Festival

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

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

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

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, ...

San Sebastian Film Festival Awards Lifetime Honor to Jennifer Lawrence

Oscar-winning actor and producer Jennifer Lawrence will receive a lifetime achievement award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain next month, organizers said Tuesday. The 35-year-old will get a special "Donostia" award at the festival, where her latest movie Die, My Love will be shown. The festival described Lawrence as "one of the most ...

Chopin’s Spirit Fills Polish Mountain Town at Festival

A few hundred people gather in front of a large white tent in the peaceful spa town of Duszniki-Zdroj, nestled on the Polish-Czech border. Inside, the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra is preparing to open the 80th edition of the International Chopin Piano Festival. "I've loved Chopin for so many years!" said Erin Gao, a 33-year-old from ...

Honkytonk Kenya: Country Music’s Unlikely African Capital

The party is in Kenya, but the vibe is distinctly Americana: a sea of cowboy hats and boots with a soundtrack of whisky-soaked tales about heartbreak and good ol' boys. Kenya has become the unlikely home of a growing country music scene, possibly the biggest in Africa, as testified by the thousands line-dancing in a field in the capital Nairobi at ...

W.Sahara Film Festival Urges Nolan to Drop Scenes Shot in Disputed Territory

The Sahara International Film Festival has called on director Christopher Nolan to exclude scenes filmed in Western Sahara from his upcoming movie, citing concerns over shooting in the disputed territory. Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, has been largely controlled by Morocco since 1975 but is considered a non-self-governing territory by ...

'Panigiria': Folk Festivals Punctuate Greek Summer Life

It's midnight in the Aegean Sea, but on the Greek island of Ikaria, in the courtyard of the church of St. Elijah, the revelry is barely getting started. Dozens of dancers and scores of onlookers, including many tourists, are attending the local panigiri, a folk celebration that is an integral part of centuries-old summer traditions in villages ...

Ryan Gosling Takes Comic-Con to Space with 'Project Hail Mary'

Ryan Gosling brought the house down at Comic-Con on Saturday, offering fans a vertigo-inducing sneak peek at his new space thriller Project Hail Mary. In the film, Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a mild-mannered science teacher unexpectedly recruited for a desperate interstellar mission to save Earth from a solar catastrophe. “He’s an ordinary ...

Alien: Earth Wows Comic-Con Crowd With Bold Reboot

The highly anticipated science fiction series Alien: Earth officially landed at Comic-Con in California on Friday, where thousands of fans watched the pilot of a new TV series in the franchise. The pop culture convention held annually in San Diego was the chosen setting for the world premiere of the FX series created by Noah Hawley. "This is by ...

'Star Wars' Creator, George Lucas, Makes Epic Comic-Con Debut in San Diego

Comic-Con kicked off Thursday in California, with expectations running high among devoted fans keen to catch a glimpse of George Lucas at his first-ever appearance at the convention. Warriors, princesses, pirates, wizards, and all manner of costumed characters flooded the streets of San Diego on the first day of an annual event that has become one ...