Ukraine IT Documentary ‘The First Code,’ With Music by Eurovision Contestants Tvorchi, Sets Spring Debut (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent As it continues ramping up its premium docu slate, Mediawan has boarded “Sobibor – Escape from History,” a four-part documentary which is being developed by leading Dutch banner Submarine (“Last Hijack”). In the documentary series, the infamous death camp will be portrayed through the eyes of the rebels and survivors. It will tell the epic true story of a group of Jewish prisoners who managed to escape from inside the living hell of a Nazi concentration camp and attempt to rebuild their lives. Some seeked retribution, others redemption. Their children struggle to this day in different ways with the trauma of their parents. The series also follows two surviving relatives, a daughter and a niece who return to Poland, to their ancestral villages where their relatives were banished.

Mae Muller has debuted inside the Official Singles Chart with her UK Eurovision entry, I Wrote A Song.

EXCLUSIVE: The Sands: International Film Festival of St Andrews, held in northern Scotland, has set the lineup for its second edition, running April 14 – 16.

New Line’s Covid-delayed DC sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods finally will hit theaters this weekend in 77 offshore territories and the U.S. with a global outlook between $80M-$85M — $35M of that coming from domestic.

The first stamps featuring King Charles III's silhouette are to go on sale, with the historic floral set a nod to the green-fingered monarch’s love of gardening. Charles’s uncrowned profile, in silver and facing to the right in the top left hand corner, appears on a collection of 10 special stamps celebrating the nation’s favourite flowers.

A year after Benjamin Hall was severely injured when his crew vehicle was struck by incoming fire in Ukraine, the Fox News correspondent has published a book, Saved: A War Reporter’s Mission to Make It Home, due to be released Tuesday.

With the war still raging in Ukraine, the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made their feelings on the matter one for the history books. In a year of incredible documentaries, the Oscars handed their Best Documentary prize to “Navalny,” a portrait of Russian opposition leader Alexi Navalny.

Mae Muller has revealed that she appeared in one of Mika‘s music videos at the age of nine.The London-born singer-songwriter, who was recently announced as the UK entry for Eurovision 2023, revealed that she can be spotted in the video for Mika’s 2007 single ‘Grace Kelly’.In an interview with the BBC, she said: “I’m the girl in the green dress, I still have the green dress. I should have brought it today.” She went on to say that she can still remember the words to the track because “it was her favourite song ever” which just made it “even cooler for a nine-year-old”.Elsewhere in the interview, she spoke about her Eurovision appearance, noting: “I said yes straight away.

The Chancellor will announce the Spring Budget soon which may have a direct impact on your personal finances.

Because a list is never done and because we were inspired to dig that bit further, we have a few more updates on potential Cannes contenders this year.

Eurovision 2022 winners Kalush Orchestra have shared their first English-language track, ‘Changes’ – scroll down the page to listen to it now.The Ukrainian band were victorious with their song ‘Stefania’ in last year’s Song Contest, which was held in Italy.“Pray to the gods of good and evil / Make them hear my demands,” Kalush Orchestra sing in the chorus. “Break the curse and threaded the needle / Gripped between my hands.”“This is a song about our home – where we live and how we have learned to protect it,” band leader Oleh Psiuk said in a press release. “We continue to live even when danger looms over us.

King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla are set to visit France and Germany for the first state visits of his new reign, it has been announced. The royal couple will use the occasion to "celebrate Britain’s relationship" with the two countries through an array of engagements. It will be the first time that Charles, 74, has travelled abroad in an official capacity since becoming King.

Katheryn Winnick is best known for playing shield maiden Lagertha in “Vikings” and the Canadian actress is now embracing a new role: ambassador for United24, the global initiative to support Ukraine, launched by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Christopher Vourlias The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival kicks off its 25th edition Thursday at a time when the nonfiction genre has arguably reached unprecedented heights. This year’s festival, which takes place March 2 – 12 in the seaside Mediterranean city, unfolds just days after veteran French docmaker Nicolas Philibert won the Golden Bear in Berlin for his documentary about a Paris mental health care facility, “On the Adamant.” The award capped a fortnight in which Sean Penn’s gonzo doc about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “Superpower,” also generated plenty of buzz (albeit lukewarm reviews). Meanwhile, Cameroon’s Cyrielle Raingou took home Rotterdam’s Tiger Award just a few weeks earlier for “Le Spectre de Boko Haram,” a riveting view of terrorism seen through children’s eyes. And one summer ago, Laura Poitras triumphed on the Lido with “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” her docu-portrait of the photographer and activist Nan Goldin, which won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion award.

EXCLUSIVE: Pope Francis is issuing a renewed plea for peace in Ukraine after attending an extraordinary screening at the Vatican of Evgeny Afineevsky’s documentary Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom.

Kristen Stewart is standing up for a second silent demonstration during the 2023 Berlinale Film Festival.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlinale competition film “Music” opens with gray clouds racing across the face of a Greek mountain as a storm prepares to break. It is a suitably dramatic prelude to the tumultuous events that will unfold, albeit rendered in an understated manner by German director Angela Schanelec, who won the Berlinale best director award in 2019 for “I Was at Home, But.” As the storm lifts, an abandoned baby boy is rescued a paramedic, who names him Jon. Years later, Jon, now a young man, kills another man, accidentally, and ends up in prison. Here, he is tended to by a female guard, Iro, as his eyesight begins to deteriorate. When he is released, the two get married and have a child. But several years later, his wife discovers a terrible secret.

Russian troops invaded Ukraine and, like many people around the world, he felt helpless at the images of people fleeing their homes.“The world felt like it was in a new place that it hadn’t been in decades,” the three-time Grammy winner recalls.On Friday, the one-year anniversary of the war’s start, Paisley is releasing a new song called “Same Here,” featuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking proudly about his country and people.The song is Paisley’s first from his new record, “Son of the Mountains,” to be released later this year on Universal Music Group Nashville.The West Virginia native wrote the song with Lee Thomas Miller (co-writer on Paisley hits “The World” and “Perfect Storm”) and Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith. It’s a three-part narrative that reflects on universal similarities, despite distance and language.While it doesn’t mention Ukraine specifically, the song ends with Paisley and Zelenskyy in conversation, recorded during a video call.

One year since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, networks continue to rotate reporters in and out of the country. Media outlets reassess security precautions as the nature of the battle changes. Correspondents are preparing for the possibility of an even longer and more brutal war, perhaps with even more risks and uncertainties.

Ed Meza @edmezavar “Ctrl: Z. Russian Voices,” a documentary that examines the impact of the Ukraine war on the everyday lives of people in a small Russian town, has sold to broadcaster across Europe, including Franco-German channel Arte, TV 3 in Spain and CNN in Portugal. Distributed internationally by Paris-based Java Films, the documentary was filmed in the small Russian town where director Natacha Rostova, using a pseudonym, grew up. It examines the lasting effects the ongoing conflict is having on the lives of families and couples, ordinary people who are silenced, often too afraid to speak out, while others have become fervent opponents of the war.