cineverse, Author at CineVerse Daily

Aug312025 by cineverseNo Comments

Do Bigha Zamin’ Preservationist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur Details Venice-Bound Restoration of Bimal Roy Classic

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By Naman Ramachandran According To The variety With the 4K restoration of master Bimal Roy‘s “Do Bigha Zamin” (Two Acres of Land) set for its world premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival‘s Classics section, India’s Film Heritage Foundation director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur is reflecting on the monumental effort to restore the 1953 Indian cinema landmark — and why the film remains essential viewing seven decades later. “Bimal Roy made ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ two years before Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali,'” Dungarpur tells Variety. “Satyajit Ray said about Bimal Roy that he was able to sweep aside the cobwebs of the old tradition and introduce a realism and subtlety that was wholly suited to the cinema.” For Dungarpur, Roy’s film represents cinema’s power...

Aug312025 by cineverseNo Comments

Preparation for the Next Life’ Review: A Bittersweet Immigrant Love Story Thrives on Two Terrific Performances

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By Carlos Aguilar According To The variety The spark between two soon-to-be lovers ignites inside a Latin nightclub in New York City, as the pair dance with clumsy playfulness to the Spanish romantic ballad “Un Velero Llamado Libertad” (A Sailboat Named Freedom). Their origins and struggles couldn’t be more disparate: She is an undocumented immigrant who’s part of China’s persecuted Uyghur ethnic minority; he’s a white Army veteran with no clear direction and a chronic case of PTSD. Holding on their comforting stares and unspoken exchanges with only Emile Mosseri’s sonic drizzle of a score as company, filmmaker Bing Liu (best known for his Oscar-nominated documentary “Minding the Gap”) delicately traces their blossoming and improbable romance in his first foray into fiction...

Aug302025 by cineverseNo Comments

Hamnet’ Sets the Oscar Bar High at Telluride With Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal’s Heartbreaking Turns

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By Clayton Davis According To The variety In a quaint theater in the Colorado mountains where we lay our scene, a clear Oscar contender emerges. Before Chloé Zhao’s anticipated drama “Hamnet” held its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on Friday, the director took the stage with her two stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal to lead the audience in a meditation before they took in her heartbreaking story. With a room that included some of her peers like “Sinners” director Ryan Coogler and actor-turned-director Harris Dickinson, the immaculate adaptation unspooled before the sold out crowd and captivated the audience. The moving and fictionalized portrait of grief and loss that inspired one of history’s most treasured playwrights held its grip...

Aug302025 by cineverseNo Comments

Kamila Andini’s Venice Gap-Financing Market Project ‘Four Seasons in Java’ Tackles Power, Trauma in Indonesia

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By Naman Ramachandran According To The variety Indonesian auteur Kamila Andini is gearing up for what she calls “the hardest story I’ve ever created” with “Four Seasons in Java,” a magical realist drama that confronts the dark underbelly of progress and power in contemporary Indonesia. The film, now in post-production and at the Venice Gap-Financing Market, follows Pertiwi, a woman who returns to her village after more than a decade in prison for killing a young man while defending herself from attempted rape. Her homecoming coincides with the arrival of electricity to the remote community, setting up what Andini describes as a collision between modernity and personal trauma that she sees “repeating in our daily life.” “Development cost in our country is very expens...

Aug302025 by cineverseNo Comments

Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence’ About Italy’s First Female Film Director Acquired by First Hand Films Ahead of Venice Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

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By Nick Vivarelli According To The variety Switzerland-based distributor First Hand Films has taken world sales on “Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence,” which reconstructs the overlooked story of Italy’s first female director, ahead of the documentary’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The doc, which is directed by Valerio Ciriaci and launches in the Venice Classics section, blends rare films and photographs from Italy’s Cineteca Nazionale film archives and the Cineteca di Bologna, known globally as a prime film preservation entity, with the voices of contemporary artists and academics. Between 1906 and 1930, Notari created more than 60 feature films that blended melodrama with raw depictions of Naples’ street life. These pioneering works captivated audi...

Aug272025 by cineverseNo Comments

John Williams Says He ‘Never Liked Film Music Very Much’

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By Andrew McGowan According To The variety John Williams is one of the most prolific film composers of all time, having created some of the most iconic scores of the past 60 years, winning five Oscars and becoming the gold standard of movie musicians. Ironically, though, the 93-year-old maestro recently admitted to his indifference and criticism of film music as a genre, telling a biographer “I never liked film music very much.” In this Guardian interview with author Tim Grieving about Grieving’s upcoming biography of the composer, Williams broke down the craft that he’s contributed so much to. “Film music, however good it can be – and it usually isn’t, other than maybe an eight-minute stretch here and there,” he said, “I just think the music isn’t there.” He contin...

Aug272025 by cineverseNo Comments

Papua New Guinea Makes First-Ever Oscar Submission With ‘Papa Buka’ (EXCLUSIVE)

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By Naman Ramachandran According To The variety Papua New Guinea has selected “Papa Buka” as its inaugural submission to the Academy Awards, marking the first time the Pacific nation has entered the international feature film category at the Oscars. Directed by internationally acclaimed Indian filmmaker Bijukumar Damodaran (Shanghai winner “Trees Under the Sun”), “Papa Buka” follows aging war veteran Papa Buka as he guides two Indian historians uncovering untold WWII stories connecting India and Papua New Guinea through shared sacrifice and humanity. The timing proves particularly symbolic, coinciding with Papua New Guinea’s 50th year of independence. The milestone announcement was made by Belden Norman Namah, Papua New Guinea Minister for Tourism Art and Cultur...