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Starting as a refugee and rising all the way to award-winning film star and now into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Zain Al Rafeea has done a lot at 17 years old. With only two acting roles under his belt, Zain has managed to catapult himself and his family into a new life.

Spin Time, Sabina Guzzanti's new documentary about the have-nots in our society and their ongoing struggle for a roof over their head, is just the latest example of how the international film community is starting to deal with these issues, both in fiction and in non-fiction. It is not insignificant that the most talked about TV series of the moment is the Korean Squid Game, an unsettling depiction of what desperation and poverty can force a person to do in a capitalistic and unequal society; and the fact that the Oscar winners for Best Film of the last two years have been 2019s Parasite, a tragicomedy hinging on the disparity of income and the quality of life in a big city, and last year’s Nomadland, the story of a woman abandoning the remains of a life lived in the hamster's wheel of conventional prosperity and embracing a nomadic existence off the grid.

“You could summarize Spin Time as a documentary about the poor as you've never seen them before,” says Italian author, stand-up comedian and satirist Sabina Guzzanti, known internationally for her 2005 documentary Viva Zapatero! Her new film, Spin Time, subtitled How Tiring Democracy Is!, had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival last September and will be screened in New York in early December. “The film portrays the world of the invisible poor, who refuse to play the victims here,” says Guzzanti, who is famous in Italy for her parodies and hilarious impressions of Italian politicians (her Berlusconi is a classic).

Kenneth Branagh’s wistful homage to his childhood in Northern Ireland arrives on the big screen in the form of the semi-autobiographical movie, Belfast. Written and directed by Branagh, the story chronicles the life of a working-class family in the late 1960s in a narrative set against the backdrop of social tumult during the Northern Ireland Conflict.

Four HFPA members – Lena Basse, Yukiko Nakajima, Janet Nepales and Ruben Nepales – answered that question and discussed related matters, including recent reforms to the Association, in a panel discussion presented by the Asian World Film Festival (AWFF) in conjunction with its November festival program. Rick Ambros, a media and entertainment consultant and producer, moderated the forum, part of AWFF’s series of panel discussions,  held in person at the Landmark Theatres in Los Angeles.

The third time is the charm: so the old adage goes, and that’s certainly been the case for the long-awaited, twice-delayed 68th annual Sydney Film Festival, which opened November 3 at the iconic Sydney State Theatre with a packed house watching Western Sydney-set drama, Here Out West.   The prestigious festival – which was canceled altogether in 2020 due to Covid – usually takes place in June each year, but this year was initially pushed back to August in line with delays from other major festivals, including Cannes.

Women made up 39% of directors in 2020. While that number reflects gender gains in the field when placed in the perspective of the fact that women make up 51% of the general population – not so much.

Eternals, the first Marvel movie from director Chloe Zhao, scored as the second biggest worldwide bow of a Hollywood release this year. The movie about an immortal race of superheroes who made an impact on the Earth’s history and civilizations, and starring Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, and Salma Hayek, debuted on top in all major overseas markets with international and global hauls of $90.

Clive Owen was interviewed by the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press for the first time in 2003 in London when he spoke about Beyond Borders directed by Martin Campbell, co-starring Angelina Jolie. “I had a strong immediate and instinctive response to the script, I thought it was an important film, so powerful, and a fantastic part.

Long-time HFPA member Dierk Sindermann passed away on Nov. 3, 2021, after a six-month battle with brain cancer.