Filmax Snags Sales Rights to Pre-Cannes Screenings Title ‘Guilt,’ by Ibon Cormenzana (EXCLUSIVE)

Christopher Vourlias Mediawan Rights, the sales arm of European media group Mediawan, is ramping up its documentary slate with the addition of two new feature films, Variety has learned.Directed by Ado Hasanovic, “My Father’s Diaries” is an intimate portrait of the Bosnian War that uses 8mm footage shot by the director’s family, as well as his father’s written account of the period from the start of the war through the infamous “death march” that saw some 15,000 Bosniaks attempt to trek more

Pre-Cannes Screenings whose pre-sales market says a lot about the resilient vitality and ever greater complexity of the international film business.Budgeted at a reported $60 million, which would make it the biggest project at the Screenings, “Muscle” moved waves when Leonine paid a reported high seven-figure pre-sale figure for Germany.In an out-of-the-box move, Miramax announced Monday that it had secured worldwide rights to “The Holdovers,” reuniting Payne with “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti.

Will Thorne Staff WriterTaskovski Films is making moves ahead of the Cannes Film Festival next week.The sales and production outfit has acquired “Aya,” the debut feature from Belgium-based director Simon Coulibaly Gillard, Variety has learned exclusively.“Aya,” a co-production between Belgium’s Michigan Films and France’s Kidam, is set to bow in the ACID section of Cannes on July 10, with four subsequent screenings spread across the next few days.The film centers around Aya, a young woman

In a blow to streamers for their awards hopes, the Directors Guild of America has decided to return to its old rules and require that films must receive an exclusive theatrical release in order to be eligible for the top DGA Award.

presidential memorandum, issued by Biden in February, directing executive departments and agencies engaged abroad to ensure that U.S.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefInternational distributors will get a first look at action thriller “Gasoline Alley” at the upcoming Cannes Market. The film, which stars Bruce Willis, Luke Wilson and Devon Sawa, is represented by Highland Film Group.The project was first announced at the European Film Market in Berlin, around the time that it was moving into production.

Will Thorne Staff WriterMark Duplass and Natalie Morales are taking their “Language Lessons” around the world.Blue Fox Entertainment has acquired the international rights to the pair’s secret pandemic film. News of the acquisition comes only a few months after “Language Lessons” made an eye-catching debut at the Berlin Festival and won an Audience Award at the SXSW Film Festival.The global distributor plans to introduce it to buyers at the upcoming Cannes virtual market.

Christopher Vourlias Heretic, the Athens-based boutique production company and sales agent, has acquired world sales rights for “Feathers,” the feature-length debut of Egyptian writer-director Omar El Zohairy, which will have its premiere in Cannes Critics’ Week.“Feathers” explores a family’s transformation when a magic trick goes awry at a birthday party, and the magician turns the father into a chicken.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterJesse Eisenberg, Adrien Brody, and Riley Keough have been cast in director John Trengrove’s English-language feature debut “Manodrome.”Launching sales at the virtual Cannes market, the South African director of “The Wound” presents a nihilistic thriller following Ralphie (Eisenberg), an Uber driver and aspiring bodybuilder who is inducted into a libertarian masculinity cult and loses his grip on reality when his repressed desires are awakened.Keough, Gina

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMemento International (“Call Me By Your Name”) has closed a raft of sales on Leah Purcell’s Australian revenge tale “The Drover’s Wife,” and Alex Camilleri’s “Luzzu” which world premiered at SXSW and Sundance, respectively. After selling North American rights to “The Drover’s Wife” to Samuel Goldwyn, Memento has sold “The Drover’s Wife” to the U.K.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentParis-based company Indie Sales has boarded Blandine Lenoir’s “Angry Annie,” a female-driven movie headlined by “Call My Agent!” star Laure Calamy, Zita Hanrot (Netflix’s “The Hook Up Plan”) and India Hair (“Mandibules”). Inspired by true events, the film takes place in France in 1974 and tells the story of Annie, a working mother of two teenagers who accidentally becomes pregnant at a time when abortion was illegal in the country.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentPreparing to launch its biggest and broadest sales slate ever at Cannes, driven by 13 festival titles, The Match Factory has dropped a first trailer to Tatiana Huezo’s “Prayers for the Stolen,” lead-produced by the award-winning producer of “Roma” Nicolás Celis.Playing at Cannes in Un Certain Regard, the new feature – glimpsed via a couple of excerpts at Los Cabos Festival in 2019 – marks the much anticipated fiction film debut of Huezo, who has

Naman Ramachandran Altitude and Film4 have acquired writer/director Julia Ducournau’s Cannes Film Festival competition title “Titane” for U.K.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorFor most of those involved in the film pre-sales business, the virtual Pre-Cannes Screenings, running June 21-25, is the main event, with the in-person Cannes festival and market in July almost a sideshow.

Stacey Abrams hinted at future political office (no surprise) defended a compromise on the voting rights bill “because we need to make progress” and said of Juneteeth: “It’s important that we remember that this isn’t a celebration about the end of slavery alone, it is about justice delayed and nearly denied.”

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentOscar-nominated French actor Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”) has joined Pierfrancesco Favino (“The Traitor”), Nanni Moretti, and the Italian cast of romantic drama “Il Colibrì,” which has started shooting in Rome.Fandango Sales is launching sales at the virtual Cannes market on this high-profile drama directed by Francesca Archibugi (“A Question of the Heart”) based on the eponymous novel by Sandro Veronesi, winner of Italy’s top literary prize, the Premio

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFilms Boutique (“Charlatan,” “Dear Comrades!”) has boarded international sales rights to “Mi Iubita, Mon Amour,” the feature debut of actor-turned-filmmaker Noémie Merlant. The movie will world premiere in the Special Screenings section at Cannes.

Kunal Nayyar, Lucy Hale and Christina Hendricks are set to star in The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, an adaptation of the New York Times best-selling novel by Gabrielle Zevin. Hans Canosa will direct from Zevin’s adaptation of her own novel and David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment will be shopping the project to buyers at the upcoming Cannes Virtual Market next week. 

Manori Ravindran International EditorAltitude Film Sales has boarded “JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass,” Oliver Stone’s forthcoming examination of the assassination of President John F Kennedy.The London-based sales agent will debut footage and launch worldwide sales at the Cannes Virtual Market later this month. Meanwhile, Altitude Film Distribution will also release the film in the U.K.

Another early morning, another early announcement from France. As promised by the organizers previously, new titles have been added to the Cannes Film Festival, nine of them in total.