Announced at Cannes today, the Cape Town and Winelands International Film Festival launched its inaugural Cape Town Film Mart, which will take place from November 4-6, 2013. Its aim is to bring together local producers together with potential partners and financiers from South Africa's co-production partners: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Producer/director teams are welcome to apply. Projects must have a producer and director attached. Those applying from outside South Africa must have a South African or South African treaty country formally attached. At least some part of every film coming through the Film Mart must...

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Codeblack Films has picked up US distribution for George Tillman Jr.'s The Inevitable Defeat Of Mister And Pete. Making its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the drama stars Jennifer Hudson, Skylan Brooks, Anthony Mackie, Jordin Sparks, Jeffrey Wright, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, in a film that sees Jennifer Hudson as a drug addict mother whose arrest forces her son and his best friend to fend for themselves. During a sweltering summer in New York City, 14-year-old Mister's hard-living mother is apprehended by the police, leaving the boy and nine-year-old Pete alone to forage for food while...

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Jocko Sims has joined the cast of Fox's Dawn of The Planet Of The Apes, says Variety, the upcoming sequel to 2011's franchise reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The Matt Reeves-directed movie's cast includes Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Kodi-Smit McPhee and Gary Oldman. The sequel is set in an apocalyptic future more than a decade after Rise of the Planet of the Apes, in which the ape population far exceeds humans. Sims will play a military operative named Werner - a supporting role. He's appeared on the big screen in films like Dreamgirls and Jarhead, as well as on the small screen on shows like Franklin & Bash and Emily Owens M.D. Fox has set the film for...

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Just follow the bouncing ball in chronological order... How many of y'all out there are Downton Abbey fans?-- Diddy (@iamdiddy) May 15, 2013 I'm going to be making a big announcement in the next hour-im excited for yall to hear!-- Diddy (@iamdiddy) May 15, 2013 I have to admit that Downton Abbey is one of my favorite shows- and thats why Im so excited today @downtonabbey-- Diddy (@iamdiddy) May 15, 2013 MY BIG NEWS: So happy to announce that Im a series regular on DOWNTON ABBEY-my favorite show+i'll be debuting a sneak peek tonight 12am PST!-- Diddy (@iamdiddy) May 15, 2013 Sneak peek from the set of Downton Abbey. Stay tuned for a special preview tonight 12am PST #downtonabbey...

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Chiwetel Ejiofor has joined the cast of Material Pictures' and Zik Zak Filmworks' Z For Zachariah - a psychological thriller about a girl who believes she is the only survivor after a devastating nuclear event, but comes to learn she is not alone. Ejiofor will co-star in the adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's classic science fiction novel of the same name, alongside Chris Pine and Amanda Seyfried, in a project that will be directed by Craig Zobel (Compliance) from a script penned by Nissar Modi. Material Pictures' Tobey Maguire and Matthew Plouffe will produce alongside Zik Zak Filmworks' Skúli Malmquist, Thor Sigurjonsson and Palomar...

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Machel Montano, Trinidad & Tobago soca singer, record producer and songwriter will star alongside Bollywood actress Priya Anand in director Todd Kessler's musical film Scandalous! To be backed by Indiepelago Films, Scandalous! will take place during Trinidad Carnival, and will follow a woman who gets engaged to a wealthy London suitor to help her father's business - plans that are threatened when she meets a rugged, charismatic local musician. Montano will play the musician, while Anand will play the woman. The movie musical is scheduled to be shot in Trinidad and Tobago in October. Montano will compose the film's soundtrack.

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As usual... These aren't necessarily recommendations; consider it more of an FYI - films we've talked about on this site, that are now streaming on Netflix, that you might want to check out for yourselves. Without further ado, here's this week's list of 5: 1 - First, Shank. Synopsis: In a London of the future, 2015, the gap between rich and poor has grown to epic proportions and food has replaced drugs and guns as a priceless commodity. Junior (Kedar Williams-Sterling) and his gang the Paper Chaserz trade in 'munchies' but stay away from the territory disputes and the violence. A tip-off about a food delivery leads to a conflict with a rival gang and the death of...

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Taking place on Thursday, May 23rd, 8pm, at Brooklyn Fire Proof (120 Ingraham St.) is a screening event titled "I Am A Negress of Noteworthy Talent," which will showcase the work of emerging black women filmmakers S&A readers will be familiar with: Ja'Tovia Gary, Wendy James, Nikyatu Jusu, and Nevline Nnaji. The title of the screening series comes from a solo exhibition by contemporary African American artist Kara Walker, who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity in her work. More about the screening event: Each of the works in the program pushes against the established modes of representation of black people in film. The films in the...

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Maybe it's just me, but I suddenly started noticing these on screen pairings of older black actors with younger white actresses in upcoming features we've recently profiled. I'm not implying that there's some agenda here. It's just an observation which may warrant further researching; or may be nothing at all. There's the Denzel Washington Equalizer reboot, which just tapped Chloe Moretz as the female lead; and there's also the Will Smith Warner Bros. project titled Focus, which initially had Kristen Stewart attached to co-star in a film about an inexperienced female con artist (Stewart) who teams up with a...

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Here's your first look at the trailer, as opposed to a still here and there, from the sci-fi/actioner Riddick, the third collaboration involving the character from Vin Diesel and writer/director David Twohy. The R-rated film is scheduled to come out on September 6, and the official plot-line says that, in the film, Riddick is "left for dead on a sun-scorched planet but he soon finds himself fighting for survival against alien predators more lethal than any human he's encountered. The only way off is for him to activate an emergency beacon and alert mercenaries who rapidly descend to the planet in search of their bounty. The first ship to arrive carries a...

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