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This number will increase as Cannes, Venice and other summer festival titles are added to the mix alongside studio releases.

French cinemas reopen this Wednesday (May 19) after lying dark for six months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the country’s 100-plus distributors rushing to set theatrical dates for an estimated backlog of 400 stalled films.

As a result, French cinemagoers will have access to the richest and most diverse offering of films in the world over the coming months, spanning festival titles, local mainstream comedies and dramas, world cinema and studio blockbuster fare, as the summer advances.

As of May...

“All This Victory,” a drama set in 2006 in Lebanon during the war between Hezbollah and Israel, has won the Eastern Promises Works in Progress Award at the Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival. The competition is devoted to projects from Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, former Soviet Union countries, and, for the first time this year, the Middle East.

In director Ahmad Ghossein’s film, a coproduction between Lebanon, France and Germany, Marwan goes in search of his father, who has refused to leave his village. He finds no traces of him and when the ceasefire ends suddenly, he is forced to shelter in the home of Najib, his father’s friend, and some of Najib’s friends. As bombs hail down, tensions within the house rise; then a group of Israeli soldiers enter the building.

The jury was comprised of Matthijs Wouter Knol, director of the Berlinale’s European Film Market,...

Turkish producer Zeynep Atakan and Greek actress Angeliki Papoulia join Palestinian film-maker Elia Suleiman on the competition jury.

The Sarajevo Film Festival has revealed the juries for its 22nd edition (Aug 12-20).

As previously revealed, the feature film competition jury will be presided over by Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, who has twice been nominated for the Palme d’Or, and won a Jury Prize at Cannes for his 2002 feature Divine Intervention. Elia Suleiman currently serves as artistic advisor for the Doha Film Institute.

Joining him will be on this year’s jury will be: Turkish producer Zeynep Atakan, who worked with Nuri Bilge Ceylan on Once Upon A Time In Anatolia and Three Monkeys; Serbian actor Nikola Dubricko, whose credits include World War Z and In The Land Of Blood And Honey; Thomas Hailer, the curator of the Berlin Film Festival, and Greek actress Angeliki Papoulia, whose credits include Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster and Dogtooth.

The...

Croatian event moved to November for the first time, excluded documentary programme to strengthen the industry section.

The 13th Zagreb Film Festival (Nov 14-22) saw Lászlo Nemes’ Cannes Grand Prix winner Son of Saul win the main prize, the Golden Pram for best feature film and a cash prize of €4,000.

The holocaust drama beat 12 other first or second films by their directors, including Icelandic duo Rams and Sparrows, indie hit Me Earl And The Dying Girl, Czech offerings Family Film and Home Care, and Venezuela’s Venice winner From Afar.

The jury, comprising directors Levan Koguashvili and Jessica Woodworth, and producer Christoph Thoke, said of the winner: ”It’s shattering. It’s a masterpiece. It’s unforgettable. A physical experience. An extraordinary film.”

Special mentions went to Tobias Lindholm’s A War, which world premiered at Venice, and Australia-Vanuatu co-production Tanna by Bentley Dean and Martin Butler, which won the audience prize in the Venice Critics’ Week.

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