Phuket Film festival 2007

Jungceylon - Patong Beach

Phuket has had film festivals in the past. In 2005, for example, Phuket City was chosen as a venue for a European Film Festival, a showcase for movies made in the European Union (EU). But now the island is to get its first truly international film festival, open to movies from all over the world.

The EU festival was staged in SF Cinema City’s SFX Coliseum Cinema and SF are once again involved this year, teaming up with Jungceylon. To organise the festival, they have brought in Scott Rosenberg of Bangkok-based entertainment consultancy AMW International.

Overwhelming response

Putting on a film festival is a complex task, Mr Rosenberg explained. “Choosing films for a festival is not easy. The first thing you have to do is to ask yourself, ‘Who is my audience?’ You must have a comprehensive knowledge of the people you will be screening movies for in order to anticipate their interest.”

He added that the organisers want to create a “sanook” – or “fun” – festival, one to which people can bring the whole family to have fun. They therefore looked for films that were winning awards at major film festivals around the world and “invited” the movies’ makers to be considered for the Phuket Film Festival.

The response was close to overwhelming. As more and more people learned of the Festival, unsolicited “screeners” of films poured in from movie makers worldwide.

“In our office, I have a stack of DVDs from floor to ceiling, all films rejected for the festival. We have stopped counting the movies submitted – maybe we will count them after the festival. But I can tell you we are narrowing the list down to 20 to 30 films,” Mr Rosenberg said.

Movies showing at the festival will come from all over the world. Films already confirmed include The King of the White Elephant (Thailand), Romulus, My Father (Australia), Surveillance (UK), Tuli (Philippines), Men at Work (Iran), Batad (Philippines), Summer (UK), A Hero...in Rome (Greece), Good Time Max (USA), Zen & Zero (Austria), Sharkwater (Canada), Sand Dancer (New Zealand), An Inconvenient Truth (USA) and De Sarrollo Humano (Spain).

Festival fun

In addition to the movie screenings there will be a variety of workshops at the Millennium Patong Resort. These will include “Restoration and Presentation of Audio-Visual Artifacts” (October 22), “Legal Aspects of Co-production” (October 23), “What the Heck is a Producer Anyhow?” (October 24, morning) and “Legal Aspects of Film-making” (October 24, afternoon).

For those who don’t want to join the seminars but still want to be involved a little, there are the People’s Choice Awards. All moviegoers will be given ballot sheets on which they can rate the director of the movie they are going to watch, as well as the movie itself.

The festival organizers will count the ballots and come up with overall festival movie awards which will be announced publicly and internationally.

As an incentive to fill in the ballots, Mr Rosenberg explained, “each day we will have a lucky draw from all the ballots cast that day and the winners will receive movie passes or other prizes.”

Who’s coming?

Will there be any hot showbiz names coming to the festival? “Yes!” said Mr Rosenberg. “But I can’t reveal the names yet.”

However, he could not resist a couple of revelations. “We have people attending from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – the folks who organize the Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood. They are looking for foreign-language films to nominate for the Golden Globes.

“We also have sales agents attending, looking for films to pick up for sale in other territories. These industry people add prestige to a festival and are also important in spreading the word about the host locale.”

In this case, that locale is Phuket, and the first festival is expected to put the island on the international film festival map alongside such illustrious names as Cannes, Berlin and Moscow.
Over the coming years, the festival should bring economic benefits to Phuket, Mr Rosenberg added. “In its first year, we expect it to have a limited economic impact, but this will grow in subsequent years as the … festival grows and attracts a greater number of people to Phuket specifically to take part in the event.”

Tickets

Ticket will cost 120 baht per movie or 3,300 baht for a Full Festival Pass. Those wishing to buy a pass must bring a standard passport-size photo, which will be used to make the pass.

For more information, please contact: filmfestival.phuket@gmail.com or check out www.phuketfilmfestival.com

Vegetarian festival

Farewell ceremony

Date: October 11-19, 2007
Venue: At all Chinese shrines located on the island
Contact: Tourism Authority of Thailand, Tel: +66 (0) 76 212 213

A colourful event held over a nine day period from 11-19 October, this celebrates the Chinese community's belief that abstinence from meat and various stimulants during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar will help them obtain good health and peace of mind. Please read more about Phuket Vegetarian Festival. See the Phuket Vegetarian Festival photo gallery.

For more information on dates and events of 2007 festival, contact the Tourism Authority of Thailand at +66 (0) 76 212 213.