Author: World Cinema Reports' Editors

Lebanese film director Ziad Doueiri made headlines recently when authorities in Beirut arrested him at the Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport for questioning about his links to Israel. He was almost put on trial on charges of “normalizing relations” with Israel because of his visit here in 2012 as part of the filming of his previous movie, “The Attack.” But he managed to prove his “innocence.” Doueiri entered Israel on a U.S. passport, which he holds along with his French and Lebanese passports. Nonetheless, he was also detained and questioned in Israel. But the bigger commotion is over his new film,…

Variety polled its international team of critics, asking which films they were most looking forward to in the coming year. The results are diverse, ranging from likely blockbusters to potential Palme d’Or winners, although you won’t find a single comic-book movie on this list. “Annihilation” (Feb. 23) Alex Garland follows his hit debut “Ex Machina” with a brainy horror movie about an all-female team of explorers who venture into a deadly environmental disaster zone. Based on Jeff VanderMeer’s award-winning trilogy, the nature thriller stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson and an iridescent mist that gives the air…

Based on a list released by The Playlist, a film and TV news website, ‘Everybody Knows’, the new film by internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker, ,  is ranked 12th among the 100 most anticipated films in the coming year. The film of the two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker is ranked above many other prominent filmmakers, namely Gary Ross, Steven Spielberg who is one of the most popular directors and producers in film history, David Robert Mitchell, and late American actor and filmmaker Orson Welles. Orson Wells’ film ‘The Other Side of the Wind’, which is ranked 22nd on the list, is particularly known…

The Golden Globes has announced the 2018 nominees and international cinema has an impressive presence in a few categories. Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language A Fantastic Woman A Fantastic Woman (Spanish: Una mujer fantástica) is a 2017 Chilean drama film directed by Sebastián Lelio. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival It was selected as the Chilean entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. https://youtu.be/PJHex4ZitgA First They Killed My Father First They Killed My Father (Khmer: មុនដំបូងខ្មែរក្រហមសម្លាប់ប៉ារបស់ខ្ញុំ Moun dambaung Khmer…

Two days after completing shooting of his latest movie in Spain, the renowned director Asghar Farhadi and Spanish actor Javier Bardem, attended a session on December 2 in Madrid and spoke about their collaboration on the set of ‘Everybody Knows’. “A film in which only the director is seen, does not work, the director must be invisible, the less present he is, the more space for the viewer,” said Farhadi. According to the Spanish international news agency EFE, the director stressed that Bardem belongs to that “race of actors” that completely eliminate the distance with the character and that he…

Opening on 111 screens this weekend, Blade Of The Immortal will surpass The Handmaiden as the widest opening for an arthouse foreign language title in 2017. Takashi Miike’s samurai epic, based on Hiroaki Samura’s long-running manga series of the same name, follows an immortal warrior who is enlisted by a young girl to avenge her parents’ slaughter at the hand of a group of master swordsmen. Takuya Kimura (Hero), plays the lead alongside newcomer Hana Sugisaki. Sôta Fukushi and Ebizô Ichikawa (13 Assassins) round out the cast with veterans Min Tanaka and Tsutomu Yamazaki. https://youtu.be/6Pc5ikveEjA The Handmaiden is the only non-Bollywood and non-Polish foreign-language title…

Two panels with a total of six jurors from Italy, France, South Africa, Thailand and Iran will be judging the documentaries in the international completion at the 11th Cinema Verite, the major Iranian international festival documentary cinema that opens tomorrow, the organizers announced on Friday. Matthieu Darras from France, Pimpaka Towira from Thailand and Sam Kalantari from Iran will be judging the films competing in the short and mid-length documentaries sections. The feature-length documentaries will be judged by a jury consisting of Darryl Els from South Africa, Gianfranco Rosi from Italy and Katayun Shahabi from Iran. In addition, the organizers…

Sahar international short film festival held annually at North Manchester in UK,  announced the winners of 2017 festival. The Audience Award for the Contemporary Iranian cinema went to ” The Servant ” by Farnoush Abedirenani and the Audience Award for the International Cinema was jointly received by “The Drunkard’s Walk”  by Pol Armengol and “Bus Story” by Jorge Yudic Ruiz -Tomas Festival’s Jury award : The Contemporary Iranian Cinema: “From Hasakah With Love” by Mohammad Farahani The International Cinema: The Joint Award to “Identity” by Juan Carlevaris and “Rattling Fan” by Pasang Dawa Sherpa ​ Mandana Ansari, co-founder and director of the festival said: This…

The Silence is a short film written and directed by Ali Asgari and Farnoosh Samadi, Iranian-born filmmakers, also responsible for Disappearance, which we discussed when it appeared at this year’s Toronto film festival. (At the latter event, Asgari was credited as director and Samadi as co-screenwriter on Disappearance, but the pair apparently consider themselves co-directors of their various films.) The Silence, which showed at the Cannes Film Festival, has been nominated for and won numerous awards. Asgari was born in Tehran, but studied and graduated from film school in Italy. Samadi was also born in Iran and graduated from the Fine Arts Academy in…

POP AYE premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for screenwriting and is the official foreign language Oscar entry from Singapore for the 90th Academy Awards. On a chance encounter, a disenchanted architect bumps into his long-lost elephant on the streets of Bangkok. Excited, he takes his elephant on a redemptive journey across Thailand, in search of the farm where they grew up together – only to discover the truth about himself. Kirsten Tan is a writer/director with a penchant for visual storytelling and off-beat humor. Spotlighted by CNN’s “Ones to…