Nearly 100 Asian filmmakers and stars are heading to this year’s New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), which is hosting its biggest edition to date with a combination of world premieres and some of the region’s biggest recent blockbusters.
The 23rd edition of NYAFF will run from July 12-28, with a record 94 titles comprising the programme including more than 20 feature debuts.
“Our budget has doubled and the festival is more ambitious than it has ever been,” says Samuel Jamier, executive director of NYAFF and president of the New York Asian Film Foundation. “We’ve been experiencing exponential growth. Almost all the films we show will have their director and cast in attendance.”
These include South Korean K-pop star and actress Lee Hye-ri, who will attend with the world premiere of cheerleading comedy-drama Victory and receive the Screen International Rising Star Award on opening night.
Victory director Park Beom-su and co-star Park Se-wan will also be on hand to introduce the film and launch 17 days of screenings, which will conclude with Soi Cheang’s Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In, a Hong Kong action thriller that premiered at Cannes and has recorded the highest ever admissions for a local film.
“We have our largest ever number of big names from across East Asia but we also have a lot of young filmmakers,” says Jamier. “The average age of the filmmakers has dropped considerably. We’ve never championed young directors as much as this year.
“We’re taking risks by doing this because, when it comes to Asian film culture, a lot of people are lazy. They know Kurosawa and that is all they will ever know. It’s also the power of the algorithm, which pushes you further and further into well-trodden territory. We are doing the opposite by taking a lot of chances on a number of not very well-known directors and actors… so I don’t know how it’s going to go. But sales are good.”
Thai rising
Indeed, several titles sold out within hours of tickets being made available, including Victory. Demand for Thailand’s How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies was so great that a second screening was laid on, which also quickly sold out.
Thai director Pat Boonnitipat and popular singer-turned-actor Putthipong “Billkin” Assaratanakul will be in town to present the film, which plays in NYAFF’s Uncaged Competition and has ranked as this year’s highest grossing film in Thailand and Singapore to date while also becoming the biggest Asian film of all time in Indonesia.
“We’ve made a pretty big push towards showing more Thai films this year,” says Jamier. “Thailand’s commercial cinema is particularly accessible and How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies is a phenomenon, marking a major return of people to cinemas across the entire region. It really shows that Thai cinema is definitely back and has a lot of potential outside its domestic market.”
Also from Thailand, NYAFF will host an actor focus on Ananda Everingham, one of the best-known faces of Thai film, with the North American premieres of Panu Aree’s horror The Cursed Land, crime thriller Pattaya Heat and drama Supposed.
In addition, the festival will host the world premiere of Thai action horror Operation Undead and stage a panel discussion about Thailand’s cinematic spectrum featuring Everingham, Aree and Supposed actress Chayanit Chansangavej.
Hong Kong spotlight
Hong Kong will also be well represented by veteran actor Tai Bo, most recently seen in Berlin Teddy award-winner All Shall Be Well, who will receive NYAFF’s Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award; and action star Nicholas Tse, who will be honoured with the Screen International Star Asia Award and present his latest feature Customs Frontline.
All Shall Be Well director Ray Yeung is making his first visit to NYAFF and is the subject of a filmmaker focus, with the festival also showing his 2015 comedy-drama Front Cover and 2019 relationship drama Twilight’s Kiss (aka Suk Suk). There will be a Spotlight programme for Josie Ho’s Hong Kong outfit 852 Films, where the producer and actor will introduce several of her features including Shugo Fuji’s Onpaku and Jannell Schirtcliff’s 2021 debut Habit.
Highlights of recent releases from South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, China, Mongolia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam also make up the programme.
Despite its growing number of titles, NYAFF remains one of the best curated festivals on the circuit, showcasing the year’s must-see titles of Asian cinema over two-and-a-half weeks while introducing exciting new talent.
“When I started here in 2012, it was mostly still a genre film festival,” recalls Jamier of NYAFF’s roots in Hong Kong action films. “We’ve since expanded in a lot of directions and show a lot more titles. But I ultimately believe in the power of storytelling, bringing the big guns of Asian cinema while also trying to discover new trends and create interest in something new. After all, isn’t that the essence of what a film festival should be?”
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