Utopia Buys Cannes Un Certain Regard Prize Winner ‘Omen’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International U.K. actors union Equity is preparing advice for its members as SAG-AFTRA gets ready to take strike action on Thursday. Variety understands that the union, which has 50,000 members, has agreed a basic position with its U.S. counterpart. These rules will apply to U.K. productions, and the two groups are in the process of hammering out the finer details. Equity is asking members to check its website for the specific advice around 8 p.m. U.K. time on Thursday, which coincides with a SAG-AFTRA press conference in Los Angeles at noon Pacific time that will officially announce the actors strike.

What is an arguably privileged actor-turned-filmmaker doing making a story about Lakota men on the Pine Ridge Reservation as they grapple with a world built against them and navigate unique paths to manhood? Well, having made lifelong friends in South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation when shooting the Andrea Arnold film, “American Honey,” actress Riley Keough felt compelled to tell one of their stories in the film “War Pony.” READ MORE: Gina Gammell & Riley Keough’s ‘War Pony’ Is Overstuffed, But Admirable [Cannes Review] Enlisting the help of filmmaker (and her half-sister) Gina Gammell, a screenwriter and producer on such films as the upcoming “Sweet Lamb of Heaven” and “Welcome the Stranger” (2018), “War Pony” made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival last year, where it was included in the aspiring Un Certain Regard Category.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Strand Releasing has acquired the North American rights to Pierre Creton’s “A Prince,” a French film which world premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. “A Prince” won the SACD Prize from France’s Writers’ Guild for the best French-language film at Directors’ Fortnight. Represented in international markets by Andolfi, “A Prince” follows a horticultural student, Pierre-Joseph, whose sexual encounters with his botany teacher and mentors lead to a unique hybrid tale of science, sex and meditation. “We’re thrilled to be handling ‘A Prince,’ Creton’s work is such a rarified vision that fits so well with the Strand Releasing brand, we look forward to taking this out to some of the top festivals across North America,” said Marcus Hu at Strand Releasing. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Altered Innocence has picked up North American rights to Bertrand Mandico’s gory, transgressive fantasy movie “Conann,” which had its world premiere in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and will soon be making its way to Locarno Film Festival. Kinology is handling world sales. The film will tour at film festivals throughout the fall and be released theatrically next year. Following different iterations of the ruthless Connan the Barbarian, the film also stars Elina Löwensohn in canine prosthetics as Rainer, Conann’s spiritual guide. In the film, guardian of the underworld, Cerberus, still has a muzzle, but here he is called Rainer, and has the breasts and the voice of a woman, wears a studded black leather jacket, and a flash camera fit for the paparazzi. Talking to us from the great beyond, he details the successive reincarnations of Conann the Barbarian, a bloodthirsty Amazon from ancient times.

Loose Women star Charlene White revealed she gave herself an ankle injury during an episode of the hit daytime show, and shared with her Instagram followers just how it happened.The 43-year-old revealed yesterday that she “twisted” her ankle while wearing high heels and trying to talk to Emmerdale star Amy Walsh. Charlene said the mishap occurred in an ITV corridor and happened because she "turned round" to chat to guest star Amy, 36.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent New Europe Film Sales is set to launch international sales on “Stepne,”the debut feature of Ukraine’s Maryna Vroda, a best short Cannes Palme d’Or winner, which was announced this July 5 morning as part of Locarno’s main International Competition.  Born in Kyiv, Vroda won a Palme d’Or in 2011 for her short “Cross Country” (“Kross”), a seemingly allegorical psychological drama about a boy who is forced to run, then does so willingly, ending up watching his classmates running a senseless cross-country race as a boy rolls in a transparent ball in a river. “Kross” was inspired by Vroda’s memories of physical education lessons. “Stepne” is equally personal, coming to Vroda when her grandparents died. In it, a middle-aged man travels to his family home to care for his dying mother. He meets his brother and a woman he loves and thinks back to his life choices such as leaving to live in a big city. Then, just before dying, her mother tells her about a treasure she’s buried in the shed.

Loose Women star Nadia Sawalha showed off her fabulous figure as the TV favourite posed in a bikini for a new selection of beach snaps, and fans were in awe. The 58 year old star's followers praised her for showing her "real body" and being natural on social media, something that is becoming rarer and rarer nowadays.

Loose Women star Andrea McLean has revealed the results of a liposuction procedure. The TV presenter, 53, showed off her new look in a black swimsuit as she shared a candid update with fans on how the procedure had gone.

EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, has acquired North American VOD rights to the dramatic feature film Waiting For The Light To Change — the 2023 Slamdance Film Festival ‘Grand Jury Prize’ winner for ‘Best Narrative Feature.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Hillary Clinton’s HiddenLight Productions has partnered with Roger Ross Williams and “The Inspection” director Elegance Bratton on a feature documentary about 1979’s Disco Demolition Night in Chicago. Known as one of the darkest days in American music history, the incident saw 50,000 white teenagers descend on Chicago’s Comiskey Park to blow up records made by mostly Black artists. The doc, which is called “The Night Disco Died,” is a co-production between HiddenLight and One Story Up, and will be presented by Impact Partners and Los Angeles Media Fund (LAMF).

Brent Lang Executive Editor Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of indie distributor Magnolia Pictures, has acquired North American rights to “Sleep.” The horror-thriller, which sounds designed to make you rethink your thoughts about sleepwalking, recently had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival’s critics week. It was directed and written by Jason Yu, who worked with Korean filmmaking legends Bong Joon-ho and Lee Chang-dong before making his feature directing debut with “Sleep.” Magnet will release the film early next year. The director’s previous collaborator, Bong, called “Sleep,” “the most unique horror film and the smartest debut film I’ve seen in 10 years.” So that’s some high praise from the director of “The Host” and “Parasite.”

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has signed a five-year deal with Japanese screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto, winner of the Best Screenplay award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for Hirokazu Kore-eda’s competition title Monster. 

Loose Women star Chizzy Akudolu has shared her terrifying brush with cancer, as she discovered a worrying "lump" during a routine check of her breasts.The TV actress opened up on going through the health scare in private after she found the lump back in May. Chizzy, 49, who starred on the ITV daytime series between 2018 and 2019, promptly booked herself an appointment at the doctor's as a result. She was then thankfully given a mammogram and an ultrasound to examine the mystery mass, which was thankfully nothing serious.

Acclaimed lyricist Sheldon Harnick has sadly died.

When it comes to working with brands, those in the diet industry are off the table for Jameela Jamil.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to “Four Daughters,” Kaouther Ben Hania’s film which competed at the Cannes Film Festival. The competition’s sole Arab film, “Four Daughters” mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of a Tunisian mother whose two elder daughters joined ISIS. It won L’Oeil d’or or “Golden Eye” Award at Cannes for best documentary and is now set to roll off into the international festival circuit. Kino Lorber plans to release it theatrically this fall, followed by a digital and home video release on all major platforms. The New York-based distribution company has high hopes for “Four Daughters” during the next awards season. Last year’s L’Oeil d’Or winner, “All That Breathes,” went on to earn an Oscar nomination for best documentary. Ben Hania previously earned an Oscar nomination with her 2020 film “The Man Who Sold His Skin” in the international feature film category.

Cosmopolitan Magazine’s editor-in-chief, stopped by Stagwell’s Sports Beach Monday morning to talk about her latest projects and her obsession with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his fiance Lauren Sanchez.Q: You are a bit of a media jack of all trades. What are you doing while you’re in Cannes and what kinds of conversations are you looking forward to having during the festival?A: Right now, I’m working on waking up from a very late dinner last night at Hotel du Cap, which was extraordinarily fun. The whole of Cannes is like a sport, isn’t it? If you can get through to the end of it you deserve a medal. Q: I know. I think I need another coffee after this. It’s quite early. I wanted to ask you about some of your current projects. I know you’re doing production stuff. Tell me how you got into that. I know you have a big editorial background. What was your path?A: I was a journalist for a long time and then I was an editor for a long time and now I’m more entrepreneurial.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Choi Sung-bong, a male singer who was the runner up in the 2011 edition of “Korea’s Got Talent” talent show, died on Tuesday. He was 33. Choi was found dead by police at his home in the Yeoksam district in southern Seoul at 9:41 a.m. Tuesday, according to police and fire authorities on Wednesday. According to the Yonhap news agency, authorities in Seoul report that Choi appeared to have died by suicide. Their conclusion was drawn from a combination of the circumstances at his home and a note that he posted to YouTube implying death by suicide. “I sincerely apologize to all who suffered from my foolish mistake,” the note said.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to Joanna Arnow’s “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed.” The film, which recently world-premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section and is executive produced by Sean Baker, is a comedy about a 30-something New York woman, who is played by Arnow. It follows her as time passes in her long-term casual BDSM relationship and low-level corporate job, and chronicles her quarrelsome Jewish family.  Critics liked Arnow’s witty and fresh take, with Variety calling it one of the festival’s true discoveries and hailing the filmmaker as “a raw, intimate and more importantly extremely funny new talent.“ The film is Arnow’s narrative feature film debut following shorts including “Bad Dancing,” which won the Berlinale Silver Bear, “Laying Out,” and the feature doc “I hate myself:).” 

Eamonn Holmes has taken a cheeky swipe at his wife and former daytime TV co-host Ruth Langsford's show Loose Women during a joke about retirement.The GB news star, who used to host This Morning with his wife on Fridays, is now presenting his own programme on the channel at the age of 63. During a chat with his co-host Isabel Webster about the difficulties of retiring early in these times, Eamonn said that he had no plans to retire from TV anytime soon, because he wouldn't want to be sat around watching "Loose Women" every day.The sly dig was undoubtedly aimed as a light-hearted tease at his beloved wife, who is also 63, especially as the pair were known for their jibes and quips every Friday on This Morning. "You see, I have no desire to be retired," the Northern Irish star began.