Film

Wolfgang Petersen, the German director whose film credits include Das Boot, a 1982 Golden Globe nominee for Best Picture -- Non-English Language (formerly Foreign Language), died in his house in Brentwood, Los Angeles, on Friday, August 12, 2022.  He was 81.

In 1972, Diana Ross, then better known to the public as the topliner of the Supremes, burst on the movie scene with a stunning performance in Lady Sings the Blues, a biopic of the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday. For that splashy feature debut, Ross earned two Golden Globe nominations, for Best Actress in a Motion Picture-Drama and for Most Promising Newcomer-Female, winning the latter.

While many of the biggest horror films of the past century were made in America, the horror film genre was not actually born in the United States. French director Georges Melies' 1896 short The House of the Devil is often credited as the first ‘horror’ movie.

“Stories about us, that are written and directed by us, are, of course, going to hold a deeper meaning. And by us, I mean ethnic filmmakers,” said Dionysio Basco about The Fabulous Filipino Brothers, a film which he and his siblings – Dante, Derek, and Darion – and their parents, grandparents, children, aunts, uncles, and cousins made and acted in.

Hallelujah, a pre-Code feature, is considered to be the first all-Black musical. Remarkably, the innovative director King Vidor was able to make a rather "personal" project within the studio system, despite initially strong discouragement of MGM’s conservative heads.

Nine-time Golden Globe nominee and three-time winner, the late legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone is the subject of a documentary directed by Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso) simply entitled Ennio. The film tells of the life and art of one of the greatest film composers of all time, bringing his genius and endearing personality to the audience, spotlighting his humanity and his fascination with the mystery of music.

John Waters, nicknamed by some as “the Pope of Trash,” rose to fame with a series of shaggy, amateurish, Baltimore-set features which later became cult works offering a distinctive perspective on American life. Suburban habits and customs are his targets, his pleasure dome.

Keanu Reeves reprises his iconic role as Neo in The Matrix Resurrections (2021), the much-awaited follow-up to The Matrix (1999) directed by Lana Wachowski. Keanu launched his Neo in the first movie of the franchise, The Matrix in 1999, and its two sequels released six months apart in 2003, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, written and directed by the Wachowskis, costarring Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity and Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus.

A group of refugees is dropped off at the Turkish-Bulgarian border by a rough smuggler. As they enter Europe under cover of darkness, the group is set upon by armed border guards.

Award-winning Czech animator and film director, Michaela Pavlátová brings her latest offering in the form of My Sunny Maad, based on the novel “Frista. ”   The film follows the adventures of a young Czech woman, Herra, who is led by her heart when she leaves her home country for the man she loves.