Aaron Taylor-Johnson Supported by Wife Taylor While Being Honored at Locarno Film Festival 2022

Naman Ramachandran Fremantle has scored a raft of sales on “The Trip” director Michael Winterbottom’s drama on outgoing U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, “This England.”The 88 territories closed for “This England” include Movistar+ (Spain), Viaplay (Nordics and Baltics, Poland and the Netherlands), Cosmote (Greece), OSN TV and OSN+ (MENA), M-Net (South Africa), BBC First (Australia) and TVNZ (New Zealand).

Sky’s Kenneth Branagh-starring Boris Johnson drama This England has been sold to 88 territories worldwide by distributor Fremantle.

Brazilian filmmaker Julia Murat clinched the Golden Leopard prize in the main international competition of the 75th Locarno Film Festival with her latest feature Rule 34.

Guy Lodge Film Critic“Rule 34,” a challenging and sexually explicit film from Brazilian director Julia Murat, has emerged as the surprise winner of the Golden Leopard award at this year’s Locarno Film Festival — an edition where typically audacious and formally ambitious work dominated the program.

Latest DealsA score or more of new deals announced since Sunday in exclusivity to Variety:*Germany’s Pluto Film has been in negotiations with several theatrical distributors on Locarno Piazza Grande title “Semret,” ahead of its world premiere on Aug. 10.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentTo the exuberant tones of Christophe’s “Aline,” lamenting the loss of his love, two shirtless men rejoice orgiastically as water tumbling down a rock face drenching their bodies. Meanwhile, at a country house, maids and a gardener, dressed in period costume, proudly pour what looks like a mixture of water and milk onto plants.The scenes, it seems, are from a libertine costume drama, being shot in the wooded French countryside. Then suddenly Valentin, the director, disappears.

Spilling secrets! Aaron Taylor-Johnson couldn’t help but gush over working with Brad Pitt on the new film Bullet Train — and he’s hoping to avoid making the actor’s “s–t list.”

Aaron Taylor-Johnson sang co-star Brad Pitt's praises during an interview with at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland earlier this month, he also revealed you don't want to make a bad impression on the 58-year-old actor if you hope to work with him again in the future.Taylor-Johnson described Pitt as a «humble and gracious human being,» and believes he expects the same qualities from co-stars.«He is in a new chapter of his life, I think,” he told the publication. „He just wants to bring light and joy into the world and be around people who are there to have a good time.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentInspired by director Marcel Beltrán’s walking on a dry, polluted lake in his hometown, Moa, in Cuba, “Moa” won the biggest prize on offer at this year’s Open Doors, a Locarno Fest co-production and talent hub dedicated, in an inspired choice, to smaller territories in Latin American and countries in the Caribbean. The focus lasts three-years, over 2022-24.The territories boast world class filmmakers with urgent stories to tell.

JD Linville Zurich native Caterina Mona will bring her directorial debut “Semret” to the 75th Locarno Film Festival where it screens at the city’s Piazza Grande, an outdoor venue traditionally reserved for more popular plays. The film, which is being sold by German sales outfit Pluto Film, follows the difficult path to healing for the titular character of Semret: a reclusive immigrant mother from Eritrea, now living and working in Zurich.

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based company Indie Sales has sold Angry Annie, French director Blandine Lenoir’s latest feature, to a host of key territories ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival on Thursday.

Brad Pitt keeps a list of actors he will not work with — or so says his “Bullet Train” co-star Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is sharing his experience working with Brad Pitt on the set of the new movie ‘Bullet Train,’ revealing that the Hollywood star has a list of actors he prefers not to work with.The stars of the film are currently going on a series of interviews promoting the movie, with Aaron attending Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. Aaron was asked about how he felt working with Brad, describing him as a “humble and gracious human being.”“He just wants to bring light and joy into the world and be around people who are there to have a good time,” Aaron explained, admitting that after working with many actors, it gets easier to know who is a better match while working on a project.“You work with many actors and after a while, you start making notes: ‘I am definitely not working with this person ever again.’ Brad has this list too: the ‘good’ list and the ‘s–t’ list,” the actor said.Aaron also shared his experience filming a fighting scene with Brad, revealing that he suffered major injuries, as he implemented a “crazy mad Keto diet” to achieve a “scrawny and lean” look for the film, which resulted in “low blood sugar levels.”“We were in a fight sequence and I get drop-kicked across the room.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAmazon Prime Video’s Italian original series “Prisma,” which launches on Aug. 10 from the Locarno Film Festival, sees the streamer revisit the theme of gender identity fluidity after “Transparent” while catering to a young adult audience and also connecting with Italy’s neorealist roots.The eight-episode show (watch exclusive clip) – which marks the first TV series to premiere at the prominent Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema – is centered around identical adolescent twins Marco and Andrea, who challenge gender norms in different ways, along with their group of friends who are also going through a similar journey.“Prisma” is set in the city of Latina, just south of Rome, and its surrounding area, which used to be a swamp until the land was drained under Fascist rule.

Switzerland has selected Michael Koch’s Swiss-German language feature A Piece Of Sky as its candidate for the best international film category of the 2023 Oscars.

Lukas Nathrath’s One Last Evening Wins Locarno Pro’s First Look Prize

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentLukas Nathrath’s “One Last Evening,” an often excruciating tragedy-laced dramedy set around a couple’s farewell dinner for friends, won big at Locarno’s First Look on Sunday, scooping the Cinegrell First Look Award.The award consists in €50,000 ($51,000) in post-production services from Cinegrell, a Switzerland and Germany based services house.The biggest prize at this year’s Locarno Pro First Look, a pix-in-post showcase dedicated six new movies from Germany, went to a first feature which delivers a scathing portrait of a success-obsessed society whose members mostly don’t live up to their promise, especially in their own estimation. Sebastian Jakob Doppelbauer plays Clemens, a once budding singer-songwriter but now pitied depressive whose girlfriend is now shaping up as the partner with a future as an on-the-rise doctor. Clemens in contrast doesn’t do shit.  Starting off afresh, moving from Hanover to Berlin, the couple stage a farewell dinner that spirals out of control, uncovering hidden fears, secret longings and life-lies.After the pandemic, our feeling was ‘Let’s shoot something this summer,’” Nasrath told Variety. Nasrath, Doppelbauer and fellow producer Linus Günther at Klinkerfilm reached out to film funds, to no avail, but weren’t too unhappy about making the film on a shoestring since that way “no one would interfere,” they said after Sunday night’s awards ceremony. “We were hugely impressed by ‘One Last Evening,’ finding its storytelling rich and nuanced. The film took us on a real emotional journey and the strong ensemble cast contributed to wonderfully detailed characterisations,” said the First Look jury.

Marta Balaga Tom Hardiman’s feature debut “Medusa Deluxe,” which premiered at Locarno on Saturday, has already seduced multiple international distributors with its mixture of humor, grief and competitive hairdressing.Now Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has sealed further deals for the unusual murder mystery in Spain (Elastica Films), Benelux (Filmfreak), Scandinavia and the Baltics (NonStop Entertainment), Variety has learnt in exclusivity.As previously reported, A24 has acquired North American rights to the film, produced by Emu Films with the support of BFI, BBC Films, and Time Based Arts.MUBI holds the rights to U.K./Ireland, France, Latin America, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, India and Southeast Asia. “The buyers are excited about ‘Medusa Deluxe’ because it’s a quirky, original piece of cinema which can appeal to younger audiences, especially since A24 and MUBI will lead the way on global marketing,” said New Europe Film Sales CEO, Jan Naszewski.Hardiman, a self-confessed hairdressing aficionado, has joined forces with celebrity hairstylist Eugene Souleiman in order to show a community struggling with tragic loss yet still striving for perfection.“There is this cathartic moment at one point, two people genuinely caring about each other, and you have this hairstyle with a boat on the top.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent10 Swiss film festivals with international standing are joining forces on a symbolically significant screening series to be held in Locarno’s PalaCinema multipurpose venue which is also known as the Swiss lakeside town’s house of cinema.The innovative initiative – which is being launched with a press conference on Saturday at the Locarno Film Festival – is the brainchild of Nadia Dresti, the Locarno fest’s grand dame, who recently joined the PalaCinema board.The PalaCinema (pictured) houses the Locarno film festival offices, its film academy, the CISA film school, the Ticino Film Commission, Swiss pubcaster RSI, as well as several commercial cinemas and other screening venues.

Daisy Edgar-Jones adds some chic fringe to her look while being honored at the 2022 Locarno Film Festival on Friday (August 5) in Locarno, Switzerland.