Macedonia Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Israel’s Sam Spiegel International Film Lab has appointed a new director and unveiled the projects selected for its 11th edition, running from now until the early summer.

Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age drama The Fabelmans has been announced as the opening film of 44th Cairo International Film Festival, running from November 13 to 22.

Eurovision 2023 as a result of the costs of taking part in the contest.As previously reported, due to the ongoing war with Russia, this year’s winners Ukraine will not host the 2023 edition of the singing competition and it will instead be held in Liverpool next May.However, both Montenegro and North Macedonia have now announced they will not be heading to Merseyside due to “high costs”.“In addition to the significant costs of the registration fee, as well as the cost of staying in Great Britain – we also faced a lack of interest from sponsors, so we decided to direct existing resources to the financing of current and planned national projects,” Montenegro’s broadcaster RTCG said in a statement.North Macedonia’s state broadcaster added: “Due to the economic and energy crisis and high costs, [North] Macedonia will not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, which will be held in May in Liverpool, UK.”It’s not known what each broadcaster has to pay to participate in Eurovision but the total costs for all broadcasters reportedly totals around £5million.Song contest organisers – the EBU – said it is “committed to keeping the costs of taking part as affordable as possible”, explaining that fees are “calculated based on the number of countries competing” while considering “the member’s relative size and financial status”.News of Montenegro and North Macedonia’s withdrawal from Eurovision 2023 comes just weeks after Liverpool was announced as the host city for next year’s contest.

Coleen Nolan took to social media on Wednesday with a sweet update about her rescue dog Filly.MORE: Loose Women star Coleen Nolan's son Jake makes heartbreaking confessionPosting the video on her Instagram feed, the Loose Women panellist revealed that the pup is "doing amazing" despite having "a bit of a way to go."WATCH: Coleen Nolan welcomes new family additionChatting to the camera, Coleen said: "Well you've all been very very lovely and been asking me how my lovely dog Filly, from Macedonia, has been getting on. For those who don't know, I rescued a dog from Macedonia who lived on the streets, she's a labrador crossed with something, I think it's a husky but I don't know.

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.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Les Films du Losange has closed a raft of major deals on Kasja Naess’s animated feature “Titina” which is produced by the teams behind the Oscar-nominated film “The Triplets of Belleville” and Oscar-winning short “The Danish Poet.” “Titina” will world premiere at Animation Is Film Festival, which takes place Oct. 21-23, and is produced by GKids, in collaboration with Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Variety. Budgeted at $8.5 million, the Norwegian animated movie was produced by Mikrofilm (“The Danish Poet”) and Vivi Film (“The Triplets of Belleville”). The film tells the real-life story of a fox terrier that accompanied her master on an expedition to the North Pole in an air balloon in the 1920’s. It will be released in Norway by Norsk Film Distribusjon, and in France by Les Films du Losange.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, who directed the Oscar winners “A Separation” and “The Salesman,” U.S. producer Christine Vachon, whose credits includes Oscar winner “Boys Don’t Cry,” and Oscar nominees “Far from Heaven” and “Carol,” and Romania’s Alexander Nanau, the director of the Oscar nominated “Collective,” are among the jury members at the 18th edition of the Zurich Film Festival, which takes place from Sept. 22 to Oct. 2.  Farhadi will head the jury for the International Feature Film Competition. He is joined by the U.K.’s Clio Barnard, who directed the BAFTA nominated “The Arbor,” “The Selfish Giant” and “Ali & Ava”; L.A.-based Brazilian Daniel Dreifuss, a producer on the Oscar nominated “No” and “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Germany’s Oscar entry; Swiss/Italian screenwriter and director Petra Volpe, whose credits include Tribeca prizewinner “The Divine Order”; and  Sweden’s Peter “Piodor” Gustafsson, the producer of Ali Abbassi’s “Border,” which won the main award in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes.

Katherine Tulich Writer and director Goran Stolevski has had a whirlwind two years. He recently returned to Australia after shooting his third film, “Housekeeping for Beginners” in Skopje, North Macedonia to attend the world premier of his second film “Of An Age.” That took him to the Melbourne International Film Festival and before traveling on to Western Australia for CinefestOz where the film won the festival’s only recurring award, and one of the industry’s richest, worth A$100,000 (or $65,000). The Macedonian-born, Melbourne-raised film maker broke onto the international stage earlier this year with his feature debut “You Won’t Be Alone”, a supernatural folk-horror tale about a girl who becomes a shape-shifter in a 19th century Macedonian village. The film won critical acclaim at Sundance and received a limited theatrical release in the U.S. through Focus Features, which also holds worldwide distribution rights.

Ed Meza @edmezavar France TV Distribution is ratcheting up global sales for the hit Gallic crime series “Bright Minds,” with deals ranging from Japan to the U.S., Canada and Latin America. In its third season, the show, which airs on France 2, follows a police detective who finds a brilliant partner in a young autistic woman with encyclopedic knowledge of criminal investigations who works in the police records bureau. Together, they realize their complementary skills are the key to solving cases. France TV Distribution, which is presenting its current lineup this week at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous market in Biarritz, sold the show to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, which has been airing it since July.

Manori Ravindran International Editor More than a year since SkyShowtime was first announced, the SVOD is ready to join the streaming fray in Europe, Variety can reveal. The new platform — a joint venture between Comcast and Paramount Global that was first unveiled in August 2021 — will officially launch on Sept. 20 in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, before expanding into the Netherlands later this year in Q4. (The service received regulatory approval in Europe back in February.) Meanwhile, the SVOD will continue its roll out across Spain, Portugal, Andorra, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) over the coming months and through Q1 of 2023. CEE markets include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Cinesite has continued to bolster its international footprint with the purchase of a majority stake in the Balkans-based visual effects studio FX3X.

Katherine Tulich Goran Stolevski’s “Of An Age” won Australia’s richest film prize of A$100,000 ($65,000) at CinefestOz at a gala closing night over the weekend in Busselton, Western Australia. The Macedonian born, Melbourne based writer and director Stolevski also presented his much-lauded first feature “We Are Not Alone” at the festival. The CinefestOZ film prize is dedicated to new Australian-made films and consisted of four finalists.The others also included Gracie Otto’s comedy “Seriously Red,”, the world premiere of Matt Nable’s intense drama “Transfusion,” starring Sam Worthington and audience favorite, “Sweet As,” the first-time feature by local indigenous director Jub Clerc.

Leighton Clarkson unleashed another wonder strike as Aberdeen bounced back from their Motherwell misery to pick up three points in Perth.

Christopher Vourlias On a recent visit to Serbia, actor John Malkovich announced plans to team up with fellow leading men D.W. Moffett and Matt Dillon to build a state-of-the-art film, music and media production facility in neighboring North Macedonia, a small, mountainous country of just two million inhabitants.It might seem a risky gambit for a country with a modest domestic film industry that services few foreign shoots.

Marta Balaga Dina Duma’s upcoming feature “Skateboarding Is Not for Girls” turned heads at Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry section CineLink this year. The story about a Romani Muslim girl from Skopje, Adela, trying to save her sister from being sold to the bridal market and dreaming of joining a group of female skaters, received the Film Center Serbia and the Female Voices awards.

The latest piece of the international Warner Bros. Discovery management puzzle has slotted into place, as the wider reshaping of the business continues. WBD General Manager Warner Bros. Discovery CEE, Baltics and Middle East (CEE MENAT) Jamie Cooke, who took on his post in June, has unveiled his team. Senior roles have gone to the likes of Lee Hobbs and long-serving Warner Bros. sales exec Roni Patel.

Marina Lazarevska U.S. actor John Malkovich is backing a plan to build Stonebridge Studios, a film, music and media production facility in Skopje, North Macedonia.

Produced in conjunction with Serbia, Slovenia and Finland, Croatian six-part mini-series The Last Socialist Artefact had the perfect pedigree to take top honors in the Hearts of Sarajevo Awards for TV Series, a regional award set up to celebrate the past year’s best small-screen talent from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Slovenia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBoutique West Australia film festival, CinefestOZ announced its 2022 program featuring 270 film screenings and events.In its 15th edition, the six day destination film festival will be held from Aug. 23-28, 2022 across 35 locations in Western Australia’s South West, famous as a top wine producing region. Veteran actor, Richard Roxburgh ( “Moulin Rouge,” “Elvis”) was named as chair of the Jury that will award a A$100,000 ($65,000) film prize for best Australian feature film or feature-length documentary.Competing for the prize is director Gracie Otto’s feature film debut “Seriously Red” (which screened at SXSW earlier this year) which stars the film’s writer Krew Boylan as a Dolly Parton impersonator.

The Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled its competition line-up for this year’s festival, with Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage and Ukrainian helmer Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s documentary ‘Liturgy Of Anti-Tank Obstacles’ selected in the feature film and documentary categories respectively.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Goran Stolevski-directed horror-drama “You Won’t Be Alone,” was Thursday named the best film at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Korea’s leading genre film event.The Australia-U.K.-Serbia co-production is set in Macedonia and stars Noomi Rapace in a 19th century tale about a young girl who is transformed into a witch. It premiered at the Sundance festival in January and recently played in Sydney.

Many Brits will be eager to go abroad this summer as lots of countries ease their restrictions after the pandemic. Portugal is one of the latest countries to scrap its entry requirements, meaning passengers no longer have to show proof of vaccination or a negative test.

In the 2000s, the critical, financial, and Oscar success of Ridley Scott’s ancient Rome actioner “Gladiator” led to studios chasing the same highs. A string of high-budget period action films were greenlit in its wake such as Wolfgang Petersen’s Greek epic “Troy” (loosely based on the Iliad), Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven,” and Oliver Stone’s ambitious but ultimately messy “Alexander.” Stone wasn’t the only established filmmaker that attempted to tell the story of the ancient Macedonian general and king, Alexander The Great.

Naman Ramachandran The Walt Disney Company’s streamer Disney+ will be available in 42 new countries and 11 new territories this week following the launch on Tuesday in Greece, Turkey and countries in Central Eastern Europe, including Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic and Croatia. Tuesday’s series of launches follow the arrival of the service in South Africa on May 18 and across West Asia and North Africa on June 8.

Anna Franklin Nine projects have been selected for the CineLink Co-Production Market and seven for the CineLink Drama at the upcoming edition of CineLink Industry Days within the Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug. 12-19), according to Film New Europe.The CineLink Co-Production Market includes projects from North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia and Bulgaria, while projects from Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary were selected for CineLink Drama.A new development award, Female Voices CineLink Award with a cash prize of Euros 10,000, presented by the Slovenian Film Center, will be handed to one project from the CineLink Co-Production Market or CineLink Drama.CineLink Industry Days will start with CineLink Workshop this month, one-on-one meetings during the festival (Aug.

The Sarajevo International Film Festival has unveiled the nominees for its second annual TV awards with 17 series from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Slovenia represented across the nominees.

Loose Women star Coleen Nolan regularly updates fans with snaps of her family's dogs, and Wednesday was no exception as she announced very exciting news regarding her furry friends.MORE: Coleen Nolan's companion steals the show in sun-kissed garden selfieTaking to her Instagram Stories, the 57-year-old revealed her five pups, Mica, Buddy, Coco, Becks, and Filly now have their own Instagram account.WATCH: Coleen Nolan welcomes new family additionCaptioning a clip of their first reel, the mother-of-three said: "By popular demand, we've set up a little account for our team. Go follow @thenolandogs."READ: Coleen Nolan reveals romantic feature in plush bedroomREAD: Coleen Nolan's fans react as she shares sweetest 'date night' photoOn the page, fans are met with fantastic profiles on each of the pups as well as the new reel which showed the dogs on a trip to the groomers.

Anna Franklin Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby will start shooting next week in Malta on Ridley Scott’s film “Kitbag,” about Napoleon’s rise to power. Polish cinematographer Dariusz Adam Wolski is lensing, according to Film New Europe. Phoenix, who plays the French emperor, and Kirby, who plays his wife Josephine, arrive in Malta this week, according to Times of Malta, quoting sources in the local film industry.

Kristine Simsone “Samuel’s Travels,” directed by Latvian/Armenian filmmaker Aik Karapetian, has been acquired by HBO Central Europe. The deal was signed by the Copenhagen-based LevelK, who picked up international sales rights on the film in September, according to Film New Europe.

Anna Franklin “Utama,” the debut feature from Bolivian filmmaker Alejandro Loayza Grisi, won best film in the Glocal Images International Competition section of Cyprus Film Days Intl. Film Festival, according to online news service Film New Europe.