Enigma Kai, Fire and Ice, Toei Animation Team on Philippines Anime Franchise ‘Solemn Vow’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter, one of the biggest female streamers and gaming creators in the world, has signed with WME for representation. She most recently was repped by UTA. Valkyrae is known for streaming games “Among Us,” “Fortnite” and “Valorant,” among others.

< 1 min read In Budapest, controversy surrounds the World Press Photo exhibition, where minors are barred from viewing five LGBTQ-themed photographs captured by Filipino photojournalist Hannah Reyes Morales, depicting the lives of older LGBTQ+ individuals in the Philippines.

SM Entertainment has previewed its upcoming music releases for the first quarter of 2024, featuring new music by aespa, NCT’s Taeyong and RIIZE.In the newly published SM Entertainment Earnings Release report for the third quarter of 2023, the company included a preview of the music line-up for the first quarter of 2024 It details a slew of planned album, mini-album and single releases from several SM artists for the period.Following the most recently announced upcoming release of Taeyeon’s mini-album ‘To. X’ on November 27, SM Entertainment has revealed that other artists slated to put out new music for the rest of the year include Super Junior’s Ryeowook, NCT 127 and TVXQ.

Here Lies Love — a disco musical created by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim about the life of former Filipino first lady Imelda Marcos — will close on Broadway on November 26, the show’s producers announced this morning (November 7). An ambitious, $22 million affair, the production took over Manhattan’s Broadway Theatre, renovating the space to accommodate spinning stages and a state-of-the-art audio system that created a club atmosphere.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Unscripted queer reality dating series “Boys Like Boys” is to air on Warner Bros. Discovery’s TLC channel in Taiwan in early 2024, making it the first local LGBTQ+ dating reality show to air on linear TV in the territory. The show is an original production by GagaOOLala, Asia’s out and proud LGBTQ+ streaming service, which is pitching an expanded array of queer content at the Taiwan Creative Contents Fest (TCCF) that launches Tuesday in Taipei. “Boys Like Boys” had its premiere at the Kaohsiung International Film Festival and is now available worldwide on GagaOOLala and WeTV in the Philippines and Thailand, where the ‘Boys Love’ genre has become highly popular.

Crunchyroll has acquired the North American and select global theatrical rights for SPY x FAMILY CODE: White.Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment will bring the first film installment of the  television series that’s directed by Takashi Katagiri. written by Ichiro Okouchi, and the original story by Tatsuya Endo. The television series SPY x FAMILY originally debuted on April 9, 2022 and was quickly embraced by fans across the globe. The second season launched on October 7 on Crunchyroll.

Valerie Wu Intern For Jane Wu, the supervising director and producer of Netflix’s adult animated series “Blue Eye Samurai,” which premieres on Nov. 3, animation is “magical.” It’s not a genre, but a medium in which to tell a story.

By Photography by The way Geena Rocero stares down a camera is captivating. Here, at in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, she challenges its gaze with the kind of merciless confidence that comes only after nearly two decades of modeling. With each click, the elegant frame of her face tilts, her lithe limbs flick, and her eyes steady on the target.

This year’s Tokyo Film Festival closes this evening with the world premiere of Godzilla Minus One, the latest edition in Toho’s monster franchise, directed by filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki. 

Naman Ramachandran Bangkok-based film fund Purin Pictures will disburse $140,000 to three Philippines and one Indonesian film as part of its fall grants. The Purin committee has chosen three fiction and one documentary projects for production support and one documentary project for post-production support. “The Remotes” is John Torres’ first fiction film after two decades of making documentaries.

Carole Horst The American Film Market kicks off Oct. 31 and runs through Nov. 5 in its new headquarters at the Le Meridien Delfina in Santa Monica.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Cornerstone has closed sales on multiple territories including North America and the U.K. for writer and director Daniel Kokotajlo’s “Starve Acre,” a brooding and atmospheric folk horror. “House of the Dragon’s” Matt Smith and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” actor Morfydd Clark star in the film, which is produced by House Productions.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief No Maori Allowed, directed by Corinna Hunziger was named the winner of the Pasifika Award and recipient of a $5,000 cash prize at the Hawaii International Film Festival. It recounts the story of a teacher who unearths a secret past in the town of Pukekohe. Thet causes M?ori community figures to come forward to share personal stories that shaped their lives.

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent Boys’ Love, or ‘BL’ as it is also known, was once a minor and lightly regarded type of Japanese manga catering mainly to female fans, delivering stories of handsome young guys falling in love with each other. Now its popularity has spread beyond Japan to much of East Asia and beyond, while metamorphozing into a film, TV and online genre with millions of fans. Just how big BL has become was evident in a Wednesday TIFFCOM seminar on the BL phenomenon in Thailand: Beyond Borders: Exploring the Global Appeal and Diversity of Thailand’s Boys’ Love Contents. The eleven speakers, including an official from the Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Japan, vigorously pitched partnerships with Japanese content companies, which seemed to be a classic case of selling ice to Alaska’s indigenous inhabitants. Members of the packed seminar room might beg to differ, however.

Valerie Wu Intern The 2023 annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF), hosted from Oct. 12 to Oct. 19, has announced its slate of awards winners.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Toei Animation, the Japanese studio behind “Dragon Ball,” “Slam Dunk” and the “One Piece” cartoon franchises, is planning to open a European office in Italy. That may be followed by others in Latin America and India as well as a ramp up of its international production. The group already has a handful of overseas regional offices covering Asia, the Americas and Australasia, and Europe-Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Beabadoobee and Laufey have teamed up on a new single ‘A Night to Remember’ – listen to the song below.The song marks the first time that British-Filipino singer-songwriter Beabadoobee and Icelandic-Chinese jazz musician Laufey have worked together.“I’ve been writing with a lot of different rhythms recently, also with strings and nods to more classical sounds,” said Beabadoobee. “Laufey is a great fit for this sound and we had started hanging out in London so we got in the studio together to work on music and try ideas with my producer Jacob Bugden.

England held their nerve to beat Fiji in an enthralling quarter-final clash in Marseille, setting up a date with defending champions South Africa in Paris this Saturday.

Super exciting news has been revealed for fans of Drag Race!

Peter Caranicas Deputy Editor EnergaCamerimage, the cinematography-focused film festival set for Torun, Poland, for Nov. 11-18, has announced that high-profile award contenders “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Black Lies” and “All of Us Strangers” will be featured in its main competition. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the latest pic from director Martin Scorsese, takes audiences on a journey through 1920s Oklahoma to tell a heartbreaking tale of love, greed and betrayal.