News

A Texas bankruptcy court ruled on Tuesday that The Onion‘s acquisition of Alex Jones‘ disinformation empire, Infowars, could not move forward, dealing a blow to the satirical newspaper. The most surreal media merger in recent memory is now set to disintegrate — at least for now — after almost a month of legal wrangling.

“I don’t think it’s enough money,” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez wrote in a late-night decision, per NBC News. “I’m going to not approve the sale.” Judge Lopez has left it up to...

The International Film Festival Rotterdam’s (IFFR) Hubert Bals Fund has picked twelve feature films for its development support scheme, backing each project with €10,000 ($10,500) in production financing. The selection comes after the fund received more than 1,150 submissions, a new record.

Several IFFR alumni filmmakers are among the recipients. Brazilian filmmaker Lillah Hallah, whose Levante won the Youth Jury Award at IFFR 2024, will receive support for Colhões de Ouro, a dark musical comedy. Midhun Murali, who won a Tiger Special Jury Award for Kiss Wagon, secures backing for his new project MTV i.e. Mars to Venus.

Palestinian filmmaker Muayad Alayan, known for The Reports on Sarah and Saleem and A House in Jerusalem, receives funding for Conversation with the Sea. The film follows a Palestinian man ordered to pay his deceased son’s debt.

Christopher Murray’s Piedras gigantes will be one of the first Chilean fiction features shot on...

An order expected to be approved by a federal judge, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars media platform and its assets will be sold to pay the $1 billion he owes to relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

The Sandy Hook shooting, which took place in 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, killed six educators and 20 first graders.

In a court hearing on Tuesday, Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said he would approve auctions to start in November, after he ensures that the trustee who oversees Jones’ own bankruptcy case controls all the assets of the Infowars parent company, Free Speech Systems. The company is owned in full by Jones.

window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-mid', container: 'taboola-mid-article-thumbnails', placement: 'Mid Article Thumbnails', target_type: 'mix' });

In 2022, Sandy Hooks families won $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress lawsuits against Jones, a hard-right conspiracy theorist who falsely claimed that the shooting was a “hoax...

An ailing mother and estranged sister (Paola Lattus) reluctantly coax prodigal daughter Silvia (Patricia Cuyul) home after her 30-year absence in “Death Brought you Back” (“La muerte te vio volver”), the debut film from emerging Chilean director Sebastián Cuevas, selected for Sanfic Industria’s Ibero-American Works In Progress lineup.

In 2023, the film received financing from the Regional Audiovisual Fund and the Development Fund of the Audiovisual Fund of Mincap, Chile after previously participating in film Labs in the region, including the Sanfic Lab, Lab Cinelebu and the 2nd Ccc Co-Production Meeting, with mentorship from Christopher Murray and Jose Luis Torres Leiva.

Produced by Catalina Alarcón at Amanda Puga’s Southern-Chilean outift Praxia and Santiago-based Mala Films, the script was penned by Cuevas and Paula Armstrong, the narrative focusing on the vast space between siblings as they come together to mourn the ill health of the family matriarch.

“While I was studying,...

Set in the remote islands off the coast of Chile in the late 19th century, Christopher Murray’s Sorcery tells the absorbing story of a young indigenous girl seeking answers after a devastating loss. 13-year-old Rosa works as a servant for German farmers who have settled on the forbidding shores of Chiloé.

When the entire flock of sheep on one farm is found mysteriously murdered and her father meets an untimely end while questioned about the incident, Rosa finds herself alone in the world. Determined to see justice served but met with indifference by local authorities favoring the European colonists, Rosa turns to members of a traditional medicine group shunned by the church for help avenging her father’s death.

As Rosa is initiated into the ancient rituals of the group called La Recta Provincia and unravels the true events surrounding her family’s demise, Sorcery explores powerful themes of colonial oppression,...

Valentina Véliz Caileo in Sorcery

Chilean director Christopher Murray's folk horror, Sorcery, set on the remote Chilean island of Chiloé in the late 19th century, subverts genre clichés by positioning sorcery as a means of resistance and empowerment against foreign settlers. The story is told from the point of view of Rosa (Valentina Véliz Caileo), a young indigenous girl whose father is murdered by Stefan (Sebastian Hülk), a German settler. Seeking help from Mateo (Daniel Antivilo) and a powerful organisation of sorcerers, Rosa is forced to confront the hideous imbalance of power that makes justice a privilege.

Murray's filmography is complemented by the documentaries Propaganda, Dios (God) and Oasis, and the narrative features Manuel De Ribera and The Blind Christ (El Cristo Ciego). He imposes the sensibility of documentary and drama on his third narrative film, Sorcery. He creates space in the fantastical and supernatural to ground the idea of sorcery in the.

When the Spanish conquistadors moved into South America, they reached Chile last. Shielded by their mountains, the local people had time to develop new technologies, like the pike, which would give them a chance against armoured men on horseback. They were able to put up more of a fight. Of course, in the end they were conquered anyway, and still more brutally treated in response to their resistance. The people on the southern islands attracted all of this additional repression without the practical means of self-defence. As a consequence they are, to this day, some of the world’s poorest people – but one thing they did manage to hold onto was their culture. Christopher Murray’s powerful new film is set around a trial which, for a moment, held all that in balance.

It’s fictionalised, of course, in part because Murray is interested in different ways of perceiving and...

The message is clear but subtle in Christopher Murray’s anti-colonial fantasy which features an emanantly watchful performance from Valentina Véliz Caileo

Just as the 2015 film Embrace of the Serpent reversed the terms of the Aguirre-style colonialist expedition picture, this Chilean-Mexican-German collaboration (produced by Pablo Larraín) is a kind of inverted horror film that similarly draws on South American history. Where in western horror, Indigenous or pagan elements usually become demonised return-of-the-repressed fodder, in Chilean director Christopher Murray’s unsettling fantasy they are a source of identity, power and even reverence.

Sorcery is a 19th-century radicalisation story. On the rain-lashed island of Chiloé, Indigenous teenager Rosa (Valentina Véliz Caileo) works as a servant for German farmers; speaking their language and practising their Christian religion, she is cut off from her Huilliche roots. When all the homesteaders’ sheep die simultaneously, with twine braids found on their corpses, her father refuses to...

The 49th edition of Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival, Spain’s largest confab for films from Latin America, Spain and Portugal, will honor Mexican star Cecilia Suárez with its City of Huelva Award.

With leading roles in Netflix’s “The House of Flowers” and HBO Latin America’s “Capadocia,” Suárez has also be seen in ABC’s drama “The Promised Land” and has worked on films by as Tommy Lee Jones (“The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”), James L. Brooks (“Spanglish”), Ernesto Contreras (“Párpados azules”), Antonio Serrano and Fernando Colomo (“Cuidado con lo que deseas”).

The new edition of Huelva runs Nov. 10-18.

Andalusia’s oldest film festival, Huelva will also grant a Light Award to Spanish actress Natalia de Molina, a two-time Goya winner, delivering acclaimed performance in films such as David Trueba’s “Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed” and Juan Miguel del Castillo’s “Food and Shelter.”

Another...

A new episode of the Black Sheep video series has just been released, and in this one we’re taking a look at a movie you might expect to be really popular, since it’s a sci-fi action thriller that pits Denzel Washington against Russell Crowe. It’s not popular… but maybe it should be. The movie is Virtuosity (watch it Here), and you can hear all about its virtues by checking out the video embedded above.

Directed by Brett Leonard from a screenplay written by Eric Bernt, Virtuosity has the following synopsis: A former cop who has been imprisoned for murdering the psychopath who killed his family, Parker Barnes is recruited to test out a new virtual-reality program where the goal is to apprehend a computer-generated being called Sid 6.7, who has been modeled on hundreds of deranged criminals. When Sid manages to escape into the real world, Barnes must...

On Friday, July 7th, the 27th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival announced the winners of this year's feature competition section during the closing ceremony at the 500 plus seats Main Theater inside Bucheon City Hall. The ceremony was followed by the screening of the festival's closing film “Sana” by Japanese horror master Shimizu Takashi, a world premiere.

Bucheon Choice: Features

Best of Bucheon Krw – 20,000,000

Sorcery by Christopher Murray

Best Director Choice – Krw 5,000,000

Superposition by Karoline Lyngbye

Jury's Choice – Krw 5,000,000

The Artifice Girl by Franklin Ritch

Audience Award

The Artifice Girl by Franklin Ritch

Korean Fantastic: Features

Best Korean Fantastic Film – 20,000,000

Iron Mask by Kim Sung Hwan

Film Review: Iron Mask (2023) by Kim Sung-hwan

Korean Fantastic Best Director – Krw 5,000,000

Risk Society by Kim Byung Jun

Film Review: Risk Society (2023) by Kim Byung-jun

Korean Fantastic Actors:

Jung E-seo in Her Hobby

Jang Seongbeom in Abroad

Korean Fantastic Audience Award

Abroad by Giovanni Fumu...

The festival’s closing film was the world premiere of Takashi Shimizu’s ‘Sana’.

Christopher Murray’s witchcraft and revenge thriller Sorcery won the top prize at the 27th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan) tonight (July 7) in South Korea.

Onstage at the closing ceremony at Bucheon City Hall, the Chilean filmmaker dedicated the Best of Bucheon award for his folk horror film “to the people from the island where the film was shot – that is Chiloe - because it’s a story that is based on their story,” noting “the people from the island also participated in the film...

The great Choi Min-sik was on hand to take early headlines at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan).

Described somewhat blandly as “a highly reliable performer” by the Korean Film Council (Kofic), Choi is not only the star of Korea’s top grossing film of all time “The Admiral: Roaring Currents,” he continues to be available for work of all different levels. He appears in no less than ten titles that played at the festival this week.

The festival also does reliable — in its own way – as it plays up to its “stay strange” mantra, cooperates with other festivals of a similar fantasy leaning and sidesteps the political infighting that currently bedevil Korea’s best-known festivals.

The selection runs from a documentary about Korean reunification to Anurag Kashyap’s “Kennedy,” a crime drama in which former adult movie star Sunny Leone gets to show that she has evolved into a versatile and confident actor.

The Eternal Memory

Chile, U.S.

Director: Maite Alberdi

Alberdi’s follow-up to Oscar- nominated “The Mole Agent” snagged Sundance’s top doc award and a worldwide distribution deal with MTV at Sundance. Co-produced by Fabula, it centers on a loving elderly couple struggling with the man’s fading memory.

The Cardinal (“El Cardenal”)

Chile, Argentina, Brazil

Director: Benjamín Ávila

Drama in development with Argentina’s Magma Cine, Brazil’s Gullane and Storyboard Media turns on a cardinal who struggles to accept the reality of Augusto Pinochet’s vicious dictatorship in the early 1970s.

Horizonte

Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Luxembourg

Director: Cesar Augusto Acevedo

Chile’s Paulina Garcia stars in Colombian Acevedo’s follow-up to Cannes-winning “Land and Shade.” Film follows Basilio and his mother, who search for his father through a wartorn land of the dead.

The House (“La Casa”)

Chile, Germany

Director: Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff

Docu...

Sorcery Review — Sorcery (2023) Film Review from the 46th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Christopher Murray, written by Pablo Paredes and Christopher Murray and starring Valentina Véliz Caileo, Daniel Antivilo, Sebastian Hulk, Daniel Munoz, Daniel Antivilo, Annick Duran and Sebastian Nunez. Filmmaker Christopher Murray’s Sorcery is set in the 19th century on [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Sorcery: Valentina Véliz Caileo Delivers a Compelling Performance in a Dark and Dreary Film [Sundance 2023]...

Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? I think our obstruction was the unpredictable weather of Chiloe Island at the very south of Chile. The storm, the fog, the humidity. But really, more than an obstruction, I think it was just an intense force to relate to while shooting. In a way, the weather also directed us and the film, as a kind of atmospheric spell. It […]

The post “The Storm, the Fog, the Humidity” | Christopher Murray, Sorcery first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? I think our obstruction was the unpredictable weather of Chiloe Island at the very south of Chile. The storm, the fog, the humidity. But really, more than an obstruction, I think it was just an intense force to relate to while shooting. In a way, the weather also directed us and the film, as a kind of atmospheric spell. It […]

The post “The Storm, the Fog, the Humidity” | Christopher Murray, Sorcery first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

From a distance, like on a zoomed-out map, the South Pacific island of Chiloé looks almost like a peninsula. It nestles cosily into the embrace of the Chilean coastline, separated only by a narrow strait from the overhanging landmass. But as anyone who has been there can tell you, it has an earthy atmosphere very much its own: with its temperate, damp climate, verdant forests and misty fields, Chiloé feels ancient, folkloric and full of hidden mystery. It makes it the perfect setting for Chilean filmmaker Christopher Murray’s “Sorcery,” a meditative tale of anticolonial vengeance that has its basis in fascinating true events in Chilote history, but that wears the skin of a dark fairytale.

It is 1880 on the island, and 13-year-old Rosa is prepping a meal for her employers, a family of devoutly Christian German settlers. Rosa, who has learned to speak German, comes from an indigenous Huilliche background,...

Chilean director Christopher Murray travels all the way to Chile’s Chiloé Island in “Sorcery,” where a teenage Huilliche girl, Rosa Raín (Valentina Véliz Caileo), witnesses the murder of her father by a German settler. At first, she seems helpless. But when she encounters much-older Mateo (Daniel Antivilo), he makes her aware of her roots and magic that comes straight from the land.

“I was always intrigued by that place. It’s an ambiguous territory,” he tells Variety.

Following its world premiere at Sundance, the film — produced by Larraín brothers’ Fabula and co-produced by Pimienta Films and the Match Factory, the latter also handling sales — will head to Goteborg’s International Competition next.

Flirting with horror, Murray was actually inspired by a true story — the persecution of the members of the Recta Provincia organization back in 1880, accused of witchcraft.

“I found it mind-blowing, this whole concept of state vs. sorcerers.

Not quite a traditional horror film, not quite a coming-of-age drama, and not quite a true supernatural fable, Christopher Murray’s “Sorcery” is a difficult film to categorize. It’s dark, grim, and angry, like a revenge horror film. There are moments of magic in a 19th-century setting that bring a sort of fairy tale atmosphere to mind. And yes, this is a film about a young girl’s journey of self-discovery.

Continue reading ‘Sorcery’ Review: Christopher Murray Casts A Grim But Beautiful Revenge Spell With A Lot On Its Mind [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Readying Maite Alberdi’s “The Eternal Memory” and Christopher Murray’s “Sorcery” for world premieres at this year’s Sundance Festival, “Spencer” director and producer Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula has promoted Constanza Muñoz to VP of film at its North American office. The move comes as Fabula continues to expand into the English-language market. Muñoz will report to Andrew Hevia, Fabula head of film & TV for North America.

Setting out as a boutique art film producer which first made a splash with Pablo Larraín’s “Tony Manero,” Chile’s 2009 Oscar submission, few Latin American production companies have seen such energetic growth as Fabula.

After Pablo Larrain had directed his English-language debut, 2016’s “Jackie” with Natalie Portman, Fabula opened an office in the U.S. in 2018. Its founding aim was to produce not only titles from Larraín himself but also offer itself as a production base for...

Presented by Adobe, Presenting Sponsor and official editing solution of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. For more information, click here.

This year’s crop of films at Sundance is set to entertain in more ways than one, with a lineup of 99 features whose storylines were honed through meticulous collaboration between director and editor. Here are six editors you should know about whose pioneering work is galvanizing audiences and gracing screens.

Alisa Lepselter, Editor: “You Hurt My Feelings” (Premieres)

A witty comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a novelist trying to find success with her sophomore book, “You Hurt My Feelings” reunites Alisa Lepselter with writer-director Nicole Holofcener, whose directorial debut, “Walking and Talking”, was also Lepselter’s first feature editing credit. An accomplished editor with nearly four decades of experience, Lepselter began as assistant editor, working on films like Martin Scorsese’s Edith Wharton adaptation “The Age of Innocence,” before becoming Woody Allen...

Exclusive: The Latinx House is coming back to the Sundance Film Festival.

First planting its flag at the last in-person Park City shindig in 2020, the Mónica Ramírez, Alexandra Martinez Kondracke, and Olga Segura founded gathering returns to Main Street for a series of events, panels, and activations over the 2023 fest’s opening weekend.

“We are thrilled to come back to Sundance to continue uplifting and celebrating all Latinx filmmakers that have worked so hard to get their movies made and now have an opportunity to share it with the world at the festival,” Waiting for the Barbarians producer Segura told Deadline after a two-year virtual pause. “Creating a space to build community and celebrate our achievements has always been one of our main goals. Our continued collaboration with Sundance is helping us build a bridge to create more opportunities for Latinx creators in the industry for many years to come.

Kicking off this Thursday, the 2023 Sundance Film Festival gives us a first glimpse at the year in cinema. Ahead of the fest, we’ve highlighted the films we’re most looking forward to and now we’re providing a trailer round-up for those interested in a preview of the lineup.

Ahead of our coverage, bookmark this page for a continually updated round-up of trailers and clips, kicking off with Polite Society, A Common Sequence, Infinity Pool, Rye Lane, Slow, and more.

Check out the trailers below thus far in alphabetical order and we’ll be publishing reviews soon, so follow along here.

The Amazing Maurice (Toby Genkel)

Blueback (Robert Connolly)

A Common Sequence (Mary Helena Clark and Mike Gibisser)

Deep Rising (Matthieu Rytz)

Divinity (Eddie Alcazar)

The Eight Mountains (Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch)

L’immensità (Emanuele Crialese)

Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg)

Joyland (Saim Sadiq)

Mamacruz (Patricia Ortega)

Other...

Sorcery: "On the remote island of Chiloé in the late 19th century, an Indigenous girl named Rosa lives and works with her father on a farm. When the foreman brutally turns on Rosa’s father, she sets out for justice, seeking help from the king of a powerful organization of sorcerers."

Directed by: Christopher Murray Screenwriters: Christopher Murray, Pablo Paredes Produced by: Juan De Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jadue, Nicolás Celis Co-Producers: Viola Fügen, Michael Weber Executive Producer: Sergio Karmy Director of Photography: María Secco Cast: Valentina Véliz, Daniel Antivilo, Sebastian Hulk, Daniel Muñoz, Rosa Raín

World Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival January 22, 2023

---

The Unsettling: "Abena and Kwame, a Ghanaian couple, are struggling to recover from a devastating tragedy. They travel to Los Angeles for a vacation that they hope will help them find their way back to one another. Instead, during an awkward dinner with estranged friends,...

An official selection for this year’s Sundance Film Festival, director Christopher Murray‘s Sorcery has debuted its official trailer this week, promising a dark revenge thriller with a twist.

In the film, “On the remote island of Chiloé in the late 19th century, an Indigenous girl named Rosa lives and works with her father on a farm. When the foreman brutally turns on Rosa’s father, she sets out for justice, seeking help from the king of a powerful organization of sorcerers.”

Here’s a longer synopsis from the official Sundance website…

“Chiloé Island, 1880. After her father is murdered by a German colonist, Rosa (newcomer Valentina Véliz Caileo), a 13-year-old Huilliche girl, renounces her Christian upbringing and seeks shelter with Mateo (Daniel Antivilo), the leader of an Indigenous organization that practices witchcraft. Under Mateo’s gruff yet tender tutelage, she learns the art of sorcery and vows to settle the score.

Goteborg will screen nearly 250 films in 700 screenings, making it the largest film festival in Scandinavia.

The 46th Goteborg Film Festival (Jan 27-Feb 5) will kick off with the world premiere of Exodus, directed by Abbe Hassan, about a smuggler who tries to save a Syrian girl; the closing film will be Camino, directed by Birgitte Stærmose, about a 30-year-old woman on a long hike with her father to honour her mother’s last wish.

Goteborg will screen nearly 250 films in 700 screenings, making it the largest film festival in Scandinavia.

About 50 of the films – including all in the International Competition – will be...

The Göteborg Film Festival has unveiled the competition titles selected for its 46th edition, which runs from January 27 – February 5. (Scroll down for the full list).

Göteborg is split into four competition strands. The main strand is the Nordic Competition, which features nine films from the Nordic region. The competition’s winner takes home the Dragon Award and a Sek 400 000 cash prize. The rest of the festival comprises the Nordic Documentary Competition, the Ingmar Bergman Competition for first-time filmmakers, and the International Competition.

Among the Nordic highlights is Swedish filmmaker Isabella Carbonell’s thriller Dogborn, starring Swedish rap star Silvana Imam. The pic debuted at Venice last year and follows two homeless twins and their struggle to survive. Hlynur Pálmason’s well-received period piece Godland also screens in competition. Set in the late 19th Century, the drama revolves around a young Danish priest who travels to a remote part of...

Back in 2017, Matthew Perry appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and revealed that he and Justin Trudeau attended the same school — and that he and a classmate once beat up the future Canadian Pm.

During Perry’s Wednesday night appearance on “The Late Show”, Perry dismissed the story as rumour, admitting he can’t recall it ever happening.

During the conversation, host Stephen Colbert noted that he and Trudeau were in grade school together, and jokingly asked which of them is recognized more in Canada.

Read More: Matthew Perry Declines Justin Trudeau’s Joking Request For A ‘Rematch’, Says He’s Just ‘Showing Off’

“You know, there was a big rumour about us,” Perry volunteered. “That I beat him up in grade school.”

“Did you?” Colbert asked, to which Perry replied, “I don’t think so, no.”

“But you’re not entirely sure?” asked the host.

“My friends, Bryan Murray and Chris Murray,...

Chile is starting its own big restart. Few national industries will have a larger online presence at this year’s Cannes Film Market. Big name news has broken in early market plays as well.

After features with Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams (“Disobedience”) and Julianne Moore (“Gloria Bell”), Academy Award winner Sebastián Lelio, (“A Fantastic Woman”) will associate produce “El Porvenir de la Mirada,” a doc feature that captures the trauma of some of the 460 protesters shot in the eyes by Chilean police during massive demonstrations that erupted in October 2019.

Set up at Storyboard Media, “Porvenir” is directed by distinguished Chilean doc filmmaker Cristián Leighton.

Even while gearing up to direct Joaquin Phoenix in A24’s “Disappointment Blvd.,” Ari Aster has signed on to executive produce Chilean stop-motion short “The Bones,” directed by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (“The Wolf House”) with a soundtrack composed by acclaimed U.S. violinist Tim Fain,...

After enduring endless months of Covid-19 lockdown, Chile’s film and TV industry is revving up production once more. And several women are leading the charge.

Various high-profile titles are either in production or setting up dates, such as season two of Lucía Puenzo’s hit series “La Jauria” and, starting this month, Francisca Alegria’s debut feature, “The Cow Who Sang a Song About the Future.” Fernando Guzzoni’s “Blanquita” aims to start principal photography by July, says producer Giancarlo Nasi of Quijote Films, who also presides over Chile’s Film Arts Academy, founded in 2018.

For the first time, the 200-plus member Academy selected Chile’s submission to the 93rd Academy Awards, Maite Alberdi’s “The Mole Agent,” which was happily shortlisted in both international feature and documentary categories. Alberdi is hopefully indicative of the growing diversity and inclusion in Chile’s society on the whole.

“We are proud...

Chile’s Oscar-winning Fabula Films (“A Fantastic Woman”), the company co-founded by producer Juan de Dios Larraín and director-producer Pablo Larraín, is producing “The Sorcerers,” which will be presented this week during the Rome-set film and TV market Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo (Mia). Variety spoke to director Christopher Murray about the film, which is co-produced by Mexico’s Pimienta Films and Germany’s The Match Factory Productions, with The Match Factory handling world sales.

“The Sorcerers” is set on the remote island of Chiloé in the late 19th century, as the newly founded Chilean state has begun wielding its might to subjugate local communities. It centers on Rosa Raín, an 11-year-old indigenous girl who lives and works with her father on a farm of German settlers. When a mysterious plague sweeps through the farm’s cattle, the German foreman brutally kills Rosa’s father in retaliation. With nowhere to turn, the...

Rome’s Mia market, the growing showcase for international TV series, feature films and documentaries, has announced a first batch of projects being pitched to prospective buyers during its sixth edition on track to take place both physically and online Oct.14-18 in the Italian capital.

They include “Lafayette,” a costume drama set during the the American Revolution written by David Franzoni, who won a best picture Oscar for producing “Gladiator.” “Lafayette” is being produced by France’s Nicolas Deprost via his Wild Horses shingle.

Other standout Mia Drama Pitching Forum projects comprise “Thank You for Playing,” a thriller from France’s Black Sheep Films and It’s Alive Films in which five professional online gamers are sent to a training camp in Lapland to try and beat artificial intelligence software. And from Italy’s Redstring and Minerva Pictures “Miss Fallaci Takes America,” about the 1958 journey to the U.S. of groundbreaking journalist Oriana Fallaci.

Some 50 projects span films, TV series and documentaries.

Rome’s Mia film and TV market has unveiled the first wave of projects for this year’s event, which will go-ahead as a mix of physical and digital elements from October 14-18.

The sixth edition of the Audiovisual International Market (Mia), which runs alongside the Rome Film Festival, will include 50 projects from more than 20 countries in its co-production market and pitching forum. The co-production market will comprise 16 projects, of which half are directed by women.

These include Amor y Dolor by Emanuele Scaringi, marking her second feature after youth comedy La Profezia Dell’Armadillo,...

Stars: Michael Welch, Lin Shaye, Tony Todd, Melissa Bolona, Spenser Locke, Kaiwi Lyman, Jonathan Daniel Brown, Jean Elie, Christopher Murray, Douglas Tait, Larry Poole | Written by Jeffrey Reddick, William Halfon, Jonathan Doyle | Directed by Timothy Woodward Jr.

Pretty much my whole reason for giving The Final Wish a watch was because Lin Shaye stars in it. She is a seal of approval for me and I know that even if the movie disappoints, then I will at least see a good performance from the veteran actress. That said, this also features Tony Todd, another reliable horror icon and had some decent-looking poster artwork, so it had at least a few things going for it.

The Final Wish has a simple concept. After his Dad dies, a man (Michael Welch) heads back to the place he grew up to see his Mum (Shaye). While he is there he discovers a mysterious...

Chilean producers to track, who will be forming part of the Berlinale’s 2020 Country in Focus dedicated to Chile. Five are well-known, another five on the rise :

Up-and-coming

María José Díaz

Dos Be Producciones

An executive producer and investigative journalist for TV series and doc-features, Diaz is an executive producer at Dos Be Prods. and founder of Galgo Storytelling, a transmedia content producer. Projects in development: Doc “Haganse la Luz,” Ignacia Merino and Isabel Reyes’ debuts, and docu series “Nepen” about Chile’s indigenous Mapuches.

Yeniffer Fasciani

Niebla Producciones

A 2015 Berlinale Talents participant, Fasciani is a partner/co-founder of Niebla Prods. In 2016 she produced TV series “Martin, Man and Legend” for La Santé Films and was executive director of Dci, a Chilean film distributor. Upcoming projects: Carola Quezada’s “Perros sin Cola,” Chilean-Japanese co-production “Green Grass” by Ignacio Ruiz, and pregnant boxer drama “A La Deriva.”

Cynthia García

Cyan Prods

Founder of Cyan Prods.

San Sebastian — Rouge International co-founder Nadia Turincev, whose credits included the Oscar-nominated “The Insult,” “Raw” and “Mimosas,” has teamed with Omar El Kadi, head of acquisitions and sales, Emea, at Lebanon’s Mc Distribution, to launch Easy Riders Films, a new Paris-based production company.

If Easy Riders Films first titles are anything to go by – Latin American co-production “Perros,” 1941 Lebanon-set comedy “The Fifteen,” political romantic drama series “L’Âge d’Or,” Easy Riders looks set to pursue the adventurous, unconventional production line which has come to distinguish Turincev.

At the same time she and El Kadi have linked from the get-go with prestigious production partners around the globe and are backing projects put through the most illustrious of development programs.

“Perros,” for example, is directed by Cannes Cinéfondation Résidence 2019 winner Vinko Tomičić, is also produced by Chile’s Jirafa Films, behind Christopher Murray’s “The Blind Christ” and Alicia Scherson’s “Il Futuro,...

Cannes— Chile’s Jirafa Films, producer of Christopher Murray’s “The Blind Christ” and Alicia Scherson’s “Il Futuro” has teamed with Zafiro Cinema in Mexico, Chile’s Calamar Cine and Bolivia’s Color Monster to produce Vinko Tomičić sophomore outing, “Dogs” (“Perros”).

“Dogs” won the Best Pitch Award at the spring session of Cannes’ Cinéfondation Résidence. It will follow 13-year-old Martín, an orphan shoeshine boy from La Paz, Bolivia, who has lived his entire life on the streets and still hopes to find his father. Driven by his imagination, Martín begins to suspect that one of his best clients – Mr. Novoa, a lonely tailor– might be his father. Martín devises a plan: to kidnap Mr. Novoa’s dog so as to be able to be closer to him.

“Through documentary techniques, the director immerses the spectator in the world of young shoe shines from La Paz.

Second, he has an ethical take,...

1979: Another World's Alice wasn't sure she should marry Dan.

1979: Guiding Light's newly arrived Ross rook Roger's case.

1990: General Hospital's "Duke" died in Anna's arms.

2004: All My Children's Bianca gave birth to Miranda."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into d ifferent and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1968: On Dark Shadows, Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke) was shot in the shoulder after a struggling over a gun with her prison guard (Howard Honig). Peter Bradford (Roger Davis) and Victoria attempted to leave the jail.

1976: On Ryan's Hope, Johnny (Bernard Barrow) made peace with...

1979: Another World's Alice wasn't sure she should marry Dan.

1979: Guiding Light's newly arrived Ross rook Roger's case.

1990: General Hospital's "Duke" died in Anna's arms.

2004: All My Children's Bianca gave birth to Miranda."Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results."

― Machiavelli

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1968: On Dark Shadows, Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke) was shot in the shoulder after a struggling...

Jurors, audiences award prizes at culmination of Colombian event; the oldest film festival in Latin America.

Kiro Russo’s adventure mystery earned top honours as the 57th annual Cartagena International Film Festival came to a close on Monday night.

Dark Skull centres on a troublesome young man sent to work in the Bolivian tins mines of the Oruro region. The film premiered in Locarno last autumn.

Vladimir Duan was named best director for So Long Enthusiasm and also scooped the best film prize in the Colombian competition. It premiered in the Berlinale’s Forum strand last month.

Christopher Murray’s Venice Film festival hit The Blind Christ won the Fipresci award.

The Cartagena International Film Festival ran from March 1-6. For further details click here.

Best Film

Dark Skull

Best Director

Vladimir Duan, So Long Enthusiasm

Fipresci

The Blind Christ

Best Film, Colombian Competition

So Long Enthusiasm

Best Director, Colombian Competition

Rubén Mendoza, Señorita María, La...

Showtime revealed the full cast list for its upcoming "Twin Peaks" revival, and it's nothing short of insane -- and insanely long.

The ensemble includes a whopping 217 actors -- yes, you read that right -- and amid all the returning faces, there are also a bunch of surprising, big-name newbies along for the ride this time around. (We've embedded the entire list at the end of this post.)

Original cast members that will be back include many previously-announced people, and the ensemble will feature the likes of Kyle MacLachlan, Sherilyn Fenn, Madchen Amick, Sheryl Lee, Dana Ashbrook, David Duchovny, Miguel Ferrer, Grace Zabriskie, Peggy Lipton, Ray Wise, Wendy Robie, Russ Tamblyn, and Catherine E. Coulson, among many others.

As for the newcomers, some of the bold names that stand out include Monica Bellucci, Jim Belushi, Michael Cera, Laura Dern, Jay R. Ferguson (a.k.a. Stan from "Mad Men"), Ernie Hudson ("Ghostbusters"), Ashley Judd,...

Glenda Jackson: Actress and former Labour MP. Two-time Oscar winner and former Labour MP Glenda Jackson returns to acting Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Glenda Jackson set aside her acting career after becoming a Labour Party MP in 1992. Four years ago, Jackson, who represented the Greater London constituency of Hampstead and Highgate, announced that she would stand down the 2015 general election – which, somewhat controversially, was won by right-wing prime minister David Cameron's Conservative party.[1] The silver lining: following a two-decade-plus break, Glenda Jackson is returning to acting. Now, Jackson isn't – for the time being – returning to acting in front of the camera. The 79-year-old is to be featured in the Radio 4 series Emile Zola: Blood, Sex and Money, described on their website as a “mash-up” adaptation of 20 Emile Zola novels collectively known as "Les Rougon-Macquart."[2] Part 1 of the three-part Radio 4 series will be broadcast daily during an...

The 45th Annual NAACP Image Awards went off without a hitch earlier this evening (February 22) with "12 Years a Slave" continuing to make waves snagging the biggest prize of the night.

Before her film won Outstanding Motion Picture, the gorgeous Lupita Nyong'o added another piece of hardware to her already impressive collection taking home a trophy for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, while Kerry Washington snagged up her second Image Award with a win for Best Actress in a Dramatic Series. Kerry's show "Scandal" also won Outstanding Drama Series.

In addition, the hilarious Kevin Hart took home Entertainer of the Year, while Oprah Winfrey paid tribute to the late Nelson Mandela with a touching speech and musical dedication.

"He was everything we have all have heard and more. He was humble and he was unscathed by any kind of bitterness after all that we know he's been through," Winfrey said.

The 45th NAACP Image Awards were presented Saturday night (Feb. 22), with names like Kevin Hart, Kerry Washington, "12 Years a Slave" director Steve McQueen and Lupita Nyong'o being honored.

The Image Awards pay tribute to the best in film, TV, writing, music and literature. Take a look at the full list of winners below.

Winners are in bold.

Entertainer of the Year

Kevin Hart

Film

Outstanding Motion Picture

"12 Years A Slave" "Fruitvale Station""Lee Daniels' The Butler""Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom""The Best Man Holiday" 

Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture

Forest Whitaker - "Lee Daniels' The Butler"Chadwick Boseman - "42"Chiwetel Ejiofor - "12 Years A Slave"Idris Elba - "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom"Michael B. Jordan - "Fruitvale Station"

Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture

Angela Bassett - "Black Nativity"Halle Berry - "The Call"Jennifer Hudson - "Winnie Mandela"Kerry Washington - "Tyler Perry Presents Peeples"Nicole Beharie...

Adding their picks to the awards season deluge, the 45th Annual NAACP Image Awards unveiled the official list of nominees.

Not surprisingly, “The Butler” will compete in categories including Outstanding Motion Picture, Outstanding Actor, Outstanding Supporting Actor & Actress and Writing.

Meanwhile, Kerry Washington’s “Scandal” is up for Outstanding Drama Series, and Ms. Washington herself received a nod for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series.

NAACP Chairman Roslyn M. Brock gushed, “This has been an incredible year from the artistic community, with phenomenal contributions across the board from the music, television, motion picture, and literature genres that have the power and impact to drive social change.”

The 45th Annual NAACP Image Awards will go live on Friday, February 21st.

And the nominees are:

Television

Outstanding Comedy Series

"House of Lies" (Showtime)

"Modern Family" (ABC)

"Real Husbands of Hollywood" (Bet)

"The Game" (Bet)

"The Soul Man" (TV Land)

Outstanding Actor in...

The NAACP Image Awards have announced the nominees for their 44th annual awards show during a live press conference from the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, CA. Anthony Anderson (Guys with Kids), Niecy Nash (The Soul Man), Yvette Nicole Brown (Community), Garcelle Beauvais (Flight), Tyler James Williams (Go On), and Zendaya (Shake It Up!) announced the categories and nominees.

The NAACP Image Awards celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors. Winners will be announced during the two-hour star-studded event, which will air live on Friday, February 1 (8 Et live/Pt tape-delayed) on NBC.

Following is the list of categories and nominees for the 44Th NAACP Image Awards:

Television

Outstanding Comedy Series

"Glee" (Fox)

"Modern Family" (ABC)

"The Game" (Bet)

"The Mindy Project" (Fox)

"The Soul Man" (TV...

Who would've thought in the early 2000s that Bill O'Reilly and the president of the Aclu would agree on anything? The organization has expressed disapproval of President Barack Obama's policies and, well, that's where the agreements end. But O'Reilly had Aclu member E. Christopher Murray on the Factor to explain the Aclu's grievances with Obama-- mainly, that he has yet to fulfill some of his campaign promises.

Before going into my Women Directors Tracking which I have vowed to continue until women reach a parity with men in the film business and Latino Directors groove, I want to thank Howard Feinstein for watching the most obscure films of Rotterdam to find the jewels! Scratching Below the Surface for Some Rotterdam Fest Gems - indieWIRE. Kudos! I wish I could have seen these!

Howard spotted this one: "A young woman named Rusudan Pirveli brought to the 'Bright Future' section Susa, another story of hard financial times. 'The Lost Generation' is represented here by the absent father of an adolescent boy, who, working for his mother, sells bootleg vodka in bottles. Sadly, he lives under the delusion that dad’s return would ease his and his mom’s hardship. Like Koguashvili, Pirveli eschews unnecessary authorial intervention: Both directors understand all too well that they are living amidst powerful,...

Actress Hope Lange, who received an Oscar nomination for the 1957 film Peyton Place and won two Emmy awards for the sitcom The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, died Friday at a Santa Monica hospital; she was 72. According to her husband, Charles Hollerith, Lange died after suffering an infection caused by an intestinal inflammation known as ischemic colitis. A child actor who already had 12 years of Broadway experience before she moved to film, Lange quickly found fame with her first two big film roles in Bus Stop and Peyton Place. The latter film nabbed the actress an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and launched her career as one of the more popular ingénues of the late 50s. Appearing in The Young Lions, The Best of Everything and A Pocketful of Miracles, she segued into television in the late 60s, where she starred opposite Edward Mulhare in the romantic sitcom The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, which ran only from 1968-1970 but garnered the actress two Emmys; Lange later appeared in The New Dick Van Dyke Show from 1971-1974. Her later roles included Blue Velvet and Clear and Present Danger, as well as innumerable guest television appearances. Married previously to actor Don Murray and director Alan J. Pakula, Lange is survived by Hollerith, her third husband, as well as two children from her marriage to Murray, actor Christopher Murray and daughter Patricia Murray. --Prepared by IMDb staff...