Nazi-Era German Drama ‘Stella. A Life.’, Starring Berlinale Winner Paula Beer, Sells to France, Scandinavia, Australia (EXCLUSIVE)

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Bosnian director and screenwriter Danis Tanović, whose “No Man’s Land” won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, has been selected as the president of the Official Competition Jury at the 45th edition of the Cairo Film Festival. As well as the Oscar, “No Man’s Land” won best screenplay at Cannes in 2001.

Chrishell Stause and G-Flip are enjoying married life!

Stacey Solomon's TV show was missing one of its major stars, Dilly Carter, due to a heart-breaking reason. Dilly took to social media to reveal her absence from last night's show, Thursday 14 September, was because she had received a devastating cancer diagnosis and was undergoing major surgery.The TV star and professional organiser explained how her treatment meant she was unable to film, leaving Sophie Hinchcliffe - aka Mrs Hinch - to step in for that show.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Japan rugby union team on Sunday thrashed tournament newcomers Chile 42-12 on the first weekend of the freshly kicked-off Rugby World Cup. But in 2015, Japan were the underdogs and yet pulled off a surprise result against rugby titans South Africa. In the first ever match between the two nations Japan won 34-32, due to an 80th minute try. “The Brighton Miracle,” a docu-drama capturing and re-constructing that shock match, has been picked up by Blue Sky Media.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Emmy-nominated “The White Lotus” star Sabrina Impacciatore will play the Venice Film Festival’s master of ceremonies in the upcoming second season of the Italian version of “Call My Agent,” which will also feature a cameo by Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera. Impacciatore, wearing a red gown, disembarked from a water taxi at the Excelsior Hotel pier on the Venice Lido on Saturday welcomed by Barbera, as cameras rolled for a key scene in the show.

French director Ladj Ly is at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend with second feature Les Indésirables.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “On the Go,” a spirited, freewheeling road movie capturing the first lead performance in a movie of ‘Elite’ star Omar Ayuso, has clinched its first major sales, selling to Salzgeber for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and to Cineplex for Taiwan. Paris-based MPM Premium picked up world sales rights to “On the Go” in the run-up to the Locarno Festival where it world premiered in its Filmmakers of the Present section.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor London- and Paris-based Film Constellation has boarded sales on 2D family animated feature “Carmen,” a contemporary adaptation of the opera, to be directed by 2023 Annecy Film Festival winner Sébastien Laudenbach. Variety revealed first details of the project last year exclusively.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Memento Distribution has picked up French distribution rights to Gabor Reisz’s ‘Explanation for Everything’ following its world premiere in Horizons competition at the Venice Film Festival. The deal was closed by Films Boutique.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Film Constellation has sealed a first raft of pre-sales in key territories on French female-led revenge feature “Animale,” directed by Emma Benestan (“Fragile”) and starring César winner Oulaya Amamra (“Divines”). The pre-sales include Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy (Plaion), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom) and Middle East and North Africa (Falcon). Wild Bunch Distribution will release “Animale” in French theaters next year.

In Ava DuVernay’s 7th feature, Origin, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival tonight, the exploration of caste systems as a mode of oppression takes center stage. Written by DuVernay and Isabel Wilkerson, the film is adapted from the latter’s book, Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents. The narrative delves into the deep-seeded intricacies of caste and how it underpins much of society’s discrimination, sometimes transcending even race. The film stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, and includes performances by Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood and Connie Nielsen.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Abacus Media Rights has pre-sold the feature documentary “The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee,” to Sky Arts, SBS Television Australia; to NonStop Entertainment for Scandinavia, Iceland and the Baltics and to Movistar for Spain. Lee is known as the Dracula character and for transitioning from 1960s Hammer horror films to a distinguished acting career that encompassed James Bond films, the “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” franchises. Less well-known are his aristocratic Italian roots, a close family connection to James Bond novelist Ian Fleming, Lee’s wartime experiences in the British and Finnish military, post-war Nazi-hunting adventures and a side career as a heavy metal rock singer. As an actor, Lee achieved a Guinness world record for the highest number of screen appearances. Produced in association with the British Film Institute and Trigger Films by Canal Cat Films, “Life and Deaths” is an innovative documentary which uses fresh interviews, archive material and multiple forms of traditional and cutting-edge animation, including marionation, to bring one of the world’s leading actors back to life on screen.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Is it something in the air? At this year’s Venice Film Festival, the unofficial theme appears to be hit men. David Fincher’s “The Killer” is all about an icy methodical professional executioner. Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance” turns on an act of murder-for-hire.

Human Rights Watch states the case very clearly: North Korea “remains one of the most repressive countries in the world.”

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The international trailer for “A Whole Life,” which will have its world premiere in the Gala section of the Zürich Film Festival (Sept. 28 to Oct. 8), has debuted with Variety (below).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Vicky Krieps, best performance prize winner in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard for “Corsage,” will star as Sophie Toscan du Plantier in six time-Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan and David Merriman’s “Re-creation,” which is being presented in the Venice Gap-Financing Market. The docu-drama, which centers on the brutal murder in 1996 in Ireland of French film and TV producer Toscan du Plantier, has been co-written and will be co-directed by Sheridan, best known for “My Left Foot” and “In the Name of the Father,” and Merriman.

Marta Balaga Maura Delpero’s second feature “Vermiglio, the Mountain Bride” – which is being presented at the Venice Production Bridge, the industry program of the Venice Film Festival, this week – has tapped Giuseppe De Domenico as its lead. The Italian actor, known for “Zero Zero Zero” and Prime Video’s “Bang Bang Baby,” will play Pietro, a young soldier who in 1944 arrives in a small mountain village in Trentino, northern Italy. As declared by the film’s tagline, change is around the corner: “Last year of World War II.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent France’s UFO Distribution has acquired French rights to Venice Horizons entry “An Endless Sunday” by first-time Italian director Alain Parroni from Fandango Sales. The film will segue from Venice to Toronto where it screens in the fest’s Discovery section.

EXCLUSIVE: Roman Polanski’s dark comedy The Palace has sold to a host of key territories ahead of its Venice premiere, with distributors getting behind the film in spite of the controversy surrounding the director. 

The Venice Film Festival kicks off its 80th edition on Wednesday with Italian director Edoardo De Angelis’s World War Two Italian submarine drama Comandante.