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Cannes 2023 :: Killers of the Flower Moon :: Martin Scorsese’s Bitterest Crime Epic Martin Scorsese triumphs yet again. A story about greed, corruption, and the mottled soul of a country that was born from the belief that it belonged to anyone callous enough to take it.. |
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Berlinale 2023 :: Full Winners List This year’s jury, headed by Kristen Stewart, gave
the Golden Bear award to the French documentary “On the Adamant..” The Silver Bear for
Best Lead Performance notably went to child star Sofia Otero for “20,000 Species of Bees.”
Philippe Garrel's “The Plough” was.. |
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BAFTA 2023 :: ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’
Dominates BAFTA Awards With Seven Wins “All Quiet on the Western Front” dominated the BAFTA Awards in London on
Sunday night with a record-breaking seven wins for a film not in the English languag,
including for Best Director.. |
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Berlinale 2023 :: Golshifteh Farahani :: Talks Role Of
Art In Iran “In A Dictatorship Like
Iran, Art Is Essential, It’s Like Oxygen.” Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, who is at the
Berlin Film Festival as a member of Kristen Stewart’s jury, has talked passionately about the
importance of art.. |
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SIFF 2023 :: Shirin Ebadi :: Until We Are Free
This is the amazing, at times harrowing,
simply astonishing story of a woman who would never give up, no matter the risks. The first
Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi has inspired millions around
the globe.. |
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IFFR 2023 Awards :: 'Le spectre de Boko Haram' and
'Endless Borders' are the victors Cyrielle Raingou’s documentary took home the Tiger Award, whilst Abbas
Amini’s feature won the VPRO Big Screen Award, as the Dutch gathering celebrated its in-
person comeback.. |
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Winners of the 2022 ‘Sepanta Awards’ :: 15th Annual
Iranian Film Festival This year, the
festival presented 50 films from Iran, USA, Italy, France, Luxembourg, Greece, UK, Canada,
Australia, and Denmark…, ranging from fiction, documentary, short, animation…. to the
music video.. |
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Opinion :: Will Venice Protests Help or Hurt filmmakers
in Iran? As the Venice Film Festival
celebrates Iranian cinema — with four Iranian films screening at the 79th Biennale — back
home in Tehran, Iranian filmmakers and artists are facing the harshest crackdown in
decades.. |
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Biennale Cinema 2022 :: Awards Ceremony
Official Awards of the 79th Venice Film Festival.
Announced by the five international Juries, chaired by Julianne Moore, during the Awards
Ceremony that was held on Saturday 10th September at 7:00 pm..
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Coming: 15th Annual Iranian Film Festival! : San
Francisco: Sep. 17-18 This year, the
festival presents 50 films from Iran, USA, Italy, France, Luxembourg, Greece, UK, Canada,
Australia, and Denmark…, ranging from fiction, documentary, short, animation…. to the
music video. We are happy and proud to.. |
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Yimou, Zhang
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Date of birth
14 November 1951, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China
Mini biography
Zhang Yimou (November 14, 1951, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China)
A leading filmmaker of China's "Fifth Generation" who began as a cinematographer and has shot films by directors Chen Kaige and Wu Tianming, Zhang Yimou made an auspicious directorial debut with "Red Sorghum" (1987), which won the Golden Bear at the 1988 Berlin Festival.
Set in the remote Shandong province in the 1930s and rich with mythical overtones, "Red Sorghum" uses minimal dialogue, haunting music and stunning visuals to tell the story of a meek young bride who develops into the forceful head of her husband's winery after his death.
His second feature, "Ju Dou" (1990) about a young wife, sold to a brutal old man, who has an affair with his son in order to provide her husband with an heir, became embroiled in controversy when it was submitted as Best Foreign Film to the Motion Picture Academy's nominating committee by the Chinese government and then was officially withdrawn because the film had not been theatrically released in China.
The Motion Picture Academy then hastily changed its eligibility rules to allow "Ju Dou" to compete for an Oscar.
Zhang continued his streak of critically acclaimed films with "Raise the Red Lantern" (1991), a strikingly filmed drama about the trouble a man's latest addition to his bevy of wives causes.
“To do art, one thing should always remember - subjects of people in misery have deep meanings.”
He followed up with a lighter but still powerful film, "The Story of Qiu Ju" (1992), about a tenacious farmer determined to right a wrong done to her husband.
As with all Zhang's films, it starred Gong Li, an intelligent, naturalistic actress who aptly embodied the tension between the graceful surface of cultural tradition and the turbulence of youth and injustice towards women which all his films explore.
The importance of gender roles in maintaining hierarchies in Chinese society again fueled Zhang's story of a prostitute's travails, "Shanghai Triad" (1995), while the family of "To Live" (1994) endures the turbulence of the 1940s through the 70s, a key transition period in contemporary Chinese history.
Zhang continued to deliver accomplished films, including "Keep Cool" (1997), "Not One Less" (1999) and "The Road Home" (1999). He struggled, however, with a young Chinese audience that grew to dislike the director's fixation on the nation's part.
He also found himself compromising his art to appease the government, such as changing the original laid-off workers of "Happy Times" (2001), struggling for dignity while submitting themselves to ever more degrading types of work, into retirees, as ordered by the Chinese Film Bureau.
Nevertheless. the director scored one of his greatest cinematic and commercial triumphs, "Ying xiong" (2002), which was released in the United States in 2004 under the title "Hero."
Teaming with Australian cinematographer Chris Doyle and Asian martial arts stars Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Daoming Chen and Donnie Yen, Zhang crafted a big-budgeted, multilingual tale set at the violent dawn of the Qin dynasty, circa 220 B.C., where the soon-to-be first Emperor is on the brink of conquering the war-torn land and three of his most passionate opponents (Cheung, Leung and Ziyi) are trying to assassinate him, opposed by the indomitable Li as Nameless, a lowly policeman who faces off against powerful forces.
The film become a phenomenal hit in Asia and Europe (it took the title of the box-office record-holder among Chinese movies), and was nominated for an Oscar in 2003 in the foreign language category before its North American release in 2004.
In 2004 the director also delivered the highly anticipated "House of the Flying Daggers," a martial-arts love story set in the 9th century Tang Dynasty involving a conflict between government forces and a rebel group featuring Hong Kong heartthrob Andy Lau, Taiwanese Japanese star Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhang Ziyi.
At a point where the Chinese film industry seemed at odds with itself, Zhang hoped to create a film that would be commercially successful both at home and abroad--even as some of his younger colleagues accused him of selling out to pure entertainment over art.
Zhang has often tackled major creative undertakings outside of the film world: In 1999 he mounted an epic production of Puccini's Turandot in Beijing's Forbidden City.
In 2001 he directed a ballet adapted from "Raise the Red Lantern". The Chinese central government has also conscripted him to craft national propaganda: he directed videos for Beijing's Olympic bid and Shanghai's successful application to host the 2010 World Expo.
Director - Selected filmography
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A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop | San qiang pai an jing qi (2009)
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House of Flying Daggers | Shi mian mai fu (2004)
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Happy Times | Xingfu Shiguang (2002)
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The Road Home | Wo de fu qin mu qin (1999)
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Not One Less | Yi ge dou bu neng shao (1999)
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The Story of Qiu Ju - Qiu Ju da guan si (1992)
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Raise the Red Lantern | Da hong deng long gao gao gua (1991)
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Ju Dou (1990)
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Red Sorghum (1987)
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