Lightdox Snags Rights to IDFA Frontlight Player ‘Arica’ (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: NBC has put in development The A Word, a drama based on the Israeli series Yellow Peppers, from writer Arika Mittman (Paradise Lost), Keshet Studios and Universal Television.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentBerlin-based Picture Tree International has picked up global sales rights to Mexican director Raúl López Echeverría’s feature debut, the socially conscious soccer comedy “Domingo,” and will introduce the film, in final postproduction, to buyers at Latin American film market Ventana Sur this week.The film tells the story of Domingo, a man of 55 living in a poor suburb of Guadalajara.

Jamie Lang Javier Krause, co-founder of Argentina’s Rispo Films and long one of the country’s key sales agents, has crossed the Atlantic and started Kafilms, a new Swiss production company where he is taking the reins to create new content for international audiences, including two new Italian co-productions which Krause has announced in exclusivity with Variety.Joined by Maurizio and Manuel Tedesco of Italy’s Baires Produzioni, backers of Filmax-sold “Tomorrow’s a New Day” from Simone Spada

An elegantly composed mosiac of real events and artfully restaged memories, Iranian director Firouzeh Khosrovani's stylized documentary Radiograph of a Family is a personal passion project with rich political and cultural resonance.

Jimmy Fallon is gearing up for Christmas and has some gift ideas in mind for his famous friends.While he believes pal Drew Barrymore could do with a sleeping bag to sneak in naps now that’s she getting up early for her new talk show, he would buy comedian Amy Poehler a ski hat. “When I first met her, she was doing improv and was a little punk kid wearing this giant ski hat.

Damon Wise The festival calendar has had its casualties in 2020, and after a brief glimmer of hope in the fall, with Venice and San Sebastian going ahead—almost—as normal, IDFA had high hopes of putting on a hybrid event that would balance physical and online events in almost equal measure.

Amsterdam-based documentary festival IDFA has crowned Firouzeh Khosrovani’s Radiograph Of A Family as Best Feature-Length Documentary at its 2020 Awards Ceremony.

Damon Wise Iranian director Firouzeh Khosrovani has won the IDFA award for Best Feature-Length Documentary with “Radiograph of a Family,” a film that uses an intimate study of her parents’ marriage—her father was secular, Westernized and progressive, while her mother was a devout, traditional Muslim—to explore the divisions in Iranian society both in the run-up and aftermath of the Iranian Revolution in 1979.The jury, which comprised Marie-Pierre Macia, Ed Lachman, Alice Diop, Abdelkader

Emiliano Granada Grasshopper Film has picked up North American non-theatrical and digital distribution rights to Mo Scarpelli’s “El Father Plays Himself,” as the documentary of the Italian-American director and cinematographer screens at the 33rd IDFA Best of Festivals Selection – after having won a special mention for best international feature at Switzerland’s Visions du Réel.The New York based distributor is looking to release the title on digital markets in early 2021.A doc feature that

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentLeading documentary specialist Dogwoof has acquired world sales rights to Miguel Eek’s feature debut “The First Woman,” following its world premiere in the First Appearance Competition section of documentary film festival IDFA, which runs Nov. 18-Dec.

Jamie Lang WarnerMedia’s rapidly growing new streaming service HBO Max has picked up hit international thriller “La Jauria” for the U.S. from Chile-based Fabula, owned and operated by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín, and Fremantle.

Bruce Boynton was a civil rights activist whose 1960 landmark Supreme Court case inspired the iconic Freedom Rides.Boynton was a law student at Howard University when he was arrested while traveling home to Selma, Alabama for the holidays. He was dining at a bus station restaurant designated “whites only” and when he failed to leave when ordered to, Boynton was sent to jail for the night.

Janet W. Lee ShortsTV has acquired exclusive one-year distribution rights to a collection of short documentary films commissioned by Mastercard, Variety has exclusively learned.The short films from the collection, titled “Five,” were helmed by women directors, and follow five unique journeys of women entrepreneurs in different countries.

Emiliano De Pablos Stefan Kloos’ Rise and Shine World Sales agency has picked up all world rights excluding The Netherlands to Sergej Kreso’s musical documentary “Here We Move Here We Groove.”Making its world premiere as part of IDFA’s Dutch Competition, “Here We Move,” produced by Amsterdam-based Doxy Films, represents a stirring and hopeful musical story about building bridges via music.It follows DJ Robert Soko, who fled from the war in Yugoslavia as a teenager, and used Western music and

Damon Wise In a year when so many international film festivals have gone dark, it comes as no surprise that, as soon as the coronavirus pandemic took hold, IDFA’s annual public performance strand—IDFA on Stage—came very close to being canceled.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentColombian documentary feature “Alis,” from directors Nicolas van Hemelryck and Clare Weiskopf, has won the Forum Award for best project at IDFA, one of the world’s leading documentary film festivals, which is running as a virtual event until Dec. 6.

Also Read: Gov. Cuomo Tells 'The View' He Might 'Work It Out' With Chelsea Handler -- On One Condition (Video)The award will be presented to Cuomo at the International Emmy Awards show, which will livestream on the academy’s website on Nov.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBrooklyn-based distributor KimStim has acquired North American rights to Brazilian director Maya Da-Rin’s feature debut “The Fever” (“A Febre”), which world premiered in competition at Locarno and played at Toronto in 2019.The film is represented in international markets by Pierre Menahem’s French sales banner Still Moving, who negotiated the deal on behalf of the producers with KimStim’s Mika Kimoto.

An Epidemic of Violence: Fatal Violence Against Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People in the United States in 2020,” details the deaths of those individuals killed in the United States, including updates on the status of investigations into their deaths, or any charges filed against perpetrators of violence.