Noticias

After several sun-kissed days, Beijing brought out the stars on Saturday night as Lilja Ingolfsdottir’s debut feature, Norwegian marital drama Loveable, won the best feature film honor, plus three additional awards, at a closing ceremony full of Chinese stars and music that wrapped up the 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival on a high.

With director Ingolfsdottir not in attendance, it was up to her star Helga Guren to collect not only the best actress award but also the other honors.

Iván Fund’s The Message left the evening with three Tiantan Awards, while Chinese filmmaker Sagara’s Trapped picked up honors in two categories.

Other award winners included Noëlle Bastin and Baptiste Bogaert’s Vitrival – The Most Beautiful Village in the World, Hao Ming and Li Peiran’s Better Me, Better You, and Nawi: Dear Future Me, directed by Tobias Schmutzler, Kevin Schmutzler, Apuu Mourine,...

Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Let the Bullets Fly) shared his take on new technologies, his approach to adapting novels, and his experience with acting, among a wide range of issues, during a jam-packed masterclass at the 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival on Friday.

Naturally, the continued technological development and its effect came up during the conversation. “Why should we refuse the further evolution of new technologies,” especially if “good content, good stories” are still being told, which is the key, he replied. With film, “it is the story that you tell” that counts.

In a different context, though, he encouraged the audience to take a break from one form of technology, mobile phones. Jiang received a huge superstar ovation, including loud cheers and a wave of mobile phone snapshots after the doors to the venue were opened to welcome him in,...

“60 sheep, eight camels, and 100 goats.” These words from the protagonist of Nawi: Dear Future Me, a Kenyan-German coming-of-age drama film that was Kenya’s entry for the best international feature film race at the 2025 Oscars, hit home. After all, the movie tells the story of a young African girl battling child marriage in hopes of an education and self-determination. The list of animals is the price a stranger is willing to pay for the young bride.

On Tuesday, the film, directed by the brothers Toby and Kevin Schmutzler, as well as Apuu Mourine and Vallentine Chelluget, from a script by Milcah Cherotich, is getting the spotlight at the 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival.

Nawi screens in the main competition section of the fest, which runs through April 26. Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Let the Bullets Fly) will serve as the head of the jury,...

The 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival kicks off on Friday, and its competition lineup of 15 titles includes three homegrown Chinese movies.

Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Let the Bullets Fly) will serve as the head of the main competition jury that will hand out the fest’s Tiantan Awards.

Here is THR‘s closer look at the three Chinese films in this year’s Beijing competition program.

Hao Ming and Li Peiran’s Better Me, Better You

Executive producer and actress Ma Li stars as Bai Liping in the drama Better Me, Better You, described as an ode to female resilience.

The star plays a caregiver from Northeastern China who leaves a life of domestic violence behind “to seek a better life in the city, only to face repeated setbacks.” In Beijing, she meets a lonely elderly woman called Tang Shuyin, portrayed by Zhao Shuzhen.

As the 15th Beijing International Film Festival (Bjiff) commences on April 18, the annual event is presenting an array of riches for cinephiles and industry professionals alike, marking a trifecta of milestones: the 130th anniversary of world cinema, the 120th anniversary of Chinese cinema, and the festival’s own 15th year.

Headlining this year’s Workshop & Masterclass series is a triumvirate of cinematic heavyweights. French acting legend Isabelle Huppert, who has appeared in over 100 films and earned multiple accolades including best actress at Cannes for “The Piano Teacher” and a Golden Globe for “Elle,” will explore “The Undercurrent Beneath the Ice” – an examination of her distinctive artistic approach that has made her a force in European cinema. The masterclass promises insights into her celebrated collaborations with directors like Claude Chabrol and Michael Haneke.

Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke, whose works like “Still Life” and “Ash Is Purest White” have earned him acclaim at Cannes and Venice,...

The Beijing International Film Festival has developed a reputation for putting a spotlight on female voices in cinema.

Its 15th edition, running April 18-26, is continuing that trend with its sixth annual “Women’s Voice” section, featuring the likes of Walter Salles’ Oscar winner I’m Still Here, the political autobiographical drama starring Fernanda Torres as a Brazilian woman whose dissident husband disappears, and Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, his depression comedy-drama with Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

“In recent years, female creators and their stories have continued to emerge, and the voices of women on screen have become more diverse and powerful,” the Beijing festival highlights. “These works continue to break boundaries in form and theme, bringing us richer and more multidimensional female expressions.”

This year’s lineup “brings together masters and emerging creators from all over the world” who “show the complex faces of women” in various situations. “This is not only a cinematic feast,...

The Beijing International Film Festival has unveiled the 15 titles that will screen in the Forward Future section of its 15th edition later this month.

The Forward Future section, launched in 2014, is dedicated to discovering and promoting new filmmakers, focusing on directors’ first or second features. Hungarian director, screenwriter, and producer Béla Tarr (Damnation, Satan’s Tango, The Man From London) will serve as the president of the jury for the Forward Future program. Rounding out his jury will be Chinese actress Jin Chen, also known as Gina Jin, Chinese actor Song Yang, Japanese director, screenwriter and actor Sabu, and Swiss director and screenwriter Cyril Schäublin.

Beijing organizers promise “innovative” spirit, “unique styles,” and “cutting-edge” filmmaking in the Forward Future section, along with insight into the thinking and concerns of young filmmakers from all over the world.

Featured in the program are movies from first-time Chinese directors, namely Jing Yi’s The Botanist,...

Alfred Hitchcock, the late “Master of Suspense,” and Jiří Menzel, the late Czech director who won the foreign-language film Oscar for 1966’s Closely Watched Trains, will get some screen love during the 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival.

The “Homage-Restoration” section of the fest will feature, among others, Hitchcock’s classic spy thriller North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason, and late Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s Meetings With Anna, starring Aurore Clément and Jean-Pierre Cassel, in new 4K restorations.

Anna is about an emotionally unavailable filmmaker who is traveling through Western Europe to promote her new film, meeting with strangers, friends, former lovers, and family members. North by Northwest is known as a tale of mistaken identity, featuring a man pursued by agents of a mysterious organization.

The Beijing festival organizers also unveiled that this year’s “Homage” section will put a...

Late New Hollywood legend Robert Altman (Gosford Park, M*A*S*H), late master of violence Sam Peckinpah, and Dogme 95, the Danish avant-garde movement led by directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round), will get the spotlight treatment at the 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival

“To commemorate the 130th anniversary of world cinema,” the Beijing fest has curated a retrospective program “to document the history of film and envision its future,” organizers said. “With a curated selection of cinematic classics, the festival blends nostalgia with new perspectives, drawing inspiration from the past to ignite future creativity.”

Among the offerings will be “Endless Waves: 30 Years of the Dogme 95.” The Dogme 95 Manifesto expressed a commitment to create movies focused on storytelling, acting, and theme rather than the elaborate use of special effects or technological tricks. One of its key goals was to empower directors as artists. The...

The 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival has unveiled Chinese director Guan Hu (Black Dog, A Man and a Woman) as the head of its jury for the second annual AI-generated content (Aigc) section. The other jury members are The Lion King director Rob Minkoff, actress Tan Zhuo, technology and creative expert Wang Lei, and director Chen Jianying.

The second AI-centric program at Beijing comes at a time when AI and its pros and cons have been a hot-button issue in the film industry.

“Since its 14th edition, the Beijing International Film Festival officially launched the ‘Aigc film’ [program], the world’s first film festival section dedicated to co-creation with AI,” the festival highlighted. “This pioneering initiative aims to explore the vast potential of AI in the realm of digital filmmaking and to promote the deep integration of Aigc technologies with cinematic art.”

This year’s second annual AI...

Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Let the Bullets Fly) will serve as the head of the main competition jury at the 15th Beijing International Film Festival, which will hand out its Tiantan Awards.

The jury will also include Chinese American director and actor Joan Chen (The Last Emperor), British director David Yates (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Chinese actor Ni Ni, Finnish director Teemu Nikki, Swiss director and actor Vincent Perez, and art director Tim Yip from Hong Kong. The panel will select the winners across 10 award categories, including best feature film, best director and best screenplay.

The festival also unveiled its 15 main competition films, with organizers saying they received a record 1,794 feature film submissions from 103 countries and regions, marking a 19 percent increase over last year.

The three Chinese films in the main competition lineup are Hao Ming and Li Peiran’s Better Me,...

“Alien: Romulus” has become Hollywood’s second biggest film of the year at the mainland China box office, following a strong second weekend hold.

The film picked up RMB140 million ($19.7 million) between Friday and Sunday in China, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That compares favorably with its $26.2 million opening weekend and gives it a cumulative of RMB523 ($73.7 million) since releasing on Aug. 16.

Among Hollywood import titles in 2024, the running total is beaten only by (Chinese-backed) “Godzilla v Kong” which amassed $134 million.

In less than two weeks, “Alien” has jumped ahead of a cluster of Hollywood’s other franchise titles and the $50 million ceiling that most have been stuck beneath. “Kung Fu Panda 4” earned $52 million in China. “Despicable Me 4” earned $56 million. “Dune 2” earned $49.7 million. “Inside Out 2” earned $48 million.

Imax reports that, of the latest weekend gross figure, the film earned $2.75 million on its screens.

Hong Kong-based Mei Ah Entertainment brings a slate of new projects to Filmart, featuring stars including Shen Teng, Ma Li and Ekin Cheng.

Untouchable is a $23m crime action thriller set in Macau about a boxing champion-turned-lawyer who can’t stay away from the underworld. This marks the first action film of box-office sensation Shen, known for his comic roles in films such as Goodbye Mr. Loser.

Zhang Yuqi (The Mermaid) co-stars in the film directed by Wang Daqing (One Day) and produced by Shang Ke (Let The Bullets Fly).

Previously known as Twin Blades, Brave Girls pairs leading Chinese...

Award-winning Chinese sci-fi novel “Folding Beijing” moved closer to production as a movie, following support by mainland China studio Wanda Film.

The film, titled “Folding City” is to be produced by Josh Kim, Chris Lee and Yin Hongbo (aka Homber Yin). Edward Gunawan and Katherine Lee join as co-producers.

Kim is 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. Kim is currently in production as co-director of HBO series “Forbidden.” Lee is a former Hollywood studio executive with producing credits including “How to Win at Checkers (Every Time)” and “S.W.A.T.,” and executive producing credits including “Valkyrie,” “Superman Returns.”

For many years sci-fi was shunned by Chinese film industry regulators and specific subject matter, such as time travel, was explicitly forbidden. But attitudes have changed since the blockbuster success of “Wandering...

Five competitive local titles have announced as of Monday that they will be vying for box office supremacy in China over the May 1 Labor Day weekend, a public holiday.

They include a long-anticipated video game adaptation, an omnibus pandemic film helmed by three different female big shots from China, Hong Kong and the U.S., a sleek Aaron Kwok-starring thriller, a TV series adaptation and the first title from helmer Li Yu not to star the now-disgraced Fan Bingbing in 14 years.

Their sales will be worth tracking, as holiday periods tend to be the most money-making in the world’s largest film market, where the February Chinese New Year box office set world records with an impressive $1.2 billion in sales in just six days.

In years past, Labor Day was considered a less significant holiday for movie-going than Chinese New Year, the summer holidays, October’s weeklong National Day holiday in October,...

The early money might be on Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” (Mexico) and Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War” (Poland), but Asia appears to have a real shot at the Oscar foreign-language category, with a mixture of heavy-hitters and dark horses from an eclectic line-up.

The continent’s frontrunner is easily Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters.” The film follows a family of petty thieves and the repercussions that ensue after they take in a waif. Moving, eloquent, and with an emphasis on the family unit, this is a film that could sway even the most cynical. The film will also benefit from its Magnolia Pictures’ release in the U.S.

From South Korea, Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning,” winner of the Fipresci Prize at Cannes, is mesmerising. Beginning as a frustrated youth drama, it gradually moves into missing-person thriller territory, culminating in a cathartic finale. The film is...

Love him or hate him, Jiang Wen is a director you cannot ignore. In 2018, he completes his Republican Era gangster trilogy, which started in 2010 with “Let the Bullets Fly” and also includes 2014’s “Gone with the Bullets”, with the Eddie Peng starring “Hidden Man”

Synopsis

On the cusp of the Second Sino-Japanese War, a spy returns to China set on revenge, but finds himself plunged into a high-stakes game of intrigue, love, and scheming. Young Li Tianren escapes to America after his master is killed by the power-hungry Zhu Qianlong and his Japanese sidekick Nemoto. 15 years later, the boy, now called Bruce, returns to Beijing as a spy for the Americans but has bloody revenge on his mind.

Loosely based on Zhang Beihei’s wuxia novel “Xia Yin”, “Hidden Man” stars Taiwanese heartthrob Eddie Peng as Bruce, Liao Fan as Zhu Qianlong as well as Jiang Wen himself. The film...

If the delicacy of the English title, “Hidden Man,” makes you think that Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen (last seen by Western audiences in “Rogue One”) might have come over uncharacteristically restrained for the final installment of his action trilogy after 2010’s “Let the Bullets Fly” and 2014’s “Gone with the Bullets,” the seriocomic, gory beheadings and eviscerations that happen in the film’s first few minutes should disavow you. And if not that, perhaps the small boy running from the scene while burning alive? The sheer excess of this exuberant but also exhausting period blockbuster is much more accurately conveyed by its grandiose Chinese title, which roughly translates to “Evil Does Not Prevail Against Righteousness.” If it were “Evil Does Not Prevail Against Righteousness But It Takes a Very Long Time Not to Prevail,” it would be perfect.

The aforementioned burning boy survives the gory attack that opens the film...

We first discovered Jiang Wen in Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum (1988), and so it was with a certain delight when Tiff announced that Yimou’s Shadow and Wen’s Hidden Man would make their preem entries in Toronto. The Sixth Generation filmmaker pulls double duty once again with this sixth future which receive a Gala Presentation at the fest and will surely appease fans of his previous two entries in 2010’s Let the Bullets Fly (review) and Gone with the Bullets (2014).…...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSWe are deeply saddened by the news that Village Voice, home to an abundance of film criticism over the past six decades, "is suspending all editorial content and will lay off half its staff effective immediately." For the Criterion Collection, David Hudson has provided a spotlight of the Voice's foremost critical voices, including Bilge Ebiri, whose last review for the publication is on the "communal consciousness" of Robert Greene's Bisbee '17. Recommended Viewinga gorgeous trailer for photographer RaMell Ross's directorial debut Hale County This Morning, This Evening, the tale of "two young African American men from rural Hale County, Alabama, over the course of five years."The official trailer for Yorgos Lanthimos's The Favourite, currently in competition at the 75th Venice International Film Festival, provides a closer look into its evidently wicked sense of humor,...

From his early days in films like Zhang Yimou’s To Live, to titles like Shower, Let the Bullets Fly, and A Touch of Sin, Jiang Wu has risen to become one of China’s greatest actors. At the New York Asian Film Festival to receive the Star Asia award, Jiang and Director Xin Yukun spoke with Lmd about their thriller, Wrath of Silence. The Lady Miz Diva: Congratulations on the Star Asia award. How does it feel to receive it here in front of your New York Fans? Jiang Wu: I like New York a lot. I’ve been collaborating with American filmmakers pretty often. I’ve received three or four awards already in America; the first one was in Hawaii, and then I went to...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The comedy drama held off challengers including ‘Hidden Man’.

Dying To Survive continued to thrive at the Chinese box office in the period of Jul 9-15, as new opener Hidden Man failed to take it down from the top.

Dying To Survive maintained an astounding momentum in its second week and added $159.7m for $350.2m after 11 days. It has fast become the third highest grossing film of 2018, after Operation Red Sea and Detective Chinatown 2. It has also outpaced Monster Hunt and Fast And Furious 7 to become the sixth highest grossing film of all time in the territory.

But it...

The comedy drama held off challengers including ‘Hidden Man’.

Dying To Survive continued to thrive at the Chinese box office in the period of Jul 9-15, as new opener Hidden Man failed to take it down from the top.

Dying To Survive maintained an astounding momentum in its second week and added $159.7m for $350.2m after 11 days. It has fast become the third highest grossing film of 2018, after Operation Red Sea and Detective Chinatown 2. It has also outpaced Monster Hunt and Fast And Furious 7 to become the sixth highest grossing film of all time in the territory.

But it...

Warner Bros. in China has boarded the upcoming “Hidden Man,” by cult director Jiang Wen.

Jiang has had a career that lurched from being banned for his “Devils on the Doorstep” directorial effort, through to today being one of China’s most celebrated actor-directors. He recently starred in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”

The film is produced by Gravity Pictures, one of the production and distribution companies within Li Ruigang’s China Media Capital group. Warner’s investment comes through Flagship Entertainment, the Beijing and Hong Kong joint venture between Warner and Cmc. It is currently unclear what rights the studio obtains in exchange for its investment.

The film is pitched as the third element in a loose trilogy that stared with “Let The Bullets Fly” and continued with “Gone With The Bullets.” Both mix up old time gangsters, decadent high life, and power grabs, throwing up political analogies...

“Rest on your Shoulder” is the latest outing from Hong Kong director Jacob Cheung, which sees him shifting from the character driven drama of “Cageman” and “Ticket” to something on a much bigger scale. Adapted from a popular internet novel, the film is a very different affair indeed, being a special effects heavy tale that combines a variety of genres and themes into an ambitious tale of life, love and talking insects. The film certainly has a high profile cast, headlined by Aloys Chen (“Let the Bullets Fly”), Gigi Leung (“Just Another Pandora’s Box”), Jiang Yi Yan (“City of Life and Death”) and Guey Lun Mei (“Taipei Exchanges”). The film takes place in an unspecified near future, with the planet apparently ravaged by pollution and the population under constant threat of disease. Aloys Chen plays Yan Guo, a botanist living on the eco-paradise Moon Island, working to try and...

The London Film Festival’s now in full swing, so Michael’s provided a handy guide to what you can still get to see over the next few days...

The 55th London Film Festival is now underway, boasting a programme that includes top-flight flicks like George Clooney’s The Ides Of March, Lynne Ramsey’s We Need To Talk About Kevin, and 360, directed by Fernando Meirelles. However, unless you’re a BFI member, a quick-off-the-mark cinephile, or an industry bigwig, it’s highly likely that you missed the small window of chance for getting tickets for these bigger films.

No need to worry, though, as many of the festival’s 300+ films haven’t yet sold out. Here are just a few notable or geek-friendly deep cuts that, at time of writing, still have tickets on sale.

Anonymous

Despite being one of the festival’s Gala films, two of Anonymous’ screenings still have spare seats going.

Band Baaja Baaraat, the debut film of Maneesh Sharma produced by Aditya Chopra has been nominated for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa).

Apsa 2011 International Jury President, Hong Kong film producer Nansun Shi announced at the Busan International Film Festival that 37 films from 19 countries and areas have been nominated for this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Best Feature Film nominees in the 2011 APSAs are Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (A Separation, Islamic Republic of Iran), Rang zidan fei (Let the Bullets Fly, People’s Republic of China – Mainland China / Hong Kong), Bé Omid É Didar (Goodbye, Islamic Republic of Iran), Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Band Baaja Baaraat (Wedding Planners, India).

A Separation by Asghar Farhadi and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia written and directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan has each received four Apsa nominations. Both films are the...

Two entries in the Academy's Best Foreign-Language Film category are among the five Best Feature Film nominees at the 2011 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, which announced its nominees on Monday. Iran's "A Separation" (left) and Turkey's "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia," both Oscar entrants, were nominated for the Apsa's top prize. Other nominees include another Iranian film, "Be Omid E Didar" ("Goodbye"), China's "Rang zidan fei" ("Let the Bullets Fly") and India's "Band Baaja Baaraat" ("Wedding Planners"). Overall, nominations went to 37 of the 240 films entered into the competition. Asghar Farhadi's...

Here's how John Patterson opens a terrific piece in the La Weekly: "A priceless cinematic time capsule of the African-American experience in post-Watts Los Angeles; a kaleidoscope of the multiple mindsets of a community in profound flux; a sustained rebuke and a consciously developed alternative to the plantation economics and racist narratives of the then-current 'blaxploitation' boom; exemplary first steps along a filmmaking road finally not taken — (but oh, the possibilities glimpsed herein!): L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema is all of these and more. This collection of the highlights of the legendary but only partially understood African-American film explosion at UCLA in the 70s and early 80s is a priceless work of excavation and restoration, and as an La-specific filmic event it's unlikely to be surpassed in the near future." Part of Pacific Standard Time, the series opens today and runs through December 17.

"Now in its fifth year,...

China's Oscar submission this year, Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War (previously discussed) was not released in time to show up in the nominations for its own country's Oscar equivalent. Nevertheless two Asian submissions for this year's Best Foreign Film Oscar race are competing for the "Golden Horse". While there are multiple film awards which hail from Asia (it can be horribly confusing to follow) The Golden Horse is the oldest and most inclusive of the awards institutions as there are no nationality requirements, only that the film be predominantly in a Chinese language. As is our habit and general proclivity let's start with Best Picture and Best Actress, the two most important categories in any awards show.

Let the Bullets Fly, Piano in a Factory and A Simple Life (pictured) compete for "Best Feature Film" alongside "Return Ticket" and "Seediq Bale"

Best Picture

Let the Bullets Fly (China / Hong...

In this month's column, we take a look at some of the Asian films that played at this year's edition of Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.      China / Hong Kong     Let the Bullets Fly is rousing, blockbuster-style entertainment. It's easy to understand why it currently stands as the all-time box office champion in China; it's filled with colorful characters, memorable action sequences, a healthy amount of humor, and a dollop of pathos.    Chow Yun-Fat plays Huang, a local crime boss and drug dealer who holds the community of Goose Town in his tight fists. He's a charming, magnetic villain, the kind you love to hate, and Chow has great fun reveling in the man's evil. Though he's...

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Rabies has nothing to do with the disease most commonly known to effect a particular slathering, angry St. Bernard and others of its kind. However, first-time Israeli filmmakers Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado do infect the myriad characters within their 90 minute horror/thriller hybrid with satisfying results. Little is known going in about the people, and we learn to loathe or like them as the film progresses in real time. There are the requisite damsels in distress, a dirty cop and his side-tracked partner, two friends vying for the same girl, two siblings that are in the wrong place at the wrong time, a maniac without a name or goal, and a park ranger and his girlfriend. Oh, and they have a dog, but he doesn’t have rabies. That’s the character roster, and Keshales and Papushado throw them into the same fox park that provides its own set of surprises.

Time isn't always on your side. While at Fantastic Fest this year, I dove in way more than last year and exposed myself to nearly every film I could. Through screeners and screenings, I managed to fit in over 30 films over the last 11 days. Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to review every one of them so instead, I will provide a slew of bite-sized capsules to provide a general feel and idea of what these films do well and where they might fail. So, without any more fanfare, join me after the jump for my reviews of Aardvark, Clown, Carre Blanc, The Day, Smuggler, The Corridor, Livid, Let the Bullets Fly, and A Lonely Place to Die. Aardvark plays as one of those Jekyll and Hyde films. The first portion, focusing on real-life inspiration Larry L. Lewis (played by himself) is about a blind, recovering alcoholic that takes...

The fun of Let The Bullets Fly comes directly out of the verbal and situational jump rope that everyone involved commits to. It’s formed with Shakespearean-style characters who both seem larger than life and able to lie. After taking down a horse-drawn train coach, the infamous bandit Pocky Zhang (played coolly by writer/director Wen Jiang) finds out that he’s killed the Governor-to-be of a sleepy little hamlet called Goose Town and decides, what the hell, he’ll ride into town claiming to be the man he’s killed. Fortunately, a toady named Tang (Xiaogang Feng) and the poor dead man’s unaffected widow (Carina Lau) want to tag along to avoid being murdered on the side of the road. When they ride into town, they’ll face off against the man who controls the city with a wealthy fist. Master Huang (played with pure genius by Chow Yun-Fat) gives them the proverbial finger by...

Fantastic Fest is filled with so many consecutive movies that writing timely, full reviews of each without losing a considerable amount of sleep or sanity would be difficult. There are writers out there who will do it and I salute them. But for me, being the lone wolf for /Film in 2011, I've decided to provide mini-reviews of most things, with the occasional video blog, full review and interview thrown in. This way you hear about everything. So here's a pair of mini-reviews: A Boy And His Samurai directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura and Let the Bullets Fly by Wen Jiang. A Boy And His Samurai combines time travel, samurais and baking reality shows into a perfect little package that will have you smiling ear to ear. Let the Bullets Fly stars Chow Yun Fat as a local crime boss who engages in a battle of wits and bullets with a notorious con-man.

"Let the Bullets Fly" is funny, exciting, and at 132 minutes, a half an hour too long. It's like that guy you knew in college who told told really great stories but got so wrapped up in his own awesomeness as a storyteller that he never knew when to shut up. "Let the Bullets Fly" is a great little movie inside a weaker bigger movie.

It's still a lot of fun. Almost every character in the film has more than one identity and there are multiple layers of deception going in every scene. Writer/director Jiang Wen stars as "Pocky" Zhang a legendary bandit in 1920s China pretending to be the Governor in order to rob from the rich and give to the guy pretending to be the Governor. He's assisted by Tang (Ge You), the actual Governor whose train is hijacked and wrecked by Pocky in the film's pre-credits sequence.

Yesterday marked the kickoff of the annual Fantastic Fest, a genre film festival held down in Austin by the Alamo Drafthouse that focuses on oddities and purely awesome films, 75 of them to be accurate. The festival line-up defies a specific description, as it is essentially anything that the creators and runners deem as awesome. Most of the films are foreign, with genre elements as sci-fi, horror, exploitation and more are explored. Truly, this is a place you go to expose yourself to films that you will likely never see again in a theatre, and certainly not with an audience that is just as interested in discovery. This year marks the second Fantastic Fest for myself, and it is an experience that can’t be replicated.

One of the big talking points last year was the online reservation system for securing tickets. Fantastic Fest has three basic badges: VIP, press and general.

With Jiang Wen's film playing at this year's festival here's a chance to read my earlier review.Over the past few years, the majority of big-budget mainstream Chinese movies have insisted on beating their audiences over the head with overtly nationalistic sentiment. It has gotten to the point where you can't spend two hours in a Mandarin-speaking cinema without being lectured that you should hate the Japanese and the British, or how indebted to the Communist Party you should be for all that we are & all that we have. How refreshing it was, therefore, to experience Jiang Wen's new holiday blockbuster, Let The Bullets Fly, a rip-roaring comedy thriller committed to delivering smart dialogue through great performances and almost entirely free of any underlying political...

It’s true! It’s less than a day until I board a plane and land in beautiful Austin, Texas! Lots of exclamation points! Okay, enough of that ridiculousness. Let’s get into only the 10 films I can’t wait to see at Fantastic Fest. I could have technically made a quick post saying I want to see every single film, but I thought a list of 10 films in no particular order would be the most democratic way to do so.

Livid – Starting off with one of my most anticipated horror films coming from the minds behind Inside. Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo bring us something that is supposedly more subdued, but we all know they have something up their sleeves to freak us out even more so.

Rabies – An Israeli horror film which I’ve been told is simply amazing, co-directors Navot Pupushado and Aharon Keshales bring us what...

There's almost too much that's good about Fantastic Fest: experiencing the Alamo Drafthouse for a week straight; the small, friendly, film fan atmosphere; the parties. Oh yeah, then there's the insane films. Every year Fantastic Fest is filled with a ton of wild genre flicks that either you've never heard of yet or already have a lot of buzz surrounding them. As the 2011 festival is set to kick off this week, /Film will be on the ground telling you about the sickest, most disturbing and exciting films playing in Austin, Texas. Before that though, since there's so much that's good about Fantastic Fest, we've got three lists to get you as excited: The Top 15 Films I'm Curious About - The true gems of Fantastic Fest, these are the wild cards we're excited for from description alone. The Top 10 Most Anticipated Films - These are films with familiar names or built in buzz from previous festivals.

The programme for the 55th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express launched today by Artistic Director Sandra Hebron, celebrates the imagination and excellence of international filmmaking from both established and emerging talent. Over 16 days the Festival will screen a total of 204 fiction and documentary features, including 13 World Premieres, 18 International Premieres and 22 European Premieres . There will also be screenings of 110 live action and animated shorts. Many of the films will be presented by their directors, cast members and crew, some of whom will also take part in career interviews, masterclasses, and other special events. The 55th BFI London Film Festival will run from 12-27 October.

Special Screenings

Opening the festival is Fernando Meirelles’ 360, written by Peter Morgan, and starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and Rachel Weisz. Weisz is also the star of Terence Davies’ closing night film, The Deep Blue Sea, alongside a cast which includes Simon Russell Beale and Tom Hiddleston.

From the 12th to the 27th of October the 55th BFI London Film Festival brings its annual box of delights to the capital. Earlier today the full programme was announced, and it look like being another fine year.

We already know that Fernando Meirelles’ latest 360 will open proceedings on the 12th and fifteen days later Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea will bring the festival to a close but there are many more great films to come and see in London this October.

There was a familiar feeling creeping across the audience this morning that a lot of the films had, like last year, already played elsewhere but this is only a small consideration when you consider the scope of the festival’s remit. To bring a vital, fresh and horizon-expanding series of features, shorts and documentaries is no easy task, and while the more well known films have played...

Artistic director Sandra Hebron has announced the line-up for the 55th BFI London Film Festival this morning where they will screen “a total of 204 fiction and documentary features, including 13 World Premieres, 18 International Premieres and 22 European Premieres” plus “110 live action and animated shorts”.

We are already knew Fernando Meirelles’ adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s erotic drama play 360 written by Peter Morgan and starring Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and Rachel Weisz would open the festival and that The Deep Blue Sea, which incidentally is another adaptation of a play (Terence Rattigan’s) and also stars Rachel Weisz, will close it. Of Time and City’s Terrence Davies directed that movie which also stars Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale.

Now we know the in-between stuff from the Gala & Special Screenings and there’s a wide selection of extremely interesting films;

George Clooney is bringing his political thriller The Ides of March that...

Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay will be screened for the Asian Special Program at the 16th Busan International Film Festival. The festival will present Sholay, a film from his golden era as a tribute to Amitabh Bachchan.

“Influenced by the Spaghetti Western, Sholay is an Indian western that illustrates the love and adventure of two young men trying to save their village from bandits,” describes an official press release of the festival.

The theme of the Asian Special Program this year is ‘Special Focus on Asian Western: Men of the East’. This program will present localized western films where the uniqueness of Asian countries and the characteristics of original western cinema are combined.

The other films that will be screened in this program include Saito Buichi’s The Rambling Guitarist, Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird; Jiang Wen’s Let the Bullets Fly etc.

29 more days to go until Fantastic Fest 2011 takes over Austin Texas! I cannot wait. 17 more films were announced late last week. Only one of those 17 films was on our “Film Guestimation” list for Fantastic Fest 2011. They still have yet to announce Opening & Closing films along with other Gala screenings so hopefully we won’t look like total fools. All we need is maybe half of our films that we listed to show up. Anyway, beyond the break, you can check out what is playing.

Apparently, more films will be announced this week. We will try to get those out as soon as we hear about it.

Events & Contests

100 Best Kills

One of the greatest long-running traditions of Fantastic Fest is the 100 Best Kills Party, where we sit in a theater together and turn the spotlight on the Grim Reaper of movieland as he disembowels, detonates and decapitates again and again and again.

“Mr. and Ms. Single” is the latest offering from Hong Kong director Patrick Kong, and is another in his ongoing line of modern Chinese urban romances, following the likes of “Marriage with a Liar”, “Love is Not All Around” and others. The film was his 10th, and both his first made especially for the lucrative Mainland market, and the first which he didn’t actually write himself, being based on a popular stage play, with a script from original writer Ha Zhi Chao and Ru Xiao Guo. The film does represent Kong’s next step up the commercial cinema ladder, and appropriately sees him bringing together an impressive big name cast, including popular actor singer Eason Chan (recently in “Lover’s Discourse”), Rene Liu (“Hot Summer Days”), Bai Bing (“Let the Bullets Fly”) and Harlem Yu (“Butterfly Lovers”). The plot covers some familiar rom-com territory, with Eason Chan as the rather dowdy Cui Minguo,...

Fresh off a successful opening salvo of films, Fantastic Fest is proud to announce the second wave of pictures for the week of September 22-29 in Austin, Texas. As always, it looks like an impressive line-up.

And seeing how this is the film festival that has launched such films as Zombieland, Trollhunter and The Human Centipede, you'll just have to trust them. They've proven time and again they know what's good.

In addition to the line-up of 17 new films making their world, North American or Us premieres, Fantastic Fest has some great contests and one hottie of a new director in Kristen Bell.

So, without further ado, here's the info for Fantastic Fest, Second Sequence.

From the Press Release

Fantastic Fest is proud to announce the second wave of programming for the seventh edition of Fantastic Fest, happening September 22-29 in Austin, Texas. The second wave includes 17 new World, North American and Us premiere films,...

Earlier we shared the first group of films slated to be at Fantastic Fest this year in Austin, TX. Today we have the second group that includes: Nacho Vigalondo‘s Extraterrestrial, Ti West‘s The Innkeepers, Lars Von Trier‘s Melancholia and Adam Wingard‘s You’re Next.

Here are the descriptions of the films from the press release:

Movies On Fire: Hong Kong Action Classics- presented by Agfa

The amazing Grady Hendrix of the famous New York Asian Film Festival will join us and introduce four surprise 35mm screenings of classic Hong Kong grindhouse gems (most not available on DVD) from Hong Kong’s exploitation heyday of the late 80’s and early 90’s, these movies are cinematic crystal meth: cheap n’crazy, they’ll spoil you for everything else. Designed to play to rowdy audiences who threatened mayhem if they weren’t delivered a dose of gonzo delirium every five minutes,...

If you're a fan of genre film, you've had September 22-29 circled on your calendar for months. That's when one of the most fun, depraved and intimate film festivals in the country once again invades Austin, Texas. It's called Fantastic Fest and it features a huge blend of action, horror and sci-fi movies that most people haven't heard of at the time, but we all hear about after. This year is no different. They announced the first wave of films [1] in July and today we've got the second wave. Most of them are new to many of us, but then there are a few that we've covered in the past: Nacho Vigalondo's Extraterrestrial, Ti West's The Innkeepers, Lars Von Trier's Melancholia and Adam Wingard's You're Next just to name a few. After the jump, read the full breakdown of the second wave of films. Slashfilm will...

VOD must be quite a profitable avenue for Magnet, as they will debut Lars von Trier‘s highly-anticipated Cannes hit Melancholia on the digital platform over a month before its theatrical release in November. Vulture has the official Us poster premiere (using the same key art as the rest) as well as the news of an October 7th, 2011 VOD release date for the drama starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgard, Stellan Skarsgard and Udo Kier.

It will then debut in theaters on November 11th, but it has also just been announced as part of the Fantastic Fest line-up. Check out their second wave of titles after the poster for the fest that runs from September 22nd to the 29th.

Aardvark (2010)

Texas Premiere

Director Kitao Sakurai live in person

Director: Kitao Sakurai, Japan, 80 minutes

Larry (Aardvark’s blind-since-birth protagonist) has an innate curiosity that...