Author: CWB News Department

Maryam Keshavarz’s sophomore feature, “The Persian Version,” premiered with pizzazz at Sundance this year. In-person screenings – even those starting at eight in the morning! – saw packed theaters, inviting audiences to laugh (and cry) each time. In this ode to the director’s own family, Keshavarz maps out the relational entanglements of a lesbian, Iranian American woman (played by fresh faces Layla Mohammadi and Chiara Stella) born to a household of seven boys, who — by some off-chance one-night-stand — becomes pregnant. In this heartfelt mother-daughter tale, Keshavarz invites her audiences on a rollercoaster of tenderness and tough love that…

LOS ANGELES – They only each run about three minutes, but in that short time “soundies” are helping to preserve Black history from decades ago. Soundies were short films often depicting a musical performance that could run before or after feature films in movie houses around the nation. The reels, many of which were made in the 1940s, typically featured musicians of all races, but they are particularly significant for preserving performances from Black luminaries like Louis Armstrong, Dorothy Dandridge, Cab Calloway and Fats Waller in the prime of their careers. For Black performers, soundies were an opportunity for exposure…

For our first edition of the I, Immigrant International Online Film Festival, organized by Cinema Without Borders Foundation,” we received 449 submissions. The CWBF Selection Committee chose 33 films and from those films, two programmers, assigned by CWBF, nominated 17 films to receive the “I, Immigrant’s Best Film Awards.” The jury awards of $1,000, $600, and $400 will be given to the top three I, Immigrant International Online Film Festival, respectively. The I, Immigrant International Film Festival  is a competition film series launched by the Cinema Without Borders Foundation, dedicated to social justice cinema. Beginning with Season One: I, Immigrant…

Last week, Masoumeh Jahanbin, an Iranian artist participated in a group exhibition at Ehsan Art Gallery in Tehran. ‘Root in the Sky’ is one of her paintings in the ‘My Roots’ Collection. The composition of this artwork is changeable in two different forms which shows a union in one way and in another way indicates a separation. The exhibition title was ‘Self Portrait’ and Jan 25, 2023, was the last day of it. https://vimeo.com/794917529 Masoumeh Jahanbin started her artistic activities with painting in 1994. She entered the Fine Arts Faculty of Tehran University with a sculpture major and through her…

In Where the Wind Blows, Hong Kong’s Oscar entry directed by Philip Yung, Young Lui Lok became a policeman to uphold justice. But the rampant corruption within the police force made it impossible for him to remain independent. He decides to make a name for himself within the police force by controlling organized crime. Nam Kong looks [like a] gentleman, but operates with a dagger under his cloak. He is socially active among the police force as well as the social circles, in fact laying the groundwork for the empire of corruption he builds with Lui Lok. Nam Kong and…

The story of the January , Latvia’s Oscar entry directed by Viesturs Kairiss happens in 1991 in Latvia and nineteen-year-old aspiring cinematographer Jazis’s whole world is thrown into chaos as he is dragged into the people’s peaceful protests against the Soviet Army’s attempted takeover of power in his country. January is an autobiographical take on the political upheaval in the early 1990s that changed the lives of the people of the former Soviet Union. Jazis and his friends Anna and Zeps are all aspiring filmmakers, trying to pursue their dreams of making movies and enjoying the freedom of young adulthood, when…

In World War III, Iran’s Oscar entry directed by Houman Seyedi,  Shakib is a homeless day laborer who never got over the loss of his wife and son in an earthquake years ago. Over the last couple of years, he has developed a relationship with a deaf and mute woman, Ladan. The construction site on which he works today turns out to be the set of a film about the atrocities committed by Hitler during WWII. Against all odds, he is given a movie role, a house and a chance at being somebody. When Ladan learns about this, she comes…

MAGNETIC FIELDS from director Yorgos Goussis, is the official international feature film Oscar entry from Greece for the 95th Academy Awards. MAGNETIC FIELDS is a tender, humorous road movie about two charismatic but lonely people who meet by chance. Their spontaneous need to connect delays their separation and a return to their everyday lives. The film is a nod towards the classic Claude Lelouch’s “Un Homme et Une Femme” and Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise”. Director writer Yorgos Goussis shot MAGNETIC FIELDS, his debut film, with a MiniDV camcorder and is known primarily for his work as a comic book creator.…

I had the opportunity of watching Bahman Maghsoudlou’s  Dariush Mehrjui Making The Cow and I was absolutely impressed by the great quality of this well-made, informative and at the same time entertaining documentary. Dariush Mehrjui Making The Cow not only deals with all aspects of this icon of international cinema, but also portrays the Iranian society and the state of art and culture state during the time of making The caw. After watching Dariush Mehrjui Making The Cow, I encountered the following interview with Bahman Maghsoudlou by Ali Moosavi in Film International about the past work of this filmmaker and…

It is the season for great scares with tons of movies for those into the horror genre. A unique film in this genre with a psychological terror spin, will be premiering October 28th, 2022 in limited theatrical release domestically and digitally on Apple iTunes. What makes this story disturbing is it based on true events in the home of the Producer, Director, and Writer William Mark McCullough. The McCullough family experienced terrifying moments that would make you ask questions about what is living inside the walls of this house. “A Savannah Haunting” is produced by innovative Emmy Award Nominee Alexis…