Iranian film star Leila Hatami was at West Vancouver’s Kay Meek Centre on Saturday, Aug. 12 at 4 p.m. for a screening of Dariush Mehrjui’s 1996 feature, Leila, in which Hatami made her film debut opposite her future husband, Ali Mosaffa. Hatami is one of Iranian cinema’s most iconic actors. Her 2011 film, A Separation, directed by Asghar Farhadi, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture, as well as the Hollywood Golden Globe, Berlin Golden Bear and French César for Best Picture. Hatami also won Best Actress honors at the Berlin Film Fest for her role in the film.…
Author: World Cinema Reports' Editors
In China it took less than two weeks for the locally made blockbuster Wolf Warrior 2 to become the nation’s highest-grossing film ever. Released in late July, the movie, essentially about punishing anyone who offends China, has struck a chord with many patriotic Chinese (in addition to sending a shiver down Hollywood’s spine). Such fervor will be stoked by another film currently scheduled for release late next month: Sky Hunter. The first action movie focused on China’s modern air force, it follows elite soldiers as they resolve a hostage crisis and foil a terrorist plot. It stars A-list actress Fan Bingbing along with Li Chen, who also made…
The-Nairobi based The Nest Collective is a group invested in film, music, fashion, visual arts and literature. Some of their works include award winning projects like the movie Stories of Our Lives and the web series Tuko Macho. Their latest production is the virtual reality movie Let This Be A Warning, shot in Syokimau and Magadi, that features a futuristic world with only black people. JAMES MURUA spoke to Jim Chuchu after the film premiered in Nairobi. BUZZ: Tell me about your new movie, Let This Be A Warning. How did it come about? Jim Chuchu: In 2015, the Goethe…
The reaction in Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri, started small. Group grieving turned to marches, which turned to demonstrations that eventually triggered a police riot. A trickle of looters hogged the national news spotlight, but that’s where Folayan and Davis step in. Images direct from the streets can record what news cameras never could: the fear, confusion and frustration of people who wake to discover an international news story happening on their front lawn. The exterior scenes are shot with little commentary, casting a spotlight on those rarely given a platform. Naturally, some are more eloquent than others.…
Have you ever thought how cool and spine-chilling the teaser or trailer of a film was? All thanks to the work done by the editor, who puts everything together in the most perfect manner and serves it to you on a pretty impressive platter. Editing is one of the most important parts of the post-production work of a film, which can make as well as break it. Here is what two editors — one, a senior and another, a junior — have to share with us: how technology has made their work easier than earlier. Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao, a senior…
The 23rd edition of the annual Sarajevo Film Festival opens on Friday, August 11, with a screening of Aki Kaurismaki’s latest film The Other Side of Hope at the National Theatre and the Raiffeisen Open Air Cinema in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. This is the second time that a movie by this Finnish filmmaker has opened the festival. His 2011 film Le Havre opened the 17th Sarajevo Film Festival. The festival’s ‘Susan Sontag’ square has been renovated and will proudly ‘wear’ the red carpet and host other festival activities. The opening night gala ceremony at the National Theatre will be hosted by Bosnian…
Irffan Khan worked with Anup Singh in Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost. Anup Singh is back with yet another cinematic folk tale — The Song of Scorpions — which had its world premiere at the Locarno International Film Festival on August 9. With two features to his credit, Ekti Nadir Naam (The Name of a River) and Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost, Singh is an extraordinarily perceptive auteur. And he has always had exceptional actors to bring his dreamy stories to life. Irffan Khan, for instance, could not have been a more ideal protagonist for Qissa.…
CALGARY – It’s hard to believe, folks, but the great Calgary International Film Festival (no longer shortened as CIFF, but Calgary Film) is only a month away from its 18th iteration. There have been some recent announcements from the Calgary Film programmers in regards to ticket sales and other updates. Tickets will go on sale online a week earlier this year (August 30), coinciding with their festival launch that details their full lineup and schedule. The staff at Calgary Film hopes that this will allow people to plan their festival experience further in advance, as there are so many films…
New films by internationally feted Polish filmmakers Jan Komasa, Kuba Czekaj and Dorota Kedzierzawska were among 20 projects presented to sales agents, distributors and festival programmers at the sixth edition of the Polish Days (8-10 August) during this week’s New Horizons International Film Festival in Wroclaw. Komasa – who made his feature debut with Suicide Room – and his producer Leszek Bodzak of Aurum Film (The Last Family) pitched the contemporary social drama Corpus Christi which is based on screenwriter Mateusz Pacewicz’s first screenplay for cinema. The €1m project is being structured as a Polish-French co-production and will begin principal…
IFC Films will distribute the upcoming comedy, The Death of Stalin, to America’s masses. The political satire feature film was written and directed by Armando Iannucci, who created HBO’s Veep out of his British political satire The Thick Of It. IFC Films retrieved the North American rights at the Berlin Film Festival’s European Film Market. The Death of Stalin trailer introduces all the key players in the game of succession to the Soviet Union’s leadership. The deputy, the politician, the son, the general, the spymaster – snaky little shits, all of them, but most can run and plot at the…