News

Acclaimed director Deepa Mehta, known for films like “Funny Boy,” “Fire,” “Water” and “Earth,” has boarded Iram Parveen Bilal‘s Pakistan-set “Wakhri” as a presenting executive producer.

“Wakhri” is set to open the 19th edition of Tasveer Film Festival on Oct. 17 in Seattle. The film tells the story of a widowed school teacher who becomes an overnight social media sensation due to her unfiltered opinions. As she navigates her newfound influencer status, she must balance traditional norms, hidden identities, and raising her 10-year-old son.

The film is inspired by Pakistani social media star Qandeel Baloch who was murdered in 2016. It has already made its mark on the festival circuit, premiering at the Red Sea Film Festival and screening at SXSW, San Francisco International Film Festival, and Cleveland International Film Festival, among others.

“Wakhri” is a collaboration between Sanat Initiative, Awedacious Originals and Parveen Shah Production, with Mehta’s Deepa Mehta Films Inc.

Deepa Mehta is set to direct “Troilokya,” a thriller about an Indian woman known to be a serial killer. Production is through pan-Asian film company Through the Lens Entertainment and India’s Open Air Films.

The story, set in 19th century Calcutta during British rule, sees a female prostitute embark on an unheard of killing spree. For more than a decade, she is hunted down by detective Priyonath Mukhopadhyay. The screenplay, written by Juhi Chaturvedi (“Piku”), navigates through eccentric relationships fraught with lust, obsession, revenge and hatred.

Production is set for August and September with locations including India and Thailand. Though the Lens Entertainment is looking to appoint a distributor and aims for a theatrical release in India, with digital distribution in international territories.

“The challenge of depicting a serial murderess as a heroine is what intrigues me most about ‘Troilokya.’ ‘Is it possible to muster empathy for this child bride turned prostitute turned killer?...

"Only Murders in the Building" season 3 has a few songs in its heart. A musical theatre aficionado will have a ball with season 3 of "Only Murders in the Building," thanks to Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) converting his outlandish murder-mystery play "Death Rattle" into a musical.

While the trio are solving yet another murder, this season is brimming with musical references. In season 3, episode 2, a recuperating Putnam hallucinates his loved ones performing a pastiche of "There'll Be Some Changes Made" from the Bob Fosse-directed "All That Jazz." It's a cutting reference because said musical film, especially this particular number, metatextually tackles the director's heart attack. It deals with mortal self-flagellation, both for Fosse and in-universe for Fosse's fictional avatar.

In contrast, the show also applies a more lighthearted reference to "The Producers" that complements Oliver's pursuits. After a falling out with his friend Charles Haden-Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver needs a replacement for the Investigator.

TV documentary “Barbie Uncovered” and an adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche are among the latest projects awarded by the U.K. Global Screen Fund.

On “Barbie Uncovered,” an unofficial majority U.K. co-production with New Zealand, the U.K. producers are Ross Wilson from Rw Productions and Alan Clements from Two Media Rivers who will co-produce with New Zealand’s Daniel Story and Cass Avery from Augusto. It will be directed by Eddie Hutton-Mills and focuses on the unknown history of the global icon Barbie and the dramatic and dark story behind the creation of the world’s most famous doll.

On “The Odyssey” adaptation “The Return,” a minority U.K. co-production with Italy, Greece and France made under the European Convention, the U.K. producers are James Clayton and Uberto Pasolini from Red Wave Films who will co‐produce with Italy’s...

Array Releasing, the distribution arm of Ava DuVernay’s Peabody Award-winning narrative change collective, has picked up rights to the feature drama Learn to Swim for the U.S., the UK, Australia and New Zealand, slating it for release on select screens and on Netflix on August 15.

The first feature from director Thyrone Tommy dives into the world of contemporary jazz with a musical meditation on love and loss, following the doggedly private and talented saxophone player Dezi (Thomas Antony Olajide) and a vivacious, but less experienced singer named Selma (Emma Ferreira). When the two meet, sparks fly, but their respective emotional baggage and temperaments make the road to romance bumpy at best.

An official selection of the 2021 Toronto Film Festival, Learn to Swim was written by Tommy and Marni Van Dyk, with Alona Metzer producing.

“With Array Releasing’s summer acquisition of Learn To Swim, we are thrilled to...

Toronto-based filmmaker Deepa Mehta has been making films since the 1970s, including the Oscar-nominated “Water,” part of her elements trilogy; “Bollywood/Hollywood” and “Funny Boy.” Her TV credits include “Yellowjackets,” “Little America” and “Leila.”

As an immigrant to Canada from India, I felt “seen” twice in my life. And both those moments, ironically, were diametrically antithetical to each other.

It was my first foray into North America as a young newlywed documentary filmmaker. I missed my home and family, had no work, couldn’t get the fuss about ice hockey and was frankly surprised at the general questions thrown my way by well-meaning, educated young and old white folk. One lot expressed wonderment at my grasp of the English language. “Where did you learn such good English?” My answer usually was, “on the flight from Delhi to Toronto.” While the other lot expressed complete pity that I came from such an impoverished country,...

Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing has acquired award-winning feature films “Definition Please” and “Donkeyhead” and will debut them on Netflix.

Array has acquired distribution rights to both films in the U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand, with the additional territory of Canada for “Definition Please,” and will debut them on Jan. 21 on Netflix.

Both films are by South Asian origin female actor-filmmakers making their feature directorial debuts and who also star in them. “Definition Please” is by Sujata Day, whose acting credits include HBO’s “Insecure” and she directed and starred in short “Cowboy and Indian,” which is now being developed as a series.

The film follows Monica (Day), a former Scribbs Spelling Bee champion in the U.S. who must reconcile with her estranged brother when he returns home to help care for their sick mother. The film also features Ritesh Rajan (“Russian Doll”), Anna Khaja (“The Walking Dead: World Beyond...

Samantha Ruth Prabhu, one of India’s top actors, has boarded the cast of feature film “Arrangements of Love.”

The film is to be directed by BAFTA-winning Welsh director Philip John, whose credits include “Downton Abbey” and “The Good Karma Hospital.”

The film is produced by Sunitha Tati’s Indian outfit Guru Films, whose “Oh! Baby,” the 2019 Telugu-language adaptation of 2014 Korean film “Miss Granny,” was a commercial success. “Oh! Baby” starred Samantha, who is known by just her first name.

The actor won much acclaim for her antagonist’s role in the second season of Amazon Prime Video series “Family Man,” which began streaming earlier this year. Active in both the Telugu and Tamil language industries, Samantha’s credits include S.S. Rajamouli’s “Eega,” “Super Deluxe,” “Janatha Garage” and “Mersal.”

Samir Sarkar, of Singapore’s Magic Hour Films, has joined the project as executive producer. Sarkar previously produced Rotterdam winner “Nasir,...

Propagate Behind Deepa Mehta-Directed ‘Burnt Sugar’

Ben Silverman’s Propagate Content is to produce Deepa Mehta’s adaptation of Avni Doshi’s novel Burnt Sugar, in a deal which was negotiated by Anna Soler-Pont at the Pontas Literary & Film Agency. Based on the story of a dysfunctional mother and daughter in Pune, the book has sold 150,000 copies and was submitted for prominent awards such as the Booker Prize. A London stage adaptation for 2023 is also in the works. Mehta, the Academy Award nominated Indian-Canadian filmmaker has helmed book adaptations previously such as Midnight’s Children and Funny Boy, and is known for trilogy Fire, Earth and Water. For TV, she directed the pilot for acclaimed Apple series Little America and Showtime’s upcoming Yellowjackets. “Depicting complicated human connections are what drive most of my projects and I look forward to delving into the complex, layered and at times surprisingly dark...

Celebrated Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta is attached to write and direct the film adaptation of Avni Doshi’s bestselling novel “Burnt Sugar.”

Set in the Indian city of Pune, the novel tells the story of Tara, who after a wild youth, faces challenges when she is older and must rekindle her relationship with her daughter.

Ben Silverman’s Propagate Content has acquired audiovisual rights for the novel and will produce. The deal with Propagate was negotiated by Anna Soler-Pont at the Pontas Literary & Film Agency on behalf of Doshi.

Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, and longlisted for the 2021 Women’s Prize, the novel has sold over 150,000 copies worldwide. Translation rights have been sold into 26 languages, including German, French, Spanish, Korean, Russian and Arabic. The Lot Productions have licensed theater rights with an aim to develop a play to premiere in London during their 2023 season. The novel will be adapted by...

Tathagat(Mubi)

Starring Harish Khanna, Ghanshayam Lalsa, Himanshu Bhandari

Written & Directed by Manav Kaul

Tathagat as the title suggests, is a meditative melancholic mood-piece on mortality. It is suffused with ideas and ruminations on the quality of life. But clearly the restless disjointed thought-processes do not culminate in any definitive cogent perceptions on the question that haunts the protagonist: what makes life worth living, if not memories?

Harish Khanna whom I’ve seen in powerful but mostly grey peripheral roles, is as grey as they come in this film. He is worshipped as a messiah of sorts in the Himalayan hamlet where the plot nestles uneasily. But Baba(as he is addressed by his disciples) is clearly not the committed godman that he is taken to be.

He has a guilty secret in his past which keeps raring its head like some of kind of a sinfully catchy tune that...

BAFTA-winning Welsh director Philip John, whose credits include “Downton Abbey” and “The Good Karma Hospital,” will direct “Arrangements of Love,” the sole Asian project selected at the Toronto International Financing Forum, which sits alongside the Toronto film festival.

The film is an adaptation of the bestselling 2004 novel of the same title by Indian author Timeri N. Murari (“The Taliban Cricket Club”) by John and British Sri Lankan actor Nimmi Harasgama, who played the female lead in Deepa Mehta’s “Funny Boy” and is a series regular on “The Good Karma Hospital.”

“Arrangements of Love” follows a Welsh-Indian man on his quest to find his estranged father with an impromptu visit to his homeland.

“’The Arrangements of Love’ is an intricate and subtle exploration of love; quirky and oddball it tells of the characters all looking for something – and hidden under their stories is the search for love, in its many guises,...

Festivals

The 17th Zurich Film Festival (Sept. 23-Oct. 3) will honor Sharon Stone with its highest accolade, the Golden Icon Award. Stone will be in Zurich to accept the award in person on Sept. 25. The award ceremony will be followed by a screening of Martin Scorsese’s “Casino,” which earned Stone an Oscar nomination. The actor will also conduct a masterclass where she will offer insights into her creative process and career.

“It is an honor to engage with the global community and celebrate the profound depth of our art,” said Stone. “I am thrilled to be recognized in this capacity.”

“Sharon Stone is a true icon of the seventh art,” said festival artistic director Christian Jungen. “She is a woman that Hitchcock would have loved. Her distinguishing qualities include an irresistible charm, a great human depth, the talent to play a whole range of roles and the ability to captivate an audience like no other.

Filming is underway in Europe on David Cronenberg’s Crimes Of The Future, starring Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart and Scott Speedman.

Joining the cast are Tanaya Beatty (Yellowstone), Nadia Litz (Big Muddy), Yorgos Karamichos (The Durrells), and Yorgos Pirpassopoulos (Beckett). Also previously announced were Welket Bungué (Berlin Alexanderplatz), Don McKellar (Blindness), and Lihi Kornowski (Losing Alice).

The film shoots in Athens, Greece until September 2021.

The film takes a deep dive into the not-so-distant future where humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. The evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup. While some embrace the limitless potential of ‘transhumanism’, others attempt to police it. Either way, “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome”, is spreading fast.

“As we begin filming Crimes Of The Future, just two days into this new adventure with David Cronenberg, it feels like we’ve entered a story he...

Exclusive: Rutina Wesley (Queen Sugar), Mamie Gummer (True Detective), Nora Dunn (The Big Leap) and Henry G. Sanders (Queen Sugar) are among nine cast in HBO Max’s Dmz, a limited series based on the DC comic series from Ava DuVernay and Roberto Patino, and Warner Bros. Television. Also joining stars Rosario Dawson and Benjamin Bratt are Venus Ariel (NCIS: New Orleans), Jade Wu (Marvel’s Luke Cage), Rey Gallegos (Animal Kingdom), Agam Darshi (Funny Boy) and Juani Feliz (upcoming Harlem).

Joining the creative team are filmmaker Ernest Dickerson and Emmy winner Carly Wray.

Dickerson will direct and executive produce three episodes of the four-part series. DuVernay directed the first episode and executive produces the series.

Wray has joined the writing team and will serve as co-executive producer on the show, working alongside showrunner Patino, who wrote the pilot episode and executive produces the series.

Dmz is set in the near future,...

“Schitt’s Creek” and “Blood Quantum” were the big winners in the television and film categories, respectively, at the 2021 Canadian Screen Awards.

“Schitt’s Creek” led television honors with eight awards for it’s sixth and final season, including best comedy series; best direction, comedy for Andrew Cividino and Daniel Levy; and the sixth win in a row for Catherine O’Hara as best lead actress in comedy. “Canada’s Drag Race” follows with five wins, including best reality/competition program or series.

Jeff Barnaby’s “Blood Quantum” topped film honors with seven Canadian Screen Awards, including Michael Greyeyes in the performance by an actor in a leading role category. Tracey Deer’s first feature “Beans” won best motion picture, while Deepa Mehta was awarded best achievement in direction for “Funny Boy.” Michelle Pfeiffer won actress in a leading role for “French Exit.”

Recently departed Canadian thespian Christopher Plummer was the recipient of best...

Trojan Records is set to reissue its legendary 1971 collection The Trojan Story — a three-lp set that helped introduce the world to artists like Jimmy Cliff, the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, and Lee “Scratch” Perry — for its 50th anniversary this June.

Long out-of-print, the 50-song anthology — due out June 18th — will be reissued physically and digitally with its original tracklist intact, along with a 50-page illustrated booklet featuring liner notes for every song by Trojan’s label manager Rob Bell — who helped curate the original release — and musician Rusty Zinn.

In addition...

Consider your Mother’s Day viewing plans sorted. Hitting select theaters and streaming on Netflix staring Thursday, May 6 is Shantrelle P. Lewis’ feature directorial debut “In Our Mothers’ Gardens,” a loving, insightful, and inspirational look at the relationships between mothers and daughters. The documentary had its world premiere at the 2020 BlackStar Film Festival, winning the Shine Award for Best Film.

Last month, Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing picked up the film as part of its growing selection of films focused on films by people of color and women. Array’s president Tilane Jones explained the documentary’s obvious appeal in an official statement: “‘In Our Mothers’ Gardens’ is a beautiful tribute to the complex relationships between Black women connected by lineage and love. Released in celebration of Mother’s Day, we are honored to present Ms. Lewis’ feature debut highlighting important bonds between daughters, mothers and grandmothers told by a dynamic group of women.

Array Releasing has acquired the documentary “In Our Mothers’ Gardens,” which marks filmmaker Shantrelle P. Lewis’ directorial debut.

Array president Tilane Jones announced the acquisition on Thursday, along with news that the film will be released in select theaters and begin streaming on Netflix on May 6.

“’In Our Mothers’ Gardens’ is a beautiful tribute to the complex relationships between Black women connected by lineage and love,” Jones said in a statement. “Released in celebration of Mother’s Day, we are honored to present Ms. Lewis’ feature debut highlighting important bonds between daughters, mothers and grandmothers told by a dynamic group of women.”

The documentary debuted at the 2020 BlackStar Film Festival and subsequently earned the Shine Award for best film. The movie features interviews with #MeToo founder Tarana Burke; Tina Farris (tour manager for talent including The Roots and Chris Rock); cultural critic Dr. Brittney Cooper (Rutgers University); Rev. Dr. Theresa S.

by Nathaniel R

The Canadian Screen Awards, formerly known as the Genies (Film) and Geminis (TV), have been around in their current form since 2013. The indigenous zombie film Blood Quantum, currently streaming on Shudder, led the nominations for film with 10 citations but missed both picture and director. In second place, in terms of nomination tally, was Deepa Mehta's gay drama Funny Boy (which you'll remember was disqualified as Canada's submission at the Oscars since almost all of its dialogue was in English). If you watch Funny Boy on Netflix, take note that friend of Tfe Arun Welandawe Prematillek, plays the teacher in the classroom scenes. The awards ceremony on May 20th will be a virtual event.

The full motion picture nominee list and where you can see some of the films after the jump...

Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy earns nine nods including best film.

Jeff Barnaby’s zombie horror Blood Quantum leads the Canadian Screen Awards nominations with 10 nods, the organisation announced on Tuesday (March 30)

The genre title from Prospector Films missed out on a best picture nomination but is in contention for lead actor with Michael Greyeyes, who starred in Sundance breakout Wild Indian, and garnered nods for best effects, best screenplay for Barnaby, and Michel St-Martin’s cinematography, among others.

Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy earned nine nods including best film alongside Tracey Deer’s Beans, Pascal Plante’s Nadia, Butterfly,...

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television announced nominees for its 2021 Screen Awards today, with winners set to be crowned across a series of presentations May 17 – May 20.

Schitt’s Creek continued its fine awards form, picking up 21 nominations including Best Comedy Series, and Best Writing for Dan Levy, who also scored Best Lead Actor alongside his dad Eugene Levy. The show also had a double nom in the Best Lead Actress category for Annie Murphy and Catherine O’Hara. Behind-the-scenes doc Best Wishes, Warm Regards: A Schitt’s Creek Farewell landed a nom in the Best Biography or Arts Documentary category.

Elsewhere in series, Cardinal: Until The Night and Trickster both picked up 15 nominations each.

On the film side, Jeff Barnaby’s Blood Quantum topped nominations with 10, while Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy had nine and Charles Officer’s Akilla’s Escape had eight.

You can see the full list of Canadian Screen Award nominations – across 141 film,...

The UK & Europe’s largest South Asian film festival the London Indian Film Festival, continues with upbeat movies, online on the last Sunday of each month at www.loveliffathome.com ahead of our June festival in London, Birmingham and Manchester and online.

Inspirational charmer, T for Taj Mahal, tells the wonderful story of a young man’s journey to bring literacy to his village through a unique social enterprise. Illiterate villager, Bansi played by Subrat Dutta (Talaash), runs a roadside eatery near the world-famous Taj Mahal. Concerned that another generation of villagers will grow up without a proper education and get ridiculed and duped as he has been, he hatches a unique social enterprise idea offering tourists who eat his food an option to pay their bill by teaching the local youngsters. The idea is an initial hit with tourists and the children until a big company muscles in.

This...

From Oscar winners such as “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” and “Son of Saul” to this year’s international feature entries “The Auschwitz Report” and “Dara From Jasenovac,” the horrors of the Holocaust have been repeatedly explored by international filmmakers, but genocide and mass deaths in other countries are not given so much attention.

“The Promise” (2016), starring Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale, centered on the Armenian genocide, but it was a rarity. However, this year there are several films that deal with global atrocities, including four on Oscar’s international film shortlist: Bosnia and Hezegovina’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?” Guatemala’s “La Llarona,” Romania’s “Collective” and Russia’s “Dear Comrades!”

Beyond the shortlist are Kazakhistan’s “The Crying Steppe” (directed by Marina Kunarova and Canada’s “Funny Boy” (Deepa Mehta), which was disqualified after being submitted for the international film category. The films respectively center on genocide in Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka.

Deepa Mehta’s had her fair share of tough shoots. “Water” had to be moved from India following protests and lensed in Sri Lanka, but she never had one that was affected by a pandemic.

“Funny Boy,” released by Ava DuVernay’s Array, is streaming on Netflix. Mehta, who has filmed a couple of other movies in Sri Lanka, loved the book by Shyam Selvadurai, a gay coming of age story between two teens — one a Tamil and one Sinhalese — set against the Sri Lankan civil war between the two groups.

Mehta had to make three trips to the capital of Columbo to get permission to shoot. “It took one year.”

But the delay surprised her. “The book has been out for 22 years or more, and it’s a book that’s taught today at Columbo University. It’s a very popular book that’s been also translated into Sinhalese...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday revealed the 366 feature films that are eligible for consideration at the 93rd Oscars, which are set to air April 25 live on ABC.

The total number of films is up from last year’s 344 films in contention.

This year’s list was compiled based on tweaked eligibility rules implemented because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has pushed the ceremony to its latest date ever. For this year, feature films had to open by February 28 in a commercial motion picture theater for a seven-day qualifying run in at least one of six metro areas: Los Angeles County, New York City, the Bay Area, Chicago, Miami and Atlanta. Drive-in theaters open nightly were included as qualifying venues, as were films intended for theatrical release but because of the lockdown made available first via streaming, VOD service or other broadcast.

Today’s news comes...

Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s next film is a “Get Out”-style supernatural thriller, she revealed on Tuesday.

Speaking at a virtual event organized by Indian socio-cultural organization, the Prabha Khaitan Foundation, Mehta said, “There’s a horror film that I’m working on, which I’m so intrigued about because it’s like ‘Get Out,’ a supernatural thriller, which actually is about women.”

Mehta is also developing Madhuri Vijay’s award-winning 2019 novel “The Far Field” as one of her next projects with Huma Qureshi, the star of her Netflix series “Leila.”

“The Far Field” traces the journey of a woman from Bengaluru to the troubled Kashmir region in quest of a lost figure from her childhood. It won the 2019 Jcb Prize for literature. Mehta say the novel adaptation will take some time.

Mehta’s “Funny Boy,” based on Sri Lankan-Canadian author Shyam Selvadurai’s 1994 Lambda-winning coming-of-age novel explores...

The number of films available to Oscar voters in a screening room devoted to the Best Picture category hit the 200 mark on Wednesday, which means that $2.5 million has entered the Academy coffers from films paying $12,500 each to be represented in the screening room.

The members-only Academy Screening Room hit the milestone with the addition of more than a dozen movies this week, including Fisher Stevens’ “Palmer,” Lee Daniels’ “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” John Lee Hancock’s “The Little Things,” the Russo brothers’ “Cherry,” Josh Trank’s “Capone,” the documentary “Coup 53,” the Studio Ghibli animated film “Earwig and the Witch,” the international films “Funny Boy” and “Bacarau” (neither eligible in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category) and some off-the-wall selections, including “Snake White – Love Endures” and “Soorarai Pottru.”

Other late additions to the screening room have included “Minari,” “Promising Young Woman,” “The White Tiger” and “Cherry,” which were not added until January.

Exclusive: Agam Darshi, who was most recently seen in Deepa Mehta’s coming-of-age film Funny Boy and can be seen in Ava DuVernay’s forthcoming HBO Max series Dmz, is set to make her directorial debut with the family dramedy Donkeyhead. Principal photography started in Regina, Saskatchewan on January 18. It is slated for release later this year.

Directed, written by and starring Darshi, DonkeyHead follows Mona (Darshi), a thirty-something woman who returns to her traditional Sikh family home in order to sort things out in her messy life. However, what starts as something temporary turns into seven years after her father is diagnosed with cancer. When his health suddenly takes a turn for the worst her three successful siblings played by Stephen Lobo (Travelers), Sandy Sidhu (Nurses) and Huse Madhavj (Schitt’s Creek) come home, determined to take care of the situation. Through quirky family dynamics, things quickly unravel as...

In what has been the strangest year on recent record for myriad reasons, the International Feature Film Oscar race is not immune to the impact of Covid. Along with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tweaking submission deadlines, many films vying for recognition in the International Feature category have experienced a lack of physical festival exposure and the customary resultant buzz, as so many events were canceled or moved online throughout the past nine months. In several cases, films selected by their respective countries actually debuted way back in the 2019 festival season.

This comes at a particularly interesting time for non-English language movies, given the incredible 2019 run of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. After beginning its career in Cannes, it went on not only to scoop the International Feature trophy, but also Best Director and Best Film — the latter a first for a foreign-language movie.

For the moment, there...

One of the first conversations cinematographer Douglas Koch had with director Deepa Mehta was about his using a handheld camera in shooting “Funny Boy,” a coming-of-age story set during the civil war in Sri Lanka.

The plan was to allow complete flexibility as Koch worked with two actors — Arush Nand and Brandon Ingram — playing the role of Arjie from boyhood to adolescence as he discovers his sexual identity. As war rages between the Tamil and the Sinhalese, Arjie is further at risk in a nation where homosexuality is punishable by law. Koch made sure the camera was always motivated by the space the actors were in, and that the performers dictated how the camera moved, not the other way around.

The film was originally targeted as Canada’s foreign-language Oscar entry but was disqualified for containing too much English. Netflix resubmitted the film, which bowed in early December, in the best picture and general categories.

Following two wins in the past three years, contenders from across the Americas are championing local culture and community.

The lack of physical festivals has not helped any film this year, and the relatively low-key roster from the Americas could have used the opportunity to break out a little-known filmmaker or remind voters of some of the more familiar names in play.

No film from the region made it onto the 10-strong shortlist last season and, despite speculation that some filmmakers might be holding back their latest work for what is hoped will be a return to physical festivals in...

The Academy on Friday unveiled to its voters a record 93 films will compete in the Best International Feature Film category — which will no doubt leading to a busy four weeks of viewing before first-round voting begins on Feb. 1.

Helped by Covid-inspired rules that relaxed the usual entry requirements, the films topped the record of 92 entries set in 2017, as TheWrap suggested they likely would in December. The films include a record 34 female directors, seven more than the previous high of 27 set last year.

This is not the official list of qualifying films, which is expected to be released by the Academy later in January. But these 93 films are all in the members-only online screening room devoted to the category, and each of them has been put on a “required viewing” list for one-fourth of the voters. It is unlikely that any of the films will be disqualified at this point, although...

Vadim Perelman’s “Persian Lessons” has been pulled from the international feature film Oscar race, where the acclaimed WWII drama was representing Belarus.

As part of the international feature film submission process, a country’s selection committee is required to provide a list of credits in key creative positions, both above and below the line. Variety understands that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences removed the film from consideration because it didn’t meet the category’s eligibility requirements for the majority of creative control to originate from residents of the submitting country.

The WWII drama, which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year, is set in occupied France in 1942 and stars Nahuel Perez Biscayart (“Beats Per Minute”) as a Belgian Jew who narrowly avoids execution by a Nazi firing squad when he claims to be Persian. He is then enlisted to teach Farsi — which he...

From her groundbreaking Elements Trilogy to “Funny Boy,” her gorgeous new queer coming-of-age tale currently streaming on Netflix, Deepa Mehta makes films to delight all of the senses. For her immersive adaptation of Sri Lankan-Canadian author Shyam Selvadurai’s beloved novel “Funny Boy,” Mehta kept one particular sense in mind: “I want people to smell ‘Funny Boy.’ You should smell it, smell the palm trees, you can smell the water.”

Raised in New Delhi and living in Toronto since 1973, the lauded Indo-Canadian filmmaker’s body of work spans globally in location and subject matter. Mehta is best known for her Elements Trilogy (the origin of that name are a mystery to her), which includes the controversial lesbian romance “Fire” (1996), the Partition era family drama “Earth” (1999), and the Oscar-nominated “Water” (2005). India submitted the film for the 2007 foreign-language Oscar, and this year submitted “Funny Boy,” but the Academy deemed it ineligible because it used too much English,...

Being a year where everyone was trapped indoors glued to their screens meant, for moviegoers, that smaller films were able to sneak onto the radar, and that especially extended to queer storytelling in 2020.

From unlikely romances like Miranda July’s “Kajillionaire” to genre-pushing nonfiction portraits like David France’s “Welcome to Chechnya” and Rachel Mason’s “Circus of Books,” there were plenty of enjoyable and inspiring LGBTQ movies to engage with in an otherwise dour and painful year.

In “Monsoon,” Henry Golding burst out of the matinee idol image he established in “Crazy Rich Asians.” Mart Crowley’s scandalous 1960s play “The Boys in the Band” lived again on Netflix. In “Lingua Franca,” Isabel Sandoval wrote, directed, and starred in a breakout indie about an undocumented trans Filipina worker. In “Shirley,” Elisabeth Moss once again burned down the screen in her sly and kinky turn as gothic writer Shirley Jackson.

There is nothing funny about growing up gay in a conservative country. Trust me. Everything seems to be conspiring against you. Not only must you deal with the changes your body undergoes during puberty and start wondering why you have no interest in the naked ladies in the magazines your classmates pass around during recess, you also hear many pejoratives thrown around carelessly, even by people you love, as they announce what they believe you will become. In addition to this, conservatism usually means your humanity is in peril, as you become the embodiment of everything they’re trying to eradicate.

This sense of looming danger is lacking in Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy, a coming-of-age story about a Sri Lankan Tamil gay boy, seen through butterfly wings. Although the film follows Arjie from his childhood (where he is played by Arush Nand) to his adolescence (Brandon Ingram plays the...

It replaces Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy, which was disqualified for being predominantly in English.

Jean-Philippe Duval’s 14 Days 12 Nights will represent Canada in the international feature film Oscar contest after Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy was disqualified for being predominantly in English.

Telefilm Canada announced the new official submission on Saturday morning (December 19), the day after it pulled Mehta’s coming-of-age drama.

The Academy’s eligibility rules state that submissions in the category must have a language other than English accounting for more than half of the dialogue track.

Anne Dorval (Mommy) stars in 14 Days 12 Nights as a woman...

Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy, which Canada submitted as its entry for the International Oscar race this year, has been rejected by AMPAS on the grounds it contains too much English dialogue.

A representative of Telefilm said it will instead put the film forward for general entry categories including Best Picture. It also revealed the selection committee had chosen two initial film choices for its International Oscar submission, in case the first was rejected, and is now waiting to hear back from the Academy about the eligibility of the second movie.

Funny Boy is in Tamil and Sinhalese but also contains English dialogue. The Academy mandates that a film cannot contain more than 50% English to be eligible.

“Although we were disappointed when informed by the Academy, we are excited to extend our ongoing support for Funny Boy as the journey to the Oscars continue,” said Christa Dickenson, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada.

Deepa Mehta’s film deemed ineligible due to amount of English dialogue.

Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy has been ruled ineligible for the international feature film Oscar after being entered as Canada’s submission for the award.

According to a statement from Telefilm Canada, the film has been ruled out of contention in the category because of the amount of English dialogue it includes. Academy Award rules say that contenders for the international film award – known until last year as the foreign-language film Oscar – must have a dialogue track more than 50% in a language other than English. Funny Boy is...

Deepa Mehta’s “Funny Boy” will no longer compete in the Academy Awards’ international feature film category and will instead be submitted for consideration in the best picture and general entry categories.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has informed “Funny Boy” producer Telefilm Canada that the film does not meet the Academy’s eligibility requirements for the international feature film category due to the amount of English dialogue in the film.

“Although we were disappointed when informed by the Academy, we are excited to extend our ongoing support for ‘Funny Boy’ as the journey to the Oscars continue,” said Christa Dickenson, executive director of Telefilm Canada.

Based on the best-selling novel by Shyam Selvadurai, the film follows a young boy’s (Arjie) sexual awakening in Sri Lanka during the turbulent Tamil-Sinhalese conflict leading up to the civil war. Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing picked up the film for distribution in October.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has disqualified Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy, Canada’s entry for best international feature Oscar consideration, for having too much dialogue in English.

“Although we were disappointed when informed by the Academy, we are excited to extend our ongoing support for Funny Boy as the journey to the Oscars continues,” Christa Dickenson, executive director of Telefilm Canada, said in a statement on Friday.

Telefilm, which submits Canada’s contender at the Academy, said Funny Boy has now been submitted for consideration in Oscar’s best picture and general entry categories.

“We were ...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has disqualified Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy, Canada’s entry for best international feature Oscar consideration, for having too much dialogue in English.

“Although we were disappointed when informed by the Academy, we are excited to extend our ongoing support for Funny Boy as the journey to the Oscars continues,” Christa Dickenson, executive director of Telefilm Canada, said in a statement on Friday.

Telefilm, which submits Canada’s contender at the Academy, said Funny Boy has now been submitted for consideration in Oscar’s best picture and general entry categories.

“We were ...

Photo: 'Funny Boy'/Netflix 'Funny Boy' opens with an image of Sri Lanka that evokes paradise. Children navigate through pockets of shade among cavernous palms, like fawns prancing through the forest, as they run along the sand of an azure seashore. We see a mock bridal procession led by our young protagonist Arjie (Arush Nand), who wears bright red lipstick and a sari to match. His younger sister Sonali (Araina Nand) runs alongside him, dressed in a groom’s suit--trailing behind them are their girl cousins. Arriving at their family’s estate, where much of the film takes place, they continue the ceremony. One of the cousins officiates as Arjie and Sonali exchange their “I do’s” and kiss each other on the cheek. The bridal party erupts in applause and cheers, tossing flower petals into the air, but cousin Tanuja (Thenaya Senarie Geeganage), a visitor from England,...

On the surface, “Funny Boy” has very little to do with the Barbra Streisand musical its title is riffing on. The story of a fey Sri Lankan Tamil boy growing up in 1970s Colombo is a far cry from Fanny Brice’s ascent from the Lower East Side to the heights of show business. The title comes from the Sri Lankan-Canadian novelist Shyam Selvadurai’s 1994 novel, which is read and taught widely in Sri Lanka today. Though Arjie (Brandon Ingram), the film’s wide-eyed central figure, is more of a David Bowie fan, the title’s slight homage to the beloved diva seems apt. Especially when young Arjie steels himself from bullying by declaring, “don’t mess with the grand diva,” the faintest hint of Streisand rising from behind his red feather boa.

set amidst a vicious ethnic conflict that is regionally specific, but tragically universal. It is the latest...

“Don’t mess with the grand diva,” says 8-year-old Arjie, usually in private or under his breath, to a world determined to mess with him from all sides. Taught to him by an understanding, open-minded aunt, it’s a self-defense mantra that sees him through various forms of bullying as he comes to terms with his nascent homosexuality — no easy cross to bear in a conservative Sri Lankan household through the 1970s and 1980s.

It’s of less use, however, when his life is more violently rocked by the first bloody stirrings of the Sri Lankan Civil War: Both gay and Tamil, young Arjie is a doubly imperiled minority. Adapted from Shyam Selvadurai’s well-regarded semi-autobiographical novel, Deepa Mehta’s “Funny Boy” ambitiously braids internal and external conflict, familial and national strife, to engrossing if somewhat heavily condensed effect. Selected as Canada’s official Oscar entry, it’s the Indo-Canadian...

Funny Boy, Posessor, Inconvenient Indian also make cut.

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced its list of top 10 Canadian films for 2020, with Beans, The Nest, and Nadia, Butterfly among the selection.

The list includes Canada’s international feature film submission Funny Boy from Deepa Mehta and is compiled by the TIFF programming team comprising artistic director and TIFF co-head Cameron Bailey, senior director, film, Diana Sanchez, and TIFF programmer Steve Gravestock.

In order to qualify, selections must have screened at a Canadian or international film festival.

The list appears below, followed by TIFF’s top 10 Canadian shorts of the year,...

If there is a moral in Deepa Mehta’s tale of gay teenage love, Funny Boy, it is how small individual drama looks when set against the bloodshed and injustice of history.

Based on Shyam Selvadurai’s well-known novel, the story centers around a large, wealthy, traditional Tamil family running an upscale resort in Sri Lanka. The older members fight a bitter battle against the younger generation’s push for sexual independence, particularly their younger son’s attraction to men, until they find themselves swept up in the historical disaster of the civil war between Sinhalese and Tamils. Vividly drawn characters portrayed by a lively,...

If there is a moral in Deepa Mehta’s tale of gay teenage love, Funny Boy, it is how small individual drama looks when set against the bloodshed and injustice of history.

Based on Shyam Selvadurai’s well-known novel, the story centers around a large, wealthy, traditional Tamil family running an upscale resort in Sri Lanka. The older members fight a bitter battle against the younger generation’s push for sexual independence, particularly their younger son’s attraction to men, until they find themselves swept up in the historical disaster of the civil war between Sinhalese and Tamils. Vividly drawn characters portrayed by a lively,...

CinemaThis film has been written, directed, edited, and produced by Kiran R, who had assisted filmmaker Mani Ratnam in 'Kaatru Veliyidai'.Tnm StaffParallel Lines, an independent Tamil feature film, is all set to premiere at Canada’s south Asian film festival, the Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival (Misaff), this year. The film will have its world premiere in the festival’s eighth edition, which is being held online due to Covid-19 pandemic this year. Parallel Lines is written, directed, edited, and produced by Kiran R, who had assisted filmmaker Mani Ratnam in Kaatru Veliyidai, in addition to directing his own short films. The film stars theatre artists Vatsan M Natarajan and Masanth Natarajan, from the Koothu-p-Pattarai theatre group. The film’s official poster was shared by Mani Ratnam’s Madras Talkies in September this year. Touted to be a thriller, this film was shot in just 25 days before the pandemic-induced lockdown.