Lyme Disease Exposé ‘The Quiet Epidemic’ Debuts Trailer Ahead of Hot Docs Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAnn Dowd will star in “The Undertaker’s Children.” The thriller is currently in pre-production. The Exchange will introduce the title to buyers at the upcoming 2022 Cannes Film Market.  Dowd stars as a secretive undertaker forced to take in two orphans. When her sinister plan for getting rid of the kids in her care is revealed, the children plan a daring escape and find themselves facing evil forces.  Dowd is no stranger to ratcheting up the tension.

Christopher Vourlias “Million Dollar Pigeons,” which had its world premiere this week at Hot Docs, follows a colorful cast of pigeon masters from far and wide who compete in the most lucrative pigeon races on the planet. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer, and speaks to the director, Irish filmmaker Gavin Fitzgerald.The third documentary feature from Fitzgerald, the film enters the world of the passionate “pigeon fanciers” who put their reputations and livelihoods at stake in pursuit of ever-growing prize purses.

Christopher Vourlias Progress Film, the historic distributor established in 1950 to handle the release of films produced by communist East Germany’s state-owned film studio, has announced plans to relaunch theatrical distribution and international sales.The company has also acquired Sergei Loznitsa’s “The Natural History of Destruction,” which will have its world premiere as a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival. Progress is handling world sales as well as distribution in Germany, where it’s planning a theatrical release.Based on WWII archive footage, “The Natural History of Destruction” puts forward the questions: Is it morally acceptable to use civilian populations as a means of war, and is it possible to justify mass destruction for the sake of higher “moral” ideals? Those questions remain as relevant today as they were 80 years ago, becoming ever more urgent amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor“POV,” the Emmy-winning PBS documentary series, has announced the acquisition of environmental thriller “Delikado” as part of its upcoming 35th season.The film, which premiered April 29 at the Hot Docs Canadian Intl. Documentary Festival, is the directorial debut of award-winning journalist Karl Malakunas.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBerlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has acquired the world sales rights to erotic love story “99 Moons,” directed by Jan Gassmann, which will have its world premiere in Cannes’ ACID sidebar.The film centers on Bigna, a 28-year-old scientist, and 33-year-old Frank. Bigna is used to having everything under control, even her erotic desires follow rules.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorInternational sales company Andana Films has acquired Islamic State documentary “Rojek,” which has its North American premiere in Hot Docs’ Canadian Spectrum section on Saturday.The film, which had its world premiere in the International Competition section at Visions du Réel, will have a theatrical release in Canada through Maison 4:3.In the film, director Zaynê Akyol talks to imprisoned members of the Islamic State, alternating their words with aerial views of the countryside. It is “an unexpected look at a far-reaching current political issue, and a film whose subject matter and rhythm create an impressive cinematic object,” Andana stated.Mariam Zaidi at Hot Docs said: “The Syrian Democratic Forces, mostly Kurdish, as well as the international coalition, have succeeded in dislodging the Islamic State from their last stronghold and ending their project of establishing a caliphate in Syria.

Christopher Vourlias Irish director Frankie Fenton explores the movement of global activists who believe nuclear power is our best hope to fight climate change in “Atomic Hope: Inside the Pro-Nuclear Movement,” which world premieres May 3 at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Paris-based documentary specialist Java Films, which is handling world sales on the film, has given Variety exclusive access to the trailer.Intimately filmed across more than a decade, “Atomic Hope” follows the small movement of nuclear-energy advocates from Japan to Switzerland, America to Australia, as they try to win over a skeptical public – despite stiff opposition from traditional environmentalists and other interest groups.Fenton admits he was as much a nuclear-energy skeptic as the next when he began researching the film.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorAhead of its world premiere at Hot Docs, London-based MetFilm Sales has acquired worldwide rights (excluding the U.S.) for feature documentary “Delikado,” directed by Karl Malakunas. The film is an environmental thriller set in Palawan, one of Asia’s hottest new tourist destinations.

Christopher Vourlias Reservoir Docs has acquired world rights to “The End of Innocence,” director Pauline Beugnies’ documentary about a string of shocking crimes that rattled Belgium in the 1990s, ahead of its world premiere in the International Spectrum competition section at Hot Docs.“The End of Innocence” recounts an infamous series of child abductions, rapes and murders by the serial predator Marc Dutroux and his accomplices – a tragedy compounded by the egregious judicial errors that hampered the investigation.The “Dutroux Affair,” as it came to be known, shocked the nation, culminating in the “White March” of 1996, where more than 350,000 demonstrators marched in silent protest through the streets of Brussels after Dutroux’s arrest. The story is told through the testimonies of the survivors, now fully grown, shedding light on how their memories are altered by time, distorted by media coverage and limited by their youth and inexperience.

Naman Ramachandran The Circle Women Doc Accelerator, a training program for female-identifying documentary filmmakers, has selected the four projects that will take part in its showcase as part of the Cannes Docs program of the Cannes Film Market. “Becoming Ema” by Patricia Drati and produced by Sidsel Lønvig Siersted for Danish outlet Good Company Pictures and Frame Film in Slovakia (Circle 2020) follows a couple who decide to abandon modern city life and start a life deep in the countryside of Mallorca.

The “9-1-1: Lone Star” team is called in to aid a clown who’s trapped in a play castle at a boy’s birthday party in Monday’s episode of the Fox drama. But Rob Lowe’s Owen is stuck sweating on the sidelines.

«We have that scene in the kitchen where there's the possibility [of her power to see them going away],» he explained. «It turned out to be this really nice scene where all the ghosts get to say how much she means to them. I just thought it was a very nice series moment of, 'Hey, we first met you in the very first episode.

The official promo trailer for the upcoming Nickelodeon crossover event is here!- Just Jared Jr Alec Baldwin issues a new statement – DListed Elle Fanning reveals she went wild – Egotastic Dove Cameron performs this song for the first time – Just Jared Jr

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor“Images of a Nordic Drama,” the debut documentary by Oscar-nominated Norwegian director Nils Gaup, has debuted its teaser trailer, ahead of its international premiere at Hot Docs.The film follows art collector Haakon Mehren who faces unexpected resistance while championing the work of an unknown Norwegian artist after finding a cache of paintings in a barn.Despite success abroad, the undiscovered work of Aksel Waldemar Johannessen, a contemporary of Edvard Munch, takes nearly three decades to launch in Norway. The painter’s depictions of prostitutes and drunks living in miserable poverty offend the aesthetics of Norway’s art establishment and challenge the canon to the point of sabotaging his rediscovery.

Miles Teller and Matthew Goode reunite on the red carpet at the premiere of their new series, The Offer, held at Paramount Studios on Wednesday night (April 20) in Los Angeles.

Julia Roberts and former co-star Dermot Mulroney connected after all this time. «Dermot and I, anytime it's on TV or the song that plays from when we're on the ferryboat together, we always are calling each other or texting each other,» she told ET of the song «The Way You Look Tonight.» In fact, it's the chemistry seeping through their two characters — food critic Julianne and sportswriter Michael -- that she credits with attracting fans over all these years. «The alchemy of our relationship's really, I think, is what stands the test of time in that movie,» she noted. Now, Roberts is adding yet another standout character to her acting arsenal as Martha Mitchell in Starz's upcoming series, , centered on the Watergate scandal and Martha's role in exposing it. Alongside co-star Sean Penn as husband John N. Mitchell, both world-famous performers fade away into their real-life characters.

The trailer for Heartstopper, Netflix’s new show, just debuted online!

Horror network Shudder has acquired the rights to The Sadness, directed by Rob Jabbaz and shot on location in Taiwan. The film is produced by David Barker and executive produced by Li-Cheng Huang, while Eunice Cheng associate produced for Machi Xcelsior Studios.