Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival soars with its 27th edition

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Les Arcs Film Festival, the European equivalent to the Sundance Film Festival, has unveiled the list of projects which will be presented during its competitive Work-in-Progress showcase. Curated by Tribeca and Les Arcs’ artistic director Frederic Boyer and Lison Hervé, the selection will present a broad range of movies in post-production seeking a sales agent, festival slots and international distribution.

Nick Holdsworth At the closing ceremony of the 3rd edition of the Red Sea Film Festival Thursday, which took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in front of an audience that included Hollywood stars Nicolas Cage, Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Jason Statham and Adrien Brody, the Golden Yusr for best film and a $100,000 cash prize went to Pakistani-Canadian horror film “In Flames,” directed by Zarrar Kahn. The director said that the indie movie was shot for “just $300,000 — the size of a Red Sea Fund production grant.” He urged “everyone who gets a grant to go make a movie, because this was made for nothing.” The Silver Yusr prize for best feature film went to Tarsem Singh for “Dear Jassi.” The film, an India/Canada/U.S.

Andrew Garfield shared insights into his early days in Hollywood, experiences working on the Spider-Man franchise and thoughts about Red Sea International Festival Festival during his masterclass at the festival today. 

Valerie Wu Intern The Palm Springs International Film Festival has announced its 2024 lineup. Held by the Palm Springs International Film Society, the PSIFF aims to spotlight and celebrate a range of global films. The 35th annual festival’s opening night will host the U.S.

Jaden Thompson The 30th Slamdance Film Festival has announced its complete 2024 lineup, including 32 features, 75 shorts and five episodic titles. Slamdance will take place in-person at Yarrow Hotel in Park City and in Salt Lake City, Utah from Jan. 19-25, and online screenings will be offered on the Slamdance Channel from Jan.

EXCLUSIVE: On the heels of his debut feature Calladita (The Quiet Maid)’s November world premiere at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, rising Spanish filmmaker Miguel Faus has signed with Artists First for management.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Habanero Film Sales has snapped up documentary “I Trust You” (“En vos confio”) from Juan Pablo Gugliotta and Nathalia Videla Peña’s Magma Cine (“The Distinguished Citizen,” “1976”) in one of the more significant of multiple deals struck at a hectic Ventana Sur (VS) in Buenos Aires. Directed by Agustin Toscano, whose “The Owners” and “The Snatch Thief” participated in Cannes’ Critics Week and Directors’ Fortnight sidebars in 2013 and 2017, respectively, “I Trust You” follows former nuns Susana and Nélida who have been incarcerated at the Tucumán Women’s Prison since 2006, accused of a crime they insist they did not commit.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Though the Red Sea Film Festival will feature a slew of films from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region – including 11 feature films from Saudi Arabia – there is a rich roster of international fare set to launch locally from Jeddah. Kaleem Aftab, the festival’s director of international programming, says they received lots more submissions for this year’s third edition.

EXCLUSIVE: Boutique distributor Juno Films has picked up North American and UK rights to This World is Not My Own, a documentary portrait of the folk artist Nellie Mae Rowe from filmmakers Petter Ringbom and Marquise Stillwell, which premiered earlier this year at SXSW. The award-winner will be released in theaters in the summer of 2024.

Tilda Swinton has many talents, including performing, producing, collaborating, writing, and dressing up, not to mention expressing herself beautifully on screen and in her choice of language. It’s the second time that I’ve interviewed the performance artist at the Marrakech International Film Festival, and I love how she talks.

Our favourite coffee machines, New Look skirts and Ninja cookers have hit their lowest Black Friday price. There's been a lot of chatter about whether Black Friday is still the bargain bonanza it once was. Consumer group Which? recently found that 98% out of 214 products on sale during Black Friday 2021 were cheaper or the same price at other times in the year, meaning only 2% of the deals were genuinely good value.

Martin Scorsese has cancelled his trip to the Marrakech International Film Festival at the eleventh hour, which he was due to attend as the special honorary guest of its 20th edition.

Jessica Chastain, resplendent in a shimmering silver tasseled jump suit, championed the power of art to bring about positive change at the opening night of the Marrakech Film Festival on Friday evening.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Producer and screenwriter, Darren Dale has been named as the new board chair of the Sydney Film Festival, following the retirement of Dianne Weir. He is a leading advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and has been director of Blackfella Films since 2000.

IDFA – the largest documentary film festival in the world — has just wrapped its 36th edition, and it was a memorable one by every definition. Two hundred and fifty films screened in Amsterdam, representing work from across the globe –the Middle East to Africa, Asia, North and South America, and Europe.

EXCLUSIVE: Bombay Berlin Film Productions (BBFP) has revealed that August Diehl has been cast to play the role of German Olympic athlete Otto Peltzer in upcoming biopic The Distant Near. 

Sundance Film Festival will take place in Park City, Utah from January 19th -29th and the full line-up has just been revealed.As usual, there’s a ton of new movies on offer. Stand-outs include To the Bone, a new film with with Lily Collins and Keanu Reeves, Cate Shortland’s Berlin Syndrome with Teresa Palmer, Burning Sands with Moonlight’s Trevante Rhodes, David Lowery’s A Ghost Story with Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, and Anton Yelchin’s final film Thoroughbred.

At the Award Ceremony of the 27th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), awards were presented to the winners of the festival’s five competition programmes and PÖFF’s youth and children’s film sub-festival Just Film.The jury of the Official Selection Competition, headed by Trine Dyrholm, selected Emma Dante’s drama Misericordia as their favourite, handing the film the Grand Prix for Best Film. Dante adapted her own play of the same name, telling the story of three prostitutes who live in the wasteland by the sea, where a village of outcasts has emerged. Its star Simone Zambelli also scooped the Best Actor Award.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor Italian writer-director Emma Dante’s “Misericordia” has won the top prize at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia. Adapted from her own play, her third feature tells the story of a young man (Simone Zambelli) with learning difficulties, cared for by a group of sex workers on an island, protecting him from the cruelty of his abusive father. It’s a raw portrait of a marginalized group of people, mixing natural beauty of the locations with the grime of everyday existence.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor “Being from a small country is not an obstacle but a plus because you have a story no one has heard of,” Lithuanian actor and showrunner Gabija Siurbyte (“Troll Farm”) told the TV Beats panel during this week’s Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, hosted by the Black Nights Film Festival. It was the kind of optimism and can-do spirit that characterized the industry forum, which comprised an impressive range of industry panels, workshops and pitching sessions, as well as including a few innovations of its own.