Author: World Cinema Reports' Editors

he rising tide of titles continued Wednesday as the Toronto International Film Festival released a fresh batch of program announcements ahead of this year’s event, which runs from Sept. 6 to 16. Leading the way are 19 titles in the Canadian Features section, including nine films directed by women, six debut features and three world premieres that showcase indigenous talent. Those are Gwaai Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown’s “Edge of the Knife,” the first feature-length film made in the endangered language of Haida; Darlene Naponse’s “Falls Around Her,” starring renowned Métis actor Tantoo Cardinal; and Miranda de Pencier’s “The Grizzlies,” a…

Vahid Jalilvand’s No Date, No Signature is so worked out that you know that every nuance is pointed and intentional. Jalilvand’s formal craftsmanship and attention to detail are accomplished, though his self-consciousness has a way of drying out the drama for the sake of socially minded sermonizing, which is frequent in Iranian imports inspired by Asghar Farhadi’s live-wire parables. Farhadi isn’t without a didactic streak either, but he’s a wizard of movement and performance, fostering a mysterious kinetic energy that often enriches and transcends the parables themselves. Jalilvand’s direction here belongs more firmly and routinely to the tradition of the moral procedural,…

The feature documentary Gaza Surf Club continues its commercial screenings across the Arab world after it was first released in Kuwait as the first documentary to be screened in Kuwaiti cinemas. The film will be commercially released in Prime Cinemas at Baraka Mall in Jordan starting Thursday, 26 July. Recently, Gaza Surf Club opened the 3rd Karama Beirut Human Rights Film Festival with a full house screening. It also witnessed several successful screenings at Cairo Cinema Days and the Goethe Institutein Cairo. The film also took part in the Haifa Independent Film Festival (HIFF) and the MONA Film Festival. In November, 2017, the film received the University Juries Award for Best Documentary at…

The Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled its upcoming roster of films, which includes the North American premiere of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born. The festival, which takes place in September, will see the premiere of Barry Jenkins’ James Baldwin adaptation If Beale Street Could Talk as well as Damien Chazelle’s Ryan Gosling-led First Man, marking both directors’ followups to their Best Picture hot contenders (in Jenkins’ case, winner) from two years back. Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carrell’s drug addiction drama Beautiful Boy will also premiere. Robert Pattinson will be seen in High Life, Viola Davis, Cynthia Erivo and Michelle Rodriguez will appear in Widows, and Julia…

 The deputy director of the Cinema Organization of Iran has said that the organization still has not received a request from the producers to screen Asghar Farhadi’s latest movie “Everybody Knows”, which was shot in Spain in 2017. “The film will be viewed as a foreign production if we receive a request to screen it in Iran,” Ebrahim Darughezadeh told the Persian service of ISNA on Sunday. Films need special authorization from the Cinema Organization of Iran to be produced and screened in the country. “Making films in Iran is my first priority, and as much as I can I…

In the metro film screenings or film festivals, there are certain kinds of boundaries,” says documentary filmmaker Saba Dewan “We never challenge our boundaries. We more or less know the nature of questions metro audiences would ask in post-screening discussions. Not so in small towns!”She says she has gone to many film festivals organised by ‘Cinema of Resistance’ in big and small towns, especially in the Hindi heartland. But the questions asked, the content of the discussion, the boundaries of intellectual thresholds that are pushed and the reinterpretation of the cinematic narrative have been refreshingly different and original. All these…

Los Angeles, CA – July 12, 2018 – Composer Ramin Djawadi has today earned two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Music Composition For A Series Original Dramatic Score. Having crafted outstanding musical scores for two television juggernauts in Game of Thrones and Westworld, Ramin will be honored with dueling nominations in the same category. Ramin was previously nominated for an Emmy in 2017 for his Main Title Theme Music on Westworld. https://youtu.be/rSMO4pHe3HE “I am so honored to be a part of both Game of Thrones and Westworld,” Ramin said about the nominations. “They are two of the most groundbreaking shows on TV. The fact that I get to…

Credit to those responsible for the Purge series for recognizing its potential for redemption. What began as yet another movie with a promising premise but disappointing execution has become the ultimate vessel for social and political commentary in our age of stratification. The First Purge is, fittingly, the first one in the series to be truly cathartic for those feeling anxiety over the rise of the far right. It may not for everyone—you do have to already be on board with the overall Purge premise, even if you haven’t seen all of the movies. But after almost losing its way a few times,…

The Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company (a.k.a. Grandeur et Decadenced’un Petit Commerce de Cinema), from 1986, never received a release in theatres, in part because it was made for French television but also due to fears by distributors following the controversy and protests over Hail Mary, Jean-Luc Godard’s “blasphemous” 1985 feature. Yet, the director’s follow-up venture was much less overtly edgy: As if to make up for Hail Mary, a deliberately provocative critique of the Catholic Church, The Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company is comparatively light, quirky and insular, at least in its initial portions. In fact, the maverick filmmaker…

For eighteen days in August, MIFF is once again a film lover’s Christmas. Running August 2–19 at cinemas all over the Melbourne CBD, here’s a quick look at some highlights of the 2018 program. The opening night film is a promising one: American actor-turned-director Paul Dano’s debut film Wildlife, starring Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal and Australian teenager Ed Oxenbould, charts the collapse of a 1960s American family. It received great reviews at the recent Cannes, and it’s good to see Oxenbould getting a foothold on the world stage. Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda brings two new films, including his Palme d’Or winning Shoplifters.…