‘Twice Colonized’ Picks Up Top Award for Docs-in-Progress at Cannes Docs Industry Sidebar

Naman Ramachandran “Tanaav,” the Indian adaptation of hit Israeli series “Fauda,” will debut on streamer SonyLIV. Set in Kashmir in 2017 and shot on locations there, “Tanaav,” which means tension, chaos, stress, tells the story of a Special Covert Ops Unit over 12 episodes.

Manori Ravindran International EditorKelvin Redvers, the Indigenous Canadian producer who fought the Cannes Film Festival dress code that prevented him from wearing moccasins on its red carpet, is launching a production company, Variety can reveal.Redvers’ new outfit is called Indigifilm, and will focus on developing and producing scripted and unscripted projects in collaboration with international and Canadian creatives.IndigiFilm has already completed filming on its first feature, “Cold Road,” in partnership with Bell Media’s streaming platform Crave. The thriller was written and directed by Redvers — who is part of the Deninu Kųę́ First Nation of the Northwest Territories — and revolves around an Indigenous woman’s harrowing road trip to be with her dying mother in a remote northern First Nation.

Talk about a hold. Paramount/Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick‘s Mach 10 momentum at the domestic box office continued into Wednesday with $14.8M, repping a 6% dip from Tuesday’s take; a great weekday take.

EXCLUSIVE: Range Media Partners has signed rising star Monica Barbaro, who is currently starring as Lt. Natasha ‘Phoenix’ Trace in Paramount’s massive hit sequel, Top Gun: Maverick. The follow-up to the original 1985 film has received rave reviews and a coveted A+ Cinemascore since debuting at Cinemacon and following a robust global rollout including premieres in Cannes, San Diego, London, Mexico and Japan. The film smashed Memorial Day opening records with $156m domestic and a WW cume currently over $300m.

Welcome to International Disruptors, a feature where we shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week, ITV Studios International Production MD Lisa Perrin talks through some of the biggest topics of the moment. Lisa is responsible for a host of well-respected labels outside the U.S. and UK that are primed to take advantage of the current penchant for foreign-language drama. She joined two years ago and is finally able to get out and about after the pandemic curtailed travel. 

EXCLUSIVE: Coda producer Pathé has concluded a raft of sales on its Cannes slate including for starry French drama Masquerade, Directors’ Fortnight entry Paris Memories and Penelope Cruz title L’Immensita.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentEmpreinte Digitale, the thriving Paris-based production company behind Disney +’s “Parallèles,” has hired Thomas Saignes, a well-established producer whose track record includes “Bad Banks” and “Parlement.” Joining from Cinétévé, Saignes will be in charge of producing drama series and one-offs for streaming services and traditional TV channels, as well as spearheading Empreinte’s international co-productions.Saignes, who is based in Paris and lived a number of years in Montreal, Canada, has been actively involved in the financing and co-productions of films and series with international and European partners, notably Benoit Jacquot’s period movie “Farewell, my Queen.” Prior to Cinétévé, Saignes worked at the Luxembourg-based company Iris where he was involved in the ZDF-Arte series “Bad Banks” which Federation sold around the world. During his tenure at Cinétévé, Saignes collaborated with veteran producer Fabienne Servan-Schreiber and was a driving force behind several ambitious series, for instance Noé Debré’s political satire “Parlement” whose season 3 will soon launch on France Televisions; as well as the French-Italian series “Survivors,” and “Cuisine Interne,” an upcoming crime show set in the world of French gastronomy.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMK2 Films has locked major territory deals on Leonor Serraille’s drama “Mother and Son” which world premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and garnered strong reviews. “Mother and Son” charts the lives of a young African woman, Rose, and two of her four children, Jean and Ernest, who come to France from the Ivory Coast in the 1980s with high ideals.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Lendarys,” a big-budget family adventure animation film that is currently in production, scored a handful of pre-sales during the Cannes Market. Rights sales are handled by Hong Kong-, Paris and Los Angeles-based All Rights Entertainment.With a production budget of $30 million, the film is the directorial debut of Philippe Duchene and Jean-Baptiste Cuvelier.

“War Pony” wins Palm Dog AwardBrit the Silver Poodle, who stars in Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s indigenous drama “War Pony,” took home the coveted Palm Dog collar, according to the Hollywood Reporter.The Palm Collar is awarded to the best performance by a canine or group of canines during the festival. The award consists of a leather dog collar with the term “PALM DOG.”Steve Pond, in his review of “War Pony” wrote, “Set on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and co-written, co-produced and starring members of the Native American community, “War Pony” is unhurried, naturalistic and heartbreaking, taking its rhythms from the lives of characters in a situation where the lack of options can lead to desperation or to resignation.

Lucas’ bishop warns him of the dangers before he sets out to minister to a remote community of Icelanders in Cannes Un Certain Regard title Godland. “It’s easy to go mad there,” he explains at his Copenhagen dining table, steadily chewing his way through the fabulous feast in front of him. Iceland, where the sun never sets on summer nights, where the weather is extreme, the landscape broodingly monumental: just remember the apostles, “a group of lonely men,” the bishop advises as he wipes his mouth. Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove) is not eating; one glance tells you he’s a priest of an ascetic bent.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe Banff World Media Festival will honor late filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée posthumously with its Canadian Award of Distinction next month, the event announced on Thursday. Vallée will be joined in being honored at Banff’s Rockie Award Gala by “American Auto” star Ana Gasteyer, who will receive the Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award, and the “Yellowjackets” team of Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson and Jonathan Lisco, who have been named Showrunners of the Year (presented by Variety). The Rockie Award Gala takes place on Tuesday, June 14 at 6:30 p.m.

As countries go, Iceland is probably one of the most fast-changing in terms of its biological make up, its intense volcanic activities reshaping its surface and contours at a speed fast enough to be perceived within a single generation. Paradoxically, it is also a place where time appears to stand still, with the sun omnipresent for half the year and absent for the rest.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“CODA” producer Philippe Rousselet’s next movie “Maestro” has been sold to major territories by Orange Studio which hosted a market screening at Cannes. “Maestro” is adapted from Joseph Cesar’s Oscar-nominated, Cannes-prizewinning Israeli film “Footnote.” The movie is directed by Bruno Chiche and stars Yvan Attal, Pierre Arditi, Miou-Miou and Pascale Arbillot.

#Cannes pic.twitter.com/VCEz0aI3BW“Holy Spider,” which screened on Sunday, was particularly overt in its discussion of violence against women, based on the true story of a serial killer who was supported by much of the public because he murdered prostitutes in the name of religion. It was not even made by a female filmmaker, but by the Iranian-born, Denmark-based Abbasi, whose last trip to Cannes was with the startling “Border,” which became known for its scene of troll sex.

Lise Pedersen Scandinavia is bringing talent old and new to the Cannes Film Market’s Cannes Docs sidebar this year, with a showcase of five feature length films-in-the-making pitched as part of the Scandinavian Showcase on Saturday.“Children of the Lowest Heaven”From Denmark, internationally acclaimed writer-director Birgitte Stærmose Mortensen (“Darling,” “Room 304”), who has been working on mini-series for HBO, Starz and Netflix for the past five years (“Industry” season 2, “The Spanish Princess,” “In From the Cold” and “The English Game”), presented “Children of the Lowest Heaven” (“Ønskeliv”), a hybrid doc set in Kosovo.Inspired by her short “Out of Love” (2009), about a group of children living in poverty in post-war Pristina, it picks up where she left off with the characters, who are now young adults, still fighting to survive in one of Europe’s poorest nations. It’s about the long-term effects of war, and what it means to live a life in poverty.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive Editor“Holy Spider,” a gritty drama about a real-life Iranian serial killer, stunned the Cannes Film Festival at its premiere on Sunday afternoon, earning a thunderous seven-minute standing ovation and bringing a jolt of electricity to what’s been a sleepy festival so far.The film, from Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi (“Border”), chronicles a killing spree in the streets of the religious city of Mashhad, where 16 prostitutes were found dead from 2000 to 2001.  A local journalist, Rahimi (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi), is trying to crack the case as she grows frustrated by the police’s apathy toward finding the murderer. But in one of many twists in this drama, the identity of the serial killer is revealed early on — he’s a war veteran named Saeed (Mehdi Bajestani), a seemingly normal family man who spends his nights picking up women on his motorcycle and brutally strangling them in his home as a religious cleansing ritual.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThough Iran is in the throes of a deep economic crisis, battered by hard-line politics and a mismanaged pandemic, it’a shaping up to be a great year for Iranian cinema.Paradoxically, Iran’s cinematic landscape is bursting with powerful, fresh films likely to make an international splash just as talks between Tehran and world powers continue to be deadlocked on reviving the nuclear deal that could lift the country’s crippling sanctions that block exports.This filmmaking fervor is reflected in the fact that Iranian pics have scored two Cannes competition berths, plus one in the Cannes Critics’ Week, which marks Iran’s first presence in this section dedicated to first and second works in almost two decades.

Lise Pedersen New voices were given center stage at the Canada Docs-in-Progress Showcase, part of the Cannes Festival’s Film Market, with four first feature-length docs in the final stages of production presented to an industry crowd on Friday.The showcase was brought by Telefilm Canada, in partnership with RIDM (Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal) and in collaboration with Hot Docs.Of the four Canadian projects showcased at last year’s edition, both “Geographies in Solitude” and “Cette Maison” went to world premiere at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival, before moving on to Hot Docs along with “And Still I Sing.” “Geographies in Solitude” picked up three gongs along the way, including best Canadian feature doc in Toronto. “Back Home”This year’s showcase started with “Back Home” by Vancouver-based filmmaker, photographer and artist Nisha Platzer.It follows her pursuit to get to know her older brother more than 20 years after he took his own life. Through vérité scenes shot with her brother’s friends, intimate recollections re-imagined on 16mm and Super8, and lyrical, handmade visuals, “Back Home” explores questions of identity, forgiveness, loss and healing.Platzer, whose last short “Vaivén” (2020) competed at festivals worldwide, works with and teaches handmade film.For “Back Home,” she used experimental techniques on celluloid to play with light and shadow.