News

Hadi Babaeifer‘s latest short, “Sheep,” is the second installment in his animal-themed trilogy. His earlier work, “Deer” (2018), like “Sheep,” premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for the Crystal Bear. With this new story, Hadi continues to question social beliefs through the curious eyes of children, offering a thought-provoking exploration of societal norms.

Sheep is screening at Busan International Short Film Festival

Rose (Rose Tabatabaei) is a young girl living with her mother (Gelavij Alam) and their pet dog in urban Tehran. Their life appears settled and comfortable, until one day, that calm exterior begins to fracture. From the upstairs window of her apartment, Rose watches as her neighbors herd a small group of sheep and butcher them one by one. Alarmed, she turns to her mother for an explanation. Her mother casually explains that this is a religious ritual: the animals are sacrificed and their...

Among the best things in The President’s Cake are the colors. There’s the deep red of a rooster’s comb as it peeks out from a young girl’s carrying pouch; there’s the white decorations that adorn her uncle’s blue car; and then there is the opening vista, in which a deep evening sky is disturbed by the roar of two American fighter jets. We’re somewhere in the ’90s, the country is Iraq, and the decorations are for its president, Saddam Hussein. Soon the camera will peel away to reveal a group of villagers lining up for water. If this is the length people are going for basic requirements, you soon begin to wonder: what chance does anyone have of finding baking soda?

Hasan Hadi’s Cake premiered in Directors’ Fortnight and won the audience award. Then, at the closing weekend, it was given Cannes’ coveted...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights in North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and India for Cannes Caméra d’Or winner The President’s Cake by Iraqi director Hasan Hadi.

The film, which debuted in Directors’ Fortnight, also proved a crowdpleaser in the Cannes parallel section, winning its People’s Choice audience award.

Deadline critic Pete Hammond also fell for the film describing it as a “a true gem and a real discovery”. Check out his review here.

New York-based Hadi has tapped into his own childhood in southern Iraq in the 1990s, growing up under the regime of President Saddam Hussein and the socio-economic crisis provoked by international sanctions, for the film.

The drama follows nine-year-old Lamia who gets the short straw of having to provide a birthday cake for her classmates to celebrate the president’s birthday. Gathering the ingredients for the mandatory cake at a...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights in North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, South East Asia and India to Iraqi drama The President’s Cake, winner of the Camera d’Or and Directors’ Fortnight People’s Choice Award at this month’s Cannes festival.

Written and directed by Hasan Hadi as his feature debut, the film is set in 1990s Iraq, where a nine-year-old girl uses her wits and imagination to make the cake all schools are mandated to prepare to celebrate the birthday of the country’s president.

The film is produced by Leah Chen Baker with executive producers...

Iraqi filmmaker Hasan Hadi has won the Directors’ Fortnight People’s Choice Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his poignant, darkly comic debut feature The President’s Cake.

The €7,500 ($8,400) cash prize is the only audience-voted award across the official selection and parallel sections in Cannes and marks a major breakthrough for the New York-based Hadi. The film is being sold internationally by Films Boutique, with UTA handling North American rights.

Based on Hadi’s own childhood in 1990s Iraq, the film follows nine-year-old Lamia, who is tasked with baking a cake to honor Saddam Hussein’s birthday — a seemingly simple assignment with life-or-death stakes. Amid crippling sanctions, food shortages and a climate of fear, Lamia’s attempt to gather ingredients becomes a journey of quiet rebellion and resourcefulness.

Produced by Leah Chen Baker under the banner of Tpc Film LLC, the film has resonated with critics and audiences alike. In her The Hollywood Reporter review,...

Iraqi director Hasan Hadi’s first feature The President’s Cake has won the second edition of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight People’s Choice audience award.

New York-based Hadi has tapped into his own childhood in southern Iraq in the 1990s, growing up under the regime of President Saddam Hussein and the socio-economic crisis provoked by international sanctions, for the film.

The drama follows nine-year-old Lamia who gets the short straw of having to provide a birthday cake for her classmates to celebrate the president’s birthday. Gathering the ingredients for the mandatory cake at a time of shortages is a monumental task but failure to deliver could lead to prison or death for her family.

Leah Chen Baker produced under the banner of New-York-based Tpc Film LLC. Films Boutique handles international sales, with UTA handling North America.

Deadline critic Pete Hammond has also fallen for the film describing it as...

Hailed by Variety as a “warm and heart-tugging tale,” Hasan Hadi’s “The President’s Cake,” Iraq’s first film selected for Cannes, has won the Directors’ Fortnight People’s Choice prize, the first audience award at Cannes and a Directors’ Fortnight plaudit which take into consideration any film from any part of the world.

The prestigious award builds on auspicious early major territory sales for the film, sold by Films Boutique, which bid fair for a broad international roll out.

News of the Director’s Fortnight People’s Choice prize comes as Belgian Valéry Carnoy has won a second partner prize in the Directors’ Fortnight, scooping the Sacd Coup de Cœur des Auteurs prize for “Wild Foxes,” adding to its Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for best European film at Directors’ Fortnight, announced just an hour ago. The double whammy establishes the Belgian director as a director to track.

A U.

Films Boutique has sold Hasan Hadi’s “The President’s Cake,” which had its world premiere in Cannes sidebar Directors’ Fortnight, to multiple territories.

The film was picked up by Lucky Red for Italy, Atalante for Spain, Rialto Distribution for Australia/New Zealand, Filmcoopi for Switzerland, Cinobo for Greece and Nitrato Filmes for Portugal.

Negotiations are underway for the U.K., Turkey, Scandinavia, Latin America, Austria and the Middle-East.

As previously announced, Tandem has the film in France, and September Film has it in Benelux. North American rights are handled by UTA/WME.

“The President’s Cake” takes place in 1990s Iraq when people across the country are struggling to survive food shortages. It is at this time that Saddam Hussein requires each school in the country to prepare a cake to celebrate his birthday.

Despite her efforts to avoid getting picked, 9-year-old Lamia is chosen from among her classmates. The girl...

Stay at a film festival long enough, and you will eventually notice certain shared themes and connective tissues between movies. Even then, the happenstance link between Hasan Hadi’s compassionate directorial debut “The President’s Cake” and Fatih Akin’s quiet epic “Amrum” is something of a shock, as both movies send their young protagonists onto grand quests to gather around basic supplies like flour, sugar, eggs and so on at times of tragic scarcity born under dictators.

Then again, as specific as this plot similarity is, perhaps its emergence shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, considering the current, war-torn state of the world that’s once again victimizing children. Filmmakers trying to navigate our present-day realities would dig into their own pasts and memories. With “The President’s Cake,” Hadi has done exactly that, closely following his lead-character Lamia.

It’s Iraq in the 1990s — as Hadi remembers it.

Lantern-lit waterways and long, thin boats used by villagers and children for trips to market and school is not an image contemporary audiences hold of Iraq, especially during the brutal regime of its notorious fifth President, Saddam Hussein. Political narratives often obscure the earthier knowledge that modern Iraq used to be Mesopotamia, considered by many as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of the first written story in human history. The epic of Gilgamesh dwarfs any legend surrounding said dictator, whose ironclad, decades-long reign made desperate, repressed plebeians of the citizenry, and whose playbook included requiring all schools to assign a student to bake a cake to celebrate his birthday. All of this at a time when Un-backed sanctions deepened poverty and created widespread shortages of food and medicine.

Aptly then, and in the spirit of resistance, Iraqi filmmaker Hasan Hadi opens his debut feature, “The President’s Cake,” with a clairvoyant line from Gilgamesh,...

Perhaps the most surprising thing about today’s world premiere of The President’s Cake in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival is that it isn’t in the main Competition at the Grand Lumiere. It is head and shoulders above some of those films I have seen there, but no matter how you find it, this is a true gem and a real discovery from Hasan Hadi. With the right distributor, it could turn out to be Iraq’s first nominee for an Oscar. Yes, it is that good, and coming from a country that barely has movie theaters or any history of cinema, that is saying a lot. This is the first major film from Iraq ever to play in Cannes.

Set in 1990s Iraq as dictator Saddam Hussein ruled the land, this is a slice of life actually shot in the country and a...

Iraqi writer/director Hasan Hadi finds a most unusual way into the story of Saddam Hussein, who served as president of his country until the U.S. invasion in 2003 overthrew his reign, which was marked by terror and tyranny.

In Hadi’s film “The President’s Cake,” the story is told via a nine-year-old girl, Lamia (Banin Ahmad Nayef), who is forced, as part of a ritualistic school celebration of their Iraqi president, to prepare him a cake. “The President’s Cake” premieres in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight this Friday, May 16, and is looking for distributors around the world. IndieWire shares a clip below.

Here’s the official synopsis: “While people across 1990s Iraq struggle to survive the war and food shortages, Saddam Hussein requires each school in the country to prepare a cake to celebrate his birthday. Despite her efforts to avoid getting picked, 9-year-old Lamia is chosen among her classmates. The...

Sales agency Films Boutique has closed two key territories on Iraqi writer/director Hasan Hadi’s “The President’s Cake” ahead of its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight during the Cannes Film Festival.

The film has been acquired in France by Tandem and Benelux by September Film.

“The President’s Cake” takes place in 1990s Iraq when people across the country are struggling to survive food shortages. It is at this time that Saddam Hussein requires each school in the country to prepare a cake to celebrate his birthday.

Despite her efforts to avoid getting picked, 9-year-old Lamia is chosen among her classmates. The girl must now use her wits and imagination to gather ingredients for the mandatory cake or face the consequences.

“The President’s Cake” was filmed entirely in Iraq with a cast of local non-actors, who included Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Sajad Mohamad Qasem, Waheed Thabet Khreibat and Rahim AlHaj.

Hadi...

Exclusive: Films Boutique has boarded world sales on Hasan Hadi’s Iraqi debut feature The President’s Cake, which was selected for Cannes sidebar Directors’ Fortnight earlier this month.

Written by Hadi, the film is set in 1990s Iraq and follows nine-year-old Lamia, who is selected for the intimidating role of baking Saddam Hussein’s birthday cake. She must use her wits and imagination to gather the ingredients to make the mandatory cake, or face the consequences.

Filmed entirely in Iraq, the Iraq-us-Qatar co-production is produced by US producer Leah Chen Baker, whose credits include Sundance 2022 feature Palm Trees and Power Lines.

Acclaimed Indonesian actor Reza Rahadian steps behind the camera for “Pangku” (On Your Lap), an intimate drama set against the backdrop of Indonesia’s 1998 economic crisis.

The project is selected for the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf), the project market that operates concurrently with Hong Kong FilMart.

The film follows Sartika, a pregnant young woman who leaves her city seeking a better future for her child. After relocating to Pantura (Java’s North Coast region), she meets Maya, a coffee shop owner who initially offers help but later manipulates her into working as a “Kopi Pangku” waitress – a tradition where women sit on men’s laps as they drink coffee. Sartika’s life takes a turn when she meets Hadi, a fish distributor truck driver, and falls in love.

“‘Pangku’ is a deeply personal and intimate portrayal of a mother’s resilience, inspired by my own mother’s unwavering strength,...

The pressure state surveillance can put on people, to the point of them crumbling completely, has been a recurring theme in social dramas. Writer-director Nader Saeivar also deals with this theme in his second feature “No End”, a film that is essentially heroic considering the imprisonment of filmmakers in the country that has been happening recently, as with his frequent collaborator and editor-advisor of the movie, Jafar Panahi.

“No End” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema

Middle-aged Ayaz is a civil servant working in a government department handling construction permits. Despite the fact that corruption is all around him, he does not receive bribes, something that both him and his wife, Negar, are proud of. The two of them live with her mother in an apartment that actually belongs to her brother, Soroush, who is about to return to Iran from Germany after 30 years. Ayaz, who...