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Philippe Bober’s Coproduction Office has boarded worldwide sales of Lou Ye’s An Unfinished Film ahead of its premiere at Cannes and has already closed two major deals.

The film, which is set to play in the Special Screenings section of the festival next month, has been snapped up by Bac Films for France and Lucky Red for Italy. A first look at the film can be seen above.

Set in January 2020, the story follows a film crew that reunites near Wuhan to resume shooting a film halted 10 years earlier, only to share unexpected challenges as cities are placed under lockdown.

The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (Hkiffs) has added 15 work-in-progress projects to the 22nd Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf), rounding up a bumper line-up of the new Hkiff Project Market.

This year, Haf joins the inaugural Hkiff Industry-caa China Genre Initiative (Hcg) to create the new Hkiff Industry Project Market, which will showcase 47 projects, including 26 previously announced in-development Haf projects and six Hcg projects.

The Wip section will introduce the latest works by notable filmmakers such as Chang Tso-Chi, Lav Diaz, Mark Gill, Midi Z, Tan Chui Mui, and Yang Chao as well as by prominent and emerging actors,...

by Federica Giampaolo

Mother-daughter relationships are complex and diverse, depending on society and culture, but cinema plays a major role in embodying the key aspects and feelings globally shared. Especially where family is deeply ingrained, like in Chinese culture, their bond is portrayed as a vital aspect of their life. The biggest clash concerns the lack of balance between traditional values and modern beliefs, but their mutual, unconditional love and shared trauma hold them together. Despite the challenges, some may continue to rely on and support each other through thick and thin. For them, their roles as mothers and daughters are essential parts of their identity, even when they don't want them to be.

But the Chinese culture has strict norms and expectations for women, and these expectations can often lead to conflict and tension not only between two different generations but within same generations also. The dynamics between these women are,...

Hong Kong’s Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf) on Thursday unveiled a rich, 28-title selection for its forthcoming 21st edition, featuring promising projects in development from Singaporean Camera d’Or winner Anthony Chen, maverick Hong Kong director Fruit Chan, rising Thai talent Jakrawal Nilthamrong and veteran festival ringmaster Marco Mueller, among many others. Haf is returning in 2023 for its first in-person forum since 2019, following three consecutive online editions during the coronavirus pandemic.

As per usual, the event will be held March 13–15 in tandem with the 27th Hong Kong Film & TV Market (aka Filmart), which runs March 13-16.

Of the 28 titles picked from 244 submissions spanning 38 countries and territories, Haf says half are from first-time filmmakers and eight are Chinese-language projects developed at recent editions of the Haf Film Lab mentorship program. The selection spans a broad range of genres, including arthouse drama, horror, fantasy, romance, animation and family films.

Chen, director...

The selection will be showcased at the first physical Haf since 2019.

The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (Hkiffs) has announced 28 in-development projects for the 21st Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf), which is set to return as an in-person event for the first time since 2019.

The projects span horror, fantasy, romance, family drama and animation, and include seven from Hong Kong, eight from Haf Film Lab and 14 directorial debuts. There are also projects from acclaimed filmmakers and producers such as Arsalan Amiri, Anthony Chen, Fruit Chan, Jakrawal Nilthamrong, Lin Yu-Hsien, Nai An, Nader Saeivar, Teddy Robin and Tian Zhuangzhuang.

The delayed 46th edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival wrapped Wednesday with the award of 13 prizes for its young filmmaker, documentary and shorts competitions.

Hailed by the jury as “one of this year’s most distinguished films both creatively and artistically,” Qiu Jiongjiong’s “A New Old Play” was named best film for the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language). “A New Old Play” is a tale of a family of Sichuan Opera artists living through a tumultuous era. It also collected the Fipresci Prize, with the jury commending the film for “its masterful approach and inventive visual style.”

In the global category, Palestinian director Maha Haj’s “Mediterranean Fever” was chosen as the Firebird Award winner for being “an all-rounded gem that is at once a thriller, social comedy, and odd couple bromance.”

In the Chinese-language category, Hong Kong’s Mak Pui-tung won the best actor award for “The Sparring Partner.

Selection includes films from Siddiq Barmak, Yoon Gaeun and Min Bahadur Bham.

In South Korea, the Busan International Film Festival (Biff)’s Asian Project Market (Apm) has announced 28 titles from 17 countries for this year.

The 20th Apm’s selection includes projects from Golden Globe best foreign language film award winner Siddiq Barmak (Osama) and Berlinale Generation director Yoon Gaeun (The World Of Us).

Afghan filmmaker Barmak’s Georgia-France co-production The Pass is a wartime drama about two soldiers from opposite sides who are forced to cooperate in order to cross a dangerous mountain pass alongside refugees.

Korean director Yoon’s Sora is a drama about a middle school girl who finds out a secret about the new kid in the neighborhood.

According to organizers, the number of projects submitted to Apm this year went up “almost 25%” from the previous year to reach 317. In the 19 previous years, “a total of 499 projects have been selected with more than 220 of...

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close with tonight’s awards ceremony. While we’ll have our personal favorites coming early this week, the jury and audience have responded with theirs, topped by Macon Blair‘s I don’t feel at home in this world anymore., which will arrive on Netflix in late February, and the documentary Dina. Check out the full list of winners below see our complete coverage here.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Larry Wilmore to:

Dina / U.S.A. (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) — An eccentric suburban woman and a Walmart door-greeter navigate their evolving relationship in this unconventional love story.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Peter Dinklage to:

I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair) — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she...

Each year, the Sundance Film Festival rolls out an enviable lineup of jury members — billed as “experts in film, art, culture and science” — to dole out awards to the feature-length works shown at the festival. In total, 28 prizes (and sometimes more!) will be announced at a ceremony on January 28 (as ever, Short Film Awards will be announced at a separate ceremony on January 24). The festival has now announced this year’s various jury members, including actors, filmmakers, producers, writers and other luminaries (and, yes, plenty of Sundance alums pop up amongst their ranks).

Additionally, the festival has also announced that actress, comedian, correspondent and podcast host Jessica Williams will host the annual awards. Jones seems poised to have a very busy Sundance indeed, as she also toplines James Strouse’s premiere “The Incredible Jessica James,” which will close out the festival the night before.

The awards, which recognize standout artistic and story elements,...

If you’re wondering where the next Damien Chazelle will come from, look no further than the 2017 Sundance Film Festival short film lineup.

Sundance has a long history of discovering the next generation of acclaimed filmmakers by first championing their short films. Chazelle made his first big splash by winning the 2013 Grand Jury Prize for “Whiplash” (the short). Last year, Jim Cummings won that prize for “Thunder Road,” and he’s back this year with a new short. Also generating a lot of pre-festival buzz is Kristen Stewart, making her writing/directing debut with the short “Come Swim.”

Before the Sundance Film Festival commences on January 19, 2017, here’s a briefing on Cummings’ “The Robbery,” Stewart’s “Come Swim” and eight other buzzworthy shorts (two of which are viewable online).

IndieWire reached out to the filmmakers to ask about their inspiration, production challenges and future projects. Check out our list below,...

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

This Past Weekend:

It wasn’t a bad Thanksgiving weekend, especially for the Weekend Warrior who pretty much nailed two of his predictions for the weekend! Disney Animation’s Moana indeed at opened at #1 with $55.5 million for the three-day weekend (exactly my prediction), although it ended up with more--$81.1 million--in its first five days. The Brad Pitt-Marion Cotillard spy thriller, Allied (Paramount), directed by Robert Zemeckis, also opened with $18 million, right on track with my prediction. I guess I could take some comfort on being spot on with two of the Thanksgiving releases—like I said last week, that holiday weekend is a bear to predict—but I way overestimated the other two movies as sequelitis indeed hit Billy Bob Thornton...

Often presented as a glossy corporate fantasia in the country’s government-approved commercial cinema, China tends to look like a very different place in the independent films that manage to escape its borders (and receive prominent exposure at festivals around the world).

Hardly a new phenomenon, this dichotomy seems to have grown even more severe with the last two generations of Chinese directors — while googly-eyed studio claptrap like “Monster Hunt” slays at the box office, scrappy, auteur-driven fare like Li Yang’s “Blind Mountain” and Diao Yinan’s “Black Coal, Thin Ice” paint the People’s Republic as a bleak wasteland where many laws don’t apply, and the ones that do seem sadistically designed to test the morality of the people they’re imposed upon. And, of course, to serve as prompts for some very dark thrillers.

Read More: Exclusive: Zeitgeist Films Picks Up Johnny Ma’s Debut Feature...

An official Us trailer has debuted for a film titled Old Stone, the feature directorial debut of Johnny Ma. If you follow international news, you may remember hearing news stories about how drivers in China will go back and kill people if they accidentally hit them. It's because the laws over there make it easier for the accused to get away if the person is dead, rather than just injured. Old Stone seems to be the first film made that examines one of these incidents. It's described as an intense "psychological thriller" about a taxi driver battling bureaucracy and legal manipulation in China. This premiered at Tiff and Berlin to mostly positive reviews, and it looks like it'll leave your head spinning. Starring Chen Gang, Nai An & Wang Hongwei. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for Johnny Ma's Old Stone, direct from YouTube (via Tfs): For Lao Shi...

After earning acclaim for his short films in the past few years, Chinese-Canadian director Johnny Ma brought his directorial debut Old Stone to Toronto International Film Festival this year where it was awarded Best Canadian First Feature Film. Picked up by Zeitgeist Films, it’ll now get a release next week and the U.S. trailer has arrived for the thriller which follows a taxi driver doing a good deed that has major repercussions.

We said in our review, “Old Stone (Lao Shi) is a film wrapped around the gut-wrenching dilemma of a man who knows a moral choice but struggles to find the fortitude to carry through with it against a broken social system punishing him for it. The divide between epistemological knowledge of right from wrong is often played in films, couched in a vacuity that assumes vagueness for insight into the moral condition of humanity, but Old...

Old Stone (Lao Shi) is a film wrapped around the gut-wrenching dilemma of a man who knows a moral choice but struggles to find the fortitude to carry through with it against a broken social system punishing him for it. The divide between epistemological knowledge of right from wrong is often played in films, couched in a vacuity that assumes vagueness for insight into the moral condition of humanity, but Old Stone is content to build its foundation on a scenario with very little grey area. Instead, the film tackles a much more interesting conceit: the struggle to be righteous even when — especially when — we know with certainty what the cost will be.

Johnny Ma‘s debut film is both a potent exhibit of social realism, tackling a specific moral apathy in contemporary China and a tense, atmospheric crime thriller. A Chinese-Canadian film, it’s impressive as a first feature...

Wang Bing, Adam Wong, Pema Tseden and Lav Diaz (pictured) among directors with projects in line-up.Scoll down for full line-up

The 14th Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf) (March 14-16) has revealed its full line-up of 31 projects, including new works from renowned filmmakers such as Wang Bing, Pema Tseden and Lav Diaz as well as from new talents.

Hong Kong is well-represented with five projects, including The Way We Dance director Adam Wong’s new project Trains In The Night; 2012 Hong Kong Film Awards best new director Jessey Tsang’s erotic feature The Lady Improper; and Dot 2 Dot director Amos Why’s adaptation of award-winning suspense novel Napping Kid.

Other Chinese-language projects from Taiwan and China include Taiwan actress Rene Liu’s directorial debut Lieutenant Yi, which will be produced by her regular collaborator Sylvia Chang; new director Huang Zi’s From Black And White To Shades Of Grey, produced by Monga...