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Iranian directors Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghadam have received a 14-month jail sentence as well as $14,000 worth of fines related to their feature My Favourite Cake which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2024.

The filmmaking duo and their producer and Gholamreza Mousavi have been in the crosshairs of Iran’s authoritarian Islamic Republic regime since early 2023 over the heartwarming drama about an elderly widow who reconnects with life’s small pleasures in the face of solitude.

Sanaeeha and Moghadam, who is also a Swedish national, were grounded by a travel ban prior to the film’s world premiere in Berlin and the couple have since been subjected to an Islamic Revolutionary Court investigation. In the lead-up to the court hearing in February, they also started receiving death threats.

Elements of My Favourite Cake which upset the Iranian authorities include showing the female protagonist, played by Lily Farhadpour, without...

The Cinevesture International Film Festival (Ciff) has revealed a diverse lineup for its second edition, set to run March 20-23 in Chandigarh, India, featuring notable Oscar winners and nominees alongside celebrated regional cinema.

Jacques Audiard’s Oscar-winning “Emilia Perez”headlines the World Canvas section, alongside Magnus von Horn’s Oscar-nominated Danish drama “The Girl with the Needle.”

The festival will open with the India premiere of Korean feature “A Normal Family,” directed by Hur Jin-ho, which first bowed at the Toronto International Film Festival. A special screening of the Punjabi short film “The Cycle” by Arpita Mukherjee will accompany the opening night festivities.

For its sophomore outing, Ciff has assembled a lineup featuring 15 international features in its World Canvas section and 17 titles in the India Unveiled category, with additional special screenings and student films rounding out the program.

The Indian selection features several significant titles by renowned filmmakers, including Dibakar Banerjee’s “Tees,...

Juliette Binoche, Pedro Almodóvar and Mohammad Rasoulof have joined a campaign in support of persecuted Iranian filmmakers Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha.

The wife and husband directorial duo have been in the crosshairs of Iran’s authoritarian Islamic Republic regime since 2023 over their feature film My Favourite Cake, which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2024.

The heartwarming story of love and loss revolves around 70-year-old widow, played by Lily Farhadpour, who reconnects with life’s small pleasures in the face of solitude, following her husband’s death.

The Iranian authorities are unhappy with the film because it flies in the face of their sexist, draconian laws around what women should wear and how they should act, with the protagonist seen without a hijab head covering, sharing a drink with a suitor and dancing.

The Islamic Republic government slapped a travel ban on Moghadam and Sanaeeha, preventing any travel for the last two years,...

Juliette Binoche, Pedro Almodovar and Mohammad Rasoulof are among those who have signed a petition in support of My Favourite Cake filmmakers Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, whose trial begins in Iran tomorrow (March 1).

The filmmakers face allegations concerning their featureMy Favourite Cake,which premiered at Berlin in 2024 and won the Fipresci and Ecumenical jury prizes.

Moghaddam and Sanaeeha are accused of “propaganda against the regime”, “production, distribution and duplication of a film with obscene content”, “offending public decency and morality” and “screening the film without obtaining a screening/distribution license”.

The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (Icfr) has...

The international film community is in uproar over the summoning of Iranian filmmakers Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha to court in their native country amid the production and distribution of their 2024 Berlin Film Festival feature My Favourite Cake.

The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (Icfr) has reiterated its unequivocal support for Moghadam and Sanaeeha, currently awaiting the start of their trial with Iran’s Revolutionary Court on Mar. 1.

The charges leveled against them concern the production and distribution of their My Favourite Cake, a movie about a woman in Tehran who rediscovers her desires in a country where women’s rights are heavily restricted.

Authorities first raided the offices of the film’s editor in 2023, the Icfr said, with Moghadam and Sanaeeha “under continuous scrutiny of the Iranian regime.” The Iranian government’s persecution efforts led to a travel ban for the directors, which meant they could not attend...

Iranian directors Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghadam have appealed for support after they received a court summons and anonymous death threats related to their film My Favourite Cake which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2024.

A heartwarming tale of love and loss and coming to terms with old age, My Favourite Cake stars Lily Farhadpour as a 70-year-old widow who reconnects with life’s small pleasures in the face of solitude, following her husband’s death.

In a message posted on social media, Sanaeeha said that after several interrogation sessions related to the film at the security prosecutor’s office for Iran’s notorious Evin jail, he and Moghadam had been summoned for a hearing at a revolutionary court on March 1.

The charges against them are: propaganda against the regime; production, distribution, and duplication of a film with obscene content; offending public decency and morality and screening the...

Mohammad Rasoulof, director of the Oscar-nominated film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” is standing behind the members of his cast and crew who have been accused of “spreading immorality and propaganda” against the Iranian regime.

Just last week, one of the film’s actors, Soheila Golestani, was banned from leaving the country and therefore unable to serve on a jury at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Speaking on a panel at the fest in collaboration with the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk, Rasoulof said he believes the regime is “waiting to announce the verdict after the Oscars,” where the film is up for best international feature.

“The whole situation pacified the community, because you are in a state of waiting. I don’t know what their reaction will be after the Oscars,” he continued. “Filmmakers are always in danger, not only because they tell stories that power doesn’t want to hear,...

Netpac is happy to announce the nominees for the inaugural Netpac Aruna Vasudev Award for the Best Asia Pacific Film 2024. The Award winner will be announced on 18th February 2025 at the closing ceremony of the 31st Fica (Festival International des Cinémas d’Asie), Vesoul, France. The Award consists of an artwork, designed by the well known Iranian artist Keivan Beiranvand.

The Award winner for the 1st Netpac Aruna Vasudev Award for Best Book published on Asia Pacific Cinema will also be announced at the same venue.

Netpac has instituted these annual Awards to honour the memory of its founder Ms. Aruna Vasudev. In her lifetime Ms Aruna Vasudev worked tirelessly for the promotion of Asian Cinema across the globe. Cinemaya, the magazine she published and edited for over 20 years, was a first of its kind, bringing a rich history and critique to Asian Films and Filmmakers. In 1989, she established Netpac...

Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light” leads a diverse slate of nominees for the first-ever Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema (Netpac) Aruna Vasudev Award for Best Asia Pacific Film 2024, celebrating the region’s emerging cinematic voices.

The winner will be unveiled at the 31st Fica (Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema) in Vesoul, France, on Feb. 18.

The nominees, culled from over 600 features screened in 2024, represent a cross-section of contemporary Asian and Pacific cinema. Alongside Kapadia’s India-European co-production are Mahdi Fleifel’s “To A Land Unknown” (Palestine-Denmark), Dea Kulumbegashvili’s “April” (Georgia-France-Italy), Lan Pham Ngoc’s “Cu Li Never Cries” (Vietnam-Philippines-France-Singapore-Norway) and “My Favorite Cake” from Iranian directors Behtash Sanaie Ha and Maryam Moghadam.

The award, featuring an artwork by Iranian artist Keivan Beiranvand, honors Netpac founder Aruna Vasudev’s legacy in championing Asian cinema.

In addition to the film honor, Netpac will present...

Elderly, overweight and alone, Mahin (Lili Farhadpour) sleeps until noon, her boredom and isolation palpable. Yet this apparently lonely 70-year-old widow is not as sad a figure as the opening scenes of My Favourite Cake suggest. Directed by Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha (who were prevented from leaving Iran when the film premiered in Berlin last year), this is no sorry tale of lonely old age, at least not entirely.

Mahin is a retired nurse on the outskirts of Teheran, widowed for 30 years and with no desire to remarry. Mahin reminisces about the before-times, when she would go to the Hyatt Hotel (ironically now renamed the Freedom Hotel) wearing ‘high heels and plunging necklines’. She also recalls that she and her friends find it harder to meet: weekly get-togethers are now annual, while other activities have had to be renounced.

If that all sounds a little joyless, Mahin eats what she wants,...

Filmmakers exiled or displaced from their home countries should not let perfection be the enemy of progress on new projects, according to speakers on a panel at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF).

“Maybe we need to change the strategy to release the films earlier, so that the message comes out faster, and not care so much about the quality,” said Latvian producer Uldis Cekulis, who has worked with Ukrainian filmmakers including Roman Bondarchuk, on 2015 documentary Ukrainian Sheriffs.

“What I observed with directors from Ukraine is a high level of self-censorship, to make everything the best,” said Cekulis, who recommended...

New York-based Fortress Investment Group has acquired Curzon, a leading U.K. arthouse exhibitor and distributor, the two companies announced Tuesday.

The deal gives Fortress control over Curzon’s 16 theaters, representing 46 screens, across the U.K., its distribution arm Curzon Film and its Curzon Home Cinema streaming platform. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. Allison Swayze, managing director at Fortress, said the company will support Curzon’s near-term plans in “expanding its cinema footprint, and delivering awards and release plans for an exciting slate of films. Our acquisition secures the jobs of more than 350 employees, and helps Curzon continue to offer film fans a range of independent and blockbuster movies both in cinema and at home.”

This is the second time in under five years that Curzon has changed hands, following Cohen Media Group’s acquisition of the company in 2019.

Fortress, which manages some $48 billion in assets, has been on a U.

Tokyo International Film Festival has announced its full line-up including its main international and Asian Future competitions, as well as the nine films selected for its Women’s Empowerment Section.

The new female-focused section will screen Iranian drama My Favourite Cake, directed by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who are banned from travelling by the Iranian authorities and were unable to attend the film’s premiere in Berlin.

Other titles in the Women’s Empowerment Section include Turkish director Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik’s In Ten Seconds; Hong Kong filmmaker Oliver Chan’s Montages Of A Motherhood; Memories Of A Burning Body, from Costa Rica’s Antonella Sudasassi Furniss; and the world premiere of Japanese director Naoki Tamura’s Doctor-x The Movie, among other titles.

Co-hosted with Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Women’s Empowerment Section is programmed by Andrijana Cvetkovikj and focuses on films directed by female filmmakers and/or with female-focused narratives.

Dissident Iranian film professionals have reiterated calls to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to reconsider its relationship with Iran’s government-controlled Farabi cinema org which currently oversees the country’s Oscar submission process.

“In a world where Iranian artists and filmmakers suffer under the oppression of the Islamic Republic government, it is alarming that Farabi, a state-controlled entity known for censorship and repression, is still permitted to select the representative of Iranian cinema for the Oscars,” the Independent Iranian Filmmakers Association (Iifma) said in a statement.

The org, which made the same request last year, issued the statement in the wake of Farabi’s announcement on Sunday that it had selected In The Arms of The Tree to represent Iran in the best international feature film category at the 97th Academy Awards.

Iifma was created in 2023 in response to the Woman Life Freedom movement which grew...

Seizing the day and small rebellions are championed by Iranian directors Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha in their latest collaboration.

Their gentle drama is built around a delightful performance from Lili Farhadpour as 70-year-old widow Mahin, who decides to shake her life up a bit. Living in a comfortable home, Moghadam and Sanaeeha take time to establish her friends and family. She might not see them as often as she’d like but her female mates are a hoot of a crowd, sharing jokes over dinner when they do get together.

Mahin’s daughter is part of the far-flung diaspora these days, connected mostly by interrupted video calls. She’s not a sad case but the older woman is lonely, something which leads her to try to forge new connections. Although this is an Iran-specific film - and partially revolves around the breaking of many of the country’s oppressive rules - Moghadam.

The 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has launched its entire program for the Aug. 15-21 event, where it will screen 37 new feature films and 18 world premieres.

Ten world premieres will compete for the new Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence as the fest showcases talent from filmmakers in the U.K., U.S., Canada, Mexico, Norway, China, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Iran and beyond. Screenings will take place in the heart of Scotland’s picturesque capital at some of the city’s most iconic venues including Cameo Cinema, Summerhall, and 50 George Square.

Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun, starring Saoirse Ronan, was previously confirmed as the Fest’s opening night film, with the world premiere of Carla J. Easton and Blair Young’s documentary Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands set to close. Its Midnight Madness strand will close with the body horror The Substance, starring Demi Moore.

Daisy-May Hudson’s fiction debut Lollipop, a documentary about a man’s relationship with a life-sized AI-animated doll and Nina Conti’s Cannes Great 8 title Sunlight are among 18 world premieres at the new-look Edinburgh International Film Festival.

A total of 37 feature films form the line-up of Eiff’s 77th edition, which is the first under the leadership of Paul Ridd as festival director and Andrew Macdonald as chair. The line-up includes 10 world premieres in the running for the £50,000 Sean Connery prize for feature filmmaking excellence, plus four retrospective screenings, a Midnight Madness strand and five short film programmes.

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Cannes Critics’ Week title Julie Keeps Quiet, directed by Belgium’s Leonardo Van Dijl, is to be released in the UK and Ireland through Curzon’s Artificial Eye distribution label.

It unfurls as an elite tennis academy star’s coach falls under investigation and is suddenly suspended. All of the club’s players are encouraged to speak up, but Julie decides to keep quiet.

The feature is produced by Gilles De Schryver, Gilles Coulier, Wouter Sap and Roxanne Sarkozi for De Wereldvrede (Belgium), and co-produced by Delphine Tomson, Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne for Les Films du Fleuve (Belgium), Nima Yousefi...

Artificial Eye, the arthouse distribution company established in 1976 by Curzon Cinemas, is set for a re-launch as a theatrical and home entertainment label.

Founded by Andi and Pam Engel, the label gained recognition for releasing independent, arthouse, and foreign language films, promoting films from directors such as Béla Tarr, the Dardenne Brothers, and Trần Anh Hùng.

Artificial Eye went on hiatus in 2014, after being part of the Curzon group since 2006. In 2019, we told you Curzon Group and its subsidiaries, including Artificial Eye, had been acquired by U.S. indie distributor and exhibitor Cohen Media Group. Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure was one of the last films released under the previous version of the label.

Curzon has continued to release critically acclaimed films under the Curzon Film label led by Managing Director Louisa Dent. One of their successes has been Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever at the UK box office.

U.K. outfit Curzon — part of the Cohen Media Group — is set to relaunch Artificial Eye, the arthouse distribution label that was established in 1976 and has been on hiatus for the last decade.

The label, first founded by film enthusiasts Andi and Pam Engel and part of the Curzon group since 2006, became renowned for releasing independent, foreign-language and arthouse title to U.K. audiences, including those by Béla Tarr, the Dardenne Brothers and Trần Anh Hùng. Its library boasts over 400 critically acclaimed films from directors including Wim Wenders, Michael Haneke and Claire Denis. Ruben Östlund’s “Force Majeure” was one of the last films released under the previous incarnation.

Led by managing director Louisa Dent, who has been with the company since 2008, Curzon has continued to release critically acclaimed films under the Curzon Film label — including Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever at the U.K.

The UK’s Curzon is to relaunch its specialist UK/Ireland distribution label Artificial Eye, as a theatrical and home entertainment brand.

The first release under the banner will be Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Berlinale Competition title My Favourite Cake.

Led by Curzon managing director Louisa Dent, the acquisitions team will curate additions to the Artificial Eye catalogue, focusing on director-led world cinema and discoveries from emerging filmmakers.

Artificial Eye was founded in 1976 by Andi Engel and Pam Engel. The label released leading independent, foreign-language and arthouse titles, including films by Bela Tarr, the Dardenne brothers and Tran Anh Hung.

Mahin decides to break her loneliness by searching for a partner in Maryam Moghadam & Behtash Sanaeeha's warm-hearted drama “My Favourite Cake”. The third directorial collaboration between two filmmakers had its world premiere in the official competition of Berlinale earlier this year, screened in absence of the helmers who were not allowed to leave the country. The movie shows women without mandatory hijabs, it lets them speak about their flirts, dreams and longing, and it even involves alcohol drinking and a burgeoning love affair between two people who were not destined to live that dream to the fullest, as well as an open rebellion against the morality police. Iranian authorities made a clumsy attempt at stopping the film of reaching the international audience, which luckily proved futile.”My Favourite Cake” was shot secretly amidst the wide-spread anti Government protests sparked by the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a young Iranian...

When it comes to romance, everyone knows that you shouldn't wait too long... Don't let all of life go by, and have the courage to say hi to someone before it's too late. That's the wisdom explored in this delightful new film from Iran titled My Favourite Cake (labeled as Keyke mahboobe man in the Berlinale line-up). The film is both written & directed by the Iranian filmmakers Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, and premiered at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival in the Main Competition section (though it didn't win any awards). Unfortunately the two filmmakers are being kept in Iran, as the government took their passports and imposed a travel ban. Nonetheless, this film stands out within the Berlinale line-up as an entertaining-for-everyone heartfelt story of romance. The best compliment I can give is that it has the vibe of an Iranian Before Sunrise telling a charming story about two 70-year-old single,...

Iranian filmmakers Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghadam’s new feature My Favourite Cake world premieres at the Berlinale on Friday but the directors are not at the festival having been slapped with a travel ban by Iran’s authoritarian Islamic Republic regime.

Their absence was marked at the press conference by two empty seats and a joint portrait, while lead actress Lily Farhadpour, who has been allowed to make the journey, read out a statement on their behalf.

“We feel like parents who are forbidden from even looking at their new-born child,” it read. “We’re sad and we’re tired, but we’re not alone. This is the magic of cinema. Cinema brings us together. It is a window which opens up a time and a place where we can meet.”

Their quirky comedy-drama stars Farhadpour as a lonely widow who seizes the moment and invites a taxi driver...

Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha won’t be coming to Berlin. The Iranian directors, whose feature Ballad of a White Cow received a rapturous reception here in 2020, were set to attend the 74th Berlinale with their latest competition entry, My Favourite Cake.

“But then the police came, took our passports and told us were banned from traveling,” says Moghaddam, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter via Zoom from the couple’s home in Tehran. “We are now facing a court case because of the film.”

The Berlinale has called on Iran to release the directors, saying it was “shocked and dismayed” to hear of the couple’s fate.

My Favourite Cake follows 70-year-old Mahin (Ballad of a White Cow actress Lili Farhadpour) who, after decades of living alone, decides to revive her love life. On a whim, she propositions Faramarz, a solidarity cab driver (Esmaeel Mehrabi), and invites him to her house.

Some 30 film organizations, festivals and professionals as well as freedom of speech NGOs have signed an open letter calling on Iranian authorities to immediately drop all charges against directors Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha as well as lift a travel ban.

The signatories include the Berlinale, the Amsterdam-based International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk, and Pen America in New York.

The filmmakers, whose last collaboration Ballad Of A White Cow made waves on the festival circuit, have become caught in the crosshairs of their country’s hardline Islamist regime in relation to their upcoming film My Favourite Cake.

The pair were due to fly to Paris in September to complete post-production on the feature, exploring “life behind closed doors of an aging woman who dares to live her desires in a country where women’s rights are heavily restricted.”

Their passports were confiscated at Tehran airport, however, and they were...

Iranian directors Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghadam, whose last collaboration Ballad Of A White Cow made waves on the festival circuit, have been banned from travel and face a trial in relation to their upcoming film My Favourite Cake.

The pair discovered they were subject to a travel ban at Tehran airport at the end of September after their passports were confiscated as they went to catch a flight to Paris to work on post-production of the new film.

They were subsequently told that they faced a trial related to the production.

Local media reported that Iranian security forces had raided the house of the film’s editor, seizing rushes and other materials related to the production.

The country’s hard-line Islamist authorities are believed to have been angered by the work, which according to the official logline, revolves around the “life behind closed doors of an aging woman who...

The industry programme at the Norwegian festival included a focus on UK projects.

Two veryr different projects from female directors have been the talk of the industry at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films market this week.

Amanda Kernell won the pitching prize after the Co-Production Market presentation of her third feature film, The Curse - A Love Story while Thea Hvistendahl’s work in progress Handling The Undead, which reunites Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie after The Worst Person in the World, hugely impressed buyers and festival programmers alike

The Curse will follow Kernell’s Venice 2016 premiere Sami Blood and Sundance 2020 selection Charter.

Rome-based Intramovies has picked up sales rights to Swedish up-and-coming filmmaker Mika Gustafson’s “Sisters,” ahead of the film’s pitch as a work in progress at Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market, which runs Feb. 2-5.

The film is being produced by Nima Yousefi for Stockholm-based Hobab, behind the multi-awarded “Clara Sola” by Nathalie Álvarez Mesen.

European co-producers on board “Sisters” take in Italy s’ Intramovies, Denmark’s Toolbox Film and Finland’s Tuffi Films.

Intramovies’ head of acquisitions and production Marco Valerio Fusco said “being the Italian co-producers, we loved the project since its inception, and were very excited by the film’s potential, the impressive script and all talents involved.

“For the good of the film, we didn’t put any pre-emption on the title, leaving the door open to any other possible sales agent. Then when Nima offered us to come on board, we immediately accepted,” said...

For the 20th edition 33 films projects from 26 countries will take part.

New features from Palestinian filmmaker Muayad Alayan and German director Leonie Krippendorff are among those to be presented at the 20th Berliane Co-production Market (February 18 to 22), the first in-person edition since 2020.

The market will provide the opportunity for 33 projects from 26 countries to secure financing and get fired up as international co-productions in the next few years, with sales agents, broadcasters, funding bodies, streaming platforms, film distributors and other financing partners in attendance.

For the official project selection, 17 fiction feature projects with budgets between €600,000 and €5m and chosen from among 302 submissions will take part.

The Berlin Film Festival has revealed a raft of titles across strands and also 33 film projects vying for coin at the coproduction market.

Selections for the topical Perspektive Deutsches Kino strand from emerging German talent include “Seven Winters in Tehran” by Steffi Niederzoll, “Elaha” by Milena Aboyan, “Ararat” by Engin Kundag, “The Kidnapping of the Bride” by Sophia Mocorrea, Fabian Stumm’s “Bones and Names,” “Long Long Kiss” by Lukas Röder, Tanja Egen’s “On Mothers and Daughters,” “Ash Wednesday,” by João Pedro Prado and Bárbara Santos, “Nuclear Nomads” by Kilian Armando Friedrich and Tizian Stromp Zargari and “Lonely Oaks” by Fabiana Fragale, Kilian Kuhlendahl and Jens Mühlhoff.

All the selected films in the strand will compete for the Heiner Carow Prize and the Compass-Perspektive-Award, both of which are endowed with €5,000.

A 4K restoration of David Cronenberg’s “Naked Lunch” will open the Berlinale Classics section, which also includes Oliver Schmitz’ “Mapantsula,...

The Berlin Film Festival today unveiled the titles selected for its retrospective section chosen by a collection of international directors and actors, including Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Nadine Labaki, and Tilda Swinton.

This year the theme of the retrospective sidebar is “Coming of Age at the Movies,” and each invited artist was tasked with submitting their personal favorite film that either deals with “being young and growing up” or had a “decisive role in the evolution or development” of their own artistic practice. The retrospective section will also exclusively screen films that have been newly restored.

The full list of invited artists includes Maren Ade, Pedro Almodóvar, Wes Anderson, Juliette Binoche, Lav Diaz, Alice Diop, Ava DuVernay, Nora Fingscheidt, Luca Guadagnino, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, Ethan Hawke, Karoline Herfurth, Niki Karimi, Nadine Labaki, Nadav Lapid, Sergei Loznitsa, Mohammad Rasoulof, Céline Sciamma, Martin Scorsese, Aparna Sen, M. Night Shyamalan, Carla Simón, Abderrahmane Sissako,...

Four previously backed films are screening at Venice this year.

The Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund (Wcf) is to provide a combined €344,000 in finance to seven international projects.

In its latest funding round, the Wcf has recommended production funding for six projects from Burkina Faso, Chile, Egypt, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal and Colombia. The fund has also recommened providing distribution funding for the August 25 German release of Sudanese film You Will Die At Twenty.

The Berlinale’s funding initiative was set up in 2004 to help diversify German cinema and support projects from areas of the world with less filmmaking infrastructure.

Kismet Kisses: Moghaddam & Sanaeeha Mine Intimate Vengeance in Rich Melodrama

The opening moments of Ballad of a White Cow evokes a quote from Al-Baqarah or The Surah of the Cow, the second and longest chapter of the Quran. Within this surah, more than one cow is featured, but the reference regards the slaughter of a cow as a message delivered by Allah to the Israelites through Moses, an action which will reveal who murdered a slain man. Caught in the middle, of course, is a poor, innocent cow.

While this is a rudimentary, and superficial starting point for examining the happenings of this tale of karmic vengeance, it’s the first narrative feature from directors Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who previously delivered the 2018 documentary The Invincible Diplomacy of Mr.…...

Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha's Ballad of a White Cow is exclusively showing on Mubi in many countries starting February 10, 2022 in the series Viewfinder, as well as in Festival Focus: Berlinale.Photo by Hamid Janipour.It all started with a painful and bitter memory: an old wound which tormented our souls. With fear and hope, we told the story of our people’s enduring agony. The story of Mina’s anguish, longing for long-lost justice. The justice which had faded between the lines of a law. We wanted to tell a story about the victims and those that have suffered injustice. About people whose lives were fully transformed by the death of an innocent person. The story of many people around us, and definitely of many people in the world. The main characters are shaped and inspired by people we know. In the final credits of the film, we dedicate it to Mina,...

Consideration of the death penalty is an enduring theme in films from countries where it is still in operation but Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha's film - though touching on some similar themes to fellow Iranian director Mohammad Rasolouf's recent There Is No Evil - also offers close scrutiny of women's place in society in general.

That place is strictly delineated, especially if there is no man in the picture, something that single mother Mina (played by Moghadam herself) is all too aware of in the wake of her husband's execution. Working her days in a milk processing plant she is also juggling looking after her deaf young daughter Bita (Avin Poor Raoufi) and trying to stave off harassment from her brother-in-law (Pourya Rahimiam), who acts as a messenger of veiled threats from her dead husband's father.

When she discovers that her husband was, in fact, innocent, Mina begins a.

Paris-based international sales and production company Totem Films has added Gábor Fabricius’ “Erasing Frank” to its Cannes market lineup.

Set in 1983, behind the Iron Curtain of Eastern Europe in Budapest, the film follows Frank, the charismatic singer of a banned punk band that carries the voice of their generation against a totalitarian regime. Taken to the police psychiatric hospital in an attempt to silence him, Frank will sacrifice everything to resist.

The film is produced by Otherside Stories and supported by the National Film Institute Hungary.

Fabricius, a graduate of Central Saint-Martins College London, has published two novels and directed several shorts. “Erasing Frank” is his debut feature.

“‘Erasing Frank’ is an attempt to redefine direct cinema and social drama. I want to let the audience go through raw experience in a deshumanized Orwellian reality,” said Fabricius.

“Gabor’s mise en scene is flawless. He depicts the rage of a...

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi "bravely defies his 20-year ban on filmmaking yet again" to bring us his latest film, titled Closed Curtain, a follow-up to his last creation, This Is Not a Film from 2011. This new film plays with another meta concept: In a secluded house by the sea with the curtains shut, a screenwriter hides from the world with only his dog as company. The tranquility is abruptly broken one night by the arrival of a young woman fleeing from the authorities. Refusing to leave, she takes refuge in the house. But come dawn, another unexpected presence will change everything... The cast includes Kambuzia Partovi, Maryam Moqadam and Jafar Panahi. I'm intrigued, there's something about this. Maybe it's that dog. Here's the official Us trailer for Jafar Panahi's Closed Curtain, direct from Variance Film's YouTube: A synopsis, but it may not help clear up anything: They are both...

★★☆☆☆ In 2010, filmmaker Jafar Panahi was prosecuted by the Iranian government. Accused of colluding to undermine national security and producing propaganda against the Islamic Republic, he was sentenced to imprisonment and a twenty-year filmmaking ban. Since then, whilst awaiting the result of an appeal, the director has produced two feature films. The first was documentary This Is Not a Film (2011), which details life under house arrest in Tehran. The second, Closed Curtain (2013), is a fictionalised examination of the same themes that regrettably lacks the subtlety one might expect from the venerated auteur.

A still shot looks out across a coastal landscape through a large window, across which metal shutters appear strikingly like the iron bars of a jail cell. A man arrives with a bag and locks himself into the villa in which all of the action will occur. The man, known only as 'Writer' (co-director Kambuzia Partovi), proceeds to close...

The dissident Iranian film-maker used Skype to promote his latest film Closed Curtain at a film festival in the Czech Republic

He is under house arrest, has been banned from leaving Iran and is prohibited from making films for 20 years. But that did not stop Jafar Panahi appearing at the Karlovy Vary film festival in the Czech Republic last night – via Skype.

Panahi, who has found other ingenious ways around the restrictions on his freedom in the past, is showing his latest film Closed Curtain at the festival. His daughter Solmaz has been presenting it in his absence, as both the drama's co-director, Kambuzia Partovi, and star, Maryam Moqadam, had their passports confiscated in the wake of Closed Curtain's debut at the Berlin film festival in January.

Panahi's film (also known as Parde) is about a group of people trapped in a house by a lake, a predicament critics have...