FOUR SEASONS IN JAVA

Source: TIFFCOM

Kamila Andini, April Priscilla, Paolo Bertolin, Hiroyasu Ando

Kamila Andini’s Four Seasons In Java scooped two prizes including the top Tokyo Project Award of $13,000 (¥2m) at the inaugural Tokyo Gap-Financing Market (TGFM) awards today (October 31).

The project also won the Kongchak Award from Cambodia-based Kongchak Studio, which includes post-production sound services worth $25,000.

The film is an Indonesia-Netherlands-Norway-France-Germany-Singapore co-production from Indonesia’s Forka Films and was previously selected for the Berlinale Co-Production Market, Venice Gap-Financing Market and Rotterdam’s CineMart.

Andini is an Indonesian filmmaker known for Before, Now & Then, which played in Competition at the Berlinale in 2022; Yuni, which won the Platform prize at Toronto in 2021; and earlier acclaimed features The Seen And Unseen and The Mirror Never Lies. She more recently directed Cigarette Girl, Netflix’s first Indonesian period drama, alongside her partner Ifa Isfansyah.

Awarding the main prize at a ceremony in Tokyo, Italian producer and jury member Paolo Bertolin said the film “offers a powerful statement on maturity from a filmmaker tackling sensitive and relevant topics with dedication, sincerity, and vigorous cinematic storytelling”.

Awarding the post-production prize, Kongchak Studios’ Vincent Villa said the project was selected “for its subject matter and the quality of its visual world. Above all, for its way of addressing the condition of a woman in a rural environment in southeast Asia, trapped between modernity and tradition.”

Further prizes saw Hum by Filippino director Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan win the Gen Z award, with a prize of $3,000 (¥500,000). “We felt the film was based on roots and memories and how they convey the thoughts of people who live there,” said the jury, calling it “something [we’ve] never seen before”.

A special mention was given to I Have To Fuck Before The World Ends from Andrea Benjamin Manenti, an Italy-Philippines co-production.

The Gen Z award was chosen by a selection committee of five film students from universities and graduate programs for the most compelling project for young people aged 20 to 28.

A further post-production award, also worth $25,000, was granted to Japan-Thailand co-production Polaris from director Natsuki Seta.

This year, 23 projects were selected for the sixth edition of TGFM. To have qualified for the TGFM, projects must have 60% of their total budget secured and an Asia-related element.

This story originally appeared on Screen’s sister site Screen Global Production

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