News

Tree-lined alleys, autumn leaves enveloping the ground beneath, underground gatherings resounding with music and singing, a lone woman protester being pushed by the police. But what remains constant in this collage of Iran, is poetry haunting and evocative. With words, with silence.

Filmmaker Sreemoyee Singh’s documentary ‘And, Towards Happy Alleys’ screened to a full house during the ongoing Dharamshala International Film Festival (Diff), one of India’s finest festivals, goes beyond the young filmmaker’s fascination with Iranian cinema and poet Forugh Farrokhzad, and takes a deep dive into contemporary the Iranian society much divorced from the western gaze at the country.

Created as part of a Ph.D thesis about Iranian new wave cinema, the movie sees the Kolkata-based Singh, who learned Farsi at Tehran University in conversation and singing with master filmmakers like Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Shirvani.

“I am a literature student who fell in love with Iranian poetry,...

Tree-lined alleys, autumn leaves enveloping the ground beneath, underground gatherings resounding with music and singing, a lone woman protester being pushed by the police. But what remains constant in this collage of Iran, is poetry haunting and evocative. With words, with silence.

Filmmaker Sreemoyee Singh’s documentary ‘And, Towards Happy Alleys’ screened to a full house during the ongoing Dharamshala International Film Festival (Diff), one of India’s finest festivals, goes beyond the young filmmaker’s fascination with Iranian cinema and poet Forugh Farrokhzad, and takes a deep dive into contemporary the Iranian society much divorced from the western gaze at the country.

Created as part of a Ph.D thesis about Iranian new wave cinema, the movie sees the Kolkata-based Singh, who learned Farsi at Tehran University in conversation and singing with master filmmakers like Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Shirvani.

“I am a literature student who fell in love with Iranian poetry,...

Each project will receive contributions from Iffr’s fund towards script and project development.

International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf) has selected 11 projects in its spring selection round.

From 11 different countries, each project will receive contributions towards script and project development. Overall, the fund will grant contributions totalling €110,000 ($150,000), with the selection made from 270 applications received.

Five of the projects are debuts, including Arab Abu Nasser and Tarzan Abu Nasser’s Dégradé, and Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not a Witch.

Iranian film-maker Mohammad Shirvani’s third feature The Unwelcomed Whirling Wind in Our Stomach will also receive support from the Hbf.

The other projects backed are:

Another Trip to the Moon (Ismail Basbeth, Indonesia)The Calm (Song Fang, China)La Omisión (Sebastián Schjaer, Argentina)Something Useful (Pelin Esmer, Turkey)The Boyfriend (Ashim Ahluwalia, India)The Winds Know That I’m Coming Back Home (José Luis Torres Leiva, Chile)The Wound...

Each project will receive contributions from Iffr’s fund towards script and project development.

International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf) has selected 11 projects in its spring selection round.

From eleven different countries, each project will receive contributions towards script and project development. Overall, the fund will grant contributions totalling €110,000, with the selection made from 270 applications received.

Five of the projects are debuts, include Arab Abu Nasser & Tarzan Abu Nasser’s Dégradé and Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not a Witch.

Iranian film-maker Mohammad Shirvani’s third feature The Unwelcomed Whirling Wind in Our Stomach will also receive support from the Hbf.

The other projects backed are:

Another Trip to the Moon (Ismail Basbeth, Indonesia)The Calm (Song Fang, China)La Omisión (Sebastián Schjaer, Argentina)Something Useful (Pelin Esmer, Turkey)The Boyfriend (Ashim Ahluwalia, India)The Winds Know That I’m Coming Back Home (José Luis Torres Leiva, Chile)The Wound...

Los Angeles hosts annual showcase featuring extensive array of work from contemporary and veteran film-makers

The annual celebration of Iranian cinema run by the University of California, Los Angeles, is a vital occasion for two dynamic and overlapping constituencies: cinephiles and Iranians in Los Angeles. The festival's screenings routinely draw large audiences, eager to see films from a nation distinguished by its rich and sustained contribution to world cinema. This year's programme underscored the depth and diversity of cinematic voices in Iranian life.

In recent years, the archive has expanded the scope to include older films, working with Iran's national film archive and exiled filmmakers such as Parviz Sayyad to present seminal works such as The Lor Girl (Dokhtar-e Lor; 1933), directed by Ardeshir Irani; Masoud Kimiai's Caesar (Qaisar; 1969); and Sayyad's own Dead End (Bon Bast; 1977). This year, the festival began with a screening of Bahram Beyzaie's first feature film,...

Abdellatif Kechiche’s Palme d’Or winner to open T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival; competition titles announced.Scroll down for competition titles

Poland’s T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival (July 18-28) is to open with this year’s Palme d’Or winner, Blue is the Warmest Colour (La vie d’Adèle - Chapitre 1 & 2) by Abdellatif Kechiche.

The closing film will be the Polish premiere of Malgoska Szumowska’s Berlinale competition title and Teddy Award winner In the Name of.

Festival organizers also announced the films in competition at this year’s event.

The New Horizons International Competition consists of 12 Polish premieres including Rotterdam competition title Noche by Leonardo Brzezicki, Locarno Fipresci award winner Leviathan by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, as well as this year’s Cannes’ Un Certain Regard title Stranger by the Lake by Alain Guiraudie.

The Jury for this competition will be announced next week.

The Films in...

★★☆☆☆ Winner of the Tiger Award at this year's Rotterdam Film Festival, Mohammad Shirvani's Fat Shaker (Larzanandeye charbi, 2013) went on to become the first ever Iranian film to screen at Sundance. Now receiving its UK premiere in Edinburgh, the surreal stylistics of Shirvani's absurdist drama have already evoked extreme controversy in its native Iran. Centred around the destructive relationship shared by a morbidly obese man and his deaf son, Fat Shaker observes the pair's rituals through a nauseating documentary-like approach, with scenes purposely rearranged to further complicate an already bewildering narrative.

Using his disabled yet attractive son to entrap and blackmail young women, this overweight, alcoholic father is a constant source of tyrannical abuse and belittlement, culminating in an illusory portrait of paternal repression clearly intended to mirror the severity of a traditionalist government. Through a series of needlessly cryptic episodes that combine surrealist imagery with impenetrable storytelling, this oppressive...

Last month saw the release of the full lineup for the 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival. In his second year as artistic director, Chris Fujiwara will be hoping to build on the success of 2012's resurgent incarnation of the festival. Whilst boasting eye-catching heavyweights such as opening night drama Breathe In, Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring and the long-awaiting sequel to Monster Inc., Monsters University, the festival has always prided itself on nurturing new talent and this year's selection looks no different. The Michael Powell Award, dedicated to promoting and celebrating British cinema, is back once again and looking stronger than ever. Out of the eleven films in competition, two initially stand out.

The first is Sundance hit Leviathan, a striking, ambitious documentary about an Atlantic fishing trawler that's been described as an enthralling visual journey that's both hallucinatory and disorientating, yet gorgeously abstract. Joining Leviathan as an early...

BBC Defends Its ‘Doctor Who’ Against Accusations Of Racism A new book calls out the BBC’s sci-fi series Doctor Who as “thunderingly racist,” but the UK pubcaster begs to differ. The Beeb has hit back at the accusations claimed by a group of academics in Doctor Who And Race, and fans have rushed to dismiss the criticisms as “groundless” and “ridiculous.” The BBC noted the 2006 casting of Freema Agyeman as the Time Lord’s first black assistant and Noel Clarke playing Mickey Smith for five years. The pubcaster’s reply came as critics alleged the Doctor’s apparent dismissive attitude toward black companions, his contempt for “primitive” people, and his passion for cricket as proof of a reactionary “whiteness”. Related: BBC Confirms ‘Doctor Who’ Season 8 Edinburgh Fest Announces 147-Film Lineup The Edinburgh International Film Festival on Wednesday announced the lineup for its 67th edition, slating 147 movies from 53 countries. The festival,...

Fat Shaker, a surreal film about an obese and oppressive father and his son, is a refection on wider frustrations and corruption

There is something about the way he breathes, about the way he carries the weight around his waist, and the way his lips hang from his face.

Levon Haftvan's physique is as heavy as his acting, and he is ideally cast in Mohammad Shirvani's latest feature, Fat Shaker (2012). The strange, frustrating, dreamlike story of the relationship between a father (Haftvan) and his deaf son (Hassan Rostami), unsettled by the entrance of a young woman (Maryam Palizban), defies expectations and exercises a daring liberty in the process. The film gained international attention when it won one of the Hivos Tiger awards at the Rotterdam film festival, and it became the first Iranian feature to be screened at the Sundance film festival.

Although the plot may sound recycled...

Several films which premiered at Sundance -- Soldier Jane (Isa: Premium Films), Fat Shaker, What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love, Stoker (Fox and Fox Searchlight) and Il Futuro (Isa: Visit Films) -- have gone on to take awards at the recently wrapped International Film Festival Rotterdam.

And the winners are…

Hivos Tiger Awards

The three winners of the equal Hivos Tiger Awards 2013 are:

My Dog Killer (Môj pes Killer) (Isa: M-appeal) by Mira Fornay (Slovakia/Czech Republic, 2013). An unflinching study of a troubled teen in small-town Slovakia, the film was praised by its jury for 'showing a very strong subject from the inside' Soldate Jeannette (Soldier Jane) (Isa: Premium Films) by Daniel Hoesl (Austria, 2012). A provocative portrait of two women from different ends of the social spectrum, Hoesl's debut feature was commended for it 'strong imagery and visual power.' Fat Shaker (Larzanandeye charbi) by Mohammad Shirvani (Iran, 2013). Shirvani's drama about a stern patriarch was, the jury stated, 'a fascinating story with superb characters.' Apparently the film’s showing in the West has caused some problems at home. See Indiewire story here.

The jury of the 2013 Hivos Tiger Awards Competition (prize €15.000) consisted of distinguished Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamedarya; Russian scriptwriter and filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa; Dutch filmmaker Kees Hin; José Luis Cienfuegos, artistic director of the Seville European Film Festival (Spain) and Chinese visual artist and filmmaker Ai Weiwei(who was not be able to attend the festival and commented on his jury duty in a prerecorded video message). They made their announcement of the winners at the Awards Ceremony in Rotterdam.

The winners of the Netpac, Fipresci and Knf awards were also announced. Two of the winners were supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, and one was a CineMart project.

Netpac Award

The Netpac Jury (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) awards the best Asian film in Iffr 2013 official selection. The winner of the Netpac Award 2013 is What They Don't Talk About When They Talk About Love (Indonesia, 2013). It also had received money earlier from the Hubert Bals Fund.

Fipresci Award

The winner of the Rotterdam Fipresci Award 2013 (see photo on this page for selected jury members) is The Fifth Gospel of Kaspar Hauser by Alberto Gracia (Spain, 2013)

The Big Screen Award

Introduced this year, the Big Screen Award Competition aims to support the distribution of films in Dutch cinemas. The Iffr named Pretty Butterflies (Bellas mariposas) by Salvatore Mereu (Italy, 2012) as winner of its new Big Screen Award Competition. The film follows a day in the life of a young Sardinian girl.

Knf Award

The Dutch Circle of Film Critics (Knf) Jury award – chosen from the ten films in The Big Screen Award Competition – went to The Future (Il futuro) by Alicia Scherson (Chile/Germany/Italy/Spain, 2013).

This weekend saw the closing of this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam, and this means all of its awards are now known. The three Hivos Tiger Awards for best film by a newcomer (only first and second features count) were won by the following: My Dog Killer, by Mira Fornay (Slovakia / Czech Republic) Soldate Jeannette, by Daniel Hoesl (Austria) Fat Shaker, by Mohammad Shirvani (Iran) Each of these winners takes home 15,000 Euro and some distribution deals, as for starters the Tigers will be shown on Dutch television in the coming year. The Upc Audience Award surprisingly went to a Dutch film for the first time since 1998, and it was one of three Dutch films in the final top 10. But after being...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Daniel Hoesl’s serenely composed film, that invites the mind to go on safari without a script, Soldate Jeannette (Soldier Jane) from Austria, shared top honors as one of three Tiger Award winners at the 42nd International Film Festival Rotterdam. The other Tiger Award winners are Mira Fornay’s My Dog Killer, a Slovakia-Czech Republic production and Mohammad Shirvani’s Fat Shaker from Iran. Each Tiger Award winner receives a cash prize of €15,000.

Soldate Jeannette Director Daniel Hoesl goes on safari and bags a Tiger.

The Fipresci Award was presented to Alberto Gracia from Spain, for his film The Fifth Gospel of Kaspar Hauser.

Salvatore Mereu's Pretty Butterflies from Italy wins the newly launched Big Screen Award and Indonesian film What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love by Mouly Surya, the Netpac Award.

The Dutch Circle of Film Critics Jury award went to Alicia Scherson...

Still from My Dog Killer

Mira Fornay’s My Dog Killer (Slovakia-Czech Republic), Daniel Hoesl’s Soldier Jane (Austria) and Mohammad Shirvani’s Fat Shaker (Iran) won the Tiger Awards at the 42nd International Film Festival Rotterdam. The award comprises of cash prize of Euro 15,000 for each winner.

The newly introduced Big Screen Award was bagged by Italian film Pretty Butterflies by Salvatore Mereu. The Netpac Award went to Indonesian film What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love by Mouly Surya and the Fipresci Award was presented to The Fifth Gospel of Kaspar Hauser by Alberto Gracia from Spain. The Future, a Chile-Germany-Italy-Spain co-production directed by Alicia Scherson won the Knf Award 2013.

Slovakia-CzechRepublic co-production My Dog Killer narrates the tale of 18 year-old Merek whose only friend and true company is his dog. Merek, neglected by his family, blindly follows the local goons. One day, his mother and half-brother return,...

Could another Iranian filmmaker be in trouble with his government at home? First-time Sundance Film Festival writer-director Mohammad Shirvani, whose film “Fat Shaker” screened in the New Frontier program this week, believes he now has cause for concern. According to Shirvani, who spoke through a translator, several fundamentalist websites (Javanonline.com, rajanews.com and kalame.com, among them) attacked his film Sunday as “anti-Iranian,” despite the fact that he had made the film under Ministry of Culture guidelines. Filmed in February 2012, “Fat Shaker” details the relationship between an obese father, his deaf son and a beautiful woman who enters and changes their lives. Performed in the English, Farsi and Dari languages, “Fat Shaker” premiered Friday, Jan. 18, and also played in Salt Lake City Monday night. “The regime characterizes any work shown in outside festivals that may be viewed as anti-government...

The Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) has selected twenty-five film projects that receive grants for script development, digital production, postproduction, distribution or workshops. In its Fall 2012 selection round, the Fund gave 330,000 Euro to projects from seventeen Asian, Eastern European, Latin-American and African countries. (See full list below)

From many strong applications for workshop initiatives, the Hubert Bals Fund chose to support the Naas Training Workshop (Egypt), the Digital Cinema Workshops Series (Morocco) and Cinema Land (Vietnam). The Naas workshop offers a training and networking program for art house and cine club managers in the Mena region. In Morocco, the Workshop Series aims to increase digital filming skills among young film professionals. Cinema Land offers filmmaking talents expertise and training in the Central-Vietnamese cities of Danang and Hue, where there are no such facilities as yet.

In the distribution category, the Hubert Bals Fund supports the plan to screen acclaimed director Riri Riza’s Atambua 39° Celsius (pictured top) during open air screenings – the region has no cinemas - within the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara, where the film was shot.

Atambua 39° Celsius received Hubert Bals Fund support for digital production earlier this year, recently premiered in competition at the Tokyo Iff and will see its European premiere during Iffr 2013. The film offers a sensitive portrait of refugees from East Timor and of their scattered families.

One of the eleven projects selected in the script development category is Tarde para morir joven (Late To Die Young), second feature film project by Chilean filmmaker Dominga Sotomayor. Her very successful début feature film De jueves a domingo (Thursday Till Sunday), also supported in script stage by the Hubert Bals Fund, won a Hivos Tiger Award in Rotterdam and subsequently screened in many film festivals worldwide. Tarde para morir joven tells about members of an isolated community that see their existence threatened by a forest fire.

Also selected for script development support is Teboho Edkins, a promising new talent from South Africa, who prepares his first feature length film Days of Cannibalism. Edkins previously made The Gangster Project, a 55-minute documentary/fiction hybrid that was selected for Fid Marseille and Iffr 2012. In Days of Cannibalism, Edkins again uses a clever mix of documentary and fictional elements to focus on the expanding trade relations between China and the African continent.

Milagros Mumenthaler, Golden Leopard-winner for her Hubert Bals Fund-supported first feature film Abrir puertas y ventanas (Back to Stay), has been granted digital production support for Pozo de aire (Air Pocket). This second film, backed again by the ‘Abrir’-team in Argentina and Switzerland, is a more low budget and experimental take on female lead characters and the notion of absence.

When finished in time, the films receiving postproduction grants are expected to screen at the 2013 International Film Festival Rotterdam. One of these is Yang Tidak Dibicarakan Ketika Membicarakan Cinta (What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love), second feature film project by Mouly Surya, one the most promising female directors in Indonesia. Her film is a both sensitive and sensual examination of the dynamics among a group of teenagers played by visually and aurally impaired actors.

The harvest of newly finished Hubert Bals Fund-supported films will be screened during the next International Film Festival Rotterdam (23 January – 3 February 2013). The next application deadline for Hubert Bals Fund support is 1 March 2013. All information about the Fund may be found here.

The line up of the Iffr’s Hubert Bals Fund Fall 2013 Selection Round in full:

Post-production & final-financing

Noche (Night) / Leonardo Brzezicki / Argentina

O Rio nos pretence (Rio Belongs to Us) / Ricardo Pretti / Brazil

O Uivo da Gaita (The Harmonica’s Howl) / Bruno Safadi / Brazil

On Mother’s Head / Kusuma Widjaja Putu / Indonesia

Yang Tidak Dibicarakan Ketika Membicarakan Cinta (What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love) / Mouly Surya / Indonesia

Larzanandeye Charbi (Fat Shaker) / Mohammad Shirvani / Iran

Something Necessary / Judy Kibinge / Kenya

Penumbra / Eduardo Villanueva / Mexico

Digital Production

A Corner of Heaven / Zhang Miaoyan / China

Pozo de aire (Air Pocket) / Milagros Mumenthaler / Argentina

Script and project development

Otra madre (Another Mother) / Mariano Luque / Argentina

Tabija / Igor Drljaca / Bosnia and Herzegovina

Elon Rabin Não Acredita na Morte (Elon Rabin Doesn’t Believe in Death) / Ricardo Alves Jr. / Brazil

Tarde para morir joven (Late To Die Young) / Dominga Sotomayor / Chile

Oscuro animal (Obscure Animal) / Felipe Guerrero / Colombia

Court / Chaitanya Tamhane / India

The Room on a Tree / Amit Dutta / India

Extraño pero verdadero (Strange But True) / Michel Lipkes / Mexico

Tempestad (Tempestuous) / John Torres / Philippines

Days of Cannibalism / Teboho Edkins / South Africa

Rüzgarli Bir Güne Agit (Requiem for a Windy Day) / Özcan Alper / Turkey

Distribution

Atambua 39° Celsius / Riri Riza / Indonesia

Workshops

Naas Training Workshop / Egypt

Digital Cinema Workshop Series / Morocco

Cinema Land / Vietnam

Profile of the Hubert Bals Fund

The Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf), along with the CineMart, is part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr). The 42nd Iffr will take place January 23 – February 3, 2013. Year-round news on Iffr, Hbf and CineMart can be found on www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com.

The Hubert Bals Fund is designed to bring remarkable or urgent feature films and feature-length creative documentaries by innovative and talented filmmakers from developing countries closer to completion. The Hubert Bals Fund provides grants that often turn out to play a crucial role in enabling these filmmakers to realize their projects. Although the Fund looks closely at the financial aspects of a project, the decisive factors remain its content and artistic value. Since the Fund started in 1989, hundreds of projects from independent filmmakers in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe have received support. Approximately 80% of these projects have been realized or are currently in production. Every year, the Iffr screens completed films supported by the Fund.

The Hubert Bals Fund is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Media Mundus, Dutch non-governmental development organization Hivos Culture Foundation, the Doen Foundation and the Dioraphte Foundation and Lions Club Rotterdam: L’Esprit du Temps.

Grants and selection rounds

Annually, the Hubert Bals Fund is able to make individual grants of up to Euro 10,000 for script and project development, Euro 20,000 for digital production, Euro 30,000 for post-production, Euro 15,000 towards distribution costs in the country of origin or Euro 10,000 for special projects such as workshops. Selection rounds take place twice a year and have application deadlines on March 1 and August 1.

Hubert Bals Fund-supported films in Iffr and on DVD/VOD

Most of the films supported by the Hubert Bals Fund throughout the year are screened during the International Film Festival Rotterdam in attendance of the filmmaker. Subsequently, part of the Hbf-supported films is released by the Iffr on DVD or VOD, available on www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com (VOD for viewers in the Benelux only).

Court by Chaitanya Tamhane and The Room on a Tree by Amit Dutta have been selected for Script and Project Development of Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf) Fall 2012.

Post completion, the films will be made a part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam under the competition section or the main sections Bright Future, Spectrum or Signals.

Both these projects have also been selected for the National Film Development Corporation’s annual co-production market at Film Bazaar 2012.

Tamhane’s first short Six Strands was screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2011. It has toured many festivals including Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival 2011, Slamdance 2011and Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011.

Amit Dutta’s The Room on a Tree too has also been selected for New Cinema Network, the co-production market at Rome Film Festival.

Hubert Bal Fund was founded in 1988 to help independent film makers from developing countries complete their projects. So far the fund...

Cologne, Germany -- Following the success of Robert Kenner's "Food, Inc.", which opened the Berlin Film Festival's Culinary Cinema sidebar last year, Berlin has decided to load its plate with documentaries.

Seven of the 11 films screening as part of the 2010 Culinary Cinema lineup are non-fiction, including an inside look at a pastry competition in Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker's "Kings of Pastry" and "The Botany of Desire," Michael Schwarz's adaptation of the book on plant passion by "Food, Inc." author Michael Pollan.

Berlin is stretching the definition of food issues to fit in several docs that focus on ecological and social themes. These include Fredrik Gertten's "Bananas!" about the legal battle between Nicaraguan fruit pickers and Dole Food over the use of a banned pesticide; and Chris Smith's "Collapse" in which radical reporter Michael Ruppert apocalyptic vision of a world without crude oil.

Tilda Swinton,...