‘Balloon’ wins top award at Hainan film fest

“Balloon,” the latest feature by Tibetan novelist and filmmaker Pema Tseden, won the best picture award at the Second Hainan International Film Festival that concluded on Sunday.

The best director award went to Chinese filmmaker Lina Wang for her intimate and affecting debut feature “A First Farewell.”

More than 200 movies were shown during the weeklong event, first launched in December last year.

‘The Favourite’ wins big at EFA

“The Favourite” was the big winner at the European Film Awards in Berlin on Saturday night, winning eight trophies, including for best European Film of 2019.

But the biggest story going into this year’s awards was the EFA’s decision to nominate Roman Polanski’s period drama “An Officer and a Spy” in four of the main categories, including European film, European director, European screenplay (for co-writers Polanski and Robert Harris) as well as European actor for French star Jean Dujardin.

Swift drops Xmas song

Taylor Swift has released a Christmas song. “Christmas Tree Farm,” released on Thursday, comes with a shiny music video — compiled from the Swift family’s festive home movies from years gone by.

Fanning sisters to play sisters in new movie

Elle Fanning and Dakota Fanning will play onscreen sisters in TriStar Pictures’ adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s “The Nightingale.”

Melanie Laurent will direct from a script by Dana Stevens. Elizabeth Cantillon will be the producer. (SD-Agencies)