Asian Film Festivals and Awards

Martial Media, Culture and Other Arts Martial Media and Popular Culture
101

Screen Actors Guild Awards

Hmm, no thread on the SAG Awards? Well, that’s easily remedied.

Winners selected for those we’ve discusses as always.

CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE
RECIPIENT
PARASITE

Outstanding Performance by a
MALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
RECIPIENT
JOAQUIN PHOENIX
Joker

Outstanding Performance by a
MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
RECIPIENT
BRAD PITT
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood

Outstanding Performance by a
MALE ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
RECIPIENT
PETER DINKLAGE
Game of Thrones

STUNT ENSEMBLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
RECIPIENT
AVENGERS: ENDGAME

THREADS
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Asian Film Festivals and Awards
GOT
Parasite
Joker
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Endgame

102

HKIFF44 cancelled

Variety
Jul 23, 2020 10:39pm PT
Hong Kong Film Festival is Canceled as Coronavirus Continues to Take Toll
By Patrick Frater


Courtesy of HKIFF

The Hong Kong International Film Festival, set to have taken place in the second half of August, has been canceled.

The festival had previously rescheduled its 44th edition from its usual slot in March, due to the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak. It had set Aug 18-31 Aug. instead.

But, with the city now facing a third wave of the virus, organizers on Friday bowed to the inevitable and announced the cancellation of HKIFF44 and the smaller Cine Fan activities in September and October.

They said that the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), one of Asia’s longest running film project markets, will go ahead as planned in virtual form. It will run Aug. 26-28.

“While it is tremendously deflating, given all the hard work that we have put in, the well-being of our colleagues and the public is of utmost importance to us. Calling of HKIFF44 is heartbreaking, but we believe we have a duty to behave with social responsibility,” said Albert Lee, executive director. “We will start working in the next edition of the festival straight away. We are determined to make up for the ‘lost’ HKIFF44.”

Last month it was announced that Hong Kong FilMart, the largest film rights market in Asia, had given up on plans to be held in physical form this year. Instead, FilMart will migrate to a virtual platform, FILMART Online, running Aug. 26-29, 2020. The problem at the time was not specific to Hong Kong, but more reflected other cities being put on lockdown, and travel difficulties among Asian territories.

Hong Kong had seemed to manage the disease well through testing, contact tracing and quarantines that stifled a first dose of coronavirus in February, and a second wave in March-April brought on by residents returning from abroad. But the city is now suffering a third wave that is more serious than either of the two earlier outbreaks.

Cinemas have been closed for nearly two weeks, restaurants and bars must close at 6pm, and mask-wearing has become compulsory on public transport and at all indoor public spaces, such as shopping malls.

The territory’s government has rejected claims that it created too many quarantine exception categories and allowed new imported cases to restart local infections. But epidemiologists Friday said that is exactly what happened and point to the genetics of the recent COVID-19 cases that consist of strains that were not previously present in the city.

To date Hong Kong has recorded 2,132 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. It has caused 16 deaths.

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103

2nd Chungju International Martial Arts and Action Film Festival

2nd Chungju International Martial Arts and Action Film Festival back online and offline
Asia Coronavirus Updates News
Paul Colston October 13, 2020


The 2nd Chungju International Martial Arts and Action Film Festival will open, 22-26 October, 2020, in South Korea.

Held for the first time in August last year in Cheongju and Chungju the event was the only film festival in martial arts and modern action genre in Korea.

The Covid-19 pandemic has meant pushing back this year’s 2nd Festival to October and films will be screened both online and offline via Wavve, an online screening platform, as well as at drive-in theatres and cinemas in the city. In addition, the Festival’s executive committee is taking all necessary health and safety preventive measures.

Under the slogan of ‘The Spirit of Martial Arts, Blossom into a Movie’, a large number of martial arts and action films, which are yet to be introduced in Korea, will be shown as part of a collaboration, including with The Fighting Spirit Film Festival in the UK and the Universal Martial Arts Film Festival in France.

Over 70 martial arts and action films will be screened in six sections, including Korean Action Films: Hall of Fame, Special Show in Honour of Bruce Lee, World Action Films, Action! Indi-days, Family Action Films, and Programmer Choice.

More information on the Chungju International Martial Arts and Action Film Festival is available at: www.cimaff.kr

Bruce Lee Chungju International Martial Arts and Action Film Festival

Paul Colston
Managing Editor, Conference News & Conference & Meetings World.

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104

One Second at the Golden Roosters

Nov 10, 2020 8:39pm PT[URL=“https://variety.com/2020/film/news/zhang-yimou-one-second-golden-rooster-festival-awards-1234827791/”]
Zhang Yimous Censored One Second to Debut at Government-Run Golden Rooster Festival

By Rebecca Davis


Photographer:BAIXIAOYAN

Zhang Yimous censored film One Second apparently now finds itself in the Chinese governments good books: it has been given pride of place as the opener at the government-run Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival.

The film was initially set to premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2019. But its treatment of the still sensitive Cultural revolution period is believed to have been its undoing. It was abruptly pulled from the festival due to technical reasons, a common euphemism for censorship, in one of the highest profile cases of Chinese state intervention seen abroad in recent years.

Now, after apparent reshoots and, at long last, government approvals for a Nov. 27 commercial theatrical release, it is set to debut at the festival in Xiamen city on Nov. 25.

Zhangs premiere likely seeks to add glitz and a bit of legitimacy to the Roosters, which critics have historically scoffed at as a propagandistic affair of little relevance outside of China, and focused more on political bona fides than artistic merit.

The 33rd iteration of the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival and its accompanying Golden Rooster Award ceremony will run from Nov. 25 to 28. It seeks to rival the Taipei-based Golden Horse Awards, which have historically been the most prestigious awards issued to Chinese language cinema.

The Taipei event had angered Chinese authorities in 2018 by issuing a prize to a pro-Taiwan independence filmmaker who expressed her views on stage during an acceptance speech, causing retaliation from China.

Last year, Beijing scheduled its Golden Rooster Awards for the same day as the Golden Horse ceremony and banned all mainland industry players from attending. It also announced that the Golden Rooster festival will now take place annually instead of bi-annually, as it had been since 2005, and gave the event a permanent home in the coastal Xiamen, which lies just half hour ferrys ride away from Taiwans Kinmen island.

The festival portion of the mainland event is broken into two sections, with one showcasing around 20 local mainland productions and the other exhibiting around 40 international films, including ones from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Founded in 1981, the Golden Rooster Awards honor films that have been reviewed and approved by the National Film Bureau that is, passed official Chinese censorship between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020 according to the official Xinhua news agency. It is sponsored by the China Film Association and China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and operates with the approval of the Central Propaganda Bureau, the agency added.

This year, prizes will be given out across 18 categories. The youth drama Better Days is the most nominated film, with 11 nods. Volleyball drama Leap and crime thriller Sheep Without a Shepherd, a remake of the 2013 Indian film Drishyam, come in second with eight nominations apiece.

(Although Leap was scheduled to premiere in January, it didnt end up hitting cinemas until Sept. 25 due to COVID-19 theater closures, and is likely the reason why this year the event specify that titles approved but not necessarily screened within the year-long time frame are eligible for prizes.)

The five nominees for best narrative feature film include three directed by helmers from outside the mainland. They include: Leap, from Hong Kongs Peter Chan; Hong Kong director Derek Tsangs youth drama Better Days; Sheep Without a Shepherd from Malaysia-born director Sam Quah; Mongolian language film Chaogtu with Sarula, which won the best artistic contribution award at the Tokyo Intl. Film Festival last year; Spring Tide, a family drama from female helmer Yang Lina; and no surprise propagandistic National Day film My People, My Country, created as a tribute to the ruling Communist Party.

There are six nominees for best director: all the helmers of the five above titles, plus the duo Shen Zhou and Liu Lu for their film Almost a Comedy, which grossed just $28 million.

Best actor nominees include TFBoy boy band idol Jackson Yee (Better Days), Da Peng (in rom-com My Dear Liar), Xiao Yang (Sheep Without a Shepherd), Wu Yuhan (Almost A Comedy), and Huang Xiaoming (The Bravest).

Best actress nominees include Zhou Dongyu (Better Days), Tan Zhuo (Sheep Without a Shepherd), Ren Suxi (Almost a Comedy), Liu Yan (My Dear Liar), and Zhu Xijuan (The Empty Nest).

There are only four nominees for best screenplay, a category that encompasses both original and adapted works. They are the writers of Sheep Without a Shepherd, Leap, Better Days, and Almost a Comedy.

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One Second

105

Hkiff

Jan 12, 2021 10:20pm PT[URL=“https://variety.com/2021/film/asia/hong-kong-film-festival-plans-hybrid-edition-1234884222/”]
Hong Kong Film Festival Makes Plans for Hybrid Edition

By Patrick Frater


Courtesy of Celestial Tiger Entertainment
The Hong Kong International Film Festival, delayed last year by the coronavirus outbreak, has announced plans to return to its normal Springtime slot. But with a lingering virus impact, the 2021 edition will be a hybrid, combining both in-theatre and online screenings and audience-engagement events.

Executive director Albert Lee said that a hybrid 45th edition would allow audiences to connect through an online platform without sacrificing the irreplaceable big-screen cinematic experience. The event will run for 12 days, April 1-12, 2021.

Selectors expect to have confirmed the full program by the end of February. They have scheduled a line-up announcement for March 9, 2021.

“The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted the international film festival circuit last year. Many festivals, including our very own HKIFF44, were either cancelled or forced to move online,” said Lee.

“With the pandemic showing few signs of abating, we recognize the proactive need to confront the challenges by adding an online component to our festival for the first time.” Besides screenings, the festival will offer online streaming of some of the seminars, post-screening talks, and other events.

“The HKIFF Society will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely and comply with every health measure mandated by the government. Public safety remains our paramount concern,” Lee said.

The Hong Kong FilMart and Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum, which sometimes overlap with the festival, will this year both be held earlier, in March. An all-digital FilMart will run March 15-18, 2021, and HAF operate March 15-17, 2021.

Hong Kong has endured several surges of the virus over the past year. The current fourth wave is the most serious in terms of infections, but has caused relatively fewer deaths. Cinemas and most entertainment facilities in the city are currently shut.

A total of 612 cases was recorded in the 14 days from Dec. 29, 2020 to Jan. 11, 2021, including 555 local cases, of which 173 were from unknown sources. Since the beginning of the outbreak, Hong Kong has recorded 9,344 infections and 160 fatalities.

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106

Where the Wind Blows

Mar 29, 2021 6:59am PT[URL=“https://variety.com/2021/film/asia/hong-kong-festival-cancels-opening-film-where-the-wind-blows-1234939989/”]
Hong Kong Film Festival Cancels Opening Movie, Citing Unspecified Technical Reasons

By Patrick Frater


Shaw Organization
The Hong Kong International Film Festival has announced the cancelation of its world premiere screening of crime thriller “Where the Wind Blows.” The move appears to be part of the accelerating ‘mainlandization’ of Hong Kong’s entertainment industry.

The festival said Monday evening in a statement that screenings of “Where the Wind Blows” (previously known “Theory of Ambitions”) had been cancelled at the request of the film’s owner.

“Upon request from the film owner, the screenings of ‘Where the Winds Blows’ originally scheduled at 5.30 p.m. on 1 April and 2.30 p.m. on 4 April are cancelled due to technical reasons,” the festival said in a statement in English and Chinese.

The film was produced by Hong Kong’s Mei Ah Film Production in a co-venture with mainland Chinese firms Dadi Century and Global Group. Its production budget has been reported as $38 million.

The film is directed by Philip Yung, who made the acclaimed “Port of Call,” and stars Tony Leung Chiu-wai (“In the Mood for Love”) and superstar singer-actor Aaron Kwok (“Monkey King,” “Cold War”). Kwok was additionally named as the festival’s goodwill ambassador.

Rooted in the long-established vein of Hong Kong crime films, “Where the Wind Blows” “depicts the friendship and rivalry between two ambitious detectives who form dangerous alliances with organized crime,” according to the HKIFF catalog. The IMDd synopsis describes it slightly differently: “A corrupt police sergeant’s career is curtailed by the launch of Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption.”

“Technical reasons” is widely understood in mainland China as a euphemism for censorship. It was the phrase used for the abrupt cancelation of Zhang Yimou’s “One Second” at the 2019 Berlin film festival and for the last-minute halt of “The Eight Hundred” which had been set as the opening film at the Shanghai festival later the same year.

Portraying corruption on screen has previously been difficult for filmmakers on the mainland. In contrast, Hong Kong filmmakers, including Johnny To, Andrew Lau, Longman Leung, Felix Chong and Alan Mak, have reveled in dramatic and exciting portrayals of crime, corruption and abuse of power.

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper had reported that Mei Ah previously aimed to release the film at the end of 2018. But it was then thwarted by the mainland’s National Radio and Television Administration because the film dealt with police corruption and Triad organized crime gangs.

What makes the latest case harder and more perplexing is that “Where the Wind Blows” is set in the 1960s and the period of British colonial rule; nor have Hong Kong films previously followed mainland edicts within Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, specifies that the Special Administrative Region has the ability to set its own policies on matters such as culture, education and technical standards. Hong Kong has never previously applied the mainland Chinese system of movie censorship, and instead operates the kind of ratings or classification system that is widely used in western democracies.

However, since Beijing’s injection of the National Security Law into Hong Kong law and the shutdown of the pro-democracy camp’s ability to act as legislators, the entertainment, arts and media sectors have increasingly become the focus of scrutiny.

Award-winning pro-democracy documentary film “Behind the Red Brick Wall” was pulled from cinemas earlier this month before it could get a commercial screening. Hong Kong broadcasters have followed the example of mainland media and ditched their plans to screen the Oscars ceremony, where another democracy movement film “Do Not Split” has been nominated in the short documentary category. And public broadcaster RTHK has been repeatedly sanctioned over matters such as satirizing the police and its investigative journalism techniques. In recent weeks, pro-Beijing lawmakers have asked for artworks by exiled Chinese artist Ai Weiwei to be removed from the new M+ Museum at the West Kowloon Cultural Centre.

The 45th edition of HKIFF is scheduled to run April 1-12, 2021.

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107

Pingyao Film Festival

Jun 1, 2021 3:21am PT[URL=“https://variety.com/2021/film/asia/jia-zhangke-pingyao-film-festival-return-1234985305/”]
Jia Zhangke and Pingyao Film Festival to Return for Fifth Edition

By Patrick Frater


PYIFF
Iconic Chinese indie film director Jia Zhangke is to make a return to the Pingyao International Film Festival that he founded and which he famously quit at the end of the October 2020 edition. His new role remains somewhat murky.

Jia was a speaker at a launch event Tuesday in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, used to announce the festival’s dates, the appointment of Lin Xudong as artistic director, and confirm other staffing arrangements for the next edition. The fifth edition will run in the ancient city, close to Jia’s birthplace, Oct. 12-19, 2021.

Last year Jia dropped a bombshell at the festival’s final day press conference and announced that he was standing down. He discussed succession and leadership issues, dropped hints about financial issues with the Pingyao city government and appeared to take issue with a takeover of the festival by the Shanxi authorities.

The abrupt nature of Jia’s exit added to the concerns of recent years that Chinese film festivals are being pulled closer into government control and that Jia’s larger than life, indie-style may have become a liability, rather than an asset.

“I should’ve left [the festival] earlier and begun to groom a new team to take over the festival, so that this festival can get rid of ‘Jia Zhangke’s shadow’,” Jia himself said last year.

The 2021 festival has indeed been “upgraded to provincial level,” according to a statement, meaning that it will be jointly operated by the Pingyao Film Festival Co., Ltd. and Shanxi Film Academy of Shanxi Communication University. But the same announcement also proclaimed that the festival will “maintain the original program structure and its existing characteristics,” and also “start again with a new attitude.”

Jia went on record to thank local officials for their “care and attention to PYIFF” and said this was “powerful motivation” to continue. His exact role remains unclear. “This year, I hope to be the chief experience officer, to join the audience watching films and meeting filmmakers in the cinema,” he said.

Jia may not get to apply his ideological heft directly in the running of the festival, but he was allowed Tuesday to speak of the festival “usher(ing) in important strategic opportunities that cry for reform and innovation.”

And the 2021 selection team sees the return of several Jia allies. Former Venice and Locarno festival chief Marco Mueller becomes chief consultant, advising on general strategies and responsibility for selections of foreign language films.

Marie-Pierre Duhamel, Wu Jueren, Jeremy Chua, Alena Sumakova, Deepti D’Cunha, Tomita Mikiko, Sandra Hebron, and Diego Lerer, will return to assist Mueller selecting international films. No mention was made of the programmers selecting the Chinese-titles.

New artistic director Lin was described as a “film editor, film critic, documentary film researcher and painter.”

So he really didn’t quit at all then.

108

Shanghai Film Festival

Jun 7, 2021 10:16pm PT
Shanghai Film Festival Ticket Prices Exceed $550 as Demand Soars

By Rebecca Davis


Rurouni Kenshin The Final
Warner Bros. Japan
At a time when viewers around the world remain wary of returning to cinemas, the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) once again can’t keep up with local audiences. Demand is so high that viewers are paying enormous sums to get hold of scalped tickets, including more than $300 to see an art house film released more than two decades ago.

The festival sparks an annual online crush as film lovers vie Black Friday-style for its limited tickets the moment they’re released for sale. SIFF sold nearly 150,000 tickets within five minutes on the first day of sales in 2019, and more than 100,000 tickets in ten minutes last year, despite occurring as an in-person event just weeks after cinemas reopened for the first time post-COVID-19.

With theater capacity still capped at 75%, the event’s 2021 iteration set to run from June 11-20 has proved just as popular, despite the full line-up being announced just two days before sales began. More than 400 films will screen at SIFF this year, among them 73 world premieres, 42 international premieres, 89 Asian premieres and 99 Chinese premieres, totaling 303 premieres in all.

Ticket sales on the ticketing platform Taopiaopiao, the festival’s sole official online retailer, opened at 8AM local time last Friday. Frantic buyers crashed the platform’s app within the first minute of sales. By 8:05AM, the platform issued a public apology for technical difficulties and a related hashtag became a top 20 most searched term on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform.

The rush for tickets even ensnared a reporter for the government-run CCTV 6 movie channel doing a live demo of the ticket-buying process.

“It’s 8:01AM, and the Taopiaopiao app has already collapsed. Film fans across the entire country are all on here right now,” he said with a tinge of both hilarity and dejection as he repeatedly refreshed purchase pages for “Silence of the Lambs,” “The Godfather 3,” and “The Legend of 1900,” to no avail.

Sky-High Prices
Beyond the technical difficulties thwarting regular movie-goers are cabals of organized scalpers, who fall primarily into two categories: professionals snatching up spots for profitable resale, and passionate fans willing to do whatever it takes to secure a chance to watch their obsessions on the big screen.

Their combined efforts this year propelled tickets on the secondary market to upwards of 20 times their original price, despite efforts from players like Taopiaopiao to stamp out scalping channels such as the eBay-like secondhand sales Xianyu.

For example, while the original ticket price for the restored 4K version of Lee Chang-dong’s “Peppermint Candy” was $17 (RMB110) — already much higher than the national average of around $6 (RMB38) — scalped tickets sold for as much as $313 (RMB2,000).

“At RMB2,000 a ticket, do I get Lee Chang-dong sitting next to me as I watch?” one incredulous film fan joked on Weibo.

Japan Fever
For fans of Japanese content, SIFF screenings can offer a rare opportunity to interact with Japanese idols who rarely do publicity in China, such as Katayose Ryota, who hit the Shanghai red carpet in his first overseas festival appearance in 2019 to promote the animation “Ride Your Wave.”

This year, the most sought-after titles were again Japanese.

Leading the pack were screenings for the five live-action film adaptations of the popular manga “Rurouni Kenshin,” the first non-Hollywood blockbuster franchise to be invited to appear in SIFF’s film franchise section. Most hotly anticipated are the series’ latest two installments, “Rurouni Kenshin: The Final” and “Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning” — new releases that just debuted in Japan on April 23 and June 4, respectively, selling via scalpers at Shanghai for $280 (RMB1,800) a ticket.

Fans were also eager to get tickets to the world premiere of concert film “ARASHI Anniversary Tour 5 x 20 Film – Record of Memories.” It chronicles one of the last concerts of the 2018-2019 “5×20” tour of long-standing Japanese mega-group Arashi, now on an indefinite hiatus.

Tickets were available on Xianyu for up to $313 (RMB2,000), while at least one sold via a fan group went for a whopping $548 (RMB3,500). Even that is not yet the ceiling: a super-fan in Shenzhen put out a desperate plea over the weekend offering $1,560 (RMB10,000) for a ticket.

The film isn’t even subtitled in Chinese.

Many viewers end up hiring an intermediary team of professional ticket grabbers to nab spots on their behalf for fees that can hit over $100 per seat.

One group that stockpiled popular tickets sent interested buyers a menu of titles and prices between $188 and $282 (RMB1,200-RMB1,800).

“You can’t select a screening time for these tickets – you have to take whatever we give you,” the service explained. “If you can accept these prices, please contact us in two hours. Currently there are so many people asking that we don’t have time to respond.”

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109

Best film at Locarno

‘Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash’ Wins Locarno Film Festival
Indonesian director Edwin’s homage to and deconstruction of Asian 1980s action movies wins the Golden Leopard at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival. Dario Argento takes the lifetime achievement award.

BY SCOTT ROXBOROUGH

AUGUST 14, 2021 8:26AM

‘Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash’ THE MATCH FACTORY

Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash, Indonesian director Edwin’s homage to and deconstruction of 1980s ultra-violent Asian action movies, has won the Golden Leopard for best film at the 2021 Locarno International Film Festival.

The feature, an adaptation of the novel by Indonesian writer Eka Kurniawan, is a revenge tale involving a hired killer who uses violence to compensate for his public shame in being impotent and a female fighter who takes over his burden of vengeance. It stars Ajo Kawir and Ladya Cheryl. The Match Factory is handling international sales.

In a surprise announcement at the Locarno award ceremony, held Saturday, the festival gave its lifetime achievement award to Italian director Dario Argento The famed filmmaker behind horror classics Suspiria (1977) and Tenebrae (1982), was also honored for his surprising lead performance as an aging father in Gaspar Noé’s Vortex, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Leopard for best director went to New York veteran filmmaker Abel Ferrara for Zeros and Ones, a thriller starring Ethan Hawke as an American soldier assigned to a mysterious mission in Rome after the Vatican has been blown up.

The best actress honor went to Anastasiya Krasovskaya for her starring role in Natalya Kudryashova’s Russian drama Gerda. Mohamed Mellali and Valero Escolar took a joint best actor honor for The Odd-Job Men by Spanish filmmaker Neus Ballús. The surrealist comedy, which follows plumbers dealing with a series of eccentric clients, also won the European Cinemas Network honor for Best European film at Locarno. Beta Cinema is selling the movie worldwide.

In Locarno’s Concorso Cineasti del Presente sidebar of first and second films, Francesco Montagner’s documentary Brotherhood, which follows three Bosnian brothers, born into a family of shepherds, took the best film honor. The best emerging director award went to Hleb Papou for his drama The Legionnaire, about the only African-Italian officer in Rome’s riot police; Saskia Rosendahl won the best actress honor for her performance in Sabrina Sarabi’s No One’s With The Calves, with Gia Agumava taking the section’s best actor prize for his starring role in Elene Naveriani’s Wet Sand.

A special jury prize went to Émilie Aussel for the coming-of-age drama Our Eternal Summer. British director Charlotte Colbert took the best first feature honor for her debut, She Will, starring Malcolm McDowell, Alice Krige, and Rupert Everett.

The 74th Locarno International Film Festival wrapped up Aug. 14 with a gala screening of Liesl Tommy’s Aretha Franklin biopic Respect starring Jennifer Hudson.

The full list of 2021 Locarno Film Festival winners

Golden Leopard for Best Film

Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash, dir. Edwin

Special Jury Prize of the Cities of Ascona and Losone

A New Old Play, dir. Qui Jiongjiong

Leopard for Best Director

Abel Ferrara for Zeros and Ones

Leopard for Best Actress

Anastasiya Krasovskaya for Gerda, dir. Natalya Kudryashova

Leopard for Best Actor

Mohamed Mellali and Valero Escolar for The Odd-Job Men, dir. Neus Ballús

Special Mentions

Soul of a Beast, dir. Lorenz Merz

Espiritu Sagrado, dir. Chema García Ibarra

Concorso Cineasti del presente Awards

Leopard for Best Film

Brotherhood, dir. Francesco Montagner

Best Emerging Director

Hleb Papou for The Legionnaire

Special Jury Prize Ciné+

Our Eternal Summer, dir. Émilie Aussel

Leopard for Best Actress

Saskia Rosendahl for No One’s By The Calves, dir. Sabrina Sarabi

Leopard for Best Actor

Gia Agumava for Wet Sand, dir. Elene Naveriani

Best First Feature

She Will, dir. Charlotte Colbert

Special Mention

Holy Emy, dir. Araceli Lemos

Lifetime Achievement Award

Dario Argento

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Asian-Film-Festivals-and-Awards I know, I know, Locarno is in Italy. We don’t have a non-Asian Film Festival thread yet…

110

Pingyao Film Festival Awards

Oct 18, 2021 5:55pm PT[URL=“https://variety.com/2021/film/asia/pingyao-film-festival-2021-winners-karry-wang-1235092265/”]
China’s Pingyao Film Festival Awards Final Prizes Amid Deadly Floods, Collapsed City Walls and Idol Fan Pandemonium

By Rebecca Davis

Pingyao Intl. Film Festival
Deadly flooding did not divert this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival from running its full course, with the event drawing to a close Monday with an award ceremony honoring Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy, India’s Natesh Hegde, and China’s Kong Dashan and Wei Shujun with top prizes.

Many anticipated that this fifth edition of the festival would be different, given the shifting role of its co-founder and leading light, director Jia Zhangke. He unexpectedly stepped down last year, only to recant and come back in the nebulous role of “chief experience officer” months ago.

Instead, this year’s iteration has been more memorable for the backdrop of historically heavy rains that have left at least 15 dead, more than 120,000 relocated, and an estimated 1.8 million people affected in the inland Shanxi province.

The show went on in Pingyao, even though some three dozen parts of the picturesque ancient capital’s old city walls had collapsed in the earlier merciless downpour.

Festival sponsor Zhiwen Group (formerly Momo Inc.) had donated $1.56 million (RMB10 million) to local relief funds at the opening ceremony, and the event will end Tuesday with a relief charity screening of the closing short “The Last Director on Earth,” which stars Jia and director Ning Hao.

Alongside the charity has come a greater turn toward commercialism, one made unavoidably clear by the hundreds of fans present at the typically low-key, intimate festival to catch a glimpse of their idol Karry Wang, the singer-actor from TFBoys. Two days before the festival’s start, he was abruptly made a youth jury member and “contributing curator.”

When eyebrows were raised at the young superstar’s lack of extensive cinematic experience or accolades, organizers explained that he would also be curating the music for an after party and appear on a panel about “new youth” in Chinese cinema.

On the festival’s red carpet, Wang took in the scene with a bland, unsmiling expression and declined to identify any upcoming projects. Doting fans waving cellphones and cameras pushed so hard in his direction that security guards could barely keep the guard rails in place.

As was the case in 2020, few international guests are in attendance given the difficulty of entering China during the ongoing pandemic.

Pingyao’s Prizes
Pingyao’s Roberto Rossellini Awards are accorded to films in the festival’s dozen entry-strong Crouching Tigers section, which includes international directorial debuts and second features.

The $20,000 prize for best film went to El Zohairy’s “Feathers,” the surrealistic comedy that won the grand prize at Cannes Critics’ Week earlier this year. Half the funds will go to its China distributor Huanxi Media. First time helmer Hegde won the $10,000 prize for best director for “Pedro,” which premiered last month in Busan’s New Currents section.

“Prayers for the Stolen (Noche de Fuego)” — writer-director Tatiana Huezo’s documentary-like first feature about life amid the violence of Mexico’s drug cartels — won the jury prize, coming off a special mention in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section. “What Do We See When We Look at the Sky (Ras vkhedavt, rodesac cas vukurebt)” from Georgia’s Alexandre Koberidze, which premiered in competition at Berlin in March, won Pingyao’s special mention.

The festival’s other 10-film Hidden Dragon section is dedicated to first, second and third features in the Chinese language, which compete for the Fei Mu Awards.

Kong Dashan’s “Journey to the West” won the Cinephilia Critics’ Award as well as the Fei Mu for best film, which is accompanied by a prize of $156,000 (RMB1 million prize), half of which will go to his Chinese distribution company. The award was jointly funded by 10 Chinese directors: Cheng Er, Chen Sicheng, Diao Yinan, Feng Xiaogang, Guan Hu, Jia Zhang-Ke, Lou Ye, Ning Hao, Wang Xiaoshuai and Zhang Yibai.

Up-and-coming Cannes favorite Wei Shujun won best director for his “Ripples of Life,” which comes with $31,000 (RMB200,000) to use to develop his next film — prize-money funded by Chinese actor Zhang Yi (“Cliff Walkers”). The film premiered at Cannes in this year’s Director’s Fortnight section.

Huang Miyi won the best actress prize for her work in “Gaey Wa’r (Streetwise)” by Na Jiazuo, which also came out in Un Certain Regard earlier this year. Zou Tao won best actor for his work in “Karma” from Zheng Peike. “Venus by Water” from director Wang Lin won the jury award, while “Farewell, My Hometown” from Wang Erzhuo won the prize for special mention. “Immanuel” from Han Tianchu won the Fei Mu award for best short, and was accorded $4,700 (RMB30,000) in development funds.

Karry Wang’s youth jury awarded its two prizes to Kong’s “Journey to the West” and Wei’s “Ripples of Life” as well.

Promoter determination…

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Postponed

Hong Kong Film Festival Delayed Due to Omicron Surge
The decision came as little surprise as Hong Kong continues to weather its worst infection surge of the pandemic.

BY PATRICK BRZESKI

FEBRUARY 23, 2022 12:53AM

Hong Kong GETTY IMAGES

The Hong Kong International Film Festival, scheduled to have kicked off on the last day of March, has been indefinitely postponed due to an ongoing wave of the omicron variant of COVID-19.

The decision comes as little surprise given the severity of the city’s current infection surge. Since Feb. 15, Hong Kong has reported about 5,000 new daily infections, with cases threatening to overwhelm local healthcare and quarantine facilities.

On Tuesday, Hong Kong’s chief executive said that the government would require the city’s entire population of nearly 7.5 million people to undergo mandatory COVID-19 testing in March. Local cinemas have been shuttered since early January, and city officials said earlier this week that social distancing measures would be extended until April 20.

Hong Kong’s government, acting under ever-growing deference to mainland Chinese policy, have held fast to Beijing’s “COVID zero” policy of total elimination of the virus. Although Hong Kong had great success in managing the early phases of the pandemic, the high transmissibility of the omicron variant has resulted in spiraling caseloads since the start of 2021.

The city’s mandatory three-week quarantine policy for all inbound travelers already had assured that this year’s film festival would have been an entirely local affair. Hong Kong Filmart, the influential international content rights market that typically runs in tandem with the festival, opted months ago to take place as an entirely virtual conference this year. The online-only Filmart will carry on with its planned dates of March 14-17, according to organizers.

The Hong Kong film festival was scrapped in 2020 because of the first phases of the pandemic, and last year it took a hybrid online-offline form. With Hong Kong tethered to China’s “COVID zero” policy, many local industry figures believe it could be years before the festival is again able to invite the world to its screenings.

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25th Shanghai International Film Festival

Donnie gave a talk on martial arts and film. The vid is embedded so you must follow the link.
SIFF MasterClass with Donnie Yen

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Michelle at TIFF

Aug 29, 2022 8:00am PT[URL=“https://variety.com/2022/film/actors/michelle-yeoh-toronto-award-1235353081/”]
Michelle Yeoh to Receive Toronto Film Festival’s Groundbreaker Award

By Patrick Frater


Michelle Yeoh
Thomas Laisne, Getty Images for Richard Mille

Michelle Yeoh will receive the Toronto International Film Festival’s inaugural Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award.

The TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award recognizes a woman who is a leader in the film industry and has made a positive impact for women throughout their career.

The award, sponsored by Bulgari, will be presented at an in-person gala fundraiser on Sunday, Sept. 11 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

“Michelle Yeoh is the definition of groundbreaking,” said Cameron Bailey, TIFF CEO. “Her screen work has spanned continents, genres and decades. This year she delivered a performance in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ that shows her limitless abilities.”

With a nearly 40-year career, Yeoh has broken barriers and inspired generations of audiences with her performances. These include “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Tomorrow Never Dies” and “Crazy Rich Asians.”

Born in Malaysia and educated in the U.K., Yeoh enjoyed her initial acting success in 1990s Hong Kong action films and briefly became a producer following stardom in Roger Spottiswoode’s James Bond title “Tomorrow Never Dies” and Ang Lee’s 2000 breakout hit “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Returning to acting, she went on to defy convention and build a global career with key roles in Rob Marshall’s “Memoirs of a Geisha,” Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine,” and Jon Chu’s “Crazy Rich Asians.” After appearing in James Gunn’s second installment of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, Yeoh returned to the Marvel universe in Destin Daniel Cretton’s “Shang-Chi.” In March 2022, she starred in the Daniels’ genre-melting “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which has since become A24’s highest grossing film.

Yeoh was recently announced as the first Asian artist to receive the American Film Institute Honor, and was this year featured in the Time 100 “Most Influential People” list.

Past TIFF Tribute Awards have gone to Jessica Chastain, Roger Deakins, Anthony Hopkins, Joaquin Phoenix, Taika Waititi, and Chloe Zhao.

“Bulgari has a long history of championing women, in front of and behind the camera, in the cinematic arts. Supporting this TIFF Tribute Award is a continuation of this legacy of cultivating future talent and their groundbreaking work that enriches the world we live in,” said Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of Bulgari Group.

Asian-Film-Festivals-and-Awards
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Outright Loser, Hidden Master starring Donnie Yen

Oct 3, 2022 6:01pm PT[URL=“https://variety.com/2022/global/news/peter-chan-changin-pictures-asian-tv-producer-1235391213/”]
Donnie Yen, Zhang Ziyi on Board as Peter Chan Launches Changin Pictures, Filmmaker-Led Asian TV Producer (EXCLUSIVE)

By Patrick Frater


Hong Kong Film Awards Association

Projects starring Donnie Yen and Zhang Ziyi are among the independently produced TV series to be launched on the sidelines of this weeks Busan International Film Festival. The company responsible is Changin Pictures, a would-be studio being hatched by Hong Kong-based film director and producer Peter Chan Ho-sun.

Propelled by the growing recognition of Asian talent and the worldwide distribution potential of multinational SVOD platforms, Changin Pictures aims to be a powerhouse production hub suppling premium drama content to streaming players.

The company has raised very substantial finance from Asian sources and aims to develop and produce series which it will pitch and license to the platforms, without recourse to the OTT companies production funding, greenlighting and editorial constraints.

The company expects to sign up a mix of Asias top-billing established filmmakers and fresh talents to create innovative drama series for Pan-Asian netizens, with an eye to cross-cultural global assimilation. Its COO is Esther Yeung, a seasoned executive with ten years at Bill Kongs Edko Films and prior experience at Fortissimo Films.

Changin Pictures will unveil its first five series in Busan, representing a quarter of the projects it already has in active development, and expects to deliver in its first four years. The figure excludes follow-on seasons and spinoffs.

The first shows hail from Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Japan. Subsequently, the firm will cast its net wider and expand to Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia.

We aspire to be Asias most effective one-stop-shop for international production partners and streaming platforms, said Chan. It is only filmmaker-backed and filmmaker-driven so that we could raise our level of productivity and efficiency.

Giving Changin Pictures an immediate calling card for K-content-starved streamers, the firms first two projects into production are both Korean. Although stylistically different, both are adapted from popular webtoons, giving them an already established fan-base.

ONE: High School Heroes is an action-packed series about a picked-on high school kid who transforms himself into a bully-bashing hero. Production is by Covenant Pictures (Desperate Mr. X). Heesu in Class 2 is a bittersweet romance between two high school boys played by K-Pop idols. Production is by Film K (Exit, Escape from Mogadishu).

Yen is committed to star in Outright Loser, Hidden Master, an action fantasy drama about an Asian American who discovers that martial artists in Hong Kong are mysteriously extending their lineage by imprinting their memories, martial art skills and techniques onto the bodies of strangers. Yen, who previously starred in Chans Wu Xia (aka Dragon), will also serve as showrunner and action choreographer. He is in negotiations to also direct some of the series episodes.

Infinite possibilities can be found when filmmakers share the same vision, said Yen. I am excited to be partnering with Peter Chan and am confident that together we can elevate materials to the very next level.

Chan himself will direct Zhang in The Murderer, a suspense thriller set in 1944 Shanghai. Based on real events, the story focuses on a woman who is accused of murdering and dismembering her abusive husband. By depicting the vagaries of her various trials, this series exposes the vicissitudes of leadership change in China from Japanese Occupation to the Nationalist government to the birth of new China, Changin Pictures said.

A trio of Thailands most successful directors Banjong Pisanthanakun (Pee Mak, The Medium), Nattawut Baz Poonpiriya (Bad Genius, Netflix Thai Cave Rescue) and Parkpoom Wongpoom (Shutter) as well as Chan and South Korean helmers Kim Jee-Woon (I Saw the Devil) and Hur Jin-Ho (Christmas in August) will all work on The Eye (aka No Jump Scares). The series is anthology of genre-bending chillers that represents a series expansion of Thailands The Eye horror film franchise, which Chan previously oversaw from 2002.

In addition to his own works as director (Perhaps Love, Comrades, Almost A Love Story, The Warlords), Chan has further credits as producer or executive producer of Twelve Nights, Bodyguards & Assassins, Golden Chickensss and Oscar-nominated Better Days.

At the beginning of the millennium, Chan pioneered the pan-Asian co-production movement with the launch of Applause Pictures, working with Kim Jee-Woon, Park Chan-Wook, Miike Takashi, Hur Jin-Ho, Nonzee Nimibutr, the Pang Brothers and Fruit Chan on films ranging from Thai erotica (Jan Dara) to Korean romance (One Fine Spring Day) and Hong Kong animation (McDull: The Alumni). Over much of the past decade, Chan has straddled Hong Kong and mainland China through his We Pictures company, enjoying hits with aspirational drama American Dreams in China and Gong Li-starring sports biopic Leap.

While both Applause, now chiefly a distributor, and We Pictures are expected to endure, Chan has built a team of development and production executives in Hong Kong, Korea and elsewhere in the region and expects Changin Pictures to be his main preoccupation going forward.

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Asian World Film Festival

AWFF 2022
Nov 9 - 18
Marina Del Rey, Culver City, Los Angeles

Martial Arts Day - Saturday, November 12, 2022 - 2pm - 3pm - Town Plaza, Culver City

This looks interesting. Anyone ever been to it?

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Asian World Film Festival “Martial Arts Day”

//youtu.be/ysjtUMcWo9Q

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Congrats Sammo!

Feb 28, 2023 11:59pm PT[URL=“https://variety.com/2023/awards/asia/sammo-hung-lifetime-achievement-asian-film-awards-1235539407/”]
Sammo Hung to Receive Lifetime Achievement Honor at Asian Film Awards – Global Bulletin
By Patrick Frater

Courtesy of Asian Film Awards

LAST MAN STANDING
Martial arts veteran Sammo Hung is to be presented with a lifetime achievement honor at the upcoming Asian Film Awards. The ceremony is back as an in-person event after a two-year absence and shifts back to Hong Kong after previously being held in Hong Kong, Macau and Busan. Hung is expected to accept the award on Sunday March 12 at the Hong Kong Palace Museum.

“I’m so happy and surprised that I can still win awards these days, especially an award that affirms my entire performing career,” said Hung in a forwarded statement. He has a career as actor, action choreographer, director and producer that stretches some 60 years.

His acting credits include action comedies “Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog” and “Odd Couple” paranormal horror comedies “Encounters of the Spooky Kind” and “The Dead and the Deadly,” comedy film series “Lucky Stars” and gangster action film “Shanghai, Shanghai.”

In 1982, Hung won the best actor prize at the 2nd Hong Kong Film Awards for his directorial effort “Carry on Pickpocket.” More recently, he had major roles in two of the “Ip Man” franchise films and directed a short segment of portmanteau film “Septet.”

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Hkff

Mar 10, 2023 3:03am PT[URL=“https://variety.com/2023/film/asia/hong-kong-film-festival-local-titles-1235549148/”]
Hong Kong Film Festival Sets Trio of Local Titles as Opening and Closing Titles

By Patrick Frater

Makerville

The Asian premiere of Soi Cheang’s “Mad Fate” is just one of three locally-produced movies that have been set as the opening and closing titles of the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival.

“Mad Fate” is joined in the festival opening slot on March 30 by “Elegies,” Ann Hui’s documentary portrayal of the topography of contemporary local poetry, which will have its world premiere. The closing film, another world premiere, is “Vital Sign,” an affecting drama directed by Cheuk Wan-chi and starring Louis Koo, Yau Hawk-sau, and Angela Yuen, which will wrap up proceedings on 10 April.

In total, the festival has programmed some 200 films from 64 countries and territories. These include nine world premieres, six international premieres, and 67 Asian premieres.

“Mad Fate,” an intense examination of murder, local superstition and the lower depths of society, premiered last month at the Berlin festival in a special section. Cheang will be a major feature of the HKIFF, which will pay tribute to the prolific filmmaker with a previously announced 10-film showcase. He will also hold a masterclass presentation on April 8.

The festival is to be held in-person and in its usual calendar slot for the first time in 2019. In recent weeks the Hong Kong authorities have eased travel restrictions imposed due to the COVID pandemic and from the beginning of this month have dropped the mask mandate from almost all indoor public places. That has made it easier for overseas filmmakers to return to the event.

Those confirmed include Tsai Ming-Liang, who will bring his latest feature “Where,” and hold a masterclass with Lee Kang-Sheng following the screenings of his short “Where Do You Stand, Tsai Ming-Liang?”.

The festival’s twin Firebird competition sections for young directors working in Chinese and in other languages are also impressive.

The former includes: “Absence” by mainland Chinese director Wu Lan, which premiered in Berlin; “Bad Education,” by Taiwanese actor-director Kai Ko; “Coo-Coo 043,” an already much decorated Taiwan family drama by Chan Ching-lin; “Kissing the Ground You Walked on,” by Hong Heng-fai; “Night Falls,” by China’s Jian Haodong; “Stonewalling,” by Huang Ji and Otsuka Ryuji; “To Love Again,” by Gao Linyang; and “Tomorrow Is a Long Time,” which also appeared in Berlin’s Gerneration-14 section and is directed by Singapore’s Jow Zhi Wei.

The equivalent international competition includes: Berlin hit “20,000 Species of Bees,” “Animalia,” by Sofia Alouai, which won the special jury prize in Sundance; David Depresseville’s “Astrakan”; acclaimed “Autobiography,” by Indonesia’s Makbul Mubarak; Malika Muisaeva’s Berlin film “The CageIs Looking for a Bird”; Argentinian director Martin Benchimol’s “The Castle”; Giacomo Abruzzese’s “Disco Boy”; and Lila Aviles’ Berlin Ecumenical jury prize winner “Totem.”

I must be falling behind with HK. None of these films are represented here. :frowning:

119

So deserved

Mar 11, 2023 9:27pm PT
Sammo Hung Receives Lifetime Achievement Honor at Asian Film Awards
By Naman Ramachandran, Patrick Frater

Courtesy of Asian Film Awards

Martial arts veteran Sammo Hung was presented with a lifetime achievement honor at the Asian Film Awards.

The ceremony is back as an in-person event after a two-year absence and has shifted back to Hong Kong after previously being held in Hong Kong, Macau and Busan. A visibly emotional Hung accepted the award on Sunday at the Hong Kong Palace Museum.

Hung’s career as an actor, action choreographer, director and producer spans some 60 years.

His acting credits include action comedies “Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog” and “Odd Couple,” paranormal horror comedies “Encounters of the Spooky Kind” and “The Dead and the Deadly,” comedy film series “Lucky Stars” and gangster action film “Shanghai, Shanghai.” In 1982, Hung won the best actor prize at the second Hong Kong Film Awards for his directorial effort “Carry on Pickpocket,” as well as best action choreography for “The Prodigal Son,” which he also directed and starred in.

More recently, he had major roles in two of the “Ip Man” franchise films and a role in 2022 action thriller “Man on the Edge.”

Hung also directed a short segment of portmanteau film “Septet: The Story of Hong Kong” (2020). His segment harks back to the time he studied under Peking Opera master Yu Jim Yuen at a young age and was the “big brother”’ to the China Drama Academy’s performance troupe known as the Seven Little Fortunes, whose members included Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Yuen Qiu and Corey Yuen. Hung had previously starred in “Painted Faces” (1988), which was based on his time in the Seven Little Fortunes. The Sammo Hung Stunt Team has nurtured several film talents.

“Cinema’s existence is so wonderful. The biggest reward I’ve gotten in my 50-year career is to see my hard work affirmed by others,” Hung had said when the Asian Film Awards honor was announced.

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Lifetime Achievement!

So deserved.

Mar 11, 2023 9:27pm PT
Sammo Hung Receives Lifetime Achievement Honor at Asian Film Awards
By Naman Ramachandran, Patrick Frater


Courtesy of Asian Film Awards

Martial arts veteran Sammo Hung was presented with a lifetime achievement honor at the Asian Film Awards.

The ceremony is back as an in-person event after a two-year absence and has shifted back to Hong Kong after previously being held in Hong Kong, Macau and Busan. A visibly emotional Hung accepted the award on Sunday at the Hong Kong Palace Museum.

Hung’s career as an actor, action choreographer, director and producer spans some 60 years.

His acting credits include action comedies “Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog” and “Odd Couple,” paranormal horror comedies “Encounters of the Spooky Kind” and “The Dead and the Deadly,” comedy film series “Lucky Stars” and gangster action film “Shanghai, Shanghai.” In 1982, Hung won the best actor prize at the second Hong Kong Film Awards for his directorial effort “Carry on Pickpocket,” as well as best action choreography for “The Prodigal Son,” which he also directed and starred in.

More recently, he had major roles in two of the “Ip Man” franchise films and a role in 2022 action thriller “Man on the Edge.”

Hung also directed a short segment of portmanteau film “Septet: The Story of Hong Kong” (2020). His segment harks back to the time he studied under Peking Opera master Yu Jim Yuen at a young age and was the “big brother”’ to the China Drama Academy’s performance troupe known as the Seven Little Fortunes, whose members included Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Yuen Qiu and Corey Yuen. Hung had previously starred in “Painted Faces” (1988), which was based on his time in the Seven Little Fortunes. The Sammo Hung Stunt Team has nurtured several film talents.

“Cinema’s existence is so wonderful. The biggest reward I’ve gotten in my 50-year career is to see my hard work affirmed by others,” Hung had said when the Asian Film Awards honor was announced.

Sammo-Hung
Asian-Film-Festivals-and-Awards