Berlin Competition Title ‘La Cocina,’ Starring Rooney Mara, Sells Nearly Worldwide for HanWay (EXCLUSIVE)

Veteran producer and sales agent Rosa Bosch has joined the Madrid-based distributor and international sales agency Begin Again Films. Bosch will serve as part of the company’s international department. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Memento International has closed a raft of deals on “Fremont,” a critically acclaimed film starring Anaita Wali Zada, an Afghan refugee and first-time actor, and featuring “The Bear” actor Jeremy Allen White. Directed by BAFTA-nominated Iranian-born director Babak Jalali, the black-and-white movie tells the story of Donya, a young woman working at a Chinese fortune cookie factory in the San Francisco bay. Formerly a translator for the U.S.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Ahead of its U.S. premiere at SXSW, “The Queen of My Dreams” has been sold to a flurry of international markets, including in the U.K. and Ireland to Peccadillo Pictures.

Lise Pedersen Paris-based outfit Cat&Docs has acquired world sales for “Immortals,” the sophomore feature film by Swiss director Maja Tschumi (“Rotzloch”), which will compete in the main competition at leading European documentary festival CPH:DOX. “We’re excited to bring this exceptional and important documentary to the international market.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Filmax has acquired international rights to Spanish thriller “Nina,” the new feature written and directed by Andrea Jaurrieta (“Ana by Day”) that bows at this week’s Málaga Film Festival as one of its higher profile titles in main competition. Loosely based on the play of the same name by José Ramón Fernández, which borrows elements of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” “Nina” tells the story of a woman, an actress, who returns to her home town on Spain’s rugged northern coast seeking to take revenge on a celebrated writer.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Following its world premiere in the competition section of the Berlin Film Festival, Beta Cinema has revealed first sales across Europe and to Australia and New Zealand for Andreas Dresen’s “From Hilde, With Love.” The drama about anti-Nazi activists in Berlin, which is led by “Babylon Berlin’s” Liv Lisa Fries and introduces Johannes Hegemann in his first big screen appearance, will be released in France by Haut et Court, in Italy by Teodora and throughout Scandinavia by Angel Films. Beta Cinema also closed deals for Benelux (September Film), Portugal (Outsider), former Yugoslavia (Discovery), Hungary (Cirko) and Czech Republic (Film Europe). Palace Film picked up the film for Australia and New Zealand.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Spain’s Movistar Plus+, the pay TV/SVOD service of telco giant Telefónica, has picked up the Sky and Peacock original series “The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” starring Harvey Keitel and based on the bestselling novel by Heather Morris. The six-part limited series is one of the key draws on the sales slate of All3Media International, which hosts a showcase at the London TV Screenings on Feb.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Match Factory has revealed multiple distribution deals for two Berlinale competition titles: German director Matthias Glasner‘s “Dying,” which won the festival’s Silver Bear for best screenplay, and Russian director Victor Kossakovsky‘s documentary “Architecton.” “Dying,” which stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Corinna Harfouch, also picked up the Guild of German Arthouse Cinemas and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award. Variety‘s review describes the film as “a profoundly affecting exploration of life and loss.” The Match Factory closed deals for the film in France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media), Poland (Aurora), CIS (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (MCF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film) and South Korea (Pancinema).

Naman Ramachandran Nepali filmmaker Min Bahadur Bham‘s journey to make Berlin competition title “Shambhala” was arduous but an ultimately rewarding one. Bham’s 2012 short “Bhansulli” debuted at Venice. His debut feature “Kalo Pothi” (aka “The Black Hen,” 2015) won the Fedeora best film award at Venice Critics’ Week and became Nepal’s official Oscar entry.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian singer-songwriter Margherita Vicario’s directorial debut “Gloria!” has scored a slew international sales ahead of its world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival competition. RAI Cinema International Distribution has sealed deals to nine territories on Vicario’s vibrant musical comedy set in a late 18th century Venetian female orphanage where a young rebel named Teresa leads a group of performers to challenge classical canons and invent a precursor to pop music.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The route from idol group member to TV and film acting is a well-trodden one for multiple Japanese performers as they mature and attempt to broaden and extend their career. Few, however, can have received the plaudits of SixTONES member Matsumura Hokuto, who flies in to the Berlin Film Festival for the international premiere of two handed drama feature “All the Long Nights.” Derived from a novel by Seo Maiko and directed by Miyake Sho, the narrative features a woman (portrayed by Kamishiraishi Mone) whose pre-menstrual tension is so intense that it changes her character and disrupts her career. She is befriended by a younger, somewhat solitary man who, in turn, suffers from panic attacks.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Playtime has had a busy EFM, where it’s locked a raft of major deals on “The Devil’s Bath,” a period psychological thriller in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. “The Devil’s Bath” is directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the Austrian filmmaking duo behind “Goodnight Mommy.” Set in rural Austria in 1750, “The Devil’s Bath” stars Anja Plaschg, the up-and-coming singer and composer known as Soap & Skin. Plaschg plays Agnes, a young married woman who feels oppressed in her husband’s world, which is devoid of emotions and limited to chores and expectations.

Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix are expecting their second child together!

EXCLUSIVE: After we broke news of the studio acquiring Margot Robbie starrer Big Bold Beautiful Journey, we can reveal that Sony Pictures has boarded another of the European Film Market’s most in-demand projects: Past Lives director Celine Song‘s next movie, Materialists, which A24 is selling.

“The first shape I had in mind for this film was fiction,” filmmaker Mati Diop told a Berlin Film Festival presser this morning when quizzed on the structure of her inventive documentary Dahomey. 

Rooney Mara is hard at work promoting her new movie La Cocina at the 74th Berlinale International Film Festival on Friday (February 16) in Berlin, Germany.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Highland Film Group has locked key territory deals for sci-fi thriller “The Astronaut” from “A Quiet Place” producer Brad Fuller Pic stars Kate Mara (“A Teacher”), Laurence Fishburne (“John Wick” films) and Gabriel Luna (“Terminator: Dark Fate”). The film wrapped shooting late last year in Ireland. “The Astronaut” has sold to Signature Entertainment for the U.K., Capelight Pictures for Germany, Blue Swan Entertainment for Italy, Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais for Portugal, DeAPlaneta for Spain, Spentzos Film for Greece, Cinemania Group for former Yugoslavia, Shoval Film Production for Israel, Falcon Films for the Middle East, Filmfinity for South Africa and Roadshow Films for Australia and New Zealand.

Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios has had a winning record coming to the Berlin Film Festival since 2013, when his film Gueros took the Best First Feature prize. Five years later he was back with his second, the sensational museum-heist film Museo, and deservedly won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay. His third, A Cop Movie, which plays with the traditional docu form by using actors, won Best Documentary at Mexico’s Golden Ariel Awards.

Labyrinthine corridors connect the sprawling worlds within The Grill, a traditional eatery by the hustle and bustle of Times Square in “La Cocina.” Open one door, and you are in the kitchen, a boiler room of rage and frustration tamed only by the often frail bonds of camaraderie; turn a corner, and you’re spat straight onto the busy restaurant floor, where waitresses in matching outfits move like a ballet between tables occupied with birthday boys and men as foreign to politeness as hawks are to the sea.

Ellise Shafer After some “bad experiences,” Rooney Mara chooses her projects based on the director, she said at the Berlin Film Festival press conference for her new film “La Cocina.” “I really go by the director. I learned that pretty early,” Mara said when asked her process for selecting films.