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Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Warsaw-based sales outlet New Europe Film Sales has signed an international sales deal for the upcoming Belgian debut “Julie Keeps Quiet” by Leonardo Van Dijl, whose short film “Stephanie,” also repped by New Europe, played in Cannes competition in 2020. Both films are set in the world of competitive youth sports: the short explored the world of gymnastics, while the feature film takes on tennis. The feature is to be shot in the second half of this year with delivery planned for mid-2024. In “Julie Keeps Quiet,” when the practices of a prominent tennis coach are investigated, attention quickly shifts to Julie, a young and promising player who is always around him. As pressure mounts for her to share her experiences, Julie chooses to keep quiet and focus on her game, leaving the investigation and the coach’s future in doubt.

EXCLUSIVE: When millions of Ukrainians fled to the Polish border after the Russian invasion last year, Maciek Hamela, whose film In the Rearview is debuting in the Cannes market this week, was one of a number of volunteers who drove to help assist multiple generations of Ukrainian civilians in fleeing the life-threatening conflict. 

Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour kicks off in Stockholm on Wednesday and it’s the superstar’s first tour in six whole years. Figures this week put the 41-year-old singer’s potential earnings at an eye-watering £1. 6billion, which is even more than Taylor Swift is expected to earn with her Eras tour.

Global audiences have been gaga for Baba Yaga with Lionsgate/Thunder Road Films/87 Eleven’s John Wick: Chapter 4 now having passed the $400M mark worldwide.

Documenting Landscapes: Ukraine’s Vanishing Terrain serve to memorialize the country as the young Kyiv-based artist had always known it — peaceful and free, joyful and beautiful. These are not depictions of today’s Ukraine — a scarred, desolate, bleak, war-torn land, ravaged after a full 15 months and counting of pillaging Russian invaders and prolonged fighting.“I don’t understand this war, I don’t understand why to kill people and destroy the destinies of an entire generation,” Leonets says in a release announcing the series and its run as the premiere exhibition at the new, expanded Amy Kaslow Gallery in downtown Bethesda.Leonets created his works at a time when paint, brushes, and linen were all in short supply in Ukraine.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Cinedigm has acquired all North American rights to the Japanese sci-fi horror film “New Religion.” “New Religion” is a surrealist body horror film written, directed and produced by first-time feature filmmaker Kondo Keishi. It stars Seto Kaho, Nunami Daiki, Oka Satoshi and Ryuseigun Saionji. After her daughter’s death, divorced Miyabi begins working as a call girl. One day, she meets an unsettling customer who wants to take pictures of her body parts. Soon, she realizes that every time she allows her body to be photographed her daughter’s spirit gets closer. She must decide how far she is willing to go to connect with her daughter once again.

Diners at a Polish LGBTQ+ restaurant in Warsaw ended up eating alongside royalty on Wednesday night.

Prince William is following in his late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II’s footsteps.

Prince William laid a wreath at a monument dedicated to soldiers in Poland as part of a trip to meet Ukrainian refugees being helped in the Eastern European country. The Prince of Wales, 40, visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw on Thursday morning - echoing a royal engagement carried out by the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, who did the same in 1996. William was greeted by a guard of honour and carried the assortment of flowers to the monument, spending around 10 minutes there before leaving.

Prince William is making a surprise two-day visit to Poland, starting with a military base along the border with Ukraine Wednesday to thank troops for their commitment to helping the country defend itself against Russia.  "I just wanted to come here in person to say thank you for all that you’re doing, keeping everyone safe out here and keeping an eye on what’s going on,'' the Prince of Wales told British and Polish troops gathered in Rzeszow, a city in the southwest of the country that has become a hub for shipments of military and humanitarian aid bound for Ukraine. The city is around 40 miles from the Ukrainian border and is also a transit hub for refugees.  "You’re doing a really important job out here and defending our freedoms is really important, and everyone back home thoroughly supports you," he added.

The Prince of Wales has thanked British troops based roughly an hour’s drive from the Ukrainian border for “defending our freedoms” as he kicked off a surprise trip to Poland. William, 40, told soldiers at an air defence military base in the south-eastern Polish city of Rzeszow that their work to keep “an eye on” the situation in Ukraine is “really important”.

Netflix unveiled its slate of Polish-language series and films due to hit its service in 2023 in a “See What’s Next” event in Warsaw on Tuesday.

Production is underway on “The Tattooist of Auschwitz.” “Yellowjackets” Emmy nominee Melanie Lynskey is set to play the book’s real-life author, Heather Morris, and Jonah Hauer-King of the upcoming “Little Mermaid” remake has been cast as the title character, Lale Sokolov. The period drama hails from Sky and Peacock, which announced the casting news Thursday.

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.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival marks its 40th edition, running March 3-12, with a full-blown return to the in-person festival experience with a sidebar of only 10 titles available online.  “We’re celebrating the human connection and getting back into cinemas again,” says programming head Lauren Cohen who in her first year flying solo at the helm, is putting her personal stamp on the festival with female-centric topics dominating the Master Classes.  “It’s our 40th anniversary, which is such a milestone for us, we want it to be bigger and better than ever,” she continues. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outlet New Europe Film Sales has sold North American distribution rights for its Berlinale-selected drama “Delegation” to Greenwich Entertainment. “Delegation” is a story of three Israeli high school friends who take part in a class trip visiting Holocaust sites in Poland – their last time together before going to the army. During the trip, shy boy Frisch, aspiring artist Nitzan and class heartthrob Ido deal with issues of love, friendship and politics against the backdrop of concentration camps and memorial sites. The journey will change them forever. The deal for the film, which had its premiere in the Generation 14Plus competition, was negotiated by Naszewski and Greenwich co-president Edward Arentz.

Don Lemon returned to CNN This Morning on Wednesday and issued another apology for comments he made about women on the show last week.

Ed Meza @edmezavar German distributor and world sales company Kinostar has acquired Polish filmmaker Maria Sadowska’s erotic thriller “Temptation.” Based on the bestselling novel by Edyta Folwarska, “Temptation” tells the story of young journalist Inez, whose assignment to cover soccer star Maks Wygoda leads her onto a dangerous journey. “Temptation” was produced by Daniel Markowicz of Warsaw-based Lightcraft, who also produced and directed the recent hit Netflix actioner “Lesson Plan,” and executive producers Paulina Nowak and Anita Dabrowska. “Maria and Daniel are extremely talented, and we are very happy to start working with Lightcraft on this movie, with hopefully many more to follow,” said Kinostar head Michael Roesch.

Marta Balaga The Polish film industry is embracing variety and high-profile international collaborations, with a slew of new co-productions already generating buzz among buyers and festival programmers. “More and more established filmmakers, who used to look for collaborators in Romania or Hungary, are now coming to Poland — mostly because we are backed by concrete institutions and because there is money,” says producer Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska of Madants, heading to Berlinale’s European Film Market with “Ultima Thule” and Goran Stolevski’s “Housekeeping for Beginners.” “Our crews speak English and work abroad. We are visible internationally,” she adds.

Christopher Vourlias Latvian director Viesturs Kairiss, who won the international narrative competition at the Tribeca Film Festival last year with his coming-of-age drama “January,” is prepping his next feature film. “Ulya” is based on the real-life story of Ulyana Semjonova, a girl raised in the Latvian countryside who reaches a height of seven feet and would go on to become a famous professional basketball player. Set in the 1970s in Latvia, which was then part of the Soviet Union, the film follows its titular heroine from the time she leaves the countryside at the age of 14 and travels to Riga to play basketball. Kairiss described that as a “crucial stage” in Semjonova’s life, as her body was undergoing dramatic — and traumatic — changes for a teenage girl, while she also began to learn how to overcome adversity and, through basketball, find her place in life.

EXCLUSIVE: Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has boarded international sales on Goran Stolevski’s Housekeeping For Beginners starring top Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca as an unmaternal, gay woman who suddenly finds herself responsible for her partner’s two young daughters.  

EXCLUSIVE: The Kinoteka Polish Film Festival has set the lineup for its 21st edition, running March 9 — April 27 at venues across London.

Beyoncé has announced a world tour to support her Renaissance album, with dates across Europe beginning in May and moving to the U.S. in July.

Celtic wing-back Josip Juranovic will not play any further part in the World Cup by being ruled out of the third-place playoff against Morocco - after it emerged that he played 70 minutes injured against Argentina.

EXCLUSIVE: Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has acquired world sales rights for Adura Onashile’s feature debut Girl, starring rising French actress Déborah Lukumuena and big screen debutant Le’Shantey Bonsu.

Paweł Łoziński started working on The Balcony Movie two years before the Covid pandemic forced people to adopt social distancing, but the air of separation between the filmmaker and his subjects in this documentary feature might feel familiar. 

Reza Dormishian, Iranian filmmaker and producer of Dariush Mehrjui’s A Minor, which is set to have it world premiere in competition at the on-going International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, has not been granted a permit to leave Iran, so is unable to attend the event.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix’s Director of Local Language Originals for the CEE, Anna Nagler, has outlined the streamer’s ambitions in region, as its biggest drama series from the region, High Water, launches globally today.

Manori Ravindran International Editor European training program School of Film Advancement (SOFA), which aims to strengthen regional film industries across Europe with a focus on Eastern partnership, has launched its ninth edition and 2022-2023 project selection. The first SOFA workshop, running through Sept. 30, kicked off on Sunday outside the Polish capital of Warsaw. After two virtual years, the program returns with an expanded edition that comprises a line-up of 16 projects and 20 participants, composed of up-and-coming film industry executives, curators and cultural managers from 17 countries including Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Bangladesh, Switzerland and Germany.