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Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has described training for Ukrainian civil engineers on how to defend their energy sector against Russian attacks as "essential".

Ed Sheeran has announced the cities, dates and venues for the highly anticipated Asia leg of his ‘+ – = ÷ x’ tour.Ed Sheeran will hold a total of nine concerts across Asia, from January to March 2024. It’ll kick-off in late-January with two show in Japan, before heading to Taiwan and Southeast Asia in February.

Malaysian filmmaker Amanda Nell Eu has distanced herself from the cut of her feature film Tiger Stripes, which is being released theatrically in Malaysia on October 19 for one week in an Oscars-qualifying run. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Amanda Nell Eu, director of breakout film “Tiger Stripes,” has disowned the censored version of the movie that launched in her native Malaysia on Thursday. “I do not stand behind the cut that will be shown in local cinemas […] the film that will be shown in local cinemas is not the film that we made, and it is not the film that won the Grand Prize of the Critics Week in Cannes,” said Eu in a statement (see below for full letter). The debut feature had received wide acclaim as the first Malaysian film in many years to play in Cannes, the first by a Malaysian woman director. It won a prize as best picture in Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar, will be the opening film of the Singapore International Film Festival and has been selected as Malaysia’s Oscar contender. Pitched somewhere between a coming-of-age drama and a body horror movie, the film tells the story of a 12-year-old who becomes the first among her friends to reach puberty.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Acclaimed film-making duo Kamila Andini and Ifa Isfansyah take a calculatedly side-on approach to Indonesian societal history in “Cigarette Girl,” a new Netflix series that releases on Nov.1 and which premiered its first episodes at the Busan International Film Festival earlier this month. Starting with a wealthy family about to lose its aging patriarch in 2001, the series uses flashbacks to the 1960s to uncover not only the origins of the family’s herbal cigarette or ‘Kretek’ fortune, but also the hidden romance underlying it. And it highlights the overbearing and only slowly changing societal pressures placed on women, from high and low ranks, even as Indonesian politics and government underwent tectonic shifts. Ahead of the Busan premiere Andini and Isfansyah told Variety how their lush and romantic treatment is both a product of changing society and a way of facing up to recent Indonesian history.Watch the new trailer here.

IMAX is continuing its expansion in Malaysia and its partnership with Golden Screen Cinemas, pacting for six state-of-the-art IMAX with Laser systems. The agreement will cover five new locations including the Aurum TRX in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, and one upgrade to the Southkey Megamall location in IOI City Mall. With the new deal, IMAX has now completed 13 signings for its systems this year in Malaysia, making it the top international growth market for IMAX in 2023 to date.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Dynamic Singaporean producer Jeremy Chua is to receive the FIAPF Award for Outstanding Contribution to Asia Pacific Cinema, at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) on Nov. 3 on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Indonesian filmmakers Kamila Andini and Ifa Isfansyah are making their Netflix debut with eight-part series Cigarette Girl (Gadis Kretek), which streams worldwide from November 2.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Tiger Stripes,” the Malaysian coming-of-age, body horror film that debuted in Cannes’ Critics Week section has been set as the opening title for this year’s Singapore International Film Festival (Nov. 30 – Dec.

The 1975‘s Matty Healy has hit out at The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas‘ comments about their LGBTQ+ stance in Malaysia.It comes after the 1975 were banned from Malaysia after their set was cut short during day one of the Good Vibes Festival on July 21, when Healy criticised the Malaysian government for anti-LGBTQ laws during their headlining set.Healy also kissed bandmate and bassist Ross MacDonald on the lips onstage before their set was cut short.The cancellation resulted in The Strokes’ set being pulled from Good Vibes and led to Casablancas sharing his own thoughts on Instagram.He wrote at the time: “it def helped the white outsider awareness yes, for sure… i felt the same. had no idea.

EXCLUSIVE: Indonesian actor Reza Rahadian and director Yosep Anggi Noen are attending Busan International Film Festival with their dystopian crime drama 24 Hours With Gaspar, which is receiving its world premiere in the festival’s Jiseok competition. 

Matty Healy delivered a lengthy speech regarding The 1975’s recent ban from Malaysia during a show in Dallas on Monday night (October 9). In July the band were ejected from the stage during a set at Kuala Lumpur’s Good Vibes Festival and subsequently banned from returning to perform in the country after Healy spoke out about the government's anti-LGBTQ laws and kissed his bandmate, Ross MacDonald.

The 1975‘s Matty Healy has delivered a lengthy speech regarding the band’s recent ban from Malaysia for criticising the government’s LGBTQ+ stance at their show in Texas last night (October 9).The band were banned from Malaysia after their set was cut short during day one of Good Vibes Festival on July 21, when Healy criticised the Malaysian government for anti-LGBTQ laws during their headlining set at Kuala Lumpur’s Good Vibes Festival.Healy also kissed bandmate and bassist Ross MacDonald on the lips onstage before their set was cut short two songs later – just seven songs into their setlist – and it was announced that the band were, from then, banned from Malaysia.Future Sound Asia (FSA), the organiser of Kuala Lumpur’s Good Vibes Festival (GVF), then demanded the band pay RM12.3million (£2,099,154) in damages after Healy‘s “indecent behaviour” caused the cancellation of the festival, with artists and vendors complaining of lost earnings. The Malaysian LGBTQ+ community also condemned Healy over his actions, arguing that: “Foreigners don’t get to come in and shit on us and tell us how to do things, especially when they only make it worse for us”.During the band’s set last night, ahead of their performance of ‘Love It If We Made It’, Healy gave his views on the incident and spoke about in great length.Matty Healy’s full speech on Malaysia incident in Fort Worth tonightThanks to Emily and talktorossabouit#The1975 #SATVB pic.twitter.com/1DfP18kXND— The 1975 TH (@the1975_thteam) October 10, 2023Matty Healy’s full speech on Malaysia incident transcribed by 1975Archives #The1975 #SATVB pic.twitter.com/lkhBcBKXxF— The 1975 TH (@the1975_thteam) October 10, 2023“Alright ladies and gentlemen,” he began.

Naman Ramachandran The Indonesian film industry is poised to spread its wings globally as the country’s filmmaking boom is the subject of a focus at the Busan International Film Festival. Films from the country now routinely get selected and win prizes at major international festivals. The local market in Indonesia, which has the fourth-largest population in the world with 277 million, is rapidly expanding with homegrown productions accounting for a significant share.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwanese actors King Jieh-wen and Hsueh Shih-ling and Indonesia’s Angga Yunanda are set to star in “Malice,” a multinational Asian thriller that will shoot next year. The film’s producers, actors and government backers presented the fully-assembled package to press and industry on Monday at the Busan International Film Festival. The film, pitched as “a road movie at sea,” is a dark tale of three men who put out to sea in search of a particular, large swordfish that had been rumored to have died out.

U.S. producer E. Bennett Walsh, who has made films including Mortal Kombat, Meg 2: The Trench and The Kite Runner across the APAC region, says he’s got his eye on Japan and Korea as the next hot destinations for footloose Hollywood productions.

Naman Ramachandran Distribution in Indonesia was the subject of a lively debate at the Busan International Film Festival‘s Asian Contents and Film Market. With 277 million people, Indonesia has one of the largest populations in the world. However, geographically it is an archipelago and for its population, the country is under-screened with just 2,300 cinema screens.

Naman Ramachandran The enduring popularity of the Asian LGBT and horror genres and the relationship with giant streamer Netflix were among the topics of discussion at a lively panel focusing on distribution at the Busan International Film Festival‘s Asian Contents and Film Market. “I hate the fact that all the producers want to work with Netflix, it is also killing international sales as well. Because if all the big titles go to Netflix, it leaves very little room for independent distributors,” said Chen Shao-Yi, general manager at Screenworks Asia.

Naman Ramachandran Korean powerhouse CJ ENM is set to continue its already extensive investment in Indonesia. The company will announce a slate of Indonesian films imminently. It is also planning to produce films and series that can be remade in other international territories, said Justin Kim, head of international productions at CJ ENM, which has production and distribution businesses in Indonesia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Issues of cultural diversity, different Asian diaspora populations and the quest for the Asian cinematic identity came up for discussion on Thursday as the New Currents competition jury at the Busan International Film Festival prepared to get down to work. Filmmaker and academic Jung Sung-il, who is set as the jury president, appeared to invite a degree of dispute that might get the blood racing. “I have high hopes, hope for controversies and good conversations among the jurors,” he said in opening remarks.