Holly Jones After its debut at Sundance in January, where it earned the World Cinema Dramatic Competition award for directing, Ukrainian wartime drama “Klondike” nabbed top honors for best international film at the Chile’s 18th Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic).“Klondike,” written, directed and edited by Ukrainian filmmaker Marina Er Gorbach (“Omar and Us”), tells the story of expectant couple Irina and Anatoly who live in the village of Grabove, near the Russia-Ukraine border during the high conflict that coincides with downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The couple faces devastation up-close as Irina refuses to relocate, even as troops close in.Best director went to Chile’s Roberto Baeza for his documentary effort “Punto de Encuentro,” a gripping portrait of filmmakers striving to recreate the story of their fathers, tortured and imprisoned under the dictatorship.
Sanfic Honors Pablo Larrain Regular Alfredo Castro with Career Achievement Award
11.08.2022 - 16:03 / variety.com
Anna Marie de la Fuente The 18th Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic) is paying tribute to Chile’s most internationally renowned and arguably hardest working actor, the peripatetic Alfredo Castro who will attend Sanfic’s inauguration Aug. 14 to receive his lifetime achievement award and kick off a retrospective of his films.Also a playwright and theater director, Castro has worked across Europe and Latin America, acting in French, Spanish, Portuguese and a number of accents and dialects from Latin America, including neutral Spanish.
“I haven’t worked in English but I certainly hope to one day,” he says. Meanwhile, he has won a boatload of awards from festivals and award events across the world.
Yet, he would also be high up the order of figures who have helped shape Chile’s post-Pinochet film, theater and now TV scene into one of the most vibrant, surprising and constantly questioning of any country in Latin America.Castro, 66, estimates that he has been working on an average of five to six films a year, and thanks the number of co-productions and streaming platforms that have brought him so much work. “I think the pandemic also saw a lot of projects suspended and they’ve now been reactivated,” he adds.He’s now on the set of Pablo Larrain’s dark comedy for Netflix, “El Conde,” where he plays the assistant, a Chilean Igor if you will, to the character of dictator Augusto Pinochet as a world-weary 250-year-old vampire.“El Conde” is Castro’s seventh film with Larrain, a storied collaboration that began with “Fuga” in 2006 to “Tony Manero” where he played a demented imitator of John Travolta’s “Saturday Night Fever” character, followed by “Post Mortem,” “No,” “El Club” and “Neruda.”Asked if they’ve developed a shorthand
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Sanfic Industria Signals Robust Growth in Latin American Film and TV
Anna Marie de la Fuente Chile’s foremost industry forum Sanfic Industria wrapped Friday Aug. 19 with a wealth of prizes doled out to projects from across Latin America and Spain. Still reeling from the pandemic, the forum’s 11th year saw another hybrid edition but a definite upsurge in attendance.
Sanfic Industria Winner ‘Una Luz Negra’ Ponders the Mysteries of Memory and Grief
Anna Marie de la Fuente In his feature debut, which has just proved the biggest winner at Sanfic Industria’s 2022 Work in Progress strand, Chilean writer-director Alberto Hayden explores what has been almost an obsession with him. Inspired by the musings of South Korean-born philosopher Byung-Chul Han and his French counterpart Deleuze, Hayden questions whether people continue to exist past their physical selves through people’s memories of them, their photos, the possessions they have left behind or in this digital age, their social media imprint. “Una Luz Negra” (“A Dark Light”) is among the 10 Work in Progress (WIP) titles participating at Chilean industry forum, Sanfic Industria.
Sanfic Industria Title ‘Monstro,’ From Diogo Leite, a Brazilian ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Holly Jones The lives of a self-obsessed film star and a struggling filmmaker collide in Brazilian director-producer Diogo Leite’s first feature, “Monstro,” set to screen as a pic-in-post at the Ibero-American Work in Progress strand of this week’s Sanfic Industria.“Monstro” follows Magaiver, a young filmmaker who moonlights as an Internet technician in order to survive. His life takes a bittersweet turn as he’s hired to film a retrospective on ageing cinema star Laura.
Sanfic Title ‘Tierra De Nuestras Madres’ Broken Down by Director Liz Lobato (EXCLUSIVE)
Holly Jones With a delicately morose charm, Spanish actress-turned-director Liz Lobato is presenting her debut feature project, “Tierra de Nuestras Madres” as part of the 11th Fanfic Industria’s Ibero-American Work In Progress strand.The farcical fable scrutinizing globalization takes place in the village of La Mancha, where residents know each other thoroughly and tend to their routines like clockwork. There, beloved curmudgeon and central protagonist Rosario makes the rounds selling drug-laced fig salt to her neighbors as the town’s unknowingly sold out from under them by a bankrupt mayor.Shot in black and white, the film gives far more than it takes and absurdly relays the somber tale of corruption and a community bound to its roots so tightly its willing to sacrifice a soul or two to stay put, as futile an endeavor as that may be.
Sanfic Honors Chile’s Patricio Guzman Ahead of the U.S. Debut of ‘My Imaginary Country,’ which Gets a Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)
Anna Marie de la Fuente When Chile’s preeminent documentarian, Patricio Guzman, receives a lifetime achievement award at the Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic) on Aug. 16, he’ll also be marking his 81st birthday.Born on Aug. 11, 1941, Guzman has made more than 20 documentaries at an average of one every two to five years.
Chile’s Matias de Bourguignon, Equeco Board Sanfic Lab’s ‘I Will Mutate Like A Jungle Animal’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Anna Marie de la Fuente In one of the first deals struck at Chilean industry forum Sanfic Industria, local indie producers Matias de Bourguignon and Equeco have boarded the Venezuelan drama “I Will Mutate Like a Jungle Animal” (“Mutaré como animal del monte”), the feature debut of rising Venezuelan talent Hector Silva.Lead produced by Berlin-based Venezuelan producer Rodolfo Cova whose credits include Venice Golden Lion winner “From Afar” and Michel Franco’s Cannes Un Certain Regard winner “Las Hijas de Abril,” “I Will Mutate Like a Jungle Animal” is among the 28 titles in the Sanfic Industria Santiago Lab which supports Ibero-American projects in development.De Bourguignon and Equeco join international co-producers Pomme Hurlante Films (France), Artrupe Films (Brazil) and Abismo Cine (Ecuador) who were also drawn to the feature debut of Silva whose award-winning short films have played in prominent film festivals, including Cannes, Toronto and Tribeca. “Hector’s shorts deeply moved me.
Chile’s Sanfic Industria Bows Virtual Reality, Female Producers Lab Strands
Anna Marie de la Fuente Chilean industry forum Sanfic Industria bows its 11th edition with the launch of new virtual reality and women producers lab sections. Running Aug 11-19, Sanfic Industria will also include its mainstays: WIP Ibero-American, Santiago Lab: Fiction and Documentary, Sanfic-Mórbido Lab, Series Lab, Sanfic Net and Sanfic Series.“By introducing a virtual reality section, we’re betting on new narrative formats,” said Sanfic Industria founder-director Gabriela Sandoval of the Sanfic XR showcase, which will be open to the public at the forum’s official headquarters, Matucana 100.“Making these films accessible to everyone creates a nexus between the public and the films’ creators,” she pointed out.
Diane Morgan to Receive Variety Outstanding Achievement Award With Edinburgh TV Festival
K.J. Yossman Actor, writer and director Diane Morgan is set to receive the Variety Outstanding Achievement Award, distributed in association with the Edinburgh TV Festival.The honor, which is awarded as part of the Festival’s prestigious TV awards, is being awarded to the BAFTA-nominated star in recognition of her extensive body of work, which ranges from Ricky Gervais’ “After Life” to “Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe” and includes fan-favorite “Motherland.” Morgan’s award will be paired with a wide-ranging conversation with Variety, taking place on Thursday, Aug. 25 at the festival.
Olivia Newton-John’s Net Worth Includes How Much She Made From ‘Grease’ Her Music Career Before Her Death
She’ll always be our Sandy. Olivia Newton-John’s net worth includes what she made from movies like Grease and her music career before her death at 73 years old.
How ‘Batgirl’ Axing and James Franco’s Castro Casting Highlight Hollywood’s Persistent Erasure of Latinos
Clayton Davis It wasn’t a great week for Latinos in Hollywood, but I’m sure many of you knew that already.Between Warner Bros. axing the release of “Batgirl” starring Leslie Grace, HBO Max canceling the coming-of-age comedy TV series “The Gordita Chronicles” and James Franco being cast as Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in an upcoming feature, Latinos are being mercilessly discarded and overlooked in the entertainment business. Worse yet, not many seem to care.Warner Bros.
Producer of James Franco's New Movie Responds to Criticism of Fidel Castro Casting
James Franco will be playing former Cuban leader Fidel Castro in an upcoming movie and his casting has drawn criticism from the Latinx community, including from actor John Leguizamo.
John Leguizamo Outraged On James Franco Casting As Fidel Castro: “He Ain’t Latino!”
John Leguizamo thinks the casting of James Franco as Cuban revolution leader Fidel Castro is no bueno.
John Leguizamo Slams James Franco's New Role as Fidel Castro
James Franco has been cast as Fidel Castro in an upcoming movie and his casting is being slammed by John Leguizamo.
James Franco to play Fidel Castro in ‘Alina Of Cuba’
James Franco has been cast as former Cuban leader Fidel Castro in upcoming film Alina Of Cuba.Directed by Miguel Bardem, Alina Of Cuba is centred around the story of Alina Fernandez (played by Ana Villafañe), the daughter of Castro and Natalia ‘Naty’ Revuelta (Mia Maestro) after they had an affair.Fernandez discovered Castro was her biological father aged 10. She went onto become one of Castro’s most outspoken critics and was arrested multiple times for trying to leave Cuba.
James Franco slammed by John Leguizamo for being cast as Fidel Castro: 'This F'd up'
James Franco is stirring up controversy yet again, with news that he has been cast to play former Cuban leader Fidel Castro in a new film, "Alina of Cuba," according to Deadline.This will be one of Franco's first acting roles since he was sued for sexual misconduct in 2019. But the sexual scandal is not the only reason people are upset with the casting news.
John Leguizamo Slams James Franco’s Casting as Fidel Castro: ‘He Ain’t Latino! How Is This Still Going On?’
Zack Sharf John Leguizamo took to Instagram to speak out against the recent casting of James Franco as Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro in the upcoming independent film, “Alina of Cuba.” Variety confirmed Franco’s casting on Aug. 4.
‘Improvisation, Spontaneity and Vulnerability’: Matt Dillon Gets Lifetime Achievement Award at Locarno before heading to ‘Asteroid City’
Marta Balaga Matt Dillon might have been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at Locarno on Thursday, but he still has “stuff to do.” And he wants you to know that.“The first thing I thought was: ‘Oh wow, that’s really nice.’ And then: ‘I don’t feel like I am done just yet!’,” Dillon tells Variety ahead of the ceremony. But he has been around for a long time, he admits, having made his first film, Jonathan Kaplan’s “Over the Edge,” back in 1979.“We were a bunch of actors playing juvenile delinquents, staying at a Holiday Inn in Colorado where McDonald’s slaughterhouses are based.
James Franco to Play Fidel Castro in 'Alina of Cuba' Movie
James Franco has booked his next movie role.