Author: World Cinema Reports' Editors

Cinema Without Borders' reporters from around the globe search and find international cinema content for our audience. when an outside source is used, we provide you with a link to the original source at the end of the article

TEHRAN – “Subdued”, director Hamid Nematollah’s drama about an emotional journey, has won several awards including one in the best film category at the 11th Celebration of Iranian Cinema Critics and Screenwriters. Nematollah was also picked as best director, while Leila Hatami won the award for best actress for her role in the movie by the France-based company Dreamlabs. Hatami’s co-star, Kurosh Tahami, also received an honorable mention. The film also brought Sohrab Purnazeri the best composer award, and Masumeh Bayat won the best screenwriter award. The film is about Mina who is recently divorced from her drug addict husband.…

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Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante is one of the more uncompromising directors to have emerged in recent years. Favoring a form of brutal realism that’s found plenty of admirers on the festival circuit – particularly with the Cannes-winning Heli – he tends to focus on desperate characters whose marginal lives are marked by terrible violence, the latter often filmed in the unflinching, dispassionate style that’s become something of a default aesthetic thanks to Michael Haneke. With The Untamed, though, Escalante pushes the boundaries in a more intriguing way with a movie that could be pitched as a Mexican take on Under…

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Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink industry programme is in full flow. Below, Screen highlights five emerging producers from the region who are making waves. NATAŠA DAMNJANOVIĆ (SERBIA) Serbian producer Nataša Damnjanović (pictured, top) started out as an editor, and since she founded the production company Dart Film together with Vladimir Vidić in 2006, she is still doing the editing on most of their films as well. Damnjanović trained at Sarajevo and Berlinale Talents, Torino FilmLab and EAVE, and first produced Nikola Ljuca’s short Sergeant in 2010 (which competed at Tampere), as well three shorts by Dane Komljen – A Surplus of Wind(2014), Our Body (2015), and All Still Orbit (2016),…

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Six titles were invited to participate at the great North American event. Starting from the world premiere of Rainbow-A Private Affair by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani in the Masters programme. Adapted from the posthumously published bestseller by Beppe Fenoglio, an inspired and poetic film which seems to include all the key elements of these two Masters¹ cinema (Italian resistance movement, Fascist cruelty, Innocence, Youth). From the Venice competition comes The Leisure Seeker, (Gala Presentation) the American adventure by Paolo Virzì with Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland, Canadian national glory, and Hannah (Contemorary World Cinema) the second film by Andrea Pallaoro, supported by a…

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The Venice Film Festival has set its juries for the 74th event which runs August 30-September 9 on the Lido. Annette Bening was previously announced as President of the main Venezia 74 competition jury — and as the first female to hold the post since 2006. The panel awards the major prizes including the Golden and Silver Lions and the acting Volpi Cups, among others. Venice kicks off with Alexander Payne’s Downsizing as the opening film in competition. Other titles confirmed include Ritesh Batra’s Our Souls At Night, a Netflix pic that’s running out of competition. Stars Jane Fonda and…

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Fans of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show are wondering these days where Trevor Noah is! We have learned that he is in Cape Town. Here is what Channel24  writes about his whereabouts: Cape Town – Charlize Theron and Trevor Noah are back in their home country and making a difference while they’re here. Trevor landed in SA more than a week ago to perform stand-up shows in Johannesburg and Durban respectively. It is not known when Atomic Blonde actress, Charlize arrived however she was spotted going for a walk with her mom Gerda along the Sea Point Promenade on Sunday. (Read more…

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FORTIFY RIGHTS has echoed calls from local rights groups for the Malaysian government to repeal the country’s Film Censorship Act, after several films about refugees were censored including one about Rohingya child brides in Malaysia. Activists say the Film Censorship Board (LPF) officials came to the Refugee Festival in Kuala Lumpur late last week, subsequently demanding the partial censorship of Bou, a film about trafficked brides from Burma (Myanmar), and total ban on Kakuma Can Dance about refugee hip hop dancers in Kenya. “This censorship is unconstitutional and violates the rights of the filmmakers,” Fortify Rights executive director Amy Smith said in a statement on…

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The first-ever European Animation Awards (EAA), set to take place on December 8 in Lille, France, have opened their call for entries. The awards, which are called the Emiles, launched their call with this animated version of Song of the Sea and The Secret of Kells director Tomm Moore explaining the concept: Moore animated the piece himself along with Fabian Erlinghauser, Giovanna Ferrari, Ross Stewart, Camille Chao, Ariel Ries, Guillaume Lorin, Louise Bagnall, Liselott Olofsson, Geoff King, and Emmanuel Asquier-Brassart. Sixteen Emile Awards will be handed out in the following categories, in addition to the Lotte Reiniger Award for lifetime achievement. EMILE AWARDS CATEGORIES…

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Kilmer has signed on to star in 1st Born, a comedy from Iranian director Ali Atshani. The project centers on a newly married couple newlywed couple, Iranian-born Ben and his American Kate, who are living in California. When the couple’s first pregnancy faces complications, both sides of their family must come together — a rather complicated notion as Ben’s father Hamid is anti-American Iranian politician, while Kate’s father Biden (played by Kilmer) is an American politician who takes a hardline stance against Iran. 1st Born is notable for being the first joint feature film co-production between Iran and Hollywood, using…

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The face of animation is eve changing and the fields in which it is becoming prominent, are increasingly diverse. Now in its fourth year, the Montreal International Animation Film Festival (MIAFF), also known as Animaze, will celebrate animation in all its forms from August 17-20. “If you think of animation at its most basic level, short cartoons, like Mickey Mouse, come to mind,” said MIAFF director Laurie Gordon. “But it is really an umbrella term because animation, whether hand drawn or 3D images rendered through a software, is used not only in television, films and gaming but also in research.”…

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