The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Hollywood glamour in Tokyo for film festival Posted: 17 Oct 2013 12:13 AM PDT A US$50,000 (RM157, 959) top prize is up for grabs at the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), where movies from around the globe will be competing for recognition. Works from Iran and Georgia will be among those on offer, alongside several Chinese-made feature films that have been nominated for two competitions. The international film section will award the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix and carries with it a $50,000 paycheque, while the new Best Asian Future Film Award section, aimed at showcasing Asian and Middle Eastern films, offers a US$10,000 (RM31,653) purse. The nine-day event begins today with the screening of Hong Kong horror flick Rigor Mortis directed by Juno Mak, which is in the running for the Asian Future award. US heavyweight father-and-daughter pairing Francis and Sofia Ford Coppola are likely to be a big draw for punters, with Sofia's latest directorial offering The Bling Ring being shown in the special screening section for high-profile films. "Since the very first TIFF in 1985,... (it) has been a platform for talented young filmmakers to win international recognition and find inspiration," organisers said in a statement. Past award winners include Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, whose film, Babel won the Prix de la Mise en Scene, (Best Director Award) at Cannes in 2006, and Michel Hazanavicius, whose film The Artist, won five Academy Awards in 2012. Chief judge, Chinese director Chen Kaige, said in a video message: "We all understand that good films require talent. Without talent nothing can be done. "But sometimes I feel like... there is something even more important than the talent, which is the unique personal understanding of the world. "But strange(ly) enough... most of (the) time we could only find this kind of unique understanding of the world in the early age of a filmmaker's career. So that's why we want to pay very close attention to young filmmakers' works," he said. The appointment of a Chinese head of the judging panel comes as Japan and China are at loggerheads over the sovereignty of a chain of islands in the East China Sea, which Tokyo administers under the name Senkaku, but which Beijing claims as Diaoyu. The dispute erupted in September 2012 and has hit political and business ties, costing both countries millions of dollars in lost trade. Last year, 1,332 films from 91 countries and regions were nominated in the international competition, according to organisers. Previous highlights of the festival include the French film Untouchable, the 2011 winner of the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix. It later set a world record for attendance for a French language film and was a long-running hit in Japan. The film festival is also aimed at introducing high-profile international films that have not been released in Japan and promoting Japanese independent movies to the international industry. – AFP, October 17, 2013. |
| Gravity director Cuaron says Oscar talk premature Posted: 16 Oct 2013 06:39 PM PDT The film, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts adrift after a space accident, has garnered rave reviews and a North American box office record for an October release by earning US$55.8 million (RM176.5 million) in its debut weekend earlier this month. "We did not expect such a response," Cuaron told a news conference during a presentation of his film in a Mexico City hotel. The movie has generated an Oscars buzz and drawn comparisons to Stanley Kubrik's 1968 sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey ever since it opened the Venice film festival in August. But when asked whether Gravity could win more than one Academy Award, Cuaron said: "The truth is – thinking, dreaming about it – no. It is too early." The film has won plaudits from legendary Hollywood directors Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino and James Cameron, who called it "the best space film ever done". Cuaron, who shot to fame with the 2001 Mexican drama Y Tu Mama Tambien, said he had received calls and emails from colleagues offering praise. "I understand this coming those whom I more or less know, but it's something else (to get calls) from old masters with whom I have no relationship and who suddenly communicate in this way," the 52-year-old director said. "I can't ask for more," said Cuaron, who was accompanied by his 31-year-old son Jonas, who co-wrote the screenplay with him. – AFP, October 17, 2013. |
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