Latest news with #FarEastFilmFestival
South China Morning Post
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Tony Leung Ka-fai reflects on his career ahead of Sons of the Neon Night's Cannes premiere
It has been a while since Tony Leung Ka-fai last made a high-profile appearance at a European film festival to promote a film, so the occasion feels a little special. Advertisement Still, when we sit down with him during the 2025 Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, the Hong Kong film legend is waiting patiently in the hospitality suite of the Teatro Novo, quietly sipping a beer as journalists and photographers swirl around the room. 'I like this festival,' Leung says. 'I enjoy Udine and the audience here. Cannes is more formal, more commercial. You have to be on all the time.' This year the Far East Film Festival awarded filmmaker Tsui Hark a Golden Mulberry for Lifetime Achievement. Leung introduced Hark to a sold-out crowd and handed him the award after a screening of Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants, the pair's most recent collaboration as star and director respectively. In the film, which is based on seven chapters of Louis Cha Leung-yung's 1959 tale The Legend of the Condor Heroes , Leung plays Venom West, a power-mad martial artist who intends to take over the world by stealing an important scripture.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Everyone Loses': Trump's Movie Tariffs Plan Catches Hollywood Off Guard
Hollywood should have seen this coming. After starting trade wars over cars and steel, solar panels and washing machines, Donald Trump has added movies to the list. POTUS' announcement on Truth Social on May 5 that he plans to slap a 100 percent tariff on films 'coming into our country produced in foreign lands' has sent shockwaves through the global entertainment industry. More from The Hollywood Reporter Lady Gaga Responds to Thwarted Bomb Plot Allegedly Targeting Her Brazil Concert Brazilian Police Arrest 2 People Over Plot to Bomb Lady Gaga's Concert in Rio Far East Film Festival: Yihui Shao's Feminist Drama 'Her Story' Wins Top Prize The plan — if a 113-word post, much of it written in screaming all-caps and also walked back by a White House spokesperson, can be considered a plan — appears to be to try and force the studios to shoot more movies in America by imposing a levy on tentpoles that shoot abroad, in countries like Canada, the U.K., Spain and Australia, and take advantage of local tax incentives there. Even if such a tariff were legal — and there is some debate about whether Trump has the authority to impose such levies — industry experts are baffled as to how, in practice, a 'movie tariff' would work. 'What exactly does he want to put a tariff on: A film's production budget, the level of foreign tax incentive, its ticket receipts in the U.S.?' asks David Garrett of international film sales group Mister Smith Entertainment. Details, as so often with Trump, are vague. What precisely constitutes a 'foreign' production is unclear. Does a production need to be majority shot outside America — Warner Bros' A Minecraft Movie, say, which filmed in New Zealand and Canada, or Paramount's Gladiator II, shot in Morocco, Malta and the U.K. — to qualify as 'foreign' under the tariffs, or is it enough to have some foreign locations? Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts*, for example, had some location shooting in Malaysia but did the bulk of its production in the U.S, in Atlanta, New York and Utah. Does the nationality of its director, the actors, the screenwriter and the below-the-line talent play a role? Or is financing the key determiner? While tax incentives can greatly reduce production costs, most studio productions still get the majority of their funding from the U.S.. 'The only certainty right now is uncertainty,' notes Martin Moszkowicz, a producer for German mini-major Constantin, whose credits including Monster Hunter and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. 'That's not good for business.' The main force driving runway production is the bottom line. With national tax incentives, lower costs for local crews and, in some territories, direct production subsidies for co-productions, shooting a film in Vancouver, Queensland or in Sofia, Bulgaria can be 40 to 60 percent cheaper than making the same film in L.A. 'Once you've shot in these places — the Czech Republic, Malta, Australia, New Zealand — you realize the quality is good, it's actually quite cheap and the tax credits work really, really well,' says Simon Williams, a film financier with London-based group Ashland Hill Finance. A levy punishing runaway productions may make it more expensive to shoot abroad, but it won't make it any cheaper to shoot movies in the United States. For independent movies, notes one veteran producer, a 100 percent tariff 'means most of those films just won't get made.' The major studios, of course, have deeper pockets, but their financing plans and production schedules, particularly for international shoots, are often years in the making. James Cameron has spent the better part of two decades building up his bespoke production hub in New Zealand to make his Avatar movies — Disney and 20th Century will release Avatar: Fire and Ash on Dec. 13 — and is set to make at least two more down under, production planned to extend through 2031. Marvel Studios just began its London shoot for Avengers: Doomsday, on May 1, and will kick off on Sony co-production Spider-Man: Brand New Day in the British capital on July 31. A little more than a month after Warner Bros. Discovery's begins principal photography there, on June 26, on its rival comic book film Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. None are likely to drop everything and come back home, just on Trump's say-so. 'But what could happen is that the studios push the pause button and delay starting production on films they were planning to shoot outside the U.S.,' says Henning Molfenter, the former head of film and TV production at Germany's Studio Babelsberg, who has overseen the international shoots of the Russo Brothers' Captain America: Civil War and Lana Wachowski's The Matrix Resurrections. 'As we saw during corona and during the strikes, just pausing production can do a lot of harm to our business.' Damage could be compounded if national governments start to match the Trump tariffs tit-for-tat, putting international box office — around two thirds of Hollywood's revenue comes from outside the U.S. — at risk. 'Consistent with everything Trump does and says, this is an erratic, ill conceived and poorly considered action,' says Nicholas Tabarrok of Darius Films, a production house with offices in Los Angeles and Toronto. 'It will adversely affect everyone. U.S. studios, distributors, and filmmakers will suffer as much as international ones. Trump just doesn't seem to understand that international trade is good for both parties and tariffs not only penalize international companies but also raise prices for U.S. based companies and consumers. This is an 'everyone loses, no one gains' policy.' Etan Vlessing contributed to this report. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
"The Last Dance" won two accolades at Far East Film Festival
5 May - "The Last Dance" might have lost Best Picture at its home turf, but continued to gain new victories internationally, with the latest being the Far East Film Festival (FEFF) in Udine, Italy. The film was awarded the FEFF's Silver Mulberry Audience Award as well as the FEFF Black Dragon critics honour, becoming the only Hong Kong film to win at the festival. Director Anselm Chan expressed, "Thank you to the audience and professional judges of the Udine Far East Film Festival for their love and recognition. I am grateful that this magical journey of 'The Last Dance' has collected another beautiful memory." Lead actress Michelle Wai, who won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) recently, expressed her elation as well, saying, "Thank you to the local audience for their love, which has allowed the film to go further." It is noted that "The Last Dance" won five accolades at the recently held HKFA. However, it lost the Best Picture category to "Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In". (Photo Source: Anselm Chan IG)
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Green Wave' Helmer Xu Lei Talks Chinese Film Funding And Directing His Father In The Comedy-Drama
After sweeping the Best Actor and Jury awards at China's Pingyao International Film Festival, writer-director Xu Lei's quirky comedy-drama Green Wave arrived as the opening film at the Far East Film Festival (FEFF) on Thursday in Udine, Italy. Drawing laughter from the crowd of more than 1,200 people at the film's international premiere in the Teatro Nuovo Giovanni, Xu tells Deadline that he did not intend to write a comedy at first, but humor gradually found its way into the story. More from Deadline 'Bullet Train Explosion' Director Shinji Higuchi Talks Casting Singer-Actor Tsuyoshi Kusanagi & The Film's Moral Questions Shudder Acquires Historical Horror 'Orang Ikan' Netflix APAC Film Viewership Grew 20% In 2024 - APAC Showcase 'At the beginning, it wasn't meant to be a comedy, it was just meant to be a family drama about the father and son,' says Xu. 'However, as the story evolved during the production, it gradually turned into a comedy. As a filmmaker, I always appreciate the opportunity to grow in making your own movie. You find out more about yourself while making a film.' Xu adds that it will be far more challenging to fund a film like Green Wave in China today, compared to the domestic funding landscape a few years ago. 'When I started the project and looked for investors two to three years ago, it was a good time in China's movie market. But if I had to make this movie now, I would probably not have the same outcome,' says Xu. 'It's because fighting for audiences to take the time to go inside the cinema is even more competitive now, compared to three years ago. Now they have TikTok, streaming and games. In order to lure the audiences to go inside the theater, it's not as easy as before, so investors hesitate before they give the money to make a movie.' Xu says that he has completed the screenplay for his next film, titled The Peacemaker, and is currently putting together funding for the film. The Peacemaker is set in a rural village and revolves around a person who assumes the role of a local 'godfather' for the village, helping to arbitrate for the villagers, and settling their struggles and disputes. Xu previously directed Summer Detective (2019) and co-directed Hutong Cowboy with veteran filmmaker Ning Hao. Green Wave revolves around Wei Fei, a screenwriter who lives in Beijing. His recently-widowed father, Lao Wei, who lives further away in a village, finds a seemingly antique porcelain bowl while his ancestral home is being demolished. Father and son live under the same roof again, as Lao Wei arrives in Beijing to have the bowl evaluated by experts, in the hopes of making a windfall. Xu cast his real-life father, Xu Chaoying, in the role of Lao Wei — marking the second time that his father has appeared in his films. 'When writing the script, I did not initially intend to cast my father. But through the casting process, I looked around and felt like my father would be very believable and convincing in this role, so I ended up choosing him.' It seems like a move that has paid off, with the elder Xu picking up the Best Actor prize at the Pingyao fest. Elaborating on what it was like to direct his father, Xu said: 'This is the second time working with my father, so the easiest part is that I know his capacity, how much he can perform and what he can do.' Xu said that he spent some time working with refining the accents of the actors in the film, including Wang Chuanjun (who plays the son) to match the accents of the onscreen duo, as Wang is not from the same province as Xu's family. The inspiration behind the film's plot came from a friend's story. 'I have a friend who has a disability, and his father is an antique collector. All his life, he wants to find something authentic that will make him super rich, so that he can secure financial independence for his son,' says Xu. 'My friend and I both knew that his father's collection is all fake — none of them are real antiques, but he appreciates the affection and thought behind what the father is trying to do, which is real and genuine.' Best of Deadline Everything We Know About Netflix's 'The Thursday Murder Club' So Far TV Show Book Adaptations Arriving In 2025 So Far Which Colleen Hoover Books Are Becoming Movies? 'Verity,' 'Reminders Of Him' & 'Regretting You' Will Join 'It Ends With Us'
