Author: Bijan Tehrani

There is a particular kind of suffering that belongs to those who have been forced to leave their homeland while the people they love remain behind. It is not simply homesickness or loneliness. It is the painful experience of living between two worlds, unable to return to one and not yet belonging to the other. Gazelle, directed by Nadir Sarıbacak and Samy Pioneer, approaches this experience through the deeply personal story of a Turkish immigrant whose struggle to reunite with his family gradually becomes a battle with his own mind. What makes Gazelle particularly compelling is its understanding that exile…

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi used an appearance at the Rio Film Festival to deliver an unusually direct criticism of Hollywood’s portrayal of countries such as Iran, arguing that films like Argo perpetuate an American “white savior” mentality and reflect a broader assumption that the United States occupies a position above the rest of the world. Farhadi, who was in Rio to present Parallel Tales, was asked about Ben Affleck’s Argo, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture a year after Farhadi’s A Separation received the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Recalling his reaction to the film, Farhadi described…

Cinema Without Borders jury announced the winners of the Bridging The Borders Award for 2026 Lucas International Film Festival for Young Film Lovers in Germany.  ILUMINADA (Belgium) By Nicolás Rincón Gille wins 2026 Bridging The Borders Award . Bridging the Borders Award is offered by Cinema Without Borders Foundation and sponsored by The Lonely Seal Company Group  Hamed Soleimanzadeh, one of our jury members announced the winner of the Bridging The Borders Award at the closing ceremony of the festival. Here is a video from the award announcement: https://vimeo.com/1232166633?fl=tl&fe=ec&share=copy LUCAS – International Festival for Young Film Lovers is Germany’s oldest…

SILENCED NIGHTS directed by Lawrence Fajardo is Set in a slum in Manila’s infamous Tondo district, SILENCED NIGHTS follows an ordinary laborer whose life is transformed when he becomes the lone witness to the extrajudicial killing of a teenage boy by police officers.  As fear spreads through his community and silence becomes a means of survival, the laborer is forced to confront the devastating personal cost of choosing between self-preservation and justice. Lawrence ‘Law’ Fajardo is a film and television director, producer, editor and writer.  Born in Bacolod City, Fajardo studied Film and Theatre at the University of St. La…

I am astonished and fascinated by Asghar Farhadi’s new film, Parallel Tales. It is something genuinely fresh and strikingly different from this great filmmaker, who in his latest work gradually draws the viewer into the trap of an unfamiliar story. At first, it is not clear where you are being led, and you may begin to wonder what could possibly happen in this interwoven world, where the characters and spaces seem to have little or nothing to do with one another. And then, suddenly, Parallel Tales begins to work its magic. You become enchanted by its characters and by spaces…

On the Occasion of Iran’s National Cinema Day Iran’s National Cinema Day offers us an opportunity to look again at the long road Iranian cinema has traveled—a road filled with rises and falls, brilliant periods and difficult years, failures and achievements, hopes and disappointments. Yet when we look back at this history, one essential part of it has sometimes received less attention than it deserves: the presence of women actors and the role they have played in shaping the identity of Iranian cinema. The history of Iranian cinema cannot be written solely through the names of its great directors, its…

Hammad Zaidi, a Pakistani-American filmmaker, has built a career that moves easily  between filmmaking, distribution, festivals, streaming, education, technology, and  sports. He founded The Lonely Seal Company Group, which includes Lonely Seal  Releasing, The Lonely Seal International Film, Screenplay, and Music Festival, The  Lonely Seal Impact Fund, Lonely Seal Streaming, Film Bite, and The Story Oasis Fund.  Hammad also joined the Board of Directors of Cinema Without Borders and is an  Advisory Council Member of MELM – The Masters in Entertainment Leadership and  Management at Loyola Marymount University (LMU).   An award-winning creator, Zaidi is a member of the Producers Guild…

Walking through the exhibition halls of SIGGRAPH 2026 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, one quickly realizes that the computer graphics industry has entered a new era. Artificial intelligence is no longer presented as a futuristic promise—it has become an integral part of virtually every creative workflow, from concept design and animation to visual effects, simulation, scientific visualization, and filmmaking. This year’s conference brings together researchers, artists, engineers, and technology companies from around the world to explore the next generation of digital storytelling and interactive experiences. (SIGGRAPH 2026) One of the highlights of my visit today was the HP booth,…

What follows is my conversation with Sohrab Khosravi, an editor whose professional journey began in animation before he became one of the key figures in Iran’s transition from film-based editing to the digital era. Over the years, he has collaborated with filmmakers such as Ebrahim Hatamikia, Majid Majidi, Kamal Tabrizi, and many others, building a body of experience that has become part of the living memory of contemporary Iranian cinema. Yet what makes this interview valuable to me is not merely the long list of acclaimed directors or celebrated films. What truly matters is Khosravi’s philosophy of editing. For him,…

Few filmmakers embrace uncertainty as willingly as Iranian-born director Ramin Niami. His latest feature, Fade Away, was not born from years of development or elaborate financing. Instead, it emerged from a trip to Italy, a handful of trusted actors, an iPhone, and a willingness to trust instinct over convention. Set against the haunting beauty of the Umbrian town of Narni, Fade Away explores memory, exile, love, and emotional displacement through an intimate, psychologically charged story. Produced on a micro-budget and filmed with an almost nonexistent crew, the film represents one of Niami’s boldest creative experiments. In this conversation with Cinema…