In a big strategic market swing, The Mediapro Studio is creating new U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles to double down on U.S. and English-language production for the U.S. and global market.
Laura Fernández Espeso, The Mediapro Studio CEO, has also confirmed Juan “Jc” Acosta, the ex high-flying Paramount exec, as head of the newly created division, The Mediapro Studio U.S./Canada.
Based out of Century City, the new U.S. operation will develop, produce and distribute for a global market English-language scripted, non-scripted reality and entertainment, documentaries and features, said Fernández Espeso, Variety’s 2024 International Media Woman of the Year.
That’s exactly the same broad-based production model that The Mediapro Studio has in Spain and Latin America, she noted.
The Los Angeles operation will incorporate existing Tms offices in Miami and New York, as well as Grup Mediapro’s new production facility at Great Point Studios in Yonkers,...
Laura Fernández Espeso, The Mediapro Studio CEO, has also confirmed Juan “Jc” Acosta, the ex high-flying Paramount exec, as head of the newly created division, The Mediapro Studio U.S./Canada.
Based out of Century City, the new U.S. operation will develop, produce and distribute for a global market English-language scripted, non-scripted reality and entertainment, documentaries and features, said Fernández Espeso, Variety’s 2024 International Media Woman of the Year.
That’s exactly the same broad-based production model that The Mediapro Studio has in Spain and Latin America, she noted.
The Los Angeles operation will incorporate existing Tms offices in Miami and New York, as well as Grup Mediapro’s new production facility at Great Point Studios in Yonkers,...
- 5/13/2024
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Barcelona-based Grup Mediapro has promoted Laura Fernández Espeso to the post of general manager with oversight over not just The Mediapro Studio, where she currently serves as CEO, but the whole of the Group. The appointment is effective Jan. 1, 2025.
As Grup Mediapro’s No. 2, reporting to Mediapro co-founder Tatxo Benet, Group Media President and CEO, Fernández Espeso will oversee a company now streamlined in five business units, two new, focused on the Group’s principle revenue drivers.
Fernández Espeso replaces Juan Ruíz de Gauna who has had a stellar career occupying senior management positions from an early age at key companies re-shaping Spain’s modern media landscape as ongoing deregulation kicked in, at Antena 3 TV, Prisa’s Sogetel, Sogepaq and Idea, then Via Digital, Telefonica and from 2002 at Mediapro and its commercial broadcaster La Sexta.
Apart from Fernandez Espeso, other long-serving Mediapro execs have been promoted at the giant multimedia communications group.
As Grup Mediapro’s No. 2, reporting to Mediapro co-founder Tatxo Benet, Group Media President and CEO, Fernández Espeso will oversee a company now streamlined in five business units, two new, focused on the Group’s principle revenue drivers.
Fernández Espeso replaces Juan Ruíz de Gauna who has had a stellar career occupying senior management positions from an early age at key companies re-shaping Spain’s modern media landscape as ongoing deregulation kicked in, at Antena 3 TV, Prisa’s Sogetel, Sogepaq and Idea, then Via Digital, Telefonica and from 2002 at Mediapro and its commercial broadcaster La Sexta.
Apart from Fernandez Espeso, other long-serving Mediapro execs have been promoted at the giant multimedia communications group.
- 1/30/2024
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
The Spanish director will receive the European achievement to world cinema award.
The European Film Academy will honour Spanish director Isabel Coixet with the award in European achievement to world cinema at the European Film Awards.
The director will be the guest of honour at the ceremony on December 9 in Berlin.
Coixet made her debut in 1989 with Demasiado Viejo Para Morir Joven, which was nominated for best new director at Spain’s Goya awards.
She went on to become the most decorated female filmmaker at the Goyas with nine wins for films including 2003’s My Life Without Me, 2017’s The Bookshop...
The European Film Academy will honour Spanish director Isabel Coixet with the award in European achievement to world cinema at the European Film Awards.
The director will be the guest of honour at the ceremony on December 9 in Berlin.
Coixet made her debut in 1989 with Demasiado Viejo Para Morir Joven, which was nominated for best new director at Spain’s Goya awards.
She went on to become the most decorated female filmmaker at the Goyas with nine wins for films including 2003’s My Life Without Me, 2017’s The Bookshop...
- 11/15/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Isabel Coixet, the Spanish director of My Life Without Me, Things I Never Told You, The Bookshop and It Snows in Benidorm, will be honored by the European Film Academy with this year’s European Achievement in World Cinema award for her life’s work.
Coixet has carved out an impressive career in what could be called pan-Atlantic cinema, making mainly English-language features with international casts but with a strongly European sensibility. She followed up her promising 1989 debut Demasiado viejo para morir joven (which won the best new director prize at Spain’s Goya awards) with the U.S.-shot drama Things I Never Told You, starring Andrew McCarthy and Lili Taylor. The film premiered in Berlin, a favorite launching pad for Coixet, who returned the German festival in 2003 with My Life Without Me, a romantic drama starring Sarah Polley as a young mother diagnosed with terminal cancer who decides...
Coixet has carved out an impressive career in what could be called pan-Atlantic cinema, making mainly English-language features with international casts but with a strongly European sensibility. She followed up her promising 1989 debut Demasiado viejo para morir joven (which won the best new director prize at Spain’s Goya awards) with the U.S.-shot drama Things I Never Told You, starring Andrew McCarthy and Lili Taylor. The film premiered in Berlin, a favorite launching pad for Coixet, who returned the German festival in 2003 with My Life Without Me, a romantic drama starring Sarah Polley as a young mother diagnosed with terminal cancer who decides...
- 11/15/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Streaming
“Sherlock” Seasons 1-4, “Death in Paradise” Seasons 1-11, “Unforgotten” Seasons 1-4 and “Life Below Zero” Seasons 1-9 are among the series that will be available as part of BBC Studios‘ new content agreement with Lemino, a Japanese video-on-demand streaming service operated by Ntt DoCoMo. The deal, which comes into effect Nov. 15 will also see Lemino subscribers gain access to long-running British dramas like “Call The Midwife” Seasons 1-11 and “Father Brown” Seasons 1-10, period dramas “The Pursuit of Love” and “Sanditon,” as well as documentary series “Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change The World.”
Cheryl Png, VP of distribution for Southeast Asia, South Korea and Japan of BBC Studios Asia, said: “BBC Studios is known for our premium content, powerful storytelling and the ability to connect with a global audience. We look forward to working closely with Ntt DoCoMo to showcase the depth and breadth of our programmes that...
“Sherlock” Seasons 1-4, “Death in Paradise” Seasons 1-11, “Unforgotten” Seasons 1-4 and “Life Below Zero” Seasons 1-9 are among the series that will be available as part of BBC Studios‘ new content agreement with Lemino, a Japanese video-on-demand streaming service operated by Ntt DoCoMo. The deal, which comes into effect Nov. 15 will also see Lemino subscribers gain access to long-running British dramas like “Call The Midwife” Seasons 1-11 and “Father Brown” Seasons 1-10, period dramas “The Pursuit of Love” and “Sanditon,” as well as documentary series “Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change The World.”
Cheryl Png, VP of distribution for Southeast Asia, South Korea and Japan of BBC Studios Asia, said: “BBC Studios is known for our premium content, powerful storytelling and the ability to connect with a global audience. We look forward to working closely with Ntt DoCoMo to showcase the depth and breadth of our programmes that...
- 11/15/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
In a milestone move, the board of Mediapro Group, has approved the departure of managing partner Jaume Roures, the best known face of the company who, since co-founding Mediapro in 1994, was instrumental in building the company into Spain’s biggest independent international film-tv player.
Taxto Benet, the other head of Mediapro, remains as company president and CEO; all other key figures at Mediapro remain in their posts, including Juan Ruíz de Gauna, director general, Laura Fernández Espeso, CEO of The Mediapro Studio, and Carme Anglada, head of communication.
Roures’ exit comes at request of Mediapro majority shareholder Southwind Group, which controls over 80% of the group and minority shareholder Wpp, according to a written statement issued Friday by Mediapro.
Announcing that “the void that Jaume leaves in the group is immense,” Benet also underscored Friday that “the inspiration and legacy that Jaume leaves behind are an irreplaceable part of Grup Mediapro...
Taxto Benet, the other head of Mediapro, remains as company president and CEO; all other key figures at Mediapro remain in their posts, including Juan Ruíz de Gauna, director general, Laura Fernández Espeso, CEO of The Mediapro Studio, and Carme Anglada, head of communication.
Roures’ exit comes at request of Mediapro majority shareholder Southwind Group, which controls over 80% of the group and minority shareholder Wpp, according to a written statement issued Friday by Mediapro.
Announcing that “the void that Jaume leaves in the group is immense,” Benet also underscored Friday that “the inspiration and legacy that Jaume leaves behind are an irreplaceable part of Grup Mediapro...
- 10/27/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
The Mediapro Studio will shoot from November Season 3 of “The Head,” its biggest international hit, filming in the Sahara Desert with John Lynch (“The Fall”) and Katharine O’Donnelly (“Mary Queen of Scots), attached once more to star.
Olivia Morris also returns to her role as Rachel Russo, the morally conscionable daughter of ambition-crazed biologist Arthur Wilde, played by Lynch.
“The Head” Season 1 took place at an Antarctic research station cut off in winter, Season 2 on a hulking freighter at mid-Pacific’s Point Nemo, the most distant place on earth from nearest land.
“The locations for this series have been a fundamental part of the show itself, always in an inaccessible place,” Laura Fernández Espeso, The Mediapro Studio CEO, told Variety before talking at a Mipcom Media Mastermind Keynote on Tuesday.
“This time we’ll be shooting in the desert: ‘The Head 3’ will take place in an unknown place in the Sahara desert,...
Olivia Morris also returns to her role as Rachel Russo, the morally conscionable daughter of ambition-crazed biologist Arthur Wilde, played by Lynch.
“The Head” Season 1 took place at an Antarctic research station cut off in winter, Season 2 on a hulking freighter at mid-Pacific’s Point Nemo, the most distant place on earth from nearest land.
“The locations for this series have been a fundamental part of the show itself, always in an inaccessible place,” Laura Fernández Espeso, The Mediapro Studio CEO, told Variety before talking at a Mipcom Media Mastermind Keynote on Tuesday.
“This time we’ll be shooting in the desert: ‘The Head 3’ will take place in an unknown place in the Sahara desert,...
- 10/17/2023
- by John Hopewell and Liza Foreman
- Variety Film + TV
Incendiary Spanish director Isabel Coixet (“The Secret Life of Words”) heads to San Sebastian for the international premiere of her latest drama “Un Amor,” a take on devouring love starring Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) and Hovik Keuchkerian (“Money Heist”) that sets Coixet up to compete on the festival’s main stage for the first time.
“Un Amor” is produced by Buenapinta Media’s Marisa Fernández Armenteros (“The Mole Agent”) alongside “Society of the Snow” producers Sandra Hermida and Belén Atienza, here producing out of Perdición Films. World sales are handled by Film Constellation (“Return to Reason”).
The film is based on its namesake novel by Sara Mesa, branded Spain’s 2020 book of the year by Spanish newspaper El País. The script was written by Coixet and Laura Ferrero (“Empty Pools”).
Tormented by occupational hazards and the hustle of city living, protagonist Nat ventures to the countryside town of La Escapa to start fresh.
“Un Amor” is produced by Buenapinta Media’s Marisa Fernández Armenteros (“The Mole Agent”) alongside “Society of the Snow” producers Sandra Hermida and Belén Atienza, here producing out of Perdición Films. World sales are handled by Film Constellation (“Return to Reason”).
The film is based on its namesake novel by Sara Mesa, branded Spain’s 2020 book of the year by Spanish newspaper El País. The script was written by Coixet and Laura Ferrero (“Empty Pools”).
Tormented by occupational hazards and the hustle of city living, protagonist Nat ventures to the countryside town of La Escapa to start fresh.
- 9/25/2023
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
Penélope Cruz is taking on an Elena Ferrante adaptation.
IndieWire can confirm the “Ferrari” actress is reuniting with “Elegy” director Isabel Coixet for the adaptation of Ferrante’s 2002 “The Days of Abandonment,” which followed Olga, an Italian woman, who loses her grasp on reality after her husband of 15 years abruptly leaves her for another woman.
The big screen adaptation will instead be set in America, as Variety reported, with the script penned by Laurence Coriat (“Summer in Genoa”). “The Days of Abandonment” will be produced by Lotus, a unit of Raffaella and Andrea Leone’s Leone Film Group, and Cruz’s production banner Moonlyon. Cruz’s brother Edu Cruz will also produce along with Marco Perego through their Nimoa Entertainment company.
Director Coixet has recently helmed “Un Amor,” “My Life Without Me,” and “The Secret Life of Words.”
Author Ferrante’s novels have been adapted for the big and small screens,...
IndieWire can confirm the “Ferrari” actress is reuniting with “Elegy” director Isabel Coixet for the adaptation of Ferrante’s 2002 “The Days of Abandonment,” which followed Olga, an Italian woman, who loses her grasp on reality after her husband of 15 years abruptly leaves her for another woman.
The big screen adaptation will instead be set in America, as Variety reported, with the script penned by Laurence Coriat (“Summer in Genoa”). “The Days of Abandonment” will be produced by Lotus, a unit of Raffaella and Andrea Leone’s Leone Film Group, and Cruz’s production banner Moonlyon. Cruz’s brother Edu Cruz will also produce along with Marco Perego through their Nimoa Entertainment company.
Director Coixet has recently helmed “Un Amor,” “My Life Without Me,” and “The Secret Life of Words.”
Author Ferrante’s novels have been adapted for the big and small screens,...
- 9/6/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Penélope Cruz is set to star as Olga, a writer forced to give up her artistic ambitions when her husband suddenly leaves her and their two young daughters, in Isabel Coixet’s English-language adaptation of Italian author Elena Ferrante’s “The Days of Abandonment.”
The deal to make the film, which is now in development, was signed before the SAG-AFTRA strike. While Cruz did not attend the Venice Film Festival, she elicited raves from critics on the Lido for her performance in Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” as the angry, lonely, grief-ravaged Laura Ferrari, emotionally estranged from her husband Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver).
“The Days of Abandonment,” which will transpose the novel’s original Italian setting to America, reunites the two top Spanish talents following their collaboration on another U.S.-set film, the 2008 drama “Elegy” an adaptation of Philip Roth’s novella “The Dying Animal,” about an affair between a...
The deal to make the film, which is now in development, was signed before the SAG-AFTRA strike. While Cruz did not attend the Venice Film Festival, she elicited raves from critics on the Lido for her performance in Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” as the angry, lonely, grief-ravaged Laura Ferrari, emotionally estranged from her husband Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver).
“The Days of Abandonment,” which will transpose the novel’s original Italian setting to America, reunites the two top Spanish talents following their collaboration on another U.S.-set film, the 2008 drama “Elegy” an adaptation of Philip Roth’s novella “The Dying Animal,” about an affair between a...
- 9/6/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar winner Fernando Trueba (“Belle Epoque”), “The Secret Life of Words” director Isabel Coixet and “Veneno” writer-director-producers Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo feature among talent behind Spanish titles at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival, the highest profile film event in the Spanish-speaking world.
Coixet will compete for the first time in San Sebastian’s main competition with “Un Amor,” a probing village-set tale of emotional dependence starring Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) and “Money Heist’s” Hovik Keuchkerian.
Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal will present as a special screening animated feature “They Shot the Piano Player,” a joyful and finally devastating portrait of the life and fate of pianist Francisco Tenorio Jr. narrated by Jeff Goldblum.
Ambrossi and Calvo – popularly known as Los Javis – will world premiere “La Mesías,” the most awaited Spanish series of the year, a big-scale, period-hopping Movistar Plus+ original, chronicling the devastating effect of a childhood education,...
Coixet will compete for the first time in San Sebastian’s main competition with “Un Amor,” a probing village-set tale of emotional dependence starring Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) and “Money Heist’s” Hovik Keuchkerian.
Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal will present as a special screening animated feature “They Shot the Piano Player,” a joyful and finally devastating portrait of the life and fate of pianist Francisco Tenorio Jr. narrated by Jeff Goldblum.
Ambrossi and Calvo – popularly known as Los Javis – will world premiere “La Mesías,” the most awaited Spanish series of the year, a big-scale, period-hopping Movistar Plus+ original, chronicling the devastating effect of a childhood education,...
- 7/14/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
“20,000 Species of Bees,” (Estibaliz Urresola)
One of the big winners at Berlin, taking Leading Performance, and now racking up healthy sales, the story of a family off for a village summer holiday which builds to a moving ode to women’s freedoms. Sales: Luxbox
“21 Paraíso,” (Nestor Ruiz Medina)
Living in an idyllic Andalusia, a couple in love grapples with the realities of making a living through OnlyFans. Screened at Seville and Tallinn. Sales: Begin Again Films.
“All the Names of God,” (Daniel Calparsoro)
One of the big Spanish action-thrillers hitting this Cannes market, from a specialist (“Sky High”). Pre-sold to France (Kinovista), Germany and Italy (Koch Media) with Tripictures releasing in Spain. Sales: Latido
“Un amor,” (Isabel Coixet)
The multi-prized Coixet (“The Secret Life of Words”).
directs Goya winner Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) in a village-set study of an isolated woman’s succumbing to devouring passion. Sales: Film Constellation.
“Ashes in the Sky,...
One of the big winners at Berlin, taking Leading Performance, and now racking up healthy sales, the story of a family off for a village summer holiday which builds to a moving ode to women’s freedoms. Sales: Luxbox
“21 Paraíso,” (Nestor Ruiz Medina)
Living in an idyllic Andalusia, a couple in love grapples with the realities of making a living through OnlyFans. Screened at Seville and Tallinn. Sales: Begin Again Films.
“All the Names of God,” (Daniel Calparsoro)
One of the big Spanish action-thrillers hitting this Cannes market, from a specialist (“Sky High”). Pre-sold to France (Kinovista), Germany and Italy (Koch Media) with Tripictures releasing in Spain. Sales: Latido
“Un amor,” (Isabel Coixet)
The multi-prized Coixet (“The Secret Life of Words”).
directs Goya winner Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) in a village-set study of an isolated woman’s succumbing to devouring passion. Sales: Film Constellation.
“Ashes in the Sky,...
- 5/19/2023
- by John Hopewell and Pablo Sandoval
- Variety Film + TV
Fresh off her 2023 Goya best actress win for “Lullaby” on Saturday night,” Laia Costa is set to star in the passionate romance drama “Un Amor,” by multi-prized Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet.
Film Constellation, the London and now Paris-based production, finance & sales company, will introduce the new production to buyers at thus and next week’s Berlin European Film Market.
Distributor of Berlin competition entry “20,000 Species if Bees” and La Maternal, a San Sebastian best leading performance winner for Carla Quílez, BTeam Pictures will handle the film’s release in Spain.
Written by Spanish novelist and short-story writer Laura Ferrero and Coixet, “Un Amor” is based on an admired novel by Sara Mesa. A fiction study of emotional dependence in which Mesa returns to the themes of power and subjugation which thread much of her work, “Un Amor” was selected by Spanish newspaper El Pais as Spain’s 2020 book of the year.
Film Constellation, the London and now Paris-based production, finance & sales company, will introduce the new production to buyers at thus and next week’s Berlin European Film Market.
Distributor of Berlin competition entry “20,000 Species if Bees” and La Maternal, a San Sebastian best leading performance winner for Carla Quílez, BTeam Pictures will handle the film’s release in Spain.
Written by Spanish novelist and short-story writer Laura Ferrero and Coixet, “Un Amor” is based on an admired novel by Sara Mesa. A fiction study of emotional dependence in which Mesa returns to the themes of power and subjugation which thread much of her work, “Un Amor” was selected by Spanish newspaper El Pais as Spain’s 2020 book of the year.
- 2/16/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Sarah Polley, at the Telluride Film Festival for the world premiere of Women Talking, her latest film as a director, acknowledged how lucky she was as an actress to have worked with so many female filmmakers. They told her to be “fierce” when they saw that she wanted to work behind the camera.
Women Talking, based on Miriam Toew’s celebrated novel about a group of Mennonite women having to confront sexual assaults committed by men feeding their desires, is a powerhouse exploration of the female imagination.
“This film began with three women talking a lot,” Polley said. She was referring to Dede Gardner as producer through Plan B Entertainment, and Frances McDormand as a cast member and producer via her Hear/Say Productions, and Polley herself.
Polley cited three female directors she’d worked with who helped pave the way for her as a director: Audrey Wells on her 1999 feature Guinevere; Kathryn Bigelow,...
Women Talking, based on Miriam Toew’s celebrated novel about a group of Mennonite women having to confront sexual assaults committed by men feeding their desires, is a powerhouse exploration of the female imagination.
“This film began with three women talking a lot,” Polley said. She was referring to Dede Gardner as producer through Plan B Entertainment, and Frances McDormand as a cast member and producer via her Hear/Say Productions, and Polley herself.
Polley cited three female directors she’d worked with who helped pave the way for her as a director: Audrey Wells on her 1999 feature Guinevere; Kathryn Bigelow,...
- 9/3/2022
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Edgar Ramírez have teamed up for romantic drama “Nobody’s Heart,” directed by Isabel Coixet.
WestEnd Films has launched international sales on the film, which will be presented to buyers at the virtual American Film Market this week. CAA Media Finance is representing North American sales.
Set in Lisbon in the 1930s, “Nobody’s Heart” centers on a new widow, Lily, who inherits her husband’s cork factory, and begins to form an unexpected relationship with his enigmatic co-worker, igniting repressed imagination and passion, and discovering unknown truths about both herself and her late husband.
The film, which will begin shooting in January in Portugal, is adapted from bestselling author and screenwriter William Boyd’s short story “Cork,” and is based on the life of celebrated Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa. The film is produced by John Fiedler (“Girl in Progress”).
Said Coixet: “This is a fascinating, twisted...
WestEnd Films has launched international sales on the film, which will be presented to buyers at the virtual American Film Market this week. CAA Media Finance is representing North American sales.
Set in Lisbon in the 1930s, “Nobody’s Heart” centers on a new widow, Lily, who inherits her husband’s cork factory, and begins to form an unexpected relationship with his enigmatic co-worker, igniting repressed imagination and passion, and discovering unknown truths about both herself and her late husband.
The film, which will begin shooting in January in Portugal, is adapted from bestselling author and screenwriter William Boyd’s short story “Cork,” and is based on the life of celebrated Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa. The film is produced by John Fiedler (“Girl in Progress”).
Said Coixet: “This is a fascinating, twisted...
- 11/2/2021
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Madrid-based Zeta Studios, producer of Netflix phenomenon “Elite,” is set to co-produce “Picadero,” a neo-noir six-part detective series already set up at Colombia’s Fidelio Films, one of the highest-flying companies in Latin America, and fast-emerging Barcelona-based Amor y Lujo, whose co-founder Almudena Monzú created “Picadero.”
Isabel Coixet, one of Spain’s greatest modern filmmakers is attached to direct episodes of the series. Her movies take in “My Life Without Me,” with Sarah Polley, “The Secret Life of Words,” starring Polley and Tim Robbins, and “The Bookshop,” toplining Emily Mortimer.
Monzu and Amor y Lujo co-founder and producer Andrea H. Catalá will pitch the series at next week’s Series Mania Forum on Aug. 30.
Drawing inspiration from Spanish film director Iciar Bollaín’s “Mataharis” and great detective classics, “Picadero” turns on Llanos who sets up in Barcelona to escape a dark family past and makes a living as a private...
Isabel Coixet, one of Spain’s greatest modern filmmakers is attached to direct episodes of the series. Her movies take in “My Life Without Me,” with Sarah Polley, “The Secret Life of Words,” starring Polley and Tim Robbins, and “The Bookshop,” toplining Emily Mortimer.
Monzu and Amor y Lujo co-founder and producer Andrea H. Catalá will pitch the series at next week’s Series Mania Forum on Aug. 30.
Drawing inspiration from Spanish film director Iciar Bollaín’s “Mataharis” and great detective classics, “Picadero” turns on Llanos who sets up in Barcelona to escape a dark family past and makes a living as a private...
- 8/27/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
At the heart of the Spanish Screenings are its market premieres, new titles coming onto the market post-San Sebastian, sometimes with fest runs at other smaller festivals. Variety drills down on a score of titles at this year’s event, including a clutch of 2020 Malaga fest winners.
“Amateur,”.
A 2020 Malaga Wip entry, where it won best production, Gutiérrez’s first doc feature marks a strong personal take on what home means to him. Knit by three different stories, Gutierrez, shoots vignettes of life in a small mountain village. Also an Abycine and Fidba Prize winner at Malaga.
“Antonio Machado, the Blue Days,” (Laura Hojman)
Seville-based Summer Films, which also produces “Once Again,” delivers one take on the life story of Spanish poet Antonio Machado. The second film from Hojman after 2018’s “Solar Lands,” about poet Ruben Darío’s escape from Paris to Andalusia.
“Boat Rower Girl”
Blanco’s feature debut,...
“Amateur,”.
A 2020 Malaga Wip entry, where it won best production, Gutiérrez’s first doc feature marks a strong personal take on what home means to him. Knit by three different stories, Gutierrez, shoots vignettes of life in a small mountain village. Also an Abycine and Fidba Prize winner at Malaga.
“Antonio Machado, the Blue Days,” (Laura Hojman)
Seville-based Summer Films, which also produces “Once Again,” delivers one take on the life story of Spanish poet Antonio Machado. The second film from Hojman after 2018’s “Solar Lands,” about poet Ruben Darío’s escape from Paris to Andalusia.
“Boat Rower Girl”
Blanco’s feature debut,...
- 11/17/2020
- by John Hopewell and Pablo Sandoval
- Variety Film + TV
Barcelona-born filmmaker Isabel Coixet arrived at the San Sebastian Film Festival to receive the Spanish Ministry of Culture’s National Cinematography Prize at a prestigious event hosted at the Tabakalera’s Centro Internacional de Cultura Contemporánea.
Coixet, 60, arrived straight from the post-production suite, where last week she finished work on her thirteenth feature film, “It Snows in Benidorm,” starring Timothy Spall. She revealed that she was shocked when told about the award. “I thought that in ten years they might give me the prize.”
A popular and prolific figure in Spanish film, Coixet helmed Goya-winning movies, “My Life Without Me” the Northern Ireland set “The Secret Life of Words,” and the “The Bookshop,” an adaptation of the Penelope Fitzgerald book.
Coixet’s most recent movie, for Netflix, the black-and-white “Elisa & Marcela,” tells the real story of two women in Galicia who tricked a priest into marrying them in 1901. It was released last year.
Coixet, 60, arrived straight from the post-production suite, where last week she finished work on her thirteenth feature film, “It Snows in Benidorm,” starring Timothy Spall. She revealed that she was shocked when told about the award. “I thought that in ten years they might give me the prize.”
A popular and prolific figure in Spanish film, Coixet helmed Goya-winning movies, “My Life Without Me” the Northern Ireland set “The Secret Life of Words,” and the “The Bookshop,” an adaptation of the Penelope Fitzgerald book.
Coixet’s most recent movie, for Netflix, the black-and-white “Elisa & Marcela,” tells the real story of two women in Galicia who tricked a priest into marrying them in 1901. It was released last year.
- 9/19/2020
- by Kaleem Aftab
- Variety Film + TV
El Deseo is financing Nieva en Benidorm, the new movie by the Catalan director, filming for which kicked off on Monday in the titular multilingual tourist hotspot. The fact that, for the last few decades, Pedro Almodóvar and his brother Agustín – ever accompanied by their faithful collaborator Esther García – have not restricted themselves to producing only the films by the Manchegan helmer (who has been Oscar-nominated this year for Pain & Glory) has been demonstrated time and again over the years. For instance, they have put their names to various titles by filmmakers such as Lucrecia Martel (Zama), Álex de la Iglesia (Acción mutante) and Isabel Coixet, in fact financing two previous features by the latter. Monday 20 January saw the shoot kick off for Nieva en Benidorm (lit....
Pedro and Agustin Almodovar have unveiled multiple details of their next production, Isabel Coixet’s “It Snows in Benidorm,” and tapped Spain’s Film Factory Entertainment to bring it onto the market at Cannes. Pedro Almodovar is in Cannes with competition contender “Pain & Glory.”
“[Film Factory’s] Vicente Canales has a special talent and sensibility to recognize the quality and commercial potential of film projects which, given their originality and auteurist values, are difficult to classify,” Agustin Almodovar told Variety.
Film Factory sold Cannes competition player “Wild Tales,” co-produced by Pedro and Agustin Almodovar, which grossed $27 million worldwide.
Set up at the Almodovars’ Madrid label El Deseo, the production renews a relationship between the Almodovars and Coixet. The brothers produced 2003’s “My Life Without Me” and 2005’s “The Secret Life of Words,” both starring Sarah Polley.
Now in pre-production, “It Snows in Benidorm” (“Nieva en Benidorm”) is in English and Spanish, and set to shoot in November.
“[Film Factory’s] Vicente Canales has a special talent and sensibility to recognize the quality and commercial potential of film projects which, given their originality and auteurist values, are difficult to classify,” Agustin Almodovar told Variety.
Film Factory sold Cannes competition player “Wild Tales,” co-produced by Pedro and Agustin Almodovar, which grossed $27 million worldwide.
Set up at the Almodovars’ Madrid label El Deseo, the production renews a relationship between the Almodovars and Coixet. The brothers produced 2003’s “My Life Without Me” and 2005’s “The Secret Life of Words,” both starring Sarah Polley.
Now in pre-production, “It Snows in Benidorm” (“Nieva en Benidorm”) is in English and Spanish, and set to shoot in November.
- 5/14/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
April 1994 As Spanish TV stations increasingly out-house services, Jaume Roures and Gerard Romy found Mediapro, with Taxto Benet’s encouragement, renting an office in Barcelona’s Sarria-district Riu de l’Or to organize the Andorra Intl. Jazz Festival.
Oct. 1994: From the near get-go, Medaipro begins handling sport event production and rights, starting with boxing, tennis and especially basketball.
Oct. 1997: Mediapro pacts with Telefonica to provide satellite uplink services.
Dec. 1997: Company’s first TV show, Andalucia Directo, a daily magazine on Canal Sur.
Dec. 1998: Mediapro’s pact with Audiovisual Sport to handle international rights to Spanish league soccer matches.
July 1999: Canal Barca and Real Madrid TV, dedicated soccer club channels, launch with Mediapro backing.
Oct. 1999: Mediapro buys its first mobile units.
June 2000: A former head of Audiovisual Sports, an Atresmedia, Tvc co-venture, Tatxo Benet creates his own company which now merges with Mediapro.
Sept.
Oct. 1994: From the near get-go, Medaipro begins handling sport event production and rights, starting with boxing, tennis and especially basketball.
Oct. 1997: Mediapro pacts with Telefonica to provide satellite uplink services.
Dec. 1997: Company’s first TV show, Andalucia Directo, a daily magazine on Canal Sur.
Dec. 1998: Mediapro’s pact with Audiovisual Sport to handle international rights to Spanish league soccer matches.
July 1999: Canal Barca and Real Madrid TV, dedicated soccer club channels, launch with Mediapro backing.
Oct. 1999: Mediapro buys its first mobile units.
June 2000: A former head of Audiovisual Sports, an Atresmedia, Tvc co-venture, Tatxo Benet creates his own company which now merges with Mediapro.
Sept.
- 4/8/2019
- by John Hopewell and Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Project will be produced by Miss Wasabi Films.
Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet is set to write and direct her first TV series with Foodie Love, a HBO Europe production.
The eight-part half-hour series will be produced by Miss Wasabi Films and will shoot this year.
The protagonists of the series will be connected by a mobile app that finds couples among foodie lovers. Two thirty-somethings embark on getting to know each other - over several dates they’ll have to discover if their common devotion to Japanese yuzu or shared distaste for foodie pretension are enough to build the foundations of a lasting love story.
Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet is set to write and direct her first TV series with Foodie Love, a HBO Europe production.
The eight-part half-hour series will be produced by Miss Wasabi Films and will shoot this year.
The protagonists of the series will be connected by a mobile app that finds couples among foodie lovers. Two thirty-somethings embark on getting to know each other - over several dates they’ll have to discover if their common devotion to Japanese yuzu or shared distaste for foodie pretension are enough to build the foundations of a lasting love story.
- 3/7/2019
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Famed Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet, whose credits include multi-prized “The Secret Life of Words” and “The Bookshop,” is directing her first TV series, “Foodie Love,” for HBO Europe.
Coixet is just back from the Berlin Film Festival where her Netflix movie, “Elisa and Marcela,” played in competition. She will now serve up her first series with “Foodie Love,” the story of two thirtysomethings brought together through their love of gastronomy. The Spanish-language series will run to eight half-hours and go into production this year.
It will follow a couple who meet through an app that connects foodies. Over subsequent dates they discover if their common devotion to Japanese yuzu or shared distaste for foodie pretension are enough to build the foundations of a lasting relationship.
“’Foodie Love’ is the fusion of two of my passions: love stories and food,” said Coixet, whose production company is called Miss Wasabi Films. “Every...
Coixet is just back from the Berlin Film Festival where her Netflix movie, “Elisa and Marcela,” played in competition. She will now serve up her first series with “Foodie Love,” the story of two thirtysomethings brought together through their love of gastronomy. The Spanish-language series will run to eight half-hours and go into production this year.
It will follow a couple who meet through an app that connects foodies. Over subsequent dates they discover if their common devotion to Japanese yuzu or shared distaste for foodie pretension are enough to build the foundations of a lasting relationship.
“’Foodie Love’ is the fusion of two of my passions: love stories and food,” said Coixet, whose production company is called Miss Wasabi Films. “Every...
- 3/7/2019
- by Stewart Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
New films by Agnieszka Holland, Agnes Varda and Isabel Coixet have been added to the official lineup of the upcoming Berlin Film Festival, along with special screenings of directorial debuts by British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor and “Narcos” star Wagner Moura of Brazil.
The Berlinale added 11 titles to its competition slate Thursday, representing countries such as China, Norway, Mongolia and Israel. Of the 18 competition titles selected so far, eight are directed by women, including festival opener “The Kindness of Strangers,” by Danish director Lone Scherfig.
Holland’s eagerly anticipated “Mr. Jones,” starring James Norton and Vanessa Kirby, will have its world premiere in Potsdamer Platz. The politically charged film centers on the real-life Welsh journalist Gareth Jones (Norton), whose reporting uncovered a deadly famine in Ukraine in the 1930s.
Another famine-themed film heading to Berlin is Ejiofor’s “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” which was recently acquired by Netflix and...
The Berlinale added 11 titles to its competition slate Thursday, representing countries such as China, Norway, Mongolia and Israel. Of the 18 competition titles selected so far, eight are directed by women, including festival opener “The Kindness of Strangers,” by Danish director Lone Scherfig.
Holland’s eagerly anticipated “Mr. Jones,” starring James Norton and Vanessa Kirby, will have its world premiere in Potsdamer Platz. The politically charged film centers on the real-life Welsh journalist Gareth Jones (Norton), whose reporting uncovered a deadly famine in Ukraine in the 1930s.
Another famine-themed film heading to Berlin is Ejiofor’s “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” which was recently acquired by Netflix and...
- 1/10/2019
- by Henry Chu
- Variety Film + TV
The Berlin Film Festival has added movies by Agnès Varda, Agnieszka Holland, Hans Petter Moland, Isabel Coixet and Wang Quan’an to its competition programme. Chiwetel Ejiofor’s directorial debut The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind will play in the Berlinale Special strand. Scroll down for the full list of additions to the batch of films already announced for the competition.
Coixet’s (The Bookshop) black-and-white feature Elisa & Marcela, the true-story of two women who got married in Spain in 1901 after one adopted a male identity, will likely receive an extra dose of media attention given that it is a Netflix acquisition, marking the streaming giant’s first film to screen in competition in Berlin. Festival director Dieter Kosslick has previously said that competition films must have a theatrical release.
Among other highlights announced today are James Norton and Vanessa Kirby starrer Mr. Jones from Polish director Agnieszka Holland and Italian mafia pic Piranhas,...
Coixet’s (The Bookshop) black-and-white feature Elisa & Marcela, the true-story of two women who got married in Spain in 1901 after one adopted a male identity, will likely receive an extra dose of media attention given that it is a Netflix acquisition, marking the streaming giant’s first film to screen in competition in Berlin. Festival director Dieter Kosslick has previously said that competition films must have a theatrical release.
Among other highlights announced today are James Norton and Vanessa Kirby starrer Mr. Jones from Polish director Agnieszka Holland and Italian mafia pic Piranhas,...
- 1/10/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Madrid — Ran Tellem, Daniel Burman and Javier Olivares will tutor or lecture at this year’s first Master’s Degree in Creative Writing and Screenplays, launched by Spain’s Mediapro Group and Madrid’s Complutense University.
Steered by one of Europe’s biggest international fiction creation forces with offices in 35 countries around the world, the initiative will be echoed in one form or another by many of the most forward-looking companies in a new high-end drama series age. That’s because it gives a longterm structural answer to the era’s greatest challenge: Accessing extraordinary writing talent.
Olivares, Tellem and Burman, all of whom hold positions at the Mediapro Group, will be joined by other key showrunners and writers such as Ivan Escobar and Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrosia which have helped establish Spain as one of the major international production hubs for high-end drama series productions watched over the globe.
Steered by one of Europe’s biggest international fiction creation forces with offices in 35 countries around the world, the initiative will be echoed in one form or another by many of the most forward-looking companies in a new high-end drama series age. That’s because it gives a longterm structural answer to the era’s greatest challenge: Accessing extraordinary writing talent.
Olivares, Tellem and Burman, all of whom hold positions at the Mediapro Group, will be joined by other key showrunners and writers such as Ivan Escobar and Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrosia which have helped establish Spain as one of the major international production hubs for high-end drama series productions watched over the globe.
- 1/10/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
The dog days of summer are a dropping ground– just before the festival launch of many major award season entries –for weaker commercial entries that need room to breathe. Still, multiple new titles opened this weekend. One, Sundance grad “Searching” (Sony), looks set for wider interest ahead.
Remake “Papillon” (Bleecker Street) opened in 544 theaters, neither platform nor wide, but standard for general interest openers that still require special handling. Results were desultory, but without a lot of competition the grim period prison drama probably could have done no better, with a chance of some Labor Day holiday playtime ahead.
“The Wife” (Sony Pictures Classics) showed some real strength on its second weekend and should play well for the next few weeks. A standout run could help position Glenn Close for awards ahead of the glut of new contenders that will soon arrive.
Opening
Papillon (Bleecker Street) – Metacritic: 52; Festivals include: Toronto...
Remake “Papillon” (Bleecker Street) opened in 544 theaters, neither platform nor wide, but standard for general interest openers that still require special handling. Results were desultory, but without a lot of competition the grim period prison drama probably could have done no better, with a chance of some Labor Day holiday playtime ahead.
“The Wife” (Sony Pictures Classics) showed some real strength on its second weekend and should play well for the next few weeks. A standout run could help position Glenn Close for awards ahead of the glut of new contenders that will soon arrive.
Opening
Papillon (Bleecker Street) – Metacritic: 52; Festivals include: Toronto...
- 8/26/2018
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Emily Mortimer star of Isabel Coixet's The Bookshop dedicated to John Berger Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Isabel Coixet's The Bookshop, loosely based on the novel by Penelope Fitzgerald and starring Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy and Patricia Clarkson (who starred in Learning To Drive with Ben Kingsley) is dedicated to John Berger. Isabel also dedicated her 2005 film The Secret Life of Words, starring Sarah Polley and Tim Robbins, to Berger. In 2010, Isabel created From I to J an audio-installation of Berger's letters in From A to X at Casa Encendida in Madrid with readings from Tilda Swinton, Penélope Cruz, Isabelle Huppert, Monica Bellucci, Sophie Calle, Maria de Medeiros, Clarkson, and Polley.
Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) at Violet Gamart's (Patricia Clarkson) fête Photo: Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment
Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and she won for her novel Offshore in 1979. John Berger won in 1972 for his novel G.
Isabel Coixet's The Bookshop, loosely based on the novel by Penelope Fitzgerald and starring Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy and Patricia Clarkson (who starred in Learning To Drive with Ben Kingsley) is dedicated to John Berger. Isabel also dedicated her 2005 film The Secret Life of Words, starring Sarah Polley and Tim Robbins, to Berger. In 2010, Isabel created From I to J an audio-installation of Berger's letters in From A to X at Casa Encendida in Madrid with readings from Tilda Swinton, Penélope Cruz, Isabelle Huppert, Monica Bellucci, Sophie Calle, Maria de Medeiros, Clarkson, and Polley.
Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) at Violet Gamart's (Patricia Clarkson) fête Photo: Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment
Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and she won for her novel Offshore in 1979. John Berger won in 1972 for his novel G.
- 8/22/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"You make me believe once more in things I thought forgotten..." Greenwich Entertainment has released an official Us trailer for this lovely book-lovers film The Bookshop, the latest feature from Catalan filmmaker Isabel Coixet. This had a major premiere at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, but it was rather poorly received, and hasn't been highly regarded by many critics unfortunately. The Bookshop stars Emily Mortimer as an independent woman living in England in 1959 who fights to keep a bookshop open and running in a small town that doesn't really seem to need one. The full supporting cast includes Bill Nighy, Patricia Clarkson, Hunter Tremayne, Honor Kneafsey, James Lance, and Reg Wilson. It's described as "an elegant yet incisive rendering of personal resolve, tested in the battle for the soul of a community." This will probably connect most with die-hard book lovers. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for...
- 7/1/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Goya-winner heading to Italy, Hungary, Iceland and South America.
Isabel Coixet’s Goya-winning The Bookshop that just received its international premiere in Berlinale Special has sparked a raft of deals at the Efm.
Celsius Entertainment has licensed rights for Italy (Movies Inspired), Hungary (Cirko Film) Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile (Cdi Films), Colombia (Cine Colombia), and Iceland (Samfilm).
Screen understands final negotiations are in progress for the Us, and talks are ongoing for Canada, Scandinavia, Poland, and China.
The Bookshop, which stars Emily Mortimer as a woman who causes a stir in a late 1950s English town when she opens a store, went to Portugal (Outsider Films) and Israel (Forum) shortly before the Efm.
Celsius previously licensed a slew of territories including the UK (Vertigo), Germany (Capelight), Australia (Transmission), Benelux (Cineart), Japan (Digital Works), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Turkey (Filmarti), and Romania (Odeon).
Referring to the determination of Mortimer’s character in The Bookshop, Coixet drew a parellel...
Isabel Coixet’s Goya-winning The Bookshop that just received its international premiere in Berlinale Special has sparked a raft of deals at the Efm.
Celsius Entertainment has licensed rights for Italy (Movies Inspired), Hungary (Cirko Film) Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile (Cdi Films), Colombia (Cine Colombia), and Iceland (Samfilm).
Screen understands final negotiations are in progress for the Us, and talks are ongoing for Canada, Scandinavia, Poland, and China.
The Bookshop, which stars Emily Mortimer as a woman who causes a stir in a late 1950s English town when she opens a store, went to Portugal (Outsider Films) and Israel (Forum) shortly before the Efm.
Celsius previously licensed a slew of territories including the UK (Vertigo), Germany (Capelight), Australia (Transmission), Benelux (Cineart), Japan (Digital Works), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Turkey (Filmarti), and Romania (Odeon).
Referring to the determination of Mortimer’s character in The Bookshop, Coixet drew a parellel...
- 2/19/2018
- by Elisabet Cabeza
- ScreenDaily
The Bookshop Isabel Coixet's The Bookshop was the big winner at the Goya Awards (the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars) last night.
The film, which adapts Penelope Lively's tale of a widow who opens a book store in a small town, took home the prizes for best film, best director and best adapted screenplay. It is only the second time an English language film has been named best picture - with Coixet making it a double after 2006's The Secret Life Of Words.
Also winning multiple prizes on the night was Basque film Giant (Handia), directed by Aitor Arrewgi and Jon Garano, which picked up awards for Javier Agirre Erauso's cinematography, Pascal Gaigne's score and a new actor performance award for Eneko Sagardoy as the titular character among a host of other technical gongs.
The best first feature went to Carla Simon's autobiographical Summer 1993 (Estiu 1993) - Spain's foreign language Oscar.
The film, which adapts Penelope Lively's tale of a widow who opens a book store in a small town, took home the prizes for best film, best director and best adapted screenplay. It is only the second time an English language film has been named best picture - with Coixet making it a double after 2006's The Secret Life Of Words.
Also winning multiple prizes on the night was Basque film Giant (Handia), directed by Aitor Arrewgi and Jon Garano, which picked up awards for Javier Agirre Erauso's cinematography, Pascal Gaigne's score and a new actor performance award for Eneko Sagardoy as the titular character among a host of other technical gongs.
The best first feature went to Carla Simon's autobiographical Summer 1993 (Estiu 1993) - Spain's foreign language Oscar.
- 2/4/2018
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Canadian director and actress Sarah Polley, along with Noreen Halpern’s Halfire Entertainment, will adapt Margaret Atwood’s novel “Alias Grace” into a six-hour miniseries for Netflix. Deadline reports that Polley will write and produce the series while Mary Harron will direct the project.
Read More: Watch: Sarah Polley Interviews Greta Gerwig About Noah Baumbach’s ‘Frances Ha’ In 17-Minute Criterion Feature
“Alias Grace” follows the true story of poor Irish immigrant Grace Marks who, along with domestic servant James McDermott, was convicted of murdering her employer Thomas Kinnear and housekeeper Nancy Montgomery in 1843. While James was hanged, Grace received life imprisonment for her role in the crime. The conviction was highly controversial and Grace’s role in the murder was up for strong debate as to whether she took an active part in the crime or if she was simply an accessory. She was later exonerated after 30 years in jail.
Read More: Watch: Sarah Polley Interviews Greta Gerwig About Noah Baumbach’s ‘Frances Ha’ In 17-Minute Criterion Feature
“Alias Grace” follows the true story of poor Irish immigrant Grace Marks who, along with domestic servant James McDermott, was convicted of murdering her employer Thomas Kinnear and housekeeper Nancy Montgomery in 1843. While James was hanged, Grace received life imprisonment for her role in the crime. The conviction was highly controversial and Grace’s role in the murder was up for strong debate as to whether she took an active part in the crime or if she was simply an accessory. She was later exonerated after 30 years in jail.
- 6/21/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
I recently sat down with director Isabel Coixet, and actors Patricia Clarkson and Sarita Choudhury at the Crosby Hotel in New York City, to discuss their new film "Learning to Drive." The film, written by Sarah Kernochan, is based on the autobiographical New Yorker short story by Katha Pollit, a long-time political columnist for the Nation.
Wendy is a fiery Manhattan author whose husband has just left her for a younger woman; Darwan is a soft-spoken taxi driver from India on the verge of an arranged marriage. As Wendy sets out to reclaim her independence, she runs into a barrier common to many lifelong New Yorkers: she’s never learned to drive. When Wendy hires Darwan to teach her, her unraveling life and his calm restraint seem like an awkward fit. But as he shows her how to take control of the wheel, and she coaches him on how to impress a woman, their unlikely friendship awakens them to the joy, humor, and love in starting life anew.
My conversation began with Isabel Coixet and Sarita Choudhury
Isabel Coixet’s award-winning film credits include "Demaisiado viejo para morir joven," "Things I Never Told You,""My Life Without Me," "The Secret Life of Words," "Paris, je t’aime," "Elegy," "Map of the Sounds of Tokyo," "Yesterday Never Ends," "Another Me," "Nobody Wants the Night," as well as documentaries, including "Invisibles."
Currently, Sarita Choudhury can be seen on Showtime’s "Homeland." Her film credits include "Admission," "Gayby," "Midnight’s Children," "Generation Um…," "Entre Nos," "The Accidental Husband," "Lady in the Water," "The War Within," "Mississippi Masala," "Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love," "She Hate Me," "Just a Kiss," "Wild West," "High Art," "The House of the Spirits," "Gloria," and "A Perfect Murder."
Susan Kouguell: Tell me about the process of how "Learning to Drive" came about.
Isabel Coixet: We started talking about making this film with Patricia and Ben Kingsley when we were making "Elegy" (directed by Coixet, starring Clarkson and Kingsley) and we got along very well and we wanted to make another film together. Patricia discovered the short story by Katha Pollit, and she gave it to me and I thought it was wonderful. And then we got the screenwriter Sarah Kernocha involved. The film is a comedy but not a classical comedy. It was a very difficult film to pitch because you know financiers and producers want something they can put in one box and you can’t with this film. It was a long process. It took nine years.
Some Words Unspoken and the Intimacy of the Camera
Isabel Coixet: There is always this romantic feeling underneath [subtext], I think there is that possibility. You have to be true to your words. If they are true, you will have to stick to your words.
Sarita Choudhury: That’s what happens with people you meet. No you were my inspiration don’t make me your inspiration.
Isabel Coixet: I love Henry James. There is a possibility of romance in the air. My romantic side is always excited when I see something like this.
Sarita Choudhury: I had so few words in the film. In a way, I kept the words because I had to know not to say them. For us the script -- the situational was also in the script; the languidness. It was because Isabel holds the camera. There was a pace created to it. When you’re acting you can feel where the camera is, but when the camera is at the end of Isabel’s hand and she’s moving it, it almost creates an intimacy between you and the camera, and you and the actor. There’s a pace you normally don’t get in film. You didn’t know when she was on your face; you had to keep acting like acting in the theatre.
On The Lack of Women Directors
Isabel Coixet: There are so many articles about it. I’m always afraid to play the victim, to complain too much. I know there is an inequity with men and women directors. This is an issue in the world. I always say, (Coixet smiles) we have to ask for more salary to make up for all these years and maybe if we ask for more they’ll give us the same as a man.
I want to put my words where my mouth is by producing female directors; they are amazing talented people. I’m producing three short films and a feature documentary. That’s what I do.
Sarita Choudhury: I just did a young woman’s short film; there is something about her that’s brilliant. I’ve done two short films. I can’t change the caste system and I can’t do the voluntary work I need to be doing. Film is no different from the world, like Isabel said. That’s our work, to get every woman involved. And if a man is brilliant, let him in too.
I then asked Patricia Clarkson about her involvement with "Learning to Drive."
Academy Award® nominee and Emmy Award-winning actress, Patricia Clarkson, has worked extensively in independent films. The National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics named her Best Supporting Actress of the Year for "Pieces of April" and "The Station Agent." Her many film credits include "The Maze Runner," "Last Weekend," "Friends With Benefits," "One Day," "Easy A," "Shutter Island," "Vicky Christina Barcelona," "Elegy," "No Reservations," "All the Kings’ Men," "Lars and the Real Girl, and "Good Night, and Good Luck."
Susan Kouguell: What attracted you to the project?
Patricia Clarkson: I loved the Katha Pollit story in The New Yorker; it serendipitously came to me. I love Wendy, I love this character. I was nine years younger at the time, but I still felt I knew her. I was relentless trying to get this film made with producer Dana Friedman. I found it an equal dose of funny and tragic. I liked the almost commedia dell'arte aspect; this absurd situation and finding the tragic comedy. A woman who is brilliant who lives a great life -- she has everything, but “forgets to look up,” and then meets a man who has experienced tragic loss. They have disparate worlds. I found it a quintessential New York story, but it’s also universal. It’s an independent film, but it’s not independently-minded.
Some Final Words
The disparate worlds about which Clarkson refers to in regard to her character, Wendy’s relationship with Darwan [Ben Kingsley] -- the life of a financially successful New Yorker compared to the immigrant’s struggle, was a thematic element that I further discussed with Coixet and Choudhury. As Choudhury said to me, Coixet’s visual choices of her character, such as the moment when she watches feet walk by her basement apartment window, feeling trapped, underscore the poignancy of this fish-out-of-water situation. Coixet captures these elements with a delicate balance of both drama and comedy.
It was an inspiring morning to speak with these three powerful and talented women, who are committed to sharing their knowledge with the next generation of female filmmakers.
Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting at Purchase College Suny, and presents international seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide. www.su-city-pictures.com, http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog...
Wendy is a fiery Manhattan author whose husband has just left her for a younger woman; Darwan is a soft-spoken taxi driver from India on the verge of an arranged marriage. As Wendy sets out to reclaim her independence, she runs into a barrier common to many lifelong New Yorkers: she’s never learned to drive. When Wendy hires Darwan to teach her, her unraveling life and his calm restraint seem like an awkward fit. But as he shows her how to take control of the wheel, and she coaches him on how to impress a woman, their unlikely friendship awakens them to the joy, humor, and love in starting life anew.
My conversation began with Isabel Coixet and Sarita Choudhury
Isabel Coixet’s award-winning film credits include "Demaisiado viejo para morir joven," "Things I Never Told You,""My Life Without Me," "The Secret Life of Words," "Paris, je t’aime," "Elegy," "Map of the Sounds of Tokyo," "Yesterday Never Ends," "Another Me," "Nobody Wants the Night," as well as documentaries, including "Invisibles."
Currently, Sarita Choudhury can be seen on Showtime’s "Homeland." Her film credits include "Admission," "Gayby," "Midnight’s Children," "Generation Um…," "Entre Nos," "The Accidental Husband," "Lady in the Water," "The War Within," "Mississippi Masala," "Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love," "She Hate Me," "Just a Kiss," "Wild West," "High Art," "The House of the Spirits," "Gloria," and "A Perfect Murder."
Susan Kouguell: Tell me about the process of how "Learning to Drive" came about.
Isabel Coixet: We started talking about making this film with Patricia and Ben Kingsley when we were making "Elegy" (directed by Coixet, starring Clarkson and Kingsley) and we got along very well and we wanted to make another film together. Patricia discovered the short story by Katha Pollit, and she gave it to me and I thought it was wonderful. And then we got the screenwriter Sarah Kernocha involved. The film is a comedy but not a classical comedy. It was a very difficult film to pitch because you know financiers and producers want something they can put in one box and you can’t with this film. It was a long process. It took nine years.
Some Words Unspoken and the Intimacy of the Camera
Isabel Coixet: There is always this romantic feeling underneath [subtext], I think there is that possibility. You have to be true to your words. If they are true, you will have to stick to your words.
Sarita Choudhury: That’s what happens with people you meet. No you were my inspiration don’t make me your inspiration.
Isabel Coixet: I love Henry James. There is a possibility of romance in the air. My romantic side is always excited when I see something like this.
Sarita Choudhury: I had so few words in the film. In a way, I kept the words because I had to know not to say them. For us the script -- the situational was also in the script; the languidness. It was because Isabel holds the camera. There was a pace created to it. When you’re acting you can feel where the camera is, but when the camera is at the end of Isabel’s hand and she’s moving it, it almost creates an intimacy between you and the camera, and you and the actor. There’s a pace you normally don’t get in film. You didn’t know when she was on your face; you had to keep acting like acting in the theatre.
On The Lack of Women Directors
Isabel Coixet: There are so many articles about it. I’m always afraid to play the victim, to complain too much. I know there is an inequity with men and women directors. This is an issue in the world. I always say, (Coixet smiles) we have to ask for more salary to make up for all these years and maybe if we ask for more they’ll give us the same as a man.
I want to put my words where my mouth is by producing female directors; they are amazing talented people. I’m producing three short films and a feature documentary. That’s what I do.
Sarita Choudhury: I just did a young woman’s short film; there is something about her that’s brilliant. I’ve done two short films. I can’t change the caste system and I can’t do the voluntary work I need to be doing. Film is no different from the world, like Isabel said. That’s our work, to get every woman involved. And if a man is brilliant, let him in too.
I then asked Patricia Clarkson about her involvement with "Learning to Drive."
Academy Award® nominee and Emmy Award-winning actress, Patricia Clarkson, has worked extensively in independent films. The National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics named her Best Supporting Actress of the Year for "Pieces of April" and "The Station Agent." Her many film credits include "The Maze Runner," "Last Weekend," "Friends With Benefits," "One Day," "Easy A," "Shutter Island," "Vicky Christina Barcelona," "Elegy," "No Reservations," "All the Kings’ Men," "Lars and the Real Girl, and "Good Night, and Good Luck."
Susan Kouguell: What attracted you to the project?
Patricia Clarkson: I loved the Katha Pollit story in The New Yorker; it serendipitously came to me. I love Wendy, I love this character. I was nine years younger at the time, but I still felt I knew her. I was relentless trying to get this film made with producer Dana Friedman. I found it an equal dose of funny and tragic. I liked the almost commedia dell'arte aspect; this absurd situation and finding the tragic comedy. A woman who is brilliant who lives a great life -- she has everything, but “forgets to look up,” and then meets a man who has experienced tragic loss. They have disparate worlds. I found it a quintessential New York story, but it’s also universal. It’s an independent film, but it’s not independently-minded.
Some Final Words
The disparate worlds about which Clarkson refers to in regard to her character, Wendy’s relationship with Darwan [Ben Kingsley] -- the life of a financially successful New Yorker compared to the immigrant’s struggle, was a thematic element that I further discussed with Coixet and Choudhury. As Choudhury said to me, Coixet’s visual choices of her character, such as the moment when she watches feet walk by her basement apartment window, feeling trapped, underscore the poignancy of this fish-out-of-water situation. Coixet captures these elements with a delicate balance of both drama and comedy.
It was an inspiring morning to speak with these three powerful and talented women, who are committed to sharing their knowledge with the next generation of female filmmakers.
Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting at Purchase College Suny, and presents international seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide. www.su-city-pictures.com, http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog...
- 8/21/2015
- by Susan Kouguell
- Sydney's Buzz
Cast revealed for Pedro Almodovar drama set in a “female universe” that will begin shooting in May.
Pedro Almodovar is to begin principal photography on his new drama Silence (Silencio) in Spain this May.
The film centres on Julieta, whose life in 2015 finds her on the verge of madness but is shown 30 years earlier during the 1980s at a more prosperous time in her life.
Spanish actresses Adriana Ugarte (TV series The Time In Between) and Emma Suárez (The Red Squirrel, The Mosquito Net) will play the younger and older Julieta respectively.
It will be produced by Madrid-based El Deseo, the company founded by Pedro and brother Agustin Almodovar. Agustin will produce alongside Ester Garcia.
Speaking to ScreenDaily, Agustin Almodovar said: “We are working with some of these talented actors for the first time, which makes it very exciting.
“The film is a return to drama based around women but it will also present new challenges.
“It...
Pedro Almodovar is to begin principal photography on his new drama Silence (Silencio) in Spain this May.
The film centres on Julieta, whose life in 2015 finds her on the verge of madness but is shown 30 years earlier during the 1980s at a more prosperous time in her life.
Spanish actresses Adriana Ugarte (TV series The Time In Between) and Emma Suárez (The Red Squirrel, The Mosquito Net) will play the younger and older Julieta respectively.
It will be produced by Madrid-based El Deseo, the company founded by Pedro and brother Agustin Almodovar. Agustin will produce alongside Ester Garcia.
Speaking to ScreenDaily, Agustin Almodovar said: “We are working with some of these talented actors for the first time, which makes it very exciting.
“The film is a return to drama based around women but it will also present new challenges.
“It...
- 3/27/2015
- by jsardafr@hotmail.com (Juan Sarda)
- ScreenDaily
We'll show up to watch Juliette Binoche in pretty much anything, but toss Rinko Kikuchi into the mix, in a film directed by Isabel Coixet ("My Life Without Me," "The Secret Life Of Words," "Elegy"), in a based-on-a-true-story tale set in the arctic? Yes, please. That film is "Nobody Wants The Night," and the first trailer has arrived. Slated to open the Berlin International Film Festival next month, the movie is based on a true story, and is set in 1908, in the wintry reaches of Greenland. Here's the official synopsis: Josephine Peary is a mature, proud, determined and naive woman, in love with celebrated Arctic adventurer Robert Peary, a man who prefers glory and ice to the comforts of an upper-class home. For him she will face all danger, even risk her own life. Another woman, young but wise, brave and humble – Allaka – is in love with the same man,...
- 1/12/2015
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
There should be a bigger spotlight on filmmaker Isabel Coixet. She makes small, unflashy but memorable films, like "Elegy," "My Life Without Me," "The Secret Life Of Words," and more recently, "Learning To Drive," all of which have culled the director a small but devoted following. But Coixet gets her biggest showcase yet at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival. Coixet's "Nobody Wants The Night" has been selected as the opening night movie at the festival. Juliette Binoche, Rinko Kikuchi and Gabriel Byrne star in a movie taking place in the Arctic seclusion of Greenland in 1908. The adventure film focuses on courageous women and ambitious men who put anything at stake for love and glory. We like both the cast and premise, so sign us up. The Berlin Film Festival runs from February 5th to 15th.
- 1/9/2015
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Sophie Turner is stalked by a dangerous doppelgänger in the new thriller Another Me.
The Game of Thrones actress portrays Fay, a teenager who has the sneaking suspicion that she is being followed by a dark force.
Bastille unveil new video starring Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner
Matt Edmondson raps Game of Moans with Sansa Stark - watch video
Fay's school classes, photography trips and rendezvous with her boyfriend (Gregg Sulkin) all seem to be observed by someone who looks exactly like her.
Rhys Ifans, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Claire Forlani all have supporting roles in director Isabel Coixet's thriller.
Coixet is an acclaimed Spanish filmmaker who has previously found international success with Elegy and The Secret Life of Words.
Another Me is expected to open later this year.
The Game of Thrones actress portrays Fay, a teenager who has the sneaking suspicion that she is being followed by a dark force.
Bastille unveil new video starring Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner
Matt Edmondson raps Game of Moans with Sansa Stark - watch video
Fay's school classes, photography trips and rendezvous with her boyfriend (Gregg Sulkin) all seem to be observed by someone who looks exactly like her.
Rhys Ifans, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Claire Forlani all have supporting roles in director Isabel Coixet's thriller.
Coixet is an acclaimed Spanish filmmaker who has previously found international success with Elegy and The Secret Life of Words.
Another Me is expected to open later this year.
- 7/26/2014
- Digital Spy
Fox International has started production in Spain on Panda Eyes. Directed by Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, The Secret Life Of Words), the film stars Game Of Thrones‘ Sophie Turner, who is making her feature film debut. She’s surrounded by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Rhys Ifans, Claire Forlani, Gregg Sulkin, Leonor Watling, Ivana Baquero, and Geraldine Chaplin. The film is a psychological thriller with Turner playing a woman haunted by a secret past. It is based on the Cathy MacPhail novel Another Me, and Coixet wrote the script. 20th Century Fox will distribute the Fox International film, a UK/Spain co-production that has Rebekah Gilbertson and Nicole Carmen-Davis producing for UK-based Rainy Day Films and Mariela Besuievsky producing for Spain-based Tornasol Films. Film Agency for Wales, Fox International Productions, the British Film Co. and Dsk Ventures are financing the film.
- 12/18/2012
- by MIKE FLEMING JR.
- Deadline
Chicago – This 18-image slideshow features the official press images for Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Splice” starring Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, and Delphine Chaneac. It was directed by Vincenzo Natali and will open on June 4th, 2010.
Official Synopsis:
“Superstar genetic engineers Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) specialize in splicing DNA from different animals to create incredible new hybrids. Now they want to use human DNA in a hybrid that could revolutionize science and medicine. But when the pharmaceutical company that funds their research forbids it, Clive and Elsa secretly take their boldest experimentation underground—risking their careers by pushing the boundaries of science to serve their own curiosity and ambition.
The result is Dren, an amazing, strangely beautiful creature of uncommon intelligence and an array of unexpected physical developments.
At first, Dren exceeds their wildest dreams. But as she grows and learns at an accelerated rate, her existence threatens to become their worst nightmare.
Official Synopsis:
“Superstar genetic engineers Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) specialize in splicing DNA from different animals to create incredible new hybrids. Now they want to use human DNA in a hybrid that could revolutionize science and medicine. But when the pharmaceutical company that funds their research forbids it, Clive and Elsa secretly take their boldest experimentation underground—risking their careers by pushing the boundaries of science to serve their own curiosity and ambition.
The result is Dren, an amazing, strangely beautiful creature of uncommon intelligence and an array of unexpected physical developments.
At first, Dren exceeds their wildest dreams. But as she grows and learns at an accelerated rate, her existence threatens to become their worst nightmare.
- 5/29/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Be prepared to be shocked! Fascinating, original and daring, “Splice” goes to places no other movie has gone with its story of a genetic engineering experiment gone awry. A hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, “Splice” is ready to grip the imaginations of summer moviegoers in theaters on June 4, 2010. Enter for chance to win one of these awesome prizes such as Girls and Guys Splice T-shirts, Key Chains, Posters, Money Tickets to See the film and a limited edition collector’s Baby Dren Plush (Extremely limited creation only available in online sweepstakes!).
In Theaters June 4th!
The Giveaway (See Photos Above)
1 – Meet Dren Teaser Poster – Arv $16 each
1 - Final “Splice” Poster – Arv $16 each
2 – Hollywood Movie Money Tickets to see “Splice” in a theater near you – Arv $12 each
3 - Lenticular Key Chain – Arv $5 each
3 – Heather Grey Tank Top – Arv $18 each
3 – Charcoal Grey Men’s Tees – Arv $20 each
3 - ‘Baby...
In Theaters June 4th!
The Giveaway (See Photos Above)
1 – Meet Dren Teaser Poster – Arv $16 each
1 - Final “Splice” Poster – Arv $16 each
2 – Hollywood Movie Money Tickets to see “Splice” in a theater near you – Arv $12 each
3 - Lenticular Key Chain – Arv $5 each
3 – Heather Grey Tank Top – Arv $18 each
3 – Charcoal Grey Men’s Tees – Arv $20 each
3 - ‘Baby...
- 5/25/2010
- by Fused Film Staff
- FusedFilm
Check out more images from Warner Bros. Pictures' "Splice" starring Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody ("The Pianist," "Hollywoodland," "King Kong"); Sarah Polley ("Dawn of the Dead," "The Secret Life of Words"), also a Best Screenplay Oscar® nominee for "Away From Her"; and newcomer Delphine Chaneac ("The Pink Panther") in the role of the creature Dren. Vincenzo Natali ("Paris je t'aime," "Cube") directs the science fiction horror/thriller from a screenplay by Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor. The film opens on June 4th.
- 5/25/2010
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Robert Zemeckis is gearing up for his next 3D motion-capture flick, and this time, he's tackling the Beatles. The cast is coming together as well, with Cary Elwes, Dean Lennox Kelly, Peter Serafinowicz and Adam Campbell in talks to join the flick.
Heat Vision reports Elwes ("Twister") will play George Harrison, while Kelly ("The Secret Life of Words") will play John Lennon. Serafinowicz ("Couples Retreat") will be Paul McCartney and Campbell ("Epic Movie") will portray Ringo Starr.
The film is a remake of 1968's animated movie "Yellow Submarine." In the flick, the Beatles team up with a solider to bring peace to Pepperland, where they clash with the Blue Meanies. Zemeckis wrote the screenplay for the remake.
Heat Vision reports Elwes ("Twister") will play George Harrison, while Kelly ("The Secret Life of Words") will play John Lennon. Serafinowicz ("Couples Retreat") will be Paul McCartney and Campbell ("Epic Movie") will portray Ringo Starr.
The film is a remake of 1968's animated movie "Yellow Submarine." In the flick, the Beatles team up with a solider to bring peace to Pepperland, where they clash with the Blue Meanies. Zemeckis wrote the screenplay for the remake.
- 1/13/2010
- by Franck Tabouring
- screeninglog.com
Eastern European Distributors at the San Sebastian Film Festival
The European Film Promotion (EFP) and the San Sebastian International Film Festival (September 18-27) launched a new promotion initiative entitled "European Distributors: Up Next".
Ten independent distributors from Central and Eastern Europe attending the festival discussed the possibilities of theatrical distribution on a European level. Since the majority of European producers do not cross national borders, the meetings in San Sebastian were aimed to create possible platform and networking opportunities to improve the circulation of European productions.
• From Slovenia, Natasa Bucar, project manager of the cultural center Cankarjev Dom, a public institution that organizes many events promoting film, including the Ljubljana International Film Festival has been in art film distribution for the last 15 years. They distribute five to six titles every year to fill the gap in theatrical distribution of European high-profile films in Slovenia. Priority is given to established and not always well-known European and other international filmmakers. Their last distributed titles were Neil Jordan’s ‘Breakfast on Pluto’, Tony Gatlif’s ‘Transylvania’, Bent Hamer’s ‘Factotum’, Dagur Kari’s ‘Dark Horse’, Corneliu Porumboiu’s ‘12:08 East of Bucharest’, Roy Andersson’s ‘You, the Living’, Pascale Ferran’s ‘Lady Chatterley’, Marjane Satrapi’s ‘Persepolis’ and Shane Meadows’ ‘This Is England’.
Besides Cankarjev Dom, there are only four arthouse cinemas in Slovenia. They need more along with arthouse cinema networks to enable better film promotion. In Slovenia, like everywhere in Europe, the number of cinema viewers has fallen drastically. Audiences focus on fewer films, the top 20 films take up to almost 50% of the market in Slovenia.
• From Hungary, Rita Linda Potyondi of Cirko Film - Másképp Foundation, the only Hungarian distributor to operate as a non-profit-foundation, they also own one theater in Budapest. Working on a showstring budget, they are guided by personal tastes and focus on international and particularly European ‘difficult’ auteur films with targeted or limited audiences, especially those that explore themes related to discriminated groups: homosexuals, handicapped people, ethnic or religious minorities and victims of family abuse. Their last releases include films by Robert Guédiguian, Bruno Dumont, Fernando Leon de Aranoa, Baltasar Kormakur, Alain Corneau, Bruno Podalydès, Bertrand Bonello, Claire Denis, Ferzan Ozpetek, Catalin Mitulescu and Oskar Roehler. A recent surprise success was Anders Thomas Jensen’s ‘Adam's Apples’ which became a sort of cult film. They also did well with Palme d’Or-winner ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’, and ‘Persepolis’, Susanne Bier’s ‘After the Wedding, ‘Red Road’, ‘My Brother Is An Only Child’, ‘A Soap’, ‘Our Daily Bread’. Upcoming are the Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne's ‘Lorna’s Silence’, Gustave de Kervern and Benoit Belepine’s ‘Louise Michel’, Nic Balthazar’s ‘Ben X’, Simon Staho’s ‘Heaven’s Heart’, Ole Christian Madsen’s ‘Kira’s Reason’, Josef Fares’ ‘Leo’, Anders Thomas Jensen’s ‘The Green Butchers’ and ‘Flickering Lights’, and Ole Bornedal’s ‘Just Another Love Story’.
• Czech distributor Artcam’s Managing Director Premysl Martinek knows he is fighting an uphill battle. In 2007 combined total admissions for Artcam's films were under 50,000 — 0.4 percent of the national total. By comparison, leading distributor Falcon drew more than 4,000,000 viewers with its films, nearly a third of the market. However Martinek is convinced there is room in the market for small distributors and is interested in the shared challenges, from the opportunities offered by digital distribution and video-on-demand to how to negotiate with producers on minimum guarantees. The main problem is cultivating an audience. “It's very different from in Holland or Germany, where there are audiences for arthouse films,” he says.
Most of Artcam's target market is in Prague, home to roughly 1,000,000 people where European film is largely restricted to a handful of single-screen theatres, while the city's 14 multiplexes focus primarily on Hollywood imports and successful local films.
Artcam has distributed some of the most widely heralded European films of recent years, including Ole Madsen's drama ‘Prague’, ‘Persepolis’ and ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’. The international success of such films has attracted the attention of larger distributors who are now crowding the arena. This year in Cannes when they tried to acquire ‘Waltz with Bashir’, there was greater competition. Martinek says arthouse is an important part of any film culture, and lack of access to European films is hurting Czech cinema because if they lack exposure to the cinema of other countries, from new ways of narration, they cannot develop their own cinema. The Czech Ministry of Education has introduced media studies to secondary school curricula to show young people that film is “not just fun and popcorn. It's also art.”
• Polish distribution company Gutek’s Jakub Duszyński, artistic director and head of programming (along with Roman Gutek) at the Muranow movie theater also programs for the different festivals held at the theatre and for Poland’s largest film event, the Era New Horizons Film Festival in Wroclaw. A lawyer by training and a fan of Asian genre films, Duszynski has also set up a distribution company (Blink) specializing in this type of film.
Gutek Film has always been a launching pad for auteur films and has released films by Lars Von Trier, Pedro Almodóvar, Jim Jarmush and Wong Kar-Wai. Every year, they distribute two or three films not aimed solely at auteur film enthusiasts, but also at multiplex audiences. Among such titles are Tom Tykwer’s ‘Perfume: The Story of a Murderer’ and ‘Control’. Coming up are Polish features including Jerzy Skolimowski’s ‘Four Nights With Anna’, Piotr Lazarkiewicz’s ‘0_1_0’ and Katarzyna Adamik’s ‘Boisko bezdomnych’. They distribute almost exclusively European films. The box office is certainly dominated by US films, but by only a few titles which often have, interestingly, something European about them, for example they may be inspired by European literature.
• Slovakia’s Michal Drobny is marketing manager for Slovak distributor Continental Film. Slovakia sees 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 admissions in a year. A successful film for Continental is 10,000 to 15,000 admissions, as compared to one of the Harry Potter films which will have 200,000 admissions.
Continental releases 30 to 40 films a year and, thanks largely to its partnership with Warner Bros, enjoys a market share of 20%–30%. Continental also serve as Slovak distribution partners for Hollywood Classic Entertainment, which often buys rights to European and arthouse titles for several Eastern European territories at once. Continental acquires other titles through direct negotiation with the producers, usually from the Czech Republic. Drobny seldom attends festivals other than Berlin. This year is his first visit to San Sebastian.
Margins are tight for Continental, which is the second or third largest distributor in Slovakia. Continental is also a 30% shareholder in Slovak multiplex chain Cinemax, which owns nine cinemas countrywide. Continental also operated Bratislava's only arthouse cinema until it was turned into a congress hall.
Continental counts on public money for a small portion of its operating budget. The Slovak Ministry of Culture gives support up to a maximum of SKK 160,000 (€5,500) for the distribution of European films which covers the cost of two or three prints. Continental also receives funding through the MEDIA automatic support scheme, typically receiving 40 to 60 cents per admission for European films.
Drobny says this public support is welcome but it's seldom enough to make a real difference to distributors. “A print for a US title costs $300 [€210]. For a European title, the cost is $1,000–1500 [€700–1,000] for the print, plus I still need to pay for the all the marketing materials and the cost of subtitles,” he says. “We can't be surprised that American films are everywhere.”
Not surprisingly few European films secure distribution in Slovakia. Cinemax promotes European and arthouse film through its Artmax program and screens independent films once a week, sometimes for free. Current titles in the selection include ‘Good Bye, Lenin!’, ‘The Secret Life of Words’, ‘The Science of Sleep’, ‘Volver’ and ‘Angel’. In cooperation with the Embassy of Spain, Continental and Cinemax are creating a Spanish Days celebration of Spanish cinema at Cinemax locations in November.
Drobny has hopes that digital cinema will help small distributors, but believes it will be five to ten years before the major studios settle on a common format. Even then, the costs of converting screens will be challenging for the private sector. “To install one 2K digital system costs SKK 3m–4m [€100,000–132,000] and we have 37 screens, so it's a lot of money,” he says. “We'd like to invest but it will take a long time to see a return on that investment.”
• From Romania, Transilvania Film, founded by Tudor Giurgiu and currently run by Stefan Bradea is one of the successful pioneers of arthouse film distribution in Romania. At first they distributed mainly British, German and Scandinavian features but gradually turned to quality Romanian films, genre pictures, even some mainstream American movies. Their eclectic selection is targeted to the highly educated public, basically university graduates under 35. Their latest premiere was ‘Non pensarci’ by Gianni Zanasi, an Italian comedy. Coming up are Gus Van Sant’s ‘Paranoid Park’ and a few Romanian films: Horatiu Malaele’s ‘Silent Wedding’, Adrian Sitaru’s ‘Hooked’ and Anca Damian’s debut, ‘Crossing Dates’. Their most profitable film was Tudor Giurgiu’s ‘Love Sick’ with 20,800 admissions and a box office gross of over €50,000. Other successful features were Neil Burger’s ‘The Illusionist’, with 11,500 admissions, and ‘Paris Je T’Aime’, with 9,715 admissions.
Film distribution business in Romania is rather unstable. There are eight active distributors bringing 150-160 features every year to 40-50 screens around the country. The number of distributors is growing and it is becoming a overserved field.
The Romanian mainstream public has little interest in European arthouse film and there are very few available screens, no arthouse cinemas and a poor DVD and TV arthouse market. And there is competition among distributors.
• Stefan Kitanov is the founder of the most important annual film event in Bulgaria, the Sofia International Film Festival. In 2001 he founded ART FEST Ltd., the company behind Sofia IFF. The same company is one of the key European film distributors in Bulgaria. ART FEST Ltd. has three components: production, distribution and exhibition.
Most recent releases include Fatih Akin’s ‘The Edge of Heaven’, ‘The Palermo Shooting ‘by Wim Wenders and ‘Delta’ by Kornel Mundruczo. The most successful releases were Francois Ozon’s ‘Swimming Pool’ and ‘Crossing the Bridge’ by Fatih Akin with 8,000 to 10,000 admissions.
Such a distribution business is not profitable. Festival audiences like European films but the general audience likes Hollywood films. Festival audiences don’t go to regular cinemas. The general audience goes to regular cinemas, therefore European films don’t go regularly to mainstream cinemas. There need to be events around the distribution of European films so that they be seen, such as a traveling package going to different towns, whether it is with 35mm or video screenings. There are less than 30 towns in Bulgaria with cinemas.
• From Estonia, Katrin Rajaare of Tallinnfilm, a state-owned company that used to produce the majority of Estonian films during the Soviet era has stopped production and sold its studio and now focuses on restoration of its archives. In 2004, Tallinnfilm began operating as an arthouse cinema and a year later started a distribution operation to ensure continuous programming for the cinema. Tallinnfilm acquires the rights to 12-16 films a year, mostly European films, with some titles from Asia and the US. As a state-owned company, Tallinnfilm buys mostly Estonian theatrical rights only. It is the second largest distribution company in Estonia, with a market share of 2.6%. In the Baltic countries, all rights are acquired for smaller films and shared with Lithuania’s Skalvija and Latvia’s Kino Riga. Their biggest hit in 2007 was ‘La Vie en Rose’ with 9,606 paid admissions. This film was number 43 in the 2007 national box office chart. Only US and Estonian films were at the top of the chart. Recent acquisitions include ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ and ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’ to be released around Christmas and the beginning of 2009.
There is a small, steady market for arthouse titles in the capital city of Tallinn, but the recent opening of a five-screen miniplex in the second city, Tartu (96,000 inhabitants), has brought hope from the outskirts as well. There are very few towns where you can screen European films, although the cinemas have received public support for technical equipment and should screen arthouse titles, but the reality is that you can’t force cinemas to screen certain films that won’t bring in audiences.
• From Lithuania Skalvija, an exhibitor since 1962 under the name of Planeta became the only arthouse in Lithuania in 1992. It has only one screen and 88 seats and is subsidized by the Vilnius Municipality. Located in the city center; it promotes quality cinema and pays special attention to young audiences and education. Its market share as an exhibitor is 1.11%. Two major multiplex theatres share 70 % of the entire Lithuanian exhibition market. Greta Akcijonaite heads its recent arthouse film distribution activity. Over the last two years they have released 10 films theatrically, and another 5 have been acquired for Lithuania and/or all the Baltic States. As a very small and specialized distributor, Skalvija has a market share of 0.64%. Most recent releases were the Danish film ‘Adam's Apples’, with almost 8,000 admissions and the Spanish film ‘Dark Blue Almost Black’ with over 6000 admissions. Recent acquisitions include Sam Garbarski’s ‘Irina Palm’ (Belgium/UK), Kornel Mundruczo’s ‘Delta’ (Hungary), the Palme d’Or winner ‘The Class’ (France) by Laurent Cantet, Thomas Clay’s ‘Soy Cowboy’ (Thailand/UK), Ruben Östlund’s’ Involuntary’ (Sweden), and Ilmar Raag’s ‘The Class’ (Estonia).
The market share of the European films released theatrically was 25% in 2007 although the share of admissions to European films was only 11%. There is definitely a lack of venues for screening European and quality films.
• Latvia’s Oskars Killo heads Acme Film Sia the leading independent film distributor in Latvia, established in 2004 and owned by Acme, a Lithuanian based company. The rights for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are bought by the mother company in Lithuania. In 2007, Acme Film had 62 theatrical releases and a 25% market share. In 2008, the number of films released will be the same, but the revenue is expected to be higher. In 2008, Acme Film has had such European successes as French films ‘99 Francs’ and ‘Asterix at the Olympic Games’, and Spain’s ‘The Orphanage’. The last European hit was ‘2 Days in Paris’, released on one print on July 4, 2008 and still in release with 12,500 admissions thus far. ‘Cash’ was released on one print on August 1 and has 8,500 admissions so far. The results for ‘2 Days in Paris’ and ‘Cash’ are comparable to recent US releases in Latvia such as ‘The X-Files 2’, and ‘Disaster Movie’. Recent European acquisitions include ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’, ‘Paris’, ‘JCVD’, ‘The Duchess’, ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’, ‘Vinyan’, ‘Ne te retourne pas’ among others.
In 2007, European films had a 18.3% market share, US films a 66% market share, the rest of the world 10.1% and national films a 5.5% market share.
Ten independent distributors from Central and Eastern Europe attending the festival discussed the possibilities of theatrical distribution on a European level. Since the majority of European producers do not cross national borders, the meetings in San Sebastian were aimed to create possible platform and networking opportunities to improve the circulation of European productions.
• From Slovenia, Natasa Bucar, project manager of the cultural center Cankarjev Dom, a public institution that organizes many events promoting film, including the Ljubljana International Film Festival has been in art film distribution for the last 15 years. They distribute five to six titles every year to fill the gap in theatrical distribution of European high-profile films in Slovenia. Priority is given to established and not always well-known European and other international filmmakers. Their last distributed titles were Neil Jordan’s ‘Breakfast on Pluto’, Tony Gatlif’s ‘Transylvania’, Bent Hamer’s ‘Factotum’, Dagur Kari’s ‘Dark Horse’, Corneliu Porumboiu’s ‘12:08 East of Bucharest’, Roy Andersson’s ‘You, the Living’, Pascale Ferran’s ‘Lady Chatterley’, Marjane Satrapi’s ‘Persepolis’ and Shane Meadows’ ‘This Is England’.
Besides Cankarjev Dom, there are only four arthouse cinemas in Slovenia. They need more along with arthouse cinema networks to enable better film promotion. In Slovenia, like everywhere in Europe, the number of cinema viewers has fallen drastically. Audiences focus on fewer films, the top 20 films take up to almost 50% of the market in Slovenia.
• From Hungary, Rita Linda Potyondi of Cirko Film - Másképp Foundation, the only Hungarian distributor to operate as a non-profit-foundation, they also own one theater in Budapest. Working on a showstring budget, they are guided by personal tastes and focus on international and particularly European ‘difficult’ auteur films with targeted or limited audiences, especially those that explore themes related to discriminated groups: homosexuals, handicapped people, ethnic or religious minorities and victims of family abuse. Their last releases include films by Robert Guédiguian, Bruno Dumont, Fernando Leon de Aranoa, Baltasar Kormakur, Alain Corneau, Bruno Podalydès, Bertrand Bonello, Claire Denis, Ferzan Ozpetek, Catalin Mitulescu and Oskar Roehler. A recent surprise success was Anders Thomas Jensen’s ‘Adam's Apples’ which became a sort of cult film. They also did well with Palme d’Or-winner ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’, and ‘Persepolis’, Susanne Bier’s ‘After the Wedding, ‘Red Road’, ‘My Brother Is An Only Child’, ‘A Soap’, ‘Our Daily Bread’. Upcoming are the Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne's ‘Lorna’s Silence’, Gustave de Kervern and Benoit Belepine’s ‘Louise Michel’, Nic Balthazar’s ‘Ben X’, Simon Staho’s ‘Heaven’s Heart’, Ole Christian Madsen’s ‘Kira’s Reason’, Josef Fares’ ‘Leo’, Anders Thomas Jensen’s ‘The Green Butchers’ and ‘Flickering Lights’, and Ole Bornedal’s ‘Just Another Love Story’.
• Czech distributor Artcam’s Managing Director Premysl Martinek knows he is fighting an uphill battle. In 2007 combined total admissions for Artcam's films were under 50,000 — 0.4 percent of the national total. By comparison, leading distributor Falcon drew more than 4,000,000 viewers with its films, nearly a third of the market. However Martinek is convinced there is room in the market for small distributors and is interested in the shared challenges, from the opportunities offered by digital distribution and video-on-demand to how to negotiate with producers on minimum guarantees. The main problem is cultivating an audience. “It's very different from in Holland or Germany, where there are audiences for arthouse films,” he says.
Most of Artcam's target market is in Prague, home to roughly 1,000,000 people where European film is largely restricted to a handful of single-screen theatres, while the city's 14 multiplexes focus primarily on Hollywood imports and successful local films.
Artcam has distributed some of the most widely heralded European films of recent years, including Ole Madsen's drama ‘Prague’, ‘Persepolis’ and ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’. The international success of such films has attracted the attention of larger distributors who are now crowding the arena. This year in Cannes when they tried to acquire ‘Waltz with Bashir’, there was greater competition. Martinek says arthouse is an important part of any film culture, and lack of access to European films is hurting Czech cinema because if they lack exposure to the cinema of other countries, from new ways of narration, they cannot develop their own cinema. The Czech Ministry of Education has introduced media studies to secondary school curricula to show young people that film is “not just fun and popcorn. It's also art.”
• Polish distribution company Gutek’s Jakub Duszyński, artistic director and head of programming (along with Roman Gutek) at the Muranow movie theater also programs for the different festivals held at the theatre and for Poland’s largest film event, the Era New Horizons Film Festival in Wroclaw. A lawyer by training and a fan of Asian genre films, Duszynski has also set up a distribution company (Blink) specializing in this type of film.
Gutek Film has always been a launching pad for auteur films and has released films by Lars Von Trier, Pedro Almodóvar, Jim Jarmush and Wong Kar-Wai. Every year, they distribute two or three films not aimed solely at auteur film enthusiasts, but also at multiplex audiences. Among such titles are Tom Tykwer’s ‘Perfume: The Story of a Murderer’ and ‘Control’. Coming up are Polish features including Jerzy Skolimowski’s ‘Four Nights With Anna’, Piotr Lazarkiewicz’s ‘0_1_0’ and Katarzyna Adamik’s ‘Boisko bezdomnych’. They distribute almost exclusively European films. The box office is certainly dominated by US films, but by only a few titles which often have, interestingly, something European about them, for example they may be inspired by European literature.
• Slovakia’s Michal Drobny is marketing manager for Slovak distributor Continental Film. Slovakia sees 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 admissions in a year. A successful film for Continental is 10,000 to 15,000 admissions, as compared to one of the Harry Potter films which will have 200,000 admissions.
Continental releases 30 to 40 films a year and, thanks largely to its partnership with Warner Bros, enjoys a market share of 20%–30%. Continental also serve as Slovak distribution partners for Hollywood Classic Entertainment, which often buys rights to European and arthouse titles for several Eastern European territories at once. Continental acquires other titles through direct negotiation with the producers, usually from the Czech Republic. Drobny seldom attends festivals other than Berlin. This year is his first visit to San Sebastian.
Margins are tight for Continental, which is the second or third largest distributor in Slovakia. Continental is also a 30% shareholder in Slovak multiplex chain Cinemax, which owns nine cinemas countrywide. Continental also operated Bratislava's only arthouse cinema until it was turned into a congress hall.
Continental counts on public money for a small portion of its operating budget. The Slovak Ministry of Culture gives support up to a maximum of SKK 160,000 (€5,500) for the distribution of European films which covers the cost of two or three prints. Continental also receives funding through the MEDIA automatic support scheme, typically receiving 40 to 60 cents per admission for European films.
Drobny says this public support is welcome but it's seldom enough to make a real difference to distributors. “A print for a US title costs $300 [€210]. For a European title, the cost is $1,000–1500 [€700–1,000] for the print, plus I still need to pay for the all the marketing materials and the cost of subtitles,” he says. “We can't be surprised that American films are everywhere.”
Not surprisingly few European films secure distribution in Slovakia. Cinemax promotes European and arthouse film through its Artmax program and screens independent films once a week, sometimes for free. Current titles in the selection include ‘Good Bye, Lenin!’, ‘The Secret Life of Words’, ‘The Science of Sleep’, ‘Volver’ and ‘Angel’. In cooperation with the Embassy of Spain, Continental and Cinemax are creating a Spanish Days celebration of Spanish cinema at Cinemax locations in November.
Drobny has hopes that digital cinema will help small distributors, but believes it will be five to ten years before the major studios settle on a common format. Even then, the costs of converting screens will be challenging for the private sector. “To install one 2K digital system costs SKK 3m–4m [€100,000–132,000] and we have 37 screens, so it's a lot of money,” he says. “We'd like to invest but it will take a long time to see a return on that investment.”
• From Romania, Transilvania Film, founded by Tudor Giurgiu and currently run by Stefan Bradea is one of the successful pioneers of arthouse film distribution in Romania. At first they distributed mainly British, German and Scandinavian features but gradually turned to quality Romanian films, genre pictures, even some mainstream American movies. Their eclectic selection is targeted to the highly educated public, basically university graduates under 35. Their latest premiere was ‘Non pensarci’ by Gianni Zanasi, an Italian comedy. Coming up are Gus Van Sant’s ‘Paranoid Park’ and a few Romanian films: Horatiu Malaele’s ‘Silent Wedding’, Adrian Sitaru’s ‘Hooked’ and Anca Damian’s debut, ‘Crossing Dates’. Their most profitable film was Tudor Giurgiu’s ‘Love Sick’ with 20,800 admissions and a box office gross of over €50,000. Other successful features were Neil Burger’s ‘The Illusionist’, with 11,500 admissions, and ‘Paris Je T’Aime’, with 9,715 admissions.
Film distribution business in Romania is rather unstable. There are eight active distributors bringing 150-160 features every year to 40-50 screens around the country. The number of distributors is growing and it is becoming a overserved field.
The Romanian mainstream public has little interest in European arthouse film and there are very few available screens, no arthouse cinemas and a poor DVD and TV arthouse market. And there is competition among distributors.
• Stefan Kitanov is the founder of the most important annual film event in Bulgaria, the Sofia International Film Festival. In 2001 he founded ART FEST Ltd., the company behind Sofia IFF. The same company is one of the key European film distributors in Bulgaria. ART FEST Ltd. has three components: production, distribution and exhibition.
Most recent releases include Fatih Akin’s ‘The Edge of Heaven’, ‘The Palermo Shooting ‘by Wim Wenders and ‘Delta’ by Kornel Mundruczo. The most successful releases were Francois Ozon’s ‘Swimming Pool’ and ‘Crossing the Bridge’ by Fatih Akin with 8,000 to 10,000 admissions.
Such a distribution business is not profitable. Festival audiences like European films but the general audience likes Hollywood films. Festival audiences don’t go to regular cinemas. The general audience goes to regular cinemas, therefore European films don’t go regularly to mainstream cinemas. There need to be events around the distribution of European films so that they be seen, such as a traveling package going to different towns, whether it is with 35mm or video screenings. There are less than 30 towns in Bulgaria with cinemas.
• From Estonia, Katrin Rajaare of Tallinnfilm, a state-owned company that used to produce the majority of Estonian films during the Soviet era has stopped production and sold its studio and now focuses on restoration of its archives. In 2004, Tallinnfilm began operating as an arthouse cinema and a year later started a distribution operation to ensure continuous programming for the cinema. Tallinnfilm acquires the rights to 12-16 films a year, mostly European films, with some titles from Asia and the US. As a state-owned company, Tallinnfilm buys mostly Estonian theatrical rights only. It is the second largest distribution company in Estonia, with a market share of 2.6%. In the Baltic countries, all rights are acquired for smaller films and shared with Lithuania’s Skalvija and Latvia’s Kino Riga. Their biggest hit in 2007 was ‘La Vie en Rose’ with 9,606 paid admissions. This film was number 43 in the 2007 national box office chart. Only US and Estonian films were at the top of the chart. Recent acquisitions include ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ and ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’ to be released around Christmas and the beginning of 2009.
There is a small, steady market for arthouse titles in the capital city of Tallinn, but the recent opening of a five-screen miniplex in the second city, Tartu (96,000 inhabitants), has brought hope from the outskirts as well. There are very few towns where you can screen European films, although the cinemas have received public support for technical equipment and should screen arthouse titles, but the reality is that you can’t force cinemas to screen certain films that won’t bring in audiences.
• From Lithuania Skalvija, an exhibitor since 1962 under the name of Planeta became the only arthouse in Lithuania in 1992. It has only one screen and 88 seats and is subsidized by the Vilnius Municipality. Located in the city center; it promotes quality cinema and pays special attention to young audiences and education. Its market share as an exhibitor is 1.11%. Two major multiplex theatres share 70 % of the entire Lithuanian exhibition market. Greta Akcijonaite heads its recent arthouse film distribution activity. Over the last two years they have released 10 films theatrically, and another 5 have been acquired for Lithuania and/or all the Baltic States. As a very small and specialized distributor, Skalvija has a market share of 0.64%. Most recent releases were the Danish film ‘Adam's Apples’, with almost 8,000 admissions and the Spanish film ‘Dark Blue Almost Black’ with over 6000 admissions. Recent acquisitions include Sam Garbarski’s ‘Irina Palm’ (Belgium/UK), Kornel Mundruczo’s ‘Delta’ (Hungary), the Palme d’Or winner ‘The Class’ (France) by Laurent Cantet, Thomas Clay’s ‘Soy Cowboy’ (Thailand/UK), Ruben Östlund’s’ Involuntary’ (Sweden), and Ilmar Raag’s ‘The Class’ (Estonia).
The market share of the European films released theatrically was 25% in 2007 although the share of admissions to European films was only 11%. There is definitely a lack of venues for screening European and quality films.
• Latvia’s Oskars Killo heads Acme Film Sia the leading independent film distributor in Latvia, established in 2004 and owned by Acme, a Lithuanian based company. The rights for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are bought by the mother company in Lithuania. In 2007, Acme Film had 62 theatrical releases and a 25% market share. In 2008, the number of films released will be the same, but the revenue is expected to be higher. In 2008, Acme Film has had such European successes as French films ‘99 Francs’ and ‘Asterix at the Olympic Games’, and Spain’s ‘The Orphanage’. The last European hit was ‘2 Days in Paris’, released on one print on July 4, 2008 and still in release with 12,500 admissions thus far. ‘Cash’ was released on one print on August 1 and has 8,500 admissions so far. The results for ‘2 Days in Paris’ and ‘Cash’ are comparable to recent US releases in Latvia such as ‘The X-Files 2’, and ‘Disaster Movie’. Recent European acquisitions include ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’, ‘Paris’, ‘JCVD’, ‘The Duchess’, ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’, ‘Vinyan’, ‘Ne te retourne pas’ among others.
In 2007, European films had a 18.3% market share, US films a 66% market share, the rest of the world 10.1% and national films a 5.5% market share.
- 10/11/2008
- Sydney's Buzz
A creature feature for Polley, Brody
Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody have been cast in Splice, a science fiction thriller being directed by Vincenzo Natali.
The film is being produced by Steven Hoban of Copperheart Entertainment and executive produced by Franck Chorot of Gaumont. Guillermo Del Toro, Don Murphy and Susan Montford also are executive producing via their Angry Bulls shingle.
The story explores a dark vision of the world of genetic engineering in which two young scientists (Polley and Brody) become superstars by splicing different animal DNA to create fantastical new creatures. They ignore the legal and ethical boundaries and introduce human DNA into their experiment. The screenplay was written by Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor.
Production is slated to begin in November in Toronto.
Polley recently wrapped HBO's John Adams miniseries. The actress, whose credits include Dawn of the Dead and The Secret Life of Words, has been making waves as a director with her drama Away From Her, which last week netted her a Directors Guild of Canada Award.
The film is being produced by Steven Hoban of Copperheart Entertainment and executive produced by Franck Chorot of Gaumont. Guillermo Del Toro, Don Murphy and Susan Montford also are executive producing via their Angry Bulls shingle.
The story explores a dark vision of the world of genetic engineering in which two young scientists (Polley and Brody) become superstars by splicing different animal DNA to create fantastical new creatures. They ignore the legal and ethical boundaries and introduce human DNA into their experiment. The screenplay was written by Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor.
Production is slated to begin in November in Toronto.
Polley recently wrapped HBO's John Adams miniseries. The actress, whose credits include Dawn of the Dead and The Secret Life of Words, has been making waves as a director with her drama Away From Her, which last week netted her a Directors Guild of Canada Award.
- 10/4/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sarsgaard, Hopper have 'Animal' urges
Peter Sarsgaard, Dennis Hopper and Deborah Harry are joining Penelope Cruz, Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson in Lakeshore Entertainment's untitled film based on Philip Roth's Pulitzer Prize-winning novella Dying Animal.
The film, which marks Lakeshore's second production based on a Roth novel, will be directed by Isabel Coixet (The Secret Life of Words).
Nicholas Meyer, who adapted Lakeshore's previous Roth effort, The Human Stain, penned the screenplay, which follows a sophisticated graduate student (Cruz) who gets tangled up in an erotic affair with her hedonistic professor (Kingsley), a cultural critic obsessed with female beauty. Several years after the heartbreaking end of their relationship, she returns with a shocking revelation that forever changes his life.
Lakeshore's Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi are producing. The company will be selling to international buyers at May's Festival de Cannes.
The film is scheduled to start production next month in Vancouver.
The film, which marks Lakeshore's second production based on a Roth novel, will be directed by Isabel Coixet (The Secret Life of Words).
Nicholas Meyer, who adapted Lakeshore's previous Roth effort, The Human Stain, penned the screenplay, which follows a sophisticated graduate student (Cruz) who gets tangled up in an erotic affair with her hedonistic professor (Kingsley), a cultural critic obsessed with female beauty. Several years after the heartbreaking end of their relationship, she returns with a shocking revelation that forever changes his life.
Lakeshore's Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi are producing. The company will be selling to international buyers at May's Festival de Cannes.
The film is scheduled to start production next month in Vancouver.
- 4/12/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Secret Life of Words
Strand Releasing
NEW YORK -- The Secret Life of Words, Isabel Coixet's follow-up to her acclaimed My Life Without Me, proves as pretentious as its title. An enigmatic romance between a deaf, emotionally shutdown woman (Sarah Polley) and the voluble burn victim (Tim Robbins) whom she nurses back to health on an oil rig, the film is ironically undone by the explicitness of its dialogue in the final scenes. Hanna (Polley) embraces her deafness, strategically shutting off her hearing aid in order to shut herself off from the world's intrusions. Her only meaningful contact comes via phone calls to a mysterious woman (Julie Christie) in which she hangs up without saying a word.
When, after four years without taking a break, she is not-so-gently forced to take a monthlong vacation by her concerned boss, she improbably winds up on an oil rig off the coast of Ireland, where she tends to Josef (Robbins), who suffered severe burns and temporarily blindness while attempting to help a co-worker after an explosion.
Despite his injuries, Josef is chatty and flirtatious and is only more intrigued by Hanna's refusal to engage with him in a meaningful fashion. Eventually, his humor and warmth break down her defenses, resulting in a tearful monologue in which she details the reasons for her self-imposed isolation.
This is drawn out in attenuated fashion, with comic relief provided via a chatty cook (Javier Camara) who has taken a shine to Hanna.
While both lead performers deliver moving, complex performances, they are hamstrung by the predictable, cliched elements of Coixet's script, which is particularly obvious when it gets around to delineating the background of Polley's character. The claustrophobic and artificial atmosphere of the setting is unfortunately matched by the equally artificial drama.
NEW YORK -- The Secret Life of Words, Isabel Coixet's follow-up to her acclaimed My Life Without Me, proves as pretentious as its title. An enigmatic romance between a deaf, emotionally shutdown woman (Sarah Polley) and the voluble burn victim (Tim Robbins) whom she nurses back to health on an oil rig, the film is ironically undone by the explicitness of its dialogue in the final scenes. Hanna (Polley) embraces her deafness, strategically shutting off her hearing aid in order to shut herself off from the world's intrusions. Her only meaningful contact comes via phone calls to a mysterious woman (Julie Christie) in which she hangs up without saying a word.
When, after four years without taking a break, she is not-so-gently forced to take a monthlong vacation by her concerned boss, she improbably winds up on an oil rig off the coast of Ireland, where she tends to Josef (Robbins), who suffered severe burns and temporarily blindness while attempting to help a co-worker after an explosion.
Despite his injuries, Josef is chatty and flirtatious and is only more intrigued by Hanna's refusal to engage with him in a meaningful fashion. Eventually, his humor and warmth break down her defenses, resulting in a tearful monologue in which she details the reasons for her self-imposed isolation.
This is drawn out in attenuated fashion, with comic relief provided via a chatty cook (Javier Camara) who has taken a shine to Hanna.
While both lead performers deliver moving, complex performances, they are hamstrung by the predictable, cliched elements of Coixet's script, which is particularly obvious when it gets around to delineating the background of Polley's character. The claustrophobic and artificial atmosphere of the setting is unfortunately matched by the equally artificial drama.
- 12/22/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Founded in 1988, the European Film Academy currently unites 1,700 European film professionals with the common aim of promoting Europe's film culture. Here are this year's noms.... European Film 2006 Breakfast On Pluto; Ireland/UK Directed by Neil Jordan Produced by Parallel Film Productions Ltd./Number 9 Films Grbavica; Austria/Bosnia-Herzegovina/Germany/Croatia Directed by Jasmila Zbanic Produced by Coop99 Filmproduktion Gmbh/Deblokada/Noirfilm/Jadran Film Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives Of Others); Germany Directed by Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck Produced by Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion/Bayerischer Rundfunk/Arte/Creado Film The Road To Guantanamo; UK Directed by Michael Winterbottom And Mat Whitecross Produced by Revolution Films Ltd. Volver; Spain Directed by Pedro Almodovar Produced by El Deseo D.A., S.L.U. The Wind That Shakes The Barley; UK/Ireland/Germany/Italy/Spain Directed By Ken Loach Produced By Sixteen Films/Matador Pictures/Regent Capital/UK Film Council/Bord Scannan Na
- 11/6/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
'Volver,' 'Lives' top EFA noms
Volver, an opulent melodrama from veteran Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, and The Lives of Others, a claustrophobic look at life in communist East Germany from first-timer helmer Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, garnered the most nominations for this year's European Film Awards.
Volver and Lives each picked up six EFA noms, including ones for best European film, best director and best actress -- for Penelope Cruz (Volver) and Martina Gedeck (Lives). Lives co-star Ulrich Muehe picked up a best actor nom for his portrayal of a Stasi surveillance expert.
Cruz and Gedeck are up against some tough competition, including Sandra Hueller, nominated for her performance as a girl possessed by demons in Requiem; Mirjana Karanovic, as woman scarred by the Balkan war in Jasmila Zbanic's Grbavica; Nathalie Baye as a tough police detective in Le petit lieutenant, from Xavier Beauvois; and Sarah Polley as a hearing-impaired woman caring for a disabled man in The Secret Life of Words.
Close behind Volver and Lives in the EFA-nomination stakes was Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," which received five nominations, including film, director and actor for Cillian Murphy.
Murphy's nom also was for his performance as an Irish transvestite in Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto, a best European film nominee.
Volver and Lives each picked up six EFA noms, including ones for best European film, best director and best actress -- for Penelope Cruz (Volver) and Martina Gedeck (Lives). Lives co-star Ulrich Muehe picked up a best actor nom for his portrayal of a Stasi surveillance expert.
Cruz and Gedeck are up against some tough competition, including Sandra Hueller, nominated for her performance as a girl possessed by demons in Requiem; Mirjana Karanovic, as woman scarred by the Balkan war in Jasmila Zbanic's Grbavica; Nathalie Baye as a tough police detective in Le petit lieutenant, from Xavier Beauvois; and Sarah Polley as a hearing-impaired woman caring for a disabled man in The Secret Life of Words.
Close behind Volver and Lives in the EFA-nomination stakes was Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," which received five nominations, including film, director and actor for Cillian Murphy.
Murphy's nom also was for his performance as an Irish transvestite in Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto, a best European film nominee.
- 11/6/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
'Volver,' 'Lives' top EFA noms
Volver, an opulent melodrama from veteran Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, and The Lives of Others, a claustrophobic look at life in communist East Germany from first-timer helmer Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, garnered the most nominations for this year's European Film Awards.
Volver and Lives each picked up six EFA noms, including ones for best European film, best director and best actress -- for Penelope Cruz (Volver) and Martina Gedeck (Lives). Lives co-star Ulrich Muehe picked up a best actor nom for his portrayal of a Stasi surveillance expert.
Cruz and Gedeck are up against some tough competition, including Sandra Hueller, nominated for her performance as a girl possessed by demons in Requiem; Mirjana Karanovic, as woman scarred by the Balkan war in Jasmila Zbanic's Grbavica; Nathalie Baye as a tough police detective in Le petit lieutenant, from Xavier Beauvois; and Sarah Polley as a hearing-impaired woman caring for a disabled man in The Secret Life of Words.
Close behind Volver and Lives in the EFA-nomination stakes was Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," which received five nominations, including film, director and actor for Cillian Murphy.
Murphy's nom also was for his performance as an Irish transvestite in Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto, a best European film nominee.
Volver and Lives each picked up six EFA noms, including ones for best European film, best director and best actress -- for Penelope Cruz (Volver) and Martina Gedeck (Lives). Lives co-star Ulrich Muehe picked up a best actor nom for his portrayal of a Stasi surveillance expert.
Cruz and Gedeck are up against some tough competition, including Sandra Hueller, nominated for her performance as a girl possessed by demons in Requiem; Mirjana Karanovic, as woman scarred by the Balkan war in Jasmila Zbanic's Grbavica; Nathalie Baye as a tough police detective in Le petit lieutenant, from Xavier Beauvois; and Sarah Polley as a hearing-impaired woman caring for a disabled man in The Secret Life of Words.
Close behind Volver and Lives in the EFA-nomination stakes was Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," which received five nominations, including film, director and actor for Cillian Murphy.
Murphy's nom also was for his performance as an Irish transvestite in Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto, a best European film nominee.
- 11/6/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sogecine Spain's go-to producer
MADRID -- When Antonio Banderas announced he would produce and direct his second feature, Summer Rain, in Spain, Spanish production houses lined up to woo the actor-turned-Hollywood star. But it raised few eyebrows when Sogecine took the prize. The movie production wing of film and TV powerhouse Sogecable has forged a reputation as the co-production partner of choice for Spain's international directors. Alejandro Amenabar (The Others), Alex de la Iglesia (Ferpect Crime), Julio Medem (Sex and Lucia), Fernando Leon (Mondays in the Sun) and Isabel Coixet (The Secret Life of Words) are some of the top-drawer auteur directors who have opted to produce their films through Sogecine, now Spain's most prolific producer. Penelope Cruz, who launched her own production label, dubbed 88, in May, says she will also co-produce her first feature, Passion India, with the company. It's not surprising when you look at the company's 10-year track record that reads like a who's who in modern Spanish cinema, Pedro Almodovar being the one notable absentee.
- 9/5/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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