News

In a moment of history repeating itself, the news these days is about the allied forces withdrawl out of Afghanistan. Of course they were not the first ones to wage war in Afghanistan. At the of the 70s what was then the Soviet Union invaded the country and waged a nine-year proxy war with the Afghan mujahideen. As a western country rarely, if ever, have we seen a war in Afghanistan told from a Russian perspective. That could change for any of you if you decide to take a look at Pavel Lungin’s upcoming war/action drama Battle for Afghanistan. Samuel Goldwyn Films is giving the Russian film a theatrical and VOD release on Friday, August 13th and they have sent along an exclusive...

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While markets such as Afm and the recent Key Buyers Event in Moscow aim to develop the worldwide sales potential of Russian cinema, the Russian branch of Fipresci, the international film critics’ federation, came up with a sure-fire idea to bring media attention to the diversity of Russian production, its varied genres, directions and aesthetics.

From Nov. 11-13, the second Fipresci colloquium on Russian cinema will bring together journalists from a range of international publications, film festival curators, film scholars and members of the Russian film industry. Held under the auspices of the bi-annual St. Petersburg Cultural Forum, the event will take place at the legendary Lenfilm Studio complex in St. Petersburg, the studio that gave the world Grigory Kozintsev, Ilya Averbakh and Aleksey German, as well as Aleksandr Sokurov, who still produces his work there.

Colloquium participants (including this writer) will have the opportunity to tour the building and its historic costume collection,...

Drama directed by Reza Mirkarimi scooped best film, best director and shared the best actor prize with China’s The Return.

Iranian drama Castle Of Dreams, directed by Reza Mirkarimi, was presented with three of the top awards at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival (Siff), including best feature.

The film, about a father who returns to his children after a long absence, was also awarded best director and the best actor prize (Hamed Saberi Behdad), which was shared with China’s The Return (Chang Feng). Mirkarimi’s credits include Under The Moonlight, which won the Critics Week Grand...

On the evening of June 23, the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival Golden Jubilee Awards Ceremony was held at the Shanghai Grand Theatre.?

22nd Shanghai International Film Festival Awards winner list:

Best Feature Film

?Castle of Dreams? (Iran)

Jury Grand Prix

?Inhale-Exhale? (Georgia/Russia/Sweden)

Best Director

Reza Mirkarimi for ?Castle of Dreams?

Best Actor (joint winners)

Chang Feng for ?The Return? (China) and Hamed Saberi Behdad for ?Castle of Dreams? (Iran)

Best Actress

Salome Demuria for ?Inhale-Exhale? (Georgia/Russia/Sweden)

Best Screenplay?

Aleksander Lungin and Pavel Lungin for ?Brotherhood? (Russia)

Best Cinematography

Jake Pollock for ?Spring Tide? (China)

Outstanding Artistic Achievement

?Trees Under the Sun? (India)

Best Animation Film

?Ride Your Wave? (Japan)

Best Documentary Film

?Bridge of Time? (Latvia/ Lithuania/ Estonia)

Best Live Action Short Film

?Nowhere To Put? (China)

Best Animated Short Film

?La Noria? (Spain)

The Iranian film "Castle of Dreams" won the Best Film Award and Best Director Award.

China’s leading film festival crowned Iranian drama Castle Of Dreams with three prizes on Sunday evening.

The Shanghai International Film Festival handed Reza Mirkami’s film the Golden Goblet for best film, best director and a joint best actor award for Hamed Saberi Behdad. The familial drama charts the aftermath of a mother’s death.

The unusual bounty comes at a time when the U.S.’s relationship with Iran and China is on the slide. Iran meanwhile has developed a strong bond with China, which is one of its biggest trading partners. During this week’s festival there was also talk of a China-Iran Co-Production Treaty.

Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan headed this year’s jury, which also gave two prizes to Georgian drama Inhale-Exhale by Dito Tsintsadze. The film scooped the grand jury prize and the best actress award for Salome Demuria.

Chang Feng also shared the...

China’s top film festival showered its highest three honors on the Iranian film “Castle of Dreams,” hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration would on Monday impose “major additional sanctions” on Tehran.

“Castle of Dreams,” a drama about family, separation and keeping one’s promises collected a trio of prizes on Sunday night at the Shanghai International Film Festival. It won the Golden Goblet prize for best film, the best director prize for Reza Mirkarimi, and a shared best actor award for Hamed Saberi Behdad.

The almost unprecedented awards haul comes at a time when analysts say that Beijing and Tehran are likely to develop even closer cooperation as their respective relationships with the U.S. deteriorate. China is Iran’s largest trading partner, and Tehran’s willingness to stand up to U.S. pressure is partially due to ability to fall back on Beijing’s support.

The Shanghai International Film Festival unveiled a competition lineup Tuesday that features entries from countries ranging from Indonesia to Estonia – but not the U.S., which is engaged in an increasingly bitter trade war with China.

The government-affiliated festival, which runs June 15-24, will open with the premieres of two Chinese films: Huayi Bros.’ patriotic World War II epic “The Eight Hundred,” directed by Guan Hu, and “Chuanyue Shikong de Huhuan” by Zhang Jiarui, according to Chinese website Mtime. Actor Wu Jing – whose “Wolf Warrior II” and “Wandering Earth” are the top two earning films in Chinese film history – will be the festival’s ambassador.

Fifteen films from around the world will vie for the Golden Goblet Award in the main competition. Notable among them are “Many Happy Returns,” a new title directed by Germany-based Uruguayan filmmaker Carlos Morelli and produced by Germany’s Weydemann Brothers, and “Chicuarotes,” Gael Garcia...

Film concerns a family caught up in the rise of xenophobic behaviour.

Paris sales agent Loco Films has acquired international rights to Slovakian filmmaker Marko Skop’s second fiction feature Let There Be Light, about a family that gets caught up in the rise of xenophobic nationalism in Eastern Europe.

It follows Skop’s debut fiction feature Eva Nova which won the Fipresci award in Tiff in 2015 and went on to be Slovakia’s Academy Award foreign language submission.

The cast features Eva Nova actor Milan Ondrik, who plays a father attempting to protect his son from the growing influence of home guards.

Outspoken Pavel Lungin caused a furious row in his home country with his previous film.

Outspoken Russian director Pavel Lungin, who caused a furious row in his home country with his film Leaving Afghanistan, is at work on another potentially contentious project called Steep Route.

The new film will be adapted from the book of the same name by Yevgenia Ginzburg about the 18 years Ginzburg spent in a Russian gulag.

Leaving Afghanistan, about the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, was denounced as unpatriotic in certain quarters and pulled from the Moscow Film Festival in April.

“I want to...

Bratstvo (Brotherhood) is an upcoming war time film from Pavel Lungin. Elsewhere in the world we will find on the international market as the rather blunt Leaving Afghanistan.    A trailer has been released for Lungin's flick. Check it out below.   1989. The end of the Soviet-Afghan war. The Ussr begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan. Soviet General Vasiliev's son - a pilot named Alexander gets kidnapped by the mujahideen after his airplane crashes. As a result the 108th motorized infantry division's long awaited return home gets put on hold for one last mission: bring the General's son back. Based on true events the previously untold story of the courageous and tragic withdrawal campaign (through the Salang pass) reveals the danger...

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Esau

For his eleventh feature film, Russian director Pavel Lungin makes his English language debut with Esau. Produced by Lungin, Serafima Kohkanovskaya, Haim Mecklberg and Estee Yacov-Mecklberg through 2-Team Productions, the film features the work of cinematographer Fred Keleman and a stellar international cast including Harvey Keitel, Lior Ashkenazi, Kseniya Rappaport, Shira Haas and Yulia Peresild. Lungin is one of Russia’s most noted post-Soviet Union directors, coming to prominence with his 1990 debut Taxi Blues, which competed at Cannes and nabbed a Best Director award and a Special Mention from the Ecumenical Jury.…...

Good news, Russian film fans! Pavel Lungin’s lavish thriller Queen of Spades will be released On-demand & on digital platforms in the Us, UK, Australia and New Zealand on October 30, 2018, from Samuel Goldwyn Films. The film was co-produced by famed Russian producer Fedor Bondarchuk and stars Kseniya Rappoport (The Double Hour), Ivan Yankovskiy (Ikariya), Mariya Kurdenevich (Za Toboy), Evgeniy Zelenskiy, and Igor Mikurbinov (Generation P). Synopsis: Once upon a time, the great soprano Sophia Maier conquered the world with her voice, her beauty and the legend she carefully built around herself. Now, only the legend remains- the diva herself hasn’t performed for years, nor been seen in the glittering circles of society she once dominated. But the woman who fascinated...

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Samuel Goldwyn Films is set to release the psychotic thriller Queen of Spades. A Russian language film, Queen of Spades will be available, through Digital platforms, late in October. This foreign title involves a great soprano, Sophia Maier (Rappoport), who wants to return to the stage. After being away for so long, Sophia must use her guile to find center stage again. Queen of Spades was written and directed by Pavel Lungin. As well, this title stars: Kseniya Rappoport (The Double Hour), Ivan Yankovskiy (Ikariya), Mariya Kurdenevich (Za Toboy), Evgeniy Zelenskiy, and Igor Mikurbinov (Generation P). The official release details, for Queen of Spades, are hosted here. The trailer shows Maier in all her glory. Part legend and part Diva, Maier will use anyone to get back onstage. However, the trip back from obscurity is a challenging one, full of pitfalls. Samuel Goldwyn Films has set October 30th as the film's release date.

Samuel Goldwyn Films announced today that the company has acquired rights to Pavel Lungin’s Russian thriller, Queen Of Spades and will release the film On-demand & Digital platforms October 30 in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and New Zealand!

The film stars Kseniya Rappoport (The Double Hour), Ivan Yankovskiy (Ikariya), Mariya Kurdenevich (Za Toboy), Evgeniy Zelenskiy, and Igor Mikurbinov (Generation P).

Synopsis:

Once upon a time, the great soprano Sophia Maier conquered the world with her voice, her beauty and the legend she carefully built around herself. Now, only the legend remains- the diva herself hasn't performed for years, nor been seen in the glittering circles of society she once dominated.

But the woman who fascinated and thrilled the wo...

In today’s film news roundup, Eddie Murphy is starring in a Dolemite biopic for Netflix, Mark Ivanir joins Miranda July’s movie and the third Johnny English movie is set for October.

Murphy Movie

Eddie Murphy is producing and starring in the biopic “Dolemite Is My Name” for Netflix, with production starting June 12 and Craig Brewer directing from a script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski.

John Davis and John Fox are also producing. The project centers on the life of Rudy Ray Moore, who recorded the Dolemite comedy albums in the early 1970s and used the proceeds to finance the 1975 film “Dolemite,” in which he starred as a pimp and ghetto hero. Moore also starred as Dolemite in “The Human Tornado,” “The Monkey Hustle,” and “Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil’s Son-in-Law.” He died in 2008.

Murphy began performing stand-up comedy at the age of 15 in 1976 and gained acclaim in...

Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov missed the premiere of his film “Leto” in Cannes this month because he is under house arrest. In January, authorities banned “The Death of Stalin” from being screened in Russia, complaining that Armando Iannucci’s satirical movie depicted “ideological warfare” and extremism.”

But acclaimed Russian-French director Pavel Lungin thinks that such crackdowns under Vladimir Putin could end up being a creative blessing.

“Censorship always brings about some kind of force among the cultural society,” Lungin said. “We have the great experience of the Soviet Union, where Soviet censorship created such wonderful films, like [those of Andrei] Tarkovsky. Perhaps a little bit of difficulty only makes an artist stronger.”

Lungin spoke to Variety on the Israeli set of “Esau,” his English-language debut, an adaptation by author Meir Shalev of his novel of the same name. The film follows a 40-year-old writer who returns to his family home after half a...

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival or in native Estonian — PÖFF — winners were announced in one of the largest and most distinctive film events in Northern Europe.

The festival is a long one from November 11 to 27, 2016 to accomodate the public and it embraces a cluster of events, accommodating three full-blown sub-festivals (Animated Dreams, Just Film, Sleepwalkers) as well as international industry events bringing together filmmakers from all over the world.

The festival includes two international competition programs (Main Competition and First Features Competition), a traditional film festival program with documentaries and feature films as well as programs for short films, retrospectives and film related special events (concerts, exhibitions, talks and more).

The winners of this year’s festival are:

Main Competition Jury Members: Uberto Pasolini, Steen Bille, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Laura Birn, Kang Soo-Yeon, William Goldstei

Grand Prix for the Best Film (Bronze wolf statuette and a grant of 10,000 Euros, equally...

The Works in Progress 2016 Awards at the 20th Tallinn Black Nights Film FestivalIndustry@Tallinn and Baltic Event is one of the fastest growing entertainment sector development summits in the winter season. They are held during the annual Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, the only Fiapf accredited Competition Feature Film Festival in Northern Europe.

The Works in Progress sessions were first organized 15 years ago as a regional showcase part of the Baltic Event. Last year, upcoming international films were added to the program and today, its 2 sections, Baltic Event Works in Progress and International Works in Progress, offer buyers, producers and programmers a diverse and dynamic range of local and international projects to discover.

Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event organized this year as well their Works in Progress pitching sessions. As a matter of fact, 26 films in production or postproduction looking for sales agents or festivals for international premieres were presented on...

An operatic thriller about the staging of an opera in contemporary Moscow, The Queen of Spades feels at times almost like a Russian-language remake of Darren Aronofsky’s lurid ballet-themed psychodrama Black Swan. Director Pavel Lungin co-wrote the screenplay with David Seidler, who earned an Oscar for The King’s Speech. They borrow their title, key characters and selective plot elements from two related sources: Alexander Pushkin’s supernatural short story, first published in 1834, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s 1890 opera of the same name.

A film festival regular and one-time best director prize-winner in Cannes, Lungin has penned librettos for operas and orchestral pieces...

Mueller said his unexpected resignation was due to “divergent opinion” with the festival organisers.

The inaugural International Film Festival and Awards Macao (Iffam) today unveiled its lineup of 49 feature films, one day after the abrupt departure of festival director Marco Mueller.

The six-day festival will open on Dec 8 with the Asian premiere of Valérie Müller and Angelin Preljocaj’s Polina, which recently premiered at Venice Days.

The 11-strong international competition section consists of three world premieres (Macao-born Tracy Choi’s debut feature Sisterhood, Shinobu Yaguchi’s Survival Family and Shanker Raman’s debut feature Gurgaon) and two international premieres (Elon Doesn’t Believe In Death by Ricardo Alves Jr and Hide And Seek by Liu Jie).

The rest of the competition is filled by six Asian premieres, including 150 Milligrams by Emmanuelle Bercot, Free Fire by Ben Wheatley [pictured], Queen Of Spades by Pavel Lungin, Saint George by Marco Martins, The Winter by Emiliano Torres and Trespass Against Us by [link...

Mueller said his unexpected resignation was due to “divergent opinion” with the festival organisers.

The inaugural International Film Festival and Awards Macao (Iffam) today unveiled its lineup of 49 feature films, one day after the abrupt departure of festival director Marco Mueller.

The six-day festival will open on Dec 8 with the Asian premiere of Valérie Müller and Angelin Preljocaj’s Polina, which recently premiered at Venice Days.

The 11-strong international competition section consists of three world premieres (Macao-born Tracy Choi’s debut feature Sisterhood, Shinobu Yaguchi’s Survival Family and Shanker Raman’s debut feature Gurgaon) and two international premieres (Elon Doesn’t Believe In Death by Ricardo Alves Jr and Hide And Seek by Liu Jie).

The rest of the competition is filled by six Asian premieres, including 150 Milligrams by Emmanuelle Bercot, Free Fire by Ben Wheatley [pictured], Queen Of Spades by Pavel Lungin, Saint George by Marco Martins, The Winter by Emiliano Torres and Trespass Against Us by [link...

Kfm: Russian investor boards ‘Black Angel’ remake, ‘made in Russia’ blockbusters, Kfm pitching winners, Latido picks up Ukrainian debut

Russian investment is set to be tapped for Roger Christian’s feature version of his 1980 cult short Black Angel.

Speaking during the first edition of the KinoPoisk Film Market (Kfm) in Moscow, the film’s producer Harald Reichebner said that 70% of the budget is in place as a co-production between the UK, Belgium and Hungary, with the final 30% now to come from an undisclosed private Russian investor.

The $9.7m production features an international cast including Dougray Scott, John Rhys-Davies, Rutger Hauer (who starred as The Mystic Monk in Christian’s 1994 biopic Nostradamus), Turkish-German actress-model Meryem Uzerli, star of the Turkish TV series Muhtesem Yüzyil, and Russian actor Vladimir Mashkov, known to international audiences from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Behind Enemy Lines.

Berlin-based, Austrian-born Reichebner – who had previously worked with Christian as the producer on Nostradamus - told...

Screen Pitch competition line-up; Queen Of Spades opens Main Competition.

Films from Russia, the Baltic states, Poland, Croatia and Georgia are among 17 projects selected for the 15th edition of the Baltic Event’s Co-Production Market (November 21-24).

The projects will be competing, among other awards, for Screen International’s Best Pitch Award which has gone in the past to projects from Finland, Estonia and Russia as well as the first ever Baltic co-production of a fiction feature film, Lithuania’s Seneca’s Day.

The prize is decided by the Co-Production Market’s participants.

This year’s selection features new projects by Latvia’s Laila Pakalnina (Insect Night), Croatia’s Vinko Bresan (What A Country!) and Poland’s Wojciech Smarzowski (The Clergy) and Dariusz Gajewski (Trust).

In addition, the Tallinn forum will serve as the venue for up-and-coming filmmakers such as Russia’s Maxim Dashkin, Lithuania’s Tomas Smulkis and Sweden’s Maria Eriksson to present new film...

Exclusive: Evgeny Ruman’s upcoming feature follows two Soviet Union dubbing artists in 1990s Israel.

Vladimir Friedman and Maria Belkin have signed to co-star in Evgeny Ruman’s [pictured] upcoming feature Golden Voices as a pair of veteran Soviet Union dubbing artists struggling to make a new life in Israel in the 1990s.

Ruman will publicly unveil the project for the first time alongside producer Eitan Evan of Tel Aviv-based Evanstone Film Productions at the Jerusalem Pitch Point industry event today.

The director, who moved to Israel from Belarus in the 1990s as part of an immigration wave that saw more than one million Soviet citizens move to the country, says the feature is inspired by his own experiences as well as those of his parents.

“Things have changed since then but when we arrived it was like coming from a different planet. Everything was so strange and bizarre for us and I want to capture this feeling...

Exclusive: Fedor Bondarchuk and Dmitry Rudovsky have revealed their production slate in Cannes.

Fedor Bondarchuk [pictured] and Dmitry Rudovsky’s Art Pictures Studios, the Russian outfit behind the epic war movie Stalingrad, has announced details of its new slate.

Art Pictures’ new flagship project is sci-fi epic Attraction, which is in production and due to be released in IMAX theatres next year. During the market, the film has been sold to China.

The company also has a host of other new projects: Pavel Lungin’s psychological thriller Queen Of Spades; 3D animation Kikoriki: Legend Of The Golden Dragon; and comedies Anyone But Them, When Your Dog Is Your Matchmaker and Love On The Roof.

Attraction, which Bomdarchuk is directing, centres aliens descending on Moscow and the impact on civilization. The cast includes Oleg Menshikov and Alexander Petrov.

Further news of the films will be given at a Roskino new projects showcase in Cannes, which runs through...

Alexey German Jr.’s Under Electric Clouds has become the first high-profile title to fall victim to Ukraine’s new distribution ban on Russian films and TV series, which came into effect last week.

One law entitled ¨On the Protection of the Information, TV and Radio Space of Ukraine¨ forbids all audiovisual works that contain the ¨popularization, agitation for, propagation about all law enforcement agencies, the armed forces, and other armed, military or security forces of the occupier state¨ from being shown on Ukrainian territory.

In addition, a law banning the distribution and showing of films and TV series produced in Russia after January 1, 2014, came into force at the same time, according to Unian Information Agency.

The ban coincided with the film’s theatrical opening by distributor Paradis in Russian cinemas and was all the more surprising given that German’s film was made as a co-production between Russia, Ukraine and Poland between Artem Vasiliev’s Metrafilm...

The film industries of Finland and Austria will be under the spotlight at the 7th Moscow Business Square (Mbs) (June 21-22).

Producers, distributors and film funders from both countries will be travelling to Moscow to meet their opposite numbers from the Russian film community.

As in previous years, the industry programme of the Moscow International Film Festival (Miff) will include public pitchings of feature film and documentary projects looking for potential co-production partners in the Co-Production Forum.

Past editions of Mbs featured such projects as Peter Greenaway’s Eisenstein in Guanajuato, Pavel Lungin’s Queen Of Spades, Maria Saakyan’s I’m Going To Change My Name and Bakur Bakuradze’sThe Hunter, Tatiana Korol’s Passing Clouds, and Marat Alykulov’s Lenin?!

In addition, the two-day event will include masterclasses and roundtables on alternative financing and distribution strategies for independent films.

Moscow’s main competition

Veteran French director Jean-Jacques Annaud will head the international jury at the...

Exclusive: Call for directors, producers and sales agents to give their films for free to festivals in troubled Ukraine.

Cannes’ Thierry Fremaux, the Berlinale’s Christoph Terhechte and Venice chief Alberto Barbera are among 92 people working at 60 festivals in 38 countries to have answered a call to show solidarity with their Ukrainian festival colleagues.

Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, the initiative’s coordinator, Warsaw Film Festival director Stefan Laudyn, explained: “When we heard the news from Ukraine, after a quick email and SMS exchange with Sara [Norberg of Helsinki Iff ¨Love & Anarchy¨], Tiina [Lokk of Black Nights F], Tudor [Giurgiu of Tiff/Cluj] and the Stefans [Uhrik and Kitanov of Febiofest and Sofia Iff], we decided to prepare a letter of support and sent it to our friends at film festivals worldwide.”

In the letter, the six festival chiefs called on directors, producers and sales agents to give their films “willingly and for free to all film festivals in Ukraine” and also not to charge any screening fees from Ukrainian festivals this year.

In addition, they asked national...

Moscow Business Square’s Best Pitch Award has been won by Valeria Gai Germanika for her planned update of a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale.

Germanika, who focusses on coming-of-age films, is known as Russian cinema’s ‘enfent terrible’ and receied the Caméra d’Or at Cannes in 2008 for her feature film Everybody Dies But Me..

Her latest project, The Dream-God, is a contemporary reworking of Christian Andersen’s Ole-Luk-Oie. The $2.45m (€1.875m) production by Andrey Sigle’s St Petersburg-based Proline Film already has $1.6m (€1.25m) in place.

The film’s action centres on a seven-year old boy haunted by a friendly monster called The Dream-God who visits him every night in the form of a Goth singer from the poster in his elder sister’s bedroom.

Proline’s Leonid Choub revealed during the pitching at the Business Square that they intend to cast a Western rock star in the role of the Dream-God and feature his music...

New projects by Peter Greenaway, Pavel Lungin and Valeria Gai Germanika are among 18 feature films selected to be pitched at the fifth edition of Moscow Business Square’s Co-Production Forum.

This will be the second time that Greenaway is at the Forum after presenting his project Food Of Love, based on Thomas Mann’s novella Death In Venice, there last year. His pitch then won him the $40,000 (€30,000) Best Pitch award sponsored by the new Moscow production complex Glavkino.

This time the Welsh-born director will be introducing Eisenstein In Guanajuato, which recounts the time the 33-year-old Russian director fell briefly, but intensely in love in a small Mexican town while researching for the never completed picture Que viva México! in Mexico between 1929-1931.

At last year’s Odessa International Film Festival, Greenaway told ScreenDaily that “99% of the financing” was in place for this project and he hoped at the time to shoot in Mexico at the end of...

★★★☆☆ From Pavel Lungin, the acclaimed director of Tsar (2009) and The Island (2007), comes The Conductor (Dirizhyor, 2012), a beautifully rendered orchestra of existential themes brought together to depict a sombre portrait of life. A famous Russian conductor, Vyacheslav Petrov (Vladas Bagdonas) takes his orchestra to Jerusalem to perform a special rendition of the St. Matthew Passion oratorio. However, an ominous fax message he receives prior to departing forces him to re-evaluate his life, curiously thrusting his whole orchestra under the spotlight, questioning the very values we live by and the invisible bonds that shape our lives.

Read more »...

Kshay by Karan Gour and Michael by Ribhu Dasgupta will compete for the Asian New Talent Award and Color of Sky by Dr.Biju Damodaran will compete for the Golden Goblet Award at the 15th Shanghai International Film Festival.

The Golden Goblet Award is for the main competition section of the festival. The Asian New Talent Award ‘aims at identifying the new bright lights and encouraging their creativity’.

The 15th Shanghai International Film Festival will be held from June 16-24, 2012. Founded in 1993, it is China’s only A-category international film festival accredited by the Fiapf (International Federation of Film Producers’ Association).

Asian New Talent Awards 2012

Big Blue Lake; dir. Jessey Tsang [Hong Kong]

Boy’s Diary; dir. Putrama Tuta [Indonesia]

The Client; dir. Sohn Young-sung [South Korea]

Follow Follow; dir. Peng Lei [China]

I Have Loved; dirs. Lai Weijie, Elizabeth Wijaya[Singapore/Cambodia/Malaysia]

Kshay; dir. Karan Gour [India]

Michael; dir. Ribhu Dasgupta [India]

Pearls of the Far East Ngọc viễn đông; dir.

You’d think that, having won an Academy Award less than 12 months ago, David Seidler wouldn’t have faded back into relative obscurity. Sure, he could simply be working on some projects and avoiding the media all the while, but our last report on the guy came in late March — which, if you look at your little calendar, is kind of a while ago.

However, ScreenDaily (via ThePlaylist) reports that he’s still cracking on scripts, this time with Russian Art Pictures Studio on Queen of the Desert, an adaptation of the 19th Century story from Alexander Pushkin. Here, however, the scribe will rework the tale for a modern setting, all while presumably telling the same story — that of “a Russian officer who goes mad in an attempt to uncover the secret behind a money-spinning card cheat.” Pavel Lungin (Tsar, Taxi Blues) will direct; Art Pictures Studio are producing.

I...

"The King’s Speech" scribe David Seidler is set to pen a contemporary-set adaptation of Russian author Alexander Pushkin’s 1833 short story "Queen of Spades" reports Screen Daily.

Pavel Lungin ("Tsar") is attached to direct the story which recounts the story of a Russian officer who goes mad in an attempt to uncover the secret behind a money-spinning card cheat.

The €12 million film will feature music from Tchaikovsky's 1890 opera based on Pushkin's work.

David Seidler, who wrote the Oscar-winning script for "The King's Speech," is adapting Alexander Pushkin's Russian short story, "Queen of Spades." The project, which has directer Pavel Lungin ("Tsar") attached, will be shopped at Berlin's European Film Market by the Russian Cinema Fund (which has seven of Russia's production companies under its arm, including Fyodor Bondarchuk’s Art Pictures Studio -- they'll be producing and are looking for cohorts). Seidler, a 74-year old Brit, is adapting the story to be a contemporary morality tale which follows a Russian officer made crazy by trying to discover the secret behind a card cheat....

A Festival of Russian films is being organized at the Russian Culture Centre, Mumbai by the Federation of Film Societies of India (Ffsi). The films will be screened on every Monday and Friday of September at 6.00 p.m.

Festival of Action-Disaster Films

Sept 2:

Film: The Air Crew

Director: Alexander Mitta

Duration: 144 min. / Subtitle: English

Sept 5:

Film: The Cold Summer Of 1953

Director: Alexander Proshkin

Duration: 96 min. / Subtitle: English

Sept 9:

Film: The White Sun Of The Desert

Director: Vladimir Motyl

Duration: 85 min. / Subtitle: English

Sept 12:

Film: The Island

Director: Pavel Lungin

Duration: 110 min. / Subtitle: English

Festival of Children’s Films

Sept 16:

Film: Treasure Island

Director: Evgeni Fridman

Duration: 86 min. / Subtitle: English

Sept 19:

Film: The Little Mermaid

Director: Vladimir Bychkov

Duration: 81 min. / Subtitle: English

Sept 23:

Film: Musicians From Bremen

Director: Alexander Abolulov

Duration: 85 min. / Subtitle: English

Festival of Andrei Mikhalkov-Koncharlovsky Films

Sept 26:

Film: The Nest Of The Gentry

Duration: 81 min.

Festival president Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux, festival chief announced the line-up for the 64th Cannes Film Festival which will run from May 11-22.

As expected Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life, Pedro Almodovar‘s The Skin that I Live In (La Piel Que Habito), Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Drive, Lars Von Trier‘s Melancholia and Lynne Ramsay‘s We Need To Talk About Kevin will be shown at Cannes 2011 In Competition Category.

In the same category will be also presented This Must Be The Place directed by Paolo Sorrentino, Ichimei (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai) by Takashi Miike, The Kid With The Bike by Dardenne Brothers, Sleeping Beauty directed by Julia Leigh, We Have a Pope by Nanni Moretti but you can see the full list below.

When it comes to the Out of Competition selections Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides will have that honor to be presented,...

Bong Joon-ho

South Korean filmmaker and scriptwriter Bong Joon-ho will preside over the Caméra d’or Jury at the 64th Festival de Cannes. The Caméra d’or is awarded to the best first film presented in the Official Selection, during Critics’ Week or Directors’ Fortnight.

Bong achieved critical acclaim for his feature films Barking Dog (2000) and Memories of Murder (2004). His film The Host was screened in 2006 at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. He was invited to Cannes as part of the Official Selection with Tokyo! (2008), a trilogy on which he worked with Leos Carax and Michel Gondry. In 2009, he presented Mother at Un Certain Regard section of the festival.

Bruno Dumont, Abbas Kiarostami, Pavel Lounguine, Roschdy Zem and Gael Garcia Bernal are some names who have presided over the Caméra d’or Jury earlier.

The festival will run from May 11-22, 2011.

The 2011 Cannes Film Festival has named Bong Joon-Ho Camera d'or Jury president. He will oversee the prize awarded to the best first film. The festival previously named Robert De Niro to chair the jury for the main competition, Emir Kusturica to head Un Certain Regard section, and Michel Gondry to head short film and Cinefondation jury. Here is the festival's announcement of the Korean helmer: Director and scriptwriter Bong Joon-ho studied sociology and film before becoming a director. He achieved critical acclaim for his first feature film Barking Dog (2000). His next, Memories of Murder (2004), which achieved huge public success in Korea (and first prize at the Cognac Police Film Festival), earned him a Best Director Award. The Host, screened in 2006 at the Directors’ Fortnight, finally sealed his international reputation as a director of genre films raised to the level of art. He was invited to Cannes as part of the Official Selection with Tokyo!

Yuris Day

One of the best kept secrets in cinema today is the ascendancy of Russia as a film producing country. Russian films do not win prizes at the major film festivals and they cater largely to a domestic market but they possess the only virtues that cinema was once judged by – they are complex and ambiguous, as the most celebrated films today are not. More importantly, Russia keeps producing unknown talents, who make the most touted cinema in the world – from Lars von Trier to Michael Haneke – look ordinary. Filmmakers like Aleksei Balabanov (Cargo 200, Morphine) and Pavel Lungin (Taxi Blues, The Wedding) have a filmmaking assurance that puts most contemporary filmmakers to shame and Serebrennikov joins their ranks with Yuri’s Day (Yuriev Den). Yuri’s Day (2008) was screened at Iffi Goa in 2009 to a near empty auditorium but it is an audacious film, ambiguous and deeply intriguing.

Youth In Revolt (12A)

(Miguel Arteta, 2010, Us) Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Justin Long. 89 mins

How many more times can Michael Cera get away with his "I'm the type of guy who never gets the girl" shtick? He always gets the girl. That might offer hope to pale, skinny dweebs everywhere, but it's getting a mite predictable onscreen. So here he expands his range with the invention of a suave imaginary alter-ego, "François Dillinger", who encourages his cultured but meek virgin to be irresistibly bad and dangerous in order to get the girl (Doubleday) – which, of course, he does. As he's driven to commit increasingly ludicrous acts, the movie becomes more desperate and less romantic, but hey! It's progress.

Invictus (12A)

(Clint Eastwood, 2009, Us) Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon. 133 mins

Freeman was destined to play Nelson Mandela some day, but equally inevitable was that any resultant movie was going to be a stately,...

A Russian study of a miracle-working monk is both folksy and beautiful, writes Catherine Shoard

Not to be confused with the damp Ewan McGregor/Scarlett ­Johansson action romance – though it was made nearly as long ago (it closed the Venice film festival in 2006) – Pavel Lungin's drama is a study of a hirsute ­Orthodox monk (rock star turned ­actor Pyotr Mamonov) in remotest ­Russia in the late 70s. The action starts in the ­second world war, however, when he wins his freedom from Nazi ­capture by ­killing a comrade. Stricken with guilt, he lives like a hermit and ­devotes himself to performing ­miracles (he's got a knack for healing the sick and predicting the future), so long as his beneficiaries vow to sacrifice all their possessions, no ­matter how dire their straits. The folksy structure both lulls and frustrates, and there's something dirgeish about the ­endless scenes of soul-wracking and tea-brewing.

The International Rome Film Festival, which comes to a close tomorrow, announced its winner tonight in an awards ceremony in the Parco della musica, the festival’s labyrinthine main hub on the outskirts of the Eternal City. This year’s jury included president Milos Forman as well as Italian director Gabriele Muccino, Italian architect Gae Aulenti, French screenwriter Jean-Loup Dabadie, Russian director Pavel Lungin and Austrian actress Senta Berger. It is the first …...

Moscow -- The 31st Moscow International Film Festival will open Friday with the film "Tsar" by jury chairman Pavel Lungin, which premiered at the Festival de Cannes last month in Un Certain Regard.

Sixteen movies from Bulgaria, Hungary, Iran, Japan, the U.S., Poland, Russia, Ukraine and other countries will compete for the main prize, the Golden St. George.

Among the competition's front runners are "Melodiya dlya sharmanki" (Melody for a Barrel Organ), a story about stepbrother and stepsisters trying to find their fathers in the big city following the death of their mother, by Ukrainian director Kira Muratova, who once won a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, and "Palata Nomer 6" (Ward No. 6), an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's mysterious paradoxical and disturbing story by Russian veteran director Karen Shakhnazarov.

Hollywood will be represented in the main competition by Noah Buschel's "Missing Person," a modern-day film...

And on the fifth day of the Cannes Film Festival, it snowed (actually, part of a promotion for Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey, due out in November). Meanwhile, Rachel Weisz walked the red carpet and talked about her role as a fourth century astronomer, and Lars Von Trier's Antichrist provoked both boos and applause.

Key Screenings. Out of Competition: Alejandro Amenabar's Egyptian historical epic Agora (with the aforementioned Rachel Weisz). Press screening: Lars Von Trier's polarizing Antichrist. Competition: Johnny To's Vengeance (with Johnny Hallyday as a French chef with a murderous past), Brillante Mendoza's crime-themed drama Kinatay. Robert Guediguian's tale of Nazi resistance during World War II, The Army of Crime. Un Certain Regard: Pavel Lounguine's Russian historical drama Tzar. Directors' Fortnight: Denis Villeneuve's school shooting recreation Polytechnique, Riad Sattouf's teen coming of age flick Les Beaux Gosses.

Films Sold.

• They don't call it the day of rest for nothing, I'm not coming close to viewing anything in the main comp: I've got zero interest in Johnnie To's Vengeance (I'm actually surprised it wasn't a midnight screening or non comp film) and Brillante Mendoza is Kinatay. It is the out of comp pictures The Army of Crime from Robert Guediguian and Alejandro Amenabar's Agora (its the studio that will be looking to grab this picture) that are perhaps the main interest. Un Certain Regard sees Mia Hansen-Løve (Father of My Children) returns to Cannes to present a family drama and Pavel Lounguine is also in the section with Tzar. Director's Fortnight sees three films: Kamen Kalav's Eastern Plays, Riad Sattouf's Les beaux Gosses which I'll be catching and the excellent Denis Villeneuve film Polytechnique - a film that made me depressed in a, good kind of way.

...

The official selection of movies to be shown at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival has finally been unveiled. In the festival that will be kicked off on May 13 and wrapped on May 24, a total of 52 films will be featured from four categories, In Competition, Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition, and Special Screenings.

Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces", Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock" and Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" are listed among the 20 In Competition movies. They will be up against Jane Campion's "Bright Star", Ken Loach's "Looking for Eric", Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon", Lars von Trier's "Antichrist" and Park Chan-wook's "Thirst" among others.

Terry Gilliam-directed drama fantasy starring Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law and the late Heath Ledger, "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", has been included in the Out of Competition line-up. In the meantime, Sam Raimi's horror "Drag Me to Hell" enters the Midnight Screenings list.

So the line-up for this year's Cannes Film Festival was just released today and I damn near fainted from the awesome. This year's competition has got to be the biggest, baddest one in many years, with so many famous auteurs throwing down with their latest films. Who will get the coveted Palme d'Or?

A sampling of just the biggest names who will be in competition: Pedro Almodovar (Broken Embraces), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), Park Chan-wook (Thirst), Jane Campion (Bright Star), Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon), Gaspar Noe (Enter the Void), Ken Loach (Looking for Eric), Johnnie To (Vengeance), Lars von Trier (Antichrist), Ang Lee (Taking Woodstock).

Not only that, but out of competition, we have Pixar's Up as the opening film, Bong Joon-ho's Mother, Hikorazu Kore-eda's Air Doll, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, and a new documentary by Michel Gondry...

For the most part, the majority of the films Variety speculated would be included at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival made the final list. The only ones that didn't were Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant and Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro out of the group I listed from their early report. However, to make up for it they have added Alejandro Amenabar's Agora starring Rachel Weisz, which is big news if you ask me. Listed below is the early list thanks to Variety. The Cannes' Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week will be fully announced Friday in Paris. Opener

Up U.S., Pete Docter, Bob Peterson Closer

Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky France, Jan Kounen In Competition

Bright Star Australia-u.K.-France, Jane Campion

Spring Fever China-France, Lou Ye

Antichrist Denmark-Sweden-France-Italy, Lars von Trier

Enter the Void France, Gaspar Noe

Face France-Taiwan-Netherlands-Belgium, Tsai Ming-liang

Les Herbes folles France-Italy, Alain Resnais

In the Beginning France,...

Wow, the speculation this year was pretty heavy on some great genre fare we've been tracking and while we're missing some stunners like Mr. Nobody and a couple others I've been clocking but won't mention, we do get the following:

Antichrist from Lars Von Trier

Enter the Void from Gapar Noe (we've been waiting on a trailer for a long time)

Vengeance from Johnnie To

Thirst from Chan-Wook Park

Inglorious Basterds from Qt

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus from Terry Gilliam

As well as so many others. One of these years Qe will be headed to Cannes for reviews, but not this year folks, (unless we can find a French correspondent or someone donates a few large, hah!)

Full list after the break. via Variety

Opener

"Up," U.S., Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

Closer

"Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky," France, Jan Kounen

In Competition

"Bright Star," Australia-u.K.-France, Jane Campion

"Spring Fever,...