The 65th Festival del film Locarno salutes Johnnie To with a Pardo alla carriera for his exceptional contribution to cinema as a director and producer. The presentation will be accompanied by the European Premiere screening on the Piazza Grande of Motorway (Che sau), To’s latest production, directed by Soi Cheang. Johnnie To, key figure in Asian cinema, has directed over fifty films and has as many to his credit as a producer. Born in Hong Kong in 1955, To began his career in televisi...

The New York Asian Film Festival (June 29 - July 15) returns - and this year we’re bringing crazy back!   The opening night film is Pang Ho-cheung’s astonishingly filthy, extremely hilarious VULGARIA, a movie about making movies, shot in just 12 days, all about gangsters named Brother Tyrannosaur, sleazy lawyers, the sex film industry, and men who love donkeys a little too much. The Hollywood Reporter calls it a “...laugh-out-loud, aptly titled comedy.” Pang himself, Hong Kong's hotte...

  The Hong Kong grand master comes back to FEFF as director (Romancing in Thin Air) and as ambassador of Fresh Wave Festival, the voice of young Hong Kongers Hong Kong never dies! With the title rewording of one of his most celebrated movies, A Hero Never Dies, here comes the battle cry that best represents the film-making philosophy - and not just that - of this grand master: Mister Johnnie To. A battle cry that the film-maker, an old friend of Far East Film, will shout o...

  Being a juror for the Competition Section of the Cannes Film Festival is quite the honor. It is perhaps second only to an Oscar nomination in terms of industry prestige and clout. But let’s remember that it is not simply red carpet appearances and having one too many glasses of French champagne at all-night beach orgies. Jurors must view all the films in the Shorts and Features competition titles, which run to more than 30 films total. And then there is the inevitable debate to deter...

The Jury of the Competition, presided over by Robert De Niro (actor, director, producer) welcomes to its ranks: Martina GUSMAN (actress and producer, Argentina) Nansun SHI (producer, Hong Kong/China) Uma THURMAN (actress, scriptwriter, producer, USA) Linn ULLMANN (writer,literary critic, Norway) Olivier ASSAYAS (director, France) Jude LAW (actor, producer, UK) Mahamat Saleh HAROUN (director, Chad) Johnnie TO (director, producer, Hong Kong/China) Martina Gusman stud...

This year, the Pusan International Film Festival provides a wonderful opportunity to experience present and future Hong Kong cinema through the Special Program (Johnnie To: The Hood in the City) on the cinematic icon of Hong Kong, Johnnie TO. This program offers a close look at his vision, which combines classical elegance with modern sophistication, as well as the evolving aspect of romantic masculinity in his movies. Ten of TO's films will be shown in the program, which also includes a semin...

Pusan International Film Festival will run October 8th - 16th, 2009Special Programs in FocusThis year, the Pusan International Film Festival provides a wonderful opportunity to experience present and future Hong Kong cinema through the Special Program (Johnnie To: The Hood in the City) on the cinematic icon of Hong Kong, Johnnie TO. This program offers a close look at his vision, which combines classical elegance with modern sophistication, as well as the evolving aspect of romantic masculinity ...

Pusan International Film Festival will run October 8th - 16th, 2009Special Programs in FocusThis year, the Pusan International Film Festival provides a wonderful opportunity to experience present and future Hong Kong cinema through the Special Program (Johnnie To: The Hood in the City) on the cinematic icon of Hong Kong, Johnnie TO. This program offers a close look at his vision, which combines classical elegance with modern sophistication, as well as the evolving aspect of romantic masculinity ...

This year the 42nd edition of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia is presenting a selection of 22 in competition films in the Official Selection. The world's number one fantasy film festival continues to offer its audiences a broad spectrum of movies that insist on questioning and vindicating the fantastic concept as one of the genres in constant mutation. A transformation that requires a framework capable of analyzing movies from the mos...

In Cannes for his latest detective film screening in Competition, Vengeance, Hong Kong director Johnnie To was made an officer in the Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres by French Cultural Minister Christine Albanel at the Café des Palmes today, attended by Johnny Hallyday, lead actor in Vengeance. "You have set the tone of the cinema territory Hong Kong, and conveyed to us all your original vision of your hometown.", said Ms Albanel, who further elaborated by say...

About the film: Undeniably, one of the major events of the day is the arrival in Cannes of Johnny Hallyday and Hong Kong director Johnnie To for the Competition screening of Vengeance, a chillingly somber crime movie of the sort only Johnnie To knows the recipe for. France's national rock star, surrounded by To regulars like Simon Yam, Suet Lam, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, and Lam Ka Tung. He plays a retired hit man who decides to ply his trade again to avenge the murder of his daug...

International Independent Film Festival of Lisbon officially opens on the 24 April with the film: «My Blueberry Nights», by Wong Kar Wai. From the same director of «2046», «Chungking Express» or «In the Mood for Love», «My Blueberry Nights» has a suit of very well known actors (Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman) and with Norah Jones in the leadig role. The film shows us a young woman who went on a demand for herself, after a love deception. Her demand leads h...

 Monday, October 15--------No sooner has the New York Film Festival wrapped (screening its Closing Night film PERSEPOLIS yesterday evening) that the busy beavers at the Film Society of Lincoln Center are pulling more cinema treats out of their hats. No rest for the weary, either at the Society or among Festival audiences. Starting this Wednesday, in honor of the tenth anniversary of Hong Kong's incorporation into the Peoples Republic of China (a date either revered or loathed by the local popul...

 Monday, August 13---------Even though Hong Kong has officially been absorbed into the People's Republic of China, it remains its own political and cultural animal. This is certainly reflected in its national cinema, which has been a major international sensation for decades. To mark the 10th anniversary of the end of colonial rule, the BAMcinématek, the repertory film program at BAM Rose Cinemas, is presenting THE NEW DECADE: HONG KONG FILM, starting this Thursday, August 16th.This nine�...

The 2005 Melbourne International Film Festival takes place from july 20 to August 7. EDGY EUROPE, CHAN FROM CHINA – NOTHING LIKE SYDNEYFrom Lukas Moodysson’s provocative A Hole in My Heart to Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s confronting 4, this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival explores edgy European cinema, as well as films direct from Cannes, and takes a look at Chinese cinema, with a focus on the revealing and entertaining director, Fruit Chan – among many other things, as Executive D...

Screening out of competition, Johnnie To's Breaking News mixes hostage taking and media manipulation. When a TV station transmits the images of a humiliating defeat of a group of police officers as they fail to capture a gang of five criminals, the credibility of the forces of order begins to be seriously questioned. The gang later finds itself stuck in a building and Inspector Rebecca decides to turn the Special Forces assault into a TV show. To help out, a huge media "show" is put in place to ...