The Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) today unveiled an illustrious roster of respected film industry professionals who will serve as jury members for the 2009 Middle East International Film Festival. Comprised of some of the most prominent names in global cinema today, the MEIFF 2009 juries bring added prestige to what is already one of the most ground-breaking film programs ever assembled in the region.The much anticipated Narrative Feature Competition will be spearheaded by inte...
Since 28th September 2009, the 17th Filmfest Hamburg has been apprehended by the Iranian "Green Movement" for independence. Filmfest guests are spontaneously joining the peaceful resistance movement, and are showing their solidarity by having photographs taken of them wearing green scarves. The "green wave" was initiated at the festival by exiled Iranian director Sepideh Farsi ("Tehran Without Permission"). Farsi is not only being supported by her Iranian dire...
Since 28th September 2009, the 17th Filmfest Hamburg has been apprehended by the Iranian “Green Movement” for independence. Filmfest guests are spontaneously joining the peaceful resistance movement, and are showing their solidarity by having photographs taken of them wearing green scarves. The “green wave” was initiated at the festival by exiled Iranian director Sepideh Farsi (“Tehran Without Permission”). Farsi is not only being supported by her Iranian directing colleagues, but ...
SAME BUT DIFFERENT (Detlev Buck, Germany)
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
With nearly a third of the films on offer in Toronto coming from the European continent, the Festival is a very important launching pad for both established and emerging talents to make an impression in North America. That is why the support of the European Film Promotion organization, a conglomeration of the governmental promotion offices from across the continent, is so vital ...
The much-anticipated third edition of the Middle East International Film Festival today announced the sixteen selections to be screened out of competition in its World Cinema Showcase lineup. Peter Scarlet, the Festival’s Executive Director commented, “The lineup for World Cinema Showcase presents an impressive group of films, many of which have already earned recognition at other international film festivals around the world this past year.”MEIFF’s World Cinema Showcase offers a plethor...
Egypt's The Traveler (Al Mosafer) with Omar Sharif to screen as Opening Night Gala
The Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) today unveiled the lineup of the feature-length narratives and documentaries that will compete for Black Pearl Awards worth over $1 million during the upcoming Festival. Presented by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, this year's MEIFF will run from October 8 to 17.
Peter Scarlet, the festival's new Executive Director commented, "...
22nd Helsinki International Film Festival ? Love & Anarchy proudly welcomes interesting filmmakers from around the world as its guests.HIERRO, screened in the festival?s Selection Semi-Officielle, is the latest film from producers of Pan?s Labyrinth and The Orphanage. Director of HIERRO, Gabe Ibáñez, will visit Helsinki with his leading actress, Elena Anaya. Anaya is familiar from Julio Medem?s and Pedro Almodóvar?s films. In addition to the stylish thriller HIERRO, Anaya is also starring in...
Record breaking number of films to be supported by FSS at the Toronto International Film Festival Creation by Jon Amiel Photo: Liam Daniel // Copyright: RPC Nature LtdAs a strong supporter of quality European Cinema and one of the most prestigious festivals worldwide, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, September 10 - 19, 2009) is top of the list for European Film Promotion's (EFP) marketing tool Film Sales Support (FSS). Aiming to help European cinema to be seen outside of Europe, FS...
A diverse harvest of new films supported by the Hubert Bals Fund or presented at CineMart, has been invited to the Venice, Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals. In Venice, BETWEEN TWO WORLDS by Vimukthi Jayasundara, LEBANON by Samuel Maoz and WOMEN WITHOUT MEN by Shirin Neshat compete for the Golden Lion. In San Sebastian, Pelin Esmer is in Official Competition and competes for the New Directors Award with her fiction film 10 TO 11. At the Toronto International Film Festival, a total of ten ...
Salam Iran, A Persian Letter
Director: Jean-Daniel Lafond ~ 72 minutes ~ Canada
“I first traveled to Iran with Amir, without ever leaving Montreal. Until the day when a new wind of hope sprang up across Tehran. After 18 years in exile, Amir had decided to return home. And I, to make a film. What seemed at first like a simple story quickly turned complex. In a country where the dead and martyred are more alive than the living, where the past is more present than the present, and w...
Red Burqa
Director: Roxana Pope ~ 5 minutes ~ Scotland/Iran
The Red Burqa worn by women in the Hormozgan region of Southern Iran. This short art documentary takes us behind the masks to reveal the lives of the women who wear them as well as take us on a visually stunning journey across the landscapes of Southern Iran.
...
Tehran: Another Side
Director: Sam Ali Kashani ~ 63 minutes ~ Iran/US
Like the majority of Iranian-American families that ultimately settled in California, Sam Ali Kashani’s family came to the United States after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Sam however, was thoroughly American, leading a lifestyle typical of any young Californian. Therefore, his perspective of Iran was much like most Americans, colored by skewed media portrayals and political constructions. Yet, the Tehra...
‘Letters from America’ revolves around the saga of a father and daughter and their impressions of America upon returning to the US after so many years. It is the testimony of a western educated Iranian intellectual who having returned to Iran to raise his family after living in America for many years; has once again returned to America to witness the changes that have taken place since he lived there. It is also the testimony of his nineteen years old daughter born in America and raised in p...
Gohar Kheirandish, actress and director, was born in 1954 in the city of Shiraz, state of Fars, Iran. She began her acting career in 1970 while in High School in association with a theater group in the city of Shiraz. Her first movie is named "Rooz haye Entezaar" [The days of waiting] that was screened in 1986. She earned her Acting and directing degree from the University of Tehran, "Daneshkadeh-ye- Honarhaye Zeeba" which translates to "The College of Beautiful Arts.&q...
XXIV. Black International Cinema Berlin
Germany & USA 2009
May 7-10
Rathaus Schöneberg (city hall)
John-F.-Kennedy-Platz
10825 Berlin-Schöneberg
"A COMPLEXION CHANGE – International & Intercultural Diplomacy"
A tribute to:
Chancellor Willy Brandt
"The future will not be mastered by those who dwell on the past."
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
&quo
XXIV. Black International Cinema Berlin
Germany & USA 2009
May 7-10
Rathaus Schöneberg (city hall)
John-F.-Kennedy-Platz
10825 Berlin-Schöneberg
"A COMPLEXION CHANGE – International & Intercultural Diplomacy"
A tribute to:
Chancellor Willy Brandt
"The future will not be mastered by those who dwell on the past."
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
&quo
This was my first year covering the LA Film Festival. I first remember going to some screenings in past years when it was held at the Sunset 5 in Hollywood, and later some parties and mixers in Westwood and at the W Hotel. After Cannes, June is also a busy month for film festivals around the world. This year, there was a greater focus on international film at the Festival. I spoke with new Executive Program Director Rebecca Yeldham at the award brunch, and shared how we enjoyed meeting many o...
This was my first year covering the LA Film Festival. I first remember going to some screenings in past years when it was held at the Sunset 5 in Hollywood, and later some parties and mixers in Westwood and at the W Hotel. After Cannes, June is also a busy month for film festivals around the world. This year, there was a greater focus on international film at the Festival. I spoke with new Executive Program Director Rebecca Yeldham at the award brunch, and shared how we enjoyed meeti...
EFA Think Tank THE IMAGE OF EUROPE with EU President Barroso results in filmmakers’ call for film education in school Twenty leading creators from the fields of film directing, writing, acting, production, distribution and education met with José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, to exchange their views on the impact that images and cinema have on the identity of Europe and the way Europeans identify with their home continent. The President who had followed the Academy’s...
1. "Precious" starring Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz, Director Lee Daniels"Lorsqu'a seize ans, Precious apprend à lire et à ecrire dans une école alternative, un monde nouveau s'ouvre à elle. Un monde nouveau s'ouvre à elle, Un monde où elle peut enfin parler, raconter ce qui l'étouffe. Un monde où toutes les fille peuvent deviner belles, fortes, indépendantes. Comme Precious....""When Precious, who is sixteen, learns to read and write at an Alternative School, she discovers a new ...
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#What It’s Like to Chill with the Most Ruthless Men in the World
Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic:
Confessions of a Female War Crimes Investigator
Retrospectively, it was all so simple, natural and matter of fact being on a boat restaurant in Belgrade, sitting with, laughing, drinking a two hundred bottle of wine and chatting about war and peace while Ratko Mladic held my hand. Mladic, a man considered the world’s most ruthless war criminal since Adolf Hitler, still at larg...
The section Certain Regard opens today with the presentation of No One Knows About Persian Cats by Bahman Ghabadi. The Iranian director gained international acclaim in Cannes in 2000 for his first feature film, A Time for Drunken Horses, which won the Camera d'Or award.
He’s back this year with a portrait of Tehran, shot in a rush and without authorization, a story of Iranian youth fighting against repression and being bullied around. As his two heroes, underground musicians, desperately tr...
The 6th International Documentary Film Festival of Madrid will be held from May 1 through 10 and will showcase 108 films from 40 countries In its 6th year, DOCUMENTA MADRID furthers its commitment to the Competitive Sections, which are made up entirely of films previously unreleased in Spain for the first time in its history. Of the 1078 documentaries received to participate in the competition, 108 have been selected. By category, they will compete in: 54 films in the Original Documentary Secti...
The Smogdance Film Festival will expand its program this year to include informal discussions with filmmakers, whose work will be screened during the three-day festival, April 24 to 26, at the historic Pomona Fox Theater in Pomona, California. Among the filmmakers scheduled to attend are Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Saul Landau; director Paul Hendry (and most of his cast and crew) from the comedy, The Re-Bourne Identity; and Mexican director Alonso Alvarez Barreda, whose film, The St...
Francis Ford Coppola will receive the Founder's Directing Award at the 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23 - May 7). The Founder's Award will be presented to Coppola at Film Society Awards Night, the organization's glamorous black-tie fundraiser, Thursday, April 30 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel.The Film Society's acclaimed Youth Education Program will be the beneficiary of the benefit gala honoring Coppola; Robert Redford, recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award for acting; ...
