Island view
The Taipei Film Festival has set „A Journey in Spring” as Taiwan’s flag bearer in its international competition category. Directed by Peng Tzu-hui and Wang Ping-wen, the film was shot on Super 16 mm film stock and stars King Jieh-wen and Yang Gui-mei. The festival runs from June 21 to July 6 at Zhongshan Hall, Vieshow Cinema Xinyi and SPOT-Huashan Cinemas.
Its other competing titles include: „Beyond the Fog,” by Muraise Daichi; „A Brief History of a Family” by Lin Jianjie; „Encounters” by Dmitry Moiseev; „The Featherweight” by Robert Kolodny; „Prime at Night” by Victor Iriarte; „The Human Vampire Consenting Suicidal Man” by Arian Lewis-Czees; „My Sunshine,” Okuyama Hiroshi; “Scream” by Kensebek Shykakov; and „Who Do I Belong To” by Meriam Jubiure.
The winners of the New Talent Competition will be decided by a jury chaired by Mainland Chinese director and multiple Berlinale Silver Bear winner Wang Xiaoshuai. Other jurors include Taiwanese actor and director Kai Ko, festival curator Lim Cheng-sim, Laha Mebow, director who won the 2016 Taipei Film Award for „Loka Lucky” and Satai Yuji, producer of „Drive My Car.”
Not selling this either
Chinese tech giant Bytedance, which owns TikTok and its mainland equivalent Douyin, says it will not sell its Moonton games unit. The company previously said it wanted to divest the unit, but instead opted for a leadership change, appointing Zhang Yunfan as its new CEO. Zhang, a former executive at Perfect World, replaces Mouton’s founder and co-CEO Yuan Jing.
Moonten, now considered a separate business unit within Bitans, is preparing to launch “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” in mainland China later this year, with more than 8 million reservations to date.
Bytatens is currently resisting pressure from the US government to force TikTok out.
Attractive choice
The second edition of the mini-festival Eye Catcher Global is scheduled to take place in Hong Kong from June 19 to June 23. The event is presented by Eye Catcher Images and the Renaissance Foundation, with support from Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
The event strives to incubate and promote more indie films with unique visions, strong personal styles and hybrid approaches. Apart from two major competitions exclusively for filmmakers, other screenings are open to the general public.
Julian Rejl, Artistic Director of Directors Fortnight, will chair the judging panel for the Asian New Director Competition and will hold a talk session in which he will urge young filmmakers to be forward-thinking in the future.