This year’s International Film Festival & Awards • Macau (IFFAM) will be taking place digitally from December 3-8 where all 31 movies will be streamed online, a statement from the event’s organiser said yesterday.
The event, in its fifth edition this year, is jointly organised by the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and the Macau Films & Television Productions and Culture Association (MFTPA), which is headed by Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, who is also CEO and director of junket operator Suncity Group.
According to the statement, the festival will honour Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda with the festival’s “Spirit of Cinema” during the awards ceremony to be held online on December 8.
The festival’s programme shows that 11 feature films from around the world will be screened in the competition and Chinese film director, producer and screenwriter Ning Hao will be the president of a jury with members comprising Mattie Do from Laos, Nina Hoss from Germany, Eric Khoo from Singapore and Albert Lee Nga-Bok from Hong Kong. The Best Film award will be cash prize of US$60,000.
The Shorts Competition will comprise 10 shorts, and the jury president for this category will be Jia Fu from the mainland, Mathilde Henrot from France and Johnny Ma from China/Canada.
Other categories include the “Flying Daggers” featuring films of the latest style of genre cinema, and the “World Panorama” celebrating directors and award-winning films from major international film festivals.
The “Special Presentations” will include Chinese blockbuster “My People My Homeland”, French animated film “Calamity” and Japanese comedy “Tonkatsu DJ Agetaro”, documentary “76 Days” about the struggles of frontline medical professionals battling COVID-19 in Wuhan, and a short film “A Dream of A Lifetime” about Hong Kong athlete Alex Fong Lik-sun’s 45km charity swimming challenge.
There will also be an “In Conversations” session with renowned filmmakers and actors online, which will be available for free, and an “IFFAM Project Market” that will present 14 projects digitally with members of the global industry.
People will be able to watch the festival’s films on “Shift72” online video streaming platform for 24 to 48 hours after rental, and rental tickets will go on sale on Friday from 11 a.m. However, neither the statement nor the IFFAM website says how much each ticket costs. A list of films is now on the IFFAM website.
This photo provided by IFFAM shows an undated photo of Ning Hao, the Jury President for the 5th IFFAM taking place next month.
