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Information about World Cinema

World cinema
East Asian cinema
South Asian cinema
Southeast Asian cinema
West Asian cinema
World cinema is a term used primarily in English language speaking countries to refer to the films and film industries of non-English speaking countries (those outside of the Anglosphere). It is therefore often used interchangeably with the term Foreign film. However, both World cinema and Foreign film could be taken to refer to the films of all countries other than one's own, regardless of native language.

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Sergei Parajanov's The Color of Pomegranates (Armenia)
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Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (Sweden)
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Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, an example of 60's Italian Cinema
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Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre sa vie, a French New Wave film
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Satyajit Ray's Charulata (India)
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Andrei Tarkovsky's The Mirror (Russia)
Technically, foreign film does not mean the same as foreign language film, but the inference, particularly in the U.S., is that a foreign film is not only foreign in terms of the country of production, but also in terms of the language used. As such, the use of the term foreign film for films produced in the UK, Australia, Canada or other English speaking countries would be uncommon.

In other English speaking countries, it would be extremely unlikely to class films made in the U.S. as foreign films, or belonging to World cinema, as American films are reasonably dominant in all English-language markets.

World cinema has an un-official implication of films with "artistic value" as opposed to "Hollywood commercialism." Foreign language films are often grouped with "Art House films" and other independent films in DVD stores, cinema listings etc. Unless dubbed into one's native language, foreign language films played in English speaking regions usually have English subtitles. Few films of this kind receive more than a limited release and many are never played in major cinemas. As such the marketing, popularity and gross takings for these films are usually markedly less than for typical Hollywood blockbusters. The combination of subtitles and minimal exposure adds to the notion that "World Cinema" has an inferred artistic prestige or intelligence, which may discourage less sophisticated viewers. Additionally, differences in cultural style and tone between foreign and domestic films affects attendance at cinemas and DVD sales.

Foreign language films can be commercial, low brow or B-movies, so to automatically assume that World cinema is "arty" or intellectual is erroneous. Furthermore, foreign language films can cross cultural boundaries, particularly when the visual spectacle and style is sufficient to overcome people's misgivings. Films of this ilk are becoming more common, and recent examples such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Amelie and Brotherhood of the Wolf enjoyed great success in Western cinemas and DVD sales. The first foreign language film to top the North American box office was Hero in the fall of 2004.

World cinema on DVD

Foreign language films that are particularly successful in international markets may be taken on by the large film distribution companies for DVD releases. At the other end of the scale, many foreign language films are never given a DVD release outside of their home markets. With the enormous number of films produced across the world every year, this is hardly surprising.

The majority of those DVDs that are given an international release, come out on specialist labels. These labels include:
  • Arrow Films Label specialising in foreign language and cult English language films
  • Artificial Eye (USA and UK)
  • Axiom Films
  • British Film Institute
  • Contender Entertainment Group - Label that owns the sub-labels Hong Kong Legends (specialising in films from Hong Kong) and Premier Asia (specialising in films from the rest of East Asia, particularly Japan, South Korea and Thailand). CEG bought out the label Medusa in 2005.
  • The Criterion Collection
  • Dragon Dynasty (USA) - label specialising in films from East Asia.
  • Eastern Heroes - European label specialising in films from East Asia. Eastern Heroes sold off many of their titles to Medusa (before it was bought out by Contender Entertainment Group) and Soulblade in the early 2000s.
  • Facets Multimedia (USA)
  • Kino International (USA) - Label distributing foreign language, arthouse and silent films.
  • Manga Entertainment (USA and UK) - Label specialising in anime.
  • Masters of Cinema
  • Optimum Releasing (UK) - Distributor of foreign and English language films in the UK.
  • Second Run (UK)
  • Soda Pictures
  • Soulblade (UK)
  • Studio Canal (France)
  • Tartan Films (USA and UK) - Label distributing a variety of foreign and English language films, though primarily East Asian films. The company consists of Tartan Video in the UK and Tartan Films USA, as well as the Tartan Asia Extreme and Tartan Terror horror labels.

World cinema television channels

Cinema by continent and country

 •  • [ e]
World cinema
Lists of films • Years in film •  •  •
Cinema TopicsActors •  •  • Awards •  •  • Cinematographers • Directors •  • Editing • Film theatres • History • Festivals • Industry •  • Organizations •  • Production •  •  •  •  • Studios • Techniques •  •  •
Americas
Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda  Aruba  Bahamas  Barbados  Dominican Republic  Guadeloupe  Haiti  Jamaica  Martinique  Puerto Rico  Trinidad and Tobago  Latin America: Argentina  Bolivia  Brazil  Chile  Colombia  Costa Rica  Cuba  Ecuador  Guatemala  Guyana  Honduras  Mexico  Nicaragua  Panama  Paraguay  Peru  Suriname  Uruguay  Venezuela  North America: Canada  U.S.A
Asia
(list)
Europe
(list)
Australasia
Australia  Fiji  New Zealand  Tonga
Africa
(list)
Algeria  Angola  Benin  Botswana  Burkina Faso  Burundi  Cameroon  Cape Verde  Central African Republic  Chad  Congo  Egypt  Eritrea  Ethiopia  Gabon  Guinea  Guinea-Bissau  Kenya  Ivory Coast  Libya  Madagascar  Mali  Mauritania  Mauritius  Mozambique  Niger  Moroccan  Nigeria  Rwanda  Senegal  Somalia  South Africa  Tanzania  Togo  Tunisia  Uganda  Zaire  Zambia  Zimbabwe

See also

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Akira Kurosawa's Ran (Japan)

External links

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Victor Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive (Spain)
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Asian cinema refers to the film industries and films produced in the continent of Asia. More commonly however, it is used to refer to the cinema of Eastern, Southeastern, South Asia and Iran.
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East Asian cinema is a term used to refer to the film industry and films produced in and/or by natives of East Asia. It can be seen as a sub-section of Asian cinema, which in turn is a sub-section of world cinema, a catchall term used in the English-speaking world to refer to all
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South Asian cinema refers to the cinema of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives. Afghanistan is sometimes included in this category, due to its geographical and historical association with Indic culture, although it bears more close cultural
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Southeast Asian cinema refers to the film industry and films produced in, and/or by natives of, Southeast Asia. By definition, it describes any films produced in Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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West Asian cinema refers collectively to the film output and film industries of the West Asia.

This particular refers to the sizeable industries of Iran, and Turkey.
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Australasian cinema refers collectively to the film output and film industries of Australasia.

This particularly refers to the sizeable industries of Australia and New Zealand.
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North American cinema is generally used to refer collectively to the film industries of the United States and Canada. The term is cultural rather than geographic; the film industries of Mexico and Cuba are normally considered part of Latin American cinema.
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Latin American cinema refers collectively to the film output and film industries of Latin America. Latin American film is both rich and diverse. But the main centers of production have been Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Cuba.
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English}}} 
Writing system: Latin (English variant) 
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng  
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Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.
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The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and
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Anglosphere describes a group of anglophone (English-speaking) nations which share historical, political, and cultural characteristics rooted in or attributed to the historical experience of the United Kingdom (UK).
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Motto
"Dieu et mon droit" [2]   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
"God Save the Queen" [3]
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Anthem
Advance Australia Fair [1]


Capital Canberra

Largest city Sydney
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art film (also called an “art cinema”, “art movie”, or in the US, an "independent film" or “art house film”) is a typically serious, noncommercial, independently made film that is aimed at a niche audience, rather than a mass audience.
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An independent film, or indie film, is usually a low-budget film that is produced by a small movie studio. Additionally, the term is used to describe less commercially-driven art films which differ markedly from the norms of plot-driven, mainstream classical Hollywood cinema.
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Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language—with or
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Blockbuster, as applied to film or theater, denotes a very popular and/or successful production. The term was originally derived from theater slang referring to a particularly successful play but is now used primarily by the film industry.
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Low culture is a derogatory term for some forms of popular culture. The term is often encountered in discourses on the nature of culture. Its opposite is high culture. It has been said by culture theorists that both high culture and low culture are subcultures.
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B movie originally referred to a motion picture made on a low or modest budget and intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood. Although the U.S.
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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Traditional Chinese: 臥虎藏龍; Simplified Chinese:
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Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (The Fabulous Life of Amélie Poulain), also known simply as Amélie, is a 2001 French film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou.
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Brotherhood of the Wolf, also known by its French title Le Pacte des loups
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box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to a venue. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall, or at a wicket.
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Hero (Chinese: 英雄; Pinyin: Yīngxióng) is a Chinese wuxia film, directed by Zhang Yimou with music by Tan Dun.
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20th century - 21st century - 22nd century
1970s  1980s  1990s  - 2000s -  2010s  2020s  2030s
2001 2002 2003 - 2004 - 2005 2006 2007

2004 by topic:
News by month
Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun
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A film distributor is an independent company, a subsidiary company or occasionally an individual, which acts as the final agent between a film production company or some intermediary agent, and a film exhibitor, to the end of securing placement of the producer's film on the
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