Partnering with this weekend’s inaugural LA3C developed by Deadline parent company, PMC, Deadline’s signature Contenders event hits Downtown Los Angeles on Saturday December 10 for a live in person/virtual edition and final Contenders -film opportunity before Oscar nomination voting begins. With films not previously highlighted at our previous LA and NY outings this Fall, A Man Called Otto, The Woman King, The Banshees Of Inisherin, Emancipation, and The Pale Blue Eye will be front and center for voters and public along with newly produced visits with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Elvis, and Top Gun: Maverick all with talent appearing live at our venue, the J. W. Marriott at LA Live. Also returning to Deadline Contenders will be filmmakers from Till, Thirteen Lives, and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.
‘Return To Seoul’s Davy Chou On Exploring The “Depth Of Contradictory Emotions” For An Adoptee Returning Home – Contenders L.A.
20.11.2022 - 01:55 / deadline.com
In 2011, director Davy Chou was heading to South Korea for the first time when one of his best friends decided to tag along to show him around “her country.”
“It was shocking to hear her say ‘my country,’ ” Chou said during an appearance at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles, since his friend never talked about Korea because she was adopted in France at an early age. “[It was] also very showing of her impulsive personality that Freddie, the character of the film, has.”
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Upon meeting his friend’s biological father and grandmother, Chou had the inspiration for Return to Seoul. Written and directed by Chou, Return to Seoul, or All The People I’ll Never Be, follows Freddie (Park Ji-Min), a 25-year-old French woman who travels to South Korea to find her biological family. Having been adopted and raised in France, Freddie’s travel to an unknown country takes her life in new and unexpected directions. The Sony Pictures Classics film premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section.
Chou said the most striking part of the meeting he witnessed was “the depth of the contradictory emotions mixing together. So much anger on the side of my friend, so much regret and sadness from the other side, and the impossibility of these two sides of the table to really communicate with the barrier of the language and the cultural barrier.”
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Casting presented a challenge for Chou, as the limited amount of Korean immigration to France presented only a small pool of candidates. “The film dealing with identity and culture, I wanted the main actress to have some Korean blood,”
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‘Ajoomma’ Director He Shuming “Wanted To Make A Feature My Mom Would Like” – Contenders International
The majority of submissions for this year’s International Feature Oscar category deal with serious issues, from major to minor, and while He Shuming’s feature debut Ajoomma (the title translates as Auntie) isn’t exactly the heaviest of them all, it does make a point of focusing on a character type that is vastly underrepresented in cinema across the globe: the older female.
‘Return To Seoul’ Review: A Delicate, Penetrating Character Study
Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul” is a fast one for the books, a film that (contrary to so much of contemporary cinema) delivers exponentially more than it promises. It begins as a modest, observational slice-of-life drama and slowly transforms into a movie about the lies we tell ourselves — about who we are, what we feel, and what we need.
‘Return To Seoul’ Trailer: Davy Chou’s Latest Follows A Young Woman’s Search For Identity
“Return to Seoul” is a film that played at a number of festivals in 2022, most notably TIFF and Cannes, where it earned rave reviews. However, when you look at the lineup of international films vying for Oscar glory, it doesn’t always get brought up.
Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles Streaming Site Launches
Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles welcomed a record 29 of the year’s buzziest movies from 14 studios and streamers live on stage Saturday at the DGA Theater. A crowd of key Academy and key guild voters took in the all-day affair, hearing from the stars and creatives behind the movies that are making noise this awards season. Now you can hear from them too.
‘Bones And All’ Filmmakers Discuss The Cannibal Film’s Themes Of Loneliness, Identity & Desire – Contenders L.A.
Romance and cannibalism might seem like an unlikely pairing, but that’s exactly why Bones and All screenwriter David Kajganich thought that only director Luca Guadagnino could do justice to his script, which he adapted from Camille DeAngelis’ 2015 novel.
‘Glass Onion’ Director Rian Johnson, Stars Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson & Kathryn Hahn On Giving The Sequel A Fresh Look — Contenders L.A.
While Knives Out was a sleeper hit in 2019, its sequel, Glass Onions: A Knives Out Mystery, has become one of the most anticipated new releases of 2022.
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Mélita Toscan du Plantier has spent the best part of two decades running Morocco’s Marrakech International Film Festival.
Grammys: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jamie Foxx, Mel Brooks, Viola Davis, Questlove Among Audio, Narration & Storytelling Nominees
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jamie Foxx, Mel Brooks, Viola Davis and Questlove have received nominations for the Best Audio Book, Narration and Storytelling Recording at the 65th Grammy Awards, which were announced this morning.
Upgrade Productions Expands Team, Taps Akshay Mehta & Vanessa Saal For EVP Roles
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Demi Moore and Boyfriend Daniel Humm Split After Less Than 1 Year of Dating
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