Grand Bell Nominees Announced...

KOFIC is reporting the nominees for this year's Grand Bell awards, Korea's rough equivalent to the Oscars. As with its American counterpart perhaps, the Grand Bells place a value on commercial fare, which often means the year's biggest box office hit ends up scooping the Grand Bell itself, which is exactly what happened last year with The King and the Clown. No surprise, then, that this year sees relatively err... lightweight but hugely successful titles such as 200 Pounds Beauty (pictured) among the nominees, but may well see Bong Joon-ho's monster monster movie The Host run off with the spoils...

Nominations in the main categories are as follows...

Best Film
Radio Star
A Dirty Carnival
200 Pounds Beauty
The Host
Family Ties

Best Director
Kim Yong-hwa (200 Pounds Beauty)
Bong Joon-ho (The Host)
Kim Tae-yong (Family Ties)
Ryoo Seung-wan (City of Violence)
Choi Dong-hoon (Tazza: The High Rollers)

It's also worth noting that one or two winners of Grand Bells long forgotten are to set to appear on Firecracker TV soon - keep an eye out!

One Love: Cinema One Originals announced

Firecracker favourite the Filipino filmmaker Rico Maria Ilarde - whose movies Beneath the Cogon (left) and El Kapitan were among the UK Premieres at the last Firecracker Showcase - is among the five finalists of the Cinema One Originals competition, with features going into production as we speak. Cinema One is the movie channel of big Filipino TV network ABS-CBN, and the initiative is one of several (including those run by Cinemalaya) that seeks to promote low-budget indie filmmaking in the Philippines.

Of over 100 entries, five were chosen to receive funding of 1m pesos (around $22,000).

Ilarde's Altar follows an ex-boxer who takes up some casual carpentry work in a remote country house which harbours dark secrets. Having read the movie treatment ourselves a little while ago we can safely say that Altar has serious potential and we're really looking forward to this one.

The other winners include:

Black comedy Confessional (Ruel Antipuesto and Jerrold Tarog)

Rom-com Maling Akala from Veronica Velasco and Pablo Biglang-awa, the directors of recent drama Inang Yaya (Mother Nanny)

Emotional drama Sa Ikawalo by Lawrence Fajardo, who was awarded as part of the 2006 Cinema One Originals project for Raket ni Nanay.

Donsol director Adolfo Alix Jr.'s gritty drama Tambolista

For more info see the story in the Philippine Entertainment Portal

Blackout Coming Out

June 13 sees the slightly delayed Manila release of the new movie by one of the Philippines' up-and-coming movie talents, Ato Bautista, whose coruscating self-produced debut Awaken (Sa Aking Pagkakagising Mula sa Kamulatan) is soon to be available on demand on Firecracker TV.
Blackout is a taut and atmospheric psycho-thriller that marks an important development in the current wave of impressive low-budget features. As Bautista attests in a forthcoming Firecracker interview, the budget for Blackout was pretty low indeed, but you'd have no idea to look at the result. Made by Unitel Pictures, and featuring local action star Robin Padilla, Blackout may be the movie to break Bautista into the mainstream of Filipino movie makers - if the release's proximity to Philippine Independence Day on June 12 doesn't compromise matters - and with luck also make his name internationally.

The release of Blackout on home turf has been delayed for a while, during which time the prolific Bautista - and his collaborator, writer Shugo Praico - turned out experimental digital feature Cure For Boredom which showed in last Autumn's Cinemanila festival.

See the Blackout trailer here via the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, where it received its North American premiere.

The Censor Syndrome

If you haven't come across this before, there's still a chance to add your name to the petition of the Free Thai Cinema Movement here.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's latest Syndromes and a Century (pictured) has - despite warm critical reception at a number of international film fests - met with the disapproval of the Thai censors, and the resulting controversy has provided a rallying call for the film community and film fans alike.

Apichatpong's own statement as featured on the petition site reads...

“I, a filmmaker, treat my works as my own sons or my daughters. When I conceived them, they have their own lives to live. I don't mind if people are fond of them, or despise them, as long as I created them with my best intentions and efforts. If these offspring of mine cannot live in their own country for whatever reasons, let them be free. Since there are other places that warmly welcome them as who they are, there is no reason to mutilate them from the fear of the system, or from greed. Otherwise there is no reason for one to continue making art.”