‘Tereza37’ Writer-Star Lana Barić Says It Was Important To Show “The Imperfection Of Female Bodies” In Croatia’s Oscar Entry – Contenders International

The eponymous edifice of Cambodia’s International Feature Oscar entry, White Building, is barely white at all by the time we encounter it. A low-rise apartment block in Phnom Penh — the sort of teeming anthill of humanity familiar to anyone who has spent time in a South East Asian city — it is stained with tropical rain, its cement falling off in chunks, its cat’s cradles of improvised electrical wiring truly shocking, in every sense of the word. Director Kavich Neang grew up here.

Flash, flicker, flash, cut to black. We’re watching grainy film of men walking in and out of the stalls in a West German public toilet, casting glances at each other, maybe a fumbling feel; a reverse angle shows us the camera behind the mirror. The men can’t see it, but some of them must surely guess it’s there and defy the odds anyway. Because without defiance, without desire, what are they? Without those things, they know they will only ever be half-alive.

Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special began filming today at Elstree Studios and is set to see a star-studded line-up compete to become the Christmas champion. However, the BBC production has been dealt a huge blow as Sheridan Smith has reportedly pulled out just hours before filming.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired U.S. and Canadian  distribution rights to Aly Muritiba’s “Private Desert” (“Deserto Particular”) Brazil’s International Feature Oscar submission and a love story hailed for its large sensibility as well as political point.The deal was negotiated with the film’s world sale agent, Rome-based Intramovies.

Oscar Isaac had been waiting a long time to work with filmmaker Paul Schrader, and in The Card Counter, he found a much-longed-for opportunity to portray an antihero directly in the mold of the writer-director’s signature works including Taxi Driver, Light Sleeper and First Reformed.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“Spencer” director Pablo Larraín has thrown his weight behind Chilean Oscar entry “White on White” (“Blanco en Blanco”), hailing it as a “really interesting, strange and highly violent film.”“White on White” also addresses issues that are “highly unsettling and complex and which haven’t been resolved or at least discussed at sufficient length,” Larraín adds.His words come from a conversation, which he moderates, with “White on White’s” director

The Icelandic mountains loom, the mists swirl between the peaks to where horses suddenly skitter in the snow. The only sound is stertorous breathing as the camera, clearly asserting something’s point of view, approaches the herd. Away they run.

EXCLUSIVE: Colman Domingo is executive producing Scott Aharoni and Dennis Latos’ short Leylak.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentStarring Pablo Larraín regular Alfredo Castro, Chilean-Spanish writer-director Theo Court’s “White on White” (“Blanco en Blanco”) has been acquired for distribution in North America by Outsider Pictures.The deal follows on the film’s world premiere this September at the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons sidebar, where Court won a Silver Lion for the section’s best director and a film writers’ Fipresci Prize.

The Sopranos‘ penultimate episode.The actress was discussing the conclusion in a recent episode of the Talking Sopranos podcast with co-stars Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti) and Steve Schirripa (Bobby Baccalieri) when she admitted that she didn’t agree with creator David Chase’s decision.The 2007 episode in question, The Blue Comet, sees her therapist character Melfi put an end her sessions with Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) after years of counselling.

Still Game legend Greg Hemphill will unveil his new sketch show during BBC Scotland's festive schedule.

It took eight years and a very enticing look book before Lamb co-writer and director Valdimar Jóhannsson got Iceland’s current Oscar entry off the ground.

Escape From Mogadishu, Korea’s submission to this year’s International Feature Oscar race, tells the harrowing true story of North and South Koreans caught in the middle of a brutal civil war in Somalia in 1991, and how the divided nation worked together to survive the crisis in a foreign land.

Filmed with an international cast speaking French, English and Spanish, and co-written with cinematographer Sara Mishara, Ivan Grbovic’s Drunken Birds begins in urban, crime-infested Mexico and swiftly transports us to the rural farmlands of Quebec, where former drug runner Willy has come in search of a former lover is in hiding from her mobster partner.

Filmed in the mountains of Greece — which doubled for the stark, alien landscapes of war-torn Afghanistan — Shariff Korver’s Do Not Hesitate tells the story of three young Dutch soldiers who are left guarding a military vehicle after it breaks down. A chance encounter with a local boy causes tensions in the group, which reach a shocking climax.

When Kosovan writer-director Blerta Basholli met war widow Fahrije Hoti, the subject of her new feature film Hive, she was immediately struck by her strength of character and personality, which helped shape how she would approach making a feature film based on the story of Hoti’s life after the Kosovo War.