LOS ANGELES -- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present the west coast premiere of the beloved classic Chinese animated feature, The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven, on Wednesday, October 17. A beloved classic of Chinese animation, Wan Laiming and Tang Cheng's 1960s animated feature returns to theaters after a painstaking and dazzling 3D makeover led by experts at Los Angeles-based Technicolor.

The screening is part of the first China Onscreen Biennial (COB), a four-week bicoastal collaboration among American cultural organizations to promote U.S.-China dialogue through the art of film. Launched by the UCLA Confucius Institute, COB is presented in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Film at REDCAT and Pomona College. The event, which runs October 13–31, will include showings of rare mainland Chinese shorts and feature films, bringing some of the best examples of contemporary Chinese filmmaking, as well as archival rarities and film restorations, to American audiences.

The Monkey King: Uproar In Heaven, originally released in two parts in 1961 and 1965, is based on the Chinese myth of the Monkey King set to a Beijing opera orchestral soundtrack. The film has been digitally restored and converted to 3D, and will be screened in its original language with English subtitles.

The screening will be at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theatre on Vine Street in Hollywood. The film will be preceded by a presentation from Technicolor’s Tom Burton and Pierre Routhier on the film’s digital restoration and 3D conversion.

For more information and a complete lineup, visit www.confucius.ucla.edu/cob.

Source: AMPAS