Pitching Paradiso Looks to Brazil’s North-East and Exciting Next Gen Filmmakers (EXCLUSIVE)

Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin have issued a little update on their week in training ahead of the Strictly Come Dancing quarter-finals this weekend. On Saturday night (December 2), the pair will return to the ballroom after surviving the dance-off last weekend.

The love pairing of flirty, late-era Millennial Harry (Paul Mescal) and the shy, fringe Gen X-er Adam (Andrew Scott) isn’t what you’d necessarily expect in most contemporary gay love affairs, let alone in Andrew Haigh’s sublime new drama, “All of Us Strangers.” But, lonely living in a barely occupied London apartment tower can make for unexpected and literal bedfellows. In the context of the film, it also leads to several intimate cinematic scenes that are both emotionally moving and, well, quite erotic.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent BUENOS AIRES — Brazil is beginning to come back as Latin America’s production powerhouse. At Ventana Sur on Monday, representatives of key federal, state and city authorities as well as a leading producer outlined some of the directions the giant would like to take on its return.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Jointly organized by Cannes’ Marché du Film with a Thierry Fremaux Cannes Film Week adding star auteur glamor, Ventana Sur turns 15 this week unspooling Nov. 27-Dec.1 at its usual venue of the Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires’ Puerto Madero, its most modern and most chic of districts.

UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt wants North East England to get in on the all-consuming Barbie hype. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Marco Mueller, the veteran film festival curator and director, is set to launch a new festival and market in Macau. It will have its first edition in January. The Asia-Europe Young Cinema Festival, running Jan.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After expanding into the U.K., the U.S. and the Netherlands, Paris-based leading unscripted production banner Satisfaction is set to gain ground in Spanish-speaking markets.

Addie Morfoot Contributor The 1997 race for the Heisman Trophy will be explored in an installment of the 14th season of ESPN’s “30 for 30” series.” Titled “The Great Heisman Race of 1997,” the ESPN Films docu will debut on Dec. 9 on ESPN immediately following the broadcast of the Heisman Trophy Ceremony, which will air on the network. The doc will focus on the race between Peyton Manning and Charles Woodson.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Brazilian talents to track Enock Carvalho and Matheus Farias, selected for 2021’s Sundance with short “Unliveable,” are teaming with Janaina Bernardes, a co-producer of Karim Ainouz’s “Nardjes A.” and Argentina’s Frutacine, behind Tribeca player “Initials S.G.,” to produce “Burning Land” (“Terra de Fuego”), Carvalho and Farias’ awaited feature debut. “Unliveable” was voted by Brazil’s Abraccine critics’ assn. as the best short of the year.

Courteeners have announced that they will head to Lytham Festival in 2024 for their one and only North of England show of the summer.The Manchester-based band – comprised of Liam Fray, Michael Campbell and Daniel Moores – are the first headlining act to be announced as part of the five-night festival, with their set slated to take place on Friday, July 5.The Kooks and indie pop singer Nieve Ella have been announced as opening support for the show date. Tickets for the festival date are set to go on general sale on Friday, November 24 at 9:30am local time.

K.J. Yossman A documentary about Eddie Hall, the strongman and “Expendables 4” actor, has been acquired for worldwide theatrical release and streaming by sports media company Generation Iron. “Taming The Beast – The Emptiness Within” is a feature-length doc from Switzerland-based Jeridoo Universe about British strongman Hall.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent As U.S. and European sales agents and distributors gather in Buenos Aires next week for Ventana Sur, there will be a very large elephant in the room: the stunning victory in Argentina’s presidential election Sunday of far right Javier Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist.” Milei won 55.8% of the vote promising to do away with inflation, running at over 140%, as part of “drastic changes” which include scrapping Argentina’s central bank, dollarizing the economy and slashing public spending by 15% of GDP.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix will not be going forward with more seasons of live-action series Shadow and Bone and Glamorous and adult animated comedies Agent Elvis, Farzar and Captain Fall.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter, one of the biggest female streamers and gaming creators in the world, has signed with WME for representation. She most recently was repped by UTA. Valkyrae is known for streaming games “Among Us,” “Fortnite” and “Valorant,” among others.

Alison Herman TV Critic SPOILER ALERT: This piece contains spoilers from “Unmortricken,” the fifth episode of “Rick and Morty” Season 7. Dan Harmon is, by his own admission, “allergic to serialized, canonical stuff.” But the “Rick and Morty” co-creator told Variety that he resisted that impulse for “Unmortricken,” the episode that brought Season 7 of the Adult Swim animated sitcom to its halfway point on Sunday night. Not only does “Unmortricken” check in on the series’ overarching story for the first time since the Season 6 premiere (which aired over a year ago); it also sees the grisly death of a character once built up as the show’s arch-antagonist, even as it gives another an unprecedented level of power within the “Rick and Morty” universe.

Manchester United picked up three points against Luton on Saturday but potentially at the cost of two more injuries.

EXCLUSIVE: Cohen Media Group has acquired worldwide rights to Merchant Ivory, a documentary about the cinematic and personal partnership of filmmakers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant. The film directed by Stephen Soucy makes it world premiere on Saturday at DOC NYC.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Jasmina Kuhnke, a German-born writer, actor, author and activist, has signed with CAA for representation, Variety has learned exclusively. Kuhnke’s debut novel, “Black Heart,” is a bestseller. The semi-autobiographical book recounts her experience growing up on the outskirts of the Ruhr region in Germany in the ’90s, and how she grappled with racism.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor When asked how she felt about this year’s opening film at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) having been supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund (IBF), the fund’s executive director and IDFA deputy director Isabel Arrate Fernandez beamed with pride, stating it is “amazing, most of all because it’s a beautiful film.” The film in question is Olga Chernyk’s “A Picture to Remember,” which has its world premiere at IDFA, running between Nov. 8-19.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Esports company GameSquare, which recently acquired FaZe Clan, will report its third-quarter earnings Nov. 15 after the bell. In a move to connect its target Gen Z demographic with Wall Stret, in lieu of hosting the traditional conference call with investors after the results have been released, GameSquare will be livestreaming the Q&A with CEO Justin Kenna and chief innovation officer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins on Twitch.