Is Southeast Asia Becoming The New Europe?; Local Indies Thrive On Funds, Labs & Co-productions
Let’s face it – even with Avatar: The Way Of Water bringing some much needed year-end box office cheer, 2022 has been a bit of a depressing year. The roaring ‘20s post-pandemic recovery we were promised has yet to materialise. So I’m going to end the year with an uplifting story – examining the recent success of Southeast Asian independent cinema – but ever the realist, I’m also going to ask if this success is sustainable, given that the region has a few challenges of its own. This is a long story, so I’m splitting it across two newsletters. First part will look at what happened to Southeast Asian cinema this year…
Southeast Asian indie cinema has had another stellar year on the international film festival circuit, starting with two films from female directors – Leonor Will Never Die, from the Philippines’ Martika Ramirez Escobar, which won the Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic competition, and Indonesian filmmaker Kamila Andini’s Before, Now And Then, which won best actress in Berlin.
Cannes saw the premieres of Cambodian-French filmmaker Davy Chou’s Return To Seoul and Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa’s Plan 75, which has an actress and producers from the Philippines on board. Premieres at Locarno included Malaysian filmmaker Woo Ming Jin’s Stone Turtle, which won the Fipresci prize, and Sorayos Prapapan’s Arnold Is A Model Student. Autobiography, from Indonesia’s Makbul Mubarak, premiered in Venice’s Orizzonti section, where it won the Fipresci prize, kicking off a festival and awards haul that includes more than a dozen prizes.
Busan continues to be a solid platform for Southeast Asian cinema and premiered three films from the region in its New Currents competition: He Shuming’s Ajoomma (Singapore-Korea), Sam Quah’s A Place Called Silence (Malaysia) and Marcus Vu Manh Cuong’s Memento Mori: Earth (Vietnam). Bui Thac Chuyen’s Glorious Ashes premiered at Tokyo, marking the first time the festival had selected a Vietnamese film for competition. Then in Southeast Asia, a circuit of smaller festivals returned as in-person events this autumn, with all the above-mentioned titles and more reaching local audiences and picking up additional honours (see here for a round-up of the winning films).
