Venice Silver: Last News

Lise Pedersen U.S. film writer and director James Gray (“Little Odessa”, “Two Lovers”, “The Immigrant”, “Armageddon Time”) drew several laugh-out-loud moments from a packed theatre during a masterclass at the Lumiere Film Festival in Lyon.   In a disarmingly honest conversation laced with humorous self-deprecation, the Venice Silver Lion Winner (“Little Odessa”, 1994) opened up about his love of cinema and the ups and downs of his career.  Speaking about the highly autobiographical nature of his new film, “Armageddon Time”, a deeply personal look at his Queens childhood in 1980s America, Gray explained that it was a natural evolution after his two previous films, “The Lost City of Z”, which is partly set in the Amazon and left him physically exhausted, and “Ad Astra.”  

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Bad Kids,” a hit series from Chinese streamer iQiyi, is to be remade as a Japanese feature film “Gold Boy.” The 12-episode gritty crime thriller depicts the troubles that arise after three children accidentally film a murder. The series was previously licensed to Japanese pay-TV group Wowow.

Lise Pedersen Film writer and director Lee Chang-dong (“Burning,” “Oasis,” “Peppermint Candy”), one of Korea’s best-known auteur filmmakers who has contributed to putting Korean cinema firmly on the global stage, is guest of honor at the Lumiere Film Festival in Lyon, where he was welcomed with a standing ovation.  The Cannes veteran – four out of his six feature films have been screened at the festival and its sidebars – engaged with the audience with characteristic humility on questions of identity, human nature, violence and love, which are central themes to all of his films.  “People sometimes ask me why I always tell stories centered on characters who are suffering. Trust me, I am not sadistic,” he smiled. “But it takes us back to the notion of family [which is central to all my films]: I grew up in a poor family, and I’m familiar with suffering,” he said.