It's a wrap!

Run by the Silakong brothers, director Kriangsak “Victor” and his brother Dusit, who is responsible for the festival programming, the festival brought 84 films to Bangkok’s screens. A special mention should also go to co-organiser Janyaporn Buntha, without whom the festival would be unable to screen all these films.

Shown earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, the festival opened at Paragon Cineplex with the Southeast Asia premiere of award winning Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s latest oeuvre “Mekong Hotel”.

Well-known French filmmaker Leos Carax jetted into Bangkok to receive the Lotus Award, which the festival presents to major figures who have devoted their careers to the film industry. Previous Lotus Awards winners include Polish-born French Roman Polanski (2005), Taiwanese director Tsai Ming Liang (2009) Turk Nuri Bilge Ceylan 2010 and Czech filmmaker Bela Tarr (2011). 

Carax brought along his masterpieces including “Holy Motors” fresh from screening at this year’s Cannes and New York film festivals, as well as “Lovers on the Bridge (1991) and “Mauvais Sang” (1986).

Other directors and stars joining the festival included Prakash Jha from Japan, Kengo Otake from Japan, Italian director Francesco Visco with his actor Fabio Zulli, Swedish director Shaker K. Tahrer and his actor Tom Ljungman and Brazilians Mascos Prado and Gomez Halder. 

As has become a tradition for the festival, the closing film was a musical. This year’s wrap party was held at Esplanade Cineplex Ratchada – the main venue for the festival – with the screening of “Fados”, a Portuguese music documentary by Carlos Saura. Using Lisbon as a backdrop, Saura explores Portugal’s most emblematic musical genre and its haunting spirit of saudade – melancholy.

The festival would not successful without support from the sponsors, who included the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with Nation Broadcasting Corporation, The Nation, and Major Cineplex.