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Winner of the Best Actor Award for Yasna Mirtahmasb in Tokyo, where it premiered, “Roxana” is a very interesting amalgam of a film, focusing on entertaining while presenting a number of comments regarding Iran nowadays, until, unfortunately it doesn't. Let us take things from the beginning, though.

Roxana screened at Red Sea Film Festival

Fred is a 23-year-old unemployed man, who lives with his essentially senile mother, while spending his time hanging with his best and only friend, Mansour, or gambling at a snooker illegal parlor. Roxana is a young photographer mostly dealing with filming weddings, and in general, a woman who seems in control of her life, despite the fact that when the two meet, she has just had her handbag stolen, including an hd disc with the material from her last work. Fred is immediately smitten by her, and decides to help her, which eventually leads Roxana to hire him as an assistant.

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Film Review: Snow in Midsummer (2023) by Keat Aun Chong

“Snow in Midsummer” is a film that will appeal more to the Malay audience, particularly the ones who have some knowledge of the elements mentioned above, but also to those who can enjoy movies without understanding them fully. And the truth is, that there is enough artistry and beauty here to allow just that. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

Interview with Keat Aun Chong Interview with Park Ki-yong Interview with Yasna Mirtahmasb and Parviz Shahbazi Film Review: Wakhri (2023) by Iram Parveen Bilal

Iram Parveen Bilal does one very smart thing with the film, essentially mirroring her protagonist's persona. She fills the screen with impressive colors, intriguing frames, rather entertaining music, and a truly charismatic protagonist who clearly draws utmost attention every time she appears on screen, either as Noor or Wakhri. This choice allows her to...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival has unveiled it 2023 line-up and theme as it maintains its third edition against the backdrop of the escalating Israel-Gaza Conflict. (scroll down for full list)

The edition, running from November 30 to December 9 in the port city of Jeddah, will unfold under the theme of “Your Story, Your Festival”.

Among the key sections announced on Monday was the Red Sea International Film Festival: In Competition section which will showcase 17 narrative and documentary features from Asia, Africa, and the Arab world.

Contenders include UK-Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi critically-acclaimed West Bank-set first feature The Teacher, Tunisian-Moroccan filmmaking couple Afef Ben Mahmoud and Khalil Benkirane’s Atlas Mountains-set, theatre troupe road movie Backstage, Tawfik Alzaidi’s Norah, which is billed as the first Saudi feature shot in the country’s growing location hub of AlUla, and Iranian director Parviz Shahbazi’s drama Roxana, for which its...

Films and talent from China and Iran dominated the winners.

Snow Leopard by the late Tibetan director Pema Tseden has won the Grand Prix at Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) on a night dominated by Chinese and Iranian cinema.

The Tibetan-language drama centres on an argument between a father and son after a snow leopard breaks into a sheep pen and kills nine rams. It was completed before the filmmaker died in May and premiered out-of-competition at Venice before going on to screen at Toronto.

German filmmaker Wim Wenders, who presided over the international jury, announced the winner at the festival’s closing ceremony today.

“Snow Leopard,” the last film by Tibetan director Pema Tseden prior to his death in May, was awarded the Grand Prix at the closing ceremony of the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival on Wednesday. Premiering out of competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival and later screening at Toronto, the film depicts the argument between a father and his adult son of how to deal with the title beast, which has descended from the mountains to kill sheep in their village.

Winner of the second-place Special Jury Prize was “Tatami,” a drama co-directed by Guy Nattiv and Zar Amir about an Iranian judoka (Arienne Mandi), who is ordered by her government to withdraw from a match to avoid facing an Israeli opponent and is subjected to increasingly desperate pleadings from her coach (Amir). Premiering at Venice, “Tatami” is the first feature film to be co-directed by an Israeli (Nattiv...

Family drama Snow Leopard, directed by the late Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden, has won the Tokyo Grand Prix, the top prize at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival. Scroll down for the full list of winners.

The film, which is also nominated for three Asia Pacific Screen Awards, follows a rural family who debate whether they should kill a snow leopard that broke into their home and killed nine sheep. The full synopsis reads: In a mountain village where white leopards live, the film explores the symbiosis of humans and animals through the fantastical interaction of a young Tibetan monk and a leopard.

Snow Leopard is one of two films Tseden, who had Chinese citizenship, had been working on when he died in May, aged 53. His death was reported by Chinese media. No cause of death was given, but unverified Chinese media reports said he had a heart attack.