News

The immense fortitude of the female gender was on rich display throughout this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, from well-received narrative features like The Woman King and Women Talking to the gripping documentary In Her Hands, which details two years in the fraught existence of one of the few female mayors in Afghanistan, and by far the youngest. “This is Zarifa Ghafari’s story, but also the story of so many other women in Afghanistan.

Survival of the fittest is the perfect way to describe my inaugural trip to La Biennale di Venezia, better known as the Venice Film Festival, on the Lido di Venezia, Italy. I spent nearly two full weeks in Venice.

Only in the movies can we root for liars, cheats and thieves to succeed in their endeavors to commit a crime. It is the unusual paradox of the heist film, from Oceans 11 to Dog Day Afternoon, from The Sting to Reservoir Dogs, where the hero is someone who should be behind bars but as the audience, we cheer on his lawlessness.

At the northwest corner of Hollywood and Highland Boulevards stands a behemoth commonplace strip mall through which movie stars walk to access the Dolby Theater, home of the Oscars. But over a hundred and twenty years ago, on that location on Prospect Avenue, as Hollywood Boulevard was then known, was the Hotel Hollywood, a gracious building erected in December 1902 by the “Father of Hollywood,” real estate developer H.

In recent years, the film industry has made strides in showcasing female voices on and off screen. The 79th Venice Film Festival was no exception.

Taylor Swift is the only woman in history to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year three times, tying for the most wins alongside Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon. She’s a singer, songwriter, producer, actor, and director and - as her TIFF premiere of All Too Well: A Short Film announces to the world - a really gifted filmmaker.

Kompromat is the new number 1 in the French box office. Directed by Jérôme Salle with Gilles Lellouche, Joanna Kulig, and Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, the movie is about a French diplomat victim of a “Kompromat” - forged compromising documents used by the Russian secret services to harm an enemy of the state.

After 34 films, Steven Spielberg finally broke down. Not emotionally but cinematically.

Documentarian Gabriela Cowperthwaite is no stranger to danger stemming from upsetting those in powerful and moneyed positions. Her 2013 film Blackfish, which detailed the systemic abuse of captive orcas at SeaWorld, and involved no small amount of clandestine shooting, brought plenty of threats her way.

Spanning nineteen years, The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone reveals the memories of Georgie Stone, an Australian transgender teen as she helps change laws, affirms her gender, finds her voice, and emerges into adulthood. Australian director Maya Newell – whose 2013 documentary, Gayby Baby, followed four children of LGBQTI families –  began filming Georgie and her family six years ago, after hearing about her advocacy and wanting to document the teenager’s point of view.