*Fatma Al Remaihi, CEO of the Doha Film Institute, flanked by the managing team of the Ajyal Film Festival*

Doha's Ajyal Film Festival aims to make educated audiences out of today's youth

E. Nina Rothe November 5, 2019

I believe wholeheartedly that we are what we watch. It’s been my mission to find works of art on the big screen — and on the little one now through Netflix and the likes — that will make life better. I mean, we can all remember that moment, as children, walking out of a theater having watched our favorite character or cartoon on the big screen and feeling an extra bounce in our step. I still experience that these days, whenever I watch something really special. I walk out of the darkened theater into the light of day — as a film writer most of my viewings are done during the day — feeling like anything is possible.

So when the Doha Film Institute kicked off their Ajyal Film Festival in 2014, I went to Qatar to experience the wonder first hand. It was everything I hoped it would be, children and young adults as juries, films that although made for all ages, could really infuse younger minds with a message of peace and hope. You know, an idealist film writer’s dream come true.

Rome Film Festival Diaries: 'Judy', Renée Zellweger and the wonder of fashion in cinema

E. Nina Rothe October 26, 2019

I had a craving for ‘Judy’ ever since I heard the project announced. Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland on the big screen seemed extraordinary to me. And yet, I also wondered if it would satisfy my cravings. Would it focus on the camp, would it give me the fashionista angle I craved or feature tired old costumes that made La Zellweger seem like a caricature of the great, albeit lost diva?

Well, ‘Judy’, directed by Rupert Goold, with original music by Gabriel Yared, featuring Zellweger herself singing and wearing some beautifully modern costumes by Jany Temime and wigs plus makeup by Jeremy Woodhead was everything I wanted it to be — beautiful, glamorous, sad and poignantly modern.

*Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Edward Norton in a still from ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ photo courtesy of Warner Bros.*

Rome Film Festival Diaries: Three things I love about La Festa del Cinema di Roma

E. Nina Rothe October 17, 2019

Alright, I’ll kick it off right away by saying that the opening film for this 14th edition of the Rome Film Festival is wonderful! ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ the second directorial venture by beloved actor Edward Norton is everything an opening film should be for a festival — full of star power, great performances and evoking an elegance that only that particular time and in that place can bring about. More on it later.

Jack Irving in a still from Grear Patterson’s ‘Giants Being Lonely’ — photo courtesy of ROD30 productions

The Venice Diaries: My favorites so far include an American baseball film and a modern Arab mermaid

E. Nina Rothe September 5, 2019

“If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.” — Émile Zola

I watch films to understand the world. And it seems sometimes the biggest lessons are just behind the scenes.

What I’ve learned at this year’s Venice Film Festival is that it seems that if you’re a woman journalist, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. I’ve run the gamut from enemy of the people for publishing an interview with a man accused but never convicted of bad things, to being made to feel (by my women editors) that I don’t know how to write just so they can justify only having male writers in their roster. I also felt that a current article was unjust to the amount of women filmmakers that are actually in Venice — if the journalists who wrote it actually bothered to look at all the films, and not only the few titles in Competition — so I pointed out in another piece about a Critics’ Week title that the filmmaker was indeed a woman. And a man, I swear I can’t make this stuff up, added a comment to the FB post saying I made it sound like women filmmakers were creatures from another planet. I used the phrase “woman filmmaker” one time in the entire piece, to claim her as one of my own who makes me proud… But anyway.

The Perfect Candidate by Haifaa al-Mansour

The Venice Diaries: 'The Perfect Candidate' and 'Marriage Story' -- what a way to start it off!

E. Nina Rothe August 30, 2019

What a rollercoaster this has been.

The last couple of months feel like a dream to me. And not a good one. Anyway, cinema always puts me back together, at least films like these do. They somehow erase the cynic in me, and recharge the woman and lover who has been wronged by the world.

Get ready Saudi Arabia, the Red Sea International Film Festival is coming your way!

E. Nina Rothe July 1, 2019

In March of 2020 a revolution will begin in Saudi Arabia. But the country’s royal family and even that now infamous bad boy MBS — as the crown prince is known for short — needn’t worry about getting ready with armies and bodyguards. They just need to sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

A still from ‘Family Romance, Llc’ by Werner Herzog

The Cannes 2019 Diaries: Wondrous Werner Herzog, 'Papicha' is my new heroine and the life surreal of a film journo

E. Nina Rothe May 22, 2019

In ‘Family Romance, Llc’ Werner Herzog finds a new way to work through the difficulties life throws our way — outsource them to an agency specializing in family connections. He does it with his usual flair for our human ridiculousness and making the impossible seem real. During the junket following the screening, I loved listening to my esteemed colleagues’ confused explanations of stories they thought they’d seen like this one in documentaries, or even completely convinced this was a reality film, instead of fiction. And Herzog himself quite perfectly, calmly and smoothly shooting down each and all of their perplexed ideas.

‘Family Romance, Llc’ was a Special Screening at this year’s Festival de Cannes.

Julianne Moore in ‘The Staggering Girl’ by Luca Guadagnino

The Cannes 2019 Diaries: Films that broke my heart and Luca Guadagnino's Valentino project

E. Nina Rothe May 18, 2019

There has been a certain je ne sais quoi in the air here in Cannes, and I wasn’t able to quite put my finger on it. It bothered me, someone always good at defining a moment, person or place, that I couldn’t put that feeling into words. Then I attended the press conference for Luca Guadagnino’s ‘The Staggering Girl’ and I had a ‘EUREKA!” moment. So bear with me for a moment while I get to that…

Me after my nightmare trip… NO! Just kidding, it’s Iggy Pop in a still from ‘The Dead Don’t Die’.

The Cannes 2019 Diaries: 'The Dead Don't Die', they land at Nice airport though!

E. Nina Rothe May 15, 2019

Yes, there was a flash taxi strike at the airport in Nice yesterday, just as my flight was getting in. No, they were not prepared for an action by all taxi drivers to block the roads accessing the airport, so no vehicle of any sort could get in or out of the airport. Yes, there is a tramway track recently built which reaches terminal 3 but no, there was no tram traveling on it. So everyone had to walk for miles, with luggage in tow, under the sweltering sun, to reach an overcrowded train, through overpasses and station underpasses (read: lots and lots of stairs) mimicking the zombies in Jim Jarmusch’s Cannes opening night film.

Welcome to the glamorous life of a journalist covering the Festival de Cannes! If I hear one more time what a wonderful opportunity it is for me to be doing what I do, I’ll strangle someone. Then, I might actually begin to get the attention I deserve.

Leading up to Cannes, here are the line-ups for Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week

E. Nina Rothe May 9, 2019

I know, most critics go to the Festival de Cannes looking forward to the Competition titles and maybe will grant themselves the joy of viewing the Un Certain Regard selection. But I’ll admit I’m more of a sidebar person, and while I will view a few great titles in the main lineups, my craves lay more in the Quinzaine (Directors’ Fortnight) and Semaine de la Critique.

Alain Delon, photo courtesy of the Festival de Cannes

Cannes Film Festival announces Competition, Un Certain Regard titles and an honorary Palme d'or to Alain Delon

E. Nina Rothe April 18, 2019

As a young girl, I remember watching anything that had Alain Delon in it. I had a super crush on him and, lucky me, no film of his was deemed inappropriate by my parents. So along with Luchino Visconti’s ‘The Leopard’ and ‘Rocco and his Brothers’, I also caught Delon in films like ‘The Swimming Pool’, ‘Zorro’ and yes, even ‘The Concorde… Airport ‘79’. In fact, from the latter I required that a friend of the family who knew how to knit make me a royal blue crew neck wool sweater that looked just like his. I would find you a photo but I would have to watch that entire film all over again and well, I’ve moved on from my pre-pubescent crush. And my taste in film has highly improved.

But Alain Delon remains the fascinating man, the sultry sex symbol that could even steal women away from Mick Jagger. And this year’s he’s the Festival de Cannes honorary Palme d’Or recipient. Kudos to the festival for finally getting the reclusive actor to accept their coveted lifetime award.

La Pointe courte © 1994 Agnès Varda and her children - Montage and design : Flore Maquin

The Cannes Film Festival unveils its poster which pays tribute to the late, great Agnès Varda

E. Nina Rothe April 15, 2019

As I learned at this year’s Qumra, held by the Doha Film Institute, the grand dame of French New Wave cinema Agnès Varda was all about finding the stories, the viewpoints that no one else would bother with. The Festival de Cannes, in its poster just unveiled for the 72nd edition of the festival, pays homage to La Varda but also to her indomitable spirit by showing the filmmaker on her first cinematic venture perched high up on a platform, atop the shoulders of a crew technician. She’s is looking to capture that image, that viewpoint which no one else would have even thought about. She is Varda, in all her perfectly humble and adventurous attitude. The same Varda who asked me, to my utter disbelief, if I’d liked her “little film” a few years ago in Cannes.

Bill Murray and Adam Driver in a still from ‘The Dead Don’t Die’

This year's Cannes Film Festival opens with Jim Jarmusch's zombie extravaganza 'The Dead Don't Die'

E. Nina Rothe April 10, 2019

I tweeted about this beauty a couple of weeks ago and stand by my word. I’m typically not a zombie kinda girl but utter Jim Jarmusch’s name and I can’t watch it fast enough. So the buzz was deafening around ‘The Dead Don’t Die’ from the time the first images of the film were released, building up to a cacophony of joy when the trailer was first shown. And don’t even get me started on Adam Driver. I mean, the man is taller than Bill Murray, which is saying a lot, and all the handsome of a young Keanu Reeves, plus acting talents to boot.

Then, this morning Cannes announced it will open its 72nd edition of the festival with the Jarmusch film, in Competition no less. On Tuesday May 14th, on the screen of the Grand Théâtre Lumière, the film by the American director and screenwriter will be this year’s first Palme d'Or competition screening.

A still from ‘Rosso: a true lie about a fisherman’ by Antonio Messana

Watching the short end: The Ca 'Foscari Short Film Festival is the other Venice film festival

E. Nina Rothe March 18, 2019

Most directors whose features you are watching in cinemas today started out making short films. It’s a fact that short narratives and documentaries are the stuff future filmmaker build their craft on and the Ca 'Foscari Short Film Festival recognizes that through and through. In their press release for the upcoming ninth edition of the event, which will run from March 20th to the 23rd, the following statement made me realize just how much they believe in the learning power of the ‘Short”.

The Qumra Diaries: Discovering Agnès Varda in the land of cinema

E. Nina Rothe March 16, 2019

It is obvious from the moment one steps on a Qatar Airways aircraft that cinema is important in Doha. I mean, just going through the entertainment system on my particular flight, I found ‘Rebecca’ by Hitchcock, Barry Jenkins’ hauntingly touching and all too true ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’, Paul Dano’s intimate portrayal of a family struggling to remain a single nucleus ‘Wildlife’ and even the 2019 Best Picture Oscar winner ‘Green Book’.

Qatar knows good cinema and nowhere is that better understood than in the welcoming arms of the Doha Film Institute.

Inspired: Highlights from the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam

E. Nina Rothe February 2, 2019

I’d long heard about the Rotterdam International Film Festival and yet had never personally been here. IFFR will hereafter be a much craved stop on my itinerary of world cinema events. I can’t wait to see what next year has in store.

So what makes this cinephiles’ festival filled with independent gems, languid culture-filled days and inspiring evening talks by the masters so addictive? Well, that — what I just said. Turns out there is no festival in the world quite like IFFR.

And here are a few favorites of mine from this year’s edition.

The Rome Diaries: The OnStage! Festival features Aizzah Fatima's perfect show and a play about Hedy Lamarr

E. Nina Rothe January 20, 2019

In a 2014 article in The Guardian, Pakistani-American comedian Aizzah Fatima described one of her first auditions. “One of the roles I auditioned for was ‘Terrorist No 2’s girlfriend,” she admitted tongue in cheek.

Of course, that’s the destiny of most actors who don’t fulfill the blue-eyed-blond-hair requirements of playing your average “as good as apple pie” American. Yet time and time again, while our leaders fight it and even try to build up walls to prevent it, the very greatness of our good ol’ U.S. of A. lies in its immigrant population as well as its indigenous tribes. And the culture that is most often exported and celebrated around the world as “American” is a mixture of African, tribal, native and otherwise ethic music, dance and art. And that’s never vanilla in flavor now, is it?!

The Cairo International Film Festival Diaries: And to think I almost missed this!

E. Nina Rothe November 23, 2018

One of the most beautifully mysterious actors of our time, Mr. Ralph Fiennes will be in Cairo, presenting his latest directorial project ‘The White Crow’ — about a childhood idol of mine, ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev — and for a conversation with the audience inside the massive Cairo Opera House. Moderated by yours truly.

It’s a momentous event, but I almost missed it.

Guillermo Del Toro, courtesy of the Marrakech International Film Festival

In "Conversation With" Scorsese, Del Toro, Nasrallah and more at the Marrakech Film Fest!

E. Nina Rothe October 24, 2018

If ever there was an upcoming event that felt outrageously exciting, almost too jam packed with greatness (could there ever be such a thing!) it’s the Marrakech International Film Festival — which will take place from November 30th to December 8th, 2018 in the beautiful Moroccan city. Now in its 17th edition, the festival took a year off in 2017 and is coming back stronger, better and more action-packed than ever.

Exceptional Women: Agnes Varda and Robin Wright honored at this year's Marrakech Film Festival

E. Nina Rothe October 15, 2018

You talk exceptional women and few garner as much unanimous adoration as legendary filmmaker, photographer and artist Agnes Varda. Then you think versatile actresses, women who have transformed themselves from super popular soap opera stars to beloved movie icons and the name Robin Wright immediately comes to mind.

Well, as it turns out both of these legendary women in their own right, or “Wright” if you pardon the pun, will be honored with the Etoile d’Or Award under the starry sky of the Moroccan city of Marrakech this December.

The Diaries, because sometimes life needs more.