Udine Far East Film Festival Celebrates 25 Years of Asian Films

Sun Valley Film Festival runs from March 29th to April 2nd and will feature 18 narrative and documentary titles, including opening night selection, “Fancy Dance,” which is the directorial debut of co-writer Erica Tremblay, and the world premiere of Anthony Mandler’s “Surrounded,” which will close the festival. Award honorees include Josh Brolin (“No Country for Old Men,” “Outer Range”), who will receive the Vision Award, and Sophie Thatcher (“Yellowjackets,” “The Book of Boba Fett”), who will be given the Rising Star Award. “Last year, people were dying to get out, and this year our ticket sales are outpacing 2022. Once again, there’s a strong appetite for live events,” says festival founder and executive director Teddy Grennan.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Organizers of Thailand’s Suphannahong National Film Awards on Friday evening reversed an earlier rule change that had caused several filmmakers to call for a boycott. Earlier this week it emerged that a recent rule change effectively disqualified independent or low-budget titles. The criteria stipulated that, to qualify for nomination, movies must be shown in cinemas (direct to streaming titles do not qualify), must have had a release in at least five regions or big cities, and attract audiences of at least 50,000 spectators. At least, one local media report said that the rules were introduced in 2019. But the change had little impact in the intervening years due to low levels of film production.

Charlene White has penned a touching tribute to her Loose Women colleague as he leaves the show following a 15-year stint.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Bad Kids,” a hit series from Chinese streamer iQiyi, is to be remade as a Japanese feature film “Gold Boy.” The 12-episode gritty crime thriller depicts the troubles that arise after three children accidentally film a murder. The series was previously licensed to Japanese pay-TV group Wowow.

EXCLUSIVE: The UK Asian Film Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and today, Deadline can share the official lineup for the jubilee edition, running at venues across the UK from May 4 — 14.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Like & Share” from Indonesia’s Gina S. Noer was named the best picture and collected the Grand Prix on Sunday at the Osaka Asian Film Festival. “All of us on the jury were struck by the film’s clear and powerful message, which affirms young women’s sexual curiosity and desire while clearly saying no to sexual violence. The style of the film is also original. The sweet, poppy feeling that fascinates the audience in the first half of the film becomes darker as the story progresses, making us shudder. “Like & Share,” with its strong message and brilliant direction, is a film that needs to be seen now more than ever,” said the jury in a statement.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Longtime CBS talent relations executive Ian Metrose, who became wrapped up in the scandal surrounding former CBS chief Leslie Moonves, will exit at month’s end after 20 years with the network. Metrose is understood to have made the decision to leave at the end of his current contract. But there is little doubt his departure was hastened by the scandal that erupted in November around Moonves and his association with the Los Angeles Police Department. According to an investigation by New York Attorney General, Metrose was involved in communications in 2017 with retired LAPD Captain Cory Palka, who is accused of tipping off Moonves that a sexual assault complaint had been filed against him over an allegation dating back to the 1980s. Palka had built a relationship with Moonves and several CBS executives including Metrose after having been hired to provide security for Moonves at major events. Palka is under investigation by the LAPD.

A big feature of the TCM Classic Film Festival is providing world premieres of major restorations of some of those classics. This year’s 14th annual fest is no different as Turner Classic Movies has announced its opening night, April 13, will feature the premiere of a 4K restoration of Howard Hawk’s 1959 Western Rio Bravo, in partnership with Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, as part of the yearlong celebration of Warner Bros’ 100th anniversary.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief U.K.- and Hong Kong-based company Phoenix Waters Prods. has formally partnered with Hong Kong’s Agog Films to create Phoenix Waters Asia, a new venture aimed at increasing content production in Asia. The venture was announced on the sidelines of a film investment conference held Tuesday in Hong Kong at the FilMart rights market, where Phoenix Waters Prods. CEO Bizhan Tong was a speaker. The two companies previously collaborated on “Chungking Mansions,” an ambitious pan-Asian action film on which Tong is director, and where production was previously scheduled for last year. Tong told Variety that lensing will start later this year, “after address any issues that could hinder filming in Hong Kong.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “We need more love stories, even if they have their ups and downs,” says Hong Kong-based producer Cora Yim, who is behind the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) in-development project “The Marriage Drive.” HAF runs takes place alongside the FilMart rights market.  The film is a simple-to-describe idea that writer-director Lawrence Kan has been kicking around and developing for some six years. The story involves a middle-class professional couple — he’s in the legal sector, she’s in finance — and tracks their childless, but not loveless, marriage over a period of 10 years from marriage to divorce.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Despite a barnstorming address celebrating the re-opening of Hong Kong and China by Bona Film Group COO Jiang De Fu, it is clear that the film industry in China is still suffering its own version of long-COVID, with box office tracking at around half of 2018 levels. “The Chinese box office was RMB60.7 billion ($8.89 billion at current rates of exchange) in 2018. And 83 films made over RMB100 million. 16 films that made over RMB1 billion. Post-pandemic, in 2022, China’s box office was RMB29.9 billion. [Just] 41 films made over RMB100 million. [And] 8 films made over RMB1 billion. We are now only at 50% of the level in 2018,” said Jiang aty a presentation on the first day of Hong Kong’s FilMart.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Singapore’s Mocha Chai Laboratories and Emissary Pictures, a company that straddles New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia, have announced a strategic partnership for the development and production of cross-cultural films, series and content in Asia. The venture will have offices in all four countries and will identify, develop and produce content across genres and formats, including films, television series, documentaries and digital content. The agreement was announced in Hong Kong on the first day of the FilMart rights market. The pair say that they have scripted and unscripted projects in development and production. Slate details, however, remain under wraps as do distribution plans.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Daniela Fejerman and Elvira Lindo’s “Someone Who Takes Care of Me,” a celebration of actors, their passion, craft and historical legacy, opened this year’s Malaga Film Festival in a fitting tribute to the Spanish entertainment industry.   The film, which screened out of competition, centers on three women whose careers have spanned stage, film and television, actresses of different generations whose fortunes in life have greatly differed and who struggle with untold secrets and unresolved conflicts. Aura Garrido stars as Nora, a young, award-winning actress with a promising future who carefully balances between the two main pillars in her life, her grandmother Lilith (Magüi Mira), who reigned for decades as a renowned theater star, and her mother Cecilia (Emma Suárez), whose career has languished after having achieved some glory in the 1980s, a decade of excess in which she heavily partook.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The much-decorated Japanese drama “Drive My Car” was named the best film Sunday at the Asian Film Awards, defeating hot favorite “Decision to Leave.” Other notable awards went to Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda whose “Broker” debuted at Cannes, but which was largely shunned in his home country. “Decision to Leave,” which started the evening with ten nominations, was nevertheless rewarded with three awards, best screenplay, best production design and best actress for China’s Tang Wei.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Thailand’s film censors have upset the release of local horror movie “Hoon Payon,” which should have arrived in cinemas pn Thursday. The film had a successful world premiere screening on Tuesday at a gala in Bangkok. But censors have since intervened to demand five scenes be cut and to impose a 20+ rating on the Five Star Production picture. The rating means that spectators must be age 20 or older, thus excluding the film’s key teenage demographic, and it obliges cinema operators to check the ID cards of all patrons. The film’s story involves a man who travels to a village in a border region where his brother, a novice Buddhist monk, has been accused of murder. As more bodies pile up, the man questions the villagers’ blind faith in a supposedly protective doll or mannequin.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Asian premiere of Soi Cheang’s “Mad Fate” is just one of three locally-produced movies that have been set as the opening and closing titles of the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival. “Mad Fate” is joined in the festival opening slot on March 30 by “Elegies,” Ann Hui’s documentary portrayal of the topography of contemporary local poetry, which will have its world premiere. The closing film, another world premiere, is “Vital Sign,” an affecting drama directed by Cheuk Wan-chi and starring Louis Koo, Yau Hawk-sau, and Angela Yuen, which will wrap up proceedings on 10 April. In total, the festival has programmed some 200 films from 64 countries and territories. These include nine world premieres, six international premieres, and 67 Asian premieres.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Kuwaiti-born writer-director Zeyad (also known as “Z”) Alhusaini, whose action movie with comedic undertones “How I Got There” recently won the audience award at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival, has joined United Talent Agency for representation in all areas. The groundbreaking film about two best buddies from childhood, named Salem and Asad, who stumble upon a gun shipment and try to seize this opportunity to get rich quick is set entirely in the Persian Gulf. “How I Got There” provides a relatively realistic glimpse of Kuwait’s present-day melting-pot of cultures, and its underworld of gun-running mercenaries, gangs, and terrorists, plus the local rap scene.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Weekend honors at the South Korean box office went to the Japanese animation film “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – To The Swordsmith Village,” the latest installment in the “Demon Slayer” film and TV franchise. It earned $2.31 million between Friday and Sunday, for nearly a quarter of the total weekend cinema business, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).

Anna Marie de la Fuente Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival marks its 40th edition, running March 3-12, with a full-blown return to the in-person festival experience with a sidebar of only 10 titles available online.  “We’re celebrating the human connection and getting back into cinemas again,” says programming head Lauren Cohen who in her first year flying solo at the helm, is putting her personal stamp on the festival with female-centric topics dominating the Master Classes.  “It’s our 40th anniversary, which is such a milestone for us, we want it to be bigger and better than ever,” she continues. 

EXCLUSIVE: The British Film Institute is close to appointing a new Festivals Director, with an announcement expected imminently, Deadline understands.