Catalonia Ups International Partnerships, a World-Class Genre Tradition

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Shanghai International Film Festival has unveiled a selection that is weighted heavily to world premieres and Chinese, local titles. That gives the festival showcase screenings for the newest works by established Chinese directors Gu Changwei (“Peacock, “Till Death Do Us Part”), Wei Shujun (“Only the River Flows,” “Striding Into the Wind”) and Guan Hu (“Old Fish”). Guan was rewarded in Cannes only last week for his Un Certain Regard-winning picture “Black Dog,” but will unveil his next effort “The Hedgehog in Shanghai’s main competition.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent A Berlin Generation Crystal Bear winner and the first foray into film of the Fremantle-backed The Immigrant, Sofía Auza’s “Adolfo” saw its premiere Monday night in Mexico City. With Fremantle handling international distribution, “Adolfo” has a lot to celebrate. Auza’s first feature, it also took best feature at Stockholm, screened as opening night film at last year’s TIFF Next Wave Festival and, testing home market waters, scooped best actress for Rocío de la Mañana at Mexico’s Guadalajara Festival in June.

EXCLUSIVE: Out of the Cannes market, Sony Pictures Classics has bought North American rights and a raft of international territories on Walter Salles‘ anticipated first narrative feature in more than a decade: I’m Still Here.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian state broadcaster RAI’s new world sales arm is gaining traction in Cannes — following its soft launch in Berlin — with four new titles on its slate, including veteran auteur Roberto Andò’s historical drama “The Blunder” starring Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”). In “The Blunder,” which is currently shooting in Sicily, Servillo plays a Sicilian colonel at the head of a ragtag unit trying to outsmart the enemy during the 1860 battle led by Giuseppe Garibaldi that resulted in the unification of Italy (see first-look image, above).

Rarely in recent decades has the festival circuit been as disrupted as it has in the past 12 months. A confluence of local and global issues — from war to inflation, political unrest to societal shifts — have created a perfect storm for many of these vital cultural platforms, leading to funding shortfalls, staff losses, major PR headaches and in some cases cancellation. Amid shifts in consumer and industry behavior, there are also broader existential questions being asked about the role and potency of festivals.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Swedish director Ruben Östlund, who won Cannes Film Festival‘s Palme d’Or for “The Square” and “Triangle of Sadness,” was among the guests at the German Films and Medienboard Reception on May 18 in the garden of the Mondrian Hotel in Cannes. Östlund, who is in the Riviera resort to promote his latest production, “The Entertainment System Is Down,” was accompanied by Philippe Bober of Coproduction Office, one of the film’s producers, and Erik Hemmendorf of Plattform Produktion, Östlund’s Swedish producer. (They are pictured above.) German Films, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, was represented at the event by managing director Simone Baumann, and Medienboard, which is a film fund for the Berlin-Brandenburg region, was represented by its CEO Kirsten Niehuus.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Boosted by world-class incentives, Spain’s Canary Islands has attracted the shoots of some of the higher-profile movies on earth from “In the Heart of the Sea” to “Wonder Woman 1984” and “Eternals.” Now, however, a homegrown Canary Islands cinema is bursting onto the scene, a Canary Island New Wave cinema lifting off, hitting festivals and making ever more insistent production news. If a date can be attributed to the event, it may be March’s Malaga Film Festival.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has closed the first international sales for Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” ahead of its world premiere on Friday in the Competition section of the Cannes Film Festival. The film has been acquired in Italy by BiM Distribuzione and Lucky Red, Benelux by September Film Distribution, Spain by Bteam Pictures, Greece by Ama Films, Hungary by Cirko Film, Norway by Selmer Media, Portugal by Leopardo Filmes, Taiwan by Hooray Films and Turkey by Bir Film.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Spain’s Latido Films has clinched world sales rights to “Sacamantecas,” the third feature by writer-director David Pérez Sañudo, whose Latido-repped debut feature, “Ane,” swept three Spanish Academy Goya Awards in 2021. Latido is already handling Pérez Sañudo’s second feature, “Los últimos románticos,” which it announced at the Berlin Film Festival as the first title in a two-picture deal with Sañudo.

EXCLUSIVE: Studiocanal has been rolling out sales on the first instalment of Germany-language film trilogy Woodwalkers in Cannes.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Movistar Plus+, Spain’s most-viewed pay TV operator, is partnering on “Los domingos,” a new film from “Lullaby” director Alauda Ruíz de Azua and the producers of that critically acclaimed film. “Los Domingos” is set in and will shoot in Ruíz de Azúa’s native Basque country, said Nahikari Ipiña at Sayaka Producciones (“Colossal”). Now in development, “Los Domingos” is produced by Movistar Plus+ and Sayaka and Marisa Fernández Armenteros’ Buenapinta Media (“The Mole Agent”), Sandra Hermida at Think Studio and Colosé Producciones (“Society of the Snow”) and Manu Calvo (“Wounded”).

Ireland’s screen industry is having a moment. With the Cannes Film Festival well underway, there’s a notable strong Irish presence in this year’s line-up including Element Pictures’ three entrants – Competition title Kinds of Kindness from Yorgos Lanthimos, Rungano Nyoni’s sophomore feature On Becoming A Guinea Fowl and Ariane Labed’s directorial debut September Says (both in Un Certain Regard). There’s also Competition title The Apprentice, which is co-produced with Irish outfit Tailored Films and Lorcan Finnegan’s Nicolas Cage starrer The Surfer premiering in the Midnight Screenings strand. Even Andrea Arnold’s Competition title Bird is rich with Irish talent with star Barry Keoghan and Oscar-nominated cinematographer Robbie Ryan both having worked on the film. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “La Mesías” star Carmen Machi, Almodóvar muse Rossy de Palma and Blanca Portillo, a Cannes best actress co-winner for Almodóvar’s “Volver,” are set to star in “The Prey” (“Dia de Caza”), billed as a contemporary revision of Carlos Saura’s 1965 pic “The Hunt,” quite possibly his crowing achievement. The film is set to shoot in July in Spain’s Extremadura, with theatrical release scheduled for summer 2025. Brutal, kinetic at times and taking no prisoners, Saura’s original won a Berlin Silver Bear.

Jamie Lang Brazil’s O2 Play, the distribution arm of O2 Filmes group, will host a Cannes market screening for director Marcelo Gomes‘ latest feature, “Portrait of a Certain Orient,” on Friday, May 17 at 1:30 p.m. in Lerins 4. Ahead of the screening, O2 has given Variety exclusive access to the romantic period drama’s international trailer.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent German actors Elisa Schlott (“Das Boot” TV series), Max Riemelt (“Sleeping Dog”) and Alma Hasun (“Corsage”) are set to star in Italian director Silvio Soldini‘s drama “The Tasters,” which reconstructs the untold true story of the women conscripted to be Adolf Hitler’s food tasters. Shooting is set to start on Friday in Italy’s northern Alto Adige region on the Nazi-era drama, which is being pre-sold at the Cannes Marché du Film by Rome-based Vision Distribution, headed by sales agent Catia Rossi.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Principal photography has begun on “The Captive,” a historical epic from “The Others’” Alejandro Amenábar, starring Julio Peña (“Berlin”) as “Don Quixote” author Miguel de Cervantes, a prisoner of Ottoman corsairs, seen in a very first still from the film, alongside Alessandro Borghi (“Suburra”), playing his captor, which has been shared in exclusivity with Variety. Paris and London-based production, finance and sales house Film Constellation handles worldwide sales.

Jamie Lang Catalan films routinely punch above their weight at high-profile international festivals: Think 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs.” That trend looks primed to continue in 2024. Catalan auteur Albert Serra will debut “Afternoons of Solitude,” co-produced by Catalan companies Andergraun Films and LaCima, with Ideale Audience and Tardes de Soledad.

German-French international sales veteran Tanja Meissner has been appointed as the new director of the Berlinale Pro, the department overseeing all of the Berlin Film Festival’s professional activities, in a role that encompasses director of the European Film Market (EFM).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Jeonju International Film Festival, South Korea’s second most important generalist film festival, on Tuesday announced “The Major Tones” and “Time to Be Strong” as the Grand Prix winners of its two competition sections. The festival continues until Friday. Directed by Argentina’s Ingrid Pokropek, “The Major Tones” is a mystery film about a youngster with a metal plate in her arm which begins to receive peculiar messages in Morse Code. It premiered at the Mar del Plata festival and also played in Berlin’s Generation KPlus section.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Director and producer Tom Tykwer has become managing director of Berlin-based production company X Filme Creative Pool, best known for “Babylon Berlin,” alongside Uwe Schott. Tykwer succeeds Stefan Arndt, one of Germany’s leading producers.