This is Beirut - Festival

Robert Redford, Legendary Actor, Director, and Activist, Dies at 89

This is Beirut, 15:25 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Robert Redford Actor Director Festival Heritage Death

Robert Redford, the legendary actor-turned-director, founder of the Sundance Film Festival, and lifelong environmental activist, died Tuesday at his home in Utah. He was 89. Redford wasn’t just a Hollywood heartthrob; he was a visionary who reshaped American film, amplified independent voices, and fiercely advocated for the planet. His career ...

Matthew McConaughey and Jamie Lee Curtis Bring Paradise Wildfire Heroism to Life

This is Beirut, 06/09 17:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Cinema Matthew McConaughey Canada Festival Toronto International Film Festival Culture

For Hollywood stars Matthew McConaughey and Jamie Lee Curtis, making an action film about the deadliest wildfire in California history hits close to home. The Lost Bus tells the harrowing true story of a school bus driver who risked his life to save 22 children from the inferno that destroyed the town of Paradise in 2018. The movie's world ...

New Folk Music Documentary Taps Into Bob Dylan Revival

This is Beirut, 06/09 12:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Music Bob Dylan Festival Venice Culture Cinema

A new documentary featuring never-before-seen footage of a pivotal moment in folk music history taps into a revival of interest in Bob Dylan thanks to recent biopic A Complete Unknown, which starred Timothee Chalamet. Newport and the Great Folk Dream, which premieres at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, charts the development of the Newport ...

Toronto International Film Festival Celebrates 50 Years With Star-Studded Lineup

This is Beirut, 04/09 13:25 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Film Festival Toronto Opening Canada Culture

Hollywood stars arrived in Toronto Thursday for a celebratory 50th edition of North America's biggest film festival, with new movies from Daniel Craig, Sydney Sweeney and Matthew McConaughey among a packed lineup. The Toronto International Film Festival dwarfs more famous rivals like Venice and Cannes for sheer scale, if not glitz and glamour, ...

'The Testament of Ann Lee': Seyfried Embodies a Feminist Prophet in Fastvold’s Poetic Tribute

This is Beirut, 03/09 21:05 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Film Festival Venice Italy US Culture

With The Testament of Ann Lee, a movie about the founder of the 18th-century Shaker religious movement screening at the Venice Film Festival, director Mona Fastvold sought to honor a figure "on the verge of being erased from memory". Lee, played by Amanda Seyfried in the film that premiered at Venice this week, was "one of the very first American ...

Venice Film Festival Debuts New Adaptation of Camus’s 'The Stranger'

This is Beirut, 03/09 14:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Festival Venice Albert Camus François Ozon Italy Culture

The premiere of The Stranger at this year's Venice Film Festival brings to the screen one of the world's most read novels, penned by French author Albert Camus, a star in his day and now. Winner of the Nobel prize three years before his tragic death in 1960 at the age of 46, Camus has found new admirers in younger generations who love to quote ...

Fashion Takes the Spotlight at Venice Film Festival

This is Beirut, 01/09 14:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Fashion Culture Art Italy Venice Film Festival Festival Stars

Julia Roberts in a floor-length Versace gown, Alba Rohrwacher in a Victorian-inspired Dior dress… The red carpet at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival is offering a first glimpse of this fall's fashion scene, driven by the rise of new creative directors. Making her debut on the Lido, the Pretty Woman star delighted photographers in a ...

Argentine Cinema Shines at Venice Amidst Budget Cuts and Uncertainty

This is Beirut, 01/09 10:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Cinema Culture Art Venice Film Festival Italy Festival

Although Argentina has been underrepresented at recent international festivals due to government cuts to the sector, five Argentine films are on show at the Venice Film Festival, including Lucrecia Martel's documentary Nuestra Tierra (Our Land). Since President Javier Milei came to power in December 2023, his austerity measures have had a major ...

Guillermo del Toro Unleashes Epic Frankenstein at Venice

This is Beirut, 31/08 10:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Cinema Film Culture Venice Film Festival Festival Venice

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro gave birth to another monster Saturday, his big-budget Frankenstein movie, joking that the effort had left him worn out as his creation got its world premiere in Venice. The last creature he delivered here, the aquatic being in The Shape of Water, swam off with the festival's top prize in 2017 before going on ...

Byblos Comes Alive with the Launch of Its First International Film Festival

This is Beirut, 27/08 20:27 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Film Festival Launching Jbeil Culture

The Byblos International Film Festival (BIFF) is set to kick off its inaugural edition from August 29 through August 31, 2025, bringing a new cinematic celebration to one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities. The festival will take place in the atmospheric open-air setting of the Jardin des Artisans in Jbeil’ historic Old Souk, ...

Italy’s Sorrentino Embraces Doubt in Euthanasia Film at Venice

This is Beirut, 27/08 18:45 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Festival Film Venice Sorrentino Euthanasia Culture

Italian director Paolo Sorrentino hopes his latest film premiering Wednesday in Venice will bring attention to the controversial topic of euthanasia, while encouraging those in power to reject the need for certainty and embrace doubt. La Grazia, about an Italian president grappling with indecision over whether to sign a euthanasia bill into law, ...

Jazz à la Villette Opens With a Bold Tribute to Ornette Coleman

This is Beirut, 27/08 10:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Music Festival Jazz à la Villette Tribute Ornette Coleman Culture

The reinterpretation this Saturday at the Philharmonie of The Shape of Jazz to Come, a cult album by multi-instrumentalist Ornette Coleman released in 1959, will be a highlight of the Jazz à La Villette festival in Paris, which kicks off on Thursday. This album, extremely avant-garde at the time, caused a stir upon its release. Ornette Coleman, ...

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