Busan Film Festival Reappoints Lee Yong-kwan as Chairman

Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has announced that its 70th anniversary edition in August will include the debut of the annual MIFF Film Competition. Already the Southern Hemisphere’s largest and longest-running film festival, MIFF will now also offer one of the world’s most substantial festival prize pools.Initially comprising three awards, the MIFF Film Competition‘s flagship prize will be the AUD$140,000 (approx.

The streets outside her window are dripping with hope, and yet Élisabeth (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is lost. It is Paris, 1981, a new president has been elected, and Élisabeth’s husband has left, claiming the thrillingness of motion by moving in with a new girlfriend while his ex is left with the stagnance of remaining, the apartment where they’ve raised their children, Judith (Megan Northam) and Matthias (Quito Rayon-Richter), at once comfortingly familiar and dreadfully new.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorMirsad Purivatra has stepped down as Sarajevo Film Festival director after a 27-year run, and has been replaced by Jovan Marjanović, who was previously in charge of the festival’s industry department and the festival co-director.Purivatra, the founder of the festival, will assume the role of president of the Obala Art Centar Association, the umbrella organization behind the festival.“I am proud of everything we have accomplished over the last 27 years. We started from nothing, when our city was under siege, and today we are a globally renowned institution attended by filmmakers and film industry professionals from the region and the whole world,” Purivatra said.“We have faced many challenges on this journey.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefOnly a few months ago, hundreds of Asian film executives were expecting to attend this week’s Berlin festival and the European Film Market. For many, it would have been their first participation in a top-tier overseas festival for nearly two years.But the Omicron variant has upended those dreams. And, except for those folks with a film playing in the festival, most have stayed at home.

EXCLUSIVE: Organizers of the Berlin Film Festival have told us that the world premiere screening of opening film Peter Von Kant was disrupted last night due to “a server problem”.

Naman Ramachandran The 36th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival will open with Alli Haapasalo’s “Girl Picture” and close with Kevin Hegge‘s documentary “Tramps!” “Girl Picture,” which won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance in January and will screen at the Berlinale next week, follows three girls at the cusp of womanhood. Over three consecutive Fridays, two of them experience the effects of falling in love, while the third goes on a quest to find something she’s never experienced – pleasure.Feature documentary “Tramps,” world premiering at the festival, looks at how in London in the 1980’s, an onslaught of art students arriving in the city resulted in a unique cross-fertilization of British art, fashion, music and film culminating in a group known as The New Romantics.

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran editor Natalia Lopez Gallardo’s feature directing debut Robe Of Gems screens in competition today at the Berlin Film Festival, check out the first trailer above.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorCopenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, which runs March 21-April 3, has revealed the lineup for its international financing and co-production event CPH:FORUM.Women are taking central stage in the lineup both as characters and storytellers, and the Forum will feature new projects by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), Ilinca Calugareanu (“Chuck Norris vs.

Ed Meza @edmezavarThe 72nd Berlin Film Festival got off to a promising if somewhat subdued start Feb. 10 amid strict restrictions due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, which put a major damper on this year’s festivities and kept crowds to a minimum.While only some 800 guests attended the opening night ceremony at the Berlinale Palast — less than half of the normal capacity of the festival’s grand main venue — the event was nevertheless a hopeful sign for the local film industry and for cinema in general.The festival was uncompromising in its mask policy for the red carpet, rendering most high-profile guests unrecognizable — although many whipped them off for the phalanx of photographers.

The Santa Barbara Film Festival on Thursday revealed the lineup for its 37th edition, which is set to run March 2-12 in-person in its customary spot in the heat of Oscar season.

Wilson Chapman editorThe Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) has announced the full programming slate for its upcoming 2022 edition, consisting of 48 world premieres and 98 U.S. premieres.“It brings us an unbridled joy to share our slate for this edition of SBIFF,” the festival’s executive director Roger Durling said in a statement. “After two years of incertitude, it feels good to know we can continue to count on film and the festival to give us a sense of comfort and continuity.

The 72nd Berlin Film Festival kicks off in physical form today with M. Night Shyamalan leading the main competition jury. Also notable among panelists is Oscar nominee Ryusuke Hamaguchi whose Drive My Car this week became the first Japanese movie ever nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. Hamaguchi was actually on a plane heading to Berlin when the nominations were announced, and only learned of the results upon landing.

Manori Ravindran International EditorYou can’t say we weren’t warned.When the omicron wave hit in December, the Berlin Film Festival frantically pivoted to ensure a physical event went ahead, and organizers cautioned that heavy COVID restrictions would be in place at the 72nd edition of the fest.True to form, those measures are keenly felt on the ground in Berlin, where COVID-testing buses and strict vaccination and booster checks will be de rigueur over the next week. Depending on where you’re coming from, that may be a shock to the system, but it appears to be a lot more straightforward than it looks — and rest assured you’ll be spared the indignity of spitting into test tubes.A day before Thursday’s opening ceremony, which screens Francois Ozon’s “Peter von Kant,” the main festival grounds are noticeably subdued, with the Berlinale Palast red carpet still in the process of being set up.

Ed Meza @edmezavarOrganizers of the upcoming Berlinale continue to plan for a physical festival under strict safety measures, but with the EFM already moved online due to rising COVID-19 cases, this year looks set to be another gloomy gathering, not only for Germany’s dispirited film sector, but also for Berlin businesses bracing for more lost revenue.Local cinema operators and distributors have welcomed the move, but the condensed event and ongoing Omicron scare is likely to keep attendance on the low side.“This is such an important signal for the entire culture and film industry,” says Christian Bräuer, chairman of independent cinema association AG Kino – Gilde and managing director of Berlin’s Yorck-Kino group. “Of course, as social venues, we are aware of our responsibility.

Naman Ramachandran Zhang Lu’s “Yanagawa” (China), Hong Sung-eun’s “Aloners” (South Korea) and Fujimoto Akio’s “Along the Sea” (Japan/Vietnam) were among the top award winners at France’s Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas. “Yanagawa,” which opened the 2021 Pingyao Film Festival, won the Golden Cyclo, the festival’s top honor awarded by the international jury.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe leadup to the 2022 Berlin Film Festival has been a veritable rollercoaster ride for co-directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian due to the global spread of the Omicron variant.But while other top fests such as Sundance and Rotterdam went online again, Berlin has stayed the course due to the two chiefs’ determination to not go virtual and also to keep their February slot, albeit in its current reduced Feb. 10-16 form.

Honorable Mentions: Ultrainocencia (Dir: Manuel Arija)Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize: Forget Me Not (Dir: Olivier Bernier)Honorable Mention: Fury (Dir: Krzysztof Kasior)Breakouts Feature Grand Jury Prize: Killing the Eunuch KHAN (Dir: Abed Abest)Honorable Mentions: Retrograde (Dir: Adrian Murray)Unstoppable Feature Grand Jury Prize: Straighten Up And Fly Right (Dir: Kristen Abate and StevenTanenbaum)Honorable Mentions: Selahy (My Weapon) (Dir: Alaa Zabara)Narrative Shorts Grand Jury Prize: Ratking (Dir: Eric Colonna)Honorable Mention: See You, Garbage! (Dir: Romain Dumont)Documentary Short Grand Jury Prize: The Ritual to Beauty (Dir: Shenny de Los Angeles and MariaMarrone)Honorable Mention: Walls Cannot Keep Us From Flying (Dir: Jonathan Haff Mehring)Experimental Shorts Grand Jury Prize: Chameleon (Dir: Ima Iduozee and Jaamil Olawale Kosoko)Honorable Mention: Compositions for Understanding Relationships (Dir: David De La Fuente)Animated Shorts Grand Jury Prize: I’m Here (Dir: Julia Orlik)Honorable Mention: Oldboy’s Apples (Dir: Brad Hock)The AGBO Fellowship, presented by Joe and Anthony Russo, Award Winner: Ethan Eng, director ofTherapy DogsSlamdance Acting Award: Hannah Lee Thompson of Hannah Ha HaHonorable Mention: Batel Moseri of BrachaGeorge Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award Winner: Sasha Levinson, director of Sylvie of the SunshineStateCreativeFuture Innovation Award: My Parent, Neal (Dir: Hannah Saidiner)Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: The Civil Dead (Dir. Clay Tatum)Audience Award for Documentary Feature: Iron Family (Dir.

Chris Willman Music WriterSheryl Crow, Nick Cave, King Crimson, Dio, XXXTentacion, Tanya Tucker, Chumbawamba, Courtney Barnett, Cesária Évora and Mojo Nixon — together again for the first time: These are some of the highly diverse subjects of a slate of music documentaries (or, in the case of Tierra Whack, a fictional film) set to unspool at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin March 11-20.The 16 movies represented in the “24 Beats Per Second” lineup are nearly all world premieres, in a film festival that skews toward SXSW’s original roots as a pure music festival by always carving out a special category for features that chronicle musicians or music scenes.The music doc coming into the festival with probably the highest level of fan anticipation is , which promises to have director Sabaah Folayan offering “a sensitive portrayal” of a precocious, highly controversial, Soundcloud-based rapper “whose acts of violence, raw musical talent and open struggles with mental health left an indelible mark on his generation before his death at the age of 20.” While many of the festival entries are looking for a sale from their exposure at SXSW, “Look at Me!” is already set to stream on Hulu this summer. Joining the artist profiles in the film lineup are documentaries about the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story,” by co-directors Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern, and rubber bridge guitars, in “Really Good Rejects,” a film that will have producer Aaron Dessner talking about using them on Taylor Swift’s recent folkier albums.Some of the films promise to be complete life and career chronicles, like those devoted to Crow, Barnett and Dio.

Rebel Wilson and Victoria Beckham are globally famous stars, but they also have something else in common: the affordable skincare product they both love that helps give them incredible, baby soft skin.It seems the reason behind their enviable, all-day 'glow' is thanks to a bargain drugstore face cream – and if it's good enough for Rebel and Victoria…MORE: Rebel Wilson uses the same foundation as Meghan Markle and Kim Kardashian Rebel shared her beauty secret with fans, posting a snap on her Instagram Story of her "new favourite skin moisturiser" – Weleda Skin Food.WATCH: Hollywood's top dermatologist Dr Dennis Gross shares his tips for Oscar-winning skinThe actress raved about the now-cult beauty staple, showing off her collection of goodies, including the original Skin Food and the slightly newer, lighter version.While Rebel appears to be a new convert to the brand, Victoria has long raved about the benefits of the cream, which you can pick up on Amazon for just £9 ($18.50).MORE: Rebel Wilson rocks a gorgeous hot pink shirt dress - now we want one, tooVictoria Beckham loves this three-in-one skin primer - and it's a bargain Rebel showed of her new 'favourite moisturiser' - Weleda Skin Food, which has more famous fans like Victoria Beckham, Adele and Priyanka ChopraThe fashion designer doesn't just use it on her face either – she loves to slather it all over her body. Weleda Skin Food, £12.95 now £8.89 / $18.50, AmazonVictoria previously revealed it works wonders at prolonging her summer tan, sharing on Instagram: "It keeps your skin so hydrated and moisturised.

The Sundance Film Festival is revealing award winners for its 2022 edition on Friday afternoon beginning at 2 p.m. PT. Like the rest of this year’s festival, which was forced to go all-virtual because of the recent Omicron surge, the awards ceremony is playing out on Twitter.