Actualités

The London East Asia Film Festival (Leaff) celebrates its sixth edition in 2021 with a commitment to diverse, culturally impactful cinema entertainment. After a year of shut cinema doors, Leaff is returning home to London’s big screens with an expanded catalogue to help stimulate the renaissance of cinema and promote cultural empathy.

With cinematic offerings from eight regions – China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam – this year’s programme is an ode to the quiet and independent voices from East Asia. Two international premieres, five European premieres and 18 UK premieres will take place at our state-art-of-the-art venues, Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, The Cinema at Selfridges, as well as the newly opened Odeon Luxe West End and The Chiswick Cinema. The festival is divided into five strands: Official Selection, Competition, Hong Kong Focus, Documentary, and Retrospective.

Opening Gala

The festival opens with a memorial to the late Benny Chan...

When it comes to making a movie, there are probably thousands of stories, especially regarding the financing and finding the right production company. At times these backgrounds are just as comedic, suspenseful and entertaining as the movies themselves, which is why these are also turned into documentaries, for example, “Heart of Darkness” about the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now”. The Asian movie industry has its own brand of stories to tell in that regard, as the film business consists just as much of shady characters as probably anywhere else, and also creative minds who would do anything to fulfill their dream of a feature of their own. Renowned photographer and radio personality Sunny Lau was probably inspired by some of them for his director debut “Sugar Street Studio”, a feature which is just as a much a ghost story as it is about the fine line between...