Gerrison Machado to Star in Amazon Prime’s Global Thriller “The Power”

Gerrison Machado has the power

The Brazilian American actor has been cast in Amazon Prime Video’s The Power, a 10-part global thriller based on Naomi Alderman’s bestselling novel of the same name.

The project hails Chernobyl producer Sister and Emmy-winning The Handmaids Tale director Reed Morano.

Machado, who will be a series regular, joins a cast of newcomers that includes Rob DelaneyAlice EveEdwina Findley, Arichi Rush, Pietra Castro and Zrinka Cvitešić.

In The Power all teenage girls in the world suddenly develop the power to electrocute people at will. It’s hereditary, it’s inbuilt, and it can’t be taken away from them. The Power follows a cast of remarkable characters from London to Seattle, Nigeria to Moldova, as the Power evolves from a tingle in teenagers’ collarbones to a complete reversal of the power balance of the world.

In addition to Machado, Rush, Castro and Cvitešić join The Power cast as series regulars.

Delaney, Eve and Findley will recur as Tom, Kristen and Helen, respectively.

The newly added stars will act opposite Tim Robbins, Leslie Mann, John Leguizamo, Eddie Marson, Daniela Vega and Auli’i Cravalho.

Also joining the cast in recurring roles are Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Sam Buchanan, Juliet Cowan and Simbi Ajikawo (aka Little Simz.)

HBO Max Picks Up First Season of Daniela Vega’s Spanish-Language Thriller “La Jauria”

Daniela Vega is maxing out…

WarnerMedia streaming service HBO Max has picked up the first season of La Jauría, Amazon Prime Video’s Spanish-language thriller starring the 31-year-old Chilean actress and mezzo-soprano singer.

Daniela Vega

Hailing from Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula, which made the Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman, the series tells the story of the disappearance of a young girl, who becomes the center of a police investigation into an online game that grooms men into assaulting women.

HBO Max will premiere the eight-part series on December 16.

In addition to Vega, La Jauría also stars Antonia Zegers, while Lucía Puenzo is the director. Fremantle produced the show alongside Fabula and Argentine company Kapow. Fremantle handles worldwide distribution.

Amazon commissioned a second season of La Jauría in July after premiering it across Latin America and Spain. Chilean public broadcaster TVN and the Consejo Nacional de Televisión (CNTV) are co-producers.

“It’s a gripping, compelling and timely drama that addresses important topical issues regarding the epidemic of violence against women. We are confident HBO’s audience will be moved by the standout storyline and the powerful performances,” said Sheila Aguirre, EVP of content distribution and format sales, Latin America, international, Fremantle.

Guillermo del Toro Wins Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for “The Shape of Water”

It’s turned out to be a monster night for Guillermo del Toro

The 53-year-old Mexican filmmaker had a nearly perfect night, picking up his first-ever Academy Awards for his romantic fantasy drama The Shape of Water.

Guillermo del Toro

del Toro, who co-wrote, directed and produced the film, was named Best Director, an award he was predicted to win throughout awards season.

Additionally, del Toro’s The Shape of Water took home the night’s top prize, Best Picture.

The romantic fable was conceived by del Toro as a tribute to the monster movies he loved as a child, updated to tell a story about tolerance and compassion that could speak to a contemporary audience.The film ultimately took home four Oscars, the most of any nominee.

“As a kid enamored of movies growing up in Mexico, I thought it would never happened, but it happened,” said del Toro, in accepting the Best Picture award.

del Toro, who missed out on being 3-for-3 when he lost in the Best Original Screenplay category, urged other young filmmakers to take inspiration from his win, and “use the power of fantasy to tell stories about things that are real in the world.”

The award was presented by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, who famously announced the wrong Best Picture winner last year, naming La La Land instead of actual winner Moonlight.

He’s the latest Mexican filmmaker to take home multiple awards in the same night… Alejandro González Iñárritu previously scored three Oscar wins in 2015 for Birdman: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

One year earlier, Alfonso Cuaron took home two Oscars for his film Gravity: Best Director. and Best Film Editing.

Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar’s Dia de los Muertos-themed animated film Coco won best animated feature and its featured tune, “Remember Me,” won Best Original Song.

And, the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film went to A Fantastic Woman, from Chile, the story of a transgender person struggling in the aftermath of the death of a lover.

The film edged out Ruben Östlund’s Swedish satire The Square and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Russian fable Loveless.

Directed by Sebastián Lelio and written by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza, the film marks the first Chilean entry for the foreign language Oscar since Pablo Larraín’s No, and the first ever Academy award for Lelio, in his follow-up to the acclaimed film Gloria.

At Sunday’s ceremony, the film’s star Daniela Vega became the first openly transgender person to present an award at the Oscars.

Here’s a look at all of this year’s Academy Award winners.

BEST PICTURE
The Shape of Water

ACTRESS
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 

ACTOR
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour

DIRECTOR
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Allison Janney, I, Tonya

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 

ORIGINAL SONG (PRESENTED TO SONGWRITERS)
Remember Me, from Coco (Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez)

ORIGINAL SCORE
The Shape of Water, Alexandre Desplat 

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Blade Runner 2049, Roger A. Deakins 

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Get Out, Jordan Peele 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory 

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
The Silent Child 

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 

FILM EDITING
Dunkirk, Lee Smith 

VISUAL EFFECTS
Blade Runner 2049 

ANIMATED FEATURE
Coco

 SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
Dear Basketball 

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Fantastic Woman (Chile) 

PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Shape of Water 

SOUND MIXING
Dunkirk 

SOUND EDITING
Dunkirk, Richard King and Alex Gibson 

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
Icarus 

COSTUME DESIGN
Phantom Thread, Mark Bridges

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Darkest Hour, Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick

Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” to Show at the Telluride Film Festival

Guillermo del Toro is heading to Colorado…

The 52-year-old Mexican filmmaker is among the directors taking the films to the Telluride Film Festival this year.

Guillermo del Toro

The festival, which always holds its cards close to the vest until the eve of the annual Rocky Mountain movie event — and which has become a strong bellwether for Oscar season with several Best Picture winners first showing there at the official launch of awards season — looks to have several major contenders in the lineup just released this morning.

del Toro will be bringing his latest film The Shape of Water to the film, after premiering the film to glowing reviews at the Venice Film Festival.

The filmmaker’s lyrical period fairy tale, starring Sally Hawkins, marks a return to Pan’s Labyrinth territory for the filmmaker.

It also stars Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins.

There will be plenty of foreign-language Oscar hopefuls on display including Chile’s transgender drama Fantastic Woman, directed by Sebastián Lelio.

The 43-year-old Argentinian-born Chilean filmmaker’s film stars Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes and Luis Gnecco.

The film centers on Marina as a young transgender waitress and aspiring singer. Reyes stars as Orlando, 20 years older than her, is the owner of a printing press. Marina and Orlando are in love and they both plan a future together. After Orlando dies suddenly, Marina sees herself forced to confront Orlando´s family and fight again to show everyone what she is: a complex, strong, honest and fantastic woman.

Here’s the complete lineup below:

  • ARTHUR MILLER: WRITER (d. Rebecca Miller, U.S., 2017)
  • BATTLE OF THE SEXES (d. Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, U.S., 2017)
  • DARKEST HOUR (d. Joe Wright, U.K., 2017)
  • DOWNSIZING (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2017)
  • EATING ANIMALS (d. Christopher Quinn, U.S., 2017)
  • FACES PLACES (d. Agnes Varda, JR, France, 2017)
  • A FANTASTIC WOMAN (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile-U.S.-Germany-Spain, 2017)
  • FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (d. Paul McGuigan, U.K., 2017)
  • FIRST REFORMED (d. Paul Schrader, U.S., 2017)
  • FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER (d. Angelina Jolie, U.S.-Cambodia, 2017)
  • FOXTROT (d. Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2017)
  • HOSTAGES (d. Rezo Gigineishvili, Georgia-Russia-Poland, 2017)
  • HOSTILES (d. Scott Cooper, U.S., 2017)
  • HUMAN FLOW (d. Ai Weiwei, U.S.-Germany, 2017)
  • THE INSULT (d. Ziad Doueiri, France-Lebanon, 2017)
  • LADY BIRD (d. Greta Gerwig, U.S., 2017)
  • LAND OF THE FREE (d. Camilla Magid, Denmark-Finland, 2017)
  • LEAN ON PETE (d. Andrew Haigh, U.K.-U.S., 2017)
  • LOVELESS (d. Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia-France-Belgium-Germany, 2017)
  • LOVE, CECIL (d. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, U.S., 2017)
  • LOVING VINCENT (d. Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, U.K.-Poland, 2017)
  • A MAN OF INTEGRITY (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2017)
  • THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (d. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2017)
  • THE RIDER (d. Chloé Zhao, U.S., 2017)
  • THE SHAPE OF WATER (d. Guillermo del Toro, U.S., 2017)
  • TESNOTA (d. Kantemir Balagov, Russia, 2017)
  • THE VENERABLE W. (d. Barbet Schroeder, France-Switzerland, 2017)
  • THE VIETNAM WAR (d. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, U.S., 2017)
  • WORMWOOD (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2017)
  • WONDERSTRUCK (d. Todd Haynes, U.S., 2017)

Two documentary shorts, HEROIN(E) (d. Elaine McMillion Sheldon, U.S., 2017) and LONG SHOT (d. Jacob LaMendola, U.S., 2017) will also play together in the main program.

 

Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman”

Sebastián Lelio’s latest project is expanding globally…

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the North American, Australian and New Zealand rights to the 42-year-old Argentine-Chilean filmmaker’s A Fantastic Woman, ahead of its world premiere in competition Sunday at the Berlin Film Festival.

Sebastián Lelio

Written by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza, the Spanish-language film stars Daniela Vega as Marina, a waitress and singer, and Orlando (Francisco Reyes), an older man, who are in love and planning for the future. After Orlando suddenly falls ill and dies, Marina is forced to confront his family and society, and to fight again to show them who she is: complex, strong, forthright, fantastic.

The Chile-U.S.-Germany-Spain co-production is produced by Fabula’s Juan de Dios Larraín and Pablo Larraín with German banner Komplizen Film.

Lelio’s previous film, Gloria, won Best Ibero-American Film at the 1st Platino Awards.