Soudade Kaadan

A month after the 7. 8 earthquake in Syria and Turkey, we talked to Syrian filmmaker Soudade Kaadan, whose filmography is dedicated to exploring her country devastated by an over a decade-long war.

As part of the 2023 HFPA Residency program, participating film makers introduced their films at a Los Angeles screening, followed by a Q&A moderated by an HFPA journalist.   LA-based Azeri actor/director Tahmina Raffaella screened Banu, an affecting chronicle of a woman’s quest to obtain a divorce and custody of her son, along with a personal emancipation from an abusive marriage, in a lonely struggle against the patriarchal mores that stack the game against her.

(Conclusion of a two-part series on women filmmakers in the 79th Venice International Film Festival)   Horizons (Orizzonti) Four films by three women filmmakers made it to the 18-film slate of Horizons or just 22% are female directors.   The Happiest Man in the World – Teona Strugar Mitevska   Teona Strugar Mitevska is a Macedonian director and screenwriter who began her career as an art director.