Pema Tseden, Tibet New Wave Film Director, Dies at 53

Priyanka Chopra Jonas is opening up about a “dehumanizing moment” early on in her Bollywood career where a director asked to see her underwear on set.

Priyanka Chopra is reflecting upon her time as an actress, detailing a moment where she felt her boundaries were crossed. An India native, Chopra's career accelerated after she won the Miss World 2000 pageant. She began starring in Bollywood films, and was hired to work with a director she was unfamiliar with.

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.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Warsaw-based sales outlet New Europe Film Sales has signed an international sales deal for the upcoming Belgian debut “Julie Keeps Quiet” by Leonardo Van Dijl, whose short film “Stephanie,” also repped by New Europe, played in Cannes competition in 2020. Both films are set in the world of competitive youth sports: the short explored the world of gymnastics, while the feature film takes on tennis. The feature is to be shot in the second half of this year with delivery planned for mid-2024. In “Julie Keeps Quiet,” when the practices of a prominent tennis coach are investigated, attention quickly shifts to Julie, a young and promising player who is always around him. As pressure mounts for her to share her experiences, Julie chooses to keep quiet and focus on her game, leaving the investigation and the coach’s future in doubt.

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.”

While Southeast Asian films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival many times before, and even won the Palme d’Or, there’s an energy around the region this year that we haven’t felt on the Croisette at previous editions. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief China’s entertainment, social media and technology giant Tencent, renewed its profits growth in the first quarter of 2023, after reporting its first decline in 2022. And group revenue beat financial market estimates as China’s post-COVID reopening boosted economic activity. Overall revenues in the three months from January to March 2023 reached RMB150 billion ($21.4 billion), an increase of 11% year-on-year and 3% quarter-on-quarter. Net profits in the period came in at RMB25.8 billion ($3.69 billion), a 10% year-on-year improvement.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Net profits at Tencent Music Entertainment, China’s largest digital music operation, grew by 89% in the first quarter of the new year, hitting RMB1.15 billion ($167 million), even as revenue progressed by only 5% to RMB7.0 billion ($1.02 billion). The group, which is backed by Chinese tech and entertainment giant Tencent and has stock market listings on the New York Stock Exchange and in Hong Kong, controls large equity stakes in Spotify and (in a consortium with Tencent) Universal Music Group. Its own music operations divide loosely into two clusters: mass market music streaming, with paid-for and free tiers; and “social entertainment,” including karaoke and other derivative products.

Ana de Armas is not stopping any time soon. The actress, who took a brief break from acting to visit her native Cuba, is back in the spotlight, landing a coveted role in the film “Origin of Species.”Ana de Armas’ emotional arrival in Cuba: Watch the teary-eyed reunionAna de Armas surprises a fan in a restaurant in CubaAna de Armas’s fun birthday celebration in Cuba: WatchA post shared by Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl)Deadline reports that De Armas joins a stacked and award winning cast that includes Jude Law, Daniel Brühl and Alicia Vikander. “Origin of Species” will be directed by Ron Howard and is described as a survival thriller with a “darkly comic” edge, telling a story from two different perspectives.

A man, a woman, and an enclosed space — as any stage director knows, these components can be transformed into anything within the capabilities of the human imagination, a malleability essential to Zachary Wigon’s devious chamber piece “Sanctuary.” DominatrixRebecca (Margaret Qualley) and her number-one client Hal (Christopher Abbott) bring that same spirit of invention to their sessions, such as a face-off between a playboy corporate heir and the no-nonsense lady lawyer who gets him scrubbing the bathroom floor in his underwear with just a handful of demeaning remarks.

seven – years of hard work on his sophomore film and the culmination of a journey that began at the end of his first feature, “The Good Dinosaur.”TheWrap spoke with Sohn and producer Denise Ream at Pixar Animation Studios about the unlikely origins of the film and why it took so long.“So much of the time was figuring out the pipeline,” Sohn explained. “Because none of this had been done before.

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.

EXCLUSIVE: New Europe Film Sales has unveiled fresh deals for Danish director Ulaa Salim’s sci-fi drama Eternal.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Alexi Tan, a screenwriter and director who was a protégé of John Woo, has teamed with artist Charles Simpson to launch comic book “Monk Wars.” The “Monk Wars” universe is a dystopian gritty world filled with martial arts action and a broad array of diverse characters. The first book will follow Monk Ma, who has ancient animal powers, as he assembles his followers to take on the Rat-Men soldiers.

The European Film Academy (EFA) has unveiled 462 film professionals as new members in an announcement timed to coincide with Europe Day on May 9.

It feels like, more and more, the entertainment industry tends to focus on massive A-list stars and huge, tentpole films and TV series. If you’re not one of the Chrises (Pratt, Pine, Evans, Hemsworth) or the latest Marvel Studios project, then it’s not on many people’s radar.

Pema Tseden, a Tibetan filmmaker of Chinese citizenship whose films regularly played at Venice film festival, has died aged 53. His death was reported by Chinese media today. No cause of death was given. 

EXCLUSIVE: Fivel Stewart (The Recruit) has signed on to star opposite Acoryé White in Bellmount, an action thriller that White will also direct, in his second outing behind the camera, from his own script.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Maggie and Grogu are teaming up for a galactic adventure in honor of May the 4th. Disney+ announced this week a new crossover short film between “The Simpsons” and “Star Wars.” Titled “Rogue Not Quite One,” an obvious play on the franchise’s 2016 film “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” the animated short will star the Springfield toddler as she evades the Empire in her very own aeronautical pram inspired by Grogu’s in “The Mandalorian.” In the four minute short, per the release, “Homer loses track of Maggie who hops in Grogu’s hovering pram for a hyperspace-hopping adventure across the galaxy. Facing a squadron of Imperial TIE fighters, Maggie brings the battle to Springfield in this epic short celebrating all things ‘Star Wars.'”

Pinewood Group, which runs Pinewood and Shepperton Studios — home to blockbusters including “No Time to Die” and “No Time to Die” has acquired full ownership of Pinewood Toronto Studios. Based in downtown, Toronto, the facility houses 16 purpose-built sound stages, including the mega stage, one of the largest of its kind in North America, and recently added 170,000 square feet of production space. Netflix shares part of this studio space, 84, 580 square feet to be exact, with their long-term lease on four sound stages and adjacent offices. “We have worked with our partners for many years to create the City’s pre-eminent studio, and we’re now delighted to have bought it,” said Paul Golding, chair of Pinewood Group.