Monty Python star Terry Jones has died at the age of 77, after having lived with dementia, his agent has said. A statement from his family said:
We have all lost a kind, funny, warm, creative and truly loving man.
Fellow Python Sir Michael Palin described Jones as one of the funniest writer-performers of his generation. John Cleese said:
It feels strange that a man of so many talents and such endless enthusiasm,
should have faded so gently away. of his many achievements, for me the greatest gift he gave us all was his direction of Life of Brian. Perfection.
Both Monty Python's Life of Brian and Monty Python and the Holy Grail had tussles with
censors and the establishment in general.
Resubmitted to the BBFC in a slightly shorter version prior to release
19th January 2020
The Rhythm Section is a 2020 UK action mystery thriller by Reed Morano. Starring Blake Lively, Sterling K Brown and Jude Law.
Passed 15 uncut for cinema release in 2019. A month later it was
resubmitted in a slighter shorter version with the same rating and advice. MPAA R rated in the US but it is not known which version was submitted.
Summary Notes
Blake Lively stars as
Stephanie Patrick, an ordinary woman on a path of self-destruction after her family is tragically killed in a plane crash. When Stephanie discovers that the crash was not an accident, she enters a dark, complex world to seek revenge on those responsible
and find her own redemption. Based on the novel by Mark Burnell, from director Reed Morano ("The Handmaid's Tale") and the producers of the James Bond film series, The Rhythm Section also stars Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown.
Versions
re-edited
cut:
3s
run:
109:27s
pal:
105:04s
UK: A shorter re-edited version was passed 15 for strong language, violence, brief drug misuse:
2020 cinema release
uncut
run:
109:30s
pal:
105:07s
UK: Passed 15 uncut for strong language, violence, brief drug misuse:
Military Wives is a 2019 UK comedy drama by Peter Cattaneo. Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan and Emma Lowndes.
Inspired by global phenomenon of military wives choirs,
the story celebrates a band of misfit women who form a choir on a military base. As unexpected bonds of friendship flourish, music and laughter transform their lives, helping each other to overcome their fears for loved ones in combat.
In
the US the film was rated R by the MPAA for brief language and a sexual reference.
The distributors are now appealing the decision presumably hoping for a PG-13 rating.
For comparison the BBFC gave the film a 12A rating for infrequent
strong language, moderate sex references.
BBFC cinema rating reduced from 15 to 12A after the distributors asked for a reconsideration
12th January 2020
Anne Frank: Parallel Stories (aka #AnneFrank. Parallel Stories) is a 2019 Italy documentary by Sabina Fedeli and Anna Migotto. Starring Anne Frank, Martina Gatti and Helen Mirren.
The 2020 BBFC cinema rating was reduced from 15 to 12A after a formal distributor request for a reconsideration was agreed.
Summary Notes
One single Anne
Frank moves us more than the countless others who suffered just as she did but whose faces have remained in the shadows-Primo Levi. The Oscar®-winning Helen Mirren will introduce audiences to Anne Frank's story through the words in her diary. The set
will be her room in the secret refuge in Amsterdam, reconstructed in every detail by set designers from the Piccolo Theatre in Milan. Anne Frank this year would have been 90 years old. Anne's story is intertwined with that of five Holocaust survivors,
teenage girls just like her.
94:59s
UK: Passed 12A uncut for Holocaust images, references to violence:
2020 cinema release
The BBFC commented on a reduction of rating from 15 to 12A:
This work was originally classified 15 without cuts on 19 December 2019. This determination was formally reconsidered by the BBFC at the
request of the submitting company. The BBFC carefully considered the arguments put forward by the submitting company, looked again at the relevant submitted material, and concluded that a revision to the original determination was appropriate.
One of China's longest-running independent film festivals has decided to shut down against the backdrop of mounting government censorship.
The China International Film Festival (CIFF) announced:
We believe that
under current local organizational conditions it is impossible to organize an effective film festival that has a pure, independent spirit.
The CIFF was founded in the eastern city of Nanjing in 2003 and has been staged 14 times. It
had screened films on sensitive subjects such as homosexuality and controversies surrounding the massive Three Gorges Dam project in central China.
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post quoted Zhang Xianmin, a Beijing Film Academy professor and the
festival's key organizer, as saying the shutdown takes China back to a more restricted era for film. Zhang added:
We just went back to 20 years ago, when there was no room and opportunity for independent films.
When David Shanks presents himself at international conferences, his peers recoil slightly. He explained:
I'd introduce myself as, 'Hi, I'm David from New Zealand. New Zealand's chief censor,' And basically these people
would take an involuntary step backwards, almost, on many occasions.
Shanks is head of New Zealand's film and media censors of the Office of Film and Literature Classification and his official job title is Chief Censor. He continues
But fellow attendees at the annual world meeting of classifiers -- those responsible for rating or, at times, restricting access to content in their countries -- omit the c-word from their job titles.
They would introduce themselves and they were the head of the classifications group or general manager, Shanks says -- referring to his counterparts in other countries.
He told the Guardian:
What I've kind of realised is I'm the last censor standing in the western world.
The End Will Be Spectacular is a 2019 Syria war film by Ersin Çelik. Starring Arjîn Baysal, Arif Demîr and Sahire Ozhan.
Zilan, a young woman, returns to her hometown looking
for the traces of his dead brother, killed by the Islamic State. But her town is not what it used to be: social and political tensions have escalated into a state of war. The people have risen to demand their political autonomy and the police and army
repress them with brutal force. But the city's resistance will go on for more than 100 days and Zilan will not remain a passive witness. Based on the diaries of those who died fighting and the testimony of survivors, who enact the protagonists of the
film, Çelik's first feature explores concepts such as hope, friendship, sacrifice and loss in the struggle for freedom of a group of young people.
A film based on the real-life resistance of Kurdish youth in Turkey was banned by
Sulaimani's security forces just a day before its Kurdistan premiere.
Ji Bo Azadiye (The End Will be Spectacular) , directed by Kurdish filmmaker Ersin Celik was pulled by Sulamani Asayesh (security forces) from the premiere at Sulaimani's
Salim Cinema.
The film team and cinema staff have criticised the cancellation of the screening, which has been shown abroad but now cannot be seen by a Kurdistan Region audience.
First premiering at Calcutta's 25th International Film Festival in
November, the production has received positive responses from foreign audiences. The film will next be screened in Rotterdam, Holland in January.
Monty Python star Terry Jones has died at the age of 77, after having lived with dementia, his agent has said. A statement from his family said: 
One of China's longest-running independent film festivals has decided to shut down against the backdrop of mounting government censorship. 
When David Shanks presents himself at international conferences, his peers recoil slightly. He explained: 
