Malaysia’s ‘Tiger Stripes’ Set as Singapore Film Festival Opening Title – Global Bulletin

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong-based sales firm Autumn Sun has acquisition worldwide rights to Chinese family-oriented animated film “I Am T-Rex,” directed by Shang Ming and Si Lin, produced by Beijing Create Dream. “I Am T-Rex” follows a young T-Rex named Didi in her coming of age journey after the death of powerful father T-Rex Rog, who is killed by a rival dino gang. She must learn the ways of the T-Rex and claim the crown again with the help of her uncle and a very caring friend.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Boutique sales agent, House of Film has acquired worldwide rights, excluding Asia, to represent the Malaysian mythical horror film “Curse of the Totem” (aka “Sumpahan Jerunei”) from Produksi Seni Duapuluh-Duapuluh SDN BHD. Based on the 13th Century Borneo sacrificial rituals, “Curse of the Totem” tells the story of Dr.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese drama film “Mountain Woman,” which was one of the standouts titles at last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, is to be represented for global sales by EST N8. Inspired by “The Legends of Tono,” which is Japanese folklore from the Tohoku region, the film depicts a small Japanese village overrun by famine. The burden falls upon Rin, a woman whose connections with the spirit and natural worlds allow her to rise amidst familial conflicts.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief No Maori Allowed, directed by Corinna Hunziger was named the winner of the Pasifika Award and recipient of a $5,000 cash prize at the Hawaii International Film Festival. It recounts the story of a teacher who unearths a secret past in the town of Pukekohe. Thet causes M?ori community figures to come forward to share personal stories that shaped their lives.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Six film projects currently at development stage have been selected to take part in a workshop session as part of mylab+@Jogja next month. The six share a common characteristic of Indonesian co-production and a recurring theme of luminescence. “This theme underscores the importance of having the distinctive light of Asian cinema arise from its own characteristics.

Naman Ramachandran Chinese superstar actor and producer Fan Bingbing will be the 2023 recipient of the Singapore International Film Festival‘s (SGIFF) Cinema Icon Award. The festival will screen three of Fan’s films, curated by her – the recent “Green Night,” “Buddha Mountain” and “Double Xposure” – and the star will walk the red carpet on opening night, Nov. 30.

Malaysian filmmaker Amanda Nell Eu has distanced herself from the cut of her feature film Tiger Stripes, which is being released theatrically in Malaysia on October 19 for one week in an Oscars-qualifying run. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Amanda Nell Eu, director of breakout film “Tiger Stripes,” has disowned the censored version of the movie that launched in her native Malaysia on Thursday. “I do not stand behind the cut that will be shown in local cinemas […] the film that will be shown in local cinemas is not the film that we made, and it is not the film that won the Grand Prize of the Critics Week in Cannes,” said Eu in a statement (see below for full letter). The debut feature had received wide acclaim as the first Malaysian film in many years to play in Cannes, the first by a Malaysian woman director. It won a prize as best picture in Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar, will be the opening film of the Singapore International Film Festival and has been selected as Malaysia’s Oscar contender. Pitched somewhere between a coming-of-age drama and a body horror movie, the film tells the story of a 12-year-old who becomes the first among her friends to reach puberty.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Dynamic Singaporean producer Jeremy Chua is to receive the FIAPF Award for Outstanding Contribution to Asia Pacific Cinema, at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) on Nov. 3 on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Two titles which debuted at Cannes this year were named as the major prize-winners at the seventh edition of the Pingyao International Film Festival in China. Wei Shujun’s black comedy-thriller “Only the River Flows” won the festival’s Fei Mu prize for best Chinese film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief India’s Yash Raj Films has set a mid-November release date through the Diwali holidays for “Tiger 3,” its anticipated spy-action film starring Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif and Emraan Hashmi. Holiday complexities have caused the company to devise what it called a “strategic and unique release plan.” Having previously only released teaser footage, YRF has now also unveiled a full trailer. Unusually, the film will open in Indian and international theaters on a Sunday – Nov. 12 – the first day of Diwali. “2023 is the year of ‘Adhik Maas’ which has led to complications regarding festival dates.

Lise Pedersen “Vive la paix, vive le cinéma!” Irène Jacob, the president of Lyon’s Lumière Institute which runs the Lumière Film Festival, chose to mark the opening of the event on Saturday night with a solemn message of peace, a week to the day after the outbreak of renewed conflict in the Middle East. “Tonight, we are really looking forward to this festival as a gesture of peace, because we do not forget what is going on in the world, the tragedies that move us, the wars all around us, the children and civilians in danger, the madness and the sadness of our divided world.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Some twenty aspiring film projects have been selected to participate in the inaugural edition of the Qcinema Project Market (Nov. 18-19) that this year represents and expansion of the QCinema Film Festival in The Philippines’ Quezon City. The selected titles include development projects by several of East Asia’s better known independent and art-house directors and projects.

Cailee Spaeny dazzles while promoting her new film Priscilla at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival on Monday (October 9).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwanese actors King Jieh-wen and Hsueh Shih-ling and Indonesia’s Angga Yunanda are set to star in “Malice,” a multinational Asian thriller that will shoot next year. The film’s producers, actors and government backers presented the fully-assembled package to press and industry on Monday at the Busan International Film Festival. The film, pitched as “a road movie at sea,” is a dark tale of three men who put out to sea in search of a particular, large swordfish that had been rumored to have died out.

Taiwanese actors Jieh-Wen King and Hsueh Shih-Ling and Indonesian actor Angga Yunanda have been cast in Lim Lungyin’s action adventure Malice, an amitious co-production between Taiwan, Czech Republic and Indonesia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief EST N8, a recently-established finance, production and rights sales company, has added a Hong Kong remake of classic film “Tape” and the LGBT comedy-drama “ASOG” to its bulging sales slate at the AFCM market that accompanies the Busan Intenational Film Festival. “Tape” tells the story of three best friends who, following an event at a graduation party that transforms their lives, reunite 15 years later where a case of blackmail forces them to confront a terrible secret from their past. The original film starred Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Robert Sean Leonard and played at the Sundance, Toronto and Rotterdam festivals.In the Cantonese-language remake directed by Bizhan Tong, Selena Lee, Kenny Kwan, and Adam Pak play the contemporary characters while Mason Fung, Summer Chan, and Angus Yeung portray the characters’ younger versions. The script is written by Stephen Belber, Tong, Lee and Bonnie Lo, and is an adaptation of Belber’s own scripts from both the original film and stage play. The writers and director have significantly modernized the script to reflect advances in technology. Producers on the film include Tong, Lee and Belber.

China’s Pingyao International Film Festival has announced the line-up for its seventh edition (October 11-18), which will open with Wei Shujun’s Only The River Flows and close with the world premiere of Fei Yu’s Football On The Roof. 

Naman Ramachandran India’s Crawling Angel Films and Singapore’s Akanga Film Asia are teaming on Busan Asian Film School (AFiS) alumnus Aakash Chhabra’s feature directorial debut “I′ll Smile in September.” The film is selected at the Busan International Film Festival‘s Asian Project Market. Akanga’s credits include Cannes winner “Tiger Stripes,” Locarno winner “A Land Imagined” and its “Oasis of Now” is in competition in the festival’s New Currents strand.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival is back after a one-year hiatus with a rich mix of Arabic and international titles launching into the Middle East and plenty of promising projects from Arab countries set to be unveiled to prospective partners at its CineGouna industry side. The event launched in 2017 by Egyptian telecom billionaire Naguib Sawiris – whose brother Samih built the El Gouna resort in a swathe of desert near the tourist town of Hurghada 250 miles south of Cairo – was put on pause in 2022 ostensibly due to the country’s economic crisis following five editions during which fest co-founder Amr Mansi and chief Intishal Al Timimi had managed to rapidly put El Gouna on the international festival map while also making it a favourite with the local crowd.