THE FESTIVAL BEAT MAKER ! SHARING MOTION AND EMOTION SINCE 1995 - FINALIZING THE NEW SITE
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We cover over 15 000 festivals worldwide and proudly share our knowledge of the Festival circuit with our community, we trust our audience will ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE even more once the new platform is up and running : stay tuned!. In case you missed any of these 1100+ newsletters ... you can find them all here.
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LOCARNO IN FOCUS
Emma Thompson to Receive Leopard Club Award at Locarno78
The Leopard Club Award will be awarded to Emma Thompson on the night of Friday, August 8, 2025. Locarno78 will also be premiering Thompson’s highly anticipated thriller The Dead of Winter by Brian Kirk on the Piazza Grande. © Nick Haddow Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Emmy Award-winning Emma Thompson is one of the UK’s most recognizable and beloved actors, with a career in acting, writing, and producing that spans...
The Official Poster for Locarno78 designed by Wolfgang Tillmans
The poster for the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, depicting a leopard on a tree branch amid an acid trance of yellow and purple abstraction, was exclusively created by Turner Prize-winning German artist Wolfgang Tillmans for the Festival. ©Wolfgang Tillmans Internationally regarded as one of the most influential and prolific artists of our time, Wolfgang Tillmans’ impact extends beyond the art world into music and pop culture...
Rithy Panh Will Serve as Jury President at Locarno78
The internationally acclaimed Cambodian filmmaker, chronicler of his country’s traumas and gradual social recovery, will serve as jury president of the Concorso Internazionale, overseeing the process that will decide the winner of the Pardo d’Oro – the Golden Leopard – at the 78th Locarno Film Festival this August. Ph. © Bophana Center Acclaimed...
Golshifteh Farahani to Receive Excellence Award Davide Campari
The Locarno Film Festival’s prestigious Excellence Award Davide Campari will be presented to internationally acclaimed actress Golshifteh Farahani during Locarno78, on the night of Wednesday, August 6, 2025. Golshifteh Farahani will also present her most recent film, Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, which premiered this year in competition at Cannes, and will take part in a public conversation with the festival audience. Photo ©&nbs...
VIDEO Locarno 78 LivestreamOfficial Selection 2025
Live from Luma Westbau in Zurich the official selection for the 78ᵗʰ Locarno Film Festival has been revealed. Join a global community of cinephiles and dive into Locarno78’s highly anticipated competitive programs and special presentations. ...
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VENICE IN FOCUS
Exciting line-up for the Venezia 82 competition with a dazzling array of A-Listers
Venezia 82 The Wizard of the Kremlin Director Olivier Assayas Main Cast Paul Dano, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Tom Sturridge, Jeffrey Wright / France / 120’ Jay Kelly Director Noah Baumbach Main Cast George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Grace Edwards, Stacy Keach, Jim Broadbent, Patrick Wilson, Eve Hewson, Greta Gerwig, Alba Rohrwacher, Josh Hamilton, Lenny Henry, Emily Mortimer, Nicôle Lecky,...
Sofia Coppola, Gus van Sant, Julian Schnabel, Werner Herzog, Marco Bellocchio, Yann Arthus-Bertrand to screen out of competition
Fiction Boşluğa xütbə (Sermon to the Void) Director Hilal Baydarov Main Cast Huseyn Nasirov, Maryam Naghiyeva, Rana Asgarova, Elshan Abbasov, Orkhan Iskandarli / Azerbaijan, Mexico, Turkey / 112’ L’isola di Andrea Director Antonio Capuano Main Cast Teresa Saponangelo, Vinicio Marchioni, Andrea Migliucci / Italy / 105’ Il Maestro Director Andrea Di Stefano Main Cast Pierfrancesco Favino, Tizia...
Final Cut in Venice 2025 - The 8 selected work-in-progress films
La Biennale di Venezia is proud to announce that the 13. edition of Final Cut in Venice, organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge (Aug 28 - Sep 3, 2025), has selected 8 work-in-progress films. Final Cut in Venice is the industry program that has been providing since 2013 concrete support in the completion of films from all African countries and from six countries of the Middle East: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen. Fi...
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PEOPLE IN FOCUS
Memorial to a friend His unexpected death yesterday morning in a London residence is devastating and took us, all his friends by surprise. These lines are supposed to help to understand that a close friend is no longer with us! My friend Ajit Rai Kumar, who I hosted for many years in Cannes, I introduced him to the GFF and together we attended many film festivals like the one in El Gouna, Cannes or Cairo, is no longer with us. He suffered lately of a week heart but unable to...
> INDIA IN FOCUS by Siraj Syed Saiyaara, Review: Forget it
Saiyaara, Review: Forget it Saiyaara or Sayyara or Sayyaaraa, Saiyaaraa is a word derived from Arabic and an integral part of the Urdu language. It could refer to a star, a planet or anything that travels. The word saer/sair, which means ‘taking a tour of’ or ‘wandering’ is derived from this root, or maybe the other way round. Saira is a common name among Muslims, and the most famous Saira in India is Saira Banu, the wife of acting icon Dilip Kumar. There was a song in...
Krishna Arjun, Review: A one-shot movie that experiments within a formula
Krishna Arjun, Review: A one-shot movie that experiments within a formula Hemwant Tiwari (no typo here; it is HemWant, and not Hemant) released Krishna Arjun on YouTube, on 27 March this year. More than three months later, he organised a press show, on 02 July 2025, at the IMPPA mini-theatre, in Andheri, Mumbai. Here, he revealed that even after a year of having shown his film to the Central Board of Film Certification, he was refused a certificate, unless he carried out the cuts, maskings an...
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FESTIVALS IN FOCUS
New York Festivals TV & Film Awards Opens 2026 Competitions for Entries
NYF’s WaterBear and JusticeAid Awards Spotlight Content Driving Environmental and Social Impact Celebrating nearly seven decades of global excellence in innovative storytelling, the 2026 New York Festivals Television and Film Awards is now open for entries. Since 1957, New York Festivals has recognized diverse content created by premier storytellers from around the world. The 2026 TV & Film Awards continue this tradition, honoring a wide spectrum of storytelling a...
FID 36 wrapped : see you next year for the 37th edition
A huge THANK YOU to all our festivalgoers for your loyalty and curiosity. What a joy it was to see so many of you in the cinemas, at the talks, from morning till night and beyond. With a 15% rise in attendance compared to 2024, this 36th edition proudly showcased a cinema that is free-spirited, bold, and rich in diversity - unconfined by format or label. THANK YOU to the filmmakers and their teams for their trust and sharing. THANK YOU to Radu Jude, Carolina Adriazola and José L...
Call for entries - 22nd accordi @ DISACCORDI - International short film festival
The annual seven-day event returns November 3-9, 2025; there are no entry fees, and artists worldwide are invited to submit through September 19, 2025. The accordi @ DISACCORDI – International short film festival, since 2000 one of Italy’s leading short film events packed with screenings, exhibits, workshops, and entertainment, returns November 3 – 9, 2025. accordi @ DISACCORDI has announced that submissions are now being acce...
The San Sebastian Festival generated an economic impact of 47.9 million euros at its 72nd edition
Last year, at its 72nd edition, the San Sebastian Festival generated an economic impact of 47.9 million euros, according to the data of the study commissioned from Ikertalde, the consultancy group also responsible for drawing up the previous report for the 2012 edition. As well as a meeting place for movie buffs, the specialised press and the industry, the San Sebastian Festival is so much more than a cultural get-together, added to the fact that it is an important economic motor for the city...