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We receive the usual gift bag from the festival, except that this time, it contains the now indispensable hand sanitizer and mask with the Festival's logo:  a golden chestnut leaf.  Zofia, the NETPAC Jury assistant, tells me upon arrival that today is the last day that people are allowed to go outdoors  without a mask,  and that, starting from tomorrow, it has to be worn at all times. I take it off and breathe a sigh of relief for a few hours.

On September 19, TIFF 2020 officially wrapped up with an in-person screening of Mira Nair's A Suitable Boy at the RBC Lakeside Drive - In at Ontario Place. In an unforgettable year where film festivals were cancelled and film productions were shutdown, TIFF programmers and staff successfully delivered a reimagined virtual festival experience, transporting its programme beyond borders into homes around the world. Inevitably, hybrid/virtual deliveries have become the new paradigms helping film festivals to persist while the world eagerly await for the post-pandemic future to arrive.

The filmmaker, Carla Pulido Ocampo, was overcome with emotion during the Award Ceremony. She spoke passionately about how her film was meant to combat stereotyping of indigenous values and people, and how much the Awards meant to not just to her, but how she was sure would mean so much to her entire indigenous community which was involved in making Tokwifi.

The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) - one of the three leading international film festivals in Korea - was held from 9-16 July this year. Although all film festivals in Korea had been cancelled or postponed up to May, BIFAN was held successfully in June on both online and offline venues, with strict social distancing guidelines.

One of the characteristics of Asian films is that they deal with personal and social issues. Specifically, Asian films focus more on how social and political situations such as war, displacement, and discrimination affect individuals and how individuals respond to such situations. In the case of Korea, more films reflect the bleak social and political conditions in the country, including youth unemployment, women’s plight, family feuds, and the unfair, ruthless system that North Korean defectors and ethnic Korean - Chinese come across in Korea

This year’s Jeonju International Film Festival (JEONJU) was the first important Asian film event in May (28 May – 6 June). It first attempted to hold the event during its regular dates in April before the spread of COVID-19 but it was not possible. Against all odds, they held the festival the following month with these health precautions: online screening (28 May - 6 June), offline theater screening for juries and film delegates plus market programme (28 May - 2 June). Thereafter, the organisers will hold offline screenings in Jeonju cinema street theaters.

After an intense two-hour discussion, we agreed to award To Live to Sing by Johnny Ma (Canadian director born in mainland China), a China - France coproduction, and gave it the following citation:

I have long known about this festival, as it is the main festival for South-east Asian countries, an organization that promotes auteurial, unconventional, original films of young Asian directors who open up new trends in the cinema of their countries and influence the development of film language.

It is no surprise that the context of film festivals determines the award results because it creates a microenvironment that embodies the spirit and concept of a particular festival and is a perfect place for the reception of the curated films.

Among the Japanese films screened was 37 Seconds, the first feature by single-named filmmaker Hikari. Recipient of the Kau Ka Hōkū Filmmaker Award, the festival’s main prize, the film centres on a young manga artist (Mei Kayama) who refuses to let her cerebral palsy keep her from exploring her creativity, her sexuality – and the world. Filmed with a docudrama-like realism, 37 Seconds is a stirring drama of human potential and persistence.