The Asian Film Awards Academy has announced a series of events surrounding the annual Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong. The upcoming activities include a joint masterclass featuring veteran filmmakers Kurosawa Kiyoshi from Japan and Fruit Chan from Hong Kong, who will share their filmmaking experiences and artistic concepts. Thai star Metawin Opas-Iamkajorn, popularly known as Win from the '2gether' series and film, will be honored with the AFA Rising Star Award, and the world premiere of his new film 'Under Parallel Skies' will take place during the event.
Additionally, there will be six themed panel discussions with actors Wan Fang, Rachel Leung, Yoyo Tse, Tergel Bold-Erdene, Awat Ratanapintha, and Shirata Mihaya, along with filmmakers and industry professionals such as Nick Cheuk, Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, Dominic Sangma, Tim Yip, Eric Lam, Man Lim Chung, Mitsumatsu Keiko, Elaine Ng, Zhang Menglun, Keith Chan Hiu Chun, Matthieu Laclau, Yamazaki Azusa, Kitagawa Yoshio, and Chengma Zhiyuan.
The events and masterclass are scheduled for March 8-9, with the awards ceremony set for March 10 and the premiere of Win's film on March 11. In other news, Michael Katzer has been appointed as the new head of international at MGM+. Josh McIvor, the company's global general manager, announced that Katzer will oversee MGM+'s business operations outside of the U.S., focusing on day-to-day activities, long-term strategy, and planning. Katzer, who previously worked at Disney and played a significant role in Amazon's acquisition of MGM, will relocate to London in March and report directly to McIvor.
McIvor highlighted Katzer's successful leadership in integrating Lionsgate+ into MGM+ in South America and Europe, resulting in MGM+ becoming the second most subscribed Prime Video Channel outside the U.S. He expressed confidence in Katzer's ability to further develop MGM+ into a premium channel across all key international regions. Katzer, a graduate of Harvard and Stanford business schools, brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his new role at MGM+.
