Tale of special forces in African war zone has ridden a wave of patriotic fervor with its stunts, soldiers and western baddies A flag-waving Chinese action film depicting the country’s soldiers saving war-ravaged Africans from western baddies has become China’s all-time top box-office earner, headlining a summer of patriotic cinematic fare. The wildly popular Wolf Warriors 2 boasts the ominous tagline “whoever offends China will be hunted down no matter how far away they are”, and millions of Chinese cinema goers have lapped it up since the movie’s release less than two weeks ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzPFYipXc5U The blockbuster has raked in…
Author: World Cinema Reports' Editors
LOVING VINCENT is the world’s first fully painted feature film. Written & directed by Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman, produced by Poland’s BreakThru Films & UK’s Trademark Films. LOVING VINCENT will be opening on Sept. 22 (NY) and Sept. 29th (LA). The film will go wider on Oct 6th The film brings the paintings of Vincent van Gogh to life to tell his remarkable story. Every one of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil-painting hand-painted by 125 professional oil-painters who travelled from all across the world to the Loving Vincent studios in Poland and Greece to be…
This is an article from CNN in May, even a bit old, but still important to our readers. It’s being called Indian cinema’s crowning glory. “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” has taken $65 million in its first five days at the box office, according to independent sales monitors. That makes it the highest-netting movie in India ever, and the film has also taken in an additional $19 million overseas and placed third in the US weekend box office. “The first day record, the weekend record, the first extended weekend record, it has broken all possible records and it will continue to…
October 24, 2016 Antalya, Turkey – The 53rd edition of International Antalya Film Festival came to a close on Sunday October 23, at a glittering black-tie event at the newly renovated EXPO 2016 venue. In the spirit of its long-time tradition the festival honors iconic figures from around the world and their contribution to cinema to educate and entertain audiences and to bring attention to individual stories and extraordinary events. This year’s recipient of the Golden Orange Lifetime Achievement Awards went to legendary Oscar nominated actor Harvey Keitel (“Bugsy”), who first came to fame with his powerful gritty performances in…
‘Barakah Meets Barakah’, the debut feature of writer/director Mahmoud Sabbagh, has been selected to represent Saudi Arabia in the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race. The movie, which debuted in Berlin, thus becomes the second-ever entry from the kingdom. It follows Haifaa Al Mansour’s 2013 charmer ‘Wadjda’, which was Saudi Arabia’s first official entry. Though roundly-lauded, that film failed to make the Oscars shortlist. The crowd-pleasing ‘Barakah Meets Barakah’ debuted to largely positive reviews at the Berlin Film Festival in February (check out the trailer above). A candid love story, it was shot in Jeddah and stars Hisham Fageeh and Fatima Al Banawi as the…
South Koreans rejoiced following the announcement Thursday that The Handmaiden, a new lesbian thriller by Park Chan-wook, will compete for the Palme d’Or at Cannes next month.Park will return to la Croisette after a dozen years since taking home the Grand Prix honor in 2004 for the cult favorite Oldboy.This is the first in four years that a South Korean film has been shortlisted for the big prize at the prestigious French festival since Im Sang-soo’s Taste of Money and Hong Sang-soo’s In Another Country in 2012. Onlookers here have expressed much disappointment as Cannes overlooked South Korea for the…
The 14th annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) concluded on Sunday evening (April 10) with a red carpet and gala fete that featured the North American premiere of Anu Menon’s poignant and stirring feature, WAITING starring Kalki Koechlin who was in attendance, as well as the presentation of the festival’s Grand Jury and Audience Choice Awards. This year the festival showcased nearly 30films including features, documentaries, and shorts at ArcLight Hollywood, home of IFFLA since its inception, including three world premieres, two North American premieres, and ten U.S. premieres. IFFLA was proud to present more features and shorts…
Jack Ma’s Alibaba Pictures has taken an 8.94% stake, or approximately 8.29% on a fully-diluted basis, in China’s Bona Film as part of the latter’s privatization. The stake is worth approximately $86 million. The move comes as Bona delists itself from the NASDAQ. A statement from Alibaba revealed the two companies plan to work closely together in developing their collaboration.“Participation in the privatization of Bona helps boost the development of the Chinese film and television industry. Sharing the same mission and vision with Bona, Alibaba Pictures wishes to create an ecosystem and platform covering the whole value chain of the…
China is introducing another layer of protectionism to give its domestically produced movies an edge over Hollywood imports. Last week, state regulators announced that Chinese theater chains that generate at least two-thirds of their box office receipts from local Chinese films will be able to keep half of a five percent tax they usually pay on ticket sales. The China Film Bureau normally collects a five percent tax on all box-office revenue. The funds are channeled towards various government grants and initiatives designed to aid the development of the Chinese film sector. Under the new rules, to qualify for the…
Japan’s Softbank has invested $250 million in WME-IMG, which values the talent and sports agency at $5.5 billion, the companies announced today. Private equity firm Silver Lake is the biggest shareholder in WME-IMG, having invested $200m for a 31% stake back in 2012. The valuation from the Softbank deal would rep a major increase in the company’s overall value. In 2014, WME co-toppers Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell bought leading sports agency IMG for $2.4 billion. While some analysts at the time commented that WME had overpaid for the company, synergies have begun to bear fruit for WME. “SoftBank brings…