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Some 17 years ago, viewers were both maddened and mesmerized by the tactile fever dream that was M, a cornucopia of sound and motion that is, for the moment, Lee Myung-se's last feature-length testament to the cinema medium he so adores. Though it doesn't quite qualify as a full feature return, Lee is back on stage presenting the richly cinematic four-part anthology film The Killers. Lee spearheaded this project as a creative producer and directed its final segment. Also in the formidable directing roster are Kim Jong-kwan (The Table), Roh Deok (Very Ordinary Couple) and Chang Hang-joon (Forgotten). The film essentially features four adaptions of Ernest Hemingway's famous 1927 short story of the same name, in which two hitmen enter a small town diner one...

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1. New Currents Award

[Winner 1] The Land of Morning Calm | Park Ri-woong | Korea

Jury Comment: The Land of Morning Calm demonstrates Park Ri-woong’s impressive storytelling skills and ability for subtle emotional depth. The film explores the personal struggles of its characters while shedding light on the hardships of a rural coastal community. Through precise, deliberate pacing, Park navigates themes of economic uncertainty, loss, xenophobia, and societal prejudice, creating a narrative that never falters. The ensemble cast delivers terrific performances, portraying layered characters with nuance, while Park brings clarity to their inner turmoil and the broader social issues, resulting in a powerful, resonant drama.

[Winner 2] Ma – Cry of Silence | The Maw Naing | Myanmar/ Korea/ Singapore/ France/ Norway/ Qatar

Jury Comment: Ma – Cry of Silence is honored for its courageous portrayal of resistance

to historical and ongoing political challenges under Myanmar’s political junta. Poetic and contemplative, using precise language and a clear understanding of the economy of means,...

The Busan International Film Festival has revealed its award winners and confirmed earlier dates for 2025.

Park Ri-woong’s “The Land of Morning Calm” (Korea) and The Maw Naing’s “Ma – Cry of Silence”(Myanmar/Korea/Singapore/France/Norway/Qatar) shared the New Currents Award.

Rima Das’ “Village Rockstars 2” (India/Singapore) and Tom Lin Shu-Yu’s “Yen and Ai-Lee” (Taiwan) jointly claimed the Kim Jiseok Award for more experienced filmmakers.

“The Land of Morning Calm” impressed the jury with its “storytelling skills and ability for subtle emotional depth,” exploring personal struggles within a rural coastal community. “Ma – Cry of Silence” was recognized for its “courageous portrayal of resistance” to Myanmar’s political challenges. “The Land of Morning Calm” additionally secured the Kb New Currents Audience Award. The film also won the Netpac Award, which announced previously as part of the Busan Vision Awards.

The New Currents Award jury was led by...

Exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has described the gratitude he feels about having his film The Seed Of The Sacred Fig selected as Germany’s entry to the Oscars.

Speaking at the Busan International Film Festival as head of the New Currents jury, the director said that Germany’s decision to submit the feature “has great meaning. I felt they were opening their arms and understanding other cultures.”

Although set in Tehran, with a mix of German and Iranian cast and crew, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig is produced by Rasoulof’s German outfit Run Way Pictures alongside France...

Exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has described the gratitude he feels about having his film The Seed Of The Sacred Fig selected as Germany’s entry to the Oscars.

Speaking at the Busan International Film Festival as head of the New Currents jury, the director said that Germany’s decision to submit the feature “has great meaning. I felt they were opening their arms and understanding other cultures.”

Although set in Tehran, with a mix of German and Iranian cast and crew, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig is produced by Rasoulof’s German outfit Run Way Pictures alongside France...

Mohammad Rasoulof, president of the New Currents jury at this year’s Busan International Film Festival, said that Germany’s selection of his latest work, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, as this year’s Oscars submission should offer hope to other filmmakers working under strict censorship conditions.

Rasoulof is currently living in exile in Germany after fleeing Iran on the eve of this year’s Cannes film festival – where The Seed Of The Sacred Fig screened in competition and won a Special Award – after Iranian authorities sentenced him to eights years imprisonment for making the film without a permit.

Germany subsequently selected the film as its submission for the Best International Feature category of the Oscars. There was zero chance that Iran’s government-influenced Oscars selection committee would have chosen the film.

“The investors of the film were German, and the producer was from Germany, so although the film is Iranian,...

Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has addressed the circumstances that led to his film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” being selected as Germany’s entry to the Oscars, rather than that of his native Iran.

Rasoulof was speaking at the Busan International Film Festival where he is serving as the president of the New Currents competition jury. In May, the filmmaker escaped to Europe after receiving sentence of jail and flogging from the Iranian authorities. “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” – about an investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran who grapples with mistrust and paranoia as anti-government protests intensify and his family life is devastated – won a prize at Cannes.

“It is a complicated situation. My film was withdrawn by the Iranian government and I was sentenced to eight years [in prison],” Rasoulof said at the New Currents jury press conference in Busan on Friday. The filmmaker proceeded to Germany,...

The Killers anthology brings together four renowned Korean directors for a creative examination of the criminal underworld. Released in 2024, the film draws inspiration from Ernest Hemingway’s short story “The Killers” as well as Edward Hopper’s iconic painting “Nighthawks,” both of which depict ominous encounters between hitmen and their targets. Through four distinct short films, Kim Jong-kwan, Roh Deok, Jang Hang-jun, and Lee Myung-se put their own singular spin on this pulpy premise.

Kim opens with “Metamorphosis,” throwing viewers into a neo-noir world of blurred reality and vengeance. A down-on-his-luck man awakens in a lavish underground bar owned by an alluring yet mysterious woman who offers a path to retaliation. Roh follows with the dark comedy “Contractors,” skewering outsourcing absurdity through the botched handoff of a murder contract down an incompetent chain of hires.

Shifting tones, Jang’s “Everyone is Waiting for the Man” ratchets tension in a quaint...

Busan International Film Festival has announced a Special Program in Focus, ‘In Memory of Lee Sun-kyun’, honoring the Korean actor who died in December 2023.

The program will screen six of the actor’s works including Parasite, four other films and an episode of TV series My Mister, as well as feature Special Talk events.

The late actor has also been selected to receive this year’s Korea Cinema Award, given to filmmakers who have contributed to promoting Korean cinema globally.

“Through the program, the festival aims to reflect on and commemorate the achievements of the late actor, whose diversified and profound performances have represented the Korean film scene,” the festival said.

Lee died in December 2023 in an apparent suicide at the age of 48, after which industry figures, including Parasite director Bong Joon Ho, called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.

Three of the films in the Busan...

Boys Will Be Boyz

Sky Documentaries has unveiled plans for “Boyzone,” a three-part documentary series that will examine the trials and tribulations of Irish boyband and 1990s pop sensation Boyzone.

“For the first time in 30 years, band members Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch and Michael Graham grant rare and exclusive interview access [..] revealing their personal experiences in a band that sold over 25 million records worldwide, the boys also talk candidly about how they grappled with the true cost of global fame,” Sky said. “They confront the strained relationships and tragic events that have had a lasting impact on all their lives, families and friendships.”

“The documentary examines the key events that shaped Boyzone, including the highs and lows of global stardom, the intense tabloid intrusion in 1990’s Britain forcing Stephen Gately to come out, and after a sensational comeback in 2007, a devastating tragedy struck the band, as Gately died.

Dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, who fled his native Iran earlier this year, has been named president of the New Currents jury at the upcoming Busan International Film Festival (Biff).

The jury for the competitive New Currents section will also comprise Korean director Lee Myung Se, Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu, Indian actress Kani Kusruti and International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) festival director Vanya Kaludjercic.

The New Currents strand of Biff includes first or second films by emerging Asian filmmakers and the jurors will select two winning features, which will each receive a prize of $30,000.

Whether Rasoulof will make it to the...

Korean genre cinema has become a stable internationally as we witness a plethora of horror, science-fiction and thriller projects being released every year. Considering this wide array of works, Korean directors have offered their takes on popular tropes, themes and characters with the idea of the killer being one of many. Even though the output in mainstream cinema has followed the roots of this type of character more or less quite directly, the anthology feature “The Killers” aims to show the possibilities this concept offers, blending it with elements of horror and even going back to silent cinema. Directors Kim Jong-kwan, Roh Deok, Chang Hang-jun and Lee Myung-Se have created the four segments, each of which showcases one facet of the hitman character, while also experimenting with various aesthetic and narrative styles.

The Killers is screening at Fantasia International Film Festival

In the first episode titled “Metamorphosis” we encounter Wan-chul...

The annual New York Asian Film Festival is about to kick off this summer.

Presented by the New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center, the 23rd edition of the festival will take place from July 12 through 22 at Film at Lincoln Center, with additional screenings from July 22 through 28 at the Sva Theatre and July 13–15, 18–21, and 23–25 at Look Cinemas W57, plus a special collaborative presentation of films at the Korean Cultural Center New York.

This year’s lineup marks the largest list of premieres, with 20 films debuting including the North American premiere of “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In,” which debuted at Cannes.

The opening night selection is the world premiere of Park Beom-su’s “Victory,” a cheerleading epic that’s billed as “Bring It On” meets “Parasite.” Lee Hye-ri (of 3rd-gen K-pop band Girl’s Day) will be in attendance with co-star Park Se-wan and director Park.

Soi Cheang’s Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In will close out the 23rd edition of the New York Asian Film Festival while Hong Kong actor Tai Bo is set to receive the Star Asia lifetime achievement award.

Tai is best known for 2019Twilight’s Kiss which earned him a Hong Kong film award and a Golden Horse nomination. He won a Golden Horse supporting actor award for 2000’s The Cabbie while his work in 1984’s Gung Buk was also critically well received. Tai’s other credits include Police Story, Back Home and, most recently, Berlin 2024 title All Shall Be Well.

This year's Far East Film Festival is screening a large number of South Korean classics, including a full program dedicated to the country's fascinating 1950s output, such as Park Nam-ok's progressive drama The Widow, the first Korean film ever directed by a woman. Yet the most interesting screening taking place this year may be the world premiere of a brand new 4K restoration of Their Last Love Affair. This 1996 film has seldom been seen outside of Korea, despite being made by master stylist Lee Myung-se, whose seminal 1999 work Nowhere to Hide is also screening at the festival. Featuring a magnetic turn by the late Kang Soo-yeon and a primal one from Kim Kap-soo, currently on screens in the smash hit K-drama Queen of...

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While the Golden Age of Korean cinema is considered to be the period from 1955 to 1972, and the Renaissance that essentially lasts until today starting with the modern blockbuster Shiri, which was released in 1999, there is also another period in local cinema, 1988-1996, that saw the emergence of a number of directors who truly pushed the boundaries of what was considered Korean cinema at the time, essentially paving the way for what followed next. Benefitting from the loosening of censorship and overall control in the industry in terms of topics and themes, directors such as Kim Dong-won, Lee Myung-se, Park Kwang-soo and Chung Ji-young came up with movies that took a realistic look at some of the most crucial events of local history, while also criticizing a number of issues the system faced at the time. The split of the two Koreas, the Gwangju massacre and the authoritarian rule, capitalism, worker's rights,...

The world premiere of ‘Wham!’ about the pop supergroup formed by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley is among the highlights of the 30th edition of the Sheffield DocFest, set for June 14-19 in north-central England.

Multiple Emmy nominee Chris Smith directed the Wham! doc and will appear at Sheffield, conducting a master class after the film’s premiere. In all, Sheffield will host 37 world premieres and 20 international premieres, promising its “most innovative documentary offering yet,” according to festival organizers. [See the program lineup below].

Novaya Gazeta newspaper editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov in Moscow October 8, 2021.

Among other world premieres is The Price of Truth, a film directed by Patrick Forbes about the Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. As Sheffield notes, Muratov auctioned his Nobel award and donated the proceeds to Ukrainian refugees, “and days later a masked attacker poured paint laced with acetone over him,” permanently damaging his eyesight.

Alex Cooke, chair of the board of trustees,...

The UK documentary festival runs June 14-19.

The UK’s Sheffield DocFest (June 14-19) has unveiled the line-up for its 30th edition and includes new films from Chris Smith, Paul Sng, Julie Cohen, and Patrick Forbes.

The selection includes 37 world and 20 international premieres, with 52 countries featuring across the entire lineup.

Titles include the world premiere of Smith’s Wham! in the Rhythms strand which celebrates the iconic musical duo and will be released on Netflix later this year. The Fyre and Jim & Andy director will also deliver a masterclass.

Opening the festival is Sng’s documentary Tish about the trailblazing...

A Coenesque caper-gone-wrong and an interactive mother-daughter saga told in bite-size form, Xr titles “Kidnapped in Vostok” (pictured) and “Rock, Paper, Scissors” are among the 17 projects leading distributor Astrea picked up in a recent bout of acquisitions.

Both titles are playing in competition at this year’s NewImages Festival, while other recent Astrea pickups include the Stanislaw Lem inspired short “Cosmogonic,” the award winning interactive film “Glimpse” from Oscar winner Benjamin Cleary and VR designer Michael O’Connor, and all five episodes of the “Missing Pictures” series, in which filmmakers Abel Ferrara, Tsai Ming-Liang, Catherine Hardwicke, Lee Myung-Se and Naomi Kawase reflect on the dream projects they could never get made.

Rounding out the list of recent pickups are “Child of Empire,” “Evolver,” “Gondwana,” “The Mutek Collection,” “Norn Vol. 1: The Nine Daughters of Ran” and “On the Morning You Wake.”

The recent round of acquisitions caps a period of breakneck growth for the young distributor.

Mubi is kicking off the new year with a selection of our 2021 highlights, including some of which haven’t picked up proper distribution yet. Most notably, their own release, Alexandre Koberidze’s dazzling What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?, will premiere along with a New Voices in Georgian Cinema series. Also arriving is Salomé Jashi’s Taming the Garden, Ana Katz’s The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet, Alex Camilleri’s Luzzu, and Nino Martínez Sosa’s Liborio.

As part of a series of first films, they’ll also feature works from Janicza Bravo, Noah Baumbach, Garrett Bradley, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Terry Gilliam, and more. A double bill of Federico Fellini classics, Nights of Cabiria and The White Sheik, will also come to the platform.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

January 1 | Kicking & Screaming | Noah Baumbach | First Films First

January...

• Asian cinema fans rejoice, the New York Asian Film Festival is back with a vengeance! Every summer since 2002 Grady Hendrix and the fine folks over at Subway Cinema roll out a collection of some 30 films representing the best Asia has to offer. Now in its 7th year, the Nyaff has established itself as one of the very best Asian film fests going anywhere, with a cross-section of art-house, big budget, and plain weird pictures abound.This year’s fest promises to be the largest in its short history with 43 films screening along with two programs of short films out of South Korea. They’ve also scored some big time guests to present their latest works including Myung-se Lee (M) and Ryo Iwamatsu (Then Summer Came). In a major coup for the fest, legendary (and infamous) film provocateur Koji Wakamatsu will hold a live Q&A via satellite for his latest United Red Army.

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