Far East Film Festival is the biggest European showcase for mainstream Asian cinema. Screening mostly genre films as premieres (be it world, European or national), FEFF transforms festival venues Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine and Cinema Visionario into lands of exploration, presenting films unlikely to be shown in European cinemas.
After the success of the 1st edition, FEFF20 will again host Focus Asia. 14 titles have been selected by Focus Asia, the Far East Film Festival Project Market dedicated to genre cinema. 14 possible “films of tomorrow” with strong co-production and co-financing potential in Europe or Asia which will be presented during FEFF 20 (from the 25th to the 27th of April) to over 200 professionals in the sector as part of a packed programme made up of panels, one-to-one meetings, projections and networking opportunities.
The selection committee looked at 72 projects in total (which came to Udine from 35 countries) and is made up of four professionals, all leaders in the world of genre cinema: Thomas Jongsuk Nam of the NAFF – Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bucheon, South Korea), Sten Saluveer of the Black Nights Film Festival – Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event (Tallinn, Estonia), Mike Hostench of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia (Sitges, Spanish State) and Valeria Richter of Nordic Genre Boost (Oslo, Norway).
The Project Market is organized by the Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche/Far East Film Festival of Udine with the collaboration of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Audiovisual Fund and with the support of the General Directorate for Cinema (MiBACT), the Istituto Luce, the Ministry of Economic Development, the ICE (Agency for Promotion Abroad), the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and the Municipality of Udine.
FOCUS ASIA 2018 – The 14 selected projects:
A PORTRAIT OF A BEAUTY by Surapong Ploensang, produced by Yeonu Choi, CJ E&M (Thailand)
BELEN by Quark Henares, produced by Bianca Balbuena and Bradley Liew, Epicmedia Productions Inc (Philippines)
BLACK CATTLE by Testuichiro Tsuta produced by Emi Ueyama, Article Films and Shozo Ichiyama, Office Kitano (Japan)
BULLY BASHER by Sang-woo Lee, produced by Pierce Conran, 2Mr Films (South Korea, United Kingdom)
CAR:Y by Olivier Guerpillon, produced by Olivier Guerpillon and Frida Hallberg, Silver Films AB (Sweden, France)
IN THE NEXT LIFE by Jake Wachtel, produced by Valerie Steinberg (USA)
KHUN PAN BEGINS by Kongkiat Khomsiri, produced by Songpol Wongkondee, M Pictures Co., Ltd. (Thailand)
QUANTUM SUICIDE by Mikhail Red, produced by Micah Tadena, Media East Productions and Taro Imai, Harakiri Films (Philippines, Japan)
RECURRENCE by Marteinn Thorsson, produced by Gudrun Edda Thorhannesdottir, DUO Productions and Gunnar Carlsson, Anagram and Christian Riffard, Frosen Frog (Iceland, France, Sweden)
THE GAMBLERS OF HONG KONG by Freddie Wong, produced by Freddie Wong, Connoisseurs Production & Marketing (Hong Kong SAR China, Macao)
THE TUNNEL by Pål Øie, produced by Einar Loftesnes, Handmade Films In Norwegian Woods (Norway)
UNPAVED ROAD by Seunghoon Jung, produced by Yonghee Lee, 37thDEGREE (South Korea, Thailand)
WILDERNESS by Nadira Ilana, produced by Nadira Ilana, Telan Bulan Films and Pamela Reyes, Create Cinema and Panuksmi Hardjowirogo, M’GO Films (Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore)
YOUNG TESLA AND THE IDEA POACHERS by Petar Orešković, produced by Sinisa Juricic and Matija Drnikovic, Nukleus film/ Jaako Dobra Produkcija (Croatia, Austria, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovenia)