Global Cinema

The 18th Osaka Asian Film Festival kicked off in this port city just a few days before the triumphant win for Everything Everywhere All at Once at the Oscars in Los Angeles. OAFF 2020, 2021, 2022 had been held in-person without guest stage appearances.

The Tromsø Film Festival, in northern Norway, ran from January 16th to the 21st. It celebrated its 33rd edition and exhibited approximately 160 films, with 90 of them showing in the main program.

According to the Indian publication Business India, there is a juggernaut of movies from South India that has taken over the Indian box office as Bollywood films are turning out to be a “feeble competitor. ” Quoting a CII South Media & Entertainment report, Business India reports that 62% of the all-India box office collections of movies in 2021 came from South Indian films and the trend is getting stronger.

East Side Story As India celebrates the 75th anniversary of its independence, here’s a look back at the history of Indian cinema through the eyes of Uday Singh, managing director of the Motion Picture Association’s India office and an industry veteran of 26 years. Singh was interviewed by email.

New Zealand's early film industry was small and mostly focused on documentaries. The government made films featuring the country’s stunning landscapes to promote tourism.

The 1923 establishment of Turkey as a Republic delivered the coup de gråce to the Ottoman Empire, and the country’s president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, encouraged culture and art. The first free elections were held in 1950.

Wars, upheavals, changing politics, all have shaped filmmaking in Iraq. In 1909 the country’s first film project took place, but it was not seemingly in the Iraqi’s DNA to indulge in cinema.

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 history of Syrian cinema is inextricably linked to its political history beginning in 1920 when the French took colonial control, forcing King Faisal to leave the country. Under their rule, many theatres were built in Damascus, but they screened primarily French films.

Egypt is among the oldest producers of films in the world. Egyptian cinema was born in 1896 when the Lumière Brothers’ screened a short film in Alexandria, only a year after its premiere in France.