News

The Tokyo Gap-Financing Market (Tgfm) has revealed the 20 projects selected for financing and development at Tiffcom, the content market of Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF).

The 5th edition of Tgfm is set to take place from October 30 to November 1 and includes five more projects than last year due to a special focus on Italy. This follows the signing of a co-production agreement between Italy and Japan in 2023, which came into effect last month.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Several international projects hail from successful producers who have teamed with young directors.

They include family drama 9 Temples To Heaven,...

Fran Borgia of Singapore’s Akanga Film Asia (“Tiger Stripes”), who’s at the Venice Film Festival this week with Yeo Siew Hua’s Golden Lion contender “Stranger Eyes,” has unveiled two new projects on his production company’s fast-growing slate, including a limited series from Yeo, whose “A Land Imagined” won the Locarno Film Festival’s top prize in 2018.

“We are excited to announce that we are expanding our horizons beyond Southeast Asia, embarking on ambitious new projects in collaboration with partners from China, Japan and India,” Borgia told Variety. “These international co-productions present new challenges and opportunities, allowing us to push creative boundaries and expand our artistic skills.”

Described by the producer as “a captivating and innovative addition to [Yeo’s] body of work,” the Singaporean filmmaker’s seven-part psychological police thriller series “The Fundamentals” delves into small-town paranoia, blending science, cultism and procedural elements. Created by Yeo and written by Yeo,...

Exclusive: Loaded Films founder Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Kinoshita-Kansei Group CEO Masahide Kinoshita have teamed up to launch Tokyo-based production company, Kinofaction, which aims to focus on minority Japanese co-productions.

The new outfit will take a minority stake in feature film projects that have significant Japanese elements and/or talent involved. It is actively seeking projects initiated outside of Japan with strong festival and commercial potential.

Loaded Films, the production company founded by Mizuno-Gray and Jason Gray, will continue to separately produce a slate of projects developed in-house, including Renoir, the next project from Plan 75 director Chie Hayakawa, which Goodfellas has boarded for sales.

Kinofaction already has several projects on its slate, including Poland-set The Excursion, from writer-director Kei Ishikawa, whose credits include Venice titles Traces Of Sin (2016) and A Man (2020). His new project is a co-production with Poland’s Lava Films, which is here in Cannes with competition title The Girl With The Needle.

Exclusive: Goodfellas has acquired world sales rights for Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa’s Tokyo-set drama Renoir ahead of the project’s presentation in the Investors Circle event at the Cannes Marché du Film on Sunday.

The film is Hayakawa’s second film after dystopian euthanasia drama Plan 75, which debuted in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2022, garnering a Special Mention in the Caméra d’Or contest for best first film.

The drama went on to play in more than 30 film festivals and was selected as Japan’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards.

Renoir is set in suburban Tokyo in 1987 and revolves around 11-year-old Fuki, whose father is battling cancer, and is in and out of hospital.

With her mother stretched between caring for him and holding down a full-time job, Fuki is left to her own devices. Turning to her rich imagination, she becomes...

The new projects from two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund (The Triangle of Sadness, The Square); Irish director Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium and upcoming Nicolas Cage thriller The Surfer); and Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczyńska, director of Letitia Wright/Tamara Lawrance-starrer The Silent Twins, will be pitching to potential backers at this year’s Cannes Investors Circle, an event organized by the Cannes film market that aims to bring together top art-house talent with producers and financiers.

The 2024 Cannes Investors Circle event, held on May 19 at the Plage des Palmes, will showcase 10 never-before-seen films in various stages of development to an exclusive group of investors and film financing experts. The projects range in budget from €1 million ($1.07 million) to more than €20 million ($21.4 million) and have been specifically curated by the market.

“The aim of the Marché du Film with the Cannes Investors Circle is to support artistically and financially

ambitious film projects,...

Palme d’Or winning director Ruben Östlund is among 10 directors selected to present their upcoming feature film projects at the second edition of the Cannes Marché du Film’s Investors Circle initiative.

The one-day event, taking place on May 19, is aimed at connecting elevated, international feature film projects with film financiers and high-net worth individuals with a desire to invest in cinema.

Östlund, who won the Palme d’Or for The Square and Triangle of Sadness, which was also nominated for three Oscars, will attend the event in person.

The Marché du Film did not give details of the projects being showcased, but it is likely the director will be talking about upcoming airplane disaster movie The Entertainment System is Down, which he told Deadline last year he hopes to shoot in early 2025.

Other filmmakers due in Cannes for the event include Japan’s Chie Hayakawa, whose feature film debut...

The second edition of the Cannes Market’s Investors Circle will see 10 filmmakers, including Ruben Östlund and Nadav Lapid, present their latest projects to private investors.

The directors and their lead producers will pitch their films, which range from €1-20m in budget, on May 19 at an invitation-only event in the Plage des Palmes.

Alongside Östlund and Lapid is Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa, whose debut Plan 75 received a Camera d’Or special mention in 2022. Other directors include Irish filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan, who is already at the festival for Midnight Screenings title The Surfer, and Italian director Laura Samani who...

Screen can exclusively reveal the first trailer for Konstantin Bojanov’s The Shameless ahead of the India-set love story’s world premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

Bulgarian director Bojanov’s third feature is about two women trying to escape a life of prostitution who fall in love, but must deal with an oppressive society rooted in centuries-old patriarchal traditions as they embark on a perilous journey to escape the law and find freedom.

The film is produced by Switzerland’s Akka Films, France’s Urban Factory, Bulgaria’s Klas Films, Taiwan’s House on Fire and India’s Teamo Productions HQ Limited.

Catering directly to my interests, the Criterion Channel’s January lineup boasts two of my favorite things: James Gray and cats. In the former case it’s his first five features (itself a terrible reminder he only released five movies in 20 years); the latter shows felines the respect they deserve, from Kuroneko to The Long Goodbye, Tourneur’s Cat People and Mick Garris’ Sleepwalkers. Meanwhile, Ava Gardner, Bertrand Tavernier, Isabel Sandoval, Ken Russell, Juleen Compton, George Harrison’s HandMade Films, and the Sundance Film Festival get retrospectives.

Restorations of Soviet sci-fi trip Ikarie Xb 1, The Unknown, and The Music of Regret stream, as does the recent Plan 75. January’s Criterion Editions are Inside Llewyn Davis, Farewell Amor, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and (most intriguingly) the long-out-of-print The Man Who Fell to Earth, Blu-rays of which go for hundreds of dollars.

See the lineup below and learn more here.

Back By Popular Demand

The Graduate,...

Prizes worth a combined €270,000 were awarded to 17 projects.

TorinoFilmLab’s co-production market Tfl Meeting Event has awarded prizes worth a combined €270,000 to 17 projects at its 2023 edition, which concluded on Saturday (November 25).

Scroll down for full list of prizes

Thirty projects were pitched over two days at the event in Turin - 20 titles from Tfl’s nine-month scriptwriting programme ScriptLab and another 10 from its FeatureLab strand for films at a more advanced stage.

Four FeatureLab projects were awarded production and co-production awards – worth a combined €180,000 - by a jury that included mk2 Films’ Olivier Barbier and El Gouna programmer Andrew Mohsen.

MIFFest to open with the world premiere of ‘Eraser’.

Acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To has been named jury president of the 6th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), which will also honour Taiwanese actress Sylvia Chang with a lifetime achievement award.

To will chair the festival’s competition jury, which also includes Vietnamese actress Truong Ngoc Anh, Japanese filmmaker Ryuichi Hiroki, Malaysian star Zizan Razak and Singaporean director Eric Khoo. To is a leading director of films such as Breaking News, Election, Exiled, Mad Detective and Drug War, and sat on the Berlinale international competition jury earlier this year.

MIFFest...

MIFFest to open with the world premiere of ‘Eraser’.

Acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To has been named jury president of the 6th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), which will also honour Taiwanese actress Sylvia Chang with a lifetime achievement award.

To will chair the festival’s competition jury, which also includes Vietnamese actress Truong Ngoc Anh, Japanese filmmaker Ryuichi Hiroki, Malaysian star Zizan Razak and Singaporean director Eric Khoo. To is a leading director of films such as Breaking News, Election, Exiled, Mad Detective and Drug War, and sat on the Berlinale international competition jury earlier this year.

MIFFest...

Natacha Kaganski has joined Luxbox as festivals and acquisitions manager and Solène Colomer has been named sales & marketing coordinator.

Previously, Kaganski spent four years as acquisitions manager at Wild Bunch, where she handled deals for the French and international market as well as coordination for multi-territories deals with the Wild Bunch group, such as Germany, Spain and Italy.

She was involved in films likeVenice winner “Happening” by Audrey Diwan, Gaspar Noé’s “Vortex” or “Leila’s Brothers,” also taking part in first Wild Bunch productions.

Solène Colomer has one year of experience assisting the sales and production teams at Urban Group under her belt. She was involved in “Plan 75” by Chie Hayakawa and “If Only I Could Hibernate” by Zoljargal Purevdash which, as reported by Variety, has already made history in Cannes.

They complete the already existing team with president Fiorella Moretti and Jennyfer Gautier, head of international sales.

“Personally,...

Sony looks for ‘Love Again’, with Celine Dion’s first on-screen role.

Universal comedy sequel Book Club: The Next Chapter leads the openers at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, starting its story in 612 cinemas.

Directed by Bill Holderman and written by Holderman and Erin Simms, the film follows four best friends who take their book club to Italy for the girls trip they never had.

It is a sequel to 2018’s Book Club, also directed by Holderman, which Paramount released and which opened to £721,512 in 519 cinemas at a £1,390 average. The film finished on a £4.2m cume; The Next Chapter...

To combat an ageing population, a future Japan passes a law to pay older citizens to sign up for an easeful death, in this weird and poignant film

This strange, melancholy film from Japan effectively makes the (unfashionable) case against euthanasia: that old people won’t want to be a bother or appear selfish and so will feel pressured into accepting state medicide. Director and co-writer Chie Hayakawa imagines a future in which Japan, burdened with an ageing population, proposes a supposedly voluntary but actually insidiously coercive arrangement called Plan 75, in which citizens of 75 years and above can sign up for an easeful death in return for 1,000 dollars which they can either spend on themselves or give away to their family. The system becomes a success, to the extent that a chilling Plan 65 is mooted, and the drama shows us how this creates a new burden for old people:...

2023 edition has received a record number of applications.

Italy’s TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has selected 10 projects for the 2023 edition of its FeatureLab training programme, for first or second film projects at an advanced development stage.

The 2023 iteration received a record 172 applications, from which one animation, one documentary and eight fiction projects have been chosen. Seven of the projects are debut feature, with three second films.

Scroll down for the selected projects

Two of the projects have previously participated in Tfl programmes: Irene Moray’s debut Sealskin, a Spanish feature set in a world where women are vanishing; and Francesco Romano’s debut The White House,...

Firm has hired Eric Mabillon as head of business and legal affairs

Paris-based Urban Group has hired Eric Mabillon as head of business and legal affairs and has made a number of key appointments across its sales, distribution and production divisions.

Urban Group is home to sales companies Urban Sales and Reservoir Docs, French distributor Urban Distribution and production arm Urban Factory.

Mabillon has joined Urban Group as head of business and legal affairs. He has previously been head of business and legal affairs at Paradis Films and Celluloid Dreams as well as in charge of legal affairs for Le Pacte...

The pioneering Far East Film Festival (Feff), held annually in the picturesque Northern Italian city of Udine, continued making history with its 25th-anniversary edition this year. At the closing ceremony on Sunday, Malaysian drama Abang Adik, written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Jin Ong, achieved a clean sweep of the highest prizes, marking the first time that a film from the Southeast Asian nation took top honors at the specialty festival.

Abang Adik won Feff’s first-place Golden Mulberry audience award, as well as the Black Dragon critics’ prize and the White Mulberry Award for best first feature. Ong is a veteran figure of the Malaysian entertainment industry, having worked in the music business and film and TV production for many years (he’s produced well-received films like Shuttle Life, 2017; and Miss Andy, 2020; among others), but Abang Adik is his first film as a writer and director. The movie...

In Plan 75, Japan suffers two existential crises: the very real economic and societal strains of its aging population and, worse yet, a severe loss of empathy. It’s set in an alternative present where older people are at best ostracised from society; at worst they’re targets of violent hate crimes. Grasping for a solution, or perhaps eyeing a nefarious opportunity, the government introduces a voluntary euthanasia program.

The director of this engrossing, chilling, depressingly plausible dystopia is Chie Hayakawa, a first-time filmmaker from Tokyo who got a special mention from Rossy de Palma’s Un Certain Regard jury in Cannes last summer. Expanding on her 2018 short of the same name, Plan 75 is both compelling and overstuffed. Hayakawa splits her story into four perspectives, though I’d wager any two might have done the trick. The best protagonist is Michi (Chieko Baisho), a seemingly single and childless woman of 81 who,...

Aging Disgracefully: Hayakawa Questions Institutional & Internalized Ageism

If a septuagenarian falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Making for a broad conversation about the function, the utility and the social currency that the elderly hold in the land of the rising sun, much in the same clinically socially acceptable way Lanthimos’ The Lobster took aim at the lonely hearts club, Chie Hayakawa’s proposed dystopia takes aim at the old and grey and makes the case that they do indeed have a larger role to play. Led by incubated performances and paced with a straightforward three pronged narrative, Plan 75 tackles institutional and internalized ageism with a tapered, but nonetheless thought-provoking text over the more transgressive boundaries that could have further been explored.…...

On July 26, 2016, a 26-year-old ex-employee of a Japanese care home for intellectually and mentally disabled people broke into his former place of work and stabbed 19 defenseless patients to death in their beds. Believing his massacre to be a kind of mercy for his victims — and a noble sacrifice for the benefit of the entire nation — the killer wrote that he envisioned “a world where a person with multiple disabilities can be euthanized, with an agreement from their guardians, when it is difficult for the person to carry out household and social activities.”

The killer claimed that doing so was a necessary step to protect the economy of the world’s most rapidly aging country; an economy that’s stressed even further by the highest life expectancy of any country on Earth, and crushes its young people under the financial burden of paying for that longevity in the face of Japan’s strained pension funds.

Chieko Baisho in Plan 75

For most people, old age is hard work. It gets more difficult to do ordinary things, one is more likely to need care, and there’s a higher risk of becoming socially isolated. It’s still more difficult in a society which is hostile to older people, where discrimination affects basic needs. Some older people worry that their very existence is a burden on their loved ones. What if there was a simple, government-run program which would take care of all your affairs, give you a cash payment to enjoy or pass along , and provide you with a painless death? This is the premise of Plan 75, but as director Chie Hayakawa explains, reality is more complicated. Rather than exploring the rights or wrongs of euthanasia, she wanted to use this idea to explore attitudes towards elderly and otherwise vulnerable people, and to encourage empathy across generations.

The first highlights of the 23rd Nippon Connection Film Festival are set! From June 6 to 11, 2023, Frankfurt am Main in Germany will once again become the capital of Japanese cinema. For six days, you can immerse yourself in art and cinema from Japan at eight venues. There are around 100 exciting short and feature-length films to discover – from the latest blockbusters and anime to independent and documentary films. A varied supporting program with more than 50 workshops, concerts, lectures and exhibitions as well as a wide range of culinary specialties invite you to experience Japan with all your senses. The two festival centers with cinemas, bars and Japanese market stalls are again the Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and the Produktionshaus Naxos in Frankfurt am Main. The complete program and tickets will be available on NipponConnection.com starting May 12, 2023.

Nippon Rising Star Award Goes To Toko Miura!

The star guest of this year’s festival is Toko Miura,...

Italy’s Far East Film Festival unveiled a power-packed lineup Wednesday for its 25th anniversary edition. The largest cinema event in Europe specializing in popular moviemaking from Asia, Feff will open April 21 with an inspired double bill, He Shuming’s hit Korea-Singapore co-production Ajoomma followed by first-time Taiwanese director Kai Ko’s black comedy Bad Education. And on April 29, the curtain will come down on the festival with the Italy premiere of legendary Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s latest blockbuster, Full River Red. Between those dates, the festival will screen 78 Asian films from 14 countries, including nine world premieres.

The organizers of Feff, founded in 1999 in the picturesque northern Italian city of Udine by festival pioneers Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche, say the 2023 selection “aims to showcase the immense complexity of Asia more than ever before.” The lineup indeed presents a compelling snapshot of a wildly diverse content’s commercial cinema in flux.

"We're all alone in life." KimStim has announced an official US release date for this indie from Japan titled Plan 75, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Chie Hayakawa. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at last year's 2022 Cannes Film Festival, and stopped by Busan, Karlovy Vary, and Toronto. In a near dystopian future, Japan's government launches "Plan 75", a program encouraging the elderly to terminate their own lives to better handle its rapidly aging population. In Chie Hayakawa's remarkable and sensitive film, the lives of three ordinary citizens intersect in this new reality. "On the surface, the plan and its hawkers exude a kindness that serves as the film's chilling vision of bureaucratic indifference and our increasing loss of interconnectedness. However, Hayakawa's view is far from grim, as these characters soon learn to fully reckon with their own lives and what it truly means to live.

The Japan Academy Film Prize Association held the 46th edition of its awards ceremony on March 10, 2023. The nominees are selected by industry professionals from the pool of film releases between January 1 and December 31, 2022 which must have screened in Tokyo cinemas. Award categories are modelled after Hollywood's Academy Awards®.

Following its success at the recent Blue Ribbon Awards, and leading with 13 nominations in 12 categories, Kei Ishikawa's “A Man” walks away with 8 Japan Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. The full list of winners is described below.

Picture of the Year

A Man

Shin Ultraman

Phases of the Moon

Anime Supremacy!

Wandering

Team from A Man Animation of the Year

Inu-Oh

Lonely Castle in the Mirror

Suzume

One Piece Film Red

The First Slam Dunk

Director of the Year

Kei Ishikawa – A Man

Takashi Koizumi – The Pass: Last...

The Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, is back in full force in 2023, celebrating its 25th anniversary edition from April 21–29.

A key component of the celebrations will be a focus on the Asian films of the 1980s. “We have never programmed these films, nor put together this kind of program before,” says Thomas Bertacche, the Feff’s co-head. “But these were the films and directors that inspired us to shape Udine into the festival that it is today.”

Pitching the historical lineup as “hidden treasures,” the selection is expected to include early works by Japan’s Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Thailand’s Nonzee Nimibutr and South Korea’s Jan Sung-woo.

Roger Garcia, former executive director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival, is set to curate a section on Leung Po-chi, the 83-year-old British-Hong Kong director who made the leap from commercials to TV and into film. Leung was at the...

One of the prestigious national cinema awards in Japan presented by the Association of Tokyo Film Journalists, the 65th edition of the Blue Ribbon Awards announced its winners on February 24, 2023. The nominees are selected from movies released in 2022 within the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Leading with 6 nominations, A Man by Kei Ishikawa, wins Best Film while Plan 75 by Chie Hayakawa picks up Best Director and Best Actress for Chieko Baisho. The full list of winners is described below.

Best Film

A Man

Kingdom 2: To Distant Lands

Small, Slow But Steady

Missing

Silent Parade

Dr Coto’s Clinic

Plan 75

Motherhood

Fragments of the Last Will

Wandering

A Man Best Director

Kei Ishikawa – A Man

Shinzo Katayama – Missing

Takahisa Zeze – Tombi: Father and Son; Fragments of the Last Will

Chie Hayakawa – Plan 75

Ryuichi Hiroki – 2 Women, Motherhood; Phases of the Moon

Best Actor

Sadao Abe – Lesson in Murder; I am...

Dublin International Film Festival will run from February 23 - March 4.

World premieres of Fintan Connolly’s Barber and Claire Dix’s Spotlight are among the line-up for the Dublin International Film Festival.

Connolly’s Barber stars Aidan Gillen as a private investigator investing the disappearance of a wealthy widow’s granddaughter. Gillen previously led Connolly’s 2005 film Trouble With Sex which was nominated for eight Irish Film and Television awards.

Sunlight follows a recovering addict who is caring for his terminally ill sponsor. The cast includes Barry Ward and Liam Carney. Dix was last as Diff in 2013 with audience award-winner Broken Song.

The Miami Film Festival will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year. The festival, which runs from March 3 to March 12, includes 12 world premieres. The event will open with Ray Romano’s “Somewhere in Queens” and close with Stephen Frears’ “The Lost King.” The festival will screen a total of 140 films from more than 30 countries.

Director of programming Lauren Cohen said, “In our fourth decade of programming, we’re proud to continue bringing a diversity of top-quality films to increasingly sophisticated audiences.”

Four centerpiece presentations will take place during the festival, spotlighting key films with directors in attendance for post-screening Q&As. Included in that slate are Stephen Williams’ “Chevalier,” starring Kelvin Harrison, Samara Weaving, Lucy Boynton and Minnie Driver; Benjamin Millepied’s “Carmen,” starring Melissa Barrera, Paul Mescal and Rossy De Palma; Dani de la Orden and Àlex Murull’s “The Final Game (42 Segundo)”; and Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok’s “Judy Blume Forever.

Running Jan. 13-Feb. 13, this year’s MyFrenchFilmFestival, an online fest organized by France’s film-tv promotional body Unifrance, will mark its 13th edition with an emphasis on debut features and dynamic new voices.

Showcasing star power, animated auteur fare and award-winning documentaries – all subtitled in 15 languages – the 12 features and 17 shorts of this year’s selection will reach home viewers via 70 partner platforms as well on MyFrenchFilmFestival.com, where all the shorts will be available to screen free of charge.

In an effort to cast as wide a net as possible, this year’s competition will feature projects that run the gamut from Alice Diop’s breakthrough documentary “We” – which finds connections in the lives of immigrants, lovesick teens and retirees all connected by a commuter rail line north of Paris – to Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s satirical sketch comedy “Bloody Oranges,” which shreds polite society with anarchic glee.

In between are everything...

Further titles include Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s ’The Beasts’ and Chie Hayakawa’s debut ‘Plan 75’.

Venice titles including Fyzal Boulifa’s Morocco-set drama The Damned Don’t Cry and Penelope Cruz-starring melodrama L’Immensità are among the prestige international titles on UK-Ireland distributor Curzon’s 2023 slate.

The line-up represents filmmakers from Italy, Spain, Japan, France and the UK.

“The past year has been a difficult one for international film in the UK,” said Louisa Dent, Curzon Film managing director, “but we remain absolutely committed to championing the best cinema from around the world.”

UK filmmaker Boulifa’s second feature, after debut Lynn + Lucy,...

Greek prime minister attends festival to highlight incentives for international projects.

Costa Rican director Valentina Maurel’s I Have Electric Dreams has won the €10,000 Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos prize for best film at Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) which took place from November 3-13.

The film’s lead actor Reinaldo Amien Gutierrez also won the best actor award at the festival.

The French, Belgian and Costa Rican co-production, which premiered in Locarno, follows a young girl’s coming of age and her relationship with her estranged father. World sales are handled by Greece’s Heretic.

The international competition jury...

While announcing the film before its premiere in Cannes, Salle Debussy, Thierry Frémaux and Pierre Lescure reminded the audience that Chie Hayakawa’s debut feature “Plan 75” was the first Japanese film to be competing in this selection in a very long time. The first screening took place in a packed theatre, and in the presence of the filmmaker and her team, with high expectations from a movie which steps in the domain of unpleasant, and those were mostly met.

“Plan 75“ is screening at Thessaloniki International Film Festival

In her strong debut, Hayakawa sets the story in a near, dystopian future in which the Japanese government takes a concrete step to beat ‘the surplus of old citizens’. The propaganda machinery motivates them to enter the so called Plan 75 project, using embelished words for something that is simply supposed to end their lives. Painted as a well-meant act of euthanasia...

Japan Society and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, are excited to announce the East Coast Premiere of Japan’s submission for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards, Plan 75 as the closing title for its Aca Cinema Project The Female Gaze: Women Filmmakers from Japan Cuts and Beyond lineup. The debut film from director Chie Hayakawa, Plan 75 premiered as part of this year’s Cannes’ Un Certain Regard selection, garnering the Caméra d’Or Special Mention Prize. A runaway independent success in Japan, the film imagines a near future in which Japan’s aging crisis has hit critical levels, resulting in a government initiative that encourages the elderly to voluntarily surrender their lives for the greater good.

In addition, we will also host a Panel Discussion Women in Film at 4pm on Saturday, November 19th, moderated by Joel Neville Anderson and featuring talents including...

Kicking off next week, Japan Society and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan will present an essential look at the remarkable and overlooked contributions of women in contemporary Japanese cinema. “The Female Gaze: Women Filmmakers from Japan Cuts and Beyond,” which takes place November 11 through 20, focuses on the essential roles that female artists play from behind the camera in Japanese cinema—ranging from directing and screenwriting to production and cinematography. Ahead of the Aca Cinema Project series, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the festival trailer along with the announcement of the Closing Night selection.

Chie Hayakawa’s Plan 75, a Cannes winner and Japan’s selection for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards, will make its East Coast Premiere to close out the festival. The film imagines a near future in which Japan’s aging crisis has hit critical levels, resulting in a government initiative...

Who can forget Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” that cheeky work of early-18th-century satire in which the author had the nerve to suggest cannibalism as a means of keeping Ireland’s unwanted kids “from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick”? In “Plan 75,” debuting director Chie Hayakawa floats an equally extreme idea of her own without so much as a glimmer of irony, and the suggestion is upsetting enough that the public will likely still be citing it decades down the road. Set in near-future Japan, where it’s a surplus of seniors — versus an abundance of babies — that’s causing trouble, this chilling social drama takes its name from a hypothetical new legislation whereby an overtaxed government offers its elderly citizens an incentive to euthanize.

Candidates, who must be at least 75 years of age, will be offered a...

Exclusive: Paris-based Urban Sales has sold Japanese director Chie Hayakawa’s dystopian drama Plan 75 to KimStim for North America, in addition to several other territories. The film won a Camera d’Or Special Mention when it premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year, and is also Japan’s submission to the Best International Feature category of the Oscars.

In a second round of deals, Urban also sold the film to South Korea (Challan), Spain (Adso), Switzerland (First Hand Films), Indonesia (Falcon Pictures) and Thailand (Sahamongkol Film) while Spafax and Encore acquired worldwide inflight rights.

It was previously sold to France (Eurozoom), Italy (Tucker Film), China (Dddream), Benelux (September Films), Philippines (Tba Studios), Taiwan (Sky Digi) and Singapore (Lighthouse Film Distribution).

Since Cannes, the film has played at festivals including Karlovy Vary and Toronto and will receive a double U.S. premiere at Chicago and Mill Valley film festivals.

Exclusive: Manila-based Tba Studios has acquired Philippines theatrical rights to award-winning drama Plan 75, which is Japan’s submission for the best international feature category of the Academy Awards.

The Japanese-language film has a strong connection to the Philippines. It features Filipina actress Stefanie Arriane in the cast, while US-Filipino company Fusee is one of the producers, with Wilfredo C. Manalang, George Sommerrock and Alicia Catubay-Watt taking producer credits, and Alemberg Ang of the Philippines’ Daluyong Studios on board as co-producer.

The film was produced by Japan’s Loaded Films, Happinet Phantom Studios and Dongyu Club, with France’s Urban Factory, Fusee and Ang. Urban Sales is handling international sales outside of the co-production territories. Fusee retained Philippines rights.

Written and directed by acclaimed short film director Chie Hayakawa, the film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of this year’s Cannes film festival, where it won the Camera d’Or special mention.

What is the cost of living?

This question is at the core of "Plan 75," the debut film of Japanese director Chie Hayakawa. The soft-spoken drama imagines a near-future dystopia where Japan's super-aged society has strained the economy to a breaking point. Hayakawa is tapping into very real fears — and not ones limited to just Japan. Here in North America, the last decade has seen rising anxiety over a "silver tsunami" from the baby boomer generation leaving the workforce, requiring health care, and drawing pensions.

"Plan 75" unfurls like an extended thought experiment: What if, to deal with the "burden" of the elderly generation, the government developed a program to eliminate people over the age of 75? One that entices volunteers through messaging about "duty" and a substantial financial reward? This would, theoretically, allow citizens to choose their deaths — getting "control" over the inevitable, as one commercial puts it — in order...

Festival runs October 12-23.

Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, and Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History Of Destruction are among the international competitions line-up at the 58th Chicago International Film Festival next month.

This year’s competitions include 10 films receiving their North American premiere and 17 getting their US premiere as the entries vie for the festival’s Gold Hugo award in the categories of international feature, international documentary, and new directors.

The festival runs October 12-23. The full international competition line-ups are below.

Playing in International Feature Competition are: The Beasts (Sp-Fr), Rodrigo Sorogoyen, US premiere; Before,...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

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This year’s Cannes Film Festival marked the return of the theatrical blockbuster.

Following their Croisette premieres, Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis helped reignite the post-covid box office. The former has earned 1.4 billion worldwide, including more than 700 million domestically. Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis is nowhere near that level, but with a 145 million domestic haul and a 270 million worldwide gross to date, it clearly shows the popcorn-munching crowd was hungry to return to cinemas, at least for big-budget studio releases with plenty of wiz-bang and razzle-dazzle.

Can Venice give the indie industry a similar push? The Venice Film Festival, which opens on Wednesday, Aug. 31 and runs through Sept. 10, kicks off the fall film season, traditionally the strongest quarter for “speciality” movies and art house fare. Venice’s 2022 lineup has plenty to appeal to indie audiences, from Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale with Brendan Fraser...

The Toronto International Film Festival returns in September 2022 for its 47th edition — 11 days of international and Canadian cinema, special events featuring some of the biggest names in film, and TIFF’s Industry Conference, offering diverse and innovative perspectives on the art and business of film. The full programme can be found Here.

Here is a selection of Asian titles:

Features A Gaza Weekend

A Gaza Weekend

Basil Khalil ­- Palestine, United Kingdom, 2022

A Long Break

Davit Pirtskhalava – Georgia, 2022

A Man of Reason

Jung Woo-sung – South Korea, 2022

Alam

Firas Khoury – France, Tunisia, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, 2022

Autobiography

Makbul Mubarak – Indonesia, France, Singapore, Poland, Philippines, Germany, Qatar, 2022

Beyond the Wall

Beyond the Wall

Shab, Dkheli, Divar – Iran, 2022

Broker

Hirokazu Kore-eda – South Korea, 2022

Decision to Leave

Park Chan-wook – South Korea, 2022

Hunt

Lee Jung-jae – South Korea, 2022

In Her Hands

Tamana Ayazi, Marcel Mettelsiefen – United States of America, Afghanistan, 2022

Joyland

Joyland

Saim Sadiq – Pakistan, 2022

Kacchey Limbu

Shubham Yogi – India,...

The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced the international arm of its festival. Taking place September 8 through 18, TIFF previously unveiled Sally El Hosaini’s opening night film “The Swimmers” as well as Special Presentations including the world premieres of Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical “The Fabelmans,” Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” and Nicholas Stoller’s “Bros.”

“The Woman King,” “Catherine Called Birdy,” “The Menu,” “Moonage Daydream,” and “My Policeman” additionally debut at the festival.

Now, the Contemporary World Cinema slate has been announced for 2022 TIFF. The lineup includes features from more than 50 countries spanning the globe. The respective world premieres for “Bones of Crows” and “The Swearing Jar” are among programming highlights, as well as the North American premieres for Koji Fukada’s “Love Life” and Jerzy Skolimowski’s “Eo.”

“We are so proud of the TIFF Docs and Contemporary World Cinema programs,” Anita Lee, chief programming officer,...

A young man reads from a manifesto. He’s just slaughtered countless people in a home for the elderly with an automatic rifle. Just as he finishes explaining that his actions are rooted in helping the elderly sacrifice themselves so they will no longer be a burden on the economy, an announcement is heard over the radio. Legislation has passed to fix Japan’s “aging problem,” and temper hate crimes against the elderly: anyone over the age of seventy-five can apply for government-funded assisted suicide.

Continue reading ‘Plan 75’ Review: Chie Hayakawa’s Beautifully Humanist Tale Looks At The Value Of Life [Karlovy Vary] at The Playlist.

International competition titles include ‘Broker’ and ‘Decision To Leave’ from South Korea.

Jerusalem Film Festival (Jff) has revealed the line-up of international competition titles for its 39th edition, which includes several award-winners from this year’s Cannes.

Ten features will compete in the international competition of Jff, which is set to host its 39th edition from July 21-31.

These include Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker and Park Chan-wook’s Decision To Leave from South Korea, which respectively picked up best actor for Song Kang-ho and best director for Park. Also selected is Abi Abbasi’s Holy Spider, which saw Zar Amir-Ebrahimi pick up best actress,...

The elderly have been an interesting talking point for Asian cinema this year. Chie Hayakawa’s “Plan 75” surprised Cannes Film Festival with a bleak and shocking vision to solve the problem of Japan’s rapidly ageing population. Director Lee Soon-sung takes a much brighter and cheerful approach to the subject in “My Perfect Roommate”, his debut feature.

Geum-boon is a 70-year-old lady who has always lived alone, with no family to call her own. Ji-woong is a university student who is a regular part-timer, doing any job he can to make and save money. As part of the government’s Saving Rent Project with Elderly Living Alone Programme, the two find themselves having to live together, which is an adjustment for both. Geum-boon suddenly finds herself having to adapt to having someone else in her domicile. She isn’t the easiest person to live with, a grumpy old lady who...

All the People I’ll Never Be – Davy Chou [Review]

The Blue Caftan – Maryam Touzani

Burning Days – Emin Alper

Butterfly Vision – Maksym Nakonechnyi

Corsage – Marie Kreutzer [Review]

Domingo and the Mist – Ariel Escalante Meza

Father & Soldier – Mathieu Vadepied

Godland – Hlynur Pálmason [Review]

Harka – Lotfy Nathan [Review]

Joyland – Saim Sadiq

Les Pires – Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret [Review] [Interview]

Mediterranean Fever – Maha Haj

Metronom – Alexandru Belc [Review]

Plus que jamais – Emily Atef [Review]

Plan 75 – Chie Hayakawa [Review]

Rodéo – Lola Quivoron [Review]

Sick of Myself – Kristoffer Borgli [Review]

The Silent Twins – Agnieszka Smoczyńska [Review]

The Stranger – Thomas M.…...

Premiering in the Cannes sidebar, Un Certain Regard, where it received a special mention for the best newcomer, Chie Hayakawa’s “Plan 75” is a slow-burning drama that pivots on the issue of the rapid-ageing of Japanese society. Set somewhere in the near future, Japan has managed to figure it all out – a titular system enabling to get rid of the elders, through a modus operandi that resembles a modern rendition of “Ballad of Narayama”, albeit as a form of peaceful, quiet, and more importantly, legally authorized by the government euthanasia that is supposed to become a counter-plan for a progressively ageing society. In Hayakawa’s reality of Japan, citizens 75 years old and above can apply for their chance and be dismissed in their last trip by one of the Plan 75 Company’s guides; with that, they can serve the nation as their final act of compliance.

Hayakawa’s “Plan 75...