XYZ Films has acquired North American gross sales rights to “StayOnline,” from Ukrainian director Anton Skrypets, which makes use of the revolutionary Screenlife format to inform the story of a younger Kyiv girl who dangers her life to assist a boy whose mother and father have gone lacking after the Russian invasion.
“StayOnline” was co-written by Skrypets and Eva Strelnikova, who additionally served as director of images. It was produced by Marina Kvasova and Alla Lypovetska of the Organization of Ukrainian Producers (OUP). The movie begins when a younger girl volunteering in Kyiv is given one of many 1000’s of laptops donated by abnormal Ukrainians to help the warfare effort. She’s requested to put in a delicate army utility and ship the laptop computer to her brother serving on the frontline.
But the lady receives a mysterious video name from a younger boy trying to find his father, the laptop computer’s earlier proprietor, who went lacking in the course of the Russian military’s brutal bloodbath of harmless civilians in Bucha. Reluctantly, she agrees to assist discover his lacking mother and father — a call that may finally drive her to threat the lives of her personal family members.
“StayOnline” was made utilizing the Screenlife format, which takes place nearly solely on characters’ smartphones and pc screens. While that call was partly born out of the sensible difficulties of constructing a film in a time of warfare, stated the OUP’s Igor Storchak, the approach additionally made inventive sense in the way it depicted its characters’ lives.
“The beginning of the war was characterized by the fact that Ukrainians spent most of their time online — volunteering, waging an information war, keeping up to date with the news in telegram channels,” stated Storchak. “This is the first war that was largely fought online, which is a rather unique experience worth talking about.”
This isn’t the primary time XYZ Films has rolled the cube on the Screenlife format: Last 12 months the corporate partnered with Pulsar Content to deal with gross sales on the Japanese horror film “Bloat,” starring Ben McKenzie (“Gotham”) and Bojana Novakovic (“Devil”), which is co-produced by the Bazelevs banner of Screenlife pioneer Timur Bekmambetov.
The style specialists have had a busy Cannes, launching the New Visions slate with Zarrar Kahn’s Pakistani-Canadian horror “In Flames,” which is taking part in in Directors’ Fortnight. The New Visions initiative is designed to highlight daring new voices in world cinema.
Other titles on the New Visions slate embrace the psychological thriller “Reckoner,” starring Christina Hendricks, which is being launched to consumers this week in Cannes, and Czech sci-fi characteristic “Restore Point,” directed by Robert Hloz, which could have footage screened on the Cannes Market as a part of the Fantastic 7 lineup of upcoming style initiatives.
This 12 months Cannes unveiled its new, genre-focused Fantastic Pavilion on the Marché du Film, highlighting the more and more essential position that style performs within the international market.
Todd Brown, XYZ Films’ head of worldwide acquisitions, lately praised the pavilion’s launch to Variety, saying it “will not only amplify the best and brightest voices working in the space but also provide a home for creators and talents to mix, to meet and to form new relationships.”