Festivals

Saudi Arabia will be witnessing cinematic history this week with the opening of its first international film festival, the Red Sea Film Festival. But the path to this momentous occasion has been paved with challenges and obstacles on many levels, national and international.

After a two-year absence due to the Covid pandemic, an estimated 40. 000 fans celebrated the return of Comic-Con to the San Diego Convention Center.

Four HFPA members – Lena Basse, Yukiko Nakajima, Janet Nepales and Ruben Nepales – answered that question and discussed related matters, including recent reforms to the Association, in a panel discussion presented by the Asian World Film Festival (AWFF) in conjunction with its November festival program. Rick Ambros, a media and entertainment consultant and producer, moderated the forum, part of AWFF’s series of panel discussions,  held in person at the Landmark Theatres in Los Angeles.

The third time is the charm: so the old adage goes, and that’s certainly been the case for the long-awaited, twice-delayed 68th annual Sydney Film Festival, which opened November 3 at the iconic Sydney State Theatre with a packed house watching Western Sydney-set drama, Here Out West.   The prestigious festival – which was canceled altogether in 2020 due to Covid – usually takes place in June each year, but this year was initially pushed back to August in line with delays from other major festivals, including Cannes.

It’s that time of the year, when Hollywood pays renewed attention to Asian cinema thanks to the Asian World Film Festival, now celebrating its 7th edition and steadily growing thanks to the tireless efforts of West African-born, Lebanon and France-educated Georges N. Chamchoum, the Festival's Executive and Program Director.

When a fire broke out at the site of the El Gouna film festival a day before it was due to start its 5th edition, many Egyptians celebrated on social media, describing the fire as divine intervention. The organizers refused to resign to God’s will and embarked on a renovation project that entailed employing 3,000 workers around the clock.

John Carpenter's Starman, David Cronenberg's The Fly, George Romero's  Dawn of the Dead, and Roberto Rossellini’s Voyage to Italy have something in common according to Italian director Luca Guadagnino: they are among his favorite films ever. An odd aesthetic choice for the acclaimed author of the 2017 delicate gay romance and intimate portrait Call Me by Your Name, nominated for three Golden Globes, including Best Picture Drama, and one Oscar nominee for Best Picture, and the film that launched the career of Timothée Chalamet among its many values.

The Guilty stars Jake Gyllenhaal in a remake of the 2019 Danish Oscar entry, Den Skylidge about a 911 dispatcher in a race against time as he endeavors to save a kidnapped woman. In this rendition, a woman (Riley Keough) is held captive in a moving van on an LA highway.

A stirring autobiographical examination of the long shadows of familial neglect and violence, director Gian Cassini’s Comala uses the 2010 murder of his estranged father to explore trauma left undiscussed and truths left unsaid. A world premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, the movie deftly sidesteps any type of pat true crime framing of its details, slowly developing into something much more delicate, ruminative, and haunting.