Anthony Chen’s ‘Wet Season’ Acquired by Strand Releasing For North America (EXCLUSIVE)

Rebecca Davis editorChinese director Guan Hu is riding high right now: Despite languishing in government censorship purgatory for over a year, his patriotic war epic “The Eight Hundred” has risen to become the highest grossing film in the world in 2020, with sales of $461 million. His next confirmed move? More jingoistic propaganda.

It’s clear, now having watched both 2017’s “Wonder Woman” and the just-released sequel, “Wonder Woman 1984,” the two films are very different. Whether that difference is good or bad is up to you, but there’s no denying that director Patty Jenkins has crafted a second ‘Wonder Woman’ film that shares very little in common with the original.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFilm Movement has acquired North American rights to Amjad Abu Alala’s feature debut “You Will Die at Twenty,” which marks Sudan’s first official Oscar submission.As part of the deal, Film Movement will give “You Will Die at Twenty” a theatrical rollout via virtual cinema in 2021, followed by a release on home entertainment and digital platforms.The film, which is only the eighth narrative feature film to be made in Sudan, follows Muzamil, whose death at

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefJessica Chastain’s “Ava” has skipped a theatrical release in China, but is instead to get the widest possible online outing in the Middle Kingdom. From Saturday it is available on China’s four largest generalist streaming platforms: Tencent Video, Alibaba-owned Youku, iQIYI and Mango TV.The maneuver was piloted by Los Angeles and Beijing based Leeding Media.

With a newly elected Democratic president, this is the season of speculation, where names are being floated as potential ambassador picks. And this time around, The Walt Disney Co.’s executive chairman Bob Iger is getting attention as a prospect for one of the highest profile foreign posts, China.

The racial insensitivity scandal that derailed the China release of action film Monster Hunter is starting to impact other high-profile movies in the country. Sources in Beijing tell The Hollywood Reporter that the China Film Administration has tightened its censorship process in the wake of the controversy, calling back several previously approved imported films for a second, more thorough review.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentNew York-based outfit Grasshopper Film has acquired North American rights to Ephraim Asili’s debut feature, “The Inheritance,” following its premiere at Toronto and screening at the New York Film Festival.Grasshopper Film is planning to have “The Inheritance” open on March 12 in New York at Film at Lincoln Center, as well as in other cities.The ensemble film takes place almost entirely in a West Philadelphia house, where a community of young people have

Netflix is adding fantasy film The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity to its pool of high-profile Chinese commercial movies. The feature, directed by youth-favorite filmmaker Guo Jingming, will debut on Netflix on Feb.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentStrand Releasing has acquired North American rights to Bassam Tariq’s “Mogul Mowgli,” co-written, starring and produced by Riz Ahmed. The movie world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival where it won the Fipresci International Critics’ Prize.Produced by Thomas Benski, CEO of Pulse Films, and Ahmed’s Left Handed Films banner, “Mogul Mowgli” recently received seven British Independent Film Award nominations.

When control of the United States Senate is on the line, the Democrat machine in Washington spares no expense to get the power they so desperately crave. After winning the most expensive Senate race in our country’s history in 2014 and then doing so again when I was re-elected in November, I have experienced their playbook first-hand.  Both former Sen.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefSpecialty distributor Shout! Studios has secured all North American rights to ecology-themed Chinese animated feature “The Legend Of Hei.” In a partnership with France’s Play Big, it will give the film a release in the U.S. and Canada.“The Legend Of Hei” is a heart-warming fantasy about a cat spirit who goes on a journey of self-discovery after its forest home is destroyed by humans.

Rebecca Davis editorChina’s top TV regulator on Monday issued a list of 102 state-backed TV documentaries set to hit the airwaves by 2025, indicating the kind of content Beijing wishes to promote amongst local viewers in the years to come.The titles are the first batch selected by China’s National Radio and TV Administration as part of a project begun in 2018 to “create and promote documentary films that ‘Record the New Era’ ” That means the development of propaganda that bolsters the ruling

Refresh for more analysis, chart, etc. Even in a normal, healthy economy, the major studios are typically skittish about opening big movies before Christmas with many busy with holiday activities, so it comes as no surprise during a pandemic where just north of 40% of all 5,500 domestic movie theaters are open that there wouldn’t be any new wide openings this weekend.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentStrand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Agnieszka Holland’s critically acclaimed “Charlatan” from Berlin-based company Films Boutique.“Charlatan” competed at the Berlin Film Festival this year in the Special Gala section, and was most recently selected at Telluride.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaUli Edel will direct “Shadow Song,” the story of the bond between a Chinese music student and his Jewish classmate.The film is a feature-length version of the 2017 short “A Children’s Song” and boasts a screenplay by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs (“Chocolat”).