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French epic The Count Of Monte-Cristo has won the Cheval Noir award for best film at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival.

The Canadian genre festival’s top prize was bestowed on directors Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre De La Patelliere at Fantasia’s jury awards ceremony on Saturday (July 27), in the middle of the festival’s July 18-Aug 4 run.

The ceremony, at Montreal’s Cinéma du Musée, was hosted by Fantasia’s artistic director and director of international programming Mitch Davis.

The Count Of Monte-Cristo, the latest screen version of Alexandre Dumas’ literary classic, made its debut out of...

Exclusive: Lionsgate+ has renewed Señorita 89 for a second season and has added Dolores Heredia (El Galán) and Yoshira Escárrega (Toda La Sangre) as series regulars. Production will kick off on October 17 in Mexico City.

Heredia will portray La Madrina, mother of the cartels, who sees power and influence in Jocelyn (Leidi Gutiérrez), and Yoshira Escárrega as Maribel Montaño, who is known as La Santa because the night they found her with her victim’s eyes in her hands, they say the dead man could still see.

In the first season of Señorita 89, Isabel (Natasha Dupeyrón) was crowned; Dolores died (Bárbara López); Elena (Ximena Romo) went into exile and Concepción’s (Ilse Salas) La Encantada empire fell apart.

When Season 2 premieres, the ‘90s are in full swing and the two main TV networks in Mexico find themselves in a war to impose the next queen. While Miss Yucatan (Dupeyrón) tries to...

L.A.-based Spanish-language streaming platform Pantaya and global streamer Starzplay have revealed that production is underway on the period new drama series “Señorita 89” from Fremantle and the Larraín brothers’ Fabula, the latest co-production stemming from a first-look deal between the two, dating back to 2019.

The first fruit of that combined labor was global hit series “La Jauria,” available on Amazon Prime Video in Latin America and HBO Max in the U.S. Selected as one of Variety’s best international series of 2020, “La Jauria” stars “A Fantastic Woman” lead Daniela Vega and is directed by one of Latin America’s most prominent film and TV writer-directors Lucia Puenzo.

Sticking with a talent alliance that worked so well for Fabula and Fremantle the first time around, Puenzo also co-wrote and is directing “Señorita 89.” She is joined by co-screenwriters María Renée Prudencio and Tatiana Mereñuk, and co-directors Nicolás Puenzo...

“Fangio,” a series about the triumph and tragedy of Juan Manuel Fangio, whose five Formula One World Championship wins stood as a record for 46 years, is now in the works in Argentina.

Presented at Ventana Sur, the portrait of a legend who put racing and winning above all else, at large emotional cost, is in development at La Sagrada Familia. A new creative collective, the company has been set up by “La Jauría” and “The Unseen” director Nicolas Puenzo, film director-producer Esteban Puenzo (“Clandestine Childhood”) and two icons of Argentina’s commercials scene, Pucho Mentasti and Carlos Baccetti.

La Sagrada Familia has acquired rights from the Fangio family, with the driver’s sons, Ruben and Oscar Fangio, serving as consultants on the series.

The company has also secured a development deal with Estudio R & M, the new company of two industry heavyweights, Alejandro Roemmers, head of Argentina’s Roemmers laboratories,...

Argentina’s preeminent writer-director Lucia Puenzo, who has proven her showrunner chops with “La Jauria” for Amazon Prime and eco-thriller series “Cromo,” has partnered with Gaumont, the producers of Netflix mega-hit “Narcos,” in a multi-project development deal.

Among the projects in the pact is “Futuro Desierto,” a near-future, dystopian thriller that turns on a robotics engineer who moves with his family to an isolated town in Patagonia where he is ordered to test the first humanoid robots in secret. Puenzo, whose notable film credits include the Cannes-selected “Xxy” and “The German Doctor,” will co-showrun and direct multiple episodes with her brother, Nicolas Puenzo, co-director of “Cromo” and “La Jauría.”

Another project, tentatively titled “This is Not a Love Song,” follows the extraordinary life of Tina Modotti, the eccentric Italian feminist photographer, model, actress and revolutionary political activist who was among the leading lights of cosmopolitan Mexico City in the early 1920s,...

Fremantle and Fabula have dropped the first trailer of eight-part series “La Jauría” (“The Pack”), showrun by Lucía Puenzo (“The German Doctor”), one of Latin America’s most prominent film and TV writer-directors, and starring Daniela Vega, the lead in the Academy Award winning “A Fantastic Woman.”

Set up at Chile’s Fabula, run by writer-director Pablo Larraín (“Jacky”) and brother Juan de Díos Larraín, “Gloria Bell”), “La Jauría”

Amazon’s first-ever locally-produced Amazon Original in Chile will be available to stream exclusively on Prime Video in Latin America, Caribbean and Spain.

It also marks the first international series from Fabula.

Brought onto the market at February’s Fremantle Screenings in London and now the Series Mania-MipTV virtual marketplace, “La Jauría” is also first fruit of a Fabula-Fremantle multi-year first-look production-distribution alliance. Fremantle is its global distributor.

Co-written by Puenzo, and set at a posh private Catholic school in Santiago de Chile,...

Ventana Sur takes place from December 2-6.

The Méliès International Festivals Federation (formerly known as European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation) and Blood Window have announced the contenders for best Latin American feature film of the year at the upcoming Ventana Sur sidebar in Buenos Aires.

Vying for the prize will be Alejandro Landes’ Colombian international feature film Oscar contender Monos, as well as Kleber Mendonça Filho’s highly regarded Brazilian film and Cannes selection Bacurau. Ten features in total are in consideration for the honour, now in its third year.

“The Méliès International Festivals Federation is excited to continue its...

Filming has begun on Lucía Puenzo’s psychological gender thriller series “La Jauría,” a co-production by Fremantle with Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Chile-u.S.-based Fabula.

The eight-episode Spanish-language drama series, shooting in Santiago, Chile, features Daniela Vega, the lead in Fabula’s Academy Award-winning “A Fantastic Woman.”

Lucía Puenzo, one of Latin America’s most renowned women writers-directors directs the series alongside Sergio Castro (“La mujer de barro”), Marialy Rivas (“Young & Wild”) and Nicolás Puenzo (“Los Invisibles”).

“La Jauría” also stars Antonia Zegers and María Gracia Omegna, who alongside Vega play a police force specialized in gender-related crimes that investigates the strange disappearance of a young woman.

It opens at Santa Inés School, whose students stage a take-over in protest for an alleged case of abuse between a teacher and a student. Blanca Ibarra, a student leading the take-over, suddenly goes missing.

Hours later, a recording...

Barcelona— A take on physical joy and hellish pain, Gaspar Noé‘s “Climax” took best film at the 51st Sitges’ Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia.

Among other main awards, Panos Cosmatos (“Mandy“), Quentin Dupieux (“Keep An Eye Out”) and “Atsushi Doi” snagged director, script and FX respectively.

Produced by Germany’s Wild Bunch and Rectangle Productions,”Climax” took Cannes’ 2018 Directors’ Fortnight top unofficial prize, the Cicae Art Cinema Award. selling to a24 for the U.S., it sparked maybe the biggest consensus thumbs-up in the director’s career for its early going, chronicling a dance troupe performance. After that, as is typical with Noe, the feature sparked mixed radically mixed reactions.

Italian-Canadian filmmaker Panos Cosmatos scooped best director for his sophomore effort “Mandy,” starring Nicolas Cage and Andrea Riseborough, a stylized romance between two misfits involving Messianic members of a biker gang.

Sold by Xyz Films, “Mandy” is produced by Belgium’s UMedia and U.

Global drama producer Fremantle is teaming with Fabula, headed by director Pablo Larrain (“Jackie”) and producer Juan de Dios Larraín (“Gloria Bell”), to produce “La Jauría” (The Pack), a brand new Spanish-Language drama series starring Daniela Vega, the lead in Fabula’s Academy Award-winning “A Fantastic Woman.”

A psychological gender crime thriller set against and energized by “Ni una Menos,” Latin America’s MeToo movement, Fabula’s first international drama series has tapped as its showrunner Lucía Puenzo, one of Latin America’s most renowned women writers-directors.

Marking Vega’s debut in a Latin American drama series, “La Jauría” is scheduled to shoot in January 2019.The eight-part series also stars Antonia Zegers.

“La Jauría” opens at Santa Inés, a posh private Catholic school whose students stage a take-over in protest at a teacher’s suspected sexual assault of a student. Blanca Ibarra, a student leading the takeover, suddenly goes missing.

Kiki Alvarez’s drama takes its place alongside five others in the Buenos Aires market’s post-production slate.

Soul Sisters (Las Chambelonas) marks Alvazrez’s follow-up to Venice, his drama that debuted in Toronto back in September 2014.

Primer Corte includes drama Los Últimos (Argentina) – the feature directorial debut of Nicolás Puenzo – and Natalia Beristain’s drama The Goodbyes (Los Adioses, Mexico).

Rounding out Primer Corte are drama Body Electric (Corpo Elétrico, Brazil) by Marcelo Caetano, comedy musical Las Malcogidas (Bolivia) by Denisse Arancibia, and comedy The Originals (Los Oriyinales, Colombia) by Harold Trompetero.

Cannes’ Cinefondation’s Georges Goldenstern selected the line-up. Ventana Sur runs from November 29-December 3.

Projects selected for the Trends platform showcasing new technologies are: Bad Winters Day (Maximiliano Trionfante, Argentina); Territoria (Gonzalo Sierra, Argentina); Sense 360 (Peterson Da Silva, Brazil); Vr Chinchorro (Diego Briet and Maria Court, Chile); Ancestros (Rodrigo Castellanos, Colombia); Cuerpos De Agua (Alvaro Rodriguez and Carlos Serrano, Colombia); and Fran...

Winston Baker and the Los Cabos International Film Festival have announced the first Los Cabos Film Investor Summit, to take place in Mexico from November 10-11.

“Beyond the heavy hitters from the dealmaking side, we have also confirmed prolific producers such as Juan de Dios Larraín, Luis and Nicolás Puenzo, Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego, and Cristian Conti,” said festival director Alonso Aguilar Castillo.

“Our goal is to make this Summit a staple event hosted annually in Los Cabos to foster an on-going conversation between Latin American filmmakers and film finance experts from around the world,” said Amy Baker, co-founder and managing partner of Winston Baker.

“It will be an exclusive invitation-only platform for producers and investors to collaborate in an intimate and high-level setting.”

Julie Taymor will give the keynote address and the roster of participants include Alex Walton of Bloom Media, Helen Lee Kim of Good Universe, Wild Bunch’s Vincent Maraval, Phil Hunt of [link...

Exclusive: Argentinean TV drama Cromo, playing in Toronto’s first TV strand, is being developed into a feature film after Pyramide International acquired the sales rights.

The eco-thriller, produced by Xxy filmmaker Lucía Puenzo, was originally produced as a 12-part series – three of which are showing at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 10-20) in its new Primetime strand.

But Puenzo and her brother Nicolás Puenzo are now in talks to adapt it into a feature film after securing a deal with the Paris-based production and distribution house, which will also sell the TV series to international broadcasters.

The drama, directed by Pablo Fendrik (El Ardor), is based on the real stories of a team of scientists that set out to expose environmental crimes in northern Argentina.

It stars Emilia Attia as idealistic scientist Valentina, who travels to the swamp town of Corrientes in northern Argentina to test the local water supply in a bid to expose...

The rise in critical acclaim for television shows over the years has been well-documented, with a corresponding rise in interest among viewers to discuss and analyse television the way films are at festivals. While festivals dedicated to television shows, such as Atx and PaleyFest, are on the rise, film festivals still outweigh them.

For its 2015 incarnation, however, the Toronto International Film Festival will be doing something unique, beginning a programme dedicated to television. Titled the Primetime Programme, the section of the festival will conduct screenings and Q&A sessions just like the films that play at Tiff, focusing on specific episodes of shows instead. The lineup for the inagural Primetime programme has now been announced, and can be seen below.

Casual Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2, created by Zander Lehmann and directed by Jason Reitman, making its World Premiere

Festival favourite Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) directs this wonderfully endearing...

Toronto brass on Thursday paid homage to arguably the most dynamic and provocative content format in entertainment, announcing the festival’s inaugural slate of six TV projects from the likes of Baltasar Kormákur, Jason Reitman and Lucía Puenzo.

The selections highlight what Tiff director and CEO Piers Handling called a “cross-pollination” of the film and TV worlds from international storytellers, broadcasters and streaming services.

The six selections appear below. All are world premieres except The Returned, which is an international premiere.

Casual (Us), created by Zander Lehmann and directed by Jason Reitman.

Episodes 1 and 2 of the comedy from Hulu and Lionsgate that follows a dating site entrepreneur and his therapist sister who move in together after the latter’s recent divorce.

Starring Tommy Dewey, Michaela Watkins and Tara Lynne Barr.

Cromo (Argentina), created by Lucía Puenzo and Nicolás Puenzo.

Episodes 1, 2 and 8 of the eco-thriller from directors Lucía Puenzo (Xxy, Wakolda), Pablo Fendrik (Blood Appears, El Ardor) and Nicolás Puenzo...

Toronto brass on Thursday paid homage to arguably the most dynamic and provocative content format in entertainment, announcing the festival’s inaugural slate of six TV projects from the likes of Baltasar Kormákur, Jason Reitman and Lucía Puenzo.

The selections highlight what Tiff director and CEO Piers Handling called a “cross-pollination” of the film and TV worlds from international storytellers, broadcasters and streaming services.

The six selections appear below. All are world premieres except The Returned, which is an international premiere.

Casual (Us), created by Zander Lehmann and directed by Jason Reitman.

Episodes 1 and 2 of the comedy from Hulu and Lionsgate that follows a dating site entrepreneur and his therapist sister who move in together after the latter’s recent divorce.

Starring Tommy Dewey, Michaela Watkins and Tara Lynne Barr.

Cromo (Argentina), created by Lucía Puenzo and Nicolás Puenzo.

Episodes 1, 2 and 8 of the eco-thriller from directors Lucía Puenzo (Xxy, Wakolda), Pablo Fendrik (Blood Appears, El Ardor) and Nicolás Puenzo...