HAF Work-in-Progress Film ’Guras’ From Nepal and IndiaExplores a Realm of Heightened Reality

“I love you, but you are not serious people,” says Logan Roy (Brian Cox) to his estranged and ambitious offspring in Succession‘s fourth and final season. For a series stuffed to gills with verbal uppercuts that would leave Malcolm Tucker bruised and blushing, the profanity-free candor from the Emmy-winning series’ media baron fulfillingly sticks the shiv in deep.

Ciarán Hinds is opening up about the great number of sex scenes the HBO series Game of Thrones had and weighed in on intimacy coordinators on set.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Fly Me to the Moon,” a work-in-progress from Hong Kong, dominated the prizes presented at the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum project market. It collected five awards and was invited to continue its journey at Cannes in May. Directed by first-time feature maker Sasha Chuk and produced by the veteran Stanley Kwan, the film tells the tale of a pair of sisters moving from Hunan to Hong Kong in the 1990s. They are faced with an identity crisis, poverty and their father’s drug addiction. It entered the market with $640,000 of its intended $705,000 production budget in place, and more than filled the gap with the prizes announced on Wednesday.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent MALAGA, Spain — It’s not over yet. In March 2021, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the government would plow €1.6 billion ($1.9 billion) into a Spain AVS Hub plan designed to turn Spain into one of the foremost film and TV hubs in Europe. Supported by Spain’s E.U-backed Recuperation, Transformation and Resilience push for post COVID-19 recovery, the Spain AVS Hub plan has been co-financed by part of a €806.9 billion ($866.5 billion) NextGenerationEU stimulus package for the whole of the European Union, which is a temporary instrument.  As that package ends, Spain’s government will look to negotiate funding from alternative sources to ensure that Spain AVS Hub initiatives are more than a flash in the pan, a broad cross-section of governmental authorities told an audience Tuesday at a Malaga Spanish Screening Content conference.

Naman Ramachandran “White Snow,” the latest project from celebrated Indian filmmaker Praveen Morchhale, is his “artistic revolt” against political systems that repress artists. The project has been selected for the 21st Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the project market that operates concurrently with FilMart (March 13-16). Set in and around Kargil, a Muslim-dominated town in the Himalayas, where a war was fought between India and Pakistan in 1999, the film tells the story of Amir, whose short film gets banned due to a complaint from a religious leader, and his social media accounts gets blocked. His elderly mother Fatima sets out on an arduous journey in the Himalayan mountains to show the film in villages, which breaks her mentally and physically and brings her close to madness before she becomes a free soul.

Naman Ramachandran Iran’s Arsalan Amiri, who won two awards at Venice for his debut feature “Zalava,” is back at the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) with his new project, “Janava.” “Zalava,” which was at HAF in 2019, also played at the Toronto, Rotterdam and the Goteborg festivals, among many others. The Farsi-language “Janava” will follow four treasure hunters who embark on a journey to find a lost treasure. Their lives are in danger when they realize a djinn (or genie) is among them and wants to claim the treasure for itself. “My previous film, ‘Zalava,’ focused on the dangerous beliefs of the masses. My second film, ‘Janava,’ focuses on the individual beliefs of characters and how they defy societal norms,” Amiri says. “Belief is my favorite theme to work with. I have faced the good and bad effects of belief in my life — but when these beliefs are warped or taken to extremes by the individual or in politics, it causes the destruction of human societies. My experience living in the Middle East and studying history proves the importance of people’s beliefs. Well, I would also like to make an interesting and entertaining film of course, and this film genre would help to make the concept interesting.”

Naman Ramachandran Nepal’s “Bhunte” marks the feature debut of Bikas Neupane, who previously directed two acclaimed shorts. The project has been selected for the 21st Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the project market that operates concurrently with FilMart (March 13-16). The film will follow 12-year-old Bhunte, who lives with his poor father and mother in a small village called Khahare, located in Nepal’s western plains. He has an obsession with soccer, despite his asthma-stricken father’s objection. One day at school, Bhunte vows to buy a soccer ball of his own when his classmates don’t let him play with them.

Naman Ramachandran Taiwan-France film “Salli” marks the feature debut of Taipei-based filmmaker Lien Chien-Hung after several acclaimed shorts and a TV movie. “Salli,” which won the grand prize at the Chinese-language film project matching and co-production platform Golden Horse Film Project Promotion in 2019, is a work-in-progress selection at the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF). The Mandarin-, Taiwanese-, English- and French-language film follows a lonely middle-aged chicken farmer Hui-Chun, who doesn’t speak English and develops a romantic relationship through an app with a French man who calls himself Martin. In the online world, Hui-Chun is Salli. Despite everyone calling it a romance scam, she wants to prove that love indeed exists.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Aardman Animations’ founder Peter Lord and “Waltz With Bashir” director Ari Folman are set to receive Pulcinella Career Awards at Italy’s Cartoons On The Bay TV animation festival which is broadening its scope. The event launched in 1996 by Italian state broadcaster RAI has now expanded beyond TV toons to comprise video game productions, the comic book world, transmedia storytelling and metaverse animation content. Reflecting its more high-tech horizons, the fest’s 27th edition – which will run May 31-June 4 in the Southern seaside city of Pescara – will also be celebrating “Cuphead,” the hit Canadian video game that’s become a Netflix series, and bestowing its creator Maja Moldenhauer with its new Transmedia Award.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “The Last of Us” has become the most-viewed title ever on HBO’s subscription streaming service in Europe. Warner Bros. Discovery announced on Tuesday that the first season of the nine-episode apocalyptic-drama has smashed HBO’s SVOD European viewer ratings. This result comes after the season one finale set another ratings high in the U.S. on Sunday night, delivering 8.2 million viewers across HBO Max and linear telecasts, based on Nielsen and first party data. The series, which is based on the critically acclaimed video game of the same name developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation, has been a hit from the get go. “The Last of Us” is now averaging 30.4 million viewers in the U.S. across its first six episodes, according to HBO, with the first episode approaching 40 million viewers in the U.S. Outside of the U.S.. The show is now also the most-watched show ever on HBO Max in Latin America.

Naman Ramachandran The writing team of Iran’s Jafar Panahi and Nader Saeivar, who won best screenplay at Cannes for “3 Faces” (2018) directed by Panahi, have reunited for “The Witness.” To be directed by Saeivar, the project has been selected for the 21st Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the project market that operates concurrently with FilMart (March 13-16). Saeivar made his feature debut with “The Alien” (2020), which was a Berlinale selection and won prizes at the Beijing, Hong Kong, Duhok, Taormina and International Crime and Punishment film festivals. Saeivar’s sophomore feature, “No End,” debuted at Busan in 2022 and won him best director at Goa and a brace of awards at Vesoul recently.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “We need more love stories, even if they have their ups and downs,” says Hong Kong-based producer Cora Yim, who is behind the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) in-development project “The Marriage Drive.” HAF runs takes place alongside the FilMart rights market.  The film is a simple-to-describe idea that writer-director Lawrence Kan has been kicking around and developing for some six years. The story involves a middle-class professional couple — he’s in the legal sector, she’s in finance — and tracks their childless, but not loveless, marriage over a period of 10 years from marriage to divorce.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese director Zhang Hanyi takes an unexpected turn with his latest feature film effort, “The Walking Bird,” which makes its appearance as an in-development project at the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), which takes place alongside the FilMart rights market.  His previous film, 2017’s “Dragonfly Eyes,” was one of the most unusual and stylish films of the year from anywhere in the world. It told a disturbing (fictional) narrative through extraordinary found-footage obtained from hundreds of real-world CCTV cameras, and won the FIPRESCI and Ecumenical Jury prizes at the Locarno Festival that year.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Work-in-progress film project “The Remnant” is both a spotlight on those who feel powerless and also a very Hong Kong example of elements of the city pulling themselves up. “The Remnant” is one of the projects in the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) unspooling March 13-15 alongside Hong Kong’s Filmart market. It tells the story of a former gangster who, upon his release from prison, sets up a laundry in an anonymous district and lives a quiet life. After property developers try to grab a rundown building, young gangsters try to throw people out of the building, drug addicts cause trouble and the old-timer heeds his neighbors’ calls and fights back.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Despite a barnstorming address celebrating the re-opening of Hong Kong and China by Bona Film Group COO Jiang De Fu, it is clear that the film industry in China is still suffering its own version of long-COVID, with box office tracking at around half of 2018 levels. “The Chinese box office was RMB60.7 billion ($8.89 billion at current rates of exchange) in 2018. And 83 films made over RMB100 million. 16 films that made over RMB1 billion. Post-pandemic, in 2022, China’s box office was RMB29.9 billion. [Just] 41 films made over RMB100 million. [And] 8 films made over RMB1 billion. We are now only at 50% of the level in 2018,” said Jiang aty a presentation on the first day of Hong Kong’s FilMart.

Naman Ramachandran Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen wears his producers hat at the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) shepherding two projects from debut directors. Chen’s feature directorial debut “Ilo Ilo” (2013) won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes. His most recent film as director, “Drift,” bowed at Sundance earlier this year. As a producer, Chen’s recent credits include Locarno selection “Arnold Is a Model Student” and Busan selection and Red Sea winner “Ajoomma.” First up is the English-language animated feature “Skin Coat,” directed by Singapore’s Tan Wei Keong. Set in the 16th century, it will follow a son who returns to his village to see his aging parents, and his male lover has to put on a woman’s skin coat to accompany him back home.

Sony announced on Friday that they will release the starry Craig Gillespie film Dumb Money on the GameStop short squeeze of 2021 on October 20.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Asian premiere of Soi Cheang’s “Mad Fate” is just one of three locally-produced movies that have been set as the opening and closing titles of the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival. “Mad Fate” is joined in the festival opening slot on March 30 by “Elegies,” Ann Hui’s documentary portrayal of the topography of contemporary local poetry, which will have its world premiere. The closing film, another world premiere, is “Vital Sign,” an affecting drama directed by Cheuk Wan-chi and starring Louis Koo, Yau Hawk-sau, and Angela Yuen, which will wrap up proceedings on 10 April. In total, the festival has programmed some 200 films from 64 countries and territories. These include nine world premieres, six international premieres, and 67 Asian premieres.

After new texts from Tucker Carlson were revealed this week, in which he admitted he hates twice-impeached former president Donald Trump “passionately,” Jimmy Fallon is actually defending the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” host. According to Fallon, most friend groups bash at least one member in private.On Tuesday, new court filings from Dominion Voting Systems were made public as part of their ongoing $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.

Indian streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar has confirmed that it will no longer carry HBO content from March 31, in a move that was reported by Deadline last month.