Hannes Holm directed and wrote the screenplay for A Man Called Ove (Music Box Films), adapted from Fredrik Backman’s international best-selling novel of the same name. The title character, Ove, is the proverbial angry old man. An isolated retiree, highly principled and wound tightly with a short fuse, Ove spends his days enforcing block association rules that only he cares about, and visiting his wife’s grave. Ove has seemingly given up on life until a boisterous young family moves into the neighborhood. From an inauspicious beginning in which the new neighbors accidentally knock over Ove’s mailbox springs an unlikely friendship and we come to understand Ove’s past happiness and heartbreaks. It’s a heartwarming tale which gently reminds us that life is sweeter when it’s shared.
The Swedish film has earned Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year and Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling (Eva Von Bahr, Love Larson).
Following World AIDS Day, which was celebrated on December 1, co-production companies Central Films and Freelance For track one man’s existential, and potentially career-altering, decision to “come out” as living with HIV in Spain in this public service spot titled “The HInVisible Celebrity.”
Out of agency Señora Rushmore for ViiV Healthcare Spain, in collaboration with GESIDA, SEISIDA, and Apoyo Positivo, the PSA--directed by Rodrigo García Sáiz via Central Films Spain--addresses the stigma against publicly living with HIV in Spanish society. In the more than 40 years since the first case of HIV appeared in Spain, no public figure in Spain has claimed to have HIV. Viiv Healthcare Spain asks, if there are 150,000 people with HIV in Spain (or approximately 1 in 300), why don’t we know anyone with HIV?
The central character, who dons a mask of television-pixelated anonymity, gives himself an introspective pep-talk ahead of announcing his status to the Spanish public. Along the way, he wonders what will become of his career, and reputation in general, even as he recognizes that his declaration could change Spain’s cultural landscape for the better and for all of those in Spain who live with HIV every day. As no public figure in Spain has ever announced living with HIV--due to fear of public rejection--this character realizes that such a role model could change that.
The character has already begun building social media awareness with his Instagram profile, @famosoinvihsible, which began cataloging his life as a public figure earlier this fall. Still, though, the figure either leaves himself out of the picture, faces away from the camera, or dons the pixelated mask associated with anonymous admission. “The HInVisible... Read More
