‘Drive My Car’ Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi On Being Behind The Wheel Of The Worldwide Hit That Stormed The Oscars

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentLithuanian film director and academic Mantas Kvedaravicius, who captured the escalating conflict in Ukraine in several powerful works, has been reported dead in Mariupol, the Ukrainian city that was the subject of his doc “Mariupolis” that premiered in Berlin.“While (he was) trying to leave Mariupol, Russian occupiers killed Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius,” the Ukrainian Defence Ministry tweeted on Saturday. Kvedaravicius was 45.  A Lithuanian news agency called 15min reported that Kvedaravicius was rushed to a hospital but could not be saved.News that Kvedaravicius has been killed by the Russian military — which could not be verified with family members — has prompted an outpour of statements and social media posts mourning the director’s death.

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry is reporting that Lithuanian film director Mantas Kvedaravicius was killed Saturday in Mariupol, the under seige Ukrainian city and subject of his documentary films.

EXCLUSIVE: Arrow and The Hobbit actor Manu Bennett is joining Kiana Madeira (Trinkets), Ross Butler (13 Reasons Why) and Matthew Noszka (Star) in YA movie Perfect Addiction.

Ben Croll Screening in competition at CPH:DOX, “Girl Gang” offers a behind-the-scenes look at an industry hardly known for reticence. But in this study of adolescent influencer Leonie, her all too eager parents, and the legions of fans liking, sharing and subscribing to the family’s every post, director Susanne Regine Meures offers a more intimate look at the world of modern celebrity.Though set in the suburbs of Berlin, this particular story of social media stardom mirrors those found all around the world. “It is a global phenomenon which actually peaks in the U.S.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese filmmaker, artist and influencer Yi Zhou has launched a cluster of companies that have begun making feature movies for the metaverse.Zhou, who departed China in 2011, trained in Paris and London, before settling in Rome for several years where she worked as an installation artist, fashion influencer for Chinese streaming site Tudou (now part of Alibaba) and short film director. Three of her shorts have played in Sundance, while another played at the Venice Festival.In 2018, Zhou relocated to Los Angeles in order to increase her focus on developing entertainment endeavors.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAfter more than eight years, the weekday and weekend editions of PBS’ signature evening newscast are finally getting together.Washington’s WETA has long produced the venerable “PBS NewsHour,” the show once known as the “McNeil-Lehrer Report” and now anchored by Judy Woodruff, while New York’s WNET has since 2013 produced the Saturday and Sunday editions of the program. Starting April 2, all seven days will be under the auspices of WETA, with Geoff Bennett, a former NBC News and MSNBC correspondent and anchor who was named the program’s chief Washington correspondent in November, taking the reins of a re-titled half-hour “PBS News Weekend.”“I think we are going to build on ‘NewsHour’s’ traditional mix of news and interviews and in-depth features,” says Bennett, in an interview.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentRussian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov — the director of Cannes competition titles “Leto” and “Petrov’s Flu” — has left the country following the end of a three-year travel ban, and has arrived in Paris.A picture of the iconoclastic Russian helmer popped up on social media on Wednesday. In the pic, Serebrennikov wears a T-shirt that reads “I turn the TV off,” which alludes to the propaganda flooding Russian TV since the invasion of Ukraine on Feb.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car scooped the International Feature Film Oscar tonight, becoming the second movie from Japan to take a competitive prize in the category formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film (it’s the fifth for Japan if we count honorary awards given out in the 1950s).

LOS ANGELES -- James Bond didn’t get an Oscar nomination this year, but that doesn’t mean that he won’t be part of the ceremony.It’s the 60th anniversary of the first 007 movie, after all, and the 50th anniversary of “The Godfather” and those landmarks will not go uncelebrated Sunday at the 94th Oscars.“We have some surprises around that. Wink, wink,” Will Packer, who is producing the show, said Thursday.It’s all part of the overriding theme of the year: “Movie lovers unite.”“Movies are the one thing that actually do unite so many of us as a global community,” Packer said.

Zack Sharf A gravestone for James Bond has been erected on the small island of Kalsoy, which is part of the larger Faroe Islands located between Norway and Iceland. It was on the Faroe Islands where Cary Fukunaga shot parts of the climax of “No Time to Die,” in which James Bond (Daniel Craig) dies in a missile explosion after thwarting the villainous Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek). The island was used as the setting for Safin’s evil lair.

Emiliano De Pablos Tenerife-based Bendita Film Sales has taken international sales rights to Nely Reguera’s sophomore outing, drama “La voluntaria” (“The Volunteer”), toplining “Broken Embraces,” “Perfect Life” and Piggy” star Carmen Machi, one of the biggest marquee draws in Spain.World premiering in main competition at this year’s Malaga Festival, “La voluntaria” marks Reguera’s follow-up to her well-received feature 2016 debut, the Bárbara Lennie-starrer “María (And the Others),” which won the best Ibero-American film prize at the Miami Film Festival and earned new director and lead actress nominations at the Spanish Academy Goya Awards.Barcelona-born Reguera forms part of the new generation of exciting young female Catalan auteurs, alongside Carla Simón (“Alcarràs”), Belén Funes (“The Daughter of the Thief”), Neus Ballús (“The Odd-Job Men”) and Meritxell Colell (“Facing the Wind”).  A Spain-Greece co-production, “La voluntaria” is produced by Adriá Monés at Fasten Films, Bteam Pictures’ Alex Lafuente and Maria Drandaki from Homemade Films. The film follows Marisa, a recently retired doctor, played by Machi, who has a big desire to having grand-children, but for an inexplicable reason none of her children has granted her wish.After the sudden death of her only companion, her bulldog, Marisa decides to leave everything and travel to a refugee camp in Greece, where the children seem to need people exactly like her. Itsaso Arana (“The August Virgin”), Arnau Comas (“Yesterday’s Two Nights”),  Dèlia Brufau (“Your Are Not So Special”), Yohan Levy (“Emily in Paris”) and Henrietta Rauth (“Gruber Is Leaving”) complete the cast.“We are very happy to add to our catalog the latest film by Nely Reguera, one of the most promising

Matt Hancock has been accused of using the UK's refugee scheme to improve his personal image by taking in a Ukrainian family.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Inu-Oh,” the acclaimed Japanese animation that debuted in Venice and Toronto last year, has been sold widely by Fortissimo Films and Asmik Ace.Amsterdam and Beijing based Fortissimo is collaborating with Tokyo-based Asmik Ace on two titles, “Inu-oh” by Yuasa Masaaki and “Missing” by Katayama Shinzo, a former assistant director to “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho on “Mother.”Rock musical animation “Inu-Oh” was licensed to Sun Distribution for Latin America, to Rapid Eye for Germany, Front Row in the Middle East and Cinemaran in Spain. Asmik Ace handles Asian territories, North America, France, U.K. and Benelux.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNow completed, “The Silence of Smoke” has been added to the FilMart sales lineup of Hong Kong studio Media Asia. The family drama film is directed by Takita Yojiro, who won the best foreign-language film Oscar in 2008/9 with “Departures.”The film was first teased by Media Asia at an event at the market in 2019 with the film’s lead actors Han Geng, Zhang Guoli and actress Xu Qing in attendance.The story is a heart-wrenching tale of a young cake-maker’s growth and discovery following his father’s death.Although the man is the heir to eight generations of bakers, his cakes lack standout quality.

Can space define our relationships? It’s a concept that directors Ramon and Silvan Zürcher investigate in their new film “The Girl and the Spider.” Set around the confines of a cramped apartment, the dwelling becomes a central character as important as the roommates — and possibly former lovers — who inhabit it. In the film, Lisa (Liliane Amuat) is about to move out but not before dealing with the peculiar qualities of Mara (Henriette Confurius).