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It is somewhat a sad fact of the human condition that it often takes an extreme situation to bring out the best in people. Given a specific environment, these situations come more often than you might think, thus creating a tremendous emotional challenge for the family unit and its members who have to master them or just do whatever is best. In his director debut “For Rana”, Iranian filmmaker Iman Yazdi, who previously directed short features and worked for Iranian television, aims to tell a story about two families from different social backgrounds within his home country, with a tragedy connecting their fates. “For Rana” is a family drama, but considering the issue of class present in the two families it also wants to show this theme and its consequences within society.

For Rana is screening at Busan International Film Festival

Aref (Hamed Behdad) has been a motocross stunt driver for many years,...

Iranian director Iman Yazdi, who was set to present his directorial feature debut For Rana in competition at Busan International Film Festival, has seen his travel plans disrupted due to heightened tensions in the Middle East.

Yazdi’s flights out of Iran have been cancelled along with many others as conflicts escalate amid fears of a wider war in the region. There is a high chance the filmmaker may not be able to make it to Busan in South Korea if airlines continue to steer clear of Iranian airspace.

The world premiere of family drama For Rana is scheduled for...

Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite” leads the race of this year’s Asian Film Awards, which will be hosted in his home country South Korea for the first time since the prize ceremony’s inception in 2007. The acclaimed drama picked up 10 nominations, including best film, best director and best screenplay.

“Parasite” was closely followed by Wang Xiaoshuai’s drama “So Long, My Son” from mainland China, and Taiwan drama “A Sun” by Chung Mong-hong. They each scored seven nominations including best film and best director, organizers of the 14th Asian Film Awards announced on Wednesday. A total of 39 films from 11 countries and regions are competing for the awards.

Founded by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, the AFAs have been staged in Hong Kong and Macau since their launch. In 2013, three major film festivals in Asia — Busan, Hong Kong and Tokyo — joined hands to launch the non-profit Afa Academy,...

The Asian Film Awards Academy has decided to announce the winners online on October 14.

Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite leads the nominations for this year’s Asian Film Awards (Afa) – hosted by Busan International Film Festival and the first to be held outside of Hong Kong and Macau – with ten nominations including best film and best director.

The Asian Film Awards Academy (Afaa), comprising the Hong Kong, Tokyo and Busan international film festivals, announced during last year’s Busan that the 14th Afa ceremony would be held in the South Korean city this year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisers...

Joe Odagiri’s drama They Say Nothing Stays the Same wins best film in international competition.

Ali Ozel’s drama Steppe, about an elderly man who refuses to leave his home village after it is condemned to make way for a dam, broke records to sweep the awards of the national feature competition of the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival over the weekend.

The debut feature won in nine categories clinching best film, director, first film, screenplay, cinematography, music, editing, actor and best supporting actor.

The decision to award the production both the best film and best first film prizes...

Faced with losing his job and his family on the same day, a shady municipal officer in contemporay Tehran is forced to make some difficult choices in Blockage, Mohsen Gharaie’s gripping social drama. Qasem (Hamed Behdad) is tasked with monitoring the street vendors who peddle their wares on the streets of Tehran. He regularly supplements his paltry income by taking bribes and backhanders from these even worse-off salesmen, but now risks losing his job over his nefarious dealings. Forced to live in his parents’ house, Qasem’s domestic situation is far from ideal, and his wife Nargess (Baran Kosrari) is coming to the end of her tether. She wants to use her inheritance to buy a house, but Qasem is determined to spend the...

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

The Los Angeles Film Festival has announced the world premiere of Richard Linklater's Bernie as the opening night film for the 2011 festival.

The film will kick off the festival on June 16 at Regal Cinemas Stadium 14 at L.A. Live. It is written by Skip Hollandsworth and director Linklater and stars Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey.

The film follows a beloved mortician (Black) from a small Texas town, even winning over the town's richest, meanest widow (MacLaine). Even after Bernie commits a horrible crime, people still will not utter a bad word against him.

"We're thrilled to be opening the Festival with the world premiere of this delicious black comedy - a treat from one of the most original and exciting voices in independent film, Richard Linklater," said Festival director Rebecca Yeldham. "With its fabulous all-star cast, Bernie is a perfect stage setter for the incredible line-up of...

With his film Certified Copy making massive waves at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, it seems as though legendary Iranian auteur and all around genius Abbas Kiarostami has lined up his next project.

The Palme d’Or winner (Taste Of Cherry) will helm the film Father and Son as his next outing. The film was originally slated to shoot prior to Certified Copy, but is now slated to get in front of cameras this September. It will star Hamed Behdad, best known as the lead in the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, No One Knows About Persian Cats. News came at his recent Cannes press conference, but was lost amongst reports of the filmmaker throwing his name in the ever growing hat of support for imprisoned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi.

Not much is known about the film, but the director said...

  Cannes 2010 - Abbas Kirostami will follow up Certified Copy, his first feature shot outside Iran, with a return to his homeland. The Palme d'Or winning helmer is prepping for Father and Son, a drama based around an idea Kirostami has had in mind "for several years". Kirostami remained tight-lipped on any plot details, except to say that the film "does not have a narrative structure" as such, and will star Hamed Behdad (No One Knows About Persisn Cats). Father and Son is due to begin filming in...

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The Iranian indie band talk about life as outlaws in their homeland, as documented in their new film No One Knows About Persian Cats

At first glance, Take It Easy Hospital look like any other aspiring indie duo. Dressed in impeccable Shoreditch chic – plaid shirt and skinny jeans for him, cute vintage dress, black tights and brogues for her – their teenage epiphanies came on copied cassettes of Nirvana and Pink Floyd, while these days they're more into Sigur Rós and Foals.

Their ambition for next year, once they find a drummer, is to get on to the bill at Glastonbury or Reading. The difference is that Take It Easy Hospital originally formed in Iran, where rock music is banned. When the local music industry is non-existent, gigs and recording studios are regularly raided by police and even MySpace is monitored, simply finding someone who shares your love of guitars and...

Michael checks out a film about two Iranians who decide to form a band. But just where does No One Knows About Persian Cats go from there? Here's our review...

Is there a more puzzling underground music scene than that of Iran? If you follow the western media's reporting of tough crackdowns on gigs and club nights, it seems stuck between heavy regulation, outright disdain, and tentative blossoming. Seeking to get beyond the headlines and potential ideological bias is Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi's No One Knows About Persian Cats.

One of the film's frustrating conflicts is presented immediately. Ghobadi's desire to present this youthful, radical slice of Iranian society in a documentary style, showing off the diversity of bands and the pressures on performers, jars with the decidedly fictional narrative style given to the film, which features real bands but a made-up story.

Two young Iranians, Negar and Ashkan,...

Less than a week worth of recovering from the Sundance Film Festival, and we are already looking forward to our next, big film fest coverage. That would be the South by Southwest Film Festival held annually in Austin, Texas. Last year, Scott and I brought you all kinds of coverage from the Lone Star State, and this year doesn’t look to be much different.

With that, the announcement came last night of the feature films that will be playing at the SXSW Film Festival. Previous announcement were already made about films like Cold Weather, Electra Luxx, Hubble 3D, Lemmy, Saturday Night, and The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights making their debut. Kick-ass was recently announced as the opening night film, as well.

Among the other films being presented this year are some Sundance darlings, a few, highly anticipated premieres, and MacGruber.

Check out the full list...

I was so excited at seeing the SXSW line up last night that I completely forgot to post it and started searching the interwebs for cool content to go with it. Oops. Yes, I wish I was there but alas, it wasn’t mean to be (though don’t despair. We’ll be bringing you wicked awesome coverage).

But enough rambling, you want to know what’s all playing. Well, for a start there’s the much anticipated McGruber (trailer), the Duplass’ semi-mainstream comedy Cyrus, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs (trailer, review), Daniel Stamm’s horror flick Cotton and that’s on top of the previously announced titles which include Electra Luxx (Carla Gugino as a pregnant porn star? Bring. It. On.) and Kick-Ass (trailer). That’s already a great line-up but dear me, some of the other titles are pretty awesome too.

There’s Clay Liford scifi drama Earthling (trailer...

Late yesterday the SXSW Fim Festival, which runs from March 12-20 in Austin, TX, announced the full lineup of films that will be screening at this year’s event. And baby, it’s quite a list. Mixing big name films with intimate indie gems, the sheer number of films and the vast array of talented filmmakers is sure to be a hit with attendees and critics alike.

This lineup includes premieres of studio films such as Universal’s MacGruber, Lionsgate’s teen superhero actioneer Kick-Ass and smaller films like Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, Michel Gondry’s The Thorn in the Heart and Steven Soderbergh’s And Everything Is Going Fine. With so many films to watch, it will be very difficult to find time to seem them all during the events nine days. But hell, we’re going to try.

For more on...

The 2010 SXSW Film Festival and Conference has announced its initial slate of titles. The list is rife with hot world premieres (Kick-Ass), films fresh from Sundance (The Runaways, Cyrus), hot titles from the 2009 editions of Tiff and Cannes that haven't had much U.S. play (Enter the Void, Dogtooth, Trash Humpers), interesting documentaries (Lemmy, The People v. George Lucas) and much, much more. Simon Rumley's Red, White & Blue, which has received much praise on Twitch based on its Iffr screenings, will have its North American premiere.

Midnight programming courtesy of Fantastic Fest is also back with titles like Higanjima, Monsters, Serbian Film, Outcast, and a yet to be announced special film. Keep eye out for SXSW coverage at Twitch, but for now, pursue the massive list below (descriptions courtesy of SXSW).

Headliners

Big names, big talent:  Headliners bring star power to SXSW, featuring red carpet premieres and gala film...