‘Vera Dreams of the Sea’ Wins Tokyo Film Festival Grand Prix

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItaly’s Torino Film Festival, the pre-eminent event for young directors and indie cinema — now being revamped after going virtual due to the pandemic — will somewhat symbolically kick off its upcoming 39th edition with the international premiere of “Sing 2” with director Garth Jennings in tow.“It’s a hymn to going back into movie theaters,” says Torino artistic director Stefano Francia di Celle on choosing the animated musical comedy, featuring more

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Papa Fujii’s Unexpected Journey,” a film project about a Japanese man’s attempt to understand his dead daughter’s life in Taiwan was named as the grand prize winner at the 2012 edition of the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion event. It wins a NT$1 million ($36,000) prize.Prizes were announced on Wednesday evening at a ceremony as part of the ongoing Golden Horse Film Festival (Nov.

A scene from I Am Samuel, the closing night film

Naman Ramachandran Italy’s Giuseppe Tornatore, director of the Oscar, BAFTA and Cannes winning film “Cinema Paradiso,” will preside over the features competition jury at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival (Dec. 6-15).

Jessica Kiang Dreaming of the sea takes on weightier significance when the dreamer lives in a landlocked country.

George Bird Two of the most acclaimed climbing films of the year, Max Lowe’s “Torn” and The Alpinist, from Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen, have taken big awards at this year’s Kendal Mountain Film Festival, held in the U.K.’s Lake District.Its hybrid edition proved once more a dazzling showcase of mountain and sports films whose subjects, themes and emotions went far beyond the adrenalin-rush thrills of reportage.Awards for the festival’s main international film competition were unveiled

TOKYO -- Emi Wada, the Japanese costume designer who won an Oscar for her work in Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran,” has died, Japanese media reports said Sunday. She was 84.Wada died Nov.

Will Tizard ContributorLife on the road and fantasy worlds held sway at the 29th edition of the EnergaCamerimage International Film Festival on Saturday, winning big after a week of scaled down but enthusiastic industry events, seminars and screenings celebrating cinematography.“C’mon C’mon,” shot by Robbie Ryan and directed by Mike Mills, won this year’s Golden Frog.

Marta Balaga Acclaimed cinematographers and ASC members Michael Chapman and Allen Daviau, who both died last year, were the focus of a legacy panel at EnergaCamerimage Film Festival on Monday, led by the likes of Lawrence Sher (“Joker”), Xavier Pérez Grobet (“Watchmen”), Amy Vincent (‘Footloose”) and Seamus McGarvey (“Atonement”).Nominated for five Oscars for his work on “Bugsy,” “Avalon,” “Empire of the Sun,” “The Color Purple” and “E.T.

Academy Awards.The best director award went to Venezuelan filmmaker Lorenzo Vigas, whose Mexican movie “La Caja” (The Box) is about a teenager who travels to collect the remains of his father and who begins to doubt his father’s demise.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Middle East premiere of British director Joe Wright’s dazzling romantic drama “Cyrano” will open the Red Sea Film Festival, which is Saudi Arabia’s first full-fledged film festival and market with international ambitions.The ambitious event, which is a key plank of the kingdom’s plans to diversify its oil-based economy and become a prominent Middle East moviemaking hub – following the 2017 removal of its religion-related ban on cinema – is set to

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefFast-rising Philippines-based director Mikhail Red has gained a dedicated following after delivering a succession of powerful films in just a few years.In addition to establishing Red on the festival circuit – he has been consistently programmed by the Tokyo International Film Festival – his pictures have been acquired by Netflix.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefIchiyama Shozo returned this year to the Tokyo International Film Festival as its head selector, having for the last twenty years headed the rival Tokyo Filmex event.COVID last year forced the two festivals to put aside their rivalry and to cooperate in the key autumn slot.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefOkinawa-born actor Shogen used to be told that he didn’t look Japanese enough for the Japanese film industry.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentYasukawa Yuka is one of two Japanese directors with films in the Asian Future section for up-and-coming Asian filmmakers. Her romantic drama “The Nighthawk’s First Love,” is based on Naoki Prize-winner Shimamoto Rio’s 2013 novel about a college student with a facial birthmark that made her a target of bullying as a child and sapped her confidence as a woman.

Emiliano Granada World premiering at the Seville European Film Festival, Santi Amodeo’s  latest production “The Gentiles” is a robust reminder of the director’s vibrant and idiosyncratic voice which hasn’t always attracted the notice it merits on the Spanish film scene.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentFestival Ambassador for this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, Hashimoto Ai is an inspired choice for the role and not only because she is an A-list actor who has starred in hit TV series (“Amachan”) and worked with internationally acclaimed directors like Nakashima Tetsuya (“Confessions”) and Yoshida Daihachi (“The Kirishima Thing”).She is also a certified film nerd, who has proclaimed her love of everything from 1970s “pink” (softcore adult) classics

Rebecca Davis editorSmall but growing production firm Midnight Blur Films has had a strong fall.Its soft sci-fi feature “Journey to the West” just won top accolades at China’s Pingyao Intl.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a trailer for Bahman Ghobadi’s highly-anticipated The Four Walls, which launched today at the Tokyo International Film Festival as part of its Main Competition.