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

The feature film ‘Yeva,’ written and directed by Iranian-Armenian filmmaker Anahid Abad, 55, is currently showing in cinemas in Armenia. The film is about a young woman named Yeva who escapes her influential in-laws with her daughter Nareh, after her husband’s tragic death and takes refuge in one of the villages in the disputed enclave of Karabakh, Armenia. Yeva is in the movie halls from Sunday in Armenia. Funded by Iranian cinema producer Taqi Aliqolizadeh, the film is a joint 2017 production between the two countries. It participated in the 41st edition of the Montreal World Film Festival (August 24-September…

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FNE and Europa Distribution are launching a new chapter in our Distributor of the Month section. In the coming months we will talk with European distributors about their lineup, their best marketing campaigns developed for different windows and what advice they would give to a new distributor. This month we speak with Jakub Mróz, the president of Tongariro Releasing, the first distribution company in Poland specialised in LGBT cinema (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender). Tongariro Releasing was established in 2010. Its VOD service, outfilm.pl, contains more than 200 films and its laboratory provides services for other distributors. FNE: How would you describe…

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On September 22, 2017, the Film Federation of India selected a political satire, Newton, directed by Amit Masurkar, as India’s official entry to the Foreign Language Film category of the 90th Academy Awards. The film, starring Rajkummar Rao in the titular role, is about a young government clerk who is determined to conduct fair elections in the tumultuous forest region of Chhattisgarh where insurgency issues are rampant. The film released at around 300 screens in India on September 22, the same Friday the Oscar selection was announced. Newton premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February this year, and there,…

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“So I need to know: Are you ready to be transformed?” shouts Scott Ross to the 900-strong crowd in the auditorium. They respond with raucous applause. To them, Ross is a legend. He ran George Lucas’s visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in the 1980s, then founded his own Oscar-winning effects firm with James Cameron. His audience is largely made up of young people looking to follow in his footsteps: animators, video game designers, concept artists, illustrators and effects specialists. These are the people who build the digital worlds where we’re increasingly spending our leisure time – in movies, games, and virtual…

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Kazakhstan has selected Akan Satayev’s Road to Mother as its candidate for the best foreign-language Oscar. The decision was announced Friday in the Kazakh capital Almaty during the second annual national ‘Tulpar’ film awards. A historic drama that counts Aliya Nazarbayeva, daughter of Kazakhstan’s long-ruling president Nursultan Nazarbayev, as its general producer, earlier this month the film won the main prize at the 1st Eurasian Bridge festival in Yalta, Crimea and also picked up best film at Croatia’s Marco Polo film festival in August. The story of several generations of a Kazakh family from the 1930s to the present time,…

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Based on a list issued recently by Indiwire Website, a famous daily news site of the independent film community, the performance of renowned Iranian actress Leila Hatami in the movie ‘A Separation’ has been placed among the 25 best female performances of the 21st century. “Much has been made about the dearth of strong female roles in contemporary cinema, and the problematic depictions of women in many recent movies, but the past two decades have provided plenty of counterexamples. While the onus is on writers and directors to craft strong female characters, the actresses themselves bring these figures to life,…

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Programmers for the ninth annual Milwaukee Film Festival have chosen 297 features, shorts and documentaries that combine life and art to illustrate how powerful the medium can be in the hands of master filmmakers. Building awareness of what film is capable of has been the festival’s purpose since its inception. A story em-pathetically and effectively told has the power to entertain and also change people’s thoughts and move them to action, according to Jonathan Jackson. He’s the artistic and executive director of Milwaukee Film, the nonprofit organization that runs the festival. It is the festival team’s job to screen hard-to-find…

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very year, summer gives way to fall, and in movie theaters, blockbusters give way to awards contenders. On this week’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, film critic Bob Mondello of All Things Considered and I spoke with Tasha Robinson of The Verge and film writer Bilal Qureshi about some of what we all saw at the Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off the fall movie season. But if you need a list to carry in your pocket, Bob and I put together this rundown of some of the best, buzziest and otherwise noteworthy films coming to you over the next few months. (Keep in mind that release dates are…

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Most Palestinian films focus on the impact of politics and how the fraught relations with the Israeli state affect the lives of Palestinians. This delightful feature from Maysaloun Hamoud takes a seemingly more apolitical approach. And yet there’s a palpable subtext at play here about the oppressive treatment of women from the territory by their own people, affecting those leading secular lives as well as the religiously observant, Muslims and Christians alike. https://youtu.be/GpUVQMDoewU In a Tel Aviv apartment, Muslim lawyer and chain-smoking party girl Layla (Mouna Hawa) and her friend Salma (Sana Jammelieh), a lesbian from a Christian family who…

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It all began when French cinema’s golden boy Guillaume Canet was knocked down a few pegs by a tactless journalist, who all but called him past it. In a flash, the actor-director dreamt up the plot for his anarchic mockumentary Rock’n Roll. Turning the camera on (a heightened version of) himself, he charts his ‘own’ acute spiral into mid-life crisis. At 40-something his youthful looks are waning and, last nail in the coffin, he has just been cast in his first ‘father role’. Meanwhile, his real-life partner Marion Cotillard’s career is soaring, overshadowing his own – his greengrocer nicknames him…

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