Macu Machín’s “The Undergrowth” (“La Hojarasca”) took home the top MiradaCanaria prize at the 17th MiradasDoc, which ran March 15-22 in Tenerife, Spain.
Produced by El Viaje Films, Machin’s debut feature has been picking up accolades since its world premiere at Berlinale’s Forum, snagging Best Spanish Picture and director at the Malaga Film Festival’s Zonazine, a sidebar for edgier and sometimes smaller pics.
The jury praised the doc for its “sensitive and evocative portrayal of three sisters and their deep bond of love for each other and their homeland.” In it, two elderly sisters join a third to hash out their shared inheritance of a plot of land as the rumble of an active volcano echoes close by.
Part of a burgeoning Canary Islands cinema, “The Undergrowth” explores questions of “identity, belonging, and the dynamics of the place where me and my family came from,” Machín told Variety.
Produced by El Viaje Films, Machin’s debut feature has been picking up accolades since its world premiere at Berlinale’s Forum, snagging Best Spanish Picture and director at the Malaga Film Festival’s Zonazine, a sidebar for edgier and sometimes smaller pics.
The jury praised the doc for its “sensitive and evocative portrayal of three sisters and their deep bond of love for each other and their homeland.” In it, two elderly sisters join a third to hash out their shared inheritance of a plot of land as the rumble of an active volcano echoes close by.
Part of a burgeoning Canary Islands cinema, “The Undergrowth” explores questions of “identity, belonging, and the dynamics of the place where me and my family came from,” Machín told Variety.
- 3/26/2024
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Alfredo Castro, an absolute lead or co-star in seven Pablo Larraín films and one of the highest-regarded of actors in Latin America, is set to head the choral cast of “Three Dark Nights” (“Tres noches negras”), the third feature from Spanish-Chilean Theo Court.
“Three Dark Nights” follows up Court’s “White on White,” also starring Castro, an actor described by Variety as “reliably superb,” which won a best director and Fipresci Prize at 2019’s Venice Horizons. It went on to become Chile’s submission for the international feature Oscar, establishing Court as a talent to track.
In further news, Samuel M. Delgado, co-writer and co-director of “They Carry Death” and a writer with Court of “White on White,” has been brought on board as script consultant.
“Three Dark Nights” is one of the highest-profile of 15 projects which will be brought to market at September’s Europe-Latin American Co-Production Forum.
Like “White on White,...
“Three Dark Nights” follows up Court’s “White on White,” also starring Castro, an actor described by Variety as “reliably superb,” which won a best director and Fipresci Prize at 2019’s Venice Horizons. It went on to become Chile’s submission for the international feature Oscar, establishing Court as a talent to track.
In further news, Samuel M. Delgado, co-writer and co-director of “They Carry Death” and a writer with Court of “White on White,” has been brought on board as script consultant.
“Three Dark Nights” is one of the highest-profile of 15 projects which will be brought to market at September’s Europe-Latin American Co-Production Forum.
Like “White on White,...
- 8/18/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Chile’s Quijote Films, run by Giancarlo Nasi, has reteamed with former partners El Viaje Films of Spain and Argentina’s Gema Films on two separate projects.
Attending the Berlin Film Festival’s European Film Market, Nasi said: “This market has been very good for us because as one of the outfits selected in the company matching program of the Co-Production Market, we have met with a lot of new firms from different countries. At the same time, we’ve been able to advance and confirm our collaboration with past partners.”
Quijote Films and El Viaje Films, partners on Theo Court’s “White on White,” which garnered the Venice Horizons Best Director and Fipresci awards and was Chile’s entry to the best international feature film Oscar race last year, are reteaming on Court’s latest film, “Tres noches negras” (“Three Dark Nights”).
“Our previous collaboration on Theo’s “White...
Attending the Berlin Film Festival’s European Film Market, Nasi said: “This market has been very good for us because as one of the outfits selected in the company matching program of the Co-Production Market, we have met with a lot of new firms from different countries. At the same time, we’ve been able to advance and confirm our collaboration with past partners.”
Quijote Films and El Viaje Films, partners on Theo Court’s “White on White,” which garnered the Venice Horizons Best Director and Fipresci awards and was Chile’s entry to the best international feature film Oscar race last year, are reteaming on Court’s latest film, “Tres noches negras” (“Three Dark Nights”).
“Our previous collaboration on Theo’s “White...
- 2/22/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
After two years of being forced online by the pandemic, the 11th edition of India’s Dharamshala Film Festival is back with a physical edition.
Highlights include the India premieres of Cannes jury prize winner and Pakistan’s Oscar entry, Saim Sadiq’s “Joyland,” and Gianfranco Rosi’s Pope Francis documentary “In Viaggio.”
Nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, Dharamshala is best known internationally as the seat of the Dalai Lama, who has been based there since being exiled from Tibet in 1959. The festival directors Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam are filmmakers in their own right. Their chronicles of the Tibetan condition including 2005’s “Dreaming Lhasa,” 2010’s “The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom” and 2018’s “The Sweet Requiem” have received considerable festival play, including at Toronto and San Sebastian.
Indian program highlights include Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s Venice and El Gouna title “Once Upon a...
Highlights include the India premieres of Cannes jury prize winner and Pakistan’s Oscar entry, Saim Sadiq’s “Joyland,” and Gianfranco Rosi’s Pope Francis documentary “In Viaggio.”
Nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, Dharamshala is best known internationally as the seat of the Dalai Lama, who has been based there since being exiled from Tibet in 1959. The festival directors Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam are filmmakers in their own right. Their chronicles of the Tibetan condition including 2005’s “Dreaming Lhasa,” 2010’s “The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom” and 2018’s “The Sweet Requiem” have received considerable festival play, including at Toronto and San Sebastian.
Indian program highlights include Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s Venice and El Gouna title “Once Upon a...
- 10/26/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Eighty films from 32 countries, including 21 feature narratives and 43 short films, will be be showcased at the 11th Dharamshala International Film Festival (Diff) in Dharamsala next month, as announced on Thursday.
The highlights include the India premieres of Cannes Jury Prize Winner and 2022 Oscar Nominee, Joyland by Saim Sadiq; Once Upon A Time in Calcutta by Aditya Vikram Sengupta; the Anurag Kashyap-presented debut feature by Parth Saurabh, Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar (On Either Sides of the Pond); 2022 Oscar Nominee, Writing with Fire by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Sen; and Fire in the Mountains (India 2021) by Ajitpal Singh.
The India premieres of these acclaimed international features will also take place at Diff 2022: Eternal Spring by Jason Loftus; In Viaggio by Gianfranco Rosi; Lullaby by Alauda Ruiz de AzAa; Mother Lode by Matteo Tortone; Navalny by Daniel Roher; Neptune Frost by Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams; They Carry Death by Helena GirAn...
The highlights include the India premieres of Cannes Jury Prize Winner and 2022 Oscar Nominee, Joyland by Saim Sadiq; Once Upon A Time in Calcutta by Aditya Vikram Sengupta; the Anurag Kashyap-presented debut feature by Parth Saurabh, Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar (On Either Sides of the Pond); 2022 Oscar Nominee, Writing with Fire by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Sen; and Fire in the Mountains (India 2021) by Ajitpal Singh.
The India premieres of these acclaimed international features will also take place at Diff 2022: Eternal Spring by Jason Loftus; In Viaggio by Gianfranco Rosi; Lullaby by Alauda Ruiz de AzAa; Mother Lode by Matteo Tortone; Navalny by Daniel Roher; Neptune Frost by Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams; They Carry Death by Helena GirAn...
- 10/20/2022
- by Glamsham Bureau
- GlamSham
White Noise.Halfway through the Lido, an impossibly long stretch of villas and hotels shielding Venice from the Adriatic, is a small canal flanked by rhododendrons, and at the entry of that canal is a bridge. I don’t know its name, who built it, or when. Every vaporetto I’ve taken since 2014, my first trip to the festival, has had to duck under it, and over the years the arc has turned into a kind of totem, its crossing a ritual. Of all the sights on the island—the red carpet circling the Sala Grande, the crowds besieging the Hotel Excelsior, the flags flapping atop the Biennale headquarters—that bridge is the first I see, the one that turns the ferry ride into a homecoming and makes me hold my breath, as if passing under it meant leaving one world to enter another.Every festival carries that feeling; the bigger the event,...
- 9/2/2022
- MUBI
Willem Dafoe and Michael Weber among creative advisors helping artistic director Athina Rachel Tsangari.
Thirteen projects from promising filmmakers selected for the Oxbelly Screenwriters and Directors Labs received guidance from mentors such as actor Willem Dafoe, Arte France’s Olivier Pere and The Match Factory founder Michael Weber when they took place in Greece from May 29-June 5.
The Labs were held in Costa Navarino under the artistic direction of Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari, whose credits include Chevalier and Trigonometry.
The Labs offer international filmmakers the opportunity to work on their first or second feature script, as well as workshop...
Thirteen projects from promising filmmakers selected for the Oxbelly Screenwriters and Directors Labs received guidance from mentors such as actor Willem Dafoe, Arte France’s Olivier Pere and The Match Factory founder Michael Weber when they took place in Greece from May 29-June 5.
The Labs were held in Costa Navarino under the artistic direction of Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari, whose credits include Chevalier and Trigonometry.
The Labs offer international filmmakers the opportunity to work on their first or second feature script, as well as workshop...
- 6/24/2022
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Mexican director Joaquin del Paso’s coming-of-age drama “The Hole in the Fence,” set in an all-male religious camp in rural Mexico, scored the Cairo Film Festival’s top prize, the Golden Pyramid, on Sunday capping a vibrant 43rd edition of the preeminent Arab event, which was held in person despite the impending threat of the coronavirus Omicron variant.
Though there were some last minute cancellations, most international attendees made the trek to Cairo undeterred, including jury president Emir Kusturica, U.S. producer Lawrence Bender and Cannes topper Thierry Fremaux – dubbed the “King of the Croisette” by the master of ceremonies. The latter two were honored with lifetime achievement awards during the glitzy closing ceremony in Cairo’s opera house.
“Hole in the Fence,” which world premiered in Venice, is Del Paso’s second work after “Panamerican Machinery,” which had made a splash after launching from Berlin in 2016. “Hole” explores...
Though there were some last minute cancellations, most international attendees made the trek to Cairo undeterred, including jury president Emir Kusturica, U.S. producer Lawrence Bender and Cannes topper Thierry Fremaux – dubbed the “King of the Croisette” by the master of ceremonies. The latter two were honored with lifetime achievement awards during the glitzy closing ceremony in Cairo’s opera house.
“Hole in the Fence,” which world premiered in Venice, is Del Paso’s second work after “Panamerican Machinery,” which had made a splash after launching from Berlin in 2016. “Hole” explores...
- 12/6/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Other winners included Earwig, Jessica Chastain, Tea Lindeburg and Terence Davies.
A debut feature by Romanian director Alina Grigore, Blue Moon has won the Golden Shell award for best film at the 69th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff).
The victory adds another woman director as winner of a festival’s main prize following the Palme d’Or win at Cannes for Julia Ducournau’s Titane and the Venice Golden Lion triumph for Audrey Diwan’s Happening.
Other awards in Ssiff’s main competition included a special jury prize for Earwig, by Lucile Hadzilhalilovic; the Silver Shell...
A debut feature by Romanian director Alina Grigore, Blue Moon has won the Golden Shell award for best film at the 69th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff).
The victory adds another woman director as winner of a festival’s main prize following the Palme d’Or win at Cannes for Julia Ducournau’s Titane and the Venice Golden Lion triumph for Audrey Diwan’s Happening.
Other awards in Ssiff’s main competition included a special jury prize for Earwig, by Lucile Hadzilhalilovic; the Silver Shell...
- 9/25/2021
- by Elisabet Cabeza
- ScreenDaily
This year’s crop of young outstanding talent has been nurtured at the Tabakalera’s various areas, including the post-graduate film school Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (Eqze) and the Ikusmira Berriak Residency Program.
Marina Palacio (San Sebastian)
The San Sebastian native is a Fine Arts graduate whose short film “Ya no Duermo” was created at the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola and premiered in the Zabaltegi Tabakalera section of the Zinemaldia. It has competed in more than thirty international festivals, where it has clinched several awards including ‘Best Fiction Short’ at the Malaga Film Festival. She is currently filming her debut feature film: the docu-fiction hybrid drama, “Y así seguirán las cosas.”
Mikel Gurrea (San Sebastian)
Gurrea holds degrees from Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University and the London Film School. His latest short, “Heltzear,” world premiered at the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti sidebar, and later screens at San Sebastian’s Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section.
Marina Palacio (San Sebastian)
The San Sebastian native is a Fine Arts graduate whose short film “Ya no Duermo” was created at the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola and premiered in the Zabaltegi Tabakalera section of the Zinemaldia. It has competed in more than thirty international festivals, where it has clinched several awards including ‘Best Fiction Short’ at the Malaga Film Festival. She is currently filming her debut feature film: the docu-fiction hybrid drama, “Y así seguirán las cosas.”
Mikel Gurrea (San Sebastian)
Gurrea holds degrees from Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University and the London Film School. His latest short, “Heltzear,” world premiered at the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti sidebar, and later screens at San Sebastian’s Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section.
- 9/20/2021
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Francis Ford Coppola for Wall Street Journal. (Photographed by Austin Hargrave) In a new interview with Deadline, Francis Ford Coppola has announced that he's starting to assemble a cast and prepare financing for his long-gestating passion project, the epic film Megalopolis. "I’m still willing to do the dream picture, even if I have to put up my own money, and I am capable of putting up $100 million if I have to here." Hou Hsiao-hsien and Lee Kang-sheng are currently attached to Twisted Strings, a TV anthology series written and directed by Huang Xi. Hou will be the executive producer of the series, while Lee will star in a role that is "like nothing he had ever portrayed before." Kaycee Moore, the star of Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep, has died. Throughout her career,...
- 9/1/2021
- MUBI
Not bad for a feature debut. “They Carry Death” (“Eles Transportan a Morte”), from first-time Spanish film directors Helena Girón y Samuel M. Delgado, is participating in two prominent film festivals back to back.
After its world premiere at the Venice Festival’s 36th Critics Week sidebar, it competes in the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section of Spain’s most important film festival, San Sebastian.
Delgado is no stranger to Venice. He co-wrote Theo Court’s “Blanco en Blanco,” which won best director and Fipresci awards at Venice’s Horizons section in 2019.
Described as a classic adventure story tempered with a critical discourse on the perils of colonization, “They Carry Death” is inspired by Italian born feminist scholar Silvia Federici’s 2004 essay “Caliban and the Witch: Women, Body and Primitive Accumulation” in which she pointed out that the wealth amassed during the colonization of America funded the repressive apparatus of the Inquisition as...
After its world premiere at the Venice Festival’s 36th Critics Week sidebar, it competes in the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section of Spain’s most important film festival, San Sebastian.
Delgado is no stranger to Venice. He co-wrote Theo Court’s “Blanco en Blanco,” which won best director and Fipresci awards at Venice’s Horizons section in 2019.
Described as a classic adventure story tempered with a critical discourse on the perils of colonization, “They Carry Death” is inspired by Italian born feminist scholar Silvia Federici’s 2004 essay “Caliban and the Witch: Women, Body and Primitive Accumulation” in which she pointed out that the wealth amassed during the colonization of America funded the repressive apparatus of the Inquisition as...
- 8/31/2021
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
High-flying Spanish outfit Filmika Galaika has boarded Gabriel AzorÃn’s poetic, time-blending “Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebesâ€.(“Anoche conquisté Tebasâ€.), a buzz title at the Locarno Festival Match Me forum.
A networking platform for up-and-coming producers, and a few who have pretty much arrived, Match Me runs on-site at Switzerland’s Locarno Festival over Aug. 6-8.
Based out of A Coruña, Filmika Galaika’s “They Carry Death,â€. framing two stories, both set in 1492 and directed by Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado, has just been selected for Venice Critics’ Week. “Sycorax,â€. from Lois Patiño and MatÃas Piñeiro, won a Cannes Directors’ Fortnight berth.
Filmika Galaika joins Spain’s Dvein Films and Portugal’s Primeira Idade as a producer partner on the feature which will be presented in Locarno by Dvein’s Carlos Pardo Ros.
Written by AzorÃn and Spanish playwright and theater director Celso Giménez, “Last Night...
A networking platform for up-and-coming producers, and a few who have pretty much arrived, Match Me runs on-site at Switzerland’s Locarno Festival over Aug. 6-8.
Based out of A Coruña, Filmika Galaika’s “They Carry Death,â€. framing two stories, both set in 1492 and directed by Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado, has just been selected for Venice Critics’ Week. “Sycorax,â€. from Lois Patiño and MatÃas Piñeiro, won a Cannes Directors’ Fortnight berth.
Filmika Galaika joins Spain’s Dvein Films and Portugal’s Primeira Idade as a producer partner on the feature which will be presented in Locarno by Dvein’s Carlos Pardo Ros.
Written by AzorÃn and Spanish playwright and theater director Celso Giménez, “Last Night...
- 8/6/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
The programme for the 2021 Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, and includes new films from Pedro Almodóvar, Jane Campion, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michelangelo Frammartino, Pablo Larraín, Paul Schrader, Ridley Scott, and more.Parallel MothersCOMPETITIONParallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar)Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (Ana Lily Amirpour)Un Autre Monde (Stephane Brize)The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion)America LatinaL’Evenement (Audrey Diwan)Official CompetitionThe Hole (Michelangelo Frammartino)Sundown (Michel Franco)Lost Illusions (Xavier Giannoli)The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal)Spencer (Pablo Larrain)Freaks Out (Gabriele Mainetti)Qui Rido Io (Mario Martone)On The Job: The Missing 8 (Erik Matti)Leave No Traces (Jan P. Matuszyński)Captain Volkonogov EscapedThe Card Counter (Paul Schrader)The Hand of God (Paolo Sorrentino)Reflection (Valentyn Vasyanovych)The Box (Lorenzo Vigas)Out Of COMPETITIONFeaturesDune (Denis Villeneuve)Il Bambino Nascosto (Roberto Andò)Les Choses Humaines (Yvan Attal)Ariaferma (Leonardo Di Costanzo)Halloween Kills (David Gordon Green...
- 8/3/2021
- MUBI
Venice Critics’ Week to Open With U.S. Director Jake Wachtel’s Cambodia-set ‘Karmalink,’ Full Lineup
The Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week has unveiled its lineup of nine international first works, all of them world premieres, with U.S. director Jake Wachtel’s Cambodia-set Buddhist sci-fier “Karamalink,” set as the out-of-competition opener.
Set in a near-future Phnom Penh, “Karmalink” (pictured) is about a 13-year-old boy and his street-smart female friend who team up to search for a gold statue from the boy’s past lives, while traveling across town and also back in time.
Wachtel, who grew up in Palo Alto, started developing the film in 2015, while teaching filmmaking in Phnom Penh. He cast two former students as his leads and shot the film on location after living in their community for several years. Pic is produced by Los Angeles-based Valerie Steinberg Productions. Co-producers are Cambodian director-producer Sok Visal of 802 Films and Christopher Rompré of littleBIG Films.
In June U.S. company XYZ Films and...
Set in a near-future Phnom Penh, “Karmalink” (pictured) is about a 13-year-old boy and his street-smart female friend who team up to search for a gold statue from the boy’s past lives, while traveling across town and also back in time.
Wachtel, who grew up in Palo Alto, started developing the film in 2015, while teaching filmmaking in Phnom Penh. He cast two former students as his leads and shot the film on location after living in their community for several years. Pic is produced by Los Angeles-based Valerie Steinberg Productions. Co-producers are Cambodian director-producer Sok Visal of 802 Films and Christopher Rompré of littleBIG Films.
In June U.S. company XYZ Films and...
- 7/22/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
First they conquered Hollywood film shoots, now they’re aiming to drive up local production, adding a new local edge to one of Europe’s most popular big shoot locales.
A decade ago, Spain’s Canary Islands started to become a top shoot destination for big international films, offering wide-ranging landscapes and unique tax advantages.
An influx of international film and TV shoots served to establish an industrial base, nurturing high-profile crew talent and sparking the creation of competitive production services companies.
Now in second stage growth, the Atlantic Ocean islands are raising the ante, boosting local industry’s production subsidies and their international exposure.
Early fruit of new ambitious measures, the Canary Islands Audiovisual Cluster is introducing at next week’s virtual Berlin European Film Market an 80-minute promo reel dubbed Canarias Unleashed which offers a sneak preview of six upcoming features produced on the Islands by local companies tapping into local talent.
A decade ago, Spain’s Canary Islands started to become a top shoot destination for big international films, offering wide-ranging landscapes and unique tax advantages.
An influx of international film and TV shoots served to establish an industrial base, nurturing high-profile crew talent and sparking the creation of competitive production services companies.
Now in second stage growth, the Atlantic Ocean islands are raising the ante, boosting local industry’s production subsidies and their international exposure.
Early fruit of new ambitious measures, the Canary Islands Audiovisual Cluster is introducing at next week’s virtual Berlin European Film Market an 80-minute promo reel dubbed Canarias Unleashed which offers a sneak preview of six upcoming features produced on the Islands by local companies tapping into local talent.
- 2/26/2021
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
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