AwardsWatch

 Hirokazu Kore-eda to receive Spirit Of Cinema award in digital edition

The International Film Festival & Awards • Macao (IFFAM) today announced its programme for the 5^th edition of the festival, taking place digitally between Thursday 3 December and Tuesday 8 December.

Films across all sections will be available online via a dedicated video streaming platform. In addition, five In Conversation events will take place virtually during the festival. The awards ceremony will be held online on 8 December, at which Hirokazu Kore-eda will receive the festival’s ‘Spirit of Cinema’ award.

This year’s International Competition – focusing on films from first and second-time film-makers, includes Viggo Mortenson’s directorial debut Falling, Love Poem which won the top prize at the FIRST International Film Festival this year, Jeonju prize-winner Black Light, Rotterdam Tiger winner The Cloud In Her Room and Cannes 2020 Label titles Limbo, Spring Blossom and Sweat.

The competition jury, who will award the $60,000 USD prize to the best feature, comprises of:

• Ning Hao – Director, Producer, Screenwriter (Mainland China) (Jury President)
• Mattie Do – Director, Producer (Laos)
• Nina Hoss – Actress (Germany)
• Eric Khoo – Director, Producer (Singapore)
• Albert Lee – Head of HK Film Festival, producer (Hong Kong SAR)

Short Film Competition A Chinese-language competition comprising 10 short films, the jurors that will appraise and award for Best Film are:

• Fu Jia – Producer (Mainland China) (Jury President)
• Mathilde Henrot – Producer, festival programmer (France)
• Johnny Ma – Writer, Director (Mainland China/Canada)

The World Panorama strand films by celebrated directors includes Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round for which the four lead actors won joint Best Actor at San Sebastián, Kelly Reichardt’s highly acclaimed First Cow, Venice hits Quo Vadis, Aida? from Jasmila Zbanic and Sun Children from Majid Majidi and A Balance, by Yujiro Harumoto which won the New Currents section at Busan recently.

Flying Daggers represents the latest style of genre cinema, films in this strand are Meander, by Mathieu Turi, The Paper Tigers, by Quoc Bao Tran and Relic, by Natalie Erika James.

The programme will include Special Presentations including Chinese blockbuster My People My Homeland, on which IFFAM jury president Ning Hao was the general director, thrilling French animated film Calamity directed by Remi Chayé, crowdpleasing Japanese comedy Tonkatsu DJ Agetaro directed by Ken Ninomiya, acclaimed documentary 76 Days about the struggles of frontline medical professionals battling the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, and short film A Dream Of A Lifetime about Alex Fong’s 45km swim around Hong Kong challenge in aid of the ‘A Drop of Life’ charity which implements sustainable water projects in Nepal and Cambodia.

In Conversation’s will take place with internationally renowned filmmakers and actors, available free online.

•             Ning Hao – Director, Producer, Writer (Mainland China) 

•             Nina Hoss – Actress (Germany)

•             Hur Jin-ho – Director, Writer (South Korea)

•             Hirokazu Kore-eda – Director (Japan)

•             Viggo Mortensen – Actor, Director (USA)

Alvin Chau, Chairman of Sun Entertainment Culture and backer of IFFAM and its organising body Macao Film & Television Productions Association (MFTPA), said: “I am glad that, despite the worldwide pandemic, we are still providing a rich IFFAM programme of new films to Macao residents. MFTPA & Sun Entertainment have not wavered in their support for the festival this year and continue to support cultural activities in Macao"

Mike Goodridge, Artistic Director of the IFFAM, states “The unprecedented challenges of 2020 may mean that we can’t play IFFAM’s programme in theatres and we can’t welcome any international guests to Macao, but that will not stop us delivering this superb selection of 31 films to audiences in Macao and Hong Kong on our dedicated online platform. The films will play on specific days, and we want to recreate at least some of the excitement of a festival experience by providing introductions from directors, juried awards, and a series of conversations with five world-class directors. We hope, of course, to be back to theatres in 2021 and, in the meantime, we are so excited to bring our virtual festival to audiences this year."

The IFFAM Project Market (IPM) will take place during the IFFAM Industry Hub between 3 and 5 December. The IPM will present a selection of 14 projects for an intensive program of presentations and meetings conducted digitally with members of the global industry. The selected projects will be eligible for four cash awards while meeting with potential collaborators from around the world.

Access to films across all sections at the International Film Festival & Awards • Macao will be available via Shift72 online video streaming platform; audiences will be able to watch each film from the programme online for 24 to 48 hours after rental. Tickets will go on sale on Friday Nov 13^th at 11am at https://macaoiff.shift72.com.

For more information, please visit the official website: http://www.iffamacao.com