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…
Author: CWB News Department
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.…
Burbank, CA – June 26, 2023: Today, Cinema Without Borders announced the winner of the 2023 MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award at Palm Springs International ShortFest Film Festival. Two members of CWB jury, Keely Badger and Vladek Juszkiewicz, announced the MOZAIK Bridging The Borders award at ShortFest’s award ceremony on June 25th. https://vimeo.com/841521905?share=copy Here is CWB jury statement: MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award Jury Statement – 2023 SHORTFEST Palm Springs International Film Festival “Good Morning, Everyone! Welcome to the 2023 MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award at SHORTFEST. My name is Keely Badger, I serve as the Executive Director of MOZAIK…
Despite the terrible incident that shook the Savoy city yesterday, animation professionals from all around the world are getting ready to make their way to the 42nd Annecy International Animated Film Festival which is kicking off on Sunday and is due to wrap on 17 June, buoyed by the unmissable Mifa (International Animated Film Market) (running 13 – 16 June) which drew upwards of 13,000 attendees from 106 countries last year. In addition to the competition and a variety of other events (read our article), the festival will offer up its usual, highly popular Work in Progress sidebar, consisting of…
But in other ways it is, of course, completely different from that, or any other conventionally fictionalised and scripted drama. Reality’s cool, unemphasised and unsignposted dialogue goes completely against what we expect from a movie’s usual direction and editing: hitting significant dramatic beats, making important things obvious and (to quote the remark sometimes attributed to Billy Wilder) making the subtleties obvious as well. This, by contrast, is the live feed from reality, what the raw and untreated dialogue we speak sounds like when all laid out. When Winner voices concerns about her cat and dog, that might, in a conventional…
The Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival, Eastern and Central Europe’s leading cinema event, has unveiled its lineup, which includes new works by Pascal Plante, Stephan Komandarev, Tinatin Kajrishvili and Babak Jalali in the Crystal Globes Competition. They will vie against films by up-and-comers Ernst De Geer, Itsaso Arana and Cyril Aris. The section has nine world and two international premieres. Oscar nominated actor Patricia Clarkson is one of the jury members. The Proxima Competition, which made its debut at last year’s KVIFF, presents what the festival defines as “bold works,” directed by young filmmakers and renowned auteurs alike. The section…