A Different Man.The Berlinale have begun to announce the first few titles selected for the 74th edition of their festival, set to take place from February 15 through 21, 2024. This page will be updated as further sections are announced.COMPETITIONAnother End (Piero Messina)Architecton (Victor Kossakovsky)Black Tea (Abderrahmane Sissako)La Cocina (Alonso Ruiz Palacios) Dahomey (Mati Diop)A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)The Empire (Bruno Dumont)Gloria! (Margherita Vicario)Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas)From Hilde, With Love (Andreas Dresen)My Favourite CakeLangue Etrangère (Claire Berger)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)Who Do I Belong To (Meryam Joobeur)Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias)Shambhala (Min Bahadur Bham)Sterben (Matthias Glasner)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)A Traveler’s Needs (Hong Sang-soo)Sleep With Your Eyes Open. ENCOUNTERSArcadia (Yorgos Zois)Cidade; Campo (Juliana Rojas)Demba (Mamadou Dia)Direct ActionSleep With Your Eyes Open (Nele Wohlatz)The Fable (Raam Reddy...
- 1/23/2024
- MUBI
The festival has revealed titles set to play in Berlinale Special, Generation and Forum Expanded.
Johan Renck’s Spaceman starring Adam Sandler and Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo starring Hunter Schafer are to receive their world premieres at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival (February 15-25).
The festival has revealed a raft of titles set to premiere in its Berlinale Special strand as well as in its Generation competition and Forum Expanded sections.
The seven newly announced titles in Berlinale Special also includes Jula von Heinz’s Treasure, starring Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry; David and Nathan Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset...
Johan Renck’s Spaceman starring Adam Sandler and Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo starring Hunter Schafer are to receive their world premieres at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival (February 15-25).
The festival has revealed a raft of titles set to premiere in its Berlinale Special strand as well as in its Generation competition and Forum Expanded sections.
The seven newly announced titles in Berlinale Special also includes Jula von Heinz’s Treasure, starring Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry; David and Nathan Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset...
- 12/20/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
A version of this interview with ‘Memory Box’ directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige first appeared in the International issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
In Memory Box, a teenage girl in Montreal is transfixed when she discovers a box full of notebooks, audio tapes and photographs made by her mother during the civil war in Lebanon during the 1980s. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, who also work as visual and video artists, used Hadjithomas’ real notebooks from that time to inspire the story; many of those notebooks appear in the film, along with photographs taken by Joreige. The film is Lebanon’s Oscar entry.
An opening credit says your film was loosely adapted from real events. How did that work?
Joana Hadjithomas The film is a fiction. It’s not the story of my life or my parents or anything like that. But it is based on notebooks that...
In Memory Box, a teenage girl in Montreal is transfixed when she discovers a box full of notebooks, audio tapes and photographs made by her mother during the civil war in Lebanon during the 1980s. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, who also work as visual and video artists, used Hadjithomas’ real notebooks from that time to inspire the story; many of those notebooks appear in the film, along with photographs taken by Joreige. The film is Lebanon’s Oscar entry.
An opening credit says your film was loosely adapted from real events. How did that work?
Joana Hadjithomas The film is a fiction. It’s not the story of my life or my parents or anything like that. But it is based on notebooks that...
- 12/7/2022
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
- 10/5/2022
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is...
- 10/4/2022
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Though it feels like the phrase “generational trauma” is everywhere these days, it’s only in the past decade that growing mental health awareness has made such terms ubiquitous. Though scientists have long studied the ways inherited trauma can actually alter our DNA, only recently have epigenetics filtered into everyday usage. But artists do not need science to tell them what they feel in their bones, and film is a powerful tool to illustrate the ephemeral memories one stores in the body.
Set between present-day Montreal and 1980s Beirut, “Memory Box” actualizes a treasure trove of unprocessed trauma in the form of a mysterious box of letters, scrapbooks, and tapes. When a curious daughter discovers a vast archive of her mother’s distant past, she begins to understand the difficult woman who raised her in new ways. As cassette recordings fade into voice memos, the work of filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas...
Set between present-day Montreal and 1980s Beirut, “Memory Box” actualizes a treasure trove of unprocessed trauma in the form of a mysterious box of letters, scrapbooks, and tapes. When a curious daughter discovers a vast archive of her mother’s distant past, she begins to understand the difficult woman who raised her in new ways. As cassette recordings fade into voice memos, the work of filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas...
- 8/5/2022
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
"I don't recognize my mom. She's changed so much." An official trailer is out for a wonderful indie drama titled Memory Box, from Lebanese filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige. This premiered at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival last year, and was one of the highlights of the fest, a discovery showcasing a very sentimental and moving story about family and hidden pasts. The film is set partially in Montreal, where it begins. On Christmas Eve, Maia and her teenage daughter Alex receive an unexpected delivery: notebooks, tapes, and photos Maia sent to her best friend from 1980's Beirut. Maia refuses to open the box or confront its memories, but Alex secretly begins diving into it. Between fantasy and reality, Alex enters the world of her mother's tumultuous, passionate adolescence during the Lebanese civil war, unlocking mysteries of a hidden past. It's especially creative with how they work in real archival footage & photos into this story,...
- 6/29/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
167 film critics from 68 countries voted on the awards organised by the Arab Cinema Centre.
Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy’s social satire Feathers, which won the top prize at Cannes Critics’ Week last year, has swept the board at the sixth edition of the Critics’ Awards for Arab Films.
The film, which was nominated in four categories, won best film, director and screenplay.
This year’s edition of the awards, spearheaded by the Cairo-based Arab Cinema Centre (Acc), focuses on Arab-language films that premiered on the festival circuit outside of the Arab world in 2021.
It was voted on by 167 film critics from 68 countries,...
Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy’s social satire Feathers, which won the top prize at Cannes Critics’ Week last year, has swept the board at the sixth edition of the Critics’ Awards for Arab Films.
The film, which was nominated in four categories, won best film, director and screenplay.
This year’s edition of the awards, spearheaded by the Cairo-based Arab Cinema Centre (Acc), focuses on Arab-language films that premiered on the festival circuit outside of the Arab world in 2021.
It was voted on by 167 film critics from 68 countries,...
- 5/22/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Past best film awards from the previous five editions include Wajib, Yomeddine and Gaza Mon Amour.
Jordanian director Bassel Ghandour’s The Alleys and Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy’s Feathers lead the nominations in the sixth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films.
The films each garnered nominations in four categories, including best film, director and screenplay.
Spearheaded and run by the Cairo-based Arab Cinema Centre (Acc), this edition focused on Arab-language films that premiered on the festival circuit outside of the Arab world in 2021.
It was voted on by 167 film critics from 68 countries, who viewed the films on Festival Scope.
Jordanian director Bassel Ghandour’s The Alleys and Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy’s Feathers lead the nominations in the sixth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films.
The films each garnered nominations in four categories, including best film, director and screenplay.
Spearheaded and run by the Cairo-based Arab Cinema Centre (Acc), this edition focused on Arab-language films that premiered on the festival circuit outside of the Arab world in 2021.
It was voted on by 167 film critics from 68 countries, who viewed the films on Festival Scope.
- 5/10/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Sony blockbuster is seventh-highest-grossing film of all time in the territory.
Rank Film (Distributor) Three-day gross (Jan 21-23) Total gross to date Week 1 Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony) £2.3m £87.4m 6 2 Belfast (Universal) £2.2m £2.3m 1 3 Scream (Paramount) £1.3m £4.8m 2 4 Nightmare Alley (Disney) £549,831 £549,831 1 5 The King’s Man (Disney) £398,508 £7.1m 4
Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.35
Spider-Man: No Way Home held off the challenge of Belfast to top this UK-Ireland box office for a sixth consecutive weekend.
The Sony blockbuster grossed £2.3m from Friday to Sunday, a drop of just 27% on its previous session. It now has £87.4m in the territory – the seventh highest-grossing film of all time,...
Rank Film (Distributor) Three-day gross (Jan 21-23) Total gross to date Week 1 Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony) £2.3m £87.4m 6 2 Belfast (Universal) £2.2m £2.3m 1 3 Scream (Paramount) £1.3m £4.8m 2 4 Nightmare Alley (Disney) £549,831 £549,831 1 5 The King’s Man (Disney) £398,508 £7.1m 4
Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.35
Spider-Man: No Way Home held off the challenge of Belfast to top this UK-Ireland box office for a sixth consecutive weekend.
The Sony blockbuster grossed £2.3m from Friday to Sunday, a drop of just 27% on its previous session. It now has £87.4m in the territory – the seventh highest-grossing film of all time,...
- 1/24/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Nightmare Alley’, Sony’s ‘A Journal For Jordan’ also new.
Kenneth Branagh’s awards season contender Belfast is playing in all 30 open cinemas in Northern Ireland this weekend, as one of the leading new titles at the UK-Ireland box office.
Released by Universal Pictures, Belfast is opening in a huge 704 sites across the UK and Ireland – the eighth-widest release of all time in the full territory.
Shot in autumn 2020 in a gap between Covid-19 lockdowns, Belfast is inspired by Branagh’s childhood, and tells the story of a young boy and his working-class family in the tumultuous late 1960s.
Kenneth Branagh’s awards season contender Belfast is playing in all 30 open cinemas in Northern Ireland this weekend, as one of the leading new titles at the UK-Ireland box office.
Released by Universal Pictures, Belfast is opening in a huge 704 sites across the UK and Ireland – the eighth-widest release of all time in the full territory.
Shot in autumn 2020 in a gap between Covid-19 lockdowns, Belfast is inspired by Branagh’s childhood, and tells the story of a young boy and his working-class family in the tumultuous late 1960s.
- 1/21/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” spent a fifth consecutive weekend at the top of the U.K. and Ireland box office, collecting £3.2 million ($4.3 million), according to numbers provided by Comscore.
With a mighty total of £84.1 million ($114.2 million), “Spider-Man” has swung past “Titanic” (£80.2 million) and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi (£82.7) to claim seventh position in the all time U.K. and Ireland box office chart and now has its sights set on the sixth position held by “Avengers: Endgame” (£88.7 million).
Paramount’s horror reboot “Scream” debuted in second place with a strong £2.4 million. In its third weekend, Disney prequel “The King’s Man” collected £627,445 in third place and now has a total of £6.4 million.
In its sixth weekend, eOne’s “Clifford The Big Red Dog” took £525,107 in fourth place and now has £7.9 million.
Rounding off the top five was Universal’s “Licorice Pizza” with £393,988 and has now collected £1.5 million.
Over the...
With a mighty total of £84.1 million ($114.2 million), “Spider-Man” has swung past “Titanic” (£80.2 million) and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi (£82.7) to claim seventh position in the all time U.K. and Ireland box office chart and now has its sights set on the sixth position held by “Avengers: Endgame” (£88.7 million).
Paramount’s horror reboot “Scream” debuted in second place with a strong £2.4 million. In its third weekend, Disney prequel “The King’s Man” collected £627,445 in third place and now has a total of £6.4 million.
In its sixth weekend, eOne’s “Clifford The Big Red Dog” took £525,107 in fourth place and now has £7.9 million.
Rounding off the top five was Universal’s “Licorice Pizza” with £393,988 and has now collected £1.5 million.
Over the...
- 1/18/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Lebanese film-makers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige explain how their experiences of war shaped their new film – and how art freed them
On 4 August 2020, a catastrophic explosion ripped through Beirut’s main port and into the city. In total, 218 people were killed. At the time, around 6pm, the artist and film-maker Joana Hadjithomas was in a cafe with a friend, around the corner from the studio she shares with her husband. The first thing she heard was a strange sound. “My friend and I just looked at each other. Instinctively, we went underneath the table. I curled up and protected my face.” As a teenager, she had lived through Lebanon’s civil war; taking cover was second nature, a survival reflex. Then came the massive blast.
Afterwards, walking back to her apartment, she had no idea what was happening. An attack? An explosion? It was beyond comprehension. People were covered...
On 4 August 2020, a catastrophic explosion ripped through Beirut’s main port and into the city. In total, 218 people were killed. At the time, around 6pm, the artist and film-maker Joana Hadjithomas was in a cafe with a friend, around the corner from the studio she shares with her husband. The first thing she heard was a strange sound. “My friend and I just looked at each other. Instinctively, we went underneath the table. I curled up and protected my face.” As a teenager, she had lived through Lebanon’s civil war; taking cover was second nature, a survival reflex. Then came the massive blast.
Afterwards, walking back to her apartment, she had no idea what was happening. An attack? An explosion? It was beyond comprehension. People were covered...
- 1/13/2022
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
Mexican director Joaquin del Paso’s coming-of-age drama “The Hole in the Fence,” set in an all-male religious camp in rural Mexico, scored the Cairo Film Festival’s top prize, the Golden Pyramid, on Sunday capping a vibrant 43rd edition of the preeminent Arab event, which was held in person despite the impending threat of the coronavirus Omicron variant.
Though there were some last minute cancellations, most international attendees made the trek to Cairo undeterred, including jury president Emir Kusturica, U.S. producer Lawrence Bender and Cannes topper Thierry Fremaux – dubbed the “King of the Croisette” by the master of ceremonies. The latter two were honored with lifetime achievement awards during the glitzy closing ceremony in Cairo’s opera house.
“Hole in the Fence,” which world premiered in Venice, is Del Paso’s second work after “Panamerican Machinery,” which had made a splash after launching from Berlin in 2016. “Hole” explores...
Though there were some last minute cancellations, most international attendees made the trek to Cairo undeterred, including jury president Emir Kusturica, U.S. producer Lawrence Bender and Cannes topper Thierry Fremaux – dubbed the “King of the Croisette” by the master of ceremonies. The latter two were honored with lifetime achievement awards during the glitzy closing ceremony in Cairo’s opera house.
“Hole in the Fence,” which world premiered in Venice, is Del Paso’s second work after “Panamerican Machinery,” which had made a splash after launching from Berlin in 2016. “Hole” explores...
- 12/6/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italy’s Torino Film Festival, the pre-eminent event for young directors and indie cinema — now being revamped after going virtual due to the pandemic — will somewhat symbolically kick off its upcoming 39th edition with the international premiere of “Sing 2” with director Garth Jennings in tow.
“It’s a hymn to going back into movie theaters,” says Torino artistic director Stefano Francia di Celle on choosing the animated musical comedy, featuring more than 40 rock, rap and pop tunes, as opener for the Nov. 26-Dec. 4 event. It will be Italy’s first festival held in venues with 100% seating capacity since Covid-19 struck.
“Sing 2,” he points out, is also only the second feature helmed by Jennings, who cut his teeth in the indie world making videos for many of the best pop acts of the 1990s such as Blur, Radiohead and Beck, before he was able to get Universal on board for his impressive “Sing” debut.
“It’s a hymn to going back into movie theaters,” says Torino artistic director Stefano Francia di Celle on choosing the animated musical comedy, featuring more than 40 rock, rap and pop tunes, as opener for the Nov. 26-Dec. 4 event. It will be Italy’s first festival held in venues with 100% seating capacity since Covid-19 struck.
“Sing 2,” he points out, is also only the second feature helmed by Jennings, who cut his teeth in the indie world making videos for many of the best pop acts of the 1990s such as Blur, Radiohead and Beck, before he was able to get Universal on board for his impressive “Sing” debut.
- 11/25/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The 39th edition of Torino Film Festival, Italy’s preeminent event for young directors and indie cinema, kicks off Friday with the international premiere of “Sing 2.” It is the country’s first festival held in venues with 100% seating capacity since Covid-19 struck, and it will also be the first in-person edition assembled by artistic director Stefano Francia di Celle, who debuted last year with an online event, due to the pandemic. Di Celle is now rebooting Torino for the present-day digital age.
The festival, which rose to international prominence under current Venice topper Alberto Barbera, has always been geared toward giving visibility to promising newcomers. These have included Luca Guadagnino, Michelangelo Frammartino (“Il Buco”) and Pietro Marcello (“Martin Eden”), who got a crucial early boost from their launches there. Di Celle’s vision going forward, he told Variety, is rooted in what he calls its “militant” tradition, but he...
The festival, which rose to international prominence under current Venice topper Alberto Barbera, has always been geared toward giving visibility to promising newcomers. These have included Luca Guadagnino, Michelangelo Frammartino (“Il Buco”) and Pietro Marcello (“Martin Eden”), who got a crucial early boost from their launches there. Di Celle’s vision going forward, he told Variety, is rooted in what he calls its “militant” tradition, but he...
- 11/24/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The international premiere of animated musical comedy “Sing 2” will open the upcoming Torino Film Festival, Italy’s preeminent event for young directors and indie fare, which will be honoring Monica Bellucci with a lifetime achievement award.
Director Garth Jennings will be on hand in Torino for the overseas festival bow of his sequel to 2016’s “Sing,” which follows a koala named Buster Moon, voiced by Matthew McConaughey, as he and his cast of performing animals prepare for their biggest concert yet in Redshore City, and must convince a reclusive rockstar (Bono) to join them.
Bellucci, besides coming to be celebrated and to hold a masterclass, will also be attending the fest to launch her latest film “The Girl in the Fountain,” directed by Italy’s Antongiulio Panizzi, in which she plays the iconic Anita Ekberg, a role for which she died her hair blonde.
Charlotte Gainsbourg will also be...
Director Garth Jennings will be on hand in Torino for the overseas festival bow of his sequel to 2016’s “Sing,” which follows a koala named Buster Moon, voiced by Matthew McConaughey, as he and his cast of performing animals prepare for their biggest concert yet in Redshore City, and must convince a reclusive rockstar (Bono) to join them.
Bellucci, besides coming to be celebrated and to hold a masterclass, will also be attending the fest to launch her latest film “The Girl in the Fountain,” directed by Italy’s Antongiulio Panizzi, in which she plays the iconic Anita Ekberg, a role for which she died her hair blonde.
Charlotte Gainsbourg will also be...
- 11/9/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Red Sea International Film Fest Unveils Arab Spectacular
Titles from Rashid Masharawi, Dhafer L’Abidine and Joana Hadjithomas comprise the eight initial films selected under the Red Sea International Film Festival’s (RedSeaIFF) Arab Spectacular strand. The inaugural edition of the festival will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from December 6-15. Titles within the Arab Spectacular line-up include World Premiere of Recovery by Masharawi (Ticket to Jerusalem), L’Abidine’s feature debut directorial Ghodwa and Golden Bear nominee Memory Box (pictured) by Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. Emmy-nominated director Jay Bulger and Karim Debbagh (Men In Black: International) also collaborate for Their Heads Are Green And Their Hands Are Blue. Films selected in this slate will cover Pan-Arab identity stories across Iraq, Palestine, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon and Morocco, while also exploring women in society.
HanWay Films Strikes Deals For Paul Schrader’s ‘Master Gardener’
HanWay Films has acquired international sales...
Titles from Rashid Masharawi, Dhafer L’Abidine and Joana Hadjithomas comprise the eight initial films selected under the Red Sea International Film Festival’s (RedSeaIFF) Arab Spectacular strand. The inaugural edition of the festival will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from December 6-15. Titles within the Arab Spectacular line-up include World Premiere of Recovery by Masharawi (Ticket to Jerusalem), L’Abidine’s feature debut directorial Ghodwa and Golden Bear nominee Memory Box (pictured) by Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. Emmy-nominated director Jay Bulger and Karim Debbagh (Men In Black: International) also collaborate for Their Heads Are Green And Their Hands Are Blue. Films selected in this slate will cover Pan-Arab identity stories across Iraq, Palestine, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon and Morocco, while also exploring women in society.
HanWay Films Strikes Deals For Paul Schrader’s ‘Master Gardener’
HanWay Films has acquired international sales...
- 11/2/2021
- by Anuj Radia
- Deadline Film + TV
The 62nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival will return to the movie theaters starting from November 4 to 14, 2021. This year’s celebration of independent cinema will take place in physical spaces as well as online (https://online.filmfestival.gr/).
Among the 197 films to be screened at the Festival (with 144 of these available online), a number of Asian films will feature in the following categories:
International Competition
Moneyboys, C. B. Yi, Austria-France-Taiwan-Belgium, 2021, 120’ (in theatre and online)
Fei works illegally as a hustler in order to support his family, yet when he realizes they are only willing to accept his money but not his way of life, their relationship breaks down. Together with the headstrong Long, Fei seems to find a new lease on life, but then he encounters Xiaolai, the love of his youth, who confronts him with the guilt of his repressed past.
White Building, Kavich Neang, Cambodia-France-China-Qatar, 2020, 90’ (in theatre and online...
Among the 197 films to be screened at the Festival (with 144 of these available online), a number of Asian films will feature in the following categories:
International Competition
Moneyboys, C. B. Yi, Austria-France-Taiwan-Belgium, 2021, 120’ (in theatre and online)
Fei works illegally as a hustler in order to support his family, yet when he realizes they are only willing to accept his money but not his way of life, their relationship breaks down. Together with the headstrong Long, Fei seems to find a new lease on life, but then he encounters Xiaolai, the love of his youth, who confronts him with the guilt of his repressed past.
White Building, Kavich Neang, Cambodia-France-China-Qatar, 2020, 90’ (in theatre and online...
- 10/26/2021
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
Sydney Film Festival has revealed the first 22 titles on its line-up for this year, which will see the festival return to cinemas around the city after 2020’s virtual iteration.
Leading the pack are a contingent of local docos including Philippa Bateman’s Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow; Amanda Blue’s Step into Paradise and Eddie Martin’s The Kids, recently selected for Tribeca.
Sff will also boast the Nsw premiere of Kiwi film The Justice of Bunny King, Gaysorn Thavat’s debut feature led by Essie Davis and Thomasin McKenzie; and Nz-Canadian co-production, NIght Raiders, directed by Danis Goulet and executive produced by Taika Waititi.
Festival director Nashen Moodley is excited to return to an in-person event come August, noting the festival already had a “incredible” response to its summer season in January at the State Theatre, when it screened High Ground, Firestarter, Girls Can’t Surf, Minari and Another Round.
Leading the pack are a contingent of local docos including Philippa Bateman’s Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow; Amanda Blue’s Step into Paradise and Eddie Martin’s The Kids, recently selected for Tribeca.
Sff will also boast the Nsw premiere of Kiwi film The Justice of Bunny King, Gaysorn Thavat’s debut feature led by Essie Davis and Thomasin McKenzie; and Nz-Canadian co-production, NIght Raiders, directed by Danis Goulet and executive produced by Taika Waititi.
Festival director Nashen Moodley is excited to return to an in-person event come August, noting the festival already had a “incredible” response to its summer season in January at the State Theatre, when it screened High Ground, Firestarter, Girls Can’t Surf, Minari and Another Round.
- 6/8/2021
- by Jackie Keast
- IF.com.au
The distributor has also picked up a SXSW drama.
Eve Gabereau’s Modern Films has acquired UK and Ireland rights to three dramas set to screen at the Berlinale’s Summer Special and a title first seen at SXSW.
The London-based firm has picked up Memory Box, directed by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, from The Playtime Group; Anna Zohra Berrached’s Copilot from The Match Factory; and Jacqueline Lentzou’s Moon, 66 Questions from Luxbox
Modern Films has also added Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife to its release slate, following its debut at SXSW, in a deal with Memento International.
Eve Gabereau’s Modern Films has acquired UK and Ireland rights to three dramas set to screen at the Berlinale’s Summer Special and a title first seen at SXSW.
The London-based firm has picked up Memory Box, directed by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, from The Playtime Group; Anna Zohra Berrached’s Copilot from The Match Factory; and Jacqueline Lentzou’s Moon, 66 Questions from Luxbox
Modern Films has also added Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife to its release slate, following its debut at SXSW, in a deal with Memento International.
- 6/4/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Some movies spoof a sub-genre on their own. There is the term “Big Chill clone” that brings together the films about a group of school friends that went their separate ways gathering again to mourn the untimely death of one of their buddies and to take a walk down the memory lane. The Berlinale competition title “Memory Box” might eventually end up in that familiar territory, but the road to it is quite particular and with a number of side topics woven into the film’s fabric.
There are multiple reasons for it, one of them being the focus on the three generations of women of a Quebecois family of Lebanese immigrants, the second being the background of the Lebanese Civil War and the traumas it left, while the third one is the fact that this co-operation by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige is based on the material from Hadjithomas’ personal collection of memories.
There are multiple reasons for it, one of them being the focus on the three generations of women of a Quebecois family of Lebanese immigrants, the second being the background of the Lebanese Civil War and the traumas it left, while the third one is the fact that this co-operation by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige is based on the material from Hadjithomas’ personal collection of memories.
- 3/18/2021
- by Marko Stojiljković
- AsianMoviePulse
With a two-part structure featuring an online press and industry component that’s just concluded, followed by physical screenings this summer, the Berlin International Film Festival is unveiling a selection of the year’s finest films. Along with our extensive coverage of the festival (with a few reviews still to come), we’ve asked our Berlinale contributors to share their personal favorites. Check out their lists below, with links to coverage where available.
Ed Frankl
Memory Box
1. Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma)
2. Memory Box (Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige)
3. Brother’s Keeper (Ferit Karahan)
4. Ballad of a White Cow (Behtash Sanaeeha & Maryam Moghaddam)
5. Ninjababy (Yngvild Sve Flikke)
Honorable Mentions: The Fam, Language Lessons, Natural Light, Taste, and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy.
Leonardo Goi
Taste
1. Taste (Lê Bảo)
2. Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma)
3. The Scary of Sixty-First (Dasha Nekrasova)
4. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
5. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude...
Ed Frankl
Memory Box
1. Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma)
2. Memory Box (Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige)
3. Brother’s Keeper (Ferit Karahan)
4. Ballad of a White Cow (Behtash Sanaeeha & Maryam Moghaddam)
5. Ninjababy (Yngvild Sve Flikke)
Honorable Mentions: The Fam, Language Lessons, Natural Light, Taste, and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy.
Leonardo Goi
Taste
1. Taste (Lê Bảo)
2. Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma)
3. The Scary of Sixty-First (Dasha Nekrasova)
4. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
5. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude...
- 3/10/2021
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
One of two films at the 2021 Berlinale about the lasting trauma of the Lebanese Civil War (along with the superior Miguel’s War), Memory Box follows three generations of Lebanese women, now living in Montreal, whose lives are uprooted when a literal box of memories lands on their doorstep. “It’s bad memories,” Téta (Clémence Sabbagh) tells her curious granddaughter, Alex (Paloma Vauthier), when she sees the box is from a woman named Liza Haber. It’s Christmas Eve, and these “bad memories” aren’t the kind of present Téta wants to give her daughter, Maia (Rim Turki). So she stuffs them away in a cupboard, to be dealt with at a later date.
Memory Box is “freely adapted” (as a title card states) from the real-life correspondences of its co-writer-director Joana Hadjithomas, who made the film with her husband, Khalil Joreige. As a young woman living in Beirut, Hadjithomas...
Memory Box is “freely adapted” (as a title card states) from the real-life correspondences of its co-writer-director Joana Hadjithomas, who made the film with her husband, Khalil Joreige. As a young woman living in Beirut, Hadjithomas...
- 3/6/2021
- by Orla Smith
- The Film Stage
Three years after the first movie theater reopened in Saudi Arabia – following removal of a religion-related ban – the kingdom has become the top theatrical market in the Middle East and is turning into a major driver for Arabic film production.
“At the moment Saudi is on a different path from the rest of the world,” says David Hancock, an analyst at London-based Omdia, which sees this new market as having the potential to be ranked among the top 10-15 territories for box office worldwide by 2024.
By 2024 Omdia estimates there will be 1,400 screens in Saudi Arabia, up from a current count of less than 300 screens in 2020 with more than 600 screens expected in 2021. In 2020 Saudi box office was up 3% to $115 million, bucking the downward trend in the rest of the world.
But besides growing box office and screen count, just like in other parts of the world such as China where there is moviegoing growth,...
“At the moment Saudi is on a different path from the rest of the world,” says David Hancock, an analyst at London-based Omdia, which sees this new market as having the potential to be ranked among the top 10-15 territories for box office worldwide by 2024.
By 2024 Omdia estimates there will be 1,400 screens in Saudi Arabia, up from a current count of less than 300 screens in 2020 with more than 600 screens expected in 2021. In 2020 Saudi box office was up 3% to $115 million, bucking the downward trend in the rest of the world.
But besides growing box office and screen count, just like in other parts of the world such as China where there is moviegoing growth,...
- 3/4/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Four titles have landed on the first edition of the grid.
Dominik Graf’s period drama Fabian – Going To The Dogs has set the early pace on Screen’s Berlin 2021 Competition jury grid, with a score of 3.1.
The result came from seven of the eight critics, and included three “excellent” scores of four stars from Die Zeit’s Katja Nicodemus, Sight & Sound’s Nick James and Screen’s own critic.
The Morning Star’s Rita di Santo and Anton Dolin of Meduza and Film Art awarded it an “average” mark of two stars each.
Set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic,...
Dominik Graf’s period drama Fabian – Going To The Dogs has set the early pace on Screen’s Berlin 2021 Competition jury grid, with a score of 3.1.
The result came from seven of the eight critics, and included three “excellent” scores of four stars from Die Zeit’s Katja Nicodemus, Sight & Sound’s Nick James and Screen’s own critic.
The Morning Star’s Rita di Santo and Anton Dolin of Meduza and Film Art awarded it an “average” mark of two stars each.
Set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic,...
- 3/2/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
When directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige uncovered a trove of photographs, journals and audio recordings they had made while growing up in Beirut of the 1980s, they knew these personal archives would fuel their next film. Acclaimed artists and documentarians, the creative duo opted to develop these archives into a narrative feature that tells the story of two generations of mothers and daughters.
Set in present-day Canada and 1980s Lebanon, Berlin competition title “Memory Box” focuses on an adolescent girl who stumbles upon her mother’s own personal archives — and through them discovers her mother at a wholly different age.
Why did you want to develop this as fiction feature — your first in over a decade?
Hadjithomas: We had so much material that we didn’t want to go into a documentary. For us, it was clear to take those existing documents, those pictures and tapes, and work them into narrative fiction.
Set in present-day Canada and 1980s Lebanon, Berlin competition title “Memory Box” focuses on an adolescent girl who stumbles upon her mother’s own personal archives — and through them discovers her mother at a wholly different age.
Why did you want to develop this as fiction feature — your first in over a decade?
Hadjithomas: We had so much material that we didn’t want to go into a documentary. For us, it was clear to take those existing documents, those pictures and tapes, and work them into narrative fiction.
- 3/2/2021
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Analogue Chronicles: The Past is Present in the Latest Memory Exercise from Hadjithomas & Joreige
A veritable remembrance of things past catalyzes the semi-autobiographical narrative from celebrated Lebanese directing duo Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige in Memory Box, their first narrative offering since the 2008 Catherine Deneuve led I Want to See. That title is itself a repeated sentiment in their new project, which is freely adapted from Hadjithomas’ own journals and tapes from 1982 to 1988 in this examination of a young woman’s traumatic memories as a teenager in war-torn Beirut, left behind in her family’s flight to Montreal.…...
A veritable remembrance of things past catalyzes the semi-autobiographical narrative from celebrated Lebanese directing duo Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige in Memory Box, their first narrative offering since the 2008 Catherine Deneuve led I Want to See. That title is itself a repeated sentiment in their new project, which is freely adapted from Hadjithomas’ own journals and tapes from 1982 to 1988 in this examination of a young woman’s traumatic memories as a teenager in war-torn Beirut, left behind in her family’s flight to Montreal.…...
- 3/1/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The tragedy of the Lebanese civil war extends far beyond the 1980s and into the third generation of a family resettled in Canada in the affecting drama Memory Box. It marks the first film in nine years from the award-winning team Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, whose work has ranged freely over feature films, docs, installations and performance art.
Though Memory Box shows the sophisticated modernity of their artistic approach, it is also one of the most accessible of their films, thanks to a winning cast of fine actresses and an engrossing back-and-forth timeline that jumps from wartime Beirut under the bombs ...
Though Memory Box shows the sophisticated modernity of their artistic approach, it is also one of the most accessible of their films, thanks to a winning cast of fine actresses and an engrossing back-and-forth timeline that jumps from wartime Beirut under the bombs ...
The tragedy of the Lebanese civil war extends far beyond the 1980s and into the third generation of a family resettled in Canada in the affecting drama Memory Box. It marks the first film in nine years from the award-winning team Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, whose work has ranged freely over feature films, docs, installations and performance art.
Though Memory Box shows the sophisticated modernity of their artistic approach, it is also one of the most accessible of their films, thanks to a winning cast of fine actresses and an engrossing back-and-forth timeline that jumps from wartime Beirut under the bombs ...
Though Memory Box shows the sophisticated modernity of their artistic approach, it is also one of the most accessible of their films, thanks to a winning cast of fine actresses and an engrossing back-and-forth timeline that jumps from wartime Beirut under the bombs ...
The titles for the 71st Berlin International Film Festival are being announced in anticipation of the event running March 1 - March 5, 2021. We will update the program as new films are revealed.IntroductionCOMPETITIONAlbatross (Xavier Beauvois): Laurent, a young police officer in a small town in Normandy, plans to marry Marie, with whom he has a daughter nicknamed Poulette. He loves his job despite the social misery he witnesses on a daily basis. Then one day, his life is thrown into turmoil when he accidentally kills a farmer threatening to commit suicide…Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude): Emi is a schoolteacher, whose career is threatened when a clip of her having sex with her spouse is uploaded on a adults-only site. When she is forced to face a group of furious parents asking for her dismissal, she clashes with them over their morality concerns, resulting in a debate that exposes the hypocrisy,...
- 2/19/2021
- MUBI
A co-production uniting France, Lebanon and Canada, this film by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige dazzles up front in the sales agent’s top-notch line-up. After 2019’s By the Grace of God and Irradiated which was released last year, the French international sales agent Playtime will once again see a title from its line-up competing in the Berlin Film Festival, in the form of Memory Box by Lebanese directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. The group will also get the chance to work on a great many highly appealing, future secret weapons at the European Film Market (running 1-5 March) unfolding within the German festival’s 71st edition. Memory Box is the 5th feature film to come courtesy of the filmmaking duo, following on from Around the Pink House (1999), A Perfect Day (which battled it out for the Fipresci Prize in Locarno’s 2005 competition), Je veux voir (unveiled in Cannes’ Un.
This year’s Berlin International Film Festival will look a bit different this year, with a virtual edition taking place March 1-5 for industry and press, then a public, in-person edition kicking off in June.
The complete lineup has now been unveiled, including Céline Sciamma’s highly-anticipated Portrait of a Lady on Fire follow-up Petite Maman, a surprise new Hong Sang-soo feature, the latest work from Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, along with new projects by Radu Jude, Xavier Beauvois, Dominik Graf, Pietro Marcello, Ramon Zürcher & Silvan Zürcher, and more.
Check out each section below.
Competition Tiles
“Albatros” (Drift Away)
France
by Xavier Beauvois
with Jérémie Renier, Marie-Julie Maille, Victor Belmondo
“Babardeală cu buclucsau porno balamuc” (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn)
Romania/Luxemburg/Croatia/Czech Republic
by Radu Jude
with Katia Pascariu, Claudia Ieremia, Olimpia Mălai
“Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde” (Fabian – Going to the Dogs)
Germany
by Dominik Graf
with Tom Schilling,...
The complete lineup has now been unveiled, including Céline Sciamma’s highly-anticipated Portrait of a Lady on Fire follow-up Petite Maman, a surprise new Hong Sang-soo feature, the latest work from Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, along with new projects by Radu Jude, Xavier Beauvois, Dominik Graf, Pietro Marcello, Ramon Zürcher & Silvan Zürcher, and more.
Check out each section below.
Competition Tiles
“Albatros” (Drift Away)
France
by Xavier Beauvois
with Jérémie Renier, Marie-Julie Maille, Victor Belmondo
“Babardeală cu buclucsau porno balamuc” (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn)
Romania/Luxemburg/Croatia/Czech Republic
by Radu Jude
with Katia Pascariu, Claudia Ieremia, Olimpia Mălai
“Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde” (Fabian – Going to the Dogs)
Germany
by Dominik Graf
with Tom Schilling,...
- 2/11/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Berlin International Film Festival has set its full slate for the upcoming 2021 edition. Berlinale usually follows Sundance with a February festival, but the pandemic has forced organizers to develop a new festival format for 2021. The 71st Berlin International Film Festival is set to take place with the “Industry Event” from March 1 to 5, which will include the European Film Market (EFM), the Berlinale Co-Production Market, the Berlinale Talents, and the World Cinema Fund in online forms. From June 9 to 20, 2021 the Berlinale will launch a “Summer Special” with numerous film presentations in Berlin, both at indoor and outdoor cinemas.
Included in the March event is the traditional film festival slate, which includes the main Berlinale Competition lineup as well as sidebar sections such as Berlinale Special & Berlinale Series, Encounters, Berlinale Shorts, Panorama, Forum & Forum Expanded, Generation, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, and Retrospective. With the exception of the Retrospective, the films will be shown at the March event.
Included in the March event is the traditional film festival slate, which includes the main Berlinale Competition lineup as well as sidebar sections such as Berlinale Special & Berlinale Series, Encounters, Berlinale Shorts, Panorama, Forum & Forum Expanded, Generation, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, and Retrospective. With the exception of the Retrospective, the films will be shown at the March event.
- 2/11/2021
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
This week of Berlin International Film Festival announcements comes to a close with the main course – the Competition and Special Screenings programs. Scroll down for the full lists.
The 15-strong Competition – all world premieres – includes titles from filmmakers including Celine Sciamma, Daniel Bruhl and Xavier Beauvois.
Celine Sciamma is following on from her Golden Globe-nominated Portrait Of A Lady On Fire with her next movie, Petite Maman, which only went into production in November; plot details are hush but it is understood to star two eight-year-olds.
Actor-turned-filmmaker Bruhl also plays the protagonist in his directorial debut, Next Door, which centers on a film star and his troublesome neighbor.
Xavier Beauvois, whose credits include the Cannes Grand Prix winner Of Gods And Men and the 2017 film The Guardians, presents his eighth work, Albatros, which follows a police captain whose life goes into a tailspin.
Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude will also present his latest work,...
The 15-strong Competition – all world premieres – includes titles from filmmakers including Celine Sciamma, Daniel Bruhl and Xavier Beauvois.
Celine Sciamma is following on from her Golden Globe-nominated Portrait Of A Lady On Fire with her next movie, Petite Maman, which only went into production in November; plot details are hush but it is understood to star two eight-year-olds.
Actor-turned-filmmaker Bruhl also plays the protagonist in his directorial debut, Next Door, which centers on a film star and his troublesome neighbor.
Xavier Beauvois, whose credits include the Cannes Grand Prix winner Of Gods And Men and the 2017 film The Guardians, presents his eighth work, Albatros, which follows a police captain whose life goes into a tailspin.
Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude will also present his latest work,...
- 2/11/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian also unveiled Berlinale Special features.
A 15-title Competition line-up including new films from Céline Sciamma and Radu Jude has been unveiled for the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival.
The festival’s executive director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian unveiled the complete Competition strand along with Berlinale Special titles at a virtual press conference today (February 11), from an empty cinema.
Scroll down for the full list of titles
This year’s edition will take place in two parts; an industry-focused, online-only event running March 1-5, and a Summer Special event featuring physical screenings, planned for June 9-20.
The Panorama,...
A 15-title Competition line-up including new films from Céline Sciamma and Radu Jude has been unveiled for the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival.
The festival’s executive director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian unveiled the complete Competition strand along with Berlinale Special titles at a virtual press conference today (February 11), from an empty cinema.
Scroll down for the full list of titles
This year’s edition will take place in two parts; an industry-focused, online-only event running March 1-5, and a Summer Special event featuring physical screenings, planned for June 9-20.
The Panorama,...
- 2/11/2021
- by Michael Rosser¬Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Actor Daniel Bruhl’s directorial debut and new titles from Radu Jude, Celine Sciamma, Hong Sangsoo and Xavier Beauvois are among the 15 competition titles in the Berlin Film Festival, all of which were revealed Thursday.
Five of the titles are from female filmmakers (some of whom are co-directors on titles), on par with last year’s competition, when six of the 18 competition titles were helmed by women.
The festival also revealed the 11 titles in the Berlinale Special strand.
Festival executive director Mariette Rissenbeek introduced the format of this year’s festival, after which artistic director Carlo Chatrian presented the films selected.
As first revealed by Variety, the festival’s 71st edition will take place in two stages. Industry platforms European Film Market, Berlinale Co-Production Market, Berlinale Talents and the World Cinema Fund will be online March 1-5. Meanwhile, June 9-20 will see a physical summer public event, pandemic permitting.
Explaining the rationale,...
Five of the titles are from female filmmakers (some of whom are co-directors on titles), on par with last year’s competition, when six of the 18 competition titles were helmed by women.
The festival also revealed the 11 titles in the Berlinale Special strand.
Festival executive director Mariette Rissenbeek introduced the format of this year’s festival, after which artistic director Carlo Chatrian presented the films selected.
As first revealed by Variety, the festival’s 71st edition will take place in two stages. Industry platforms European Film Market, Berlinale Co-Production Market, Berlinale Talents and the World Cinema Fund will be online March 1-5. Meanwhile, June 9-20 will see a physical summer public event, pandemic permitting.
Explaining the rationale,...
- 2/11/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Comedy co-stars Sara Forestier and Laetitia Dosch.
Paris-based sales company Playtime will launch sales on the French graphic novelist and illustrator Nine Antico’s feature debut comedy Playlist at this year’s Unifrance Rendez-vous with Cinema, which officially kicks off online on Wednesday and runs until January 15.
Sara Forestier plays a talented graphic artist whose life begins to unravel when she falls pregnant just as she lands a job at a prestigious Parisian publisher.
When she breaks the news to her boyfriend, everything explodes, and they break-up. The turn of events results in her returning to her old job of...
Paris-based sales company Playtime will launch sales on the French graphic novelist and illustrator Nine Antico’s feature debut comedy Playlist at this year’s Unifrance Rendez-vous with Cinema, which officially kicks off online on Wednesday and runs until January 15.
Sara Forestier plays a talented graphic artist whose life begins to unravel when she falls pregnant just as she lands a job at a prestigious Parisian publisher.
When she breaks the news to her boyfriend, everything explodes, and they break-up. The turn of events results in her returning to her old job of...
- 1/13/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
After a year that tested their limits and redefined landscapes, leaders in France’s entertainment industry share thoughts on their top achievements, the pandemic’s long-term impact and what’s on the horizon for them in 2021.
Thierry Fremaux
Director, Cannes Film Festival / Director, Institut Lumiere
What is the single thing — material or otherwise — getting you through the pandemic? The love of cinema. And the love of those who love cinema, for whom we tried to survive. Also, the new albums from Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
What was your greatest achievement in 2020? A book about judo. When I was young, I was into films and judo. Without cinemas, I went back to judo.
What do you think will be the long-term impact of the pandemic on the industry? The acceleration and urgency in proving that cinema is a singular art — and a precious one. Like movie theaters.
Who would you...
Thierry Fremaux
Director, Cannes Film Festival / Director, Institut Lumiere
What is the single thing — material or otherwise — getting you through the pandemic? The love of cinema. And the love of those who love cinema, for whom we tried to survive. Also, the new albums from Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
What was your greatest achievement in 2020? A book about judo. When I was young, I was into films and judo. Without cinemas, I went back to judo.
What do you think will be the long-term impact of the pandemic on the industry? The acceleration and urgency in proving that cinema is a singular art — and a precious one. Like movie theaters.
Who would you...
- 1/4/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2021: #85. Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joriege’s Memory Box
Memory Box
It’s been over a decade since the last narrative feature from Lebanese directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joriege, but they’re back with fourth feature Memory Box (aka The Notebooks), produced by Abbout Productions’ Georges Schoucair and Haut Et Court’s Carole Scotta. Manal Issa (Nocturama), Rim Turki and Paloma Vauthier are among the cast in the production lensed by French-Canadian Josée Deshaies (of Bertrand Bonello’s House of Tolerance and Saint Laurent). Key figures of contemporary Lebanese cinema, Hadjithomas and Joriege have been working in documentary film for the past decade but are best remembered for their 2005 film A Perfect Day, which won the Fipresci prize out of Locarno and 2008’s I Want to See, which starred Catherine Deneuve and premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.…...
It’s been over a decade since the last narrative feature from Lebanese directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joriege, but they’re back with fourth feature Memory Box (aka The Notebooks), produced by Abbout Productions’ Georges Schoucair and Haut Et Court’s Carole Scotta. Manal Issa (Nocturama), Rim Turki and Paloma Vauthier are among the cast in the production lensed by French-Canadian Josée Deshaies (of Bertrand Bonello’s House of Tolerance and Saint Laurent). Key figures of contemporary Lebanese cinema, Hadjithomas and Joriege have been working in documentary film for the past decade but are best remembered for their 2005 film A Perfect Day, which won the Fipresci prize out of Locarno and 2008’s I Want to See, which starred Catherine Deneuve and premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.…...
- 1/2/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Nelson Makengo’s “Rising Up at Night” from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Omar El Zohairy’s “Feathers of a Father” from Egypt won the prizes for films in post-production in Marrakech Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops, which is for projects from Africa and the Arab world.
Documentary feature “Rising Up at Night,” produced by Rosa Spaliviero and Dada Kahindo, follows a community in Kinshasa as it attempts to restore its electricity supply. It is set against the backdrop of a society “where violence, extreme poverty and corruption are king,” according to the director, whose “Up at Night” won the short documentary award at IDFA last year. “Rising Up at Night” won the Prix Brouillon d’un Rêve, and was selected by IDFAcademy, Berlinale Talents and Durban Film Mart.
“Feathers of a Father,” produced by Juliette Lepoutre and Pierre Menahem, charts the liberation of an Egyptian family after...
Documentary feature “Rising Up at Night,” produced by Rosa Spaliviero and Dada Kahindo, follows a community in Kinshasa as it attempts to restore its electricity supply. It is set against the backdrop of a society “where violence, extreme poverty and corruption are king,” according to the director, whose “Up at Night” won the short documentary award at IDFA last year. “Rising Up at Night” won the Prix Brouillon d’un Rêve, and was selected by IDFAcademy, Berlinale Talents and Durban Film Mart.
“Feathers of a Father,” produced by Juliette Lepoutre and Pierre Menahem, charts the liberation of an Egyptian family after...
- 12/5/2020
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Always attentive to Lebanon, a country friendly to France for two thousand years, we are overwhelmed by the latest tragedy that has struck the country.
We send a thought to all of these French-speaking people and more particularly for our filmmaker friends who have been coming to Vesoul for 27 years to present their films, from Dima Al Joundi (Fica documentary audience award 2007 and Fica 2020) to Joana Hadjithomas, from Elias Khlat to Mai Masri, from Milka Assaf to the immense Jocelyne Saab (Medal of La Francophonie Fica 2009), who died last year. The works of Nadine Labaki, Philippe Aractingi, Danielle Arbid, Randa Chahal Sabbag, Ghassam Salhab, Jean Chamoun, Ziad Doueri, Assad Fouladkar (Fica 2002 public fiction award), Jacques Debs, Nicolas Damuni, Emir Kreideih, … have, also, been presented at Fica Vesoul.
Dima Al-joundi MartineThèrouanne
Long live this courageous people resisting so many trials!
Martine and Jean-Marc Thèrouanne, Director and General Delegate and the whole...
We send a thought to all of these French-speaking people and more particularly for our filmmaker friends who have been coming to Vesoul for 27 years to present their films, from Dima Al Joundi (Fica documentary audience award 2007 and Fica 2020) to Joana Hadjithomas, from Elias Khlat to Mai Masri, from Milka Assaf to the immense Jocelyne Saab (Medal of La Francophonie Fica 2009), who died last year. The works of Nadine Labaki, Philippe Aractingi, Danielle Arbid, Randa Chahal Sabbag, Ghassam Salhab, Jean Chamoun, Ziad Doueri, Assad Fouladkar (Fica 2002 public fiction award), Jacques Debs, Nicolas Damuni, Emir Kreideih, … have, also, been presented at Fica Vesoul.
Dima Al-joundi MartineThèrouanne
Long live this courageous people resisting so many trials!
Martine and Jean-Marc Thèrouanne, Director and General Delegate and the whole...
- 8/6/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
“We finished the shoot for Ely Dagher’s Harvest just as the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Lebanon.”
Beirut-based producer Georges Schoucair is the founder and CEO of top Middle East independent film production house Abbout Productions and its more recently created sister company Schortcut Films.
The recent credits of Abbout Productions include Oualid Mouaness’s coming-of-age drama 1982, which was Lebanon’s submission to the Academy Awards’ best international film category this year; Ahmad Ghossein’s All This Victory, which premiered in Venice Critics’ Week; and Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Siam’s feature-length documentary Amal.
Schortcut Films, which he...
Beirut-based producer Georges Schoucair is the founder and CEO of top Middle East independent film production house Abbout Productions and its more recently created sister company Schortcut Films.
The recent credits of Abbout Productions include Oualid Mouaness’s coming-of-age drama 1982, which was Lebanon’s submission to the Academy Awards’ best international film category this year; Ahmad Ghossein’s All This Victory, which premiered in Venice Critics’ Week; and Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Siam’s feature-length documentary Amal.
Schortcut Films, which he...
- 4/15/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
“We finished the shoot for Ely Dagher’s film Harvest just as the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Lebanon.”
Beirut-based producer Georges Schoucair is the founder and CEO of top Middle East independent film production house Abbout Productions and its more recently created sister company Schortcut Films.
The recent credits of Abbout Productions include Oualid Mouaness’s bittersweet coming-of-age drama 1982, which premiered at Toronto and was Lebanon’s submission to the Academy Awards’ best international film category this year; Ahmad Ghossein’s All This Victory, which premiered in Venice Critics’ Week, winning three awards, and Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Siam’s feature-length documentary Amal.
Beirut-based producer Georges Schoucair is the founder and CEO of top Middle East independent film production house Abbout Productions and its more recently created sister company Schortcut Films.
The recent credits of Abbout Productions include Oualid Mouaness’s bittersweet coming-of-age drama 1982, which premiered at Toronto and was Lebanon’s submission to the Academy Awards’ best international film category this year; Ahmad Ghossein’s All This Victory, which premiered in Venice Critics’ Week, winning three awards, and Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Siam’s feature-length documentary Amal.
- 4/15/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Ahead of its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s “High Ground” has found a U.S. home with Samuel Goldwyn. The film, headlined by Simon Baker, is represented in international markets by pan-European group Playtime and is having a gala screening at the festival.
Set in 1919, “High Ground” tells the story of former WWI sniper Travis, who is now a policeman in the vast and remote landscape of Northern Australia. He loses control of an operation, resulting in the massacre of an indigenous tribe.
While his superiors decide to bury the truth, the experience leaves a scar on Travis’ conscience, but he’s forced to return there 12 years later on a mission to track down an Aboriginal outlaw. Travis soon realizes the young man he’s chasing is the only known survivor of the massacre.
“High Ground” shot on location in the world heritage-listed Kakadu...
Set in 1919, “High Ground” tells the story of former WWI sniper Travis, who is now a policeman in the vast and remote landscape of Northern Australia. He loses control of an operation, resulting in the massacre of an indigenous tribe.
While his superiors decide to bury the truth, the experience leaves a scar on Travis’ conscience, but he’s forced to return there 12 years later on a mission to track down an Aboriginal outlaw. Travis soon realizes the young man he’s chasing is the only known survivor of the massacre.
“High Ground” shot on location in the world heritage-listed Kakadu...
- 2/23/2020
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Holland’s upcoming feature Charlatan among 51 headed to the Lido.
This year’s Venice Gap-Financing Market, returning for its sixth edition in 2019, has named the 51 projects that will participate across its four strands.
There are 28 features, fiction and documentaries, heading to the Lido this year. Among them is Agnieszka Holland’s upcoming feature Charlatan (Sarlatan), which is being produced by Czech outfit Marlene Film in co-production with Film & Music Entertainment (F&me)’s Irish outpost and Slovakia’s Furia Film.
The project is based on the life of Jan Mikolášek, a Czech healer who lived in totalitarian 1950s Czechoslovakia. Films Boutique is handling sales.
This year’s Venice Gap-Financing Market, returning for its sixth edition in 2019, has named the 51 projects that will participate across its four strands.
There are 28 features, fiction and documentaries, heading to the Lido this year. Among them is Agnieszka Holland’s upcoming feature Charlatan (Sarlatan), which is being produced by Czech outfit Marlene Film in co-production with Film & Music Entertainment (F&me)’s Irish outpost and Slovakia’s Furia Film.
The project is based on the life of Jan Mikolášek, a Czech healer who lived in totalitarian 1950s Czechoslovakia. Films Boutique is handling sales.
- 7/2/2019
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
The sixth edition of the Venice Gap-Financing Market (August 30 – September 1), which takes place during the Venice Film Festival, will feature 51 projects in the final stages of development and funding.
Of those, 23 projects from Europe and beyond are narrative features with 70% funding in place. Five projects are documentaries.
Among highlights are Czech feature Sarlatan by Oscar-nominated Polish director Agnieszka Holland (Mr. Jones) about a man gifted with exceptional abilities set against the background of the events of the totalitarian ’50s; Russian film Air by Dovlatov director Alexey German Jr; Grbavica director Jasmila Zbanic’s Euro co-pro Quo Vadis Aida (working title); and Canadian pic Saint-Narcisse by Bruce La Bruce.
Here’s a full list of projects taking part in the market:
28 Selected Fiction And Documentary Projects
Air (Russia) by Alexey German Jr., SAGa, Metrafilms Alam (France, Lebanon, Belgium) by Firas Khoury, Mpm Film A la sombra de los árboles (Chile) by Matías Rojas Valencia,...
Of those, 23 projects from Europe and beyond are narrative features with 70% funding in place. Five projects are documentaries.
Among highlights are Czech feature Sarlatan by Oscar-nominated Polish director Agnieszka Holland (Mr. Jones) about a man gifted with exceptional abilities set against the background of the events of the totalitarian ’50s; Russian film Air by Dovlatov director Alexey German Jr; Grbavica director Jasmila Zbanic’s Euro co-pro Quo Vadis Aida (working title); and Canadian pic Saint-Narcisse by Bruce La Bruce.
Here’s a full list of projects taking part in the market:
28 Selected Fiction And Documentary Projects
Air (Russia) by Alexey German Jr., SAGa, Metrafilms Alam (France, Lebanon, Belgium) by Firas Khoury, Mpm Film A la sombra de los árboles (Chile) by Matías Rojas Valencia,...
- 7/2/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
During the gala closing ceremony of the 17th edition of the Marrakech Intl. Film Festival, the Golden Star for best film was awarded to Sudabeh Mortezai for her second feature, “Joy,” about a young Nigerian woman forced into prostitution, which recently won best film at the BFI London Film Festival.
Accepting the prize from actress Monica Bellucci, she said: “I’d like to thank all the people who helped me make the movie, especially all the women who talked to me and told me their stories and helped me write the film, and the actresses who made the film with me. I’m very happy that, with this prize, this untold story will get greater visibility.”
The jury prize went to Lila Avilés’ debut feature, “The Chambermaid,” about Eve, a maid in Mexico City’s Hotel Presidente Internacional, which Avilés describes as a “high-class prison.”
Avilés said: “I love Patti Smith.
Accepting the prize from actress Monica Bellucci, she said: “I’d like to thank all the people who helped me make the movie, especially all the women who talked to me and told me their stories and helped me write the film, and the actresses who made the film with me. I’m very happy that, with this prize, this untold story will get greater visibility.”
The jury prize went to Lila Avilés’ debut feature, “The Chambermaid,” about Eve, a maid in Mexico City’s Hotel Presidente Internacional, which Avilés describes as a “high-class prison.”
Avilés said: “I love Patti Smith.
- 12/8/2018
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Ten leading European sales agents attended the first edition of Marrakech Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops. In interviews with Variety the executives emphasized the importance of this new industry event, which will help leverage the importance of Marrakech as a key industry hub for Arab and African filmmakers.
Films Boutique’s Gabor Greiner said that the workshops provided an excellent opportunity to meet filmmakers and producers from the region, some of whom don’t travel very often to festivals in Europe.
“African cinema has tremendous potential and we’re keen to learn more about cinema from the region. As sales agents we’re on the lookout for something that stands out, and it can be easier to find unusual new voices in a region where cinema production is less common.”
Greiner cited examples of recent films that have raised visibility for Africa-related issues – such as Aalam-Warqe Davidian’s tragic romance “Fig Tree,...
Films Boutique’s Gabor Greiner said that the workshops provided an excellent opportunity to meet filmmakers and producers from the region, some of whom don’t travel very often to festivals in Europe.
“African cinema has tremendous potential and we’re keen to learn more about cinema from the region. As sales agents we’re on the lookout for something that stands out, and it can be easier to find unusual new voices in a region where cinema production is less common.”
Greiner cited examples of recent films that have raised visibility for Africa-related issues – such as Aalam-Warqe Davidian’s tragic romance “Fig Tree,...
- 12/6/2018
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
The jury at this year's festival, headed by James Gray, centre Photo: Sife Elamine/Marrakech Film Festival
The 17th edition of the Marrakech Film Festival has got off to a star-studed start as actors including Dakota Johnson and Robert Pattinson graced the red carpet.
The festival also welcomed directors James Gray (who is jury president), Lynne Ramsay, Laurent Cantet, Joana Hadjithomas, Michel Franco and Tala Hadid, along with actors Ileana D'Cruz (Barfi) and Daniel Brühl.
In his opening speech, Gray said: “I’m an American and in this moment I feel a high responsibility to at least try to represent the best side of us – the open, the hopeful and thoughtful, and enlightened side.”
Other big names on the night - which included a gala screening of Julian Schnabel's Van Gogh biopic At Eternity's Gate - included Schabel and two of his film's stars Vincent Perez and Vladimir Consigny,...
The 17th edition of the Marrakech Film Festival has got off to a star-studed start as actors including Dakota Johnson and Robert Pattinson graced the red carpet.
The festival also welcomed directors James Gray (who is jury president), Lynne Ramsay, Laurent Cantet, Joana Hadjithomas, Michel Franco and Tala Hadid, along with actors Ileana D'Cruz (Barfi) and Daniel Brühl.
In his opening speech, Gray said: “I’m an American and in this moment I feel a high responsibility to at least try to represent the best side of us – the open, the hopeful and thoughtful, and enlightened side.”
Other big names on the night - which included a gala screening of Julian Schnabel's Van Gogh biopic At Eternity's Gate - included Schabel and two of his film's stars Vincent Perez and Vladimir Consigny,...
- 12/1/2018
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
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