Gay Film Sparks Outrage In Egypt

The Berlin International Film Festival has joined fellow events including Cannes and Venice in saying it will not ban Russian movies at the next edition of its fest, but will block official Russian delegates.

Naman Ramachandran The Berlin Film Festival has issued a strongly worded statement that condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but has taken a stance against boycotting filmmakers based on their origin.“The Berlinale staunchly condemns Russia’s war of aggression, which violates international law, and expresses its solidarity with the people in Ukraine and all those who are campaigning against this war,” the festival said in a statement on Wednesday.“The Russian invasion and attacks on civilian targets such as hospitals, schools and homes have caused a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe in Ukraine. Our thoughts and sympathy are with the victims, the suffering population, and the millions who have fled Ukraine.” “The Berlinale has developed into a setting for intercultural encounters and a platform for critical discussion of current or historical world events.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentEgyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy is stepping down as president of the Cairo Film Festival. During his four-year tenure, the executive helped to revamp the prominent Arab fest, which had been losing luster due to political turbulence.The announcement was made on Tuesday by Egypt’s Minister of Culture, Enas Abdel Dayem, who said veteran Egyptian actor Hussein Fahmy will take over the fest’s presidency.

Ed Meza @edmezavarInternational feature film and commercial content group Iconoclast and Berlin-based StickUp Films have established a new joint venture to produce feature films and series for the domestic and international markets.Represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the new shingle, Iconoclast Films Germany, is aiming to produce a minimum of three film or series projects annually within a five-year ramp-up period.The company is headed by Luis Singer and Dennis Schanz of StickUp Films – the creators and co-producers of Netflix’s award-winning series “Skylines” — as well as Iconoclast executive producer Swantje Rummel.Iconoclast sees the new venture as part of its international content strategy and a logical extension of its brand. In addition to producing recent works by the likes of Gus Van Sant (“Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot”), Julian Schnabel (“At Eternity’s Gate”), Harmony Korine (“The Beach Bum”) and Romain Gavras (“The World Is Yours”) through its companies in the U.S.

Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentEverybody has to start somewhere. Cate Blanchett — long before her two Oscars and starring roles in film, TV and on stage — had an oddball beginning in showbiz.On March 28, 1994, Variety mentioned “Police Rescue,” a big-screen version of the hit Aussie TV series, in which she appeared.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Documentaries about the conflict in Ukraine, the Cuban migrant situation and the Palestinian refugee crisis were among top winners at MiradasDoc, Spain’s foremost documentary film festival which wrapped its 15th edition on March 12. Based in Tenerife, Canary Islands, the festival was an in-person event running March 4-12, while its market (March 8-11) remained virtual for the second consecutive year.The best international documentary prize went to “Option Zero” (“La Opcion Cero”) by Cuban filmmaker Marcel Beltran while the best debut feature award was extended to “Trenches” by French journalist Loup Bureau who has covered the Arab Spring in Egypt, the Syrian War and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the Donbas region. “Trenches” follows the intrepid young men and women who are fighting Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Colm Bairéad’s Irish-language drama An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl) was the big film winner at last night’s Irish Film and Television Academy awards with eight wins. Scroll down for the full list of winners.

Naman Ramachandran Feature debutant Colm Bairéad’s Berlin-winning “An Cailín Ciúin” (“The Quiet Girl”) was the big film winner at the 2022 Irish Film and Television Academy awards on Saturday with eight wins.“An Cailín Ciúin” won best film, director and lead actress for Catherine Clinch in addition to a raft of craft awards. Bairéad also won the rising star award.Creators Ciaran Donnelly and Peter McKenna’s “Kin” led the television awards with six wins including best drama, script for McKenna, lead actress drama for Clare Dunne, lead actor drama for Sam Keeley and supporting actress drama for Maria Doyle Kennedy.Ciaran Hinds won both the film and drama supporting actor awards on the night for “Belfast” and “Kin” respectively.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentIran’s government may support Russia’s of Ukraine, but the bulk of the country’s film community is outraged by the war — and some more openly than others.Prominent Iranian actor Hamid Farokhnezhad, best known internationally for starring in Asghar Farhadi’s “Fireworks,” has posted a video widely circulated on social media in which he denounces “the brutal attack of Russia against Ukraine.”Farokhnezhad (pictured above), in protest against the Russian invasion, expressed his wish in the video to return the best actor statuette he received from the Moscow Film Festival in 2005 for his role in anti-war drama “Big Drum Under Left Foot,” directed by Kazem Ma’asoumi.As Iranian multi-hyphenate Babak Karimi, speaking from Tehran, puts it, “Iran has experienced eight years of war with Iraq, which had similarities to the war in Ukraine.” “The memory of war is very much alive here,” he notes. “So it’s obvious that everyone is saying: ‘Here we go [again], this is going to last for years.'” Karimi, who is an actor, film editor and academic, won the Berlin Silver Bear in 2011 for playing the judge in Oscar-winning “A Separation,” and is a regular in Farhadi’s films.“There are some film personalities that are close to the government who support the war as a political stance, while from a human standpoint they are against it,” says Karimi.However, the vast majority of those in film circles “are fully against the war,” as is the case for Iran’s population at large.

The Iprcress File is ITV's latest offering, continuing its stream of dramas so far in 2022.

Naman Ramachandran Following its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, Trafalgar Releasing has set a May worldwide cinema release for Andrew Dominik’s “This Much I Know to Be True.”Shot on location in London and Brighton, the film captures the creative relationship of revered musicians Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ as they bring to life the songs from their last two studio albums, “Ghosteen” (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) and “Carnage” (Nick Cave & Warren Ellis). The film serves as a document of their first ever performances of these albums, filmed in spring 2021 ahead of their U.K.

Egypt Criss is a newlywed and a future bride right now! One month after her intimate Las Vegas wedding to rapper Sam Mattick, which featured a small guest list that included her famous parents Sandra “Pepa” Dentonand Treach, the Growing Up Hip Hop star EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife that the couple are getting married again. “There is still gonna be a big ceremony,” the 23-year-old said.

Richard Kuipers Folklore, feminism and film noir come together in Pushpendra Singh’s meticulously crafted fourth feature “The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs.” Set in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region in Northwest India, this moody fable about an unhappy young bride plotting her escape from tradition and patriarchy is a gripping character study that stutters slightly in the latter stages before producing a magical finale that no-one will forget in a hurry. Singh’s beautifully shot film has traveled extensively on the festival circuit and picked up awards at Hong Kong and Jeonju since debuting at Berlin in 2020.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired North American rights for Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s debut feature “Murina” which won the Golden Camera Award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.Executive produced by Martin Scorsese and lushing lensed by Hélène Louvart (“The Lost Daughter”), “Murina” will be playing on opening night of the First Look Festival at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.“Murina” is a tense and sensual tale about a restless teenager, Julija, whose urge to break free from her oppressive father and isolated existence in coastal Croatia is triggered by the visit of a family friend. Variety‘s Jessica Kiang wrote in her review that “If Patricia Highsmith had ever written a coming-of-age story set on the rocky, clear-watered Croatian coastline, it might have looked a lot like Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s bright, brooding debut.” The movie also boasts a breakthrough performance by Gracija Filipovic, a promising young actor and professional swimmer who was one of this year’s 10 Shooting Stars at the Berlinale.

EXCLUSIVE:  WME has inked Oscar winning writer-director Guy Nattiv and his producing partner Jaime Ray Newman.

Naman Ramachandran The Berlin Film Festival has called for peace over the situation in Ukraine, which is currently in a state of military conflict after Russian forces struck on Thursday morning.“We — festival workers, artists, filmmakers — think fondly of our friends in Ukraine and we are by their side in a call for peace,” the festival said in a statement issued on Thursday. “One week ago, the Berlin International Film Festival was celebrating a complicated yet successful edition.

Chris Willman Music WriterSidney Poitier — film noir icon? That may not be one of the phrases that popped up most frequently in the recent obituaries and appreciations for the late actor, but Poitier did take his turn at noir. The movie with which he made his screen debut, “No Way Out,” will be featured at the upcoming resumption of the annual Noir City Hollywood Festival, which is devoting separate days to the treatment of race and women in the crime dramas of the ’40s and ’50s, along with a continued focus on presenting restorations in 35mm glory.Noir City Hollywood has been a staple at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre each spring since the late ’90s, but with that theater closed for extensive Netflix-funded renovations, this year it will take place at the American Legion Theatre a few blocks up Highland Blvd.

Emiliano Granada World premiering in the Berlinale’s Forum, “Dry Ground Burning” marks the second feature collaboration between directors Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós, after Pimenta DP-ed Queirós’ “Once There Was Brasilia.”So it’s no surprise that by this point the directorial couple have refined a common language that in “Dry Ground Burning” delivers a movie that’s stylistically refrained, while walking a fine line between documentary and a fiction with sci-fi and Western overtones.Produced by Cinco Da Norte and Terratreme with Pimenta once again behind the camera, the duo returns to their portrayal of the inhabitants of Ceilandia, a district on the periphery of Brasilia which has been a recurring subject in both filmmakers work. The film follows sisters Chitarra and Léa, leaders of an all female gang who refines oil drawn from an oil pipeline to sell to motor bikers in the Sol Nascente favela.

Egypt Sherrod is not standing for body shaming.