Hong Sang-soo’s Third Successive Berlin Competition Title ‘The Novelist’s Film’ Picked up by Finecut

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorDark comedy-drama “Concerned Citizen,” which has its world premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlinale, has debuted its trailer. Berlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal will be selling the film during the European Film Market. The film, a satirical parable on the insidious ways in which privilege can unleash the prejudice within, centers on Ben, who thinks of himself as a liberal and enlightened gay man, living in the perfect apartment with his boyfriend Raz.

Filmmaker David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet) has joined the cast of Steven Spielberg’s drama The Fabelmans, Deadline has confirmed.

Christopher Vourlias Heretic, the Athens-based boutique production company and sales agent, has acquired world sales rights for “Convenience Store,” by director Michael Borodin, which will have its premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand.Borodin’s feature debut follows an Uzbek immigrant working at a convenience store on the outskirts of Moscow. As with the rest of the immigrants at the store, she’s forced to work without pay and to endure mental and physical abuse, until the day she overcomes her fear and takes her fate into her own hands.Based on real-life events and the active legal cases of immigrants in Russia, “Convenience Store” captures the horrors of modern slavery in a visceral blend of realism, documentary-style filmmaking and grand-scale cinema.

Naman Ramachandran Indian filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali has revealed the first trailer for his long-awaited film “Gangubai Kathiawadi,” which will have its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. Starring Alia Bhatt (“Gully Boy”) in the titular role alongside Ajay Devgn (“Tanhaji”), the film is based on the book, “Mafia Queens of Mumbai,” written by S. Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges.

Shalini Dore Features News EditorMultihyphenate M. Night Shyamalan is eager to get started on his role as the Berlin Film Festival’s competition jury president.“Part of going to film festivals and seeing these movies is I’m with the very best storytellers that are telling the most different and original stories in their own way,” Shyamalan said.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBerlin-based sales agency Picture Tree Intl. has added to its European Film Market slate “Love Thing,” starring top German actor Elyas M’Barek, whose credits include “The Collini Case.” Also on the slate is “Soul of a Beast,” which debuts its trailer below.Despite the virtual nature of the EFM, the company has taken additional office space at the Marriott Hotel in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz.“Love Thing,” which also stars Lucie Heinze, Peri Baumeister and Alexandra Maria Lara, is directed and written by Anika Decker, whose last feature “High Society” sold widely.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItaly’s Vision Distribution has boarded Berlin Panorama title “Swing Ride,” directed by Chiara Bellosi, and will launch sales at the upcoming EFM on the pic about an overweight teenager named Benedetta who is pining for attention.“Swing Ride” (“Calcinculo”) is set in a tiny southern Italian town where Benedetta meets Armando, aka Amanda, a young transvestite who runs the carousel and sells drugs.

Christopher Vourlias Heretic, the Athens-based boutique production company and sales agent, has acquired world sales rights for “Working Class Heroes,” by director Miloš Pušić, which will have its premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand. Variety has also been given exclusive access to the film’s trailer.Starring award-winning Serbian actress Jasna Đuričić, who played the lead role in Jasmila Žbanić’s Oscar-nominated “Quo Vadis, Aida?,” “Working Class Heroes” follows a cold-hearted businesswoman working for a construction investor of dubious morals.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorWorld War II refugee drama “The Path” (Der Pfad) has debuted its international trailer (above) ahead of its market premiere at the European Film Market in Berlin. Warner will release the film theatrically in Germany, while Global Screen is handling international rights.“The Path,” directed by Tobias Wiemann, is based on Rüdiger Bertram’s novel and is inspired by true events.

EXCLUSIVE: Eric Bana (Munich) and Kiernan Shipka (Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina) have been set to star in Ridley Scott-produced thriller Berlin Nobody, which Protagonist and Augenschein will be launching sales on at the virtual EFM next month.

Berlin Film Festival organizers on Wednesday said they have further updated their Covid regulations ahead of the fest, which kicks off February 10.

Ed Meza @edmezavarGerman sales company Pluto Film is under new ownership following its sale by founders and former CEOs Heino Deckert and Torsten Frehse to Daniela and Benjamin Cölle.Deckert and Frehse, who established the Berlin-based shingle in 2015, are stepping down to focus on the activities of their respective companies, the Leipzig-based production shingle Maja.de and Berlin film distributor Neue Visionen.The new husband and wife team will head Pluto Film as co-CEOs, with Daniela Cölle also serving as head of acquisitions. Cölle has worked at the company since its launch, initially as festival manager.“We are very thankful to Torsten and Heino for trusting in us as new owners and CEOs,” she said.

The team behind the European Film Market (EFM), the industry wing of the Berlin Film Festival, had been busy preparing for a return to an in-person event in 2022 after they were forced to put last year’s edition online due to Covid.

Naman Ramachandran “Drive My Car” filmmaker Hamaguchi Ryusuke, director Karim Ainouz (Berlin-winner “Central Airport THF”) and actor Connie Nielsen (“Wonder Woman”) will join president M. Night Shyamalan on the international jury of the Berlin Film Festival.

The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival has confirmed its various juries, including who will be joining M. Night Shyamalan to award the International Competition prizes.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBerlin-based outfit M-Appeal has acquired world sales rights to “Lonesome,” from Australian director Craig Boreham, who won the Berlinale Teddy Award for his short film “Transient.” Sales on the film will commence at the upcoming European Film Market, which was moved online due to the ongoing pandemic.The feature follows Casey, a young man from the countryside running from a small-town scandal, finding himself down and out in Sydney. When he meets Tib, a young city lad, struggling with his own isolation, both men find something they have been missing, but neither of them knows quite how to navigate their feelings.According to a statement, “‘Lonesome’ explores the adventures and sexuality of young gay men in a world that has never been more connected.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThough the Berlin Film Festival’s European Film Market has been forced by the omicron variant to go online, the fact that the fest itself will instead be held in person means that, as anticipated by Variety, some industry players are planning to make the trek to Germany.This has prompted the EFM –- after some deliberation with local health authorities –- to set up separate industry screenings for films launching in the Berlinale’s 2022 official selection.“Even with the EFM going online, a number of industry delegates confirmed their intention to come to Berlin to visit the festival in person and the Berlinale offers industry accreditation even in its revised format,” EFM director Dennis Ruh (pictured) tells Variety. All festival accreditation holders will have access to tickets allocated for all public screenings.

A specialty market dotted by holdovers as Oscar nods approach and gripped by Sundance fever debuts a compelling handful of new openers from Korean director Hong Sang-soo’s Introduction to Bhutan’s first ever entrant on the Academy Awards International feature shortlist, to a Ukrainian coming of age story and a Queen Latifa-starrring family film Tiger Rising based on the bestselling Kate DiCamillo book.

Afternoon subscribers, Max Goldbart here. It’s been a busy week but International Insider has you covered. Read on for in-depth analysis of the biggest international headlines of the week.