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BTS’ world tour sent K-pop powerhouse Hybe to the highest quarterly revenue and operating profit in its history in the third quarter of 2026. Revenue for the quarter reached KRW1.5257 trillion ($1.13 billion) and operating profit came in at KRW188.5 billion ($140.2 million). Both numbers beat the records the company set in the second quarter. […]
Telugu cinema superstar Mahesh Babu has signed on as a strategic investor in Mumbai-based Shortgun Games, backing a studio that is building original titles for PC and console rather than mobile, long the focus of India’s digital entertainment sector. The studio, founded by Jeet Chandan and Vidhit Mehta, is developing original, franchise-scale IP aimed at […]
Black Bear’s period comedy “Wicker,” directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson and starring Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Peter Dinklage, and Elizabeth Debicki, clinched the top spot at the U.K. and Ireland box office, debuting at No. 1 with £1.76 million ($2.34 million). The film narrowly edged A24’s psychological thriller “Primetime,” directed by Lance […]
Exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof pointed to Jafar Panahi’s latest prison sentence as proof that Iranian cinema remains under repression, speaking at a Tokyo International Film Festival press conference for the Kurosawa Akira Award. Rasoulof and Japanese director O Mipo are this year’s recipients. “Of course, Iranian cinema continues to face repression, and my friends […]
Chinese director Wang Jiangyong keeps the camera at a distance in his feature debut “The Night That Binds Us,” which world premiered in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival, observing the uneasy connection between a college student and an older dormitory manager. “I think you have to show the painful parts truthfully for the […]
Bollywood star Emraan Hashmi’s musical horror film “Rooh” has added Tips Films and Tips Music to its producing team, with Kumar Taurani boarding the project ahead of a 2027 theatrical release across the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu markets. Mayank Sharma directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with Vishal Kapoor. Tips Films presents the film, which […]
Beloved independent filmmaker Tsukamoto Shinya gave a masterclass at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), speaking about the pivotal works of his career as well as his most recent film, the English-language feature “Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?” Perhaps most famous overseas for his 1989 feature “Tetsuo: The Iron Man,” Tsukamoto spoke candidly […]
A new Japanese anime awards program will be called the Nippon Anime Awards, with the first ceremony set for Nov. 21, 2027, at SGC Hall Ariake in Tokyo’s Ariake district. The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA), the industry body behind the prize, announced the name on Nov. 2 at Tokyo Tatemono Brillia Hall. The reveal […]
A new screenwriting lab in India wants to steer the country’s horror films away from ghost stories and horror-comedy hybrids. Independent outfit Platoon One Films will pick 15 writers for a three-month program built around original genre scripts. The Platoon One Horror Lab will run entirely online, and each of the 15 participants will bring […]
Exploring the relationship between people and place, new documentary “Okinawa Saudade,” playing at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival as part of its Nippon Cinema Now selection, was born from director Matsubayashi Yoju’s time with a Brazilian community of Okinawan immigrants some 10 years ago. The film zooms in on the latest generation of Okinawan […]
Hit hard by Trump's tariffs and the war on Iran, countries in the Asia-Pacific want 'enormous changes' in US policies.
German director and screenwriter Isabelle Stever’s “I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming” has won the Tokyo International Film Festival’s Ethical Film Award. The award, set up in 2023 with sponsor Sumitomo Corporation, highlights films that shed light on issues such as the environment, poverty and discrimination. A jury picks the winner from three nominees drawn from […]
Two directors with films at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival said they once kept impending or new motherhood hidden from the people they worked with, at a festival talk on raising children while making films. Belgium-based Teodora Ana Mihai, whose “Heysel 85” plays in competition, shared the stage with Japanese director Sode Yukiko, whose […]
Japanese director Kadowaki Kōhei’s animated feature “We Are Aliens” has won the Kau Ka Hōkū (Shooting Star) Award at the 46th Hawai’i International Film Festival, which handed out its jury prizes at an awards reception at the Halekulani Hotel in Waikīkī on Nov. 1. Presented by Hawaiian Airlines, the prize is reserved for an international […]
Isabelle Huppert vampire film “The Blood Countess” lost as much as 20 minutes against the wishes of its director, Ulrike Ottinger, the veteran German filmmaker said at the Tokyo International Film Festival, which is hosting a retrospective of her work. In “The Blood Countess” (“Die Blutgräfin”), Huppert plays a vampire countess who resurfaces in present-day […]
Constantin Film and Sony Pictures’ horror reboot “Resident Evil” secured its fourth consecutive weekend at number one across mainland China, grossing RMB28.5 million ($4.3 million) over the Oct. 30–Nov. 1 frame, according to data from Artisan Gateway. Since launching during the Golden Week corridor on Oct. 5, the video game adaptation has generated a cumulative […]
Bollywood filmmaker Vikas Bahl has finished filming in the U.K. on “Bolo Bolo Bolo,” a coming-of-age musical drama set during the boom in Punjabi music across Britain in the early 1990s. Jimmy Shergill, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Mona Singh and Alizeh lead the cast. Katha Studios is producing the film alongside Good Co, Fusion Flicks and Monk […]
Chinese artist and filmmaker Sun Xun never expected “Magic Atlas” to become the first animated feature selected for the Tokyo International Film Festival’s competition. “I never thought of ‘Magic Atlas’ as an animated film. To me, it brings together many art forms. Animation is simply the label we use for its form. I’m glad people […]
Jakarta World Cinema aims to bring back its First Feature Competition next year, open to filmmakers from around the world and judged by an international jury. This year’s edition did not accept submissions. The competition was put on hold because of the difficulty of assembling an international jury. “[Previously] we’ve only had Indonesian judges,” festival […]
A lack of funding, and ignorance in the institutions that control it, keeps women at an inherent disadvantage in the film industry, Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat said at a Tokyo International Film Festival talk on the future of women’s cinema. “The discrimination did not start at the festival, but it started at the development level,” […]
