‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson is literally creating history in the International Box Office. The film which was made with a budget of 40 million USD has succeeded in collecting a whooping 400 million USD from theatres all over the world. 
The movie which is an erotic thriller stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in the lead roles. The film was released on February 13, and from then it has been ringing the money bells in theatres all across the globe. This sensual thriller was not released in India due to censorship issues.
The film is based on E L James’ erotic novel, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. The movie centers around the life of Anastasia Steele who engages in wild sexual encounters with Christian Grey, an aspiring young businessman.
Through this whooping collection, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ also emerged as Universal’s eighth highest grossing film of all times. The movie is now trailing behind ‘Mamma Mia’ which has collected more than 600 million USD from foreign Box Office.
A sequel of this movie, ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ is getting ready in the backdrop.
Docaviv festival is considered as one of the most top rated documentary festivals in Israel. The 17th edition of this festival is scheduled from May 7th – 16th 2015. The recent news from the corner is regarding the finalization of official selection.
The festival will open with the screening of ‘Citizenfour’ directed by Laura Poitras. The Academy Award winning documentary will showcase the ongoing Edward Snowden saga.
75 Israeli films were being submitted to the ‘Israeli Competition‘ section, and out of this list, the organizers have selected 13 films for the final competition.
The festival offers a whooping $ 18,000 as the prize money, and this amount is the largest prize money offered for documentary filmmaking anywhere in Israel.
One of the main highlights of this year’s festival is the screening of ‘Cobain: Montage of Heck‘ directed by Brett Morgen. The director is known for making documentaries like, ‘The Kids Stay in The Picture’ and ‘Chicago 10′ which are considered as milestone films in documentary making. Brett Morgan will also conduct a special masterclass.
Other eminent personalities who will attend the festival includes, Naum Kleiman, founder of the Eisenstein Centre and former director of the Moscow Cinema Museum, renowned film critic Boyd van Hoeij, David Courier of Sundance Film Festival etc.
After days of anxious wait, ‘Furious 7‘, the seventh installment in the ‘Fast and Furious‘ franchisee, finally hit the theaters on April 3rd 2015. The movie marks the last outing of Paul Walker, the amazing actor who tragically passed on November 30th 2013 in a car accident.
The movie is getting highly positive reviews from all corners of the globe, and in all probabilities, it will succeed in ringing the money bells in theaters. The film has a rotten tomatoes rating of 82%, and this clearly symbolizes the top class nature of the film.
The movie has reportedly satisfied the fans of Paul Walker, and they are giving emotional adios to their favorite actor in the movie theaters. Many fans even admitted that the film made them cry after they watched the tribute to the actor at the end.
‘Furious 7‘ is directed by James Wan. Apart from Paul Walker, the film also stars Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Mitchelle Rodriguez, Chris Bridges, Tony Jaa and Tyresse Gibson other prominent roles.
The 16th edition of the much reputed Jeonju International Film Festival, South Korea is scheduled from April 30th – May 09th 2015. The recent news from the corner is regarding the finalization of lineup which will be screened in the festival. As per credible reports, the film festival will screen more than 200 titles from 47 countries.
Australian director, Ariel Kleiman’s ‘Partisan’ will open this year’s festival. The film is a gritty drama, and it had its world premiere at Sundance this January. The film is blessed with an ensemble star cast, and it includes biggies which includes Vincent Cassel, Nigel Barber and Jeremy Chabriel.
This year’s festival will feature 19 films more than the last year’s event. Last year, 181 movies were screened in this festival. Last time, the festival screened more than 200 movies were way back in 2010.
The main venue of the festival will be CGV Jeonju Hyoja cinema.
This year’s event is loaded with umpteen numbers of specialties. The main highlight of the festival is a special program which is dedicated to Greek New Wave Cinema. Another major attraction of this year’s festival is the inclusion of female directors. More than 27% cinemas in the festival are being crafted by female directors.
The much reputed Edinburg Film Festival is all set to launch a Film Distribution Market as a part of their 2015 edition festival. The program is named, ‘Distribution Rewired’, and it is specially designed to support filmmakers in models including ‘direct’ and ‘self-distribution’ and connect them with online distributors.
The film market allows selected filmmakers to screen their movies in front of aggregators and other related service providers. The film distribution event is expected to take place on June 22 – 23, in association to the overall program offered to industry delegates and filmmakers.
Holly Daniel, industry and talent development manager at EIFF and Beatrice Neumann from BeA Film is managing this mega event.
“EIFF is dedicated to addressing the most current and relevant events for attending filmmakers and industry professionals each year. The world of distribution is changing every day, and this new program allows filmmakers to adapt themselves and unleash their path in this changing scenario”, said Mark Adams, EIFF Artistic Director.
Renowned actor Matthew McConaughey has been roped to play the lead role in ‘The Billionaire’s Vinegar’ a drama about one of the world’s most infamous wine frauds. The film is based on Benjamin Wallace’s famous book ‘The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine’.
The film will showcase the story of a 1787 Chateau Lafitte Bordeaux, auctioned at Christie’s in 1985 for $150,000.
Todd Black, James Lassiter, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch and Will Smith are producing this movie. The script of this film adaptation is being written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas. These writers are known for penning the screenplay of movies like ‘3.10 to Yuma’ and ‘Wanted’.
Matthew McConaughey, who won the Academy Award for his role in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ is currently busy with the shooting of Civil War drama ‘Free State of Jones’. He will soon star in ‘Gold’ directed by Stephen Gaghan.
‘Barely Lathal’, the movie directed by Kyle Newman is one of the most awaited movies of the year. The film which stars Hailee Steinfeld, Jessica Alba, Sophie Turner, Samuel L. Jackson, Dove Cameron and Jaime King in the lead roles is touted to be a romantic teenage comedy, and it reportedly has some teenage sexual scenes. Recently, the film ran into controversies as it has been given an R certificate by the censoring authorities.
The recent news from this corner is regarding the R rating overturn by the Classification and Rating Appeals Board. The makers of the movie have succeeded in procuring a PG13 rating for the film. Earlier, the rating authority had given an R certificate alleging that the film contains sexual material, teen drinking, language, drug references and some action violence.
DirecTV and A24 Film has procured the US rights of the movie, and they are planning to release the movie on DirecTV and in select theaters in April.
Brett Ratner and John Cheng have produced ‘Barely Lethal’.
‘Blind Massage’ directed by Lou Ye won the award for Best Film at the Asian Film Awards in Macau on March 24, 2015. The film which is based on a novel by Bi Feiyu has reportedly impressed the jury members and this has compelled them to give this reputed honor. ‘Blind Massage’ also won the Award for ‘Best Cinematography’.
Ann Hui who directed ‘The Golden Era’ won the ‘Best Director’ Award for her uncompromising cinematic making.
For his performance in ‘Black Coal, Thin Ice’, Liao Fan bagged the ‘Best Actor’ Award. The film directed by Diao Yinan portrayed the story of employees of a Nanjing massage parlor who share a common trait: they are all blind. Diao Yinan also won the ‘Best Screenwriter’ Award for the script of this film.
Bae Doo-na won the ‘Best Actress’ Award for her role in ‘A Girl At My Door’. Ikewaki Chizuru, the Japanese actress won the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for her performance in ‘The Light Shines Only There’.
‘Gone With The Bullets’ directed by Jiang Wen procured three awards in technical category which includes ‘Best VFX’, ‘Best Production Design’ and ‘Best Costume Design’.
Veteran Korean film-maker Im Kwon-taek was honored with a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. Miki Nakatani, renowned Japanese actress was given Excellence In Asia Cinema Award.
After days of anxious wait, the 62nd National Awards were announced yesterday by Jury Chairpersons directors P. Bharathiraja (Feature Film Jury), Kamal Swaroop (Non-Fiction Feature Film Jury) and Ziya Us Salam (Writing on Film Jury). The juries unleashed the full list of award winners in a press conference which was held at the National Media Center, New Delhi.
‘Haider’ was the ultimate winner in the National Awards, as the film won five awards which include, Best Dialogue, Choreography, Costume Design, Playback Singing and Music Direction.
The most anticipated ‘Best Feature Film’ award was given to ‘Court’ directed by Chaitanya Tamhane. The film was an International success, as it has previously received 17 top honors from various prestigious film festivals.
The Best Actor award was an area where speculations outplayed factual information. Many credible reports claimed that Shahid Kapoor (Haider) and Mammootty (Munnariyippu) were in the final list of competitors for this title. But at the end, Kannada actor Vijay took home the Bharat Award for his scintillating performance in the film, Nan Avanalla Avalu.
Kangana Ranaut for her performance in Vikas Bahl’s Queen bagged the best actress award. She has reportedly faced huge competition from Alia Bhat and Piryanka Chopra who put up a mind blowing performance in ‘Highway’ and ‘Mary Kom’ respectively.
Srijith Mukerji bagged the award for Best Direction for his film Chotushkone. Malayalam movie, ‘Ottaal’ was selected as the best film for environmental conservation.
Please read down to know the full list of winners in the 62nd National Awards.
Best Feature Film: Court (Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi, English)
Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film Of A Director: Asha Jaor Majhe (Bengali)
Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment: Mary Kom (Hindi)
Best Film On Environment Conservation: Ottaal (Malayalam)
Best Direction: Srijith Mukherjee/ Chotushkone (Bengali)
Best Actor: Vijay/ Nan Avanalla Avalu (Kannada)
Best Actress: Kangana Ranaut/ Queen (Hindi)
Best Supporting Actor: Bobby Simha/ Jigarthanda (Tamil)
Best Supporting Actress: Baljinder Kaur/ Pagdi The Honour (Haryanvi)
Best Male Playback Singer: Sukhvinder Singh/ Haider (Hindi)
Best Female Playback Singer: Uttara Unnikrishnan/ Saivam (Tamil)
Best Costume Designer: Dolly Ahluwalia/ Haider (Hindi)
Best Music Direction: Vishal Bhardwaj/ Haider (Hindi)
Best Background Score: Gopi Sundar/ 1983 (Malayalam)
Best Choreography: Haider (Hindi)
Special Jury Mention: Khwada (Marathi)
Best Lyrics: Nag Muthukumar/ Saivam (Tamil)
Best Make-Up Artiste: Nangaraju & Raju/ Nan Avanalla Avalu (Kannada)
Best Production Design: Aparna Raina/ Nachom Ia Kumpasar (Konkani)
Best Audiography: Mahavir Sabbanwal/ Khwada (Marathi)
Best Sound Designing: Anish John/ Asha Jaor Majhe (Bengali)
Best Re-recording: Nirbashito (Bengali)
Best Original Screenplay: Srijith Mukherji/ Chatushkone (Bengali)
Best Cinematography: Sudip Chatterjee/ Chatushkone (Bengali)
Best Editing: Vivek Harshan/ Jigarthanda (Tamil)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Joshi Mangalath/ Ottaal (Malayalam)
Best Dialogues: Vishal Bhardwaj/ Haider (Hindi)
Best Children’s Film: Kakkai Muttai (Tamil), Elizabeth Ekadashi (Marathi)
Best Child Artiste: N. Vignesh, Ramesh/ Kakkai Muttai (Tamil)
Best Film on Social Issues: Chotoder Chobi (Bengali)
Best Assamese Film : Othello
Best Bengali Film: Nirbashito
Best Hindi Film: Queen
Best Kannada Film: Harivu
Best Malayalam Film: Ain
Best Marathi Film: Killa
Best Odiya Film: Aadim Vichar
Best Punjabi Film: Punjab 1984
Best Tamil Film: Kuttram Kadithal
Best Telugu Film: Chandamama Kathalu
Best Rabha Film: Orong
Best Haryanvi Film: Pagdi The Honour
Best Feature Films (Special Mention): Ain (Malayalam), Nachom Ia Kumpasar (Konkani), Killa (Marathi), Bhoothnath Returns (Hindi)
Best Educational Films: Komal, Behind The Glass Wall
Best Exploration/ Adventure Films: Life Force-India’s Western Ghats
Best Investigative Film: Phum Shang
Best Animation Film: Sound Of Joy
Best Short Fiction Film: Mitraa
Awards for Writing on Cinema
Best Film Critic: Tanul Thakur
Best Book On Cinema: Silent Cinema (1895-1930) by Pasupuleti Purnachandra Rao
Best Writing On Cinema (Special Mention): Pride Of Tamil Cinema by G. Dhananjayan
Non-Fiction Feature Films
Best Narration: Ambooty Devi/ Nithya Kalyani
Best Editing: Andy Campbell/ Tigress Blood
Best Audiography: Tender Is The Sight
Best Cinematography: Indraneel Lehri/ Amar Katha: The Story Of Binodini
Best Direction: Renu Sawant/ Aranyak
Best Film On Family Values: Towards The Silver Lining
Special Jury Mention: A Poet, A City, A Footballer
Best Film on Environmental Issues: I Cannot Give You My Forest
Best Film On Social Issues: Can’t Take This Shit Anymore, Daughters Of Mother India
Best Biographical/Historical Reconstruction: Amar Katha-The Story Of Binodini
Best Anthropological/Ethnographic Film: Qissa-The Parsi Story
Best Debut Film Of A Director: Goonga Pahalwan
Best Non-Fiction Feature Film: Tender Is The Sight
The much reputed Emperor Motion Pictures in Hong Kong unveiled a list of 15 films at Filmart as a part of their 15th Anniversary. The lineup of films include big movies like, ‘The Mobfathers’, ‘Love In Sicily’, ‘Kill Time’ and a new Yuen Wo-ping Project.
‘The Mobfathers’ is being directed by Chapman To, and it is produced by Herman Yau. The film is expected to be a dark comedy which is set in the backdrop of Hong Kong underworld. The movie showcases the story of five leading gangs who holds an election for their reigning Boss.
‘Love in Sicily’ is a typical breezy love story set in Shanghai and Italy. The film stars Lee Jun-ki, and it is being directed by Lin Yu-Hsien.
‘Kill Time’ directed by Fruit Chan is expected to be a stout suspense thriller. The movie stars Angelababy and Ethan Ruan in the lead roles, and it will showcase a story in which a shopping site gives a vital clue behind a murder.
The new Wo-ping Project is expected to be a dark comedy flick, and in this movie, we can see eccentric martial arts performers gather for a Kung Fu show down.
Emperor also has plans to make a new detective film directed by Benny Chan. They are also developing a new movie which is being directed by Alan Mak and Felix Chong.