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Festival season heading your way out there in the dark. Even if you only experience film festivals through blog mania for the same, that's still something. That's how most of us experience Cannes each year, yes? This year Tfe will be doing a lot from Nyff as it's close to home (5 stops on the subway close!) and quite inexpensive since there's already a bed to sleep in: one's own! But we have lined up a few foreign correspondents to give you bits and bobs from Venice (Aug 31st-Sept 10th), Toronto (Sept 8th-18th), and London (Oct 12th-27th). Quite often commenting is light on film festival pieces, which one assumes is because of the unfamiliar factor of the films, though sometimes it's quite distressing -- I even drew you cartoons from Nashville and there was nary a peep! --  so some feedback would be greatly appreciated:

What interests you and what doesn't about film festivals?...

Making its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month, the South Korean thriller Countdown has just received a trailer from Twitch. Not only is this playing in the Special Presentations category, but it’s also writer and director Huh Jong-ho‘s debut. I probably don’t need to tell you this, but having your first movie premiere in a category such as that is a pretty good sign for both you and what you’ve made.

Unfortunately, the trailer for the movie is lacking those rather important subtitles, which us non-Koreans sort of require. I could… kind of pick up on what was going on here through the preview’s editing and selected moments, but the plot points that this communicated were lost on me. If you do watch it, you should know that it’s described as being about “a beautiful ex-con who, after being released from prison,...

Is Korea's Huh Jong-ho the next Kim Ji-woon? There are enough moments in the teaser for his upcoming Countdown that recall Kim's A Bittersweet Life to raise the possibility and the fact that the film was selected to the Toronto International Film Festival's prestigious Special Presentations program despite being a debut is quite a ringing endorsement. Tiff describes it this way:Jeon Do-youn plays a beautiful ex-con who, after being released from prison, tries to make some quick cash by manipulating a heartless debt collector.Con artist versus collector? There's a lot to like there. And even more to like in the teaser below....

Although the trailer for director Heo Jong-ho’s upcoming South Korean action/thriller “Countdown” looks pretty good, I’ve got to admit that the synopsis I dug up earlier this morning is a little cryptic. I’m sure something was lost in translation. Regardless, the aforementioned teaser has been embedded below for those of you who care. It looks promising from where I’m sitting, which is at a table in my dining room. I’m sure you wanted to know that. A synopsis? Of course I have a synopsis: An action drama of the last deal between 100% successful money collector Tae Geon-ho (Jeong Jae-yeong) and experienced fraud Cha Ha-yeon (Jeon Do-yeon) about whom everything is fake besides her breathing. “Countdown” opens in South Korea this September. Source: Hancinema function getVideo() { var so = new SWFObject("http://cdn.springboard.gorillanation.com/storage/xplayer/yo033.swf?pid=byhw013&siteId=243&videoId=328925&autostart=false&file=http://cms.

I know next to nothing about this South Korean suspense fllck save for this sentence I found hiding out over at the Film Smash message board: “A man chases down the woman who holds the key to keep his heart beating.” Is it literal or figurative? Who knows! Director Huh Jong-ho’s “Countdown”, which stars Jeong Jae-yeong and Jeon Do-yeon, is being described as “21 Grams” meets “Taken”, a comparison that is both intriguing and a little strange. In order to help get you excited about the upcoming project, a pair of character posters have been released, both of which have been embedded below. Take a gander if you’ve got a minute. As soon as more information about the film becomes available, we’ll be all over it. Source: Film Smash...