Berlin First Look: Thomas Jane in Western Thriller 'The Last Son' (Exclusive)

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIFC Films has acquired U.S. rights to “The Beta Test,” a new digital-age thriller that was written, directed by and starring Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe.The film was an official selection for this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

Sky Studios, the production arm of Comcast-owned European pay TV giant Sky, has upped Jane Millichip to chief content officer across Europe, expanding her remit from just the U.K. to all of Sky's markets and overseeing the teams behind Sky original shows, including I Hate Suzie, Zero Zero Zero, Gangs of London and Babylon Berlin.

A pack of international buyers is howling along to Werewolves Within. The new comedy-horror film from director Josh Ruben (Scare Me), was snatched up by indie distributors across Europe, Asia, and Latin America following its premiere at Berlin's all-virtual European Film Market earlier this month.

Mandy Moore is dishing on ALL the details of her son August’s birth!

International buyers dove into Wash Me in the River. The upcoming action-thriller, starring Robert De Niro, John Malkovich, and Jack Huston from Midnight in the Switchgrass director Randall Emmett, was snatched up by European and Asian buyers at Berlin's European Film Market.

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Pornfrom Romanian director Radu Judehas won the Golden Bear for best film at the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival. A scathing social satire about sex, lies and videotape, the movie was shot entirelyduring COVID lockdown last summer, with cast and crew all wearing antiviral masks.

EXCLUSIVE: Julie Taymor is attached to direct Gun Love, an adaptation of the Jennifer Clement novel. Babylon Berlin‘s Liv Lisa Fries is attached to play the role of Margot in the ensemble cast. Marissa Kate Goodhill (Come Away) wrote the script.

Veteran screen legends Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) and William Shatner (Star Trek) get stopped by the police in this exclusive first-look image from upcoming comedy Senior Moment, from which Film Mode Entertainment is screening footage at the virtual European Film Market.

When the best-selling author, humorist and onetime stand-up Mishna Wolff decided to take part in the Women's Fellowship at Ubisoft Motion Pictures, she was really in it for the gameplay. "Honestly, I would have done it just for the free video games alone," jokes Wolff about the initiative by the movie arm of the video games publisher, which aims to foster fresh, and female, perspectives on video game adaptations.

Despite its simple title, Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios’ latest feature is far from a simple shoot-'em-up cop movie. It’s more like a cop movie written by Jacques Derrida, directed with nods to Wes Anderson and Jean-Luc Godard and then remixed by Abbas Kiarostami in its efforts to tear down the fourth wall.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“Natural Light,” a portrait of the attrition and atrocity of war set at a benighted village in occupied Western Soviet Union in 1943, has clinched its first sales as Paris-based Luxbox rolls out the Berlin Competition player at the European Film Market.Nour Films, whose past pickups include Berlin Golden Bear winner “Touch Me Not,” has closed rights to France.Nour will open “Natural Light” “with great conviction and pleasure” on at least 60 prints

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winner Allison Janney, Schitt’s Creek Emmy winner Annie Murphy and Dear Evan Hansen star Ben Platt are set for The People We Hate At The Wedding. Emmy winner Claire Scanlon (Set It Up) is directing an adaptation of the Grant Ginder novel that is a character-driven wedding comedy that aspires to be a next generation Four Weddings and a Funeral. UTA Independent Film Group is introducing it today at the Virtual Berlin Market.

True Blood's Stephen Moyer and Golden Globe nominee Colm Meaney (Con Air, Gangs of London) exchange bloody vows in this exclusive first-look image from upcoming thriller Confession, which Signature Entertainment are shopping worldwide at the European Film Market.

Jamie Lang Brussels-based Best Friend Forever Sales has given Variety exclusive access to the international trailer for Berlin Panorama player “All Eyes Off Me,” the sexually charged sophomore outing of actor-director Hadas Ben Aroya.Told in three distinct yet related chapters, the film begins at a party in Tel Aviv where young Danny is trying to find Max to let him know that she’s pregnant with his child.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentParis-based Le Pacte has closed a raft of sales on Olivier Peyon’s “Tokyo Shaking” and Nadine Loiseau’s “Three Times Nothing,” both of which are screening at the Berlin Festival’s virtual European Film Market.A hot title on Le Pacte’s slate, “Tokyo Shaking” sold to Germany and Austria (ZDF), Israel (New Cinema), Canada (Axia Films), Spain (Alfa Pictures) and the Czech Republic and Slovakia (Mediasquad).“Tokyo Shaking” is set on March 11, 2011, when Japan

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterLena Dunham just wrapped her first feature film as a writer-director in over a decade.“Sharp Stick,” an indie financed by FilmNation that will screen for potential buyers on Tuesday out of the Berlin International Film Festival, was shot successfully in secret and in compliance with COVID-19 protocols in Los Angeles over the past months.While plot details are under wraps, the film stars Kristine Froseth (“The Assistant,” “Looking for Alaska”), Taylour Paige

South Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo has been a particular favorite at the Berlin Film Festival for quite some time — he won the Best Director prize there last year for The Woman Who Ran — and he’s back again this year with another competition entry, Introduction.

Dolph Lundgren might not appear to be the happiest man alive, but at least he's looking exceptionally festive in this first-look still from upcoming live action family action comedy Pups Alone.

Buyers across Europe and Latin America have boarded the upcoming Norwegian disaster film The North Sea, from director John Andreas Andersen.

The tragedy of the Lebanese civil war extends far beyond the 1980s and into the third generation of a family resettled in Canada in the affecting drama Memory Box. It marks the first film in nine years from the award-winning team Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, whose work has ranged freely over feature films, docs, installations and performance art.