This is Beirut

Two-Time Oscar Winner Alexander Payne to Preside Over Venice Jury

This is Beirut, 28/04 14:05 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

USA VeniceFilm Festival Alexander Payne Film Entertainment Culture

Venice Film Festival organizers announced on Monday that US film director Alexander Payne would be president of the competition's jury this year. Payne, 64, has won two Oscars and two Golden Globes for his screenplays and is best known for films such as Sideways, The Descendants and About Schmidt. "It's an enormous honor and joy to serve on the ...

'Behind the Filter' Reveals Women Beyond a Framed World

Marie-Christine Tayah, 24/04 10:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Cinema Film Women Festival Documentary Fiction

In an era defined by curated feeds and digital perfection, Behind the Filter comes as a sensitive yet straightforward lens into how women experience beauty, plastic surgery and identity in the age of social media. The film, screening on April 28 at 5:30 PM at ABC Dbayeh as part of the Women Film Festival, is the work of executive producer and ...

Oscar Voters Must Watch All Nominated Films First

This is Beirut, 22/04 12:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

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Oscar voters will be required to demonstrate that they have watched all the films in each category before they cast their final ballots, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday. The new rule, which addresses a longstanding concern that voters are skipping some films, will apply for the next Oscars ceremony in March 2026, ...

Netflix Tops Forecasts Despite Tariffs and Uncertainty

This is Beirut, 18/04 12:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Netflix US Culture Series Film

Netflix on Thursday reported quarterly earnings slightly better than analysts expected, saying it is staying focused on what it can control as the overall economy is roiled by US President Donald Trump's trade war. The streaming television service declared itself "off to a good start in 2025" with a profit of $2.9 billion on revenue of $10.5 ...

Ellen Pompeo Reinvents Herself in Chilling New Series

This is Beirut, 12/04 15:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Series Art Film Psychology Thriller

After 20 years saving lives in the title role of Grey’s Anatomy, actress Ellen Pompeo makes a dramatic career shift in Good American Family, a tense series inspired by true events where she plays a disturbing adoptive mother — a “big challenge” she had long been hoping for. Already airing in the United States since March and arriving ...

‘My Favorite Cake’, Awarded Abroad but Censored in Iran

This is Beirut, 12/04 10:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Iran Censorship Cannes Film Cinema Art

The Iranian directors of the film My Favorite Cake, praised in both France and the United States, have been sentenced to suspended prison terms, according to an independent legal website and a human rights NGO. Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, already recognized in 2020 for Ballad of a White Cow, were prosecuted for “propaganda against ...

The Sound of Music: One Movie, Countless Lives, Sixty Years of Emotion

Bélinda Ibrahim, 08/04 18:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Sound of Music Film Music Homage Culture

We all remember that iconic image: a silhouette spinning atop alpine meadows, arms wide open beneath a boundless blue sky. Picture March 2, 1965—the day The Sound of Music premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York. And now, six decades later, its charm remains as vibrant as ever. Years may have passed, but the first notes of “Do-Re-Mi” or ...

Spielberg & Nolan Tease New Blockbusters at CinemaCon!

This is Beirut, 03/04 15:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

USA Film CinemaCon Entertainment

Spielberg "is currently shooting a film that promises to be a return to form, in the spirit of his monumental classics," said Universal executive Jim Orr, at the movie theater industry summit in Las Vegas. The untitled film, out June 2026, is widely rumored to be a blockbuster sci-fi. Orr promised it would contain "a propulsive, modern, ...

'A Sign of Faith:' Annaya, Charbel and the Breath of the Miracle

Bélinda Ibrahim, 01/04 18:30 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Annaya Saint Charbel Miracle Lebanon Film

Just a few hours earlier, an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut had once again reminded everyone of Lebanon’s wounds, a land both sacred and divided. And yet, it is from this very country that Saint Charbel emerges, the silent hermit who became a saint of miracles, transcending all boundaries of color, race, religion and ...

Sam Mendes Plans Four Beatles Biopics for April 2028

This is Beirut, 01/04 10:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Cinema Movie Film Beatles Culture Art

Sam Mendes will release four movies about The Beatles in the same month, the director announced Monday, with Paul Mescal playing Paul McCartney and Barry Keoghan portraying Ringo Starr in "the first bingeable theatrical experience." The "four-film cinematic event," hitting theaters in April 2028, will each focus on a different member of the ...

'A Working Man' Beats 'Snow White' in Box Office

This is Beirut, 31/03 10:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Cinema Film Art US Culture

MGM's new thriller A Working Man, with Jason Statham, emerged atop a flock of new films this weekend in North America, earning an estimated $15.2 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday. The action film, from Suicide Squad director David Ayer, features Statham as a military veteran who comes out of retirement to seek the ...

Rare Original E.T. Model Up for Auction at Sotheby’s

This is Beirut, 29/03 10:50 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Art Film Cinema Culture

An original model of E.T., created for Steven Spielberg’s cult classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, is going under the hammer at Sotheby’s auction house. The piece comes from the personal collection of Italian special effects legend Carlo Rambaldi, who won three Academy Awards for his work on David Lynch’s Dune, Spielberg’s Close Encounters ...

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