Hong Kong Broadcaster Drops Oscars Ceremony Amid Beijing Backlash

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterNick Bowen Springer, a prominent athlete in paralympic sports and the son of “Jaws 2” actor and publicist Gary Springer, has died. He was 35.Springer died April 14.

Rebecca Davis editorA Hong Kong court sentenced the pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai to 14 months in prison Friday, after finding him guilty of “unauthorized assembly” during pro-democracy protests in 2019.A new, additional charge was also lobbed at him Friday: two counts of “colluding with foreign forces,” which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.Nine other of the city’s top pro-democracy campaigners were also sentenced alongside Lai Friday to up to 18 months in prison for their

Rebecca Davis editorBeijing’s city government reviewed a new anti-drug bill tightening oversight of celebrity drug use on Wednesday, the country’s latest attempt to codify its unspoken practice of banning entertainers with drug history.The bill was discussed at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the municipal People’s Congress, the city’s top legislative body.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese media group CMC Inc. is being readied for a share listing in Hong Kong.

In today’s Global Bulletin, “Minari” star Han Yeri signs with Echo Lake Entertainment in the U.S.; Beijing and Cairo announce hopeful in-person festival details; AMC Plus snags Berlin-set Cold War drama “Spy City”; Cineflix Rights will distribute Israeli cop drama “Manayek”; Deepika Padukone steps down as head of Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image; Australia’s Screenwest unveils Rikki Lea Bestall as its new CEO; “The Last Five Years” gets a West End run; Harry Collet to star in mental health

Secretary of State Antony Blinken danced around the notion of a 2022 China Winter Olympic boycott Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, calling such talk “premature.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefMainland China youth drama “The Day is Over” was named the best Chinese-language film in the Firebird Young Cinema competition at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefTheatrical box office in Hong Kong was down by only 4% over the four-day Easter holidays, compared with the same period in 2019, the last pre-COVID year. The score was achieved despite mandatory seating restrictions still in place.Data published Wednesday by Hong Kong Box Office Limited, showed gross revenues of HK$28.4 million ($3.64 million) between April 2-5, 2021.

State Department spokesman Ned Price raised the possibility that the U.S. could coordinate with other countries to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing over human rights abuses.

For his Oscar-nominated short documentary Do Not Split, director Anders Hammer spent a year in Hong Kong’s streets, capturing the drama and chaos as China cracked down on pro-democracy protests. The work came with inherent danger.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNorwegian director Anders Hammer did not set out to make another war film when he traveled to Hong Kong in 2019 to document the political protests that had brought an estimated two million people to the streets of self-proclaimed Asia’s World City.Hammer has previously chronicled real, hot war situations in Kabul and Iraq. There, bullets and rockets were flying daily, and more lives were in imminent danger.

BBC China correspondent John Sudworth has relocated to Taiwan amid fears for his safety as tensions grow between Beijing and Britain’s public broadcaster.

Vivienne Chow Dedicating her time and energy to strategizing ticket purchases for a young idol was never part of Chung Ling’s life plans. This 40-something-year-old working mother says she gave up on Hong Kong’s once huge Cantonese-language pop scene, a decade ago.

Bloomberg).But the move comes amid reports that China’s Communist party told all local media outlets to downplay live coverage of the ceremony stemming from the nomination of the documentary short “Do Not Split,” which focuses on the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and past comments made by Chinese-born “Nomadland” director Chloé Zhao.Other local TV broadcasters in Hong Kong also do not have the broadcast rights, as reported by the Hong Kong news outlet The Standard.Also Read: Why

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Hong Kong International Film Festival has announced the cancelation of its world premiere screening of crime thriller “Where the Wind Blows.” The move appears to be part of the accelerating ‘mainlandization’ of Hong Kong’s entertainment industry.The festival said Monday evening in a statement that screenings of “Where the Wind Blows” (previously known “Theory of Ambitions”) had been cancelled at the request of the film’s owner.“Upon request from the film

Despite securing its first Oscar nomination since 1993, Hong Kong looks set to not broadcast the Academy Awards this year after local station Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) opted not to renew its deal.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefIn Hong Kong, where unsmiling mainland Chinese authorities have asserted their “comprehensive jurisdiction,” satire has become a dangerous form of humor. But at least one new satirical segment is soon set to brave the Special Administrative Region’s airwaves.From next month, activist and broadcaster James Ockenden is launching “The Alphard Wars” on RTHK.

Chinese state TV called Thursday for a boycott of H&M as Beijing lashed out at foreign clothing and footwear brands following Western sanctions on Chinese officials accused of human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. The ruling Communist Party criticized H&M for saying in March 2020 it would stop buying cotton from the northwestern Chinese region.

Vivienne Chow An award-winning documentary about Hong Kong’s 2019 protests that has been effectively banned in its hometown has been set as the showpiece of the Taiwan International Documentary Festival.“Inside the Red Brick Wall” will play as the festival’s opening film, organizers announced on Thursday. The festival is set to run April 30 – May 9, 2021.The film chronicles the 13-day standoff between police and protesters at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University in November 2019.