‘Past Lives’ Director Celine Song Is Already Excited About Her Next A24 Film [Interview]

Hello and Welcome to the Scene 2 Seen podcast. I am your host Valerie Complex and today we are talking to writer, director Celine Song.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang, the arthouse darling known for works including Venice Golden Lion winner “Vive L’Amour” and “The River,” which scored the Berlin Silver Bear, will be celebrated by the Locarno Film Festival with its Honorary Leopard achievement award.  The iconoclastic auteur, who is a key figure in Taiwan’s so-called Second New Wave, will receive the prize from the Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema during an Aug. 6 ceremony held on its 8,000-seat outdoor Piazza Grande venue. The tribute to Tsai Ming-liang will also involve an onstage conversation with the director on the future of cinema and a screening of the helmer’s 2020 film “Days” (Rizi), as well as an art gallery exhibition of his experimental works.

The Locarno Film Festival will fete multi-award-winning Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang with an Honorary Career Leopard award at the upcoming edition running from August 2 to 12.

Actress and director Robin Wright will be the featured guest at Karlovy Vary’s closing ceremony on July 8, where she will receive the festival’s Honorary President’s Award.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese drama feature “Yoko” won the Golden Goblet best picture award at the Shanghai International Film Festival. The jury Grand Prix was awarded to Spain’s “Muyeres” with China’s Liu Jin winning the best director prize.The trio also collected additional prizes making them the only multiple winners in a ceremony that sprinkled its awards widely. “Yoko,” directed by Kumakiri Kazuyoshi, who earlier this year saw melodramatic “#Manhole” play in Berlin, takes the structure of a road-movie and is a journey of self-discovery of a woman who had been socially isolated in her apartment for many years. Portrayed by global star Rinko Kikuchi (”Babel,” “47 Ronin”), the woman is forced to confront the real world, and herself, when she takes a 658 kilometre cross-country journey to her father’s funeral. Without a cell phone or the money for public transport, she finds herself having to hitch hike. Kikuchi also earned the best actress award.

Hunter Ingram The Emmy race has never been more crowded for those working behind the camera on TV’s most acclaimed series. While these directors below have never won Emmys, their work on this year’s juggernaut dramas, side-splitting comedies and affecting limited series could change that come September. Hikari The titular “Beef” between Amy (Ali Wong) and Danny (Steven Yeun) in Netflix’s hit limited series wouldn’t be as raw if not for Hikari’s direction in the pilot episode. Relatively unknown to many audiences, Hikari’s shorts and feature have played film festivals like Berlin and Tribeca and she’s helmed episodes of Max’s “Tokyo Vice.” But “Beef” serves as an undeniable pronouncement of what’s to come.

Chris Hemsworth is back on the red carpet for the latest premiere of Extraction 2!

Christopher Vourlias A passionate friendship spanning a turbulent decade marked by two unlikely uprisings forms the emotional heart of “Between Revolutions,” Romanian filmmaker Vlad Petri’s powerful hybrid documentary that plays this week at the Transilvania Film Festival. Using extensive archival footage, Petri’s sophomore feature depicts the intense bond forged between two young women studying medicine in Bucharest in the 1970s. When political turmoil begins to sweep across Iran, their lives are drawn apart, as the Iranian-born Zahra is forced to return home, leaving her Romanian friend Maria behind. Over the next decade, the two women maintain their connection through a series of letters, chronicling their struggles as women fighting for a voice while their respective countries move in divergent directions.

Chris Hemsworth cozies up to wife Elsa Pataky on the red carpet of the Extraction 2 premiere in Berlin!

Passages, the “sexy and sad” romantic drama from writer-director Ira Sachs, and Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovani Project, the festival aims to celebrate the community that’s been there for decades.Other highlights of this year’s festival include It’s Only Life After All, a newly-minted documentary about the Indigo Girls, the Argentinian drama Horseplay, and Nelly & Nadine, a poignant documentary about two women who, after their release from Ravensbrück concentration camp, forged a life of companionship and love.Cinema Art executive director Helen Chamberlin, a native Washingtonian who spent her summers as a youth in Rehoboth, has watched the area’s community evolve over the years. “I remember it was very prevalent that there was an LGBT — or LGB — community here in Rehoboth back in the mid-seventies,” she recalls.“When I looked at the original mini film festival that they did for this community — when I got here, it was called ‘LGBTQ Cine-brations’ — I thought to myself, ‘You know, Pride has become such a huge phenomenon globally…let’s get in the game here.”Getting in the game meant re-branding the festival, scheduling it during Pride Month, maintaining partnerships with organizations like festival co-presenter CAMP Rehoboth, and going after some of the most buzzed-about queer-themed titles to premiere this year at Sundance and Berlin.“When you rebrand something, you have to grow your audience,” says Chamberlin, who stepped into her role at the Cinema Art and the Rehoboth Beach Film Society a year ago.

explained on Instagram that she was left with just one hour to find an alternative outfit—but the star and her “image architect” Law Roach certainly rose to the challenge.“When in doubt…a @maisonvalentino suit :)” Zendaya told fans on Instagram, safely on the other side of her fashion emergency. She opted for a chic black trouser suit speckled with silver flecks, which beautifully mirrored the Bulgari silver and diamond earrings, rings and bracelet the ambassador of the fine jewelry house had selected for the event.Perhaps the most notable part of the look, however, is the black fishnet top Zendaya wore underneath—a string vest is an unlikely red carpet choice, yet the metallic thread makes it evening appropriate.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Memento International has closed a raft of deals on “Fremont,” the critically acclaimed film by BAFTA-nominated Iranian-born director Babak Jalali. The movie world premiered at Sundance and was acquired by Music Box for North America in a deal negotiated by CAA. The black-and-white film, laced with wry humor, tells the story of Donya, a young woman working at a Chinese fortune cookie factory in the San Francisco bay. Formerly a translator for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, she struggles to put her life back in order. In a moment of sudden revelation, she decides to send out a special message in a cookie. Following its Sundance premiere, the film played at SXSW and is slated to compete at Karlovy Vary. Other festival lined up include Deauville, Melbourne and Athens.

Mikhaël Hers is known for his precise, intentional, fulfilling films that effortlessly capture the beauty in the stories he is telling and his 2022 film, “The Passengers Of The Night,” is no different. And now, the filmmaker’s fans are going to get a chance to see the acclaimed film in theaters.  READ MORE: ‘The Passengers Of The Night’ Review: Charlotte Gainsbourg Eventually Finds Her Way A Moody, Melancholic Drama [Berlin Film Festival] Premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival, this melancholic drama is set in Paris, France in 1981.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) today shared the timeline for its 2024 awards cycle, with its 2024 Film Awards set for Sunday, February 18.

Celine Dion has cancelled her remaining tour dates following her diagnosis of an incurable neurological condition. Dion, 55, told fans on Friday that she was “tremendously disappointed” to “let them down”. In a statement, the Canadian singer said: “I’m working really hard to build back my strength, but touring can be very difficult even when you’re 100 per cent.

Celine Dion has cancelled her 2024 ‘Courage’ world tour dates due to a neurological illness she first disclosed last year.In late 2022, the legendary singer confirmed that she has been living with a disorder called stiff person syndrome, an extremely rare autoimmune neurological condition that affects one person in a million.After the singer postponed her European tour dates to February 2023 due to “ongoing health issues”, she then pushed them back again to 2024, admitting she “wasn’t ready” to disclose details of her condition previously.Now, the 2024 dates have been cancelled, with Dion saying in a statement that she’s “heartbroken” about the decision.“It’s not fair to you to keep postponing the shows, and even though it breaks my heart, it’s best that we cancel everything now until I’m really ready to be back on stage again,” she told fans.“I want you all to know, I’m not giving up… and I can’t wait to see you again!”She added: “I’m so sorry to disappoint all of you once again.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 37 national film institutes that are members of European Film Promotion have elected a new EFP board of directors at the general assembly on May 23 during the Cannes Film Festival. The board consists of seven members, with their term of office lasting for two years. Five of the current members remain on the board, including Simone Baumann, managing director of German Films, as new vice president, Daniela Elstner, executive director UniFrance, Eda Koppel, head of marketing at Estonian Film Institute, Stine Oppegaard, manager, international relations, feature films, Norwegian Film Institute, and Markéta Santrochová, head of Czech Film Center, who has been re-elected as EFP president.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “Creatura,” the feature debut of Elena Martín, exploring female sexual desire and repression, has won this year’s 20th Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for best European Film at the 2022 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. Announced Thursday by Europa Cinemas, ahead of the closing ceremony this afternoon, the prize is one of two at Directors’ Fortnight, and awarded by one of the sidebar’s partners, given the section is non-competitive.   A second partner plaudit, the SACD Prize, handed out by France’s Writers’ Guild, will be announced simultaneously to the Europa Cinemas Label. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Alireza Khatami and Ali Asgari‘s “Terrestrial Verses,” the sole Iranian film premiering in Cannes’ Official Selection, has been acquired for distribution in key European territories. Represented by Films Boutique, “Terrestrial Verses” has been acquired for France (ARP Selection), Benelux (September Films) and Germany/Austria (Neue Visionen). All three banners are leading distributors in their respective territories. Those deals were closed following the film’s well-received world premiere. “Terrestrial Verses” marks the first collaboration between Khatami and Asgari, who are both acclaimed directors.

Christopher Vourlias A host of emerging talents gathered at Cannes’ Plage des Palmes on May 22 for the latest edition of Focus COPRO’, an event launched in 2018 by the Cannes Court Métrage Rendez-vous Industry program to give a boost to first-time feature directors. Seven up-and-coming filmmakers whose previous shorts have bowed at the Cannes Film Festival and other prestigious fests including Berlin, New Directors New Films and Clermont-Ferrand, gathered under sunny skies on the French Riviera for an informal lunch with a host of industry decision-makers. The event offered a casual setting for the directors to chat about their upcoming feature debuts, seated alongside veteran producers and sales agents, as well as reps from leading co-production markets, labs, residencies, workshops and institutions focused on identifying and nurturing emerging talent.