Tragicomedy ‘My Neighbor Adolf’ Sells to Several Territories Including North America, U.K. (EXCLUSIVE)

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s daughter North has been spotted on a shopping trip with her bodyguard. The eight-year-old was pictured in a sweet shop picking out some snacks. It looked as though North had already treated herself on the shopping trip, with her bodyguard wearing a drawstring bag from Urban Outfitters on his back.

Manori Ravindran International EditorCannes sensation “EO,” which tells the story of a donkey’s life, has been acquired for North America by Sideshow and Janus Films. The film is the latest collaboration for the U.S.

Reteaming after last year’s collaboration on Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Oscar-winning Drive My Car, Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired North American rights to veteran auteur Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, which won the Jury Prize in Cannes this past weekend. A fall theatrical release is planned.

The 56th Karlovy Vary Film Festival has unveiled its official selection, which comprises 33 films from five continents screening across three sections. Scroll down for full list.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAustralian production and distribution firm Arcadia has begun development of non-fiction best-selling book “Stephanie Alexander and Maggie Beer’s Tuscan Cookbook” as a feature film.Envisaged in the style of “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” or “Under the Tuscan Sun,” the feature film is currently in development and is being written by Australian film and television writer Katherine Thomson (Amazon TV series “A Place to Call Home,” feature documentary “Women He’s Undressed,” StudioCanal’s upcoming film “Helena!”).Written by two of Australia’s most celebrated cooks and food writers, and published by Penguin, “Tuscan Cookbook,” took readers on a journey, beginning in 1977 when the pair left Australia to open a cooking school in a villa outside of Siena. It records their time in Italy, the dishes cooked, the places visited, people who made it happen and the guests who joined for the ride.

Naman Ramachandran Streamer and distributor MUBI has acquired Ali Abbasi’s Cannes Film Festival competition title “Holy Spider” for the U.K., Ireland, Latin America and Malaysia. The film will be released theatrically followed by an exclusive MUBI streaming release. The film follows family man Saeed as he embarks on his own religious quest — to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral and corrupt street prostitutes.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Plan 75,” Hayakawa Chie’s Japanese dystopian drama which world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, has been sold in a raft of territories by Urban Sales. The movie is set in Japan, in a near future where a government program called Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be voluntarily euthanized in order to remedy the aging society. The film weaves the stories of an elderly woman who isn’t able to live independently, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman and a young Filipino caregiver.

A man hurled a poisoned sausage into his neighbour's garden to deliberately harm her dogs after a row over a boundary wall.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentSpecialty U.S. distributors Uncork’d Entertainment and Dark Star Pictures have acquired Italian director Pasquale Marrazzo’s LGBTQ drama “The Neighbor” for release in North America from Rome-based Coccinelle Film Sales.“The Neighbor” (which is titled “Hotel Milano” in Italy) is about two young men who are in love but get bullied by a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads that makes their life impossible as hatred and intolerance seeps into the rapport between their respective families.It’s the fifth feature written and directed by Marrazzo whose debut “South of the Sun” launched from Toronto’s Discovery section in 2001.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefCinema box office this year in North America is poised to overtake theatrical revenues in China, the country that has been the world’s largest movie market for the past two years.Before the latest weekend, gross revenues in the year to date stood at $2.38 billion for the North American compared with $2.43 billion for China, according to data from ComScore.U.K.-based research firm Gower Street Analytics forecast that the North American figure would overtake China’s revenues over the weekend or early this week. That reflects business growth in North America and the current reversal in China, where anti-COVID measures are causing renewed cinema closures.Gower Street says that some 85% of global cinemas are now open for business, compared with pre-pandemic levels.

Neon has landed North American rights at Cannes to La Chimera, the tomb-robbing drama from writer-director Alice Rohrwacher that stars Josh O’Connor and Isabelle Rossellini.

Crunchyroll announced Thursday the acquisition of Makoto Shinkai’s anime feature “Suzume no Tojimari” for all territories outside of Asia. “Suzume no Tojimari,” which follows a 17-year-old girl named Suzume who must close various doors that are causing destruction throughout Japan, will debut in Japan on November 11 this year from Toho, and will be distributed in all major territories beginning in early 2023.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorThis year, Global Accessibility Awareness Day falls on May 19. And Netflix is using the occasion to announce major plans to expand the global translations of its audio descriptions and subtitles for customers who are blind, deaf or hard-of-hearing.The streamer will expand audio description (AD), subtitles for the deaf or hard-of-hearing (SDH) and dubbing in more than 10 additional languages throughout the year starting this month — so that more Netflix members with disabilities can experience shows and films made in another country in their local language. That’s not the norm in the entertainment industry at large.Netflix is starting with French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Italian, and expanding from there to Asian languages including Korean and Japanese as well as European local languages.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentLondon-based Alief has closed North America and French-speaking territories on Icelandic spoof “Cop Secret.” In North America, “Cop Secret” has scored a platform release with Epic Pictures. Extralucid Films has acquired France, Monaco, Luxembourg and French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland.The writer-director feature debut of Hannes Thor Halldorsson, Iceland’s national soccer team goalkeeper, “Cop Secret” will bow in select theaters in North America on July 8 then on VOD on July 12.Alief’s Brett Walker and Miguel Govea are at the Cannes Film Market to continue the international roll-out of “Cop Secret,” which is already impressive. Territories closed take in Japan (AT Ent), Korea (Movement), Taiwan (CCE) and Spain (Twelve Oaks).

Kehlani has announced details of a UK, European and North American tour that will run from July through to December.The Bay Area artist will tour in support of their third studio album ‘Blue Water Road’, which was released last month.Kehlani will embark on the ‘Blue Water Road Trip’ on July 30 in Raleigh, North Carolina, with a string of North American tour dates running until October with a date in Honolulu, Hawaii on October 21.She will then head to Europe in November for a number of live dates, which will conclude with a run of UK and Ireland shows in London, Dublin, Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester.General sale tickets for Kehlani’s UK dates will go on sale here this Friday (May 20) from 10am, while tickets for the North American shows can be bought here from 10am local time on Friday.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaWestEnd Films has closed a series of new deals on “Out of the Blue,” an upcoming thriller that brings together Neil LaBute and Diane Kruger.Rights for the film, which LaBute writes and directs, have gone to Australia and New Zealand (Kismet Movies), France (Metropolitan Filmexport), Germany (Koch Films), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Italy (Eagle Pictures), Middle East (Phoenicia Pictures) Israel (Forum Film), Poland (Galapagos Films), Greece (Spentzos Film), former Yugoslavia (Investacommerce) and Portugal (Nos Lusomundo). WestEnd is also sharing a moody first-look image.Kruger, best known for her performances in “Inglourious Basterds” and “Troy,” leads an ensemble that also includes Ray Nicholson (“Promising Young Woman”), Hank Azaria (“Love & Other Drugs”) and Chase Sui Wonders (“Genera+ion”).

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBerlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has closed sales on Berlin Panorama title “Concerned Citizen” – Idan Haguel’s satirical feature on privilege and prejudice set in Tel Aviv – for several additional territories.Distribution in the U.K. and Ireland will be handled by Peccadillo Pictures; Arti Film will be distributing the film in Benelux, with a nationwide theatrical release at selected cinemas planned later in the year; Tongariro Releasing has taken the rights for Poland, planning a festival run and theatrical release in arthouse cinemas for summer 2022; and Queer Kino has come on board to handle the film in the Czech Republic, where it will have a national premiere at Mezipatra Queer Film Festival and a theatrical release is planned for early 2023.