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West Hollywood-based indie distribution outfit Indican Pictures (“Gossamer Folds”) has secured North American rights for Santiago Fillol’s political thriller “Matadero” (“Slaughterhouse”).

The debut fiction feature from the Argentine director saw its world premiere in competition at Locarno in 2022, with further festival bows at Mar Del Plata and Seville before December theatrical runs in Argentina and Spain via Cinetren and Begin Again Films, respectively.

Negotiations were handled by Randolph Kret of Indican Pictures alongside Brett Walker and partner Miguel Angel Govea at Alief (“Driving Mum”), who handle world sales on behalf of the filmmakers outside of Argentina, France, Spain and Switzerland.

“Indican Pictures is pleased to acquire the Argentinian film “Matadero”– it’s a compelling story that will have viewers on the edge of their seat,” Indican co-founder Randolph Kret told Variety.

Set up in the Argentine pampas, 1970, the narrative nods to the shocking, hyper-realistic cinema of the era and follows U.

On the heels of its world premiere at Locarno’s Cineasti del Presente and coinciding with upcoming festival bows at Seville and Mar del Plata, auteur-focused distribution house Alief has shared in exclusivity with Variety the trailer and key art for Santiago Fillol’s first solo feature, “Matadero.”

An ode to class struggle and unflinching ego, the film simultaneously enters international competition in Spain and Argentina this week alongside French director Alice Diop’s buzzy “Saint Omer” and “Tres Hermanos,” filmmaker Francisco J. Paparella’s absorbing follow-up to debut feature “Zanjas.”

Begin Again films handles Spanish distribution on “Matadero” with Alief handling international sales rights.

‘It’s a real joy to see the crossover of arthouse cinema, now also being recognised as an elevated horror genre. “Matadero” is able to voice a visual that’s both visceral and tender, that speaks to both arthouse and genre audiences,’ relayed Brett Walker,...

Matadero Review — Matadero (2022) Film Review from the 75th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a movie directed by Santiago Fillol, written by Edgadro Dobry, Santiago Fillol and Lucas Vermal and starring Julio Perillan, Malena Villa, Ailin Salas, Rafael Federman, Lina Gorbaneva, Ernestina Gatti, David Szechtman and Gustavo Javier Rodriguez. Argentine filmmaker Santiago Fillol’s new picture, [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Matadero: A Chilling Portrait of an Obsessed Filmmaker That is Disturbingly Intriguing [Locarno 2022]...

Paris-based sales company Alief has swooped on international sales rights to horror-political thriller “Matadero” (“Slaughterhouse”), the awaited fiction feature debut of Argentina’s Santiago Fillol, co-scribe on Oliver Laxe’s Cannes winners “Mimosa” and “Fire Will Come.”

Co-written by Fillol, “Matadero” world premieres this week in Locarno’s main International Competition.

The film takes a stark look at a historic tale through the maniacal lens of U.S. filmmaker Jared (Julio Perillán), as he shoots a big-screen version of a 19th-century text by Argentine writer Estaban Echeverría, exploiting the times and their trappings to create a piece of cinema meant to dig itself into the collective consciousness.

Taking on tensions that boil over between landowners and laborers, Jared’s lofty vision for his adaptation will push the cast and crew to the brink. As his plot advances, ego and deception reign.

Fillol’s rendition takes place in 1970s rural Argentina,...

Features the voices of: Tomás Ayuso, Karina Matas Piper, Scott Cleverdon, Stephen Hughes, Elisabeth Gray, Robbie K. Jones, Blair Holmes | Written by Doug Langdale | Directed by Toni García

Beloved 1980s children’s cartoon Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds gets the big screen adaptation treatment in this feature-length animated adventure, which, like the series, sticks closely to the plot of Alexandre Dumas’ literary classic The Three Musketeers. However, while the film definitely offers some nostalgia value, when it comes to the script and the animation, it’s more of a downgrade than an upgrade.

The original 1981 series was a Spanish-Japanese co-production that ran for 26 episodes and was broadcast with an English language dub on BBC Children’s Television in 1985. The new movie is produced by the same Spanish company (Brb International), but the animation is the 3G CGI variety, rather than the traditional hand-drawn cel animation of the TV series.

The...

"This is a giant step in the history of medicine." SyFy has unveiled an official trailer for an indie sci-fi film titled Realive, set in the future. The played at various genre/fantasy film festivals around Europe last year, but is just now arriving in the Us. Realive is about a man who decides to be cryogenically frozen, and is awoken 60 years later in the year 2084. He is the first person to be revived in history, and emerges into a "startling" future. Despite his attempts to escape the past, it still catches up with him. Tom Hughes stars Marc Jarvis, and the full cast includes Charlotte Le Bon, Oona Chaplin, Barry Ward, Julio Perillán, Rafael Cebrián, Bruno Sevilla, and Daniel Horvath. This does look intriguing, I'm very curious to see what ideas they'll address in the future and how things have changed in big ways and small. Check this out.

Stars: Olli Banjo, Adam Buller, Michelle Colao, Greg Engbrecht, Elle Gabriel, Francesc Garrido, Alias Hilsum, Charles Hubbell, Rob Kerkovich, Vin Kridakorn, Mathis Landwehr, Claire Oelkers, Julio Perillán, Fabio Prati, Luke Sorge | Directed by Dennis Cabella, Javier Chillon, Todd Cobery, Andrew Desmond, Benni Diez, Marcello Ercole, Richard Karpala, Justin McConnell, Antonio Padovan, Fabio Prati, Ethan Shaftel, Marinko Spahic

Much like Dread Central’s Zombieworld,which brought together a number of short films under one banner to create an all-new anthology film, Galaxy of Horrors is a selection of eight shorts, curated from Rue Morgue and Unstable Ground’s Little Terrors Festival by Toronto film programmer Justin McConnell, all wrapped up in the story of a man trapped in a damaged cryogenic pod.

This wraparound segment that sees and astronaut awoken from his cryogenic slimber too soon and forced to watch a series of shorts while the power supply drains away Becasue he’s watching these shorts… Yes, for our astronaut the terror-filled tales are terrifying not only because of their content but because they’re literlly killing him! Of the short films the astronaut (and we the audience) watch there are a number of standouts: Iris, directed by Richard Karpala, which tells the story of a siri-like phone assistant with a conscience when her owner, an assassin, does not. It’s a great take on how technology and humans interact and how far that realtionship with technology could, possibly (more likely imporbably), go.

Pathos, directed by Fabio Prati, Dennis Cabella and Marcello Ercole, is a foreign-language entry which is easily the best – and most memorable (it’s the one short that vividly stuck in my mind waaay after I’d finished watching the film) and tells the story of a future where citizens must pay -literally – to be alive and experience a “life” outside of the odd chamber in which our protagonist’s “exists” – yes his reality, his very existence, is all in his head! This short is yet another look at how humans and technology interact, in this case taking the ideas of alternate realities and how humanity perceives reality, borne out of the likes of The Matrix, to their logical and more importantly, horrific extreme.

Special mention must also go to Antonio Padovan‘s short Eveless, which sees men try to keep the worlds population going without women; and Benni Diez and Marinko Spahic‘s kinetic action/horror hybrid Kingz – which recalls the best of horror anthology V/H/S whilst staying true to its own badass terror-filled ethos.

Whilst the eight shorts tell very different stories, there is a common thread running between them – they’re all damn good films! Unlike a alot of anthologies that have one or two dud amongst their number, each and every short in Galaxy of Horrors hits it out of the park: all eight tales having interesting sci-fi stories to tell and cool concepts to portray. Plus it’s nice to see sci-fi horror in the spotlight once more…

Galaxy of Horrors is out now on DVD from StudioCanal.

It’s been humanity’s dream since the dawn of time to find the fountain of youth: immortality. To live forever is the ultimate success for humanity’s optimistic idealism. We witness the pain and suffering death creates, constantly trying to distance ourselves from it by forgetting how our lifespans’ brevity makes them special. It’s in death that we see who truly loves us and whom we hold closest. For someone like Marc Jarvis (Tom Hughes) death can even become a celebration. The sting and sorrow a terminal diagnosis delivers sets an expiration date so he can live like there’s no tomorrow after reconciling his reality since there literally is none. Fear often drives our instincts to endure in this moment, but sometimes it also has us hoping for more.

The fact Realive‘s tale of life and death in the face of technological improvement and emotional stability...

Exclusive: Colombian outfit Caracol Television has also invested in the project from the Embrace Of The Serpent director; first look at Pedro Aguilera’s Sister Of Mine [pictured].

Ciro Guerra’s upcoming Birds Of A Passage (Pajaros de Verano), the follow-up to last year’s Cannes Directors Fortnight triumph and Oscar submission Embrace Of The Serpent, has secured a sales agent and key investor.

Films Boutique will begin talks with international buyers in Cannes this week as it emerged that Colombian giant Caracol Television has invested in the project – as it did on Embrace Of The Serpent under its initiative to support features – and taken TV rights.

Producers Cristina Gallego of Ciudad Lunar and Katrin Pors of Blond Indian Films have lined up principal photography for early 2017 in northern Colombia.

Maria Camila Arias and Embrace Of The Serpent co-screenwriter Jacques Toulemonde wrote the script from an original idea by Gallego about an arid region in the 1970s where a...

The Dark Hour, or La Hora Fria is a Spanish language horror film that was completed in 2006, sent to several film festivals, and is likely moving towards a N. American release date through Lightning Entertainment (a prediction). Definitely in the sci-fi realm, The Dark Hour envisions a world in the future where mankind is on the brink of extinction. Facing starvation the few survivors, of an underground complex, make their way to the surface to find hope for a tomorrow. Already shown at The Austin Fantastic Fest, and the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, The Dark Hour has been released on DVD in Japan and Spain, but not N. America. Likely to be available shortly, a low quality trailer can be found inside, with a higher quality trailer provided from the film's homepage. Have a read of the synopsis, which predicts a bleak future of warfare and insecurity.

The synopsis...