Low-key Asian film business heads to Cannes1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteCannes, France – The Asian movie industry is likely to be in a rather subdued mood when it arrives in Cannes next week for the world’s largest film festival. The industry had high hopes of a big presence again on the Croisette, the beach-front boulevard cutting through Cannes.
In the end, however, only two Asian films – from Japanese directors Takashi Miike and Kawase Naomi – are to be screened as part of the 19-movie race for the festival’s Palm d’Or, one of cinema’s most prestigious prizes.
Last year there were five Asian films vying for the Palme d’Or with Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s fantastical Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives emerging as the surprise winner for the festival’s top award.
But some 30 years after Asian filmmakers burst onto the world cinema a change appears to be under way in the movie industry across the region.
Indeed, film producers in big movie markets like China, Indonesia and Japan appear to becoming more focused on the enormous potential of their own burgeoning national box offices rather than breaking though into the more competitive and sometimes less-than receptive international cinema world.
