EXCLUSIVE: Film Mode Entertainment has locked a series of deals on Blue Light, the latest feature from American filmmaker Andy Fickman (Race to Witch Mountain, Parental Guidance, The Game Plan, and She’s The Man).
29.01.2024 - 01:10 / variety.com
Murtada Elfadl Distinguishing itself from other immigration narratives by telling a story set in an overlooked part of the world, “In the Land of Brothers” introduces two distinctive new filmmakers in Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi. Making their feature debut — which landed them the directing prize in Sundance’s World Dramatic competition — the pair follow in the footsteps of such recent movies about the journey to a new land as Mati Diop’s “Atlantics“(which traced African migration into Europe) and “I Carry You With Me” (one of many about flight from the Americas into the U.S.).
With deft storytelling and assured filmmaking, they tell the story of an extended family from Afghanistan and their 20-year odyssey to find shelter and home in neighboring Iran after the American invasion of 2011. The film is divided into three vignettes, all set in Iran, though each at a different time and around a different historical milestone in Afghanistan — from the aforementioned invasion to the Taliban takeover in 2021.
In 2001, sensitive teenage student Mohamed (Mohammad Hosseini) is harassed into free labor by Iranian police because of his status as an immigrant. He also has a sweet and innocent flirtation with another teenager, Leila (Hamideh Jafari).
Ten years later Leila, now mother to a young boy, navigates grief over a death in the family, while trying to avoid the Iranian authorities because of her status as an illegal immigrant. In the final third, the film follows Leila’s older brother Qasem (Bashir Nikzad), as he deals with another bereavement and the promise of finally settling legally in Iran with his wife and children.
Amirfazli and Ghasemi’s script is economical in dialogue, but rather plotty. In each section of the
.EXCLUSIVE: Film Mode Entertainment has locked a series of deals on Blue Light, the latest feature from American filmmaker Andy Fickman (Race to Witch Mountain, Parental Guidance, The Game Plan, and She’s The Man).
EXCLUSIVE: Alpha Violet has acquired world sales rights for Uruguayan filmmaking duo Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge’s new drama Don’t You Let Me Go, exploring themes of friendship and death.
Lorraine Kelly has revealed that her debut novel, The Island Swimmer, owes its existence to Sir David Attenborough.
“It’s about a whole bunch of things,” Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios says when quizzed on the subject of his latest feature, La Cocina, debuting this evening at the Berlin Film Festival. “In equal parts, it explores the topic of work, the American dream, the failure of the American dream, and abortion rights. That’s a really tough question as a director.”
The shirt worn by Colin Firth in the TV series adaptation of Pride And Prejudice is up for auction. The shirt, which became famous when Mr Darcy, played by Firth, emerged from a lake in it, is expected to fetch between £7,000 and £10,000.
FGirl Island is no more.
Joe Otterson TV Reporter “American Rust” Season 2 has a premiere date, but at Amazon Prime Video rather than Freevee. The series was canceled at Showtime after one season in January 2022, only for Freevee — then Amazon’s only ad-supported TV offering — to pick it up for Season 2 in June.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor AGC Studios and Meridian Pictures has sold U.S. and Canada as well as Asia pay TV rights for the Brad Anderson-directed thriller “The Silent Hour,” starring “Suicide Squad’s” Joel Kinnaman, “1917’s” Mark Strong, “New Amsterdam’s” Sandra Mae Frank and “8 Mile’s” Mekhi Phifer, to the newly revitalized Paramount label Republic Pictures. In the film, Kinnaman plays a Boston police detective who suffers an on-the-job accident that leaves him hearing impaired.
We’re just one month away from the 2024 Oscars and all of the nominees stepped out to celebrate their achievements together at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon!
EXCLUSIVE: Vertical has claimed North American, UK, and Ireland rights to The Listener, an indie drama directed by Steve Buscemi and starring Tessa Thompson (Creed trilogy) that world premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival before making its way to Tribeca for its North American premiere.
EXCLUSIVE: Comedian, actor and former SNL writer Rob Schneider is set to release his first book. In a competitive situation, Center Street, a division of Hatchette Book Group, will publish Schneider’s You Can Do I! Speak Your Mind, America, on September 24.
Sandra Oh is pretty in a light blue dress while hitting the purple carpet at the premiere of her new movie The Tiger’s Apprentice on Saturday (January 27) held at Paramount Studios’ Sherry Lansing Theatre in Los Angeles.
Luther Vandross‘ voice was the soundtrack of many Black millennial childhoods. Personally, I would wake up every Sunday to church music followed by his hit single “Never Too Much” which still stops most people in their tracks to this day. In the documentary, Luther: Never Too Much, director Dawn Porter chronicles a his journey to stardom and how he manifested the career he desired.
Margot Robbie won a best acting award while her film Barbie won for best ensemble at Saturday’s 26th AnnualFamily Film and TV Awards, hosted by The Talk‘s Akbar Gbajabiamila and Amanda Kloots.
A handful of indies bow or expand this weekend as Oscar hopefuls from Poor Things to The Holdovers and American Fiction crowd theaters after nominations earlier this week. Anatomy Of A Fall is getting a big bump. Oppenheimer is back on Imax.
There are just a few hours to go until the all-important final of The Traitors after an entertaining second series. Tonight (January 26) viewers will find out if the remaining Traitors, Harry and Andrew, will be victorious and steal the money, or if the final Faithfuls, Evie, Jaz and Mollie, will suss them out in time to win the prize pot.
Latin artists are taking over the globe!
Green Day are currently outselling the rest of the UK albums chart’s top 10 combined with ‘Saviors’.The pop-punk trio released their 14th studio record last Friday (January 19), with NME praising it as “their best work since ‘American Idiot'” in a four-star review.According to the Official Charts‘ latest update, Billie Joe Armstrong and co. are on course to earn their fifth UK Number One album during the next chart rundown this Friday (January 26).‘Saviors’ is outselling the rest of the top 10 combined at the midweek point.Green Day are followed in the top five by Neck Deep‘s self-titled album (Number Two), Saxon’s ‘Hell, Fire And Damnation’ (Number Three), Noah Kahan‘s ‘Stick Season’ (Number Four) and The Weeknd‘s ‘The Highlights’ (Number Five).Should the group clinch victory, ‘Saviors’ will follow ‘American Idiot’ (2004), ’21st Century Breakdown’ (2009), ‘Revolution Radio’ (2016) and ‘Father Of All Motherfuckers’ (2020) in reaching Number One in the UK.This week’s Official Chart is due to be announced live on BBC Radio 1 from 4pm GMT on Friday.Green Day are set to embark on their 2024 ‘Saviors world tour in May.
Todd Gilchrist editor Although it isn’t structured any differently from dozens of other cradle-to-grave documentaries about artistic luminaries, “Luther: Never Too Much” sheds light on much more than just the life and career of R&B singer Luther Vandross. Drawn largely from interview and performance footage of Vandross over his almost 40 years in entertainment, and bolstered and contextualized by retrospective talks will collaborators and confidantes, director Dawn Porter’s film exposes some uneasy truths about the music industry and the media we may now know, but whose seeming ubiquitousness at the time he was alive may be difficult to fully comprehend.
EXCLUSIVE: The dealmaking has begun. Searchlight Pictures closed the first major deal on the ground at the Sundance Film Festival — $10 million for WW rights for A Real Pain, directed and written by Jesse Eisenberg. He stars with freshly minted Emmy winning Succession star Kieran Culkin as mismatched cousins David and Benji. They reunite for a tour of Poland to honor their grandmother, but older tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family’s history. The film will get a big theatrical release later this year.