China-Italy Co-Production ‘Italian Recipe’ to Open Udine Asian Film Festival

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Miracle: Letters to the President,” directed by Lee Jang-hoon, was Saturday named as the best film winner at the Far East Film Festival in Italy’s Udine, following an audience poll. The South Korean-made film was described by festival organizers as “a sweet-natured hymn to the power of dreams.” Second and third places belonged to Chinese-produced pictures Li Ruijun’s “Return to Dust” and Xing Wenxiong’s “To Cool to Kill,” respectively.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentCinecittà CEO Nicola Maccanico, who is a former Warner Bros. and Sky Italia senior exec, is implementing a major upgrade and expansion of the iconic Rome studios where he recently installed Europe’s largest LED Wall on the lot near the large Studio 5 that was once Federico Fellini’s second home.

Rush Hour 2 and Die Another Day, has died at the age of 86.Tsang was reportedly found unconscious in a quarantine hotel in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui district on Wednesday (April 27) after returning from a trip to Singapore. Tsang was later pronounced dead at the scene.According to the South China Morning Post, Tsang took a COVID-19 rapid antigen test on Tuesday and tested negative.

Italian actor and director Valeria Golino has been set as jury president for the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFollowing a tortuous journey and dozens of crazy rumors, the Cannes Film Festival has landed Vincent Lindon, the French actor of last year’s Palme d’Or winning “Titan,” as jury president of its 75th edition.Lindon, who won best actor in 2015 for his role in Stephane Brizé’s movie “The Measure of a Man,” will be the first French star to be jury president since Isabelle Huppert in 2009. The festival said “French celebrities have often held this role in an anniversary year, such as Yves Montand in 1987 for the 40th Festival, Gérard Depardieu in 1993 for the 45th Festival, and Isabelle Adjani in 1997 for the 50th.”The jury will comprise two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi (“A Hero”), as well as U.S.

The Cannes Film Festival has set Vincent Lindon as its jury president for the 75th edition, which kicks off next month. The French actor, who won the Best Actor award in Cannes in 2015 for his role in The Measure Of A Man, starred in last year’s Palme d’Or winner Titane.

Cannes has added a raft of movies to its lineup ahead of the festival next month.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentThe Cannes Film Festival has added a string of new titles to its Official Selection, including three movies in competition: Léonor Serraille’s “Un Petit Frere,” Albert Serra’s “Tourment sur les iles” and “The Eight Mountains” by Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix Van Groeningen (“The Broken Circle Breakdown”).“The Eight Mountains” is an Italian film based on Paolo Cognetti’s 2016 novel. It revolves around a young man who returns to a young man who finds refuge in the Italian village where he spent a summer as a child with his parents.

Cannes Film Festival’s parallel sidebar Critics’ Week has unveiled the 11 features and 13 shorts that will comprise its 2022 edition. Scroll down to see the full lineup.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“Bosé,” the highly anticipated Paramount Plus Original, has wrapped production. The announcement comes as Paramount Plus has also confirmed the remainder of the internationally recognised cast of the six-part series, a biopic of Spanish singer-songwriter Miguel Bosé.Two behind-the-scenes images, shared in exclusivity with Variety, also hint at the production ambitions of the series, one of the biggest Spanish-language series to date at Paramount Plus, which turns on one of the most resonant figures in recent times in Spain.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Venice Film Festival is getting in gear to celebrate its 90th anniversary with an international conference to be held in Venice in July.The Biennale, which is the fest’s parent organization, has announced it will hold a confab on July 9 in Venice in the library auditorium of the Biennale foundation’s archives. It will be attended by an as-yet unspecified plethora of international film academics, critics, and also film directors and talents, to commemorate the advent of the world’s oldest film fest.The First Exposition of Cinematic Art — later to be known as the Mostra del Cinema in Italy and the Venice Film Festival globally — opened on Aug.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentReims Polar, a new international festival set in Northern France and dedicated to police thrillers, has awarded Wen Shipei’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight?,” Adikhan Yerzhanov’s “Assault” and Lado Kvataniya’s “The Execution.” The selection of Reims Polar is curated by Bruno Barde, who is also the artistic director of the Deauville American Film Festival. “Assault,” a dead-pan thriller set fictional village in rural Kazakhstan and revolving around a school hostage situation, won the festival’s Grand Prize Award.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian producer Massimo Cristaldi, who as a production manager worked with masters such as Federico Fellini and Francesco Rosi before setting up his own company and shepherding films including prizewinning drama “Sicilian Ghost Story,” has died. He was 66.Cristaldi’s death was announced over the weekend by his Rome-based company Cristaldi Pictures in a statement that did not specify the cause.Born in 1956, Massimo Cristaldi was the only son of prominent producer Franco Cristaldi, the triple Oscar-winner who made Pietro Germi’s “Divorce Italian Style,” Federico Fellini’s “Amarcord” and Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Cinema Paradiso.”In 1974 Massimo Cristaldi started cutting his teeth in the film business first as a production assistant and eventually, starting in the 1980s, becoming a line producer on many of his father’s productions, working with Fellini, Rosi, Tornatore, and many other Italian cinema greats.

Naman Ramachandran After a temporary COVID-induced pause, the Busan International Film Festival‘s Asian Film Academy, a talent incubator for emerging Asian filmmakers, is returning, in partnership with Chanel. The renamed Chanel X BIFF Asian Film Academy promises “a solid foundation for educating young promising Asian talents in a broader and more innovative way and provides the driving force to strengthen their capabilities.

translator Dylan Cheung. She did not indicate the nature of the disease.She added, “I believe his [1967 film] One-Armed Swordsman — that image of a dashing great swordsman — will remain forever in the hearts of film history and film fans alike.”Director Ang Lee told the China News Agency: “It’s with the deepest sorrow that we learned of his passing today.

Fremantle has turned its minority shareholding in The Responder maker Dancing Ledge Productions into a controlling stake.

Discovery Italy To Adapt BBC Studios Formats ‘The Great British Sewing Bee’ And This Is MY House’