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The Turkish government on Thursday withdrew its support for the country's oldest film festival after organizers reversed a decision to exclude a politically sensitive documentary. The Culture and Tourism Ministry said it was backing out of the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival following the reinstatement of "Kanun Hukmu," or "The Decree."

The film focuses on a teacher and doctor dismissed from their jobs under the state of emergency imposed in Turkey following an attempted coup in July 2016. "It is extremely sad that in such an important festival, the power of art is used to be used to make propaganda for the FETO terrorist organization through the perception of victimhood," the ministry said in a statement. FETO is the acronym applied to the Gulenist movement, held by Ankara to be responsible for the failed coup and led by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who denies any involvement.

More than 130,000 alleged Gulenists were fired from their jobs through emergency decrees following the attempted coup. Critics have alleged the government launched a general crackdown against anyone viewed as its opponents. The ministry added that it would "not be part of the effort to discredit the epic struggle of our beloved nation on July 15 and to use art as an element of provocation."

The festival has been run since 1963 in the Mediterranean city of Antalya and is a highlight of the Turkish cultural calendar. It was thrown into turmoil when organizers said they would remove "The Decree" from the program. That led to other filmmakers withdrawing their entries and jury members resigning over claims of censorship. Festival director Ahmet Boyacioglu said the documentary had initially been removed from the national documentary film category because of ongoing legal proceedings against one of the people featured. But the film's director, Nejla Demirci, said that was an "excuse" and "outright censorship." She received support from across the arts world in Turkey, with the Free Art Assembly calling the film's exclusion "an assault on artistic expression and creativity and a move to normalize censorship across artistic fields." In reversing the decision, Boyacioglu said it had been discovered that "the trial process regarding the person in the documentary ... is not continuing, so it has been decided that the film will be included in the competition selection."

Welcoming the change of heart, Demirci posted on social media that "our cinema, our people, Antalya, Antalya Film Festival workers joined hands and won our fight for democracy."

The much anticipated film of Director Zhang Yimou finally gets a release date in China after delaying for four years.

Returning recently with his best film in years, the wuxia epic Shadow, Zhang Yimou now has three new projects in various stages of production. There's his Cultural Revolution-era drama One Second, which was pulled from last year's Berlinale Film Festival at the last second likely due to Chinese censors and hasn't resurfaced. Then there's his crime drama Under the Light, the first trailer for which has now arrived, and the director is already planning to resume shooting on a new spy thriller Impasse, starring Zhang Yi and Zhu Yawen.

The story revolves around Su Jian Ming and Li Hui Lin jointly investigating an undercurrent criminal case involving a huge interest group. In order to investigate the case, Su Jian Ming ignores the persuasion of his powerful father Zheng Gang, and rushes to the "Hongmen Banquet", hosted by rich businessman Li Zhi Tian. More and more clues gradually surface. The undercurrent surging behind these clues makes people faintly feel that a big game of chess is being planned.

Watch the Official Trailer on our Vimeo channel

'Under the Light' opens across China on September 28, 2023.

Sir Michael John Gambon (19 October 1940 - 27 September 2023)

One of the most recognized actors from the popular film series Harry Potter died at age 82 after suffering from pneumonia.

His best-known role is perhaps that of Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts' headmaster in the third instalment of J. K. Rowling's franchise, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, taking over the role after the death of Richard Harris in 2002; Harris had also played Maigret on television four years before Gambon took that role. Gambon reprised the role of Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which was released in November 2005 in the United Kingdom and the United States. He returned to the role again in the fifth film, 2007's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He appeared in the final two films of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 in 2010 and Part 2 in 2011. Gambon told an interviewer that, when playing Dumbledore, he does not "have to play anyone really. I just stick on a beard and play me, so it's no great feat. I never ease into a role – every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. I'm not really a character actor at all."

In 2010, Gambon appeared in Tom Hooper's historical drama The King's Speech as King George V, alongside Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, and Guy Pearce. In 2011, the film received 12 Academy Awards nominations, more than any other film in that year. The film won four Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Adapted Screenplay.

Actor Gambon had many award nominations and also won several best actor awards during his career.

The Tokyo Film Festival has set the lineup for its bumper 2023 edition, running October 23 to November 1. The festival will open with Wim Wenders's Cannes Competition pic Perfect Days. The opening ceremony will take place at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, as it did last year, while the closing ceremony will be held at TOHO Cinemas Hibiya. TIFF will host a large-scale tribute to Yasujirō Ozu throughout its program to mark the filmmaker's 120th anniversary.

In the main competition, the festival has set 10 world premieres. The features include Japanese filmmaker Kishi Yoshiyuki's latest pic (Ab)normal Desire and Gu Xiaogang's Dwelling by the West Lake. Xiaogang is also set to receive the festival's Kurosawa Akira Award alongside Mouly Surya.

Of the main competition titles, six are from East Asia, and there is noticeably a feature from Russia, with Alexey German Jr. screening his latest film, Air. Elsewhere, the festival's Gala section is chock-full of audience favorites from fall festivals. Titles like Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things and All of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh will screen alongside David Gordon Green's remake The Exorcist: Believer. The Japanese films set for the Gala section include Kitano Takeshi's Kubi, Miike Takashi's Lumberjack the Monster, and Nakagawa Ryutaro's My (K)Night.

In the festival's World Focus section, Wim Wenders is set to debut a new Japan-based short titled Somebody Comes into the Light alongside Strange Way of Life by Pedro Almodovar and Lav Diaz's no-so-short 3 hours 35-minute feature Essential Truths of the Lake.

Main Competition

(Ab)normal Desire — Japan Kishi Yoshiyuki 2023 World Premiere

Air — Russia Alexey German Jr. 2023 World Premiere

Blind at Heart — Germany/Switzerland/Luxembourg Barbara Albert 2023 International Premiere

Dwelling by the West Lake — China Gu Xiaogang 2023 World Premiere

A Foggy Paradise — Japan Kotsuji Yohei 2023 World Premiere

Gondola — Germany/Georgia Veit Helmer 2023 World Premiere

The Gospel of the Beast — The Philippines Sheron Dayoc 2023 World Premiere

A Long Shot China — Gao Peng 2023 World Premiere

The Persian Version — USA Maryam Keshavarz 2023 Asian Premiere

Roxana — Iran Parviz Shahbazi 2023 World Premiere

Sermon to the Birds — Azerbaijan Hilal Baydarov 2023 World Premiere

The Settlers — Chile/Argentina/Netherlands Felipe Gálvez 2023 Asian Premiere

Snow Leopard — China Pema Tseden 2023 Asian Premiere

Tatami — Georgia/USA Zahra Amir Ebrahimi, Guy Nattiv 2023 Asian Premiere

These days, we're all supposed to be guaranteed a limitless buffet of TV content, but not if the actors go on strike. Let's take a deep dive and look at some figures and facts:

Since July, the Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the union representing actors in the US, has been on strike, severely curtailing TV and film production. Amplifying its effects is the adjacent strike, from the Writers Guild of America, which has been going on since May.

SAG-AFTRA's main antagonist is the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the studios. Central to the union's concerns is the financial impact of streaming, AI and digital recreation on its members.

A lot of productions have been affected—causing the streaming content pipeline to slow to a trickle.

"What's happening to us is happening across all forms of work. At some point, the jig is up. You cannot keep being marginalised and disrespected and dishonoured. At some point, you have to say no."
Fran Drescher, actor and SAG-AFTRA president

By the numbers: $3 billion The strike has had an economic impact of at least $3 billion so far.
160,000 SAG-AFTRA represents about 160,000 striking performers.
1 The AMPTP has suggested that actors be paid a single day's pay for their likenesses to be captured, after which AI versions of them can be used for free, forever.
340 The strike is one of the main reasons for the closure of Lucasfilm's Singapore outpost, with the loss of 340 jobs.

This is far from the first time Hollywood talent has gone on strike. Two of the more notable examples were the 2007-08 writers' strike about DVD and new media residuals, and the 1980 actors' strike about video and pay TV residuals. In other words, both were arguments about the shares of the spoils of technological change, much like today.

The Negotiators. The economic impact of the strike has been so severe that various politicians have stepped in with offers to mediate.
The Long Kiss Goodnight. The strike kicked off in dramatic fashion, with the cast of Oppenheimer walking out of the film's premiere.
The Last Dance. Among the productions to carry on was Games of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, which is filmed in the UK. Thanks to rules there that ban solidarity strikes, even SAG-AFTRA members have had to continue filming, leading to a backlash among some fans.
Ex Machina. Replacing actors with AI could lead us to all sorts of dark places.
Kings of Comedy. One thing about a strike involving both writers and actors—it's led to some great protest placards.

In this episode, we aimed to explore Hong Kong's spectral cinema from the 1980s - the 2000s, the perception of 1997, and Hong Kong's changing cultural and political identity. During the discussion, the hosts discussed three ghost films, namely Stanley Kwan's ROUGE (胭脂扣，1987), Clara Law's THE REINCARNATION OF GOLDEN LOTUS (潘金蓮的前世金生, 1989) and Fruit Chan's DUMPLINGS (餃子, 2004).


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Expend4bles, Millennium Films' latest action-packed entry in the Expendables franchise, opened top in China with an estimated $10.9m through JL Vision and sub-distributed via Alibaba.

Prior China opening weekends in the 13-year-old series could not be ascertained at time of writing, although Expendables 3 finished in China on an unadjusted $72.9m after opening in 2014.

The latest exploits by the mercenaries reunites Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture for the first time in nine years alongside Iko Uwais, Tony Jaa, Megan Fox, and Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson. Expend4bles opens in North America this week via Lionsgate.

Wish Pictures' thriller Dust To Dust directed by Jonathan Li placed second over the weekend in China on $10.6m for a $44.2m tally after two weekends, according to Artisan Gateway. The film premiered at Shanghai International Film festival in June.

In third place was Universal's Oppenheimer on $4.3m for an excellent $54.3m running total. Dirty Monkey's summer smash No More Bets added $4m to rank fourth and stands at $527.1m. Rounding out the top five was Wishart Media's new release Tainted Love on $3.2m. Ma Yingxin directed the psychological drama about a woman who sets out to find the truth after she is cheated in a romance scam.

A film being billed as the first co-production by Israeli and Iranian filmmakers debuted at the Venice International Film Festival after a secretive production process that included a trip to Israel by the Iranian co-director.

"Tatami," which received a standing ovation Saturday at the prestigious film competition, tells the story of a female Iranian judoka champion who is ordered to fake an injury to avoid facing an Israeli opponent at a judo championship.

The story is loosely based on the 2019 incident in which Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei was ordered to throw matches at the World Judo Championships to avoid facing Israeli Sagi Muki, who would ultimately win the tournament. The International Judo Federation banned Iran from all international competitions over the incident. (The ban was later reduced to four years.)

Co-directed by Israeli Guy Nattiv, the Oscar-winner who also helmed "Golda," and Iranian Zar Amir Ebrahimi, "Tatami" was shot in Tbilisi, Georgia — a country that Iranians can easily visit — beginning in the spring of 2022. The project was kept in strict secrecy because of Iran's potential reaction to the production. Iran does not recognize Israel's existence and, as the film's plot underscores, forbids its athletes from competing against Israelis.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film's title and plot were kept secret throughout the public casting stage. It was first announced publicly in February 2023 with the name "Untitled Judo." (A tatami is the traditional Japanese mat used in judo matches.)

"We were undercover. We knew it was a dangerous thing," Nattiv told Reuters.

"Tatami" also drew inspiration from the death of 22-year-old Iranian Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly beaten by police in Tehran over Iran's mandatory hijab policy last year. Her death sparked an unprecedented protest movement across Iran.

Visit a Trailer Clip on our Vimeo page.

From Director Pawo Choyning Dorji from Bhutan comes a new film titled Monk and the Gun which was nominated to the 2024 Academy Awards (Oscars). Last year Director Pawo had submitted his film 'Yak in the classroom'.

Read full story and view the official trailer here: The Monk and the Gun