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Women Rule Still Coming into the festival, many of the biggest main competition buzz pictures were directed by women. Many now figure, according to a El Diario Vasco Spanish critics’ poll, as Golden Shell frontrunners: Isabel Helguera’s animated pic “Sultana’s Dream,” Raven Jackson’s Sundance hit “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” Jaione Camborda’s Toronto platform screener “The Rye Horn” and Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang’s “A Journey in Spring.” New Talent All of these four films are debuts or sophomore outings in a competition where 10 of the 16 tiles are indeed first or second films.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Barcelona-born director Carla Simón, whose sophomore film “Alcarràs” clinched the 72nd Berlinale Golden Bear last year, received the 2023 National Cinematography Award, one of the highest honors bestowed by Spain’s Ministry of Culture. On hand to present the award in a ceremony held at the San Sebastian Film Festival was Miguel Iceta, Spain’s Minister of Culture and Sports, who first addressed Simón in Catalan before switching to Spanish: “With only two feature films, you have left your mark on the recent history of cinema in our country: a short but undisputed trajectory in terms of its strength and personality, recognized both nationally and internationally.

Variety. “But we can’t wait to start shaping this fascinating proposal that excites me as a producer,”she added. Simón describes the new film as a “neorealist flamenco musical in the neighbourhood of La Mina, Barcelona.” “Since I discovered that my biological mother was passionate about flamenco, a great curiosity began to grow in me for this genre, because of its history and its exceptional capacity to connect directly with emotion,” she explained to Variety.

Spanish cinema has undoubtedly been making a strong imprint on the international film festival circuit throughout the last few years and, crucially, there’s a new wave of female filmmakers that are driving this charge. 

Jerusalem Film Fest Unveils 2023 Industry ProgramNir Bergman (Broken Wings, Here We Are) and Yona Rozenkier (The Dive, 35 Downhill) will be among the Israeli filmmakers presenting new projects at the Jerusalem Film Fest’s Pitch Point event this year. The annual meeting connecting Israeli directors with international partners is one pole of the festival’s Jerusalem Industry Days, running July 13 to 15. Jurors will be Olivier Père (Arte Cinema France), Thorsten Ritter (Beta Cinema), Kevin Chan (MUBI) and Claudia Solano (The Match Factory), alongside Helge Albers (MOIN, Hamburg Film Fund) and producer Yael Fogiel (Les Films du Poisson). The Industry Days will also host the final pitching session for the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab. Other highlights include a focus on Austria, accompanied by Austrian Films’ Anne Laurent-Delage and Emilie Dauptain and producers  Antonin Svoboda (coop99), Oliver Neumann (FreibeuterFilm), Sabine Gruber (Golden Girls) and Barbara Pichler (KGP Filmproduktion). Filmmakers Sebastian Meise, Barbara Albert and Rainer Frimmel will also be in attendance. The program will also feature an industry talk with Joana Vicente, CEO of Sundance Institute, moderated by Israeli producer Osnat Handelsman-Keren (The Lost Daughter). The Jerusalem Film Festival runs from July 13 to 23.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Adrian Wootton, CEO of Film London and the British Film Commission, will preside over the jury of the Malta Film Commission’s inaugural Mediterrane Film Festival celebrating movies from the Mediterranean Basin. The fest, which will take place in Valletta, Malta’s capital, and other locations on the island between June 25-30, will showcase films from each of the MED9 nations, an alliance of nine Mediterranean and Southern European Union member states. It comprises: Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. Besides Wotton the other jury members are “Triangle Of Sadness”actor Zlatko Burić; Cypriot filmmaker Tonia Mishiali; French actor and director Vahina Giocante; Greek producer Amanda Livanou; Italian journalist Boris Sollazzo; Maltese critic Mario Azzopardi; Portuguese journalist and programmer José Vieira Mendes; Slovenian journalist Tina Poglajen; and Spanish programmer Carlos Reviriego.

Zoe Hewitt Substantial change doesn’t take place instantaneously, whether it’s designing a feature film, or even editing one. And, when it comes to women’s roles in the arts, the crucial journey may be longer than one may wish. Aiming to facilitate change is Kering’s Women in Motion program, which launched in 2015. While its initial goal was to promote women in cinema, it has since expanded to include multiple art forms, with photography, music and choreography among them. Just a few of their many initiatives include artist recognition with monetary rewards, talks and podcasts. They provide support in word, as well as deed, with actions reminiscent of Gloria Steinem’s talking circles at times.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cannes’ Marché du Film has named Spain its Country of Honor for the upcoming 2023 edition which will take place May 16-24 during the 76th edition of the Festival de Cannes. The Marché du Film will work with ICEX Spain Trade & Investment and ICAA – Institute of Cinematography & Audiovisual Arts to showcase Spanish talent and content, ranging from cinema to documentary, animation and extended reality. Spain follows India which became Cannes’ first official Country of Honor in 2022. The industry event launched the initiative last year to spotlight and celebrate different nations at each market edition. Spain’s cinema sector has been having a banner 2023. Last month, Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s debut feature “20,000 Species of Bees” won three awards at the Berlinale, while Albert Serra’s “Pacifiction” won two Cesar awards, and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts” won the Cesar award for best foreign film. Recent successes last year also include Carla Simón’s “Alcarràs” which won last year’s Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and Alberto Mielgo’s “The Windshield Wiper” which won best animated short film at The Academy Awards).

The competition winners of the 73rd Berlinale are about to start rolling in as the festival draws to a close Saturday evening.

Hello and welcome back to your weekly International Insider. Berlin’s back and with most of our team in the German capital, it’s Jesse Whittock here bringing you the latest from the worlds of TV and film.

Kristen Stewart glams it up for the opening ceremony of the 73rd Annual Berlinale International Film Festival at the Berlinale Palast on Thursday (February 16) in Berlin, Germany.

Kristen Stewart, President of the International Jury, poses for photos at the International Jury photo call during the 2023 Berlinale International Film Festival at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Thursday (February 16) in Berlin, Germany.

Kristin Stewart said she was feeling the full weight of the responsibility of being jury president at the Berlin Film Festival at the opening jury press conference on Thursday.

The Berlinale Film Festival has unveiled the jury members for its main International Competition, which will be presided over by Kristin Stewart.

The Berlin Film Festival today unveiled the titles selected for its retrospective section chosen by a collection of international directors and actors, including Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Nadine Labaki, and Tilda Swinton.

Alcarràs, winner of the Golden Bear in Berlin, opens on five screens in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, presented by Mubi; Quiver Distribution releases Candy Land in nine theaters; and Sony’s Tom Hanks-starring A Man Called Otto, UAR’s Women Talking and IFC Films’ Corsage move into moderate expansions as the broader specialty market barrels into Oscar nominations and a new year of reckoning with adult audiences.

After two truncated years of pandemic-related disruptions, film festivals around the world returned with full-flowing in-person events this year.

Winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale Festival and Spain’s official selection for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards, Spanish filmmaker Carla Simón’s sun-dappled and deeply moving sophomore film, “Alcarràs” was one of the most acclaimed films of the year from the festival circuit. Shot in Alcarràs, Catalonia (North Eastern Spain, where they generally don’t speak Spanish), in the Western dialect of the Catalan language, featuring a non-professional cast of actors, the film is a family drama about the disappearance of traditional peach-harvesting activities.

Deadline on Monday launched its streaming site for Contenders Film: International, the annual awards-season showcase of the buzziest movies in the hunt for the International Feature Oscar.

Director and co-writer Carla Simón tells a story that’s close to her heart in Alcarràs, Spain’s entry for the International Feature Oscar race. The tale of peach farmers facing eviction and losing more than their home won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.

The first calendar year to see the physical return of almost every major film festival since the pandemic, 2022 has been a huge morale booster for filmmakers from all around the globe. And now, with the third edition of Deadline’s Contenders Film: International kicking off Saturday at 8 a.m. PT, that outreach expands even further: leaving a carbon-free footprint, our online event will showcase the myriad films that soared at Sundance, beguiled Berlin, captivated Cannes, thrilled Telluride, vitalized Venice and touched Toronto, all the while shining a spotlight on the must-see movies that might have flown under your radar.

The Les Arcs Film Festival will launch a new sidebar showcasing this year’s European entries to the Best International Feature Film Oscar category at its 14th edition, running December 10 to 17 in its namesake French Alps skiing resort home of Les Arcs.

Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age drama The Fabelmans has been announced as the opening film of 44th Cairo International Film Festival, running from November 13 to 22.

Emiliano De Pablos Top Spanish arthouse distributor-producer Avalon had boarded “La niña de la cabra” (“Goat Girl”), the sophomore film by actor-director Ana Asensio whose “Most Beautiful Island” feature snagged the SXSW Grand Jury Award in 2017. The project, which has just earned support from Spain’s ICAA film institute, is set up at Aquí y Allí Films and co-produced with Romania’s Avantpost Media. Pedro Hernández’s Aquí y Allí Films is the producer behind Antonio Méndez Esparza’s festival hits “Here and There,” a Cannes Critics’ Week winner, and “Life and Nothing More.” An allegorical drama set in the suburbs of Madrid in the late ’80s, “Goat Girl” is scheduled to roll in 2023 and has been acquired for international sales by Paris-based Alpha Violet.

period drama “Corsage,” starring Vicky Krieps as 19th-century Austrian Empress Elisabeth; Lukas Dhont’s tender coming-of-age film “Close,” the Belgian selection; Jerzy Skolimowski’s nearly wordless “EO,” a road movie from the point of view of a donkey that was submitted by Poland; and South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s stylish crime story/love story hybrid, “Decision to Leave.”Other films that could be positioned to do well include the German selection, Edward Berger’s harrowing new version of the classic antiwar novel “All Quiet on the Western Front,” a Netflix release; Spain’s “Alcarras,” a drama by Carla Simon that won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival; and “Our Brothers” from director Rachid Boucharev, who has represented Algeria seven previous times in the Oscar race, landing three of the country’s five nominations.As usual, the rule that allows an Academy-approved body from each country to choose that country’s Oscar submission has led to some surprises.

Christopher Vourlias Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has closed a raft of deals on the animated feature film “Yuku and the Himalayan Flower,” from directors Rémi Durin and Arnaud Demuynck. The children’s animated feature, with graphics by Paul Jadoul, tells the story of Yuku, a little mouse who lives with her family in the basement of a castle and decides to embark on a quest to find the legendary Himalayan flower. The film, which premiered at the Annecy fest and played in the Locarno Kids strand of the Locarno Film Festival, is produced by Artémis Prods. (“Mandibules”) and co-produced by Vivement Lundi! (“Flee”), La Boîte Prods. (“March of the Penguins”), Les Films du Nord and Nadasdy Film. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has closed distribution deals for Italy and Greece following the film’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The Israeli-Ukrainian co-production plays in Venice’s Horizons Extra section, and will have its North American premiere on Sept. 14 at Toronto Film Festival in the Contemporary World Cinema section. Rome-based P.F.A Films Srl will distribute the film in Italy, with a theatrical release planned for April 2023. The company’s recent titles include “Fabian – Going to the Dogs” by Dominik Graf, “The Audition” by Ina Weisse, and “Border” by Abbasi Ali.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterNew movies from directors Claire Denis, Park Chan-wook, Ruben Östlund, Kelly Reichardt and Paul Schrader will play at the 60th New York Film Festival, which is running from Sept. 30 through Oct.

Annika Pham For its 50th edition unspooling Aug. 20-26, Norway’s top film event, the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, will be treating its 400-plus international guests and local audiences with a beefed-up onsite program of 72 feature length films and 19 shorts.“We’ve had more films to choose from than ever before, “says festival honcho Tonje Hardersen about her non-competitive program, put together in close collaboration with local distributors and exhibitors.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentFernando Franco’s coming of age drama “The Rite of Spring” and Mikel Gurrea’s rural drama “Suro” will vie for the top Golden Seashell at September’s 70th San Sebastian Festival, the highest-profile film event in the Spanish-speaking world. Also making the cut are Jaime Rosales’s female emancipation tale “Wild Flowers” and Pilar Palomero’s teen motherhood story “La Maternal.”The four titles form part of a Spanish film line-up which looks to be “the strongest Spanish movie presence at San Sebastian in the 11 years I’ve been directing the festival,” San Sebastian director José Luis Rebordinos said on Friday.One or two more Spanish films could still be added to the selection, including one more in New Directors, he went on. Galvanizing the selection is new talent.

Naman Ramachandran The world Premiere of local filmmaker Tearepa Kahi’s action-drama “Muru” will open the Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin chapters of the New Zealand International Film Festival, while American filmmaker Sara Dosa’s Sundance-winning documentary “Fire of Love” will open all the other festival locations, which include Gore, Hamilton, Hawke’s Bay, Masterton, Matakana, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Tauranga and Timaru. Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning “Triangle of Sadness” will close the festival in all centers.Other Cannes titles joining the lineup include Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future,” Queer Palm winner “Joyland,” from Saim Sadiq and “Sick of Myself,” by Kristoffer Borgli. Award winners from this year’s Berlin International Film Festival include Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” by Carla Simón and Natalia López Gallardo’s Silver Bear jury winning “Robe of Gems.” Other local films include Fergus Grady and Noel Smyth’s “Gloriavale,” Tom Levesque’s “Shut Eye” and New Zealand-U.S.

Katherine Tulich Lukas Dhont’s “Close,” which won the Grand Prix in Cannes last month, picked up the Sydney Film Prize, the top prize at the Sydney Film Festival, on Sunday evening.Accepting the award via video message Dhont said: “It’s a film that comes from our hearts, that we worked on for a lot of years with many people.”The international jury consisted of Australian actor David Wenham, Australian director Jennifer Peedom, writer-director-producer Mostofa Sarwar Farooki (Bangladesh), Berlin Golden Bear winner Semih Kaplanoglu (Turkey), and the executive director of the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute in Tokyo, Yuka Sakano (Japan). Twelve titles in the official competition included Carla Simon’s “Alcarras”, Hlynur Palmason’s “Godland”, Colm Bairead’s “The Quiet Girl” and Del Kathryn Barton’s “Blaze.” The winner is awarded AUD$60,000 ($41,600).

Emilio Mayorga Pedro Almodóvar has put his considerable weight behind Spaniard Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s first feature,”Lullaby” (“Cinco Lobitos”) as it has initiated a spirited run at Spain’s box office.“It is undoubtedly the best debut in Spanish cinema for years,” Almodóvar announced in a statement, describing the mother-daughter relationship drama as “a portrait of the role of women within the family, which is truthful, devoid of sentimentality and that does not exclude humor.”“Life could offer another destiny for women other than caring for the whole family. [The film offers] very accurate interpretations, where Laia Costa stands out and I suppose will sweep all this year’s awards.

Emilio Mayorga Film Factory Entertainment has taken international rights to “Loli Tormenta,” the next film by one of Spain’s foremost auteurs, Agustí Villaronga (“The Belly of the Sea,” “Uncertain Glory”). Shooting is scheduled for the first week of July in Barcelona.Enrique González Kuhn’s Caramel Films distributes “Loli Tormenta” in Spain.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentIn February, Carla Simon’s “Alcarràs” walked off with Spain’s first Berlin Golden Bear in nearly 40 years as Spain notched up its biggest main competition presence at the Berlinale since 1997.This May, Spain has four movies selected for Cannes – Albert Serra’s Competition entry “Pacifiction”; Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” in Premiere; Elena López Riera’s Directors’ Fortnight bow “The Water”; and José Luis López Linares’ “Goya, Carrière and the Ghost of Buñuel,” a Cannes Classics doc feature. That reps a Cannes presence roughly on par with recent standout years such as 2018 and 2019.With Netflix launching “Through My Window” in February, three of the streaming giant’s five most-watched non-English language movies are from Spain.

Emiliano De Pablos Spain’s Cannes presence this year offers testimony to its developing co-production scene, as well as economic concerns driving the search for international partners and the ambitions of a highly cosmopolitan generation of cineastes that is driving art cinema production in Spain.Four Spanish features have made this year’s Cannes cut: Albert Serra’s competition entry “Pacifiction”; Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” in Premiere; José Luis López Linares’ Cannes Classics title “Goya, Carriere and the Ghost of Buñuel”; and Directors’ Fortnight contender “El Agua,” by Elena López Riera.All four are international co-productions. Also at Cannes, a Spanish Producers Network showcase, backed by ICEX Trade and Investment and ICAA Film Institute, will highlight eight potential overseas co-production projects.