While the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival was forced to cancel its 55th edition this summer amid the coronavirus, the event plans to screen 16 films at 96 theaters across Czech Republic from July 3-11. Cinemas in the market opened earlier this month, though not the major circuits and with a ban on concessions. The KVIFF At Your Cinema program will include titles from festivals that ran from last fall through this year’s Berlinale. Among the European premieres are Zeina Durra’s drama Luxor, Fernanda Valadez’ debut Identifying Features and Maite Alberdi’s spy comedy/documentary The Mole Agent. Ohter films include Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth, Pablo Larrain’s Ema, Alma Har’el’s Honey Boy, Gregory Monro’s Kubrick By Kubrick, Bassam Tariq’s Mogul Mowgli and Alice Winocour’s Proxima.
The Taipei Film Festival plans to go ahead as scheduled from June 25-July 11, organizers announced today. However, there will be no overseas visitors to the event. The fest also set its opening and closing films with the world premiere of Ke Zhennian’s Silent Forest and Tsai Ming-liang’s Days taking up those respective slots. The festival, related activities and the Taipei Film Awards ceremony will be handled in accordance with the recommendations and regulations of the Central Epidemic Command Center. Those include the wearing of masks, temperature taking, distanced seating and limited occupancy. Taiwan’s movie theaters never closed during the coronavirus outbreak, but if a large-scale group infection occurs within two weeks before the festival begins, it will be canceled.
Korea’s CJ ENM has ordered a third season of The Voice Of Korea which will premiere on its music channel Mnet. The seven-episode run will begin on May 29. This latest order of the ITV Studios original format comes after the competition series was licensed for the second time since 2013 last April. Top local artists Kim Jong-kook, BoA, Sung Si-kyung and Dynamic Duo have joined as the blind judge coaches. The previous seasons of The Voice Of Korea founded such artists as Sonnet Son and U Sung-eun.