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Lebanon’s history has been marked by World Wars, famine, and the League of Nations French Mandate. Since its independence in 1943, Lebanon has seen civil war, occupation, political turmoil, and the massive influx of Palestinian refugees – and healthy production of films.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association on Monday continued its transformation into a reimagined organization with the appointment of three external advisors who will select the group tasked with reviewing new member applicants in the coming weeks. “The creation of an Advisory Board comprised primarily of outside professionals is intended to provide an independent voice in our new member selection process starting with the selection process of the members of the Credentials Committee,” said HFPA President Helen Hoehne.

Dune, Denis Villeneuve’s well-received feature adaptation of roughly the first half of Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction novel, debuted impressively in the international market, especially in Russia, Italy, Germany, and France. The movie, which premiered at the recent Venice Film Festival, amassed $35.

In 2001 Reese Witherspoon talked to the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press about playing Elle Wood in Legally Blonde directed by Richard Luketic. “When I read the script, I thought that this really needed a director with a great visual style and sense of humor, and when I sat down with Robert Luketic, he was so charming and he had all these wonderful ideas about what to do with the visual side of the story.

Australian director Phil Noyce was, like most of the world, stuck in lockdown during the first Covid wave when he read Chris Sparling’s script for Lakewood. The nerve-rattling thriller follows a mother (Naomi Watts) racing desperately against time to save her child.

In January 1973, 23-year-old MTA worker Shu’aib Raheem led a group of four young Black Muslims into a Brooklyn sporting goods store with the intent of stealing some guns. They would be cornered before they could escape, and a shootout and high-profile hostage standoff of nearly 48 hours would ensue.

Benedict Cumberbatch is pulling double duty at TIFF. Already the talk of Venice with The Power of The Dog - (co-starring Kirsten Dunst and Jess Plemons) which won the Best Director award for Jane Campion.

Oscar and Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Eva Orner was visiting her family in Australia in the summer of 2019/20 when catastrophic bushfires broke out across the country. Australia has always been a continent ravaged by fire.

Julia opens to the raucous, back-and-forth guitar licks of Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire” — a decidedly unanticipated and seemingly outside-the-box choice for co-directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s genial nonfiction assaying of author and celebrity chef Julia Child, which otherwise trades largely in traditional rhythms, and unfolds in expected ways. But then again, maybe, given its lyrical evocation of “only one burning desire,” it appropriately captures the singular passion of its subject.

In the olden days, actors were expected to be all-around performers. Singing and dancing were requirements that even those we think of as heavy dramatic actors were forced to learn.