Some 20 families from Afghanistan and Ukraine are to be housed in Salford under a resettlement scheme funded by the Government.
14.11.2023 - 08:03 / variety.com
Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Five years after opening the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam with his feature debut “Kabul, City in the Wind,” Afghanistan-born, Netherlands-based filmmaker Aboozar Amini returns to IDFA to present his latest, “Kabul, Year Zero,” at the festival’s industry section, Forum. The choice to return to IDFA was an obvious one to Amini and frequent collaborator Jia Zhao of Silk Road Film Salon, who is co-producing “Kabul, Year Zero” alongside Julia Niethammer for Chromosome and Heejung Oh for Seesaw Pictures.
Speaking exclusively to Variety, Zhao said, “It was a very conscious choice to get back to IDFA because Aboozar’s first project was here, and to have had a first feature be seen by so many people — many of whom still have some fresh memories of it — was special to us. Of course, IDFA still had to choose us, but the Forum always had priority.” “For me, seeing people’s reactions to the project is the most important thing,” said Amini when asked about presenting the project at the festival’s market.
“Because once you are all the way into the process of making the film, it can be hard to grasp how it comes across to others and that is essential to me in the filmmaking process.” “Kabul, Year Zero” continues to trail the subjects of Amini’s previous film, young people zigzagging through a world shadowed by suicide bombings and violent conflicts. On top of the boys introduced in “Kabul, City in the Wind,” the director will also tell the stories of young people in other war-torn countries such as Iraq and Ukraine.
Some 20 families from Afghanistan and Ukraine are to be housed in Salford under a resettlement scheme funded by the Government.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Untamed Talent, a management and production company led by former Mister Smith Entertainment executive Antone Saliba, is launching with the backing of Dubai-based Front Row Productions, a joint venture of leading Middle East distribution companies Front Row Filmed Entertainment and Empire Entertainment. Front Row Productions will provide capital and strategic value to support Untamed Talent’s goals to innovate new business models covering the South West Asia and North Africa region, the fastest-growing entertainment market in the world.
Former Mister Smith sales executive Antone Saliba has launched management and production company Untamed Talent, with the backing of Dubai-based Front Row Productions.
It’s no fluke that Prince William and Princess Catherine no longer mingle with their former friend Rose Hanbury!
Kate Middleton and Prince William were bombarded by uncomfortable questions when they stepped out on a red carpet Thursday night. The Prince and Princess of Wales, both 41, stayed close — showing off rare PDA while holding hands — as they attended the Royal Variety Performance.
Ever since Meghan Markle and Prince Harry sat down with Oprah Winfrey two years ago, claiming someone in the royal family expressed “concerns” about how dark their then-unborn son Archie’s skin tone would be, everyone has been wondering and guessing who the alleged racist royal could have been.
The 54th edition of India’s Goa Film Festival concluded Tuesday evening with a tribute to Michael Douglas, who picked up the fest’s Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Cinema.
A mum has spoken of her heartbreak after her son was crushed to death at a yoghurt factory. Lift Monitoring Systems Limited in Staffordshire was fined £200,000 yesterday following a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the death of Lewis McFarlin, the Mirror reports.
Nickelback have announced a 2024 UK and European arena tour with The Lottery Winners – buy tickets here and find the full run of dates below.The Canadian rock group are set to perform 12 arena dates across eight countries in May and June 2024 as part of their ‘Get Rollin’ Tour’. The run is due to kick off in Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on May 16 before they perform in Manchester (20), London (21) and Birmingham (23).From there, Chad Kroeger and co.
Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly is leaving the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam with a major award: Best Director in International Competition for his film Life Is Beautiful. But where he goes next is uncertain – he can’t return to Gaza for the time being because the border is closed as the Israel-Hamas war rages on.
Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor It took director Ariel Kuaray Ortega almost two decades to be able to tell a story he’s heard throughout his entire life: the strange tale of Canuto, a man who mysteriously transformed into a jaguar and then died a tragic death. The resulting film, “Canuto’s Transformation,” had its world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, where it took the award for best film in the Envision Competition and the outstanding artistic contribution award.
Documentaries about the impact of war claimed two of the top prizes as the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam handed out awards Thursday night.
Manchester City players - or at least the ones who remain injury free - are dotted around the globe right now as their respective nations get down to business during the international break.
International Documentary Festival Amsterdam has long enjoyed a reputation as a politically engaged festival – standing up for artists and speaking out for freedom of expression. For instance, IDFA forcefully advocated for Ukrainian filmmakers at last year’s event, making no secret of its position on Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine.
Manchester City's injury crisis is growing, with Matheus Nunes becoming the fourth player to withdraw from international duty in as many days.
EXCLUSIVE: Rise and Shine World Sales has acquired In-Soo Radstake’s Selling a Colonial War, an investigative documentary that just premiered in International Competition at IDFA.
Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Roger Ross Williams is having quite the year. So far, the Oscar-winning director has released his first fiction film, Amazon Studios’ “Cassandro”; the HBO documentary “Love to Love You, Donna Summer”; AppleTV+ docuseries “The Super Models”; and Hulu miniseries “The 1619 Project.” Joining Williams’ impressive output this year is Netflix’s “Stamped From the Beginning,” an adaptation of the eponymous bestselling book by Ibram X. Kendi about the history of racism and anti-Blackness in the U.S.
Documentary’s gatekeepers are playing it awfully safe lately, in the estimation of Orwa Nyrabia, artistic director of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the world’s largest documentary film festival.
Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Selected as this year’s Guest of Honor at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Chinese director Wang Bing sat down with the festival’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia for an in-depth talk on his career on Friday at the imposing Tuschinski Theatre in the Dutch capital. Bing commented on not wanting his films to be “political” while reflecting on the entirety of his career, from his nine-hour-long debut “West of the Tracks” to the recent Cannes competition title “Youth (Spring)” — “I’m not particularly interested in politics (…) I don’t want my films to become a political tool.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Rise and Shine World Sales has acquired In-Soo Radstake’s “Selling a Colonial War,” which world premieres in the International Competition section of documentary festival IDFA in Amsterdam. “Selling a Colonial War” looks to encourage the Dutch government and society to accept responsibility for their actions as a colonial power in Indonesia – and especially their actions when fighting a war in Indonesia after the country declared independence in 1945. The Dutch government still refrains from using the term “war crimes” to describe their actions as this would have great impact on calls for reparation.