Festival’s 26 th edition runs October 6-15.
South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (Biff) is launching its On Screen section which will carry premieres of high-profile drama series that will later be streamed on Ott video platforms.
Biff, whose 26th edition will be held October 6-15, said the section “aims to precisely reflect the current state of the market, which is expanding multi-directionally, while embracing the extended flow and value of cinema” and should be “able to present more diverse and higher-quality works to the audience, whose range of fandom is expanding”.
The inaugural On Screen Section will launch...
South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (Biff) is launching its On Screen section which will carry premieres of high-profile drama series that will later be streamed on Ott video platforms.
Biff, whose 26th edition will be held October 6-15, said the section “aims to precisely reflect the current state of the market, which is expanding multi-directionally, while embracing the extended flow and value of cinema” and should be “able to present more diverse and higher-quality works to the audience, whose range of fandom is expanding”.
The inaugural On Screen Section will launch...
- 8/26/2021
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
Inernational membership swells nearly 200% over four years.
The Us Academy has achieved its goal of doubling the number of female members and those from under-represented ethnical and racial groups in the last four years, the organisation said as it announced the latest list of invitees on Tuesday (June 30).
The 819 people invited to join from all areas of the film industry include Cannes head Thierry Fremaux, Cynthia Erivo, Florence Pugh, Atlantics director Mati Diop, Les Misérables director Ladj Ly, and Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf.
Directors Lulu Wang and Wash Westmoreland have been invited, as have producers Tarak Ben Ammar (Black Gold...
The Us Academy has achieved its goal of doubling the number of female members and those from under-represented ethnical and racial groups in the last four years, the organisation said as it announced the latest list of invitees on Tuesday (June 30).
The 819 people invited to join from all areas of the film industry include Cannes head Thierry Fremaux, Cynthia Erivo, Florence Pugh, Atlantics director Mati Diop, Les Misérables director Ladj Ly, and Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf.
Directors Lulu Wang and Wash Westmoreland have been invited, as have producers Tarak Ben Ammar (Black Gold...
- 6/30/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Inernational membership swells nearly 200% over four years.
The Academy has achieved its goal of doubling the number of female members and those from under-represented ethnical and racial groups in the last four years, the organisation said as it announced the latest list of invitees on Tuesday (June 30).
The 819 people invited to join from all areas of the film industry include Cannes head Thierry Fremaux, Cynthia Erivo, Florence Pugh, Atlantics director Mati Diop, Les Misérables director Ladj Ly, and Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf.
Directors Lulu Wang and Wash Westmoreland have been invited, as have producers Tarak Ben Ammar (Black Gold), Pippa Harris...
The Academy has achieved its goal of doubling the number of female members and those from under-represented ethnical and racial groups in the last four years, the organisation said as it announced the latest list of invitees on Tuesday (June 30).
The 819 people invited to join from all areas of the film industry include Cannes head Thierry Fremaux, Cynthia Erivo, Florence Pugh, Atlantics director Mati Diop, Les Misérables director Ladj Ly, and Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf.
Directors Lulu Wang and Wash Westmoreland have been invited, as have producers Tarak Ben Ammar (Black Gold), Pippa Harris...
- 6/30/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Inernational membership swells nearly 200% over four years.
The Academy has achieved its goal of doubling the number of female members and those from under-represented ethnical and racial groups in the last four years, the organisation said as it announced the latest list of invitees on Tuesday (June 30).
The 819 people invited to join from all areas of the film industry include Cynthia Erivo, Florence Pugh, Atlantics director Mati Diop, Les Misérables director Ladj Ly, and Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf.
Directors Lulu Wang and Wash Westmoreland have been invited, as have producers Tarak Ben Ammar (Black Gold), Pippa Harris (1917), Jessica Elbaum (Booksmart...
The Academy has achieved its goal of doubling the number of female members and those from under-represented ethnical and racial groups in the last four years, the organisation said as it announced the latest list of invitees on Tuesday (June 30).
The 819 people invited to join from all areas of the film industry include Cynthia Erivo, Florence Pugh, Atlantics director Mati Diop, Les Misérables director Ladj Ly, and Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf.
Directors Lulu Wang and Wash Westmoreland have been invited, as have producers Tarak Ben Ammar (Black Gold), Pippa Harris (1917), Jessica Elbaum (Booksmart...
- 6/30/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Right now, quarantine measures might get on your nerves but lament not. Some girls have been through much worse even prior to the pandemic, which is why Samira Makhmalbaf made Sib or “The Apple” in the first place. Endearing rather than sarcastic, this semi-documentary depicts the state of girls and poor people in Iran – the very victims of restrictive social norms and ignorance. So why not give yourself in to this heartwarming social commentary as you’re waiting it out?
The film starts with a statement of facts and a plea for intervention. The reasons why it is needed is soon revealed: Zahra and Massoumeh – two eleven-something girls – have been found victims of their parents’ imprisonment. Ever since they were born, they have been locked up in their own home with no interactions with the outside world. Make no mistake about it, however, since there’s no child abuse going on here,...
The film starts with a statement of facts and a plea for intervention. The reasons why it is needed is soon revealed: Zahra and Massoumeh – two eleven-something girls – have been found victims of their parents’ imprisonment. Ever since they were born, they have been locked up in their own home with no interactions with the outside world. Make no mistake about it, however, since there’s no child abuse going on here,...
- 4/3/2020
- by AmselLuu
- AsianMoviePulse
Swedish director was due to take part in a festival retrospective.
Swedish director Roy Andersson has been forced to cancel his appearance at the Berlinale “due to health issues”.
The 76-year-old filmmaker was due to take part in retrospective programme On Transmission, which is marking the 70th edition of the festival.
Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian called on seven directors - whose films have shaped the festival - to select a fellow filmmaker. Both would screen their films before sitting down for an on-stage discussion.
Andersson was due to attend on Wednesday (Feb 26) with his 1970 feature A Swedish Love Story,...
Swedish director Roy Andersson has been forced to cancel his appearance at the Berlinale “due to health issues”.
The 76-year-old filmmaker was due to take part in retrospective programme On Transmission, which is marking the 70th edition of the festival.
Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian called on seven directors - whose films have shaped the festival - to select a fellow filmmaker. Both would screen their films before sitting down for an on-stage discussion.
Andersson was due to attend on Wednesday (Feb 26) with his 1970 feature A Swedish Love Story,...
- 2/23/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
A version of this story appeared in TheWrap’s magazine’s Cannes issue.
For decades, the Cannes Film Festival has had a dismal record of showcasing the work of female directors. The rarefied club of Cannes-approved art-house auteurs, the filmmakers on whom the festival rests, has simply always been predominantly male.
Over the years, oversights and snubs have been easy to find. It’s hard to imagine, for instance, that directors as esteemed as Agnieszka Holland, Julie Taymor, Mira Nair, Kelly Reichardt or Elaine May haven’t warranted spots on the Croisette, or that Agnès Varda hasn’t deserved more than her single placement in the main competition, which she got in 1962 for “Cleo From 5 to 8.”
Yes, a female director, Barbara Virginia, had a film in competition in 1946, the first year that Cannes took place. But it wasn’t until 1954, with Carmen Toscano and Kinuyo Tanaka, that two women had films in the competition, and it wasn’t until 1961 that a woman won Cannes’ best director award. (Russian director Yuliya Sointseva was the first for “The Story of the Flaming Years.”)
Also Read: Cannes Film Festival to Offer Sexual Harassment Hotline
The stats are pretty dismal: Over the first 71 years of Cannes, a paltry 4.3 percent of the competition films have been directed by women. (See chart below.) Only one, Jane Campion’s “The Piano,” has won Cannes’ top prize, the Palme d’Or, though actresses Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seudoux were given honorary Palmes alongside “Blue Is the Warmest Color” director Abdellatif Kechiche’s real one in 2013.
Admittedly, things are getting better. Of the 11 times that three or more women have placed films in competition, eight have come in the last 13 years. Three women made the cut in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 — and four did so in 2011.
And the current decade is the first one in which more than 10 percent of the competition directors have been women — though Cannes faced immediate criticism this year for only including Alice Rohrwacher, Eva Husson and Nadine Labaki among its 21 competition directors.
Festival chief Thierry Frémaux has insisted that he will never make gender a programming factor, but the Un Certain Regard section has six solo women directors and one co-director among its 18 films, while the independent Critics’ Week competition finds women outnumbering men four to three.
Also Read: Penélope Cruz Says She Spent Months in 'Terrifying Pain' for Cannes Opener 'Everybody Knows'
Rohrwacher, by the way, is in the Cannes main competition this year for the second time, bringing “Lazzaro Felice” to the Palais four years after her film “The Wonders” won the festival’s grand prize.
That makes her one of 10 women to have placed two films in the competition, the others being Sofia Coppola, Maiwenn Le Besco, Samira Makhmalbaf, Lucrecia Martel, Marta Meszaros, Lynne Ramsay, Margarethe von Trotta, Lina Wertmuller and Mai Zetterling.
The only women with more than two: Andrea Arnold, Jane Campion, Liliana Cavani and Nicole Garcia, with three each, and Japanese director Naomi Kawase with five.
Read original story Cannes’ Female Troubles: Women Directors Have Always Been Scarce At TheWrap...
For decades, the Cannes Film Festival has had a dismal record of showcasing the work of female directors. The rarefied club of Cannes-approved art-house auteurs, the filmmakers on whom the festival rests, has simply always been predominantly male.
Over the years, oversights and snubs have been easy to find. It’s hard to imagine, for instance, that directors as esteemed as Agnieszka Holland, Julie Taymor, Mira Nair, Kelly Reichardt or Elaine May haven’t warranted spots on the Croisette, or that Agnès Varda hasn’t deserved more than her single placement in the main competition, which she got in 1962 for “Cleo From 5 to 8.”
Yes, a female director, Barbara Virginia, had a film in competition in 1946, the first year that Cannes took place. But it wasn’t until 1954, with Carmen Toscano and Kinuyo Tanaka, that two women had films in the competition, and it wasn’t until 1961 that a woman won Cannes’ best director award. (Russian director Yuliya Sointseva was the first for “The Story of the Flaming Years.”)
Also Read: Cannes Film Festival to Offer Sexual Harassment Hotline
The stats are pretty dismal: Over the first 71 years of Cannes, a paltry 4.3 percent of the competition films have been directed by women. (See chart below.) Only one, Jane Campion’s “The Piano,” has won Cannes’ top prize, the Palme d’Or, though actresses Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seudoux were given honorary Palmes alongside “Blue Is the Warmest Color” director Abdellatif Kechiche’s real one in 2013.
Admittedly, things are getting better. Of the 11 times that three or more women have placed films in competition, eight have come in the last 13 years. Three women made the cut in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 — and four did so in 2011.
And the current decade is the first one in which more than 10 percent of the competition directors have been women — though Cannes faced immediate criticism this year for only including Alice Rohrwacher, Eva Husson and Nadine Labaki among its 21 competition directors.
Festival chief Thierry Frémaux has insisted that he will never make gender a programming factor, but the Un Certain Regard section has six solo women directors and one co-director among its 18 films, while the independent Critics’ Week competition finds women outnumbering men four to three.
Also Read: Penélope Cruz Says She Spent Months in 'Terrifying Pain' for Cannes Opener 'Everybody Knows'
Rohrwacher, by the way, is in the Cannes main competition this year for the second time, bringing “Lazzaro Felice” to the Palais four years after her film “The Wonders” won the festival’s grand prize.
That makes her one of 10 women to have placed two films in the competition, the others being Sofia Coppola, Maiwenn Le Besco, Samira Makhmalbaf, Lucrecia Martel, Marta Meszaros, Lynne Ramsay, Margarethe von Trotta, Lina Wertmuller and Mai Zetterling.
The only women with more than two: Andrea Arnold, Jane Campion, Liliana Cavani and Nicole Garcia, with three each, and Japanese director Naomi Kawase with five.
Read original story Cannes’ Female Troubles: Women Directors Have Always Been Scarce At TheWrap...
- 5/8/2018
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
When one mentions Iranian cinema, the names that most often come to mind are such directors as the late Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi, and Asghar Farhadi. More knowlegedable aficionados may also be able to mention such filmmakers as Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Dariush Mehrjui, Mohammad Rasoulof, and Samira Makhmalbaf (daughter of Mohsen). However, there's another acclaimed filmmaker that well deserves to be in the illustrious company of the directors I've mentioned above, but is undeservedly far less known. His name is Mehrdad Oskouei, a documentarian who's been making films since the late 1980s, and has won numerous awards for his work at home and abroad. His films since the 2000s have incisively interrogated Iran's patriarchy, poverty, and stark class differences, with a fine visual style that matches...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/23/2018
- Screen Anarchy
Venice sidebar to screen eleven world premieres; first screening of Ermanno Olmi doc.
The Venice Film Festival’s (Aug 30 - 9) independently run Venice Days section will host 12 competition titles, 11 of which are world premieres, including new films from Kim Nguyen, Chloe Sevigny, Pengfei, and Sara Forestier.
War Witch director Nguyen will show drama Eye On Juliet, starring UK actor Joe Cole, while M marks the directorial debut of Standing Tall actress Forestier.
Pengfei, who was in Venice Days in 2015 with his first film, Underground Fragrance, is returning with followup The Taste of Rice Flower (pictured).
Screening in the special events category will be a never seen before and thought to be lost Ermanno Olmi documentary from the 1960s: Il Tentato Suicidio Nell Adolescenza (Attempted Suicide In Youths).
The documentary follows the pioneering work of the emergency psychiatric branch of the Policlinico di Milano.
Meanwhile, new short films by Sevigny and Us choreographer-director Celia Rowlson-Hall will screen in Venice...
The Venice Film Festival’s (Aug 30 - 9) independently run Venice Days section will host 12 competition titles, 11 of which are world premieres, including new films from Kim Nguyen, Chloe Sevigny, Pengfei, and Sara Forestier.
War Witch director Nguyen will show drama Eye On Juliet, starring UK actor Joe Cole, while M marks the directorial debut of Standing Tall actress Forestier.
Pengfei, who was in Venice Days in 2015 with his first film, Underground Fragrance, is returning with followup The Taste of Rice Flower (pictured).
Screening in the special events category will be a never seen before and thought to be lost Ermanno Olmi documentary from the 1960s: Il Tentato Suicidio Nell Adolescenza (Attempted Suicide In Youths).
The documentary follows the pioneering work of the emergency psychiatric branch of the Policlinico di Milano.
Meanwhile, new short films by Sevigny and Us choreographer-director Celia Rowlson-Hall will screen in Venice...
- 7/25/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Venice sidebar to screen eleven world premieres; first screening of Ermanno Olmi doc.
The Venice Film Festival’s (Aug 30 - 9) independently run Venice Days section will host 12 competition titles, 11 of which are world premieres, including new films from Kim Nguyen, Chloe Sevigny, Pengfei, and Sara Forestier.
War Witch director Nguyen will show drama Eye On Juliet, starring UK actor Joe Cole, while M marks the directorial debut of Standing Tall actress Forestier.
Pengfei, who was in Venice Days in 2015 with his first film, Underground Fragrance, is returning with followup The Taste of Rice Flower (pictured).
New short films by Sevigny and Us choreographer-director Celia Rowlson-Hall will screen in Venice Days’ Women’s Tales Project, sponsored by Miu Miu, the women’s fashion brand.
Screening in the special events category will be a never seen before and thought to be lost Ermanno Olmi documentary from the ’60s: Il Tentato Suicidio Nell Adolescenza.
Iranian director...
The Venice Film Festival’s (Aug 30 - 9) independently run Venice Days section will host 12 competition titles, 11 of which are world premieres, including new films from Kim Nguyen, Chloe Sevigny, Pengfei, and Sara Forestier.
War Witch director Nguyen will show drama Eye On Juliet, starring UK actor Joe Cole, while M marks the directorial debut of Standing Tall actress Forestier.
Pengfei, who was in Venice Days in 2015 with his first film, Underground Fragrance, is returning with followup The Taste of Rice Flower (pictured).
New short films by Sevigny and Us choreographer-director Celia Rowlson-Hall will screen in Venice Days’ Women’s Tales Project, sponsored by Miu Miu, the women’s fashion brand.
Screening in the special events category will be a never seen before and thought to be lost Ermanno Olmi documentary from the ’60s: Il Tentato Suicidio Nell Adolescenza.
Iranian director...
- 7/25/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
The great auteur’s controversial 1990 critique of Iranian society is a rich meditation on family life, the legacy of violence and lost love
A survivor now living in exile, Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Gabbeh, Kandahar) is one of Iran’s most important living auteurs, both literally and figuratively the father of a new generation of filmmakers, given he’s also the dad of Samira Makhmalbaf, Hana Makhmalbaf and Maysam Makhmalbaf.
This early feature, about an anthropology lecturer (Manuchehr Esmaili) and his daughter (Mojgan Naderi) living through the last years of the Shah, the revolution and its painful aftermath, was made in 1990 and shown publicly only once. However, the state censors objected to Makhmalbaf’s audacious critique of Iranian society, among other things, so they butchered the negative, cutting out 20 minutes of footage now thought to be lost for ever. In 2016, someone managed to salvage the surviving 63 minutes and smuggle it out of...
A survivor now living in exile, Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Gabbeh, Kandahar) is one of Iran’s most important living auteurs, both literally and figuratively the father of a new generation of filmmakers, given he’s also the dad of Samira Makhmalbaf, Hana Makhmalbaf and Maysam Makhmalbaf.
This early feature, about an anthropology lecturer (Manuchehr Esmaili) and his daughter (Mojgan Naderi) living through the last years of the Shah, the revolution and its painful aftermath, was made in 1990 and shown publicly only once. However, the state censors objected to Makhmalbaf’s audacious critique of Iranian society, among other things, so they butchered the negative, cutting out 20 minutes of footage now thought to be lost for ever. In 2016, someone managed to salvage the surviving 63 minutes and smuggle it out of...
- 3/2/2017
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, videos, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.
Watch Fandor’s tribute to Lgbtq cinema:
Our friends at Screen Slate, the top resource for NYC repertory screenings, have debuted a slick-looking new website.
Av Club‘s Jesse Hassenger on how Noah Baumbach helped Greta Gerwig become a brilliant soloist:
Baumbach, working with the late cinematographer Harris Savides, shoots Gerwig with a kind of watchful affection, getting in close as she drives around doing work errands, a hazy Los Angeles sun hitting the windows and Steve Miller Band’s “Jet Airliner” playing. “Are you going to let me in?” she asks another driver in talking-to-herself tones. This is one of the first shots of the movie, which follows Florence for a full eight minutes before introducing Stiller’s title character. In retrospect, it seems like Baumbach is tipping his hand about his interest in Gerwig. His instincts are dead-on; putting Gerwig at the front of the movie allows a hesitant character to make a vivid impression before smashing her into Stiller’s prickly garden of hang-ups and neuroses. Their romantic scrabbling, including a profoundly unsexy sort of sex scene, maintains the uncertainty of mumblecore but with a more articulate form of mumbling.
Listen to a one-hour talk with Jonny Greenwood on his Paul Thomas Anderson collaborations and more:
New York Times‘ Nina Siegal on how Robby Müller created the look of indie film classics, plus watch a masterclass from the director:
For Mr. McQueen, Mr. Müller developed a visual language to capture what appear to be men falling to their deaths in slow motion — a reference to the 1651 suicides of Carib Indians who leapt off a cliff rather than submit to their French colonizers on the island of Grenada, where Mr. McQueen’s parents were born. “Caribs’ Leap’’ is included in the exhibition.
The New Yorker‘s Richard Brody lists his 50 favorite foreign language films of the 21st century:
Ultimately, the movies on the list point forward to the future of the art, even if some of that future has already slipped into the past. The Chinese cinema has experienced, in this century, an outpouring of creative energy, thanks to the films of Jia Zhangke and other independent filmmakers there. I hope that the independent Chinese cinema will survive the government’s current wave of censorship and repression. In the Portuguese cinema, the baton has passed from Manoel de Oliveira and João César Monteiro to Pedro Costa and Miguel Gomes; the Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, a one-man wave, has been followed by Jafar Panahi and Samira Makhmalbaf. It remains to be seen whether Romania’s one great filmmaker, Corneliu Porumboiu, will be able to coax that country’s rising industry away from its run of script-bound, Euro-generic social realism; whether Hong Sang-soo, currently the subject of a complete retrospective at Museum of the Moving Image, will inspire other filmmakers in South Korea; whether the Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako (who has worked often in Mali as well) and the Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun will inspire a younger generation of filmmakers in those countries; and whether Germany, which saw its modern tradition broken by the death of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the emigration of Werner Herzog, and the self-diminution-through-cultural-ambassadorship of Wim Wenders, will again become a spawning ground for daring young filmmakers.
Watch a video featuring BBC’s 100 greatest American films:
See more Dailies.
Watch Fandor’s tribute to Lgbtq cinema:
Our friends at Screen Slate, the top resource for NYC repertory screenings, have debuted a slick-looking new website.
Av Club‘s Jesse Hassenger on how Noah Baumbach helped Greta Gerwig become a brilliant soloist:
Baumbach, working with the late cinematographer Harris Savides, shoots Gerwig with a kind of watchful affection, getting in close as she drives around doing work errands, a hazy Los Angeles sun hitting the windows and Steve Miller Band’s “Jet Airliner” playing. “Are you going to let me in?” she asks another driver in talking-to-herself tones. This is one of the first shots of the movie, which follows Florence for a full eight minutes before introducing Stiller’s title character. In retrospect, it seems like Baumbach is tipping his hand about his interest in Gerwig. His instincts are dead-on; putting Gerwig at the front of the movie allows a hesitant character to make a vivid impression before smashing her into Stiller’s prickly garden of hang-ups and neuroses. Their romantic scrabbling, including a profoundly unsexy sort of sex scene, maintains the uncertainty of mumblecore but with a more articulate form of mumbling.
Listen to a one-hour talk with Jonny Greenwood on his Paul Thomas Anderson collaborations and more:
New York Times‘ Nina Siegal on how Robby Müller created the look of indie film classics, plus watch a masterclass from the director:
For Mr. McQueen, Mr. Müller developed a visual language to capture what appear to be men falling to their deaths in slow motion — a reference to the 1651 suicides of Carib Indians who leapt off a cliff rather than submit to their French colonizers on the island of Grenada, where Mr. McQueen’s parents were born. “Caribs’ Leap’’ is included in the exhibition.
The New Yorker‘s Richard Brody lists his 50 favorite foreign language films of the 21st century:
Ultimately, the movies on the list point forward to the future of the art, even if some of that future has already slipped into the past. The Chinese cinema has experienced, in this century, an outpouring of creative energy, thanks to the films of Jia Zhangke and other independent filmmakers there. I hope that the independent Chinese cinema will survive the government’s current wave of censorship and repression. In the Portuguese cinema, the baton has passed from Manoel de Oliveira and João César Monteiro to Pedro Costa and Miguel Gomes; the Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, a one-man wave, has been followed by Jafar Panahi and Samira Makhmalbaf. It remains to be seen whether Romania’s one great filmmaker, Corneliu Porumboiu, will be able to coax that country’s rising industry away from its run of script-bound, Euro-generic social realism; whether Hong Sang-soo, currently the subject of a complete retrospective at Museum of the Moving Image, will inspire other filmmakers in South Korea; whether the Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako (who has worked often in Mali as well) and the Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun will inspire a younger generation of filmmakers in those countries; and whether Germany, which saw its modern tradition broken by the death of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the emigration of Werner Herzog, and the self-diminution-through-cultural-ambassadorship of Wim Wenders, will again become a spawning ground for daring young filmmakers.
Watch a video featuring BBC’s 100 greatest American films:
See more Dailies.
- 6/13/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Read More: New Book Explores Contemporary Iranian Cinema Having pointed the spotlight on the cinema of Turkey, Sweden, Brazil and India in previous editions, the Zurich Film Festival continued its traditional "New World View" section by focusing on the recent work of Iran's young talent. Iranian cinema conjures many indelible images and notable filmmakers: Abbas Kiarostami's documentary-fiction hybrids, Jafar Panahi's militant neorealist beginnings, Mohsen and Samira Makhmalbaf's rebellious tales of an upset population, Asgar Farhadi's provocative moral conundrums, and the political symbolism of Dariush Mehrjui. In other words, it opens up an incredibly rich history of filmmaking whose constant potency — especially given the country's severe restrictive policies on culture – make it one of the major epicenters of Middle Eastern cinema. Under constant threat of state censorship, Iranian filmmaking has shown little signs of waning, but it continues to battle an oppressive...
- 10/8/2015
- by James Berclaz-Lewis
- Indiewire
Above: The Apple
The celebratory attitude at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, speaks to the healthy state of nonfiction filmmaking at present. True to its name, the festival spotlights new films that incorporate elements of both fiction and documentary (and sometimes blur the line between the two), yet even the selections that resemble more traditional investigative reporting uphold a certain standard of artfulness. More impressively, the festival organizers make a point of incorporating the Columbia community into the celebration. Somewhere between 700 and 900 residents of the town and surrounding areas volunteered at the fest this year, and many businesses I encountered seemed happy to get in on the act too. (“Don’t be fooled by False advertising,” read my favorite sandwich board. “Try our True Thai cuisine!”) Roughly half of the screenings took place in locations not usually reserved for movies—a rock venue, a couple of churches,...
The celebratory attitude at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, speaks to the healthy state of nonfiction filmmaking at present. True to its name, the festival spotlights new films that incorporate elements of both fiction and documentary (and sometimes blur the line between the two), yet even the selections that resemble more traditional investigative reporting uphold a certain standard of artfulness. More impressively, the festival organizers make a point of incorporating the Columbia community into the celebration. Somewhere between 700 and 900 residents of the town and surrounding areas volunteered at the fest this year, and many businesses I encountered seemed happy to get in on the act too. (“Don’t be fooled by False advertising,” read my favorite sandwich board. “Try our True Thai cuisine!”) Roughly half of the screenings took place in locations not usually reserved for movies—a rock venue, a couple of churches,...
- 3/24/2014
- by Ben Sachs
- MUBI
Clio Barnard's The Arbor charted the troubled life of working-class playwright Andrea Dunbar. Her new film, The Selfish Giant, about two boys who scavenge to survive on a Bradford estate, has been called 'a Kes for the 21st century'. Here she talks about the appeal of the margins
Back in 2010, when Clio Barnard was shooting her first feature film, The Arbor, on the Buttershaw estate in Bradford, a young local lad caught her eye. "I first saw him when he was just 14, when I went to Buttershaw to do a workshop at a school," she recalls. "There was just something about him that was different from the other lads I met. He was a bit volatile, but enigmatic too and he really made his presence felt. When I went to Brafferton Arbor [the street on which The Arbor is set] for the first time, there he was, wearing his rigger boots and really dirty clothes. It was pure attitude,...
Back in 2010, when Clio Barnard was shooting her first feature film, The Arbor, on the Buttershaw estate in Bradford, a young local lad caught her eye. "I first saw him when he was just 14, when I went to Buttershaw to do a workshop at a school," she recalls. "There was just something about him that was different from the other lads I met. He was a bit volatile, but enigmatic too and he really made his presence felt. When I went to Brafferton Arbor [the street on which The Arbor is set] for the first time, there he was, wearing his rigger boots and really dirty clothes. It was pure attitude,...
- 10/12/2013
- by Sean O'Hagan
- The Guardian - Film News
Haifaa al-Mansour's endearing tale is as much about marketing as it is about Saudi women's rights
Wadjda – one of 2013's best films so far – deserves its success. To get the formalities out of the way, the first feature entirely shot on Saudi Arabian soil and the first by a Saudi female director has struck blows both for the kingdom's film-makers and its women, thanks to Haifaa al-Mansour's massively endearing tale of a 10-year-old girl prepared to do anything for a bicycle of her own.
We should be careful, though, of praising Wadjda just because of its clutch of firsts. Groundbreaking is a showy word; Al-Mansour photographed in her lime-green jeans and Adidas is an exciting notion of future Saudi womanhood. But it's as much about marketing, about feeding western expectations of progress needed to sell the film, as it is about the rights of Saudi women. Rarely mentioned...
Wadjda – one of 2013's best films so far – deserves its success. To get the formalities out of the way, the first feature entirely shot on Saudi Arabian soil and the first by a Saudi female director has struck blows both for the kingdom's film-makers and its women, thanks to Haifaa al-Mansour's massively endearing tale of a 10-year-old girl prepared to do anything for a bicycle of her own.
We should be careful, though, of praising Wadjda just because of its clutch of firsts. Groundbreaking is a showy word; Al-Mansour photographed in her lime-green jeans and Adidas is an exciting notion of future Saudi womanhood. But it's as much about marketing, about feeding western expectations of progress needed to sell the film, as it is about the rights of Saudi women. Rarely mentioned...
- 7/24/2013
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
Mahdi Fleifel’s refugee documentary wins Best Film in the International Competition. Experimental doc Leviathan wins Best British Feature.Scroll down for full list of winners
The winners have been announced at the 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival.
The ceremony, held at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse this afternoon, saw the award for Best Film in the International Competition presented to Mahdi Fleifel’s A World Not Ours (Lebanon/UAE/Denmark/UK).
The jury also gave a special mention to Elias Giannakakis’ Joy.
South Korean director Bong Joon-ho chaired the International Feature Film Competition Jury, which also included actress Natalie Dormer and film critic Siobhan Synnot.
The jury citation read: “The International Jury loved this film’s warm regard for the people at the heart of the film. A difficult subject was handled with confidence and humour.”
Fleifel said: “I have lived, studied and worked in the UK for 13 years, but I’ve never managed to screen any of...
The winners have been announced at the 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival.
The ceremony, held at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse this afternoon, saw the award for Best Film in the International Competition presented to Mahdi Fleifel’s A World Not Ours (Lebanon/UAE/Denmark/UK).
The jury also gave a special mention to Elias Giannakakis’ Joy.
South Korean director Bong Joon-ho chaired the International Feature Film Competition Jury, which also included actress Natalie Dormer and film critic Siobhan Synnot.
The jury citation read: “The International Jury loved this film’s warm regard for the people at the heart of the film. A difficult subject was handled with confidence and humour.”
Fleifel said: “I have lived, studied and worked in the UK for 13 years, but I’ve never managed to screen any of...
- 6/28/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Documentaries dominate as film festival wraps up, with Piper Alpha film and refugee camp study taking major honours
The experimental documentary Leviathan has won the Michael Powell award for best British feature at the Edinburgh international film festival, which closes on Friday.
Directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, Leviathan is an impressionist study of a fishing trawler at work off the coast of Massachusetts, and was described by the jury – headed by Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf – as "an original and imaginative documentary which observes the brutal routine of deep-sea fishing in a way which completely immerses the watcher in its story".
Castaing-Taylor and Paravel said: "We are totally bowled over by the news of this award. All our films have been rejected by every British film festival to date, so it is all the more moving for us!"
Paul Wright's haunting For Those in Peril, which was selected...
The experimental documentary Leviathan has won the Michael Powell award for best British feature at the Edinburgh international film festival, which closes on Friday.
Directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, Leviathan is an impressionist study of a fishing trawler at work off the coast of Massachusetts, and was described by the jury – headed by Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf – as "an original and imaginative documentary which observes the brutal routine of deep-sea fishing in a way which completely immerses the watcher in its story".
Castaing-Taylor and Paravel said: "We are totally bowled over by the news of this award. All our films have been rejected by every British film festival to date, so it is all the more moving for us!"
Paul Wright's haunting For Those in Peril, which was selected...
- 6/28/2013
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
The Iranian director will be joined by Scottish actor Kevin McKidd and film critic Derek Malcom.
Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf will chair the Michael Powell Best British Feature Film Competition Jury at the upcoming Edinburgh Film Festival, which runs June 19-30.
Makhmalbaf became the youngest director in official selection at the Cannes Film Festival 1988 with her first feature The Apple, for which she won the London Film Festival’s Sutherland Trophy. Her second film The Blackboard and third, At Five in the Afternoon, both received the jury prize at Cannes.
She will be joined on the jury by Scottish actor Kevin McKidd, who starred in last year’s Eiff closing night gala Brave, and chief film critic at the Evening Standard, Derek Malcolm.
British films competing for the Michael Powell Award include Justin Edgar’s We Are The Freaks, Paul Wright’s For Those In Peril, Jamie Chambers’ Blackbird and John Hardwick’s Svengali.
The jury will...
Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf will chair the Michael Powell Best British Feature Film Competition Jury at the upcoming Edinburgh Film Festival, which runs June 19-30.
Makhmalbaf became the youngest director in official selection at the Cannes Film Festival 1988 with her first feature The Apple, for which she won the London Film Festival’s Sutherland Trophy. Her second film The Blackboard and third, At Five in the Afternoon, both received the jury prize at Cannes.
She will be joined on the jury by Scottish actor Kevin McKidd, who starred in last year’s Eiff closing night gala Brave, and chief film critic at the Evening Standard, Derek Malcolm.
British films competing for the Michael Powell Award include Justin Edgar’s We Are The Freaks, Paul Wright’s For Those In Peril, Jamie Chambers’ Blackbird and John Hardwick’s Svengali.
The jury will...
- 6/19/2013
- by sarah.cooper@screendaily.com (Sarah Cooper)
- ScreenDaily
The Montreal International Documentary Festival (Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal – Ridm) starts on Wednesday, November 7th. My Dad worked for the National Film Board for 30 years in Montreal, Ottawa, Fredericton, Halifax and Montreal (again). Growing up as an Nfb brat was to grow up breathing the language of cinema and to believe passionately that the divisions between animation, documentary, short films and features were artificial – like pretending that vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream weren’t different flavours, but completely different species of frozen milk-based desserts.
That said, there is no denying that the general public believes in that artificial division and that documentary film suffers from it, so Ridm, Québec’s only documentary film festival is our best local opportunity to show some love to documentaries. I would urge anyone in Montreal to take a chance and check out some of the films that Ridm is programming.
That said, there is no denying that the general public believes in that artificial division and that documentary film suffers from it, so Ridm, Québec’s only documentary film festival is our best local opportunity to show some love to documentaries. I would urge anyone in Montreal to take a chance and check out some of the films that Ridm is programming.
- 11/4/2012
- by Michael Ryan
- SoundOnSight
Next month, Filmmaker will be partnering with the website Filminute, an annual online short film competition, by hosting five of the 25 one-minute films shortlisted for this year’s contest, which offers both a juried Best Filminute prize and the audience-selected People’s Choice Award. (In previous years, jurors have included District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, writer Michael Ondaatje, Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf and Crash director Paul Haggis.)
The site is currently accepting entries for this year’s competition, with the submission deadline on August 20, and the entry criteria are as follows:
Your film must be 60 seconds – no more, no less. Produce your one-minute piece at broadcast quality. Consider your viewing audience – from mobile phones, to broadband to televisions, to theatre screens. Contributors must be the sole author(s) of the entry. You may submit more than one film in accordance with the official Filminute rules and regulations. No unauthorized use of copyrighted material.
The site is currently accepting entries for this year’s competition, with the submission deadline on August 20, and the entry criteria are as follows:
Your film must be 60 seconds – no more, no less. Produce your one-minute piece at broadcast quality. Consider your viewing audience – from mobile phones, to broadband to televisions, to theatre screens. Contributors must be the sole author(s) of the entry. You may submit more than one film in accordance with the official Filminute rules and regulations. No unauthorized use of copyrighted material.
- 8/10/2012
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
In the 10 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks, film directors have responded in myriad ways. Peter Bradshaw charts the rise and fall of the 9/11 movie
At the Venice film festival last week, George Clooney unveiled his new backstairs political drama, The Ides of March, about a Democratic presidential candidate getting bogged down in compromise, backstabbing and the dark political arts. Clooney said that he could conceivably have completed the film before now, but President Obama had been doing too well, and therefore the time wasn't right.
Perhaps Clooney was being serious and perhaps he wasn't. But the remark typifies the dwindling of the memory of 9/11 in Hollywood cinema. The Obama presidency, ushered in by the catastrophe of the Bush reign, is now perceived to be in trouble, and this enables a prominent Hollywood liberal to make the kind of savvy, ahistorically pessimistic political movie that could have been produced at...
At the Venice film festival last week, George Clooney unveiled his new backstairs political drama, The Ides of March, about a Democratic presidential candidate getting bogged down in compromise, backstabbing and the dark political arts. Clooney said that he could conceivably have completed the film before now, but President Obama had been doing too well, and therefore the time wasn't right.
Perhaps Clooney was being serious and perhaps he wasn't. But the remark typifies the dwindling of the memory of 9/11 in Hollywood cinema. The Obama presidency, ushered in by the catastrophe of the Bush reign, is now perceived to be in trouble, and this enables a prominent Hollywood liberal to make the kind of savvy, ahistorically pessimistic political movie that could have been produced at...
- 9/9/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
From innovative camerawork in the 20s to the Dogme manifesto in the 90s, here are medium-defining moments in film history
There's a great moment in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out: James Mason spills a drink, looks into its bubbles, and sees his troubles in them. Twenty years later, Jean-Luc Godard, who admired Reed, had a similar scene in his movie Two or Three Things I Know About Her. Ten years after that, Martin Scorsese had Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver stare into the bubbles of a drink. Scorsese is a fan of Reed and Godard. To watch such a visual idea pass from film-maker to film-maker is to look into the DNA of the movies.
Cinema has been the autobiography of our times, glammed up like biographies often are. But the hoopla about its box office, the pay packets of movie stars and the production costs of blockbusters...
There's a great moment in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out: James Mason spills a drink, looks into its bubbles, and sees his troubles in them. Twenty years later, Jean-Luc Godard, who admired Reed, had a similar scene in his movie Two or Three Things I Know About Her. Ten years after that, Martin Scorsese had Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver stare into the bubbles of a drink. Scorsese is a fan of Reed and Godard. To watch such a visual idea pass from film-maker to film-maker is to look into the DNA of the movies.
Cinema has been the autobiography of our times, glammed up like biographies often are. But the hoopla about its box office, the pay packets of movie stars and the production costs of blockbusters...
- 9/1/2011
- by Mark Cousins
- The Guardian - Film News
Banning the celebrated director from making films is the latest step in the regime's attempt to murder the nation's creative soul
A spectre is haunting the Islamic Republic of Iran – the spectre of freedom. All the powers of the old guard have entered a holy alliance to exorcise it: the ayatollahs and their warlords, Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, hanging judges and paramilitary vigilantes.
To try to exorcise that spectre, the custodians of the sacred terror will go to any lengths. But have they gone just a bit too far this time?
What exactly does it mean to condemn a globally celebrated film-maker who has done nothing but bring credit to his profession and glory to his homeland, to six years in prison, and on top of that to ban him from making a film for 20 years, from writing any script, from attending any film festival outside his country, or giving any...
A spectre is haunting the Islamic Republic of Iran – the spectre of freedom. All the powers of the old guard have entered a holy alliance to exorcise it: the ayatollahs and their warlords, Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, hanging judges and paramilitary vigilantes.
To try to exorcise that spectre, the custodians of the sacred terror will go to any lengths. But have they gone just a bit too far this time?
What exactly does it mean to condemn a globally celebrated film-maker who has done nothing but bring credit to his profession and glory to his homeland, to six years in prison, and on top of that to ban him from making a film for 20 years, from writing any script, from attending any film festival outside his country, or giving any...
- 12/24/2010
- by Hamid Dabashi
- The Guardian - Film News
Her new film is about a man who's lost in the movie business – until he rediscovers his daughter. Is it at all autobiographical?
Meeting Sofia Coppola is an enigmatic, opaque experience. As she discusses her new movie Somewhere, her first for four years, she is so level, so calm, with a gently modulated voice and that very American kind of untroubled socio-conversational gyroscope that stays on an absolute horizontal, imperceptibly humming through the conversation. Famously the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, she already has an impressive body of work: The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003) and Marie-Antoinette (2006).
It was very much the second feature, a quirkily platonic, Tokyo-set romantic friendship between Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray, which catapulted her into the big league, and established the Coppola name as a directing dynasty, in the way that Iran's Samira Makhmalbaf carried on the reputation of her father, Mohsen. Her private life...
Meeting Sofia Coppola is an enigmatic, opaque experience. As she discusses her new movie Somewhere, her first for four years, she is so level, so calm, with a gently modulated voice and that very American kind of untroubled socio-conversational gyroscope that stays on an absolute horizontal, imperceptibly humming through the conversation. Famously the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, she already has an impressive body of work: The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003) and Marie-Antoinette (2006).
It was very much the second feature, a quirkily platonic, Tokyo-set romantic friendship between Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray, which catapulted her into the big league, and established the Coppola name as a directing dynasty, in the way that Iran's Samira Makhmalbaf carried on the reputation of her father, Mohsen. Her private life...
- 12/2/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The eight day gala affair at the 12th Mumbai film Festival concluded last night with Fardeen Khan and Raima Sen hosting the event at Chandan Cinema. The Indian Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Manoj Kumar and International Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Oliver Stone. After receiving the award Manoj Kumar said, "Oliver Stone was Oliver Stone until he came to India, after landing here, he became a precious gem and priceless stone." In turn Oliver thanked Mumbai, the Festival and Manoj Kumar for his kind words and said, "India has great culture, you make great movies and I am honoured to accept this award." The Golden Gateway Award for the best film in the international competition category was presented to Turkish film Majority directed by Seren Yuce. The award was presented by director Girish Kasarvalli and Festival jury member Samira Makhmalbaf. The Silver Gateway Award Jury Grand Prize...
- 10/29/2010
- by Bollywood Hungama News Network
- BollywoodHungama
The Mami committee led by Chairman Mr. Shyam Benegal and trustees Mr. Yash Chopra, Mr. Ashutosh Gowarikar, Mr. Amit Khanna, unveiled the line-up for the 12th annual Mumbai Film Festival (Mff), which consists of 200 films from 58 countries. This forms the largest number of films at any Film Festival ever. All the international films to be screened in the main sections of this year's festival will be Indian, Asian or world premieres. Mumbai Film Festival is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative and has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organized by an independent body of practicing film professionals. This year the festival films will be screened at Chandan Cinema (Juhu) and the adjacent five screens of PVR Juhu which will function as the Main Festival Complex, two screens in Metro Big Cinemas (Marine Lines) & one screen in Big Cinemas R City (Ghatkopar). The films...
- 9/30/2010
- by Bollywood Hungama News Network
- BollywoodHungama
The Mami committee led by Chairman Mr. Shyam Benegal and trustees Mr. Yash Chopra, Mr. Ashutosh Gowarikar, Mr. Amit Khanna, unveiled the line-up for the 12th annual Mumbai Film Festival (Mff), which consists of 200 films from 58 countries. This forms the largest number of films at any Film Festival ever. All the international films to be screened in the main sections of this year's festival will be Indian, Asian or world premieres. Mumbai Film Festival is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative and has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organized by an independent body of practicing film professionals. This year the festival films will be screened at Chandan Cinema (Juhu) and the adjacent five screens of PVR Juhu which will function as the Main Festival Complex, two screens in Metro Big Cinemas (Marine Lines) & one screen in Big Cinemas R City (Ghatkopar). The films...
- 9/30/2010
- by Bollywood Hungama News Network
- BollywoodHungama
The12th Mami festival, which is a Reliance Big Picture initiative, will start from 21 October and continue till 28 October, 2010. Apart from an array of critically-acclaimed films, Mami’s 12th Mumbai Film Festival will play host to a first-ever for any film festival in India: its unprecedented power roster of an all-women jury. The panelists are Tanya Seghatchian, Samira Makhmalbaf, Yoon Jeong-Hee and Suhasini Maniratnam. Seghatchian is the head of the film fund at the UK Film Council. She has won the BAFTA award for producing My Summer of Love. Makhamalbaf directed ...
- 9/3/2010
- BusinessofCinema
Hollywood struggled to respond to the war on terror, documentaries went through a golden age, and Michael Haneke was the noughties' moral conscience
If it is possible to whimper at the volume of a bang, then that is how this decade is ending on the big screen: with two high-profile, high-budget movies about the end of the world: Roland Emmerich's cheerfully silly 2012, and John Hillcoat's cheerlessly serious The Road, which arrive with a good deal of commentary to the effect that these movies typify the zeitgeist of the decade.
The noughties – that jokey word coined in the carefree 90s – are seen as damaged, injured, traumatised. The decade looks cracked from top to bottom by a sensational act of terrorism; by a reaction that achieved neither political palliative nor military success; by the confrontation between first-world prosperity and developing-world poverty; by the coming environmental catastrophe that threatens to engulf both; and finally,...
If it is possible to whimper at the volume of a bang, then that is how this decade is ending on the big screen: with two high-profile, high-budget movies about the end of the world: Roland Emmerich's cheerfully silly 2012, and John Hillcoat's cheerlessly serious The Road, which arrive with a good deal of commentary to the effect that these movies typify the zeitgeist of the decade.
The noughties – that jokey word coined in the carefree 90s – are seen as damaged, injured, traumatised. The decade looks cracked from top to bottom by a sensational act of terrorism; by a reaction that achieved neither political palliative nor military success; by the confrontation between first-world prosperity and developing-world poverty; by the coming environmental catastrophe that threatens to engulf both; and finally,...
- 12/7/2009
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Madrid -- The 57th San Sebastian International Film Festival kicked off Sept. 18 with Canadian director Atom Egoyan gracing the stage at the festival's inaugural gala to present "Chloe," which opened the Official Section.
Producer Margaret Menegaz picked up the Fipresci grand prize for Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon," voted the best film of 2009 by the Federation of International Film Critics.
The inaugural ceremony, held in the futuristic Kursaal convention center, was presented by Spanish journalist Edurne Ormazabal, with Francis Lorenzo and Barbara Goenaga, in Spanish, English and the local Basque language as is customary for the festival held in Spain's northern Basque region.
Spanish film academy president Alex de la Iglesia was on hand to help launch Spain's biggest festival, as were members of the official jury, including jury chair Laurent Cantet, actors Daniel Gimenez-Cacho, Pilar Lopez de Ayala and Leonor Silveira, and directors Bong Joon-ho, John Madden and Samira Makhmalbaf.
Producer Margaret Menegaz picked up the Fipresci grand prize for Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon," voted the best film of 2009 by the Federation of International Film Critics.
The inaugural ceremony, held in the futuristic Kursaal convention center, was presented by Spanish journalist Edurne Ormazabal, with Francis Lorenzo and Barbara Goenaga, in Spanish, English and the local Basque language as is customary for the festival held in Spain's northern Basque region.
Spanish film academy president Alex de la Iglesia was on hand to help launch Spain's biggest festival, as were members of the official jury, including jury chair Laurent Cantet, actors Daniel Gimenez-Cacho, Pilar Lopez de Ayala and Leonor Silveira, and directors Bong Joon-ho, John Madden and Samira Makhmalbaf.
- 9/20/2009
- by By Pamela Rolfe
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Madrid -- Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz will attend the opening gala on Sept. 18 of the 57th San Sebastian International Film Festival, as they present "Inglourious Basterds," running in the Zabaltegi-Pearls Section.
Also expected on hand for the opening night, is Atom Egoyan, who will screen the international debut of his "Chloe," while Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington are scheduled to attend the closing ceremony on the 26th, as they help Rodrigo Garcia present his latest work, "Mother and Child."
French film director Laurent Cantet will chair the official competition jury. He will be accompanied by Mexican actor Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Korean director Bong Joon-ho, the Spanish actress Pilar Lopez de Ayala, British director John Madden, Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf and Portuguese actress Leonor Silveira.
British actress Saffron Burrows will chair the New Directors Jury, responsible for awarding the €90,000 ($110,000) top prize. The jury is rounded out by director Borja Cobeaga,...
Also expected on hand for the opening night, is Atom Egoyan, who will screen the international debut of his "Chloe," while Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington are scheduled to attend the closing ceremony on the 26th, as they help Rodrigo Garcia present his latest work, "Mother and Child."
French film director Laurent Cantet will chair the official competition jury. He will be accompanied by Mexican actor Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Korean director Bong Joon-ho, the Spanish actress Pilar Lopez de Ayala, British director John Madden, Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf and Portuguese actress Leonor Silveira.
British actress Saffron Burrows will chair the New Directors Jury, responsible for awarding the €90,000 ($110,000) top prize. The jury is rounded out by director Borja Cobeaga,...
- 9/4/2009
- by By Pamela Rolfe
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- As recently documented in Burma VJ, the Burmese revolution and fight against repression was fought with something more powerful than sticks and stones. The same pocket-sized video cameras that the brave people of Iran are currently using to document the aftermath of an election with gross irregularities and the gross misconduct of the current government. It's with that same camera in hand spirit that we would like give praise to Iranian New Wave and current generation of filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami, the Makhmalbaf family, Jafar Panahi, Bahman Ghobadi, Majid Majidi and to a certain extent Marjane Satrapi who have been foreshadowing and detailing the difficult uphill internal struggle in their homeland. Such films as Panahi's Offside, Samira Makhmalbaf 's At Five in the Afternoon and most recently, Ghobadi's No One Knows About Persian Cats are films that have, not surprisingly, ever been allowed to be shown in their own back yards.
- 6/29/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
From Nandita Das's debut feature Firaaq, Canada based Deepa Mehta's Heaven on Earth, Claire Denis's latest feature 35 Shots of Rhum, Iranian Samira Makhmalbaf's Two-Legged Horse, French legend Agnes Warda's autobiographical The Beaches of Agnes, Swiss Ursula Meyer's Home to several other distinguished works too long to mention here, it was the year of women at the 28th International Istanbul Film Festival, which incidentally is run by a young woman, Azize Tan.
- 4/23/2009
- by Gonul Donmez-Colin
- DearCinema.com
Brussels -- "The Market," a German-Turkish co-production directed by Britain's Ben Hopkins, won the best film prize at the Flanders International Film Festival in Ghent on Wednesday.
The film centers on a young Turkish market trader in eastern Turkey, whose drinking and gambling drive him into the murky world of black market medicine.
Tolibhon Shahidi won the best music prize for the score of Samira Makhmalbaf's Iranian movie "Two-Legged Horse," best scenario went to writer-director Sylvie Verheyde for "Stella," and Bent Hamer won the director's prize for "O'Horten."...
The film centers on a young Turkish market trader in eastern Turkey, whose drinking and gambling drive him into the murky world of black market medicine.
Tolibhon Shahidi won the best music prize for the score of Samira Makhmalbaf's Iranian movie "Two-Legged Horse," best scenario went to writer-director Sylvie Verheyde for "Stella," and Bent Hamer won the director's prize for "O'Horten."...
- 10/15/2008
- by By Leo Cendrowicz
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian, Spain -- Yesim Ustaoglu's "Pandora's Box" walked away with the Golden Shell in a ceremony Saturday night that sprinkled prizes broadly and wrapped the 56th San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Michael Winterbottom took the best director honor for "Genova," starring Colin Firth, while Samira Makhmalbaf's Iranian-French "Two-Legged Horse" won the special jury prize.
Cao Baoping's "The Equation of Love and Death" won the coveted 90,000-euro Altadis-New Directors Prize, to be split between the director and the Spanish distributor of the film.
"Pandora's Box" protagonist Tsilla Chelton shared the best actress award with Melissa Leo for her role in "Frozen River," while Oscar Martinez won the actor award for his role as a writer struggling with his children's growing independence in "Empty Nest."
"Nest," directed by Daniel Burman, also picked up the prize for Hugo Colace's cinematography, while Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern won the best screenplay prize for "Louise-Michel.
Michael Winterbottom took the best director honor for "Genova," starring Colin Firth, while Samira Makhmalbaf's Iranian-French "Two-Legged Horse" won the special jury prize.
Cao Baoping's "The Equation of Love and Death" won the coveted 90,000-euro Altadis-New Directors Prize, to be split between the director and the Spanish distributor of the film.
"Pandora's Box" protagonist Tsilla Chelton shared the best actress award with Melissa Leo for her role in "Frozen River," while Oscar Martinez won the actor award for his role as a writer struggling with his children's growing independence in "Empty Nest."
"Nest," directed by Daniel Burman, also picked up the prize for Hugo Colace's cinematography, while Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern won the best screenplay prize for "Louise-Michel.
- 9/28/2008
- by By Pamela Rolfe
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Toronto -- Argentinian producer Sebastian Aloi, Cinetic Rights Management Coo Janet Brown and Spafax executive producer Shane Smith will participate in the Toronto International Film Festival's industry symposium, organizers said Monday.
Other symposium headliners include John Bain, senior vp distribution at Canadian distributor Maple Pictures, Alcina Pictures producer Paul Barkin and Matt Dentler, head of marketing and programming at Cinetic Rights Management.
Toronto also has booked Canadian filmmaker Don McKellar to join French director Olivier Assayas, British producer Stephen Woolley and Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf as mentors in the Talent Lab program.
The Toronto International Film Festival is set to run Sept. 4-13.
Other symposium headliners include John Bain, senior vp distribution at Canadian distributor Maple Pictures, Alcina Pictures producer Paul Barkin and Matt Dentler, head of marketing and programming at Cinetic Rights Management.
Toronto also has booked Canadian filmmaker Don McKellar to join French director Olivier Assayas, British producer Stephen Woolley and Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf as mentors in the Talent Lab program.
The Toronto International Film Festival is set to run Sept. 4-13.
- 8/18/2008
- by By Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Madrid -- Six movies have been added to the slate of films competing for the Golden Shell Prize at the 56th San Sebastian Film Festival, organizers said Thursday.
Briton Michael Winterbottom will bring "Genova," Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf's entry is "Two-Legged Horse," and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda will unspool "Still Walking."
Yesim Ustaoglu of Turkey will show "Pandora's Box," and Spaniard Javier Fesser's "Camino" will compete in the lineup. Making her feature-film debut is Belen Macias, also of Spain, with "El Patio de Mi Carcel" ("My Prison Yard").
The festival runs Sept. 18-27 in the northern Spanish seaside resort.
Briton Michael Winterbottom will bring "Genova," Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf's entry is "Two-Legged Horse," and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda will unspool "Still Walking."
Yesim Ustaoglu of Turkey will show "Pandora's Box," and Spaniard Javier Fesser's "Camino" will compete in the lineup. Making her feature-film debut is Belen Macias, also of Spain, with "El Patio de Mi Carcel" ("My Prison Yard").
The festival runs Sept. 18-27 in the northern Spanish seaside resort.
- 7/25/2008
- by By Benjamin Jones
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Lonely Tune of Tehran (Taraneh Tanhaiye Tehran), Cannes, Directors Fortnight
In a bad year for Iranian cinema, when even expected films by Abbas Kiarostami, Samira Makhmalbaf and Amir Naderi have failed to turn up at Cannes, "Lonely Tunes of Tehran" saves the good name of Iran with its touching tale of two lonely misfits struggling to survive in the asphalt jungle. Sensitively written, directed and produced by Saman Salour ("From the Land of Silence", "A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral"), this is a film that plucks the heartstrings while it effectively speaks for the masses of poor souls who can neither earn a living nor satisfy their unbearable longing for love. Fest prizes will help unleash its Art House potential.
Salour rolls the dice, and wins, on the unusual casting of leads Hamid (Hamid Habibifar) and Behrouz (Behrouz Jalili), respectively a midget and a giant, the first a cocky, sarcastic electrical engineer; the latter a taciturn, morose war veteran missing a few screws. Comic and dignified at the same time, this odd couple teams with the sweet-tempered driver of a dumpster (Mojtaba Bitarafan) to ply the dangerous trade of satellite dish installers, in a country where dishes are illegal and everyone owns one.
Hamid keeps up a non-stop stream of put-downs at poor Behrouz's expense, as they march up the hills to Tehran's wealthy neighborhoods and install rusty dishes on rooftops, slaving away but never earning enough to pay their rent. Economic woes come second, however, to the piercing loneliness each feels and their inability to find even a hint of love from the opposite sex.
As in Mohamad Ahmadi's "Poet of the Wastes", the main characters unrealistically fall for a beautiful lady they meet (Maryam Sabaghian), who becomes a focus for their fantasies. Salour skillfully plays them off each other, stopping just short of pathos until the final scene when he lets out the emotional stops, abetted by Mohammad Salarvand's touching musical score.
Story can be faulted for being too one-note, as most of the film is nothing more than a comic portrait of Hamid and Behrouz's bickering and bonding. Fortunately the pace of this 75-minute film is swift and even in translation the Persian dialog comes across as amusing.
Giving the proceedings a quality look is Touraj Aslani's superbly imaginative camerawork, which paints an unforgettable double portrait of Tehran both in its daytime, traffic-choked ferocity, and its peaceful nocturnal beauty.
Cast: Hamid Habibifar, Behrouz Jalili, Mojtaba Bitarafan, Maryam Sabaghian, Mohammad-Reza Salour, Mohammad Fassihi. Director: Saman Salour. Screenwriter: Saman Salour. Producers: Saman Salour, Nasrine Medard de Chardon. Director of photography: Touraj Aslani. Production designer: Saman Salour. Music: Mohammad Salarvand. Sound: Mohammad Shahverdi. Editor: Saman Salour
Sales Agent: DreamLab Films, France
No MPAA rating. 79 minutes.
In a bad year for Iranian cinema, when even expected films by Abbas Kiarostami, Samira Makhmalbaf and Amir Naderi have failed to turn up at Cannes, "Lonely Tunes of Tehran" saves the good name of Iran with its touching tale of two lonely misfits struggling to survive in the asphalt jungle. Sensitively written, directed and produced by Saman Salour ("From the Land of Silence", "A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral"), this is a film that plucks the heartstrings while it effectively speaks for the masses of poor souls who can neither earn a living nor satisfy their unbearable longing for love. Fest prizes will help unleash its Art House potential.
Salour rolls the dice, and wins, on the unusual casting of leads Hamid (Hamid Habibifar) and Behrouz (Behrouz Jalili), respectively a midget and a giant, the first a cocky, sarcastic electrical engineer; the latter a taciturn, morose war veteran missing a few screws. Comic and dignified at the same time, this odd couple teams with the sweet-tempered driver of a dumpster (Mojtaba Bitarafan) to ply the dangerous trade of satellite dish installers, in a country where dishes are illegal and everyone owns one.
Hamid keeps up a non-stop stream of put-downs at poor Behrouz's expense, as they march up the hills to Tehran's wealthy neighborhoods and install rusty dishes on rooftops, slaving away but never earning enough to pay their rent. Economic woes come second, however, to the piercing loneliness each feels and their inability to find even a hint of love from the opposite sex.
As in Mohamad Ahmadi's "Poet of the Wastes", the main characters unrealistically fall for a beautiful lady they meet (Maryam Sabaghian), who becomes a focus for their fantasies. Salour skillfully plays them off each other, stopping just short of pathos until the final scene when he lets out the emotional stops, abetted by Mohammad Salarvand's touching musical score.
Story can be faulted for being too one-note, as most of the film is nothing more than a comic portrait of Hamid and Behrouz's bickering and bonding. Fortunately the pace of this 75-minute film is swift and even in translation the Persian dialog comes across as amusing.
Giving the proceedings a quality look is Touraj Aslani's superbly imaginative camerawork, which paints an unforgettable double portrait of Tehran both in its daytime, traffic-choked ferocity, and its peaceful nocturnal beauty.
Cast: Hamid Habibifar, Behrouz Jalili, Mojtaba Bitarafan, Maryam Sabaghian, Mohammad-Reza Salour, Mohammad Fassihi. Director: Saman Salour. Screenwriter: Saman Salour. Producers: Saman Salour, Nasrine Medard de Chardon. Director of photography: Touraj Aslani. Production designer: Saman Salour. Music: Mohammad Salarvand. Sound: Mohammad Shahverdi. Editor: Saman Salour
Sales Agent: DreamLab Films, France
No MPAA rating. 79 minutes.
- 5/19/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- As usual, Wild Bunch comes to Cannes this year loaded up in film offerings with most notably three antcipated titles in post production status: Aronofsky's The Wrestler, Belge helmer Jaco Van Dormael's Mr Nobody and Claire Denis' White Material. The Paris-based company has a heavy slate which is comprised of Cannes selected films and market projects. A Complete History Of My Sexual Failure by Chris Waitt - Completed Afterwards by Gilles Bourdos - Post-Production Buddhas Collapsed Out Of Shame by Hana Makhmalbaf - Completed Camino by Javier Fesser - Post-Production Che - Part 1 by Steven Soderbergh - Completed Che - Part 2 by Steven Soderbergh - Completed Chelsea On The Rocks by Abel Ferrara - Completed Don't Look Back by Marina De Van - Post-Production Dorothy Mills by Agnès Merlet - Completed Downloading Nancy by Johan Renck - Completed Hollywood : I'm Sleeping Over Tonight by Antoine De Maximy
- 5/15/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
- #97. Two-Legged Horse Director: Samira Makhmalbaf()Writer: Mohsen MakhmalbafhmalbafProducers: Samira and Mohsen Makhmalbaf Distributor: Currently Seeking Distribution The Gist: A wealthy boy hires a poor child to carry him around like a horse. Fact: You think being a filmmaker is tough? Try being a female director in Afghanistan. Production was halted in late March after a bomb attack on set (!) left six members of the cast and crew and a number of extras injured. See It: Makhmalbaf family are talented filmmakers working with showstring budgets. Their subject matters deserve our attention. Release Date/Status?: This is the only non-surprise title that we can guarantee will show at the upcoming Cannes film festival. U.S film festival circuit screenings to follow...perhaps Nyff and Tiff. ...
- 1/28/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
Opening Film (Out of Competition) "Fanfan la Tulipe" -- Gerard Krawczyk Closing Film (Out of Competition) "Modern Times" -- Charlie Chaplin In Competition "Dogville" -- Lars Von Trier "Les Invasions Barbares" -- Denys Arcand "Il Cuore Altrove" -- Pupi Avati "Carandiru" -- Hector Babenco "Uzak" -- Nuri Bilge Ceylan "Mystic River" -- Clint Eastwood "The Brown Bunny" -- Vincent Gallo "The Moab Story -- The Tulse Luper Suitcases Pt 1" -- Peter Greenaway "Tiresia" -- Bertrand Bonello "Shara" -- Naomi Kawase "Bright Future (Akarui Mirai)" -- Kiyoshi Kurosawa "A Cinq Heures De L'Apres Midi" -- Samira Makhmalbaf "Ce Jour La" -- Raoul Ruiz "Father and Son" -- Alexander Sokurov "Elephant" -- Gus Van Sant "Swimming Pool" -- Francois Ozon "Les Cotelettes" -- Bertrand Blier "La Petite Lili" -- Claude Miller "Strayed (Les Egares)" -- Andre Techine "Purple Butterfly" -- Liu Ye Out of Competition "Mansion by the Lake" -- Lester James Peries "Les Triplettes de Belleville" -- Sylvain Chomet "Qui a Tue Bambi" -- Gilles Marchand "Le Temps du Loup" -- Michael Haneke "Va et Vient" -- Joao Monteiro "The Matrix Reloaded" -- Wachowski Brothers Special Screenings "Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin -- Richard Schickel "Il Grido D'Angoscia Dell' Uccello Predatore 20 Tagli D'Aprile" -- Nanni Moretti "S-21, La Machine de Mort Khmer Rouge" -- Rithy Panh "The Fog of War" -- Errol Morris "The Last Customer" -- Nanni Moretti "The Soul of a Man" -- Wim Wenders Short Films in Competition "A Janela Aberta" -- Philippe Barcinski "Cracker Bag" -- Glendyn Ivin "Fast Film" -- Virgil Widrich "Ik Ontspruit" -- Esther Rots "L'homme Sans Tete" -- Juan Solanas "My Blind Brother" -- Sophie Goodhart "Novembersno" -- Karolina Jonsson "The Most Beautiful Man in the World" -- Alicia Duffy "To Tameno" -- Marsa Makris Un Certain Regard "En Jouant 'Dans La Compagnie Des Hommes' " -- Arnaud Desplechin (opening) "A Story That Begins at the End" -- Murali Nair "A Thousand Months" -- Faouzi Bensaidi "All Tomorrow's Parties" -- Yu Lik Wai "American Splendor" -- Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini "Crimson Gold" -- Jaffar Panahi "Drifters" -- Wang Xiaoshuai "Hoy y Manana" -- Alejandro Chomski "Japanese Story" -- Sue Brooks "Kiss of Life" -- Emily Young "La Meglio Gioventu" -- Marco Tullio "Les Mains Vides" -- Marc Recha "Robinson's Crusoe" -- Lin Cheng-Sheng "September" -- Max Faerberbock "Stormy Weather" -- Solveig Anspach "Struggle" -- Ruth Mader "Young Adam" -- David Mackenzie...
- 4/23/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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