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Exclusive: The Latino Film Institute has announced the lineup for the 24th edition of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (Laliff), from May 28 through June 1, 2025, at the Tcl Chinese Theatres. This year’s festival will feature the return of the Laliff Eastside programming at Regal L.A. Live, the Laliff Film Market, and an expanded Laliff Industry Forum.

The festival will open with Asco: Without Permission, written and directed by Travis Gutiérrez Senger, executive produced by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, and featuring special appearances by Zoe Saldaña and Michael Peña. Laliff will close with Serious People, co-written and co-directed by Pasqual Gutierrez and Ben Mullinkosson, which is being shown for the first time on the West Coast.

Asco: Without Permission is a film that tells the story of the pioneering Chicano art collective Asco, whose activism and artistic vision challenged mainstream representation in the art world,...

The 12th edition of the Madrid-hosted Platino Awards, honoring the highest in Ibero-American film and television, saw major wins for the Oscar-winning Brazilian film I’m Still Here, as well as director Walter Salles and star Fernanda Torres (who were not in attendance). The night also featured three accolades for Netflix’s Colombian serialized adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude, which took home best actor and supporting actor categories, as well as best television series overall.

Other notable winners included Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, which clinched the original score and cinematography categories.

The Platino Awards followed February’s Goya ceremony, which also saw wins for the aforementioned projects, in addition to other winners honored today, including El 47, La Infiltrada and Segundo Premio.

A standout from the evening was also Eva Longoria’s acceptance of the Platinum of Honor Award as an example of Latin excellence in Hollywood,...

Walter Salles‘ I’m Still Here was the big winner at Madrid’s Platino Awards on Sunday night, honoring the best of Ibero-American film and television.

The Brazilian filmmaker took home the best director and best Ibero-American fiction film awards, while the Oscar-nominated Fernanda Torres won best actress for her performance.

Elsewhere, Daniel Fanego won the best supporting actor performance for Luis Ortega’s Kill the Jockey, and Clara Segura of El 47 won in the equivalent category for women. Eduard Fernández took home the best actor prize for his role in Marco.

There were also two wins for Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut, The Room Next Door, as Edu Grau and Alberto Iglesias won the best cinematography and best original score awards, respectively.

Eva Longoria, star of Desperate Housewives and Only Murders in the Building, picked up the prestigious Platino honorary award — past recipients of which include Benicio Del Toro,...

In Carnival Is Over, directed by Fernando Coimbra, the crazy lives of Valerio (Irandhir Santos) and Regina (Leandra Leal) are shown against the background of Rio de Janeiro’s crime underworld.

At the film’s beginning, Valerio deals with his father’s legacy. His father’s death puts him and Regina in the middle of a web of illegal prize schemes and betrayal. Their desire to escape this life quickly leads them to become more involved in crime.

Coimbra cleverly turns traditional stories on their heads by adding twists that show how the couple’s morals are falling apart. Regina tricks Valerio into killing his uncle, which makes their relationship a battleground of ambition and trust. This falling apart is reflected in the film’s sharp cinematography and sound design, which blend lively samba with eerie melodies to reflect their emotional turmoil.

Carnival Is Over offers a new viewpoint on...

In every war, creative masterminds return from battlefields with new ideas and fresh perspectives. Tolkiens World War horrors famously inspired his fantasy. The Iraq War may be too recent to have such enduring media legacies, but the nearly decade-long conflict inspired plenty of action-packed cinema. The first stateside film to emerge from the dust was 2005s American Soldiers, although many subsequent works gained significantly more critical acclaim.

Many of the resulting works about the Middle Eastern conflict ultimately took sides. Some films argued for the wars necessity, showcasing its soldiers trauma as shining examples of patriotism. Other works, such as Hayao Miyazakis Howls Moving Castle, spoke against the conflict, highlighting the conflicts brutality. In 2017, six years after the Iraq War ended, Fernando Coimbra introduced yet another silver-screen depiction of the conflict. Sand Castle debuted on Netflix on April 21, 2017. It received lukewarm critical reactions, with many complaining about its convoluted plot and ambiguity.

Fernando Coimbra: 'I'm really crazy about Shakespeare, and I read a lot of writers like Harold Bloom and other guys who write about his plays, and they all say that Macbeth specifically has this nightmarish feeling' Fernando Coimbra’s Carnival Is Over (Os Enforcados) offers a Shakespearean take on a crime thriller. It stars Irandhir Santos and Leandra Leal, as husband and wife Valerio and Regina, who upon inheriting a slice of their families dodgy gambling empire, start to plot to be king and queen not realising that the head that wears the crown is likely to be a lot more than uneasy. Framed in ways that emphasise elements of the carnival at its most subversive, Coimbra draws on Shakespearean plays, including Macbeth, while crafting something altogether twisty of his own. We caught up with the director after the film’s premiere at Toronto Film Festival, to talk about playing hard with the Bard,...

The time has come for the annual presentation of the Toronto International Film Festival. The festivities will include many premieres of titles, whether it be their big world premiere, their North American premiere, or even just their Canadian premiere. Deadline has unveiled a number of upcoming films that attendees are expected to see this year.

Among those premiering are some star-studded affairs, such as the war drama Without Blood, which stars Salma Hayek and Demián Bichir and is directed by Angelina Jolie. The film is based on the Alessandro Baricco novel. Hard Truths from Mike Leigh stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste. That film is being described as an “Ongoing exploration of the contemporary world with a tragicomic study of human strengths and weaknesses.”

The Last Showgirl will premiere. The movie follows a seasoned stage dancer who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run and stars Dave Bautista,...

The 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival have unveiled their lineup of 63 films from the Gala and Special Presentations programs. Notable titles include the world premieres of Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths and The Last Showgirl, the North American premieres of Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Harvest and Justin Kurzel’s The Order, the Canadian premiere of Joshua Oppenheimer’s The End, along with many favorites from this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Check out the lineup below.

Galas 2024 (in alphabetical order)

*Previously announced

Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe Cosima Spender | UK

World Premiere

Better Man Michael Gracey | USA

Canadian Premiere

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight Embeth Davidtz | South Africa

Canadian Premiere

Sales Title

*Eden Ron Howard | USA

World Premiere

Sales Title

*Elton John: Never Too Late R.J. Cutler, David Furnish | USA

World Premiere

*Harbin Woo Min-ho | South Korea

World Premiere

Meet the Barbarians...

The Toronto Film Festival has turned up the star power for its 49th edition, having added the latest movies from Alicia Vikander, Lupita Nyong’o, Steve Coogan, Ralph Fiennes, Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayek, Lily James and Riz Ahmed.

For the Gala section at Roy Thomson Hall, there’s world bows for two music specials: the Andrea Bocelli biopic Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe, a doc about the Italian tenor by director Cosima Spender; and Thom Zimny’s Bruce Springsteen doc for Disney+ and Hulu, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. Zimny was in Toronto last year with his Sylvester Stallone documentary Sly for Netflix.

TIFF will also give a first look to Uberto Pasolini’s historical epic The Return, with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche reteaming after The English Patient. And there’s gala world premieres for Peter Cattaneo’s The Penguin Lessons, toplined by Steve Coogan and...

World premieres from Angelina Jolie, Mike Leigh, David Mackenzie, Edward Burns, Uberto Pasolini, Peter Cattaneo, and Rachel Morrison among the Gala and Special Presentation titles unveiled by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) today (July 22).

Hard Truths is a rare TIFF premiere for Leigh after the UK auteur’s last film Peterloo debuted in Venice in 2018, while Mr. Turner in 2014 and Another Year in 2010 both premiered in Cannes. Cornerstone represents sales and Bleecker Street will handle US distributon on the film, which stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste from Secrets And Lies.

Pasolini’s The Return marks his follow-up to Venice 2020 entry Nowhere Special...

The 49th Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled a star-studded lineup featuring a slew of highly-anticipated features this awards season.

IndieWire can confirm the Galas and Special Presentations programs that boast 63 films, including new titles from beloved directors like Mike Leigh, Morgan Neville, Jacques Audiard, and Edward Berger, whose papal drama “Conclave” will make its international premiere at the festival. (Meaning this American production will world-premiere at Telluride.)

The Galas program, sponsored by Dyson, includes buzzy Cannes titles like Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada” and David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds.” Cronenberg will also be honored with the Norman Jewison Career Achievement Award during the festival.

The Special Presentations section marks the premiere of Gia Coppola’s “The Last Showgirl” starring Pamela Anderson, as well as Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ “Heretic.”

The Galas and Special Presentations programs for 2024 boast films from 25 countries, including 29 sales titles.

“This Special Presentations section can...

Brazilian production powerhouse Gullane, which is behind Netflix’s “Senna” and Karim Aïnouz’s Cannes competition title “Motel Destino,” has closed international co-production pacts on new projects from Cao Hamburger (”The Year My Parents Went on Vacation”) and Sandra Kogut (“Three Summers”).

France’s Playtime Group and Portugal’s Ukbar Filmes will co-produce Hamburger’s “School Without Walls.” A Playtime Group company will also handle international sales on the true and inspiring story of Braz Nogueira, principal of a public school in Heliopolis, one of Brazil’s biggest slums.

Kogut will direct “New Cancun,” co-created by and starring Sundance actress winner Regina Casé. The film teams Gullane with Kogut’s regular producer in France, Gloria Films. It’s slated to shoot by the first quarter of 2025.

In the film, Casé plays Madá, who has never dwelled on her family’s tragedy in an environmental disaster. When chosen for a Christmas campaign,...

Top Brazilian titles at the Berlin Festival and EFM:

“Betânia,” (Marcelo Botta)

Botta’s feature debut, produced by Salvatore Filmes, associate produced by Ventre Studio, selected for Berlin’s Panorama. Set in stunning but barren Brazilian sand dunes, Betânia, 65, rebuilds amid global collapse. After losing her husband to a salty diet common in electricity-deprived areas, she seeks solace in a new village, cherishing its traditions. Sales: MPM Premium

“The Best Friend,” (Allan Deberton)

By Deberton, director of award-winning “Pacarrete,” co-produced by Ceara-based Deberton Filmes and Telecine. During a quiet beach trip to Canoa Quebrada, Lucas reunites with his old college friend Felipe, whose free-spirited nature sparks feelings of nostalgia. Sales: Deberton Filmes

“Carnival is Over,” (Fernando Coimbra)

A much awaited title from helmer-scribe, now in post. Winner of a Sundance Institute global filmmaking award, the thriller centers on Regina and Valerio who live an opulent lifestyle in Rio as heirs...

Italian indie producer Vivo Film has boarded André Ristum’s action drama “Tecnicamente Dolce” (“Technically Sweet”), based on a screenplay by Italian legend Michelangelo Antonioni, teaming with Gullane Filmes, Brazil’s biggest independent film production house.

The news comes as “Carnival Is Over,” the awaited thriller drama by “Narcos” director Fernando Coimbra, whose “A Wolf at the Door” was one of the standout Brazilian feature debuts of the last decade, has now entered post-production, shaping up as one of the big arthouse titles to hit festivals from Brazil next year.

Featuring Leandra Leal (“A Wolf at the Door”), Pêpê Rapazote (“Narcos”) and Irandhir Santos (“Tropa de Elite 2”), “Carnival” is a Brazilian-Portuguese co-production that teams Gullane with Fado Filmes, Videodrome, Globo Filmes and Telecine, in association with Tc Filmes. France’s Playtime has started to pre-sell the film.

“This movie is our main title for next year. This is the...

Paris-based Playtime has unveiled a strong Cannes film market sales slate, which includes competition titles “About Dry Grasses” and “Homecoming.”

“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.

“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...

We are living in the Golden Age of Television… I.P. Whether it’s NBC rebooting “Night Court” or Netflix reliving “That 90’s Show,” intellectual property is the name of the game. Heck, “The Lord of the Rings” can’t even finish one reboot before the next comes along. Viewers are so inundated with old ideas rehashed into something new, they may not even notice how thoroughly I.P. has infiltrated their entertainment. Marvel comics were adapted into Marvel movies, which were extended into Marvel TV shows, which were then connected back to Marvel movies, which, by then, were incorporating old Marvel actors right alongside new Marvel actors — both playing the same role. I’m not even sure that winding, snakelike sentence holds together, but the point remains: We’re hearing the same stories about the same people over and over and over again. Hollywood has found a way to turn ouroboros into pure profit.

Figa Films has snapped up international sales rights to “Frogs,” by Clara Linhart. Her previous film “Domingo,” (2018), co-directed with Fellipe Barbosa, premiered at the 75th Venice Festival in Venice Days.

The Brazilian production centers on a woman, in her late thirties, invited to an old friends’ get together at a country house. She arrives to find there is no get together and is left instead to spend her weekend with two couples in partial crisis. In her statement about the film director Linhart says, ‘I want the spectators to recognize themselves in these characters or in the situations they experience. I want people to both laugh and cringe because they can relate. I want to use the camera as a microscope capable of visualizing looks, gestures, and whispers that denote desires, fears, and insecurities.”

Paula is played by Thalita Carauta, who put in an award-winning turn in “Narcos” director Fernando Coimbra...

Wallace Langham has signed on to the cast of “Perry Mason” Season 2 at HBO.

Langham joins a cast that includes returning series star Matthew Rhys as well as Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk, Diarra Kilpatrick, and Eric Lange among many others.

In Season 2, months after the end of the Dodson trial, Perry’s (Rhys) moved off the farm, ditched the milk truck, he’s even traded his leather jacket for a pressed suit. It’s the worst year of the Depression, and Perry and Della (Rylance) have set the firm on a safer path pursuing civil cases instead of the tumultuous work that criminal cases entail. Unfortunately, there isn’t much work for Paul (Chalk) in wills and contracts, so he’s been out on his own. An open-and-closed case overtakes the city of Los Angeles, and Perry’s pursuit of justice reveals that not everything is always as it seems.

Projeto Paradiso, operated by the Olga Rabinovich Institute, has renewed its partnership with Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur, backed by Cannes Festival and Film Market and Argentina’s Incaa film-tv agency.

The move is one of several unveiled at Cannes Marché du Film, as go-ahead orgs in Brazil continue to attempt to stem the ravages of three years of President Jair Bolsonaro’s state incentive slow down as well as map out institutional backing for an industry in what is hoped to be a post-Bolsonaro age after October’s general elections. Some of the new initiatives:

Projeto Paradiso Broadens Its Alliance With Ventana Sur

The Projeto Paradiso-Ventana Sur alliance cuts two ways. For the second year running, the Brazilian philanthropic org will hand out a Paradiso Wip Award, worth 10,000 in last-money-in to the best Brazilian fiction project in post-production at Ventana Sur, Latin America’s biggest film-tv event.

Launched in 2021, the...

Gullane, one of Brazil’s biggest production powerhouses, has attached Fernanda Montenegro, Oscar-nominated for “Central Station,” to star in “The Hanged,” the new anticipated film from “Narcos” director Fernando Coimbra.

The news comes as Gullane unveiled in Cannes its first post-pandemic movie slate, led by two movies from director Cao Hamburger.

“We want to continue providing production services for the platforms, producing with them. But we also want to own the IP of some of our projects, and movies give us that,” Gullane co-founder Fabiano Gullane said..

Produced with Globo Filmes and Telecine, “The Hanged” is co-produced by Portugal’s Fado Filmes. Paris Filmes distributes in Brazil. It will go into production second semester 2022,

“’The Hanged’ has been long delayed due to the pandemic but we are very honored to have two of the biggest acting stars, part of recent Brazilian cinema history,” said producer Caio Gullane.

Other pics on...

Fernando Coimbra (Narcos), Jessica Lowery (Heels), Marialy Rivas (La Jauría) and Nina Lopez-Corrado (A Million Little Things) have been tapped to direct Season 2 of HBO’s Emmy-nominated Perry Mason reboot, starring Matthew Rhys in the titular role.

Each will direct two episodes of the eight-episode series — Coimbra, episodes 1 & 2; Lowery, episodes 3 & 4; Rivas, episodes 5 & 6 and Lopez-Corrado, episodes 7 & 8.

Season 2 of Perry Mason takes place months after the end of the Dodson trial. Perry (Rhys) has moved off the farm, ditched the milk truck, he’s even traded his leather jacket for a pressed suit. It’s the worst year of the Depression, and Perry and Della (Juliet Rylance) have set the firm on a safer path pursuing civil cases instead of the tumultuous work criminal cases entail. Unfortunately, there isn’t much work for Paul (Chris Chalk) in wills and contracts, so he’s been out on his own. An open-and-closed case overtakes the city of Los Angeles,...

Shailene Woodley has spoken out about a health scare that almost ended her career.

The Big Little Lies actress, 28, told the New York Times in a Friday article that she became “very, very sick” while making the Divergent films.

More from DeadlineShailene Woodley To Star In Fernando Coimbra-Directed 'Girl Named Sue'Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim & Shailene Woodley Board 'Prisoner 760', Stx Launching At AFMDrake Doremus' Shailene Woodley Movie 'Endings, Beginnings' Picked Up By Samuel Goldwyn

“I haven’t spoken much about this yet publicly, and I will one day, but I was very, very sick in my early 20s. While I was doing the Divergent movies and working hard, I also was struggling with a deeply personal, very scary physical situation,” she said without elaborating on the cause of her illness.

“Because of that, I said no to a lot of opportunities because I needed to get better,...

Exclusive: Shailene Woodley is set to star in the title role of Girl Named Sue, the true story of DEA agent Sue Webber-Brown and her role in creating the Drug Endangered Child (Dec) protocol. Fernando Coimbra is directing and Crazyrose partners Jean-Marc Vallée and Nathan Ross (Dallas Buyers Club) are producing with Laura Bickford (Traffic and Beasts of No Nation), whose Flora Films partner Fiona Druckenmiller is exec producer.

The film was written by Lisa Cole and Mark Monroe, the husband & wife team. Mark Monroe wrote the Oscar-winning documentaries The Cove and Icarus. Set in the central California farmland in the ’90s at the height of the crystal meth crisis, Webber-Brown fights her way into the boys’ club of law enforcement where she takes it upon herself to help the small children overlooked during raids. It is a decision that will change her life forever. Risking her career and the safety of her family,...

London-based sales and production company Taskovski Films has acquired world sales rights to Barbara Paz’s debut documentary, “Babenco — Tell Me When I Die,” which bows in Venice Classics on Sept. 2.

Brazilian helmer Héctor Babenco was a commanding presence on the international film scene, directing pics of the caliber of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” which was Oscar nominated for best picture, director, adapted screenplay and actor, with William Hurt winning in his category. Other notable films by Babenco include “Ironweed” and “Pixote.”

Paz’s film represents a passing of the baton between a mentor and his student, who were also lovers. It is in a way Babenco’s last work. A film that functions as a loving portrait of the man and the filmmaker, but also as a love letter to the filmmaking process itself.

It is a deeply stylized, black-and-white documentary with intricate editing that shuttles between Babenco...

Gullane, the Brazilian producer of Marco Bellocchio’s Cannes competition player “The Traitor,” has linked with production partners for anticipated projects by two of Brazil’s highest-profile auteurs: Karim Ainouz and Fernando Coimbra.

In further news, Luiz Bolognesi, writer-director of Annecy winner “Rio 2096,” is leading “Senna,” Gullane’s biggest movie project to date, a live-action biopic of the Formula One legend.

On “Neon River,” the English-language debut and biggest-scale movie ever of Ainouz, whose Rodrigo Teixeira-produced “Invisible Life” world premieres in Cannes Un Certain Regard this week, Gullane will co-produce with Germany’s Match Factory Prods. and Japan’s Bitters End.

A romantic action-thriller set in Tokyo’s near-future underworld, “Neon River” has been adapted by Ainouz and the U.K.’s Toby Finlay. Sergio Machado, director of Brazil’s biggest animated movie “Noah’s Ark,” which Gullane is producing with Walter Salles, is writing the latest screenplay version.

Exclusive: Solstice Studios has put another strong film on its initial slate. The upstart company has joined with Waypoint Entertainment and Addictive Pictures on Possession: A Love Story. the genre-bending supernatural thriller Possession: A Love Story. Fernando Coimbra, the Brazilian filmmaker best known for A Wolf at the Door will direct the Black List script by Jack Stanley.

Waypoint’s Ken Kao and Josh Rosenbaum will produce with Addictive Pictures’ John Schoenfelder and Russell Ackerman, and Jewerl Ross. Solstice Studios acquired rights and is currently out to cast.

The film is a supernatural thriller about a couple with an enviable marriage, marked by irresistible passion, wealth and success. Their lives are thrown into turmoil when her health mysteriously begins to deteriorate. When he uncovers the terrifying truth – that his wife is possessed – he must make an impossible choice: save an innocent victim or...

Roughly 400 buyers will get a taste of new Italian and, more broadly, European TV skeins, movies, and docs at Rome’s new concept Mia market, which has assembled a discerning display of potentially hot high-profile content in various stages, set to attract a copious contingent of top-level international execs.

In line with its stated mission of being an “incubator and accelerator” for the Italian industry in the global arena — as market director Lucia Milazzotto said during a recent press conference — the fourth edition of the post-Mipcom pre-afm (Oct. 17-21) event features sneak peeks of upcoming high-profile local goods, such as Rai’s “The Name of The Rose” adaptation toplining John Turturro and Sky Italia’s financial thriller “Devils,” co-starring Patrick Dempsey and Italian A-lister Alessandro Borghi, as well as “Freaks Out” (pictured) the new genre-bending pic by Gabriele Mainetti who made a splash with widely sold sleeper hit “They Call Me Jeeg.

Just as the viability of classic film market models including Cannes and the Afm is coming into question, Rome’s Mia Market for feature films, TV series, and documentaries is gaining traction with a new concept.

Launched in 2015 as a re-invention of the Rome Film Festival’s Business Street mart in a concerted effort to put Italy back on the global content-markets map, Mia is a one-stop shop event for the cream of the crop in film, TV series and docs that instead of booths and stands provides meticulous assistance setting up curated business meetings in a congenial setting and a mix of quality fresh finished product as well as pitching sessions of upcoming selected movies, skeins and docs in various stages.

Mia, an acronym for Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo or Intl. Audiovisual Market, is backed by Italy’s motion picture association Anica and TV producers’ org Apt. The mart was...

20 feature films, 17 documentaries and 20 TV dramas set for pitching forum.

A slate of 20 feature films, 17 documentaries and 20 TV dramas have been selected for the pitching session at the fourth edition of the Mia Market in Rome (October 17-21).

Feature Film

This year’s feature film projects, which come from 16 different countries, were selected by Jason Ishikawa (international sales at Cinetic Media), Anne Lai (cirector of creative producing and artist support for the feature film program at the Sundance Institute) and Sophie Mas (producer at Rt Features). Half the projects are directed by women.

Among these are productions that passed through the Sundance Screenwriting lab,...

Today in Variety’s International Newswire, it’s all about soccer, with Vivendi losing French Ligue 1 soccer rights, while Zidane’s resignation as Real Madrid manager may just make Spain’s Laliga rights all the more attractive; in the fast contracting non-soccer universe, as the World Cup approaches, Netflix turns the screws on rivals in Brazil with a top company commission; Mexico’s Dopamine signals new hires

Has Vivendi just scored a massive own goal? In what analyst François Godard, at Enders Analysis, describes as “the biggest shock to the French broadcasting system in a generation,” on May 29, Spain’s Mediapro outbid Vivendi subsidy Canal Plus, Europe’s second biggest pay TV player, to rights to France’s Ligue 1 soccer matches over 2020-24. On Wednesday, Vivendi stock plunged 3.64% by market close. It had clawed back 0.56% by mid-morning trading, but analysts’ sentiment looks to be that Canal Plus now has a problem.

Fernanda Torres (Cannes best actress prize winner for “Love Me Forever or Never”) is attached to star in “The Hanged,” the second Brazilian feature of Fernando Coimbra, which is set up at Brazilian shingle Gullane.

Co-produced by Globo Filmes and Brazilian pay TV channel Telecine, “The Hanged” is a “tragic action thriller,” producer Fabiano Gullane said in Cannes. It centers on a married couple: Regina, from one of Rio de Janeiro’s most important (but bankrupt) families and Valerio, a mobster. Impelled by ambition, they kill Valerio’s uncle to grab a slice of Rio’s illegal gambling racket.

While a by-the-book police chief investigates corrupt cops with links to the city’s underworld, the murder sparks a turf war contaminating Valerio and Regina’s trust, driving their growing sense of paranoia, and leading to what the film’s synopsis calls a tragic outcome and “an operatic and insane bloodbath.

David Michôd’s War Machine marks Netflix’s second assessment of America’s Middle Eastern strategies in barely a month. Fernando Coimbra’s Sand Castle questioned Iraq-war involvement, and now – weeks later – attention is diverted to Afghanistan, 2009. It’s all based on Michael Hastings’ non-fiction “The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan,” an exposé that “questions” General Stanley McChrystal’s 2010 shot-calling. The names may have changed from page to screen, but the message is retained. When invading a foreign land, how is one supposed to broker peace? It’s a confused tactic; one that blurs the rules of war. Good thing a colorful cast of jarheads are there to “make sense” of it all.

Brad Pitt stars as General Glen McMahon, the 4-star legend whose duty is to declare a victorious end to Afghanistan’s ongoing retaliations. Shouldn’t be too hard since the “Glenimal” (yes,...

Similar to lead character Pvt. Matt Ocre (Nicholas Hoult), screenwriter Chris Roessner joined the United States Army in July of 2001 to serve in the Reserves and earn college money. Two months later 9/11 changed everything. Suddenly he was thrust into a full-scale war in the Middle East and he needed to steel himself to that fact. He wasn’t in the Special Forces, Navy SEALs or Marines — he was just a soldier walking onto the frontlines like the rest. His story wasn’t one of unanimous heroics wherein he proved crucial to earning that “Mission Accomplished” banner everyone remembers as empty sentiment. Like so many military men and women, he entered Iraq at the beginning of something still unfinished today and left well before any true strides were made.

Roessner survived his stint and returned home with journals and photos depicting his experience. He took that money and enrolled in USC’s film school,...

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

Will This April Dump Weekend See Any New Movie Open Over $10 Million?

After the decent opening of last week’s The Fate of the Furious--though not quite as much as I predicted--it’s going to be hard for any new movie to make a mark against its second weekend even if it drops 55% or more this weekend, which is very likely.

Probably the best bet to make money this weekend is the thriller Unforgettable (Warner Bros.), which pits Kathryn Heigl against Rosario Dawson and is the directorial debut by producer Denise Di Novi (Crazy, Stupid, Love). It also stars Geoff Stults as the ex-husband of Heigl’s character Tessa, who becomes engaged to Dawson’s Julia, making her the stepmom to the former’s daughter,...

Fernando Coimbra’s Sand Castle is an Iraq war story that takes aim at Us involvement. Chris Roessner’s screenplay accidentally destroys a small town’s water supply, then sends Army infantrymen in to clean up an American-made mess. We break it, we buy it – but what’s the cost of us even being there? Middle Eastern natives shoot holes in friendly tankers that only want to fix an unfortunate mistake, or refuse to help military-grade contractors because a partnership with white devils means death. The futility of war put on display, anyone? It’s not exactly the first time our Iraq occupancy has been called into question, which begs a simple question – why now, Netflix? Is this wartime drama too little, too repetitive and too late?

Nicholas Hoult stars as a gunshy young private by the name of Matt Ocre. Enlisting runs in his family, but judging by a...

Nicholas Hoult is getting pretty good at playing War Boys, though in Netflix’s war drama “Sand Castle,” there’s more introspection and less flame-throwing guitars than anything we saw in “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

Set in Iraq in 2003, the film follows a group of American soldiers during the early days of the second Gulf War. They are sent to the outskirts of Baqubah to repair a water pumping station that was damaged by U.S. bombs. The soldiers soon learn that winning the hearts and mind of the angry and resentful locals is a task fraught with danger.

Read More: ‘Sand Castle’ Trailer: Nicholas Hoult Is a War Boy Once Again in Netflix Original — Watch

Alongside Hoult, the film stars Henry Cavill, Glen Powell, Logan Marshall-Green, Neil Brown Jr., and Beau Knapp and is directed by Fernando Coimbra, who is best known for his work on “Narcos.”

“Sand Castle...

You time is valuable, and so are both services for different reasons.War Machine (Netflix)

Although there may be a competition going on between Amazon and Netflix for subscribers, the truth is that both company’s streaming services are essential for anyone who watches a lot of movies and TV and who wants to be part of the pop culture conversations as they happen.

There’s no denying that Amazon Prime is worth the $99/year, which not only gives you access to many movies but also a good amount of music streaming and digital media access, plus faster shipping for when you actually want some sort of physical product (you can also just get video content for $8.99/month, which oddly means paying more for less).

And Netflix is still a must-have for both its exclusive and nonexclusive content, though depending on one’s usage could be best for sporadic membership rather than continued subscription — now at $120/year...

Following the release of images from the film, Netflix have debuted the first trailer for war drama Sand Castle, which stars Nicholas Hoult, Henry Cavill, Logan Marshall-Green, Glen Powell, Beau Knapp, and Neil Brown Jr. From a powerful and personal script by screenwriter Chris Roessner who was inspired by his experiences in Iraq, Sand Castle is a depiction of the Second Gulf War told through the eyes of a group of American soldiers on the front lines.

Set in Iraq in 2003, Sand Castle follows a group of American soldiers in the early days of the second Gulf War. Bearing witness to the heat and the horror is the inexperienced Private Matt Ocre (Nicholas Hoult), who together with several fellow soldiers is ordered to the outskirts of Baqubah to repair a water pumping station damaged by U.S. bombs. But as Ocre discovers, in an atmosphere where resentment and anger fester,...

"No one outside that gate wants you here... So do your job." Netflix has debuted an official trailer for an Iraq war drama titled Sand Castle, from the Brazilian director who last made the cult hit A Wolf at the Door previously. Set in Iraq in 2003 at the very beginning of the Iraq war, the film follows a couple of Us soldiers trying to protect a small village that's under attack. The film stars Nicholas Hoult, Henry Cavill, Glen Powell, Logan Marshall-Green, Beau Knapp, Neil Brown Jr., Parker Sawyers, Sam Spruell, Sammy Sheik, and Tommy Flanagan. I'm surprised to see yet another new Gulf War movie, especially with this kind of impressive ensemble cast, considering they seem to be a dime a dozen nowadays. But hopefully there's something unique to this and it's better than it looks at first glance. On Netflix in April. Here's the first official trailer for Fernando Coimbra's Sand Castle,...

The Netflix Originals will continue until morale improves. The streaming giant has several on the docket in the next few months, including the Iraq War drama “Sand Castle.” Inspired by screenwriter Chris Roessner’s own experiences, the film stars Nicholas Hoult, Henry Cavill and Logan Marshall-Green. Watch the trailer below.

Read More: ‘Sand Castle’ First Look Photos: Netflix Drama Follows American Soldiers Trying to Win Over Iraqi Locals

Here’s the synopsis: “Set in Iraq in 2003, ‘Sand Castle’ follows a group of American soldiers in the early days of the second Gulf War. Bearing witness to the heat and the horror is the inexperienced Private Matt Ocre (Nicholas Hoult), who together with several fellow soldiers is ordered to the outskirts of Baqubah to repair a water pumping station damaged by U.S. bombs. But as Ocre discovers, in an atmosphere where resentment and anger fester, trying to win the hearts...

Sand Castle, Fernando Coimbra’s intense drama set against the height of the second Gulf War, is one of many, many high-profile war dramas on the verge of release. There’s The Wall starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and John Cena, not to mention the Armie Hammer-led Mine, which chronicles one soldier’s desperate attempt at surviving on his lonesome in the Iraqi desert, battling sun, sand, enemy forces and crippling hallucinations.

For Sand Castle, it’s a little different. Headed up by Nicholas Hoult, Logan Marshall-Green and the Man of Steel himself, Henry Cavill, Fernando Coimbra and Netflix’s wartime thriller thrusts our three leading soldiers smack bang in the middle of a flashpoint. Dispatched on a mission to repair a crucial water line blown to smithereens by U.S. bombs, Coimbra’s military men find themselves under attack by a group of extremists.

Told through the lens of the...

Netflix is giving a first look at Sand Castle, the streaming service’s original film set in 2003 Iraq, the early days of the Second Gulf War. Starring Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road), Henry Cavill (Man of Steel), and Logan Marshall-Green (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Sand Castle is the second feature from Brazilian director Fernando Coimbra (A Wolf at the Door), who also directed episodes from the first season of Netflix’s Narcos. Hoult plays Private Matt Ocre, an…...

Netflix is giving a first look at Sand Castle, the streaming service’s original film set in 2003 Iraq, the early days of the Second Gulf War. Starring Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road), Henry Cavill (Man of Steel), and Logan Marshall-Green (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Sand Castle is the second feature from Brazilian director Fernando Coimbra (A Wolf at the Door), who also directed episodes from the first season of Netflix’s Narcos. Hoult plays Private Matt Ocre, an…...

Netflix have released the first images from their next original film, Sand Castle, which stars Nicholas Hoult, Henry Cavill, Logan Marshall-Green, Glen Powell, Beau Knapp, and Neil Brown Jr. From a powerful and personal script by screenwriter Chris Roessner who was inspired by his experiences in Iraq, Sand Castle is a depiction of the Second Gulf War told through the eyes of a group of American soldiers on the front lines.

Set in Iraq in 2003, Sand Castle follows a group of American soldiers in the early days of the second Gulf War. Bearing witness to the heat and the horror is the inexperienced Private Matt Ocre (Nicholas Hoult), who together with several fellow soldiers is ordered to the outskirts of Baqubah to repair a water pumping station damaged by U.S. bombs. But as Ocre discovers, in an atmosphere where resentment and anger fester, trying to win the hearts and...

Author: Zehra Phelan

Another new Netflix original feature length film looks set to thrill in the Spring of 2017 with a trip to the second Gulf War and a couple of familiar faces – Henry Cavill and Nicholas Hoult – at the forefront as American soldiers.

Related: Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck on Batman v Superman

This British made war drama sees screenwriter Chris Roessner recounting a story infused with his own personal experiences from his own time in Iraq. It is an honest and candid look at the war from his standpoint and the eyes of the American Soldiers who stood by his side on the front lines of this war. Sand Castle is only the second feature film from acclaimed Brazilian director Fernando Coimbra (A Wolf at the Door), who has also directed episodes from Season One of the Netflix global-hit series “Narcos.”

Joining Henry Cavill (Batman V Superman, Man from U.

The Sundance 2017 juries and audiences unveiled their picks on Saturday night.

In the grand jury prizes, Macon Blair’s I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore claimed the Us dramatic award and Dina by Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini won U.S. documentary.

Tarik Saleh’s The Nile Hilton Incident won world dramatic and Last Men In Aleppo by Feras Fayyad and Steen Johannessen prevailed in the world documentary category.

In the audience awards, Matt Ruski’s Crown Heights and Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral were the favourites in the Us dramatic and documentary strands.

World cinema selections I Dream In Another Language by Ernesto Contreras and Joe Piscatella’s Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower emerged victorious in the dramatic and documentary sections.

“This has been one of the wildest, wackiest and most rewarding festivals in recent memory,” said festival director John Cooper. “From a new government to the independently organised Women’s March On Main...

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close with tonight’s awards ceremony. While we’ll have our personal favorites coming early this week, the jury and audience have responded with theirs, topped by Macon Blair‘s I don’t feel at home in this world anymore., which will arrive on Netflix in late February, and the documentary Dina. Check out the full list of winners below see our complete coverage here.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Larry Wilmore to:

Dina / U.S.A. (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) — An eccentric suburban woman and a Walmart door-greeter navigate their evolving relationship in this unconventional love story.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Peter Dinklage to:

I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair) — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she...

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Nicholas Hoult, Henry Cavill, and Logan Marshall-Green find themselves under the scorching hot Iraqi sun in today’s first batch of images for Sand Castle, Netflix and Fernando Coimbra’s upcoming wartime thriller

Based on screenwriter Chris Roessner’s own tour of the Iraqi war, Sand Castle promises a tense, Hurt Locker-esque story funnelled through the eyes of three grunts – in this case Hoult, Marshall-Green and the Man of Steel himself – fighting for a cause they don’t quite understand. Cavill is set to take point as the burly Captain Syverson, with Hoult playing the part of Matt Orce, the quasi-surrogate to Chris Roessner in this particular instance.

Little is currently known about the Logan Marshall-Green’s character, but Netflix’s official logline teases an arc that involves our leading trio coming to terms with the “true cost of war,” as they break course to restore...

Sand Castle

Director: Fernando Coimbra

Writer: Chris Roessner

Brazilian director Fernando Coimbra received favorable notices for his 2013 child abduction thriller A Wolf at the Door before directing some episodes of the Netflix series “Narcos.” He managed to spin the collaboration with the streaming service into his English language/American production debut with Sand Castle, a war drama featuring a high-profile cast about a troop of Us soldiers stationed in Iraq as they attempt to protect a small village.

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Netflix has been seeing some huge success with their original programming over the last several years and as of late they have been making a big push to get into the film game as well. The streaming service just closed a deal at Cannes to distribute a new action/thriller called Wheelman that has Captain America and The Purge star Frank Grillo attached to star in and produce. Netflix reportedly closed the deal for $10 million, with filming set to begin later this year.

Grillo will be reteaming with Joe Carnahan, who directed him in The Grey alongside Liam Neeson, though Carnahan will be on as a producer as opposed to a director for Wheelman. Instead, the relatively unknown Jeremy Rush will be directing from a script he wrote himself. The synopsis for the film echoes a similar tone to films like Drive and Getaway.

In the movie, the wheelman is...