NAFF’s second edition praised by guests

The event, which focuses on genre projects, hosted 355 meetings between more than 200 local and international guests. Attendees included representatives from France’s Wild Side, Thailand’s Sahamongkolfilm, Japan’s Avex and Hong Kong-based Irresistible Films.

Many guests were wondering why a genre-driven projects hadn’t happened sooner. “Not just the projects but also the guests and jury members were solid,” said producer Ellen Kim, who was presenting Abraham Lim’s project Soul Station at NAFF.

“Apart from the possibility of financing and co-production, you get to put your projects to the test with 30 minutes of very useful consulting from top-class experts in the field. The jury members came well-prepared and asked pointed questions that got our creative juices flowing and our brains working.”

Kenneth Tan, director of the Singapore Film Commission (SFC), praised NAFF and organiser Thomas Nam saying: “This is an impressive mix of creative excellence and organisational efficiency.” Singapore’s Boku Films and Media Development Authority (MDA) announced that it would co-produce the sequel to Korean hit The Host during NAFF.

Mike Macari, producer of the US remakes of The Ring and The Ring Two, said: “PiFan and NAFF are wonderful events. Mentoring the KOFIC FDL was actually much more intense and hard work than I expected going in, but in the end the projects made us proud.”

NAFF included the It Project market with 19 projects judged by producers Nansun Shi, Chris Lee, William Pfeiffer and Lee Joo-ick; the Singapore Spotlight with five projects presented by the MDA, and KOFIC FDL with five projects. In addition, NAFF held forums and the Fantastic Film School with workshops on visual effects, SF writing and project incubating.