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

Venice International Film Festival has a great line-up of international cinema in its 7oth version. Here is the official selection in the main competition of the festival: ES-STOUH by MERZAK ALLOUACHEBab el-Oued, a working-class neighborhood of Algiers. On one side the bay, on the other the city. While time is marked by the muezzin’s call to prayer, five stories intersect, even if only for a moment, on the same number of terraces over the course of a whole day. A man is tortured because he doesn’t want to sign a mysterious document, under the cynical gaze of someone who is…

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Tonight Curfew, a film by Shawn Christensen received the Live Action Short Film Oscar. In an interview prior to the Oscar Award ceremony, when we asked about the chances of Curfew winning the Oscar and impact of it Shawn Christensen told Cinema Without Borders that: ” I have no idea. All the films are so different. I almost think it comes down to a matter of taste. I imagine someone who likes Curfew not liking any other one, or someone liking another one not liking Curfew.. I feel it just comes down to taste and they’re all so strong! I have…

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Tonight, Amour, the Austrian film directed by Michael Haneke, received the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. In the Cinema Without Borders reader’s poll, our audience chose Amour over the other 2013 Nominees. However Bijan Tehrani, Editor In Chief of CWB, believes that another film may have been more deserving.”In 2012, the much-hyped A Separation won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film amongst lackluster competition. This year, I was personally surprised that Amour won the Oscar despite the presence of the amazing picture The War Witch as a fellow nominee. Amour provided a captivating subject and fantastic performances, but The…

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5 Broken Cameras, a film directed by Palestinian filmmaker Emad Burnat and Israeli activist Guy Davidi, has been nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. An extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism, 5 Broken Cameras is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the film was assembled by Burnat and Israeli co-director Guy Davidi. Structured around the violent destruction of each one of…

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In Curfew, a film by Shawn Christensen, nominated for the Academy Awards Best Live Action Short Film, at the lowest point of his life, Richie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his nine-year old niece, Sophia, for the evening.SHAWN CHRISTENSEN graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Illustration and Graphic Design. After graduating, he formed indie rock band Stellastarr* and, while on tour, wrote and sold many screenplays, including Sidney Hall (Scott Free Productions) and Karma Coalition (Warner Bros.). His short film Brink, was an Official Selection of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival…

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Tom Van Avermaet’s Death of a Shadow, starring Rust and Bone’s male lead Matthias Schoenaerts, has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.Following his critically acclaimed performances in Michaël R. Roskam’s Oscar-nominated Bullhead and Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone, Death of a Shadow sees Matthias Schoenaerts starring as Nathan Rijckx, a deceased World War I soldier, who is stuck in limbo between life and death. To earn a second chance at life and love, he has to capture the shadows of 10,000 dying men and women. But with just two shadows left to collect, he…

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HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE, nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar is a film by first-time director and award-winning journalist David France. (Who has been covering the AIDS crisis for 30 years, first for the gay press and then for the New York Times and Newsweek, among others) David culls from a huge amount of archival footage—most of it shot by the protestors themselves (31 videographers are credited)—to create not just an historical document, but an intimate and visceral recreation of the period through the very personal stories of some of ACT UP’s leading participants. A handbook for all…

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Four students of the Art Institute of California-Los Angeles wrote their first impressions about four of the short animated films, nominated for an Oscar. Adam and DogAdam and Dog was definitely a soothing animation experience. With a simple story, beautiful, colorful, and rich backgrounds, almost flawless classic character animation, and a soundtrack that will keep you hooked in. The story is quite a creative one, showing how the bond between the first man and dog was created. The loyalty of the dog was displayed with a wide range of character emotions backed up by beautiful scenery. Even when Adam was…

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NO, nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, happens in 1988, when Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, due to international pressure, was forced to call a plebiscite on his presidency. The country had to vote YES or NO to Pinochet extending his rule for another eight years. Opposition leaders for the NO persuade a brash young advertising executive, Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), to spearhead their campaign. Against all odds, with scant resources and under scrutiny by the despot’s minions, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and set Chile free.Pablo Larrain was born…

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Big Dreams Little Tokyo is the story of Boyd, an American with an uncanny ability to speak Japanese. Boyd aspires to succeed in the world of Japanese business but finds himself mostly on the outside looking in. Meanwhile, his roommate Jerome, is a Japanese American who has always felt too American to be Japanese but too Japanese to be American. He aspires to be a sumo wrestler but finds his weight and blood pressure are thwarting his dreams. Together they struggle to find their place in a world where cultural identity is seldom what it seems. David Boyle director of…

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