Plus, their selection of short films from all over the world and an immersive program which includes fantastic works featuring the voices of Cate Blanchett, Indira Varma, Tahar Rahim and Colin Farrell.
Read MoreStudio Ghibli, Kevin Costner, Baloji and other goodies to come at the Festival de Cannes
Turns out there are lots of winning people and moments on this year’s Croisette, and that’s before the festival has even started. And finally, we have a poster for the 77th edition of the festival!
Read MoreFive films to illuminate in these dark times, and check your racism at the door
“I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” — James Baldwin
When I learned what happened to George Floyd on Memorial Day, I remembered more profoundly what “white privilege” means.
Read MoreThe Venice Diaries: My favorites so far include an American baseball film and a modern Arab mermaid
“If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.” — Émile Zola
I watch films to understand the world. And it seems sometimes the biggest lessons are just behind the scenes.
What I’ve learned at this year’s Venice Film Festival is that it seems that if you’re a woman journalist, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. I’ve run the gamut from enemy of the people for publishing an interview with a man accused but never convicted of bad things, to being made to feel (by my women editors) that I don’t know how to write just so they can justify only having male writers in their roster. I also felt that a current article was unjust to the amount of women filmmakers that are actually in Venice — if the journalists who wrote it actually bothered to look at all the films, and not only the few titles in Competition — so I pointed out in another piece about a Critics’ Week title that the filmmaker was indeed a woman. And a man, I swear I can’t make this stuff up, added a comment to the FB post saying I made it sound like women filmmakers were creatures from another planet. I used the phrase “woman filmmaker” one time in the entire piece, to claim her as one of my own who makes me proud… But anyway.
Read MoreThe Rome Diaries: The OnStage! Festival features Aizzah Fatima's perfect show and a play about Hedy Lamarr
In a 2014 article in The Guardian, Pakistani-American comedian Aizzah Fatima described one of her first auditions. “One of the roles I auditioned for was ‘Terrorist No 2’s girlfriend,” she admitted tongue in cheek.
Of course, that’s the destiny of most actors who don’t fulfill the blue-eyed-blond-hair requirements of playing your average “as good as apple pie” American. Yet time and time again, while our leaders fight it and even try to build up walls to prevent it, the very greatness of our good ol’ U.S. of A. lies in its immigrant population as well as its indigenous tribes. And the culture that is most often exported and celebrated around the world as “American” is a mixture of African, tribal, native and otherwise ethic music, dance and art. And that’s never vanilla in flavor now, is it?!
Read MoreThe Venice Diaries: Oh La La Moon! Damien Chazelle and Ryan Gosling soar high in 'First Man'
Forget your tired, old costumed superheroes. It is time to reconnect with the original all American champion thanks to Ryan Gosling, in Damien Chazelle's latest masterpiece 'First Man'. The opening film at this year’s Venice Film Festival makes cinematic dreams come true.
Read MoreThe Qumra Dairies: Wisdom from a Master with Bennett Miller
When Oscar-nominated American filmmaker Bennett Miller sat down to give his masterclass during this year's Qumra in Doha, he immediately apologized for his voice. "It doesn't hurt, it just sounds bad," he admitted, about the husky sound that appeared to be a really bad case of laryngitis. Maybe they could stop a bit early, said his moderator, who instead then actually proceeded to go overtime with the talk.
Living on the edge, this idea that the masterclass could be cut short by Miller's loss of voice altogether actually added an extra layer of urgency to everything that the talented, kind, thoughtful and wonderfully candid filmmaker had to say.
Read MoreThe Dubai Film Festival Diaries: Swarovski, Morgan Spurlock, ‘The Man Behind the Microphone’ and Cinemas in Saudi by 2018
What is heritage and how important is our connection to the past in shaping who we will be in the future? And if our ideals seem to clash with what our leaders are encouraging, or we simply can see beyond the chaos — are we right? Or does that make us just different... Those are all questions that have come up in the last 48 hours for me, at this year’s Dubai International Film Festival.
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