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Italy’s True Colours has unveiled key sales across its slate, including deals for Toronto title U Are The Universe, Venice Horizons feature Familia and Locarno premiere Death Will Come.

Ukrainian director Pavlo Ostrikov’s sci-fi U Are The Universe, which played in Toronto’s Discovery section, has sold to France (The Jokers Films), German speaking territories (Pandastorm Pictures), Poland (Aurora Film), Brazil (Imovision) and Indonesia (Falcon Pictures).

Set after the explosion of Earth, the film follows a lonely Ukrainian astronaut who believes he is the only survivor – until he hears a French scientist on the radio, and decides to find her.

Nearly 10 years after its launch, Italian sales company True Colours is branching out from feature films into the TV content space under the new management of Elliot Gustin-Hollman, formerly with Paris-based distribution powerhouse Newen Connect.

The move into TV sales is being made by True Colours – which is co-owned by Italy’s Indigo Film and Lucky Red – after these companies increasingly ventured into scripted dramas over the past decade. And these Italian shows, made by indie producers, need to be sold outside of Italy with the proper dedication and curation.

“Ten years ago we saw the opportunity to start a film sales company and it paid off,” said Indigo Film partner Carlotta Calori, adding that True Colours has become a reliable international film distributor not just for them but for other Italian producers. And “over in time, even for producers outside Italy.”

“Now we are looking to do the same thing with TV shows,...

Federation Appointment

Federation Stories U.K. has appointed Beth Warin as the new head of development for the company. Warin will work alongside Polly Williams, managing director, and will be responsible for the company’s international drama production slate.

Warin joins from the BBC where she was drama commissioning executive, supporting commissioning editors Jo McClellan and Gaynor Holmes editorially across their slates including “Lockerbie” and “The Night Manager” Season 2.

Federation Stories’s recent credits includes “I, Jack Wright,” a British family drama series created by Chris Lang and starring John Simmy. The banner also has projects in development with broadcasters in the U.K., the US and Europe.

Created three years ago, Federations Stories is the U.K. office of European production studio Federation Studios. The U.K. outpost was set up by two former eOne executives Arielle Gottlieb and Williams. Gottlieb exited the company in February as part of a restructure.

Italy’s True Colours has unveiled a raft of sales on its slate including a US deal for Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer and a UK and Ireland acquisition of Edoardo de Angelis’ Venice opener Comandante.

Film Movement has taken North American rights to 1938-set romance drama The Beautiful Summer, which world premiered last year in the Piazza Grande at the Locarno Film Festival. The film has also sold to Scene and Sound for South Korea and Zeta Film for Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, adding to previously announced international deals last year.

Meanwhile, Bulldog Film Distribution has taken...

Italy’s True Colours has taken on international sales for German director Christoph Hochhäusler’s upcoming noir thriller Death Will Come (La Mort Viendra).

Currently in post-production, Death Will Come centres on a female assassin who is hired by a leading gangster to avenge the murder of one of his couriers – but soon finds herself the prey. The French-language film stars Franco-Belgian actress Sophie Verbeeck and veteran French actor Louis-Do de Lencquesaing.

Hochhausler’s previous film Till The End Of The Night premiered in competition at Berlin in 2023.

Death Will Come is a German-Luxembourg-Belgium co-production. The co-producers are leading German...

AC/DC’s Brian Johnson and Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler are teaming up for six part documentary series Johnson and Knopfler’s Music Legends on Sky Arts, here are the details.

AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson and Dire Straits guitarist, singer and songwriter Mark Knopfler each found huge success in their respective bands.

Now, they are teaming up for six part documentary Johnson And Knopfler’s Music Legends. Johnson produced a similar documentary, Life On The Road, in which he chatted with Knopfler, Robert Plant, Dolly Parton and Dave Grohl, among others.

The new series will follow the pair as they spend time with six influential figures from the Music industry. The description for each episode reads as follows:

Episode 1: Tom Jones

In the series opener, Brian & Mark meet icon, Sir Tom Jones. In conversation and song, they reminisce on their earliest musical influences and Sir Tom shares captivating stories from his career,...

Italian director Edoardo De Angelis’ anti-war epic “Comandante” – the opener of this year’s Venice Film Festival – has secured North American distribution via Uncork’d Entertainment, which will release the film theatrically in tandem with partner company Dark Star Pictures.

The movie stars Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino as Sicilian World War II naval captain Salvatore Todaro and depicts his act of wartime humanitarianism on Oct. 15, 1940. Todaro, as commander of the submarine Cappellini, sank a Belgian merchant ship called Kabalo that was carrying aircraft parts and operating under British rule. He then disobeyed orders from his own command to rescue the Kabalo’s 26 crew members, at great risk to his own life and the lives of his crew.

“We believe that the message of the movie is very powerful and contemporary,” said Uncork’d Entertinament’s president Keith Leopard in a statement, adding: “We are thrilled to launch it in North America...

Film starring Sami Bouajila and Julie Gayet started shooting this week in Northern France.

Snd, the film arm of French broadcaster M6, has teamed with prolific French production company Empreinte Cinema for Juan Carlos Medina’s upcoming race-against-the-clock cop thriller The Chase (Abime) starring Sami Bouajila and Julie Gayet.

Snd has international rights for the film and will kick off sales at AFM for the murder mystery meets action film. Snd and Empreinte produce with Paris-based Once Upon A Time on board as co-producer.

The Chase stars Bouajila as a police officer who failed to find the murderer of a young girl 11 years earlier.

Cast also includes Ellie Bamber, Jonah Hauer-King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham, Jonathan Pryce and Ben Kingsley.

Beta Cinema has boarded international sales on Nick Hamm’s English-language feature William Tell, based on the classic story of the crossbow warrior who shot an arrow through an apple on his son’s head and launched the struggle for Swiss independence.

Written and directed by Hamm, William Tell stars Claes Bang as Tell alongside Connor Swindells, Ellie Bamber, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonah Hauer-King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham as well as Jonathan Pryce and Ben Kingsley.

Beta Cinema and production companies Free Turn Films and...

Cast also includes Connor Swindells, Ellie Bamber, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonah Hauer-King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham, Jonathan Pryce and Ben Kingsley.

Beta Cinema has boarded international sales on Nick Hamm’s English-language feature William Tell, based on the classic story of the Swiss crossbow warrior.

Written and directed by Hamm, William Tell stars Claes Bang as Tell alongside Connor Swindells, Ellie Bamber, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonah Hauer-King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham as well as Oscar nominee Jonathan Pryce and Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley.

Beta Cinema and production companies Free Turn Films and Tempo Productions have also released a first look of...

Italian sales agent reports sales for summer festival slate.

Italy’s True Colours has unveiled sales on a string of its summer festival titles including Venice competition films Lubo and Comandante as well as Locarno world premiere The Beautiful Summer.

Edoardo de Angelis’s WWII drama Comandante, which opened Venice, has secured distribution in Japan with Aya Pro, in Spain with Alfa Pictures, in Portugal with Outsider Films, in former Yugoslavia with Stars Media, in Bulgaria with Beta Film and in Australia/New Zealand with Palace Films. Starring Pierfrancesco Favino, the co-production between Indigo Film, ‘O Groove and Trump Limited...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is adamant about his decision to place six Italian movies in this year’s 23-title festival lineup. “Nobody accused the French of chauvinism because they had seven French films in competition in Cannes this year,” Barbera quipped to a snarky Italian reporter when the Venice lineup was announced in July, though he did concede, “It’s true that in the past I have not done this.” Indeed, Barbera’s previous limit on Italian movies in competition for the Golden Lion was five titles last year, which some local critics considered a stretch.

More importantly, the Venice chief pointed out that he presently sees Cinema Italiano at a particularly favorable juncture largely thanks to the fact that Italians are making movies with bigger budgets, “which means greater quality and the ability to compete in international markets, and to travel beyond our borders,” he said.

Laetitia Casta will soon appear on the big screen as the former wife of an abusive southern Italian man whom she is accused of murdering in the thriller “A Dark Story,” directed by Italy’s Leonardo D’Agostini.

In “Dark Story” the French star, whose recent credits include “The Crusade” directed by her husband Louis Garrel, plays Carla (first look image above), the ex-wife of Vito Semeraro, a banker who beat her when they were together and is the father of her three children. She is accused of murdering him a few years after they split up.

Italian sales company True Colours is launching sales in Cannes on this psychological noir that marks the sophomore feature by D’Agostini whose 2019 debut drama “The Champion” – a soccer dramedy about a young male soccer star and a shy academic who becomes his tutor – sold widely via the same outfit. Andrea Carpenzano stars in “Dark Story” alongside Casta.

This year, Latvia is sharing a spotlight with neighboring Lithuania and Estonia at the European Film Market, which has dedicated its 2023 Country in Focus Spotlight to the Baltic nations. It’s a sign of the tremendous strides the country has taken to put itself on the world cinema map, with the screen industries both producing more films and TV series than ever before and luring increasingly ambitious international projects to Northeastern Europe.

Here’s a rundown of some of the top Latvian projects in the pipeline that their producers will be pitching in Berlin:

Blue Blood

Director: Juris Kursietis

Producers: White Picture, Stellar Film, Asterisk*

The follow-up to Kursietis’ Cannes Directors’ Fortnight player “Oleg” is the story of a successful couple whose comfortable life is turned upside-down when the husband is implicated in a massive corruption scandal.

Sales: N/A

Soviet Milk

Director: Ināra Kolmane

Producers: Jānis Juhņēvičs, Marta Romanova-Jēkabsone...

The queer love story is a Norway-Poland co-production.

Rome-based True Colours has taken international sales rights to Norwegian-Polish director Leiv Igor Devold’s fiction feature debut Norwegian Dream, the winner of the Screen International Best Pitch Award at this year’s Polish Days in Wroclaw. The film is now in post-production and True Colours will start talking to buyers at the upcoming Ventana Sur in Buenos Aires.

Norwegian Dream is about a 19-year-old Polish immigrant working in a fish factory in Norway to pay off his mother’s debts. He begins to develop feelings for a colleague who is very...

The queer love story is a Norway-Poland co-production.

Rome-based True Colours has taken international sales rights to Norwegian-Polish director Leiv Igor Devold’s fiction feature debut Norwegian Dream, the winner of the Screen International Best Pitch Award at this year’s Polish Days in Wroclaw. The film is now in post-production.

Norwegian Dream is about a 19-year-old Polish immigrant working in a fish factory in Norway to pay off his mother’s debts. He begins to develop feelings for a colleague who is very confident in his own sexuality in a way he is not.

First footage from the film...

The romantic drama is Ozeptek’s first film since 2019’s ‘The Fortune Goddess’.

Italian director Ferzan Ozpetek has started shooting the romantic drama Nuovo Olimpo in Rome today for Netflix. Damiano Gavino and Andrea Di Luigi star with Luisa Ranieri, Greta Scarano, Aurora Giovinazzo, Alvise Rigo, and Giancarlo Commare.

Ozeptek has written the script with regularr collaborator Gianni Romoli who is also producing the film with Tilde Corsi for R&c Productions and Faros Film.

Nuovo Olimpo follows the lives of two young men who meet and fell in love in the 1970s as idealistic, young 25 year-olds . After a twist of events separates them,...

Connecting Cottbus took place November 9-11.

Polish writer-director Sonja Orlewicz-Zakrzewska’s debut feature Dolphin was voted as the best pitch at the 24th edition of the East-West Co-Production Market Connecting Cottbus, which took place during FilmFestival Cottbus.

Orlewicz-Zakrzewska and her producer Magdalena Sztorc of Warsaw-based Before My Eyes also received the Croatian Audiovisual Centre’s Project Development Award of € 5,000 toward the project’s further development.

The project, described as “an intimate dramedy with a surreal touch”, sees a singer’s boyfriend coming back from holiday with a dolphin growing inside his belly. Orlewicz-Zakrzewska said that “using the role reversal...

For its 75th edition, Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival, long known as a global indie cinema temple, is looking to the future while repositioning itself as a forward-thinking hub for a wider range of movies, including studio and streamer titles, with broad audience appeal.

“We believe that entertainment can be both serious and fun: I don’t see an opposing scenario where entertainment is only cheap, and seriousness is only extremely highbrow,” says the fest’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.

Now on his second edition at the fest’s helm, the Italian critic is putting his stamp on Locarno with a lineup that, along with straightforward auteur movies of various kinds, increasingly includes comedies and genre films. The fest’s eclectic nature is illustrated by t he choice of the opener, Sony ’s frothy action thriller “Bullet Train,” directed by David Leitch, which Aaron Taylor-Johnson will be tubthumping on Aug.

Italy’s True Colours has sold Mario Martone’s Naples-set Cannes competition drama “Nostalgia” to Curzon Film for the U.K. and Ireland, among other new territories.

The deal, negotiated by True Colours sales manager Francesca Tiberi and Curzon acquisitions executive Eleonora Pesci, marks the first partnership between the companies.

At the Italian Screenings market event recently held in Lecce, Southern Italy, the Rome-based sales company also sealed fresh deals on several other films, including pre-sales on upcoming Locarno title “Delta,” which is a revenge drama with a contemporary Western vibe.

Martone’s “Nostalgia,” which has been praised by Variety critic Guy Lodge as the prolific Italian auteur’s “most rewarding film in years,” stars Pierfrancesco Favino as the middle-aged Felice Lasco, who returns to the bustling port city after having lived in Egypt for 40 years. Once back, he is caught up in memories of a distant life spent in his hometown,...