From Fabula and Oscar-Nominated Maite Alberdi, ‘Soy la Tierra’ Opens Sanfic Industria

Two-time Oscar-nominated director Dan Krauss is creating a Netflix documentary on the 2001 U.S. anthrax attacks featuring Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D star Clark Gregg performing scripted monologues. Scroll down for the trailer.

Christopher Vourlias On the eve of the 79th Venice Film Festival, where his powerful Ukraine war documentary “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” will premiere out of competition on Sept. 7, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky was in a frantic race against time. Footage was still being shot in Ukraine into the second week of August, with Afineevsky only completing the film on Aug. 31 — the same day that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the A-list celebrities and foreign press at the festival’s opening ceremony, urging the world not to forget the war in Ukraine with the impassioned plea: “Don’t turn your back to us.”

Emily Maitlis, whose notorious interview with Prince Andrew forced the disgraced royal to announce his departure from public life, has revealed she believes the prince “had behaved rather well.”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Nearly a year ago, the nation’s movie theaters were floundering and exhibitors were fearful that moviegoing could become a relic of the past. Sure, there were occasional big-screen hits, like “A Quiet Place Part II” and Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” but even those films weren’t bringing in pre-pandemic ticket sales and nothing was getting people really, truly excited about going to the movies. (Remember, this was before “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and, later, “Top Gun: Maverick” swooped in to save the day.) So AMC Theatres, the country’s largest cinema chain, took matters into its own hands. Rather than waiting for Hollywood studios to release the Next Big Thing, the company wrote a check for $25 million and set out to craft an advertisement to promote movie theaters rather than just movies. To convey its message, AMC turned to Nicole Kidman, the Oscar-winner who endeared herself to audiences through crowd-pleasers, dark thrillers and tear-jerkers like “Moulin Rouge,” “Eyes Wide Shut” and “The Hours.”

Awards season high. Following the news of the 2022 Emmy Awards nominations in July, numerous Euphoria cast members reacted to the critical acclaim their show received.

Clayton Davis Jennifer Fox, the Oscar nominated producer of “Michael Clayton” (2007), has been tapped to produce the 13th Governors Awards for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Marking her fourth time producing the event, Fox will assemble the annual ceremony where Euzhan Palcy, Diane Warren and Peter Weir will receive Honorary Oscars and Michael J. Fox will accept the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. “We’re thrilled to have Jennifer back at the helm to help us kick off Oscar season with a tribute fitting to these four extraordinary individuals,” says Janet Yang, Academy President. “Her contribution in past years has only elevated this truly special and joyous event.”

K.J. Yossman It seems the feud between former “Newsnight” host Emily Maitlis and her former employer, the BBC, shows no signs of letting up. Less than a week after former Maitlis publicly excoriated the BBC during her MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival, the corporation has hastily rebooted its “Americast” podcast – which Maitlis first launched alongside then North America editor Jon Sopel in 2020 – with an introductory episode posted today, Aug. 30, the very same day Maitlis and Sopel’s new podcast series “The News Agents” launches at Global. The BBC announced this morning that Today presenter and former BBC North America editor Justin Webb would front “Americast” alongside Sopel’s replacement for the North America editorship Sarah Smith and disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring. The BBC’s North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher (known as “the Zurch”) also returns for the show.

 The battle lines between the BBC and its former star news presenter Emily Maitlis continue to be drawn, with BBC insiders lending their support after she claimed a BBC board member had interfered in editorial matters as “an active agent” of the Conservative party.

Another impressive year. After the sports comedy-drama Ted Lasso won seven Emmy Awards in 2021 including Outstanding Comedy Series, the AppleTV+ program has proven itself again in 2022 with a total of 20 nominations.

Holly Jones After its debut at  Sundance in January, where it earned the World Cinema Dramatic Competition award for directing, Ukrainian wartime drama “Klondike” nabbed top honors for best international film at the Chile’s 18th Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic).“Klondike,” written, directed and edited by Ukrainian filmmaker Marina Er Gorbach (“Omar and Us”), tells the story of expectant couple Irina and Anatoly who live in the village of Grabove, near the Russia-Ukraine border during the high conflict that coincides with downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The couple faces devastation up-close as Irina refuses to relocate, even as troops close in.Best director went to Chile’s Roberto Baeza for his documentary effort “Punto de Encuentro,” a gripping portrait of filmmakers striving to recreate the story of their fathers, tortured and imprisoned under the dictatorship.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Chile’s foremost industry forum Sanfic Industria wrapped Friday Aug. 19 with a wealth of prizes doled out to projects from across Latin America and Spain. Still reeling from the pandemic, the forum’s 11th year saw another hybrid edition but a definite upsurge in attendance.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In his feature debut, which has just proved the biggest winner at Sanfic Industria’s 2022 Work in Progress strand, Chilean writer-director Alberto Hayden explores what has been almost an obsession with him. Inspired by the musings of South Korean-born philosopher Byung-Chul Han and his French counterpart Deleuze, Hayden questions whether people continue to exist past their physical selves through people’s memories of them, their photos, the possessions they have left behind or in this digital age, their social media imprint. “Una Luz Negra” (“A Dark Light”) is among the 10 Work in Progress (WIP) titles participating at Chilean industry forum, Sanfic Industria.

Mike Wass According to Netflix, the Skip Intro button is pressed 136 million times in a typical day. Moreover, the feature has been adopted by streamers industry-wide.

Holly Jones The lives of a self-obsessed film star and a struggling filmmaker collide in Brazilian director-producer Diogo Leite’s first feature, “Monstro,” set to screen as a pic-in-post at the Ibero-American Work in Progress strand of this week’s Sanfic Industria.“Monstro” follows Magaiver, a young filmmaker who moonlights as an Internet technician in order to survive. His life takes a bittersweet turn as he’s hired to film a retrospective on ageing cinema star Laura.

Addie Morfoot ContributorIn July, “We Feed People,” Ron Howard’s National Geographic documentary about celebrity chef José Andrés and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen, received two Emmy nominations.That same month, World Central Kitchen, which cooks and delivers food to people in need following social and environmental disasters, continued its humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine. The org has set up more than 5,000 distribution points and has served more than 100 million meals since entering the country in February.The Emmy nominations offer Howard and Andrés another opportunity to discuss the docu — but also the global efforts of World Health Kitchen that they hope will serve as a call to action, big or small.

Holly Jones With a delicately morose charm, Spanish actress-turned-director Liz Lobato is presenting her debut feature project, “Tierra de Nuestras Madres” as part of the 11th Fanfic Industria’s Ibero-American Work In Progress strand.The farcical fable scrutinizing globalization takes place in the village of La Mancha, where residents know each other thoroughly and tend to their routines like clockwork. There, beloved curmudgeon and central protagonist Rosario makes the rounds selling drug-laced fig salt to her neighbors as the town’s unknowingly sold out from under them by a bankrupt mayor.Shot in black and white, the film gives far more than it takes and absurdly relays the somber tale of corruption and a community bound to its roots so tightly its willing to sacrifice a soul or two to stay put, as futile an endeavor  as that may be.

Cherien Dabis When I was offered the opportunity to direct the “Only Murders in the Building” episode “The Boy From 6B,” which focuses on the story of a deaf character, I knew instantly that I had to do it. It was precisely the kind of story that excites me, a story told from a point of view we rarely get to see, portraying a character from a community that’s underrepresented and misrepresented. I’ve built my career upon telling stories about marginalized communities, and by doing so, I’ve attempted to push us all out of the margins and into the center.

Anna Marie de la Fuente When Chile’s preeminent documentarian, Patricio Guzman, receives a lifetime achievement award at the Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic) on Aug. 16, he’ll also be marking his 81st birthday.Born on Aug. 11, 1941, Guzman has made more than 20 documentaries at an average of one every two to five years.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In one of the first deals struck at Chilean industry forum Sanfic Industria, local indie producers Matias de Bourguignon and Equeco have boarded the Venezuelan drama “I Will Mutate Like a Jungle Animal” (“Mutaré como animal del monte”), the feature debut of rising Venezuelan talent Hector Silva.Lead produced by Berlin-based Venezuelan producer Rodolfo Cova whose credits include Venice Golden Lion winner “From Afar” and Michel Franco’s Cannes Un Certain Regard winner “Las Hijas de Abril,” “I Will Mutate Like a Jungle Animal” is among the 28 titles in the Sanfic Industria Santiago Lab which supports Ibero-American projects in development.De Bourguignon and Equeco join international co-producers Pomme Hurlante Films (France), Artrupe Films (Brazil) and Abismo Cine (Ecuador) who were also drawn to the feature debut of Silva whose award-winning short films have played in prominent film festivals, including Cannes, Toronto and Tribeca. “Hector’s shorts deeply moved me.