But the most powerful aspects of Ai Weiwei’s Turandot are the many contemplations on art itself. Weiwei says succinctly that “Everything is art. Everything is politics.” Michael Fabiano, who plays Calaf in Ai Weiwei’s Turandot, discusses how Turandot the character suppresses speech, leading to death and destruction, a construct that infuses Weiwei’s version of the opera.FLICKSIDED
Written by Louis Skye

April 2025




Writer, director and cinematographer Maxim Derevianko’s first full-length film is a challenging documentary that follows the staging of Puccini’s beloved opera Turandot by rebel artist Ai Weiwei, whose reputation alone suggests a unique and fascinating approach to the classic material. Following its world premiere in Copenhagen, Ai Weiwei’s Turandot will be screened at select film festivals, including Toronto’s popular Hot Docs Festival.FAR OUT
Written by Monica Reid

April 2025




Turandot, left uncompleted at Puccini’s death in 1924, tells a mythical story of an icy princess who sets a challenge to anyone seeking her hand in marriage. A suitor must correctly answer three riddles to become her betrothed, with a wrong answer resulting in death. Inevitably, the Italian composer viewed China from a Westerner’s perspective, emphasizing exoticism and revenge. Ai takes an innovative approach, modernizing the production in multiple respects.
DEADLINE
Written by Matthew Carey

March 2025






Documentaries piquing our interest include the Daryl Hannah–directed Coastal, Ai Weiwei’s Turandot, and Michel Gondry: Do It Yourself.

This is just a smattering of film offerings from a voluminous list, and geared more toward festivalgoers leaning more toward foreign titles. A healthy showing of American independent films, Canadian films, and U.K. films are also on view, for those preferring English-language cinema. Also on view are short film and animation programs, the Social Justice Award competition, the family-friendly “Mike’s Field Trip to the Movies,” and the 10-10-10 Student Screenwriting and Filmmaking Mentorship and Competition, with films shot in 10 days screening at festival’s end.
Santa Barbara Independent
Written by Josef Woodard

February 2025





Revolutionary Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei was not especially knowledgeable about opera, although he had been an extra in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Puccini’s Turandot in 1987. (...) This is a well-paced film, with an intimate look into the artistic process, and the impacts of real-world events on the arts.Edhat Santa Barbara
Written by Jackie Spafford

February 2025







A powerful testament to the human spirit, Mediha turns her camera on herself to process her trauma while rescuers search for her missing family members, revealing the strength and determination of a young survivor.SIMA AWARDS


February 2025







(...) the fifth nominee is Sebastian Stan, who skillfully plays a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice—a film that very nearly failed to find a distributor due to its subject matter, despite a well-received debut last spring at the Cannes Film Festival. Stan’s costar Jeremy Strong, who plays Trump mentor Roy Cohn in the film—scripted by Vanity Fair special correspondent Gabriel Sherman—also got an Oscar nomination in the supporting-actor category. VANITY FAIR
Written by Rebecca Ford

January 2025





The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF), presented by Lexus, announced today the lineup for the 40th edition, which will run February 4 to 15, 2025, with an added extra day in celebration of its 40th anniversary. The festival will showcase 33 world premieres and 74 U.S. premieres from 60 countries with 52% of films directed by women, along with tributes featuring the year’s top talent, panel discussions, and free community education and outreach programs. THE CONTENDING
Written by Clarence Moye

January 2025





The Apprentice is longlists nominated for Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Leading Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Casting, Best Makeup & Hair ! BAFTA
Written by BAFTA

January 2025




Up for the award are Gaucho Gaucho, Mediha, Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa,Porcelain War, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story and We Will Dance Again. The guild notes that all six films are in the process of being vetted for individual producer eligibility.

The Producers Guild Awards honors excellence in motion picture, TV and emerging-media productions as well as people shaping the producing profession. Chris Meledandri will receive the 2025 David O. Selznick Achievement Award, and Dana Walden is set for the PGA’s Milestone Award.





DEADLINE
Written by Erik Pedersen

December 2024





Sebastian Stan nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama and Jeremy Scott nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role In Any Motion Picture.DEADLINE
Written by Andreas Wiseman

December 2024





One of the very best documentaries released in 2023 was a work which proved the extent to which a cinema feature can capture recent events with a depth that cannot be matched by TV news footage. That film, one which made viewers experience life in a Ukrainian city at a key moment, was Mstyslav Chernov’s 20 Days in Mariupol shot at the time of the Russian invasion. Now we have another film, again deeply tragic in tone albeit rather less harrowing, which possesses that same kind of impact because it too patently has the ability to draw in all who see it to a degree that goes beyond the power of what is shown on the news.FILM REVIEW
Written by Mansel Stimpson

November 2024



User-friendly video and smartphone technology have changed the face of documentary this century, allowing people to record their own experiences in conflict-ridden environments — recent prime examples including 2019’s Syrian testament For Sama and the essential current release No Other Land, a Palestinian-Israeli report from the West Bank. Here is another powerful example: Mediha, directed by American documentarist Hasan Oswald — and substantially shot by its subject, Mediha Ibrahim Alhamad.FINANCIAL TIMES
Written by Jonathan Romney

November 2024




This is impressive work from film-maker Hasan Oswald that allows its subject, as far as possible, to tell her own story. Mediha Ibrahim Alhamad is a teenage girl from Kurdish northern Iraq and a member of the Yazidi religious group, subject to much bigotry from extreme Islamism. Oswald appears to have come across her extraordinary story quite by chance, when he was told about it by his Yazidi translator while working in the region on a quite different project.THE GUARDIAN
Written by Peter Bradshaw

November 2024




The film focuses on Trump's relationship with lawyer and mentor Roy Cohn (played by Succession's Strong), who instilled certain values in Trump such as never admitting defeat.
Both actors noted the film's extensive research was "based in historical record".
{...} The film's writer, Sherman, earlier this week at the London premiere had said he was "happy that he's (Trump) is paying attention to the film. It means it's touching a nerve.".BBC
Written by Frances Mao

October 2024



It’s not quite an ultra-villain origin story. But nor is Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice in any way a flattering depiction of its subject, the young(ish) Donald Trump (a horribly convincing Sebastian Stan). The film follows Trump’s early journey, starting as “Little Donnie”, the browbeaten second son of an overbearing father who scoffs that his boy “needs all the help he can get”.THE GUARDIAN
Written by Wendy Ide

October 2024




The year's most provocative film, The Apprentice chronicles how a certain Mr Donald J Trump became a real-estate mogul in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. As played by Sebastian Stan, the young Donald is a bumbling naif who doesn't know how to realise his sky-high ambitions until he meets Roy Cohn, a proudly vicious attorney played by Jeremy Strong (Succession). Ali Abbasi has directed an "entertainingly salacious tragicomedy [that] charts that master-pupil dynamic in forensic detail," says Phil de Semlyen in Time Out. BBC
Written by Nicholas Barber

September 2024




Directed and produced by Toronto-based filmmaker Nisha Pahuja along with producers David Oppenheim, Anita Lee, Cornelia Principe, Andy Cohen, and executive produced by a group including Mindy Kaling, Dev Patel, and Rupi Kaur, To Kill a Tiger enumerates an electrifying true story of a father–daughter duo from the Indian state of Jharkhand, and their battle to seek justice in the aftermath of a brutal sexual assault. The story also brings forth complex ideas of masculinity in India, entrenched village life, and more. Lauded for its universal yet subtle storytelling, the film recently had a successful theatrical release at New York’s Film Forum.
International Documentary Association
Written by Nilosree Bilswas

February 2024





It’s a universal truth, commonly unacknowledged, that there's an implicit set of rules women are conditioned to follow from a young age in order to remain safe. For centuries, we’ve been taught to adjust to a patriarchal society – in which we are not considered fundamentally equal – by changing our behavior or appearance to blend in, thwart unsolicited attention and avoid danger.

This is how it has been, but I refuse to believe this is how it must be.
USA Today
Written by Isha Sharma

February 2024






Nisha Pahuja’s powerful documentary “To Kill a Tiger” offers an unflinching look at a father’s search for justice after three men abducted his 13-year-old daughter and sexually assaulted her in a small village in India. Pahuja, who also directed the 2012 News & Documentary Emmy-nominated doc, “The World Before Her,” says making the movie was one of the most difficult things she has ever done.
Los Angeles Times
Written by Ramin Zahed

February 2024





Five international-themed films are competing for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards this year, stories set in Uganda, Chile, Tunisia, Ukraine, and India. To Kill a Tiger, which has brought director Nisha Pahuja the first Oscar nomination of her career, centers on a poor couple in the Indian state Jharkhand who bravely fought for justice after their teenage daughter became the victim of a brutal sexual assault.
Deadline
Written by Matthew Carey

February 2024






It’s a universal truth, commonly unacknowledged, that there's an implicit set of rules women are conditioned to follow from a young age in order to remain safe. For centuries, we’ve been taught to adjust to a patriarchal society – in which we are not considered fundamentally equal – by changing our behavior or appearance to blend in, thwart unsolicited attention and avoid danger.

This is how it has been, but I refuse to believe this is how it must be.
USA Today
Written by Isha Sharma

February 2024





In a small Indian village Kiran, a 13-year-old, is savagely beaten and raped by three young men and then threatened with death if she tells anyone about the rape. Kiran tells her father Ranjit of the gang rape and he notifies the police. The lads are arrested and jailed. Given the prevalence of rape in India where it is estimated 90% of rapes are unreported and a woman is raped every twenty minutes Kiran is not alone. Kiran’s position is that she would fight to the death for justice and her father Ranjit pursues the case in the criminal courts with dogged determination.
A Little Bird Told
Written by Robert K Stephen

February 2024








“To Kill a Tiger” follows the story of Ranjit, a farmer in Jharkhand, India, who takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the survivor of sexual assault. CBC’s Ramraajh Sharvendiran sits down with Toronto filmmaker Nisha Pahuja to talk about the film’s Oscar nomination and the significance of bringing the story to life.
CBC


February 2024






There’s a make-it-or-break-it moment in writer-director Jack Begert’s boldly unconventional, existential drama/Hollywood satire, Little Death, that will leave audiences cringing in shock, wonder, and maybe awe. Some might even head for the exits.
ScreenAnarchy
Written by Mel Valentin

February 2024






Focusing on one main story in a film seems like filmmaking 101, but Jack Begert decides to throw that out the window with his directorial debut feature film “Little Death.” Most recently, Trey Edward Schultz split “Waves” into two distinct halves even though they were all part of the same story, so why don’t more people do it? Well, because it’s not easy to pull off, often because the stories end up being too disjointed or not equally engaging, and it doesn’t entirely work for Begert. Aside from some connections between the two stories in “Little Death,” such as the film’s overarching theme of drug use and addiction, it makes you wonder why we needed to spend time with an unlikeable character and why the film couldn’t have been dedicated to the far more exciting storyline.
Next Best Picture
Written by Ema Sasic

February 2024








Chernov joins the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss what the Oscar nomination means for his film and Russia’s efforts to sow a false counter-narrative to the carnage he documented. We also welcome another first-time Oscar nominee, director Nisha Pahuja, recognized for her gripping film To Kill a Tiger.
Deadline
Written by Matthew Carey

February 2024






Nisha Pahuja’s Oscar-nominated documentary To Kill a Tiger is returning to theaters this Friday, extending through the end of the month.

The film will be showcased in select specialty theaters across the U.S., according to a release, including (but not limited to) Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Washington DC, and Dallas.
Deadline
Written by Matthew Carey

February 2024








David Schwimmer makes a bold choice with this ambitious, if not entirely seamless psychodrama. Starting out as a hyperactive life-in-crisis movie, like a more melancholy, introspective Fight Club, it swaps horses in midstream with a shocking twist that will likely alienate any viewers seduced by seeing the Friends star’s face on its promo imagery. Those willing to follow first-time director Jack Begert down the rabbit hole into the film’s surprising second half — which may seem completely unrelated at first, but soon reveals the film’s deeper themes of opioid use and the butterfly effects of addiction — will find it strangely satisfying.
Deadline
Written by Damon Wise

February 2024








Nisha Pahuja, whose film To Kill a Tiger received a nomination in the best feature documentary category for the 2024 Oscars, says she learnt about the honor along with the rest of the world while watching the live announcement.
The Hollywood Reporter
Written by Etan Vlessing

January 2024






Weird California strikes again in "Little Death," Los Angeles being the natural home of stories about scriptwriters strung out on drugs while cracking up, or of young adults on a night-time quest to find both stolen property and in a very real sense themselves.
Critic’s Notebook
Written by Tim Hayes

January 2024







Sometimes a film can be as confused as its misguided subjects. Not every answer needs to be laid out, and even if the filmmaker does not have all the answers themselves there is still a welcome invite to anyone who would rather try their best at tackling the questions versus dropping a bomb and running away.
Complex
Written by Trace William Cowen

January 2024








With an impressive list of music video directing credits on his resume, filmmaker Jack Begert makes his first foray into feature-length storytelling with Little Death.  Co-writing alongside Dani Goffstein, Begert tells a story of addiction, anxieties, dreams, and failures within the Los Angeles landscape.  An ambitious and audacious project, Little Death uses innovative visuals to tell its tale with variable effect, and its structure means we never get the full picture.
Live For Films
Written by Hillary Butler

January 2024






Sometimes a film can be as confused as its misguided subjects. Not every answer needs to be laid out, and even if the filmmaker does not have all the answers themselves there is still a welcome invite to anyone who would rather try their best at tackling the questions versus dropping a bomb and running away.
Critic’s Notebook
Written by Tim Hayes

February 2024

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