‘The Inheritance’ Star Samuel H. Levine’s Gay Drama ‘Minyan’ Sells to Strand Releasing (EXCLUSIVE)

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentParis-based Totem Films announced Friday that it is handling sales on Iranian Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam’s Berlin Film Festival competition entry, “Ballad of a White Cow.” Totem Films will bring the drama onto the market at early March’s European Film Market (EFM).The pick-up is sure to draw attention.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“All Eyes Off Me,” Hadas Ben Aroya’s drama which will world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, has been acquired by Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever for international sales. Set to bow in the Panorama section, “All Eyes Off Me” takes place in contemporary Tel Aviv and weaves three stories portraying Tel Aviv’s youth.

Berlinale Executive Director Mariette Rissenbeek and Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian were determined to be in a cinema today when broadcasting the lineup for this year’s Competition program.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentM-Appeal has taken world distribution rights to Japanese filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy,” which has its world premiere In Competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentThe Match Factory is taking a strong slate to the European Film Market, including two world premieres: Anne Zohra Berrached’s “Copilot,” which is in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section, and Christian Schwochow’s “Je Suis Karl,” which is in Berlinale Special.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentARRI Media Intl. has signed a deal with Faktura Film to handle the international sales for the Marxist vampire comedy “Bloodsuckers.” The film has been selected to world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Encounters section, which aims to “foster aesthetically and structurally daring works from independent, innovative filmmakers.” Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer.ARRI Media Intl.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentFollowing hard on the heels of the film’s selection for this year’s Berlin Film Festival Encounters section, director Denis Côté has shared a first trailer for his new movie “Social Hygiene,” the latest from the Canadian director who won a Silver Bear for 2013’s “Vic+Flo Saw a Bear.”At first glance, if the trailer is anything to go by, “Social Hygiene” seems at first glance a perfect pandemic movie: characters talking much more than two meters

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentPicture Tree International has acquired international rights to “Mission Ulja Funk,” which has been selected for Berlin Film Festival’s youth-centric Generation KPlus competition.The film, which is the debut feature of German writer/director Barbara Kronenberg, is about the 12 year old girl Ulja, who sets out on a road trip in a stolen hearse to Eastern Europe to witness the impact of an asteroid she discovered.Kronenberg studied at the Academy

Annika Pham After the BBC’s “Deep Blue,” “Earth” and Terence Malick’s “Voyage of Time,” Berlin-based Sophisticated Films is partnering Finland’s MRP Matila Röhr Productions on their mythological natural history feature “Tale of the Sleeping Giants.” Sophisticated Films’ managing director Sophokles Tasioulis will serve as associate producer, in charge of marketing and sales outside Finland.“Tale of the Sleeping Giant” is the third standalone nature movie produced by MPR Matila Röhr Productions

Nearly 200 LGBTQ actors in Germany, including some of the country's biggest film and TV stars, staged a mass coming-out in a German national newspaper on Friday, in a public appeal for more diversity on stage and screen. The 185 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender actors — among them Babylon Berlin star Udo Samel, and Karin Hanczewski and Mark Waschke from No.

The casting of Oscar-bait zaddies Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci to portray a longtime gay couple in Harry Macqueen’s drama Supernova set many hearts racing from the word go.

blended-family. The film focused on the drama surrounding 12 days of the family spending Christmas together, during which time a marriage unravels.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentClint Bentley’s feature debut “Jockey,” set to world premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition in Sundance, has been acquired by Berlin-based Films Boutique for international sales.Written by Bentley and Greg Kwedar (“Transpecos”), “Jockey” stars Clifton Collins Jr.

is shaping up!Netflix announced the first 10 cast members to be joining the spinoff on Tuesday. Sam Corlett (), Frida Gustavsson (), Leo Suter (, Bradley Freegard (), Jóhannes Jóhannesson (), Laura Berlin (), David Oakes () and Caroline Henderson () will star in the series.

Vikings spin-off series on Netflix, Viking: Valhalla, has confirmed its core cast members.The show will feature Sam Corlett, Frida Gustavsson, Leo Suter, Bradley Freegard, Jóhannes Jóhannesson, Laura Berlin, David Oakes and Caroline Henderson among others.Valhalla takes place in the early 11th century, and will focus on “the legendary adventures of some of the most famous Vikings who ever lived – Leif Eriksson, Freydis Eriksdotter, Harald Hardrada and the Norman King William the Conqueror,” a

Netflix has set the cast for Vikings: Valhalla, a sequel to History’s hit series, from Vikings creator Michael Hirst and studio MGM Television.

Naman Ramachandran Asia Argento (“Agony”), Golshifteh Farahani (“Extraction”) and Jim Sarbh (“Made in Heaven”) star in the voice cast of Ishan Shukla’s animated feature “Schirkoa,” production on which begins in the spring.The voice cast also includes Soko (“Little Fish”) and Arish Ahmad Khan aka King Khan, front man of Berlin-based garage rock and psychedelic soul band King Khan and the Shrines, with filmmaker Gaspar Noe (“Climax”) and actor-musician Piyush Mishra (“Sanju”) appearing as VO

Riz Ahmed's Left Handed Films has signed a first-look TV production deal with Amazon Studios. The move comes as Ahmed is enjoying rave reviews for his starring role in the Amazon film Sound of Metal.

Naman Ramachandran Sovereign Film Distribution has acquired U.K.