Carolina Markowicz: Last News

Holly Jones Hailed as a discovery by many critics who caught it at Toronto, where it world premiered in the Platform section, “Charcoal” adds Markowicz name very firmly to that of an exciting new young generation of women cineastes in Brazil. It follows a family stretched thin in the smoke-enveloped Brazilian countryside, surrounded by numerous coal mines. When life becomes monotonous, matriarch Irene cuts a ludicrous deal with a local nurse. Shrugging familial responsibilities, she callously agrees to put her ailing father out of his misery to house a fleeing fugitive, earning a lump sum of money. Darkly humorous, the film is a grim depiction of humans with nothing left to lose, coming to terms with the world around them that’s fallen deeper into roiling apathy and brutality. The project bleakly portrays a protagonist who can no longer beat back the systems that oppress them, so they figure they ought to join them instead.

Holly Jones Brazilian auteur Carolina Markowicz will head to Bucharest to hone her third feature, “The Funeral.” In development, the film was selected for the 2024 Pop Up Residency, pairing Markowicz with multi-prized Romanian producer Ada Solomon for a three-week consultancy. “It’s truly a privilege to be able to dialogue with an industry professional like Ada, a producer who has made some films I truly admire. Daring, original and different.

Marcelo Cajueiro “A Batalha da Rua Maria Antonia,” directed by Vera Egito, nabbed the main Redentor prize for fiction film at the 2023 Rio de Janeiro International Film Fest which wrapped this year’s edition last weekend, consolidating its position as South America’s largest fest and world’s main showcase of Brazilian productions. The fest held the world premieres of 40 Brazilian features and four TV series.

Brazil has selected Kleber Mendonça Filho’s documentary Pictures of Ghosts as its entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

Vicky Krieps, the star of Viggo Mortensen’s western The Don’t Dead Hurt and Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Phantom Thread, will be bestowed with the TIFF Tribute Performer Award at the fifth annual Awards gala on Sunday, Sept. 10, at Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter Today, TIFF announced additional honourees who will be receiving a TIFF Tribute Award at this year’s Festival. Recipients include award-winning Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz who will be honoured with the TIFF Emerging Talent Award presented by MGM. This award is in the spirit of Torontonian Mary Pickford, the groundbreaking actor, producer, and co-founder of United Artists, whose impact continues today.

Emiliano De Pablos Argentine director Paula Hernández’s “The Ravaging Wind,” toplined by Latin American star Alfredo Castro (“Karnawal,” “El Club”), will be the opening night film of Horizontes Latinos sidebar at the 71st edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival, which runs Sept. 22-30.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent São Paulo’s Biônica Filmes, behind Carolina Markowicz’s Toronto hit “Charcoal” and her upcoming “Toll,” is driving into English-language production, backing “The Eyes of Another,” from Maria Arida, as Biônica taps into an exciting new generation of young women filmmakers in Brazil. “Eyes” marks the feature debut from Arida, currently based out of São Paulo, who drew attention with “Instinct,” her AFI thesis film, a 17-minute short which world premiered at London’s BFI Flare, then had its U.S. premiere at the Phoenix Film Festival where it won the award for best Latin American short. It is written by Liz Buda (“Getting Meisnered”). 

Christopher Vourlias Iranian filmmaker Dornaz Hajiha took home the top prize Saturday at the Transilvania Film Festival, as the jury awarded the first-time director with the Transilvania Trophy for “Like a Fish on the Moon,” a moving family drama about two parents coping with the emotional fallout when their young son suddenly stops talking. In the jury’s citation, Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco highlighted “the originality of its premise, the power of its performances, and the intelligence with which it explored very difficult subject matter,” describing “Like a Fish on the Moon” as “a film that resonated long after it ended.” Hajiha was visibly moved as she took the stage to accept the award, which was presented to her by Transilvania Lifetime Achievement Award winner Geoffrey Rush moments after the Australian actor delivered an impassioned and at times whimsical tribute to the power of cinema.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Carolina Markowicz’s dark satire “Charcoal,” which world premieres on Sept. 11 at Toronto Film Festival, has debuted its teaser trailer with Variety (below). World sales are being handled by Urban Sales. The film, which plays in the festival’s Platform section, centers on a poor family living in a remote area in Brazil, who earn a pittance from their charcoal business. When a shady nurse asks them to host a mysterious foreigner they accept. The home soon becomes a hideout as the so-called guest happens to be a highly wanted drug lord. The mother, her husband and child will have to learn how to share the same roof with this stranger, while keeping up appearances of an unchanged peasant routine.

Holly Jones Paris-based Urban Sales has swooped on international sales rights to Brazilian writer-director Carolina Markowicz’s awaited debut feature film “Charcoal” (“Carvão”), which is set for its world premiere at at Toronto’s prestigious Platform showcase before heading to San Sebastian for a Europe bow as part of its just-revealed Horizontes Latinos lineup.Urban Sales has also shared with Variety a first look still from the film.Distribution in Brazil is handled by Pandora Filmes, founded by André Sturm, which launched the country’s first classic film streaming platform Belas Artes in 2019, bringing big-name, cult, and regional classics to audiences nationwide.Markowicz has written and directed six short films that have been selected by 400 festivals including Locarno, SXSW, Toronto and AFI.  Her short film,“The Orphan,” a gritty tale about a young queer boy who tries to navigate his most recent adoption after being placed with a well-off conservative family, premiered at Directors’ Fortnight and won the Queer Palm at Cannes in 2018. “We’ve always felt close to Brazilian cinema, working with filmmakers such as Marco Dutra, Juliana Rojas, Sandra Kogut, Esmir Filho,” said Louise Ronzet, Urban Sales’ head of sales.She added: “We found Carolina Markowicz’s debut to be simply mind-blowing.

Toronto announced the 10 world premieres in its Platform program, a section comprised of first-time feature filmmakers and vets whose voices are emerging in the cinematic landscape.

Wilson Chapman editor“Emily,” a biopic starring Emma Mackey as “Wuthering Heights” writer Emily Brontë, will have its world premiere through Toronto International Film Festival’s Platform program, the festival announced Wednesday.Platform, which was established in 2015 and is named after the 2000 film by Jia Zhang-ke, screens eight to 12 films from a diverse range of global filmmakers with rising careers. After the screenings, the Platform Prize, an award of $20,000 CAD, is given to one film selected by an international jury.