Berlinale Adds Disney Tribute Film, Donna Summer Docs To Line-Up
The Berlinale has added Love to Love You, Donna Summer and 100 Years of Disney Animation – A Shorts Celebration to its 73rd edition line-up running February 16-26. Both titles will screen in the Berlinale Special sidebar. Co-directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano’s the Donna Summer film tells the story of the disco star through unpublished film extracts, home video, photographs, artwork, writings, personal audio and other recording. Academy Award winner and Walt Disney Animation Studios President Clark Spencer fronts the Disney film, sharing his favorite shorts from the studios’ 100 years of filmmaking. In other news, the festival has announced it will pay tribute to French cinematographer Caroline Champetier with its Berlinale Camera 2023 award. She has chosen Anne Fontaine’s The Innocents, on which she did the cinematography, for a screening as part of Berlinale Special program.
Omar Sy WWI Drama ‘Father & Soldier’ Hits 1M Spectators In France
French WWI drama Father & Soldier, starring Omar Sy, has hit the symbolic box office threshold of one million spectators in France, its distributor Gaumont announced Monday. The production was released on January 4 after opening Cannes Un Certain Regard in May. The drama breaks new ground for its exploration of the role played by the 200,000 men drafted from French colonies to fight for France in WWI. Sy plays a Senegalese man in his 40s who voluntarily accompanies his conscripted son (Alassane Diong) to the frontline in Verdun in 1917. The film is the French film to hit the one million spectators mark in 2023. The release hit the headlines after Sy’s suggestion that some wars draw less interest that others prompted a backlash, in turn prompting him to call out racist attitudes. Father & Soldier is directed by Mathieu Vadepied and produced by Bruno Nahon at Unité and Sy, under the banner of Korokoro, in coproduction with Gaumont, France 3 Cinéma, Mille Soleils and Sypossible Africa.
StudioCanal Boss Anna Marsh To Keynote Mip TV
Anna Marsh, StudioCanal CEO and Deputy CEO of Canal+ Group, will deliver a keynote at Mip TV in Cannes in April. Marsh, who presides over the European studio spanning both feature films and TV series for the international market, will “explore the increasing crossover between mediums and the opportunities for talent, storytelling and innovative commercial strategies that spring from these.” Mip TV boss Lucy Smith said she is “uniquely and ideally placed to help navigate the changing landscape and illustrate the opportunities within and between both.” Marsh has been with StudioCanal for 15 years and has risen up the ranks, most recently named Canal+ Deputy CEO in October. She joins a keynote lineup featuring media vet and Emmy-nominated producer Evan Shapiro.
Sony Pictures Germany Veteran Martin Bachmann Joins Constantin Board
Long-time top Sony Pictures Entertainment Germany MD Martin Bachmann has been appointed to the supervisory board of Constantin Film, in a position taking effect on July 1, 2023. Martin Bachmann has a long history of representing US studios in Germany, working for Sony for more than three decades as MD of Sony Pictures Entertainment Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as Managing Director of Deutsche Columbia Pictures since 2003. “I’m delighted that the Executive Board team of Constantin Film is going to be further strengthened by the addition of Martin Bachmann, a high-profile, experienced manager. Among other things, this will emphasize Constantin Film’s dedication to the worldwide theatrical film business,” said Constantin Film chairman Martin Moszkowicz.