Beldocs Festival Chief Holds Minute’s Silence for Victims of Mass Shootings in Serbia Ahead of Festival Opening in Belgrade

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The 25th Shanghai International Film Festival, June 9 to 18, has unveiled the titles in contention for awards in its four main feature-length sections: main competition, Asian New Talent, Animation film and documentary. These are eligible for the festival’s prestigious Golden Goblet Awards, winners of which will be announced at the Shanghai Grand Theater on the evening of June 17. While SIFF remains the only mainland China festival to be accredited as a so-called A-list event by the International Federation of Film Producers (FIAPF), its selections are largely separate and distinct from those at other major international festivals.

Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) has unveiled the major competition selections for its 25th edition (June 9-18), which will be the first to be held in a fully physical format with international guests since before the pandemic. 

Fulham manager Marco Silva doesn't believe Aleksandar Mitrovic will be any more motivated to face Manchester United on Sunday because of the red card he received when the sides last met.

Oops! Heidi Klum accidentally revealed more than she wanted to at the 76th annual Cannes Film Festival.

Room 999, one of the films premiering in the Cannes Classics section of the Cannes Film Festival, poses the question of whether cinema is dying, a casualty of the digital age, streaming platforms and other factors. 

Tara Karajica The 16th edition of Beldocs Intl. Documentary Film Festival has awarded its top prizes to “ThIIIrd,” from Lebanese helmer Karim Kassim, in the International Competition Program, and Tijana Petrović’s “A Field Guide to Coastal Fortifications” in the Serbian competition program. “ThIIIrd” is set in an auto repair shop in Lebanon, which is a haven for people to express their growing despair amidst the economic collapse that surrounds them. Fest was generally applauded for strong competition selections that, according to the event’s programmer Igor Stanojević, put a special focus on visually striking films and fresh expressions by new authors with around 100 films across 12 programs, including nine world premieres, and a notable presence of female directors.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The U.K.’s London Indian Film Festival and Birmingham Indian Film Festival will work together to present a two-city, two-part panoply of feature and short films, kicking off next month with “The Storyteller.” Directed by Ananth Mahadevan, “The Storyteller” sees Adil Hussain play a Gujarati businessman who believes that once physical wealth is accumulated, happiness will follow, but this proves not to be the case. Paresh Rawal plays the titular storyteller. The film is based on a story by the late, great Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray and contrasts the pursuit of material wealth with that of intellectual knowledge. Hussain, co-star Tannishtha Chatterjee and Mahadevan are expected to be on hand for Q&A sessions on June 22 at BFI Southbank and on June 23 at MAC Birmingham.

Heidi Klum accidentally exposed herself during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. During the red carpet event, Klum, 49, stepped out in a daring yellow dress and truly flaunted it all.  The German and American supermodel stunned in a Zuhair Murad high-slit gown with diamond-shaped cut-out designs on top, showed off major skin and topped off her look with bejeweled beads embellished on the shoulders of her flowing cape. Klum accessorized with large diamond rings, a pair of clear heels and her blonde hair flowed over her shoulder.

Gurinder Chadha revealed that Harrison Ford had an unknowing effect on her ability to get UK hit film Bend it Like Beckham off the ground when she made it two decades ago. At the time, the director was struggling to get financing from any of the UK public film funding bodies so she could make her now treasured film about a young British-Indian girl with a talent for soccer but whose family wouldn’t permit her to play.  

The ladies of Aespa just made their Cannes Film Festival debut!

EXCLUSIVE: Avital Onn-Shachar, who oversaw legal and business affairs for series such as Apple’s Suspicion and HBO’s Our Boys, is leaving Keshet International to establish her own venture.

Eight feature documentaries and eight short docs have been selected as finalists for the 16th Doc Alliance Awards, presented by the Doc Alliance – the association of European documentary festivals.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Kirsten Niehuus, CEO at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, which funds films and TV series production in the Berlin region, and Simone Baumann, managing director of German Films, which promotes and supports the release of German films abroad, welcomed a wide array of guests to their garden party at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday. Three Medienboard-funded films are in this year’s Competition: Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s “Four Daughters,” Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner’s “Club Zero,” and U.S. helmer Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City.” Niehuus told Variety: “Those are three very different productions, but it shows the spectrum [of films] that Medienboard supports.” Tunisian films, like “Four Daughters,” need international co-production funding to get made, she said, and “we believe in world cinema, so were very happy [to back it].” Hausner is “one of the most impressive female filmmakers [in the world], and I think there should be more female filmmakers on the Croisette and every other ‘A’ festival,” she said. “Asteroid City” is “the best of American arthouse filmmaking; very stylish, with a great narrative – so we love it,” she said.

EXCLUSIVE: Henry Ford’s failed industrial town in the Amazon Rainforest is the backdrop of a supernatural Brazilian TV drama.

The CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator today announced the projects that will take part in the sixth edition of the prestigious training program for women-identifying nonfiction filmmakers. 

In “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” the sturdy lark, positioned precariously in the liminal space between commerce and taste, there are the familiar callbacks, the big set pieces, the cracking bullwhip, dashing fedoras, nefarious Nazis, exotic locales, old friends and new faces. Something, however, is missing.

Viewers have been asking the same question during the Eurovision Song Contest, as singers Teya and Salena provided the the ultimate pop earworm with the catchy Who The Hell is Edgar? But who is Edgar?

Eurovision 2023 entry Luke Black has spoken to NME about what went into his “cyber-punk, hyper-pop” song ‘Samo Mi Se Spava’ – and how he hopes it “sends a wake-up call” to viewers and his home nation.Black’s dramatic entry made it through the semi-finals earlier this week to be competing in the grand final in Liverpool tonight (Saturday May 13). With the song’s title translating to ‘I’m Just Sleepy’ and the chorus ‘I just wanna sleep forever, I like it better when I dream‘, the Grimes and Bring Me The Horizon-esque ‘Samo Mi Se Spava’ was born of the artist feeling uneasy with the state of the world.“I had an initial idea of a mantra before the pandemic saying, ‘I just want to sleep for a long time’,” Black told NME from backstage at Eurovision 2023.

Comedian Jason Manford has been hit with heartbreak just months before his Nan's milestone birthday. The comedian shared a poignant video as he updated fans.

De Gea replacement