Pape Boye’s Black Mic Mac, a recently launched banner championing African and Middle Eastern talent, is kicking off a strong first roster of projects including “Let the Earth Burn” from Sundance-prizewinning Sofia Alaoui and “The Bridge” creator Måns Mårlind.
“Let the Earth Burn” is a six-part series following Kenza, a recent graduate of the police academy working in a remote station nestled in the Atlas Mountains. Surrounded by misogynistic colleagues, she starts investigating on the disappearance of some shepherds’ children.
Alaoui’s credits include “So What if the Goats Die,” which won best short film at Cannes and Sundance in 2021, and “Animalia,” which won the Grand Jury prize at this year’s Sundance. Mårlind is one Europe’s best-known series’ creator with credits including “Midnight Sun” and “The Bridge” and “Shadowplay.” The film is produced by Barney Prods. and co-produced by Black Mic Mac. Other projects on the outfit...
“Let the Earth Burn” is a six-part series following Kenza, a recent graduate of the police academy working in a remote station nestled in the Atlas Mountains. Surrounded by misogynistic colleagues, she starts investigating on the disappearance of some shepherds’ children.
Alaoui’s credits include “So What if the Goats Die,” which won best short film at Cannes and Sundance in 2021, and “Animalia,” which won the Grand Jury prize at this year’s Sundance. Mårlind is one Europe’s best-known series’ creator with credits including “Midnight Sun” and “The Bridge” and “Shadowplay.” The film is produced by Barney Prods. and co-produced by Black Mic Mac. Other projects on the outfit...
- 5/20/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
First production is South African director Sibs Shongwe-La Mer’s previously announced second feature film Halo Daze.
International sales and production veteran Pape Boye is teaming up with growing French audiovisual and technology company Logical Pictures Group on his fledgling Paris-based African film and TV content-focused outfit Black Mic Mac.
Boye, who was previously co-head of French sales company Versatile, has been building the new company under the radar for more than a year and is now stepping up its activity with this new partnership, which will see it join the Logical Pictures Group.
Based in Paris, Black Mic Mac will focus on packaging,...
International sales and production veteran Pape Boye is teaming up with growing French audiovisual and technology company Logical Pictures Group on his fledgling Paris-based African film and TV content-focused outfit Black Mic Mac.
Boye, who was previously co-head of French sales company Versatile, has been building the new company under the radar for more than a year and is now stepping up its activity with this new partnership, which will see it join the Logical Pictures Group.
Based in Paris, Black Mic Mac will focus on packaging,...
- 2/3/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Sk Global Entertainment, BlueLight and Black Mic Mac have boarded “Halo Daze,” the sophomore feature from South African director Sibs Shongwe-La Mer, whose acclaimed debut “Necktie Youth” premiered at the Berlinale, the companies announced during the Sundance Film Festival.
Currently in production in Cape Town, “Halo Daze” follows the dark voyage of an aspiring young rapper whose internet fame fails to bring him and his family the better life he’d hoped for. Written by Shongwe-La Mer, it explores the fault-lines where class, race and ageing youth intersect in suspended animation, amongst a generation desperate for a moment of instant fame and comfort at any cost.
“Halo Daze” is produced in South Africa by Storyscope, Seriti Films, Stage 5 Films and Laika1991, and in Germany by Rohfilm Prods. Pic is due for completion mid-2021 with an eye toward release later this year.
The film is supported in South Africa by...
Currently in production in Cape Town, “Halo Daze” follows the dark voyage of an aspiring young rapper whose internet fame fails to bring him and his family the better life he’d hoped for. Written by Shongwe-La Mer, it explores the fault-lines where class, race and ageing youth intersect in suspended animation, amongst a generation desperate for a moment of instant fame and comfort at any cost.
“Halo Daze” is produced in South Africa by Storyscope, Seriti Films, Stage 5 Films and Laika1991, and in Germany by Rohfilm Prods. Pic is due for completion mid-2021 with an eye toward release later this year.
The film is supported in South Africa by...
- 2/3/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The new literary agency will focus on local and international filmmaking talent.
Former Casarotto Ramsay agent David Kayser has teamed up with Aoife Lennon-Ritchie of The Lennon-Ritchie Agency to launch Torchwood, a new South Africa-based literary agency representing screenwriters, directors and producers.
The firm has offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg and will represent clients both in South Africa and globally. It already represents talent in the UK, Ireland, France, Denmark, Nigeria and South Africa and will represent clients internationally and locally.
Kayser and Lennon-Ritchie are founding partners and currently the sole agents on the company.
Torchwood has signed a...
Former Casarotto Ramsay agent David Kayser has teamed up with Aoife Lennon-Ritchie of The Lennon-Ritchie Agency to launch Torchwood, a new South Africa-based literary agency representing screenwriters, directors and producers.
The firm has offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg and will represent clients both in South Africa and globally. It already represents talent in the UK, Ireland, France, Denmark, Nigeria and South Africa and will represent clients internationally and locally.
Kayser and Lennon-Ritchie are founding partners and currently the sole agents on the company.
Torchwood has signed a...
- 10/23/2020
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Durban — Financing African films has always required equal parts imagination and hustle, and as the global movie industry weathers its own seismic upheaval from new financing and distribution challenges, filmmakers on the continent are learning to adapt on the fly.
That was the takeaway of a Durban FilmMart panel July 21, where Dayo Ogunyemi, an investor and founder of 234 Media; Chioma Onyenwe, a producer and the director of the Africa Int’l. Film Festival; Todd Brown, head of international acquisitions at Xyz Films; and Michael Auret, a producer with Spier Films, reckoned with the transformation in how filmmakers today are forced to do business.
“The pre-sales market is becoming progressively harder and harder,” said Brown, whose company was the North American sales agent for recent South African fest hits “Five Fingers for Marseilles” and “Number 37,” and is developing an adaptation of South African sci-fi novel “Apocalypse Now Now.” “That model...
That was the takeaway of a Durban FilmMart panel July 21, where Dayo Ogunyemi, an investor and founder of 234 Media; Chioma Onyenwe, a producer and the director of the Africa Int’l. Film Festival; Todd Brown, head of international acquisitions at Xyz Films; and Michael Auret, a producer with Spier Films, reckoned with the transformation in how filmmakers today are forced to do business.
“The pre-sales market is becoming progressively harder and harder,” said Brown, whose company was the North American sales agent for recent South African fest hits “Five Fingers for Marseilles” and “Number 37,” and is developing an adaptation of South African sci-fi novel “Apocalypse Now Now.” “That model...
- 7/22/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
In an isolated stronghold of South Africa’s Afrikaaner community, a religious housewife welcomes a hardened street orphan into her home, upsetting a tight-knit family dynamic and setting off a power struggle for a father’s love.
In Etienne Kallos’ feature debut, “The Harvesters,” which premieres in Un Certain Regard, the generational rift at the heart of one conservative household raises broader questions about the role South Africa’s white ethnic minority played in the country’s brutal past, and the place it has in the young nation’s future.
Says Kallos, “There is a wordless legacy that needs to be addressed.”
Born and raised in South Africa, Kallos left the country for the U.S. nearly two decades ago, returning over the course of a career that’s seen him produce two U.S.-lensed shorts that screened in Venice and Cannes. For his feature debut, Kallos saw a...
In Etienne Kallos’ feature debut, “The Harvesters,” which premieres in Un Certain Regard, the generational rift at the heart of one conservative household raises broader questions about the role South Africa’s white ethnic minority played in the country’s brutal past, and the place it has in the young nation’s future.
Says Kallos, “There is a wordless legacy that needs to be addressed.”
Born and raised in South Africa, Kallos left the country for the U.S. nearly two decades ago, returning over the course of a career that’s seen him produce two U.S.-lensed shorts that screened in Venice and Cannes. For his feature debut, Kallos saw a...
- 5/14/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Fast-rising South African helmer Sibs Shongwe-La Mer has been tapped to direct “Meridian,” produced by Cassian Elwes and Susan Carter Hall.
Based on an original screenplay by Henderson Hall and Karolina Waclawiak, it’s the story of a priceless Picasso that goes missing from a Nazi bunker after WWII, only to resurface decades later in the small American town of Meridian.
Shongwe-La Mer describes the film as “a beautiful ode to cinema” and “classic Hollywood.” “That Hollywood is the Hollywood that made me fall in love with films,” he says.
Shongwe-La Mer says he met Elwes in L.A. after the AFI Fest screening of his acclaimed debut, “Necktie Youth,” which premiered at the Berlinale in 2015. “Cassian Elwes is a true hero of mine,” he says. “From ‘Blue Valentine’ to ‘Dallas Buyers Club,’ these are pictures that move me to the point that they remind me why I want to make films.
Based on an original screenplay by Henderson Hall and Karolina Waclawiak, it’s the story of a priceless Picasso that goes missing from a Nazi bunker after WWII, only to resurface decades later in the small American town of Meridian.
Shongwe-La Mer describes the film as “a beautiful ode to cinema” and “classic Hollywood.” “That Hollywood is the Hollywood that made me fall in love with films,” he says.
Shongwe-La Mer says he met Elwes in L.A. after the AFI Fest screening of his acclaimed debut, “Necktie Youth,” which premiered at the Berlinale in 2015. “Cassian Elwes is a true hero of mine,” he says. “From ‘Blue Valentine’ to ‘Dallas Buyers Club,’ these are pictures that move me to the point that they remind me why I want to make films.
- 5/13/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
A total of 36 projects will be in Berlin.
Source: X-Filme
Run Lola Run
The Berlinale co-production market (February 17 – 21, 2018) will welcome 36 new feature film projects that are looking for co-producers. In addition, five production companies will be introduced in the ‘company matching’ programme.
Projects include new films by Todd Solondz, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Aisling Walsh and Franka Potente.
Scroll down for lineup
Hundreds of movies have resulted from the previous fifteen editions of the event. Two films to emerge from recent editions confirmed for this year’s Competition section of the Berlinale are Figlia mia (Daughter of Mine) directed by Laura Bispuri and Mein Bruder heißt Robert und ist ein Idiot by Philip Gröning.
For the 2018 market, 21 feature film projects with budgets ranging from €750,000 to €6m, were selected from 326 submissions. The projects, which will be presented by their producers already have either production support from their home countries, or financing of at least 30 percent in place.
Two additional film projects...
Source: X-Filme
Run Lola Run
The Berlinale co-production market (February 17 – 21, 2018) will welcome 36 new feature film projects that are looking for co-producers. In addition, five production companies will be introduced in the ‘company matching’ programme.
Projects include new films by Todd Solondz, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Aisling Walsh and Franka Potente.
Scroll down for lineup
Hundreds of movies have resulted from the previous fifteen editions of the event. Two films to emerge from recent editions confirmed for this year’s Competition section of the Berlinale are Figlia mia (Daughter of Mine) directed by Laura Bispuri and Mein Bruder heißt Robert und ist ein Idiot by Philip Gröning.
For the 2018 market, 21 feature film projects with budgets ranging from €750,000 to €6m, were selected from 326 submissions. The projects, which will be presented by their producers already have either production support from their home countries, or financing of at least 30 percent in place.
Two additional film projects...
- 1/12/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- ScreenDaily
June 20–22, 2017‘The heart of Paris beats for film industry’
Industry Week is the professional part of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival.
This label includes the Us in Progress and Paris Coproduction Village. Together they offer 24 film projects at different stages, from development to post production. More than 200 professionals from the industry, producers, international sellers, distributors, etc. are welcomed
Paris Coproduction Village Unveils Its Selection
Organized by Les Arcs European Film Festival within the frame of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival Industry Week, Paris Coproduction Village is made up of professional meetings and is also a financing platform for feature projects selected worldwide.
For its fourth edition, which will take place June 20–22, 2017 in Paris, the following projects have been selected:
“Amparo” by Simón Mesa Soto; 2016 — short film
“Madre” Official Competition Cannes, AFI Iff, Chicago Iff; 2014 — short film
“Leidi” Golden Palm Cannes, Best UK Short Award London Short Ff, Chicago Iff, Edinburgh Iff) produced...
Industry Week is the professional part of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival.
This label includes the Us in Progress and Paris Coproduction Village. Together they offer 24 film projects at different stages, from development to post production. More than 200 professionals from the industry, producers, international sellers, distributors, etc. are welcomed
Paris Coproduction Village Unveils Its Selection
Organized by Les Arcs European Film Festival within the frame of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival Industry Week, Paris Coproduction Village is made up of professional meetings and is also a financing platform for feature projects selected worldwide.
For its fourth edition, which will take place June 20–22, 2017 in Paris, the following projects have been selected:
“Amparo” by Simón Mesa Soto; 2016 — short film
“Madre” Official Competition Cannes, AFI Iff, Chicago Iff; 2014 — short film
“Leidi” Golden Palm Cannes, Best UK Short Award London Short Ff, Chicago Iff, Edinburgh Iff) produced...
- 6/14/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
12 international projects to presented at event in Paris this June.
Ryota Nakano, Sharon Bar-Ziv and Mauro Mueller will be among the directors presenting projects at the fourth edition of the Paris Co-production Village in June, aimed at connecting international filmmakers with French partners.
Organised by the team behind the Les Arcs European Film Festival this year’s village runs June 20-22. It takes place within the framework of the Champs Elysées Film Festival’s industry week which also includes Us in Progress showcase.
Swiss-born New York-based director Mauro Mueller is bringing Fingerplay about a jaded middle-aged woman whose life is given fresh meaning after a mentally-challenged young man enters her life.
Israeli film-maker Sharon Bar-Ziv’s will present Love Your Neighbor about a single mother who finds herself at odds with her Jewish-Orthodox neighbours who want to take-over her flat.
It is Bar-Ziv’s second film after her well-received debut Room 514 about a young female soldier who puts...
Ryota Nakano, Sharon Bar-Ziv and Mauro Mueller will be among the directors presenting projects at the fourth edition of the Paris Co-production Village in June, aimed at connecting international filmmakers with French partners.
Organised by the team behind the Les Arcs European Film Festival this year’s village runs June 20-22. It takes place within the framework of the Champs Elysées Film Festival’s industry week which also includes Us in Progress showcase.
Swiss-born New York-based director Mauro Mueller is bringing Fingerplay about a jaded middle-aged woman whose life is given fresh meaning after a mentally-challenged young man enters her life.
Israeli film-maker Sharon Bar-Ziv’s will present Love Your Neighbor about a single mother who finds herself at odds with her Jewish-Orthodox neighbours who want to take-over her flat.
It is Bar-Ziv’s second film after her well-received debut Room 514 about a young female soldier who puts...
- 5/22/2017
- ScreenDaily
A pool of 550 producers, sales agents and financiers will attend this year’s event.Scroll down for full list
The 14th edition of the Berlinale co-production market (Feb 12-15, 2017) at the European Film market (Efm) has revealed its line-up of 36 feature film projects.
The Berlinale team is organising a total of 1,200 one-on-one meetings for the selected projects’ producers, with a pool of 550 producers, sales agents, broadcasters, distributors, film funds and financiers from across the world scheduled to attend.
Of the 36 films, 20 have been selected for the official project selection. They were chosen from 323 submissions and have budgets ranging from 750,000 Euros to €11m. To be eligible, they must have raised 30% of their projected budget prior to the event.
The further projects will be presented in separate strands, including 10 in the Talent Project Market, organised with Berlinale Talents, which highlights emerging filmmakers.
In the Berlinale Directors segment, three directors who have previously screened films at the festival will present...
The 14th edition of the Berlinale co-production market (Feb 12-15, 2017) at the European Film market (Efm) has revealed its line-up of 36 feature film projects.
The Berlinale team is organising a total of 1,200 one-on-one meetings for the selected projects’ producers, with a pool of 550 producers, sales agents, broadcasters, distributors, film funds and financiers from across the world scheduled to attend.
Of the 36 films, 20 have been selected for the official project selection. They were chosen from 323 submissions and have budgets ranging from 750,000 Euros to €11m. To be eligible, they must have raised 30% of their projected budget prior to the event.
The further projects will be presented in separate strands, including 10 in the Talent Project Market, organised with Berlinale Talents, which highlights emerging filmmakers.
In the Berlinale Directors segment, three directors who have previously screened films at the festival will present...
- 1/12/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Hannaleena Hauru’s debut feature is produced by company behind Cannes Un Certain Regard winner The Happiest Day In The Life of Olli Maki.
Paris-based Premium Films has boarded sales for Hannaleena Hauru’s debut feature The Thick Lashes Of Lauri Mantyvaara (working title).
The film will shoot in Finland from August with Aamu Film Company, which was also behind the Cannes Un Certain Regard winner The Happiest Day In The Life of Olli Maki.
Hauru, who attended Cannes Cinefondation Residence in 2015, has made more than 30 short films including festival hits Mercy All The Way, Whispering In A Friend’s Mouth and If I Fall.
The film will tell the story of two teenage girls who want to sabotage weddings on the Finnish archipelago to “reclaim love from capitalism.” Their plans are complicated when one of the girls falls in love, surprisingly, with an ice hockey player.
Jussi Rantamaki of Aamu produces the $1.3m (€1.1m) production...
Paris-based Premium Films has boarded sales for Hannaleena Hauru’s debut feature The Thick Lashes Of Lauri Mantyvaara (working title).
The film will shoot in Finland from August with Aamu Film Company, which was also behind the Cannes Un Certain Regard winner The Happiest Day In The Life of Olli Maki.
Hauru, who attended Cannes Cinefondation Residence in 2015, has made more than 30 short films including festival hits Mercy All The Way, Whispering In A Friend’s Mouth and If I Fall.
The film will tell the story of two teenage girls who want to sabotage weddings on the Finnish archipelago to “reclaim love from capitalism.” Their plans are complicated when one of the girls falls in love, surprisingly, with an ice hockey player.
Jussi Rantamaki of Aamu produces the $1.3m (€1.1m) production...
- 6/30/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
The American Film Institute announced today the films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema’s Legacy programs at AFI Fest 2015 presented by Audi.
AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.
World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...
AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.
World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...
- 10/22/2015
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Festival top brass have unveiled the entire slate after they announced on Wednesday the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema’s Legacy programmes set to screen from November 5-12.
World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are eligible for audience awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the grand jury prize that qualifies the winner for Academy Award consideration.
The 29 World Cinema selections include Pablo Trapero’s The Clan (pictured), László Nemes’ Son Of Saul, Marco Bellocchi’s Blood Of My Blood, Pablo Larraín’s The Club, Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan, Naomi Kawase’s Sweet Bean, Michel Franco’s Chronic, Radu Jude’s Romanian Western Aferim!, Ciro Guerra’s Embrace Of The Serpent, Ida Panahandeh’s Nahid, Gabriel Mascaro’s Neon Bull and Rams by Grímur Hákonarson.
The three Midnight selections are Can Evrenol’s Baskin, Akiz’s Der Nachtmahr and Roxanne Benjamin’s Southbound.
The five Breakthrough selections are Kim Dong-myung’s The Liar, Celia Rowlson-Hall’s [link...
World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are eligible for audience awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the grand jury prize that qualifies the winner for Academy Award consideration.
The 29 World Cinema selections include Pablo Trapero’s The Clan (pictured), László Nemes’ Son Of Saul, Marco Bellocchi’s Blood Of My Blood, Pablo Larraín’s The Club, Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan, Naomi Kawase’s Sweet Bean, Michel Franco’s Chronic, Radu Jude’s Romanian Western Aferim!, Ciro Guerra’s Embrace Of The Serpent, Ida Panahandeh’s Nahid, Gabriel Mascaro’s Neon Bull and Rams by Grímur Hákonarson.
The three Midnight selections are Can Evrenol’s Baskin, Akiz’s Der Nachtmahr and Roxanne Benjamin’s Southbound.
The five Breakthrough selections are Kim Dong-myung’s The Liar, Celia Rowlson-Hall’s [link...
- 10/21/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
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