Uploaded November 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Join our mailing list: bit.ly/3E7oRsU 📧
See our upcoming events on the Cinema of Ideas: bit.ly/3GRWgcI 📽️
Subscribe to ICO YouTube: bit.ly/3rPktfi 💻
After the success of the first two installments, Tony Rayns returned to the Cinema of Ideas to continue his absorbing conversation with Simon Ward, sharing rare insights and stories about his influential career at the cutting edge of independent cinema.
In Part Three the conversation focused on Tony’s engagement with contemporary East Asian cinema, touching upon the work of some of the region’s most-acclaimed filmmakers over the last three decades, including Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong), Jia Zhangke (China), Takeshi Kitano (Japan) and Bong Joon-ho (South Korea).
Watch Part One here: bit.ly/3haZXCX
Watch Part Two here: bit.ly/3T4R5Mj
A rare chance to reflect on Tony Rayns' prestigious career at the cutting edge of independent cinema. One of the most influential and prolific critical voices of his generation, these conversations are must-watch viewing for programmers, critics and filmmakers as well as audiences who share Rayns' infectious and enlightening passion for cinema.
---------------------------------
About Tony Rayns
Tony Rayns started a film society in secondary school, ran three different film societies at university, and then began a lifelong chaotic freelance 'career' as a critic, occasional filmmaker and, quite often, a programmer/curator. He has travelled extensively since the mid-1970s and has a special (but by no means exclusive) interest in the cinemas of East Asia. He has contributed to many of the world's leading film magazines, including Cahiers du cinema, Film Comment, Cine 21 and Sight & Sound, and has written/edited books on Fassbinder, Jang Sunwoo, Wong Kar Wai and Chinese, Japanese and Korean cinema. He is a prolific contributor of video-pieces, commentaries and liner notes to blu-rays for Criterion, Masters of Cinema, Arrow, Indicator, Second Run, BFI Video, the Chinese label Disk Kino and the Australian label Imprint. He has served on festival juries in Cannes, Sapporo, San Sebastian, San Francisco, Vladivostok and Beijing, amongst many other places. He was awarded the first Korean Film Award at Busan IFF for services to Korean cinema, the Kawakita Award in 2004 and the Foreign Ministry of Japan's Commendation in 2008, the latter both for services to Japanese cinema.
About Simon Ward
Simon Ward is a former film programmer at London’s ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), BFI London Film Festival and Tate Modern among others. He is currently a Trustee of the Independent Cinema Office and owns the Palace Cinema in Broadstairs (UK) with his wife. Simon has also theatrically distributed feature films by the likes of Lee Chang-dong, Bong Joon-ho and Carlos Reygadas as well as contributing to books for academic publisher Routledge.
#CinemaOfIdeas
Join our mailing list: bit.ly/3E7oRsU 📧
See our upcoming events on the Cinema of Ideas: bit.ly/3GRWgcI 📽️
Subscribe to ICO YouTube: bit.ly/3rPktfi 💻
After the success of the first two installments, Tony Rayns returned to the Cinema of Ideas to continue his absorbing conversation with Simon Ward, sharing rare insights and stories about his influential career at the cutting edge of independent cinema.
In Part Three the conversation focused on Tony’s engagement with contemporary East Asian cinema, touching upon the work of some of the region’s most-acclaimed filmmakers over the last three decades, including Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong), Jia Zhangke (China), Takeshi Kitano (Japan) and Bong Joon-ho (South Korea).
Watch Part One here: bit.ly/3haZXCX
Watch Part Two here: bit.ly/3T4R5Mj
A rare chance to reflect on Tony Rayns' prestigious career at the cutting edge of independent cinema. One of the most influential and prolific critical voices of his generation, these conversations are must-watch viewing for programmers, critics and filmmakers as well as audiences who share Rayns' infectious and enlightening passion for cinema.
---------------------------------
About Tony Rayns
Tony Rayns started a film society in secondary school, ran three different film societies at university, and then began a lifelong chaotic freelance 'career' as a critic, occasional filmmaker and, quite often, a programmer/curator. He has travelled extensively since the mid-1970s and has a special (but by no means exclusive) interest in the cinemas of East Asia. He has contributed to many of the world's leading film magazines, including Cahiers du cinema, Film Comment, Cine 21 and Sight & Sound, and has written/edited books on Fassbinder, Jang Sunwoo, Wong Kar Wai and Chinese, Japanese and Korean cinema. He is a prolific contributor of video-pieces, commentaries and liner notes to blu-rays for Criterion, Masters of Cinema, Arrow, Indicator, Second Run, BFI Video, the Chinese label Disk Kino and the Australian label Imprint. He has served on festival juries in Cannes, Sapporo, San Sebastian, San Francisco, Vladivostok and Beijing, amongst many other places. He was awarded the first Korean Film Award at Busan IFF for services to Korean cinema, the Kawakita Award in 2004 and the Foreign Ministry of Japan's Commendation in 2008, the latter both for services to Japanese cinema.
About Simon Ward
Simon Ward is a former film programmer at London’s ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), BFI London Film Festival and Tate Modern among others. He is currently a Trustee of the Independent Cinema Office and owns the Palace Cinema in Broadstairs (UK) with his wife. Simon has also theatrically distributed feature films by the likes of Lee Chang-dong, Bong Joon-ho and Carlos Reygadas as well as contributing to books for academic publisher Routledge.
#CinemaOfIdeas
