Zac Efron just melted our hearts with his San Valentine’s dedication to his “little heartbreaker” and fans are manifesting their love for the actor. The California native is the eldest of three.
25.01.2023 - 23:33 / deadline.com
A few weeks after Zar Amir-Ebrahimi won the Best Actress Award in Cannes for her performance as journalist Arezoo Rahimi in crime thriller Holy Spider, the Iranian-French actor flew to Melbourne, Australia, to take part in what was set to be another urgent story from an Iranian filmmaker: Noora Niasari’s debut feature Shayda.
The film, which is described as a “love letter to mothers and daughters everywhere” and opened Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition last week, sees Amir-Ebrahimi star as Shayda, a brave Iranian mother who finds refuge in an Australian women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter (played by Selina Zahednia) after fleeing an abusive relationship.
Based on Niasari’s own mother, who fled an arranged marriage to raise her daughter in Australia, Shayda takes place over the Persian New Year, when the mother-daughter duo take solace in Nowruz rituals and new beginnings but when her estranged husband reenters their lives, Shayda’s path to freedom is jeopardized.
For Amir-Ebrahimi and Cate Blanchett, who exec produces the film via her Dirty Films banner, the story is exactly the kind of project that each feels compelled to get involved with.
“I’m not that interested in doing a comedy or something that doesn’t really change anything in our society,” confesses Amir-Ebrahimi. “Life is short and if I can shoot two movies per year that make a difference or make a change in this world, then that’s important.”
Blanchett, who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar yesterday for her role in Tár, and Andrew Upton (her husband and Dirty Films co-founder) were brought the project from producer Vincent Sheehan, whom Blanchett had worked with on Little Fish in 2005.
“Vincent and Noora had been
Zac Efron just melted our hearts with his San Valentine’s dedication to his “little heartbreaker” and fans are manifesting their love for the actor. The California native is the eldest of three.
Cate Blanchett says there is a danger that society will be “destined to repeat” its mistakes if we continue to follow cancel culture.Blanchett, who has recently faced accusations of being ‘anti-woman’ following the release of new movie TÁR, made her thoughts on the boycotting movement clear in a recent interview. The Titanic actor argues that it’s important to continue studying history and art (amongst other things) even if they might be deemed controversial or “problematic” today.She told The Radio Times (as per The Independent): “If you don’t read older books that are slightly offensive because of what they say in a historical context, then you will never grapple with the minds of the time [and] we are destined to repeat that stuff.”She continued her argument by highlighting the example of an artist who would be deemed highly problematic by our standards as a society today.
Angelique Jackson It’s a Sunday evening in London in early February and two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is freshly changed from an award show when she logs onto a Zoom with Noora Niasari, the writer and director behind “Shayda,” the powerful Sundance award-winning film executive produced by Dirty Films, the production company co-founded by Blanchett. “I’m so happy. It’s fantastic. It’s great for Todd [Field], it’s so great for the film,” Blanchett says as she fields congratulations on accepting the London Critics Circle’s best actress prize. “And I just read that Viola Davis became an EGOT!” The topic of awards is the conversation du jour this time of year because awards are capital in the entertainment business — and Blanchett knows a thing or two about this topic, with eight Oscar nominations to her name. Ultimately, the accolades help a film reach audiences far and wide. In the case of “Shayda,” for example, winning the World Dramatic Competition’s audience elevates the film from an intimate production that might’ve only sparked in Australia to a global platform, especially now that it has a major distributor.
EXCLUSIVE: Searchlight Pictures is closing a deal for Magazine Dreams, the Elijah Bynum scripted and directed drama that stars Jonathan Majors as a troubled amateur bodybuilder willing to go to any lengths to be noticed. Sources said that Neon, Sony Pictures Classics and HBO were also in the mix. Will apprise of release plans when deal becomes official.
The full extent of the changes at Showtime have started to emerge as the premium cable network has set its new leadership team under Nina L. Diaz with more executives leaving following the corporate restructure.
WestEnd Films has acquired world rights to Untitled Judo, a political thriller co-directed by Guy Nattiv (Skin, Golda) and actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Holy Spider).
The Teen Mom franchise kicked off with 16 and Pregnant in 2009 and has since evolved into numerous iterations — and numerous feuds among the cast.
EXCLUSIVE: Following the global success of Netflix original series D.P. and Hellbound, and the Netflix original film Jung-E, South Korea’s Climax Studio is developing filmmaker Jason Kim’s The Monster Tale along with Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish’s Imaginarium Productions.
Todd Field’s psycho-music drama Tár picked up the Film of the Year gong at the London Critics’ Circle Awards Sunday evening.
Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has gone on hunger strike to protest his ongoing detention at Iran’s notoriously harsh Evin prison, even though his sentence has been declared void by the country’s Supreme Court.
One of the most delightfully warming and comically offbeat films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Babak Jalali’s “Fremont” tells the story of Donya, a former Afghan translator for the U.S. government who’s felt adrift in the titular California city since resettling there to evade the Taliban. READ MORE: ‘Fremont’ Review: An Afghan Insomniac Tries To Find Purpose In A Refreshingly Unique & Jarmuschian-Esque Indie Dramedy [Sundance] Living in an apartment complex alongside other Afghan immigrants, working at a Chinese-American fortune cookie factory in San Francisco, and spending evenings alone at a local restaurant that plays Afghan soap operas, Donya — portrayed, in a captivating debut performance, by real-life Afghan refugee Anaita Wali Zada —longs for companionship.
Holy Spider star Zar Amir Ebrahimi led a demonstration in support of the people of Iran and the artists who have been detained by the country’s political regime at the Göteborg Film Festival Tuesday evening.
She’s still got it! Cindy Crawford proved why she’s still the best in the business with a sexy photo.
Jafar Panahi’s wife Tahereh Saeedi issued a fresh appeal for her imprisoned husband to be released as his period of captivity entered 200 days, in an Instagram post on Thursday.
Brendon (Algee Smith) isn’t a bad kid. An aspiring artist living in Los Angeles, in his last month of high school, the pressures of his daily life, however, are beginning to overwhelm him.
In Montana’s Big Sky Country, a black cloud hangs over the state’s expansive horizon. It looms above the indigenous residents of the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Reservations and nearby towns in Big Horn County most of all.
While it may seem niche to those outside of Texas, high school mariachi competitions are quite prolific in the Lonestar State. The teams give students a creative outlet, as well as an opportunity to pursue scholarships in college music.
The thorny, complicated history between the United States and Iran is infinitely more complex for those of the Persian diaspora living in America. It’s this nuanced tension trickling down to identity — between being too much this and not enough that in either homeland — that writer-director-producer Maryam Keshavarz (“Circumstance”) explores in her third film, “The Persian Version,” a decades and generation-spanning dramedy.
Director Doug Liman says his self-funded Brett Kavanaugh documentary Justice, which premiered at Sundance Friday night, might be far from finished as new tips started pouring within a half hour of the highly-secretive project being announced on Thursday.
Killer kicks! Kourtney Kardashian’s son, Mason Disick, has an insane sneaker collection — and it’s Penelope Disick-approved.