Filmmakers

Another Cannes premiere has been marked by a political protest. On Wednesday, a group of Ukrainian filmmakers took to the red carpet steps in front of the Salle Debussy, Cannes’ second-largest theater, and held up a banner protesting what they see as social media’s censoring of the Ukraine war. Standing on the steps as air-raid sirens wailed — a nod toward the alarms that tear through the Ukraine sky when a Russian attack is imminent — Maksym Nakonechnyi, director of Cannes Un Certain Regard title Butterfly…

Photo by Gareth Cattermole via Getty Images Content warning: this story makes reference to graphic violence toward women. Ukrainian filmmakers behind Butterfly Vision protested the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine on the red carpet of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The film’s director Maksym Nakonechnyi appeared at the event with his colleagues wearing shirts with slogans about the invasion, including an image of an explosion with the phrase “UKRAINE LIFE” written above it. They then later congregated on the…

NEW DELHI : Filmmakers in India are excited about new game engines, which allow them to blend live action and computer-generated moving pictures to create movies and TV shows. While visual effects and computer-generated imagery isn’t particularly new, the domestic film industry has long grappled with cost concerns, which have been the key reason for poor quality computer-generated imagery (CGI) in movies. Game Engines are software frameworks designed to allow video…

In every industry and walk of life, even the best of us sometimes fail to hit the mark.For professional filmmakers, however, mistakes can be costly. Unlike most people, their slip-ups can be witnessed by millions of people – a bad film can tar someone’s reputation for years or even decades.This isn’t just a list about bad films, however. This is a tribute to the rare instances when great filmmakers just got it wrong.For every Kelly Reichardt or Paul Thomas Anderson out there – artists who have managed to go their whole…

So Coda has triumphed at the Oscars; the likable cheese-fest with a feelgood plot is hardly great cinema, but it’s also hard to dislike. The moments when Troy Kotsur won the Bafta this month, and then the Oscar last night, were enough to have this cynical old disability activist jumping out of his chair with glee and admiration for both the actor himself and the coolness of his acceptance speeches. Coda’s win is a key moment in the sometimes problematic relationship between disability and cinema. Coming so soon after the…

During my research for the book Guru Dutt An Unfinished Story, various accounts of Guru Dutt’s colleagues, close friends and his family members suggested that despite being at the peak of his success, Guru Dutt’s constant refrain used to be, “Mujhe lagta hai mai paagal ho jaoonga (I think I’ll go crazy!)”As a biographer, I was curious to know what was the turbulence in Guru Dutt’s life and cinema? Why was Guru Dutt constantly restless and lonely? Why would he run away from Bombay looking for escape from his tortured state…