In 2017, African directors and producers made movies and documentaries that explored brave new ways of production and challenged traditional narratives of storytelling. Whether focusing on toxic masculinity in South Africa, paying homage to Senegalese mythology, or addressing a crisis of faith in Egypt, these bold pictures collectively pushed the fold of creative filmmaking and offered a multidimensional narrative about the continent. One such avenue of progress is the arrival of virtual reality, and how it gave African filmmakers the opportunity to tell complex narratives. New Dimensions, a Pan-African VR collaborative project launched must-see VR productions that surveyed various themes including…
Author: Bijan Tehrani
Bijan Tehrani
Bijan (Hassan) Tehrani Founder and Editor in Chief of Cinema Without Borders, is a film director, writer, and a film critic, his first article appeared in a weekly film publication in Iran 45 years ago. Bijan founded Cinema Without Borders, an online publication dedicated to promotion of international cinema in the US and around the globe, eighteen years ago and still works as its editor in chief. Bijan is has also been a columnist and film critic for the Iranian monthly film related medias for 45 years and during the past 5 years he has been a permanent columnist and film reviewer for Film Emrooz (Film Today), a popular Iranian monthly print film magazine. Bijan has won several awards in international film festivals and book fairs for his short films and children's books as well as for his services to the international cinema. Bijan is a member of Iranian Film Writers Critics Society and International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI). He is also an 82nd Golden Globe Awards voter.
ÍRÁN:CI, the Festival of Iranian Films in Prague, Brno and Bratislava, is slated to bring a lineup of Iran titles to the Czech audience. The festival, which is also dubbed ‘Bringing Iranian Films to the Czech Audience: ÍRÁN:CI’, will open its seventh edition on Monday, January 8, 2018 at Bakala Foundation with the slogan of ‘Don’t be scared!’. Short Iranian films to be screened at the international event include Retouch directed by Kaveh Mazaheri, Soheil Amirsharifi’s Vision, A Girl In The Room by Karim Lakzadeh, Saerah Saghari’s Mr. Ahmadi And A Simple Journey, Animaldirected by Bahman and Bahram Ark, Gaze by Farnoush Samadi, Amir Toudeh Roosta’s Lay My Bed In…
The Palm Springs International Film Festival is one of the largest film festivals in North America, welcoming over 135,000 attendees each year for its lineup of new and celebrated international features and documentaries. The Festival is also known for its annual Film Awards Gala, honoring the best achievements of the filmic year by a celebrated list of talents. Produced by the Palm Springs International Film Society, the Festival offers 14 days of events and film screenings featuring over 180 films. To learn more about the 2018 Palm Springs International Film Festival, we had a video interview with Lili Rodriguez, International Festival’s…
Burbank, CA – December 19th, 2017: Today, Cinema Without Borders and Palm Springs International Film Festival announced jury members and the eight nominees for HP’s Bridging The Borders Award at 2018 Palm Springs International Film Festival selected by Palm Springs International Film Festival Programmers. The Bridging The Borders Award at the 2018 Palm Springs International Film Festival will be given to the most successful film in bringing the people of our world closer together. Cinema Without Borders’ jury members to decide the 2018 winner of the HP Bridging The Borders Award are: Sylvie Bolioli Sylvie Bolioli has worked in the…
Today Academy Awards announced the Oscar 2018 Short List for the Best Foreign Language Film Award. It is nice to see strong and good movies such as In The Fade, The Square and surprise of this year, Lebanese film, The Insult among the films in the short list. But considering a few other films in this list, Breath, directed by Narges Abyar from Iran is missing in this list. Chile, A Fantastic Woman , Director: Sebastián Lelio A Fantastic Woman (Spanish: Una mujer fantástica) is a 2017 Chilean drama film directed by Sebastián Lelio. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in…
In January 13th, 2017 Cinema Without Borders will announce the winner of 2018 HP Bridging The Borders Award at Palm Springs International Film Festival Award Ceremony. In this relation, we will have a few interviews with international filmmakers using HP Workstations about their work, how HP Workstations help them to accomplish their tasks and the impact of HP Bridging The Borders Award in the world of filmmaking. In our first interview we talked to Hasraf ‘ HaZ’ Dulull,director of The Beyond on camera. Hasraf ‘ HaZ’ Dulull started his career as a Visual Effects Supervisor / Producer before establishing a reputation from…
AYITI MON AMOUR is Haiti Oscar entry for the Best Foreign language Film Award. This is a first for Haiti. This is the first time that Haiti in its film history that Haiti is competing at the Oscars and it is also the first time that a woman of Haitian (Haitian-American) origin realizes a feature length fiction in Haiti to Jacmel (in 2016). We had the opportunity of interviewing Guetty Felin, writer and director of AYITI MON AMOUR on camera. https://vimeo.com/246380736 “Ayiti mon amour” has already been awarded twice in 2017 at the “Blackstar Film Festival” and the “Festival International de Cine America”…
To learn more about Kanopy, winner of the CWB’s Seal of Excellence Award for the Best International Cinema Streaming Site, we had the opportunity of interviewing Olivia Humphrey, Founder and CEO of Kanopy. Olivia Humphrey has many years of media distribution experience, including at BBC Worldwide in London, Austar Satellite TV and Roadshow Entertainment in Sydney, where she managed the non-theatrical release slate. She founded Kanopy in 2008 to address the opportunity to build film as a core resource for all students in higher education before expanding into public libraries in 2016. Headquartered in San Francisco, Kanopy distributes a catalog…
THE DIVINE ORDER, a film by Petra Volpe is Switzerland’s submission for the 2018 Academy Awards – Best Foreign Language Film, and winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Film at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and Best Fiction Film at the 2017 Traverse City Film Festival, THE DIVINE ORDER will open at the Laemmle Royal and Playhouse 7 in Los Angeles on November 17. A national release will follow. We had the opportunity of having a video interview with Petra Volpe, director of the DIVINE ORDER. https://vimeo.com/243164293 THE DIVINE ORDER is set in Switzerland in 1971 where, despite the worldwide…
On November 15th, Butterfly Buzz will present the premiere collaboration of Israeli singer, Yasmin Levy, together with three Iranian guest artists Faramarz Aslani, Shahrokh Moshkin Ghalam and Hamed Nikpay at The Theatre at Ace Hotel DTLA, a delicately restored 1920’s movie palace originated by Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin in the heart of historic downtown Los Angeles. To learn more about this event we had an interview with Bita Milanian, The Executive Produce of Art Unites event. https://vimeo.com/242431277 Yasmin Levy is an internationally celebrated singer-songwriter, deeply steeped in the traditions of Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) music, a disappearing musical legacy of the Sephardic…