Sony Pictures Classics to Distribute Ribeiro Salgado’s “Salt of the Earth”

Posted on May 26, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Juliano Ribeiro Salgado is bringing a little salt of the earth to U.S. theaters.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the U.S. rights to the French-Brazilian filmmaker’s award-winning documentary Salt of the Earth.

The film played in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, where it earned the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Honor.

Directed by Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders, the film centers on photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has been travelling through the continents over the last 40 years, in the footsteps of an ever-changing humanity. He has witnessed the major events of our recent history; international conflicts, starvations and exodus… He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of the wild fauna and flora, of grandiose landscapes: a huge photographic project which is a tribute to the planet’s beauty.Sebastião’s Salgado’s life and work are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last journeys, and by Wenders, a photographer himself.

“Sony Pictures Classics is overjoyed to be back in business with the master, Wim Wenders, and to discover the work of Juliano Ribeiro Salgado,” said partners Michael Barker and Tom Bernard.

“Sony Pictures Classics has the legacy of releasing some of the most compelling films of our times,” said Salgado. “I’m very excited for The Salt of the Earth, it couldn’t have found a better home in the US.”

Garcia Bernal to Serve on the Cannes Film Festival Main Jury Panel

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

It’ll be all business for Gael García Bernalat this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The 35-year-old Mexican actor, director and producer has been announced as one of the jury members who will make up this year’s main panel at this year’s edition.

In all, four men, including Garcia, and four women will support president Jane Campion on the jury panel.

The other world cinema “luminaries” include French actress and former Bond Girl Carole Bouquet; festival habituée Sofia Coppola, whose The Bling Ring opened the Un Certain Regard sidebar last year; Iranian actress Lelia Hatami (A Separation); Korean actress Do-yeon Jeon, winner of the 2007 Cannes Best Actress prize; American actor Willem Dafoe; Chinese filmmaker Zhangke Jia, who won the screenplay award for last year’s A Touch Of Sin; and 2011 Cannes directing prize winner Nicolas Winding Refn.

Garcia and his fellow jury members will judge the 18 films in competition with awards to be handed out May 24.

The Cannes Film Festival runs May 14-25.

Trapero to Serve as President of the Un Certain Regard Jury at the Cannes Film Festival

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Trapero is taking on a presidential role at one of the world’s most highly anticipated film festivals…

The 42-year-old Argentinean writer, producer and director has been named the head of the Un Certain Regard jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The Un Certain Regard runs parallel to the competition and includes 20 features, which will be unveiled on April 17.

“I am very proud to serve as president of the jury for Un Certain Regard. Proud to take part in another way in the adventure in Cannes,” said Trapero. “Un Certain Regard, where I have presented three of my films, is always a very exciting selection. It brings us grand masters, promising young talent, new countries and new forms of cinema.”

Trapero‘s last appearance at the festival was back in 2012, when he presented his film Elefante Blanco as part of the Un Certain Regard field.

A festival circuit darling, Trapero’s first feature, Mundo Grúa, received the Critics’ Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1999. His second, El Bonaerense, was selected at the 2002 Cannes festival in the UCR section and in 2008, his Leonera screened in Competition. Carancho was also in UCR in 2010.

Trapero’s oeuvre is known for its quasi-documentary style, offering an uncompromising look at contemporary political issues.

He also works with young Argentinean filmmakers via his production company, Matanza Cine.

Trapero follows Thomas Vinterberg who was president last year and gave its top prize to Rithy Panh’s The Missing Picture, which went on to land a Foreign Language Oscar nomination.

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 14-25. This year’s winner will be announced on May 23.

Samuel Goldwyn Films to Release Puenzo’s “The German Doctor” in the U.S.

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Lucía Puenzo will be thrilling U.S. audiences in the near future…

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the 39-year-old Argentinian author and director’s latest film The German Doctor.

Puenzo’s thriller was nominated for the Un Certain Regard Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival under the Argentinian title Wakolda.

The film is based on Puenzo’s novel about the search for notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who hid in South America.

Starring Natalia Oreiro and Diego Peretti, the film is based on the true story of an Argentinian family that unwittingly puts their daughter under the care of the monster.

Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the film in the spring.

Escalante Wins Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Despite strong competition from the likes of the Coen Brothers and Asghar Farhadi, Amat Escalante has managed to take home some serious Cannes hardware.

The 34-year-old Mexican filmmaker on Sunday won the best director prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his ultra-violent film Heli, which takes a look at Mexico’s blood-drenched drug wars.

Escalante, who was forced onto the defensive after the film’s violence left some members of the audience uneasy, paid tribute to this year’s Cannes jury headed by Steven Spielberg.

“This earthquake, I wasn’t expecting this! Thank you to this brave jury… to Mexico, I hope we never get used to suffering… ” he said.

Heli tells the story of a family caught up in gangland battles in an unnamed desert region of contemporary Mexico and contains protracted torture scenes.

In one scene, a character sets the genitals of a suspected cocaine thief ablaze.

Escalante reacted to criticism of the film by calling it an accurate depiction of the situation in underworld crime-blighted Mexico.

And he dismissed critical questions about upsetting audiences.

“What’s the point of not showing the violence just so the audience can go through the story and not suffer so much when actually that’s not how violence is in real life?” he asked reporters.

“I think I’m curious about sex and death and violence, and so that’s all in the film,” added Escalante, whose last picture Los Bastardos, set among the Mexican community in Los Angeles, played in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section in 2008.

Heli features amateur actors, telling the story of a police cadet who falls for the 12-year-old sister of a factory worker named Heli (Armando Espitia).

Variety called Heli “an accomplished but singularly unpleasant immersion” into the drug wars and noted that it was the most “explicit, realistically violent film” in the Cannes competition in several years.

However Robbie Collin, a reviewer for London’s Daily Telegraph, said: “Even a bleak existence can make an uplifting story.”

“Heli may be the most optimistic film you will ever see in which one young man sets another’s genitals on fire,” he wrote.

Dominguez, Martinez & Lopez Earn Acting Prize at Cannes Film Festival

Posted on May 26, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Rodolfo Dominguez, Karen Martinez and Brandon Lopez are having a Cannes-tastic weekend…

The 16-year-old Mexican actor, 17-year-old Guatemalan actress and 17-year-old Guatemalan actor were awarded the “Un Certain Regard” acting prize on Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival.

Dominguez, Martinez and Lopez earned the award for their stellar lead work in Spanish-Mexican filmmaker Diego Quemada-Diez’s La jaula de oro.

The film, the debut effort by Quemada-Diez, tells the story of three Guatemalan teenagers who attempt to make the dangerous overland journey through Mexico in a bid to enter the United States.

Quemada-Diez gave thanks to the actors for representing “youth who need more support to realize their dreams.”

He said he wanted to show illegal immigrants in a different light, noting that too often they are viewed as criminals and little attention is paid to the reasons behind their decisions.

Martinez, the only one of the three with prior acting experience, dedicated the award to “all those people who asked us to tell their story,” that of immigrants who try to emigrate to the United States illegally.

Dominguez, the youngest and most timid of the three, said he would seek out more opportunities in the film business.

But if that does not work out, “I’ll stay here in my village (Chalchihuitan, in the state of Chiapas) working with my father and my brothers,” in the field, with the bees.

La jaula de oro competed in this famed film festival’s Un Certain Regard section, which is typically a space for “original and different” films by lesser known or first-time directors.

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