The International Film Festival & Awards • Macao (IFFAM) today announced its programme

The International Film Festival & Awards • Macao (IFFAM) today announced its programme.

Opening with the gala premiere of Peter Farrelly’s Green Book on Saturday 8 December the IFFAM will run until Friday 14 December.

Continuing to showcase the best of Asian and international cinema the programme includes 11 competition films including Sundance breakout The Guilty, directed by Gustav Möller, TIFF’s Midnight Madness hit The Man Who Feels No Pain by Vasan Bala and San Sebastian prize winner Jesus, by Hiroshi Okuyama. 

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

• Chen Kaige – Director (Jury President)
• Mabel Cheung – Director, producer and writer
• Paul Currie – Producer and director
• Tillotama Shome – Actress
• Danis Tanovic – Director and screenwriter

In the Best of Fest Panorama strand, Venice Film Festival Golden Lion winner Roma will screen alongside fellow Venice Film Festival winners The Sister Brothers and Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s Manta Ray. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead by Ben Wheatley will also screen in this section of the programme which features nine award winning feature films from major international film festivals.    

The Asian premiere of Josie Rourke’s Mary Queen of Scots and Luca Guadagnino’s horror opus Suspiria will feature as Special Presentations together with Gilles Lellouche’s French box office juggernaut Sink Or Swim and Ivo Ferreira’s Macao set Empire Hotel.

Other gala screenings include Choi Kook–hee’s Korean financial crisis thriller Default, Edwin’s Indonesian culinary romcom Aruna And Her Palate and, as part of UK Night, Old Boys by Toby Macdonald and Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite.

Highlights from the New Chinese Cinema competition strand which features outstanding films from Chinese speaking territories include Dear Ex by Chih–Yen Hsu and Mag Hsu, Baby by Liu Jie and the documentary Up the Mountain by Zhang Yang.

Ms. Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Director of Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Director and President of Organizing Committee of IFFAM comments “We have poured exceedingly scrupulous efforts in the production of IFFAM as a young film festival. Opening our ears to opinions from different circles in the last two editions, we have flexibly adjusted our program and meticulously selected a range of films, with the unyielding dedication to forge IFFAM into a prestigious brand in the international film industry as well as an East and West cultural exchange platform across borders and generations. This year, we feature ‘New Chinese Cinema’ as a new competition section to bring more Chinese-language films into the festival and enhance the line up of outstanding films.”

Mike Goodridge, Artistic Director of the IFFAM, states “I am very pleased with the IFFAM programme this year. The whole programming team has worked tirelessly to find the right films for our unique audience in Macao and we are confident that we can build on the enthusiastic audiences we attracted last year. We feel that we have mixed a heady cocktail of bold brand new cinema, the best of the year’s festival titles, gorgeous classics and big ticket crowd pleasers, not to mention 11 stunning films in our international competition. I can’t wait for our audiences and juries to see the films.”

Talent Ambassadors

Joining Nicolas Cage and Aaron Kwok, the IFFAM are delighted to announce South Korean singer and actress Lim Yoon A, also known as Yoona, as the latest IFFAM talent ambassador. One of the most recognizable names in Asian entertainment, Yoona is a member of preeminent K-Pop group Girls’ Generation and is a rising film and TV star. Her film debut was in Kim Sung Hoon’s Confidential Assignment and she will next be seen in Exit directed by Lee Sang Eun.

Actress in Focus

As previously announced, for its third edition the IFFAM will be welcoming renowned Chinese actress Yao Chen as this year’s Actress in Focus. The award-winning actress’s credits include Monster Hunt, Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe, Journey to the West 2 and Caught in the Web directed by IFFAM jury president Chen Kaige, which will screen as a Special Presentation during the festival.

In addition to acting, Yao Chen is a UNHCR National Goodwill Ambassador, the first to be appointed from China, in recognition of her long standing support for the globally displaced.    

As part of the festival Yao Chen will take part in an In Conversation event with legendary producer and IFFAM International Advisor Nansun Shi on 10 December.

The IFFAM Industry Hub will also be held during the festival between 9 and 11 December.

Tickets to films across all sections at The International Film Festival & Awards • Macao will be available for purchase through the Macau Ticketing Network from 9 November 2018.

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