Miami Film Festival to Celebrate Global Cinema Including ‘The Good Boss’ and ‘Drive My Car’

JD Linville Chilean filmmaker Matías Bize’s pandemic-prompted film “Private Messages” will be part of the Official Selection at the 2022 Malaga Film Festival, and the feature dives face-first into the stories which make us human, vulnerable and strong. Bize, who won a Spanish Academy Goya for his Variety-championed film “The Life of the Fish” in 2011, uses self-filmed footage of the film’s international cast (including Blanca Lewin, Nicolás Poblete, Antonia Zegers, Néstor Cantillana, Vicenta Ndongo, Alex Brendemühl and Verónica Intile) confessing their most intimate stories during 2020’s global lockdowns, which coincided with filming.“Private Messages” pieces its narrative together carefully, the truth of its storytellers overlaid with original music, and culminating in a powerful ending which memorializes the power of rebirth. Variety spoke to Bize ahead of his film’s premiere at Malaga.Covid was the impetus for “Private Messages,” but what else inspired the film? This film was born on the first day of the pandemic’s confinement.

2022 Malaga Festival Lineup:Main Competition“Emperor Code,” (“Código Emperador,” Jorge Coira, Vaca Films, Playtime, Spain)The Malaga Fest opener, a noirish crime thriller with special services operative Luis Tosar moonlighting for the elite, here trying to dig up the dirt on a young politico. Segueing rapidly to Netflix after an A Contracorriente release in Spain.“A Mae,” (Cristiano Burlan, Brazil) The latest from the prolific Brazilian narrative and doc director, maker of euthanasia-themed “Antes do fim,” and 2015’s “Hunger.” In it, a humble street vendor mother searches desperately for her missing son, claiming the right to at least bury his body.

Joe Leydon Film CriticIt may sound counterintuitive at best, tone-deaf at worse, to label a documentary focused on food providers aiding people in the wake of disasters as a feel-good movie. But that’s an honest, accurate and, yes, appreciative label for “We Feed People,” Ron Howard’s technically polished and emotionally stirring close-up view of celebrity chef José Andrés and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen.The movie effectively begins in media res, with the robustly gregarious Andrés and his dedicated crew  years into their vocation, providing hot meals to isolated residents of Wilmington, N.C., in the wake of 2018’s Hurricane Florence — and coming perilously close to tasting their own disaster when floodwaters almost topple their delivery truck — before backing up to explain just who Andrés is and what started him on his mission.A native of Spain, Andrés moved to the U.S.

Women in Film and Google have set Kameishia Wooten and Robin J. Hayes (Choices), Patricia Seely and Alexandra Clayton (Please In Spanish), and Katarina Zhu (Silverlake Cleaners) as the fellows for the inaugural WIF Shorts Lab supported by Google.

Warner Bros/DC’s The Batman has winged its way past the half a billion dollar mark worldwide to become the fourth highest-grossing studio release of the pandemic era. The global total is $505.8M through Wednesday, and there’s still plenty of gas left in the Batmobile.

After two weeks in theaters, Warner Bros./DC’s “The Batman” has passed $500 million at the global box office, with more than half of that total coming from domestic theaters. On Wednesday, “The Batman” added $5.75 million domestically, bringing its total to $258.3 million in North America and $505.8 million worldwide.

At Water’s Edge, a mesmerizing queer dance short from the acclaimed, trailblazing transgender choreographer, and Homo Pol, a short dance documentary film by Amadeus Pawlica focused on the LGBTQ community in Poland.Monday, March 21, brings nine more in a program exploring relationships at opposite ends of the age spectrum, from budding young love to the Alzheimer’s-induced fading memory of a relationship more than 40 years in the making.Also part of Week 2 programming is the German short Pussy Cruising, a humorous take and fantastical riff on the subject posed by the question, “What would cruising among lesbians look like?”The seven films packaged in Week 3 examine the prejudices, discrimination, and other hurdles, some of them self-imposed, faced by people with queer identities, particularly as faced by those living in Iran, Finland, Greece, Spain, North America, and Chile — with The Bodies of Siegfried, Emilio Rodriguez’s documentary offering a visual exploration questioning the limits of art and pornography.Finally, queer challenges, from identity and self-image to romantic relationships, are explored in the final six selected for Week 4, beginning April 4 and ending April 11.Tickets per program, offering a full week of streaming, are $10, or $25 for a full festival pass.

K.J. Yossman Film Mode Entertainment has inked a multi-project distribution deal with Australian director/producer Luke Sparke’s company Sparke Films.Among the titles Film Mode will represent worldwide are Sparke’s upcoming projects “Weapons of Choice,” a television adaptation of John Birmingham’s World War Two trilogy “Axis of Time” and “Primitive War,” a horror feature franchise based on Ethan Pettus’ book series.Film Mode will also handle worldwide sales rights for “Occupation: Rainfall 2” and “Occupation: Rainfall 3” – the third and fourth films in Sparke’s franchise – as well as a number of other projects still in development.

Emiliano De Pablos Tenerife-based Bendita Film Sales has taken international sales rights to Nely Reguera’s sophomore outing, drama “La voluntaria” (“The Volunteer”), toplining “Broken Embraces,” “Perfect Life” and Piggy” star Carmen Machi, one of the biggest marquee draws in Spain.World premiering in main competition at this year’s Malaga Festival, “La voluntaria” marks Reguera’s follow-up to her well-received feature 2016 debut, the Bárbara Lennie-starrer “María (And the Others),” which won the best Ibero-American film prize at the Miami Film Festival and earned new director and lead actress nominations at the Spanish Academy Goya Awards.Barcelona-born Reguera forms part of the new generation of exciting young female Catalan auteurs, alongside Carla Simón (“Alcarràs”), Belén Funes (“The Daughter of the Thief”), Neus Ballús (“The Odd-Job Men”) and Meritxell Colell (“Facing the Wind”).  A Spain-Greece co-production, “La voluntaria” is produced by Adriá Monés at Fasten Films, Bteam Pictures’ Alex Lafuente and Maria Drandaki from Homemade Films. The film follows Marisa, a recently retired doctor, played by Machi, who has a big desire to having grand-children, but for an inexplicable reason none of her children has granted her wish.After the sudden death of her only companion, her bulldog, Marisa decides to leave everything and travel to a refugee camp in Greece, where the children seem to need people exactly like her. Itsaso Arana (“The August Virgin”), Arnau Comas (“Yesterday’s Two Nights”),  Dèlia Brufau (“Your Are Not So Special”), Yohan Levy (“Emily in Paris”) and Henrietta Rauth (“Gruber Is Leaving”) complete the cast.“We are very happy to add to our catalog the latest film by Nely Reguera, one of the most promising

Anna Marie de la Fuente Documentaries about the conflict in Ukraine, the Cuban migrant situation and the Palestinian refugee crisis were among top winners at MiradasDoc, Spain’s foremost documentary film festival which wrapped its 15th edition on March 12. Based in Tenerife, Canary Islands, the festival was an in-person event running March 4-12, while its market (March 8-11) remained virtual for the second consecutive year.The best international documentary prize went to “Option Zero” (“La Opcion Cero”) by Cuban filmmaker Marcel Beltran while the best debut feature award was extended to “Trenches” by French journalist Loup Bureau who has covered the Arab Spring in Egypt, the Syrian War and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the Donbas region. “Trenches” follows the intrepid young men and women who are fighting Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

The U.S. is not the only country with growing income inequality. The same is true of China, a phenomenon explored in the Oscar-nominated feature documentary Ascension, from MTV Documentary Films.

This evening, The Glasgow Film Festival showed a very special early preview of the first episode of Outlander season six and some of the cast turned out on the red carpet.

Jennifer Lopez and Jimmy Fallon have teamed up to write a bilingual children’s book. The singer and actress and the late-night talk show host announced that on October 11 this year, they would launch Con Pollo: A Bilingual Playtime Adventure.“I’m so excited to launch my first children’s book, and it’s even more special to collaborate with Jimmy!” Lopez says in a statement to People.

Refresh for latest…: Sony’s Uncharted handily crossed the $200M mark globally this weekend, after adding $35M from 64 overseas markets and $23.3M domestically. The international box office cume is now $143M. Worldwide, the Tom Holland/Mark Wahlberg-starrer counts $226.4M.

Jason Momoa is one of the hardest working actors in showbiz and it shows! Even with the recent split from Lisa Bonet undoubtedly fresh on his mind, the “Aquaman” star got right back in the swing of things, as he was spotted filming The Climb in Mallorca, Spain on Friday (Feb. 18). Perched near a boat with a production crew, Jason went shirtless, showing off his impeccable pecs and toned torso. The former surfer/model was every inch the action star as his muscular physique stole the spotlight.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“The Novelist’s Film,” which Wednesday earned Korean director Hong Sang-soo the Grand Jury Prize in Berlin, has scored multiple rights deals. With Seoul-based Finecut handling the rights sales, the film was licensed to Ama Films for Greece and Cyprus, Mimosa Films for Japan, L’Atalante Cinema for Spain, Arizona Films Distribution for France and to The Cinema Guild for the U.S.Finecut also did European Film Market business with “Contorted,” an unorthodox horror about a family tragedy.

Caitlin Quinlan In her debut feature, “Fogaréu,” director Flávia Neves interweaves the broader impact of colonialism in Brazil with a close-up tale of insidious goings on in Goiás, her home town in central Brazil. Having gained support from the CNC’s Aide Aux Cinemas du Monde, “Fogaréu” is an accomplished first film that offers a nuanced critique of power dynamics within a bold, cinematic thriller framework.