New York University has revealed its 2024 picks for its Black List-inspired Purple List of the best production-ready screenplays from Tisch School of the Arts graduate film students and recent alumni.
The four screenplays, selected via a blind reading process by industry insiders, are Blue Comedy by Vincent Lee Accettola, Little Phnom Penh by Chheangkea, Rubber Hut by Hanna Gray Organschi and Satoshi by Sara Crow and David Rafailedes.
Blue Comedy follows a celebrity comedian who recently came out of the closet who returns to the Boston stand-up scene to mentor a straight comedian for whom he’s developed feelings. Little Phnom Penh explores a Cambodian woman’s personal desires and changing family roles over two decades in a story that spans across the U.S. and Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Rubber Hut centers around a former ex-Pam Am stewardess who opens a drive-thru condom shop...
The four screenplays, selected via a blind reading process by industry insiders, are Blue Comedy by Vincent Lee Accettola, Little Phnom Penh by Chheangkea, Rubber Hut by Hanna Gray Organschi and Satoshi by Sara Crow and David Rafailedes.
Blue Comedy follows a celebrity comedian who recently came out of the closet who returns to the Boston stand-up scene to mentor a straight comedian for whom he’s developed feelings. Little Phnom Penh explores a Cambodian woman’s personal desires and changing family roles over two decades in a story that spans across the U.S. and Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Rubber Hut centers around a former ex-Pam Am stewardess who opens a drive-thru condom shop...
- 4/17/2024
- by Hilary Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Geng Zihan has just won Best Director in the Fei Mu Awards of Pingyao International Film Festival for her debut feature, A Song Sung Blue, a coming-of-age tale set in Harbin in northeast China.
The film, which premiered in Directors Fortnight at this year’s Cannes film festival, is produced by Jane Zheng with backing from Liang Jing and Guan Hu’s Seventh Art Pictures. Zheng’s producing credits include Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, starring Awkwafina, and Cathy Yan’s Dead Pigs.
Written by Liu Yining, the story revolves around a teenage girl, Liu Xian, who is left with her father for the summer when her mother gets a job in Africa. While her father is more interested in his relationship with the receptionist at his photography studio, Liu Xian strikes up a friendship with the receptionist’s daughter, Mingmei – a glamorous older girl who is training to be...
The film, which premiered in Directors Fortnight at this year’s Cannes film festival, is produced by Jane Zheng with backing from Liang Jing and Guan Hu’s Seventh Art Pictures. Zheng’s producing credits include Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, starring Awkwafina, and Cathy Yan’s Dead Pigs.
Written by Liu Yining, the story revolves around a teenage girl, Liu Xian, who is left with her father for the summer when her mother gets a job in Africa. While her father is more interested in his relationship with the receptionist at his photography studio, Liu Xian strikes up a friendship with the receptionist’s daughter, Mingmei – a glamorous older girl who is training to be...
- 10/18/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
New York University has revealed its 2023 picks for its Black List-inspired Purple List of the best production-ready screenplays from Tisch School of the Arts graduate film students and recent alumni.
The four screenplays, selected via a blind reading process by industry leaders, are Burnout by Swetha Regunathan, Fate Moreland’s Widow by Joshua Foster, Haazer by Pepi Ginsberg and May You Outlive Us by Isabelle Mecattaf.
Burnout is a family drama set on an illegal cannibis farm. Fate Moreland’s Widow is based on a 2015 novel of the same name and explores a drama set in a Blue Ridge Mountain mill town. Haazer is a campus psychological thriller involving a student athlete and a fraternity. And May You Outlive Us follows four women as they recover from the 2020 Beirut explosion.
Prominent filmmakers whose work was included on past editions of the Purple List, now in its 12th year, include Chloé Zhao (Nomadland,...
The four screenplays, selected via a blind reading process by industry leaders, are Burnout by Swetha Regunathan, Fate Moreland’s Widow by Joshua Foster, Haazer by Pepi Ginsberg and May You Outlive Us by Isabelle Mecattaf.
Burnout is a family drama set on an illegal cannibis farm. Fate Moreland’s Widow is based on a 2015 novel of the same name and explores a drama set in a Blue Ridge Mountain mill town. Haazer is a campus psychological thriller involving a student athlete and a fraternity. And May You Outlive Us follows four women as they recover from the 2020 Beirut explosion.
Prominent filmmakers whose work was included on past editions of the Purple List, now in its 12th year, include Chloé Zhao (Nomadland,...
- 4/19/2023
- by Hilary Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Paris-based sales outfit Totem Films has acquired “A Song Sung Blue,” by Chinese director Zihan Geng, and “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry,” from Georgian filmmaker Elene Naveriani. Both films will premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival.
“A Song Sung Blue” is the feature debut of the Beijing-born Geng. The coming-of-age story follows 15-year-old Xian, who’s left in the care of her estranged father, a struggling photographer, after her mother is compelled to travel to Africa for work. Over the course of a restless summer, Xian befriends 18-year-old Mingmei, the daughter of his father’s assistant-turned-girlfriend, and soon finds herself looking up to the older girl.
Driven by the ignorance and impulse of youth, their friendship will leave an unforgettable mark on the young girl’s life, a journey that “we follow to retrieve the memories of that distant part of our own youth,” according to Geng.
“A Song Sung Blue” is the feature debut of the Beijing-born Geng. The coming-of-age story follows 15-year-old Xian, who’s left in the care of her estranged father, a struggling photographer, after her mother is compelled to travel to Africa for work. Over the course of a restless summer, Xian befriends 18-year-old Mingmei, the daughter of his father’s assistant-turned-girlfriend, and soon finds herself looking up to the older girl.
Driven by the ignorance and impulse of youth, their friendship will leave an unforgettable mark on the young girl’s life, a journey that “we follow to retrieve the memories of that distant part of our own youth,” according to Geng.
- 4/18/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
John Boyega will star in the next film from “Dead Pigs” and “Birds of Prey” director Cathy Yan. The sci-fi romance “The Freshening” comes from FilmNation Entertainment with Ali Wong producing alongside Hyperobject Industries’ Adam McKay and Betsy Koch and Rewild’s Yan and Ash Sarohia
The picture, set to film later this year, is inspired by Rachel Khong’s short story in the Paris Review.
The official logline for the feature states “In an America of the “freshening” — where everyone is only able to see their own race and gender — Sam and Reese meet on a drug that temporarily reverses its effects.”
Also Read:
Before ‘Black Panther,’ Black Superheroes Like ‘Blade’ Kept Comic Book Movies Alive
“We are tremendously excited to have John [Boyega] bring this complex character and story to life,” stated the producers, “and can’t wait to begin filming with this incredible group of likeminded creatives.”
“It...
The picture, set to film later this year, is inspired by Rachel Khong’s short story in the Paris Review.
The official logline for the feature states “In an America of the “freshening” — where everyone is only able to see their own race and gender — Sam and Reese meet on a drug that temporarily reverses its effects.”
Also Read:
Before ‘Black Panther,’ Black Superheroes Like ‘Blade’ Kept Comic Book Movies Alive
“We are tremendously excited to have John [Boyega] bring this complex character and story to life,” stated the producers, “and can’t wait to begin filming with this incredible group of likeminded creatives.”
“It...
- 3/7/2023
- by Scott Mendelson
- The Wrap
Exclusive: John Boyega has been set to star in sci-fi romance The Freshening from director Cathy Yan (Birds Of Prey), we can reveal.
Filming is due to get underway later this year on the project, which hails from producers FilmNation Entertainment, Ali Wong, Hyperobject Industries’ Adam McKay and Betsy Koch, and Rewild’s Cathy Yan and Ash Sarohia. The team are underway on additional casting.
The project is inspired by Rachel Khong’s short story in the Paris Review, which was set in a near future where tensions over race and gender have reached a violent extreme and the U.S. government institutes a public health initiative known as ‘The Freshening’: every American receives an injection, after which everyone only sees others as the same race and gender as themselves. The film will chart what happens when a street drug hits the scene, promising a chance to see the world as it really is,...
Filming is due to get underway later this year on the project, which hails from producers FilmNation Entertainment, Ali Wong, Hyperobject Industries’ Adam McKay and Betsy Koch, and Rewild’s Cathy Yan and Ash Sarohia. The team are underway on additional casting.
The project is inspired by Rachel Khong’s short story in the Paris Review, which was set in a near future where tensions over race and gender have reached a violent extreme and the U.S. government institutes a public health initiative known as ‘The Freshening’: every American receives an injection, after which everyone only sees others as the same race and gender as themselves. The film will chart what happens when a street drug hits the scene, promising a chance to see the world as it really is,...
- 3/7/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Concordia Studio has hired Ash Sarohia as EVP of Narrative Film & Television, bolstering the studio’s efforts to expand its scripted and documentary slates.
The move comes on the heels of Lizzie Fox joining the company in January to lead the Nonfiction Film & Television division.
Sarohia, an Indian-American executive and producer, will be based in Concordia’s Venice offices and work alongside Concordia’s Chief Creative Officer of Narrative Jonathan King to ramp up the company’s slate of scripted film & television projects.
“Concordia is a true home for artists and creators. I couldn’t be more excited to work alongside brilliant creative minds like Jonathan and Davis to continue to build out a powerful slate of prestige global content across film and television,” Sarohia said.
Previously, Sarohia partnered with Emmy-nominated and award-winning writer/director Cathy Yan having co-founded their production banner, Rewild Media.
The move comes on the heels of Lizzie Fox joining the company in January to lead the Nonfiction Film & Television division.
Sarohia, an Indian-American executive and producer, will be based in Concordia’s Venice offices and work alongside Concordia’s Chief Creative Officer of Narrative Jonathan King to ramp up the company’s slate of scripted film & television projects.
“Concordia is a true home for artists and creators. I couldn’t be more excited to work alongside brilliant creative minds like Jonathan and Davis to continue to build out a powerful slate of prestige global content across film and television,” Sarohia said.
Previously, Sarohia partnered with Emmy-nominated and award-winning writer/director Cathy Yan having co-founded their production banner, Rewild Media.
- 2/28/2023
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
Cathy Yan is at a good place in her career. She’s got the acclaimed indie, “Dead Pigs.” She’s ventured out and directed a superhero film, “Birds of Prey.” And she even has earned herself an Emmy nomination for her work directing on the newest season of “Succession.” Now, it appears she’s found her next big project, a live-action adaptation of the acclaimed novel-turned-anime “Paprika.”
Read More: Cathy Yan’s Fandom Of ‘Succession’ Turned Into An Emmy Nod [Interview]
According to Deadline, Cathy Yan is set to executive produce and direct a live-action adaptation of “Paprika.” The source material is the 1993 sci-fi novel of the same name by author Yasutaka Tsutsui.
Continue reading ‘Paprika’: Cathy Yan To Produce & Direct A Live-Action Series Adaptation For Amazon at The Playlist.
Read More: Cathy Yan’s Fandom Of ‘Succession’ Turned Into An Emmy Nod [Interview]
According to Deadline, Cathy Yan is set to executive produce and direct a live-action adaptation of “Paprika.” The source material is the 1993 sci-fi novel of the same name by author Yasutaka Tsutsui.
Continue reading ‘Paprika’: Cathy Yan To Produce & Direct A Live-Action Series Adaptation For Amazon at The Playlist.
- 8/22/2022
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
If this is a dream, please, don’t wake me up. Deadline reports that Cathy Yan is developing a live-action series inspired by Yasutaka Tsutsui’s mind-bending novel Paprika. The project is happening at Amazon Studios and Hivemind, with Yan directing and executive producing.
According to the novel’s official description, Paprika presents an imaginative narrative about a psychiatric institute that develops technology to invade people’s dreams.
“When prototype models of a dream-invading device go missing at the Institute for Psychiatric Research, it transpires that someone is using them to drive people insane. Threatened personally and professionally, brilliant psychotherapist Atsuko Chiba has to journey into the world of fantasy to fight her mysterious opponents. As she delves deeper into the imagination, the borderline between dream and reality becomes increasingly blurred, and nightmares begin to leak into the everyday realm. The scene is set for a final showdown between the dream detective and her enemies,...
According to the novel’s official description, Paprika presents an imaginative narrative about a psychiatric institute that develops technology to invade people’s dreams.
“When prototype models of a dream-invading device go missing at the Institute for Psychiatric Research, it transpires that someone is using them to drive people insane. Threatened personally and professionally, brilliant psychotherapist Atsuko Chiba has to journey into the world of fantasy to fight her mysterious opponents. As she delves deeper into the imagination, the borderline between dream and reality becomes increasingly blurred, and nightmares begin to leak into the everyday realm. The scene is set for a final showdown between the dream detective and her enemies,...
- 8/22/2022
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
Exclusive: Cathy Yan will executive produce and direct the live-action series Paprika, based on the Yasutaka Tsutsui novel of the same name, for Amazon Studios and Hivemind, Deadline has learned.
Amazon declined comment.
Paprika is a character-driven sci-fi series with a mind-bending narrative centering around a technology that allows us to invade people’s dreams.
Along with Yan, her producing partner Ash Sarohia will also executive produce under their Rewild banner, as well as Masi Oka, and Hivemind’s Jason F. Brown.
Yan recently received her first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for her episode of Succession, “The Disruption.” The episode marked her first time directing for a series.
Yan made a splash in 2020 as the director of Birds of Prey for Warner Bros and LuckyChap Entertainment centering on the DC Comic character Harley Quinn and the titular superhero team. The...
Amazon declined comment.
Paprika is a character-driven sci-fi series with a mind-bending narrative centering around a technology that allows us to invade people’s dreams.
Along with Yan, her producing partner Ash Sarohia will also executive produce under their Rewild banner, as well as Masi Oka, and Hivemind’s Jason F. Brown.
Yan recently received her first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for her episode of Succession, “The Disruption.” The episode marked her first time directing for a series.
Yan made a splash in 2020 as the director of Birds of Prey for Warner Bros and LuckyChap Entertainment centering on the DC Comic character Harley Quinn and the titular superhero team. The...
- 8/22/2022
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
“The Afterparty” Season 2 at Apple is bringing back Season 1 stars Sam Richardson and Zoë Chao while also adding seven new cast members, Variety has learned.
Richardson and Chao join previously announced returning Season 1 star Tiffany Haddish. The new season will revolve around a murder at a wedding.
The new cast members are: Zach Woods as Edgar; Elizabeth Perkins as Isabel; Poppy Liu as Grace; Paul Walter Hauser as Travis; Anna Konkle (“Pen15”) as Hannah; Jack Whitehall as Sebastian; and Vivian Wu as Vivian.
Created by Chris Miller, each episode of “The Afterparty” explores a different character’s account of one fateful evening, all told through the lens of popular film genres and unique visuals to match the storyteller’s perspective.
Miller and Phil Lord executive produce “The Afterparty” under their Lord Miller banner along with Anthony King. King and Miller will work as co-showrunners on Season 2. Lord Miller’s Aubrey Lee is a producer.
Richardson and Chao join previously announced returning Season 1 star Tiffany Haddish. The new season will revolve around a murder at a wedding.
The new cast members are: Zach Woods as Edgar; Elizabeth Perkins as Isabel; Poppy Liu as Grace; Paul Walter Hauser as Travis; Anna Konkle (“Pen15”) as Hannah; Jack Whitehall as Sebastian; and Vivian Wu as Vivian.
Created by Chris Miller, each episode of “The Afterparty” explores a different character’s account of one fateful evening, all told through the lens of popular film genres and unique visuals to match the storyteller’s perspective.
Miller and Phil Lord executive produce “The Afterparty” under their Lord Miller banner along with Anthony King. King and Miller will work as co-showrunners on Season 2. Lord Miller’s Aubrey Lee is a producer.
- 4/27/2022
- by Joe Otterson
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Arthouse streamer and distributor Mubi is launching a U.S. in-theater offering this month letting members see one film a week that it selects at participating cinemas starting in New York City. It said Mubi Go will roll out nationwide in selected markets with LA next in early 2022.
Mubi Go (available in the U.K. and India) will launch Oct. 29 with Netflix’s Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall, that premiered at Sundance and screened at the New York Film Festival. Subscribers can get a free ticket during the film’s theatrical engagement at the Paris Theater and IFC Center ahead of its Nov. 10 streaming release on Netflix.
Adapted from the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, Passing is the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), who can pass as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the height of the Harlem Renaissance.
Mubi Go (available in the U.K. and India) will launch Oct. 29 with Netflix’s Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall, that premiered at Sundance and screened at the New York Film Festival. Subscribers can get a free ticket during the film’s theatrical engagement at the Paris Theater and IFC Center ahead of its Nov. 10 streaming release on Netflix.
Adapted from the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, Passing is the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), who can pass as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the height of the Harlem Renaissance.
- 10/19/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
New Indie
“Zola” (Lionsgate) is the first film based on a viral Twitter thread (and probably won’t be the last), but it’s compelling viewing for reasons that have nothing to do with its provenance. Taylour Paige (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) stars as A’Ziah “Zola” King, a waitress and sometimes stripper whose epic road trip to Florida hits one bump after another. It really is about the company you keep, and Zola is hanging out with a trouble-making dancer (Riley Keough), her hapless boyfriend (Nicholas Braun), and her enigmatic “manager” (Colman Domingo), and the twists are unpredictable, off-putting, and darkly hilarious in Janicza Bravo’s comedy.
Also available: Altered Innocence, one of the best-curated boutique labels around, delivers festival fave “A Dim Valley,” which asks the question, “What if a film about a cabin in the woods was a comedic meditation on love and not a horror movie?...
“Zola” (Lionsgate) is the first film based on a viral Twitter thread (and probably won’t be the last), but it’s compelling viewing for reasons that have nothing to do with its provenance. Taylour Paige (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) stars as A’Ziah “Zola” King, a waitress and sometimes stripper whose epic road trip to Florida hits one bump after another. It really is about the company you keep, and Zola is hanging out with a trouble-making dancer (Riley Keough), her hapless boyfriend (Nicholas Braun), and her enigmatic “manager” (Colman Domingo), and the twists are unpredictable, off-putting, and darkly hilarious in Janicza Bravo’s comedy.
Also available: Altered Innocence, one of the best-curated boutique labels around, delivers festival fave “A Dim Valley,” which asks the question, “What if a film about a cabin in the woods was a comedic meditation on love and not a horror movie?...
- 9/14/2021
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
New York-based distributor Cheng Cheng announces the North American release of “Ever Since We Love” directed by Li Yu with a new poster and trailer. The latest collaboration between award-winning filmmaker Li Yu and pop icon Fan Bingbing will start playing in virtual cinemas in select cities on September 17th and expand in the following weeks before arriving on DVD and streaming platforms this December.
Regarded as China’s prominent woman director, Li Yu had been telling stories about women on the fringe of society in her previous documentaries and narrative features recognized by film festivals in Venice, Berlinale, and Toronto. An adaption of contemporary novelist Feng Tang’s semi-autobiographical best-seller “Everything Grows”, “Ever Since We Love” marks her first attempt at a film with a male protagonist. Starring alongside Fan Bingbing, Li Meng, and Qi Xi, K-pop sensation “Super Junior’s” former member Han Geng plays a medical school...
Regarded as China’s prominent woman director, Li Yu had been telling stories about women on the fringe of society in her previous documentaries and narrative features recognized by film festivals in Venice, Berlinale, and Toronto. An adaption of contemporary novelist Feng Tang’s semi-autobiographical best-seller “Everything Grows”, “Ever Since We Love” marks her first attempt at a film with a male protagonist. Starring alongside Fan Bingbing, Li Meng, and Qi Xi, K-pop sensation “Super Junior’s” former member Han Geng plays a medical school...
- 9/5/2021
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
Before Birds Of Prey, Director Cathy Yan Revealed Her Visionary Talents With Her Feature Film Debut, A Masterful Social Satire Set In Shanghai And Based On Remarkable True Events Premiering Via Virtual Cinema In Dozens Of Top Markets On May 28, 2021 Dead Pigs is a bitingly humorous social satire about the trials and tribulations …
The post On 5/28, Dead Pigs, Cathy Yan’s Biting Social Satire Based on True Events, Opens Wide Via Virtual Cinema from Film Movement appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.
The post On 5/28, Dead Pigs, Cathy Yan’s Biting Social Satire Based on True Events, Opens Wide Via Virtual Cinema from Film Movement appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.
- 5/31/2021
- by Adrian Halen
- Horror News
Exclusive: Michael Lieberman, formerly head of publicity at Metrograph, has been hired as Director of Communications, U.S., at Mubi. He will be based at the New York offices of the global film distributor, producer and curated film streaming service.
In his new role, Lieberman will lead all communications for the U.S. including publicity for Mubi releases, working alongside Global Director of Communications Sophie Rhatigan, U.S. Director of Marketing Corey Wilson, VP Global Marketing Lilly Riber, U.S. Director of Distribution Chris Mason Wells and Global Distribution boss Jon Barrenechea.
At Metrograph, Lieberman helped oversee the launch of the Metrograph cinema in 2015, Metrograph Pictures in 2019 and Metrograph Digital last year. He also promoted programming like retrospectives of Brian De Palma, Maggie Cheung and Gena Rowlands/John Cassavetes, and theatrical releases of A Bigger Splash and Downtown 81 among others.
He previously held publicity positions at Susan Norget Film Promotion and Film Presence.
In his new role, Lieberman will lead all communications for the U.S. including publicity for Mubi releases, working alongside Global Director of Communications Sophie Rhatigan, U.S. Director of Marketing Corey Wilson, VP Global Marketing Lilly Riber, U.S. Director of Distribution Chris Mason Wells and Global Distribution boss Jon Barrenechea.
At Metrograph, Lieberman helped oversee the launch of the Metrograph cinema in 2015, Metrograph Pictures in 2019 and Metrograph Digital last year. He also promoted programming like retrospectives of Brian De Palma, Maggie Cheung and Gena Rowlands/John Cassavetes, and theatrical releases of A Bigger Splash and Downtown 81 among others.
He previously held publicity positions at Susan Norget Film Promotion and Film Presence.
- 5/24/2021
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Film Movement has acquired North American rights to “They Say Nothing Stays The Same,” the feature film debut of Joe Odagiri, a popular Japanese actor and musician.
The lushly lensed Japanese drama premiered at Venice and went on to play at Busan. Among its many accolades, the pic won best feature film at Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in Turkey and was nominated for the Golden Star at El Gouana. It also played at the New York Asian Film Festival.
“They Say Nothing Stays The Same” will have a theatrical release in 2021, followed by a roll-out on digital and home entertainment platforms. The announcement was made by Michael Rosenberg, the president of Film Movement and Maki Shimizu of the Kinoshita Group.
Headlined by Akira Emoto, the film boasts a strong crew including Christopher Doyle, the cinematographer of “Paranoid Park”; Emi Wada, the costume designer of “Ran”; as well as Armenian jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan.
The lushly lensed Japanese drama premiered at Venice and went on to play at Busan. Among its many accolades, the pic won best feature film at Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in Turkey and was nominated for the Golden Star at El Gouana. It also played at the New York Asian Film Festival.
“They Say Nothing Stays The Same” will have a theatrical release in 2021, followed by a roll-out on digital and home entertainment platforms. The announcement was made by Michael Rosenberg, the president of Film Movement and Maki Shimizu of the Kinoshita Group.
Headlined by Akira Emoto, the film boasts a strong crew including Christopher Doyle, the cinematographer of “Paranoid Park”; Emi Wada, the costume designer of “Ran”; as well as Armenian jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan.
- 4/15/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Black and white Bulgarian drama to receive North American premiere at Santa Barbara Film Festival
Film Movement has snapped up North American rights from Films2C to Ivaylo Hristov’s 2020 Tallinn Black Nights grand prize winner Fear.
Svetlana Yancheva stars as a strong-willed widow in Bulgaria who enrages her village when she takes in an African refugee (Michael Fleming) who she finds in the woods while hunting.
The black and white Bulgarian drama will receive its North American premiere at Santa Barbara Film Festival in early April.
Film Movement president Michael Rosenberg negotiated the deal with Chantal Chauzy of Films2C.
Film Movement has snapped up North American rights from Films2C to Ivaylo Hristov’s 2020 Tallinn Black Nights grand prize winner Fear.
Svetlana Yancheva stars as a strong-willed widow in Bulgaria who enrages her village when she takes in an African refugee (Michael Fleming) who she finds in the woods while hunting.
The black and white Bulgarian drama will receive its North American premiere at Santa Barbara Film Festival in early April.
Film Movement president Michael Rosenberg negotiated the deal with Chantal Chauzy of Films2C.
- 3/24/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Film Movement has acquired North American rights to Cathy Yan’s feature debut “Dead Pigs” which won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance in 2018.
Film Movement will release the film in North America in theaters, virtual cinema, home entertainment and digital platforms in June.
“Dead Pigs” is social satire about the trials and tribulations connecting a disparate group of people in the midst of a baffling nationwide mystery. Shifting between Shanghai and the neighboring provincial town of Jiaxing, the film centers on the intersecting stories of five characters whose fates converge and collide as thousands of dead pigs are found floating down the Huangpu River.
The movie, which is set against the backdrop of globalization, drastic social change and increasing wealth inequality, stars an international ensemble cast including Vivian Wu (“The Last Emperor”), Mason Lee (“Lucy”), Zazie Beetz (“Atlanta”), Meng Li (“The Bad Kids”), Haoyu Yang (“The Wandering Earth”) and...
Film Movement will release the film in North America in theaters, virtual cinema, home entertainment and digital platforms in June.
“Dead Pigs” is social satire about the trials and tribulations connecting a disparate group of people in the midst of a baffling nationwide mystery. Shifting between Shanghai and the neighboring provincial town of Jiaxing, the film centers on the intersecting stories of five characters whose fates converge and collide as thousands of dead pigs are found floating down the Huangpu River.
The movie, which is set against the backdrop of globalization, drastic social change and increasing wealth inequality, stars an international ensemble cast including Vivian Wu (“The Last Emperor”), Mason Lee (“Lucy”), Zazie Beetz (“Atlanta”), Meng Li (“The Bad Kids”), Haoyu Yang (“The Wandering Earth”) and...
- 3/9/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Cathy Yan’s Dead Pigs constructs a cinematic anthology - mirroring Jim Jarmusch’s tales-of-the-city style filmography, to tell the intertwining stories of those living through social modernisation in Shanghai. Yan manages to digest the dyad of traditionalist culture’s unsure footing within late capitalist ideology with an equally upbeat and sombre flair.
We see the stories of a man in financial trouble in the wake of the death of his pig stock and a collapsed investment, a woman refusing to leave her family home, which is being knocked down for gentrification purposes, and a troubled young man in love with a wealthy woman, who both fail to understand the different worlds they encompass. As the stories progress we see how these character’s stories become linked interpersonally, and within the ever-changing city.
Dead Pigs opens in a thematically foreboding way, we are introduced to Haoyu Yang’s character as he buys a virtual reality.
We see the stories of a man in financial trouble in the wake of the death of his pig stock and a collapsed investment, a woman refusing to leave her family home, which is being knocked down for gentrification purposes, and a troubled young man in love with a wealthy woman, who both fail to understand the different worlds they encompass. As the stories progress we see how these character’s stories become linked interpersonally, and within the ever-changing city.
Dead Pigs opens in a thematically foreboding way, we are introduced to Haoyu Yang’s character as he buys a virtual reality.
- 3/8/2021
- by Stephanie Brown
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Lee Isaac Chung's Minari. Nomadland, Minari, Soul, and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm are among this year's Golden Globe winners. Find our complete list of nominees and winners here. Canyon Cinema Foundation has announced a new curatorial fellowship, Canyon Cinema Discovered, that will offer four fellows the opportunity to curate programs from Canyon's collection of films. Applicants can be based in anywhere in the world. Spike Lee and HBO will be teaming up for the multi-part documentary NYC Epicenters 9/11-2021½, described as “an epic chronicle of life, loss and survival in the city of New York over the twenty years since the September 11th attacks.” The film will include first-hand stories told by over 200 New Yorkers. Recommended VIEWINGThe official teaser trailer for Barry Jenkins' series The Underground Railroad, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel,...
- 3/3/2021
- MUBI
Exclusive: Arthouse streamer Mubi has made three hires to its U.S. and UK teams.
Corey Wilson has joined as Director of Marketing, U.S; Chris Mason Wells joins as Director of Distribution, U.S.; and Natalie Ralph has been hired as Director of Distribution, UK.
Wilson joins from Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, where he served as Director of Brand Partnerships and Sponsorship. There he developed and expanded national studio and entertainment partnerships for the company. Prior to Alamo Drafthouse, he helped develop and lead digital marketing strategies at NBCUniversal-owned Fandango.
New York-based Mason Wells joins from U.S. distributor Kino Lorber, where he served as Director of Theatrical Sales. Previously Wells was Director of Programming for the Quad Cinema in New York, and has curated film series for the IFC Center, Anthology Film Archives, and Bam.
Based in London, Ralph joins after six years at Studiocanal UK, where she...
Corey Wilson has joined as Director of Marketing, U.S; Chris Mason Wells joins as Director of Distribution, U.S.; and Natalie Ralph has been hired as Director of Distribution, UK.
Wilson joins from Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, where he served as Director of Brand Partnerships and Sponsorship. There he developed and expanded national studio and entertainment partnerships for the company. Prior to Alamo Drafthouse, he helped develop and lead digital marketing strategies at NBCUniversal-owned Fandango.
New York-based Mason Wells joins from U.S. distributor Kino Lorber, where he served as Director of Theatrical Sales. Previously Wells was Director of Programming for the Quad Cinema in New York, and has curated film series for the IFC Center, Anthology Film Archives, and Bam.
Based in London, Ralph joins after six years at Studiocanal UK, where she...
- 3/2/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Five Inspirations is a series in which we ask directors to share five things that shaped and informed their film. Cathy Yan's Dead Pigs is exclusively showing on Mubi starting February 12, 2021 in the Debuts series.Inspiration #1Wu Ping and the Chongqing NailhouseThis was one of the first examples of the "nailhouse" phenomenon in China, of a homeowner standing her ground, resisting demolition. That image of her house marooned within a huge construction ditch was seared into my mind for many years until it finally became Candy's house in Dead Pigs. Candy is also very much an homage to the homeowner, Wu Ping, who became this media darling, and her vibrant aesthetic and fiery personality. Inspiration #2Li Wei photographyI discovered the artist Li Wei's photography and found it so compelling and so encapsulating of the spirit, the fantasy and the context of Dead Pigs.Inspiration #3Weng Fen photographySimilarly, Wang Fen...
- 2/26/2021
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe poster for Hong Sang-soo's latest, Introduction, which will compete at this year's Berlinale. The competition slate for the 71st Berlin International Film Festival features a wide range of heavy hitters, from Hong and Radu Jude to Aleksandre Koberidze and Céline Sciamma. The competing titles, as well as the rest of the lineup, can be found here.The lineup for this year's SXSW Film Festival has been announced. The roster includes the directorial debut of House of Psychotic Women author Kier-La Janisse, a documentary on musician William Basinski's The Disintegration Loops, and a restoration of Les Blank's I Went to the Dance. Recommended VIEWINGFrom February 17 to February 23, the National Gallery of Art is screening the series "The Voice and Vision of Billy Woodberry." The series includes Woodberry's Bless Their Little Hearts, a landmark work of the L.
- 2/19/2021
- MUBI
Cathy Yan is a Chinese-born American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Yan worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal in New York, Hong Kong and Beijing before turning to filmmaking. After writing and directing several short films, Yan made her feature debut with “Dead Pigs”. The film was inspired by the 2013 Huangpu River dead pigs incident, in which 16,000 dead pigs were found floating down the Huangpu River. Funded by Chinese investors, Yan shot the dark comedy in Shanghai with a bilingual crew then completed the film in New York; “Sixth Generation” filmmaker Jia Zhangke executive produced. “Dead Pigs” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won a Special Jury Award for ensemble acting. In April 2018, Yan was selected to direct the Harley Quinn DC Extended Universe superhero film “Birds of Prey”, based on the comic of the same name. Yan was the second...
- 2/16/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Wild land development and the fast changing of social and physical landscape of China has been for a long time the subject of choice of many Chinese social realism indie movies. It is indeed a hot topic and it is where the big economic divide becomes truly evident. First time director Cathy Yan, who grew up in US, has found a lighter way to dish out the same old stew with “Dead Pigs”, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and is produced by Jia Zhangke, a man who knows a thing or two about Chinese fast-paced development. The film is lightly based on an incident that occurred in 2013, when more than 16,000 dead pigs were found floating on the Huangpu, the river flowing through Shanghai.
“Dead Pigs” is streaming on Mubi
Shanghai is a modern and glitzy megalopolis in constant expansion, but just at the margins of the urban sprawl,...
“Dead Pigs” is streaming on Mubi
Shanghai is a modern and glitzy megalopolis in constant expansion, but just at the margins of the urban sprawl,...
- 2/13/2021
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Dead Pigs is the kind of directorial debut that declares a new voice is on the scene. “Pure” is a word that comes up in our conversation with filmmaker Cathy Yan, whose first feature-length film is just that. It called to mind a Danny Boyle quote, that first movies often represent your best work because you never […]
The post ‘Dead Pigs’ Director Cathy Yan Reflects on Her Unfiltered Vision and Adjusting the Film After ‘Birds of Prey’ [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Dead Pigs’ Director Cathy Yan Reflects on Her Unfiltered Vision and Adjusting the Film After ‘Birds of Prey’ [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
- 2/12/2021
- by Jack Giroux
- Slash Film
Cathy Yan’s directorial debut, Dead Pigs, has finally been released on Mubi despite wrapping production four years ago and the filmmaker releasing her second film, Birds of Prey, last February. The quirky dark comedy connects a half-dozen characters in Shanghai through a familial land dispute and an unexplained spike in pig deaths. After the film’s award-winning premiere at Sundance in 2018, Yan encountered the same hurdles that countless foreign-language indies have also faced involving subtitles and marketability.
Fortunately, the film’s Sundance performance led to industry screenings, which helped Yan secure her next job as the director of Warner Bros. and DC Films’ ...
Fortunately, the film’s Sundance performance led to industry screenings, which helped Yan secure her next job as the director of Warner Bros. and DC Films’ ...
- 2/12/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cathy Yan’s directorial debut, Dead Pigs, has finally been released on Mubi despite wrapping production four years ago and the filmmaker releasing her second film, Birds of Prey, last February. The quirky dark comedy connects a half-dozen characters in Shanghai through a familial land dispute and an unexplained spike in pig deaths. After the film’s award-winning premiere at Sundance in 2018, Yan encountered the same hurdles that countless foreign-language indies have also faced involving subtitles and marketability.
Fortunately, the film’s Sundance performance led to industry screenings, which helped Yan secure her next job as the director of Warner Bros. and DC Films’ ...
Fortunately, the film’s Sundance performance led to industry screenings, which helped Yan secure her next job as the director of Warner Bros. and DC Films’ ...
- 2/12/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
For many people, the name Cathy Yan automatically brings to mind “Birds of Prey.” That makes sense, considering for years, that is the only film that the young filmmaker has released. But you see, “Birds of Prey” isn’t her first film. No, that distinction belongs to the Sundance award-winning satire, “Dead Pigs,” which is finally getting distributed three years after its festival debut, courtesy of Mubi.
Continue reading Cathy Yan Talks ‘Dead Pigs’ Hitting Streaming & How Her Journalism Past Is Shaping Her Future In Film [The Playlist Podcast] at The Playlist.
Continue reading Cathy Yan Talks ‘Dead Pigs’ Hitting Streaming & How Her Journalism Past Is Shaping Her Future In Film [The Playlist Podcast] at The Playlist.
- 2/12/2021
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Exceptional and exceptionally confident, Cathy Yan’s “Dead Pigs” is a feature debut that leaves little mystery as to what DC studio execs saw in the filmmaker before tapping her to direct “Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).”
Read More: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021
Energetically directed and sharply written, this sparkling social satire has in its sights no smaller target than the rapid-onset Westernization of China’s urban sprawl, as embodied by five Shanghai residents searching for their place in a country vacillating between cultural tradition and a more soulless modernity.
Continue reading ‘Dead Pigs’: Cathy Yan’s Exceptional Directorial Debut Is Ambitious And Admirable [Review] at The Playlist.
Read More: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021
Energetically directed and sharply written, this sparkling social satire has in its sights no smaller target than the rapid-onset Westernization of China’s urban sprawl, as embodied by five Shanghai residents searching for their place in a country vacillating between cultural tradition and a more soulless modernity.
Continue reading ‘Dead Pigs’: Cathy Yan’s Exceptional Directorial Debut Is Ambitious And Admirable [Review] at The Playlist.
- 2/12/2021
- by Isaac Feldberg
- The Playlist
Close-up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Cathy Yan's Dead Pigs is exclusively showing on Mubi starting February 12, 2021 in the Debuts series.Eight years ago in March, pig carcasses began to bubble up in the Huangpu River in Shanghai. After 16,000 carcasses had been fished out of the water, the Guardian ran a post–mortem piece salaciously titled “Rivers of blood: the dead pigs rotting in China's water supply.”Before Chinese-American director Cathy Yan started making films she worked as a reporter in Hong Kong. She didn’t cover the “2013 Huangpu River dead pigs incident,” as Wikipedia coined it, but as trained observers do, she filed it away to memory. Her 2018 debut feature—bluntly titled Dead Pigs—imagines the circumstances that would compel hundreds, if not thousands, of people to discard potentially diseased pig corpses into a city’s drinking stores. “I think I came at it from a journalistic angle,...
- 2/12/2021
- MUBI
Cathy Yan's Dead Pigs is exclusively showing on Mubi starting February 12, 2021 in the Debuts series.This is a deeply personal story years in the making.Dead Pigs is a reunion of sorts—a way for me to better understand my birth country, a place that has enthralled and confounded me ever since I left it in 1990 at the age of four. In my lifetime, China has undergone such immense change, lifting close to a billion people out of poverty amidst the fastest urbanization in world history. But there is another side to this massive transition. Deng Xiaoping’s famous words—“To get rich is glorious!”—have compromised everything from food safety to the environment to the souls of its citizens. All this made contemporary China a fascinating, exaggerated, complicated, ridiculous and wonderful setting for my first film. I made Dead Pigs in 2017 and it premiered at Sundance in 2018. To my surprise and glee,...
- 2/12/2021
- MUBI
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Cowboys (Anna Kerrigan)
Hearing writer/director Anna Kerrigan talk about the origins of her latest film Cowboys is to understand the love she has for Montana and the way it provides a respite from the noise of city life. With that sense of comfort in nature’s majesty, however, also lies the potential for disconnect where politics are concerned since those who call that state home aren’t always the most diverse or understanding when it comes to lifestyle choices that fall outside the “norms” of their conservative religious worldview. So it shouldn’t be surprising that Kerrigan would seek to bridge that gap creatively. She chose Montana’s...
Cowboys (Anna Kerrigan)
Hearing writer/director Anna Kerrigan talk about the origins of her latest film Cowboys is to understand the love she has for Montana and the way it provides a respite from the noise of city life. With that sense of comfort in nature’s majesty, however, also lies the potential for disconnect where politics are concerned since those who call that state home aren’t always the most diverse or understanding when it comes to lifestyle choices that fall outside the “norms” of their conservative religious worldview. So it shouldn’t be surprising that Kerrigan would seek to bridge that gap creatively. She chose Montana’s...
- 2/12/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Cathy Yan is the heroine of a now-familiar story: An exciting young filmmaker surfaces at a major festival, Hollywood takes notice, and a major blockbuster follows. Such was the route, with a twist, for Yan, who bowed her feature debut “Dead Pigs” at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, where her clever satire picked up both a special jury award and was greeted with enough acclaim to land her on Warner Bros.’ radar. Two years later, Yan’s DC entry “Birds of Prey” was in theaters, making her the first woman of Asian descent to direct a superhero film.
But, the twist: “Dead Pigs,” a fictionalized take on a 2013 incident that saw 16,000 dead pigs appear in Shanghai’s Huangpu River, hadn’t found a home, even as fellow filmmakers like Rian Johnson touted the charms of the award-winning comedy starring Zazie Beetz and beloved Chinese star Vivian Wu.
“Well, that’s what’s funny,...
But, the twist: “Dead Pigs,” a fictionalized take on a 2013 incident that saw 16,000 dead pigs appear in Shanghai’s Huangpu River, hadn’t found a home, even as fellow filmmakers like Rian Johnson touted the charms of the award-winning comedy starring Zazie Beetz and beloved Chinese star Vivian Wu.
“Well, that’s what’s funny,...
- 2/12/2021
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Luis Buñuel (left) and Jean-Claude Carrière (right).The great Jean-Claude Carrière has died. The prolific screenwriter worked across genres and penned scripts from Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being to Luis Buñuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and more recently, Philippe Garrel's The Salt of Tears. Revisit Notebook contributor Lawrence Garcia's overview of Carrière's wide-ranging career here. Actor Christopher Plummer, one of the last links between Classic Hollywood and today, has also died. Throughout his long and illustrious career, Plummer worked with filmmakers like Nicholas Ray, Sidney Lumet, Anthony Mann, Robert Mulligan, Anatole Litvak, Michael Mann, Spike Lee, Terrence Malick, and Pete Docter.The International Film Festival Rotterdam has come to an end, and the winners of this year's awards can be found here. The Berlinale is continuing...
- 2/10/2021
- MUBI
Considering Dead Pigs was Cathy Yan’s calling card to enter the Hollywood shuffle with Birds of Prey, it’s surprising it’s taken this long for it to finally receive a U.S. release. Three years after its Sundance Film Festival premiere, Yan’s directorial debut will now be getting a debut on Mubi this week. A dark comedy exploring modern China through the lens of a handful of characters, we’ve been waiting to see this for some time and glad it’ll be getting such a wide U.S. debut. Ahead of the release, the first trailer has arrived.
“I think when it was first at Sundance [in 2018], it was a slightly different set of circumstances,” Yan tells The Playlist about the delayed release. There weren’t that many distributors that want to take that kind of risk or know what to do with this film because it...
“I think when it was first at Sundance [in 2018], it was a slightly different set of circumstances,” Yan tells The Playlist about the delayed release. There weren’t that many distributors that want to take that kind of risk or know what to do with this film because it...
- 2/9/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Cathy Yan’s sprawling drama uses a real-life discovery of 16,000 porcine corpses to pick away at Chinese commercialism
A breezily westernised style of Chinese movie is on offer in this 2018 debut feature from Chinese-American film-maker Cathy Yan, who two years later went to Hollywood to direct Birds of Prey, starring Margot Robbie. Dead Pigs is an ensemble dramedy set in Shanghai that satirises – in a distinctly lenient way – the commercialism eating away at China’s heart. It is inspired by a real-life incident in which thousands of dead pigs were found in the city’s Huangpu river, dumped by poverty-stricken farmers who couldn’t pay the disposal fees; the pig symbolism reminded me a tiny bit of Alan Bennett’s A Private Function.
Related: 52 perfect comfort films – to watch again and again...
A breezily westernised style of Chinese movie is on offer in this 2018 debut feature from Chinese-American film-maker Cathy Yan, who two years later went to Hollywood to direct Birds of Prey, starring Margot Robbie. Dead Pigs is an ensemble dramedy set in Shanghai that satirises – in a distinctly lenient way – the commercialism eating away at China’s heart. It is inspired by a real-life incident in which thousands of dead pigs were found in the city’s Huangpu river, dumped by poverty-stricken farmers who couldn’t pay the disposal fees; the pig symbolism reminded me a tiny bit of Alan Bennett’s A Private Function.
Related: 52 perfect comfort films – to watch again and again...
- 2/9/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Several years after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Cathy Yan‘s feature directorial debut Dead Pigs is finally getting a release in the United States. Yan’s movie first screened stateside in 2019, but it’s been absent from the U.S. until now, as the film is finally set to head to streaming service Mubi this Friday. […]
The post ‘Dead Pigs’ Trailer: The Feature Debut of ‘Birds of Prey’ Director Cathy Yan Will Finally Be Available to Stream This Week appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Dead Pigs’ Trailer: The Feature Debut of ‘Birds of Prey’ Director Cathy Yan Will Finally Be Available to Stream This Week appeared first on /Film.
- 2/8/2021
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
Before she made “Birds of Prey,” Cathy Yan impressed audiences at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival with her bold social satire “Dead Pigs,” but despite positive reviews, the film never got distributed for American audiences, until now.
Read More: Cathy Yan Talks About ‘Dead Pigs’ Finally Coming To The U.S. & The Challenges Working On ‘Birds Of Prey’
The film, which won the Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Acting, is finally getting released on Friday, February 12 via Mubi, and they just released a brand new trailer for the film.
Continue reading ‘Dead Pigs’ Trailer: Cathy Yan’s Directorial Debut Is Finally Getting Distribution, And A Trailer at The Playlist.
Read More: Cathy Yan Talks About ‘Dead Pigs’ Finally Coming To The U.S. & The Challenges Working On ‘Birds Of Prey’
The film, which won the Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Acting, is finally getting released on Friday, February 12 via Mubi, and they just released a brand new trailer for the film.
Continue reading ‘Dead Pigs’ Trailer: Cathy Yan’s Directorial Debut Is Finally Getting Distribution, And A Trailer at The Playlist.
- 2/8/2021
- by Rafael Motamayor
- The Playlist
"I'm not afraid!" Mubi has released a new trailer for the film Dead Pigs, which was Bird of Prey director Cathy Yan's feature directorial debut. This originally premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival but it has never been given an actual US release since then, despite playing at fests around the world and picking up awards including a Special Jury Prize at Sundance, and New Directors Award at the Seattle Film Festival. You could think of it as the film that got her the BoP gig; the rest is history. This ensemble dark comedy is based on real events. A bumbling pig farmer, a feisty salon owner, a sensitive busboy, an expat architect and a disenchanted rich girl converge & collide as thousands of dead pigs float down the river towards a rapidly-modernizing Shanghai. Starring Zazie Beetz, Vivian Wu, Mason Lee, Meng Li, David Rysdahl, and Haoyu Yang. Described as "part family drama,...
- 2/8/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Cathy Yan, fresh off her success with “Birds of Prey,” will write and direct “The Freshening,” an adaptation of Rachel Khong’s short story. FilmNation, the company behind “Promising Young Woman” and “Arrival,” acquired rights to the story and will back the feature.
Here’s the official description: “Khong’s short story is set in a near future where tensions over race and gender have reached a violent extreme, the U.S. government institutes a public health initiative known as ‘The Freshening’: every American receives an injection, after which everyone only sees others as the same race and gender as themselves. But when a street drug hits the scene, promising a chance to see the world as it really is, will she choose to disrupt this ‘freshened’ world?”
FilmNation Entertainment, which will finance and handle worldwide sales, will produce with Ali Wong, Hyperobject Industries/Gary Sanchez Productions, and Rewild.
“When...
Here’s the official description: “Khong’s short story is set in a near future where tensions over race and gender have reached a violent extreme, the U.S. government institutes a public health initiative known as ‘The Freshening’: every American receives an injection, after which everyone only sees others as the same race and gender as themselves. But when a street drug hits the scene, promising a chance to see the world as it really is, will she choose to disrupt this ‘freshened’ world?”
FilmNation Entertainment, which will finance and handle worldwide sales, will produce with Ali Wong, Hyperobject Industries/Gary Sanchez Productions, and Rewild.
“When...
- 2/5/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
With Sundance Film Festival now in the rearview, it’s time to look at the worthwhile new releases of February. Featuring the roll-out of Oscar hopefuls, imaginative sci-fi features, and more, it’s a compelling line-up. We’ll also note that French Exit, which was considered for the list, will only get a small NY/LA release this month before returning in April, so we’ll feature it then.
13. A Glitch in the Matrix (Rodney Ascher)
Room 237 director Rodney Ascher has returned, this time to explore the very fabric of reality, or lack thereof. John Fink said in his review of the recent Sundance premiere, “I often wonder what influential film theorist Andre Bazin would make of VR and simulations, especially when this year’s Sundance has virtualized the festival experience in a way that benefits from a longer runway than most cultural events pivoting likewise. It’s only fitting...
13. A Glitch in the Matrix (Rodney Ascher)
Room 237 director Rodney Ascher has returned, this time to explore the very fabric of reality, or lack thereof. John Fink said in his review of the recent Sundance premiere, “I often wonder what influential film theorist Andre Bazin would make of VR and simulations, especially when this year’s Sundance has virtualized the festival experience in a way that benefits from a longer runway than most cultural events pivoting likewise. It’s only fitting...
- 2/5/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Over the course of only two feature films, Cathy Yan has already amassed an interesting journey for any filmmaker. From beginning on a critically acclaimed Sundance award-winning film, “Dead Pigs,” which was sitting on the shelf for three years to then moving to a massive superhero film like “Birds of Prey,” she’s experienced quite a bit of what Hollywood and the film industry has to offer, specifically when it comes to challenges.
Continue reading Cathy Yan Talks About ‘Dead Pigs’ Finally Coming To The U.S. & The Challenges Working On ‘Birds Of Prey’ at The Playlist.
Continue reading Cathy Yan Talks About ‘Dead Pigs’ Finally Coming To The U.S. & The Challenges Working On ‘Birds Of Prey’ at The Playlist.
- 2/2/2021
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Mubi is pleased to announce that Cathy Yan’s (“Birds of Prey and The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn”) bold directorial debut “Dead Pigs” will be released exclusively on Mubi from February 12, 2021.
“Dead Pigs” premiered to critical acclaim at Sundance Film Festival in 2018, where it won a Special Award Prize for Ensemble Acting. A bold, unique vision, the film speaks to our universal struggle with identity in the age of globalisation, its diverse voices reflecting the future of American cinema – as it deals with prescient and timely conversations around equality, capitalism, and basic human connection in an increasingly divided world.
Dead Pigs Will Release On Mubi February 12, 2021
122 mins / Color / English Subtitles
Synopsis:
Based on remarkable true events, “Dead Pigs” is a bitingly humorous social satire about the trials and tribulations connecting a disparate group of characters as thousands of dead pigs mysteriously float down river towards a rapidly modernizing Shanghai,...
“Dead Pigs” premiered to critical acclaim at Sundance Film Festival in 2018, where it won a Special Award Prize for Ensemble Acting. A bold, unique vision, the film speaks to our universal struggle with identity in the age of globalisation, its diverse voices reflecting the future of American cinema – as it deals with prescient and timely conversations around equality, capitalism, and basic human connection in an increasingly divided world.
Dead Pigs Will Release On Mubi February 12, 2021
122 mins / Color / English Subtitles
Synopsis:
Based on remarkable true events, “Dead Pigs” is a bitingly humorous social satire about the trials and tribulations connecting a disparate group of characters as thousands of dead pigs mysteriously float down river towards a rapidly modernizing Shanghai,...
- 2/1/2021
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Mubi the premier streaming service for curated independent films, has revealed its lineup for February. Among the eclectic selection of films coming exclusively to Mubi are “Dead Pigs”, the bold directorial debut by Birds of Prey director Cathy Yan and Pietro Marcello’s “Martin Eden”, a compelling adaptation of Jack London’s novel, starring Luca Marinelli. Mubi will also exclusively present Beginning, the striking feature debut by Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili, which has been selected as Georgia’s official selection for the 93rd Academy Awards, and Werner Herzog’s deeply personal documentary “Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin” featuring his late friend and travel writer Bruce Chatwin.
In February, Mubi is proud to partner with Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program to spotlight a collection of films made by Sundance Institute Fellows. Reflecting the support given to independent storytelling by artists of Indigenous descent, this special selection includes films such...
In February, Mubi is proud to partner with Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program to spotlight a collection of films made by Sundance Institute Fellows. Reflecting the support given to independent storytelling by artists of Indigenous descent, this special selection includes films such...
- 1/31/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Before she made Birds of Prey, Cathy Yan made her feature debut with Dead Pigs, a film that premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Despite high praise at Sundance, Dead Pigs was never released domestically. Now that’s finally going to change, with a Dead Pigs release exclusive to the streaming […]
The post ‘Dead Pigs’, the First Feature Film From ‘Birds of Prey’ Director Cathy Yan, is Finally Being Released Domestically on Mubi appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Dead Pigs’, the First Feature Film From ‘Birds of Prey’ Director Cathy Yan, is Finally Being Released Domestically on Mubi appeared first on /Film.
- 1/15/2021
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
The Bloom/Spiegel Film Exchange, an alliance between New York’s Ifp Marcie Bloom Fellowship in Film and the Jerusalem-based Sam Spiegel Film School and lab, has selected the nine filmmakers who will take part in its fourth edition.
The cross-cultural program will welcome Israeli filmmakers including Aalam-Warque Davidian, Margarita Belaklav, Tamar
Kay, Tal Miller, and Noa Shaham from the Sam Spiegel lab. They will be joined by Adrian Cardenas, Ben Gottlieb, Haley Anderson and Katrina Vogl from the New York-based Marcie Bloom Fellowship.
During a four-day seminar, the participants will meet with producers, directors, foreign sales agents, festival directors, programmers, poster designers, restorers and visit unique theaters and companies around the city. These meetings are meant to help them develop relationships with the film industry and encourage future collaborations.
“we started the Marcie Bloom Fellowship with the intention of bringing together a dynamic community of thoughtful, kind hearted and extremely curious filmmakers,...
The cross-cultural program will welcome Israeli filmmakers including Aalam-Warque Davidian, Margarita Belaklav, Tamar
Kay, Tal Miller, and Noa Shaham from the Sam Spiegel lab. They will be joined by Adrian Cardenas, Ben Gottlieb, Haley Anderson and Katrina Vogl from the New York-based Marcie Bloom Fellowship.
During a four-day seminar, the participants will meet with producers, directors, foreign sales agents, festival directors, programmers, poster designers, restorers and visit unique theaters and companies around the city. These meetings are meant to help them develop relationships with the film industry and encourage future collaborations.
“we started the Marcie Bloom Fellowship with the intention of bringing together a dynamic community of thoughtful, kind hearted and extremely curious filmmakers,...
- 3/13/2020
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Usually, when a studio greenlights a comic-book spin-off, it’s as close to sure-fire as you can get. Even Todd Phillips’ risky R-rated origin myth “Joker,” starring Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix as a mentally ill chaos agent, turned into a $1 billion global home run.
And then there’s the film formerly known as “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn),” a title that distanced itself from the DC film that introduced Margot Robbie as Quinn, 2016 box-office smash “Suicide Squad”.
However, “Birds of Prey,” opened last weekend to $33.3 million, well below box-office expectations of $45 million-$55 million, based on preview testing, upbeat fanboy and media reactions, and (clearly inflated) advance tracking. Now the film has been hastily renamed “Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey,” in hopes that the clearer title, and its improved Seo, will mean a healthier gross.
And “Birds of Prey” got much better reviews (deservedly) than its predecessor.
And then there’s the film formerly known as “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn),” a title that distanced itself from the DC film that introduced Margot Robbie as Quinn, 2016 box-office smash “Suicide Squad”.
However, “Birds of Prey,” opened last weekend to $33.3 million, well below box-office expectations of $45 million-$55 million, based on preview testing, upbeat fanboy and media reactions, and (clearly inflated) advance tracking. Now the film has been hastily renamed “Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey,” in hopes that the clearer title, and its improved Seo, will mean a healthier gross.
And “Birds of Prey” got much better reviews (deservedly) than its predecessor.
- 2/12/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Usually, when a studio greenlights a comic-book spin-off, it’s as close to sure-fire as you can get. Even Todd Phillips’ risky R-rated origin myth “Joker,” starring Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix as a mentally ill chaos agent, turned into a $1 billion global home run.
And then there’s the film formerly known as “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn),” a title that distanced itself from the DC film that introduced Margot Robbie as Quinn, 2016 box-office smash “Suicide Squad”.
However, “Birds of Prey,” opened last weekend to $33.3 million, well below box-office expectations of $45 million-$55 million, based on preview testing, upbeat fanboy and media reactions, and (clearly inflated) advance tracking. Now the film has been hastily renamed “Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey,” in hopes that the clearer title, and its improved Seo, will mean a healthier gross.
And “Birds of Prey” got much better reviews (deservedly) than its predecessor.
And then there’s the film formerly known as “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn),” a title that distanced itself from the DC film that introduced Margot Robbie as Quinn, 2016 box-office smash “Suicide Squad”.
However, “Birds of Prey,” opened last weekend to $33.3 million, well below box-office expectations of $45 million-$55 million, based on preview testing, upbeat fanboy and media reactions, and (clearly inflated) advance tracking. Now the film has been hastily renamed “Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey,” in hopes that the clearer title, and its improved Seo, will mean a healthier gross.
And “Birds of Prey” got much better reviews (deservedly) than its predecessor.
- 2/12/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.