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"You know him?" Film Movement has revealed an the trailer for an indie thriller titled Stranger Eyes, from Singaporean filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua. This first premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival last fall, and it also played at the New York & London Film Festivals. After the disappearance of his baby daughter, Darren receives mysterious DVDs containing videos of his private life and most intimate moments. When he finds the mysterious voyeur, Darren turns the gaze around and confronts his own image in the other. "The truth of his identity is more complicated than it seems." Featuring legendary Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng. Referencing other surveillance thrillers like Michael Haneke's Cache and Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, Singaporean filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua's latest film is a timely update to the genre as a meditation on voyeurism in the digital age and the contradictory desires around being seen. Stranger Eyes stars Wu Chien-ho,...

After landing on our radar with his Golden Leopard-winning feature A Land Imagined, Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua returned to the festival circuit last fall with his Venice premiere Stranger Eyes. The mysterious drama, starring Tsai Ming-liang regular Lee Kang-sheng, will now get a release on August 29 from Film Movement and the new trailer has arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “After enduring months of a fruitless police investigation into the disappearance of their daughter, a young, estranged couple, Junyang and Peiying, realize they are bring filmed surreptitiously when they begin receiving mysterious packages at their door containing DVDs with footage of their daily lives. The moments captured are unnerving not only for the violation of their privacy, but for what is exposed about Junyang and Peiying’s relationship on a most intimate level. Suspecting their voyeur is responsible for taking their daughter, the couple embark on a desperate mission to seek him out,...

By Jean-Marc THÉROUANNE

Danaff is supported by the city of Da Nang, the Association for the Development of Vietnamese Cinema, the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and numerous partners including Netpac (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema).

The 106 films in the program were divided into several sections:

1. Asian Film Competition (14 films)

2. Vietnamese Film Competition (12 films)

3. Vietnamese Cinema Today (19 films)

4. Panorama of Asian Cinema (25 films)

5. Half a Century of Vietnamese War Cinema Since National Reunification (22 films)

6. Korean Cinema and Its Historical Footprints (14 films)

Asian Film Competition Jury : Minh Châu, Jang Joon Hwan, président, Martine Thérouanne, Shozo Ichiyama, Lorna Tee (crédit photo J-m Thérouanne)

Films In The Asian Competition

Stranger Eyes by Yeo Siew Hua (Singapore):

After their daughter disappears, a couple begins receiving videos of their private life, realizing their every moment is being recorded. This Singaporean film explores the omnipresence of surveillance in both public...

The 27th Taipei Film Awards Ceremony took place on the evening of July 5 at the Zhongshan Hall in Taipei City. The highly anticipated Grand Prize, with a cash award of Nt$1 million, was awarded to the documentary Island of the Winds. The jury praised the film as more than just a documentary—calling it a cinematic memory of Taiwan’s land.

Wanlop Rungkumjad won Best Actor for his performance in Mongrel, making history as the first non-Taiwanese recipient of this award. The film won three awards in total, tying as the biggest winner of the night alongside Yen and Ai-Lee, Island of the Winds, and Dead Talents Society. Alexia Kao received the Best Actress award for her powerful portrayal in Family Matters, marking her first win at the Taipei Film Awards.

Island of the Winds

The jury selected one winner from each major category—Narrative Feature, Documentary, Short Film, and...

The Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) proudly announces the official programme lineup for its highly anticipated 8th edition, set to take place from 19 to 27 July 2025. Staying true to its mission as a cultural bridge between Malaysian and global cinema, this year’s MIFFest places a spotlight on bold, diverse, and impactful storytelling from around the world. In its ongoing celebration of cinematic legends, the 8 th MIFFest is proud to pay tribute to the iconic Ti Lung with the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the Extended Special Programme under the Master At Work series.

This year’s Malaysia Golden Global Awards (Mgga) sets the stage for an electrifying competition, with several standout titles leading the nominations. These critically acclaimed films reflect the depth and diversity of global storytelling celebrated at MIFFest. The Malaysia Golden Global Awards (Mgga) takes place on 26 July 2025 at Zepp Kuala Lumpur. The event will be streamed...

Production has officially wrapped on “Kopitiam Days”, a heartfelt feature-length anthology created in celebration of Singapore’s 60th year of independence (SG60). The team marked the occasion with a celebratory wrap party last night at Goodwood Park Hotel.

Spanning the past, the present, and the future of Singapore, the anthology comprises six short films – each centred around a kopitiam (coffeeshop), a cultural symbol woven into the nation’s social fabric. The film brings together a stellar ensemble of Singaporean talents and is helmed by six established and rising filmmakers. Award-winning filmmaker Eric Khoo serves as the Executive Producer and Creative Director.

Yeo Siew Hua’s ‘Dragon Gate Assembly‘ stars Richie Koh, Xenia Tan, Kung Cheung Tak (Tak Gor), Tay Ping Hui, Jasmine Sim, Chen Tian Wen, Tang Fu Kuen, Benjamin Ng and Xiao Jing, is an action-packed love story that not only serves as a tribute to the wuxia genre...

Eric Khoo-produced anthology film Kopitiam Days and drama series Emerald Hill are among projects, badged SG60 and backed by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (Imda), launching this year to celebrate Singapore’s 60th year of independence.

Khoo’s Zhao Wei Films, along with Fran Borgia’s Akanga Film Asia and Lim Teck’s Clover Films, is taking charge of Kopitiam Days, which showcases six stories about reconnecting and mending relationships. They span different time periods from the past, the present and the future and all revolve around a kopitiam, which is a local coffee joint where people gather for local food and beverages.

Exclusive: Singapore producer, director and showrunner Eric Khoo is putting together an anthology film, Kopitiam Days, with six local directors including Locarno Golden Leopard winner Yeo Siew Hua (A Land Imagined).

Also directing segments of the film are Shoki Lin, M. Raihan Halim, Tan Siyou, Don Aravind and Ong Kuo Sin. Khoo says the six segments will explore “what it means to live, work and love on this island we call home” in the year in which Singapore celebrates the 60th year of its founding.

Khoo is serving as executive producer and creative director on the anthology through his Singapore-based production house Zhao Wei Films, with Fran Borgia, founder of Singapore’s Akanga Film Asia, and Lim Teck, managing director of Singapore producer-distributor Clover Films, also on board as executive producers. Zhao Wei’s Tan Fong Cheng will also produce.

Scheduled to start production at the end of April, the...

The 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival will kick off on April 10 with dual opening features, Japanese drama The Brightest Sun and Malaysia-Hong Kong co-production Pavane for an Infant. Berlin Golden Bear winner Dreams (Sex Love), directed by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud, will then bring the curtain down on the event on April 21 as the closing film. The festival’s lineup was unveiled Monday at a press conference at Hong Kong’s Filmart Content Market.

The Brightest Sun is filmmaker Tetsuya Nakashima’s adaptation of a novel by popular Japanese author Bunzo Uchikai. It’s the first film from Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls, The World of Kanako) in seven years. Pavane for an Infant, meanwhile, directed by Chong Keat Aun, is a drama exploring the issue of baby abandonment through the eyes of a female social worker (Malaysian-born Hong Kong actress Fish Liew).

Two local Hong Kong features have been...

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light was named best film at 18th Asian Film Awards on Sunday evening (March 16).

The Indian filmmaker attended the ceremony in Hong Kong and accepted the award from filmmaker, martial arts star and Afa jury president Sammo Hung.

Scroll down for full list of winners

It marked nearly 10 months since Kapadia became the first Indian filmmaker to win the Grand Prix at Cannes, where the film was the first Indian feature to play in Competition at the festival for 30 years.

“I’m so happy that we could end our journey here in Hong Kong,...

The 18th Asian Film Awards recognized achievements in regional cinema on Sunday, with Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light winning Best Film. The ceremony, held at the Xiqu Centre in Hong Kong, brought together filmmakers from across Asia to celebrate accomplishments in directing, acting, and technical contributions.

Kapadia’s drama, which previously earned the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, marked a milestone for Indian cinema, a country that has often been nominated at the AFAs without securing major wins. On stage, Kapadia credited her lead actors for shaping the film’s impact. “Thank you so much to my lead actors—three incredible artists and human beings. They are the ones who made this film what it is,” she said.

The Best Director award went to Japan’s Yoshida Daihachi for Teki Cometh, a character study that premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival before...

Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s poignant drama All We Imagine as Light went home with the best picture prize Sunday night at the 18th Asian Film Awards. It was the film’s final stop on a ten-month festival and awards season journey that began last May when it won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

“Thank you so much to my lead actors — three incredible artists and human beings. They are the ones who made this film what it is,” Kapadia said from the stage inside Hong Kong’s gleaming Xiqu Centre, where the ceremony was held. “I’m so happy that we could end our journey here in Hong Kong, a city that has meant a lot to me, watching the amazing films from this city over the years.”

Legendary Hong Kong filmmaker and martial arts star Sammo Hung served as president of the jury that selected the winners of the 2025 AFAs,...

The Cinevesture International Film Festival (Ciff) is set to return for its second edition in Chandigarh, India, from March 20-23, 2025. With an extensive lineup of international and regional films, as well as an expanded industry platform, the festival aims to solidify its place on the global cinema calendar.

French director Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez,” an Oscar-winning film, will be among the headliners of the World Canvas section, alongside Magnus von Horn’s Oscar-nominated Danish drama “The Girl with the Needle.” The festival opens with the Indian premiere of “A Normal Family,” the Korean drama by Hur Jin-ho that made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. The opening night will also include a special screening of the Punjabi short “The Cycle” by Arpita Mukherjee.

Ciff’s World Canvas section will showcase 15 international features, while the India Unveiled category will highlight 17 homegrown titles. Special screenings and student films will complement the festival’s programming.

The Cinevesture International Film Festival (Ciff) has revealed a diverse lineup for its second edition, set to run March 20-23 in Chandigarh, India, featuring notable Oscar winners and nominees alongside celebrated regional cinema.

Jacques Audiard’s Oscar-winning “Emilia Perez”headlines the World Canvas section, alongside Magnus von Horn’s Oscar-nominated Danish drama “The Girl with the Needle.”

The festival will open with the India premiere of Korean feature “A Normal Family,” directed by Hur Jin-ho, which first bowed at the Toronto International Film Festival. A special screening of the Punjabi short film “The Cycle” by Arpita Mukherjee will accompany the opening night festivities.

For its sophomore outing, Ciff has assembled a lineup featuring 15 international features in its World Canvas section and 17 titles in the India Unveiled category, with additional special screenings and student films rounding out the program.

The Indian selection features several significant titles by renowned filmmakers, including Dibakar Banerjee’s “Tees,...

Following the excellent “A Land Imagined” that netted him a Golden Leopard from Locarno among other awards, Yeo Siew Hua has come up with a new movie that also attempts to stretch the conventions of genre filmmaking by incorporating intense art-house elements in it.

Stranger Eyes is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas

The film throws the viewer directly into what is happening, as we witness a couple, Junyang and Peiying, whose baby has been missing for months, checking old home videos. The next scene with a video though, is a completely different thing, as a DVD that arrived at their apartment shows recordings of them that they have not shot themselves. More DVDs arrive, portraying more and more intimate moments of the couple, with the two, and the ever-present Shuping, Junyang’s mother, eventually going to the police, where officer Zheng suggests patience and installing cameras...

Ruben Östlund’s highly anticipated “The Entertainment System Is Down” has added New York and Tokyo-based Cinema Inutile as executive producer, continuing the company’s strategic expansion into larger-scale international projects. The film, starring Kirsten Dunst, Keanu Reeves, Daniel Brühl, Nicholas Braun and Samantha Morton, follows passengers on a long-haul flight forced to confront the horror of boredom when the entertainment system fails.

“I’m very, very excited for the film. It’s going to be a very special one,” Cinema Inutile founder Alex C. Lo tells Variety. Lo, a self-described “long-time admirer” of Östlund’s work, is a frequent collaborator of “The Entertainment System Is Down” producer Philippe Bober, including on Lou Ye’s Cannes-debuting “An Unfinished Film” and Jessica Hausner’s Sitges winner “Club Zero.” “The Entertainment System Is Down” is currently shooting and aims for a 2026 release.

Lo established Cinema Inutile just before the pandemic in late...

Film Movement has landed North American rights to “Stranger Eyes,” the surveillance-themed thriller from Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua that competed for Venice’s Golden Lion in 2024.

The psychological thriller stars Taiwanese cinema icon Lee Kang-sheng (“Days”) alongside Chien-Ho Wu and Anicca Panna. The story centers on a young Singaporean couple whose world is shattered when their baby daughter disappears from a playground. Their nightmare intensifies after receiving mysterious surveillance footage documenting their daily lives both before and after the disappearance, leading them to suspect their neighbor Wu (Lee) may be involved.

The deal was negotiated between Film Movement president Michael Rosenberg and Nicolas Brigaud-Robert of Playtime. The distributor is planning a theatrical release in 2025, followed by a digital and home entertainment rollout.

“Stranger Eyes” marks a compelling follow-up from Yeo, who previously won Locarno’s Golden Lion with “A Land Imagined.” Critics have praised the film’s sophisticated approach...

On the occasion of his film “Stranger Eyes” premiering in 2023, Yeo Siew Hua talks to Panos Kotzathanasis about the concept of seeing, voyeurism and its connection with cinema, how it applies in Singapore, managing to find two apartments directly across each other, working with an international crew including Lee Kang-shen, Singaporean cinema and Singapore International Film Festival and his future projects...

Spanning 750 square kilometers, it would be unwise to commit a crime in Singapore. Not that it’s impossible to commit a crime in the city-state, but it sure is impossible to get away with it. The Southeast Asian nation is one of the most surveilled countries in the world with more than 100,00 cameras watching the moves of its 6 million strong population, which makes the central conflict of “Stranger Eyes” – a missing child – all the more elusive. But as the film progresses, writer-director Yeo Siew Hua intentionally shifts gears from a potential police procedural into a melancholic, existential study of how even in the age of mass surveillance, we seek our temptations and despite being watched by a camera, seldom do we feel seen in any meaningful way.

This narrative friction between seeing and being seen, being realized, and being wanted when there’s no chance of reciprocation is at the core of this taut thriller.

The 35th Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) opened on the evening of 28 November, setting the stage for a vibrant celebration of Asian cinema. Held at the iconic Capitol Theatre, the evening saw the Southeast Asian premiere of Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua‘s award-winning psychological thriller Stranger Eyes, marking the first of 105 films from over 48 countries — 80% of which are from Asia — to be showcased during the festival.

The evening’s red carpet was graced by Guest of Honour President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Distinguished Guest Minister Josephine Teo, as well as Stranger Eyes director Yeo Siew Hua and cast members Lee Kang-sheng, Wu Chien-ho, and Xenia Tan. Lee was also honoured with the festival’s Screen Icon Award, which pays homage to an actor’s exceptional contributions to bringing Asian stories to life on screen.

Other stars, including Sgiff’s inaugural festival ambassador Mediacorp Artiste Rebecca Lim, and the Small Hours of the Night team,...

The Marrakech Film Festival, which opened Friday with Justin Kurzel’s timely thriller “The Order,” has more than 70 films in its lineup, which, as is customary, mixes known titles and fresh fare.

“The Order” is part of the event’s gala screenings that also comprise French-Moroccan auteur Nabil Ayouch’s feminist musical drama “Everybody Loves Touda,” Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” and Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” all of which will be accompanied by their directors.

The 14-title competition dedicated to first and second works includes Moroccan director Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s melodrama “Across the Sea,” about North African exiles in Marseilles, and Hind Meddeb’s doc “Sudan, Remember Us,” which pays homage to Sudanese people and culture by chronicling their 2019 revolution. “Sudan, Remember Us” is among films supported by the fest’s Atlas Workshops industry initiative, aimed at fostering and supporting the emergence of a new generation of Moroccan,...

‘Harbin’ To Be Present At Christmas

Poised to be one of the biggest blockbusters of an uneven year for Korean cinema, “Harbin” is finally confirmed to release on Christmas Day (Dec. 25). The movie had its premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival but its distributor and financier Cj Enm chose to hold back the commercial release in its native Korea until the busy end-of-year season.

The period action film follows Korean independence activists who launch a daring attack against the Japanese occupying forces in Manchuria (modern-day China).

It is directed by Woo Min-ho and stars Hyun Bin (“Crash Landing on You”), Park Jeong-min (“Decision to Leave”) and Jeon Yeo-been (“Cobweb”), who were all in action at a press launch event Monday in Seoul.

Apple Cider

Netflix has unveiled a trailer for Australian-produced “Apple Cider Vinegar,” a limited series which it will upload in 2025. The six-part drama chronicles the...

Marrakech International Film Festival has unveiled the full line-up for its 21st edition which will open with Justin Kurzel’s crime thriller The Order onNovember 29 and run to December 7.

Kurzel’s debut featureSnowtownwon thefestival’s jury prize in 2011, and the filmmaker returned in 2022 to serve on the jury.

This year’s jury will be presided over by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, replacing Thomas Vinterberg, and will award the Étoile d’Or for best film to one of 14 first- and second-time features in the international competition.

In total, the festival will screen 70 films from 32 countries, including 14 documentaries, 12 Moroccan titles, nine world...

Taiwan-Italy production outfit Volos Films has unveiled a diverse slate of features and documentaries at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (Tccf).

The feature film lineup includes “Polaris,” directed by Yamanaka Yoko, whose “Desert of Namibia” screened at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Set in a Tokyo bar, the film follows women from different backgrounds whose lives intersect. The project marks Volos’s first Japan co-production, with producers Chang Chuti, Chuma Kusuke, Mao Okuno and Stefano Centini attached.

Stefanos Tsai’s “Sunshower” centers on a Chinese-American man visiting his grandmother with dementia, who mistakes him for her first love. Jonathan Hsu produces, with Centini executive producing.

In the documentary section, Hong Kong director Frankie Sin presents “Nomads of the Island,” exploring his family’s fishing heritage and migration to Taiwan. Sin’s previous documentary “Another Home” won the Biff Mecenat Award at Busan 2024. Chiu Ping-Yu and Centini produce, with Peter Yam and Huang Hui-Chen are executive producing.

Stranger Eyes takes us on a journey through the complex issues of surveillance, privacy, and relationships in modern Singaporean society. Helmed by acclaimed director Yeo Siew Hua, it made its world premiere at the prestigious Venice Film Festival, the first Singaporean film to do so. Yeo crafts a visual experience that draws us deep into his native city’s networked world, where watching and being watched are inescapable facts of life.

The film opens with a familiar premise: a young couple in grief over the mysterious disappearance of their toddler daughter. But underneath the surface of this heartbreaking crime drama, Yeo gradually reveals deeper layers, exploring how technology both connects and divides us. As secrets emerge and lines blur between what’s real and what’s recorded, the true impacts of constant surveillance on intimate lives and fractured connections come into focus.

Yeo takes us on a journey that transforms expected genres.

Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) has unveiled the full programme for its 35th edition, which includes honorary awards for Taiwanese actors Lee Kang-sheng and Yang Kuei-mei, and the launch of a Sgiff Industry Days conference.

Set to run from November 28 - December 8, the festival will continue to champion local and regional voices, with Asian cinema representing 80% of the line-up. The full selection comprises 105 films from 45 countries and features recurring themes of migration and displacement as well as the influence of technology on the medium of film.

The Asian Feature Film Competition, the festival’s main competition section, showcases nine features by promising directors across Asia,...

Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia,” Carlos Marqués-Marcet “They Will be Dust” and Yeo Siew Hua’s “Stranger Eyes” all won big at Spain’s auteurist haven Valladolid Film Festival on Saturday, in a second edition under José Luis Cienfuegos whose prizes served as a vindication of the changes he has wrought at the festival as well as an indication of some ways European arthouse is going.

All three directors’ awards build on prior upbeat reception. Playing Cannes Premiere, “Misericordia,” which scooped Valladolid’s best picture Golden Spike and its screenplay trophy, was hailed by Variety as a “darkly comic backwoods fable of pansexual desire and small-town sociopathy” which marks a “welcome re-embrace of the streamlined murdery perversities of his terrific ‘Stranger by the Lake.'”

The Valladolid jury, made up of Greek director Sofia Exarchou, Spanish actress Aida Folch, critic and editor Devika Girish, German producer Ingmar Trost and Spanish director and writer Luis López Carrasco,...

The 2024 edition of the Valladolid International Film Week, also known as Seminci, wrapped on Saturday (October 26), giving its top award, the Golden Spike, to Misericordia by Alain Guiraudie.

Misericordia tells the story of a man who returns to his hometown for the funeral of his former boss, the village baker, and decides to stay for a few days with the man’s widow, getting involved in a series of unexpected events.

Guiraudie also won the best screenplay award.

The members of the Valladolid jury, Greek director Sofía Exarchou; Spanish actress Aida Folch; American critic Devika Girish; Spanish filmmaker Luis López Carrasco...

The Philippines’ QCinema International Film Festival has locked its 12th edition lineup, with Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Cloud” — Japan’s submission for the 97th Academy Awards — set to close the November event. The festival opens with “Directors’ Factory Philippines,” an eight-filmmaker omnibus collaboration with Cannes Directors’ Fortnight that pairs Filipino directors with counterparts from across Asia.

The omnibus features four films: Eve Baswel and Malaysia’s Gogularaajan Rajendran direct “Walay Balay”; Maria Estela Paiso teams with India’s Ashok Vish for “Nightbirds”; Arvin Belarmino collaborates with Cambodia’s Lomorpich Rithy on “Silig”; and Don Eblahan partners with Singapore’s Tan Siyou for “Cold Cut.”

The Quezon City-based fest will unspool 77 titles, including 55 features and 22 shorts, across 11 sections under this year’s theme “The Gaze.”

In the main competition Asian Next Wave, eight features compete: Duong Dieu Linh’s Venice Critics’ Week grand prize winner “Don’t Cry Butterfly”; Nelicia Low’s “Pierce...

The Valladolid International Film Festival, Seminci, will take place for the 69th time this fall, running Oct. 18-26.

To prepare, we’ve scanned the festival’s catalog for ten standout titles that attendees won’t want to miss at this year’s event. Below, we explain why each is a must-see proposition at this year’s Semicni.

“They Will Be Dust,” Carlos Marques-Marcet (Spain)

Opening this year’s festival is Carlos Marques-Marcet’s Toronto Platform winner, “They Will Be Dust.” In this tragicomic musical, a woman diagnosed with a terminal illness decides to go to Switzerland to end her life, accompanied by her partner of 40 years, Flavio. Seminci organizers praise the film as “an unexpected celebration of life itself and of the unconditional love of those who accompany us along the way.”

“Vermiglio,” Maura Delpero

Italy’s submission to the upcoming International Feature Oscar race, Maura Delpero’s intimate epic “Vermiglio,...

For the opening screening we present “Time Still Turns the Pages”, a heartfelt drama by Hong Kong debutant Nick Cheuk. Meanwhile, in the Cinerama section, our audience can experience “Stranger Eyes”, one of the most gripping thrillers of the year. It is intense and captivating, and features a remarkable performance by Lee Kang-sheng. The film received high praise at the Venice Film Festival, which concluded last month, where it represented Singapore and Taiwan in the main competition.

The 18th Five Flavours will kick off on November 13 at Warsaw’s Muranów and Kinoteka cinemas, as well as online. The festival will officially open with “Time Still Turns the Pages”, one of the most talked-about Hong Kong films of the season. Despite its modest budget and ambitious themes, the film has resonated with local audiences, earning an award for the first-time director Nick Cheuk at the Golden Horse Awards. It’s yet...

Carlos Marques-Marcet’s Toronto-winning musical drama They Will Be Dust, will open the 69th edition of the Valladolid International Film Week, also known as the Seminci, on October 18.

The end of life drama starring Alfredo Castro and Angela Molina won the Platform section at TIFF last month.

Valladolid, headed by José Luis Cienfuegos for a second year, is a key launchpad into the Spanish market for local and international films.

There are a total of 22 titles in the running for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Spike that comes with a €70,000 award for the Spanish distributor. The Silver Spike...

Privacy, surveillance, and humanity's dependence on technology have been at the forefront of several movies. Peering into other's lives has always been great fodder for mystery thriller films. Pair this with the terrifying access that social media and technology have given us to the lives of others, and you have a perfect recipe for an invasive thriller story. And yet, Singaporean writer-director Yeo Siew Hua fails to do anything fresh or even somewhat unnerving in his latest venture, Stranger Eyes.

As local films continue to gain momentum on the global stage, the 35th Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) is set to showcase the vitality and diversity of our nation’s filmmaking talent while reflecting current trends in Asian and international cinema. This year, the festival promises an exciting lineup of over 30 Singaporean and made-with-Singapore feature and short films, as well as new initiatives such as the introduction of the festival’s first-ever ambassador, and a revamped Audience Choice Award.

Sgiff 2024 also marks the introduction of film producer and creative Jeremy Chua as the new General Manager of the festival. Drawing from his extensive experience as a film producer and his in-depth knowledge of the film industry both locally and regionally, Chua brings with him an insider’s perspective on how best the Singaporean film scene can be elevated from within. His vision aims to shift common perceptions of Singaporean cinema,...

Japan’s leading indie film festival, Tokyo Filmex (November 23-December 1) has unveiled the line-up for its competition, opening and closing films, and other sections.

The festival, which marks its 25th year in 2024, will open with Jia Zhang-Ke’s Caught By The Tides, which played in competition at this year’s Cannes, and close with Hong Sang-soo’s By the Stream, for which actor Kim Min-hee won the Pardo for best performance at Locarno.

The 10 competition titles include the Georgian film April, directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili, which won the special jury prize at Venice this year; Girls Will Be Girls, the...

When a little girl vanishes straight from the playground, her parents Junyang (Wu Chien-ho) and Peiying (Anicca Panna) start a search that doesn’t provide any leads. That is, until they start getting DVDs with the footage of the family doing routine stuff together, shot in different public spots and, most disturbingly, through the windows of their apartment. After some sleuthing, they soon have a perfect suspect: their neighbor Wu (Lee Kang-sheng), a quiet loner who lives with his ailing mother and works as a manager at a supermarket, two clear strikes against him, according to the unspoken rules of the thriller genre. From then on, though, nothing in this film by Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua really goes as the initial setup suggests. Yeo Siew...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi will receive an honorary award at the Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) this year.

The 35th edition of Sgiff will organize a special tribute and hold a dialogue session with Panahi, who will receive the festival’s highest honor, the Cinema Honorary Award. This also marks the first time that Panahi is attending Sgiff in-person after the lifting of his 14-year travel ban. Panahi’s films like The Circle, This Is Not A Film and Crimson Gold will be screened at the festival.

The festival’s Cinema Honorary Award was introduced in 2014 and has recognized filmmakers like Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan, Indonesia’s Garin Nugroho, Cambodia’s Rithy Panh, and Japan’s Takashi Miike.

“It’s an incredible honor to be selected as the recipient of the Cinema Honorary Award by Sgiff,” Panahi said. “Since my visit to the festival in 1998 with my film, The Mirror,...

The nominations for the 61st Golden Horse Awards were announced last week. Considered the “Chinese-language Oscars,” the awards showcase films made in Mandarin, Cantonese, or other Chinese dialects. This year’s nominations included a diverse range of movies from Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, and Singapore.

John Hsu’s supernatural comedy “Dead Talents Society” topped the nominations with eleven total nods. The film tells the story of ghosts competing to haunt humans in an imagined afterlife. It received nominations for Best Feature Film, Best Director for John Hsu, and Best Original Screenplay. “Dead Talents Society” has already won audience awards at festivals like Toronto International Film Festival, where it was the runner-up in the Midnight Madness category.

Two other films, Tom Lin’s “Yen And Ai-Lee” and Geng Jun’s “Bel Ami,” followed closely behind with eight nominations each. These movies, along with Ray Yeung’s “All Shall Be Well...

John Hsu’s Taiwanese supernatural comedy Dead Talents Society has scored 11 nominations for the 61st Golden Horse Awards, followed by Tom Lin’s Yen And Ai-Lee and Geng Jun’s Bel Ami, with eight nods each.

Dead Talents Society and Bel Ami are among the five films competing in the best film category, along with Ray Yeung’s All Shall Be Well, Yeo Siew Hua’s Stranger Eyes and Lou Ye’s An Unfinished Film. The same five films are also running in the best director category.

They reflect the overall representation at this year’s Golden Horse Awards, with the participation of Hong Kong,...

Iranian cinema icon Jafar Panahi will mark the lifting of his 14-year travel ban by attending the 35th Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff). The festival’s lineup spotlights rising Singaporean talent and international auteurs.

The festival will open with Yeo Siew Hua’s “Stranger Eyes,” the first Singaporean film to premiere in the main competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Panahi, set to receive the festival’s Cinema Honorary Award, recognizing filmmakers who have made exceptional and enduring contributions to Asian cinema, will participate in an exclusive dialogue session. Several of his films will be screened, including “The Circle” and “This Is Not a Film.”

“It’s an incredible honor to be selected as the recipient of the Cinema Honorary Award by Sgiff,” Panahi said. “Since my visit to the festival in 1998 with my film, ‘The Mirror,’ I have been deeply impressed by the festival’s achievements in nurturing and...

Comedy-horror “Dead Talents Society” picked up 11 nominations for the Golden Horse Film Awards, making it the most acclaimed title among the 169 films in contention for the prestigious Chinese-language prizes.

“Yen and Ai-Lee” and “Bel Ami” both received eight nominations, putting them in a tie for second place. Recent Venice competition film “Stranger Eyes,” from Singapore’s Yeo Siew Hua received six.

Five films compete for the best narrative features award: John Hsu’s “Dead Talents Society,” Ray Yeung’s “All Shall Be Well,” Lou Ye’s “An Unfinished Film,” Geng Jun’s “Bel Ami” and “Stranger Eyes.” The same five also contest the best director award.

Nominees for best leading actor are: King Jieh-wen (“A Journey in Spring”), Chang Chen (“The Embers”), Yau Hawk-sau (“The Way We Talk”), Wanlop Rungkumjad (“Mongrel”) and Zhang Zhiyong (“Bel Ami”). Chang is a previous winner in the category.

Nominees for best actress are: Patra Au Ga-man...

In 2021, when the New York Film Festival returned to in-person screenings, organizers noticed a surprising pattern in the ticketing and survey data.

Twentysomething moviegoers, they realized, had become the lifeblood of the festival. Their embrace of the beloved New York institution has since helped it make remarkable strides, surpassing pre-Covid attendance and sales levels. For more than six decades, the festival has occupied a key berth as the last big fest of the year, with a buzzy lineup of selections from Cannes, Sundance, Venice, Telluride and Toronto.

NYFF’s 62nd edition, which opens tonight with RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys, is pretty much sold out. Uptake of passes for multiple films, or to gain the right to jump to the front of a wait list, jumped 14% vs. last year.

“I mean that’s the dream, right? Every cultural organization is worried about that. We really need to foster that next generation,...

Every generation deserves a version of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom to call its own, including and especially one for which there are few aspects of life that can’t be mediated by screens. Indeed, it’s overwhelming just how many ways there are to watch another human being in 2024, many of which don’t necessitate them watching back. Web streams, security feeds, social media–all glimpses into the private lives of others, each with subtly distinct social functions, facilitating both exhibitionism and voyeurism as a matter of daily routine.

It’s around this tension that writer-director Yeo Siew Hua’s Stranger Eyes coalesces. To describe the film as a surveillance thriller wouldn’t quite be accurate, inasmuch as that term conjures images of shady government figures hunched over chunky laptops, scrutinizing an unsuspecting public. Though there is certainly a bit of that, especially in the beginning, when Stranger Eyes...

Following the excellent “A Land Imagined” that netted him a Golden Leopard from Locarno among other awards, Yeo Siew Hua has come up with a new movie that also attempts to stretch the conventions of genre filmmaking by incorporating intense art-house elements in it.

Stranger Eyes screened at Venice International Film Festival

The film throws the viewer directly into what is happening, as we witness a couple, Junyang and Peiying, whose baby has been missing for months, checking old home videos. The next scene with a video though, is a completely different thing, as a DVD that arrived at their apartment shows recordings of them that they have not shot themselves. More DVDs arrive, portraying more and more intimate moments of the couple, with the two, and the ever-present Shuping, Junyang’s mother, eventually going to the police, where officer Zheng suggests patience and installing cameras in the apartment complex the couple lives in.

With Stranger Eyes, ascendant Singaporean filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua transmogrifies what looks at first like a creepy crime thriller into something much more tricksy, potent and ultimately puzzling, yet still rooted in recognizable human fragility. Already scheduled to travel to further festivals after its premiere in competition at Venice, this cerebral, downbeat mediation on voyeurism, exhibitionism, identity, guilt and loss — all that fun stuff — could ride a wave of critical support to niche distribution beyond Asia, especially in cinephile markets.

Yeo’s work is known for its playful, pretzel-y approach to chronology and nested narratives, and while Stranger Eyes doesn’t dive as far as his A Land Imagined did into the meta end of the pool, it gets its feet wet. Like its predecessor, it starts in the middle and then flashes back, and drops in strange moments where time seems to shift for characters who overlap and parallel one another.

After becoming the first Singaporean filmmaker to win Locarno’s Golden Leopard for A Land Imagined, Yeo Siew Hua will break new ground again with mystery thriller Stranger Eyes, which is the first Singapore film to premiere in-competition at the Venice Film Festival.

The Singapore-Taiwan-France-u.S. co-production stars a Taiwanese ensemble cast featuring legendary actor-director Lee Kang-Sheng, Wu Chien-Ho, Annica Panna and Vera Chen. Malaysian actor Pete Teo and Singaporean actress Xenia Tan also appear in the film.

Yeo conceived the Stranger Eyes project more than 10 years ago but he and Akanga Film Asia’s veteran producer Fran Borgia hit several “dead ends” with funding.

“We decided that we were going to try something else and pitch different projects, so that’s how A Land Imagined came about,” Yeo told Deadline.

A Land Imagined, Yeo’s second feature, also went on to clinch Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Film...

The Interest of Distance: Yeo Discovers the Masochistic Pleasures of a Surveillance State

“Strange feeling that someone is looking at me. I am clear, then dim, then gone, then dim again, then clear again, and so on, back and forth, in and out of someone’s eye.” Samuel Beckett’s passage from Happy Days crystallizes the convoluted intrigue behind Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua’s sophomore feature Stranger Eyes. Following his 2018 Golden Leopard winning debut A Land Imagined, Yeo once again explores similar themes on the overwhelming presence of absence, and again, a complex investigation of something labyrinthine ensues. A missing child is the jumping off point for the exploration of our innate responses to being observed, or, rather, feeling seen while under a state of constant surveillance, both by our loved ones and those behind eyes in the sky we will never see.…...

At first it seems a premise shamelessly lifted from Michael Haneke’s “Caché”: A couple is disconcerted to receive an unmarked DVD in their mailbox, playing it to find footage of themselves being unwittingly filmed as they go about their day. But just as Haneke’s film took what seemed like a starting point for an effective domestic horror movie and pushed it into thorny sociopolitical territory, the slippery, shape-shifting psychodrama “Stranger Eyes” likewise has more on its mind than just the question of who’s watching who. Solving one mystery unexpectedly quickly before diving into deeper, more searching uncertainties of human behavior and relationships, the third feature from Singaporean writer-director Yeo Siew Hua gradually reveals a broken heart beneath its sleek, chilly veneer.

Yeo’s previous feature, the fluorescent neo-noir “A Land Imagined,” put him on the auteur map in 2018 by winning the top prize at Locarno, and...

There are different ways for a movie to execute a slow burn, but the ones I admire most withhold not their stories, but their identities. Stranger Eyes has a straightforward thriller premise and a clear interest in surveillance, both of which are clear from the outset, but its shape is hardly a straight line. As it leads us around corners into places we didn't expect to be, what the movie has to say about surveillance slowly comes into view. For those with the patience to sit mired in uncertainty, Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua's film offers unexpected rewards.

Stranger Eyes Director Yeo Siew HuaRelease Date September 5, 2024Writers Yeo Siew HuaCast Mila Troncoso, Maryanne Ng-Yew, Xenia Tan, Pete Teo, Vera Chen, Anicca Panna, Lee Kang-sheng, Wu Chien-HoCharacter(s) Mother Wu, Ling Po, Officer Zheng, Shuping, Peiying, Lao Wu, Junyang, AnaGenres Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Crime Stranger Eyes Is Built Like A...

What it means to see and be seen within an era of mass surveillance is the slippery subject of Yeo Siew Hua’s “Stranger Eyes” — the first film from Singapore to compete for the Golden Lion in Venice Film Festival’s 81 year history. What begins as a crime thriller ends as a transfixing meditation on our personal need for recognition and the difficulty of finding this for ourselves or providing that for others.

The film begins with a man poring over video footage of a family picnic, looking for clues to the whereabouts of his kidnapped baby. The film ends with him standing outside an apartment looking up at the unit where he no longer belongs. How he moves from dealing with loss to being the lost one is chronicled using an elliptical visual language that takes its cue from security footage tapes. In theory, this provides almost total coverage,...