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«It’s the first time I’ve come to the Far East Film Festival, a very big and very important event for us Asian filmmakers. You know: it’s rare today to find 1200 people attending a film screening. It is rare all over the world. And I am deeply moved to see such a full room, without empty spaces, and to see how much you love our works! I will come back here again New Theater of Udinea beautiful city, because you really moved me…”.
Inside the words of Zhang Yimou there is not only happiness for a welcome full of enthusiasm and for an art, cinema, which is starting to fly again: there is the very sense of Far East Film Festival. A long journey, free and restless, into the popular soul of Asia. A long love story that, since 1999he never stopped create connections between East and West.
Confirming the fact that cinema is starting to fly again, the FEFF 26 led to Udine 79 films (12 world premieres, 22 international, 23 European, 19 Italian), 228 guests of honor (including, in fact, the legendary Zhang Yimouawarded the Golden Mulberry for Lifetime Achievement and protagonist of one memorable masterclass) And 65 thousand spectators. And just the publicaccording to a tradition that dates back to FEFF 01he established with voting cards also the podium this year.
The Japan he dominated the Audience Awards 2024triumphing with the moving Takano Tofu Of Mihara Mitsuhiro (Golden Mulberry) and placing the very tender Confetti Of Fujita Naoya in second place (Silver Mulberry). Third place was instead won by one of the cinematic cases of the season: Time Still Turns the Pages of the director Hong Konger Nick Cheuk (Crystal Mulberry). The Japan it also made sparks on the accredited front Black Dragon (which crowned the samurai movie Bushido Of Shiraishi Kazuya) and the community of MYmovies (whom he crowned Takano Tofu).
The jurors of the First Works section (Anthony Chen, Edouard Waintrop, Matsuzaki Kaoru) then assigned the White Mulberry to the romanticism of South Korean Mimang Of Kim Tae-yang while the Mulberry for Best Screenplay went to action comedy Citizen of a Kind by the South Korean director Park Young-ju (to decide, some of the jurors of the International award for best screenplay “Sergio Amidei” from Gorizia: Massimo Gaudioso, Marco Risi, Doriana Leondeff and Francesco Munzi).
More than 3000 they were the total guests that the FEFF 26 has located in the various accommodation facilities of the city, a record numberand the credit account also recorded a record number: 1700that is, the 25% more compared to 2023. Enthusiasts, journalists, experts, professionals, simply “curious” and, it should be underlined, 130 university cinema students (Italy, United Kingdom, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Singapore), demonstrating how high the level of attention was also on the part of younger Farastians.
Beyond 200, then, i professionals arrived from all over Europe for the industry sessions of Focus Asia and about 15 thousand people who instead took part in the FEFF Eventsscattered in the center of Udine. The FEFF onlinestreaming on the platform MYmovies ONEhe finally recorded 8,775 attendances from 200 Italian municipalities. The first city for online users was Milanfollowing Rome And Turin. The most watched films in streaming were the saga of Alienoid (with 1500 hours of viewing) And Takano Tofu (with 624 hours of viewing).
Now all you have to do is mark the dates on your calendar next editionwhen the Far East Film Festival will cut the twenty-seventh finish line: appointment in Udine from 24 April to 2 May 2025!
