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When Thierry Frémaux recently spoke to HFPA journalists, he touched on a wide range of subjects, from cinema to his twin lifelong passion for Judo and cycling.   Especially close to his heart are the two festivals he directs: the Lumière Film Festival, devoted to classic and restored films, which is held in Lyon each October, and of course the Cannes Film festival.

The Fourth of July weekend ended with a bang on several fronts. For the first time in the pandemic era, all top 10 movies in the North American box office chart made more than $1 million.

As the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival gets underway, the view is very different from all the decades when the hustle and bustle started at least a week before the opening. It is truly a new era, a not quite post-pandemic one.

Rachel Weisz spoke to HFPA journalists about her Jewish parents who fled to England to escape the Nazi occupation of their countries during World War II, when we first interviewed her in 1997, then in 1999 and 2001. “My parents were born in Eastern Europe, my mother in Vienna and my father in Budapest.

In today’s culture, where endless virtue signaling and the perpetual outrage machine of social media co-exist alongside authentically distressing news stories, it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish between considered, sincere disapproval or agitation and performative offense. But in 1995, Larry Clark’s Kids, starring a blend of unknown and non-professional actors, provoked genuine scandalous reactions.

The historical path of Iranian cinema from the East India Company film studios in India where the very first Iranian films were made, to major European film festivals, has been long and winding and indicative of the social and cultural history of Iran. Talking about Iranian cinema at a press conference with the HFPA, director Asghar Farhadi rightly pointed out, “There’s a great deal of talent in that region.

Sarah-Kate Lynch is the creator of the eight-part thriller The Sounds. The story revolves around a grieving Canadian woman, whose husband has gone missing after a boating trip in New Zealand, where the couple intended to create a new life together.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association today announced new eligibility guidelines for future Golden Globe Award shows and events, recognizing the diversity of excellence in the world by elevating foreign language films as candidates for its top award.   Every year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association examines its Golden Globes guidelines, considering new ways to celebrate connections of culture through film, television, and streaming platforms.

Filipino-American filmmaker Isabel Sandoval found her voice as an artist when she was making and editing Lingua Franca, a film about an undocumented Filipina trans woman who works as a caregiver for an elderly Russian woman in Brooklyn. Sandoval tells HFPA journalist Janet Nepales that she was truly intuitive during the process.

A world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, where filmmaker CJ Hunt was feted with a Special Jury Mention for Best New Documentary Director, The Neutral Ground is a timely, remarkable, and engaging work of social inquisitiveness. The film is set for a limited theatrical run in advance of its national broadcast premiere across PBS stations, to be followed by a period of exclusive streaming.