CinemAsia presenteert de Aziatische wereldsterren van morgen

Na de overweldigende prijzenregen van het Zuid-Koreaanse Parasite – van Cannes tot en met de Oscars – leeft de Aziatische cinema nu meer dan ooit. Namens CinemAsia Film Festival zou ik u graag nogmaals willen attenderen op het feit dat het festival weer voor de deur staat. Van 4-8 maart kan men in Studio/K en Rialto volop genieten van de nieuwste en beste Aziatische films, cultuur en eten!

CinemAsia is hét festival waar de Aziatische makers van morgen al gepresenteerd worden. Zo fungeerde BONG Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer in 2014 reeds als openingsfilm. Ook films van de Japanse Gouden Palm winnaar uit 2018, KORE-EDA Hirokazu waren al eerder op het festival te bewonderen. Dit jaar kent het programma wederom een grote selectie makers wiens eerste stappen op het internationale podium vandaag de dag al zichtbaar zijn.

Eén van de vele blikvangers is o.a. Joko ANWAR’s superhelden epos Gundala. ANWAR is inmiddels al een grootheid in eigen land (Indonesië, red.) en krijgt ook internationaal steeds meer aanzien, mede door zijn samenwerkingen met het Koreaanse CJ Entertainment, het grote bedrijf achter het succes van Parasite.

Ook opgenomen in de line-up is Alankrita SHRIVASTAVA’s controversiële Dolly Kitty and Those Twinkling Stars. SHRIVASTAVA’s vorige film (Lipstick Under My Burkha) werd in haar thuisland India verboden, maar won in 2016 wel de CinemAsia Audience Award. Ze staat bekend als een van de meest voorname nieuwe makers uit India, helemaal na haar met lovende kritieken ontvangen Amazon Prime Original-serie Made in Heaven (2019).

Ook Hongkong is goed vertegenwoordigd met Suk Suk en Fagara, samen goed voor ruim twintig Hong Kong Film Awards nominaties. Ook beide regisseurs zijn niet onbekend bij het festival; zo draaide respectievelijk Ray YEUNG’s Front Cover in 2016 in de Official Selection en was Heiward MAK (toen nog als producent) aanwezig bij CinemAsia’s openingsfilm in 2017: Mad World. Zowel Suk Suk als Fagara worden dit jaar vertegenwoordigd door LO Chun-yip, die als acteur in beide films te zien is.

Zoals altijd brengt CinemAsia talent naar Nederland om publiek en pers eigenhandig kennis te laten maken met makers uit Azië. CinemAsia is trots met komst van de volgende internationale gasten en nodigt iedereen van harte uit om interviews aan te vragen.

INTERVIEWS / GUEST LINE UP CINEMASIA 2020 
available for interviews during the festival: 

4-8 March :Aileen Li is an Executive Producer / Producer of Filmagic Pictures Co.. The first featured film she produced, Formula 17 (2004), was the highest – grossing Taiwanese film that year, followed by The Heirloom (2005), The Shoe Fairy (2005) and Catch (2006). In recent years, she has produced many acclaimed local films such as Young Dudes (2012), When A Wolf Falls In Love With A Sheep (2012), Black and White: Episode 1 The Dawn of Assault (2012), Ode to Time (2016), Detention (2019) and coordinated the shooting of several high-profile international productions, such as Luc Besson’s Lucy (2014), John Woo’s The Crossing (2015) and Jackie Chan produced Bleeding Steel (2017), and Netflix first Chinese Original series Nowhere Man (2019). CinemAsia has selected her latest production Detention in its official selection. 

4-8 March: Leo Soesanto is CinemAsia’s guest curator. Soesanto is a Paris based film journalist and programmer. Over the years he has been actively involved in many festivals. He’s the Head of Short Film selection at the Semaine de la Critique, the oldest non-competitive section at the Cannes Film Festival, and has been the Programme Director at the Bordeaux International Independent Film Festival (FIFIB) since its creation in 2012. He also works as a Senior Programmer for the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

3-6 March:Putrama Tuta is an Indonesian director, scriptwriter and producer. His film A Man Called Ahok is screened twice during CinemAsia Film Festival. Putrama Tuta’s debut with Catatan Harian Si Boy (2011) sent him to Shanghai as the first and single Indonesian nominee for first feature Director in SIFF 2012. His second film, Noah Awal Semula (2013), shot on DSLR and iPhone became the first Music Documentary theatrically released nationwide. His third film, titled A Man Called Ahok (2018), is the first biopic at the top 10 Indonesian box office, with 14 nominations and winning in 5 awards, where he was awarded the Best Director at the Indonesian Box Office Movie Awards 2019.  

4-7 March:Chihiro AMANO is the Japanese director of CinemAsia 2020’s opening film Mrs. Noisy. After working in an office for five years, director AMANO Chihiro shifted towards making films. This change of career proved to be a success: her work has been shown and awarded in both domestic and international film festivals. She is known for Confession of Figaro (2012), Doshitemo furetakunai (2014) and Leap Year Girl (2018). Mrs. Noisy (2019) is her fifth feature film. 

4-7 March:LO Chun Yip stars in 2 films in this year’s program. He stars in Suk Suk(Hong Kong, 2019) for which he is nominated the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Fagara (Hong Kong, 2019). Fagara and Suk Suk are nominated for a total of 20 awards at the 39^th Hong Kong Film Awards. His first feature documentary film Days After n Coming (2012) reviewed his participation and experience when joining the local social movements, which he concerned as an important turning point in his life.

4-6 March:YOON Seung-ah is a Korean actress and director based in Brussels, Belgium. She has directed the documentary Overseas which is in CinemAsia’s Diaspora Focus program: Neither Burnt, Nor Banished. Between 2001 and 2011, she directed ten short movies mostly showed in exhibitions all over the world. Her short film And I’ll Keep in My Heart (2007) was selected for the Cannes Festival – cinéfondation in 2008. In 2012, she left to look for her dad, absent since her childhood, and ended up with her first documentary feature Full of Missing Links (2012). Overseas (2019) is her second documentary feature. 

4-7 March: Melvin TING & Bridget NG-TING are co-producers of the award winning film John Denver Trending (Philippines, 2019), screening in our Competition Section.

4-8 March:Inge de Leeuw works as a programmer for the International Film Festival Rotterdam. For IFFR she selects films from North America, Great Britain and Ireland and curates thematic programmes that focus on the relationship between cinema and other disciplines.

5-8 March: Pete Wu is a journalist, writer and programme developer. His debut book with Das Mag was released in October 2019; De bananengeneratie: over het dubbelleven van Chinese Nederlanders van nu. He published prose in De Gids, DIG, and the first Sampler of publishing house Das Mag in 2018. He previously studied English literature, American Studies and Media Philosophy, and wrote for De Volkskrant, International Film Festival Rotterdam, VICE, and Quest. Currently, he is working on a documentary series for VPRO Dorst and works as editor-in-chief for Brandpunt+.

4-8 March: Floortje Smit is one of Holland’s leading film critics. She writes for De Volkskrant for over fifteen years, and has a special interest in diversity and feminism. Smit has attended several of the most important international film festivals. She studied Modern History and Journalism at the University of Groningen and attended several film classes. Since her graduation she has been working as a journalist. Not only does she spend a good deal of her time in the cinema: her voice can also be heard on the Dutch national radio, as a reporter, movie specialist and presenter.

4-8 March: Julian Ross is a researcher, curator and writer based in Amsterdam. He is a Programmer at International Film Festival Rotterdam, selection committee member at Locarno Film Festival and Assistant Professor at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS). His curatorial projects have been presented in Tate Modern, Art Institute of Chicago, Kunsthal Rotterdam, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Eye Filmmuseum, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Anthology Film Archives, Harvard Film Archives and other places. His recent publications include book chapters in The Japanese Cinema Book (BFI, forthcoming), A Companion to Experimental Film (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming) and America: Films from Elsewhere (2019, The Shoestring Press)

Bron: CinemAsia Film Festival