Colombia’s Oscar Entry ‘A Male’ Gets U.S. Distribution via Cinema Tropical (EXCLUSIVE)

It’s hard to believe that after 27 feature films, Ridley Scott still has yet to win an Oscar. He came closest at the 73rd Academy Awards, where his 2000 film “Gladiator” won Best Picture and Russell Crowe won Best Actor.

Lupita Nyong’o has joined Goodbye Julia, Sudan’s entry for this year’s Best International feature race at the Oscars, as an executive producer.

Leo Messi is a fan of Maluma! The beloved athlete was captured having a blast at the Colombian artist’s concert held in Miami over the first weekend of November. Despite the attendees being there to dance to the rhythm of Maluma’s biggest hits, it was inevitable to avoid turning to see the Argentine soccer player enjoying the show.As soon as word spread that the soccer icon was in attendance, cameras began pointing at Messi instead of the stage where Maluma was performing his chart-topping hits.

EXCLUSIVE: Vanessa Kirby and Lauren Dark have come aboard as exec producers for Swiss Oscar entry Thunder from writer-director Carmen Jacquier. Kirby & Dark’s Aluna Entertainment will back the awards push for the film in the race for Best International Feature. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent U.K. based sales agency Film Republic has picked up Peru’s 2024 Oscar entry “The Erection of Toribio Bardelli,” the latest film from Adrián Saba, one of Peru’s most prominent auteurs on the festival scene. Film Republic has also shared a first international trailer with Variety.

Camila Avella, this year’s Miss Colombia, will make history. She is the first Miss Universe contestant to have a husband and child.

Anna Marie de la Fuente High-concept horror film “Rosario” is getting a stellar cast. David Dastmalchian (“Oppenheimer“), José Zúñiga (“Twilight”), Diana Lein (“Fear the Walking Dead”), Paul Ben-Victor (“The Irishman”) and Emilia Faucher (“CODA”) will join rising star Emeraude Toubia (“Shadowhunters”) in the pic. Penned by Alan Trezza (“We Summon the Darkness”), the story, set in New York, revolves around Rosario (Toubia), a successful Wall Street stockbroker who is trapped in her estranged grandmother Griselda’s apartment during a snowstorm.

EXCLUSIVE: United Talent Agency has signed Zarrar Kahn, director of Pakistan’s Oscar entry In Flames, for representation in all areas. 

Ed Meza @edmezavar Quiver Distribution has picked up Uwe Boll’s crime drama “First Shift” for the U.S., Canada and selected international territories. The pic, which stars Kristen Renton (“Sons of Anarchy”) and Gino Anthony Pesi (“Shades of Blue”) as two mismatched New York City cops forced to work as partners, has also sold in Eastern Europe, Benelux, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Turkey and the Baltics.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. It was 2007. Steven Soderbergh was starting to shoot “Che” in Spain when the Bolivian casting director Rodrigo Bellott came armed with a bottle of Singani, the country’s national spirit, to the production kickoff party.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Bhutan’s official Oscar entry “The Monk And The Gun,” Pawo Choyning Dorji‘s follow-up to “Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom,” has been bought by a raft of well-established international theatrical distributors. Following its festival premieres at Telluride, Toronto, Rome and Busan, “The Monk and the Gun” has been sold by Films Boutique to Pyramide Distribution (France), September Films (Benelux), Rialto Distribution (Australia), Future Films (Scandinavia), A Contracorriente (Spain), Lev Films (Israel), Aurora Films (Poland), Trigon (Switzerland), Alambique Films (Portugal) and Impact Films (India and Indian Subcontinent). Earlier this week, the crowdpleaser was also acquired by Roadside Attraction for the U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: Concrete Utopia, South Korea’s International Film Oscar entry this year, will hit theaters in NY and LA on Dec. 8 with a wide release on Dec. 15.  In the U.S, 815 Pictures and Seismic Releasing are releasing the Lotte Entertainment feature.

Emily Longeretta “Chicago P.D.” is losing another member of Intelligence. Tracy Spiridakos, who portrays Hailey Upton, will be leaving after Season 11, multiple sources confirm to Variety. It is unknown how many episodes she will appear in in the upcoming season.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Chile’s “The Devil’s Vein” and “Lucila” and Mexico’s “Ch’ulel” figure among a 14-title lineup at Animation! Pitching Sessions, part of Ventana Sur, the Cannes Festival and Marché du Film’s biggest annual event organized beyond its May event on the Riviera – in this case in Buenos Aires hand in hand with Argentina’s INCAA film agency. Among bigger names, “The Devil’s Vein” is a 2D family-targeting fantasy adventure, from the director, German Acuña, and producer, Sebastián Ruz, of “Nahuel and the Magic Book,” a 2020 Annecy standout.

Christopher Vourlias Annecy Cristal Prize winner Áron Gauder, who won the festival’s top prize in 2005 for his time-traveling love story “The District!”, returned to the prestigious French animation event this year with “Four Souls of Coyote,” an epic adventure inspired by a Native American myth about the creation of the universe that scooped the festival’s Jury Award. Produced by Budapest-based animation studio Cinemon Entertainment and written and created by Gauder, the 2D-animated project is Hungary’s selection for the best international feature film race at the 96th Academy Awards and plays next at the Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles, which runs Oct. 27 – Nov.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “All of Us Strangers,” Andrew Haigh, U.K., U.S.) Setting a high benchmark for Valladolid’s main competition, “a curious kind of ghost story, at once incredibly tender and profoundly devastating as it slowly reveals its secrets,” Variety wrote in its review. Written and directed by Haigh.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Margreth Olin’s “Songs of Earth,” Norway’s Oscar entry for the international feature film race, has been bought by Strand Releasing for North American distribution. The documentary feature, which is executive produced by Wim Wenders and Liv Ullman, played at Toronto where it sold to key territories, and had its U.S.

Malaysian filmmaker Amanda Nell Eu has distanced herself from the cut of her feature film Tiger Stripes, which is being released theatrically in Malaysia on October 19 for one week in an Oscars-qualifying run. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Una Gunjak’s debut feature “Excursion,” which is Bosnia and Herzegovina’s entry for the Oscars’ international feature film category. Salaud Morisset is handling international sales. HBO Europe has just picked up the SVOD and pay TV rights to the movie in 15 countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Christopher Vourlias Slovak directors Ivan Ostrochovsky and Pavol Pekarčík’s Ukraine war drama “Photophobia,” which won the Europa Cinemas Label Award after its Venice Days premiere and is Slovakia’s entry in the best international feature film Oscar race, has been acquired by Prague-based sales agent Filmotor. Set on a cold February morning in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “Photophobia” follows 12-year-old Niki and his family as they arrive at the Kharkiv metro station to take shelter from the terrifying war raging outside.