Jafar Panahi’s Lawyer Quashes Rumors Director Has Left Iran For Good

Iranian director Ali Abbasi has responded to Russia’s unexplained ban of his serial killer thriller Holy Spider just days after its theatrical release.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Spain’s foremost animation film festival, Animayo Gran Canaria, awarded Oscar-qualifying honors to animation shorts “Our Uniform” by Iran’s Yegane Moghaddam and “Amarradas” by Spain’s Carmen Córdoba as it reported a 29% jump in attendance, the biggest ever in its 18-year history. Sixty animation shorts were in contention, selected out of 2,000 entries from more than 80 countries. Disney animation legend Andreas Deja (“The Lion King,” “Aladdin”), who presented the Spanish premiere of his 2D animation short, “Mushka,” presided over the international jury. He also held a Master Class on his 30 years at Disney, delivered a keynote address on the making of “Mushka” and led a three-hour drawing class on animated villains. “The students made me feel like a rock star,” he told Variety. “What better thing to hear than that the films I worked on still impact many people to this day,” he mused.

Lise Pedersen Cannes Docs, the Marché du Film sidebar dedicated to documentary film, has unveiled the line-up of its Doc Day, which unspools on May 23, as the final event in at Cannes Docs. Veteran U.S. cinematographer and documentary filmmaker Kirsten Johnson, president of Cannes Festival’s Œil d’or Jury which hands out an award to the best doc in Cannes’ Official Selection, will open the morning session in a conversation with writer, director and producer Guetty Felin (“Ayiti Mon Amour,” “Closer to the Dream”). Entitled “Cinema and the Pleasures of the Impossible,” it will explore the many ways filmmaking creates possibilities to search for the invisible, to bring life to the dead and to time travel in their lives.

The Sundance Institute has revealed that the 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival will take place in person in Utah from January 18-28, 2024, with a large selection of films also to be made available online, as they have been for a number of years.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Memento International has closed major deals on Martin Provost’s “Bonnard, Pierre And Marthe” ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Slated for Cannes Premiere, the period film revolves around the colorful relationship and epic love between renowned French painters Pierre and Marthe Bonnard who are played by Vincent Macaigne (“Irma Vep”) and Cecile de France (“Lost Illusions”). The film has been pre-sold by Memento International to key distributors in Italy (I Wonder), Canada (Sphère Films), Latin America (California Filmes), South Korea (AUD), Taiwan (Flash Forward), Airlines (Skeye), Poland (Hagi), Hungary (Vertigo), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Czech Republic (Cinemart), Bulgaria (Beta Film), Ex-Yugoslavia (Demiurg).

Iranian academics who were exiled for their interest in history. “I couldn’t partake [in the boot camp] because I had just had hernia surgery,” said Mara. “I was able to jog, but I wasn’t able to do the situps and things that involve your abs.” Although she was unable to participate in all of the physical activities, Mara said that watching her castmates go through it was “very funny.” This was in part because her co-star Brian J. Smith (“Sense8”) got a little overzealous.“Part of what we did was the fit test … you have to run a certain length,” Smith, 41, told The Post.

The Amsterdam-based International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) has called on Iran to lift a travel ban on director Mohammad Rasoulof.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Hot Docs marked the first film festival that “Silent House” director Farnaz Jurabchian has been able to attend in-person since the documentary made its world premiere at IDFA in November. For months Farnaz Jurabchian and her co-director/brother Mohammadreza Jurabchian were banned from leaving Iran, which prevented the duo from attending prestigious fests including IDFA, France’s FIPADOC, Brazil’s It’s All True and the Luxemburg Intl. Film Festival. Iranian authorities considered the international partnerships that both directors formed in order to make “Silent House” a national security risk.

Fiona Lamptey has left her position as Director of UK Features at Netflix.

We all love a French tip manicure, but what should you try when you get a little bored of the two-tone style? TikTok thinks it has the answer in oyster French tip nails.Take the classic look and add a little bit of extra swirly detailing on the tips and you’ve got yourself the perfect mani for summer! The look is incredibly simple to master either at home or in a salon, depending on whether you like to do your own nails or pay for professional work. If you’re going to a salon – we went to Paint Nails London at The Beauty Club in Oxford Circus – we recommend asking for French tip-style gel or shellac polish, but instead of the white shade they would usually use on the tips, ask if they have a pearlescent white.

Iranian-American writer Azar Nafisi’s classic memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran has been adapted for the big screen with an ensemble cast led by actors Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson) and Zar Amir-Ebrahimi (Holy Spider).

Mohammad Rasoulof’s hopes to attend the Cannes Film Festival have been dashed.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been banned from leaving Iran to serve as a member of the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard jury, according to a report. News of the travel ban for the director who was recently released from Tehran’s Evin prison after being arrested last July for criticizing the government on social media, has been reported by the Farsi-language news service of Radio France Internationale (RFI). The report said Rasoulof had been asked to be a member of the Un Certain Regard jury but has been forced to decline. The Cannes Film Festival did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dissident Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof has confirmed that he was unable to accept an invitation from the Cannes Film Festival to participate in its Un Certain Regard jury after being barred from leaving Iran.

Benefits, Cavetown, Big Joanie, Cassyette and more have been announced for Glastonbury‘s 2023 Left Field line-up.Other acts announced on the line-up, which spotlights “voices from the front line of the struggle in debate and performance”, include Deadletter, Crawlers, Billy Bragg, Delilah Bon, Kid Kapichi, Dréya Mac, Tom A. Smith, Lime Garden, Jamie Webster and Will Varley.“Recharge your activism with this year’s @glastoleftfield line-up,” the festival posted on Instagram, which hosts “purveyors of pop and politics at Glastonbury since 2002”.“As the shape of the post-pandemic world begins to form, it’s clear that people are more willing to stand up and be counted,” stage host Bragg wrote in a statement.

Kim Kardashian is doing whatever it takes to secure her spot at this year’s Met Gala!

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Paul Sng’s “Tish,” an intimate portrait of British documentary photographer Tish Murtha, will open the 30th edition of Sheffield DocFest on June 14. Iranian filmmaker Rakhshan Bani-Etemad will be the guest of honor. In his film, Sng – whose work includes “Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché” and “Dispossession” – both celebrates the vision and humanism of a gifted artist, and follows Murtha’s daughter Ella as she fights to preserve her mother’s legacy. “’Tish’ is a powerful tribute to a vital artist, activist and social chronicler, and a rallying call to all whose engagement with art questions who gets seen and heard, who doesn’t, and why,” the festival said in a statement. “This is a story of contemporary Britain, of the fight for culture, as well as the life of a mother and activist.”

A post shared by Tahereh saeedi (@taherehsaidii)The image indicates the first time the director and political figure behind “The White Balloon,” “The Circle,” “Taxi” and most recently “No Bears” has left Iran since he was sentenced to a 20-year travel and filmmaking ban in 2010 for “making propaganda against the system” — a directive that to this point has not slowed his directing career but has held him to the nation’s borders. In July 2022, Panahi was arrested and imprisoned after he protested the arrest of fellow filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, who were detained for questioning the government response to a building collapse that left 40 dead.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s travel ban has suddenly been lifted after 14 years, allowing the acclaimed auteur and his wife Tahereh Saeedi to reportedly leave Iran for an undisclosed location. Saeedi on Tuesday night posted a picture on Instagram showing her arriving with her husband at an undisclosed airport. It is captioned: “After 14 years, Jafar’s ban was cancelled and finally we are going to travel together for a few days…” Panahi, 62, was temporarily released from prison last month after going on a hunger strike to protest “the illegal and inhumane behavior” of Iran’s judiciary. He was out on bail.

Dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi is reported to have left Iran for the first time in 14 years following the lifting of a travel ban imposed on him in 2009.