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Ahead of its European bow in San Sebastian as part of the fest’s New Directors Competition, Turkish writer-director Belkis Bayrak reveals the first look trailer for her riveting debut feature, “Gülizar,” shared exclusively with Variety.

“It is, of course, an honor to be in competition at San Sebastian with my debut feature,” Bayrak relayed. “I can’t wait to see the film with a European audience, especially the famed San Sebastian audience!”

Bayrak is an alum of the Torino Film Lab, Reclaim The Frame’s Filmonomics Program and a member of Ewa who has previously released notable shorts “The Apartment” and “Cemile.”

“Gülizar,” which saw its world premiere in Toronto at TIFF’s Discovery strand, was produced by Bayrak alongside Murat Yaşar Bayrak at Turkey’s Saba Film in tandem with Mehmet Bahadir Er of Turkey’s Protim V.P and co-produced by Valmira Hyseni of Kosovo’s Planbee Films.

CineLink Industry Days, the industry platform of Sarajevo Film Festival, has selected nine projects for its 2024 edition; and appointed Ishak Jalimam as its new head.

Jalimam will work with Masa Markovic, who continues as head of industry for the third year. He replaces Amra Baksic Camo, who had run CineLink since its inception in 2003, and will now focus on developing new projects under the Sarajevo Film Festival umbrella.

Scroll down for the full list of CineLink projects

A graduate of the Sarajevo Academy of Performing Arts, Jalimam is founder and president of Bosnian production company Realstage Productions, through which he...

If nothing else, Ukrainian director Maryna Er Gorbach’s first solo-helmed feature Klondike can be credited with uncanny timing. A vivid look at an ordinary farming family in the occupied Donbas region of Ukraine, who just happen to have a full wall of their home destroyed by an errant missile, its European premiere at the 2022 Berlinale was followed only days later by Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country, which of course continues unabated. It would be one of the last Ukrainian features to conclude production before the war broke out, a prophetic missive from a country that has stunned the world with its resilience in the face of crisis.

Er Gorbach, who’s based in Istanbul and previously co-directed several features with her spouse Mehmet Bahadir Er, reveals herself as a filmmaker able to conjure an imposing sense of scale, and creditably evoke with massive props (and some post-production...

Projects will be presented during festival’s Industry Days section.

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) has unveiled the projects that will be showcased during its Eastern Promises industry strand, which takes place on July 3-4.

27 film projects have been selected for Eastern Promises’ Works in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch and First Cut+ Works in Progress strands.

The most promising projects, selected by international juries, will receive awards worth a total of €115,000. The showcase of projects to industry professionals will take place during this year’s Kviff Industry Days.

Eleven fiction and documentary features have been selected for the Works in Progress strand.

Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival’s Eastern Promises industry platform has unveiled 27 film projects that will be showcased during its Works in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch and First Cut+ Works in Progress presentations. The most promising projects, selected by international juries, will receive awards with a total value of 115,000 Eur.

The showcasing of projects to industry professionals will take place in Karlovy Vary, during this year’s Kviff Industry Days on July 3 (Works in Progress and Works in Development – Feature Launch) and July 4 (First Cut+ Works in Progress).

For Works in Progress, 11 fiction and documentary feature films in the late stage of production or post-production from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa have been selected.

The following projects will compete for prizes of a total value of 100,000 Eur:

“Distances” (Poland)

Director: Matej Bobrik

Producer: Agnieszka Skalska...

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired U.S. rights to Ukrainian director Maryna Er Gorbach’s harrowing anti-war drama “Klondike,” a powerful and timely portrait of the horrors of warfare that the company will release in theaters and on digital platforms later this year.

Submitted as Ukraine’s official entry in the best international feature film race for the 95th Academy Awards, “Klondike” had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it was the first Ukrainian feature ever selected for the World Dramatic Competition and took home directing honors for Er Gorbach. The film is also playing at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in the Special Screenings section.

“Klondike” tells the story of a Ukrainian family living on a small farmstead on the Ukraine-Russia border around the 2014 outbreak of the Donbass war. Largely told from the viewpoint of the pregnant Irka (Oxana Cherkashyna), the film begins on the...

Sundance Film Festival added several new titles, including a documentary about NBA star Stephen Curry and A24’s sentimental drama “Past Lives,” to its 2023 lineup.

Other newest inclusions are “Beyond Utopia,” a documentary about families escaping oppression, as well as feature films including “Earth Mama” and Flora and Son,” which will screen in the premieres section. “Stephen Curry: Underrated” will play in the special screenings section.

This year’s Sundance Film Festival will take place from Jan. 19-29 in Utah, marking its first return to Park City since the pandemic.

Sundance is also hosting encore screenings of “Coda,” which premiered at the 2021 virtual festival and won the Oscar for best picture, as well as “Klondike,” “Navalny” and “Summer of Soul.” It will be the first time those Sundance award winners will screen at the festival in person, with many of the filmmakers in attendance for post-screening panels. Those films were...

Skip City International D-Cinema Festival which started in 2004 in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, has been held every year as a “gateway for emerging talent” centered on the International Competition and the Japanese Film Competition (features and shorts). The festival launched the careers of Kazuya Shiraishi (Lesson in Murder), Ryota Nakano (The Asadas), Shinichiro Ueda (One Cut of the Dead), Shinzo Katayama (Missing) and many other directors who are leading the Japanese film industry as top runners and whose new movies audiences are looking forward to seeing.

The 19th edition will be held both at theaters and online from Saturday, July 16th in Skip City, Kawaguchi City in Saitama, with the physical screenings for the first time in three years since 2019.

On Wednesday, June 15th, a press conference was held to announce the full line-up, with the attendance of President of the Jury for International Competition, Shinobu Terajima (Actress) and President...

Skip City International D-Cinema Festival, a leading launching pad for emerging Japanese and world filmmakers, has unveiled the line-up for its 19th edition, which will be held July 16-24, 2022, at venues in Kawaguchi, a Tokyo suburb. In addition to its first physical screenings in three years, the festival will present an online segment July 21-27.

The president of the international competition jury is Terajima Shinobu, winner of the best actress silver bear at the 2010 Berlinale for her performance in Wakamatsu Koji’s WWII drama “Caterpillar.” The president of the Japanese film competition jury is cinematographer Ashizawa Akiko.

The opening film is “Deadly School,” a coming-of-age ensemble drama about high school girls prepping for their school festival, directed by three-time Skip City winner Isobe Teppei and adapted from Asakusa Kaoru’s hit play.

The festival will also screen two Ukrainian films from past editions: Alina Gorlova’s “This Rain Will Never...

For its first edition the International Migration Film Festival has assembled a diverse lineup of eight titles tackling the plight of refugees and migrants around the world and running the gamut from feelgood comedy to gut-wrenching dramas and docs.

They will vie for a best feature film award worth €15,000 and also a prize for most inspiring script worth €5,000, both to be decided by a prestigious international jury comprising Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who serves as jury president, American actor Danny Glover, Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini, Bosnian actor Emir Hadzihafizbegovic, Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig, and British costume designer Sandy Powell.

The selection, which will be visible in Turkey June 14-21 on the FestivalScope platform, serves as a nice primer of recent pics tackling the topic, but also as “a reminder to not let people forget about refugees” during this time when the coronavirus pandemic – which has also greatly added to...

The 35th Warsaw Film Festival has concluded and the list of winners includes a few Asian and Asian-related titles.

Grand Prix was awarded to Georgian movie “Shindisi” portraying real-life events that happened in 2008 during Russo-Georgian war, when Russian forces violated the ceasefire. It goes beyond military affairs, focusing also on the civilians, who with simple humane courage and compassion attempt to save lives of several wounded Georgian soldiers. Dito Tsintsadze, who helmed the movie, also took honours of the best director. “Shindisi” is a Georgian candidate for the Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

A Hairy Tale

Iranian “A Hairy Tale” by Homayoun Ghanizadeh got the Special Jury Award for the Best Script. The renowned avant-garde theatre director in his debut feature skillfully plays with the form and conventions. Under the facade of a black comedy about eccentric employees of a barber shop, he tells a story...

Talya Lavie’s Zero Motivation won the Grand Prix at this year’s Odessa International Film Festival (Oiff), overshadowed in its final days by the shooting down of a Malaysian Airways plane.

Lavie’s debut feature, handled internationally by The Match Factory, was voted by the festival-goers to receive the Golden Duke statuette and the $12,000 cash prize.

Director Lavie and actress Shani Klein were accompanied on stage by the Israel Film Fund Katriel Schory to accept the Grand Prix from the hands of the Oiff president Viktoriya Tigipko.

News of the Malaysian Airways plane tragedy broke early on Thursday evening during a reception in honour of Turkish films showing at the festival.

A minute’s silence was held in memory of the crash victims ahead of Gogol Wives’ documentary Pussy vs Putin that evening.

On Friday, another minute of silence was held at the beginning of the awards ceremony in memory of the aeroplane’s passengers as well...

Talya Lavie’s Zero Motivation won the Grand Prix at this year’s Odessa International Film Festival (Oiff), overshadowed in its final days by the shooting down of a Malaysian Airways plane.

Lavie’s debut feature, handled internationally by The Match Factory, was voted by the festival-goers to receive the Golden Duke statuette and the $12,000 cash prize.

Director Lavie and actress Shani Klein were accompanied on stage by the Israel Film Fund Katriel Schory to accept the Grand Prix from the hands of the Oiff president Viktoriya Tigipko.

News of the Malaysian Airways plane tragedy broke early on Thursday evening during a reception in honour of Turkish films showing at the festival.

A minute’s silence was held in memory of the crash victims ahead of Gogol Wives’ documentary Pussy vs Putin that evening.

On Friday, another minute of silence was held at the beginning of the awards ceremony in memory of the aeroplane’s passengers as well...

Peter Webber to head jury, David Puttnam to deliver lecture during fifth edition of the Ukranian festival.

Golden Bear winner Black Coal, Thin Ice and the Camera D’Or recipient Party Girl [pictured] are among the 12 films selected for the International Competition at the fifth edition of the Odessa International Film Festival (Oiff), which runs July 11-19.

UK director Peter Webber will head the jury composed of Ukrainian film-maker Sergei Loznitsa, Israeli actress Jenya Dodina, Belorussian actress-director Olga Dykhovichnaya and French actor-critic Jean-Philippe Tessé.

The other films in the running for the Golden Duke award are:

Bryan Reisberg’s social and psychological drama Big Significant Things (Us)Levan Koguashvili’s feelgood film Blind Dates (Georgia)Director and painter Lech Majewski’s Field of Dogs (Poland)Alonso Ruizpalacios’ road movie debut Güeros (Mexico)Valentin Hotea’s social and psychological drama Roxanne (Romania)Anna Melikyan’s Kinotavr award-winner Star (Russia)Maximilan Erlenwein’s psychological thriller Stereo (Germany)Tribeca winner [link=nm...