From Signe Baumane, director of Rocks in My Pockets, comes a new award-winning animated feature about a spirited young woman determined to find love in the bewildering world. My Love Affair With Marriage follows Zelma on her 23-year quest for perfect love and lasting marriage set against a backdrop of historic events in Eastern Europe. Told from a woman’s point of view, the film blends historical, biological, societal, and emotional arcs with a lively sense of humor and musical numbers. This animated film for adults tackles the issues of love, gender norms, domestic violence, fantasies and toxic relationships to propel…
Author: CWB News Department
The Ancient Trees , is a beautifully and masterfully written, produced, and directed series by young and talented Iranian filmmaker Hamid Koreyli. The The Ancient Trees series is a successful effort to introduce and comprehensively and expertly review the exceptionally-old trees of Iran along with providing unseen pictures and detailed history and information. This collection is produced in the form of a documentary series in six approximately fifty-minute episodes, each episode is focused on the introduction of one of Iran’s tree species. https://vimeo.com/872420790?share=copy In order to introduce these trees, a trip was made to the habitat of each tree and–while…
Another week, another early Asghar Farhadi film gets restored and finally comes to North America. Following last week’s release of his 2003 drama Dancing in the Dust, Film Movement Classics will now release the Oscar-winning Iranian director’s second feature Beautiful City in a new 2K restoration approved by Farhadi. Led by Taraneh Alidoosti––who would go on to work with the director in Fireworks Wednesday, About Elly, and The Salesman––the 2004 drama will be released digitally on October 13 and we’re pleased to exclusively debut the new trailer. https://youtu.be/8hi2cirzz-U?si=yj7dx81oADY74pXp Here’s the full synopsis: “After spending two years in juvenile detention for killing his girlfriend…
An essential memoir of fashion pioneer Bethann Hardison, INVISIBLE BEAUTY shines a spotlight on the singular and unapologetic Hardison, one of the fashion industry’s most influential icons who, as a pioneering Black model, modeling agent and entrepreneur, has pushed the boundaries of fashion culture and has been at the forefront of progress throughout her career. In her lifetime, Hardison has seen the pendulum swing toward and away from the Black model. At every setback, she spoke up and rallied her colleagues and clients in the industry to advance change. https://vimeo.com/869448513?share=copy Now in her 70s, the Brooklyn native is writing her…
Cinema Without Borders has announced its jury members to decide on the winner of 2023 MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award at the LUCAS International Festival for Young Film Lover in Germany. LUCAS programmers have also announced the nominees for the Cinema Without Borders’ Bridging The Borders Award sponsored by MOZAIK Philanthropy. A jury of six, formed by CWB will decide on the winning films at the closing night of the festival. Keely Badger, Executive Director of MOZAIK, the sponsor of the Bridging The Borders Award, will announce the winning film in a video message that will be played at the awards ceremony of the…
Filmmaker Jasmin Mozaffari ended the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Sunday with her short film Motherland named the best Canadian film in the festival’s Short Cuts program. Motherland is a captivating story set around the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, when a man named Babak (Behtash Fazlali) goes to meet his fiancée’s parents and must face the harsh reality of what it means to be an Iranian immigrant. https://youtu.be/cYXPOjWDVmc?si=PwWvmctXUd_J1Jsl The idea for Motherland came from a personal place, based on the story of her parents. “My dad came from Iran in late ’78, ’79 to the U.S.,” Mozaffari explained to Yahoo Canada. “So it was…
Despite an industry-wide strike that’s made the promotion of films feel impossible, the Venice Film Festival has given a chance for some stars of independent features to shine a light on their upcoming projects — with a few of those artists taking home prizes from the fest. The 80th Venice International Film Festival awards gala on Saturday evening celebrated the films competing for various categories, including the Golden and Silver Lion, voted on by the jury, which includes directors Jane Campion and Martin McDonagh. Taking home the grand prize of the Golden Lion was The Favorite’s Yorgos Lanthimos for his follow-up film, Poor Things, starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, and…
The Toronto Film Festival began September 7 in Ontario with opening-night movie The Boy and the Heron, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. It kicks off a lineup for the fest’s 48th edition that includes world premieres of GameStop pic Dumb Money, Netflix’s Pain Hustlers, Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins, Kristin Scott Thomas’ Scarlett Johansson pic North Star, Chris Pine’s Poolman, Michael Keaton-directed Knox Goes Away, Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils, Michael Winterbottom’s Shoshana, Grant Singer’s Reptile, Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt, Lee Tamahori’s The Convert and Alex Gibney’s doc In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon. The fest also features new films from such celebrated directors as Alexander Payne, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Alice…
“I hope for a day when I would have no subjects left to make movies about,” she said during a 2015 ceremony honoring her for her charitable work. Chances are that, contrary to her wishes, she will not run out of subjects anytime soon. Rakhshan Bani-Etemad is often referred to as Iran’s premier female director. She has the rare honor of being loved by the Iranian public and acclaimed internationally. Her films focus on intractable social problems in Iran, from poverty to the situation of women. She has pushed against the limits of censorship and the Iranian authorities have often…
The 2023 Sundance Film Festival Asia officially opened at the SPOT Huashan Cinema in Taipei City on August 18, 2023, and announced the winner of the Sundance Film Festival Asia Short Film Competition. The award went to “Tuo Tuo” directed by An Chu. Many Hollywood and local celebrities walked the red carpet including Justin Lin (Director of the “Fast and Furious” franchise), Todd Makurath (Executive Producer of “Everything Everywhere All At Once”), Joachim Zell (Color Scientist from “Blade Runner 2049”), Dan Lin (Producer of “The Lego Movie”), Tzi Ma (Actor from “Rush Hour” series), Caitlin Fang (Actress from “American Girl”), Patty Lee (Actress from…