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…
Browsing: Festivals
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…
Jeymes Samuel’s sophomore feature The Book of Clarence, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Boy and the Heron by Hayao Miyazaki are among the titles that have been announced within the full lineup of the British Film Institute’s (BFI) 67th London Film Festival. Scroll down for the full list. The Book of Clarence, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, LaKeith Stanfield, and David Oyelowo will screen at London as a World Premiere. Running October 4-15, LFF will feature 29 World Premieres (14 features, two series, and 13 shorts), seven International Premieres (six features and one short), and 30 European Premieres (22 features, one series, and seven shorts).…
Now in its 14th year, the Atlanta-based BronzeLens Film Festival begins August 23 and runs through August 27. In addition to its prime mission of showcasing BIPOC-created and focused content from around the world, the Oscars short film-qualifying event will pay homage to the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists ongoing strikes. In a press statement, the festival’s executive director, Kathleen Bertrand, said, “BronzeLens Film Festival supports the SAG-AFTRA and WGA members in their fight to achieve a fair and equitable contract.” As such, BronzeLens’ components of Women Superstar Honors and Sunday…
With the exception of one narrative chiller and a look at singer Karen Carpenter, the best films I saw were documentaries on the lives and careers of significant African Americans. This year’s Woods Hole Film Festival presented a distinctive program of lesser seen narrative and documentary movies. With the exception of one narrative chiller and a look at singer Karen Carpenter, the best films I saw were documentaries on the lives and careers of significant African-Americans. Two of these were real eye-openers. Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project This is an impressionistic documentary on the life and work of the…
New films from legendary documentarians Frederick Wiseman and Errol Morris and new work from directors Raoul Peck, Lucy Walker, Roger Ross Williams and Karim Amer will screen at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, which announced its TIFF Docs lineup on Wednesday. The 93-year-old Wiseman will present the North American premiere of “Menus – Plaisirs Les Troisgros,” a four-hour deep dive into a fabled Michelin-starred restaurant in France. Morris will have the international premiere of “The Pigeon Tunnel,” which is built around a Morris interview with John le Carre that turned out to be the last interview the espionage novelist…
Nine months on from the event which threatened its very existence, a re-born Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) launches its 2023 program today with a greatly reduced lineup – but with a promise of “bold and eclectic” cinema and a note of cautious optimism from its new director. The EIFF will open on August 18 with Lewis-set film Silent Roar, the debut feature from Scottish director Johnny Barrington and closes on August 23 with a screening of Fremont by British-Iranian film maker Babak Jalali. There will be world premieres for several other films, among them Choose Irvine Welsh, a documentary…
The inaugural edition of the Mediterrane Film Festival has concluded with the Golden Bee Awards ceremony, marking the end of its successful run in Malta from 25-30 June. The prestigious event, held on Friday 30 June at Fort Manoel in Gżira, was hosted by David Walliams OBE. Carla Simón’s Alcarràs [+] represented Spain at the festival and emerged as the night’s overall victor, securing the coveted Golden Bee for Best Film. The award winners were selected from a pool of nine films from the MED 9 countries. Leading the jury was Adrian Wootton OBE, CEO of Film London and the British Film Commission. Joining him were prominent professionals from each…
Despite the terrible incident that shook the Savoy city yesterday, animation professionals from all around the world are getting ready to make their way to the 42nd Annecy International Animated Film Festival which is kicking off on Sunday and is due to wrap on 17 June, buoyed by the unmissable Mifa (International Animated Film Market) (running 13 – 16 June) which drew upwards of 13,000 attendees from 106 countries last year. In addition to the competition and a variety of other events (read our article), the festival will offer up its usual, highly popular Work in Progress sidebar, consisting of…
The Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival, Eastern and Central Europe’s leading cinema event, has unveiled its lineup, which includes new works by Pascal Plante, Stephan Komandarev, Tinatin Kajrishvili and Babak Jalali in the Crystal Globes Competition. They will vie against films by up-and-comers Ernst De Geer, Itsaso Arana and Cyril Aris. The section has nine world and two international premieres. Oscar nominated actor Patricia Clarkson is one of the jury members. The Proxima Competition, which made its debut at last year’s KVIFF, presents what the festival defines as “bold works,” directed by young filmmakers and renowned auteurs alike. The section…