‘Apples’ Director Christos Nikou On The Timeliness Of His Greek Oscar Entry – Contenders International

Fernando Frias’ I’m No Longer Here (Ya No Estoy Aquí) had a long journey to the screen — conceived when Frias was a student at New York’s Columbia University, the project was selected by the Sundance Writers Lab in 2014, and went before cameras in 2017, ultimately hitting the festival circuit in 2019, and Netflix last year. Challenges in getting the acclaimed drama made included everything from financing hurdles to a lengthy hiatus and the lead actor being rejected for a U.S.

The team behind new PBS legal documentaryBelly of the Beasthas released a lyric video for the original song "See What You've Done," written by Mary J. Blige, Nova Way and DJ Camper and performed by Blige.

Anna Marie de la Fuente It’s been a banner year for Latin American cinema where 18 countries, including newcomer Suriname, have submitted films to vie for the international feature Oscar. Half of this year’s crop are by women, many of them debuts.

A riotous horror-tinged romp starring a runaway buffalo, there's no other contender for the 2021 best international film Oscar quite like India's submission,Jallikattu, directed by Malayalam cinema maverick Lijo Jose Pellissery. The 90-minute movie's galloping plot couldn't be simpler: a bull escapes from a slaughterhouse in a remote Indian village and all of the menfolk gather to chase it down.

If you haven’t seen or heard of the recent film “Apples,” you probably should seek it out. It’s the film by the first-time director, Christos Nikou, who is a sort of protege to Yorgos Lanthimos.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan is set to star in Fingernails, the English-language feature film debut for Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou, whose current movie Apples premiered at the 2020 Venice Film Festival and is Greece’s submission in the International Feature Oscar race. The new pic reteams Nikou and Dirty Films and partners Cate Blanchett, Coco Francini and Andrew Upton, all executive producers on Apples.

Angelique Jackson CAA has signed filmmaker Déa Kulumbegashvili, whose film “Beginning” is Georgia’s submission for best international feature at the 2021 Oscars.“Beginning” marks Kulumbegashvili’s feature directorial debut and has made major waves along the film festival circuit since its debut last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film won the Fipresci Prize.

“It’s rare that you find a female character who is so challenging,” Elisabeth Moss says of her role as writer Shirley Jackson in the deeply fictional Shirley. “Challenging as to me as an actor and challenging to the other characters in the film and has so much vulnerability and so many soft spots, but is also so strong, so vocal and sometimes not very nice.

Manori Ravindran International EditorGreek filmmaker Christos Nikou marks his directorial debut with “Apples,” an accidentally timely pandemic movie that captured imaginations at the Venice Film Festival, where it opened the respected Orrizonti section, and has since gone on to represent Greece in the international feature film Oscar race.The film wasn’t actually shot during the COVID-19 crisis, but follows a man (Aris Servetalis) struggling to recover his memory amid a pandemic that causes

EXCLUSIVE: Cloudburst Entertainment has acquired rights to Songs of Solomon, Armenia’s official entry for this year’s International Feature Film Oscar race. The drama, directed by Arman Nshanian, who also produced the pic with Oscar-winning Green Book producer and co-writer Nick Vallelonga and Asko Akopyan, will get a 2021 release date.

The Wombats’ single ‘Greek Tragedy’ has gone viral on TikTok, despite not having officially been made available on the platform.The Oliver Nelson remix of the band’s 2015 song – the original version of which appeared on their album ‘Glitterbug’ – has become a popular sound used in videos on the social media app.The reworking of the track was uploaded to the site by @lauraserrao and has since gone on to be used in over 430,000 videos.

In I’m No Longer Here (Ya no estoy aquí), filmmaker Fernando Frias puts the spotlight on Kolombia counterculture in the region of Northern Mexico. Following the story of 17-year-old Ulises (played by breakout Juan Daniel Garcia Treviño), the film, Mexico’s submission in the International Feature Oscar race, uses his journey to present a different kind of immigrant narrative.

“I wanted to do this project for a long time, I had this story in mind for years and years,” says director Filippo Meneghetti about Two of Us, France’s Oscar entry this year, adding that he also spent an additional five years writing the screenplay with his co-writer Malysone Bovorasmy.

Dea Kulumbegashvili’s feature directorial debut Beginning was a part of the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival’s 2020 edition, even receiving a special in-person screening during the event’s abridged celebration in October. The drama further was invited to the Toronto, San Sebastian, New York and Busan festivals and is also Georgia’s submission for the International Feature Film Oscar.

Romanian director Alexander Nanau joined Deadline’s Contenders International awards-season event to talk about his searing documentary Collective, one of the year’s most acclaimed films as winner of the European Film Award for documentary. It is also Romania’s official entry to the International Feature Film Oscar race, as well as a strong contender in the Documentary Feature competition too.

Finnish author Tove Jansson is most known for creating the enduringly popular children’s characters the Moomins, which have spanned comics, books and TV series since she first came up with them in the 1940s. She is now the subject of a biopic, Tove, which is Finland’s submission for the International Feature Oscar this year.

Scary stories and urban legends are always fun and at times can haunt you for the rest of your life. For filmmaker Joko Anwar, it was a scary story that was the inspirational seed that would bloom into Impetigore, Indonesia’s official entry for the Oscar International Feature race.

This year’s International Oscar entry for Switzerland, My Little Sister, follows a woman who has largely given up on her ambition to be a playwright and returns to Berlin to look after her twin brother, a famous actor with a terminal illness. It is directed by long-term collaborators and co-directors Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond.

In La Llorona, writer-director Jayro Bustamante blends elements of folklore, magical realism and horror to engage audiences, while also bringing attention to the genocide of native Mayans in 1980s Guatemala.

Drawing attention to the colorful and challenging lives of the elderly, genre-bending The Mole Agent is a film that changed completely from initial concept to final product.