‘This Taliban Government is Going to Be Temporary’: Oscar Shortlisted Filmmakers on Documenting Life in Afghanistan

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMK2 Films, the banner behind Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World,” has boarded “Love Life,” the anticipated next film of laureled Japanese director Koji Fukada. Fukada’s credits include the 2016 movie “Harmonium” which won the jury prize at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, as well as “A Girl Missing” which played at Toronto. His latest film, “The Real Thing” was part of Cannes 2020’s Official Selection.

Gold medal love! As Team USA’s finest athletes compete in the 2022 Winter Olympics, their loved ones are some of their biggest fans.

Ex-BBC journalist Andrew North is among a number of foreigners kidnapped by the Taliban in recent months, according to sources.

K.J. Yossman In a new series, Variety catches up with the directors of the films shortlisted for the International Feature Film Oscar to discuss their road to the awards, what they’ve learned so far, and what’s taken them off guard.Laura Wandel is the auteur behind “Playground” (“Un Monde”), her first feature, about the reality of schoolyard bullying. The film stars newcomer Maya Vanderbeque as seven-year-old Nora, who struggles to know what to do as she witnesses her older brother Abel (Günter Duret) bullied at school.

Angelina Jolie is spreading the message about the dismal conditions for women in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized control of the country last year.

In just a few days the Winter Olympic Games begin in Beijing, a massive event China will use to present an idealized image of itself to the world.

EXCLUSIVE: Lysa Heslov, the filmmaker best known for her award-winning 2017 documentary Served Like A Girl, has signed with Gersh for representation.

Belgium’s Oscar-shortlisted International Feature is an intimate child’s-eye view of bullying from debut writer-director Laura Wandel. Playground is known as Un Monde in its native French language, and this is set in a world of its own: the school that two siblings must navigate to get through the day.

Collective earned an Oscar nomination last year for documenting the work of brave investigative reporters in Romania. This year, one of the feature documentaries in contention for Oscar recognition focuses on another group of crusading journalists — the staff of Khabar Lahariya, India’s only newspaper run entirely by women.

Panama makes its debut on the International Feature Oscar shortlist with the character-driven thriller Plaza Catedral. This contender from Abner Benaim (Ruben Blades Is Not My Name) is a taut two-hander between a grieving mother and a young street hustler, with a sobering message about corruption and violence. Samuel Goldwyn Films recently acquired the title.

As voters across the Academy branches mull over their Oscar nomination ballots, among the films they’re considering are two that deal with the Deaf experience. One, CODA, is the fictional coming of age story of a girl raised by Deaf parents. The other – Audible – tells a coming of age story as well, but this one is real.

Anti-war protest in Canada by members of the Afghanistan diaspora (Pic: Meandering Images / Shutterstock)

In one of Syrian-born artist Mohamad Hafez’s stunning 3D pieces, a figurine of the Virgin Mary stands before an ornate portal, her hands joined in prayer. The building around her, rendered in plaster, paint, rusted metal and found objects, is blasted to ruins.

Angelique Jackson WarnerMedia OneFifty has acquired the short films, “Namoo” and “When the Sun Sets,” to be released on HBO Max.Both films are shortlisted to be nominated for the 2022 Academy Awards, with “Namoo” as a contender in the animated short film category and “When the Sun Sets” in the live-action short film category. The nominations will be formally announced on Feb.

Jessica Kiang Given the Chinese government’s frighteningly successful attempts at retroactively erasing the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre from history, there is an urgent need for a soup-to-nuts retelling of that incident, solidly laying out the facts and figures, insofar as they can be known. “The Exiles,” from debut directors Violet Columbus and Ben Klein, is not that film, although some of its most powerful sequences could be repurposed in their entirety to that end.Instead, Columbus and Klein present a palimpsest of erratically overlapping perspectives.

Carole Horst Netflix’s “Robin Robin” uses stop-motion animation and felt figures to tell its charming, musical story of a bird who doesn’t quite belong in a family of stealthy mice and discovers her real place in the world. It’s a Christmas tale that’s also made the Oscar shortlist for animated shorts. Directors-writers Dan Ojari and Mikey Please had been working with each other off and on for about 10 years and formed Parabella Studios, where they began developing “Robin Robin.” A serendipitous meeting with Aardman’s Sarah Cox led them to that legendary studio, which they found to be a perfect match for their own sensibilities.

Former Love Island winner Amber Gill has slammed a "creep" who has reportedly been taking pictures of her working out in the gym. During an Instagram Q&A, the reality star, who could be at risk of being banned from the social media platform due to ad claims, was asked: "Can you tell my friend to stop taking photos of you in gymnation please". It was followed by several laughing emojis.The Geordie star, 24, was quick to reply to the confession, making her discomfort known.

TheWrap-Up,” host Sharon Waxman and special guest co-host and TheWrap contributing editor Ben Svetkey talk the 2022 award season, which is currently taking shape with the Oscars set to have a host again and award show nominations being announced left and right.After a discussion of some recent Hollywood headlines, Sharon and Ben mull who might make a good Oscars host, before turning to the spectacular showing by the stars of “Succession” in the Screen Actor’s Guild Award nominations.Our “Wax On/Wax Off” segment returns, as Sharon shares news of TheWrap’s 14 LA Press Club nominations this week.For this week’s feature interview, Sharon is joined by two women whose powerful documentary films are among the 15 that made the documentaries shortlist for the 2022 Oscars — Nanfu Wang, director of “In the Same Breath,” and Megan Mylan, director of “Simple as Water.” Wang’s film looks at the the people on the ground in the U.S. and in China in the earliest days of the coronavirus outbreak.