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Celebrating 10 years of Asian cinema in Helsinki

The only film festival that shows exclusively new East and Sout-East Asian films in Finland celebrates its 10th Anniversary in 2022 with special screenings. Helsinki Cine Aasia returns to movie theaters with a full-length festival. The festival will be held from May 5th until May 8th at Finnkino Kinopalatsi, Kino Regina and Cinema Orion, with additional screenings at Jyväskylä’s Aurora.

Traveling to the 60’s of Thailand

Our opening film “Anatomy of Time” comes from Thailand, and is directed by Jakrawai Nilthamrong. It will be screened on Wednesday May 5th at Kino Regina.

The film was awarded with the Grand Prize at Tokyo FILMeX 2021. The story of Anatomy of Time got its inspiration from director Nilthamrong’s own family history.

Phuttiphong Aroonpheng acted as the cinematographer on the film. Aroonpheng’s own film “Manta Ray” was shown at Helsinki Cine Aasia back in 2019.

“Anatomy...

Mattie Do was born in Los Angeles to Lao parents and relocated to Vientiane, Laos’ Capital City, in 2010.

Laos has been ruled by a strict Communist government since the end of Vietnam War in 1975. Non-propaganda film-making started only recently and when Mattie – who had previously worked as a ballet dancer and makeup artist – returned to Laos, only few filmmakers were active in the country and none of them a woman. In fact only very scarce infrastructure where in place and no official cinemas.

Almost by chance she put together her first feature film Chanthaly in 2013, the first horror film written and directed entirely in Laos, for the launch of the first Luang Prabang Film Festival.

Her second feature film Dearest Sister (2016) was selected as a project at the Cannes La Fabrique des Cinémas du Monde and had the honor to be selected as the Laotian entry for the Best Foreign...

“Papicha,” the Algerian film in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year, has received finance from two Hong Kong companies that have used modern financial techniques to “tokenize” their direct investment in the film’s equity.

Directed by Mounia Meddour, the female emancipation story about a woman daring to put on a fashion show in the post-revolutionary era has been selected to represent Algeria for the Best International Feature Film at the Oscars. It is set for a commercial release in France on Oct. 9 on approximately 150 prints.

“Papicha” was produced by Xavier Gens and Gregoire Gensollen from Paris-based The Ink Connection, and Patrick Andre from High Sea Productions. It is distributed in France and internationally by Jour2Fete.

Hong Kong-based Lumiere and FinFabrik have teamed up to apply their business and technical know-how to tokenize a co-investment into “Papicha.” The value of their investment was not disclosed.

“By having their equity participation digitalized,...

Tim Roth, who stars in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” has joined the cast of Mia Hansen-Love’s English-language debut, “Bergman Island,” a supernatural melodrama with Vicky Krieps and Mia Wasikowska.

Charles Gillibert’s CG Cinema is producing “Bergman Island.” Gillibert previously collaborated with Hansen-Love on “Eden,” which played at Toronto.

Sold by Kinology, “Bergman Island” follows a couple of American filmmakers who travel to the Swedish island of Faro, where filmmaking icon Ingmar Bergman lived, to write their respective films. The two get lost between fiction and reality amid the island’s mysterious landscapes.

Now considered one of France’s most successful production companies, CG Cinema is about to increase its scope, launching new collaborations with established and promising directors across the world, such as France’s Alain Guiraudie (“Stranger by the Lake”) and Amandine Gay, Thailand’s Phuttiphong Aroonpheng and China’s Qiu Cheng.

Eighteen prizes were presented on Wednesday afternoon at the closing ceremony of the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum. The project market sits alongside FilMart as part of the Entertainment Expo in Hong Kong.

“Wong Tai Sin Assassination” to be directed by Wong Hoi and produced by Derek Kwok Tsz-kin, was named the winner of the Haf Award for Hong Kong films. “Our Apprenticeship” to be directed by Hamaguchi Ryusuke, and produced by Yamamoto Teruhisa, won the Haf award for international projects.

In the documentary category, “Odoriko,” directed by Okutani Yoichiro, and produced by Shiobara Fumiko was named the best film.

The film project market is in its 17th edition and remains one of the most influential in the world. Albert Lee, director of the Hong Kong International FIlm Festival, called Haf: “such a useful springboard for film projects.”

Completed recent films that benefitted from Haf support include Chinese smash hit “Dying to Survive,...

The directorial debut of Phuttiphong Aroonpheng called “Manta Ray” premiered in the Orizzonti section at this year’s edition of Venice, scooping the main award and getting on an extended festival tour that included Toronto, Vancouver, Busan, Thessaloniki and, among others, Zagreb, scoring Special Mention in the main competition. Austere in dialogue, but rich in atmosphere, this film realized in Thai-French-Chinese co-production puts its writer-director in the spotlight as someone worth attention in the future.

“Manta Ray” is screening at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2019

“Manta Ray” starts with a dedication to Rohingya, a stateless people which faces horrific persecution by the government forces in their homeland in north-western Myanmar. Many Rohingya are driven out of their homes and they live as refugees in the other states of South and South-East Asia, in Arab countries (the majority of Rohingya are Muslims) and in the Western World. Some of them are being smuggled into Thailand which is,...

“Bodies at Rest,” a Chinese-language crime thriller directed by Beijing-resident Renny Harlin (“Die Hard 2”) has been set as the opening title of the Hong Kong International Film Festival. The festival will close with Francois Ozon’s “By the Grace of God,” which recently claimed the grand prize in Berlin.

Between the two events, the festival will unspool 230 titles from 63 countries and regions, of which 64 are world, international and Asian premieres. The festival, under the new leadership of Albert Lee, will run March 18-April 1.

Other highlights include gala screenings of: “Synonyms,” the winner of the Berlinale’s Golden Bear for best film, by Israeli director Nadav Lapid; Peter Jackson’s restored footage Wwi documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old”; and “First Night Nerves,” by Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan.

Chinese director Lou Ye’s “The Shadow Play” will receive a special screening after Lou, Jiang Wen, Tony Leung Ka-fai, actress...

Now in its 48th year, New Directors/New Films is a stellar showcase for new voices in cinema, both domestic and international, and this year’s lineup is no exception. The festival’s opening, centerpiece, and closing slots all go to Sundance hits with Clemency, Monos, and Share, respectively, while the rest is filled out with some of our favorite titles from the international circuit the past year, including The Load, All Good, Genesis, Joy, The Plagiarists, Manta Ray, A Land Imagined, and more.

“Spanning the globe and a wide spectrum of styles and concerns, the bold and brilliant films in this year’s New Directors lineup are collective proof that cinema is still as supple a medium as ever,” said Film Society Director of Programming Dennis Lim. “Demanding our attention and exemplifying the vitality of contemporary cinema, this year’s class of emerging directors is one of the most courageous in years,...

The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center has revealed the complete lineup for the 48th annual New Directors/New Films (Nd/Nf), running March 27 – April 7 in New York City. Throughout its rich, nearly half-century history, the festival has celebrated filmmakers who represent the present and anticipate the future of cinema, daring artists whose work pushes the envelope in unexpected ways.

This year’s lineup boasts 35 features and shorts from 29 countries across four continents, with 10 North American Premieres and two World Premieres, 15 films directed or co-directed by women, and 11 works by first-time feature filmmakers.

The Opening, Closing, and Centerpiece selections are the New York premieres of three Sundance award winners: opening the festival is Chinonye Chukwu’s “Clemency,” which won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and features a masterful performance from Alfre Woodard as a prison warden struggling with her work; Centerpiece is Alejandro Landes’ “Monos,...

When it comes to the Best Song category, you would think a live show like the Oscar telecast that has been bleeding ratings lately would benefit from showcasing the five nominated songs on the air. Who doesn’t like a good halftime show. But apparently the academy, which continues to waffle over its hosting issues, has now floated the notion that only two of the nominated five songs — “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born,” sung by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, and Kendrick Lamar and Sza’s “All the Stars” from “Black Panther” – will be performed live .

What would get left out in the cold? Jennifer Hudson, Oscar-vetted for wailing her way through 2006’s “Dreamgirls” for one. Its her voice that soars on “I’ll Fight” from the Ruth Bader Ginsburg doc, “Rbg.” Adding more interest is the fact that is written by Diane Warren, a 10-time nominee who is massively overdue.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) 2019 is around the corner (23rd January – 3rd February). Get ready for a high-quality line-up of carefully selected fiction and documentary feature films, short films and media art.

As always, the Asian film selection is rich and inviting. We have picked for you all the films from the Asian Continent.

Iffr comprises four Competition Sections and also an incredible number of Awards to encourage and help filmmakers:

Tiger Competition – An international jury chooses a winner from eight nominated films. Last year the prize was won by Chinese movie “The Widowed Witch” by Cai Chengjie.

Ammodo Tiger Short Competition – The power of short: films compete in the short film selection to three equivalent prizes.

Bright Future Competition – Filmmakers presenting the world or international premiere of their first feature length film in the main programme of Iffr’s section Bright Future, are eligible for the Bright Future Award.

Around The World When You Were My AgeThe titles for the 48th International Film Festival Rotterdam are being announced in anticipation of the event running January 23 – February 3, 2018. We will update the program as new films are revealed.Tiger COMPETITIONSons of Denmark (Ulaa Salim)Take Me Somewhere Nice (Ena Sendijarević)Present.Perfect. (Shengze Zhu)Sheena667 (Grigory Dobrygin)Nona. If They Soak Me, I’ll Burn Them (Camila José Donoso)Koko-di Koko-da (Johannes Nyholm)Els dies que vindran (Carlos Marqués-Marcet)Bright Future COMPETITIONAlva (Ico Costa)Chèche lavi (Sam Ellison)De nuevo otra vez (Romina Paula)Doozy (Richard Squires)Dreissig (Simona Kostova)Ende der Saison (Elmar Imanov)Fabiana (Brunna Laboissière)The Gold-Laden Sheep & the Sacred Mountain (Ridham Janve)Heroes (Köken Ergun)Historia de mi nombre (Karin Cuyul)Last Night I Saw You Smiling (Kavich Neang)Lost Holiday (Michael Kerry Matthews/Thomas Matthews)Maggie (Yi Okseop)Mens (Isabelle Prim)No Data Plan (Miko Revereza...

This article marks Part 26, the final entry of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the winners.

The 2015 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“Earned It” from “Fifty Shades of Grey”

“‘Til It Happens to You” from “The Hunting Ground”

“Manta Ray” from “Racing Extinction”

“Writing’s on the Wall” from “Spectre”

“Simple Song #3” from “Youth”

Won: “Writing’s on the Wall” from “Spectre”

Should’ve won: “‘Til It Happens to You” from “The Hunting Ground”

This race in Best Original Song began on a rather disheartening note, with the release of the full list of tunes eligible for consideration in the category. Notably absent from the list, in spite of rave reviews and a Golden Globe nomination, was...

The rebooted Cairo Film Festival has wrapped with the event’s top prize, the Golden Pyramid, going to “A Twelve-Year Night,” Uruguay’s candidate for the foreign-language Oscar. The award, presented Thursday night, came with a $20,000 check that was given to the producers of “Night,” a harrowing drama about Uruguay’s former military dictatorship.

Thai auteur Phuttiphing Aroonpheng’s hypnotic “Manta Ray” and Ukranian director Segei Loznitsa’s dystopian “Donbass,” about the degradation of civil society in the fake news era, tied for Silver Pyramid honors. The Bronze Pyramid for best first or second work went to British helmer Jamie Jones for his debut, “Obey,” a tragic love story set amid the 2011 London riots.

Oscar-winning Danish director Bille August headed the main jury for the Cairo festival’s 40th edition. The fest is the oldest such event in the Arab and African worlds and has undergone a major makeover under its new chief,...

As part of the Marrakech Intl. Film Festival’s reinvention for its 17th edition, artistic director Christoph Terhechte and his programming team created a section to challenge the cinematic representations of countries usually seen only through the lens of stereotypes. Looking for yet another dose of Latin American poverty porn? On the hunt for the umpteenth story about an Arab suicide bomber, or the latest titillating white slavery drama? Then the 11th Continent is not your destination, as the films in this section counter the kind of superficial socially aware programming that reinforce one-dimensional Western notions of first- and third-world nationhood.

The section opens at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent with a presentation of archival films from the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, collectively titled “Views from Morocco and the Ottoman Empire.” Dating between 1902 and 1927, this compilation (curated by this writer) is part of a continuing project designed to discover the...

The directorial debut of Phuttiphong Aroonpheng called “Manta Ray” premiered in the Orizzonti section at this year’s edition of Venice, scooping the main award and getting on an extended festival tour that included Toronto, Vancouver, Busan, Thessaloniki and, among others, Zagreb, scoring Special Mention in the main competition. Austere in dialogue, but rich in atmosphere, this film realized in Thai-French-Chinese co-production puts its writer-director in the spotlight as someone worth attention in the future.

“Manta Ray” starts with a dedication to Rohingya, a stateless people which faces horrific persecution by the government forces in their homeland in north-western Myanmar. Many Rohingya are driven out of their homes and they live as refugees in the other states of South and South-East Asia, in Arab countries (the majority of Rohingya are Muslims) and in the Western World. Some of them are being smuggled into Thailand which is, as the region’s...

The Cairo Film Festival, for its 40th edition, is reinventing itself.

With Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy at the helm who, at 43, is its youngest president, the oldest fest in the Arab and African worlds is undergoing a radical revamp in a major effort to get its mojo back after a decade of decline due to the country’s post-revolution turbulence.

Hefzy, who is known internationally for the steady stream of edgy top notch titles birthed by his Film Clinic shingle — most recently Cannes standout “Yomeddine,” which is Egypt’s current candidate for the foreign-language Oscar — is the first Cairo fest chief chosen from within the country’s film industry ranks. Since being appointed in March he has been working incessantly in tandem with respected critic and academic Youssef Sherif Rizkalla, who remains the fest’s artistic director.

Eight months later, the signs of renewal are visible. Starting from a reconfiguration...

Vasan Bala’s “The Man Who Feels No Pain,” and Qiu Sheng’s “Suburban Birds” are among 11 films set for competition at the third edition of the International Film Festival & Awards Macao. Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” will open the festival in an out of competition slot.

Other films in competition include: “Aga” by Milko Lazarov (Bulgaria); “All Good,” by Eva Trobisch (Germany); “Clean Up,” by Kwon Man-ki (South Korea); “Jesus,” by Hiroshi Okuyama (Japan); “Scarborough,” by Barnaby Southcombe (U.K.) “School’s Out” by Sebastien Marnier (France); “The Good Girls,” by Alejandra Marquez (Mexico); “The Guilty,” by Gustav Moller (Denmark); and “White Blood” by Barbara Sarasola – Day (Argentina). The competition is only open to first or second time feature directors.

The lineup was announced Thursday in Macau by artistic director Mike Goodridge. The jury which will select the prize-winners includes Chen Kaige as president, alongside Mabel Cheung (Hong Kong...

Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s “Manta Ray” won the Mumbai Film Festival’s Golden Gateway award in the international competition on Thursday. It previously won best film at Venice’s Horizon section and has toured the Toronto, Thessaloniki, San Sebastian festivals.

Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses” won the Silver Gateway award in the competition, after winning accolades worldwide, including three awards at Berlin. Another globally lauded film, Gabrielle Brady’s, “Island of the Hungry Ghosts,” won the international competition’s grand jury prize.

Rima Das’ “Bulbul Can Sing” won the Golden Gateway in the India Gold competition section. Das’ “Village Rockstars” was feted in Mumbai in 2017, and is India’s entry to the Oscars foreign language category. The Silver Gateway in the Indian competition was split between Ridham Janve’s “The Gold-Laden Sheep & the Sacred Mountain” and Rotterdam title “Jonaki”, by Aditya Vikram Sengupta.

“Jonaki” also won a special mention at the...

Brady Corbet’s “Vox Lux,” Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s “Birds of Passage” and Natalya Meshchaninova’s “Core of the World” are among the wide range of movies competing for the Stockholm Film Festival’s Impact Award.

Other movies vying for the honor are Sergei Loznitsa’s “Donbass,” Richard Billingham’s “Ray & Liz,” Beatriz Seigner’s “Los Silencios,” Soheil Beiraghi’s “Cold Sweat” and Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s “Manta Ray.”

The selections span movies from around the world, from Iran to Brazil to Russia, and are meant to be singular, politically minded films reflecting today’s world in innovative ways. The central theme of this year’s roster is the impact of armed conflicts on lives and relationships.

“In ‘Los Silencios,’ Beatriz Seigner combines the social consequences of an endless armed conflict in Colombia and the uncertain future of families with elements of a ghost story,” the festival said,...

A new generation of Asian filmmakers has gained international appreciation with their creative talent and sophisticated craft. The 43rd Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF43) is pleased to announce two award-winning works from promising Asian directors – “The Crossing”, winner of Best Film in the Fei Mu Awards at this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival in China, and “Manta Ray”, named Best Film in Venice Film Festival’s Horizons Section, both of which will premiere in HKIFF43.

Produced by world-renowned filmmaker Tian Zhuangzhuang, “The Crossing” is the debut feature directed by Bai Xue. Her cinematic talent is on full display in this captivating tale of a teenage girl’s precipitous slide into a web of crime and passion. The film well deserves Best Film in the Fei Mu Awards, and also Best Actress for Huang Yao’s outstanding performance.

In “Manta Ray”, a mesmerizing debut feature about the bonding of...

“Shoplifters,” the Japanese drama that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, leads the race for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. It is nominated for best film and in in two other categories.

The four other films nominated for best feature film are: Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning” (Korea), Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s “The Gentle Indifference of the World”, Khavn de la Cruz’s “Balangiga: Howling Wilderness” (Philippines), and Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s “Manta Ray”.

Nomination in 11 categories were announced on Wednesday. They include 46 films from 22 countries. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Brisbane, Australia, on Nov. 29, 2018.

This year, films from Japan and China lead the tally with 7 nominations each. Films from Australia, India and Kazakhstan each received 5 nominations. Uzbekistan (actor Karim Mirkhadiyev for his role in “Fortitude”) received a nomination for the first time.

Best director nominations go to: Hirokazu Kore-eda for “Shoplifters”; Ivan Ayr for “Soni...

Fall festival favorites including “Manta Ray,” Jinpa,” and “Cities of Last Things” will line up in the main competition of next month’s Tokyo Filmex festival. The event runs Nov. 17-25 at venues in the Hibiya and Yurakucho suburbs of Tokyo.

Directed by Phuttiphong Aroonpheng “Manta Ray” recently won the Horizons award at the Venice festival. Pema Tseden’s “Jinpa” won the best screenplay award in the same section. Ho Wi Ding’s “Cities” won the best film prize in the Platform section at Toronto.

Other films making up the ten title competition section include: “Sibel,” by Turkey’s Cagla Zenkirci and Guillaume Giovanetti; “Ayka,” by Russia’s Sergei Dvortsevoy; Yeo Siew Hua’s Locarno Golden Leopard winner “A Land Imagined”; “A Family Tour,” by Ying Liang; “Long Days Journey Into Night,” directed by China’s Bi Gan, which had its premiere in Un Certain regard at Cannes; “An Elephant Sitting Still,...

Paul Dano’s directorial debut “Wildlife,” which has had considerable festival play including Sundance, Cannes and Toronto is among the titles in the international competition at the 20th Mumbai film festival.

The festival runs Oct. 25 to Nov. 1, 2018. U.S. director, Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan”) will give a masterclass.

Other international competition titles include deceased Chinese director Hu Bo’s “An Elephant Sitting Still” which won awards at Berlin and Hong Kong; “And Breathe Normally” which won Isold Uggadottir the directing award at Sundance; Tiago Melo’s “Azougue Nazare,” which won at Rotterdam; Gabrielle Brady’s “Island of the Hungry Ghosts,” which won prizes at Edinburgh and Tribeca; Dominic Sangma’s “Ma-Ama”; Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s “Manta Ray” which won an award at Venice; Christina Coe’s “Nancy” which won the screenwriting prize at Sundance; Alireza Motamedi’s “Reza”; Etienne Kallos’ “The Harvesters”; Marcello Martinessi’s “The Heiresses,” which won awards at Berlin,...

The second edition of the Pingyao International Film Festival will kick off next month with a screening of “Half The Sky,” in which five female directors approach the subject of womanhood and femininity by telling the stories of different women.

The film is directed by Daniela Thomas, Elizaveta Stishova, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Liu Yulin, Sara Blecher and produced by Jia Zhangke, the Chinese auteur who established the festival.

The festival, which runs Oct. 11-20 and counts Marco Mueller as its artistic director, is located in the United Nations heritage town of Pingyao in North East China’s Shanxi Province. Purpose-built venues include a main theater in a converted diesel engine factory, and five smaller halls.

The female angle is given additional heft with “Lust Stories,” a four-part anthology film telling stories about women, which joins “Sky” among the four gala screenings. Its three men and sole woman director are Anurag Kashyap,...

A humanist heart beats loudly in “Manta Ray,” the promising feature debut of Thai writer-director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng. Centered on a mute Rohingya man rescued by a Thai fisherman after having washed ashore near the Thai-Myanmar border, this superficially simple tale of identity, displacement and friendship is wrapped in layers of symbolism that will likely be pleasurably hypnotic for many viewers. While a tough commercial road lies ahead for the film, it seems assured of a lengthy festival life following September playdates at Venice, Toronto and San Sebastian. It will be interesting to monitor Aroonpheng’s progress from here.

Though locations aren’t given and it’s never stated exactly where the silent and unnamed central character hails from, an introductory statement that reads “For the Rohingyas” leaves no doubt that “Manta Ray” is dedicated to the stateless ethnic minority commonly referred to as the most persecuted people on Earth. By...