Festival Reports

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The lovely spring weather is perfect not only for indulging in the wide array of movies (whose tickets have sold out fast) but also for trying the nearby restaurants that offer some of the finest Korean cuisine — art and culture coming together in one of the world’s most vibrant cinema cities.

As a film juror from Pakistan, representing NETPAC, I was supposed to watch a pre-scheduled line-up of films — a mix of features and documentaries — from different Asian countries including India, Japan, China, Turkey, and even Yakutia, a sparsely populated but geographically large district in the north-eastern part of the Russian Federation.

The eleven Iranian films seen by NATPAC included fiction, animation, documentary and docudrama. The choice of subjects  varied with plots and characters  distinctly different from each other. In fact , no two films had any similarity or resemblance so forget cut and paste.

From the very beginning for twelve days you are involved in the magic and powerful world of high quality indie films and very productive industry activities which truly proves that the festival is the best platform for the promotion of both young and established filmmakers who really champion true art.

In a country dotted with mountains, it’s perhaps not unimaginable that a ready audience base is hungry for such an event. After all, one of the country’s oldest and largest mountaineering clubs, Corea’s Alpine Club (CAC) was founded in 1945.

The third edition of the International Film Festival & Awards of Macao was held on 8-15 December, 2018. Macao is a city of glamour and art, and there is a high voltage synergy of art and commerce as well.

The festival’s 16th edition also had two very different guests of honour - Hollywood actress Andy MacDowell (Steven Soderbergh’s Sex Lies and Videotape;) Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and Russian-American actor Steven Seagal (Nico and Under Siege, both by director Andrew Davis).

 

This year’s programme was distributed in the following sections: Official, Official Panorama, Discoveries, NETPAC and Special - all in competition. Each had nearly twenty films participating.

The NETPAC Section had 18 films: One each from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Tajikistan, and Vietnam; two each from Cambodia and Thailand, and four from India.

I attended the Kolkata International Film Festival this year titled A Carnival of World Cinema in the City of Joy. It was a productive and worthwhile experience. I was able to speak to numerous filmmakers, film critics, film festival organizers. They were deeply appreciative of the work of NETPAC in promoting Asian and Pacific cinemas. It was gratifying to hear their responses.

This fifth edition has expanded the categories of competition films to include all nations and territories. The festival’s purpose is also to introduce, honour, and promote the image, the country, the people and the cultural identity of Vietnam among its international friends.