Kino Lorber Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights to Bruno Dumont’s “The Empire,” a sci-fi satire starring Anamaria Vartolomei (“Happening”), Camille Cottin (“Call My Agent!”), Lyna Khoudri (“The Three Musketeers”) and Fabrice Luchini. “The Empire” just world premiered in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Jury Prize.

Babylon Berlin has landed a new U.S. home on a newly-merged streaming service created as Kino Lorber’s MHz Choice and Topic combine.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Kino Lorber’s MHz Choice and Topic will merge into one streaming service, parent company Kino Lorber announced Thursday. The combined product will become the exclusive U.S. streaming home of hit German series “Babylon Berlin” in April.

With no new bust-out limited releases, repertory continues to do its part for the specialty box office, the latest a 4k restoration of Nostalghia. Kino Lorber said the Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1983 film, which opened Wednesday, will gross an estimated $22.87k at Film Forum in NYC for the five days.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Kino Lorber has promoted chief strategy officer Ed Carroll to president of the media company. Carroll will report directly to Richard Lorber, who is giving up his president title to Carroll, but remains chairman and CEO.

You wouldn’t want a documentary about Tom Wolfe to mimic his style. That could be challenging (just imagine all the on-screen exclamation marks!!!!!!!, idioSYNcratic CAPITALIZATION, and onomatopoeic spelling) not to mention possibly embarrassing.

Few 20th century American writers had the wide-ranging influence of Tom Wolfe. Don’t believe that? Well, here comes a new doc about the writer and New Journalism pioneer that proves that point, and it hits NYC/LA theaters next month before opening wide later this year.

Before Fran Rubel Kuzui brought Joss Whedon‘s “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” to life for the first time in 1992, she made “Tokyo Pop.” And Kino Lorber has a new 4K restoration of the film ready for theaters in time for its 35th anniversary. READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2023 First screened at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim, Kuzui’s feature debut sees an NYC girl emigrate to Tokyo on a whim to make it as a singer.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kino Lorber has picked up North American rights to Pham Thien An’s debut feature “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell.” The Vietnamese drama appeared in Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight section and was winner of the Camera d’Or. The company plans a theatrical release as well as a digital and home video releases on all major platforms after the film makes multiple stops on the international film festival circuit. “The sudden death of his sister-in-law brings unexpected responsibilities to Thien (Le Phong Vu), who is reluctantly tasked with bringing his five-year-old nephew Dao to their countryside hometown. On the road, Thien is drawn into a search for his long missing older brother, haunted and spurred forward by a series of sublime dreams that reignite suppressed memories, forbidden desires, and specters of his own youth. What began as a journey home becomes a pilgrimage marked by visual splendor and mystical overtones, a quest for understanding and certainty in a Vietnam that seems unable to provide any clear answers. As Thien battles with his own existential question of what is worth living for, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell interrogates the persistence and complexity of faith, not only in the spiritual but in the delicate beauty of earthly existence,” said Kino Lorber by way of a long synopsis.

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.

Kino Lorber and First Look Media have formed a joint venture to operate their respective streaming services, MHz Choice and Topic.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Kino Lorber has bought U.S. and Anglo-Canadian distribution rights to Nicolas Philibert’s poignant documentary “On the Adamant” which just won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical release later this year followed by a digital and home video release on all major platforms. Sold by Films du Losange, “On the Adamant” takes place at a unique day-care centre for adults suffering from mental disorders. Located in a structure floating the middle of the Seine, in Paris, the center heals these adults with a blend of therapy, education, and culture rooted in music and the arts. The affecting documentary follows the team running the Adamant as they attempt to transform and uplift the lives for these people.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Kino Lorber has acquired all rights in the U.S. to “Diabolik,” “Diabolik – Ginko Attacks!” and “Diabolik — Who Are You?” from Beta Cinema at the European Film Market in Berlin. The movies are based on the smash-hit Italian comic-book series about a ruthless master thief, which has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide. The stylish crime-comic adaptations are written and directed by Marco and Antonio Manetti. “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Marvel’s Avengers” actor Giacomo Gianniotti stars in “Diabolik — Ginko Attacks!” and “Diabolik — Who Are You?,” and Luca Marinelli (“The Old Guard”) in the first installment, “Diabolik.” Monica Bellucci (“Matrix,” “The Apartment”) stars in the role of Altea, Miriam Leone (“The Invisible Witness,” “Medici”) as Eva Kant, and Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers,” “Nine”) as Inspector Ginko.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Kino Lorber has bought U.S. rights to Jean-Paul Salomé’s true life thriller “The Sitting Duck,” starring Isabelle Huppert as the French union organizer and whistleblower Maureen Kearney. Represented in international markets by The Bureau Sales, “The Sitting Duck” world premiered at Venice where it won the Premio Fondazione FAI Persona Lavoro Ambiente Prize. The film will open theatrically in France in March, and Kino Lorber is planning a U.S. theatrical release later this year, followed by a digital and home video release on all major platforms. Penned by Salomé and Fadette Drouard, based on investigative journalist Caroline Michel-Aguirre’s book “La Syndicaliste,””The Sitting Duck” follows the true story of Maureen Kearney (Huppert), the influential head union representative of a French multinational nuclear powerhouse.

Independent film distributor Kino Lorber has recruited former AMC Networks executives Ed Carroll and Lisa Schwartz to respectively serve as Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Revenue Officer, the company announced Monday.The news comes just two months after Kino Lorber acquired North American streaming service MHz Choice. The distributor said that both Carroll and Schwartz will help shape the company’s content and distribution strategies, including an “accelerated expansion into digital spaces.”Before joining Kino Lorber, Carroll had a three-decades-long career at AMC Networks, where he oversaw the development of many successful television series, including “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” “The Walking Dead,” “Portlandia,” “Killing Eve” and “Inside the Actors Studio.” Previously, he was President at Bravo and COO of AMC Networks, where he was in charge of all programming, marketing, ad sales and international distribution.

EXCLUSIVE: Montreal-based film sales and marketing consultancy Film Associates International has unveiled a slew of international deals on new 4K restorations of the work of celebrated Canadian director Patricia Rozema.

EXCLUSIVE: Dekanalog has picked up Streetwise, Anatolian Leopard and Fugue, three buzzy international films.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired North American rights to “On the Edge,” a Belgian crime thriller by Giordano Gederlini (“Les Miserables”) from Le Pacte. The deal was negotiated by Kino Lorber senior VP Wendy Lidell and Le Pacte’s head of sales Camille Neel out of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema market hosted by Unifrance and the Film at Lincoln Center.“On The Edge” marks the sophomore outing of Gederlini, who co-wrote Ladj Ly’s Oscar-nominated film “Les Miserables.” The gritty and twisty noir is set in Brussels, where Leo, a Spanish metro driver, saw his estranged son right before he fell onto the rails and died.

EXCLUSIVE: North American arthouse distributor Kino Lorber has hired indie cinema veteran George Schmalz as Director, Theatrical Sales & Business.

How do we discover, and ultimately embrace, our definition of freedom? The women of “Hive” find themselves at a crossroads between their painful pasts and an equally hostile community bent on outdated norms. Blerta Basholli’s film explores the emotional toll of war while also revealing the underpinnings of societal misogyny.

Kino Lorber has acquired distributor Artsploitation Films from its owner and president Ray Murray. Murray and his team will remain with the business as a Kino Lorber brand and division. The deal for Artsploitation, which releases international genre and cutting-edge specialty films, adds 100 titles to Kino Lorber’s library that now has more than 4,000.

Every week, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage, and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

With everything that has happened in 2020, it’s hard to think back to what last fall felt like. Back when the summer was filled with blockbusters at the multiplex and film festivals were showcasing amazing features in the fall.

Bronx-born, Italian-based filmmaker Abel Ferrara is a character and so is Cypriot independent movie theater owner Nicolas “Nick” Nicolaou. “I do it cause it combines two things I like to do,” Nicolaou says in Ferrara’s new documentary “The Projectionist.” “Make money and keep neighborhood theaters alive.