Pakistan Oscar Contender ‘In Flames’ Wins Mannheim-Heidelberg Prize – Global Bulletin

Refresh for latest…: After opening early in 37 international box office markets last weekend, Warner Bros/Village Roadshow/Heyday Films’ Wonka expanded its release this session to the rest of the world (save Korea which goes in late January). The results are sweet.

The official German Oscar entry for Best International Feature is an insular, pulse-pounding thriller set within the confines of a school that, for cinematic purposes, doubles as a microcosm of society in general circa 2023 where facts don’t matter, misinformation is rampant, suspicions run hot, divisions run deep, racism still rears its ugly head, and no one can be quite sure where, and even if they want to, fit in.

Naman Ramachandran A range of subjects, ranging from hot button to mystical, await Academy voters considering the contenders from South Asia in the international feature category. The most visible film from the region is certainly Bhutan’s “The Monk and the Gun,” Pawo Choyning Dorji‘s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.” In the film, Dorji uses the first elections in one of the world’s youngest democracies to comment on what is lost as his country modernizes. The Variety critics pick, following its festival premieres at Telluride, Toronto, Rome and Busan, sold to a raft of major territories worldwide, including Roadside Attractions in the U.S.

The Film Arcade Acquires Ukrainian Drama From Troy Ruptash

Naman Ramachandran The Singapore Film Commission (SFC) celebrated its 25th anniversary during the 34th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) with a lavish party attended by the great and the good of the industry. Though the local box office for Singaporean films has yet to regain its pre-pandemic heights, they are doing well internationally with 2023 alone seeing selections at all the top festivals, including Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Busan and San Sebastian.

Ilker Çatak’s The Teachers’ Lounge world premiered to acclaim in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section in February, then swept the board three month later at the German Film Awards, scooping best film, director, screenplay, editing and actress for Leonie Benesch.

The third annual Red Sea Film Festival handed out its Yusr Awards on Thursday night, with Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames taking Best Feature and Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher scoring a pair of wins including Best Actor for Saleh Bakri. See the full list below.

Nick Holdsworth At the closing ceremony of the 3rd edition of the Red Sea Film Festival Thursday, which took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in front of an audience that included Hollywood stars Nicolas Cage, Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Jason Statham and Adrien Brody, the Golden Yusr for best film and a $100,000 cash prize went to Pakistani-Canadian horror film “In Flames,” directed by Zarrar Kahn. The director said that the indie movie was shot for “just $300,000 — the size of a Red Sea Fund production grant.” He urged “everyone who gets a grant to go make a movie, because this was made for nothing.” The Silver Yusr prize for best feature film went to Tarsem Singh for “Dear Jassi.” The film, an India/Canada/U.S.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Academy has revealed the list of eligible films for consideration in best animated, documentary and international feature of the year, encompassing a broad range of blockbusters and critically acclaimed titles. GKids’ “The Boy and the Heron,” Pixar’s “Elemental,” Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” are among the 33 animated films in the running.

Edward Berger To Address Israel’s Sam Spiegel International Film Lab

Nick Holdsworth Original TV series based on Arab and Muslim characters are beginning to go global, a Netflix executive said Saturday at the Red Sea Film Festival. Ahmed Sharkawi, director of Arab content, Netflix Europe, Middle East and Africa, said that a new, distinctive voice was emerging from the region. “Recently, a friend called me and her mother-in-law – who is 100% American – was recommending one of our Arab series [“Finding Ola,” starring Hind Sabri] to all her friends,” he said at a panel about writing for television.

Paramount Global shares closed up nearly 10% Friday, leading entertainment stocks higher after the Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount Global and Apple are discussing bundling their respective streaming platforms at a discount.

Tubi Hires Endeavor Exec For International Expansion

Henry Kissinger, one of the key diplomats of the Cold War and a controversial National Security Advisor and Secretary of State for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, died tonight in his home in Connecticut at the age of 100.

The former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius is to be freed from jail.

Ben Croll After six months of strike-related stoppages, global production is set to resume in a massive way, as producers, execs and day-to-day facilitators anticipate an early 2024 surge in production that could very well last throughout the calendar year. Only (and tellingly) — despite such evident and abundant relief — all of those facilitators are also quite measured in their optimism.

Naman Ramachandran Jude Anthany Joseph, director of India’s international feature Oscar contender “2018,” has started work on his next film. The untitled investigative thriller is being written by the filmmaker alongside journalist Josy Joseph. The film is based on the true story of Kerala Shipping Corporation’s cargo ship MV Kairali that disappeared in 1979 with a crew of 49 and 20,000 tonnes of iron ore on board while sailing from Margao, India to Rostock, Germany, via Djibouti.

As a recent new grandfather, Mads Mikkelsen couldn’t be happier, but he doesn’t smile much in his new movie. An earthy 18th-century period piece, The Promised Land sees the Dane play a hard-up veteran, Ludvig Kahlen, who is determined to turn the blasted heaths of Jutland into a thriving farmland. It’s a Western of sorts, which becomes noticeably clearer when Kahlen starts to cross swords with a competing local landowner, but, for Mikkelsen, it’s a subversive  alpha male story of the kind he does so well, from the brutal Viking fantasy Valhalla Rising to the white-cold survival drama Arctic.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The QCinema Project Market, the industry initiative that accompanies The Philippines’ QCinema International Film Festival, revealed its winners list on Tuesday delivering almost $500,000 of grants and in-kind support. The prizes followed a two-day networking and pitching event on Nov. 18 and 19 for 19 feature-length fiction film projects from Southeast Asia.

Eva Longoria took to social media to share her excitement after Nicaragua’s first Miss Universe win. Although Longoria is of Mexican descent, the actress, producer, and businesswoman said she was thrilled that a Latina took home the coveted crown.Sheynnis Alondra Palacios Cornejo was crowned Miss Universe after competing against 84 contestants (after Miss China withdrew) during the final night of the 72nd annual Miss Universe competition held in El Salvador.