Bille August-directed TV series “The Count of Monte Cristo,” featuring an international cast led by Sam Claflin (“Peaky Blinders”) is reaping stellar ratings in Italy, scoring on average a whopping 26% primetime share on the country’s state broadcaster RAI. The first episode of August’s high-end adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic, which the two-time Palme d’Or […]

U.S. director Matty Brown’s allegorical drama “The Sand Castle,” which sees Lebanese multi-hyphenate Nadine Labaki reunite on screen with young “Capernaum” siblings Zain and Reman Al Rafeea – who are both Syrian refugees – will be released globally on Jan. 24 by Netflix at a critical time in the Middle East. With Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks […]

Italy’s Rainbow Group, the company led by Iginio Straffi — creator of the hit “Winx Club” animation franchise — has announced a partnership with a group of Italian equity investors that are providing a roughly €90 million ($92 million) cash injection. Under the deal, TEC Movie — which is part of a unit within top […]

Lebanon’s Parliament on Thursday elected the country’s army commander Joseph Aoun as its president, ending a two-year deadlock and power vacuum at the top of the country’s political power structure. The U.S.-backed army chief was voted president after two rounds of voting amid verbal clashes with Lebanese lawmakers shouting at each other following 12 previous […]

“No Other Land,” the Palestinian-Israeli doc which depicts the Israeli government’s efforts to force Palestinians from their homes in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank, has been steadily gaining accolades ever since it scored the best documentary prize at last year’s Berlin Film Festival. The timely piece, which shows the gradual demolition of houses […]

With Oscar voting starting today, double Oscar-winner Jane Campion is championing young Italian director Maura Delpero’s “Vermiglio,” Italy’s contender in the international film category. The intimate period drama, set at the end of World War II in an Alpine village where the arrival of a soldier causes disruption in the dynamics between three sisters, has […]

Prominent Italian journalist and podcaster Cecilia Sala has been freed from Tehran’s Evin prison for political prisoners, where she had been detained since Dec. 19. On Wednesday, a spokesman for Italian Premiere Giorgia Meloni’s office said Sala – who was arrested while reporting in the Iranian capital – was flying home on an airplane following “intensive […]

“F1,” the new Formula 1 racing movie starring Brad Pitt, is the latest high-profile production to have shot in Abu Dhabi. Cameras rolled on the film during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December. The hotly anticipated Apple Original film which, besides Pitt, stars Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem, Tobias Menzies, Sarah Niles, Kim […]

Germany’s film and TV industries will kick off 2025 with an overhaul to the country’s funding system for productions that, besides providing a local boost, is also good news for Hollywood. The German parliament on Friday, in its last session before being dissolved, pushed through a watered down version of the country’s long-gestating new film […]

Abu Dhabi is stepping up efforts to lure more film and TV shoots to the United Arab Emirates’ capital by enhancing its new rebate, which is now set to reach up to 50% of qualified below-the-line spend starting in January. After becoming a prime Middle East hub for Hollywood and Bollywood productions over the past decade, […]

Italian journalist and podcaster Cecilia Sala has been arrested in Iran and jailed in Tehran’s Evin prison for political prisoners, the Italian government announced on Friday. “Italy is working tirelessly to free her, pursuing every option,” Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto wrote on X, describing Sala’s arrest as “unacceptable.” Sala, who is 29 and works […]

Five years after its launch, Saudi Arabia’s recently-concluded Mdlbeast Soundstorm music festival has put the kingdom’s capital of Riyadh on the map in terms of live events in the Middle East. This year’s Dec. 12-14 edition of Soundstorm – which started out in 2019 as an electronic dance music festival – featured over 200 international […]

Beirut’s beloved Metropolis Cinema – championed by Lebanese filmmakers as an indie cinema beacon amid bombings, despair and dysfunction – came back to life on Saturday with the inauguration of a new venue in a highly symbolic opening graced by messages of support from Nadine Labaki and Cate Blanchett. The inauguration came amid Israel’s ceasefire […]

Tilda Swinton will be celebrated by the Berlin Film festival with its Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement. “The range of Tilda Swinton’s work is breathtaking,” said the festival’s artistic director Tricia Tuttle in a statement. “To cinema she brings so much humanity, compassion, intelligence, humour and style, and she expands our ideas of the […]

Saudi actor and stand-up comedian Ibrahim Al Hajjaj recently became the kingdom’s biggest box office draw as protagonist of groundbreaking comedy “Sattar” in which he played a man whose floundering personal and professional life prompts him to pursue his childhood dream of becoming a freestyle wrestler.  As a followup, Al Hajjaj will next star in […]