Brazil's Dezenove primes slate

MADRID -- Brazil's Dezenove Som e Imagens features particulars around the 2011-12 production slate that certifies it among Brazil's fastest-rising production players. Paris-based Urban Distribution Intl., headed by Frederic Corvez, has acquired world sales rights on "Moving Creatures." From first-timer Caetano Gotardo, the $1.5 million poetic drama weaves three tales of grief and motherhood, exploring, Gotardo mentioned, "the complexness of affection, as well as the feelings" motivated by loss. It wrapped Sept. 4. UDI's pickup on "Creatures" stretches its three-year first-look sales/co-production alliance with Dezenove, initially inked this past year. Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra, company company directors of Cannes 2011 Not Sure Regard entry "Hard Labor," are planning "Pleasantness." Once more melding realism and horror tropes, it triggers a nurse playing a baby when its mother dies in having a baby. The newborn is cute, despite its fur and claws. Rojas and Dutra have shipped another draft script. Dezenove will seek worldwide co-production partners after firming up Brazilian finance, co-founder Sara Silveira mentioned. "Manners" is skedded to shoot partner 2012. At Venice, Silveira introduced "Surge," the initial solo directorial effort from Brazilian helmer Daniela Thomas, who co-directed with Walter Salles' "Linha p passe" and "Foreign Land." An 1800s slave drama, "Surge" is allotted at Reais8 million ($4.7 million). Silveira's primary production efforts will remain dedicated to lower-budget films, she stressed. Now in publish-production, one more Dezenove movie, "Not such a long time ago Veronica," which UDI also provides worldwide rights, carried out to applause at San Sebastian Film Festival's Films happening sidebar. The eagerly anticipated new film from Marcelo Gomes ("Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures"), "Veronica" triggers a young physician in their first job after college, who's worried about her seeming failure to fall crazily for each other as she senses her youth sliding away. Gomes' second solo outing underscores a completely new confidence in Brazilian cinema which, though grounding its tales in specific locales -- here, Recife -- is not afraid to tackle global malaise. "Veronica" is "a portrait of youthful people all over the world, with Recife," Gomes mentioned. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com