News

Argentine-born Brazil-based director Hector Babenco wasted little time making his mark on the world of cinema. In just his first handful of films he was recognized by the likes of the Cannes Film Festival and Academy Awards, and was an instant crossover hit upon his arrival in Hollywood.

Below, Variety revisits the director’s body of work.

1973 – “O Fabuloso Fittipaidi” Babenco’s feature debut, this documentary covers the life and career of Brazilian formula one racing driver Emerson Fittipaldi from the beginning of his driving career through to the height of his success and international popularity.

1975 – “King of the Night” A Brazilian man recalls his life story in this, Babenco’s fiction debut. A now old Tertuliano recalls the love stories of his youth including with a sickly girl who moved half a world away, a prostitute and the three daughters of his mother’s friend.

1977 – “Lúcio Flávio” Babenco’s...

Writer-producer reveals further details of upcoming features and drama series.

Paula Vaccaro, producer of Venice award-winner On The Milky Road and documentary Uncle Howard, has revealed further details of her upcoming projects.

The founder of production outfit Pinball London, who will curate several of this year’s Sarajevo CineLink Talks for Documentary Campus, will be in Venice next month to unveil drama feature Listen.

The film, which will play in the Orizzonti strand, marks the debut of Portuguese director Ana Rocha and was also scripted by Vaccaro with partner Aaron Brookner and Rocha.

Sold by Magnolia Pictures International, Vaccaro and...

Actors Ram Kapoor, Shahana Goswami and Vivek Gomber have joined the star cast of filmmaker Mira Nair's upcoming "A Suitable Boy".

They have joined the previous-announced cast members -- Tabu, Ishaan Khatter, newcomer Tanya Maniktala, Rasika Dugal, Namit Das, Gagan Dev Riar, Danesh Razvi, Mikhail Sen and Mahira Kakkar.

Also Read:?Tabu, Ishaan Khatter join Mira Nair's 'A Suitable Boy'

A Lookout Point production for BBC One, "A Suitable Boy" will be the first screen adaptation of Vikram Seth's international bestseller of the same name. It has been penned by screenwriter Andrew Davies.

The six-part adaptation is being directed by Nair and filming has already started at locations across India including Lucknow.

"A Suitable Boy" tells the story of spirited university student Lata (Tanya) in 1951 at the same time as the country is carving out its own identity as an independent nation and is about to...

In the new horror film “Don’t Knock Twice,” there’s a disturbing urban legend involving a child-stealing witch living in an abandoned house. “Knock once to wake her from her bed, twice to raise her from the dead…” goes the rhyme, but when troubled teen Chloe (Lucy Boynton) raps at the door one night, she has no idea the horror she’s about to unleash. She flees to the country home of her estranged mother (Katee Sackhoff) — a former addict turned famous artist — and must learn to trust her after many years in order to stop the demon stalking them. It co-stars Nick Moran (“Lock, Stock and Two Smocking Barrels”), Richard Mylan (“The Upside of Anger”), Pooneh Hajimohammadi (“Words with Gods”), Jordan Bolger (“Peaky Blinders”) and more. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.

Read More: ‘Don’t Knock Twice’ Trailer: Katee Sackoff and Her Kid Might Have...

Exclusive: Palme d’Or winner denies reports that he was rejected from the Cannes Film Festival on political grounds.

Two-time Palme d’Or winner and Cannes regular Emir Kusturica has repudiated comments attributed to him that his new film, On The Milky Road, was rejected from Cannes because of his support of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kusturica, speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, said of the quotes attributed to news agency Russian News Service: “I’m just really confused. I don’t know what is going on. I have absolutely not spoken to anybody.”

One Us trade, quoting the Russian News Service, stated that Kusturica submitted the film to Cannes the day after the deadline and that no one watched the film.

The Serbian director has hit back saying that such claims are preposterous, especially as Thierry Fremaux had watched the film as a work-in-progress and had kept tabs on the project throughout its three year production.

The director...

Kyas Sherriff (Head of the Indigenous Unit) Guillermo Arriaga, Sue Elphinstone (Indigenous Unit Project Officer). Photographer: Graeme Taylor.

Last week Aftrs relaunched its Indigenous Unit with the first instalment of its Black Talk series..

The Unit's new head, Kyas Sherriff, hosted a session with Mexican writer Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel), in town as a guest of Nitv.

Arriaga was in mischevious form, riffing for an hour on everything from his writing process, his fights with director Warwick Thornton, his creative divorce from Alejandro González Iñárritu, and the damage his "friend" Tarantino has had on cinema.

The screenwriter and novelist started the session off with a flourish, producing an aboriginal flag from his pocket and laying it in front of him, declaring "I want to show my love".

Arriaga was first brought to Australia by Sally Riley, who met Arriaga at the Sundance Labs the same year that Amores Perros bowed at the festival.

Aftrs has launched a revamped Indigenous Unit, headed by Kyas Sherriff.

The initial program for 2016 will include the Black Talk series (similar to Aftrs Friday on My Mind), talent labs and Industry events.

Across the Aftrs curriculum, there will be an increased academic focus on Indigenous representation on Australian screen.

The school is also proposing an industry symposium on cultural diversity both on screen and behind the scenes.

The Black Talk series aims to engage the wider screen industry in an understanding of contemporary Indigenous storytelling.

The first Black Talk, on February 17, featured Mexican author, screenwriter, director and producer Guillermo Arriaga (writer of 21 Grams, Babel and Amores Perros)..

Arriaga, who is in Australia as a guest of Nitv, has a history of sharing his knowledge with Australian Indigenous filmmakers, including participating in a previous Screen Australia Workshop with published Indigenous novelists on the craft of writing for screen.

Indigenous filmmaker Warwick Thornton,...

Taking place April 4-19, the festival will feature over 200 films, including recent world premieres from Sundance and Berlin.

Istanbul Film Festival has unveiled the lineup to its upcoming edition, taking place from April 4-19.

This year will feature over 200 films from 62 countries, as well as free talks and workshops by film-makers and masterclasses. New sections at this year’s festival include a special focus on cinema of the Balkans and a focus on German animation.

The festival’s international competition includes the likes of Cédric Kahn’s Wild Life, Quentin Dupieux’s Reality, Francesco Munzi’s Black Souls and Thomas Vinterberg’s Far from the Madding Crowd, while the national competition will screen Ali Atay’s Lemonade, Selim Evci’s Secret and Mehmet Eryılmaz’s The Visitor, among others.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice, Jc Chandor’s A Most Violent Year, Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years and Matthew Warchus’ Pride are among this year’s Akbank Gala screenings...

Exclusive: Paris-based producer Alexa Rivero will co-produce Amit Dutta’s The Invisible One through her newly-established production company Altamar Films.

Rivero worked as a line producer on Asghar Farhadi’s The Past and was also production manager on films such as Javier Fuentes-León’s Undertow (2009) and Mehdi Ben Attia’s The String (2009).

She will produce The Invisible One with Mumbai-based Anjali Panjabi, who executive produced Pakistani filmmaker Sabiha Sumar’s Good Morning Karachi and line produced Mira Nair’s segment in omnibus film Words With Gods.

The Invisible One received Hubert Bals funding for script and project development in 2012 and has been selected for this year’s Co-production Market at Film Bazaar. It tells the story of a young man who moves to the big city and is forced to rent a room built on top of a tree.

Day 1 begins with two films I listed in my Top 5 Most Anticipated List.

Words With Gods

Directed by:

Guillermo Arriaga … (segment “La Sangre de Dios”)

Hector Babenco … (segment “The Man That Stole a Duck”)

Álex de la Iglesia … (segment “The Confession”)

Bahman Ghobadi … (segment “Kaboki”)

Amos Gitai … (segment “The Book of Amos”)

Emir Kusturica … (segment “Our Life”)

Mira Nair … (segment “God Room”)

Hideo Nakata … (segment “Sufferings”)

Warwick Thornton … (segment “True Gods”)

Written by Jorge Guerricaechevarría (segment) and Álex de la Iglesia (segment)

Spain 2014

Words With Gods is a collection of nine short films, shot by nine different directors representing nine different religions that they themselves believe or were raised in at some point. Guillermo Arriaga who produced the project and directed a short atheism says he hopes to foster a dialogue of understanding between faiths, and this film is hopefully the first in a series of movies discussing all those...

Top brass at the festival, set to run from September 24-October 8, have announced the selections in Focus Mexico.

The films are as follows:

Focus Mexico

The Obscure Spring (Las Oscuras Primaveras)

Ernesto Contreras

Manuela Jankovic’s War (La Guerra De Manuela Jankovic)

Diana Cardozo

González

Christian Díaz Pardo

Asteroide

Marcelo Tobar

The Absent (Los Ausentes)

Nicolás Pereda

Cumbres

Gabriel Nuncio

We Are Mari Pepa (Somos Mari Pepa)

Samuel Kishi

The Well (Manto Acuífero)

Michael Rowe

Güeros

Alonso Ruizpalacios

Cantinflas

Sebastian del Amo

Los Angeles

Damian John Harper

The Amazing Catfish (Los Insólitos Peces Gato)

Claudia Sainte-Luce

The Empty Hours (Las Horas Muertas)

Aaron Fernandez.

Panorama section

Words With Gods (Palabras Con Dioses)

Guillermo Arriaga, Héctor Babenco, Warwick Thornton, Mira Nair, Hideo Nakata, Amos Gitai, Álex de la Iglesia, Emir Kusturica, Bahman Ghobadi

Short Plays

Daniel Gruener, Carlos Reygadas, Fernando Eimbcke, Felipe Gómez, Alejandro Valle, Karim Aïnouz, Marcelo Gomes, Pablo Fendrik, Pablo Stoll, [link...

"Words with Gods" will be presented at the Los Cabos International Film Festival’s Galas Program, Friday, November 14th.

Alonso Aguilar-Castillo, Director of Los Cabos International Film Fest, says, “The Festival is an encounter dedicated to a shared vision between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. During our Third Edition through a thoughtful and inspiring program, Los Cabos will be the perfect scenario to present the film "Words with Gods". Consisting of 9 short films created by some of the most celebrated directors of the moment, each tells a story where faith plays a central role. A dramatic spectrum of cultures with each director creating a dialogue with what is closest to them through their shorts.

Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Arriaga directed the story "Gods Blood", as well as being the creator of the concept on which the film is based; he is one of the producers along with Alex García and Lucas Akoskin. His take on atheism, “God’s Blood" sent a shiver of recognition down our spines when we previewed it at the Careyes Film Festival earlier this year.

Other filmmakers, Warwick Thornton questions the Aboriginal spirituality, Hector Babenco the Umbanda, Mira Nair Hinduism, Hideo Nakata Shinto Buddhism, Amos Gitai Judaism, Álex de la Iglesia Catholicism, Emir Kusturica Orthodox Christianity, Bahman Ghobadi Islam.

"Words with Gods" is a panoramic and global history that questions birth and death, determining decisions, and lost and found faith.

"Gods Blood" directed by Guillermo Arriaga.

The order of the short films in " Words with Gods" was curated by Peruvian writer, Mario Vargas Llosa and the music was created by British musician, Peter Gabriel.

"I am very happy to be a part of Los Cabos International Film Festival with this project. I believe this is currently one of the most important festivals, with more interest from entrepreneurs and the media. The synergy achieved with this project is very interesting and has reached enormous levels of expectation”, said the film’s producer, Alex Garcia.

Alex Garcia himself is one of Mexico’s most prolific producers. To be able to speak with him at Los Cabos will be one of my most unforgettable experiences.

In addition, Los Cabos International Film Festival Third Edition’s Mexican Tribute will be dedicated to Guillermo Arriaga.

"Words with Gods" Trailer: https://vimeo.com/90574711...

Los Cabos International Film Festival will honor Canadian filmmakers Denys Arcand, Atom Egoyan and Mexico's Guillermo Arriaga in November. The lineup will feature Arcand's latest feature An Eye for Beauty and his Oscar winner The Barbarian Invasions; Egoyan's thriller The Captive and the Oscar-nominated The Sweet Hereafter; and the North America premiere of the Arriaga-produced omnibus Words With Gods. Jury members for the official selection include actor-director Diego Luna, Toronto International Film Festival director Piers Handling and film critic Mark Adams. Heading into its third edition, Los Cabos runs from Nov. 12 – 16. The annual

read more...

Further details have emerged of the marketing and release plans for religious-themed portmanteau picture Words With Gods, which features contributions from such directors as Guillermo Arriaga, Emir Kusturica, Mira Nair and Hector Babenco.

The film, which has been screening out of competition in Venice, is produced by Arriaga along with Alex Garcia and Lucas Akoskin.

Speaking in Venice, Paula Alvarez Vaccaro, who produced Kusturica’s contribution, has revealed that there will be “a big inter-faith” campaign to accompany the distribution of the film. This is being coordinated through Vaccaro’s London-based company Pinball.

Sales are currently being handled by Garcia’s LatAm Pictures.

“We are going to tackle different territories and different areas with different activities,” Vaccaro explained. The intention is to create events around each short that will promote inter-faith dialogue and debate as well as educational activities.

The film looks at everything from atheism to Aboriginal spirituality, from Serbian orthodoxy to Buddhism.

Words With Gods has already...

Here's an intriguing project: An omnibus of short films with Alex de la Iglesia, Hideo Nakata, Amos Gitai, Guillermo Arriaga, Mira Nair and others tackling the subject of faith. The film is called Words with Gods and it premieres this Saturday at the Venice Film Festival. In the meantime though, we've got an exclusive look at nine face posters, each of which teases a different filmmaker's short. Take a look below!Based on a concept by Guillermo Arriaga, Words with Gods features nine powerful stories of faith, created by some of the world's most celebrated filmmakers. A dramatic spectrum of beliefs are represented, with each filmmaker speaking about the one closest to their lives: Warwick Thornton deals with Aboriginal Spirituality, Héctor Babenco with Umbanda, Mira Nair with Hinduism, Hideo Nakata with Shinto Buddhism, Amos Gitai with...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

The Venice International Film Festival is in the process announcing the lineup for its 71st edition. Here's what we know so far:

Competition

The Cut (Fatih Akin)

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson)

99 Homes (Ramin Bahrani)

Tales (Rakhshan Bani E'temad)

La rancon de la gloire (Xavier Beauvois)

Hungry Hearts (Saverio Costanzo)

Le dernier coup de marteau (Alix Delaporte)

Pasolini (Abel Ferrara)

Manglehorn (David Gordon Green)

Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance (Alejandro González Iñárritu)

Three Hearts (Benoît Jacquot)

The Postman's White Nights (Andrei Konchalovsky)

Il Giovane Favoloso (Mario Martone)

Sivas (Kaan Mujdeci)

Anime Nere (Francesco Munzi)

Good Kill (Andrew Niccol)

Loin des hommes (David Oelhoffen)

The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)

Nobi (Shinya Tsukamoto)

Red Amnesia (Wang Xiaoshuai)

Out Of Competition

Joe Date. Photo by Evan Dickson.

Words with Gods (Guillermo Arriaga, Emir Kusturica, Amos Gitai, Mira Nair, Warwick Thornton, Hector Babenco, Bahman Ghobadi,...

This morning in Rome, Biennale president Paolo Baratta and Venice Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera unveiled the lineup for the 71st Venice Film Festival, which features some extraordinarily exciting titles and intriguingly under-the-radar picks.

Twenty films will be competing in the main competition, 19 of which are world premieres with one international premiere out of the lot. Out of all the titles at Venice this year, Birdman, which stars Michael Keaton and features a star-studded cast including Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts, is undoubtedly the title with the most chance of gaining Oscar attention this year after making the rounds on the festival circuit (it’s heading to the Toronto International Film Festival next).

Also anticipated are Manglehorn, a collaboration between Prince Avalanche helmer David Gordon Green and Al Pacino, and Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill, with Ethan Hawke, Bruce Greenwood, January Jones and Zoe Kravitz.

The 71st Venice Film Festival announced its lineup this morning, highlighted by films from American directors, including David Gordon Green, Barry Levinson, Peter Bogdanovich, Lisa Cholodenko, Andrew Niccol, and James Franco. As had been previously announced, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, starring Michael Keaton and many others, will be the opening film when the festival begins on Aug. 27.

Click below for the entire list of 55 films playing in Venice.

Competition

The Cut, directed by Fatih Akin

Starring Tahar Rahim, Akin Gazi, Simon Abkarian, George Georgiou

A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, directed by Roy Andersson

Starring Holger Andersson,...

This morning came the announcement of the 2014 Venice Film Festival lineup and we already knew Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman would serve as the opening night film and for the most part a lot of the more recognizable entries are those we already discussed as part of the Toronto Film Festival lineup. This includes Ramin Bahrani's 99 Homes, David Gordon Green's Manglehorn starring Al Pacino, Abel Ferrera's Pasolini, Barry Levinson's The Humbling and Andrew Niccol's The Good Kill. There are, however, some titles worthy of note such as the latest film from The Act of Killing director Joshua Oppenheimer, The Lord of Silence, Fatih Akin's The Cut, She's Funny that Way from Peter Bogdanovich, Lisa Cholodenko's Olive Kitteredge and a new film from James Franco in The Sound and the Fury based on Faulkner's novel. Joe Dante shows up with a new horror-comedy in Burying the Ex,...

Whiles the likes of Terrence Malick, Todd Haynes, Alexander Sokurov, Giorgos Lanthimos and J.C. Chandor no where to be found in the fall fest season map (with concerns to Malick — Telluride and Tiff might still have those surprises up their sleeves) the 71st edition of the Venice Film Festival is still a lean and mean (American-French-Italian heavy) comp with the now “confirmed” presence of Fatih Akin (the cross continent The Cut - see pic above), Ramin Bahrani (Michael Shannon starrer 99 Homes), Abel Ferrara (a Thin Blue Line truth revealer Pasolini), David Gordon Green (Pacino comeback vehicle Manglehorn), Roy Andersson (the long awaited A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence) and Joshua Oppenheimer (public Indonesian isolation accompaniment film The Look Of Silence). The U.S. presence is equally as heavy in the Out of Comp section with the likes of Peter Bogdanovich, Joe Dante, Barry Levinson, Lisa Cholodenko and James Franco making a stop,...

David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn, Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill and Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence among competition titles.Scroll down for full lists

The line-up for the 71st Venice Film Festival (Aug 27-Sept 6) has been revealed this morning by Biennale president Paolo Baratta and film festival director Alberto Barbera at Rome’s St. Regis Grand Hotel.

Early standouts include Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini, which centres on the final days of the Italian filmmaker and his death in 1975; David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn, starring Al Pacino as a locksmith in a small town who never got over the love of his life; and The Look Of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer’s highly anticipated follow-up to his award-winning documentary, The Act of Killing.

As previously announced, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, starring Michael Keaton, will open the festival on August 27 and is among the 20-strong competition titles, of which all...

Films by David Gordon Green, Andrew Niccol and Abel Ferrara will bring world premieres to the Lido di Venezia this year, as the Venice Film Festival has announced its selections for the 71st edition of the oldest such event in the world. Green's "Manglehorn" with Al Pacino, Niccol's "Good Kill" with Ethan Hawke and Ferrara's "Pasolini" with Willem Dafoe promise to bring a fair share of star power to the event, while actors such as Viggo Mortensen, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver feature in films sprinkled throughout the Competition. "The Act of Killing" director Joshua Oppenheimer will also continue his look at the Indonesian genocide with a new documentary, "The Look of Silence." Playing out of competition are films by Barry Levinson ("The Humbling," also starring Pacino), James Franco ("The Sound and the Fury") and Lisa Cholodenko ("Olive Kitteridge"), while Focus Features will bring the new Laika film, "The Boxtrolls,...

The trailer for Guillermo Arriaga’s lead anthology film, Words With God, has debuted.

Words With God is based on a concept by Guillermo Arriaga ( Amores Perros, 21 Grams, The Burning Plain) with original music by Peter Gabriel (“Why Don’t You Show Yourself?”) and shaped into its current form by Nobel Prize award winner Mario Vargas Llosa.

The faith themed anthology is directed by filmmakers Guillermo Arriaga, Hector Babenco, Bahman Ghobadi, Amos Gitai, Emir Kusturica, Mira Nair, Hideo Nakata, Warwick Thornton and Alex de la Iglesia. Along with Guillermo Arriaga, Alex Garcia and Lucas Akoskin (who both founded Bn Films) are producing the film.

In Words With God, each director recounts a narrative centered around human fragility, as well as environmental and cultural crises involving specific religions with which each has a personal relationship; including early Aboriginal Spirituality, Umbanda, Buddhism, the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, and Atheism. An animated sequence by...

Last summer, you may remember hearing that Guillermo Arriaga, Bahman Ghobadi, Emir Kusturica and Hideo Nakata were teaming up for the religious-themed anthology film “Words With Gods.” Well, a year has nearly passed and the project is now in post-production, with the first trailer dropping today. Hector Babenco, Mira Nair, Warwick Thornton and Alex de la Iglesia round out the contributing filmmakers to the omnibus, with Maribel Martinez contributing animated sequences between each segment. The project finds each director delivering a narrative centered around human fragility, as well as environmental and cultural crises involving specific religions with which each has a personal relationship with early Aboriginal Spirituality, Umbanda, Buddhism, the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, and Atheism all in the mix. And oh yeah, Peter Gabriel scored the whole thing. Even more, this is just the first part of a massive project for Arriaga in what he calls his...

Mexico City, July 1 (Ians/Efe) Religion is the central theme of the new film by Mexican director and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, in which a group of outstanding filmmakers, including Mira Nair, took part along with Nobel literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa and British musician Peter Gabriel.

Arriaga's short is one of several segments that make up the feature-length film "Words with Gods", which explores the religious views held by a group of directors that includes Serbian Emir Kusturica, Argentina's Hector Babenco, Australian Warwick Thorntonel, Bahman Ghobadi from Iran, India's Mira Nair, Japan's Hideo Nakata, Amos Gitai of France,.

Fresh off an Ecuadorian tour with his No Smoking Orchestra, the twice-awarded Palme d’Or director Emir Kusturica flew to Morocco for the closest thing he can get to downtime. As President of the Jury of the 11th annual Marrakech International Film Festival, Kusturica got to enjoy one of his favorite pastimes, absorbing a dozen or so independent films from around the world in a week. His second time at the festival, the auteur was honored with the Golden Star award in 2009 for his outstanding career.

While he spent most of the festival behind the scenes, apart from presenting a new Golden Star to another like-minded conspirator, Terry Gilliam, Kusturica granted us a rare interview at La Mamounia in a dark intimate conference room. He detailed what he’s up to when he’s not busy being a professional Jury President, and it’s a doozy. To call Kusturica a renaissance man is an understatement.