Author: CWB News Department

Iranian director Saeed Roustayee is back in Cannes with “Woman and Child,” a female empowerment drama premiering in competition. The film follows a 40-year-old widowed nurse named Mahnaz, who is struggling with a rebellious son and other complications in a heavily oppressive patriarchal context. Roustayee’s new work segues from the somewhat similarly themed “Leila’s Brothers,” which launched from Cannes in 2022 and led to the director being sentenced to jail time for screening the film without government approval, though Roustayee did not go behind bars. Paradoxically, even before “Woman and Child” screened, the film came under fire — sight unseen —…

Premiering in the main competition of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, The Phoenician Scheme  marks another return to form – or, more accurately, to formula – for Wes Anderson. Despite an all-star cast led by Benicio Del Toro, the film fails to ignite emotionally or intellectually, instead offering another meticulously composed, pastel-hued shell with little inside. Del Toro plays Zsa-Zsa Korda, a fabulously wealthy businessman plagued by relentless assassination attempts. His solution? Appointing his only daughter, Liesl – a nun, played with near-total blankness by Mia Threapleton – as the sole heiress to his estate. When Korda launches a mysterious infrastructure project, the titular “Phoenician Scheme”,…

How do you deal with the chaotic drama of our times? According to Ari Aster’s new film, Eddington, by adding yet more chaos. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Joe Cross, the sheriff of the New Mexican town of Eddington. He’s an ordinary Joe, Joe the plumber-style ordinary, salt of the earth type. It’s the time of Covid and Joe’s got asthma and doesn’t like wearing his mask, nor does he like the mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), who once briefly dated Joe’s wife Louise, (Emma Stone), a woman with a history of mental health issues compounded by the presence by her…

Every evening a crowd of fans and photographers flock around the red carpet of the most prestigious movie festival on the planet, where stars like Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise and Sean Penn show up on their way to premiere screenings. But in the rest of the town, another American is on everyone’s lips: U.S. President Donald Trump. While in the dark of movie theaters, films from all over the world are competing to win the prestigious Palme d’Or, the movie industry’s producers and distributors, as well as politicians and lobbyists, will be getting together in the French Riviera to seal deals…

The 20th annual South East European Film Festival #SEEfest (seefilmla.org), co-presented by ELMA, foundation for European Languages and Movies in America, is bringing to Los Angeles U.S. premieres, European talent and an Industry Accelerator with panels and workshops from April 30 – May 7. The festival will showcase over 50 movies from the culturally rich area of East and South-East Europe. Opening the festival on April 30th with a red carpet gala at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills (135 S. Doheny Dr, in Beverly Hills) will be the Los Angeles premiere of Bogdan Mureșanu’s Romanian tour-de-force, “THE NEW…

In a recent success for Vietnamese media, Skyline Media’s box-office hit and family dramedey, The Ancestral Home, has been set for a May 9 release date in North American theaters via Eastern Edge Films, per Variety. The Ancestral Home has already risen to become Vietnam’s highest-grossing spiritual film with a $10 million box office, and has received 3 million admissions since it’s February 21 premiere. It will be dropping strategically during Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month as part of a global rollout. https://youtu.be/ARd5H7XFFVM?si=ODw6TUCvdT-Tuek9 Aside from box-office success, the film has created a massive social and cultural impact, garnering 3.8 million social…

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Janet Yang used her keynote at the Beijing International Film Festival to emphasize the importance of cultural exchange between the world’s two largest film markets, sharing her unique perspective as an American-born Chinese film producer who has worked extensively in both industries and spent decades connecting them. “My personal and professional experiences tell me that film has a unique power to bring people together, and that is why I remain perpetually optimistic about cultural exchange between not only our two nations, but amongst everyone, everywhere in the world,” Yang told attendees. She was speaking at the…

There are few things left to achieve in the entertainment industry once one arrives at EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) status. Viola Davis (United States, 59 years old) is one of the few people who have achieved this milestone. Specifically, the 18th person in history. And after filming The Woman King in Cape Town, South Africa, she returned at the beginning of 2024 to complete G20. The film, directed by Patricia Riggen, debuted on Amazon Prime Video on April 10 and doesn’t hide its inspiration from 1990s action blockbusters, specifically Bruce Willis’s Die Hard and Harrison Ford’s Air Force One. https://youtu.be/PbGRcClyBLc?si=OLSBvs1tOGTXHVO1 When an armed group attacks a…

The Glasgow Short Film Festival came to a close last night with its annual award ceremony. Seventeen films competed for the Scottish Short Film Award which was won by Lisa Clarkson for Paternal Advice. The jury said, ‘In this outstanding short film, absurdist elements intrude on the edge of reality, language breaks down to its most elemental functions and the city’s ancient divisions take on a timeless, dream-like quality. ‘Through the brilliant lead performance and striking sound design, the audience’s expectations are subtly undermined throughout. The final punchline is delivered with swagger, an old joke with a punchline we see coming…

The highly anticipated biographical drama Phule has just released its official trailer, and fans are eagerly waiting for the film’s theatrical release on 11 April 2025, which coincides with the birth anniversary of the legendary social reformer Mahatma Jyotirao Phule. The film stars Pratik Gandhi in the titular role of Mahatma Phule, with Patralekhaa portraying his wife, Savitribai Phule, a pioneering educator and social activist. https://youtu.be/-HfTlM6r4CU?si=gmGAEv1jFxPBSmcF Directed by the National Award-winning filmmaker Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, Phule aims to shed light on the incredible contributions of Mahatma Phule, a visionary who fought for the rights of women and marginalized communities in…