Latest news with #internationalcinema
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Film festival returns with global cinema line-up
Warwickshire's Big Picture Film Festival returns to Stratford-upon-Avon this summer for a weekend of international cinema. Organised by Live & Local, this year's festival takes place from 28-31 August with the theme of connection and disruption. The festival, which is supported by Stratford Town Trust, will open with a screening of David Attenborough's latest documentary, Ocean with David Attenborough, after organisers partnered with local environmental groups Stratford Net Zero and River Hope. Live & Local said the line-up included an array of cinema, from classics to modern independents, from live music scores to documentaries and animated works. This year, the festival will be based at The Bear Pit Theatre every day, with additional events taking place at Holy Trinity Parish Centre and Stratford Youth Hub, as well as several fringe events in Warwickshire yet to be announced. What's being shown during the festival? The varied line-up includes a screening of the oldest surviving animated feature film in the world, Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), which will be accompanied by a band playing the original music for the film. Another classic being shown is Toshio Matsumoto's debut feature Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), hailed by the British Film Institute as a "landmark of Japanese queer cinema". Stratford-based refugee charity Welcome Here is partnering with Stratford Amnesty International Group to present a screening of the Iranian/Scottish co-production, Winners (2022) - a film set in a small Iranian town as two children find a lost academy award. Also on the line-up is Thelma (2024), featuring 94-year-old June Squibb playing a woman seeking vengeance after being scammed out of $10,000. Local groups Stratford Net Zero, Welcome Here, River Hope and Stratford Amnesty are also presenting a screening of the 2024 Oscar-winning animated film Flow, which follows a black cat in a flooded world, joining other displaced animals on a journey of survival and co-operation. Are other events taking place? Several Q&A sessions will also take place as part of the festival. Stratford-based Bafta winning duo The Brothers McLeod will lead a discussion about the life and death of ideas, called False Starts and Surprises. The festival also welcomes Bafta breakthrough filmmaker Ella Glendining and international award-winning director Gordon Main for Q&A screenings of their documentaries. Ella Glendining's Is There Anybody Out There? (2023) presents a first-hand account of living with disability. Gordon Main's London Recruits (2024), tells the story of the undercover anti-racism missions carried out by ordinary Londoners during the South African apartheid. Screenwriter Geoff Thompson, director Michael B. Clifford and producer Natasha Carlish - all from Warwickshire - will also do a Q&A event about their trilogy of three short films, filmed across two decades, including Bouncer, which starred Ray Winstone and Paddy Considine, and Brown Paper Bag, which won a Bafta. Alongside the main festival, there will also be an awards ceremony and Q&A screening of this year's short film competition winners. How much do tickets cost? The festival has maintained its pay-as-you-feel box office, with organisers saying this meant there was "no financial barrier to attend". Chris Davis from Live & Local said: "We are extremely grateful for the support of Stratford Town Trust, which has allowed us to bring our film festival back to the town and also helps to make the festival more accessible to audiences. "We have some great events lined up and we encourage audiences to come along and enjoy, whatever their budget." Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. Related internet links Live & Local Big Picture Film Festival
BBC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Big Picture Film Festival returns to Stratford-upon-Avon
Warwickshire's Big Picture Film Festival returns to Stratford-upon-Avon this summer for a weekend of international by Live & Local, this year's festival takes place from 28-31 August with the theme of connection and festival, which is supported by Stratford Town Trust, will open with a screening of David Attenborough's latest documentary, Ocean with David Attenborough, after organisers partnered with local environmental groups Stratford Net Zero and River & Local said the line-up included an array of cinema, from classics to modern independents, from live music scores to documentaries and animated works. This year, the festival will be based at The Bear Pit Theatre every day, with additional events taking place at Holy Trinity Parish Centre and Stratford Youth Hub, as well as several fringe events in Warwickshire yet to be announced. What's being shown during the festival? The varied line-up includes a screening of the oldest surviving animated feature film in the world, Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), which will be accompanied by a band playing the original music for the classic being shown is Toshio Matsumoto's debut feature Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), hailed by the British Film Institute as a "landmark of Japanese queer cinema".Stratford-based refugee charity Welcome Here is partnering with Stratford Amnesty International Group to present a screening of the Iranian/Scottish co-production, Winners (2022) - a film set in a small Iranian town as two children find a lost academy on the line-up is Thelma (2024), featuring 94-year-old June Squibb playing a woman seeking vengeance after being scammed out of $10, groups Stratford Net Zero, Welcome Here, River Hope and Stratford Amnesty are also presenting a screening of the 2024 Oscar-winning animated film Flow, which follows a black cat in a flooded world, joining other displaced animals on a journey of survival and co-operation. Are other events taking place? Several Q&A sessions will also take place as part of the Bafta winning duo The Brothers McLeod will lead a discussion about the life and death of ideas, called False Starts and Surprises. The festival also welcomes Bafta breakthrough filmmaker Ella Glendining and international award-winning director Gordon Main for Q&A screenings of their Glendining's Is There Anybody Out There? (2023) presents a first-hand account of living with disability. Gordon Main's London Recruits (2024), tells the story of the undercover anti-racism missions carried out by ordinary Londoners during the South African Geoff Thompson, director Michael B. Clifford and producer Natasha Carlish - all from Warwickshire - will also do a Q&A event about their trilogy of three short films, filmed across two decades, including Bouncer, which starred Ray Winstone and Paddy Considine, and Brown Paper Bag, which won a the main festival, there will also be an awards ceremony and Q&A screening of this year's short film competition winners. How much do tickets cost? The festival has maintained its pay-as-you-feel box office, with organisers saying this meant there was "no financial barrier to attend".Chris Davis from Live & Local said: "We are extremely grateful for the support of Stratford Town Trust, which has allowed us to bring our film festival back to the town and also helps to make the festival more accessible to audiences. "We have some great events lined up and we encourage audiences to come along and enjoy, whatever their budget." Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Globe and Mail
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
TIFF's Platform program to debut new Cillian Murphy drama as ‘artistically ambitious' slate celebrates 10 years
When the Toronto International Film Festival launched its Platform program 10 years ago, the unmentioned but clearly understood goal was to play in the sandboxes of competing film organizations. Like Cannes's vaunted 'In Competition' slate, Platform would be a juried program designed to trumpet 'artistically ambitious' international cinema, although in this case at a festival that had never handed out awards based on the whims of a private panel. And like the official markets in Berlin, Cannes and even the American Film Market, Platform was designed to showcase films that had no distribution attached – to 'put the media and buyers in the room with the public,' as Cameron Bailey, then TIFF's artistic director and now its chief executive, said at the time. The aims and whims of Platform have changed over the ensuing decade – what was once a program restricted to world premieres is now also open to international premieres (a.k.a. films that are screening outside their country of origin for the first time), while plenty of movies have been invited with distributors attached, even as TIFF aims to launch its own official buying-and-selling market next year – but the 'artistically ambitious' element has been kept in place. While Platform's batting average is wobbly when it comes to TIFF's favourite metric of success – launching Oscar contenders – each year has reliably delivered at least one or two contemporary classics: Barry Jenkins's Moonlight, William Oldroyd's Lady Macbeth, Bertrand Bonello's Nocturama – and those were all just in 2016. Barry Hertz: On the beaches of Cannes, TIFF maps outs its ambitious future This year's Platform promises more of that same adventurous spirit, featuring bold voices – both emerging and veteran – from across the globe. Top of the list should be The World of Love from South Korean director Yoon Ga-eun, who has been lauded the world over for her work exploring the lives of children and youth (2016's The World of Us). But other potential conversation-starters include the Iranian trans drama Between Dreams and Hope, directed by Farnoosh Samadi; the Ukrainian political drama To the Victory! from Valentyn Vasyanovych; Skite'kmujue'katik (At the Place of Ghosts) from Canada's Bretten Hannam, which TIFF's director of programming, Robyn Citizen, calls an 'extremely beautiful film with elements of magical realism;' and Gyorgy Palfi's The Hen, an unorthodox live-action drama that follows one chicken as it escapes a grisly fate. For festival-goers looking to balance high art with high-wattage names, Platform has that angle covered, too, with the Polish period drama Winter of the Crow starring Lesley Manville and directed by Kasia Adamik, daughter of Agnieszka Holland (who will also be at TIFF with her new Kafka biopic); Pauline Loquès's French drama Nino, featuring Canada's hottest young actor, Théodore Pellerin; and Tim Mielants's Netflix-distributed drama Steve, starring Oppenheimer's Cillian Murphy as a schoolteacher for troubled boys. Meanwhile, this year's Platform jury continues the program's tradition of mixing international auteurs with familiar faces. Chairing the 2025 jury is Spanish filmmaker Carlos Marques-Marcet, whose 2024 drama They Will Be Dust won last year's Platform Prize. He'll be joined by Canadian director Chloé Robichaud (2023's Days of Happiness) and British actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste, whose latest collaboration with director Mike Leigh, Hard Truths, premiered at TIFF last year. When Platform made its debut in 2015, then-TIFF chief executive Piers Handling noted that the program exemplified 'our ongoing commitment to showcase artistic and inventive directors that fearlessly push boundaries.' As much as things have changed for the world of film and TIFF itself – including the amount of the Platform Prize, which has been lowered from its initial $25,000 purse to $20,000 – some things thankfully remain the same. TIFF's 50th edition runs Sept. 4 through 14.
Khaleej Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Kiran Rao to join jury of 27th Shanghai Film Festival
Indian filmmaker Kiran Rao will join the international jury at the upcoming 27th Shanghai International Film Festival, which commences on June 13. Rao said it was an honour to be part of a festival that champions international cinema and storytelling. "I look forward to experiencing the wide range of voices and perspectives on screen, and to engaging with my fellow jurors from around the world," she said in a statement. Rao will join a distinguished panel of global cinema voices led by Italian director and screenwriter Giuseppe Tornatore, best known for the Oscar-winning Cinema Paradiso. The jury includes a diverse lineup of celebrated film professionals: Argentine filmmaker Ivan Fund; Chinese actor and director Huang Bo; Greek producer Thanassis Karathanos; Chinese director and documentary filmmaker Yang Lina; and acclaimed Chinese actress Yong Mei. Rao's last directorial Laapataa Ladies won many hearts and awards, and is now streaming on Netflix. The Peepli Live producer recently reflected on the thought process behind its making and said she was aware of the "realistic limitations" of the film as it had a minimal budget and no big star. Yet, she believed in its content and trusted her team. "It was for me an incredible time to see that a film that, you know, like you said, had no known faces could do so well with word of mouth, which purely because people were, you know, telling each other to go and see it," she had said. Laapataa Ladies is a story set in 2001 in rural India about two young brides who get separated during a train journey and a police officer probes the missing case. It features Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava, Chhaya Kadam, and Ravi Kishan in key roles.
Arab News
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Angelina Jolie remembers Fatima Hassouna at Cannes
DUBAI: US actress and Oscar winner Angelina Jolie made a special appearance at the Cannes Film Festival to present the Trophee Chopard to rising stars Marie Colomb and Finn Bennett. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @ During the dinner ceremony, Jolie reflected on the power of international cinema to make an impact in times of global turmoil. 'I love international cinema,' Jolie told the star-studded assembly of guests. 'We are brought to other lands, into private moments, even on the battlefield, we connect and we empathize … anything that is possible to make international cinema more accessible is necessary and welcome.' 'And none of us are naive,' Jolie continued. 'We know that many artists around the world lack the freedom and security to tell their stories, and many have lost their lives like Fatima Hassouna, killed in Gaza, Shaden Gardood killed in Sudan, and Victoria Amelina killed in Ukraine, and so many other extraordinary artists who should be with us now. We owe all of those risking their lives and sharing their stories and experiences a debt of gratitude, because they have helped us to learn and to evolve.'
