Author: CWB News Department

The art of storytelling is alive and reimagined in this year’s #SIMA2021 winners. SIMA, the non-profit impact media agency that celebrates, curates and distributes documentaries and creative media projects that advance positive social change, announced their 2021 festival winners this morning. Chosen from 40 finalists spanning 20 countries, the SIMA 2021 winners represent the future of filmmaking as we know it: honest, raw, diverse, creative, and deeply personal stories that transform our world. From an unprecedented exploration into the machine-learning algorithms perpetuating society’s existing racial, class, and gender biases in Best Director, Best Sound Design, and Transparency Jury Prize winner, CODED…

SUN CHILDREN, Iran’s Oscar entry, directed by Majid Majidi, is the story of 12-year-old ALI and his three friends. Together they work hard to survive and support their families, doing small jobs in a garage and committing petty crimes to make fast money. In a turn of events that seems miraculous, Ali is entrusted to find a hidden treasure underground. He recruits his gang, but first, to gain access to the tunnel, the children must enroll at the Sun School, a charitable institution that tries to educate street kids and child laborers, close to where the treasure is located. We…

I first saw Legion M at a Comic Convention and wasn’t quite sure about the idea of fan investment into movies, but Legion M proved that such an idea is pure genius. Legion M is a fan owned entertainment company with approximately 50,000 plus investors with an investment that averages around $500. You can invest $100 into the company and Legion M wants to make that $100 into $200 or $10,000. Investing in movies is a high-risk investment so investing what you can afford to lose is a good rule to abide by. The risk doesn’t stop the fans from…

SIGGRAPH was held in Los Angeles July 30th thru August 3rd.  This year the atmosphere was filled with change as this was truly the year of the game engine as there were VR projects created in the Unreal Engine and Unity. “Adam” is a Webby Award winning computer-animated film created in the Unity game engine that offers real time rendering and editing. It was created to demonstrate the power of the real time editing tools in Unity so artists and filmmakers can make changes on the fly to individual elements in their story using Cinemachine (a unified procedural camera system)…

Kaveh Mazaheri’s Iranian short film Retouch was nominated for not just one but two awards at the Michael Moore founded Traverse City Film Festival. Nominated for the “Audience Award” and “Best Fiction Short Film,” the movie walked away from the film festival as a winner, taking home the award for “Best Fiction Short Film.” Produced by the Iranian Young Cinema Society, the film depicts a poignant portrait of a woman (Maryam) who has to face the choice of life and death, freedom and captivity in the world where no rights exist. Retouch has been on a roll, previously racking up…

Three world premieres have been added to the lineup of the 74th Venice International Film Festival to complete the program. John Woo returns to the crime thriller genre where he started his career with his latest film, Manhunt, set to premiere in Venice in an out-of-competition slot. In the remake of a 1976 Japanese classic, a Chinese man is framed for murder in Japan and hunted by the authorities and a group of mystery killers. Woo (A Better Tomorrow, Face/Off) is a Lido favorite and was feted at the festival in 2010 with a Golden Lion for Career Achievement. Andrea…

RETOUCH written and directed by Kaveh Mazaheri won Best Live Action Film Award (over 15) minutes at the Palm Springs International ShortFest Film Festival and goes for 2018 Best Short Film Oscar consideration, a great success for this film. Film critics give RETOUCH a good chance to get the Oscar nomination as it has also won an award at Tribeca Film Festival. RETOUCH In the corner of the home, Maryam’s husband does weightlifting. Suddenly, the weight falls on his throat and puts him between life and death. Maryam tries to save him, but she just decides to stop helping and…

Actor, director, writer and icon Diane Keaton was honored with the American Film Institute’s 45th AFI Life Achievement Award — America’s highest honor for a career in film — on Thursday, June 8, in an evening filled with laughter, stories, song and surprises at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The televised special, AFI LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: A TRIBUTE TO DIANE KEATON, will air on TNT June 15 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT), followed by an encore presentation on sister network Turner Classic Movies (TCM) on July 31 during a night of programming dedicated to her career. Keaton’s Tribute brought to the…

Today the 22nd Annual Cine Gear Expo opens at Paramount Pictures Studios in the heart of Hollywood, California, USA. Cine Gear Expo presents an opportunity for artists and technicians in the moving image industry to converge, learn and discuss their latest innovations and share industry news while enjoying the ambiance of Hollywood’s oldest and most historic studio lot. Members of the entertainment industry view Cine Gear as the must attend event of the year for maximum exposure and impact. On June 1, the event begins with the Film Competition Finalist Screenings of Student Shorts, Independent Shorts and the Commercial/Music Video…

Today directors of AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER, Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk come with a statement on Today’s Decision by the Trump Administration to Withdraw from the Paris Agreement: “We were shocked and disappointed to hear President Trump’s announcement today regarding withdrawing the U.S. from the historic international deal reached in Paris. In our new film, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power we filmed behind-the-scenes in Paris to show the hard work, finesse, and passion that went into making the agreement happen.  We hope that the hard work of those who made the deal happen will not be…