SKY INVESTS IN TV4 ENTERTAINMENT

European pay TV operator Sky has invested $0.3 million in LA based TV4 Entertainment, which owns a growing portfolio of special interest television channels. The channels are distributed across multiple online platforms in US, including Hulu, Amazon, Sony, Vimeo, YouTube & Roku. TV4’s portfolio includes a dozen channels, reaching millions of unique users every month. It has more than 30 new channels in development. The portfolio includes: DocComTV aimed at documentary devotees; All Warrior Network for fans of the warrior genre; Motorland, a video network for automotive enthusiasts; the Ultimate Champion Network, which has programming for combat sports fans & The Clarity Project, a channel exploring child illness.

DAN TO HEAD TV BUSINESS AFFAIRS FOR WME

WME is bolstering its business development ranks, enlisting Warner Bros. TV business affairs veteran Dan Limerick as head of TV business affairs. The announcement of Dan Limerick’s appointment comes just hours after WBTV said the executive would be departing the company. With Limerick on board, Catherine Sugar, a 17 year WME veteran who previously headed business affairs, is shifting to a new role as WME’s head of business affairs for global TV. Both executive appointments come as WME / IMG revs up an ambitious expansion plan to broaden the company’s reach with a host of production & distribution initiatives, from film financing to event production to traditional TV program development & distribution. Mark Shapiro, the former head of ESPN & Dick Clark Prods, is leading the charge as IMG’s New York based chief content officer.

PIXAR MAY SUFFER 1ST LOSS AT BOX OFFICE

The Good Dinosaur is shaping up to be a novelty. After 16 films, including such classics as Toy Story & Wall – E, the story of a young Apatosaurus’ quest to reunite with his family is shaping up to be Pixar’s 1st box office failure. With a production budget of $200 million and roughly $150 million spent on marketing, industry analysts & executives say that Pixar and its parent company Disney must make $500 million to break even theatrically. Currently, the film has made $131.3 million globally and is showing signs of fading fast. At this point, many project that The Good Dinosaur will be lucky to crack the $400 million mark. That would make it the lowest grossing Pixar film since A Bug’s Life made $363.4 million worldwide in 1998.

IAIN TO OPEN LONDON’S FOCUS SUMMIT

Iain Smith, executive producer on Mad Max: Fury Road & chairman of British Film Commission will deliver the opening speech at the Focus Summit, an event that focuses on developments in media landscape. Other keynote speakers at the summit, which takes place on 15th Dec, 2015 in London, include Michael Katz, VP international programming & planning at A & E Networks, & Patrick Collister, lead creative at Google’s The Zoo. The event, which will follow themes of convergence, collaboration & creativity, will seek to understanding the impact of “second screeners” on the creative process; look at the different types of creative partnerships that now exist; examine the changing relationship with today’s audience and ask how producers are handling the transition.

EX MACHINA BAGS BEST FILM AT BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS

Alex Garland’s sci – fi movie Ex Machina was the big winner at the British Independent Film Awards, taking 4 prizes. The movie bagged “Best Film”, Garland took the prizes for “BEST Director” & “Best Screenplay” and the craft award was picked up by Andrew Whitehurst for “Best Visual Effects”. The ceremony, which was hosted by Richard Ayoade, took place at London’s old Billings gate Market. Tom Hardy won “Best Actor” for his dual role as Ronnie & Reggie Kray in Legend & Saoirse Ronan picked up the “Best Actress” prize for Brooklyn.

MATTEW TO STAR IN THE END OF LONGING

Friends star Matthew Perry will lead the cast in the world premiere of his playwriting debut, The End Of Longing, at the Playhouse Theatre, London, from 2nd Feb, 2016 to 14th May, 2016. The fast paced, bittersweet comedy will be directed by Lindsay Posner reuniting the pair, following their 1st West End collaboration on “Sexual Perversity in Chicago” at the Comedy Theatre in 2003. The End Of Longing centers on Jack, Stephanie, Joseph & Stevie, 4 lost souls, entering their 40’s and searching for meaning. After sharing 1 raucous night together in a downtown Los Angeles bar, their lives become irreversibly entwined in a rollercoaster journey that forces them to confront the darker sides of their relationships.

KAREN SETS UP SIDNEY STREET PRODUCTIONS

Karen Ross, the creative director of the UK version of MasterChef, has set up a production company named Sidney Street Productions with the backing of Endemol Shine. Sidney Street Productions will specialize in producing food, factual & lifestyle formats. MasterChef executive editor David Ambler, who has worked alongside Ross on the show for the past & years, will oversee all versions of the format from the New Year from within Shine TV. Ross launched a re – versioned MasterChef in 2005, originally as series producer, steering it from its original early evening BBC Two slot (as MasterChef Goes Large) to a returning primetime hit for BBC One with 3 successful further iteration.

ADAM JOINS MULTI – CHANNEL NETWORK COLLECTIVE STUDIO 71

Collective Studio 71, a multi – channel network formed by the merger of Collective Digital Studio & ProSiebenSat.1’s Studio 71, Germany’s largest MCN, has hired Adam Boorstin as executive Vice President of global digital distribution. Boorstin most recently served as head of partnerships at BuzzFeed
Motion Pictures. In his new role, Boorstin will oversee distribution for all Collective Studio 71’s content and lead the expansion of Collective Studio 71’s distribution network to new platforms. Boorstin will be responsible for forging new partnerships with distributors. He will identify new opportunities to distribute existing content, while also exploring exclusive custom content deals for Collective Studio 71 creators with VOD, subscription VOD & OTT platforms. He will report to CDS CEO Reza Izad.

HAIL, CAESAR!’ TO OPEN BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL

Joel Coen & Ethan Coen’s Hail, Caesar! will open the 66th Berlin International Film Festival on 11th Feb, 2015. “It’s wonderful that Joel Coen & Ethan Coen are once again opening the Berlinale. Their humor, unique characters & fantastic narrative skill are guaranteed to thrill the audience. Hail, Caesar! is the perfect start for the 2016 Berlinale,” festival director Dieter Kosslick said. In 1998, the Coen Brothers’ comedy The Big Lebowski played in the Berlinale competition program and their Western True Grit opened the festival in 2011. Hail, Caesar! is set during the latter years of Hollywood’s Golden Age, during the studio system’s heyday.

2 MULTIPLEXES TO BOW IN 2016

1 key challenge facing Moroccan cinema is screen shortage, 31 theaters for a population of 30 million, and the continuing loss of spectators in the older picture palaces, which continue to serve as important venues for Moroccan films. The country has only 2 multiplexes: a 14 screener in Casablanca and a 9 plex in Marrakech, both run by the French – Moroccan group Megarama. Extraordinary but true: These 2 multiplexes generate 2 3rd’s of all box office revenues. Megarama also runs a duplex in Fez. The situation will be partially relieved in 2016 with the opening of 2 new multiplexes by Megarama, which were initially scheduled for 2014, but have been successively postponed due to planning permission issues for the host shopping malls. In Feb, 2016 Megarama hopes to open an 11 screen complex, with 1,400 seats, in Rabat, Morocco’s capital, followed by an 8 screen venue, with 1,000 seats, in the international port city of Tangiers.

COPPOLA OUTLINES LIVECINEMA PLANS

At a round table interview at the 15th edition Marrakech Film Festival, jury prexy Francis Ford Coppola revealed details of his upcoming “live cinema” project, whose 1st trial run, Distant Vision was tested 5th Jun, 2015 in Oklahoma City Community College and live streamed to private showings in Paris, New York, Los Angeles and the Coppola family residence in Napa Valley. The 76 year old helmer also gave an insight into key moments in his career, his views on the future of the film industry and his general take on the complex international crisis resulting from recent terrorist attacks around the world. Coppola explained that his interest in live cinema came from the discussion a few years back that 3D was the “future of cinema.”

NABIL PREPS SOCIAL DRAMA RAZZIA

46 year old Nabil Ayouch is Morocco’s best known helmer, due to his incisive social dramas that highlight the plight of characters from impoverished backgrounds who resort to desperate actions. His 2012 pic, Horses Of God, about the 2003 Casablanca suicide bombers, was sold to 40 countries and officially presented in US by Jonathan Demme, where it was Morocco’s candidate for the Foreign Language Academy Award & Golden Globes. Given the rising tide of terrorist attacks throughout the world, attributed in part to under privileged environments, Ayouch’s Horses Of God is increasingly cited as a poignant insight into the underlying causes of terrorism. “Horses Of God was a premonition of what happened in Paris, not just the situation in Morocco,” said Ayouch. For his most recent film, Much Loved, Ayouch decided to switch his gaze to a more subtle form of violence provoked by poverty.

SARIM UNVEILS PLANS TO REINFORCE MOROCCAN CINEMA

After his 1st 12 months at the helm of the Moroccan Cinema Center (CCM), Sarim Fassi Fihri recently took stock of his achievements to date and outlined his plans for the coming months, including tax schemes designed to attract foreign productions. 57 year old Sarim Fassi Fihri, has a long track record as a film producer and has worked on an extensive number of important foreign & domestic productions, including Nabil Ayouch’s 1st film Mektoub & Alain Chabat’s Asterix And Obelix – Mission Cleopatra. From 2005 he presided the Moroccan film producers association, AMPAC and had a major role in terms of discussing national film policy, including organization of the industry meetings, Assises Nationales Du Cinéma, in 2007 & 2012. During his 1st 12 months in the post, he has had to handle a series of complex situations, including negotiations with the Government for new tax schemes aimed at boosting the domestic exhibition sector and attracting more foreign productions to Morocco.

MARRAKECH’S COUNTRY TRIBUTE AT ITS 15TH FEST

Atom Egoyan headed a 23 person delegation of leading Canadian producers & directors, including Brandon Cronenberg, Michel Poulette & Stephen Dunn, recently, at the 15th Marrakech International Film Festival. Launched in mid – 2000’s, Marrakech’s country tribute has become one of the fest’s highlights, filling the stage in the main auditorium of the Palais Des Congress with a galaxy of talent. This year’s ceremony follows on the heels of the 2013 tribute to Scandinavian Cinema and last year’s tribute to Japanese Cinema. Sarim Fassi Fihri, prexy of the Moroccan Cinema Center (CCM) presided the ceremony and highlighted the fact that both Morocco & Canada are bi – lingual countries “that beat with a single heart” He praised the achievements of his sister institution in Canada, the National Film Office, and referred to the multiple achievements of Canadian cinema in the international film panorama, pioneered by leading directors, from established helmers such as David Cronenberg & Denys Arcand to the generation of new talent such as Xavier Dolan who screened his 1st feature, I Killed My Mother, aged 20, in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, and then shared Cannes’ Grand Jury Prize in 2014 for Mommy.

CESC GAY ON HIS NEW MOVIESTAR SERIES

Cesc Gay’s 7th feature, Truman has Javier Camara as Tomas, a college instructor in Canada who travels to Madrid to bid farewell to his old friend Julian, an actor diagnosed with terminal cancer played by Ricardo Darin, star of Juan Jose Campanella’s Oscar winning The Secret In Their Eyes. Julian’s main concern is finding a new family for Truman, his ageing boxer friend. Directed by an audience friendly auteur & produced by Marta Esteban at Imposible Films & Diego Dubcovsky at Argentina’s BD Cine, Truman is a comedy of melancholy, wise, wistful & well-observed,” said reviewer Joe Leydon. An emotionally raw, even harsh dramedy, balancing dark twists and the excesses of the soul, Truman is performing well in Spain where it cumed $2.7 million, ranking No. 8 in its 5th week at theaters.

CHILDREN OF SATURN AIMS TO JUMP AT VENTANA SUR

Eugeni Guillem’s Children Of Saturn is the highest profile of Catalan project trio pack which was pitched this week at Ventana Sur’s Beyond the Window, in a search for potential partners & financing. A cannibal coming – of – ager – an intriguing mix – Children Of Saturn will mark the debut of Guillem, who comes from Barcelona film school Escac, a genre talent incubator whose alums include Juan Antonio Bayona & Kike Maillo. He has shot musical clips & shorts, plus a segment in the omnibus slasher The Innocents, directed by a dozen of Escac alumni. Children Of Saturn has an estimated initial budget of $4 million and was pitched for the 1st time at Oct 2015’s Sitges Film Festival, at Pitchbox, a new initiative launched in collaboration with online platform Filmarket Hub.

AL JAZEERA’S BEIN MEDIA INKS A MULTIMILLION DOLLAR 600 PIC DEAL

Al Jazeera owned beIN Media group has inked a 5 year multimillion dollar 600 title output deal with Italia Film International, the prominent Beirut based Middle East film distributor with close Hollywood ties. The pact will give it considerable content muscle and strengthen its ambitions to become a top entertainment paybox in the Arab world. beIN, until recently an Al Jazeera sports spinoff, is launching 2 channels, called beIN Movies 1 & 2 in Middle East, in a likely pay TV landscape game changer in the region where so far Orbit Showtime Network OSN was the single paybox offering movies, original programming & general entertainment. Financial terms of what is being touted as the biggest output deal ever inked in Middle East were not disclosed.

DOHA FILM INSTITUTE APPOINTS NAOMI & LUCIA AS MASTERS FOR QUMRA EVENT

The 2nd edition of Doha Film Institute’s innovative Qumra event is starting to take shape with 2 prominent female filmmakers recruited as masters: Japan’s Naomi Kawase & Argentina’s Lucrecia Martel. Both are widely known auteurs on the fest & arthouse circuits. Kawase most recently made a splash with her bittersweet drama An, about a solitary baker & 76 year old culinary genius, which opened the Cannes Un Certain Regard section this year and went on to sell widely. She is considered a purveyor of lyrical minimalism. Martel, who is Latin America’s most prominent woman director, is currently in post on period piece Zama, about an officer of Spanish Crown operating in Argentina’s wild backwaters towards the end of the 18th century on the eve of the country’s independence movements. As part of their role as Qumra Masters, they will each participate in a series of masterclasses, workshops & one – on – one sessions with directors of participating DFI backed projects & industry professionals from around the world, and also screen one of their pics for Doha audiences. Qumra, which is an Arab word believed to be the origin of the word “camera,” is a unique format event dedicated to fostering 1st & 2nd works from Arab world and beyond through a formula that blends creative workshop & festival elements.

ICFLIX PREPPING COME BACK 1ST ARABIC PRODUCTION ABOUT ISLAMIC STATE

Icflix, the Dubai based VOD platform founded by chairman Fadi Mehio & CEO Carlos Tibi in 2012 is upping its commitment to Moroccan market, by signing production deals with leading Moroccan filmmakers. The platform has also announced that it is prepping 1st Arabic production about Islamic State, Come Back, which will be shot in English, French & Arabic, lensing in Belgium, Turkey, France and multiple Middle Eastern countries, to be released in early summer of 2016. Icflix currently vies with Starz as the leading VOD platform in the 370 million Middle East -North Africa (MENA) market, that has a young & highly wired demographic. MENA market is particularly attractive to producers of Arabic content. Icflix offers Hollywood, Bollywood & Arabic content (which it terms Jazwood). Its first Arabic productions were acquired in 2014, including the Egyptian productions HIV & Al Makida that were released in Oct, 2014.

CO – PRODUCTIONS ALLOW GULF FEST TO THRIVE

The ever changing Middle East festival scene has been shaken up by instability lately just as Arab film industry gains more traction. In this scenario the Dubai International Film Festival is becoming more pivotal as a platform to nurture & launch fresh Arab fare, as it continues to boost its role as a driver for the nascent biz in the Gulf. In May, 2015 the nearby Abu Dhabi film fest shockingly shuttered after 8 editions during which it had gradually earned a significant spot on the map. Just days later Dubai, now at its 12th edition, announced it would reinstate the Dubai Film Connection co – production platform, which had been scrapped in haste in 2014.

UAE EARNS REP AS INTERNATIONAL HUB FOR HI – PRODUCTIONS

What do the latest Star Wars, Fast AND Furious & Star Trek, installments have in common? They were all recently shot in United Arab Emirates, where a combination of incentives, security, transportation, state – of – the art studio space, a futuristic skyline & exotic desert ambiance are positioning Dubai & Abu Dhabi as the prime Middle East hub for different types of international productions. In Oct, 2015, after 3 months in Vancouver & Canada, Paramount’s Star Trek: Beyond touched down in Dubai for a 2 week shoot, brought by executive producer Jeffrey Chernov who in 2010 had come with Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol in which Tom Cruise famously rappels down from Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.

MUREN TO BE FELICITATED AT PARIS IMAGES DIGITAL SUMMIT

Veteran VFX master Dennis Muren will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2nd Digital Creation Genie Awards and part of the Paris Images Digital Summit. Kudo will be awarded at a 28th Jan, 2015 ceremony to be held at Enghien – Les – Bains Centre Des Arts. Muren will deliver a Master Class on Sat 30th Jan, 2015 during event’s Festival Day. Running 28th Jan, 2016 to 30th Jan, 2016 and launched by the Ile De France Commission, the Paris Images Digital Summit is devoted to digital creation in its multiple manifestations, the latest trends & innovations in digital visual effects, CGI, motion – capture, 3D & disruptive technologies in cinema, television, advertising, video games & transmedia. California born, Muren is a VFX specialist best celebrated for his contributions to some of the defining features of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron & George Lucas which reshaped Hollywood: Star Wars saga, ET The Extra -Terrestrial (1982), Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), The Abyss (1989), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) & Super 8 (2011)

BRIE TO BE FELICITATED BY CAPRI – HOLLYWOOD FILM FESTIVAL

Brie Larson will be felicitated by the 20th edition of the Capri -Hollywood film festival dedicated to launching Oscar hopefuls and establishing a bridgehead between Hollywood & Italy’s film & showbiz communities. Larson, an awards season frontrunner for her intense, Oscar buzz generating performance as Ma in Lenny Abrahamson’s Room is expected to make the trek to the Italo isle off the coast of Naples to receive a “Best Actress” of the Year nod. In making the announcement, Capri topper Pascal Vicedomini noted that Larson, who is 26, “is considered the new rising star in Hollywood,” thanks to her work this year in Room & Trainwreck opposite Amy Schumer. Room, which opens in Italy in Mar, 2016, will bow locally from the festival where other awards buzz pics will also launch, including John Crowley’s Brooklyn, Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl, Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth & Justin Kurzel directed Macbeth starring Michael Fassbender & Marion Cotillard.

LEONE GROUP & EAGLE PICTURES FORGE DISTRIBUTION PACT

Italy’s Leone Film Group, the company originally founded by spaghetti western master Sergio Leone, has forged a strategic pact with local indie distributor
Eagle Pictures that will see them co – release the next 2 installments in Lionsgate’s The Divergent Series – Allegiant & Ascendant – and also Keanu Reeves starrer John Wick 2 & Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge, toplining Andrew Garfield. Additionally going forward Eagle will be exclusively handling distribution on plenty of Leone’s new titles over the next 3 years. The companies will equally split costs & profits for distribution on all Italo platforms on the 4 announced pics. Leone’s heirs, who entered the Italo distribution arena in 2000, have output deals with Lionsgate & Dreamworks and close rapports with several US indies, including The Weinstein Company.

DOCU PRODUCER TO FIRE UP FICTION FEATURES & INTERNATIONAL CO – PRODUCTION

A winner of the 2015 Berlinale Co – production Market Pitch, for Abner Benaim’s Plaza Catedral, a tangled false friendship drama with thriller elements, set against the background of Panama’s social divide and of Colombia’s Cartagena Festival PuertoLab with Road To La Paz, a humanizing road movie tale, Juarez Allen broke through in 2011 co -producing Victor Kossakovsky’s Vivan Las Antipodas, a big poetic geo – docu which played Venice. Currently producing Benaim’s doc, My Name Is Not Ruben Blades, with Ruben Blades, based out of her Buenos Aires shingle Gema Films, Juarez Allen sees her future, however, more in fiction features & international co -production, one of Latin America’s current production drivers. That may not be the biggest of asks.

4 MOVIES MAKE MARKET RUNNING

4 Movies namely Era El Cielo, This Too Shall Pass, Sangre En La Boca & No Kids made some of the market running, in announcements, trading, at this week’s 7th Ventana Sur, Latin America’s top film market which for the 1st time fully caught the Latin American film industry in ongoing market transformation, as Netflix and other Internet content distributors feature ever more in film economics. Primer Plano, the Argentine sales – distribution company, recognized that about 40% of its sales revenues now come from Over-The-Top operators. As Argentina’s INCAA Film Institute launched last week its own Argentine movie VOD platform, rumors ran rife at Ventana Sur, about Netflix 6 figure dollar sum offers for packages of films, though whether any deals of this caliber have actually gone down is a moot question.

4 LATIN – AMERICAN COMPANIES TO CO – PRODUCE MARILYN

In an increasingly common pan – regional alliance for Latin America, 4 Latin American companies, Argentina’s Maravilla Cine, Chile’s Don Quijote & Rampante & Uruguay’s Cordon Films, are teaming up to co – produce real life inspired drama Marilyn. Argentine Martin Rodriguez Redondo’s feature debut. The project was selected for San Sebastian’s 2014 Europe -Latin American Co -production Forum, Chile’s Sanfic industry lab & Australab – FicValdivia. Winner of an Argentine INCAA Film Institute script contest & an Ibermedia co -production award, Marilyn is based on the true story of Marcelo B, today called Marilyn, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting dead his mother & brother with a shotgun in 2009 and then was partner in Argentina’s 1st gay marriage in prison. The film will roll from Jul, 2016 produced by Maravilla Cine’s Buenos Aires based Paula Zyngierman, production manager on standout Argentine films. Marilyn focuses on the character of Marcos, a boy who lives in a farm on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. While his father does the heavy work, he stays at home with his mother & transvestites when he is alone. After the father’s death, Marcos is forced by his mother to take charge of the farm work for the 1st time, suppressing his feminine behavior. Verbal & physical violence against Marcos grows. One morning he explodes.

MORBIDO TV LOADS UP ON GENRE

AG Studios’ Morbido TV, its flagship pay TV channel for Latin America & US Hispanic, is loading up on horror, fantasy, sci – fi, occult and more and driving into original content production, as it aims for a spring 2016 launch.Despite Morbido TV’s
start – up status, it hires, own shows & early buys rep one of the most ambitious rollouts of a regional genre channel which, in Morbido TV’s case, aims to be much more: A talent hub, production force & driver of a pan – regional culture industry richly grounded in Latin American sensibility. Morbido TV will be the 1st 24 hour horror – fantasy genre channel in Latin America said Eduardo Caso, CEO of AG Networks, AG Studios multi – platform division. Among new plans, Mexico’s Rafa Lara is attached to direct Terror Mx, Morbido TV’s 1st original production, an episodic series framing “the complete history of horror -fantasy cinema in Mexico,
Pablo Guisa Koestinger, the charismatic Morbido Fest CEO Morbido TV content head, announced at Ventana Sur’s Blood Window.

GABRIELA TO MAKE HER DEBUT AS A DIRECTOR

“A woman director who likes to make Tarantino movies,” says Rodrigo Teixeira,
Gabriela Amaral Almeida has just shot her debut, the violent The Friendly Animal, for Teixeira’s RT Features, producer of Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha, Robert Eggers’ The Witch & James Gray’s upcoming To The Stars. Lensed by ace cinematographer Barbra Alvarez and a Western or so it seems in its huit clos set – up and gathering primal brutality, Animal turns on restaurant owner who is attacked, shoots one aggressor. Turning the tables, with the help of his waitress, he takes his staff & clients hostage, holing up in his restaurant.

RT FEATURES & MUNDIAL PACT FOR ERA EL CIELO

Brazil’s RT Features & Mundial, a joint venture of IM Global & Canana, the top Mexican production house, have pacted for Mundial to acquire world sales rights to Era El Cielo, written by Lucia Puenzo and highly anticipated next feature of Brazilian Marco Dutra. Deal links Mundial with Rodrigo Teixeira’s Sao Paulo based RT Features, one of Latin America’s most exciting & unusual film outfits.
Producer of Noah Baumbach’s Francis Ha, Robert Eggers’ The Witch & James Gray’s upcoming To The Stars, RT Features has also driven hard into a new generation of Brazilian directors, melding arthouse concerns with genre & narrative drive.

MANEGLIA & SCHEMBORI PREP 2 MOVIES FOLLOW UP

Paraguayan filmmakers Juan Carlos Maneglia & Tana Schembori are developing comedy adventure film Los Buscadores (Seekers), their follow up to 2012’s box office & festival’s hit action thriller 7 Boxes, which Breaking Glass Pictures picked up for US, sold by Shoreline Ent. Dubbed a “Paraguayan Indiana Jones” Seekers takes place in modern day Paraguay, with local characters and is spoken in Spanish, Guarani & Jopara, a mix of both languages. Seekers original screenplay was written by Juan Carlos Maneglia, who will co – direct alongside Tana Schembori. Set in the neighbourhood of Chacarita, a picturesque, colorful & vibrant community, right next to downtown Asuncion, the plot kicks off when a young paperboy accidentally discovering a map in a book given to him by his grandfather. He teams up with other paperboys in search for a buried treasure known as “Plata Yvyguy”.

2 MOVIES TOP BLOOD WINDOW’S BLOODY WORKS IN PROGRESS

Laura Casabe’s dramedy thriller Benavidez’s Case & Sebastian & Federico Rotstein’s horror pic Terror 5 won 2 prizes a piece at Blood Window’s 3rd Bloody Works in Progress edition in Ventana Sur. Produced by Magali Nieva Umansky at Ninja Films Argentina and toplining Norma Aleandro, Benavidez’s Case won a color correction award plus VFX supervision granted by Mexican production house Sofia Films. Benavidez’s Case also snagged opening credits design & a basic pay TV distribution deal for Latin America from Mexico’s Morbido Film Festival. Produced by Argentina’s Camargo Cine, Sebastian Perillo & Werner Cine, Terror 5 snagged concept graphic poster design service also from the Morbido Fest, plus a plaudit from Argentina’s Full Dimensional Award, consisting of a teaser post – pro work & 3D conversion plus 5 work days of 7.1 sound mixing, Foley & DCP conversion.

PALESTINIAN GAY FILM FESTIVAL BREAkS BARRIERS

It was an LGBT themed film festival held outside the borders of Palestine, featuring a number of works by directors who were neither gay nor Palestinian. But the 1st ever Kooz Queer festival which had a modest bow earlier this month in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, made little ripples of history in its own right. The tiny 3 day festival, established by grassroots org Aswat – Palestinian Gay Women and held across a handful of Haifa coffee shops & art venues, opened up a dialogue about the overlaps of occupation & sexuality; and of the borders of individual identity in the context of an uncertain international existence. The goal of the festival was to provide platform for home grown, gay themed films at a time when most LGBT Palestinians still feel a need to stay closeted.

IMAX T0 SURPASS CGV ADDS 25 SCREENS

South Korea’s CJ – CGV has ordered an additional 25 IMAX giant screens which it will locate in its rapidly expanding Chinese theater circuit. The deal, announced to coincide with the CineAsia exhibitors & distributors convention in Hong Kong, lifts IMAX to over 500 theatre signings in Greater China. It also takes IMAX’s network total in the Asia region to 520 theatres, with 275 open & 245 contracted to open. The deal brings CJ CGV’s IMAX commitment to 122 theaters, with 2 in Vietnam, 20 in South Korea & 100 in China. The company is IMAX’s 2nd largest exhibitor partner in Asia and its 3rd largest globally. The theatres will be installed in new construction projects, most of which are located in 1st or 2nd tier cities in China.