News

The Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) proudly announces the official programme lineup for its highly anticipated 8th edition, set to take place from 19 to 27 July 2025. Staying true to its mission as a cultural bridge between Malaysian and global cinema, this year’s MIFFest places a spotlight on bold, diverse, and impactful storytelling from around the world. In its ongoing celebration of cinematic legends, the 8 th MIFFest is proud to pay tribute to the iconic Ti Lung with the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the Extended Special Programme under the Master At Work series.

This year’s Malaysia Golden Global Awards (Mgga) sets the stage for an electrifying competition, with several standout titles leading the nominations. These critically acclaimed films reflect the depth and diversity of global storytelling celebrated at MIFFest. The Malaysia Golden Global Awards (Mgga) takes place on 26 July 2025 at Zepp Kuala Lumpur. The event will be streamed...

Universal Language from director Matthew Rankin, which earned an audience prize presented to the best film in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes film festival, has been chosen by Canada to compete in the best international feature category at the Academy Awards.

The absurdist comedy in the Farsi and French languages is an offbeat homage to Iranian cinema that takes place n the Canadian cities of Montreal and Winnipeg. In Universal Language, Rankin reimagines a Canada where Farsi is now a dominant tongue.

Structured like a Venn diagram, Universal Language according to a synopsis becomes “a diary film, an absurdist city symphony and a welling-up of confinement-era emotion exploring the mysterious interzone where one person ends and the rest of the world begins. An elusive, half remembered dream of home, solitude, our responsibilities to others and the wild turkeys that haunt us.”

Director Rankin added in a statement on...

"A strange odyssey with plenty of riches." Oscilloscope Labs has revealed the first trailer for an acclaimed, one-of-a-kind film from Canada titled Universal Language, the second feature from Canadian filmmaker Matthew Rankin (after the icy The Twentieth Century). It premiered to rave reviews at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight sidebars - one of the best discoveries of Cannes 2024. Two kids find frozen cash, and try to retrieve it. A tour guide leads confused tourists around Winnipeg sites. A man quits his job, visits his mother. Storylines intertwine surreally as identities blur in a disorienting comedy. Starring Matthew Rankin, Pirouz Nemati, Rojina Esmaeili, Danielle Fichaud, and Sobhan Javadi. Rankin adds: "think of it as cinematic Venn diagramme between Winnipeg, Tehran, Montréal. It’s like a confluence of rivers. Or a Hawaiian pizza. It’s a crazy duck-billed platypus of a movie: one part lonesome Québécois cinéma gris, one part surreal Winnipeg puzzle film,...

There is nothing lost in translation when it comes to “The Twentieth Century” filmmaker Matthew Rankin’s surreal triptych comedy “Universal Language.”

The feature, which debuted at Cannes 2024 and was deemed an IndieWire Critic’s Pick before winning the Audience Award in Directors’ Fortnight, is written and directed by Rankin, who also stars as a version of himself. Rankin described the film in press notes as an “autobiographical hallucination” that led him to travel from his native Winnipeg to Tehran to find the cinematic auteurs he grew up watching. “Universal Language” is co-written by Pirouz Nemati and Ila Firouzabadi.

The official synopsis reads: “In a mysterious and surreal interzone somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg, the lives of multiple characters interweave with each other in surprising and mysterious ways. Grade-schoolers Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen in the winter ice and try to claim it. Meanwhile, Massoud leads...

In the Canadian cities of Montreal and Winnipeg, a futile tension exists between French and English speakers — doubly silly, since the country is officially bilingual. In his gently satirical “Universal Language,” writer-director Matthew Rankin imagines a rather fanciful solution, where Farsi is now the region’s dominant tongue. Taking his cues from such Iranian classics as “Children of Heaven” and “The White Balloon,” Rankin mixes the humanism of Majid Majidi, Jafar Panahi, et al. with his own peculiar brand of comedy (as seen in the more off-the-wall “The Twentieth Century”), offering a delightful cross-cultural hybrid designed to celebrate our differences.

Though Rankin shows a genuine affection for all things Persian, the first and most obvious hiccup to his premise is that audiences don’t necessarily share his interest or his references. There’s something inherently provocative — and perhaps even triggering to some — about seeing a nondescript Canadian elementary school where...

Exclusive: Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever (Bff) has acquired international sales rights for Canadian director Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language.

The intriguing Persian and French-language drama is among 21 feature films announced as being selected for the 2024 edition of Cannes parallel section Directors’ Fortnight on Tuesday.

In a first key distribution deal for the movie, Oscilloscope Laboratories have taken U.S. rights. Quebecois distributor Maison4Tiers will release in Canada.

Universal Language is Rankin’s second feature after The Twentieth Century, on which Bff also handled international sales. The surrealist dark comedy won the Berlinale Fipresci Award in 2020 and Best Canadian debut award in TIFF Midnight Madness 2019.

Rankin has also made multiple short films including The Tesla World Light, which premiered in Cannes Critic’s Week 2017.

Going under the Persian title of Avaz boughalamoune (Lovesong for a Turkey), Rankin’s new film Universal Language is described as taking place “somewhere between...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on Wbgr-fm on April 7th, reviewing “Aline,” a fictional account of the Celine Dion story, in theaters beginning April 8th

Rating: 3.5/5.0

The Celine character is portrayed (and the film is directed) by Valerie Lemercier as Aline Dieu, a Canadian chanteuse from a large family, who breaks through with an extraordinary voice and a love for her much older manager, Guy-Claude. The price of fame seems to be the theme, as Aline tries to live a normal life while being one of the most popular singers in the world.

“Aline” is in theaters beginning April 8th. Featuring Valerie Lemarcier, Sylvain Marcel, Danielle Fichaud, and Roc Lafortune. Screenplay by Valerie Lemercier and Brigitte Buc. Directed by Valerie Lemarcier. Rated “PG-13”

Click Here for Patrick McDonald’s full on-air review of “Aline”

Aline

Photo credit: Samuel Goldwyn Films

Click...

There’s nothing as tired as the Hollywood biopic, but “Aline” is no conventional biopic. While the film makes no effort to hide that it is inspired by the life of Celine Dion, the greatest singer since Barbra Streisand and pride and joy of Quebec, there is a very thin layer of distance between the film’s events and Dion’s life. Though it can sometimes read like a Wikipedia entry, the effort by writer, director, and star Valérie Lemercier to fictionalize as much as possible can be chalked up to one thing — respect.

Renaming the singer Aline Dieu and playing the character herself, Lemercier grounds the larger-than-life diva with a down-home quirkiness that feels true to life, even if we don’t know how true it is.

“Aline” begins its rags-to-riches tale in the Quebec countryside, where a working class young couple falls in love over their shared love of music.

Valérie Lemercier directs and plays both old and young versions of the Canadian singer in a bizarre film that digitally superimposes her face on to the head of a young girl

Here is an utterly bizarre fictionalised biopic of Canadian singing star Céline Dion, whose opening scenes will have audiences screaming and running out of the cinemas the way they were mythically supposed to have done at the Lumière brothers’ first silent movie about the arriving train. Even now, I still can’t believe I have seen it.

Valérie Lemercier (from Claire Denis’s Vendredi Soir) directs and stars, playing Aline Dieu – a made-up version of Dion – the youngest of 14 children in Quebec, all the kids kept in line by their formidable working-class mum Sylvette (Danielle Fichaud). Young Aline shows precocious singing talent and her parents send a demo tape to ageing record producer Guy-Claude Kamar (Sylvain Marcel), a version of the real-life René Angélil,...

This year’s ceremony was uncharacteristically devoid of controversy after politically-charged editions in 2020 and 2021.

Xavier Giannoli’s costume drama Lost Illusions was the big winner at the 47th Cesar awards of France’s Academy of Cinema and Arts and Sciences on Friday evening (25), winning best film, adapted screenplay, costume and supporting actor among others.

The adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s19th-century novel premiered in competition at Venice last year. It was the frontrunner at the nomination stage, making it into 15 of the 24 César categories.

The other big winner of the evening was Leos Carax’s English-language musical Annette. Carax won best director,...

Ceremony for awards voted on by 4,363 members of the César academy will take place on February 25.

Xavier Giannoli’s literary adaptation Lost Illusions is the frontrunner in the nomination stage of the 47th edition of France’s César awards, followed by Leos Carax’s Annette and Valérie Lemercier’s Aline.

France’s Academy of Cinema and Arts and Sciences unveiled the nomination list online on Wednesday morning (January 26), ahead of the ceremony scheduled to take place on February 25.

Giannoli’s adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s eponymous 19th-century novel, which premiered in competition at Venice last year, was nominated in...

Update: Xavier Giannoli’s Illusions Perdues (Lost Illusions) leads nominations for the 2022 César Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscar. The Venice premiere scored 15 mentions, followed by Leos Carax’s Annette, which opened the Cannes Film Festival last year and has 11 nominations. They are followed by Valérie Lemercier’s Aline, the musical dramedy inspired by the life of Céline Dion which also debuted in Cannes and has 10 nods. (Scroll down for the full list of nominations.)

Interestingly, the three films that France shortlisted for the International Feature Academy Award race came in on the lower end. Cédric Jiminez’s Bac Nord (The Stronghold) took seven nominations, while Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner Happening settles for four, tying Cannes Palme d’Or winner Titane.

The latter was France’s eventual entry to the Oscars, but did not make the shortlist. It was also shut out of the Best Film category at the Césars today.

"You didn't lose me. Love won, that's all." Roadside Attractions has debuted the official US trailer for the film Aline, also known as Aline Dieu! or Aline: The Voice of Love, this strange "unofficial" biopic of Celine Dion. The film is about the life of famous Canadian singer Celine Dion, but they couldn't use her real name so it's called Aline Dieu instead, which just translates to "Aline God" in French. This first premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Directed by and starring Valérie Lemercier, it's described as "a tribute film and not a caricature film" but I think that's up to everyone who watches to decide. The youngest of a hardworking French-Canadian couple’s 14 children is propelled to global music superstardom in Aline, a fictional musical dramedy freely inspired by the life of Celine Dion, written, directed and starring the two-time César Award winner. It also stars Sylvain Marcel,...

“Aline,” the biopic loosely based on French Canadian hitmaker Celine Dion, has been acquired by Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films for U.S. distribution. The critically acclaimed musical comedy-drama world premiered out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It will be released theatrically in the U.S. in early 2022.

Lemercier, one of France’s most popular actors and stand-up comedians, directed, co-wrote (with Brigitte But) and stars in the film as Aline Dieu, a singing prodigy (who is meant to be Celine Dion) who grew up in 1960s Quebec surrounded by her tight-knit family of 13 siblings.

When a famous producer, Guy Claude (who is meant to be René Angélil), discovers Aline and her golden voice, he sets out to make her the world’s greatest singer. The crowd-pleasing film charts Aline’s life journey from her childhood through to her sudden rise as a global superstar, showing her impressive transformation.