Iran Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Iranian drama film “Empty Nets” was Monday named winner of the AFF Feature Fiction Award at the Adelaide Film Festival. Directed by Behrooz Karamizade, it collected an A$10,000 ($6,320) cash prize.

A court in Iran has sentenced two female journalists to up to seven years in prison for “collaborating” with the United States government, among other charges, local reports said.

For nearly a decade, Aram Sheibani lived a life of luxury. He jetted around the world, stayed in luxury hotels and drove top-of-the-range cars - including a £250,000 white Bentley. He's said to have bought the flash motor with cash.

An Iranian American woman navigating culture clash, an Argentine bank heist and an animated ghost story voiced by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie debut this weekend with a handful of docs and some notable expansion, vying with Apple wide release Killers Of The Flower Moon.

A mother has spoken of the terrifying moment she thought her new-born son might die from a life-threatening illness, caused by a bacteria passed over during childbirth which she had no previous symptoms of.

An international drugs boss from Greater Manchester who racked up 'eye-watering wealth' and lived a lavish 'jet-setting lifestyle' has lost an appeal against his conviction and sentence.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features Social media influencer Lizzy Savetsky was two weeks into filming Season 14 of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New York” when a tidal wave of antisemitism forced her to quit the show. She fielded death threats and a barrage of online harassment. “I had been having a lot of anxiety about putting my family — including my three young children — at risk and not having control over how my story would be portrayed,” says Savetsky.

Wei Shujun’s Only The River Flows was presented with Best Film in the Fei Mu Awards at this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF), while Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell, directed by Vietnam’s Pham Thien An, won Best Film in the festival’s Roberto Rossellini Awards.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Iranian director Dariush Mehrjui, whose 1969 “The Cow” opened up a new era in Iranian filmmaking, and his wife have been found stabbed to death in their home outside Tehran, Iran’s state media reported on Sunday. Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted judiciary official Hossein Fazeli as saying that Mehrjhi and his wife, Vahideh Mohammadifar, were found dead with knife wounds in their necks by the director’s daughter, Mona Mehrjui, when she went to visit her father Saturday night at their home home in a Tehran suburb.

Fans of the celebrated Iranian film director Dariush Mehrjui have woken to the shocking news of his murder at home by an unknown assailant. He was 83.

Cristiano Ronaldo is facing some serious consequences for actions and the reason why will shock you.

Rod Stewart has revealed that he turned down a big offer to perform in Saudi Arabia because of the country’s human rights issues.The rock legend was offered what may have been the biggest money sum of his career to bring his show to the Middle East but declined due to the kingdom’s discrimination against women, LGBTQ+ people and the press.“I’m grateful that I have a choice whether or not to perform in Saudi Arabia. So many citizens there have extremely limited choices… women, the LGBTQ community, the press.

British rocker Rod Stewart has said he recently turned down an offer to perform in Saudi Arabia in an effort to raise awareness of what he described as “injustices” in the country. 

Salman Rushdie hinted in February that he was working on a memoir about the stabbing attack last year that nearly killed him and left him blind in one eye. Now, the Booker Prize winner has announced that book will be called Knife and will be published by Penguin Random House on April 16, 2024.

Stephen Rodrick I first heard about FX’s “Archer” in the ready room of VAQ-135, a navy squadron who were serving an interminable deployment aboard an aircraft carrier somewhere near Midway Island. (This sounds very much like a humblebrag that Sterling Archer would obnoxiously drop into conversation). It was 2010, and the pilots had lost whatever idealism they’d once had during an endless deployment that had them flying 12-hour missions from the Persian Gulf to Afghanistan.

President Joe Biden said that the Hamas attack on Israel was “an act of sheer evil,” sternly describing horrific reports of the terrorists’ brutality in targeting Jewish men, women, children and babies.

Naman Ramachandran Iran’s Arsalan Amiri, who won two awards at Venice for his debut feature “Zalava,” is at the Busan International Film Festival‘s Asian Project Market with “For the Girls of the Tribe.” Inspired by a real historical event that took place in 1905 in Iran, the film will tell the story of a group of peasants who rescue two girls among dozens who were kidnapped by rebels. The girls have information about a betrayal and are taken before the ruler to provide their testimony but he refuses to accept it, as, according to tradition, a woman’s testimony is only half as valuable as a man’s. “For hundreds of years before this event and even decades after, this situation has recurred in different parts of the world: a group of women is oppressed and most of society, the government and even some other women are silent or passive about it due to fear, benefit or convenience,” Amiri told Variety.

The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned Iranian human rights activist whose “fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all” was cited by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

the 1954 big-screen classic starring Humphrey Bogart as Lieutenant Commander Philip Queeg, he of the nervously-twirled metal balls and questionable sanity.The movie premieres Oct. 6 on Paramount+ with Showtime (paramountplus.qflm.net/9WG5D0) — and Oct. 8 on Showtime (9 p.m.) — and features an all-star cast, including Kiefer Sutherland as Queeg and the late Lance Reddick, all of whom deliver bravura performances.

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 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.

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.

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.

Dissident Iranian film professionals are calling on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts (AMPAS) to consider an alternative film to represent Iran in the Best International Feature Film category from that submitted as the country’s official entry.

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.

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.