‘Dara Of Jasenovac’ Named Serbia’s Official Oscar Entry As 101 Studios Makes U.S. Rights Deal

“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.

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.

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.

Nate Bolotin from XYZ Films says he was simply “blown away” by Jallikattu, this year’s International Feature Oscar entry from India, when he first encountered the movie as it was being submitted to festivals in 2019. The company quickly moved to board the project as an executive producer and took its North American rights.

With Dara of Jasenovac, executive producer Michael Berenbaum spotlights a little-known concentration camp in Croatia, where 20,000 Serb, Jewish and Roma children were killed. Directed by Peter “Gaga” Antonijevic, the first cinematic portrait of the Jasenovac complex follows a courageous 12-year-old, surrounded by horrific violence, as she fights to ensure the survival of her younger brother.

Andrei Konchalovsky’s acclaimed historical drama Dear Comrades! is inspired by the true story of a state-sponsored massacre in the Russian city of Novocherkassk in the early 1960s.

Manori Ravindran International EditorVadim Perelman’s “Persian Lessons” has been disqualified from the international feature film Oscar race, where the acclaimed WWII drama was representing Belarus.As part of the international feature film submission process, a country’s selection committee is required to provide a list of credits in key creative positions, both above and below the line.

Guy Lodge Film CriticThe title “Gaza Mon Amour” carries threatening echoes of those cutesy auteur short anthologies (“Paris je t’aime,” “New York, I Love You”) in which assorted drifting souls find love in the same scenic city streets. Happily, Palestinian twin filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser’s entirely self-contained feature is nothing so slick or glib, though it boasts internationally flavored romantic whimsy in spades.

Guy Lodge Film CriticCertain films aren’t made for elevator pitches. “Arthouse ‘Gilmore Girls’ meets ‘The Fault in Our Stars'” would be one way to describe the array of familiar elements in “Asia,” while erasing any hint of the rare delicacy and emotional acuity with which Israeli writer-director Ruthy Pribar assembles them.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFilm Movement has acquired North American rights to Amjad Abu Alala’s feature debut “You Will Die at Twenty,” which marks Sudan’s first official Oscar submission.As part of the deal, Film Movement will give “You Will Die at Twenty” a theatrical rollout via virtual cinema in 2021, followed by a release on home entertainment and digital platforms.The film, which is only the eighth narrative feature film to be made in Sudan, follows Muzamil, whose death at

EXCLUSIVE: Germany’s prominent far-right political party AFD (Alternative for Germany) is not impressed by the country’s International Oscar entry this year, And Tomorrow The Entire World.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentAndalusia’s La Claqueta and the Basque Country’s Irusoin, producers of Spanish Oscar entry “The Endless Trench,” have re-teamed to buy big screen adaptation rights to Txani Rodríguez’s novel “Los últimos románticos.”The deal builds on one of the most fruitful regional production alliances in Spain, whose co-productions to date take in not only “The Endless Trench,” a big winner at the 2019 San Sebastian Film Festival, but also true-crime series

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has disqualified Deepa Mehta's Funny Boy, Canada's entry for best international feature Oscar consideration, for having too much dialogue in English. "Although we were disappointed when informed by the Academy, we are excited to extend our ongoing support for Funny Boy as the journey to the Oscars continues,” Christa Dickenson, executive director of Telefilm Canada, said in a statement on Friday.

Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy, which Canada submitted as its entry for the International Oscar race this year, has been rejected by AMPAS on the grounds it contains too much English dialogue.

Naman Ramachandran Deepa Mehta’s “Funny Boy” will no longer compete in the Academy Awards’ international feature film category and will instead be submitted for consideration in the best picture and general entry categories.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has informed “Funny Boy” producer Telefilm Canada that the film does not meet the Academy’s eligibility requirements for the international feature film category due to the amount of English dialogue in the film.“Although we

Natalie Oganesyan editorSamuel Goldwyn Films has acquired the U.S.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentKaouther Ben Hania’s “The Man Who Sold His Skin” has been sold by Paris-based Bac Films International to further territories. The movie will represent Tunisia in the Oscar race for best international feature film.“The Man Who Sold His Skin” world premiered at Venice, where it won the best actor award for Yahya Mahayni.