Author: CWB News Department

CWB News Department, collects and republishes most important news and stories about International and Independent cinema, by noting the original source of the articles

Tonight at Academy Award ceremony The Zone of Interest from UK won the International Film Oscar The Zone of Interest is a 2023 historical drama film written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, co-produced between the United Kingdom and Poland. The story is loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis. Starring German actors Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller as the Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, it focuses on the pair as they strive to build a dream life for their family in a home next to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp https://vimeo.com/921851199?share=copy Directed by Jonathan Glazer…

Read More

OUR UNIFORM, directed by Yegane Moghadam and nominated for the Short Animation Oscar in 2024 is the story of an Iranian girl unfolds her school memories through the wrinkles and fabrics of her old uniform. She admits that she’s nothing but a “female” and explores the roots of this idea in her school years. The following is our interview with Yegane Moghadam about making of OUR UNIFORM: https://vimeo.com/920218076?share=copy Yegane Moghaddam is an Iranian animator and illustrator who has a strong passion for nature, culture and the reality she lives in. Her works are usually centered around the theme of nature…

Read More

Award Belgrade Victor for Outstanding Contribution to Film Art at the 52nd International Film Festival FEST, which runs from February 23rd until March 3rd, goes to Iranian director AsgharFarhadi. Two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi, an Iranian film director and screenwriter, who will receive the Belgrade Victor on February 29th in the Serbian capital, is considered one of the most prominent filmmakers of Iranian and world cinematography of the 21st century. Farhadi (1972) became interested in cinematography in his teenage years, and started his education in filmmaking by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986 where he made 8mm…

Read More

A cross-country journey in search of a mysterious treasure puts the nature of faith to the test in “The Great Yawn of History,” the feature debut of Iranian director Aliyar Rasti, which premieres Feb. 22 in the competitive Encounters section of the Berlin Film Festival. The film tells the story of a man of wavering religious conviction who dreams of a box of gold hidden in a cave. Convinced he’s forbidden by Islamic law to claim the treasure himself, he turns to a non-believer to assist him, setting into motion an arduous journey of both physical and spiritual dimensions as the…

Read More

One could call this psychological thriller/drama from Iranian director Mani Haghighi a high concept film, as it very much hangs on an intriguing central premise. There have been several films which deal with the idea of doppelgangers, or even clones, and both of these ideas hover around this plot. However, Haghighi takes it one step further by asking us to imagine what would happen if a husband and wife both had doubles and, further, what would happen if these doubles interacted. The English title is Subtraction but in some ways the dilemma of the film could be better expressed by multiplication. The complexities certainly multiply…

Read More

In their feature debut, In the Land of Brothers [+], showing in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition, directorial duo Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi focus on three Afghan refugees – Mohammad, Leila and Qasem – who set about starting their lives in Iran, full of hope, only to face decades of hardship. Cineuropa: Why did you want to tell a story – or, rather, stories – that take place over decades? It’s generations’ worth of trauma. Raha Amirfazli: We started by writing about Leila. We wanted to turn it into a short, but we understood it wasn’t the whole story of Afghan refugees in Iran. You couldn’t convey…

Read More

Burbank, CA – January 14th 2024. Today Palm Springs International Film Festival announced its 2024 winners and GREEN BORDER (Poland/France/Czech Republic/Belgium) by Agnieszka Holland won MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award. The Honorary Mentions went to THE OLD OAKS (United Kingdom/France/Belgium) by Ken Loach The Borders Award  is presented by Cinema Without Borders and award sponsored and prize provided by MOZAIK  The winner of Bridging the Borders Award will receive a cash prize of $2000. https://youtu.be/4jXePIrRSuQ Here is MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award jury statement: “This year we considered ten feature films for the MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award that addresses…

Read More

Sooner or later, every police officer comes across a case that remains unsolved and haunts him. For Yohan (Bastien Bouillon), Clara’s murder turns out to be that case, and what starts as an investigation into the victim’s life soon turns into an obsession. Unusually, as viewers, we are told from the offset not to expect to find out whodunnit. There’s a stillness to this movie that’s quite audacious: the brutal, gory horror of the crime (the victim is set alight on her way home) is in stark contrast to the exquisite mountain scenery surrounding Grenoble, where the action takes place.…

Read More

You’d need a heart of stone not to be touched by this extraordinary true story of Nicholas Winton, the “British Schindler”, and by the simplicity and heartfelt directness with which it’s told by screenwriters Nick Drake and Lucinda Coxon and director James Hawes. It’s a story of wartime Europe and postwar memory, and also a noble and inspired moment in the history of British popular TV. Anthony Hopkins plays Winton, a stockbroker in prosperous retirement in the 1980s who, after some nagging from his wife Grete (Lena Olin), is clearing out clutter and finally concentrates on something he’s been yearning…

Read More

Io Capitano, meaning I captain, is that harrowing motivating migrants’ story that Raj Kumar Hirani’s Dunki could not be. It has just been selected as the Italian entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards, one of the fifteen shortlisted films. I won’t be the least surprised if this evocative film makes it to the top spot in the international category. Its harvest of pain suffering and resilience leads us into the darkest recesses of travel trauma from where we emerge wondering if suffering is the only constant for the underprivileged sections of society in any part…

Read More