Shanghai Film Festival: Malaysian Animation ‘Extinction’ Inks First Rights Deals (EXCLUSIVE)

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Noaz Deshe‘s “Xoftex,” which has its world premiere July 1 in the Crystal Globe Competition of Karlovy Vary Film Festival, has debuted its trailer (below). MAD Solutions is attached as the film’s sales agent. “Xoftex” is Deshe’s second feature film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Caught by the Tides,” the contemporary Chinese epic film directed by Jia Zhangke, has been acquired for U.S. release by Sidehow and Janus Films. The film appeared in main competition in Cannes in May and is on one an extended look at the romantic destiny of his perennial heroine, Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao) over a period of 21 years.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The stars of upcoming Chinese-language TV drama “See Her Again” are set to take to the red carpet on Monday, the first day of the Shanghai Television Festival. Telling the story of a police officer who traces a serial murder case across 25 years in Hong Kong, using clues from 1993 and technology from 2018, the show stars William Chan Wai-ting and Cya Liu (aka Liu Xin).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A jury headed by French Vietnamese director Tranh Anh Hung awarded its Golden Goblet (Jin Jue) prizes for the Shanghai International Film Festival’s main competition. The top prize for best feature went to “The Divorce,” directed by Kazakhstan’s Daniyar Salamat. The jury praised the film for its sophisticated story-telling which mixes comedy, farce and tragedy, and “which moves fluidly from public sphere to the intimate relationship of a couple in crisis” and its feeling of innocence.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The 17th edition of the SIFF Project Market, held on the margins of the Shanghai International Film Festival, wrapped this week with the awarding of various prizes and an early evening party. In the juried section prizes were determined by a panel including Lu Chuan, Luca Liang and Yao Chen.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Filmmakers in Malaysia are predicting more arrests and criminal investigations if the government pushes through proposed guidelines to the country’s censorship system and expands the remit of the Film Censorship Board (LFP). Malaysia has in recent years gained itself an intolerant reputation after numerous bans or restrictions on Hollywood and Asian films that have been widely released elsewhere.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Steve W. Chung, a former executive at Fox and Korea’s CJ ENM, has been appointed as the inaugural COO of Azuki, an anime community platform and digital art collection.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese industry executives will get a first taste of “Coolie,” a big-budget historical miniseries that focuses on the enslaved Chinese workers in Cuba in the 1860s. MM2 Entertainment is handling China rights to the production on behalf of I.E. Entertainment.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Wanda Film, China’s largest cinema operator, has expanded its business relationship with Imax Corp. in a huge deal that straddles technology and content. With 381 Imax installations, Wanda alone operates more Imax venues than most countries.

The Munich International Film Festival will screen 152 films from 53 countries during its 41st edition, which runs from June 28 to July 6. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Coralie Fargeat’s Demi Moore-starring feminist body horror film “The Substance” has been set as the closing night title for the New Zealand International Film Festival. The picture is one of 16 which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last month selected for the NZIFF which is now under the artistic leadership of Paolo Bertolin.

Shanghai International Film Festival, but that did little to diminish the festive atmosphere. The ceremony was held at the Shanghai Grand Theater in the downtown area on an evening that was warm and spring-like and without the “plum rain” or summer downpours that the city is known for at this time of year. Arguably the biggest names in attendance were Hong Kong actor and “Westworld” star Daniel Wu, Hong Kong director Dante Lam, Chinese star actor-director-producer Xu Zheng and Japanese actor Yakusho Koji, who won the best actor award a year ago at Cannes for his leading role in Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days.” Marco Mueller, a celebrated festival director and artistic consultant, was also on hand in his adopted home town.

Naman Ramachandran Indian actor and filmmaker Manohara has had an inspirational journey. Hailing from humble circumstances in Bengaluru, southern India, Manohara was picked out of school and cast by filmmaker Prithvi Konanur in “Railway Children” (2016), which won him best child actor at India’s National Film Awards. Manohara went on to act in supporting roles in Konanur’s Busan and Hainan selection “Where Is Pinki?” (2020) and Busan, Hong Kong and Goa title “Seventeeners,” on which he also assisted.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Trialed for alleged sexual assault on June 14, Dominique Boutonnat, the president of the National Film Board, France’s most powerful film institution, is facing a three-year suspended prison sentence. Boutonnat was indicted in February 2021 for the alleged sexual assault of his then 19-year-old godson in August 2020, during a vacation in Greece.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Parallax China, one of China’s leading independent film sales companies, has picked up rights to a pair of titles that debut this week at the Shanghai International Film Festival. It is handling world sales on “Qian Tang River,” directed by Wan Bo, and “Another Day of Hope,” by Liu Taifeng. Both are directorial debuts and both appear in the non-competitive Refreshing Chinese Cinema section.

Shanghai International Film Festival represent a showcase of directors who are also known-quantities, but who are worthy of higher profiles. (The festival’s Asian Talent selection has a further selection of six more directors seeking to break through.) The competition quartet fall into two pairs (a seventh and eighth generation maybe): the latest works of Guan Hu and the rarely seen Gu Changwei on one hand; and a younger generation of auteurs, Wei Shujun and Zhang Dalei. Guan is in need of rehabilitation after his 2019 war film was selected as the Shanghai festival’s opening film but experienced a last-minute cancellation due to the intervention of unforeseen layers of censorship.

Naman Ramachandran Iranian filmmaker Marjan Khosravi, winner of multiple awards for her shorts, is bowing her first feature-length film, “Requiem for a Tribe,” at the Shanghai International Film Festival. The film is in the documentary competition and eligible for a Golden Goblet. Khosravi has an awards-laden career.

Jenny S. Li Six first or second-time directors from China take up the majority of the 11 slots in the Shanghai International Film Festival’s Asian New Talents section. While family drama is the dominant genre, Variety takes a look what they are serving up: Adapted from the book of the same name, Wang Xinrui’s “Dreaming of Mother and Home” depicts the drama of an adult daughter and her mother who is struggling through the last stages of life.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Along with a red-carpet opening ceremony, a press conference with the members of the main competition jury is a staple event of major film festivals and the 26th edition of the Shanghai International Film Festival kicked off in traditional form on Friday. Along with Vietnam-French director Tran Anh Hung, previously revealed as jury president, the other members of the decisive committee this year are: Australian director and screenwriter Rolf de Heer; German director Matthias Glasner; Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka Fai; Argentinian director Santiago Mitre; Chinese director Sonthar Gyal; and, the jury’s only woman, star actor Zhou Xun. A packed audience lobbed familiar questions about the criteria they jurors would employ to decide the Golden Goblet prize winners, and what informs those views.

Marta Balaga The Monte-Carlo Television Festival has rolled out the blue carpet welcoming star guests for its 63rd edition, but it also has an eye on the future.“We’re always working towards expanding and developing the festival. Each year, we get better and better,” executive director Cécile Menoni says.Listing “fabulous highlights,” Menoni gushes over this year’s Crystal Nymph winner: Morgan Freeman.