New York Asian Film Festival 2023 Features Bold New Films & Classics

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 28 June 2023 18:03

Written by Brad Balfour

One of New York’s most vibrant film festivals, the New York Asian Film Festival, returns July 14, 2023 for its 22nd edition. Running July 14th to the 30th, NYAFF has over 70 new and classic titles, even more short films, and special guests. Expanding beyond NYC, NYAFF also includes a weekend of screenings (July 21–23) at a new venue, the Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

The opening film is Killing Romance, directed by Lee Won-suk, who will also be in attendance for the screening. Known for his role in Parasite and a diverse career ranging from arthouse to rom-coms, Sun-kyun brings his versatile acting skills to portray the unforgettably overbearing husband of a fallen supermodel.

The Hong Kong Panorama segment of the festival includes a 4K restoration of the 1982 Patrick Tam film, Nomad (Director’s Cut). Mad Fate from director Soi Cheang harkens back to the crime films of the 80s and 90s. In Everyphone Everywhere director Amos Why (Far, Far Away) brings his wry playfulness in this pointed satire of postmodern communication and its resultant technological fallout set around the Hong Kong during the pandemic.

The Chinese block of films includes A Woman, Wang Chao’s sweeping narrative of a female factory worker during the Cultural Revolution. The animated film Art College 1994 from Liu Jian is a satirical look at student life in China during a time when the future held new promise.

Representing the cinema of South Korea are films such as Phantom, Lee Hae-young's action-driven spy drama set in 1933. Hail to Hell is feature debut of director Lim Oh-jeong, about two oddballs who track down the bully who pushed them to the brink of suicide.

From Japan there’s the North American premiere of In Her Room, an intriguing erotic narrative featuring musician-actor Satoru Iguchi and directed by Chihiro Ito. Mountain Woman, from former New York City resident Takeshi Fukunaga, is a mythic tale of female oppression and liberation with Toko Miura (Drive My Car). From Taiwan there’s Marry My Dead Body: an LGBTQ+ action-comedy that foments a gender-fluid revolution with its remise of a macho cop who unwittingly marries a gay ghost. The Philipino film 12 Weeks is a tiimely drama chronicles a fiercely independent 40-year-old woman’s attempts to arrange a safe abortion in a devoutly anti-choice nation where it is illegal.

The festival, in collaboration with the Korean Cultural Center New York and Film at Lincoln Center, will host a free outdoor screening at Damrosch Park on July 21. The feature is Bong Joon Ho's renowned monster movie, The Host, which stars Song Kang-ho and Bae Doona and showcases Bong's Oscar-winning family dynamics.

More events are being added to the festival so stay tuned!

To learn more, go to: https://www.nyaff.org/

New York Asian Film Festival
July 14 - 30, 2023

Film at Lincoln Center

70 Lincoln Center Plaza #4
New York, NY 10023

Barrymore Film Center
153 Main Street
Fort Lee, NJ 07024

Dances With Film Los Angeles: Anxiety, Infidelity, Personal Discovery

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 16 June 2023 17:43

Written by Brad Balfour

Dances With Film has been running since 1998 as an independent film fest outside the realm of Hollywood royalty and bringing together independent film makers. This year’s DWF runs from June 22nd to July 2 at TCL Chinese Theaters, with shorts, features, docs and more that are stirring, heartfelt, funny, and offbeat.

BIBI, written and directed by Christopher Beatty,  is a gripping psychological thriller that delves into the unraveling mind of Vivian Ashwood, a grieving mother struggling to cope with her tragic loss. Haunted by her past and tormented by a mysterious stalker, Vivian's grasp on reality begins to slip as she battles her anxieties and dependencies on prescription medication and alcohol. Vivian's world blurs as her routine nightmares merge with her waking reality, leaving her trapped in a disorienting web of fear and uncertainty.

Katie’s Mom, is a comedy influenced by The Graduate, but told from the perspective of a protagonist inspired by Mrs. Robinson. Directed by Tyrrell Shaffner, Katie’s Mom is about Nancy Rosenfeld (Dina Meyer), a nurturing mom and recent divorcée, whose beloved Jewish/Christmas mashup holiday celebration with her adult children is derailed when she falls for Alex Rojas (Aaron Dominguez), her daughter's charming new boyfriend. Their electrifying affair upends her status quo and sets her on a path to becoming the woman she was meant to be. 

Heightened, from director Sara Friedman, is a comedic story about facing the hardships of anxiety. Following a mental breakdown, social anxiety and OCD-riddled Nora (Sara Friedman) returns to Maine to live with her emotionally distant parents (Sarah Clarke and Xander Berkeley). While she undergoes court-ordered psychiatric treatment, Nora’s world is further upended when she is assigned to volunteer at a local state park. Her awkward assignment actually shows promise when her anxiety subsides in the company of her new supervisor Dusty (Dave Register), who is dealing with crippling issues of his own. Maybe Nora and Dusty can help each other overcome the obstacles their socially complicated world presents to them.

Check the festival’s website for more info on additional films and events around the Dances With Film fest.

To learn more, go to: https://danceswithfilms.com/

Dances With Film Los Angeles
June 22 - July 2, 2023

TCL Chinese Theatres
6925 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028

Cinecittà in Manhattan with Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2023

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 31 May 2023 21:25

Written by Brad Balfour

The Hummingbird 

The summer festival season brings the return of the open skies and the Open Roads. Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà present the 22nd edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, running from June 1 to 8, 2023.

Open Roads: New Italian Cinema features an extensive lineup of contemporary Italian films, mixing emerging talents and longtime veterans; commercial and independent fare; and outrageous comedies, gripping dramas, and captivating documentaries. The opening-night screening is Francesca Archibugi’s latest feature The Hummingbird, adapted from Sandro Veronesi’s Strega Prize-winning novel, an at once epic and intimate chronicle of love and familial ups and downs that spans six decades and three generations, featuring Pierfrancesco Favino, Berenice Bejo, Laura Morante, Nanni Moretti, and others.

Other films being screened include Gianni Amelio’s Lord of the Ants, a deeply stirring biopic of the poet/playwright Aldo Braibanti; Roberto Andò’s 12th feature Strangeness, which stars Toni Servillo as Nobel Prize-winning playwright Luigi Pirandello, who, on a trip to his native Sicily in 1920, encounters a pair of gravediggers/aspiring actors and unexpectedly arrives at the idea for what will ultimately become his signature work.  This year’s presentation includes a focus on Mario Martone, one of the key Italian filmmakers of the past 40 years, who has completed 17 features since his 1992 theatrical feature debut Death of a Neapolitan Mathematician. Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà pay homage to Martone (a perennial presence in the Open Roads lineup) by showcasing his most recent fiction film, Nostalgia, alongside two essential works from earlier in his career: 1995’s Troubling Love (co-written with Elena Ferrante) and 2014’s Leopardi.

To learn more, go to: https://www.filmlinc.org/festivals/open-roads-new-italian-cinema/

Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2023

June 1 - 8, 2023

Film at Lincoln Center - Walter Reade Theater
165 W 65th St.
New York, NY 10023