Notícias

Chinese animation Nobody made an unusual hop to the top of the local box office in its third weekend, dethroning historical drama Dead To Rights, as the summer box office in China hit the $1.4bn (RMB10bn) milestone.

Produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio, Nobody opened on August 2 and ranked second for two sessions, behind Dead To Rights. However, it took $32.9m (RMB237.1m) from August 15-17, topping the weekend box office for the first time and has become the highest grossing 2D Chinese animated feature film of all time in the country, with cumulative takings of $138.5m (RMB997m).

Directed by Yu Shui,...

Chinese animation Nobody made an unusual hop to the top of the local box office in its third weekend, dethroning historical drama Dead To Rights, as the summer box office in China hit the $1.4bn (RMB10bn) milestone.

Produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio, Nobody opened on August 2 and ranked second for two sessions, behind Dead To Rights. However, it took $32.9m (RMB237.1m) from August 15-17, topping the weekend box office for the first time and has become the highest grossing 2D Chinese animated feature film of all time in the country, with cumulative takings of $138.5m (RMB997m).

Directed by Yu Shui,...

Peter Chan Ho-sun’s “She’s Got No Name,” which opened this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival, represents one of the most tortuous paths from page to screen in recent memory.

In an extensive interview with Variety, Chan reveals the decade-long journey that transformed a single screenplay into a two-part film, involving multiple format changes, extensive re-editing, and unprecedented collaboration with Shanghai’s municipal government.

The project began in 2015 when Chan received a complete screenplay based on a real 1945 murder case that spanned nearly six decades of Chinese history. “The script came to me, which is rare. I usually develop my own script, even though I don’t write myself, but I usually have an idea, and I have writers develop with me along the way,” Chan says. “And this is the first time that I actually got a complete script with a novella about the real case that happened...

Peter Chan’s She’s Got No Name, starring Zhang Ziyi, is to be divided into two parts for its theatrical release– the first of which is set to open the 27th Shanghai International Film Festival.

The 1940s Shanghai-set crime thriller had a runtime of 150 minutes when it premiered out of competition at Cannes last year. In a video released on Siff’s WeChat and Weibo social media accounts, director Chan explained that the film will now be released in two parts.

Both films are interconnected and can also be seen as a standalone. “It’s a special arrangement and a big risk to me,...

The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society has rounded out its 2025 Hkiff Industry Project Market with eight new titles, bringing the total to 48 projects, the highest in recent years. The expansion includes six animation features and two Indonesian projects, bolstering the market’s presence in Asian film development.

Set to run March 17-19 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre alongside FilMart, the market has seen a 60% jump in animation submissions compared to last year. The animation slate features both industry veterans and emerging talents, including Hong Kong director Toe Yuen whose “A Mighty Adventure” was shot live in Taiwan with 90% of computer animation completed in Malaysia.

Among the other works-in-progress are China’s “Min” by Li Jiajia, a professor at the School of Animation and Games of the China Academy of Art, with Liu Jian producing (whose “Have a Nice Day” and “Art College 1994” both competed at Berlin...

Liu Jian and Toe Yuen are among the filmmakers who will showcase their latest works in the new animation section of the upcoming Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf). A special Indonesian showcase in collaboration with Jakarta Film Week (Jfw) has also been unveiled, expanding the scope of the Hkiff Industry Project Market.

A total of six animated feature projects were selected for the inaugural animation showcase, of which three are works-in-progress, including Yuen’s A Mighty Adventure, a Taiwan-Hong Kong-Malaysia co-production about a grasshopper, spider and butterfly who dare to break boundaries and choose their future. Yuen’s My...

Hkiff Industry Project Market has completed this year’s line-up with the addition of a new animation section and a tie-up with Jakarta Film Week in Indonesia.

According to the event organisers, there has been a 60% surge in animation submissions since last year reflecting the industry’s rapid growth in the region. Chinese feature-length animation Nezha 2 shattered records over the recent Lunar New Year holiday in China, grossing $1.6bn (RMB11.93m) at the time of writing.

The animation section at Hkiff Industry Project Market includes three titles in development and three works-in-progress. The three works-in-progress include A Mighty Adventure from Hong Kong filmmaker Toe Yuen, best known for the McDull series of hit animated films; Li Jiajia’s Min, produced by Liu Jian, whose Have A Nice Day and Art College 1994 both screened at the Berlinale; and coming-of-age drama Wildheart from Marceau Nakayama, a Tokyo-born art director and concept artist now based in France.

Five Chinese productions are being presented in market screenings on the sidelines of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival in an effort, organizers of the program say, to give North American audiences a “three-dimensional” view into contemporary China.

Put together by the China Film Co-Production Corporation (Cfcc), the selection includes comedian Da Peng’s box office hit Post Truth ($98 million), which focuses on how a former gang boss-turned-burial plot salesman deals with online rumors.

There’s also the pandemic lockdown-themed romance Embrace Again from director Xue Xiaolu, whose breakthrough rom-com Finding Mr. Right (2013) was famously credited with an upsurge in Chinese tourism to Seattle.

Two romance-tinged films from director Yan are also screening this week: Love Never Ends, a tale of old-age friendship and love with a winning turn from Hong Kong action veteran Tony Leung Ka-fai (Election), and Viva La Vida, which follows the relationship that develops between...

Daniyar Salamat’s The Divorce was the first film from Kazakhstan to win the best film prize at the Shanghai International Film Festival (Siff)’s Golden Goblet Awards. It also secured the best actress award for Omarova Amira.

The 1920s-set film revolves around a husband and wife who are in a relationship crisis, while depicting the social realities that repress the role of women.

The jury praised the film for “the sophisticated form of its story which mixes comedy, farce and tragedy and moves fluidly from public sphere to the intimate relationship of a couple in crisis” and for “the...

Foreign visitors were in short supply at Saturday’s opening ceremony of the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival, but that did little to diminish the festive atmosphere.

The ceremony was held at the Shanghai Grand Theater in the downtown area on an evening that was warm and spring-like and without the “plum rain” or summer downpours that the city is known for at this time of year.

Arguably the biggest names in attendance were Hong Kong actor and “Westworld” star Daniel Wu, Hong Kong director Dante Lam, Chinese star actor-director-producer Xu Zheng and Japanese actor Yakusho Koji, who won the best actor award a year ago at Cannes for his leading role in Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days.” Marco Mueller, a celebrated festival director and artistic consultant, was also on hand in his adopted home town.

Wu was representing new film “Decoded,” directed by Chen Sicheng, whose “Lost in the Stars...

The promise from organizers of the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival is for a mix of the “old and the new” and to that end this year’s program offers a look at emerging contemporary filmmakers as well as movies that chart a course from the local industry’s development in the early 1900s through to today.

The bustling Chinese metropolis has been transformed by its annual celebration of cinema, with 47 theaters spread out across the city’s 16 districts hosting an estimated 1,600 screenings of 461 films across the June 14-23 event. There’s heavy promotion everywhere you look — hanging from lampposts, dominating the billboards that inform this city of more than 26 million people.

Domestic productions are taking pride of place throughout the program and — most noticeably this year — across the festival’s four central Golden Goblet competitions for feature films, which boast no less than 12 mainland Chinese films.

“As the only...

Social networks have stretched the duration of our so-called 5 minutes of fame to unpredictable lengths and forms. Anyone who gets popular can easily become the next most unpopular person once an unexpected truth comes out or when a strong germ of gossip sprouts on the internet. We love to hate those who have what we don' t: wealth, good looks, professional success, and a huge number of followers.

Post Truth screened at Red Lotus Asian Film Festival Vienna

The expression ‘Chinese whispers' is resurrected in Da Peng's action comedy “Post Truth”, one of the most successful Chinese cinema hits of 2023, which already bagged six awards. What happens in the movie is not lost in translation, but rather in the endless pits of human thirst for the scandal and ruin of others. Da Peng, who is multitasking in the project he has (as in his previous projects) co-written with Biao Su – as the director,...

Lawrence Kan’s newsroom drama In Broad Daylight leads the pack going into the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards with 16 nominations.

The feature, which follows an undercover journalist who exposes the abuse of residents in a nursing home, secured nods in all but three of the 19 categories. It marks the second feature by Kan and proved the fourth highest grossing local film in 2023.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

Also gaining multiple nominations was Nick Cheuk’s emotive drama Time Still Turns The Pages and Felix Chong’s financial crime extravaganza The Goldfinger, which secured 12 nods apiece, while Jack Ng...

Parallax, one of the few indie film sales firms in China has picked up two of this year’s best performing mainland Chinese movies.

Ahead of the winter festival and markets season, Parallax has taken on comedy-drama “Post Truth” and family-oriented comedy-fantasy “Five Hundred Miles.”

Directed and co-written by Dong Chengpeng (aka Da Peng), “Post Truth” is the story of a cemetery plot salesman who is released from prison and seeks to clear the online rumors of sexual misconduct by his deceased client. The film stars Dong and leading female actor Li Xueqin.

Dong previously directed hit 2015 title “Jian Bing Man and another 2023 title “One and Only.”

Produced by Ruyi Entertainment with backing from ticketing agencies Taopiaopiao and Maoyan, “Post Truth” released in March and earned over $100 million in mainland cinemas.

In “Five Hundred Miles” a dubious lawyer and a shy man, who are both involved with the same woman,...

The crime thriller topped the box office in China.

Hong Kong’s One Cool Pictures is bringing Chinese crime thriller Dust To Dust to the Asian Contents & Film Market, returning to the Busan market as an exhibitor for the first time since the Covid pandemic.

The company has picked up international sales rights to feature excluding mainland China, where it topped the box office for 18 days and has grossed more than $60.5m (RMB473m), following its release on September 9.

The film received its world premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival in June, where it won a best actor award...

In 1995, a large armed robbery occurred in Guangdong. A bank cash truck was robbed by five armed robbers, causing a loss of $15 million and three bank’s escorts were killed. The incident shocked the whole country, the Police immediately set up a task force, led by Wang Shouyue (played by Lam Ka Tung) and He Lan (played by Zhang Songwen), and quickly found the whereabouts of the five robbers, except the real mastermind behind the case, the owner of a construction company, Chen Xinwen (played by Da Peng), and his cousin Chen Xinnian (played by Sun Yang). Chen Xinwen and Chen Xinnian embarked on the road to escape and has since evaporated. Twenty-one years later, the case has long faded from the public, and Wang Shouyue also retired. However, a usual video with a blurred figure rekindled his hope of solving the case. He went to the border city to...

“Dust to Dust,” a low-key crime thriller, topped the mainland Chinese box office over the weekend, despite only being released on Saturday.

The film, directed by Jonathan Li, recounts how 21 years after a major armed robbery, a video of the crime resurfaces and causes the police to reopen their investigation. It had its world premiere in June, in competition at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

With Da Peng, a former talk show host, required to age significantly for the lead role, the film earned $22.2 million (RMB160 million) in just two days, according to consultancy Artisan Gateway. The film replaced “Oppenheimer” which had led the chart for the previous two (Friday-Sunday) weekends.

“Oppenheimer,” which has been an unusual hit in China, earned $9.6 million (RMB68.8 million) over the latest weekend, to achieve a cumulative of $47.2 million.

Giant screen provider, Imax reported that some $3 million of “Oppenheimer’s” weekend total came from its venues,...

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer climbed to $47.2 million in China over the weekend, continuing a better-than-expected run in the world’s second-biggest box office territory. But the blockbuster biopic ceded first place to Chinese crime thriller Dust to Dust, which came on strong with a $22.2 million two-day opening starting Saturday, topping Oppenheimer‘s $9.6 million Friday-to-Sunday total, according to data from box office tracker Artisan Gateway.

Chinese ticketing app Maoyan forecasts Oppenheimer will finish its local run with approximately $57 million, which will make it the fourth-biggest U.S. film release in China in 2023 behind Fast X ($139.5 million), Meg 2: The Trench ($116.5 million, but a China co-production) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($86.9 million).

Despite its long runtime and weighty historical subject matter — which many analysts expected would be a drag in China — Oppenheimer has been boosted by a rave local reception. On the influential fan platform Douban, it has received nearly...

China’s summer box office has crossed the RMB20bn ($2.75bn) threshold for the first time, taking the country’s year-to-date gross to nearly $6bn.

According to official data published by government agency China Film Administration, $2.87bn (RMB20.62bn) box office sales were generated from 505 million cinema admission from June 1 – August 31. The star performers were all local productions, which occupied the top six spots at the box office and accounted for 87.6% of the market share.

According to ticketing platform Maoyan, the runaway champion was No More Bets, directed by Shen Ao and produced by Ning Hao. The crime drama, which...

After a soft start in China, Barbie began to make inroads in the world’s second-biggest movie market in its second frame, buoyed by great critics scores and strong word of mouth.

Barbie opened to $8 million in China last weekend, claiming fifth place amid tough competition from local hits Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms, Chang An and Never Say Never. The modest total seemed to suggest that Barbie would go the way of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and a slew of recent Hollywood tentpoles that opened weak in China and failed to show legs — feeding into the trend that Chinese consumers were turning away from Western fare at the multiplex.

But unlike other recent Hollywood releases, Greta Gerwig’s had excellent scores on China’s most respected movie apps when it opened, earning 9.4 on Maoyan, 9.3 on Tao Piao Piao and 8.6 on Douban. This, along...

“Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms,” the first part of Wuershan’s big-budget “Fengshen Trilogy,” topped the mainland China box office for the second weekend and expanded its week-on-week haul by 35%.

‘Barbie’ also showed signs of resilience in a market where it opened a week earlier in a disappointing fifth place.

“Creation of the Gods I” grossed $57.6 million. according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That compares with $42.6 million in it opening frame and after 11 days in Chinese theaters, it has earned $156 million. Also, unlike its first weekend, “Creation of the Gods” was the winner on each day between Friday and Sunday.

The “Fengshen Trilogy” set out to be a mega scale blending of history, folklore and mythology from more than 3,000 years ago, that would be China’s answer to both “Lord of the Rings” and “Iron Man.” It counts of Barrie Osborne (“Lord of the Rings...

Going simply by the awards handed out, the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival delivered on its promise to celebrate the emerging stars of both Asian and Chinese cinema.

There were Golden Goblet wins for established markets Japan and China, and those less known, including Uzbekistan. And there were some scene-stealing emotions shared up on stage at the Shanghai Grand Theater, including the moments when two of China’s biggest stars, Hu Ge and Da Peng, were jointly awarded the festival’s best actor prize and then shared memories of their long-lasting friendship.

Japanese director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri was certainly swept up by the occasion, as China’s major festival event marked a return to normalcy — and a return of international guests — after the travel restrictions and assorted uncertainties of the global pandemic.

Kumakiri’s Yoko picked up the festival’s best feature film, best actress and best screenplay awards in the...

Further winners included Spanish documentary ‘Muyeres’.

Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s Japanese drama Yoko scored a hat-trick of prizes at the Shanghai International Film Festival’s (Siff) Golden Goblet Awards including best film.

The film’s Japanese lead Rinko Kikuchi was named best actress for her performance of Yoko, a 42-year-old single woman who embarks on long journey to her hometown after the death of her estranged father. The film also won the best screenplay prize.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Kikuchi previously received an Oscar nomination for 2006’s Babel and worked with director Kumakiri on Hole In The Sky...

Further winners included Spanish documentary ‘Muyeres’.

Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s Japanese drama Yoko scored a hat-trick of prizes at the Shanghai International Film Festival’s (Siff) Golden Goblet Awards including best film.

The film’s Japanese lead Rinko Kikuchi was named best actress for her performance of Yoko, a 42-year-old single woman who embarks on long journey to her hometown after the death of her estranged father. The film also won the best screenplay prize.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Kikuchi previously received an Oscar nomination for 2006’s Babel and worked with director Kumakiri on Hole In The Sky...

Japanese drama feature “Yoko” won the Golden Goblet best picture award at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

The jury Grand Prix was awarded to Spain’s “Muyeres” with China’s Liu Jin winning the best director prize. The trio also collected additional prizes making them the only multiple winners in a ceremony that sprinkled its awards widely.

“Yoko,” directed by Kumakiri Kazuyoshi, who earlier this year saw melodramatic “#Manhole” play in Berlin, takes the structure of a road-movie and is a journey of self-discovery of a woman who had been socially isolated in her apartment for many years. Portrayed by global star Rinko Kikuchi, the woman is forced to confront the real world, and herself, when she takes a 658 kilometre cross-country journey to her father’s funeral. Without a cell phone or the money for public transport, she finds herself having to hitch hike. Kikuchi also earned the best actress award.

The Shanghai International Film Festival, China’s most prestigious movie industry event, kicks off its 30th-anniversary edition Friday night. It will be the first version of the festival that’s easily accessible to the global film community since 2019, after the past three editions were either canceled or rendered difficult to attend by strict Covid-19 travel restrictions at the time.

This year, film stars from at home and afar will descend on China’s commercial capital to celebrate the ongoing comeback of China’s movie business. Jason Statham will lend some Hollywood star power to the proceedings when he walks the red carpet for the festival’s opening ceremony Friday night in promotion of his upcoming Warner Bros. blockbuster sequel, Meg 2: The Trench, which opens Aug. 4 and co-stars Chinese leading man Wu Jing. European film legend, Jerzy Skolimowski of Poland — who wrote Roman Polansky’s landmark Knife in the Water...

The 25th edition marks a return in-person after being cancelled last year.

Han Yan’s Love Never Ends is set to open the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival (Siff), which has also revealed the nominations for its Golden Goblet Awards.

The romance drama is adapted from a cartoon of the same name created by Kang Full. Ni Dahong, Kara Wai, Tony Leung Ka-Fai and Cecilia Yip play two elderly couples who show it is never too late to love.

Director Han previously directed 2015’s Go Away Mr. Tumor and 2020’s A Little Red Flower. Love Never Ends is set for...

Hollywood’s recent streak of shaky box office results in China continued over the weekend, as Warner Bros’ superhero sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Universal’s horror hit M3GAN both crashed and burned, losing to Chinese holdover releases.

Shazam! 2, directed by David F. Sandberg and starring Zachary Levi, opened to just $4.3 million, according to data from Artisan Gateway. The debut represents a 86 percent slide from the original Shazam!‘s $29.7 million opening in 2019. Ticketing app Maoyan currently projects Shazam 2 to finish with just $7.5 million, one of the lowest results of recent memory for a U.S. superhero tentpole.

Chinese comedy Post Truth, which opened March 10, easily won its second frame with a $18.8. million haul. The film is written by, directed by and stars Chengpeng Dong (Detective Chinatown 3). The movie follows a cemetery plot salesman who’s struggling to salvage his reputation after he’s been slandered by online lies.

Sales agency Memento Intl. has unveiled the first clip and poster from Liu Jian’s Berlin competition title “Art College 1994,” which world premieres on Feb. 24.

The film is a portrait of youth set on the campus of the Chinese Southern Academy of Arts in the early 1990s. Against the backdrop of reforms opening China to the Western world, a group of college students live in full swing as they take their first steps into adulthood, where love and friendships are intertwined with artistic pursuits, ideals and ambitions. Caught between tradition and modernity, they now have to choose who they want to become.

It is the director’s third animation feature after 2010’s “Piercing I” and “Have a Nice Day,” which premiered in competition at the Berlinale in 2017, and quickly built a cult following. “Have a Nice Day” was also honored with the best animated feature award at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan.

"Extraordinary courage can change history." Well Go USA has revealed yet another official US trailer for Hidden Blade, a WWII Chinese spy thriller from filmmaker Cheng Er. This one already opened in China in January, and is landing in US theaters starting in February in a few more weeks. The film follows the story of a group of underground workers who risked their lives to send intelligence and defend the motherland, set after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor when the Wang Jingwei regime declared war on Britain & America. During World War II, at the height of their war of resistance against Japan, a group of courageous citizens develops a top-secret underground espionage network at great peril to their own lives. Actor Tony Leung headlines Hidden Blade, along with Wang Yibo, Hiroyuki Mori, Chengpeng Dong, Zhou Xun, Eric Wang, and Huang Lei. I like how both of these trailers below feature no dialogue,...

Hainan Island International Film Festival (Hiiff) in China’s Sanya has returned as an in-person event, following a relatively short Covid-related postponement, with separate competition sections for features, documentaries and shorts.

The festival opened on December 18 with a screening of Chinese filmmaker Da Peng’s Post Truth and is scheduled to wrap on December 25. It was originally scheduled to run December 3-10, but was postponed due to the on-going Covid situation.

Veteran festival director Marco Mueller recently joined Hiiff as artistic director. He previously headed programming for China’s Pingyao International Film Festival.

Hiiff’s 11-title competition section will screen recent festival favourites including Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, Alice Diop’s Saint Omer and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts. Chinese titles in competition include Chakme Rinpoche’s Georgia and Qiao Siyu’s The Cord Of Life. The documentary competition will screen eight titles (see line-up below).

In addition to the competition sections,...

Marco Mueller overseeing fourth edition of festival.

China’s Hainan Island International Film Festival (Hiiff) is to take place from December 18-25, after being postponed at short notice, and has revealed the titles in its feature and documentary competitions.

The fourth edition of the festival, held in the city of Sanya, was set to run from December 3-10 but was abruptly put on hold following a rise in Covid cases. Now, following the relaxation of pandemic measure in China over the past week, the festival is back on and has unveiled its line-up of titles.

Scroll down for competition titles

The Hiiff Competition,...

Hainan Film Festival: Island Mentality

The Hainan Island International Film Festival in China’s Sanya is back on again after a cancelation earlier this month at short notice. The festival, overseen and curated by Marco Mueller, will operate Dec. 18-25 and open with a premiere screening of “Post Truth.” The film directed by and starring Da Peng, is built on the premise that it is never easy to refute a rumor. The story follows a seller of cemetery plots who is determined to rehabilitate the reputation of one of his deceased clients. The film is set for commercial release on Dec. 31. While the details of Mueller’s competition sections have still not been revealed, components of the other sections contain many of the most accomplished international films of the past year. “Jeong Sun,” “Riceboy Sleeps” and “Tora’s Husband” appear in the Fest Best section. “Almost Love,” “In Viaggio,” “My...