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Una Sección Oficial de mayor presencia femenina. © Festival Málaga | mundoCine

El 28 Festival de Málaga, que se celebra del 14 al 23 de marzo, ha anunciado las primeras películas que competirán por la ansiada Biznaga de Oro. Y recordemos que el año pasado, el galardón recayó en Segundo premio, de Isaki Lacuesta y Pol Rodríguez, y este fue solo el primero de los muchos reconocimientos –a la espera de ver qué se lleva en los Goya– de la película elegida (pero no nominada) para representar a España en los Óscar 2025.

En esta edición, la Sección Oficial se distingue por una mayor presencia femenina, con cinco películas españolas por ahora anunciadas a concurso firmadas por directoras: La furia, de Gemma Blasco, Los Tortuga, de Belén Funes, Sorda, de Eva Libertad, La buena suerte, de Gracia Querejeta, y La buena letra, de Celia Rico.

© Festival Málaga

Empezando por la primera de ellas, Gemma Blasco se...

Happy Holidays, the latest feature from Palestinian Filmmaker Scandar Copti, has taken the top prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece.

Copti’s film won the Best Feature Film Award, which comes with a 10,000-euro cash prize. Awarding the prize, the jury, headed by Sara Driver, praised the film for “intricately weaving different narratives and perspectives that fully expose the complexity of national, gender and class dynamics that can divide societies and for seeing the future in the face of a young woman the Golden Alexander goes to Happy Holidays by Scandar Copti.”

Happy Holidays debuted at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The story open after a minor accident sets off a chain of events, unraveling lies and unspoken truths that sow division within a multifaceted patriarchal society.

The festival’s Best Director Award, which comes with a 5,000-euro cash prize, was picked up Leonardo Van Dijl for Julie Keeps Quiet.

Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti’s Israel-set family drama “Happy Holidays” won the top prize Sunday at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, taking home the Golden Alexander for best feature film.

Copti’s sophomore feature, his first film since his Oscar-nominated 2009 debut “Ajami,” premiered in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons sidebar, winning the best screenplay prize. Variety’s Siddhant Adlakha described it as “a piercing, realistic family drama, the inflection points of which reveal deep cultural and political dimensions surrounding gender and ethnicity.”

“Happy Holidays” follows four interconnected characters who share their unique realities, highlighting the complexities between genders, generations and cultures. The ensemble cast — comprised of Arab and Jewish characters alike — creates a multifaceted portrait of life in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city.

The Thessaloniki jury, which included filmmaker and producer Sara Driver (“Boom for Real”), filmmaker Denis Côté (“Vic + Flo Saw a Bear”) and producer Konstantinos Kontovrakis (“How to Have Sex...

La directora de ‘La Hija de un Ladrón’ presenta su nuevo trabajo en la sección Centrepiece. © TIFF

El segundo largometraje de la cineasta española Belén Funes, ganadora del Goya a la Mejor Dirección Novel con La hija de un ladrón, Los Tortuga, se estrenará mundialmente en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Toronto, en la sección Centrepiece.

Los Tortuga se centra en una relación madre-hija complicada por un duelo no superado y los problemas económicos que afectan a sus vidas.

La película está protagonizada por la actriz chilena Antonia Zegers y Elvira Lara, y escrita por Funes y Marçal Cebrian, quienes ya colaboraron anteriormente en La hija de un ladrón.

Los Tortuga se estrena en cines el 15 de noviembre de la mano de A Contracorriente Films.

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The post ‘Los Tortuga’, la segunda película de Belén Funes, tendrá su estreno mundial en el Festival de Toronto.

Leading Barcelona-based production outfit Oberon Media has confirmed co-financiers on “The Turtles” (“Los Tortuga”), the anticipated sophomore feature by the multi-prized Spanish filmmaker Belén Funes (“A Thief’s Daughter”).

Besides sales agent Film Factory Entertainment and Spanish distributor A Contracorriente Films who came on board at an early stage, the round of co-financiers includes public broadcasters Rtve for Spain, Tvc (Televisió de Catalunya) for Catalonia and Andalusia’s Canal Sur, as well as Spanish pay TV/SVOD operator Movistar Plus+.

In post-production, the Spanish drama is supported by Spain’s national film agency Icaa and the Catalan government’s Icec, as well as the Junta de Andalucía, Diputación de Jaén and Ibermedia and Media. It is produced by Oberon Media’s Antonio Chavarrías with Olmo Figueredo Gonzàlez-Quevedo of Seville-based La Claqueta (“The Endless Trench”), in co-production with Chile’s Quijote Cine.

The pic will be pitched at the Last Push...

Iair Said’s first fiction feature, “Most People Die on Sundays,” will world premiere in this year’s Acid section at Cannes, although until recently, the filmmaker knew little about the platform.

“It was something new to me,” he told Variety in a recent interview when asked about being picked for this year’s lineup. “I’m not very informed about these kinds of industry things; I just make films to express myself.”

Although the Acid sidebar is new to Said, this isn’t his first time at Cannes. The director’s second short film, “Presente imperfecto,” screened in the festival’s main short film competition in 2015.

Loosely based on Said’s real-life experiences when his own father died, “Most People Die on Sunday” is the story of David, a chubby, promiscuous, gay, middle-class Jewish man from Buenos Aires in his 30s who lives in a state of arrested development.

Iair Said’s debut feature Most People Die On Sundays has been acquired for France by distributor Jhr Films ahead of its world premiere in Cannes’ Acid programme.

The Argentinian comedy drama is already set for release in Latin America via Star+ (Disney+) and in Spain with A Contracorriente Films.

Said’s short Present Imperfect previously competed for the short film Palme d’Or.

Most People Die On Sundays centres on an overweight 30-something who returns to his native Argentina to reconnect with his mother and his Jewish family. There he embarks on a quest across Buenos Aires to quench his anxiety via driving lessons,...

Athens-based boutique film outfit Heretic has two titles in the Cannes Acid (Association for the International Distribution of Independent Cinemas) sidebar.

Heretic’s own Greek production, co-produced with North Macedonia’s List Production, “Kyuka Before Summer’s End,” by debut director Kostas Charamountanis, is the opening film of the Acid program. The film follows a family of three, a single father, Babis, and his twin children on the verge of adulthood, Konstantinos and Elsa, who sail to the island of Poros on the family boat for their holidays. In the midst of swimming, sunbathing and making new friends, Konstantinos and Elsa meet, unbeknownst to them, their birth mother Anna who abandoned them when they were babies. The encounter stirs up long-held feelings of resentment in Babis, resulting in a bittersweet coming-of-age journey.

“Kyuka Before Summer’s End” is produced by Danae Spathara, Giorgos Karnavas and Konstantinos Kontovrakis of Heretic, Greece...

The 27th edition of the Malaga Film Festival (Mff) opens today (March 1) with animated feature Dragonkeeper and a strong line-up of Spanish and Latin American world premieres. The festival is a popular annual meeting point for the Spanish film industry, attended by most buyers and sellers, and showcases the best in new Spanish-language filmmaking.

The world premiere of Salvador Simó and Jian-Ping Li’s Dragonkeeper opens the festival, marking the first time Malaga has raised its curtain with an animated movie. A Spain-China co-production, Dragonkeeper is based on books by Carol Wilkinson, with an English-language voice cast that includes Bill Nighy and Mayalinee Griffiths.

Pablo Larraín’s primary mode is deconstruction, of everything from genre to myth to ideology. But given its intensely subjective point of view, El Conde shares more in common with Spencer and Jackie than the filmmaker’s earlier investigations into Chile’s tumultuous past, Post Mortem and No. The film seeks to dispense with the historical record and imagine what happens behind closed doors. Of course, there’s one important difference here: El Conde is certainly no stickler for verisimilitude, as the Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell) of this film is a morose vampire fasting from blood in order to ease himself into death.

That premise might suggest that Larraín has sympathy for the devil, but El Conde is no hagiography. The film renders Pinochet as an aging, ever-prattling child of sorts, who no longer wants to live in a Chile that has no appreciation for all his “great work,” nor...

Putting the blackened, flash-frozen heart of Chile’s undead past into a blender, blitzing it to a lumpen pulp and guzzling down the result with grimly comic relish, Pablo Larraín, after his Hollywood forays with “Spencer” and “Jackie,” returns to his home turf and finds it bleeding out from a mysterious two-hole puncture on its neck. “El Conde” — the Chilean director’s uncategorizably bizarre riff on vampire mythos, cronyist corruption and the more mundane horror that is a squabbling family divvying up their patriarchal inheritance while the patriarch is still around — coils itself around an inventively nasty literalization of the idea that the evil that men does lives after them. Those words, spoken over Caesar’s body in “Julius Caesar,” sparked a war that ended a republic. With his iteration, Larraín aims to do his part in delivering a republic instead, bringing his elegantly foul exercise in gallows humor to bear,...

Netflix has debuted the trailer for Pablo Larraín’s horror satire ‘El Conde.’

The movie is a dark comedy/horror that imagines a parallel universe inspired by the recent history of Chile. The film portrays Augusto Pinochet, a symbol of world fascism, as a vampire who lives hidden in a ruined mansion in the cold southern tip of the continent. Feeding his appetite for evil to sustain his existence.

After two hundred and fifty years of life, Pinochet has decided to stop drinking blood and abandon the privilege of eternal life. He can no longer bear that the world remembers him as a thief. Despite the disappointing and opportunistic nature of his family, he finds new inspiration to continue living a life of vital and counterrevolutionary passion through an unexpected relationship.

Directed by Larrain, Chilean actors Jaime Vadell, Gloria Münchmeyer, Alfredo Castro and Paula Luchsinger star. They are joined by Catalina Guerra,...

As you may recall, a mysterious Netflix movie titled The Count had been rated “R” earlier this year for “strong violence and gore” and “graphic nudity,” and we now know the project is from director Pablo Larraín (Spencer), officially titled El Conde and coming soon to Netflix.

El Conde will premiere on Netflix on September 15, 2023. Watch the trailer below for a taste of the black & white vampire movie, which looks like a highly unique new take on the genre.

“El Conde is a dark comedy/horror that imagines a parallel universe inspired by the recent history of Chile. The film portrays Augusto Pinochet, a symbol of world fascism, as a vampire who lives hidden in a ruined mansion in the cold southern tip of the continent.

“Feeding his appetite for evil to sustain his existence. After two hundred and fifty years of life, Pinochet has decided to stop drinking blood...

As he bounces back and forth between English-language projects and Chilean features, Pablo Larraín is following Spencer with El Conde, which imagines Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell) as an aged vampire who, after 250 years in this world, has decided to die once and for all, due to ailments brought about by his dishonor and family conflicts. Ahead of a Venice Film Festival premiere, followed by a September 15 release on Netflix and theatrical release the same month, the first trailer has now arrived. Meanwhile, Larraín is also prepping to kick off production on his Maria Callas biopic starring Angelina Jolie.

“I understand that there may be things linked to my family and life that could affect the way I see all this,” Larraín told IndieWire. “In Chile, many, many families have seen both sides of the story and different perceptions of it. Maybe mine is more known because there are known politicians in it,...

Shooting is scheduled to begin at the end of this year.

Chile’s Antonia Zegers, known for A Fantastic Woman and The Club will star in Belén Funes’ anticipated second feature The Turtles.

Giancarlo Nasi of Santiago and Los Angeles-based Quijote Films has boarded as co-producer with Spain’s Film Factory handling international sales.

The Spanish producers are Olmo Figueredo’s Seville-based La Claqueta, and Antonio Chavarrías’ Barcelona-based Oberon Media.

The Turtles will be a trans-generational story of a story of an Andalusian couple who move to Barcelona but two decades later are facing various struggles.

Shooting is scheduled to...

Beijing Basks In Festival Return

The Argentina-Chile coproduction “The Punishment,” directed by Matias Bize, was named best feature over the weekend at the close of the Beijing International Film Festival.

Mexico’s Lila Avilés won the Tiantan Award for best director for her film “Totem.” Antonia Zegers and Line Renaud shared the best actress award for “The Punishment” and “Driving Madeleine,” respectively.

The best actor award went to Xin Baiqing for Chinese movie “The Shadowless Tower.” The film, which premiered in February in Berlin, was the numerical winner. With the best screenplay, music, cinematography and artistic contribution awards, it won a total of five prizes.

Chinese actor and director Tian Zhuangzhuang collected the best supporting actor award. Mexican, Montserrat Maranon earned the best supporting actress prize.

The ceremony wrapped up a festival at which organizers claimed to have played 1,488 films. International guests included Israel’s Nadav Lapid, Germany’s Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck...

"I'm not a common criminal." "What are you then?" Kino Lorber has debuted their official trailer for Chile '76, an acclaimed Chilean drama based on a true story, from actress turned director Manuela Martelli. This premiered in the Quinzaine des Cinéastes sidebar at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival last year, and is also playing at New Directors/New Films in NYC on April 7th. Set in Chile, 1976. Carmen heads off to her beach house. When the family priest asks her to take care of a young man he is sheltering in secret, Carmen steps onto unexplored territories, away from the quiet life she is used to. Aline Kuppenheim stars as Carmen, as she is "inadvertently drawn into the world of the Chilean political opposition and must face real-world threats she is unprepared to handle, with potentially disastrous consequences for her and her entire family." The cast also includes Alejandro Goic, Hugo Medina,...

Swiss-Kosovar feature ‘The Land Within’ takes best first feature film.

Hilmar Oddsson’s Icelandic dark comedy Driving Mum won the Grand Prix for best film in Competition at the award ceremony of the 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), held on Saturday, November 26.

The Official Selection jury, headed by Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi, said Driving Mum “charmed us all with its transparent, simple but bold film language, with its graceful sense of humour, with its unpretentious way of speaking about burning questions of personal life. A film which tells us that it is never too late.”

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Driving Mum

Melancholic comedy drama Driving Mum sped off with the top prize in Tallinn this evening.

The black-and-white film, directed by Hilmar Oddsson, which sees a man go on an often surreal road trip with his dead mother in the backseat, also saw its Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits win a prize for Best Original Score.

The festival's Best First Feature prize went to The Land Within, a drama concerning the exhumation of a Balkan mass grave, directed by Fisnik Maxwell. Lithuanian historical drama The Poet, directed by Giedrius Tamosevicius and Vytautas V Landsbergis, won the Baltic Competition, while the Rebels With A Cause award went to José Luis Rugeles' Rebelion, about salsa star Joe Arroyo, while the Best Critics' Picks film was named as Jun Robles Lara's About Us But Not About Us.

The acting awards went to Antonia Zegers for The Punishment and Gurban Ismailov for Cold As Marble.

Tenerife-based Bendita Film Sales, headed by Luis Renart, has acquired Matías Bize’s “The Punishment,”, ahead of its international premiere at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival this Saturday.

Produced by Ceneca Producciones and Leyenda Films, it is the second film to see the light in 2022 for the multi-prized director of “In the Bed,” “The Life of Fish,” and “The Memory of Water,” having won at Malaga with lockdown inspired “Private Messages.” Bendita’s buy signifies confidence in this latest title, which heads to Ventana Sur for its market premiere on Dec 1.

In the film, a couple’s seven year old son is missing, having been left momentarily by the side of the road as punishment. Set in a forest and played out in real time, the boy’s parents search for him. Helmer Matias Bize dissects the subtle shifts in the couple’s reactions to this crisis as questions...

The 18th Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic) is paying tribute to Chile’s most internationally renowned and arguably hardest working actor, the peripatetic Alfredo Castro who will attend Sanfic’s inauguration Aug. 14 to receive his lifetime achievement award and kick off a retrospective of his films.

Also a playwright and theater director, Castro has worked across Europe and Latin America, acting in French, Spanish, Portuguese and a number of accents and dialects from Latin America, including neutral Spanish. “I haven’t worked in English but I certainly hope to one day,” he says. Meanwhile, he has won a boatload of awards from festivals and award events across the world.

Yet, he would also be high up the order of figures who have helped shape Chile’s post-Pinochet film, theater and now TV scene into one of the most vibrant, surprising and constantly questioning of any country in Latin America.

Argentina’s Rodrigo de la Serna leads the cast in the latest Paramount+ original film for Latin America, “El Salto de Papá,” based on the memoir of Argentine author-journalist Martin Sivak.

Daniela Goggi, who co-wrote the script with Andrea Garrote, will direct the pic which is set to begin shooting in Argentina in upcoming weeks. Vis, Paramount’s international studio, is producing the drama in association with two of Argentina’s leading producers, Infinity Hill and Rei Cine.

The film is one of multiple Paramount+ original projects underway in Latin America and Spain as the streamer seeks to rev up its local slate. Competition for premium culturally-specific content among streaming giants and studios in Latin America continues to heat up as they source more original productions locally. This June, at its U.K. launch, Paramount+ announced plans to commission more than 150 international originals by 2025.

De la Serna is best known for his role as Palermo,...

Click here to read the full article.

Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac will voice star in the English adaptation of the Spotify original podcast Caso 63.

Renamed Case 63, the adaptation features Moore as the psychiatrist Eliza Knight and Isaac as her patient, registered as Case 63, who claims to be a time traveler. In the original version of Caso 63, each episode of the first season centers on a session between the psychiatrist and patient, who says he is on a mission to save the world. The series grapples with concepts of time and space, as well as the impact of a deadly virus (sound familiar?).

Shortly after its debut, Caso 63 — created and written by Julio Rojas — became a quick success for Spotify in Spanish-speaking regions in Latin America, rising to the top slot on Spotify’s Argentina and Mexico charts for several weeks. Following the show’s success, which voice stars Antonia Zegers and Nestor Cantillana,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSSian Heder's Coda took home the Best Picture award at the 94th Academy Awards, Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car took Best International Feature, and Jane Campion won Best Director for The Power of the Dog. Find more of this year's Oscars winners here. We're saddened by the loss of Japanese filmmaker Shinji Aoyama, who recently died at the age of 57. Most revered for his 2000 film Eureka, about a trio who embark on a road trip after surviving a bus hijacking, Aoyama continued his humanist exploration of violence, family, and generation gaps in films like Desert Moon (2001) and Sad Vacation (2007), the loose sequel to Eureka. He was also a prolific novelist and critic, with his novelization of Eureka awarded the Yukio Mishima prize in 2001. Il Cinema Ritrovato has announced the programs of this year's festivities,...

Mubi Podcast: Encuentros returns for a second season. In the first episode, Antonia Zegers, one of the most recognized Chilean actors and Eugenio Caballero, the award winner production designer who worked with Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, and Jim Jarmusch among others, talk about two complementary professions in film: production design and acting.The friendship between Antonia and Eugenio, built on mutual affection and admiration, leads them to speak in this podcast with sincerity and confidence about the experiences that they accumulated over more than two decades of work in their respective professions. Listen to the first episode of the new season below or in your favorite podcast app. Subscribe to stay tuned for new episodes of the show:Apple PodcastsSpotifyMore***Mubi Podcast: Encuentros regresa para una segunda temporada. En el primer episodio, Antonia Zegers, una de las actrices chilenas más reconocidas y Eugenio Caballero, premiado diseñador de producción que ha trabajado con Alfonso Cuarón,...

The Málaga Festival has never been bigger. To help navigate it, as well as Spain’s burgeoning production output, here’s a breakdown of its main section titles.

2022 Malaga Festival Lineup:

Main Competition

“Emperor Code,”

The Malaga Fest opener, a noirish crime thriller with special services operative Luis Tosar moonlighting for the elite, here trying to dig up the dirt on a young politico. Segueing rapidly to Netflix after an A Contracorriente release in Spain.

“A Mae,”

The latest from the prolific Brazilian narrative and doc director, maker of euthanasia-themed “Antes do fim,” and 2015’s “Hunger.” In it, a humble street vendor mother searches desperately for her missing son, claiming the right to at least bury his body.

“Almost in Love,”

A father-daughter relationship drama from notable Argentine auteur Brzezicki (“Noche”), backed by top-notch Latin American outfits – Argentina’s Ruda Films, Brazil’s Rt Features, Chile’s Quijote- plus Spain’s Vertigo Films,...

Stars: Camille Rowe, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Antonia Zegers, Joshua Burge, Phil Granger | Written and Directed by Jefferson Moneo

After witnessing an alien abduction as a child (and subsequently being told she’s crazy for most of her life) Aurora, now a young woman, joins the UFO cult The Cosmic Dawn after discovering a book written by the group’s leader, Elyse. Aurora’s time at the cult’s remote island compound is marked by miraculous revelations, consciousness-expanding flowers, and a burgeoning friendship with Tom, the resident cook. When a fellow cult member starts to display increasingly bizarre behaviour, Aurora begins to question Elyse’s sanity (and her own) and starts looking for a way out.

Years later, after the dissolution of the cult, Aurora has moved on with her life. She leads a quiet and seemingly normal life. But when Elyse resurfaces in a mysterious video, Aurora is forced to confront her past.

After witnessing the alien abduction of her mother as a child, Aurora (Camille Rowe) joins the UFO cult “The Cosmic Dawn.”

At the cult’s remote compound Aurora experiences miraculous revelations and consciousness-expanding flowers, but all isn’t as it seems with the cult’s leader, Elyse (Antonia Zegers).

Now moved on from the cult, Aurora is forced to confront her past and pursue the ultimate truth about The Cosmic Dawn...

Hey everyone! While Valentine’s Day is almost over, we’re sure you’ll still have a lot of love for this week’s horror and science fiction home media releases. One of this writer's favorite films of all time, Joe Dante’s The Howling, is getting the 4K treatment from Scream Factory in a brand new release, and if you’re into time-bending sci-fi/action thrillers, you’ll definitely want to pick up the 4K release of Rian Johnson’s Looper as well.

Other releases for February 15th include Ghostriders, Cosmic Dawn, Settlers, Nezura 1964, Apparitions, The Devil Came Home, and The Skulls Trilogy on Blu-ray.

Cosmic Dawn

After witnessing the alien abduction of her mother as a child, Aurora (Camille Rowe) joins the UFO cult “The Cosmic Dawn.” At the cult’s remote compound Aurora experiences miraculous revelations and consciousness-expanding flowers, but all isn’t as it seems with the cult’s leader,...

"They are waiting for you." Cranked Up Films has revealed an official trailer for Cosmic Dawn, an indie sci-fi mystery thriller from Canadian filmmaker Jefferson Moneo. This one is landing in theaters + on VOD starting in February early next year. After witnessing the alien abduction of her mother as a child, Aurora joins the UFO cult "The Cosmic Dawn". Now moved on from the cult, Aurora is forced to confront her past and pursue the ultimate truth about The Cosmic Dawn. Does Elyse really have access to another dimension? Or do her prophesies truly point to mass suicide amongst the surviving cult members? I'm sure we all know there's going to be a sort of ambiguous hint that maybe they were really on to something, right? That crazy shot of her crawling into the woman's chest. This stars Camille Rowe, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Antonia Zegers, Joshua Burge, and Phil Granger. The...

WarnerMedia’s rapidly growing new streaming service HBO Max has picked up hit international thriller “La Jauria” for the U.S. from Chile-based Fabula, owned and operated by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín, and Fremantle. The series will be available to stream starting Dec. 16.

“La Jauria” is showrun by Lucía Puenzo (“The German Doctor”), one of Latin America’s most prominent film and TV writer-directors, and stars Daniela Vega, the lead in the Academy Award-winning “A Fantastic Woman.”

Set at a private Catholic school in Santiago de Chile, “La Jauría” follows the case of a Catholic school student who stages a protest and becomes the unwitting center of a police investigation that exposes a disturbing online game in which men record and share videos of themselves abusing women.

In addition to Vega, the series features a standout cast of Latin American heavyweights, many Fabula regulars, including Antonia Zegers (“Fugitivos...

WarnerMedia streamer HBO Max has picked up the first season of La Jauría, Amazon Prime Video’s Spanish-language thriller from Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula, which made the Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman.

HBO Max will premiere the eight-part series on December 16, bringing subscribers the story of the disappearance of a young girl, who becomes the center of a police investigation into an online game that grooms men into assaulting women.

La Jauría stars Daniela Vega (A Fantastic Woman) and Antonia Zegers (Fugitivos), while Lucía Puenzo is the director. Fremantle produced the show alongside Fabula and Argentine company Kapow. Fremantle handles worldwide distribution.

Amazon commissioned a second season of La Jauría in July after premiering it across Latin America and Spain. Chilean public broadcaster Tvn and the Consejo Nacional de Televisión (Cntv) are co-producers.

“It’s a gripping, compelling and timely drama that addresses important topical issues regarding...

WarnerMedia has picked up U.S. rights for Spanish-language series La Jauría (The Pack) for its HBO Max streaming service. 

The deal, with producers Fabula and Fremantle, will see HBO Max bow the series for U.S. audiences on Dec. 16.

Daniela Vega (A Fantastic Woman) stars alongside Antonia Zegers (Fugitivos) in the Chilean crime drama focused on the sudden disappearance of a young girl at a Catholic school. As the police dig deeper into the crime, they uncover a deadly online game which recruits men to commit acts of aggression toward women. Co-stars include Mariana Digirolamo, Antonia Giesen, Paula Luchsinger,...

WarnerMedia has picked up U.S. rights for Spanish-language series La Jauría (The Pack) for its HBO Max streaming service. 

The deal, with producers Fabula and Fremantle, will see HBO Max bow the series for U.S. audiences on Dec. 16.

Daniela Vega (A Fantastic Woman) stars alongside Antonia Zegers (Fugitivos) in the Chilean crime drama focused on the sudden disappearance of a young girl at a Catholic school. As the police dig deeper into the crime, they uncover a deadly online game which recruits men to commit acts of aggression toward women. Co-stars include Mariana Digirolamo, Antonia Giesen, Paula Luchsinger,...

Fremantle and Fabula have dropped the first trailer of eight-part series “La Jauría” (“The Pack”), showrun by Lucía Puenzo (“The German Doctor”), one of Latin America’s most prominent film and TV writer-directors, and starring Daniela Vega, the lead in the Academy Award winning “A Fantastic Woman.”

Set up at Chile’s Fabula, run by writer-director Pablo Larraín (“Jacky”) and brother Juan de Díos Larraín, “Gloria Bell”), “La Jauría”

Amazon’s first-ever locally-produced Amazon Original in Chile will be available to stream exclusively on Prime Video in Latin America, Caribbean and Spain.

It also marks the first international series from Fabula.

Brought onto the market at February’s Fremantle Screenings in London and now the Series Mania-MipTV virtual marketplace, “La Jauría” is also first fruit of a Fabula-Fremantle multi-year first-look production-distribution alliance. Fremantle is its global distributor.

Co-written by Puenzo, and set at a posh private Catholic school in Santiago de Chile,...

Amazon Prime Video in Latin America has added four new Amazon Original Series to their catalog from Argentina, Chile and Colombia, the first Originals from the territories. The series will be available on the platform in more than 200 countries and territories.

Chile’s “La Jauría” (“The Pack”) already broadcast on domestic network Tvn, will be joined by three series set to begin production in 2020: “Iosi, El Espía Arrepentido,” “Colonia Dignidad” and “Noticia de un Secuestro.”

From Chile, “La Jauría” is directed by award-winner filmmaker Lucía Puenzo, whose 2007 feature “Xxy” won four prizes at the Cannes Festival. The series stars Chilean Oscar-nominated “A Fantastic Woman” lead actress Daniela Vega in a story of a Catholic school girl who starts a protest against a deadly online game in which men are recruited to commit acts of violence towards women. The girl disappears and her story goes viral when a video of...

Cannes — Produced by Chile’s Fabula, headed by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín, and Fremantle, and showrun by Lucía Puenzo (“The German Doctor”), “La Jauria” (The Pack) cuts excruciatingly to the chase.

In its very first scene, a teen girl student sits down, back to the wall, before her male drama teacher who is video-taping the class . “Pretend I’m your boyfriend,” he enthuses off camera. “Pronounce an ‘A,’” he goes on. She doesn’t know how to react but does. until, coached by her teacher, she seems to be groaning in orgasm. When the girl leaves the class, she goes straight to the washroom, sits down and bursts into tears.

The teacher’s gross abuse sparks a student takeover of the elite school in Santiago de Chile. When its leader, 17-year-old Blanca Ibarra, goes missing, a gender-based crime specialist police unit formed by Elisa Murillo and Olivia Fernandez...

Exclusive: Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula, the company behind the Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman, has inked a first-look deal with Fremantle to develop a slate of original English and Spanish-language dramas. Fremantle will distribute the projects worldwide.

The Fabula team will work with Fremantle’s Global Drama, Evp, Creative Director, Christian Vesper, and Fremantle’s President of Scripted for North America, Dante Di Loreto.

Fremantle and Fabula are currently collaborating on previously announced La Jauría, an eight-part Spanish-language psychological thriller directed by Lucia Puenzo. The series features A Fantastic Woman star Daniela Vega and co-star Antonia Zegers as well as María Gracia Omegna. Together they will play a specialist gender related crime police force who investigate the disappearance of student, Blanca Ibarra. Production on the series began in January.

“Working with world-class storytellers is key to Fremantle’s scripted strategy and Fabula have an...

Filming has begun on Lucía Puenzo’s psychological gender thriller series “La Jauría,” a co-production by Fremantle with Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Chile-u.S.-based Fabula.

The eight-episode Spanish-language drama series, shooting in Santiago, Chile, features Daniela Vega, the lead in Fabula’s Academy Award-winning “A Fantastic Woman.”

Lucía Puenzo, one of Latin America’s most renowned women writers-directors directs the series alongside Sergio Castro (“La mujer de barro”), Marialy Rivas (“Young & Wild”) and Nicolás Puenzo (“Los Invisibles”).

“La Jauría” also stars Antonia Zegers and María Gracia Omegna, who alongside Vega play a police force specialized in gender-related crimes that investigates the strange disappearance of a young woman.

It opens at Santa Inés School, whose students stage a take-over in protest for an alleged case of abuse between a teacher and a student. Blanca Ibarra, a student leading the take-over, suddenly goes missing.

Hours later, a recording...

‘Gurrumul’.

Director Paul Williams and producer Shannon Swan’s portrait of the late blind Indigenous musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, Gurrumul, won Best Documentary Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) in Brisbane last night.

It was the first time an Australian film has won in the category, with Gurrumul beating out Amal, Of Fathers and Sons (Syrian Arab Republic, Lebanon, Qatar, Germany), Of Love & Law (Japan, UK, France) and Up Down & Sideways

Accepting the award together with Williams, Swan described the moment as bittersweet knowing that Gurrumul wasn’t there to share in it.

“To G, thank you so much for inviting us into your life and trusting us with your story,” he said.

Gurrumul also won Feature Documentary of the Year at last week’s Screen Producers Australia Awards, and is also nominated for five awards at next week’s AACTAs, including for Best Feature Documentary alongside Mountain,...

Nadine Labaki takes director prize for Capharnaüm.

The jury of the 12th Asia Pacific Screen Awards has awarded the best film prize to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters (Manbiki Kazoku), continuing the Palme d’Or winner’s dream run.

Full list of winners below

The film, which depicts a makeshift family living on the fringes of Japanese society, won the highest honour at the region’s film awards, which took place in Brisbane, Australia, tonight.

The best director prize went to Nadine Labaki for Capharnaüm (Lebanon).

Shoplifters’ win marks the first time that a Japanese film has won the best feature...

Global drama producer Fremantle is teaming with Fabula, headed by director Pablo Larrain (“Jackie”) and producer Juan de Dios Larraín (“Gloria Bell”), to produce “La Jauría” (The Pack), a brand new Spanish-Language drama series starring Daniela Vega, the lead in Fabula’s Academy Award-winning “A Fantastic Woman.”

A psychological gender crime thriller set against and energized by “Ni una Menos,” Latin America’s MeToo movement, Fabula’s first international drama series has tapped as its showrunner Lucía Puenzo, one of Latin America’s most renowned women writers-directors.

Marking Vega’s debut in a Latin American drama series, “La Jauría” is scheduled to shoot in January 2019.The eight-part series also stars Antonia Zegers.

“La Jauría” opens at Santa Inés, a posh private Catholic school whose students stage a take-over in protest at a teacher’s suspected sexual assault of a student. Blanca Ibarra, a student leading the takeover, suddenly goes missing.

Global production giant Fremantle is teaming with Chilean producer Fabula on the Spanish-language drama series La Jauria (The Pack).

Director and screenwriter Lucia Puenzo (Ingobernable, Wacolda) is on board as showrunner for the eight-part series, which is described as a psychological thriller and is set to start production in January in Chile.

Daniela Vega, star of Fabula’s A Fantastic Woman, which won this year’s best foreign-language film Oscar, leads the cast, marking her debut in a Latin American drama series. The Pack also features Antonia Zegers (A Fantastic Woman, The Club).

“We are immensely proud to be ...

Joint initiative between San Sebastián and Cinélatino-Rencontres de Toulouse has selected six films from 198 applications.

Six films have been selected for the 31st edition of Films in Progress (March 23-24), the works in progress initiative between Cinélatino-Rencontres de Toulouse and the San Sebastián Film Festival.

Scroll down for selection

The selection includes Los Perros, by Chilean director Marcela Said whose fiction debut The Summer of the Flying Fish [pictured] premiered in Cannes Director’s Fortnight in 2013.

A Latin American and European co-production (Chile-France-Argentina-Portugal-Germany), Los Perros stars Pablo Larraín regulars Alfredo Castro and Antonia Zegers. The story revolves around a bourgeois married woman who feels attracted to her horse-riding instructor, a former military man with a dark past who was involved with Chile’s Pinochet regime.

Alongside Marcela Said, a number of other women directors are involved in this year selection.

Making their feature debut are Argentinian filmmakers Cecilia Atán and Valeria Pivato, who will co-direct...

There are several pivotal moments in Pablo Larraín’s “Jackie,” but one truly epitomizes the director’s primary obsession. Days after she sat next to her husband as a bullet struck his brain, the bereaved Jacqueline Kennedy (Natalie Portman) peers out a tinted window. Even in the midst of tumultuous grief, she recognizes the need to solidify his legacy with an elaborate funeral march. She’s completing his story while keeping her own in the shadows, but in a single powerful moment, the two collide.

With the former First Lady’s reflection on the window, Larraín superimposes archival images of the crowds that showed up to salute their dead president. The intimate experiences of a single traumatized character collide with the public’s absorption of the mythology surrounding her. As viewers, we’re left to sort out the truth.

From the melding of anti-Pinochet campaign propaganda and a scripted narrative in “No,...

It's a well-known fact that Iberoamerican cinema, which includes Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese productions, has had a prominent presence at the most important international film festivals for several years now and several films have been recognized at some of the most important film awards around the world. Colombia's "Embrace of the Serpent" earning the country's first-ever Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category and Argentina's "Wild Tales" taking home the 2016 BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in English Language are juts two examples of recent victories.

Acknowledging the need for a unified industry in the region and a platform for the Iberoamerican industry to honor and support its own productions, the Premios Platino of Iberoamerican Cinema were born three years ago. Each year the organizing committee selects a diverse group of nominees and invites members of the industry across the American continent and the Iberian peninsula to vote in order to select the winners. The ceremony takes place in a different country every year as a way to include all of the varied industries in the process and execution of the event.

This morning, after considering more than 150 films from a pool of over 800 theatrically releases productions, the final nominees were announced by a group of talented actors, including legendary Mexican-American thespian Edward James Olmos, and filmmakers led by CNN en Español's journalist Juan Carlos Arciniegas. Guatemala's Berlin-winning gem "Ixcanul" received 8 nominations, just as Colombia's Oscar-nominated "Embrace of the Serpent" did. These two gorgeously executed works center on indigenous stories and highlight the rich cultural heritage of Latin America. It's a pleasant surprise to see these two fantastic films get the most love.

Chile's "The Club" and Argentina's "The Clan," films by the two most prolific Pablos working in South America, Pablo Larrain and Pablo Trapero, received 6 nominations each. Larrain's dark tale about Catholic priests with questionable pasts was also nominated this year for a Golden Globe in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Perhaps one of the most surprising, yet well-deserved nominations, was the inclusion of Alonso Ruizpalacios among the Best Director nominees for his brilliant debut "Güeros."

Two films distributed by Pantelion received nomations: "600 Miles" and "Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos." Oscilloscope earned 10 mentions with properties "Ma Ma" and "Embrace of the Serpent." Kino Lorber's "Ixcanul, ""Güeros," and "The Pearl Button" also earned the art house distributor 10 nominations.

Regarding the quality of the films being produced in Iberoamerica Egeda's Elvi Cano said, “This has been an exceptional year for Iberoamerican Cinema, with 826 qualifying releases. Iberoamerican Cinema is alive, growing and stronger then ever.” Renowned journalist and host Juan Carlos Arciniegas added," These awards are starting a revolution and it's my dream, as an ambassador for Premios Platino, that these magnificent films that got nominated today to be seen by all our Iberoamerican audiences. I can't be more proud of what our filmmakers are doing today and if the public don't get to enjoy them, we won't be doing our job"

The 3rd Annual Premios Platino of Iberoamerican Cinema will take place on July 24th in Punta del Este, Uruguay

Here is the full list of nominees:

Premio Platino for Best Iberoamerican Picture

-"Embrace of the Serpent" (El abrazo de la serpiente), by Ciro Guerra (Ciudad Lunar Producciones, Caracol Cine, Dago García Producciones, Nortesur Producciones S.A., Mc Producciones, Buffalo Films) (Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina).

-"The Clan" (El clan), by Pablo Trapero (Kramer & Sigman Films, Matanza Cine S.R.L., El Deseo, P.C., S.A.) (Argentina, Spain).

-"The Club" (El club), by Pablo Larraín (Fabula Producciones) (Chile).

-"Ixcanul," by Jayro Bustamante (La Casa de Producción, Tu vas voir Productions) (Guatemala).

-"Truman," by Cesc Gay (Imposible Films S.L., Truman Film A.I.E., Bd Cine S.R.L) (Spain, Argentina).

Premio Platino for Best Director

-Alonso Ruizpalacios, for "Güeros."

-Cesc Gay, for "Truman."

-Ciro Guerra, for "Embrace of the Serpent" (El abrazo de la serpiente).

Pablo Larraín, for "The Club" (El club).

Pablo Trapero, for "The Clan" (El clan).

Premio Platino for Best Actor

-Alfredo Castro, for "The Club" (El club).

-Damián Alcázar, for "Magallanes."

-Guillermo Francella, for "The Clan" (El clan).

-Javier Cámara, for "Truman."

-Ricardo Darín, for "Truman."

Premio Platino for Best Actress

-Antonia Zegers, for "The Club" (El club).

-Dolores Fonzi, for "Paulina."

-Elena Anaya, for "The Memory of Water" (La memoria del agua).

-Inma Cuesta, for "The Bride" (La novia).

-Penélope Cruz, for "Ma Ma."

Premio Platino for Best Original Score

-Alberto Iglesias, for "Ma Ma."

-Federico Jusid, for "Magallanes."

-Lucas Vidal, for "Nobody Wants the Night" (Nadie quiere la noche).

-Nascuy Linares, for "Embrace of the Serpent" (El abrazo de la serpiente).

-Pascual Reyes, for "Ixcanul."

Premio Platino for Best Animated Feature Film

-"Capture the Flag" (Atrapa la bandera), by Enrique Gato (Telecinco Cinema S.A., Los Rockets La Película A.I.E., Telefónica Studios S.L.U., 4 Cats Pictures S.L., Ikiru Films S.L., Lightbox Animation Studios S.L.) (Spain).

-"Top Cat Begins" (Don Gato 2: El inicio de la pandilla), by Andrés Couturier (Anima Estudios) (Mexico).

-"El Americano", by Ricardo Arnaiz, Mike Kunkel (Olmos Productions, Phil Roman Entertainment, Animex) (Mexico).

-"Amila's Secret" (El secreto de Amila), by Gorka Vázquez (Baleuko, S.L., Talape Animazioa, Draftoon Animation) (Spain, Argentina).

-"Huevos: Little Rooster's Egg-Cellent Adventure" (Un gallo con muchos huevos), by Gabriel Riva Palacio Alatriste, Rodolfo Riva Palacio Alatriste (Huevocartoon Producciones) (Mexico).

Premio Platino for Best Documentary Feature Film

-"Beyond My Grandfather Allende" (Allende mi abuelo Allende), by Marcia Tambutti Allende (Errante Producciones Ltda, Martfilms) (Chile, Mexico).

-"New Girls 24 Hours" (Chicas nuevas 24 horas), by Mabel Lozano (Mafalda Entertainment, S.L., Aleph Media S.A., Puatarará Films, Hangar Films, Arte Vital) (Spain, Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, Peru).

-"The Pearl Button" (El botón de nácar), by Patricio Guzmán (Atacama Productions, Valdivia Film, France 3 Cinema, Mediaproduccion, S.L.) (Chile, Spain).

-"Tea Time" (La once), by Maite Alberdi (Micromundo Producciones) (Chile).

-"The Propaganda Game," by Álvaro Longoria (Morena Films S. L.) (Spain).

Premio Platino for Best Screenplay

-Cesc Gay, Tomás Aragay, for "Truman."

-Ciro Guerra, Jacques Toulemonde, for "Embrace of the Serpent" (El abrazo de la serpiente).

-Jayro Bustamante, for "Ixcanul."

-Pablo Larraín, Guillermo Calderón, Daniel Villalobos; for "The Club" (El club).

-Salvador del Solar, for "Magallanes."

Premio Platino for Best Iberoamerican Debut Feature Film

-"600 Miles" (600 Millas), by Gabriel Ripstein (Lucia Films) (Mexico).

- "Retribution" (El desconocido), by Dani de la Torre (Atresmedia Cine S. L., Vaca Films Studio, S.L.) (Spain).

-"The Boss, Anatomy of a Crime" (El patrón: radiografía de un crimen), by Sebastián Schindel (Magoya Films S.A., Estrella Films) (Argentina, Venezuela).

-"Ixcanul," by Jayro Bustamante (La Casa de Producción, Tu vas voir Productions) (Guatemala).

-"Magallanes," by Salvador del Solar (Péndulo Films, Tondero Producciones, Cepa Audiovisual S.R.L., Proyectil, Cinemara, Nephilim Producciones, S.L.) (Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Spain).

Premio Platino for Best Film Editing

-César Díaz, for "Ixcanul."

-Eric Williams, for "Magallanes."

-Etienne Boussac, Cristina Gallego, for "Embrace of the Serpent" (El abrazo de la serpiente).

-Jorge Coira, for "Retribution" (El desconocido).

-Pablo Trapero, Alejandro Carrillo Penovi, for "The Clan" (El clan).

Premio Platino for Best Art Direction

-Angélica Perea, for "Embrace of the Serpent" (El abrazo de la serpiente).

-Bruno Duarte, Artur Pinheiro, for "Arabian Nights: Vol.2 - The Desolate One" (As mil e uma noites: Volume 2, O desolado).

-Jesús Bosqued Maté, Pilar Quintana, for "The Bride" (La novia).

-Pilar Peredo, for "Ixcanul."

-Sebastián Orgambide, for "The Clan" (El clan).

Premio Platino for Best Cinematography

-Arnaldo Rodríguez, for "The Memory of Water" (La memoria del agua).

-David Gallego, for "Embrace of the Serpent" (El abrazo de la serpiente).

-Luis Armando Arteaga, for "Ixcanul."

-Miguel Ángel Amoedo, for "The Bride" (La novia).

-Sergio Armstrong, for "The Club" (El club).

Premio Platino for Best Sound Direction

-Carlos García, Marco Salavarría, for "Embrace of the Serpent" (El abrazo de la serpiente).

-David Machado, Jaime Fernández, Nacho Arenas, for "Retribution" (El desconocido).

-Eduardo Cáceres, Julien Cloquet, for "Ixcanul."

-Federico Esquerro, Santiago Fumagalli, Edson Secco, for "Paulina."

-Vicente D’Elía, Leandro de Loredo, for "The Clan" (El clan).

“About three years ago, a 20-year-old boy was murdered in Santiago because he was gay. He was tortured for hours: his legs broken, a swastika carved on his stomach using shattered bottles, a piece of his ear torn out. By coincidence, that young boy was a fan of my work as a musician and I knew who he was because we’d spoken a couple of times. I met his family and they urged me to continue “speaking on behalf of boys like him”, not usually represented in the media or even art: in short, a gay and poor kid.”

This is what motivated Alex Anwandter, a widely acclaimed Chilean musician to make “You’ll Never Be Alone”/ “Nunca vas a estar solo”. However, he adds,

“This story, however, shifts its focus onto the father of the boy. This is my way of saying: it was not one boy, it’s many boys and girls, and women and men. And the life we should examine more carefully is not the boys’, it’s the rest of us. We who allow this to repeat over and over.”

Born in Santiago, Chile in 1983 Alex’s career as a musician started in 2005 to immediate and widespread acclaim in Chile and South America. His first four albums were released to critical and commercial recognition and subsequent touring the U.S., Europe and Latin America, becoming one of Chile's most renowned artists.

Growing up as a big cinephile, Alex Anwandter took to directing music videos for his own projects and other artists in 2005.

Named by Time Magazine as an artist “poised for U.S. stardom”, his music

and videos have been featured everywhere from Billboard to Vice Magazine and MTV, with NPR celebrating his video for “Cómo puedes vivir contigo mismo?”, an homage to “Paris is Burning”, for its courageous message of equality and non-discrimination.

In 2012 Alex Anwandter started preparing a new phase in his career.

Moved by the murder of young Daniel Zamudio, a gay boy murdered in a hate-crime in Santiago and fan of his work, Anwandter wrote his first script “You’ll Never Be Alone”. The film won both Sanfic’s and FICGuadalajara Work in Progress sections in 2015. In 2016 at its World Premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama it won the Teddy Award’s Special Jury Prize and went on to win Ficg’s Premio Maguey, its top Lgbt Award.

In Guadalajara I caught up with the producer, Isabel Orellana Guarello of Araucaria Cine and asked her the following questions:

Sydney Levine: How did you finance “You’ll Never Be Alone”?

Isabel Orellana Guarello: We financed the shooting with private investment and sponsorship provided by the Recoleta Municipality of Santiago and the association with the film school of University of Development ( Escuela de Cine Udd) and Ortega Maniques.

After the shooting we obtained help from the Postproduction Fund supported by Council for the Arts & Culture of Chile (Cnca).There was also an important amount of investment provided by 5Am Producciones & Araucaria Cine, the companies that produced the film.

Sl: Did you participate in pre-markets, workshops, etc.?

Iog: The film participated in two competitions of work in progress, one in Sanfic October 2014, just 2 months after we wrapped the shooting, and which we won. And after that the film participated at Films in Progress at FICGuadalajara,where we won two prizes provided by Retina HD and Red Melissa.

Also the project participated at Sanfic Net and Industry Days of Locarno Film Festival both in 2014 and 2015 as part of the catalogue of projects of Araucaria Cine.

Sl: How did you choose your actors?

Iog: For the main character of Juan we directly contacted Sergio Hernandez, whom we loved from previous collaborations with Raul Ruiz and Sebastián Lelio.

It happened in the same way with other cast members such as Edgardo Bruna (the boss of Juan), Antonia Zegers (the doctor) Camila Hirane (the bank executive).

For the young cast we did an open call organized by Ivan Parra Reinoso, We searched in several acting schools and finally reached out to Andrew Bargsted (Pablo) and her real-life best friend Astrid Roldan (Mari). Both had an amazing chemistry between them.

In the open casting call we also found Jaime Leiva (Felix, Pablo's lover) and Benjamín Westfall (Martin, the leader of the Nazi gang).

All together, they created an amazing casting of which we're very proud.

Sl: How did the producers come on board, and particularly Daniel Dreifuss (my friend)?

Iog: I met Daniel Dreifuss at Sanfic Net in 2014. I pitched the project to him since I felt he could connect with this story and he definitely did. Then he finally came on board as Executive Producer of the film in 2015.

Sl: Does the film have Chilean distribution and if so what is the plan?

Iog: The film has already secured Chilean distribution and we're expecting soon to have the specific release dates. The film is gaining a lot of attention back in Chile and audiences are waiting for it after its success at the Berlinale and Guadalajara.

Does it have an international sales agent?

Iog: Yes, the international sales are handled by Wide Management, a French company. We actually met them at Films in Progress 2014!

Sl: How did you come to this project?

Iog: I came on board in February 2014, after meeting Alex through a common friend.

When I read the script - that he'd been working for 2 years already- I was profoundly moved by it. We started working right away. The shooting was in July 2014, so everything was pretty fast.

Sl: Does this depict Chile today?

Iog: Unfortunately yes. Just the same day we received the Teddy Jury Award at Berlinale, a Chilean transgender boy was shot and killed in San Bernardo, Santiago. His name was Marcelo Lepe.

These homophobic killings will continue to occur if there is not deeper reflection about our society and our actions. That's why we made “You'll Never Be Alone”.

Sl: Will this film go toward changing the situation?

Iog: We hope so. We still believe that cinema can make strong change of hearts and minds. So we're eager to show the film in Chile and also Latin America, and hopefully open some debates around the issues of homophobia and social injustice depicted in the film.

We also have a plan with the Municipality of Recoleta to show the film at high schools inside their Sexual Diversity Program, when we complete our commercial release.

It's very important to us that the film is discussed inside Chile and we're making all our best efforts for that to happen.

Sl: What are your current and next projects?

Iog: The director Alex Anwandter is currently releasing his new album "Amiga" in April. So new music videos and songs are coming up from him.

About me as producer, Araucaria Cine is currently producing a feature documentary with director Roberto Collio (“White Death”) and Rodrigo Robledo, named “Petit Frère” which will compete at Focus Chile in Visions du Reel 2016. Also I'm developing a feature doc with Maria Jesus Valenzuela, “Interna." Both projects were funded by the Council of the Arts & Culture and Corfo Chile.

A Lonely Way to Die: Anwandter Explores the Elements of a Hate Crime

The 2012 murder of openly gay Chilean Daniel Zamudio provides the basis for Alex Antwandter’s elegiac directorial debut, You’ll Never Be Alone. Recalling a legion of cinematic examinations concerned with the aftershocks of homophobic violence, similarities to the Matthew Shepard tragedy (turned into 2002 film The Laramie Project) or the skinheads responsible for the savage murder of Frenchman Francois Chenu (examined in the 2005 documentary Beyond Hatred) are irrefutable. Rather than focus on the motives of the malefactors or the societal prized machismo and misogyny which continues to allow these cycles of hatred to flourish in each new generation, the film’s focus is the creeping devastation to those directly and irreparably affected by such despicable barbarism. Sans answers or resolution, it’s merely an unassuming tale of loss, frustration, and combatting helplessness.

Eighteen year old Pablo (Andrew...

The Club (El Club) Music Box Films Reviewed by: Harvey Karten for  Shockya. Databased on Rotten Tomatoes. Grade: A- Director:  Pablo Larraín Written by:  Pablo Larraín, Guillermo Calderón Cast: Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers, Jaime Vadell, Alejandro Goic, Alejandro Sieveking, Marcelo Alonso, José Soza, Francisco Reyes Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 1/27/16 Opens:  February 5, 2016 If you have ever been a New York City teacher in the public school system, you will be familiar with the now defunct rubber room.  This was a place that functioned as a halfway house, as it were, for tenured teachers who had been brought up on charges by their principals.  They were  [ Read More ]

The post The Club Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Living Under Your Spotlight: Larrain Paints it Black with Catholic Crisis Comedy

For his first film following the finale of his narrative trilogy documenting the virulence of the Pinochet dictatorship (Tony Manero; Post Mortem; No), Chilean auteur Pablo Larrain returns with a macabre tale of sacerdotal infringements within the Catholic Church in the ludicrous, perverse, and vibrantly entertaining The Club. Starring his usual collaborator, Alfredo Castro, Larrain, along with screenwriters Daniel Villalobos and Guillermo Calderon (2011’s Violeta Went to Heaven) concoct a bizarre tale concerning a cloister of ex-Catholic priests holed up within the confines of an isolated seaside monastery. Relocated out of circulation as punishment by the church, the disparate men languish in all the comforts of an unassuming retirement home community on the church’s dime.

On the coastal extremity of Chile, four men (Alfredo Castro; Jaime Vadell; Alejandro Goic; Alejandro Sieveking) reside together in a home under...