Cannes Winner Marco Martins San Sebastian Title ‘Great Yarmouth’ Boarded by LevelK (EXCLUSIVE)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Hall is scoring major cool points with her kids. Marvel officially confirmed Thunderbolts cast members at Disney's D23 Expo on Saturday, with Julia returning as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine alongside Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova, with Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster and David Harbor as Red Guardian.The film directed by Jake Schreier will also see Sebastian Stan reprising his longtime role as the Winter Soldier after he and Anthony Mackie most recently starred in their own Disney+ spinoff, .«It means that my children now really respect what I do for a living,» Julia cracked to ET's Will Marfuggi on the D23 red carpet over the weekend. The star, meanwhile, is also a proud momma as her 25-year-old son Charlie Hall embarks on his own journey as a working actor. Charlie recently joined the Disney+ family himself with a role in season two of and scored a role in Mindy Kaling's HBO Max series, . «He's really digging being an actor and he's really good,» Julia gushed to ET.

Holly Jones The scene opens on Barceloneta, by the shore, and four girls sit together near the boardwalk, looking out at the beach. The Movistar+ original series “Simple” begins as its title suggests, with a concise portrait of each of the four characters, prominent personality traits on display. Scripting ebullient women is something Spanish director Anna R. Costa never shies from, molding distinctive characters that permeate their scenes long after their exit. On the heels of her prior work on the Movistar+ sensation “Arde Madrid,” the streamer’s most-binged series after its premiere, “Simple” further proves that diverse female leads are in-demand, though, Costa admits, perhaps on account of their numbers. “In a matter of five years the audiovisual industry has made a strong commitment to the feminine.

The San Sebastian Film Festival is pushing on with a competition screening of Austrian director Ulrich Seidl’s new film Sparta, following a report in German magazine Der Spiegel raising concerns about the treatment of its young cast, saying only a court order would result in it dropping the film.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Ulrich Seidl’s “Sparta” has been pulled from the Toronto International Film Festival amid allegations of impropriety and child exploitation against the director, but its premiere at next week’s San Sebastian Film Festival will continue as planned, Variety can reveal. A spokesperson for the Spanish festival tells Variety on behalf of festival management that “Sparta” will remain in competition. Providing a three-point list explaining their reasoning, San Sebastian said “the festival team assesses the films after their viewing according to their interest and quality” and that the event “does not have the ability to judge how a film has been shot and whether a crime has been committed in the course of the filming. If anyone has any evidence of a crime, they should report it to a judge.”

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winning star Mark Rylance and his wife Claire van Kampen, a playwright, composer and director, have teamed with Steven Spielberg and his Amblin Entertainment on a TV project, the actor revealed to Deadline.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “Walls Can Talk,” the latest film by Spain Carlos Saura, director of “Raise Ravens,” “Deprisa, Deprisa” and “Carmen,” has been acquired for intentional sales by Madrid-based Latido.   Produced by María del Puy Alvarado at Malvalanda (“Madre,” “The Mole Agent”) and distributed in Spain by José Maria nd Miguel Morales’ Wanda Vision, “Walls Can Talk” will world premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival as an RTVE Gala.  The doc feature sees Saura conduct his own inquest into the origins of art, directing and for once starring in a film. In it, he visits masterpieces of paleolithic art– in Spain’s Altamira and El Castillo caves, for instance – and asks modern (Miquel Barceló) and graffiti artists and urban creators (Suso 33, Zeta, Musa71) about what drives them to paint. 

American actress Glenn Close has been announced as the jury president for the Official Section of the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival, running from September 16-24.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Adding to its slate of auteurs from all over the world, Raphael Berdugo’s Cité Films has boarded “The Fire Doll,” from Chilean director-to-track Niles Atallah (“Rey”) and “Left Over,” from San Sebastian Gold Shell winning Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu (“Pandora’s Box”). Produced by Catalina Vergara at Chile’s Globo Rojo Films, “The Fire Doll” (“La muñeca de fuego”) is one of the 14 projects to be pitched at this month’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, one of the Spanish festival’s centerpiece industry events. Atallah, whose second film, “Rey,” won a Rotterdam Special Jury Prize in 2017, turns in “The Fire Doll” to the transformation process experienced by a 9-year-old girl, Aurora, who loses part of her memory and goes to her the countryside to spend Easter wither father, an alcoholic in remission.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Vying for the Premio Kutxabank at the San Sebastian Film Festival’s New Directors sidebar, “Secaderos” (“Tobacco Barns”), the feature debut of Rocio Mesa, includes a beguiling creature of the woods that was designed and created by the Oscar-winning team behind Guillermo del Toro’s 2007 “Pan’s Labyrinth.” For make-up and special effects whizzes David Martí and Montse Ribé of DDT SFX, it was the script that convinced them to board this small-budgeted film by a novice filmmaker. “Only once in a very long time does a script like this land in your hands; it somewhat reminded us of ‘Pan’s Labyrinth,’” said Martí, who added that they also boarded it as associate producers.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Loco Films has acquired international sales rights to Petr Václav’s buzzed-about film “Il Boemo” which is world premiering in the official selection at the San Sebastian Film Festival. The epic period movie sheds light on the extraordinary life of Josef Myslivecek, one of the most prolific opera composers in 18th century Italy who inspired Mozart and became his friend. Speaking of the film, Václav’ said he “did everything I could in order to understand the daily life of Josef Mislivecek, his work, his social interactions, his feelings and opinions he could have had.”

K.J. Yossman Neil Jordan’s “Marlowe,” which stars Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger, is set to close the San Sebastian Festival next month. It will be the film’s world premiere. Jordan, who is known for writing features including “The Crying Game” (for which he won an Oscar) and directing “Interview with the Vampire,” which featured Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, will be in attendance at the Kursaal Auditorium on Sept. 24 for the “Marlowe” premiere alongside the film’s stars. Based on John Banville’s novel “The Black Eyed Blonde,” “Marlowe” is set in 1930s Los Angeles where private eye Philip Marlowe (played by Neeson) is tasked with finding a beautiful heiress’s missing former lover. The character of Marlowe was originally created by Raymond Chandler almost a century ago.

Neil Jordan’s ‘Marlowe’: Liam Neeson And Diane Kruger Feature To Debut At San Sebastian

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Directing Penélope Cruz in Venice competition title “L’immensità,” Italy’s Emanuele Crialese is teaming with Argentina’s Nicolás Gil Lavedra to produce “Rona,” the second feature by Emiliano Torres, writer-director of San Sebastian Special Jury Prize winner “The Winter.” Produced by Crialese’s Italy-based Now and Buenos Aires Gamán Cine, set up by Lavedra and Torres, “Rona” is being structured as a majority European production and will shoot mainly in English. Lavedra, whose recent production credits include Paz Encina’s Rotterdam Tiger Award winner “Eami,” will oversee production.  “Rona” is one of the highest-profile of 14 titles at this year’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, one of the Spanish festival’s centrepiece industry events.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Sandro Fiorin’s Figa Films has snapped up international sales rights to Pavel Giroud’s “El Caso Padilla,” which, selected for the San Sebastian highly competitive Horizontes Latinos, bids fair to become one of the most notable Latin American doc features of 2022. Variety has also shared in exclusivity a first trailer to the film. The follow-up to Giroud admired 2015 fiction film “El Acompañante,” which won San Sebastian’s Co-Production Forum, “El Caso Padilla” turns on the so-called Padilla Affair. That climaxed with arrest on March 30, 1971 of Heberto Padilla, one of the most exquisite and trenchant of modern Cuban poets whose 1968 poetry collection “Fuera de Juego” constituted a scathing attack on the lack of liberties in Fidel Castro’s Cuba. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Paris-based company Indie Sales has boarded Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi’s feature debut “A Tale of Shemroon” which is set to premiere in the New Directors competition at San Sebastian. Set in the north of Tehran, “A Tale of Shemroon” follows Iman and his younger brother Payar who live with their father. After the death of their mother, Iman starts a business thanks to his connections with the city’s affluent youth, but these new opportunities bring him on a dangerous path affecting his family’s destiny. “We are proud to be a part of San Sebastian’s New Directors competition with this new voice from Iranian cinema,” said Nicolas Eschbach at Indie Sales. “Emad (Aleebrahim Dehkordi) depicts the reality of the Iranian youth living in parts of Tehran that have seldom been seen before,” Eschbach continued.

‘The Magic Flute’ To World Premiere At Zurich, First Image Of Jack Wolfe In Lead Role Released Florian Sigl’s contemporary reimagining of Mozart’s opera classic The Magic Flute, which is executive produced by Roland Emmerich, will make its world premiere at the Zurich Film Festival (Sept 22 to Oct 2) as part of its music-themed Sounds sidebar. The production has released a first image of Shadow And Bone star Jack Wolfe in the lead role of a 17-year-old boy who is sent from London to Austrian Alps on a singing scholarship, to coincide with the announcement. Other highlights of the section include the Swiss premiere of drama Taurus starring Machine Gun Kelly. The US rapping star is due to attend a gala screening of the film, which originally world premiered at the Berlinale. Further world premieres in the sidebar include bio-doc about Irmin Schmidt, who shot to stardom with the Cologne band Can and composed the music for many of Wim Wenders’ films.

Christopher Vourlias Dubai-based sales agent Cercamon has acquired world sales rights for Juraj Lerotić’s “Safe Place,” which won three awards after its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival and was named best film at Sarajevo. The Croatian director’s feature debut is the emotional story of a family reeling in the wake of a suicide attempt that centers on a man’s struggle to save his younger brother, creating a rift in the family’s everyday life.  “Safe Place” plays on Lerotić’s own pained family history, with the Croatian multihyphenate taking on the lead role in his deeply personal story – a performance that also earned him the award for best actor in Sarajevo. “The film is reduced to the most acute, to a short time span and a clear situation that can be put in a nutshell: save the loved one,” the filmmaker said in a statement.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Faroese-born emerging director Andrias Høgenni, winner of a Canal+ award at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2021 with his short film “Illi illa meint,” just got married this summer. His project “Anything for Her,” introduced at this year’s Nordic Co-Production Market in Haugesund, is precisely about a wedding, and much more. Family conflicts, especially with step-parents involved, and the uniquely chaotic nature of a Faroese wedding set in a tightly-knit community of 52,000 souls. Spearheaded by Danish production partners Johannes Rothaus Nørregaard of Studiocanal-backed SAM Productions (“Borgen”) and Rikke Tambo Andersen of Tambo Film (“The Penultimate”), the project has secured co-production partners from France and the Faroe Islands, Variety has learned.

Margarethe von Trotta To Receive Lifetime Achievement Honor At The European Film Awards German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 35th European Film Awards. von Trotta will receive the honor at a ceremony in Reykjavik, Iceland, on December 10 where she will be an honorary guest. Born in Berlin and raised in Düsseldorf, von Trotta started her career as an actress, in theatre and appeared in films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff before moving behind the camera in 1978 with The Second Awakening of Christa Klages, her solo debut as a director. In 1981, her film Marianne and Juliane about the “German Sisters” Christiane and Gudrun Ensslin won the Golden Lion in Venice as well as two German Film Awards and an Italian David di Donatello. Previous winners of the European Film Academy’s lifetime achievement award include Agnès Varda and Judi Dench.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Co-organized with CAA Media Finance, a new San Sebastian Festival Creative Investors’ Conference will see many of the good and great of the international film business descend on September’s fest edition to be pitched 10 higher-budget Spanish movies by their producers.  The Conference will run Sept.19-20. In a cosmopolitan lineup, titles pitched include international co-productions such as “Whalemen (At the Ends of the Earth)” from “Everest” director Baltasar Kormákur as well as the latest from “Amama” helmer Asier Altuna and “Raqa,” from Gerardo Herrero, an Academy Award wining producer for “The Secret in Their Eyes.”