Tampere film festival 2023

EXCLUSIVE: The Sands: International Film Festival of St Andrews , held in northern Scotland, has set the lineup for its second edition, running April 14 – 16. Over the course of three days, the festival will host a series of official screenings and industry talks from filmmakers and artists such as director Joe Russo ( Avengers: Endgame, The Gray Man ), who returns to St Andrews after supporting the inaugural edition in 2022. Russo will be bringing with him what the festival has described as an “early sneak peek of a hotly anticipated project” that he has executive produced under his AGBO production outfit. The title of the pic will not be unveiled until the screening begins. The festival has also set Russo as the host of a public discussion on gaming and contemporary storytelling with Epic Games Chief Creative Officer Donald Mustard, who has worked as a creator and director on titles such as Fortnite . Russo’s AGBO is among the backers of Sands, alongside … [Read more...] about Scotland’s Sands International Film Festival Of St Andrews Sets Second Edition Including Joe Russo Talk & Mystery AGBO Debut

EXCLUSIVE: The UK Asian Film Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and today, Deadline can share the official lineup for the jubilee edition, running at venues across the UK from May 4 — 14. The running theme for this year’s edition is ‘Celebrating Our Stories,’ which will see the festival screen a series of films that center on the British Asian experience. The festival will open with the UK Premiere of the Hindi-language pic Sanaa at BFI Southbank. The film follows the eponymous Sanaa, a 28-year-old financial advisor working in Mumbai, who discovers she is pregnant. Clear on her decision to terminate her pregnancy, the process of getting the abortion forces Sanaa to re-evaluate her life and if the choices she has been making have really been her own. Lead actor Radhika Madan ( Pataakha ) and director Sudhanshu Saria ( Loev ) will attend the screening. The festival’s closing gala takes place on May 13 at the Kiln Theatre in North West London with the … [Read more...] about UK Asian Film Festival Sets Programme For 25th Anniversary Edition

EXCLUSIVE: The Black List and Women in Film said Monday that they have set the participants for their 2023 Episodic Lab, with seven television pilots from eight writers selected. Now in its seventh year, the lab focuses on preparing women writers and writers of underrepresented genders for careers in writing for TV. More than 40 scribes have participated since its launch in 2016, with the organizations saying half currently have jobs in the industry. This year’s list features Bev Chukwu, Deanna Esposito, Eudie Pak, Laura Malatos & Helen Sun, Katherine Ruppe, Lorin Williams and Thea Rodgers. The lab, supported by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Shivhans Pictures, meets twice a week in March for sessions that include masterclasses, pitch workshops and lectures from guest mentors. This year’s mentors list includes Monica Beletsky ( Parenthood ), Jane Becker ( Ted Lasso ), Glen Mazzara ( The Dark Tower ), Sono Patel ( The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ) … [Read more...] about The Black List And Women In Film Set 2023 Episodic Lab Writers

With Series Mania 2023 coming to a close, the event’s founder and general director Laurence Herszberg announced the winners of the Series Mania Festival today. ”We would first like to thank the public and the professionals who attended this edition, which brought together more than 85,000 participants for the Festival and 3,800 participants from 64 countries for the Forum. We are delighted to announce our prize list and figures that have far exceeded our expectations,” said Herszberg. With the rise of streaming across the world, Series Mania has become one of the most attractive events in the global TV calendar. It’s largely looked at as a place where writers, distributors and producers can liase with each other in a less formal setting than compared to a TV sales market. It includes not just the festival, the Forum, key conferences, keynotes, and pitching sessions. This year the festival screened 54 unreleased series, with 32 world premieres and 10 international … [Read more...] about Series Mania Festival 2023 Winners Announced

EXCLUSIVE : Good Deed Entertainment has acquired North American and UK rights to the indie drama Midday Black Midnight Blue , starring 2x Emmy winner Merritt Wever ( Godless ), slating it for a day-and-date release in June. The first feature from writer-directors Samantha Soule and Daniel Talbott, also starring Chris Stack (AMC’s Interview with the Vampire ) and Soule ( Godless ), follows Ian (Stack) as he grapples with his shifting memories of Liv (Soule), a woman he once loved. For Ian, it’s a chance run-in with Liv’s sister (Wever) that sparks a journey in which he has a chance to reconnect to the light and fight his way back to life. The film, which world premiered at last year’s Seattle Film Festival, is produced by Soule, Talbott and Stack, as well as Lovell Holder and Addie Johnson Talbott. Exec producers are Timothy Farrell, Conner Marx and Will Pullen. GDE’s EVP of Acquisitions Erik Donley negotiated Midday Black ‘s deal for the company, with … [Read more...] about Merritt Wever-Led ‘Midday Black Midnight Blue’ Acquired By Good Deed; Coral Peña, Nicole Byer Board ‘Thelma’; More – Film Briefs

EXCLUSIVE : Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist Films have picked up North American rights to Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy — a new documentary on the making of the iconic John Schlesinger film, from acclaimed documentarian Nancy Buirski ( The Loving Story ). Zeitgeist will open the film in North American theaters beginning at New York’s Film Forum in late June and take it nationwide from there, with a digital, educational and home video release on all major platforms via Kino Lorber to follow. Inspired by Glen Frankel’s 2021 book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic , Desperate Souls goes behind the scenes to visually document the creation of a masterpiece made by complex and paradoxical characters in New York City, 1969, an era when all the rules of society were being questioned. Featuring inside stories of the film’s production from cast members including Jon Voight, Brenda Vaccaro and … [Read more...] about Kino Lorber, Zeitgeist Films Acquire ‘Midnight Cowboy’ Making-Of Documentary ‘Desperate Souls, Dark City’

One of the early signs that the Cannes Film Festival is around the corner is the reveals of the poster for the Official Selection as well as those for the main parallel sections of Cannes Critics’ Week (Semaine de la Critique) and Directors’ Fortnight. Cannes Critics’ Week is first out the door this year with a poster celebrating Charlotte Wells ’s award-winning debut feature Aftersun . The drama won the section’s French Touch Prize in 2022 and then enjoyed a buzzy prize-winning run on the international festival circuit. Co-star Paul Mescal went on to be Oscar-nominated for his performance, while Wells won the Bafta for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer. Mescal starred opposite newcomer Frankie Corio as a single father who takes his young daughter on holiday to a Turkish resort in the 1990s. The poster features an image by the production’s stills photographer Sarah Makharine of the characters in an embrace. Wells said she owed a debt … [Read more...] about Cannes Critics’ Week Unveils 2023 Poster Paying Tribute to 2022 Breakout ‘Aftersun’

Saudi Cultural Development Fund has officially launched its Film Sector Financing Program , offering financial support to local and international film companies that want to get involved in the country’s burgeoning cinema industry. The initiative, with a portfolio of $233 million (879M Saudi Riyal), was first unveiled in early 2022 as part of the country’s $1.1 billion IGNITE Digital Content Program, then teased again during the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah in December. The program officially launched against the backdrop of the film-focused the Ignite the Scene event in Riyadh last week, organized by the Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The CDF said in a release that the initiative is open to local and international companies and that its aim is to support the growth of a sustainable local film industry by empowering the private sector with financing packages that support local content and promote filmmaking. The … [Read more...] about Saudi Arabia Officially Launches $233M Film Sector Financing Program Aimed At Local & Int’l Companies

Motherland , a “dark and monumental” film about neo-nationalism in Belarus, earned the top prize tonight at the prestigious CPH:DOX festival in Copenhagen. Belorussian directors Alexander Mihalkovich and Hanna Badziaka accepted the Dox:Award honor at a ceremony at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg in the Danish capital. Jurors praised Motherland as “a cinematic and meaningful film that took its time unfolding the complexity of living within an oppressive and unjust system. It poses questions about the idea of an individual choice within a cornered society. The title of the film is a way to give back the power to the women who are at the forefront of this fight.” [See the full list of CPH:DOX winners below]. The world premiere of Motherland at CPH:DOX comes at a particularly timely moment, just over a year after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine with key assistance from the Kremlin-allied Belorussian government. Russian forces trained in Belarus in advance of the … [Read more...] about ‘Motherland,’ Belorussian Film That Challenges Country’s Nationalist Push, Takes Top Prize At CPH:DOX; See Full Winners List

EXCLUSIVE : Production has wrapped on a Bulgarian live-action short film starring Oscar-nominated Bulgarian actor Maria Bakalova . The film, titled Това, Kоето Oстава (English title: What Stays After ), is directed by Dimitris Georgiev. The short is produced by No Blink Pictures, New European Wave Entertainment and Bakalova’s production company Five Oceans, co-founded with fellow actor and filmmaker Julian Kostov ( Shadow and Bone, The Toxic Avenger ). Joining Bakalova in the cast of What Stays After are leading Bulgarian actors Zachary Baharov ( Game of Thrones, Slow Horses, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One ), Elena Telbis ( Losers ) and Margita Gosheva ( The Father ), with young actor Yan Lozov as the lead. Written by Bulgarian filmmakers Georgiev and Mariy Rosen, What Stays After tells the coming-of-age story of a boy during tragic events that tear his family apart. The characters in the movie face the pain of losing a loved one, … [Read more...] about Maria Bakalova Stars In & Produces Bulgarian Short Film ‘What Stays After’