Patty Jenkins Set to Hold Conversation at HollyShorts Film Festival – Global Bulletin

EXCLUSIVE: There has been mystery for weeks over which Hollywood talent will attend the Venice Film Festival amid the two strikes but the clouds are finally starting to lift.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The upcoming Venice Film Festival has announced it will hold a flash mob on the red carpet in solidarity with the women and men of Iran “who are fighting for their freedom and against the ongoing repression” and also “the filmmakers and artists who have been arrested or imprisoned,” the fest said in a statement on Friday. Festival organizers specified that the flash mob is partly in reaction to the conviction earlier this month in Iran of director Saeed Roustaee (pictured), who was sentenced to six months in prison for showing his latest film “Leila’s Brothers” at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and banned from making movies. Roustaee had been in the Venice Horizons section in 2019 with the film “Just 6.5.” Venice also held a red carpet flash mob last year in solidarity with then incarcerated auteur Jafar Panahi.

Naman Ramachandran Emmy -winning actor Hannah Waddingham (“Ted Lasso”) will present the Fantasy, Myths and Legends Prom at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Aug. 28. The event is an evening of orchestral works from film, television and gaming, from titles including “Harry Potter,” “Star Wars,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “Game of Thrones” and “World of Warcraft.” The BBC Concert Orchestra led by their new chief conductor, Anna-Maria Helsing, will be joined by mezzo soprano Felicity Buckland and The Huddersfield Choral Society.

Naman Ramachandran The popular Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival is returning after a three-year COVID and logistics-related absence with a hub, a refreshed executive team and a host of plans. Hollywood and Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra Jonas continues as festival chair, while media veteran and former Variety contributor Anupama Chopra remains festival director and independent producer Anu Rangachar (Locarno title “Rapture”) heads up the international program.

Naman Ramachandran The European premiere of Kristoffer Borgli‘s satire “Dream Scenario,” starring Nicolas Cage, will open the 19th Zurich Film Festival (Sept. 28-Oct. 8).

Naman Ramachandran An estimated £617.4 million ($781.8 million) was spent on the production of film, TV and other audiovisual content in Scotland in 2021, compared to £398.6 million in 2019, up 55%, a new report has revealed. Commissioned by Screen Scotland and produced by Saffery Champness and Nordicity, the independent report titled The Economic Value of the Screen Sector in Scotland in 2021 found that significant growth was found in all areas of production, particularly inward investment film and High-End TV (HETV) production.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent While it’s still uncertain how many U.S. movie stars will be attending the upcoming Venice Film Festival, the fest has announced a series of masterclasses to be held by top directors including Wes Anderson, Edward Berger, Damien Chazelle and Nicolas Winding Refn. Several of the Venice masterclasses are dedicated to helmers being lauded by the fest such as “The Night Porter” director Liliana Cavani, who is being celebrated with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, and Anderson, who will receive the fest’s Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award.

The 19th HollyShorts Film Festival has handed out its awards, including the Grand Prix Best Short Award to We Were Meant To, an honor that comes with a $60,000 prize from Panavision.

Sylvester Stallone will be making more than one appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival next month.

EXCLUSIVE: As Barbie approaches the end of a spectacularly successful first month in theaters, the Israel Film Festival has set one of the film’s great champions, Mattel Chairman and CEO Ynon Kreiz, to receive its 2023 IFF Industry Leadership Award.

Garth Davis’s science-fiction sci-fi drama Foe, directed by Garth Davis (Lion) and starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal, will have its world premiere at the New York Film Festival.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Noted Japanese director Ando Momoko (“Kakera: Pieces of Our Life,” “0.5mm”) has been named as the ambassador for this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival. She also features, alongside her father Okuda Eiji in the festival’s newly-released poster, which recreates a scene from Ozu Yasujiro’s “Tokyo Story” and in which Okuda and Ando represent the classic film’s Ryu Chishu and Hara Setsuko characters. The poster image, shot at the rooftop garden of Kitte Marunouchi Building, with Tokyo Station in the background, was designed by Koshino Junko, who has created the festival’s key visuals for the past three years.

Maestro, the Leonard Bernstein biopic starring and directed by Bradley Cooper, will have the Spotlight Gala slot at this fall’s 61st New York Film Festival.

Naman Ramachandran World Productions (“Vigil,” “Line of Duty”) is producing a new season of hit series “Showtrial” for BBC One and iPlayer. Writer and creator Ben Richards (“The Diplomat”) returns for the series. In the show, when high-profile climate activist Marcus Calderwood is left for dead in a violent hit and run, he uses his dying moments to identify his killer – a serving policeman.

EXCLUSIVE: The Sands International Film Festival of St Andrews will return for a third edition set to run from April 19 – 21, 2024.

Naman Ramachandran James Hawes‘ Holocaust drama “One Life” will be the American Express Gala at the 67thBFI London Film Festival. The film tells the true story of Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton, a young London broker who, in the months leading up to WWII, rescued 669 children from the Nazis. Fifty years later, in 1988, Winton is haunted by the fate of the children he wasn’t able to bring to safety in England.

EXCLUSIVE: An announcement today from the Points North Institute will provide a major career boost to a diverse group of documentary filmmakers. 

The mystical and the industrial cross paths in this haunting debut from India, screening at this year’s Locarno Film Festival in the event’s parallel competition for first and second movies. It begins in an almost documentary style, showing the harsh, eerie beauty of Jharia, a once-proud mining community that’s now an apocalyptic ruin of a city, where toxic waste is dumped 24/7 and noxious fires burn just as endlessly. Midway through, however, Lubdhak Chatterjee’s film begins to change direction, as its passive hero becomes attuned to the natural mysteries lurking in the adjacent woods.  

Naman Ramachandran Fremantle and Ukraine’s STB are teaming on “Power of Talent,” a feature documentary on the lives of previous “Ukraine’s Got Talent” contestants, revealing the obstacles they face amidst the ongoing conflict. The documentary will follow the journeys of Ukrainian acts including Light Balance Kids, Natasha Korotkina and Artem Fesko as they take to various “Got Talent” stages across the world.

EXCLUSIVE: The Austin Film Festival has set producer Lauren Shuler Donner, writer-producer James V. Hart and filmmaker So Young Shelly Yo as honorees of its 30th edition, taking place from October 26 – November 2.