LGBTQ Romantic Comedy ‘Perfect Endings’ Acquired by M-Appeal (EXCLUSIVE)

Can Lily choose between a past romance and a promising future? “It Ends With Us” sees the character starting over in Boston — even welcoming a new relationship. Lily’s life takes an unexpected turn with the appearance of her first love.

Jamie Lang Brazil’s O2 Play, the distribution arm of O2 Filmes group, will host a Cannes market screening for director Marcelo Gomes‘ latest feature, “Portrait of a Certain Orient,” on Friday, May 17 at 1:30 p.m. in Lerins 4. Ahead of the screening, O2 has given Variety exclusive access to the romantic period drama’s international trailer.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent German actors Elisa Schlott (“Das Boot” TV series), Max Riemelt (“Sleeping Dog”) and Alma Hasun (“Corsage”) are set to star in Italian director Silvio Soldini‘s drama “The Tasters,” which reconstructs the untold true story of the women conscripted to be Adolf Hitler’s food tasters. Shooting is set to start on Friday in Italy’s northern Alto Adige region on the Nazi-era drama, which is being pre-sold at the Cannes Marché du Film by Rome-based Vision Distribution, headed by sales agent Catia Rossi.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Leading documentary specialist Autlook Filmsales has secured international sales rights to “Us, Our Pets and the War,” which looks at the impact of the war in Ukraine on animals, and how the conflict led to the biggest pet evacuation in history. The film, which became the highest-grossing theatrically released documentary in Ukraine of all time, is directed by investigative journalist and YouTube vlogger Anton Ptushkin.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Principal photography has begun on “The Captive,” a historical epic from “The Others’” Alejandro Amenábar, starring Julio Peña (“Berlin”) as “Don Quixote” author Miguel de Cervantes, a prisoner of Ottoman corsairs, seen in a very first still from the film, alongside Alessandro Borghi (“Suburra”), playing his captor, which has been shared in exclusivity with Variety. Paris and London-based production, finance and sales house Film Constellation handles worldwide sales.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Four-time Academy Award-nominated Ethan Hawke is attached to star in “The Last of the Tribe,” a jungle thriller set in Brazil’s Amazon. Written by Mark Bailey (“Downfall,” “The Volcano”), “The Last of the Tribe” is produced by Brazil’s Academy Award-nominated Fernando Meirelles (“The Two Popes,” “City of God”) and Academy Award-winning producer Ed Saxon (“Silence of the Lambs,” “Adaptation”). Hawke is set to play William Phelan — a washed-out Chicago cop turned corporate gun-for-hire — who finds himself in a wildly unfamiliar landscape, his assignment the murder of the last surviving member of an uncontacted Indigenous tribe.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has closed first sales and released the first-look image from Oscar-nominated Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland‘s biopic of the Czech novelist Franz Kafka, “Franz.” The project has sold to September Film in Benelux, Filmin in Spain, Vertigo in Hungary, MCF Megacom for the former Yugoslavia and Movies Inspired in Italy. The film was previously acquired for theatrical distribution by Bac Films Distribution in France, X Verleih in Germany and Austria, Bioscop in Czech Republic and TVP in Poland.

Naman Ramachandran Animation studio Toonz Media Group has unveiled an eclectic slate for the Cannes Film Market. Drawing stories from popular Indian ancient fables and retelling them with a contemporary flavor, “Return of the Jungle” is set in present-day India and revolves around a group of classmates from junior school who must outwit the biggest, meanest bully in the school. A cool and loveable grandpa by their side peps the fourth graders with inspiring stories from the jungle.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Omar Sy, the charismatic French actor of heist show “Lupin,” is set to star in “French Lover,” Netflix‘s romantic comedy that will mark the directorial debut of Nina Rives. Sy, who is currently attending the Cannes Film Festival and sits on Greta Gerwig’s competition jury, will star opposite Sara Giraudeau (“Bernadette”), Pascale Arbillot (“Lost Bullet”) and Alban Ivanov (“C’est la vie”). Hugo Gélin, who previously directed “Love at Second Sight” and “Two Is a Family,” a pair of heartwarming comedies which thrived at the French box office, is serving as artistic producer on the film.

Kayal and Company” on Friday, Trump compared LGBTQ+ protections to a “cuckoo’s nest.”“A lot of things don’t make sense, having to do with what they’re doing, from the border to all of the men playing in women’s sports. I mean, the world is like a cuckoo’s nest right now with what they do,” Trump declared.One of the hosts alleged President Joe Biden has engaged in “manipulation” of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. She claimed parents now have to “pinch some pennies” to be able to afford private Christian schools for their children, to remove them from the enhancements that go into effect this summer.“Many schools are grappling with what they’re going to do,” she said, “because as of August 1, as you know, because of Biden’s manipulation of Title IX, these kids, the school boards, have no choice, they’re meeting right now they, many of them perplexed, and they don’t know what to do, Mr.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Munich-based sales agency The Playmaker has closed several key distribution deals on heist comedy “Two to One,” starring Sandra Hüller, who was Oscar nominated this year for “Anatomy of a Fall.” The Playmaker has sold the film to KMBO in France, A Contracorriente in Spain, Madman in Australia and Rosebud in Greece. The German distributor is X-Verleih.

declared “extremist” by the the country’s Supreme Court last year.He was sentenced to 15 days in jail.The 22-year-old was also fined 50,000 rubles — about $548 — for “discrediting the Russian army” in posts criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on his Telegram channel, which has since been deleted.Since the Supreme Court ruling, Russian authorities have cracked down on displays or media depictions of LGBTQ identity, conflating support for LGBTQ rights as contrary to existing social mores and traditional or religious viewpoints.They have also cast pro-LGBTQ movements as potential breeding grounds for liberal Western values, including representation for sexual and gender minorities, as well as opposition to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.Examples of these crackdowns have included raids on bars and nightclubs frequented by members of the LGBTQ community, the disruption of a “My Little Pony” convention for allegedly promoting homosexuality, and fines or prosecutions of individuals or Western media companies accused of displaying LGBTQ symbols or advocating on behalf of LGBTQ rights.In February, a woman was arrested and charged with spreading “LGBT propaganda” for wearing rainbow-colored earrings, while another was prosecuted for displaying a rainbow Pride flag on her Instagram account.That same month, a third woman was fined for displaying a Pride flag in the window of her house.In March, a man was arrested and charged for using “extremist symbols” when he sent a rainbow flag emoji in a private chat.According to France 24, Russian authorities have begun removing books with LGBTQ content from brick-and-mortar stores and from online libraries or catalogs.A new council set up by the Russian Book Union, a nominally

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The trailer (below) has debuted for Marcelo Caetano‘s “Baby,” which has its world premiere in Cannes Critics’ Week. Berlin-based sales agency M-Appeal has acquired world sales rights. The Brazilian film, based on a screenplay by Caetano and Gabriel Domingues, centers on 18-year-old Wellington, who has been released from a juvenile detention center.

EXCLUSIVE: Entertainment Squad (Paper Spiders, and Tribeca’s audience award winning dramedy, Cherry), has acquired SXSW’s premiere film, Peak Season, and set a theatrical release for August 2.Helmed by Henry Loevner and Steven Kanter, who previously collaborated on the critically acclaimed The End of Us, Peak Season is an exploration of personal discovery and the road less traveled set against the stunning backdrop of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The film stars Claudia Restrepo, Derrick DeBlasis, and Ben Coleman, Fred Melamed (A Serious Man, Hail, Caesar!) and Stephanie Courtney who is famously known as “Flo” in Progressive commercials.Both a bittersweet romantic comedy and a clever social commentary, Peak Season follows a burnt-out New Yorker who travels to Wyoming with her fiancé, but then falls for a handsome, yet troubled ski-bum, and questions whether to leave her city life behind.

EXCLUSIVE: The English-language adaptation of Momo, one of the best-loved fantasy books by The Neverending Story writer Michael Ende, has set a buzzy cast, with Alexa Goodall (A Gentleman In Moscow) taking the lead role of the young orphan girl Momo. 

Pet Shop Boys have shared that Drake‘s team were “very apologetic” about the rapper’s unauthorised sample of ‘West End Girls’ in one of his tracks.Last October, the UK pop duo claimed that the Canadian rapper sampled their 1985 hit without their knowledge or permission.On Drake’s track ‘All The Parties’ from latest album ‘For All The Dogs’, the artist sings: “East End boy and West End girls.”The lyrics and melody mirrored the Pet Shop Boys’ own track, in which they sing: “In a West End town, a dead end world/ The East End boys and West End girls.”“Surprising to hear Drake singing the chorus of ‘West End Girls’ in the track ‘All the Parties’ on his new album. No credit given or permission requested,” the band wrote on Twitter after the release.Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe shed more light on the beef in an interview with NME, sharing that it has all been resolved.

proposed a plan to disaffiliate from the larger church and form a separate, more “traditionalist” Global Methodist Church taking a harder line on social issues, including same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy.In total, 7,600 congregations — constituting one-quarter of all U.S.-based congregations — have severed ties with the church.As a result, the overall church has moved toward embracing more progressive positions on various issues, including LGBTQ inclusion.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Indie Sales has acquired Japanese director Momoko Seto’s “Dandelion’s Odyssey,” an ecological fable animated by Guionne Leroy (“Toy Story”) and scored by Nicolas Becker (“Sound of Metal”) and Quentin Sirjacq. Shot from Japan to Iceland, “Dandelion’s Odyssey” is an adventure set in a dystopian world and is reminiscent of “Microcosmos,” with plants and animals as the main characters. The feature boasts a mix of timelapse photography, as well as live-action shooting and 3D animation.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Paris-based international sales and production company Totem Films has revealed its production slate, with projects by Nastia Korkia, Vytautas Katkus, Ernst de Geer and Anna Roller. Totem brought together the directors and writers of the projects they are developing to take part in a Script Circle in Berlin, led by consultants Françoise von Roy and Franz Rodenkirchen. Totem partners Bérénice Vincent and Laure Parleani said that the production companies they are working with, Garagefilm, TamTam and Kalekone, were “enthusiastic about this collaborative idea, so were the directors and scriptwriters.” They added: “It is very nurturing to have a mix of different personalities, countries and backgrounds.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Brazilian auteur Kleber Mendonça Filho (“Bacurau”) is set to direct “The Secret Agent,” a gripping political thriller headlined by “Civil War” star Wagner Moura. The film is set in the late 1970s during the final years of Brazil’s military dictatorship.