Coronation Street legend set for Weatherfield return as arrival rocks cobbles

Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-based Cannes Competition title Perfect Days has clocked a series of international deals for The Match Factory.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Family animated movie “Pirate Mo and the Legend of the Red Ruby” proved to be a smash hit with international distributors during the Cannes Film Market, with sales agency The Playmaker Munich delivering the film to multiple buyers. During the market, The Playmaker announced first presales to Benelux (Just4Kids), Turkey (Filmarti), Baltics (GPI), Greece (Rosebud) and Bulgaria (Pro Films). The company has now revealed further sales to Poland (M2 Films), Scandinavia (Njuta Films), Hungary and Romania (ADS), Portugal (Outsider Pictures), and Yugoslavia (Blitz Film).

It turns out that sharing cleaning hacks isn’t the only thing that influencer Mrs Hinch is talented at – she also has a fantastic singing voice. In a video she shared on her Instagram on Saturday, Mrs Hinch – whose real name is Sophie Hinchcliffe – shared a series of snaps from her trip to Portugal for a friend’s hen do.

Prime Video is not about to let rival Netflix forget about its previously benevolent attitude toward password sharing.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor The red carpet for Wednesday’s premiere of Tran Anh Hung’s “The Pot au Feu,” with Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel, was the scene of a demonstration in support of the land rights of the Indigenous peoples of Brazil.  The protest was led by the official delegation of “The Buriti Flower,” a film showing in the Un Certain Regard sidebar directed by Portugal’s João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora and sold by Films Boutique.  Appearing in front of the banks of photographers, the directors along with the actors wearing traditional dress, Francisco Hyjno Krahô, Debora Sodre, Luzia Cruwakwyj Krahô and Henrique Ihjac Krahô, unfurled a large banner with the slogan “Não ao Marco Temporal: The Future of Indigenous Lands in Brazil is Under Threat”. 

Ed Meza @edmezavar AMC Networks Intl. Latin America has acquired RTVE hit, Spanish-Portuguese thriller “Sequía,” which will be broadcast throughout the region on its Europa Europa channel. The story centers on the mystery behind two mummified corpses – apparent murder victims — that are discovered when a long submerged village emerges from the drying Campomediano reservoir along the Spanish-Portuguese border during a prolonged drought (“sequía” in Spanish). While a Spanish inspector and investigative reporter suspect the bodies may be linked to environmental protests that took place to prevent the creation of the reservoir, a Portuguese detective is secretly investigating the possibility that one of the deceased could be the heir to the Souza Cardoso fortune who disappeared years ago.

It's been an exciting time for EastEnders fans with the coming and going of many beloved characters, from Lola Pearce-Brown's (Danielle Harold) upcoming death to the arrival of the mysterious Knight family, featuring the likes of Bond actor Colin Salmon and Strictly's Molly Rainford. However, as well as brand new characters being introduced to the show by showrunner Chris Clenshaw, 2023 is set to have a few surprises in store with a number of Albert Square icons heading back to their East London roots over the next few months.

Brits heading to Portugal this May half term have been warned that they could face “travel disruption” due to strike action by Portuguese immigration officers. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (the FCDO) has updated its travel guidance for the country.

Martin Dale Contributor “Légua” by Filipa Reis and João Miller Guerra has its world premiere in Directors Fortnight. Reis and Miller Guerra previously co-helmed the Cape Verde-set debut feature, “Djon Africa” (2018), and several documentaries. “Légua” is produced by the company, Uma Pedra no Sapato, which Reis founded in 2008 and ranks as one of Portugal’s leading independent production companies. The pic is set in the rural village of Légua in the North of Portugal, between Amarante and Marco de Canaveses. One of the main characters is an old country house that has been deserted by its heirs and is looked after by the ailing elderly housekeeper, Emilia, assisted by Ana (played by Carla Maciel (“Diamantino”), whose husband emigrates to work in France, leaving her to look after Emilia and her own restless teenage daughter, Mónica.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Live sports streaming service DAZN and social analytics firm Videocites have forged a partnership to fight rampant sports content piracy in the social media sphere. Dubbed “The Netflix of Sports,” DAZN is a leading premium live sports platform with a footprint comprising Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Japan, Canada, U.S. and the U.K. The company boasts that Videocities’ cutting-edge technology will now enable DAZN to automatically remove 98% of the thousands of pirated streams detected on social media within minutes with unprecedented efficiency, it said in a statement. NBA Equity is an investor in Videocites which has several offices around the world, including in Tel Aviv and one recently opened in New York.  

Eight feature documentaries and eight short docs have been selected as finalists for the 16th Doc Alliance Awards, presented by the Doc Alliance – the association of European documentary festivals.

Chelsea could be without as many as nine first-team players on Thursday when they face Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Paris-based sales boutique Alpha Violet has acquired Spanish filmmaker Victor Iriarte’s directorial debut, “Foremost by Night” (“Sobre Todo de Noche”). Described as a noir story with a political background, “Foremost by Night” revolves around two women who meet for the first time, one who was forced to give up her newborn child for adoption when she was young, the other who, unable to bare children of her own, adopted a child she raised as her own. The film, which stars Ana Torrent (“There Be Dragons,” “The Other Boleyn Girl”), Lola Dueñas (“Me Too,” “Volver”) and Manuel Egozkue, was among this year’s winners at the Malaga Film Festival’s Work in Progress awards, where it secured the Latido Films distribution prize and the Aracne Digital Cinema award for post production services.

EXCLUSIVE: Henry Ford’s failed industrial town in the Amazon Rainforest is the backdrop of a supernatural Brazilian TV drama.

For those who treasure a sense of place in movies, the new trailer for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, a film set for release by Paramount in October, brings a flicker of hope. (Pete Hammond’s Cannes review is here.)

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Adrian Wootton, CEO of Film London and the British Film Commission, will preside over the jury of the Malta Film Commission’s inaugural Mediterrane Film Festival celebrating movies from the Mediterranean Basin. The fest, which will take place in Valletta, Malta’s capital, and other locations on the island between June 25-30, will showcase films from each of the MED9 nations, an alliance of nine Mediterranean and Southern European Union member states. It comprises: Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. Besides Wotton the other jury members are “Triangle Of Sadness”actor Zlatko Burić; Cypriot filmmaker Tonia Mishiali; French actor and director Vahina Giocante; Greek producer Amanda Livanou; Italian journalist Boris Sollazzo; Maltese critic Mario Azzopardi; Portuguese journalist and programmer José Vieira Mendes; Slovenian journalist Tina Poglajen; and Spanish programmer Carlos Reviriego.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Beta Cinema has closed further presales for “The Offing,” which will star Helena Bonham Carter, and will be directed by Jessica Hobbs, an Emmy Award-winner for “The Crown.” New deals include Spain (Beta Fiction), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Switzerland (Pathé Films), former Yugoslavia (Discovery) and the Middle East (Front Row). CineSky Pictures has picked up worldwide airline rights. A multi-territory deal with Curzon, Cineart and Madman for U.K./Ireland, Benelux and Australia/New Zealand was revealed in April. “The Offing,” which is based on the novel by Benjamin Myers, is set on the northeast English coast shortly after World War II. It tells the story of shy, 16-year-old Robert, and the hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, bohemian recluse Dulcie Piper, played by Bonham Carter, and their unlikely friendship.

Bruno Fernandes admits the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award is a 'special trophy' but the Manchester United midfielder is more concerned with fulfilling on-pitch objectives.

Callum McLennan The sixth edition of the Quirino Awards, an annual event dedicated to the promotion of animation in Spain, Portugal and Latin America, saw a triumph for Portuguese cinema, with animations from the country taking home four of the nine awards.  The Quirino Awards also proved a veritable showcase of Portugal’s rich animation history– apt as the event also marked the centenary of animation in Portugal.  The feature film “Nayola,” helmed by Portuguese director José Miguel Ribeiro, walked off with the best feature film award.  The film, a Praça Filmes production, is a moving depiction of three generations of Angolan women grappling with the aftermath of the civil war that devastated their country in the late 20th century. Ribeiro’s first feature, “Nayola,” which premiered in main competition at the Annecy Animation Festival in 2022, is based on the play “A Caixa Preta” by Eduardo Agualusa and Mia Coutode. Its bold color palette, and melding of myth and a female perspective on the traumas of war clearly struck the jury. 

It feels like every few weeks Sale gets named ‘best place to live’ by someone. But then, it does have a fair bit going for it. It was featured by the Sunday Times in its annual list back in March, and received a fair bit of attention.