Latest news with #MyFriendEva
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Filmax Rolls Out Cesc Gay's ‘My Friend Eva,' Closing Italy, Germany (EXCLUSIVE)
Barcelona-based boutique studio Filmax has rolled out further pre-sales on 'My Friend Eva,' from 'Truman' director Cesc Gay, licensing key territories ahead of the film's Cannes screening, closing Italy (Teodora Films) and Germany and Austria (Neue Visionen). The film was also sold after Berlin's European Film Market to Israel (Lev Cinemas), Greece (Cinobo) and Bulgaria (Beta Films). Cinemania acquired the film rights for former Yugoslavia. More from Variety Hafsia Herzi Brings Live-Wire Spirit to Cannes Competition Title 'The Little Sister': 'I'd Always Dreamed of Doing Something Fast, a Bit Thrown Together.' 'The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo' Review: A Chilean Drama About HIV and Transgender Romance 'Sirat' Review: Oliver Laxe's Excruciatingly Tense, Escalatingly Insane Road Trip Through a Desert Purgatory The film turns on Eva (Nora Navas, 'Pain and Glory,' 'The Distinguished Citizen'), a married woman on a quest for passion whose life takes a dramatic turn after a serendipitous encounter in Rome. She remembers what it feels like to fall in love again. Juan Diego Botto ('The Suicide Squad') and Rodrigo de la Serna ('Money Heist') co-star. 'We're big fans of Cesc Gay's films and believe 'My Friend Eva's' lead character, this wonderful, interesting and relatable middle aged woman ,has the power to resonate with a large audience,' said Torsten Frehse, Neue Visionen CEO. 'My Friend Eva' is written by Gay and Edu Sola, winner of a screenplay Goya this year for 'A House on Fire.' It marks the latest from Imposible Films, Gay's near career-long producer. 'The film will have its eagerly-awaited release in Spain in September. Until then, we will continue to celebrate all the film's achievements on the international stage, as well as the news about another one of Cesc's films, 'The People Upstairs,' of which a star-studded American remake was recently announced,' said Diaz. 'Eva is my first female protagonist. I'd been wanting to write a leading lady for a long time, but hadn't dared to… until now! And I'm so glad I did, because I've found both writing and directing this film to be extremely stimulating and needless to say, we're all very happy with the result,' Gay noted. Produced by Marta Esteban at Barcelona-based Imposible Films, writer-director Gay has helmed 10 features since his debut 1998 'Hotel Room.' An ironist, with a sharp sense of societal pressures and the contradictions of human relationships and human foible, Gay is one of a relatively small number of Spanish directors whose films can open in cinema theaters outside Spain to substantial box office, as was the case with 'Truman' in Brazil, for example. He also directed TV series 'Félix,' selected for main competition at Canneseries. 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
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New Genre Label Chroma Launches, Partners With Fantastic Fest on Fantastic Pitches, Offering $100,000 to Winning Pitch Team (EXCLUSIVE)
In a bold move into production financing, Austin's Fantastic Fest is celebrating its 20th anniversary by partnering with new genre label Chroma to launch Fantastic Pitches. Ahbra Perry has been appointed vice president of Chroma, which is dedicated to the global distribution, acquisition and production of bold, visionary genre cinema. More from Variety Filmax Rolls Out Cesc Gay's 'My Friend Eva,' Closing Italy, Germany (EXCLUSIVE) Hafsia Herzi Brings Live-Wire Spirit to Cannes Competition Title 'The Little Sister': 'I'd Always Dreamed of Doing Something Fast, a Bit Thrown Together.' 'The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo' Review: A Chilean Drama About HIV and Transgender Romance A champion of distinctive genre movies, Perry is the former head of Alamo on Demand, also served as director of Giant Pictures OTT channels and theatrical acquisitions for Drafthouse Films. Supported by a team of experienced distribution executives, Perry, in her new role, will oversee Chroma's slate and spearhead production efforts, with a focus on elevating filmmakers working with smaller budgets and creative visions aiming to support the next wave of independent genre cinema. 'We're at a turning point for the future of independent cinema, and launching Chroma to champion emerging talent feels like the right move at the right moment,' said Perry. 'We eat, breathe, and sleep genre—and the filmmakers we work with do too. Every project we take on is, in its own way, fantastic,' she added. 'That's why this partnership with Fantastic Fest couldn't be more perfect – it's built to serve the artists we love and the ones we haven't met yet.' Films should be independent productions and shot in English, though projects are accepted from any part of the world. Submissions for feature film pitches will be open from June 16 through Aug. 8. Finalists will attend a live pitching event held in Austin, Texas at the festival, judged by a panel ofindustry experts who will announce a winner onsite. Fantastic Pitches invites ideas for micro-budget genre feature ideas. The winning pitch team at this year's Fantastic Fest will receive $100,000 in funding to complete their film, a guaranteed world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2026 and global all-rights distribution through Chroma, which is backed by Narrative Distribution. 'Over the past 20 years, Fantastic Fest has been proud to launch the careers of hundreds of filmmakers. The new partnership with Chroma champions the future of independent genre cinema — closing out Cannes with purpose and vision,' said Fantastic Festival Director Lisa Dreyer. As genre production ramps up around the world, largely a push phenomenon driven by a new generation of filmmakers, the Fantastic Pitches sees the festival dipping a big toe in project development. To date, Fantastic Fest has not had a project showcase nor a formal market. The Pitches are 'hopefully the first step in building that,' Dreyer told Variety at Cannes. 'There's so much genre getting made and with the success of titles such as 'The Substance,' people are seeing its commercial value,' she added. 'The box office just proves that people want to see genre films. We're seeing amazingly creative genre films coming out. There's never enough art in the world, and genre film is part of that,' she said. Yet 'it's still extraordinary for many small films to get any kind of distribution,' Perry noted.'Every year we see so many amazing films, you know, films that play Sundance, you know, they can't even get distribution,' said Dreyer. 'Chroma can help with the production, guiding filmmakers to states where they can get tax rebates in order to really stretch that $100,000,' she added. The whole point of the Fantastic Pitches is to just really help these filmmakers and then have the world premiere at Fantastic Fest. But we'e rewriting the playbook on how independent genre films get made – from pitch to premiere.' 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
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Inside the Painstaking Restoration of John Woo's ‘Hard Boiled' Set for Cannes Classics Spotlight (EXCLUSIVE)
Chow Yun-fat's bullet ballet is reloaded and ready to fire again on the Croisette. As John Woo's landmark 1992 action spectacle 'Hard Boiled' prepares for its spotlight screening at this year's Cannes Classics, Variety has uncovered the blood, sweat and digital wizardry behind saving the bullet-riddled masterpiece from cinematic extinction. More from Variety Kristen Stewart's Latvian Partner Forma Pro Films Ups Co-Pro Stakes (EXCLUSIVE) New Genre Label Chroma Launches, Partners With Fantastic Fest on Fantastic Pitches, Offering $100,000 to Winning Pitch Team (EXCLUSIVE) Filmax Rolls Out Cesc Gay's 'My Friend Eva,' Closing Italy, Germany (EXCLUSIVE) The Chow Yun-fat starrer, which had long been unavailable due to rights issues, comes to the Croisette with new revelations about the technical challenges faced during its meticulous preservation. In the film, a hard-boiled cop (Chow) who loses his partner in a shoot-out with gun smugglers goes on a mission to catch them. To get closer to the ring leaders, he joins forces with an undercover cop (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) who's working as a gangster hitman. Together, they use all means of excessive force to find them. The film also stars Teresa Mo, Philip Chan, Philip Kwok, and Anthony Wong. ''Hard Boiled' and all 156 films in the Golden Princess library have been largely unavailable outside of Asia because those rights have long been owned by Hong Kong property developer Kowloon Development Company,' explains Jordan Fields, senior VP acquisitions and originals at Shout! Studios, which spearheaded the restoration effort. 'KDC was not focused on the film business after the demise of Golden Princess Film Production in 1995.' Now, for the first time, restoration specialists have detailed the extensive work required to bring this cornerstone of action cinema back to its intended glory. The original negative, sourced from the Hong Kong Film Archive and digitized by Interface Video Production Ltd in Hong Kong, presented significant challenges. 'It was in poor condition, showing significant signs of age and wear,' reveals Michael Coronado, film restoration specialist at Duplitech. 'The most noticeable damage included frequent film tears throughout multiple reels. The iconic one-take hospital action sequence was notably marred by accumulated dust and deep vertical scratches that disrupted the visual clarity and intensity of the scene.' 'The element exhibited noticeable frame shifts and occasional warping, due to shrinkage,' he adds. The restoration team employed a sophisticated combination of Filmworkz Phoenix and Pixel Farm's PF Clean technologies. The process began with Phoenix DVO Frame Lock to stabilize the image before addressing flicker and warping issues. Among the most illuminating revelations is the extent of manual intervention required. 'One of the challenges in restoring 'Hard Boiled' was the film's intense action sequences characterized by explosions, gunfire, and rapid motion, which significantly limited automated dirt removal,' Coronado notes. 'These scenes required careful, frame-by-frame manual restoration.' A particularly challenging section emerged at the end of the fourth reel. 'Our team encountered a significant tear that had split the image across the frame,' Coronado discloses. 'To restore this section, our skilled restoration artists used clone-painting techniques by overlaying adjacent frames to repair the damaged footage.' The color grading process presented its own set of challenges. ''Hard Boiled' contains over 2900 shots throughout its 128 minute runtime, including many optical shots that had to be corrected with dynamic keyframes,' reveals supervising colorist Blake David-Blasingame of Duplitech. 'The negative was very inconsistent and had to be re-timed scene by scene, sometimes shot by shot, to maintain consistency.' The restoration culminated in a Dolby Vision HDR master, with all versions, including the P3 Digital Cinema version that will screen at Cannes, derived from this source. Henry Weintraub, restoration supervisor at Shout! Studios, describes the emotional investment in the project. 'Restoring the film was both a challenge and a labor of love,' he says. ''Hard Boiled' means a lot to so many people, myself included, and I wanted to be sure we did it justice. It was important to preserve the original look and sound design of the era, while also enhancing both to bring out their full potential.' Director John Woo has already given his stamp of approval. 'He said he was very happy with the restoration — which was incredibly rewarding to hear, especially given how personal the film is to him,' Weintraub confirms. The restoration's selection for Cannes Classics represents a fitting homecoming for a film widely considered one of the greatest action movies ever made, finally allowing new audiences to experience Woo's balletic violence and technical virtuosity on the big screen as originally intended. 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
