Jia Zhangke: Celebs Rumors

Rebecca Davis editorDeadly flooding did not divert this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival from running its full course, with the event drawing to a close Monday with an award ceremony honoring Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy, India’s Natesh Hegde, and China’s Kong Dashan and Wei Shujun with top prizes.Many anticipated that this fifth edition of the festival would be different, given the shifting role of its co-founder and leading light, director Jia Zhangke.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Hengameh Panahi, the celebrated French-Iranian producer who founded Celluloid Dreams and forged long-standing bonds with auteurs around the world, has died. She was 67.

Valerie Wu Intern Film distribution company Kino Lorber has launched Kino Film Collection, a new streaming service available via Prime Video. For an individual fee of $5.99 per month, subscribers will have streaming access to hundreds of films from the more than 4,000 titles from Kino’s library, in addition to newer Kino releases.

Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke is relieved that the festival he founded in the ancient walled city of Pingyao in China’s Shanxi province is back on track after a tricky few years during the pandemic. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Liu Jian’s “Art College 1994,” the critically acclaimed Chinese animated feature competing at this week’s Annecy festival, has been acquired by New York-based outfit Dekanalog for North American distribution. A poignant and vibrant portrait of on-campus youth at the Chinese Southern Academy of Arts in the early 1990s, the feature world premiered in competition at the Berlin Film Festival as one of the rare animated movies that have vied for the Golden Bear. “Art College 1994” will open in North American theaters in 2024, following its release in China. “Art College 1994” is set against the backdrop of reforms opening China to the Western world and revolves around a group of college students who take their first steps into adulthood, where love and friendships are intertwined with artistic pursuits, ideals and ambitions. Caught between tradition and modernity, these young adults now have to choose who they want to become. The film, whose voice cast includes Venice Golden Lion-winning filmmaker Jia Zhangke, is filled with pop references and deadpan humor.

Jessica Kiang The quote that opens Chinese director Liu Jian’s shaggy but amiable new animated feature is instructive. “To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life” is a passage from James Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” and indeed, Liu was himself at art college as a young man in the early ’90s, when and where “Art College 1994” is, unsurprisingly, set. The quasi-memoir feel to the movie does have its charm — it’s always a kick to see animation techniques applied not to extravagant flights of fancy but to slices of real, ordinary life — but it’s also its chief flaw. In re-creating life out of life, Liu is quite successful; whether he makes it into drama is another question. Like its characters, “Art College 1994” gives the impression of having just too much time on its hands.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefIconic Chinese indie film director Jia Zhangke is to make a return to the Pingyao International Film Festival that he founded and which he famously quit at the end of the October 2020 edition. His new role remains somewhat murky.Jia was a speaker at a launch event Tuesday in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, used to announce the festival’s dates, the appointment of Lin Xudong as artistic director, and confirm other staffing arrangements for the next edition.

Ten years after his last documentary, “I Wish I Knew” (screened in Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2011), acclaimed Chinese auteur Jia Zhang-Ke (“Ash Is Purest White,” “A Touch of Sin“) returns to non-fiction with “Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue,” the final panel in his trilogy about the arts in China. It follows Venice winners “Dong” (2006) and “Useless” (2007).

Rebecca Davis editorChinese director Jia Zhangke has formally launched his new venture: a filmmaking school in his native Shanxi staffed by some of China’s top industry talent, including helmers Ning Hao and Bi Gan.The Shanxi Film Academy was inaugurated in a ceremony presided over by Communist party officials and attended by major firms seeking synergies between the school’s future crop of filmmakers and their own thirst for new talent and content.

Rebecca Davis editorChina’s top law-making body will consider this week a popular proposition to ban actors who have used drugs from entertainment industry for life at its annual weeklong meeting, which kicked off Friday.The National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber stamp parliament, counts some 3,000 professionals from across the country as delegates, including directors Jia Zhangke, Feng Xiaogang and Chen Kaige, as well as Jackie Chan and Yao Ming.

Vivienne Chow Legendary Japanese producer Ichiyama Shozo encouraged young filmmakers not to give up despite the challenging climate brought upon by digital revolution and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterProminent Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke has announced he is departing the Pingyao International Film Festival, which he co-founded four years ago.The fest has not yet made an official statement but the director made the surprise announcement yesterday during the closing day of the fourth edition, telling local media he was looking for the event to “get rid of Ji Zhangke’s shadow and let it gain independent vitality” and that he was opting to “leave when it is strong”.There are Chinese reports that the festival will be government run from next year.

Vivienne Chow Chinese director Jia Zhangke has quit the Pingyao International Film Festival that he co-founded four years ago. The festival will be handed over to the Pingyao city government, sparking speculation and concerns over how the reputable young festival will next develop.The internationally-renown auteur dropped the bombshell at Sunday’s press conference that concluded the fourth edition of the festival.

Vivienne Chow First-time director Jing Wang sees the pain that his mentor Jia Zhangke has experienced on the movie set as motivation for his filmmaking journey.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterHuang Wei, vice president of Chinese major Bona Film Group, has died at the age of 52. The company posted a note on its WeChat channel confirming the news, stating that it was “mourning deeply”.The suggestion that the executive took his own life has been spreading on social media, though this has not been confirmed.