Bleiberg Entertainment will be selling worldwide rights at the TIFF market to historical drama People of The Book, we can reveal.

Directed by Michael Haussman (Edge of the World), and based on the book of the same name written by Pulitzer prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks, filming has recently wrapped in the Valencia region of Spain, including at Ciudad de la Luz in Alicante, and in Trieste and Venice in Italy.

The film “tracks the creation and survival of a sacred religious artifact across 500 years, weaving back and forth between a series of interconnected chapters that span across several centuries and countries including pre and post inquisition Spain, 17th century Venice, Nazi occupied Bosnia and a contemporary narrative focusing on an Iraqi refugee family’s harrowing escape journey from ISIS held Mosul to safety in Europe”.

Adapted for the screen by Oscar-nominated Petter Skavlan (Kon-Tiki), the film is produced by Miriam Segal (The Infiltrator) and marks the first project for Good Films Studios Spain, the joint venture between the Spanish government, Canadian-U.S. outfit Orogen Media and Segal’s Good Films.

Earlier this summer the Spanish government’s investment company SETT (Spanish Society for Technological Transformation) made two remarkable investments worth a combined €40M in production companies Ítaca Films Madrid and Good Films Studios Spain based in Alicante.

Ítaca Films Madrid received €20m to create a Spanish arm of Mexico’s Grupo Ítaca, to produce 26 film and TV productions worth a combined €419m over the next 10 years. Good Films Studios Spain, a public-private initiative overseen by Segal, also got €20M to develop, finance, produce and sell mid-sized international productions budgeted at between €17m and €25m. The plan is to shoot 20 films at Ciudad de la Luz over the next decade, beginning with People of The Book.

Cast on the project includes Ziad Bakri, Rania Ben Fattoum, Ankido Hussen, Luca Ferrini, Giorgia Sinicorni, Pasquale Esposito and Jose Luis Ferrier.

HODs include Oscar-winning make-up artist Julie Dartnell (Les Misérables), Spanish production designer, Edou Hydallgo, and costume designer Cristina Sopeña, as well as DOP Diego Romero. The film is projected to be completed by the end of the year and the filmmakers aim to debut at one of the major international film festivals in 2027.

Bleiberg Entertainment will be presenting the film at the TIFF market and showing first footage for buyers. Negotiations for the sales attachment were handled by Ariel and Ehud Bleiberg for Bleiberg Entertainment and by Miriam Segal for Good Films Collective.

“This has been one of the most challenging projects I have ever developed and produced. It has been an extraordinary journey, over many years. I am enterally grateful for the opportunity to bring this incredible, resonant, truly cinematic, epic narrative to the screen,” said Segal, also know for producing recent political drama War Of Words.

“When I read this script and understood the scope and ambition of the entire project and the way GOOD films planned to bring it to life with the whole new operation in Spain, I told everyone on our team that we had to be a part of it, no matter what. To be involved with such a universally profound, artistic film like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I think buyers, critics and audiences alike will recognize its potential,” added Ariel Bleiberg, Head of Acquisition and Development for Bleiberg.

The official competition lineup of the 70^th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF) is set, with organizers unveiling the 10 movies that will vie for the best film award.  

The titles make for an international lineup of filmmakers, with 10 countries represented, including the U.K., Ireland, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, and Poland.

“This year’s official competition explores an incredible range of storytelling, from a wide range of voices and styles, spanning fiction to documentary, from post-war Europe to Dhaka, Japan and beyond,” organizers said.  

The competition program includes the world premiere of Carol Morley’s (Dreams of a Life) new feature, 7 Miles Out, the film adaptation of her novel of the same name. Based on her own troubled adolescence following her father’s suicide, the novel tells the story of Anne, who, after losing her father in tragic circumstances, finds solace – and trouble – in the Manchester music scene of the 1970s and 1980s.

The LFF 2026 competition lineup also includes such international filmmakers as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Sergei Loznitsa, Lili Horvát, Benjamín Naishtat, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, Giovanni Tortorici, Malgorzata Szumowska, May el-Toukhy and Michal Englert, as well as Rubaiyat Hossain. Various of the titles will world premiere at Venice or Toronto before touching down at London.

Established in 2009, the BFI London Film Festival’s best film award previously went to the likes of Jacques Audiard for A Prophet, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail in 2024, and Landmarks by Lucrecia Martel in 2025.  

“As we celebrate the 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival, it’s an honor to have a number of alumni filmmakers represented in the official competition alongside those making their first appearance at the festival,” said Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival director. “Our 2026 competition selection brings an astounding array of filmmaking styles to the screen. As ever, it’s been creatively nourishing for myself and the team to encounter each of these works – we’re excited to share these with audiences in October.”

LFF 2026 takes place Oct. 7-Oct. 18. The full festival program will be revealed on Sept. 2.

Check out the 10 films in the LFF 2026 official competition below.

7 Miles Out (UK, Dir. Carol Morley)  

Act 3 (Ireland-UK, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor)  

Glaxo (Brazil-Argentina, Dir. Benjamín Naishtat)  

Imperium (Germany-France-Italy-Lithuania, Dir. Sergei Loznitsa)  

Ketticè (Italy, Dir. Giovanni Tortorici)  

Look Back (Japan, Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)  

My Notes on Mars (Hungary-Austria, Lili Horvát)  

The Difficult Bride (France-Bangladesh-Portugal-Norway-Germany, Rubaiyat Hossain)  

The Idiot(s) (UK-Poland, Dir. Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert)  

Woman Unknown (Denmark-Latvia-Sweden, Dir. May el-Toukhy)  

EXCLUSIVE: It might not be the most conventional business plan, but disposing of a body might be the kickstart that Prime Video‘s Clean Up Company needs.

In a Hindi-language trailer for the MX Player/Prime Video comedy-drama, we see friends Raju (Vishal Jethwa), Swapan (Amey Wagh), and Goldie (Atijesh Gupta) stumble across the unusual business opportunity when they are forced to get involved with cleaning up a murder. Turns out, it’s easy money – at least initially.

The bodies start piling up – and business booms – but the growing enterprise puts the trio in the crosshairs of the powerful gangsters and underworld figures in the lawless border town of Saribgunj. At the same time, a determined IPS officer begins closing on the town’s criminal network.

The eight-part series is the latest from Prime Video India‘s prolific originals unit, with Jio Studios and GSEAMS team for the show. Rohan Ghose is the writer and director, with Konarak Mukherjee the co-writer. Jyoti Deshpande, Kartick Nishandar and Arjun Singgh Baran are the producers. Starring alongside Jethwa, Wagh and Gupta are Jisshu Sengupta, Saswata Chatterjee, and Ravi Kishan.

The show drops on Prime Video and the MX Player Android app, which now has a new identity, MX Player by Prime Videp, this week on August 21.

“At Prime Video, we are always looking for stories that not only have a strong hook, but also bring something unexpected to the experience, and Clean Up Company does exactly that,” said Amogh Dusad, Director and Head of AVOD Content, Prime Video India.

“It takes a seemingly straightforward premise of three friends stumbling into the business of cleaning up crime scenes and places it within the unpredictable world of Saribgunj, where gang rivalries, political power, and survival collide. What makes the series particularly engaging is the way it balances the tension of a crime thriller with friendship and dark humor, brought to life by a terrific ensemble.”

“With Clean Up Company, we wanted to tell a story that is rooted in its world, but still has a universal appeal,” added Nishandar and Singgh Baran in a statement. “The story is a journey of three boys who fight for their survival and ambition.

“As a production house, we have always believed in finding stories that audiences want to watch and bringing them to life in a way that feels authentic. Clean Up Company is another step in that direction. It is a fast-paced, unpredictable story, but at its core, it is also about whether you can really escape the place and circumstances that have shaped you.”

The news comes after Prime Video assimilated MX Player into its service earlier this year. The MX Player brand still lives on a solo app on Android, but the brands have been brought together to offer a one-stop shop to Indian streaming audiences.