Carolina Markowicz returns to the circuit to release her second feature “Toll” (“Pedágio”), cementing another world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, this time in its Centrepiece strand, billed as championing “compelling stories, global perspectives,” before heading to San Sebastian for closing night honors in its Horizontes Latinos competition later this month.
Paris-based Luxbox handles international sales and has provided Variety with an exclusive first look at the riveting trailer.
After high praise for her feature-film debut “Charcoal,” Markowicz, among Brazil’s top-tier cineastes, returns with another compelling societal study, this time with an eye on a complicated mother-son relationship that leads to a keen understanding of just what people are capable of under the influence of their fragile, yet righteous, morality.
Produced by Karen Castanho, Bianca Villar and Fernando Fraiha, founding partners at Brazil’s Bionica Filmes (“Welcome Violeta”), Luís Urbano and Sandro Aguilar from O Som e a Fúria,...
Paris-based Luxbox handles international sales and has provided Variety with an exclusive first look at the riveting trailer.
After high praise for her feature-film debut “Charcoal,” Markowicz, among Brazil’s top-tier cineastes, returns with another compelling societal study, this time with an eye on a complicated mother-son relationship that leads to a keen understanding of just what people are capable of under the influence of their fragile, yet righteous, morality.
Produced by Karen Castanho, Bianca Villar and Fernando Fraiha, founding partners at Brazil’s Bionica Filmes (“Welcome Violeta”), Luís Urbano and Sandro Aguilar from O Som e a Fúria,...
- 9/6/2023
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Adding to its roster of local-language remakes, Sony Pictures International Productions is teaming with Biônica Filmes on a Brazilian redo of 2011 romantic comedy, Friends with Benefits which starred Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. The Brazilian version, Amizade Colorida, is directed by Rafael Gomes and stars Maria Bopp and Ícaro Silva.
Bopp plays Julia, a headhunter from Sao Paulo who recruits Daniel (Silva), an art director from Salvador, for a job interview at a major technology company. Initially skeptical about leaving his family and a house overlooking the sea in Bahia, he accepts the job after a day exploring the allure of Sao Paulo, guided by Julia. In a short time, their friendship turns into a casual friends-with-benefits relationship until they both realize that inevitably they are in love.
Gisele Fróes, Tuca Andrada, Luiz Pepeu and Daniel Furlan also star. Mariana Zatz and Gomes wrote the script. Producers are Bianca Villar,...
Bopp plays Julia, a headhunter from Sao Paulo who recruits Daniel (Silva), an art director from Salvador, for a job interview at a major technology company. Initially skeptical about leaving his family and a house overlooking the sea in Bahia, he accepts the job after a day exploring the allure of Sao Paulo, guided by Julia. In a short time, their friendship turns into a casual friends-with-benefits relationship until they both realize that inevitably they are in love.
Gisele Fróes, Tuca Andrada, Luiz Pepeu and Daniel Furlan also star. Mariana Zatz and Gomes wrote the script. Producers are Bianca Villar,...
- 8/16/2023
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
São Paulo’s Biônica Filmes, behind Carolina Markowicz’s Toronto hit “Charcoal” and her upcoming “Toll,” is driving into English-language production, backing “The Eyes of Another,” from Maria Arida, as Biônica taps into an exciting new generation of young women filmmakers in Brazil.
“Eyes” marks the feature debut from Arida, currently based out of São Paulo, who drew attention with “Instinct,” her AFI thesis film, a 17-minute short which world premiered at London’s BFI Flare, then had its U.S. premiere at the Phoenix Film Festival where it won the award for best Latin American short. It is written by Liz Buda (“Getting Meisnered”).
Arida describes herself as a Brazilian genre director focused on female-driven thrillers and horror films. Part of the official market selection of Fantasia’s Frontières industry platform, which unspools July 26-29, “The Eyes of Another” is a case in point. Now in advanced development, it turns on a renowned choreographer,...
“Eyes” marks the feature debut from Arida, currently based out of São Paulo, who drew attention with “Instinct,” her AFI thesis film, a 17-minute short which world premiered at London’s BFI Flare, then had its U.S. premiere at the Phoenix Film Festival where it won the award for best Latin American short. It is written by Liz Buda (“Getting Meisnered”).
Arida describes herself as a Brazilian genre director focused on female-driven thrillers and horror films. Part of the official market selection of Fantasia’s Frontières industry platform, which unspools July 26-29, “The Eyes of Another” is a case in point. Now in advanced development, it turns on a renowned choreographer,...
- 7/17/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Pedagio
Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz surprised us last year when she pulled out an entire other feature film rabbit from her hat. Charcoal became her feature film debut and her sophomore film is poised to launch this year making for an intense back to back years of premieres. Pedagio (Toll) went into production in November of ’21 – re-teaming the filmmaker with actress Maeve Jinkings and Bionica Filmes’ producer Karen Castanho. Luis Armando Arteaga (Private Desert) is the cinematographer.
Gist: Suellen (Maeve Jinkings) is a toll booth attendant who starts using her job to help a gang of thieves steal watches from people driving to the coast.…...
Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz surprised us last year when she pulled out an entire other feature film rabbit from her hat. Charcoal became her feature film debut and her sophomore film is poised to launch this year making for an intense back to back years of premieres. Pedagio (Toll) went into production in November of ’21 – re-teaming the filmmaker with actress Maeve Jinkings and Bionica Filmes’ producer Karen Castanho. Luis Armando Arteaga (Private Desert) is the cinematographer.
Gist: Suellen (Maeve Jinkings) is a toll booth attendant who starts using her job to help a gang of thieves steal watches from people driving to the coast.…...
- 1/12/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
It is the debut feature from Brazilian writer-director Carolina Markowicz.
Signature Entertainment has acquired UK and Ireland rights for satire Charcoal – the feature debut of Brazilian writer-director Carolina Markowicz.
The rights were picked up from Paris-based Urban Sales at this year’s American Film Market (AFM), with a theatrical release in the UK and Ireland planned for March 10 2023, followed by a digital release on March 20.
It is produced by Zita Carvalhosa’s Superfilmes (Brazil), alongside Karen Castanho of Bionica Filmes (Brazil) and Alejandro Israel of Ajimolido Films (Argentina).
A family in São Paulo’s countryside accept a mysterious guest into their home,...
Signature Entertainment has acquired UK and Ireland rights for satire Charcoal – the feature debut of Brazilian writer-director Carolina Markowicz.
The rights were picked up from Paris-based Urban Sales at this year’s American Film Market (AFM), with a theatrical release in the UK and Ireland planned for March 10 2023, followed by a digital release on March 20.
It is produced by Zita Carvalhosa’s Superfilmes (Brazil), alongside Karen Castanho of Bionica Filmes (Brazil) and Alejandro Israel of Ajimolido Films (Argentina).
A family in São Paulo’s countryside accept a mysterious guest into their home,...
- 12/13/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Hailed as a discovery by many critics who caught it at Toronto, where it world premiered in the Platform section, “Charcoal” adds Markowicz name very firmly to that of an exciting new young generation of women cineastes in Brazil.
It follows a family stretched thin in the smoke-enveloped Brazilian countryside, surrounded by numerous coal mines. When life becomes monotonous, matriarch Irene cuts a ludicrous deal with a local nurse. Shrugging familial responsibilities, she callously agrees to put her ailing father out of his misery to house a fleeing fugitive, earning a lump sum of money.
Darkly humorous, the film is a grim depiction of humans with nothing left to lose, coming to terms with the world around them that’s fallen deeper into roiling apathy and brutality. The project bleakly portrays a protagonist who can no longer beat back the systems that oppress them, so they figure they ought to join them instead.
It follows a family stretched thin in the smoke-enveloped Brazilian countryside, surrounded by numerous coal mines. When life becomes monotonous, matriarch Irene cuts a ludicrous deal with a local nurse. Shrugging familial responsibilities, she callously agrees to put her ailing father out of his misery to house a fleeing fugitive, earning a lump sum of money.
Darkly humorous, the film is a grim depiction of humans with nothing left to lose, coming to terms with the world around them that’s fallen deeper into roiling apathy and brutality. The project bleakly portrays a protagonist who can no longer beat back the systems that oppress them, so they figure they ought to join them instead.
- 10/4/2022
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
Carolina Markowicz’s dark satire “Charcoal,” which world premieres on Sept. 11 at Toronto Film Festival, has debuted its teaser trailer with Variety (below). World sales are being handled by Urban Sales.
The film, which plays in the festival’s Platform section, centers on a poor family living in a remote area in Brazil, who earn a pittance from their charcoal business. When a shady nurse asks them to host a mysterious foreigner they accept. The home soon becomes a hideout as the so-called guest happens to be a highly wanted drug lord. The mother, her husband and child will have to learn how to share the same roof with this stranger, while keeping up appearances of an unchanged peasant routine.
Diana Cadavid at Toronto Film Festival commented: “For her unsettlingly precise feature-film debut, writer-director Carolina Markowicz blends biting social commentary on the pervasive forces that prey on the least fortunate...
The film, which plays in the festival’s Platform section, centers on a poor family living in a remote area in Brazil, who earn a pittance from their charcoal business. When a shady nurse asks them to host a mysterious foreigner they accept. The home soon becomes a hideout as the so-called guest happens to be a highly wanted drug lord. The mother, her husband and child will have to learn how to share the same roof with this stranger, while keeping up appearances of an unchanged peasant routine.
Diana Cadavid at Toronto Film Festival commented: “For her unsettlingly precise feature-film debut, writer-director Carolina Markowicz blends biting social commentary on the pervasive forces that prey on the least fortunate...
- 8/31/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Paris-based Urban Sales has swooped on international sales rights to Brazilian writer-director Carolina Markowicz’s awaited debut feature film “Charcoal” (“Carvão”), which is set for its world premiere at at Toronto’s prestigious Platform showcase before heading to San Sebastian for a Europe bow as part of its just-revealed Horizontes Latinos lineup.
Urban Sales has also shared with Variety a first look still from the film.
Distribution in Brazil is handled by Pandora Filmes, founded by André Sturm, which launched the country’s first classic film streaming platform Belas Artes in 2019, bringing big-name, cult, and regional classics to audiences nationwide.
Markowicz has written and directed six short films that have been selected by 400 festivals including Locarno, SXSW, Toronto and AFI. Her short film,“The Orphan,” a gritty tale about a young queer boy who tries to navigate his most recent adoption after being placed with a well-off conservative family, premiered...
Urban Sales has also shared with Variety a first look still from the film.
Distribution in Brazil is handled by Pandora Filmes, founded by André Sturm, which launched the country’s first classic film streaming platform Belas Artes in 2019, bringing big-name, cult, and regional classics to audiences nationwide.
Markowicz has written and directed six short films that have been selected by 400 festivals including Locarno, SXSW, Toronto and AFI. Her short film,“The Orphan,” a gritty tale about a young queer boy who tries to navigate his most recent adoption after being placed with a well-off conservative family, premiered...
- 8/11/2022
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival or in native Estonian — PÖFF — winners were announced in one of the largest and most distinctive film events in Northern Europe.
The festival is a long one from November 11 to 27, 2016 to accomodate the public and it embraces a cluster of events, accommodating three full-blown sub-festivals (Animated Dreams, Just Film, Sleepwalkers) as well as international industry events bringing together filmmakers from all over the world.
The festival includes two international competition programs (Main Competition and First Features Competition), a traditional film festival program with documentaries and feature films as well as programs for short films, retrospectives and film related special events (concerts, exhibitions, talks and more).
The winners of this year’s festival are:
Main Competition Jury Members: Uberto Pasolini, Steen Bille, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Laura Birn, Kang Soo-Yeon, William Goldstei
Grand Prix for the Best Film (Bronze wolf statuette and a grant of 10,000 Euros, equally...
The festival is a long one from November 11 to 27, 2016 to accomodate the public and it embraces a cluster of events, accommodating three full-blown sub-festivals (Animated Dreams, Just Film, Sleepwalkers) as well as international industry events bringing together filmmakers from all over the world.
The festival includes two international competition programs (Main Competition and First Features Competition), a traditional film festival program with documentaries and feature films as well as programs for short films, retrospectives and film related special events (concerts, exhibitions, talks and more).
The winners of this year’s festival are:
Main Competition Jury Members: Uberto Pasolini, Steen Bille, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Laura Birn, Kang Soo-Yeon, William Goldstei
Grand Prix for the Best Film (Bronze wolf statuette and a grant of 10,000 Euros, equally...
- 11/29/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
UK dystopian drama starring Jonathan Pryce and Agyness Deyn will have its international premiere at the festival.
Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Nov 11-2) has revealed the line-up for this year’s First Features Competition, which is returning after a successful debut in 2015.
Comprised of 14 world and international premieres, the programme includes the international premiere of Alex Helfrecht and Jorg Tittel’s The White King, which world premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June.
The dystopian drama stars Jonathan Pryce, Greta Scacchi and Agyness Deyn in the story of a precocious 12-year-old coming to grips with his father’s abduction and internment at the hands of the totalitarian state he calls home. The film shot entirely on location in Hungary.
World premieres in the selection include Hadi Ghandour’s Lebanon-France co-pro The Traveller (Le Voyageur), Kira Kovalenka’s Russian drama Sofichka, and Iranian director Navid Danesh’s debut feature Duet.
Festival director...
Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Nov 11-2) has revealed the line-up for this year’s First Features Competition, which is returning after a successful debut in 2015.
Comprised of 14 world and international premieres, the programme includes the international premiere of Alex Helfrecht and Jorg Tittel’s The White King, which world premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June.
The dystopian drama stars Jonathan Pryce, Greta Scacchi and Agyness Deyn in the story of a precocious 12-year-old coming to grips with his father’s abduction and internment at the hands of the totalitarian state he calls home. The film shot entirely on location in Hungary.
World premieres in the selection include Hadi Ghandour’s Lebanon-France co-pro The Traveller (Le Voyageur), Kira Kovalenka’s Russian drama Sofichka, and Iranian director Navid Danesh’s debut feature Duet.
Festival director...
- 10/13/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
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