Sarah Polley’s ‘Women Talking’ Wins at Bali Film Festival – Global Bulletin

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong action film “The White Storm: Heaven or Hell” will have its North American premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival, where it is a late addition to the line-up. The festival runs July 14–30, 2023 at Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Directed by Herman Yau, the film sees Louis Koo, Aaron Kwok and Sean Lau (aka Lau Ching-wan) appear together for the first time. It is set in the ‘Golden Triangle’ region famous for drugs production and trafficking. Kwok plays an undercover cop who infiltrates a drug cartel led by a notorious Thai drug lord (Lau). In classic heroic bloodshed fashion, the two develop a bond of brotherhood. The cop’s only hope of escaping the treacherous jungle region and his ambiguous morality is to somehow contact the superintendent of the Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau, who has solemnly sworn to demolish the cartel once and for all.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Mother of all Lies, a docu-drama film that probes the secrets of Morocco’s 1981 Bread Riots, was Sunday named the best picture at the Sydney Film Festival. The jury, headed by Anurag Kashyap, called the Asmae El Moudir-directed film “audacious, cutting-edge and courageous.” It presented the A$60,000 ($41,100) cash prize film ahead at the State Theatre ahead of the Australian premiere screening of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” The film, which uses doll-like figurines, recently premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, where it earned the section’s best director prize. “Juxtaposing evidence from barely existent public materials with private family memory, this film reconstructs the history of the state, the family and the individual, in three distinct levels,” said the jury of Kashyap, actor Mia Wasikowska (Australia), film curator and journalist Dorothee Wenner (Germany), writer and director Larissa Behrendt (Australia) and filmmaker Visakesa Chandrasekaram (Australia – Sri Lanka).

Naman Ramachandran The world premiere of Scottish writer-director Johnny Barrington‘s debut feature “Silent Roar” will open the 2023 Edinburgh International Film Festival on Aug. 18. Billed as a “teenage tale of surfing, sex and hellfire” set in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, the film stars emerging actor Louis McCartney as Dondo, a young surfer struggling to accept his father’s recent disappearance at sea. Caught up in grief, he is brought to his senses by rebellious crush Sas (Ella Lily Hyland), a high achiever who dreams of escaping the island. When an oddly-behaved new minister arrives on the island, Dondo begins to have cosmic visions. The film is produced by Scottish producer Chris Young (“The Inbetweeners Movie”) and was made with the participation of Screen Scotland, BBC Films and BFI. MK2 Films is handling sales.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong icon Johnnie To will head the jury of the sixth edition of the Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) next month. Other jurors include: Truong Ngoc Anh from Vietnam, Ryuichi Hiroki from Japan, Zizan Razak from Malaysia, and Eric Khoo from Singapore. The event will open with the world premiere of “Eraser,” directed by Mark Lee See Teck. The Malaysian film features the final on-screen appearance of the late Adibah Noor, a beloved Malaysian gem known for her timeless charisma. MIFFest will play “See You at the Rally,” directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Kanny Chang as its closing title. The festival is set to take place at LaLaport BBCC from July 23-29 and will play a total of 42 films from 15 countries.

EXCLUSIVE: After winning the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for Women Talking, Sarah Polley is on to the most epic undertaking of her filmmaking career thus far, as Deadline understands that the filmmaker is in talks to helm a live-action take on Bambi in very early development at Disney.

“The Little Mermaid” is lighting up the box office and could follow in the footsteps of the photoreal CG-filled “The Lion King” and “The Jungle Book.” While those films were blockbusters, it has not been confirmed as to whether this seemingly less epic offering will be intended for theaters or, as we saw with “Pinocchio,” “Lady and the Tramp” and “Peter Pan and Wendy,” Disney+.Sarah Polley is coming off an Oscar win for Best Adapted Screenplay for the critically acclaimed “Women Talking,” which was her first directorial effort in over a decade following the autobiographical documentary “Stories We Tell.” Like Barry Jenkins boarding a prequel to “The Lion King” centered on Mufasa, this seems to be a case of a recent indie darling striking while the iron is hot.Time will tell as to whether “Bambi” will prove as heartbreaking as Polley’s “Away from Her” or “Take This Waltz,” but the child star-turned-acclaimed director seems an unusually appropriate fit for what is likely to be an emotional butt-kicker.An adaptation of Felix Salten’s 1923 novel, Disney’s animated “Bambi” is considered one of the early classics of the earliest era of Walt Disney’s animated output. “Bambi” was the fifth Walt Disney animated feature film, released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1942, and has earned $267 million worldwide over its original release and copious reissues.Polley joins a long line of esteemed auteurs choosing to play in the Walt Disney live-action remake sandbox, including Tim Burton (“Alice in Wonderland,” “Dumbo”), Kenneth Branagh (“Cinderella”), Niki Caro (“Mulan”), David Lowery (“Pete’s Dragon,” “Peter Pan & Wendy”) and Guy Ritchie (“Aladdin”) among others.

Still fresh off her Academy Award for Best Screenplay for 2022’s “Women Talking,” (which was also nominated for Best Picture), Canadian writer/director Sarah Polley may have found her next gig. However, it’ll be one that surprises and possibly shocks some.

Naman Ramachandran International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has appointed former BFI London Film Festival director Clare Stewart to the position of managing director, taking over from Marjan van der Haar. Stewart was most recently interim CEO at Sheffield DocFest and commences in the role at IFFR on June 21. IFFR has a dual leadership structure where the managing director and festival director oversee the commercial and creative elements of the organization respectively, working in partnership. Stewart previously consulted with the IFFR board of directors in 2021 in its first phase of re-evaluation prior to her joining DocFest, with a focus on the IFFR program structure and content strategy.

wearing flip-flops on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival last month, Jennifer Lawrence is setting the record straight about the fashion statement that had the internet abuzz.«Ok, thank you for bringing this up. I would really like to straighten this out,» Lawrence told ET's Nischelle Turner while promoting her new film,  alongside co-star, Andrew Barth Feldman.

Tribeca Film Festival — an event that he founded in 2002 — with a three-day celebration.While the 79-year-old’s birthday is actually on Aug. 17, the festivities will go down from Sept.

Robert De Niro and girlfriend Tiffany Chen enjoyed a night out at the annual Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday.The pair walked the carpet for the premiere screening of  during the opening night of the festival, at OKX Theater in New York City.The stars rocked much less formal fare than when they hit up the Cannes Film Festival last month, with the two-time Oscar winner wearing a black blazer and a charcoal grey polo shirt.Meanwhile, Chen — who gave birth to the couple's daughter, Gia Virginia Chen-De Niro, on Apr. 6 — wore a long, light brown cardigan sweater over a black dress.De Niro recently sat down with ET's Rachel Smith and opened up about making his red carpet debut with Chen at the Cannes Film Fest, at the premiere of his new movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, and said, «It was great.»«Yeah.

Naman Ramachandran Actor Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education,” the upcoming “Doctor Who”), filmmaker Asif Kapadia (“Amy”) and journalist-turned-screenwriter Terri White, who’s memoir “Coming Undone” is being adapted for Netflix, will serve as judges on the BMW Filmmaking Challenge. The competition is the result of a partnership between BMW and the BFI that aims to support aspiring U.K. filmmakers and uncover fresh perspectives in the film industry. The initiative was launched earlier this year by BAFTA winner Michaela Coel (“I May Destroy You”). The BFI has shortlisted five teams from some 400 applications, awarding each a £10,000 ($12,430) production budget, access to 8K camera equipment and mentoring from Coel. Inspired by the all-electric BMW i7 and its ultra-wide 31.3-inch rear-passenger theatre screen, the challenge is designed to stretch filmmakers artistically and bring their stories to life in 90 seconds under the theme Evolving Perspectives.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix is to launch a new Japanese reality show “Is She the Wolf?” which was developed with broadcaster Abema and adapted from the original show “Who Is the Wolf” which previously ran for 13 seasons. The show follows five men and five women on a quest for love through dates and a group project. However, some female participants are “lying wolves” who cannot fall in love. They must navigate the entire season without being discovered or accepting any declarations of love. It includes a diverse group of participants aged 22 to 32, including actors, artists, models, and athletes. “Is She the Wolf?” streams exclusively on Netflix in Japan beginning June 11, with new episodes streaming each Sunday. Outside Japan, all episodes will be released on Netflix in September 2023.

Jane Fonda took matters into her own hands over the weekend at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The 85-year-old veteran actress introduced the Palme d'Or Award to French director Justine Triet.Fonda introduced the historic moment, noting that seven female directors were nominated for the prestigious award for the first time and applauding the festival for its progress.She then gave Triet the award for her film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Indian streaming service JioCinema claimed a record for the number of concurrent viewers this week. It reported that 32 million viewers were simultaneously using its service to watch the IPL cricket final match between The Chennai Super Kings and the Gujarat Titans. The platform’s previous peak was 25 million. Chennai eventually won the rain-affected and one-day delayed match Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has removed its bouquet of 14 channels from Indonesia’s TV largest platform, MNC, ending decades-long affiliate arrangements, Content Asia reported. The decision, confirmed by WBD, involves channels from HBO and Cartoon Network to Discovery and TLC, all of which came off air on May 12. The move is understood to be the culmination of a payments disagreement. In November last year, beIN removds its sports service from MNC. WBD content remains available on three smaller platforms in Indonesia, IndiHome First Media and Trans.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The 25th Shanghai International Film Festival, June 9 to 18, has unveiled the titles in contention for awards in its four main feature-length sections: main competition, Asian New Talent, Animation film and documentary. These are eligible for the festival’s prestigious Golden Goblet Awards, winners of which will be announced at the Shanghai Grand Theater on the evening of June 17. While SIFF remains the only mainland China festival to be accredited as a so-called A-list event by the International Federation of Film Producers (FIAPF), its selections are largely separate and distinct from those at other major international festivals.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief NBCUniversal (NBCU) and JioCinema, Viacom18’s streaming service, have entered into a multi-year partnership bringing thousands of hours of NBCU films and TV series to India. Content is sourced from the Universal Television, UCP, Universal International Studios, Universal Television Alternative Studio, Sky Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Universal Pictures, Focus Features and Bravo brands. NBCU’s programming will live in a Peacock branded hub starting next month on JioCinema’s newly announced “JioCinema Premium” SVOD tier. While JioCinema has been making an audience impact with free-of-charge screenings of the ongoing IPL cricket tournament, the first content announced on the subscription tier hailed from another recent deal with Warner Bros Discovery.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The U.K.’s London Indian Film Festival and Birmingham Indian Film Festival will work together to present a two-city, two-part panoply of feature and short films, kicking off next month with “The Storyteller.” Directed by Ananth Mahadevan, “The Storyteller” sees Adil Hussain play a Gujarati businessman who believes that once physical wealth is accumulated, happiness will follow, but this proves not to be the case. Paresh Rawal plays the titular storyteller. The film is based on a story by the late, great Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray and contrasts the pursuit of material wealth with that of intellectual knowledge. Hussain, co-star Tannishtha Chatterjee and Mahadevan are expected to be on hand for Q&A sessions on June 22 at BFI Southbank and on June 23 at MAC Birmingham.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Sundance Film Festival Asia, an offshoot of the Sundance Institute, is to set up camp in Taipei, Taiwan this summer. The three-day mini festival will run Aug. 18-20 and be put together in association with local organizer G2Go Entertainment. The event will showcase a handful of films curated by the Sundance Institute and host a short film competition that is open only to Taiwanese productions. Panel discussions will accompany the festival to foster artistic exchange, providing opportunities for the Taiwan film industry to connect with Sundance’s executive team, and elevating Taiwan’s image and presence in the global independent film industry. 

Heidi Klum inadvertently became part of the "free the nipple" movement, when her titillating gown couldn't hold her together. The 49-year-old judge attended the  premiere Wednesday at the 76th annual Cannes Film Festival and, while walking the red carpet at Palais des Festivals, all eyes were on Klum, who looked stunning in an aurora yellow Zuhair Murad gown with a hip-high leg slit, crossed neckline and bejeweled sleeves.With her trademark blonde locks flowing, Klum smiled as she raised her arms, and therein lay the problem — when she raised her arms to extend her long cape she suffered a bit of a wardrobe malfunction with a nip slip. Not that she's ever been shy about nudity.Back in February, Klum and her husband, Tom Kaulitz, appeared to have stripped down to their birthday suit to celebrate their four-year wedding anniversary.«Love of my life ❤️,» Klum wrote in her celebratory post.A post shared by Heidi Klum (@heidiklum)The model's dedication to her husband led with a video of her and Kaulitz sharing a kiss in bed.