Local crime thriller “Foreign Cop” directed by Maxim Bessmertny and produced by Bessmertny and Jorge Cordeiro dos Santos was among the seven films that formed this years’ Fantastic 7, a Cannes Market initiative, the International Film Festival & Awards Macao (IFFAM) said in a statement yesterday.
IFFAM is jointly organised by the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and the Macau Films & Television Productions and Culture Association.
According to the statement, it is the second year that Macau has joined the initiative, and this year it took place online on June 22-26.
On Cannes Film Festival’s website, Fantastic 7 is an initiative of Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes, Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia and international expert Bernardo Bergeret.
This image provided by IFFAM yesterday shows a still with Hotel Lisboa as the backdrop of the film “Foreign Cop”.
The initiative presents seven “fantastic” genre projects from seven different festivals and fosters emerging talents and connects them with potential business partners by creating a privileged space for dialogue and exchange.
IFFAM joined Sitges, Bucheon International Film Festival, Cairo International Film Festival, Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara, SXSW South by Southwest and Toronto International Film Festival in the festival lineup.
Each festival endorsed a project, which was presented during a pitching session held last Wednesday at the Marché du Film Online, and professionals interested in the projects organised meetings with project creators in speed meetings on June 26.
The project that IFFAM put forward this year is titled “Foreign Cop”.
According to the statement, the crime thriller, which is currently in development, is set in 1980 Macau “where gangsters, cabaret dancers, and slot machines coexist in an exciting atmosphere of neon lights, kitsch architecture and early consumer electronics.” The “foreign cop” in the film is a private investigator from Portugal by the name of “Mendonza” (which is the Spanish spelling of the surname spelt Mendonça in Portuguese) who has been hired by a casino boss to catch the perpetrators of the city’s biggest casino heist.
The statement did not elaborate on the result of the pitching session or if there had been speed meetings for “Foreign Cop”.
The statement also said that IFFAM would take place on December 3-8 this year with the theme “A Celebration Of Life & The Big Screen” that will have a full programme of features and shorts, as well as a specially curated section devoted to a selection of films that define the out-of-home “big screen” experience.
