Love Story ‘Breaking the Ice’ Debuts Trailer Ahead of Tribeca Premiere, Films Boutique Handling Sales (EXCLUSIVE)

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAs Paramount+ prepares for its splashy, star-studded U.K. and Ireland launch in London on Monday, Paramount’s president and CEO of streaming Tom Ryan spoke to Variety about the rebranded company’s global streaming biz expansion that, besides being powered by original content, stands out in the field for its diversified model.This model involves a mix of platforms and partnerships, combining direct-to-consumer and a la carte offerings with a market-by-market approach.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBeta Cinema will handle international sales on “The Fox,” a drama about an Austrian soldier and his friendship with a wounded fox cub, set during World War II. Alamode Filmverleih will release the film in German-speaking territories in early 2023.The film is directed by Adrian Goiginger, whose directorial debut “The Best of All Worlds” became a break-out hit after premiering at the Berlinale in 2017, winning more than 100 awards around the world.Beta Cinema will introduce “The Fox” to select international buyers at the German Previews, the annual industry event organized by German Films in Munich from June 20-23.“The Fox” is the true story of Franz Streitberger, Goiginger’s great-grandfather, a motorcycle courier for the Austrian army, which was incorporated into the German Wehrmacht.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor“L’îlot” (“Like an Island“), winner of the Grand Prix at Visions du Réel, has debuted its trailer ahead of its international premiere at the Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival in the Special Screenings section. Michaela Čajková at Filmotor is handling world sales.Swiss director Tizian Büchi’s feature debut is a documentary-fiction hybrid full of magic realism.It centers on two watchmen, who secure the river that runs through a neighborhood in Lausanne, Switzerland.

A family from Devon have had to relocate to Manchester in order to treat their nine-year-old boy's bone cancer. Jack Middleton, a young motocross star, is being cared for in the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

Katie Holmes and her boyfriend Bobby Wooten III look so happy together!

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMusic Box Films has acquired North American rights to “Rodeo,” the bold feature debut of Lola Quivoron which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes where it won the Coup de Cœur du Jury special prize. Produced by Charles Gillibert (“Annette”) at CG Cinema and represented by Les Films du Losange, “Rodeo” stars newcomer Julie Ledrue a Julia, a hot tempered and fiercely independent young woman who infiltrates an underground dirt bike community in France.After a chance meeting at an urban ‘Rodeo,’ Julia finds herself drawn into a clandestine and volatile clique and striving to prove herself to the ultra-masculine group, but is she is faced with a series of escalating demands that will make or break her place in the community.

Naman Ramachandran The Walt Disney Company’s streamer Disney+ will be available in 42 new countries and 11 new territories this week following the launch on Tuesday in Greece, Turkey and countries in Central Eastern Europe, including Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic and Croatia. Tuesday’s series of launches follow the arrival of the service in South Africa on May 18 and across West Asia and North Africa on June 8.

Manori Ravindran International EditorSkyShowtime — the joint venture between Comcast and Paramount Global — has unveiled key hires for the European streaming service, including its head of programming.BBC Select executive Jon Farrar has been named head of programming, Variety can reveal. The executive joins from BBC Studios, where he led the direct-to-consumer programming strategy in his dual role as global VOD director and editor-in-chief of North American SVOD service BBC Select.Farrar was also part of the team that developed BritBox, the streaming joint venture between BBC Studios and ITV.Reporting into SkyShowtime CEO Monty Sarhan, Farrar will be responsible for programming strategy, overseeing the platform’s pipeline of studio content, and building a programming team across SkyShowtime’s 20 markets to develop original and local content.

A minor but affecting character study about buried family trauma, Clara Stern’s feature-length narrative debut “Breaking the Ice” works well as both a sports drama — focusing on an Austrian minor-league women’s hockey team — and a romantic drama. While perhaps too contained within its protagonist’s point of view, Stern’s film is nevertheless an impressive debut.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe 39th edition of the Munich Film Festival, which runs June 23-July 2, will screen 120 films from 52 countries, including 35 world premieres, such as “Paloma” by Marcelo Gomes, one of several films in the festival that tackles the subject of trans identities.The three international competition sections will feature numerous highlights from the Cannes Film Festival, including “Corsage,” which opens the event. Vicky Krieps was honored in Cannes with the best actress award in the Un Certain Regard section for her performance as Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as “Sissi.” Four films come to Munich fresh from Cannes’ main competition: “Leila’s Brothers” by Iranian director Saeed Roustayi, about a family’s struggle for survival in an Iran economically weakened by Western sanctions and consumed by corruption; “Pacifiction” by Albert Serra, in which Benoît Magimel excels as a conflicted police commissioner; “The Eight Mountains,” directed by Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen, a touching adaptation of Paolo Cognetti’s novel about a friendship forged in the spectacular natural environment of the Western Alps; and Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with “Broker,” which received the award for best acting performance in Cannes for Song Kang-ho.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorFeature documentary “The Wild One,” which looks at the life of Jack Garfein, Holocaust survivor, Broadway director, Actors Studio West co-founder, and controversial filmmaker, has debuted its trailer. Tessa Louise-Salomé’s film, which is narrated by Willem Dafoe, will have its world premiere on Saturday at Tribeca Film Festival.

Katie Holmes is exploring life and love in lockdown in her introspective new romantic drama, ET exclusively debuts the teaser trailer for the upcoming film, written and directed by Holmes, which is set to make its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival next week. The film stars Holmes as June, a food critic who accidentally double-books an AirBnB upstate for herself and her boyfriend, John (Derek Luke), in March 2020. But when John has to bail on the trip to take care of his parents, June is forced to cohabitate with the other guest, newly-single Charlie (Jim Sturgess) as the pandemic restrictions start to sink in, essentially stranding them together.

Katie Holmes is exploring life and love in lockdown in her introspective new romantic drama, ET exclusively debuts the trailer for the upcoming film, written and directed by Holmes, which is set to make its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival next week. The film stars Holmes as June, a food critic who accidentally double-books an AirBnB upstate for herself and her boyfriend, John (Derek Luke), in March 2020. But when John has to bail on the trip to take care of his parents, June is forced to cohabitate with the other guest, newly-single Charlie (Jim Sturgess) as the pandemic restrictions start to sink in, essentially stranding them together.

Family is challenging as it, but it can be even worse when you’re a teenage girl dealing with the fraught cycles of body insecurity and weight issues. That’s essentially the premise of “Family Dinner,” a horror-thriller film from Austrian writer-director Peter Hengl, making its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival next week (technically now known as the Tribeca Festival, but old habits die hard).

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentParis-based sales company Charades has closed a raft of deals on “Forever Young,” Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s film which competed at Cannes and earned a warm critical welcome. “Forever Young” opens at the end of the 1980s in Paris and follows a young troupe of comedians who have just have been admitted to Les Amandiers, the prestigious theater school headed by Patrice Chéreau. Bruni Tedeschi wrote the script alongside Agnès De Sacy and regular collaborator Noémie Lvovsky.

Spanish Filmin Buys Lars Von Trier’s ‘The Kingdom’ Trilogy

Caitlin Quinlan “I don’t think you ever have to be fearful when you’re writing a film,” says Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani ahead of the premiere of her second feature “The Blue Caftan” in Un Certain Regard.Following the relationship between husband and wife Halim and Mina who have kept Halim’s homosexuality a secret for many years, the film takes an important stand against the homophobia of Morocco and its anti-LGTBQ laws. “In Morocco, homosexuality is illegal and I don’t have words to describe how it makes me feel.

Austrian writer-director Sebastian Meise has been named president of the Jury at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival. He’ll be joined on his jury by screenwriter and producer Lucile Hadžihalilović, writer-director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, actor Milan Marić and producer and senior consultant for international co-productions Katriel Schory.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentPulsar Content has closed a raft of major deals on “La Maison,” Anissa Bonnefont’s erotic drama based on Emma Becker’s controversial bestselling novel chronicling the young author’s two-year undercover experience working as a sex worker at a Berlin brothel. The Paris-based company introduced the title to buyers at Cannes and sold it to Wild Bunch for Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain, among other deals. Wild Bunch will team with Capelight for the German release.