Udine Far East Film Festival 2015: The audience crowned 3 Korean movies

FEFF 17:  The audience crowned 3 Korean movies

Ode to My Father di JK Youn

The Royal Tailor di Lee Won-suk

My Brilliant Life di E J-yong.

The seventeenth edition wraps up with 60.000 viewers and, compared with the 2014 edition, with an increase in revenue of more than 20%.

Joe Hisaishi and Jackie Chan: it is impossible not to start from there, if we want talk about the Far East Film Festival, because talking about the Far East Film Festival means talking about its international reputation. A goal, conquered gradually – and tenaciously built – throughout the years, dream after dream, year after year, up to the seventeenth edition finish line and its two most symbolic guests.

By accepting the invitation from the Udinese CEC, mister Hisaishi and mister Chan officially legitimized the major role FEFF fulfills in the Far East. And, just like them, so did all the other guest stars, more than 40 from 11 different Asian countries.

After 10 days of showings and meetings at Teatro Nuovo “Giovanni da Udine”, and of colorful raids downtown (this year, about a hundred events linked to the Festival), it is now time to settle the 2015 edition accounts. An edition that, cutting out all the bad luck coming from the number 17 and cutting out the unfortunate coincidence of weekends and bank holidays, saw a 20% increase in direct revenue (165 thousand euro profit from passes, tickets and merchandising), with a total of about 60 thousand viewers. Such a loyal audience, the fareasters, European and international, made of journalists, critics, students, experts, insiders and, especially, people who love Far Eastern visions.

And fareasters themselves, who since 1999 have been the only judge and jury of the movies in competition, have awarded Korea with an historic triple victory: the moving Ode to My Father by Jk Youn takes home the 2015 Golden Mulberry! First runner-up is also from South Korea, The Royal Tailor by Lee Won-suk, followed by My Billiant Life by E J-yong.

Black Dragon holders have crowned the moving melodrama The Last Reel, the very first Cambodian movie in the history of FEFF, while the Mymovies web-jury has chosen The Royal Tailor.

Briefly going back to the numbers, the Festival has exceeded the 2014 threshold in other areas too: 1273 pass holders (coming from a total of 16 different nations), a remarkable increase in sales for the bookshop (books, DVDs and, given the event, music sheets by Joe Hisaishi). Several thousands were the people who moved around thanks to the Events, simultaneously with the movie program, that, once again, reached their peak with the sixth edition of the Far East Cosplay Contest and with the Yellow Night. Big, significant numbers, to which we cannot forget to add the so precious help of 150 volunteers who supported the staff.

And now? Looking at the Far East Film Festival 18, the organizers disclose the intention, the necessity, of expanding the section dedicated to the film market. It is time for investments!