ISLAND VIEW
The Taipei Film Festival has named “A Journey in Spring” as Taiwan’s flag bearer in its international competition section. Directed by Peng Tzu-hui and Wang Ping-wen, the film was shot on Super 16mm film and stars King Jieh-wen and Yang Kuei-mei. The festival will take place from June 21 to July 6 at Zhongshan Hall, Vieshow Cinema Xinyi and SPOT-Huashan Cinemas.
The other competition titles include: ‘Beyond the Fog’, by Murase Daichi; “Brief History of a Family,” by Lin Jianjie; ‘Encounters’, by Dmitry Moiseev; “The Featherweight,” by Robert Kolodny; ‘Especially at night’, by Víctor Iriarte; “Humanist Vampire Seeks Permission to Suicide,” by Ariane Louis-Seize; “My Sunshine,” by Okuyama Hiroshi; “Scream,” by Kenzhebek Shaikakov; and ‘Who Do I Belong To’, by Meryam Joobeur.
The winners of the new talent show will be determined by a jury led by Chinese director and multiple Berlinale Silver Bear winner Wang Xiaoshuai. Other jury members include Taiwanese actor and director Kai Ko, festival selector, Lim Cheng-Sim, Laha Mebow, the director who won the 2016 Taipei Film Award Grand Prize for ‘Lokah Laqi’ and Sadai Yuji, producer of ‘Drive My Car ‘.
DO NOT SELL THIS EITHER
Bytedance, the Chinese tech company that owns TikTok and its mainland equivalent Douyin, says it won’t sell its Moonton gaming unit after all. The company had previously said it wanted to divest the unit, but instead opted for a leadership change and appointed Zhang Yunfan as its new CEO. Zhang, a former executive at Perfect World, replaces Mooton’s founder and co-CEO Yuan Jing.
Now considered a separate business unit within Bytedance, Moonton is preparing to launch “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” in mainland China later this year, with more than 8 million pre-registrations to date.
Bytedance is currently resisting pressure from the US government to forcibly divest TikTok.
PAST SELECTION
The second edition of the Eye Catcher Global mini festival will take place from June 19 to 23 in Hong Kong. The event is presented by Eye Catcher Images and the Renaissance Foundation, with support from the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
The event aims to incubate and promote more indie films with unique visions, strong personal styles and hybrid approaches. In addition to two core competitions exclusively for filmmakers, there are other screenings open to the general public.
Julian Rejl, artistic director of Directors’ Fortnight, will chair the judging panel for the Asian New Directors Competition and host a lecture session in which he will encourage young filmmakers to be future-oriented.
