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The progress of the cinema of the region is undisputed. With governments allocating more money in the cinema in a number of the countries of the union, streamers and particularly Neftflix investing heavily, along with foreign companies as in the case of Korean Cj Entertainment in Vietnam, the unique stories from a series of regions where everyday life and the supernatural always went hand in hand, finally found a space to blossom. Following suit from Malaysia, which had a tremendous 2023, Indonesia also made a leap forward this year, headed by a rather strong box office and a catalogue of movies that moved beyond 200 in 2024, even if more than 60 of them are horror movies. Filipino cinema, however, is still on top, in a place it does not seem to lose, particularly since, industry-wise, local cinema seems to be the most organized in the region. Vietnam also seems to on the rise,...

Dark Sky Films has picked up North American distribution rights to psychological horror thriller Tenement, which premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in the Big Screen competition and is playing at Sitges Film Festival in the Panorama section this week.

The debut feature from Cambodian writer-directors Inrasothythep Neth and Sokyou Chea is about a Japanese-Cambodian manga artist who reconnects with her distant family as past horrors haunt her in an old tenement building. It is produced by Westec Media and Kongchak Pictures.

Matteo Lovadina’s Paris-based Reel Suspects has also sold the genre-bending film to Alfa Pictures in Spain,...

The inaugural Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival (Hiff) in Vietnam has unveiled its line-up of about 100 films, including 12 each for the Southeast Asia competition and for the first or second film competition, with directors Anne Fontaine and Hirokazu Kore-eda among its guests.

Scroll down for line-up

The Asian premiere of French biopic Bolero will open the festival on April 6. Director Fontaine and leading actor Raphaël Personnaz will be present for the film’s Asian premiere, which will take place at the city’s historic Opera House.

Further notable festival guests include acclaimed Japanese director Kore-eda who will receive...

Tenement proves that a good ghost story can't get by on visuals alone. This Cambodian genre film by Inrasothythep Neth and Sokyou Chea deserves some praise because it is the rare horror effort out of that country. But when push comes to shove, this haunted house ride has very little lasting effect. The Japanese-Cambodian mangaka Soriya tries to find inspiration for her work, after her boss tells her that her work feels inauthentic. Her boyfriend Daichi travels along with her to Cambodia, to the old apartment complex where her mother's only living relatives, her aunt and her family, reside. There she finds that the apartment complex is haunted by a demonic presence, who might not have good things for her in mind. The main...

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

How can the filmmakers of low-budget independent films formulate sales and distribution strategies at a global level when they don’t have the same resources wielded by the larger production companies? As part of this week’s IFFR Pro Days, the industry program at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, experts gave their opinions.

Kyle Greenberg, head of marketing and distribution at U.S. company Utopia, said that filmmakers, especially ones helming independent and guerrilla productions, should be “the biggest advocates of their movies” and actively involved in the promotion, marketing and sales strategy of their titles.

“If you’re not advocating for yourself, you’re already losing. Filmmakers need to be thinking about marketing and audiences. If you are making a film in isolation, it could be art, but you are not thinking of where the movie lives,” he said.

“When we acquire movies, we are thinking about potential audiences,...

As Cambodia crawls out of its movie-making infancy and starts to produce content outside the country's borders, it's chosen to do so with the mindset of appealing to a more Western audience than what would initially be expected. Graced with spectacular visuals, a highly engaging technical skillset belying its brief existence, and a wholly unexpected mindset that's quite immersive into the experience, co-writer/directors Sokyou Chea and Inrasothythep Neth provide one of the more impressive and outwardly enjoyable introductions to Cambodian genre cinema with their newest effort “Tenement” screening at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Tenement is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam

Following her mother's death, Soriya (Thanet Thorn), a Japanese-Cambodian manga artist, decides to travel to Cambodia along with her boyfriend Daichi (Yoshihiko Hosoda), to find out more about the country her mother fled. Soriya reunites with her lost family Aunt Mao (Sveng Socheata) and moves into the...

Blackbird Lands In Osaka

The Osaka Asian Film Festival has added eight more titles to its line-up, including the award-winning Georgian drama “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry,” which will play in competition.

Elene Naveriani’s “Blackbird,” about a middle-aged woman’s relationship decision, has had wide festival play in Europe and earned multiple prizes for lead actor Eka Chavleishvili.

Other additions are Cambodian directing duo Inrasothythep Neth and Sokyou Chea’s “Tenement”; the world premiere of Hong Kong director Ricky Ko’s “Out of the Shadow”; “Supposed,” by Thanakorn Pongsuwan and “Death Whisperer,” by Taweewat Wantha, which expand the festival’s selection of Thai films to eight; and “The Winter of 1905,” a 1981 film by Hong Kong director Yu Wei-Cheng, which joins the Taiwan: Movies on the Move 2024 special section.

Other revival inclusions are: the 4K restored director’s cut of Patrick Tam’s 1982 Hong Kong movie “Nomad” and “240 Hours in One Day,...

Paris-based Reel Suspects has boarded international sales for Cambodian-Japanese psychological horror thriller Tenement ahead of the film’s world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in the Big Screen competition.

The first feature from Cambodian writer-directors Inrasothythep Neth and Sokyou Chea follows a Japanese-Cambodian manga artist who travels to Cambodia on a quest to find herself after her mother’s death, but instead finds a family she has never known and an old tenement building full of dark secrets.

The genre-bending psychological thriller drama blends supernatural and human psychology with a story about family and identity. The film uses minimal immersive sound,...

International Film Festival Rotterdam has revealed its lineup for the Tiger, Big Screen and Tiger Short competitions. The festival runs from January 25-February 4. Scroll down for the full lists.

Head South by Jonathan Ogilvie will open the proceedings with M. Raihan Halim’s comedy La Luna on closing duties. The Tiger Competition jury will be comprised of Marco Müller, Ena Sendijarević, Nadia Turincev, Herman Yau and Billy Woodberry.

Also confirmed are the first names for the Talks lineup including Marco Bellocchio, Anne Fontaine, Alexander Kluge and Rachel Maclean.

Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic said today, “For over half a century, IFFR has stood as a haven for diverse voices – a convergence where artists share perspectives. Our program celebrates the resilience and creativity of global filmmakers, a testament to cinema’s power to transcend borders. From Indian to Japanese epics, a Kazakh thriller, Finnish Freudian reinterpretations, Dominican sci-fi and underground Iranian cinema,...

Head South.International Film Festival Rotterdam have announced the lineup for their 53rd edition, which will take place between January 25 to February 4. Opening FILMHead South (Jonathan Ogilvie)The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire.Tiger COMPETITIONThe Ballad of Suzanne Césaire (Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich)Flathead (Jaydon Martin)Grey Bees (Dmytro Moiseiev)Kiss Wagon (Midhun Murali)Me, Maryam, the Children and 26 Others (Farshad Hashemi)MosesLa Parra (Alberto Gracia)Praia Formosa (Julia De Simone)Rei (Tanaka Toshihiko)Reise der Schatten (Yves Netzhammer)She Fell to Earth (Susie Au)sr (Lea Hartlaub)Swimming Home (Justin Anderson)Under a Blue Sun (Daniel Mann)Milk Teeth.Big Screen COMPETITIONAire: Just Breathe (Leticia Tonos Paniagua)Children of War and Peace (Ville Suhonen)Confidenza (Daniele Luchetti)Eternal (Ulaa Salim)Milk Teeth (Sophia Bösch)The Old Bachelor (Oktay Baraheni)Portrait of a Certain Orient (Marcelo Gomes)Seven Seas Seven Hills (Ram)Steppenwolf (Adilkhan Yerzhanov)TenementThe Worst Man in London (Rodrigo Areias...

‘Swimming Home’ is directed by Justin Anderson and stars Mackenzie Davies, Christopher Abbott and Ariane Labed.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled the Tiger and Big Screen programmes for the 3rd edition, taking place January 25 – February 4, 2024 in the Netherlands.

Justin Anderson’s Swimming Home, starring Mackenzie Davies, Christopher Abbott and Ariane Labed, is among the titles world premiering in the Tiger Competition.

Scroll down for full line-up

The drama is adapted from Deborah Levy’s novel about a woman who implores the help of a naked stranger found floating in her pool. It is produced by Emily Morgan’s UK outfit Quiddity Films,...

The Naff genre film project market closed its latest edition on Tuesday with a top prize, worth $13,300 (Krw 15 million) for Abdul Zainidi’s “Worm and the Widow” from Brunei, and Sokyou Chea’s “Soul Searching” from Cambodia.

The three-day Naff market is part of the B.I.G. industry sidebar to the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan), held in Bucheon, on the outskirts of Seoul. Organizers brokered 495 one-to-one meetings between the 26 projects and some 67 distribution, finance and production companies.

Visahl Furia’s “Bogie No. S4,” a ghostly story set on a train, took the B.I.G Naff Award with a cash prize of $8,900, as well as the new Blood Window Award. The B.I.G Naff Korean Award was presented to “Remember, Spring” by Jeon In-hwan with a cash prize of $5,300 (Krw 6 million).

Prizewinners were selected by a jury of veteran producers including Lee Dong-ha, producer of 2016 hit “Train to Busan,...