The Asian Cinema Festival, which opens on Tuesday February 28 in Vesoul, offers an abundant program for its 29th edition.
It offers a retrospective of the filmography of Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu, in addition to honoring Singapore and the Philippines.
"Vesoul proves once again that it is the research head of Asian cinema in France, it's a festival that shows things that you don't see anywhere else", rejoices
the general delegate Jean-Marc Thérouanne, who distinguishes five
“highlights”
around the screenings organized until March 7.
He highlights the arrival of Lee Yong-kwan, president of the jury for the fiction feature film competition, which will see nine films from China, Vietnam or Azerbaijan, screened for the most part in French premiere. or European.
Lee Yong-kwan, also president of the Busan film festival (South Korea),
"the Cannes of Asia"
according to Jean-Marc Thérouanne, will be awarded a
"Cyclo d'or d'honneur"
in Vesoul , the festival's highest honour.
Another Cyclo d'or d'honneur will be awarded,
"for all of his work"
, to Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu, whom the festival had helped to make known in the 2000s, before he was selected for Cannes. or awarded the Golden Bear at the Berlin festival in 2010.
“We selected his very first film 21 years ago
,” recalls Jean-Marc Thérouanne, founder of the festival in 1995 with his wife, Martine Thérouanne, who is the director.
“And afterwards, we followed his whole career, we saw him again in other festivals.
It's really a very strong moment that he comes back like that, years later
.
Singapore and the Philippines in the spotlight
The festival also looks at cinemas in Singapore and the Philippines, with a dozen films from each of the two countries.
“We have made a huge effort to make visible the cinematography of Singapore, which is little known”
, underlines the general delegate.
“We went there to work with the representatives of the Asian Film Archive, to extract rare pearls, and we will present films from the 1950s to today.”
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship between France and the Philippines, which marked the beginning of official diplomatic relations between the two countries, a dozen representatives of the Film Development Council of the Philippines are making the trip , as well as several actors and directors, including Zig Dulay, already awarded at Vesoul in 2018.
Read alsoAsia, the leading destination for French cinema
Last highlight, the festival offers a selection around the
“Asian diasporas”
, 22 films produced between several countries, evoking forced or chosen exiles, for love, for family, political or economic reasons, or to flee war.
The announcement of the winners (fiction and documentaries) will take place on March 7.
More than 140 screenings are organized at the Majestic cinema in Vesoul.