Wagner Moura Officially Takes Possession of Cannes Film Festival’s Best Actor Award for “The Secret Agent”

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Wagner Moura has officially claimed his Cannes Film Festival acting prize…

The 49-year-old Brazilian actor took physical receipt of his Cannes Best Actor Award six weeks after he won the coveted prize for his performance in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Palme d’Or contender The Secret Agent.

French actress Juliette Binoche, who was Jury President at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in May, surprised Moura on stage at the Cinéma Paradiso Louvre Festival in Paris on Saturday.

Moura and Mendonça Filho were in attendance for a sold-out, open-air screening of the thriller The Secret Agent, which also won Best Director in Cannes.

The actor was unable to attend the Cannes Awards ceremony in May because he had left the festival to return to the set of Louis Leterrier’s sci-fi horror 11817 in London.

”One of the things for me about this award, was the fact that you were the President of this jury. I can’t tell you how much I admire you and to receive this from your hands and all the amazing artists that were part of the jury,” Moura said to Binoche on receiving the award.

Binoche responded: “As the jury we just loved the film and loved you in the film so we definitely had to give you two prizes.

Moura dedicated his award to Brazilian Culture and all that champion and uplift it, and also sang a cappella excerpt from “Isto aqui o que é?, by João Gilberto.

Neon is gearing up to release The Secret Agent theatrically this fall in the U.S. where an awards campaign is planned.

The film is co-produced and distributed internationally by mk2, and produced by Emilie Lesclaux.

Aside from winning Best Director and Actor, The Secret Agent also clinched the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize for Best Film in the main competition and the Prix des Cinémas et Essai.

Organized by mk2, the Cinéma Paradiso Louvre Festival unfolds in a temporary open-air cinema in the Cour Carrée courtyard of the Louvre Palace, with the sand-covered setting taking inspiration from the Cannes Film Festival’s beach-set Cinéma de la Plage sidebar.

Olivier Martinez to Appear Opposite Maya Rudolph in New Apple Comedy Series

Posted on November 11, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Olivier Martinez is bringing the laughs…

The 55-year-old half-Spanish French actor has landed a heavily recurring role opposite Maya Rudolph in Apple’s untitled half-hour comedy series from Emmy winners Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard.

Created and written by Yang and Hubbard, the series follows Molly (Rudolph), a woman whose seemingly perfect life is upended after her husband leaves her with nothing but $87 billion.

Martinez will play Jean Pierre, a handsome, charismatic, romantic billionaire. Jean-Pierre comes from a philanthropic, old money family in France and wants his family’s charitable foundation to collaborate with Molly. Although he intends to keep it strictly business, there is an undeniable connection between Jean-Pierre and Molly.

MJ Rodriguez also stars.

Martinez first became known in his native France for his Cesar-nominated performance in IP5: L’ile aux Pachydermes. He went on to star opposite Juliette Binoche in The Horseman on the Roof and in the features Before Night Falls and Unfaithful.

Sebastián Lelio to Serve on Berlin International Film Festival Competition Jury

Posted on January 31, 2019 by Tom Castaneda

Sebastián Leliois ready to judge…

The Berlin International Film Festival, which gets underway next week, has revealed the competition jury for its 2019 edition, with the 44-year-old Oscar-winning Chilean-Argentine director earning a spot on the panel.

Lelio, who won an Academy Awardfor Best Foreign Language Film for helming A Fantastic Woman, will be joioned by German actress Sandra Hüllerand producer-director Trudie Styler.

They’ll join jury president Juliette Binocheto decide winners of the Goldenand Silver Bear awards.

Rounding out the jury are LA Times critic Justin Chang and Rajendra Roy, the Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Filmat New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman premiered at the festival in 2017 on its way to winning the 2018 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Binoche is a Berlinaleregular, having appeared in several competition films, including Lasse Hallstrom’s Chocolat in 2001 and Isabel Coixet’s Endless Night, which opened the festival in 2015.

Alboran Wins Goya Award for Best Original Song

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Alborán now has the equivalent of an Oscar…

The 26-year-old Spanish pop star won the 2016 Goya Award for best original song at this weekends celebration of the awards frequently referred to as Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars.

Alborán is also nominated for a Grammy in the Latin Pop category for his album Terral. He was on tour in the United States and Canada before returning to Spain to attend the Goya ceremonies in Madrid. He was the top-selling artist in Spain in 2014.

The 26-year-old sensation sings the track “Palmeras en la Nieve,” a collaboration with Lucas Vidal, who composed the soundtrack for the movie of the same name.

Vidal, who lives in Los Angeles, also took home the prize for best original score for another movie, Nadie Quiere la Noche, directed by Isabel Cloixet and starring Juliette Binoche.

The Spanish composer, a Berklee grad who has written scores for Fast & Furious 6, The Raven, and other Hollywood films, said in his acceptance speech that he hoped that his and Alborán’s wins would inspire young people to enter the music field.

Fox to Begin Rolling Out Banderas’ “The 33” in Latin American in August

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

The anticipation is building for Antonio Banderas’ latest film The 33 in Latin America, especially in Chile and Colombia, where the picture was filmed.

In addition to Banderas, the survival drama also stars Gabriel Byrne, Rodrigo Santoro and Juliette Binoche.

Fox will roll out the film, which was directed by Mexico’s Patricia Riggen, across Latin America starting August 6 in Chile, after a red-carpet premiere on August 2. The premiere is expected to lure a constellation of local talent and officials, the miners as well as the film’s multinational cast and crew.

Alcon Entertainment, which snapped up the film’s distribution rights in North America and most other territories in the world, will release it through Warner Bros. in the U.S. on November 13.

The drama is based on the real events of the 2010 Chilean mining disaster in which 33 miners were trapped underground for months. A multinational effort to rescue the miners gripped a global TV audience for weeks.

Trailer views in Chile alone have numbered 6.6 million, according to 20th Century Fox Chile managing director Hernan Viviano. This is quite a significant tally given Chile’s population of 17 million, he says.

The film debuts August 20 in Colombia, along with the rest of Central America. The rollout continues across the region until October 29 in Brazil.

While most of the cave interior scenes were shot in Colombia, exterior scenes were filmed outside the actual Copiapo mine that fell in.

International Trailer Released for Banderas’ Chilean Miner Drama “The 33”

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

It’s mine over matter for Antonio Banderas in his latest film…

The international trailer has been released for The 33, starring the 54-year-old Spanish actor.

Directed by Patricia Riggen, the film tells the story of the 2010 Chilean miner drama.

And the just-released trailer includes some haunting images.

Similar to how Oliver Stone took audiences inside the Twin Towers during 9/11 in World Trade Center, Riggen thrusts us in the midst of the miners’ devastating circumstances, displaying the earth falling upon them in the Copiapo, Chile caves.

The miners spent more than two months awaiting rescue as the world watched and numerous countries sent help. The U.S. sent a NASA team and an American driller.

Banderas stars as Mario Sepulveda, a miner who becomes trapped on the last day before his retirement. The film also stars Lou Diamond Phillips, Juliette Binoche, Gabriel Byrne and Rodrigo Santoro.

Mikko Alanne, Craig Borten and Michael Thomas adapted the screenplay from Hector Tobar’s book.

A U.S. release date has not been set yet.

Almodovar Receives France’s Prix Lumiere for His Lifetime Filmmaking Achievements

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Pedro Almodóvar is beloved in France… And he has the prize to prove it!

The 65-year-old Spanish filmmaker has received the country’s Prix Lumiere for his lifetime filmmaking career.

Almodóvar was overcome by emotion during the tribute ceremony over the weekend, which was attended by members of the French film industry, as well as some of the actresses closest to him like Marisa Paredes, Rossy de Palma and Elena Anaya.

The ceremony ended with the 3,000 attendees packed into the Lyon Congress Center showing their devotion to the director, and at one point singing and dancing to “Resistire” by the Duo Dinamico.

Almodóvar closed the night’s moving festivities, which went on for more than two and a half hours, with a speech that, he said, he had prepared as if it were for a Nobel Prize and which he dedicated entirely to his mother.

Almodóvar, known for such films as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother and Talk to Her, said that his use of “explosive and saturated” colors is his act of revenge for the more than 30 years his mother spent in the “imposed” black of mourning.

Among the film icons who came to honor him were Isabella Rossellini, Paolo Sorrentino, Berenice Bejo and Keanu Reeves.

French actress Juliette Binoche presented him with the prize while shouting “Merci!” which recalled Penelope Cruz’s famous cry of “Peeeedro!” when she announced that the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film went to All About My Mother in 2000.

The prize offered by the Lumiere Institute has paid tribute every year since 2009 to an international film personality. Previous recipients include Clint Eastwood, Milos Forman, Gerard Depardieu, Ken Loach and Quentin Tarantino.

The next day, on Saturday, Almodovar announced that he has begun pre-production for his next film and that on Monday he will begin finding locations for the shoot, but specified it will take place “in various points around Spain’s geography, as well as in Madrid.”

“About the rest, the actors and other details, we’ll have time to talk about that in the coming months,” Almodovar said, after confessing that his visit to the Lumiere Festival has been a “delightful pause” in his new moviemaking project.

de Pablo to Star in the Chilean Miner Drama “The 33”

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Cote de Pablo’s next project is bringing her home…

The 34-year-old Chilean actress, who shocked fans last summer when she announced she was leaving her popular role on CBS’ NCIS, has landed her first acting role since leaving the show.

de Pablo has been cast in The 33, a feature film based on the 2010 rescue of 33 Chilean miners who were trapped 69 days in the Copiapo gold and copper mine more than half an mile below the earth’s surface.

Antonio Banderas, Juliette Binoche and Rodrigo Santoro are among those already signed on to star in the film, which is now in production in Chile and Colombia with Patricia Riggen directing a script by Craig Borten (Dallas Buyers Club) and Michael Thomas.

Jennifer Lopez was originally signed on to star in The 33, but backed out of the film.

de Pablo, who was born in Chile and whose mother still lives there, will play a wife of one of the trapped miners, who became international stars following their dramatic rescue that played out live worldwide.

Her scenes will be shot in Chile’s Atacama Desert near where the actual event, and the subsequent rescue efforts took place.

First Look: Ramírez as Simón Bolívar

Posted on August 25, 2012 by Tom Castaneda

Édgar Ramírez’s transformation into one of the one of the most influential politicians in Latin American history is complete…

The the 35-year-old Venezuelan actor has completed his work as the star of the sweeping historical epic Libertador, which tells the story of Venezuelan military and political leader Simón Bolívar.

Directed by Alberto Arvelo, Libertador follows the life of Bolivar, who was instrumental in Latin America’s struggle for independence from the Spanish empire.

Along with portraying Bolívar, Ramírez will serve as an executive producer on the project, which is considered the largest independent South American production to date.

Libertador, now in post-production.

Meanwhile, L.A. Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel—who helped kick off the London 2012 Festival with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra—is scoring the Spanish, French and English-language pic in his feature film debut.

Ramirez, who earned critical acclaim for his performance in Carlos, will next appear on the big screen in U.S. theaters in Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, which opens in December.

In France, he’s currently in theaters in An Open Heart, starring opposite Juliette Binoche

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