Asian Film Festivals and Awards

[GeneChing]

Go Jeeja! Go Deepika!

The Good, The Bad, The Weird tops nominations for Asian Film Awards
Jean Noh in Seoul 21 Jan 2009 17:46

The Good, The Bad, The Weird - Kim Jee-woon's rollicking Oriental Western, took eight nominations in total, including those for best film, director, and cinematographer. Song Kang-ho picked up a nod for best actor, while Jung Woo-sung and Lee Byung-hun both got nominated in the best supporting actor category.

Other nominees in the best film category are Chen Kaige's Mei Lanfang biopic Forever Enthralled, Hayao Miyazaki's animation Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea, Riri Riza's school drama The Rainbow Troops, John Woo's historical action film Red Cliff, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's family drama Tokyo Sonata.

Choosing the winners from the nominations will be a 13-person jury presided over by actress Michelle Yeoh. Other jury members include Christian Jeune from the Cannes film festival; Kenji Ishizaka from the Tokyo film festival; Christophe Terhechte from the Berlinale; Noah Cowan from the Toronto film festival; and Park Ki-yong, filmmaker and head of the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA).

The awards presentation ceremony will be held March 23 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, as the Opening Gala of the Entertainment Expo Hong Kong.

The 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) and the 7th Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) also start March 23.

Full list of Asian Film Awards nominations

Best Film
Forever Enthralled (Mainland China)
The Good, The Bad , The Weird (South Korea)
Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea (Japan)
The Rainbow Troops (Indonesia)
Red Cliff (Mainland China)
Tokyo Sonata (Japan / The Netherlands / Hong Kong)

Best Director
Feng Xiao-gang - If You Are The One (Mainland China)
Kim Jee-woon - The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea)
Koreeda Hirokazu - Still Walking (Japan)
Brillante Mendoza – Service (The Philippines)
Miyazaki Hayao / Frank Marshall - Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea (Japan)
John Woo - Red Cliff (Mainland China)

Best Actor
Ge You - If You Are The One (Chinese)
Ha Jung-woo - The Chaser (South Korea)
Akshay Kumar - Singh Is Kinng (India)
Matsuyama Kenichi - Detroit Metal City (Japan)
Motoki Masahiro – Departures (Japan)
Song Kang-ho - The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea)

Best Actress
Fukatsu Eri - The Magic Hour (Japan)
Jiang Wenli - And The Spring Comes (Mainland China)
Deepika Padukone - Chandni Chowk To China (India)
Yoshinaga Sayuri - Kabei - Our Mother (Japan)
Zhou Wei - Painted Skin (Mainland China / Hong Kong)
Zhou Xun - The Equation Of Love And Death (Mainland China)

Best Newcomer
Matsuda Shota - Boys Over Flowers: The Movie (Japan)
Sandrine Pinna - Miao Miao (Taiwan / Hong Kong)
So Ji-sub - Rough Cut (South Korea)
Xu Jiao - CJ7 (Hong Kong)
JeeJa Yanin – Chocolate (Thailand)
Yu Shaoqun - Forever Enthralled (Mainland China)

Best Supporting Actor
Nick Cheung - Beast Stalker (Hong Kong)
Jung Woo-sung - The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea)
Lee Byung-hun - The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea)
Tsutsumi Shinichi - Suspect X (Japan)
Wang Xueqi - Forever Enthralled (Mainland China)

Best Supporting Actress
Aoi Yu - Sex Is No Laughing Matter (Japan)
Jaclyn JOSE – Service (The Philippines)
KIKI Kirin - Still Walking (Japan)
KIM Ji-yeong - Forever The Moment (South Korea)
Gina PARENO – Service (The Philippines)

Best Screenwriter
NA Hong-jin - The Chaser (South Korea)
LI Qiang - And The Spring Comes (Mainland China)
Tom Lin / Henry Tsai - Winds Of September (Taiwan / Hong Kong)
Kurosawa Kiyoshi / Max Mannix / Tanaka Sachiko - Tokyo Sonata (Japan / The Netherlands / Hong Kong)
Mitani Koki - The Magic Hour (Japan)

Best Cinematographer
Ato Shoichi - Paco And The Magical Book (Japan)
Cheng Siu-keung – Sparrow (Hong Kong)
Lee Mo-gae - The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea)
Jola Dylewska – Tulpan (Germany / Kazakhstan / Poland / Russia / Switzerland)
Wang Yu / Nelson Lik-wai Yu - 24 City (Mainland China)
Waluyo ICHWANDIARDONO - The Rainbow Troops (Indonesia)
KIM Sun-min - The Chaser (South Korea)

Best Visual Effects
Craig Hayes - Red Cliff (Mainland China)
KIM Wook - The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea)
Yanagawase Masahide - Paco And The Magical Book (Japan)

[xcakid]

Guess Dallas' Asian Film Festival is not large enough to get coverage.
http://2009.affd.org/
My friend Julie actually sang harmony for their trailer music.

[GeneChing]

Hong Kong star Louis Koo finally wins best actor award after 25 years


PHOTO: Instagram/LouisKhoo

SETO KIT YAN
THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK Mar 21, 2018

Louis Koo has finally won his very first best actor award after 25 years of making movies. And it was at the 12th Asian Film Awards, held at The Venetian Macao in Macau on March 17.

“I’ve appeared in over 200 movies, and this is the first time I’ve won an award,” Koo said, while accepting his award.

As one of the most prolific and highest-earning film actors in Hong Kong, Koo is rarely considered a film award contender and has garnered fewer than 10 nominations over the years.


Photo: Weibo/Louis Koo

The popular Hong Kong actor nabbed the award for his role as a cop seeking vengeance for his missing daughter in action flick Paradox (2017), which is the third instalment of the SPL: Sha Po Lang franchise.

Koo, 47, beat South Korea’s Kim Yoon-seok (1987: When The Day Comes), Thailand’s Sukollawat Kanarot (Malila: The Farewell Flower), India’s Rajkummar Rao (Newton), and China’s Duan Yihong (The Looming Storm) to nab the much-coveted acting prize.

The famously-reticent heartthrob is the second Hong Kong actor to win the award. The first was Hong Kong’s most-decorated film actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai, who won in 2008 for his role as a special agent in the spy thriller Lust, Caution.

昨晚導演會春茗，由小红姐頒發最佳男主角獎項给我倍感開心！

The ferociously action-packed Paradox, which was directed by Wilson Yip with action direction by Sammo Hung, also won for Best Action film.

Meanwhile, Koo is also in the running for best actor for his Paradox role at the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards, which will take place at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Kowloon on April 15. He will be up against Ronald Cheng (Concerto Of The Bully), Andy Lau (Shock Wave), Tian Zhuang zhuang (Love Education), and Ling Man-lung (Tomorrow Is Another Day).

Koo’s next big cinema project will be the sci-fi epic Warriors Of Future. He will produce and star in the Hong Kong-China co-production about a meteorite crashing on an Earth bringing with it a fast-growing alien lifeform.

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Hidden Man (邪不压正)

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Our annual report - READ San Diego Asian Film Festival 2018: A Detective, A Teacher and A Ronin’s Student by Craig Reid



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So deserved. Sammo rocks.

Hong Kong Festival: Martial Arts Legend Sammo Hung Named Filmmaker in Focus
4:46 AM PST 1/16/2019 by Karen Chu


Courtesy of Hong Kong International Film Festival
Sammo Hung

The retrospective will feature 10 classics of the 'Martial Law' star who was instrumental in shaping the golden age of Hong Kong cinema.
Hong Kong action cinema legend Sammo Hung has been named the Filmmaker in Focus of the 43rd Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF).

Best known to U.S. audiences for headlining CBS primetime show Martial Law in the late 1990s, Hung has a storied career spanning over half a century starring in, action choreographing, producing and directing more than 250 films. He is one of the screen icons representative of the golden age of Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s.

The HKIFF will host a retrospective during the upcoming edition showcasing 10 of Hung's most celebrated works, as well as a "Face to Face" seminar March 30 where he will share his views and recount his experiences in the film industry. An accompanying commemorative book will also be published.

Born in 1952, Hung was trained from the age of nine in the Peking opera genre at Hong Kong's China Drama Academy under Master Yu Jim-yuen and was the leading member of the Academy's Seven Little Fortunes performing troupe, which later went on to transform Hong Kong cinema with the acrobatic and daredevil action choreography designed and performed by its members. It also counted Jackie Chan among its ranks.

Hung made his first onscreen appearance at the age of 14 as a stunt performer. Armed with his skills in martial arts, acrobatics and dance, he soon became a stalwart of the wuxia cinema popularized by the Shaw Brothers Studio, dreaming up and executing breathtaking action sequences as stunt man, stunt coordinator and action director. He was given his big break as a leading man by rival studio Golden Harvest in Shaolin Plot in 1977 and made his directorial debut the next year with The Iron-Fisted Monk.

Hung's work in the 1980s helped create a new style of Hong Kong action movies, ushering in the immensely popular action comedy genre, and the Chinese vampire (jiangshi) horror-comedy subgenre, in particular with Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980). Set in the urban milieu, the fight sequences in such films as the Lucky Star series (1982-1985), which co-starred Jackie Chan, and Wheels on Meals (1984) are high-energy and realistic and complemented by comedic elements.

He also helped make a star out of Michelle Yeoh when he produced the first film in which she received top billing, the police drama Yes, Madam (1985). In 1998, Hung became the first East Asian to headline a U.S. primetime TV series with the CBS surprise hit Martial Law, which showcased his martial arts expertise.

Deferentially referred to as "Big big brother" in the Hong Kong film industry (with Chan being called "big brother"), Hung formed the Sammo Hung Stunt Team in the 1970s to help his former China Drama Academy classmates and utilize their talents on screen, dominating Hong Kong action cinema in subsequent decades. He also founded a number of film companies, the most successful of which was D&B Films, which he co-founded with Dickson Poon and John Shum in 1983 and that became the powerhouse that rivaled Cinema City at the box office during the 1980s.

Hung's contribution to Hong Kong action cinema has been considerable, which is not only evident in the genre's popularity and worldwide influence, but also in the number of accolades he has received. He won his first Hong Kong Film Award for best action choreography for The Prodigal Son in 1981, and subsequently reclaimed the honor three times with Ip Man (2008), Ip Man 2 (2010) and Paradox (2017). Renowned for the physical feats he choreographed and performed as much as for his acting prowess, he has been twice named best actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards with Carry on Pickpocket (1982) and Painted Faces (1988).

The retrospective at the HKIFF, which will be held from March 18 through April 1, will feature Hung's action classics as well as dramatic efforts, including Encounters of the Spooky Kind, The Prodigal Son, Winners & Sinners (1982), Eastern Condors (1987), Painted Faces, Eight Taels of Gold (1989) and Ip Man 2 (2010).

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Shanghai Festival to Open With WWII Epic 'The Eight Hundred,' Wu Jing to Serve as Ambassador
1:38 AM PDT 6/4/2019 by Patrick Brzeski


Huayi Brothers Media
'The Eight Hundred'

Notably, given Donald Trump's ongoing U.S.-China trade war, not a single film from North America is included in the Chinese festival's main competition sections this year.
The Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF), China's most established cinema event, has unveiled the opening titles and competition selection for its 2019 edition.

The festival will kick off on June 15 with a double bill of Chinese WWII epic The Eight Hundred and local drama Beautiful Voyage from filmmaker Zhang Jiarui.

Landing The Eight Hundred as an opener is something of a coup for the Shanghai event. The film, produced by Huayi Brothers with a lavish budget of over $80 million, is the first Chinese action film shot entirely on Imax cameras, and it is expected to become one of the country's biggest event movies of the summer when it opens wide on July 5.

Chinese action hero Wu Jing, star of Chinese mega-blockbuster Wolf Warrior 2 and The Wandering Earth, will bring the star power to Shanghai's opening red carpet, serving as the event's official 2019 ambassador. English actor Tom Hiddleston, already well known to local filmgoers as Loki from the Avengers franchise, will help wrap up the festivities by attending the closing ceremony on June 24.

Other stars slated to walk the carpet and participate in SIFF events include X-Men star Nicholas Hoult, Milla Jovovich, Taiwanese actor Chen Bolin, Japanese stars Ayaka Miyoshi and Mao Inoue, and a slew of Chinese talent, including actresses Yao Chen, Ni Ni, Deng Jiajia, Zhou Dongyu and Yong Mei.

Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, winner of the 2014 Cannes Palme d’Or, is presiding over the jury that will decide the winners of SIFF's annual Golden Goblet Awards.

Ceylan is joined on the jury by Chinese actress Zhao Tao, Italian director Paolo Genovese (whose 2016 film Perfect Strangers was remade as Chinese thriller Kill Mobile, earning $93 million last year), Russia’s Aleksey German Jr. (director of the period biopic Dovlatov), Indian hitmaker Rajkumar Hirani (3 Idiots), Mexican producer Nicolas Celis (Roma) and Chinese actor Wang Jingchun (winner of this year's Berlin Silver Bear for best actor).

Shanghai's competition lineup includes a broad sampling of world cinema, with a discernible emphasis on filmmaking from countries located along Chinese president Xi Jinping's geopolitical Belt and Road infrastructure and soft-power project. Notably, given the ongoing U.S.-China trade war and controversy over Canada's arrest of a top executive from Huawei, not a single film from North America made Shanghai's selection this year — a sharp contrast from recent years.

Main competition titles include Russian director Pavel Lungin's war drama Leaving Afghanistan (also known as Brother), Iranian film Castle of Dreams, German family drama Many Happy Returns, Chinese crime film Vortex and Mexican actor Gael García Bernal's directorial debut Chicuarotes, which recently bowed at Cannes (the full SIFF competition lineup is below).

The festival's Asian New Talent Awards, which honor emerging film professionals from the region, will be handed out by a jury headed by Chinese star director Ning Hao (Crazy Alien).

SIFF's documentary and animation sections (see lineups below), meanwhile, will be assessed by juries lead by Russian director Viktor Kossakovsky (Aquarela) and Irish filmmaker Tomm Moore (The Breadwinner, The Secret of Kells), respectively.

Altogether, SIFF will screen approximately 500 films across its key competition categories, country specific sidebars and historical retrospectives. Festival organizers said they received more than 3,900 film submissions from 112 countries and regions this year. Local state media were keen to note that nearly half of the applications, over 1,800 titles from 53 countries, came from countries and territories participating in Xi's Belt and Road Initiative.

Below is the Shanghai festival's lineup.

Main Competition Section

BROTHERHOOD (Russia), by Pavel Lungin

CASTLE OF DREAMS (Iran), by Reza Mirkarimi

CHICUAROTES (Mexico), by Gael García Bernal

THE GREAT SPIRIT (Italy), by Sergio Rubini

INHALE-EXHALE (Georgia/ Russia/ Sweden),by Dito Tsintsadze

LANE 4 (Brazil), by Emiliano Cunha

LITTLE NIGHTS, LITTLE LOVE (Japan), by Rikiya Imaizumi

MANY HAPPY RETURNS (Germany), by Carlos A. Morelli

PACARRETE (Brazil), by Allan Deberton

THE RETURN (China), by QIN Hailu

ROSA (Italy/ Slovenia), by Katja Colja

SHYRAKSHY: GUARDIAN OF THE LIGHT (Kazakhstan), by Yermek Tursunov

SPRING TIDE (China), by YANG Lina

TREES UNDER THE SUN (India) by Dr. Biju

VORTEX (China), by Jacky Gan

Documentary Film Section

BRIDGES OF TIME (Latvia/ Lithuania/ Estonia), By Kristīne Briede and Audrius Stonys

THE FOURTH KINGDOM (Spain), by Adán Aliaga and Àlex Lora

IT'S ALL GOOD (Venezuela / Germany) by Tuki Jencquel

MUTE FIRE (Colombia), by Federico Arteaga

THE SOUND OF DALI (China), by ZHANG Yang

Animation Film Section

DILILI IN PARIS (France / Belgium / Germany), by Michel Ocelot)

LOTTE AND THE LOST DRAGONS (Estonia), by Janno Põldma

LOUIS AND LUCA – MISSION TO THE MOON (Norway), by Rasmus A. Sivertsen

RIDE YOUR WAVE (Japan), by Masaaki Yuasa

SPYCIES (China), by ZHANG Zhiyi and Guillaume Ivernel

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The Eight Hundred

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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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Mar 29, 2021 6:59am PT
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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Oct 18, 2021 5:55pm PT
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...

[GeneChing]

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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Oct 3, 2022 6:01pm PT
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 week’s 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 Asia’s 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 Kong’s 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 Asia’s 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 firm’s 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 Chan’s “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 Thailand’s 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 Thailand’s “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.

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

[GeneChing]

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?

[GeneChing]

Mar 10, 2023 3:03am PT
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.

[GeneChing]

Same problem with WAR. And I personally thought that was worse than RH3. Perhaps it's an Asian thing. Gotta tip the hat to J&J...

Is whitey as derogatory as jap?