‘Silent Friend’ Review: Ildikó Enyedi’s Hypnotic Saga is One of the Year’s Best Films [A] Venice
In an edition full of surprises and films that moved and provoked audiences at the Venice Film Festival, Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend is perhaps the... Read More
Mina Takla
Mina Takla is a foreign correspondent for AwardsWatch and the co-founder of The Syndicate, an online news agency that offers original content services to several film brands including Empire Magazine’s Middle East edition and the Dubai Film Festival. Takla has attended, covered and written for multiple film festivals online including the Dubai International Film Festival, Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Annecy Film Festivals. He has been following the Oscar race since 2000 with accurate, office-pool winning predictions year after year. He writes monthly in Empire Arabia, the Arabic version of the world’s top cinema magazine and conducts press junkets with Hollywood stars in the UK and the US. He holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Marketing from Australia’s Wollongong University and is currently based in Dubai, UAE.
‘Girl’ Review: Shu Qi’s Directorial Debut Finds Heart in the Face of Grim Oppression [B] Venice
Acclaimed Hong Kong-Taiwanese actress Shu Qi (known for her arthouse and commercial films including The Assassin, Three Times and most recently Bi Gan’s Resurrection) makes... Read More
‘My Father and Qaddafi’ Review: Jihan K Crafts a Moving Portrait of Living Under a Regime of Brutality [A-] Venice
Life doesn’t always give us answers – but that doesn’t mean the questions always linger, haunting us at every turn. There is a pain in... Read More
‘Roqia’ Review: [B] Venice
Playing in competition at this year’s Venice Critics’ Week, Yanis Koussim’s Roqia is a rare Middle Eastern genre film that takes narrative risks that mostly... Read More
‘A House of Dynamite’ Review: Kathryn Bigelow’s Politics Apocalypse is a Potent Potboiler [B+] Venice
In her first film in almost a decade, Kathryn Bigelow returns with A House of Dynamite, an incredibly timely film with an inventive narrative structure,... Read More
‘Father Mother Sister Brother’ Review: Jim Jarmusch’s Family Affair is an Uneven Triptych of Ties that Bind [C+] Venice
Jim Jarmusch is known for his often quiet, contemplative and meditative films that have a lot to say without actually saying much. The enigmatic beauty... Read More
‘The Smashing Machine’ Review: Benny Safdie’s Cautious Fighter Drama Pulls its Punches [C] Venice
Some films don’t know what they want to be – and that’s certainly the case with Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, a film that continuously... Read More
‘Hijra’ Review: Shahad Ameen Crafts a Moving Story of Self-Empowerment and Discovery [A-] Venice
In her second outing as a feature-length filmmaker, Saudi Arabian director Shahad Ameen goes bolder and deeper with Hijra, a quietly devastating film that is... Read More
‘Bugonia’ Review: Jesse Plemons Gives a Masterful Performance in Yorgos Lanthimos’s Plea for Eco-Empathy [A-] Venice
Yorgos Lanthimos is back at the Lido with one of his most fascinating, multi-layered and daring films. In Bugonia, the subversive filmmaker manages to tackle... Read More
‘Father’ Review: Tereza Nvotová’s Examination of a Life Barely Scratches the Surface [C] Venice
Selected as the Opening Film of this year’s Venice International Film Festival’s Orizzonti section, Tereza Nvotová’s Father features an interesting premise, rarely discussed in film,... Read More
‘Jay Kelly,’ ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Pluribus,’ ‘Task’ and More on AFI’s Top 10 Films and Television of 2025 Lists 
‘Frankenstein’ to Receive Visionary Honor from Palm Springs International Film Awards 
Robert Yeoman to be Honored with American Society of Cinematographers’ Lifetime Achievement Award 
National Board of Review: ‘One Battle After Another’ Tops in Film, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor; Netflix Lands Four in Top 10