The 2019 International Film Festival & Awards Macao (Iffam) closed yesterday (December 4) with an awards ceremony that saw Kirill Mikhanovsky’s English/Russian-language comedy Give Me Liberty named best film in the international competition. A jury presided over by Chinese filmmaker Peter Chan Ho-sun awarded its best director prize to Fyzal Boulifa for his debut feature Lynn + Lucy, and the best screenplay prize to Hamish Bennett for Bellbird. The acting awards went to Sarm Heng for Bouyancy and Roxanne Scrimshaw for Lynn + Lucy. Finally, the Macao Audience Choice Award also went to Rodd Rathjen’s Buoyancy. In the New Chinese Cinema competition, which was presided over by Cristian Mungiu, Xiaogang Gu’s Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains was named best new Chinese-language film of the year. Best director went to Anthony Chen for Wet Season, best screenplay went to Johnny Ma for To Live To Sing, and the acting awards went to...
- 12/11/2019
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Art and legacy clash with progress and commerce in a lightly dramatized account of life as one of the few remaining Sichuan Opera troupes in Chengdu, China. With a story originating in documentary filmmaking, To Live To Sing is Johnny Ma’s sophomore feature, distant from the high energy fueling his debut Old Stone (read review) in 2016 but borne out of a similar observational knack for rapidly evolving social dynamics in contemporary China. The theatre manager (Zhao Xiaoli) fights hard every day to keep the show going, even in the face of bulldozers tearing down the neighborhood, but the financial reality of a dwindling audience is pushing her husband (Yan Xihu) and niece (Gan Guidan) to pursuing more lucrative, if not as artistically legitimate, side gigs.…...
- 12/10/2019
- by Tommaso Tocci
- IONCINEMA.com
Fyzal Boulifa won best director for UK title ‘Lynn + Lucy’.
The 4th International Film Festival & Awards Macao (Iffam) closed on Tuesday night (10) with the top award going to Us film Give Me Liberty directed by Kirill Mikhanovsky.
Stars such as Carina Lau and Juliette Binoche were on the red carpet for the festival, which showed 43 films including 10 in International Competition and six in the New Chinese Cinema Competition. It ran from December 5-10 in and around the Macau Cultural Centre.
Chinese filmmaker Peter Chan Ho-sun headed the jury for first and second-time directors in the international competition. He was joined...
The 4th International Film Festival & Awards Macao (Iffam) closed on Tuesday night (10) with the top award going to Us film Give Me Liberty directed by Kirill Mikhanovsky.
Stars such as Carina Lau and Juliette Binoche were on the red carpet for the festival, which showed 43 films including 10 in International Competition and six in the New Chinese Cinema Competition. It ran from December 5-10 in and around the Macau Cultural Centre.
Chinese filmmaker Peter Chan Ho-sun headed the jury for first and second-time directors in the international competition. He was joined...
- 12/10/2019
- by 134¦Jean Noh¦516¦
- ScreenDaily
Kirill Mikhanovsky’s “Give Me Liberty” and Gu Xiaogang’s “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains won the best picture prizes in the international and Chinese cinema sections on Tuesday at the International Film Festival and Awards Macau (Iffam).
“This film shouldn’t have existed because there were so many obstacles. Everything was a miracle. Us being here is an utter miracle,” said Mikhanovsky, who took the stage with his producer Alice Austen to describe the frenzy of trying to shoot their film for a quarter of their original budget.
“If someone had asked us a year ago if we’d like to show our film in Macau, we’d have said man, you’re out of your mind,” he laughed, before thanking the festival. “This is such a gathering of minds and intellects and true lovers of cinema, which is very rare. You’ve truly crafted a one-of-a-kind global event.
“This film shouldn’t have existed because there were so many obstacles. Everything was a miracle. Us being here is an utter miracle,” said Mikhanovsky, who took the stage with his producer Alice Austen to describe the frenzy of trying to shoot their film for a quarter of their original budget.
“If someone had asked us a year ago if we’d like to show our film in Macau, we’d have said man, you’re out of your mind,” he laughed, before thanking the festival. “This is such a gathering of minds and intellects and true lovers of cinema, which is very rare. You’ve truly crafted a one-of-a-kind global event.
- 12/10/2019
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Hollywood films and local arthouse led the Chinese box office this weekend, with “Jumanji: The Next Level” taking the lead with a $24.7 million debut, while Lou Ye’s Venice title “Saturday Fiction” was abruptly yanked from the lineup of releases.
Remarkably, Diao Yinan’s stylish and bloody neo-noir “Wild Goose Lake” did almost as well as “Jumanji” in its opening weekend, taking $19.4 million to come in second. Starring Hu Ge, Gwei Lun Mei, and Liao Fan, the crime thriller debuted in competition at Cannes in May, but appears to have undergone four minutes of cuts, given the listed 113-minute runtime of the version screening in China.
Disney’s “Frozen 2” came in third with $9.6 million, bringing its cumulative box office in China up to $105 million.
Local crime thriller “The Whistleblower” made $4.3 million in its debut. The film features Tang Wei, the starlet who was once banned from mainland filmmaking for her...
Remarkably, Diao Yinan’s stylish and bloody neo-noir “Wild Goose Lake” did almost as well as “Jumanji” in its opening weekend, taking $19.4 million to come in second. Starring Hu Ge, Gwei Lun Mei, and Liao Fan, the crime thriller debuted in competition at Cannes in May, but appears to have undergone four minutes of cuts, given the listed 113-minute runtime of the version screening in China.
Disney’s “Frozen 2” came in third with $9.6 million, bringing its cumulative box office in China up to $105 million.
Local crime thriller “The Whistleblower” made $4.3 million in its debut. The film features Tang Wei, the starlet who was once banned from mainland filmmaking for her...
- 12/9/2019
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Shanghai-born Canadian filmmaker Johnny Ma says he’d planned to make three films in China before moving on to other things, but the current state of the Chinese industry has “forced his hand” and convinced him to move on early after two.
Currently living in Mexico, his next project is actually in TV: a pilot for a series of Asian-American stories for Amazon, in collaboration with the creators of “Westworld” that he says could be a “game-changer” for Asian-American representation.
“I first came here five years ago because I felt my story wasn’t being taken seriously in North America, where I was categorized as a minority filmmaker. I thought I could have more impact in China. But now it’s different,” he told Variety on the sidelines of the International Film Festival and Awards Macao, where his second feature “To Live To Sing” is competing in the new Chinese cinema section.
Currently living in Mexico, his next project is actually in TV: a pilot for a series of Asian-American stories for Amazon, in collaboration with the creators of “Westworld” that he says could be a “game-changer” for Asian-American representation.
“I first came here five years ago because I felt my story wasn’t being taken seriously in North America, where I was categorized as a minority filmmaker. I thought I could have more impact in China. But now it’s different,” he told Variety on the sidelines of the International Film Festival and Awards Macao, where his second feature “To Live To Sing” is competing in the new Chinese cinema section.
- 12/9/2019
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Macao may be renowned for gambling, but the 4th International Film Festival & Awards of Macao (Iffam) features more than a few sure bets. Oscar-watchers should look out for Taika Waititi’s opening film “Jojo Rabbit”; Rupert Goold’s biopic of Judy Garland, “Judy,” which looks likely to land Renée Zellweger a best actress nomination; and Terrence Malick’s quiet meditation on faith and conscientious objection, “A Hidden Life.”
Meanwhile, likely too rich for Oscar’s blood, Robert Eggers’ uncategorizable “The Lighthouse,” starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, is a wholly original experience — imagine if Herman Melville had scurvy and got drunk with Edgar Allan Poe.
Elsewhere, the guiding curatorial hand of Iffam Artistic Director Mike Goodridge makes itself especially felt in the selection from China, which includes Gu Xiaogang’s sprawling, inter-generational Edward Yang-indebted “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains”; Johnny Ma’s tribute to the Chinese theatrical tradition “To Live To Sing...
Meanwhile, likely too rich for Oscar’s blood, Robert Eggers’ uncategorizable “The Lighthouse,” starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, is a wholly original experience — imagine if Herman Melville had scurvy and got drunk with Edgar Allan Poe.
Elsewhere, the guiding curatorial hand of Iffam Artistic Director Mike Goodridge makes itself especially felt in the selection from China, which includes Gu Xiaogang’s sprawling, inter-generational Edward Yang-indebted “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains”; Johnny Ma’s tribute to the Chinese theatrical tradition “To Live To Sing...
- 12/5/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Attendees include Peter Chan Ho-sun, Tricia Tuttle and Noah Cowan.
Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit opened the fourth International Film Festival & Awards Macao (Iffam) at the Macao Cultural Centre on Wednesday (December 4).
International guests in town for the festival include Peter Chan Ho-sun, head of the international competition jury, and fellow jury members Ellen Eliasoph, Tom Cullen, Dian Sastrowardoyo and Midi Z, as well as New Chinese Cinema competition jury head Cristian Mungiu and his fellow jury members Qiu Yang, Kirsten Tan, Tricia Tuttle and Noah Cowan.
Director Mattie Do and her The Long Walk team including actor Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy...
Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit opened the fourth International Film Festival & Awards Macao (Iffam) at the Macao Cultural Centre on Wednesday (December 4).
International guests in town for the festival include Peter Chan Ho-sun, head of the international competition jury, and fellow jury members Ellen Eliasoph, Tom Cullen, Dian Sastrowardoyo and Midi Z, as well as New Chinese Cinema competition jury head Cristian Mungiu and his fellow jury members Qiu Yang, Kirsten Tan, Tricia Tuttle and Noah Cowan.
Director Mattie Do and her The Long Walk team including actor Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy...
- 12/5/2019
- by 134¦Jean Noh¦516¦
- ScreenDaily
Attendees include Peter Chan Ho-sun, Tricia Tuttle and Noah Cowan.
Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit opened the fourth International Film Festival & Awards Macao (Iffam) at the Macao Cultural Centre on Wednesday (December 4).
International guests in town for the festival include Peter Chan Ho-sun, head of the international competition jury, and fellow jury members Ellen Eliasoph, Tom Cullen, Dian Sastrowardoyo and Midi Z, as well as New Chinese Cinema competition jury head Cristian Mungiu and his fellow jury members Qiu Yang, Kirsten Tan, Tricia Tuttle and Noah Cowan.
Director Mattie Do and her The Long Walk team including actor Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy...
Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit opened the fourth International Film Festival & Awards Macao (Iffam) at the Macao Cultural Centre on Wednesday (December 4).
International guests in town for the festival include Peter Chan Ho-sun, head of the international competition jury, and fellow jury members Ellen Eliasoph, Tom Cullen, Dian Sastrowardoyo and Midi Z, as well as New Chinese Cinema competition jury head Cristian Mungiu and his fellow jury members Qiu Yang, Kirsten Tan, Tricia Tuttle and Noah Cowan.
Director Mattie Do and her The Long Walk team including actor Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy...
- 12/5/2019
- by 134¦Jean Noh¦516¦
- ScreenDaily
The New Chinese Cinema section returns for the second year.
The 4th International Film Festival & Awards Macao has unveiled its 2019 programme, including the return of the New Chinese Cinema section with a jury headed by Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu.
Mungiu will oversee a five-person jury watching six films from Chinese-speaking territories. His jury consists of BFI London Film Festival artistic director Tricia Tuttle; former Sffilm (San Francisco Film) executive director Noah Cowan; and filmmakers Kirsten Tan from Singapore and Qiu Yang from China.
Scroll down for the line-up
The films in the section include Anthony Chen’s Wet Season, which...
The 4th International Film Festival & Awards Macao has unveiled its 2019 programme, including the return of the New Chinese Cinema section with a jury headed by Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu.
Mungiu will oversee a five-person jury watching six films from Chinese-speaking territories. His jury consists of BFI London Film Festival artistic director Tricia Tuttle; former Sffilm (San Francisco Film) executive director Noah Cowan; and filmmakers Kirsten Tan from Singapore and Qiu Yang from China.
Scroll down for the line-up
The films in the section include Anthony Chen’s Wet Season, which...
- 11/6/2019
- by 1101321¦Ben Dalton¦26¦
- ScreenDaily
Taika Waititi’s provocative Nazi comedy “Jojo Rabbit” has been set as the opening night gala screening at the fourth edition of the International Film Festival & Awards Macao.
The festival packs together a competition section that includes recent festival favorites Gitanjali Rao’s animation “Bombay Rose,” and barely fictionalize modern-day slavery drama “Buoyancy,” by Rodd Rathjen, alongside gala screenings of “Shaun The Sheep 2: Farmageddon,” and Japan’s “Dance With Me,” by Shinobu Yaguchi.
A strong Chinese presence includes “Better Days,” by Derek Tsang; Cannes Critics Week film “Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains,” by Gu Xiaogang; “To Live To Sing,” by Johnny Ma; and Singaporean director Anthony Chen’s “Wet Season.”
The World Panorama strand films by celebrated directors, includes “The Invisible Life Of Eurídice Gusmao,” winner of Un Certain Regard, “Little Joe,” for which Emily Beecham won best actress in Cannes, and “Proxima,” for which director Alice Winocour won...
The festival packs together a competition section that includes recent festival favorites Gitanjali Rao’s animation “Bombay Rose,” and barely fictionalize modern-day slavery drama “Buoyancy,” by Rodd Rathjen, alongside gala screenings of “Shaun The Sheep 2: Farmageddon,” and Japan’s “Dance With Me,” by Shinobu Yaguchi.
A strong Chinese presence includes “Better Days,” by Derek Tsang; Cannes Critics Week film “Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains,” by Gu Xiaogang; “To Live To Sing,” by Johnny Ma; and Singaporean director Anthony Chen’s “Wet Season.”
The World Panorama strand films by celebrated directors, includes “The Invisible Life Of Eurídice Gusmao,” winner of Un Certain Regard, “Little Joe,” for which Emily Beecham won best actress in Cannes, and “Proxima,” for which director Alice Winocour won...
- 11/5/2019
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
If we take a look at the media circus surrounding actors and directors as well as other artists during film festivals, at times it feels as if the center of the universe has shifted for this one moment. When Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Johnny Ma attended this year’s Cannes Film Festival, he must have had a similar experience seeing a world which has the ability to elevate an artist’s to godlike highs while at the same time dropping others to the cold hard pavement of reality. “It’s like Disneyland of the film world, all the good and the bad” Ma explains in an article written by Chris Night for the National Post.
“To Live to Sing” is screening at the 60th Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Interestingly, it is a somewhat surreal world Ma portrays in his new feature “To Live to Sing”, but also the danger of this environment...
“To Live to Sing” is screening at the 60th Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Interestingly, it is a somewhat surreal world Ma portrays in his new feature “To Live to Sing”, but also the danger of this environment...
- 11/2/2019
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
The 60th Thessaloniki International Film Festival invites audience and filmmakers to the large celebration of global independent cinema from October 31 to November 10, 2019, showcasing the best films from all over the world, important guests and tributes, cinematic surprises, as well as a series of parallel events in the city of Thessaloniki.
Here are all the Asian Films in the Official Programme:
International Competition
“Wet Season” by Anthony Chen – Singapore, Taiwan – 2019
Out Of Competition
“Beanpole” by Kantemir Balagov – Russia, 2019
”Abou Leila” – by Amin Sidi-boumediene – Algeria, France, Qatar – 2019
“Sister”
Balkan Survey
“Noah Land” by Cenk Erturk – Germany, Turkey, USA – 2019
”Sister” by Svetla Tsotsorkova – Bulgaria, Qatar – 2019
Film Forward
“From Tomorrow On, I Will” by Ivan Markovic, Wu Linfeng – Germany, China, Serbia – 2019
”Krabi 2562” by Anocha Suwichakornpong, Ben Rivers – United Kingdom, Thailand – 2019
“Africa”
Meet The Neighbors
”Africa” by Oren Gerner – Israel – 2019
“The Criminal Man” by Dmitry Mamuliya – Georgia, Russia – 2019
Special Screenings
”Chained” by Yaron Shani – Israel,...
Here are all the Asian Films in the Official Programme:
International Competition
“Wet Season” by Anthony Chen – Singapore, Taiwan – 2019
Out Of Competition
“Beanpole” by Kantemir Balagov – Russia, 2019
”Abou Leila” – by Amin Sidi-boumediene – Algeria, France, Qatar – 2019
“Sister”
Balkan Survey
“Noah Land” by Cenk Erturk – Germany, Turkey, USA – 2019
”Sister” by Svetla Tsotsorkova – Bulgaria, Qatar – 2019
Film Forward
“From Tomorrow On, I Will” by Ivan Markovic, Wu Linfeng – Germany, China, Serbia – 2019
”Krabi 2562” by Anocha Suwichakornpong, Ben Rivers – United Kingdom, Thailand – 2019
“Africa”
Meet The Neighbors
”Africa” by Oren Gerner – Israel – 2019
“The Criminal Man” by Dmitry Mamuliya – Georgia, Russia – 2019
Special Screenings
”Chained” by Yaron Shani – Israel,...
- 10/22/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
New films by Anthony Chen, Heiward Mak and Kongdej Jaturanrasmee in New Asian Cinema competition. You are invited to the presentation of the full programme on 24 October!
Heartwarming “Fagara”, bitter-sweet “To Live to Sing”, subtle “Wet Season” and lyrical “Where We Belong” together with challenging “Heavy Craving” complete the list of films to be presented in the New Asian Cinema competition. As every year, the Five Flavours viewers will receive a perfect mixture of sincere emotions, affecting topics and interesting formal choices – so that each screening became an unforgettable experience.
The main award will be granted by People’s Jury – a group of amateurs and semi-professionals whose sincere love of cinema and Asia combined with advanced journalistic skills allow them to make competent assessment of the competition films and choose the winner of the Festival.
Presentation of the programme
On 24 October at 4.15 p.m. viewers and journalists are invited to...
Heartwarming “Fagara”, bitter-sweet “To Live to Sing”, subtle “Wet Season” and lyrical “Where We Belong” together with challenging “Heavy Craving” complete the list of films to be presented in the New Asian Cinema competition. As every year, the Five Flavours viewers will receive a perfect mixture of sincere emotions, affecting topics and interesting formal choices – so that each screening became an unforgettable experience.
The main award will be granted by People’s Jury – a group of amateurs and semi-professionals whose sincere love of cinema and Asia combined with advanced journalistic skills allow them to make competent assessment of the competition films and choose the winner of the Festival.
Presentation of the programme
On 24 October at 4.15 p.m. viewers and journalists are invited to...
- 10/17/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
The Shanghai International Film Festival unveiled a competition lineup Tuesday that features entries from countries ranging from Indonesia to Estonia – but not the U.S., which is engaged in an increasingly bitter trade war with China.
The government-affiliated festival, which runs June 15-24, will open with the premieres of two Chinese films: Huayi Bros.’ patriotic World War II epic “The Eight Hundred,” directed by Guan Hu, and “Chuanyue Shikong de Huhuan” by Zhang Jiarui, according to Chinese website Mtime. Actor Wu Jing – whose “Wolf Warrior II” and “Wandering Earth” are the top two earning films in Chinese film history – will be the festival’s ambassador.
Fifteen films from around the world will vie for the Golden Goblet Award in the main competition. Notable among them are “Many Happy Returns,” a new title directed by Germany-based Uruguayan filmmaker Carlos Morelli and produced by Germany’s Weydemann Brothers, and “Chicuarotes,” Gael Garcia...
The government-affiliated festival, which runs June 15-24, will open with the premieres of two Chinese films: Huayi Bros.’ patriotic World War II epic “The Eight Hundred,” directed by Guan Hu, and “Chuanyue Shikong de Huhuan” by Zhang Jiarui, according to Chinese website Mtime. Actor Wu Jing – whose “Wolf Warrior II” and “Wandering Earth” are the top two earning films in Chinese film history – will be the festival’s ambassador.
Fifteen films from around the world will vie for the Golden Goblet Award in the main competition. Notable among them are “Many Happy Returns,” a new title directed by Germany-based Uruguayan filmmaker Carlos Morelli and produced by Germany’s Weydemann Brothers, and “Chicuarotes,” Gael Garcia...
- 6/4/2019
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
After his taut, impressive debut “Old Stone” which tracked with nightmarish relentlessness the high cost of compassion in modern urban China, Canadian-Chinese director Johnny Ma loosens his grip a little to deliver a softer, if not necessarily less pessimistic examination of the failing fortunes of a regional Sichuan Opera troupe. “To Live to Sing” is baggier than its predecessor and less immediately accessible given that it loses “Old Stone’s” ratcheting stakes in favor of slowly dwindling hopes. But it is elevated by a beautifully compact and empathetic performance from Zhao Xiaoli, leader of the real-life opera group, whose members play fictionalized versions of themselves here. Chinese opera can seem beholden to a performance and storytelling tradition almost entirely alien to Western eyes, yet Zhao makes the transition from heavily painted, ornamented, and arcanely codified stage performer to subtle, natural, and wholly heartbreaking screen presence with exceptional grace.
Zhao plays Zhao Li,...
Zhao plays Zhao Li,...
- 5/27/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.