Hong Kong Film Festival to Put Focus on Local Auteur Stanley Kwan

Vivienne Chow “Mother Tongue,” a suspense thriller directed by two-time Academy Award nominee Mike Figgis (“Leaving Las Vegas,” “Internal Affairs”) starts shooting in Hong Kong this week. It stars and is produced by actor-singer-producer Josie Ho (“Contagion,” “Lucky Day”).Figgis and Ho will hold a start-of production ceremony Wednesday at Hong Kong’s Shaw Studios.

Vivienne Chow Cinemas in Hong Kong are set to reopen on Thursday after a hiatus caused by the city’s fourth wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.As the number of infections has dropped to only single figure daily increases, the government announced on Tuesday permission to reopen previously shuttered public places including cinemas and theme parks. Theme parks and cinemas have been ordered to close three times.Cinemas, closed since Dec.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefMovie industry shares soared in Hong Kong on Tuesday in response to the bumper revenues being earned at the mainland China box office over the Chinese New Year holidays.Leading the gains were Imax China and Alibaba Pictures, both of which have direct stakes in the box office boom. Imax China stock climbed by 31% to HK$18.36 per share at the close of trading.

Rebecca Davis editorHours after Beijing banned the BBC World Service, Hong Kong’s public broadcaster announced Friday that it will also drop certain BBC programs, sparking concern from foreign governments and journalist organizations.Beijing’s tit-for-tat move to block the BBC came a week after the U.K.

Rebecca Davis editorHugely-popular Chinese video entertainment platform Bilibili is facing an ad boycott from Chinese brands after its airing of a controversial Japanese anime series sparked user criticism that the site appears to tolerate misogynistic comments and content.The controversy comes just months ahead of an expected secondary listing of Bilibili shares in Hong Kong.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek anticipates Disneyland and other parks in 2022 may be mask free and without onerous social distancing for a Covid free, vaccinated populace.

Shares of KuaishouTechnology, China’s second-most popular short-form video app behind TikTok owner ByteDance, rocketed nearly 300 percent Friday in their debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Shortly after the opening bell, the stock was selling at more than HK$330, nearly triple the initial public offering list price of HK$115 and valuing the company at $179 billion.

When the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, the city’s largest film festival, gets underway February 17, it will look a little different from previous seasons. It’s a virtual event, save for some drive-in screenings, but the LGBTQ content is still abundant.

For the first time in recent memory, the Sundance Film Festival recruited just three members each for its competition juries. Even in the context of a virtual festival, that might have been a mistake after one film dominated the Dramatic category winning four awards.

UPDATED with latest: The Santa Barbara Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled the recipients of its Virtuosos Award, given annually to a group recognizing their noteworthy performances in film. The honors will be bestowed Saturday, April 3.

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.

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.

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.