Though Travel Restrictions Ease in Parts of Asia, Tightened Measures in Hong Kong Could Put Local Film Industry at Risk

In what is said to be one of the biggest naming rights deals in U.S. history, Downtown L.A.’s Staples Center will become Crypto.com Arena, beginning Christmas Day. The deal between the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange and AEG is worth $700 million, according to multiple reports. As part of the deal, Crypto.com becomes “an official cryptocurrency platform partner of the Los Angeles Lakers and the L.A. Kings,” according to a statement from the currency trader.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have announced a colossal 2022 world tour, hitting Europe, the UK and both North and South America.The tour will commence in late March with three festival dates in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, respectively, before taking on a string of North American dates through to the end of May.The Australian band will then play a large run of festival dates throughout Europe from the beginning of June, including the sold-out Primavera Sound, before heading back to

Vivienne Chow Collective memories of Hong Kong cinema and pop culture have a major role to play at the newly opened M+ museum of contemporary visual culture, which is received tens of thousands of visitors on its opening weekend despite the city’s changing political landscape.While much emphasis and media spotlight have been placed on the exhibition of the famed collection of Chinese contemporary art donated by the Swiss mega art collector Uli Sigg, what appealed most to the local public on the

The Bachelor Australia, Abbie went on to win I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, launch her own podcast, It's A Lot, and take on hosting duties of the new Love Island Afterparty.Of her impressive achievement in entering the property market, Abbie wrote on Instagram: "I BOUGHT A HOUSE!!! ALL BY MYSELF!! Turns out being a talentless, lazy, ugly, unfunny, vaxxed villain without a job or a personality pays off!!!!"Abbie's hard work paid off as she purchased her Byron home.The Byron Bay cottage is

EXCLUSIVE: A flood of UK TV execs have headed to the U.S. in the past few days for pitch meetings as UK citizens are finally allowed to enter the country for the first time in almost two years.

Amazon Studios has boarded ITV’s forthcoming Succession-like drama Riches, with Them’s Deborah Ayorinde and Stephen’s Hugh Quarshie joining the cast as production kicks off in London.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefJapan’s Hamaguchi Ryusuke earned double honors on Thursday at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. His “Drive My Car” was named best film, while he shared the best screenplay award with the film’s co-writer Oe Takamasa.The 14th APSA ceremony was held at the Home of the Arts in Queensland, Australia and gave prizes to ten films from eleven territories.

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong’s swanky new M+ museum — Asia’s largest gallery with a billion-dollar collection — is set to open on Friday amid controversy over politics and censorship.M+ boasts 183,000 square feet (17,000 square meters) of exhibition space, 33 galleries and over 6,400 works in its collection that range from modern and contemporary art to architecture and moving images.

Although the winter nights are creeping in, a Northern Quarter ice cream parlour is ‘transporting customers somewhere warm’ with flavours inspired by Asia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe decision to make a second season of Netflix global hit “Squid Game” is a sound one, according to analysis firm Media Partners Asia which finds that Korean and Thai content have the strongest cross-border travel potential within the Asia-Pacific region.The company’s “Netflix in the Asia Pacific: The Scalability of Local Content” report is based on passive measurement of 30,000 streaming consumers in Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines,

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefFive filmmakers from Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam have been selected to participate in the inaugural Seed Lab, operated by the non-profit Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab.The new program helps promising shorts filmmakers explore their directorial voices prior to the development of their first features.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAmazon Prime members in Australia will now be able to add twelve on-demand TV and streaming entertainment channels to their Prime Video subscription. Channels include Paramount Plus, Hayu, Starzplay, MGM, and AMC Plus.The streamer’s initiative, which makes it more like a cable provider, is called Prime Video Channels.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Tokyo Filmex festival wrapped up on Sunday with a prize ceremony and the surprise screening of “Revolution of Our Times,” a documentary about the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.Filmex and the Tokyo International Film Festival have been largely cooperative events in the past two years.

Katherine Tulich Australian film maker Gabriel Shipton wants his new documentary “Ithaka”, which will have its world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival on Sunday, to shine a new perspective on his brother, the polarizing Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange.“It’s a story that’s never been told before,” Shipton, who produced the film, told Variety. “We’ve learned Julian’s story through media headlines, but I wanted to tell this story through his family.

Partner Content Traces of life in Hong Kong, with all that it was before the pandemic, began to reappear in February. The steady easing into the “new normal” saw cinemas reopen and moviegoers have slowly gained confidence in returning to theaters, resulting in healthy grosses for both foreign and local films.Genre films, such as action and horror-thrillers, offer modest budgets and quick production turnaround — and they’re the Hong Kong film industry’s most popular exports.

Clayton Davis Toni Collette, the underappreciated but overtly talented Australian actress, has showcased her range for over 25 years. In honor of her birthday and her brilliance in the acting craft, Variety is ranking her ten best performances in movies.Over the years, Collette has played many fascinating interpretations of mothers, taking on each new role with a visceral commitment.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“High Ground,” a 1930s-set drama film, picked up eight nominations for the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards. It narrowly led the field of contenders that included controversial drama “Nitram” with seven nominations, “The Dry” with six and “Penguin Bloom” with five.Nominations were announced over the weekend ahead of a week of voting.

She has recently moved to Manchester from Australia and reality TV star Jessika Power has given fans a tour around her new home.

Two years after Hong Kong cracked down on pro-Democracy demonstrators, the local legislature passed a new film censorship law, according to multiple reports. As part of the measure, Hong Kong’s powerful Chief Secretary can now revoke a film’s license if it conflicts with China’s national security interests.