Italy’s Coccinelle Film Takes World Sales on Veit Helmer’s ‘Gondola’ Ahead of Tokyo Festival Launch (EXCLUSIVE)

Medyapim (“Mother”) and Ay Yapim (“Endless Love”), Madd is at Mipcom not only as Turkey’s top content exporter but also as an innovative industry driver thanks to a raft of deals that take the country’s booming TV business in new directions. The combined firepower of Medyapim that comprises several subsidiaries and partners including MF Yapim, Madd, and Mednova and has a library of more than 10,000 hours of TV content spanning from dramas and sitcoms to feature films and game shows, and Ay Yapım which produces a slew of Turkey’s most beloved dramas, accounts for over 400 hours of original programming per year.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Samuel Goldwyn Films has signed a worldwide catalog deal with Concord Originals for rights to three Rodgers & Hammerstein films. The distribution pact involves two classic Hollywood films, 1958’s “South Pacific” and 1955’s “Oklahoma.” It also includes a filmed Royal National Theatre production of “Oklahoma!” that was staged in 1998 and starred a pre-Wolverine Hugh Jackman.

Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi has clinched the best film award in the main official competition of the 67th London Film Festival with his latest feature, Evil Does Not Exist. 

Ellise Shafer Before the world premiere of long-awaited sequel “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” at the BFI London Film Festival, the team behind the Aardman production revealed that they set out to make a “feminist classic” that is also an “homage to heist films.” “Dawn of the Nugget” comes 23 years after the original “Chicken Run” was released. In the sequel, Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levi) embark on another dangerous adventure when daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey) flees their idyllic island home for the mainland.

Naman Ramachandran Hansal Mehta‘s “The Buckingham Murders,” which premieres at the BFI London Film Festival, will be the first in a franchise. Written by Aseem Arrora, Raghav Raj Kakker and Kashyap Kapoor, the film follows Jasmeet Bhamra (portrayed by Kareena Kapoor Khan), a detective and mother who, after losing her own child, must investigate the murder of a 10-year-old in Buckinghamshire, going down a rabbit hole of secrets, where almost everyone in the small town becomes a suspect.

Christopher Vourlias Beta Film has acquired international sales rights to the Greek drama series “The Beach,” a primetime sensation for Greek public broadcaster ERT, the Munich-based production and distribution powerhouse announced on the eve of Mipcom. The 24-part one hour series begins on an idyllic commune on the shores of Crete in 1969, where love and freedom intertwine, until a murder exposes the messy entanglements spurred on by the hippie residents.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Philippe Bober’s Coproduction Office, whose recent films include Jessica Hausner’s Cannes Competition title “Club Zero” and Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Sadness,” has kicked off international sales on Gust Van den Berghe‘s “The Magnet Man.” The Paris and Berlin based production and sales outfit is attending this week’s MIA Market in Rome. Van den Berghe’s previous films, “Blue Bird” (2011) and “Little Baby Jesus of Flandr” (2010), have both premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. “The Magnet Man,” which is in post-production, tells the tragicomic tale of how our greatest talents can become our greatest flaws, and how unpredictable our lives can be.

Big Brother fans have been left 'gutted' as the show teased viewers with a look at the launch show and new housemates ahead of its ITV revival tonight (Sunday October 8).

Pablo Sandoval As earning significant profile for shows in a packed marketplace has become one of Europe’s most pressing industry concerns, a new and ambitious TV series festival is launching in Cadiz, southern Spain, as an initiative of Mediaset España and backed by shows from other key players on the Spanish TV scene, such as The Mediapro Studio and Movistar Plus+. Speakers announced by the festival include Peter Morgan’s “The Crown,”“Billy Elliot’s” Stephen Daldry and “Fleabag” creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The Berlin Film Festival will be launching a new section, called Newcomer German Films, during its next edition taking place from Feb. 15-25. The section will highlight emerging German filmmakers, and will be part of the main program alongside the Competition, Encounters, Panorama, Generation and Forum sections.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Leading Korean content firm Showbox Corp. has added “The Killers,” an unusual anthology film, to its Busan rights sales line up. The film takes its title and themes from Ernest Hemingway’s 1927 short story of the same name.

EXCLUSIVE: EST N8, the international finance, production and sales company launched by EST Studios and Bangkok-based N8 Studios, has acquired world sales rights, excluding South Korea, to April Tragedy (The Daughters Of That Day), directed by Koh Hoon. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rome’s upcoming MIA market dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films and documentaries is set to run Oct. 9-13 in central Rome’s Palazzo Barberini, which besides being Italy’s National Ancient Art gallery, is also the market’s main hub. Now at its ninth edition, this innovative pre-Mipcom event (the MIA acronym stands for the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo or International Audiovisual Market) aims to boost the Italian industry by strengthening its international ties.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A clutch of Chinese movies released for the end of September holiday season dominated the global box office over the latest weekend. Mainland Chinese-produced films took first, third and fifth places across the planet, according to U.S.-based data service Comscore. Comscore shows “Under the Light,” which released only in mainland China, grossing an estimated $54 million between Friday and Sunday.

The San Sebastian Film Festival awarded O Corno (The Rye Horn) with the Golden Shell for Best Film. San Sebastián native Jaione Camborda took the top prize of the night for the feature she directed.

Fans will be able to celebrate the release of Britney Spears’ upcoming memoir The Woman In Me in a very special way.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Coccinelle Film Sales has acquired world rights to German director Veit Helmer’s poetic love story “Gondola,” which will world premiere at the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival. Helmer is well known on the international festival circuit for funny, fable-like films with little or no dialogue such as “Tuvalu”; the Azerbaijan-set “Absurdistan,” which went to Sundance in 2008; and “The Bra,” that launched from Tokyo in 2018.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Italy’s Roberto Stabile, head of special projects, Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual-Ministry of Culture at Cinecittà, breezed through the San Sebastian Film Festival on Tuesday to tout Italy’s drive to amp up the distribution of Italian movies around the world. In a brief presentation at the city’s Museo de San Telmo, he held forth about the plan to increase the presence of Italian audiovisual content not only in cinemas, but also on streaming platforms, online distribution and television, among others.

The Tokyo Film Festival has set the lineup for its bumper 2023 edition, running October 23 to November 1. Scroll down for the full list. 

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Starz is canceling four of its series, Variety has learned exclusively. Specifically, “Heels,” “Run the World,” and “Blindspotting” will not get new seasons at the cable network, while “The Venery of Samantha Bird” Season 1 is being scrapped without airing. “Heels,” “Run the World,” and “Blindspotting” all recently aired their second season at Starz, while “The Venery of Samantha Bird” was in production on its first season.