No. 1 Korean Box Office Hit THE HOST bags 5 awards in the 27th Blue Dragon Film Awards and 6 awards in the 5th Korea Film Awards.

Awards Won:

The 27th Blue Dragon Film Awards:
Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best New Actress, Best Lighting, Top Box Office Award.

The 5th Korea Film Awards:
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Lighting, Best Special Effects, Best Sound Effects.


Catch it on VCD/DVD Now! Review of DVD soon on moviexclusive.com!

Extended Run for DEATH NOTE Marathon Screenings!

Movie distributors Golden Village Pictures (GVP) and Encore Films are extending the DEATH NOTE marathon screenings over the long New Year weekend!

The first two marathon sessions, on 29^th December, were completely sold out within four days after sales started on 14^th December. To satisfy the overwhelming response from die-hard DEATH NOTE fans out there, two additional sessions were added on 30^th December, As tickets for both sessions are snapping up fast, GVP and Encore Films have decided to extend the marathon screenings again for another 3 more days. All in all, there will be a total of 10 DEATH NOTE marathon screenings!

Details for DEATH NOTE Marathon Screenings as follows:

Dates:	29 December 2006 to 02 January 2007
Time:	9:30pm (29 Dec – 01 Jan); 6:00pm (02 Jan)
Venues:	Exclusively at GV Plaza and GV Tampines only
Price:	$19

Tickets for the extended marathon screenings can be purchased via all GV sales channels (GV box office, GV website, telephone booking hotline and AXS machines) from Saturday, 23^rd December onwards.

Remember to enter our DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME contest as well!

PAN'S LABYRINTH is Time Magazine's number 6 Best Film of The Year!

In its special issue of 25/12/2006, Time Magazine has released its famous Best of The Year, including personalities, events, books and films. The highly-anticipated dark fairy tale by Guillermo Del Toro, PAN’S LABYRINTH is Time’s number 6 Best Film of The Year. Richard Corliss & Richard Schickel said “Guillermo Del Toro mixes the airiest fantasy with the harshest social realism to prove that fascism is a fairy tale of power and a nightmare of terror”.

After its Golden Globes nomination as Best Foreign Language Film and its 3 nominations for the 27th London Film Awards (Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Scriptwriter), PAN’S LABYRINTH scored this week 13 nominations at the GOYA Film Awards (The Spanish Oscars) including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Original Script.

PAN’S LABYRINTH opens in Singapore on 11 January. Sneak previews from 5 January. http://www.panslabyrinth.com/

PAN'S LABYRINTH page on moviexclusive.com:
http://www.moviexclusive.com/review/panlabyrinth/panlabyrinth.htm

Lonely Planet online video competition

The chance to win an amazing AU$10,000 round-the-world journey.

Lonely Planet calls for short fi lms and videos that are ‘<3 Less Than Three’ For the fi rst time, Lonely Planet has launched an online fi lm and video competition, ‘<3 Less Than Three’; a celebration of the creativity, humour and passion inspired by travel. <3 Less Than Three gives aspiring young travellers (and budding filmmakers!) the chance to win a AU$10,000 journey around the world. And, the exclusive opportunity to check out Lonely Planet Television in action. Submit a short video (less than three minutes long) showing your ‘Great Moment in Travel’.

Is it a life-changing sunset, an encounter with long-lost friend in Paris, or a guy falling off a chair at the local backpackers? However you describe great moments in travel, you’ve got less than three minutes to tell the story. Upload your old travel videos or shoot from scratch. You don’t even have to set foot on a plane to enter. Great moments in travel can happen in your home town. Scorsese need not apply. Shoot on your old family camcorder, mobile phone or digital, we don’t care – just use your imagination and upload your video at www.lonelyplanet.com/lessthanthree

Entries close Monday 15th January 2007.

An online gallery featuring a selection of submitted video clips will be updated throughout the competition at www.lonelyplanet.com/lessthanthree

For more details, spot prizes, media content and more visit www.lonelyplanet.com/lessthanthree
Essential guidelines are as follows:
• View videos and enter online at www.lonelyplanet.com/lessthanthree
• Each video entry must be less than three minutes long
• Entries will only be accepted in the following formats: .Mov, .avi, .asf, .mpg, .mpeg, .mpe, .wmv, and .fl v.
Files must be less than 20MB.
• If you wish to post us your movies, we accept old school (ie: video cassette) or DVD/CD of the formats listed above.

Mail to: Less Than Three Competition, Lonely Planet, Locked Bag 1, Footscray, Victoria 3011, Australia.

Confession of Pain in Beijing

All the casts of Confession of Pain, Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Shu Qi and Xu Jing Lei together with Director Alan Mak, and Screenplay Felix Chong were in Beijing on 17th Dec to talk about their latest collaboration, Confession Of Pain.

Confession of Pain will be released in Singapore on 28th Dec and is reviewed here.

2007 GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD NOMINATIONS

Terrific news as Warner Bros. Singapore garnered 12 nominations in the film categories. Below are the highlights:

Best Picture: The Departed

Best Motion Picture - Drama: Little Children

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Kate Winslet, Little Children

Best Foreign Language Film: Letters From Iwo Jima

Best Director: Clint Eastwood, Flags of Our Fathers
Best Director: Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
**A first for a director to be nominated for two different films in the same year
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Actor Drama: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed
Best Actor Drama: Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
**A first for an actor to be nominated twice in the same category

Best Supporting Actor: Jack Nicholson, The Departed
Best Supporting Actor: Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

Best Screenplay: William Monahan, The Departed

Blood Diamond opens in cinemas 4th January 2007; Little Children opens in cinemas 8th February 2007.

THE QUEEN, the highly anticipated film about Queen Elisabeth II and Princess Diana, received yesterday four major Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture (Drama), Best Actress (Drama) for Helen Mirren, Best Director for Stephen Frears and Best Screenplay for Peter Morgan.

PAN'S LABYRINTH, the beautifully crafted dark fairy tale by Guillermo Del Toro, has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

The 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards will take place Monday, January 15, 2007, at The Beverly Hilton.

THE QUEEN will open in Singapore on January 4th (special sneaks 29/12 - 02/01). PAN’S LABYRINTH opens on January 11th.

Singapore Dreaming - Meet the Cast & Autograph Session

MovieXclusive.com was at IMM last Sunday for the Singapore Dreaming Meet the Cast and Autograph session. Attended by directors Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen, cast members - Richard Low, Lim Yu-Beng, Alice Lim were also in attendance, with Dick Su doing double duties as the MC for the afternoon. As revealed by Colin Goh, IMM was one of the venues where the dinner and toilet scene were filmed (which happen to be one of my favourite scenes in the movie), so it wasn't a random selection of venues to host the event.

For a local non big-budgeted film, such a session is indeed rare, and it's to coincide with the recent launch of the Singapore Dreaming DVD and VCD. As MC, Dick was given the task of rousing the crowd and getting everyone at IMM to come to the stage area for some Q&A, where some attractive prizes sponsored by Crocodile and Scorpio East were given away to lucky winners.

The highlight of the evening was the interactive game where selected audiences were given the opportunity to partner the cast members in a game in search of the 5Cs, or rather, to gather items from around the shopping complex which begin with the letter C. It's to no surprise that the charismatic Richard Low and his team managed to win this one, given that he actually tried staying in character every now and then, and was "donated" items like cucumbers and corn from an enthusiastic member of the audience who had just gone about doing his grocery shopping.

For those who had bought the VCD or DVD, the directors and cast were on hand to autograph the items, and even those who had not made purchases, they were also able to meet the team up close, and obtain an autographed poster. How cool is that?


text: stefan shih photos: richard lim jr

Its a wrap!

moviexClusive was on location for the final post production shooting of the new local film "Just Follow Law" staring Fann Wong and Gurmit Singh. Take a sneak peek of what's to be in the future poster...

Winners of the 2nd Asian Festival of First Films (AFFF)

The esteemed jury of acclaimed actress Cecilia Yip, documentarian Michael Yorke, director Ketan Mehta, screenwriter Jim Hart and cinematographer Volker Langhoff gifted China's "The Road" Best Film, Best Script and the new Foreign Press Choice’s Purple Orchid award, making it the big winner on Wednesday's star-studded awards ceremony at the Jubilee Hall.


The List of Winners:

Best Film
The Road (China)

Best Producer
Ramakant Gaikwad, Dombivli Fast (India)
Lam Nguyen, Journey from the Fall (US)

Best Director
Nishikanth Kamat, Dombivli Fast (India)
Ham Tran, Journey from the Fall (US)

Best Actor
Le Go, The Road in the Air (Taiwan)

Best Actress
Kangana Ranaut, Gangster (India)

Best Screenplay
Yuan Daju and Zhang Jiarui, The Road (China)

Best Cinematographer
Tassaduq Hussain, Omkara (India)
Bobby Singh, Gangster (India)

Best Documentary
One Show Less (India)

Best Director of Documentary
Roseanne Liang, Banana in a Nutshell (New Zealand)

Foreign Press Association Choice
The Road (China)

DEATH NOTE Fever Is Back In Singapore This December!

DEATH NOTE, the film adaptation of the popular Japanese manga of the same name is the highest grossing Japanese movie in Singapore for 2006! It grossed over S$1.4 million after playing in the theatres for 4 weeks. Come 28th December, its sequel DEATH NOTE 2 THE LAST NAME will hit our screens islandwide!

This sequel will see Light join the task force to search for Kira in an effort to avert suspicion from himself and also, to get rid of L. The mystery deepens as another Death Note with its shinigami, is brought into the human world. A second and third Kira complicates the mystery. Making things even more unpredictable are the ‘Eyes of Death’, given to the second Kira, enabling the owner to know the true identity and lifespan of any person. Who will be the Last name?

In anticipation of popular demand, distributors Golden Village Pictures and Encore Films have arranged for two special marathons held at GV Plaza and GV Tampines on Friday, 29th December. Fans will be able to enjoy both DEATH NOTE and DEATH NOTE 2 THE LAST NAME in a single screening at a price of $19. One DEATH NOTE 2 THE LAST NAME pocket calendar will also be given out for every two tickets purchased.

Tickets for the two marathon screenings can be purchased via all GV sales channel (GV box office, GV website, telephone booking hotline and AXS machines) from Thursday, 14th December onwards.

http://www.moviexclusive.com/review/deathnote2/deathnote2thelastname.htm

"CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER" SINGAPORE GALA

CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, China's submission for the Academy Awards®, will be released in Singapore by Buena Vista International.

Directed by critically acclaimed Zhang Yimou (Hero, Raise the Red Lantern) and produced by Bill Kong (Fearless, House of Flying Daggers), the film sees the comeback of the veteran actor, Chow Yun Fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, coming Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End) to the Asian movie scene. The veteran actor is joined by notable actress Gong Li (Miami Vice, Memoirs of a Geisha) for the first time. The movie also casts a leading role for Asia's pop idol, Jay Chou (Initial D,) in his period epic debut.

In the spirit of such a landmark film, the leading cast will be in Singapore to promote the film and to grace the Gala Premiere of the movie. The event will be held at the Golden Village Cineplex at VivoCity on December 12, 2006.

Curse of the Golden Flower is the most ambitious undertaking in Chinese contemporary filmmaking history which brings Zhang Yimou's production to an even greater height. It promises to be Zhang's most colorful and biggest production to date, fusing great visual composition with high drama and romantic intrigue.

The sense of opulence is intensely portrayed in the movie through the extensive use of the color gold and elaborate costumes. Colorful Chinese art glass forms the entire structure of the palace from the pillars, walls and windows, to intensify hues and translucence. The end result is both astonishing and elaborate.

An epic tale of love, betrayal and ultimately vengeance the plot concerns the volatile balance of power between the King (Chow Yun Fat), the Queen (Gong Li) and his three sons in the mysterious Tang Dynasty Imperial palace grounds.

"Curse of the Golden Flower" opens in Singapore theatres December 21, 2006

Asian Festival of First Films (AFFF) 2006

The 2^nd Asian Festival of First Films is coming to an end on December 5^th 2006. If you’ve yet to catch them, reserve your tickets with Golden Village’s online booking service. You can also purchase them at the Arts House.

The 22 nominated first films and documentaries will compete for nine awards in the categories of: Best Film, Best Director, Best Producer, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Script or Screenplay, Best Cinematographer or Editor, Best Documentary, and Best Director (Documentary).

This year’s nominee list includes, two Singaporean films in “Becoming Royston”, garnering 3 nominations including Best Script and “A Hero’s Journey” which is up for Best Documentary!

The festival culminates in a grand, star-studded Awards Night at Jubilee Hall, where the results of the competition will be announced.

The screening schedule AFFF 2006: http://www.asianfirstfilms.com/screen_schedule.pdf