The 1st International Film Festival & Awards • Macao (IFFAM) is today pleased to announce acclaimed director SHEKHAR KAPUR will serve as Jury President at the inaugural festival, which will take place in Macao from 8 to 13 December, 2016.
Kapur will preside over the Jury of other film professionals; together bestowing awards on the competition strand of 10 to 12 new international films. He adds IFFAM Jury President to a list of jury positions at prestigious festivals including the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, the London Film Festival, and the Tokyo International Film Festival, as well as a sponsor role with the International Indian Film Festival in Goa.
On the announcement of his appointment, Kapur comments, “This is Asia’s time. Over the past few years, consumerism has catapulted the Asian market into international renown, but what we are now experiencing is the renaissance of culture as inspired by the Asian communities. As an Indian director, I’m excited to be chairing the Macau Film Festival as Indian storytelling has so much in common with Chinese forms of storytelling. Hopefully these new forms of storytelling will bring the world to a better understanding of itself.”
As previously announced, in addition to films in competition, the festival’s screening programme will encompass the following strands:
· Out of Competition / Gala – a selection of 6 of the most important works from the latter half of the year
· Hidden Dragons – 6 films representing the latest trends in contemporary Asian genre cinema
· Best of Fest Panorama – 5 or 6 award-winning feature films from major international festivals
· Crossfire – 12 non-East Asian, non-US genre films selected by a dozen major East Asian film directors
The 1st International Film Festival & Awards • Macao runs from Thursday 8 December – Tuesday 13 December 2016.
Press contacts:
International press: Simone Devlin, Jonathan Rutter / Premier
+44 20 7292 8330 firstname.surname@premiercomms.com
Notes to editors:
The International Film Festival and Awards • Macao
IFFAM is organised by Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and Macau Film & Television Productions and Culture Association (MFTPA), co-organised with Cultural Affairs Bureau (Macao), Civil & Municipal Affairs Bureau (Macao), supported by Macao Foundation, with the Galaxy Entertainment Group, Sands China Limited, Wynn Macau Limited, MGM as Premium sponsors, and THE 13 as Diamond sponsor.
About the MFTPA
Established on 30 January 2015, the Macao Films & Television Productions and Culture Association (MFTPA) is a non-profit organisation, with missions including:
· Support local talent
· Provide training and learning opportunities
· Promote Macao film culture at the international level
· Advance the development of film and television culture in Macao
· Organise training courses and workshops
Shekhar Kapur, Jury President - Biography
Shekhar Kapur is an Indian film director, producer and storyteller. His directorial debut with cult Bollywood film Masoom won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie of the year while Mr. India was declared one of the ‘100 Greatest Indian Films of All Time’ on the centenary of Indian cinema. He has also made several documentaries and short films.
Shekhar gained global recognition with the film Bandit Queen, a biopic of Indian bandit and politician Phoolan Devi, which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie and Best Direction for that year. Premiering in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, the film caused a furore, catapulting Kapur into international success. Kapur introduced Cate Blanchett to the world in his two historical biopics of Queen Elizabeth, which were nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Film, and won 2; also winning 5 BAFTA Awards, including Best Film, between them.
Kapur co-created the hit West-end show Bombay Dreams with Andrew Lloyd Webber and has been the recipient of the Indian National Film Award, the BAFTA Award, the National Board of Review Award, and three Filmfare Awards. Prior to his appointment as first Jury President at IFFAM, he served as one of the Jury Members (International Competition) at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. He has also been on the jury of the London Film Festival, the Tokyo Film Festival, and was one of the sponsors of the International Indian Film Festival in Goa.
Aside from his professional work in film, Kapur is one of India’s foremost activists on environmental and water sustainability issues. He is also a digital media entrepreneur, founding ‘Qyuki,’ one of India’s most successful online platforms for young Indian creators.
Kapur is now directing and producing a captivating series exploring the trials and tribulations, temptations and brilliance of the young genius, Will Shakespeare, for an American broadcaster. He remains ever inspired by the world around him.
Marco Mueller, Festival Director - Biography
In addition to his career as festival director, Mueller is also an internationally renowned film scholar, director and writer of documentaries about cinema (and Chinese cinema in particular). He holds the chair of Styles and Techniques of Cinema at the Academy of Architecture (Lugano USI University, Switzerland).
Mueller started working as a festival programmer in 1978 and was the consultant for Asian cinema at the Venice Film Festival from 1981 to 1995. His first job as festival director was “Ombre elettriche” (Electric Shadows) in Turin 1981. At the time, it was the largest retrospective of Chinese cinema to have been organized in the West. Subsequently, he was director of the festivals of Pesaro (1982-1989), Rotterdam (1989-1991) and Locarno (1992-2000). From 2004 to 2011 he was the director of the Venice Film Festival (the longest term ever in the history of the festival) before serving the same role at Rome Film Festival from 2012 to 2014. In 2015 he served as general advisor to the Beijing International Film Festival and as the director of programming to the Fuzhou Silk Road Film Festival.
In his parallel career as a film producer, he has produced and co-produced 14 features that include award-winning films (Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, top-tier honours in Cannes and Venice) from China, Bosnia, Turkey, Iran, Russia, Central Asia and Brazil, in addition to short films and documentaries.
He is a recipient of the Award of Honour from the Chinese government and has received other prestigious awards in nine different countries. In addition to being a regular contributor of essays on film for European magazines and newspapers, Mueller has written and edited over a dozen books on Chinese and Asian cinema, Russian and Soviet cinema.