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South Korean box office hit Exhuma and Hong Kong action blockbuster Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In lead the nominations for the 18th Asian Film Awards, with a jury led by martial arts icon Sammo Hung.

Supernatural thriller Exhuma, directed by Jang Jae-hyun, leads the pack with 11 nods followed by Soi Cheang’s action thriller Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In, which received nine nominations.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

Both titles were named in the best film category alongside Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix winner All We Imagine As Light; Guan Hu’s Chinese drama Black Dog,...

Martial arts legend Sammo Hung has been tapped as jury president for the 18th Asian Film Awards, while South Korean supernatural thriller “Exhuma” and Hong Kong action pic “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” dominate the nominations.

South Korean supernatural thriller “Exhuma,” helmed by director Jang Jae-hyun and marking the return of veteran actor Choi Min-sik, leads with 11 nods including best film, director, actor and actress. The film weaves elements of feng shui and traditional shamanism in its story of an ominous grave investigation.

Hong Kong action film “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” follows with nine nominations. Based on Yuyi’s “City of Darkness” novel and set in the 1980s Kowloon Walled City, the film is competing for best film, supporting actor and multiple technical awards.

Soi Cheang’s Hong Kong action film “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” follows with nine nominations. Based on Yuyi’s “City of Darkness...

Ambassadors Assemble

The Asian Film Awards Academy (Afaa) has tapped actor Dean Fujioka as Ambassador for its upcoming 18th edition, along with four Youth Ambassadors who are fellow actors – Aokbab Chutimon (Thailand), Austin Lin (Taiwan), Lo Chun Yip (Hong Kong) and Okada Masaki (Japan).

Fujioka, known for “Fullmetal Alchemist” and winner of Best Actor at the 12th Confidence Drama Awards for “Monte Cristo: A Beautiful Revenge,” started his career in Hong Kong before gaining recognition across Asia in Taiwanese dramas. The Youth Ambassadors bring diverse experience to their roles. Chutimon gained recognition with “Bad Genius” (2017) and won an International Emmy for “Hunger.” Lin received two Golden Horse Award nominations for “I WeirDO” and “Marry My Dead Body,” while Lo earned a Hong Kong Film Award nomination for “Time Still Turns the Pages.” Okada appeared in the Oscar-winning “Drive My Car.”

The Academy, founded by the Busan, Hong Kong, and Tokyo International Film Festivals,...

If you’re still not over the spooky season but want a segue into the holiday season, then let me present to you the Thai horror-comedy-romance My Boo. The film follows a young and very attractive man named Joe, who is a video game streamer (practically seems to be the “it” job in Thailand), who hopes to live his life solely on his grandfather’s inheritance. However, shockingly, he learns that his granddad took his last breath just before he could name Joe in the will, leaving him with nothing to survive on. However, Joe’s got a nice cousin who offers him an old house he owns. When Joe brings a broker there to sell the scary-looking place, the broker runs in fear. The house is haunted, but Joe owes some local loan sharks money. My Boo tells the story of how Joe makes this money and brings new...

“Don’t Worry About Vampire,” a fantastical comedy that explores Taiwan’s cultural identity through the lens of vampire-human relations, is being pitched at Taiwan Creative Content Fest (Tccf) by writer-director Chen Ho-yu.

The film will follow a bumbling protagonist who saves a vampire princess and becomes an overnight sensation, only to watch his hometown transform into an unrecognizable place as human-vampire peace treaties reshape society.

“I’ve always wanted to write a fantasy story from a Taiwanese perspective,” says Chen, known for HBO Asia’s “The Teenage Psychic.” “If every country has its own monsters originating from its historical, political, and cultural fears, what is it that Taiwan fears the most?”

Chen frames the story as an allegory about self-identity and cultural preservation. “If doing business with vampires could make you rich, but at the cost of losing your soul and freedom, would you agree?” he asks.

“For the society,...

Taiwan’s Calendar Studios is advancing its production slate with two new projects: “Call of Lobster,” a cross-border action-comedy, and crime series “The Scammers,” both unveiled at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (Tccf).

“Call of Lobster,” helmed by “Man in Love” director Yin Chen-Hao, draws inspiration from a real-life story about a Taiwanese lobster farmer who volunteered to teach farming techniques in North Korea. The film follows a protagonist who becomes entangled in a drug case while pursuing his dream of lobster farming in North Korea, forcing him to collaborate with a South Korean agent.

“This story was inspired by a news article in Taiwan,” says Yin. “Chen Jia-fu, a lobster farmer from Pingtung, once wrote a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, volunteering to go to North Korea to teach lobster farming techniques – and he actually succeeded in going and returning. I’ve always been deeply interested in...

by Nathaniel R

Oops, we're late reporting this one. We love following the Golden Horse Awards which give us insight into both Asian cinema as viewed by Asian cineastes and the Oscar race since the nominees here are often a mix of Oscar submissions from the current Oscar race and the next one (given the different calendar requirements). For instance last year's Golden Horse Awards featured one 2023 Oscar submission: Marry My Dead Body (Thailand) and at least two 2024 Oscar submissions: Abang Adik (Malaysia) and Old Fox (Taiwan). Here are the nominees for the upcoming ceremony. 

We only spot one Oscar contender in this year's list though (so far - AMPAS hasn't announced the official submission list. So it's possible our list of 86 submissions is slightly incomplete)  and given the release dates of some of the titles this list may be more predictive of next year's Oscar submissions in Best International Feature.

Set in the bustling streets of Taipei, Gg Precinct follows the quirky detectives of New Taipei’s Gia Gun Police Precinct. Led by the brash but talented detective Wu Ming-han, this ragtag bunch finds themselves plunged into a baffling series of bizarre murders. What starts as just another day on the job soon reveals a much stranger scenario.

The victims are being killed in spectacularly weird ways, each crime scene presenting a mystifying message tied to antiquated Chinese proverbs. As if dealing with these lunatic killings wasn’t strange enough, the case stirs familiar memories for the precinct’s captain. Years ago, he locked away a dangerous criminal obsessed with punishing those who misused these classical sayings. But could this madman now be committing copycat murders from behind bars?

Joining forces with their incarcerated advice-giver doesn’t prove much help, as Ming-han and his team struggle to decipher the demented codes.

Taiwanese sales company Applause Entertainment is launching sales of fantasy romance Measure In Love, starring Angela Yuen and Hsu Kuang-Han and produced by Sylvia Chang.

The romantic fantasy is set for release in 2025 and marks the directorial feature debut of Hong Kong’s Kung Siu Ping, a seasoned assistant director whose credits include Overheard 2 and 3, and Chang-directed Love Education.

Measure In Love was shot entirely in Hong Kong — in both Cantonese and Mandarin language — with a cast led by local rising star Yuen (The Narrow Road) and Hsu (Taiwanese blockbuster Marry My Dead Body). The love story transcends...

Thai production powerhouse Gdh 559 is to launch sales of The Red Envelope, a local remake of Taiwanese blockbuster Marry My Dead Body, starring Billkin Putthipong Assaratanakul from blockbuster How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies and Pp Krit Amnuaydechkorn.

A first look at Billkin and Pp in the film can be seen above.

The upcoming feature is produced by Banjong Pisanthanakun, director of 2021 horror The Medium, who first saw the original Taiwanese film at the Hong Kong International Film Festival last year. It will be directed by Chayanop Boonprakob.

“After seeing the film, an idea for a Thai remake starring...

The Aca & G.Ott Awards 2024 has confirmed actors Kang Ki-young and Tiffany Young as the hosts for this year’s award ceremony. Kang Ki-young has shown a remarkable spectrum of acting in content including Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022), recipient of the Aca Best Content Award in 2022. Recently, he held the main role in Queen of Divorce (2024), which entered the Top 10 chart in six Asian countries in only two weeks. Tiffany Young is steadily solidifying her career as a multitalented actor across various content, including the series Reborn Rich (2022) and the musical Chicago‘s Korean run since 2023. She has been nominated for the Best Newcomer Actor (Female) category in the Aca & G.Ott Awards this year for her performance in Uncle Samsik.

[Left: Kang Ki-young; Right: Tiffany Young]

The main guest line-up includes eight talented actors who will be presenting awards this year. Actors Ryu Seung-ryong and Lee Jung Ha, whom each received the Best Lead Actor (Male...

Netflix is to further invest in Chinese-language content and focus on local stories with a particular emphasis on Taiwan.

The streaming giant launched in Taiwan in 2016 and has steadily been building its audience through licensing hit titles such as Marry My Dead Body and Incantation as well as commissioning original content, with a raft of projects unveiled earlier this year.

Netflix’s head of Chinese language content, Maya Huang, has now revealed next steps for the platform in the region.

“Our audience in Taiwan has such a strong passion and sense of pride for Chinese-language content,” she said during an...

If the wild thought of merging the gritty, brutal world of Se7en and the goofy set-up of Brooklyn Nine-Nine ever crossed your mind, then you need to look no further than Netflix’s recent Taiwanese crime thriller/comedy series, Gg Precinct. A spin-off of the hit mystery comedy movie Marry My Dead Body, this series combines the violent, eerie elements of traditional crime dramas with an absolutely goofy, hilarious tone, which surprisingly pairs up pretty well. The series liberally draws from classic crime thriller media like Hannibal and The Silence of the Lambs, but at the same time pokes fun at the genre’s stringent conventions.

The fact that, despite combining two diametrically opposite tones and approaches, Gg Precinct never feels too heavy or too casual for its own good is something that imparts a novel experience. Right from characterization to screenplay, visual clues, and narrative progression, the series...

If you enjoyed watching Marry My Dead Body, you will find Netflix’s Gg Precinct entertaining. The six-episode series is a spin-off of the 2022 film that revolved around detective Wu Ming-han and his posthumous marriage to Mao Pang-Yu. From overcoming homophobia to solving Pang-Yu’s hit-and-run case, Ming-Han had evolved over time. Greg Hsu as Ming-Han was thoroughly entertaining in Marry My Dead Body. His comic timing and screen presence deserve a special mention. After the film’s success, a series featuring the same characters solving a different case makes perfect sense. You will feel the Brooklyn 99 vibe, but Gg Precinct is way more focused on the thrill, making it binge-worthy.

Spoiler Alert

Who was the Idiom Killer?

After studying the photographs taken from the crime scene of the brutal murder of a security guard, the new Gg Precinct Chief, Chung Yung-kang, stated that it was similar to the idiom killer/monster’s killings.

I’m not a massive fan of slapstick comedy; in fact, even as a K-drama/K-romance fan, frankly, I detest the genre as a whole, but occasionally some films will do it tastefully, and my distaste for it will wash away for the moment. The Taiwanese movie Marry My Dead Body definitely did that for me, and I’m happy to say that the TV show spinoff of the film, Gg Precinct, manages to keep that lively humor running in the best way. Police procedurals seem to be all the rage in Taiwan, seeing as we got The Victim’s Game season 2 like, 5 minutes ago, and while that was interesting, it was dark and terrible in a way that you can’t really recommend it to everyone and their child. On the other hand, Gg Precinct does have some violence and blood, but it certainly gives off a more PG-13 vibe.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you’re looking for the return of Ming-Han’s husband Pang-Yu, even for a short while in Gg Precinct, then you’re not going to find him. The ghost husband is only mentioned in the series once when Ming-Han insults a gay man and then looks up to the heavens and apologizes to his husband. It seems like his homophobic ways haven’t really changed, but we can tell it’s an ironic take. The only other connection between the film and the show is that we get a glimpse of Zi-Qing’s past as a way to explain why she’s so serious about her job. We know Zi-Qing’s mother died from a drug overdose, and as much as Ming-Han tries to look better than her, she’s got the upper hand there because of her story.

If you liked the Taiwanese film Marry My Dead Body, it’s likely you’ll be interested in the new Taiwanese show Gg Precinct. Carrying forward the characters of the film and the same lively police force, we’re met with a new case in New Taipei. But additionally, it looks like Ming-Han hasn’t changed a bit since getting shot in the chest and marrying a ghost man. There isn’t really a connection between the film and the show, except for the characters and a couple of fan service-y scenes. But, you’ll have to remember that Lin Zi-Qing basically solved the case in the film, after going undercover secretly, not even telling her own boss about what she was doing, and at the end of the film, she brought back all the money from the drug bust to the police, which makes her much more qualified than our leading man Wu Ming-Han.

Warner Bros. Discovery Strikes Film Deal With Former Staffer; ‘The Intern’ To Be Remade

Warner Bros. Discovery is getting into business with one of its longest-serving execs in Asia and will remake The Intern as part of the agreement. The entertainment powerhouse has struck a first-look film deal with Jack Nguyen and his Joat Films. Under terms of the deal, Nguyen will present Asia-focused films to the studio with an emphasis on local-language remakes of Wbd’s English-language films. First off of the line will be a Korean remake of 2015 comedy-drama The Intern, which starred Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway and Rene Russo. “Jack is an industry veteran with a second to none understanding of the film production business across Asia,” said Kurt Rieder, SVP, Head of Theatrical Distribution, Apac, Wbd. “There is a strong appetite for remakes of universally popular Hollywood stories across the region, and we look forward...

Warner, Vet Venure

Warner Bros. Discovery (Wbd) has revealed a first-look deal with industry veteran Jack Nguyen, with a Korean remake of the 2015 comedy-drama “The Intern” set as the inaugural project. The agreement, made through Nguyen’s Joat Films, focuses on Asia-centric film projects, particularly local-language remakes of Wbd’s English-language titles.

Nguyen will collaborate with local partners across the Asia-Pacific region, including Korea and India. Kurt Rieder, senior VP, head of theatrical distribution, Apac, Wbd, highlighted the strong appetite for Hollywood story remakes in the region.

A former 30-year Warner Bros. executive, Nguyen previously supervised local language activities in Asia and Latin America. His career includes overseeing productions such as “Letters from Iwo Jima,” the “Rurouni Kenshin” franchise and “The Age of Shadows.”

Nguyen said: “It should come as no surprise that I have a great deal of respect and loyalty to Warner Bros. after spending the majority of my career there.

Exclusive: The newly-installed leaders at Taiwan’s GrX studio highlighted the firm’s desire to make inroads in the Korean market as well as a strategic shift to focus on English-language titles.

Earlier this month, the studio announced Dennis Wu as Strategy and Chief Investment Officer and Shing-ming Ho as Chief Creative Director. They join the team that is currently headed by CEO Phil Tang and founder Hank Tseng.

GrX is behind Copycat Killer and The Victims’ Game season 2, which was the first Mandarin-language original series renewed by Netflix.

Wu told Deadline that the studio is focused on Asia-Pacific as its main market. GrX already has an office branch in Singapore, a representative in Japan and partners in Beijing to solidify its regional focus.

He also highlighted how GrX is working to develop stronger partnerships in the Korean film industry this year.

One of the studio’s upcoming projects is...

Hank Tseng’s GrX Studio has appointed veteran producer Dennis Wu and screenwriter Ho Shing Ming in senior level roles as part of the Taiwanese studio’s drive to ramp up international collaboration and reinforce itself as a key film and TV producer in the region.

The Taipei-based company recently produced a second season of The Victims’ Game, which launched globally in June as the first Chinese-language drama series renewed by Netflix.

It will be followed by The Outlaw Doctor in the third quarter, a medical crime drama series set up as an international co-production. Starring Taiwanese actress Janine Chang...

The 28th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, has revealed the 37 projects from 22 countries selected for the 2024 Naff Project Market, including 23 Naff It Projects, 5 Spotlight Indonesia projects, 4 Nordic Genre Invasion projects, and one project each for the Blood Window, the Sitges FanPitch and Cannes' Fantastic 7.

323 projects from 52 countries around the world were submitted for this year's Naff Project Market. That's 44 more projects submitted from 12 more countries compared to last year, demonstrating the growing influence of Naff as a platform for the global genre film industry. The submissions represented a wide range of genres and cinematic tastes, including history, fantasy, thriller, Sf, action, and high-concept mystery. The jury commented: “There were many projects that broke new ground by incorporating the voices of diverse members of society in terms of subject matter and characters. The bold challenges, diverse genres and cinematic tastes are expected to explore new horizons in the film industry.” The...

Upcoming projects from award-winning filmmakers Nelson Yeo, Patiparn Boontarig, Kenneth Dagatan and producers of Cannes drama Viet And Nam are among the selection for this year’s Network of Asian Fantastic Films (Naff) market.

Held during South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan), some 37 titles from 22 countries have been selected for the project market, which runs July 6-9 alongside Asia’s largest genre festival. One-to-one meetings will take place with producers, investors, and distributors.

Titles in the It Project selection include Vietnamese horror The Heirloom, set to be the feature directorial debut of Le Hoang from the producers of Viet And Nam,...

Screenworks Asia, the production subsidiary of Taiwan’s Catchplay, has acquired international sales rights to the horror anthology series Urban Horror and will present the show at this week’s Filmart in Hong Kong.

Directed by Jun-Hong Li, Bao-Zhong Chen, and Dan-Chi Huang, Urban Horror comprises 34 short episodes revolving around the mysterious, the unexplained, and the disturbed in six types of modern city scenes. Synopsis reads: In each episode, the audience will see a familiar face that could be an award-winning actor, a pop star, or an internet celebrity. They will discover the ultimate fear and thrill at places such as nightclubs, office buildings, and youth hostels, where you don’t see any ghosts, monsters, or supernatural powers.

The series will feature Austin Lin (Marry My Dead Body) and Ann Hsu (The Victims’ Game) alongside Meng-Po Fu (Taiwan Crime Stories) and Esther Liu (Light the Night...

Veteran Chinese-language content producers Cora Yim and Benjamin Lin have joined forces to launch a new production company named S11 Partners, based in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The outfit aims to develop, finance, produce and distribute original, market-driven Chinese-language content for global audiences. Its equity investors include Medialink Group, the Hong Kong stock market-listed IP management company. Yim and Lin say S11 Partners will prioritize storytelling “high-concept, genre-driven and gender-dynamic narratives with an initial focus on film production and distribution.”

S11 Partners will unveil three new feature film projects at Hong Kong’s Filmart, running March 11-14. They include: The Marriage Drive, a Hong Kong romantic drama that won the Idp Award at last year’s Haf, to be written and directed by Lawrence Kan (In Broad Daylight); Mrs. Killer, a Hong Kong-Taiwan-Malaysia co-production with Imagine Entertainment about a retired assassin-housewife forced back into action, written and directed by Liao...

Cora Yim and Benjamin Lin, both established indie producers of Chinese-language content, have joined forces to launch S11 Partners. It is partially backed by Medialink Group, an IP, distribution and brand licensing mini-conglomerate that is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The pair, who previously worked on TV series “Taiwan Crime Stories,” are launching their venture at FilMart in Hong Kong with a slate of three feature films in development. The company’s mission is “developing, financing, producing and distributing original and market-driven Chinese-language content for global audiences.”

Medialink will hold 10% of the enlarged capital of S11 Partners. But most other details of the Medialink investment — notably its value or — were not immediately disclosed. It is understood that Yim, Lin and Medialink are the only equity holders of the new company.

Yim was previously in charge of original programming and channel management for Fox Networks Group Asia before leaving to establish several independent ventures,...

Taiwan Crime Stories producers Cora Yim and Benjamin Lin are joining forces to launch S11 Partners, a new production company specialising in original Chinese-language productions, with the backing of Hong Kong-listed company Medialink Group.

Based in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the new company has announced three in-development film projects at Filmart, including The Marriage Drive, winner of the Idp Award at last year’s Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf).

The Hong Kong romantic drama is written and directed by Lawrence Kan, whose In Broad Daylight was one of the top-grossing local films last year and has scored 16 nominations at...

Taipei-based Screenworks Asia has picked up innovative anthology series “Urban Horror” for international sales ahead of this week’s FilMart in Hong Kong.

Directed by Lee Chun-Hong, Chen Bao-Zhong and Huang Dan-Chi, a group of young and upcoming filmmakers, “Urban Horror” comprises 34 short episodes revolving around the mysterious, the unexplained and the disturbed.

They make use of six modern city settings, such as night clubs, office buildings, youth hostels and other places where ghosts and monsters are not normally found. The deliberately limited number of locations also enables the 34 short films to be re-packaged as six longer episodes.

In each episode, the audience will see a familiar face that could be an award-winning actor, a pop star, or an internet celebrity. These include Austin Lin (Taiwan’ Oscar selection “Marry My Dead Body”), Ann Hsu (“The Victims’ Game”) Fu Meng-Po (“Taiwan Crime Stories”) and Esther Liu (“Light the Night”).

The show,...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2024 Oscars Predictions:

Best International Feature Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’

Weekly Commentary: The United Kingdom is poised to win its first Academy Award with Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” and what a deserved win it will be.

But while I have the floor: it’s time for the...

Romantic drama 18x2 Beyond Youthful Days by acclaimed Japanese director Michihito Fujii has been sold to a raft of Asian distributors by sales firm Happinet Phantom Studios.

The upcoming feature has been acquired for South Korea (Media Castle), Hong Kong (Golden Scene) and Southeast Asia territories (Purple Plan) as well as for in-flight (Emphasis Video).

The romance is set for release in Taiwan on March 14 through Activator Marketing Company and in Japan on May 3 through Happinet, which will also be speaking to buyers about the feature at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin this month.

The cast is led by Hsu Kuang-han,...

“In Broad Daylight,” an expose of real events in a care home for the elderly, dominated the nominations for the Hong Kong Film Awards.

The Lawrence Kan-directed comedy-drama received 16 nominations, at the Tuesday nominations event, including best picture and best new director as well as others for cinematography, editing sound design and original song.

The story sees an investigative reporter go under cover to expose cruelty and other wrong-doings at the Rainbow Bridge Care Home. It premiered last year at the Shanghai film festival and was a highlight of the New York Asian Film Festival, but came away empty-handed from the Golden Horse Film Awards, where it had been nominated in five categories. It enjoyed its commercial release in Hong Kong in November.

Other contenders in the Hkfa best film category are: Nick Cheung’s “Time Still Turns the Pages,” Soi Cheang’s “Mad Fate,” Felix Chong’s “The Goldfinger...

Netflix has unveiled a raft of Chinese-language titles and upcoming projects from Indonesia and Thailand as it continues to grow original content in Southeast Asia.

The streaming giant revealed four series from Taiwan, eight titles from Thailand and five from Indonesia that would debut on the platform throughout 2024.

From Indonesia, features include Monster, a dialogue-free suspense thriller directed by Rako Prijanto. The film, starring Marsha Timothy, Alex Abbad, and Anantya Kirana, premiered at the Jogja-netpac Asian Film Festival in November.

Further titles from the country include Borderless Fog, a crime thriller set in Borneo, from award-winning filmmaker Edwin; and action...

Prime Video might be pulling back from Southeast Asian originals, but Netflix remains is doubling down on originals in the region.

The streamer has unveiled several titles from Indonesia and Thailand, and a Chinese-language slate for 2024.

One of the bigger titles on the streamer’s Indonesian slate is sci-fi series Nightmares and Daydreams, which marks Netflix’s first collaboration with Joko Anwar.

Anwar’s horror films are often well-received at the box office, with Satan’s Slaves and its sequel both in the top 10 list for highest-grossing films in the country.

Director Timo Tjahjanto will return with action film The Shadow Strays, after making comedy action flick The Big 4 in 2022, which became the second most-watched non-English film on the streamer. The Shadow Strays will star Ario Bayu, Lukman Sardi, Marissa Anita, Nirina Zubir, Sita Nursanti, Fachri Albar and Asmara Abigail.

The Indonesian slate also includes Borderless Fog, which stars Putri Marino,...

Global streaming giant Netflix has made a significant ongoing commitment to production of original content from Southeast Asia and in the Chinese language.

For 2024, Netflix has unveiled a slate of four Chinese-language series, all hailing from Taiwan. From Thailand, it detailed seven series and one film. From Indonesia, it has committed to five films and a series co-written and directed by the consistently successful Joko Anwar, marking his first partnership with the streamer.

Additionally, Netflix has confirmed the appointment of Maya Huang as its head of Chinese-language content.

The moves stand in sharp contrast to the mid-January happenings at rival global streamer Prime Video, which is cutting staff in the region and ending its brief experiment with Southeast Asian originals.

In Indonesia, Netflix says it is broadening its storytelling with a range of genres including comedy, action, fantasy, and sci-fi thrillers.

“Nightmares and Daydreams,” Anwar’s debut project for the company,...

Every year since its creation in 1956, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) invites the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. The category was previously called the Best Foreign Language Film, but this was changed in April 2019 to Best International Feature Film, after the Academy deemed the word “Foreign” to be outdated.

The award is presented annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. For the 96th Academy Awards, the submitted motion pictures must be first released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline for submissions to the Academy was October 2, 2023, and 92 countries submitted a film. The 15-film shortlist will be announced on December 21, 2023, followed by the official nominations on January 23, 2024.

Here are this edition's Asian Submissions for Best International Feature Film.

Shortlist of 15 films to be announced December 21, nominations out on January 23, 2024.

The Academy has announced eligible features in the categories of international feature film, animation, and documentary for the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, 2024.

The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on December 21, and the nominations announcement is January 23, 2024.

International

Eighty-eight countries or regions have submitted films eligible for consideration in the international feature film category. An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes long) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track. Namibia is a first-time entrant.

Academy members...

Taiwanese family drama ‘Old Fox’ won the most awards on the night.

China-set drama Stonewalling, directed by husband-and-wife team Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka, won best narrative feature at the 60th Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan on Saturday (November 25).

Taiwanese family drama Old Fox won the most awards on the night, including best director for Hsiao Ya-chuan, best supporting actor for veteran Akio Chen, makeup and costume design, and best film score.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Mainland Chinese director Huang and Japan’s Otsuka were in attendance at Taipei’s National Dr Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall to...

The husband and wife team of Otsuka Ryuji and Huang Ji, who worked with a minimalist crew and mostly non-professional actors, gave a round of thanks to Asian leading auteurs for inspiring them, and then hugged each other on stage for winning the Taipei Golden Horse Film Awards best narrative feature prize with their pregnancy drama “Stonewalling.”

The numerical winner on Saturday night was “Old Fox,” which earned the best director award for Hsiao Ya-chuan, as well as the best supporting actor, makeup and costume, and best film score prizes.

The nominations, announced in October, saw “Snow in Midsummer” collect nine nominations and Taiwan’s Oscar contender “Marry My Dead Body” head the field with eight. They were narrowly ahead of a further cluster of films with seven nominations each, including “Abang Adik,” “Old Fox,” “Trouble Girl” and “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon.”

On the evening, “Marry My Dead Body...

China-set drama Stonewalling, co-directed by husband-and-wife team Ryuji Otsuka and Huang Ji, won best narrative feature at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, which is celebrating its 60th edition this year.

The film, which premiered in Venice and won best film at Hong Kong film festival’s Young Cinema Competition, follows a young woman in mainland China grappling with issues around career, relationships, health and fertility. It also won best editing, which was shared by Otsuka and Taiwan’s Liao Ching-sung, with the latter winning his first Golden Horse award after 12 nominations stretching back four decades.

The awards were evenly spread among the nominated films. Taiwan’s Wu Kang-ren won best leading actor for his role as a deaf-mute in Malaysian drama Abang Adik. Best actress went to 12-year-old Audrey Lin for her role in Trouble Girl, making her the youngest ever best actress winner at the Golden Horse awards.

Best...

by Nathaniel R

Snow in Midsummer, Marry My Dead Body, and Stonewalling are all up for Best Feature.

Nominations have been announced for the 60th annual Golden Horse Awards. The annual juried event covers the best in Chinese-language cinema. The ceremony will be held on November 25th this year. Stonewalling, Taiwan's Oscar submission Marry My Dead Body, Time Still Turns The Pages, Eye of the Storm, and Snow in Midsummer are all up for the top prize and three of them are streaming. Read on for more about these films and the nominations list...

The actor is known for Taiwan box office hit ‘Marry My Dead Body’.

Hsu Kuang-han, the star of Taiwan box office hit Marry My Dead Body, will next be seen in romantic drama 18x2 by acclaimed Japanese director Michihito Fujii.

The actor, also known as Greg Han, will play opposite Japanese actress Kaya Kiyohara in the romance, which is in post-production. A first look at the two actors in the film can be seen above.

It is produced by Taiwan’s Jumpboys Films and Japan’s Babel Label, founded by director Fujii.

Happinet Phantom Studios will release the film in...

The actor is known for Taiwanese box office hit ‘Marry My Dead Body’.

Hsu Kuang-han, the star of Taiwanese box office hit Marry My Dead Body, will next be seen in romantic drama 18x2 by acclaimed Japanese director Michihito Fujii.

The actor, also known as Greg Han, will play opposite Japanese actress Kaya Kiyohara in the romance, which is in post-production.

It is produced by Taiwan’s Jumpboys Films and Japan’s Babel Label, founded by director Fujii.

Happinet Phantom Studios will release the film in Japan in May 2024 and is launching sales at the Asian Contents & Film Market (Acfm), which opens in Busan today.

Snow In Midsummer, directed by Malaysia’s Chong Keat-aun, leads the race for this year’s Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan with nine nominations, including best narrative feature, best director and best supporting actress (Wan Fang).

The film, which is a collaboration between Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore, also has nods for best adapted screenplay, best cinematography, best makeup & costume design, best original film score, best original film song and best sound effects.

Taiwanese features Marry My Dead Body and Eye Of The Storm were not far behind, with eight nominations apiece. Marry My Dead Body, which is also Taiwan’s submission for Best International Feature at the upcoming Oscars, was nominated for best narrative feature, best director, two best leading actors nods (Hsu Kuang-han and Austin Lin), best adapted screenplay, best action choreography, best original film song and best editing.

Eye Of The Storm has nods for best narrative feature,...

‘’Eye Of The Storm’ and ‘Marry My Dead Body’ also secure several nods.

Chong Keat-aun’s historical epic Snow In Midsummer leads the nominations for the 60th Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan, scoring nine nods including best film and best director.

Lin Chun-yang’s Sars drama Eye Of The Storm and Cheng Wei-hao’s ghost comedy Marry My Dead Body are close behind with eight nominations apiece.

Each will compete in the best film category along with Stonewalling by husband-and-wife team Huang Ji from mainland China and Ryuji Otsuka from Japan, and Time Still Turns The Pages, the feature debut...

“Snow in Midsummer,” a drama film which premiered in the Venice Days section of the recent Venice film festival, narrowly emerged as the front-runner for the Golden Horse Film Awards.

Nominations for the November awards were announced on Tuesday, with “Snow” gathering recognition in nine categories, including best film. But it was only narrowly ahead of a pair of films with eight nominations each – “Marry My Dead Body” and “Eye of the Storm” – and a further cluster with seven nominations each. These include “Abang Adik,” “Old Fox,” “Trouble Girl” and “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon.”

The best picture category includes “Snow,” “Dead Body” and “Eye of the Storm” as well as Hong Kong’s “Time Still Turns the Pages” and Chinese-Japanese indie film “Stonewalling.” Directed and written by husband and wife team of Otsuka Ryuji and Huang Ji, “Stonewalling” is enjoying a career on the international festival circuit,...

Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees for Best International Feature is made difficult by the three-step process that begins after the October 2, 2023 deadline for countries to submit entries. To be part of the selection process for this category, which was called Best Foreign Language Film before 2020, requires a great deal of dedication. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2024 Oscars Best International Feature predictions.)

In the days following the deadline for submissions, the academy determines each film’s eligibility. Then the several hundred academy members who serve on the International Feature screening committee are divided into groups and required to watch all their submissions over a six-week period that ends in early December. Their top 15 vote-getters will make it to the next round. That list of semi-finalists will be revealed on December 21, 2023.

These 15 films will be made available to the entire academy membership who can cast ballots for the final five...

The Taiwanese supernatural comedy mystery film ‘Marry My Dead Body’ Cheng Wei-hao has been selected as the official entry for the country’s Oscar submission for the Best International Feature category for 96th Academy Awards.

The movie was selected by Taiwan’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development (Bamid) as their Oscar entry. The film was one of Taiwan’s biggest hits, with the supernatural comedy- crime thriller with its intriguing twist doing extremely well in markets of Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Philippines and the US as reported by Deadline.

Bamid, which is under Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, said that a total of nine films were submitted for consideration. The selection committee said it chose ‘Marry My Dead Body’ because the film “cleverly combines traditional customs with modern perspectives, has both humor and emotion, and showcases the characteristics of Taiwanese culture and life.”

Starring Hsu Kuang-han,...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Taiwan’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development has announced the submission of Cheng Wei-hao’s Marry My Dead Body for the Best International Feature category of next year’s Oscars.

The supernatural comedy with a crime-thriller twist is the seventh highest-grossing local film in Taiwan’s box office history, taking $11.3 million (Nt$360M), and also performed well when it was released theatrically in South Korea, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

The film, which is produced by Taiwan’s Calendar Studios and Bole Film, also landed in Netflix’s global top 10 (non-English) chart during its first week of release on the platform. It also won best screenplay at the Taipei Film Awards.

Starring Hsu Kuang-han, Austin Lin and Gingle Wang, the film tells the story of a homophobic cop who is forced into a same-sex “ghost” marriage to appease the spirit of a man who has passed away. Although terrified of both homosexuality and ghosts,...

Wei-Hao Cheng’s newest movie is unlike any of the usual movies that have made their way to Netflix lately. Marry My Dead Body, starring Greg Han-Hsu and Po-Hung Lin, among others, is a movie about a young cop who accidentally participates in the Chinese ghost marriage tradition. Hilarity ensues when the ghost of the deceased Mao comes to live with Wu as his husband, making the cop change his outlook on the world. Here’s a detailed recap and review of the newest movie on Netflix.

Spoilers Ahead

What Happens In The Film?

Wu Ming-Han is a cop in a reputed police precinct and is performing well in his career, but the issue with him is his extreme homophobia, which causes him to heavy-handle a homosexual suspect. In his workplace, his boss, Yung-Kang, chides him for his prejudice, as does his partner, the beautiful Tzu-Shing. Wu is adamant about...