Brazil’s Production Sector Booms, Following Crisis

EXCLUSIVE: Berlanti Productions, run by Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter, has promoted Eliza Weiss to Creative Executive.

EXCLUSIVE: Brian Graden Media has upped EVP of Development Dave Mace to President. Meanwhile, LB Horschler, who had been Executive in Charge of Production at the company for seven years before leaving for Citizen last spring, is returning in a new, larger role, as EVP of Production.

BBC Strictly Come Dancing star Saffron Barker has been rushed to hospital in Brazil. The celeb has been taken to medics after being left in agony with a debilitating ear infection. The 21 year old said: "I pretty much since day one of being here have had a really bad sore throat.

Emiliano Granada World premiering in the Berlinale’s Forum, “Dry Ground Burning” marks the second feature collaboration between directors Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós, after Pimenta DP-ed Queirós’ “Once There Was Brasilia.”So it’s no surprise that by this point the directorial couple have refined a common language that in “Dry Ground Burning” delivers a movie that’s stylistically refrained, while walking a fine line between documentary and a fiction with sci-fi and Western overtones.Produced by Cinco Da Norte and Terratreme with Pimenta once again behind the camera, the duo returns to their portrayal of the inhabitants of Ceilandia, a district on the periphery of Brasilia which has been a recurring subject in both filmmakers work. The film follows sisters Chitarra and Léa, leaders of an all female gang who refines oil drawn from an oil pipeline to sell to motor bikers in the Sol Nascente favela.

Coming off six seasons as the lead of Supergirl, Melissa Benoist is poised to reunite with Berlanti Productions on another series. Benoist is in negotiations to headline The Girls on the Bus, which just received a straight-to-series order at HBO Max, I have learned. Benoist also is expected to serve as a producer on the drama series, an adaptation of Amy Chozick’s best-selling book Chasing Hillary, from Julie Plec, Chozick, Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. TV. Reps for HBO Max and WBTV declined comment.

Emilio Mayorga Argentina’s Gentil Cine and El Borde, Brazil’s Vitrine and Punta Colorada, Spain’s Doxa and French company 4a4 Productions have teamed for Albertina Carri’s seventh feature “White Roses, Fall!,” a gender-themed road-trip where the main characters include a porn filmmaker, a trans grandmother, non-binary grandchildren and lesbian clairvoyant vampires.“White Roses, Fall!” centers on Violeta, a young film director who once made an exultant lesbian porn movie and is now hired to make a mainstream and ecological porn feature. She struggles with her ideas about genre and gender, which prevent her from shooting.

Caitlin Quinlan In her debut feature, “Fogaréu,” director Flávia Neves interweaves the broader impact of colonialism in Brazil with a close-up tale of insidious goings on in Goiás, her home town in central Brazil. Having gained support from the CNC’s Aide Aux Cinemas du Monde, “Fogaréu” is an accomplished first film that offers a nuanced critique of power dynamics within a bold, cinematic thriller framework.

Fake heiress Anna Sorokin, otherwise known as Anna Delvey, is working with Surviving R. Kelly producer Bunim/Murray Productions on a limited documentary series.

American track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson is RIGHTFULLY calling out what appears to be a major double standard at this year’s Winter Olympics. And we’re here for her take!

Naman Ramachandran Projects from France-Iran and India were the big winners at this year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market, which is part of the European Film Market.The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, endowed with €20,000 ($22,628), went to the producers of Caractères Productions from France, and Honare Khiyal from Iran for their project “My Favourite Cake” by directors Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam. The VFF Talent Highlight Award with prize money of €10,000 went to director Shuchi Talati’s “Girls Will Be Girls.” The film is to be produced by Pushing Buttons Studios, an outfit founded by Indian actors Ali Fazal (“Death on the Nile”) and Richa Chadha (“Gangs of Wasseypur”) and co-produced by Sanjay Gulati and Pooja Chauhan of Crawling Angel Films (2020 Berlinale selection “The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs”) and Claire Chassagne of Dolce Vita Films (2019 Venice and Cairo winner “A Son”).

EXCLUSIVE: Rosario Dawson and Lana Parrilla are boarding the upcoming SXSW Linda Goldstein Knowlton directed documentary Split At The Root, as EPs.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorFormosa Group and Fox Post Production Services have announced a strategic alliance.Based at the historic Fox Studio Lot in Century City, Fox Post Production Services encompasses four feature mixing stages, two ADR stages, the famous Newman Scoring Stage, a Foley stage and editing rooms to support the full post-production process. Formosa Group will have a presence in the original Film Editorial building on the lot.

Fox Post Production Services has entered into a strategic alliance with the full-service post-production sound company Formosa Group that will broaden the creative talent available to the studio’s producers, leveraging the storied Fox sound facilities and further expanding business opportunities for both companies.