Haifaa Al Mansour Returns To Saudi Arabia To Shoot Crime Feature ‘Unidentified’ As UTA & Memento Int’l Board Sales For Cannes Market Launch

EXCLUSIVE: Whitney Peak (Hocus Pocus 2, Molly’s Game, Gossip Girl) has been cast in Aisling Walsh’s Ethel, alongside the previously announced cast of Shira Haas and Sarah Paulson. Bankside Films first launched the title, which is currently in pre-production, earlier this year and has completed a number of international pre-sales in Cannes. 

Tyson Fury could be set for a huge tax bill of just under £45million following his fight with Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Variety will present a Women in Cinema Panel at the Cannes Film Festival in tandem with the Red Sea International Film Festival featuring top talents from Egypt, India, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Senegal. The panel will take place at La Plage Des Palmes on Saturday, May 18, at 12pm CET.

It’s a momentous Cannes for Cairo-based film professionals Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab as they mark the 15th anniversary of the creation of marketing and distribution company MAD Solutions and the 10th anniversary of spin-off the Arab Cinema Center (ACC).

Naman Ramachandran Los Angeles-based Flourishing Films has boarded Singapore- and India-based Mumba Devi Motion Pictures‘ “Grand Sugar Daddy” and “Not Today” at the Cannes Film Festival‘s market. Flourishing is focused on expanding access to Black, diverse and female-driven filmed content originating from the U.S., Africa, the U.K. and worldwide.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia leads this year’s Arab cinema contingent at Cannes with pioneering director Tawfik Alzaidi’s “Norah” launching internationally from Un Certain Regard plus a clutch of films in other sections by directors from Egypt, Palestine and Morocco. They collectively reflect both the vibrancy and the many hurdles that filmmakers face in the region.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Arab cinema continues to break new ground with a fresh crop of social dramas, several of which depict female empowerment in different forms. These range from the tale of a young woman who fakes being dead so she can leave everything behind, to a rape-revenge thriller titled “Beretta,” just like the semi-automatic pistol used by Suad, its mute protagonist. Below is a compendium of promising upcoming Arabic-language films in various stages that will be surfacing either at festivals or on streamers.

Oleksandr Usyk has raised concerns about the ring canvas ahead of his Saturday night bout with Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia.

EXCLUSIVE: Dubai-based sales agency Cercamon has acquired international rights outside of North America for Michael Felker’s Things Will Be Different.

Ryan J. Sloan‘s “Gazer” is a classic thriller that will surely have Cannes audiences on the edge of their seats when it world premieres in competition in Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s festival. Set in New Jersey and starring Sloan’s partner Ariella Mastroianni, “Gazer” is the story of Frankie, a young mother with a rare degenerative brain condition called dyschronometria.

Interpol has issued a global 'Red Notice' for an escaped fugitive known as 'The Fly' after a brutal prison van attack in France killed two police officers.

International crime-fighting organisation Interpol has issued a global 'Red Notice' for an escaped criminal known as 'The Fly'. The move is part of a manhunt to capture Mohamed Amra, 30, who managed to escape a prison van following an incident that left two guards dead at a toll booth on a motorway in northwest France.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabian director Shahad Ameen, whose feminist fable “Scales” made a splash after launching from Venice in 2019, is back behind the camera on “Hijra,” an ambitious drama centered on the bond formed between different generations of Saudi women during a journey across the desert. CAA is handling North American sales on “Hijra,” which is being shot in a vast swathe of desert and in several Saudi cities and urban areas including Jeddah, Medina, AlUla and Neom.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Asterix,” the popular French comics franchise, is set for a new animated journey. Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere, whose latest film “The Count of Monte-Cristo” is premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, have penned “Asterix, the Kingdom of Nubia.” SND, the commercial arm of French network M6, has boarded the film and will kick off international sales at the Cannes Film Market, where they will present a sizzle reel to buyers.

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based Nour Films has acquired French rights to Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi’s first feature Norah ahead of its world premiere in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard.

EXCLUSIVE: Newly launched Dubai-based sales company MAD World has acquired worldwide rights to Egyptian director Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away, a tense African migrant drama shooting later this year in Egypt.

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed filmmakers Ryan J. Sloan & Ariella Mastroianni for representation in all areas, with UTA Independent Film Group coming aboard to handle domestic sales for Sloan’s feature directorial debut, Gazer, which is set to premiere as part of Directors’ Fortnight and compete for the Camera d’Or at Cannes.

Naman Ramachandran Actor George MacKay has reunited with his “For Those in Peril” director Paul Wright for “Mission.” Backed by BBC Film, Screen Scotland and Ffilm Cymru Wales with funding from the U.K. National Lottery, “Mission” is a co-production between Early Day Films (“Bait”) and 65 Wilding Films (“Baltimore”). The project was developed with Screen Scotland and BBC Film.

Rising Riyadh-based independent studio Telfaz11 and newly launched UK distribution label Metis Films are partnering to release Saudi hit Mandoob in the UK and Ireland.

North.Five.Six is set to handle international sales for the true-life heist pic Dutch & Razzlekhan, on which we were first to report. Starring Chloë Grace Moretz (The Peripheral), Lewis Pullman (Lessons in Chemistry) and Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), the film will be introduced to buyers at Cannes later this month, with CAA Media Finance repping domestic rights.