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Recent Asian feature films including Makbul Mubarak’s “Autobiography,” Lan Pham Ngoc’s “Cu Li Never Cries,” Nelson Yeo’s “Dreaming & Dying,” Jeremias Nyangoen’s “The Women of Rote Island” and Lyda Leak’s “The Night Curse of Reatrei” adorn the non-competitive lineup of the 2024 edition of the Blue Chair film festival in Luang Prabang, Laos.

Previously known as the Luang Prabang Film Festival, the festival counts 24 features and 40 shorts in its 2024 festival. It will run Dec. 5-9 in the Unesco World Heritage town.

The event also boasts the world premiere of Feisal Azizuddin’s “Angkat” (Malaysia) — a project developed in part at the Luang Prabang Talent Lab in 2019 — and the Lao premiere of Joshua Trigg’s “Satu – Year of the Rabbit” (Laos).

“With five nights and four full days of programming, the festival is returning to “something like its program scale before the pandemic,” said Sean Chadwell, Blue Chair’s executive director.

Amazon Prime Video has announced its first slate of Malaysian content and localized user experience, including its first Malaysian Originals, romantic drama series That Cover Girl and action film Budak Flat.

Budak Flat is produced by Skop Production, with Syafiq Yusof on board as advisor, and co-directed by Eugene Lim, Woo Ming Jin and Faizal Ishak. The cast is headed by Pablo Amirul, Zahiril Adzim, Nabila Huda, Aaron Aziz, Balan Kash and Yung Raja.

“The film explores the rivalry between two criminal brothers who find their relationship tested to a deadly conclusion when a murder triggers a gang war in their flat,” said Budak Flat producer Shamin Yusof. “It’s a uniquely Malaysian action film that we hope will find audiences across the globe on Prime Video.”

Skop Productions is one of Malaysia’s biggest production houses with credits including hits Mat Kilau, Munafik and the Abang Long Fadil franchise.

The third feature film by Nik Amir Mustapha, who produced, directed and co-wrote “Imaginur”, is a truly weird film that deals with the concept of memory in the most unusual way.

Imaginur is screening on New York Asian Film Festival

As Zuhal gets his father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, to a hospital for a check-up, he realizes that something strange is happening in his life, which seems to be repeated while past and present are mixed, and a dream about the presence of a woman in a field seems to be the key. Trying to figure things out, he ends up visiting a hypnotist, Ramil, who puts him in a machine that ends up confusing things even more. Suddenly, he finds himself in a groundhog day setting, where he loses his father in a supermarket where his ex’s current fiance embarrasses him, before he is hit by a car,...

The 20th edition of the festival will return as a full in-person event in July.

The New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff) has unveiled the full line-up for its 20th edition, which will include honorary awards for Japanese horror director Takashi Shimizu, acclaimed Japanese actor Hiroshi Abe and South Korean rising star Kim Hye-yoon.

This year will mark Nyaff’s fully-fledged return to the big screen, following a virtual 2020 edition and a hybrid event in 2021. More than 60 new and classic titles from Asia, including six world premieres, will be presented as in-person screenings at Film at Lincoln Center (Flc) and the Asia Society,...

With over 26 years of experience in the entertainment industry, Mumbai born filmmaker Kabir Bhatia is a multiple award winning Director/Producer who has spent the last 20 years in Malaysia stamping his strong visual style on the Film Industry.

1992-2004

He cut his teeth at Utv-Mumbai where he began as a 24 year old Director/Writer/Executive Producer, honing his skills in TV and eventually working across all platforms.

He moved to Malaysia when the Utv Group set up headquarters in the Asean region and Produced and Directed numerous TV formats .

2005-2016

He was a Partner and Managing Director of Filmscape (Malaysia), a respected Production House for a period of ten years. Besides their core business of TV and Film Production, he ventured successfully into Commercials, PSAs and Political Campaigns.

Having directed and Produced numerous Ad’s, Travelogues, Fiction for Television and 10 Features across the Asian region including Indonesia and Singapore, Kabir...

Exclusive: Malaysian star Bront Palarae is a co-producer.

Malaysia’s Jazzy Group has boarded local thriller One, Two, Jaga as co-producer alongside Malaysian star Bront Palarae’s Pixel Play.

Palarae (pictured), who is producing with Rozi Izma, says he brought on board extra funding to boost the film’s production budget and help propel it into international markets at a time when few Malaysian features are crossing over.

“Jazzy shares our aspiration as an indie studio in telling regionally themed stories that are not only unique for local and regional territories, but will surely also find an international audience,” Palarae said.

Directed by Nam Ron, the film follows two cops on the immigration beat and an Indonesian brother and sister who are trying to find their way home without passports. The cast is headed by Malaysia’s Zahiril Adzim and Rosdeen Suboh, along with Indonesian actor Ario Bayu. Rahmat Adam will serve as executive producer.

Jazzy CEO Joanne...

Exclusive: Malaysian director Chiu Keng Guan, who directed The Journey, Malaysia’s highest-grossing film ever, has started production on football drama Ola Bola for Astro Shaw.

The film, scheduled for release over Chinese New Year 2016, is set during the “Golden Age” of Malaysian football in the 1980s and follows a multicultural team fighting for a place at the Asian Games.

“It’s inspired by real players and events, but the characters are fictional, as our footballers are revered figures and Malaysians are extremely sensitive about how they are portrayed,” said Astro vice president, business development, Najwa Abu Bakar.

The cast includes Chee Jun Cherng, Eric Teng Shin Wang and Bront Palarae, who recently won best actor at the Asean International Film Festival for his role in Astro Shaw’s Nova. Directed by Nik Amir Mustapha, Nova also won best film at the festival.

Astro Shaw is also an investor in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery Of Slendour, which...

Malaysia’s Astro Shaw is bringing a slate of new productions to Afm, headed by sci-fi road comedy Nova, as it ramps up production with an eye on international markets. Nova, about a filmmaker who convinces his friends to chase UFOs across Malaysia, recently received its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The film is directed by Nik Amir Mustapha, whose debut feature Kil won best film, screenplay and supporting actress at the Malaysian Screen Awards 2013. Nova’s ensemble cast includes Bront Palarae and Amerul Affendi, who both had roles in hit action movie Bunohan, and Iedil Putra (Kl Zombie). The film arm of pay-tv giant Astro Malaysia Holdings, Astro Shaw is also unveiling two films currently in post-production – action comedy Police Evo and romantic melodrama The Sky Of Love. Directed by Ghaz Abu Bakar, Police Evo stars comedian and TV star Zizan Razak, who has also appeared in hit films such as Kl Gangster, along...

Nik Amir Mustapha's Malaysian scifi road comedy Nova (Terbaik Dari Langit) premieres October 28th at the Tokyo International Film Festival before a December 25th release at home and in the lead up to public release a second trailer for the film has arrived online.The story of a would-be filmmaker making a science fiction film with a group of friends based on memories of what he believes to be a UFO sighting 15 years before this one is a fusion of road movie tropes with science fiction elements, comedy and drama all delivered by a director shaping up to be one of the brighter young lights in Malaysia. Check out the new trailer below....

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

It was just last year that we first came across the work of Malaysia's Nik Amir Mustapha and we immediately knew that he was one of us. The occasion was his debut film, a genre mashing drama titled Kil that revolved around a depressed young man who hires a hitman to kill himself only to fall in love and realize there may be no way to call the hit off. It was a smart, quirky, beautifully directed affair that left us hungry for more.And now more has arrived in the form of another quirky genre masher, this one the more openly comedic Nova (or Terbaik Dari Langit in its homeland). About to have its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival, Nova revolves around...

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

World premieres from Goupil, Li, De La Cruz, Yeo, Yoshida and more.Scroll down for Competition line-up

The 27th Tokyo International Film Festival (Tiff) (Oct 23-31) has announced the rest of its line-up with a Competition selection that includes world premieres such as Romain Goupil’s French film The Days Come and Li Ruijun’s Chinese film River Road.

The other world premieres in Competition will be: Filipino maverick Khavn De La Cruz‘s Ruined Heart - Another Love Story Between A Criminal & A Whore; Malaysian producer of Cannes title Tiger Factory, Edmund Yeo’s feature directorial debut River Of Exploding Durians, and the previously announced single Japanese film in Competition, Pale Moon, directed by Daihachi Yoshida.

Claudio Noce’s Italian film Ice Forest will make an international premiere in Competition.

Tiff Programming director Yoshi Yatabe explained the selection was made on three criteria: “an unswerving focus on depicting humanity”, “diversity” and “auteurism”.

He said, “To sum up...