Frank and Ava the award-winning biopic of the tumultuous love affair between Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner is distributed in the United States and Canada by Gravitas Ventures and is available on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes. Brooklyn native Rico Simonini, a well-known Los Angeles cardiologist at a leading Medical Center, who portrays Frank Sinatra also did the screenplay adaptation of the stage play by Willard Manus. In 2014 Simonini originated the role of Frank Sinatra in Manus’ play which was developed in the Actor’s Studio. It was then that Simonini, who had a connection to Sinatra, knew he had…
Author: World Cinema Reports' Editors
Kino Marquee is a new initiative that creates “virtual cinemas” for temporarily closed independent theaters. Local audiences support their community’s theater in these uncertain times by buying a virtual “ticket” to watch the film. Their ticket purchases directly support their local art house as all revenue is being shared between distributor and exhibitor, just as if they bought their ticket at the theater’s box office. Kino Marquee currently works with over 200 art house theaters across the nation. To learn more about how the idea of Virtual Cinemas work we had an on camera interview with Nicholas Kemp is the Director of…
Dear Bijan, It was the Friday before the weekend when New York City stopped. Our Director of Photography had just flown in from a job in Amsterdam though by the next day, flights from Europe were banned. We’d gotten everyone together and were scouting for our big shoot with the team of digital scholars at Butler Library at Columbia University, when we got word that the University was going dark due to infections. Immediately. Everyone out. No exceptions. Then, President Trump declared a national state of emergency. We scrambled to find an alternative. What if we could find a studio…
A group of artistes from Iran have written a moving open letter to the artiste community of the world about the despairing COVID-19 pandemic in Iran, aggravated in the light of the U.S.-led Security Council sanctions. The signatories — 302 as of March 28 — include stalwarts of cinema such as Majid Majidi and Rakshan Banietemad, popular actor-filmmaker-writer Niki Karimi, actor Babak Karimi and Shahab Hosseini who won the best actor award at Cannes Film Festival in 2016 for Asghar Farhadi’s celebrated film, The Salesman. “The people of Iran are facing a crisis today; the Corona crisis you are aware…
The 23rd edition of the Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF), offering the best in independent cinema from around the world, announces a robust lineup of 131 features, documentaries and short films that includes a selection of World, North American, US and Northern California premieres from 30 countries. Blending a program of world-class film, food and wine, SIFF2020 is presented by United MileagePlus® Cards from Chase, and takes place from March 25 – 29 in Sonoma, Northern California, the prestigious, world renowned wine growing capital of the US. SIFF Executive Director Kevin McNeely states: “SIFF is proud to showcase this year’s…
Last week, I had the joy of interviewing the Oscar winning director of LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL), Carol Dysinger. In the last fifteen years, I have interviewed over eight hundreds filmmakers around the world, but this last one is hard to forget. Carol Dysinger is not only a great director, but she has a deep knowledge about Middle East and in particular Afghanistan. And that’s not all, Carol has such a big heart when it comes to care about people, all through our conversation, she hardly mentioned her Oscar, even when I directly asked about it.…
Parasite, a South Korean black comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho won four Oscars tonight: Best Original Screenplay, Best International Film, Best Director and Best Film. This is the first time in history of the Academy Awards that an international films wins four Oscars. https://vimeo.com/390415260 Bong Joon-ho, director of Parasite, also co-wrote the screenplay with Han Jin-won. It stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, and Park So-dam, and follows the members of a poor household who scheme to become employed by a wealthy family by infiltrating the household and posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals. The film…
In the midst of a global media frenzy to satiate content culture by capturing people’s attention and holding it hostage—the winners of the 8th Annual Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA 2020) are here to liberate you. They are here to remind you that the art of inspiring audiences through storytelling is not dead…it’s SIMA. And now, more than ever, it demands your undivided attention. From exposing the faceless monster behind our increasingly unlivable cities in best feature documentary winner, PUSH; taking you on a time-traveling immersive journey to Hiroshima—a story 400 years in the making—in best virtual reality winner, ATOMIC…
MALAGA, Spain — Pedro Almodovar’s Oscar-nominated “Pain and Glory” was the big winner at the 34th Goya Awards, Spain’s top film honors, held in Malaga on Saturday night, going home with seven awards including best actor for Antonio Banderas, best director for Almodovar and best film. Banderas, who first collaborated with Almodovar in 1982’s “Labyrinth of Passion”, thanked the director for their nearly 40 years of collaboration. “I have learnt so much from you, not only about art but about life…I’ve done my best work with you,” Banderas said while collecting the award, adding he hoped the pair would continue…
Two South American films were awarded at the 31st annual edition of the Palm Springs International Film Festival: The Peruvian film Song Without a Name / Canción sin nombre by Melina León received the New Voices/New Visions Award and the Colombian film Monos by Alejandro Landes was the winner of the Ibero-American Award. Additionally, the Mexican film Workforce / Mano de obra, the debut feature by David Zonana, received a Special Mention in the Ibero-American competition. We interviewed Melina León after receiving her award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival: https://vimeo.com/385577044 Set in 1988, in a Peru wracked by political…