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‘Tis the season for sisterhood.

Los Angeles has hosted a crush of female-focused events lately, like The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast, Elle’s Women in Hollywood affair and the Women in Film Honors, all of which celebrate the gender’s impact both in front of and behind the camera. But the latest installment, a fashionable affair situated on the deck of the Academy Museum’s stunning open-air sphere on Tuesday, was the only one presented by Chanel in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Meaning that many of the A-list attendees who made the rounds inside the afternoon gathering were dressed in chic threads by the French fashion house and the guest list featured high-profile actresses, directors, producers, writers, agents and other creative insiders.

There also happened to be a couple of recently nominated multi-hyphenates like Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez, whose sisterly interactions...

The Academy’s Gold Fellowship for women has been offering support and mentorship to female filmmakers since 2018. On Tuesday, the organization announced that Raha Amirfazli and Shadi Karamroudi have been selected as the 2024 recipients.

“The Academy is pleased to support talented and emerging women filmmakers as they seek to advance and grow in their careers. Through the Gold Fellowship for Women, we aim to provide meaningful guidance, foster a more inclusive film industry and champion diverse voices,” said Academy senior vice president of Impact and Global Talent Development Kendra Carter. “We are deeply grateful to our partner Chanel, whose shared commitment of empowering the next generation of women filmmakers and generous support makes this work possible.”

According to the Academy, which awards one U.S.-based and one non-u.S. recipient per cycle, “Applicants to the Gold Fellowship for Women must be alumnae of an Academy talent development program or...

Raha Amirfazli and Shadi Karamroudi will receive the 2024 Academy Gold Fellowship For Women.

As part of the Academy’s global talent development and inclusion work, the Gold Fellowship for Women is a one-year programme that combines support, mentorship and access to networking opportunities for emerging women filmmakers.

The Academy currently awards two fellowships annually, one to a US-based filmmaker and one to a non-us-based filmmaker.

Amirfazli is an Iranian writer, director and producer based in New York. She is currently pursuing her Mfa in Film and TV production at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her debut feature...

Shadi Karamroudi (b. 1990) is an Iranian actress, director and screenwriter. She learned the basics of filmmaking and acting at Karnameh Film School in Tehran and graduated with a master's degree in Dramatic Literature from Soore University, Tehran in 2020. “It turns Blue” is her third short film as a director which is written, directed and produces by herself.

“It Turns Blue” is screening at Busan International Short Film Festival

The movie begins inside an apartment where Morteza is painting a wall blue while playing with his daughter, 3-year old Raha, asking her to put her palms in the paint and touching the wall. A bit later, however, the girl takes his phone and throws it in the paint, which results in him getting violent with her, although this part is implied and not actually shown. Not knowing what to do, and since her mother is to pick her up soon, he...

Austin, TX – The SXSW Conference and Festivals wrapped on March 19th, after 10 days of magic and Austin wackiness, showcasing film, TV, interactive, conferences, interviews and music. The Film & TV Fest named “Raging Grace” as the top Narrative Feature and “Grown” as top TV Pilot.

“Raging Grace” was written and directed by Paris Zarcilla, telling the story of a Filipina house cleaner and her young daughter, with the jury noting its “heady blend of horror, history, and midnight humor announcing the arrival of an exciting new filmmaking talent.” The TV Pilot “Grown” focuses on a teenage boy attempting to move forward after losing his father, and the jury said it was “a coming-of-age story told with heart and visually realized with polish and verve.”

The following is the list of top honorees …

Grand Jury Prize - Narrative Feature

Raging Grace

Photo credit: SXSW.com

Winner: “Raging Grace,” directed by Paris Zarcilla...

Audience Awards voting concludes on March 19.

Raging Grace has taken the 2023 SXSW Narrative Feature Competition award and Angel Applicant has taken top prize in the Documentary Feature Competition.

15 acquisition titles to tempt buyers at SXSW 2023

Raging Grace director Paris Zarcilla’s film about an undocumented Filipina house cleaner and her daughter who find work for a wealthy British man was praised by the jury for “cleverly employing genre tropes to explore vast socio-political matters”.

Courtney Eaton won the special jury award for performance for her role in Parachute, Brittany Snow’s feature directorial debut about a young woman freshly out...

As SXSW basks in the Oscars afterglow of Everything Everywhere All at Once, which premiered out of competition at the event last year, jury and special awards winners for the 30th edition of the film and TV festival have been announced.

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Top honors in the Narrative Feature Competition went to Paris Zarcilla’s horror pic Raging Grace. The film follows Joy, an undocumented Filipino immigrant who is struggling to do the best she can for her daughter Grace when she secures the perfect job: taking care of an extremely wealthy but terminal old man. The new...

Two days after ”Everything Everywhere All at Once“ won seven Oscars, including best picture, the SXSW Film Festival, where Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s movie launched last year, has announced its own awards. To be clear, “Eeaao” was a studio-backed opening night premiere (not one of the smaller movies launched in competition at the indie-focused fest), but you can still feel the excitement in Austin around the landmark Oscar win. After all, SXSW was the first festival to take Daniels seriously, awarding them top prize for their Battles music video (“My Machines”) in 2012.

Will any of the movies or directors screening here this year go on to change film history?

With five days still to go at SXSW, the juries convened to present the winners.

Narrative feature honors went to writer-director Paris Zarcilla’s “Raging Grace.” On the surface, the tense story of an undocumented Filipina house cleaner and...

Arian Vazirdaftari, whose debut feature “Without Her” (“Bi roya”) was picked up by Berlin-based sales company Picture Tree Intl. and is screening as part of Venice Film Festival’s Horizons Extra section, is no stranger to international festivals. He was a part of Berlinale Talent Campus and his short films screened in Busan, Brussels and Cannes among many others.

“I started as a self-taught filmmaker and only landed in film school many years later,” Vazirdaftari says. “My international experiences really helped. I got to know a more professional atmosphere globally, learned about what’s going on in film festivals, how films are selected and distributed.

“There are so many films and filmmakers around the world, so I knew that if I wanted to succeed internationally, I had to have something really special to make a movie about. These experiences made me tougher.”

In “Without Her,” the main protagonist Roya is...

Th 47th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has selected its Industry Selects, a section of ten audience friendly films up for global acquisition. In addition it was announced that Jason Reitman’s Live Read is returning to the Festival for an all-star event featuring a surprise cast; the filmmaker presenting a surprise screenplay in honor of his late father, Ivan Reitman.

“We’ve worked to build a selection that will appeal to buyers as well as audiences,’’ said Norm Wilner, Programmer, Digital Releasing and Industry Selects. “We aim to celebrate new voices and showcase international talent, in line with the Festival’s global spirit.”

“We’re delighted to present these director-driven and audience-engaging sales titles from around the world to international buyers who rely on our festival to strengthen their upcoming film slate,” added Geoff Macnaughton, Senior Director, Industry and Theatrical. “Fostering sales at the Festival is a key part of our mandate,...

Picture Tree Intl. has acquired Iranian genre crossover feature “Without Her,” and will introduce the film to buyers during the upcoming European Film Market at its Marriot Hotel located office in Berlin. The film’s trailer is debuting with Variety (below).

In Arian Vazirdaftari’s feature debut, Roya is getting ready to emigrate from Iran when she meets a quiet young woman who appears lost and doesn’t remember anything. Roya takes her in, providing her with a home and introducing her to her husband, family and friends – all the while blissfully unaware that this woman has come to replace her.

The storyline of a woman losing her identity dives into the genre tradition of Hitchcock, Polanski and De Palma, while connecting it with the tradition of social realism in Iranian cinema, Picture Tree Intl. said in a statement, with gripping performances from Iranian actors Tannaz Tabatabaei, Saber Abar and Shadi Karamroudi.