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Between 1989 and 2003, more than 50,000 children were enlisted in the Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars. Lives were torn apart, a tragedy Ivorian author Ahmadou Kourouma used as material for his award-winning novel “Allah Is Not Obliged,” short for the novel’s leitmotif: “Allah is not obliged to be just in all of his doings down here.”

Zaven Najjar, visual artist, animator and artistic director on Sepideh Farsi’s “The Siren,” was struck by the powerful text, as was Special Touch Studios producer Sébastien Onomo. Together, they embarked on the difficult journey of translating this tale into animation, and now, their feature adaptation is screening at Annecy.

In the film, Birahima, a 10-year-old orphan from Guinea, ironically describes how he is thrown into tribal warfare while trying to reach his aunt in Liberia. Yacouba, a shady man, convinces him to become a child soldier, while he becomes a “grigriman” and witch doctor among the fighters.

UK filmmaker Joanna Quinn paid tribute to Gaza animator Haneen Koraz as she received the Annecy International Animation Film Festival’s Honorary Cristal at its opening ceremony on Sunday evening.

The Bafta-winning and three-time Oscar-nominated The Canterbury Tales and Affairs of the Art director praised Koraz’s work in the Gaza Strip spearheading women-run animation workshops for children.

“One day, she’ll be stood here, holding one of these, hint, hint,” she continued, referring to her Cristal award. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the kids could come here and watch their films.”

Quinn’s was speaking amid growing international criticism of Israel’s military campaign in the Palestinian territory – aimed at annihilating Islamist militant group Hamas in response to its October 7, 2023 attacks and retrieving Israeli hostages – which has left more than 54,000 people dead and the population on the brink of starvation.

Speaking to Deadline afterwards at the opening night party,...

Sepideh Farsi’s documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” follows 25-year-old Gaza photojournalist Fatma Hassona, a story of a woman under siege by constant bombing, made especially sobering by its circumstances. On April 16, 2025, just a day after the movie’s Cannes Film Festival selection was announced, Hassona was killed in an Israeli airstrike, turning the film into a cinematic epitaph to a life cut far too short.

Farsi takes an unusual visual approach to capturing Hassona, but one that eventually pays dividends. Using one smartphone to film another, the Iranian director creates layers of distance between the audience and her subject — or rather, mimics the actual divide between the two women — during their many WhatsApp video chats. Farsi cannot enter Gaza, and Hassona cannot leave, leaving pixelated calls with delayed audio (owing to Hassona’s poor internet connection) as their only way to connect.

There likely would have been clearer,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSEyes Wide Shut.Favorable tax breaks, a sturdy filmmaking infrastructure, and a more stable political climate have made London a new locus for film production, especially in the wake of American post-strike budget reductions and the recent spate of wildfires. However, it’s unclear whether President Trump’s ever-changing tariff policy will affect London’s status as a haven for American productions.On the eve of the Cannes Film Festival, over 100 film and television organizations appealed to various governments and organizations to “stand firm and safeguard the systems that support independent film and audiovisual creation” in light of President Trump’s proposal to impose tariffs on film imports. Hundreds of actors and filmmakers have signed a letter condemning...

On April 15, 2025, it was announced that “Put Your Soul in Your Hand and Walk” — a series of filmed video conversations between Iranian documentarian Sepideh Farsi and 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist, Fatma Hassona — would play in the Acid strand of the Cannes Film Festival. On April 16, as they slept in their home in Gaza City, Fatma, Walaa, Alaa, Yazan, Mohammed, and Muhannad Hassona were killed by an Israeli airstrike. Fatma’s parents were wounded and father Raed died later from his injuries.

Final responsibility for the murder of a bright and gifted young woman who dreamed of visiting the world lies with the Israeli Defence Force. However, given widespread awareness of how Palestinians are targeted for raising the profile of the daily suffering induced by the occupation (see also the abduction of “No Other Land” co-director Hamdan Ballal after its Oscar win) a question hangs over this documentary about how deeply Farsi...

Sepideh Farsi’s “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” arrives not merely as a documentary, but as a shard of fractured looking glass, reflecting a reality one might prefer to remain unseen. At its flickering heart pulses the ephemeral presence of Fatma Hassona, a young Palestinian photojournalist whose Gaza existence became both subject and abyss.

The film’s architecture is deceptively simple: a tenuous bridge of video calls, pixels struggling to transmit the weight of a soul navigating the maelstrom of intense conflict with Farsi. Yet, this digital communion is now haunted by an irremediable silence. Fatma Hassona was killed in an Israeli airstrike on April 16th, 2025, a breath after learning this very film—her image, her voice—would travel to Cannes.

The work transmutes, then, before our eyes, from chronicle to eulogy, her final testimony delivered from beyond the veil. What began as a dialogue on survival...

Has Cannes gone all political on us? The French film festival, which used to pride itself on, sometimes to a fault, being the apolitical “cinema for cinema’s sake” festival, appears to be storming the barricades.

The 78th Festival featured one of the most political opening ceremonies in living memory. In his speech accepting an honorary Palme d’Or, Robert De Niro lambasted U.S. President Donald Trump, labeling him “America’s Philistine president” and rallying the audience to “act now…without violence, but with great passion and determination” to defend democracy. “It’s time for everyone who cares about liberty to organize, to protest, and when there are elections, vote. Vote. Tonight, and for the next 11 days, we show our strength and commitment by celebrating art in this glorious festival. Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.”

Ceremony host, French actor Laurent Lafitte, gave a similarly passionate and highly political speech, calling on...

The Cannes world premiere of Sepideh Farsi’s documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” turned into a moving tribute to its protagonist Fatma Hassona, who was killed by an Israeli missile just weeks earlier.

An emotional Farsi fought back tears as she introduced the film and afterwards held aloft a photo of Hassona.

Hassona, a 25-year photojournalist who based in Gaza, was killed with her family by an Israeli missile that targeted her building in April, just a day after the film had been selected for Cannes.

In the film, it was revealed that Farsi and Hassona had spoken about the possibility of her leaving Gaza and attending the festival.

On the first day of Cannes, Hassona was named in a letter signed by more than 370 industry figures that condemned her death and also criticized “silence” from the cinema industry over Gaza.

Signed by names such as Mark Ruffalo,...

Joaquin Phoenix, Juliette Binoche, Pedro Pascal, Riz Ahmed and Guillermo del Toro are among a group of figures to have added their names to a letter condemning the film industry for its “silence” over the ongoing and deadly impact of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

The letter, published on the first day of Cannes and initially signed by more than 370 actors and filmmakers, also condemned Israel’s killing of Fatma Hassona, the protagonist of festival-bound doc “Put Your Soul in Your Hand and Walk.”

The new signatories also includes the likes of Rooney Mara, Jim Jarmusch, Omar Sy, Peter Straughan, Camille Cottin, Michael Moore, Boots Riley and Alice Rohrwacher.

The letter urged cinema — which it said was a “breeding ground for socially committed works” — to use its art form to “draw lessons from history, to make films that are committed” and to be “present to protect oppressed voices.”

The...

It’s not often that a movie review suddenly transorms into an obituary, but that’s unfortunately the case for Iranian director Sepideh Farsi’s new documentary, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk. Only two days after the film was announced in the lineup of Cannes’ Acid sidebar, another announcement was made informing us that its protagonist, 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona, was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces along with several members of her family.

Perhaps even more tragic is the fact that the endearing and joyful Hassona, whom we get to know through months of video calls assembled by Farsi into a feature-length conversation, clearly saw her death as a possibility. In one of several frank discussions over FaceTime (or an equivalent app), she tells the director: “You have many different options to die here in Gaza,” detailing the bombings, shootings, disease and starvation that have...

Longtime collaborators and two-time Palme d’Or winners Ken Loach and Paul Laverty have shared a lengthy open letter backing Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk, the latest feature from Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi, which debuts this evening in Cannes.

The film is a hot topic in Cannes this week as it predominantly features Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, who was killed on April 16 in an Israeli airstrike on her home in northern Gaza. Hassouna was killed alongside 10 members of her family, including her pregnant sister.

Since Israel began its offensive in Gaza, following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed more than 1000 people, at least 52,000 people have been killed, more than half of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. Dozens of Gazan civilians have been killed this week alone. Meanwhile, 58 Israeli hostages remain in the enclave.

In the open letter posted to social media,...

Arab cinema and its representatives are out in full force — and in the spotlight — on the Croisette this year, where the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival kicked off on Tuesday.

Case in point: Qatar’s film industry is gearing up for what insiders say will be its biggest-ever presence on the Croisette. The timing seems fitting given that the Arab Cinema Center (Acc) will, during the fest, bestow its sixth Arab Cinema Personality of the Year Award onto Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, CEO of Qatar’s Doha Film Institute, for her “noteworthy efforts to advance the Qatari, Arab, and global film industries.”

Egypt also has reason to celebrate. It returns to the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard lineup for the first time in nine years, with its “central role in regional production and distribution” as “the Arab world’s largest filmmaking hub” getting the spotlight in a...

Dubai-based sales agency Cercamon has launched Vorteks, a new genre label running the gamut from horror to sci-fi, thriller, fantasy, dark comedy and action movies. Handling 8-10 features a year, Vorteks will be run by David Kwok, the Tribeca Film Festival director of programming for its first 10 editions. A partner at Vorteks, Kwok will spearhead acquisitions and sales.

“With a special focus on emerging talent, the label’s evolving slate will reflect the incredible new voices coming out of the genre community,” Kwok said, noting that Vorteks expands Cercamon’s mission of “searching for the best films and to work with bold filmmakers.”

In one case in point, Vorteks’ first official acquisition is “Ancestral Beasts,” the second feature from Canadian writer-director-producer Riedel (“Jackstones”) and a tale of an Indigenous woman’s battle with trauma which weighs in as one of the buzzy projects at Cannes Frontières Platform’s Proof of...

When Cannes Film Festival Jury President Juliette Binoche was asked today why she didn’t sign a global film industry open letter condemning the “silence” over the deadly impact of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza; The English Patient Oscar winner told a reporter “I cannot answer you.”

“You will maybe understand it a little later,” the actress said.

Binoche at this afternoon’s Cannes jury press conference was asked by Al Jazeera English about the open letter that was released on the eve of the festival with signatures from more than 350 cinema world figures including Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Javier Bardem.

“In Cannes, the horror Gaza must not be silenced,” read the letter.

Binoche was questioned on why she did not sign the letter herself, despite being “well-known for speaking out about a variety of causes.” After a long hesitation, she refused to answer but insisted that...

A group of more than 350 international actors, directors and producers have signed a letter published on the first day of Cannes condemning the killing of Fatma Hassona, the Palestinian photojournalist and protagonist of the festival-bound documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,” in an Israeli airstrike.

The letter, signed by names such as Mark Ruffalo, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, Melissa Barrera, Yorgos Lanthimos, Javier Bardem, Hannah Einbinder, Pedro Almodóvar, David Cronenberg, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Leigh, Alex Gibney, Viggo Mortensen, Cynthia Nixon, Tessa Ross and many more, also called out the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ for its “lack of support” for “No Other Land” co-director Hamdan Ballal.

Just three weeks after winning the Oscar for the documentary, Ballal was assaulted by settlers and kidnapped by the Israeli army. After being criticized for its silence over the incident, AMPAS eventually publicly apologized. “We are ashamed of such passivity,...

More than 350 film world figures, including Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Javier Bardem, have published an open letter on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival condemning “silence” over the deadly impact of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza.

The letter, published on the website of France’s Libération newspaper on Monday evening, was headed “In Cannes, the horror Gaza must not be silenced”. It was addressed “For Fatem”, in memory of 25-year-old Gaza artist and photojournalist Fatima Hassouna.

The young woman was killed in an Israeli airstrike in mid-April just 24 hours after it was announced a documentary exploring her life in the Gaza Strip would world premiere in the Cannes. Ten of her relatives, including her pregnant sister, were killed in same strike.

“She was a Palestinian freelance photojournalist. She was targeted by the Israeli army on 16 April, 2025, the day after it was announced that Sepideh Farsi’s...

International sales outfit Cercamon has acquired worldwide rights to the Gaza-set documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,” directed by Iranian-French filmmaker Sepideh Farsi.

The documentary is set to make its world premiere in the Acid program at next month’s Cannes Film Festival.

The feature offers an intimate, first-hand look at life under siege in Gaza through video calls between Farsi and young Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona. In a tragic turn of events, Hassona was killed in an Israeli missile strike on her home just one day after the film’s Cannes selection was announced.

Through raw footage and personal testimony, “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” documents daily life during the conflict through the perspective of a generation trapped in what the filmmakers describe as an endless cycle of war.

“We were deeply moved by the extraordinary courage and resilience captured in this film,...

France’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival (June 8-14) will preview upcoming animations including Zootopia 2, Animal Farm and the Stranger Things animated series as part of its 2025 lineup.

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, director Michel Gondry andacclaimed UK animator Joanna Quinn will receive honorary Cristal awards.

Gondry will present his Berlinale 2025 title Maya, Give Me a Title as a special screening.

Scroll down for the full list of competition films, screening events and studio showcases

Also attending are Andy Serkis for what the festival described as a ‘special premiere’ of his animated feature adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm,...

Despite being protected by international law, at least 175 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel's Occupying Forces since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas forces killed 1,200 people in an attack on Israel. This is in addition to Israel killing "more than 400 aid workers and over 1,300 health workers" in Gaza, recently underscored by the discovery of a mass grave containing 15 paramedics and rescue workers who had been murdered execution style. 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, subject of the new documentary filmPut Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk, is the latest victim; she and nine members of her family were killed just 24 hours after learning that her film would be screening as part of the Acid section at the Cannes Film Festival.

Hassouna and her family were bombed by the Israeli military, adding to the tens of thousands of civilians who have been murdered since Oct. 7. The exact number is impossible to ascertain at the moment,...

Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna and nine of her family members were killed in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday, just one day after a documentary in which she serves as the protagonist was accepted into Acid, a parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival.

Hassouna stars in Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, a new film by French-Iranian director Sepideh Farsi that chronicles the impact of Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Speaking to Deadline, Farsi confirmed that Hassouna, her sisters (one of whom was pregnant), her brothers, and other family members were killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City on Wednesday.

“The Israeli army said it bombed the house because there was a Hamas officer in there, which is totally false,” Farsi said. “I know the whole family. It’s nonsense. It’s just so devastating.”

Last month, Hamdan Ballal, Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land,...

The subject of filmmaker Sepideh Farsi’s upcoming Cannes documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,” the Palestinian artist and photojournalist Fatma Hassona, as well as her family, has allegedly been killed during an Israeli missile strike on her building in Gaza. Set to be featured as part of Cannes’ parallel section Acid, which is run by France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (l’Acid), the film follows Hassona as she captures the atrocities being committed in her homeland via her camera, as well as helping those who are grieving tremendous loss.

In a release shared with IndieWire, the filmmakers behind the project, as well as members of the Acid team said of Hassona, “Her smile was as magical as her tenacity: bearing witness, photographing Gaza, distributing food despite the bombs, mourning, and hunger. We heard her story, we rejoiced at each of her appearances to see her alive,...

Fatma Hassona, the Palestinian protagonist of Sepideh Farsi’s “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” – selected for Cannes’ Acid – was tragically killed with her family by an Israeli missile that targeted her building, the Acid team has shared with Variety. Hassona, who was based in Gaza, was 25.

“Her smile was as magical as her tenacity: bearing witness, photographing Gaza, distributing food despite the bombs, mourning and hunger. We heard her story, rejoiced at each of her appearances to see her alive, we feared for her,” said the team in a statement.

“We had watched and programmed a film in which this young woman’s life force seemed like a miracle. This is no longer the same film that we are going to support and present in all theaters, starting with Cannes. All of us, filmmakers and spectators alike, must be worthy of her light.”

Sepideh Farsi, the Iranian director of the film,...

A Palestinian artist and photojournalist who is the protagonist of a documentary due to premiere in Cannes in May has been killed in an Israeli airstrike, according to multiple media reports.

Fatma Hassouna, a Palestinian photojournalist and artist and a protagonist in Sepideh Farsi’s Cannes-bound documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, was killed Wednesday by a direct Israeli military strike on her family home in Gaza City.

The attack occurred just 24 hours after Cannes’ sidebar section Acid announced it had picked Farsi’s film for its 2025 selection. Hassouna died in the attack, along with nine members of her family.

“We, filmmakers and members of the Acid team, met Fatma Hassona when we discovered Sepideh Farsi’s film Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, during the Cannes program,” Acid posted on Instagram Thursday. “Her smile was as magical as her tenacity: Bearing witness, photographing Gaza,...

A Palestinian artist and photojournalist who is the protagonist of a documentary due to premiere in Cannes in May has been killed in an Israeli air strike.

Fatima Hassouna died with nine members of her family in a direct strike on their home in Gaza City on Wednesday.

Hassouna, who had gained international recognition for her photojournalism capturing the impact on the Gaza Strip’s civilian population of the Israeli military campaign, appears in French-Iranian director Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk.

Hassouna was killed 24 hours after the documentary was announced as having been selected for parallel Cannes section Acid, running from May 14 to 23 alongside the main festival.

The work revolves around video conversations between Farsi, whose credits include Berlinale-selected animated feature The Siren, and Hassouna. They began when the director connected with the young woman while researching a wider documentary on the events unfolding in Gaza.

Sophie Letourneur’s L’Aventura has been set as the opening film of Cannes parallel section Acid, which has unveiled the nine-strong selection for its 2025 edition.

Letourneur’s fifth feature stars Philippe Katerine, the French performer who performed a song while semi-naked and painted blue at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics last year. Letourneur also stars in the film about a family road trip to Italy. Best Friend Forever handles sales.

This year’s selection comprises six fiction films and three documentaries, with eight world premieres. Organisers said more than 650 films were submitted, with nine chosen by a committee of 14 filmmakers.

Sophie Letourneur’s L’Aventura has been set as the opening film of Cannes parallel section Acid, which has unveiled the nine-strong selection for its 2025 edition.

Letourneur’s fifth feature stars Philippe Katerine, the French performer who performed a song while semi-naked and painted blue at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics last year. Letourneur also stars in the film about a family road trip to Italy. Best Friend Forever handles sales.

This year’s selection comprises six fiction films and three documentaries, with eight world premieres. Organisers said more than 650 films were submitted, with nine chosen by a committee of 14 filmmakers.

The Cannes Film Festival’s Acid sidebar, run by France’s independent cinemas’ association l’Acid , unveiled its 2025 line-up on Tuesday, with the section kicking off with The Adventura (L’aventura), a French family drama from actor/director Sophie Letourneur, starring Letourneur and Philippe Katerine as the parents of small children who go on a summer road trip to Italy.

Acid’s 2025 drama lineup also includes Drunken Noodles, from U.S.-based Argentinian director Lucio Castro, a feature loosely inspired by the life of artist Sal Salandra; The Black Snake from French filmmaker Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux, about a man who, after years of absence, returns to the Colombian Tatacoa Desert to the bedside of his dying mother; Laruent in the Wind from directors Anton Balekdjian, Léo Couture, and Mattéo Eustachon, about a 29-year-old searching for the meaning in his life; the crime drama Entroncamento from Portuguese director Pedro Cabeleira; and Finnish...

Acid, a Cannes Film Festival parallel section, has announced its 2025 selection consisting of nine feature films.

That includes “L’aventura” by Sophie Letourneur, Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux’s “The Black Snake,” “Drifting Laurent” directed by Anton Balekdjian, Léo Couture and Mattéo Eustachon, Lucio Castro’s “Drunken Noodles,” Pedro Cabeleira’s “Entroncamento” and “A Light That Never Goes Out” by debuting director Lauri-Matti Parppei.

Three documentaries were chosen as well, starting with Sylvain George’s “Obscure Night – Ain’t I a Child?” and followed by Sepideh Farsi’s “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” and Namir Abdel Messeeh’s “La Vie Après Siham.”

“I’m pretty much sure that after watching these films you won’t say: ‘I have already seen it.’ Instead, you will say: ‘What just happened?’ Before meeting you, I talked to someone and they kept asking me: ‘What’s the main theme?’ Telling stories in a different...

Cannes parallel section Acid, run by France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (l’Acid), has unveiled its 2025 line-up.

The section will open with French actress and director Sophie Letourneur’s L’aventura set against a family road trip to Sardinia told by the 11-year-old daughter.

Letourneur co-stars as the mother opposite Philippe Katerine, who gained international fame over the summer when he appeared nearly naked and painted blue as Dionysus in the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

The section will showcase nine features – eight of them world premieres – selected by a committee of directors from 600 submissions and aimed at showcasing “original and audacious” works.

International films include U.S.-based Argentinian director Lucio Castro’s Drunken Noodles. Loosely inspired by the life of embroidery artist Sal Salandra, it follows a young artist as he arrives in New York and tries to break into the gallery scene.

From Finland,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

Martin Scorsese has programmed Living, Breathing New York, which continues with a 35mm print of Bringing Out the Dead on Friday and Saturday; The Quiet Man plays on 35mm Saturday and Sunday; David Lynch shorts and Lost Highway screen.

Anthology Film Archives

A new restoration of João César Monteiro’s Snow White plays on Saturday; a Rosemary Hochschild retrospective screens.

Film Forum

A René Clair retrospective has begun; Luis Buñuel’s Él continues screening in a 4K restoration alongside Play It As It Lays and Godard’s A Woman Is a Woman; Modern Times screens on Sunday.

IFC Center

Hideaki Anno’s Love & Pop plays in a new restoration; Stop Making Sense, Mulholland Dr., Lost Highway, Best in Show, Palindromes, and Pink Flamingos show late.

Bam

Heiny Srour’s Leila and the Wolves continues.

Nitehawk Cinema

Paper Moon...

Swiss documentary festival Visions du Réel (VdR) has unveiled the 28 projects to be presented across four categories at its 2025 VdR-Industry section, taking place April 6-9.

Among 14 projects in development selected for VdR–Pitching are Sarvnik Kaur’s Disruption, which uses a board game to explore climate change, corporate greed, and identity. Kaur’s previous film Against The Tide won the special jury prize at Sundance in 2023

Also being showcased is France’s Mariana Otero, whose History Of A Secret played at VdR in 2023. Her new project From One Body to Another sees her collaborate with 10 visually impaired adults with mental health issues.

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,...

Iran’s independent filmmakers are making their presence felt in Cannes, despite the challenges they face at home or in exile abroad.

A key focus is the premiere of Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig which premieres at Cannes on May 24. The dissident filmmaker fled Iran earlier this month after receiving an eight-year prison sentence.

It is understood that some 70 independent Iranian films were submitted to Cannes this year, while the Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association (Iifa) has a stand in the Market.

Also making an impact in Cannes is the Woman Life Freedom Project with billboard posters...

Mariette Rissenbeek, producer and outgoing Berlinale executive director, is advising on a new $5m Luxembourg-based fund to support underrepresented voices in cinema, initially with a Mena orientation.

The Poetry in Motion Fund: Independent voices of Cinema is the brainchild of women’s rights activist Fedra Fateh, instigator of The Woman Life Freedom Project in Cannes and deputy director of the Torino Film Festival.

“We want to do things differently but at a very high level,” she said. ”We want to fill the gaps that are not being met by traditional funders and the film commissions. We want to advance social...

Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s My Favourite Cake in is screening in Competition at the Berlinale today (February 16) but the directors are unable to attend the festival, having been prevented from leaving Iran by its government.

“Six months ago security guards raided our editor’s office, and took all the computers, hard drives and copies of the film,” said Sanaeeha. “They told us there will be a court case, and because of that we can’t leave the country.”

The government still holds their passports and has tried to make them withdraw the film from Berlin. “It feels like...

Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall continued its prize-winning run on Monday at France’s 29th Lumière Awards clinching Best Film and Best Screenplay, while its German star Sandra Hüller won Best Actress.

The Lumières fete the best films, performances and technical achievements of French cinema across 13 categories.

The French equivalent of the Golden Globes, they are voted on by the Académie des Lumières which is made up of France-based international journalists representing 36 countries.

In other key prizes, Thomas Cailley won Best Director for Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard opener The Animal Kingdom, while Arieh Worthalter won Best Actor for his performance in Cédric Khan’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener The Goldman Case.

Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, which was nominated in six Lumière categories, is on an award-winning streak.

The movie swept the board at the European Film Awards in Berlin last December...

The rise of quality in the entries of this list becomes evident every year, with movies from countries such as Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan finding a number of way outs through festivals and streamers, winning awards all over. Of course, Iran still heads the region, as its biggest movie industry, but the biggest surprise this year came from Sri Lanka, which produced three films of true quality.

Without further ado, here are the best West-Central Asian (rest of Asia one could say) films of 2023, in random order. Some films may have premiered in 2022, but since they mostly circulated in 2023, we decided to include them.

20. Under the Sky of Damascus by Heba Khaled, Talal Derki, Ali Wajeeh (Syria)

“Under the Sky of Damascus” is a great documentary, a testament to the quality and the impact of the medium, and a movie that truly deserved the International Competition Golden...

France’s awards season has officially kicked off with Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” landing six nominations at the Lumières Awards, including best film and director.

The courtroom drama, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is the season’s frontrunner. The Lumières are voted on by Paris-based correspondents working for foreign outlets across 36 countries.

Sandra Huller, who stars in the film as a German novelist put on trial after her French husband dies mysteriously, is nominated for best actress, while Milo Machado Graner, who plays her astute, low-vision son, is nominated for best male newcomer.

“Anatomy of Fall” has been on a roll, garnering a raft of international prizes at the European Film Awards, Gothams, as well as Los Angeles and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, along with four Golden Globe nominations for best film, screenplay, actress and foreign film. The movie that was...

French-Iranian director Emily Atef’s Mercy received €450,000, the biggest slice of funding

Six projects by women filmmakers including Emily Atef, Hafsia Herzi and Lucile Hadzhihalović have received support from the German-French Funding Commission’s Minitraité co-production fund.

The largest single amount of production funding - €450,000 - was awarded to French-Iranian director Emily Atef’s English-language Mercy, an adaptation of Lara Santoro’s eponymous novel. Set in 1997, it is the story of a friendship between a US correspondent in Kenya and a local woman from the slums joining forces to combat the AIDS crisis in the country.

Earlier this year, Atef...

Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall is the frontrunner for France’s Lumiere awards, the country’s answer to the Golden Globes, with 6 nominations, including for best film and best director.

The courtroom drama, starring Sandra Hüller as a writer who may have murdered her husband, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year and swept the European Film Awards on the weekend, taking 5 trophies, including best film. Anatomy of Fall, a Neon release in the U.S., has been nominated for 4 Golden Globes.

Tran Anh Hung’s foodie period drama The Taste of Things, which was picked over Anatomy of a Fall as France’s country’s official Oscar contender in the best international feature category, received just one Lumiere nom, for best cinematography.

Another French courtroom drama, Cedric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, picked up 5 Lumiere noms, tying with Thomas Cailley’s sci-fi tale The Animal Kingdom.

Japan has dominated this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa), with German filmmaker Wim Wenders’ latest Tokyo-set pic and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car follow-up taking the top prizes.

Wenders’ Cannes competition title Perfect Days won Apsa’s Best Film award, while Hamaguchi’s enigmatic Venice title Evil Does Not Exist nabbed the Jury Grand Prize this evening at the Australian ceremony.

“It is with great pleasure and pride that my Japanese producers Takuma Takasaki and Koji Yanai and myself received the news that our film Perfect Days was awarded Best Picture at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards,” Wenders said, accepting the award via video message.

He added: “Wow, what an honor. Especially for a German director. The film was, in many ways, a dream come true for all of us, especially the fact that nobody less than the great Koji Yakusho played the leading role, the humble public servant,...

Japan heads the nominations, followed by China.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist heads the nominations for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, with nods in four categories including best film, best director, best screenplay and best cinematography.

The Japanese feature premiered at Venice where it picked up both the jury and Fipresci prize, and centres on a father and daughter in a rural village, whose peaceful lives are disrupted by proposals to build a camping site in their area.

Hamaguchi’s latest film, following Oscar-winner Drive My Car, was just ahead of China’s Snow Leopard by the late Tibetan director Pema Tseden,...

2D computer animation also took the distribution award.

Sebastien Laudenbach and Chiara Malta’s French-Italian 2D computer animation Chicken For Linda! won the Cristal for best feature film at Annecy International Animation Film Festival this evening.

It was one of two prizes received by the film, alongside the Gan Foundation award for distribution.

Scroll down for the list of feature film winners

Chicken For Linda! (French title: Linda veut du poulet!) follows a mother and daughter, grieving following the loss of the mother’s late husband, who go on a quest across strike-paralysed Paris in search of the key ingredient...

Chicken for Linda! a French and Italian kids feature from directors Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, has won top prize, the Cristal award, for best film at the 2023 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

The 2D feature follows a mother struggling to make a chicken dinner for her daughter Linda, despite the fact that she doesn’t know how to cook and has picked a day when the whole country is on strike, making it nearly impossible to find a chicken to buy. Produced by Dolce Vita Films, Chicken for Linda! also picked up Annecy’s Gan Foundation Award for distribution.

Four Souls of Coyote, a 2D feature about Indigenous creation tales, from director Áron Gauder, took the jury prize, while Japanese feature The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes, from director Tomohisa Taguchi, took the Paul Grimault Award.

Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air Streams from French director Benoît Chieux,...

At Annecy with four features, including buzzy main competition entry “Mars Express,” Strasbourg-based Amopix will create a second studio, Amopix Annecy, located in the Route des Creuses to the west of Annecy.

The move comes as Amopix, the animation studio behind Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight title “Margarethe 89,” produced by Eddy, is embarking on some 10 new titles, either as an animation studio or producer or both, including Louis Clichy’s “Le Corset” and “Shalotte, an Onion for All Cases,” a TV series produced in international co-production, a potential growth axis, Amopix founder Mathieu Rolin told Variety.

Reasons for setting up in Annecy cut several ways: the location, which is highly attractive thanks to its exceptional geographical position and the presence in Annecy of the world’s biggest animation festival.

Public sector policies, implemented by Citia, behind the Annecy Intl. Film Animation Festival, are backing the development of a local animation sector with dedicated incentives.

Leading lights of contemporary Iranian cinema, including “Holy Spider” actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi, “The Siren” director Sepideh Farsi, “The Opponent” helmer Milad Alami and producer Kaveh Farnam, turned up at the Cannes Film Festival to raise the alarm on the repression faced by Iranian cinema during a session hosted by Amazon Prime Video’s Sahar Baghery.

Iran has been the centerstage of widespread protests driven by women against the Islamic regime since Mahsa Amini died in police custody for for wearing her hijab too loosely in September 2022. Although the rebellion has garnered vocal support outside of Iran, it hasn’t succeeded in dethroning the Iranian regime. A number of dissident Iranian filmmakers and talent have been jailed over the last six months, notably Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof who was recently released from prison. Rasoulof was nevertheless banned from leaving Iran to serve on the jury of Un Certain Regard at Cannes.

Gebeka is the animatoin feature specialist launched by Hildegarde and Goodfellas in 2021.

Gebeka International, a Hildegarde-Goodfellas company has signed a slew of international sales for animated features Wojtek Wawszczyk’s Diplodocus and Kristina Dufková’s Living Large.

Dinosaur adventure tale Diplodocus has sold to Signature Entertainment in the UK, and across Europe to Vertigo Films in Spain, Cinemundo in Portugal, Pro Film in Bulgaria, Acme Film in the Baltics, Ads Service for Hungary and Romania, Distri7 for Benelux, Arthouse Traffic in Ukraine and Njutafilms for Scandinavia.

The film has also sold to Boxoo Entertainment for Korea and Vietnam, Forefront Media Group in South Africa,...

Leading animation festival will open with Benoît Chieux’s Sirocco And The Kingdom Of The Winds.

French director Benoît Chieux’s Sirocco And The Kingdom Of The Wind is to open the Annecy International Animation Film Festival which runs from June 11-17.

The film – about two young sisters who discover a passage between this world and the extraordinary universe of The Kingdom of the Winds - is one of 11 titles selected for the festival’s official competition, where it will compete for the Crystal award.

Scroll down for full list

Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry’s Kensuke’s Kingdom – which is...

Celebrating six decades as the animation industry’s premier international showcase and cementing a growing position as Hollywood’s preferred French getaway, the Annecy Intl. Animation Festival revealed its 2023 program in Paris on Thursday, unveiling a formidable selection of world premieres and industry debuts.

If only for the breadth of this year’s official selection, Annecy looks set to for its most fulsome and abundant edition.

Among the 11 titles competing for this year’s Cristal – Annecy’s top prize – Jérémie Périn’s sci-fi drama “Mars Express” and Jim Capobianco & Pierre-Luc Granjon stop-motion Leonardo da Vinci epic “The Inventor” will make their world premieres. Other eagerly anticipated titles include “Chicken for Linda!” from Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, “Four Souls of Coyote” from by Áron Gauder, and “The Inseparables” by Jérémie Degruson.

Titles like Liu Jian’s “Art College 1994” and Sepideh Farsi’s “The Siren” will arrive in the idyllic French...

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 2023 edition, running from June 11 to 17.

More than 13,000 animation professionals are set to descend on the French festival’s lakeside setting for its traditional mix of screenings programs across all formats, Work-in-Progress and First-Look sneak peeks, and presentations going behind the scenes of upcoming animation productions.

Competition title Sirocco And The Kingdom Of The Winds by French director Benoît Chieux opens the festival. The fantasy follows the adventures of two young sisters as they try to make their way home after getting trapped in the world of their favorite book.

A Cat In Paris and Phantom Boy director Alain Gagnol co-wrote the screenplay for the feature lead produced by Paris-based Sacrebleu Productions.

The film, which world premieres in Annecy, is among 11 titles competing for the festival’s Crystal award.

Another three French productions debut in Competition: Chiara Malta and...