BAGHDAD (AFP) ― A journalist kidnapped by extremists may be a well-trodden scenario, but for one young filmmaker in Baghdad, it provided fodder for a nascent genre in Iraqi film: the patriotic action flick. “Attention” by Ibrahim al-Khazali, named Best Iraqi Production at this month’s Baghdad International Film Festival, was initially conceived in 2006, at the height of the country’s brutal insu...

“Mourning” by Iranian director Morteza Farshbaf and “Nio” by Filipino director Loy Arcenas have won the New Currents Award at the Busan International Film Festival. The award recognizes Asia’s best rising directors. BIFF wrapped up its nine-day event on Friday evening in Busan, with the screening of closing film “Chronicle of My Mother” by Japanese director Masato Harada. BIFF’s jury said in a ...

LONDON (AP) ― The London Film Festival, an international cinema showcase, opens Wednesday with “360,” a fittingly globe-spanning drama that moves from London to Vienna, Rio de Janeiro and Denver, Colorado. The film by “City of God” director Fernando Meirelles stars Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and Rachel Weisz in a daisy chain of interlinked love stories based on Arthur Schnitzler’s century-old pla...

BUSAN (AFP) -- A movie shot secretly in Myanmar is in the running for a major award at Asia’s top film festival this week with its director saying he wanted to portray the “real” state of life in the country. “It is about the truth of Burma,” said Myanmar-born director Midi Z of his first full-length feature, “Return To Burma.” “It is reality cinema.” The film is among 13 wildly diverse produc...

SANTA FE, New Mexico (AP) -- This historic state capital and artistic enclave, long a favorite vacation and second home destination for celebrities, is expanding its star power this month with the opening of the world’s newest movie studio. But the development on 26 picturesque hectares southeast of town is more than a warehouse with a few sound stages. It’s also a sophisticated and uniquely San...