Global Flicks: India’s Screenwriter’s Association Expresses Support For WGA; Susana Giménez Returns To Big Screen With Upcoming Film
Africa: Andana Films has picked up the rights to the Burkinabe film, Al Djanat - The Original Paradise. The film, directed by Chloe Aicha Boro, had its international premiere at Visions du Reel in Switzerland and was sold to Canal+ which will be the primary broadcasting home of the documentary across Africa.
EbonyLife Media CEO, Mo Abudu, has now dipped her foot into the realms of writing and directing with two short films on the way. One of which, Iyawo Mi, will be presented at the Cannes Short Film Corner. That short, as well as her other title, Her Perfect Life, will also make their way to Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival later this year.
Actress and filmmaker, Stephanie Linus, will be developing a historical adaptation of the Aba Women’s Protest of 1929 under the title When Women Were Counted. Linus announced that she will be producing and cowriting the project alongside Ibe Gerald Oluchi and Joy Isi Bewaji.
The official poster for Dika Ofoma’s newest film, A Quiet Monday, has been released by Bluhouse Studios. The film stars Uzoamaka Aniunoh and Emmanuel Igwe and is described being touted as social drama about relationships.
Filmmaker Charles Okpaleke’s next feature film is a story inspired by the British opposition of the Igbos. The film, titled Ekwumekwu, will be produced alongside Okpaleke’s production company, Play Network Studios.
Sudanese actress, Asia Abdelmajid, was killed during a violent clash in Khartoum between the country’s national army and paramilitary forces. The actress was 80 years old and was known for becoming one of the country’s first professional working actors.
Asia: N Lite and N Lite Japan have partnered with American animation company, Gkids, and anime veterans, Masao Maruyama and Gisaburo Sugii, to develop the an Afro-anime film titled Mfinda. The story follows a young girl who finds herself in an enchanted forest filled with many different spirits.
Director Chen Kaige has his next project in sight: the 19th-century historical epic, Swan Song. The subject of the film is none other than legendary music composer, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and his life during the end of the Russian Empire as he was faced with scorn due to his sexuality. The film was written by Shahar Stroh and produced by Moonstone Entertainment.
India’s Screenwriters Association (SWA) has asked its members to halt work on all U.S. projects as the organization has voiced its support for the writer’s strike held by the WGA. The country’s writer’s guild sent out an email to its 57,000 plus members, stating that the organization “stands in complete solidarity with our 11,500 sisters and brothers of WGA.”
India’s film and media industry reached roughly $26 billion in revenue last year surpassing its total in 2019, the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent report. The report took in data from every nearly every field of media and entertainment consumption, ranging from film, digital media, print, live events, gaming, and music, to name a few with the country’s overall media apparatus set to grow roughly 12% in the coming year.
Sony Pictures International is developing its first ever Tamil-language feature film with actor Sivakarthikeyan starring in what will be his 21st role in a movie. The film, currently untitled with “SK21” being its unofficial label, will be based on a story within the book series, India Most Fearless, from Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh.
Excel Entertainment, the prominent Indian studio, has promoted its head of business, Vishal Ramchandani, to be the company’s new CEO. The studio was founded in 2001 and has been behind the success of the Bollywood hit, Dil Chahta Hai, the company’s first film.
The first trailer for Amanda Nell Eu’s latest film, Tiger Stripes, has been released. The film is the first Malaysian title to appear at the Cannes Film Festival in several years with Eu the first female filmmaker from the country whose project has been chosen to screen at the festival.
Tibetan filmmaker, Pema Tseden, has passed away at the age of 53. Tseden was known for films such as Jinpa and Balloon. His cause of death is still unknown though some unconfirmed reports have speculated that Tseden suffered a heart attack.
Babak Jalali - David Becker / Stringer
Europe: The North American rights to Babak Jalali’s latest drama, Fremont, have been acquired by Music Box Films. The film, which stars Anaita Wali Zada and Jeremy Allen White, premiered to widespread critical acclaim at Sundance.
Playtime, the Paris-based production company, has unveiled its sales slate at the Cannes film market. The titles presented include Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest project, About Dry Grasses, and French director Catherine Corsini’s film, Homecoming.
The upcoming animated feature film adaptation of In Waves, AJ Dungo’s graphic memoir, has a new production entity behind it in Anonymous Content. This surfer-based story is also the feature debut of Phuong Mai Nguyen and follows a shy young teenager who meets a girl who lives nothing in the world more than surfing.
Diego Kaplan - JC Olivera
Latin America: The 54th holding of the international documentary festival, Visions du Reel, was held last week with the acclaimed filmmaker, Lucrecia Martel, heralded as an honorary guest. At the event, the Argentinian director, behind works such as La ciénaga and The Holy Grail, discussed her upcoming documentary, Chocobar, which examines the murder of indigenous leader, Javier Chocobar.
Popular Argentinian TV personality Susana Giménez returns to the big screen in Diego Kaplan’s latest comedy. The film, still untitled, will follow a child psychologist struggling to deal with her 43-year-old son who still lives at home. The script is written by Kaplan and Pablo Minces with production beginning this October in Argentina.
Middle East: The first official teaser trailer and poster for the upcoming Lebanese film, La Mer et Ses Vagues, have been released. Directed by Liana and Renaud, the film follows two young musicians as they attempt to cross the Lebanese border to make their way to Beirut.
This past week, Netflix dropped its latest psychological thriller from Saudi Arabia, The Matchmaker, directed by Abdulmohsen Aldhabaan. The film follows a married IT worker who forms a relationship with an intern at his office. The film is one of the first of the psych thriller genre to come from Saudi Arabia.
Reading Lolita in Tehran, the classic memoir from Iranian writer Azar Nafisi, is getting a feature film adaptation with stars Golshiteh Farahani and Zar Amir-Ebrahimi attached. The story follows a teacher who defies government doctrines by reading a list of forbidden books to her students.
Director Mohammad Rasoulof has been prohibited from leaving Iran to attend the Cannes Film Festival. The acclaimed filmmaker hoped to attend the festival after Iranian authorities granted him temporary release after his seven-month-long imprisonment. Rasoulof has been a vocal critic of the Iranian government and has been arrested multiple times for his public dissent.
Silent House director, Farnaz Jurabchian has been permitted to leave Iran to attend a circuit of film festival screenings, the first time she has been allowed to do so since the film’s premiere this past November. Jurabchian and her co-director (also her brother), Mohammadreza Jurabchian, have previously been banned from leaving the country as Iranian authorities dubbed the international partnerships used to get the film made as “a national security risk.”