Kino Lorber Nabs U.S. Rights to Hernan Findling’s ‘Virtual Reality’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Ahead of this month’s Stanley Cup Final, the National Hockey League said today that SNL stalwart Kenan Thompson will host the in-person 2022 NHL Awards. The annual ceremony celebrates the league’s best regular-season performances.

Angelique Jackson In its 26th year, the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) is more star-studded than ever, with a robust lineup of Black film and television stars and creators.After two years of COVID-related pivots, the festival returns to South Beach in Miami for a five-day engagement full of special screenings, panel discussions and events celebrating the Black film and television community. Among the talent joining ABFF festival ambassador Issa Rae, who will debut her new HBO Max series “Rap Sh!t” at the festival are Chanté Adams, Yahya Abdul- Mateen II, Kenya Barris, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Ben Crump, Michael Ealy, DeVon Franklin, Kasi Lemmons, Judge Greg Mathis, LisaRaye McCoy, Kyla Pratt, Trevante Rhodes, Kendrick Sampson, Robin Thede, Judge Lynn Toler, Susan Kelechi Watson and Salli Richardson Whitfield, among many others.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired North American rights to first-time Lebanese director Mounia Akl’s timely drama “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” which launched positively last year from Venice.“Costa Brava” provides an acerbic take on Lebanon’s waste management crisis and its turbulent political landscape and combines the country’s strife with the global climate crisis. The darkly comic drama pairs Oscar-nominated Lebanese star and filmmaker Nadine Labaki (“Capernaum”) and Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (“The Band’s Visit”) as a couple who has moved from Beirut to live idyllically in the mountains, until one day the government decides to build a garbage landfill right beside their house.

EXCLUSIVE: Dekanalog has picked up Streetwise, Anatolian Leopard and Fugue, three buzzy international films.

star Emma Hernan is proud of her vegan empanadas despite the critics. ET's Denny Directo spoke with Hernan at the MTV Movie & TV Awards: UNSCRIPTED, and she defended her business.Some fans have criticized Hernan's empanadas as being inauthentic, and they've been featured on.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer“Framing Agnes,” a hybrid narrative and documentary feature film that explores trans lives and history, has sold North American distribution rights to Kino Lorber.Directed by Chase Joynt, the film closely and accurately depicts the journey of trans people past and present through reenactments of transcripts from a notable 1960s UCLA gender study. Based on a short by Joynt which premiered and nabbed awards at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, the project features a cast of trans performers and academics that includes Jules Gill-Peterson, Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Zackary Drucker, Max Wolf Valerio, Silas Howard and Stephen Ira.The film will make its New York premiere at NewFest on June 5, followed by a theatrical release from Kino Lorber in December. Joynt and Morgan M.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentShaping up as one of the most anticipated movies from Spain this year, “Prison 77” (“Modelo 77”) has an international teaser trailer, which Movistar Plus has shared in exclusivity with Variety.“Modelo 77” marks the third Movistar Plus original film, re-teaming Telefonica’s pay TV/SVOD service with director Alberto Rodríguez, co-writer Rafael Cobos and co-producer Atípica Films, the driving forces behind “The Plague,” Movistar Plus’ big banner 2017 series.Sold internationally by Film Factory, “Prison 77” will be released in Spanish theaters by Buena Vista International on Sept. 23, the second Friday of Spain’s San Sebastian Festival, which begs the question as to whether it will feature at the event.

K.J. Yossman Guillermo del Toro and Kid Cudi are among the names that will appear at Netflix’s inaugural Annecy International Animation Film Festival showcase next month.The streamer is also bringing masterclasses and the world premiere of Chris Williams’ sea monster adventure “The Sea Beast,” starring Karl Urban and Dan Stevens, to the festival, which takes place in France.Netflix’s showcase will offer an exclusive first look at del Toro’s upcoming stop-motion adaptation of “Pinocchio,” with the filmmaker attending in person to discuss the project, as well as the first look at “Entergalactic,” the adult animated series from Kid Cudi (AKA Scott Mescudi) and Kenya Barris, which is based on Cudi’s album of the same name.

What’s next? Pete Davidson has officially closed his Saturday Night Live chapter, but the comedian remains as booked and busy as ever thanks to his new series, Bupkis.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorSales agency Beta Cinema has revealed the casting of further lead roles for action thriller “The Climb”: Hero Fiennes Tiffin, star of the global box office franchise series “After,” as well as the upcoming Sony/Tristar feature “The Woman King,” and IMDB break-out star Hannah John-Kamen, best known for her performances in “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and “Black Mirror,” will star alongside Cara Delevingne, who was announced earlier this year.After Signature Entertainment picked up the project ahead of the Marché du Film in Cannes for U.K. and Ireland, Beta Cinema has closed further deals for Germany, Austria and Italy (Koch Films), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Spain (Youplanet Pictures) and Middle East (Front Row).

Fern Hawkins has been photographed soaking up the sun in Marbella alongside her pals, as her lavish hen do gets underway. The 27 year old has jetted off following her recent wedding to England footballer Harry Maguire, 29, with the couple tying the knot in a low-key ceremony at Crewe Registry Office on Thursday 12 May.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterLatin American jazz fusion icon Carlos Santana will be the subject of an expansive documentary directed by Emmy winner Rudy Valdez.Imagine Documentaries is collaborating with Sony Music Entertainment on the project, who is co-financing and handling distribution. It will follow Santana’s journey from 14-year-old street musician to a 10-time Grammy winning global sensation, and feature unseen archival footage and tracks.Valdez is the director of the Sundance documentary audience award winner “The Sentence,” about the corrosive effect of mandatory minimum sentencing on convicts and their families.

Emilio Mayorga Film Factory Entertainment has taken international rights to “Loli Tormenta,” the next film by one of Spain’s foremost auteurs, Agustí Villaronga (“The Belly of the Sea,” “Uncertain Glory”). Shooting is scheduled for the first week of July in Barcelona.Enrique González Kuhn’s Caramel Films distributes “Loli Tormenta” in Spain.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks has snapped up worldwide sales rights to Jaime Chavarri’s upcoming comedy, “La Manzana de Oro” (“The Golden Apple”).In a separate deal, Spanish pubcaster RTVE has clinched free TV rights for Spain.Produced by Mario Real and Enrique González Khun at the fledgling La Pirueta Films, “La Manzana de Oro” marks the comeback of one of Spain’s great directors of the last half century after his triple Goya-winning 2005 biopic “Camarón: When Flamenco Became Legend.”Chavarri is best-known for sophisticated arthouse dramas “The Disenchantment,”  “To an Unknown God” and “Dedicated to…,” produced by Elias Querejeta, as well as smash hits “Bicycles Are for the Summer” and “The Things of Love.” “We are indeed blessed to be working with a masterful director like Jaime Chavarri whose films have touched the hearts of audiences and critics worldwide,” said FilmSharks’ Guido Rud.Based on prize-winning novel “Ávidas Pretensiones” by Fernando Aramburu, the film begins with the arrival of an unexpected guest who disrupts an annual conference of poets at a remote convent.“La Manzana de Oro” will “complete an unplanned trilogy about contemporary Spanish poets,” Chavarrri explained, offering “a general reflection, good-humored and somewhat melancholic.”