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Home to the world’s largest movie and drama production complexes, China has been shocking the world with its unexpected filmography for a long period of time. Whether it is the realm of action or comedy, Chinese films and dramas have found a separate fan base for themselves, whether it be in the United States of America or anywhere else in the world.

Especially in recent years, Chinese films in genres like drama, comedy, and animated films have particularly received a growing interest from moviegoers across the world. With continuous innovation and progress in the field of technology, including the application of IMAX, 3D, 4D, and other media technologies, Chinese films have received a further boost, attracting viewers of all ages and places with their immersive storytelling and effects.

A still from Nezha (2019) | Credit: Beijing Enlight Pictures

So while films like Lighting up the Stars, Upstream, Caught by the Tides,...

Exclusive: Prolific Chinese director Jia Zhangke, who also produces and spearheaded the Pingyao International Film Festival, is adding another string to his bow.

The A Touch Of Sin and Ash Is The Purest White Cannes regular and founder of X Stream Pictures is partnering with veteran Chinese distributor Tian Qi, founder of Hero Films, to launch new acquisition and distribution company Unknown Pleasures Pictures.

It will focus on the acquisition and distribution of international films with the aim of expanding the diversity of films being shown in cinemas in China. Jia Zhangke will act as president, and co-founder Tian Qi will take the post of general manager.

The new company builds on the work of Pingyao, which was launched in part to showcase international arthouse cinema and encourage Chinese distribution, as well as support emerging filmmakers.

It launches into a difficult market for international arthouse films in China in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic,...

Exclusive: Jia Zhangke’s Cannes Competition entry Caught By The Tides has been set for U.S. release on May 9, 2025 via Sideshow and Janus Films.

The latest from the Chinese auteur, known for movies including A Touch Of Sin and Ash Is The Purest White, is love story told over 23 years and set against the backdrop of explosive growth in China. Made up of old footage shot by the filmmaker over the past century as well as some new, the film traverses personal and national history including all of his films to date. Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin star.

Written by Jia and Wan Jiahuan, pic is produced by Casper Liang Jiayan, Shozo Ichiyama and Zhang Dong. The film is an X Stream Pictures, Momo Pictures, Huanxi Media Group Limited (Beijing) and Wishart Media (Quanzhou) production in association with mk2 Films, Ad Vitam and Bitters End. It played at festivals including Cannes,...

Renowned Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke held a masterclass during Fica Vesoul, offering insights into his journey, the evolution of independent cinema in China, and the socio-political role of filmmaking. Known for capturing the realities of contemporary China, Jia spoke candidly about his early influences, creative challenges, and his vision for the future of cinema.

From VHS Tapes to Independent Filmmaking

Jia’s passion for cinema began in his school years, watching films in small VHS cabins outside the official circuit. This early exposure to Hong Kong and Taiwanese cinema, including King Hu, Johnny To, and Ann Hui, shaped his cinematic sensibilities. However, his true awakening came in 1991 when he watched Chen Kaige‘s “Yellow Earth“, a film that revealed to him how cinema could express social reality beyond traditional storytelling.

His first feature, “Xiao Wu”, was made without script approval or official authorization—a defining moment in his commitment to independent filmmaking.

On the occasion of is presence as President of the International Jury in Fica Vesoul, Jia Zhangke talks to Panos Kotzathanasis about his new directorial approach in “Caught by the Tides” and the whether it was a choice or a necessity, his editing process for the particular film, his writing process and the impact of Zhao Tao, watching his past films again for the movie and his retrospective in Vesoul, whether it became easier to shoot movie after he achieved his current status and his future projects...

Exclusive: Sideshow and Janus Films will release The Shrouds, written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Academy Award nominee Guy Pearce and Sandrine Holt on Friday, April 18 in New York and Los Angeles.

It will expand nationwide on Friday, April 25. See the latest teaser here.

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival where it screened In Competition and subsequently played at the Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival.

Producers of the film are Saïd Ben Saïd, Martin Katz and Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent. It is an Sbs, Prospero Pictures & Saint Laurent Productions Film with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Eurimages, Ontario Creates in association with Sphere Films, Crave & CBC Films with the support of Canal +, Ocs & the Centre National du Cinema et de L’image Animée.

Karsh (Cassel) is a prominent businessman.

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

2024 saw the flicker of a major flame in the strands of cinema that have my heart the most.

It was a year where sex, romance, and representation were back on the menu in exciting new configurations, mirrored behind the camera and in front of the screen. Films that made us feel, self-reflect, introspect, change our minds, and realize. In a sociopolitical climate increasingly intent on sidelining and disavowing empathy at every turn, it’s comforting to know that we are not immune to movies.

Favorite Big Screen Rediscoveries: Zerophilia, Moving, Bumpkin Soup, Manji, Their Last Love Affair

Honorable Mentions: Caught by the Tides, Summer Solstice, Gift, Ghost Cat Anzu, You Burn Me

10. Happyend (Neo Sora)

In 2024, Japanese cinema began to travel and shift in new ways. The...

Τoday comes out in France «Caught by the Tides » by Jia Zhang-ke. He will be the president of the international jury at the 31st Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema (11-18 February 2025), during which an exceptional tribute will be paid to him in the presence of his muse, the actress Zhao Tao:

Two Golden Cyclos of Honor will be awarded to Jia Zhang-ke and Zhao Tao, Retrospective of his full-length films:

1997 : Xiao Wu, artisan pickpocket

2000 : Platform

2002 : Plaisirs inconnus

2004 : The World

2006 : Dong – inédit

2006 : Still Life

2007 : Useless

2008 : 24 City

2010 : I Wish I Knew

2013 : A Touch Of Sin

2015 : Au-delà des montagnes

2018 : Les Éternels

2020 : Swimming Out Til the Sea Turns Blue – inédit

2024 : Caught by the Tides...

In a week full of a few embarrassing selections included in the likes of National Board of Review and AFI’s picks for the top films of 2024, leave it to BFI’s Sight and Sound to deliver a top 10 films of the year worth paying attention to. Led by Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix winner All We Imagine as Light, the list also includes Anora, La Chimera, Dahomey, Hard Truths, Caught by the Tides, No Other Land, Nickel Boys, and more, while the top 50 includes The Beast, The Shrouds, Close Your Eyes, A Different Man, The Brutalist, I Saw the TV Glow, Evil Does Not Exist, and more. A great year for cinema, indeed.

Director Payal Kapadia said: “When I was at film school, at The Film & Television Institute of India, we used to get a copy of Sight and Sound. We were all excited when the new edition...

The fame of China’s Chang Dai-chien (1899–1983) has been framed by headlines that call him the high-earning artist on earth.

In 2016, his work out-earned those of any other painter on the planet, taking in $354 million collectively. Global news platforms picked up on the backstory of this almost mythical character, one who certainly looked the part, with Chang’s flowing robes and beard, often with a pet gibbon trailing in his wake.

But Chang’s life has also long been shrouded in mystery.

It’s been common knowledge that he left his homeland while the civil war raged across China in 1949, but while most of those who did the same ended up staying in Taiwan or Hong Kong, the artist himself ended up — well, where, exactly?

It was known that Chang died in Taiwan in 1983 — leaving behind him an unprecedented body of work and a reputation as the foremost Chinese painter of the 20th century.

China’s once-booming theatrical box office has begun to crumble. Total movie ticket sales revenue in the country so far this year is down a whopping 22 percent compared to last year. The results represent a dramatic downturn from the strong postCOVID recovery China’s film market achieved in 2023, when revenue surged 83 percent to finish the year at $7.73 billion. This year started strong for the Chinese industry, with box office during the Lunar New Year holiday week topping $1.1 billion, led by local blockbusters Yolo ($479.6 million) and Pegasus 2 ($468.9 million). But a prolonged fallow period extending through the summer has left the Beijing film industry wringing its hands, wondering whether a lasting shift in the marketplace may be underway. Filmmakers and analysts suggest an overlapping array of factors are behind the earnings plunge, but the truth is, no one fully knows what’s gone wrong.

“I read a local research report recently...

Budapest International Film Festival (Biff) is building a film funding initiative independent of the Hungarian state, as the festival’s first edition gets underway today.

The fund will launch during the festival, which runs from October 29 to November 3 at the Corvin Cinema Budapest.

The fund will be run in collaboration with the Sandor Simo Foundation, and will support at least one Hungarian feature film and a short film, from script development through to theatrical release.It will aim to raise between€500,000 to€1m in its first year, which organisers say is the current average budget of an independent Hungarian feature film.

Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.

After a short, overwhelming stint in the mobile Criterion Closet, which boasts over 1,200 titles in the order they were added to the collection, Screen Talk co-hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio welcomed Criterion president Peter Becker to the annual New York Film Festival edition of “Screen Talk” Live.

But first, the co-hosts debated the merits of Luca Guadagnino’s artful but long “Queer” starring Daniel Craig as an aging gay junkie suffering from unrequited love. And they also argued about the NYFF closing nighter, “Blitz,” which some think lacks that Steve McQueen edge. His biggest budget film to date is also his most traditional, starring Saoirse Ronan and Elliott Heffernan as a mother and son separated during the London blitz of World War II. Reviews are stronger in Britain than stateside so far (Metascore: 76). Anne thinks it will play for Academy voters,...

“Sorry… Forget this is New York, not Beijing,” laughed Jia Zhang-Ke, a titan of Chinese cinema’s post-1990 “Sixth Generation” of directors, to a packed house inside Alice Tully Hall for the New York Film Festival on Tuesday.

In a Q&a after the U.S. premiere of his latest film, Caught by the Tides, Jia’s English translator could barely keep up as he effusively spoke about the 23-year journey to bring his new project to the big screen. While many in the audience understood the director’s native Mandarin, his translator transcribed as quickly as possible for the English speakers. One thing that needed no translation was Jia’s passion for providing a world view on contemporary China through a cinematic lens.

Caught by the Tides follows Qiaoqiao (played by the director’s real-life wife and muse Zhao Tao), a lovelorn singer who traverses miles across her northern...

Japan’s leading indie film festival, Tokyo Filmex (November 23-December 1) has unveiled the line-up for its competition, opening and closing films, and other sections.

The festival, which marks its 25th year in 2024, will open with Jia Zhang-Ke’s Caught By The Tides, which played in competition at this year’s Cannes, and close with Hong Sang-soo’s By the Stream, for which actor Kim Min-hee won the Pardo for best performance at Locarno.

The 10 competition titles include the Georgian film April, directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili, which won the special jury prize at Venice this year; Girls Will Be Girls, the...

Premiering at Cannes earlier this year, Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke’s “Caught by the Tides” is another entry in the filmmaker’s indie career that serves to mystify viewers as much as it seeks out answers to the questions it asks. Utilizing documentary footage Zhangke has collected throughout his career, as well as characters he’s explored in previous films, “Caught by the Tides” capitalizes on the themes of time and memory the writer/director has been exploring since his 2006 Golden Lion-winning drama “Still Life.” As reported on by Variety, speaking at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, Zhangke shared that he plans to continue studying these concepts and finding ways to incorporate them on screen, both in a historical context and a futuristic sense.

“I have so much interest in the current China that I’m sure to make other films on the subject,” said Zhangke of planning his next projects.

After screening his latest film Caught by the Tides at the Busan International Film Festival, director Jia Zhang-ke met with the press, accompanied by his wife Zhao Tao. A frequent visitor to the Biff, Jia started by saying he is recovering from eye surgery.

Caught by the Tides repurposes footage Jia shot over a 23-year span. “I started the project when digital cameras first became available to us,” he said. “Over the years I amassed a lot of footage I never used. During the pandemic, when it seemed like one era was ending and another beginning, I decided to edit the footage together.”

While the same lead actors appear throughout the film, Jia said that their characters actually have different back stories. Qiaoqiao, the iconic role played by Zhao Tao, shows up in several variations.

“While editing, I realized that trying to describe a character’s life through words and conversations is very limiting,...

Jia Zhangke, China’s quintessential indie director, says that the Covid-era lockdowns gave him a chance to rethink and review the miles of footage that he has shot over more than 20 years of filmmaking. The result was “Caught by the Tides,” which premiered at Cannes and plays again this week at the Busan International Film Festival.

In “Tides,” Jia mixes up older footage with specially-created new material and has his wife and muse, Zhao Tao wander through twenty years of Chinese history. They are both documenting and dramatizing recent Chinese societal and economic development – from the time when China was granted admission to the World Trade Organization, through the time when it won the right to hold the (2008) summer Olympic Games through to a near present.

Jia’s approach is like that of a pulp fiction writer. Speaking at a Busan event, Zhao explains that ‘Qiao Qiao’ is Jia’s...

Jakarta World Cinema (Jwc) 2024 concluded its vibrant 8-day celebration of global cinema today, marking a triumphant closing with the screening of Bird, the latest film by acclaimed British director Andrea Arnold.

From September 21st to 28th, the international film festival captivated no less than 11,100 attendees through its offline screening in Cgv Grand Indonesia theatre, and 31,400 viewers through online streaming on KlikFilm. With a total of 42,500 attendees, this year’s offline screenings nearly tripled the attendance from last year.

Jakarta World Cinema presented 120 films from 61 countries, screened across various genres and styles, representing voices from around the world. This year’s festival featured a diverse selection of renowned titles, including Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, Jia Zhang-ke’s Caught by the Tides, Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow, Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, Muhammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Hong Sang-soo’s A Traveler’s Needs,...

Indian-French coming-of-age drama Girls Will Be Girls was awarded best film in the First Feature Competition of Jakarta World Cinema in Indonesia, which launched a competition section for the first time this year.

Directed by Shuchi Talati, the film is set in a boarding school in the Himalayan foothills and follows the teenage protagonist through her first love and the interference of a protective mother. The film premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival where it won an audience award.

Best director in the First Feature Competition went to China’s Lin Jianjie for Brief History Of A Family, about a middle-class Chinese family in the post-one-child-policy era, who takes in their only son’s mysterious new friend.

Meanwhile, the Audience Award at Jakarta World Cinema went to Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, starring Demi Moore, which won the best screenplay award at this year’s Cannes.

The three-year-old festival,...

Operating for only the third time, the Jakarta World Cinema film festival is bringing a diverse slate of global and local pictures to Indonesia’s biggest city.

It kicked off in high style on Saturday with a screening of Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance.” The body horror-fantasy debuted at Cannes and has already proved a popular choice as either opening or closing film at multiple film festivals. In Jakarta, it got a reaction, extracting shrieks, gasps and applause from the opening night crowd.

Earlier, in a breezy ceremony, complete with dancers replicating some of “The Substance’s” fitness moves, audiences had been told that organizers had assembled a lineup of just over a hundred titles.

In a country, where cinema is popular, but a class of risk-taking indie distributors is an industry sector has yet to be fully developed, that is a significant number. Instead, Jwc has a close relationship with KlikFilm,...

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all US rights from Sbs International to David Cronenberg’s Cannes world premiere and recent TIFF gala screening The Shrouds starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce.

‘The Shrouds’: Cannes Review

The film will receive its US premiere in the Main Slate at New York Film Festival next month and stars Cassel as Karsh a businessman and grieving widower who invents a controversial technology that enables the living to monitor their deceased loved ones in their shrouds.

After multiple graves, including that of Karsh’s wife, are desecrated, the businessman sets out to track down the perpetrators.

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all U.S. rights to The Shrouds, written and directed by David Cronenberg and are planning a spring 2025 theatrical release.

The film world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it screened In Competition. It played the Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Gala program and is set for its U.S. premiere in the Main Slate at the New York Film Festival next month.

The deal was negotiated by Sideshow and Janus Films with Sbs International. Producers are Saïd Ben Saïd, Martin Katz and Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent. It’s an Sbs, Prospero Pictures & Saint Laurent Productions Film with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Eurimages, Ontario Creates in association with Sphere Films, Crave & CBC Films with the support of Canal +, Ocs & the Centre National du Cinema et de L’image Animée.

“Building on a...

Jia Zhang-ke’s Caught by the Tides attests to the fact that making art under the most adverse conditions can prove to be serendipitous. If shooting a film from scratch wasn’t feasible under China’s restrictive Covid lockdowns, Jia viewed the situation as a formal constraint, in the same way a poet might approach the rules of a sestina. Turning to his existing body of work, he recycled earlier material, editing together unused footage with what could be shot under the circumstances. The result is a bricolage of documentary, minimalist drama, and experimental remake. As Jia’s filmography is inseparable from the career of his spouse and longtime collaborator, actress Zhao Tao, the film also operates as a dual retrospective.

In execution, Jia doesn’t blend genres so homogenously as to obscure their distinctions. He prefers to shift the balance over the course of Caught by the Tides, allowing...

This year’s Toronto International Film Festival comes to a close, with Zhao Tao (who starred in Jia Zhang-ke’s “Caught by the Tides”) and Malala-produced haenyo documentary “The Last of the Sea Women” recognized. Notably, Taiwanese cinema also fared very well this year. The two Taiwanese films at the fest have been strong runner-ups for awards — including John Hsu’s supernatural comedy “Dead Talents Society” for the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award and Sylvia Chang for “Daughter’s Daughter.”

But without further ado, here are the rest of the awards:

“Dead Talents Society” by John Hsu

People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award presented by Rogers is: The Substance, dir. Coralie Fargeat | United Kingdom/USA/France

The first runner-up is: Dead Talents Society, dir. John Hsu | Taiwan

The second runner-up is: Friendship, dir. Andrew DeYoung | USA

People’s Choice Documentary Award presented by Rogers is: The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal,...

Sideshow and Janus Films have snapped up North American rights to Vermiglio, Maura Delpero’s Italian drama that won the Silver Lion at Venice and screened at Toronto earlier this week.

The companies said they planned to release the feature theatrically in the coming months. The deal was struck with US firm Anonymous Content and Paris-based Charades, which co-represent the North American rights to the film.

‘Vermiglio’: Venice Review

Written, directed and produced by Delpero, the film is set in the remote mountain village of Vermiglio in 1944 where war looms as a distant but constant threat. The arrival of Pietro,...

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired North American rights to Maura Delpero’s intimate epic “Vermiglio,” which recently won the Venice Film Festival’s Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize.

The drama, which is set at the end of World War II in an Alpine village where the arrival of a soldier causes disruption in the dynamics between three sisters, subsequently had its North American premiere in the special presentations section at Toronto.

Sideshow and Janus Films plan to release “Vermiglio” theatrically in the coming months, they said in a statement.

In her Variety review, critic Jessica Kiang called “Vermiglio” “quietly breathtaking,” going on to note that the film “unfolds from tiny tactile details of furnishings and fabrics and the hide of a dairy cow, into a momentous vision of everyday rural existence in the high Italian Alps.”

Venice jury president Isabelle Huppert praised the Silver Lion winner for being a...

Sideshow and Janus Films have scooped up North American rights to Maura Delpero’s acclaimed Italian period drama Vermiglio, winner of the Venice Film Festival’s silver lion grand jury prize.

The film debuted in competition in Venice and received its North American premiere Tuesday night at the Toronto Film Festival. Sideshow and Janus say they will release the title in North American theaters in the coming months.

Vermiglio is a follow-up to Delpero’s well-received 2019 directorial debut Maternal. She wrote, directed and produced the new feature, which is loosely based on her own family history.

“We were deeply moved and impressed by Vermiglio, a new Italian classic that is intimate in scale but epic in scope, unfolding like a memory over four ravishingly shot seasons during the Second World War,” said Sideshow and Janus Films.

The Italian-language movie is named after the small village where it is set, high...

After weaving together footage shot over 20 years to create the expansive Caught By The Tides, veteran Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke said that he wants to return to his pre-pandemic “routines and rhythms” and make a film every two years.

Jia also told Deadline that he is set to begin production on his next film in October or November this year, which will be a “road, travelogue film” following a “female character who will travel from a place that is extremely cold, to a place that is extremely warm.”

Jia won Venice’s Golden Lion for Still Life in 2006 and Best Screenplay in Cannes for A Touch of Sin in 2013.

Caught By The Tides had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this year, before having its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Chinese auteur said that the foundations for Caught By The Tides were laid more than 20 years ago,...

This year’s 2024 TIFF Tribute Award honorees addressed a packed black-tie Fairmont Royal York Ballroom. Sometimes the tributees go on to Oscar glory. For example, after his 2019 tribute, Joaquin Phoenix went on to win Best Actor for “Joker,” Variety Artisan Award winner Roger Deakins landed a cinematography win for “1917,” and after his 2020 tribute, Anthony Hopkins grabbed an Oscar for Best Actor for “The Father” and TIFF tributee Chloé Zhao won Best Director for her movie “Nomadland.” The list goes on. Eventual Best Actress Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain was tributed at TIFF for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” as was Brendan Fraser for his work as an actor on the movie “The Whale.” And tributee Michelle Yeoh went on to win Best Actress for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

Many on this year’s list harbor similar hopes. Here are the award winners:

Angelina Jolie, TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media,...

by Cláudio Alves

Zhao Tao in Jia Zhangke's Caught By The Tides (2024).

Every year, as the fall festival season hits, films heretofore seen by an exclusive set at their original premieres are given the opportunity for re-appreciation and new sets of critical eyes. It's always fascinating to see how a Cannes reaction may be upended at TIFF, for better or worse. Here at The Film Experience, that phenomenon is bolstered by a heterogeneous team whose opinions often differ. Consider the case of Jia Zhangke's Caught by the Tides, which played in the main competition at Cannes. To our own Elisa Giudici, it was a disappointment and an indisputably minor entry in the Chinese director's canon. For me, however, it's closer to masterpiece status, a cumulative wonder that's as major as you can get…...

The 68th BFI London Film Festival has just announced the line-up and – as always – a wide variety of Asian films is included in the vast Programme. Over 12 days, the Lff will showcase 255 works from 80 countries, featuring 64 languages and including 112 projects made by female and non-binary filmmakers.

The London Film Festival, officially called the BFI London Film Festival is organised annually by the British Film Institute (BFI) since 1953. It is the UK’s largest public Festival of its kind and is visited by thousands of film enthusiasts who have the the ability to see films, documentaries and shorts from all over the world. The festival will take place at London’s BFI Southbank and The Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, as well as cinemas and venues across central London, and will run from 9 to 20 October 2024.

All the info about tickets and booking are Here.

And now, let’s browse the...

The 44th running of the Hawaii International Film Festival presented by Halekulani will open with “Tinā,” an uplifting drama film that marks the feature directorial debut of Miki Magasiva, and close with Sori Fumihiko’s “Hakkenden: Fiction and Reality.”

In between, the festival will pack in 92 features and 114 short films, major awards for guests including Jimmy O Yang, Hong Kong’s Sandra Ng and documentary filmmaking star Stanley Nelson.

“This year, we have the largest selection of Hawai`i films in competition in the festival’s history, are presenting multiple films that explore Indigenous perspectives, narrative sovereignty, and the nurturing of cultural identity, and additionally, we are launching a new spotlight showcasing the best in television,” said Beckie Stochetti, Hiff executive director.

Hailing from New Zealand, with dialog in English and Samoan, “Tinā” sees Anapela Polata’ivao (“Our Flag Means Death”) portray a well-respected and gifted vocal coach endure family tragedy...

The Toronto Film Festival on Thursday returned post-strikes with Hollywood star wattage as Ben Stiller and director David Gordon Green gave a glittering lift-off for their opening night film Nutcrackers.

Gordon Green introduced Stiller to the crowd at Roy Thomson Hall in the Canadian city that looked primed for film fest fun with the opening night comedy. The Zoolander and Tropic of Thunder star then recalled making movies in Canada.

“When people will talk to me sometimes about the Night at the Museum movies, they’ll say, Wow, what’s it like to shoot in the Museum of Natural History? And I’ll say it was actually a warehouse in Vancouver,” Stiller recounted.

“I’ve made a bunch of movies in Canada, and it’s always been an amazing experience,” Stiller added. His comments followed Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau touting Canada as a foreign location destination for Hollywood. “Our...

Specialty sales and finance firm Rediance has picked up international sales rights to “Bound in Heaven,” the directorial debut feature of experienced Chinese screenwriter Huo Xin.

The tragic love story will have its world premiere this week in the Centerpiece section of the Toronto International Film Festival. It will subsequently travel to San Sebastian for its European debut.

Adapted from the novel of the same title by Li Xiuwen, the drama centers around a successful young woman who lives in the city with her abusive fiance and a lonely terminally ill man running a noodle shop in Wuhan. A chance encounter sparks an immediate attraction and their connection provides light and lightness in their emotional and dark journeys.

The film stars Ni Ni, who appeared in Zhang Yimou’s “The Flowers of War” and 2022 smash hit “Lost in the Stars.” Zhou You, who also appeared in Jia Zhangke’s Cannes...

The 2024 Busan International Film Festival is kicking off on Oct. 2 with the international premiere of Uprising, director Kim Sang-man’s historical war epic with a script written by an auteur Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) and distributed by Netflix. The 29th edition of the 10-day event closes with Singaporean director Eric Khoo’s Spirit World, starring French screen legend Catherine Deneuve.

“Uprising is a charming historical drama put together by an outstanding team of directors, writers and actors while Khoo’s Spirit World is a co-production that explores the fundamental questions of human existence and the meaning of life through beautiful cinematic expression,” said Park Do-shin, the festival’s acting director, who was previously Busan’s senior programmer. Uprising is also the first streaming title to be invited to screen as the festival’s opening film.

Park Kwang-su, a former director who was appointed as the festival’s chairperson in February,...

China-based sales agent Rediance has picked up international rights to Chinese director Huo Xin’s feature debut Bound In Heaven, which is set to premiere at Toronto before heading to San Sebastian.

Director Huo is a veteran scriptwriter whose credits include acclaimed and hit films such as Shower, Kung Fu Hustle, Sunflower and The Monkey King.

She has assembled a strong cast for her feature debut including Ni Ni of box office hit Lost In The Stars and Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers of War; Zhou You of Jia Zhang-ke’s Caught By The Tides, which also plays at Toronto...

The Busan International Film Festival will expand its screening program by some 8% in what it calls “an effort to maintain a scale befitting Asia’s top film festival.” This is despite a 50% cut in government financial support.

The festival will open on Oct. 2 with “Uprising,” a star-studded period drama from Netflix that was scripted and produced by Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy”) and directed by Kim Sang-man.

It will close on Oct. 11 with the Eric Khoo-directed “Spirit World,” which the Singaporean director shot in Japan with French icon Catherine Deneuve in the lead role.

“Uprising” involves a servant (played by Gang Dong-won) and his master, the som of a noble family with military connections. While they agree that the servant should be free, complications arise. The film also stars Cha Seung-won, Kim Shin-rock, Jin Sun-kyu and Jung Sung-il. “With Park Chan-wook’s signature humor oozing through the well-woven narrative, full of intense conflict and tension,...

Anyone familiar with the filmography of Jia Zhangke will easily recognize “Caught by the Tides” as one of the celebrated director’s features. Such familiarity may well create interest and pleasure at seeing Jia revisit the characters, locales and subjects that made him famous. But this atmospheric film, in which mood and visuals prevail over plot, might also disorient and bemuse viewers who are not already intimate with his work.

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The film has been described as a career retrospective for the director, and with good reason. Stuck at home during the Covid 19 pandemic, Jia decided to review the enormous amount of footage he had shot since 2001. The images could be documentary-style footage capturing slices of life that had caught Jia’s ever-alert attention: singing crowds, swirling dancers, young people going to their favorite places, in Datong, Zhuhai, or many other places across China.

The trailer for “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” the directorial debut of artist Titus Kaphar, has been unveiled, featuring stars André Holland and Andra Day.

The drama follows acclaimed painter Tarrell (Holland), whose life is upended by an unexpected visit from his estranged father (John Earl Jelks) who is desperate to reconcile with him. In the trailer, Tarrell grapples with his mother (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) about their reconnection, as she pushes him to speak to his dad.

“If you don’t forgive others for their past sins, then you can’t be forgiven,” she tells Tarrell.

“‘Exhibiting Forgiveness’ was produced by Stephanie Allain, Derek Cianfrance, Jamie Patricof and Sean Cotton. Kaphar also penned the screenplay for the film.

The film is set for a theatrical release on Oct. 18. Watch the trailer below.

Visual Effects Society Announces Special 2024 Honorees

The Visual Effects Society has unveiled its newest lifetime members, hall of fame inductees and the 2024 Ves Founders Award recipient.

This year’s TIFF Tribute Awards are shaping up to be shiny indeed. Today, Toronto International Film Festival CEO Cameron Bailey has announced a pair of additional honorees who will be receiving TIFF Tribute Awards at this year’s festival. They include American award-winning (including recently picking up one of our own IndieWire Honors!) actor and rapper Jharrel Jerome, who will receive the TIFF Tribute Performer Award, and award-winning actor Zhao Tao, who will be presented with the TIFF Special Tribute Award.

Both actors have films at the festival this year: Jerome leads William Goldenberg’s fact-based “Unstoppable,” which will world premiere at TIFF, while Tao returns to the festival for the North American premiere of Jia Zhang-he’s “Caught by the Tides.”

“From ‘Moonlight’ to ‘Unstoppable,’ Jharrel Jerome’s depth, strength, and vulnerability on screen have made him one of his generation’s finest actors. It’s an...

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced the on-stage guests at next month’s 49th edition, including Cate Blanchett, Alfonso Cuarón, and Malala Yousafzai.

TIFF’s In Conversation With… (Icw) series will see Blanchett, who stars in TIFF selections Disclaimer from Cuarón and Guy Maddin’s Rumours, and Zoe Saldaña, who stars in TIFF selection Emilia Perez and shared the Cannes best actress prize, discuss their careers and creative processes.

The programme will also hear from Presence director Steven Soderbergh, and South Korean stars Hyun Bin of TIFF spy thriller Harbin and Lee Dong-wook of Disney+ series A Shop For Killers.

This morning, the Toronto International Film Festival announced their list of speaker engagements for the 49th edition in the In Conversation With… series, TIFF Industry Conference panels, and events designed to inspire and spark future collaborations. TIFF runs Sept. 5–15.

TIFF’s In Conversation With… (Icw) this year counts 2x Oscar winner Cate Blanchett (who is receiving a TIFF award this year), Emilia Perez star Zoe Saldaña, Steven Soderbergh, and Hyun Bin and Lee Dong-wook.

“TIFF 2024’s stellar lineup of speakers for our iconic In Conversation With… series reflects our vision that film and creative culture have the power to open minds, spark new ideas, and impact the world around us,” said Anita Lee, TIFF’s Chief Programming Officer. “We are thrilled to connect our public audiences with a dynamic roster of global trailblazers through these in-depth conversations.”

In TIFF’s Visionaries section, the onstage conversation series counts Alfonso Cuarón, Pete Docter,...

New York Film Festival (NYFF) has announced a varied Main Slate featuring anticipated Venice world premiere The Brutalist from Brady Corbet as well as a raft of Cannes and Berlin winners including Sean Baker’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anora.

The line-up of 33 films announced on Tuesday morning includes Payal Kapadia’s Cannes grand prize winner All We Imagine As Light, Miguel Gomes’s best director winner Grand Tour, and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, recipient of the special prize.

Mati Diop’s Berlin Golden Bear winner Dahomey takes its place in the selection, as...

Thirty-three films will make up the Main Slate of the 62nd New York Film Festival, including the latest from David Cronenberg, Sean Baker, Payal Kapadia, Mike Leigh, Mati Diop, Hong Sang-soo and Julia Loktev. The festival will take place Sept. 27 — Oct. 14, 2024.

“The festival’s ambition is to reflect the state of cinema in a given year, which often means also reflecting the state of the world,” the festival’s artistic director Dennis Lim said in a statement. “The most notable thing about the films in the Main Slate — and in the other sections that we will announce in the coming weeks— is the degree to which they emphasize cinema’s relationship to reality. They are reminders that, in the hands of its most vital practitioners, film has the capacity to reckon with, intervene in, and reimagine the world.”

The movies in this year’s Main Slate come from 24 different countries.

New York Film Festival has revealed the Main Slate titles for its 62nd edition, which runs September 27 through October 14. The selection includes feature films from 24 countries, with 18 directors making their NYFF Main Slate debut, and two world, five North American, and 16 U.S. premieres. As previously announced, the festival will open with RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys” and close with Steve McQueen’s “Blitz” and will feature Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door” as its Centerpiece.

The Main Slate includes celebrated films from festivals worldwide including Cannes prize winners: Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light” (Grand Prize), Sean Baker’s “Anora” (Palme d’Or), Roberto Minervini’s “The Damned”, Miguel Gomes’s “Grand Tour” (Best Director), Rungano Nyoni’s “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl”, and Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (Special Prize). At this year’s Berlinale, Mati Diop’s “Dahomey” received the Golden...

It was arguably the most engaging film at this year’s Cannes (Thierry Frémaux might have included it in the competition if not for Caught by the Tides shoring up), and I believe, it stands as the most groundbreaking piece of contemporary cinema dealing with the profound anxiety felt during the pandemic. Similarly, this docu-fiction exemplifies what was at stake when Covid-19 disrupted the entire system: the flow of creativity, freedom, and the indispensable role of the auteur. A Special Screenings selection, I hadn’t experienced such a level of second-guessing what I was watching since my first viewing of Sarah Polley’s flawlessly told Stories We Tell (2012).…...

World premieres from Angelina Jolie, Mike Leigh, David Mackenzie, Edward Burns, Uberto Pasolini, Peter Cattaneo, and Rachel Morrison among the Gala and Special Presentation titles unveiled by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) today (July 22).

Hard Truths is a rare TIFF premiere for Leigh after the UK auteur’s last film Peterloo debuted in Venice in 2018, while Mr. Turner in 2014 and Another Year in 2010 both premiered in Cannes. Cornerstone represents sales and Bleecker Street will handle US distributon on the film, which stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste from Secrets And Lies.

Pasolini’s The Return marks his follow-up to Venice 2020 entry Nowhere Special...

The Melbourne International Film Festival has set ten features to play in its Bright Horizons competition section.

They include: India Donaldson’s “Good One”; Luna Carmoon’s “Hoard”; Annie Baker’s “Janet Planet”; Leonardo Van Dijl’s “Julie Keeps Quiet”; Ena Sendijarević’s “Sweet Dreams”; Matthew Rankin’s “Universal Language”; Mo Harawe’s “The Village Next to Paradise”; Gints Zabalodis’ animated “Flow”; Rungano Nyoni’s “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl”; and Australian director Charles Williams’ debut feature “Inside.”

The non-competitive Headliners section, which showcases films that have premiered at other festivals, includes: Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis”; Mumbai-based director Payal Kapadia was recently the first Indian director for 30 years with a film in competition in Cannes presents “All We Imagine as Light”; Coralie Fargeat’s Demi Moore-starring “The Substance”; Jia Zhangke’s “Caught by the Tides”; Sebastian Stan in Aaron Schimberg’s “A Different Man”; Cannes best director-winning Asian odyssey,...

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the latest film from China’s great auteur Jia Zhang-ke, “Caught by the Tides.” The film premiered in competition at Cannes in May 2024.

A love story at heart, “Caught by the Tides” stars Jia’s wife, the longtime actress Zhao Tao, in a story set across 23 years. As with his previous masterpieces “Platform,” “The World,” “A Touch of Sin,” and “Mountains May Depart,” the film is a canvas on which to portray the rapid changes in China this century — a period of explosive economic and technological growth. Zhao is romantically entangled with Li Zhubin against this backdrop, some of which Jia actually shot over the past 23 years. Like his “24 City,” it combines non-fiction and fiction elements. In this case, even clips from Jia’s previous films appear.

Jia is unique in being a Mainland filmmaker deeply committed to exploring life in China today and...