News

The “dark fairytale”, which is being lined up to shoot in 2026, will mark the English-language debut of Oscar-winning Son Of Saul filmmaker Laszlo Nemes.

Netflix has acquired most of the global rights to Shih-Ching Tsou’s Cannes‘ Critics Week movie Left-Handed Girl. Netflix has acquired most of the global rights to Shih-Ching Tsou’s Cannes‘ Critics Week movie Left-Handed Girl. The movie, produced by and co-written by 4x Anora Oscar winner Sean Baker won the Gan Foundation Award as well as the Prix du Rail d’Or following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

Sandra Oh is set to star in “Child’s Play,” the newly-announced psychological thriller from director Wang Xiaoshuai, Variety can reveal.

Good Chaos, the U.K. production banner founded by industry veteran Mike Goodridge, has signed a first look deal with Searchlight Pictures.

The film is penned by Paweł Pawlikovski, the Oscar-winning director of “Ida” and “Cold War, Ben Hopkins (“The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz,” “Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie”), and Kata Weber (“Pieces of a Woman”), from an idea by Pawlikovski. In the run up to Cannes, the project has also been boarded by French distribution company Le Pacte, as well as Arte.

Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems is releasing a sequel to Jalmari Helander’s gritty World War II action movie Sisu, with the Finnish filmmaker returning to write and direct. A November 21 theatrical release this year has been set.

Paris and London-based Film Constellation has launched sales at the EFM on Ish and revealed a first look at the film from artist Imran Perretta.

László Nemes’ post-World War II Hungarian family drama Orphan has sold to Portugal’s Midas Filmes, Italy’s Movies Inspired, Greece’s Spentzos Film SA, Baltic’s Kino Pavasaris and ex-Yugoslavia’s MCF MegaCom Film for Charades and New Europe Film Sales.

Producers are Shôzô Ichiyama of Japan’s Fourier Films, Francey Grace of Los Angeles-based Friendly Giant Pictures and Mike Goodridge of the UK’s Good Chaos. Production will begin this summer in Japan.

Paris-based Haut et Court and London-based Good Chaos have partnered to acquire the film rights to Paris-Hollywood, the debut novel from writer and critic Cécile Mury.

Santosh nominated for Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer.

Santosh: Sandhya Suri wins Best Screenplay. Balthazar De Ganay and James Bowsher win Breakthrough Producer.

The film has particular local resonance, being the story of a decades-spanning love story between an Icelandic man and a Japanese woman who is a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack of 1945 and who battles the stigma associated with the survivors.

We take a closer look at Best British Independent Film nominee, Santosh, a gripping crime drama set in rural India that explores themes of morality, hierarchy, misogyny, power and resilience.

Santosh has nominations for Best Screenplay sponsored by Apple Original Films and Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4 for Sandyha Suri as well as Best British Independent Film supported by ScreenUK and Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton Studios for Balthazar De Ganay and James Bowsher.

Oscar shortlist for International Feature Film includes Baltasar Kormákur’s Touch (Iceland) and Sandhya Suri’s Santosh (United Kingdom).

The helmer of the British Independent Film Award winner catches up with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about awards season hopes for her film and crafting an apt Indian police procedural: “It’s about another way to be a woman.”

Currently, Berger is in post on The Ballad of a Small Player, a Netflix thriller starring Colin Farrell and Tilda Winton about a high-stakes gambler laying low in Macau when his past and debts start to catch up with him.

“People Always Try To Put You In Brackets, And I Refuse To Be Put There”

Vertigo Releasing and Civic Studios have acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Sandhya Suri’s Santosh.

Oscar-winning Hungarian director László Nemes has wrapped filming on his long-awaited feature Orphan after a 10-week shoot in Budapest.

Sandhya Suri’s Santosh has been selected as the UK entry for the best international feature Oscar award, as confirmed by Bafta on behalf of the UK Selection Committee.

Baltasar Kormákur’s Icelandic box office hit Touch has been chosen as the country’s International Feature Oscar entry. This marks the fifth time that the filmmaker is repping Iceland in the category.

Santosh is a terrific feature debut from British-Indian documentary filmmaker Sandhya Suri – a propulsive neo-noir that holds up a mirror to contemporary India.

Farrell plays a high-stakes gambler running away from his debts.

‘Touch’ follows Icelandic widower Kristofer who travels to Japan to find the woman he met and fell in love with in London 50 years before.

Whether working on the railways or planning around monsoons, there was a freedom to filming in India with a dedicated local crew, the UK producer of Sandhya Suri’s Santosh tells Screen.

Mike Goodridge has been on a rare journey. Not many in the industry can boast a CV that includes running a trade publication, an international sales company, a film festival and being the producer of multiple Cannes Film Festival movies.

Bowsher’s credits include ‘Northern Comfort’ and Cannes competition entry ’Club Zero’

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić is prepping a sequel to her harrowing war drama “Quo Vadis, Aida?,” which competed for best international feature film at the 93rd Academy Awards.

“Some Rain Must Fall” took home awards for Best Performance and Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature.

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur swerves away from the action thrillers and survival sagas that have been his domain of late to get back closer to the romantic roots of his 2000 breakout, 101 Rekyavik, with the cross-cultural, decades-spanning grown-up melodrama of Touch.

Baltasar Kormakur directs the story of a widower with early-onset dementia who embarks on a cross-continental trip to find his soulmate during the pandemic in this weepie filled with humanity and hope.

Kornel Mundruczo is to direct The Revolution According To Kamo, a historical drama exploring the youth of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin through the eyes of his closest friend, with filming set to begin in Georgia in 2025.

Mubi has taken László Nemes’ Orphan on board in a multi-territory deal on the post- World War II Hungarian family drama; Le Pacte will release the film in France.

Mike Goodridge’s growing UK production company Good Chaos has had a minority equity investment from Cameron Lamb’s Paris-based audio platform Alexander

France’s mk2 Films has boarded Sandhya Suri’s title Santosh ahead of its premiere at Cannes in Un Certain Regard.

The Hungarian-language film is being produced by Ildiko Kemeny and Ferenc Szale of Pioneer Pictures and Mike Goodridge of Good Chaos alongside Nemes.

The Focus Features film is based on the bestselling novel by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson.

Sandhya Suri’s Santosh is produced by Good Chaos.

Colin Farrell is set to star in Netflix‘s The Ballad of a Small Player, with Edward Berger directing. Rowan Joffe will adapt the script that is is based on the novel by Lawrence Osborne. Mike Goodridge will produce through his Good Chaos banner along with Berger for his Nine Hours.

Suri’s ‘Santosh’ and Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine As Light’ and have been selected to screen In Competition and Un Certain Regard.

The Sundance queer drama “Sebastian,” directed by up-and-coming Finnish-British director Mikko Mäkelä, has been bought by Kino Lorber for U.S. distribution, along with a string of international buyers.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline can reveal the first trailer for Chinese filmmaker Qiu Yang’s first feature, Some Rain Must Fall, which will premiere in the Berlinale’s Encounters section on February 19.

Alongside Haut et Court, co-producers on the project include Maipo Film (Norway), Versus Production (Belgium), Good Chaos (U.K.) and Aurora Studios (Finland).

SISU is nominated for nine awards at Finland’s Jussi awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

LevelK has boarded international sales rights to UK feature Sebastian ahead of its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance Film Festival this month. Executive producers are Good Chaos’ Mike Goodridge; and Lizzie Francke for the BFI.

Focus Features we hear has set a July 12, 2024 limited theatrical release date for Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic-drama Touch. RVK Studios’ Kormákur and Agnes Johansen produced Touch alongside Good Chaos’ Mike Goodridge.

Sandhya Suri’s UK-European co-production Santosh has wrapped production in India. The Hindi-language film is the narrative feature debut of Suri. It is produced by Mike Goodridge of the UK’s Good Chaos in association with Suitable Pictures in India.

In Sudabeh Mortezai’s provocative fifth feature, “Europa,” the Vienna-based director follows ambitious executive Beate from Europa, a mysterious corporation looking to expand into the Balkans by seemingly promoting philanthropy and investment in underdeveloped areas.

OUR ISLAND – A minority UK co-production with France, Belgium and Finland made under the European Convention. The UK producer is Good Chaos (Mike Goodridge) who will co-produce with French Haut et Court (Carole Scotta), Belgian Versus Production (Jacques-Henri Bronckart) and Finnish Silmu Films (Jenni Jauri). The feature film, directed by French Vladimir de Fontenay, follows a haunted young Scottish man remembering his younger days on a wild and secluded Island off the coast of Finland with his troubled father.

Europa is the fifth feature from Austrian-Iranian filmmaker Mortezai, and follows an ambitious executive working at a mysterious corporation looking to expand into the Balkans. Mortezai’s previous feature Joy debuted at Venice in 2018; while her 2014 title Macondo premiered at the Berlinale.

Paris-based Memento International has snapped up international rights for Sudabeh Mortezai’s third fiction feature Europa that is set to world premiere in competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival in August.

Santosh, the upcoming feature from Sandhya Suri, will shoot later in 2023, having been through both the writers and directors labs of the Sundance Institute.

Paris-based sales company Charades has finalized a raft of deals with international buyers for its upcoming comedy Northern Comfort, which debuted at SXSW in March.

Helander has thrown his hat in the ring with Sisu, his third feature film, which hit theaters last week. It’s a 90-minute, visceral gut-punch and the latest exercise in lean action filmmaking.

Jalmari Helander’s actioner has grossed over $3.3m in its opening weekend from over 1,000 US screens via Lionsgate, a major achievement for a film in English and Finnish language with R ratings.

New films from Wes Anderson, Jessica Hausner, Nanni Moretti, Catherine Breillat, Todd Haynes, Ken Loach and Wim Wenders have all been selected for the 2023 Cannes competition.

Like-minded production shingles based in Blighty but driving the wave towards international collaboration include Good Chaos, co-producer of Oscar-nominated “Triangle of Sadness”.

Further recent acquisitions on the EFM slate include Chinese Changzhou and Paris-based director Qiu Yang’s Some Rain Must Fall, his debut feature after Cannes Palme d’Or winning short A Gentle Night and Changzhou-set short She Runs.

Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson’s latest film will premiere at SXSW 2023.

Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness is nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

The UK presence is slightly bolstered by Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund’s Triangle Of Sadness, also nominated in both the best picture and best director category. The Sweden-Germany-France-Denmark production also has a UK co-producer in the form of Good Chaos’ Mike Goodridge and backing from both BFI Film Fund and BBC Film. It is also shortlisted in the best original screenplay category.

The 16 writers will participate in pre-writing workshops to shape drama series.

In Conversation sessions will welcome IMDb founder Col Needham, Good Chaos’ CEO Mike Goodridge and Jane Millichip, incoming CEO of BAFTA.

In this session discover what is involved in working with international directors, collaborating with co-producers and the meaning of ‘Good Chaos’.

THE CREATIVE CONNECTION is immediately opening a first call for writers who wish to expand their capacities, step outside the bounding box of the working routine, and envision the new possible futures of storytelling. Which stories deserve to be told ? How can we discover new forms or narratives that genuinely touch the audience? What changes to the creative process does this entail ?

Finnish production Sisu directed by Jalmari Helander took the main award at the 55th edition of Sitges, marking the director’s second time winning the prestigious Catalan genre event’s best feature award.

Focus Features has boarded Beast and Everest filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic drama Touch, which begins principal photography Sunday in London. Focus will release domestically, with Universal Pictures International handling overseas distribution (excluding Iceland).

Bloody survival thriller set in the Finnish wilderness pits retreating Nazis against a grizzled lone hero

The three leading producers tell Screen why their loose three-year alliance with Fremantle makes perfect sense in today’s industry landscape.

Producers Carlo Cresto-Dina, Mike Goodridge and Gabrielle Tana are confirmed.

Elsa Zylberstein and Mathieu Demy have also joined the cast, as the UK shoot commences.

Mia Wasikowska will take on the lead role in “Little Joe” director Jessica Hausner’s cult thriller “Club Zero,” Variety can reveal.

The Australian actor will portray an unusual schoolteacher in Hausner’s second English-language film, which begins shooting in the U.K. and Austria in July.

Ruben Östlund’s social satire Triangle of Sadness has won the Palme d’Or at the 75th Cannes film festival, handing the Swedish director one of cinema’s most prestigious prizes for the second time.

US distributor caps a busy Cannes with acquisition of Ruben Ostlund satire.

Ruben Östlund’s bold and brilliant film slipped a whoopee cushion under this year’s dreary Cannes festival – and took home the top prize.

This is a year in which a Russian film competing for the Palme d’Or will inevitably attract attention, especially one featuring Pyotr Tchaikovsky, an emblem of national pride. Yet Kirill Serebrennikov is no ordinary Russian director and this is no blind piece of hero worship.

Cannes is one of the first – if not the first – major opportunity for the international cultural community to signal its intent following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February.

Kirill Serebrennikov, the iconoclastic Russian filmmaker behind Cannes competition titles “Petrov’s Flu” and “Leto,” is reteaming with French banner Charades on his next daring movie, “Tchaikovsky’s Wife.”

The Official Selection of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival has been announced. The selection includes films by Ruben Östlund, David Cronenberg, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Park Chan-Wook, Kelly Reichardt and Claire Denis. The 18-strong competition features three female directors (Reichardt, Denis and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi).

After a complicated pandemic-affected shoot, Palme d’Or-winning Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund has wrapped his new movie Triangle Of Sadness, a satire set in the world of high fashion.

Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov — the director of Cannes competition titles “Leto” and “Petrov’s Flu” — has left the country following the end of a three-year travel ban, and arrived in Paris on Sunday.

Lydia Leonard (the English Call My Agent remake), Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner) and Sverrir Gudnason (Borg Vs. McEnroe) are leading the cast of Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson’s first English language feature Northern Comfort.

The first three projects to benefit from a £1.2m investment fund, created by UK distributor Curzon, Australian outfit Madman Entertainment and Benelux firm Cineart, have been revealed.

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has acquired worldwide rights (excluding Nordics) to Jalmari Helander’s Second World War action film Immortal (Sisu), in advance of production beginning later this year.

Nine international production companies, including Mike Goodridge’s UK outfit Good Chaos, Belgian producer Jacques-Henri Bronckart’s Versus Production and Maria Feldman’s New York- based Masha, have established a creative and development partnership called The Creatives, for a slate of films and high-end drama series.

“The Last of Us” series adaptation at HBO has found its directors in Jasmila Žbanić and Ali Abbasi.