Germany’s RTL Picks Up Royal Drama ‘Maxima’ as Beta Film Shows Sneak Peek at Mipcom

BBC Studios Builds Team In Western Europe

Family drama Snow Leopard, directed by the late Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden, has won the Tokyo Grand Prix, the top prize at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival. Scroll down for the full list of winners.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Picture Tree Intl. has boarded international sales for Scandinavian period drama “Stormskerry Maja,” directed by Tiina Lymi (“Happier Times, Grump,” “Sisäilmaa”), adapted from Anni Blomqvist’s series of novels. The film chronicles the saga of Maja and her family as they embark on a journey to the desolate and remote island Stormskerry.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor International sales agency the Playmaker has signed a deal with Blue Finch Film Releasing to distribute the one-shot horror film “Home Sweet Home — Where Evil Lives” in the U.K. and Ireland. Thomas Sieben’s film, which made its world premiere in August at FrightFest in London, has its market premiere at AFM.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent 2023’s American Film Market may be shaping up for “a rather quiet year,” says Martin Moszkowicz, chairman of the executive board at Germany’s Constantin Film. That said, Moszkowicz will stay in Los Angeles for around 10 days. “We have so much business there – and much of it is not related directly to the market,” he says.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor A24 has forged an exclusive output deal with Happinet Phantom Studios covering the distribution in Japan of A24’s upcoming releases, including Alex Garland’s action film “Civil War,” starring Kirsten Dunst, which has a highly anticipated launch at AFM this week. Happinet and A24 have worked together on the release of a number of films in Japan, including triple Oscar winner “Moonlight,” and “Midsommar,” whose gross in the territory was the biggest outside North America.

Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky have found their home in Australia, where they enjoy a more quiet life with their three children, India Rose (9 years old) and 8-year-old twins Sasha and Tristan, they keep their passion for travel and the outdoors alive.The couple loves traveling to new places and exploring new countries. Recently, they went on another exciting family adventure.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Cornerstone has closed sales on multiple territories including North America and the U.K. for writer and director Daniel Kokotajlo’s “Starve Acre,” a brooding and atmospheric folk horror. “House of the Dragon’s” Matt Smith and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” actor Morfydd Clark star in the film, which is produced by House Productions.

On the heels of the wonderful 2019 The Two Popes, in which Anthony Hopkins starred as Pope Benedict XVI in an imagined conversation with Jonathan Pryce’s future Pope Francis, Hopkins is once again involved in the same kind of cinematic historical fictional meeting as founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, who is engaged in a private debate with The Chronicles of Narnia author and theologian C.S. Lewis (played by Matthew Goode) on the existence of God. As with The Two Popes, there is no proof whatsoever that any meeting ever took place, but it clearly provides lots of material to wrap your head around. That is exactly what Mark St. Germain did in creating his 2009 play Freud’s Last Session, which was built on the 1967 Harvard lectures of Dr. Armond M. Nicholi Jr in his presentation “The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life.”

Beta Cinema and the UK’s Free Turn Films and Tempo Productions have officially announced Nick Hamm’s epic drama William Tell, as its under-the-radar shoot enters its final week in Italy.

A Big Brother contestant revealed she felt “a bit rubbish” after hearing live crowds chanting her name outside the reality show’s location.

Bravo has revealed the first seven minutes of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills‘ upcoming 13th season premiere.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Una Gunjak’s debut feature “Excursion,” which is Bosnia and Herzegovina’s entry for the Oscars’ international feature film category. Salaud Morisset is handling international sales. HBO Europe has just picked up the SVOD and pay TV rights to the movie in 15 countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “It’s been a really buzzy and busy market,” said Lucy Smith, director of Mipcom TV market and conference, and MipJunior, the kids TV event that preceded it, in Cannes Wednesday. More than 11,000 participants from more than 100 countries had come to the event, which runs Oct. 16-19.

Sophia Scorziello editor A24 has unveiled the trailer for Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.” The German-language Holocaust drama tells a chilling story of real-life German SS officer Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, who raised their children in a farmhouse next door to Auschwitz. The film premiered this year at Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix, the fest’s second most prestigious award.

Channel 4 Takes Another JFK Doc

Studiocanal, part of Vivendi’s Canal+ Group, has rolled out robust sales on Xavier Dolan’s Sundance-selected psychological thriller “The Night Logan Woke Up,” Spanish period drama “The Vow” and a bevy of first documentaries. The deals underscore the continuing upside for Studiocanal of illustrious cinema talent exploring premium TV direction, as well as the company’s beneficial diversification into documentary sales and daily series.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Distributor All3Media Intl. has sold “The Long Shadow,” written by “Lupin” creator George Kay, to Sundance Now, which has taken exclusive rights in the U.S. and Canada.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Beta Film’s Channel4/Starz drama series “The Couple Next Door” is moving across European neighborhoods, being sold ahead of Mipcom to Movistar Plus+ in Spain and throughout the Nordics. Public broadcasters NRK for Norway, YLE for Finland, SVT for Sweden, DR for Denmark and RUV for Iceland snagged the thriller, starring Sam Heughan (“Outlander,” “Suspect”) and Eleonor Tomlinson (“Poldark,” “The War of the Worlds”). The show explores the stultifying claustrophobia of suburbia and the fallout of chasing one’s darkest desires.

Caroline Brew editor The Whole Spiel — the new company co-founded by former NBC Entertainment chairman Paul Telegdy — and Red Bull’s Terra Mater Studios have teamed up to develop a slate of drama series. The projects include a reimagined “Tarzan” series, wildlife crime investigation “Rogue,” geopolitical drama “A New King” and true history drama “The Executioner.” In collaboration with Shingle Media and Friendly Fire, the “Tarzan” series will reimagine Edgar Rice Burroughs’ iconic hero for a new generation.