Deadline Hollywood - Contenders Film: International - 12/07/24
SONY PICTURES
CLASSICS
PRESENTATIONS
Saturday, December 7, 2024
I’m Still Here Kneecap
FAMART ASSOCIATION
815 PICTURES
DAWSON FILMS
OUTSIDER PICTURES
TANWEER PRODUCTIONS
Three Kilometres to the End of the World
Walter Salles (Director)
Selton Mello (Actor)
Fernanda Torres (Actor)
Rich Peppiatt (Writer/Director)
Emanuel Pârvu (Co-Writer/Director)
Miruna Berescu (Co-Writer/Producer)
Hsiao Ya-Chuan (Writer/Director)
Jiří Mádl (Writer/Director)
Vojtěch Vodochodský (Actor)
Tatiana Pauhofová (Actor)
Klaudia Reynicke (Writer/Director)
Gonzalo Molina (Actor)
Luana Vega (Actor)
Eva Nathena (Director/Costume Designer/ Art Director)
Dionyssis Samiotis (Producer)
Lettering By ANDREW FOOTIT
VENICE
TELLURIDE
RED SEA CANNES
Deadline’s hub for latest news, reviews, videos and more from film festivals around the world
MAVI FILM
LA TERRAZA FILMS
LIZART FILM
PRESENTATIONS
Saturday, December 7, 2024
Saturn Return
LEYTH PRODUCTION AND HAMZEH MYSTIQUE FILMS
NEXIKO
Under the Volcano Take My Breath
The Last Journey
WELL GO USA ENTERTAINMENT
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
SCHEDULE AND SPEAKERS SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Zeki Demirkubuz (Writer/Director)
Burak Dakak (Actor)
Isaki Lacuesta (Writer/Director) Cristóbal García (Producer)
Damian Kocur (Co-Writer/Director)
Mikołaj Lizut (Producer)
Agnieszka Jastrzębska (Producer)
Nada Mezni Hafaiedh (Writer/Director)
Ziad Hamzeh (Co-Producer)
Filip Hammar (Co-Writer/Co-Director/ Subject)
Fredrik Wikingsson (Co-Writer/Co-Director/ Subject)
Lars Beckung (Producer)
Soi Cheang (Director)
NoRequiredPassport
Thanks to Deadline’s third Contenders Film: International, you can sample the best in world cinema without leaving home
By Damon Wise
Just as the Best Picture race is still wide open as 2024 comes to an end, there’s a similar sense of excitement mounting about the breadth and range of films competing for Best International Feature Film. The submissions process found 85 of the 89 films presented eligible, but the real work starts now, in terms of whittling those down first to a shortlist of 15 and then to the final five. Perhaps more so than in recent years, the diversity is eye-popping, ranging from action thrillers to personal dramas and intimate docs.
As ever, this year’s lineup offers a snapshot of film festival highlights, taking us on a whistle-stop tour of the big five—Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Toronto—with titles that made an impact at events in Warsaw, Thessaloniki, Taipei, Locarno, Málaga, Haugesund and Karlovy Vary. If this sounds too much like a journey into uncharted territory, our writers are here to help you find your bearings, quizzing the films’ stars, directors, producers and screenwriters to find the stories behind the scenes.
Representing Brazil, we have Walter Salles’ Venice hit I’m
Still Here, a politically charged look back at life in Rio during the repressive ’70s. Park City, meanwhile, is still reeling after a visit from the team behind Ireland’s entry Kneecap, a roughhouse biopic of the titular rap trio. From Turkey comes Life, in which a woman escapes from an arranged marriage, and from Greece we have Murderess, a period drama about a turn-ofthe-century midwife. Taiwan brings us Old Fox, a 1990-set coming-of-age story in which a poor young boy befriends the ruthless landlord who controls his entire neighborhood.
Switzerland offers Queens, a family drama set during the political turmoil of early-90s Peru. From the same timeframe comes Spanish entry Saturn Return, which tells the true story of local indie-rock outfit Los Planetas. From Tunisia comes
This year’s lineup offers attendees a snapshot of film festival highlights.
Take My Breath, in which a young seamstress has their life overturned when their intersex identity is exposed. Sweden has opted for non-fiction this year, and The Last Journey finds a retired schoolteacher taking an impromptu road trip to rediscover his joie de vivre From Romania there’s Three Kilometres to the End of the World, which deals with the aftermath of a homophobic attack in a conservative Danube Delta community. Under the Volcano, from Poland, deals with consequences of a different kind, focusing on a Ukrainian family stranded in Tenerife at the start of the recent Russian invasion. On a similar theme comes the Czech Republic’s offering, Waves, a drama about events in Prague leading up to the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. And for something completely different, from Hong Kong comes Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, a martial-arts spectacular that took Cannes by storm at its wild midnight screening.
All these films have one thing in common: the ability to make the outside world feel that little bit closer. There’s no need to pack, just sit back and enjoy the ride.
MODERATORS Meet the
The Deadline staffers who’ll be guiding you through this year’s Contenders
YOUR HOST
ANTONIA BLYTH
Senior Awards Editor
Antonia has contributed to Deadline and AwardsLine’s print magazines since 2014. A native Brit based in LA, prior to joining she covered West Coast entertainment for ELLE.com, and her work has been featured in The Guardian, U.K. Marie Claire and InStyle. She has written a New York Times bestselling nonfiction book, regularly appears on French television network TF1 as an entertainment expert and is host of the podcast 20 Questions on Deadline.
YOUR MODERATORS
MELANIE GOODFELLOW
Senior International Film Correspondent
Melanie joined Deadline in 2022 as Senior International Film Correspondent. She came from U.K. trade Screen International, where she spent a decade covering film and TV news out of France, Europe and the Middle East. She has also worked for Variety and Moving Pictures as well as the U.K. broadsheet The Independent, entertainment magazine Heat and Japan’s The Daily Yomiuri, working out of London, Rome,
Brussels, Tokyo and Jerusalem. Melanie originally trained in journalism at Reuters and spent four years there in the mid-1990s as a reporter.
DIANA LODDERHOSE
International Features Editor
Diana has been working in global film journalism since 2005. Before returning to Deadline in 2021 to focus on features for international film and television, she was previously International Reporter for the site. She is based in London and has frequently covered all the major film festivals and markets including Cannes, Berlin, AFM, Toronto and Sundance. Prior to joining Deadline, Diana was the U.K. correspondent for Variety and also covered film news and box office at Screen International.
ZAC NTIM
International Reporter
Zac joined Deadline in 2022 from Insider/Business Insider, where he started as an intern before being promoted to a full reporter. After joining the site’s entertainment team in 2020 he wrote profiles and covered film and TV as well as film festivals. He is currently based in London.
NANCY TARTAGLIONE
International Box Office Editor/Senior Contributor
Nancy joined Deadline as International Editor in 2011. She
covers the global film, television and media business, with a particular focus on international box office and China; as well as various festivals and awards shows. Based in Europe for more than 25 years, Nancy is the former Editor-inChief of Hollywood Wiretap, and for 10 years was French Correspondent/Contributing Editor at ScreenDaily.com and Screen International. She also has worked for The New York Times as a freelance editor for its DealBook blog. Earlier in her career, Nancy was the European Media Correspondent for Inside.com and co-hosted Canal Plus’ film program Bazar. Nancy also spent four years as reporter and editor for Variety in Paris and Los Angeles. Prior to that, she worked in the Paris office of 60 Minutes and spent two years in the features department of the International Herald Tribune. She lives in the South of France.
DAMON WISE Film Editor, AwardsLine
Damon has contributed to Deadline since 2017. As a journalist, his film features, interviews and reviews have been published in publications such as Empire, Total Film, The Guardian, The Times and The Financial Times, and as well as covering set visits and junkets, he is a regular attendee at key international film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin and Venice. In 1998 he published his first book, Come By Sunday (Sidgwick & Jackson), a biography of British film star Diana Dors, and he is currently an advisor to the London Film Festival.
FILMS The
815 PICTURES
● Old Fox
In 1989, during a pivotal societal shift in Taiwan, Liao Tai-Lai (Kuan-Ting Liu) is a single parent who works in a restaurant to help support his 11-year-old son Liao Jie (Run-yin Bai). While dreaming of a better home to someday call their own, the boy meets their rental home landlord, known as the ‘Old Fox’. The savvy businessman takes pity on Jie and teaches him how to leverage inequality to succeed. Soon, Jie’s new mindset clashes with his father’s more considerate and humbling ways.
DAWSON FILMS
● Waves
This historical thriller unfolds against the backdrop of the international news office at Czechoslovak Radio, a place full of talented people with a commitment to honest work and a focus on the truth. The film highlights the bravery the news team displays in the face of an oppressive regime and stars Vojtěch Vodochodský, Tatiana
3 Old Fox
4 Three Kilometres to the End of the World
Pauhofová and Stanislav Majer. Waves is the third highestgrossing Czech film of all time.
FAMART ASSOCIATION
● Three Kilometres to the End of the World
Directed by Emanuel Pârvu, this thriller centers around a gay 17-year-old boy (Ciprian Chiujdea) who spends the summer in his home village in the Danube Delta wetlands region between Romania and Ukraine. One night, after being brutally attacked on the street, he and his family’s peaceful perception of the conservative traditional village is challenged. The film premiered in Cannes, winning the Queer Palm and later took Best Film at the Sarajevo festival.
LA TERRAZA FILMS
● Saturn Return
It’s the late 1990s, and in Granada, Spanish indie rock group Los Planetas is recording its third album. However, the process is anything but smooth sailing. While recording, the
The FILMS
band members find themselves in turmoil on the brink of success and total destruction. They must find a way to come together against all odds or disband forever. Loosely based on the story of the band Los Planetas, the film won Best Film, Director and Editing at the Málaga Film Festival in Spain.
LEYTH PRODUCTION AND HAMZEH MYSTIQUE FILMS
● Take My Breath
The Tunisian Oscar submission, directed by Nada Mezni Hafaiedh, the drama stars Amina Ben Ismaïl as a 23-yearold seamstress named Shams, whose life is overturned when their intersex identity is exposed. Shams escapes to the city, where they live in the shadows, shunned by love and rejected by society’s rigid norms and expectations. Fethi Akkari and Sana Ben Cheikh Larbi also star.
LIZART FILM
● Under the Volcano
This drama follows a Ukrainian family whose carefree vacation on the Spanish island of Tenerife is abruptly ended by the Russian invasion of their country. This unexpected occupation
transforms the tourists into refugees when they learn they can’t return home because of the invasion. The film stars Sofia Berezovska, Roman Lutskyi and Anastasiya Karpenko.
MAVI FILM
● Life
Also known as Hayat in its home country of Turkey, Life follows a young woman named Hicran (Miray Daner) as she runs away from home after being forced
1 Queens
2 Under the Volcano
3 Life
4 Take My Breath
5 The Last Journey into an engagement with a man named Riza (Burak Dakak). Riza, who thinks Hicran doesn’t care about him, nevertheless decides to embark on a long journey to search for her in Istanbul. This is director Zeki Demirkubuz’s first time repping Turkey in the Oscar race. Only one film from the Turkish market has advanced to the shortlist since 2008.
NEXIKO
●
The Last Journey
This documentary dramedy serves as Swedish filmmaker Filip Hammar’s homage to his 80-year-old father, Lars. In the film, Filip and his best friend and co-director Fredrik Wikingsson drive Lars to a French coastal town where they used to spend their vacations in an effort to reignite his ailing father’s passion for life. During their travels, the two filmmakers come to grips with aging and the meaning of life. The Last Journey is the highest-grossing documentary in the Swedish market.
OUTSIDER PICTURES
●
Queens
Klaudia Reynicke’s Queens, also known as Reinas, is a family drama set in Peru during the early 1990s as the country
The FILMS
undergoes social and political turmoil. During this time, Carlos (Gonzalo Molina), a father who moonlights as a taxi driver and failed actor, struggles to make life peaceful for his daughters (Abril Gjurinovic and Luana Vega) as they deal with the collapse of the economy and hyperinflation. The film played at the Berlinale, where it won the Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus section, and the Audience Award in Switzerland, the country it’s repping, at the Locarno Film Festival.
SONY PICTURES CLASSICS
● I’m Still Here
Walter Salles’ drama, the first narrative feature from the Brazilian filmmaker in 12 years, showcases a country in turmoil under the tightening grip of a military dictatorship. Based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s memoir about his mother, Eunice Paiva, the story follows a mother of five who is forced to reinvent herself when her husband, Rubens Paiva, is taken from their beachfront house by the military police and disappears in their custody. Fernanda Torres, Fernanda Montenegro and Selton Mello star.
● Kneecap
Inspired by the real-life West Belfast rap trio Kneecap, and starring bandmembers Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara and DJ Próvai, the film follows the group as they break ground in the late 2010s with tracks mixing Irish and English lyrics. It also focuses on how the group managed to infiltrate the pop culture zeitgeist while growing up in the wake of The Troubles. Naoise Ó Cairealláin is Bap, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh is Chara, and JJ Ó Dochartaigh is Prócai. Michael Fassbender also stars.
TANWEER PRODUCTIONS
● Murderess
Based on Alexandros Papadiamantis’ novel, The Murderess takes place on
3 Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In 4 I’m Still Here
the rugged Greek island of Skiathos in the early 1900s. There, Hadoula (Karyofyllia Karabeti), the island’s unofficial medicine woman, battles the memories of her long-dead mother’s rejection and struggles to survive the demands of a strict and patriarchal society. During this time, daughters who are born into poor families are considered an economic burden. Hadoul begins to take pity on the young girls and decides to intervene, becoming a kind of angel of death.
WELL GO USA ENTERTAINMENT
● Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
This martial arts neo-noir directed by Soi Cheang is Hong Kong’s International Feature entry. Set in Hong Kong during the 1980s, the film follows the adventures of a young man from mainland China named Chan Lok-kwan (Raymond Lam). When he accidentally strays into the nearby lawless district known as the ‘walled city’, he encounters a local crime lord. He has to survive among the chaos while learning important life lessons along the way. Louis Koo, Sammo Hung and Richie Jen also star.
