The 2nd International Film Festival & Awards • Macao unveils festival programme, announces Laurent Cantet as head of jury
Macao, 3 November, 2017
The 2nd International Film Festival & Awards • Macao (IFFAM) today announced its programme at a press conference in Macao.
The Hong Kong/Macao premiere of Paul King’s Paddington 2 will open the IFFAM on Friday 8 December with the festival running until Thursday 14.
The programme includes 10 competition films including the Asian premieres of Venice Film Festival prize winners Foxtrot by Samuel Maoz, and Custody, by Xavier Legrand, as well as Toronto Film Festival breakout Beast, by Michael Pearce and the London Film Festival hit Wrath of Silence, directed by Xin Yukun.
For its second edition the IFFAM has exclusively dedicated the feature film competition to films by first and second time film makers with a $60,000 USD prize being awarded to the best feature. The prestigious competition jury comprises of:
Laurent Cantet – Director (Jury President) Jessica Hausner - Director Lawrence Osborne - Novelist Joan Chen – Actress / Director Royston Tan – Director
Representing the latest style of genre cinema to Asian audiences, highlights from the Flying Daggers strand features Cannes Film Festival smash A Prayer Before Dawn by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire and Brian Taylor’s Toronto sensation Mom and Dad.
The Asian premiere of Saul Dibb’s Journey’s End is screening as an Out-Of-Competition gala alongside Bong Joon-ho’s Okja, showing on the big screen for the first time in the region, and Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s latest movie Samui Song which will be screened with director and cast in attendance.
The 30th anniversary presentation of Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor will feature as a Special Presentation, together with Venice Film Festival Golden Lion winner The Shape of Water.
Directors for this year’s Crossfire strand, which features genre films selected by filmmakers from the east and west, include Shekhar Kapur, Im Sang-soo, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Guillermo Del Toro, Martin Koolhoven and Ivan Sen.
The festival will also host the international premiere of The Last Recipe by Yôjirô Takita (director of the Academy Award-winning film Departures) and the Best of Fest Panorama strand will comprise ten award winning feature films from major international film festivals of the year including Call Me By Your Name, The Florida Project, Angels Wear White and Sweet Country.
Mike Goodridge, Artistic Director of the IFFAM, states “I am so delighted to unveil our programme for the festival this year. I am very proud of the lineup which brings a feast of the world of cinema to the audiences of Macao.
“From our outstanding crowd pleasing opening night film Paddington 2 to the exciting competition lineup of first and second features, our thrilling galas and special presentations and our best of festival panorama, I believe we are showcasing the very best films of the year to the people here. I can’t wait for the film-makers to come and present their films in Macao."
Ms. Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Director of Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Director and President of Organizing Committee of IFFAM and Ms. Lorna Tee, Head of Festival Management of IFFAM were also present at the press conference.
Talent Ambassadors
Donnie Yen and D.O. will join the previously announced Jeremy Renner and Miriam Yeung as talent ambassadors during the Festival. Donnie Yen was in attendance at the press conference together with IFFAM Ambassador John Woo.
Donnie Yen is a well known action artist and the leading actor in the successful box office action series IP Man. He has also starred in Rogue One and XXX: Return of Xander Cage.
D.O. began his career as Choi Tae-yoing in the 2014 film CART. He followed this with an extraordinary performance in My Annoying Brother for which he won Most Popular Actor at the 53rd PaekSang Arts Awards.
The 2nd IFFAM will take place from 8-14 December 2017 at the Macao Cultural Centre. The IFFAM Organizing Committee will join forces with this year’s International Professional Team to build on the success of the inaugural festival in promoting Macao as an epicentre of cultural tourism and international exchange and paving the way for future development of
For more information, please visit the official website: http://www.iffamacao.com
Press contacts:
International press: PREMIER +44 20 7292 8330 [email protected] Notes to editors:
ORGANISING COMMITTEE The 2nd IFFAM Organizing Committee comprises governmental representatives and film professionals. MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes takes up the role of President, while President of Cultural Affairs Bureau Leung Hio Ming, President of Management Committee of Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau José Tavares and President of Macau Films & Television Productions and Culture Association Alvin Chau are the Executive Vice Presidents of the IFFAM Organizing Committee.
INTERNATIONAL PROFESSIONAL TEAM The International Professional Team for IFFAM includes Festival Director, Head of Festival Management, Ambassadors, an International Advisory Board as well as International Consultants. Mike Goodridge and Lorna Tee are Artistic Director and Head of Festival Management respectively.
The International Advisory Board consists of five film experts from the East and the West, including Chinese film director and producer Huang Jianxin, veteran Asia-Pacific based producer Michael J. Werner; Korean producer Oh Jungwan; Hong Kong producer and distribution expert Nansun Shi, prolific French producer Philippe Carcassonne; and renowned
producer Luís Urbano.
Ambassadors for the 2nd IFFAM include renowned Hong Kong director John Woo, last year’s jury president Shekhar Kapur, Hong Kong writer/director Pang Ho-cheung, Italian producer Gianni Nunnari, and South Korean director Choi Dong-hoon.
The team of International Consultants in charge of film selection includes Giovanna Fulvi for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan; Aseem Chhabra for India; Violeta Bava for Latin America; Fionnuala Halligan for the United Kingdom and Europe; and Hiromi Aihara for Japan. June Wu will also be returning as the Head of Industry for the 2nd IFFAM.
The Team of Honorary Advisors includes Maggie Ma, Chief Officer, Corporate Communications and Corporate Affairs, Melco Resorts & Entertainment; Jorge Neto Valente, Group Advisor, Galaxy Entertainment Group; Linda Chen, President and Executive Director, Wynn Resorts (Macau) S.A.
TALENT AMBASSADORS Talent Ambassador – Miriam Yeung Famed Asian actress and influential Cantopop figure Miriam Yeung is one of the few female performers who excels in both acting and singing, with a plethora of awards from both fields under her belt. She is the much-loved heroine in the Love Undercover series and Little Big Master. In 2014, Miriam landed the Best Actress award in the Hong Kong Film Awards for her extraordinary performance in Love in the Buff.
Talent Ambassador－Jeremy Renner Hollywood star Jeremy Renner received the 82nd Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his critically acclaimed performance in The Hurt Locker. Jeremy stars as “Hawkeye” in Marvel Cinematic Universe’s international blockbusters, including Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Captain America: Civil War (2016).
Talent Ambassador – Donnie Yen The world-renowned action movie star shot to fame with his mighty performance in the Ip Man series. His 2016 presence in Star Wars and xXx: The Return of Xander Cage series established his status as an international martial arts actor. In 2016, Yen was nominated at the 10th Asian Film Awards – Best Actor with his indisputably outstanding performance in Ip Man 3.
Talent Ambassador – D.O. A leading member of South Korean boy group EXO and its subgroup EXO-K, D.O. is known for
his handsome, adorable appearance and sensational R&B singing. After his acting debut - Choi Tae-young in 2014 blockbuster CART, he often works with established movie stars like Cho Jung Seok and Park Shin-hye. With his leading role in My Annoying Brother, the silver-screen heartthrob was nominated for Best New Actor and won the Most Popular Actor at the 53rd Baeksang Arts Awards in 2017.
COMPETITION JURY MEMBERS Laurent Cantet – Director, writer, cinematographer (France) France’s Laurent Cantet premiered his latest film The Workshop (L’Atelier) in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year.
One of the most celebrated directors at work today, Cantet won the Palme d’Or in Cannes in 2008 and an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film for his now classic school-room drama The Class (Entre Les Murs).
His first feature Human Resources won the Cesar for best first feature and the European Film Award for discovery of the year in 1999, and, since then, his films have been fixtures at the world’s top film festivals. They include Time Out (2001), Heading South (2005), Foxfire: Confessions Of A Girl Gang (2012) and Return To Ithaca (2014).
The Workshop, which stars Marina Fois and newcomer Matthieu Lucci, is the story of a group of teenagers in a small coastal town in southern France who have been selected for a summer workshop with a famous Parisian novelist. Cantet co-wrote it with his frequent collaborator Robin Campillo.
Joan Chen – Actor, director (USA) Born in 1961 in Shanghai, Joan Chen began her film career at the age of 14. Her performance in Little Flower (1980) catapulted her to fame in China. Chen moved to the U.S. in 1981 and has since appeared in over eighty films and television shows, including Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987), David Lynch's Twin Peaks (1990), Oliver Stone's Heaven and Earth (1993), Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution, Jiang Wen’s The Sun Also Rises, HBO’s Serangoon Road, and Netflix’s Marco Polo. Her memorable performances won her numerous honors, among which Best Actress Awards in the Taiwan Golden Horse for Red Rose, White Rose (1994) and The Home Song Stories (2009).
Chen’s directorial debut in 1997 was critically acclaimed and award winning Xiu Xiu: The Sent-down Girl. Her second effort behind the camera was Autumn in New York in 2000,
starring Richard Gere and Wynona Ryder. This year, Chen wrote and directed her third feature film, based on a Chinese novel named English.
Chen has served as Juror at a number of International Film Festivals around the world, such as Berlin, Venice, Shanghai, San Sebastian, Hawaii, Antalya, and St. Petersberg.
She was the President of the Jury at Golden Horse Awards in 2014.
Jessica Hausner – Director, writer, producer (Austria) Jessica Hausner’s debut short film Flora won the Leopard of Tomorrow at the Locarno Film Festival in 1996 and Inter-view, her graduation film from the Filmacademy Vienna, won the prix du jury of the Cinefondation at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999.
Her first feature film Lovely Rita had its world premiere in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2001 before being distributed in 20 territories. Her second feature Hotel was also selected for Un Certain Regard in 2004.
Her third feature Lourdes played in competition at Venice 2009 where it won the FIPRESCI prize and went on to wide international distribution and acclaim. Sylvie Testud won the best actress European Film Award for her performance in the film.
Her fourth feature Amour Fou was again selected for Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2014.
Lawrence Osborne – Writer (UK) Lawrence Osborne is a highly successful novelist and journalist born and raised in the UK who has lived a nomadic life around the world in Paris, New York, Mexico, Istanbul and Bangkok where he currently resides.
His first novel Ania Malina was published in 1986 and he has written travel books, essay collections and memoirs not to mention countless contributions to publications including The New York Times, Salon, The New Yorker and Newsweek.
His Morocco-set 2012 novel The Forgiven achieved huge acclaim and was named one of the best books of 2012 by The Economist and The Guardian while his 2014 novel The Ballad Of A Small Player - set in Macao - was named one of the year’s best by The New York Times and NPR in the US.
His subsequent novels Hunters In The Dark (2016) set in Cambodia and Beautiful Animals
(2017) set on a Greek island cemented his position as one of the most popular novelists of our time.
The Forgiven, The Ballad Of A Small Player and Beautiful Animals have all been optioned for big screen adaptations.
Royston Tan – Director (Singapore) Award-winning filmmaker, Royston Tan, is known for his distinctive knack for cinematic narrative, original directorial style and an innate ability to connect with his audience.
Besides his extensive list of short films, Tan has been recognised for his feature films such as 15 (2003), 4:30 (2006), 881 (2007), 12 Lotus (2008) and 3688 (2015), collecting over 80 international and local film awards for his works.