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Osaka Asian Film Festival (Oaff) has announced the rest of its programme with an additional 37 feature-length entries and 2 shorts. This includes 13 titles in the Competition section, 6 titles in the Spotlight section and 9 titles in the Indie Forum section. With the previously-announced 28 works, 67 features and shorts in total –19 World, 5 International, 4 Asian, 32 Japan Premieres – will be screened at the 20th edition of Oaff, which will be held from March 14 to 23, 2025.

Competition

There are 13 titles competing for Oaff 2025’s Grand Prix, many coming in hot with festival and awards buzz and many familiar names to Oaff audiences as filmmakers return with their latest works.

Amongst the filmmakers taking a bow once again are Hwang In-won with her feature film debut Journey to Face Them, a subtle portrait of the insidious effects of sexual assault as experienced by an aspiring writer, and Park Ri-woong with The Land of Morning Calm, a tale of a...

The 28th Black Nights Film Festival, known as PÖFF, wrapped Nov. 22 with an awards ceremony in Tallinn where filmmakers took centre stage to ask for the end of war in the Middle East, solidarity with Georgia under Russian influence and the defence of culture.

Oscar-nominated British-Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi – whose debut feature “The Teacher” scooped the Dennis Davidson Spotlight Award to improve diversity, inclusion and representation in cinema – was the first to take a political stand.

“‘The Teacher’ is a film that we shot in militarily occupied and colonized Palestine, in the West Bank a little over two years ago. Never could I have imagined that the film would arrive at such a crucial juncture in the discourse on Palestine as Israel continues to conduct genocide, the crime of all crimes in Palestine, in Gaza, as we speak. I really believe cinema has the power to raise the global social...

by Filippo Recaneschi

Festivals are a must-have for every cinephile. That is more than true if you love Asian cinema, since almost only major titles get to be seen outside Asia. In the last 25 years, Far East Film Festival (Feff), held in Udine, Italy, has provided a catering of such movies for western audiences. In its 25th edition, held from 21st to 29th of April, Feff provided a unique selection of Asian movies and a variety of Asian-related events. The selection varied from works from first-feature directors as well as well-navigated ones, ranging from genre movies to arthouse independent movies.

It is impossible to talk about this year’s festival without mentioning Hirobumi Watanabe, which participated as both director and actor. One of his films is “Techno Brothers” (2023) a quirky road movie about two brothers making techno music and their cynical agent Himuro (Asuna Yanagi). The plot revolves around their...

Social drama directed by Jin Ong picked up three prizes.

Social drama Abang Adik has become the first feature from Malaysia to win the Golden Mulberry at the Far East Film Festival (Feff) in Udine, Italy.

The directorial debut feature of Jin Ong follows two undocumented men, played by Taiwan’s Wu Kang-Ren and Malaysia’s Jack Tan, one of whom is a deaf-mute and whose relationship is upset after an accident.

Ong attended the festival and collected the top prize as well as the White Mulberry for best debut feature and a further award voted by the festival’s Black Dragon season pass holders.

Malaysian social drama “Abang Adik” was named best film and winner of the Golden Mulberry prize on Sunday at the Far East Film Festival in Italy’s Udine.

The film is a story of two undocumented and orphaned men, who may or may not be real brothers, but who lift each other up. The film’s director Jin Ong collected the White Mulberry prize for best debut feature and “Abang Adik” added a third prize decided by the festival’s season pass holders.

Second place on the podium went to South Korea with Chang Hang-jun’s “Rebound,” while third place went to “Yudo,” by Japan’s Suzuki Masayuki.

Other prizes included a Mulberry for best screenplay which went to “Day Off” by Taiwanese director Fu Tien-Yu and the prize from the readers of MYmovieswhich went to Janchivdorj Sengedorj’s Mongolian comedy “The Sales Girl.”

The previously-announced Golden Mulberry lifetime achievement...

The pioneering Far East Film Festival (Feff), held annually in the picturesque Northern Italian city of Udine, continued making history with its 25th-anniversary edition this year. At the closing ceremony on Sunday, Malaysian drama Abang Adik, written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Jin Ong, achieved a clean sweep of the highest prizes, marking the first time that a film from the Southeast Asian nation took top honors at the specialty festival.

Abang Adik won Feff’s first-place Golden Mulberry audience award, as well as the Black Dragon critics’ prize and the White Mulberry Award for best first feature. Ong is a veteran figure of the Malaysian entertainment industry, having worked in the music business and film and TV production for many years (he’s produced well-received films like Shuttle Life, 2017; and Miss Andy, 2020; among others), but Abang Adik is his first film as a writer and director. The movie...

The 25th edition of the prestigious Udine Far East Film Festival came to an end on Saturday night. After a totally digital edition in 2020, a hybrid edition in 2021, and a “semi-traditional” edition in 2022, this year the Festival has been able to joyfully re-savour its full length, interrupted (not to say broken) by the Covid-19 pandemic, and all the persistent health restrictions. An entirety demonstrated not only by the record numbers of the line-up, but also by the record number of guests of honour (200), finally free to travel and to reach the Udinese red carpet.

Looking already forward to the next edition, let's have a look at the winners of this year.

Mulberry Audience Awards

1st place: Abang Adik by Jin Ong

2nd place: Rebound by Chang Hang-jun

3rd place: Yudo by Masayuki Suzuki

Black Dragon Critics Award

Abang Adik by Jin Ong

White Mulberry Award for First Film

Abang Adik...