Hong Kong Film Festival Makes Plans for Hybrid Edition

Vivienne Chow Hong Kong cinema operators and filmmakers are crying for help following a government announcement on Monday that COVID-19 social distancing measures will remain in place until Feb. 17.

UPDATED with latest winner: The Palm Springs Film Festival continues revealing this year’s film-awards honors, on Monday saying that Leslie Odom Jr will receive the Spotlight Award, Actor for his work in Amazon’s One Night In Miami.

Also Read: 'One Night in Miami' Film Review: Regina King Goes the Distance in Impressive Feature Directorial Debut“Leslie Odom Jr. is a truly talented performer,” PSIFF Chairman Harold Matzner said in a statement.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentThe Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the International Jury for its 71st edition.The jury will comprise Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, Israeli director Nadav Lapid, Romania director Adina Pintilie, Hungary director Ildikó Enyedi, Italian director Gianfranco Rosi and Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić.As previously announced, the festival will take place in two stages this year, due to the pandemic.

Ed Meza @edmezavarThe Intl.

Vivienne Chow Hong Kong auteur Stanley Kwan will be featured as the filmmaker-in-focus at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

announced Wednesday that the 2021 edition will move from its regular late-May spot to early July, when the seaside Côte d’Azur averages a balmy 86 degrees.The summery change-up comes days after the French government announced plans to vaccinate its entire population against the coronavirus by August. Cinemas there remain closed through at least the end of January.Last year’s festival was canceled outright due to the pandemic, though cases at the time had subsided in France.

What has been hinted at and speculated about for weeks now is official — the 2021 Cannes Film Festival is officially no longer a spring event, as it moves into the middle of summer over concerns about COVID-19. According to the event’s organizers, this year’s Cannes Film Festival is no longer going to happen in mid-May and will instead begin on July 6, running until July 17.

Naman Ramachandran Anders Refn’s WWII saga “Into the Darkness” (Denmark) and Ko Chen-Nien’s abuse drama “The Silent Forest” (Taiwan) won the major prizes at the 51st International Film Festival of India in Goa.“Into The Darkness” won the Golden Peacock for best film. The award carries a cash prize of INR 4 million ($54,800).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefHong Kong-based boutique distributor Lightning International has acquired the U.K.’s documentary streaming service Docsville.Docsville was set up and launched in 2018 by award- winning documentary maker Lawrence Elman and Nick Fraser who had previously been a high-profile executive with the British Broadcasting Corporation.

There may be slightly fewer films for this year’s virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival, but most of them are still up for the prestigious honors set to be announced on February 2. Today, Sundance announced 22 jurors who will make up seven juries judging the U.S Dramatic, U.S.

Last year, as the second wave of COVID-19 swept through Europe, bringing many countries back into lockdown, the folks at the Cannes Film Festival revealed plans for alternative dates for the event if the typical May timeframe wasn’t a possibility. Let’s call May “Plan A” and the alternate dates in June/July were “Plan B.” Well, it appears Cannes is well past Plan A and already looking at Plan B…while drafting up a possible Plan C.

Pop Smoke features prominently in the new trailer for Eddie Huang’s upcoming film Boogie – you can check out the clip below.The late New York rapper, who was killed in a shooting in February last year, stars alongside Taylor Takahashi and Taylour Paige in the movie, which he also contributed music to.

Drifting, is one of the Normal People actor’s many projects from the last couple of years. Mescal has been busy appearing in music videos and is set to star in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter as well as in the musical, Carmen.Drifting tells the tale of Cian (Mescal) and Pat (Dafhyd Flynn) who have been best friends since they were young boys.

Vivienne Chow Documentary feature “Inside the Red Brick Wall,” which chronicles one of the most dramatic chapters of the 2019 Hong Kong protests, bagged the best film at the 27th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards.The best director prize went to Peter Chan Ho-sun for “Leap,” a sports drama based on the trajectory of China’s national women volleyball team.

Vivienne Chow Twenty-nine projects from across Asia have been selected to take part in March’s Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), which will go virtual for the second time.Scheduled to take place March 15-17, 2021, HAF will run concurrently with the Hong Kong FilMart. Both events were postponed last year to August due to the pandemic and eventually migrated online.They will return to their usual March slot this year in tweaked virtual format.

Vivienne Chow The Hong Kong government will provide another $361 million (HK$2.8 billion) to rescue city’s troubled Ocean Park, which has seen losses increased by the effect of COVID-19. The venture is to be transformed from a traditional theme park into a travel destination and marine conservation hub that can be financially self-sufficient.The park will receive a one-off injection of $251 million (HK$1.67 billion) as working capital.

2020 was definitely not a great year for many people around the world, with the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc. However, before the world seemingly shut down for most of the year, director Bong Joon Ho was riding high thanks to the record-breaking success of his film, “Parasite,” which had just come off of some incredible, surprising wins at the Oscars.

A Hong Kong Internet service provider on Thursday said it had blocked access to a pro-democracy website to comply with the city’s national security law. In a statement emailed on Thursday, Hong Kong Broadband Network said that it had disabled access to HKChronicles, a website that compiled information on "yellow" shops that supported the city’s pro-democracy movement and released personal information and pictures of police and pro-Beijing supporters during anti-government protests in 2019.

Get the stories that matter to you sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter.A talented musician who emigrated from Paisley to Hong Kong to pursue his career died suddenly on New Year’s Day.Davie Colquhoun had planned to return home to the town for good later this year.Tributes have flooded in from both the former colony and back home from his Paisley pals.The guitarist and singer - who died aged 72 of a suspected asthma attack - had become something of a celebrity of the Far