What’s happening to us
October 24th, 2024
King Baby in the contenders list from Raindance Maverick Award!
Each year, Raindance celebrates these creative, cash-conscious and risk-taking filmmakers with the Raindance Maverick Award at the annual BIFAs (British Independent Film Awards C.I.C), the awards ceremony founded by Raindance in 1998. This award honours maverick films made with a budget of under £1M. King Baby which was done for less than 300 K Euros is one of the 13 contenders this year. The 5 final nomines will be be disclosed on November 5th and the winner will be revealed at the 27th British Independant Film Awards ceremony at Roundhouse on Sunday 8 December.
BIFA (British Independent Film Awards C.I.C.) is an internationally renowned organisation that celebrates, promotes, and supports independent filmmaking and filmmakers in the UK. Founded in 1998, BIFA has championed the best and most innovative independently funded British filmmaking for over 25 years, working at the heart of the industry to nurture emerging talent, promote fair practice, and develop a broader, more inclusive audience for British independent film.
Full list of longlist selected movies here
October 20th, 2024
More festivals! King Baby soon in Belfast, then in London Fantastic Festival!
It will be our first public screening in London! King Baby is one of the 8 movies in competition at London International Fantastic Film Festival (Nov. 18-Dec. 1). Screening on Sat November, 30th, 1.30pm, BLOC Cinema.
Before that, we will be in New Cinema section of Belfast Film Festival, catch it on Sat, Nov 9, 1:15 PM GMT, at Queen's Film Theatre Screen 2. Here is how the festuval introduces our movie: “Hilariously performed by Graham Dickson and Neil Chinneck and with an edge that defies its bucolic scenery, the film takes you on an absurdist journey through a dark fairytale and leaves it up to you to decide what exactly it all means.” Merci Belfast ! Among the other movies in the selection: Grand Tour, by Miguel Gomes, and Hard Truths by British giant Mike Leigh.
Links for getting tickets and intel about venues on the movie website homepage
In October, King Baby had its Australian (and Southerm hemisphere) premiere at SXSW Sydney. In September, the movie screened at PRIFEST, the Prishtina International Film Festival.In August KING BABY had its UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival as part of the first ever MIDNIGHT MADNESS section! In July KING BABY played at the prestigious NEW HORIZONS International Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland to rave reviews! It all started in January with our world premiere at Rotterdam International Film Festival!
July 10th, 2024
King Baby joins Alien and The Substance in Midnight Madnes section of Edimburgh Festival!
Founded in 1947 when it was known as the International Festival of Documentary Films, Edinburgh International Film Festival is the world’s oldest continually running film festival (Cannes and Venice stopped during WW2). Following the 2023 edition, a new organisation was established under chairman Andrew Macdonald to lead a revitalised EIFF from 2024 onwards. Paul Ridd was appointed incoming Festival Director in December 2023. The long-running EIFF returned to its traditional August position in 2022, having had a period of June slots, since 2008. This year, it will run from August 15 to August 21, 2024, in parallel to a host of creative festivals taking place in Edinburgh, including Edinburgh International Festival and the renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The festival includes several sections, including a competitive one of ten World-Premieres, but also a Midnight Madness section which the new Director Paul Ridd describes this way: “From unsettling wooden mannequins to sharing a cocktail with an AI-generated Marilyn Monroe, our twilight programme aims to take you on a wild ride through an uncanny selection of films. All of the screenings will be introduced, and most screen with a complimenting short, meaning you’ll have even more of a reason to burn the midnight oil with us”. And this where our King Baby with our two fabulous actors Graham Dickson and Neil Chinneck and the mannequin, will have its UK Premiere , alongside movies such a Fox’s Alien: Romulus (Opening) or Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance!
Here is what Edimburgh’s Flora Stokes writes about our movie: “A surreal comedy about serving others, arrogance, and the slippery nature of power. Prompted by a royal vision, a king and his servant carve themselves a queen. After the introduction of this wooden figure, tensions grow as the divisions of power and responsibility between the men begin to crumble. The film’s enigmatic performances, playful costumes, and absurd staging – in the ruins of a castle – make for a royally unexpected watch.”
We totally agree. Merci Flora. Screening for King Baby on August 18th at The Cameo. Kit Redstone & Arran Shearing will be there!
https://www.edfilmfest.org/film/king-baby/
January 28th, 2024
World premiere in Rotterdam for King Baby!
It was an amazing moment! Our movie King Baby, directed by Kit & Arran was for the very first time presented to an audience, and… they loved it! The audience was the crowd of the Rotterdam Festival, which had selected our film in the Bright Future selection, dedicated to first features. A big part of the team made it to the screening at the Kino theater: with Kit & Arran were our two stars, Graham Dickson and Neil Chinneck and Leonidas, all from the UK. But also our DP Ryan Petey and Anna Shearing, both arrived from Vancouver, and executive producers, the globe-floating Davin Ansel and Lady Sophie Duez, who first introduced the project to us @ Ghosts City. The Q&A went very well.
We had two other screenings at Rotterdam, at the Pathé (best sound and image) and at the vintage-looking Cinerama. Thank you IFFR team.
November 11th, 2023
Taiwanese premiere at the Golden Horse Festival for Salli
This was the premiere of the movie in its home territory Taiwan: Chien-hung's first movie SALLI was selected by the prestigious Golden Horse festival in Taipei. We met several team members who were not involved in the French leg of the production, such as Tang Yung-hsu, the cool teenage actress who perfectly plays the niece of the heroin. The movie has also been selected by the Osaka and Göteborgh film festivals.
September 5th, 2023
Salli selected by Busan International Film Festival
Lien Chien-hung's first movie SALLI will be selected in Busan next month, Window on Asian Cinema section! We liked working with this Taiwanese team for the shoot in Paris in September-October 2022. Around 25 minutes of the film takes place in Paris, as we follow the heroin. Salli is a chicken farmer who comes to Paris to meet a man she fell in love with on the internet. And nothing goes as planned. Ghosts was line-producing the production's French leg, and both Ye Shu and Franck Priot have coproducer credits. We got the support of CNC’s Tax Rebate for International Productions.
September, 11th, 2022
Ghosts City organizes a new Asian shoot in Paris!
Our daughter company, Ghosts City, was created with Chinese producer Shu Ye in 2016 and its main activity is to line-produce Asian series and movies in France. We recently signed with a Tawainese production company ENLA Media to produce its new project in France, SALLI, to be shot at the end of September in Paris
We will shoot in Paris’s iconic locations such as the Alexandre III Bridge, Bir Hakeim Bridge, and Charles de Gaulle Airport. Our cast and crew will blend Taiwanese and French crew members. This “dramedy” movie about a Taiwanese woman being catfished by a French art gallery owner will have its national release in Taiwan. SALLI got qualified to get the support of the Tax Rebate for International Production.
August, 30th, 2022
Shooting dream sequences in a studio in Vancouver
There are some dream sequences in King Baby, which we had not shot on the Cévennes hill in May, as they required special effects. Eventually, they were shot in Vancouver, where Arran and our Canadian crew members live. Jasmine Albuquerque is the dream queen and Ryan Spencer the dream demon. Canadian company Greendale (Marc Petey) was line producing the 3-days shoot on behalf of producers Chimple Pictures and Ghosts City.
May, 5th, 2022
KING BABY, or “How to transform the ancient ruins of a castle into an outdoor film studio”
A warped modern fairy-tale plays out in a crumbling ‘kingdom’ populated only by a King and a Servant. The arrival of a mannequin Queen throws their power dynamic into disarray and their carefully constructed world begins to fracture into isolation, madness, and murderous megalomania…
This is how writers/directors Arran Shearing and Kit Redstone are pitching their feature film King Baby, to be shot in one key location, the ruins of a castle. “From its conception, King Baby was designed to exist within the ruins of a former castle, surrounded by nature. When developing the film in the South of France, the surrounding areas and remnants of historical buildings were so resplendent that we knew we had to shoot there. The crumbling ruins will heighten the surreal madness of the film while the French landscape has a fairy-tale quality that transcends that of British woodland. It will almost look like England but not quite”.
Château d’Allègre is the castle that the two directors found and immediately fell in love with. It’s a maze of crumbling walls and ancient trees in Occitania, Southern France. For three weeks, beginning on May 9th, we will be shooting there every day. The location is a huge space abundant with nature – ruins that teem with wildlife and sunlight, at the top of a hill surrounded by a panorama of jaw-dropping landscape. “The light is incredible” exclaims Canadian cinematographer Ryan Petey. To shoot in such a remote location, the French production team is in the process of connecting to the local electricity grid, transforming shelters into dressing rooms or DIT facilities, as well as organizing catering, and bringing toilets.
King Baby is produced by Kit’s company Vacuum Theatre, supported by Arts Council England who funded the development of the play by Kit and Neil Chinneck which the movie is based on. Vacuum Theatre is joined by Arran Shearing’s company in Canada, and our company, Ghosts City Films. Our Production service company, Ghosts City, is line-producing the shoot, and secured support for King Baby from the French National Cinema Centre’s Tax Rebate for International Productions.
April, 22th, 2022
Variety is devoting a nice article this morning to our Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah vs the Amazonistas of Planet X, for which our international seller SC Films will start sales at Cannes.
The article also reveals two of our new Cannes posters of the film directed by Avid Liongoren. This unique project, based on a cult comic book in the Philippines, will be the first animated film with openly LGBT characters.
ZsaZsa on Variety!
November, 2nd, 2021
Purin Pictures fund supports Yeo Joon Han’ You are here
Bangkok-based fund Purin Pictures selects and supports 8 to 10 feature film projects from South East Asia each year. At its last session, disclosed November 1st, Purin chose our feature film You are Here from Malaysian director Joon Han Yeo. The movie
You are Here is a dark meta-comedy told through the point of view of the main character, a director struggling to shoot an (auteur) film in Kuala Lumpur, despite an aggressive producer, a hitman from nowhere, and appearances of Jesus Christ! Oddly enough, this director is also called Yeo Joon han. As for the film his team and he are preparing, it seems more and more to be the one we are seeing… WTF?!?
The film is co-produced by the production company of the director Amok Films in Malaysia, and Ghosts City Films.
Surreal meta-fiction in Kuala Lumpur
Jeon Soo-il on the right, with his team at Busan Film Festival
Unveiled on October 8th at the Busan International Film Festival, in the presence of the team, our Korean co-production Last Film by Jeon Soo-he found an international seller, which in this case is KT Alpha, a subsidiary of the Korean telecom group KT Korea. Well received at the festival, the film will be released in Korea in March.
The pitch: Busan, South Korea, nowadays. Professor Park has a hard time managing his life, between his young students and the gangsters clamoring for the money he borrowed for his films that no one watches. When a cinephile thug offers him to write off his debt if he agrees to make a movie about his life, Park thinks he has found a way out… It was not a good idea!
May 17th, 2021,
We just did the first Asian shoot in France since the covid outbreak!
Last Saturday night, we wrapped our shoot in Paris for Indonesian tv serie Bali mon Amour. The last filming day was a delight as we were in the amazing musée Guimet, the museum of Asian arts in Paris. Despite the rain on Friday, the whole shoot was a wondeful experience, and the Indonesian team led by director Lasja Susatyo will fly back with all the shots they need!
Bali mon Amour is the first Asian production to come to France since covid exploded more than one year ago. With the help of Film France and the CNC, we got special Laissez-Passer allowing the indonesian cast and crew to enter France despite our borders are closed to non-EU citizens.
May 11 th, 2021
Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah vs the Amazonistas of Planet X gets the support of ICOF.
We got today the official confirmation of a very good news: our animated comedy Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah vs the Amazonistas of Planet X, directed by Avid Liongoren, will be suppported by Philippines governenment fund ICOF! That brings us nearly 20% of our budget, and it is a major step toward closing the financing of the movie, which already got support from Switzerland’s Visions Sud Est fund at Locarno and from Korea’s BIFAN. Aimlng at teens and tweens, Zsaz Zsa is the first ever animated comedy which characters are openly gay! Enjoy the teaser below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rjqObsVFe8
April 25th, 2021
Bali mon Amour…. in Paris!
One of our activities is to line produce Asian tv series and movies shoots in France, thru our daughter company Ghosts City, created with Chinese producer Shu Ye. We just signed with Jakarta’s PT Tree Communication, the company of indonesian producer Leni Lolang, for taking care of the shoot in Paris of Bali mon Amour. This 8 episodes serie will be broadcasted on I-Kanal, the new cultural channed about to be launched by the Indonesian governement. We will shoot in Paris iconic locations, as well as at the musée Guimet. Young eurasian star Estelle van der Linden plays the lead role, a Parisian girl with an Indonesian father going back to Bali for discovering her roots.
January 22, 2021
Occitanie region gives a development grant to our doc Yoko de Montmartre.
For sure, our documentary Yoko de Montmartre is gathering a lot of support! The Audiovisual Support Fund of the Occitanie Region has just granted us a Development grant for the project, written by Franck Priot (it’s me) with Hiromi Kimura, and directed by Joël Farges (whose beautiful film on Jinri Trinka “Trinka: un ami retrouvé” has just been broadcast at Christmas by Ciné+ and bought by Netflix for the world minus France.
December 14, 2020
Yoko de Montmartre gets CNC support for developement.
Our documentary project Yoko de Montmartre has been chosen for getting a Development Grant from the CNC, through their Image and Diversity Fund. This fund aims at supporting film and tv projects related to BIPOC and under-represented french minorities. We are delighted! The writer of the project Franck Priot had already obtained a Writing Grant last June. The film will be directed by Joël Farges.
October 18, 2020
Shooting a teaser at Studios de la Montjoie.
Filming in the studios of La Montjoie in Aubervilliers of an interview with the Japanese singer and cinephile Tomuya Endo, intended for a teaser of our documentary Yoko de Montmartre. Our director Joël Farges chose for this interview in Japanese, a beautiful scenography with projections on tulles placed behind Tomuya Endo. He wrote a biography of Yoko Tani, which came out while we were in the research phase on this documentary project devoted to the first Asian star of French and European cinema, making him one of the key Japanese witnesses of the film.
What’s happening
September 5th, 2023
“Salli” selected by Busan International Film Festival
Lien Chien-hung's first movie Salli is selected in Busan le mois prochain! Nous avons aimé travaillé avec cette équipe taiwanese lors du tournage à Paris du film fin-septembre-début-octobre 2022. Environ 25 minutes de l’intrigue du film se passe à Paris, suivant l’héroïne Salli, jouée par Esther Liu, qui vient rencontrer un homme rencontré sur internet. Ghosts City a assuré la production en France du film, don t environ 25 minutes se passe en France.
September, 11th, 2022
Ghosts City organizes a new Asian shoot in Paris!
Our daughter company Ghosts City, created with Chinese producer Shu Ye back in 2016 as as main activity to line-produce Asian series and movies shoots in France. We recently signed with a Tawainese production company ENLA Media to produce its new project in France, SALLI, to be shot end of September in Paris
We will shoot in Paris iconic locations such as the Alexandre III bridge, Bir Hakeim bridge and Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. Our cast and crew will blend Taiwanese and French crew members. This “dramedy” movie about a Taiwanese woman being catfished by a French art gallery owner will have a national release in Taiwan. SALLI got qualified to get the support of the Tax Rebate for International Production.
August, 30th, 2022
Shooting dreams sequences in a studio in Vancouver
There are some dream sequences in King Baby, which we had not shot on the hill in May, as they required special effects as well as nudity for the two characters, the dream queen and the dream demon. Jasmine Albuquerque and Ryan Spencer give them life. Canadian company Greendale was line producing the 3 days shoot on behalf of producers Vacuum Theatre, Little Bean (Arran Shearing), and Ghosts City.
May, 28th, 2022
KING BABY: IT’S A WRAP!
After 3 weeks of an intense shoot, King Baby production finally wrapped on the Allègre les Fumades Castle hill. Cast and crew members were proud of the work they did and left with emotion the beautiful scenery used as the set of the film. King Baby filming will be remembered as a unique experience for everybody on board, with challenges, artistry, and camaraderie aplenty. Directors Arran Shearing and Kit Redstone expressed their delight for what is now in the can, their gratitude to the cast and crew who worked hard days and nights on the project. After packing up all the equipment, the whole team participated to a fully deserved and joyful wrap-up party in La Bastide D’Engras.
April, 25th, 2022
KING BABY, or “How to transform the ancient ruins of a castle into a film studio”
A warped modern fairy-tale plays out in a crumbling ‘kingdom’ populated only by a King and a Servant. The arrival of a mannequin Queen throws their power dynamic into disarray and their carefully constructed world begins to fracture into isolation, madness, and murderous megalomania…
This is how writer/directors Arran Shearing and Kit Redstone are pitching their feature film King Baby, to be shot in one key location, the ruins of a castle. “From its conception, King Baby was designed to exist within the ruins of a former castle, surrounded by nature. When developing the film in the South of France, the surrounding areas and remnants of historical buildings were so resplendent that we knew we had to shoot there. The crumbling ruins will heighten the surreal madness of the film while the French landscape has a fairy-tale quality which transcends that of British woodland. It will almost look like England but not quite”.
Château d’Allègre is the castle that the two directors found and immediately fell in love with. It’s a maze of crumbling walls and ancient trees in Occitania, Southern France. For three weeks, beginning on May 9th, we will be shooting there every day. The location is a huge space abundant with nature – ruins which teem with wildlife and sunlight, at the top of a hill surrounded by a panorama of jaw-dropping landscape. “The light is incredible” exclaims Canadian cinematographer Ryan Petey. In order to shoot in such a remote location, the French production team is in the process of connecting to the local electricity grid, transforming shelters into dressing rooms or DIT facilities, as well as organizing catering and bringing toilets.
King Baby is produced by Kit’s company Vacuum Theatre, supported by Arts Council England who funded the development of the play by Kit and Neil Chinneck which the movie is based on. Vacuum Theatre is joined by Arran Shearing’s company in Canada, and our company, Ghosts City Films. Our Production service company, Ghosts City, is line producing the shoot, and secured support for King Baby from the French National Cinema Centre’s Tax Rebate for International Productions.
April, 22th, 2022
ZsaZsa on Variety!
Variety is devoting a nice article this morning to our Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah vs the Amazonistas of Planet X, for which our international seller SC Films will start sales at Cannes.
The article also reveals two of our new Cannes posters of the film directed by Avid Liongoren. This unique project, based on a cult comic book in the Philippines, will be the first animated film with openly LGBT characters.
November, 2nd, 2021
Purin Pictures fund supports You are here
Surreal meta-fiction in Kuala Lumpur
Bangkok-based fund Purin Pictures selects and supports 8 to 10 feature film projects from South East Asia each year. At its last session, disclosed November 1st, Purin chose our feature film You are Here from Malaysian director Joon Han Yeo.
You are Here is a dark meta-comedy told through the point of view of the main character, a director struggling to shoot an (auteur) film in Kuala Lumpur, despite an aggressive producer, a hitman from nowhere, and appearances of Jesus Christ! Oddly enough, this director is also called Yeo Joon han. As for the film his team and he are preparing, it seems more and more to be the one we are seeing… WTF?!?
The film is co-produced by MM2 (Singapore), the production company of the director, Amok Films in Malaysia, and therefore Ghosts City Films.
Octobre, 27th, 2021
Last Film premieres at Busan, picked up by sales company KT Alpha
Jeon Soo-il on the right, with his team at Busan Film Festival
Unveiled on October 8th at the Busan International Film Festival, in the presence of the team, our Korean co-production Last Film by Jeon Soo-he found an international seller, which in this case is KT Alpha, a subsidiary of the Korean telecom group KT Korea. Well received at the festival, the film will be released in Korea in March.
The pitch: Busan, South Korea, nowadays. Professor Park has a hard time managing his life, between his young students and the gangsters clamoring for the money he borrowed for his films that no one watches. When a cinephile thug offers him to write off his debt if he agrees to make a movie about his life, Park thinks he has found a way out… It was not a good idea!
May 17th, 2021,
We just did the first Asian shoot in France since the covid outbreak!
Last Saturday night, we wrapped our shoot in Paris for Indonesian tv serie Bali mon Amour. The last filming day was a delight as we were in the amazing musée Guimet, the museum of Asian arts in Paris. Despite the rain on Friday, the whole shoot was a wondeful experience, and the Indonesian team led by director Lasja Susatyo will fly back with all the shots they need!
Bali mon Amour is the first Asian production to come to France since covid exploded more than one year ago. With the help of Film France and the CNC, we got special Laissez-Passer allowing the indonesian cast and crew to enter France despite our borders are closed to non-EU citizens.
May 11 th, 2021
Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah vs the Amazonistas of Planet X gets the support of ICOF.
We got today the official confirmation of a very good news: our animated comedy Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah vs the Amazonistas of Planet X, directed by Avid Liongoren, will be suppported by Philippines governenment fund ICOF! That brings us nearly 20% of our budget, and it is a major step toward closing the financing of the movie, which already got support from Switzerland’s Visions Sud Est fund at Locarno and from Korea’s BIFAN. Aimlng at teens and tweens, Zsaz Zsa is the first ever animated comedy which characters are openly gay! Enjoy the teaser below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rjqObsVFe8
April 25th, 2021
Bali mon Amour…. in Paris!
One of our activities is to line produce Asian tv series and movies shoots in France, thru our daughter company Ghosts City, created with Chinese producer Shu Ye. We just signed with Jakarta’s PT Tree Communication, the company of indonesian producer Leni Lolang, for taking care of the shoot in Paris of Bali mon Amour. This 8 episodes serie will be broadcasted on I-Kanal, the new cultural channed about to be launched by the Indonesian governement. We will shoot in Paris iconic locations, as well as at the musée Guimet. Young eurasian star Estelle van der Linden plays the lead role, a Parisian girl with an Indonesian father going back to Bali for discovering her roots.
January 22, 2021
Occitanie region gives a development grant to our doc Yoko de Montmartre.
For sure, our documentary Yoko de Montmartre is gathering a lot of support! The Audiovisual Support Fund of the Occitanie Region has just granted us a Development grant for the project, written by Franck Priot (it’s me) with Hiromi Kimura, and directed by Joël Farges (whose beautiful film on Jinri Trinka “Trinka: un ami retrouvé” has just been broadcast at Christmas by Ciné+ and bought by Netflix for the world minus France.
December 14, 2020
Yoko de Montmartre gets CNC support for developement.
Our documentary project Yoko de Montmartre has been chosen for getting a Development Grant from the CNC, through their Image and Diversity Fund. This fund aims at supporting film and tv projects related to BIPOC and under-represented french minorities. We are delighted! The writer of the project Franck Priot had already obtained a Writing Grant last June. The film will be directed by Joël Farges.
October 18, 2020
Shooting a teaser at Studios de la Montjoie.
Filming in the studios of La Montjoie in Aubervilliers of an interview with the Japanese singer and cinephile Tomuya Endo, intended for a teaser of our documentary Yoko de Montmartre. Our director Joël Farges chose for this interview in Japanese, a beautiful scenography with projections on tulles placed behind Tomuya Endo. He wrote a biography of Yoko Tani, which came out while we were in the research phase on this documentary project devoted to the first Asian star of French and European cinema, making him one of the key Japanese witnesses of the film.