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The Berlin Film Festival today unveiled the titles selected for its retrospective section chosen by a collection of international directors and actors, including Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Nadine Labaki, and Tilda Swinton.

This year the theme of the retrospective sidebar is “Coming of Age at the Movies,” and each invited artist was tasked with submitting their personal favorite film that either deals with “being young and growing up” or had a “decisive role in the evolution or development” of their own artistic practice. The retrospective section will also exclusively screen films that have been newly restored.

The full list of invited artists includes Maren Ade, Pedro Almodóvar, Wes Anderson, Juliette Binoche, Lav Diaz, Alice Diop, Ava DuVernay, Nora Fingscheidt, Luca Guadagnino, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, Ethan Hawke, Karoline Herfurth, Niki Karimi, Nadine Labaki, Nadav Lapid, Sergei Loznitsa, Mohammad Rasoulof, Céline Sciamma, Martin Scorsese, Aparna Sen, M. Night Shyamalan, Carla Simón, Abderrahmane Sissako,...

Exclusive: Iranian-British director and artist Mehdi Norowzian has just wrapped the Iran shoot of his new drama A Time In Eternity starring Venice 2022 jury member Leila Hatami, best known for her roles in A Separation, The Pig and Imagine.

The production marks the first feature in two decades for Norowzian, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1999 short film Killing Joe and shortly after directed Joseph Fiennes, Elizabeth Shue, Dennis Hopper and Sam Shepherd in the drama Leo.

In the interim, he built a career as a top commercials director, working closely with Ridley Scott’s Rsa Films under the banner of Joy@Rsa.

Hatami stars as a woman who is on a relentless and potentially futile quest to track down her missing husband. In the backdrop, the situation puts untold pressure on her relationship with her 12-year-old daughter, while she is also dealing with the unwanted attention of her amorous brother-in-law.

The 2022 Tribeca Festival has named its jury totaling more than five dozen members across 18 categories with Alan Zweibel, Aidan Quinn, Anne Archer, Rose Troche and Oge Egbuonu judging the U.S. Narrative Feature Competition.

Jessica Alba, Darren Aronofsky and Daryl Hannah are among jurors for the 2022 Human/Nature Prize, a new award this year going “to the project that best illuminates the pressing environmental issues of our time.”

The Nora Ephron Award, created to honor the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer and presented for the tenth year, will be juried by Pam Grier along with Amandla Stenberg and Lisa Addario.

Rosanna Arquette, Lucy Boynton, Anthony Edwards and Nikki Karimi are the jury for International Narrative Feature.

Also set to select projects in categories including film, audio storytelling and games are Debra Winger, Andre Holland, Niecy Nash, Alex Winter, Lucy Boynton, Nanfu Wang, Sheila Nevins of MTV Documentary Films...

Anger and pain course through this film about an architect who returns to his village, but it fails to deliver the emotional payoff

Iranian actor-director Niki Karimi has created a very involved film, clotted with anger and pain, straining towards some emotional meaning or resolution which, for me, never satisfyingly emerges. She has co-written it with the film’s leading man, Hadi Hejazifar who with unsmiling intensity plays Kazem, a respected architect bearing the honorific “atabai”, (meaning roughly “great man”). Kazem returns to his home village near Iran’s Lake Urmia (an important tourist attraction) after some time away, and his homecoming opens old wounds within him.

This home village was where his sister took her own life, after abuse from the man to whom she was forced into marriage by their cruel father, while secretly in love with Kazem’s best friend, whom Kazem now despises for not fighting for her.

Turkey’s 57th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival is forging ahead with a hybrid edition this year that will feature a mix of the best new Turkish features and cherry-picked international titles.

The storied event being held Oct. 3-10 in the bustling resort city on Turkey’s Southern coast has been through a spell of politically-prompted turbulence that led to the appointment last year of new fest chief Ahmet Boyacıoğlu and artistic director Başak Emre, who both stated that “Return to Roots” would be their mantra as they took the helm.

That’s because the 2017 and 2018 editions, headed by British-Irish producer Mike Downey, had done away with the national competition, historically the backbone of Turkey’s oldest and most prominent film event.

Therefore lots of locals during those two years “boycotted the festival” since Turkish cinema, which had been folded into the international lineup, “was practically out,” says Boyacıoğlu, who...

Niki Karimi has had a stellar career in Iranian cinema, first beginning as an actor, and moving into writing and directing in the past decade. Her most recent feature, Night Shift, is a serious and unusual blend of domestic drama and thriller, one that has strong overtones of Hitchcock in mystery and tone, but infused with an eye to contemporary social issues and the status of women in Karimi's home country.Nahid (Leila Zare) is approached by a family friend who is concerned about Nahid's husband Farhad (Mohammad Reza Foroutan), who apparently has been saying things that sound dangerous for Nahid, as well as taking to sleeping in his car, and the neighbour fears for Nahid's life. Nahid suddenly notices his strange, withdrawn behaviour, and starts...

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

Demon, from late director Marcin Wrona, among those in competition.Scroll down for full competition list

The 31st Warsaw Film Festival (Oct 8-19) has revealed the 16 films selected for its international competition, which will vye for the main award - Warsaw Grand Prix, Best Director Award and Special Jury Award.

The titles include Demon, from Marcin Wrona, the 42-year-old Polish who died in Gdynia on Saturday (Sept 19). The death was likely a suicide, according to reports.

Other films in competition include Hany Abu-Assad’s The Idol, Gabriel Mascaro’s Neon Bull and Alex van Warmerdam’s Schneider vs. Bax.

This year’s festival will include 111 full-length films from 57 countries, comprising 90 features, 18 documentaries and three animations as well as 66 short films.

The winners of Short Film Competition will be put forward to compete for the Oscar.

The festival will open with Men and Chicken by Anders Thomas Jensen, whose film Adam’s Apples won theAudience Award at Wff...

Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Shirin (Abbas Kiarostami, 2008) is playing on Mubi Us through October 7, 2014.

As Abbas Kiarostami's 2008 Shirin begins, viewers hear a gate open or close, followed by dripping water and slow, deliberate footsteps. One might imagine a dark and musty dungeon with the faint shadow of an unseen figure sweeping across the stone wall. But the scene is a mystery and this would only be speculation. A close-up shot reveals a woman in a room so dark her hair and hijab almost disappear. She stares forward with a look of tempered curiosity as she pops a snack into her mouth. The footsteps continue and it’s immediately clear that the woman is in a theater watching the film to which the sounds belong.

The next scene is similar, with a different woman who appears to be patiently anticipating plot development.

Director Niki Karimi tackles Iran’s sociopolitical and gender issues in this brave, incredibly relevant film set against the 2010 World Cup. Presented on a print that crackles and fizzes, Final Whistle may follow a couple at the forefront of their own technical revolution, but the vintage glaze portrays the themes in hand as genuine concerns for the ages.

Sahar (Niki Karimi) and husband Mazdak (Shahab Hosseini) have put hard-hitting, important films on the backburner in favour of commercial work to secure a brand new home in a much sought-after, up-and-coming neighbourhood. While working on her latest film, Sahar becomes tangled up in the life of one of her actresses, Malineh, whose mother is facing death for murdering her husband.

Desperate to raise the Diyya (compensation for the victim’s family that would see her released), Malineh’s plight soon affects Sahar to the point of questioning her need to pay...

★★★★☆Originally filmed during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Niki Karimi's Final Whistle (2011) makes its UK premiere four years later. A courageous critique of class and gender inequality in Iran, Final Whistle is an against-the-clock drama that plays out against the backdrop of a male dominated sporting event currently under the scrutiny for allegations of corruption and human right violations. Karimi plays a documentary maker, living with her filmmaking husband (A Separation's Shahab Hosseini) in a middle-class apartment. The pair have done their fair share of corporate projects in order to save for their dream home, but deep down they're determined to make hard-hitting and socially aware films.

Amos Gitai [pictured], Michael Smiley and Lenora Crichlow among the judges at this year’s festival.

Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has announced this year’s juries.

Amos Gitai will chair the jury for the Michael Powell Award Competition for Best British Feature Film, with Nina Hoss and Michael Smiley also on the jury. The award carries a cash prize of £20,000 and the jury will also select the award for Best Performance in a British feature film.

The jury for Best International Feature Film Competition (£10,000) includes Niki Karimi (chair), Michael Fitzgerald and Mark Rabinowitz, while the Best Documentary Feature Film Competition (£10,000 and supported by Al Jazeera) will be chaired by Cynthia Beatt alongside Dominique Auvray and Sunmin Park.

Linda Ruth Williams will chair the jury for the Short Film Competition (supported by Virgin Atlantic) along with Lenora Crichlow and Nicole Gerhards.

Now in its third year, the Student Critics Jury programme will see seven aspiring film critics work under...

Highlights include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Abel Ferrara’s controversial Dsk feature Welcome To New York.

The full line-up of the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has been revealed this morning by artistic director Chris Fujiwara at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse.

This year’s festival, which runs from June 18-29, will comprise 156 features from 47 countries, including 11 world premieres, eight international premieres, seven European premieres and 95 UK premieres.

New titles announced today include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his final performances that was first shown at Sundance in January.

Straight from its lively premiere in Cannes is Abel Ferrara’s controversial title Welcome To New York, inspired by the case of former Imf managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, starring Gérard Depardieu, which will receive its UK premiere at Eiff.

Other new titles added to the line-up include [link=nm...

London – Cedomir Kolar, producer of the foreign language Oscar film No Man's Land, actress Shabana Azmi, star of more than 120 Hindi films and Niki Karimi, an Iranian actress turned director and screenwriter are on narrative feature competition jury duty at the upcoming Abu Dhabi Film Festival. The trio join Egyptian film critic Samir Farid and Ismael Farroukhi, the French-Morroccan director who won the best director from the Arab World plaudit at the Adff last year on the jury. Organizers also announced the names and faces making up the juries for the festival's other competitive sections. Leading the

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Indian actor Shabana Azmi will head the main competition jury of 6th Abu Dhabi International Film Festival. She will be the first woman to chair the jury of the festival in its five year history.

Shabana will be accompanied by Iranian actress-director-screenwriter Niki Karimi, French filmmaker of Moroccan origin Ismael Ferroukhi, Czech producer Cedomir Kolar and Chilean director-producer-screenwriter-novelist Miguel Littin.

Shabana has earlier served on the jury of Montreal World Film Festival, Cairo Film Festival, Apsa Asia Pacific Screen Academy and Mannheim Film Festival.

Mumbai Cha Raja by Manjeet Singh and I.D by Kamal K.M are screening in the New Horizon section of the festival. (Read: Interview with Manjeet Singh)

Indo-Canadian Documentary “The World Before Her” by Nisha Pahuja has been selected in the documentary competition. (Interview: Nisha Pahuja)

Shlok Sharma’s short film “Sujata” will compete in the short film competition, while Gauri Shinde’s “English-Vinglish” will have a special screening.

Bangkok -- Adding another prize to his growing collection for "Tulpan," Sergei Dvortsevoy took home the Golden Peacock best film prize at the closing ceremonies of the 39th annual International Film Festival of India, organizers said Wednesday.

After a minute of silence, the Kazakh writer and first-time director thanked the audience in Panaji, Goa, where the fest, which began Nov. 22, continued despite last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Dvortsevoy, whose film about a shepherd in training who wants to marry a girl who thinks he has big ears, said that while films cannot change the world, they can change people.

The closing ceremony's guest of honor, actor Shri Kamal Hasan, said that despite setbacks and dark moments, life must go on as normal. He congratulated the festival and its director, Shri S.M. Khan, for its rich collection of movies.

Khan told the audience that the festival condemns terrorism, and...

COLOGNE, Germany -- The Berlin International Film Festival has selected the three-person jury for this year's Best First Feature Award.

The jurists are Gerhard Meixner, co-managing director of Berlin-based production house Razor Films, which co-produced Oscar-nominated "Paradise Now"; Iranian actress and director Niki Karimi, who won the best actress nod in San Sebastian for "Hidden Half"; and U.K. producer Judy Counihan, whose features include the Oscar-winning "No Man's Land" (2001) and "Antonia" (1995).

The First Feature Award, now in its second year, comes with a €50,000 ($64,500) cash prize and is awarded to the best debut film running in the Panorama, Forum or Generation sections of the Berlin festival. The prize money is split between the director and producer of the winning film.

This year, 15 films will compete for the prize, which will be announced Feb. 17 during the official awards ceremony in the Berlinale Palast.

The 57th annual Berlin International Film Festival runs Feb. 8-18.

NEW DELHI -- The sophomore edition of the India International Women's Film Festival opened Monday in New Delhi and will conclude Dec. 18.

IIWFF director Shyamali Banerjee said this year's festival will see 130 films participating from 30 countries "while Israel is the focus country, with 14 films." The IIWFF was launched last year in Delhi by Kolkata-based organization Kolkata Film & Media Studies.

This year's festival opened with acclaimed Iranian film Yek Shab (One Night) by director Niki Karimi, which revolves around a young girl wandering the streets of Tehran. Lebanese director Jocelyn Saab's Kiss Me Not on the Eyes -- about a belly dancer struggling against sexual repression -- will close the festival.

IIWFF is organized in association with the ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Indian government's Directorate of Film Festivals. The fest will see 20 films compete in the world cinema section while 29 films will screen in the noncompetitive section including Hungary's Just Sex and Nothing Else by Krisztina Goda.

NEW DELHI -- The sophomore edition of the India International Women's Film Festival opened Monday in New Delhi and will conclude Dec. 18.

IIWFF director Shyamali Banerjee said this year's festival will see 130 films participating from 30 countries "while Israel is the focus country, with 14 films." The IIWFF was launched last year in Delhi by Kolkata-based organization Kolkata Film & Media Studies.

This year's festival opened with acclaimed Iranian film Yek Shab (One Night) by director Niki Karimi, which revolves around a young girl wandering the streets of Tehran. Lebanese director Jocelyn Saab's Kiss Me Not on the Eyes -- about a belly dancer struggling against sexual repression -- will close the festival.

IIWFF is organized in association with the ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Indian government's Directorate of Film Festivals. The fest will see 20 films compete in the world cinema section while 29 films will screen in the noncompetitive section including Hungary's Just Sex and Nothing Else by Krisztina Goda.

After a five-year tenure, Locarno International Film Festival director Irene Bignardi said she will step down after this year's installment. Speaking at a reception Monday in Rome, Bignardi -- a well-known Italian journalist and writer -- said she wants to dedicate more time to her writing. A replacement has not yet been named. The festival also announced that this year's jury will be comprised of actors Niki Karimi (Iran) and Aparna Sen (India), directors Enki Bilal (the former Yugoslavia) and Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan), and Italian artist Valerio Adami. The festival, which runs Aug. 3-13, will bestow honorary awards on directors Wim Wenders and Abbas Kiarostami.