By The Global Film Initiative, on February 13th, 2013%
“Cairo 678 is an important film — one all women should watch and all men should pay attention to.” – The Huffington Post
Global Lens 2013 is full-steam ahead, wrapping up at the Santa Barbara IFF and Portland IFF, and this month we’re putting the spotlight on CAIRO 678.
Continue reading NOW PLAYING: Right on Time with CAIRO 678
By The Global Film Initiative, on January 25th, 2013%
Ringing in the New Year with fresh films and packed houses…
A new year means a whole new slate of incredible films from Global Lens! Oh, you haven’t seen the 2013 lineup yet? Not to worry—you can check it out here! The series just wrapped its two-week premiere at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and next month will begin playing at select venues throughout the United States and Canada.
Which means, if you’re a festival, theater or other venue, Global Lens 2013 is now open for booking! And you may want to get a jump on a particularly popular new title, Mani Haghighi’s Iranian MODEST RECEPTION, which has been playing everywhere recently—MoMA, Palm Springs IFF, Santa Barbara IFF, MFA Boston, MFA Houston, Smithsonian, Portland IFF… You get the idea.
In MODEST RECEPTION, a mysterious pair of urban sophisticates from Tehran travel the countryside in their Lexus coupe with the bizarre, inexplicable mission of pushing big bags of cash onto the locals they pass along the way. Something like Bonnie and Clyde in reverse, the couple (or are they siblings?) find that their job isn’t quite as simple as it should be, and their increasingly distressing encounters are alternately hilarious and alarming—sometimes existing somewhere in between.
Continue reading NOW PLAYING: A (Not-so) MODEST RECEPTION for Global Lens 2013
By The Global Film Initiative, on January 17th, 2013%
Following its January premiere at MoMA, Global Lens 2013 heads to Tampa and marks GFI’s sixth year working with Gasparilla…
Every January, without fail, we premiere a brand new Global Lens film series at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, before it begins its yearlong tour of the country the following month. And this February, the fine folks at the Gasparilla International Film Festival (GIFF) will bring Global Lens to Tampa, FL, for its sixth consecutive year! Starting with Zhang Yuan’s wonderful BEIJING FLICKERS (the opening-night film at the MoMA premiere), GIFF will present two screenings each of all ten films at the Tampa Museum of Art throughout 2013, and most of the series will also be included in the festival proper, which runs from March 19th to the 24th.
Continue reading SPOTLIGHT: A Taste of Gasparilla
By The Global Film Initiative, on December 26th, 2012%
We recently announced that Global Lens films are now streaming on Hulu, and we here at the Global Film Initiative are quite excited about it. But what has us equally aflutter at the moment is that two of our most popular films – Ahmed Imamovic’s BELVEDERE and Federico Veiroj’s A USEFUL LIFE – are now streaming exclusively on Fandor!
Continue reading NEWS: BELVEDERE and A USEFUL LIFE Now Available Exclusively on Fandor!
By Jeremy Quist, on November 29th, 2012%
Just add an Internet connection and a computer for instant award-winning Global Lens films, now on Hulu….
A scene from Mohammad Rasoulof's THE WHITE MEADOWS
We’ve been anticipating today, November 28th, for quite a while now, and it’s finally here!
Global Lens is now on Hulu!
Just yesterday someone asked me, “Where on earth can I see Iranian masterpiece THE WHITE MEADOWS? It hasn’t been released on DVD just yet, and there are no screenings currently booked in my city.”
The answer: You can see it right here. Right this very instant.
By The Global Film Initiative, on September 24th, 2012%
Brian Darr (of Hell on Frisco Bay) reviews A USEFUL LIFE for Fandor and shines a spotlight on Uruguayan Cinema while he’s at it…
 Last month Brian Darr, the writer behind Bay Area film blog Hell on Frisco Bay, wrote an excellent article called “A ‘Useful’ Guide to Uruguayan Cinema” for Keyframe, the blog from our friends at Fandor. In the article, Brian makes some illuminating observations about Federico Veiroj’s A USEFUL LIFE, segues into a discussion of the history of filmmaking in Uruguay, and then closes by touching on a couple other Global Lens favorites — WHISKY (dir. Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll) and LEO’S ROOM (dir. Enrique Buchichio). Check it out:
Continue reading NEWS: A ‘Useful’ Guide to Uruguayan Cinema
By Jeremy Quist, on July 23rd, 2012%
GFI presents Federico Veiroj’s cineaste classic at San Francisco’s historic theatre, and then makes the film available online exclusively on Fandor!
The last time I made it out to the beautiful Castro Theatre was a little over a year ago, for a special screening of a newly restored 70mm print (!) of Hitchcock’s Vertigo (the Castro is the only San Francisco venue equipped to project this format). I know, I know… It’s a complete shame that I haven’t frequented the theatre more often, and I really have no excuse (other than the fact that I work too much, live in a not-so-convenient suburb, and have a rambunctious one-and-a half year-old at home). I mean, come on, it’s the CASTRO – San Francisco’s famous, historic movie palace – and it’s right in my backyard!
A USEFUL LIFE screens at the Castro Theatre on August 16th
Well, that all changes in a few weeks because on Thursday, August 16th, the Castro – as part of its month-long celebration of the theatre’s 90th anniversary – is screening Federico Veiroj’s still-wonderful A USEFUL LIFE. There’s no way I’m missing the chance to see this new classic in such a perfectly appropriate setting, and you shouldn’t either. And although the August
Continue reading NEWS: Spend a special night of your USEFUL LIFE at the Castro Theatre!
By The Global Film Initiative, on December 15th, 2011%
Programmers, curators and more-preview our 2012 lineup on Festival Scope!
 Every January, just around the time we launch a new season of Global Lens, we get hit with multiple requests from curators and programmers for screening copies of our films. And we love it. The only problem: we can’t always keep up with the demand, especially when those films are making news (i.e. MOURNING, THE PRIZE, PEGASUS, AMNESTY…)
MOURNING (dir. Morteza Farshbaf, Iran) now available on Festival Scope
So, woe is us, such an exquisite difficulty and what’s a boutique nonprofit film organization supposed to do. Or rather, how do we keep the promise made to our filmmakers, of promoting their films to the widest and most geographically diverse audience possible? And how do you get to see Global Lens in your city, festival and theater…
Well, our longtime friend, Alessandro Raja, has an answer: Festival Scope
Festival Scope is our newest promotional partner for Global Lens. Launched in 2010 by Alessandro (formerly of Celluloid Dreams), it’s an online film viewing resource created exclusively for industry professionals who want to review films, immediately, from the wonderful world of festivals. Dubai, Busan, Torino, Toronto-name it and you’ll likely find it on Festival Scope.
Continue reading NOW PLAYING: Global Lens on Festival Scope
By The Global Film Initiative, on September 22nd, 2011%
 
[UPDATE - October 1, 2011: GFI grantee SKOONHEID is also going to the Oscars! See full post about all awards here]
Congratulations to Ahmed Imamovic, and Daniel and Diego Vega! Ahmed’s second film, BELVEDERE (currently featured in Global Lens 2011), is Bosnia-Herzegovina’s official submission to the 2011 Academy Awards! And not to be outdone, the Vega brothers’ debut feature [and 2008 GFI grant-recipient], OCTOBER, is Peru’s official submission!
We wish both films much success, with fingers crossed for a golden Oscar (and a clandestine note of luck for GFI grantee Dervis Zaim, whose film SHADOWS AND FACES, is short-listed as Turkey’s official submission)!
By Santhosh Daniel, on June 18th, 2011%
Click on the map above to view GFI grant recipients and learn more about each project!
This last year, we hit a milestone: 100+ grants to filmmakers from over 40 different nations. And if that weren’t enough, we also logged a few other feathers, including:
Education and participation by the highest number of schools ever in our annual screening programs Filmmaker awards and honors at Cannes and Habana, not to mention a flurry of “Best Films” and FIPRESCIs at festivals worldwide Global Lens and a new distribution platform (along with a new online catalogue) that allows us to reinvest more revenue in our Granting Program
Of course, as many of you know, we also expanded our Granting Program to include our first-ever “Honorable Mention” awards, and expanded our staff and network of partners to include the Smithsonian Institution and the Scottsdale International Film Festival.
But what does all this mean, except to say we’re doing what we set out to do. And as a student visiting our office recently asked, “why does any of this matter?”
Continue reading SUPPORT: Granting, Global Lens, and Why It All Matters
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Cairo 678, gasparilla film festival, global lens, Global Lens 2013, Huffington Post, Mohamed Diab, ReelWorld Film Festival, Seattle INternational Film Festival, The Carter Center 
