Busan Unveils Celebration of Indonesian Cinema Renaissance

The latest Celebrity Masterchef winner has revealed that he once tried to take his own life battling depression. Wynne Evans opened up about the dark times he has suffered when his mental health was at its worst.The Welsh singer and radio DJ spoke candidly about his struggles after he was crowned the winner on Friday night by judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace.The tense final, saw Wynne beating fellow finalists Amy Walsh and Luca Bish after cooking his incredible three-course meal. After Wynne was awarded the coveted trophy, he bravely spoke about the time he contemplated suicide.

Wynne Evans has been crowned Celebrity MasterChef champion for 2023.The Welsh opera singer, 51, beat Emmerdale actress Amy Walsh and former Love Island competitor Luca Bish in the exciting final round of BBC One’s celebrity cooking competition on Friday. Wynne, who is best known viewers as the moustachioed tenor from the Go Compare adverts, said: “This is a brilliant feeling.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Identity, incomplete understanding and urban poverty are among the many themes touched upon in “Oasis of Now,” which is set to make its debut next month in the prestigious New Currents competition section of the Busan International Film Festival. The story revolves around a mother and a daughter who inhabit the invisible corners of an old apartment block in Kuala Lumpur. They meet in the stairwells, play furtive games and snatch moments of shared happiness, before slinking off to their separate homes.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Indonesian production firm is setting its sights on becoming a diverse studio operation with the injection of high-profile management and the acquisition of a significant new animated series “Nussa.” It will also display its credentials at next month’s Busan International Film Festival where two of its feature films are selected. Its “24 Hours with Gaspar,” directed by Yosep Anggi Noen, will compete for the Kim Jiseok Award.

Naman Ramachandran “The Red Suitcase,” which world premieres in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons strand, is a rare Nepal-Sri Lanka co-production. The producers have released a first clip from the film. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Fidel Devkota, who previously directed the short “The Last Yak Herder of Dhe” (2014) and documentary short “Wind of Change in Lo Mustang” (2016).

Ballerina, starring Jeon Jong-seo. Watch it above.Ballerina will star Jeon Jong-seo (of Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area fame) as Ok-ju, a former bodyguard who sets out on a path of revenge after the death of a friend.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief An investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by a former director of the Busan International Film Festival has not reached a conclusion, several months after it began, the festival said on Tuesday. The festival has said that it is urging former director Huh Moonyoung to cooperate with an external investigator. The festival held its annual lineup presentation on Tuesday in an online format, announcing the bulk of its film selections, juries, anticipated guests, honorary prize-winners and technical arrangements such as screening venues and ticketing. As part of the presentation, current management again apologized for several months of turmoil, which it admitted had scared off sponsors and caused its operating budget to shrink. The turmoil began in May when the festival appointed Cho Jongkook, a close friend of chairman Lee Yong-kwan, to a power-sharing position with festival director Huh Moonyoung. That move was opposed by certain Korean industry guilds, which threatened to boycott the festival in support of Huh.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The QCinema International Film Festival in the Philippines has beefed up its industry program by introducing a project market strand, QCinema Project Market (QPM). It acts as a networking and funding platform for Filipino and Southeast Asian projects in advanced development.

Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, October 4-13) has unveiled its full line-up, including opening and closing films, and announced that Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat has been named as Asian Filmmaker of the Year. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival put aside many of its recent internal and local political problems to Tuesday unveil a large selection ranging from bleeding edge art titles to international festival favorites. “The difficult times are not behind us, but hard work has made this year’s festival better than ever,” said programmer and interim festival chief Nam Dong-chul, speaking at an online press conference. International guests expected to attend the festival include Luc Besson, Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing, Japanese directors Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Kore-Eda Hirokazu, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Korean Americans Justin Chon (“Gook”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”). Hong Kong-based superstar Chow Yun-fat has been named as Busan’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year and will be in person to receive the award.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French director Edouard Bergeon, whose Cesar-nominated debut feature “In the Name of the Land” was a box office hit in 2019, has penned another eco-thriller, “The Green Deal.” The movie, which is partly set in the Indonesian forest, has been boarded by Playtime and will be pitched to buyers at the Toronto Film Festival. “The Green Deal” explores crimes and colliding interests in the exploitation of a palm oil and the production of biofuels.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French director Edouard Bergeon, whose Cesar-nominated debut feature “In the Name of the Land” was a box office hit in 2019, has penned another eco-thriller, “The Green Deal.” The movie, which is partly set in the Indonesian forest, has been boarded by Playtime and will be pitched to buyers at the Toronto Film Festival. “The Green Deal” explores crimes and colliding interests in the exploitation of a palm oil and the production of biofuels.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Renowned Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai ditched his quiet, brooding persona on Saturday in Venice, where he is to receive a Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award. Instead, at a press conference in his honor, Leung positively gushed about his upcoming first European movie role and about the strengths of the “golden era” acting training he received in Hong Kong in the 1980s. Leung has made a speciality of saying little in many of his films.

While Gregg Wallace and John Torode have been presenting Celebrity MasterChef for 17 years, it hasn't been without its challenges - with the duo admitting that they tend to to "clash" a lot over who to send home. The pair will be crowning the show's 18th champion this week after five weeks of culinary chaos and sautéed successes. Speaking to OK! in an exclusive interview, Gregg and John reveal that they don't always agree on who to admit into the final.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Ten Korean independent films will have their world premiere in the Busan International Film Festival’s Korean Cinema Today section. Selectors said on Friday that this year’s crop are films that “delve into profound themes of life, agony, family affection, and personal introspection, inviting audiences to contemplate their meaning.” They add that, “the imaginative depiction of a diverse array of stories, free from the typical rules of genre, adds anticipation.” Delivery presents a “suspenseful irony” as an affluent couple deal with infertility and a young, financially struggling couple face an unplanned pregnancy. “FAQ” is a comic fantasy where an elementary schoolchild innocently picks up a bottle of Korean rice wine or makgeolli at a field camp and then gets to know the secrets of the world through alcohol.

Tori Spelling is celebrating her son Finn’s 11th birthday, two weeks after she was hospitalized for four days.

Korea’s Busan International Film Festival has announced the ten films in this year’s New Currents competition line-up, along with ten films selected for its Jiseok Section. Both competition sections feature titles from Bangladesh’s vibrant young industry as well as from Japan. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The main competition section of the Busan International Film Festival is set to showcase two new features from Bangladeshi directors, the feature debut of Japanese documentary maker Mori Tatsuya and ruminations on Hong Kong by mainland Chinese director Choi Ji. The festival on Wednesday unveiled its New Currents competition section, reserved for films by directors making their first or second works of fiction, as well as its Jiseok section, a showcase for somewhat more established Asian auteurs. In addition to the Bangladesh duo, New Currents includes two films from Japan, two from Korea and one each from China, Thailand, Malaysia and India. From Bangladesh, Iqbal H. Chowdhury’s “The Wrestler” sees an old fisherman challenge a wrestling champion to combat, and in “The Stranger” Biplob Sarkar tells a coming-of-age, gender-identity tale. From Japan, Mori recounts the events of the Great Kanto earthquake in “September 1923,” while Yamamoto Akira delves into profound and shocking love in “After the Fever.” New Currents’ Korean contributions come from Lee Jong-su, whose “Heritage” tracks a man who opts out of military service and his supervisor, and Sohn Hyun-lok, whose “That Summer’s Lie” blurs truth and fiction in memories of a past romance. India’s Rajesh S.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean actors Lee Je Hoon and Park Eun-bin, star of “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” are set as hosts of the opening ceremony at the Busan International Film Festival. The event will take place on the evening of Oct.

The U.S. premieres of the films Yoko, Ripple, and Tea Friends highlight the seventh Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (ACA) Cinema Project, which will spotlight “Emerging Japanese Films” in a series set to run Sept. 26-28 at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.