Santa Barbara Film Festival Names ‘A Man (Aru Otoko)’ As Best Feature, ‘A Bunch Of Amateurs’ Best Documentary

Five Greater Manchester restaurants have been named as some of the best-reviewed for brunch and Sunday lunch in the UK. Bookings site OpenTable collected the reviews for the best 100 restaurants in the UK, with the results being published today.

Naman Ramachandran Janchivdorj Sengedorj’s “The Sales Girl” (Mongolia), Asif Rustamov’s “Cold As Marble” (Azerbaijan), Ken Kwek’s “#LookAtMe” (Singapore) and Nader Saeivar’s “No End” (Iran) were among the winners at the  Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema on Tuesday. “The Sales Girl,” which played at Busan and won awards at the New York and Osaka Asian film festivals, won the Golden Cyclo, the festival’s top honor awarded by the international jury. “Cold as Marble,” which has played at Talinn Black Nights and the Goa festivals, took home three awards, including the grand jury prize and the Marc Haaz and Netpac jury prizes.

Ferne McCann has announced the amazing news she is pregnant with her second child in an OK! exclusive interview and shoot with fiancé Lorri Haines. The former TOWIE star shared all the details with OK! about her pending arrival, including her baby name ideas and her five-year-old daughter Sunday's suggestions. The 32-year-old Essex girl, who won't be finding out the gender of her baby during pregnancy, revealed: "We can’t have your average top 10 in the UK names.

main roads accessing the town closed since Friday.A spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said National Guard personnel left Fresno early Thursday morning, expected to arrive midday to San Bernardino County.California Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in 13 California counties after back-to-back, record-breaking winter storms swept through the state.The weather caused power outages and closed off state roads in the affected areas of Amador, Kern, Los Angeles, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Nevada, San Bernandino, San Luis Obispo, Santa barbara, Sierra, Sonoma and Tulare.Newsom’s proclamation also cites damaging winds, historic precipitation, snowfall in areas unaccustomed to snow, evacuations and stranded residents.The State Operations Center and the Cal OES have been tasked with response efforts, sending personnel to aid in distributing resources and rescuing those snowed into their homes, especially in San Bernandino County.

For India’s Oscar nominees, awards season has brought excitement, triumph and no doubt regular bouts of jet lag as they hop from one distant time zone to another. The South Asian country has seen three of its films earn Academy recognition — All That Breathes (Best Documentary Feature), The Elephant Whisperers (Best Documentary Short), and RRR (Best Original Song for “Naatu Naatu”). First-time nominees involved in those projects have found themselves on a road trip adventure split between luncheons, screenings, Q&As and more screenings.

Zouk are celebrating all of Manchester’s amazing mums with a spectacular Sunday Roast extravaganza on Sunday, March 19.

When Laurence Herszberg first launched Series Mania back in 2010 in Paris, the former Forum des Images director was keen to apply her deep knowledge of film and the film festival model to the television sector. At the time, says the French exec, no one was doing any kind of TV festival “solely dedicated to series.”  

Marta Balaga Crime shows look for a new angle, argued Berlinale Series participants on Monday.  There is no shortage of new offerings, from Berlinale Market Selects’ “Two Sides of the Abyss,” Serbia’s “The Fall” or South Africa’s “Donkerbos,” created by Nico Scheepers, to China’s melancholic, decades-spanning “Why Try to Change Me Now,” with Golden Bear winner Yinan Diao attached as executive producer. But while there is still an appetite for traditional detective stories, producers and broadcasters are venturing out of the “damaged, middle-aged white detective slot on a Sunday night,” suggested All3Media International’s Rachel Glaister. They are also thinking about their younger audience.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema has unveiled its 85-title lineup for the edition that starts later this month (February 28 to March 7, 2023). Elements include a 10-film competition section, a 10-film documentary film section, a tribute to the Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu; a thematic section “Asian Diaspora Cinema” offering a panorama of works by directors from Asian countries living in exile; and a Philippines cinema sidebar. Fiction films in competition include: Azerbaijan’s “Cold as Marble,” by Asif Rustamov; China’s “In Our Prime,” by Liu Yulin; Korea’s “A Letter from Kyoto,” by Kim Min-ju; India’s: “Behind Veils,” by Praveen Morshhale; Iran’s “No End,” by Nader Saievar; Mongolia’s “The Sales Girl,” by Sengedorj Janchivdorj; The Philippines’s “Feast,” by Brillante Mendoza; Singapore’s “#LookAtMe,” by Ken Kwek; and Vietnam’s “Memento Mori: Earth,” by Marcus Vu Manh Cuong. The president of the jury is Lee Yong-kwan, president of the Busan film festival.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “Delegation,” a coming-of-age film about an Israeli school trip to Holocaust memorial sites in Poland, has debuted its trailer (below). Israeli writer-director Asaf Saban’s film world premiered at Berlinale Sunday in the Generation 14plus section. Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales is handling international sales. In the film, three Israeli high-school friends take part in a class trip visiting Holocaust sites in Poland – their last time together before going to the army. During the trip, shy boy Frisch, aspiring artist Nitzan and class heartthrob Ido deal with issues of love, friendship and politics against the backdrop of concentration camps and memorial sites. This journey will change them forever.

EXCLUSIVE: India’s Zee Studios, headed by CEO Shariq Patel, is starting to become a regular on the international film festival and TV market circuit. 

Israeli film producer Yoav Roeh spoke passionately at the Berlin Film Festival on Sunday about the threat to freedom of speech in Israel under a proposed overhaul of the country’s judiciary by Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government.

Marta Balaga Director: Vita Maria Drygas Producer: Vita Żelakeviciute Production companies: Drygas Film Production Sales: Dogwoof Documentary is a journey to places devastated by military conflicts, seen through the eyes of thrill-seeking tourists. (Generation 14plus) Director: Asaf Saban

Tributes have been paid to a Glasgow grandfather who sadly lost his battle with pancreatic cancer earlier this month. Thomas 'Junior' Buist, 70, from Milton, was known for donning the iconic red of Santa during the festive season, however, he also looked to help anyone he could throughout the year

A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit.

Paul Mescal, Letitia Wright, Gemma Chan and Taron Egerton were just a few of the stars to attend the 2023 Newport Beach Film Festival UK Honours on Thursday evening (February 16).

Austin Butler suited up for the 2023 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where he was honored with the Virtuosos Award on Wednesday (February 15).

EXCLUSIVE: Viveik Kalra, star of Gurinder Chadha’s Sundance 2019 musical Blinded By The Light, has been set to co-star with Indian superstar Samantha Ruth Prabhu in cross-cultural rom-com Chennai Story.

Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) has confirmed that the Mumbai Film Festival is returning as a physical event, set to run over ten days starting in late October. 

Brendan Fraser is being honored at the 2023 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.