‘Night Of The Kings’ Director Philippe Lacôte Talks Mixing Magic With Reality – Contenders International

A riotous horror-tinged romp starring a runaway buffalo, there's no other contender for the 2021 best international film Oscar quite like India's submission,Jallikattu, directed by Malayalam cinema maverick Lijo Jose Pellissery. The 90-minute movie's galloping plot couldn't be simpler: a bull escapes from a slaughterhouse in a remote Indian village and all of the menfolk gather to chase it down.

One of award season’s more gently romantic offerings is Harry Macqueen’s film Supernova, in which a middle-aged gay couple, Sam (Colin Firth) and Tusker (Stanley Tucci), take a road trip through England’s Lake District as they visit friends and come to terms with Tusker’s diagnosis with young-onset dementia.

With its mix of Jane Austin meets Gossip Girl with 35 Shades of Grey, as described by Bridgerton star Regé-Jean Page, Netflix’s Shondaland series has taken pop culture by storm since its Dec. 25 debut. Redefining the period drama and romance genres while making global stars out of Page andPhoebe Dynevor, the adaptation of Julia Quinn’s novel captivated viewers to become one of Netflix’s most watched series premieres.

The most exciting filmmakers are those who meticulously curate the tone and craft of their work. Directing every episode of a television season, as “WandaVision” executive producer Matt Shakman recently did, enables an artist to have a level of control over their work that television rarely provides.

Deadline on Monday launched streaming sites for its first two Contenders awards-season events that took place over the weekend: Contenders International and Contenders Documentary.

In I’m No Longer Here (Ya no estoy aquí), filmmaker Fernando Frias puts the spotlight on Kolombia counterculture in the region of Northern Mexico. Following the story of 17-year-old Ulises (played by breakout Juan Daniel Garcia Treviño), the film, Mexico’s submission in the International Feature Oscar race, uses his journey to present a different kind of immigrant narrative.

Director and co-writer Edoardo Ponti brought along his mother for my conversation about his movie, Netflix’s The Life Ahead, as part of Deadline’s Contenders International awards-season event. That mother happens to be a true screen legend, Sophia Loren, who has been directed by her son (their third collaboration) in her first major leading role in a movie in several years.

“I wanted to do this project for a long time, I had this story in mind for years and years,” says director Filippo Meneghetti about Two of Us, France’s Oscar entry this year, adding that he also spent an additional five years writing the screenplay with his co-writer Malysone Bovorasmy.

Dea Kulumbegashvili’s feature directorial debut Beginning was a part of the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival’s 2020 edition, even receiving a special in-person screening during the event’s abridged celebration in October. The drama further was invited to the Toronto, San Sebastian, New York and Busan festivals and is also Georgia’s submission for the International Feature Film Oscar.

Romanian director Alexander Nanau joined Deadline’s Contenders International awards-season event to talk about his searing documentary Collective, one of the year’s most acclaimed films as winner of the European Film Award for documentary. It is also Romania’s official entry to the International Feature Film Oscar race, as well as a strong contender in the Documentary Feature competition too.

Finnish author Tove Jansson is most known for creating the enduringly popular children’s characters the Moomins, which have spanned comics, books and TV series since she first came up with them in the 1940s. She is now the subject of a biopic, Tove, which is Finland’s submission for the International Feature Oscar this year.

Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, Hungary’s contender this year for the International Feature Film Oscar, hinges on a moment around seven minutes into the movie.

Scary stories and urban legends are always fun and at times can haunt you for the rest of your life. For filmmaker Joko Anwar, it was a scary story that was the inspirational seed that would bloom into Impetigore, Indonesia’s official entry for the Oscar International Feature race.

This year’s International Oscar entry for Switzerland, My Little Sister, follows a woman who has largely given up on her ambition to be a playwright and returns to Berlin to look after her twin brother, a famous actor with a terminal illness. It is directed by long-term collaborators and co-directors Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond.

In La Llorona, writer-director Jayro Bustamante blends elements of folklore, magical realism and horror to engage audiences, while also bringing attention to the genocide of native Mayans in 1980s Guatemala.

Drawing attention to the colorful and challenging lives of the elderly, genre-bending The Mole Agent is a film that changed completely from initial concept to final product.

direct to your inbox This week it was reported that the Tapper family have no plans to return to Gogglebox, which may have left viewers wondering if they could fill their shoes. The Channel 4 hit show has been a firm favourite with TV-lovers ever since its debut in 2013.

Never Gonna Snow Again co-directors and co-writers Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s professional collaboration is an unusual one — the pair are ex-husband and wife. But Szumowska says their enduring partnership shows “collaboration is possible.”

KilI It And Leave This Town is a deeply personal, unconventional and moving hand-drawn animation from artist-turned-animator Mariusz Wilczynski, who explores subjects including grief and childhood in his feature debut.

Colombia’s International Feature Oscar submission El ovido que seremos (English title: Memories of My Father) hails from Oscar-winning Spanish director Fernando Trueba and stars Spanish legend Javier Cámara. It’s based on the memoir by Héctor Abad Faciolince about his father who was a doctor, professor and an activist for social justice who was murdered in 1987 by Colombian paramilitaries.