Wendy Lidell Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The Sundance queer drama “Sebastian,” directed by up-and-coming Finnish-British director Mikko Mäkelä, has been bought by Kino Lorber for U.S. distribution, along with a string of international buyers. Represented in international markets by LevelK, the film made its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

EXCLUSIVE: Visit Films has sold doc Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory to Kino Lorber for the United States.

Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s migrant crisis drama Green Border.

EXCLUSIVE: Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights to Fantastic Fest and Sitges 2023 movie The Invisible Fight from LevelK. Above is a new international teaser for the movie.

wrote that it “takes us into the intimate, inner circle of family ties to tell a larger story of our time.” The picture concerns the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni and her daughters, detailing a family history through interviews and reenactments to deconstruct how the two eldest kids were radicalized to the point of joining ISIS.  “We were immediately captivated by Kaouther Ben Hania’s powerful documentary Four Daughters, a riveting piece of filmmaking that takes an innovative and provocative approach to nonfiction storytelling,” said Kino Lorber SVP of Theatrical Distribution and Acquisitions Wendy Lidell.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to “Four Daughters,” Kaouther Ben Hania’s film which competed at the Cannes Film Festival. The competition’s sole Arab film, “Four Daughters” mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of a Tunisian mother whose two elder daughters joined ISIS. It won L’Oeil d’or or “Golden Eye” Award at Cannes for best documentary and is now set to roll off into the international festival circuit. Kino Lorber plans to release it theatrically this fall, followed by a digital and home video release on all major platforms. The New York-based distribution company has high hopes for “Four Daughters” during the next awards season. Last year’s L’Oeil d’Or winner, “All That Breathes,” went on to earn an Oscar nomination for best documentary. Ben Hania previously earned an Oscar nomination with her 2020 film “The Man Who Sold His Skin” in the international feature film category.

Charna Flam Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to “Story Ave,” which won a special jury award for cinematography at SXSW. From debut filmmaker Aristotle Torres, “Story Ave” stars Luis Guzmán (“Narcos,” “Boogie Nights”) and Asante Blackk (“When They See Us,” “This Is Us”), with Guzmán serving as executive producer alongside producer Jamie Foxx. “Story Ave”follows teenage graffiti artist, Kadir Grayson (Blackk) who recently ran away from home and tries to prove himself to his neighborhood gang. One night Kadir heads over to the Story Ave. subway platform and attempts to hold up MTA worker Luis Torres (Guzmán) in a robbery. But once Luis proposes he’ll hand over the cash if Kadir has a meal with him, the two get to know each other throughout the meal, and with time their connection turns into growing and sincere friendship.

EXCLUSIVE: Kino Lorber has acquired all U.S. rights to documentary Ever Deadly about avant-garde Inuk throat singer-songwriter, novelist, visual artist and activist Tanya Tagaq.

EXCLUSIVE: The Right Stuff and The Bonfire of the Vanities scribe Tom Wolfe is the subject of new documentary Radical Wolfe, an adaptation of a 2015 Vanity Fair article by Moneyball and The Big Short author Michael Lewis who was a longtime personal friend of Wolfe.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Kino Lorber has bought U.S. and Anglo-Canadian distribution rights to Nicolas Philibert’s poignant documentary “On the Adamant” which just won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical release later this year followed by a digital and home video release on all major platforms. Sold by Films du Losange, “On the Adamant” takes place at a unique day-care centre for adults suffering from mental disorders. Located in a structure floating the middle of the Seine, in Paris, the center heals these adults with a blend of therapy, education, and culture rooted in music and the arts. The affecting documentary follows the team running the Adamant as they attempt to transform and uplift the lives for these people.

EXCLUSIVE: Kino Lorber has struck a deal with Paris-based sales firm Wide for North American distribution rights to Carlos Conceição’s Locarno Film Festival war drama Tommy Guns.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese filmmaker, Bi Gan, best-known for his single-take feature “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” has seen his “A Short Story” picked up by Kino Lorber for distribution in North America. A fairy tale that follows the relationship between man and cat, the film had its world premiere in competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and now has its North American premiere in the Currents section of the New York Film Festival. Kino Lorber plans to qualify “A Short Story” for the 96th Academy Awards, showing it theatrically nationwide in early 2023 in tandem with a theatrical re-release of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” “Kino Lorber rarely acquires short films, but Bi Gan has packed more cinematic delight into the fifteen minutes of ‘A Short Story’ than many feature length films deliver in two hours,” said Kino Lorber SVP Wendy Lidell. The deal was brokered by Les Films du Losange.

EXCLUSIVE: Kino Lorber has acquired all rights in U.S. and anglophone Canada to Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s drama The Worst Ones, which was awarded the top prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and will make its North American premiere at TIFF.

The film was acclaimed for its rich visual style of sensual cinematography that never feels vulgar or exploitative of the couple in question. It can be seen plainly in the trailer, which shows Hermes and Betta passionately kissing inside a pink bathroom filled with balloons, a parade of bodies in lingerie on a runway and one man even trying on a black g-string.

Holly Jones Following its world debut at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight this May, Kino Lorber has snagged North American distribution rights to “1976,” a gripping Pinochet-era drama directed by Manuela Martelli.The film is the first feature for Martelli, produced by Chilean writer-directors Omar Zuniga (“The Strong Ones”) and Dominga Sotomayor (“Too Late to Die Young”) for Cinestación, Alejandra Garcia and writer-director Andres Wood (“Violeta Went to Heaven”) for Wood Producciones, and co-produced by Nathalia Videla Peña and Juan Pablo Gugliotta for Argentina’s Magma Cine.“1976” takes place in a small seaside town where Carmen (Aline Kuppenheim) reflects on her life as she transforms from a side-lined housewife into an integral caretaker. Putting her sanity and the values of her peers on the line, she steps further into uncertainty by aiding a weary and wounded opponent to Pinochet’s regime, Elías (Nicolás Sepúlvda), at her priest’s request.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired North American rights to first-time Lebanese director Mounia Akl’s timely drama “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” which launched positively last year from Venice.“Costa Brava” provides an acerbic take on Lebanon’s waste management crisis and its turbulent political landscape and combines the country’s strife with the global climate crisis. The darkly comic drama pairs Oscar-nominated Lebanese star and filmmaker Nadine Labaki (“Capernaum”) and Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (“The Band’s Visit”) as a couple who has moved from Beirut to live idyllically in the mountains, until one day the government decides to build a garbage landfill right beside their house.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer“Framing Agnes,” a hybrid narrative and documentary feature film that explores trans lives and history, has sold North American distribution rights to Kino Lorber.Directed by Chase Joynt, the film closely and accurately depicts the journey of trans people past and present through reenactments of transcripts from a notable 1960s UCLA gender study. Based on a short by Joynt which premiered and nabbed awards at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, the project features a cast of trans performers and academics that includes Jules Gill-Peterson, Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Zackary Drucker, Max Wolf Valerio, Silas Howard and Stephen Ira.The film will make its New York premiere at NewFest on June 5, followed by a theatrical release from Kino Lorber in December. Joynt and Morgan M.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Mathieu Amalric’s “Hold Me Tight,” an engrossing family drama starring “Phantom Thread” actor Vicky Krieps. Co-produced and sold by Gaumont, the movie world premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.Adapted from Claudine Galea’s stage play, “Hold Me Tight” follows Clarisse (Krieps), a mother who has abandoned her family for mysterious reasons and is coping with great emotional upheaval.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired North American rights to “On the Edge,” a Belgian crime thriller by Giordano Gederlini (“Les Miserables”) from Le Pacte. The deal was negotiated by Kino Lorber senior VP Wendy Lidell and Le Pacte’s head of sales Camille Neel out of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema market hosted by Unifrance and the Film at Lincoln Center.“On The Edge” marks the sophomore outing of Gederlini, who co-wrote Ladj Ly’s Oscar-nominated film “Les Miserables.” The gritty and twisty noir is set in Brussels, where Leo, a Spanish metro driver, saw his estranged son right before he fell onto the rails and died.

Naman Ramachandran Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to writer-director Ajitpal Singh’s debut feature, “Fire in the Mountains,” which premiered in the World Dramatic Competition of the Sundance Film Festival in 2021.A powerful feminist tale set in a tourist homestay in the Himalayan foothills of northern India, the film centers around a woman (Vinamrata Rai), the sole breadwinner of the household, who scrimps and saves for her son’s medical treatment, while her alcoholic husband believes that an expensive shamanic ritual is the answer to all their woes.The film is produced by Alan McAlex and Ajai Rai of prolific Indian arthouse producers Jar Pictures alongside Mauli Singh and Amit Mehta.

EXCLUSIVE: North American arthouse distributor Kino Lorber has hired indie cinema veteran George Schmalz as Director, Theatrical Sales & Business.

Ed Meza @edmezavarVirtual cinema platforms that sprung up in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 lockdowns are set to remain a part of the landscape after theaters and film festivals reopen.That was the consensus of participants taking part at an IFFR Pro conference on the growing possibilities for film distribution at the Rotterdam Film Festival on Tuesday.Wendy Lidell, senior VP at Kino Lorber, joined Eve Gabereau, founder of London-based distrib Modern Films, producer Mynette