Aashram Grih-Pravesh, Overview: Lacks originality, packs technicality Aashram is a nine-episode web series currently streaming on MX player, released on 28th August, and available for watching free. It is an MX Original Production. Episodes vary in duration from 45 to 55 minutes. Based in the fictional city of Kashipur, there is an empire created by a self-proclaimed Godman, Kashipur Wale Baba Nirala, who derives his power from the influence he has over the lower strata of the society. There...

With its lead players putting up pretences throughout the film, it is easy to label the film pretentious. To be fair, it is not pretentious. There is an element of sincerity in the making. My Client’s Wife is potentially full of sexual encounters, only the makers have been careful to keep it ‘clean’. But as is the problem with psychological thrillers, there are too many red herrings and deviations from the plot just to cause shock and awe. Is it based on a true story? The mak...

Widow of Silence, Review: Half-lives, half-wives Since it is based on many true stories, it is easy to consider Widow of Silence as an amalgamated biopic. Though the central character and her plight may be an amalgam of several of her sisters living in the god-forsaken heaven on earth, rural Kashmir, it works as a personal story too, using the larger picture as a backdrop. Unfortunately, though, besides highlighting the suffering of women whose husbands have been picked-up and taken away, nev...

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGDxiEouy5M I hope all is well for you.  I recently noticed that my demo reel was 6 years old so I decided it was time for a new one. The new one is a major improvement and it was good motivation for putting my latest projects in it. Here is the link to my new demo reel. Please check it out on YouTube and give it a like or a comment.at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGDxiEouy5M T Thank you Jim Hawk ...

Hey :) We're working to debut a makeshift space/store and hip-based digital platform to allow creatives to present work the way they want. One month from our launch, on September (if the current situation gets better, that is), the company will be hosting full day touring events related to film, music and fashion for the public, our , and industry .  We're building up our own roster alongside a list of exhibitors and attendees for the event. We license work o...

CINEFANTASY 10: SUBMISSIONS OPEN FOR 2020 EDITION THIS SEPTEMBER   ** The festival will take place from September 8 to 13, in São Paulo. ** Registration is open until 5/13 Registration is open for the tenth edition of CINEFANTASY - International Fantastic Film Festival. Those interested can send the material until May 13, as long as the theme is fantastic, horror, science fiction and / or fantasy, the novelty of this edition is the expansion of the fantastic universe with west...

The final deadline for the 4th Los Angeles Crime & Horror Film Festival is coming up. If you've completed a feature film, short film, or screenplay in any horror or crime subgenre, from zombies and vampires to mobsters and heists, this is the event to showcase your content in the heart of Hollywood, California. The festival's award winners are given official recognition with verified awards listings on IMDb. The top films and short films are considered by reps and production compani...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Okay, Lockdown Folks, here's a fun thing to do with your endless free time - watch SXSW 2020 Pilot Showcase on Vimeo! Los Angeles, CA: In the wake of the cancelled 2020 SXSW Film Festival, a fascinating group of nominated filmmakers from the Episodic Pilot Competition are launching a ‘SXSW 2020 Pilot Showcase’ on Vimeo, a streaming event to preview a diversity led (more than half LGBT content and creators) se...

I’m doing a FREE COPY promotion for one of my short stories , TO beta VANVERDEN AND BACK on Amazon. You can get a free copy per the schedule listed below. There is no obligation, but I would appreciate a review. Thank you.   Clyde Phillips, the producer and writer of the award winning T.V. series DEXTER has given my work the highest rating which is 5 stars.   This story is soft science fiction and there are no super heroes nor laser...

Hollywood Just4Shorts provides industry exposure for independent short films and short screenplays, with awards that qualify for IMDb award listings. Submissions of independently produced short films and unproduced short scripts are now accepted for the current round. Submit now at: https://filmfreeway.com/Just4ShortsFilmScreenplayCompetition ...

Robibaar, Review: Sad, sombre, somnolent, sepulchral Sunday It is a Sunday. Not an ordinary Sunday, an eventful Sunday. For the female protagonist, it begins like any ordinary Sunday, a deceptively ordinary Sunday. Except for a strange dream that wakes her up, everything else seems like every Sunday. Till she goes to the neighbourhood café, for her routine breakfast. For the male protagonist, this Sunday could be the most important day in fifteen years, and it all begins when he walks ...

(Michelangelo Fortuzzi, Marie Tragousti © Czar Film) by LINDSAY R. BELLINGER You shouldn't be fooled by the film's title Nackte Tiere (Naked Animals), as Melanie Waelde's debut feature has little to do with nudity although there is one bathroom scene that reveals a little skin. The naked refers more to the raw and wild yet delicate look into the life of five German teenagers, all of them attending school somewhere in the Brandenburg c...

We have had more films being screened at festivals. "MISSING PERSON" was a semi-finalist at the Waco Family and Faith Film Festival. "THE SATURN MISSION", "VERDICT", and "THE UNFORGIVEN" were Official Selections at the Lift Off at Pinewood Studios. "THE SATURN MISSION" and "PLUS AND MINUS CREATION" are Official Selections at the CT15 Film Festival. Its good stuff.   ...

Angrezi Medium, Review: Crazy Tedium Three years ago, Maddock Films gave us a slice-of-life entertainer called Hindi Medium. ‘Medium’ here referred to the language, the medium of instruction in school education. It was just ably humorous yet proved more popular than expected, garnering a few awards as well. A follow-up went into development soon afterwards, repeating its lead actor Irrfan Khan. Though still to recover completely, Irrfan is back in Maddock’s Angrezi (Engl...

(Mawusi Tulani, Agyei Augusto, © Hélène Louvart/Dezenove Som e Imagens) Written by Victor Santana  In the act of telling a story, the process of narrative can influence and change how one relates and deals with the happenings in time. A great narrative has the power to overcome the circumstances of time and bridge the gap of space between the moment when someone is listening or telling a story and the timeless realm where a story is taking place.   ...

(Georgis Grigorakis, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Vangelis Mourikis, Argyris Pandazaras © Berlinale 2020)   by Lindsay R. Bellinger "I saw a poster in the train station here (Berlin) about the environmental crisis being the next Berlin Wall. And I think that this is what the film is about."  ~ Georgis Grigorakis The Greek film Digger from director Georgis Grigorakis won the Art Cinema Award on Saturday, the 29th of February, which was awarded by the Int...

Har Kisse Ke Hisse Kaamyaab, Review: Many parts, many holes, no whole, no soul In one scene of Har Kisse Ke Hisse Kaamyaab, the protagonist, an actor who goes under the screen name of Sudheer, cannot get his lines right, because he has not had a swig of his favourite brew, and gives retake after retake. We see him do seven/eight retakes, after which, mercifully, the film-maker goes into a montage, with only music, after which it is revealed that he had given as many as 32 retakes. Mercifully,...

Guns of Banaras, Review: Where are the bullets? When Nathalia Kaur, who was born Nathalia Pinheiro Felipe Martins, in Brazil, appears in the credit titles as the lead actress in probably her first Hindi heroine assignment, and Karann Nathh, son of producer and star-secretary ‘Rikku’ Rakeshnath, 37, who had worked in Yeh Dil Aashiqana, Ssshhh... and Tera Kya Hoga Johnny, makes a come-back after 12 years, your curiosity is aroused. It is further fuelled by the belief that this must ...

Thappad, Review: This slap is going to cost you dear A simple, significant, timely and relevant story line might be too thin to stretch into a full-length movie. Having settled for such a plot, the options would include spreading the narrative thinly across the pages of a tight screenplay, or padding it up with sub-plots and characters that might not be vital to the theme. Thappad (Slap) opts for the latter choice, and, in the process, dilutes its impact. What emerges is a well-made film that...

Bhoot, the Haunted Ship-Part I, Review: Scares are scarce Considering the negligible number of ghost stories being made in India, Bhoot, the Haunted Ship-Part I, made by names Dharma and ZEE, would have been a film to look forward to. It turns-up with a mixed bag, offering more mix than bag. Firstly, the title is a giveaway, for we already know that there is going to be a ship and that it will be haunted. Secondly, the film plays totally safe, in catering to both kinds of audiences—thos...

Shukranu-Hui Emotion ki Nasbandi, Review: Tale of forced sterilisations lacks potency In modern Indian history, the Internal Emergency, proclaimed in 1975 and in place for about two years, is regarded as a highly controversial phase. During this period, buses and trains ran on time, attendance in government establishments increased astronomically, corruption was all but eliminated and prices of a host of essential commodities were controlled. But all this was accompanied by curbs on freedom o...

Love Aaj Kal 2020, Review: 141 minutes of messy, moronic, melodramatic mishmash What do you do when that elusive commodity called plot decides to stay clear of your net? You dig into your archives and find a film that you think lends itself to building a sequel. You also pay a visit to the Hollywood classic which helped you spawn another set of two films, the first a charmer, the second that should have been much warmer. And so, from the stable that gave us Jab We Met, Love Aaj Kal 2009 and J...