International Film Festival & Awards Macao

Source: IFFAM

The second International Film Festival & Awards Macao (IFFAM) has announced its Project Market award winners.

As part of the closing of the IFFAM Industry Hub today (Dec 11), three films in development each received a $10,000 prize.

Jacqueline Castel’s Mihara, which will be a psychological horror about a bereaved American teenager who relocates with her father to a Japanese island after witnessing her mother’s death, took home the Ivanhoe Pictures award, while Malaysian director-producer duo Liew Seng Tat and Pete Teo’s The Girl With No Head, a Mandarin-language comedy drama about a decapitated girl in search of her real identity, won the Huace Pictures award.

Liam O’Donnell’s The Last Savage took the Hairun Pictures award. The project is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller about a boy raised in the jungle by tigers who becomes an urban gladiator.

Mihara, a US-Japan collaboration, is at script stage; Pier Harrison is producing. The Last Savage will be produced by Matthew Chausse and US-based visual-effects company Hydraulx, with the aim to shoot on location in Indonesia and soundstages on a projected $25m budget.

The market itself is designed to showcase international projects with Asian elements and principally with a genre theme. Overall, 14 projects were presented, 11 of which were genre films – eight selected by IPM, and one each from international genre markets Blood Window (Argentina), Frontieres (Canada) and Sitges Film Festival (Spain). The other three were auteur titles.

“We were looking for a blend of artistry, creativity and audience appeal,” said Todd Brown of XYZ Films, who curated the market as well as leading the jury. ”We were looking for movies that are going to be able to travel internationally.”

Selected filmmakers went through an extensive industry programme of pitches, one-on-one meetings and informal gatherings to match them with industry professionals and drive the projects forward.

Brown said: “It has been exciting to be here again with a really great selection of projects that we are very proud of. They represent countries from all around the globe and a huge diversity of styles, genres and approach. It’s been very gratifying to see the support from the industry delegates who have come out to meet the Project Market filmmakers.”

The second edition of IFFAM wraps on December 14.

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