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The Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) proudly announces the official programme lineup for its highly anticipated 8th edition, set to take place from 19 to 27 July 2025. Staying true to its mission as a cultural bridge between Malaysian and global cinema, this year’s MIFFest places a spotlight on bold, diverse, and impactful storytelling from around the world. In its ongoing celebration of cinematic legends, the 8 th MIFFest is proud to pay tribute to the iconic Ti Lung with the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the Extended Special Programme under the Master At Work series.

This year’s Malaysia Golden Global Awards (Mgga) sets the stage for an electrifying competition, with several standout titles leading the nominations. These critically acclaimed films reflect the depth and diversity of global storytelling celebrated at MIFFest. The Malaysia Golden Global Awards (Mgga) takes place on 26 July 2025 at Zepp Kuala Lumpur. The event will be streamed...

At the beginning of Cherien Dabis’ sweeping historical drama All That’s Left of You, a protest erupts in a refugee camp. It’s 1980 in the occupied West Bank and Noor (Muhammad Abed Elrahman, excellent), a self-assured and energetic Palestinian teenager, joins the demonstration. While he’s among the throng of neighbors, friends and strangers, shots are fired by Israeli soldiers and Noor ducks for cover. A blunt cut follows (editing by Tina Baz), and in the next scene his mother Hanan (Dabis) solemnly stares at the camera. She is here to tell us about her son, she says, but in order to understand him, she must start from the beginning.

Premiering at Sundance, All That’s Left of You traces one Palestinian family’s history from 1948 through the recent present. The film marks Dabis’ third time at the festival, where her previous features Amreeka and May in the Summer both debuted.

A sprawling, gripping drama that starts with the foundation of the state of Israel and the displacement of Palestinian families in Jaffa, then ends two years shy of the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, Cherien Dabis’ All That’s Left of You considers generational trauma on both an intimate and epic scale. Following more than seven decades in the life of the Hammad family, orange-growers who were expelled from their land in Jaffa in 1948, the film is a gateway to understanding decades of Palestinian trauma borne of the immense Jewish trauma of the Holocaust. The film ultimately grows from anger into a call for reconciliation, with a moving ending that does not diminish either generational trauma but lands in a place of surprising nuance.

The film’s center is a peaceful yet rightfully angry family placed in an impossible situation: do they leave their ancestral land or stay and hope the better angels eventually prevail?...

Director Matty Brown’s psychological drama, The Sand Castle, offers a harrowing look at the crude reality of armed conflicts around the world—how the greed of warmongers affects the lives of generations to come—leaving children rootless and without identity. The poignant tone of the movie is amplified by the choice of narrative treatment, as the beautiful, imaginative perspective of a child guides viewers through the story, the horrors of reality continue to reveal themselves through occasional cracks in the imagination, until the final moments of the movie bring out the agonizing truth. The four members of the family, and their actions, are presented through an intermingling of layers of reality and imagination. It was a daunting task to pull off, given the unique demands of the script. Additionally, there are subtle allusions to real-world events, which the actors needed to convey without committing to anything specific. Thankfully, the...

In her feature film work, Palestinian-American writer-director-actor Cherien Dabis has been telling intimately specific familial stories since “Amreeka” (2009). That was the filmmaker’s elegant, modestly scaled and altogether brilliant debut about a Palestinian mother and son, moving from the occupied West Bank to Chicago upon winning a green card lottery. Dabis wasn’t able to seize the same level of narrative confidence in “May in the Summer” (2013), but certain moments and ideas in her new film, “All That’s Left of You,” remind one of her panache as a storyteller, even if her sprawling epic about a family marked by longstanding generational trauma feels needlessly bloated in the aftermath.

Still, one can’t entirely blame Dabis for being a little indulgent with her latest, which follows a Palestinian family, at first barely surviving, then living under the Israeli occupation through almost eight decades, across three generations. Despite the ongoing devastation in the territory,...

The 2025 edition of the Sundance Film Festival is a little over a week away and it’s time for us to talk about movies that will be the talk of Sundance, movies that push the envelope of imagination and reality, movies that should not be missed and lastly underrated movies that are a must watch as well. The list below is not comprehensive and the goal is not to rank order any of the movies in this list. From films by critically acclaimed directors like Ira Sachs and Richard Linklater to actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, Diego Luna, Olivia Coleman, Dev Patel, Jennifer Lopez and Rose Bryne, the list also focuses on independent films by new exciting directors and filmmakers to look out for in the future. In no particular order, we are listing 25 feature films that are a must watch if you are planning to check out the festival.

Jimpa...

The Sundance Film Festival is once again upon us! Set to happen from January 23rd to February 2nd in Park City, Utah (with an online component from January 30th to Feb 2nd), the official schedule was unveiled today, and once again it’s an eclectic mix of indie fare, award hopefuls, and horror flicks. Once again, I’ll be there for JoBlo, filing a ton of reviews. To note, in recent years, Sundance has become especially well known for genre fare, with Hereditary, Talk to Me, and I Saw the TV Glow all premiering in the midnight section of the fest. This year’s Midnight selection includes some very buzzy titles:

Dead Lover / Canada –– A lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses finally meets her dream man, but their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments,...

The Match Factory will handle international sales for director Cherien Dabis’ decades spanning family saga “All That’s Left of You.”

Currently in post-production and by all accounts among the most anticipated projects presented at this year’s Atlas Workshops, the film follows three generations of a Palestinian family, tracking cycles of trauma beginning with the 1948 displacement from Jaffa and continuing through occupation, violence and present day heartbreak in the West Bank.

An acclaimed filmmaker and actor, Dabis stars as well, anchoring the film as a devastated mother to a teenaged son injured by an Israeli soldier. As her son’s life hangs in the balance, the grief-struck woman tries to make sense of her family and people’s heritage. Actors – and brothers – Saleh Bakri (“The Blue Caftan”) and Adam Bakri (“Omar”) co-star alongside father Mohammad Bakri, making the project a truly intergenerational portrait.

Produced by Pallas Film, Twenty Twenty Vision and Amp Filmworks,...

The French Film Academy will honor legendary political filmmaker Costa-Gavras with its lifetime achievement award at the upcoming 2025 César Awards.

The 91-year-old auteur, born in Greece before fleeing to exile in Paris, is best known for his politically-charged cinema, including Oscar winners Z (1969) — a thinly fictionalized account of the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963 that led to the country’s long military dictatorship — and English-language feature Missing (1982), about the disappearance of an American journalist in the aftermath of the United States-backed Chilean coup of 1973.

Z was the first film to be nominated both for best picture and best international feature at the Academy Awards, winning the latter, as well as the Oscar for best film editing for Françoise Bonnot. Missing, starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes and was nominated for four Oscars, winning for best adapted screenplay.

Costa-Gavras’ other notable...

Palestinian filmmaker Maha Haj seems to have found the recipe for success in the festival circuit, since, after the multi screened and awarded “Mediterranean Fever”, her latest work, the short “Upshot” went home with the Pardino d'Oro Swiss Life for Best Auteur Short Film Award and the Junior Jury Award for Best Auteur Short Film in Locarno. It is also a film that highlights both her rising competence as a filmmaker and the progress of short filmmaking in Asia in general.

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Suleiman and Lubna, a retired doctor and a housewife, are a couple who have retreated to an isolated farm, in a fashion that many people in the Mediterranean tend to do when they get older. They spend their days tending the fields (him) and the house (her) while, as most couples their age, bickering about their children, whom they...

Those who know who Roland Emmerich is will probably know that the director is known for his epic films, a lot of which are also major disaster films. Some of these major titles include Universal Soldier (1992), Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996) and its sequel Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), Godzilla (1998), The Patriot (2000), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), 10,000 BC (2008), 2012 (2009), White House Down (2013), Midway (2019), and Moonfall (2022). But, Emmerich is now shifting to television, as his new project is about to be released on Peacock this summer. Ahead of the premiere, a teaser trailer has been released.

The project in question is the epic sword-and-sandal series Those About to Die, which is set in Ancient Rome. The series will be based on the book of the same name by writer and journalist Daniel P. Mannix; interesting enough, the same book served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s epic classic, Gladiator.

The series will star acting legend...

Exclusive: Germany’s second biggest broadcasting network Ard has said it pulled Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s 2017 feature Wajib from its schedule this weekend due to concerns over its “narrative perspective” amid the ongoing Israeli-Hamas conflict.

Ard – which is a joint channel involving 10 German regional public broadcasters – has been accused of censorship by the filmmakers.

“In the context of the drastic social and (global) political events, we checked, as per our standard procedure, as to whether our planned program offerings were in line with the current situation,” Ard said in a statement sent to Deadline.

“We had already included the film Wajib you mentioned in our programming a few months ago. However, given the recent events in the Middle East, we currently believe it is not correctly placed in the program as it could be misunderstood due to its narrative perspective.”

Quizzed by Deadline on what aspects of the film...

Exclusive: German broadcasting network Ard has been accused of censorship following its decision to pull a scheduled broadcast of Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s 2017 feature Wajib due to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The film’s German co-producer Titus Kreyenberg told Deadline that Wajib had been due to air this Sunday (November 19), with the programming slot set for months and already announced in TV listings.

“It’s been taken off the schedule. Internally, we were told that it was decided that this was not the time to show a Palestinian film,” said Kreyenberg who works under the banner of Berlin and Cologne-based Unafilm with recent credits including Octopus Skin and A Woman.

Deadline has contacted Ard – a joint network involving 10 German regional public broadcasters – as well as Hamburg-based member Ndr, which backed the production. The networks have yet to respond.

Jacir’s drama Wajib is a gentle comedy-drama capturing the reality of Palestinians living within Israeli borders.

"Power is a double-edged sword." Indeed it is. Picturehouse has unveiled another new official UK trailer for Cairo Conspiracy, the film formerly known as Boy From Heaven, set in Egypt. This already opened in US theaters in January, and opens in UK cinemas this April. It initially premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Screenplay award. The story is about a devout young man named Adam, the son of a fisherman, who is offered the ultimate privilege to study at the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the epicenter of power for the Sunni Islam religion. Shortly after his arrival in Cairo, the university's highest ranking religious leader, the Grand Imam, suddenly dies and Adam becomes a pawn in the ruthless power struggle between Eqypt's religious and political elite. The film stars Tawfeek Barhom as Adam, Fares Fares, Mohammad Bakri, Makram Khoury, Mehdi Dehbi, Moe Ayoub, Sherwan Haji,...

"Make sure he is elected." Samuel Goldwyn Films has revealed the new US trailer for Cairo Conspiracy, the film formerly known as Boy From Heaven, set entirely in Egypt even though it's actually a Swedish production. This premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Screenplay award, and has since played at numerous other festivals including Zurich, Hamburg, London, Busan, Vancouver, Ghent, Mill Valley. The story follows Adam, the son of a fisherman, who is offered the ultimate privilege to study at the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the epicenter of power of Sunni Islam. Shortly after his arrival in Cairo, the university's highest ranking religious leader, the Grand Imam, suddenly dies and Adam soon becomes a pawn in a ruthless power struggle between Eqypt's religious and political elite. The film stars Tawfeek Barhom as Adam, Fares Fares, Mohammad Bakri, Makram Khoury, Mehdi Dehbi, Moe Ayoub, Sherwan Haji,...

In the appealing, naturalistic drama “Alam,” a middle-class Arab teen living in a village in the Galilee undergoes a political awakening catalyzed by a pretty, outspoken girl from his high school class. Just like the protagonist, the audience, too, receives a provocative civics lesson on the symbolism — and power — of flags and what constitutes resistance. This intelligent, sensitive treatment of the rarely seen, everyday lives of young Palestinian citizens of Israel marks tyro feature writer-director Firas Khoury as a talent to watch, as well as a solid acquisition for Film Movement, the North American distributor. “The film. ”Alam” nabbed three prizes, including best film and audience award, at the Cairo Film Festival.

The story unfolds through the eyes of watchful, artistically-inclined Tamer, a high school senior nearing his matriculation exams. Like his friends, loudmouth Shekel (Mohammad Karaki) and electronic games nerd Rida (Ahmad Zaghmouri), Tamer shares the concerns of a typical male slacker: girls,...

Ameer Fakher Eldin’s “The Stranger” (Al Garib) will play as one of the last screenings of this year’s Arab Film Festival, the largest of its kind in North America. Though this is only Eldin’s first feature, his movie has reaped international accolades. “The Stranger” premiered at the 78th Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori last year, where it took home the Edipo Re Award. At the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Dp Niklas Landschau walked away for his Achievement in Cinematography. Now, “The Stranger” is up to bat next year as Palestine’s nomination for Best International Feature for the 94th Academy Awards.

The Stranger is screening at the Arab Film Festival

“The Stranger” revolves around Adnan (Ashraf Barhom), who has been dealt an unlucky hand in life. His father (Mohammad Bakri), for one, despises him. He arbitrarily writes Adnan off his will,...

"Make sure he is elected." Memento International has revealed an official trailer for an acclaimed film titled Boy From Heaven, set entirely in Egypt even though it's actually a Swedish production. This premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Screenplay award, and has since played at numerous other festivals including the Zurich, Hamburg, London, Busan, Vancouver, Ghent, Mill Valley Film Fests. On the first day back after summer, the grand imam collapses and dies in front of students at a religious university in Cairo. This marks the start of a ruthless battle for influence to take his place. The film is about corruption and how even the most holy organization, the prestigious Al-Azhar University located in Cairo, is susceptible to horrible power play dynamics. The film stars Tawfeek Barhom as Adam, Fares Fares, Mohammad Bakri, Makram Khoury, Mehdi Dehbi, Moe Ayoub, Sherwan Haji, and Ahmed Lassaoui.

This review of “Costa Brava, Lebanon” was first published July 14, 2022, before it opened in New York City.

Mounia Akl’s debut feature film “Costa Brava, Lebanon” is valiant filmmaking. Using the beauty of cinema to show the destruction of man’s cruelty to the environment is not just effective — it’s heartbreaking.

In a film landscape dominated by blockbusters, “Costa Brava, Lebanon” offers a reality check, reminding us that there are indeed concerns bigger than our own entertainment. It’s indie filmmaking at its most productive.

Set in Akl’s native Lebanon, whose political and environmental unrest helps drive the plot, “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” co-written with Clara Roquet (“10.000 Km”), draws us in with the charming Bardi family, who has gone off the grid. For eight years, husband and wife Walid and Souraya (Oscar-nominated “Capernaum” director Nadine Labaki) have lived in the mountains with their two girls — Rim (twins Seana and...

Elections, as everyone knows, are too important to be left up to chance, and so the world is constantly inventing ways to ensure their outcome in advance. In Egypt, when it comes to the choice of a new grand imam — a lifetime appointment, whose fatwas impact national law — the process doesn’t even pretend to be democratic: The successful candidate is selected from a small Supreme Council of Scholars, with considerations the outside world will never know. But we can wonder, which is where Swedish-Egyptian filmmaker Tarik Saleh comes in, imagining the equivalent of a John Grisham thriller set inside Cairo’s world-famous Al-Azhar University.

Banned from Egypt since 2017’s “The Nile Hilton Incident,” the director may well have nothing to lose by implicating the Egyptian government in a conspiracy to fill the country’s highest religious position with the candidate of the president’s choosing — the equivalent of suggesting...

Before director Rashid Masharawi, whose latest film “Diary of Rue Gabrielle” makes its world premiere at the Cairo Film Festival this week, started making films, there wasn’t much of a film industry in Palestine, beyond propaganda films by the Plo, he says.

“I was the first,” he says. “In the early days, festivals that were cautious about Middle East politics, didn’t know which country to assign me to. At one event I wore a badge saying ‘The Palestinian Director,’ ” he recalls.

His short film “The Shelter” (1988), which marked his debut on the international festival circuit, played at the Berlinale. It’s country of origin was marked Israel.

“Diary of Rue Gabrielle” is set in Montmartre, Paris, but “it’s about Palestine,” he says.

The film was shot in the Spring of 2020, once lockdown began in France. “I was [in Paris] preparing my next film when suddenly I was stuck,” he says.

Gloom, deployed as a storytelling tactic, can exert a strange, unsettling pull when it’s as capably and beautifully conveyed as in Syrian director Ameer Fakher Eldin’s “The Stranger,” recently announced as Palestine’s international Oscar entry. A granular depiction of oppression as a kind of inescapable inheritance handed down from father to son, with mothers and daughters its peripheral, persevering survivors, .

But it is also attuned to the bleak grandeur of the landscapes in this cinematically little-seen region, and its rich, painterly images, appropriately hemmed into boxy Academy ratio, should make “The Stranger” as much a calling card for its cinematographer, Niklas Lindschau, as for Eldin. If not more so: Whenever Eldin’s screenplay gets too ponderous, when the pacing lags or the storytelling withholds too much, there is always a surprising composition to pin our attention. An elderly woman folding linen is briefly a Vermeer. A far-off mountainside in fall,...

In the gripping, naturalistic drama “The Flag” (“Alam”), a Palestinian-Israeli teen, living in a village in the Galilee, undergoes a political awakening catalyzed by a pretty, outspoken girl from his high school class. He joins her, along with some of his buddies, to secretly replace the Israeli flag flying from their school’s rooftop with a Palestinian one on the eve of a visit by a prominent Israeli official.

Encompassing a love story and a coming-of-age story, “The Flag” is the first feature directed and written by Firas Khoury, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, known for his prize-winning shorts “Maradona’s Legs” and “Yellow Mums.” The producers include Marie-Pierre Macia and Claire Gadéa from MPM Film (France), Melik Kochbati from Paprika Films (Tunisia) and Ossama Bawardi of Philistine Films (Jordan). Boasting development dollars and support from some of the world’s most prestigious and competitive international funds and ateliers, “The...

Egyptian Red Sea event marked its fifth edition from October 14-22.

Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival, running in its namesake Egyptian Red Sea resort from October 14-22, got off to a memorable start this year when a fire broke out on the red carpet of the main festival plaza area on the eve of the opening ceremony.

By the next day, there was no sign of the near-disaster after hundreds of workers toiled through the night to repair the damage.

This freak accident would set the scene for an eventful edition, however, marked by guest deportations and cancellations, a...

Teemu Nikki’s Venice and Antalya winner “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic” won the Golden star for best film at the 5th El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt, which wrapped Friday. The award carries a cash prize of $50,000.

The film’s lead Petri Poikolainen won best actor, while Maya Vanderbeque, the young star of “Playground,” won best actress.

Egyptian filmmaker Omar El Zohairy’s Cannes winner “Feathers,” which also won the Variety award at El Gouna earlier, won best Arab narrative film.

Directors Aleksey Chupov and Natasha Merkulova’s “Captain Volkonogov Escaped” won the Netpac award and bronze in the narrative category.

Michel Franco’s “Sundown” won silver in the narrative competition, while Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s “Once Upon a Time in Calcutta” scored a special mention from Netpac.

Mounia Akl’s “Costa Brava, Lebanon” won the Fipresci award and the Green Star award for tackling environmental issues.

Iconic Palestinian actor-director Mohammad Bakri has canceled his visit to Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival over the issue of U.K.-based Palestinian filmmaker Said Zagha being deported from the country without being allowed to enter.

Bakri, whose acting credits include “Homeland,” “The Stranger” “Wajib” and “The Bureau,” was due to be honored with a career achievement award at the festival on Wednesday.

However, on Tuesday, Bakri released a statement in Arabic saying he has canceled his visit in protest against the deportation of Zagha and other Palestinians who arrived at Cairo airport and were barred from entering Egyptian territory.

“I have decided not to go to the El Gouna Film Festival,” Bakri said in his statement. “Essentially, this was a reaction, in principle, to the mistreatment of Palestinian artists, regardless of their passport, whether it’s Jordanian, Palestinian, Israeli, or whatever. It is high time that Palestinians are granted full rights,...

Palestinian actor-director Mohammad Bakri, known for his on-screen work in Homeland, Wajib, and The Stranger, has canceled his visit to Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival, citing the country’s decision to deport Brit-based Palestinian filmmaker Said Zagha from the country.

Said Zagha and other Palestinians who arrived at the Cairo airport en route to the festival were barred from entering the country and were turned away. Said Zagha had been invited to El Gouna to present his upcoming film Weedestine at the festival’s CineGouna Springboard platform. But upon his arrival at Cairo airport on Saturday, he was detained and then deported back to London ...

Palestinian actor-director Mohammad Bakri, known for his on-screen work in Homeland, Wajib, and The Stranger, has canceled his visit to Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival, citing the country’s decision to deport Brit-based Palestinian filmmaker Said Zagha from the country.

Said Zagha and other Palestinians who arrived at the Cairo airport en route to the festival were barred from entering the country and were turned away. Said Zagha had been invited to El Gouna to present his upcoming film Weedestine at the festival’s CineGouna Springboard platform. But upon his arrival at Cairo airport on Saturday, he was detained and then deported back to London ...

Other contenders include Avi Nesher’s Image Of Victory and Nadav Lapid’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Ahed’s Knee.

Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin’s new film Let It Be Morning had a contentious festival launch in Cannes this July after its mainly Palestinian cast led by Alex Bakri, Juna Suleiman and Salim Daw refused to attend the world premiere in Un Certain Regard.

They explained in a collective statement that their non-appearance was aimed at highlighting the “decades-long colonial campaign of ethnic cleansing… against the Palestinian people” and the “latest wave of violence and dispossession.”

Three months later, in an unexpected turn of events,...

All good things come to an end. I suppose bittersweet things too, and there is little as bittersweet as the exploits of Carrie Mathison, Saul Berenson, and their few remaining CIA friends. Thus their story will also reach its final debrief in Homeland Season 8.

At the end of Homeland‘s seventh season, Claire Danes’s Carrie Mathison went from chasing terrorists to pursuing Russian spies who were hoping to destabilize the U.S. government. Instead they mostly achieved destabilizing Carrie, torturing her by denying the medication she so desperately needed. Seven months later she didn’t even recognize Saul. Some time has passed since then as we go into season 8, but is it enough? Relying on Carrie’s old contacts to bail them out of a tough spot during peace talks with the Taliban, Saul begins season 8 by sending her back into the field before her doctors think she’s ready.

In a Gold Derby exclusive, we have learned the category placements of the key Emmy Awards contenders for Showtime. For this season, the premium network has returning hits “Black Monday” (Don Cheadle), “Kidding” (Jim Carrey), “Homeland” (Claire Danes), “Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber) and “Shameless” (William H. Macy) plus limited series “The Loudest Voice” (Russell Crowe) as part of their 2020 campaign. Newcomers could include “City on a Hill” (Kevin Bacon) and “On Becoming a God in Central Florida” (Kirsten Dunst).

Below, the list of Showtime lead, supporting and guest submissions for their comedy, drama and limited series. More names might be added by the network on the final Emmy ballot. Also note that performers not included on this list may well be submitted by their personal reps.

“The Affair”

Drama Series

Drama Actor – Dominic West

Drama Actress – Maura Tierney

Drama Supporting Actor – Jadon Sand

Drama Supporting Actress – Anna Paquin, Julia Goldani Telles...

The setup of Homeland Season 8 gives way for what might be the series' real endgame...

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This Homeland review contains spoilers.

Homeland Season 8 Episode 2

If last week was about reintroducing us to Carrie’s plight—as well as a chance to take grim stock of the world Homeland has dramatized for years—then this week was the actual table setter of the season. Divided in a classic A and B storyline, “Catch and Release” splits up the objectives of its two leads and intriguingly echoes some of the story beats of season 4 while promising that this will be going in a striking new direction, complete with Russian interference (oh my!).

In the case of Carrie, tonight pretty much wraps up the narrative pretense the writer’s room used to bring someone so theoretically fragile into the thick of things. Presented to have some history with Afghan Vice President Abdul G’ulom,...

After the Madrid Peace conference in 1991, the negotiations in Oslo at 1993 and the autonomy accord in Cairo in 1994, the peace between Palestinians and Israelis looked like a possible prospect at the time. Rashid Masharawi takes a look at the way a number of different people react to the prospect of peace, inside a Palestinian refugee camp, with “Haifa”, which screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.

“Haifa” screened at

Festival des Cinémas d’Asie de Vesoul

There is a saying in Greece that could be translated as “you learn the truth from the very young and from the very crazy”. The second part of the saying fits perfectly Haifa, a middle-aged man who gets his nickname from the town he loves, and roams around the refugee camp in a military outfit, spurting words that make people perceive him as the town fool, but also seem quite close to the truth.

Network: HBO

Episodes: Eight (hour)

Seasons: One

TV show dates: July 10, 2016 -- August 28, 2016

Series status: Ended

Performers include: Afton Williamson, Amara Karan, Ashley Thomas, Ben Shenkman, Bill Camp, Chip Zien, Glenn Fleshler, Glenne Headly, Jeannie Berlin, John Turturro, Max Casella, Michael Kenneth Williams, Mohammad Bakri, Nabil Elouahabi, Ned Eisenberg, Paul Sparks, Paulo Costanzo, Payman Maadi, Poorna Jagannathan, Riz Ahmed, and Sofia Black-d'Elia.

TV show description:

Based on the Criminal Justice TV show from the BBC, this dramatic series delves into the intricate story of a fictitious murder case in New York City.

The series follows the police investigation and legal proceedings, all the while examining the criminal justice system and the purgatory of Rikers Island, where the accused awaits his trial.

Read More…...

Mohammad Bakri, left, has been nominated for best actor for Wajib, which is also vying for Best Film and Best Screenplay

The Arab Cinema Center has announced the shortlist of nominees for the 2nd Annual Critics awards. The awards, which will be announced during Cannes Film Festival, will have been voted on by 62 critics from 28 countries.

Film analyst Alaa Karkouti, co-founder of the Arab Cinema Center (Acc) and CEO of Mad Solutions, said: "It is a great achievement to bring together 62 film critics from across 28 countries to view dozens of the finest home-grown films that the Arab cinema has to offer and to end up with a list of nominees from across eight Arab countries. This comes as a good indicator that many Arab countries have been taking the right steps to boost the Arab filmmaking industry. "

Maher Diab, creative director and co-founder of the Arab Cinema Center (Acc) and Mad Solutions,...

The Middle East's biggest film event drew to a close Wednesday night, the 14th edition of the Dubai International Film Festival ending with the regional premiere of Star Wars: The Last Jedi at the Madinat Jumeirah. 

Earlier in the day, Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir saw her Nazareth-set drama Wajib win the best fiction feature award, and the film's two co-stars, father and son duo Mohammad Bakri and Saleh Bakri, share the best actor award. Wajib is Palestine's current submission in the foreign-language Oscars race (and Jacir's third submission overall). 

Elsewhere, best actress went to Menha El Batraoui for...

Annemarie Jacir’s father-son story ‘Wajib’ is Palestine’s official candidate for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. It has already picked up a slew of awards including four awards at Argentina’s Mar Del Plata International Film Festival including the Golden Astor for Best Feature Film in the International Competition, Best Actor for Mohammad Bakri, the Argentine Film Critics Association’s Best Feature Film Award and the Best Feature Film Signis Award.

Wajib also won the Best Film at the Dubai International Film Festival as well as Best Actor which was awarded to the two leading actors Mohammad Bakri and Saleh Bakri. The film also won Best Film at the International Film Festival of Kerala, Grand Prize (Golden Unicorn) as well as the Audience Award at the Amiens International Film Festival. Awards were received from MedFilm (Rome) where Wajib took the Jury Prize, and Montpellier Cinemed’s Youth Jury Award.

Palestine has picked Annemarie Jacir's Wajib as its official contender for the 2018 Oscars in the foreign-language category.

The film, which premiered in Locarno's official competition, where it won three independent prizes, pairs father and son Mohammad Bakri and Saleh Bakri for the first time, teaming the celebrated Palestinian actors in a wry road...

The Night Of, the acclaimed hit from HBO is available today on Digital HD, and we’ve got a chance for you to win a download code!

The show, based on the BBC series Criminal Justice, took over the summer with its unique look at the events driving the plot and the criminal justice system. It seemed like critics couldn’t line up to sing its praises quickly enough, with John Turturro especially getting a lot of attention.

The series is available everywhere today on Digital HD (iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Xbox Video, Best Buy’s Cinema Now, Nook, Playstation.Video and Verizon Fios) and hits on Blu-Ray and DVD on October 18th.

Enter below and get your hands on a copy of this one.

photo: Barry Wetcher/HBO

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The Night Of Smash Hit HBO Crime Series Available to Download...

A co-production of HBO and BBC Worldwide, The Night Of is being promoted as a "limited series". So, though there are only eight episodes in the first season, it could return for a second season (like the UK series it's based on, Criminal Justice). Will it be renewed or cancelled? Stay tuned.The Night Of delves into the intricate story of a murder case in New York City. The series follows the police investigation and legal proceedings, all the while examining the criminal justice system and the purgatory of Rikers Island, where the accused awaits his trial. Castmembers include Afton Williamson, Amara Karan, Ashley Thomas, Ben Shenkman, Bill Camp, Chip Zien, Glenn Fleshler, Glenne Headly, Jeannie Berlin, John Turturro, Max Casella, Michael Kenneth Williams, Mohammad Bakri, Nabil Elouahabi, Ned Eisenberg, Paul Sparks, Paulo Costanzo, Payman Maadi, Poorna Jagannathan, Riz Ahmed, and Sofia Black-d'Elia.Read More…...

[caption id="attachment_50887" align="aligncenter" width="399"] Courtesy of HBO./caption]

Here comes the night. The Night Of TV series premieres on HBO Sunday, July 10, 2016 at from 9:00 to 10:30pm Et/Pt. The eight-part HBO limited series stars John Turturro and Riz Ahmed. Created by Steven Zaillian and Richard Price, The Night Of explores a New York City murder case fraught with cultural and political complications. HBO says The Night Of examines the police investigation, the legal proceedings, the criminal justice system and Rikers Island, where the accused await trial.

The Night Of TV series cast also includes: Michael Kenneth Williams, Bill Camp, Jeannie Berlin, Poorna Jagannathan, Payman Maadi, Glenne Headly, Amara Karan, Sofia Black-d’Elia, Paul Sparks, Ben Shenkman, Afton Williamson, Paulo Costanzo, Ned Eisenberg, Mohammad Bakri, Nabil Elouahabi, Ashley Thomas, Glenn Fleshler, and Chip Zien.Read More…...

Last week, after just two airings, ABC cancelled and pulled their new TV show, Of Kings and Prophets. Was the network too quick to pull the trigger? Were they justified?

Of Kings and Prophets is based on the Biblical Books of Samuel. The story is told through the eyes of the battle-weary King Saul, the resentful prophet Samuel, and the resourceful young shepherd, David. The three are on a collision course with destiny. The cast includes Ray Winstone, Olly Rix, Simone Kessell, James Floyd, Haaz Sleiman, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Jeanine Mason, Mohammad Bakri, David Walmsley, Louis Talpe, Nathaniel Parker, and Lyne Renée.

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Now titled The Night Of, James Gandolfini’s dormant passion project Criminal Justice has been given a new lease of life at HBO, and a summer premiere date to boot.

Pitched as an eight-part series, the ensemble drama has been collecting dust on the shelf since the actor’s tragic passing three years ago. There have been some fleeting signs of life, though, particularly when Robert De Niro flirted with the idea of replacing Gandolfini, before backing out of Criminal Justice six months later.

In his steed, John Turturro will take point for HBO’s procedural drama, and the actor is one of the few stars that have remained attached to the project over the years – Riz Ahmed, Bill Camp, Payman Maadi, and Poorna Jagannathan are among that nuclear cast. But during the creative overhaul, the network has beefed up the show’s ensemble quite considerably, enlisting the likes of Michael K. Williams,...

James Gandolfini's long-gestating passion project Criminal Justice is finally ready for primetime at HBO. The project, an adaptation of Peter Moffat's 2008 BBC drama of the same name, has changed titles to The Night Of, and added several notable names to its ensemble ahead of a summer premiere. Among them are The Wire alum Michael K. Williams, ER's Glenne Headly, Angels in America alum Ben Shenkman and The Sopranos grad Max Casella. The cast also includes Amara Karan, Sofia Black-d’Elia. Paul Sparks, Afton Williamson, Paulo Costanzo, Ned Eisenberg, Mohammad Bakri. Nabil Elouahabi. Ashley Thomas, Glenn Fleshler and Chip

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A couple years ago, NBC aired Ad: The Bible Continues. While the TV series found some devoted followers, the ratings were too low and the network cancelled it. Now, ABC is trying another Bible-based series called Of Kings and Prophets. Will it be a success? Cancelled or renewed for season two? Stay tuned.

Of Kings and Prophets is based on the Biblical Books of Samuel. The story is told through the eyes of the battle-weary King Saul, the resentful prophet Samuel, and the resourceful young shepherd, David. The three are on a collision course with destiny. The cast includes Ray Winstone, Olly Rix, Simone Kessell, James Floyd, Haaz Sleiman, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Jeanine Mason, Mohammad Bakri, David Walmsley, Louis Talpe, Nathaniel Parker, and Lyne Renée.

The ratings are typically the best indication of a show's likelihood of staying on the air. The higher the ratings (particularly...

Network: ABC

Episodes: Ongoing (hour)

Seasons: Ongoing

TV show dates: March 8, 2016 -- present

Series status: Has not been cancelled

Performers include: Ray Winstone, Olly Rix, Simone Kessell, James Floyd, Haaz Sleiman, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Jeanine Mason, Mohammad Bakri, David Walmsley, Louis Talpe, Nathaniel Parker, and Lyne Renée.

TV show description:      

This dramatic series is a saga of faith, ambition and betrayal and is based on the Biblical Books of Samuel. It's told through the eyes of the battle-weary King Saul, the resentful prophet Samuel, and the resourceful young shepherd David. The three are on a collision course with destiny and the story that unfolds is still being told today.

A thousand years before Christ, the first king of the Israelites, Saul (Ray Winstone), struggles to unify the dozen Israelite tribes and defend his fledgling nation...

Three episodes were provided prior to broadcast.

In recent years, it’s been far too easy to associate Biblical adaptations with poor-quality, turgid productions that exceed far too well in earnestness and succumb tragically in the areas that actually make a TV show fun to watch: i.e., drama, characters, plot, and basic coherence. Of Kings And Prophets, the latest such adaptation, packs a one-two punch of negativity for any mainstream, non-devout audience to overcome – its staunch commitment to the source material, and somewhat courted comparisons to HBO’s Game of Thrones.

What surprised me most about the series was how it transcended the former hurdle by actually (somewhat, kind of) succeeding at the latter. The show’s rendition of a stricken Israel is far from Westeros in many aspects, but it’s close enough in a few key areas (epic scope, interesting characters, commitment to an unjustifiably cruel world...

At a loss for what to watch this week? From new DVDs and Blu-rays, to what's streaming on Netflix, we've got you covered.

New Video on Demand, Rental Streaming, and Digital Only

"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2"

Welcome to the final Hunger Games. You can volunteer as tribute, one more time, when Jennifer Lawrence's last film as Katniss is released on Digital HD March 8. It'll be out on Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand March 22. Also, for the first time ever, "The Hunger Games Complete 4-Film Collection" will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on March 22. The Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital include audio commentary with director Francis Lawrence and producer Nina Jacobson; "Pawns No More: Making The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2" 8-Part Documentary, "Jet to the Set," and a ton of behind-the-scenes featurettes on visual design, the acting ensemble, costumes, hair and makeup,...

[caption id="attachment_42129" align="aligncenter" width="472"] Of Kings And Prophets - An epic biblical saga of faith, ambition and betrayal as told through the eyes of the battle-weary King Saul, the resentful prophet Samuel and the resourceful young shepherd David - all on a collision course with destiny that will change the world. (ABC/Trevor Adeline)Ray Winstone, Simone Kessell/caption]

ABC has released eight new photos from the Of Kings and Prophets TV series, check them out, above and below. The Of Kings and Prophets biblical drama premieres Tuesday, March 8, 2016, at 10:00pm Et/Pt.

The Of Kings and Prophets cast includes: Ray Winstone as King Saul; Olly Rix as David; Mohammad Bakri as Samuel; Simone Kessell as Queen Ahinoam; Nathaniel Parker as King Achish; Haaz Sleiman as Jonathan; James Floyd as Ishbaal; Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Michal; Jeanine Mason as Merav; and David Walmsley as Joab.

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From comic-book adaptations to sci-fi, fantasy and horror. Here are the new geek-skewed shows coming to Us TV in 2016...

The world of TV has never been so crowded and, at the same time, geeks have never had it so good. As saturated as the big screen is with superhero films and sprawling shared universes, that mentality has well and truly bled onto the small screen too.

So there’s a lot of comic-book adaptations coming up in 2016 from Marvel, DC and others, but genre TV is represented across the board with science-fiction, fantasy and horror represented at pretty much every network and cable channel in the Us.

Here's some of the geek TV that will be making its way to us from the Us next year.

Aka Jessica Jones (Netflix)

Part of Netflix’s own connected slice of the McU, there has been a lot of confusion over when we...