Movie News

Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite” leads the race of this year’s Asian Film Awards, which will be hosted in his home country South Korea for the first time since the prize ceremony’s inception in 2007. The acclaimed drama picked up 10 nominations, including best film, best director and best screenplay.

“Parasite” was closely followed by Wang Xiaoshuai’s drama “So Long, My Son” from mainland China, and Taiwan drama “A Sun” by Chung Mong-hong. They each scored seven nominations including best film and best director, organizers of the 14th Asian Film Awards announced on Wednesday. A total of 39 films from 11 countries and regions are competing for the awards.

Founded by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, the AFAs have been staged in Hong Kong and Macau since their launch. In 2013, three major film festivals in Asia — Busan, Hong Kong and Tokyo — joined hands to launch the non-profit Afa Academy,

Hong Kong-based sales agency Asian Shadow has picked up international rights to migrant drama film, “Along The Sea.” Directed by Fujimoto Akio, it will get its world premiere in the New Directors competition at San Sebastian later this month.

The film follows three young Vietnamese women who find menial work in Japan, but abscond, turning themselves into illegal immigrants.

It is that are thing, a Japan-Vietnam co-production and involves Japan’s E.x.N K.K. and Vetnam’s ever rolling films. The film is produced by Kazutaka Watanabe, Josh Levy and Nguyen Le Hang.

“Along The Sea” is the third collaboration between the producer Watanabe and Fujimoto after Fujimoto’s debut feature “Passage of Life” and short film “Bleached Bones Avenue.”

Based between Japan and Myanmar, Fujimoto makes drama-films that are inspired by true stories of immigrants living and working in Japan, whose life conditions are reason for concerns.

Fan Bingbing stars as an emperor’s wife having her portrait painted in this artful yet inert period drama

This French-Chinese co-production about an earlier French-Chinese collaboration offers handsome pageantry amid its lavish recreation of 18th-century imperial court life, but it isn’t quite enough to compensate for a puttering narrative motor. Longtime Apichatpong Weerasethakul producer Charles de Meaux has turned director with a far eastern equivalent of Girl With a Pearl Earring – another decorous, ever so slightly sleepy matinee sit.

The film’s subject is Jean-Denis Attiret (played by Melvil Poupaud), a real-life French Jesuit missionary who spent half of his 60-odd years employed as the Chinese court painter. His trickiest commission, recalled here, came from the emperor’s bored wife (Fan Bingbing), thirsting to preserve an image that might turn her indifferent husband’s head.

While the pandemic has reduced film festivals’ capacity to showcase new work, an all-singing all-dancing Spanish-Italian number has been selected for two.

“Explota Explota” (“My Heart Goes Boom!”), the assured debut feature of music promo and commercials director Nacho Álvarez, will receive an Rtve Gala Screening at the San Sebastian Festival next week and has also made the selection for the Toronto Festival’s market screenings.

Set in dictator Francisco Franco’s Spain during the 1970s, the musical comedy tells an unlikely love story between an aspiring dancer (“Beautiful Youth’s” Ingrid García-Jonnson) and the man who must censor her.

Inspired by “Mamma Mia” and “Hairspray,” Álvarez – brother of Uruguayan Fede Álvarez (“Evil Dead” “Don’t Breathe”) – takes the songs of popular singer, dancer and actress Raffaella Carrà and threads them into a story of forbidden love.

While some might balk at making a musical as their debut feature, Álvarez tells

Production was halted in March due to the virus crisis, which saw Hanks contract Covid-19.

Baz Luhrmann’s musical drama Elvis about Elvis Presley is to begin principal photography in Australia on September 23, after production was halted due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Tom Hanks has returned to the country to play the musician’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, after being hospitalised in Australia with Covid-19 in mid-March alongside his wife Rita Wilson. He will begin shooting after two weeks in quarantine.

The Warner Bros feature portrays Elvis as seen through the prism of his complicated relationship with Parker. Austin Butler

Physical festival had been due to take place in Marrakech with new new artistic director Remi Bonhomme at the helm.

The Marrakech International Film Festival Foundation in Morocco has cancelled its festival component and moved its industry-focused Atlas Workshops online, in response to the ongoing health concerns around the Covid-19 pandemic.

Talent and project development event the Altlas Workshops was launched in 2018.

It distinguishes itself from other industry meetings in the Middle East by its focus on both Arab and African filmmakers and aims to act a bridge between the industries of both regions. 

The third edition will take place

Feature is produced by long-time Kirill Serebrennikov collaborator Hype Film in Moscow.

Paris-based Pulsar Content is launching sales on Russian-language serial killer crime thriller The Execution at TIFF, with XYZ Films on board to handle North American sales. It started shooting in Russia on September 9.

The thriller is inspired by the case of an infamous Soviet-era serial killer who eluded police for a decade.

It is the latest production from Moscow-based company Hype Film, the producer of Kirill Serebrennikov’s Leto and upcoming Petrov’s Flu as well as titles such as Persian Lessons and Sputnik.

The thriller marks the

Sf Studios will release the comedy in Sweden in December.

Studiocanal is launching world sales on Tomas Alfredson’s Swedish-language feature The Jonsson Gang as Toronto gets underway today.

The film, which is in the final stages of post-production, is a reboot of a Swedish comedy film series which began in the 1980s, and produced eight feature titles. Sf Studios is releasing the title in Sweden this December.

The Jonsson Gang is about a thief who, on release from prison, finds his gang have become law-abiding citizens and he must continue on his own. But when he is tasked with a bigger job than expected,

Singapore’s 108 Media has picked up international sales duties on Indian drama film “Lorni – The Flaneur.” Directed by Wanphrang K, Diengdoh, the film had its premiere at the Black Nights festival in Tallinn in November last year. I twill be pitched by 108 Media on the side lines of the Toronto International Film Festival this week.

Starring Adil Hussain, the film is a character study of a self-styled detective who escapes boredom when he begins probing the disappearance of objects of great cultural value. That sets him navigating narrow streets and dark alleys, and embarking on an emotional and mental journey, that forces him to reflect on his own reality and that of his home.

The title refers to the Khasi word “Lorni” which means inquisitive person. The film is primarily presented in English and Khasi, with some Hindi. It was shot around the city of Shillong, in Meghalaya, India.

Willis reprises his role as cheque-cashing frontman in this mind-numbing actioner, also starring Jesse Metcalfe

Anyone hoping Bruce Willis might enjoy a career renaissance after his rediscovery in M Night Shyamalan’s Split and Glass: lower those expectations now. Here’s Willis back in his familiar 21st-century guise of cheque-cashing frontman for tuppenny-ha’penny video-on-demand fare, drafted in to deliver terse exposition before ceding the screen to no-names with slightly more give in their knees. All evidence would suggest he spent more time than usual on this film set, albeit much of that lassoed to a chair with an extravagant snood to keep him cosy. As ex-Marine turned embattled CEO Donovan Chalmers, Willis is operating in that grey area between zero fuss and not much effort.

The main event is a nondescript shuffle around some hoary old cliches, strewn with abysmal dialogue and filmed by someone who has played a lot of first-person shooters.

Partners will release 10 to 12 films a year in UK and Ireland.

US distributor Saban Films is entering the UK distribution market in a partnership with Altitude Media Group.

The alliance will see Saban and Altitude release 10 to 12 films annually in the UK and Ireland starting in October. The initial slate includes Bruce Willis action films Cosmic Sin and Reactor.

Saban will spearhead acquisitions of the films and expects to pick up UK rights on approximately one-third of its annual film buys.

Altitude will also bring content to Saban, as it did when Saban boarded two US releases at an early

Studiocanal will handle worldwide sales at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival on “The Jonsson Gang” from “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “Let The Right One In” director Tomas Alfredson.

A reboot of a successful Swedish film series, “The Jonsson Gang” follows a gang gone legit who reunite for one last heist. It stars Henrik Dorsin (“Triangle of Sadness”), Hedda Stiernstedt (“The Restaurant”), David Sundin (“Taskmaster”), Myanna Buring (“Downton Abbey”) and Lena Olin (“Chocolate”).

Alfredson said: “‘The Jonsson Gang’ is based on a film series from the 1980’s that practically every living Swedish person has seen. An international audience mostly knows my work with intimidating vampires and sullen spies, while most of my work has been comedic. It’s been a lot of fun to return to something laughable and we look forward to finding a worldwide audience with Studiocanal.”

The film is written by Alfredson, Henrik Dorsin and Rikard Ulvshammar,

The film spotlights the archaic methods used in Australian shark control programmes.

UK-based sales outfit Film Seekers has boarded world sales on shark conservation documentary Envoy: Shark Cull and is introducing the title to international buyers at Toronto International Film Festival (September 10-19).

The film is directed by Australian environmentalist Andre Borell, and narrated by Australian actor Eric Bana. It is in the final stages of post-production.

Envoy: Shark Cull focuses on the tactics used by the governments of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia to control sharks. The documentary contends the methods are scientifically disproven, posing a threat to shark populations,

Dennis Hopper meets Orson Welles: That sounds like an oil-and-water match-up of legendary filmmakers. Welles, for all his renegade gusto, was a defrocked classicist — maybe (or maybe not) the greatest film director who ever lived, and one who became the ultimate high-toned Hollywood dropout. Whereas Hopper, the scraggly counterculture bad boy, launched his career as a director with “Easy Rider,” at which point he had already, in essence, dropped out. (He made dropping out seem the aesthetic cutting edge of the New Hollywood.) Yet for one long, boozy rambling evening in November 1970, these two men who barely knew each other sat around the dingy brick-walled den of a rented home in Beverly Hills, lit by hurricane lamps and a flickering fire, shooting the breeze and sizing each other up as cross-generational kindred spirits.

“Hopper/Welles” is a fascinating curiosity. It’s two hours and 11 minutes long, and the entire

Lebanese director Ely Dagher’s “Harvest” (see interview here), a drama about a young woman contending with identity issues on returning to Beirut after a long stint abroad, is the standout title in this year’s Final Cut in Venice workshop – part of the Venice Film Festival – which provides post-production support and partnership opportunities to films from Africa and the Arab world.

This debut feature by Dagher – whose short “Waves ‘98” was awarded the short film Palme d’Or at the 68th Cannes Film Festival – investigates the identity on many levels of Jana, a woman in her mid-twenties who returns to Beirut after having failed to succeed in her independent life abroad, according to promotional materials.

The Venice Biennale jury, made up of Marie-Pierre Macia, Antonio Medici, and Michel Zana, praised “Harvest” for its “original look at the existential questions of the new generation” in Lebanon today. They pointed out that

Director, Baz Luhrmann has confirmed that production will restart imminently on his untitled Elvis Presley movie. Tom Hanks, the film’s co-star has already returned to Australia, where he previously contracted Covid-19.

Production in Queensland will start from Sept. 23, Luhrmann said in a statement. The Warner Bros.-backed film was in advanced stages of pre-production in March, when Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive for the coronavirus.

“We’re back to, as Elvis liked to say, ‘taking care of business!’ It is a real privilege in this unprecedented global moment that Tom Hanks has been able to return to Australia to join Austin Butler and all of our extraordinary cast and crew to commence production on Elvis,” said Luhrmann.

“I cannot emphasize enough how lucky we feel in the current climate that the state of Queensland, and Queenslanders in general, have been so supportive of this film. We

Geraldine Viswanathan stands out in this conventional but funny would-be romcom of the summer

Geraldine Viswanathan is a 25-year-old Australian actor and comedian of Indian descent who has appeared in a handful of movie-stealing supporting roles, including Blockers and The Package. Now comes a romcom vehicle for her leading actor talents, written and directed by Natalie Krinsky (whose script credits include Gossip Girl and Grey’s Anatomy). The Broken Hearts Gallery was supposed to be the big romcom of the summer – a little something for the ladies while their beaux piled into Tenet, possibly. Finally arriving in cinemas this weekend, it is something of a letdown: a funny but conventional glossy romcom. But there is no messing with Viswanathan, who is undoubtedly the main attraction.

She plays funny and unfiltered Lucy, an art gallery assistant who has a quirky-stroke-creepy collection of mementos from past relationships cluttering her bedroom in a Brooklyn flatshare.

An array of buzzy new films will be shown at a combination of socially distanced physical premieres and virtual screenings

Stars including Kate Winslet and Mark Wahlberg will be unveiling new Oscar-aiming films at an unconventional Toronto film festival over the next two weeks.

The festival, typically viewed as a major stop on the trail to awards, will consist of a combination of socially distanced physical premieres and virtual screenings as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Non-Canadian press have been advised to cover the festivities from home.

Carrie Lozano — award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, lecturer and co-founder of the International Documentary Association’s Enterprise Documentary Fund — was announced today as the new Director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program. She succeeds interim director Kristin Feeley and prior director Tabitha Jackson, who became the head of the Sundance Film Festival this past January. From the press release: As Documentary Film Program Director, Lozano will elevate and support nonfiction filmmakers worldwide at all stages of creating and distributing new cinematic work. She will also work to advance and elevate the health of the independent nonfiction field, ensuring that […]

“‘Forrest Gump’ with a mantra” — that’s the underlying premise, in a nutshell, of “Meeting the Beatles in India,” which has filmmaker Paul Saltzman recounting the week he spent hanging with the Beatles under the tutelage of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during their famous sojourn to the ashram in 1968. Saltzman has a tale to tell in having been nearly the only non-entourage-member along for the enlightenment alongside the Beatles for that legendary spiritual/media event. By virtue of the camera in his backpack, he also ended up being a house photographer, too… although he forgot about the wealth of stills in his basement for several decades afterward, maybe offering proof that there’s such a thing as too much meditation.

It’s all good reason enough for Saltzman to turn the camera on himself and a few choice expert witnesses here, even if none of the anecdotes or insights are especially profound.