Movies

After more than 30 years of civil war, Sri Lanka has slowly returned to normalcy. But the work of a generation of filmmakers has been informed by the war. One of them is Vimukthi Jayasundara, whose “The Forbidden Land,” with the war as a backdrop, won the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2005. His subsequent

Director Catherine Hardwicke made history with “Twilight,” creating one of the highest grossing live-action films directed by a woman ever; however, at the NY Comic Con “Twilight” 10th Anniversary panel, Hardwicke said Hollywood didn’t always believe in the franchise. “It was a modest budget because everybody thought, hey, a movie for women is only going

Did they, or didn’t they? Any baby boomer who saw Franco Zeffirelli’s sumptuous “Romeo & Juliet,” which opened in U.S. theaters Oct. 8, 1968, has wondered if stars Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting actually fell in love during the production. Their performances as Shakespeare’s star-crossed ill-fated lovers were so passionate, audiences naturally thought they were

To a much greater degree than their male counterparts, many of music’s top female singers have attempted to make the leap into the next frontier: acting. Yet only a few have managed to sustain major screen careers. Does Lady Gaga possess the thespian talent to pull it off? She already has a Golden Globe, for “American

Sony’s Tom Hardy vehicle “Venom” dominated the international box office, taking first in 57 of 58 markets and grossing an impressive $125.2 million from 20,800 screens. The superhero saga has become the top October launch internationally. The studio said that “Venom” had come in above recent stand-alone superhero titles, topping “Wonder Woman” by 38%, “Ant-Man

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented its 4th annual Careers in Film summit on Saturday at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The day-long event of panels with industry professionals gave high school and college students insight into navigating the world of filmmaking. The opening panel featured casting director Tiffany Little

October 7, 2018 8:14AM PT The unlikely dynamic duo of “Venom” and “A Star Is Born” have livened up the fall moviegoing season with the best October weekend of all time in North America. Tom Hardy’s superhero tale “Venom” grabbed $80 million at 4,250 sites for Sony and Marvel while the Lady Gaga-starring remake of

Top Hollywood producer Jason Blum breezed into Korea for a mere 22 hours. He instantly made his mark on an enthusiastic audience at the Busan International Film Festival, which moments earlier had watched the Blum-produced reinterpretation of classic horror film “Halloween,” directed by David Gordon Green. Blum’s shingle Blumhouse produced the horror film. “There have been

Scott Wilson, an acting veteran of 50 years who was a high-profile member of the cast of “The Walking Dead” between 2010 and 2014, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 76. His death was announced Saturday on The Walking Dead official Twitter account. Wilson played rural farmer Hershel Greene on the series.

Afghanistan-born, Tehran-based brothers Jamshid and Navid Mahmoudi continue their examination of life among Afghan refugees in Iran with the touching drama “Rona, Azim’s Mother.” Written and directed by Jamshid and produced by Navid, this tale of a middle-aged son facing a life-and-death decision regarding his gravely ill mother provides an illuminating picture of family tensions

October 6, 2018 3:50PM PT U.K.-based sales agent Alief has picked up world rights to two independent films that will play later this month in the India Gold section of the Mumbai Film Festival. Both are by first-time directors. Kabir Chowdhry’s experimental “Mehsampur” is a mix of fiction, documentary and biopic, that kicks off with

October 6, 2018 3:38PM PT China’s online entertainment service company iQIYI is giving a sales push to its inhouse productions at Busan’s Asian Film Market. It is the company’s third year at the Busan film market as a sales agent. Titles include romantic comedy “ATM,” Vincent Zhao’s latest martial arts actioner “Warriors of the Nation”

Based in Asia’s first UNESCO-designated city of film, the Busan Asian Film School is an international film business academy. Since it opened in 2017, the school has offered practical education, with a curriculum includes hands-on filmmaking courses such as project development and production, as well as courses on financing, distribution and marketing. While leading film

October 6, 2018 3:00PM PT Seoul-based independent sales house Finecut has picked up international sales right to mystery thriller “Diva.” Starring Shin Min-a (“The Naked Kitchen”) and Lee You-young (“Yourself and Yours”), the drama is currently in production. Finecut also represents “Nailed,” “Second Life” and “Too Hot to Die.” “Nailed” and “Life” are making their

Singaporean distributor Darpan Global is set for its first production, “Bodh” (Inner Sense). Principal photography is due to start this month in Delhi, Haridwar and Mumbai in India and Beijing. The film will trace the journey of an Indian professor at a Beijing university whose life changes forever when he receives an email from his

October 6, 2018 2:28PM PT South Korean director Kim Jee-woon received the Arts and Letters Officer’s decoration for his contribution to the arts at the French Night party on Oct. 6, during the Busan International Film Festival. Best-known for his Korean Western “The Good, the Bad, the Weird,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival

“Twilight” is heading back to the big screen. Ahead of Halloween, the box office phenomenon is returning to theaters this month for a special two-night event in honor of the film’s 10th anniversary. The movie, based on the best-selling novel by Stephenie Meyer, was released on Nov. 21, 2008, and went on to gross nearly $400 million worldwide.

The cast and creator of Lionsgate’s “Hellboy” reboot took to the main stage of the 2018 New York Comic Con to debut a first glimpse at the upcoming film. According to reports from the panel, Hellboy’s iconic flaming crown is back along with the character’s biting humor and giant, stone arm. In a cast interview

The audience at the New York Film Festival rose to their feet on Friday night for a roaring two-minute standing ovation honoring director Alfonso Cuarón’s  “Roma.” The black-and-white Spanish language film is buzzing to be the helmer’s next big Oscar triumph. Considered his most personal project to date, the screenplay is a captivating love letter

Sony’s “Venom” is set to smash the previous opening weekend record for October with an estimated $80 million from 4,250 theaters. The film, which stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, who becomes the eponymous anti-hero Venom, is likely to beat out the last record-holder, “Gravity,” which debuted in 2013 to $55.7 million. Sony is projecting

Cult Japanese actor/director Shinya Tsukamoto, known for “Tetsuo,” “Tokyo Fist,” “Bullet Ballet” and “A Snake of June,” hit the Busan Festival for the Gala screening of his latest film, “Killing,” his first stab at the samurai historical genre. Addressing a press conference as the sole representative of the film because Typhoon Kong-rey left his cast

Set at the juncture of Korean history when feudalism gave way to modernity, “The Shaman Sorceress,”  directed by Ahn Jae-huun, depicts the tragedy of a mudang who looses her footing when her spiritual practice is challenged by Christianity. Two years after generating buzz as a work-in-progress project at 2016’s Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival, the

The admirable ambition to frame the film with all the iconoclastic, outlaw verve of its rogue antihero is both the making and the unmaking of “Sew the Winter to my Skin,” the proto-Western sophomore feature from rising South African powerhouse Jahmil X.T. Qubeka. As shown in his well-received noir-indebted debut “Of Good Report,” Qubeka has

October 5, 2018 10:28PM PT In this experimental gallery piece, Tsai Ming-liang shoots close-ups of 13 faces in repose and in motion, playing with the essence of portraiture. With “Your Face,” Tsai Ming-liang’s increasingly minimalist path reaches a point that’s less patience-testing than some of his most recent films, though perhaps that’s because the focus

October 5, 2018 10:03PM PT A brief rural visit with grandpa turns out to be a life-endangering event in this admirably lean Canadian thriller. It’s winter and a boy is unintentionally home alone, but what follows is more in the realm of mortal peril than wacky hijinks in “Knuckleball.” This admirably lean thriller, in which

October 5, 2018 8:23PM PT Golden Scene founder Winnie Tsang’s connections with leading Hong Kong auteur Stanley Kwan go back decades. Even before the launch of Golden Scene, she was involved in handling Kwan’s 1998 romance “Hold You Tight,” which had been hatched with Tsang’s close associate, screenwriter Jimmy Ngai, and set up at her

The first “10 Years” film, released in 2015, was a grungy, guttural response to the Umbrella Movement civic protest, when for 79 days in late 2014, pro-democracy campaigners blocked the streets of downtown Hong Kong. The uprising failed to achieve its ends, and was ultimately erased by government.But as reality overtook fiction, it sharpened the

It has been a busy 2018 for award-winning Indian actor Manoj Bajpayee. He featured in smash Bollywood hits “Baaghi 2” and “Satyameva Jayate,” and in acclaimed independent films “In the Shadows,” “Missing” and “Love Sonia.” Bajpayee stars in and is a co-producer on “Bhonsle,” which had its world premiere at Busan Oct. 5 and is

October 5, 2018 7:55PM PT With Typhoon Kong-rey hitting the Busan area, the Busan International Film Festival has announced the cancellation of multiple events scheduled for Saturday. “We had to cancel all outdoor events that were scheduled for today, including the ones we had moved indoors earlier,” said Dana Kim, the BIFF’s foreign press coordinator.

Golden Scene, one of Asia’s most enduring independent film distributors, is known for its year-round billboards attached to bus shelters around Hong Kong, and also for the spot-on taste of founder Winnie Tsang. Tsang started the company 20 years ago by snatching opportunity from adversity. Having risen from secretary to board member at the legendary