Fish out of water comedy film “Jonny Keep Walking” kept its place at the top of the mainland China box office in its fourth weekend of release. Hong Kong-made action comedy “Rob N Roll” opened in second position.

“Jonny,” in which a man from the countryside struggles to hold down a corporate job in a big city, earned $15 million (RMB106 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was another strong hold after $19.7 million in the film’s third weekend and $22.4 million in its second frame. The cumulative total for “Jonny” is now $134 million (RMB951 million).

“Rob N Roll,” with its starry cast of Aaron Kwok, Richie Jen and Lam Ka-tung, opened with $12.1 million. It was produced in Hong Kong and directed by Albert Mak, who has associate director credits on Johnny To movies “Drug War” and “Life Without Principle.”.

Another Hong Kong-made film, “The Goldfinger” took 3.8 million in third place.

Young directors Michelle Hung (“Little Shop of Horrors”) and Ashley Cheung (“Life on the Line”), cinematographer Eric Tsang (“Liu Yang River”) and their short movies are part of the Hong Kong 2017 Fresh Wave Short Film Competition. Now at its 11th edition, Fresh Wave is an independent organization founded by Johnnie To, to fund Hong Kong young talents in film-making, showcase their projects and give them a truly effective platform to start their career from. Fresh Wave Alumni includes Jevons Au of “Ten Years” and “Trivisa”, and Wong Chun of multi-awarded Mad World.

On the occasion of their films screening at Five Flavours Film Festival in Warsaw, we speak with them about their experience in Hong Kong as young, independent filmmakers, their inspirational directors and their short movies in the Fresh Wave competition.

Let’s start with some general questions for all of you. It looks like in Hong Kong at...

A version of this story first appeared in the Foreign Language issue of TheWrap magazine.

South Korea has never received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language film and never even been shortlisted in the category, despite 29 previous entries and an abundance of world-class filmmakers. The country, which is in the race this year with Lee Chang-dong’s acclaimed “Burning,” is one of the more striking examples of a country whose filmmakers have been unable to land an Oscar nomination despite sustained critical praise.

But it is far from the only country in that boat. And the further east you go, the more the Academy’s foreign-language voters seem to have difficulty with foreign cinema.

Over the last 20 years, more than half the nominations that have gone to countries in Asia have been for Middle Eastern countries like Iran, Israel and Palestine. If you focus on East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia,...

Now is the time to look at the upcoming festivals and what films are tipped for Venice, Toronto and Rome. Some fresh films and some left over from Cannes are listed below. This will be an ongoing list until titles are confirmed. Tipped for the fall festivals by Daily Variety: Reign of Assassins by John Woo. Isa: Fortissimo Death Of A Hostage aka Shares aka Life Without Principles by Johnnie To (Hong Kong) Isa: Media Asia (Si) (previously tipped for Cannes) The American starring Geroge Clooney by Anton Corbjin (U.S.) Isa: Focus Features Barney's Version starring Dustin Hoffman by Richard…...