With ‘Nomadland’ Pulled, Italy’s ‘Pinocchio’ Becomes First Oscar-Nominated Film to Hit China in 2021

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Chinese government’s increasing regulation of the tech sector is a current concern for China’s major internet and online entertainment companies. But the latest quarterly results announcement for China’s biggest digital music company, Tencent Music Entertainment pointed to business as usual, at least for the moment.First quarter revenues, spanning the January to March 2021 period, at Tencent Music grew by 26% year on year.

China has joined the United States in safely sending an unmanned lander to Mars.

EXCLUSIVE: One Night In Miami and City On A Hill star Aldis Hodge will star with The Purge and The Tomorrow War‘s Edwin Hodge in a remake of the award winning Lei Zheng-directed Chinese film Parallel Forest. Kourosh Ahari will direct. The siblings will play brothers in the film, and they wrote the script with Jonathan Keasey (K-Sun and My Wife Hates Your Wife). They will also produce under their newly christened Hodge Brothers Productions banner.

Gemma Chan is speaking out about the ongoing anti-Asian racism happening in the United Kingdom, as well as all over the world.

EXCLUSIVE: The controversial life and career of Rudy Giuliani is to be the subject of a feature documentary from the team behind Hulu’s recent WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn doc.

Rebecca Davis editorHuayi Brothers, China’s longest-standing privately-owned production film studio, has notched its third consecutive year of losses despite producing the world’s highest grossing film in 2020, its annual report showed.The company’s revenues for 2020 fell by 33% year-on-year to $232 million (RMB1.5 billion) while net losses hit $162 million (RMB1.05 billion).

Pop star Willie Tay or as his hundreds of thousands of fans around the world know him, Wils, has found a second chance at international stardom in Hollywood. Despite facing oppression in Asia, Wils has never stopped making music.

Chinese box office across the five-day May Day holiday which concluded Wednesday hit a record high of RMB 1.67B ($258M). This is up from the RMB 1.53B grossed during the similar 2019 frame which lasted four days.

Wanda Film, part of the Dalian Wanda group, has appointed financial advisers in Australia and may be preparing to sell the Hoyts cinema chain, according to local reports.According to the Australian Financial Review newspaper, investment bank Credit Suisse has been appointed by Wanda to find bidders for Hoyts.

There are many poignant moments in 76 Days, Hao Wu’s moving documentary about medical workers in Wuhan, China and the patients they treated as the city went through lockdown last year over Covid-19.

After all the accusations, conspiracy theories and general misinformation regarding the origins of the coronavirus in China, the sensitive, humanistic Wuhan Wuhan does a fine job depoliticizing the topic. It shows how the Chinese response to the virus outbreak was very similar to those in hospitals around the world, though its interest for viewers, perhaps, lies in ferreting out some of the minor differences.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAward-winning Chinese sci-fi novel “Folding Beijing” will move into production as a movie later this year, following a green light from mainland China studio Wanda Film.The film, titled “Folding City” is to be helmed by Josh Kim, the Korean-American director who previously made a splash with adolescent drama “How to Win at Checkers (Every Time)”. The film was selected as Thailand’s Oscar contender in 2015.

Rebecca Davis editorThe organization Chinese in Entertainment, the non-profit behind the Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival (LACFF), is changing its name to remove the word “Chinese” after internal discussions about the political implications of the term.After some soul-searching, the team decided that the new name Sino Entertainment Association (SEA) would be better aligned with its goal of championing inclusivity and diversity.

One of our most anticipated films of the year? “Italian Studies,” the collaboration between Academy Award-nominated actress Vanessa Kirby “Pieces of A Woman“) and Adam Leon, the indie filmmaker behind the American indie writer/director behind acclaimed films like “Gimmie The Loot” and “Tramps.” And we’re fortunate enough to unveil the exclusive first-look image from the film.

Rebecca Davis editorWhile the world celebrated China-born director Chloé Zhao’s historic three Oscar wins for best picture, best director and best editing, China’s censors were busy trying to wipe any trace of the Academy Awards from the web.An initial burst of celebration and congratulatory messages appeared on Chinese social media just after the ceremony, which aired Monday morning Beijing time.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentMovie theaters started to gradually reopen in Italy on Monday, serving up Oscar-winning titles such as “Minari” and “Mank” in a fraction of the country’s venues, just as COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease.For the moment, it’s a few mostly arthouse venues in Italy’s biggest cities that are becoming active again, while Italian multiplexes remain closed until mid-May when UCI Cinemas, which is the country’s top exhibitor, has announced they will be back

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefSouth Korean media were quick to celebrate the Oscar win, as best supporting actress in “Minari,” for veteran Yuh-jung Youn. It was a first ever acting win for a Korean actor.

Nomadland, directed by the Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao, is part of a long lineage of non-American American art, from Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas to Andrea Arnold’s American Honey. It grapples with grief, the betrayals of capitalism, and the lure of the open road.