Mexico’s Monterrey Film Festival Unveils Lineup, New International Ambitions (EXCLUSIVE)

Addie Morfoot Contributor Madeleine Gavin’s Sundance award-winning documentary “Beyond Utopia” has garnered the best documentary and best doc editing honors at the 24th annual Woodstock Film Festival. The documentary, which was recently acquired by Roadside Attractions, is vying for Academy Award attention.

Mexico has selected the Berlin competition title Tótem, the latest film from Lila Avilés, as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mediawan Rights has unveiled the first teaser of the anticipated “Zorro” series reboot which is directed by Javier Quintas (“Money Heist,”“Sky Rojo”) and is set to premiere on opening night of Mipcom. Produced by leading Spanish company Secuoya Studios, the show marks the IP’s big television comeback almost two decades after its last live-action adaptation. The Spanish-language series will have its premiere screening at Mipcom on Oct.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Rodrigo Prieto, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer, will be honored with the 2023 Árbol de la Vida – lifetime achievement award at the 13th edition of the GuadaLAjara Film Festival on Nov. 1. Taking place at the Theater at the Ace Hotel in Downtown L.A., the Mexican D.P.

Naman Ramachandran Billie Piper, “The Great British Bake Off” and “Derry Girl” have landed nominations at the 2023 International Emmy Awards. The nominations, which were unveiled on Tuesday by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, are across 14 categories and span 20 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Qatar, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the U.K.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Neo Sora’s concert documentary “Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus,” a standout at the Venice Film Festival, has sold for theatrical distribution in North America to Janus Films ahead of its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival. The theatrical release will be followed by a Blu-ray Disc release on the “Janus Contemporaries” label. This is the latest deal inked by London and Paris-based production, finance and sales outfit Film Constellation, following a slew of sales to Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Midas Filmes), Germany and Austria (Rapid Eye), Scandinavia (NjutaFilms), Baltics (Kino Pavasaris), South Korea (Media Castle), China (JL Vision Films), Hong Kong and Macau (Edko Films), Taiwan (Cai Chang) and Singapore (Anticipate Pictures).

Anna Marie de la Fuente Speaking at the press conference announcing the Monterrey Film Festival’s 2023 edition, Lorena Villarreal, the festival’s president of the board, hailed the event’s ambitions for its @Nuevo León industry section, “which will undoubtedly be an important hub connecting Mexican and global cinema,” she said. With newly hired Diana Cadavid, a seasoned programmer at TIFF and artistic director-programmer of the LALIFF and Cali film festivals managing the section, Ficmonterrey has signaled its intent to become a new, unmissable appointment for the international entertainment industry.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Some of Colombia’s most prominent producers have banded together to form PI, a new association of independent producers led by Cristina Gallego, behind Oscar-nominated “Embrace of the Serpent” and “Birds of Passage,” who is an official jury member at this year’s 71stSan Sebastian Film Festival. “Colombia has become a production destination for major companies due to its tax benefits, which has led to growth, experience, and job opportunities within the sector,” Gallego told Variety. “However, members of PI view with particular concern the need for attention, updates, and the evolution of national and departmental policies that support the continued production of Colombian cinema, its voices, its artists, and its filmmakers,” said Gallego who will preside over the association along with director-producer Franco Lolli (“Gente de Bien”) as vice president while Diana María Bustamante (“Memoria,” “Land & Shade”) and Manuel Ruiz Montealegre (“Amparo”) serve as legal representatives.

Sasha Urban editorNetflix has released the teaser trailer for “Griselda,” a limited series starring Sofia Vergara as the infamous Colombian drug trafficker Griselda Blanco, who was widely known as the “Godmother.” From writer-producer Eric Newman and director Andrés Baiz, both “Narcos” alums, the series follows Blanco as she builds one of the most profitable drug cartels in history while simultaneously parenting her three sons. She ran a notoriously ruthless and violent cocaine trade in New York and Miami in the 1970s and ‘80s after immigrating from Colombia, before she was arrested in 1985.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Steven Yeun has bucked stereotypes and carved a new niche as sexy Asian leading man with his roles in “Burning” and “Beef.” Justin Chon transitioned from a supporting role in “Twilight” to directing “Gook,” “Jamojaya” and half of Apple TV+’s “Pachinko.” And Busan-born Daniel Dae Kim has expanded from “Lost” and “Hawaii” to becoming one of Hollywood’s leading producers. The stateside successes of Korean-born and Korean American talent are growing and are worth celebrating. But the Busan International Film Festival’s planned party is being dialed down a notch under the impact of the twin writers’ and SAG Actors strikes in the U.S. Busan’s ‘Special Program in Focus: Korean Diasporic Cinema’ will go ahead with a screening schedule including six films, public talk sessions that include Oscar-winning actor Youn Yuh-jung, Lee Isaac Chung, director of Oscar-winning film “Minari,” and John Cho, the Seoul-born “Star Trek” and “Searching” star.

Naman Ramachandran India’s Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), which enjoys the support of cinema greats Martin Scorsese and Amitabh Bachchan, is conducting the third edition of the Biennial Audio-Visual Archival Summer School in partnership with the International Federation of Film Archives. The global film preservation training workshop is coming to India for the first time and will be held at the India International Centre in Delhi Oct.

British Taylor Swift fans say they are 'so so so excited' after some eagle-eyed supporters noticed that the singer’s concert tour could be coming to UK cinemas next month.

Taylor Swift is gearing up for one of the year’s strongest showings at the box office with her Eras Tour concert film!

Liam Neeson’s new action thriller Retribution has been described as in the running for “worst film of the year” by critics.Directed by Nimród Antal (Predators), the film follows financier Matt Turner (Neeson) who is threatened by a mysterious bomber while driving his son and daughter to school. Other cast members include Noma Dumezweni, Lilly Aspell and Jack Champion.It’s the third remake of the 2015 Spanish film The Stranger, following German and Korean adaptations in 2018 and 2021 respectively.Retribution, which was released in the US on August 25, received a negative review on Rolling Stone, who described it as a “formula beaten into submission”.“Retribution is not the worst of his thrillers/action movies – that honour belongs to either last year’s god-awful Blacklight or this freezer-burned turkey – but it does suggest that Neeson may want to consider retiring from the everyman action-hero beat for good,” the review reads.

Disney’s Korean superhero thriller Moving heads the nominations for this year’s Asia Content Awards at Busan International Film Festival with nods in six categories, followed by Tencent Video’s The Long Season with five nods. 

Sophia Scorziello editor It’s December in Mexico City in “El Sabor de la Navidad,” where fake Santas, queso relleno and karaoke machines are all just smoke and mirrors covering over the true meaning of Christmas. Helmed by Alejandro Lozano, this endearing Spanish-language Christmas film intertwines three separate stories of families and friends grappling between tradition and progression, trying to discern which is most important.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While at the Deauville American Film Festival to present “May December,” Todd Haynes spoke to Variety, during a one-on-one interview at the Royal Hotel, about bringing Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore together in a film for the first time, provoking audiences and pushing against American conservatism. Haynes, who is attending Deauville with his producers Christine Vachon and Sophie Mas, also teased his next directorial effort starring Joaquin Phoenix, a “sexually explicit” movie telling a “love story between two men set in the 30s.” Loosely based on the story of Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher who had an affair with her 6th grade student, “May December” has already earned awards buzz since world premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was bought by Netflix. In France, the movie will be released by ARP Selection in January.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has revealed a raft of deals for key territories for Ramata-Toulaye Sy‘s feature film debut, “Banel & Adama,” which played in competition in Cannes and makes its North American premiere in Toronto. Variety reviewed it as “a dreamlike debut” in May. The film just won the Melbourne International Film Festival’s top prize, the Bright Horizons Award.

French filmmaker Claire Denis has been announced as the jury president for the Official Section of the 71st San Sebastian Film Festival, running from September 22-30.

Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens tied the knot in May 2023 and have been living long distance since shortly thereafter.