A+E Hires Sony Pictures Television Distribution Veteran Kerstin Gühne For Key EMEA Sales Role

Lise Pedersen Opening her masterclass at doc film festival Visions du Réel in Switzerland, cinematographer and filmmaker Kirsten Johnson – an Emmy and Sundance award winner for “Dick Johnson Is Dead” – started by naming each and every member of the technical crew on set. “What I often find upsetting with cinema is that we forget to acknowledge all the people it takes to make these moments together.

A British fighter captured by Russian forces has been pictured with gashes to his face and a swollen eye, in a move believed to be motivated by propaganda.

K.J. Yossman Alexandra Cocean has been appointed EVP international sales and distribution at Voltage Pictures.As part of the move, Cocean will join the company’s international sales exec team, reporting to Voltage Pictures’ president and COO Jonathan Deckter.Cocean moves back in-house after acting as international sales consultant for Blue Fox Entertainment, Myriad Pictures and Solstice Studios.

Lise Pedersen Top industry awards at the 53rd edition of the international documentary film festival Visions du Réel have gone to “La Bonga,” “Anatomy of the Night,” “The Other Profile,” “Noor” and “Becoming Roosi.” A total of 27 projects were invited to participate in three key forums – VdR-Pitching, VdR-Work in Progress and VdR-Rough Cut Lab – that ran as part of the festival’s industry activities in Nyon from April 10-14.Seventeen awards were handed out to 16 docs-in-the-making, two of which won a double award: “La Bonga,” by Sebastián Pinzón Silva and Canela Reyes, took the Visions Sud Est and Raggioverde Subtitling trophies, and “Mailin” by Maria Silvia Esteve won both the TËNK Post-Production and Party Film Sales awards. Considered to be the festival’s top industry prize, the Vision Sud Est award comes with a 10,000 CHF ($10,700) cash prize handed out to the best project from the Southern or Eastern Europe, and is the only award that takes in titles in both of the festival’s main industry sections: the VdR-Pitching and the VdR-Work in Progress segment.Handing out the prize, jury member Delphine Jeanneret, programmer and curator at the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterhur in Switzerland, said: “We decided to award a highly promising collective work that will have a broad impact on a community that took an active part in a portrait empowering them to reclaim their community through filmmaking.”Pinzón Silva and Reyes’ debut feature, “La Bonga” is about a displaced Afro-Colombian community that embarks on a symbolic journey through the jungles of the Caribbean to resurrect a home that exists only in their memories.

Forty-six days on, the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues. More than 10 million people have fled their homes, according to the United Nations, while another 6.5 million are thought to be displaced inside the war-torn country itself.

Deadline’s photo studio at the 2022 edition of Contenders Television kicked off its first day by hosting fest-goers such as Ben Stiller of Severance,  Amy Poehler of Russian Doll, Selena Gomez of Only Murders In The Building, Jared Leto of WeCrashed and many more.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorSwiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel has opened in Nyon with a homage to Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius, who was killed while filming in Ukraine last week. The 45 year old, best known for his conflict-zone documentary “Mariupolis,” which was screened at the 2016 edition of the fest and has been added to this year’s lineup, was a festival regular.

EXCLUSIVE: Horror-thriller All Fun And Games, starring Asa Butterfield (Sex Education) and Natalia Dyer (Stranger Things), begins production today in Canada with joining cast including Benjamin Evan Ainsworth — who has the title role in Disney’s upcoming Pinocchio — Keith David (Greenleaf) and Annabeth Gish (The Fall of the House of Usher).

Hundreds of suitcases have been pictured piled up at Manchester Airport as passengers again raise security concerns. The airport has been plagued with problems in recent weeks with a staffing crisis and a resurgence in international travel following the pandemic.

Starzplay Acquires HBO’s Max’s Ken Watanabe Crime Thriller Series ‘Tokyo Vice’

A terminally ill man has apologised after holding a gun to his head outside Royal Liverpool Hospital and causing a 12-hour stand off.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentStrand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Alain Guiraudie’s “Nobody’s Hero” which is handled by Films du Losange and world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. The movie, which opened the Berlinale Panorama section, is set in Clermont-Ferrand revolves around Frederic, a 35 year-old man who falls in love with with a middle-aged sex worker who is married.

Emiliano De Pablos Emmy Award-winning French toon production-distribution label Dandelooo has clinched a deal with pubcaster France Télévisions for Spanish award-winning 2D animated series “Jasmine & Jambo.”Targeting both upper preschoolers and parents, and bursting with musical notes and humor, “Jasmine & Jambo” is a 27-part series, produced by Barcelona-based company Teidees and Catalan broadcaster Televisió de Catalunya.Directed by Teidees co-founder Silvia Cortés, the show won best international series at the Festival Ecran Jeunesse and was nominated for the Quality in Children’s TV Worldwide award at Prix Jeunesse International.Ensuring a premier broadcast platform, “Jasmine & Jambo” will join the France Télévisions kids and family lineup, available first on streamer Okko from the Fete de la Musique – Music Day – in France on June 21. Also, onboard to bring the music series to Canadian kids are educational networks TFO and Knowledge.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorRed Arrow Studios Intl. has secured a raft of deals for two of its premium drama titles “Blackout – Tomorrow Is Too Late” and “Departure.”The international thriller “Blackout – Tomorrow Is Too Late,” starring Moritz Bleibtreu (“The Baader Meinhof Complex”) and Marie Leuenberger (“The Divine Order”), has been picked up by Mediawan Rights for French-speaking Europe, Disney Plus in the U.K.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorLimonero Films, a boutique distributor of factual shows and documentaries, based in London, has announced a string of sales ahead of MipTV.Make Waves Media’s “Thirties in Color: Countdown to War” has been sold to Japan’s NHK, Italy’s RAI, Spain’s RTVE and Germany’s RTL, which also licensed “Victorian Britain on Film” and “Wild Relations.”The wildlife title “Wild Relations” was picked up by KBS in Korea and Radio Television Hong Kong.“Framed in Miami: The Versace Connection,” Limonero’s first true crime series, was picked up by Discovery in Italy, and their food and travel show “Hidden Flavors of India: North East” by Discovery Asia.Andy Cohen’s “Beijing Spring,” about the Chinese cultural revolution of 1979, was licensed to Sweden’s SVT and Switzerland’s RSI.