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Spain’s The Mediapro Studio brought out the big guns at this year’s Mipcom to promote its first-ever English-language slate, which includes projects featuring John Turturro, Melissa Leo, “24” showrunner Evan Katz and Oscar winner Juan José Campanella, among others.

Though the ambitious pipeline was The Mediapro Studio’s big Mipcom head-turner, the company also closed noteworthy deals for a handful of its highest-profile shows of the last several years.

Disney+ Spain has acquired The Mediapro Studio and 3Cat’s thriller series “Quiet” (“El mal invisible”), which recently screened at Catalonia’s prestigious genre-focused Sitges International Film Festival. The show will debut on Catalan public television channel TV3 and the 3Cat platform soon, although a specific date hasn’t been announced.

Set in lock-down era Barcelona, “Quite” follows a police investigation to track down a serial killer who targets the homeless. David Verdaguer (“Saben Aquell”), Ángela Cervantes (“La Maternal”), and...

Woody Allen’s latest film “Coup de Chance,” his 50th feature, is getting a U.S. release. The movie will be distributed by MPI Media Group, the company that has released Allen’s latest few films ever since allegations resurfaced that he sexually abused his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow.

“Coup de Chance” will open at the Quad Cinema in New York City on April 5 (other venues will be confirmed at a later date), followed by a VOD and digital release on April 12.

MPI Media Group previously released “A Rainy Day in New York” (2020) and “Rifkin’s Festival” (2022) in the U.S. “Rainy Day” was originally meant to be released through Allen’s deal with Amazon Studios, but Amazon ultimately canceled the deal when the abuse allegations resurfaced. (Allen won a legal settlement against Amazon.) Allen has been a persona-non-grata in Hollywood, but he’s continued to make movies in Europe.

“Coup de Chance...

If you’re looking for an inviolable law of cinema, the Venice Film Festival just confirmed an ironically delightful one. It is this: Murder agrees with Woody Allen. We already knew that, of course. We knew it from “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” a drama that was shocking when it came out in 1989 — and if you see it today, it’s still shocking, because the theme of the movie isn’t just that ordinary people commit murder (we see that in movies every day). It’s that they seem disturbingly ordinary even as they’re doing it, which is a bit scary. Martin Landau, as a mild bourgeois ophthalmologist who hires someone to kill off his mistress, seemed to be playing the squirmy essence of every amateur criminal, and the fact that he got away with it was the unsettling part. It made you think: How many people like that are out there?...

Kohn’s Corner is a weekly column about the challenges and opportunities of sustaining American film culture.

This week provided a confluence of contentious developments for the film industry, and I’m not talking about the ongoing writers strike. First reviews of “The Flash” dropped ahead of the movie’s release and while they’re definitely mixed, the movie doesn’t seem destined for the dustbin despite its ostracized lead. Ezra Miller’s assault charges haven’t gone away, but that hasn’t deterred Warner Bros. from hurtling toward the theatrical release plan and mitigating Miller’s scandal however it can.

Miller, of course, stayed out of the spotlight while the studio ramped up buzz. Tracking for the June 16 release in the unremarkable $70 million-$75 million range, which means it may not be the summer’s most profitable blockbuster. However, the hype machine ensured that audiences won’t cancel “The Flash” alongside its troubled star.

London- and Paris-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation is launching sales on the remake rights of Spanish thriller “Fatum.”

Directed by Juan Gualinanes and produced by Vaca Films, the outfit behind box office successes “Sky High” and “Cell 211,” “Fatum” was released in Spain by Universal Studios on April 28. Film Constellation has already reported sales to 50 territories on the original Spanish version.

A compulsive gambler and an elite sniper’s destinies meet on a fateful day when the local betting house gets robbed. When a single gunshot is fired, the next 24 hours will set them on a race against time that will define their lives forever.

The film is headlined by a strong cast including Luis Tosar, Álex García, Elena Anaya and Arón Piper.

“Fatum” is produced by Borja Pena and Emma Lustres of Vaca Films, in association with Playtime, with the participation of Prime Video, Rtve, Crtvg,...

Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance,” the controversial filmmaker’s 50th movie, has found a French distributor. Metropolitan FilmExport, one of country’s biggest independent distributors, has come on board to release the movie in France.

The release date has not yet been set, but sources close to the film say it could world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

Metropolitan FilmExport has never handled a movie directed by Allen before as it typically focuses on commercial U.S. movies such as the “Hunger Games” franchise and “Evil Dead Rises.”

While Allen’s movies have also always been widely popular in France, his previous film “Rifkin’s Festival” sold under 100,000 tickets for Apollo Films after world premiering at the San Sebastian Festival. It was the director’s worst B.O. performance in France. Budgeted in the $20-million range, “Coup de Chance” was a pricey acquisition that not many French distributors could afford to gamble on.

Woody Allen might still be persona non grata for many in the U.S., but international distributors will likely be clamoring to see his new film, Coup de Chance, which will be presented to buyers at the upcoming European Film Market.

WestEnd Films, in collaboration with Gravier Productions, will kick off sales for the film in Berlin next week.

Allen’s 50th feature marks the director’s French-language debut and features an ensemble cast of local stars, including Lou De Laâge (The Innocents), Valérie Lemercier (Aline), Melvil Poupaud (Summer of 85) and Niels Schneider (Heartbeats).

In a statement, Allen called the the movie a “story of romance, passion and violence set in contemporary Paris. Shot all over the city and a little bit in the countryside, it evolves around a romance between two young people who are old friends and devolves into marital infidelity and ultimately crime.”

The movie reunites Allen...

After “Midnight in Paris,” Woody Allen will return to the French capital for his 50th movie which he’s described as a “poisonous romantic thriller” with a pair of French stars, Valerie Lemercier (“Aline”) and Niels Schneider (“Love Affair(s))”.

The untitled film, the plot of which is being kept under wraps, will start filming next month and will be entirely in French with a budget in the 10-million range. Allen has described the film to be similar to “Match Point,” in that it would be “exciting, dramatic and also very sinister.”

Allen sparked headlines earlier this week after Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia ran a story reporting that the New York-based filmmaker had told them he was planning on retiring. Allen’s representative then issued a statement saying that the director had “no intention of retiring.”

Lemercier is a popular French actor-director whose latest film “Aline,” a movie about Celine Dion,...

Woody Allen has refuted reports that he is retiring after completing his 50th film, “Wasp 22,” through a spokesperson’s statement to multiple media outlets.

In an interview with Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia published Saturday, Allen, 86, was quoted as saying, “My idea, in principle, is not to make more movies and focus on writing,” with his next project being a novel.

But on Monday, a spokesperson clarified that Allen “never said he was retiring, nor did he say he was writing another novel.”

Also Read:

Woody Allen to Retire From Filmmaking After Next Movie

“He said he was thinking about not making films, as making films that go straight or very quickly to streaming platforms is not so enjoyable for him, as he is a great lover of the cinema experience,” read a statement from Allen’s rep. “Currently, he has no intention of retiring and is very excited to...

Woody Allen is not bringing his career as movie director to an end.

Over the weekend, in an interview published by Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, the 86-year-old Oscar winner suggested that his upcoming movie, “Wasp 22”, will be his last. On Monday, a rep for Allen issued a statement to IndieWire clarifying that the director is not retiring following his next project.

“Woody Allen never said he was retiring, nor did he say he was writing another novel. He said he was thinking about not making films, as making films that go straight or very quickly to streaming platforms is not so enjoyable for him, as he is a great lover of the cinema experience. Currently, he has no intention of retiring and is very excited to be in Paris shooting his new movie, which will be the 50th,” the statement reads.

Read More: Woody Allen Says His Next Film...

Woody Allen says that he intends to retire from directing after his next movie, "Wasp 22," which is set in Paris and will begin filming later this month. 

The news broke in an interview with Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia (via Variety), where the 86-year-old Allen said that "my idea, in principle, is not to make more movies and focus on writing." The "in principle" suggests that these retirement plans are not entirely fixed, and may potentially be a "retirement" in the Hayao Miyazaki sense of the word. For now, though, Allen's intention is to finish his current film and then focus on writing a novel. 

This announcement isn't entirely out of the blue. In an interview with Alec Baldwin livestreamed on Instagram earlier this year, Allen indicated that his retirement from filmmaking was imminent, pointing to the decline of the theatrical experience as the reason: 

"I'll probably make at least one more movie.

Last week, the French government reappointed Dominique Boutonnat for a second three-year term as president of the National Film Board (Cnc), the country’s most powerful film institution, in a controversial decision that illustrates the country’s halfhearted embrace of the #MeToo movement.

Boutonnat, a former producer and financier with close ties with newly reelected French president Emmanuel Macron, was indicted in February 2021 for alleged sexual assault of his 22-year-old godson the year prior. After a lengthy investigation, the prosecutor’s office has requested that the case be brought before a criminal court. A judge will soon rule if Boutonnat will face trial or if the case will be dismissed.

Boutonnat’s appointment is the latest signal that France, which remains a major entertainment market, is less eager than other countries to turn its back on artists and executives who become enmeshed in sex scandals.

Since the Harvey Weinstein story...

Legendary filmmaker-writer Woody Allen has plans of shooting his next movie in Paris for which some French actors have been approached. The auteur shared plans of his Paris movie while promoting the French release of his 2020 film ‘Rifkin’s Festival’, reports ‘Variety’. The New York-based director told the French newspaper aLe Journal du Dimanche’ that […]...

While promoting the French release of his 2020 film “Rifkin’s Festival,” Woody Allen said he was planning to shoot his next movie in Paris.

The New York-based director told the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that he was aiming to relocate to Paris in September to lens his next project which he said will be a French-language movie with a local cast. Allen said he was able to find the financing in the U.S. but didn’t give any further detail. A source close to the project said the financing was not yet in place.

Some French actors have been approached and the cast will be confirmed once the financing is locked and shooting dates confirmed. The budget is in the 10 million range.

Allen said the story of the film will be “in the same vein as ‘Match Point,’ a sort of poisonous romantic thriller.”

“I kept a...

Madrid-based The Mediapro Studio, one of Europe’s super-indies, is re-teaming with Hulu Japan to produce Season 2 of thriller “The Head,” the studio’s hit drama series whose Season 1 was broadcast in more than 90 countries.

The English-language shoot has got underway in Tenerife, in Spain’s The Canary Islands, helmed by Jorge Dorado, who directed Season 1.

“The Head” Season 2 boasts an extensive international cast led once again by John Lynch and Katharine O’Donnelly.

Joining them for Season 2, the series features Hovik Keuchkerian, Moe Dunford (“Texas Chainsaw Massacre”), Josefin Nelden (“The Restaurant”) and Olivia Morris (“Hotel Portofino”).

Season 2’s newest additions in leading roles take in Enrique Arce, Nora Ríos and Tania Watson, Thierry Godard and the special collaboration of Japan’s Sota Fukushi (“Bleach”).

If Season 1 was set at a remote polar research station, the principal setting for “The Head” Season 2 will once again be an isolated and inaccessible location,...

Exclusive: Stephen Dorff (Old Henry), John McEnroe (Ocean’s Eight), Gina Gershon (Emily the Criminal) and Luka Sabbat (Grown-ish) have signed on to star alongside Vito Schnabel in the dark comedy The Trainer, which Tony Kaye (American History X) is directing from a script by Schnabel and Jeff Solomon.

The film, heading into production Tuesday after nearly a decade in development, is based on an original story by Schnabel. It unfolds over eight days of sleep-deprived chaos and follows Jack (Schnabel), a down-on-his-luck fitness expert living with his mother in Los Angeles, who takes a maniacal swing at fame and fortune, trying to realize his version of the American dream. Julia Fox, Steven Van Zandt and Taylour Paige are also set to star. Details with regard to the characters the new additions to the cast will be playing have not been disclosed.

Schnabel, Kaye and Jeremy Steckler are producing, with George Paaswell serving as executive producer.

Dorff recently appeared in Potsy Ponciroli’s Western Old Henry, and on Fox’s Deputy. He’s also previously been seen in films including I’ll Find You, Leatherface, The Iceman, Somewhere, Public Enemies, World Trade Center, Cold Creek Manor, Zoolander, Blade and I Shot Andy Warhol. Additional TV credits include True Detective and Star.

McEnroe, the former pro tennis player, currently narrates Netflix’s coming-of-age comedy series Never Have I Ever. He’s previously appeared in films including Ocean’s Eight, Freak Show, Jack and Jill, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Wimbledon, Anger Management and Mr. Deeds, and on such series as Kenan, 30 Rock and Curb Your Enthusiasm. During his career in tennis, he established himself as the only male player to win upwards of 70 titles across singles and doubles competitions.

Gershon will soon be seen in the thriller Emily the Criminal from Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. She’s also appeared in such films as Rifkin’s Festival, Cagefighter, American Dresser, The Little Mermaid, Blockers, 9/11, Staten Island Summer, Killer Joe, P.S. I Love You, Slackers, The Insider, Guinevere, Palmetto, Face/Off, Showgirls, The Player, Cocktail and Pretty in Pink. Her TV credits include New Amsterdam, Betty, Riverdale, Red Oaks, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Z Nation, Elementary and Rescue Me. Other upcoming films in which Gershon is set to appear include Aleta Chappelle’s romance Love Extreme, Dylan K. Narang’s comedy Tapawingo and Eli Roth’s adaptation of the video game Borderlands.

Sabbat is best known for portraying Luca Hall on Freeform’s Grown-ish. Additional credits include Lena Dunham’s Sundance 2022 feature Sharp Stick and Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die.

Dorff is represented by ICM Partners and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; McEnroe by Img and International Artists; Gershon by Artists First and Schreck Rose Dapello; and Sabbat by CAA and attorney Marios Rush.

Part Herzogian ecstatic ethnography, part Pasolinian picaresque, “The Tale of King Crab” finds directors Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis traveling from Italy to Argentina in a two-pronged folktale. The film, which has strands of ’70s arthouse in its DNA — including its immersive shot-on-film imagery — world-premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in summer 2021 and enjoyed a solid run on the festival circuit, including at the New York Film Festival.

Now, Oscilloscope Laboratories will open the film April 15 in New York exclusively at Film at Lincoln Center, followed by a Los Angeles opening April 29. Exclusively on IndieWire, you can watch the trailer for the film below ahead of its stateside release.

The film centers on Luciano (Gabriele Silli), a meandering outcast in a far-off, late-19th-century Italian village. His life is marred by all manner of conflict, from the dangers of drink to forbidden love, as well as unrest with the...

Rifkin’s Festival Review — Rifkin’s Festival (2020) Film Review, a movie directed by Woody Allen and starring Wallace Shawn, Gina Gershon, Elena Anaya, Steve Guttenberg, Tammy Blanchard, Sergi Lopez, Christoph Waltz, Andrea Trepat, Michael Garvey, Louis Garrel, Luz Cipriota, Richard Kind and Nathalie Poza. Woody Allen used to come out with a film every year [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Rifkin’S Festival (2020): Wallace Shawn Stars in Woody Allen’s Smart but Rather Slight Comedy...

Chicago – When an interview opportunity comes up with Wallace Shawn, and it lasts more than 15 minutes, a conversation can be born. In our own version of “My Dinner with Andre,” I got an expansion with the actor, writer and one of the most famous dinner guests in cinema history (he is the “My” in “My Dinner … “ ).

Wallace Shawn’s story begins in New York City, where he was born the son of journalist Cecille Lyon and William Shawn, the longtime editor of the New Yorker magazine. After doing his undergrad at Harvard and post-grad work at Oxford, he eschew his philosophy and political studies to translate a play for a friend. He also had a role in the play, and his future was determined.

Wallace Shawn in ‘Rifkin’s Festival’

Photo credit: MPI Media Group

He began as a playwright, and many of his notable titles have been staged on...

Chicago – Elena Anaya has had an adventure in her career of over 50 films … from the role of Dracula’s Bride in “Van Helsing” to notable work with director Pedro Almodóvar in “The Skin I Live In,” and up to her current role as Dr. Jo Rojas in “Rifkin’s Festival,” she has embraced the journey with a grateful enthusiasm.

“Rifkin’s Festival” – written and directed by Woody Allen – features Wallace Shawn as Mort Rifkin, a struggling novelist who used to be a film studies professor. Through his academia he met and married Sue (Gina Gershon), a movie publicist who saw potential in his literary pursuit. But the ex-professor doesn’t like modern cinema, and distracts himself at a film festival he’s attending with his wife by pursuing a local cardiologist, portrayed by Elena Anaya, and creating dreams and fantasies from his film heroes.

Wallace Shawn and Elena Anaya in ‘Rifkin’s...

Woody Allen’s decade-long downward spiral began after making “Midnight in Paris” in 2011 and following it up with a series of movies ranging from bad to worse to worse than that: “Irrational Man,” “Wonder Wheel,” “Cafe Society,” “A Rainy Day in New York.” At least we have the minor gift of “Blue Jasmine,” a comparatively fine movie according to the pathetic standard set by the rest, to counterpoint the nearly annual stream of Allen’s shrugging dross, but the emphasis is on “minor.” What a difference a change in era made for one of American cinema’s most influential directors.

Continue reading ‘Rifkin’s Festival’ Review: Woody Allen’s Latest, Yet Again, Proves His Best Days Are Behind Him at The Playlist.

Industry sources confirm that the seven-screen the Landmark Theatre Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Francisco will shut down Friday. The theater’s website has no bookings beyond today, and distributors were informed earlier this week.

Although no reason for the departure has been announced, sources suggest it was the landlord’s decision to not extend the lease after non-payment of rent. Landmark did not responded to press inquiries.

Built in 1995 and completely remodeled in 2013, the theater has been a major Bay Area player in first-run specialized exhibition and one of the most critical national locations. It is currently showing “Parallel Mothers” and “Jockey” (Sony Pictures Classics), “Flee” (Neon), “A Hero” (Amazon), “Belfast” (Focus), “Gamestop: Rise of the Players” (Neon), “Red Rocket” (A24), and “The French Dispatch” (Searchlight).

It’s not the sole A-list specialized location in the city; these include AMC at the Metreon and Kabuki, Cinemark’s Century San Francisco Centre,...

Woody Allen has posted the lowest box office opening weekend of his career with his 49th film, “Rifkin’s Festival,” grossing just $24,000 on Friday and Saturday from 26 theaters, according to box office sources.

Most of the theaters screening the film are owned by Landmark Theaters, whose flagship Los Angeles location posted the highest single theater total for the film with $2,300. Other theaters outside of Landmark’s circuit screening the film include the Quad Theatre in New York City, where the film grossed $1,600 over two days.

By comparison, Allen’s previous film “Wonder Wheel” earned approximately $125,000 from five screens on its 3-day opening weekend in 2017, when the rise of the #MeToo movement brought long-standing allegations by actress Dylan Farrow against Allen — her adoptive father — returned to the public eye. Farrow, whose brother Ronan helped expose Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual assaults in The New Yorker, has accused Allen of molesting her...

Chicago – The distinctive voice and presence of Wallace Shawn has been in the show business firmament for over 40 years. From his legacy film “My Dinner with Andre” through cultural icon in “The Princess Bride” to “Young Sheldon,” Wally Shawn has endured and prospered. He stars as the title character in “Rifkin’s Festival, opening January 28th, 2022.

Wallace Shawn is Mort Rifkin, a struggling novelist who used to be a film studies professor. Through his academia he met and married Sue (Gina Gershon), a movie publicist who saw potential in his literary pursuit. She is representing a hot young director at the famous San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, and takes Mort along for the ride. The ex-professor doesn’t like modern cinema, and distracts himself by pursuing a local cardiologist (Elena Anaya) and creating dreams and fantasies from his film heroes.

Wallace Shawn and Gina Gershon in ‘Rifkin’s Festival...

Seeing a Woody Allen movie in 2022 is, it seems fair to say, a curious experience. Those who believe you can’t separate the art from the artist will find copious proof in his latest movie, “Rifkin’s Festival.” But, of course, they’re unlikely to watch it. Those who still celebrate the artist might watch it, but they won’t find much in the way of art.

For his 49th feature film, Allen returns to a well that is not so much dry as desiccated. The movie opens with Wallace Shawn as our Allen doppelgänger, Mort Rifkin. Mort, an anxious former professor, is also a dedicated cinephile and self-defined intellectual who spends the next hour-and-a-half complaining vociferously to his analyst.

He’s reminiscing about a troubled trip to Spain’s San Sebastián Film Festival, which he recently took with his publicist wife, Sue (Gina Gershon). “Film festivals are no longer what they were,...

As we continue to explore the best in 2021, today we’re taking a look at the articles that you, our dear readers, enjoyed the most throughout the past twelve months. Spanning reviews, interviews, features, podcasts, news, and trailers, check out the highlights below and return for more year-end coverage as well as a glimpse into 2022 in the coming weeks.

Most-Read Reviews

10. The Dig

9. WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn

8. kid 90

7. The Green Knight

6. Dune

5. The Most Beautiful Boy in the World

4. Mortal Kombat

3. The Girl Who Got Away

2. Ghostbusters: Afterlife

1. Saint-Narcisse

Most-Read Interviews

10. Adam Nayman on David Fincher’s Complicated Auteurism

9. Sparks on Annette, Polarizing Reactions, Leos Carax’s Vision, and Their Next Film

8. Sion Sono on Briefly Dying, His Favorite Nicolas Cage Performance, and Prisoners of the Ghostland

7. John Carpenter on Scoring Halloween Kills, Videogames, and Basketball

6. Gaspar Noé on Facing Death, Casting Dario Argento,...

Once accustomed to receiving splashy festival premieres and major theatrical roll-outs, Woody Allen’s films are now relegated to getting dumped stateside following international premieres and theatrical runs from the countries still willing to prominently showcase the Bronx-born director. After A Rainy Day in New York was released in late 2020 following a shoot in 2017, Allen’s latest work, Rifkin’s Festival (which was shot in 2019 and premiered at last year’s Sebastian Film Festival), is now arriving in the U.S. in theaters and on digital platforms on January 28, 2022 from MPI Media Group.

Starring Elena Anaya, Louis Garrel, Gina Gershon, Sergi López, Wallace Shawn, and Christoph Waltz, the movie follows a retired film studies professor who accompanies his publicist wife Sue to the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. He goes not for the films, but because he’s worried that Sue’s fascination with her young buzzed-about film director client,...

For their narrative debut, documentary filmmakers Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis tackle a two-pronged film whose two halves share visions of one another, as well as a few familiar faces, but only ever-so-gently collide across disparate worlds. “The Tale of King Crab” divides its time between 19th-century rural Italy and the coast of the southernmost tip of Argentina. Part Herzogian ecstatic ethnography given the verisimilitude at play in the film’s naturalistic settings, and part Pasolinian picaresque in its portrayal of a louche, sotted antihero tumbling through folly upon folly,, despite a bifurcated structure that makes for two occasionally tantalizing films in one.

At its core, the film is about the feint of storytelling itself, a well-worn topic that can make for a frustrating viewing experience when the directors are trying to go too deep inside their own heads. There’s a framing device that sets up the...

By any estimation, the Woody Allen business looks like it’s in terrible shape. The 85-year-old filmmaker was further ostracized by the industry when “Allen v. Farrow,” the four-part HBO series from directors Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, resurrected sexual assault allegations leveled against him by his daughter Dylan Farrow. Now, as the finale of “Allen v. Farrow” reverberates, some may assume that Allen has no path forward to keep making movies.

He does, of course. Pushback won’t faze him — he’s got a decade of it under his belt — nor will box-office ignominy, as his career has more of that than success. What about an entertainment industry that’s actively hostile toward financing the small, specific, not-inexpensive dramas that he makes? That’s irrelevant: While he’s intractable about the movies he makes, Allen appears to be infinitely flexible when it comes to financing and — perhaps more than...

Following the presentation of exclusive footage at the European Film Market last week, highly anticipated title “Official Competition” – reuniting Spanish stars Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz – has seized sales to major distributors for sales agency Protagonist Pictures and producer The Mediapro Studio.

Banderas, Cannes best actor winner and Academy Award nominee for “Pain and Glory,” and Cruz, Academy Award winner for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” star alongside Argentinian actor Oscar Martínez, Venice best actor winner for “The Distinguished Citizen,” in the comedy about the fierce rivalry between two actors with massive talent but even bigger egos.

Lucky Red has acquired the film for Italy, Studiocanal for Germany/Austria, Scanbox for Scandinavia, Pathe Films Ag for Switzerland, MK2 Mile End for Canada, Madman for Australia/New Zealand, Golden Scene for Hong Kong/Macau, and Sahamongkol Film for Thailand, with further deals closed previously at EFM 2020 for Benelux (September Film), Portugal (Lusomundo), Cee...

Global distributor, producer and streamer Mubi has snapped up major European markets for hot Sundance title “Pleasure,” which delves into the world of the porn industry in Los Angeles.

The service has acquired all rights to the provocative film in the U.K., Ireland, Italy and Turkey. Directed by Ninja Thyberg, the film recently received its world premiere as part of Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

Starring newcomer Sofia Kappel, “Pleasure” tells the story of a young woman (Bella Cherry) who moves from a small town in Sweden to Los Angeles in pursuit of stardom, and lands squarely in the porn industry. Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman praised “Pleasure” in his review, calling it an “intentionally stark” and “disturbingly authentic” look at what the porn industry has become.

“A movie like ‘Pleasure’ jerks the skeevy, compulsive porn world out of the closet in a way that few movies have,...

Stewart Talent has two new additions to its star stable, adding Gina Gershon and Laila Odom for representation.

Gershon recently wrapped up a supporting role in Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up. She also shot an arc on Season 2 of the NBC drama New Amsterdam, and appeared as Jughead’s mother on The CW hit Riverdale.

She can currently be seen in Woody Allen’s movie Rifkin’s Festival opposite Wally Shawn and Christoph Waltz, as well as in Jesse Quinones’ Cagefighter.

Her previous TV credits include TV Land’s Younger, the Amazon comedy series Red Oaks, the Judd Apatow-produced HBO comedy series Crashing, and the Golden Globe-winning series Empire. She also was seen on Fox’s Brooklyn-Nine-Nine, Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO’s How to Make it In America, and Danny McBride’s Eastbound & Down.

In film, she has appeared in Kay Cannon’s Blockers, Permission,...

Four VOD titles reached #1 in a week with scattershot results across the board. “Mortal” (Saban), a contemporary action film with Nordic mythology roots, took first place at Apple TV. Meanwhile, the PVOD prison drama “The Informer” (Vertical) repeated at #1 at FandangoNow, Paramount’s horror entry “Spell” is first at Spectrum, and romance “After We Collided” from Briarcliff bested at Google Play. “Mortal” is a standard price entry, while “The Informer” is at $19.99 premium, with “Spell” at $9.99 finding a middle ground.

But the highest showing for a new release is #2 at Apple TV for Woody Allen’s “A Rainy Day in New York” (MPI). Its VOD showing comes three weeks after a token theatrical run, more than a year after it opened in most of the world, and after his latest, “Rifkin’s Festival,” premiered overseas.

Right now is something of an intermission period before a slew of studio releases, including several...

Johnny Depp will head to Poland next month to pick up a special acting award at the 28th edition of the Camerimage festival.

The event, running November 14-21 in the city of Torun, will close with a screening of Andrew Levitas’ Depp-starring drama Minamata, which features the actor as celebrated photographer W. Eugene Smith.

The screening will take place following the event’s Closing Gala on November 21, with Depp in town to pick up the lengthy-titled Camerimage Award to an Actor with Unique Visual Sensitivity.

The fest’s international competition line-up this year is as follows: Ammonite, The Banker, Caged Birds, Charlatan, Falling, The Glorias, Helene, Never Gonna Snow Again, Nomadland, Pinocchio, Rifkin’s Festival, and While At War.

Depp is waiting to find out on Monday (November 2) what the verdict will be in his libel battle in UK court with British tabloid newspaper The Sun.

Arthouse streaming service Mubi has snapped up rights to Toronto International Film Festival title “Shiva Baby” for the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, India, Turkey and Latin America.

Written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Emma Seligman, “Shiva Baby” follows a young bisexual Jewish woman at a shiva — a mourning tradition in the Jewish community — at which she must confront her over-achieving ex-girlfriend as well as her sugar daddy, his girlfriend and their baby.

Utopia Media boarded the film ahead of its Toronto premiere.

“Shiva Baby” — which began life as a short written and directed by Seligman while studying film at New York University — screened in the narrative feature competition at SXSW, and received its public premiere at last month’s TIFF. Variety critic Tomris Laffly said of the movie, “Think of this late-coming-of-age farce as a funny ‘Krisha’ or the indoor apocalypse that takes place in ‘Mother!’ — but with broken glass objects,...

Sundance winner and upcoming BFI London Film Festival title “Farewell Amor” will bow in December on curated streaming service Mubi.

Mubi has acquired worldwide VOD rights, excluding North America, Africa, China and Israel, on the film. IFC has acquired the North America rights.

Producer Huriyyah Muhammad won the Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award for narrative features at the Sundance Film Festival, where the film received its world premiere in the U.S. dramatic competition section in January. It will play at the BFI London Film Festival’s ‘Love’ strand in October.

Written and directed by feature debutant and Sundance Institute fellow Ekwa Msangi, the film follows an Angolan immigrant reunited with his family in New York City after 17 years. Now strangers sharing a one-bedroom apartment, they discover a shared love of dance that may help them overcome the distance between them.

Stars include Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (“Blood Diamond...

Mort Rifkin, the ostensible novelist at the center of “Rifkin’s Festival,” has longterm writer’s block, and it’s hard to imagine that Woody Allen has ever empathized less with a character. Where Mort believes it’s futile to write if the finished work is not going to be on the level of Dostoevsky, the 84-year-old Allen continues churning out screenplays on an annual basis, unencumbered even by the increasingly distant memory of his own greatest work. His 49th feature, “Rifkin’s Festival” is the latest in a lengthy string of undistinguished bagatelles that might all be described as effortless, and not in an especially complimentary fashion.

Following Wallace Shawn and a typically jumbled grab-bag of fine actors as they mosey around the San Sebastián Film Festival — for which the film acts as an extended promo, duly opening this year’s edition — “Rifkin’s Festival” is a scenic summer-wind romcom that...

These days, every new Woody Allen film invites the same question: Is it possible to review the film and not its disgraced filmmaker? “Rifkin’s Festival” makes this challenge especially daunting: All the action takes place at the San Sebastian Film Festival, where the film opened this year’s edition. Wallace Shawn stars as a revered but neurotic director with romantic delusions. And if it seems like Allen is really asking for it, there’s one more factor working against the 84-year-old filmmaker: The film is far from vintage Allen and would struggle to find a mass audiences even before it turned against him.

Having said that, “Rifkin’s Festival” is a notch above middling Allen comedies like last year’s “A Rainy Day in New York,” thanks to delightful turns from Shawn and Gina Gershon as well as some zany stabs at film history in a series of black-and-white dream...

Woody Allen’s long-delayed “A Rainy Day in New York” will hit select U.S. theaters next month, Mpi Media Group and Signature Entertainment announced Thursday.

The film, starring Timothée Chalamet, Selena Gomez and Elle Fanning, will open on October 9 in at least three Landmark theaters in Chicago, Boston and Atlanta before expanding the following week to additional theaters and markets.

Signature released “A Rainy Day in New York” digitally on June 5 in the U.K. and has set a July 27 home video and DVD release. But the distributor had also previously acquired the film’s North American rights in hopes of doing a domestic release this fall.

“A Rainy Day in New York” was filmed in 2017, but Amazon dropped plans for the 2018 release of the film after Allen’s daughter Dylan Farrow resurfaced accusations that he molested her in the early 1990s when she was 7. Allen, who was never...

Woody Allen’s latest film “Rifkin’s Festival,” his first since his standing as a filmmaker has fallen following his daughter Dylan Farrow’s resurfaced accusations that he molested her as a girl, has a trailer ahead of it making its world premiere.

“Rifkin’s Festival” will premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival, where the movie is also set, on Sept. 18. And in the first trailer for the film, we see Wallace Shawn playing a neurotic, Woody Allen-type who falls in love with a Spanish local after his wife begins an affair with a young, French movie director.

The film is a comedy that combines Allen’s love of movies and fantasy, as well as his love of Spain, and features a cast that includes Gina Gershon, Elena Anaya, Louis Garrel, Sergi López and Christoph Waltz. And as Shawn’s character gives a confessional to a therapist in the trailer, it...

Woody Allen’s career continues to plow ahead with the upcoming world premiere of his new romantic-comedy “Rifkin’s Festival” on the opening night of Spain’s 2020 San Sebastian Film Festival (September 18). The occasion makes sense for “Rifkin’s Festival” as the story centers around an American couple who attends the San Sebastian Film Festival. Allen shot the film on location in San Sebastian.

“Rifkin’s Festival” stars Gina Gershon and Wallace Shawn as the American couple who travel to the San Sebastian Film Festival and are pulled in opposite directions. The wife starts an affair with a famous French film director and the husband falls in love with a local Spanish woman. The cast also includes Elena Anaya, Louis Garrel, and Christoph Waltz.

“Rifkin’s Festival” will mark Allen’s second San Sebastian opener after “Melinda and Melinda” at the 2004 festival, where he was also the recipient of the Donostia Award for career achievement.

It may have taken a lot longer than fans of his would have hoped, but Woody Allen has been able to skip the Hollywood system altogether and make a new comedy, titled “Rifkin’s Festival.” And ahead of its September 18 debut at the San Sebastian Film Festival, we now have a trailer for the feature.

Read More: 2020 Fall Film Preview: 40 Most Anticipated Films To Watch

As the title suggests, “Rifkin’s Festival” tells the story of comedy, drama, romance, and life, in general, taking place during a film festival.

Continue reading ‘Rifkin’s Festival’ Trailer: Woody Allen’s Latest Follows A Troubled Marriage At A Film Festival at The Playlist.

Woody Allen’s latest film, “Rifkin’s Festival,” has a first trailer, which Variety can share exclusively.

Produced by Spain’s The Mediapro Studio, Allen’s own Gravier Productions and Italy’s Wildside, the comedy will world premiere at Spain’s 68th San Sebastian Film Festival, opening the event on Sept. 18.

The setting of the world premiere seems highly appropriate for a film that takes place at the San Sebastian Film Festival and turns insistently, if the trailer is anything to go by, on the confusion of reality and fantasy.

Narrated by the husband of a married American couple, played by Wallace Shawn, who flies to the San Sebastian Film Festival, where he handles press, the trailer to “Rifkin’s Festival” shows the couple succumbing to the beauty and charm of Spain and the fantasy of the movies.

The wife, played by Gina Gershon, also succumbs to the charms of a...

One of the major figures at this year’s Venice Film Festival, Academy Award-nominated “Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino will serve as president of the main competition official jury at Spain’s 68th San Sebastian Festival.

The announcement comes as Guadagnino world premieres two films at Venice: the doc feature “Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams,” about extraordinary Italian luxury shoe designer-entrepreneur Salvatore Ferragamo, and a more personal 122-minute short “Fiori, Fiori, Fiori,” in which Guadagnino looks up childhood friends to see how they’re faring during Covid-19.

At San Sebastian, Guadagnino will also be on double duty as he will also present out of the competition the world premiere of his series “We Are What We Are,” an HBO/Sky Italia production sold by Fremantle.

Acclaimed for his often glamorous movies directed with a high-style, and set in glorious locations and featuring marvelous houses – Guadagnino nevertheless maintains he has no style,...

In this week’s International TV Newswire, Ampere’s five-year post-Covid report looks ugly for everyone but the streamers, ViacomCBS makes moves in Latin America, Orange TV is racing up its scripted commitment, beginning with The Medipro Studio, and Channel 4 announces a new true crime series.

Ampere Report Paints Bleak Five-Year Picture for Entertainment Industry

According to an updated study by U.K. firm Ampere Analysis, the Covid-19 crisis will cost the global entertainment industry $160 billion over the next five years.

Gross losses will hit advertising hardest in overall dollars lost, although when viewing the impact against the size of the sector, theatrical will be the sector most impacted. Pay TV, suffering heavily due to the loss of live sports, will drop significantly in value in an already difficult market. Ampere predicts around 4% of its previously forecast value.

The report points to the “intimately interconnected” nature of industry value...

Rifkin’s Festival, the upcoming Woody Allen pic starring Elena Anaya, Louis Garrel and Gina Gershon, has been picked up by Spanish distribution outfit Tripictures.

The movie tells the story of a married American couple who go to the San Sebastián Film Festival. They get caught up in the magic of the festival, the beauty and charm of Spain and the fantasy of movies. She has an affair with a brilliant French movie director, and he falls in love with a beautiful Spanish woman who lives there.

The pic, which is produced by The Mediapro Studio and Gravier Production in co-production with Wildside, shot in San Sebastian last summer. Mediapro Studio Distribution is working with Gravier and Mediapro on international sales.

The Mediapro Group, which has grown to become one of Europe’s leading content studios in recent years, has reported steady 2019 financials after another year of expansive investment.

The company’s adjusted Ebitda was $253M (€224M), a slight increase on the $251M (€222M) figure in 2018. Turnover decreased slightly from $2.23Bn (€1.97Bn) to $2.06Bn (€1.82Bn), which the company said was part down to the end of its contract for the Laliga football rights in Spain.

Mediapro continued its aggressive international expansion last year, with the report saying it spent $90.5M (€80M) on investments in the period. The company’s content wing, the Mediapro Studio, launched 39 new productions in 2019, in territories including Spain, Italy, Finland, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Chile. It is producing content for companies including Amazon Prime Video, HBO, Netflix, Turner, and Viacom.

Spanish channels broadcast 10,501 hours produced by the Mediapro Studio across the period, clocking viewers of north than 43 million.

Rifkin’s Festival, the latest movie from Woody Allen, is headed to the European Film Market (Efm) in Berlin with producer Mediapro handling rights.

The movie shot in San Sebastián last summer and stars Elena Anaya, Louis Garrel, Gina Gershon, Sergi López, Wally Shawn and Christoph Waltz.

It tells the story of a married American couple who go to the San Sebastián Film Festival. They get caught up in the magic of the festival, the beauty and charm of Spain and the fantasy of movies. She has an affair with a brilliant French movie director, and he falls in love with a beautiful Spanish woman who lives there.

Pic is produced by The Mediapro Studio and Gravier Production in co-production with Wildside.

FilmNation was previously reported as handling sales on Rifkin’s Festival, as it has done on previous Allen pics, but we understand that is not correct. Instead, the...

Woody Allen has taken part in a press conference in Spain to launch his next movie, which has a working title of Rivkin’s Festival.

Spanish film and TV stalwart and regular Allen collaborator Mediapro is backing the movie and will co-handle international sales with FilmNation. Letty Aronson’s Gravier Productions also produces.

The movie is due to go into production tomorrow and its cast of Elena Anaya, Sergi Lopez, Gina Gershon and Wally Shawn attended today’s conference in San Sebastian alongside Allen and Mediapro CEO Jaume Roures. Christoph Waltz and Louis Garrel also star.

The romance-comedy tells the story of a married American couple (played by Waltz and Gershon) who go to the San Sebastian Film Festival. There they get caught up in the magic of the festival but she has an affair with a brilliant French movie director and he falls in love with a beautiful local Spanish woman.

The project, with a working title of Rifkin’s Festival, is set during the San Sebastian Film Festival and starts shooting this week.

Woody Allen’s new film, a romantic comedy starring Gina Gershon and Christoph Waltz and set against the backdrop of the San Sebastian Film Festival, starts filming tomorrow in the Spanish city.

It has a working title of Rifkin’s Festival, the director revealed at a press conference in San Sebastian today (July 9). He was joined by the film’s producer Jaume Roures from Barcelona-based The Mediapro Studio as well as Gershon and further cast members Wallace Shawn...