The 2nd Asia Europe Film Festival was held in Hanoi from May 15 to 22 as part of activities to welcome the Asia – Europe Meeting (ASEM) which took place in Hanoi on May 25 and 26.
Vietnam’s film Dung Dot (Don’t Burn), featuring the life of a doctor-revolutioanry martyr Dang Thuy Tram recently made by director Dang Nhat Minh was part of the event.
The event attracted 16 films from 15 countries in Asia and Europe, including Thailand, Japan, Cambodia, Poland, Finland, Spain, Romania, Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Latvia, Hungary, France, Sweden and Vietnam.
Many of those film won acclaims such as Roman De Gare from France, Four Minute from Germany, Ca rend heureux from Belgium, The Rest is Silence from Romania, Linda, Linda, Linda from Japan, Mozart in China from Austria.
Roman De Gare from France tells about Judith Ralitzer, femme fatale and popular writer who is seeking characters for her next best-seller. Four Minutes from Germany brings together in the isolated world of a prison, two women who have two things in common: problems with themselves and the world, and an almost fantastic devotion to music. Ca rend Heureux from Belgium depicts Fabrizio, an unemployed film-maker who decides to shoot a new film: a penniless and wild film inspired by his day-to-day life and the experiences of his friends and family.
Linda, Linda, Linda from Japan is a story about youth in modern-day high school and Mozart in China from Austria is a film for children about shadow puppets.
The festival’s opening ceremony was held at the National Cinema Centre in Hanoi, followed by the screening of Vietnamese film Don’t Burn.
All the films were screened twice, once with Vietnamese subtitles and then with English subtitles.
FILIPINO FILM AWARDED IN SPAIN
source: Mindanao Times
Independent film, Jay, took home the D-Cinema Award during the Barcelona Asian Film Festival, which took place from April 30 to May 10, in Barcelona, Spain. The Francis Xavier Pasion-directed mockumentary about the media was hailed as the best film shot in digital format during the awarding ceremony.
The 11th Festival de Cine Asiatico de Barcelona, the BAFF 2009 jury of the D-Cinema section, gave the award to Jay “for developing an original and sharp critic to the media which entertains and makes you think, going beyond its political and format boundaries.”
The D-Cinema award is given to the most innovative and experimental Asian film shot in digital format. In the film, a gay schoolteacher named Jay is murdered and suddenly a reality-TV producer also named Jay is filming the teacher’s grieving family. Baron Geisler plays the manipulative producer while Coco Martin is cast as the former boyfriend of the murdered teacher.
Jay was the Best Film in the 2008 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. Next month, Jay will be screened at the Sydney International Film Festival.
Other Filipino films — Adela (Adolfo Alix, Jr.), Brutus (Tara Illenberger), Dose (Senedy Que), Kurap (Ronald Bertubin), Now Showing (Raya Martin), and Serbis (directed by Brillante Mendoza and written by Davaoeño Armando ‘Bong” Lao) competed for the festival’s Golden Durian Award. It comes with a cash prize of 6,000 Euros but the prize went to the South Korean film Breathless with Special Mentions to Malaysia’s Sell Out and Thailand’s Agrarian Utopia.
The 2009 BAFF also had a special Philippine Cult Film exhibition showcasing the best in surrealism during the ’80s. This section paid tribute to Joey Gosiengfiao by screening his films Katorse and Temptation Island (both starring Dina Bonnevie).
FILMMAKER RIRI RIZA TAKES INDONESIA TO EUROPE
source: Jakarta Post
After the tremendous success of Laskar Pelangi (Rainbow's Warrior), noted movie director Riri Riza took center stage at this year's Indonesian Film Festival in Europe.
The festival, themed "Focus on Riri Riza", was held from May 19 to June 10, and featured six of Riri's movies, which played in five European countries - Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Serbia and Germany.
"Of course (I said yes), because the offer came directly from (author and Indonesian Ambassador to Czech Republic) Salim Said. That made me proud because he's such an Indonesian movie hero and I have already read his books many times!" Riri said.
For the festival, Riri was honored with screenings of his six movies: Laskar Pelangi, Gie, Eliana Eliana, Untuk Rena (For Rena), 3 Hari Untuk Selamanya (Three Days For Forever) and Petualangan Sherina (Sherina's Journey).
Riri dismissed concerns that his movies will attract only Indonesian audiences living in Europe, instead of targeting local viewers.
"We shouldn't worry about things like that. We have our embassy fellows there who already planned a good promotional strategy to attract the (European) viewers," he said. "They even decided to screen the movies in cinemas instead of at the embassy's compounds."
Riri said although the festival might not be a much-anticipated event for Europeans, "people who come and enjoy the movies will be those who have a deep interest in high-quality foreign movies".
PHNOM PENH HOSTED ITS 7TH ANNUAL EUROPEAN UNION FILM FESTIVAL
Source: Phnom Penh Post (Zoe Holman)
Swedish ghetto, 18th-century British court and Soviet apartment block may be geographically and culturally remote from Cambodia, but they were all be brought to Phnom Penh in May as part of the seventh annual European Union Film Festival.
With feature films from eight different European countries, the five-day festival that opened at the French Cultural Centre on May 5th was described by organisers as "a window into Europe".
Rafael Dochao Moreno, charge d'affaires at the European Commission delegation to Cambodia, explains that the festival gave many Cambodians a chance to see Europe, "with all the good and the bad".
The lineup certainly conveys a multifaceted view of Europe, with films addressing topics from the social realities of marginalised immigrant communities to more frivolous investigations of the origins of Santa.
"The festival provides a taste of our diversity, the range of values and how we eat, drink, sleep and work, our different friendships and family relations," said Moreno.
Yet the films are also united by their common format, a medium with a tradition in all European countries and one that Moreno sees as an ideal vehicle for conveying culture.
U.S. ADDS INDONESIA TO COPYRIGHT BLACKLIST
source: AFP
The United States recently placed Canada, Indonesia and Algeria on a blacklist of intellectual property rights violators, joining nations such as China and Russia that were long branded copyright pirates.
This is the first time Washington put Canada, its top trading partner, on the "Priority Watch List."
It reflects "increasing concern about the continuing need for copyright reform, as well as continuing concern about weak border enforcement" in Canada, said an annual U.S. government review of the global state of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement.
"In this time of economic uncertainty, we need to redouble our efforts to work with all of our trading partners - even our closest allies and neighbors such as Canada - to enhance protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in the context of a rules-based trading system," said United States Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk.
American lawmakers are to raise the IPR concerns with Canada at a bilateral inter-parliamentary meeting on May 15-18, said Howard Berman, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives foreign affairs committee.
The annual "Special 301" report, compiled by the USTR office, also elevated Algeria and Indonesia to the Priority Watch List.
In addition, the report underlined "continuing serious concerns" in China and Russia, both of which were maintained on the blacklist despite "some evidence of improvement" on copyright protection in both countries.
"I am particularly troubled by reports that Chinese officials are urging more lenient enforcement of IPR laws, motivated by the financial crisis and the need to maintain jobs," Kirk said.
"China needs to strengthen its approach to IPR protection and enforcement, not weaken it."
President Barack Obama's administration, according to the report, was also seeking improvements to the intellectual property regime in Russia.
"The United States is committed to ensuring that Russia fulfills the promises it made to improve its IPR protection and enforcement regimes as part of a bilateral agreement with the United States," it said.
The USTR office reviewed 77 trading partners for this year's report, placing 46 of them on the Priority Watch List or on a lower "Watch List" or a "monitoring list."
The 12 trading partners on the Priority Watch List did not provide an adequate level of IPR protection or enforcement, or market access for those relying on intellectual property protection, the USTR office said.
Aside from China, Russia, Canada, Indonesia and Algeria, countries on this year's Priority Watch List are Argentina, Chile, India, Israel, Pakistan, Thailand and Venezuela.
They will be the subject of particularly "intense engagement" through bilateral discussion during the coming year, the statement said.
Thirty-three trading partners were on the lower level Watch List, meriting what the USTR office called "bilateral attention to address the underlying IPR problems."
They comprised Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Jamaica, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
GREATER CHINA MEETS EUROPEAN COPRODUCERS IN LOCARNO
Following the success of the previous edition devoted to Latin America, in 2009 the Locarno International Film Festival’s Open Doors section will focus on Greater China. Open Doors programme is organised for the 7th consecutive year with support from the Swiss Foreign Ministry’s Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
Open Doors project manager Vincenzo Bugno comments: “One cannot ignore the importance of Chinese-speaking films today. It is a very fertile territory for cinema, and has a wide variety of production modes, in both artistic and economic terms, as much as on a structural level. There are big production companies and famous directors, but also numerous filmmakers who are as yet unknown, and who might well make significant contributions to future world cinema, including international co-productions.”
For Frédéric Maire, the Festival’s Artistic Director, “We are delighted to be able to devote the 2009 Open Doors section to this enormous region which includes Continental China, Hong Kong and Taiwan Island. It is a major opportunity, from both an economic and cultural standpoint. And we are sure that the projects, creative talent and films that we will screen at Locarno next summer will enthuse both professionals and public alike.”
Open to projects from Continental China, Hong Kong and Taiwan Island, the Open Doors Factory will operate a selection process to choose a dozen candidates. The selected projects’ directors and producers will participate in the workshop organised during the Festival, whose objective is to help them find co-production partners, particularly in Europe, and thus to speed up the production process. At the end of the workshop, several prizes will be awarded. The SDC offers two production grants, worth 50,000 Swiss francs, which are jointly decided by the Festival and visions sud est, a Swiss production support fund. Another prize of 7,000 Euros, offered by the Centre National de la Cinématographie (France), supports a first feature film in development.
The Locarno International Film Festival was this year attending HAF, Asia’s prestigious co-production market (in Hong Kong), for the first time, in order to present a major initiative: the 2009 Open Doors HAF Awards. The two Open Doors HAF Award-winning projects were already announced during the closing ceremony of the HAF – Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum:
WINTER VACATION by LI Hongqi, produced by LING Cai and ZHANG Lu – Mainland China HELP by LI Ying, produced by ZHANG Yunhui – Mainland China
UNLIMITED FILM IMPORTS IN VIETNAM: AUDIENCE HAPPY, MOVIE PRODUCERS NOT
source: VietNamNet Bridge (Bich Hanh)
What will happen if imports of foreign movies are not restricted? Will the local movie industry be crushed or pushed to develop? Many blockbusters are screened in Vietnam at the same time as in the US. Without foreign films, what will audiences watch?
The amended Cinema Law, which was submitted to the National Assembly for consideration on May 28, proposes removing the quota on imported films. As the Cinema Law was issued in June 2006, before Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), some articles are inappropriate to Vietnam’s commitments.
If the import quota is removed, the number of foreign films at Vietnamese cinemas would greatly increase and local audiences would have opportunities to enjoy the latest products of many countries.
Some Vietnamese film producers have complained that Vietnamese films are being blocked in the home market because of imported movies, which have advantages over local products in terms of both quantity and quality.
It is very difficult for domestic movies, which have investment capital of $300,000 to compete with foreign films of millions of USD. If the restriction is removed, the local movie industry will be in even graver danger. Many say that Vietnam should learn from China, which allows the import of 20 foreign films a year and applies a harsh censorship policy, to protect the local movie industry.
However, China is different from Vietnam because its film industry has developed to the point where it can sufficiently satisfy Chinese audiences.
In 2007-2008, Vietnam produced less than 20 big-screen movies. Without foreign films, what would audiences watch? Without foreign films, cinemas would have to close their doors.
How to balance?
Audiences are always eager to enjoy the latest and best movies of the world. To satisfy this demand, film importers like MegaStar, Galaxy and BHD are very busy importing films from the US and China. These firms import around three to four movies a month on average. Sometimes, MegaStar introduces two such films a week.
The number of imported films increases continuously and the gap between Vietnam and the world in screening blockbusters is being closed.
The director of Phuoc Sang Film, which recently has had some successful movies, said: “I see domestic and foreign films at the same level at box offices. A Vietnamese movie with investment capital of $400,000-500,000 is on a par with an imported film which is produced with hundreds of million USD but imported into Vietnam at dozens of thousand USD. Vietnamese movies will disappear from the map if foreign films are imported rampantly.”
Imported movies satisfy the taste of most audience.
Sang suggests that the government employ other measures to protect local movies, for example raising the import tax on movies from 5% at present to 30-40%.
“People worried that if primetime television was reserved for local films only, there would not be enough films for broadcasting. But now Vietnamese movies dominate and have even dislodged Chinese and Korean films. When the government issued encouragement policies, many people joined film production. It is similar for the big screen. If there is demand, there will be supply,” Sang said.
In another view, General Director of Thien Ngan Film, Tran Vu Hoai said that the removal of the quota on film imports was a positive measure to develop the market.
According to Hoai, the movie market is very small, mainly in Hanoi and HCM City, so the most important thing is developing the market before solving other issues.
“A developed film market needs products and distribution channels. While the source of local movies is inadequate and doesn’t satisfy audiences’ demands, it is necessary to import films. It is impractical to restrict this source with a quota,” Hoai added.
He said imported films should not be seen as direct rivals to local films because they are entirely different, at least at present or in the next 5-10 years, particularly in economic aspects.
Imported films and locally-produced films don’t contravene one another because the market needs them both, according to Hoai.
"I don’t think that importing more foreign films will hinder local producers from producing films. If local producers produce good films and address economic problems well, they won’t be threatened by foreign films,” Hoai said.
Once local producers are able to produce and distribute 50 or 100 films a year, this means that moviegoers’ tastes have changed. At that time, without a quota, film importers will automatically reduce their imports because local audiences prefer local products, Hoai added.
He pointed out that it is wrong to think that without foreign films, Vietnamese audiences will go to box offices to watch local films. “There are one million people going to cinemas to watch 100 films but it doesn’t mean that when the market has only ten local films, these films will attract one million viewers,” Hoai said.
He suggested that the local movie industry should be encouraged by indirect, non-administrative measures such as tax exemptions, assistance for film-crew training, capital assistance for film production and building box offices, etc.
