San Sebastian: Culinary Zinema’s ‘Pachacútec, the Improbable School’ Unveils Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix on Thursday morning unveiled Improv: 60 and Still Standing, a comedy special celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Improv comedy clubs, which will premiere globally on the streamer November 7th.

Naman Ramachandran African streamer Showmax has dated and unveiled a first trailer for “Twende,” its first original 2D animated series. “Twende” follows a pangolin of the same name, the slowest moving animal in the savannah. The pilot screened in competition at Annecy in 2021.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Multinational studio Dori Media Group (DMG), founded in Israel in 1996 by Yair Dori and with outposts in Israel, Switzerland, Argentina, Spain and Singapore, is presenting more than a dozen new series at Mipcom, led by two notable action-drama series, “Amia” and “Indal.” Led by Nadav Palti, CEO & President of Dori Media Group, the studio’s contingent of sales execs and reps will be presenting a slate of both scripted and unscripted series spanning multiple territories, languages and cultures at the annual confab in Cannes. “Amia” was filmed in Uruguay and is inspired by the terror attacks of 1992 on the Israeli embassy and in 1994 against the Argentinian Jewish community while “Indal” is a high-octane series that follows the kidnapping of a police officer by a group of Ethiopian Israeli youth.

Jessica Kiang Rather than horns, they look like tiny black catkins clinging to the grains on swaying stalks of rye. These little clusters — actually a fungus known as ergot — are a disease that affects the ovaries of their host plants, but can be made into an infusion that induces abortion in women.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In a glittering event at Madrid’s Florida Park, Spain’s Secuoya Studios brought out its big guns, led by its president James Costos and Secuoya Content Group CEO Raúl Berdonés, to tout the fast-growing company’s slate, led by its 10-episode series “Zorro,” its most ambitious production. The series pilot will be unveiled at Mipcom in a special screening on Oct.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Encouraged by the generous tax breaks on offer in Spain, Mexican producer Christopher Hool of Bazooka Films has launched new company Studio 33 Films, with outposts in both Mexico City and Madrid. His Spanish producing partner Pablo Gonzalez, with extensive experience in providing production services, will run Studio 33 Films Spain, Hool said at Iberseries & Platino Industria on Thursday.

Naman Ramachandran A first trailer has been unveiled for Bangladeshi filmmakers Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and Nusrat Imrose Tisha‘s “Something Like an Autobiography.” The film has its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival, where it is in the prestigious Jiseok competition. The film follows Dhaka-based married couple, the filmmaker Farhan (Farooki) and actor Tithi (Tisha), who are under societal pressure to have a baby. Tithi conceives and towards the end of her pregnancy term an incident occurs that throws into sharp relief some realities of contemporary Bangladeshi society.

Naman Ramachandran Speciality distributor Cosmic Cat has set U.K. release dates for documentary “Cassius X: Becoming Ali.” The film follows the early years of Cassius Clay, from a bright-eyed rookie boxer from Louisville, Kentucky, to world heavyweight champion and from working class intellectual to one of America’s most influential civil rights campaigners. The film reveals how the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, reinforced by a friendship with revolutionary preacher, Malcolm X, set Clay on the journey to become Cassius X, before his induction to the Nation of Islam and ascension to the name of Muhammad Ali.

Naman Ramachandran After 2011’s “Nobel Thief,” 2012’s “Uncle Shyamal Turns off the Lights,” 2015’s “Peace Haven,” 2016’s “Mi Amor” and 2019’s “Aadhaar,” Indian filmmaker Suman Ghosh returns again to the Busan International Film Festival. “The Scavenger of Dreams” has its world premiere in the ‘A Window On Asian Cinema’ strand. A treatise on social inequality, the film follows Birju (Shardul Bhardwaj, 2019 Mumbai Film Festival winner “Eeb Allay Ooo!”) and Shona (Sudipta Chakraborty, Ghosh’s “Searching for Happiness…”), trash collectors who live in a Kolkata slum with their young daughter.

The San Sebastian Film Festival awarded O Corno (The Rye Horn) with the Golden Shell for Best Film. San Sebastián native Jaione Camborda took the top prize of the night for the feature she directed.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In the lead up to its January theatrical release in Scandinavia and in Italy next Spring, Finnish adventure comedy “Snot & Splash: The Mystery of Disappearing Holes” (“Räkä ja Roiskis”) is sharing its trailer exclusively in Variety. FilmSharks CEO Guido Rud, who picked up world sales rights to the children’s film at the Locarno Film Festival in August, said: “Finnish cinema is known for having a high level of creativity, but a fantasy/adventure film like this one with a super refreshing plot is bound to be well received in cinemas, platforms and festivals, some of which have already booked the film from summer to the fall.” The family film from director Teemu Nikki is produced by It’s Alive Films, founded by Nikki and Jani Pösö, and displays the dark, witty humor of his previous films, including “The Player,” “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic,” “Nimby,” sci-fi comedy “LoveMilla” and “Euthanizer,” Finland’s Oscar submission in 2019. Poland’s Orka and Post Control Helsinki are co-producers.

Marta Balaga San Sebastian premiere ‘A Journey in Spring’ takes on the nature of life, say debuting Taiwanese directors Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang. “I have a very close relationship with my family. They ground me.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In more news emerging from Spain’s San Sebastian Festival, Clara Larraín’s Clara Films has boarded Lucía Lalor’s docu-fiction hybrid “Mam” from Argentina’s Gale Cine. Described as a “thought-provoking autobiographical hybrid documentary that explores how it is to grow up with a ghost mother,” it follows a millennial in her thirties and her fantasies about her dead mother.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Underscoring its historical importance, a further production marking the 50th death anniversary of Chile’s socialist president Salvador Allende could well be in the works. The historical drama, provisionally titled “The Meeting,” details a historical encounter between the doomed president, whose downfall heralded the rise of the infamous military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in 1973.

Jessica Chastain is making a glamorous arrival at the 2023 San Sebastian Film Festival.

Holly Jones As it plays in competition at San Sebastian’s Works In Progress Latam strand, Buenos Aires-based sales agency Meikincine has swooped on international sales rights for mother-daughter relationship drama “Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us” (“Quizás Es Cierto Lo Que Dicen De Nosotras”). Produced by Storyboard Media (“Santiago, Italia” “El pacto de Fuga”), the film is directed by Chilean filmmaking duo Camilo Becerra (“El último sacramento”) and Sofía Paloma Gómez (“Quiero morirme dentro de un tiburón”).

Naman Ramachandran A first trailer has been unveiled for Indonesian filmmaker Yosep Anggi Noen’s “24 Hours With Gaspar.” The film will world premiere at the Busan Film Festival where it is in the prestigious Jiseok competition. Set in 2032 and based on the novel of the same name by Indonesian author Sabda Armandio, the film follows Gaspar, a private detective with 24 hours to live, who finds clues about the mysterious disappearance of Kirana, his childhood friend.

Holly Jones Frenetic and high-flying ‘90s rock emblem Mauricio Aznar trades his position as enigmatic frontman of Zaragoza’s Más Birras for a journey towards the soul of his craft in Spanish writer-director Javier Macipe’s highly-anticipated second feature, “The Blue Star” (“La Estrella Azul”) saw its world premiere in the New Directors strand of the San Sebastian Film Festival on Monday. Macipe’s (“Los inconvenientes de no ser dios”) short efforts, 2014 release “Children of the River” and 2019’s “Gastos incluídos,” earned Spanish Academy Goya nominations, placing him among Variety’s 10 Spanish talents to track in 2021.

Holly Jones Incendiary Spanish director Isabel Coixet (“The Secret Life of Words”) heads to San Sebastian for the international premiere of her latest drama “Un Amor,” a take on devouring love starring Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) and Hovik Keuchkerian (“Money Heist”) that sets Coixet up to compete on the festival’s main stage for the first time. “Un Amor” is produced by Buenapinta Media’s Marisa Fernández Armenteros (“The Mole Agent”) alongside “Society of the Snow” producers Sandra Hermida and Belén Atienza, here producing out of Perdición Films. World sales are handled by Film Constellation (“Return to Reason”).

Callum McLennan Latido Films is venturing yet more into the inspiring world of e-sports and viral fame with Goya Award winning producer-helmer Alvaro Longoria’s new doc-feature, “La vida de Brianeitor.” The film serves as a spin-off from Javier Fesser’s Spanish box office smash hit, “Championext,” which Latido is also selling. The doc follows Brian Albacete, better known as Brianeitor2022. With millions of social media followers, an acting role in a top-charting Spanish film “Championext” and a spot on Team Heretics—one of Spain’s leading e-sport entities—Brian is redefining what it means to be a star.