80+ features. 17 shorts. 120 sessions. 1 world première. 37 Australian premières. 32 Queensland premières.16 days. 6 venues.
That’s the inaugural Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival (BAPFF) by the numbers, however the figures only tell part of the story.
At the festival’s heart is a celebration of diversity, both in a region that covers one third of the globe, and in the incredible selection of films awaiting your discovery.
BAPFF champions the best of Asia Pacific filmmaking, bringing films and filmmakers to Brisbane to create a unique celebration of the art of cinema.
Award winners? BAPFF will screen Cannes Palme d’Or winner Winter Sleep, Berlinale Golden Bear recipient Black Coal Thin Ice, Locarno Golden Leopard winner From What is Before, Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema: Documentary) winner Return to Homs, and Tribeca Best Narrative Feature recipient Zero Motivation. The list continues, with double FIPRESCI Award-winner 10 Minutes, Berlinale FIPRESCI Award-winner Forma and 2014 Karlov Vary Film Festival Crystal Globe recipient Corn Island, among others.
Award contenders? BAPFF will feature films selected as their nations’ foreign-language Oscar contenders such as New Zealand’s The Dead Lands, Palestine’s Eyes of a Thief and Taiwan’s Ice Poison; titles in contention for the AACTAs including best documentary nominee Ukraine is Not a Brothel; and 20 films nominated for the 8th annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA).
Highlighting noted Asia Pacific talent, BAPFF hosts new works from the region’s best auteurs, including Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home at the festival’s closing night celebration, as well as Lav Diaz’s From What Is Before, Hong Sang-Soo’s Hill of Freedom, Im Kwok-teak’s Revivre, Wang Xiaoshuai’s Red Amnesia, Ann Hui’s The Golden Era, and Ruin from Australia’s own Amiel Courtin-Wilson, Michael Cody.
BAPFF also brings films to Brisbane that might otherwise remain unseen, such as Australian time travel romantic comedy The Infinite Man, Farsi-language neo-noir vampire western A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Russia’s three-decades-in-the-making Hard To Be A God, and Jean-Luc Godard’s pioneering Goodbye to Language 3D.
The festival not only looks to the future of filmmaking in the region, but also to the past courtesy of retrospective screenings. A focus on 2014 APSA jury president Asghar Farhadi showcases his career so far. Korea’s oldest surviving silent film, Crossroads of Youth, is celebrated in a unique live performance event. Satyajit Ray’s Charulata and Kim Ki-young’s The Housemaid rank among the festival’s restorations, as well as the late Nagisa Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth – fresh from screenings in Cannes Classics.
BAPFF 2014
29 November to 14 December
Palace Barracks Cinemas, The Australian Cinémathèque at Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Sunnybank Hoyts Cinemas, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, The Courier-Mail Piazza and the State Library of Queensland
www.brisbaneasiapacificfilmfestival.com
