LOS ANGELES ― Jeffrey Katzenberg was visiting the University of Southern California recently when a faculty member stopped to chat with him. As the two parted ways, the DreamWorks Animation chief urged him: “Just keep sending me magicians.” The magicians Katzenberg seeks are animators, in high demand as the art form has exploded not only in movies and video games but also arenas such as medical ...

Defector makes first movie based on his early life in N. Korea When he was growing up, death was not shocking but ordinary. He saw dead bodies in the street, people being executed in public, and people dying of hunger. North Korean defector Kim Gyoo-min, who has been living in South Korea since 2001, is debuting as a film director with “Winter Butterfly.” Based on a true tragic incident that K...

Actor Lee Chun-hee and child actress Kim Sae-ron have been appointed as promotional ambassadors for the 13th Seoul International Youth Film Festival, which begins July 7. The festival has been a venue for youngsters to share their culture through films and media education since 1999. This year, a total of 143 films from 37 countries, featuring stories of youth, children and growing up will be s...

SHENZHEN (AP) ― After building a name for himself in the South Korean film and TV industries, Kwon Sang-woo is setting his sights on another booming Asian entertainment market ― China. The 34-year-old actor is shooting a Chinese-language romance alongside Hong Kong actress Cecilia Cheung and will next join the Jackie Chan project “Chinese Zodiac.” Kwon, who shot to fame with the 2003 TV drama “...

Mama (Korea) Opening June 1 Drama. Directed by Choi Ik-hwan. Featuring the stories of three different mothers and their children, director Choi Ik-hwan’s “Mama” tells what mothers mean to the traditional and contemporary Korean mentality. Hyung-seok, a 5-year-old boy who suffers from a fatal heart disease, lives with his mom Dong-sook (Uhm Jung-hwa) alone. Being a single mother, Dong-sook works...

Quality proven but without vital connections, Korean films struggle to crack Hollywood LOS ANGELES ― Cinema 2 of CGV in Los Angeles, U.S., was a full house on the night of the sneak preview of the South Korean movie “Late Autumn” this month. The English-speaking audience, about 70 percent of whom had Asian features, laughed and sniffled their way through the two-hour movie starring Korean heartt...

Award-winning French actress in town promoting new movie and photography exhibition France’s star actress Isabelle Huppert showed up on Thursday at The Museum of Photography, Seoul in Bangi-dong, eastern Seoul, decked in a dark brown dress and a black leather jacket, flashing the cool “French chic” smile at the press crowded to see her. “This is my second time here since I visited the 1998 Busa...

Fewer women making R-rated comedies than 15-20 years ago In corporate America, it’s no longer a surprise to see a woman running a giant company like eBay or Hewlett-Packard. But in Hollywood, where actresses have far shorter careers than actors do, and male stars are paid far more than leading ladies, there are still mountains to climb. That’s especially true in the comedy world, which is domina...

Bill Pohlad (L) and Dede Gardner, producers of the American film "The Tree of Life", present the Palme d'Or in Cannes, France, May 22, 2011. The film by American director Terrence Malick has won the 2011 Golden Palm (Palme d'Or), the most prestigious award of the 64th Cannes International Film Festival ending on Sunday night. (Xinhua-Yonhap News) CANNES, France (AP) _ American director Terrence ...

Cinematic self-portrait ‘Arirang’ gains international recognition Kim Ki-duk, one of the best known Korean auteurs overseas, received a coveted sidebar prize at Cannes on Saturday for his wrenching cinematic self-portrait “Arirang.” Kim shared his Un Certain Regard best picture prize with German director Andreas Dresen, who received it for the film “Stopped on Track.” “Arirang” is an emotional...

Cinematic self-portrait ‘Arirang’ gains international recognition Kim Ki-duk, one of the best known Korean auteurs overseas, received a coveted sidebar prize at Cannes on Saturday for his wrenching cinematic self-portrait “Arirang.” Kim shared his Un Certain Regard best picture prize with German director Andreas Dresen, who received it for the film “Stopped on Track.” “Arirang” is an emotional...

Goodbye, Boy (Korea) Opening June 2 Drama. Directed by Roh Hong-jin. Middle school boy Jin-woo gets a part-time job delivering newspapers in the early morning, to help his mother who supports the family by herself. His father has always been unemployed, suffering from alcohol addiction. And his sister, who attends high school, has no aspirations for her future. Jin-woo runs into another boy nam...

After decades of dark excess, Keith Richards seems wildly out of place at family-friendly Disneyland. But on a recent Saturday, there he was, a rock ‘n’ roll exile on Main Street USA, attending the massive movie premiere of “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” the fourth installment in the blockbuster franchise in which he briefly appears as Capt. William Teague, father to Johnny Depp’s...

Actresses Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kirsten Dunst and director Lars Von Trier arrive for the screening of Melancholia at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France. (AP-Yonhap News) CANNES, France (AFP) - Cannes barred provocative Danish director Lars von Trier on Thursday amid a growing backlash over his remarks about Adolf Hitler, but his film remains in the race for the fest...