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Last month’s Udine festival of all things East Asian was the launch pad for “Making Waves — Navigators of Hong Kong Cinema,” a collection of 13 films that will travel to a dozen cities in Europe and Asia. Billed as an “extravaganza,” mixing old and new talent, the event is pegged to the 25th anniversary celebrations of the return of Hong Kong to China after 150 years of British colonial rule.

But it is no longer clear to everyone that Hong Kong cinema has the energy, willpower or finance to face down its larger demons. Its problems range from the long-term drift of Hong Kong talent into the mainland Chinese industry to censorship and marginalization.

Last year began with Hong Kong cinemas under pressure from pro-Beijing media to change their releases, and raids on private screenings. These were followed by an amended law that introduces film censorship according to national security concerns...

Action thriller “Limbo” and “Anita,” a biopic about the late Canto-pop queen Anita Mui lead the nomination race for this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards, which is holding its 40th edition after being postponed from last year.

“Limbo,” a Cantonese noir that follows a cop duo’s hunt for a serial killer, received 14 nominations including best film, best director for Soi Cheang, best screenplay, best actor for Lam Ka-tung and best actress for Cya Liu. The film had earlier won the critics heart at the annual Hong Kong Film Critics’ Society Awards, which named “Limbo” as best film and Liu best actress for her role as a young addict.

“Anita” received 12 nominations, including best film and best director for Longman Leung. The film’s lead actress Louise Wong, who plays the role of the late superstar in her big screen debut, is nominated for both best actress and best new performer.

Other contenders include biopic ‘Anita’, ‘Drifting’ and ‘Raging Fire’, the final thriller by the late Benny Chan.

Soi Cheang’s crime thriller Limbo leads the pack for the 40th Hong Kong Film Awards (Hkfa) with 14 nominations, as the event prepares to return as an in-person ceremony following last year’s cancellation as a result of the pandemic.

The black and white crime noir, which premiered in Berlinale Special in 2021, secured nods including best film, best director and for actors Lam Ka Tung[/link], Cya Liu and Fish Liew. The thriller centres on a veteran detective and rookie copy who team up to catch a serial killer.

The New Zealand International Film Festival had to cancel the Auckland leg of its multi-city exhibition series, but will continue in Wellington and Christchurch and other regional stops with a diverse lineup that includes an impressive Asian selection.

Wellington will screen a total of 164 feature films from 51 countries over 18 days (Nov. 4-21) across its eight venues. Christchurch will screen 95 features from 37 countries.

International highlights include Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter,” Zhang Yimou’s “One Second,” and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Oscars contender Jasmila Zbanic’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?” Germany’s Oscar contender, Maria Schrader’s “I’m Your Man,” “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” and “My Salinger Year” also screen. So too does Jane Campion’s U.S.-set, New Zealand-made “The Power of the Dog.” The middle of the festival includes Cannes Palme D’or winner “Titane” and Paulo Sorrentino’s Venice grand...

The London East Asia Film Festival (Leaff) celebrates its sixth edition in 2021 with a commitment to diverse, culturally impactful cinema entertainment. After a year of shut cinema doors, Leaff is returning home to London’s big screens with an expanded catalogue to help stimulate the renaissance of cinema and promote cultural empathy.

With cinematic offerings from eight regions – China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam – this year’s programme is an ode to the quiet and independent voices from East Asia. Two international premieres, five European premieres and 18 UK premieres will take place at our state-art-of-the-art venues, Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, The Cinema at Selfridges, as well as the newly opened Odeon Luxe West End and The Chiswick Cinema. The festival is divided into five strands: Official Selection, Competition, Hong Kong Focus, Documentary, and Retrospective.

Opening Gala

The festival opens with a memorial to the late Benny Chan...

Chicago, Il – – Asian Pop-Up Cinema: Season 13 will present 30 films at an in-person and drive-in festival, with select titles available for online streaming. The festival opens September 15 and runs through October 12, 2021, at AMC River East 21, The Davis Theater and ChiTown Drive-In.

The programming celebrates the best Asian-centric cinema, with new work made by filmmakers from China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the U.S. and Canada. This season will highlight women in film, stories with humanitarian themes and action thrillers, including four restored martial arts classics.

Season 13 opens with Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension, a documentary observing China’s growing class divide through labor, consumerism, and wealth. Structured in three parts, the film ascends through the levels of the capitalist structure and examines how the contemporary “Chinese Dream” remains an elusive fantasy for most.

Centerpiece film The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’T Kill is Japanese director Kan Eguchi’s action/comedy follow-up to The Fable,...

Chan Kin-long is a Hong Kong actor known for his roles in Fruit Chan’s “The Midnight After”, Derek Chiu’s “No. 1 Chung Ying Street” as well as the upcoming “The Vintage” by Donna Chu. With “Hand Rolled Cigarette” he gives his directorial debut, which opened the 17th Hong Kong Asian Film Festival. It was also the closing film of the 57th Golden Horse Film Festival, where it was nominated for seven awards, including Best Feature Film.

On the occasion of “Hand Rolled Cigarette” screening at New York Asian Film Festival, we talk with the actor and director about what inspired the story, the collaboration with experienced actor Gordon Lam and newcomer Bipin Karma as well as the noirish world of the movie.

As the story of “Hand Rolled Cigarette” seems to deal with the idea of loyalty and camaraderie, especially among the soldiers we see in the beginning, why...

Gordon Lam and Ann Hui, recipients of Variety honors at the New York Asian Film Festival, could scarcely be more different. Actor-turned producer Lam, who is receiving Variety Star Asia Award is ebullient and busy. Hui, for all her renown in Asia and Europe as a top director, is quiet and unassuming. She will be presented with the Variety Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award.

What they have in common is a lengthy career that has taken them from the bottom of the Hong Kong entertainment industry to the upper echelons. Both have achieved reputations that have been earned by endless hard work, which has served their carefully honed talent.

Born in Manchuria of Japanese and Chinese parents, Hui was convent school-educated in Hong Kong and studied film in London, where she brushed up against industry icon King Hu.

Returning to Hong Kong in 1976, Hui was thrown in at the deep end,...

After going fully virtual in 2020, the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff) returns with a hybrid lineup of screenings Aug. 6-22.

The festival will open Aug. 6 with Ryoo Seung-wan’s South Korean action-drama “Escape From Mogadishu,” which depicts the perilous escape attempt by Korean embassy workers stranded during the onset of the civil war in Somalia.

Samuel Jamier, executive director of Nyaff, calls it one of the biggest Korean releases of the year and says the film will open in theaters simultaneously with its in-person international premiere at Film at Lincoln Center.

“‘Escape From Mogadishu’ shows the expansion of Korea and where it’s aiming to be,” Jamier says. “It would have been hard to conceive 10 years ago another war film set in Somalia, a territory that has only been explored in ‘Black Hawk Down’ in some fashion.”

One of the few American film festivals devoted to pics from the Asian continent,...

Quebec’s Fantasia Festival has unveiled the third and final wave of titles set to screen at this year’s 25th edition and announced that Takashi Miike’s latest feature “The Great Yokai War – Guardians,” will close the festival. The world premiere of Julien Knafo’s Quebec zombie flic “Brain Freeze” will open the festival following an Aug. 4 pre-fest screening of James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad.”

“The Great Yokai War- Guardians” is the follow-up to Fantasia 2006 opener “The Great Yoki War,” and unspools in a fantasy world of Japanese demons, kaiju and pop culture references which proved a hit in Montreal the first time around.

Other key titles featured in the third wave lineup include Lee Won-tae’s “The Devil’s Deal,” his first film since “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” won Sitges’ best film award in 2019. BAFTA-winner Paul Andrew Williams’ (“Murdered for Being Different”) “Bull,” a revenge thriller,...

The New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center are delighted to unveil further highlights of the 2021 New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff), including the Opening film, lifetime award honorees, the competition lineup, the inaugural Asian American Focus and additional films. The Festival will screen over 60 films, both virtually and in person, to audiences in New York and across the country from August 6 – 22, 2021.

Nyaff’s 20th edition will kick off at Film at Lincoln Center on August 6 with the in-person international premiere of Ryoo Seung-wan’s tense action thriller “Escape from Mogadishu,” starring Kim Yoon-seok (Nyaff Star Asia winner 2018) and Zo In-sung. The film is dramatically constructed based on real events that took place in 1991 at the onset of the Somali Civil War, and depicts the perilous escape attempted by North and South Korean embassy workers who were stranded during the conflict. (Well Go USA is releasing the...

The New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center will unspool the 2021 edition Aug. 6-22 at Flc, kicking off with the premiere of “Escape From Mogadishu,” directed by Ryoo Seung-wa.

In all, 60 films will screen to audiences in person and virtually, with premieres of first and second features from directors for the feature film competition: “Anima”, “City of Lost Things”, “Hand Rolled Cigarette”, “Joint”, “Ten Months” and “Tiong Bahru Social Club”.

Hong Kong new wave director Ann Hui will receive the Variety Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award, and the festival will screen her film “The Story of Woo Viet” and Man Lim Chung’s pic on Hui, “Keep Rolling.”

The festival will introduce the section Asian American Focus, which will feature films including Aimee Long’s “A Shot Through the Wall.” The team behind the film will be present at the festival.

“Sensei, Would You Sit Beside Me?...

When talking to soldiers, even those who only served a limited time, the level of camaraderie, respect and collaboration are often aspects that are mentioned. Especially people from a working-class background or from troubled families describe the experience as life-changing, because even though there were tough times, the feeling of being supported by the other members of your unit is quite unique, and is sadly seldom repeated in the world of work. It is this feeling and the small gestures that accompany it which are at the foundation of Chan Kin-long crime drama “Hand Rolled Cigarette”, which premiered at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival in 2020. Using a very noirish visual language, the feature tells a story about loyalty, between people and within society in general, while also delving deep into the criminal underworld of Hong Kong.

Hand Rolled Cigarette is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival

Once a...