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Taiwanese director Lee Yun Chan has returned to feature filmmaking after two decades away with “To Be Ordinary,” the only Taiwanese film in competition at the Busan International Film Festival. Lee made her feature debut with 2005’s “The Shoe Fairy” and more recently directed the Disney+ series “Women in Taipei.” The Mandarin title literally means […]
The world premiere of Netflix’s animated feature “Ray Gunn” at the London Film Festival on Saturday coincided with a special day for one of its key creatives. As director Brad Bird noted in the introduction at the Royal Festival Hall, the premiere for the neo-noir sci-fi was also composer Michael Giacchino’s birthday. Bird then invited […]
When Han Jun-hee binge-watched “House of Cards,” the series struck him as a game changer. It left him with one ambition: to make a story no one had told before, but that many people would watch. Delivering a masterclass at Netflix’s Creative Asia program during the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), the director of “Coin […]
When Kim Ji-yong read the script for “Possible Love,” its emotional climax, set in a still forest by the beach, had no wind in it. Korean summer storms on location changed that. The cinematographer behind “Decision to Leave” and “Squid Game” Season 2 asked director Lee Chang-dong to change the scene’s setup, a choice that […]
Namkoong Sun, director of Netflix’s Korean romance “Love Untangled,” said her first commercial feature felt little different from her independent films once cameras rolled, apart from the scale. The freedom, she added, came with weight. Namkoong was speaking at “New Voices in Film,” an industry panel staged by the Busan International Film Festival and Netflix […]
Netflix has used AI in one form or another on some 300 of its titles, Lee Sung-gyun, the streamer’s senior director of APAC production, told an audience at the Busan International Film Festival. On the same panel, “The Outlaws” director Kang Yoon-sung said AI workflows could take 30% to 40% off a feature film’s production […]
Debuting Italian director Margherita Ferrari is at the Busan International Film Festival with “Föa – Once Upon a Future,” an innovative coming-of-age drama that also marks Paolo Sorrentino’s debut as a producer. Set in Genoa during the tragic days in July 2001 when the G8 summit led to deathly clashes between protesters and police, “Once […]
The Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) will wrap its 37th edition on Nov. 1 with “Vintage Violence,” Eugene Kotlyarenko’s livestream-era crime caper starring Cole Sprouse and Mizuhara Kiko. The screening brings back a stand-alone festival closing, which SGIFF last staged in 2014. The film bowed in the Midnight Madness section at the Toronto Film Festival […]
Fan Bingbing watches AI-generated microdramas now and then. She’s just not convinced they’re doing China’s young audiences any good. The Chinese star made the remarks at a Busan International Film Festival press conference, where she presented Wayne Wang’s “Diary of a Mad Old Man,” screening in the A Window on Asian Cinema strand, and Ivan […]
In “Making Marie Antoinette,” Sofia Coppola finds herself in front of the camera. Directed by her late mother, Eleanor Coppola, the documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Sofia’s 2006 historical drama “Marie Antoinette.” Eleanor, who died in 2024, filmed over 80 hours of footage during the making of the movie, which starred […]
Documentary festival DOC NYC returns for its 17th year in Manhattan from Nov. 11-19 and continues online through Nov. 29. Èlia Gasull Balada and Matteo Norzi’s “The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs” will open the festival. The film follows 75-year-old Indigenous artist Sara Flores, who emerges from the Peruvian Amazon into the global contemporary art scene. […]
When he was younger, film came first for Alfonso Cuarón. These days, the Oscar-winning director says, life does. He made the remark at his Busan International Film Festival masterclass on Thursday, a day after he and his son Jonas Cuaron, his co-writer on 2013 space survival drama “Gravity,” revisited the film following an Imax screening. […]
Charlotte Gainsbourg had one artist to recommend to the crowd at her Busan International Film Festival masterclass, and it was not a safe pick. “I’m not good for recommendation. I have one artist that I listen to, very controversial artist, but I listen to everything he does, and it’s Kanye West,” Gainsbourg said, to laughter […]
Na Hong-Jin told a Busan International Film Festival masterclass audience that his film “Hope” grew out of a conviction, around 2017, that war was about to break out on the Korean peninsula. At the time, Na said, news reports were describing U.S. fighter jets and bombers flying in and out over Pyongyang through the night. […]
The upcoming Doha Film Festival has unveiled its 15-title competition lineup made up mostly of Middle East premieres of movies from the region, seven of which directed by women. As previously announced, Yemeni-Scottish filmmaker Sara Ishaq’s timely drama “The Station,” which looks at the impact of Yemen’s civil war on the country, is set as […]
Miles Teller will be honored with the Artist of Distinction Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival. He will be presented with the recognition at the fest’s annual Honors ceremony on Oct. 18. “Miles Teller brings extraordinary dedication to every role he takes on,” Newport Beach Film Festival CEO and executive director Gregg Schwenk said. […]
Sundance-winning producer Neeraj Churi has boarded “About an Intimate Matter” (Ekanto Byaktigoto Bishoy), a Bengali-language queer drama from Awedacious Originals that will world premiere at the 31st Busan International Film Festival. Churi, of Lotus Visual Productions, produced Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s “Sabar Bonda” (Cactus Pears), winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the […]
When Variety spoke with Taiwanese director Lu Po-Shun in March, he was seeking final financing for his debut feature, “Will You Still Be My Friend,” a coming-of-age drama weaving adolescent friendship with local politics and solar energy development. Now, following its San Sebastián premiere and two Golden Horse nominations, Lu is bringing the film to […]
Disney+ is about to name a new commissioner in Australia and has not ruled out a return to production in Southeast Asia, Jon Wax, executive VP of international original television at Disney Entertainment, said Wednesday at the Busan International Film Festival. Wax, set out the streamer’s Asia-Pacific plans at a fireside chat at the Park […]
Chinese filmmaker Gu You’s films modeled on Chinese landscape painting will not stop at three. The director of “The First Taste of Loneliness,” which world premiering in competition at the Busan International Film Festival, tells Variety that a fourth installment is already in research and development, and that it may lean toward genre. The new […]
