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Benedict Cumberbatch had a pretty close call with death back in 2004. Following his commitment to BBC’s To the Ends of the Earth, he flew to South Africa to film the show. However, things went south when he and two of his mates were left stranded after their car’s front tire blew up in a notoriously dangerous place.

To the Ends of the Earth | Credit: BBC

What followed was complete horror for the three of them, as not only did they get robbed, but Cumberbatch feared he was going to be killed after he was trapped in a car’s trunk for 2.5 hours.

Benedict Cumberbatch feared for his life after being kidnapped Benedict Cumberbatch in Doctor Strange | Credit: Marvel Studios

While they were busy fixing the tire, Benedict Cumberbatch and his friends got ambushed by six men, and considering they had smoked some weed beforehand, the three of them were scared to death.

Benedict Cumberbatch is looking back at a terrifying experience.

In a new interview with Variety, the 48-year-old Doctor Strange actor recalled filming a BBC television series back in the day in South Africa where he and his friends were abducted, bound, eventually abandoned in a “near-death” experience.

Keep reading to find out more…Back in 2004, Benedict was in his late 20s when he was shooting the miniseries To the Ends of the Earth in South Africa when he and some friends went on an diving excursion.

While driving home, their tire blew out and after the pulled over to the side of the road, they were robbed and abducted by six men. Benedict and his friends were forced into the car and driven around for hours before eventually their kidnappers let them out, tied them up, and made them sit execution-style. Eventually the men fled.

Benedict says that the horrifying...

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” as John Lennon beautifully put it. Sometimes, the universe has a way of throwing us into the deep end, forcing us to navigate danger, fear, and uncertainty when we least expect it. Benedict Cumberbatch, one of the most respected actors of his generation, certainly didn’t plan for one life-altering experience he encountered over 20 years ago.

Yet, what happened to him in South Africa while filming To the Ends of the Earth is a tale so harrowing, that it feels like it belongs in a thriller flick.

Benedict Cumberbatch in To the Ends of the Earth (2005) | Credit: BBC

Back in 2004, while working abroad, Cumberbatch was suddenly thrust into a nightmare when six men abducted and robbed him. The incident was more than just an unfortunate event—it was a near-death experience that would forever change the way he saw the world.

While it might be cumbersome trying to spell his name, you have got to associate Benedict Cumberbatch with pure excellence and elegance. Whether he is playing the brilliant Sherlock Holmes or the magnificent Doctor Strange, the actor’s versatility and sharp cheekbones will leave you completely mesmerized. Thus, when we learned that Benedict Cumberbatch once had a near-death experience, we couldn’t help but be in awe of how he turned his life around.

Benedict Cumberbatch in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness (2022) | Credits: Marvel Studios

About two decades ago, Benedict Cumberbatch found himself in a horrifying situation that made a lasting impact on his life. He recently opened up about the memory which left him wanting to do nothing with the mundane.

Benedict Cumberbatch’s run-in with robbers Benedict Cumberbatch in To the Ends of the Earth (2005) | Credits: BBC

By the time this incident took place, Benedict Cumberbatch...

Did you know that Benedict Cumberbatch was once abducted? (Photo Credit – Facebook)

Doctor Strange has a backstory that’s a little less “superhero origin” and a lot more “real-life nightmare.” Before his big-screen magic tricks and interdimensional escapes, Benedict Cumberbatch had a terrifying run-in with six armed men. And no, his Cloak of Levitation wasn’t there to save him.

Flashback to 2004, South Africa: Cumberbatch was in the middle of filming To the Ends of the Earth and decided to head out with some co-stars to learn scuba diving. The trip itself? That’s probably great. The way back? Not so much. Their car tire blew out on a remote road. And as they tried fixing it, a group of men emerged, guns in hand. They forced Cumberbatch and his friends back into the car, where the actor faced a real-life horror plot that would leave anyone shaken. “We stopped,...

Benedict Cumberbatch has crafted for himself a stellar career with captivating performances across different genres, mediums, and franchises. Currently known best for his Marvel Cinematic Universe role of the mysterious Doctor Strange, the British actor is one of the few who have landed their talents in various franchises like The Lord of the Rings prequel film trilogy, The Hobbit.

Benedict Cumberbatch | Credit: Image by Gage Skidmore, licensed under Cc By-sa 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Apart from his movie roles, that dabble with action, adventure, crime, and superheroes to Shakespeare and drama, Cumberbatch is famous for his remarkable portrayal of the brilliant fictitious detective, Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock. His success on both the big and small screen has garnered him widespread acclaim and fame.

But respect and recognition are not the only things The Imitation Game star has earned in his decades-long career, for his high-profile roles and diverse projects have led...

Japan’s Nikkatsu has secured key sales of Cloud, the upcoming suspense thriller by acclaimed auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa, ahead of its premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

The feature has been acquired for France (Art House Films), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Italy (Minerva Pictures) and Taiwan (Sky Digi Entertainment).

Cloud will play out of competition at Venice, which runs from August 28-September 7 and revealed its line-up today (July 23).

It will mark a return to the Lido for Kurosawa, who won the Silver Lion for best director at Venice in 2020 with Wife Of A Spy.

The story, written by Kurosawa, centres...

Exclusive: Loaded Films founder Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Kinoshita-Kansei Group CEO Masahide Kinoshita have teamed up to launch Tokyo-based production company, Kinofaction, which aims to focus on minority Japanese co-productions.

The new outfit will take a minority stake in feature film projects that have significant Japanese elements and/or talent involved. It is actively seeking projects initiated outside of Japan with strong festival and commercial potential.

Loaded Films, the production company founded by Mizuno-Gray and Jason Gray, will continue to separately produce a slate of projects developed in-house, including Renoir, the next project from Plan 75 director Chie Hayakawa, which Goodfellas has boarded for sales.

Kinofaction already has several projects on its slate, including Poland-set The Excursion, from writer-director Kei Ishikawa, whose credits include Venice titles Traces Of Sin (2016) and A Man (2020). His new project is a co-production with Poland’s Lava Films, which is here in Cannes with competition title The Girl With The Needle.

Japan’s Free Stone Productions has secured international sales rights to upcoming drama Promised Land and is launching the feature at Hong Kong Filmart.

It marks the feature directorial debut of Masashi Iijima and is based on a novel of the same name written by Kazuichi Iijima.

Set in a mountainous region of northern Japan in 1983, the story is centred on traditional hunters known as the Matagi, who track and kill wildlife every winter. The film follows two young men with opposing views who venture out in search of a bear, despite the introduction of a hunting ban by Japan’s environmental agency.

Japanese auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who won best director at Venice in 2020 with Wife Of A Spy, is working on a new suspense thriller titled Cloud, which will be introduced to buyers at the EFM by Japanese studio Nikkatsu Corporation.

The feature is in post-production with a Japanese release set for September 2024. A first look at the film can be seen above.

Written by Kurosawa, the story centres on Ryosuke Yoshii, an enigmatic young man who tries to make money by reselling shrewdly obtained goods on the internet under the pseudonym ‘Ratel’.

The film stars Masaki Suda, who won best actor...

Daisuke Miyazaki in New York City, July 2023. Photo courtesy of the author.Near the end of Daisuke Miyazaki’s Yamato (California) (2016), an aspiring rapper with stage fright finally raps unfettered. As she wanders through a meadow, an unmotivated movie light cuts through the natural daylight, illuminating her face in her overdue moment of release.Near the end of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth (2019), a travel reporter with fantasies of singing finally does so unfettered. As she wanders through a meadow, an unmotivated movie light cuts through the natural daylight, illuminating her face in her overdue moment of release. Miyazaki’s mid-2010s work undoubtedly influenced Kurosawa’s film. Both Yamato (California) and To the Ends of the Earth were shot by the same cinematographer, veteran Akiko Ashizawa. Miyazaki had also worked with Kurosawa once before, as an assistant director on Tokyo Sonata (2008), and the two remained in touch.

Art House Films has taken distribution rights for France.

Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who won best director at Venice in 2020 with Wife Of A Spy, has wrapped shooting French thriller Serpent’s Path starring Ko Shibasaki and Damien Bonnard.

The film, now in post-production, is an adaptation of Kurosawa’s 1998 Japanese feature of the same name, in which a man enlists a friend to help him exact revenge upon his daughter’s murderer. The original was written by Hiroshi Takahashi, co-writer of iconic horror Ring, and starred Teruyuki Kagawa and Show Aikawa.

In the French-language remake, the main character is...

We can expect a new Kiyoshi Kurosawa oeuvre in 2024 as the Japanese filmmaker has set up shop in Paris for his next feature. Details are next to nil at this point but we’ve learned that production begins this month and will roll into May on a France-Japan co-production. We’ll likely find out in the weeks to come who he might have lassoed for the project which so far is untitled. It’s also unclear which genre the filmmaker will step into next – he has slowly been moving away from his horror roots with his recent filmography: Before We Vanish (2017), To the Ends of the Earth (2019) and Silver Lion winning Wife of a Spy.…...

Not too long ago, the Japanese film industry was enclosed in a tight domestic bubble, with local filmmakers mostly making local films for local audiences. Japanese studios appreciated international recognition, but regarded foreign sales as a sort of after-dinner mint – a nice extra, but not essential.

One reason for this “Japan only” mentality was the size of the local market – still the third-largest in the world in terms of box office — which allowed local films at all budget levels to comfortably recoup at home. Another was the long list of missteps and failures by Japanese filmmakers and studios when they ventured abroad or tried to target foreign markets.

The most notorious example was the firing of Kurosawa Akira after two weeks of shooting the 1970 WWII epic “Tora, Tora, Tora.” More recently, one-time uber-producer Sento Takenori lost his production company Rumble Fish in 2008 after his strategy of making art films for...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s old-fashioned drama delivers big performances and intriguing plot twists

Kiyoshi Kurosawa has probably long since got used to seeing the words “no relation” after his name; and this Japanese film-maker has in any case established his own distinctive, valuable presence in Asian cinema. Just two years ago, he released his complex drama To the Ends of the Earth, and now, working with Ryû Hamaguchi as co-writer, he has created this excellent wartime mystery thriller, which won the Silver Lion at last year’s Venice film festival: an old-fashioned drama replete with big performances and plot twists, double-cross and triple-cross. It’s like a three-quarter scale version of a Lean epic, a mid-level Zhivago or English Patient, but all the more intriguing for being relatively modest in scope.

Yû Aoi is outstanding as Satoko, a movie actor in 1940 Kobe in Japan, married to Yûsaku (Issey Takahashi), a prosperous...

"I called you here to tell you to be prepared." Kino Lorber has revealed an official US trailer for a Japanese thriller called Wife of a Spy, which initially premiered at the 2020 Venice Film Festival last year. The film won a Silver Lion award there for Best Director, given to prolific Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who works non-stop making films – his latest was To the Ends of the Earth before this. Kurosawa's Wife of a Spy is described as a "riveting, gorgeously crafted, old-school Hitchockian thriller shot in stunning 8K." A Japanese merchant leaves his wife behind in order to travel to Manchuria just before the start of WWII, where he witnesses an act of barbarism. His subsequent actions cause misunderstanding, jealousy and legal problems for his wife. When she finally discovers his true intentions, she is torn between loyalty to her husband, the life they have built, and the country they call home.

Next month’s lineup at The Criterion Channel has been unveiled, featuring no shortage of excellent offerings. Leading the pack is a massive, 20-film retrospective dedicated to John Huston, featuring a mix of greatest and lesser-appreciated works, including Fat City, The Dead, Wise Blood, The Man Who Would Be King, and Key Largo. (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre will join the series on October 1.)

Also in the lineup is series on the works of Budd Boetticher (specifically his Randolph Scott-starring Ranown westerns), Ephraim Asili, Josephine Baker, Nikos Papatakis, Jean Harlow, Lee Isaac Chung (pre-Minari), Mani Kaul, and Michelle Parkerson.

The sparkling new restoration of La Piscine will also debut, along with Amores perros, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Cate Shortland’s Lore, both Oxhide films, Moonstruck, and much more.

See the full list of August titles below and more on The Criterion Channel.

Abigail Harm,...

Fine entertainment, food for thought, five world premieres and at least a touch of Japanese wackiness and warmth – this is what awaits the audience with around 80 current Japanese short and feature-length films of the 21st Nippon Connection Film Festival. After weeks of hoping and worrying, it is now certain that unfortunately the pandemic will not allow in-theater screenings in 2021 either. The largest festival for Japanese cinema worldwide will once again be held exclusively online from June 1 to 6, 2021.

All films are available online for six days throughout Germany and in some cases outside of Germany. Face-to-face talks with the filmmakers are moving into the digital realm to spark a direct exchange. For everyone whose yearning for Japan is stronger than ever, there is also Nippon Culture: the digital supporting program with over 40 interactive workshops, talks, extraordinary performances and concerts. For the first time, the Nippon Click & Collect Kiosk at the usual...

The 21st Japanese Film Festival Nippon Connection is planned as a hybrid event and is scheduled for June 1 to 6, 2021. The event is expected to take place online and at a few selected venues in the city of Frankfurt am Main. On six days, the world’s largest festival for Japanese cinema presents a selection of over 100 current Japanese short and feature-length films. All films will be available via video on demand. In addition, several filmmakers will participate in online discussions and interviews live from Japan. Digital workshops, lectures, performances, and concerts complement the program.

Due to uncertainties regarding the further progression of the pandemic and associated regulations, planning the festival is extremely difficult. The organizing team of the Nippon Connection film festival is hopeful, however, that it will be possible to offer on-site cinema as well. “Film festivals always live from shared moments in the cinema and the film experience...

Nearly a year after closing its physical location, New York City’s IFC Center is preparing to finally reopen on Friday, March 5. The theater has announced a range of new safety measures along with new releases and several screening series. The arthouse venue first shut its doors on March 13, 2020 as early lockdown measures called for the closure of a variety of cultural institutions. In late February, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York City movie theaters had permission to reopen at 25 percent capacity and with a maximum of 50 people allowed per screen. Other areas of the state reopened months ago.

While the state has enacted a number of guidelines for reopening theaters, IFC Center has added additional safety measures, including mandatory mask-wearing at all times, no concession sales, and no eating and drinking allowed in theaters. Its five screens will also feature reserved seating (with six feet between...

Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa may be best known for cult favorites like “Pulse,” “Cure,” and “Tokyo Sonata,” but he’s been steadily pouring out films on the festival circuit and into arthouses for four decades. His latest to hit the U.S. is “To the Ends of the Earth,” a road odyssey that picked up acclaim across the Locarno, Toronto, New York, and AFI film festivals in 2019. The film begins an exclusive virtual run on Friday, December 11 via the Metrograph, and IndieWire shares the exclusive first trailer. Watch it below.

Here’s the synopsis: “Yoko (former J-pop idol Atsuko Maeda) travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan (breathtakingly captured by veteran Dp Akiko Ashizawa) to shoot an episode of her travel reality show. In front of the camera, her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted. Despite her best efforts, the filming of the television series ends unsuccessfully,...

Japanese film sales company Free Stone Productions has expanded both its new movie line-up and its stock of library titles ahead of next week’s Tiffcom and the American Film Market.

Its back catalog has grown with the addition of the Zero Pictures roster. Zero has been active since 2001 and is a production company and talent agency that unites actor-director Okuda Eiji and the director Ando Momoko, and which focuses on director-oriented, quality films.

“The digital market has expanded due to the Covid-19. Since the Last Cannes market, there is more demand from digital platforms,” Free Stone founder Takamatsu Miyuki told Variety.

“We picked up one of (Zero’s) titles ‘0.5mm’ for international sales in the past, and we enjoyed working with them. That’s how we got to know that they had a great library of independent titles. We take the view that good films last forever, and that...

Wang Xiaoshuai took the best director prize for So Long, My Son.

Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite took best film at the 14th Asian Film Awards (Afa) today (October 28). The Palme d’Or and multiple Oscars winner also took best screenplay, editing and production design.

Due to Covid-19, the awards show was broadcast on the Afaa’s website and Youtube channel as well as on Busan’s Asian Contents & Film Market (Acfm) website with pre-recorded messages from organizers, presenters and winners, all in different locales.

Presenting the best film award, last year’s winner Kore-eda Hirokazu said: “In March last year,...

South Korean Oscar sensation Parasite was the big winner at this year’s Asian Film Awards, which were held today in an online format due to continued pandemic challenges.

The movie won Best Film, Best Screenplay for co-writers Han Jin Won and director Bong Joon Ho, Best Production Design and Best Editing. Bong Joon Ho was pipped to the Best Director award, however, by Wang Xiaoshuai, who took the prize for Chinese feature So Long, My Son.

The 13th Asian Film Awards were organized by the Afa Academy with the collaboration of the Busan, Tokyo, and Hong Kong film festivals. The ceremony was broadcast online by the Afaa and Busan festival’s official websites and Youtube channels.

Further awards included Hikari winning Best New Director for 37 Seconds, Lee Byung-hun winning Best Actor for The Man Standing Next, which is South Korea’s Oscar entry this year, and Zhou Dongyu...

Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” predictably dominated the Asian Film Awards. The dark comedy, which won Cannes 2019 and four Oscars, added four further prizes on Wednesday, including best film and best screenplay.

The Afa event this year shifted from its previous base in Hong Kong and Macau to Busan. And it moved its dates from March to October to coincide with the Busan International Film Festival. But the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing travel restrictions meant that the 14th Afa ceremony was an online one.

“Parasite” also claimed prizes for Yang Yinmo’s editing and for Lee Ha-jun’s production design.

“Every member of ‘Parasite,’ no matter how big or small the role is, deserves to make a speech here with me because we made it together. I strongly believe that we will meet in person next year at the Asian Film Awards, shake hands, and enjoy talking with one another without masks.

After leveraging his success in J-horror into a string of grounded social dramas that culminated with the 2008 masterpiece “Tokyo Sonata,” Japanese auteur Kurosawa Kiyoshi seemed to hit the ceiling of his talent or grow bored of himself. Possibly both. The years that followed told the story of a restless artist who was desperate for something — anything — that might live up to the prescient chill of “Pulse,” or the disquieting uncertainty of “Bright Future.”

Kurosawa’s search led him down an increasingly esoteric path that saw him zig-zag from a pair of lifeless ghost dramas (“Journey to the Shore” and the French-language “Daguerreotype”), to an interminable alien invasion throwback (“Before We Vanish”), a toothless “return-to-form” (the psychological thriller “Creepy”), and even the godforsaken wilds of television. By the time last year’s odd and comparatively entrancing “To the Ends of the Earth” found the director trawling for purpose in the arid sands of Uzbekistan,...

The Asian Film Awards Academy has decided to announce the winners online on October 14.

Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite leads the nominations for this year’s Asian Film Awards (Afa) – hosted by Busan International Film Festival and the first to be held outside of Hong Kong and Macau – with ten nominations including best film and best director.

The Asian Film Awards Academy (Afaa), comprising the Hong Kong, Tokyo and Busan international film festivals, announced during last year’s Busan that the 14th Afa ceremony would be held in the South Korean city this year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisers...

With his latest drama To the Ends of the Earth finally securing U.S. distribution, Kiyoshi Kurosawa embarked on production on his follow-up, the suspense/romance Wife of a Spy. Coming from the director who named Robert Zemeckis’ romantic spy thriller Allied his favorite film of the past decade, our expectations are quite high and now the first teaser trailer and poster have landed.

Starring Yu Aoi and Issey Takahashi, the director’s first wartime drama is set in 1940 in Kobe as World War II approaches. It follows a merchant who witnesses a horrific act and attempts to reveal it to the world, only to have his wife try to stop him out of safety. Co-written by the director and Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, the film is set for an October 16 release in Japan, and it’s one of the titles being presented in Cannes virtual market, which kicks off next week.

Ever since the Apple TV+ streaming platform officially launched in the fall of 2019, it has debuted several new scripted shows. Among them is “Servant,” created by BAFTA nominee Tony Basgallop and executive produced by Oscar nominee M. Night Shyamalan. Among the show’s four principal actors, there is one performer in particular who deserves Emmy recognition, and that would be Lauren Ambrose. (Spoilers Follow For Season One)

SEEWill Jennifer Aniston (‘The Morning Show’) pull off this Emmy feat? Only Edie Falco has ever done it before

Ambrose plays Dorothy Turner, a local television news reporter, recently bereaved mother, and wife to Sean (Toby Kebbell). They’ve hired Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) to be the nanny for their baby son, Jericho, who is actually a doll intended to transition the couple through their grief following the death of their real infant son. But Leanne’s arrival brings about strange and frightening occurrences.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, the Japanese director of “Cure,” “Pulse” and “Bright Future,” is now in post-production on period suspense romance “Wife of a Spy.” The film is being pitched at the European Film Market by sales and production firm Nikkatsu.

The film reteams “Romance Doll” stars Yu Aoi and Issey Takahashi.

The 1940-set plot involves a Japanese merchant who leaves his wife behind in order to travel to Manchuria, where he witnesses an act of barbarism. His subsequent actions cause misunderstanding, jealousy and legal problems for his wife. The screenplay is by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Tadashi Nohara and Kurosawa, who previously penned the script for Kurosawa’s “Happy Hour.”

The film is set for theatrical release later this year, probably after getting some festival play. Rights have already been pre-sold to Arthouse Films for France.

“Wife of a Spy” follows Kurosawa’s coolly received “To the Ends of the Earth,” a drama...

Kurosawa is a Cannes regular with films such as Tokyo Sonata (2008), Journey To The Shore (2015) and Before We Vanish (2017).

Paris-based distributor Art House Films has acquired French rights to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s war epic Wife Of A Spy, which is being sold internationally by Japan’s Nikkatsu.

Art House Films specialises in Japanese cinema and has previously released films including Kurosawa’s Foreboding (Yocho) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Happy Hour and Asako I & II, which played in Cannes competition in 2018. Launched in 2018, the company has also acquired films such as Singaporean filmmaker Eric Khoo’s Ramen Teh and Israeli director Yaron Shani’s Chained.

Earlier this week, we shared our feature highlighting the best festival premieres in 2019 that were still seeking distribution in the United States. Just a few days later, we’re thrilled to exclusively announce one of our favorites has now found a home.

KimStim has acquired all U.S. and Canadian rights to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, and was a selection at Tiff, Nyff, BFI London, Busan, Viennale, AFI Fest, Tokyo Iff, Taipei Golden Horse Ff, and more in recent months.

Commissioned to mark the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and the central Asian republic of Uzbekistan, the film stars J-pop icon Atusko Maeda, formerly of the mega-selling girl group AKB48, traveling to Uzbekistan to host an episode of a TV travel show. Along the way, her chipper, though somewhat insular persona begins to unravel, threatening her...

Following our top 50 films of 2019, we’re sharing personal top 10 lists from our contributors. Check out the latest below and see our complete year-end coverage here.

If this past decade’s trajectory of film consumption continues, the future of film culture seems extremely promising. Despite the continued homogenization of certain studio slates dominating the mainstream box office, a rejuvenated political consciousness and the proliferation of streaming services has breathed a second life into those kinds of previously unavailable (unmarketable) films, now accessible to a broader public. Arthouse films are contended in wider circles; mid-budget filmmaking is reappearing from distinguished directors that could never quite draw the theater audiences they expected. Ticket sales may have steadily decreased, but the surge in options has integrated films more readily with the general social experience!

It is with this comfort in eventual exposure that I list some of my favorite films that premiered this...

“The Horse Thieves, Roads of Time,” co-directed by Kazakhstan’s Yerlan Nurmukhambetov and Japan’s Lisa Takeba, has been set as the opening film of next month’s Busan International Film Festival.

“Although Kazakh films are not very familiar [to our audiences], the country has produced masterworks for the past five years,” said festival director Jay Jeon at the festival’s first press conference held in Busan on Wednesday morning. “Thieves” tells the tale of a man who is murdered on his way home after selling his horses at a market. Nurmukhambetov previously directed 2015’s “The Walnut Tree,” which won the Busan festival’s New Currents main competition section.

This year’s lineup includes two Venice selections, Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “The Truth” and David Michod’s “The King” as gala presentations. Other gala presentations are Wayne Wang’s U.S.-Korea co-production “Coming Home Again,” and Robert Guediguian’s “Gloria Mundi.” Busan confirmed...

TV reporter Yoko sits with a member of her crew in the breakfast room of Tashkent’s Uzbekistan Hotel. She’s miles away from her native Tokyo turf, on an assignment that shipped her all the way to the central Asian republic, ostensibly to film a “bramul,” a gigantic fish said to reach up to two meters in length. Except the fish is a most elusive creature, and the trip is turning into a disaster of epic proportions. The look on Yoko’s face has little to do with the failed quest though; her eyes are going grim, her face sending out less light. She tells the cameraman she fears her job is steering her away from what she truly wants to do: sing. The man consoles her (“singing and reporting to an audience aren’t much different”), but she won’t have it. “I feel different. Singing needs emotion,...

Photo by Ottavia Bosello

From the mezzanine level of Caffè Verbano, Locarno’s Piazza Grande glitters under the scorching sun, the army of black and yellow chairs sprawling below the festival’s biggest screen and iconic open-air theatre. At a table overlooking the piazza, Kiyoshi Kurosawa sits for the last few interviews ahead of the premiere of his new feature, To the Ends of the Earth.

It’s the Japanese horror master’s second time in Locarno–in 2013, his Real found a slot in the Swiss festival’s international competition–though the first in the non-competitive sidebar for which the fest is possibly best known for, the programme named after the square where, every night, an 8,000-strong audience enjoys some of the best in the year’s world cinema.

Assuming one can still find a leitmotiv in an oeuvre that’s as vast as it is growing increasingly protean, To...

The Golden Leopard goes to Portugal for Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela.

Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa received Locarno Film Festival’s top honour, the Golden Leopard, for his latest feature Vitalina Varela which had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s international competition.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The international jury headed by French filmmaker and novelist Catherine Breillat also presented the Leopard for best actress to the 55-year-old Cape Verde islander Vitalina Varela for her performance in the film named after herself.

This is the second time Costa had taken home one of the main awards...

The 72nd Locarno Film Festival, a longtime beacon of the international indie filmmaking community, is being shaken up under new artistic director Lili Hinstin. She is the Swiss event’s second female chief since it was founded in 1946 and one of the few women to head an A-list fest.

Hinstin takes the reins from Italy’s Carlo Chatrian who went on to become Berlinale co-director after six years at Locarno’s helm, his last edition characterized by movies with women at their center. The Swiss fest will run Aug. 7-17.

In announcing her selection, Hinstin, who previously headed France’s Entrevues Belfort Intl. Film Festival, says she’s aiming to “surprise, perturb and raise questions” and points out that “the choices you make for your first festival all tend to become a kind of manifesto.”

The Locarno opener is clearly significant: “If Only,” a partly autobiographical sentimental comedy about three kids of divorced parents,...

Celebrating its 72nd edition this year, the Locarno Film Festival has been the birthplace for the finest in international arthouse cinema and this year’s lineup looks to continue the tradition. Ahead of the festival, running August 7-17, the full slate has been announced.

Top highlights include the world premieres of Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela (pictured above), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Ben Rivers & Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Krabi, 2562, Ben Russell’s Color-blind, Denis Côté’s Wilcox, Fabrice Du Welz’s Adoration, as well as a new 12-minute short film from Yorgos Lanthimos titled Nimic and starring Matt Dillon. Other titles that have caught out eye are Echo, from Sparrows director Rúnar Rúnarsson, and A Girl Missing, from Harmonium director Koji Fukada.

The festival will also kick off with some star power as Patrick Vollrath’s 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, will premiere. Check out the lineup below,...

Titles include Patrick Vollrath’s hijack thriller 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dutch actress Halina Reijn’s racy feature debut Instinct.

The Locarno Film Festival’s new artistic director Lili Hinstin unveiled an eclectic inaugural selection on Wednesday (July 17), including world premieres of German director Patrick Vollrath’s hijack thriller 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dutch actress Halina Reijn’s racy feature debut Instinct, co-starring Carice van Houten and Marwan Kenzari.

Scroll down for line-up

They are among 12 films due to play to an audience of 8,000 spectators on Locarno’s world-famous Piazza Grande alongside Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood,...

This year’s Locarno Film Festival (Aug 7 -17) lineup includes Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and Joseph Gordon-Levitt plane thriller 7500, which gets its world premiere at the Swiss showcase. Scroll down for major category lineups.

The 72nd edition of the festival marks the first for incoming artistic director Lili Hinstein who has taken over from Carlo Chatrian. As ever, there is a strong contingent of European and Asian arthouse movies and the Piazza Grande section includes a handful of titles with more mainstream appeal, such as Tarantino’s Cannes pic Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which rolls out globally in August.

Alongside Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, the open air Piazza Grande screenings will include the world premieres of German-produced hijack thriller-drama 7500, Carice Van Houten starrer Instinct, UK comedy actor Simon Bird’s directorial debut Days Of The Bagnold Summer, French director Stéphane Demoustier...

Italian director Ginevra Elkann’s directorial debut, “If Only,” about kids with divorced parents, will open the 72nd Locarno Film Festival, its first edition under new artistic director Lili Hinstin, who has assembled an edgy mix of promising titles from young auteurs and more established names.

“If Only” and the fest closer, iconic Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Uzbekistan-set “To the Ends of the Earth” will both premiere in Locarno’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande.

Also set for a launch from the Piazza Grande is Amazon’s terrorist drama “7500,” directed by Patrick Vollrath, with star Joseph Gordon-Levitt in tow; Valerie Donzelli’s comedy “Notre Dame”; and fellow French director Stephane Demoustier’s “The Girl With a Bracelet,” in which a teenager stands trial for murdering her best friend.

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” which premiered in Cannes, will also screen on the Piazza (without talent in...

Scheduled for Japanese release later this year, the tear-jerker stars Chise Niitsu and veteran actor Yoshi Oida.

Japan’s Free Stone Productions has sold Naoki Hashimoto’s Show Me The Way To The Station to China’s Heaven Pictures and South Korea’s Jinjin Pictures.

Scheduled for Japanese release later this year, the tear-jerker stars Chise Niitsu and veteran actor Yoshi Oida.

Free Stone also picked up international rights to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Japan-Uzbekistan co-production To The Ends Of The Earth, starring Atsuko Maeda on the eve of Cannes.

The film follows a young Japanese woman who finds her cautious...

Indie sales house, Free Stone Productions has picked up sales rights on “To The Ends Of The Earth,” the new film by Japanese directing icon Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Starring Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, and Shota Sometani, the film is a rare example of a Japanese-Uzbekistan co-production. Production is by Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Jason Gray of Tokyo-based Loaded Films and Toshikazu Nishigaya of Tokyo Theatres. Uzbekistan’s national cinema agency Uzbekkino serves as co-producer, with backing from the Ministry of Tourism, through the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development.

The story involves the host of a popular travel show who is in fact insular and shy on a trip to Central Asia, where her assignment calls for the filming of a mythical fish. As things go wrong, and team members return to Tokyo, she discovers a new freedom in the mountains.

“The once-great Timurid Empire has fascinated me for decades.

An initiative of the Doha Film Institute, Qumra is an event that connects Qatari and international directors who are receiving different stages of Dfi-funded support with industry delegates from across the spectrum of the film world and master filmmakers who meet with emerging talents and engage in public conversations. The 5thedition took place between March 15thand 20th, 2019. Kiyoshi Kurosawa is known best as a horror filmmaker but the prolific director has effortlessly moved between different genres—his latest, To the Ends of the Earth, a drama expected to play Cannes, is about a young woman shooting a travel show in […]...

An initiative of the Doha Film Institute, Qumra is an event that connects Qatari and international directors who are receiving different stages of Dfi-funded support with industry delegates from across the spectrum of the film world and master filmmakers who meet with emerging talents and engage in public conversations. The 5thedition took place between March 15thand 20th, 2019. Kiyoshi Kurosawa is known best as a horror filmmaker but the prolific director has effortlessly moved between different genres—his latest, To the Ends of the Earth, a drama expected to play Cannes, is about a young woman shooting a travel show in […]...

Kurosawa’s latest film is the Uzebekistan-set To The Ends Of The Earth

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is planning a return to genre filmmaking. “I haven’t achieved the complete perfection of it,” the veteran Japanese filmmaker said of his plans to return to the type of filmmaking which first made him an international name.

He was talking at a masterclass reflecting on his career at the Doha Film Institute’s talent development event Qumra in Qatar this week.

Kurosawa began his career making softcore “pink” porn, straight to video titles and low budget yakuza thrillers before emerging as both a key...

We’re approaching springtime, which means the first looks at what will likely premiere at Cannes Film Festival begin to see the light of day. One of the sure bets is the latest film from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who recently impressed with the sci-fi drama Before We Vanish. His next film is To the Ends of the Earth (Sekai No Hate Made), which he shot in Uzbekistan and follows a cautious Japanese TV host whose worldview changes when she ventures to the Central Asian country to shoot a segment for her travel show. The first pair of teasers and a poster have now arrived for the film, which arrives in June in Japan.

“The once-great Timurid Empire has fascinated me for decades. Today, the nation of Uzbekistan exists in the very same part of the world. Now I’m going to shoot a film in the middle of the silk road...

To the Ends of the Earth

Japanese auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa shows no signs of slowing, turning to Uzbekistan for his latest feature, To the Ends of the Earth. Kurosawa, who has been steadily making films since the 1970s, broke into international acclaim with 1997’s thriller Cure, and spent the 2000s being praised as one of Japan’s most heralded contemporary genre filmmakers thanks to items like Pulse (2001), Bright Future (2002) and Doppelganger (2003). After a brief hiatus following his 2008 switch to melodrama with Tokyo Sonata, Kurosawa has directed two mini-series, seven features and one short since 2012.…...

The Qumra Masters will particpate in workshops and mentoring sessions.

Japanese writer-director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Polish-uk filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski and legendary French filmmaker and artist Agnes Varda have been announced as the first three Qumra Masters for the Doha Film Institute’s fifth annual talent development event in Qatar which runs from March 15-20.

The three filmmakers will participate in mentoring and masterclasses with around 30 yet-to-announced local and international first and second- time filmmakers. A selection of films by the three will also be screened. A further three are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Kurosawa is a Cannes...