Dominga Sotomayor to Write & Direct “Niebla”

Dominga Sotomayor has locked up her next project…

The 36-year-old Chilean filmmaker, one of the directors on Neon’s anthology movie The Year of the Everlasting Storm, will write and direct Niebla for RT Features’ Rodrigo Teixeira.

Dominga Sotomayor

The film takes place on a cruise ship heading towards a distant nondescript coastline. In the middle of the ocean, the large and eclectic group of international passengers, all seem to be escaping their own realities. Among them Julia, a 35-year-old woman who won the cruise as a raffle prize at work, embarks on what she believes to be a simple vacation and finds herself stuck in a physical and emotional purgatory.

Teixeira and Lourenço Sant’Anna will produce with Alan Terpins executive producing.

The project is planning to shoot next year.

Sotomayor previously directed Too Late to Die, which won Locarno’s Golden Leopard for Best Direction in 2018, making Sotomayor the first woman to win that prize.

Oscar Isaac to Star Opposite Cate Blanchett in Period Drama “Armageddon Time”

It’s Armageddon Time for Oscar Isaac

The 41-year-old Guatemalan & Cuban actor will star alongside Cate Blanchett in Armageddon Time, the period drama to be directed by James Gray for RT Features.

Oscar Isaac

Isaac joins a list of new cast members that includes Robert De NiroDonald Sutherland and Anne Hathaway

Gray wrote and will direct, and re-teams with RT Features following their recent collaboration on Ad Astra, the Brad Pitt space thriller that co-starred Sutherland. RT Features’ Rodrigo Teixeira will produce, with Lourenço Sant’Anna and Rodrigo Gutierrez executive producing.

Gray crafted a drama based on his childhood memories, a big-hearted coming-of-age story that explores friendship and loyalty against the backdrop of an America poised to elect Ronald Reagan as president. It’s very different from his recent pictures, and he hopes to shoot in New York as soon as post-pandemic opportunities make it possible. 

“Every film you make is different, but I’m trying to do something that is the opposite of the vast, lonely and dark void of the movie I just directed,” Gray said. “I’m anxious to make something that is very much about people, about human emotions and interactions between people, and I want it to be filled with warmth and tenderness. In some sense, yes it’s about my childhood, but an illustration of familial love really on every level. I’m of the belief that most people do their best and that they try their best under difficult circumstances and in some sense that’s a beautiful thing and very moving to me.” 

Fernanda Montenegro’s “Invisible Life” to Open in December via Amazon Studios

Fernanda Montenegro’s latest project is getting a new lease on Life

The 90-year-old Brazilian actress’ Invisible LifeBrazil’s official Oscar entry in the Foreign Film race, will open December 20 via Amazon Studios

Fernanda Montenegro

The tropical melodrama stars Montenegro, Carol Duarte and Julia Stockler and is set in Rio de Janeiro in 1950. 

Eurídice and Guida are two inseparable sisters living at home with their conservative parents. Although immersed in a traditional life, each one nourishes a dream: Eurídice of becoming a renowned pianist, Guida of finding true love. In a dramatic turn, they are separated by their father and forced to live apart. They take control of their separate destinies, while never giving up hope of finding each other.

The RT Features production made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival back in May where it won Un Certain Regard, then continued on to numerous awards fall festivals, including Toronto, Mill Valley, London and Hamptons. 

Cinematographer Hélène Louvart also won the Golden Camera award at the International Cinematographers’ Film Festival Manaka Brothers.

Earlier this year, Amazon’s foreign film Oscar entry from Poland, Cold Warwas nominated in three categories: best foreign film, cinematography and for Pawel Pawlikowski’s directing. 

Amazon Studio’s The Salesmanfrom Iran, won the Academy Awardfor best foreign film in 2017.