Shane Slater is a passionate cinephile whose love for cinema led him to creating his blog Film Actually in 2009. Since then, he has written for AwardsCircuit.com, ThatShelf.com and The Spool. Based in Kingston, Jamaica, he relishes the film festival experience, having covered TIFF, NYFF and Sundance among others. He is a proud member of the African-American Film Critics Association.
With one of the most charming films at the 2023 HollyShorts Film Festival, it’s hard to believe that film wasn’t the first love of filmmaker Gabriela Garcia Medina. The former spoken word poet directs Bertie the Brilliant, which follows a young Latino boy from a working class background who desperately wants to see his favorite […] More
For many years, the HollyShorts Film Festival has been one of the most highly regarded showcases for films seeking Academy Award qualification for Best Live Action Short and Best Animated Short. And now for the first time, Oscar hopefuls for Best Documentary Short can also qualify through this Hollywood-based festival. With the extra attention on […] More
With the imminent arrival of the fall festival circuit, awards season campaigns will begin in earnest for many of this year’s most anticipated films. For contenders in the short film categories, however, one of the most important stops gets underway today in the heart of Hollywood. From August 10 to 27, the 2023 Hollyshorts Film […] More
For Monica Sorelle, her aptly-named debut feature Mountains was a labor of love, requiring a community to rise to the challenge. And that community is a major focus of this realist drama, which centers the family of a demolition worker who is forced to confront the ongoing gentrification of his Little Haiti neighborhood and the […] More
When you think of dancehall music, Jamaica immediately comes to mind. But through migration and globalization, this vibrant genre has taken root in communities many miles away from the Caribbean island. One such place is Brooklyn, New York, where some of the music’s most iconic stars got their start. This emergence of dancehall in Brooklyn […] More
As in real life, women’s rights in the Arab world have become a hot topic in cinema. One of the latest examples of this trend is Inshallah A Boy, which recently premiered to award-winnning raves at the Cannes Film Festival. In this powerful work of social realism, a widow faces the archaic laws of her […] More
Awards Radar is pleased to share a first clip from Baloji Tshiani’s Omen, premiering at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. Omen follows a Congolese expat who returns home to confront a troubled past, where he – and other characters in the film – was accused of being a sorcerer. […] More
With his debut feature Mustache, Imran J. Khan puts his own Pakistani-American spin on the tried-and-true coming of age genre. Recently premiering at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival, the film follows a 13-year-old boy (Atharva Verma) navigating the growing pains of a new school, all while sporting a conspicuous mustache. On the eve of the […] More
Delivering one of the most touching documentaries (Who I Am Not) at SXSW 2023, actress-turned-director Tunde Skovran explores the lives of two South Africans from contrasting backgrounds who share one particular condition in common. Namely, they where both diagnosed as intersex and experienced various forms of trauma and self-doubt. Through this illuminating film, however, Skovran […] More
Clocking in at a mere 67 minutes, Kaveh Nabatian’s Kite Zo A is a short documentary feature that nevertheless packs a punch. Exploring Haitian history, culture and spirituality with the help of poetry, music and dance, Kite Zo A is a soulful cinematic immersion into the atmosphere of the island nation. Following its international premiere […] More
For many Black people living in America, the issues underpinning the Black Lives Matter movement are a source of constant anxiety. But for some like June (Melissa Kay Anderson) – the lead character in Stephanie Malson’s Getaway – the struggle is of little concern. When the horrors hit close to home, however, she is forced […] More
With its radiant cinematography and runway-ready costumes, Walé Oyéjidé’s Bravo Burkina! was certainly one of the most striking films at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. And for the multi-hyphenate filmmaker, this intentional beauty was by design, as he sought to show the story’s immigrant characters in the best light. Oyéjidé goes into detail about the […] More
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