Iranian Cinema in the Grip of a Great Yawn… With the direction of two short films and several music videos behind him, this is a respectable and thought-provoking debut feature by Aliyar Rasti, benefiting from Soroush Alizadeh’s cinematography, whose visually striking frames elevate the film. The…

Kabul, “Afghanistan, After the Fall… In 2021, as the Taliban gradually seized Afghan cities one after another, they ultimately took control of Kabul and, after twenty-one years, regained power in the country. While Afghanistan’s political and social order was collapsing, some Afghans resisted…

11th anniversary of the annual ELAC International Animation Day On Saturday May 16th 2026, East Los Angeles College & Cinema and Without Borders will held the 11th anniversary of the annual ELAC International Animation Day Festival, dedicated to Belgian Animation. This event was held at East Los…

A Thinker–Filmmaker Who Was a Stranger in His Own Land The late Bahram Beyzaie is a part of all of us. We have lived with his stories, plays, and films—from Uncle Moustache (Amu Sabilo) to When We Are All Asleep (Vaghti Hame Khabim). For any filmmaker anywhere in this galaxy, a single masterpiece…

Cause of Oscar Elimination: Unkown Today it was announced that the Oscars’ selection committee has removed the strong Iranian film Cause of Death: Unknown from the shortlist for Best International Feature Film—for known and unknown reasons alike. A film that had itself waited for several years in…

Young Mothers, A Simple, Realist Film Young Mothers, directed by the celebrated French filmmakers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, is one of the most notable works of contemporary social cinema. The film premiered this year at the Cannes Film Festival, where it not only received strong…

Inspiration or an Instrument of Deception and Power? The documentary Riefenstahl (2024), directed by Andres Veiel, examines the life of Leni Riefenstahl through a critical lens. She is a filmmaker whose name has remained suspended in the history of cinema between artistic admiration and moral…

The Third Voice: Ardeshir Farah and the Art of Musical Identity Ardeshir Farah’s music has always felt to me like a lived truth rather than a manufactured fusion. When we talk about artists who genuinely embody more than one culture, Farah stands among the rare few whose sound is not the result of…

“Frankenstein: The Spark That Ignited Artificial Intelligence” At first glance, it may seem unlikely that the publication of a novel in the early nineteenth century could play a significant role in shaping ideas about artificial intelligence or technologies such as ChatGPT. Yet Frankenstein; or,…

Is Panahi’s Cinema Closer to the Iranian People, or Roustaee’s? Why do international film festivals prefer to view Iran through Jafar Panahi’s lens rather than Saeed Roustaee’s? The choice between these two cinematic visions is not merely aesthetic; it reveals deeper cultural, political, and…

Yen Tan and All That We Love Austin-based writer/director/graphic designer Yen Tan’s fifth feature film, All That We Love, begins poetically with the sound of bird songs over the opening credits on a dark screen followed by shots of a tiny bell ringing in a breeze, framed photos of people and a…

CWB & Berlinale 2026 Reports by Nargess SamadiThe good news is that Ms. Nargess Samadi, Festival Reporter and Reviwer of Cinema Without Borders, will cover the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival — taking place from February 12 to March 3 — with daily reports. he festival’s professional and…

Trifole Trifole establishes its world from the earliest moments as a story about the slow disappearance of a way of life, one rooted in the Langhe region of Italy, where the tradition of truffle hunting has been passed down for generations and now stands on the verge of extinction. The narrative…

The Follies, one of the best movies of our time Most film critics keep a “sacred list” of their favorite filmmakers and films — a small circle that rarely changes. These lists usually include the same handful of names, and newcomers are seldom welcomed into this elite group. Yet, every once in a…

Characters and Symbols, Sadistic Narcissism The Old Bachelor, a landmark film in Iranian cinema, draws its distinctive strength from the way it uses the language of psychology to expose power structures and the wider social order. The film operates on two main levels: on one, it invites a…

Majini Wins BTBA Award at 2025 Mallorca FF Last week, Sandra Lipski is the founder and director of the Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival, announced the winner of Cinema Without Borders' Bridging the Borders Award at the closing ceremony of 14th Evolution Mallorca International Film…

Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk in LA Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk offers an intimate, firsthand perspective on life under siege in Gaza, captured through video calls between director Sepideh Farsi and 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist and poet Fatma Hassona. Combining raw…

Silence, Body, Faith, and Desire Little Trouble Girls (2025) The film begins with a sensory confrontation of hearing; a chain of whispered, prayer-like murmurs creates a mysterious, almost sacred atmosphere. A voice emerging from the inner world of a young girl transforms, under the cold light of…

GIRLS DON’T CRY wins Bridging the Borders Award at 2025 Lucas International Film Festival Cinema Without Borders jury announced the winners of the Bridging The Borders Award for 2025 Lucas International Film Festival for Young Film Lovers in Germany. GIRLS DON’T CRY a documentary film by Sigrid…

The Soft Skin: The Rhythm of Desire François Truffaut’s The Soft Skin (1964) at first glance seems to tell a story of infidelity, yet it is, in truth, an exquisite study of form, time, and the act of seeing. Unlike the vibrant energy of the French New Wave, Truffaut turns here toward silence,…

Rodrigo Garcia received CWB’s Bridging the Borders Award On Tuesday, October 21, at 7:00 PM, the Cinema Without Borders Foundation honored acclaimed filmmaker Rodrigo García with its prestigious Bridging the Borders Award, recognizing his lifetime achievements and contributions to global cinema,…

Raymond & Ray, Digging Toward Grace Raymond & Ray Rodrigo García’s intimate comedy-drama about two half-brothers drafted into the strangest possible last act of filial duty, is the rare film that breathes with lived-in feeling from its very first frame and keeps deepening as it goes. Ewan McGregor…

Familia, Roots of the Heart From the moment Familia begins, one senses right away that Rodrigo García has crafted something intimate, deliberate, and quietly powerful — a film that refuses spectacle and instead trusts in the small fissures of connection, memory, conflict, and love to carry its…

Four Good Days, story of a national tragedy through a personal lens Rodrigo García’s Four Good Days (2020) is a film that, at first glance, might seem to belong to the familiar cinematic terrain of addiction dramas. Yet García, true to his lifelong sensibility as a storyteller of quiet emotional…

One Battle After Another Paul Anderson’s latest film makes it clear from the very first moment that it has no intention of belonging to the Hollywood mainstream. By tackling themes such as structural racism, political violence, and gendered exploitation, the film situates itself within the…

Last Days in the Desert – A Loving Gaze at the Silence of Faith There are films that attempt to recreate the divine through spectacle, and there are others that dare to approach it through silence. Last Days in the Desert, directed by Rodrigo García, belongs to the second kind — a film that…

Albert Nobbs, poetry of silence Albert Nobbs is not simply a period drama set in the streets and rooms of nineteenth-century Dublin; it is a meditation on survival, disguise, solitude, and the fragile hope that flickers even in the most stifled lives. Rodrigo García directs the film with the same…

Sandra Seeling: talks about 2025 Mallorca FF The 14th Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival (EMIFF), taking place from October 21–29, 2025, is widely regarded as the most prestigious boutique film festival in Europe. Set against the stunning Mediterranean backdrop of Palma, EMIFF draws…

CWB Foundation Celebrates Rodrigo García with the Bridging the Borders Award On Tuesday, October 21st at 7:00 PM, the Cinema Without Borders Foundation will honor acclaimed filmmaker Rodrigo García with its prestigious Bridging the Borders Award, recognizing his lifetime achievements and his…

Hessam Abrishami Cinema Without Borders Foundation is honored to welcome Hessam Abrishami—the internationally celebrated Iranian-born American artist—to its Advisory Board. Known for his emotionally charged and vibrantly colored contemporary figurative paintings, Abrishami’s art is a celebration…

All That’s Left of You, just amazing All That’s Left of You, by Cherien Dabis, a Palestinian American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter, is Jordan’s Oscar submission.  All That’s Left of You arrives not only as a cinematic achievement but as a profound act of remembrance, resistance,…

Farewell to the Girl with a Suitcase For me, Claudia Cardinale was always more than a star. She was the girl with a small suitcase, an eternal traveler who never truly returned from her journeys. Every time she appeared on the screen, I felt a new story begin—one that only she could tell with her…

Bashu, the Little Stranger: A Symbol of National Solidarity Last night, after many years, I watched Bashu, the Little Stranger again. It felt as though I were seeing it for the very first time—the same pounding heart, the same sense of attachment to cinema, amidst the wave of an audience. This is…

Beyzaie’s Chronicle of a Society’s Wounded Memory I have always loved Hitchcock and regard him not merely as an auteur, but as a creator who gave birth to an entirely new world—a galaxy where countless filmmakers have lived and built their own planets. Among the great Hitchcock scholars worldwide,…

Cause of Death: Unknown, Iran’s Oscar selection At first glance, Cause of Death: Unknown by Ali Zarnegar، seems to tell a straightforward story: seven passengers caught in the stillness of a night journey. Yet beneath this simple surface lies a powerful and unsettling exploration of social…

Sirât, a voage between reality and metaphor, Sirât, the latest work by Oliver Laxe, presents a bifurcated narrative full of ruptures in meaning—a film that begins in realism but gradually shifts toward the surreal and allegorical. The first half is crafted in an observational, realist style: a…

Mother and Child, a harmony of empathy, craft, and truth Rodrigo García’s Mother and Child is one of those rare ensemble dramas that approaches its subject with extraordinary delicacy yet leaves a lasting emotional weight. The film, which García both wrote and directed in 2009, interlaces three…

My Sunshine, a whispered poem Hiroshi Okuyama’s My Sunshine is a film that works like a whispered poem, quiet in tone yet immense in emotional impact. It is the kind of work that never tries to overwhelm the viewer with spectacle, but rather builds its power through patience, intimacy, and an…

Nine Lives, whispers moments of hesitation Rodrigo Garcia’s Nine Lives is not a film that demands attention through spectacle or through the machinery of plot; instead, it whispers, it lingers, and it reminds us that life is built not out of dramatic climaxes but from fragments of intimacy,…

Wounds that never heal into calm TWO PIANOS, Directed by Arnaud Desplechin. Cast: Nadia Tereszkiewicz (Claude), Louis Garrel, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos, Charlotte Rampling (Elena, the master pianist) Two Pianos, the latest work by Arnaud Desplechin, is a romantic and melancholic drama, an…

It Was Just an Accident, just a good ending “It Was Just an Accident,” Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner at Cannes 2025, delivers a masterful ending that will surely be remembered in the history of both Iranian and world cinema. This striking conclusion brilliantly masks the film’s shortcomings,…

Ten Tiny Love Stories, a symphony of emotions Rodrigo García’s Ten Tiny Love Stories is one of those rare cinematic experiments that proves how much can be conveyed with the simplest of means when guided by a filmmaker with sensitivity and courage. Built entirely around a series of monologues,…

Köln 75 is about artistic brilliance Ido Fluk’s Köln 75 is a vibrant and heartfelt retelling of one of the most remarkable nights in modern music history, a film that succeeds as both an intimate character study and a celebration of artistic perseverance. At its center is Vera Brandes, the teenage…

I Swear, a deeply enjoyable film I Swear is that rare docudrama, which manages to be both. deeply emotional and utterly unsentimental. This film captures a portrait of a man whose unfiltered presence shook people out of complacency, and, in the process, reshaped the way a community thought about…

CWB jury and Nominees for 2025 LUCAS IFF Cinema Without Borders has announced its jury members to decide on the winner of 2025  Bridging The Borders Award at the LUCAS International Festival for Young Film Lover in Germany. LUCAS programmers have also announced the nominees for the Cinema Without…

Bashu, The Little Stranger, a rediscovered classic Bashu, The Little Stranger remains one of the most luminous works in the history of Iranian cinema and its recognition at the Venice Film Festival is both a triumph of artistic integrity and an affirmation of the universal power of storytelling…

Venice International Film Festival Winners This year, the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, held from August 27 to September 6, 2025, was once again dedicated to presenting the latest works of world cinema along with a selection of classics and timeless films. The festival this year hosted…

Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her A tribute to Rodrigo Garcia - Part 1 Rodrigo García’s Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her is one of those rare works of cinema that does not need to raise its voice to be heard, a film that quietly asserts itself as a masterpiece of subtle…

SEX by Johan Haugerud The film "Sex" is the first part of a trilogy by Norwegian director Johan Haugerud, created last year. This film presents a different narrative on infidelity, a topic that has always been one of the fundamental challenges in human relationships. The story revolves around two…

A moral statement in an immoral age… The film The Voice of Hind Rajab by Kaouther Ben Hania is one of the most powerful cinematic works to emerge in recent years, a film that instantly captured international attention when it premiered at the 2025 Venice Film Festival. It received an unprecedented…