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The Final Cut in Venice program, which supports post-production of films from Africa and the Arab world, recently concluded its 12th edition. Morad Mostafa’s feature film debut “Aisha Can’t Fly Away” earned the top prize. The movie tells the story of a Somali woman caring for her elderly parents in Cairo as she navigates the city’s social dynamics. Mostafa received the €5,000 La Biennale di Venezia Prize in recognition of his outstanding work.

The jury that selected the prize consisted of industry veterans Wayne Borg, Monica Ciarli, and Dennis Ruh. They praised Mostafa’s “powerful and authentic” storytelling and “distinct cinematic voice.” While a first feature film, the jury said the director showed “confident direction” and left “a strong impression” with the film’s “gritty realism and attention to detail.”

Mostafa’s film also obtained additional support from organizations like the Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut Français, Rai Cinema,...

The 12th edition of Final Cut in Venice, the industry program supporting films in post-production from Africa and Arab countries, came to a wrap with an awards ceremony that saw Egyptian filmmaker Morad Mostafa’s “Aisha Can’t Fly Away” take the La Biennale di Venezia Prize for a film in post-production, worth €5,000.

Morad’s feature debut, which has previously been through the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra Lab, tells the story of a Somali woman caring for her elderly parents in Cairo while witnessing the tensions between the different ethnic groups who make up the city’s society.

This year’s jury was composed of Wayne Borg of Neom, Monica Ciarli of Minerva Pictures, and former director of the European Film Market Dennis Ruh. In their statement, the jury labelled Mostafa’s story “powerful and authentic,” adding: “Despite being a first feature film, it showcased confident direction and a distinct cinematic voice.

Exclusive: Managing Director of Neom Media Industries Wayne Borg, Monica Ciarli of Minerva Pictures, and former EFM head Dennis Ruh will serve on the jury of the Venice Film Festival’s work-in-progress event Final Cut In Venice.

The Final Cut in Venice programme will run from September 1-3. The first two days are dedicated to the works-in-progress screenings. On the third day, one-on-one meetings are organized and the awards are presented in the afternoon. The jury will hand out a prize of €5,000 for the best film in post-production.

The seven selected productions include four fiction features: Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away (Egypt), Nadim Tabet’s In This Darkness I See You (Lebanon), Mohamed Siam’s My Father’s Scent (Egypt), and Ique Langa’s The Prophet (Mozambique).

Related: Venice Lineup Interview: Festival Chief Alberto Barbera Says ‘Joker 2’ Is “One Of The Most Daring Films In Recent...

The Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund (Wcf) has backed 10 feature projects in its 40th session, at a total of €260,000.

The latest funding pot has awarded eight production and two distribution grants, to projects from Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Egypt, Iran, Lesotho, Nepal and Sudan.

Scroll down for the full list of projects

Aisha Can’t Fly Away, the debut feature of Egyptian filmmaker Morad Mostafa, received €25,000. Mostafa participated in the 2024 Berlinale Talents, was named a Screen Arab Star of Tomorrow in 2023, and will take part in the Final Cut in Venice lab with his project in September after shooting this summer.

In seiner 40. Jurysitzung hat der World Cinama Fund der Berlinale acht Produktions- und zwei Verleihförderungen in einer Gesamthöhe von 260.000 Euro vergeben.

Einer von zehn Filmen, der aktuell vom World Cinema Fund der Berlinale Förderung zugesprochen bekommen hat: „Goodbye Julia“(Credit: Pierre de Villiers / Rushlake Media GmbH)

Projekte und Filme aus Ägypten, Algerien, Argentinien, Brasilien, dem Iran, Kamerun, Lesotho, Nepal und dem Sudan haben in der 40. Jury Sitzung des Berlinale World Cinema Fund Förderittel in einer Gesamthöhe von 260.000 Euro zugesprochen bekommen. Wie die Berlinale heute mitteilt, waren insgesamt 195 Projekte aus 55 Ländern eingereicht worden.

Vincenco Bugno, Leiter des 2004 von der Kulturstiftung des Bundes und der Berlinale initiierten World Cinema Fund: „In einer Zeit, in der die Komplexität der Welt oft verdrängt wird, bieten die Jury-Meetings des WCFeinen Raum der Reflexion, in dem wir uns mit den Welten um uns herum in all ihrer wunderbaren und komplizierten Vielfalt befassen können. All dies ist...

Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away is among seven projects selected for the Final Cut in Venice lab for work-in-progress titles from Africa and the Middle East.

The film, which is gearing up to shoot this summer, tells the story of a Somali woman who cares for her elderly parents while witnessing the tensions between the different groups who make up her city’s African society.

Scroll down for the full list of projects

It will be a feature debut for Egyptian filmmaker Mostafa, who was selected as a Screen Arab Star of Tomorrow last year.

Aisha Can...

Memento International is set to represent global rights to “Omen,” the feature debut of Belgian-Congolese artist-turned filmmaker Baloji which is slated to world premiere at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

Baloji previously directed several short films including “Zombies” which played at the BFI London film festival. Blurring the lines between reality and the realm of dreams, “Omen” follows Kofi, who return to his birthplace after being ostracized by his family. The movie explores the weight of beliefs on one’s destiny through four characters accused of being witches and sorcerers, all of them intertwined and guiding each other into the phantasmagoria of Africa.

The film stars Marc Zinga Lucie Debay (“Our Men”) and Eliane Umuhire (“Birds Are Singing in Kigali”).

“I like to describe ‘Omen’ as a chimerical film, an ode to the imaginary and the visceral, evoking the spirits of the departed as much as the boundless energy of childhood,...

Exclusive: Venice Film Festival, Netflix and The Gotham Film & Media Institute are teaming up on a program of movies at iconic New York venue, the Paris Theater. Scroll down for program lineup in full.

Titled Venice Film Festival Presents: Next Generation, the four day event (April 20-23) will showcase films from the first ten years of La Biennale di Venezia’s Biennale College Cinema.

Screenings will be accompanied by in-depth discussions pairing new filmmakers with established directors, producers, and writers. The opening night will feature a screening of mystery-thriller Our Father, The Devil with remarks from Venice Director Alberto Barbera and Head of Programme Savina Neirotti. Indie Spirit winner Nikyatu Jusu, whose Sundance film Nanny was picked up by Amazon and Blumhouse, will serve as moderator for the opening night discussion with director Ellie Foumbi.

Biennale College Cinema is an incubator program for low-budget films by emerging filmmakers. Among...

It is my experience that one gets a far richer, stranger cinema education in pursuing the careers of actors, that group defined first by (assuming luck shines upon them) two or three era-defining films and then so much that dictates their industry—pet projects, contractual obligations, called-in favors alimony payments, auteur one-offs, and on and on. Few embody that deluge of circumstance better than Michelle Yeoh and Isabelle Huppert, both of whom are receiving spotlights in March. The former’s is a who’s-who of Hong Kong talent, new favorites (The Heroic Trio), items we can at least say are of interest (Trio‘s not-great sequel Executioners), etc.

Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...

With only one or two 'big' names known, even among cinephines, cinema from sub-saharan Africa has often been neglected both on the festival and the art house cinema circuit. Perhaps also because of the way the filmmakers use the tools of cinema, often so outside what we're used to from North American, European, and Asian cinema. It's a different way of storytelling, one that asks us to consider the web-like connection between storyteller and story, land and character, fiction and fact. These are not seperated categories, but each a part of each other. Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese's sophomore feature, This is Not a Burial, it's a Resurrection is a film that asks for, and has no trouble receiving, our undivided attention. The story might seem...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

New Release Wall

“Bergman Island” (The Criterion Collection): Writer-director Mia Hansen-Løve’s seventh feature is graceful and complex, a story about stories and the sometimes fragile connections between partners and friends. A couple travel to Fårö, Sweden, where Ingmar Bergman lived and worked, in order to work on their own respective filmmaking projects. There they discover more about themselves than they anticipated. The Blu-ray includes an essay from critic Devika Girish; a short film, “Bergman’s Ghosts,” made during production by actor Gabe Klinger; and interviews with Krieps and Hansen-Løve.

Also available:

“Black Adam” (Warner Bros): Dwayne Johnson is the DC Comics anti-hero, freed from his tomb after 5000 years, now ready to deliver his own version of justice.

“Bones and All” (Warner Bros): The latest from “Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino is a romantic horror film about cannibals in love — it’s as divisive...

The film explores the young queer generation of Colombia.

German director Theo Montoya’s documentary Anhell69 has won the €10,000 Golden Dove prize of the international competition of the Dok Leipzig documentary and animation film festival in Germany.

Austria’s Square Eyes is handling international sales on the film.

The festival took place from October 17-23 in Germany.

Inspired by the director’s own past, Anhell69 explores the young queer generation of Colombia and the violence of the city they reside in. It is a co-production between Colombia, Romania, France and Germany.

The film had its world premiere in Venice’s...

Colombian filmmaker Laura Mora has clinched the Golden Shell in the main competition of the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival with her latest feature The Kings of the World (Los reyes del mundo).

Billed as a subversive tale of disobedience, friendship, and dignity, the film follows five boys living on the streets of Medellín who set out on a journey in search of the promised land. The film is a Colombian co-production with Luxembourg, France, Mexico, and Norway.

This is the third year running that a film helmed by a woman has taken home the Golden Shell following Dea Kulumbegashvili’s Beginning in 2020 and Alina Grigore’s Blue Moon last year. This is also the first time a Colombian production has picked up San Sebastian’s top prize in the festival’s seven decades.

In other main competition awards, Japanese writer Genki Kawamura picked up the Silver Shell for Best...

“Vive le cinéma!” goes the call from Tabakalera, International Centre of Contemporary Culture, at this year’s San Sebastián International Film Festival (Ssiff).

The Centre’s exhibition hall plays host to four cinematographic installations made by leading global filmmakers, a project which sees them transform their usual cinema-based practice into a more expansive and experimental gallery space.

The exhibition at Tabakalera marks a continuation of the series which began at the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam last year in collaboration with the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Two works from the 2021 exhibition by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese and Jia Zhang-ke will be on display again in San Sebastián, alongside two new productions from Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili (“Beginning”) and Spanish director Isaki Lacuesta.

“Our main mission is to promote artistic production and to act as a platform to connect a wide audience to the arts of our time,” says Tabakalera’s Cultural Director Clara Montero.

Argentinian producer Matias Mosteirin will take over as jury president.

US actress Glenn Close has withdrawn from her role as jury president of this week’s San Sebastian Film Festival, due to a ‘family emergency’.

Argentinian producer Matias Mosteirin, already a jury member, will take over Close’s role, with no replacement jury member incoming.

A statement issued by the festival said Close “conveyed to the Festival her regrets for not being able to attend a duty to which she felt very committed.”

It also relayed a message from Close, who said, “I deeply regret that I will not be...

Glenn Close no longer will preside over the San Sebastian jury and has canceled her trip to the festival due to a family emergency.

“I deeply regret that I will not be able to take part in the Festival as there has been a family emergency for which I must stay home,” Close said in a statement. “I apologize to the Festival, the Jury, the filmmakers, the Donostia honorees, and the festival audience, that I will not be there to celebrate with you all.”

Argentinian producer Matías Mosteirín, who already was announced as part of the jury, will serve as the president. Mosteirin’s feature film as a producer, Bolivia, received the Young Critics Award at the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes. He recently executive produced Marcelo Piñeyro’s series El Reino (The Realm) for Netflix.

The jury will be filled out by French casting director and filmmaker Antoinette Boulat,...

Glenn Close, who was due to serve as the jury president at the San Sebastian Film Festival, has canceled her trip due to a family emergency.

“I deeply regret that I will not be able to take part in the festival as there has been a family emergency for which I must stay home,” Close said in a statement. “I apologize to the festival, the jury, the filmmakers, the Donostia honorees and the festival audience, that I will not be there to celebrate with you all.”

Just last week, the star of “Fatal Attraction” and “Dangerous Liaisons” posted a video on her social media in which she expressed her enthusiasm about chairing the festival jury, describing it as “a new adventure I’ve never done before.” “I love San Sebastian, people are fantastic, I’m really looking forward to seeing some wonderful films and I’m very excited about meeting my fellow jury members,...

Ulrich Seidl’s “Sparta” has been pulled from the Toronto International Film Festival amid allegations of impropriety and child exploitation against the director, but its premiere at next week’s San Sebastian Film Festival will continue as planned, Variety can reveal.

A spokesperson for the Spanish festival tells Variety on behalf of festival management that “Sparta” will remain in competition.

Providing a three-point list explaining their reasoning, San Sebastian said “the festival team assesses the films after their viewing according to their interest and quality” and that the event “does not have the ability to judge how a film has been shot and whether a crime has been committed in the course of the filming. If anyone has any evidence of a crime, they should report it to a judge.”

The statement concludes: “Only a court order would lead us to suspend a scheduled screening.”

This means that “Sparta” is...

The festival runs September 16-24.

Glenn Close has been named president of the official selection jury for the 70th San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Close will be joined by French director and casting director Antoinette Boulat; Danish filmmaker Tea Lindeburg; Argentinian producer Matías Mosteirín; Spanish writer Rosa Montero; Mosotho filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese and the Icelandic director and screenwriter Hlynur Pálmason.

Wang Chao’s A Woman has also been added to Ssiff’s official selection, becoming the 16th title eligible for the Golden Shell.

The Chinese film is based on Zhang Xiu Zhen’s autobiography Dream and follows an aspiring...

American actress Glenn Close has been announced as the jury president for the Official Section of the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival, running from September 16-24.

Close will be joined by the French casting director and filmmaker Antoinette Boulat, Danish filmmaker Tea Lindeburg, Argentinian producer Matías Mosteirín, the Spanish writer Rosa Montero, Lesotho filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, and the Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason.

The jury awards the Golden Shell for Best Film and the Silver Shell awards for Best Director, Best Leading Performance, Best Supporting Performance, as well as jury prizes for Cinematography and Screenplay. The Official Awards will be announced and presented at the festival’s Closing Gala on September 24.

Close was last at the Spanish festival with The Wife, which closed out the Official Section in 2017. The film went on to earn Close her eighth Academy Award nomination.

As previously announced, Spanish filmmaker Alberto Rodríguez will open the...

Final Cut, a workshop supporting films in post-production from African and Arab countries – launched by the Venice Film Festival’s industry section, Venice Production Bridge – celebrates its 10th anniversary this week.

Its goals have remained the same, however, as it continues to provide emerging filmmakers with concrete assistance as well as visibility, all the while strengthening Venice’s role as “bridge builder,” says Alessandra Speciale, its curator. The final selection features titles made by directors from nine different countries: Algeria, Jordan, Guinea, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Central African Republic and Tunisia.

This year, two additional projects were added to the usual six work-in-progress films, thanks to the France in Focus initiative, supported by Unifrance: Karim Bensalah’s debut “Black Light,” sold internationally by The Party Film Sales, and “The Cemetery of Cinema,” directed by Thierno Souleymane Diallo and marking Guinea’s first presence at the workshop.

Diallo, who has been...

Six participants on each programme, receiving 2,000 monthly stipend.

African development organisation the Realness Institute has selected 12 participants for its 2022 Episodic Lab and Development Executive Traineeship, in partnership with Netflix.

The six writers selected for the Episodic Lab are: Hussein Kurji with Bushcamp (Kenya), Khanyo Mjamba with Byline (South Africa), Mlilo Mpondo with Bayeti-Visitors (South Africa), Neo Sibiya with Ukushona Kwelanga (The Setting of The Sun) (South Africa), Sandra Madu with From Lagos with Love (Nigeria) and Voline Ogutu with Dilemma (Kenya).

The 12 participants will each receive a monthly stipend of 2,000 from May through July, to cover personal expenses as they...

For our most comprehensive year-end feature we’re providing a cumulative look at The Film Stage’s favorite films of 2021. We’ve asked contributors to compile ten-best lists with five honorable mentions—a selection of those personal lists will be shared in coming days—and from tallied votes has a top 50 been assembled.

So: without further ado, check out our rundown of 2021 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to stream many of the below picks), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2022.

50. This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese)

Framed as an epic fable and shot like a myth, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection is another beautiful, tragic diary entry on the history and people of his home country Lesotho. His focus shifts from the metaphorical relationship of Mother, I am Suffocating, This...

Marrakech International Film Festival’s project incubator showcased 15 projects in development and nine projects.

Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother Of All Lies and Tunisian-French director Erige Sehiri’s Under The Fig Trees have won the top post-production prizes at the Marrakech International Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops talent and project incubator.

The films were among 15 projects in development and nine projects in post-production presented in the fourth edition of the workshops, running online from November 22 to 25 and attended by more than 300 international film professionals.

The post-production jury comprised Nuha Eltayeb, director of content acquisitions for the Middle East,...

As 2021 mercifully winds down, the Criterion Channel have a (November) lineup that marks one of their most diverse selections in some time—films by the new masters Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Garrett Bradley, Dan Sallitt’s Fourteen (one of 2020’s best films) couched in a fantastic retrospective, and Criterion editions of old favorites.

Fourteen is featured in “Between Us Girls: Bonds Between Women,” which also includes Céline and Julie, The Virgin Suicides, and Yvonne Rainer’s Privilege. Of equal note are Criterion editions for Ghost World, Night of the Hunter, and (just in time for del Toro’s spin) Nightmare Alley—all stacked releases in their own right.

See the full list of October titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

300 Nassau, Marina Lameiro, 2015

5 Card Stud, Henry Hathaway, 1968

Alone, Garrett Bradley, 2017

Álvaro, Daniel Wilson, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandra Lazarowich, and Chloe Zimmerman, 2015

America, Garrett Bradley, 2019

Angel Face, Otto Preminger, 1953

Angels Wear White,...

Other African submissions so far include Nabil Ayouch’s Casablanca Beats for Morocco.

Finnish-Somali filmmaker Khadar Ayderus Ahmed’s The Gravedigger’s Wife, which world premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in July, has been selected as Somalia’s first-ever Oscar submission for the 2022 Academy Awards.

Set in Djibouti City in the Horn of Africa, the drama stars Finnish-Somali actor Omar Abdi as a gravedigger on a quest to raise the money for the kidney transplant desperately needed by his beloved wife, played by Canadian-Somali model and actress Yasmin Warsame.

The film’s selection for consideration in the best international film category...

Exclusive: New York-based distributor Dekanalog has added two foreign-language titels to its slate.

In November, the company will release Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s Mosotho drama that screened at Berlin, Sheffield, and MoMA Doc Fortnight. The U.S. sales deal was struck with Memento Films. Dekanalog previously released director Mosese’s This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection earlier this year.

The distributor has also picked up Father, the Berlin Panorama Audience Award Winner from Srdan Golubovic. The pic won the International Narrative Award at Calgary and also screened at Thessaloniki, Transylvania, and Seattle. Set in a a small town in Serbia, the movie stars Goran Bogdan and Boris Isakovic. The U.S. deal was struck with The Match Factory.

Dekanalog has now been operating for a year, its recent theatrical release was Mariam Ghani’s Afghan documentary What We Left Unfinished.

Last year, the small Southern African nation of Lesotho entered the Academy Awards race for the first time with Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection,” one of 28 features spawned over the past decade by Biennale College — Cinema, the workshop created by Alberto Barbera for emerging filmmakers to develop and produce micro-budget feature-length films.

The College was conceived by Barbera in tandem with Torino Film Lab topper Savina Neirotti, who also heads the unique

Venice initiative.

Instead of backing just one aspect of the filmmaking process, this lab shepherds movies through their entire production cycle, working closely with director-producer teams on their projects from initial stages, offering experts and on-site workshop sessions in a former monastery on the island of San Servolo in the Venetian lagoon.

Other standout Biennale College titles include U.S. director Tim Sutton’s experimental “Memphis,” released theatrically stateside by Kino Lorber; and “Mary Is Happy,...

Thuthuka is launching today in Cannes.

Netherlands-South Africa co-development fund Thuthuka is launching today in Cannes, to enhance collaboration between the two countries.

The new fund will provide selective script and co-development support for film and documentary projects with South African- and Dutch-related content.

“Thuthuka stands for growth and development,” explained Bero Beyer, CEO of the Netherlands Film Fund. “We are trying to foster creative collaborations between the South African and Netherlands film teams to develop their ideas.”

A 2016 co-production treaty between the countries is already perceived to be working well, with at least one project produced per year since...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Son of the White Mare (1981)Pioneering Hungarian filmmaker Marcell Jankovics has died. Known for his fantastical and folkloric animations, Jankovics' films like Johnny Corncob (1973) and Son of the White Mare (1981) helped place Hungarian animation on the map. Last year, Jankovics discussed his recently re-released Son of the White Mare with Christopher L. Inoa. Amazon has bought MGM for $8.45 billion. Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, has announced plans to reimagine MGM's "treasure trove of [intellectual property]," which includes 12 Angry Men, Basic Instinct, and Raging Bull. Cristian Mungiu will be the Jury President for this year's International Critics' Week at Cannes. The festival's lineup is set to be announced on June 7. Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese has started production on his next film, supported by the International Film Festival Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund.

Title revealed of the upcoming feature from the director of ‘This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection’.

The next feature from Lesotho filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese is among 10 upcoming projects to receive support from the Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf), administered by the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

The writer and director of Sundance award-winner This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection has received a grant of €10,000 for script and project development on his fourth feature, titled The Chattering Of Teeth.

Earlier this year, the filmmaker said he was developing a new feature around the theme of siege and fear...

Night Of The Kings made it onto the 15-picture shortlist of the Best International Film category at the Oscars this year.

Memento Films International (Mfi) has unveiled a fresh round of deals for Ivorian-French filmmaker Philippe Lacôte’s Oscar-shortlisted prison drama Night Of The Kings.

The feature has sold to Australia and New Zealand (Rialto), China (Huanxi), Indonesia (Pt Falcon), Mexico (Alameda), Brazil (Telecine).

In Europe, it has been acquired by Switzerland (Xenix), Benelux (Imagine), France (Jhr), Spain (Flamingo) Poland (New Horizons), Romania (Transilvania), Portugal (Alambique) and ex-Yugoslavia (Kino Mediteran).

These acquisitions follow its previously announced sale to Neon for...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: The Cinerama Dome in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). Decurion has announced that it won't be reopening its Arclight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres locations. The theater chain's most famous location is its Hollywood Arclight multiplex on Sunset Boulevard, home to the Cinerama Dome. Arte France Cinéma will be co-producing three new features: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's Les amandiers (starring Louis Garrel), Arnaud Desplechin's Brother and Sister (which stars Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud), and Pietro Marcello's L'envol (the filmmaker's first feature in France). The Workers of the Cinemateca Brasileira have released a manifesto calling attention to the many risks facing the Cinemateca's unattended collection, equipment, and facilities due to its "current state of abandonment" by the Ministry of Tourism. Backed by TCM, documentarian Josh Grossberg and his...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSFilmmaker Bertrand Mandico has illustrated the 70th anniversary cover of Cahier du Cinéma, entitled "Gloria, angel of the history of the cinema." The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center have announced the lineup for the 50th edition of New Directors/New Films. Screenings will take place from April 28-May 8 through the MoMA and Flc virtual cinemas, and in-person screenings at Flc through May 13. The lineup of 27 features and 11 shorts includes Theo Anthony's All Light, Everywhere, Andreas Fontana's Azor, Alice Diop's We (Nous), and Jane Schoenbrun's We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Recommended VIEWINGAnother Gaze's free streaming project, Another Screen, has announced two new programmes: Hands Tied, about hands, and Eating the Other, about gendered notions of eating. The first official trailer for Mamoru Hosoda's Belle, which...

The 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF45) today announces a glittering line-up of jury members for its four Firebird Awards competition sections, including three past winners.

Renowned for identifying and recognising new talents in young cinema, documentary, and short film, four independent jury panels will select 12 winners from 43 films for this year’s Firebird Awards competition. HKIFF45 will announce the results online on 11 April, the penultimate day of the festival.

The Young Cinema Competition for Chinese language films has heightened the profiles of some of Asia’s emerging talents since its introduction two years ago. Adjudicating this year’s selection are Yu Lik-wai, director, award-winning cinematographer, and a long term collaborator of Jia Zhangke; acclaimed Hong Kong art director, costume designer and film editor William Chang; and La Frances Hui, film curator with New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Three distinguished industry professionals from three continents will make...

Dekanalog Acquires Dachra: "Fresh off their national theatrical launch of Quentin Dupieux's acclaimed absurdist comedy Keep An Eye Out (Au Poste!), Gotham-based distributor Dekanalog has added three acclaimed festival favorites to their bustling 2021 slate, including the acclaimed horror thriller Dachra from writer/director Abdelhamid Bouchnak, per an announcement this morning at Deadline.

The acquisitions, which also include Paul Negoescu's Two Lottery Tickets and Mariam Ghani's What We Left Unfinished, join a stacked 2021 lineup for Dekanalog that currently includes theatrical and digital releases of Grímur Hákonarson's TIFF darling The County, Ena Sendijarević's Rotterdam Tiger Award-winning Take Me Somewhere Nice, and Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese's Sundance-winning This Is Not A Burial, It's A Resurrection - Lesotho's first-ever submission to The Academy Awards.

Dachra, which is based on a terrifying true story and made waves at the world's largest genre film festivals, follows a group of students who become...

The streaming giant has come knocking, but a lack of infrastructure and government support continues to hinder the continent telling its own stories

It was the sight of donkeys carrying camera equipment that reminded Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese he was shooting in Lesotho. The director was filming This Is Not a Burial, It Is a Resurrection in a remote part of his tiny home nation, which has no cinemas and – unsurprisingly – zero film infrastructure. “It’s a bit daring to take a crew there and shoot because there’s no electricity,” Mosese says from his home in Berlin. “Especially when we go to the mountains – we had to rely on the donkeys because at some point we just couldn’t carry the equipment.”

The shoot ran on petrol-powered generators. Villagers pitched in as ad-hoc crew members. Many fingers were crossed. “We had to build everything from scratch,” he says. That approach didn’t harm the film.

This year's expanded edition saw the triumph of Vinothraj Ps's Pebbles, winner of the prestigious Tiger Award; European victors included I Comete – A Corsican Summer and Looking for Venera. Yesterday, International Film Festival Rotterdam announced its award winners for its 50th edition. In detail, this year saw the triumph of Vinothraj Ps's Pebbles, the recipient of the prestigious Tiger Award. The jury, composed of Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Orwa Nyrabia, Hala Elkoussy, Helena van der Meulen and Ilse Hughan, provided the following supporting statement: “In the midst of many admirable and ambitious works, the jury was blown away by a seemingly simple and humble film we fell in love with instantly. Creating maximum impact with a minimum of means, the filmmaker reaches his goal with the same conviction and determination as his main characters. The result is a lesson in pure cinema, captivating us with its beauty...

Winners hailed from India, France, Kosovo, Argentina and Bosnia.

Vinothraj P.S.’s Pebbles has scooped the Tiger Award, worth €40,000, at the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

The Tiger jury, including Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Orwa Nyrabia, Hala Elkoussy, Helena van der Meulen and Ilse Hughan, said the Indian drama was “a lesson in pure cinema, captivating us with its beauty and humour, in spite of its grim subject”.

Set in a rural village in southern India, Pebbles follows an alcoholic father and his young son as they embark on an eight-mile walk under scorching sun in a bid to reunite with his wife,...

The filmmaker has been researching subjects of siege and fear while locked down in home city of Berlin.

Director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, whose film This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection is Lesotho’s Oscar submission this year, is developing a new feature around the theme of siege and fear after being grounded in his adopted home city of Berlin by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mosese teased the new project in the Big Talk programme of this week’s online International Film Festival Rotterdam. The filmmaker is also participating as a member of the jury.

“It’s been a...

Each month, we're commissioning a different artist to create a movie poster for a film exclusively playing on the platform. This January, José Luis Merino has made a poster for Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese's This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection, which is receiving an exclusive global streaming premiere on Mubi starting January 13, 2021 in the UK and other countries.

Ifrr director Vanja Kaludjercic and IFFR Pro head Marit van den Elshout shared fresh details about the upcoming event.

The heads of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) have revealed how its juries will watch films in cinemas despite the pandemic and shared fresh details of its physical festival in June.

Speaking during the latest ScreenDaily Talks, IFFR festival director Vanja Kaludjercic outlined plans for how the five jurors in its flagship Tiger Competition would screen the 16 selected titles during the festival, which runs online-only from February 1-7.

“I’m a bit jealous because the juries are the only ones who...

Exclusive: Dekanalog, a new theatrical and digital distribution company with an emphasis on presenting international titles for U.S. audiences, will launch in March with four films on its initial slate.

The company will release Keep an Eye Out, an absurdist comedy directed by Quentin Dupieux, online on March 5. The film played the festival circuit and received a commercial release in France, where Dupieux has garnered a following after receiving critical praise for previous films like Wrong and Rubber.

Festival prize winner This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection will have its virtual debut April 2 via Brooklyn Academy of Music and Museum of the Moving Image. Directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, the drama is this year’s official Oscar submission from Lesotho, the first ever from the African nation.

Also on the Dekanalog slate, without release dates as of now, are Take Me Somewhere Nice and The County.

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese's This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection is exclusively showing on Mubi starting January 13, 2021 in the UK and other countries.Writer, director and cinematographer Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese was born and raised in Hlotse, a market town in Lesotho near the South African border. Today Mosese lives in Berlin, where he’s lived for the last eight years. Since moving, he’s felt displaced in both his birth country and his new home. “I am a part of Berlin but I know I don’t belong there, I belong to Lesotho and yet I am not a part of it,” he explained to Christopher Vourlias in an interview for Variety. In Berlin, he formed “Barefooted Cinema,” a film movement characterized by its fast development process and the “Mokoari Collective,” a group of filmmakers who abide by the movement. Barefooted Cinema’s production timeline is truncated...

Mary Twala gives an intimate yet epic performance as an 80-year-old widow fighting plans for a dam that will obliterate her village in Lesotho

This is an extraordinary and otherworldly feature film from the tiny landlocked kingdom of Lesotho in southern Africa. It is the tale of a rebel spirit: an elderly woman who opposes government plans to flood her village, making way for a dam. It’s a film about resistance and resilience, but director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese is coolly unsentimental and realistic about the inevitable march of capitalism and construction. Weaving in ideas around displacement, collective identity and history, this film takes on almost mythic qualities.

Related: From Beyoncé to the Oscars: Mary Twala, Africa's queen of cinema...

During today’s press conference, International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announced vital details for its 2021 edition. IFFR 2021 will also take place from 1 to 7 February, and will be opened by film “Riders of Justice” by Anders Thomas Jensen and the Robby Müller Award recipient Kelly Reichardt. They will also be part of IFFR Talks, next to Benoît Jacquot, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Dea Kulumbegashvili and Nicolás Jaar. IFFR 2021 will also be the first year for new festival director Vanja Kaludjercic — who is also debuting IFFR’s online format. The entire online programme will be available to audiences across the Netherlands, and the Press / Industry screenings, IFFR Talks programmes accessible worldwide. Premieres will have Q&As and live interaction will be available to limited ticket capacity for 72 hours.

Next year’s slate also shows plenty of promise. Of the 16 films selected for the festival’s Tiger Competition, 6 hail from different points...

The 2021 edition of the Dutch gathering will open with Anders Thomas Jensen’s Riders of Justice. During yesterday’s press conference, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announced the 16 films selected for its prestigious Tiger Competition, alongside the titles taking part in the Big Screen Competition, the Ammodo Tiger Short Competition and the Limelight strand. The 50th expanded edition of the Dutch gathering, taking place from 1-7 February and 2-6 June 2021 (read the news), will open with Anders Thomas Jensen’s Riders of Justice. In the Tiger competition section, the jury will grant three prizes: the Tiger Award, worth €40,000, and two special jury awards, worth €10,000 each. The Tiger Jury consists of filmmaker and visual artist Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, IDFA’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia, visual artist and filmmaker Hala Elkoussy, screenwriter and critic Helena van der Meulen and film producer Ilse Hughan. Meanwhile, the Big Screen Competition will include...

The 50th anniversary event will take place in February and June.

Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen’s comedy Riders Of Justice starring Mads Mikkelsen will open the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). The festival is taking place as multi-part event from February to June 2021, with the first part running as hybrid festival from February 1-7. Organisers hope it will culminate in a physical event from June 2-6, 2021.

Some 60 titles spanning the Tiger Competition, Big Screen Competition and its Ammodo Tiger Shorts and Limelight sections are screening in February.

The festival’s flagship Tiger Competition will showcase 16 titles, which will...

Anders Thomas Jensen’s action comedy “Riders of Justice,” starring Mads Mikkelsen, will open the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam. The festival will be staged in two parts this year: the first, in a hybrid format, running Feb. 1-7, and the second, hopefully a physical event, June 2-6. The awards ceremony will take place on Feb. 7.

In “Riders of Justice,” Mikkelsen plays Markus, a military man who returns home to look after his daughter Mathilde following his wife’s death in a train accident. At first it looks like she was the victim of a tragic piece of bad luck, but then mathematics geek Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), a fellow passenger on the train, shows up with his two eccentric colleagues, Lennart (Lars Brygmann) and Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro), and floats the theory of a possible murder conspiracy. The film plays in the Limelight section.

Jensen is Denmark’s top screenwriter,...

When observing global cultural differences, some of the most telling points of distinction are seen in how different societies treat death. Beyond this, the ongoing 2020 pandemic has resensitized us, especially in the west, to an earlier way of life not seen since the two world wars and the emergence of modern medicine, where the specter of death looms larger.

A certain mode of arthouse film is well-equipped to process these ideas. The deeply referential new South African film This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection strongly evokes Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry, perhaps cinema’s greatest contemplation of the subject. Both concern a central character seeking a dignified end, with the notion of a burial especially symbolic to the ultimate sense of finality. The interesting distinction is that in this film, for its setting in the tiny Lesotho village of Nasaratha, the town’s gravesite actually makes up...