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Scaring Up A Big Win

Jon Bell’s “The Moogai” was Saturday named winner of the Film Prize at Western Australia’s CinefestOZ festival. With a cash award of A$100,000, it is one of the richest film festival prizes in the world.

Sarah and Fergus, a hopeful young Aboriginal couple, give birth to their second baby. But what should be a joyous time of their lives becomes sinister when Sarah starts seeing a malevolent spirit that she is convinced is trying to take her baby. Fergus, can’t see it but desperately wants to believe her. He does not know if the child-stealing spirit real or is Sarah is in fact the biggest threat to the safety of their family. The film stars Shari Sebbens and Meyne Wyatt.

It is produced by Kristina Ceyton, Mitchell Stanely and Samantha Jennings and coproduced by Alex White. International sales are handled by the U.

Organised by the Busan, Hong Kong and Tokyo International Film Festivals, and supported by Create HongKong and the Film Development Fund, the Asian Film Awards Academy (Academy or Afaa) has spearheaded efforts to promote Asian cinema around the world year-round. As part of the Asian Film Awards (Afa), its flagship event and the largest celebration of Asian cinema in the world, the Academy appoints an emerging Asian star every year as Youth Ambassador to act as the face of the awards and to take part in outreach activities. For the first time in its history, the Academy has appointed not one, but four celebrated Asian stars as the Youth Ambassadors of the 17th Afa: (in alphabetical order) Liu Kuan-Ting, Mario Maurer, Miyazawa Hio and Will Or.

Embodying numerous countries and cultures, Asia is a region that is rich in diversity, and that diversity has always been reflected in its films,...

A theatrical release is planned for May 2024.

Time travel adventure Taklee Genesis will be distributed by Warner Bros in Thailand, making it the first Thai film handled by the Hollywood studio in the country.

Set for release on May 1 in Thailand, the title refers to a warp-speed teleporter left behind from the Cold War. A US military officer takes on a secret mission to investigate the matter but gets stuck in another time warp. The film spans different time periods, from the pre-historic Ban Chiang, now a Unesco world heritage site, to 100 years in the future.

”Taklee Genesis is a...

Showcasing rarely seen queer cinema from East and Southeast Asia and amplifying the voices of Asian communities in the UK

Queer East Film Festival has announced the full programme for its third edition, which runs from 18th to 29th May in London.

Following the first two successful editions, this year’s festival will bring films, audiences and filmmakers together in the cinema, while continuing to offer a chance to experience rarely-seen queer cinema from East and Southeast Asia to viewers across the UK.

At its heart, Queer East aims to amplify the voices of queer Asian communities, to challenge normative definitions of gender and sexual expression, and to introduce UK audiences to LGBTQ+ cinema that they might not otherwise get a chance to see. This year’s programme includes feature films, shorts, programmes of boundary-challenging artists’ moving image work, a Virtual Reality experience, and a TV miniseries, alongside filmmakers’ Q&As.