Boogie boys city life

Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne , Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, French filmmaker Alice Diop and Romanian director Cristian Mungiu have demanded that Iran ’s Fajr International Film Festival remove their films from the line-up of its current edition, running from February 1 to 11. The filmmakers said in separate statements that they discovered by chance that their respective films Tori And Lokita , Saint Omer , Rebel and R.M.N. had been included in Fajr’s selection without their personal permission. The issue only came to light as the festival kicked off because it had kept its line-up under wraps in a bid to head off boycotts by directors and producers, due to the brutal crackdown of ongoing protests related to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in September. Paris-based sales agent Wild Bunch International which handles the titles said their inclusion in the Fajr line-up was also a surprise to them. Two other … [Read more...] about Dardennes, Alice Diop, Cristian Mungiu, Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah Demand Iran’s Fajr Film Fest Remove Titles From Line-Up

EXCLUSIVE : Artists First on Friday announced its signing of boxing Hall of Famer, Sugar Ray Leonard . Leonard enjoyed an elite, 20-year career in the ring before being inducted into the International Boxing Hall Of Fame in 1997, winning three National Golden Gloves titles, two Amateur Athletic Union championships and the 1975 Pan-American Games crown. He first got into boxing at age 14 and turned professional after winning a gold medal at the 1976 Olympic games, in a last-ditch effort to help his family with medical bills incurred from his father’s hospitalization with meningitis. Leonard won his first professional fight at age 20, then going on to defeat some of the greatest boxers of the modern era, from Wilfred Benetiz to Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvelous Marvin Hagler, from whom Leonard won the world middleweight title. His boxing career also saw him win world titles in the welterweight, junior middleweight, super middleweight, and light heavyweight division, … [Read more...] about Sugar Ray Leonard Signs With Artists First

Melinda Dillon , a two-time Oscar nominee for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice who also played Ralphie’s mom in A Christmas Story , has died. She was 83. Her family said she died January 9 in Los Angeles but did not give other details. Dillon probably is best known for playing a mother whose young son is abducted by the aliens in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind. She and Roy (Richard Dreyfuss) inexplicably are drawn to Devils Tower in Wyoming as they struggle to make sense of what has happened to them. She earned a Supporting Actress Oscar nom for the role. She also played the mother of the young lead Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) in the 1983 holiday classic A Christmas Story , memorably warning the boy who wants a BB rifle that, “You’ll shoot your eye out!” Dillon would earn a second Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination for 1981’s Absence of Malice, playing a close friend of Paul Newman’s … [Read more...] about Melinda Dillon Dies: ‘Close Encounters’, ‘A Christmas Story’ & ‘Absence Of Malice’ Actress Was 83

Sony Pictures Classics has taken North American on Maryam Keshavarz’s The Persian Version which won the Audience Award (U.S. Dramatic Competition) and The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (U.S. Dramatic Competition) at this year’s Sundance. Keshavarz is the first filmmaker to have two films win the Sundance Audience Award in the Dramatic Competition category. This is the second title that SPC has snapped out of Sundance, Deadline first telling you about their acquisition of A Little Prayer, which they took global rights on. Logline: Coming from two countries at odds with each other, Iranian-American Leila (Layla Mohammadi) strives to find balance and embrace her opposing cultures, while boldly challenging the labels society is so quick to project upon her. When her family reunites in New York City for her father’s heart transplant, Leila navigates her relationships from arm’s length in an effort to keep her “real” life separate from her family life. However, when her secret … [Read more...] about Sony Pictures Classics Picks Up Sundance Winner ‘The Persian Version’