News

There’s no faulting “Yellow Rose” for its good intentions, but this tale of a young Filipina teen finding her voice as a country artist (while dealing with her immigration status) almost always feels like it’s skimming the surface of a deeper story.

Documentary director Diane Paragas makes her debut as a fiction filmmaker, and while she and cinematographer August Thurmer certainly achieve verisimilitude in their Texas locations — the flatness of Bastrop, the city lights of Austin, the bright stage of a honky-tonk — the screenplay by Paragas, Annie Howell (“Claire in Motion”), and Celena Cipriaso tells the story in the broadest strokes possible, and the lack of specificity undercuts the film’s impact.

High-schooler Rose (Broadway performer Eva Noblezada) lives in a Bastrop motel, where her widowed mother Priscilla (Princess Punzalan) works as a housekeeper. Priscilla lovingly and strictly tries to keep an eye on Rose’s whereabouts, since both are without legal documentation,...

"I won't go quietly into the night...!" Sony Pictures has released an official trailer for a country music singer movie titled Yellow Rose, made by Filipino-American filmmaker Diane Paragas. This originally premiered at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival last year, and it also played at the Austin and Hawaii Film Festivals last year. Yellow Rose is the timely story of a Filipina teen from a small Texas town who fights to pursue her dreams as a country music performer while having to decide between staying with her family or leaving the only home she has known. The film stars Tony Award nominee Eva Noblezada in her feature film debut, along with Lea Salonga, Princess Punzalan, Dale Watson, Gustavo Gomez, Libby Villari, and Liam Booth. No surprise, this looks like an exquisite and affecting film about the power of (country) music. Worth a look. Here's the ...

Exclusive: Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (Spwa) has acquired all worldwide rights, excluding the Philippines, to the musical drama Yellow Rose directed by Diane Paragas.

This marks Paragas’ narrative feature debut and stars Eva Noblezada’s (Hadestown) as a Filipino teen (Noblezada) from a small Texas town who fights to pursue her dreams as a country music performer while facing the threat of deportation. The film also stars Tony Award-winning actress Lea Salonga (Once on this Island), Princess Punzalan (Mula Sa Puso), Dale Watson (Friday Night Lights), Gustavo Gomez (The Walking Dead), Libby Villari (Boyhood) and Liam Booth (Ghosts Never Sleep).

Yellow Rose is Noblezada’s feature film debut and she starred in the Broadway revival of Miss Saigon in the role of Kim, which was originated by her co-star Salonga. Most recently, Noblezada received her second Tony Award nomination for her portrayal of Eurydice in the critically acclaimed Hadestown, which...

Exclusive: The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (Laapff) unveiled today that the Diane Paragas film Yellow Rose starring Tony Award-winning actress and Broadway icon Lea Salonga and Tony Award nominee Eva Noblezada will open the 35th edition of the festival. Laapff is set to run May 2-10 in Los Angeles during Asian Pacific Heritage Month.

This will mark the world premiere of Yellow Rose which is Paragas’s feature film debut. Combining drama, music and the timely issue, Yellow Rose tells the story of a headstrong Filipino girl from a small Texas town who fights to pursue her dreams as a country music star while facing the threat of deportation.

“I am so humbled that our film has been chosen for this honor,â€. said Paragas. “Yellow Rose has taken over 15 years to make and it couldn’t come at a more important time when anti-immigrant sentiment is at an all-time high.

Two generations of Miss Saigon actresses are set to co-star in the musical drama Yellow Rose. Tony Award winner Lea Salonga, who played the lead role of Kim in the original Broadway cast will star in the indie opposite Eva Noblezada, who received a Tony nomination for her role as Kim in the 2014 West End and 2017 Broadway revivals.

Directed by Diane Paragas, Yellow Rose tells the story of a 17-year old Filipino American girl from Texas who secretly dreams of becoming a country music star of old. When her mom is arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she runs away and is forced to embark on a journey to forge her own path or face deportation with her mother back to the Philippines.

This will mark Noblezada feature film debut. She will headline the film which also stars the aforementioned Salonga, country music artist Dale Watson, Liam Booth (Ghosts Never Sleep), Gustavo Gomez, Libby Villari (Boyhood) and Princess Punzalan. The film features original music composed and performed by the cast and director.

Paragas will also serve as a producer with Cecilia Mejia, Orian Williams, Rey Cuerdo, and Co-Producer Jeremiah Abraham.

Tony Award nominee Eva Noblezada​ is headlining the cast of musical drama movie “Yellow Rose,” along with Tony Award winner Lea Salonga​.

Diane Paragas​ directed the movie, which wrapped production last month in Austin, Texas. “Yellow Rose” is Noblezada’s debut in a feature film.

“Yellow Rose” tells the story of a 17-year old Filipino American girl from Texas who secretly dreams of becoming a country music star. When her mom is arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she runs away and is forced to embark on a journey to forge her own path or face deportation with her mother back to the Philippines.

The cast includes country music artist Dale Watson, who portrays an underground country singer, along with Liam Booth​, Gustavo Gomez​ (“Animal Kingdom”), Libby Villari (“Boyhood”), and Princess Punzalan​.

“With the increased demand for diverse Asian American stories in Hollywood, I can’t think of a better time to develop this film,...

Much has been made of the 12-year journey that filmmaker Richard Linklater embarked on to make Boyhood, where audiences literally saw Mason (Ellar Coltrane) grow up before their very eyes on screen. Ever since the film debuted at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, the filmmaker has said that he isn't interested in making a sequel, but during an interview with The Q&A Podcast, Richard Linklater admitted he is warming up to the idea of a Boyhood 2. Here's what he had to say below.

"To be honest... this film first met its audience exactly a year ago and for the first six months of the year, my answer to that was absolutely not. This was twelve years, it was first grade through 12th grade; it was about getting out of high school. I had no idea about another story, there's nothing to say. It hadn't crossed my mind. But I don't...

Much has been made of the 12-year journey that filmmaker Richard Linklater embarked on to make Boyhood, where audiences literally saw Mason (Ellar Coltrane) grow up before their very eyes on screen. Ever since the film debuted at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, the filmmaker has said that he isn't interested in making a sequel, but during an interview with The Q&A Podcast, Richard Linklater admitted he is warming up to the idea of a Boyhood 2. Here's what he had to say below.

"To be honest... this film first met its audience exactly a year ago and for the first six months of the year, my answer to that was absolutely not. This was twelve years, it was first grade through 12th grade; it was about getting out of high school. I had no idea about another story, there's nothing to say. It hadn't crossed my mind. But I don't...

If you've been paying attention to all of the Top 10 movies of 2014 lists, you'll likely see Boyhood included on most of them, including our own two lists on this website. In case you didn't get a chance to see this groundbreaking emotional roller coaster in theaters, Paramount has released writer-director Richard Linklater's drama today, January 6, on Blu-ray and DVD. We have a contest lined up where fans can win copies of the Blu-ray for their own collection.

Filmed over the course of 12 years with the same cast, Boyhood is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason. A box office hit from IFC Films that has garnered universal critical acclaim, Boyhood achieved a rare 99% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, earned an unprecedented score of 100 on Metacritic and is the first film to receive an A+ score from Entertainment Weekly's Critical Mass.

Director Richard Linklater's Boyhood has been getting high praise ever since its initial release back in July, and it remains a top Oscar contender as awards season starts to heat up heading into the new year. Next up for the filmmaker is That's What I'm Talking About, which recently wrapped shooting, and has been described as a "spiritual sequel" to his 1993 hit Dazed and Confused, but, as it turns out, the film is also connected to Boyhood as well.

We first reported on the project back in 2009, when the director mentioned that the story would be set during the 1980s, following four college freshmen adjusting to life on campus while trying to make the baseball team. During an interview with Creative Screenwriting, Richard Linklater revealed how That's What I'm Talking About is 'a continuation of Boyhood.'

"Well, I think the word "spiritual" gets me off the hook. I...

‘Boyhood’ movie review: Richard Linklater has created ‘conceptually brilliant new film’ (photo: Ellar Coltrane in ‘Boyhood’) Director Richard Linklater once said, “The most unique property of cinema is how it lets you mold time, whether it’s over a long or a very brief period.” Indeed, time — and our relationship to it both philosophically and practically — has been an ongoing theme in Linklater’s work over the course of his now lengthy career, and it is once again at the center of the writer-director’s conceptually brilliant new film, which took more than twelve years to nurture: Boyhood. When we first meet Mason (Ellar Coltrane), he’s six years old and living with his mother (Patricia Arquette) and sister (Lorelei Linklater, the filmmaker’s daughter) in a small town in Texas; his dad (Ethan Hawke) is a better-than-average weekend-warrior of an absentee father. Mason is a quirky kid with an...