Cannes Directors’ Fortnight: Elena Martin’s ‘Creatura’ Wins Best European Film Prize

Amber Heard is returning to the spotlight.

Jodie Comer won the Best Actress in a Play prize at the 2023 Tony Awards on Sunday night. The Killing Eve star, who had already won the Olivier for Prima Facie in London, continued her awards haul by collecting the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her portrayal of a defence lawyer named Tessa who is the victim of a sexual assault. "To every person who feels represented by Tessa, this has been my greatest honour," Comer said in her acceptance speech.

Jodie Comer has picked up her first Tony Award!

Life is gleefully imitating art for Lea Michele, who will perform at the Tony Awards with the Broadway revival of Funny Girl on Sunday, June 11.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Women Talking,” which won Sarah Polley an Oscar for best adapted screenplay, was this weekend named best narrative feature at the Bali International Film Festival (aka the Balinale).Ashen Nadeem’s “Crows Are White” won the feature documentary prize and “The Tone Wheels,” by Yuda Kurniawan, was named winner of the Gary L Hayes Award for Indonesian Filmmaker. The festival jury called “The Tone Wheels” “an outstanding endeavor that transported us into the backstreets of Jakarta on a captivating musical journey.” The film depicts a busking village where dreams flourish, despite the scarcity of resources and equipment.

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse has received overwhelming praise from critics, who have described it as “in the running for the best superhero film ever”.Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson, the animated superhero film is the sequel to 2018’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.In the follow-up, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is launched on another adventure into the multiverse alongside Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld).A synopsis reads: “Miles Morales catapults across the multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor International sales house Totem Films has closed distribution deals in multiple territories for “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry,” which had its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. The company also closed a deal for France for another Directors’ Fortnight film, “A Song Sung Blue.” “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry” was sold to France (Capricci), U.K. (New Wave), Benelux (Vedette), Sweden (Folkets Bio), Greece (Ama Films), Czech Republic (Artcam), and Germany (Eksystent). More deals are in negotiation. The distributor in Switzerland is Frenetic. The film, directed by Elene Navierani, centers on Etero, a 48-year-old woman living in a small village in Georgia. Etero never wanted a husband and cherishes her freedom as much as her cakes. But her choice to live alone is the cause of much gossip among her fellow villagers.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 37 national film institutes that are members of European Film Promotion have elected a new EFP board of directors at the general assembly on May 23 during the Cannes Film Festival. The board consists of seven members, with their term of office lasting for two years. Five of the current members remain on the board, including Simone Baumann, managing director of German Films, as new vice president, Daniela Elstner, executive director UniFrance, Eda Koppel, head of marketing at Estonian Film Institute, Stine Oppegaard, manager, international relations, feature films, Norwegian Film Institute, and Markéta Santrochová, head of Czech Film Center, who has been re-elected as EFP president.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Before you ask, yes, Lou Reed’s rock standard “Perfect Day” does indeed make an appearance in Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days”: on the protagonist’s stereo as suitably ideal sunlight pours into his small, neat Tokyo apartment, before swarming the soundtrack as we head out into the city on a calm weekend afternoon. If that sounds a little obvious, basic even, said protagonist Hirayama — a mellow, soft-spoken toilet cleaner beautifully played by Kōji Yakusho — would probably agree with a shrug. He’s into simple pleasures, not deep cuts. His solitary life is built around the things that make him happy and the work that keeps him solvent. He’s not inclined to wonder what other people make of it. Wenders’ film, in turn, is sincere and unassuming, and owns its sentimentality with good humor.

Pierre Creton, has won the SACD Prize, awarded by France’s Writers’ Guild for the best French-language movie in the section. Written by Mathilde Girard, Cyril Neyrat and Vincent Barré, and directed by Creton, who combines his film career with work as an agricultural labourer, “A Prince” has weighed in at this year’s Directors Fortnight as one of the most singular of titles, whose central narrative turns on a horticultural student, Pierre-Joseph. His mentors, botany teacher Alberto and plant nursery owner Adrien, soon become his lovers.

Spanish director Elena Martín Gimeno’s Creatura has won the Europa Cinemas prize as Best European Film at Directors’ Fortnight.

Naman Ramachandran After his debut feature “Titli” bowed at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard strand in 2014, Kanu Behl is back on the Croisette with “Agra,” which has its world premiere at the Directors’ Fortnight. ” ‘Agra’ grasps the reality of patriarchy in India through the prism of male sexual misery,” is how the festival describes the film. It follows Guru, a young single call center employee who still lives with his parents. Consumed by frustration, he plunges into a fever bordering on insanity, between pathetic fantasies, dating apps and hysterical self-harm. The film also explores the role property can play in a young man’s emancipation. After the theatrical release of “Titli” in India and France in 2015, Behl began thinking about what to do next. “I realized that I had felt a certain sexual repression or an inability to express myself sexually in my adolescent years,” Behl told Variety. The filmmaker realized that he was not an isolated case and saw many examples around him. “There is this almost very common delayed sexual maturity that happens in India and I really started thinking about that,” Behl said adding that it is a subject not spoken about.

Directors’ Fortnight, a parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival, is planning to screen a programme of films from its selection at an event in Tokyo, Japan this December. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy will be the “Country of Focus” at the European Film Market In Berlin in 2024, reflecting the current flourish of the Italian film and TV industry and its growing international relevance and ambition. The spotlight on Italy during the EFM will highlight the work of Italian filmmakers and offer an opportunity to network with local producers, distributors, investors and experts. The official agreement was signed at Cannes in the Italian Pavillion by Berlinale managing director Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Roberto Stabile, head of special projects of Italy’s general directorate for cinema. Also on hand were EFM director Dennis Ruh, Nicola Borrelli, head of the film department of Italy’s culture ministry, and Venice fest chief Alberto Barbera.

Hong Sang-soo shows no signs of slowing down, does he? After two feature films a year for the past two years, the South Korean director will do it again in 2023, with his 30th film, “In Our Day,” ready to close the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival on May 25. Hong’s latest comes after “In Water” premiered at the Berlinale in February to universal acclaim.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Spain’s status as Cannes’ Marché du Film’s Country of Honor is a “milestone,” says María Peña, CEO of ICEX Spain Trade & Investment. But it’s also a mark of recognition, she says, after Spain’s big wins just this year at the Berlinale (three prizes for Estibaliz Urresola’s “20,000 Species of Bees”) and France’s Cesars (foreign film win for “The Beasts” and actor trophy to Benoît Magimel for Albert Serra’s “Pacification” and cinematography for its DP, Artur Tort). Peña also points to April’s MipTV, where Rafael Cobos’ “The Left Handed Son,” from Movistar Plus+, won Canneseries’ Short Format Competition, and “The Caravan,” produced by Barcelona’s Caravan Films, the first MipDoc International Buyers Screenings honors.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Yes, the Cannes Film Festival has only just started. But Hollywood is already quietly planning for the Venice Film Festival lineup, as the unofficial launch of awards season in late August is starting to shape up with several high-profile titles, Variety has learned. Among the films in contention to bow on the Lido: Luca Guadagnino’s sexy tennis comedy “Challengers,” starring Zendaya and Josh O’Connor, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ surrealist science-fiction romance “Poor Things,” with Emma Stone and Marc Ruffalo, among entries believed to be locked-in for a Venice launch. Zendaya was last in Venice in 2021 with “Dune,” but Denis Villeneuve’s sequel, which has an early November launch date, is not expected to follow suit to the fest.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Five Catalan movies made Cannes Festival’s cut, six were selected for Marché du Film sections. Details and other top Catalan movies on the Croisette: “20,000 Species of Bees,” (Estibaliz Urresola) One of the big winners at Berlin, taking Leading Performance, and two other key prizes, and now healthy racking up healthy sales, including a Film Movement U.S. pickup, “Bees” builds from a naturalistic base – a family off for a village summer holiday – to become a moving an ode to women’s freedom. Produced out of Barcelona by Valérie Delpierre’s Inicia Films. Sales: Luxbox

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “Lobo Feroz,” the latest film from “La Casa Muda” director Gustavo Hernández, has sold to getting on half the world, underscoring the market punch of high-profile genre movies from name directors. Sold by FilmSharks International, “Lobo Feroz” has closed Australia and New Zealand (Palace Film), the U.S. and Spanish-speaking Latin America (ViX) and Russia/CIS (Nashe Kino).  A Spanish-language remake of Israel’s “Big Bad Wolves,” “Lobo Feroz” has also a licensed Taiwan (AV-Jet Intl. Media), Eastern Europe (AMC for TV/SVOD) and Uruguay (Alvaro Caso-ENEC Cine).  The Palace, Nashe Kino, AV-Jet and ENEC deals all have a theatrical component, said FilmSharks’ Guido Rud. France, Italy, Japan, Korea and Germany/GAS are in discussions, he added.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Catherine Corsini, an outspoken queer activist and co-founder of France’s feminist organization 50:50, should have been celebrating her new film’s inclusion in the competition lineup of the Cannes Film Festival. Instead, she found herself in the middle of a firestorm after “Homecoming,” her coming-of-age story, failed to get the proper government approvals for a scene of a sexual nature involving two minors.   Corsini admits that mistakes were made. But she says that she took every effort to protect her young actors from being exploited.   That scene, which was eventually cut from the movie, became the object of wild rumors, which Corsini said are false, “crazy, completely out of control.” “I’m hallucinating at things I’m reading, accusing me of having forced Esther to do a blowjob or masturbate herself,” she said.