23/08/2023 - The French sales agent will bet on Foremost by Night by Spain’s Víctor Iriarte in Giornate degli Autori and Hoard by British director Luna Carmoon in Critics’ Week

Venice once again smiles at the French international sales company Alpha Violet, which has often shined on the Lido (with Apples [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christos Nikou
film profile] in 2020 and Autobiography [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] last year, for example) and confirms its talent for spotting new talent since it will be representing two very promising debut features at the 80th Venice Film Festival (taking place from 30 August to 9 September): Foremost by Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Víctor Iriarte
film profile] by Spain’s Víctor Iriarte in Giornate degli Autori and Hoard [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Luna Carmoon
film profile] by British director Luna Carmoon in Critics' Week.

In Giornate degli Autori, Virginie Devesa and Keiko Funato’s team will be betting on the directorial debut of a former director of photography turned producer and programmer (of the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section in San Sebastián): Víctor Iriarte. The filmmaker, who also wrote the script of Foremost by Night with Isa Campo and Andrea Queralt, has gathered in the cast two well-known actresses, Lola Dueñas and Ana Torrent, who star alongside Manuel Egozkue. "It’s a plunge into one of the dark pages of Spain’s History, that of the children kidnapped under Franco. It’s a wonderful film that brings together thriller, historical crime and melodrama," notes Virginie Devesa. On the menu: three deaths, two robberies, and a runaway. The story of two women meeting on the banks of the Douro River. Discovered in the Work in Progress section of Les Arcs, Foremost by Night was produced by Spanish companies La Termita, Atekaleun, CSC Films, Inicia Films and by Víctor Iriarte, and co-produced by Portugal’s Ukbar Filmes and France’s 4 A 4 Productions.

In Critics’ Week (where Alpha Violet sold Los nadie in 2016, then Hunting Season [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Natalia Garagiola
film profile] and Crater [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Silvia Luzi, Luca Bellino
film profile] in 2017), 26-year-old British director Luna Carmoon  is ready to make a splash with Hoard. Starring Saura Lightfoot Leon, Joseph Quinn (actor from Stranger Things who delivers, according to Virginie Devesa, "an outstanding performance") and Hayley Squires, this debut feature whose script was written by the director is set in 1984 London: 7 year old Maria and her mother live in their own loving world built on sorting through bins and collecting shiny rubbish. One night, their world falls apart, and we join Maria a decade later, living with her foster mother. An older stranger, Michael, then enters their home, opening the door to past trauma, magic and madness… A film produced by Delaval Film, Erebus Pictures and Anti-Worlds.

It is worth noting that Alpha Violet, who scored some great sales in Berlin with Tótem [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lila Avilés
film profile] by Mexico’s Lila Avilés, also includes in its line-up Windless by Pavel G. Vesnakov, a film currently in post-production steered by Bulgaria’s Red Carpet and co-produced by Italy’s dispàrte (read the article).

(Translated from French)