‘Matilda the Musical’ to Open BFI London Film Festival

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefA marathon screening of all three “Infernal Affairs” films has been announced for the much delayed 46th edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival.The three films, all restored and upgraded to 4K digital prints, lead off a six- film section of Chinese-language restored classics at the festival.The HKIFF was this year postponed from its usual March-April slot to August, due to the fifth wave of the COVID pandemic which closed Hong Kong cinemas for the first months of 2022. It will now take place from Aug.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media“The Woman King,” a historical epic starring Viola Davis, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The TriStar Pictures release centers on the Agojie, an all-female military regiment tasked with protecting the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Asian Contents and Film Market, the industry component of the Busan International Film Festival, is to launch an in-person story market at this year’s event.The ACFM has for ten years operated what it called an Entertainment Intellectual Property Market. But where the E-IP Market has been a one-way pitching event, the new Busan Story Market is conceived as something functionally closer to a conventional rights market, with buyers and sellers meeting at sales booths, but trading books, webtoons, web novels, games, and stories.The Busan Story Market is an outgrowth of the E-IP event and will operate in addition to the continuing pitching sessions.

Andrew Garfield shows off his award during the 2022 Ischia Film Festival on Saturday night (July 16) in Italy.

The Locarno Film Festival has announced the full line-up and juries for its 75th edition, which is due to unfold August 3-13.

Naman Ramachandran The world Premiere of local filmmaker Tearepa Kahi’s action-drama “Muru” will open the Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin chapters of the New Zealand International Film Festival, while American filmmaker Sara Dosa’s Sundance-winning documentary “Fire of Love” will open all the other festival locations, which include Gore, Hamilton, Hawke’s Bay, Masterton, Matakana, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Tauranga and Timaru. Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning “Triangle of Sadness” will close the festival in all centers.Other Cannes titles joining the lineup include Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future,” Queer Palm winner “Joyland,” from Saim Sadiq and “Sick of Myself,” by Kristoffer Borgli. Award winners from this year’s Berlin International Film Festival include Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” by Carla Simón and Natalia López Gallardo’s Silver Bear jury winning “Robe of Gems.” Other local films include Fergus Grady and Noel Smyth’s “Gloriavale,” Tom Levesque’s “Shut Eye” and New Zealand-U.S.

Little bitty pretty one! A musical movie adaptation of Matilda is coming to Netflix. The new film stars Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull and Alisha Weir, who is set to lead as the title character.

The 66th BFI London Film Festival has set Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical as its Opening Night Gala. Directed by Matthew Warchus and starring Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Sindhu Vee and Alisha Weir as the eponymous Matilda, the film will have its world premiere on October 5 at the Southbank Centre in the Royal Festival Hall. Sony Pictures UK and TriStar release theatrically in the UK on December 2. Netflix will release the film elsewhere during the holiday season.

As the 56th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) is about to kick off on Friday, there will be plenty to discuss at this year’s event in the picturesque Czech spa town. The prominent Central European festival, which is returning to its usual early July slot after last year’s edition was delayed to August because of the pandemic, will see 33 films from five continents screen across its three sections – the Crystal Globe Competition, the Special Screenings section and its new competition, Proxima, which replaces the former East of the West section.

The 2022 American Black Film Festival (ABFF) today announced the Best of the ABFF Award winners.

Wilson Chapman editorThe Maui Film Festival has announced the slate of films and honorees for its 22nd annual edition.The 2022 festival will feature the Maui premieres of 13 feature films, including “McCurry: The Pursuit of Color,” “Gratitude Revealed,” “Facing Monsters,” “The Story of Everything,” “Pretty Problems,” “Kapo,” “Tango Shalom” and “Pe’Ahi.” The festival opener will be a special surprise, with the film remaining a secret until the screening on July 6.The in-person festival will take place at the outdoors Stardust Cinema, featuring live music, Kahiko style hula and other activities. In addition, 80 short and feature films will be available to stream online through the festival’s Speed-of-Light Virtual Cinema from July 6-31.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features“You have to put it in the script. If you put in the script – it will happen.”This is Geena Davis’ sage advice to filmmakers when crafting stories aiming to incorporate inclusive storylines and characters.“Nobody is going to second guess if it says the scene takes place at, say, ‘a police station which is 40% women,’ or if there’s a scene where ‘a crowd gathers, which is half female,’” continues the Oscar-winning actor and founder of the eponymous Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.“Specify what it is.

Christopher Vourlias Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, whose feature debut “Pamfir” premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section, and director and former political prisoner Oleh Sentsov (“Rhino”) are among the Ukrainian filmmakers who say they’re “distraught” by the inclusion of a Russian film in the main competition at the Transilvania Film Festival.In a statement posted on Monday to the Facebook page for “Pamfir,” the filmmakers spoke out against the selection of Russian director Lado Kvataniya’s “The Execution” as one of 12 features competing for the Transilvania Trophy, criticizing the “illusion of cultural reconciliation” created by the festival’s decision and insisting that “art does not exist outside of politics.” The filmmakers noted that Kvataniya’s psychological thriller was produced with the support of the state-backed Russian Film Fund as well as Kinoprime, the $100 million film fund bankrolled by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who has been sanctioned by the U.K.

Christopher Vourlias For the first edition of the Evia Film Project, a new initiative launched by the organizers of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the festival’s industry arm, Agora, hosted a series of events looking to bring both environmentally focused films and sustainable film production to the fore. The program was designed to help revitalize Greece’s second-largest island, which was hit by a devastating series of wildfires last summer.Speaking to Variety ahead of the festival, Agora head Yianna Sarri stressed the importance of getting the global film community to rethink its ways of doing business in order to make the industry more environmentally friendly.

The future of Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival is looking uncertain following the unexpected cancellation of its previously announced sixth edition, which had been due to run October 13-22.

The Better Call Saul stars are stepping out for the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.

Known for her long career of acting prowess, Emma Thompson now appears to have proven herself once again. Netflix’s first teaser trailer for the upcoming “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical” features ominous narration from Thompson, who plays the infamous headmistress, Miss Trunchbull.