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Korean drama Firefighters rose to the top of the local box office this weekend, despite a swell of political controversy linked to the director’s brother.

The film opened on December 4 and ranked second after its first weekend but has climbed to the top on its second outing, taking $4.38m from just over 657,000 admissions and a 41.9% market share from Friday to Sunday (December 13-15). The 17% uptick in sales from its opening weekend has brought its cume to $11.7m, according to Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s box office tracking service.

Awareness of the film has risen as the brother of...

Disney’s Moana 2 surged to the top of the Korean box office on its opening weekend, commanding 58% of ticket sales on one of the busiest weekends of the year.

The animated sequel earned an impressive $7.1m from Friday through Sunday (November 29 - December 1), according to data provided by Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s box office tracking service.

The strong performance appears to have revitalised a sluggish Korean box office that had seen weekend earnings dip below $10m for 10 consecutive weeks. Within its first five days in theatres, the film has racked up a cume of $8.9m, already positioning...

‘Shoplifters’.

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) today announced the nine films nominated for this year’s Best Asian Film award.

This is the second year Aacta has presented the award, which forms the foundation for the organisation’s Asia International Engagement Program. The award is meant to recognise the calibre of films from the Asian region and their growing popularity in Australasia and around the world – Asian films have contributed $36 million to the Aussie box office in the last 12 months.

This year’s nominees are: Joon-Hwan Jang’s 1987 When the Day Comes (South Korea); Yang Ya-che’s The Bold, The Corrupt and the Beautiful (Taiwan); Muye Wen’s Dying to Survive (China); Dipesh Jain’s Gali Guleiyan (India); Amit V. Masurkar’s Newton (India); Raj Kumar Hirani’s Sanju (India); Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters (Japan), which won the Palme d’Or; Australian director Seth Lareny’s...

The 16th edition of the Mumbai Film Festival announced its line-up in a press conference today.

Here is the complete list of films which will be screened at the festival:-

International Competition

Difret

Dir.: Zeresenay Berhane Mehari (Ethiopia / 2014 / Col / 99)

History of Fear (Historia del miedo)

Dir.: Benjamin Naishtat (Argentina-France-Germany-Qatar-Uruguay / 2014 / Col / 79)

With Others (Ba Digaran)

Dir.: Nasser Zamiri (Iran / 2014 / Col / 85)

The Tree (Drevo)

Dir.: Sonja Prosenc (Slovenia / 2014 / Col / 90)

Next to Her (At li layla)

Dir.: Asaf Korman (Israel / 2014 / Col / 90)

Schimbare

Dir.: Alex Sampayo (Spain / 2014 / Col / 87)

Fever

Dir.: Raphaël Neal (France / 2014 / Col / 81)

Court

Dir.: Chaitanya Tamhane (India (Marathi-Gujarati-English-Hindi) / 2014 / Col / 116)

Macondo

Dir.: Sudabeh Mortezai (Austria / 2014 / Col / 98)

India Gold Competition 2014

The Fort (Killa)

Dir.: Avinash Arun (India (Marathi) / 2014 / Col / 107)

Unto the Dusk

Dir.: Sajin Baabu (India (Malayalam) / 2014 / Col / 118)

Names Unknown (Perariyathavar)

Dir.: Dr. Biju (India (Malayalam) / 2014 / Col / 110)

Buddha In a Traffic Jam

Dir.

Fictionalized from actual events, the South Korean blockbuster hit The Attorney (original title Byeon-ho-in) debuts on DVD and digital June 17th from Well Go USA Entertainment. The Attorney is directed by Woo-seok Yang.

International superstar Song Kang-ho (Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Snowpiercer) stars in this courtroom drama as a shady lawyer who takes on an important case involving government brutality. The film was nominated for Best Actor (Song Kang-ho), Best Newcomer (Yim Si-wan) and Best Supporting Actress (Kim Yeong-ae) at the 2014 Asian Film Awards.

Synopsis

Song Woo-seok has no clients, connections, or a college degree, but his eye for business and appetite for money make him the most successful lawyer in town. But at the peak of his success, a local teenager is falsely accused of a crime, then beaten and tortured while waiting in jail. Shocked by these conditions, Song takes the case no one else will,...