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Artem Vasilyev, the Russian producer and CEO of Metrafilms and its animation arm Studio Metrafilms, has launched the new label Lazy Sunday, based in Ireland and dedicated to developing and producing both animation and live-action projects for international audiences.

The new outfit will serve as a bridge linking Western Europe with Eastern Europe, Vasilyev hopes, while also connecting with his current base of operations in Moldova.

“I strongly believe that the Eastern European region is extremely rich in world-class talent and exciting stories that are yet to be told,” he said. “Eastern European talent can bring a lot to the international film industry table, and Lazy Sunday is a company that can bridge East and West thanks to our experience, history and where we are today. This is truly an exciting position to be in.”

Lazy Sunday, which will have an office in Dublin, is actually the rebranded Irish arm of Film and Music Entertainment,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Bertrand Mandico's After Blue (Paradis sale).The lineup for the 2021 Locarno International Film Festival includes Piazza Grande screenings of Michael Mann's Heat and Gaspar Noé's Vortex, and the latest by by Bertrand Mandico, Axelle Ropert, Abel Ferrara, Salomé Lamas and more.The great filmmaker and actor Robert Downey Sr. has passed on at age 85. His incredible filmography includes Babo 73 (1964), Sweet Smell of Sex (1965), Chafed Elbows (1966), No More Excuses (1968), Putney Swope (1969), Pound (1970), and Greaser's Palace (1972).In an interview on the Armchair Expert podcast, Quentin Tarantino announced that he has purchased Los Angeles' Vista Theatre, emphasizing that though the theatre will screen both new and old movies, it will be "only film [...] the best prints." Screenwriter and filmmaker Clare Peploe has died. Though best known for her screenplays for Bernardo Bertolucci's Besieged and La Luna,...

Riding polo ponies across breathtaking fields, indulging in glamorous champagne parties with handsome Argentine players and spending months traveling the world sounds like the stuff of romantic fiction. Well, now it is. The Polo Season is a new series of steamy beach novels presented by six-goal player Ignatio "Nacho" Figueras, kicking off with the first book, to be followed by Wild One (June 28) and Ride Free (July 26). "Nacho and I worked together to give the writer all of the necessary details to make the polo world more real to American readers," Delfina Blaquier, Nacho's wife of 18 years and the daughter of an Argentine polo player,...

It's often said that polo is a rich person's sport. However, it also provides rich pickings for charities supported by Princes William and Harry. Their office announced on Friday that through playing polo, the two brothers have raised the princely sum of $13.9 million since 2007, including $1.17 million last year. This year they expect to raise a similar amount. And, with the British High Season in full swing, the royals are already off to a good start. This weekend they will take part in the annual Audi Polo Challenge at Coworth Park - near Windsor, England - which will raise money four of their charities.

Nacho Figueras has your next summer beach read - champagne, glamour and riding crops included. The renowned polo player and Ralph Lauren model is launching Polo Season, a trilogy of steamy novels that kicks off with High Season on May 31. A close friend of Prince Harry's, Figueras, 39, will spend some of the summer playing polo in California and the Hamptons, New York, before returning to his home in Argentina for fall. Here are five things you need to know about the scorching star: 1. He has been on horseback since age 1As captain and co-owner of Argentina's Black Watch team,...