Anthony Chen's The Breakaway ©Festival de Cannes
Cannes Special Screening:
THE YEAR OF THE EVERLASTING STORM:
Jafar PANAHI , Anthony CHEN , Malik VITTHAL , Laura POITRAS , Dominga SOTOMAYOR , David LOWERY , Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL
Seven filmmakers made films for an anthology during the pandemic. They were presented at a special screening at Cannes. Producer NEON explained that the films are inspired by the work of...
Lars Von Trier
Jafar Panahi
The 64th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is now history, but two standout personalities on opposite poles of the spectrum have defined this year as one of the most unusual in memory. In one corner, we have the Danish filmmaker provocateur Lars Von Trier whose verbal missteps about Nazism at his press conference led...
There was a conspicuous empty chair when the jury of the 61st Berlinale held its press conference on Thursday afternoon. Jury President Isabella Rossellini read a pronouncement that the empty chair was a symbolic gesture of support for Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who was invited to participate on the jury but was prevented from leaving his country. Panahi was sentenced last month to a six-year prison term and also received a ban from making movies for the next 20 years. The...
Shortly after the Berlinale invited Jafar Panahi to be on this year's International Jury, he was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from filmmaking for the next 20 years. Ever since, people have been protesting worldwide against this verdict as it violates the right to freedom of opinion and expression in the arts.
The Berlin International Film Festival very strongly condemns the harsh sentences imposed on the distinguished Iranian director Jafar Pan...
Amnesty International, the human rights organization, is building a petition campaign to protest the sentence of Jafar Panahi, a leading Iranian filmmaker and human rights activist. Panahi, an internationally celebrated film director who won the coveted Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival for his 2000 film "Dayareh" (Circle), has been sentenced to six years in prison plus a twenty-year ban on all his artistic activities—including film making, writing scrip...
In support of the convicted Iranian director Jafar Panahi, the Berlin International Film Festival is launching a number of initiatives at the upcoming Berlinale. In his films, Jafar Panahi critically explores the social situation in his homeland. His conviction violates the right to freedom of opinion and expression in the arts. In 2011 the Berlinale will show several films by Jafar Panahi in a number of its sections and so draw attention to the extraordinary oeuvre for which this art...
International reaction is building as news emerges from Iran that Jafar Panahi, one of that country's most internationally respected film artists, has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term. The Berlin International Film Festival is the first of many film institutions around the world to sharply condemn the harsh sentences handed down to the renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi and his directing colleague Mohammed Rasulof. Accused of spreading “propaganda against the system”,...
Venice Days (Giornate degli Autori), a special section of the upcoming 67th edition of the Venice Film Festival, will host the World Premiere of Iranian director Jafar Panahi's latest work, The Accordion. The film, produced by ART for The World as part of the new film project "THEN AND NOW, Beyond Borders and Differences" based on article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is a short film that stresses the rights of "freedom of thought, conscience an...
The Board of the European Film Academy strongly protests against the arrest of Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and demands his immediate release.
Jafar Panahi is an internationally recognised artist and his work has been honoured at the festivals in Berlin, Cannes and Venice. Before his arrest, Panahi was denied permission to leave Iran in order to attend the 60th Berlinale as an honorary guest.
The Board of the European Film Academy encourages the EFA Members to join this prote...