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Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2, 2024.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

Indian actor Ishaan Khatter is turning heads in his second major English-language role, rubbing shoulders with Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber in Netflix’s chart-topping thriller “The Perfect Couple.” As Shooter Dival, the outsider in a nest of Nantucket’s elite, Khatter brings a fresh face to the murder mystery that’s captivating global audiences.

“The Perfect Couple,” adapted from Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling book, centers on Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson), a bride set to join Nantucket’s elite. Nicole Kidman stars as Greer Garrison Winbury, the groom’s mother and a renowned author, who orchestrates an opulent wedding. The festivities take a dark turn when a corpse surfaces on the beach, transforming the lavish affair into a hotbed of suspicion. As the investigation unfolds, hidden truths emerge, mirroring the plot twists of Winbury’s own literary works.

Khatter plays Dival, the best man and a boarding school friend of the groom,...

By Pawel Mizgalewicz

So, that happened: a Canadian movie comes out where the metaphorical Winnipeg is actually Iran. Or maybe the other way around. Matthew Rankin's simile is absurd enough that it successfully cuts both ways, and in some way still manages to have substance, whatever way you wanna read it. It was not really conceived in Asia, but with mostly Iranian-Canadian screenwriters and cast, “Universal language” feels like something way more than only an homage or a joke – it's a film where the production and the story both reflect how cultural baggage carries on with migrants even on the other end of the world. At least, if you want it to. You could also just see it as a manifest of the uniqueness of Winnipeg – a city that, between “My Winnipeg” and “Phantom in Winnipeg”, weirdly seems to be most magical on Earth, if you'd believe festival cinema,...

In the Canadian cities of Montreal and Winnipeg, a futile tension exists between French and English speakers — doubly silly, since the country is officially bilingual. In his gently satirical “Universal Language,” writer-director Matthew Rankin imagines a rather fanciful solution, where Farsi is now the region’s dominant tongue. Taking his cues from such Iranian classics as “Children of Heaven” and “The White Balloon,” Rankin mixes the humanism of Majid Majidi, Jafar Panahi, et al. with his own peculiar brand of comedy (as seen in the more off-the-wall “The Twentieth Century”), offering a delightful cross-cultural hybrid designed to celebrate our differences.

Though Rankin shows a genuine affection for all things Persian, the first and most obvious hiccup to his premise is that audiences don’t necessarily share his interest or his references. There’s something inherently provocative — and perhaps even triggering to some — about seeing a nondescript Canadian elementary school where...

The perspective of a child. Unspoiled, unassuming, and uninfluenced by the horrors that be. That is the lens that Majid Majidi presents the audience with while embarking on this heartfelt tale that is the celebrated Iranian director's crowning achievement. A modest and understated narrative brought to life by a heavy message carried on by the tiny shoulders of its lead child actors, with their exemplary showing of grit and grace in the face of poverty and neglect. “Children of Heaven” nabbed Iran its first Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and is a classic example of Iranian cinema's prowess in delivering pictures with a moralistic backbone.

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Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemian) patiently waits at the cobbler's shop as the wizened hand of the craftsman mends his sister, Zahra's (Bahareh Seddiqi) pair of pink shoes. The little man,...

Dissident Iranian film professionals are calling on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to consider an alternative film to represent Iran in 2024 Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category rather than the one submitted this week as the country’s official entry.

Iran’s government-controlled Farabi Cinema Foundation said Tuesday that it had selected Reza Mirkarimi’s The Night Guardian as the country’s submission to the 96th Academy Awards.

The announcement comes just days after the first anniversary of the beginning of the Woman Life Freedom protests, provoked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, after her police detention for not wearing her veil correctly.

More than 500 protestors have been killed by Iranian security forces over the past year and thousands have been injured. A number of directors including Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof and most recently Saeed Roustayi have wound up in jail in a related...

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.

A press release announcing the selection said the film had been selected by the government-controlled Farabi Cinema Foundation from three short-listed titles which also included Omid Shams’s Conjugal Visit and Ali Hazrati’s The Town.

The drama stars Touraj Alvand as the story of a rural worker forced to move to the city where he ekes out a living on the streets.

The announcement coincides with the first anniversary of the Woman Life Freedom protests provoked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022 after being held in police custody for not wearing her veil correctly.

The country’s hardline Islamist regime ratcheted up a crackdown on the country’s creative community as well...

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For the first time in Oscar history, three Persian-language films are up for the Academy Award for best international feature. Alongside Iran’s official entry, Houman Seyyedi’s darkly comic World War III, Denmark has submitted serial killer drama Holy Spider from Iran-born, Copenhagen-based Ali Abbasi. Britain’s hopes, meanwhile, lie with Winners, a tragicomic tale about (of all things) a missing Oscar statue, from director Hassan Nazer, another Iranian expat, who lives in Scotland.

Taken together, the trio of movies represents the breadth of Iranian cinema, within the country and among the filmmaking diaspora.

Winners is Nazer’s love letter to his country’s filmmakers. Dedicated to Iranian directors Abbas Kiarostami, Asghar Farhadi, Majid Majidi and Jafar Panahi, it is jam-packed with references to and quotes from other Farsi films, among them Panahi’s Taxi and Majidi’s Children of Heaven and...

The perspective of a child. Unspoiled, unassuming, and uninfluenced by the horrors that be. That is the lens that Majid Majidi presents the audience with while embarking on this heartfelt tale that is the celebrated Iranian director’s crowning achievement. A modest and understated narrative brought to life by a heavy message carried on by the tiny shoulders of its lead child actors, with their exemplary showing of grit and grace in the face of poverty and neglect. “Children of Heaven” nabbed Iran its first Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and is a classic example of Iranian cinema’s prowess in delivering pictures with a moralistic backbone.

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Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemian) patiently waits at the cobbler’s shop as the wizened hand of the craftsman mends his sister, Zahra’s (Bahareh Seddiqi) pair of pink shoes.

The Japanese may have invented the haiku, but Iranians perfected its cinematic equivalent: a kind of film that plays almost like a poem — short, sweet and disarmingly profound in its simplicity. Jafar Panahi, director of “The White Balloon,” is the master; Majid Majidi (“Children of Heaven”) a close second. While this pared-down, less-is-more approach hardly applies to all of Iranian cinema, these seemingly elemental Persian narratives have a way of resonating worldwide. It is this discipline that director Hadi Mohaghegh practices with “Scent of Wind,” a film whose title alone evokes the great Abbas Kiarostami (“A Taste of Cherry”), and whose subject could be described with just one word: kindness.

Returning to the Busan Film Festival seven years after earning two major prizes for his previous feature, “Immortal,” Mohaghegh casts himself as the film’s main character, Eskandari, an electrician called out to inspect an issue with a transformer bringing...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Iran-born but UK-based Hassan Nazer’s fifth feature is set up as a children’s movie, but is essentially a tribute to Iranian cinema as much as a disillusioned look at what happens after the movie festivals, as a concept, end.

Winners is screening at Edinburgh International Film Festival

The film begins with a woman entering a taxi, before she gets out for a moment in a road filled with traffic. The police almost immediately arrive, forcing the driver to move, but after he circles and returns, the woman is nowhere to be found, and even more, there is a golden statue left in the passenger seat. It is actually an Oscar, but the driver has no clue about it, eventually leaving it in the local post office, where an elderly postal worker, thinking it is a doll of sorts, hides it in his bag and takes it to his village.

Indian activist filmmaker Pa. Ranjith has revealed an extensive production slate featuring top stars and socially relevant themes.

Ranjith was at the Cannes Film Market, where he revealed “Vettuvam”, a linked film and TV series, a co-production between his and Aditi Anand’s Neelam Studios and Golden Ratio Films, the film production arm of Vistas Media Capital.

First up for Ranjith is “Natchathiram Nagargirathu,” starring Dushara Vijayan (“Sarpatta Parambarai”), Kalaiyarasan Harikrishnan (“Kuthiraivaal”) and Kalidas (“Paava Kadhaigal”). The film is set against the backdrop of the Tamil-language theater scene and explores different facets of love that go beyond gender, and includes straight and LGBTQ+ romances, Ranjith says. The film, which also explores how these various kinds of love works on a political level in Tamil Nadu, is due a July release. It is a co-production between Yaazhi Films and Neelam.

Next is an untitled film starring Vikram (“Mahaan”), set against the...

Nayla Al Khaja, the first female filmmaker in the United Arab Emirates, and Oscar-, BAFTA- and Grammy- winning Indian composer A.R. Rahman (“Slumdog Millionaire”) are looking forward to their upcoming collaboration on “Baab.”

Written by Al Khaja and Masoud Amralla Al Ali, the film follows Wahida, who is unable to make sense of her twin sister’s mysterious death and is plagued by a haunting rhythm in her ears.

Rahman and Khaja were present at the Cannes Film Market to promote “Baab.” The composer’s directorial debut, the VR “Le Musk” also had its world premiere at the market’s Cannes Xr strand.

“It’s about the four stages of grief, but we don’t say it so black and white,” Al Khaja told Variety about the film. “She creates a fantasy world to justify her sister’s death, because she’s young. They’re identical. They spend their whole life together.

Majid Majidi, the director known for films like ‘Children of Heaven’ and ‘The Song of Sparrows’, has praised actor-turned-director Himanshu Malik and his directorial debut ‘Chitrakut’. Himanshu is the actor who starred in Anubhav Sinha’s musical film ‘Tum Bin’ back in 2001, where he shared the screen with Priyanshu Chatterjee and Raqesh Bapat. Recollecting the […]...

Mohsen Makhmalbaf is an internationally known Iranian filmmaker, famous for features such as “A Moment of Innocence”, “Gabbeh”, “The Silence” and “The Gardener”. He belongs to the Iranian New Wave Movement, which also included his colleague Abbas Kiarostami, Amir Naderi and Majid Majidi. Over the course of his career he has made over 30 movies, which have won more than 50 awards in international film festivals around the world, but have often been banned in his home country. In 2005, Makhmalbaf had to leave the country after the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad due to his involvement with the Green Movement. He also released more than 30 books, translated in various languages.

On the occasion of his presence at Fica Vesoul, we speak with him about the current situation in Iran and Afghanistan, him not being able to return, the Internet, the impact of cinema, religion and education, the importance of music in films, mixing...

Picture Tree Intl. has acquired Iranian genre crossover feature “Without Her,” and will introduce the film to buyers during the upcoming European Film Market at its Marriot Hotel located office in Berlin. The film’s trailer is debuting with Variety (below).

In Arian Vazirdaftari’s feature debut, Roya is getting ready to emigrate from Iran when she meets a quiet young woman who appears lost and doesn’t remember anything. Roya takes her in, providing her with a home and introducing her to her husband, family and friends – all the while blissfully unaware that this woman has come to replace her.

The storyline of a woman losing her identity dives into the genre tradition of Hitchcock, Polanski and De Palma, while connecting it with the tradition of social realism in Iranian cinema, Picture Tree Intl. said in a statement, with gripping performances from Iranian actors Tannaz Tabatabaei, Saber Abar and Shadi Karamroudi.

Another month, another Criterion Channel lineup. In accordance with Black History Month their selections are especially refreshing: seven by Melvin Van Peebles, five from Kevin Jerome Everson, and Criterion editions of The Harder They Come and The Learning Tree.

Regarding individual features I’m quite happy to see Abderrahmane Sissako’s fantastic Bamako, last year’s big Sundance winner (and Kosovo’s Oscar entry) Hive, and the remarkably beautiful Portuguese feature The Metamorphosis of Birds. Add a three-film Laura Dern collection (including the recently canonized Smooth Talk) and Pasolini’s rarely shown documentary Love Meetings to make this a fine smorgasboard.

See the full list of February titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

Alan & Naomi, Sterling Van Wagenen, 1992

All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, 1955

The Angel Levine, Ján Kadár, 1970

Babylon, Franco Rosso, 1980

Babymother, Julian Henriques, 1998

Bamako, Abderrahmane Sissako, 2006

Beat Street, Stan Lathan, 1984

Blacks Britannica, David Koff, 1978

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,...

Iran has chosen Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero as its entry for this year’s International Oscar category.

Farhadi is a two-time Oscar winner for A Separation and The Salesman. This is the fifth time he has represented Iran in the race, making him the joint most submitted director from the country with Majid Majidi.

A Hero debuted at Cannes to strong reviews and won the festival’s Grand Prix prize in its main competition. The film stars Amir Jadidi as a man who is in prison because of a debt he is unable to pay. During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor to withdraw his complaint against the payment of part of the sum, but things don’t go as planned.

Memento International is handling international sales and Memento Production is producing, with Amazon Studios previously picking up U.S. rights in a deal with UTA & Memento.

Sun Children (Khorshid) Strand Releasing Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Majid Majidi Writer: Nima Javidi, Majid Majidi Cast: Roohollah Zamani, Ali Ghabeshi, Shamila Shirzad, Javad Ezati, Ali Nassiran Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/19/21 Opens: June 25, 2021 Iranian filmmakers frequently make use of children to evade […]

The post Sun Children Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to “Cicada,” Matthew Fifer’s Brooklyn-set debut feature, which premiered last year at several festivals, including Frameline, Outfest and BFI London.

“Cicada” was written and directed by Fifer and Kieran Mulcare. The film was inspired by events in Sheldon Brown’s and Fifer’s own lives. Fifer headlines the film alongside Brown, who also co-wrote the script.

The film follows Ben (Fifer), a young bisexual man who, after a string of unsuccessful and awkward encounters, meets Sam (Brown), a man of color struggling with deep wounds of his own. As the summer progresses and their intimacy grows, their pasts begin to crawl to the surface.

“We’re thrilled to be working on Matt’s debut feature ‘Cicada.’ It’s a thrilling and promising new voice, one that fits our family of auteurs,” said Marcus Hu of Strand Releasing.

The film also stars Cobie Smulders,...

Actress Malavika Mohanan says being a part of the unit of the blockbuster "Master", starring Thalapathy Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi, was like working with a "dream team". The budding actress describes the film as a "great milestone" in her career.

"This was my first film with Vijay sir and it was exciting for me to share the screen with him. Working with a sensation and an icon made this experience even more exciting. It was great to be a part of the film where some of the best artistes -- like Thalapathy Vijay, Vijay Sethupathi, (composer) Anirudh (Ravichander) and (director) Lokesh (Kanagaraj) came together. We all were really close-knit and we spent a lot of time together. It was like working with a dream team," said Malavika, who made her Hindi debut in Iranian maestro's Majid Majidi's 2017 release "Beyond The Clouds".

"It's been a great milestone to have in...

Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights to Christopher Makoto Yogi’s “I Was a Simple Man,” which stars Constance Wu and had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance film festival.

A lyrical ghost story set in the lush Hawaiian countryside, the film follows Masao (Steve Iwamoto) whose life is slowly fading away because of a terminal illness. As his estranged family members struggle to care for him, Masao is visited by his deceased wife Grace (Wu) and is forced to confront the decisions of his past.

Spanning multiple generations, “I Was a Simple Man” features a rich ensemble of Asian American and Native Hawaiian actors, including Iwamoto, Wu, Kanoa Goo, Tim Chiou and Chanel Akiko Hirai. The film participated in the Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs, as well as Sundance Catalyst.

“I was lucky enough to be introduced to Chris and this project at the Sundance Labs,...

Majid Majidi had been making movies for quite some time when he rose to worldwide attention for “Children Of Heaven”, a poignant 1997 film featuring the life of impoverished children in Iran. He followed it up with a darker, far more tragic version in 1999 with “The Colour Of Paradise”, in which he told the tale of a blind child. In 2020, Majidi was suddenly back under the limelight, due to his ” Sun Children” not only premiering but also winning an award at Venice.

“Sun Children” is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival

Majidi’s latest tells the story of twelve-year-old Ali and a bunch of his friends. Their fathers are absent from their lives, whether they are dead, constantly intoxicated, missing or in prison. Thus, they have to accept the responsibility of supporting themselves and their family, which they do through small jobs in a garage. However, the income is clearly not enough,...

Strand Releasing has acquired all U.S. rights to Oscar-nominated Cambodian director Rithy Panh’s “Irradiated,” which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and won best documentary. The film is represented in international markets by Playtime.

Through “Irradiated,” Panh sheds light on the human horrors perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge regime which he experienced during his childhood. Narrated by Rebecca Marder and André Wilms (“Le Havre”), the film brings together black-and-white archival war footage across a tryptic of panels juxtaposing images of war and suffering across the 20th century and around the world. The cinematic documentary is scored by Panh’s longtime collaborator Marc Marder.

“What it means to be a survivor cannot be put into words. To live on, to make contact with this irradiation, for which there may be no cause, no knowledge, but from which there is no protection,” said Panh about his film. “Evil radiates.

The 15 shortlisted films vying to become one of the five Best International Feature nominees at the 2021 Academy Awards are a surprising and creatively engaging bunch. Their stories often are drenched in history — much of it tragic and disturbing — and turbulent social and political currents course through any number of them. Just four of the 15 were directed by familiar names so, for the most part, the filmmakers behind these works are in the early stages of their careers, which can only create optimism and excitement about what these up-and-comers will do in the future.

Oscar nominations will be revealed on March 15.

I’ve now seen all of the contenders and must say that it was, for the most part, stimulating to encounter so many fresh voices from some often little-heard-from realms of the cinematic world. Fewer than half of the semi-finalists come from countries typically thought of as regularly representing the cinematic front-rank — France,...

“Glocal” is the key word for the Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival as the annual event provides a platform for both local and global projects. Of the 93 international submissions to the Oscars, the Florida fest has picked seven films “that moved us and that would speak powerfully to our Miami audience,” says festival executive director Jaie Laplante, who leads a selection committee alongside programming co-director, Lauren Cohen.

“We’ve always thought it important to look out for films by female directors but it wasn’t at all difficult this year,” says Cohen about the festival’s lineup, which includes nearly 100 shorts and features from some 40 countries.

This year’s 38th edition, which takes place March 5-14, and for the first time in its history, runs before the Oscars, includes international film shortlisted contenders “La Llorona,” “Sun Children,” “Quo Vadis, Aida?,” “Charlatan,” “The Mole Agent” and “Night of the Kings.

Majid Majidi has been making sensitive and trenchant films about kids in Iran for three decades and he’s still doing it in Sun Children (Khorshid), a shrewdly observed humanistic drama about some young teens scrambling to make their way in a difficult world. Winner of the Best Picture prize at last year’s Fajr Film Festival and an official Venice Festival entry, this brisk drama focuses sympathetically on several marginalized but striving kids whose every waking moments are devoted to survival strategies. The International Feature Oscar-shortlisted title from Iran is being distributed by Strand Releasing in the U.S.

The kids in Majidi’s films are straight out of Charles Dickens. Forced by their lot in life to be resourceful at an early age, they can be crafty, devious, sneaky, brazen, misguided and sometimes ingenious — by turns obliged to live by their wits more than most children their age.

Rouhollah Zamani, the lead actor of Majid Majidi’s Oscar shortlisted child labor drama “Sun Children” and winner of the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actor or actress at the Venice Film Festival, has been cast in a TV drama series, “Mehdi Bakeri,” about soldiers in the Iran-Iraq War. Variety has been given the first image from the series (above).

Meanwhile, sales agent Celluloid Dreams has told Variety that “Sun Children,” which is shortlisted in the International Feature Film category for the 93rd Academy Awards, has been acquired by additional distributors, including Mongrel Media in Canada, and Bodega Films in France.

Other territories sold include German-speaking Europe (Mfa+ Film Distribution), Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Scandinavia (Angel Films), Spain (Caramel Films), Turkey (Filmarti Film), Mexico (Alameda Films), Indonesia (Falcon Pictures), Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam (Suraya), and Taiwan (Filmware). The film was previously picked up by Strand in the U.S.

“Sun...

Actors Siddhant Chaturvedi and Malvika Mohanan co-star for the first time in the upcoming romantic action film Yudhra, slated to release in the summer of 2022. The actors made the announcement on Monday on actors social media.

Siddhant, who rose to fame as Mc Sher in the 2019 film Gully Boy, shared a high octane action teaser, along with posters of the film on Instagram.

"Jo maut ko apna dost bana le, woh hai (the one who befriends death) #Yudhra," he wrote as caption.

He then wrote, "Karne Sabka Game Over! aa raha hai #Yudhra (He is coming to make everyone's game over.#Yudhra)."

Backed by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani's Excel Entertainment, Yudhra is directed Ravi Udyawar, known for helming late superstar Sridevi's last release, Mom.

Malvika, earlier seen opposite Ishaan Khatter in Majid Majidi's 2017 drama Beyond The Clouds, posted the teaser and poster on her Instagram and...

Barbara Sukowa, Martine Chevallier, and Léa Drucker star in Filippo Meneghetti’s Oscar shortlisted Two of Us (Deux)

The 93rd Academy Awards Oscar Best International Film shortlist has been revealed with the number increased from ten to 15 films for this year.

From Chile, The Mole Agent (El Agente Topo), Maite Alberdi, director; Czech Republic, Charlatan, Agnieszka Holland, director; Denmark, Another Round, Thomas Vinterberg, director; Bosnia and Herzegovina, Quo Vadis, Aida?, Jasmila Žbanić, director; Guatemala, La Llorona, Jayro Bustamante, director; Hong Kong, Better Days, Derek Tsang, director; Iran, Sun Children, Majid Majidi, director; Ivory Coast, Night Of The Kings, Philippe Lacôte, director; Mexico, I’m No Longer Here, Fernando Frías de la Parra, director; Norway, Hope, Maria Sødahl, director; Romania, Collective, Alexander Nanau, director; Russia, Dear Comrades!, Andrei Konchalovsky, director; Taiwan, A Sun, Chung Mong-hong, director; Tunisia, The Man Who Sold His Skin, Kaouther Ben Hania, director, and France, Two Of Us (Deux), Filippo Meneghetti,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists for nine categories for the upcoming Oscars. The categories and number of films include documentary feature (15), documentary short subject (10), international feature (15), makeup and hairstyling (10), original score (15), original song (15), animated short film (10), live action short film (10) and visual effects (10).

The shortlist voting concluded on Feb. 5, and the remaining will move on to the official phase one voting, which will take place on March 5-9. The Oscar nominations will be announced on March 15, with the show scheduled to take place on April 25.

The full lists are below with snubs and surprises:

Documentary Feature

Fifteen films will advance in the documentary feature category out of 238 films eligible films. Members of the documentary branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

“76 Days” (MTV Documentary Films) – directed by Weixi Chen, Hao Wu, Anonymous “All In: The Fight for Democracy” (Amazon Studios) – directed by Lisa Cortes,...

Vinothraj P.S. is an Indian filmmaker. While working in a DVD shop in Chennai, he was introduced to people from the Tamil film industry. This led to him becoming assistant director on two films by A. Sargunam. After working as a assistant theatre director, he began making his own films. Pebbles (2021) is his feature film debut with its world premiere at IFFR.

On the occasion of “Pebbles” winning the Tiger Award at the International Film festival Rotterdam, we speak with him about the landscape of the film, balancing seriousness and humor, the cast, and other topics

The landscape is one of the protagonists of the film. Was that your intention from the beginning? Could you tell us more about the area the story is located in?

I was born and grew up exactly there, in this area in a village around the place where we shot the film. I...

Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival announced its shortlist of international feature film submissions that will screen during its 10-day hybrid event, with virtual and in-theater presentations, March 5-14. This year’s festival will present films from Academy Award-winning director Fernando Trueba and Oscar-nominated filmmakers Agnieszka Holland and Majid Majidi, among others.

For his performance in bringing a national hero to life, the festival will present a precious gem award to the star of “El Olvido Que Seremos,” Javier Cámara, prior to the film’s U.S. premiere. The festival’s signature award, the precious gem award honors the top stars of films whose one-of-a-kind performances are unforgettable. Cámara’s career accomplishments include a Goya award for “Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed” and acclaimed performances in HBO’s “The Young Pope” and Netflix’s “Narcos,” as well as starring roles in Pedro Almodóvar’s films “Talk to Her,...

Although this year’s Middle Eastern/North African Oscar submissions have yet to generate a strong buzz, there are titles among the 10 films that could be contenders for the international feature short list.

Chief among them is “Sun Children” from veteran Iranian helmer Majid Majidi, whose 1997 “Children of Heaven” landed a foreign-language film nomination. This gripping drama about exploited urban street kids is cast with charismatic, non-pro performers and earned an acting award at the Venice fest for its resilient young protagonist. Strand Films will release.

A possible dark horse is “Broken Keys,” the feature debut of Lebanese multi-hyphenate Jimmy Keyrouz. It marks an expansion of his 2016 Student Academy Award-winner “Nocturne in Black” about a musician in a Syrian town controlled by Isis. Sporting the Cannes Label, this tense drama, with a score by Keyrouz’s famous compatriot Gabriel Yared, shares the combination of real-life crisis and sweeping emotion that characterizes some past nominees.

“Bad Tales,” a drama written and directed by Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, has been acquired by Strand Releasing for North American distribution. Sold by The Match Factory, the movie world premiered in competition at Berlin in 2019 and won the Silver Bear for best screenplay.

The drama unfolds in the suburbs of Rome and is set over the course of a fateful summer. The film revolves around a seemingly normal family in which the devious deeds of fathers, and the passivity of mothers create a bad influence for their children.

Since opening in Berlin, “Bad Tales” went on to play at a flurry of festivals, notably Karlovy Vary, Zurich, BFI London and El Gouna festivals.

“‘Bad Tales’ is one of the brightest films to come out of the Berlin Film Festival, and the brother’s unique vision definitely makes them auteurs that fit perfectly in line with Strand’s eclectic library,...

Every year since its creation in 1956, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) invites the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. The award is presented annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue and that was released theatrically in their respective countries between 1 October 2019 and 31 December 2020.

Here are the Asian Submissions for Best International Feature Film. There are some excellent movies in this bunch and we have seen and reviewed already some of them.

Armenia

“Songs of Solomon” by Arman Nshanian

Bangladesh

“Sincerely Yours, Dhaka” by eleven different directors

Bhutan

“Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom“ by Pawo Choyning Dorji

Cambodia

“Fathers” by Huy Yaleng

China

“Leap” by Peter Chan

Georgia

“Beginnin” by Dea Kulumbegashvili

Hong Kong

“Better Days” by Derek Tsang

India

“Jallikattu...

Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Anthony Chen’s “Wet Season,” which represents Singapore in the Oscar race for best international feature film.

The movie world premiered in the Platform section at the Toronto International Film Festival, and is being represented in international markets by Memento Films International.

Penned and directed by Chen, “Wet Season” revolves around a Chinese language teacher whose marriage and school life are falling apart because she’s unable to bear a child. An unlikely friendship with a student helps her reaffirm her identity as a woman.

“Wet Season” marks Chen’s sophomore outing. His feature debut, “Ilo Ilo,” world premiered at Cannes in 2013 and earned him the prestigious Camera d’Or award for best first film. “Ilo Ilo” went on to win more than 40 awards around the world, including the Sutherland Award at BFI London Film Festival, and four Golden Horse Awards...

Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights to Bassam Tariq’s “Mogul Mowgli,” co-written, starring and produced by Riz Ahmed. The movie world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival where it won the Fipresci International Critics’ Prize.

Produced by Thomas Benski, CEO of Pulse Films, and Ahmed’s Left Handed Films banner, “Mogul Mowgli” recently received seven British Independent Film Award nominations. Strand plans for a theatrical release in the spring.

“Mogul Mowgli,” which marks Tariq’s debut narrative feature, follows the story of a rapper, Zed (Ahmed), who, on the cusp of his first world tour, is struck down by an illness that forces him to face his past, his family, and the uncertainty of his legacy.

” ‘Mogul Mowgli’ is unlike anything I’ve done before or seen before,” said Ahmed. “In a time where identity is at the forefront of our cultural conversation, Bassam has explored it in a bold and genre-defying way.

Strand Releasing has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Majid Majidi’s “Sun Children,” which competed at Venice and represents Iran in the international feature film race at the 2021 Academy Awards.

Represented in international markets by Hengameh Panahi’s Celluloid Dreams, “Sun Children” has been critically acclaimed in the festival circuit, and its young leading actor Ruhollah Zamani won Venice’s Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actor. The movie went on to win the best feature film award at the Doha Ajyal Film Festival. The film was produced by Amir Banan and Majid Majidi.

“Sun Children” tells the story of 12-year-old Ali and his three friends who work hard together to survive and support their families, doing small jobs in a garage and committing petty crimes to make fast cash. In a turn of events that seems miraculous, Ali is entrusted to find hidden treasure underground, but in order...

Majid Majidi’s Venice prize winner Sun Children opened the festival on Wednesday evening.

The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) kicked off a hybrid eighth edition of its youth-focused Ajyal Film Festival on Wednesday with the Mena premiere of Iranian director Majid Majidi’s Venice prize winner Sun Children.

Running under the banner of “The show goes on” from November 18-23, the festival is showing 22 features and 58 shorts hailing from 46 countries, with a mix of socially-distanced physical and online screenings as well as a drive-in venue.

Majidi’s Tehran-set feature, which explores the topic of child labour through the adventures of four poor but resourceful boys,...

Majid Majidi’s Venice prize winner Sun Children opened the festival on Wednesday evening.

The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) kicked off a hybrid eighth edition of its youth-focused Ajyal Film Festival on Wednesday with the Mena premiere of Iranian director Majid Majidi’s Venice prize winner Sun Children.

Running under the banner of “The show goes on” from November 18-23, the festival is showing 22 features and 58 shorts hailing from 46 countries, with a mix of socially-distanced physical and online screenings as well as at Qatar’s first-ever drive-in venue.

Majidi’s Tehran-set feature, which explores the topic of child labour through...

By Arundhuti Banerjee

Mumbai, Nov 18 (Ians) He grabbed attention of cinegoers with his skilled performance in Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's Beyond The Clouds in 2017. His next, Dhadak, fared below expectations, and though Khaali Peeli managed to create some waves earlier this year, the film had to be released on Ott owing to the pandemic. He was also seen in the Mira Nair web series A Suitable Boy.

Ishaan Khatter is already being considered a contender for Bollywood's Next Big Thing. He is yet to experience a definitive blockbuster, but Shahid Kapoor's younger brother has managed to dodge nepotism charges thanks to his screen presence, efficient acting and dancing skills.

"I am fortunate to get every opportunity that came my way. I am lucky, there is no denial on that. But I want to say something here. I think I started working at the right age. At times the...

By Arundhuti Banerjee

Mumbai, Nov 18 (Ians) He grabbed attention of cinegoers with his skilled performance in Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's Beyond The Clouds in 2017. His next, Dhadak, fared below expectations, and though Khaali Peeli managed to create some waves earlier this year, the film had to be released on Ott owing to the pandemic. He was also seen in the Mira Nair web series A Suitable Boy.

Ishaan Khatter is already being considered a contender for Bollywood's Next Big Thing. He is yet to experience a definitive blockbuster, but Pankaj Kapoor's younger son and Shahid Kapoor's younger brother has managed to dodge nepotism charges thanks to his screen presence, efficient acting and dancing skills.

"I am fortunate to get every opportunity that came my way. I am lucky, there is no denial on that. But I want to say something here. I think I started working at the right age.

Viggo Mortensen’s directorial debut “Falling” and the already acclaimed Chinese film “The Cloud in her Room” form part of the 11-title competition section announced by the International Film Festival & Awards Macao. The festival will take place entirely online this year, running Dec. 3-8.

The competition, which focuses on first and second films, also includes: Wang Xiaozhen’s “Love Poem,” which won the top prize at the First International Film Festival this year; Jeonju prize-winner “Black Light,” by Bae Jongdae; Cannes 2020 Label titles “Limbo,” by the U.K.’s Ben Sharrock, “Spring Blossom” by France’s Suzanne Lindon, and “Sweat” by Magnus von Horn; and “Back To The Wharf,” by China’s Li Xiaofeng.

Three other titles joining the competition are: “Servants,” by Ivan Ostrochovsky of the Czech Republic; “Shorta,” by Frederik Louis Hviid and Anders Olholm from Denmark; and “Tragic Jungle,” by Yulene Olaizola, from Mexico.

Prizes will be...

Bookmark this page for all the latest international feature submissions.

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2021 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

Scroll down for the full list

The 93rd Academy Awards is set to take place on April 25, 2021. It was originally set to be held on February 28, before both the ceremony and eligibility period were postponed for two months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Submitted films must have been released in their respective countries between the expanded dates of October 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020. (Last year it was October-September.

Iran has chosen childhood labor drama “Sun Children” as its national representative for the Academy Awards best international feature film category. It is the sixth time that a firm directed by Majid Majidi will represent the country.

The decision was announced on Sunday by the delegation of the representative of Iranian cinema to the Oscar ceremony. The committee said that it screened 90 films and whittled that down to a shortlist of 12 before making its final decision. Other films in contention had included drama “Walnut Tree,” “Yalda: A Night for Forgiveness” and “Careless Crime.”

“Sun Children” had its world premiere in competition at the 77th Venice Film Festival in September. The film’s star, Ruhollah Zamani, was named the best young actor at the Italian festival and claimed the Marcello Mastroianni Award. Majidi was presented with the Lanterna Magica award.

The story follows a small group of kids who sign up...

by Nathaniel R

Iran is sending their favourite filmmaking son to the Oscars again. Sixty-one year old prolific filmmaker Majid Majidi brought Iran the first of their three Oscar nominations with his fifth film Children of Heaven (1998); they've submitted him almost every time he's made a feature since. This year his latest film Sun Children, which you'll recall won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor at Venice this year, about poverty stricken chilldren trying to support their families, will compete for the coveted Best International Feature Film Oscar prize. 

After the jump key Iranian submissions over the years and Oscar trivia...

Vanessa Kirby wins best actress Coppa Volpi for Pieces Of A Woman.

Chloé Zhao’s US drama Nomadland starring Frances McDormand has won the Golden Lion for best film at the 2020 Venice Film Festival, which held its awards in a socially-distanced ceremony on Saturday evening (September 12).

The Silver Lion – Grand Jury prize went to Michel Franco’s Mexican-French feature New Order, about a high society wedding which is interrupted by protesters. Franco was present in Venice to accept the award, which was presented in front of a half-full Sala Grande, as part of the measures in place to combat the...

The Venice Film Festival wraps today after putting on a show against the odds. Despite lacking in studio fare, there was no shortage of well-received movies. Was there a Sundance-style bounce, with critics giddy just to be on the Lido after months of lockdown? Perhaps. But this was also a solid roster of independent movies. While there was no Joker juggernaut, there was at least one Roma rave. We’ve done a wide sweep of the English-language reviews and here’s our run-down of the best-received world premieres.

Standing out in the pack for its touted Academy Awards potential was Chloe Zhao’s anticipated drama Nomadland, starring Frances McDormand as a woman who embarks on a journey through the American West. The Searchlight Pictures movie, which debuted last night, was expected to be impress given its simultaneous berths in Venice and Toronto, and it didn’t disappoint. It’s just...