‘Inside the Yellow Cocoon,’ Vietnam Film in Cannes Unveils Trailer, Sets Buyer Screenings (EXCLUSIVE)

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “In Our Day,” the film by South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo which closes the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes film festival, has seen distributors in multiple territories move early to strike rights deals. French rights were picked up by Capricci), Spanish rights by L’Atalante Cinema and Greek rights by Ama Films. The film has its official premiere on May 25. Seoul-based Finecut has long been the sales agent for Hong’s plentiful output. In addition to the deals on “In Our Day,” Finecut signed agreements with L’Atalante, with France’s Ariona Films and Taiwan’s Cola Films for “In Water,” Hong’s first film of 2023 which premiered in the Encounters section in Berlin in February. The film was previously sold to Cinema Guild for North America.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Wilfredo Manalang, who was one of the producers of last year’s Cannes’ Japanese hit “Plan 75,” has come on board Vietnamese film project “Don’t Cry, Butterfly.” Manalang (aka Will Fredo) and partners in his Philippines-based Fusee consortium will join as an executive producer. Written and to be directed by Duong Dieu Linh, “Don’t Cry, Butterfly” follows a Vietnamese housewife who finds out that her husband is cheating on her. Instead of confronting him, she uses voodoo on him so he falls back in love with her. Production of “Don’t Cry Butterfly” is by Tan Si En at Singapore-based Momo Film Co. The company was founded in 2018 by Tan and writer-director Kris Ong. In 2021, Beach House Pictures, part of Canada’s Blue Ant Media, acquired a majority stake in Momo.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Amanda Nell Eu’s “Tiger Stripes,” which had its premiere this week in Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, is being celebrated as a punchy female-driven debut feature and as the first film by a Malaysian woman director in any section Cannes. The story focuses on a small group of 11 or 12-year-old girls. When one of the friends enters puberty she finds her body changing in unexpected ways. Relations with her friends and family start morphing too. Eu’s finished film straddles the metaphorical drama and body horror genres. “Tiger Stripes” is also a triumph for the now highly-developed global network of project markets, talent development programs, script and production workshops (often labelled as ‘labs’) and grant schemes. These are intended to encourage diversity and nurture film-making talent in countries where that is a rarity or where commercial films crowd out more experimental art-house titles.

A year and a half after the fatal shooting of its cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, the Alec Baldwin Western “Rust” is back on the market at the Cannes Film Festival, shopping for international buyers.

It was a great night for Disney as Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny had a smash debut in its World Premiere Thursday evening at the Cannes Film Festival where the June 30th release received a warm 5 minute standing ovation, especially for Harrison Ford in his swan song in the title role he started playing 40 + years ago. There noticeably to witness the French love and affection was none other than Disney boss Bob Iger attending his first-ever Cannes Festival (believe it or not) and even taking his own photos during the ovation for the movie. At the Carlton Beach after party I told him Deadline had just been the first to post its review, a rave (from our colleague Stephanie Bunbury) and you could see the absolute relief on his face. “You have made me very happy to hear that, ” he told me, and he meant it. All this came on the same day Disney took another shot at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by announcing the cancellation of a plan to move several thousand California employees to Florida. The Cannes respite must have been nice.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Returning as an in-person event after cancelation last year, the Shanghai International Film Festival has set out an agenda with a clear focus on China. The festival (June 9-16) will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s economic outreach and development program. With a series of press conferences and film culture roundtables, the SIFF’s Belt and Road Film Week will “bring together old friends of the alliance from previous years and new friends made this year [..] and announce an action plan for the future.”

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Sabina Smitham has joined Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin’s Blueprint Pictures, the producer of “Banshees of Inisherin,” as head of development. Reporting to head of film, Ben Knight, the new role will see Smitham manage the company’s development team and take the lead on expanding the company’s development slate. Smitham, an alumnus of the U.K.’s prestigious National Film and Television School’s master in producing program, joins from Disney+, where she oversaw the development of a range of projects for the Europe, Middle East and Africa Original Productions team. Prior to Disney she was a development producer at Faye Ward’s Fable Pictures.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Funding from Singaporean state sources is involved in two features that make their debut at the Cannes Film Festival this month. A third film, “The Breaking Ice,” is directed by Singapore-born filmmaker Anthony Chen. “We are absolutely thrilled that we have the most number of Made with Singapore films debuting in Cannes this year,” said Justin Ang, assistant chief executive of media, innovation, communications and marketing at Singapore’s InfoComm Media Development Authority.Malaysian-produced “Tiger Stripes,” which will play in the Critics’ Week section, and Vietnamese-made “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell,” which will play in the Directors’ Fortnight section, both received cash injections from the Southeast Asia Co-Production Grant under the ‘Media Talent Progression Programme,’ which is backed by the Singapore Film Commission and the IMDA.

A very Kardashian Mother’s Day is underway! The reality TV family kicked off the Sunday, May 14, holiday with lots of fanfare.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Bruce Berman, a senior executive who was previously chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based Village Roadshow Pictures, has come out of retirement to board the recently-founded film studio Through the Lens Entertainment. The company, founded by producer Aditya Chand, is headquartered in Singapore with operations in the U.S. and Japan. It aims to combine the opportunities of the East and the power and experience of the studio systems in the West, “to offer a new studio ecosystem out of Asia, that is built for the digital age.” Two film projects are already underway and a third with “Slumdog Millionaire” star Frieda Pinto is in development.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The selection of two restored films by Ozu Yasujiro for the Cannes Classics section will kick-off a six-month long celebration of the iconic Japanese auteur around the world. Cannes revealed last week that it will showcase Ozu’s 1947 “Record of a Tenement Gentleman” and his 1950 picture “The Muneteka Sisters.” The screenings mark the 120th anniversary of Ozu’s birth and the 60th anniversary of his death. Ozu died in 1963 on the day of his 60th birthday, just a few months after the release of his last film “The Taste of Sake.” Major studio, Shochiku, where Ozu spent the majority of career and made his iconic movies, is planning a series of curated retrospectives, festival screenings, and special events around the world that pay homage to his enduring legacy as one of the most influential directors in cinema. These will last until the end of 2023.

rom young boys bonded by their unique positions and the tragic death of their mother, to grown men with obvious tension, Prince William and Prince Harry‘s relationship has become more strained in recent years.

Watch Below: Meghan Markle admits Archie and Lilibet didn't enjoy Halloween!Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have two children: a son named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, born on May 6, 2019, and a daughter named Lilibet "Lili" Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, born on June 4, 2021.Date of Birth: 6 May 2019Position in the line of succession: Sixth in the line of succession to The British throneIn March 2020, Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan officially stepped back from their senior royal family roles, marking the end of an era.Unlike Prince William and Princess Catherine's children who are frequently seen in public, Harry and Meghan's son Archie was shielded from the constant media attention.The perfect mix of both his parents! Archie's dark red hair definitely comes from Harry's side.In 2020, there were only two sightings of the little royal - on his birthday in May, and in the Sussexes' Christmas card in December.However, in 2021, a few more glimpses of Archie were shared, including some intimate home footage during Harry and Meghan's interview with Oprah Winfrey.Footage of Harry and Meghan’s family were featured in the Netflix docuseries.Recently, rare pictures of Archie and his sister Lilibet were released in the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan, giving us a rare glimpse into their private lives.Watch Below: Archie says 'Dada' as he looks at Harry in birthday videoDate of Birth: 4 June 2021Position in the line of succession: Seventh in the line of succession to the British throneThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex are known to be very private about their children,  On June 4th, 2021, their daughter Lilibet was born, weighing 7 lbs 11 oz, however, was kept out of the public eye for the first six months of her life.Baby Lili

A night to remember! Despite the Met Gala’s no phone policy, several celebs were sneak enough to give fans a glimpse inside the biggest fashion event of the year.

No bad blood here! Bradley Cooper and ex-girlfriend Irina Shayk reunited for a chat inside the Met Gala on Monday, May 1.

Hours before the red carpet began for the 2023 Met Gala, a press preview was held to reveal the inside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Exhibit.

 is back for season 17! Tamra Judge makes her triumphant return to the franchise to shake things up after first exiting the show in early 2020 and joins returning 'Wives Heather Dubrow, Shannon Storms Beador, Gina Kirschenheiter and Emily Simpson. Rounding out the group is newcomer Jennifer Pedranti, introduced to the ladies through Tamra, and  veteran Taylor Armstrong, who marks the first Housewife to switch cities as she joins the OC ladies as a friend.

The wait is over as Bravo has dropped the trailer for The Real Housewives of Orange County Season 17 with the return of Tamra Judge as a full-time cast member with the show premiering on Wednesday, June 7 at 8 p.m. ET.

The Cannes Film Festival has announced a raft of new additions to the Official Selection of its 76th edition running May 16 to 27.

Ben Croll Hidden behind two passcode-protected doors in a nondescript office complex just outside of La Rochelle, France, sits the Bunker – ICE Theaters’ state-of-the-art, highly protected facility where visual magic gets made. Since 2017, five post-production whizzes have manned the studio’s 15 monitors and countless processors – all of them unconnected to one another and to the wider net in one of many security measures – encoding blockbusters frame by frame to build out an ever-growing library of ICE embellished features. Working for the premium offshoot of French exhibitor CGR Cinemas, ICE technicians work on 30 Hollywood productions per year, mining visual information from the furthest reaches of each anamorphic frame in order to design bespoke light shows that play out on the two rows of LED screens built into every ICE immersive theater.