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Donald Young – laureled documentary producer, champion of independent cinema, and beloved member of the San Francisco Bay Area film community – has also been the face of Center for Asian American Media (Caam), as the Director of Programs, for years. In the advent of CAAMFest 2025 and his thirtieth year working with the organization, we took the time to sit down with him at the CAAMFest Press Luncheon.

Collegial and thoughtful, Donald Young repeated the same mantra over and over again: Tell the stories only you can. In this comprehensive and insightful overview of the status of today’s trans-Pacific Asian and Asian American film industry, we talked about CAAMFest’s pivot towards regional cinema, funding independent film, and of course, celebrity sightings.

This transcript has been edited and redacted for clarity.

This marks the 30th year since you’ve been at Caam, right?

Donald Young: That’s right. I started in 1995 as an intern.

With The Bear currently in between seasons, those who miss seeing Jeremy Allen White on-screen should check out his 2020 horror movie, The Rental, especially since it's leaving Netflix at the end of the month. White's acting career began in the early 2000s, but he did not truly capture the limelight until he took on the role of Lip in the comedy drama series, Shameless. More recently, White has earned significant buzz for his leading role in The Bear, wherein he plays the intense and passionate chef, Carmen Berzatto. Yet, White's other projects are just as compelling.

Some may be surprised to learn that White boasts a fairly sizable acting resume apart from Shameless and The Bear. He first took to the screen in 2006, appearing in an episode of the legal drama, Conviction, and in the film, Beautiful Ohio. In the intervening years, White earned small parts in dark indie movies,...

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Plenty of films satirize Hollywood, dating back to 1950’s Sunset Boulevard and beyond, but few are as giddily gruesome as The Substance. The film stars Demi Moore as an actress who’s been deemed past her prime and pushed out of Hollywood, so she signs up for a regimen that promises to make a younger version of her (played by Margaret Qualley). In typical monkey paw fashion, the...

Jeremy Allen White's top-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes, with a score of 98%, is "Fremont," a story about uncomfortable beginnings in a new country directed by Babak Jalali. However, you'll have to wait to see White because he doesn't appear until the second half of the film. What's more, the bulk of the actor's career so far has been in television, with White having spent 11 years appearing on "Shameless" and now starring in the critically acclaimed "The Bear," a dramedy about a Chicago greasy spoon turned fine dining establishment. He has also won two Emmy Awards for his performance on the show as Carmen Berzatto, a famous chef with mental health struggles.

Most of White's film career has been in small indies or supporting roles in relatively mainstream films such as "The Iron Claw". He's also slated to play Bruce Springsteen in Scott Cooper's upcoming biopic "Deliver Me From Nowhere.

Music Box Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Carson Lund’s comedy drama “Eephus,” which premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. The film was recently announced as an Official Selection of New York Film Festival, where it will have its North American premiere.

Music Box plans for a theatrical release nationwide followed by home entertainment. London- and Paris-based sales and production house Film Constellation handles worldwide sales and negotiated the deal on behalf of the filmmakers.

“Eephus” is set on a small-town New England baseball field called Soldiers Field. As an imminent construction project looms over their beloved baseball field, a pair of Sunday league teams face off for the last time over the course of a day. Tensions flare up and ceremonial laughs are shared as an era of camaraderie and escapism fades into an uncertain future.

Variety highlighted “Eephus” as one of the must-see films of the...

Syrian and Palestinian asylum seekers in a Greek refugee camp awaiting updates on their status. That is the world director Noaz Deshe (White Shadow, which was executive produced by Ryan Gosling) chose as the setting for his second feature film Xoftex, which had its world premiere at the 58th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Monday night.

“To pass the time between interviews with the immigration office, Nasser and his friends film satirical sketches and make preparations for a zombie horror flick,” reads a plot description shared by the festival, which has also posted a film clip online. “Except that the reality of the camp could be taken for a horror scenario itself. The tension between its inhabitants gains momentum and every conflict removes one more brick from the wall which divides reality from dream – or, indeed, nightmare.”

The story is infused with experiences and inspirations of...

Noaz Deshe’s “Xoftex,” which has its world premiere July 1 in the Crystal Globe Competition of Karlovy Vary Film Festival, has debuted its trailer (below). Mad World is attached as the film’s sales agent.

“Xoftex” is Deshe’s second feature film. His feature debut, “White Shadow,” about the hunting of a young Albino, won the Lion of the Future Award at Venice Film Festival, and was showcased at Sundance Film Festival.

The screenplay for “Xoftex” is by Deshe and Babak Jalali, who directed and co-wrote “Fremont,” best director award winner at Karlovy Vary last year.

“Xoftex” centers on a Greek refugee camp called Xoftex, where Syrian and Palestinian asylum seekers anxiously wait for news of their refugee status. To pass the time between interviews with the immigration office, Nasser and his friends film satirical sketches and make preparations for a zombie horror movie.

However, the reality of the camp...

After grabbing the international film festival circuit by storm with her directorial debut in Amanda and to an extent Babak Jalali’s Fremont (2023 Sundance) as a co-scribe, Carolina Cavalli is now prepping her sophomore feature in Il Rapimento di Arabella (The Kidnapping of Arabella). Casting began a couple of weeks back for the young film’s lead. From what we understand, Benedetta Porcaroli will be re-teaming with the filmmaker but the protagonist’s role will be offering to the young female lead. Filming is set for Emilia Romagna region in August lining this up a potential Lido offering for 2025.…...

Former Youplanet Pictures and Rakuten TV executives Adrian Peña and Alex Marin have launched Spanish independent film distribution company Madfer Films.

Based in Barcelona, Madfer Films’ first acquisitions for the Spanish market include Babak Jalali’s comedy-drama Fremont, Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s box office hit Full River Red and Kristian Mercado’s sci-fi romantic comedy If You Were The Last.

Peña and Marin both worked together at Spanish distributor Youplanet Pictures, which has released films including Academy Award winners Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Whale and Palme d’Or winner Titane. Before Youplanet, the pair also worked at video-on-demand platform Rakuten TV.

Babak Jalali's independent drama 'Fremont' marks the third feature for Australian-born producer Rachael Fung, who has established a career in US after moving to New York to study film and television in 2007.

The post ‘I’m interested in being able to come home and make movies’: ‘Fremont’ producer Rachael Fung on remaining connected to Australia from LA appeared first on If Magazine.

Memento International has closed a raft of deals on “Fremont,” a critically acclaimed film starring Anaita Wali Zada, an Afghan refugee and first-time actor, and featuring “The Bear” actor Jeremy Allen White.

Directed by BAFTA-nominated Iranian-born director Babak Jalali, the black-and-white movie tells the story of Donya, a young woman working at a Chinese fortune cookie factory in the San Francisco bay. Formerly a translator for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, she struggles to put her life back in order. In a moment of sudden revelation, she decides to send out a special message in a cookie. Following its Sundance premiere, the film was acquired by Music Box for North America in a deal negotiated by CAA.

Memento International has just struck deals for the movie in Australia and New Zealand (Mushroom Studios), Eastern Europe (HBO), Spain (Madfer Films), Italy (Wanted), Greece (One From the Heart), Czech Republic (Aerofilms...

Hundreds of protesters have shut down a major section of Hollywood during the Oscars red carpet, turning Hollywood’s biggest night into a traffic nightmare. With just a few minutes ahead of the telecast’s scheduled start time, much of the ballroom is uncharacteristically empty and people are running to their seats.

There was a growing sense of anxiety from production staffers and publicists on the red carpet that tonight’s Oscars will not start on time due to the gridlock. The broadcast itself kicked off five minutes late.

Protesters shut down Sunset Boulevard between Vine Street and La Brea Avenue. They marched down the street with signs that read “No awards for genocide” and drove school buses covered with Palestinian flags. Police ordered the protest to disperse and waited on Sunset Boulevard with battering rams.

Executives, such as Bob Iger, waited an hour to walk the red carpet due to the traffic jam.

Clockwise left to right: Ali Wong, the cast and crew of Past Lives, Aidy Bryant, Will FerrellGraphic: The A.V. Club (Getty Images)

If the stars who rolled up to the Film Independent Spirit Awards blue carpet today were any worse for the wear following last night’s SAG Awards after parties,...

This year’s Independent Spirit Awards faced a major broadcast hurdle as a Pro-Palestinian protestor with a speaker and a prerecorded message blared out many of the presenters and winners onstage.

The protestor became obvious to at-home audiences when Jim Gaffigan presented “Jury Duty” the award for best ensemble cast in a new scripted series. The rhythm of Gaffigan’s introduction was stilted as microphones picked up the muffled messaging from outside.

The sound created a stir in the audience at the ceremony, as it was louder than the show itself, with some leaving the show to see what the commotion was. Several people, including security and producers, approached the man with the speaker and another man with him, but the protest didn’t stop. Security then moved a shuttle bus in front of the protestors, driving forward and in reverse to block them and try to muffle the sound.

A protestor interrupted Sunday’s Film Independent Spirit Awards with a message to “Free Palestine,” and called for a “Ceasefire Now.”

A single protestor standing just outside the security barriers held a loudspeaker that was blaring a short, recorded message about Palestine on a continuous loop.

Attendees at the Indie Spirits, which are held outdoors in a tent on the beach at Santa Monica Pier, could hear the protestor from inside as the show was taking place. The message started being heard as presenter Jim Gaffigan took the stage to present an award to the cast of “Jury Duty.” The protestor could also be heard from the livestream of the show via IMDb TV and Film Independent’s YouTube channels.

A few attendees stepped outside to acknowledge the incident and see what was going on, but the awards show continued. Host Aidy Bryant said on stage, “We’re at the...

It wasn’t a group of pro-Palestinian protesters that was causing all the noise throughout the Santa Monica Beach tent during the Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday, rather only one.

A loud chant was heard piercing throughout the ceremony “Free! Free! Palestine! Long live Palestine! Cease fire now!” throughout most of this afternoon’s show, to the point where comedian Jim Gaffigan, who was presenting the award for Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series to Jury Duty, remarked “That’s my Dad!”

Outside the tent, the disruption was coming from one young male who was standing on the outer part of the Spirits barricade — he wasn’t chanting himself but held a loudspeaker with a repeated protest recording.

A single pro-Palestine protestor with a loudspeaker is disrupting the #SpiritAwards in Santa Monica, CA (...

The 2024 Independent Spirit Awards took place on Sunday at the traditional Santa Monica beach tent location, with Aidy Bryant hosting. “Past Lives” took home the coveted Best Feature award, with “Beef” being honored as Best New Scripted Series. Check out the full list of winners and nominees below.

Best Feature

“Past Lives”

Producers: David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon

“All of Us Strangers”

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Sarah Harvey

“American Fiction”

Producers: Cord Jefferson, Jermaine Johnson, Nikos Karamigios, Ben LeClair

“May December”

Producers: Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Grant S. Johnson, Pamela Koffler, Tyler W. Konney, Sophie Mas, Natalie Portman, Christine Vachon

“Passages”

Producers: Michel Merkt, Saïd Ben Saïd

“We Grown Now”

Producers: Minhal Baig, Joe Pirro

Best Lead Performance

Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction”

Jessica Chastain, “Memory”

Greta Lee, “Past Lives”

Trace Lysette, “Monica”

Natalie Portman, “May December”

Judy Reyes, “Birth/Rebirth”

Franz Rogowski, “Passages”

Andrew Scott, “All of Us Strangers”

Teyana Taylor,...

Live from a tent on the beach in Santa Monica, California, it’s the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards! This year’s ceremony, which kicked off this afternoon, was hosted by “Saturday Night Live” alum Aidy Bryant and feted the best in indie film and TV.

This year’s pack of nominees included a slew of Oscar contenders and a number of indie gems, all competing for the biggest prizes in the indie sphere.

Celine Song’s “Past Lives” won Best Feature (which the filmmaker picked up just minutes after winning Best Director as well), while “The Holdovers” and “American Fiction” also enjoyed multiple wins, including a Best Performance win for “American Fiction” star Jeffrey Wright and Best Screenplay for writer Cord Jefferson, and a Best Supporting Performance win for “The Holdovers” standout Da’Vine Joy Randolph and a Breakthrough Performance win for newbie Dominic Sessa.

Thanks to the Spirits’ various TV categories,...

The 39th Independent Spirit Awards will stream live on Film Independent and IMDb’s YouTube channels on Sunday, February 25. Scroll down to see our official odds in all 12 film categories (with our predicted winners highlighted in gold) and be sure to make or update your own predictions while there’s still time.

Heading into the ceremony, which will be hosted by comic actress Aidy Bryant, “American Fiction,” “May December,” and “Past Lives” stand as the year’s nominations leaders with five apiece. They will all face off in the top category of Best Picture, along with “Passages” (four total bids), “All of Us Strangers” (three), and “We Grown Now” (three).

Last year’s Spirit Awards previewed the Oscars success of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which left both ceremonies with seven wins including Best Picture. Over the years, only eight recipients of the academy’s highest honor have first clinched the corresponding Spirit Award,...

Exclusive: Cinetic Media has signed award-winning Iranian filmmaker Babak Jalali for management across all media.

Most recently, Jalali co-wrote and directed the indie drama Fremont, released by Music Box Films last August. Securing a nomination for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2024 Independent Spirit Awards, following a Jury Prize win in Deauville and one for Directing at Karlovy Vary, the film centers on mid-20s Afghan refugee Donya (Anaita Wali Zada), whose complicated feelings about her prior work as a translator for the U.S. military have left her troubled and unable to sleep. Drifting through her uninspired routine in Fremont, California, which comprises her work at a fortune cookie factory, she struggles to connect with her unfamiliar surroundings. When Donya is promoted to writing fortunes at her job, she sends a message out to the world, unsure where it will lead.

Gregg Turkington and Jeremy Allen White also star in the pic,...

Now that the Oscar nominations are official, catch-up time begins in earnest. But if you’ve already seen everything on Oscar voters honored, a worthwhile also-ran is hitting digital platforms this week.

The contender to watch this week: “Ferrari“

MIchael Mann‘s biopic about car mogul Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) never got the awards-season fuel it needed to make the nomination roster. The movie’s roaring engines missed out on the Best Sound nod that many pundits expected, and Penélope Cruz, who plays Ferrari’s wronged wife, couldn’t nab the Best Supporting Actress recognition she deserved. (Cruz fared better with the Screen Actors Guild Awards.) The film did, however, make the National Board of Review’s list of the year’s 10 best, and now you can rent or purchase it for a premium rate on VOD.

Other contenders:

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”: You know what did get Oscar nominations?...

Dark comedy is a delicate balance of humor and seriousness, and finding the right mix is crucial. Some examples of dark comedies done right are Beetlejuice, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and even American Psycho. Amanda is an Italian dark comedy-drama that explores themes of loneliness and dissatisfaction in a wealthy world.

Dark comedy is an interesting subgenre as it's making light of a tragedy, but it can be challenging to get right. You have to find just the right balance of humor and seriousness. If something earnest is downplayed with comedy, that sincere moment is taken as a poorly told joke. But you also can't have these elevated, gravity-defying moments of negativity without some sort of comic relief to keep us on the ground. Some good examples of dark comedy done right are titles like Beetlejuice, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, South Park, and even American Psycho.

That does...

Actors Ewan McGregor, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, directors Ruben Östlund, Ernst de Geer, Ramata-Toulaye Sy and Cannes Film Festival honcho Thierry Frémaux are some of the stellar guests set to walk the red carpet at the 47th edition of Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival.

This year’s Göteborg Fest unspools from Jan. 26 to Feb. 4.

For his last run as artistic director of Scandinavia’s biggest film festival, Jonas Holmberg has selected 240 films from 82 countries, and what he calls “one of the strongest lineups ever” for Göteborg’s main Nordic competition strand. Among the highly anticipated titles vying for the coveted Best Nordic Film Dragon Award worth Sek 400,000, is Norway’s “Handling the Undead” by Thea Hvistendahl, set to kickstart the festival on the heels of its Sundance world premiere.

“This will be the first time we open with a zombie horror,” notes Holmberg, who looks forward...

The Göteborg Film Festival has unveiled the competition titles selected for its 47th edition, which runs from January 26 to February 4. (Scroll down for the full list).

Göteborg is split into four competition strands. The main strand is the Nordic Competition, which features nine films from the Nordic region. The competition’s winner takes home the Dragon Award and a Sek 400,000 cash prize. The rest of the festival comprises the Nordic Documentary Competition, the Ingmar Bergman Competition for first-time filmmakers, and the International Competition.

Among the Nordic highlights is Madame Luna, Swedish filmmaker Daniel Espinosa’s return to Nordic filmmaking following a series of Hollywood titles such as Morbius and Safe House. Inspired by real-life events, the film follows an Eritrean refugee who gets stuck in Libya and becomes a notorious human trafficker known as “Mama Luna” with deep ties to the Italian Mafia. When she is forced to flee to...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

The world came back in 2023. The box office, the labor strikes, the raging wars, the Who-declared end of official global emergency, the AI explosion. People were stir-crazy, anxious to act, be it in the name of violence or peace or productivity. It’s been a sobering reminder that life fully lived is defined by bedrock tragedy as much as triumph––that to enter back into open community with the rest of the world is to feel the effervescence of life flowing naturally again while simultaneously laying oneself bare to fresh devastation. It’s been a reminder of the duality of being: that real life is much wilder than the movies and yet the day-to-day is still defined by mundanity and monotony––the amassed in-between moments.

In those in-betweens,...

The 2024 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations — see the full list below — were unveiled on Tuesday, December 5, crowning the past year’s achievements in indie film. The actual awards ceremony, taking place on February 24, 2024 in the usual tent on the beach in Santa Monica, is a little less than three months away, but the films nominated today will carry new momentum into the rest of awards season, including the Oscar race. Joel Kim Booster (“Fire Island”) and Natalie Morales (“No Hard Feelings”) were the presenters of the nominees.

“American Fiction,” “May December,” and “Past Lives” led the Indie Spirits noms with five each, including each of them getting a nod for Best Feature. Todd Haynes for “May December” and Celine Song for “Past Lives” also received Best Director nods. Natalie Portman for “May December,” Greta Lee for “Past Lives,” and Jeffrey Wright for “American Fiction” also received Best Lead Performance nods.

Film Independent announced the 2024 Spirit Award nominees in all the film and TV categories on Tuesday, Dec 5. Only American productions with budgets of less than $30 million were eligible for consideration in the film races. Winners will be revealed on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, at a ceremony hosted by Aidy Bryant.

Last year, these kudos eliminated the four gendered acting awards and replaced them with just two prizes: lead and supporting performances (each has 10 nominees). It also added a new category, Best Breakthrough Performance, which has five contenders.

See the full list of 2024 Spirit Awards nominations for film and TV below.

Film

Best Picture

“All of Us Strangers”

“American Fiction”

“May December”

“Passages”

“Past Lives”

“We Grown Now”

Best Director

Andrew Haigh, “All of Us Strangers”

Todd Haynes, “May December”

William Oldroyd, “Eileen”

Ira Sachs, “Passages”

Celine Song, “Past Lives”

Best Lead Performance

Jessica Chastain, “Memory”

Greta Lee, “Past Lives”

Trace Lysette, “Monica”

Natalie Portman,...

Andrew Haigh‘s Oscar hopeful had a wonderful night at the British Independent Film Awards on Sunday as it took home seven gongs including Best Picture, the most of any film. Haigh won two awards — Best Director and Best Screenplay. Paul Mescal won Best Supporting Performance alongside “How to Have Sex” actor Shaun Thomas while it also won Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Music Supervision.

“Rye Lane” won a trio of prizes: Raine Allen Miller was Best Debut Director while Vivian Oparah was awarded Best Breakthrough Performance. It also won Best Original Music.

Mia McKenna-Bruce won Best Lead Performance for “How to Have Sex” in a stacked gender-neutral category that also included Jodie Comer (“The End We Start From”), Tia Nomore (“Earth Mama”), Nabhaan Rizwan (“In Camera”), Andrew Scott (“All of Us Strangers”), and Tilda Swinton (“The Eternal Daughter”). And Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George MacKay shared in Best Joint Lead Performance for “Femme.

The British Independent Film Awards took place on Sunday, December 3 in London, honoring the best independent films from around the world. “Rye Lane” led the pack with 16 nominations, followed by “All of Us Strangers” and “Scrapper,” which both earned 13 nominations a piece. But it was Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” that walked away with most of the night’s top prizes. In addition to the coveted Best British Independent Film, Haigh won Best Screenplay and Best Director while Paul Mescal shared the Best Supporting Performance award with Shaun Thomas from “How to Have Sex.”

The ceremony also honored the best independent films from outside of the United Kingdom, with Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” winning Best International Independent Film.

Keep reading for a complete list of nominees at the 2023 British Independent Film Awards, with winners listed in bold.

Best British Independent Film

Winner “All Of Us Strangers” – Andrew Haigh,...

Feature debutant Raine Allen-Miller’s “Rye Lane” led the nominations at the 2023 British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) with 16 nods.

“Scrapper” by debutant Charlotte Regan and veteran Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” scored 14 nominations each while Molly Manning Walker’s “How to Have Sex” had 13, Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s “Femme” 11 and Mahalia Belo’s “The End We Start From” nine. The nominations were revealed by actors Susan Wokoma (“Enola Holmes”) and Morfydd Clark (“Saint Maud”) at an announcement event at One Hundred Shoreditch, London.

From 2022, the awards went permanently gender neutral for acting categories with the traditional best and supporting actress and actor awards being replaced by best lead performance, best supporting performance, best joint lead performance — for performances that are the joint focus of the film — and best ensemble.

The winners will be announced at the BIFA ceremony on Dec. 3.

BIFA Nominations 2023

The Richard...

Films set in London dominate the nominations.

Raine Allen-Miller’s London-set romantic comedy Rye Lane leads the nominations for the 2023 British Independent Film Awards (Bifas), followed closely by Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper and Andrew Haigh’s All Of Us Strangers.

Rye Lane has scored 16 nominations, including best British independent film, director and debut director for Allen-Miller; plus best screenplay and debut screenwriter for Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia. Vivian Oparah is nominated for breakthrough performance, as well as for best joint lead performance alongside David Jonsson.

Scroll down for the full list of nominations

Scrapper, another London-set first film, received 14 nominations,...

The experience of watching Fremont, Babak Jalali's dramedy starring Gregg Turkington and Anaita Wali Zada, is defined by a sense of authenticity. The characters all feel completely real and the patient pacing plays like an echo of life itself. Centered on a young woman named Donya (Zada) and her life in San Francisco after she had to leave Afghanistan. She works at a fortune cookie while seeking connection where there is often little to be found. It is a sublime work that sneaks up on you when you least expect it to, making it all the more impactful when it does. To hear it from Jalali, so much of the film and its cast saw him trying new things as well as building upon some of his past approaches to storytelling. In an interview, the filmmaker talked about how Turkington, Zada, and Jeremy Allen White came to be a...

Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie adaptation is ahead of Death On The Nile’ .

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Sep 8-10) Total gross to date Week 1. A Haunting In Venice (Disney) £2.2m £2.2m 1 2. The Nun (Warner Bros) £1.1m £3.9m 2 3. The Equalizer 3 (Sony) £874,035 £6.3m 3 4. Jawan (Yash Raj) £480,243 £2.4m 2 5. Barbie (Warner Bros)

£454,601 £94.5m 9

Disney’s A Haunting In Venice debuted at number one in the UK and Ireland with £2.2m this weekend after opening in 715 locations.

It’s up from Kenneth Branagh’s last Agatha Christie adaptation Death On The Nile which opened in third place with £1.9m in 2021 but is still...

"Fremont" is a quiet and slow character study that takes a thoughtful approach to depict the life of an Afghan refugee starting over in California. The movie focuses on the main character, Donya, and her gradual shift from solitude to seeking genuine connection in her new, unfamiliar world. Despite its lack of urgency, "Fremont" explores the immigrant experience without relying on clichés or exploiting trauma, making it a worthwhile watch for its portrayal of humanity and connection.

Editor's note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn't exist.

Quiet and slow, but no less affecting for it, director and co-writer Babak Jalali's Fremont is an interesting sort of character study. In depicting the life of an Afghan refugee starting over in California, the movie eschews spectacle for a more thoughtful...

Warner Bros.’ “The Nun II” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £1.7 million ($2.1 million), according to numbers released by Comscore.

Yash Raj Films release “Jawan,” headlined by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, bowed in second place with a strong £1.3 million.

In its second weekend, Sony’s “The Equalizer 3” collected £1 million in third position for a total of £4.7 million. In fourth place, in its eighth weekend, Warner. Bros.’ “Barbie” earned £561,118 for a mighty total of £93.7 million. The film is, by some distance, the highest grosser of the year in the territory and is in seventh position on the all-time chart behind “Spectre” (£95.2 million).

Studiocanal’s “Past Lives” debuted in fifth place with £515,509. In its eighth weekend, Universal’s “Oppenheimer” grossed £483,101 in sixth place for a total of £56.3 million.

The only other debut in the top 10 was Universal’s “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3,” which took in £411,191 in seventh place.

Shane Atkinson’s “Laroy,” a crime thriller laced with dark comedy, swept three major prizes at the 49th edition of the Deauville American Film Festival.

The movie, which marks Atkinson’s feature debut and showcases Coen brothers influences, won the Grand Prize, the Audience Award and the Critics Award. It stars John Magaro as Ray, who decides to kill himself after discovering his wife has been cheating on him. But just before he pulls a trigger, a stranger takes him for a low-rent hitman. The movie was produced by the Cannes-based company Adastra Films and was acquired by a French distributor, Arp Selection, during the Deauville Film Festival. It previously opened at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The Jury Prize, meanwhile was shared by two films, Sean Price Williams’ “The Sweet East” and Iranian-born director Babak Jalali’s “Fremont.” “The Sweet East” marks the feature debut of Price, a well-established cinematographer whose credits include “Good Time.

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for “Fremont,” a beautiful and poignant story of an Afghanistan immigrant, stuck between two cultures in America … co-written and directed by Babak Jalali. In select theaters on September 8th, see local listings.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) is an ex-translator for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, who just managed to get out of the war-torn country on a special visa and has found work in Fremont, California, with a family-run fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. Around the same time she is promoted to write the fortunes for the cookies, she begins to see a therapist (Gregg Turkington) who connects in a profound way to her case, and she begins to open up to new possibilities, including an encounter with a lonely auto mechanic on September 8th. See local listings for other locations. Featuring Anaita Wali Zada, Gregg Tarkington, Hilda Schmelling,...

Jeremy Allen White is one of the most talented and charming actors working in the film and TV industry. The American actor started his acting career with a small role in the 2006 drama film Beautiful Ohio. Since then he has been a part of some of the most brilliant movies and TV shows ever including the smash hit comedy drama series Shameless. So, if you love Allen White’s performances here are the 10 best movies and TV shows starring Jeremy Allen White that should be on your watchlist.

Rob the Mob Credit – Millennium Entertainment

Synopsis: An enthralling and high-octane crime-thriller, Rob the Mob stars Michael Pitt, Nina Arianda, Ray Romano and Andy Garcia. Based on a true story, it chronicles two lovers whose daring heists of Mafia social clubs in New York result in a discovery that forever changed the face of organized crime in America. Now the feds, family members,...

A long time ago, in what might as well have been a galaxy far, far away, Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) was a translator for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Now, this young woman lives in the Bay Area town of Fremont, a stone’s throw from Silicon Valley and a dozen or so Bart stops from San Francisco. Every day, she commutes from an apartment complex populated by Afghan immigrants into the City by the Bay, where she works in a fortune-cookie factory in Chinatown. Every evening, she returns home...

To characters in Babak Jalali’s Fremont, memories both serve an artistic purpose and function as nuisance to be dealt with. Unresolved experiences while serving as a translator to the U.S. Army in Afghanistan prevent refugee Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) from sleeping soundly in her new home of Fremont, California. She seeks sleeping pills from oddball psychiatrist Dr. Anthony (Gregg Turkington) who spends their sessions largely promoting the virtues of his favorite immigrant story: Jack London’s White Fang.

Later when fortune cookie factory owner Ricky (Eddie Tang) offers Donya a promotion from packaging the cookies to writing the messages that go inside, he leans on his instinct that her past pain will lend her a rich worldview from which to draw from as a writer. These plot machinations are rarely front and center in Fremont, and Donya’s seemingly-troubled past isn’t something she freely discusses with those around her.

Editor’s note: This interview was conducted at Sundance long before the writer’s strike. We ran a shorter version of the interview during the festival and now that the film is opening in theatrical release, we are presenting the full, long-form interview.

One of the year’s most delightfully warm and comically offbeat films, Babak Jalali’s “Fremont” tells the story of Donya, a former Afghan translator for the U.S.

Continue reading ‘Fremont’: Director Babak Jalali & Star Anaita Wali Zada On Their Charming, Wry, Low-Key Comedy [Interview] at The Playlist.

The compact programme saw 71% of screenings sell out.

Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has wrapped its six-day 2023 edition with over 10,000 in-person attendees, and 71% of cinema screenings sold out.

A total of 10,277 guests attended the festival between August 18-23, with an overall cinema occupancy of 82%.

The festival played 75 cinema screenings, 10 outdoor screenings and five discussion events, in a compact programme concentrated on deeper engagement.

The programme included 24 feature films, five retrospective titles, and five short film selections; with seven further features played on an outdoor screening weekend.

More than 75 guests attended the festival to present their films, including directors Hope Dickson Leach,...

The compact programme saw 71% of screenings sell out.

Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has wrapped its six-day 2023 edition with over 10,000 in-person attendees, and 71% of cinema screenings sold out.

A total of 10,277 guests attended the festival between August 18-23, with an overall cinema occupancy of 82%.

The festival played 75 cinema screenings, 10 outdoor screenings and five discussion events, in a compact programme concentrated on deeper engagement.

The programme included 24 feature films, five retrospective titles, and five short film selections; with seven further features played on an outdoor screening weekend.

More than 75 guests attended the festival to present their films, including directors Hope Dickson Leach,...

Memento International has acquired international sales rights to Nora El Hourch’s debut feature “Sisterhood” (“Hlm Pussy”) ahead of its world premiere at Toronto. The timely film will play in the competitive Platform section.

“Sisterhood” follows three inseparable teenagers who face a public outcry after posting a video that exposes someone who attacked them. Faced with threats, they must choose between deleting the video or continuing to fight.

“Sisterhood” boasts a cast of newcomers, including Léah Aubert, Médina Diarra and Salma Takaline, as well as Bérénice Bejo, the Cannes and Cesar award-winning of “The Past” and “The Artist.” Philippe Gompel is producing for Manny Films and La Prod in Morocco is co-producing. Paname Distribution will be handling French distribution.

“Nora El Hourch’s energetic debut feature boldly puts the spotlight on the way sexual harassment is dealt with in the French projects,” said Memento Intl. The company said “Sisterhood” deftly addresses social discrepancies.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival is back.

The Scottish festival returned Friday evening with the Scottish drama Silent Roar, the opening film of what organizers have described as a scaled-down, “special one-year iteration,” which will relaunch the fest following its brief closure last year after the collapse of its owner the Centre for the Moving Image (Cmi).

Execs at the Cmi appointed administrators in October. At the time of administration, a statement from the Cmi said a “perfect storm” of rising costs and falling admissions numbers due to the pandemic had been exacerbated by the current cost of living crisis.

The Eiff brand was later retrieved by Screen Scotland, a national funding body, and this year the Edinburgh International Festival, a wider cultural event in the Scottish capital, is facilitating film events with infrastructure such as ticketing, finance, and logistics so that it can host guests.

As part of the Cmi’s closure,...

After working as a translator for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) is now staking out a new life in Fremont, California. Donya is exiled from her home and haunted by memories of those she left behind, and Babak Jalali’s wryly melancholic film watches her navigate the eponymous city as she tries to find a new place in the world.

Given Fremont’s monochrome photography and monotone punchlines, the comparisons that the film has drawn to the work of Jim Jarmusch are understandable. Jarmusch has described his 1984 sophomore feature Stranger Than Paradise as looking at America “through a foreigner’s eyes,” which is also the lens through which Jalali views the world of this film. Fremont is rendered as a strange and alienating place but one whose humdrum routines are alive with quirks and curiosities for those whose senses haven’t been dulled by familiarity.

A real-life Afghan refugee,...

Deauville American Film Festival will forge ahead with its honorary tributes to stars such as Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Peter Dinklage and Joseph Gordon-Levitt despite the fact that they won’t be in attendance due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

The festival’s artistic director, Bruno Barde, told Variety ahead of the event’s press conference on Thursday that he empathized with actors and writers who are on strike to “protect themselves against the dangers of artificial intelligence.”

“AI has always existed in cinema and it’s now posing a threat to screenwriters, set designers, dubbers and, of course, to actors whom we’re using the image of. Cinema is an art that elevates humankind, and artificial intelligence does the exact opposite. It’s a danger,” Barde said.

And while he stands in solidarity with the strike, he has opted “to maintain all the tributes which will pay homage to careers...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSLa Práctica.The New York Film Festival has announced its Main Slate. Alongside a good showing of Cannes prizewinners, the festival will present new films from Radu Jude, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrew Haigh, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Hong Sang-soo (x2 this year), Raven Jackson, Martín Rejtman, and the feature debut from playwright Annie Baker.In an interview with Indiewire, Ira Sachs shared that he and Ben Whishaw are preparing a new film about the photographer Peter Hujar, titled Peter Hujar’s Day (and presumably inspired by Linda Rosenkrantz’s book of the same name).Recommended VIEWINGIn memory of William Friedkin, who died this week at the age of 87, revisit Christopher Small and James Corning’s video essay about his films’ deftly constructed endings. “Over the course of Friedkin's films,” they write in their introduction, “our perspective...

Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) head Kate Taylor has put together what she describes as an “eclectic and lively” mix of titles for her first year at the helm.

Running Aug 18-23, this year’s edition is also Edinburgh’s return after effectively shutting down at the tale end of last year when the Centre for the Moving Image (Cmi), the charity that owned the fest, appointed administrators. Eiff ceased trading alongside two revered local arthouse cinemas owned by the Cmi: Edinburgh Filmhouse and Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen.

In December, Screen Scotland, a national funding body, announced that it had acquired intellectual rights to the festival. Shortly after, former head Kristy Matheson departed for the top job at London Film Festival, and Taylor took the reigns. Screen Scotland has since hired Trainspotting producer Andrew Macdonald to create and chair a new governing board to deliver and steer the festival alongside Taylor moving forward.

The immigrant experience presents a rich supply of heartfelt narratives that are ripe for the picking to become films. These relatable stories draw on themes of survival, hardship, and settling into new places as individuals all seek the betterment of their lives and families. Some of the most memorable films in recent years such as Minari, Flee, and The Farewell contain these universal and complex experiences. One such story centering on immigrants from Afghanistan is explored in the upcoming movie Fremont. From director Babak Jalali, he delves into the life of Donya (Anaita Wali Zada), a young woman from Afghanistan and former U.S. translator who has settled in Fremont, California.