First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will personally intervene today in a bid to stop waves of strike action among council workers.
12.08.2022 - 19:03 / variety.com
Leo Barraclough International Features EditorJi.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival has revealed to Variety the projects that the participants of its 2022 Emerging Producers program are working on. The producers were asked to deliver an elevator pitch for their projects.Every year since 2010, the festival has selected 18 up-and-coming producers of documentary films (17 European and one representing a non-European guest country), which are then provided with educational, networking and promotional support.There are almost 200 alumni of the program, many of whom have gone on to win awards at major festivals.The 2023 participants will be announced by Ji.hlava during the Sarajevo Film Festival on Aug. 15.“All Roads” (working title)Producer: Charlotte Hailstone, Hailstone Films (U.K.)Director: Laura WadhaSynopsis: A decade after the war began, a Scottish/Syrian filmmaker tries to reconnect with her fractured Syrian family, scattered around the world. She embarks on a journey, exploring the breakdown in communication between loved ones she hasn’t seen since 2010, wondering to what extent this has actually been caused by the war.Pitch: Laura’s debut feature builds on her successful short documentaries, including Berlinale Crystal Bear-winning “Born in Damascus.” This intimate film shows the audience what happens long after the initial upheaval of war. A timely light shone on the lasting impact this trauma has on lives and relationships.
“Ashes Settling in Layers on the Surface”Producers: Natalia Libet (Ukraine), Victor Ede, Cinephage Productions (France), Petra Seliskar, Petra Pan Film (Slovenia)Director: Zoya LaktionovaSynopsis: Based on diaries and photographs found in the houses destroyed during the Russian war against
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will personally intervene today in a bid to stop waves of strike action among council workers.
K.J. Yossman SRAB Films, producer of Ladj Ly’s 2019 Cannes effort “Les Misérables,” which was picked up by Amazon Studios, has been acquired by Asacha Media Group (AMG), according to reports.
France’s Asacha Media Group has acquired compatriot SRAB Films, the firm behind Ladj Ly’s Oscar-nominated Les Misérables.
K.J. Yossman Jamie Laurenson and Hakan Kousetta’s 60Forty Films has inked an overall deal with Apple TV+, Variety can exclusively reveal. They are already in production on upcoming Apple TV+ thriller series “Hijack,” starring Idris Elba, which they are producing alongside Idiotlamp Productions and Elba’s company Green Door Pictures. “Hijack” tells the story of Sam Nelson (played by Elba), an accomplished business negotiator whose quick-thinking, smooth-talking skills become crucial when the plane he is on is hijacked. Laurenson and Kousetta have worked closely with Apple for a number of years, including on Gary Oldman-starrer “Slow Horses” (pictured above) and “The Essex Serpent,” starring Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston, both of which the duo lead exec produced.
Christopher Vourlias Producer Ilya Stewart has launched an independent studio based in Europe that will operate on a global scale, working with international talent and focusing on English-language feature films and television series, Variety can exclusively reveal. Hype Studios is the new venture from Stewart, the formerly Moscow-based producer who in recent years has been a fixture at the Cannes Film Festival, where his collaborations with Russian auteur Kirill Serebrennikov, including “Petrov’s Flu” and “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” have premiered in competition. Among the co-productions with American and European partners currently on Hype Studios’ slate is Zach Wigon’s “Sanctuary,” starring Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott, which premieres as a Special Presentation next month at the Toronto International Film Festival and was produced with Rumble Films and Mosaic Films, along with Charades. Also on the slate is Pietro Marcello’s French-language “Scarlet,” produced in partnership with CG Cinéma’s Charles Gillibert, which opened this year’s Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes and will receive its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival.
John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Seasoned Finnish producer Ilkka Matila (“The Eternal Road”, “All the Sins”) of MRP Matila Röhr has signed with Estonia’s Taska Film and locked early support from the Finnish Film Institute and local commercial channel MTV3 for the $2.7m film “Between the Hammer and the Sickle.” Nordisk Film holds Scandinavian rights. To be pitched on Aug. 24 at the Nordic Co-Production Market in Haugesund, Norway, the title will be one of Matila’s most defining projects, a feature which he believes will stay, along the lines of the multi-awarded “Mother of Mine” or “The Eternal Road.” “Between the Hammer and the Sickle” will be one of the first features ever to portray Finland’s illustrious former president Urho Kekkonen. Head of state for nearly 26 years, Kekkonen served as the longest-serving Finnish president from 1956 until 1981 and masterminded his country’s policy of neutrality, keeping at bay the threatening Soviet Union with which Finland shares 800 miles of border.
A lorry has overturned in a rush hour crash on the M8 this evening.
The 2022 Nordic Council Film Prize Nominees Announced The five nominees for the prestigious Nordic Council Film Prize have been announced. The list of nominees includes Joachim Trier’s Oscar-nominated The Worst Person in the World, Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland, Teemu Nikki’s The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic, Lamb by Valdimar Jóhannson, and Clara Sola, directed by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén. The Nordic Council Film Prize, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, is awarded to “an artistically significant, Nordic-produced full-length feature film with cinema distribution”. The award comes with a €41,000 cash prize shared equally between the winning film’s director, screenwriter and producer. The winner will be announced on November 1 at a ceremony in Helsinki, Finland. Last year’s winner was Flee directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen.
A newborn baby boy has tragically died in hospital after ambulance crews were called out to a Scots home at the start of the week.
“John Wick” director Chad Stahelski will take his love of assassin films to Warner Bros. as director and producer of the action film “Shibumi,” which now has “Operation Finale” screenwriter Matthew Orton attached to pen the script. Orton will adapt the script from the 1979 novel of the same name written by Rodney William Whitaker under the pen name Trevanian.
Two more petrol stations in the Falkirk Council area have been given permission to deliver alcohol along with groceries.
Annika Pham Former Oslo Pictures CEO-producer Dyveke Bjørkly Graver and producer Andrea Berentsen Ottmar have set up their own shop, Eye Eye Pictures, Variety has learned.The Norwegian producers were both behind the Cannes-winning and double Oscar-nominated “The Worst Person in the World” by star Norwegian director Joachim Trier. The Nordic romcom, released by Neon in the U.S., earned Renate Reinsve a Cannes Festival best actress award in 2021.Besides Trier, Bjørkly Graver and Berentsen Ottmar have brought another visionary Norwegian auteur to Cannes: Kristoffer Borgli, whose satire “Sick of Myself” world premiered at the festival’s Un Certain Regard strand this year.
TIFF announced its Short Cuts section today comprised of 39 live-action narrative, documentary, and animated short films from directors repping 18 countries.
Anas Sarwar will today call for an emergency rent freeze to be implemented as soon as MSPs return from their summer break next month.
Tubi continues to expand its adult animated programming, giving a green light to Breaking Bear, an adult animated comedy series from The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia director Julien Nitzberg, Creepshow producer Cartel Entertainment, and Blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge’s To The Stars Media (Monsters of California).
Mary Kromolowski. It tells the story of the Italian-born painter and sculptor Modigliani as he lived in Paris in 1916. After long considering himself a critical and commercial failure, Modigliani navigates a turbulent and eventful 48 hours that will become a turning point in his life, ultimately solidifying his reputation as an artistic legend.Production expects to begin in the spring of 2023 in Europe.
Johnny Depp is due to hop back into the director’s seat for the first time in 25 years with Modigliani, a feature film about the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, which he will co-produce alongside Al Pacino.
EXCLUSIVE: The Ukrainian Institute has lambasted the organizers of a prestigious German filmmaker residency program for inviting Russians and Belarusians to take part as well as Ukrainians, slamming the emergency program for the “perpetuation of both an outdated Soviet perspective and Russia’s colonial logic.”
Homes across Britain could face four days of blackouts this winter as the Government prepares for cold weather gas shortages.
Ukraine battle against invading Russian forces is now in its sixth month, and the country’s filmmakers remain determined to document the horrors facing its people.