What would the Cannes Festival be without a little fracas? Some kind of polemic has been making the rounds of the French media this week concerning the lack of women filmmakers in the official selection at the Cannes Festival--twenty-two films, by male directors all, are vying for awards this year. Things turned nasty when Virginie Despentes, Fanny Cottençon, and Coline Serreau (a screenwriter-director, actress and director respect-

Tahrir Square, one day during the Arab Spring. A young demonstrator falls for a camel shepherd who's under the influence of Hosni Mubarak’s militias. Two people standing on opposite side of the biggest conflict Egypt has seen in nearly half a century are brought together against all expectations. Egyptian filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah wrote and directed “After the Battle” (“Baad El Mawkeaa”) which will be competing for

Russian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa will be at the Cannes Festival again this year, competing for the Palme D'Or. This time he presents "In the Fog," a feature film adaptation of a novel set in the darkest recesses of World War II, when Russians accused each other of fomenting with the enemy and soldiers turned on civilians. The memory of war is a difficult burden to bear but the need to memorialize a tragedy is as vital today as it was at the outset

The revolt sweeping across the Middle East these last couple of years will figure highly at the Cannes Festival, and it’s no coincidence.

“The Sermon at Tobrouk,” a documentary by French philosopher Bernard “B.H.L.” Henri-Lévy (pictured below in Libya in September 2011) shot over the final eight months which led to the downfall of Kaddafi will be shown as a special screening. Henri-

A recent addition was made to the Sélection Officielle: “Trashed,” […]

There’s a great movie lurking somewhere within the nagging clichés of “Death of a Superhero.” Adapted by Anthony McCarten from his 2008 novel, the film should be applauded for its strikingly morbid animation sequences, a winning lead performance from young up-and-comer Thomas Brodie-Sangster and an effectively solemn turn from the normally hilarious Irish comedienne Sharon Horgan. But with director Ian Fitzgibbon at the helm

The old adage “save the best for last” certainly applied to this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, as the last screening I attended was the thought-provoking, emotional journey called “Future Weather.” I had met its writer, director and producer Jenny Deller at the Tribeca Press Reception beforehand, during which she gave me the film’s background. “Future” lives up to expectations. Clearly, this is not the kind of story in which you’ll

“Nancy, Please” as a character study that reliably builds up […]

We are fifteen days away from the 65th edition of […]

Disclosure: “Rubberneck” was a film I was assigned to review, not one I chose. And yet I can’t thank my editor enough, as it’s the most compelling drawn-out thriller I’ve seen in a while. It also serves as illustration for why the Tribeca Film Festival was created in the first place: to provide a venue for the small-budget indies which may otherwise not get much mileage. The hardest part of this essay has been to judge what filmmaker