Beyond Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin, Screen turns the spotlight on key titles from the Americas that are likely to excite festival programmers later this year.
Apollo 10 ½
Dir. Richard Linklater
Linklater returns with his first animated feature since A Glass Darkly. Apollo 10 ½ is a coming-of-age story set in Houston as the first manned mission to the moon plays out on television sets across the world. The cast includes Jack Black.
Contact: Netflix
Babylon
Dir. Damien Chazelle
Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie star as Hollywood actors at the time of the birth of talking movies. This is Chazelle’s first feature since First Man which premiered at Venice in 2018 and has a December release date in North America.
Contact: Paramount
Bardo (Mex)
Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu
Mexico’s two-time best director Oscar winner Iñárritu (The Revenant, Birdman) is back with his first film since The Revenant. Bardo marks the first time Iñárritu has shot in Mexico since 2010’s Biutiful (which also filmed in Spain) and wrapped last September and the first time he has shot a film entirely in his home country since his 2000 breakout Amores Perros. Daniel Jimenez Cacho and Griselda Siciliani are the leads in the nostalgic comedy about a renowned journalist and filmmaker who returns to Mexico to assess his life and country.
Contact: ID PR
Blonde (US)
Dir. Andrew Dominik
Doninick’s self-styled “emotional nightmare fairy-tale type movie” looks like it is finally ready for its close-up in 2022. Cuban actor Ana de Armas plays Marilyn Monroe in the fictionalised account of the Hollywood icon’s inner life. Author Joyce Carol Oates has raved about the adaptation of her book and Cannes supremo Thierry Fremaux loves it and said Netflix turned down an out of competition slot in Cannes last year. Julianne Nicholson, Bobby and Adrian Brody also star.
Contact: Netflix
Catherine, Called Birdy (US-UK)
Dir: Lena Dunham
Dunham has described Catherine, Call Birdy as her passion project. She shot the medieval comedy in Wales last year with a UK cast headed by Billie Piper, Bella Ramsay, Ralph Ineson, Andrew Scott, Paul Kaye and Joe Alwyn. Produced by Working Title Films and Dunham’s own Good Thing Going, the project is backed by Amazon. It is based on the novel by Karen Cushman and tells the story of a teenage girl navigating her way through life and avoiding potential suitors. It’s Dunham’s second film of 2022 following Sundance title Sharp Stick.
Contact: Amazon
Chocobar (Argentina)
Dir. Lucrecia Martel
The latest film by the renowned Argentinian director of The Headless Woman and Zama, her most recent film that debuted at Venice in 2019, is a documentary about Javier Chocobar, a human rights activist and a head of the Diaguita Indian people who was killed by a land owners and two firmer police officers in a property-related murder in 2009. Chocobar won the top international prize at Locarno Film Festival’s The Films After Tomorrow initiative for projects that stalled due to the pandemic and has also received backing from International Film Festival Rotterdam Hubert Bals Fund, and the Torino FilmLab.
Contact: Rei Cine
Crimes Of The Future (Can-Gre)
Dir. David Cronenberg
Cronenberg is always an event and it will have been eight years since his last feature Maps To The Stars premiered in Cannes in 2014. Crimes Of The Future promises a return to the unsettling sci-fi and body politic territory where the Canadian carved out his reputation. Kristen Stewart stars alongside Lea Seydoux and Viggo Mortensen in the story about accelerated human evolution. The film shot in Greece and marks Cronenberg’s first original screenplay since eXistenZ back in 1999. Neon holds US rights.
Contact: Rocket Science
Disappointment Blvd (US)
Dir. Ari Aster
Will Aster’s follow-up to Midsommar be ready in time? Many are hoping so. Joaquin Phoenix plays the lead in what distributor A24 has only described as “an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.”
Contact: A24
Don’t Make Me Go (US)
Dir. Hannah Marks
Film and TV actor Marks has been segueing into directing and her follow-up to her solo directing debut and Tribeca 2021 premiere Mark, Mary & Some Other People stars John Cho as a single dad who discovers he has a fatal brain tumour and takes his daughter on a road trip to find the mother who abandoned her. Vera Herbert wrote the 2021 The Black List screenplay and serves as executive producer. Amazon Studios finances Don’t Make Me Go and producers are De Line Pictures () and Big Beach (The Farewell).
Contact: Amazon Studios
Don’t Worry Darling (US)
Dir. Olivia Wilde
After her acclaimed feature directing debut on Booksmart, Wilde is back with the story of a 1950’s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community who begins to worry that his glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets. Gemma Chan, Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine and Wilde star.
Contact: New Line/Warner Bros
Elvis (US-Aus)
Dir. Baz Luhrmann
Luhrmann is no stranger to bombast and his Elvis Presley biopic starring Austin Butler would work well as an out of competition Cannes premiere. (Warner Bros has set a June 24 release). The Australian filmmaker opened the festival in 2013 with The Great Gatsby and for his latest spectacle has also recruited Tom Hanks as Presley’s infamous manager Colonel Tom Parker. Kodi Smit-McPhee co-stars.
Contact: Warner Bros
Emancipation (US)
Dir. Antoine Fuqua
Will Smith plays a fictitious runaway slave in Fuqua’s follow-up to his The Guilty remake for Netflix. Apple pounced on the film at the virtual Cannes market in 2020 for a reported $120m commitment.
Contact: Apple
Eureka (Argentina)
Dir. Lisandro Alonso
Argentinian auteur Alonso reunites with Viggo Mortensen, the star of his Cannes 2014 premiere Jauja, on Eureka, a film in four parts that studies the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the way they live. Fluent Spanish speaker Mortensen stars in one segment called ‘Western’ as a man searching for his kidnapped daughter. The cast includes Rafi Pitts and Chiara Mastroianna. Luxbox produces with Germany’s Komplizen Film, Rosa Filmes from Portugal, 4L from Argentina and Pina Films from Mexico.
Contact: Luxbox
God Is A Bullet (US)
Dir. Nick Cassavetes
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays a vice detective who quits the force, gets tattoos and infiltrates the satanic cult that killed his ex-wife and daughter in the latest work from Cassavetes. Production on the Patriot Pictures revenge saga took place in Mexico and New Mexico and the cast includes Maika Monroe and Karl Glusman, who star together in Sundance entry Watcher. Patriot’s Michael Mendelsohn is financing via his Union Patriot Capital Management, and XYZ Films handles worldwide sales alongside Patriot.
Contact: XYZ Films
Infinity Pool (Can)
Dir: Brandon Cronenberg
Alexander Skarsgard stars in the sci-fi thriller for Neon (who distributed Cronenberg’s Possessor in the US) and Topic Studios, who partnered on awards contender Spencer and are co-financing Infinity Pool alongside Telefilm Canada and the Croatian Film Fund. The story follows a rich young couple in love who go to an elite resort where danger lurks beyond the gates. Film Forge and Elevation Pictures, who distribute in Canada, are among the producers.
Contact: Celluloid Dreams
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (US)
Dir. Kasi Lemmons
After Jennifer Hudson’s turn as Aretha Franklin in awards- season contender Respect and Andra Day’s recent Oscar-nominated performance as Billie Holiday, Whitney Houston gets the biopic treatment in Lemmons’ first feature since 2019 Harriet Tubman escaped slave action biopic Harriet. Screen Star of Tomorrow 2017 Naomi Ackie plays the late, great R&B vocalist Houston. Lemmons directs from a screenplay by Oscar-nominated Anthony McCarten, whose credits include Bohemian Rhapsody, Darkest Hour and The Theory Of Everything.
Contact: TriStar
Killers Of The Flower Moon (US)
Dir. Martin Scorsese
Scorsese is back with longtime collaborators Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro in the story about an FBI investigation into the murder of members of the Osage tribe. Jesse Plemons and Brendan Fraser also star.
Contact: Apple
Kings Of The World (Colombia)
Dir. Laura Mora Ortega
This follow-up to Ortega’s 2017 Toronto and San Sebastian selection Killing Jesus is about five street children from Medellin in search of the land that one them has inherited. Kings Of The World is produced by Cristina Galleg, whose credits include Cannes selections The Embrace Of The Serpent and Birds Of Passage.
Contact: Film Factory
The Northman (US)
Dir. Robert Eggers
Eggers’ third feature after The Lighthouse and The Witch stars Alexander Skarsgard in the story of a Viking prince out to avenge his father’s death. Rounding out the cast on the Iceland-set 10th-century revenge thriller are Ethan Hawke, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang and previous Eggers collaborators Willem Dafoe, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie. Focus Features has set an April 22 release so provided the festival goes ahead a SXSW slot in mid-March could be on the cards.
Contact: Focus Features
Octopus Skin (Ecuador)
Dir. Ana Cristina Barragán
Up-and-coming Ecuadorian filmmaker Barragán premiered her 2018 debut Alba in Rotterdam and that year also participated in Berlin Talent Lab with the screenplay for her follow-up, Octopus Skin, which also won an award at Guadalajara’s works in progress sidebar last year. The drama centres on a woman who returns to the house where she grew up on an isolated beach following the death of her younger sister.
Contact: Caleidoscopio Cine
The Pale Blue Eye (US)
Dir. Scott Cooper
Another one from the Netflix war chest, Cooper’s follow-up to 2021 horror Antlers reunites him with his star Christian Bale in a crime mystery about a detective aided by a young cadet called Edgar Allan Poe. Starring with Bale are Harry Melling as the future celebrated author are Gillian Anderson, Toby Jones, Timothy Spall, Robert Duvall and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Coper’s Black Mass debuted in Venice in 2015.
Contact: Netflix
Pinocchio (US)
Dir. Guillermo del Toro
Del Toro’s take on Pinocchio is a stop-motion musical and promises to be a dark spin on the classic story of the puppet who yearns to become a human boy. Gregory Mann leads a voice cast that features Ewan McGregor, Finn Wolfhard, David Bradley, Christoph Waltz, John Turturro, del Toro regular Ron Perlman and Nightmare Alley star Cate Blanchett.
Contact: Netflix
Puán (Arg)
Dirs. Benjamin Naishtat, María Alché.
The film appeared in the Proyecta sidebar of the Ventana Sur market in 2020 and is a comedy about a Buenos Aires professor and father who gets the chance to assume high-ranking status at the university where he teaches. Pasto Cine and Pucara Cine are producers. The directors’ previous films have won awards at San Sebastian – Alché’s A Family Submerged took the 2018 Horizontes award while Naishtat’s Rojo won the main festival’s top three prizes.
Contact: Pasto Cine
Sharper (US)
Dir. Benjamin Caron
Julianne Moore stars in the A24 and Apple Original Films thriller that marks the feature directing debut of Caron, the acclaimed TV director whose work shone in episodes of The Crown, Sherlock and Wallander. Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka wrote The Black List screenplay about a con artist who targets Manhattan billionaires. Sebastian Stan and John Lithgow also star. Moore produces the film with Bart Freundlich, Gatewood, Tanaka and Erik Feig and Jessica Switch of ambitious Los Angeles producer Picturestart who have two films at Sundance (Am I OK? and Cha Cha Real Smooth.
Contact: A24/ Apple
She Said (US)
Dir. Maria Schrader
The German director of international Oscar submission I’m Your Man and Netflix series Unorthodox takes on this adaptation of New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor book of the same name. Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star as the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who expose Harvey Weinstein’s trail of rape and sexual assault. A US release date is set for November 18.
Contact: Universal
Till (US)
Dir. Chinonye Chukwu
Danielle Deadwyler stars as Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley, who fought for justice after her 14-year-old son Emmett Louis Till was lynched in August 1955. Chukwu makes her feature follow-up to her widely -admired Sundance 2019 grand jury prize-winner Clemency and co-wrote Till with Keith Beauchamp, who directed 2005 documentary The Untold Story Of Emmette Louis Till. The cast includes Frankie Faison and Whoopi Goldberg. MGM-owned Orion Pictures has US rights.
Contact: Orion Pictures / Endeavor Content
Untitled David O Russell Project (US)
Dir. David O Russell
After Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter and American Hustle, Russell has lain low since his last film, 2015’s Joy. Little is known about his period drama save that is boasts an illustrious ensemble, in this case Anya Taylor-Joy, Margot Robbie, Rami Malek, Russell favourites Christian Bale and Robert De Niro, and Taylor Swift. The 20th Century Studios film is set for November 4.
Contact: Disney/20th Century Studios
The Whale (US)
Dir. Darren Aronofsky
The dark master of US cinema returns after the outrageous flamboyance of 2017’s mother! with this tale of a reclusive 600-pound schoolteacher who sets out to reconnect with his estranged daughter. The usually affable Brendan Fraser plays the lead and if that seems like a stretch, consider Aronofsky’s work with Natalie Portman in Black Swan and Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. Samantha Morton and Sadie Sink also star. Aronofsky films often premiere in Venice so this could be a great fit for the Lido.
Contact: A24
White Noise (US)
Dir. Noah Baumbach
Greta Gerwig and Adam Driver star in what is sure to be a prestige target for international festivals. Baumbach’s adaptation of the apocalyptic Don DeLillo novel touches on family, existential threat and consumerism and reunites the filmmaker with Driver after 2019 Oscar contender Marriage Story from Netflix. This marks Baumbach’s first feature for the streamer under a multi-year deal.
Contact: Netflix
The Woman King (US)
Dir. Gina Prince Blythewood
Viola Davis and John Boyega, currently impressing in Sundance selection 892, star in the historical epic co-financed by eOne and TriStar. The story is inspired by events that occurred in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries, as the leader of a female military unit and a recruit take arms against their enemies. Prince Blythewood directed drama The Secret Life Of Bees and recent Netflix action fantasy The Old Guard starring Charlize Theron. eOne will distribute in the UK and Canada and TriStar handles the balance of territories.
Contact: TriStar
Women Talking (US)
Dir. Sarah Polley
Canadian actor turned director Polley wasted little time establishing herself as a director of note with Away From Her, Take This Waltz and documentary Stories We Tell. The cast of Women Talking shows how the world’s best are eager to work with her. Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Frances McDormand and Ben Whishaw star in the drama about women in a rural religious community who question their faith after a string of sexual assaults committed by the men in their midst. It is based on the 2018 book by Miriam Toews. Orion Pictures will distribute in the US. Plan B Entertainment is producing.
Contact: Orion Pictures
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