Panorama fills final slots with returnees

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Festival News

The 62nd Berlin International Film Festival (9-19 Feb) has completed its Panorama selection. The final list of 53 features includes work from returning directors OGIGAMI Naoko 荻上直子, Doze NIU 鈕承澤 and Yonfan 楊凡.

Four years after Glasses めがね (2007), Japan's Ogigami returns to the Panorama with Rent-a-Cat (レンタネコ), also starring ICHIKAWA Mikako 市川実日子. The drama about a young woman who loans out felines to the lonely opens in Japan in May.

Two year after Monga 艋舺 (2010), Taiwan's Niu returns to the section with Love 愛 (pictured), a China co-production with Huayi Brothers Media Corporation 華誼兄弟傳媒股份有限公司. The starry romance opens in China and Taiwan mid-festival.

Another returnee is Hong Kong's Yonfan with Bugis Street Redux, seven years after his glossy, hard-to-classify, sadomasochistic ghost movie Colour Blossoms 桃色 (2004) screened in Panorama Special.

The restoration of Yonfan's Singapore-shot Bugis Street: The Movie (1995) will compete for this year's Teddy Award for gay cinema alongside documentary Our Story: 10-Year 'Guerrilla Warfare' of Beijing Queer Festival (我們的故事).

Also announced yesterday were crowd-funded Nepalese road movie Highway, directed by US-based Deepak Rauniyar, and Indonesian short 7 Deadly Kisses, directed by Sammaria SIMANJUNTAK.

The Asian films already announced in the Panorama are Taiwan's 10+10 十加十 (2011), Thailand's Headshot ฝนตกขึ้นฟ้า (2011), Vietnam's Lost in Paradise Hotboy nổi loạn (2011), and South Korea's From Seoul to Varanasi 바라나시 (2011) and My Way 마이 웨이 (2011).

Organisers note that approximately two-thirds of the selection are world premieres in a programme that boasts a large number of female directors: 24 women film-makers present 16 films in the Panorama, including Ogigami and Simanjuntak.

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