Shanghai Jury Chair Giuseppe Tornatore Says Picking Film Fest Winners 'Is Actually Very Simple'
'When I enter a film screening and close my eyes, I always return to the feeling of being an audience member,' Tornatore said Friday during the Shanghai jury's meeting with the international media. 'I always hope that the film will bring me a pleasant surprise every time I go to the cinema.'The Italian filmmaker is best known for his Academy Award-winner Cinema Paradiso (1988), a film in which a young boy is swept away by the magic of the movies — and the 69-year-old Tornatore said that was the feeling he would be chasing throughout SIFF's 10-day run.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
Adult Swim Tackles Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones in Latest Series
'Thug Life' Review: Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan's Long-Awaited Reunion Falls Frustratingly Short of Its Potential
Cannes Lions CEO Complains: "Creatives Are Feeling Less Confident"
'Every time I go to the cinema to watch a movie, I don't want to have a preconceived idea or specific expectation of what I want to see,' said the filmmaker. 'For us judges, actually choosing who will eventually win should be a simple matter. The movie that wins an award must be able to touch the depths of each judge's heart. Looking at it this way, this selection process is actually very simple.'
Tornatore is joined on Shanghai's main jury by a trio of Chinese talent — director Yang Lina, actor-director Huang Bo and actress Yong Mei — alongside Argentinean filmmaker Iván Fund, Greek producer Thanassis Karathanos and Indian director Kiran Rao.
The group's task is to choose from 12 wildly diverse international productions, which were shortlisted from a record 3,900 submissions, according to festival organizers.
On the local front, Chinese director Wang Tong's ambitious genre-bender Wild Nights, Tamed Beasts, which mixes noir-tinged drama with social realism, generated some of the most vocal buzz this week during SIFF's pre-festival media preview screenings. The other Chinese features in the main competition are fest-favorite Cao Baoping's high-voltage comedy One Wacky Summer and Qiu Sheng's domestic drama My Father's Son.
SIFF is keen to hype its role as a window into talents and trends emerging in Chinese cinema. The event is screening around 60 Chinese-language movies across its five competitions, including several world premieres and restored classics. For their part, the Golden Goblet jury is keen to dig in.
'I very happy that three Chinese films have been nominated this time, but of course, there are many other excellent films from all over the world that have been nominated, too,' said Huang. 'This diversity actually ensures that the final outcome is very honest. It's like if we all drank the same drink. Some would like spicy, sweet, salty or slightly bitter flavors. This kind of balance is really important. It ensures a certain level of objectivity that makes everyone feel more rational.'
There's also early buzz surrounding Swiss director Nicolas Steiner's hypnotic dive into magical realism, You Believe in Angels, Mr. Drowak? (Germany, Switzerland); Poland's tension-packed theater-based drama Loss of Balance (Korek Bojanowski); and Portuguese director António Ferreira's The Scent of Things Remembered (Portugal-Brazil), which stars the impressive José Martins as a former soldier forced to confront his demons.
Rounding out the selection is the Chile/U.K./France co-production After the Fog from British-German filmmaker Miriam Heard, Black Red Yellow (Kyrgyzstan) from Aktan Arym Kubat, Flavia Castro's Cyclone (Brazil), Luisa from Germany's Julia Roesler, Japan's On Summer Sand by Shinya Tamada, and the Argentina/Spain/Chile co-production The Reborn from Santiago Esteves.
'I think the films that are on offer are clearly some of the best films made this year in the world,' added Rao at Friday's presser. 'So we really will have, I'm sure, a lot to discuss and a difficult choice to make — but there's a feast for us to watch and enjoy.'
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts
Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT
'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
25 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Chinese Authorities Warn Comedians Over Jokes About Men and Women
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Chinese officials in the eastern province of Zhejiang have put stand-up comics on notice to avoid jokes that could fuel resentment between the sexes. Why It Matters Introduced to China a little over a decade ago, stand-up comedy experienced something of a boom in the 2010s, moving beyond small local venues and into the national media spotlight, spawning series such as Shanghai-based Xiaoguo Culture Media's Rock & Roast. Social commentary is no stranger to the genre. But Chinese comedians weaving sensitive topics, including the gender divide, into routines have drawn unwanted scrutiny and censorship from the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which has in recent years increasingly cracked down on activities it considers disruptive to social harmony. Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry via email for comment. What To Know Zhejiang's propaganda bureau issued a notice Sunday advising stand-up comedians to avoid relying on jokes that "intensify gender antagonism" to boost their profile. "As a new form of performance, stand-up comedy has attracted many young people, and it is normal for it to express different perspectives and even present differences between men and women," the bureau acknowledged while stating that roasting the opposite sex shouldn't be the focus of bits. "For example, some jokes imply that all men are unreliable, while others belittle women's abilities—such content is not only inaccurate but also easily misleads the audience and reinforces gender stereotypes," the notice said. Stand-up comedian Qiqi performs at a shopping mall in Beijing on November 21, 2020. Stand-up comedian Qiqi performs at a shopping mall in Beijing on November 21, 2020. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images Comedians should ensure their words promote social responsibility, and their industry should self-regulate and "deliver high-quality comedic works," the bureau said, warning that failure to do so will be met with tighter regulations. Several gender-related routines by female comics have garnered attention in Chinese media. Fan Chunli, who performs under the stage name Fangzhuren and is a former sanitation worker from Shandong province, gained a surge of new fans after her appearance on The King of Stand-up Comedy on the iQiyi streaming platform, where she revealed how she had left an allegedly abusive marriage. Other comedians have faced backlash for their routines, such as Yang Li, whose sponsor, dropped her last year after outraged men flooded the retail giant's social media with complaints. Yang had previously sparked controversy over a 2020 joke about some average-looking men, quipping, "Why can they look so ordinary yet remain so confident?" Comics in China must tread carefully to avoid provoking authorities, a lesson learned by stand-up comedian Li Haoshi in 2023 after a joke about his dogs using a well-known military slogan was deemed "severely insulting" to the People's Liberation Army. Despite a public apology, Li was placed under investigation, and his production company, Xiaoguo Culture Media, was fined $2 million. The episode continues to cast a shadow over China's emerging stand-up comedy scene. What People Are Saying Teng Wu, director of South China Normal University's Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies, wrote for Sixth Tone in September: "China's stand-up, but its history—a foreign comedy performance art that was successfully localized, industrialized, then devastated only to be revived—reveals the pitfalls and risks of the country's popular culture model." One user wrote on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo: "Stand-up comedy is, at its core, all about talking about things you've experienced. The content of stand-up shows has started to change simply because in the past couple of years, the proportion of male and female performers has shifted." Another Weibo user wrote: "There isn't really any gender antagonism, just excessive feminism, with one-sided attacks on Chinese men." Another Weibo user wrote: "It's just a few female stand-up comedians expressing some factual opinions—are people really this afraid? Men have held the power of discourse for thousands of years."
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
The White Lotus star Lisa has posted a mysterious DC tease, and now fans are convinced she's got a role in the DCU as Catwoman or Batgirl
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The White Lotus star Lisa has shared a mysterious Instagram post that seems to be referencing something DC-related, and fans are going wild with speculation. Lisa, who is one-fourth of the girl group Blackpink, is currently on tour – and, after donning some particularly superhero-esque outfits for her solo set, seemingly compared herself to Wonder Woman and Catwoman in her post, which is captioned "Keep scrolling" with an eyes emoji. Check it out below. Now, that seems innocent enough, except the official DC account commented: "We're scrolling," complete with an eyes emoji, a black heart, a bat, and a star. That's not the only account that has interacted with the post, either, with a HBO Max account and DC's official Asia account also commenting. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean Lisa is joining the DCU. Her music video for her single "FUTW" contained a Batman reference, since a version of ACE Chemicals appears, so it's possible she's simply a fan (and she's performing this song on tour, too, so the references make sense). But, people are running with the theories anyway. One person has pointed out that Lisa has shared pictures featuring a cat phone case, potentially linking her to Catwoman. "Lisa pulling up in a car that looks straight outta Batman's garage then hits us with a 'keep scrolling' and suddenly we've got Wonder Woman, Catwoman fan edit, AND that phone case?????????" says another fan. "And then she ended with this," points out someone else, with a video clip of Lisa wearing a Labubu-inspired cape, with trousers that appear to feature a woman with cat ears and a ball of yarn. People are also speculating that Lisa could be teasing another DC character, though: Batgirl. "Batgirl? Omg what is ittt!!!" asks another person. "LISA CASSANDRA CAIN INCOMING" says someone else – Cassandra Cain was also Batgirl in DC Comics. "Welcome back Batgirl," says another person. "OMGG THE BAT EMOJI??? SOMETHING BIG IS DEFINITELY COMING LISA AS BATWOMAN??" wonders someone else (Batgirl and Batwoman are two separate heroes in the DC universe). While there are DCU Batman and Wonder Woman projects in the works, no casting has been announced for either, and all we know about Batman is that it will feature Damian Wayne's Robin. The Wonder Woman movie just secured a writer, but James Gunn told us recently that there are no new updates to share on the Batman project, which is titled The Brave and the Bold. Most likely, then, Lisa is just sharing the love for an iconic franchise. Maybe she'll be channelling another DC hero at the next tour stop? The DCU's latest project, Superman, is in theaters now. You can keep up to date on everything else that's in store with our guide to all the upcoming DC movies and shows. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ex-DAZN Japan President Takashi Nakamura Joins Dubbing Platform Camb.AI To Launch APAC Office
EXCLUSIVE: Former DAZN Japan President Takashi Nakamura has a new role. He's joined start-up dubbing and localization firm as President of APAC and will oversee a new Tokyo office. which owns an AI-powered multilingual translation tool, has launched in Asia due to the significant growth in the media and entertainment sector in the continent over the past decade. Nakamura experienced much of that, having been sports streamer DAZN's Japan President and Managing Director for seven years between 2015 and 2022. More from Deadline Senators Introduce Bill To Restrict AI Companies' Unauthorized Use Of Copyrighted Works For Training Models Ian Rankin's 'Rebus' Gets S2; DAZN Ligue 1, Serie A Deals; Paradigm Signs Filmmaker & Comedian - Global Briefs SAG-AFTRA Overwhelmingly Approves Video Game Agreement, Marking Official End To Nearly Yearlong Strike speech-to-speech translation tech, which is available in more than 150 languages, will allow Asia-Pacific content creators in Japan, Korea, Indonesia and other major territories to access easy-to-use AI dubbing tools in their content. The real-time voice translation tech preserves the speaker's original tone and intonation while translating the words into multiple languages and accents. It was initially used for live sports broadcasting – an area Nakamura knows well – but has since been employed far more broadly, on the likes of Nayla Al Khaja-directed psychological thriller's Three. has now worked with the likes of the Australian Open, MBC Group, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Eurovision Sport, IMAX, Ligue 1, MLS and NASCAR, and counts Comcast NBCUniversal Sports Tech among its investors, having raised a total of $15.1M to date. Nakamura begins his tenure with a deal in place with ads and marketing giant Dentsu, as it expands its content overseas. That pact begins with a radio show featuring actor Shinnosuke Tachibana talking about Japanese culture, translated into English and Chinese. 'APAC represents a major opportunity and priority for us, with the breadth and depth of its content industry, from sports to entertainment,' said Akshat Prakash, co-founder and CTO of 'We're thrilled to welcome Takashi Nakamura to lead our efforts in the region. 'His expansive industry expertise and pioneering work with DAZN Japan makes him uniquely capable of driving our mission forward, particularly in the area of multilingual real-time translation in sports. His connections and insights are expected to play a significant role in promoting the adoption of technology both domestically and internationally.' 'I am honored to join the team in its mission to globalize content through localization, including real-time translation of sports and live entertainment,' added Nakamura. 'Asian markets have consistently been at the forefront of content creation and tech innovation, making it the perfect place for to expand and grow within the global market.' Best of Deadline Everything We Know About Season 3 Of 'Euphoria' So Far 'Wednesday' Season 2: Everything We Know About The Cast, Premiere Date & More Everything We Know About 'Only Murders In The Building' Season 5 So Far
