PBS’ ‘POV’ Acquires Environmental Thriller ‘Delikado’ Following Hot Docs Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

Anna Marie de la Fuente Brazil’s Habanero Film Sales has brought a slate of new films marking their debut at Cannes’ Marché du Film. Leading the pack is Cuban filmmaker Carlos Lechuga’s latest drama, “Vicenta B” as well as Cuba-U.S.-Canada co-production “Corrosive” and Brazilian coming-of-age drama “Bittersweet Rain” (“Saudade Fez Morada Aqui Dentro”), currently in post.“Resistance, migration, those who stay and those who leave, finding out who we are, where we belong, finding meaning to our own existence…those are recurrent topics in our catalog, composed of features and a growing slate of social and environmental documentaries from Latin American and Caribbean directors, with a special focus on Cuban independent cinema,” said Habanero CEO, Alfredo Calviño.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentBrazilian writer-director Caru Alves de Souza, whose second feature, “My Name Is Baghdad,” won the Crystal Bear for best film at Berlin’s 2020 Generation 14plus sidebar, has been selected for the Pop Up Film Residency 2022 program.Alves de Souza will use the Residency to develop “Lonely Hearts,” her new fiction feature.The award was announced Saturday at Cannes Marché du Film by Josephine Bourgois and Rachel do Valle, executive director and program director at Brazil’s Projeto Paradiso, which is backing the prize, and former Cannes Critics’ Week programmer Matthieu Darras, creator of Pop Up.Alves de Souza will participate in the mentoring program for the development of a fiction feature, which runs over three weeks, in August, in Vilnius, Lithuania. She will receive a Paradiso Scholarship and travel support in the amount of Reais 5,000 ($1,000), in addition to becoming part of the Paradiso Talent Network.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentUFO Distribution has acquired French rights to the animated family tale “Perlimps” by Alê Abreu, the Oscar-nominated director of “The Boy and the World.”Sold by Best Friend Forever, “Perlimps” is having its market premiere at the Marché du Film in Cannes and is set to world premiere at Annecy Animation Film Festival. The film will be released by Sony Pictures in Latin America with a joint distribution in Brazil together with Vitrine Filmes.the fantasy adventure film follows the journey of Claé and Bruô, a pair of secret agents from rival kingdoms who must join forces in spite of their differences to search for the Perlimps, mysterious creatures who can ultimately find a way to peace in times of war.

Bacary Sagna has told Raheem Sterling not to be overly concerned about the time he has spent on the bench recently as it isn't a barometer of how much he is rated by Pep Guardiola.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentBrazil’s Gullane, one of Brazil’s biggest production powerhouses, has attached Fernanda Montenegro, Oscar-nominated for “Central Station,” to star in “The Hanged,” the anticipated new film from “Narcos” director Fernando Coimbra.The news comes as Gullane unveiled in Cannes its first post-pandemic movie slate, led by two movies from director Cao Hamburger.For “The Hanged,” Montenegro joins real-life daughter Fernanda Torres in the film.Produced with Globo Filmes and Telecine, “The Hanged” is co-produced by Portugal’s Fado Filmes Paris Filmes distributes in Brazil.” ‘The Hanged’ has been long delayed due to the pandemic but we are very honored to have two of the biggest acting stars, part of recent Brazilian cinema history,” said producer Caio Gullane. Other pics on the Gullane slate include Hamburger’s “Paulo Freire: The Story of Revolution,” a drama about a successful adult literacy initiative launched by Freire in the humble city of Anglicos.

Emiliano De Pablos Paco León, one of Spain’s most prominent talents, is attached to star in thriller “Líbranos del mal” (“There Is Evil”), directed and produced by brothers José and César Esteban Alenda at their Madrid-based outfit Solita Films.Currently in development, “There Is Evil” is planned to shoot for six weeks in Madrid from January 2024.Solita Films is one of the five Spanish companies selected by Spain’s trade promotion board ICEX and its ICAA film institute to pitch their production slates at Cannes’ Producers Network, on Friday 20.In “There Is Evil,” after another girl is found dead, a former police officer decides to hunt down a child serial killer with the help of his six-year-old daughter.  “We want to make an impulsive, hypnotic thriller, but with the emotional texture of a family drama where the anguish and fear are born from perfectly real, recognizable and close circumstances,” José and César Esteban Alenda said.The Alenda brothers’ 2018 feature debut “Sin Fin” earned a Goya Award nomination for best new director, and won a Silver Biznaga at the Málaga Film Festival.A celebrated film and TV multi-hyphenate, Spain’s Paco León is well-known in Latin America, starring in Mexico’s “House of Flowers” and Colombia’s “Capital Noise.” He co-created, wrote and directed Rose d’Or winner “Arde Madrid,” one of Movistar Plus’ best reviewed series.“Rainbow,” León’s feature adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz,” a Netflix and Telecinco Cinema production, will be released this year on the streamer. 

Frank Grillo is set to star in Liam O’Donnell’s horror-thriller Merciless, which Sentient Pictures International is shopping here in Cannes this week. The company also has announced that Columbian actor Juan Pablo Raba (Peppermint, Narcos) has been tapped to lead Antonio Negret’s new action thriller Sombra.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Argentina’s most bankable star, Adrian Suar, has wrapped his directorial debut “30 Noches Con Mi Ex” (“30 Nights With My Ex”) to which FilmSharks has snagged worldwide rights. The Buenos Aires-based sales and production outfit has already sold remake rights to Conchita Taboada of Spectrum Films for Mexico and to Italian producer Alessandro Usai of Colorado Films.Disney’s Star Distribution holds the theatrical distribution rights for Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia, while Cinecolor snapped up rights to Peru, Chile and Colombia.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“The Pink Cloud,” a flagship feature from Brazil’s new generation of female filmmakers, has closed three more major territories for Paris-based MPM Premium, sealing France (Universciné), Japan (Senlis) and Germany (Lighthouse). With MPM Premium currently in discussions for the U.K., Australia and Latin America, the sales company is edging ever closer to selling out on all major territories around the world.Territories already secured include Brazil (O2), North America (Blue Fox), Taiwan (Digi Sky Entertainment), China (Beijing Hugoeast), Korea (K Entertainment) and Russia (World Vision).Senlis will stage a theatrical release in 2023 for “The Pink Cloud.” It has been dubbed and will be released in Germany and Austria on July 22. France’s Universciné (France) has launched the film as a premium VoD Release, with a specific promotion for what Universciné calls its “exclusive” titles.

Rina Sawayama has announced plans to release a new album and teased the record with a short trailer – you can view it below.Entitled ‘Hold The Girl’ the follow up to her debut, 2020’s ‘SAWAYAMA’, is set to drop on September 2.It comes after she shared a series of banners and leaflets to fans featuring the words “Rina Is Going To Hell” before wiping and updating her Instagram page last week.She also closed her final ‘Dynasty Tour’ show last Friday (13 May) at New York’s Terminal 5 by teasing a new song.Now, she has shared a dramatic trailer which features snippets from her forthcoming record.Hold The GirlThe new albumSeptember 2 2022https://t.co/1r1X9PKSmk pic.twitter.com/nw59Im5ra4— RINA SAWAYAMA (@rinasawayama) May 16, 2022Reviewing her debut, NME awarded the record five stars and said it was a “deeply personal self-portrait that lays waste to genre constraints.”Sawayama, meanwhile, performed as part of the BandLab NME Awards 2022 earlier in March, where she was also awarded the iconic middle finger for Best Live Act Supported By Grolsch.In her acceptance speech, Sawayama spoke of how she posted an ad in the back of NME trying to get some bandmates when she was 15 years old.

Anitta is ready for a hot girl summer with her besties, Camila Cabello and Chlöe Bailey. ET's Cassie DiLaura spoke to the Brazilian singer at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas Sunday, where she dished on her friendship with Cabello and the possibility of a collab from the pair.«I’m always telling her we should do something together,» Anitta said of making music with the «Bam Bam» singer. «I think we are so close as friends, that we never stopped to actually think about it. I'mma send her some stuff and see what happens.

Fernandinho and Aymeric Laporte will be given until Sunday to prove their fitness for the Premier League title crunch at West Ham on Sunday. The pair were both forced off through injury at Wolves on Wednesday night, leaving the Blues with a makeshift centre-back pairing of Nathan Ake and Rodri.

Here are your Manchester City evening headlines for Thursday, May 12.

EXCLUSIVE: Altitude Film Sales has boarded worldwide sales rights to high-concept survival thriller Quicksand and will introduce first footage to buyers in Cannes next week.

Jennie Punter Chan Tze Woon’s “Blue Island,” a doc-narrative hybrid exploring Hong Kong’s recent protest movement and ensuing crackdown, won Hot Docs’ Best International Feature Documentary Award and a Cnd. $10,000 cash prize, it was announced Saturday in Toronto at the festival’s awards ceremony, held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.The film was cited by the jury for its “evocative use of re-enactments interwoven with traditional documentary forms to create a rich, socially-grounded cinematic tapestry.”North American rights to “Blue Island” were picked up by New York-headquartered documentary distributor Icarus Films in advance of the film’s world premiere at Hot Docs, which is an Academy Award qualifying festival for feature documentaries.

Holly Jones Acclaimed Brazilian writer-director Alê Abreu, director of the Oscar-nominated “The Boy and the World,” will world premiere his electric feature-length film “Perlimps” at the upcoming Annecy International Animation Film Festival after excerpts from the project were teased as part of the fest’s Works in Progress program last year.“Perlimps” will screen at Annecy as a Special Event.The film presents a mythical prism of hues splayed out to create a dense enchanted forest pictured in painterly tropical tones. Amidst the backdrop, two rivals, Claé and Bruó, reluctantly join forces in a bid to save their precious woodland and the Perlimps from giants surrounding the forest and regain peace.

Christopher Vourlias An award-winning writer, blogger and editor whose work centers on the post-apartheid condition from the perspective of Black, middle-class South Africans and women, Milisuthando Bongela is making her directorial debut with a coming-of-age story that she’s pitching this week at the Hot Docs Forum.“Milisuthando” is a meditation on power, intimacy, difference, and the weight of loving and fearing your enemy in a time of decolonization. Directed by Bongela, the film is produced by Marion Isaacs for The Good Black Project (South Africa), in co-production with Sonia Barrera and Viviana Gómez Echeverry of Viso Producciones (Colombia), with Jessica Devaney and Anya Rous of Multitude Films attached to executive produce.