Exclusive: Goodfellas has acquired international rights for French director Gaël Morel’s drama To Live, To Die, To Live Again set against the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s, ahead of its world premiere in Cannes.
Rising French actors Victor Belmondo, Lou Lampros and Théo Christine co-star as a romantically entwined trio whose youthful dalliance takes them into life-changing territory with the arrival of AIDS. While they expect the worse, the destiny of each character will take an unexpected turn.
Morel has taken inspiration from his own teenage fears around AIDS in the 1990s as well as research he did for a planned documentary on people who caught the virus and were saved at the last minute by the development of effective antiretroviral therapies.
Michèle Halberstadt and Laurent Pétin produced the film under the banner of their Paris-based film company Arp Sélection, which will also distribute the feature in France.
Rising French actors Victor Belmondo, Lou Lampros and Théo Christine co-star as a romantically entwined trio whose youthful dalliance takes them into life-changing territory with the arrival of AIDS. While they expect the worse, the destiny of each character will take an unexpected turn.
Morel has taken inspiration from his own teenage fears around AIDS in the 1990s as well as research he did for a planned documentary on people who caught the virus and were saved at the last minute by the development of effective antiretroviral therapies.
Michèle Halberstadt and Laurent Pétin produced the film under the banner of their Paris-based film company Arp Sélection, which will also distribute the feature in France.
- 5/2/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Paris-based distributor Arp Selection has acquired French rights for Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Oscar nominee Schrader wrote and directed the film, which reunites him with Richard Gere some 40 years after their collaboration on American Gigolo, with other members of the cast including Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi.
Schrader has adapted the drama from late writer Russell Banks’ 2021 novel Foregone, about a renowned documentary maker with secrets from the past. It is Schrader’s second adaptation of a work by Banks, after 1997 mystery thriller Affliction, starring Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek.
“We’ve been long-time admirers of Paul Schrader’s work and devout readers of Russell Banks’ books,” said Arp Selection head Michèle Halberstadt.
“Oh, Canada is the reunion of two masters, and also a reunion between Paul Schrader and Richard Gere,...
Oscar nominee Schrader wrote and directed the film, which reunites him with Richard Gere some 40 years after their collaboration on American Gigolo, with other members of the cast including Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi.
Schrader has adapted the drama from late writer Russell Banks’ 2021 novel Foregone, about a renowned documentary maker with secrets from the past. It is Schrader’s second adaptation of a work by Banks, after 1997 mystery thriller Affliction, starring Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek.
“We’ve been long-time admirers of Paul Schrader’s work and devout readers of Russell Banks’ books,” said Arp Selection head Michèle Halberstadt.
“Oh, Canada is the reunion of two masters, and also a reunion between Paul Schrader and Richard Gere,...
- 4/30/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
French distributor Arp has picked up all French rights Paul Schrader’s new film Oh, Canada ahead of its world premiere in competition in Cannes next month.
The feature stars Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi.
Oh, Canada reunites Schrader with Gere, more than 40 years after their first collaboration on American Gigolo. Adapted from the Russell Banks novel Foregone, Oh, Canada sees Gere playing Leonard Fife, a famed American documentary filmmaker who fled to Canada as a young man to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Dying from cancer, he agrees to give a final interview where he promises to reveals his long-held secrets, speaking in front of his wife (Thurman), a devoted former student (Imperioli), and the film crew.
David Gonzales is the lead producer on Oh, Canada alongside Tiffany Boyle, Luisa Law, Scott Lastaiti and Meghan Hanlon. Arclight Films is handling international sales and WME Independent...
The feature stars Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi.
Oh, Canada reunites Schrader with Gere, more than 40 years after their first collaboration on American Gigolo. Adapted from the Russell Banks novel Foregone, Oh, Canada sees Gere playing Leonard Fife, a famed American documentary filmmaker who fled to Canada as a young man to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Dying from cancer, he agrees to give a final interview where he promises to reveals his long-held secrets, speaking in front of his wife (Thurman), a devoted former student (Imperioli), and the film crew.
David Gonzales is the lead producer on Oh, Canada alongside Tiffany Boyle, Luisa Law, Scott Lastaiti and Meghan Hanlon. Arclight Films is handling international sales and WME Independent...
- 4/30/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, which reconstructs the genesis and filming of Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, is among the recipients of the first round of Cnc’s ‘avance sur recettes’ (advance on receipts) grants of 2024.
The film, the first entirely in French from US director Linklater, is now in production in Paris. It is being produced by Paris-based Arp Productions and stars Zooey Deutsch as American Breathless star Jean Seberg.
Vince Palmo, Holly Gent, Michèle Halberstadt, and Laetitia Masson join Linklater as co-writers.
The Cnc’s refundable grant is broken into three categories. Asr 1 gives funds to directors’ first films,...
The film, the first entirely in French from US director Linklater, is now in production in Paris. It is being produced by Paris-based Arp Productions and stars Zooey Deutsch as American Breathless star Jean Seberg.
Vince Palmo, Holly Gent, Michèle Halberstadt, and Laetitia Masson join Linklater as co-writers.
The Cnc’s refundable grant is broken into three categories. Asr 1 gives funds to directors’ first films,...
- 3/18/2024
- ScreenDaily
Paris-based leading distribution company Arp Selection has bought a pair of U.S. indie gems from the fall festival circuit, Shane Atkinson’s feature debut “Laroy” and Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla.”
“Laroy,” a neo-noir Western comedy with Coen brothers influences, just won three major prizes at the Deauville Film Festival, including the Grand Prize, Audience Award and Critics Prize; while “Priscilla” world premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won best actress for Cailee Spaeny.
Produced by Cannes-based company Adastra Films, the film stars John Magaro as Ray, who decides to kill himself after discovering his wife has been cheating on him. But just before he pulls a trigger, a stranger takes him for a low-rent hitman.
Michele Halberstadt, who presides over Arp Selection with Laurent Pétin, praised “Laroy” for its “wonderful script, pitch-perfect performances and heart.” She said she had a “coup de coeur” for the movie after discovering...
“Laroy,” a neo-noir Western comedy with Coen brothers influences, just won three major prizes at the Deauville Film Festival, including the Grand Prize, Audience Award and Critics Prize; while “Priscilla” world premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won best actress for Cailee Spaeny.
Produced by Cannes-based company Adastra Films, the film stars John Magaro as Ray, who decides to kill himself after discovering his wife has been cheating on him. But just before he pulls a trigger, a stranger takes him for a low-rent hitman.
Michele Halberstadt, who presides over Arp Selection with Laurent Pétin, praised “Laroy” for its “wonderful script, pitch-perfect performances and heart.” She said she had a “coup de coeur” for the movie after discovering...
- 9/10/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Paris-based distributor Arp Sélection has snapped up the timely Sudanese drama “Goodbye Julia” for French distribution ahead of its Cannes Un Certain Regard premiere next week.
The film, which is Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s feature debut, marks the first feature from Sudan to bow from the Croisette and takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan. In “Goodbye Julia,” two women — one from the North, the other from the South — are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities.
in an interview with Variety, Kordofani expressed the hope that his film “Can be the start of a movement for reconciliation between all the Sudanese people” in the war-ravaged country.
The two central roles are played respectively by Eiman Yousif and Sudanese supermodel Siran Riak (pictured above), making her big-screen acting debut. The cast also includes Nazar Goma and Ger Duany,...
The film, which is Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s feature debut, marks the first feature from Sudan to bow from the Croisette and takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan. In “Goodbye Julia,” two women — one from the North, the other from the South — are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities.
in an interview with Variety, Kordofani expressed the hope that his film “Can be the start of a movement for reconciliation between all the Sudanese people” in the war-ravaged country.
The two central roles are played respectively by Eiman Yousif and Sudanese supermodel Siran Riak (pictured above), making her big-screen acting debut. The cast also includes Nazar Goma and Ger Duany,...
- 5/11/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSNo Bears.Jafar Panahi was released on bail last Friday, two days after starting a hunger strike to protest his seven-month imprisonment. “His next fight is to have the cancellation of his sentence officially recognized,” said Michèle Halberstadt, his French distributor. “He’s outside, he’s free, and this is already great.”Recommended VIEWINGPersonal Problems.Maya Cade of the Black Film Archive has chosen 28 films for the 28 days of Black History Month in the US and compiled online streaming links for each. The lineup includes films by Saundra Sharp, Bill Gunn, and many others.Filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (We're All Going to the World's Fair)'s A Self-Induced Hallucination, their archival documentary about the Slenderman, is available for free on Vimeo. For more on the project,...
- 2/7/2023
- MUBI
Cj strikes French deal for South Korean action film.
South Korea’s Cj Entertainment has sold Cannes Midnight Screenings title The Merciless to French distributor Arp, which will release the film throughout France on June 28.
Directed by Byun Sung-hyun (Whatcha Wearin’), The Merciless stars Seol Gyeong-gu (a.k.a. Sul Kyung-gu, Cold Eyes) as a gangster plotting to take over a criminal organisation who teams up with a fearless newbie in prison, played by boy band Ze:a member Yim Si-wan (The Attorney).
“The Merciless is a very tense thriller, a very clever script, expertly directed, with strong characters, great gunfights and many unexpected twists. We hope that in France, fans of thriller, action and pure entertainment will be as thrilled as we were watching the film,” said Michèle Halberstadt, Arp head of acquisitions.
Arp previously distributed other Korean titles such as Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, The Bad, The Weird and I Saw The Devil, as well as...
South Korea’s Cj Entertainment has sold Cannes Midnight Screenings title The Merciless to French distributor Arp, which will release the film throughout France on June 28.
Directed by Byun Sung-hyun (Whatcha Wearin’), The Merciless stars Seol Gyeong-gu (a.k.a. Sul Kyung-gu, Cold Eyes) as a gangster plotting to take over a criminal organisation who teams up with a fearless newbie in prison, played by boy band Ze:a member Yim Si-wan (The Attorney).
“The Merciless is a very tense thriller, a very clever script, expertly directed, with strong characters, great gunfights and many unexpected twists. We hope that in France, fans of thriller, action and pure entertainment will be as thrilled as we were watching the film,” said Michèle Halberstadt, Arp head of acquisitions.
Arp previously distributed other Korean titles such as Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, The Bad, The Weird and I Saw The Devil, as well as...
- 4/28/2017
- by hjnoh2007@gmail.com (Jean Noh)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Upcoming horror follows a woman who attempts to bring back her dead father through a Ouija ritual.
Film Factory has licensed French rights to [Rec] director Paco Plaza’s upcoming horror film Veronica.
Arp Selection will distribute the story which producer Apache Films claims to be based on the only unexplained supernatural case in the annals of the Spanish police.
Sony has earmarked an autumn release in Spain on Veronica, about a young woman who must protect her younger brother and sister after she attempts to bring back the spirit of their dead father through a Ouija ritual.
Ana Torrent will star with Leticia Dolera, Consuelo Trujillo and newcomer Sandra Escacena in the lead role.
Enrique López-Lavigne from Apache Films serves as producer. Film Factory chief Vicente Canales brokered the deal with Michèle Halberstadt and Laurent Petin for Arp Selection.
“We’re glad to have closed this deal with such a good company as Arp Selection and to...
Film Factory has licensed French rights to [Rec] director Paco Plaza’s upcoming horror film Veronica.
Arp Selection will distribute the story which producer Apache Films claims to be based on the only unexplained supernatural case in the annals of the Spanish police.
Sony has earmarked an autumn release in Spain on Veronica, about a young woman who must protect her younger brother and sister after she attempts to bring back the spirit of their dead father through a Ouija ritual.
Ana Torrent will star with Leticia Dolera, Consuelo Trujillo and newcomer Sandra Escacena in the lead role.
Enrique López-Lavigne from Apache Films serves as producer. Film Factory chief Vicente Canales brokered the deal with Michèle Halberstadt and Laurent Petin for Arp Selection.
“We’re glad to have closed this deal with such a good company as Arp Selection and to...
- 2/13/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Michael O’Shea’s debut to world premiere next week at Cannes Film Festival.
French distributor Arp has acquired Michael O’Shea’s drama-horror The Transfiguration from Protagonist Pictures, a week before its world premiere at Cannes in Un Certain Regard.
The film stars newcomer Eric Ruffin alongside Chloe Levine, who made her film debut in Hilary Brougher thriller Innocence (2014) and has been cast in the next season of Netflix’s House Of Cards.
Producer is Susan Leber, whose credits include Sundance winner Down To The Bone directed by Debra Granik and Ti West’s first feature The Roost. She was also supervising producer on Gillian Robespierre’s comedy hit Obvious Child.
O’Shea both wrote and directed this New York story of love, loss and obsession. The story centres on a teenage outsider (Ruffin) who takes refuge from bullies in the apartment he shares with his older brother. To escape his solitude, he immerses...
French distributor Arp has acquired Michael O’Shea’s drama-horror The Transfiguration from Protagonist Pictures, a week before its world premiere at Cannes in Un Certain Regard.
The film stars newcomer Eric Ruffin alongside Chloe Levine, who made her film debut in Hilary Brougher thriller Innocence (2014) and has been cast in the next season of Netflix’s House Of Cards.
Producer is Susan Leber, whose credits include Sundance winner Down To The Bone directed by Debra Granik and Ti West’s first feature The Roost. She was also supervising producer on Gillian Robespierre’s comedy hit Obvious Child.
O’Shea both wrote and directed this New York story of love, loss and obsession. The story centres on a teenage outsider (Ruffin) who takes refuge from bullies in the apartment he shares with his older brother. To escape his solitude, he immerses...
- 5/3/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The Toronto International Film Festival is celebrating its 40th anniversary this September. Tiff has become the most important international film festival in North America. It is a festival for the people of Toronto as well as for the film professionals who gather here for the first big event on the yearly film circuit of festivals and markets which culminates in May with the greatest film festival/ market of all, the Cannes International Film Festival and Marché.
Tiff’s red carpet Galas kick off the Academy Award Oscar Campaigns. The most important film distributors, international sales agents, producers, financiers, agents and festival programmers come to do business, buying and selling the newest of world cinema available at any festival. They gather and meet at the Hyatt which is where festival headquarters, the marketplace and conferences are held. The Hyatt itself is just around the corner from the multiplex where most of the movies are screened for the industry. Public screenings are around the city. Buyers also attend them because the Canadian public loves movies and offers a good sense of how the movies will be received publicly.
Helga Stephenson was Executive Director of the Festival from 1986 to 1996.
When she began many things in our world were changing - the financial crash of 1987, AIDS, Tiananmen Square in China, the Gulf War, genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda. Films were exploring new meanings for modern values. Native voices were just being heard, Latin American filmmakers were just emerging…
She is also founder and co-chair of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival (https://ff.hrw.org/about).
She has been CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television since May 26, 2011. Her aim at the Academy is to make the Genies and the TV awards (the equivalents of the Oscars and Emmys in the U.S.) achieve the status of being engraved in the minds of every Canadian.
Did you always know you wanted to be in film?
Generationally, film was the major art form for sure. When at McGill University (Bachelor of Arts, 1969), I went to Robert Lantos’s Erotic Film Festival. We came from a generation where if it flickered on the screen, it was fabulous.
Films in the 70s both in and out of Hollywood were bursting on the screen. It was good-bye to Doris Day and hello “Bonnie and Clyde”. The screen was responding most strongly to my generation.
But there was no way then to make a living from film and so I became a PR person specializing in the arts, “a girl job” which got my foot in door.
My entry into film and TV was in 1976. Before that I was a fan. The world of film was almost exclusively male.
How did you break in?
I got there in spite of being a woman.
I moved to Toronto in the fall of 1976 from Havana where I had been teaching English in Cuso, the Canadian version of the Peace Corp.
I started an independent PR company called Sro with Maureen O’Donnell and Bob Ramsay and by our third year we were the PR company that took care of the Festival. We started the Fest’s first receptions at Cannes.
I volunteered to fundraise for the Festival and in 1982 I became Director of Communications.
At that time the classics divisions of the studios started up and women began getting jobs at the studios -- Linda Beath, Carol Greene, Mj Pekos, Donna Gigliotti. This was in the late 70s, early 80s …they were known in Cannes as “The Pink Mafia”. The numbers of women in business on Croisette in Cannes grew yearly: Aline Perry, Carole Myer, Claudie Cheval, Michele Halberstadt. No longer were they confined to PR and assistant positions or “D girls” like Marcia Nasitir who was already a veteran when we began. 20th Century Fox hired Sydney Levine, the first woman in international distribution in 1975. Agencies also began hiring women where earlier Sue Mengers and Ina Bernstein were the only female agents.
For Toronto, it was a very big leap for the Board to hire a woman. There were big arguments; it didn’t want a woman; it didn’t see how a publicity girl could jump out of the box even though she had negotiated most the deals with Hollywood.
How did they finally hire you?
I had a quite few advocates; people admired my work and they liked me. They were just not used to the idea of women in leadership positions. I had to be patient. Mounting an attack would not work. After they hired me, there was no looking back.
How did you feel throughout this? Did you feel inferior to men?
I never felt inferior; sometimes I felt locked out but I managed a style that that allowed them to allow me into the conversation.
How did you do this?
My style was very direct, even gruff, like the men.
How has it changed today?
40 years later in Canada, the business is predominately female. All three major TV networks are now run by women (Bell Media, Shaw Media and CBC). At my meetings with networks there may be 20 people in a room - mostly women. The whole market place has changed. Even banks concentrate on women, or on gays. It’s not through goodness of heart but by profit motives.
There is a huge cadre of female producers - very successful ones.
Where are the men?
I don’t know, in wealth management maybe.
How did this happen?
It seemed sudden. When I returned to the industry after raising my child,
I was shocked to see the cultural workplace was predominately women. Of course it is not perfect and to be exclusively female would be no good.
All the “culture” organizations are non-profit and encourage diversity rather than white male dominance across the board. Big corporate sponsors and networks are mostly women today in leadership positions.
I never expected to see this change happen so fast.
What were your biggest challenges in moving ahead in your career?
Balance between life and work is always very tricky especially as a single mother. I tipped toward my child and left the industry to care for her.
When I was not doing too much I brought Human Rights Watch to Canada to appease my conscience. This was 10 years ago. I wanted to feel I was doing my part to make the world a better place. I needed to know I was doing something.
What motivated you to start the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival?
They wanted to do a Film Festival, so I chaired it and found that it went back to my roots in Cuso.
Can you tell us more about it?
In the films we covered four or five years ago there was a spate of migrant films. It was so clear and obvious that what is happening today was coming. If people had been paying attention, today’s horrible situation could have been avoided. U.S. and Europe today look like a gated community.
Everyone came here for a better life. The entire continent was founded by immigrants…not anymore. This post-colonial mess all is based on anti-immigration sentiment of the current powers.
Then I became involved with establishing Reykjavik Film Festival because I was Icelandic. Joni Sigivattson the Hollywood producer suggested me for the role. Reykjavik is another film festival run by a woman.
How does it happen you are Icelandic? I thought you were Quebecoise.
I was born and raised in Montreal. My great grandmother divorced my great grandfather and came to Canada with my grandfather.
What about today’s women in the film industry both in the creative and business sides?
In film, males remain dominant.
There is still more to go on creative side than on the business side. Women directors are not where they should be, but they’re climbing.
Today there is an interesting study of Women in Media in Canada. Kay Armitrage (a former programmer of Tiff and an academic) has statistics which are not rosy.
But, a woman runs Telefilm Canada, and a woman is chair of the biggest bank. There are lots of women in very important positions in and out of the cultural sector.
Is the Academy taking any action on affirmative action or women’s parity?
It already has a predominately female staff. The Board is 60-40 male-female. It offers lots of professional seminars for and by women.
What about Tiff?
The Festival was great from day one. Linda Beath brought in the cadre of programmers – the best in world. It was the Festival of Festivals. It did not care about status of the film, but it did have world premiers. Classics divisions of the major studios and then video buyers came for the best films in the world and they loved the great audiences who made big hits so it became a great vehicle for testing the market. It became the gateway for foreign films to the U.S. niche market. That activity surged in spite of Tiff not wanting to have a market. The Market started in spite of itself and markets demand fresh product.
It is still not a formal market, but to appeal to the public, industry and press, it became more important to get the newer films.
The rapidity of information and reactions have created a new reality today. Now because of social media and the internet, it’s best to show films never seen anywhere before. Tiff still shows films that are not necessarily world premieres but obviously gives preference to WPs. And it still shows the best films in the world as it has always done. This is the key to its success over the years.
I notice about 20% of the directors are women at this year’s Festival.
There are Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Japanese, Palestinian, Tunisian and Lebanese; Natalie Portman’s directorial debut is an Israel-u.S. coproduction. She’s one of nine U.S. directors. France has six, Canada five, Australia four, India three, U.K. three, Israel and Austria have two Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Greece, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, and Pakistan have one women-directed film each.
I don’t know yet which films I favor; I’ll have to see them.
There are also In-Depth Conversations with Julianne Moore, Salma Hayek, Sarah Silverman. This year’s Industry Conference includes a series of "no-holds-barred" conversations about gender in the media to cover topics such as "Financing Female-Led Films" and "Uncovering Unconscious Bias"...
Tiff’s red carpet Galas kick off the Academy Award Oscar Campaigns. The most important film distributors, international sales agents, producers, financiers, agents and festival programmers come to do business, buying and selling the newest of world cinema available at any festival. They gather and meet at the Hyatt which is where festival headquarters, the marketplace and conferences are held. The Hyatt itself is just around the corner from the multiplex where most of the movies are screened for the industry. Public screenings are around the city. Buyers also attend them because the Canadian public loves movies and offers a good sense of how the movies will be received publicly.
Helga Stephenson was Executive Director of the Festival from 1986 to 1996.
When she began many things in our world were changing - the financial crash of 1987, AIDS, Tiananmen Square in China, the Gulf War, genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda. Films were exploring new meanings for modern values. Native voices were just being heard, Latin American filmmakers were just emerging…
She is also founder and co-chair of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival (https://ff.hrw.org/about).
She has been CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television since May 26, 2011. Her aim at the Academy is to make the Genies and the TV awards (the equivalents of the Oscars and Emmys in the U.S.) achieve the status of being engraved in the minds of every Canadian.
Did you always know you wanted to be in film?
Generationally, film was the major art form for sure. When at McGill University (Bachelor of Arts, 1969), I went to Robert Lantos’s Erotic Film Festival. We came from a generation where if it flickered on the screen, it was fabulous.
Films in the 70s both in and out of Hollywood were bursting on the screen. It was good-bye to Doris Day and hello “Bonnie and Clyde”. The screen was responding most strongly to my generation.
But there was no way then to make a living from film and so I became a PR person specializing in the arts, “a girl job” which got my foot in door.
My entry into film and TV was in 1976. Before that I was a fan. The world of film was almost exclusively male.
How did you break in?
I got there in spite of being a woman.
I moved to Toronto in the fall of 1976 from Havana where I had been teaching English in Cuso, the Canadian version of the Peace Corp.
I started an independent PR company called Sro with Maureen O’Donnell and Bob Ramsay and by our third year we were the PR company that took care of the Festival. We started the Fest’s first receptions at Cannes.
I volunteered to fundraise for the Festival and in 1982 I became Director of Communications.
At that time the classics divisions of the studios started up and women began getting jobs at the studios -- Linda Beath, Carol Greene, Mj Pekos, Donna Gigliotti. This was in the late 70s, early 80s …they were known in Cannes as “The Pink Mafia”. The numbers of women in business on Croisette in Cannes grew yearly: Aline Perry, Carole Myer, Claudie Cheval, Michele Halberstadt. No longer were they confined to PR and assistant positions or “D girls” like Marcia Nasitir who was already a veteran when we began. 20th Century Fox hired Sydney Levine, the first woman in international distribution in 1975. Agencies also began hiring women where earlier Sue Mengers and Ina Bernstein were the only female agents.
For Toronto, it was a very big leap for the Board to hire a woman. There were big arguments; it didn’t want a woman; it didn’t see how a publicity girl could jump out of the box even though she had negotiated most the deals with Hollywood.
How did they finally hire you?
I had a quite few advocates; people admired my work and they liked me. They were just not used to the idea of women in leadership positions. I had to be patient. Mounting an attack would not work. After they hired me, there was no looking back.
How did you feel throughout this? Did you feel inferior to men?
I never felt inferior; sometimes I felt locked out but I managed a style that that allowed them to allow me into the conversation.
How did you do this?
My style was very direct, even gruff, like the men.
How has it changed today?
40 years later in Canada, the business is predominately female. All three major TV networks are now run by women (Bell Media, Shaw Media and CBC). At my meetings with networks there may be 20 people in a room - mostly women. The whole market place has changed. Even banks concentrate on women, or on gays. It’s not through goodness of heart but by profit motives.
There is a huge cadre of female producers - very successful ones.
Where are the men?
I don’t know, in wealth management maybe.
How did this happen?
It seemed sudden. When I returned to the industry after raising my child,
I was shocked to see the cultural workplace was predominately women. Of course it is not perfect and to be exclusively female would be no good.
All the “culture” organizations are non-profit and encourage diversity rather than white male dominance across the board. Big corporate sponsors and networks are mostly women today in leadership positions.
I never expected to see this change happen so fast.
What were your biggest challenges in moving ahead in your career?
Balance between life and work is always very tricky especially as a single mother. I tipped toward my child and left the industry to care for her.
When I was not doing too much I brought Human Rights Watch to Canada to appease my conscience. This was 10 years ago. I wanted to feel I was doing my part to make the world a better place. I needed to know I was doing something.
What motivated you to start the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival?
They wanted to do a Film Festival, so I chaired it and found that it went back to my roots in Cuso.
Can you tell us more about it?
In the films we covered four or five years ago there was a spate of migrant films. It was so clear and obvious that what is happening today was coming. If people had been paying attention, today’s horrible situation could have been avoided. U.S. and Europe today look like a gated community.
Everyone came here for a better life. The entire continent was founded by immigrants…not anymore. This post-colonial mess all is based on anti-immigration sentiment of the current powers.
Then I became involved with establishing Reykjavik Film Festival because I was Icelandic. Joni Sigivattson the Hollywood producer suggested me for the role. Reykjavik is another film festival run by a woman.
How does it happen you are Icelandic? I thought you were Quebecoise.
I was born and raised in Montreal. My great grandmother divorced my great grandfather and came to Canada with my grandfather.
What about today’s women in the film industry both in the creative and business sides?
In film, males remain dominant.
There is still more to go on creative side than on the business side. Women directors are not where they should be, but they’re climbing.
Today there is an interesting study of Women in Media in Canada. Kay Armitrage (a former programmer of Tiff and an academic) has statistics which are not rosy.
But, a woman runs Telefilm Canada, and a woman is chair of the biggest bank. There are lots of women in very important positions in and out of the cultural sector.
Is the Academy taking any action on affirmative action or women’s parity?
It already has a predominately female staff. The Board is 60-40 male-female. It offers lots of professional seminars for and by women.
What about Tiff?
The Festival was great from day one. Linda Beath brought in the cadre of programmers – the best in world. It was the Festival of Festivals. It did not care about status of the film, but it did have world premiers. Classics divisions of the major studios and then video buyers came for the best films in the world and they loved the great audiences who made big hits so it became a great vehicle for testing the market. It became the gateway for foreign films to the U.S. niche market. That activity surged in spite of Tiff not wanting to have a market. The Market started in spite of itself and markets demand fresh product.
It is still not a formal market, but to appeal to the public, industry and press, it became more important to get the newer films.
The rapidity of information and reactions have created a new reality today. Now because of social media and the internet, it’s best to show films never seen anywhere before. Tiff still shows films that are not necessarily world premieres but obviously gives preference to WPs. And it still shows the best films in the world as it has always done. This is the key to its success over the years.
I notice about 20% of the directors are women at this year’s Festival.
There are Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Japanese, Palestinian, Tunisian and Lebanese; Natalie Portman’s directorial debut is an Israel-u.S. coproduction. She’s one of nine U.S. directors. France has six, Canada five, Australia four, India three, U.K. three, Israel and Austria have two Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Greece, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, and Pakistan have one women-directed film each.
I don’t know yet which films I favor; I’ll have to see them.
There are also In-Depth Conversations with Julianne Moore, Salma Hayek, Sarah Silverman. This year’s Industry Conference includes a series of "no-holds-barred" conversations about gender in the media to cover topics such as "Financing Female-Led Films" and "Uncovering Unconscious Bias"...
- 9/10/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: New Europe Film Sales secures deals for Benelux, Greece, Taiwan.
Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outfit New Europe Film Sales has announced that Grímur Hákonarson’s Icelandic Un Certain Regard film Rams (Hrútar) has already been picked up by distributors in Benelux (Imagine), Greece (Ama Films) and Taiwan (Maison Motion).
Just prior to the festival, French rights were sold to Michèle Halberstadt and Laurent Pétin’s Arp Selection.
New Europe Film Sales is also reporting strong interest for the film from Scandinavia, German-speaking Europe, Asia and Us and the agent expects to sign more deals in the first days of the Cannes Marche.
Rams is a story about two brothers from a remote Icelandic farming valley, who haven’t spoken in 40 years and now have to come together in order to save what’s dearest to them – their sheep.
Hákonarson’s short film Slavek the Shit previously screened in Cinefondation. Rams’ director...
Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outfit New Europe Film Sales has announced that Grímur Hákonarson’s Icelandic Un Certain Regard film Rams (Hrútar) has already been picked up by distributors in Benelux (Imagine), Greece (Ama Films) and Taiwan (Maison Motion).
Just prior to the festival, French rights were sold to Michèle Halberstadt and Laurent Pétin’s Arp Selection.
New Europe Film Sales is also reporting strong interest for the film from Scandinavia, German-speaking Europe, Asia and Us and the agent expects to sign more deals in the first days of the Cannes Marche.
Rams is a story about two brothers from a remote Icelandic farming valley, who haven’t spoken in 40 years and now have to come together in order to save what’s dearest to them – their sheep.
Hákonarson’s short film Slavek the Shit previously screened in Cinefondation. Rams’ director...
- 5/14/2015
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Icelandic film to receive world premiere in Un Certain Regard competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outfit New Europe Film Sales has picked up Grímur Hákonarson’s film Rams (Hrútar).
The Icelandic title will be receive its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival (May 13-24), as part of the Un Certain Regard competition.
New Europe has already closed a first deal for the film, selling all French rights for Rams to distributor Arp Sélection.
Rams centres on two brothers from a remote Icelandic farming valley, who haven’t spoken in 40 years but reunite to save what’s dearest to them – their sheep.
Produced by Grímar Jónsson from Netop Film (Iceland), in coproduction with Jacob Jarek and Ditte Milsted’s Profile Pictures (Denmark) and in association with Film Farms (Norway) and Aeroplan Film (Poland), the film has been getting industry attention for some time after successful work in progress screenings in Les...
Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outfit New Europe Film Sales has picked up Grímur Hákonarson’s film Rams (Hrútar).
The Icelandic title will be receive its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival (May 13-24), as part of the Un Certain Regard competition.
New Europe has already closed a first deal for the film, selling all French rights for Rams to distributor Arp Sélection.
Rams centres on two brothers from a remote Icelandic farming valley, who haven’t spoken in 40 years but reunite to save what’s dearest to them – their sheep.
Produced by Grímar Jónsson from Netop Film (Iceland), in coproduction with Jacob Jarek and Ditte Milsted’s Profile Pictures (Denmark) and in association with Film Farms (Norway) and Aeroplan Film (Poland), the film has been getting industry attention for some time after successful work in progress screenings in Les...
- 4/20/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
School teams with Arp Selection for award; Cameron Bailey, Alberto Barbera among jury.
A $500,000 film fund for first-time filmmakers has been launched in Israel for graduates of Jerusalem’s Sam Spiegel Film School.
The school has teamed up with French producer and distributor Arp Selection to invest $100,000 in one feature project a year for five years. Both partners will contribute $50,000 a year, with Arp taking French distribution rights to the project.
The winning script will be selected by an international jury comprised of Cameron Bailey, artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival, Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice Film Festival, Michèle Halberstadt of Arp Sélection, France), and Renen Schorr, founding director of the Sam Spiegel Film School, in the first year.
They will announce their decision on March 24, 2015, as part of the School’s Silver Jubilee celebrations.
“Initiating a platform like this for our alumni is an exciting and special moment for us,” said Schorr...
A $500,000 film fund for first-time filmmakers has been launched in Israel for graduates of Jerusalem’s Sam Spiegel Film School.
The school has teamed up with French producer and distributor Arp Selection to invest $100,000 in one feature project a year for five years. Both partners will contribute $50,000 a year, with Arp taking French distribution rights to the project.
The winning script will be selected by an international jury comprised of Cameron Bailey, artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival, Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice Film Festival, Michèle Halberstadt of Arp Sélection, France), and Renen Schorr, founding director of the Sam Spiegel Film School, in the first year.
They will announce their decision on March 24, 2015, as part of the School’s Silver Jubilee celebrations.
“Initiating a platform like this for our alumni is an exciting and special moment for us,” said Schorr...
- 12/4/2014
- by tuttlouise@gmail.com (Louise Tutt)
- ScreenDaily
Meanwhile, Swedish director Daniel Fridell has signed on to Van Gogh biopic.French name their Price
Canadian outfit Filmoption International has sold Harold Crooks’ corporate tax avoidance doc The Price We Pay to Arp for distribution in France.
The deal was negotiated by Andrew Noble and Alexandra Wermester of Filmoption and Laurent Pétin and Michèle Halberstadt of Arp.
Red Army marches north
Edge Entertainment has picked up Gabe Polsky’s hockey documentary Red Army for Nordic territories from Wild Bunch.
The deal includes rights in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland. Sony will distribute in Us, Canada, Central Europe and Asia.
Van Gogh biopic gets director
Swedish director Daniel Fridell (Swedish Beauty) has been set to direct English-language Vincent Van Gogh biopic Van Gogh for production outfit Kalliope Films.
Rutger Hauer is executive producing the film, which has been written by Kira Madallo Sesay of Kalliope who will produce alongside Emiel Pijnaker.
Canadian outfit Filmoption International has sold Harold Crooks’ corporate tax avoidance doc The Price We Pay to Arp for distribution in France.
The deal was negotiated by Andrew Noble and Alexandra Wermester of Filmoption and Laurent Pétin and Michèle Halberstadt of Arp.
Red Army marches north
Edge Entertainment has picked up Gabe Polsky’s hockey documentary Red Army for Nordic territories from Wild Bunch.
The deal includes rights in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland. Sony will distribute in Us, Canada, Central Europe and Asia.
Van Gogh biopic gets director
Swedish director Daniel Fridell (Swedish Beauty) has been set to direct English-language Vincent Van Gogh biopic Van Gogh for production outfit Kalliope Films.
Rutger Hauer is executive producing the film, which has been written by Kira Madallo Sesay of Kalliope who will produce alongside Emiel Pijnaker.
- 9/8/2014
- ScreenDaily
Montreal and Toronto-based Filmoption International has licensed French rights on The Price We Pay to Arp following the Toronto world premiere last week (September 5).
Harold Crooks’ documentary exposes big business tax avoidance.
Andrew Noble and Alexandra Wermester of Filmoption International brokered the deal with Laurent Pétin and Michèle Halberstadt of Arp.
The Price We Pay will open in France in 2015.
Harold Crooks’ documentary exposes big business tax avoidance.
Andrew Noble and Alexandra Wermester of Filmoption International brokered the deal with Laurent Pétin and Michèle Halberstadt of Arp.
The Price We Pay will open in France in 2015.
- 9/8/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Tax avoidance documentary, currently showing at Toronto, scores France deal.
Canadian outfit Filmoption International has sold Harold Crooks’ corporate tax avoidance doc The Price We Pay to Arp for distribution in France.
The deal was negotiated by Andrew Noble and Alexandra Wermester of Filmoption and Laurent Pétin and Michèle Halberstadt of Arp.
“We are very excited to have made this deal,” said Arp’s Halberstadt. “Harold Crooks’ documentary is a deeply important and essential film that is timely. We see it as urgent viewing for audiences all around the world. ”
The film had its world premiere in Toronto....
Canadian outfit Filmoption International has sold Harold Crooks’ corporate tax avoidance doc The Price We Pay to Arp for distribution in France.
The deal was negotiated by Andrew Noble and Alexandra Wermester of Filmoption and Laurent Pétin and Michèle Halberstadt of Arp.
“We are very excited to have made this deal,” said Arp’s Halberstadt. “Harold Crooks’ documentary is a deeply important and essential film that is timely. We see it as urgent viewing for audiences all around the world. ”
The film had its world premiere in Toronto....
- 9/8/2014
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Deckert Distribution sells Martti Helde’s debut feature to Arp.
Leipzig-based sales company Deckert Distribution has sold Estonian feature In The Crosswind to Arp for France.
Martti Helde’s feature has its international premiere in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema programme.
Helde’s inspiration for the film was a diary he found by a young woman who was separated from her husband and child during Stalin’s mass deportation to Siberia in 1941.
“I first heard of the project at a documentary pitch in Riga, Latvia,” said Heino Deckert, managing director of Deckert Distribution.
“Since then it has not only evolved into a feature film in which Martti so ingeniously visualises the main character’s state of mind, but the subject of Soviet-style aggression has become very topical recently. In The Crosswind is a great addition to our slate and I’m very glad that Arp has picked up the film ahead of Tiff.”
Deckert negotiated...
Leipzig-based sales company Deckert Distribution has sold Estonian feature In The Crosswind to Arp for France.
Martti Helde’s feature has its international premiere in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema programme.
Helde’s inspiration for the film was a diary he found by a young woman who was separated from her husband and child during Stalin’s mass deportation to Siberia in 1941.
“I first heard of the project at a documentary pitch in Riga, Latvia,” said Heino Deckert, managing director of Deckert Distribution.
“Since then it has not only evolved into a feature film in which Martti so ingeniously visualises the main character’s state of mind, but the subject of Soviet-style aggression has become very topical recently. In The Crosswind is a great addition to our slate and I’m very glad that Arp has picked up the film ahead of Tiff.”
Deckert negotiated...
- 9/5/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Other winners include Ivan Marinovic, Amikam Kovner and Assaf Snir.
Ethiopian-born, Israeli filmmaker Alamork Marsha’s Fig Tree, based on her experiences as a child in war-torn Addis Ababa in 1991, has won the $50,000 top prize at the pitching event of Sam Spiegel school’s Jerusalem International Film Lab.
It was an apt choice as fighting escalated between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, some 70 kilometres down the road, where more than 160 inhabitants have died in Israeli air strikes over the past six days, launched in response to a barrage of rocket attacks on Israel. (In fact air sirens were heard in Jerusalem just 15 minutes before the awards were announced.)
In her pitch, Marsha revealed how Fig Tree was inspired by her childhood, living with her grandmother on the outskirts of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa during the civil war and her Jewish family’s decision to move to Israel. She said one...
Ethiopian-born, Israeli filmmaker Alamork Marsha’s Fig Tree, based on her experiences as a child in war-torn Addis Ababa in 1991, has won the $50,000 top prize at the pitching event of Sam Spiegel school’s Jerusalem International Film Lab.
It was an apt choice as fighting escalated between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, some 70 kilometres down the road, where more than 160 inhabitants have died in Israeli air strikes over the past six days, launched in response to a barrage of rocket attacks on Israel. (In fact air sirens were heard in Jerusalem just 15 minutes before the awards were announced.)
In her pitch, Marsha revealed how Fig Tree was inspired by her childhood, living with her grandmother on the outskirts of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa during the civil war and her Jewish family’s decision to move to Israel. She said one...
- 7/13/2014
- ScreenDaily
The festival is laying on a packed programme of film industry events this year, headlined by the Jerusalem Pitch Point meeting.
The meeting revolves around a central pitching event on July 14, open to both industry professionals, film students and the public, aimed at connecting Israeli filmmakers with international partners on their upcoming projects.
Participants this year include celebrated experimental director Nina Menkes, established filmmakers Nir Bergman and Dina Zvi Riklis and up and coming director Eitan Gafny, whose Lebanon-set zombie picture debut Cannon Fodder has sold well internationally.
For the first time, the event will also screen a selection of Israeli works-in-progress to selected industry professionals, including Madame Yankelova’s Fine Literature Club, the feature debut of Guilhad Emilio Schenker, whose 2010 short Lavan screened in more than 70 festivals and won numerous prizes.
The projects will compete for a trio of prizes meted out by France’s National Cinema Centre, Franco-German broadcaster...
The meeting revolves around a central pitching event on July 14, open to both industry professionals, film students and the public, aimed at connecting Israeli filmmakers with international partners on their upcoming projects.
Participants this year include celebrated experimental director Nina Menkes, established filmmakers Nir Bergman and Dina Zvi Riklis and up and coming director Eitan Gafny, whose Lebanon-set zombie picture debut Cannon Fodder has sold well internationally.
For the first time, the event will also screen a selection of Israeli works-in-progress to selected industry professionals, including Madame Yankelova’s Fine Literature Club, the feature debut of Guilhad Emilio Schenker, whose 2010 short Lavan screened in more than 70 festivals and won numerous prizes.
The projects will compete for a trio of prizes meted out by France’s National Cinema Centre, Franco-German broadcaster...
- 7/10/2014
- ScreenDaily
Ritesh Batra
Lunchbox director Ritesh Batra is one of the thirteen participants of the Jerusalem International Film Lab who will compete for production prizes worth $80,000 at a pitching event during the upcoming Jerusalem Film Festival.
Batra participated in the seven-month lab, that included two residential workshops in Jerusalem, with his second feature project titled “Photograph”.
The lab closes with a pitching event that runs parallel to the Jerusalem Film Festival where the finalized scripts are presented before a panel of international jury members. This year, the closing events will take place between July 9-13, 2014.
After the pitching event, the jury awards production prizes totaling in $80,000 in an award ceremony.
The Jury this year headed by French producer and distributor Michèle Halberstadt consists of Manfred Schmidt (Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH, Germany), Katriel Schory (Israel Film Fund), Rémi Burah (Arte France Cinema), Charles Tesson (Cannes Critics’ Week), Sonja Heinen (Berlinale Co-Production Market) and German director Pia Marais.
Lunchbox director Ritesh Batra is one of the thirteen participants of the Jerusalem International Film Lab who will compete for production prizes worth $80,000 at a pitching event during the upcoming Jerusalem Film Festival.
Batra participated in the seven-month lab, that included two residential workshops in Jerusalem, with his second feature project titled “Photograph”.
The lab closes with a pitching event that runs parallel to the Jerusalem Film Festival where the finalized scripts are presented before a panel of international jury members. This year, the closing events will take place between July 9-13, 2014.
After the pitching event, the jury awards production prizes totaling in $80,000 in an award ceremony.
The Jury this year headed by French producer and distributor Michèle Halberstadt consists of Manfred Schmidt (Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH, Germany), Katriel Schory (Israel Film Fund), Rémi Burah (Arte France Cinema), Charles Tesson (Cannes Critics’ Week), Sonja Heinen (Berlinale Co-Production Market) and German director Pia Marais.
- 7/1/2014
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Ritesh Batra, Talya Lavie, Nora Martirosyan among entrants.
Graduates of the Jerusalem International Film Lab 3rd edition will compete for $80,000 in production prizes at a pitching event at the Jerusalem International Film Festival.
Aspiring directors and producers will present 13 full-length film projects to a panel of jurists and industry.
Competing filmmakers include Talya Lavie (Israel), whose her first feature Zero Motivation won the two awards at the Tribeca Film Festival, Ritesh Batra (India), whose his first feature The Lunchbox premiered last year in Cannes Critics’ Week; Nora Martirosyan (Armenia), who won the Arte International Prize in Cannes’ Atelier (2014), and Ása Hjörleifsdóttir (Iceland), who received the Vff Talent Highlight Pitch Awards at the 2014 Berlinale.
The jury, headed by Michele Halberstadt of Arp, comprises Manfred Schmidt (executive director of the Mdm, Germany), Katriel Schory (executive director of the Israel Film Fund), Charles Tesson (artistic director of the Cannes Critics’ Week), Rémi Burah (Deputy CEO of Arte France Cinéma), [link...
Graduates of the Jerusalem International Film Lab 3rd edition will compete for $80,000 in production prizes at a pitching event at the Jerusalem International Film Festival.
Aspiring directors and producers will present 13 full-length film projects to a panel of jurists and industry.
Competing filmmakers include Talya Lavie (Israel), whose her first feature Zero Motivation won the two awards at the Tribeca Film Festival, Ritesh Batra (India), whose his first feature The Lunchbox premiered last year in Cannes Critics’ Week; Nora Martirosyan (Armenia), who won the Arte International Prize in Cannes’ Atelier (2014), and Ása Hjörleifsdóttir (Iceland), who received the Vff Talent Highlight Pitch Awards at the 2014 Berlinale.
The jury, headed by Michele Halberstadt of Arp, comprises Manfred Schmidt (executive director of the Mdm, Germany), Katriel Schory (executive director of the Israel Film Fund), Charles Tesson (artistic director of the Cannes Critics’ Week), Rémi Burah (Deputy CEO of Arte France Cinéma), [link...
- 6/30/2014
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Mathieu Kassovitz and Juliette Binoche are teaming for Sylvie Testud's directorial debut, the dramedy "La Vie d'une auto" reports Variety.
The $6.5 million pic follows a young mother on the verge of a divorce, trying to save her marriage. Testud penned the script based on the novel by Frederique Deghelt.
Michele Halberstadt, Emmanuel Jacquelin and Laurent Petin are producing. Shooting kicks off in April in Paris, Belgium and Luxembourg.
The $6.5 million pic follows a young mother on the verge of a divorce, trying to save her marriage. Testud penned the script based on the novel by Frederique Deghelt.
Michele Halberstadt, Emmanuel Jacquelin and Laurent Petin are producing. Shooting kicks off in April in Paris, Belgium and Luxembourg.
- 1/13/2011
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
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