The 4th International Film Festival & Awards‧Macao (referred to as “IFFAM” or the “Film Festival”) will be staged from 5th to 10th December this year. Leveraging the occasion of the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF), the IFFAM Organizing Committee held a press conference for the 4th IFFAM in Shanghai today (16 June) to unveil the latest progress of preparation and gain wider publicity for IFFAM among filmmakers and media from around the world.
Director of Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and President of the IFFAM Organizing Committee, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Council Chairlady of Macau Films & Television Productions and Culture Association (MFTPA) and Secretary General of the IFFAM Organizing Committee, Alice Augusto, Artistic Director of IFFAM, Mike Goodridge, and Head of Destination Marketing Department of MGTO, Betty Fok, attended the occasion together with other personages in Shanghai. The Organizing Committee announced that IFFAM has invited renowned Hong Kong film director Peter Chan and celebrated Hong Kong actress Carina Lau to be Jury President of the Competition and Talent Ambassador respectively in the 4th IFFAM. The line-up of Festival Ambassadors was also unveiled in the press conference. The Film Festival will feature “SHORTS” as a new competition this year, while “New Chinese Cinema” will be adding competition element. During the press conference, the IFFAM Organizing Committee signed a cooperative agreement and a memorandum of cooperation with Shanghai International Film Festival and Shanghai Film Academy of Shanghai University respectively, to foster closer cooperation with the film circle of Mainland China.
President of the IFFAM Organizing Committee, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, remarked that since the inaugural edition of IFFAM, the Organizing Committee has been striving to transform the event into an internationally prestigious film gathering, in parallel with the endeavor to steer the development of Macao’s tourism industry towards diversification and sustainability. In mid-April this year, the Central Government has brought Macao the good news, putting into implementation five measures to bolster the development of Hong Kong and Macao film industries in the Mainland. The measures will inject a significant and positive momentum into local movie productions and talent development as well as collaborative film projects across Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao, and unlock broader potential for the city’s film industry in moving forward. In the light of experience gained over the past three years, the Organizing Committee continued to optimize and adjust the content of the programme to enhance the quality of the Film Festival, hoping to accelerate the strengths of IFFAM and fuel its progress on the international stage.
Two agreements signed to foster cooperation
Council Chairlady of MFTPA and Secretary General of the IFFAM Organizing Committee, Alice Augusto, and Deputy Managing Director of Shanghai International Film & TV Festivals Co., Ltd., Wang Ye, signed a cooperative agreement on behalf of IFFAM and Shanghai International Film Festival, witnessed by IFFAM Organizing Committee President Senna Fernandes, committed to recommend new film artists, film works and investment projects under the cooperative mechanism. This is the second cooperative agreement signed between the two parties since 2017 to further expand collaboration and exchange.
Following that, Secretary General of the IFFAM Organizing Committee, Alice Augusto, and Secretary of Shanghai Film Academy of Shanghai University, Li Jian, signed a memorandum of cooperation on behalf of their respective entities, agreeing to arrange participation of students of Shanghai Film Academy in the 4th IFFAM in Macao. The ceremony was witnessed by IFFAM Organizing Committee President Senna Fernandes. After the ceremony, Artistic Director of IFFAM, Mike Goodridge, presented the latest progress of preparation for the 4th IFFAM.
Peter Chan will be Jury President of the Competition
Coming on board as the Jury President of the Competition in the 4th IFFAM, Peter Chan is an accomplished filmmaker, film director, producer and screenwriter. Since the 1990s, Chan has directed many critically-acclaimed films that also hit high box office records, including Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996), Perhaps Love (2005), The Warlords (2007), American Dreams in China (2013) and Dearest (2014). His works won a range of awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards, Golden Horse Awards, Huading Awards and more. In 1998, Chan directed his first Hollywood production, The Love Letter, in collaboration with DreamWorks SKG founded by celebrated US film director Steven Spielberg. His film production The Eye was also adapted into a Hollywood film. His directed film Perhaps Love (2005) was featured as the closing film in the Venice Film Festival. As a prominent heavyweight in the Chinese film world, Chan has made a far-reaching impact in steering the Asian film market forward.
Winner of Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress Carina Lau will be Talent Ambassador
With her outstanding acting performances, famous Hong Kong film star Carina Lau has gained the honor of best actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards, Golden Bauhinia Awards, Golden Roosters and Hundred Flowers Film Festival, Osaka Asian Film Festival, Festival of the 3 Continents. Her remarkable portrayal shines in Days of being Wild, Intimates, Curiosity Kills the Cat, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Bends as well as In Your Dreams, among other films. In 2017, she was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Three Festival Ambassadors of the year include Korean director of the film series “Along with the Gods”, Kim Yong-Hwa, acclaimed Indian film director, actor, producer and TV program host Karan Johar, as well as Chinese independent film director Wang Xiaoshuai.
New competition “SHORTS”
The Film Festival will feature a new competition “SHORTS” this year, joining universities from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao to accept short film entries created by their students. Ten entries will be selected for screening during the 4th IFFAM and the best short film will be chosen.
“New Chinese Cinema” adds competition element
The “New Chinese Cinema” this year will be adding competition element and five accolades, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Actress, will be conferred to commend filmmakers for their extraordinary artistry.
Dedication to nurture local film talent
This year, the IFFAM co-organizer MFTPA and TorinoFilmLab from Italy will jointly launch a Macao–TorinoFilmLab training programme known as the Script & Creative Production Workshop. Four teams of young filmmakers will undergo training in two periods in June and November. In addition, Macao film directors Tracy Choi and Harriet Wong are joining SIFF PROJECT 2019: SIFF NEXT during the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival at IFFAM’s recommendation, to engage in insightful exchange with young filmmakers from Shanghai.
An East and West cultural exchange platform in the making
Since the inaugural edition in 2016, the IFFAM Organizing Committee has been dedicated to forging IFFAM into a prestigious brand in the international film industry and a cultural exchange platform between the East and West across borders and generations, with the unyielding commitment to open a window of world-class exchange opportunities for the local cultural and creative industries, push forward Macao’s tourism development and raise the city’s international profile.
For more information about the International Film Festival & Awards‧Macao, please visit:
Website of the 4th International Film Festival & Awards‧Macao: http://www.iffamacao.com/
