Latest news with #CineticMedia
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sundance-Winning ‘Cactus Pears' Director Rohan Kanawade Signs With Cinetic Media (EXCLUSIVE)
Following his historic Sundance Grand Jury Prize win for 'Cactus Pears' ('Sabar Bonda'), director Rohan Parashuram Kanawade has inked a management deal with Cinetic Media, it was revealed on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival. Kanawade's debut feature made history as the first Marathi-language film and first Indian fiction title to claim Sundance's top World Cinema Dramatic Competition honor this past January. More from Variety Les Studios de Paris, Where 'Jackie' and 'The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon' Filmed, Positions Itself as One Stop Shop for International Productions Polish Talents Continue to Rise as Industry Eyes Overhaul to Incentive Scheme: 'We Need a System Equal to the Needs of Poland' 'The President's Cake' Review: Hasan Hadi's Warm and Heart-Tugging Tale Sends Dutiful Kids on an Odyssey in Saddam Hussein's Iraq 'It's an incredible honor to be represented by Cinetic Media, a company known for championing cinema that pushes creative boundaries and defies conventional norms,' Kanawade told Variety. 'For a story as personal and intimate as 'Sabar Bonda' to find global resonance – and now, a team that believes in its journey as much as we do – is both humbling and empowering. This partnership isn't just about where the film goes next – it's about what kinds of stories get to be seen, heard, and remembered. I hope this marks the beginning of a longer arc for regional, authentic and emotionally grounded Indian stories to travel across languages and borders.' In 'Cactus Pears,' a 30-something city dweller named Anand is forced to spend a 10-day mourning period for his father in rural western India, where he forms an unexpected bond with a local farmer struggling to remain unmarried. The emotionally resonant drama has connected with audiences across borders since its Sundance triumph. The film will receive a theatrical release via Strand Releasing this fall, following a festival run that included New Directors/New Films, San Francisco Film Festival (where it won the Special Jury Prize – Visions), and the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (winner of the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature). Marcus Hu of Strand Releasing said: 'Strand is thrilled to hear this news and what a great partnership for the filmmaking team to get this representation.' Neeraj Churi, a producer on the film and founder of Lotus Visual Productions, added: 'While Cinetic Media has always aimed to champion films and filmmakers that are bold and original, this development reaffirms that the global film industry is expanding its gaze, ready to embrace not only big cinema but brave cinema. We also acknowledge the unique role played by NFDC lab, Co-pro market and India Cine Hub grant in shaping and propelling the film and Rohan into the international arena. With MPM premium, Strand Releasing and Cinetic, we are excited to collaborate with a team that truly understands nuance and recognizes the potential of Indian independent cinema in all its emotional complexity.' Kanawade's personal journey adds another layer to the film's success story. Raised in a one-room house in a Mumbai slum by a chauffeur father and illiterate homemaker mother, he is a self-made filmmaker with a background in interior design. His short films have screened globally, and 'Cactus Pears' was developed in the Venice Biennale College Cinema 2022-2023, and was also included in the Film London Production Finance Market 2021, NFDC Marathi Script Camp 2021, Film Bazaar 2022, Venice Gap Financing Market 2023 and Goes to Cannes 2024. The cast includes Bhushaan Manoj, Jayshri Jagtap, and Suraaj Suman. Behind the camera, Vikas Urs handled cinematography, with Anadi Athaley editing and Anirban Borthakur and Naren Chandavarkar as sound designers. Cinetic will represent Kanawade across all media. 'Cactus Pears' is produced by Neeraj Churi (Lotus Visual Productions, U.K.), Mohamed Khaki (Canada), Kaushik Ray (Taran Tantra Telefilms, U.K.), Naren Chandavarkar (Moonweave Films, India), Sidharth Meer (Bridge PostWorks, India) and Hareesh Reddypalli (Dark Stories, India), along with co-producer Jim Sarbh (Wonderful Entertainment, India) and associate producer Rajesh Parwatkar (U.K.).Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Neon Names Cinetic's Ryan Werner as President of Global Cinema
Oscar-winning film studio Neon has made a key hire in Ryan Werner, a dogged veteran and fixture in the indie film space. Neon CEO Tom Quinn has named Wener to the newly created role of president of global cinema, where he will lead distribution and shepherd the company's auteur-driven slate to audiences. Werner comes from Cinetic Media, the American financing and distribution company he founded in 2014. More from Variety Cannes Skimps on Movie Marketing Stunts: Hollywood Wonders Where the Hype Went? Mexican Helmer Alex Kahuam, in Cannes' Fantastic Pavilion With 'The Remedy,' Eyes European Locations for Next Major Project (EXCLUSIVE) 'Longlegs' Director Osgood Perkins Launches Production Banner, Signs First-Look Deal With Neon 'Ryan's taste, passion and instincts for cinema are boundless,' Quinn said in a statement. 'Together, combined with Ryan's extensive knowledge, wealth of relationships and envious track record, we look forward to continue growing Neon as a premiere home for groundbreaking cinema. To say we're thrilled about working with Ryan would be the understatement of the year.' Werner's new purview will be focused on theatrical distribution, working alongside Neon senior leadership (including distribution chief Elissa Federoff and international distribution executive Kristen Figeroid) to juice marketing and release strategies as the company expands worldwide production and release efforts. 'I'm incredibly excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Tom and the exceptional team at Neon,' Werner said. 'I deeply admire everything they have accomplished. This is a very special opportunity to create something with some of the most talented people working in film. I am honestly thrilled by the prospect of it.' Neon just swept this year's Academy Awards with five wins for Sean Baker's 'Anora,' a fairy tale about a Brooklyn sex worker and the Russian oligarch's son who takes her on a wild, emotional ride. Last year, the company marked its biggest ever box office earner with Osgood Perkins' horror hit 'Longlegs.' On the ground at Cannes, Neon has Joachim Trier's ' Sentimental Value' and Julia Ducournau's 'Alpha,' both premiering in competition, as well as Raoul Peck's 'Orwell: 2+2=5' and Michael Angelo Covino's 'Splitsville,' starring Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘No Other Land' Co-Director Hamdan Ballal Freed, Says Yuval Abraham
Hamdan Ballal, one of the Palestinian co-directors of Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, has been freed after being detained and beaten, according to the documentary's Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham. According to Abraham, Ballal was yesterday attacked by a mob of Israeli settlers close to his West Bank village on Monday and then arrested by soldiers. The move sparked outcry among many in the international and U.S. film community. In a post on X yesterday, Abraham reported: 'A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co-director of our film No Other Land. They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called and took him. No sign of him since.' Ballal is one of four co-directors on No Other Land, alongside fellow Palestinian filmmaker and activist Basel Adra, Abraham and Israeli cinematographer, editor and director Rachel Szor. Shot between 2019 and 2023, No Other Land captures the struggle of people living in the West Bank Palestinian villages of Masafer Yatta in the face of attempts by Israeli authorities and settlers to erase their homes and history from the map. Israeli settlers have continued to attack the area since the film's Oscar win on March 2. According to reports on website of Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the attack happened around 6 p.m. local time in Ballal's West Bank village of Susya, when a settler approached Palestinian homes and was asked to leave by residents. Dozens of settlers then appeared, according to local reports, and started attacking villagers with stones and blows, as well as destroying local infrastructure such as water tanks and smashing car windows. The International Documentary Association said in a statement Monday, 'We demand Ballal's immediate release and that his family and community be informed about his condition, location and the justification for his detention.' The documentary follows the journey of Adra as he documents the devastation of his hometown, after it is designated for Israeli military training. His efforts to raise awareness gain momentum with the support of Israeli journalist Abraham, who amplifies his narrative. The work world-premiered at 2023 Berlinale, where it won the Audience Award and Berlinale Documentary Award, with Abraham sparking controversy after he criticized a 'situation of apartheid' in Israel and called for a ceasefire in Gaza in his acceptance speech. Abraham subsequently received death threats and was accused of antisemitism. The journalist and filmmaker, who is descended from a family that was decimated in the Holocaust, has categorically refuted these accusations. Since its premiere, No Other Land has won 68 film festival and annual prizes, including the BAFTA Award, European Film Award, IDA Awards and Gotham Independent Film Awards. The filmmakers instead opted for a self-distribution in partnership with Cinetic Media, which facilitated theatrical bookings. The documentary premiered on February 2 on a single screen, grossing $26,000, and continued to thrive for four additional weeks, surpassing the $1.2 million mark and expanding to 120 screens. The film landed in the eye of a fresh storm this month when Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner proposed terminating a lease agreement with indie cinema O Cinema due its screening of the film, saying the pic failed a to present a fair and balanced view. He was forced to stand down by local opposition to the move. More than 600 people including several Oscar winners signed an open letter to the city decrying the theater's potential shutdown as 'an attack on freedom of expression, the right of artists to tell their stories, and a violation of the First Amendment.' Best of Deadline 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery How To Watch 'Wicked: Part One': Is The Film Streaming Yet? All The Songs In 'Severance' Season 2: From The Who To Ella Fitzgerald
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
This Oscar-winning movie is difficult to see in movie theaters. Why one cinema fought for the right to show it.
When No Other Land premiered in the U.S. in February, the documentary chronicling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as told through a cross-cultural friendship opened on a single screen. The film had no domestic distributor. After winning the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film in March, it still doesn't. Adding to those distribution challenges, a Miami Beach, Fla., theater that screened the film after its Oscar win faced — and recently overcame — a planned eviction by the city's mayor. Distributors in the U.S. have shied away from the film, which has generated controversy and seen one of its filmmakers, Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, face accusations of antisemitism after an awards acceptance speech at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival in which he called the conflict 'a situation of apartheid.' Showing the destruction of homes and villages in the West Bank region of Masafer Yatta by Israeli military forces, No Other Land looks at the conflict through the eyes of both Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor. It also shows the differences in freedom Abraham experiences versus the limits Adra faces as a Palestinian activist. Adra echoed this in his Oscars acceptance speech, saying, 'We call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.' As a new father, he said his 'hope to my daughter is that she will not have to live the same life I'm living now.' Tensions, both onscreen and off, run high. That's why the filmmakers have since had to self-release their film in the U.S., working with companies Tuckman Media and Cinetic Media to facilitate bookings that have now expanded to 120 screens. (The film landed distributors in two dozen other countries before its March 2 Oscar win.) One of the U.S. theaters showing the critically acclaimed film, O Cinema in Miami Beach, recently faced an eviction attempt by the city's mayor, Steven Meiner, who is Jewish. After the film screened on March 7 at the theater, which is located in a city-owned building, Meiner introduced a proposal to terminate a lease agreement with O Cinema, calling the film 'a false, one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people' in a newsletter to constituents. 'I am a staunch believer in free speech. But normalizing hate and then disseminating antisemitism in a facility owned by the taxpayers of Miami Beach, after O Cinema conceded the 'concerns of antisemitic rhetoric,' is unjust to the values of our city and residents and should not be tolerated,' Meiner wrote. The mayor had first corresponded with O Cinema's CEO Vivian Marthell on March 5, asking her to reconsider the cinema's plan to screen the film. After Marthell conceded in a letter the following day, calling the film 'antisemitic rhetoric,' she later reversed course after consulting the theater's independent board and 'reflecting on the broader implications for free speech and O Cinema's mission.' The blowback for Meiner was swift, with not only O Cinema representatives but also filmmakers, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and local residents questioning his commitment to free speech. 'We take very seriously our responsibility as a cultural organization that presents works that are engaging and thought-provoking and that foster dialogue,' Kareem Tabsch, a filmmaker and co-founder of O Cinema, told the New York Times. 'And we take very seriously our responsibility to do that without interference of government.' (Tabsch did not immediately respond to Yahoo Entertainment's request for comment.) Abraham of No Other Land, who also did not respond to Yahoo Entertainment's request for comment, issued a strong rebuke of the mayor's move on X. 'When this mayor uses the word antisemitism to silence us, Palestinians and Israelis who proudly oppose occupation and apartheid together, fighting for justice and equality for all, he is dangerously emptying it out of meaning,' he wrote. 'Banning a film only makes people more determined to see it.' In an open letter to the city of Miami Beach that had more than 750 signatures, members of the international filmmaking community wrote that the mayor's proposal was an "attack on freedom of expression, the right of artists to tell their stories and a violation of the First Amendment." It continued: "It is also an offense to the people of Miami Beach, and Greater Miami as a whole, who deserve to have access to a diverse range of films and perspectives.' In response to a March 18 town hall video posted on Meiner's Facebook page, a local resident commented, 'I'm a Jew and Zionist and your constituent. However, I disagree with your stance. You do not get to decide what films citizens get to see because it's offensive to you.' In a city commission meeting on March 19, the mayor relented and withdrew his proposal to end O Cinema's lease and cut funding. He also set aside an alternative measure, asking that the theater screen films in which 'the viewpoint of the Jewish people and the State of Israel is fully and accurately presented,' according to the New York Times. 'This was a discussion that needed to be had — it was a healthy discussion, and I'm glad that we had it,' Meiner said at the meeting, the Times reported. In the meantime, the two showings of No Other Land at O Cinema scheduled for March 20 are sold out.
