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Exclusive: Brazilian director José Eduardo Belmonte and actor Rodrigo Lombardi are re-teaming for Em Suas Mãos (In Your Hands). The New York-set indie movie follows two Brazilian immigrants living in New York who are hellbent on revenge after a family member is killed and the perpetrator goes unpunished

Belmonte and Lombardi previously worked together on award-winning Brazilian drama Carcereiros (Jailers). The Globo series scooped the Grand Jury Award at the MIPDrama event in Cannes back in 2017.

Belmonte unpacked the backstory to his new project. “In 2018, we were living through an explosion of hatred and division, which greatly intrigued me,” he told Deadline.

“During the pandemic, I reached out to screenwriter and adjunct professor at Columbia, Fábio Andrade, and together we developed a story about revenge. Fábio brought a lot of his experience as a Brazilian in New York.”

Em Suas Mãos will be shot mostly in English, with some scenes in Portuguese or Spanish.

Halle Bailey, who played Ariel in The Little Mermaid and Young Nettie in The Color Purple, has joined the cast of the upcoming, as-yet-untitled collaboration between Pharrell Williams and filmmaker Michel Gondry.

The cast currently includes Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, according to Variety. The musical will take place in Virginia Beach, a setting meant to evoke the Atlantis Apartments, the neighborhood where Williams grew up, in the summer of 1977.

Gondry, who directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, will helm the production. The screenwriters are Martin Hynes...

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big new singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, Cardi B gets “better and better-er” in a self-assured single and appears alongside Sza on a sugary new Flo Milli remix, Kacey Musgraves has an existential crisis, and Becky G delivers an energetic dance jam. Plus, new tracks from Gunna, Zayn, and J-Lo.

Cardi B, “Enough [Miami]” (YouTube)

Kacey Musgraves, “The Architect” (YouTube)

Flo Milli feat. Sza and Cardi B, “Never Lose Me (Remix)” (YouTube)

Gunna feat.

Halle Bailey is back with her second solo single, the swelling, sentimental “In Your Hands,” which she accompanied with a music video that features her months-old son Halo.

“In Your Hands” comes over seven months after Halle released her debut solo single “Angel” last August, and follows her starring role in last year’s Little Mermaid live action adaptation, and her supporting role as Nettie Harris in Last November’s The Color Purple.

Prior to the song’s release, Halle spoke about the song on Instagram on Thursday, saying it...

Halle Bailey just dropped her brand new song “In Your Hands,” along with the accompanying music video!

The 23-year-old entertainer’s latest solo single comes seven months after her debut “Angel.”

At the end of the new “In Your Hands” music video, Halle is joined by a special guest – her three month old son Halo!

Check out the video and more inside…

While it may seem this is Halo‘s music video debut, it’s actually not. The week before, Halle‘s boyfriend and Halo‘s father Ddg dropped his “Shoot Up Your Block” music video, where the newborn was featured throughout.

Check out both music videos below…

Earlier this week, Halle stepped out for the Vanity Fair Oscars Party alongside several other pop stars!

The week before, Halle opened up about keeping her pregnancy a secret while accepting an award at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards.

Danish director Gustav Moller’s claustrophobic last feature, The Guilty, starred Jakob Cedergren as a police officer working the dispatch line, fielding calls from a victim, a suspect and many others, all the while holding the screen on his own. The movie so impressed actor Jake Gyllenhaal that he produced and starred in an English-language remake, directed by Antoine Fuqua, that skillfully transitioned the location from Copenhagen to Los Angeles.

But it’s hard to imagine that anyone could take the plot of Moller’s latest, Sons (Vogter), and relocate it easily to an American setting given the particulars. That’s because in Moller’s tense thriller, the drama revolves around a female correctional officer, Eva (Sidse Babett Knudsen), who works in an all-male prison, even on the maximum-security wing — a situation that’s not uncommon in liberal Denmark, but would be extremely rare in the U.S. Indeed, non-Scandinavian...

Line-up includes ’Meet The Leroys’ starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and José Garcia.

Newen Connect has added a trio of star-powered French comedies – Meet The Leroys, Here & There and Karaoké – to its slate and the TF1-owned company will kick off sales for the new films at AFM.

Meet The Leroys is written and directed by International Emmy-nominated Florent Bernard (Le Flambeau) and stars Charlotte Gainsbourg and José Garcia in a story of a man facing divorce who attempts to rekindle his wife’s affections by taking her and their teenage children on a road trip down memory lane.

The film is...

Zarifa Ghafari was only 26 when she became the mayor of Maidan Shar, which made her the youngest mayor in Afghanistan history (and one of the only women to ever hold the position). About a year and a half into her tenure, the Taliban took control of the country with dire consequences for its citizens, women’s rights and Ghafari in particular.

Marcel Mettelsiefen and Tamana Ayazi capture the lead-up to these events in their documentary “In Her Hands,” which held its world premiere at the Toronto film festival. The director duo and Ghafari sat down at TheWrap and Shutterstock’s Interview and Portrait Studio at TIFF to talk about how the film came together and Ghafari’s journey.

Ayazi and Mettelsiefen first began working together in 2017, when the Taliban and the U.S. government entered into peace negotiations.

Also Read:

‘The Wonder’ Director Sebastián Lelio on the ‘Miraculous Lightness’ of Star...

“In Her Hands,” a Netflix documentary produced by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, has won the 18th Camden Intl. Film Festival’s audience award. While the in-person component of the Maine-based festival ended on Sept. 18, tallying audience award votes concluded today. Online screenings of the fest’s lineup are available until Sept. 25 to audiences across North America.

Filmed over a two year period, “In Her Hands” tells the story of Zarifa Ghafari, who at 26 became one of Afghanistan’s first female mayors and the youngest to ever hold the position. The film documents her fight for survival against the backdrop of her country’s accelerated unraveling as Western forces announce their retreat and the Taliban returns to power.

Directed by Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen (“Watani: My Homeland”), “In Her Hands” premiered at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival on Sept. 9. Ayazi, who is a native of Afghanistan, escaped in 2021 after the Taliban took over.

Los Angeles, Sep 14 (Ians) Oscar-winning documentarian Laura Poitras slammed the Venice and Toronto film festivals for “providing a platform” for the Clinton family to engage “in a kind of whitewashing.”

Her comments come as TIFF this week hosted the Canadian premiere of Poitras’s “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” a documentary about the artist and activist Nan Goldin, and just days after the film won Venice’s top prize, the Golden Lion, reports ‘Variety’.

It is the rare document to land slots at the superfecta of Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York, and Poitras said she thought “long and hard” about whether or not to voice criticism at the same venues feting her latest work. Nevertheless, she said, “journalists need to ask hard questions.”

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton have made appearances at both Venice and Toronto in support of both their forthcoming Apple documentary series Gutsy; and in support...

Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras sharply criticized the Toronto and Venice film festivals Tuesday for programming documentaries connected with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, suggesting the decision bordered on a “whitewashing” of history.

Her remarks came at the Toronto Film Festival’s Doc Conference, a day after Poitras’s new documentary, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, made its North American premiere in Toronto. The film about artist Nan Goldin and her crusade against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, won the Golden Lion at Venice.

Poitras attended Venice, as did Clinton, the latter in support of her Apple TV+ docuseries Gutsy. Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton then headed to TIFF, where they unveiled In Her Hands, a documentary executive produced by the Clintons that focuses on one of Afghanistan’s few female mayors.

“It’s alarming to see some of the most powerful people in the world,...

Documentarian Laura Poitras is calling out the Toronto International Film Festival and Venice Film Festival for providing a “platform” to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Oscar winner Poitras criticized the TIFF and Venice programmers for not asking “hard questions” as to the purpose of the former First Lady’s film endeavors. Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton attended both Venice and TIFF to launch AppleTV+ docuseries “Gutsy,” as well as support “In Her Hands,” directed by Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen and produced by the Clinton family.

“Hillary Clinton was actively involved in the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Poitras stated during TIFF’s Doc Conference (via Variety). “She supported the escalation of troops. And I really find it troubling that this is all being forgotten and we’re providing a platform.”

Poitras discussed the prosecution of Julian Assange, saying “there is nothing more serious that threatens the First Amendment,...

Click here to read the full article.

Hillary Clinton’s fall festival tour generated plenty of bemusement and column inches, and those appearances have now come under fire from Venice’s latest Golden Lion winner.

Speaking at the Toronto Film Festival, Laura Poitras — whose new doc, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, took home Venice’s top prize — said it was “alarming to see some of the most powerful people in the world, such as Hillary Clinton, walking the red carpet at Venice and at TIFF, and saying nothing about journalism,” a statement that prompted applause from the audience.

Poitras argued that Clinton was “engaging in a form of whitewashing,” accusing the former secretary of state — who was at TIFF to promote the upcoming Netflix doc In Her Hands, about one of Afghanistan’s first female mayors and the first doc from her own production company — of being actively involved...

Oscar-winning documentarian Laura Poitras slammed the Venice and Toronto film festivals for “providing a platform” for the Clinton family to engage “in a kind of whitewashing.”

Her comments come as TIFF this week hosted the Canadian premiere of Poitras’s “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” a documentary about the artist and activist Nan Goldin, and just days after the film won Venice’s top prize, the Golden Lion.

It is the rare doc to land slots at the superfecta of Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York, and Poitras said she thought “long and hard” about whether or not to voice criticism at the same venues feting her latest work. Nevertheless, she said, “journalists need to ask hard questions.”

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton have made appearances at both Venice and Toronto in support of both their forthcoming Apple documentary series Gutsy; and in support of Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen’s documentary “In Her Hands,...

If the goal of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival is to introduce a lot of the films that will be competing for awards for the next seven months, the jury is still out after the first four days of the 10-day fest.

If the goal is to welcome back audiences and give them a chance to celebrate crowd-pleasing cinema in the kind of communal environment that’s been missing for most of the last two years, the verdict is in and the goal has been achieved.

In the course of 24 hours on two blocks of downtown Toronto’s entertainment district on Friday, three packed houses — no social distancing and few masks — played host to, in chronological order:

• An opening-night midnight screening of “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” a ridiculous but uproarious and good-natured mock rock doc that christened the majestic Royal Alexandra Theatre as a new TIFF venue and brought together the biggest,...

Click here to read the full article.

Fifteen years after I first came to the Toronto International Film Festival and saw Juno, Michael Clayton, Eastern Promises, Into the Wild and The Savages, among other excellent films, I’m happy, as always, to be back at the best fest north of the border, and hopeful, as always, to match the high bar set by my first visit to it. Rather than rush to file separate write-ups of every noteworthy thing that I see and hear while on the ground here, at the cost of missing other noteworthy things, I’ve decided to file a dispatch every few days addressing a bunch of stuff. This initial piece covers the fest’s first three days.

* * *

After flying in on Wednesday morning (my seatmate on the flight from L.A. was none other than the NBA legend Dwayne Wade, who was accompanying his wife,...

Hillary Clinton is no stranger to film festivals. In 2020, the former Secretary of State traveled to Sundance and Berlin to promote the Hulu docuseries about her career. However, this year Clinton arrived at the Toronto International Film Festival with her daughter Chelsea in a very different capacity — as executive producers. The pair launched the new film and TV company HiddenLight Productions in 2021, but the fruits of those labors just emerged this week.

Friday saw the premiere of the documentary “In Her Hands,” a portrait of former Afghan female mayor Zarifa Ghafari, which the company produced with Netflix. The movie, co-directed by Afghan filmmaker Tamana Ayazi and Oscar nominee Marcel Mettelsiefen (“Watani: My Homeland”) screened the same day as the release of the unscripted AppleTV+ miniseries “Gutsy,” which features the two Clintons in conversation with other famous women. The connection between those two projects hints at the overall focus of BrightLights...

Asking things of films is a losing proposition. How do you ask, require, or demand something of art? And yet that’s what we’re left with after watching Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen’s “In Her Hands,” Viewers will either do their own research (even a Wikipedia page provides more context) or be so turned off they’ll never seek out more information about a fascinating subject. That’s a damning note for this Hillary and Chelsea Clinton-produced Netflix documentary.

Ostensibly a film about Afghanistan’s youngest — for now, and certainly for the foreseeable future — female mayor, “In Her Hands” follows Zarifa Ghafari during the countdown to, and then just after, the fall of Kabul back into the hands of the Taliban. Opening in August 2021, the film plunges us into the tension and fear of the time, with the United States readying to pull out of the country...

Click here to read the full article.

It’s been a year since the United States withdrew its remaining troops from Afghanistan, leaving the Taliban to seize the country’s major cities, including its capital, Kabul. The takeover was a stunning, if unsurprising, turn of events. For 20 years, Western powers deployed soldiers, sank billions of dollars and made untenable promises to citizens of this terrorized South Asian country. Few people — including the officials orchestrating the conflict — can articulate the purpose of this invisible war, but no one can deny its devastating toll.

Zarifa Ghafari, the subject of Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen’s ambitious and slippery documentary In Her Hands, desperately wants the broader world to understand the consequences of war, especially on Afghan women. At the start of the film, which takes place 19 months before the Taliban’s takeover, she was the youngest woman mayor in the country. (Some...

Click here to read the full article.

Oscar hopefuls have been omnipresent at the Toronto International Film Festival for more than 40 years. Chariots of Fire (1981), American Beauty (1999) and Green Book (2018) all had their world premieres at TIFF and went on to win best picture, as did numerous other films which passed through the fest early in their runs. Indeed, of the last 10 best picture winners, only two, 2014’s Birdman and 2021’s Coda, did not screen at the highest-profile fest north of the border, and of the eight that did, three, 2013’s 12 Years a Slave, Green Book and 2020’s Nomadland, were first honored with TIFF’s People’s Choice Award.

This year’s 47th edition of TIFF is as packed with Oscar hopefuls as any. The highest-profile world premieres include Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans (Universal), which marks the master’s first trip to the fest; two Netflix titles,...

Hillary Clinton and Universal’s Donna Langley praised U.S. director, producer and social justice activist Ava DuVernay for being “a path breaker, a change maker, a historical filmmaker,” as Clinton put it, during the 13th Dvf Awards. The gala was held Thursday on the sidelines of the Venice Film Festival by fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg to honor extraordinary women.

“Her visionary works about Black histories and experiences are more relevant today than ever,” Clinton said of DuVernay, who is among this year’s Dvf honorees. She went on to further praise DuVernay for “opening doors not just for herself, but for so many others.”

The Venice gala — held in the 14th century Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista monumental complex featuring frescoes, an inlaid marble floor and gigantic baroque paintings — was attended by Iac Chairman Barry Diller, who is Von Furstenberg’s husband, CAA co-chairman Bryan Lourd and Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,...

Click here to read the full article.

Venice Film Festival watchers and political obsessives got a treat Wednesday night, when former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton was spotted at the opening night gala for the 79th edition of the festival.

Clinton walked the Venice red carpet and took in the opening night festivities, including the world premiere of Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, which kicked off the 2022 festival.

But just why was Clinton there? There was speculation of a Netflix connection. The streamer produced Baumbach’s new film and is backing In Her Hands, the first documentary from Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s new production company HiddenLight Productions. The doc, from Tamana Ayazi (Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)) and Marcel Mettelsiefen (Watani: My Homeland) will have its world premiere at the Toronto...

Netflix has announced its full fall movie slate, including release dates for a number of films that will be opening in select theaters before they’re on the streaming service.

That includes Oscar-winning “Birdman” and “The Revenant” director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s new film “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.” Described as an “epic, visually stunning and immersive experience” the film stars Daniel Giménez Cacho as a renowned Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles, who, after being named the recipient of a prestigious international award, is compelled to return to his native country, unaware that this simple trip will push him to an existential limit.

Highly anticipated titles like “Blonde,” starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, and Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise” are coming to the streaming service as they make their way around the festival circuit. Just as long-awaited are sequels “Enola Holmes 2...

Netflix doesn’t play favorites. From Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Bardo” to “Christmas With You,” today it released more dates for its fall movie slate. And somehow, the streamer reviled by exhibitors has become their single largest supplier of theatrical releases.

A total of 22 Netflix titles will receive a theatrical release this fall. Granted, many of these releases may be closer to the Oscar-qualifying metric of one theater for one week in one of six metro areas — but between “Bardo,” “White Noise,” and whatever happens with “Glass Onion,” Netflix appears to be in full test-run mode for expanding the Netflix theatrical footprint.

There are ambitious theatrical windows for Noah Baumbach’s Don DeLillo adaptation “White Noise” (35 days) and Iñárritu’s Mexico-shot poetic comedy “Bardo,” which has 42 days between its premiere in U.S. theaters November 4 and Netflix release December 16; it first premieres in Mexico theaters October 27. All represent prime scheduling for awards consideration,...

Is Hillary Rodham Clinton making the fall film festival rounds?

The former U.S. secretary of state will be attending the Dvf Awards charity gala being held on the sidelines of the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 1 by fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg to honor extraordinary women.

Clinton will be flying into Venice prior to her previously announced appearance as a guest speaker at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Diane von Furstenberg and The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation founded the Dvf Awards more than a decade ago. They are being held in Venice for the first time after taking place in Paris last year. This year’s Dvf honorees include groundbreaking U.S. director, producer and social justice activist Ava DuVernay; European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde; Ukrainian educator Zoya Lytvyn; climate activist Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim and 10 outstanding women from Afghanistan “who are working to ensure a safe and sustainable...

Hilary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton’s HiddenLight Productions is co-producing a new feature documentary with the team behind Sundance 2019 title “Gaza.”

“In the Shadow of Beirut” is a cinematic portrait of modern-day Lebanon as seen through the eyes of four families living in the impoverished Sabra and Shatila neighbourhoods of the city, the scene of an infamous massacre in 1982.

The film will be executive produced by Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Siobhan Sinnerton for HiddenLight.

The doc is filmed over four years with unique access to the families within these largely restricted areas and co-directed by Stephen Gerard Kelly, in his debut, and Garry Keane. Kelly built up his relationship with the families over a six-year period.

The film follows its protagonists through the pandemic and the deteriorating economic crisis engulfing the country. However, the struggles of the film’s central protagonists began long before the deadly 2020 port explosion that rocked Beirut.

The Toronto International Film Festival returns in September 2022 for its 47th edition — 11 days of international and Canadian cinema, special events featuring some of the biggest names in film, and TIFF’s Industry Conference, offering diverse and innovative perspectives on the art and business of film. The full programme can be found Here.

Here is a selection of Asian titles:

Features A Gaza Weekend

A Gaza Weekend

Basil Khalil ­- Palestine, United Kingdom, 2022

A Long Break

Davit Pirtskhalava – Georgia, 2022

A Man of Reason

Jung Woo-sung – South Korea, 2022

Alam

Firas Khoury – France, Tunisia, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, 2022

Autobiography

Makbul Mubarak – Indonesia, France, Singapore, Poland, Philippines, Germany, Qatar, 2022

Beyond the Wall

Beyond the Wall

Shab, Dkheli, Divar – Iran, 2022

Broker

Hirokazu Kore-eda – South Korea, 2022

Decision to Leave

Park Chan-wook – South Korea, 2022

Hunt

Lee Jung-jae – South Korea, 2022

In Her Hands

Tamana Ayazi, Marcel Mettelsiefen – United States of America, Afghanistan, 2022

Joyland

Joyland

Saim Sadiq – Pakistan, 2022

Kacchey Limbu

Shubham Yogi – India,...

The 18th edition of the Camden Intl. Film Festival, kicking off Sept. 15, will feature a handful of award-contending documentaries fresh off showings at Telluride and the Toronto film festivals. The Maine-based festival will unfold in a hybrid format, with both in-person events over a three-day period concluding Sept. 18, and online screenings available from Sept. 15 to Sept. 25 to audiences across North America.

This year’s Ciff highlights include the U.S. premiere of Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen’s Netflix release “In Her Hands,” which follows one of Afghanistan’s first female mayors during the months leading up to the Taliban takeover the country in 2021; Chris Smith’s “Sr.,” centered on the life and career of Robert Downey Sr. and his relationship to his son, Robert Downey Jr.; and Steve James’ “A Compassionate Spy,” about Manhattan Project physicist, Soviet spy and University of Chicago alum Theodore Hall. Each of the three...

Netflix has announced that its documentary In Her Hands, from renowned directors Tamana Ayazi (Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)) and Marcel Mettelsiefen (Watani: My Homeland) will launch globally on the streamer and in select theaters on November 16, following the film’s September 9th world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

Filmed across two turbulent years, the doc from EPs Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton tells the story of Zarifa Ghafari, who at 26 became one of Afghanistan’s first female mayors and the youngest to ever hold the position. The film documents her fight for survival against the backdrop of her country’s accelerated unraveling. As Western forces announce their retreat and the Taliban start their sweep back to power, Zarifa and women across the country face a new reality. Amid these tectonic changes, Zarifa must make the most difficult decision of her life.

Click here to read the full article.

Netflix has set a date for In Her Hands, the first documentary from Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s new production company HiddenLight Productions.

The documentary, from Tamana Ayazi (Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)) and Marcel Mettelsiefen (Watani: My Homeland) will go out globally on the streaming giant and in select theaters on Nov. 16.

In Her Hands will have its worldwide premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9.

In Her Hands tells the story of Zarifa Ghafari, who at 26 became one of Afghanistan’s first female mayors and the youngest to ever hold the position. Filmed over two turbulent years, the film documents her personal battle for survival as her country unravels amid the rapid withdrawal of Western forces and the Taliban’s return to power. Faced with this new reality, Zarifa must make the most difficult decision of her life.

TIFF just announced a whole lot more movies for this year’s festival.

On Wednesday, the festival shared the slate of documentaries that will be screened in September, including the world premiere of the documentary “In Her Hands”, executive produced by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.

Read More: TIFF To Honour ‘Empire Of Light’ Director Sam Mendes With Ebert Director Award

The film is directed by Tamana Ayazi and Oscar nominee Marcel Mettelsiefen, and is about Afghan politician Zarifa Ghafari, who became the youngest woman to serve as mayor of an Afghan city at age 26.

“This was filmed last year,” TIFF’s chief documentary programmer Thom Powers told Deadline. “Monday was the [first] anniversary of the Taliban’s retaking of Afghanistan. And that is the backdrop for this film.”

The film, which was produced through the Clintons’ banner Hidden Light, is one of two projects premiering at the festival involving the former...

The Toronto Intl. Film Festival’s Docs program gets underway Sept. 8 and will feature 22 nonfiction films — a hefty 57 increase from last year’s lineup, which was cut back to 14 due to Covid.

Notable titles include Oscar winner Laura Poitras’ “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” which is pictured above and making its Canadian premiere following a world premiere at the Venice Film Festival; “Blackfish” director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s latest docu “The Grab” and veteran filmmaker’s Werner Herzog’s “Theatre of Thought.”

Sacha Jenkins’s “Armstrong’s Black & Blues” will serve as TIFF Docs’ opening film.

Thom Powers, lead TIFF documentary programmer, winnowed the list of 22 from 700 submissions. While constructing this year’s program, Powers noticed various themes emerge across submissions, one being being the act of resistance.

“Cowperthwaite’s “The Grab,” which she has been making for seven years under a lot of secrecy, follows journalist Nathan Halverson as...

The Toronto International Film Festival, running September 8 through 16, has announced its Docs lineup spanning 22 feature films. Opening the program is the Apple Original Films documentary “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” from director Sacha Jenkins, followed by a lineup featuring new films from the likes of Patricio Guzmán and Werner Herzog. IndieWire spoke with TIFF documentary programmer Thom Powers about highlights from the programming.

It wouldn’t be a true documentary season without a new entry from the quixotic mind of Herzog. The distinctive Bavarian director, who turns 80 a week ahead of this year’s TIFF, will visit the festival to screen “Theatre of Thought,” a study of the human brain that goes beyond the traditional boundaries of neurological inquiry.

“It’s a real science-meets-poetry kind of exploration,” Powers said. “He’s exploring the landscape inside our skulls. He also asks if fish have souls and how a tightrope walker conquers fear.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton now have double the reason to head to the Toronto International Film Festival next month. TIFF unveiled its documentary lineup today, which includes the world premiere of In Her Hands, a film executive produced by the Clintons through their banner Hidden Light.

The fest also unveiled its Contemporary World Cinema slate; see the full lineups below.

Hillary and Chelsea were previously announced as attending the festival in support of Gutsy, their upcoming Apple TV+ documentary series that “features intimate conversations with trailblazing women including Kim Kardashian, Meghan Thee Stallion, Jane Goodall, Gloria Steinem, Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson and many more.”

In Her Hands, directed by Tamana Ayazi and Oscar nominee Marcel Mettelsiefen, focuses on another gutsy woman—Afghan politician Zarifa Ghafari—who became, at the age of 26, the youngest woman to serve as a mayor of an Afghan city.

New films from Werner Herzog, Laura Poitras, Cristian Mungiu and Jerzy Skolimowski have been added to the lineup of the 2022 Toronto International film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Wednesday.

The new films are in the TIFF Docs and Contemporary World Cinema sections and together will make up almost 75 additions to the lineup of the festival, which will run from Sept. 8-18.

The TIFF Docs section will open with the world premiere of Sacha Jenkins’ “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues.” Other films in the section include Herzog’s “Theatre of Thought,” which examines new research into the brain; Poitras’ “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” about artist Nan Goldin and her campaign to get museums to reject the patronage of the Purdue Pharma-owning Sackler family; and “In Her Hands,” Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen’s film about Zarifa Ghafari, the youngest woman mayor in Afghanistan as the Taliban returned to power in that country.

Click here to read the full article.

The Toronto Film Festival has announced new titles for its TIFF Docs and Contemporary World Cinema sections.

The TIFF Docs section will open with the previously announced Sacha Jenkins’ Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues, and there’s a North American premiere for Laura Poitras’ opioid epidemic doc All the Beauty and the Bloodshed from Participant.

The festival will also feature newly-added world bows for Cine-Guerrilas: Scenes from the Labudovic Reels, by director Mila Rurajlic; Documentary Now!, by Alex Buono, Rhys Thomas and Micah Gardner; Sam Soko and Lauren DeFilippo’s Free Money, about a Kenyan village being given a universal basic income by an American organization; The Grab, from Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite; and Stephanie Johnes’ Maya and the Wave.

Other documentary first looks headed to Toronto include Mark Fletcher’s Patrick and the Whale; Sinead O’Shea’s Pray for our Sinners; Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot,...

Includes new work from Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Werner Herzog and Klaus Hӓrӧ.

New work from Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Werner Herzog and Klaus Hӓrӧ are among TIFF Docs and Contemporary World Cinema line-ups announced on Wednesday (August 17).

In TIFF Docs, Cowperthwaite’s The Grab exposes the systematic acquisition of food and water resources by international governments and private companies. Herzog returns to the fray with Theatre Of Thought, in which he explores the cutting edge of brain research.

The selection includes Mark Fletcher’s nature documentary Patrick And The Whale (pictured) and opens with Sacha Jenkins’ Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues.

The director has just wrapped filming on his new work, a Soyouz Films production sold by Elle Driver and starring Najaa Bensaid, Pio Marmaï and Agnès Jaoui. 7 August saw shooting wrap on Compagnons, the 4th feature film by François Favrat following on from The Role of a Lifetime (which earned a Best Actress nomination at the 2005 Césars), Bitter Victory (2009) and Boomerang (2015). Stealing focus at the head of the cast are Najaa Bensaid (discovered in Being 14) and Pio Marmaï, without forgetting Agnès Jaoui. Written by the director and Johanne Bernard (In Your Hands), the story centres around 19-year-old Naëlle who harbours a passion for street art, but who finds herself forced to...

Series of 36 films kicks off today with Danish Film/Women Directors.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is partnering with Danish Film Institute on a year-long celebration of Danish cinema to run as a bimonthly curated series of films on recently launched Alamo On Demand VOD.

The series comprises six bundles of six films and kicks off today (June 25) with a Danish Film/Women Directors selection, with the support of the ministry of culture and the Danish ministry of foreign affairs.

Danish Films/Women Directors features six films: Frederikke Aspöck’ prison comedy Out Of Tune; Pernille Fischer Christensen’s friendship drama A Soap...

The Quirino Awards, a prize ceremony and industry forum for animation titles from Latin America, Spain and Portugal, will hold its third edition online with the support of Retina Latina and Filmin platforms. Event runs May 25 through June 27, when the awards ceremony takes place.

Unspooling during its first two editions on Tenerife, a Canary Island and building animation hub, the Awards were scheduled to take place on site over April 16-18 and but postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Works accessible online will include nominees for best student short film and film school winners from the previous editions, “one of the categories that best represents the future of Ibero-American animation,” said Quirino Awards promoter José Luis Farias.

“Ibero-American animation is right now at a kind of hatching stage. It’s a privilege to know that the Quirino Awards are an active part of that ecosystem,” he added. “The animation industry...

It is also putting three planned theatrical releases on hold until later in 2020.

UK distributor Parkland Entertainment has revealed plans to release a raft of new titles onto digital platforms early, including three new acquisitions, as cinemas remain closed nationwide due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Astronaut, starring Richard Dreyfuss, was set to be released on 65 screens on March 20 – three days before theatres shut their doors – but will now be available to rent and own from digital platforms on April 27.

Documentary Camino Skies will be released as a premium VOD title on Curzon Home Cinema from May 8, the original theatrical release date,...

Barcelona — “Klaus,” “Tainá and the Amazon’s Guardians” and “Uncle Thomas Accounting for the Days” are among the finalists at the 3rd Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards, to be held in the Spanish Canary Islands city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on April 18.

Produced by Spain’s Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine for Netflix, “Klaus” delivers a singular Santa Claus origin story written by first-timer director Sergio Pablos, as well as Zach Lewis and Jim Mahoney. Carlos Martínez López co-directs this high-profile title, the first 2D movie by a major U.S. studio in many years, which snagged an Academy Award nomination and prizes at the Bafta and and Annie Awards.

Brazilian CG-animated hit “Tainá and the Amazon’s Guardians” is lead-produced by Marcela Baptista at Sincrocine in co-production with Hype Animation and Nickelodeon and directed by Andrè Forni (“Dino Aventuras”). A spin-off from a feature film trilogy, the ecology-themed 52-part...

‘Relic’

While some distributors are cutting back, Umbrella Entertainment plans to release approximately 18 titles in cinemas this year, up from 14 in 2019.

The distributor has high hopes for its Australian acquisitions which run the gamut of genres from drama, horror and Western to sci-fi.

“We’re passionate about overcoming the cultural cringe that Australian audiences still have a tendency to display and are dedicated to fostering new Australian talent,” Umbrella head of acquisitions Ari Harrison tells If.

“As a small, close-knit team, we aim to concentrate our efforts on films that we love and can support from the ground up. We want to work hand-in-hand with the filmmakers with the goal of getting their film ‘out there’ so that it finds its audience.

“Essentially we aim to ensure that the films we acquire have the capacity for national theatrical success in Australia and New Zealand, with potential for continued growth via their ancillary platforms.

Director May el-Toukhy tackles a subject that has not yet been explored and is frightening in the possibilities it reveals to us as women assume positions of power and authority. The troublesome specter of exploitive female sexuality is also elaborated upon in the Dutch Oscar submission, ‘Instinct’.

Two highly developed Western European nations, Denmark and The Netherlands, take female sexuality to extremes here in ways we only saw before as men’s terrain with such films as Last Tango in Paris or In the Realm of the Senses.

My initial reaction to both films was a sort of shame, as if somewhere deep inside of me, I understood the impulse that impelled both these women to venture into forbidden zones of action, but wished it had not depicted it so graphically. It would take a psychiatrist to explain the impulse in human nature that makes us enter dangerous sexual territories.

The eight-episode series will be directed by three-time Golden Bear nominee Annette K Olesen. HBO Europe has finally commissioned its first Danish Original. The project, entitled Kamikaze, is an eight-part series set to start filming in January 2020. The director attached to it is three-time Golden Bear nominee Annette K Olesen, best known for her features The Shooter (2013), Little Soldier (2008), In Your Hands (2004) and Minor Mishaps (2002). The drama, based on the 2007 novel Muleum by Erlend Loe, was adapted for television by Johanne Algren (Holiday). The story centres on Julie, who seems to have it all: beauty, youth and money. However, shortly after her 18th birthday, she receives a final message from her father. Seconds later, her parents and big brother are killed in a plane crash in Uganda, leaving her all alone, in a giant mansion. As the loss of her family sinks in, she...

Drama based on Erlend Loe’s Norwegian novel, ‘Muleum’.

HBO Europe has greenlit eight-part drama Kamikaze, marking its first Danish original series.

Based on Erlend Loe’s Norwegian novel, Muleum, the series will be produced by Ditte Milsted from Copenhagen-based Profile Pictures with a script by Johanne Algren, who wrote Sundance 2018 feature Holiday.

All episodes will be directed by Annette K Olesen, who has helmed episodes of Sandi-noir series Borgen and features including Minor Mishaps, In Your Hands and Little Soldier, all of which played in competition at Berlin.

The story centres on an 18-year-old girl who embarks on a...