Bangkok Film Festival finds balance

The Bangkok International Film Festival (BKKIFF) is only in its seventh year, but it has certainly established itself in Southeast Asia’s festival circuit with a reputation for glamour, with its glitzy parties, fancy red carpet opening nights and regular slew of Hollywood celebrities dropping by.

Despite the recent bribery scandal involving a former US contractor, the festival ploughed ahead and found a firm footing in its 2009 edition. Festival organisers, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) also scored a coup, handing over programming duties to the Federation of National Film Associations and Thai Film Directors’ Association.

A knowledgeable team with more adventurous taste in film, combined with the fact that festival films in Thailand don’t get censored, resulted in this year’s edition including several provocative choices such as Antichrist by Lars Von Trier; Singapore filmmaker Kan Lume’s Female Games and Malaysian Amir Muhammad’s Malaysian Gods.

Altiplano, a stylised environmental drama set in a Peruvian village, won the Grand Prix at this year’s Bangkok International Film Festival (BKKIFF). Chinese film The Search won the Special Jury Prize, and the crowd-pleasing I Killed My Mother was honoured with a Special Mention.

In the Southeast Asian competition, the top prize went to Independencia, by Filipino filmmaker Raya Martin. The Thai film Nymph, by Pen-ek Ratanaruang, won the Special Jury Prize, while Call If You Need Me from Malaysia and Imburnal from the Philippines won a Special Mention.

The seven-day festival generated a fairly enthusiastic reception from the audience, and the programme included such controversial arthouse titles as Antichrist and Dogtooth.

However, the direction the festival is aiming for is to become a hub of the South-East Asian film community by championing independent works by directors from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Without a market, the festival may not maximise Thailand’s potential as a hub of filmmaking activities, but as an audience festival and South-East Asia’s leading event, it has rebounded with a dose of confidence.

Artistic integrity and government support may appear strange bedfellows to some. However, with TAT hoping to use the festival to promote Thailand as a destination for tourists and international film industry people alike, and with the Thai directors’ aim of showing high-quality but commercially non-viable films to the Thai audiences, the festival has found a balance.

Golden Kinnaree Award Winners Best Achievement Award – Petchara Chaowarat (Thailand) Main competition Grand Prize ALTIPLANO (Belgium/Germany/Netherlands), Peter Brosens/Jessica Woodworth Special July Prize THE SEARCH (China), Pema Tseden Special Mention I KILLED MY MOTHER (Canada), Xavier Dolan South East Asian Competition Award Grand Prize INDEPENDENCIA (Philippines), Arleen Cuevas Special July Prize NYMPH (Thailand), Pen-ek Ratanaruang Special Mention • CALL IF YOU NEED ME (Malaysia), James Lee • IMBURNAL (Philippines), Sherad Anthony Sanchez SPECIAL AWARDS Golden Kinnaree Award for environmental awareness ALTIPLANO (Belgium/Germany/The Netherlands), Peter Brosens/Jessica Woodworth NETPAC Award INDEPENDENCIA (Philippines), Arleen Cuevas