Sovereign Distribution Launches Action Content Label (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMemento International has sold Ursula Meier’s drama “The Line” to major markets, including the U.S. with Strand Releasing, on the heels of its world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.A poignant study of acceptance and delicate family bonds, “The Line” stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (“La Fracture”) and Stephanie Blanchoud (“Ennemi Public”) as a mother and daughter whose turbulent relationship and explosive fight lead to a retraining order.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentFour years after the death of his brother Vittorio, with whom he shared a celebrated career, Paolo Taviani is back in the Berlin competition solo, with “Leonora Addio.” The brothers won the Golden Bear in 2012 with “Caesar Must Die,” about high-security inmates performing Shakespeare.The free-form film he made –– screening on Feb. 15 –– takes its cue from a story titled “Il Chiodo” (“The Nail”) by Italian playwright and author Luigi Pirandello, written shortly before he died in 1936.

Naman Ramachandran Acclaimed Nepalese filmmaker Deepak Rauniyar has cast Indian actor Tannishtha Chatterjee as one of the leads in his upcoming feature “The Sky Is Mine.”Chatterjee’s credits include “Brick Lane” (2007), for which she scored a best actress nomination at the British Independent Film Awards, “Parched” (2015) and “Lion” (2016). She won the Asia Star Award for best Asian filmmaker at Busan for her directorial debut, “Roam Rome Mein” (2019).Rauniyar’s latest work, short film “Four Nights,” is playing at Berlinale Shorts. The filmmaker’s first feature, “Highway,” premiered at the 2012 Berlinale and played Locarno, while his sophomore feature “White Sun” (2016) won awards at the Venice, Palm Springs, Fribourg and Singapore festivals.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentAudrey Diwan, the BAFTA-nominated filmmaker of the Venice Golden Lion-winning “Happening,” is set to make her television debut with Haut et Court TV in France, Variety has learned.Haut et Court TV is one of France’s leading production companies with credits ranging from the supernatural drama series “The Returned,” to “Panthers” with Tahar Rahim and more recently “Possession.”Diwan is currently writing the series, which will be an original story about a mother and daughter running a plastic surgery clinic. The plot is under wraps but the series will be similar to “Happening” in that it will deal with women’s relationships to their bodies.

Jamie Lang After a banner 2021 for high-end genre films, industry vets are hopeful that the fantastic can resurrect the corpse of pre-COVID theatrical distribution.As bolts of lightning reanimated the body of Frankenstein’s monster, Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” which turned heads when it took the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and Sundance Grand Jury prize-winner “Nanny,” a supernatural tale from director Nikyatu Jusu, have revitalized the festival scene.While “Nanny” may have been the jewel in the genre crown at Sundance, the influence that genre cinema held over 2022’s first major festival was wide-ranging and undeniable. Chloe Okuno’s psychological thriller “Watcher” impressed — segueing into several sales deals — as did Hanna Bergholm’s psycho-horror feature “Hatching,” sold by Wild Bunch and Charades-sold Spanish standout “Piggy,” the follow-up to Carlota Pereda’s 2019 Spanish Academy Award-winner “Cerdita.” Among genre titles at Berlin this year are Dario Argento’s serial killer thriller “Dark Glasses” in the Berlinale Special section, while Bertrand Bonello’s subconscious voyage “Coma” and Peter Strickland’s gory “Flux Gourmet” (pictured above) feature in Encounters.

Outré horror maestro Peter Strickland is back. The filmmaker behind such Eurotica, vintage, throwback classics such as “Berberian Sound Studio” (2012), “The Duke of Burgundy” (2014), and “In Fabric” (2018), returns to the Berlin Film Festival this week (today, in fact), with his latest deliciously bizarro offering, “Flux Gourmet.” The premise? Something like beef within the culinary/sonic art collective world and a whole set of egos and intestinal issues.

Manori Ravindran International EditorChrissy Metz, the Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated star of “This Is Us,” stars alongside “It” actor Wyatt Oleff and Fin Argus in Jamie Sisley’s drama “Stay Awake,” which premieres at the Berlin Film Festival this week.The feature — which is based on Sisley’s 2015 short film of the same name — centers on brothers Ethan (Oleff) and Derek (Argus), who are trying their best to navigate the pressures of teenage life while tending to their mother’s (Metz) debilitating prescription drug addiction.Based on Sisley’s experience growing up in small-town America, “Stay Awake” is billed as “a personal exploration of the roller coaster ride that families go on while trying to help their loved ones battle a disease that affects millions every day.” In an exclusive clip shared with Variety, the two brothers are shown arguing about the money needed to pay for their mother’s rehabilitation treatment. The subject matter is especially resonant given the recent representation of America’s drug crisis on screen in shows such as Hulu’s “Dopesick.”“The themes and characters in ‘Stay Awake’ mean the world to me since they’re based on my childhood.

Christopher Vourlias Austrian director Ulrich Seidl, whose latest feature “Rimini” plays in the main competition at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, is winding down production on his next film, Variety can reveal.“Sparta” is a companion piece to Seidl’s competition entry and revolves around the brother of that film’s protagonist, the washed-up singer Richie Bravo. “[‘Rimini’] actually originated as a much larger story,” the director told Variety.

Christopher Vourlias Berlin Golden Bear winner Radu Jude (“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”) is set to begin production in Romania on his next feature, Variety can reveal.“A Case History” analyzes the relations between individuals and multinational companies in the mad dash of new Romanian capitalism, starting from the real story of preparing and shooting a problematic work safety video. Principal photography is slated to begin in summer or early fall.“The film is composed of two parts which respond to each other, forming a diptych of sorts,” said Jude.

Tell-all documentary feature Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over is to be one of the first major films to launch on CNN+.

Emiliano De Pablos Media giant Mediaset has acquired Italian distribution rights to Spanish writer-director Benito Zambrano’s drama “Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake,” produced and sold by Barcelona-based studio Filmax.News of the deal comes just before Filmax screens “Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake” to buyers at this year’s online European Film Market.Described as high-quality cinema for adults and predominantly female audiences, “Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake” adapts the novel of the same title by screenwriter and casting specialist Cristina Campos. It has sold more than 250,000 copies worldwide.A member of  Spain’s generation of directors that broke out in the 1990s,  helping Spanish movies find far larger favor with audiences at home, Zambrano’s breakout debut, 1999’s “Alone,” won the Panorama Audience Award at Berlin.

Jamie Lang One of the hottest titles from Spain at this year’s European Film Market, is Catalan director Carla Simón’s sophomore feature “Alcarrás,” the hotly anticipated follow up to her 2017 debut “Summer 1993.” There, Paris-based MK2 Films will be talking to interested buyers of the recently-finished arthouse entry. To mark the occasion, the sales company has given Variety access to an early clip.A smash hit with critics and festivals alike, Simón’s autobiographical debut “Summer 1993” won the Best First Feature Award and the Generation Kplus Grand Prix jury prize at Berlin in 2017.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorGlobal Screen has secured a presale of the female-led drama “Lost Transport” to Menemsha Films for the U.S. and Canada ahead of the European Film Market in Berlin.Inspired by true events, the film tells the story of the final days of World War II when German soldiers abandon a deportation train, leaving the fate of its occupants in the hands of advancing Russian troops.

The Brazilian Filmmakers Collective (BRFC) will launch formally on Feb. 16 at the Berlin Film Festival’s EFM.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBeta Cinema has picked up the eco-thriller “The Climb,” starring Cara Delevingne. Based on true events, the film tells the story of a Greenpeace-led protest action against Shell Oil’s plans to drill in the Arctic, when female activists scale the tallest building in Europe, London’s Shard.

Holly Jones In anticipation of its world premiere at the Berlinale, Latido Films, which is handling international distribution, has provided Variety exclusive access to the international trailer for Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s debut feature, “Lullaby.”The film, which takes an earnest glimpse into the fraught dynamics of cross-generational caregiving, will be included as part of the Panorama strand at the fest, which lends a platform to projects covering societal taboos and topics not oft-breached by commercial cinema.In “Lullaby,” an exhausted Amaia (Laia Costa) is tasked with seeking comfort and aid from her aging parents as her husband, Javi (Mikel Bustamante), follows his career out of town after the birth of their child. A wide range of emotions are displayed as Amaia learns to understand and engage with her mother, Begoñia (Susi Sanchez), while forging her way towards independence. “We never talk about motherhood as a crisis.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor“1341 Frames of Love and War,” which world premieres in the Berlinale Special section of the Berlin Film Festival, has debuted its trailer with Variety. World sales are being handled by Reservoir Docs, excluding North America, Israel, Greece and Portugal, which are being sold by the filmmakers.The film is a documentary portrait of one of the world’s leading war photographers, Israel’s Micha Bar-Am.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFilms Boutique (“Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”) has acquired international sales rights to Vincent Kelner’s cinematic documentary feature “A Taste of Whale” ahead of the European Film Market.“A Taste of Whale” is produced by Rémi Grellety, the Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning producer of Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro” and HBO’s “Exterminate All The Brutes.”The film looks at the centuries-old tradition of whale hunting in the Faroe Islands. Every year, nearly 1,000 pilot whales are hunted, beached and killed by knife in the fjords.

Naman Ramachandran Principal photography has wrapped on “He Went That Way,” the true crime thriller starring Jacob Elordi (“Euphoria”) and Zachary Quinto (Star Trek Franchise). Mister Smith Entertainment have revealed a first look image and will be showing the first footage to buyers at the upcoming European Film Market in Berlin.Set in 1964, “He Went That Way” is based on the true crime story of celebrity animal trainer Dave Pitts and his famous TV chimp, Spanky, centerpiece of the traveling entertainment show The Ice Capades in the 1960s, and his fateful three-day encounter with the serial killer Larry Lee Ranes.

Manori Ravindran International EditorEvan Rachel Wood, Eliza Scanlen, Rufus Sewell and Vanessa Redgrave are set to lead an adaptation of World War II-era book “All That I Am,” Variety can reveal.AGC Studios is fully financing the film, which will be shot in Berlin and Sydney in late summer. The studio, led by Stuart Ford, introduced the project to buyers this week as part of the virtual European Film Market, which generally runs alongside the Berlin Film Festival.