Author: CWB News Department

The loss of a star the caliber of John Boyega mid-shoot would usually be the death knell for a lot of productions. But Jeremy Saulnier’s powerhouse thriller Rebel Ridge comes away shining with Aaron Pierre, who gives a breakout performance that should solidify him as an action star. Under another filmmaker’s guidance, the blandly-titled Rebel Ridge would’ve been a forgettable, straight-to-VOD movie starring Frank Grillo or something. But not under Saulnier, who has proven with Blue Ruin, Green Room, and even the underwhelming Hold the Dark that he isn’t someone who makes forgettable movies. Everything he does packs a mean punch, and this one hits harder than most. Saulnier is…

Familia by Francesco Costabile, an Italian film in competition in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival, is based on an autobiographical book that tells a true story. This title was chosen because, as the filmmaker has explained, “the Latin language refers to something worrying; the pater familias of Antique Rome was in fact the patron of slaves but also of mothers and children”. This film is indeed a chronicle of domestic violence that begins in the 1980s and lasts for over 15 years. In Rome, Franco is about to get out of jail (9 years for robbery) and…

A result of an eight-year documentary journey, the film inhabits the lives of these young girls, leaving the audience to witness firsthand the rippling effects of their fathers’ absence, as well as the love their fathers have for them. What unfolds is an intimate, healing portrait of a generation of youth bearing the weight of mass incarceration, while still showing what is possible. In-person visitation for these families has been systematically shut down across the U.S. since 2014. The only way to connect with incarcerated family members is through costly video calls, creating barriers for families to stay connected while…

Slobodan Maksimović is a Slovenian filmmaker whose body of work covers different types and formats of cinema. He has directed three fiction features, a number of shorts, several documentaries and TV series episodes, such as the popular crime show The Cases of Inspector Vrenko. He has so far received more than 50 international awards for his work. His newest feature-length documentary Praslovan [+], about the life and career of the appreciated Slovenian singer-songwriter Zoran Predin and the legacy of his cult band Lačni Franz, has just premiered in the Open Air section of the Sarajevo Film Festival, in Maksimović’s home…

David Oyelowo has just returned to London to prepare for rehearsals. The eldest of three boys, Oyelowo moved to the United Kingdom with his parents – who were both academics – as immigrants. Reflecting on his illustrious career, which spans over two decades, he pauses over a Zoom call with FORBES AFRICA to consider what inspired him to become a storyteller. During his school days, he had been interested in theater and performing but had never thought of it as a means to earn a living. It was one teacher, in particular, who noticed the young talent and encouraged him…

The Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) has announced its slate of features and short films for the 20th edition of the festival, which will take place in person from September 12-15 at venues in Camden and Rockland, Maine and online from September 16-30 for audiences across the United States. A program of the Points North Institute, CIFF is recognized as one of the world’s most vital platforms championing cinematic nonfiction and documentary film from global filmmakers. The festival attracts one of the largest industry gatherings of the documentary film community in the U.S. It is recognized as both an important stop on the beginning…

Whenever the issue of representation inevitably comes up, various questions are asked about how it can be achieved on film without coming across as forced or inauthentic, with bundles of tokenized stories of communities that live on the margins being scattered throughout the past couple of decades in an effort to almost over-exert this concept. Yet, it’s always been very clear that the most important aspect is simply to make the film as one would any other, and focus on genuine emotions and a compelling story, with everything else falling into place if the right balance is achieved. It’s not…

She threw at least one party that would have made Bacchus envious, photographed Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe (both friends), co-produced the Oscar-winning “Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion” and distributed films by the directors Luchino Visconti, Luis Buñuel and Pier Paolo Pasolini, among others. If a person can personify a global film festival, Marina Cicogna was for decades the face of the Venice Film Festival. Born in 1934, two years after her maternal grandfather, Giuseppe Volpi (who was one of Benito Mussolini’s finance ministers), helped found the festival, Cicogna (pronounced chi-CONE-ya) helped transform it into a global event. She…

With 22 million people forced to leave their countries and more than 6 million children still living in war zones, the Syrian conflict represents after 12 years the biggest humanitarian crisis of our times. With Shukran [+], in Italian theatres on 8, 9 and 10 July through Eagle Pictures, Italian director Pietro Malegori has added another piece to the great mosaic that cinema has tried to compose throughout these years about the Syrian civil war –or revolution– and more generally about Arab springs and winters. Inspired by real events, Malegori tells an episode out of a thousand, paying homage to who “tries to make a difference”,…

Mark Cousins’ portrait of a British modernist painter, “A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things,” took the Karlovy Vary Film Festival top prize Saturday, winning over a jury that included Christine Vachon and Geoffrey Rush with its perceptive take on art and seeing. Cousins said the film’s subject, painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, “lived completely, truly and utterly – let’s try to do that.” Norwegian divorce story “Loveable” won the Crystal Globe jury prize, as well as three other awards categories, taking home the FIPRESCI, ecumenical and Europa Cinemas Label prizes with its nuanced look at a woman morphing into a new life.…