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Still working on the same themes of sexual awareness and self-discovery, hopefully this is closer in quality to Sex and Lucia than Chaotic Ana. - #42. Room in Rome Director/Writer: Julio MedemProducers: Medem and Alvaro Longoria (La zona)Distributor: IFC Films. The Gist: This is a remake of Chilean Matias Bize’s “En la cama” with a Spanish girl who indulges in a night of casual sex in Rome. This sees two strangers (Elena Anaya and Natasha Yarovenka) who meet and spend a passionate physical encounter in a hotel room.....(more) Cast: Elena Anaya, Natasha Yarovenko and Enrico Lo Verso. Why is it on the list?: Still working on the same themes of sexual awareness and self-discovery, hopefully this is closer in quality to Sex and Lucia than Chaotic Ana. Release Date/Status?: IFC Films made the rare move to get this while in production.

• Sex and Lucia's Elena Anaya (who I most recently saw in Hierro where she played a character similar to that in The Orphanage mixed with Monica Vitti's character in L'avventura) has attached herself to writer-director Rafael Russo's English language romantic drama titled Woman In A Bar. Production co. La Zona's Maria Contreras is looking to set this up as a European-u.S. co-production since the story-line revolves around an Irish musician who leaves his Spanish girlfriend in Madrid to live in New York where he finds love in unusual circumstances. In bares a pinch of resemblance to Spaniard Julio Medem's Chaotic Ana about a free spirited woman who makes the same trek from the coastline of Spain to the Big Apple.  ...

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London -- The European Film Academy unveiled the 44 movies on this year's long list for the upcoming European Film Awards, scheduled for Dec. 6 in Copenhagen.

The 44 titles come from 27 countries across the continent including four from the U.K.

Joe Wright's "Atonement," Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha," Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" and Steve McQueen's "Hunger" will all hope to make the nominations' list with titles such as Kornel Mundruczo's "Delta" from Hungary and Andrzej Wajda's "Katyn" from Poland vying for a place.

In the 20 countries with the most Efa Members, members have voted one national film directly into the selection list.

To complete the list, a selection committee consisting of Efa board members and invited experts have included 24 other titles.

Over the next few weeks, the 1,800 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the different award categories.

The nominations will then be announced Nov.

• Before the critical acclaim of Sex and Lucia, if you weren’t a hardcore fan of subtitled, auteur films from Spain, then there was little chance you knew who Julio Medem was. The Spanish director took a mighty fall with his last feature entitled Chaotic Ana (Caótica Ana), a tale about a young woman's (played by first timer Manuela Vellés) awakening and introduction to the offerings of the world outside her secured, literal cave surroundings. She goes from costal Spain to shiny lights of the big apple. The picture is a mess. At least the 2007 Toronto Int. Film Festival edition is. Despite the non-acclaim of his last picture, Medem is setting up back to back projects which come across as titillating projects which may find more interest from the international buyer crowds. Variety reports that Morena Films' Alvaro Longoria will produce Medem first English films. First up is Room

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• Now in only its 2nd edition, Rome has whipped up quite the festival. A mention-worthy selection of titles, some U.S pics for glam and a jury process that I especially like not 5 or 6 but a group of 50 - this year No Man's Land director Danis Tanovic serves as the jury head for 50 international cinema-goers. Notables are Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth.Below you'll find the complete stats on the fest that begins in less than 3 weeks from now. When: October 18th to 28th, 2007 Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('October 18, 2007'); Where: Rome, Italy Official Website: www.romacinemafest.orgNot just a great city, but the city of cinema par excellence, will host the Fest which will transform its centre - the Auditorium Parco della Musica - in the Parco del Cinema for nine days. The second edition of Cinema. Festa Internazionale di Roma - RomeFilmFest will be held from

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• With about 85 percent of the Press & Industry screenings taking place in the same barracks, it makes for no frills, easy as pie, type of experience and when I must go to hotel headquarters, the travel time is an easy 5 blocks down south or curve right 3 blocks up. Today’s program was a feast of different language mother tongues….here’s the four main language mother tongues that I heard and some immediate thoughts on what I saw...An historically embedded, thought provoking doc that reveals there is more to the man than meets the eye, Barbet Schroeder’s Terror's Advocate curiously looks back at the career of a lawyer who defended the “undefendable”. The doc will get commercial play and is a must for newspaper headline history buffs. Unlike Pedro Almodovar’s work, internationally speaking, Spaniard Julio Medem has very much remained an unknown. Chaotic Ana (Caótica Ana) won

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Toronto International Film Festival

BARCELONA, Spain -- With Sex and Lucia and The Lovers of the Arctic Circle, Spanish director Julio Medem firmly established his own dreamy, winding plots, suffused with philosophical themes and spiced with a liberal dose of sex. Medem's work is not to everyone's taste, but his new film, Chaotic Ana, is carried by imagination and the force of a strong cast. It should do well in Spanish-speaking territories and in art houses elsewhere. The film screens in the Toronto International Film Festival.

"Ana" tells the story of a young Spanish woman from age 18 to 22. Under hypnosis, she is convinced that her life is the continuation of four other women's lives, all of whom died tragically at age 22. The audience is asked to believe this is her "chaos" -- and the reason she is given to nasty turns when confronted with images that remind her of these women. If the audience does not take the film too literally and indulges Medem's idea that Ana is basically tormented by demons, then they can enjoy the action more.

Ana, played by Medem's new muse Manuela Velles, is transported from her home on the hippy Spanish island of Ibiza to an artists' commune in Madrid by mother figure Justine (Charlotte Rampling). She falls for a disturbed Arab named Said (Nicolas Cazale), then undergoes hypnosis to confront her "other women." Ana ends up on a boat bound for New York and finally travels through Arizona with her dashing hypnotist (Asier Newman).

The plot veers annoyingly from one scene to another with little explanation. But the film is far more interesting when you know that Ana was inspired by Medem's own sister, who died tragically in a traffic crash. He wrote the film as a form of tribute to her.

Indeed, the Ana character becomes a feminist hero, struggling against the aggression of man. This theme is carried off with a marvelous ending when Ana wreaks glorious revenge on U.S. political ambitions abroad, symbolized by an obnoxious American politician.

Velles, whose previous experience was one television advertisement, carries the film, showing a maturity way beyond her years. She is not daunted by a cast that includes the likes of Rampling, Matthias Habich (The Downfall) and Lluis Homar (Bad Education). Velles might lack the sex appeal of a Penelope Cruz or a Paz Vega, but she offers much promise.

The real charm of this film is that it keeps the viewer guessing what strange turn it will take. Or indeed, what it is all about. It is a little long at nearly two hours but never seems plodding.

CHAOTIC ANA

Sogecine/Alicia Produce

Credits:

Screenwriter-director: Julio Medem

Executive producers: Simon de Santiago, Enrique Lopez Lavigne, Koldo Zuazua, Julio Medem

Director of photography: Mario Montero

Music: Jocelyn Pool

Costume designer: Estibaliz Markiegi

Co-producer: Sebastian Alvarez

Art director: Montse Sanz

Editor: Polo Aledo

Cast:

Ana: Manuela Velles

Justine: Charlotte Rampling

Linda: Bebe Rebulledo

Anglo: Asier Newman

Said: Nicolas Cazale

Lucas: Raul Pena

Mister Halcon: Gerrit Graham

Klaus: Matthias Habich

Ismael: Lluis Homar

Running time -- 156 minutes

No MPAA rating...

MADRID -- Spanish distribution house Sogepaq on Tuesday announced a raft of sales completed pre-Cannes for Julio Medem's upcoming film Chaotic Ana as well as new sales for Antonio Banderas' second directorial effort, Summer Rain.

Chaotic Ana, which will be released in Spain in the summer and is expected to show up at the fall festivals, presold to Sponge (Korea), Maywin (CIS and Baltics), Visual Filmes (Brazil), Shapira (Israel) and Babilla (Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Costa Rica).

The film previously was acquired by Prokino (Germany and Austria), Tartan (U.K. and Ireland), Cineart (Benelux), Prooptiki (Greece and Cyprus), Independenta (Romania) and Cineplex (Taiwan).

Chaotic Ana is produced by Sogecine and Medem's own Alicia Produce in co-production with Volcano Producciones and centers on a young woman who discovers how past women's lives affect her.

Banderas' Summer Rain announced sales to Surreal (France), Plan 2 Real (CIS and Baltics), Babilla (Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Costa Rica) and ICAIC (Cuba) in addition to previously struck deals with Tartan (U.K.

MADRID -- Spanish director Julio Medem (Sex and Lucia) is set to begin filming on his latest feature this February. The film, Caotica Ana, is a coming-of-age story of a young painter who leaves the island of Ibiza, where she has lived with her hippy father, and moves to Madrid to start a new life in a hideout for young artists. Casting has yet to be decided, but the film will shoot in Madrid, Ibiza, New York and Canary Islands.