‘Avatar,’ Vadim Perelman’s ‘Persian Lessons’ Set March Release Dates in China

In March of 2020, at the top of the pandemic, when former reality show host Donald Trump referred to the coronavirus as the “China Virus” and “Kung Flu”, violence and harassment against Asians and Asian Americans started to surge.

Despite securing its first Oscar nomination since 1993, Hong Kong looks set to not broadcast the Academy Awards this year after local station Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) opted not to renew its deal.

Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies are headed back to China's cinemas. The beloved fantasy trilogy has been scheduled for a staggered rerelease in China throughout April, according to local media reports.

Rebecca Davis editorChinese director Zhang Yimou’s stylish, snowy spy thriller “Impasse” is set to debut in China over the May 1 Labor Day weekend, joining what will be an unusually competitive line-up.“Impasse” was supposed to hit screens last year, but its release was pushed back to this upcoming April 30 due to the pandemic.

Rebecca Davis editorThe “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy will be re-released successively in Chinese theaters throughout April in restored 4K, Imax and 3D versions, just in time for the 20th anniversary of the first movie’s China debut.The re-runs come just after James Cameron’s 12-year-old “Avatar” returned to Chinese screens on March 12 for an unexpected box office boost that has allowed it to regain its title as the highest-grossing film in movie history, stealing the crown back from

EXCLUSIVE: MGM is in advanced negotiations for a multi-territory pre-buy of writer-director Zach Braff’s feature A Good Person, we can reveal.

inaccurate, Americanized version of one of the most beloved tales in Chinese culture.

Rebecca Davis editorTop Chinese director Feng Xiaogang will step in front of the camera alongside Chinese-American actor-director Joan Chen in a local adaptation of the 2009 Hollywood tearjerker “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale,” which began shooting Thursday.It is currently set to premiere on New Year’s Eve.Feng is best known for his work as a director on films such as “Youth,” “I Am Not Madame Bovary” and “Cellphone,” but he has also frequently taken on acting roles, with his most recent starring role in

Rebecca Davis editorChinese helmer Xu Lei will return to the subject of rural life in northern China for his second feature “The Peacemaker,” one of the 20 narrative film projects selected to participate in the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum this year.Xu’s suspenseful and darkly humorous first film “Summer Detective,” which he wrote and directed, was nominated for best feature and won the prize for best script at the 2019 FIRST International Film Festival, which focuses on emerging talent.

Rebecca Davis editorThe Shanghai International Film Festival will take place this year from June 11 to June 19.The news comes less than two weeks after Gao Yunfei, the head of Shanghai’s municipal film administration and vice-minister of its propaganda department, stated at a press conference that the city was considering pushing the event back to July.Registration for the 24th annual event is now open to “Chinese and foreign filmmakers and industry people,” the festival said, implying a door

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese indie sales agency Blossoms Entertainment returns to FilMart with a slate of large-scale commercial pictures sourced from a clutch of China’s biggest film studios.The agency, operated by former IM Global staffers Vicky Ding and Leslie Chen, is pre-selling “Railway Heroes,” a tale of heroism and wartime sabotage which is targeting a National Day release in October.

Also Read: Brie Larson Reveals All the Movies She Auditioned for and Didn't Get, From 'Pitch Perfect' to 'Avatar' (Video)“Avatar” is also the first Hollywood film to top the Chinese weekend box office charts in 2021, following a February in which multiple local films pushed Lunar New Year grosses to a record $1.2 billion as the market has fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.

You know it’s a good week on Real Time when the two stories that have consumed the week’s news — the accusations against Andrew Cuomo and the accusations against the Royal Family — take a backseat to weightier topics such as crony capitalism and the hegemony of China.

Avengers: Endgame is about to be dethroned as the highest-grossing film of all time by Avatar!

Vadim Perelman's modestly budgeted holocaust drama Persian Lessons has been set for release in China on March 19 — in the shadow of James Cameron's surpriseAvatar re-release. The well-regarded Belarusian-Russian film will pose a test of China's market for emotionally potent foreign indie filmmaking, which had been growing steadily before the disastrous onset of the pandemic.

Seemingly out of nowhere, James Cameron is back at the multiplex —but only in China. China's Film Bureau has approved a surprise plan for the director's 2009 sci-fi epic Avatar to get a wide re-release in the country on Friday, according to two sources at Chinese movie theater companies, which were informed of the arrangements.

Rebecca Davis editorChina’s top law-making body will consider this week a popular proposition to ban actors who have used drugs from entertainment industry for life at its annual weeklong meeting, which kicked off Friday.The National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber stamp parliament, counts some 3,000 professionals from across the country as delegates, including directors Jia Zhangke, Feng Xiaogang and Chen Kaige, as well as Jackie Chan and Yao Ming.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefImax China, the supplier of giant screen cinema facilities and services in Greater China, is one of the purest plays on the mainland Chinese movie exhibition market available to investors.

Netflix will release Kevin Hart's Fatherhood on Father's Day, presenting the movie withBarack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions. The streamer acquired the worldwide rights for the feature from Sony Pictures, which has had to push the release date of the film several times due to the continued theatrical shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rebecca Davis editorThe Chadwick Boseman-starring police action film “21 Bridges” will hit Chinese theaters on March 19, the first Hollywood action title to debut in the world’s largest film market so far this year.