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

It’s nearly the end of the year—reflecting on your favorite cultural moments of the year, whether in literary, musical, or on-screen formats, is de rigueur. Movies are a big one, but casting your mind all the way back can be a tricky exercise—did that film come out this year? Really? If you need a reminder, here are the films that excited, moved, and tickled us in 2019. https://youtu.be/MnoBx999MZM Everybody Knows Hollywood once led the world in glamorous melodramas, but these days the splashiest ones come from abroad. Take Everybody Knows, a platinum-level soap opera by Iranian Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi. Penélope…

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Zana is Kosovo’s Selection for the Best International Film Award for 2020 Academy Awards written and directed by Antoneta Kastrati. at Cinema Without Borders and CineEqual we had the opportunity to have a podcast interview with Antoneta Kastrati about making of Zana. https://soundcloud.com/user-222526075/an-interview-with?in=user-222526075/sets/cwb-podcast In Zana, an Albanian woman, Lume, lives with her husband, Ilir, and mother-in-law, Remzije, in their small Kosovo village. Haunted by night terrors, childless and unable to get pregnant, Lume is relentlessly pressured by Remzije to fulfill her wifely duties? if Lume cannot produce a child, her mother-in-law threatens, it will be Remzije’s responsibility to bring in a younger and more…

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Mali is Croatia’s selection for the Best International Film Award at 2020 Academy Awards directed by  Antonio Nuić. To learn more about Mali, we had an interview with Antonio Nuić for a podcast: https://soundcloud.com/user-222526075/an-interview-with-antonio-nuic?in=user-222526075/sets/cwb-podcast Mali is the story of Franjo, his son and his circle of friends. After spending four years in prison, Franjo hasn’t changed. He was, and still is, a drug dealer. His wife is dying, and her parents want to make him look as an incompetent parent in order to take away the custody over his son, Mali. However, Mali loves his father, and wants to live with him.…

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Golden Glbes has announced the nominees for the Best Foreign Language Films: The Farewell, Les Misérables, Pain and Glory,  Parasite and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. International films also received nominations in other categorize: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama: Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy: Awkwafina, The Farewell Best Director – Motion Picture: Bong Joon-ho, Parasite Best Screenplay – Motion Picture: Bong Joon-ho and Jin Won Han, Parasite https://youtu.be/kgJT_9IGqsA The Farewell USA – Directed by Lulu Wang Sad but not surprising, again a film made…

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The New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival  has announced the third annual New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival. 8-Ball Community is co-hosting the festival. Festival will run from December 6 to 8 at Diocese of the Armenian Church, 630 Second Avenue, New York, NY. To learn more about the festival we had an interview with Xeyal Qertel, a Kurdish woman and a human rights activist that resides in New York. Cinema Without Borders: Please tell us about New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival back ground and what motivated you to start this festival? https://youtu.be/7wDTzso2FaE Xeyal Qertel: In 2017 some…

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Omer Ben-Shachar‘s insightful film Tree #3 focuses on an immigrant child who takes drastic measures to be noticed in a school play. This film won the 2019 Student Academy Award, the Audience Award for Best Student Short Film at Palm Springs International ShortFest 2019 and it was nominated for Best Comedy at the Student Emmys/College Television Awards 2019. Tree #3 won the Jury Award for Best Student Short and The Audience Award for Best Opening Night Film at NFFTY. Here is the podcast of our interview with Omer Ben-Shachar, Director of Tree #3: https://soundcloud.com/user-222526075/tree-3?in=user-222526075/sets/cwb-podcast Writer-Director Omer Ben-Shachar was born and raised in…

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THE STEED, the official international feature film Oscar entry from Mongolia for the 92nd Academy Awards and entry for the 77th Annual Golden Globes THE STEED tells the tale of a young boy who braves betrayal, brutality and war in his bold, relentless quest to reunite with his horse after being separated in the vast majestic lands of Mongolia during the aftermath of the Russian revolution. Love, family, devotion, kinship and love of homeland are at the heart of this epic sweeping drama from acclaimed Mongolian director Erdenbileg Ganbold that took over three years to make. Utilizing thousands of horses…

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Those Who Remained, Hungarian Official Entry  for the Best International Feature Film 2020 Academy Awards tells the story of Aldo and Klara. Having survived the camps. 42-year old Aldo lives a solitary life as a doctor in Budapest. 16-year old Klara lives reluctantly with her great-aunt, holding on to hope that her father and mother will return. She meets Aldo, and soon the two of them find something in each other that has long been absent in their lives. As they grow closer and closer, the joy in both of their lives slowly returns. But as the Soviet Empire rises to…

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The last film by the Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad, Head of the Jury, International Competition at Jio MAMI 21st Mumbai Film Festival with Star, was The Mountain Between Us, where a surgeon and a journalist battle it out in the wilderness after a plane crash. https://youtu.be/Mu41hu1a_8c Despite the high-profile cast (Idris Elba, Kate Winslet) and a much-feted filmmaker (his earlier features, Paradise Now and Omar, received Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film), this survival drama was received with a modest shrug. Could it be the same issue that plagued, say, Asghar Farhadi, who made the rapturously received A Separation…

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In this Op-Ed, Larry Dane Brimner explains his writing process for his forthcoming book, Accused!: The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys: Lies, Prejudice and the Fourteenth Amendment (Gr 8 Up, Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills & Kane) and how the book shares unfortunate parallels to the state of today’s justice system. “When I first began Accused!: The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys: Lies, Prejudice, and the Fourteenth Amendment, I had no idea how relevant the book would be to today’s political and social reality. My nonfiction books are contracted long before I sit down at my keyboard to write them. Accused! was…

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