Oscars: Hong Kong Submits Crime Thriller ‘Where the Wind Blows’ To International Feature Race; Estonia Picks ‘Kalev’
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Hong Kong has selected the crime thriller Where the Wind Blows as its official submission to this year’s International Feature Oscar race.
Directed by Philip Yung, the film follows four corrupt police officers who rose to power in 1960s Hong Kong played Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Aaron Kwok, Patrick Tam, and Michael Chow.
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With a reported budget of $38m, the crime epic is one of the most expensive Hong Kong films of all time.
The film was set to open the 2021 edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival, but it was pulled from the lineup shortly before its world premiere with festival organizers citing “technical reasons.”
Vague technical issues have increasingly become a common euphemism for last-ditch censorship efforts by Chinese film regulators. Similar “technical issues” were cited when the Shanghai film festival yanked the Huayi Brothers’ big-budget Chinese war drama The Eight Hundred from its lineup on the eve of the event’s opening night. Where the Wind Blows was re-selected for this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival and opened the event in August.
In other international Oscars news, a jury convened by the Estonian Film Institute (EFI) has selected Ove Musting’s film Kalev as the country’s pick for the International Feature Film race.
Kalev is the story of Estonia’s national basketball team, who won the last Soviet Union Cup on 6 May 1991. Less than four months later, the Soviet Union collapsed
“With each passing year it becomes harder and harder to pick just one film to represent Estonia,” said Edith Sepp, the head of the EFI. “This year was no different!” An independent jury led by Sepp selected this year’s nominee from 11 candidates, which included documentaries in addition to live-action films.
Kalev received four votes from the jury. The runner-up, which received three votes, was Jaak Kilmi’s family film Tagurpidi Torn (The Sleeping Beast).
The film was directed by Ove Musting, shot by Rein Kotov, designed by Tiiu-Ann Pello, composed by Mihkel Zilmer, and produced by Pille Rünk and Maria Avdjuško. It is an Allfilm and Ugri Film co-production distributed by Hea Film.
Here are the International Oscar entries so far:
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