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“I am so happy that a giant streaming studio is backing us up and more people will be able to see this worldwide,” exclaimed Filipino filmmaker Kenneth Dagatan whose horror film, In My Mother’s Skin, was just acquired by the global video streaming service Prime Video. The horror fairytale, which was written and directed by Dagatan, had its world premiere at the Midnight Section of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Since 1978, rising talent and hidden movie gems have been put in the limelight and given an international stage in Park City, Utah, thanks to living legend Robert Redford, who created this jewel of a film festival. On January 21st, 2023, Flemish movie star Veerle Baetens’ directorial debut film, titled When It Melts, held its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

The King of the World has earned a new set of bragging rights. James Cameron now has three films that made more than $2 billion – Avatar: The Way of Water, Titanic, and the original Avatar.

Marvel Studios China posted on its Weibo account “February 7th# The legend is not extinguished, facing the new deep-sea enemy, the upgraded visual effects, sea, land and air fierce battle ignited the big screen!” above a trailer of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Another post said “#Ant-Man and the Waspwoman: Quantum Frenzy is scheduled for February 17th#” followed by its trailer.

Danny Huston, a Golden Globe nominee for his acting, was only 25 years old when he made his feature film debut directing Mr. North with a script written by his father, John Huston, from the 1973 novel Theophilus North by Thornton Wilder.

Back in the dawn of cinema, in the silent era, a star died young – 31 years old – as a result of something that seemed to follow the new industry: serious safety risks on set. In 1919, Wallace Reid, a rising actor whose goal was to become a director, was seriously injured in a train wreck while on his way to the set of The Valley of the Giants in Portland, Oregon.

For five years the HFPA Global Residency program has been bringing emerging filmmakers from around the world to Hollywood and fulfilling the HFPA’s mission as ambassadors between the American film industry and world cinema by partnering with some of the world’s premiere film festivals. This year once again the Residency endeavored to give participating fellows a first-hand glimpse of American independent filmmaking.

As part of the 2023 HFPA Residency program, participating film makers introduced their films at a Los Angeles screening, followed by a Q&A moderated by an HFPA journalist.   LA-based Azeri actor/director Tahmina Raffaella screened Banu, an affecting chronicle of a woman’s quest to obtain a divorce and custody of her son, along with a personal emancipation from an abusive marriage, in a lonely struggle against the patriarchal mores that stack the game against her.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a dark stop-motion musical adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s “The Adventures of Pinocchio”. The book was published in 1882.

Barely three years ago, her first fiction feature film, Yo, Impossible, was selected by Venezuela to compete for the Oscar for the best international feature. This week, Patricia Ortega will present her next film at the Sundance Film Festival, Mamacruz, a Spanish production.