Ranbir Kapoor and Yash, stars of the epic adaptation “Ramayana: Rise of a Legend,” opened Gold House’s largest Gold Diwali to date at The Majestic Downtown in Los Angeles, alongside filmmakers Nitesh Tiwari and Namit Malhotra, a week before the film’s release. Gold House, which works to back and celebrate the Asian Pacific community, staged […]

Georgian filmmaker Levan Koguashvili’s “Guria” was named best film at the 19th Asia Pacific Screen Awards, handed out Oct. 30 at The Star Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. Koguashvili shared the prize with fellow producers Olena Yershova and Boris Frumin. The film was made across seven countries: Georgia, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Türkiye, Norway and Saudi […]

Keanu Reeves joined Japanese stop-motion feature “Hidari” after watching the project’s pilot film, with his team getting back to the filmmakers about a week after the screening was arranged to set up a Zoom call, director Kawamura Masashi said at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where he also updated the film’s fundraising push. Kawamura, who […]

Known for her dark relationship dramas, including the 2017 multiple-award-winner “Dear Etranger,” Mishima Yukiko has taken a different approach with her latest film, “Two Cigarettes, Three Nights,” which is in competition at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival. Based on a 2014 novel by Chihaya Akane, it stars Matsuoka Mayu as Kanna, a picture book […]

A new Japanese anime award planned for 2027 should put the people who make anime in the spotlight, industry leaders said at TIFFCOM, the market of the Tokyo International Film Festival. The session was moderated by Fujitsu Ryota, programming advisor for the festival’s animation section. Shimizu Akira, a director of the Association of Japanese Animations […]

Japan’s production committee system, in which a group of companies jointly finance a film and share its rights, has helped spread risk across the industry. But it can also cap budgets at what the industry itself can raise, make it harder for overseas investors to take part and slow decisions when every rights holder must […]

The Tokyo International Film Festival’s Tokyo Talk program presented a masterclass with Zeze Takahisa, director of the festival’s opening film, “Sukiyaki.” Held before a full-house crowd at Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, the talk focused on Zeze’s early “pink” (softcore porn) and indie films, followed by questions about his more recent work. Born in 1960 in Oita […]

Indian filmmaker Sanjay Gupta, whose credits include the crime thriller “Kaante,” the gangster saga “Shootout at Wadala” and the Hrithik Roshan-starring “Kaabil,” has died following a fall at his Mumbai residence on Oct. 30. He was 59, according to the Press Trust of India. Director Milap Zaveri, a longtime friend of Gupta who worked on […]

After her JFK airport arrest for alleged assault earlier this month, Selma Blair has broken her silence. On Friday, the actress apologized in a statement as she explained that she never “intended to hurt or frighten anyone” when she allegedly tried to open an airplane door mid-flight to New York City and later assaulted airline […]

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a nicely timed company announcement for Halloween. Dubai-based indie director and writer Faisal Hashmi has officially launched genre-focused production company Spine Drop Pictures and unveiled its inaugural slate of three horror features. Hashmi has won fans over his 15-year career with a collection of 10 contained, high-concept genre shorts with chilling twists, including […]