EXCLUSIVE: Goodfellas has unveiled one of its biggest EFM slates ever featuring upcoming films by Cristian Mungiu, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Saeed Roustaee, Claire Denis, Mario Martone and Raoul Peck.
The company is also handling a trio of Berlinale titles, Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Golden Bear contender, The Ice Tower with Marion Cotillard; Burhan Qurbani’s No Beast. So Fierce. in Berlinale Special and fresh acquisition, Bálint Dániel Sós’s Growing Down.
The latter film, which premieres in the new competitive Perspectives section aimed at first films, revolves around a widowed father of two, who is tested by fate when he becomes the only witness of a serious accident involving his stepdaughter caused by his youngest son.
Goodfellas will begin pre-sales on Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s first English-language picture Fjord, with Oscar nominee Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) and Cannes Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person In The World) about Catholic-Romanian family the Gheorghius, which moves to the Norwegian village where the mother was born.
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They quickly bond with a Norwegian family in the neighboring house in spite of their different backgrounds until the newly arrived parents are suspected of hurting their own children.
Due to start shooting in Norway in March, it is the first film in three years after 2022 drama R.M.N for Mungiu, who won the Cannes Palme d’Or for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.
Other additions in production include Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, starring Oscar winner Javier Bardem as an acclaimed director who reunites on set with his estranged struggling actress daughter, played by Victoria Luengo (The Room Next Door), and is forced to face a troubled past, neither of them want to confront.
They are joined in the cast by Raúl Arévalo (Pain and Glory), and Marina Foïs, who starred in the Spanish director’s breakout 2022 The Beasts (As Bestas)
The company is also commencing sales on Claire Denis’s The Fence which sees her return to Africa, the setting of her films Chocolat and Beau Travail.
Set in Nigeria over the course of 24 hours, Matt Dillon and Tom Blyth play a construction supervisor and young engineer, opposite Isaach de Bankole as a man who turns up at their construction site in the dead of night, demanding the body of his dead brother.
Bafta and European Film Award-winning How To Have Sex actress Mia Mackenna-Bruce has also recently joined the cast of the film, which is currently in production.
Fresh additions in post-production include Italian director Mario Martone’s Fuori taking inspiration from the life of late Italian actress and writer Goliarda Sapienza, reincarnated on the big screen by Valerio Golino.
The drama about friendship in adversity, female solidarity, and anti-conformism, revolves around Sapienza’s time spent in jail after she stole jewellery from a high society acquaintance, where finds herself living alongside thieves, junkies, sex workers and revolutionaries, in an experience that will change her forever.
It follows Martone’s 2022 Cannes Palme d’Or contender Nostalgia, which went on to be Italy’s Best International Feature Film Oscar submission.
The company has also boarded sales on Saeed Roustaee’s Woman and Child, the first film from the Iranian director since his 2022 Cannes Palme d’Or contender Leila’s Brothers. It is in post-production.
The contemporary family drama of revenge and forgiveness stars Parinaz Izadyar (Law of Tehran) as a widowed nurse struggling with her rebellious son. Tensions reach a peak during the betrothal ceremony with her new boyfriend, but when a tragic accident occurs, she finds herself confronting feelings of betrayal as she seeks justice.
Further cast members include Payman Maadi, who also appeared in Leila’s Brothers and Law of Tehran, as well as Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, for which he won he Best Actor at Berlin.
The company is also handling Bafta-winning filmmaker Raoul Peck’s upcoming documentary Orwell: 2+2=5 exploring how George Orwell’s works and his dystopian masterpiece 1984 in particular with its ideas around Doublethink, Thoughtcrime, Newspeak and Big Brother resonate ever-more powerfully today.
Interweaving archive footage from adaptations of 1984 with a tapestry of 21st century images, Peck dissects Orwell’s prescient genius and his vital lessons for our times and future.
The work co-produced by Peck’s Velvet Films and Oscar-winner Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions has already been acquired by Neon Rated for North America.
Further new titles include Japanese writer, producer and director Genki Kawamura’s Exit 8 about a man trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway on a frustrating mission to get out.
Inspired by the hit video game of the same name, it is billed as a labyrinthine horror with undertones of Alice in Wonderland and Squid Game.
It follows his drama A Hundred Flowers, for which he became the first Japanese filmmaker to win best director at San Sebastian in 2022, with the film going on to be Japan’s Best International Feature Film Oscar entry.
Kawamura is also well-known as a producer with credits including Monster, Your Name and Suzume.
Also from Japan, the company will officially kick off sales on Chie Hayakawa’s Tokyo-set drama Renoir about a young girl who becomes fascinated by telepathy and falls ever deeper into her own fantasy world to escape a difficult home life as her father battles cancer.
It is Hayakawa’s second film after dystopian euthanasia drama Plan 75, which debuted in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2022, garnering a Special Mention in the Caméra d’Or contest for best first film.
The company will also roll out sales on two highly anticipated titles from the Middle East: Palestinian fraternal directing duo Tarzan and Arab Nasser’s Once Upon A Time In Gaza and Egyptian filmmaker Abu Bakr Shawky’s The Stories.
The brothers’ latest film after Degrade and Gaza Mon Amour, Once Upon A Time In Gaza revolves around the friendship that develops between a young student and charismatic dealer with a big heart as they peddle drugs out of a falafel restaurant, and find themselves coming up against a corrupt cop and his oversized ego.
Abu Bakr Shawky’s The Stories sees Goodfellas reunite with the Egyptian director, having handled his debut feature and Cannes Palme d’Or contender Yomeddine.
Opening in Egypt in 1967, with the events of the Arab-Israeli Six Day War in the backdrop, it revolves around the pen pal relationship between a young man of humble origins in Cairo, and an Austrian girl, who spurs him on in his ambitions to become a concert pianist.
Over the course of nearly 20 years, they stay in contact through wars, family joys, opposition and dramas, failures and triumphs.
Previously announced upcoming films on the slate include Rebecca Zlotowski’s murder-mystery Vie Privée with Jodie Foster, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s under-the-radar first feature in three years Young Mothers, Morte Cucina by Thailand’’s Pen-Ek Ratanaruang; Egyptian-American director Lotfy Nathan’s genre exploration of the childhood of Jesus The Carpenter’s Son, starring Nicolas Cage, FKA twigs, Noah Jupe and Souheila Yacoub; Finnish fantasy drama Nightborn by Hanna Bergholm (Hatching), and Nico Ballesteros’s fly-on-the-wall Kanye West doc In Whose Name?.
The post Goodfellas Unveils Star-Studded EFM Slate With New Films By Cristian Mungiu, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Claire Denis, Saeed Roustaee, Mario Martone, Raoul Peck & Fresh Berlinale Acquisition appeared first on Deadline.
