The Match Factory has acquired the rights to The Box (La Caja), the second feature of the Mexican filmmaker, who previously won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion with From Afar.
The Box will likely to find a berth at the Cannes Film Festival or the Venice Film Festival.
The film follows Hatzin, a teenager from Mexico City, who travels to collect the remains of his father, which have been found in a communal grave in the northern part of Mexico. But a casual encounter with a man who shares a physical resemblance with his father fills Hatzin with both doubts and hope about his parent’s true whereabouts.
Vigas says that in the film he reflects on “the theme of identity from various points of view.” He adds: “Latin American history is very young. Until a relatively short time ago, we were still European colonies; as a continent, we are trying to understand who we are and where we are going. Though still an adolescent, Hatzin is an uncanny presence through which the film explores this theme from various perspectives.”
Hatzin’s story gets entangled with one of north Mexico’s saddest realities, an area well known for the disappearance of more than 20,000 women in the last 10 years in mysterious circumstances.
Vigas was able to shoot in an actual maquiladora – the low cost assembly plants of the Ciudad Juarez region. These plants’ international owners rarely share details about their production lines or their working conditions.
The Box is the third film in a thematic trilogy Vigas has developed about Latin American fathers. The first film, the short Elephants Never Forget (Cannes Critics’ Week, 2004) provided the seed for the second work, Viga’s first feature, From Afar.
The Box cast includes Hernán Mendoza and Hatzín Navarrete. It is written by Vigas and Paula Markovitch.
Luis López Carrasco is celebrating his big Discovery…
The 39-year-old Spanish filmmaker took home the Best International Film prize for his documentary The Year of the Discovery (El año del descubrimiento) on Sunday at Argentina’s Mar del PlataInternational Film Festival, the only Latin American film fest granted a Category A status by producers association FIAPF, placing it in the same league as the Cannes Film Festival, VeniceFilm Festival, San Sebastian Film Festival and Locarno Film Festival, among others.
Due to the restraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival hosted an online edition and offered free access to all Argentine residents.
Carrasco’s sophomore feature follows his debut film El Futuro, which premiered at Locarno and collected numerous awards on the festival circuit.
The Year of the Discovery portrays the flipside of 1992 Spain, which celebrated hosting the 1992 Barcelona Games and the World Expo in Seville while in Murcia, south-east Spain, enraged workers from the naval, mining and chemical sectors where companies were shut down, battled alongside students against the police, culminating with the launch of Molotov cocktails that set fire to the regional government’s Parliament.
In a video call from Spain, a grateful López Carrasco dedicated the award to his parents and brother “for being the people who most taught me how to listen.”
Colombian Camilo Restrepo’s Los Conductos won the best film prize in the festival’s Latin American competition. Winner of last year’s Mar del Plata Work in Progress competition, Los Conductos marks an attempt to explore Colombia’s civil conflicts with a style outside the canons of social realism as it follows a man in his attempts to flee from a sect and the trauma that still haunts him.
Maria Alvarez’s The Lost Time (El Tiempo Perdido) trounced a strong lineup in the Argentine competition, which included notable titles like Esquirlas, The History of the Occult and Las Ranas, to nab the best Argentine film prize.
In The Lost Time, a group of now aged friends find new and personal meaning in Marcel Proust’s seven-volume novel In Search of Lost Time at each of the 18 years they have gathered at a Buenos Aires bar to discuss it.
“In this online edition, more than 200,000 people saw the films we have programmed, and on YouTube, more than 180,000 people followed our events, so I congratulate the public who have known how to adapt to our circumstances,” said festival president Fernando Juan Lima at the online closing ceremony. “We miss the City of Mar del Plata and its movie theaters, but we are going to return,” he declared.
“We celebrate [the festival’s] continuity even with the challenges that the pandemic has imposed on us,” concurred festival artistic director Cecilia Barrionuevo. The festival paid homage to filmmaker-politician Fernando ‘Pino’ Solanas, Argentine actress-writer-director Maria Luisa Bemberg and, naturally, Argentina’s greatest hero, soccer star Diego Maradona, who died Nov. 25 from heart failure.
Augusto Costa, minister of production, science, and technological innovation, also announced that Mar del Plata would be the site of the fifth regional headquarters of Argentine film school, Enerc.
“From the government and from the ministry, we reaffirm our absolute commitment to the festival and to the audiovisual industry of the province,” said Costa.
2020 MAR DEL PLATA ASTOR PIAZZOLLA PRIZES
OFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
BEST FILM “The Year of the Discovery,” (Luis López Carrasco, Spain, Switzerland)
BEST DIRECTOR Matías Piñeiro, (“Isabella,” Argentina)
BEST PERFORMANCE María Villar, (“Isabella,” Argentina)
BEST SCREENPLAY
Nicolás Prividera, (“A Farewell to Memory,” Argentina)
SPECIAL JURY “Moving On,” (Yoon Dan-bi, Korea)
LATIN AMERICAN COMPETITION
BEST FILM “Los Conductos,” (Camilo Restrepo, Colombia, Brazil, France)
SPECIAL MENTION “Mascarados,” (Marcela Borela and Henrique Borela, Brazil)
SPECIAL MENTION “Fauna,” (Nicolás Pereda, Mexico)
BEST SHORT “Correspondence,” (Dominga Sotomayor and Carla Simón, Chile)
ARGENTINE COMPETITION
BEST FILM “The Lost Time,” (María Álvarez, Argentina)
SPECIAL MENTION “Las Ranas,” (Edgardo Castro, Argentina)
BEST SHORT “Homage to the Work of Philip Henry Gosse,” (Pablo Martín Weber)
BEST DIRECTOR “Esquirlas,” (Natalia Garayalde, Argentina)
ALTERNATE STATES
BEST FILM
“My Dear Spies,” (Vladimir Léon, France)
SPECIAL MENTION “Heliconia,” (Paula Rodríguez Polanco, France, Colombia)
WORK IN PROGRESS
BEST PROJECT “Morichales,” (Chris Gude, Colombia, U.S.)
BEST LATIN AMERICAN DEBUT FILM, YOUNG CRITICS PRIZE “History of the Occult,” (Cristian Ponce, Argentina)
Jayro Bustamante could be bringing the horror to the Oscars…
The 43-year-old Guatemalan film director and screenwriter’s politically charged horror film La Llorona, which won the Venice Days sidebar at last year’s Venice Film Festival, is Guatemala’s selection to the 2021 International Oscar race.
It’s the second film by Bustamante to get his country’s Academy Awards submission, after his debut feature Ixcanulin 2015.
His latest film fuses the Latin American Llorona myth and modern reality in an exposé of the genocidal atrocities against the Mayan community in Guatemala.
The plot delves into magical realism as it follows Enrique (Julio Diaz), a retired general who oversaw the Mayan genocide and is haunted by his devastating crimes, and possibly a wrathful supernatural force that is targeting him and his family.
Rigoberta Menchú Tum, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and survivor of the atrocities, also appears in the film.
The film, which had its U.S. bow this year at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of its August 6 premiere on Shudder, currently has a 97% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Guatemala has yet to be nominated for the International Feature Film Oscar.
Diego Boneta’s latest film is heading across the pond…
Arthouse outfit MUBI has acquired all UK and Ireland rights to Michel Franco’s Venice Film Festival drama New Order, starring the 29-year-old Mexican singer and actor.
The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize.
Conceived six years ago, Franco’s timely class conflict drama sees a high-society wedding interrupted by the arrival of unwelcome guests as protests rage on the streets.
Written, produced and directed by Franco, the film features an ensemble cast comprised of Boneta, Naian González Norvind, Darío Yazbek Bernal, Lisa Owen, Fernando Cuautle, Mónica Del Carmen, Eligio Meléndez, Patricia Bernal, Roberto Medina, Enrique Singer and Gustavo Sánchez Parra.
Boneta served as an executive producer on the project.
Neon has acquired the North American rights to Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco’s latest feature New Order, starring the 29-year-old Mexican singer and actor.
The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize.
Conceived six years ago, Franco’s timely class conflict drama sees a high-society wedding interrupted by the arrival of unwelcome guests as protests rage on the streets..
Neon intends a theatrical release that’ll be announced at a later date. The film will next play at BFI London Film Festival and Chicago International Film Festival. It also played at San Sebastian Film Festival and made its North American debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Written, produced and directed by Franco, the film features an ensemble cast comprised of Boneta, Naian González Norvind, Darío Yazbek Bernal, Lisa Owen, Fernando Cuautle, Mónica Del Carmen, Eligio Meléndez, Patricia Bernal, Roberto Medina, Enrique Singer and Gustavo Sánchez Parra.
Caetano Veloso’s life as a political prisoner will be headed to the big screen…
The documentary about the 78-year-old Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist, Narcissus Off Duty, will premiere on Monday, September 7 at the Venice Film Festival.
In the film, directed by Renato Terra and Ricardo Calil, the multiple Grammy winner recounts his incarceration as a political prisoner in great detail and performs songs that sprung forth from this painful experience.
In 1968, during Brazil’s military dictatorship, Veloso – who the preceding year had been among the founders of the revolutionary Tropicalia artistic movement – was arrested on trumped up charges.
Veloso was taken from his Sao Paulo home to Rio de Janeiro, where he was placed in solitary confinement for one week and held behind bars for 54 days.
“I have a very clear memory of all things that happened that day, and in those months,” says Veloso of the time. “In fact I had written about it in my book Tropical Truth. There is a chapter in the book that tells the whole story. My manager, who is also my wife (Paula Lavigne), thought we should now do that on film. She invited a couple of directors who had done a wonderful work about a music festival…We were all going to do a complete documentary with many interviews and set locations, and things. But they started by interviewing me. When the interview – that we did in two sessions – ended, they decided that that would be enough.
The doc is co-produced by Veloso’s wife and manager Lavigne’s Uns Producoes with Walter Salles’ VideoFilmes. Globoplay has acquired rights for streaming in Brazil.
The 58-year-old Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker has signed on as an executive producer on Chaitanya Tamhane’s The Disciple, which became the first Indian movie to land a Venice Film Festival competition slot since 2001’s Golden Lion winner Monsoon Wedding.
The plot of The Disciple centers on Sharad Nerulkar, who has devoted his life to becoming an Indian classical music vocalist, diligently following the traditions and discipline of old masters, his guru, and his father. But as years go by, he starts to wonder whether it’s really possible to achieve the excellence he’s striving for.
Tamhane’s debut film Court won Best Film in the Orizzonti section at the 2014 Venice Film Festival, where he was also awarded the Lion of Future.
He and Cuarón met in a mentorship program.
“He was part of most of Roma’s process and I jumped to the opportunity to be part of the process of his second film The Disciple,” Cuarón said. “I believe Chaitanya is one of the most important new voices of contemporary cinema.”
The Venice Film Festival will run from September 2-12 and will be the first major international film event to take place physically since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Cate Blanchett is the president of the main competition jury this year.
The 48-year-old Argentine filmmaker will direct the thriller The Paris Trapfor Studiocanal.
The Hitchcockian thriller, starring Lily James, revolves around a young American woman on a visit to Paris who becomes the victim of mistaken identity. Caught up in a secret international government operation, she must play the part to save her own life.
James will play the young woman whose character is thrust to the center of the operation and must find her way out of the “trap,” helped by her handler. That role, the co-lead of the film, will be cast shortly.
The script was written by Daniel Taplitz with current revisions by Michael Lesslie.
The Paris Trap will shoot in Paris early next year.
Trapero previously helmed El Clan,which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
He most recently directed the hit international series ZeroZeroZero for Studiocanal, Amazon and Sky TV.
The 55-year-old Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker, author, actor, and former special effects makeup artist will take part in Tribeca Enterprises and YouTube’s We Are One: A Global Film Festival.
The fest will stream exclusively on YouTubefor free and feature more than 100 films co-curated by 21 of the most renowned festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival.
The 10-day fest kicked off on Friday, May 29 and will not only provide entertainment but also offer relief to the COVID-19 pandemic via supporting organizations.
The truly global event will feature programming from different cultures all over the world, with films representing more than 35 countries and include 23 narrative and 8 documentary features, 57 narrative and 15 documentary short films, 15 archived talks along with 4 festival exclusives and 5 VR programming pieces.
The fest will include 13 world premieres, 31 online premieres and 5 international online premieres. Each selection was handpicked to give shine and highlight each participating festival.
“We are so excited to share the combined efforts of our festival partners and YouTube with the world this week,” said Tribeca Enterprises and Tribeca Film Festival Co-Founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal. “Together, we were able to curate a compelling slate of programming that succinctly reflects the subtle variations in style that make each festival so special. We Are One: A Global Film Festival will offer audiences an opportunity to not only celebrate the art of film, but the unique qualities that make each story we watch so memorable.”
The fest will include the world premiere of Ricky Powell: The Individualist, which spotlights the titular legendary street photographer featuring interviews with Natasha Lyonne and LL Cool J.
Eeb Allay Ooo! will make its online debut and introduce a whole new audience to New Delhi’s professional “monkey repellers”. The satirical film won Mumbai Film Festival’s Golden Gateway Award.
The iconic Joan Chen will present the world premiere of Iron Hammer, a documentary about legendary, trailblazing Chinese Olympic volleyball star Jenny Lang Ping.
There will also be a lineup of specially-curated talks from past festivals as well as new discussions. Talks will feature del Toro, Francis Ford Coppola with Steven Soderbergh, Song Kang-ho and Bong Joon-ho, Jane Campion and Claire Denis.
In addition to features, audiences will be able to access over 50 narrative and documentary shorts such as the world premiere of Japanese narrative short Yalta Conference Online (wt), which was created exclusively for the fest by director Koji Fukada. The fest will also include the global premiere of the Third Eye Blind documentary short Motorcycle Drive By, as well as shorts from Dreamworks Animation, Bilby, Marooned and Bird Karma.
360 VR selections will feature Emmy-nominated documentary Traveling While Black and Alteration, a sci-fi narrative starring Bill Skarsgard, as well as titles featuring John Legend, Oprah Winfrey and Lupita Nyong’o. On top of the film goodness, Questlove from the legendary Roots crew will perform a DJ set for your listening and dancing pleasure.
On the episodic side, We Are One will host the world premiere of Losing Alice, an Israeli female-fronted neo-noir psychological TV thriller as well as the two-part docuseries She Could Be Next which chronicles the experiences of women of color running for office, including Stacey Abrams and Rashida Tlaib.
In addition to Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Toronto and Tribeca, participating festival also include Annecy International Animation Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Guadalajara International Film Festival,International Film Festival & Awards Macao (IFFAM), International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Jerusalem Film Festival, Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI), Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival,Marrakech International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, San Sebastian International Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival.
The fest will provide COVID-19 relief through donations to the World Health Organization( WHO), UNICEF, UNHCR, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, Leket Israel, GO Foundation and Give2Asia, among others. Audiences will be able to donate via a link on every film page.
Music Box Filmshas acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the 43-year-old Chilean filmmaker’s Venice Film Festival drama Ema, starring newcomer Mariana Di Girolamo, Gael García Bernaland Santiago Cabrera.
Music Box plans to release the Sundance Film Festival-bound drama in theaters in summer 2020.
Ema charts a woman’s odyssey of personal liberation after a shocking incident upends her family life and marriage to a tempestuous choreographer.
“I feel proud and excited to be working again with Music Box Films, a wonderful company for a movie like Emain the USA,” said feted Chilean director Larraín. “It’s truly amazing.”
The distributor previously released Larrain’s 2015 film The Club.
“This is one of those films that you have to see to believe,” added Music Box Films’ president William Schopf. “Entirely singular, hypnotic, and compelling, it’s a film that absolutely seduces the senses.”
Emamarks the third collaboration between Larraín and García Bernal, after they previously worked together on No(2012) and Neruda(2016).
