The Wrestler, directed by Bangladeshi-Canadian filmmaker Iqbal H. Chowdhury, and September 1923, from Japan’s Tatsuya Mori, picked up the New Currents Awards as Busan International Film Festival wrapped a busy 28th edition on October 13.
Chowdhury’s film tells the story of an eccentric fisherman who learns a traditional form of wrestling to take on the village champion, while September 1923, the debut fiction film of documentary filmmaker Mori, revolves around the massacre that took place after the Great Kanto earthquake 100 years ago.
The Kim Jiseok Award, presented to films in Busan’s Jiseok section, went to Sri Lankan director Prasanna Vithanage’s Paradise, about an Indian couple facing problems in their marriage during a trip to Sri Lanka, and Mirlan Abdykalykov’s Bride Kidnapping, about the widespread practice of forcing women into marriage in Kyrgyzstan.
Busan also launched two new awards, the LG Oled New Currents & Vision Awards, presented to films...
Chowdhury’s film tells the story of an eccentric fisherman who learns a traditional form of wrestling to take on the village champion, while September 1923, the debut fiction film of documentary filmmaker Mori, revolves around the massacre that took place after the Great Kanto earthquake 100 years ago.
The Kim Jiseok Award, presented to films in Busan’s Jiseok section, went to Sri Lankan director Prasanna Vithanage’s Paradise, about an Indian couple facing problems in their marriage during a trip to Sri Lanka, and Mirlan Abdykalykov’s Bride Kidnapping, about the widespread practice of forcing women into marriage in Kyrgyzstan.
Busan also launched two new awards, the LG Oled New Currents & Vision Awards, presented to films...
- 10/14/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
Projects by Rima Das and Emma Kawawada also among 30 titles set to be pitched.
South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has unveiled the 30 titles selected for the 2023 Asian Project Market (Apm), including new works by Makbul Mubarak, Koji Fukada, Rima Das and Emma Kawawada.
The film financing event, which runs as part of Biff’s Asian Contents and Film Market, will take place from October 7-10 and comprises projects by directors who have made at least one short or full-length feature as well as producers who have been involved with at least one feature. They will conduct four...
South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has unveiled the 30 titles selected for the 2023 Asian Project Market (Apm), including new works by Makbul Mubarak, Koji Fukada, Rima Das and Emma Kawawada.
The film financing event, which runs as part of Biff’s Asian Contents and Film Market, will take place from October 7-10 and comprises projects by directors who have made at least one short or full-length feature as well as producers who have been involved with at least one feature. They will conduct four...
- 8/3/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
A survey of the growing prominence and visibility of women in film, the latest Aca Cinema Project series The Female Gaze: Women Filmmakers
from Japan Cuts and Beyond focuses on the essential roles that female artists play from behind the camera in Japanese cinema—ranging from directing and screenwriting to production and cinematography. Presenting an exciting array of screenings and premieres—that include
new mainstream and independent works from Japan Cuts alumni and rising talents alongside a classics selection—The Female Gaze offers a much-needed deep dive into the remarkable and overlooked contributions of women in contemporary Japanese cinema.
Kicking off on November 11 with the North American premiere of Japan Cuts favorite Akiko Ohku’s Wedding High followed by a post-screening discussion and Q&a with the filmmaker and an opening night party, The Female Gaze continues with the latest works of Japan Cuts alumni Riho Kudo (Orphan Blues) and...
from Japan Cuts and Beyond focuses on the essential roles that female artists play from behind the camera in Japanese cinema—ranging from directing and screenwriting to production and cinematography. Presenting an exciting array of screenings and premieres—that include
new mainstream and independent works from Japan Cuts alumni and rising talents alongside a classics selection—The Female Gaze offers a much-needed deep dive into the remarkable and overlooked contributions of women in contemporary Japanese cinema.
Kicking off on November 11 with the North American premiere of Japan Cuts favorite Akiko Ohku’s Wedding High followed by a post-screening discussion and Q&a with the filmmaker and an opening night party, The Female Gaze continues with the latest works of Japan Cuts alumni Riho Kudo (Orphan Blues) and...
- 10/22/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Exclusive: North America’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema, Japan Cuts, has selected 30 features and 12 shorts for a 2020 edition that will take place entirely online due to continued corona disruption.
Running July 17-30, the traditionally New York-based event will instead be available across the country via a digital platform set up in partnership with Festival Scope and Shift72. Films will be made available to rent with a limited number or virtual tickets per title, priced at $2–$7 with discounted bundles.
Alongside screenings, there will also be virtual Q&As, discussion panels, and video introductions from filmmakers in a bid to maintain the festival’s sense of community and dedication to intercultural communication.
The fest will kick off with a live virtual Q&a with Shinichiro Ueda, director of opening film selection Special Actors, the follow-up to Ueda’s popular breakout debut One Cut of the Dead. The festival’s Centerpiece...
Running July 17-30, the traditionally New York-based event will instead be available across the country via a digital platform set up in partnership with Festival Scope and Shift72. Films will be made available to rent with a limited number or virtual tickets per title, priced at $2–$7 with discounted bundles.
Alongside screenings, there will also be virtual Q&As, discussion panels, and video introductions from filmmakers in a bid to maintain the festival’s sense of community and dedication to intercultural communication.
The fest will kick off with a live virtual Q&a with Shinichiro Ueda, director of opening film selection Special Actors, the follow-up to Ueda’s popular breakout debut One Cut of the Dead. The festival’s Centerpiece...
- 6/24/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Probably the least celebrated (and advertised) film category, the documentary, nevertheless, can offer as much entertainment as any movie, and in the process, educate, remind, analyze and present issues that the rest of genres would not even dream of touching.
This year’s selection focuses on diversity once more, as it includes themes that range from mountain climbing and book cover design to idol groups and the sociopolitical situation in a number of countries, while also featuring films about food and drinks.
Without further ado, here are the Best Asian (themed) Documentaries of 2019, in alphabetical order, as we felt that the subjects and cinematic approaches are so different, that any kind rating would be futile. Some may have premiered in 2018, but since they mostly circulated in 2019, we decided to include them.
1. Alpinist: Confession of a Cameraman
“The value of the documentary as a medium of recording lives and events, and subsequently,...
This year’s selection focuses on diversity once more, as it includes themes that range from mountain climbing and book cover design to idol groups and the sociopolitical situation in a number of countries, while also featuring films about food and drinks.
Without further ado, here are the Best Asian (themed) Documentaries of 2019, in alphabetical order, as we felt that the subjects and cinematic approaches are so different, that any kind rating would be futile. Some may have premiered in 2018, but since they mostly circulated in 2019, we decided to include them.
1. Alpinist: Confession of a Cameraman
“The value of the documentary as a medium of recording lives and events, and subsequently,...
- 2/1/2020
- by AMP Group
- AsianMoviePulse
Pema Tseden’s drama “Balloon” won the Grand Prize at Tokyo Filmex’s 20th edition, which unspooled Nov. 23-Dec. 1 at two locations in central Tokyo.
The film, which premiered in the Horizon’s section of this year’s Venice Film Festival, examines the sex lives and mores of rural folk in the director’s native Tibet. Tseden also won grand prizes at two previous editions of the Asian-focused Filmex.
Winner of the second-place Special Jury Prize was Chinese director Gu Xiaogang’s “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.” The director’s feature debut, it was also the closing film in the International Critics’ Week section at this year’s Cannes festival and has festival play in Singapore.
Special Mentions went to Cambodian director Neang Kavitch’s “Last Night I Saw You Smiling” and Nanako Hirose’s “book-paper-scissors,” while “Silent Rain” by Ryutaro Nakagawa scooped the audience award. Hirose and Nakagawa’s...
The film, which premiered in the Horizon’s section of this year’s Venice Film Festival, examines the sex lives and mores of rural folk in the director’s native Tibet. Tseden also won grand prizes at two previous editions of the Asian-focused Filmex.
Winner of the second-place Special Jury Prize was Chinese director Gu Xiaogang’s “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.” The director’s feature debut, it was also the closing film in the International Critics’ Week section at this year’s Cannes festival and has festival play in Singapore.
Special Mentions went to Cambodian director Neang Kavitch’s “Last Night I Saw You Smiling” and Nanako Hirose’s “book-paper-scissors,” while “Silent Rain” by Ryutaro Nakagawa scooped the audience award. Hirose and Nakagawa’s...
- 12/1/2019
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Let me start (once more) with a personal note. I have an issue with reviewing “Book, Paper, Scissors”. The issue is that I love documentaries and I love books and in that regard, being objective about a film that deals with both is quite difficult, particularly since I already loved it before I watched even one minute. Nevertheless, I will do my best to point both the pros and the cons, and I just hope that the review will be precise.
“Book, Paper Scissors” is screening at Busan International Film Festival
The documentary deals with the story of Nobuyoshi Kikuchi, a 75-year old man who devoted his life to design over 15,000 books, all by hand. Nanako Hirose spent 3 years filming him, in an attempt to highlight both the man and his work, although in Kikuchi’s case, the two definitely overlap.
In that fashion, the movie presents his procedure, which...
“Book, Paper Scissors” is screening at Busan International Film Festival
The documentary deals with the story of Nobuyoshi Kikuchi, a 75-year old man who devoted his life to design over 15,000 books, all by hand. Nanako Hirose spent 3 years filming him, in an attempt to highlight both the man and his work, although in Kikuchi’s case, the two definitely overlap.
In that fashion, the movie presents his procedure, which...
- 10/7/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Japanese director Nanako Hirose (“His Lost Name“) has finished production on her most recent film “Book-Paper_Scissors”. The documentary is a culmination of the director spending over three years filming and interacting with book designer Nobuyoshi Kikuchi.
The documentary is set for release at the end of 2019. A trailer for the production has been made available and can be viewed below.
Synopsis
The film tells a story of a Japanese book designer, who makes everything by his hands. Nobuyoshi Kikuchi is a 75 year old man who devoted his life to design over 15,000 books. Nanako Hirose, the director of this film spent over 3 years filming Mr. Kikuchi. (imdb)...
The documentary is set for release at the end of 2019. A trailer for the production has been made available and can be viewed below.
Synopsis
The film tells a story of a Japanese book designer, who makes everything by his hands. Nobuyoshi Kikuchi is a 75 year old man who devoted his life to design over 15,000 books. Nanako Hirose, the director of this film spent over 3 years filming Mr. Kikuchi. (imdb)...
- 9/23/2019
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
North America’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema presents a diverse slate of 42 films, with over 20 guest filmmakers and talent in person for daily post-screening Q&As, including Cut Above awardee Shinya Tsukamoto.
Premiering 26 features and 16 short films, the summer festival offers a deep dive into one of the world’s most vital film cultures with a diverse selection across its Feature Slate, Classics: Rediscoveries and Restorations, Documentary Focus, Experimental Spotlight and Shorts Showcase sections. This year’s lineup features 19 first-time filmmakers and 14 female directors (the most in the festival’s history), including 10 International Premieres, 16 North American Premieres, 4 U.S. Premieres, 4 East Coast Premieres and 6 New York Premieres. In addition, over 20 guest filmmakers and talent from Japan will join the festival to participate in post-screening Q&As and parties.
“This 13th edition of Japan Cuts provides testament to the continued vitality of contemporary Japanese cinema with a wide array...
Premiering 26 features and 16 short films, the summer festival offers a deep dive into one of the world’s most vital film cultures with a diverse selection across its Feature Slate, Classics: Rediscoveries and Restorations, Documentary Focus, Experimental Spotlight and Shorts Showcase sections. This year’s lineup features 19 first-time filmmakers and 14 female directors (the most in the festival’s history), including 10 International Premieres, 16 North American Premieres, 4 U.S. Premieres, 4 East Coast Premieres and 6 New York Premieres. In addition, over 20 guest filmmakers and talent from Japan will join the festival to participate in post-screening Q&As and parties.
“This 13th edition of Japan Cuts provides testament to the continued vitality of contemporary Japanese cinema with a wide array...
- 6/14/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare tale All Is True has been selected to open the Palm Springs Film Festival, which Friday unveiled its full lineup of films for the 30th edition that runs January 3-14. The fest also said that Bruce Bereford’s Ladies in Black will be the closing-night film, with the director and cast members expected to be in attendance.
In all, the fest will screen 223 films from 78 countries, and as usual will screen a slew of Oscar Foreign Language Film entries, this year numbering 43 of the 87 official submissions. Also on the docket: a 30-film retrospective of past fest selections, dubbed the Palm Springs Canon; special focuses on cinema from France, India and Mexico, and Jewish and queer cinema; and the new Ricky Jay Magic of Cinema Award, named for actor and magician Ricky Jay who died last month.
In addition to the film lineup, the opening awards gala...
In all, the fest will screen 223 films from 78 countries, and as usual will screen a slew of Oscar Foreign Language Film entries, this year numbering 43 of the 87 official submissions. Also on the docket: a 30-film retrospective of past fest selections, dubbed the Palm Springs Canon; special focuses on cinema from France, India and Mexico, and Jewish and queer cinema; and the new Ricky Jay Magic of Cinema Award, named for actor and magician Ricky Jay who died last month.
In addition to the film lineup, the opening awards gala...
- 12/14/2018
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
The Palm Springs International Film Festival has announced its 2019 lineup, and it’s prodigious: 223 films from 78 countries, four of them world premieres. Though well known for celebrating future Oscar nominees (and winners) each year, the festival also boasts a deceptively robust world-cinema slate; among the upcoming offerings are Jia Zhangke’s “Ash Is Purest White,” Sergey Loznitsa’s “Donbass,” Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s “Birds of Passage,” and Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s “Asako I & II,” to name just a few.
A number of post-screening Q&As will also be held, including with “Black Klansman” author Ron Stallworth and “Support the Girls” star Regina Hall, in addition to a new section celebrating the best films to screen at Psiff throughout its first three decades.
World premieres:
Buck Run (USA), Director Nick Frangione
Carlos Almaraz Playing With Fire (USA), Directors Elsa Flores Almaraz, Richard Montoya (Schlesinger Documentary Competition)
The Last Color...
A number of post-screening Q&As will also be held, including with “Black Klansman” author Ron Stallworth and “Support the Girls” star Regina Hall, in addition to a new section celebrating the best films to screen at Psiff throughout its first three decades.
World premieres:
Buck Run (USA), Director Nick Frangione
Carlos Almaraz Playing With Fire (USA), Directors Elsa Flores Almaraz, Richard Montoya (Schlesinger Documentary Competition)
The Last Color...
- 12/14/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Gaga Corporation has picked up international sales rights to Japanese drama film “His Lost Name.” The film will premiere in the New Currents competition next month at the Busan Film Festival.
“Lost Name” is a first feature by female director Nanako Hirose, who hails from the Bun-buku stable of Palme d’Or winning auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda. Hirose previously worked on Kore-eda’s “Like Father, Like Son” and “Our Little Sister.”
With an original screenplay also written by Hirose, the film tells the story of a young man who is washed up on a river bank, knows only his name, and is taken in by a widower, despite his knowing little about the stranger. And, while the young man tries to confess something, folk from the neighboring village are becoming suspicious following an unexplained incident. The film stars Yuya Yagira Hour.
Production is by Bandai Namco Arts. Aoi Pro and The Asahi Shimbun Co.
“Lost Name” is a first feature by female director Nanako Hirose, who hails from the Bun-buku stable of Palme d’Or winning auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda. Hirose previously worked on Kore-eda’s “Like Father, Like Son” and “Our Little Sister.”
With an original screenplay also written by Hirose, the film tells the story of a young man who is washed up on a river bank, knows only his name, and is taken in by a widower, despite his knowing little about the stranger. And, while the young man tries to confess something, folk from the neighboring village are becoming suspicious following an unexplained incident. The film stars Yuya Yagira Hour.
Production is by Bandai Namco Arts. Aoi Pro and The Asahi Shimbun Co.
- 9/4/2018
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Nanako Hirose’s His Lost Name will premiere in Busan’s New Currents competition.
Japan’s Gaga Corporation has picked up international rights to His Lost Name (Yoake), the debut feature of Nanako Hirose, a protégé of Shoplifters director Hirokazu Kore-eda.
The film will receive its world premiere in New Currents, the competition section for new filmmakers at this year’s Busan International Film Festival (October 4-13).
Produced through Kore-eda’s company Bunbuku, the film stars Yuya Yagira, who won best actor at Cannes in 2004 for Kore-eda’s Nobody Knows, and veteran actor Kaoru Kobayashi (Midnight Diner).
Hirose wrote the...
Japan’s Gaga Corporation has picked up international rights to His Lost Name (Yoake), the debut feature of Nanako Hirose, a protégé of Shoplifters director Hirokazu Kore-eda.
The film will receive its world premiere in New Currents, the competition section for new filmmakers at this year’s Busan International Film Festival (October 4-13).
Produced through Kore-eda’s company Bunbuku, the film stars Yuya Yagira, who won best actor at Cannes in 2004 for Kore-eda’s Nobody Knows, and veteran actor Kaoru Kobayashi (Midnight Diner).
Hirose wrote the...
- 9/4/2018
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
Nanako Hirose’s His Lost Name will premiere in Busan’s New Currents competition.
Japan’s Gaga Corporation has picked up international rights to His Lost Name (Yoake), the debut feature of Nanako Hirose, a protégé of Shoplifters director Hirokazu Kore-eda.
The film will receive its world premiere in New Currents, the competition section for new filmmakers at this year’s Busan International Film Festival (October 4-13).
Produced through Kore-eda’s company Bunbuku, the film stars Yuya Yagira, who won best actor at Cannes in 2004 for Kore-eda’s Nobody Knows, and veteran actor Kaoru Kobayashi (Midnight Diner).
Hirose wrote the...
Japan’s Gaga Corporation has picked up international rights to His Lost Name (Yoake), the debut feature of Nanako Hirose, a protégé of Shoplifters director Hirokazu Kore-eda.
The film will receive its world premiere in New Currents, the competition section for new filmmakers at this year’s Busan International Film Festival (October 4-13).
Produced through Kore-eda’s company Bunbuku, the film stars Yuya Yagira, who won best actor at Cannes in 2004 for Kore-eda’s Nobody Knows, and veteran actor Kaoru Kobayashi (Midnight Diner).
Hirose wrote the...
- 9/4/2018
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
South Korean filmmaker Jero Yun’s “Beautiful Days” has been announced as the opening title of the Busan International Film Festival, Korea’s biggest film festival.
Starring Lee Na-young, “Beautiful Days” depicts the story of a woman who abandons her husband and child to escape North Korea for a better life abroad. Martial arts drama, “Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy,” by Hong Kong’s Yuen Woo-ping will close the festival.
“‘Beautiful Days’ sees the dissolution and restoration of a family, and also that its subject is very timely,” said festival director Jay Jeon.
For its twenty third edition, the Busan film festival has selected 323 films from 79 countries. That includes 115 world premieres and 25 international premieres.
The festival’s Gala Presentation section screens only three films this year. They are world premieres of Stanley Kwan’s “First Night Nerves” and Zhang Lu’s “Ode to the Goose,” and Tsukamoto Shinya’s “Killing.
Starring Lee Na-young, “Beautiful Days” depicts the story of a woman who abandons her husband and child to escape North Korea for a better life abroad. Martial arts drama, “Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy,” by Hong Kong’s Yuen Woo-ping will close the festival.
“‘Beautiful Days’ sees the dissolution and restoration of a family, and also that its subject is very timely,” said festival director Jay Jeon.
For its twenty third edition, the Busan film festival has selected 323 films from 79 countries. That includes 115 world premieres and 25 international premieres.
The festival’s Gala Presentation section screens only three films this year. They are world premieres of Stanley Kwan’s “First Night Nerves” and Zhang Lu’s “Ode to the Goose,” and Tsukamoto Shinya’s “Killing.
- 9/4/2018
- by Sonia Kil
- Variety Film + TV
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