Arecord 58 countries from four continents are vying for nominations in next year's best foreign-language film Oscar category, including first time entrants Iraq and Fiji, officials said.
Organizers of cinema's top awards unveiled the entrants for next year's Academy Awards' foreign movie section some three months ahead of the announcement of the nominations for the 78th annual Oscars.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had invited 91 countries to present a film for consideration for the 2006 Oscar for best foreign film and the winner will be unveiled at a star-studded show in Hollywood on March 5.
PHOTO: EPA
Mobsters in the 1990 film Goodfellas have beaten a fear of heights in Vertigo and the great white shark of Jaws to help the Martin Scorsese film clench the mantle of greatest movie of all time in a survey of UK film experts. Goodfellas, which featured Ray Liotta, Robert de Niro and an Oscar winning supporting role from Joe Pesci, topped the list of 100 movies in a survey of film critics by Total Film.
Goodfellas will not appear on the billing in Iran as there won't be any liquor-swilling God-deniers on the Iranian silver screen any time soon -- nor drug takers, secularists, liberals, anarchists or feminists.
Thus ruled a committee of Islamic clerics, led by new hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which earlier this week banned foreign films -- specifically naming those elements of Western culture that were judged as affronts to the government's vision of Iran's Muslim culture.
PHOTO AP
With the decision, Iranians felt one of the first cultural reversals of the opening to the outside world that they enjoyed under their former reformist president Mohammad Khatami.
And the ban, designed to wipe out what clerics call ``corrupt Western culture,'' is not going down well with many in Iran.
``It's not right to fight other cultures. Imposing censorship is not the logical way to resist Western culture, at any rate,'' said Ali Reza Raisian, head of the Iranian film directors association. ``If Westeners were to treat us the same way, we also would not be able to reach them through film with our messages and way of thinking.''
PHOTO: AP
The ban aims to distance the Persian state from the open cultural policies undertaken by Khatami that encouraged cultural coexistence and dialogue among civilizations. But many experts and officials say the ban will only cause Iranians to turn to the black market for western video tapes or to foreign satellite television broadcasts.
Meanwhile, stirred but not too shaken was the reaction of a British film industry mission to news that most of the next James Bond film will be shot in Prague and not its traditional site, Pinewood Studios, outside London.
It is the first time that the four decades old Bond series will be mostly shot on foreign soil. Landing most of the work on the next 007 blockbuster underlines Prague's credentials as a global movie centre, but it is sobering news for the depressed British screen industry.
Mike Newell had the backing of one of Hollywood's biggest studios and a budget he called "colossal," but the British director was continually fighting over money while filming the latest Harry Potter blockbuster. In a weekend interview to promote Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Newell said his experience was not unlike that on smaller movies where he felt there were never enough funds to get the job finished.
Child actress Dakota Fanning has signed on to star in the animated movie Coraline in which she will voice the main character, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie, to be directed by Henry Selick is based on the book by Neil Gaiman about a girl who discovers a door in her house that leads to an alternate version of her life.
Fanning, 11, is currently starring in Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story. She had her breakout role opposite Sean Penn in 2001's I Am Sam and went on to star with Denzel Washington in Man on Fire, Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds and Robert DeNiro in Hide and Seek.
When nature calls, Masana Izawa has followed the same routine for more than 50 years: heading out to the woods in Japan, dropping his pants and doing as bears do. “We survive by eating other living things. But you can give faeces back to nature so that organisms in the soil can decompose them,” the 74-year-old said. “This means you are giving life back. What could be a more sublime act?” “Fundo-shi” (“poop-soil master”) Izawa is something of a celebrity in Japan, publishing books, delivering lectures and appearing in a documentary. People flock to his “Poopland” and centuries-old wooden “Fundo-an” (“poop-soil house”) in
Jan 13 to Jan 19 Yang Jen-huang (楊仁煌) recalls being slapped by his father when he asked about their Sakizaya heritage, telling him to never mention it otherwise they’ll be killed. “Only then did I start learning about the Karewan Incident,” he tells Mayaw Kilang in “The social culture and ethnic identification of the Sakizaya” (撒奇萊雅族的社會文化與民族認定). “Many of our elders are reluctant to call themselves Sakizaya, and are accustomed to living in Amis (Pangcah) society. Therefore, it’s up to the younger generation to push for official recognition, because there’s still a taboo with the older people.” Although the Sakizaya became Taiwan’s 13th
Earlier this month, a Hong Kong ship, Shunxin-39, was identified as the ship that had cut telecom cables on the seabed north of Keelung. The ship, owned out of Hong Kong and variously described as registered in Cameroon (as Shunxin-39) and Tanzania (as Xinshun-39), was originally People’s Republic of China (PRC)-flagged, but changed registries in 2024, according to Maritime Executive magazine. The Financial Times published tracking data for the ship showing it crossing a number of undersea cables off northern Taiwan over the course of several days. The intent was clear. Shunxin-39, which according to the Taiwan Coast Guard was crewed
For anyone on board the train looking out the window, it must have been a strange sight. The same foreigner stood outside waving at them four different times within ten minutes, three times on the left and once on the right, his face getting redder and sweatier each time. At this unique location, it’s actually possible to beat the train up the mountain on foot, though only with extreme effort. For the average hiker, the Dulishan Trail is still a great place to get some exercise and see the train — at least once — as it makes its way
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