Pema Tseden, the Tibetan art house film director known for “Jinpa” and “Balloon,” has died. He was 53.
It is understood that he was in Tibet when he died suddenly of an unspecified illness. Some unconfirmed Chinese-language media said that he had a heart attack.
The news was reported by the China Academy of Art, where he taught as a professor.
“Pema Tseden, a famous Tibetan director, screenwriter and professor at the Film School of the China Academy of Art, died in Tibet in the early hours of May 8 due to an acute illness. Due to the sudden incident, the school will work with Mr Tseden’s family to deal with the follow up matters. The relevant information will be announced in due course,” the Academy said in a statement.
Pema Tseden statement from China Academy of Art
Pema Tseden, who also used the Chinese name Wanmaciadan, was ethnically Tibetan and...
It is understood that he was in Tibet when he died suddenly of an unspecified illness. Some unconfirmed Chinese-language media said that he had a heart attack.
The news was reported by the China Academy of Art, where he taught as a professor.
“Pema Tseden, a famous Tibetan director, screenwriter and professor at the Film School of the China Academy of Art, died in Tibet in the early hours of May 8 due to an acute illness. Due to the sudden incident, the school will work with Mr Tseden’s family to deal with the follow up matters. The relevant information will be announced in due course,” the Academy said in a statement.
Pema Tseden statement from China Academy of Art
Pema Tseden, who also used the Chinese name Wanmaciadan, was ethnically Tibetan and...
- 5/8/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Covid lockdowns and censorship hurdles may have contributed to the withdrawal.
The “surprise film” due to screen in Directors’ Fortnight but was pulled at the last minute is Chinese director Liu Jian’s animation A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man. It would have been the only Chinese feature playing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
But organisers announced last week the late entry would not be ready in time due to ongoing pandemic restrictions in Beijing.
Produced by Yang Cheng and with a voice cast including Chinese director and Cannes regular Jia Zhangke, the film is...
The “surprise film” due to screen in Directors’ Fortnight but was pulled at the last minute is Chinese director Liu Jian’s animation A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man. It would have been the only Chinese feature playing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
But organisers announced last week the late entry would not be ready in time due to ongoing pandemic restrictions in Beijing.
Produced by Yang Cheng and with a voice cast including Chinese director and Cannes regular Jia Zhangke, the film is...
- 5/18/2022
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
For his debut feature, Beijing Film Academy alumni Kong Dashan, chose to move into mockumentary directions, in a film that loans its title from the Chinese literature classic, and its theme from the iconic Space Exploration Magazine, a periodical that was published in China during the 80s and 90s and focused on arousing the interest of the then young generation to explore space and the scientific world.
Journey to the West screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam Nederland, Rotterdam, 11/01/2021, iffr vlaggen op de boompjes, foto Jan de Groen
In that setting, and through flashbacks in VHS quality that introduce us to the past of the magazine’s editor-chief, we get acquainted to the protagonist of the movie Tang Zhijun, who continues his search for UFOs and extraterrestrial life, despite the fact that he is broke, both financially and mentally. His relationship with his wife is also rather intense, since she...
Journey to the West screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam Nederland, Rotterdam, 11/01/2021, iffr vlaggen op de boompjes, foto Jan de Groen
In that setting, and through flashbacks in VHS quality that introduce us to the past of the magazine’s editor-chief, we get acquainted to the protagonist of the movie Tang Zhijun, who continues his search for UFOs and extraterrestrial life, despite the fact that he is broke, both financially and mentally. His relationship with his wife is also rather intense, since she...
- 2/16/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Festival’s 26 th edition runs October 6-15.
South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (Biff) is launching its On Screen section which will carry premieres of high-profile drama series that will later be streamed on Ott video platforms.
Biff, whose 26th edition will be held October 6-15, said the section “aims to precisely reflect the current state of the market, which is expanding multi-directionally, while embracing the extended flow and value of cinema” and should be “able to present more diverse and higher-quality works to the audience, whose range of fandom is expanding”.
The inaugural On Screen Section will launch...
South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (Biff) is launching its On Screen section which will carry premieres of high-profile drama series that will later be streamed on Ott video platforms.
Biff, whose 26th edition will be held October 6-15, said the section “aims to precisely reflect the current state of the market, which is expanding multi-directionally, while embracing the extended flow and value of cinema” and should be “able to present more diverse and higher-quality works to the audience, whose range of fandom is expanding”.
The inaugural On Screen Section will launch...
- 8/26/2021
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
At the movies, this year appeared to begin like any other: With winter releases in cinemas and Rotterdam, Sundance, and Berlin unveiling exciting new premieres, the shape of the year's cinema started to be defined.This all turned out to be false start, and too good to be true. Starting in March, the ways movies were released—if they were released at all—and how we watched them radically changed. Our end of year poll, now in its 13th edition, remains the same in conception: Asking 2020's Notebook contributors how they would program new premieres into double features with older movies watched this year. But, of course, how our many contributors encountered movies in 2020, what they had access to and what their normal viewing habits were—these have shifted dramatically. This year the fantasy double feature, pairing new and old viewings, have become an even more acute snapshot of how people watched movies,...
- 1/4/2021
- MUBI
After highlighting the most overlooked films of 2020, today we’re putting a spotlight on the films that need a home to be seen in the first place: the 40 or so films (and honorable mentions) that we loved on the festival circuit that are still seeking U.S. distribution.
Acting also as a 2020 preview, we hope that highlighting these titles spurs some distributor interests and a release in the next twelve months. Featuring favorites from Berlinale, SXSW, Sundance, TIFF, NYFF, Rotterdam, and beyond, make sure to follow us on Twitter to get the latest distribution updates. As we move into 2021, one can also track all of our upcoming festival coverage here.
200 Meters (Ameen Nayfeh)
In a time where the Israeli occupation of Palestine is still causing the deaths of children, the separation of families, and the oppression of Palestinian citizens, a film like 200 Meters becomes even more necessary and relevant.
Acting also as a 2020 preview, we hope that highlighting these titles spurs some distributor interests and a release in the next twelve months. Featuring favorites from Berlinale, SXSW, Sundance, TIFF, NYFF, Rotterdam, and beyond, make sure to follow us on Twitter to get the latest distribution updates. As we move into 2021, one can also track all of our upcoming festival coverage here.
200 Meters (Ameen Nayfeh)
In a time where the Israeli occupation of Palestine is still causing the deaths of children, the separation of families, and the oppression of Palestinian citizens, a film like 200 Meters becomes even more necessary and relevant.
- 12/29/2020
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
2020 will go down in history for many things. The pandemic. The US elections. Rat-filled sinkholes. But 2020 will also go down in history as the year of Asian cinema: when Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” (2019) became the first non-English language film to win the coveted Academy Award for Best Picture; when Ann Hui was recognized with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award at Venice Film Festival; when Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iranian drama “There Is No Evil” (2020) won Berlinale’s Golden Bear. And this is not even to mention the stellar achievements we’ve had at Asian Movie Pulse as well – including a new partnership with Mubi, a curated arthouse streaming service, and 1000 followers on Instagram. Now, we just want to take a step back to reflect on this year.
Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah — arguably the first major event to kick off the film festival circuit — gave us a...
Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah — arguably the first major event to kick off the film festival circuit — gave us a...
- 12/21/2020
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Barbara Sukowa stars with Martine Chevallier in Filippo Meneghetti’s Two Of Us Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Filippo Meneghetti’s Two Of Us (Deux), (co-written with Malysone Bovorasmy and Florence Vignon), starring Barbara Sukowa and Martine Chevallier with Léa Drucker (Mathieu Amalric’s The Blue Room), Jérôme Varanfrain, and Augustin Reynes (France’s Oscar submission); Anna Sofie Hartmann’s Giraffe (produced by Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade) with Lisa Loven Kongsli, Jakub Gierszal and Christoph Bach; Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room (Ta Fang Jian li De Yun) starring Jin Jing; Maite Alberdi’s The Mole Agent (El Agente Topo), starring Sergio Chamy (Chile’s Oscar submission), and (Fipresci Encounters winner at the Berlin Film Festival) The Metamorphosis Of Birds (A Metamorfose Dos Pássaros), directed by Catarina Vasconcelos are five highlights of the 49th edition of New Directors/New Films, presented...
Filippo Meneghetti’s Two Of Us (Deux), (co-written with Malysone Bovorasmy and Florence Vignon), starring Barbara Sukowa and Martine Chevallier with Léa Drucker (Mathieu Amalric’s The Blue Room), Jérôme Varanfrain, and Augustin Reynes (France’s Oscar submission); Anna Sofie Hartmann’s Giraffe (produced by Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade) with Lisa Loven Kongsli, Jakub Gierszal and Christoph Bach; Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room (Ta Fang Jian li De Yun) starring Jin Jing; Maite Alberdi’s The Mole Agent (El Agente Topo), starring Sergio Chamy (Chile’s Oscar submission), and (Fipresci Encounters winner at the Berlin Film Festival) The Metamorphosis Of Birds (A Metamorfose Dos Pássaros), directed by Catarina Vasconcelos are five highlights of the 49th edition of New Directors/New Films, presented...
- 12/15/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Chinese art-house film, with its similarities with the French New Wave, has been taking European Festivals by storm for some years now, and “The Cloud in Her Room”, which won top awards at Rotterdam, is a definite testament to the fact.
“The Cloud in Her Room” screened at Subversive Film Festival
Te rather thin narrative revolves around Muzi, a 22-year old girl who returns to Hangzhou, where she was born, to meet her divorced parents, who have since moved away from their old apartment and have both had a number of different partners through the years. As Muzi moves among the past and the present and the roads of the city, she meets various people, including her parents and their partners, a bar owner who seems like the personification of the alpha male and soon starts to hang out with her, while her almost steady boyfriend eventually also visits.
“The Cloud in Her Room” screened at Subversive Film Festival
Te rather thin narrative revolves around Muzi, a 22-year old girl who returns to Hangzhou, where she was born, to meet her divorced parents, who have since moved away from their old apartment and have both had a number of different partners through the years. As Muzi moves among the past and the present and the roads of the city, she meets various people, including her parents and their partners, a bar owner who seems like the personification of the alpha male and soon starts to hang out with her, while her almost steady boyfriend eventually also visits.
- 12/9/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Ben Sharrock’s “Limbo” was named the best film at the closing event Tuesday of the International Film Festival & Awards Macao. Japanese auteur Koreeda Hirokazu was bestowed with the festival’s Spirit of Cinema honorary award.
The film follows a Syrian refugee in a remote Scottish island as he awaits his asylum application to be processed and his arm to heal allowing him to play his musical instrument. It was previously selected for the Cannes festival.
The IFFAM jury, headed by mainland Chinese director Ning Hao, made a unanimous decision before awarding the $60,000 prize to Sharrock, who also won the best screenplay award. “It was a thought-provoking piece of work, because of its in-depth exploration of society and also the relationship between culture and humanity. Combined with the director’s unique film language and a modern artistic style, it magically blends together and gives the audience unforgettable pleasure and enjoyment of all senses,...
The film follows a Syrian refugee in a remote Scottish island as he awaits his asylum application to be processed and his arm to heal allowing him to play his musical instrument. It was previously selected for the Cannes festival.
The IFFAM jury, headed by mainland Chinese director Ning Hao, made a unanimous decision before awarding the $60,000 prize to Sharrock, who also won the best screenplay award. “It was a thought-provoking piece of work, because of its in-depth exploration of society and also the relationship between culture and humanity. Combined with the director’s unique film language and a modern artistic style, it magically blends together and gives the audience unforgettable pleasure and enjoyment of all senses,...
- 12/8/2020
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
The Singapore International Film Festival will open with the screening of local film “Tiong Bahru Social Club” at the Shaw Lido theater. But, for social distancing reasons, the occasion will not be marked with a red carpet pageant.
Throughout its 11-day stretch (Nov. 26-Dec. 6), the festival will run as a hybrid event, mixing in-person and online activities. And although the festival is targeted primarily at a local audience in a country which has successfully wrangled the coronavirus back to manageable levels, it will also be scaled down.
Organizers this week unveiled 70 films, down from a more usual 90-plus. About half of the reduced total are contemporary feature movies.
Some will be presented only in theaters, while others will also be available online, but geo-blocked for Singapore audiences only. In order to reach audiences at a time when physical distancing regulations still persist in Singapore cinemas, there will be two in-person screenings per film.
Throughout its 11-day stretch (Nov. 26-Dec. 6), the festival will run as a hybrid event, mixing in-person and online activities. And although the festival is targeted primarily at a local audience in a country which has successfully wrangled the coronavirus back to manageable levels, it will also be scaled down.
Organizers this week unveiled 70 films, down from a more usual 90-plus. About half of the reduced total are contemporary feature movies.
Some will be presented only in theaters, while others will also be available online, but geo-blocked for Singapore audiences only. In order to reach audiences at a time when physical distancing regulations still persist in Singapore cinemas, there will be two in-person screenings per film.
- 11/5/2020
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
More than half of the programme of this year’s cancelled Hkiff is screening at K11 Art House in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff) usually takes place over the Easter holidays in March-April, but this year was first postponed to late August, then eventually cancelled, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
While many festivals in Asia have managed to take place with physical screenings, albeit without international guests, Hkiff fell victim to unfortunate timing. A third wave of Covid-19 emerged in the city in July, just weeks before the festival was scheduled to take place, forcing Hong Kong...
Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff) usually takes place over the Easter holidays in March-April, but this year was first postponed to late August, then eventually cancelled, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
While many festivals in Asia have managed to take place with physical screenings, albeit without international guests, Hkiff fell victim to unfortunate timing. A third wave of Covid-19 emerged in the city in July, just weeks before the festival was scheduled to take place, forcing Hong Kong...
- 11/2/2020
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
The Cloud In Her Room and This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection were named as best films.
Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room and Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection were named as best films at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff), which was cancelled due to Covid-19, but went ahead with online judging for its competition sections.
Both films also won best actress in their respective sections – Jin Jing for The Cloud In Her Room in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language), and Mary...
Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room and Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection were named as best films at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff), which was cancelled due to Covid-19, but went ahead with online judging for its competition sections.
Both films also won best actress in their respective sections – Jin Jing for The Cloud In Her Room in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language), and Mary...
- 8/20/2020
- by 89¦Liz Shackleton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Virgin Blue tells the story of a college graduate who returns home for summer vacation, but finds herself sinking into her childhood memories.
Beijing-based sales company Rediance has picked up two titles in the run-up to the Efm – Niu Xiaoyu’s drama Virgin Blue and Dutch-Chinese documentary Epic Of A Stone.
Produced by China’s Blackfin Production and Big Fish Films, Virgin Blue is the second debut film from a Chinese female director following Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room, which won the Tiger Award at this year’s Rotterdam film festival.
Virgin Blue tells the story...
Beijing-based sales company Rediance has picked up two titles in the run-up to the Efm – Niu Xiaoyu’s drama Virgin Blue and Dutch-Chinese documentary Epic Of A Stone.
Produced by China’s Blackfin Production and Big Fish Films, Virgin Blue is the second debut film from a Chinese female director following Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room, which won the Tiger Award at this year’s Rotterdam film festival.
Virgin Blue tells the story...
- 2/21/2020
- by 89¦Liz Shackleton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
One of best film festivals in the world for the discovery of emerging filmmaking talent occurs in New York City each spring. New Directors/New Films, a collaboration between Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, have now announced the lineup for their 49th annual edition. Opening and closing with two Sundance favorites, Boys State and The Mole Agent, respectively, the rest of the lineup is chock full of more festival favorites.
There is Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s Tiger Award winner at Rotterdam, The Cloud in Her Room, Kazik Radwanski’s Tiff favorite Anne at 13,000 Ft., one of the best films we saw at Locarno, Maya Da-Rin’s The Fever, as well as Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth, Alexander Nanau’s acclaimed documentary Collective, Robert Machoian’s The Killing of Two Lovers, the Ben Whishaw-led Surge, and a number of Berlinale premieres we’re looking forward to covering shortly.
There is Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s Tiger Award winner at Rotterdam, The Cloud in Her Room, Kazik Radwanski’s Tiff favorite Anne at 13,000 Ft., one of the best films we saw at Locarno, Maya Da-Rin’s The Fever, as well as Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth, Alexander Nanau’s acclaimed documentary Collective, Robert Machoian’s The Killing of Two Lovers, the Ben Whishaw-led Surge, and a number of Berlinale premieres we’re looking forward to covering shortly.
- 2/20/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art announced the complete lineup for the 49th annual New Directors/New Films running March 25 – April 5 and opening with Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’s Boys State, winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for documentary at Sundance.
The closing film is Maite Alberdi’s The Mole Agent. Both are New York premieres.
In between, the iconic series will screen 27 features and 10 short films from 35 countries, with 13 North American premieres and 4 U.S. premieres, 15 films directed or co-directed by women and 15 works by first-time feature filmmakers
In Boys State, Texas high school students participate in an elaborate mock election to build their own state government, encapsulating “precisely the state of politics in the United States today. The idealistic, pragmatic, witty, and combative teenage subjects are uncanny reflections of their adult counterparts,” said La Frances Hui, Associate Curator of Film, The...
The closing film is Maite Alberdi’s The Mole Agent. Both are New York premieres.
In between, the iconic series will screen 27 features and 10 short films from 35 countries, with 13 North American premieres and 4 U.S. premieres, 15 films directed or co-directed by women and 15 works by first-time feature filmmakers
In Boys State, Texas high school students participate in an elaborate mock election to build their own state government, encapsulating “precisely the state of politics in the United States today. The idealistic, pragmatic, witty, and combative teenage subjects are uncanny reflections of their adult counterparts,” said La Frances Hui, Associate Curator of Film, The...
- 2/20/2020
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
When disconsolate lovers light up a post-coital cigarette amid tousled bedclothes in a French New Wave film, the source of their angsty ennui is often, in some way or other, l’amour. But if it’s Hangzhou, China, in the late 2010s, as opposed to 1960s Paris, the source of the disaffection, and therefore the poetry, is much more obscure — despite an experimental edge that cannot but summon the early films of Godard and Truffaut with its black and white, jump cuts, negative reversals, non-sequitur edits, off-kilter framing and smoking habits so prevalent they take on an existential meaning of their own.
Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s impressive, all but inexpressive debut, goes by the appropriately enigmatic and smoky title “The Cloud in Her Room,” and won the top prize at the 2020 Rotterdam Film Festival. And it feels like the launch of an excitingly uncompromised, offbeat new talent, whose sensibility nods...
Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s impressive, all but inexpressive debut, goes by the appropriately enigmatic and smoky title “The Cloud in Her Room,” and won the top prize at the 2020 Rotterdam Film Festival. And it feels like the launch of an excitingly uncompromised, offbeat new talent, whose sensibility nods...
- 2/15/2020
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe first poster for Abel Ferrara's long-awaited Siberia, which will compete in the upcoming Berlin Film Festival. In 2015, Ferrara described the mysterious picture as a means of seeing "if we can really film dreams—our fears, our regrets, our nostalgia.”This year's Academy Awards concluded with a Best Picture win for Parasite! Check out the rest of the winners here. Recommended VIEWINGThe trailer for Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, about the final issue published by a fictional American magazine based in a French city. Matías Piñeiro continues his Shakespeare series with Isabella. The film, which premieres at the upcoming Berlinale, features regular collaborators Maria Villar and Agustina Muñoz and circles the production of the play Measure by Measure. The first trailer for Sally Potter's The Roads Not Taken, which stars Javier Bardem...
- 2/12/2020
- MUBI
Interview with Zheng Lu Xinyuan: “[The Cloud in Her Room] is about the film itself and life itself.”
Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s Tiger Award-winning feature “The Cloud in Her Room” made a splash at its premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam this last week. An elegantly photographed black-and-white film, “The Cloud in Her Room” follows Muzi (Jin Jing) in her existential ramblings across the city of Hangzhou. The film encapsulates the feeling of raw alienation chafing against the search for home, set against the the polarizing pulls between familiarity, the future, and the dread of fruitlessness.
The promising filmmaker, Zheng Lu Xinyuan — educated at USC and now based in Hangzhou — stayed to chat with us at Iffr. In warm conversation at the De Doelen, she told us about her journey to cinema, the importance of the moment, and the universal nature of alienation in a rapidly-modernizing world.
I understand you started studying film later in your education, for a Master’s. What drew you to cinema?
It...
The promising filmmaker, Zheng Lu Xinyuan — educated at USC and now based in Hangzhou — stayed to chat with us at Iffr. In warm conversation at the De Doelen, she told us about her journey to cinema, the importance of the moment, and the universal nature of alienation in a rapidly-modernizing world.
I understand you started studying film later in your education, for a Master’s. What drew you to cinema?
It...
- 2/9/2020
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
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