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Bright Sparks In Hong Kong

“Snow in Midsummer,” which quietly probes the 1969 massacre of Malaysian Chinese during post-election turmoil, was named the winner of the best film for young cinema competition (Chinese-language) at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Liang Ming was named best director for “Carefree Days,” while the film’s female lead Lyu Xingchen collected the best actress award. Jason King won the best actor award for his performance in “A Journey in Spring.”

In the equivalent competition for non-Chinese films Gustav Moeller’s “Sons” was named the Firebird winner. Meryam Joobeur won the best director award for her “Who Do I Belong To.” The best actor award went to Vangelis Mourikis for his role in “Arcadia.” Minna Wuendrich was named best actress for her performance in “Ivo.” The jury also gave a special mention to “Pepe,” directed by Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias.

In the documentary competition,...

Wi Ding Ho’s dark drama “Terrorizers” doesn’t only share the title with Edward Yang’s classic from 1986, it likewise focuses on a group of individuals in Taipei outcasted in one form of the other, longing to break out from loneliness. Their destinies will intertwine through a slashing incident in a public space, with the film revolving around events that preceded or followed that moment, crucial in puzzling the story pieces together.

“Terrorizers“ is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival

The plot is put in the context of societal malaise, dependency on social media and the switch of realities. The ‘earthly’ life gets hijacked by the pixelized in “Terrorizers”, a film that also speaks about how much power we gave to the internet and how little it takes to ruin a person’s life by exposing sensitive content online. While one of the...

More than half of the programme of this year’s cancelled Hkiff is screening at K11 Art House in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff) usually takes place over the Easter holidays in March-April, but this year was first postponed to late August, then eventually cancelled, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

While many festivals in Asia have managed to take place with physical screenings, albeit without international guests, Hkiff fell victim to unfortunate timing. A third wave of Covid-19 emerged in the city in July, just weeks before the festival was scheduled to take place, forcing Hong Kong...

The Pingyao International Film Festival, founded by Chinese helmer Jia Zhangke and former Venice head Marco Muller, has released its full lineup of global and local films. The selections in the two main sections focus on first or second features.

The festival is set to take place from Oct. 10-19 in the ancient city of Pingyao in central Shanxi province, not far from Jia’s own hometown. Few foreigners will be present, as China continues to maintain travel and quarantine restrictions for those entering the country, despite lifting some measures.

A dozen films are set to compete in the international “Crouching Tigers” section. They include a number of titles that first bowed at Venice: “Residue,” from American director Merawi Gerima, which debuted to a special mention earlier this month in the independent Venice Days section before being picked up by Ava DuVernay’s film company and released on Netflix; “The Book of Vision,...

The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (Hkiffs) today announces a series of special in-theatre screenings to mark the reopening of cinemas in Hong Kong.

The CineFest series will feature films from the previously cancelled 44th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF44) and Cine Fan programmes, including this year’s Firebird Award winners.

Supported by Create Hong Kong and the Film Development Fund, all screenings will take place daily for five weeks from 30 September at K11 Art House in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Hkiffs Executive Director Albert Lee said Hkiffs would announce weekly line-ups and screening schedules starting today.

“Despite this year’s cancellations and disruptions, we have not stopped anticipating ways to re-engage Hong Kong’s film-lovers and to share our choices and discoveries with them once the situation returns to normal,” Mr Lee said.

To ensure public safety, Hkiffs will continue to comply with every in-theatre health measure mandated...

The Asian Film Awards Academy has decided to announce the winners online on October 14.

Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite leads the nominations for this year’s Asian Film Awards (Afa) – hosted by Busan International Film Festival and the first to be held outside of Hong Kong and Macau – with ten nominations including best film and best director.

The Asian Film Awards Academy (Afaa), comprising the Hong Kong, Tokyo and Busan international film festivals, announced during last year’s Busan that the 14th Afa ceremony would be held in the South Korean city this year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisers...

With ‘Tenet’ opening in multiple territories, this is a key weekend for European cinemas.

France, opening Wednesday August 26

As the population gears up for the country’s traditional September Rentrée, marking the return to work and school after the summer, a number of films that were held back due to the Covid-19 pandemic are finally being released this week in addition to Tenet which Warner Bros France has opened on 800 prints.

They included Benoit Delépine and Gustave Kervern’s Silver Bear-winning comedy Delete History for Ad Vitam, which was originally scheduled for the spring and was one of the hits of the Berlinale this year,...

The Hong Kong International Film Festival named Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s “The Cloud in Her Room” and “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection” by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese as winners of its Firebird Young Cinema competitions, despite the event having been canceled due to Covid-19 pandemic.

The festival was initially postponed from its usual spring slot to summer due to the coronavirus, and was eventually canceled. But organizers revealed the names of the films they selected and then saw the competition sections judged by a virtual jury. They handed out 13 awards

“The Cloud in Her Room” was the winner in the Chinese-language category, with its lead star Jin Jing also bagging the best actress award. The jury headed by auteur Stanley Kwan, director and cinematographer O Sing-pui and May Fung, independent art and cultural worker, called the drama, Zheng’s debut, “witty” and “a delicate portrait of the new generation’s state of mind.

The Cloud In Her Room and This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection were named as best films.

Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room and Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection were named as best films at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff), which was cancelled due to Covid-19, but went ahead with online judging for its competition sections.

Both films also won best actress in their respective sections – Jin Jing for The Cloud In Her Room in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language), and Mary...

The Hong Kong International Film Festival has taken the unusual decision of revealing the pictures it selected for its now canceled 44th edition. It also plans to award prizes in its competition sections, though there will be neither in-person or online screenings for the public.

The festival had previously rescheduled its 44th edition from its usual slot in March, due to the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak. And then set Aug 18-31 Aug. dates instead. But, with the city now facing a third wave of the virus, organizers last Friday bowed to the inevitable and announced the cancellation of HKIFF44 and the smaller Cine Fan activities in September and October.

Now it says that this year’s Firebird Awards and Fipresci prize competitions will proceed with online judging. Winners will be announced on Aug. 20.

“The decision to announce the original program is intended to pay tribute to filmmakers whose...

China has struggled to get viewers back into cinemas this week, but the Shanghai Intl. Film Festival (Siff) has found a way to break through: screen all eight of the “Harry Potter” franchise films in a row, with limited seating due to Covid-19 distancing measures, and watch the public duke it out for the privilege to attend.

They must be doing something right in their selection, however: the festival sold 108,000 tickets in the first ten minutes of online sales. That contrasted with only slow box office in commercial cinemas which resumed operating on Monday.

Siff is set to run July 25 to Aug. 2 with an eclectic selection shown in a mix of screenings with a live audience, outdoor viewings and online streaming.

More than 400 films will screen in 29 designated cinemas, including Jordan Peele’s “Us,” a 4K restoration of “Apocalypse Now,” and “1917,” the only studio film new to Chinese audiences among the various offerings.

Liang Ming’s “Wisdom Tooth” (2020) will premiere in French theaters September 2. The film will be re-titled “Grand frère” by Asc Distribution.

The intimate tale takes place in Donggang of Heilongjiang Province of northeastern China. Here, in the dead of winter, the lines of fraternal and romantic love begin to blur. Audiophile Guxi (Lyu Xingchen) and older brother (Wu Xiaoliang) are all each other has — until a new girl, the gentle piano-playing Qingchang (Wang Jiajia) walks into the picture. What would be a quiet family home is wrought with scandal, as confidential conversations get recorded after an oil spill poisons the local fish supply. Internal jealous wrestles with revenge and respect in this world-changing reckoning with sexual maturity… and all of its growing pains.

“Wisdom Tooth” has previously won the Jury Prize at the Pingyao International Film Festival 2019, Best Actor at Macao International Film Festival 2019, and has been selected for Iffr...

China’s Midnight Blur Films has sold the rights to Chinese arthouse title “Wisdom Tooth” to French firm Asc Distribution, which will release it theatrically in France later this year.

The deal also includes theatrical, video and TV rights for Belgium, Switzerland and the French overseas departments and territories.

The debut feature from director Liang Ming premiered at the Pingyao International Film Festival in October, where it received the jury prize and best director award. Its European premiere was at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, where it took part in the Bright Future Competition.

Set during a freezing winter in a hardscrabble fishing town in China’s industrial northeast, the film tells the story of a shifting web of relationships between a young girl, her beloved brother and his new, charismatic girlfriend. The three become embroiled in shady dealings in their town after an oil spill grounds the local fishing...

“Wisdom Tooth”, a directorial debut by the actor Liang Ming (seen in a leading role in Zhao Dayong’s “Shadow Days”), might prove to be the next big festival hit that comes from the ranks of Asian cinema. After bagging the awards on the national stage, from its world premiere at Pingyao (both Jury and Best Director prizes) on to Macao and Chinese Young Generation Film Forum, the film premiered internationally at the Bright Future competition of Rotterdam, and the tour continues with Göteborg.

Gu Xi, played by Lyu Xingchen (seen in a number of Chinese films last year), is a girl on the brink of adulthood. Her older brother Gu Liang (Wu Xiaoling) is not just the only family member, but basically all she has in life. They both struggle to survive, living in a shack next to a wreck of a bus in a provincial coastal town in Northern China,...

Osaka Asian Film Festival is held yearly under the theme of “From Osaka to All of Asia!” We are pleased to announce the line-up of the 15th edition of Oaff.

The number of selected films is 64 in total, the highest number ever for the festival, and they include 14 World Premieres, 12 International Premieres, and 3 Asian Premieres. Films from 23 countries and regions, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Kazakhstan, Poland, France, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Italy, the USA, Mexico and Japan, will be screened.

Opening Film

The Garden of Evening Mists

by Tom Shu-yu Lin (Malaysia) Japan Premiere

Closing Film

Kamata Prelude

by Nakagawa Ryutaro, Akiyama Mayu, Yasukawa Yuka, Watanabe Hirobumi (Japan) World Premiere

Competition

This section will present 15 films chosen from films completed on or after 1st October 2018 and unreleased in Japan. The international jurors will choose the winners of the Grand...

My Mexican BretzelThe titles for the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam are being announced in anticipation of the event running January 22 – February 2, 2020. We will update the program as new films are revealed.

Tiger COMPETITIONEl año del descubrimiento (Luis López Carrasco)Beasts Clawing at Straws (Kim Yonghoon)The Cloud in Her Room (Zheng Lu Xinyuan)Desterro (Maria Clara Escobar)Drama Girl (Vincent Boy Kars)La fortaleza (Jorge Thielen Armand)Kala azar (Janis Rafa)Nasir (Arun Karthick)Piedra sola (Alejandro Telemaco Tarraf)Si yo fuera el invierno mismo (Jazmín López)

Bright Future COMPETITIONBabai (Artem Aisagaliev)Chaco (Diego Mondaca)Los fantasmas (Sebastián Lojo)Fellwechselzeit (Sabrina Mertens)For the Time Being (Salka Tiziana)I Blame Society (Gillian Wallace Horvat)Moving On (Yoon Dan-bi)My Mexican Bretzel (Nuria Giménez Lorang)Ofrenda (Juan María Mónaco Cagni)Panquiaco (Ana Elena Tejera)A Rifle and a Bag (Isabella Rinaldi / Cristina Hanes / Arya Rothe)Sebastian jumps über Geländer (Ceylan-Alejandro...

Slippery and surprising, full of odd details and insights, and leaching significant visual and thematic texture from its unusual setting, Liang Ming’s “Wisdom Tooth” must be one of the year’s most remarkable debuts. Set in a depressed Chinese fishing town close to the Korean border during the first snow flurries of winter, the film is partly a crime thriller, partly a distinctly European-flavored relationship drama, but wholly . The result feels like a potent hybrid of the Chinese social realist tradition as exemplified by Jia Zhangke and the Korean independent scene of which the films of Lee Chang-dong are at the forefront.

Guxi (a terrifically ambivalent Xingchen Lyu) has a toothache. She complains about it to her half-brother Guliang (Wu Xiaoliang), with whom she has a relationship close enough for him to sponge down her back during trips to the local bathhouse. But the pain from a new back...

A seductive debut film, Liang Ming’s Wisdom Tooth is a bildungsroman, both understated and immersive. Vividly rendered characters, organic humor plus a splash of crime entice viewers into a tangled interpersonal web. The central love-triangle (a reverse-gender Jules et Jim) is believably compelling; when it comes to depicting relationships, actor-turned-director Ming shines. While the film’s slow-but-steady pacing, blurred lines of affection and unspooling relationships recall the superior Korean feature Burning, Ming’s nuanced understanding of character makes him one of this year’s most intriguing new directors.

Living in a modest apartment near China’s northern border, Guxi and her half-brother Guliang (the lovable dunderhead Wu Xiaoliang) depend on each other for both financial support and affection.…...

Maya Da-Rin’s The Fever won best film in the Roberto Rossellini awards, while best film in the Fei Mu awards went to Anthony Chen’s Wet Season.

The Fever, from Brazilian filmmaker Maya Da-Rin, won best film in the Roberto Rossellini awards at this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival (Pyiff), while Anthony Chen’s Wet Season won best film in the Fei Mu awards.

The Roberto Rossellini awards are presented to films in Pingyao’s Crouching Tigers section for international debuts and second features. Best director in these awards went to Cesar Diaz for Our Mothers, the Guatemala-set...

The Pingyao International Film Festival on Wednesday crowned “The Fever” by Maya Da-Rin as best film in its international category and “Wet Season” by Anthony Chen as the top title in its Chinese-language section.

The Roberto Rossellini Awards at the festival go to the top international directorial debuts or second features. Taking to the stage at the awards ceremony, Brazil’s Da-Rin said the prize was “a great honor.”

“This film has been made through seven years of a lot of work of a lot of people — people who give their lives to cinema and believe that through cinema we can think about our world,” she said. “The Fever” also won Best Actor and the Fipresci prize at Locarno this year.

Two other Roberto Rossellini Awards were handed out: the jury award to Chinese helmer Liang Ming for his debut, “Wisdom Tooth,” and the prize for best director to the...