Latest news with #CinemaParadiso
News18
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Jeo Baby's Malayalam Film Victoria Selected For Shanghai International Film Festival
The Malayalam film Victoria, directed by Sivaranjini J, is the only Indian film selected for the 27th Shanghai International Film Festival. Indian cinema is shining bright again. The Malayalam film Victoria, directed by first-time filmmaker Sivaranjini J, has been officially selected for the 27th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF). And guess what? It's the only Indian film at the festival this year! The film will be shown in the Asian New Talent section, which highlights new and exciting voices in cinema. The festival will take place from June 13 to June 22, 2025, and will also feature films from countries like Iran, Japan, China, Sri Lanka, and Turkey. Popular director Jeo Baby, known for Kaathal, shared the happy news online. He posted, 'Proud moments for Indian cinema. The one and only Indian movie @ 27th Shanghai international film festival. Congrts @ 🙌🏼 this movie produced by KSFDC." Victoria follows the story of a young woman named Victoria, a beautician working in a small town. Her quiet life takes a dramatic turn when she decides to run away with her Hindu boyfriend, going against her strict Catholic family. Things get even more confusing when a neighbour leaves a rooster with her for a religious offering! It's a story full of emotions, challenges, and unexpected moments. The movie stars Meenakshi Jayan, Sreeshma Chandran, Jolly Chirayath, Steeja Mary, Darsana Vikas, Jeena Rajeev, and Remadevi. It deals with important topics like religious pressure, women's freedom, and cultural identity. Victoria is backed by the Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC) and was funded through the Women Empowerment Grant, a special initiative to support women directors. The film had its world premiere at the International Film Festival of Kerala in 2024, where it won the FIPRESCI Award for Best Malayalam Film. That's not all, even Kiran Rao will also be part of the festival as a jury member. The main jury is headed by Giuseppe Tornatore, the famous director of Cinema Paradiso. The Shanghai International Film Festival is the largest film festival in Asia and China's longest-running international cinema event. The first festival was established in October 1993. It is the only Chinese festival accredited by the FIAPF. The festival is held over a ten-day period every June. SIFF is organized by China Film Administration, China Media Group, and the Shanghai government. First Published:
Irish Independent
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Bealtaine Festival's film tour brings Italian classic to Wicklow
For over 20 years the resource organisation Access Cinema – whose mission is to provide all audiences throughout Ireland with access to the best of Irish, world and independent cinema, via a national network of non-profit and voluntary organisations – has partnered with the Irish Film Institute to organise a May film tour. The screenings happen in May to coincide with the Bealtaine Festival, where audiences over the age of 55 are actively encouraged to get involved with the Arts in their local areas. Film is one of the most accessible art forms and each year titles are chosen that it is hoped will appeal to the target audience. The film tour has struggled a little in the post-Covid landscape so this year the approach was changed a little, and organisers asked some of the cinema-loving audiences to help programme this year's tour. A call-out was arranged for volunteers to meet (in person and remotely) over a few months to work together to choose at least one of the titles. The group – comprising of volunteers from Droichead Art Centre, Dunamaise Art Centre and Mermaid Art Centre, along with the IFI's Wild Strawberry film club counterparts – attended meetings and programming workshops to work towards a title selection. Brigid O'Brien was Mermaid's representative. Part of what informed the selection was this year being Bealtaine's 30th Birthday and its continued theme of 'Lust for Life', based on Iggy Pop's iconic punk-era song celebrating life's dreams and ambitions. After much debate and discussion the title chosen for the tour was the classic Cinema Paradiso, Giuseppe Tornatore's loving homage to the cinema. A winner of awards across the world, the film tells the story of Salvatore, a successful film director, returning home for the funeral of Alfredo, his old friend who was the projectionist at the local cinema throughout his childhood. Soon, memories of his first love affair with the beautiful Elena and all the highs and lows that shaped his life come flooding back, as Salvatore reconnects with the community he left 30 years earlier. The Wicklow screening for Bealtaine's film selection of Cinema Paradiso takes place in Mermaid Arts Centre, on Monday, May 26, at 5.30pm. Tickets €3 includes tea/coffee.
The Hindu
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Indian cinema is increasingly striking a chord with global audiences
Indian cinema, irrespective of the region or language of making, has increasingly been striking a chord with global audiences, says actor-producer Rituparna Sengupta. The actor, who was in Auroville recently for a preview screening of her upcoming release Goodbye Mountain at Cinema Paradiso, said many Indian films continue to be well received at prominent international film festivals. The actor, whose national award for best actress in Rituparno Ghosh's Dahan (1997) ranks as the crowning achievement among the several trophies of a long career, says that if one looked at Indian cinema as a totality of regional productions, there is no rationale for compartmentalising movies by geography or language. 'Cinema is global right now. I believe that when we are doing an Indian film, we are also creating a global platform where the language of its storytelling is no longer a limiting factor to how a viewer anywhere in the world identifies with it,' she said. In fact, her own new Bengali release, Puratawn, whose aura was enhanced by the return to the screen of yesteryear star Sharmila Tagore after 14 years, had made waves at the Washington DC South Asian Film Festival recently, even bagging the Best Film award. Rituparna and director Indrasis Acharya were back at Auroville's Cinema Paradiso, where they had presented their previous collaboration, The Parcel (Bengali) a few years ago, was to showcase their latest to an international audience. Auroville is a unique place where one gets to screen to a global audience, Rituparna noted, echoing the director's remark about the screening being the film's unofficial world premiere. Goodbye Mountain, a mature romance set in the breathtakingly beautiful terrain of Wayand in Kerala, is a synergistic collaboration between a director inclined to delve into the psyche of people in a relationship, and an actor with a penchant for nuanced portrayals. The film throws up searching questions about love, happiness and fulfilment in a stable relationship. 'It is a very different kind of understanding about life', she said, about the film theme that she expected would resonate with global audiences. Often, even in relationships with stable fundamentals, either partner could be searching for something that gives solace or a sense of release for the rest of their lives. 'Just because some people do not like to open up about their lives, it does not remove the void ... on the contrary it is necessary in life to be truthful to the self and face something, however difficult the process can be.' 'I always want to get into these sorts of spaces', said Rituparna, who enjoys relationship-based films woven around love. The actor points out that as society has changed, so has the nature of relationships and associated issues. 'There is such a diversity of relationships in society, from live-in to pre-nuptial agreements... that it is difficult to find a way to deal with issues complicating these relationships. Our cinema should shine a light on what is happening around us... and explore how complex relationship issues manifest even between mature individuals'. She is particularly thrilled by the audience response to Puratawn, which explores a deep-rooted relationship of the mother and daughter, and how the interpersonal transcends to a multi-dimensional dynamic within different members of the family. The fact that people thronged the theatre to watch the film is both a vindication of good cinema and the value attached to the theatre experience, she said. The actor of over 200 films, predominantly in Bengali, Hindi and Bangla, still harbours a hunger to be an eager student of cinema, explore new dimensions to playing a role and work with filmmakers with diverse storytelling styles. 'I revel in creatives spaces that allow me to try different things and to give my best as an actor to a character.' It is an attitude that has produced a versatile filmography that includes the Rituparno Ghosh masterpiece Utsav, the titular role in Tarun Majumdar's Alo, the romcom Mein, Meri Patni or Woh (2005), Bumm Bumm Bole (2010), Priyadarshan's Hindi remake of Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's Children of Heaven, Bansuri (Hindi) by Hari Vishwanath or Rajkahini (Bengali/2015) set against the backdrop of the Partition — playing the lead in an ensemble cast as Begum Jaan, she still regards as a role of a lifetime. 'I still love the flamboyant roles.. those are experiences that have shaped and enriched me as an actor. But then, as much as I am a product of commercial cinema, I am also a product of good middle-road, parallel cinema'. Rituparna looks forward to quite a few projects, some due for release, others involving interesting scripts with pivotal roles. Her upcoming movies include the thriller Madam Sengupta (Bengali) in which she plays a cartoonist and Ittar (Hindi), a mature love story. 'I want to be known as my characters from my films whether it is as Ritika or Anandi', the actor said, referring to the characters she plays in Puratawn and Goodbye Mountain.
BBC News
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Gloucester mayor's medal marks independent cinema's 10th birthday
An independent cinema has celebrated its 10th anniversary with a special weekend of film Sherborne Cinema in Gloucester is known for its art-deco interior, and for a single member of staff selling the tickets, drinks and snacks as well as starting the Mark Cunningham marked the occasion by showing his favourite movie, Cinema Paradiso, a foreign language film about how a man fulfils his dream by opening a cinema, along with other classics including Lady in a Van and was presented with a Mayor's Medal and certificate for his "outstanding service to the city". Mr Cunningham bought the building, which dates back to 1880, in Kingsholm after noticing it being advertised by an estate agent."I looked at it and thought it was a lovely building," he said. "I liked its arched windows. I thought 'I'm having that' and so when the deal for the Christadelphian church to buy it fell through I became the owner of a semi-derelict building."Mr Cunningham previously worked at the Palace Theatre cinema in Cinderford, and the Guildhall in Gloucester."There was an itch to have a go and it was an opportunity that was too good to miss," he explained. Between 2012 and 2014 he installed the art-deco interior, for which the Sherborne Cinema is well known."When I started it was just a cream box. I knew I wanted to get some colour into it," he said."There are classic cinema colours, purples, browns, deep reds." In the entrance foyer of the cinema is an art-deco clock from the auditorium has statues from the same era and ceiling chandeliers."There are even my mum's old velvet curtains to dampen the sound," added Mr Cunningham."The decor doesn't add to the film, but it gets people ready for an experience. You want a classical feel to add to the nostalgia."Mr Cunningham said it was difficult for the business to survive through the Covid-19 pandemic. "I run this as a labour of love," he said. "As I own the building, the running costs are low which helped during Covid. "I had faith to keep going and come out the other side."
