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Evgenia Dodina and Martin Ogbu in Mama. Or Sinai on the migrant workers she spoke to when researching her script: 'They build these temporary identities – her life is full, even in Israel' Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival

The two worlds of a Polish migrant worker are explored in Or Sinai’s impressive debut film Mama. Mila (Evgenia Dodina), works for an upper middle-class couple in Israel, a long-standing arrangement which has also seen her strike up an affair with the gardener (Martin Ogbu), but after a minor accident, she is sent home to Poland to recuperate, where she finds reconnecting with her husband (Arkadiusz Jakubik) and young adult daughter Kasia (Katarzyna Łubik) is not as simple as she had hoped. Sinai’s film explores familial love and the stresses placed upon it by migrant work from an unusual angle that retains sympathy for all the characters involved. We caught...

“Mama,” director Or Sinai’s first narrative feature, proves the filmmaker as a keen character observer. Inspired by stories she heard from migrant Eastern European women working in Israel, the film follows Mila (Evgenia Dodina), a housekeeper for a rich family providing for those she left back in Poland. When an unexpected accident forces her home, she discovers that her family doesn’t need her as much as she thought they did. But while “Mama” is a revelatory character study of a fascinating woman, it resorts a few too many times to melodramatic flourishes that undercut where its power lies.

Above all, Sinai’s film is a social drama, concerned with its characters’ economic plight and attuned to what rights are denied to them. Mila is first shown in the big, lavish house owned by the family she serves. Her position there becomes apparent to the audience by the dismissive,...

While current topics tend to occupy our attention and drain the creative juices of the filmmakers trying to stay on top of the trends, others, more universal ones, often get neglected for a period of time. Sometimes, only sometimes, the most authentic and universal things remain hidden in plain sight, often behind a generic title. Both of the claims from previous sentences stand firmly in the only Israeli-led co-production at this year’s Cannes, Mama, which premiered in Cannes Special programme.

For her first fiction feature, Or Sinai reunites with Evgenia Dodina, the lead actress of her award-winning short Anna (2015). Dodina steps in the titular role of Mila, the main breadwinner for her Polish family. We meet her in Israel, where she works for a wealthy couple, Yaffa (Cheli Goldenberg) and Gideon (Meir Swisa), as a housekeeper. At the moment, she is also having a clumsy, but gentle fling with.

Exclusive: Italy’s TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has selected 10 projects for the 2025 edition of its FeatureLab training programme, for first or second film projects at an advanced development stage.

The 2025 edition comprises 10 fiction projects, selected from 179 applications. Six of the projects are debut features, with four second works.

Scroll down for full list of projects

Among the 10 projects selected this year are The Dog Trainer by Argentinian director Federico Luis, whose debut Simón de la Montaña won the Grand Prix at Cannes’ Critics Week in 2024, and is now collaborating with Chilean producer Fernando Bascuñán.

Also taking part is The Passion Of Angela...

Cannes parallel section Directors’ Fortnight has added Israeli director Nadav Lapid’s Yes! (Ken!) to its 2025 selection.

Set in the aftermath of the October 7, Hamas attacks on Israel, the film revolves around a struggling jazz musician, and his wife Jasmine, a dancer, who give their art, souls, and bodies to the highest bidder, bringing pleasure and consolation to their bleeding country.

This endeavor sees the jazz musician entrusted with a mission of the utmost importance: to set a new national anthem to music.

The cast features Ariel Bronz, Efrat Dor, Naama Preis and Alexey Serebryakov.

The film is produced by Judith Lou Lévy at Les Films du Bal, and Hugo Sélignac & Antoine Lafon at Chi-Fou-Mi Productions.

Co-Producers are Thomas Alfandari at Bustan Films (Israel); Janine Teerling and Marios Piperides at Amp Filmworks (Cyprus), as well as Janine Jackowski, Jonas Dombach and Maren Ade at Komplizen Film (Germany) as well Arte France Cinéma,...

With the Toronto International Film Festival wrapping up today, they’ve handed out their award winners. While our top picks will be arriving shortly, the big winner of the festival was Damien Chazelle‘s La La Land, which won the People’s Choice Awards, while Raoul Peck‘s I Am Not Your Negro won on the documentary side. Other winners include Free Fire in the Midnight Madness category and Jackie in the Platform section, which is in its second year.

Check out the full press release below.

The short film awards below were selected by a jury comprised of American filmmaker Abteen Bagheri (That B.E.A.T.), French filmmaker Eva Husson (Bang Gang), and Canadian filmmaker Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls).

Short Cuts Award For Best Canadian Short Film

The Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film goes to Alexandre Dostie’s Mutants. The jury remarked, “Mutants...

The third cascade of world premieres in 15 days flowed from the headquarters of the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday as programmers revealed their Midnight Madness, Tiff Docs, Vanguard, Tiff Cinematheque and Short Cuts selections.

This week’s offering includes Ben Wheatley’s all-star gangster thriller Free Fire, which opens Midnight Madness one year after the premiere of the British auteur’s High-Rise; fast-rising Chadwick Boseman in revenge thriller Message From The King in Vanguard and a Tiff Docs strand that features climate change documentary The Turning Point, featuring and produced by Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio.

The 41st Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8 to 18.

Wp = world premiere, IP = international premiere, Nap = North American premiere, Cp = Canadian premiere, Tp = Toronto premiere.

Midnight Madness

Ben Wheatley’s all-star gunfight Free Fire starring Brie Larson, Armie Hammer and Cillian Murphy will open the section, which includes Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Rats, Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch, André Øvredal’s [link...

Japanese director Naomi Kawase led the jury at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

The Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury headed by Naomi Kawase and including Marie-Josée Croze, Jean-Marie Larrieu, Radu Muntean and Santiago Loza, has awarded the 2016 Cinéfondation Prizes during a ceremony held in the Buñuel Theatre, followed by the screening of the winning films.

The Cinéfondation Selection consisted of 18 student films, chosen out of 2 350 entries coming from 548 film schools around the world.

First Prize:

Anna

directed by Or Sinai

The Sam Spiegel Film & TV School, Israel

Second Prize:

In The Hills

directed by Hamid Ahmadi

The London Film School, United Kingdom

Joint Third Prize:

A NYALINTÁS Nesze

directed by Nadja Andrasev

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Hungary

Joint Third Prize:

La Culpa, Probablemente

directed by Michael Labarca

Universidad de Los Andes, Venezuela

Cannes Film Festival allocates a €15,000 grant for the First Prize, €11,250 for the Second and €7,500 for the Third.

The winner...