy grounds as the inference that women have a murderous axe to grind.
Is this radical feminism or the paranoia of a misogynist? The film does not delve into such issues. It's more of an exercise in polished structure and clever twists. Pay attention to the dialog or you won't get the ending.
EXODUS
Filmko Entertainment/Making Film
Director: Pang Ho Cheung
Writers: G C Goobi, Jimmy Wan, Pang Ho Cheung
Producers: Stanley Tong, Cheung Hong Tat
Executive producers: Harvey Wong, Song Dai
Director of photography: Charlie Lam
Production designer: Man Lim Chung
Music: Gabriele Roberto
Editor: Stanley Tam
Cast:
Tsim Kin Yip: Simon Yam
Amy Cheung Fong: Annie Liu
Pun Siu Yuen: Irene Wan
Kwan Ping Man: Nick Cheung
Maggie Shiu: Mdm. Fong Chi Tsing
No MPAA, running time 94 minutes...
MADRID -- Samuel L. Jackson and Renny Harlin will be on hand at the 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival to see their thriller "Cleaner" unspool at the giant-screened Velodrome.
The showing is one of two events the Sept. 20-29 festival has scheduled for the 3,000-seat Velodrome.
Also screening at the Velodrome will be the documentary "Arctic Tale", which illustrates the cycle of life through the epic adventures of a Polar Bear and a walrus.
A co-production of "March of the Penguins" producer National Geographic Films and Starbucks Entertainment, "Arctic Tale" will be screen in a version dubbed into Basque. Paramount Vantage will distribute the film in the U.S.
The showing is one of two events the Sept. 20-29 festival has scheduled for the 3,000-seat Velodrome.
Also screening at the Velodrome will be the documentary "Arctic Tale", which illustrates the cycle of life through the epic adventures of a Polar Bear and a walrus.
A co-production of "March of the Penguins" producer National Geographic Films and Starbucks Entertainment, "Arctic Tale" will be screen in a version dubbed into Basque. Paramount Vantage will distribute the film in the U.S.
MADRID -- The International Federation of Film Critics has picked Christian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" as the best film of 2007, and will award it the Fipresci Grand Prize at the 55th San Sebastian International Film Festival, organizers said Monday.
Winner of the Golden Palm at this year's Festival du Cannes, Mungiu's film will open the Zabaltegi-Pearls Section at San Sebastian, which showcases the year's top films from previous festivals.
"4 Months" depicts the last days of Communism in a small Rpmanian town through the eyes of a young couple.
San Sebastian, which runs this year from Sept. 20-29, has been the venue for the Fipresci Best Film Prize ceremony since 1999.
Winner of the Golden Palm at this year's Festival du Cannes, Mungiu's film will open the Zabaltegi-Pearls Section at San Sebastian, which showcases the year's top films from previous festivals.
"4 Months" depicts the last days of Communism in a small Rpmanian town through the eyes of a young couple.
San Sebastian, which runs this year from Sept. 20-29, has been the venue for the Fipresci Best Film Prize ceremony since 1999.
MADRID -- Those who missed out on Pascal Ferran's Lady Chatterley at Berlin, Anton Corbijn's Control at Cannes or Etger Keret and Shira Geffen's Camera d'Or-winning Jellyfish will have another chance to see them at the 55th San Sebastian International Film Festival, organizers said Thursday.
The films will join five others from previous festivals in the Zabaltegi-Pearls section. Zabaltegi-Pearls will compete for the TCM Audience Award, which carries a 70,000 ($94,930) for the importer of the winning film. A second prize of 35,000 will go to the European film obtaining the most votes from the audience at the end of each screening.
Barbet Schroeder's Terror's Advocate, Nadine Labaki's Lebanese beauty salon-centered Caramel, Frank Oz's family drama Death at a Funeral, Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Ploy and Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" round out the showcase's slate.
Zabaltegi-Pearls also will offer special screenings of Carlos Saura's music-based Fados, screening in Toronto; a restored version of Richard Lester's Beatles movie Help; and Lou Reed's Berlin, Schnabel's tribute to Lou Reed's 2005 live performance of his mythical album.
The films will join five others from previous festivals in the Zabaltegi-Pearls section. Zabaltegi-Pearls will compete for the TCM Audience Award, which carries a 70,000 ($94,930) for the importer of the winning film. A second prize of 35,000 will go to the European film obtaining the most votes from the audience at the end of each screening.
Barbet Schroeder's Terror's Advocate, Nadine Labaki's Lebanese beauty salon-centered Caramel, Frank Oz's family drama Death at a Funeral, Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Ploy and Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" round out the showcase's slate.
Zabaltegi-Pearls also will offer special screenings of Carlos Saura's music-based Fados, screening in Toronto; a restored version of Richard Lester's Beatles movie Help; and Lou Reed's Berlin, Schnabel's tribute to Lou Reed's 2005 live performance of his mythical album.
- 8/24/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MADRID -- Crossover artists from the TV world, complete unknowns and directors with just one feature under their belt are some of the 16 filmmakers competing for the €90,000 ($110,000) Altadis-New Directors Award at the 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival, organizers said Friday.
The Zabaltegi sidebar, which sports a hefty dose of English-language films this year, weaves together films from first-time directors, pearls from previous festivals and special documentary screenings that will be shown Sept. 20-29.
First- and second-time directors screening in the Official Section will be announced separately, though they also will be entitled to compete for the cash prize. Three Spanish films running in Zabaltegi and competing for the award previously were announced.
Threes Anna's family drama "The Bird Can't Fly", starring Barbara Hershey; Eric Nazarian's "The Blue Hour"; and Sarah Gavron's multiracial love story "Brick Lane", an adaptation of the Monica Ali novel "Seven Seas, Thirteen Rivers", represent three directorial debuts in the competition.
German helmer Felix Randau's "The Calling Game", which follows up on his "Northern Star"; Salvatore Stabile's second feature, the homeless drama "Where God Left His Shoes"; and "10+4," Mania Akbari's sequel to Abbas Kiarostami's "Ten", also will compete.
The Zabaltegi sidebar, which sports a hefty dose of English-language films this year, weaves together films from first-time directors, pearls from previous festivals and special documentary screenings that will be shown Sept. 20-29.
First- and second-time directors screening in the Official Section will be announced separately, though they also will be entitled to compete for the cash prize. Three Spanish films running in Zabaltegi and competing for the award previously were announced.
Threes Anna's family drama "The Bird Can't Fly", starring Barbara Hershey; Eric Nazarian's "The Blue Hour"; and Sarah Gavron's multiracial love story "Brick Lane", an adaptation of the Monica Ali novel "Seven Seas, Thirteen Rivers", represent three directorial debuts in the competition.
German helmer Felix Randau's "The Calling Game", which follows up on his "Northern Star"; Salvatore Stabile's second feature, the homeless drama "Where God Left His Shoes"; and "10+4," Mania Akbari's sequel to Abbas Kiarostami's "Ten", also will compete.
- 8/18/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MADRID -- The 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival will introduce an award honoring women at this year's festival, which runs Sept. 20-29, organizers announced Thursday.
The Another Look award is sponsored by Spanish pubcaster Television Espanola and will see the state-owned company acquire broadcast rights for the winning film.
Candidate films will "focus on subjects related to the female world" made by either men or women. A jury specially created for the occasion will grant the award.
Television Espanola will continue to maintain its award in the Films in Progress section, which focuses on unfinished Latin American projects.
The Another Look award is sponsored by Spanish pubcaster Television Espanola and will see the state-owned company acquire broadcast rights for the winning film.
Candidate films will "focus on subjects related to the female world" made by either men or women. A jury specially created for the occasion will grant the award.
Television Espanola will continue to maintain its award in the Films in Progress section, which focuses on unfinished Latin American projects.
- 8/17/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MADRID -- A total of 38 films will give the 55th annual San Sebastian Film Festival a touch of Cold Fever -- a retrospective of the New Nordic cinema, organizers revealed Friday.
Using 1995's birth of the Dogme film movement in Denmark as a launching pad, festival organizers say Nordic cinema has given rise to a revolution in turn-of-the-century filmmaking.
"But Dogme hasn't been the only focal point of films from Northern Europe, which has shown itself in the last 15 years to be one of the areas most capable of applying its own personality to depicting the doubts assailing human beings in the 21st century," organizers said in a statement.
This modern, cutting view of a society that heralds back to the films of Carl Dreyer and Ingmar Bergman has established a path for such directors as Lars Von Trier and Aki Kaurismaki and introduced a generation of filmmakers that includes Thomas Vinterberg, Susanne Bier, Per Fly, Simon Staho, Lukas Moodysson, Hans Peter Molland, Bent Hamer and Baltsar Kormakur.
Using 1995's birth of the Dogme film movement in Denmark as a launching pad, festival organizers say Nordic cinema has given rise to a revolution in turn-of-the-century filmmaking.
"But Dogme hasn't been the only focal point of films from Northern Europe, which has shown itself in the last 15 years to be one of the areas most capable of applying its own personality to depicting the doubts assailing human beings in the 21st century," organizers said in a statement.
This modern, cutting view of a society that heralds back to the films of Carl Dreyer and Ingmar Bergman has established a path for such directors as Lars Von Trier and Aki Kaurismaki and introduced a generation of filmmakers that includes Thomas Vinterberg, Susanne Bier, Per Fly, Simon Staho, Lukas Moodysson, Hans Peter Molland, Bent Hamer and Baltsar Kormakur.
- 8/11/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MADRID -- A pair of thrillers from two internationally acclaimed directors, David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" and Michael Radford's "Flawless", will bookend the 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival, festival organizers announced Tuesday.
Cronenberg's "Promises", his follow-up to "A History of Violence", will open the festival's main competition. Set in London's organized crime world, "Promises'" tale of a Mafioso and an innocent but determined woman stars Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts.
"Flawless", starring Demi Moore and Michael Caine, will close the festival in an out of competition slot. Radford's heist pic centers on the attempted robbery of the world's biggest diamond corporation.
Natural history documentary "Earth", from the makers of the documentary hit "Deep Blue" (BBC and Germany's Greenlight Media), will screen out of competition as part of San Sebastian's Official Section.
Directed by Alasair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the film follows the seasonal migration of certain animals, highlighting contrasts between different parts of the planet. Lionsgate holds U.S., U.K. and Australian rights.
Previously announced out of competition title "The Inner Life of Martin Frost", directed by jury member and novelist Paul Auster, will screen in the festival's Official Section.
Cronenberg's "Promises", his follow-up to "A History of Violence", will open the festival's main competition. Set in London's organized crime world, "Promises'" tale of a Mafioso and an innocent but determined woman stars Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts.
"Flawless", starring Demi Moore and Michael Caine, will close the festival in an out of competition slot. Radford's heist pic centers on the attempted robbery of the world's biggest diamond corporation.
Natural history documentary "Earth", from the makers of the documentary hit "Deep Blue" (BBC and Germany's Greenlight Media), will screen out of competition as part of San Sebastian's Official Section.
Directed by Alasair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the film follows the seasonal migration of certain animals, highlighting contrasts between different parts of the planet. Lionsgate holds U.S., U.K. and Australian rights.
Previously announced out of competition title "The Inner Life of Martin Frost", directed by jury member and novelist Paul Auster, will screen in the festival's Official Section.
MADRID -- Two of Spain's key female directors, Iciar Bollain and Gracia Querejeta, will provide the only Spanish films in the San Sebastian International Film Festival's Official Section, organizers said Friday as they revealed the first titles for this year's edition.
Bollain, whose "Take My Eyes" was a San Sebastian favorite in 2003 and earned acting awards for Luis Tosar and Laia Marull, will see her much-anticipated "Mataharis" vie for the festival's top honor, the Golden Shell.
"Mataharis" stars Najwa Nimri and Tristan Ulloa in a detective story that leads beyond the thin line that protects the public from the private domain into the intimacy to their own secrets.
With "Seven French Billiard Tables, Querejeta follows her 1999 appearance at the festival with "Cuando vuelvas a mi lado", which won the directorial special mention and best photography nod.
"Billiard" is Querejeta's fifth feature and tells of a woman forced to rebuild her life after her father's death and her husband's strange disappearance.
Bollain, whose "Take My Eyes" was a San Sebastian favorite in 2003 and earned acting awards for Luis Tosar and Laia Marull, will see her much-anticipated "Mataharis" vie for the festival's top honor, the Golden Shell.
"Mataharis" stars Najwa Nimri and Tristan Ulloa in a detective story that leads beyond the thin line that protects the public from the private domain into the intimacy to their own secrets.
With "Seven French Billiard Tables, Querejeta follows her 1999 appearance at the festival with "Cuando vuelvas a mi lado", which won the directorial special mention and best photography nod.
"Billiard" is Querejeta's fifth feature and tells of a woman forced to rebuild her life after her father's death and her husband's strange disappearance.
MADRID -- Paul Auster's second feature, "The Inner Life of Martin Frost", will run in the Official Section -- though out of competition -- at the 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival, festival organizers said Thursday. The U.S. writer-director also will serve as part of the festival's jury.
Auster, who received Spain's Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature last year, joins a list of authors such as Jose Saramago and Mario Vargas Llosa who have sat on the San Sebastian jury.
"Martin Frost" stars Auster's daughter Sophie as the muse of a successful American novelist.
San Sebastian runs Sept. 20-29 in the northern Spanish seaside town in the Basque region.
Auster, who received Spain's Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature last year, joins a list of authors such as Jose Saramago and Mario Vargas Llosa who have sat on the San Sebastian jury.
"Martin Frost" stars Auster's daughter Sophie as the muse of a successful American novelist.
San Sebastian runs Sept. 20-29 in the northern Spanish seaside town in the Basque region.
- 6/30/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MADRID -- French director Philippe Garrel will be honored by the 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival, which will showcase his work as part of its contemporary director retrospective, organizers said Friday.
The festival, which runs Sept. 20-29 in Spain's northern Basque region, called Garrel "one of the most independent figures on the French movie scene" and an inspiration for such modern filmmakers as Gus Van Sant, Olivier Assayas and Jose Luis Guerin.
Son of veteran actor Maurice Garrel, brother of La Sept broadcaster Thierry Garrel and father of actor Louis Garrel ("The Dreamers"), the French director has worked with actresses including his partner Nico, Jean Seberg, Bulle Ogier, Tina Aumont, Anne Wiazemski, Emmanuelle Riva, Mireille Perrier, Anemone and Catherine Deneuve.
His films, which mix extreme emotions and heavily utilize closeups, include "La cicatrice interieure" (1970), "Un ange passe" (1975), "L'enfant secret" (1979), "Les baisers de secours" (1988), "La naissance de l'amour" (1993), "Le vent de la nuit" (1998) and "Les amants reguliers" (2005), winner of the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion for best director.
The festival, which runs Sept. 20-29 in Spain's northern Basque region, called Garrel "one of the most independent figures on the French movie scene" and an inspiration for such modern filmmakers as Gus Van Sant, Olivier Assayas and Jose Luis Guerin.
Son of veteran actor Maurice Garrel, brother of La Sept broadcaster Thierry Garrel and father of actor Louis Garrel ("The Dreamers"), the French director has worked with actresses including his partner Nico, Jean Seberg, Bulle Ogier, Tina Aumont, Anne Wiazemski, Emmanuelle Riva, Mireille Perrier, Anemone and Catherine Deneuve.
His films, which mix extreme emotions and heavily utilize closeups, include "La cicatrice interieure" (1970), "Un ange passe" (1975), "L'enfant secret" (1979), "Les baisers de secours" (1988), "La naissance de l'amour" (1993), "Le vent de la nuit" (1998) and "Les amants reguliers" (2005), winner of the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion for best director.
- 6/23/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MADRID -- A retrospective focusing on U.S. director Henry King and a thematic sidebar named Cold Fever are the first sections announced by organizers of the 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The announcement Friday came at the presentation of this year's official poster, designed by communication and graphic design artist Oscar Marine.
Organizers also announced an increase in the prize money for the different sections. The TCM Audience Award will be worth €70,000 ($94,500), up from €30,000 ($40,500), with a new second prize for the top European vote-getter in the category receiving €35,000 ($47,300). While in the Latin Horizons section, the winning film, as voted on by an international jury, will receive €35,000 this year compared with €18,000 ($24,300) in previous editions.
Calling him "one of North American cinema's great pioneers," the festival said that King (1892-1982) deserved a retrospective of his work. His films include "The Gunfighter" (1950), "The Bravados" (1958), "Beloved Infidel" (1959), "Tender Is the Night" (1961) and "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" (1955).
The Cold Fever sidebar showcases the Dogma film movement.
The announcement Friday came at the presentation of this year's official poster, designed by communication and graphic design artist Oscar Marine.
Organizers also announced an increase in the prize money for the different sections. The TCM Audience Award will be worth €70,000 ($94,500), up from €30,000 ($40,500), with a new second prize for the top European vote-getter in the category receiving €35,000 ($47,300). While in the Latin Horizons section, the winning film, as voted on by an international jury, will receive €35,000 this year compared with €18,000 ($24,300) in previous editions.
Calling him "one of North American cinema's great pioneers," the festival said that King (1892-1982) deserved a retrospective of his work. His films include "The Gunfighter" (1950), "The Bravados" (1958), "Beloved Infidel" (1959), "Tender Is the Night" (1961) and "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" (1955).
The Cold Fever sidebar showcases the Dogma film movement.
- 5/12/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MADRID -- Six Latin American unfinished films have been chosen to participate in the 11th edition of the Films in Progress program at the Cervantes Institute in Toulouse as part of the Recontres Cinemas d'Amerique Latine.
The six films, chosen from a field of 74 entries, are: Pablo Fendrik's "El Asaltante" (Argentina), Sergio Tolar Velarde's "Aurora Boreal" (Mexico), Victor Gonzalez's "El Cielo Elegido" (Argentina), Rodrigo Marin's "Las Ninas" (Chile), Marcelo Masagao's "Otevio e as letras" (Brazil) and Liliana Paolinelli's "Por Sus Propios Ojos" (Argentina).
Films in Progress is an initiative of the San Sebastian International Film Festival and the Recontres Cinemas d'Amerique that looks to help promising Latin American film projects overcome hurdles in post-production. For the first time, this year's edition will take place in two different locations and on two different dates. It will be in Toulouse March 22-23 and at the Guadalajara International Film Festival March 27-29.
The finished products will be screened at the 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival, which runs Sept.
The six films, chosen from a field of 74 entries, are: Pablo Fendrik's "El Asaltante" (Argentina), Sergio Tolar Velarde's "Aurora Boreal" (Mexico), Victor Gonzalez's "El Cielo Elegido" (Argentina), Rodrigo Marin's "Las Ninas" (Chile), Marcelo Masagao's "Otevio e as letras" (Brazil) and Liliana Paolinelli's "Por Sus Propios Ojos" (Argentina).
Films in Progress is an initiative of the San Sebastian International Film Festival and the Recontres Cinemas d'Amerique that looks to help promising Latin American film projects overcome hurdles in post-production. For the first time, this year's edition will take place in two different locations and on two different dates. It will be in Toulouse March 22-23 and at the Guadalajara International Film Festival March 27-29.
The finished products will be screened at the 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival, which runs Sept.
- 3/16/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MADRID -- Last summer when Madrid opened some of its most exclusive venues for the benefit of the first edition of the Spanish Film Screenings held in the city, it was clear the venture was intended to boost its status as a cinema capital.
But in the past few months, Madrid has also announced the construction of a production studio, facilitated a trip by local producers to Los Angeles to foment commercial ties, and is set to unveil a new international film festival. Each is a part of the Spanish capital's concerted bid to elbow its way to the top table of European film capitals, hitherto dominated in different ways by rivals Paris, London, Rome and Berlin.
"Our objective is to situate Madrid on the international film stage," says Salvador Victoria, secretary general of the Madrid regional government's cabinet.
The goal is shared by both the regional and municipal governments that have joined forces -- a rare occurrence given personal differences between the mayor and the regional president -- to bolster the city's visibility.
"One of our main objectives is to give the city the international recognition it deserves," says Alicia Moreno, culture secretary for the municipal government, who has seen her budget grow year after year thanks to Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon's publicly displayed passion for the arts.
The Spanish industry is very centralized. More than 70% of Spain's film and television industry is located in the capital, and more films are shot in Madrid than anywhere else in Spain. Internationally, however, Madrid seems to take a back seat to the glamour of the Basque resort of San Sebastian, host to the country's premiere film event, which is going into its 55th year.
But in the past few months, Madrid has also announced the construction of a production studio, facilitated a trip by local producers to Los Angeles to foment commercial ties, and is set to unveil a new international film festival. Each is a part of the Spanish capital's concerted bid to elbow its way to the top table of European film capitals, hitherto dominated in different ways by rivals Paris, London, Rome and Berlin.
"Our objective is to situate Madrid on the international film stage," says Salvador Victoria, secretary general of the Madrid regional government's cabinet.
The goal is shared by both the regional and municipal governments that have joined forces -- a rare occurrence given personal differences between the mayor and the regional president -- to bolster the city's visibility.
"One of our main objectives is to give the city the international recognition it deserves," says Alicia Moreno, culture secretary for the municipal government, who has seen her budget grow year after year thanks to Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon's publicly displayed passion for the arts.
The Spanish industry is very centralized. More than 70% of Spain's film and television industry is located in the capital, and more films are shot in Madrid than anywhere else in Spain. Internationally, however, Madrid seems to take a back seat to the glamour of the Basque resort of San Sebastian, host to the country's premiere film event, which is going into its 55th year.
- 2/12/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
COLOGNE, Germany -- The Berlin International Film Festival has selected the three-person jury for this year's Best First Feature Award.
The jurists are Gerhard Meixner, co-managing director of Berlin-based production house Razor Films, which co-produced Oscar-nominated "Paradise Now"; Iranian actress and director Niki Karimi, who won the best actress nod in San Sebastian for "Hidden Half"; and U.K. producer Judy Counihan, whose features include the Oscar-winning "No Man's Land" (2001) and "Antonia" (1995).
The First Feature Award, now in its second year, comes with a €50,000 ($64,500) cash prize and is awarded to the best debut film running in the Panorama, Forum or Generation sections of the Berlin festival. The prize money is split between the director and producer of the winning film.
This year, 15 films will compete for the prize, which will be announced Feb. 17 during the official awards ceremony in the Berlinale Palast.
The 57th annual Berlin International Film Festival runs Feb. 8-18.
The jurists are Gerhard Meixner, co-managing director of Berlin-based production house Razor Films, which co-produced Oscar-nominated "Paradise Now"; Iranian actress and director Niki Karimi, who won the best actress nod in San Sebastian for "Hidden Half"; and U.K. producer Judy Counihan, whose features include the Oscar-winning "No Man's Land" (2001) and "Antonia" (1995).
The First Feature Award, now in its second year, comes with a €50,000 ($64,500) cash prize and is awarded to the best debut film running in the Panorama, Forum or Generation sections of the Berlin festival. The prize money is split between the director and producer of the winning film.
This year, 15 films will compete for the prize, which will be announced Feb. 17 during the official awards ceremony in the Berlinale Palast.
The 57th annual Berlin International Film Festival runs Feb. 8-18.
- 1/26/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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