Latin: Last News

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Night Call,” a French thriller directed by Michiel Blanchart and set amid Black Lives Matter protests in Belgium, has been sold nearly worldwide by Gaumont which releases the film today in France. Previously acquired by Magnet Releasing for North American distribution, “Night Call” follows a young locksmith who gets way more than he bargained for after responding to an emergency call that puts him in the crosshairs of a ruthless mob boss. It marks the feature debut of Blanchart whose live-action short “You’re Dead Hélène” was shortlisted for the 94th Oscars and is now being adapted into an English-language feature produced by Sam Raimi and TriStar Pictures.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent SANTIAGO, Chile — Climaxing Saturday night with an awards, ceremony, where Santiago Maza and Diego Luna passion project “State of Siege” took top honors, Santiago de Chile’s Sanfic and industry arm Sanfic Industria delivered a vibrant edition, confirming the joint event as one of the three key festival-markets in South America. This year’s double event also reflects larger change at work coursing through industries in Latin America and much of international. Following, seven takeaways and highlights from the 2024 event, which runs Aug.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent SANTIAGO, Chile — This is the age of turbulence and film festivals are not immune. Decimated in many cases by public-sector cuts or COVID-19, they haven’t stopped evolving after the pandemic as they hone new priorities, react to both a sometimes volatile political context and the state of cinemagoing worldwide if a round table at Chile’s Sanfic Industria last week, titled Film Festivals’ Present and Future, was anything to go by. Panel speakers took in honchos at three top Latin American events – Sanfic artistic director Carlos Nuñez, Rio de Janeiro Film Festival director Ilda Santiago and Estrella Araiza, managing director of Mexico’s Guadalajara Festival.

Naman Ramachandran Canada’s Wango Films has completed filming on their upcoming feature “Little Lorraine,” which marks the big-screen debut of bestselling Latin artist J Balvin, known as the “Prince of Reggaeton.” The production, shot in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and Ontario, also stars Stephen Amell (“Arrow,” “Code 8”) and Sean Astin (“Lord of the Rings,” “Stranger Things”). Directed by Grammy nominee Andy Hines, the film is based on true events from the late 1980s, depicting a remote mining and fishing town’s transformation into a hub for a major cocaine smuggling operation.

Ernesto Lechner In the music video for the 2021 hit “Dance Crip,” Argentine rapper Trueno bikes, walks and dances his way through the soulful Buenos Aires neighborhood of La Boca. Anchored by a lethal bass line, funky female choruses and the MC’s breathless flow, “Dance Crip” established the 22-year-old as one of the most creative voices in the burgeoning space of Latin hip-hop.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Former Pimienta Films executive producer Paulina Valencia has boarded coming-of-age drama “The Weird” (“Lo Raro”), the debut feature of Nicolasa Ruiz, whose most recent short, “Extinction of the Species,” which she co-directed with Matt Porterfield, participated in Cannes’ Critics Week last year. Valencia joins Chile’s Matías de Bourguignon of Cordyceps Content, a producer of “The Dog Thief,” directed by Chile’s Vinko Tomicic and sold by Luxbox, which competes in the Santiago Film Festival’s (Sanfic) international section. Set in La Paz, Bolivia, it stars Alfredo Castro (“El Conde”) as a lonely tailor, Señor Novoa, whose dog is stolen by a 15-year-old shoe shiner who imagines Sr.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Dec. 2007. Nicolás, early twenties, has his life before him.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Playmaker has closed several additional distribution deals for comedy “Two to One,” which stars Academy Award-nominated Sandra Hüller, whose credits include “Anatomy of a Fall” and “Toni Erdmann.” The film has been a hit at the German box office with 278,416 admissions and a gross of €2,705,117 ($2,977,551) for the period July 25 to Aug. 11. The German distributor is X-Verleih.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Running August 18 -25, the Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic) celebrates its 20th edition in tandem with its slightly younger industry section, Sanfic Industria, now on its 13th year, at a time of reassuring growth trends in Chile and Latin America’s audiovisual industries. As a platform aiming to provide support and guidance to Ibero-American filmmakers, Sanfic Industria, run by festival co-founder Gabriela Sandoval, has grown apace with the latest advances in the entertainment world.

Christopher Vourlias Georgian filmmaker Tato Kotetishvili, whose feature directorial debut, “Holy Electricity,” won the Golden Leopard in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente section at the recently wrapped Locarno Film Festival, is prepping his next film, a docufiction that follows a family trying to illegally enter the U.S. from across the Mexican border.

and are once again on a in Colombia, meaning the Murdoch empire is brainstorming headlines with VERY inflammatory ADJECTIVES in them, and the fashion world is busy parsing everything that’s made it into the Duchess of Sussex's Away case for subtext.Thus far wardrobe-wise, she’s delivered Latte-Adjacent Dressing (Colombia produces approximately 12 million bags of grade-A Arabica every year, after all); a smattering of references (including a pair of diamond-and-onyx butterfly earrings worn by Lady Di in the ’80s); and both a Johanna Ortiz dress and a Juan de Dios skirt.The Duchess’s butterfly earrings once belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales.It may have been half a decade since the Sussexes travelled on behalf of the Crown, but the Duchess is still a graduate of the Windsor School of Diplomatic Styling, Class of ’18, and Ortiz and De Dios are among Latin America’s most esteemed designers.A boldly patterned moment while wearing Johanna Ortiz.In a Juan de Dios skirt for a visit with the Invictus Games’s Colombian team.For anyone looking to make an investment purchase off the back of all of this, however, allow me to direct your attention to Meghan’s footwear during a trip to Colegio La Giralda in Sante Fe on August 18: namely, a pair of , a shoe that, when spotted by fashion editors, is met with the sort of “Ooohs!” reserved elsewhere for, say, newborn babies or Internet Boyfriends.Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit Colegio La Giralda on August 16, 2024 in Bogota, Colombia.As much a part of the Chanel DNA as the 2.55 or the tweed jacket, it’s Coco who introduced the style in 1957, reclaiming the slingback from risqué affiliations.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Neon’s horror movie “Longlegs,” directed by Osgood Perkins, has crossed the $100 million mark at the global box office to become the highest-grossing independent film release of the year. With a gross of $72 million in the U.S. and Canada and a total $100 million at the global box office, it’s also the top-grossing R-rated horror film of 2024.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon MGM Studios has taken in for development San Fuerte, a single-camera comedy written and executive produced by Shepard Boucher (Upload).

An infectious Shotts man is mixing it up in the city by offering masterclasses in the art of making perfect margaritas.

“Why the fuck do you think that Gloria Pritchett is gonna be able to play Griselda Blanco?” That’s what Sofía Vergara assumed Eric Newman, the showrunner of Netflix’s “Narcos” franchise, would say when she told him she not only wanted to executive produce a series about the murderous Colombian drug lord, but she wanted to star in it. After all, Vergara had spent 11 years as Gloria, the hilarious, ditzy trophy wife of Ed O’Neill’s Jay Pritchett on “Modern Family.” Gloria had been an important role for Vergara — not only did it put her on the map, but she portrayed the only adult character of color on a show about an affluent white family. She received four Emmy nominations for the part and was a crucial player in the show’s five-year winning streak in the comedy series category.

Ellise Shafer “Harvest,” directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari (“Attenberg,” “Chevalier”) and starring Caleb Landry Jones, has been acquired by Mubi in several key territories ahead of its premiere in competition at Venice Film Festival. Mubi will distribute the film in the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, Benelux and Latin America with release plans to be announced in the coming months.

Scarface alongside Al Pacino, has died.The 68-year-old died on Sunday (August 11) at a friend’s home in Brooklyn, New York. A cause of death has not yet been disclosed, reports Variety.The Cuban-American actor was born in 1956 and started his career in New York, where he worked in comedy clubs after he fled Cuba at a young age.He landed his first role in Brian DePalma’s Scarface in 1983.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LOCARNO, Switzerland — Paraguay’s Paz Encina (“Eami”) and three first time fiction feature directors – El Salvador’s Enrique Bautista, Cuba’s Rosa María Rodríguez Pupo, Peru’s Fernando Mendoza – split the big prize on offer at this year’s Locarno Open Doors with Encina and Bautista taking the lion’s share of a CHF50,000 ($58,000) cash prize. The grant was sponsored by Visions Sud Est and the City of Bellinzona.

Jamie Lang Ecuadorian documentary “The Beach of the Enchaquirados” has been picked up by The Hague-based Latin Quarter, a sales, co-production and distribution outfit dedicated to Latin American, Spanish and Latinx diaspora cinema. Originally released in 2021, the film has found a second life thanks to a pair of Open Doors Screenings at this year’s Locarno Film Festival. During its initial festival run, “The Beach of the Enchaquirados” screened at high-profile international festivals, including IDFA, Guadalajara and Doclisboa, winning the Arquipélago Contemporary Art Center Award at the latter.

Ángel Salazar has sadly passed away.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LOCARNO, Switzerland — The Dominican Republic’s Cronos Films & Production has clinched its first pre-sales deal on “Beyond the Mist,” (“Después de la Niebla”), a flagship example of the company’s drive into what is described as a “sensory cinema” which does not “shy away from the social and political struggles of the Dominican Republic.” In a first distribution deal on the title, brought to market this weekend at Locarno’s Match Me! networking forum, the Hague-based sales-distribution company Latin Quarter has closed all-rights for the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. A burgeoning force on the Latin American, Spanish and Latinx diaspora auteur pic scene, Latin Quarter has a direct distribution operation in the Netherlands, as in the U.K., Germany and Spain.