EXCLUSIVE: Toronto-based distribution company New Mountain Films has acquired North American theatrical and streaming rights for Marjolein Busstra’s award-winning documentary House of Hope about a pacifist Waldorf school in the occupied West Bank.

The agreement was negotiated by Khaled Sabbour, founder and CEO of New Mountain Films, and Esther van Messel and Shiran Shmerling at Zurich-based international sales company First Hand Films.

Working with a Palestinian crew, including Dutch-Palestinian cinematographer Abu Mosab, Amsterdam-based filmmaker Busstra followed Manar and Milad, a couple who run a pacifist Waldorf elementary school in al-Eizariya, a Palestinian town on the outskirts of Jerusalem under pressure from Israel’s expansion of its illegal settlements.

Against this tinderbox backdrop, they strive to protect their students’ innocence and sense of possibility amid escalating regional conflict.

House of Hope world premiered at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam in 2025, and then went on to screen at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto this May. There, it won the Hot Docs Best International Feature Documentary award.

The award, which is supported Donner Canadian Foundation, qualifies the film for consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category at the 99th Academy Awards.

It is produced by Ruby Deelen and Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen for 100% Film in coproduction with Ossama Bawardi and May Jabareen for Palestine-based Philistine Films.

“House of Hope is exactly the kind of film that New Mountain was built to champion — a story with real stakes, told with craft, that deserves an audience beyond the festival circuit,” said Sabbour.

“What you think you know does not survive the ninety-one minutes,” added Annette Warring, President & COO of New Mountain Films. “Manar and Milad are not arguing with anyone. They are teaching children to read and to imagine, and watching them do it rearranges something.”

New Mountain Films will bring House of Hope to theatres in select major North American markets in mid-October 2026, ahead of its move to NM+, New Mountain’s purpose-driven streaming platform. The platform will convert audience watch-time on the title directly into charitable giving, extending the film’s impact well beyond its theatrical run.

Fred Tsui, the veteran Hong Kong sales executive and founder of Moebius Entertainment, has been appointed executive director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, the organization announced Friday.

Tsui will formally take up the post Sept. 23, succeeding Albert Lee, the former Emperor Motion Pictures CEO who has led the society since late 2018. Reporting to chairman Wilfred Wong and the board, Tsui will oversee the society’s various year-round activities: the flagship Hong Kong International Film Festival, the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the HAF Film Lab, the Summer International Film Festival and the repertory Cine Fan program.

The appointment comes amid a busy few weeks for Tsui at his day job. Moebius, the Hong Kong-based sales agency and festival consultancy he runs as founder and CEO, boarded worldwide sales this week on Michelle Zhou’s debut feature Big Little Things, just selected for the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section, and recently picked up Taiwanese director Fiona Roan Feng-i’s Happily Ever After ahead of its world premiere in Toronto’s Special Presentations lineup.

A respected Hong Kong industry veteran, Tsui spent more than two decades at Media Asia Film — the legacy local studio perhaps best known for the Infernal Affairs franchise — rising to general manager and head of international sales and co-production, where he helped carry late-stage Hong Kong golden age cinema to the global marketplace. Earlier in his career, he held senior management roles at telecom and media group PCCW and broadcaster Asia Television. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Hong Kong’s Film Development Council, Tsui has served on festival juries from Sitges to Tallinn to Edinburgh, and has sat on the boards of the Independent Film & Television Alliance in the U.S. and Rome’s MIA market.

“We are delighted to welcome Fred to HKIFFS,” said Wong. “Fred combines strategic leadership with an exceptional understanding of the international film landscape. Throughout his career, he has built bridges between Hong Kong cinema and the global marketplace while earning the trust and respect of filmmakers, festival directors and industry leaders worldwide. Just as importantly, he approaches cinema from the perspectives of an executive, a critic, a festival juror and a lifelong cinephile.”

“It is a tremendous honour to join HKIFFS, an institution that has played such a pivotal role in the cultural life of Hong Kong and in promoting Asian cinema internationally,” Tsui said, pledging to work on “broadening its international reach, nurturing new talent, deepening audience engagement and ensuring Hong Kong remains at the forefront of global film culture.”

Founded in 1977 and among Asia’s longest-running film events, the Hong Kong festival marked its 50th edition earlier this year. Tsui’s first edition at the helm — the event’s 51st — will come next March.

EXCLUSIVE: Armand Assante (Gotti) has joined the feature documentary The Streets of Little Italy: 100 Years of San Gennaro and will narrate the project, directed by Paul Borghese (Once Upon a Time in Brooklyn).

Currently in production, the feature-length documentary chronicles the story of how a small immigrant religious procession on Manhattan’s Mulberry Street evolved into the world’s most famous and most attended Italian feast. The film is produced by CIAO USA in collaboration with Figli di San Gennaro, Inc., the organization behind the feast. 

Production has already filmed in Naples, the city of Benevento (the birthplace of San Gennaro), and the city of Pozzuoli (where San Gennaro was martyred), exploring the Saint’s origins and the spiritual roots that inspired generations of Italian immigrants. Filming is currently underway in New York’s Little Italy and will continue throughout this year’s 100th anniversary Feast of San Gennaro, set to take place on Mulberry Street from September 17-27.

The synopsis reads: “Blending rare archival materials, historical photography, intimate interviews with lifelong Little Italy residents, prominent Italian-American actors and public figures, and immersive vérité coverage of this year’s centennial celebration, the documentary follows the evolution of the Feast over the past century. The film also traces the immigrant journey through archival material from Ellis Island, connecting the story of San Gennaro to the millions of Italians who first arrived in America seeking a new life.”

The documentary is written by Fred Gardaphé, one of the founders of Italian-American Studies and Distinguished Professor of English and Italian-American Studies at Queens College, CUNY, with cinematography by George Mitas.

“The Feast of San Gennaro is so much more than a festival; it’s the heartbeat of Little Italy and a living testament to the resilience, faith, and pride of generations of Italian-Americans,” Borghese said in a statement.

“As a proud Italian American whose work has always been deeply connected to New York and its people, it’s an incredible privilege to help preserve this story for future generations while celebrating one hundred years of a tradition that continues to unite families from around the world.”