Alief Snaps Up International Sales Rights To Australian Locarno Title ‘Petrol’

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Paris-based company Indie Sales has boarded Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi’s feature debut “A Tale of Shemroon” which is set to premiere in the New Directors competition at San Sebastian. Set in the north of Tehran, “A Tale of Shemroon” follows Iman and his younger brother Payar who live with their father. After the death of their mother, Iman starts a business thanks to his connections with the city’s affluent youth, but these new opportunities bring him on a dangerous path affecting his family’s destiny. “We are proud to be a part of San Sebastian’s New Directors competition with this new voice from Iranian cinema,” said Nicolas Eschbach at Indie Sales. “Emad (Aleebrahim Dehkordi) depicts the reality of the Iranian youth living in parts of Tehran that have seldom been seen before,” Eschbach continued.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Paris-based Urban Sales has boarded Diego Lerman’s “The Substitute” (“El Suplente”) which will have its world premiere at Toronto followed by San Sebastian. “The Substitute” tells the story of Lucio (Minujín), a prestigious university professor who starts working as a substitute teacher at a high school in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, where he grew up. Through tales, novels and poetry, he tries to distract his class from the harsh reality of their everyday lives. But soon, he must step out of his professional duties when Dylan, one of his students, is threatened by a local drug kingpin. One of Argentina’s leading filmmakers, Lerman won this year’s Locarno’s Silver Leopard award for “Suddenly.” He’s best known for directing “A Sort of Family” which played at Toronto, won best screenplay at San Sebastian and was acquired by Netflix; as well as “Refugiado” and “Invisible” which played at Cannes’ Director’s fortnight in 2014 and 2010, respectively.  “The Substitute” marks his sixth feature.

EXCLUSIVE: In an eye-catching independent deal, Charles S. Cohen’s Cohen Media Group, owner of Landmark Theatres and UK cinema group Curzon, has added to his arthouse fleet with the acquisition of blue-chip international sales company HanWay Films, co-owned by stalwart Brit producer Jeremy Thomas and his partner Peter Watson.

The National Union of Students’ Queer/LGBTQIA+ department has launched a national campaign to stop the deadnaming of trans, non-binary and gender diverse students. The campaign, My Records, My Rights: Stop Deadnaming at Universities!, aims to prevent the use of deadnames of students across tertiary education.A survey conducted in April 2022 by the NUS Queer/LGBTQIA+ department found that every single respondent had experienced some form of deadnaming at universities.  Around 83% of students said there was a persistent deadnaming issue at their university, with 20% saying they were dead named by staff. “What students are trying to do is make sure that universities are aware of their chosen name, but the systems in place just don’t allow it,” Jordy Duffy, the National Queer/LGBTQIA+ Officer for the NUS told Star Observer. “Universities have said ‘Oh, it’s an IT issue,’ and we’re trying to basically say no, it’s about validating a person for who they are.”Jordy mentions that on top of the disappointing statistics from the survey, they’ve listened to a lot of shocking individual stories.The NUS said it has been in contact with a variety of departments and student unions throughout the country, which has only made it more apparent how widespread the issue is.

Altitude has boarded international sales and UK and Irish distribution on Oscar-winning documentarian Laura Poitras’s Nan Goldin bio-pic All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, ahead of its world premiere at Venice and North American debut at Toronto.

Laura Anderson has shared pictures from her leaving night in Dubai and says the last couple of weeks have been a "whirlwind." The Love Island star has returned to the UK following another split from Dane Bowers.

TIFF announced its Short Cuts section today comprised of 39 live-action narrative, documentary, and animated short films from directors repping 18 countries.

Portuguese filmmaker Carlos Conceição’s Angolan War of Independence drama Tommy Guns has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film at the 75th Locarno Film Festival, running August 3 to 13.

Holly Jones Paris-based sales company Alief has swooped on international sales rights to horror-political thriller “Matadero” (“Slaughterhouse”), the awaited fiction feature debut of Argentina’s Santiago Fillol, co-scribe on Oliver Laxe’s Cannes winners “Mimosa” and “Fire Will Come.”Co-written by Fillol, “Matadero” world premieres this week in Locarno’s main International Competition.The film takes a stark look at a historic tale through the maniacal lens of U.S. filmmaker Jared (Julio Perillán), as he shoots a big-screen version of a 19th-century text by Argentine writer Estaban Echeverría, exploiting the times and their trappings to create a piece of cinema meant to dig itself into the collective consciousness.

EXCLUSIVE: An anthology series about the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is in the works from Red Arrow Studios International and FILM.UA.

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.

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.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentThere’s a new giant in town, or at least at Locarno’s Match Me!, one of the festival’s biggest industry initiatives.For years, by a large head, France has had more titles at the Locarno Festival’s two biggest sections, the Piazza Grande showcase and main International Competition than any other country in the world. 2022 is no exception.Unifrance also hosts the Festival’s biggest industry bash, a first Friday night sit-down dinner or party which used to take place at Locarno’s hillside Belvedere Hotel and has now moved to the near Maggiore Lake-side Blu Restaurant.Now, however, Unifrance, Europe’s biggest national film-TV promotion board, has put its weight behind Match Me!, a networking initiative this year bringing together 32 emerging producers from over the world.