Zsuzsi Bánkuti Appointed Head Of Locarno’s Open Doors; San Sebastian Unveils Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum Selection – Global Briefs

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Loco Films has acquired international sales rights to Petr Václav’s buzzed-about film “Il Boemo” which is world premiering in the official selection at the San Sebastian Film Festival. The epic period movie sheds light on the extraordinary life of Josef Myslivecek, one of the most prolific opera composers in 18th century Italy who inspired Mozart and became his friend. Speaking of the film, Václav’ said he “did everything I could in order to understand the daily life of Josef Mislivecek, his work, his social interactions, his feelings and opinions he could have had.”

K.J. Yossman Neil Jordan’s “Marlowe,” which stars Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger, is set to close the San Sebastian Festival next month. It will be the film’s world premiere. Jordan, who is known for writing features including “The Crying Game” (for which he won an Oscar) and directing “Interview with the Vampire,” which featured Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, will be in attendance at the Kursaal Auditorium on Sept. 24 for the “Marlowe” premiere alongside the film’s stars. Based on John Banville’s novel “The Black Eyed Blonde,” “Marlowe” is set in 1930s Los Angeles where private eye Philip Marlowe (played by Neeson) is tasked with finding a beautiful heiress’s missing former lover. The character of Marlowe was originally created by Raymond Chandler almost a century ago.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Directing Penélope Cruz in Venice competition title “L’immensità,” Italy’s Emanuele Crialese is teaming with Argentina’s Nicolás Gil Lavedra to produce “Rona,” the second feature by Emiliano Torres, writer-director of San Sebastian Special Jury Prize winner “The Winter.” Produced by Crialese’s Italy-based Now and Buenos Aires Gamán Cine, set up by Lavedra and Torres, “Rona” is being structured as a majority European production and will shoot mainly in English. Lavedra, whose recent production credits include Paz Encina’s Rotterdam Tiger Award winner “Eami,” will oversee production.  “Rona” is one of the highest-profile of 14 titles at this year’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, one of the Spanish festival’s centrepiece industry events.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Sandro Fiorin’s Figa Films has snapped up international sales rights to Pavel Giroud’s “El Caso Padilla,” which, selected for the San Sebastian highly competitive Horizontes Latinos, bids fair to become one of the most notable Latin American doc features of 2022. Variety has also shared in exclusivity a first trailer to the film. The follow-up to Giroud admired 2015 fiction film “El Acompañante,” which won San Sebastian’s Co-Production Forum, “El Caso Padilla” turns on the so-called Padilla Affair. That climaxed with arrest on March 30, 1971 of Heberto Padilla, one of the most exquisite and trenchant of modern Cuban poets whose 1968 poetry collection “Fuera de Juego” constituted a scathing attack on the lack of liberties in Fidel Castro’s Cuba. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Paris-based company Indie Sales has boarded Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi’s feature debut “A Tale of Shemroon” which is set to premiere in the New Directors competition at San Sebastian. Set in the north of Tehran, “A Tale of Shemroon” follows Iman and his younger brother Payar who live with their father. After the death of their mother, Iman starts a business thanks to his connections with the city’s affluent youth, but these new opportunities bring him on a dangerous path affecting his family’s destiny. “We are proud to be a part of San Sebastian’s New Directors competition with this new voice from Iranian cinema,” said Nicolas Eschbach at Indie Sales. “Emad (Aleebrahim Dehkordi) depicts the reality of the Iranian youth living in parts of Tehran that have seldom been seen before,” Eschbach continued.

‘The Magic Flute’ To World Premiere At Zurich, First Image Of Jack Wolfe In Lead Role Released Florian Sigl’s contemporary reimagining of Mozart’s opera classic The Magic Flute, which is executive produced by Roland Emmerich, will make its world premiere at the Zurich Film Festival (Sept 22 to Oct 2) as part of its music-themed Sounds sidebar. The production has released a first image of Shadow And Bone star Jack Wolfe in the lead role of a 17-year-old boy who is sent from London to Austrian Alps on a singing scholarship, to coincide with the announcement. Other highlights of the section include the Swiss premiere of drama Taurus starring Machine Gun Kelly. The US rapping star is due to attend a gala screening of the film, which originally world premiered at the Berlinale. Further world premieres in the sidebar include bio-doc about Irmin Schmidt, who shot to stardom with the Cologne band Can and composed the music for many of Wim Wenders’ films.

Teri Hatcher is making her long-awaited return to the stage!

Christopher Vourlias Producer Ilya Stewart has launched an independent studio based in Europe that will operate on a global scale, working with international talent and focusing on English-language feature films and television series, Variety can exclusively reveal. Hype Studios is the new venture from Stewart, the formerly Moscow-based producer who in recent years has been a fixture at the Cannes Film Festival, where his collaborations with Russian auteur Kirill Serebrennikov, including “Petrov’s Flu” and “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” have premiered in competition. Among the co-productions with American and European partners currently on Hype Studios’ slate is Zach Wigon’s “Sanctuary,” starring Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott, which premieres as a Special Presentation next month at the Toronto International Film Festival and was produced with Rumble Films and Mosaic Films, along with Charades. Also on the slate is Pietro Marcello’s French-language “Scarlet,” produced in partnership with CG Cinéma’s Charles Gillibert, which opened this year’s Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes and will receive its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival.

Margarethe von Trotta To Receive Lifetime Achievement Honor At The European Film Awards German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 35th European Film Awards. von Trotta will receive the honor at a ceremony in Reykjavik, Iceland, on December 10 where she will be an honorary guest. Born in Berlin and raised in Düsseldorf, von Trotta started her career as an actress, in theatre and appeared in films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff before moving behind the camera in 1978 with The Second Awakening of Christa Klages, her solo debut as a director. In 1981, her film Marianne and Juliane about the “German Sisters” Christiane and Gudrun Ensslin won the Golden Lion in Venice as well as two German Film Awards and an Italian David di Donatello. Previous winners of the European Film Academy’s lifetime achievement award include Agnès Varda and Judi Dench.

Jamie xx has shared his new remix of Oliver Sim‘s ‘GMT’ – you can listen to the new version below.The two artists, who are bandmates in The xx, have further extended their creative partnership with the remix of the track, which has arrived this afternoon (August 22).The original ‘GMT’ – which was released last month – is set to feature on Sim’s forthcoming debut solo album ‘Hideous Bastard’, which has been produced by Jamie xx and is set for release on September 9.Marking Jamie xx’s first new official remix in over five years, the ‘GMT’ remix – which incorporates a sample of Brian Wilson‘s ‘Smile’ – features additional production from Floating Points, and has previously been aired during Jamie’s recent DJ sets and live shows.You can listen to Jamie xx’s remix of Oliver Sim’s ‘GMT’ below.Having played his debut London solo show in June (where he covered Placebo and was joined by his xx bandmate Romy), Sim is now scheduled to embark on a North American, European and UK tour next month.Tickets for Sim’s UK dates are on sale now from here, and you can see his upcoming gigs below.September29 – The Showbox, Seattle, WAOctober01 – The Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA02 – The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA05 – Metro, Chicago, IL06 – Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, ON08 – Lincoln Theatre, Washington, DC09 – Royale, Boston, MA10 – Webster Hall, New York, NY 11 – Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA20 – Vega, Copenhagen, Denmark22 – Le Cabaret Sauvage, Paris, France23 – Melkweg, Amsterdam, Netherlands26 – Admiralspalast, Berlin, Germany27 – Uebel & Gefaehrlich, Hamburg, Germany29 – New Century Hall, Manchester30 – KOKO, London

Ellie Kemper and Zach Cherry have signed on to co-host the Roku Original series “The Great American Baking Show.” Kemper and Cherry will take audiences into the iconic tent to watch contestants vying to become the America’s top baker.A U.S. adaptation of the popular British competition series “The Great British Baking Show,” the new show will feature six 60-minute episodes and will premiere in 2023.

Zack de la Rocha reportedly tore his Achilles heel early on in Rage Against The Machine‘s now-cancelled ‘Public Service Announcement’ tour, a friend of the band has said.During the second show of the North American leg – which they performed in Chicago on July 11 – de la Rocha was seen to injure his leg onstage, leaving for a short time before continuing the performance seated. “I don’t know what happened to my leg right now,” the singer told the audience. “We’re gonna keep this fucking shit going.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentFollowing a vibrant 2022 edition in a three-year cycle dedicated to Latin America and the Caribbean which she oversaw in an interim capacity, Zsuzsi Bánkuti has been appointed the new head of Locarno’s Open Doors. She replaces long-time Open Doors chief Sophie Bourdon, who stepped down earlier this year. The key to this year’s Open Doors was its inspired choice of a focus on smaller territories in Latin America which are often home to first-class directors – one director this year, Dominican Yanillys Pérez scooped a Discovery Award at the Toronto Festival with her doc-feature “Jeffrey,” for example – but, apart from the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, lack robust state subsidy systems enabling producers to produce movies easily out of their own countries.  The obvious solution is international co-production.

One of a Thousand,” 2020 ) or Toronto (Agustina San Martin, “To Kill a Beast,” 2021).Ulises Porra’s second feature “Carajita” won San Sebastian’s own prestigious New Directors strand last year in a competition that also featured Juan Sebastián Mesa’s “The Rust,” his sophomore outing.10 of the 14 projects would be second or third features. Their issues  – and those of more mature directors – are very much of this age: a female friendship tale (“La Hija del General”); Argentine rural queer sensibility (“They Burn in the Same Way”); a woman’s renouncement of family (“Rona”); contemporary solitude (“To Die on Your Feet”).Epitomising a new generation, one project, Manuel Luque’s “Inspection on Earth,” is sci-fi, another “Todo el mundo,” from Argentina’s Agustina San Martín, who caught attention with her atmospheric genre allegory “To Kill a Beast.”San Sebastian 2022 Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum Contenders:“The Blue Flamingo,” (“Voo do Flamingo,” Beatriz Seigner, Brazil)Produced by Brazil’s Abrolhos Filmes and Globo Filmes,and pitched at Rome’s MIA Market in 2020, a drama about a boy, 11, travelling to a largely abandoned beach town to meet his father for the first time.