Bangkok film festival revived
Event has new dates, structure
Studio wins bidding war over Aronofsky pic
9/8/08 10:11am
Buresi joins European Film Market
Exec replaces Karen Arikian
9/8/08 9:15am
Fine Cut to serve up 'Chaw'
Sales outfit picks up black comedy
9/7/08 3:58pm
Toronto vibes well with industry
Spirits high due to strong audience reactions
9/7/08 3:45pm
Maximum takes 'Control' at Toronto
Film unit snaps up rights to Labine feature
9/7/08 2:24pm
All News >>
The Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand said Tuesday that the festival will take place in late September, though the precise dates have yet to be specified.
It is likely that the festival will take place during the same period as the new Bangkok Entertainment Expo, organized by the Department of Export Promotion. This is intended to follow the model of Hong Kong's Entertainment Expo, which spans both FilMart and the Hong Kong festival. But as yet dates for the Bangkok Expo have not yet been finalized either.
The festival was launched five years ago under the patronage of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, but it has been dogged by organizational problems, clashes with the local industry, a low-powered market and dates that shifted from January to July. Recent months have seen its previous organizer Gerald Green indicted by a U.S. court for paying bribes to former Tourism Authority of Thailand governor Juthamas Siriwan in exchange for the festival management contract. Green's trial is set for the fall.
In its latest incarnation, the festival will be hosted jointly by the Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand and the Thai Film Directors' Association, said Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, president of the directors' guild. The Tourism Authority of Thailand will instead be the main sponsor.
"Operations will be responsibility of FNFAT and the directors' assoc, and we may have to find additional sponsors to support the event," said Thongkongtoon.
Jaruek Kanjaruek, prexy of FNFAT was named as festival president, while Tongkongtoon will serve as artistic director. The programming team will be led by filmmaker Pimpaka Towira and Mai Meksawan.
Few details about the fest's budget have been locked down, but it seems likely that the Tourism Authority of Thailand will chip in around $750,000, down from last year's $1 million.
Links posted in this story:
With a fresh new four-year mandate, Marco Mueller finally has a chance to burnish his legacy on the Lido and take it to a higher plateau.
In frugal times, studios are rethinking the value of expensive European preems and the impact on box office and Oscar.
Talented Belgian writer-director Fien Troch engages in a difficult dramatic game with her second film, "Unspoken," and falls short of the mark. Intensely involved with the emotionally alienated and disoriented parents of a teenage girl who went missing four years earlier, Troch's work is so bundled in elliptical moments and scenes without context that it will test -- and break -- most viewers' patience.
It's Not Me, I Swear!
Good
Kanchivaram
