Japan Announces New Official Incentive Program For International Film & TV Production

The San Sebastian Film Festival awarded O Corno (The Rye Horn) with the Golden Shell for Best Film. San Sebastián native Jaione Camborda took the top prize of the night for the feature she directed.

The Tokyo Film Festival has set the lineup for its bumper 2023 edition, running October 23 to November 1. Scroll down for the full list. 

Blonde Redhead have debuted two new singles, ‘Sit Down For Dinner Pt. I’ and ‘Sit Down for Dinner Pt. II’, and an accompanying short film.The new singles are the title tracks from the band’s new album, which is set to arrive on September 29.

Naman Ramachandran Billie Piper, “The Great British Bake Off” and “Derry Girl” have landed nominations at the 2023 International Emmy Awards. The nominations, which were unveiled on Tuesday by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, are across 14 categories and span 20 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Qatar, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the U.K.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Neo Sora’s concert documentary “Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus,” a standout at the Venice Film Festival, has sold for theatrical distribution in North America to Janus Films ahead of its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival. The theatrical release will be followed by a Blu-ray Disc release on the “Janus Contemporaries” label. This is the latest deal inked by London and Paris-based production, finance and sales outfit Film Constellation, following a slew of sales to Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Midas Filmes), Germany and Austria (Rapid Eye), Scandinavia (NjutaFilms), Baltics (Kino Pavasaris), South Korea (Media Castle), China (JL Vision Films), Hong Kong and Macau (Edko Films), Taiwan (Cai Chang) and Singapore (Anticipate Pictures).

Italian rock band Måneskin just launched their Rush! World Tour and we have the set list from the first U.S. show.

Vanessa Redgrave To Be Feted At European Film Awards

Last year, it was confirmed that a popular Leeds ramen and dumpling spot, House of Fu, would be heading to Manchester. Now, the team behind the hit restaurant have confirmed the exact date it will open.

EXCLUSIVE: The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival announced the lineup for the 32nd edition of North America’s longest-running all doc festival, a slate that includes several world premieres and a slew of Academy Award-contending films. In addition, Hot Springs announced Oscar-winning actress Mary Steenburgen, an Arkansas native, will serve as honorary chair of the event in the resort town located in the scenic Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese comedian Shinagawa Hiroshi has been set as the director of “Among the Dead,” the first project flowing from the co-production and co-financing venture between U.S.-based People of Culture Studios and Japan’s Yoshimoto Kogyo. The previously-announced project is an English-language, found footage zombie movie in which, following an apocalypse of the undead, one emotionally unstable man abandons friends and family to go live among the few remaining zombies before they’re all gone. The screenplay was written by father/daughter duo, Andy Cosby (“Hellboy,” “2 Guns” “Eureka”) and Charlie Danger Cosby, collectively known as Midnight Pizza. Other writing credits go to Brian Caldirola, Patrick Hasson and Juan Carlos Saizarbitoria. Shinagawa is one-half of the comedy duo Shinagawa Shoji, alongside Tomoharu Shoji, and has a considerable acting filmography in his own right including “Kantoku Kansen,” “Deadman Inferno,” “One Third,” and “Drop.” Shinagawa additionally served as director, writer, and starred in the 2011 comedy-drama “Slapstick Brothers,” which won a Citizen’s Choice Award for feature film and an award from the Japanese Academy for rookie of the year.

Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” stirred up no end of controversy when it was released in 1988, met with protests and condemned by religious groups, while a terrorist attack in a Paris theatre showing the film injured 13 people.

VAV have announced their upcoming 2024 ‘Subcönscióus’ US tour.Today (September 12), organiser Studio PAV announced VAV’s upcoming 10-date tour of the US. The boybank will kick things off on the East Coast, with a show in New Jersey.Following that, VAV will head to Illinois and Florida, before playing a single show in the territory of Puerto Rico.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japan has unveiled details of a location production incentive scheme that it hopes will attract more film and TV shoots to the island nation. The scheme offers reimbursement of up to 50% of qualifying expenditure in Japan, with an upper limit of JPY1 billion ($6.4 million) on the disbursement. The scheme is the product of the Ministry of Economy, Trade Industry and two agencies, the Visual Industry Promotion Organization, described as the program operator, and the Japan Film Commission, described as the program coordinator. The scheme is open to “large-scale international film and television projects.” These must have either minimum direct production spending in Japan of $3.2 million or, in the case of projects distributed in ten or more countries, have Japanese production spend higher than $1.1 million. Additionally, all projects must fulfil four other criteria: benefit to the Japanese content industry through employment or use of studios; shoot in Japan; promote the location where the filming took place; help the global appeal of Japanese works. Significantly, the guidelines make no reference to the eligibility of post-production or visual effects work conducted in Japan.

Phoenix were joined on stage by special guest Clairo in New York last night (September 9) – watch them play ‘After Midnight’ below.The artists teamed up on a remixed version of the song earlier this year, with the original appearing on Phoenix’s 2022 album ‘Alpha Zulu’.During Phoenix’s show with Beck at Madison Square Garden, they gave the track its live debut with help from Clairo herself.Watch footage of the performance below.A post shared by Michelle Willie (@mwillie70)A post shared by Claire Cottrill (@clairo)Beck and Phoenix are currently finishing up their co-headline 2023 ‘Summer Odyssey’ tour across North America.The bands kicked off a 19-city run on August 1 in Seattle, Washington, with stops in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston, Boston, New York and more. It wraps up tonight (September 10) in Columbia, Maryland.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has revealed a raft of deals for key territories for Ramata-Toulaye Sy‘s feature film debut, “Banel & Adama,” which played in competition in Cannes and makes its North American premiere in Toronto. Variety reviewed it as “a dreamlike debut” in May. The film just won the Melbourne International Film Festival’s top prize, the Bright Horizons Award.

Great Absence, the second feature film from Japanese director Kei Chika-ura, is receiving its world premiere in Toronto International Film Festival’s Platform section. Inspired by Kei’s real-life experiences, the film tells the story of an actor living in Tokyo who is forced to travel home when the police call to say his father is suffering from dementia and has lost touch with reality. Making matters worse, his father’s second wife appears to be missing. The actor makes the trip home with his own wife, full of conflicted emotions over a man who left the family when he was still a child, and starts an exploration into the mysteries of his father’s life.

WOODZ has announced his 2023 ‘OO-LI And’ world tour.The K-pop musician is set to kick off his ‘OO-LI And’ tour with a two-night concert in Seoul, South Korea on October 28 and 29. WOODZ will then play three shows in Japan in early-November, as well as one concert in Taiwan.At the start of end of November, the singer kick off the US leg of his tour, which will feature six shows over two weeks in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and more.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Vogter,” a psychological thriller directed by Gustav Möller, whose previous film “The Guilty” won the Audience Award at Sundance, has been pre-sold by Les Films du Losange to multiple territories. “Vogter,” which was just completed and is now in post, has been picked up for Germany, Austria, Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Spain (La Aventura), Italy (Movies Inspired), Japan (Happinet Phantom Studios), Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg (Cineart), Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (Kino Pavasaris) and Hungary (Vertigo). Les Films du Losange has closed these deals since unveiling the project at Cannes and is negotiating further sales in other key territories.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kim Jee-woon’s black comedy “Cobweb,” which debuted this year at Cannes, is set for a U.S. theatrical release in early 2024.

In postwar Japan, a new terror rises Godzilla. Will the devastated people be able to survive… let alone fight back? So yeah, it’s a reboot of sorts.