Wet Season Memento Films

Source: Memento Films

‘Wet Season’

The 4th International Film Festival & Awards Macao has unveiled its 2019 programme, including the return of the New Chinese Cinema section with a jury headed by Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu.

Mungiu will oversee a five-person jury watching six films from Chinese-speaking territories. His jury consists of BFI London Film Festival artistic director Tricia Tuttle; former SFFILM (San Francisco Film) executive director Noah Cowan; and filmmakers Kirsten Tan from Singapore and Qiu Yang from China.

Scroll down for the line-up

The films in the section include Anthony Chen’s Wet Season, which launched in Toronto in September; and Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2019 title To Live To Sing by Johnny Ma.

The festival will open on Thursday, December 5 with Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit, and run until the awards ceremony on Tuesday, December 10.

10 features from first- or second-time directors will compete for the $60,000 (£46,626) first prize, including Fyzal Boulifa’s UK-France co-pro Lynn + Lucy, which was recently nominated for two BIFAs.

Also in the section is Rodd Rathjen’s Buoyancy, a Berlin 2019 premiere which is Australia’s entry for best international feature at the 2020 Oscars.

Chinese filmmaker Peter Chan Ho-sun is jury president for the competition, with jury members including Perfect Village Entertainment CEO Ellen Eliasoph; Indonesian actress Dian Sastrowardoyo; Taiwanese director Midi Z; and Welsh actor and director Tom Cullen.

IFFAM will host three gala screenings – A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon and Judy from the UK, and Dance With Me from Japan.

The World Panorama section, celebrating directors and award-winning films from major festivals, includes Sacha Polak’s Dirty God starring Screen Star of Tomorrow Vicky Knight; Jessica Hausner’s Cannes 2019 Competition title Little Joe; and Ye Lou’s Venice 2019 Competition entry Saturday Fiction.

There is also a ‘Flying Daggers’ strand for genre cinema, for which titles are Takashi Miike’s First Love, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s The Platform, and Robert Eggers’ The Witch.

IFFAM 2019 Competition

  • Bellbird (NZ)
    Dir: Hamish Bennett
  • Bombay Rose (Ind-Fr-UK-Qat)
    Dir: Gitanjali Rao
  • Buoyancy (Australia)
    Dir: Rodd Rathjen
  • Two Of Us (Fr-Bel-Neth-Lux)
    Dir: Filippo Meneghetti
  • Give Me Liberty (US)
    Dir: Kirill Mikhanovsky
  • Goldie (US)
    Dir: Sam de Jong
  • Lynn + Lucy (UK-Fr)
    Dir: Fyzal Boulifa
  • Two/One (UK-China-Can)
    Dir: Juan Cabral
  • Homecoming (Indonesia)
    Dir: Adriyanto Dewo
  • Family Members (Arg)
    Dir: Mateo Bendesky

World Panorama

  • Dirty God (Neth-UK-Bel-Ire)
    Dir: Sacha Polak
  • The Invisible Life Of Eurídice Gusmão (Braz-Ger)
    Dir: Karim Aïnouz
  • The Long Walk (Laos-Sp-Sing)
    Dir: Mattie Do
  • Proxima (Fr-Ger)
    Dir: Alice Winocour
  • Little Joe (Austria-UK-Ger)
    Dir: Jessica Hausner
  • My Zoe (Fr-Ger)
    Dir: Julie Delpy
  • Saturday Fiction (China)
    Dir: Le You
  • The Wild Goose Lake (China)
    Dir: Yi’nan Diao
  • Balloon (China)
    Dir: Pema Tseden

New Chinese Cinema

  • Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains (China)
    Dir: Xiaogang Gu
  • Lucky Grandma (US)
    Dir: Sasie Sealy
  • Wet Season (Sing)
    Dir: Anthony Chen
  • To Live To Sing (China-Fr)
    Dir: Johnny Ma
  • Wisdom Tooth (China)
    Dir: Liang Ming
  • Better Days (China)
    Dir: Derek Tsang