The New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) has revealed the features that will compete for this year’s Uncaged Award and that Hong Kong actor Nicholas Tse will receive the Screen International Star Asia Award.
The eight-strong competition for best feature film at the festival, running July 12-28, will include the North American premiere of Thai hit How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, directed by Pat Boonnitipat.
The film, which ranks as this year’s biggest film at the Thai box office to date, is a family drama that stars popular Thai singer Putthipong Assaratanakul (aka Billkin) as a young man who quits his job to assume the role of a devoted grandson for his dying grandmother.
Scroll down for full list of competition titles
Also in competition is Malaysian drama Snow in Midsummer by Chong Keat-aun, which premiered at Venice and won a top prize at the Hong Kong International Film Festival’s (HKIFF) Firebird Awards in April. The film revisits the tragic race riots that occurred in Kuala Lumpur in 1969.
Other past award-winners set for NYAFF include Taiwanese drama Trouble Girl by Chin Chia-Hua, which was nominated for five Golden Horse awards and won best leading actress for Lin Pin-Tung; and Indonesian drama Women From Rote Island by Jeremias Nyangoen, which premiered at Busan and won four prizes including best feature and best director at Film Festival Indonesia.
The Uncaged competition also includes Choi Jae-young’s Frankenstein Father from South Korea; Akihiro Toda’s Ichiko from Japan; Liao Ming-yi’s Suffocating Love from Taiwan; and Wang Yichun’s The Escaping Man from China.
The nominated directors are all set to attend the festival in New York. The jury comprises Vietnamese-US filmmaker Tony Bui; producer Shao-yi Chen of Taiwan’s Screenworks Asia; Filipino actress Shaina Magdayao; Felix Tsang, sales and acquisitions manager at Hong Kong’s Golden Scene; Thai actor Nonkul Chanon Santinatornkul, star of box office hit Bad Genius; and Aliza Ma, head of programming at the Criterion Channel.
NYAFF also announced that the recipient of this year’s Screen International Star Asia Award will be Nicholas Tse, a Hong Kong actor, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and TV chef.
Recognising his career to date and recent accomplishments, the award will be presented at New York’s Film at Lincoln Center on July 17 alongside the North America premiere of his latest feature, Customs Frontline.
Tse debuted as a singer in 1996 before moving into acting. His feature credits include Metade Fumaca (1999), New Police Story (2004), Beast Stalker (2008), Bodyguards And Assassins (2009), The Stool Pigeon (2010), The Viral Factor (2012), As the Light Goes Out (2014) and Raging Fire (2021).
For his performance in The Stool Pigeon, Tse won the Hong Kong Film Award for best actor, making him the first person to have won in the three major acting categories – best actor, best supporting actor and best new performer – at the awards.
As previously announced, the 23rd NYAFF will open with South Korean comedy drama Victory and close with Soi Cheang’s Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In. Hong Kong actor Tai Bo is set to receive the Star Asia lifetime achievement award and South Korean actress Lee Hye-ri will be honoured with the Screen International Rising Star Asia Award.
NYAFF 2024: Uncaged Competition titles
- Frankenstein Father (S Kor) | dir. Choi Jae-young
- How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (Thai) | dir. Pat Boonnitipat
- Ichiko (Japan) | dir. Akihiro Toda
- Snow in Midsummer (Malay-Tai-Sing) | dir. Chong Keat Aun
- Suffocating Love (Tai) | dir. Liao Ming-yi
- The Escaping Man (China) | dir. Wang Yichun
- Trouble Girl (Tai) | dir. Chin Chia-Hua
- Women From Rote Island (Indo) | dir. Jeremias Nyangoen
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