Festivals

The South East European Film Festival founder Vera Mijojlic is a passionate cinephile. After witnessing the disintegration of Yugoslavia, followed by a brutal war of the 1990s, she devoted her energy to building bridges.

Cannes is – maybe more than any other festival – where art and commerce meet. Nothing proves this more than this year’s lineup of in and out of competition films, unveiled this morning by the festival’s director Thierry Fremaux and incoming president Iris Knobloch.

Amidst all the film events around the world, there was a special one that caught my attention. First, it had been mentioned to me by a friend in tech.

It's known as the Italian Sundance for short-films, an annual showcase of precious little gems up in the mountains and under the snow: Cortinametraggio is as interesting as its beautiful surrounding, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the “pearl of the Dolomites,” in the Italian Alps. Cortinametraggio – a word play on Cortina and cortometraggio, or short-length movie, wrapped its 18th edition on March 25th 2023, with unequivocal success.

Finnish filmmaker Hanna Västinsalo attended the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s and Film Independent’s residency program earlier this year with her movie Palimpsest.  Her background in molecular genetics gives her film a unique point of view.

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.

Some people get a job. Others earn one.

One of the many standout films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Adura Onashile’s feature debut Girl. The film follows the mother-daughter unit Grace and Ama as they try to adapt to life in Scotland after escaping unspeakable violence in their native Republic of the Congo.

When the animated film Suzume was accepted in competition for the 73rd Berlin Film Festival, its creator Makoto Shinkai, took the unusual step of releasing a press release to thank all who made this possible. “At its core, Suzume is based on the massive disaster that occurred in Japan twelve years ago.