News

With four features under his belt, three of them ambitious and sprawling ensemble pieces, 35-year-old Iranian wunderkind Saeed Roustaee is the kind of director who takes a big swing for the fences with each new film. His 2019 drug thriller, Just 6.5, was like The French Connection meets The Wire in contemporary Iran. His 2022 family epic, Leila’s Brothers — which, like his new film, premiered in competition in Cannes — had hints of both The Godfather and the searing social dramas of Asghar Farhadi, with some of the best acting in any movie that year.

Roustaee attempts another big swing with Mother and Child, a grandiose modern melodrama filled with love, death, heartache, anger, jealousy, vengeance and possible murder. It’s a lot to take in, and not all of it works despite some more great performances, including from regular leading man Payman Maadi (also an early Farhadi regular in About Elly and...

All the Regime Allows: Roustaee Finds a Woman Scorned

If there were ever an equivalent to the Hollywood ‘woman’s film’ genre in Iranian cinema it might be Woman and Child, the latest film from Saeed Roustaee, which puts its main protagonist through the ringer and doesn’t allow her to ever come out on top. Following his sprawling familial epic Leila’s Brothers (2022), Roustaee continues to move away from the muscly genre oriented titles of his earlier career, such as Law of Tehran (2019), to focus on a woman demeaned by both her culture and family, despite making futile attempts at seeking justice for various wrongs.…...

The Cannes Film Festival has added a fresh round of titles to its 78th edition, including Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love and Saeed Roustaee’s Woman And Child which will play in the main competition. (scroll down for full list)

Ramsay’s dark comedy thriller Die, My Love transposes Ariana Harwicz’s novel about a woman living in the French countryside who develops severe postpartum depression, to Montana and stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson.

Roustaee’s Woman and Child, is the first film from the Iranian director since his 2022 Cannes Palme d’Or contender Leila’s Brothers.

The contemporary family drama of revenge and forgiveness stars Parinaz Izadyar (Law of Tehran) as a widowed nurse struggling with her rebellious son. Tensions reach a peak during the betrothal ceremony with her new boyfriend, but when a tragic accident occurs, she finds herself confronting feelings of betrayal as she seeks justice.

Exclusive: Goodfellas has unveiled one of its biggest European Film Market slates ever featuring upcoming films by Cristian Mungiu, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Saeed Roustaee, Claire Denis, Mario Martone and Raoul Peck.

The company is also handling a trio of Berlin Film Festival titles: Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Golden Bear contender The Ice Tower with Marion Cotillard; Burhan Qurbani’s No Beast. So Fierce. in Berlinale Special; and a fresh acquisition, Bálint Dániel Sós’ Growing Down.

The latter film, which premieres in the new competitive Perspectives section aimed at first films, revolves around a widowed father of two who is tested by fate when he becomes the only witness of a serious accident involving his stepdaughter caused by his youngest son.

Goodfellas will begin pre-sales on Romanian director Mungiu’s first English-language picture Fjord, with Oscar nominee Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) and Cannes Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World...

Sunrise Films has set a U.S. release date for “Bonus Track,” the feature directorial debut from director Julia Jackman, written by Mike Gilbert, with a story by Josh O’Connor.

The coming-of-age queer rom-com stars Joe Anders (“1917”) and Samuel Small (“So Awkward”), supported by an ensemble cast including Ray Panthaki (“Boiling Point”), Susan Wokoma (“Enola Holmes”), Jack Davenport (“Ten Percent”), Alison Sudol (the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise) and O’Connor (“Challengers”) in a cameo role.

Set in 2006 England, the story follows 16-year-old aspiring musician George (Anders), who befriends Max (Small), the son of a famous musical duo, as they prepare for a year-end talent show. Their friendship evolves in unexpected ways.

“Bonus Track” made its debut at the BFI London Film Festival and was released in the U.K. as a Sky Original film. The film is an Erebus Pictures and Sky production, in association with Lunapark Pictures and Fortune Films[/link]Fortune Films.

Sunrise Films has secured the U.S. rights for “Bonus Track” from Bankside Films, with plans for a theatrical and digital release in October.

The feature directorial debut from Julia Jackman, “Bonus Track” is a coming-of-age queer rom-com written by Mike Gilbert, with a story by Josh O’Connor. The film stars Joe Anders (“1917”) and Samuel Small (“So Awkward”), supported by an ensemble cast including Ray Panthaki, Susan Wokoma, Jack Davenport, Alison Sudol and O’Connor in a cameo role.

Set in 2006 England, the story follows 16-year-old aspiring musician George (Anders), who befriends Max (Small), the son of a famous musical duo, as they prepare for a year-end talent show. Their friendship evolves in unexpected ways.

“Bonus Track” made its debut at the BFI London Film Festival and was released in the U.K. as a Sky Original film. The film is an Erebus Pictures and Sky production, in association with Lunapark Pictures and Fortune Films.

Bookmark this page for the latest updates in the territory.

Screen is listing the 2023 release dates for films in the UK and Ireland in the calendar below.

For distributors who wish to add/amend a date on the calendar, please get in touch with Screen here. Screen is also running a calendar for festival and market dates throughout 2023 here.

December

December 31

Berliner Philharmoniker Live: New Year’s Eve Concert 2023 (Trafalgar - event cinema)

Previous releases January

January 6

Piggy (Vertigo), The Enforcer (Vertigo), Alcarràs (Mubi), A Man Called Otto (Sony), Rashomon (BFI), Till (Universal)

January 7

Andre Rieu In Dublin 2023 (Piece of...

Venice Film Festival’s red carpet swapped glamour for politics on Saturday, hosting a flash mob in solidarity with the Iranian people, fighting against repression, as well as filmmakers who are being oppressed – and arrested – because of their work.

Such as “Leila’s Brothers” director Saeed Roustaee, recently sentenced to six months in prison for showing the film in Cannes. He has also been banned from making movies.

“Born in 1989, Roustaee represents a new generation of Iranian auteurs, and one who’s sly enough to embed his complex social critiques so deep into the fabric of sprawling modern stories that he hasn’t upset the regime. Not yet, at least,” ominously wrote Variety’s Peter Debruge following its premiere at the French fest.

Roustaee also made “Life and a Day” and thriller “Just 6.5,” which was shown in Venice.

Elham Erfani, Zahra Amir Ebrahimi and guests attend the Flash Mob in Solidarity With Iranian People.

Jane Campion, Damien Chazelle, Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Guy Nattiv joined a flash mob on the Venice Film Festival’s red carpet on Saturday in support of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in Iran.

They were among around 100 filmmakers, artists and pro-democracy activists joining the flashmob, which took place ahead of tonight’s gala screening of Maestro.

The group carried placards with portraits of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody last September, after she was arrested for not wearing her veil correctly, sparked the protests.

There were also banners for Leila’s Brothers director Roustayi, who it emerged last month had been sentenced to six months in prison on charges of “anti-regime propaganda activity” for screening the family drama in Cannes in 2022.

Saeed Roustee had previously participated at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 in the Orizzonti section with Just 6.5 (Metri Shesho Nim).

The arrests are believed to...

The upcoming Venice Film Festival has announced it will hold a flash mob on the red carpet in solidarity with the women and men of Iran “who are fighting for their freedom and against the ongoing repression” and also “the filmmakers and artists who have been arrested or imprisoned,” the fest said in a statement on Friday.

Festival organizers specified that the flash mob is partly in reaction to the conviction earlier this month in Iran of director Saeed Roustaee (pictured), who was sentenced to six months in prison for showing his latest film “Leila’s Brothers” at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and banned from making movies. Roustaee had been in the Venice Horizons section in 2019 with the film “Just 6.5.”

Venice also held a red carpet flash mob last year in solidarity with then incarcerated auteur Jafar Panahi.

Directors, artists and other personalities present at the Lido on Sept.

Ever since Abbas Kiarostami’s And Life Goes On premiered back in 1992, movies set in cars have become the modus operandi of some of Iranian cinema’s greatest works.

Kiarostami followed Life with Through the Olive Trees, where driving is also a major part of the narrative, and then made his masterly Palme d’Or winner Taste of Cherry, where the main character is at the wheel for nearly the entire film. Director Jafar Panahi, who was once Kiarostami’s assistant, won Berlin’s Golden Bear in 2015 for Taxi, in which he pretended to be a cab driver in order to scrutinize his country’s dire social situation. In 2021, Panahi’s son, Panah, made his debut with the exuberant and crowd-pleasing Hit the Road, about a family taking one last road trip together toward the Turkish border.

There are reasons for this phenomenon. First off, driving scenes are essentially cinematic,...

Iranian director Saeed Roustaee has been sentenced to six months to prison for showing his latest film, “Leila’s Brothers,” at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, according to an Iranian report.

The Islamic Revolutionary Court convicted both Roustaee and Javad Noruzbegi for “contributing to the propaganda of the opposition against the Islamic system,” according to the Iranian daily Etemad.

The nearly three-hour saga, which marked Roustaee’s debut in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, stars “The Salesman” actor Taraneh Alidoosti as one of five siblings fighting to find a way out of poverty in Tehran. The socially-minded movie was banned in Iran last year for “breaking the rules by being entered at international film festivals without authorisation,” according to the Afp, which quoted Iranian authorities.

Roustaee and Noruzbegi will serve about nine days in prison, while the remainder of the sentence will be suspended over five years, during which...

He has been sentenced to six months along with the film’s producer Javad Noruzbegi.

The Iranian director of Cannes 2022 title Leila’s Brothers, Saeed Roustaee, has been sentenced to six months in prison for screening his film at the festival, according to local media reports.

Leila’s Brothers played in competition, where it won the Fipresci prize. It explores a family grappling with financial struggles in Tehran, with themes of gender and succession.

The family drama was banned in Iran after it supposedly entered the Cannes festival without authorisation, with the director refusing to “correct it” as requested by the culture minister at the time.

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track… So, we’re going to do the hard work for you.

This week we head to Iran, where filmmaker Nima Javidi’s debut TV series has been winning awards and generating plenty of attention. Taking inspiration from the Bard himself, the show follows two friends who use their acting skills to help solve cold cases. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty, it turns out. Having won the Series Mania Grand Prize, attracting the attention of thousands of important attendees at the annual Lille confab, The Actor’s creator and seller now have their sights set globally.

Saeed Roustayi’s tense policier about a cop hunting a drug kingpin deftly mixes brutality and gallows farce

This increasingly nerve-jangling narco policier from Life and a Day writer-director Saeed Roustayi, who has since made the feted 2022 Palme d’Or contender Leila’s Brothers, was hailed as Iran’s highest-grossing non-comedic domestic film. Not that Law of Tehran (Aka Just 6.5), which won the audience award at Iran’s Fajr film festival back in 2019, is without a pointedly nihilistic streak of jet-black humour. For proof, check out the horrifyingly absurdist opening salvo: a drug bust that turns into a breakneck, on-foot chase sequence, climaxing in a lethal disappearing act that combines the vérité grit of The French Connection with the physical slapstick of Buster Keaton. Really. It’s a deliberately bewildering cocktail of brutal tragedy and gallows farce that runs throughout this very arresting feature.

Playing out amid the human...

Animation ‘Mummies’, French hit ‘The Night Of The 12th’ also open.

Action adventure Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves sets off on its UK-Ireland box office run this weekend in 680 cinemas through eOne.

The film depicts a charming thief and band of unlikely adventurers who embark on a quest to retrieve a lost relic, but run afoul of the wrong people.

It is based on the tabletop role playing game that was first published in 1974, which has become one of the most popular tabletop games worldwide, with the game’s publisher Wizards Of The Coast claiming that over 50 million people...

Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4” shot its way to the top of the U.K. and Ireland box office with a £5.3 million ($6.5 million) opening weekend, according to numbers released by Comscore.

In its second weekend, Warner Bros.’ “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” collected £1.09 million in second place for a total of £4.09 million. In third place, Warner Bros.’ “Creed III” earned £731,273 and now has a total of £12.8 million after four weekends.

Paramount’s “Scream VI” grossed £597,937 in fourth place in its third weekend for a total of £6.2 million. Rounding off the top five was Warner Bros.’ “Allelujah” that took £463,973 in its second weekend for a total of £2.02 million.

The other debut in the top 10 was Paramount’s “80 For Brady” that earned £158,937 in ninth place.

Mubi release “The Five Devils” collected £16,766, including previews.

This week, among speciality releases, Kaleidoscope Entertainment is releasing “Heathers: The Musical,” the filmed version of the hit stage musical,...

Global arthouse movie streamer, producer and distributor Mubi has acquired all Turkish rights to Iranian director Saeed Roustaee’s timely Cannes title “Leila’s Brothers.”

A female empowerment drama set against the backdrop of a family crushed by debts linked to international economic sanctions, “Leila’s Brothers” won the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) prize for best film in Cannes’ main competition.

The film, which is Roustaee’s third feature, follows from his tense actioner “Just 6.5,” about a cop trying to pin down a drug lord. This hit film, which exposed Iran’s heroin addiction plague, made an international splash and this year was nominated for France’s César Award for best foreign film.

“Leila’s Brothers” sees the 40-year-old Leila, played by Taraneh Alidoosti (“The Salesman”), as the titular character who has spent her whole life taking care of her parents and her four brothers. She has a plan to...

by Cláudio Alves

The 75th Cannes Film Festival is almost over! If there's any hope of finishing Cannes at Home before the closing ceremony, it's critical to pick up speed. So, here go two days' worth of auteurs in one go.

The Dardennes showed their latest, Tori and Lokita, to some acclaim. However, after The Unknown Girl and Young Ahmed, I'm skeptical about the Belgian duo's tackling of immigrant stories. Mario Martone also returned to the competition, and his Nostalgia could see Perfrancesco Favino winning the festival's Best Actor trophy. In contrast, Saeed Roustayi is competing for the Palme for the first time with Leila's Brothers. All that being said, the big story from these latest festival days was surely Claire Denis' Stars at Noon. Most critics seem to hate it – some even jokingly calling for the director's retirement – while a scattering of ardent fans provides a contrarian takes. For sure,...

This year’s dark horse in competition at Cannes is easily “Leila’s Brothers,” Iranian writer-director Saeed Roustaee’s third feature and worthy follow-up to his intense 2019 cop thriller “Just 6.5.” With hints of “The Godfather” and Arthur Miller evident throughout, the drama is a sprawling tale exploring dysfunctional family dynamics, economic hardships, and generational wealth.

Read More: Cannes Film Festival 2022 Preview: 25 Must-See Films To Watch

“Leila’s Brothers” follows the lives of a Tehran family as they struggle to stay afloat amidst financial hardships and complicated familial relationships.

Continue reading ‘Leila’s Brothers’ Review: A Beautiful Drama About Family Ties [Cannes] at The Playlist.

One of the two Iranian entries at this year’s Cannes competition, this is Saeed Roustayi‘s first time. Starring Taraneh Alidoosti, Saeed Poursamimi, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Payman Maadi — Leila’s Brothers is the filmmaker first trip to Cannes. Previously he directed Life and a Day (2016) and Just 6.5 (2019).

With a 2h45 runtime, this centers around Leila — the young matriarch having to juggle many agendas – excluding her own. Caring for her parents and four brothers — this is at once a parable about debt, being indebted and a patriarchal overreach.

Currently with fifteen of our twenty critics having graded the film, despite some support Leila’s Brothers enters the grid at a paltry 2.7 — which places this almost at the bottom.…...

In “Leila’s Brothers,” a once proud, now pathetic Persian family teeters on the brink of ruin, held together by the assertive sister who’s tired of relying on men to decide her fortune. Taking matters into her own hands may be empowering to watch — there’s no question that “The Salesman” alum Taraneh Alidoosti, who plays Leila, towers over this male-dominated ensemble — but it’s also a recipe for potential tragedy in Iranian writer-director Saeed Roustaee’s novelistic, nearly-three-hour saga, his first to be selected for Cannes.

Some audiences may recognize Roustaee from another turbulent family portrait, “Life and a Day” (2016), whereas it was his terrific cop thriller “Just 6.5” (2019) — the closest thing Iran has produced to “The French Connection,” still unreleased in the U.S. — that put the helmer on my radar. Born in 1989, Roustaee represents a new generation of Iranian auteurs, and one who’s sly enough to...

Reims Polar, a new international festival set in Northern France and dedicated to police thrillers, has awarded Wen Shipei’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight?,” Adikhan Yerzhanov’s “Assault” and Lado Kvataniya’s “The Execution.”

The selection of Reims Polar is curated by Bruno Barde, who is also the artistic director of the Deauville American Film Festival.

“Assault,” a dead-pan thriller set fictional village in rural Kazakhstan and revolving around a school hostage situation, won the festival’s Grand Prize Award. Yerzhanov, a prolific Kazakh director, previously directed “The Gentle Indifference of the World” which played at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2018.

The Reims Polar jury prize went to a pair of feature debuts, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?,” a Chinese film which world premiered out of competition at last year’s Cannes, and Russian filmmaker Lado Kvataniya’s “The Execution,” a thriller inspired by the case of an infamous Soviet-era serial killer.

Joanna Scanlan won best actress at this year’s Baftas for the film.

UK-based Vertigo Releasing has acquired North American rights to Aleem Khan’s Bafta-winning After Love and will release the film via a distribution partner in cinemas across North America from summer 2022.

The distributor has previously handled the streaming-led North American releases of films including Sam Kelly’s Savage and Thomas Clay’s Fanny Lye Deliver’d. It is also releasing Saeed Roustaee’s Iranian thriller Just 6.5 in North America on approximately 15 screens in July. After Love is expected to be a wider release still.

“We work...

Experienced marketing and distribution veteran has been previously worked at Warner Bros, Gaumont and Pathé.

Damien Golla has been appointed head of French theatrical distribution at the Wild Bunch group.

He replaces Jérôme Rougier, who held the position from 2017.

Prior to joining Wild Bunch, Golla was vice president marketing new releases at Warner Bros Entertainment France from 2019, and before that, marketing director of the distribution division at Gaumont from 2016 to 2019.

He began his career in the film industry at Pathé Films as part of the marketing team from 2004 to 2010, and then at Twentieth Century Fox as senior marketing...

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.

Now that Sundance has answered the question looming over the 2022 festival by going all-virtual for the second year in a row, it’s full-steam ahead. And today the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the members of its six juries, including Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”), Andrew Haigh (“Weekend”), Joey Soloway (“Transparent”), and Payman Maadi (“A Separation”). The 16 jurors will bestow awards upon the festival’s winners January 28, with award-winning movies available for extended online viewing during the festival’s closing weekend.

“These exceptional individuals will come together to offer a collaborative lens on our program,” said Sundance’s Director of Programming Kim Yutani in an official statement. “Their diverse personal perspectives can elevate work above the sum of its parts.” As previously announced, the jury for Alfred P. Sloan jury deliberated in advance of the festival and awarded the prize to “After Yang,” directed by Kogonada.

And audiences will...

Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Garrett Bradley (Time), Joey Soloway (Transparent), Andrew Haigh (Lean on Pete) and Dawn Porter (The Me You Can’t See) have been named as jurors for the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, taking place virtually from January 20-30.

Heller, who brought her first feature The Diary of a Teenage Girl to the festival in 2015, will preside over the U.S. Dramatic Competition with C’mon C’mon producer and former Annapurna Pictures exec Chelsea Barnard, and A Separation actor Payman Maadi.

Bradley, whose Sundance-premiering doc Time earned an Oscar nomination in 2021, will oversee the U.S. Documentary Competition with Peter Nicks, the director behind 2021 Sundance title Homeroom, and director-cinematographer Joan Churchill.

Soloway, the Transparent and I Love Dick creator who brought their first feature, Afternoon Delight, to Sundance in 2013, will serve as this year’s sole juror of the Next section, with Reservation Dogs director...

Contact Film, a well-established Dutch distribution company specializing in arthouse films, is preparing to fold after a 30-year run, Variety has confirmed.

The company, whose past releases include the Oscar-nominated documentary “Honeyland” and Oliver Laxe’s Cannes prize-winning “Fire Will Come,” has ceased acquiring films, said founder and CEO Gérard Huisman, who is retiring this year.

The 70-year-old distribution veteran said he had planned to retire before the pandemic, but had been expecting his board to carry on and its three staff members to keep buying films.

The pandemic, however, created difficulties for the company, which had already been struggling for a number of years, explained Huisman. Because it belongs to a non-profit foundation, Contact Film is not eligible for many subsidies or government loans. The government does cover 30% of employee salaries but the aid hasn’t been sufficient for Contact Film to stay afloat and continue spending money on new acquisitions,...

Virus crisis hits film distributor of art house hits including ‘Honeyland’.

Independent Dutch distributor Contact Film is to close down after more than 30 years due to the ongoing virus crisis.

The Arnhem-based company has been a major buyer of arthouse titles since being founded by Gérard Huisman in 1991, with recent titles including the Oscar-nominated Honeyland and Oliver Laxe’s Cannes award-winner, Fire Will Come.

But Huisman confirmed to Screen that Contact Film had ceased acquiring new titles and will shutter the business within the next two years.

Huisman had already planned to step down as CEO but discussed the possibility...

The Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) will be an online-only event for its fourth edition, which will take place later this month.

The Festival originally intended to be an in-person event and even announced its selection for the event, which was initially scheduled to take place in December, 2020. However, Covid regulations in Malaysia were made stricter in November, which caused cinemas countrywide to close down and made the event impossible. With the regulations showing no signs of easing yet, organisers have been forced to move the event into the digital space and make it an online-only event.

The festival is now scheduled to be held from January 15th-21st on the streaming platform Mubi. The audiences in Malaysia can stream the selection free of cost by taking advantage of Mubi’s extended 30-days free trial subscription. Joanne Goh, the festival chairperson, together with actor Bront Palarae made the announcement at the 4th MIFFest Gala Night.

The fourth edition of the Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) is now set to be held later this month as an online-only event.

The festival was originally scheduled to take place as an in-person event in December and got as far as announcing its selection. However, Malaysia’s coronavirus control measures were increased at the beginning of November, causing cinemas across much of the country to close.

Miffest organizers said in November that they hoped to be still able to put on a real-world festival in January when cinemas reopened. But with the virus still hitting cinema operations that is no longer a viable option.

Instead, the festival will now be held Jan. 15-21, playing out on streaming platform Mubi. Audiences in Malaysia can stream the selection free of charge through an extended 30-day trial subscription to Mubi.

The announcement was made by Joanne Goh, the festival chairperson, together with...

European film, TV and media group Wild Bunch is moving to strengthen its involvement in production and co-productions in France, placing longtime in-house execs Adeline Fontan Tessaur and Jerome Rougier in charge of the effort. They will respectively continue as Managing Director of Elle Driver and Director of French Theatrical Distribution, and will spearhead acquisitions with a particular focus on co-productions. The first films will be announced in the coming weeks.

The push in France follows similar developments at Wild Bunch subsidiaries in Germany, Italy and Spain. Recently appointed COO of Wild Bunch, Marc Gabizon, created and developed the Wild Bunch activity in Germany and is continuing the policy to grow production and co-production in Europe.

Wild Bunch has kept busy with internal shifts and new in-roads over the past year. That includes recently setting key promotions at independent sales subsidiary Wild Bunch International, as well as securing a 35M...

The closing and award ceremony of the 6th edition of Herat International Women’s Film Festival kicked off on Thursday evening, November 19 at Darul Aman new-constructed historical palace in Kabul city, with presence of national and international invitees from different countries; cinema professionals, movie stars, women and human rights activists and government authorities, including the Minister of Information and culture Mr. Tahir Zahir and Nargis Abyar, director of acclaimed Iranian drama “Track 143”, “Breath” and “When the Moon Was Full” who served as a jury member for the International Narrative Feature Films Competition.

The ceremony began with a live music performance by the Zohra Orchestra (Afghanistan’s first all-female orchestra) and was presented jointly by one of the co-founders and program managers of the festival and Tolo TV’s famous presenter Aimal Asifi, and Manizha Abassi, writer and poet. Initially, the presenters offered their heartfelt thanks, on behalf of the festival,...

Iran. As a country, we often see it in the news as "the other", a large territory in the Middle East which is, if not outright antagonistic, at the very least totally alien. It's quite an eye-opener when all those preconceptions get lost in minutes while watching Just 6.5, which is at its heart a typical cops-versus-drugdealers thriller, and one which doesn't shy away from some strong criticisms at all parties involved, including the Government. When the prices of drugs start to drop and criminals start to sell the illegal substances to just about everyone, Detective Samad is involved with a big effort to crack down hard on the exploding trade. The police's main target: an elusive kingpin named Naser Khakzad. A lucky break allows...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

In Iran, executions are often carried out by conscripted soldiers, which puts an enormous burden on the shoulders of ordinary citizens. And what are we to make of the condemned, for whom guilt can sometimes be a capricious thing, dictated by a severe and oppressive Islamic regime — the same one that accused Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof of “endangering national security” and “spreading propaganda” against the government?

When Rasoulof returned from Cannes in 2017, following the premiere of his film “A Man of Integrity,” he was banned from filmmaking for life and sentenced to a year in prison. But as a man of integrity himself, the director could not stop. His latest film, “There Is No Evil,” premiered in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, where instead of being silenced, the government put on him.

The resulting feat of artistic dissidence runs two and a half hours, comprising four discrete chapters, each...

Winners in the International Competition also included Atlantis, Just 6.5, Only The Animals and Chaogtu With Sarula.

Danish filmmaker Frelle Petersen’s Uncle won the Tokyo Grand Prix Award at the close of the Tokyo International Film Festival (November 5), while Summer Knight, directed by China’s You Xing, took best film in the Asian Future section.

Set in rural Denmark, Uncle follows a girl caring for her disabled uncle who dreams of becoming a veterinarian and faces a heart-breaking choice. Summer Knight is also a coming-of-age story, set in China in the summer of 1997, about two boys attempting to recover a stolen bicycle.