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If you know Pablo Larraín’s name, you likely know it for his Iconic 20th-Century Women Trilogy. But before the Chilean writer-director-producer made films in English, he built a remarkable Spanish-language career in his home country, one he’s continued in earnest through his Hollywood days. With three times as...

Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín is perhaps one of the most versatile filmmakers we have. His career includes the political marketing drama, “No,” the surrealist biopic, “Neruda,” the psychological horror and Stephen King adaptation, “Lisey’s Story” series, and the searing relationship drama, “Ema” to name just a few. But in his ascendence to Hollywood and working with some of the best actresses in the world, he’s also pivoted to some incredible artful films about the complicated lives of various famous female figures: Natalie Portman in “Jackie” about Jacqueline Kennedy, “Spencer” with Kristen Stewart about Princess Diana, and now his latest, “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie.

Continue reading ‘Maria’ Trailer: Angelina Jolie Leads Pablo Larraín’s Drama Of An Iconic Opera Singer at The Playlist.

The 2024 MTV EMAs nominations are here!

MTV released the nominations for this year’s awards ceremony, with Taylor Swift leading the pack with seven nominations, including Best Video, Best Pop and Biggest Fans.

Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Charli xcx and Sabrina Carpenter all scored five nominations each, and first-time nominees Chappell Roan and Tyla follow closely behind.

The 2024 MTV EMAs will broadcast live across the globe on Sunday, November 10 from Manchester, United Kingdom. The show will also be available in multiple international territories live on Pluto TV and on-demand on Paramount+.

19 nominees have the chance to score their first ever MTV Ema at this year’s show, including Tinashe and Jimin.

The “Biggest Fans” winners will be voted for at a later date on social via @Mtvema.

Keep reading to find out more…

Full List Of 2024 MTV Ema Nominations

Best Song

Ariana Grande – we can’t be friends (wait for...

FilmSharks has closed a handful of sales on its EFM roster led by Lucia Puenzo’s San Sebastian premiere Electrophilia (Los Impactados) and Miguel Faus’s Tallinn premiere The Quiet Maid (Calladita) presented by Steven Soderbergh.

At Entertainment has acquired Japanese rights to Puenzo’s (Xxy) Horizontes Latinos selection Electrophilia (Arg-usa-Chil), with Alebrije taking Mexico, and Estaçao Esperança acquiring Brazilian rights.

Mariana Di Girólamo (Pablo Larrain’s Ema) stars as a woman who awakens from a coma and experiences strange side-effects after a lightning strike. The Larrain brothers’ Fabula is among the producers.

Warner Bros Discovery has picked up pay...

Taylor Swift would have been the big winner of the night, had the 2023 MTV EMAs gone forward as planned on Nov. 5. Just two weeks before the show was to take place in Paris, MTV canceled the awards, citing, “volatility of world events.” Instead, the network released the full list of winners on Sunday night, saying, “as fans worldwide voted for their favorite categories including best artist, best song and more, MTV is recognizing the following artists with 2023 MTV EMAs.”

Swift won three awards – best artist, best live and best video for “Anti-Hero.

Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks, led by CEO Guido Rud, has pounced on world sales rights to Lucia Puenzo’s “Los Impactados” on the eve of the American Film Market (AFM) where it will kick off sales.

Delving into the theme of rebirth in the face of profound trauma, “Los Impactados” follows Ada, portrayed by Mariana Di Girólamo (Pablo Larraín’s “Ema” ), whose unusual journey begins when she is struck by lightning, leading her on a fascinating transformation alongside a mysterious doctor, played by Germán Palacios, the lead from “El Último Hereje.” Along the way, she forms a bond with a group of fellow survivors who find themselves increasingly captivated by the power of electricity.

In an earlier interview with Variety, Puenzo, who co-wrote the screenplay with Lorena Ventimiglia, said she was intrigued by “the possibility that something as random as lightning could strike us with the force of a nuclear reactor,...

Films by Carolina Markowicz, Isabel Coixet, Jaione Camborda and Isabel Herguera all have international potential.

Highly anticipated features from Isabel Coixet, Lucía Puenzo and Jaione Camborda are among the buzziest Spanish and Latin American titles screening across all strands of this year’s San Sebastián film festival. Here is a flavour of what festival audiences can expect.

Blondi (Argentina)

Dir: Dolores Fonzi

The debut feature from Argentinian actress Dolores Fonzi plays in the Horizontes Latinos section, which screens premieres entirely or partially produced in Latin America and not yet released in Spain. Fonzi also stars in the film which is...

Ahead of its world premiere at this year’s San Sebastian Horizontes Latinos strand, Buenos Aires-based production house Historias Cinematográficas has shared an exclusive first look at the trailer for Lucía Puenza’s energetic new film “Los Impactados,” with Variety.

The film is produced by Pepe Puenzo at Historias Cinematográficas, the Puenzo family production house led by Academy Award winner Luis Puenzo, Academy and Emmy award-winning producer Mark Johnson and Paula Manzanedo in association with Exile Content Studio and Non Stop Studios. Co-produced by Juan de Dios and Pablo Larraín’s indie outfit Fábula, the narrative turns on a study of rebirth after severe trauma.

Written by Puenzo and Lorena Ventimiglia, the singular narrative follows Ada, played by Mariana Di Girolamo who starred opposite Gael Garcia Bernal in Pablo Larraín’s “Ema,” after she’s struck by lightning and on through to her intriguing metamorphosis alongside an enigmatic and experimental doctor,...

This week's episode features:Mariana Di Girolamo (Chile), one of today’s most well-known actresses. After a successful career in television, she made her film debut in 2019 as the protagonist of Pablo Larraín's eighth feature film, Ema, which premiered in the Official Competition at Venice. Her performances have been characterized by a singular dramatic approach to physical and body work and by portraying complex and unpredictable female characters. She has also collaborated on films by director Leonardo Medel, with whom she has explored unusual narrative formats, such as video dance and virtual reality, and original stagings, such as La Verónica, which premiered in San Sebastian.Peter Lanzani (Argentina), an actor who, from a very young age, participated in very popular television productions both in his country and in Latin America. In 2015, he made his film debut as the protagonist of The Clan (El clan), Pablo Trapero's ninth feature film,...

Mubi Podcast: Encuentros returns for a fourth season.The first episode features:Ilse Salas (Mexico), a film, TV, and theater actress who is internationally recognized for her leading role in Alejandra Márquez Abella's The Good Girls, a selection of the Toronto International Film Festival and a prizewinner in Malaga. Winner of the Ariel for Best Actress, and a two-time Platino Award nominee, Salas has worked with important Latin American directors such as Abner Benaim, Lucía Puenzo, and Alonso Ruizpalacios.Guillermo Calderón (Chile), a playwright with a deep political commitment and the screenwriter of some of his country's most important films from the last decade, such as Pablo Larraín's The Club (2015), Neruda (2016), and Ema (2019). These films' festival screenings include the Venice Film Festival, the Berlinale, and the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes. In this first episode, the hosts talk about theatricality as an expressive possibility that’s poorly explored in Latin American cinema.

Just over a year has passed since we heard that Pablo Larraín, director of the films Jackie, Ema, and Spencer, as well as the Stephen King mini-series Lisey’s Story, was in production on El Conde, which depicts real-world dictator Augusto Pinochet as a vampire. Now a trailer for El Conde has arrived online, revealing that the film is scheduled to be released through the Netflix streaming service on September 15th. The trailer can be seen in the embed above.

Scripted by Larraín and his frequent collaborator Guillermo Calderón, El Conde is a horror dark comedy 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,...

Exclusive: Following news last week that Mubi is opting to release Pablo Larrain’s latest movie Ema directly online due to cinema closures in the UK, Ireland and India, we can reveal that the streamer has expanded its territories on the title.

The streamer has entered a deal with Nordic releaser NonStop Entertainment to partner on the film’s release in Sweden, Norway and Finland. This is an atypical arrangement in an atypical time. Cinemas are open in Sweden, so the film will go day-and-date in theaters and online May 8, with Mubi handling VOD and NonStop on theatrical. It will mark the first time the Scandi distributor has done a day-and-date release. In Norway and Finland, where cinemas are closed, the film will head directly onto Mubi on the same date.

More from DeadlinePablo Larrain's 'Ema' Heads Directly Online With Mubi In UK, Ireland & India As Cinemas Remain...

Ema, the latest feature from Jackie filmmaker Pablo Larraín, will skip theatrical and head online on streaming service Mubi from May 2 in the UK, Ireland and India.

The pic had been planned to have a cinema rollout in the UK and Ireland but the closure of theaters due to coronavirus has made that impossible. Instead, rights holder Mubi will put the film directly on its subscription platform. No solid theatrical plans had been made for India, which is one of the newer territories for the service, but it will now be an online release there too.

More from DeadlineUK Broadcasters Join Forces In Letter Asking Government For TV Freelancer SupportFox News To Put Additional Precautions In Place For In-Office Employees, Targets May 4 For Possible Return To WorkQuibi Head Of News Ryan Kadro Talks Delivering Daily Shows For Platform's Launch In The Midst Of A Global Crisis

The film premiered at...

Following our top 50 films of 2019, we’re sharing personal top 10 lists from our contributors. Check out the latest below and see our complete year-end coverage here.

If this past decade’s trajectory of film consumption continues, the future of film culture seems extremely promising. Despite the continued homogenization of certain studio slates dominating the mainstream box office, a rejuvenated political consciousness and the proliferation of streaming services has breathed a second life into those kinds of previously unavailable (unmarketable) films, now accessible to a broader public. Arthouse films are contended in wider circles; mid-budget filmmaking is reappearing from distinguished directors that could never quite draw the theater audiences they expected. Ticket sales may have steadily decreased, but the surge in options has integrated films more readily with the general social experience!

It is with this comfort in eventual exposure that I list some of my favorite films that premiered this...

Exclusive: Global streamer Mubi has taken U.S. and UK rights to Sergei Loznitsa’s documentary State Funeral, which explores the impact of the death of Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin in 1953.

The doc premiered at Venice this year and also played Toronto. Mubi will give the film a U.S. theatrical run, starting exclusively at New York’s Lincoln Center from May 1, before streaming it in both the U.S. and UK from May 24.

Comprised of rarely-seen archive footage, the film depicts how the Soviet Union was rocked by the death of Stalin on March 5, 1953. It chronicles how the broadcasters and newspapers revealed the death, the endless procession of mourners in Moscow’s Red Square, the hasty appointment of Malenkov as successor, and the ceremonial burial attended by numerous Soviet leaders.

Ukrainian filmmaker Loznitsa’s credits include the drama Donbass, which was a critical hit at Cannes in 2018. His...

Exclusive: Music Box Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Pablo Larraín’s (Jackie) Venice Film Festival drama Ema, starring newcomer Mariana Di Girolamo, Gael García Bernal (Mozart In The Jungle), and Santiago Cabrera (Big Little Lies).

Music Box plans to theatrically release the Sundance-bound drama in summer 2020. The deal was negotiated by Music Box President William Schopf and CAA Media Finance.

Ema charts a woman’s odyssey of personal liberation after a shocking incident upends her family life and marriage to a tempestuous choreographer.

“I feel proud and excited to be working again with Music Box Films, a wonderful company for a movie like Ema in the USA,” said feted Chilean director Larraín. “It’s truly amazing.” The distributor previously released the director’s 2015 film The Club.

“This is one of those films that you have to see to believe,” added Music Box Films’ President William Schopf. “Entirely singular,...

Buenos Aires — Argentina’s Lucía Puenzo, one of Latin America’s most sought-after writer-directors, is in talks with Mariana di Girolamo, star of Pablo Larraín’s “Ema,” and Marcelo Alonso for both to star in feature “Impactados.”

Both actors have expressed their interest in appearing in the film, said Puenzo, which she will pitch to potential co-producers at Ventana Sur Proyecta Forum on Dec. 4.

There, it bids fare to be one of the pitching session’s highlights given its pedigree production – Argentina’s Historias Cinematográficas, the Puenzo family production house led by Academy Award-winning Luis Puenzo, Juan de Dios Larraín at Chile’s Fabula and Stéphane Parthenay at France’s Pyramide Productions – and Puenzo’s own caché as one of Latin America’s very few film directors whose films can open theatrically to significant box office outside Latin America.

Di Girolamo and Alonso played in the acclaimed Fabula-Fremantle-produced and Puenzo showrun TV series “La Jauría.

Toronto drama marks the English-language debut of Poland’s Małgorzata Szumowska.

Streaming service and theatrical distributor Mubi has acquired UK and Ireland rights to Małgorzata Szumowska’s The Other Lamb from TrustNordisk.

Mubi has picked up both theatrical and streaming rights to the psychological drama, which marks the English-language debut of the Polish director.

The film, which premiered at Toronto, stars Raffey Cassidy as a girl born into an all-female religious group, led by a man known only as Shepherd (Michiel Huisman). After getting to know an outcast wife (Denise Gough), the girl begins to question the reality around her.

Exclusive: UTA has come out on top in a competitive tustle to sign Chilean actress Mariana di Girolamo, the breakout star of Pablo Larraín’s (Jackie) Venice and Toronto drama Ema.

Spanish-language festival favorite Ema, also starring Gael Garcia Bernal, follows a couple dealing with the aftermath of an adoption that goes awry as their household falls apart. Di Girolamo was lauded for her lead performance.

The actress is currently attached to star in Spanish-language crime thriller series The Cliff (El Acantilado) from Mediapro and Vice Studios. She is well known in Chile for her starring role in local drama series Perdona Nuestros Pecados and Río Oscuro. Recent feature roles include Chilean comedy No Quiero Ser Tu Hermano and Hotel Zentai. She studied theater at The Catholic University of Chile.

Di Girolamo continues to be represented by Jorge Hernandez at Imc Management.

Morelia, Mexico – There’s a new arthouse player in town. Cinepolis, one of the top exhibitors in the world, is launching a new arthouse film distribution unit in Mexico called Sala de Arte Distribucion.

Focusing on auteur films that have premiered at leading film festivals worldwide, Sala de Arte launches in December with “Parasite,” Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or-winning dark comedy. South Korea’s submission to the Academy Awards in the Best International Feature category, “Parasite” has crushed specialty box office records and received glowing reviews in the U.S. since its October release by Neon, while also selling nearly 1.7 million tickets in France via The Jokers.

The launch of Sala de Arte comes five years after the exhibitor launched Cinepolis Distribución, the company’s main distribution division, which has released more than 75 titles. Leo Cordero, who runs Cinepolis Distribucion, will also oversee the arthouse division.

“Just like we...

Becky G will host the 2019 MTV EMAs. The singer-songwriter and actress will also perform at the awards, which will take place in Seville, Spain.

She is set for a busy night as she also has a nomination at the awards, taking on Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, Halsey, the Jonas Brothers, and Shawn Mendes in the Best Pop category.

Becky G has notched two number one hits on the Billboard Latin Airplay Charts – “Mayores” and “Sin Pijama” – and on-screen had a starring role in the “Power Rangers” movie. She has also guest-starred in Fox series “Empire.”

“Becky G is an exceptional multifaceted talent who’s no stranger to the global stage,” said Bruce Gillmer, global head of music and talent, Viacom and co-brand head, MTV International. “We can’t wait to see her light up the MTV Ema stage in Seville.”

The 2019 MTV Ema noms have already been announced. Ariana Grande...

Triple F-Rated feature named Film of the Festival.

Alexandra Kotcheff and Hannah Leder’s Triple F-Rated feature The Planters - the rating given to films directed and/or written by women, which also includes women in significant roles on screen – has been named Film of the Festival at the UK’s Raindance Film Festival (September 18-29).

Written, directed and starring Kotcheff and Leder, The Planters is a dark comedy about a reclusive telemarketer who befriends a homeless woman with multiple personalities.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Mary Jimenez and Bénédicte Liénarddocumentary By the Name of Tania, another F-Rated winner,...

“Ema” is the third collaboration between filmmaker Pablo Larraín and Gael García Bernal, but the latter is hoping for many more.

“This is our third film together and I love working with him and I love his films — it’s such a pleasure,” García Bernal told TheWrap’s Steve Pond at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Secretly, I am always waiting for that phone call that eventually comes. It’s a great excuse to spend time together, and I’m proud of all the films we make together. This one is fantastic — I really love the exploration, the experimentation that goes on in this film. It’s something that I don’t see in cinema and it’s difficult to talk about these things.”

Larraín calls the film a “melodrama that has elements of suspense,” as well as a story about family and the contemporary world. Newcomer Mariana di Girolamo plays Ema,...

Night; crackling embers fall from a traffic sign set ablaze. A blonde woman with a blow torch stands admiring her work as the fire’s red glow envelops the screen. She’s the eponymous villainous heroine who opens Pablo Larraín’s erotic and suspenseful character study “Ema.” The Spanish-language film, the follow-up to 2016’s “Jackie,” sees a couple working to reclaim their son, even after the boy’s disturbing string of events.

Continue reading ‘Ema’: Pablo Larraín Creates An Erotic, Suspenseful Character Study [Tiff Review] at The Playlist.

Chilean auteur Pablo Larrain likes to tread new ground with each film, but movies with women’s names, and female characters at their center, do seem to have a special appeal for him. After “Jackie,” he’s back in Venice with “Ema,” a portrait of an incendiary lady contending with tragedy in a totally different way than her husband, who is played by Gael Garcia Bernal.

Larrain spoke to Variety about how young Chilean actress Mariana Di Girolamo made “Ema” her own. (The interview has been edited for concision and clarity.)

“Ema” is totally different stylistically from “Jackie,” but it’s similar in that what carries the movie is the power of the central female character.

There is a point in both the movies where you become a witness. And the movie becomes a testimony of the process of being a witness to that character. In both cases, it’s very based on the actresses.

that feels like it was born out of a three-way between “Amélie,” “Oldboy,” and Gaspar Noé before maturing into a force of nature all its own, Pablo Larraín’s “Ema” doesn’t always dance to a clear or recognizable beat, but anybody willing to get on its wavelength will be rewarded with one of the year’s most dynamic and electrifying films. Which isn’t to suggest the movie — Larraín’s first since the one-two punch of “Neruda” and “Jackie” in 2016 — doesn’t grab you from the moment it starts, only that it keeps you on your toes for a little while before you can figure out the steps, and it never lets you take the lead.

Or maybe the film’s initial veil of impenetrability would be more accurately likened to the billowing smoke that obfuscates a burning car wreck. At least the identity of the firestarter is never in doubt.

If you’re looking to meet a shock-of-the-new, beyond-punk vanguard girl who’s so out there and alienated, and maybe liberated, that you’ve never quite seen the likes of her, you could do worse than spend 102 minutes in the company of Ema (Mariana Di Girolamo), the title viper of Pablo Larraín’s new film. Ema, with her stick earrings and nose ring, her slicked-back platinum mane and big-eyed insatiable blank stare that takes in everything and gives back nothing, is a dancer who lives in the Chilean port city of Valparaíso. When she’s doing her Reggaeton dance moves, punching the air as if she owned it, she’s like Lady Gaga in the great video for “Telephone.” But this is a Gaga who’s gangsta. After hours, she takes out a flamethrower and sets fire to cars, swing sets, traffic lights. She’s the mother of an adopted son,...

Pablo Larrain’s last directorial outing was “Jackie,” a cerebral portrait of grief with horror elements. Also, much like “No” and “Neruda,” the critically-acclaimed film was a biopic. With his latest feature “Ema,” Larrain is breaking from stories about real-life people to tell a fictional family drama. However, he’s reuniting with his frequent collaborator, Gael Garcia Bernal.

Continue reading ‘Ema’ Trailer: Filmmaker Pablo Larrain & Gael Garcia Bernal Reunite For A New Family Drama at The Playlist.

Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín never does the same thing twice, upending seemingly staid narrative concepts into fresh explorations of both humanity and cinema. His latest, “Ema,” seems poised to do the same thing, taking another well-trod idea (“a husband and wife deal with a family tragedy in very different ways”) and turning it into something very different (read: a dance film).

The new film reunites Larraín with his frequent collaborator Gael García Bernal, who previously worked with Larraín on “No” and “Neruda,” opposite Chilean actress Mariana Di Girolamo as the title character. The duo star as a married couple, he a choreographer and she a dancer, dealing with the fallout of a horrific incident perpetrated by their young adopted son. For Ema, that includes returning to her street dancing roots, though the trailer hints at a deeper meaning that goes beyond her need to physically express herself.

Last August, Larraín...

Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit,” Marielle Heller’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and Tom Harper’s “The Aeronauts” will receive gala presentations at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival. Announcing the full program lineup Thursday, festival director Tricia Tuttle also revealed that new films from veteran filmmaker Michael Caton-Jones and “Still Alice” director Wash Westmoreland will world-premiere at the festival.

Westmoreland’s noir thriller “Earthquake Bird,” starring Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander, will make its debut in London, one of several Netflix titles at the festival. As well as Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” which had previously been announced as the closing film, David Michod’s Shakespearean adaptation “The King” with Timothee Chalamet, Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” with Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, and Fernando Meirelles’ “The Two Popes” with Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, will all receive gala screenings in the lineup.

Netflix’s presence at other festivals has caused controversy,...

Three weeks from now, a bunch of these people will be in the thick of the 2019 Oscar race: Joaquin Phoenix, Meryl Streep, Jamie Foxx, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy, Renée Zellweger, Cynthia Erivo, Adam Driver, Matt Damon, Kristen Stewart, Steven Soderbergh, Noah Baumbach and Taika Waititi.

And at least a few of them will probably have been quietly ushered out of the Oscar race.

As always, the fall film festivals will bring the first big moment of truth for dozens of awards contenders and wannabes, this year including “Joker,” “The Laundromat,” “Just Mercy,” “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” “Dolemite Is My Name,” “Judy,” “Harriet,” “Marriage Story,” “Ford v Ferrari,” “Seberg,” “Jojo Rabbit” and many more.

The festivals in Venice, Telluride and Toronto annually turn into a launching pad for some awards movies and a junkyard for others. Last year, for instance, “Roma,” “A Star Is Born,” “The Favourite” and the...

Same festival, different year. While this year’s Venice Film Festival includes a marked uptick in competition films directed by women, that’s only the case because last year’s numbers were so dismal: 2019 will host two competition titles directed by women, up from just one title last year. And while artistic director Alberto Barbera was eager to trot out excuses like “not enough women make movies,” he also landed on another reason why this year remains dominated by male filmmakers: Now they make movies about women, too.

At a press conference held this morning to unveil the year’s slate, Variety reports that Barbera told the assembled press, “Women directors are unfortunately still a minority. But these portraits of women, even when they are directed by men, reveal a new sensibility geared towards the feminine universe, as had rarely happened in the past. This is a signal that perhaps...

Here’s the (supposed) good news: The Venice Film Festival’s main competition lineup has twice the number of works directed by women as last year. The bad news: That means only a whopping total of two films, out of a slate of 21 titles.

Venice has made a stellar reputation for itself in recent years as a launching pad for award hopefuls, including star-studded Hollywood pics such as “La La Land” and “A Star Is Born.” But of the big-name film fests, it remains a laggard when it comes to gender diversity in its competition lineup.

Last year’s cohort of films vying for the Golden Lion included only one helmed by a woman, Jennifer Kent’s “The Nightingale.” There was also just one the year before that. This edition’s pair of female-directed movies are “The Perfect Candidate” by Saudi Arabia’s Haifaa Al-Mansour and “Babyteeth” from Australian Shannon Murphy.

Roman Polanski’s “J’Accuse,” Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” and Steven Soderbergh’s “The Laundromat” are among the films that will screen at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival, Venice organizers announced at a press conference in Rome on Thursday.

This will mark Polanski’s first appearance at a major festival since his May 2018 expulsion from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, with the decision by the AMPAS Board of Governors referencing his 1978 guilty plea to a charge of statutory rape.

“J’Accuse,” which had been screening for buyers under the title “An Officer and a Spy,” is his dramatization of the Alfred Dreyfus scandal in 19th century France, and has been considered by some, sight unseen, as a comment of sorts on the #MeToo movement.

Also Read: Oscars Academy Defends Expulsion of Roman Polanski

Other films in the Venice Film Festival main competition include James Gray’s “Ad Astra,...

As always, the announcement of the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival slate took a bite out of Venice’s thunder. That festival’s designation of “World,” “Canadian,” “International” and “North American” premieres makes it somewhat easy to figure out what films are debuting at the competing Venice and Telluride Film Festivals. That being said, the 2019 Venice International Film Festival had some surprises up its sleeve.

Read More: Nine Things We Learned From Tiff’s 2019 Slate: ‘Judy,’ ‘Marriage Story,’ Hustlers’ & More

The expected debuts in competition were James Gray’s “Ad Astra,” Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” Steven Soderbergh’s “The Laundrymart,” Todd Phillips’ “Joker” and Atom Egoyan’s “Guest of Honour.” New titles included Oliver Assayas’ “Wasp Network” with Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramierez, Cico Guerra’s “Waiting for the Barbarians” with Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson, Pablo Larrain’s “Ema” with Gael Garcia Bernal, Lou Ye’s “Lan...

A robust roster of awards contenders, including Brad Pitt space odyssey “Ad Astra” and Steven Soderbergh’s star-studded financial thriller “The Laundromat,” will launch from the Venice Film Festival, which features a bit less high-wattage Hollywood fare this year but no shortage of hotly anticipated world premieres and stars.

The four U.S. pics in the Lido’s 21-title competition are all high-profile entries, starting with Fox’s “Ad Astra,” directed by James Grey, which features Pitt as an astronaut on a mission to save the solar system from imminent destruction. Netflix continues its strong track record on the Lido (where “Roma” debuted last year) with Noah Baumbach’s intimate divorce drama, “Marriage Story,” with Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as a couple in conflict, and “The Laundromat,” which stars Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas in a tale based on the Panama Papers exposé. Warner Bros. is launching “Joker,...

Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker, Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers and Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland are among the actors who will appear on screen at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, Tiff organizers announced on Tuesday.

For its first large batch of programming announcements, Tiff unveiled a star-studded slate of more than 50 films, many of them highly anticipated works from such celebrated directors as Noah Baumbach, Steven Soderbergh, Taika Waititi, Armando Iannucci, James Mangold, Fernando Meirelles, Pablo Larrain, Rian Johnson and the Safdie brothers.

Phoenix stars in Todd Phillips “Batman” spinoff “Joker” alongside Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz and Frances Conroy. Hanks plays Fred Rogers in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” a film from “Can You Ever Forgive Me” director Marielle Heller based on an Esquire profile of Rogers by writer Tom Junod, who is portrayed by Matthew Rhys. And Zellweger plays Garland in “Judy,” a biographical drama adapted...

Mediapro Chile, the Chilean arm of Spanish production powerhouse The Mediapro Studio, is launching its first TV drama project, crime thriller “El acantilado” (“The Cliff”), chosen as one of the 10 finalists at Conecta Fiction’s 3rd Pitch Copro Series.

“The Cliff” features a high-profile creative team that takes in film director Martín Hodara and writer Enrique Videla, a co-scribe on Pablo Larrain’s HBO Latin America “Fugitives” and Lucía Puenzo’s “La Jauría,” a first Fabula-Fremantle-co-production.

Argentina’s Tomas Coste, a triple Cannes Lions winning commercials, is the series creator and co-director.

Benjamín Vicuña and Mariana di Girolamo (“Ema”) are attached to the star.

Mixing classic series noir and strong protagonists with large and involved character arcs, “The Cliff” follows Miguel, a 50 year-old bus driver, played by Vicuña, who triggered a tragic accident and holds himself responsible even if he’s been absolved in a court of law.

Miguel has...

Pamplona. Spain — Chile’s “The Cliff,” Argentina’s “In Search of Spring” and Spain’s “The Yellow Bird” feature in a 10-title lineup of drama series projects at the 3rd Pitch CoPro Series, the industry centerpiece of Conecta Fiction, the world’s foremost Europe-Latin American TV co-production and networking forum.

“Strong on genre and historical dramas,” observed Conecta Fiction director Geraldine Gonard of this year’s CoPro Series, the lineup shows its project creators plumbing Spanish and Latin America history via bio series (“Dolores”) and crime (“Lost Toys”) and action (”Spring”) thrillers, suspense drama (“The Saddest Gaol”), and an adventure format (“The Yellow Bird”).

Two series projects are sci-fi, another horror (Dutch series “Greed”) as fantasy genre thrillers grounded or not in social realities, demonstrate a ready appeal both in linear TV and most especially for streaming platforms.

Nearly a third of the projects come from Chile, a sign of...

2019 Cannes and the second half of the year catch Chile in the throes of huge change and a fairly exemplary evolution. Already, new paradigms seem fairly clear.

Chilean cinema is “director-driven, about different conversations” with audiences, says Fabula producer Juan de Dios Larraín.

Marking perhaps the two biggest Chilean titles set to bow over the second half of the year, Pablo Larraín’s “Ema,” with Gael Garcia Bernal, is a dance-spangled melodrama, about new contemporary family dynamics. “Araña,” sold at Cannes by Film Factory Ent. and from Andrés Wood, begins to trace the roots of a new nationalism from Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship to the present.

That auteurist focus will remain, and, as the battle for success in an Ott world becomes a battle for talent, see Chile reach out to premium auteurs outside the country. One case in point: Argentine cineast Lucía Puenzo (“The German Doctor”), recruited by Fabula...

Cannes — Fabula founders Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín have upped producer Rocío Jadue to the newly-created post of Fabula head of Latin America film.

The promotion marks another expansive – though organic – move at the Santiago de Chile-based production house which won an Academy Award for Sebastian Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” and has grown more energetically than maybe any other young production house in Latin America.

This last year has seen its first U.S. production, Lelio’s “Gloria Bell” with Julianne Moore receiving a fulsome reaction from critics at the Toronto Festival, and opening theatrically in the U.S., and Fabula signing a pioneering for Latin America first look production distribution deal with television powerhouse Fremantle, to produce premium dramatic series in both Spanish and English language.

A first series, “La Jauria,” showrun by Lucia Puenzo and starring Daniela Vega, is now in production.

With Pablo Larraín’s...

Films from a number of big-name returning auteurs – including Xavier Dolan, Pedro Almodovar, Terrence Malick, Bong Joon-ho and Ken Loach – appear to have a lock on competing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, making for a stronger and starrier lineup than last year’s slate, sources tell Variety.

Dolan’s “Matthias & Maxime” (in which he stars), Almodovar’s self-reflective “Pain & Glory” and two-time Palme d’Or winner Loach’s “Sorry We Missed You” are set to join Jim Jarmusch’s previously announced opening film, “The Dead Don’t Die,” in competition, sources say. Other high-profile Cannes alumni who appear poised to return in competition include Malick, with his World War II drama “A Hidden Life” (previously titled “Radegund”); Bong, with “Parasite”; Marco Bellocchio, with his Mafia thriller “Traitor”; Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, with “Ahmed,” a look at religious fundamentalism in Europe; and Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho,...

This weekend’s third-best U.S. screen average of the year for “Gloria Bell,” which he produced, or the Oscar last for “A Fantastic Woman,” both point in the same direction: Arguably, no producer in Latin American has been so successful in the last decade as Juan de Dios Larraín.

The Ibero-American Mayahuel Larraín will now receive at Mexico’s Guadalajara Festival merely underscores that suggestion. Why is another matter. Prizes are a “consequence not a cause,” Juan de Dios Larraín argues. Variety digs deeper:

1.Fabula: A Talent Center

Above all else, Hollywood is a talent center. So too the BBC in its heydays. With brother, director and fellow-producer, Pablo Larraín, described by Guy Lodge in his Variety review of Natalie Portman starrer “Jackie” as the most daring and prodigious political filmmaker of his generation, Larraín formed a natural talent center setting up Fabula in Santiago de Chile in 2004. Talent,...

Jorge Garcia is best known to television audiences as the lovable island castaway on ABC’s “Lost” and, more recently, as Jerry Ortega on “Hawaii Five-0,” but he’s on the brink of tackling a very different kind of project: The actor is set to star in his first Spanish-language feature as the lead in “Killing Will Willys,” the directorial debut of Chilean filmmaker Gaspar Antillo, which begins production this week. Netflix will release the project worldwide following a theatrical release in Chile.

The film is the latest project from Fabula, the production company co-founded by brothers Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín. The pair recently wrapped production on Pablo Larraín’s “Ema,” the director’s first feature since “Jackie.” While “Ema” was shot in the coastal city of Valparaiso, the production for “Killing Will Willys” will take place the southern town of Puerto Octay in addition to Santiago.

The...