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Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER.[/caption]
150 films from 60 different countries have been selected to be screened at the 28th
Stockholm International Film Festival that takes place from the November 8th to the 19th.
A third of the films in this year’s festival program are directed by first-time filmmakers, the festival is also joined by legends such as this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Vanessa Redgrave.
After a long and successful Hollywood-career 80 year old Vanessa Redgrave makes her debut as a director with the documentary
Sea Sorrow. The film focuses on the global refugee crisis and is a part of this years Spotlight – Change.
This years Visionary Award recipient is the director Pablo Larraín. Larraín is the director behind the Academy Award-nominated
Jackie (2016); he is now attending the Stockholm Film festival with his latest film
Neruda.
The premiere movie of this year’s film festival is the critically acclaimed film
The Shape Of Water by the director behind the Academy Award-winning Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro also won the Gold Lion at the
Venice Film Festival earlier this year.
A selection of other films that will be screened are:
Thelma by Joachim Trier,
Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino,
The Party by Sally Porter,
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri by Martin McDonagh and last but not least
Downsizing by Alexander Payne.
Stockholm International Film Festival – Program 2017
Stockholm XXVIII Competition
A Ciambra by Jonas Carpignano (Italy, France, USA, Germany, 120 min)
Ava by Léa Mysius (France, 106 min)
Beach Rats by Eliza Hittman Co (USA, 95 min)
Beast by Michael Pearce (Great Britain, 107 min)
Falling by Marina Stepanska (Ukraine, 105 min)
Gabriel And The Mountain by Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa (Brazil, France, 127min)
God’s Own Country by Francis Lee (Great Britain, 104 min)
I Am Not A Witch by Rungano Nyoni (Great Britain, France, 92 min)
Insyriated by Philippe Van Leeuw (Belgium, France, Liban, 85 min)
Jeune Femme by Léonor Serraille (France, 97 min)
King Of Peking by Sam Voutas (USA, Australia, China, 88 min)
La familia by Gustavo Rondón Córdova (Venezuela, Chili, Norway, 82 min)
Los Perros by Marcela Said (Chile, France, 94 min)
No Date, No Signature by Vahid Jalilvand (Iran, 100 min)
One Thousand Ropes by Tusi Tamasese (New Zealand, 98 min)
The Rider by Chloé Zhao (USA, 105 min)
Son of Sofia by Elina Psikou (Bulgaria, France, Greece, 105 min)
Where The Shadows Fall by Valentina Pedicini (Italy, 95 min)
Stockholm XXVIII Documentary Competition
A Gray State by Erik Nelson (USA, 93 min)
Copwatch by Camilla Hall (USA, 99 min)
For Ahkeem by Jeremy S. Levine and Landon Van Soest (USA, 89 min)
The Force by Peter Nicks (USA, 93 min)
Lots of Kids, A Monkey, And A Castle by Gustavo Salmerón (Spain, 90 min)
The New Radical by Adam Bhala Lough (USA, 120 min)
Step by Amanda Lipitz (USA, 83 min)
Tarzan’s Testicles by Alexandru Solomon (Romania, France, 107 min)
This is Congo by Daniel McCabe (Democratic Republic of Congo, USA, Canada, 91 min)
This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous by Barbara Kopple (USA, 91 min)
True Conviction by Jamie Meltzer (USA, 84 min)
The Venerable W by Barbet Schroeder (France, Switzerland, 100 min)
Stockholm Impact
Cardinals by Grayson Moore and Aidan Shipley (Canada, 84 min)
The Last Verse by Ying`Ting Tseng (Taiwan, 100 min)
My Pure Land by Sarmad Masud (Great Britain, 92 min)
Searing Summer by Ebrahim Irajzad (Iran, 83 min)
Wild Roses by Anna Jadowska (Poland, 89 min)
Open Zone
A Fantastic Woman by Sebastián Lelio (Chile, USA, Germany, Spain, 104 min)
A Man Of Integrity by Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran, 117 min)
Amant Double by François Ozon (France, 110 min)
April’s Daughter by Michel Franco (Mexico, 102 min)
Based On A True Story by Roman Polanski (France, 110 min)
Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino (Italy, France, 130 min)
Free And Easy by Jun Geng (Honk Kong, 97 minutes)
Gisslan by Rezo Gigineishvili (Russian Federation, Georgia, Poland, 103 min)
Have A Nice Day by Liu Jian (China, 75 min)
Ice Mother by Bohdan Sláma (Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, 105 min)
Mr. Long by Sabu (Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Germany, 129 min)
On The Beach At Night Alone by Hong Sang`Soo (South Korea, 101 min)
Our Time Will Come by Ann Hui (Honk Kong, 130 min)
Radiance by Naomi Kawase (Japan, France, 101 min)
Thelma by Joachin Trier (Norway, France, 109 min)
The Shape Of Water by Guillermo del Toro (USA, 119 min)
The Wandering Soap Opera by Raúl Ruiz and Valeria Sarmiento (Chile, 80 min)
The Workshop by Laurent Cantet (France, 113 min)
American Independents
Band Aid by Zoe Lister`Jones (USA, 94 min)
The Boy Downstairs by Sophie Brooks (USA, 91 min)
Brigsby Bear by Dave McCary (USA, 100 min)
Crown Heights by Matt Ruskin (USA, 99 min)
The Endless by Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson ( USA, 111 min)
The Florida Project by Sean Baker (USA, 115 min)
Gemini by Aaron Katz (USA, 93 min)
Ingrid Goes West by Matt Spicer (USA, 97 min)
Kings by Deniz Gamze Ergüven (France, Belgium, 86 min
Life And Nothing More by Antonio Méndez Esparza (USA, 113 min)
The Lovers by Azazel Jacobs (USA, 98 min)
Keep The Change by Rachel Israel (USA, 94 min)
Most Beautiful Island by Ana Asensio (USA, Spain, 80 min)
Permanent by Colette Burson (USA, 97 min)
Sollers Point by Matthew Porterfield (USA, France, 101 min)
Who We Are Now by Matthew Newton (USA, 99 min)
Icons
Battle Of The Sexes by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Great Britain, USA, 121 min)
Breathe by Andy Serkis (Great Britain, 117 min)
Downsizing by Alexander Payne (USA, 135 min)
The Final Journey by Nick Baker`Monteys (Germany, 100 min)
Final Portrait by Stanley Tucci (USA, 90 min)
Hannah by Andrea Pallaoro (France, 80 min)
The Hero by Brett Haley (USA, 96 min)
Let The Sunshine In by Claire Denis (France, 94 min)
The Party by Sally Potter (Great Britain, 71 min)
Reinventing Marvin by Anne Fontaine (France, 115 min)
Rodin by Jacques Doillon (France, 119 min)
Suburbicon by George Clooney (USA, 105 min)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri by Martin McDonagh (USA, UK, 115 min)
You disappear by Peter Schønau Fog (Denmark, 118 min)
Wonder Wheel by Woody Allen (USA, 101 min)
Discovery
Axolotl Overkill by Helene Hegemann (Germany, 94 min)
Daybreak by Gentian Koçi (Albania, Greece, 85 min)
Disappearance by Ali Asgari (Iran, Qatar, 88 min)
Don’t Swallow My Heart, Alligator Girl! by Felipe Bragança (Brazil, Netherlands, France, Paraguay, 108 min)
If You Saw His Heart by Joan Chemla (France, 86 min)
Killing Jesus by Laura Mora (Colombia, Argentina, 100 min)
Menashe by Joshua Z Weinstein (USA, 82 min)
Oh Lucy! by Atsuko Hirayanagi (Japan, USA, 97 min)
The Testament by Amichai Greenberg (Israel, 88 min)
Vazante by Daniela Thomas (Brazil, Portugal, 116 min)
Documania
Chavela by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi (USA, 90 min)
Dina by Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini (USA, 101 min)
Hondros directed by Greg Campbell (USA, 93 min)
The Paris Opera by Jean`Stéphane Bron (France, 110 min)
Return Of A President – After The Coup In Madagascar by Lotte Mik`Meyer (Denmark, South Africa, France, Madagascar, 78 min)
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World by Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana (Canada, 103 min)
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda by Stephen Nomura Schible (USA, 102 min)
Served Like A Girl by Lysa Heslov (USA, 93 min)
Shadowman by Oren Jacoby (USA, 83 min)
Take Every Wave: The Life Of Laird Hamilton by Rory Kennedy (USA, 118 min)
Walk with me by Max Pugh and Marc J. Francis (Great Britain, 94 min)
Twilight Zone
A Day by Sun`Ho Cho (South Korea, 90 min)
Blade Of The Immortal by Takashi Miike (Japan, 140 min)
The Cured by David Freyne (Ireland, Great Britain, France, 95 min)
Double Date by Benjamin Barfoot (Great Britain, 90 min)
Les Affamés by Robin Aubert (Canada, 100 min)
Jailbreak by Jimmy Henderson (Cambodia, 92 min)
Lowlife by Ryan Prows (USA, 98 min)
The Merciless by Sung`Hyun Byun (South Korea, 120 min)
Ugly Nasty People by Cosimo Gomez (Italy, France, 87 min)
The Villainess by Byung`Gil Jung (South Korea, 129 min)
Spotlight
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk (USA, 99 min)
Human Flow by Ai Wei Wei (Germany, 140 min)
More by Onur Saylak (Turkey, 115 min)
This Is Our Land by Lucas Belvaux (France, Belgium, 118 min)
Wasted! The Story Of Food Waste by Anna Chai and Nari Kye (USA, 85 min)
Zagros by Sahim Omar Kalifa (Belgium, 100 min)
Stockholm XXVIII Short Film Competition
A Gentle Night by Qui Yang (China, 15 min)
Aria by Myrsini Aristidou (Cyprus, France, 14 min)
Atelier by Elsa María Jakobsdóttir (Denmark, 30 min)
Bonboné by Rakan Mayasi (Lebanon, Palestine, 15 min)
Hombre by Juan Pablo Arias Muñoz (Chile, 21 min)
Into the Blue by Antoneta Kusijanovic (Croatia, Slovenia, 22 min)
Kudzu by Connor Simpson (USA, 15 min)
Lost Property Office by Daniel Agdag (Australia, 10 min)
Marlon by Jessica Palud (France, Belgium, 19 min)
The Ogre by Laurène Braibant (France, 10 min)
Retouch by Kaveh Mazaheri (Iran, 20 min)
Signature by Kei Chikaura (Japan, 13 min)
Superpower Girl by Soo`Young Kim (South Korea, 24 min)
Time To Go by Grzegorz Mołda (Poland, 15 min)
You Will Be Fine by Céline Devaux (France, 15 min)
Special Event
Neruda by Pablo Larraín (Chile, Argentina, France, Spain, USA, 107 min)
Varg by Frida Kempff and Erik Andersson (Sverige, 11 min)
Sea Sorrow by Vanessa Redgrave (Great Britain, 74 min)
Surprise film
1 Km Film
Förebilder by Elin Övergaard (Sweden,13 min)
In Love by Ville Gideon Sörman (Denmark, 29 min)
Intercourse by Jonatan Etzler (Sweden, 10 min)
Mephobia by Mika Gustafsson (Sweden, 24 min)
Min Homosyster by Lia Hietala (Sweden,15 min)
Push It by Julia Thelin (Sweden, 8 min)
Skuggdjur by Jerry Carlsson (Sweden, 21 min)
Stay Ups by Joanna Rytel (Sweden, 11 min)
Stranded by Viktor Johansson (Sweden, 11 min)
Turkkiosken by Bahar Pars (Sweden, 7 min)
Image: Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER. Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures. © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights ReservedRead more
Dynamite Graffiti[/caption]
From vicious, life destroying phone scams to balletic battles between equally corrupt cops and yakuza, the 17th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), returns June 29 to July 15, 2018, with films that reflect on contemporary society while offering extreme genre pleasures. There are self referential takes on cinematic zombies, existential date nights, and teens finding their own corners of the world despite familial and societal expectations. After last year’s Sweet Sixteen, this year’s program is dubbed the Savage Seventeenth edition with four world premieres, three international premieres, 21 North American premieres, three U.S. premieres, and twelve New York premieres, showcasing the most exciting comedies, dramas, thrillers, romances, horrors and arthouse films from East Asia.
Savage Seventeen: The festival has a rich history of presenting films that deal with the social issue of teenage bullying. Many of these have proven to be launching pads for some of Asia’s biggest stars, and the subject is at the root of such modern classics as All About Lily ChouChou, Whispering Corridors, and Confessions. In a year when youths in the U.S. are standing their ground and demanding political change, NYAFF presents the North American premieres of three films about teenagers who just won’t take it anymore: Kim Uiseok’s After My Death, Ogata Takaomi’s The Hungry Lion, and Naito Eisuke’s competition title Liverleaf.
Opening Night is the North American premiere of Tominaga Masanori’s Dynamite Graffiti, an unorthodox and sprightly drama based on the life and times of Japanese porn mag king Suei Akira, who cultivated future artists such as Araki Nobuyoshi and Moriyama Daido. This spirited tale of sexual exploitation is an ode to free expression, proving that the so called “smut” of today might very well become the art of tomorrow. The film is a metaphor for the humble origins of the festival as a Chinatownborn grindhouse showcase introducing the works of Johnnie To and several of the modern masters of Korean cinema.
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BuyBust[/caption]
Closing Night is the world premiere of Erik Matti’s BuyBust from the Philippines. On the surface, it is structured like an action film in the vein of The Raid, with superstar Anne Curtis and MMA world champion Brandon Vera as narcs taking down a drug kingpin against insurmountable odds over one unrelenting rainy night. The film employed 309 stuntmen and features a wildly ambitious three minute, one cut action scene. Being a Matti film, it also offers a searing perspective on the ongoing drug war and broader issues of political corruption. The director and stars will attend the screening.
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Men on the Dragon[/caption]
The Centerpiece is the world premiere of Sunny Chan’s Men on the Dragon, starring Francis Ng and Jennifer Yu. Always central to the festival’s DNA, Hong Kong cinema demonstrates the resiliency of an industry whose identity is easily blurred with Mainland China, but on which it also exerts a considerable influence and provides storytelling expertise and craftsmanship. The film is a quintessential underdog story about a group of blue collar workers who reluctantly join their company’s dragon boat team. A directorial debut of a veteran Hong Kong screenwriter, Chan’s film is being presented one year after NYAFF had a special focus on firsttime directors from the territory. Chan and actress Jennifer Yu will be among the attending guests.
Seven films will battle in the second edition of the festival’s relaunched Main Competition: Shiraishi Kazuya’s Blood of Wolves (Japan), Nam Ron’s Crossroads: One Two Jaga (Malaysia), Naito Eisuke’s Liverleaf (Japan), Dong Yue’s The Looming Storm (China), Sunny Chan’s Men on the Dragon (Hong Kong), Jeon Gowoon’s Microhabitat (South Korea), and Treb Monteras’s Respeto (Philippines). Six of the seven films are receiving their North American premieres at NYAFF, with one world premiere. Four of the competition titles are debut films, reflecting the festival’s ongoing support for new directors.
This year, the festival presents two Star Asia Awards:
South Korea’s Kim Yunseok is best known to North American audiences for his role as the grizzled excop in 2008 serial killer thriller The Chaser. A decade on, he stands firmly in the top tier of his country’s leading men. Like his contemporaries Song Kangho and Choi Minshik, he came late to movies after a background in theater. Jang Joonhwan’s powerful drama 1987: When the Day Comes screens, in which Kim plays the frightening head of South Korea’s anticommunist bureau, hellbent on holding back the country’s democracy movement.
Chinese filmmaker Jiang Wu’s career has bridged independent cinema and mainstream success for 25 years. Two decades ago, he was at the forefront of a new populist independent cinema about big city life that transformed modern Chinese cinema with Zhang Yang’s Shower. He has worked with Zhang Yimou (To Live), Jiang Wen (Let the Bullets Fly), Jia Zhangke (A Touch of Sin), and Herman Yau (Shock Wave). Xin Yukun’s part noir, part western Wrath of Silence will screen in tribute, in which his terrifying nouveau riche mining magnate falls into a trap of his own design.
The Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Japan’s Harada Masato, a former U.S.based film critic. He is most recognizable to Western viewers for his role as the villain Mr. Omura opposite Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai. Since his debut in 1979, he has positioned himself as one of Japan’s most unique and important directors. While he has worked in nearly every genre, he is best known for tackling societal issues such as teenage prostitution, illegal immigrants, and the role of the media. Screening in the festival are his dark classic gem Kamikaze Taxi on 35mm, the recent Kakekomi (2016), a period piece about female empowerment, and his most recent historical epic Sekigahara, about the oneday battle in 1600 that defined modern Japan.
The Screen International Rising Star Asia Award recipient will be announced at a later date.
The Hong Kong Panorama, backbone of the festival’s programming, returns with nine features, including two world premieres: Sunny Chan’s debut Men of the Dragon and Antony Chan’s comeback House of the Rising Sons. Antony Chan is an original member of The Wynners, the popular teenidol band of the 1970s that launched the careers of megastars Alan Tam and Kenny Bee. Chan, the band’s drummer, returns to the director’s chair after 26 years to present a vibrant biopic that avoids hagiography. Highlighting the miracles of motion and irresistible kinetic force that are the signature of Hong Kong cinema, is a threefilm Dante Lam tribute, and an actionpacked thriller run on July 4: Jonathan Li’s debut The Brink, Oxide Pang’s The Big Call, and Wilson Yip’s Paradox. Also screening is Chapman To’s family drama set in the world of karate, The Empty Hands starring Stephy Tang.
The China section continues to take a more central role. One year ago, NYAFF committed to supporting the new generation of firsttime directors emerging in Asia with the Young Blood series, focusing on Hong Kong; this year the festival shifts to Mainland China. Once again, the films are heady and diverse in subject matter, including Hunanset, raindrenched serialkiller thriller The Looming Storm, Inner Mongoliaset sexagenarian drama Old Beast (produced by Chinese auteur Wang Xiaoshuai), and the razorsharp Northeastern comedy Looking for Lucky, which revolves around a man, his father, and a missing dog. The Chinese film industry is changing fast, and trends are best reflected in where new directors are taking it. We also present films about the shifting rules of romance: Dude’s Manual and The ExFiles 3: The Return of the Exes.
The New Cinema from Japan lineup is represented by one of the festival’s largest contingents of directors yet. In addition to NYAFF’s tribute to veteran director Harada Masato, the festival is bringing a group that could be described as defining a “new wave” of Japanese cinema: Naito Eisuke with his circleofrevenge drama Liverleaf, Ogata Takaomi with experimental youth drama The Hungry Lion, Takeshita Masao with slowburn drama The Midnight Bus, and Kanata Wolf with his slacker debut Smokin’ on the Moon. Also attending is actor Emoto Tasuku who brings his mischievous charm to the protagonist of porn publishing odyssey Dynamite Graffiti. Other highlights include Sato Shinsuke’s crossgenerational superhero showdown Inuyashiki, Ueda Shinichiro’s meta zombie film homage One Cut of the Dead, and Yukisada Isao’s brutal youth drama River’s Edge.
There are ten films in the South Korean Cinema section. This year, femaledirected titles represent almost half of the NYAFF selection. They include Jeon Gowoon’s competition title Microhabitat, Yim Soonrye’s Little Forest, and Jeong Gayoung’s Hit the Night. Actress and director Jeong’s positioning of herself as a female Hong Sangsoo—she recently starred in and directed Bitch on the Beach—is itself a critique of the macho posturing of much of South Korean cinema.
The festival selected five films showcasing the uniqueness of Taiwan cinema and the strength of both its arthouse productions and its genre output. Of note is the North American premiere of gangster film Gatao 2: Rise of the King, poised comfortably between classic yakuza and triad movies from Japan and Hong Kong. In complete contrast is The Last Verse, which charts a romantic relationship through the turbulence of three presidential eras; it was directed by Tseng Yingting, one of Taiwan cinema’s freshest voices since Edward Yang.
This year’s program features the largest Southeast Asian Vanguard selection yet, representing a fifth of the festival lineup. This region is one of the most creative corners of Asia, which NYAFF continues to champion in the film selection and guest lineup. Outside of Asia, arguably no other film event has so fully committed to exploring Southeast Asian cinema, which is at the heart of the festival’s future. Six films from the Philippines, three films from Thailand, two films from Malaysia, and one film from Indonesia will screen.
The festival goes all in on the Philippines with the largest lineup in NYAFF since 2013. Three strong films examine the nation’s ongoing drug war: Mikhail Red’s Neomanila, about a “mother and son” death squad; Treb Monteras’ Respeto, set in the milieu of rap battles; and Erik Matti’s BuyBust. There will also be a special screening of Matti’s thriller On the Job. On opening night, NYAFF hosts the world premiere of Richard Somes’s brutal We Will Not Die Tonight, starring Erich Gonzales as a stuntwoman trying to survive a single night. On a lighter note, Irene Villamor’s blockbuster (anti)romance Sid & Aya (Not a Love Story) screens, also starring Anne Curtis from BuyBust.
There has been a recent Malaysian New Wave reflecting the country’s societal and political changes, and it is only now reaching our cinema screens. NYAFF presents two films that would never have seen the light before 2018: police corruption thriller Crossroads: One Two Jaga and black magic thriller Dukun. The latter is the longburied debut of top Malaysian director Dain Said, screening twelve years after its shoot was completed. Together with Brutal/Jagat (NYAFF 2016), these films hint at why Malaysian cinema is a territory to watch.
Southeast Asian Westerns: The links between the western genre and Japanese cinema are well documented, from remakes of Akira Kurosawa’s classics to Lee Sungil’s own remake of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. But the western was also a genre embraced in Southeast Asia for decades, most recently with two Indonesian films: Mouly Surya’s Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (which opens in New York on June 22) and Mike Wiluan’s Buffalo Boys, which screens on the final day of the festival. Like their Northeast Asian counterparts (the Manchurian western), the genre offers tales of freedom and emancipation with Eastern heroes rising against their colonial oppressors. This year, Wisit Sasanatieng’s madcap Tears of the Black Tiger returns in a special 35mm screening.
One of the world’s biggest cash prizes for film – the Stockholm Impact Award at 
The Last Verse by Tseng Ying-Ting,[/caption]
10 official selections from up-and-coming Asian directors will compete in the New Currents section at the 22nd