Venice once again smiles at the French international sales company Alpha Violet, which has often shined on the Lido (with Apples [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Christos Nikou
scheda film] in 2020 and Autobiography [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] 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 [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Víctor Iriarte
scheda film] by Spain’s Víctor Iriarte in Giornate degli Autori and Hoard [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Luna Carmoon
scheda film] 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 [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Natalia Garagiola
scheda film] and Crater [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Silvia Luzi, Luca Bellino
scheda film] 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 [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Lila Avilés
scheda film] 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).