Bangkok International Film Festival 2008

Anyone who loves films must surely be looking forward to the Bangkok International Film Festival 2008 where visitors to the festival can enjoy seventy outstanding films. This year we have a special focus on films of the ASEAN region, and so it is particularly appropriate to be able to announce that the opening film of the festival will be ‘Queens of Langkasuka’.

 ‘Queens of Langkasuka’ is an epic story taken from Thai history, which has been produced on a massive scale, and is keenly awaited by critics and audience alike. Directed by one of Thailand’s most renowned directors, Nonzee Nimibutr, it is based on a screenplay by SEAWrite Award winner - Win Leowarin.
Ananda Everingham, one of the best-known and most highly respected actors in the region, plays a leading role in the film, and we are proud that he will also be a Juror in our South East Asian Competition.

 
Our Golden Kinnaree Awards Ceremony will take place on Sunday 28th September at Aksra Theatre, King Power Complex. HRH Princess Ubolrat Ratchakalya Siriwattana Pannawadi has graciously consented to preside over the Golden Kinnaree Awards Ceremony.

The competition will be divided into two sections: the Main Competition for international films; and the South East Asian Competition for films from the region.

In our non-competitive sections we have the ‘World Cinema’ program, a selection of great films from around the world.

In the ‘Thai Panorama’ we have selected outstanding Thai films from the past year to represent the best of Thai cinema.

There are many outstanding films in the festival. The program includes Birdsong from Spain , 24 City from the People’s Republic of China, and Slingshot from the Philippines. The festival offers a rare chance to see these and many other films which have received acclaim and awards in film festivals around the world.

The Bangkok International Film Festival will attract a number of famous filmmakers and stars from around the world, and our Hospitality Department is well-prepared to give them a warm welcome.

The list of attending guests is growing each day. We can announce our Festival Jury for this year.
In addition to Ananda Everingham, mentioned above, we have Aditya Assarat, whose film ‘Wonderful Town’ won international acclaim and seven festival awards. We also welcome two international jurors: Martial Knaebel, who established the highly respected Fribourg International Film Festival in Switzerland, and Eric Khoo, a multi-award-winning director from Singapore.

We would like to express our thanks and appreciation to both Thai and International press for your attention and support in spreading the festival news.

The festival will take place from Tuesday 23rd to Tuesday 30th September 2008 at SF World Cinema, CentralWorld and King Power Complex.