Festival Reports

By Ali Moosavi. Men of Deeds, shown at Sarajevo, hits hard at endemic corruption perpetuated by those who hold power over people, either by position and money or by using religion. Here is a look at a few films shown at this year’s film festivals in Locarno, Sarajevo and Venice. […]

By N. Buket Cengiz. The programs at 41st Istanbul offer an ideal occasion for cinephiles, local and abroad, to return to movie theatres.” Istanbul Film Festival, organized by Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), returned to theatres, after two years of the pandemic exile, to the great enthusiasm of […]

By Thomas Puhr. A common theme – be it literally or metaphorically – at this year’s festival was the dissolution of the family (or family-like) unit. The packaging of this theme, however, ranged from surreal body horror, to supernatural coming-of-age tales, to true-crime docudramas.” This year’s Boston Underground Film Festival […]

By Elias Savada. Eight years ago, the documentary film festival then known as Silver Docs was rechristened AFI DOCS, expanding out from the American Film Institute’s tri-plex in Silver Spring, Maryland, into multiple other venues throughout downtown Washington, DC. While the new format was connected by the area-wide Metro subway […]

By Gary M. Kramer. Ruben features jokes and jump scares in equal measure throughout Werewolves Within, which relies on the crackerjack comic timing of the entire ensemble cast, most of whom are playing broad characters.” The 20th annual Tribeca Film Festival is actually three festivals in one this year, featuring […]

By Ali Moosavi. Writer-director Igor Drljaca shows us the wide gap and the glaring contrast between the haves and have nots in Sarajevo.” In Tabija / The White Fortress, Faruk (Pavle Cemerikic) is a young Muslim boy living in Sarajevo. His mother has passed away and since his parents were […]

Honeyland By T.R. Merchant-Knudsen. From the carefully curated selection of films and grouped programs… there were a variety of options for viewers, from talks with directors and conservationists, shorts that highlighted issues from around the globe, and feature films at the edge of documentary filmmaking. At the beginning of 2020 […]

Grimm re-edit (Alex van Warmerdam) By Gary M. Kramer. The AFI European Union Film Showcase, being held virtually at https://afisilver.afi.com/ December 2-20, offers an eclectic assortment of nearly 50 films. Here is rundown of a half dozen impressive features screening at this year’s fest. Writer/director Jurgis Matulevicius’s auspicious debut, Isaac, […]

À L’Abordag (Guillaume Brac, France, 2020) By Gary M. Kramer. The Philadelphia Film Festival, now in its 29th year, offered more than 100 films, shorts, and documentaries online, with select programming at the Film Society’s drive-in theater. There were some great documentaries and feature films from around the world screening […]