FILMS from AFAR

Fresh off an Audience Award at San Sebastián (SSIFF), the top People’s Choice prize in Toronto and a Best Director award at Cannes for , known in Spain as ‘Los Javis,’ La Bola Negra opens in US theaters on Oct. 16 and will stream on Netflix beginning Dec. 2 (marking the streamer’s longest-ever theatrical release). In Spain, the film has been a true phenomenon, reportedly outrunning The Odyssey in opening weekend pre-sales and already in the top 10 of all-time local grossers.

Mike Leigh’s ‘Tender Loving Care’ Sweeps San Sebastian Awards as ‘La Bola Negra,’ ‘NAZA’ Earn Audience Nods Amanda Kernell's 'Brace Your Heart' won the Swedish-Sami filmmaker the Silver Shell for best director as the Spanish film fest wrapped up its 74th edition, the last for outgoing director Jose Luis Rebordinos. This article originally ran in The Hollywood Reporter. Mike Leigh’s dramatic comedy Tender Loving Care took home three top awards at Saturday night’s closing cerem

Read these reviews at AWFJ: Nicole Garcia's Milo (7h40 ce matin-la) A somber tale about motherhood, regrets, and class divisions in France, actress-director Nicole Garcia’s newest film, Milo offers a star vehicle for lead Marion Cotillard, who delivers a nuanced and emotional performance. Yesim Ustaoglu’s What Remains (Artakalan) What Remains features two compelling central performances and offers a poetic rumination about how to balance the creative process with the demands

There are plenty of examples of Spanish filmmakers confronting dark aspects of their country’s history under dictator Francisco Franco, who died in 1975. For international audiences, recent titles might come to mind like this year’s Cannes and Toronto sensation The Black Ball (La Bola Negra), which tells three interlocking tales of repressed gay love, or Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers (Madres Paralelas), where Penélope Cruz’s character helps her village excavate a Civil W

San Sebastián Kicks Off in Spain (Sept 18-26) The San Sebastian International Film Festival (SSIFF) inaugurates its 74th annual edition in the northern Spanish city this weekend, with 263 films from 47 countries screening across its line-up. The Official Selection features 17 films making their world premieres outside their production territories and competing for the fest’s top Golden Shell prize, including new works from directors Jesse Eisenberg, Mike Leigh, Fatih Akin, Ni

The memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran has many, many fans, and they should be pleased by this faithful film adaptation. Staying very true to its source material, former English literature professor Azar Nafisi’s 2003 memoir about hosting a secret weekly book club with female students in post-revolutionary Iran, means the film can sometimes feel overly episodic, like chapters in a book rather than visual sequences in a narrative arc. But filmmaker Eran Riklis and team have succe