The Week in Pop Culture: March 1 - 9
K-Pop group Twice wins Breakthrough Award at Billboard 2023 Women in Music: The K-Pop girl group, Twice is arguably one of the biggest names in the industry at present. Finding immense domestic success and popularity right from the beginning of their career in 2015, they have continued to grow steadily and established a loving fanbase internationally. The group attended the Billboard 2023 Women in Music event held at the YouTube Theater on March 1 2023 and dazzled the audience with their spectacular performance of the group’s second English-language single “Moonlight Sunrise”. Twice was honoured with the Breakthrough Award that evening with the members expressing this win was particularly significant for them as it represented their confidence in achieving their dreams with the help of their fans.
Everything Everywhere All At Once continues to its victory run at the Spirit Awards: Everything Everywhere All At Once has been making successful rounds at award shows with many accords to its name already. Recently at the Independent Spirit Awards held on March 4 2023, the film bagged seven awards out of its eight nominations. The directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert a.k.a Daniels won the awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay while Michelle Yeoh received Best Lead Performance. Best Supporting Performance was won by Ke Huy Quan who secured the award against co-star Jamie Lee Curtis. Stephanie Hsu nabbed Best Breakthrough Performance and the film won Best Feature. Everything Everywhere All At Once became the film with the most wins in the history of the award show. With eleven nominations at the Oscars, Everything Everywhere All At Once is set to win big. The film has been regarded as a big step forward in Asian representation in Hollywood.
Deepika Padukone set to be the third Indian presenter at the Oscars so far: Indian actress, Deepika Padukone, is joining the list of 2023 Oscars presenters with stars such as Riz Ahmed, Emily Blunt, Michael B. Jordan, Dwayne Johnson and many others. Persis Khambatta, who starred in 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, was the first Indian presenter at the Oscars in 1980 followed by Priyanka Chopra much later in 2016. Her presence coincides with a big year for India at the Oscars, with RRR bagging a nomination for Best Original Song with “Nattu Nattu”, All That Breathes scoring a nomination Best Documentary Feature and The Elephant Whisperers being nominated for Best Documentary Short Film.
Hong Kong FILMART makes its in-person comeback in 2023: The Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART) is set to make an in-person return at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai after 3 years. The event will take place from March 13-16 and will include exhibitions from around 25 countries including China, India, Italy, South Korean and many more. The exhibition will feature many domestic blockbusters such as Soi Cheang’s “Mad Fate”, Felix Chong’s “The Goldfinger” which features Andy Lau and Tony Leung, and many others. FILMART is the region’s largest entertainment content market and will also host screenings and seminars.
15% increase in Asia content spending by Netflix in 2023 following a massive growth in revenue from the region: Netflix, the streaming platform, is said to planning a local content investment of $1.9 billion in Asia-Pacific region in 2023 following an increase in group revenue in the region by 12%. According to Media Partners Asia, a Singapore-based research and analysis firm, India and Indonesia will be the fastest growing markets for Netflix in Asia. Other major players for the platform are Japan, South Korea, Philippines and Thailand.
