City Tallinn Showbiz Latest News and Updates

EXCLUSIVE: Gravitas Ventures has acquired worldwide rights to the drama On Our Way, the feature directorial debut by Sophie Lane Curtis, toplined by Micheál Richardson, Keith Powers, James Badge Dale and Jordana Brewster. Vanessa Redgrave, Paul Ben-Victor, Ruby Modine and Franco Nero also star. Gravitas will release the film in theaters and on demand on Friday, May 19.

EXCLUSIVE: Upon Entry, from directors Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez, will make its North American debut at SXSW later this week, and we’ve got the trailer to go with it (check it out above). 

Holly Jones France-U.K. sales-production-distribution house Alief (“Matadero”) has closed U.K. and Irish theatrical sales for on Tallinn Black Nights Grand Prix winner “Driving Mum, with Newcastle upon Tyne-based exhibition and distribution outfit Tull Stories (“A Clever Woman”) ahead of its bow in at the Glasgow Festival on Monday. Warsaw-based Aurora Films (“I Love My Dad”) has simultaneously snapped up Polish theatrical rights. “We could not be happier to have found the perfect match for ‘Driving Mum’ in the U.K and Ireland, key markets in our company’s DNA. What a joyful day, I’ll finally be able to take my mother to one of our movies in London,” Brett Walker, president of Alief, told Variety.

Spain boasts a bullish presence at the Berlinale. Following, short profiles of its features that have made the festival cut and a selection of top titles being moved at the European Film Market: Director: Estíbaliz Urresola Spain’s Berlin competition player is from Urresola, director of Cannes Critics’ Week short “Chords.” Film takes place in a Basque Country village and is a celebration of female sexual diversity. Catalonia’s Inicia Films (“La Maternal”) produces with Gariza Films (“Nora”). Sales: Luxbox

Christopher Vourlias When a rock festival held in Tallinn in the summer of 1988 was shut down by Soviet authorities, thousands of Estonians took to the streets, waving Estonian flags and singing patriotic songs in a bold show of defiance of Soviet rule. By the festival’s final night, some 200,000 people had joined what would later be dubbed the Singing Revolution, a catalyst for the non-violent movement that swept across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the early-‘90s and paved the way for independence. Even under Moscow’s thumb the Baltics demanded to be heard. For decades the three small nations have drawn on their historical, cultural and economic ties to create a sum that’s bigger than its parts, a collaborative spirit that’s also energized the countries’ growing screen industries, which will share the stage as joint Countries in Focus at this year’s European Film Market.

Holly Jones Munich-based arthouse distribution company Prokino Filmverleih has locked German-language and Swiss rights for the unconventional Icelandic road trip film “Driving Mum” from production-distribution outfit Alief (“Matadero”). The project won the Grand Prix Prize for best film at the Tallinn Black Night Film Festival, earning additional accolades for its affecting score. It was also chosen as an Industry Select title at 2022’s Toronto Festival. The deal, brokered between Miguel Angel Govea, a partner at Alief, and Ira Von Gienanth, managing director of production, acquisitions & sales at Prokino, comes ahead of the feature’s European Film Market screenings in Berlin.

EXCLUSIVE: Burgeoning Toronto-based indie streaming platform HighballTV has announced five original titles it plans to put into production in 2023, with an overall investment of $15.6M.

EXCLUSIVE: NBA All-Star Chris Paul and Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA have boarded RTG Features and Victory Creative Group’s basketball documentary Handle with Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball Crew as executive producers, ahead of the film’s U.S. premiere at the Urbanworld Film Festival, slated for Thursday, October 27.

Bonobo has shared his latest single ‘Defender’ – you can listen to the new track below.The song follows on from the musician, producer and DJ’s surprise single ‘ATK’, which arrived last month and was, according to Simon Green, “aimed more at the dancefloor”.Released via the artist’s label OUTLIER (in partnership with Ninja Tune), both ‘Defender’ and ‘ATK’ are set to be physically released on hand-stamped and numbered white label vinyl (limited to 1500 units) later this month – you can pre-order your copy here.Listen to Bonobo’s song ‘Defender’ in the below visualiser.Bonobo will perform at Printworks in London on November 19, marking his final UK live date of 2022.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent It’s pitch dark and stormy and Pelle Heikkilä, one of Finland’s biggest stars, is getting slammed by massive waves in a 10-meter-deep water tank. The shoot of “Estonia,” a Scandinavian limited series about Europe’s deadliest civil maritime disaster, is underway in Belgium at an indoor water stage. The eight-part cinematic show, which is budgeted at €15 million ($14.7 million) and is being shopped by Jan Mojto’s Beta Film (“Babylon Berlin”) at Mipcom, charts the sinking of the MS Estonia on Sept. 28, 1994, which killed over 850 people. The series is directed by Swedish director Måns Månsson (“The Real Estate,” “Chernobyl”) and Finnish director Juuso Syrjä (“Bordertown,” “Helsinki Syndrome”), who are polar opposites, one coming from festival-friendly auteur filmmaking, the other coming from high-end commercials.

Holly Jones Brazilian film editor, screenwriter and director Bruno Carboni tells a merged tale of human disconnection in “The Accident” (“O Acidente”), sharing an exclusive first-look trailer with Variety as the film begins to advance on the festival circuit.  Completed within the framework of the 2018 Torino Film Script Lab, Carboni’s reflective first feature has debuted in competition alongside seven other projects, including Eduardo Cassanova’s “La Piedad” and Carlos Lechuga’s “Vicenta B” at the 32nd Annual Cine Ceará in Fortaleza, Brazil, which wraps today. It is also screening at the Festival do Rio and has just been selected for the Tallinn Black Nights First Feature Competition. 

EXCLUSIVE: Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans), Conor Sherry (The Terminal List) and Mika Abdalla (Sex Appeal) will lead the cast of coming-of-age comedy The Snack Shack, which Adam Carter Rehmeier (Dinner in America) wrote and is directing for the collective emerging filmmakers label of MRC Film and T-Street.

Christopher Vourlias One year before its upcoming premiere in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section, Polish director Damian Kocur’s feature debut “Bread and Salt” screened for a select audience of industry tastemakers in Wrocław, Poland. In 2019, Jan Komasa’s “Corpus Christi” played in the same showcase for upcoming Polish films before launching its campaign for best international feature ahead of the 92nd Academy Awards. It’s an indication of the growing muscle of Wrocław’s New Horizons Film Festival and its industry arm, Polish Days, that producers, festival programmers, sales agents and distributors from around the globe make the summer trek to the historic university city, with its Gothic and Baroque architectural marvels situated on the Oder River.

Rammstein played a huge outdoor gig in Coventry on Sunday (June 26), with the show reportedly heard over 10 miles away.Local news outlet the Coventry Telegraph reported that multiple noise complaints were made by residents multiple miles from the CBS Arena venue.As the Telegraph write, “householders leapt onto social media to report hearing ‘loud thumping’ across Nuneaton and as far away as Burton Hastings — which is eleven miles away.“Some were confused at what the noise until others said it was the rock band’s gig.”The outlet revealed that Facebook posts from local residents revealed that they could hear “loud thumping” and “a loud beat through their closed windows,” adding: “A loud boom was heard around 10:20PM as fireworks lit up the night sky to end the gig.”See footage from Rammstein’s massive stadium show below.The band’s new tour, which stretches throughout 2022, follows the release of the German rockers’ eighth album, ‘Zeit’, which was released earlier this year.

Christopher Vourlias Since hosting its first dedicated drama series conference during the 2017 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event – the festival’s industry arm – has continued to expand the scope of its popular TV Beats Forum.This year’s event, which will take place during the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event from Nov. 18-25, includes a conference program focused on the latest industry trends, preview screenings of the newest series from the Nordic, Baltic and Central and Eastern European regions, and a co-financing market showcasing a curated selection of eight-10 series currently in development.Marge Liiske, managing director of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, says the growing TV strand is a recognition of the “well-established reality” facing Baltic producers today.

Christopher Vourlias In the days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, organizers of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival quickly shifted gears to offer whatever support they could.

Christopher Vourlias The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is already recognized as one of the most influential industry showcases in the Baltic and Nordic regions. But the organizing team of the festival, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, are keen to point out that the popular event isn’t just a one-off affair.

Christopher Vourlias Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba and producer Darya Bassel are teaming up on a documentary about Ukraine’s refugee crisis after their last collaboration, “Outside,” premiered at Copenhagen’s CPH:DOX festival this year.The project, with a working title “Displaced,” is being produced by Bassel’s Kyiv-based Moon Man production outfit in co-production with Germany’s Koberstein Film and Denmark’s Final Cut for Real.Zhurba began filming not long after the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, capturing footage of the thousands of Kyiv residents who had flocked to the capital’s railway station for safety.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In response to shifting dynamics at film festivals, many of which have been impacted by the pandemic, a new curated Spanish film platform, Panoramic.film is entering the market.Spearheaded by curator Xavier Puerto, director of the Festival REC de Tarragona and a Spanish-language film programmer for the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, Panoramica’s offer is two-fold: “We offer festivals the possibility of completing their line-up with especially curated programs and, through our selective catalogue, offer filmmakers the chance to see their films extend their rounds on the international festival circuit,” said Puerto.The idea for the platform came about after conversations with various festival heads and cultural institutions as they grappled with the changes brought about by the pandemic, with many forced to hold online or hybrid editions. “On the other hand, it is a common conversation among filmmakers that most films, for a variety of reasons, have a very ‘short’ life on the festival scene, regardless of their quality,” Puerto noted.With a number of festivals coming to realize that a hybrid version has enabled them to reach audiences beyond their borders, many have embraced it for the long term.“We want to help festivals with the sometimes rather complex process of presenting a hybrid version and help its audiences discover hidden gems,” said Puerto.In practice, Panoramica is integrated into the programming of the festival itself, as well as on its website with a series of conditions such as viewings with geo-blocking, specific dates or viewing limitations.

Tristan Priimägi Elmo Nüganen’s historical crime thriller “Melchior the Apothecary” has become the first Estonian film to cross the 50,000 admission mark at the local box office in the two years of the pandemic. The film, which was released by Hea Film on April 11, tops the box office with 57,456 admissions, according to Film New Europe. The pic is the initial instalment in a trilogy – the first time a movie trilogy has been produced in Estonia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Cannes Film Marché has unveiled the full lineup of its Ukraine in Focus program which will provide Ukrainian filmmakers and producers with networking, pitching and co-financing opportunities over two days during the Cannes Film Festival, on May 21 and 22.Under the program, key market initiatives such as Goes to Cannes, Cannes Docs Showcase and the Producers Network will be skewed towards projects and executives from Ukraine in order to support the country which was invaded by Russia on Feb. 24 and has been at war since then.

Vladimir Putin once warned that he could have Russian troops in six capital cities in just 48 hours, it is claimed.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Following the success of their collaboration on Nicolás Postiglione’s debut feature “Immersion,” production shingles Whisky Content of Mexico and Chile’s Juntos Films have forged a medium-term strategic alliance for the joint development of nine films in six years.The agreement comes just days after the premiere of “Immersion,” a thriller headlined by Chile’s most bankable star, Alfredo Castro, at the Miami Film Festival where its poster won the Best Poster Design Award. The film has already racked up top awards from the festivals of Guadalajara, Tallinn Black Nights and Punta del Este.The move also comes as further cooperation among Hispanic companies continue apace in response to the increasing challenges of local content production.

Manori Ravindran International EditorTurkish writer-director Cenk Ertürk has signed with CAA for representation in all areas.The Istanbul-based Ertürk made his debut with “Noah Land,” which he developed as a Cannes Cinéfondation resident in 2016, and ultimately premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019, where it won awards for best screenplay and best actor in the international category. The wins were a first for a Turkish project at the New York festival.The film follows an ailing father and son who travel to a village where the former grew up in order to carry out his dying wish to be buried under a particular tree.

Naman Ramachandran Radhika Madan, star of 2018 Toronto winner “The Man Who Feels No Pain,” will play the lead in acclaimed Indian filmmaker Sudhanshu Saria’s “Sanaa.” The film, a social drama, follows a headstrong and ambitious girl who is raging against an internal battle that is rooted in unhealed trauma.Saria is writing, directing and producing via his Four Line Entertainment outfit. Saria said: “I’ve always believed in making films that are ambitious in quality and rich in story and messaging. I’ve nurtured this dream for seven years and I couldn’t be more excited that Radhika Madan agreed to bring my titular character to life.

Anna Marie de la Fuente It’s a new dawn for Chile’s audiovisual industry. When Gabriel Boric, Chile’s youngest (at 35) and most left-leaning president since Salvador Allende, was elected in December, his pledge to more than double the state’s contribution to the arts was greeted with great fanfare.  After all, Chile’s prodigious film output this past decade has been remarkable despite the scant public support it has received. “If everything we have achieved in the last 10 years was done with so little money, imagine what we can achieve with an increase in audiovisual funding!” says Constanza Arena, executive director of Chile’s film promotion org, CinemaChile.In recent years, Chile has triumphed at the Oscars, starting when Pablo Larraín’s “No” was nominated for international feature in 2012, and culminating in an Oscar win for Sebastian Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” in 2017.

Anna Marie de la Fuente It’s a new dawn for Chile’s audiovisual industry. When Gabriel Boric, Chile’s youngest (at 35) and most left-leaning president since Salvador Allende, was elected in December, his pledge to more than double the state’s contribution to the arts was greeted with great fanfare.After all, Chile’s prodigious film output this past decade has been remarkable despite the scant public support it has received.“If everything we have achieved in the last 10 years was done with so little money, imagine what we can achieve with an increase in audiovisual funding!” says Constanza Arena, executive director of Chile’s film promotion org, CinemaChile.In recent years, Chile has triumphed at the Oscars, starting when Pablo Larraín’s “No” was nominated for international feature in 2012, and culminating in an Oscar win for Sebastian Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” in 2017.

Kore-eda’s ‘Air Doll’ Gets First U.S. Release

‘Mr. Landsbergis’ Wins At IDFA

Jamie Lang New Europe Film Sales, handling international sales for Matías Rojas Valencia’s “A Place Called Dignity,” “Un lugar llamado dignidad” in Spanish, which is currently playing in competition at this year’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, have given Variety exclusive access to the film’s international trailer.The film presents a dramatized look at events surrounding Paul Schaefer, a former Nazi soldier who fled to rural Chile after WWII.