New Europe Film Sales Boards Aislinn Clarke’s Irish Folk Horror ‘Fréwaka’ – AFM

Strictly Come Dancing's Nikita Kuzmin might be partnered with Layton Williams this year, but fans of the series could enjoy a spin around the ballroom with the pro in his new role. Nikita is one of the pro dancers for the BBC One show and has been stunning audiences this season with his performances alongside Layton.

EXCLUSIVE: Signature Entertainment has pre-bought UK & Irish rights to Damien Leone’s horror sequel Terrifier 3 from The Coven, having released the first two movies in the franchise.

EXCLUSIVE: Film Bridge International is launching sales at AFM on horror Xelter, whose producers include The De Laurentiis Company (Hannibal) and Head Gear Films (Talk To Me).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Godzilla Minus One,” the biggest picture to date in the Japanese monster movie franchise and the Wednesday night closing gala title at the Tokyo International Film Festival, is set for pan-European release at the beginning of December. Rights were acquired for 38 territories (excluding the U.K., Ireland and German-speaking territories) by theatrical-only specialist distributor Piece of Magic Entertainment from Toho, the Japanese studio that controls the ‘kaiju’ franchise and distributes the picture in Japan from Nov.

Marta Balaga Visions du Réel winner Tomasz Wolski will focus on “A Year in the Life of the Country” next, Variety can reveal exclusively. The Polish helmer – whose latest film “In Ukraine,” co-directed with Piotr Pawlus, premiered in Berlin – is set to explore the turbulent period of martial law, imposed on Dec. 13, 1981 by General Wojciech Jaruzelski in Communist Poland after a wave of strikes.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor International sales agency the Playmaker has signed a deal with Blue Finch Film Releasing to distribute the one-shot horror film “Home Sweet Home — Where Evil Lives” in the U.K. and Ireland. Thomas Sieben’s film, which made its world premiere in August at FrightFest in London, has its market premiere at AFM.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Cornerstone has closed sales on multiple territories including North America and the U.K. for writer and director Daniel Kokotajlo’s “Starve Acre,” a brooding and atmospheric folk horror. “House of the Dragon’s” Matt Smith and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” actor Morfydd Clark star in the film, which is produced by House Productions.

EXCLUSIVE: Todd Slater of Convoke Media and Brandon Evans of Brick Lane Pictures have launched Brick Lane Entertainment. The production, sales and financing partnership based in LA and Dublin will be taking When We Collided, starring Laura Marano and directed by her sister Venessa, to AFM.

EXCLUSIVE: Picture Tree International (PTI) has boarded sales on German Iranian director Alireza Golafshan’s comedy Everything’s Fifty Fifty about a divorced couple who embark on a family vacation, ahead of the AFM.

Emiliano De Pablos In standout results that suggests the strength of select Spanish arthouse films on the current international market, Bendita Films Sales, the Santa Cruz de Tenerife-based boutique world sales agency, has closed a formidable raft of deals to Galician auteur Lois Patiño’s multisensory journey film “Samsara.” Winner of a Special Jury Award at Berlin’s 2023 major sidebar Encounters and the Audience Award at Mexico’s Ficunam festival, “Samsara” has just screened in main competition gathered “Samsara”(Oct. 20-28), running up more than a dozen international film festival selections. Bendita Film Sales has clinched commercial release pacts in the U.K.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Funny Birds,” an heartwarming comedy-drama starring Andrea Riseborough, Catherine Deneuve and Morgan Saylor, has sold in key territories in the run up to the AFM. Executive produced by Martin Scorsese, the movie is directed by Marco La Via and Hanna Ladoul.

Refresh for latest…: Universal/Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s is gaming its way to an estimated $130.6M global opening, higher even than we had it yesterday as this phenom is now eyeing a $52.6M bow from 64 international box office markets. As Anthony has chronicled, the domestic $78M opening is a stunner — and amid the day-and-date Peacock bow. Overseas, the play is purely theatrical and has set a number of records.

EXCLUSIVE: The Coven (Terrifier 2) has boarded sales ahead of the AFM on the 2023 Tribeca horror Somewhere Quiet.

Valerie Wu Intern The 2023 annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF), hosted from Oct. 12 to Oct. 19, has announced its slate of awards winners.

EXCLUSIVE: The Exchange is launching international sales rights on sci-fi action film World Breaker.

Marta Balaga DR Sales has been racking up sales for Danish drama series “Prisoner.” Starring Sofie Gråbøl, David Dencik, Youssef Wayne Hvidtfeldt and Charlotte Fich, it has been picked up by BBC (UK and Ireland), Canal+ Group’s channel Polar+ (France), MHz Networks (U.S.), SBS (Australia), NPO (Netherlands) and BeTV (French-speaking Belgium). Revolving around four desperate prison guards, forced to deal with everything from rampant drug trade to their personal problems and imminent closure of the prison, the show was created by Kim Fupz Aakeson.

Godzilla Minus One, the latest edition in Toho’s monster franchise and the closing film at this year’s Tokyo Film Festival, has locked a deal for distribution in the UK and Ireland. 

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Four CEOs are set to return to SAG-AFTRA headquarters on Tuesday with a new offer that they hope will break the stalemate in the 102-day actors strike. Among them will be Disney’s Bob Iger, who called SAG-AFTRA’s top negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, on Saturday to invite the actors back to the bargaining table. The CEOs — who also include David Zaslav of Warner Bros.

After moving from the world of rugby into real estate in America, Ben Foden and ex-wife Una Healy have been navigating transatlantic co-parenting.The couple - who were married for six years but split after it emerged Ben, 38, had been unfaithful - share Aofie, 11, and Tadhg, 8, who live with Saturdays' singer Una in Tipperary, Ireland. Ben now lives in New York with his wife Jackie, also 38, and the couple have just announced they're expecting their second baby together.The couple, who met through mutual friends in 2019, are already parents to three-year-old Farrah, and have worked hard to build a blended family with Ben and Una's children.

Joe Biden called for a massive new aid package for Israel and Ukraine, linking the wars in both countries to American security, while denouncing a rise in anti-semitism and Islamophobia in the U.S.