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Renowned scriptwriter Huo Xin, known for ‘Kung Fu Hustle‘ and ‘Sunflower,’ makes her directorial debut with a romantic drama that takes multiple narrative turns, adapted from Li Xiuwen’s novel of the same name. “Bound in Heaven” is already a success in the festival circuit, having won the Fipresci Award and the Best Cinematography award in San Sebastian, the Grand Prix in Osaka, and numerous other awards in competitions around the world.

Bound in Heaven is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival

Xia You is a successful businesswoman in finance and looks like one of those individuals who has it all. She is rather good looking, rich, and has found a decent partner in Song. Underneath the surface though, Song is an abusive man who is frequently violent towards her, both physically and psychologically. One night, after giving away the tickets she bought for a Faye Wong concert to his friends,...

Oaff run from MArch 14 until the 23rd this year, once more boasting a very intriguing selection of both Japanese and Asian films. Here are the winners of the awards the festival presents

Grand Prix (Best Picture Award) – Bound in Heaven (Huo Xin)

Most Promising Talent Award – Park Ri-woong, director of The Land of Morning Calm (S. Korea)

Special Mention – The Way We Talk

Best Actor Award – Tuvshinbayar Amartuvshin

Film Review: Silent City Driver (2024) by Sengedorj Janchivdorj

Jaiho Award – 404 Still Remain

Yakushi Pearl Award – Alexia Kao, Lan Wei-Hua, Tseng Jing-Hua, Queena Huang

Japan Cuts Award – So Beautiful, Wonderful and Lovely

Housen Short Film Award – WAShhh

Special Mention – The Melancholy of a Brass Player for Brass Quintet

Audience Award – The Tales of Kurashiki

Film Review: The Tales of Kurashiki (2025) by Emiko Hiramatsu...

The world premiere of Arild Østin Ommundsen and Silje Salomonsen’sNorwegian family dramaEverything Must Gowill open the35thedition of the Tromso International Film Festival (TIFF), taking place inNorway fromJanuary 13-19, 2025.

James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown will close the festival.

Everything Must Go is aboutthree siblings who move back into their childhood home following their father’s funeral.

In the competition strand, 12 features are in contention for the €5,000 Aurora prize includingBrady Corbet’s The Brutalist,Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths,Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man,and Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays.

Tromso has introduced a special sidebar focused on...

The Marrakech Film Festival, which opened Friday with Justin Kurzel’s timely thriller “The Order,” has more than 70 films in its lineup, which, as is customary, mixes known titles and fresh fare.

“The Order” is part of the event’s gala screenings that also comprise French-Moroccan auteur Nabil Ayouch’s feminist musical drama “Everybody Loves Touda,” Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” and Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” all of which will be accompanied by their directors.

The 14-title competition dedicated to first and second works includes Moroccan director Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s melodrama “Across the Sea,” about North African exiles in Marseilles, and Hind Meddeb’s doc “Sudan, Remember Us,” which pays homage to Sudanese people and culture by chronicling their 2019 revolution. “Sudan, Remember Us” is among films supported by the fest’s Atlas Workshops industry initiative, aimed at fostering and supporting the emergence of a new generation of Moroccan,...

“Bound in Heaven” emerges as a strong romance drama brimming with genuine emotions and social insight. The film, directed by first-time filmmaker Huo Xin, transforms Li Xiuwen’s novel into a visceral study of love, survival, and personal liberty set in contemporary China.

The main characters of the story are Xia You, a successful businesswoman imprisoned in an abusive relationship, and Xu Zitai, a modest noodle shop owner with a fatal disease. Their paths cross spectacularly in 2010 during a fortuitous encounter at a Faye Wong concert and a ticket-scalping situation that turns surprisingly amorous. Following a passionate one-night stand, their lives become inextricably linked.

The narrative recounts Xia’s transformation from a battered spouse to an independent woman in the urban environments of Shanghai and Wuhan. Xu, knowing that his time is limited, becomes an unexpected catalyst for her liberation. Their relationship defies conventional boundaries; it is formed not just...

La danesa ‘The Girl With The Needle’ se hace con cuatro premios y la letona ‘Flow’ con tres. © Ssiff

El 21 Festival de Cine Europeo de Sevilla ha hecho público su palmarés, poniendo fin a una edición que ha querido hacer zoom in a lo mejor del cine europeo y que ha contado con la visita especial de Johnny Depp a la capital hispalense, causando furor en las calles.

El Jurado de la Sección Oficial, presidido por David Puttnam y que completan Jeremy Irons, Paola Malanga, Mounia Meddour y Eva Rekettyei, ha decidido que el Giraldillo de Oro a la Mejor Película, el que es el máximo galardón del Festival, recaiga en And Their Children After Them, de los franceses Ludovic y Zoran Boukherma. La película – que no fue del todo bien recibida en la Biennale – también ha obtenido el Premio al Mejor Actor para su protagonista, Paul Kircher, quien ya...

The Marrakech Film Festival unveiled its 2024 lineup on Thursday and set that Luca Guadagnino would replace Thomas Vinterberg as its jury president. The other jury members will be Andrew Garfield, Jacob Elordi, Virginie Efira, and Ali Abbasi. Vinterberg “had to excuse himself for family reasons,” festival organizers said.

The Marrakech fest on Thursday also unveiled the lineup for its competition, 11th Continent, and Moroccan Panorama sections, as well as gala and special screenings. In the competition, 14 films will compete for the Étoile d’Or, or Golden Star.

The 21st edition of the fest in Morocco will also honor Sean Penn, David Cronenberg and, posthumously, pay homage to Moroccan star Naïma Elmcherqui. The Marrakech fest takes place Nov. 29-Dec. 7.

Check out the full lineup for the 2024 edition below.

Competition

Across The Sea (LA Mer Au Loin)

by Saïd Hamich Benlarbi / France, Morocco, Belgium

with Ayoub Gretaa, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin, Omar Boulakirba,...

Justin Kurzel’s political thriller The Order starring Jude Law will open the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival in the presence of the director and producer Stuart Ford later this month.

The film is among seven films that will be showcased as gala screenings at the Moroccan film festival, which unveiled its line-up on Thursday.

The galas also feature a trio of Best International Feature Film Oscar entries, Nabil Ayouch’s Everybody Loves Touda (Morocco), Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here (Brazil) and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany), all of which will screen in the presence of their directors.

The festival will screen 70 features from 32 countries across sections spanning the Official Competition, Gala Screenings, Special Screenings, the 11th Continent, the Moroccan Panorama, Cinema for Young Audiences & Families, and films shown as part of the Tributes program.

The 14 first and second films in competition include French...

Marrakech International Film Festival has unveiled the full line-up for its 21st edition which will open with Justin Kurzel’s crime thriller The Order onNovember 29 and run to December 7.

Kurzel’s debut featureSnowtownwon thefestival’s jury prize in 2011, and the filmmaker returned in 2022 to serve on the jury.

This year’s jury will be presided over by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, replacing Thomas Vinterberg, and will award the Étoile d’Or for best film to one of 14 first- and second-time features in the international competition.

In total, the festival will screen 70 films from 32 countries, including 14 documentaries, 12 Moroccan titles, nine world...

Johnny Depp told the crowd “without you I would not be here or likely I would not be anywhere” as he was honoured by the Rome Film Festival tonight (October 26).

Depp was awarded the festival’s lifetime achievement award ahead of the screening of Modi - Three Days On The Wing Of Madness, which is his first directing effort since 1997’s The Brave and charts three days in the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.

He was presented the award by festival director Paola Malanga and Riccardo Scamarcio, who stars as Modigliani in the film, at Rome’s Auditorium Parco della Musica.

Bound In Heaven, the feature debut of director Huo Xin, won the top prize at the 2024 Rome Film Festival, with the awards unveiled at the Auditorium Parco della Musica on October 26.

The domestic abuse drama won best film in the Progressive Cinema Competition, the festival’s competitive strand, and also shared the best first feature award ex aequo with Edgardo Pistone’s Ciao Bambino.

Bound In Heaven premiered at Toronto, and features a starry cast including Ni Ni, Zhou You and Liao Fan. Director Huo is a veteran scriptwriter whose credits include Shower, Kung Fu Hustle, Sunflower and The Monkey King.

Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl took home the Special Jury Prize at the 2024 San Sebastián Film Festival, held in Spain’s Basque Country from Sept. 20 through 28.

“For the high quality of its acting, packed with truth and nuances, which with great subtlety and restraint, brings us closer to the feelings of a group of people who must confront a disappearing profession, a world that is coming to an end,” the jury’s verdict read, per the fete’s press release.

About a veteran Las Vegas showgirl who must switch up her life’s routine following the unexpected closure of her three-decade-long show, the drama features a star-studded cast in Pamela Anderson, Kiernan Shipka, Brenda Song, Billie Lourd, Dave Bautista and Jamie Lee Curtis. As Deadline exclusively reported yesterday, The Last Showgirl was just acquired by Roadside Attractions for its North American release.

The Golden Shell for Best Film was...

Spanish director Albert Serra’s bullfighting documentary Afternoons Of Solitude has won the Golden Shell for best film at the closing ceremony of the 72nd edition of the Spanish festival tonight (Saturday September 28).

The special jury prize was awarded to Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl which stars Pamela Anderson as a Vegas showgirl facing the end of her career.

’Afternoons Of Solitude’ review

The official competition jury, presided over by Spanish filmmaker Jaione Camborda – who was last year’s Golden Shell winner for The Rye Horn, also awarded top prizes to new filmmakers. The Silver Shell for best director...

The 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival’s Golden Shell for best film has gone to Albert Serra’s Afternoons of Solitude, a documentary on bullfighting, edging out strong competition from narrative features by Joshua Oppenheimer, Edward Berger and Mike Leigh.

The Spanish director’s film focuses on Peruvian-Spanish bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey. While noting that the doc’s graphic cruelty makes it a harrowing watch, The Hollywood Reporter‘s chief film critic David Rooney in his review called it “transfixing … a unique study of discipline, bravado, laser-focus and showmanship.” It beat out Leigh’s Hard Truths and Berger’s Conclave, as well as Oppenheimer’s dystopian musical The End.

Elsewhere, Pamela Anderson and the cast of Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl took home the Special Jury Prize for best ensemble cast. THR‘s review of the film said: “Even if The Last Showgirl feels slender overall, more consistently attentive...

San Sebastian — With its awards ceremony Saturday night, the San Sebastian Festival’s 72nd edition is heading into its final straits. Following, 10 takeaways from what looks like its biggest edition ever in star wattage, the caliber of Spanish filmmaking and the number of deals reported by Variety, set in the context of vertiginous change in international independent film and TV landscape.

San Sebastian 2024: The Stars Align

Johnny Depp visited kids in a San Sebastian hospital dressed as Jack Sparrow; Javier Bardem teared up remembering his mother, the exemplary Pilar Bardem; Pedro Almodóvar remembered back 44 years to his first San Sebastian, performing at disco Ku and ending up on the beach at 8 in the morning. Cate Blanchett, accepting her Donostia Award, praised the “uncertainty which drives me.”

Never before have so many stars descended on San Sebastian. Why? “I think two factors are at play,” San Sebastian Film Festival director José Luis Rebordinos told Variety.

San Sebastian – “Bound in Heaven,” the directorial debut of experienced screenwriter Xin Huo, best known for “Kung Fu Hustle,” is the sole Chinese production in the Official Selection at San Sebastián, following its world premiere in Toronto’s Centrepiece section. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Li Xiuwen, a Huading Award winner as part of the writing team for “Medal of the Republic.”

The story turns on Xia You (NiNi), a successful but emotionally drained woman trapped in a violently abusive relationship with her fiancé, played by Liao Fan, who won a Berlin Silver Bear for “Black Coal, Thin Ice.” In a harrowing early scene, Xia You defies her abuser, uttering the chilling and foreboding line, “Don’t smudge my makeup, the guests are still here,” a reflection of the fragile facade she is forced to uphold.

“The theme of domestic violence against women,...

China’s Rediance has acquired international sales rights to Chinese actor Dong Zijian’s directorial feature debut My Friend An Delie, which is set to premiere in the main competition at the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival.

Dong began his career as an actor aged 17 and has since been active in both film and TV. He has starred in acclaimed films such as Jia Zhangke’s 2015 Cannes competitor Mountains May Depart and Liu Jie’s De Lan, which won the Golden Goblet Award for best film at Shanghai.

Dong also co-wrote the new film, inspired by the homonymous novel by famed writer Shuang Xuetao,...

The Rome Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 19th edition, which takes place from October 16-27.

Rome will present a lifetime achievement award to Johnny Depp, who will present Modi - Three Days on the Wing of Madness, about Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, at the festival.

Viggo Mortensen will also receive a lifetime achievement award, and will present The Dead Don’t Hurt, which he wrote, directed and stars in.

Francis Ford Coppola will also be in Rome for a special ‘pre-opening’ festival presentation of the Italian premiere of Megalopolis at Cinecittà Studios – the Rome studio that hosted him...

In terms of stars — Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton, Pamela Anderson — and auteur power — Pedro Almodóvar, Sean Baker, Costa Gavras, Edward Berger, Mike Leigh, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Joshua Oppenheimer, François Ozon, Lupita Nyong’o, Mohammad Rasoulof, Walter Salles, Maite Alberdi — this year’s San Sebastián Festival promises one of its biggest editions ever.

Yet it’s the Spanish festival’s wealth of new talent and rising names in its industry competitions sets it apart. Here are 10 things to expect from the fest, which runs Sept. 20-28 at the stunning Basque seaside resort:

Blanchett, Almodóvar, Bardem, Depp, Swinton, Anderson

Blanchett, Almodóvar and Bardem will collect career achievement Donostia Awards, with Blanchett talking up Guy Maddin’s Cannes hit “Rumours,” set for U.S. theatrical release via Bleecker Street on Oct. 18; Almodóvar and Swinton will present Venice success “The Room Next Door.” Depp will unveil “Modi,” his second film as a...

Theirs is a love without name in “Bound in Heaven,” when the connection between Xia You (Ni Ni) and Xu Zitai (Zhou You) is so primal that neither bother to introduce themselves to one another until after spending a night together. Details like these can seem besides the point in Huo Xin’s torrid adaptation of Li Xiuwen’s novel of the same name. Passion trumps all else, both in front and behind the camera, in an auspicious directorial debut from the veteran screenwriter, who sees a doomed romance as an opportunity for a spirited drama when its central duo lives each day like their last.

Any day could well be for Xu, who knows the expiration date for the relationship will come sooner than later due to a terminal illness. As the humble owner of a noodle shop in Wuhan, getting treatment or even a proper diagnosis is out of reach.

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...