Chile’s Banner Year: 45 International Awards and Counting

Another setback. Justin Bieber announced that he is suspending the rest of his Justice Tour so he can continue focusing on his health.

Holly Jones Coinciding with its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has provided Variety with an exclusive peek at the trailer for Chilean writer-director Fernando Guzzoni’s (“Jesus”) thriller, “Blanquita.” Based on the young witness at the center of the Spinak case, a scandal involving Chilean pedophilia and prostitution networks that rocked the country, the film grapples with morality and the struggle towards justice for those without means. In the film, Blanca (Laura López) leads investigators, and the public, on a baffling journey as she plants herself at the center of a trial against powerful politicians.

Ethan Shanfeld Barack Obama is officially three-fourths of the way to an EGOT, as the former president of the United States nabbed his first Emmy for outstanding narrator. Obama lent his voice to the Netflix docuseries “Our Great National Parks,” narrating its five episodes that span from Patagonia, Chile, to Tsavo, Kenya. Netflix submitted the first episode, “A World of Wonder,” for Emmy consideration. In 2020, both Barack and Michelle Obama took home Oscars for the documentary “American Factory,” which they produced under their banner, Higher Ground. The doc tells the story of what happens when a Chinese company opens an automotive glass plant at a former General Motors location in Ohio, facing intense community skepticism and cultural differences.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic The Lord works in mysterious ways, Christians are fond of telling us. More mysterious still is the matter of faith, a uniquely human idea which operates on the principle that phenomena we can’t explain are true, not because we understand them but because we don’t need to. Set in an almost medieval-feeling 1862, “The Wonder” asks audiences to ponder the meaning of a miracle. Is it possible, as the devout residents of a small Irish community believe, for an 11-year-old girl to survive for four months without food? The child, Anna O’Donnell (Kíla Lord Cassidy), suddenly stopped eating, and swears that since then, she’s been sustained by “manna from heaven.” As word of this “wonder” spread, pilgrims have come to see the phenomenon for themselves. Local authorities understandably have their doubts, calling for an English nurse, Lib Wright (Florence Pugh), to observe the situation.

TELLURIDE – At this point in his career, Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio continues to veer toward slightly unexpected choices. He broke through the global cinephile consciousness with 2013’s “Gloria,” a crowd-pleaser about a fiftysomething woman trying to find love in the discos of Santiago.

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.

Can things get stranger for the characters in “Los Espookys?” Season 2 of the HBO series sees Renaldo and friends handle a new set of challenges. From ghostly pursuits to the demands that come from everyday life, they’re about to experience horror on every level.

Addie Morfoot ContributorThe 18th edition of the Camden Intl. Film Festival, kicking off Sept. 15, will feature a handful of award-contending documentaries fresh off showings at Telluride and the Toronto film festivals.

Holly Jones After its debut at  Sundance in January, where it earned the World Cinema Dramatic Competition award for directing, Ukrainian wartime drama “Klondike” nabbed top honors for best international film at the Chile’s 18th Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic).“Klondike,” written, directed and edited by Ukrainian filmmaker Marina Er Gorbach (“Omar and Us”), tells the story of expectant couple Irina and Anatoly who live in the village of Grabove, near the Russia-Ukraine border during the high conflict that coincides with downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The couple faces devastation up-close as Irina refuses to relocate, even as troops close in.Best director went to Chile’s Roberto Baeza for his documentary effort “Punto de Encuentro,” a gripping portrait of filmmakers striving to recreate the story of their fathers, tortured and imprisoned under the dictatorship.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Chile’s foremost industry forum Sanfic Industria wrapped Friday Aug. 19 with a wealth of prizes doled out to projects from across Latin America and Spain. Still reeling from the pandemic, the forum’s 11th year saw another hybrid edition but a definite upsurge in attendance.

Marta Balaga Waiting for the premiere of his first feature “Once Upon a Time in the Andes,” presented at Chile’s Sanfic Industria, Peruvian helmer Rómulo Sulca Ricra is already developing his next project. Under the working title “Ayahuanco,” it will focus on a man who, after living in Europe, comes back to Peru.“He left because of the political situation in the country – his mother was forcefully sterilized as part of former president Alberto Fujimori’s 1990s birth control policy.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In his feature debut, which has just proved the biggest winner at Sanfic Industria’s 2022 Work in Progress strand, Chilean writer-director Alberto Hayden explores what has been almost an obsession with him. Inspired by the musings of South Korean-born philosopher Byung-Chul Han and his French counterpart Deleuze, Hayden questions whether people continue to exist past their physical selves through people’s memories of them, their photos, the possessions they have left behind or in this digital age, their social media imprint. “Una Luz Negra” (“A Dark Light”) is among the 10 Work in Progress (WIP) titles participating at Chilean industry forum, Sanfic Industria.

tiff.net.The full list of new additions:TIFF DOCS“752 Is Not a Number,” Babak Payami | Canada“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Laura Poitras | USA“Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On,” Madison Thomas | Canada“Casa Susanna,” Sébastien Lifshitz | France, USA“Ciné-Guerrillas: Scenes from the Labudovic Reels,” Mila Turajlic | Serbia, France, Croatia, Montenegro“The Colour of Ink,” Brian D.

Two wide studio releases will hopefully prevent this summer from reaching another low at the box office after last weekend’s $67.3M. If there’s one movie that’s going to pull ahead, sources are betting on Crunchyroll’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. That distributor has proven in a short amount of time that they can draw a great deal of anime fans in a Friday through Sunday span. The Tetsuro Kodama directed animation movie is looking at anywhere from $12M-$15M, ahead of Universal’s genre lion-stalking film, Beast, starring Idris Elba; that pic hoping for at least double digits.

With their brand-new album released August 19, Demi Lovato is currently taking their back catalogue on the Holy Fvck Tour across America.

Naman Ramachandran Coldplay and Natalie Imbruglia paid fulsome tribute to Olivia Newton-John, who died last week, at London’s Wembley Stadium on Tuesday evening. Imbruglia sang Newton-John’s part of hit song “Summer Nights” from “Grease,” while Coldplay’s Chris Martin sang John Travolta’s part with Jacob Collier joining him during the chorus. Newton-John had played Sandy and Travolta Danny in the 1978 film.Earlier, Imbruglia and Coldplay also performed “Torn,” Imbruglia’s debut single, which was first recorded in 1993 as “Burned” in Danish by Lis Sørensen, followed in 1994 by Ednaswap, and in 1996 by Trine Rein.It was the third Wembley play date for Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres world tour.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentAfter two years of 100% online editions, Sanfic Industria opened with a bang on Aug. 11 with an onsite event for Chilean audiences at Santiago de Chile’s Teatro Oriente and a screening of “Soy la Tierra.