Content by Discovery Networks is characterised by unparalleled production values, spectacular cinematography and compelling stories, and spans non-fiction genres including science, exploration, survival, natural history, sustainability of the environment, technology, anthropology, health and wellness, engineering, adventure, lifestyles and current events.

Discovery Channel features a variety of documentary programmes including “Ed Stafford: Left For Dead”, “Coopers Treasure”, “Naked And Afraid”, “Man Made Marvels Asia”, “Idris Elba: Fighter”, “Hacking the Wild” and “Deadliest Catch”.

The expanded programme also includes popular shows from TLC Channel, among them “Playhouse Masters”, “Beach Life With Angela Kan”, “The Kings”, “90 Day Fiance”, “Love at First Swipe”, “2 Dudes & A Kitchen”, “Stay Home Chef”, “United States of Bacon” and “Hair Goddess”.

Animal Planet shows an array of animal life programmes such as “Monsters Inside Me”, “African Wild”, “Meet the Penguins” “Dogs: The Untold Story” and “Wildest Islands of Indonesia”..

“Discovery captivates fans around the globe with high quality content designed to inform, entertain and inspire. We are excited to add Discovery’s most popular brands to our extensive portfolio of the world’s most beloved entertainment brands,” says Iflix Group Chief Content Officer, Sean Carey.

“Now, iflix subscribers across Asia can stream or download the best of Discovery’s library in a dynamic, easy-to-navigate interface.”

In addition to big global hits, the offering from Discovery also includes several local productions and localised programmes. From wild fishing adventures in Thailand and how to whip up dude food, to chicken beauty pageants in Indonesia and pressing conservation issues, these stories from and about Asia will appeal to local audiences.

The film will also be streaming on AIS Play and AIS PlayBox.

The HBO Films presentation dramatises the accounts of students, parents, teachers and administrators caught in America’s school-to-prison pipeline, which pushes underprivileged, minority youth out of the classroom and into incarceration. Drawn from interviews with more than 250 people living and working within a challenged system, and featuring Smith’s fearless portrayals of 18 real-life characters, the film shines a light on a lost generation of American youth, hoping to inspire awareness and change.

A full production of Smith’s “Notes from the Field” opened in late 2016 at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and immediately transferred to off-Broadway, opening at Second Stage Theatre in New York.

In HBO’s adaptation of the play, the focus is on the lack of opportunity and resources for young people living in poverty, which often leads them into the criminal justice system.

Enlightening and empathetic, the film tackles questions of race and class through compelling first-person stories, drawing on the accounts of well-known figures like Rep John Lewis, NAACP Legal Defence Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill and activist Bree Newsome, as well as everyday people struggling in a broken system. Culled from hours of interviews conducted by Smith with more than 250 people across the country, “Notes From the Field” showcases her extraordinary gift for transforming herself into diverse characters as she recreates each person’s speech patterns, movements and emotions.

Filmed in front of a live audience and intercut with haunting video footage and photographs, the film features accompaniment by jazz bassist Marcus Shelby.

The full stage production of “Notes from the Field” ran at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge and at Second Stage in New York from August to December 2016. It serves as a centrepiece of Smith’s social-justice initiative “The Pipeline Project”, which began in 2013 and seeks to extend the conversation of pressing issues beyond theatre and into America’s communities.

Smith’s numerous honours include the MacArthur Fellowship, the National Humanities Medal, presented by President Obama, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, the George Polk Award in Journalism and two Tony Award nominations. She was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play “Fires in the Mirror”. She is Smith is currently a professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

On Monday, March 5 (Bangkok time), the 90th Academy Awards will stream “live” on HBO GO via AIS Play and AIS PlayBox and will also be broadcast live starting with the Oscars Red Carpet ‘Live’ from 6.30am followed by The 90th Academy Awards ‘Live’ at 8am.

Both programmes will be repeated the same night on HBO at 6pm and 7pm respectively.

HBO Asia’s social media crew and actor and host, Utt Panichkul, will be on the star-studded 2018 Oscars red carpet to interview Hollywood’s elite. These exclusive Oscars red carpet moments including video interviews with celebrities, behind-the-scene pictures from the red carpet and heartfelt celebrity shout outs will be available on the network’s social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

HBO Asia’s dedicated Oscars website will also feature an exclusive webcast of the star-studded ceremony including backstage interviews with the winners as they come off stage after accepting their awards and exclusive clips showcasing major moments of the Oscars ceremony

The popular Marvel original series “Jessica Jones” returns for a second season on International Women’s Day, March 8 on Netflix.

The series depicts New York City private investigator Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) who is beginning to put her life back together after murdering her tormentor, Kilgrave. Now known throughout the city as a superpowered killer, a new case makes her reluctantly confront who she really is while digging deeper into her past to explore the reasons why.

The new trailer shows Jessica exploring the death of her parents and finding out how she gains powers that seem to come from the mysterious experiments. Ritter is joined by a returning cast that includes Rachael Taylor as Trish Walker, CarrieAnne Moss as Jeri Hogarth and Eka Darville as Malcolm Ducasse plus new cast members Janet McTeer and JR Ramirez.

Jessica Jones is a 2015 Netflix original series based on the Marvel comic book “Alias” and has been hailed as one of the most successful series of the Marvel universe.

Watch the trailers at YouTube.com/watch?v=6YaMBV2ZgZI.

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the creators of the smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning television series, will write and produce new films that are separate from the main Skywalker saga and the trilogy being developed by Rian Johnson, writer-director of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”

“David and Dan are some of the best storytellers working today,” Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, said in a statement.

“Their command of complex characters, depth of story and richness of mythology will break new ground and boldly push ‘Star Wars’ in ways I find incredibly exciting.”

Benioff and Weiss released a joint statement saying they had been dreaming of traveling to “a galaxy far, far away” since seeing the original movie in 1977.

“We are honored by the opportunity, a little terrified by the responsibility, and so excited to get started as soon as the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ is complete,” they said.

Lucasfilm did not say how many movies would comprise the new series or announce release dates.

Disney boss Bob Iger said when Johnson’s trilogy was announced in November the “Star Wars” franchise had been “exceeding expectations” since the entertainment giant acquired Lucasfilm in 2012.

The two films from the main series under Disney’s charge — “The Force Awakens” (2015) and “The Last Jedi” (2017) — are among the top ten highest grossing movies of all time, with $2 billion and $1.3 billion respectively.

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016), the first of three scheduled spin-off movies, also made more than $1 billion, raising hopes for the success of the next, “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” which opens in May.

– Good and evil –

Californian filmmaker George Lucas was 33 when he prepared to release his third feature — a far-fetched, slightly corny intergalactic saga of good and evil starring a sulky farm boy with daddy issues.

“Star Wars” has since grown into the most lucrative and influential movie franchise of all time, ingrained in a geek culture that gave rise to Silicon Valley and disruptive technologies.

The announcement sparked excitement — and some grumbling — among fans of “Game of Thrones,” one of the most popular and talked-about cable shows in history, which begins its final, six-episode season in 2019.

“I can’t wait for a graphic C-3PO/R2-D2 sex scene in a galaxy far, far away,” joked one Twitter user, a reference to the frequent racy love scenes and nudity for which “Thrones” has become infamous.

But not everyone was thrilled by the announcement, which once again underscored the lack of female or ethnic minority directors in the “Star Wars” universe, a marked contrast to the diversity Lucasfilm has promoted in front of camera.

“Still no sign of ever seeing any part of a galaxy long time ago and far, far away as conceived of by a woman or person of color,” tweeted film executive Franklin Leonard, who founded The Black List, a yearly publication featuring Hollywood’s most popular unproduced screenplays.

The announcement came as the Walt Disney Company issued its first earnings report since announcing six weeks ago that it would buy much of rival studio Fox’s film and television assets in a $52 billion deal.

The California-based entertainment giant reported first-quarter earnings — up to December 30 — of $1.89 per share, a 22 percent on-year rise, and revenue of $15.4 billion, just shy of the $15.5 billion analysts had been predicting.

“We’re excited about what lies ahead, with a robust film slate, the launch of our ESPN direct-to-consumer business, new investments in our theme parks, and our pending acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox,” said Iger.

Considered by critics and industry insiders as one of the most important film events in the world, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, wrapped its 47th edition on Sunday after recording a record attendance of 329,000. This year’s winner of the prestigious Hivos Tiger Award. “The Widowed Witch”, by Cai Chengjie, a new-generation filmmaker from China.

Thailand was well represented in Rotterdam too, with Korakrit Arunanonchai, a Thai artist based in New York, picking up the Ammodo Tiger Short Competition prize for his latest work “With History in a Room Filled with People with Funny Names 4” – the first time a Thai short filmmaker has been recognised with the Tiger award for short films.

Also screening were works by four other Thai short filmmakers, namely Pathompon “Mont” Tesprateep, a visual artist who came to Rotterdam with two works, “Song X”, which premiered at last year’s Locarno Film Festival, and his latest oeuvre “Confusion is Next”. Visual artist Prapat Jiwarangsan who in 2015 showed his short film ‘The Asylum’ here, was back with his new short film “Destination Nowhere”. Nakhen Puttikulangkura, a recently graduated filmmaker offered “When the Rain Is Falling Down”, while repeat director Sorayos Prapapan, an award-winning filmmaker, returned with ‘”Death of the Sound Man”, which premiered in Venice Film Festival and won him the Best Director prize at the Singapore International Film Festival.

“Homogenous, Empty Time”, the only Thai feature film in IFFR this year, is the latest work by veteran filmmaker Thunska Pansittivorakul, who was back in Rotterdam after a four-year absence. In this new film, which was screened at the Singapore festival and Queer Lisboa last year, Thunska and his co-director Harit Srikhao convey a strong message about the ongoing situation back home, dedicating the movie to the late political scientist and historian Benedict Anderson.

For many filmgoers, one of the highlights of the IFFR 2018 was the return of Apichatpong Weerasethakul. He was in town to present his new project “Sleep Cinema Hotel”, which he describes as a one of its kind experience.

“I made a short film back in the late 90’s which recorded me as I woke up,” says Apichatpong.

Sleep has long been a theme of Apichatpong’s works – for example, the sleeping scene at the stream in the jungle in “Blissfully Yours” and the sleeping soldiers in his latest feature “Cemetery of Splendor”.

“I’m not sure why I have this obsession with this state but I’m fascinated with observing my own body through the day and later, when I’m meditating. It makes sense as you have to focus your thinking and breathing. Dreaming ties in with the situation in Thailand, where I work with villagers, who take refuge in dreams. When you can’t deal with reality, you sleep because it’s a place where nobody can control you. It can be a liberation in some ways.

“It’s a dream to have a cinema specifically for sleeping. Over the years I have become less and less interested in watching movies. Even when I watch my own films, I go to sleep. Every time I go to Cannes Film Festival, I get through the red carpet thing, then I sit down for five to 10 minutes. When people clap or boo, I wake up. That fascination with internal images makes me believe that the best cinema is inside of us. We don’t need other cinemas. When we sleep, we see our own images in a different world. We tend to underrate our dreams,” he explains.

“The International Film Festival Rotterdam has asked me many times to create a project and from the beginning I’ve wanted to do a hotel. I wanted to turn the Oude Luxor cinema into a hotel. That later became a reality,” says Apichatpong.

His Sleep Cinema Hotel project turned the Postillion Convention Centre WTC Rotterdam Zaal Staal into a hotel. Here guests could actually book a bed and stay in the convention hall where moving images from the past from the EYE Filmmuseum and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision flitted across the screen in a loop. Apichatpong selected five themes for the footage –sleeping animals, sleeping people, clouds, water and waves. Guests and observers of the Sleep Cinema Hotel could experience sleep while the moving images were projected.

“Rotterdam is a port city. It’s city that was bombed and rebuilt from nothing. The footage manifests the existence of the past, and memories of the past. It’s more like a reconnection with the spirit of different times when you are sleeping. We also had a book where we encouraged the hotel guests to write down what they had dreamt about last night.”

Guests who wanted to sleep at the Sleep Cinema Hotel paid 75 euros (about Bt3,000) a night to enjoy this unique experience. Hardly surprisingly, the hotel was fully booked.

And Apichatpong didn’t just bring sleep to Rotterdam but also a special project to support young visual artists. He selected Pathompon for Frameworks, an annual presentation format that shines light on new work by emerging visual artists. In this context, a renowned filmmaker will choose a visual artist to receive a grant from IFFR to finish a single-screen audio-visual work.

“I am interested in him because he is a musician. His earlier video works are fascinating, and later he made films that he shot on 16 mm, and the content of his works is about confronting fear. It’s very interesting to see a young Thai filmmaker make films about this theme. He really stood out,” says Apichatpong, adding that he sees Pathompon as the future of Thai cinema and the visual arts scene.

Jenner, 20, runs Kylie Cosmetics in addition to appearing in her family’s long-running reality show “Keeping up with the Kardashians.”

The baby’s name was not immediately announced. She was born in Los Angeles on February 1.

Jenner is normally a busy social media machine-feeder. But her pregnancy was a relative blackout, which she said was her decision.

“I knew my baby would feel every stress and every emotion. So I chose to do it this way for my little life, and our happiness,” she said in a statement on Twitter.

“It is with great sadness that myself and my family announce the unexpected passing of our son and brother, Chris Cattrall,” she said in a tweet, less than 24 hours after publicly appealing for help in finding him.

“At this time we ask for privacy. We want to thank you all on social media for your outpouring of love and support in this trying time,” she said without specifying the cause of death.

Her younger sibling disappeared from his home in Canada’s Alberta province for five days.

“MISSING! This is my brother Christopher Cattrall or Chris as we call him,” she wrote in an Instagram post that accompanied a picture of the 55-year-old, sporting a short haircut, a slight smile, and a black sports-style jersey.

She added that he had not been seen since January 30, and that he left his keys, cell phone, and wallet on the table of his home in the town of Lacombe, while the front door was unlocked.

“This is not like Chris. He… would never leave his unlocked home without those items nor his seven beloved dogs,” she wrote.

“Chris is 55 years old, six feet tall (1.83 meters), 200 pounds (90 kilograms), blue eyes, short brown hair, goatee, average build and usually wearing a waist length hooded winter coat with black gloves, blue jeans and calf high black winter boots,” she added.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had also issued an alert on Sunday. CBC television cited the police as saying Chris Cattrall’s death was not considered suspicious.

The move is “the most significant collaboration in Malaysian sports history,” said iflix in a Friday media release..

For the first time since the league was founded, football fans everywhere in Malaysia and beyond will be able to livestream every Liga Super, Piala Malaysia, and marquee Piala FA matches exclusively on the all new “Football Malaysia on iflix” channel.

Starting February 3, football fans around the region will have virtual front-row seats to the entire professional football season, including 22 rounds with six matches weekly for Liga Super, 74 Piala FA and Piala Malaysia tournament matches as well as select Liga Premier matches and the Piala Sumbangsih match.

In addition to live streamed matches, users will also be able to access new features including match highlights and player interviews.

Those with access to the Internet will be able to livestream four Liga Super matches every week along with 46 tournament matches and select Liga Premier matches for free, regardless of their subscription status. New users and those with an active iflix subscription will further be able to livestream, catch up and enjoy all matches and features.

Football is widely recognised as Malaysia’s most popular sport. With only seven million total households with televisions, only a small percentage of the population was able to enjoy the competition without physically attending matches. Football has been largely inaccessible to the majority of Malaysians.

The entertainment service and Football Malaysia will additionally create new competitions and content expressly for football fans, including a series of entertainment and lifestyle original productions about and around the world of football for both broader audiences and hard-core fans alike.

The Football Malaysia on iflix channel will join iflix’s growing live sports streaming offerings, which include Indonesia’s Liga 1, the global Mayweather vs McGregor fight, also in Indonesia, as well as T10 Cricket in Bangladesh, and eSport competitions for DOTA2.

Now available to over one billion consumers across 25 territories throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa, iflix is a market leader in video streaming. Offering consumers a large library of top Hollywood, Asian and Middle Eastern regional, and local TV shows and movies, including many first run exclusives and award-winning programs, each subscription allows users to access the service on up to five devices, including phones, laptops, tablets, and television sets, for viewing wherever, whenever.

The Japanese Film Festival is back today with a showcase of 11 top-quality films being screened at SF World Cinema over the next nine days before travelling around the country with stops in Chiang Mai in the north, Phuket in the south, and for the first time, in Nakhon Ratchasima in the northeast.

All 11 films have been carefully selected to reflect Japanese art and culture as well as the way of life in an attempt to strengthen cultural exchanges between the two countries.

Opening the festival tonight is “Destiny: Kamakura Story”, a fantasy film from renowned director Takashi Yamazaki, whose earlier works include award-winners “Always: Sunset on Third Street” and “Stand by Me Doraemon”. “Destiny: Kamakura Story” is an adaptation of the popular Japanese manga about a writer Masakazu Isshiki (Masato Sakai) who, along with his much younger wife Akiko (Mitsuki Takahata), solves mysterious cases taking place in Kamakura by interacting with demons, spirits, gods and aliens.

Tomorrow fans have a chance to meet actor Taishi Nakagawa who stars in the film “ReLife”. The film tells the story of Arata Kaizaki (Nakagawa), a 27-year-old unemployed man who decides to take part in a research programme called “ReLife” under which he has to take a medication that makes him look 10 years younger. Deciding to attend high school for a year, he falls in love with fellow student Chizuru Hishiro (Yuna Taira). But once the year-long experiment expires, he will be erased from her memory.

Another highlight of the festival is “Memoirs of a Murderer,” the Japanese remake of the Korean film “Confession of Murder” by Jung Byung-gil. It revolves around the shocking murder of five individuals by a presumed serial killer. The statute of limitations expires without the killer being apprehended only for him to resurface 22 years later at a press conference where he announces the launch of a memoir about the murders he committed. And that’s just the beginning of his plan. Tatsuya Fujiwara of “Death Note” and “Battle Royale” fame plays the murderer.

The enchanting animation “Miss Hokusai” by Keiichi Hara is about the daughter of Katsushika Hokusai, a globally recognised Japanese artist. However, very few are aware of his daughter, and how she contributed to her father’s art. This is the story of O-Ei, Master Hokusai’s daughter – a lively portrayal of a free-spirited, utterly outspoken and highly talented woman.

Action drama “Mumon” portrays Mumon (Satoshi Ono), a lazy but talented ninja from Iga province who causes the big trouble for the ninja corps when he kills a ninja from a different family for a reward.

Heart-warming drama, “Close-Knit” centres on the life of Rinko, a transgender woman with a heart of gold. Her boyfriend Makio was captivated by her heart and accepts her for who she is. And a lonely girl named Tomo suddenly appears in their life.

Other films include “Honnouji Hotel,” “ Reflections,” “Survival Family,” “The Long Excuse,”and “Tora-san of Goto.”

Cinematic cheer

– The Japanese Film Festival moves to Chiang Mai from February 23-25 with Bt80 tickets, then on to SFX Cinema Central Plaza Nakhon Ratchasima from March 2-4. It wraps at SFX Central Festival. Phuket during March 9-11.

– Admission for both the Nakhon Ratchasima and Phuket showings is free. Tickets will be available at the information desk of “The Japanese Film Festival 2018” from 5pm on March 2 in Nakhon Ratchasima and March 9 in Phuket . – Tickets on weekends will be available from 1pm.

– Find out more at SF Call Center (02) 268 8888 or visit http://www.SFCinemaCity.com and Facebook.com/Welovesf.