Amitabh Bachchan Retrospective Set at France’s 3 Continents Festival (EXCLUSIVE)

Brent Lang Executive Editor Winterstone Pictures has secured the rights to “The Dark Between Stars” and “Love Her Wild,” by the bestselling author Atticus, who is also known as the world’s most “mysterious poet.” Ashley Avis, director of Disney’s “Black Beauty” and the upcoming film “City of Angels” for Warner Bros., is set to write, direct and produce under her own banner. The feature film will draw inspiration from the true story of the enigmatic author, who chose to remain anonymous after the death of a close friend.

The third annual Red Sea Film Festival handed out its Yusr Awards on Thursday night, with Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames taking Best Feature and Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher scoring a pair of wins including Best Actor for Saleh Bakri. See the full list below.

Naman Ramachandran Ena Sendijarević’s “Sweet Dreams,” Netherlands’ submission in the Academy Awards international feature category, has secured North American distribution via Dekanalog. The film had its world premiere at Locarno, where it won the Pardo for best performance for Renée Soutendijk (“Suspiria”) and the second prize of the junior jury. The film debuted in North America in Toronto’s Centrepiece section and won the Silver Hugo new directors award at Chicago.

Naman Ramachandran The first image that the word ‘Bollywood’ conjures up is one of song and dance. And Netflix’s “The Archies” promises to be a prime example of that. “The Archies” is a 1960s-set feature film adaptation of the Archie comics, which are hugely popular on the Indian subcontinent.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor MAD Celebrity — the talent management subsidiary of the pan-Arab film and TV company MAD Solutions — has signed Tunisian actor and writer Majd Mastoura, French Lebanese actor Isabelle Zighondi, and Saudi actor, producer and director Amawri Ezayah to the roster of its MAD Rising Celebrity unit, and visual artist, producer and DOP Mostafa El Kashef, who will be joining MAD Crew Celebrity. Mastoura is best known for his work on Mohamed Ben Attia’s “Hedi” — for which he received a Silver Bear for best actor from the Berlin Film Festival, making him the first-ever Arab actor to receive the award — and Léonor Serraille’s “Mother and Son,” which world premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Switzerland has been named as the Country of Honor at the 2024 edition of the Cannes Marché du Film, running alongside parent event the Cannes Film Festival from May 14 to 22.

Queens Of The Stone Age, The Smile, The National and more have been added to the Øya Festival 2024 line-up.The bands join Norwegian pop singer Gabrielle, Idles, Loyle Carner, Big Thief, The Kills, Nia Archives, Overmono, Yussef Dayes, Alvvays, Blondshell, Yard Act and more.The new wave of acts follow the announcement of Pulp and PJ Harvey as the first headliners at the Oslo festival.The 25th-anniversary edition of the event takes place at Tøyenparken in Oslo, Norway between August 7 and 10. Week-long tickets are on sale now – you can buy yours here.A post shared by Øyafestivalen (@oyafestivalen)This year’s edition of Øya – which is billed as “the world’s greenest festival” – hosted the likes of Blur, Boygenius, Lorde, Caroline Polachek, Sigrid and Devo.In a four-star review of the 2023 instalment, NME wrote: “[Øya is] a beautiful, intimate, forward-thinking and friendly setting for good times, world firsts, and a taste of tomorrow from one of the music capitals of the world.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief France-based multinational Studiocanal has launched Cultivator Films to facilitate local co-productions in Australia and will kick off with book-to-film adaptation “Kangaroo.” “Kangaroo” is scripted by Harry Cripps (“The Dry,” “Penguin Bloom”) and directed by Kate Woods (“The Lincoln Lawyer,” “The Umbrella Academy,” “The Good Lord Bird,” “Looking for Alibrandi”). Eastern Arrernte emerging director Samantha Laughton is set as a director’s attachment. Slated to start production in Alice Springs in the first half of 2024, “Kangaroo” is a Northern Territory-inspired story based on Chris Barnes, aka ‘Brolga,’ who is the founder of the Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs. Cultivator Films Australia is led by Studiocanal’s Australia and New Zealand CEO Elizabeth Trotman.

Naman Ramachandran High powered global experts will feature at the inaugural edition of AniMela, India’s first-ever international festival for animation, VFX, XR, gaming and comics (AVGC-XR). The four-day event is by India’s Aniverse and Visual Arts Foundation (AVAF), which has partnered with the government of India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and France’s Annecy International Animation Festival. As revealed by Variety, the festival will take place Jan.

Broadway veteran actress Frances Sternhagen has sadly passed away at the age of 93.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Multi-territory European cinema operator, Pathe Cinemas has expanded its existing deal with premium large format technology company Imax. The new agreement sees the addition of five new Imax With Laser systems in Europe, including four in France.

Following her Best Original Screenplay win for Promising Young Woman, Saltburn, Emerald Fennell’s sophomore feature, presents a gothic tale of obsession and excess, starring Barry Keoghan as Oliver, a social-climbing Oxford student obsessed with the aristocratic Felix (Jacob Elordi). The multi-hyphenate Fennell also pops up as the pregnant Midge doll in Barbie and is co-penning the upcoming John Wick spinoff Ballerina. Here, she agrees to revisit some best memories, or, as she puts it, “rummage around those skeletons.”

EXCLUSIVE: A fast turnaround doc from filmmaker Duki Dror profiling the survivors of the surprise Hamas-led attack on a music festival in Israel is set to launch in Germany and France.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Cannes’ Directors Fortnight section has joined forces with The Philippines for the latest edition of its Directors Factory professional training program. Operating since 2013, when it kicked off in Taiwan, the Directors’ Factory works with a new partner country each year to mentor eight budding filmmakers who are preparing ambitious first or second feature projects that they will make in pairs. The four resulting co-written and co-directed short films will be screened as part of the Directors’ Fortnight (aka Quinzaine des Cineastes) in May. Four pairs were selected in Manila in October: Eve Baswel (Philippines) and Gogularaajan Rajendran (Malaysia); Maria Estela Paiso (Philippines) and Ashok Vish (India); Arvin Belarmino (Philippines) and Lomorpich Rithy (aka YoKi) (Cambodia); Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (Philippines) and Tan Siyou (Singapore). They have now begun writing their screenplays and are expected to shoot their films March in Dapitan, a city in The Philippines’ Zamboanga Peninsula, known for its many shrines and as the place of exile of Philippines’ national hero, Jose Rizal. These days it is a hub for domestic and international tourism. Post-production of the four titles will then be hosted in Quezon City, which seeks to become the new film capital of the Philippines and where many of the country’s post-production houses are already based. The program is operated and co-produced by Epicmedia Productions of The Philippines and Dominique Welinski, founder and curator of DW (France).

Hearts star Cammy Devlin has the missing Lionel Messi piece from a collection that’s about to go for a whopping £8million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sting, Jonas Brothers, Halsey and OneRepublic are among the headline acts set to perform at Lollapalooza India. The music festival is set for a second edition Jan.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The “Ted” series coming to Peacock has set its premiere date. The seven-episode event series, which serves as a prequel to the two “Ted” films, will debut on Peacock on Jan. 11.

Peacock is finally ready to show the world Ted, its event series from Seth MacFarlane.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Distribution platform Gathr and documentary distribution agency Roco Films have teamed to create Roco Voices, a new speakers bureau. Roco Voices, launching Nov.

The actors are set to vote on the tentative agreement with the studios after the SAG-AFTRA national board approved the deal.