Mystery Horror ‘The Black Spider’ Boarded by The Playmaker Munich – Cannes (EXCLUSIVE)

Lise Pedersen The fourth edition of Animation Day, which is part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Market, will take place on May 22.A one-day event aimed at the global animation filmmaking community, it is a joint initiative launched in 2019 by the Cannes Film Market and the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival, in partnership with Animation! Ventana Sur, the animation branch of Latin America’s leading film market.This edition will kick off with the Annecy Goes to Cannes pitching sessions, featuring five works-in-progress projects at various stages of development.

K.J. Yossman Andy Armstrong’s directorial feature debut, “Squealer,” is set to launch sales in Cannes.VMI Worldwide are handling international rights on the feature, which was produced by Walk Like A Duck Entertainment’s Jason Armstrong and Rob Goodrich, Shaun Sanghani of SSS Entertainment and Walk Like a Duck’s Cameron Goodrich.Paradigm are repping North American sales.As well as directing “Squealer,” Andy Armstrong co-wrote the screenplay with Danielle Burgio.

Carita Rizzo In the 75-year history of the Cannes Film Festival, the competition’s highest prize, the Palme d’Or, has brought to light some of the world’s most innovative filmmakers. This year, the award itself is celebrating its moment in the spotlight, with the unveiling of a one-of-a-kind trophy feting Swiss jeweler Chopard’s 25th year designing the coveted Palme d’Or.To honor the double anniversary of the festival and its long-term partnership with Chopard, co-president and artistic director Caroline Scheufele is presenting a special edition Palme d’Or.

Naman Ramachandran Emmy nominee Paapa Essiedu (“I May Destroy You”) and BAFTA winner Stephen Dillane (“Alex Rider”) have joined Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan (“Little Women”) on the cast of “The Outrun.” The film is the feature adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s bestselling memoir “The Outrun,” adapted by Nora Fingscheidt, the multiple award winning director of “System Crasher.” Fingscheidt has written the adaptation in collaboration with Liptrot.Ronan stars as Rona, who fresh out of rehab, returns to the wild Orkney Islands after more than a decade away. As she reconnects with the dramatic landscape where she grew up, memories of her childhood merge with the more recent challenging events that have set her on the path to recovery. Protagonist Pictures has sold all international territories on the film, which is currently shooting on location in the Orkney Islands.

Ed Meza @edmezavarWriter-director Tinna Hrafnsdóttir’s critically acclaimed Icelandic psychological-mystery drama “Quake” has sold to Juno Films for North America and the U.K. as well as to Njuta Films for Sweden.British-French production, distribution and sales company Alief is presenting the film at the upcoming Cannes Marché du Film.Anita Briem (“Beautiful Beings,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth”) stars as Saga, a single mother fighting to keep her young son while trying to piece together her life after losing her memory.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorCondor has picked up French rights to Saim Sadiq’s drama “Joyland” ahead of its world premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. The title, the first Pakistani film to be selected in Cannes, will vie for the Caméra d’Or.Film Constellation is representing international sales rights.

K.J. Yossman Independent Entertainment have boarded M.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorVariety has been given exclusive access to the first teaser for Norwegian drama “War Sailor,” which follows two Norwegian sailors whose merchant ship is attacked by German submarines at the outbreak of World War II. Beta Cinema will be selling the film at the Cannes Market. The film centers on Alfred Garnes, a working-class sailor, who has recently become the father of a third child, and his childhood friend Sigbjørn Kvalen, known as Wally.

The Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum-led comedy The Lost City is set to premiere on May 10 via Paramount+ in the United States and Canada. It’ll be available in Australia, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy later this year.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe Playmaker Munich is launching sales in Cannes on the claustrophobic, real-time black comedy “Holy Shit!,” and have debuted the film’s international trailer. “Holy Shit!” will have its market premiere in Cannes on May 19.Scriptwriter and director Lukas Rinker has “created an ultimate worst-case scenario that feels relatable yet unimaginable at the same time,” The Playmaker Munich said.“Holy Shit!” won the Audience Award at its world premiere at the Hard:Line Film Festival this year, and was also shown at the Night Visions Film Festival and Fantaspoa, where it received an Honorable Mention for the “Best Blood (and Shit) Bath.”In the film, architect Frank (Thomas Niehaus) regains consciousness in a locked portable toilet on a construction site where a detonation is being prepared.

Exclusive: The 2022 Cannes Film Festival is right around the corner (things kick off on May 17), and that means the Olympics of filmmaking with the best filmmakers worldwide competing for the coveted Palme d’Or. One of those filmmakers will be Iranian-Danish film director and screenwriter Ali Abbasi, whose new film “Holy Spider” will play in the official competition section during the festival.

EXCLUSIVE: Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) has been set to star in action spy thriller Canary Black from Taken and Peppermint director Pierre Morel.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Miami-based FiGa Films has picked up worldwide sales on Andrés Kaiser’s found-footage doc “Time Theorem” (“Teorema de Tiempo”), which will have its world premiere at DOK.Fest München on May 8.Doc will also receive a market screening at the Cannes Marché du Film on May 18.“We could not believe that ‘Time Theorem’ was a documentary when we first watched it,” said FiGa Films CEO, Sandro Fiorin, adding: “Fiction could only hope for such a twisted story.”“Andrés is supremely talented, the way he and his producer put this film together is truly remarkable. We are lucky to be part of the team,” he continued.According to Kaiser, the doc relates the story of his grandparents and their lives as amateur filmmakers between Mexico and Switzerland from the 1940s to the 1980s. “It’s a story that reflects on how we use images as a tool to build our own personality, in contrast to the relentless passage of time and the tragedies that it carries with it,” he said.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorGlobal Screen has acquired the animated family feature film “The Last Whale Singer” for global distribution, and will launch pre-sales at the Cannes Film Market. The movie is an epic and emotional family entertainment adventure written and directed by Reza Memari, creator of hit movie “Richard the Stork.” The film’s characters are based on designs by Uwe Heidschötter, best known for films such as Academy Award nominated and BAFTA Award winning “Revolting Rhymes,” the Academy Award nominated and Golden Globe winning “Missing Link,” and the Annie Award nominated “Zog.” The film is produced by Maite Woköck (“My Fairy Troublemaker”) at Telescope Animation.Memari, co-CEO at Telescope Animation, said: “This is the story of a young humpback whale who, after the sudden loss of this parents, is confronted with a seemingly impossible task: to discover the song that will save the oceans from destruction.

Manori Ravindran International EditorA John Krasinski-produced movie about a fugitive billionaire has found its director in Peter Landesman.Sources tell Variety that the “Concussion” writer-helmer is on board to direct the long-gestating movie, which is based on Daniel Ammann’s biography “The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich.” The film tells the story of the international commodities trader and founder of Glencore, who was indicted in the U.S. on 65 criminal counts that included tax evasion, wire fraud, racketeering and striking deals for oil with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis.Rich had already fled the U.S.

Christopher Vourlias London-based documentary specialist Dogwoof has closed a host of sales for Daniel Roher’s “Navalny” and Jono McLeod’s “My Old School,” both of which premiered at Sundance and are screening this week at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.Roher’s riveting documentary thriller (pictured above) won the Festival Favorite Award and the U.S. Documentary Audience Award at Sundance.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorMenemsha Films has taken distribution rights in North America to Thomas Roth’s drama “Schaechten – A Retribution” in a deal with Berlin-based sales company Picture Tree Intl. PTI has debuted the film’s trailer, and will hold an invitation-only private screening of the film for buyers in Cannes.Neil Friedman, president of Menemsha Films, said: “The film ‘Schaechten’ is a true discovery.

Princess Charlene is back in the public eye for the first time in six months.

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.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“The Inventor,” the animated family feature by “Ratatouille” scribe Jim Capobianco whose all-star voice cast is led by Marion Cotillard, Daisy Ridley, Stephen Fry and Matt Berry, has been sold by MK2 Films to a flurry of territories. The stop-motion film, which charts the life of Renaissance master Leonardo Da Vinci, has pre-sold to a large part of the world, with deals in France (KMBO), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Hong Kong & Taiwan (Muse), the Philippines (Falcon), Former Yougoslavia (Karantanija).