‘One Last Evening,’ ‘The Village Next to Paradise’ Win First Locarno Industry Awards

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media DDA is making a series of key hires and promotions. Ryan Langrehr recently joined the entertainment communications company as U.S. head of awards, based out of Los Angeles. He joins from Block-Korenbrot Public Relations and will work alongside DDA partner Dana Archer and awards strategist MJ Peckos, who formed an exclusive partnership with DDA in 2021 and collaborated on a slate of films in the international and documentary category. These included Spain’s “The Good Boss” and Germany’s “I’m Your Man,” both of which were shortlisted for international feature Oscars.  The DDA L.A. awards offering is a complement to the company’s existing U.K. awards business, which it says will offer studios and filmmakers a “cohesive strategy across both sides of the Atlantic.” The U.K. offering is led by Sam Ross in his newly upped role of director of awards, and his team works closely with DDA partner Neil Bhatt. In recent years, the DDA U.K. awards team has handled AMPAS and BAFTA campaigns and delivered successful campaigns for features, documentaries, animated movies and shorts. Sam has been instrumental in successful campaigns across Academy Award and BAFTA-winning films including NEON’s “Parasite” and BFI’s “After Love.” Additionally, the 2022 BAFTAs also saw nominations for “Happening,” “The Hand of God” and “A Quiet Place: Part II.” Their 2021 haul included BAFTA nominations for “Babyteeth,” “Dear Comrades,” “Mogul Mowgli,” “County Lines” and “The Present.”  

Christopher Vourlias When she arrived in Warsaw just weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Yanina Kucher — an entertainment industry veteran with more than a decade’s experience in her country’s film business — wasn’t prepared for an extended stay. She’d left first Kyiv, then Lviv, with her cousin’s wife and young niece in tow, traveling to neighboring Poland to wait out what she hoped would be a short-lived skirmish. Warsaw felt somehow familiar, less geographically and culturally removed than the alien metropolises of Western Europe. She had a personal and professional network in the Polish capital that was quick to find her a home. Yet her thoughts never strayed far from the war: to the parents who stubbornly refused to leave Kyiv; to the reports of the Russian army’s brutal, terrifying advance. “It’s every day,” she tells Variety. “I have friends who died in this war. I’m always in touch with my relatives and my friends.”

Margarethe von Trotta To Receive Lifetime Achievement Honor At The European Film Awards German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 35th European Film Awards. von Trotta will receive the honor at a ceremony in Reykjavik, Iceland, on December 10 where she will be an honorary guest. Born in Berlin and raised in Düsseldorf, von Trotta started her career as an actress, in theatre and appeared in films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff before moving behind the camera in 1978 with The Second Awakening of Christa Klages, her solo debut as a director. In 1981, her film Marianne and Juliane about the “German Sisters” Christiane and Gudrun Ensslin won the Golden Lion in Venice as well as two German Film Awards and an Italian David di Donatello. Previous winners of the European Film Academy’s lifetime achievement award include Agnès Varda and Judi Dench.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentGerman film director, screenwriter, and actor Margarethe von Trotta will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 35th European Film Awards. Set to take place on Dec.

Zsuzsi Bánkuti Appointed Head Of Locarno’s Open Doors

At least 34 people have been injured in a horror rollercoaster crash at a Legoland theme park.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe first feature by Berlin-based visual artist and filmmaker Ann Oren, which is titled “Piaffe,” is launching on Aug. 11 from the Locarno Film Festival’s Piazza Grande.Described by the director as “a love letter to the less recognized magicians of cinema and a playful celebration of otherness,” this German film is produced by Kristof Gerega, Sophie Ahrens and Fabian Altenried of Berlin-based Schuldenberg Films.Beijing-based Rediance, as previously announced, has taken international sales.“When her sibling Zara suffers a nervous breakdown, the introvert Eva is forced to take on Zara’s job as a foley artist.

Latest DealsA score or more of new deals announced since Sunday in exclusivity to Variety:*Germany’s Pluto Film has been in negotiations with several theatrical distributors on Locarno Piazza Grande title “Semret,” ahead of its world premiere on Aug. 10.

Marta Balaga Millie Brady, known for the BBC/Netflix series “The Last Kingdom” and recently seen in Apple TV + offering “Surface,” will play the lead in Filip Jan Rymsza’s “Object Permanence,” Variety has learned exclusively. The actor is cast as Brooke Brooks, a former supermodel who becomes a highly successful lifestyle mogul and the first person to ‘IPO’(Initial Public Offering) herself.“Having commodified herself, Brooke is forced to confront her sense of self and the identity she has created,” said Rymsza, whose last film “Mosquito State” with Beau Knapp was shown at the Venice Film Festival, where it was noticed for Eric Koretz’s cinematography.

Marta Balaga German director Lukas Nathrath has already lined up his next projects, Variety has found out. Following ensemble drama “One Last Evening,” which nabbed him Locarno Film Festival’s Cinegrell First Look Award consisting of post-production service worth €50,000, he will turn to “Bourgeois Paranoia” next.A mixture of dark comedy and psychological thriller, it will be set in the near future, when rents have become unaffordable and the roommate selection process goes off the rails.

JD Linville Zurich native Caterina Mona will bring her directorial debut “Semret” to the 75th Locarno Film Festival where it screens at the city’s Piazza Grande, an outdoor venue traditionally reserved for more popular plays. The film, which is being sold by German sales outfit Pluto Film, follows the difficult path to healing for the titular character of Semret: a reclusive immigrant mother from Eritrea, now living and working in Zurich.

Lukas Nathrath’s One Last Evening Wins Locarno Pro’s First Look Prize

Marta Balaga Tom Hardiman’s feature debut “Medusa Deluxe,” which premiered at Locarno on Saturday, has already seduced multiple international distributors with its mixture of humor, grief and competitive hairdressing.Now Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has sealed further deals for the unusual murder mystery in Spain (Elastica Films), Benelux (Filmfreak), Scandinavia and the Baltics (NonStop Entertainment), Variety has learnt in exclusivity.As previously reported, A24 has acquired North American rights to the film, produced by Emu Films with the support of BFI, BBC Films, and Time Based Arts.MUBI holds the rights to U.K./Ireland, France, Latin America, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, India and Southeast Asia. “The buyers are excited about ‘Medusa Deluxe’ because it’s a quirky, original piece of cinema which can appeal to younger audiences, especially since A24 and MUBI will lead the way on global marketing,” said New Europe Film Sales CEO, Jan Naszewski.Hardiman, a self-confessed hairdressing aficionado, has joined forces with celebrity hairstylist Eugene Souleiman in order to show a community struggling with tragic loss yet still striving for perfection.“There is this cathartic moment at one point, two people genuinely caring about each other, and you have this hairstyle with a boat on the top.

Marta Balaga Tom Hardiman becomes a director to track with “Medusa Deluxe,” a deliciously dark murder mystery set in the competitive hairdressing competition which is about to bow at Locarno.MUBI holds the rights to U.K./Ireland, France,Latin America, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, India and Southeast Asia. The film was developed and financed by the BFI and BBC Film.“I really care about hairdressing, it’s something I am really passionate about,” admits Hardiman, who “picked up their language” over time.“When they talk about Russian weaves [in the film], that came from a hairdresser in Peckham.

Demba Ba has revealed he almost joined Manchester United's coaching staff during Ralf Rangnick's difficult spell as interim manager.

German director Kilian Riedhof’s drama You Will Not Have My Hate is inspired by the experiences of French writer Antoine Leiris, whose wife was killed in the Bataclan nightclub during the November 13, 2015 Paris terror attacks, leaving him to raise their young son alone.

Marta Balaga Alliance 4 Development, a co-development initiative for film projects from Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland hosted by Locarno Pro, has revealed 11 titles selected for its 7th edition.The majority of the projects will be directed by women, from Giorgia Wurth’s “Allegra” about a late-life sexual awakening to Malina Mackiewicz’s “Bottom of the Ocean Electric Fish” and Mariko Minoguchi’s upcoming “Element.” The latter will address some environmental fears as a team of scientists tries to ensure that Earth’s water supply won’t suddenly disappear.Minoguchi, who previously co-wrote the script to Tim Fehlbaum’s “The Colony,” is hoping to develop a German science fiction film that “doesn’t shy away from big emotions or images,” she stated, “that makes you think and reflect and, above all, is a moving and impressive cinematic experience.” Big emotions will also fuel Manon Coubia’s “Songs of the Fallen Mountains,” with old lovers reunited on a mythical mountain, and Stéphane Riethauser’s “Orpheus” about a relationship between a young dancer and his choreographer.“‘There is no love; there are only proofs of love.’ These words by Jean Cocteau will guide me to direct my first fiction feature,” he promised, calling it “a film beyond labels, barriers and genres. A film that reminds us that freedom to love is the most precious thing we have.