Author: CWB News Department

The 75th Berlin International Film Festival has wrapped its first year under new director Tricia Tuttle – and it was an extremely promising start. Now that we’ve had time to make our peace with the results, forget all about the dire opening film, and pray we’ll never get cloned, it’s time to round up our favourite films from this year’s edition. These are the soon-to-be-released titles you should be keeping an eye out for this year. O Último Azul (The Blue Trail) The Blue TrailBerlin Film Festival – Canva Gabriel Mascaro’s Brazil-set dystopian film The Blue Trail is without a doubt this year’s Competition standout. While it…

In the Shadow of the Cypress has ridden a challenging road to being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Made in Iran out of the pockets of directors Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani, the duo found themselves having to deal with the limitations of their budget alongside a lack of governmental support, sanctions imposed on the country and the devaluation of the Iranian currency. Despite these challenges, In the Shadow of the Cypress is a beautiful film that uses gorgeous, geometric 2D animation to chronicle the relationship between a father and daughter as the former suffers from PTSD. Skwigly caught…

The 56th Annual NAACP Image Awards was a night filled with Black excellence, unforgettable speeches, and history-making wins. Hosted by the always-hilarious Deon Cole, the ceremony honored the best in film, television, music, and social justice, bringing together some of the biggest names in entertainment and activism. This year’s ceremony saw breakout stars earning their first-ever NAACP Image Awards while seasoned icons received long-overdue recognition for their contributions. From emotional acceptance speeches that left the audience in their feelings to lighthearted moments that had the crowd roaring with laughter, the night was packed with must-see moments. Keep reading to see what…

Virtually anywhere on Earth, disaster is just a random collision of weather patterns away from your doorstep. A hurricane could tear off your roof, a wildfire might burn through your neighborhood, or a storm could flood your town, sweeping away cars, buildings, and utility poles alike. When the worst happens, how will you respond? The animated feature Flow asks its viewers to reflect on such distressing questions in the subtle way that narrative films are so well suited for. The movie follows a black cat and the small menagerie of animals it meets as they sail over a drowned landscape, encountering survivors…

Têtes Brûlées by Maja-Ajmia Yde Zellama was unveiled in a world premiere within the Generation 14plus section of the 75th Berlinale, where the film won a Special Jury Mention. A graduate of the LUCA School of Art, and a film director as well as a casting director, Maja-Ajmia Yde Zellama launched herself into the adventure of this first feature film following an encounter with filmmaker Nabil Ben Yadir, who encouraged her to delve deeper into this distinctive story after he was won over by the short film she’d previously dedicated to the subject. Têtes Brûlées paints the portrait of Eya (Safa Gharbaoui), a 12-year-old girl who’s…

Greg Maurice is a seasoned film executive with a focus on Black cinema, discussed his 15-year career and the rise of Black-produced films. Maurice is Filmhub’s Acquisitions Lead for Black Cinema Vertical, and is unique in its non-exclusive distribution model. The Black Cinema Vertical is a dedicated initiative that helps Black filmmakers distribute their work across 120+ streaming platforms, including Tubi, BET, Amazon, and Apple TV. Filmhub keeps a 20% commission while filmmakers retain 80%. The non-exclusivity agreements make BCV unique. “If you don’t like how we work, you can take your rights back and do something else with them,” says…

Amid the flood of new sorts of artificial intelligence (AI) that have seemingly altered the digital landscape as we know it, it’s not unfathomable to be a little nervous about the future of other frontiers, particularly the realm of arts. Uncanny, AI-generated images and videos crowd every social media feed; large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT run rampant in academia and elsewhere, composing swaths of written content within seconds; and what feels like every major corporation is shoving AI down the throats of their consumers. As a student in the humanities, I’ve felt a little helpless, watching all these new…

Mehrnoush Aliaghaei is a writer/producer who grew up in Iran and immigrated to the United States after finishing high school. Mehrnoush received her B.A. from the University of California–Berkeley, where she majored in Film Studies and Comparative Literature. She subsequently worked in film distribution and exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. She has been pursuing her M.F.A. in Filmmaking at Columbia University in New York. She has written three feature length scripts and a pilot for a TV series, as well as produced several short films. She is currently developing her first feature film, Where the Wild…

What happens when the boundaries between fiction and reality blur, not only on screen, but also during filmmaking itself? In Fiction & Reality – Vice Versa, journalist and filmmaker Ronald Glasbergen sits down with Iranian director Farshad Hashemi, actress and landlady Mahboube Gholami and cinematographer Davood Malik Hosseini to understand the layers of their acclaimed film Me, Maryam, the Children, and 26 Others. Nominated for the Tiger Competition and premiering at the 53rd International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2024, Hashemi’s film is a successful and clever cinematic experiment, in which the boundary between documentary realism and fiction blurs. The film, shot…

On the 7th of December 2024, the multi-awarded composer Kris Bowers (Green Book, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Bridgerton, The Color Purple…etc) talked about The Wild Robot score in an event organized by the Academy of Scoring Arts at the First Baptist Church of Glendale, Los Angeles. The event is part of the inside score sessions of this association. https://youtu.be/WnE51QfRxvE?si=FynM48o6qaF4vtIs The Academy of Scoring Arts is a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles founded by Ron Jones in 2009 and whose aim is to promote and study film scores and composers by doing events, seminars and interviews. The event was moderated by the current president of ASA, composer Reuven…