MAD Solutions has acquired the distribution rights to “Concrete Valley” for multiple territories. The film focuses on a Syrian family living in Toronto.

The film, from Canadian-French filmmaker Antoine Bourges, premiered at Toronto Film Festival, before travelling to Berlinale, and it just screened at Jeonju.

The deal covers the following territories: UAE, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, South of Sudan and Comoro Island.

The writers are Bourges and Teyama Alkamli. The producer is Shehrezade Mian at Markhor Pictures.

“Concrete Valley,” which mixes fact and fiction, focuses on a

Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage cemented their place in TV history with a pair of teen soaps that epitomized the aughts. “The O.C.” and the original “Gossip Girl” imprinted on an entire generation, giving millennials a taste for curated soundtracks, pre-recessionary opulence and side-swept bangs. For their latest project, the showrunning duo return to their comfort zone — or rather, contort their source material until it fits their M.O., whether or not it suits the story at hand.

“City on Fire,” an eight-episode limited series on Apple TV+, is adapted from Garth Risk Hallberg’s 2015 novel of the same name. The book, an urban epic that sprawls over 900

On the heels of winning a Peabody Award for the Showtime docuseries “We Need to Talk About Cosby,” W. Kamau Bell has launched a new production company, Who Knows Best, and inked an overall deal with Boardwalk Pictures.

Bell, an Emmy-winning producer, director, host and comedian, founded Who Knows Best Productions (WKB), an Oakland-based company, with the mission of “fostering a diverse creative community and telling revolutionary non-fiction stories by any medium necessary.”

WKB launches with a multi-year overall deal with Boardwalk Pictures (the award-winning production company behind “Chef’s Table,” “Cheer” and “Welcome to Wrexham”) after the parties partnered on the critically acclaimed four-part documentary “We Need

Please check out the latest podcast episodes of In Her Voice

Weekly News Brief on May 10- includes latest Writers Strike info

Interview with Laurel Parmet- writer/director of The Starling Girl which opens on May 12

Interview with Niki Caro- director of The Mother, now streaming on Netflix.

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To listen on Spotify

Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) executive director Tom Mara has announced the company’s acquisition of the Seattle Cinerama Theater from the estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen.

Mara revealed the news at the opening night celebration of the 49th annual SIFF on May 11. The festival runs through May 21.

“We are honored to take on stewardship of this historic theater. It’s a film venue adored by the community and speaks to the critical role SIFF plays in bringing the power and art of film to diverse audiences across our region,” Mara said. “So

At the 58th annual Academy of Country Music Awards, the top prize, entertainer of the year, was handed out to Chris Stapleton, even as Lainey Wilson and Hardy won in the the greatest number of categories, with four each — two of which they shared for the duet “Wait in the Truck.”

Technically, Hardy walked away with six trophies, since the ACMs offer double awards for artists who co-write their nominated songs.

Accepting for album of the year, Wilson said, “I wrote 300 songs during the pandemic.” Noting that some fans have said listening to her “Bell Bottom Country” album helped save their lives, Wilson said,

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The Scandoval that rocked a nation. After years of squabbles, cheating, firings and re-hirings the crew of West Hollywood former, twenty-somethings finally imploded over a cheating reveal that would shake even the most ardent of reality TV viewer to their core. After a decade of love it was revealed that legacy cast members Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix had split after Sandoval allegedly cheated on her with another costar, Raquel Leviss.

This

In a movie career that stretches back 25 years, Jennifer Lopez has on occasion done flaked-out underworld thriller romance (“Out of Sight”), capery action (“Parker”) and revenge (“Enough”). Yet she has never placed herself at the center of such a down-and-dirty, grimly overwrought, execute-now-and-ask-questions-later B-movie as “The Mother.” I’m tempted to call the film “minimalist,” because if you consider its bare-bones screenplay (by three writers!), its convoluted utilitarian set-up, its 2D villains, and its essential formulaic momentum, it’s a prime example of action filmmaking made basic.

Yet “The Mother” is a Netflix action movie, which means that it has a certain flavor of ambition mixed into its pulp

International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) and Women in Animation (WIA) have announced the selection of the five delegates of the second edition of the Stories x Women program.

Stories x Women’s works to support and provide opportunities for African, Asia-Pacific Islander and Latin American women animators who want to tell their authentic stories. The program is sponsored by the Walt Disney Company, with additional support from Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The five are “Superpunk” (Brazil) led by Mirtes Santana and Guilherme Petreca, “Negocio de Brujas” (Chile) led by Paulina Sanhueza Meléndez and Alejandra Jaramillo Fanta,

Meadow Walker Thornton-Allan, daughter of the late “Fast and Furious” star Paul Walker, was literally born into the Fast Family. But now, she’s making her first onscreen appearance in “Fast X.”

Walker shared a behind-the-scenes photo on Instagram teasing her appearance in the Universal movie, which appears to take place on a plane. “Fast X” is set to make its world premiere in Rome on Friday.

“The first ‘Fast’ was released when I was one year old!” Walker captioned the post, explaining how the cameo came to be. “I grew up on set watching my father, Vin, Jordana, Michelle, Chris and more on the monitors. Thanks