News

Brazilian production powerhouse Gullane, which is behind Netflix’s “Senna” and Karim Aïnouz’s Cannes competition title “Motel Destino,” has closed international co-production pacts on new projects from Cao Hamburger (”The Year My Parents Went on Vacation”) and Sandra Kogut (“Three Summers”).

France’s Playtime Group and Portugal’s Ukbar Filmes will co-produce Hamburger’s “School Without Walls.” A Playtime Group company will also handle international sales on the true and inspiring story of Braz Nogueira, principal of a public school in Heliopolis, one of Brazil’s biggest slums.

Kogut will direct “New Cancun,” co-created by and starring Sundance actress winner Regina Casé. The film teams Gullane with Kogut’s regular producer in France, Gloria Films. It’s slated to shoot by the first quarter of 2025.

In the film, Casé plays Madá, who has never dwelled on her family’s tragedy in an environmental disaster. When chosen for a Christmas campaign,...

A key driver in Brazil’s late 1990s cinema resurgence, Globo Filmes has co-produced iconic box office blockbusters, Oscar and “A” Fest plays, arthouse breakouts. movies sparking big TV spin-offs. A brief selection of milestones in its storied history:

1990

President Fernando Collar’s government closes state owned film company Embrafilme, decimating Brazilian film production.

1993

A new Audiovisual Law offers companies income tax deductions for investment in Brazilian movies as Brazil’s Resurgence – economic and cultural recovery – lifts off.

1997

Globo Filmes is founded. Recalls Daniel Filho, its guiding spirit, in early years: “I started working in Globo TV but I always said: “I want to make cinema.’ I was on my way to close a deal with exhibitor Luis Severiano Ribeiro to launch a film production house when I got a call from Globo to launch Globo Filmes. I agreed: Globo had to do what French and British channels were doing: Participate in films.

Italian indie producer Vivo Film has boarded André Ristum’s action drama “Tecnicamente Dolce” (“Technically Sweet”), based on a screenplay by Italian legend Michelangelo Antonioni, teaming with Gullane Filmes, Brazil’s biggest independent film production house.

The news comes as “Carnival Is Over,” the awaited thriller drama by “Narcos” director Fernando Coimbra, whose “A Wolf at the Door” was one of the standout Brazilian feature debuts of the last decade, has now entered post-production, shaping up as one of the big arthouse titles to hit festivals from Brazil next year.

Featuring Leandra Leal (“A Wolf at the Door”), Pêpê Rapazote (“Narcos”) and Irandhir Santos (“Tropa de Elite 2”), “Carnival” is a Brazilian-Portuguese co-production that teams Gullane with Fado Filmes, Videodrome, Globo Filmes and Telecine, in association with Tc Filmes. France’s Playtime has started to pre-sell the film.

“This movie is our main title for next year. This is the...

Gullane, one of Brazil’s biggest production powerhouses, has attached Fernanda Montenegro, Oscar-nominated for “Central Station,” to star in “The Hanged,” the new anticipated film from “Narcos” director Fernando Coimbra.

The news comes as Gullane unveiled in Cannes its first post-pandemic movie slate, led by two movies from director Cao Hamburger.

“We want to continue providing production services for the platforms, producing with them. But we also want to own the IP of some of our projects, and movies give us that,” Gullane co-founder Fabiano Gullane said..

Produced with Globo Filmes and Telecine, “The Hanged” is co-produced by Portugal’s Fado Filmes. Paris Filmes distributes in Brazil. It will go into production second semester 2022,

“’The Hanged’ has been long delayed due to the pandemic but we are very honored to have two of the biggest acting stars, part of recent Brazilian cinema history,” said producer Caio Gullane.

Other pics on...

Following two wins in the past three years, contenders from across the Americas are championing local culture and community.

The lack of physical festivals has not helped any film this year, and the relatively low-key roster from the Americas could have used the opportunity to break out a little-known filmmaker or remind voters of some of the more familiar names in play.

No film from the region made it onto the 10-strong shortlist last season and, despite speculation that some filmmakers might be holding back their latest work for what is hoped will be a return to physical festivals in...

Oscilloscope opens the film this Friday. Brazilian Anna Muylaert started as a critic and television and film writer; she originally wrote the script for "The Second Mother" 20 years ago, intending to direct it as her first feature. But she went on to shoot "Durval Discos" (2001) instead, and seven years later, made "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," followed by "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" and finally, she overhauled and updated the script for her fourth film, "The Second Mother." The Brazilian Oprah, Regina Casé, wasn't willing to smoke cigarettes for "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," but was happy to take on the juicy role of Val, a live-in domestic in São Paulo whose life is thrown into disarray when her grown daughter Jessica arrives from Val’s hometown to study for her college entrance exams. The understood boundaries that rule Val's life with her employer Bárbara (Karine...

Nine films will advance to the next round of voting in the foreign-language film category for the 80th Annual Academy Awards, though the big surprise is the omission of Romania's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Festival de Cannes and has been named best foreign-language film by numerous critics groups.

The films that were named are: Austria's The Counterfeiters, directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky; Brazil's The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, helmed by Cao Hamburger; Canada's Days of Darkness, helmed by Denys Arcand; Israel's Beaufort, directed by Joseph Cedar; Italy's The Unknown, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore; Kazakhstan's Mongol, directed by Sergei Bodrov; Poland's Katyn, directed by Andrzej Wajda; Russia's 12, helmed by Nikita Mikhalkov, and Serbia's The Trap, directed by Srdan Golubovic.

In addition to 4 Months, a notable omission is France's animated film Persepolis, which has already earned recognition including the Jury Prize at Cannes.

Foreign-language film nominations are being determined in two phases. The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based members, screened the 63 eligible films and their ballots determined the above shortlist.

The animated film "Persepolis", from France, Denys Arcand's "Days of Darkness" from Canada, Johnnie To's "Exiled" from Hong Kong and Cristian Mungiu's Palm d'Or winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" are among the 63 films that have qualified for Oscar consideration in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' foreign language film category.

The record number of 63 entries include first-time submissions from Azerbaijan (Farid Gumbatov's "Caucasia") and Ireland (Tom Collins' "Kings").

Nominations for the 80th Academy Awards will be announced Jan. 22, and the Oscars will be handed out Feb. 24.

The complete list follows:

Argentina, "XXY", Lucia Puenzo, director; Australia, "The Home Song Stories", Tony Ayres; Austria, "The Counterfeiters", Stefan Ruzowitzky; Azerbaijan, "Caucasia", Farid Gumbatov; Bangladesh, "On the Wings of Dreams", Golam Rabbany, Biplob; Belgium, "Ben X", Nic Balthazar; Bosnia and Herzegovina, "It's Hard to Be Nice", Srdan Vuletic; Brazil, "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation," Cao Hamburger; and Bulgaria, "Warden of the Dead", Ilian Simeonov.

Canada, "Days of Darkness", Denys Arcand; Chile, "Padre Nuestro", Rodrigo Sepulveda; China, "The Knot", Yin Li; Colombia, "Satanas", Andi Baiz; Croatia, "Armin", Ognjen Svilicic; Cuba, "The Silly Age", Pavel Giroud; Czech Republic, "I Served the King of England", Jiri Menzel, director; Denmark, "The Art of Crying", Peter Schonau Fog; Egypt, "In the Heliopolis Flat", Mohamed Khan; and Estonia, "The Class", Ilmar Raag.

City Lights Pictures has acquired domestic distribution rights to the Brazilian film The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, directed by Cao Hamburger. The film follows a young middle-class boy born to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, both left-wing militants who are forced to go underground by a military dictatorship, who is left with his grandfather. It is the second Brazilian film that City Lights has acquired since announcing its rollout of Sundance Grand Jury Prize documentary winner Manda Bala, which will play in Los Angeles, New York and other markets in August.

With sales on Competition movies yet to heat up, Brazilian film The Year my Parents Went on Vacation directed by Cao Hamburger is one of the titles selling fast.

Paris-based Films Distribution has sold the 1970s political coming-of-age drama to the five-territory buyers' collective Indie Circle, which comprises Haut et Court in France, Italy's Lucky Red, Switzerland's Frenetic and Cineart for Belgium and the Netherlands. And Vertigo acquired the film for Spain. A U.S. deal is in discussions and likely to close in the next day or two, according to Films' sales co-chief Francois Yon.

2929 International signed one of the few major deals of the market so far, selling several major territories for Barry Levinson's What Just Happened?.

The comedy, which stars Robert De Niro, Stanley Tucci, Bruce Willis and John Turturro, was picked up by Telemunchen for Germany, Medusa in Italy, TF1 in France and Manga in Spain.

Germany's Beta Cinema printed out several territory sales on Competition title The Counterfeiters, with Benelux going to ABC/Cinemien, Europa Filmes taking Brazil and J-Bics acquiring rights for Thailand.

Outside of competition, one picture generating lots of market interest is romantic comedy Two Days in Paris from actress-turned-director Julie Delpy, which is screening in Panorama.