Author: CWB News Department

Originally premiering at this year’s Canne Film Festival, the new 4k restoration of Jean Grémillon’s Lady Killer (1937), aka Gueule d’amour (1937), is headed for the US, opening August 4th at Metrograph NYC where it will screen for a one-week engagement alongside the film The Strange Mister Victor (1938), a lesser-known film from Grémillon showing off its 4k restoration. Set in 1936, the film follows Lucien Bourrache (Jean Gabin, (Grand Illusion, Port of Shadows)), a handsome non-commissioned officer in the French Spahi. His looks, loose speech, and womanizing habits have earned him the roughish local nickname, “Gueule d’amour,” the “Mouth…

BOBI WINE: THE PEOPLE’S PRESIDENT, is documentary feature film about Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, famously known as Bobi Wine, who is a musician turned politician who is the current leader of the National Unity Platform (NUP) and the People Power MovementBorn in the slums of Kampala. Bobi Wine risks his life and the lives of his wife, Barbie, and their children to fight the ruthless regime led by Yoweri Museveni. Museveni has been in power since 1986 and changed Uganda’s constitution to enable him to run for yet another five-year term. Running in the country’s 2021 presidential elections, Bobi Wine uses…

New films from legendary documentarians Frederick Wiseman and Errol Morris and new work from directors Raoul Peck, Lucy Walker, Roger Ross Williams and Karim Amer will screen at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, which announced its TIFF Docs lineup on Wednesday. The 93-year-old Wiseman will present the North American premiere of “Menus – Plaisirs Les Troisgros,” a four-hour deep dive into a fabled Michelin-starred restaurant in France. Morris will have the international premiere of “The Pigeon Tunnel,” which is built around a Morris interview with John le Carre that turned out to be the last interview the espionage novelist…

Sure we are about two weeks away from the official announcements for the films that will premiere on the Lido, but we are very much in the eleventh hour now with film teams making plans for waterways and gondola rides or… considering a different path that takes them to Toronto, Donostia-San Sebastian or they play the waiting game for Rotterdam, Sundance and the Berlinale. Artistic Directors in International Critics’ Week’s Beatrice Fiorentino (most likely 9 selections) and Giornate degli Autori’s Gaia Furrer (around 10 feature film selections) will have carved out their line-ups and will likely announce not too much…

On first glance Empty Nets may sound like a typical old-fashioned Iranian film with the oft-used tale of a poor boy in love with a rich girl.  However writer-director Behrooz Karamizadeh distinguishes his film from a flurry of other socially conscious love stories by instilling political overtones and adding a visual panache. Amir (newcomer Hamid Reza Abbasi) is working as a delivery boy for a catering company in a seaside town in northern Iran. His meagre pay just about supports himself while his mother, with whom he lives, earns a little bit by making and selling homemade pickles. Amir is in love…

The 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, a non-specialized festival with two competitive categories, took place from June 30th to July 8th. It was organized by Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary, a.s., with Jiří Bartoška as the president of the festival, Karel Och as its artistic director, Kryštof Mucha as the executive director and Petr Lintimer as the head of production. The 58th Karlovy Vary IFF will be held from June 28th to July 6th 2024. On July 8th, the festival’s juries presented awards for the best films at the closing ceremony of the 57th Karlovy Vary IFF. CRYSTAL GLOBE COMPETITION Crystal…

Of Iran’s many problems, Western viewers may be most familiar with issues surrounding violence against women — most recently with the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and slogan following the death of Mahsa Amini — and freedom of speech, with the films of Jafar Pahani and the travel bans and imprisonment of thinkers and artists like him. Empty Nets [+], the debut feature by German-Iranian filmmaker Behrooz Karamizade, premiering in the Crystal Globe Competition of this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, shows that life in Iran can be difficult even when looking at more ordinary situations, away from the more extreme examples of oppression…

Nine months on from the event which threatened its very existence, a re-born Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) launches its 2023 program today with a greatly reduced lineup – but with a promise of “bold and eclectic” cinema and a note of cautious optimism from its new director. The EIFF will open on August 18 with Lewis-set film Silent Roar, the debut feature from Scottish director Johnny Barrington and closes on August 23 with a screening of Fremont by British-Iranian film maker Babak Jalali. There will be world premieres for several other films, among them Choose Irvine Welsh, a documentary…

The inaugural edition of the Mediterrane Film Festival has concluded with the Golden Bee Awards ceremony, marking the end of its successful run in Malta from 25-30 June. The prestigious event, held on Friday 30 June at Fort Manoel in Gżira, was hosted by David Walliams OBE. Carla Simón’s Alcarràs [+] represented Spain at the festival and emerged as the night’s overall victor, securing the coveted Golden Bee for Best Film. The award winners were selected from a pool of nine films from the MED 9 countries. Leading the jury was Adrian Wootton OBE, CEO of Film London and the British Film Commission. Joining him were prominent professionals from each…

Is your comfort zone really still yours when you choose to share it with someone else? Does comfort equal happiness and is the present dependent on the past? These are some of the important questions raised by Filip Diviak’s 8-minute movie My Name is Edgar and I Have a Cow. With its boldly expressive style and rough hand-drawn strokes which bring sharpness to otherwise delicate watercolor textures, the Czech-Slovak co-production shines with its heartfelt humor and attention to detail. We see the world through the eyes of Edgar, a simple man living a simple life, surrounded by his favorite possessions.…