‘Parasite’ Leads Asian Film Awards Nominations

Janet W. Lee HBO’s Asian Pacific American Visionaries winners will premiere their work on Sept.

Holdover local war epic The Eight Hundred dominated Mulan over the weekend in China, as the Disney tentpole continued its precipitous decline in its most important theatrical market. The Eight Hundred, which has been in cinemas for a month, earned $17.7 million, lifting its total gross to $423.2 million, according to data from local box office tracker Artisan Gateway.

Rebecca Davis editorDisney’s “Mulan” made only $6.47 million over its second weekend in China, allowing it to be handily defeated once again by the local war epic “The Eight Hundred,” according to data from industry tracker Maoyan.As of Sunday evening, the Disney title has earned a cumulative $36.5 million (RMB 247 million) in the key territory.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe number of feature film production in South Korea dropped in the first eight months, as the coronavirus disrupted travel, commerce and finance.According to data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), the number of films made dropped from 23 between January and August last year, to just 18 in 2020.The country was one of the first to be hit by the virus outbreak, but with the exception of a few notable hot spots, seemed to have good success at quashing the spread

Filmmaker Judd Apatow gave a recent interview in which he criticized the film industry for essentially censoring content that’s critical of places like China where human rights abuses are happening.

There are still idealistic young writers out there aiming to transform the world, at least in China, and the newsroom drama The Best Is Yet to Come (Bu zhi bu xiu) catches the viewer up in the fast-paced story of an untutored youth from the provinces who breaks a scoop on hepatitis B.

By Hanna RantalaVENICE (Reuters) - "Nomadland", a U.S.

Guy Lodge Film CriticOne day after premiering and receiving the most rapturous reviews of any film in competition, U.S.-based Chinese director Chloé Zhao has won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival for her film “Nomadland,” a documentary-influenced road movie starring Frances McDormand as an itinerant widow traveling across America.

Nancy Tartaglione International Box Office Editor/Senior ContributorMulan, Disney’s live-action update on its 1998 animated classic grossed an estimated RMB 52.5M ($8.26M) on its opening Friday in China. The figure includes midnights, and portends a three-day weekend around $26M.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterOrganizers of the Busan International Film Festival have opted to delay the major Asian festival by two weeks due to ongoing COVID-19 related concerns.The festival will now run October 21-30.

Rebecca Davis editorThough China was among the first in the world to restart film shoots in the wake of COVID-19, the number of projects going into production has been drastically reduced by the pandemic and its accompanying economic uncertainty. Recent financial reports and public comments from China’s major studios reveal some trends in what to expect from those productions still in the pipeline.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefIt is going to be tough acting like things have gone back to normal, and operating an in-person festival, complete with foreign guests. But given plentiful resources and a can-do spirit, the Hainan Intl.

No matter what you think of the Sandman’s films, Adam Sandler brings the talent.

Dave McNary Film Reporter“Parasite” filmmaker Bong Joon Ho is set to produce the immigration drama “Sea Fog” at Participant Media.Matt Palmer, who directed “Calibre,” is writing and directing “Sea Fog,” based on a previous draft by Oren Moverman.“Sea Fog” is based on the 2014 Korean film “Haemoo,” which follows a fishing-boat crew on a dangerous commission to smuggle a group of undocumented immigrants from China to Korea.

Ben Croll At a panel hosted by the Venice Production Bridge – the industry section of the Venice Film Festival – earlier this week, delegates from the Italian, American, and Chinese industries shared the virtual stage with European regulators as they enumerated the challenges facing the global film business in the post-pandemic era.Jointly organized by Italy’s cultural heritage ministry (MiBACT) and motion picture association (ANICA) for the second year in a row, the panel brought together

Taking Soviet films from the past as its model, Russian veteran Andrei Konchalovsky’s Dear Comrades! (Dorogie Tovarischi!) pinpoints a moment inhistory when people’s unquestioning belief in the high-minded principles of the Communist party wavered as evidence to the contrary mounted and personally impacted their lives. Although at first sight this dramatization of a 1962 strike at a factory in the U.S.S.R.

Eli Countryman The live-action remake of Disney’s “Mulan” is a story rooted in Chinese culture and a tale of forging one’s own path, said the film’s director and stars during the #GoldOpen Premium Access panel moderated by Variety‘s Audrey Cleo Yap on Friday evening, one of three panels with cast members airing throughout the weekend.

Nancy Tartaglione, Anthony D'Alessandro Christopher Nolan’s Tenet launched in the Middle Kingdom on Friday grossing RMB 62.3M, which included previews, translating into a $9.2M take. Pic’s day, at $8.6M, bested local epic The Eight Hundred which is estimated to have grossed $8.2M for a running total of $323.9M.It’s not certain yet if Tenet will best Eight Hundred for the top spot at China’s weekend box office.

Park Hoon-jung is back with another stylish-looking South Korean blood-and-mob fest, Night in Paradise (Nak-Won-Eui-Barm). The writer-director emerged on the Korean scene after authoring the screenplay of Park Chan-wook’s vendetta hit I Saw the Devil.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentDaniele Luchetti’s “The Ties” (“Lacci”), the first Italian film to open the Venice Film Festival in 11 years, garnered warm reviews on its world premiere on Wednesday evening, and has been sold by MK2 Films in a raft of territories around the world.MK2 Films has been able to lure major distributors in key markets, notably France (Pyramide), Spain (Caramel), Latin America (Synapse), China (Huanxi), Portugal (Midas), Greece (Weirdwave), Austria (Thim),