(Variety) Leading Chinese director, Chen Kaige has been set as president of the main competition jury for the International Film Festival and Awards Macao this year. The third edition of the festival will run 8-14 December, 2018.
“There are very few directors who can boast careers as rich and profound as Chen Kaige. With a 35 year filmography spanning ‘Yellow Earth’ to last year’s dizzyingly spectacular ‘Legend of the Demon Cat,’ he pioneered a new era in Chinese cinema in the 1980s and 1990s, yet continues to challenge himself today with the same energy, ambition and command of the medium across many different genres,” said Mike Goodridge, IFFAM artistic director. Chen won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1993 for “Farewell My Concubine.”
The Macao festival’s main competition for first and second films rewards the best film with a first prize worth $60,000. In a new non-competitive slot, the festival will this year present the New Chinese Cinema strand, encompassing 4-6 films representing the best of Chinese-language cinema in 2018.
Returning program strands include Flying Daggers, a non-competitive selection of international genre films and Director’s Choice a non-competitive retrospective selection of six classic genre films, selected by six well-known directors; three films from Asia selected by non-Asian directors and three films from the world outside Asia selected by Asian directors.
Source: Variety by Patrick Frater