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French filmmaker Alain Guiraudie to also sit on New Currents jury.

The 27th Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has announced the line-up for its two Asian competition juries with Unifrance president Serge Toubiana set to preside over the New Currents jury.

New Currents is Biff’s main competition section, which introduces first or second feature films of emerging directors that the festival sees as potential future leaders in Asian cinema.

Toubiana will be joined on the jury the French director Alain Guiraudie, whose Stranger By The Lake won the Queer Palm and directing prize when it played in Un Certain...

Winner for Best Film and Best Actor awards from the Japanese Academy, as much as the Audience Award from Udine in 2021, “Midnight Swan” is a film that essentially establishes Eiji Uchida on the top level of local cinema, and an excellent drama that works on a number of levels.

Nagisa is a transgender on the process of a sex change operation, who grew up in Hiroshima as a man but now lives in Shinjuku as a woman, working in a night club as a dancer. Due to an accident, she begins to live with middle school student Ichika, a distant relative, who has been suffering from neglect from her alcoholic mother Saori for years, to the point that she barely utters two words to anyone. The cohabitation is as difficult as possible, with Nagisa making no effort to hide that she does not really want the girl there, who also...

Asian films about LGBT are on the rise the latest years, with films like “Our Love Story”, “Close-Knit“, “Die Beautiful” and “Fathers“. However, Takuro Nakamura takes the concept a bit further, as he combines it with the issue of cultural differences, while he also offers a rather artistic visage to the subject.

“West North West “screened at Japan Cuts

Naima is a rather shy, socially incompatible exchange student from Tehran living in Tokyo, where she studies art. Her life, though, seems to change when she attracts the interest of Kei, a radically different woman who works in a bar and has a relationship with a fashion model, Ai. Kei, however, has some troubles with her tumultuous relationship, and the somewhat morose and quiet nature of Naima draws her, with the girls quickly becoming friends. Kei seems to want more from Naima, who does not seem to share the same sentiments.

Lgbt films seem to spur from every corner of Se Asia during the latest years with films like “Close-Knit” (Japan), “Our Love Story” (S. Korea) and “Fathers” (Thailand), for example. However, and although these films are good, none of them seems to be great. “Small Talk” comes to fill this gap, in a process that netted it the Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film at the Berlin Film Festival, among other local and international awards, and made it the official Taiwanese entry for the 90th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

“Small Talk” is screening at Queer East HomeSexual Edition on Demand 18 April – 17 May

The documentary revolves around Huang and her mother A-nu’s relationship, and by revealing the latter’s past, sheds light in the events that have led them to alienation, despite the fact that they have been living under the same roof, for years. A-nu’s...

Many attendees of the Shanghai Intl. Film Festival likely know little about the ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival, the other event in town every June. Unlike the former, government-sponsored one, ShanghaiPRIDE operates in a legal grey zone due to its celebration of Lgbtq content, which is frowned upon by Chinese censors.

This year, ShanghaiPRIDE’s non-profit event ran from June 8-16 and showcased more than 60 films — half of them shorts — over the course of a packed week to around 80 people per screening. “We are pretty out. The problem is we don’t know just how out we can be,” said organizer Raymond Phung, who explained that though the volunteer-run festival has been allowed to continue into its 11th year relatively unmolested by authorities, there’s always a possibility that circumstances could change without warning.

This year, it opened with the Chinese-Spanish feature “A Dog Barking at the Moon,” directed by Lisa Zi Xiang.

Naoko Ogigami has been appointed head of Skip City’s Japanese Film Competition juries.

Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike will head the jury for the International Competition at this year’s Skip City International D-Cinema Festival (July 13-21).

Naoko Ogigami has been appointed head of Skip City’s Japanese Film Competition juries, which includes sections for features and short films.

Miike’s latest film, First Love, co-produced by Toei and the UK’s Recorded Picture Company, premiered at Cannes last week in the Directors Fortnight section. Ogigami has credits including Close-Knit (2017), which won a Teddy Award and Panorama Audience Award at the Berlin film festival.

Lgbt films seem to spur from every corner of Se Asia during the latest years with films like “Close-Knit” (Japan), “Our Love Story” (S. Korea) and “Fathers” (Thailand), for example. However, and although these films are good, none of them seems to be great. “Small Talk” comes to fill this gap, in a process that netted it the Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film at the Berlin Film Festival, among other local and international awards, and made it the official Taiwanese entry for the 90th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

“Small Talk” screened at San Diego Asian Film Festival

The documentary revolves around Huang and her mother A-nu’s relationship, and by revealing the latter’s past, sheds light in the events that have led them to alienation, despite the fact that they have been living under the same roof, for years. A-nu’s life story is filled with drama,...

Lgbt films seem to spur from every corner of Se Asia during the latest years with films like “Close-Knit” (Japan), “Our Love Story” (S. Korea) and “Fathers” (Thailand), for example. However, and although these films are good, none of them seems to be great. “Small Talk” comes to fill this gap, in a process that netted it the Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film at the Berlin Film Festival, among other local and international awards, and made it the official Taiwanese entry for the 90th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

“Small Talk” is screening at Taiwan Film Festival UK 2019

The documentary revolves around Huang and her mother A-nu’s relationship, and by revealing the latter’s past, sheds light in the events that have led them to alienation, despite the fact that they have been living under the same roof, for years. A-nu’s life story is filled with drama,...

As I have mentioned many times before, if there is one genre that can be found in abundance in Japanese cinema, that would be the family drama, in the distinct, indie style so many local filmmakers seem to prefer. Naoko Ogigami however, strays away from the basics of the genre, by presenting the interaction of the family concept with Lgbt.

The story revolves around Tomo, an 11-year-old girl who is living with her negligent mom, who seems to care very little for her, even abandoning her for days at a time. Having no alternative, Tomo ends up staying with her uncle Makio, her mother’s brother, after she disappears once more. Makio is living with Rinko, an Lgbt, which makes quite an impression to Tomo, as one of his initial statements is to clarify that she was born a boy. Despite her amazement and perplexity, the girl soon warms up to Rinko,...

Berlin’s Panorama lineup also includes new films from Us, China and Brazil.

Berlin’s Panorama strand is now complete following the addition of 24 additional titles.

A total of 51 works from 43 countries have been chosen for screening in the section, including 21 in Panorama Dokumente and 29 feature films in the main programme and Panorama Special. 36 of these films will be getting their world premieres at the Berlinale.

The German production Tiger Girl by Jakob Lass will open this year’s edition of Panorama Special at Berlin’s Zoo Palast cinema, along with the previously announced Brazilian production Vazante.

Among newly confirmed films are UK Sundance title God’s Own Country, Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, Cate Shortland’s Berlin Syndrome, feminist fairy tale The Misandrists by Berlinale regular Bruce Labruce, Erik Poppe’s The King’s Choice and Belgian-French-Lebanese co-production Insyriated which stars Hiam Abbass as a woman trapped in an apartment during war.[p...