films

Now in it’s 19th year, the Taipei International Film Festival kicked off its opening night with The Great Buddha +, directed by Huang Hsin-yao.  The sold-out film is Huang’s first feature, based on his Golden Horse award nominated short film of the same name.

The Locarno Film Festival comes to Los Angeles with a three-day public event (April 21-23, 2017) which will feature a selection from the 69th edition of one of the longest running European Film Festivals, including ten L. A.

Renée Zellweger is back in Bridget Jones's Baby, the third film of the series in which Bridget the titular heroine is, yes, pregnant. Only it’s not exactly clear by whom: ex British beau Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) or dashing yank Jack (Patrick Dempsey)? We spoke to Dempsey, Zellweger and director Sharon Maguire about rebooting the beloved franchise.

Oliver Stone is, of course, no stranger to political filmmaking. From the conflicts in Vietnam and El Salvador to the financial misdeeds of Wall Street and the drug war, Stone has articulated his sharp critique of American policies in films, which at their best have been impassioned manifestos of political justice.

With a program of more than 300 films TIFF is truly the behemoth of North American festivals. The film market here and the strategic scheduling as the unofficial launch of awards campaigns have cemented its place among the handful of top-tier world festivals.

Panamanian boxer Roberto Duran, known as "Manos de Piedra" (Hands of Stone) for his powerful punches made boxing history with his infamous bouts against undefeated lightweight champion Sugar Ray Leonard. Venezuelan filmmaker Jonathan Jakubowicz portrays Duran's story in the new film Hands of Stone with Edgar Ramírez playing Duran, music sensation Usher as Sugar Ray Leonard and Robert De Niro returning to the cinema world of boxing as trainer Ray Arcel who came out of retirement to mentor the ferocious fighter.

The upcoming Baywatch movie, starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Zack Efron, currently shooting on Tybee Island, Savannah, Georgia, where the HFPA recently interviewed the cast, is a reboot of the former TV series made famous by David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson. David Hasselhoff, 63, primarily known for his leading roles in the TV series Knight Rider (from 1975 to 1982) and Baywatch (from 1990 to 2001), has also joined the ranks of the headliner of such shows as The Simple Life, Gene Simmons: Family Jewels, Keeping up with the Kardashians and, of course, I Am Cait.

This season is shaping up as heavily loaded with musical biopics. Marc Abraham’s I Saw The Light with Tom Hiddleston as seminal country crooner Hank Williams, Robert Budreau’s Born to Be Blue forlorn jazzman Chet Baker with Ethan Hawke in the title role and Don Cheadle’s Miles Ahead on jazz trumpeter and iconoclast Miles Davis, amount to an alignment of musical planets to please any fan and that make the music biography this Spring’s dominant trend.