George Lucas, the iconic filmmaker behind the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" franchises, will receive the Honorary Palme d'Or on May 25 during the Closing ceremony of the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

So far  moviegoers have repeatedly shown that they are willing to return to theaters for quality content and altogether skip any content that is not deemed theater-worthy. The driving demand for premium large-format screens -- like Imax's curved, giant displays; Dolby's luxe auditoriums; or ScreenX's 270-degree screens that extend projection onto three walls. Even more immersive movie experiences, although still niche, appear to be growing. D-Box puts you in a moving, haptic seat, usually positioned in a prime location of an otherwise standard auditorium. More intense formats like 4DX and MX4D build upon motion chairs with blasts of air, water and fog, even scent effects and haptics that "tickle" or "punch."

D-Box is among the most prevalent, present in more than 800 auditoriums globally, including a large partnership with Cinemark, the No. 3 US chain behind AMC and Regal. In a world with about 200,000 total movie screens, 800 is a sliver. But Cinemark's D-Box revenues climbed 25% in the third quarter compared with the same period pre-pandemic in 2019, even though the overall box office was down 32%.

So far, audiences are favoring these formats for tent-pole releases that make the best use of a huge screen and top-notch sound. But with studios pivoting toward franchise extravaganzas, they're moving away from the "little movies" that used to show on the eighth, ninth or 10th screen at any location.

Kevin Costner's HORIZON, AN AMERICAN SAGA has been selected at Cannes to be the film to play out of competition this year. The Cannes Film Festival celebrates its 77th year and is considered one of the oldest and most important film festivals in the world, it will run from 14 - 25 May 2024.

The first chapter of "Horizon" will debut at the French film festival on May 19, giving the world its first glimpse of Costner's ambitious Western epic. The first two parts of "Horizon" are set to open in quick succession this summer, with Warner Bros. releasing chapter one in theaters June 28 and the second installment on Aug. 16.

"It's been 20 years since I've had the pleasure of being on the Croisette," Costner said in a statement. "I've been waiting for the right time to return and I'm proud to say that this time has come."

"The French have always supported films and believed deeply in filmmaking," added Costner. "Just as I believe deeply in my film."

"Horizon," which will screen out of competition at Cannes, is directed by Costner and stars him, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington and Jena Malone.

The 77th Cannes Film Festival runs May 14-25. George Miller's "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga," also from Warner Bros., was recently announced as another high-profile premiere at Cannes. The full lineup will be announced Thursday.

GODZILLA X KONG: The New Empire continues leading the global box office with $361.1 million worldwide in two weeks, "Godzilla x Kong" could ultimately leapfrog the $529 million global haul of 2014's "Godzilla.", it also more than doubled the second film behind the DreamWorks studio produced KUNG FU PANDA 4.  The Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures release, directed by Adam Wingard, has thus far outperformed any of the studio's recent monster films except for 2014's "Godzilla." The latest installment, in which Godzilla and Kong team up, cost about $135 million to produce.

Hong Kong's CineFan Club released its new program for the months of May/Jun/Jul which will feature Aki Kaurismäki Finnish film director's film along with little know artist Godfrey Reggio and the 1960s and 1970s inspired films of psychedelic cinema. Please go to our event posts for more information about the program: Click here

CineFan of Hong Kong released its new film lineup for the months of May, June and July. The main focus are the films of Finnish film director and screenwriter Aki Kaurismäki. Also featuring the films of artist and activist Godfrey Reggio and finally some of the 1960s and 1970s culture inspired classics known as the psychedelic era.

Aki Kaurismäki thinks his own films are dreadful. And his deadpan comedies are grim. But the bleaker the director has become, the more tender his films. No matter how despairing the reality is, his underdog characters always find solace in a sleazy bar, in eccentric rock 'n' roll, and in the company of a devoted canine friend.

Combining the restraint of Robert Bresson with the surrealism of Luis Buñuel, the profound Finn cinephile creates his own cinematic universe of visual stylisation and mordant jokiness for his humane comedy. Highly distinctive but hard to define, Aki's compositions are simple yet subtly expressive; his approach skews towards a tradition of neorealism, yet flecked with fairytalelike fantasy; his ambiance is nostalgic, yet evoking a modernist vibe. With witty irreverence and stylish intelligence, the artist works dichotomy into an arresting sensibility, championing humanity and spontaneous solidarity while sliding out an unspoken critique towards modern alienation and social injustice.

Seeing the Unseen Godfrey Reggio's The Qatsi Trilogy

In his Qatsi (= life) Trilogy, former Catholic monk and artist and activist Godfrey Reggio's critique of technology is not a message, but manifests as cinematic method in the form of non-fiction and wordless, visual narrative. Between poetry and discourse, and via torrents of images transported through Philip Glass' music, cinema becomes, in Reggio's own terms, a 'sacrament' directly confronting the technicised human world by firing it up.

Psychedelia – Cinema as a Fever Dream

Dennis Hopper's 1969 Easy Rider, one of America's first counterculture films that fused mainstream aesthetics with avant-garde tendencies to capture the sociopolitical climate of the time, helped bring psychedelic films into Hollywood. Robert Altman's surreal, dreamlike reality in 3 Women, Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg's dizzying experiment in Performance, and Hayashi Kaizo's grafting of silentera aesthetics in To Sleep So as to Dream - all see the artists explore the interplay of films and druginduced states of mind as mutually constitutive transformations in human consciousness – and also cinematic adventures.

Some psychedelic films are full-on assault on the senses, pushing your mental state to the edge. Recreating an out-of-body experience fuelled by psychedelic drugs, provocateur Gaspar Noé conceives a transcendental odyssey that defies life and death with masterful aerial shots in Enter the Void. Ken Russell creates a bombastic take on the pop opera genre with Tommy, a relentlessly frenetic musical experience with jaw-dropping visual imagination.

Visit the Official Website for the full program and more information.

Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City's first international film festival has opened its doors and welcome guests and participants.

Please visit the Official Website for more information.

The country's long overdue cinema law was finally revised last year and now permits local city governments to host international film festivals. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest city, seized this opportunity to organise its inaugural international film festival.

"This collaboration highlights the close partnership between governmental bodies and private companies, facilitated by an open policy allowing private entities to participate in government social projects," says HIFF executive director Pham Minh Toan.

His event company Vietfest, which specialises in running large-scale entertainment and cultural projects, has previously collaborated with the Department of Culture and Sports of HCMC on several major events such as the Ho Chi Minh City International Music Festival (HOZO). Three successful editions have been held for HOZO since 2019, with latest hosting 250 artists and 150,000 attendees.

Toan and long-time collaborator Do Hoa have spent the past few years cultivating the idea of an international film festival in Vietnam. "We established Vietfest, which stands for Vietnam Festival, to organise multiple type of festivals, including film," says Hoa, who is HIFF deputy executive director. "We believed the time for a film festival in HCMC would come and have included activities related to film festivals in our agenda during business trips."

Toan and Hoa attended the Hong Kong International Film Festival in 2019, but Covid put a stop to overseas travelling until they visited South Korea's Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in 2022. Last year, they returned to Busan and travelled to Singapore and Indonesia to immerse themselves in various cultures and attend music and film festivals to gain insight and knowledge.

Please visit the Official Website for the Film Festival

Below are the results for the 2024 Oscars Academy Awards. The most awards were taken by Christopher Nolan's film OPPENHEIMER. See the full list of awards below:

Best Picture:
OPPENHEIMER

Actor in Leading Fole:
Cillian Murphy - OPPENHEIMER

Best Supporting Actor:
Robert Downey Jr. - OPPENHEIMER

Actress in Leading Role:
Emma Stone - POOR THINGS

Actress in Supporting Role:
Da'Vine Joy Randolph - THE HOLDOVERS

Best animation:
The Boy and the Heron

Cinematography:
OPPENHEIMER

Best Costume Design:
POOR THINGS

Best Directing:
Christopher Nolan - OPPENHEIMER

Documentary Feature Film:
20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL

Documentary Short:
THE LAST REPAIR SHOP

Best Editing:
Jennifer Lame - OPPENHEIMER

International Feature Film:
THE ZONE OF INTEREST (United Kingdom)

Makeup and Hairstyling:
Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston - POOR THINGS

Best Original Score:
Ludwig Goransson - OPPENHEIMER

Best Music, Original Song:
"What Was I Made For" - Barbie
Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell

Production Design:
POOR THINGS

Short Animated Film:
WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko
Dave Mullins and Brad Booker

Best Live Action Short Film:
THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR

Sound:
THE ZONE OF INTEREST

Visual Effects:
GODZILLA MINUS ONE

Adapted Screenplay:
AMERICAN FICTION

Original Screenplay:
ANATOMY OF A FALL

Additional information available at the Academy Awards' Official Website

Check out there first trailer: https://vimeo.com/916011584/

We also have a behind the scene video from the making of the first film in 2021: https://vimeo.com/557271487