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Abs-cbn’s Star Cinema is betting big on romantic comedy again, setting a March 28 theatrical release for “My Love Will Make You Disappear” across the U.S. and Canada. The film marks the first big-screen team-up of Filipino stars Kim Chiu and Paulo Avelino, whose combined social media following tops 40 million.

Directed by Chad Vidanes and written by Patrick Valencia and Isabella Policarpio, the rom-com follows Sari (Chiu), a woman convinced she’s cursed because every man she loves vanishes. Enter Jolo (Avelino), a brooding landlord grappling with a failing apartment complex. Their paths cross as they fight to save a community from displacement, but Sari’s supposed curse threatens their budding romance.

While Chiu and Avelino have already sparked chemistry in TV hits “Linlang” and “What Happened to Secretary Kim,” this marks their first feature collaboration. Chiu brings her box office draw from hits like “Bride for Rent” and “The Ghost Bride,...

The Toronto Film Festival is awash with international titles. Led by Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed Of The Sacred Fig” and Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow,” the festival’s huge Centrepiece spread alone has 38 titles from outside Canada and the U.S. The Discovery section has another 18.

Not all Toronto international titles are world premieres, however. Here are 16 which are sparking good word of mouth. Variety isn’t claiming they are the best. The buzz might not be justified. But they are certainly worth tracking.

“Sunshine,” (Antoinette Jadaone, Philippines)

Anima, the Filipino studio behind Erik Matti’s Venice winner “On The Job 2: The Missing 8” and Sundance winner “Leonor Will Never” Die, joined Project 8 Projects to co-produce Antoinette Jadaone’s teenage pregnancy drama “Sunshine.” It turns on a young gymnast who discovers she is pregnant on the week of the national team tryouts. On her way to a seller of illegal abortion drugs,...

Filipino filmmaker Antoinette Jadaone’s latest feature “Sunshine,” set to world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, has unveiled its trailer.

The film, selected for TIFF’s Centrepiece program, tackles the sensitive issue of teenage pregnancy and abortion in the Philippines, while also highlighting the struggles of aspiring Olympic athletes.

“Sunshine” follows a young gymnast who discovers she’s pregnant just before the national team tryouts. The film explores the challenges faced by pregnant women in the predominantly Catholic Philippines, where abortion is illegal and unsafe procedures are common.

Jadaone, known for films like “That Thing Called Tadhana” and “Fan Girl,” aims to shed light on pressing social issues. “‘Sunshine’ represents the hundreds of thousands of girls who became pregnant in their teens. About 500 Filipino teenagers become mothers every day,” the director states.

The film stars Maris Racal as the titular character. Racal said: “I am grateful to have...

Sunshine, written and directed by Antoinette Jadaone, is set to have its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, under the Centrepiece Programme.

Sunshine tells the story of a young gymnast who finds out she is pregnant on the week of the national team tryouts. On her way to a seller of illegal abortion drugs, she meets a mysterious girl who eerily talks like her.

When her self-induced abortion fails, she comes face to face with the harsh reality of how pregnant women of all ages and backgrounds in the Philippines are violently robbed of the chance to choose for themselves and their bodies.

Jadaone aims to bring to the forefront not-often talked about issues affecting Filipina women daily.

In the Philippines, roughly 1,000 women die yearly because of lack of access to safe abortions, with others going to jail. On the taboo topic of the film, she...

Exclusive: Anima, the Filipino studio behind Venice winner On The Job 2: The Missing 8 and Sundance winner Leonor Will Never Die, is joining with Project 8 Projects to co-produce Antoinette Jadaone’s teenage pregnancy drama Sunshine.

Maris Racal stars in the film, marking her third collaboration with Jadaone. The story follows a young gymnast who discovers she is pregnant on the week of the national team tryouts. On her way to a seller of illegal abortion drugs, she meets a mysterious girl who eerily talks and thinks like her.

Currently in post-production, the film is a follow-up to Jadaone’s Fan Girl (2020), which played at Tokyo International Film Festival and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival main competition.

Jadaone is known for both indie and mainstream films in the Philippines. She directed one of the highest-grossing indie films in Philippine cinema history, That Thing Called Tadhana (2014), which also played widely at...

Full Circle Lab Philippines, the Southeast Asian project and talent development programme, has revealed the line-up for its upcoming sixth edition, including a drama set against the backdrop of The Beatles infamous visit to Manila in 1966.

The labs will comprise eight projects in development, three films in post-production, eight emerging producers and three story editors. A total of 35 participants and 10 mentors are set to participate in the in-person workshop, held in the Central Luzon region in the north of Manila from March 19-24, followed by online sessions, which run until September.

Scroll down for full list of projects and participants...

Leading Asian filmmakers including Chang Tso-Chi, Lav Diaz, Midi Z, Tan Chui Mui and Yang Chao are poised to make appearances next month at the Work-in-Progress section of the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf) project market.

Haf organizers Thursday added 15 Wip projects, having previously selected 26 in-development projects and six genre film projects in the CAA China Genre Initiative.

The 47-project Hkiff Industry Project Market will run March 11-13, alongside the 2024 edition of the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FilMart), which operates March 11-14..

Highlights include: “The Land is Our Navel,” directed by Zhang Zhongchen (“The White Cow”) and produced by Midi Z (director of 2019’s “Nina Wu” and the upcoming “The Unseen Sister”), depicting the surreal journey of a six-year-old girl and a ghost;

“The Wind is Unstoppable,” by Huo Meng (“Crossing the Border – Zhaoguan”), about small-town family life before China’s rural-urban migration; “Deep Quiet Room,...

Meg Ryan is making her long-awaited acting comeback in a self-directed romantic comedy, opening the possibility for a reunion with her former frequent collaborator Tom Hanks. The prospect of a Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks rom-com reunion has been highly anticipated for 25 years since their last genre collaboration in You've Got Mail, and her new film What Happens Later makes it more likely. While David Duchovny is cast opposite Meg Ryan in What Happens Later, the missed opportunity of reuniting her with Tom Hanks could still be fulfilled depending on the success of the romantic comedy.

Meg Ryan is making her acting comeback after eight years in her new self-directed romantic comedy, which opens the door to a long-awaited reunion with one of her most beloved frequent collaborators. After becoming a rom-com darling for her legendary roles in ‘80s and ‘90s movies like When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle,...

The dawn of the new decade seems to bring a reconnaissance to Filipino cinema, resulting from both the picking of movies from international festivals, including Sundance, and the always excellent work of Metro Manila Film Festival, locally. In Asian Movie Pulse, we have been following intently the movies of the country these 3,5 years, and we have come up with a list of some of the best movies we saw during this time.

Without further ado, check out some of the best Filipino films of the current decade so far.

1. Fan Girl (2020) by Antoinette Jadaone

Although pretty standard regarding its core premise, “Fan Girl” is an emotional, rather unpleasant and sometimes even shocking viewing experience thanks to the filmmaker's clear vision transformed into the script and directing. Antoinette Jadaone is still a relatively young auteur, but quite a prolific one over the course of the current decade, with more than a dozen titles under her belt.

Philippines social media platform and online story company Wattpad have joined forces to adapt Jamille Fumah’s Wattpad hit “Kiss Master” as an eight-episode series for multi-platform distribution.

The romantic fantasy currently has 7.7 million reads on Wattpad. It follows five years after Sussie’s heart was broken by bad boy billionaire Arkanghel Wolfgang. When he reappears in her life it is not clear that their differences can be bridged.

Fumah (who also goes by the handle @JFStories) is one of the most successful Wattpad writers in the Philippines, with 1.5 million followers on the platform and more than 30 stories published and more than 336 million total reads. Fumah has also published five books with Bliss Books, Wattpad’s joint imprint with Anvil Publishing in the Philippines.

The production will be realized with the involvement of Black Sheep Productions, known for Philippine cinema hits such as “Exes Baggage,” “Alone/Together,” “Fan Girl” and “Whether the Weather Is Fine.

Carlo Francisco Manatad is a Filipino film director and editor based in Manila. He is a graduate of the University of the Philippines Film Institute. His short film, “Junilyn Has”, competed at the Festival del film Locarno and went on to screen at several international film festivals such as Clermont Ferrand, Uppsala, Winterthur and Busan to name a few. “Sandra and Fatima Marie Torres and the Invasion of Space Shuttle Pinas 25” has won awards in Russia, Romania and the USA, most notably winning the Best Comedy Short at the Aspenshorts Fest – an Oscar qualifying film festival. A Philippine and Singaporean co-production, “Jodilerks Dela Cruz, Employee of the Month”, his last short film was selected in competition at the 56th Semaine de la Critique at the 70th Cannes International Film Festival. One of the most prolific editors in the Philippines today, he has collaborated with numerous filmmakers for independent and mainstream scene.

Full Circle Lab, the Southeast Asian project and talent development program co-led by Matthieu Darras and Izabela Igel alongside the Film Development Council of the Philippines, is poised for a third edition. There will also be a particular emphasis on training for the role of producer, with the addition of a Creative Producers Lab.

The Labs will take place online with workshops from Sept. 20 to Oct. 1, 2021 and be preceded by the Fdcp’s Film Industry Conference, open to a larger audience.

The objective is to identify, nurture and support creative projects from the Philippines and Southeast Asia, across features and series, and at different stages (development and post-production).

Leading creative names from the Philippines and the Southeast Asia region including producers Jeremy Chua, John Badalu, producer-director Antoinette Jadaone (“Fan Girl”), directors Sheron Dayoc (“Women of the Weeping River”) and Bui Thac Chuyen (“Adrift”) will join with their latest projects.

Mentors...

The festival’s celebrations for the 50th anniversary are split in two parts – 1 to 7 February and 2 to 6 June – connected by a series of events in between. IFFR 2021 wants to be a hybrid festival that adapts to the current crisis and continues to offer an exciting programme for local and (inter)national audiences, as well as industry professionals.

2 – 6 June

Taking place on a special spring date that honours the festival’s very first edition in 1972, the second part of the festival hopes to be a festive celebration that invites larger audiences. The IFFR’s Anniversary Programme will taps into the rich history of IFFR by inviting luminaries of the last five decades to enter a dialogue with fresh names and faces. IFFR will also present Harbour in June, the newest and largest programme representing the multidimensional nature of Rotterdam, and the Bright Future programme dedicated to emerging film talent.

There is...

Things can get tricky once a teenager’s fantasy life clashes with reality. A teenage girl’s obsession with her favourite TV and movie star is in the focus of Antoinette Jadaone’s “Fan Girl”. After its world premiere at Tokyo International Film Festival, the film had its European premiere at the official competition of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

“Fan Girl” is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival

Jenny (played by the up and coming young actress Charlie Dizon) seems like a regular Filipino high school girl who would rather go to the promotional gig of her favourite film stars Paulo Avelino and Bea Alonso than spend her time at school. She is Paulo’s no. 1 fan and also has a crush on him. When she manages to smuggle in the back of his pick-up truck in the aftermath of the mall performance, she thinks she is the luckiest girl in the world.

Things can get tricky once a teenager’s fantasy life clashes with reality. A teenage girl’s obsession with her favourite TV and movie star is in the focus of Antoinette Jadaone’s “Fan Girl”. After its world premiere at Tokyo International Film Festival, the film had its European premiere at the official competition of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, where we were able to see it.

“Fan Girl” is screening at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

Jenny (played by the up and coming young actress Charlie Dizon) seems like a regular Filipino high school girl who would rather go to the promotional gig of her favourite film stars Paulo Avelino and Bea Alonso than spend her time at school. She is Paulo’s no. 1 fan and also has a crush on him. When she manages to smuggle in the back of his pick-up truck in the aftermath of the mall performance,...

Antoinette Jadaone’s Fan Girl, bowing in the Tokyo Film Festival, dives far deeper into the psyche of its titular teenage heroine than most films about obsessed fans, groupies and hangers-on. The rawness with which the story develops and its far from happy conclusions stand out in the career of Jadaone, who is one of the top romance film directors in the Philippines (Alone/Together, Never Not Love You). Here her view of reality may be too adult and graphic for her regular audiences, but it’s a film that could be well appreciated on the international festival circuit.

Also remarkable is the decisiveness with ...

Exclusive: Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner, whose Hazy Mills reimagined the Brothers Grimm tales as the brooding, dark supernatural cop drama Grimm, are looking to bring the literary classics by another famous writer, William Shakespeare, to television as a drama series set in present day America.

NBC has put in development The Stratford, a one-hour drama from Vincent Angell (The Rookie), Hazy Mills and Universal TV, where the company is based.

Written by Angell, The Stratford is set in a New York luxury hotel and centers on a young man’s search for his father’s killer in a modern reimagination of a Shakespearean world.

Behind the modern exterior, the characters in the show would be revealed to be updated versions of classic Shakesperean characters.

Angell executive produces the drama, whose title is a nod to Shakespeare’s birthplace, with Hayes and Milliner via their Hazy Mills. Universal TV is the studio.

How To Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life) creator Claudia Lonow has signed with Gersh.

Lonow, who is under an overall deal at Universal Television, has created four shows that have gone to air: Accidentally On Purpose for CBS, Rude Awakening for Showtime, Good Girl’s Don’t for Oxygen and How To Live With Your Parents for ABC. She most recently served as co-executive producer on NBC comedy series I Feel Bad and consulting producer on Crowded. Lonow currently has single-camera comedy Fan Girl in development at Peacock with Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner’s Hazy Mills, under her Uni TV deal.

This is the latest showrunner signing at Gersh since it earlier this year became the first major full-service talent agency to enter a franchise agreement with the WGA. Lonow joins fellow new clients longtime The Simpsons executive producer/showrunner Al Jean and film...

After making a handful of award-winning shorts, Filipina filmmaker Antoinette Jadaone made her feature debut in 2011 with “Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay” that received considerable festival play, including at Busan in 2012.

Her 2014 film, “That Thing Called Tadhana” is one of the highest grossing independent films in the Philippines. In addition, Jadaone has directed several studio-backed mainstream romantic comedies and dramas. Her “Fan Girl” that was at the Busan international Film Festival’s 2018 Asian Project Market is in post-production now. She returns to the project market with “Boldstar”, a project that was conceptualized in 2016 and is being realized now.

“Around 20 years ago, the soft porn genre was all the rage in Philippine cinema,” Jadaone told Variety. “We had what we call ‘boldstars,’ the female protagonists in these usually low-budget, but high-grossing, ‘bold’ films. Then the rom-com genre began to rise to popularity, and the boldstars were replaced by the quirky leading ladies.

Competition for places at the Busan festival’s Asian Project Market is tougher than ever. While market organizers are sticking to their familiar format – 29 projects to be pitched over three days – the number of hopeful candidates this year increased by 30% to 401, hailing from 69 countries.

The lineup, announced on Wednesday, comprises a mixture of Korean auteur projects, others from the rest of Asia, and a growing number of projects that connect Asia and Europe.

The selection includes well-known directors such as Japan’s Yukisada Isao, presenting “Soundtrack of an Eternal Day,” and Thailand’s Kongdej Jaturanrasmee, with “Where We Belong.” Singapore’s Yeo Siew Hua, whose “A Land Imagined” appears this week in competition in Locarno, will be in Busan with “Stranger Eyes.”

Leading producers also feature in the lineup. China’s indie film icon Jia Zhangke will present “Without End, Without Doubt,” to be directed by Gong Wen. Bianca Balbuena,...

This year’s one of the most anticipated films, Kaalakaandi, is all set to release this Friday on 12th January, 2018. The film which is a dark comedy based on three different stories in Mumbai where fate intertwines and destinies bump into each other is a story about life, death and karma! Directed by Akshat Verma, the film stars Saif Ali Khan along with the eclectic ensemble of Deepak Dobriyal, Vijay Raaz, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Sobhita Dhulipala, Akshay Oberoi, Isha Talwar, Shenaz Treasury, Shivam Patil, Amyra Dastur and Neil Bhoopalam.

First to set the stage Icymi check out the trailer!

Now we have 5 very cool and interesting facts about the film!

1. Kaalakaandi marks Saif Ali Khan’s 60th Film

The very versatile actor Saif Ali Khan has spent 25 years in Bollywood entertaining his audiences with some of his best films like Dil Chahta Hai, Salaam Namaste, Omkara, Being Cyrus, etc is...

Earlier this year it was announced that James Wan was producing a new MacGyver TV series for CBS. Well, the network has cast Lucas Till in the title role. Till plays Havoc in the X-Men films. The guy is a talented young actor, and I think he has the perfect MacGyver look. This is a perfect role for him to play, and it will be great to see how he makes the character his own. Joshua Boone (Fan Girl) was also cast in the role of Gunner, who is MacGyver’s best friend.

According to Deadline, the young Angus MacGyver (Till), “is recruited into the clandestine organization from the original series where he uses his knack for solving problems in unconventional ways to help prevent disasters from happening. The drama serves as a prequel to the original series, in which MacGyver was played by Richard Dean Anderson.”

I enjoyed watching...

CBS has found its young MacGyver in X-Men co-star Lucas Till. The 25-year-old actor will play the title role in the CBS drama pilot MacGyver, a reimagining of the 1985 series about a resourceful and ingenious agent who improvises his way out of sticky situations using everyday items like rubber bands, chewing gum and a Swiss Army knife. Also cast in the project, from CBS TV Studios, is Joshua Boone (Fan Girl). The pilot, co-written by Paul Downs Colaizzo and Brett Mahoney…...

Dominic Fumusa (Nurse Jackie), Antonio Jaramillo (Shades Of Blue) and Nadia Alexander (Fan Girl) have booked series regular roles in The Wilding, USA Network's two-hour backdoor pilot from Universal Cable Prods and executive producers Tim Kring and writer-creator Silka Luisa. In The Wilding, disparate people across North Carolina realize they're connected by the same haunting. Their only hope is a fractured family battling the repercussions of a teenage pregnancy…...

Rest assured, humanity. Although style icon Kiernan Shipka is someone who, at 15, dresses better than we ever have in our entire lives, she can also get just as awkward as the rest of us do when confronted with a celeb she's totally obsessed with. Shipka channels that fangirl energy into her newest movie, Fan Girl, which debuts tonight at 9 p.m. on ABC Family, when she plays teenage filmmaker Telulah Farrow, a.k.a. the No. 1 fan of the band All Time Low, who decides to make a movie about her music idols. E! News has an exclusive sneak peek of the first meeting between Telulah and All Time Low singer Alex Gaskarth, and—spoiler alert!—it doesn't exactly go well for the tongue-tied...

We've seen "Mad Men" star Kiernan Shipka grow up on the hit AMC show, but with the series saying goodbye this past spring, the teenage actress is now spreading her wings with some interesting indie films. Earlier this year "One And Two" hit the Berlin International Film Festival, and now comes "Fan Girl," and today we have an exclusive clip from the picture. Read More: The Best 10 Episodes of 'Mad Men'  Co-starring Kara Haywood ("Moonrise Kingdom") and newcomer Joshua Boone, the story follows Telulah Farrow, an ironic high school cool girl who has two obsessions in life: pop punk music and making films. With just a few short days to come up with a killer final film project that could bring festival fame, Telulah gets a once in a lifetime chance to see her music idols in concert. She hatches a plan to bring her passions together, accompanied by smart mouthed wing-girl Jamie,...

From June to 18, Film Independent's Los Angeles Film Festival returns to downtown's La Live with 74 feature films, 60 short films and over 50 new media works representing 35 countries. The festival has just added a 15th anniversary screening of Gina Prince-Bythewood's "Love & Basketball," Robert Zemeckis' "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and more. Also announced today, the annual Coffee Talks Panels featuring actors Kathryn Hahn, David Koechner, Bryce Dallas Howard and Alfre Woodard, "Jurassic World" director Colin Trevorrow and more. The Festival will also host a special panel on the Un about filmmaking and a special Members only screening of "Fan Girl," starring Kiernan Shipka. Love & Basketball, dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood Gina Prince Bythewood's ode to romance on the court - and the competitive efforts to keep romance alive off the hardwood - stars Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps as friends whose lifelong relationship...