Author: World Cinema Reports' Editors

HANGING around Wera Aung’s office is like visiting an exhibition on Myanmar’s independent film bubble. On the wall of Green Age Film, his production company, one can see pictures of international director friends, the posters of festivals he went to and of the films he’s directed. This little wall of fame reflects not only Wera Aung’s interests, but also the talent of this young director who has been carrying his tripods around for nearly a decade, and with them the hopes of the Burmese independent movies industry. Thu Thu Shein, a short film director and founder of the Wathann Film…

Over six years of war and Syrians are still suffering the consequences. More than seven million are internally displaced and over 5.1 million have become refugees in neighboring countries. Others, who are not seeking asylum in neighboring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, are risking everything they have to reach Europe, paying traffickers to help them cross the perilous seas. Many don’t make it, but those who do tell their stories. Rania Mustafa Ali, a young Syrian woman who was 20 years of age at the time of her escape, managed to document her journey from the bombarded city of Kobane, Syria, to Europe in 2016.…

MoviePass, a subscription service run by Netflix co-founder Mitch Lowe, went national five years ago with a model that allowed subscribers to see a different film at the theaters every 24 hours. Pricing was set at $25 to $40 per month depending on where you lived, and subscriptions in some places went as high as $50. That pricing structure never seemed to gain significant traction, however, and on Tuesday, MoviePass announced it was cutting the monthly price to an astonishingly cheap $9.95. A ticket to the movies normally costs $8.84 on average around the U.S., and admission in big city…

Alexander Payne has been making movies about middle-aged, average American men who feel small for most of his career (from Election through Nebraska). When he’s stepping out of his comfort zone for futuristic whimsy in Downsizing he’s still making a movie about a middle-aged, average American man who feels small—and indeed gets even smaller—but the scope of the project reveals a sweeter side of Payne. Before the premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival (starting today) Payne has described the project as similar to Black Mirror, and though there are some situations that mirror those bleak technology fables, Downsizing is definitely a throwback to the style of 40s Hollywood…

Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s long-awaited film noir Samui Song kicks off Venice Days on Wednesday. Popular Thai actress Cherman “Ploy” Boonyasak plays Viyada, a Thai soap opera whose happy marriage to wealthy expat Jerome turns sour when he becomes devoted to a charismatic cult leader, The Holy One. Not content with ensnaring Jerome, The Holy One seems to have designs on Viyada too. She resorts to drastic measures to escape his clutches. “Here we have a story of an actress who struggles in a male-dominated environment where she has no way of defining herself… She tries everything to break free…

Iranian artist and director Shirin Neshat’s new film “Looking for Oum Kulthum” will have its world premiere at Giornate degli Autori – Venice Days on the fringes of the 74th Venice International Film Festival organized by La Biennale di Venezia (August 30 to September 9). The film is one of 12 selected from all over the world, in competition for the Official Awards. Neshat’s “film within a film” tells the story of an Iranian director by the name of Mitra who embarks on her dream project of making a film about the legendary Egyptian singer and diva Oum Kulthum. But as she explores…

Celebrating 15 successful years, the 2017 Run&Shoot Filmworks’ Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF) screened more than 60 features, short films, documentaries, and television series. The six-day festival featured the movies Marshall, Detroit, Crown Heights, and Rodney King; and two episodes from Spike Lee’s new television show She’s Gotta Have It and two episodes from Issa Rae’s Insecure, among other groundbreaking works. This month, MVAAFF founders Stephanie and Floyd Rance received a special citation from the State of Massachusetts’ Governor’s Office for their significant contributions to the local economy of Martha’s Vineyard. With more than 2,500 participants at this year’s festival, the island…

With the Venice Film Festival opening, Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir, whose films Salt of the Sea (2008) and When I Saw You (2010), both served as the country’s Oscar nominations, has spoken out about a lack of diversity at the festival, and at European film festivals in general: “Very often, half of the films screened at Arab festivals are directed by women, or even more,” she told  Variety earlier this month. “Compare that with major European film festivals, and it’s the opposite story. Look at the Venice line-up this year: 21 films in the official competition, and only one of them directed by a woman? That’s something…

irst Reformed, in upstate New York, is a tourist-trap church that no one actually attends. Once, long ago, this place served as a way-station on the underground railroad, providing shelter for runaway slaves en route to Canada. Now the church is preserved as a pretty antique, a clapboard white elephant propped up by a Christian conglomerate called Abundant Life and bankrolled by a billionaire industrialist who pollutes the environment. Its planned reconsecration is just a ghastly charade. Downsizing review – Matt Damon thinks small in Alexander Payne’s miniature masterpiece Damon stars as a man who shrinks down to the height…

Actress Annette Bening, the jury president of the festival, has responded to the criticism about the lack of female directors in this year’s lineup, and she’s not perturbed. “I was thrilled to be asked to be here, so I didn’t count the number of films that were accepted that were directed by women,” she told the Hollywood Reporter. “I know that most people that I know, whether they’re veterans or newcomers, or they’re men or women, most people struggle to get their movies made. And there is a lot of sexism, of course that exists. There’s no question. But I…