Docu Talents From the East’s Sarajevo Showcase Features Projects About Vaclav Havel, Hungarian Journalists, Kurdish Refugees

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor First Hand Films has taken international sales rights to German director Julia Fuhr Mann’s documentary “Life Is Not a Competition But I Am Winning?,” which will premiere in Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival. Variety is debuting its trailer exclusively.

The 2023 edition of the Edinburgh TV Festival is drawing to a close after four days of intense industry talks, gossip and Louis Theroux lectures. The halls of the Edinburgh International Conference Centre were buzzing as UK execs, creatives and talent took the chance to get together and talk shop. Here, we outline

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Ed Herzog’s comedy-crime movie “Rehragout Rendezvous” is on the verge of supplanting “Oppenheimer” as the No. 2 film in Germany, behind box office champ “Barbie.” In Austria, “Rehragout Rendezvous” is the top film. “Rehragout Rendezvous” is the ninth in the Bavarian Eberhofer franchise, centering on laid-back cop Franz Eberhofer, who battles crime in a small town in the state of Bavaria, Southern Germany.

The TV Access Project (TAP), which launched at last year’s Edinburgh TV Festival, has set out how it intends for disability inclusion to be completely integrated into standard industry practice by 2030.

Christopher Vourlias Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman blasted Hollywood studio bosses this week at the Sarajevo Film Festival, calling out their pay packages and insisting that cost-cutting executives are willing to sacrifice the art of moviemaking for the sake of profit. “It’s disgusting, because they don’t do anything,” Kaufman told Variety. “No, they do damage is what they do.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Olivér Rudolf’s “My Mother, the Monster” has won the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award at Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink, its industry section that featured projects from Southeast Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Hungarian feature film project, which is produced by Genovéva Petrovits at Kino Alfa, received a cash prize of €20,000 ($21,727). The film focuses on Éva, a mother in her forties who is disappointed with her life and tired of feeling insignificant.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Sarajevo Film Festival has modified its scheduled activities on Wednesday after the Bosnia and Herzegovina government declared it to be a “Day of Mourning” following three murders committed in Gradačac on Friday. The perpetrator, a bodybuilder, reportedly livestreamed the murder of his first victim, his former wife, on Instagram.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “The Hollow” won the Heart of Sarajevo Award for best TV drama series at the Sarajevo Film Festival on Sunday, and also came away with a host of other awards. The in-competition series came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Slovenia.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The jury for the Docu Talents From the East Award, presented Sunday as part of CineLink Industry Days at the Sarajevo Film Festival, split the award between two projects: “A Picture to Remember” by Ukrainian director Olga Chernykh and producer Regina Maryanovska-Davidzon, and the Czech-Slovak co-production “Chronicle” by Martin Kollar. The award comes with a cash prize of $5,000. Eight documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe, planned for theatrical release during the next 12 months, were presented in the program, which is curated by the Ji.hlava Intl.

Aaron Carter‘s twin sister is recalling her family’s troubling and difficult past, and the shocking and tragic death of her beloved brother. This week, Angel Carter

. The Beast returns following a «long and intense rehab from her broken leg,» the show notes. She is joined by a roster of new and returning WOW Superheroes.

The texts were ringing like crazy this morning. “Are you in Maui? Are you okay?” Fortunately, yes just fine but Maui, the second biggest Island in Hawaii, continues to fight massive wildfires that started Tuesday and virtually destroyed the classic town of Lahaina (capital of Hawaii at one time) and a tourist mecca. Flames have reportedly destroyed hundreds of homes and some businesses in a paradise that has long been a favorite getaway , and even home for many entertainment luminaries including Oprah Winfrey, Clint Eastwood, Steven Tyler, Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Kris Kristofferson, Jeff Bezos, and many more. Mick Fleetwood not only lives on the island but has a popular restaurant Fleetwood’s On Front Street that was situated right in the path of where the fire was most fierce in picaresque Lahaina, a city described now as looking instead like a bombed-out war zone.

Arthouse Crunch Over the last decade, theatrical arthouse markets have imploded soufflé-like. “We used to make 5,000 admissions per title, now the target audience is 500,” Peter Bognar, at Hungary’s CinefilCo, told Variety at Locarno. So, to close the gap and move hopefully into a little upside, having tapped subsidies and local TV pre-buys, producers are looking ever more to overseas public-sector coin, channelled via international co-producer partners.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival has revealed to Variety the projects that the participants of its 2023 Emerging Producers program are working on. The producers were asked to deliver an elevator pitch for their projects. Every year since 2010, the festival has selected 18 up-and-coming producers of documentary films (17 European and one representing a non-European guest country), which are then provided with educational, networking and promotional support.

star Brynn Whitfield might be new to Bravo, but she's already in the DMs of another Bravolebrity. On the Sunday, August 6 episode of Whitfield, who is among the revitalized cast of the reboot (including ) that premiered last month, told host Andy Cohen that she has been flirting in DMs with Shep Rose from Southern Charm.Whitfield, who has been established as a big flirt on *RHONY—*her tagline is literally, “I love to laugh, but make me mad and I'll date your dad”—confessed to DMing with Rose on Instagram, noting that he messaged her first. “He’s very sweet,” she said.

After a decade of making a name for themselves on YouTube as RackaRacka, Danny & Michael Philippou‘s entered the horror genre conversation after their feature debut “Talk To Me” hit theaters last weekend. The film had already won over critics at Sundance earlier this year, but horror aficionados took notice after A24 won the rights to distribute the movie stateside.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor French-based sales agency Lightdox has acquired the international rights to feature documentary “Body” by Slovenian director and screenwriter Petra Seliškar ahead of its world premiere at the 29th edition of Sarajevo Film Festival. The trailer for the film has just been released (below). The film screens on Aug.

The life of late, great Dutch soccer star Johan Cruyff is the subject of a doc from Drive to Survive producer Box to Box Films and Dutch firm Lusus.

This is Day 94 of the WGA strike and Day 21 of the SAG-AFTRA strike

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Roland Emmerich’s gladiator drama “Those About to Die,” which Prime Video has acquired exclusive streaming rights for in several European territories, is an ambitious project creatively, but it also breaks new ground in business terms. With a budget north of $150 million for a 10-episode first season, it is the most expensive independently produced European series ever. For Emmerich, the German filmmaker best known for blockbuster movies such as “Independence Day,” the show is a new departure as well as it is his first foray into television.