Iranian Independent Filmmaker Assn. Decries Iran’s Int’l Picture Oscar Entry; Calls On Film Academy To Consider Alternative Non-Regime Submission

Ellise Shafer This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, who is currently imprisoned for advocating for women’s rights in the country. “This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran with with its undisputed leader, Narges Mohammadi,” Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen said on Friday, according to the Associated Press.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Variety has been given access to the international trailer for animated film “The Peasants,” which is Poland’s entry for the international feature category of the Academy Awards. The film had its world premiere in the Special Presentation section of Toronto Film Festival last month, and screens next week at the London Film Festival.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam has revealed its lineups for the competitions for short documentary and youth documentary, as well as the rosters for its Best of Fests section and its newly minted Signed section. In total, 100 films have been included in the IDFA program to date. In addition, IDFA Forum, the festival’s co-production and co-financing market, has expanded to a total of 64 projects, including seven by Ukrainian filmmakers.

The indie drama City of Wind, marking the feature directorial debut of Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, has been set as Mongolia’s International Feature Oscar entry for 2024.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Gael Garcia Bernal is set to preside over the jury of the upcoming Rome Film Festival. The Mexican actor, director and producer will be judging entries and bestowing prizes in the rebooted fest’s main section, which is now known as Progressive Cinema. Films competing for Rome prizes include Spanish director Isabel Coixet’s “Un Amor,” about a young woman socially and sexually exploited by a rural patriarchy; Iranian director Farhad Delaram, in which a former filmmaker turned medic decides to help a female political prisoner escape from a psych ward; and French director Mehdi Fikri’s “After The Fire,” which turns on a French woman of North African descent who seeks justice after her younger brother dies suspiciously after being stopped by the police.

Roger Waters has released a statement criticising a new documentary that makes him out to be anti-Semitic.The documentary The Dark Side of Roger Waters explores allegations of anti-Semitism against the Pink Floyd co-founder and was released this week by UK-based advocacy group Campaign Against Antisemitism.Waters mentions that the filmmakers approached him for comment earlier this month but he declined. Now, however, he has given his verdict on it in a lengthy post on his website.“All my life I have used the platform my career has given me to support causes I believe in.

Sony Pictures has snapped up rights in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand to The Peasants, the latest animated feature from Loving Vincent helmers DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman, which world premiered in Special Presentations at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. Further details on release plans have not yet been disclosed.

EXCLUSIVE: Carmen Jaquier and Mohamed Kordofani, a pair of fast-rising international filmmakers whose respective films Thunder and Goodbye Julia have both recently been submitted for International Feature Oscar consideration, have signed with Jewerl Ross at Silent R Management.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Live Nation’s “On the Road Again” plan, announced Tuesday, says it will deliver “tens of millions of dollars” for artists and touring crews by by providing $1,500 in gas and travel cash per show to all headliners and support acts, on top of nightly performance compensation, at venues the company owns, operates or exclusively books. Those clubs will also charge no merchandise-selling fees, so artists keep 100% of merch profits.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi has launched an impassioned appeal for production designer Leila Naghdipari to be released from jail following her recent arrest during demonstrations marking the one year anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death. Naghdipari was one of hundreds of Iranians arrested on Sept.

Angelique Jackson A Touch More, the production company founded by world-renowned athletes Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe, has announced the hiring of industry veteran Camille Bernier-Green as its head of development. Last December, Variety exclusively revealed that Bird, a five-time Olympic gold medalist and basketball legend, and Rapinoe, a two-time FIFA World Cup-winning soccer superstar, would expand their influence beyond sports and launch the production company in partnership with Togethxr.

Iran has submitted Reza Mirkarimi’s The Night Guardian for Best International Film category at the 96th Academy Awards, in a move that will likely prompt pushback from the country’s dissident film community.

SHAYDA

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Iranian director Farhad Delaram was in the midst of shooting his subversive road movie “Achilles” when Mahsa Amini died in Tehran on Sept. 16, 2022, while being detained for allegedly violating the country’s hijab law that mandates covered hair. Amini’s death triggered months of nationwide demonstrations and riots under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom.” The ongoing protests mark the most serious challenge to the country’s regime since the Islamic Republic was founded in 1979.

Struggling with weight can increase your risk of developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), according to recent research. A study also found that those who stick to a healthy vegetable-based diet as less likely to be suffer the metabolic disease later in life.

The Clinton Global Initiative next week will feature a session on protecting freedom of the press, with a focus on Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been held in Russia for more than 160 days

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Actor Noah Centineo touched down at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend to rally support for Saeed Roustaee, an Iranian filmmaker sentenced to prison by his government over the latter’s film “Leila’s Brothers.” Over Friday cocktails at festival headquarters, the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the “Black Adam” star appealed to top representatives from film festivals around the world on behalf of Roustaee, who was sentenced to six months in prison after screening his feature at the Cannes Film Festival without authorization from Iran’s culture ministry. Furthermore, he would not amend the film after the ministry requested corrections.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In Cord Jefferson’s idea-dense “American Fiction,” no one wants to publish literary professor Thelonious Ellison’s latest novel. Thelonious — or “Monk” to his friends — has delivered a modern reworking of Aeschylus’ “The Persians” (hardly bestseller material to begin with), but all the industry can see is the color of his skin.

Naman Ramachandran Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, the filmmaker previously known simply as Tarsem, is returning to the big screen and to his roots with “Dear Jassi,” which has its world premiere Toronto Film Festival Sept. 10. The new film is set in the 1990s and based on a real-life incident.

Despite flopping at the box office in 2010, Jake Gyllenhaal’s “Prince of Persia” still finds its way into the cultural zeitgeist.