When the filmmaker of 2021 Cannes Camera d’Or winner ‘Murina’ becomes the latest in a line of wondrous women filmmakers to feature in the beloved fashion brand’s series, the result is definitely something worth writing about!
Read MoreYorgos Lanthimos' 'Poor Things' Venice review
There are incredible Things to be said about the production value of the latest Lanthimos oeuvre, and there are beautiful Things in the film, but for me personally it was not all good Things for ‘Poor Things’.
Read MoreFive indie films to watch at this year's Venice Film Festival
It may be a Netflix world and we’re just living in it, as the streaming giant is hot on the Lido this year with Bradley Cooper’s ‘Maestro’, Pablo Larrain’s vampire dictator romp and Wes Anderson’s latest — but there are a couple of indie titles that you need to watch.
Read MoreBradley Cooper transforms into Leonard Bernstein in first images & trailer released by Netflix for 'Maestro'
The film, which is also directed, co-written and co-produced by Cooper, chronicles the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.
Read MoreNetflix drops Pablo Larrain Venice-bound 'El Conde' trailer and poster
The highly anticipated dark comedy horror by the Chilean auteur will premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival, before going into theaters on Sept. 7th and finally streaming on the site from September 15th.
Read MoreRemembering the great Andrea Purgatori, Venice's Giornate degli Autori announces film selection
As the Venice Film Festival’s beloved sidebar turns twenty this year, no longer being a cinematic teenager means celebrating those who have left us in this world, but also looking ahead to some groundbreaking cinema.
Read MoreCounter-cancel culture: Venice announces latest from Woody Allen, Polanski & Wes Anderson's take on Roald Dahl's stories in lineup
Watch minds explode as they try to wrap their heads around this impressive lineup just announced by the iconic festival on the Lido, which will also feature the first African American woman filmmaker Ava DuVernay featured in the official competition. Along with much, much more.
Read More"You can't judge a book by its cover": Darren Aronofsky's 'The Whale' in Venice
'The Whale', which is the film version of the play by Samuel D. Hunter, deals with an obese man's last chance at redemption.
Read MorePerfectly Nonconformist: Hamy Ramezan's 'Any Day Now' premieres at Berlinale
It was hard for me to fully wrap my head around the fact that ‘Any Day Now’ is Hamy Ramezan’s first feature film. This 80-some minutes story of an Iranian boy and his family, awaiting their fate as refugees in Finland is so profoundly perfect that I imagined a seasoned filmmaker at its helm.
Read MoreTrust me: 'Moon, 66 Questions' by Jacqueline Lentzou premieres at Berlinale
At the center of the story by the Greek native is a troubled father/daughter relationship, revisited when the father Paris, played with stunning vulnerability by Lazaros Georgakopoulos, develops Multiple Sclerosis or MS. The daughter Artemis, a force of nature in the masterful hands of actress Sofia Kokkali, ends up becoming his full time carer and in the process not only discovers something about her father she never knew, but also ends up finding herself.
Read MoreIsland Life: 'Liborio' and 'I Comete' are both must-watch titles at IFFR
Two films play at this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam that will make you yearn to a visit to an island. Any island…
Read MoreWhen the acting bug hits you: 'The Cemil Show' by Baris Sarhan world premieres in Rotterdam
In ‘The Cemil Show’ the film’s namesake leading character, played to perfection by Ozan Celik whom you may remember from ‘Sivas’ in 2015, is someone much like my friend and me — bad at acting, but still desperate to make it.
Read More'Gritt' is the film you need to watch in this brave new world. Why? I'll let filmmaker Itonje Søimer Guttormsen tell you.
In her debut feature ‘Gritt’ filmmaker Itonje Søimer Guttormsen, with the help of leading actress Birgitte Larsen, makes Gritt the perfect anti-heroine we will all aspire to be, once we’ve watched her quiet masterpiece.
Read MoreThe Uncertainty of Everything: 'The Translator' by Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf at Tallinn Black Nights
While there have been loads of documentaries about Syria and its place in the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011, no narrative film has even come close to the way ‘The Translator’ tells the story. A complete story that goes as far back as the first Syrian revolts in 1980 under Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez which resulted in the Hama massacre in 1982. The filmmakers telling this spellbinding story are husband and wife team Anas Khalaf and Rana Kazkaz, both multi-hyphenated nationalities but at the center of it all, Syrian. Because let’s face it, there are currently many more Syrian living spread out around the world than in Syria itself.
Read MoreLove in the time of occupation: Ameen Nayfeh's stunning '200 Meters' starring Ali Suliman in Venice
A father, his family, a wall. It’s a theme, an image we think of often these days, particularly when speaking of certain American policies and our current US President. But where is another part of the world where such a policy has been tried and tested, and of course, failed miserably on a human scale? Palestine, or Israel if you wish to call it with its post-1948 name. A land belonging to many and claimed by some.
In Ameen Nayfeh’s quiet masterpiece ‘200 Meters’, which premiered as part of the Giornate degli Autori lineup in Venice this year, Palestinian superstar Ali Suliman plays Mustafa, a loving husband and doting father.
Read More"Choose love over fear, always": Zain Duraie talks about her short film 'Give Up the Ghost'
One of the hottest button issues for a modern woman concerns her ability to have a child. Depending on which society you are born into, it ranges from being a duty to a God-given right, with all shades of grey in between.
In her haunting, beautifully shot (by Benoît Chamaillard) and perfectly sound designed (by Israel Bañuelos) short film ‘Give Up the Ghost’, Jordanian filmmaker Zain Duraie explores the consequences on a marriage around the ability or inability to have a child.
Read More“Redefine what a heroine is”: Algerian filmmaker Mounia Meddour on her film ‘Papicha’ in Cannes
I believe that if there were more women film critics, the business of cinema would be much different. There would be better films made, more communication between what audiences want and filmmakers create, and those projects which portray the truth of our humanity would receive the attention they deserve. 'Papicha' by Mounia Meddour would be one of those projects. Now let me explain what I mean.
‘Papicha’ is now streaming as part of the Virtual Cinema of Film at Lincoln Center, through June 4th. An act of courage if you read my piece!
Read MoreFarah Nabulsi on her haunting film 'The Present' and the "misrepresented Palestinian stories" she was born to tell
The discovery of Farah Nabulsi’s stunning, honest and beautiful film ‘The Present’ I owe to Palestinian favorite actor Saleh Bakri. I mean, as soon as I saw his name on the Brooklyn Film Festival line-up page, I was hooked. But while his presence is undeniably a wonderful pull into the film, Nabulsi’s perfect oeuvre stands on its own.
The title ‘The Present’ could refer to a gift, the one Yusuf, Bakri’s character goes to buy for his wife on their wedding anniversary. But it also means, to me, the current state of affairs, the here and now, for the Palestinian people.
Read MoreAntshi von Moos's 'Brother, Move On' is an ode to the courage of one woman driving her taxi at night in Delhi
Antshi von Moos’s debut documentary short ‘Brother, Move On’ is one of those unmissable films which possesses the right appeal, even on paper. The story of a Delhi woman who drives a taxi at night, catering to an all-female clientele to make sure they get home safely, made up the perfect storm of place, leading character and premise to secure I’d yearn to watch it. That it is a real story, told with kindness and a deep understanding of the subject matter at hand, is just icing on the cake.
Read More'Truth' in Journalism, Honesty in Life with James Vanderbilt
I was always a huge fan of the CBS news show 60 Minutes. To this day, there are some indelible segments that have stayed with me, like the Mike Wallace interview with tobacco industry insider Jeffrey Wigand and the Dan Rather expose on George W. Bush and how the 43rd President of the United States of America came to be in the Air National Guard during the time of the Vietnam War.
Incidentally, both those segments have been made into films and these days 60 Minutes continues to be a trailblazer in US news reporting, with an analytical twist, though perhaps today they do what they do with a bit more caution.
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