The new project is titled ’Septette: More Stories Of Hong Kong’.

Hong Kong-based Media Asia is lining up a second omnibus project looking back at the history of Hong Kong, entitled Septette: More Stories Of Hong Kong, with the focus on emerging rather than veteran filmmakers.

Last year, Media Asia’s Septet: The Story Of Hong Kong, which was selected for the Cannes 2020 Label, featured seven short films from directors such as Ann Hui, Johnnie To, Tsui Hark and Patrick Tam. The film, which To produced, also screened as the opening film of Busan International Film Festival and played in the Limelight section of Rotterdam.

Screenwriter for the likes of Stephen Chow (“Shaolin Soccer” and “The Mermaid”), Chih-chiang has since then been exploring, in the director’s chair, very diverse genres, including a musical and a contemporary western. His fourth feature as director/writer, dwells upon the mix of crime, police procedural, noir and a touch of psychology, reminiscent of past Hong Kong Cinema traditions. “A Witness Out of The Blue” puts together a convoluted script and a stellar cast helmed by ubiquitous Louis Koo to achieve mixed results.

A Witness Out of The Blue is Screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival

Immediately and before the rolling titles, we are catapulted on a murder scene; a junkie is found dead in a filthy basement by a passer-by before being knocked out by a mysterious man running away, probably the murderer. The only living soul present at the murder is a beautiful blood-red parrot that blurts out seemingly random words.

Five Flavours Asian Film Festival invite you for a journey through taste, colors, and sounds of the Asian continent, hoping they can provide food for your thoughts and solace for your spirits.

The Programme of this year’s Festival comprises more than forty titles representing the extreme variety of Asian cinemas – from horror cinema to sweet melodramas, from grasping auteur cinema to relaxing journeys around the continent.

All the films will be presented online between November 25 and December 6.

Preparing this year’s edition forced the organisers to face up to completely new challenges – from the matters of logistics to finding new ways of thinking about their mission, priorities, building bridges between filmmakers and audiences outside the screening rooms. The online edition of the Festival is not a compromise, but a different way to reach the, perhaps even wider, audiences, discover the rich variety of Asian cultures, and explore the contemporary...

The Canadian virtual festival will include more than 100 features and 200 shorts.

Canada’s Fantasia Film Festival has announced a third and final wave of feature films, as well as details of its panels, talks, tributes and special events.

This year’s virtual edition of the Montreal-based festival, running from August 20 to September 2, will include more than 100 features and more than 200 shorts.

Among the latest titles added to the line-up are Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, getting its world premiere, Jorge Michel Grau’s Perdida, getting its international premiere, and Kiel McNaughton’s Indigenous action-comedy The Legend Of Baron To’A, which will be the closing night film.

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, which runs August 20-September 2 and is being held digitally this year due to the pandemic, has unveiled its final lineup.

The fest has also announced that revered genre filmmaker John Carpenter will be the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award and will host an online masterclass as part of its virtual events.

New pics selected include Kiel McNaughton’s Indigenous action-comedy The Legend Of Baron To’a, which closes the fest, the world premiere of Persepolis co-director Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, Johnnie To’s Chasing Dream, and Finn Wolfhard’s directorial debut short Night Shifts.

Further events will include talks with Mike Flanagan and Mick Garris, Simon Barrett, and Dennison Ramalho with José Mojica Marins aka Coffin Joe.

As reported previously, this year’s fest will open with Neil Marshall’s horror The Reckoning. The online screenings, which will run via Festival Scope and Shift72’s virtual screening platform,...

Chicago – Hong Kong writer/director Fung Chih Chiang makes his second appearance at Chicago’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema (Apuc) as Season Ten continues on March 11th, 2020. Two years ago it was “Concerto for a Bully,” and now he’s back with the crime story “A Witness Out of the Blue.” The genre-bending thriller twists the usual cops versus criminals by creating an atmosphere that is more about life in general, and features a parrot as the title character. For tickets and more info click here.

Season Ten of Apuc will run for the next five weeks, until April 9th. Each week will be dedicated to highlighting films in different Asian territories – Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Most of the screenings will be presented at the festival’s primary venue, AMC River East 21 in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood, and other select titles will screened at the venues of...

Chicago – Season Ten for Chicago’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema will kick off on March 10th, 2020, with (click on title for tickets and info) ”I’m Livin’ It,” which begins a week highlighting Hong Kong films. ”A Witness Out of the Blue” is on March 11th.

Season Ten of the Asian Pop-Up Cinema (Apuc) will run for the next five weeks, until April 9th. Each week will be dedicated to highlighting films in different Asian territories – Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Most of the screenings will be presented at the festival’s primary venue, AMC River East 21 in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood, and other select titles will screened at the venues of Apuc’s collaborative partners … Chicago Filmmakers, Alliance Française de Chicago, and the Chinese American Museum.

”I’m Living It” Kicks Off Season Ten of the Asian Pop-Up Cinema

Photo credit: Apuc

The ongoing success of the...

Chicago’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema has announced the full line-up for its 10th Season including 16 new films from across Asia. Season Ten runs for five-weeks from March 10 through April 9, 2020. Each week will be dedicated to highlighting films from the same geographic location with one film shown on different days each week. A majority of the screenings will be presented at the festival’s primary venue, AMC River East 21. Select titles are screened at collaborative partners’ premises: Chicago Filmmakers, Alliance Française de Chicago, and the Chinese American Museum.

Asian Pop-Up Cinema’s Season Ten opens by honoring Hong Kong filmmaking with two North American Premieres starting with “I’m Livin it” on March 10. Nominated for 10 awards from the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards, “I’m Livin It”, tells the story of a man who was once a star in his finance firm (Aaron Kwok), but now spends his life in a...

The full list of nominations for the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards has been revealed. However, the dates are still unknown; the mid-April event in fact, will be probably postponed due to the Covid-19 (a.k.a. coronavirus). So for now let’s just have a look at the nominees.

This year’s edition sees Derek Tsang Kwok-Cheung’s “Better Days” leading the competition with an amazing 12 nominations, followed at close range by Heiward Mak’s “Fagara” with 11 nominations and Wong Hing-Fan’s “I’m Livin’ It” with 10. Moreover, Wilson Yip’s “Ip Man 4: The Finale” bagged 9 nominations, including Best Director and Best Action Choreography.

Read the full list of nominations below:

Better Days by Derek Tsang

Best Film

Better Days by Derek Tsang

Suk Suk by Ray Yeung

Fagara by Heiward Mak

I’m Livin’ It by Wong Hing-fan

The New King Of Comedy by Stephen Chow

Best...

Patriotic thriller “The Captain” held on to the top spot at the Chinese box office for the second weekend, again leading from propaganda omnibus “My People, My Country.”

“The Captain,” also known as “The Chinese Pilot” earned $34.9 million according to consultancy Artisan Gateway, for a two-week cumulative of $343 million. The cumulative for “People,” which had a huge opening day on Sept. 30, is higher still, at $362 million.

Both films were released in time for the National Day celebrations and the week-long public holiday in China. So large a large drop in individual and cumulative weekend scores was to be expected after the return to work. But per screening average grosses, at over $350 a time, remained very solid.

One of the few newcomers to make it into the chart was Hong Kong-made crime thriller “A Witness Out of the Blue,” starring the ever-popular Louis Koo. It made $14.8 million in just two days after a Saturday release.