Jakarta Film Week 2023
Jakarta Film Week, the annual international film festival hosted by the Jakarta Tourism and Creative Economy Agency, returns this week. It is an event where filmmakers and enthusiasts share new shows, visions, and possibilities.
This year’s festival will take place from October 25 to 29, 2023. Visitors can enjoy film screenings at CGV Grand Indonesia and Kineforum Taman Ismail Marzuki.
Under the theme Evolve, the festival features diverse types of films, ranging from short films to feature films from home and abroad, with some of which have won prestigious awards.
Some of them are Budi Pekerti, Tokyo Story, and Past Lives. Apart from that, visitors can also enjoy prestigious films, such as Hanging Gardens from Iraq, The Breaking Ice from Singapore, Totem from Mexico, Sweet Dreams from the Netherlands, and Tigers Stripes from Malaysia. These films have been selected as their respective countries’ entries for this year’s Oscars.
All tickets are free, with limited capacity available online or on the spot.
In addition to film screenings, the festival presents various programs including Road to Jakarta Film Week, Jakarta Film Fund, master classes, talks, community events, and the awards night.
For the latest information on Jakarta Film Week 2023, visit www.jakartafilmweek.com and the official social media @jakartafilmweek.
Related news from the film industry:
Tiger Stripes, directed by Malaysia’s Amanda Nell Eu
Malay-language arthouse horror film Tiger Stripes made history by becoming the first Malaysian film to win the grand prize for best feature at the Cannes’ Critics’ Week, a sidebar for the prestigious Cannes Film Festival that is dedicated to first or second films.
The debut effort by Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu won the €10,000 (RM49,400) grand prize of the 62nd edition of Cannes’ Critics Week.
The film is also still in competition for the Camera d’Or prize, which is an award for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes’ selections (Official Selection, Directors’ Fortnight, or International Critics’ Week).
According to a report by Screen Daily, Critics’ Week’s 2023 jury president Audrey Diwan said that the Tiger Stripes was “Irreverent and uncompromising”.
The 37-year-old Eu is the first female director from Malaysia to have a film featured in Cannes, and Tiger Stripes is also only the fourth Malaysian feature film at Cannes, and the first since since 2010.
Only three other Malaysian films have been chosen for Cannes previously – U-Wei Saari’s Kaki Bakar in 1995, 2009’s Karaoke by Chris Chong Chan Fui, and Woo Ming Jin’s The Tiger Factory in 2010.
Read Amanda’s interview with Film Fest Report, here.
Zhang Yimou wins award
Chinese director Zhang Yimou was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening ceremony of the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) on Monday (Oct 23).
The 73-year-old recalled in his acceptance speech that his connections to TIFF stretch back three decades. He won Best Actor for the movie Old Well (1986) at the second TIFF in 1987. It also nabbed the prestigious Tokyo Grand Prix awarded to the best film.
Zhang made his directorial debut with Red Sorghum (1988) and has directed well-known movies such as The Story Of Qiu Ju (1992), Hero (2002) and House Of Flying Daggers (2004).
In addition to movies, he also directed the opening and closing ceremonies of both the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The 36th TIFF kicked off in Tokyo with more than 200 filmmakers and actors from Japan, and also other countries and regions, appearing on the red carpet.
Festival chairman Hiroyasu Ando declared the opening of the festival on Monday, saying: “We would like to make a further leap forward now that the Covid-19 pandemic has settled.”
The festival, running until Nov 1, will screen 219 films, mainly at movie theatres in the Marunouchi, Yurakucho, Hibiya and Ginza areas in the capital.
Fifteen films chosen from 1,942 entries submitted by 114 countries and regions will be screened in this year’s competition division, in which the Tokyo Grand Prix and other prizes will be awarded.
