Editor

The 14th edition of the Far East Film Festival will run in Udine, from April 20th to 28th.

Key titles of this year's selection will be, from Korea, "Sunny" by Kang Hyoung-chul, the opening film, a national preview, on Friday April 20th, a collective moving ballad on female friendship, and "The Viral Factor" , directed by the king of action movies, Dante Lam, who will keep the audience at Teatro Nuovo "Giovanni da Udine"  in suspense during Closing night on April 28th!

The selection will be made up of 47 brad new movies in competition (+ 5 short-films and plus 10 titles within the previously announced retrospective of 1970s South Korean cinema), on at Teatro Nuovo "Giovanni da Udine" and Visionario, among them 2 world premieres - the Japanese "Thermae Romae" by Takeuchi Hideki and from Hong Kong "The Bounty" by Fung Chih-chiang -, 15 International Festival premieres and 16 European premieres. Also, 10 Japanese films (enriched by a short-film about the tragedy of Fukushima, directed by one of the most important directors in the Japanese scene, Hiroki Ryuichi) will be part of the assortment and, for the first time in Europe, 4 short/medium films from the Fresh Wave Festival in Hong Kong, which Johnnie To himself directs on behalf of Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Joining the line-up, we'll have the Asian box-office hit, from Taiwan, "You Are the Apple of My Eye" and the European Premiere of the very violent and stylized Japanese movie "Hard Romanticker" by Gu Su-yeon. This 14th edition will be also distinguished by the major comeback of celebrities, starting with Johnnie To, who will be honored by the Festival with the "Gelso d'Oro" (Golden Mulberry) - Career Award, and the eccentric Pang Ho-cheung who will present also the awaited "Vulgaria".

The retrospective, with 10 films, which are virtually never-before-seen in the West, is dedicated to Korean directors from the Seventies, who during "The Darkest Decade", in spite of strong censorship and General Park Chung Hee's government control over production, were able to create masterpieces while keeping themselves hidden.    

The Festival in figures:

2 World Premieres;  

15 International Festival Premieres;

16 European Premieres;

10 titles within the previously announced retrospective of 1970s South Korean cinema

New Entries: a total of 5 short-films, 4 of them from the Fresh Wave Short Film Festival;

10 Countries: China (6), Hong Kong (10), Taiwan (3), Japan (10), South Korea (10), Thailand (1), Malaysia (2), Indonesia (2), the Philippines (2) and Singapore (1)

1 Retrospective: The Darkest Decade, 10 South Korean films from the Seventies, by Darcy Paquet;

2 Exhibitions: the first one, a joint effort with Associazione Hamelin in Bologna, focuses on the new Chinese comics (Chinese Islands) and the second one on the art photos of the great Chinese director Zhang Yuan about Beijing's young outsiders (Beijing Flickers);

About 50 Asian personalities, directors, screenwriters, actors and actresses, distributors, all of them attending the Festival;

10 producers attending the Ties That Bind 2012 workshop ("New Europe-Asia Workshop for Film Producers", from April 22nd to 26th), 5 coming from Asia and 5 from Europe;

Over 1000 (number on the rise) accreditees

200 (number on the rise) students and scholars from Italy and foreign countries such as Austria, Hungary, France, England, Sweden and, from overseas, the United States.

146 Black Dragon accreditees;

881 White Tiger accreditees.