GETTING IN FRONT OF THE COMPETITION
The International Olympic Committee said on Thursday that Swiss-based, Chinese-owned Infront Sports & Media would handle broadcast right sales in much of Asia for the next series of Summer and Winter games.
The deal covers 22 territories including Afghanistan, Brunei, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam – but not China, Japan or South Korea, and runs 2026-2032. That means it will cover the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and the Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 Summer games. The 2030 Winter Olympics, which have yet to be allocated a host, and all Youth Olympic Games during this period will also be covered.
Infront, which is headed by Philippe Blatter and has been owned by China’s Dalian Wanda since 2015, replaces the Japanese advertising and marketing giant Dentsu, which had handled the rights since 2014. Infront already handles Olympic broadcast tights in sub-Saharan Africa.
Dentsu and other companies have been charged in Japan with collusion in commercial contracts for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. A former Dentsu executive is charged in a separate Olympic bribery case. And the company is implicated in a French investigation into IOC vote buying.
“We look forward to working with Infront to ensure fans across the region have access to comprehensive Olympic coverage, through both digital and free-to-air television,” said Anne-Sophie Voumard, the MD for IOC television and marketing services.
ROMANTIC WRAP
Taiwanese filmmaker, Tom Lin Shu-Yu (“The Garden of Evening Mists,” “Zinnia Flower”) has completed principal photography in Kuala Lumpur and Vancouver on his first U.S. film, romantic comedy “Worth the Wait.”
It follows a year in the interconnected lives and romances of an all-Asian ensemble cast. The players include Lana Condor (“To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”), Andrew Koji (“Bullet Train,” “Warrior”), Ross Butler (“Shazam!” franchise,), Sung Kang (“Fast & Furious” franchise, “Obi-Wan Kenobi”), Elodie Yung (“The Cleaning Lady,” “Daredevil”), Karena Lam (“American Girl,” “Zinnia Flower”), Osric Chau (“Supernatural,” “The Flash”), Ali Fumiko Whitney (“The Road Dance”), Ricky He (“The Good Doctor”), Tan Kheng Hua (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “Kung Fu”) and Lim Yu-Beng (“Rebel Moon,” “Mr. Midnight: Beware the Monsters”).
The film has a screenplay by Maggie Hartmans. It is produced by Dan Mark and Rachel Tan under their shingle, King Street Pictures (“Snakehead”); George Lee and Marcus Englefield on behalf of their company, Storyoscopic Films (“Animal Crackers”); and Vincent Xie of Waymaker Pictures. Its financiers are Waymaker Pictures and Jupiter Peak Productions
NIPPON AWARDS
Four awards were presented at the conclusion of the 23rd Nippon Connection Film Festival in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, which was attended by some 18,500 visitors.
The Nippon Cinema Award went to Suzuki Masayuki’s “Yudo,” while the Nippon Visions Jury Award was awarded to “Your Lovely Smile” by Lim Kah Wai. A special mention from the jury went to “Sayonara Girls,” by Nagakawa Shun, while the Nippon Visions Audience Award went to “Hoarded on the Border,” by Kayano Takayuki. The Nippon Docs Award was claimed by “My Anniversaries,” by Kim Sungwoong.
Selected films of the festival will be shown as part of the thematic focus “Cityscapes & Countryside” in the upcoming months in the cinemas of the Rhine-Main area. Festival organizers announced that the event will return next year from May 28 to June 2, 2024.
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