Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved.
 

Iranian short animated film ‘I Still Have Your Eyes’, directed by Hamid Haqjou, received an award at the Cheap Thrills! Zero Budget Film Festival 2019 in the UK.
‘I Still Have Your Eyes’ is about a young man’s dream. He creates a story based on his dream, according to Mehr News Agency.
It has also won an award at the 2019 Music Shorts Film Festival in the US.
The British event is a free independent community film festival. The fest was created in 2011 by a team of freelance artists, art managers and filmmakers. This year, the theme of the festival was ‘Heros’. The length of the short animations participating in the fest has to be 12 minutes or less than that. The works are required to be entraining focusing on family and friendly themes.
The fest’s top animated films will be screened in the UK on November 16 and will be given awards and certificates of merit on the same day.
 

Art & Culture Desk

Directors of close to 6,000 short and feature-length documentaries from 100 countries have applied to take part in the 13th edition of Iran International Documentary Film Festival (Cinema Verite).
The directors who have sent their works to the secretariat of the Iranian festival are from Italy, Turkey, Brazil, Spain, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the US, Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Poland, Portugal, Belgium, Australia, Greece, Ukraine, China, India, Indonesia, Egypt, the Netherlands, Romania, Bangladesh, Slovenia, Colombia, Pakistan, Austria, the Philippines, Switzerland, Taiwan, Lebanon, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Finland, South Korea, Serbia, Sweden, Iraq, Belarus, Chile, Singapore, South Africa, Afghanistan, Denmark, Japan, Thailand, Ecuador, Hungary, Nigeria, Venezuela, Uganda, Peru, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Armenia, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia, Kosovo, Lithuania, Morocco, Norway, Algeria, Georgia, Latvia, Palestine, Slovakia, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Uruguay and Hong Kong, IRNA reported.    
Some of the submitted works have been produced by the world’s leading and most important documentary production and distribution companies. In addition, documentaries either awarded or acclaimed at other major international festivals, such as Cannes Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Locarno International Film Festival and International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, will also participate in different sections of Cinema Verite
The selection panel of the fest has already begun reviewing the documentaries and will announce participants in different sections by November 6. Cinema Verite will be held in Tehran during December 9-16, 2019.
Mohammad Hamidi-Moqaddam will be the secretary of the festival.
 

The Swedish Academy will crown two Nobel literature laureates this year, making up for lost time after it skipped last year’s prize over a sexual harassment scandal.
Experts say the academy will seek to avoid ruffling any feathers with this year’s choice of laureates as it seeks to move on from the scandal that saw the husband of one of its members jailed for rape, AFP wrote.
Some names creating a buzz ahead of this year’s literature prize are Canadian poet Anne Carson, Kenyan writer Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and French Guadeloupean Maryse Conde, according to some sites.
Stockholm’s literary circles have also speculated about Romanian poet and novelist Mircea Cartarescu and Polish writer and activist Olga Tokarczuk.
The Swedish Academy, which dates back to 1786, is at pains to repair its reputation after the scandal exposed scheming, conflicts of interest, harassment and a culture of silence among its 18 members, long esteemed as the country’s guardians of culture.
The revelations shook Sweden, a Lutheran nation that prides itself on transparency and consensual democracy, and is intolerant of inequality.
Left in tatters by the debacle, the Academy, tasked with selecting the Nobel Literature laureate, postponed the 2018 prize until this year – the first such delay in 70 years.

Nobel sex scandal

Now revamped with new members and statutes, the institution will announce two winners, one for 2018 and one for 2019, on Thursday, October 10, at 1:00 p.m. (1100 GMT).
It is widely expected to pick writers who won’t spark further controversy, and at least one is almost certain to be a woman, literary critics interviewed by AFP predicted, as women represent only 14 of the 114 literature laureates since 1901.
The Academy does not release a shortlist. While speculation about possible winners is always a guessing game, it is even more so this year given the many changes within the institution.
Among the many names cited as possible winners are Chinese fiction writer Can Xue, Japanese author Haruki Murakami, Russian novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya, US novelist Joyce Carol Oates and Canada’s Margaret Atwood.
The Academy’s woes began in November 2017 when it disagreed about how to manage its close ties to Frenchman Jean-Claude Arnault, accused and later convicted of rape.
Arnault is married to Katarina Frostenson, a member of the Academy who later resigned over the scandal at the height of the #MeToo movement against harassment of women.
The pair also ran a cultural club in Stockholm that received funding from the body.
Ultimately, seven members quit the Academy, including then permanent secretary, Sara Danius.
“From having been associated with literature of the highest order, the Nobel Prize is for many now associated with #MeToo... and a dysfunctional organization,” Swedish literary critic Madelaine Levy told AFP.

Reputational damage

The empty seats have since been filled, and in June 2019 literature professor, Mats Malm, took over as permanent secretary.
“The changes have been very productive and we are hopeful for the future,” Malm told AFP in an interview just days before the prize announcement.
He acknowledged the affair had tainted the institution and said improvements were still needed.
“A lot of hard work remains, of that we are certain.”
Retired publisher Svante Weyler said he thought the Academy’s – and prize’s – reputation could be repaired, “but only through wise choices of laureates.”
He expected the Academy would try hard to steer clear of controversy, and probably go for one author highly regarded in literary circles and one with broader appeal.
“Absolutely no one that can cause a controversial political discussion,” he said.
Meanwhile, Olivier Truc, who recently published a book on the scandal, noted the Academy had courted controversy before.
“For instance when the award was given to two sitting members of the Academy,” he said, referring to the 1974 decision to give the prize to Harry Martinsson and Eyvind Johnson.

New procedure

The Academy used to be the sole arbiter of who gets the Nobel Prize in Literature.
But following demands of external oversight from the Nobel Foundation which manages the prize money, the selection committee has been altered to include five members from outside the body.
Given the stain on the Academy’s reputation, Levy raised the possibility “that those given the award won’t accept it” – as French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre did in 1964.
This year’s laureate – especially if it’s a male author – can expect their work and personal life to come under great scrutiny, in particular for expressions of misogyny, Levy added.

‘Hollyoaks’ was the big winner at the Inside Soap Awards, taking home the best soap award for the first time.
Stephanie Davis, who plays Sinead in the Channel 4 soap, was named best actress, while colleague Adam Woodward won best actor for his role as Brody, BBC reported.
‘EastEnders’ may be famed for its hard-hitting storylines but humor won out as Danny Dyer was named funniest male and Lorraine Stanley funniest female.
The BBC soap won four awards in total, as did ITV’s ‘Emmerdale’.
Iain’s Depression in ‘Casualty’ won best drama storyline.
And it was another episode focusing on mental health that picked up best showstopper – ‘Coronation Street’s’ treatment of Carla’s psychosis.
Speaking earlier this year, Allison King, who plays Carla, said she felt very aware of the sense of responsibility that comes with portraying such an illness on screen.
“It shows with it happening to Carla that it can happen to anybody, of course she is just as likely to get it as anyone because she has been through so much, the brain is so fragile and it has to snap at so point.”
‘Coronation Street’s’ other wins were best newcomer for Maureen Lipman as Evelyn and the soap superstar prize went to Sally Dynevor, who has played her namesake for more than 30 years.
Australia’s ‘Neighbours’ won best daytime soap, and cast member Ryan Moloney took home best daytime star.
‘Holby City’s’ Rosie Marcel took home best drama star.
Lisa Dingle’s departure gave ‘Emmerdale’ a win for best exit and the soap also won best partnership for Dominic Brunt and Lucy Pargeter, who play Paddy Kirk and Chas Dingle.
It also won the prize for shock twist for the flashbacks to the big night out story and Louisa Clein won an award for her portrayal of Maya.
Best young actor went to Kara-Leah Fernandes, who plays Bailey in ‘EastEnders’, and Max Bowden was named best bad boy for his role as Walford’s Ben Mitchell.
The awards are voted for by readers of Inside Soap magazine.