Picture Tree Intl. Boards Toronto Entry ‘This Place,’ Debuts Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)

Holly Jones After screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and coinciding with its San Sebastian bow, Variety has been granted exclusive access to the trailer for “La Jauria,” the first feature effort from award-winning Colombian director Andrés Ramírez Pulido (“El Edén”). The film tracks the visceral journey of two estranged friends, Eliú (Jhojan Estiven Jimenez) and El Mono (Maicol Andrés Jimenez), who share an uneasy reunion after they’re sent to a remote and unconventional rehabilitation center to serve their sentence for a vicious crime. There, they grapple with accountability, moral fortitude and redemption. This raises questions about the unfettered nature of depravity looming in the thick, languid atmosphere.

Marta Balaga Fresh off screenings at Toronto and San Sebastian, U.S. director Marian Mathias is still surprised her feature debut “Runner” connected with audiences and programmers alike.  Produced by Joy Jorgensen, the intimate drama is a Killjoy Films production made in association with Pigasus Pictures. Easy Riders Films and Man Alive co-produce. Heretic, which is handling international sales, shared the films trailer in exclusivity with Variety.  “I was thinking about it the other night. As a young filmmaker – and I am very fresh-faced to the scene – how do I navigate these waters? Do I stay true to my voice or shift to satisfy others?” wonders the director. 

Anna Marie de la Fuente Ecuador’s Ana Cristina Barragán, an alum of San Sebastian’s post-graduate film school Elias Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE), has come full circle with her second feature “La Piel Pulpo” (“Octopus Skin”) as it competes at the San Sebastian Festival’s Horizontes Latinos, a year after it participated in the festival’s Work in Progress strand (WIP Latam). A coming-of-age family drama “La Piel Pulpo” turns on twins Iris and Ariel who live with their mother and younger sister on a remote island. Having grown up in this rarified environment with only the mollusks, birds and reptiles for company, the teens are inseparable and have formed a near transcendental connection with nature. Curious about the world beyond their island, Iris hitches a boat ride with a rare visitor to explore the mainland and search for their estranged father. The act of physically separating from her twin brother puts a strain on their relationship.

Holly Jones On the heels of a world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and ahead of its bow in New Directors competition at San Sebastian, BFF, who heads international sales, has given Variety exclusive access to the trailer for Nicaraguan director Laura Baumeister’s debut feature, “Daughter of Rage.” The film follows 11-year-old María and her mother, Lilibeth, who navigate poverty by collecting and repurposing refuse from the local landfill. A look at stifling generational debt passed on in communities that work hard to stay afloat, the film also tackles precocious familial bonds, abandonment, and the salvation of an imagination that allows the protagonist to cope with uncertainty. 

is back! More than three years since the last episode dropped, the original series — inspired by the popular dance movie franchise — returns for season 3 on a new network, Starz, and promises to feature even more twists and turns.In celebration of National Dance Day on Saturday, ET exclusively debuts the juicy official trailer for the upcoming season and reveals the premiere date: Sunday, Oct. 16 at 10 p.m.

Is there any place better than the great outdoors to escape from everything? That’s the logic of Thandiwe Newton‘s grieving college professor in “God’s Country,” who heads out to Big Sky Country in Montana to mourn his mother’s passing. But when two hunters trespass on her property, Newton’s teacher finds herself less in the solace of nature than in an escalating battle of wills that leads to fatal consequences.

, the longtime MCU character played by Anthony Mackie will now lead his first solo film,. While speaking to ET at the D23 Expo, director Julius Onah teased that this “incredibly intense but fun paranoid thriller” is going to push the newly elevated superhero to his limits.    “We’re really testing him,” Onah continued.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Keshet International (KI) has boarded the three-part true crime documentary “My Name Is Reeva: And I Was Murdered by Oscar Pistorius” in the run-up to Mipcom. Directed by Warren Batchelor (“204: Getting Away With Murder”), the documentary series tells the intimate story of Reeva Steenkamp’s life and her murder at the hands of her then-boyfriend Oscar Pistorius – AKA the Blade Runner – on Valentine’s Day in 2013. It’s penned by Justin Strydom (“Isidingo, High Rollers”), and is produced by WB Productions, in partnership with Cactus Tree Entertainment, Bloodrose Productions and Australia’s Global City Group. Reeva’s parents, Barry and June Steenkamp, said they “fully endorsed the truth in this documentary and show the world who Reeva really was.” The film follows them on an emotional journey as they endure a victim offender dialogue with their daughter’s murderer.

A group of wealthy people arrive on a mysterious island and receive the meal of a lifetime in Mark Mylod’s psychological thriller The Menu. Written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, the film stars Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor Joy. 

A group of wealthy people arrive on a mysterious island and receive the meal of a lifetime in Mark Maylod’s psychological thriller The Menu. Written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, the film stars Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor Joy. 

Marta Balaga Greece’s Homemade Films has boarded Mahdi Fleifel’s upcoming feature “Men in the Sun,” currently in the final stages of development. The story, set in Athens, will deal with masculinity, exile and loss, showing young refugees in their 20s hustling to survive in the urban pressure cooker. The company is also ready to start shooting Sofia Exarchou’s “Animal,” co-producing with Nabis Filmgroup, Ars Ltd., Digital Cube and Felony Productions. Furthermore, its founder Maria Drandaki recently presented new projects at Venice Gap-Financing Market. “Arcadia,” directed by Yorgos Zois, will see Homemade Films joining forces with Foss Production and Red Carpet. “Titanic Ocean” by Konstantina Kotzamani will be shot in Japan and Singapore in 2023.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has boarded sales on the upcoming romantic thriller “Haunted Heart” by Academy Award winning director Fernando Trueba (“La Belle Époque,” “The Queen of Spain”). The film stars Academy Award nominee Matt Dillon (“The House That Jack Built”), Goya-nominated Aida Folch (“The Artist and the Model”), and Juan Pablo Urrego (“Memoria”). The English-language film is set to start shooting in Greece in September. The film is set on a beautiful remote island in Greece, where young and spirited Alex joins the team of a boutique seaside restaurant as their new waitress. Despite her femme-fatale charm quickly winning the heart of the charismatic Enrico, she instead falls for the enigmatic restaurant manager Max, a reclusive American, who settled on the island decades ago.

Christopher Vourlias Paris-based sales agency and production company Luxbox has released the trailer for “Trenque Lauquen,” Argentine director-producer Laura Citarella’s adventure mystery that has its world premiere Sept. 8 in the Horizons sidebar of the Venice Film Festival. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer, which can be seen below. Filmed in two parts, Citarella’s fourth feature begins with a pair of men both searching for a woman who has mysteriously vanished. While one of them claims to be her boyfriend, the other has also forged an intimate bond with the missing woman, with a series of flashbacks revealing that he’s also fallen in love with her.

Christopher Vourlias Directing duo Dušan Zorić and Matija Gluščević make their feature debut with “Have You Seen This Woman?,” which has its world premiere Sept. 8 during the Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer. Divided into three chapters, “Have You Seen This Woman?” presents three acts that follow three different lives of a middle-aged woman of the same name. In the heat of a summer day, Draginja discovers a dead body that resembles her. Elsewhere, another hires a fake husband to show off in front of her friends. Finally, on a cold winter night, a third Draginja roams the streets hoping to recover her lost memory. Through three different life possibilities, each tries to get out of her skin in her own way.

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.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Reservoir Docs has acquired documentary “The Other Fellow,” which is about several men named James Bond, like the movie’s hero. It has debuted the trailer (below). The comedy-thriller premiered and won an award at Doc Edge New Zealand, and gets its European premiere in Dinard at the British Film Festival in France. In Jamaica in 1952, author Ian Fleming needs a name for his suave, sophisticated secret agent, so he steals one from an unaware birdwatcher and creates a pop-culture phenomenon about the ultimate fictional alpha-male. In 2022, the year of 007’s 60th anniversary onscreen, Australian filmmaker Matthew Bauer is on a global mission to discover the lasting, contrasting and very personal impacts of sharing such an identity with James Bond.

Holly Jones Coinciding with its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has provided Variety with an exclusive peek at the trailer for Chilean writer-director Fernando Guzzoni’s (“Jesus”) thriller, “Blanquita.” Based on the young witness at the center of the Spinak case, a scandal involving Chilean pedophilia and prostitution networks that rocked the country, the film grapples with morality and the struggle towards justice for those without means. In the film, Blanca (Laura López) leads investigators, and the public, on a baffling journey as she plants herself at the center of a trial against powerful politicians.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent It took a pandemic and a lockdown for “Drive” director Nicolas Winding Refn to make a directorial comeback in Denmark, where he had delivered the “Pusher” trilogy early in his career. “Sometimes the strangest things come in mysterious ways, and this is one of those,” Refn says of “Copenhagen Cowboy,” his Netflix original series, slated to world premiere Sept. 9 at the Venice Film Festival. Since “Drive,” Winding Refn has directed the Bangkok-set thriller “Only God Forgives,” with “Drive” star Ryan Gosling; “The Neon Demon,” with Elle Fanning playing an aspiring model in Los Angeles.; and the Amazon Prime Video series “Too Old to Die Young,” starring Miles Teller as a grieving cop in crime-ridden Southern California. He was preparing another project set abroad when the pandemic hit.

Marta Balaga German helmer Alex Schaad takes on the body-swap trope in Venice Critics’ Week title “Skin Deep,” produced by Walker + Worm Film in co-production with Bayerischer Rundfunk and Donndorffilm. Beta Cinema, which handles the sales, has shared its trailer exclusively with Variety ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Italian fest. The intimate, character-driven story sees a young couple – played by “And Tomorrow the Entire World” actor Mala Emde and Jonas Dassler – deciding to visit a remote island, hoping they might be able to solve their problems in a place that literally allows you to be someone else. But Schaad, who co-wrote the script with his brother Dimitrij, wasn’t trying to deliver another “Freaky Friday,” eschewing easy laughs for a much more philosophical approach.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Venice Film Festival title “Music for Black Pigeons,” directed by Danish filmmakers Jørgen Leth, best known for “The Five Obstructions,” and “The Lost Leonardo” helmer Andreas Koefoed, has debuted its trailer with Variety. The documentary, which premieres on Tuesday in Venice’s Out of Competition section, explores the lives and processes of some of the world’s most renowned and prolific jazz musicians, including Jakob Bro, Bill Frisell, Lee Konitz, Paul Motian and Midori Takada. Leth, who has directed more than 40 films including landmark works such as “A Sunday in Hell” (1977) and the surrealist short “The Perfect Human” (1968), returns to Venice after his feature documentary “The Five Obstructions,” which he co-directed with Lars von Trier, screened on the Lido in 2003.