Chinese Speaking
China & Indonesia 2024 Year-End Box Office
China market down 21% on previous year; Indonesian films make admissions history, but market as a whole still down on pre-pandemic years.
Chinese Speaking
Tokyo, TCCF & QCinema: A Tale Of Three Cities Going Global
In November, I inadvertently worked my way down the Pacific Rim, covering film festivals and markets in Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. Three very different industries, with very different issues and market conditions on the ground, but all communicating the same message – that they’re open to international collaboration and
Korea & Japan
BUSAN 2024: Should Asia’s Content Biz Consider Policy To Respond To Inflation, Monopoly & AI?
The outdoor billboards towering over the streets of Centum City during this year’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) said it all. One was for the second season of Netflix’s Hellbound and the other for Disney’s Gangnam B-Side, both of which were premiering in BIFF’s On Screen
Middle East
What Venice & Toronto Revealed About The Current State Of World Cinema
After a relatively buoyant if not exemplary Cannes, this year’s autumn festival season is expected to be a bellwether of the current health of the global film industry. Do we still have an independent sales business? Do we have many strong awards contenders, despite Hollywood strikes and other disruptions?
Korea & Japan
How Korean Films Are Performing In Global Markets Since The Pandemic
This week, I’m sharing an article I wrote for KoBiz about how Korean films are being received internationally since the pandemic. Since I wrote this, a few mid-budget Korean films have been performing relatively well at the local box office, including Pilot, Handsome Guys and Escape, which is encouraging.
Chinese Speaking
Asia Summer Box Office: A Few Big Whales & A Lot Of Long Tails
Before signing off for a few weeks holiday, Streamlined is taking the temperature of the summer box office, along with a round-up of half-year box office results, in major Asian markets. There is so much drama currently going on in the world between wars, natural disasters, political unrest, arson attacks,
Africa
Co-producing Across Colonial Borders; Working Between Europe & the Global South
One issue that comes up repeatedly in the conversations I’ve had with producers in Asia and the Middle East over the years is the difficulty of setting up co-productions between ‘established’ (usually meaning Western European) nations and ‘developing’ nations. Of course, there are other established film producing territories with
Africa
Africa Updates: Canal+ Takeover Of MultiChoice; Nigeria Film Fund; Yetu (Un)Limited
When Streamlined was launched two years ago, it came with a promise to cover Africa, swiftly followed by the realisation that a steep learning curve would be necessary before doing justice to the content industries of this huge and complex continent. One thing I’ve learned since launching Streamlined is
Middle East
Cannes 2024 Recap Part Two: Hot Titles And Busy Buyers In The Festival & Market
Heading into this year’s Cannes Marché, there were several reasons to believe business would be muted, with slow box office recovery nearly everywhere in the world, rising interest rates and the hangover from the Hollywood strikes and pandemic all cited as reasons for a depressed market. And yet there
Korea & Japan
Cannes 2024 Recap Part One: India’s Complicated Victories & Japan Comes Out Of Its Shell
This year’s Cannes film festival was relatively smooth and controversy free, despite all the speculation in the run-up to the event around France’s #MeToo movement, pro-Palestinian protests and striking film festival workers. Cate Blanchett may or may not have made a classy display of Palestinian solidarity with her
Korea & Japan
FEFF Udine 2024: Is There A Theatrical Future For Asian Films In Europe?
As Far East Film Festival (FEFF) in Udine, northern Italy, was kicking off last week, the festival’s associated distribution company, Tucker Film, was gearing up to release Malaysian drama Abang Adik on 50 screens across Italy. Tucker Film has partnered with another Italian distributor, Academy 2, to release the
Chinese Speaking
Cannes 2024: China & India Back In Action; Saudi Debut; Taiwan & Vietnam Rising
Although this year’s Cannes line-up is one of the most commercial in a while, it’s also one that highlights how much cross-cultural collaboration we still have in international cinema, and how borders continue to blend and shift, despite the divisions thrown up by politics, war and pandemic. There