‘Dara Of Jasenovac’ EP Draws Attention To Little-Known Concentration Camp With Serbian Oscar Entry – Contenders International

Fernando Frias’ I’m No Longer Here (Ya No Estoy Aquí) had a long journey to the screen — conceived when Frias was a student at New York’s Columbia University, the project was selected by the Sundance Writers Lab in 2014, and went before cameras in 2017, ultimately hitting the festival circuit in 2019, and Netflix last year. Challenges in getting the acclaimed drama made included everything from financing hurdles to a lengthy hiatus and the lead actor being rejected for a U.S.

The team behind new PBS legal documentaryBelly of the Beasthas released a lyric video for the original song "See What You've Done," written by Mary J. Blige, Nova Way and DJ Camper and performed by Blige.

Anna Marie de la Fuente It’s been a banner year for Latin American cinema where 18 countries, including newcomer Suriname, have submitted films to vie for the international feature Oscar. Half of this year’s crop are by women, many of them debuts.

“I’m sick of stories about frustrated couples who rip each other apart and explore their sexuality to escape boredom,” says Lisa (Nina Hoss) in My Little Sister. While there is plenty of frustration, and some sex, in Switzerland’s International Feature Film Oscar entry, this is not that story. It’s the tender tale of theatrical German twins brought closer by cancer.  


Angelique Jackson CAA has signed filmmaker Déa Kulumbegashvili, whose film “Beginning” is Georgia’s submission for best international feature at the 2021 Oscars.“Beginning” marks Kulumbegashvili’s feature directorial debut and has made major waves along the film festival circuit since its debut last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film won the Fipresci Prize.

Also Read: How 'Arracht' Actor Starved Himself, Then Packed on Weight for Irish Famine Drama (Video)“Your sister is not leaving you, my dearest,” the girl, played by Biljana Cekic, says in the clip. “No one can separate us, I swear to you.”Jasenovac was operational during the Holocaust between 1941-1945, but it wasn’t run by the Nazi Germans, and it was actually as much a part of a Serbian genocide in which Serbs, Jews and Roma people were all murdered and confined.

Deadline on Monday launched streaming sites for its first two Contenders awards-season events that took place over the weekend: Contenders International and Contenders Documentary.

In I’m No Longer Here (Ya no estoy aquí), filmmaker Fernando Frias puts the spotlight on Kolombia counterculture in the region of Northern Mexico. Following the story of 17-year-old Ulises (played by breakout Juan Daniel Garcia Treviño), the film, Mexico’s submission in the International Feature Oscar race, uses his journey to present a different kind of immigrant narrative.

Director and co-writer Edoardo Ponti brought along his mother for my conversation about his movie, Netflix’s The Life Ahead, as part of Deadline’s Contenders International awards-season event. That mother happens to be a true screen legend, Sophia Loren, who has been directed by her son (their third collaboration) in her first major leading role in a movie in several years.

“I wanted to do this project for a long time, I had this story in mind for years and years,” says director Filippo Meneghetti about Two of Us, France’s Oscar entry this year, adding that he also spent an additional five years writing the screenplay with his co-writer Malysone Bovorasmy.

Dea Kulumbegashvili’s feature directorial debut Beginning was a part of the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival’s 2020 edition, even receiving a special in-person screening during the event’s abridged celebration in October. The drama further was invited to the Toronto, San Sebastian, New York and Busan festivals and is also Georgia’s submission for the International Feature Film Oscar.

Romanian director Alexander Nanau joined Deadline’s Contenders International awards-season event to talk about his searing documentary Collective, one of the year’s most acclaimed films as winner of the European Film Award for documentary. It is also Romania’s official entry to the International Feature Film Oscar race, as well as a strong contender in the Documentary Feature competition too.

Finnish author Tove Jansson is most known for creating the enduringly popular children’s characters the Moomins, which have spanned comics, books and TV series since she first came up with them in the 1940s. She is now the subject of a biopic, Tove, which is Finland’s submission for the International Feature Oscar this year.

Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, Hungary’s contender this year for the International Feature Film Oscar, hinges on a moment around seven minutes into the movie.

Scary stories and urban legends are always fun and at times can haunt you for the rest of your life. For filmmaker Joko Anwar, it was a scary story that was the inspirational seed that would bloom into Impetigore, Indonesia’s official entry for the Oscar International Feature race.

This year’s International Oscar entry for Switzerland, My Little Sister, follows a woman who has largely given up on her ambition to be a playwright and returns to Berlin to look after her twin brother, a famous actor with a terminal illness. It is directed by long-term collaborators and co-directors Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond.

In La Llorona, writer-director Jayro Bustamante blends elements of folklore, magical realism and horror to engage audiences, while also bringing attention to the genocide of native Mayans in 1980s Guatemala.

Drawing attention to the colorful and challenging lives of the elderly, genre-bending The Mole Agent is a film that changed completely from initial concept to final product.

Never Gonna Snow Again co-directors and co-writers Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s professional collaboration is an unusual one — the pair are ex-husband and wife. But Szumowska says their enduring partnership shows “collaboration is possible.”

Greek dramedy Apples was one of the buzz films of last year’s depleted festival circuit, debuting in Venice where it opened the festival’s Horizons section. It’s now Greece’s entry into this year’s International Feature Oscar race.