Asiaticafilmmediale, encounters with Asian cinema is the most representative Asian film festival in Italy. It has held in Rome since its first edition. It was created in 2000, to establish an original channel of communication between Italy and Asia. Open to changes and to new opportunities of confrontation between cultures, the cultural Association Mnemosyne realized this idea, finding in movies the ideal medium to further develop the relationship between western and eastern countries and by creating the yearly and now established event of Asiaticafilmmediale.
Asiaticafilmmediale was possible, through the years, thanks to the contribution and the support of the Ministry of Cultural Activities, the Municipality of Rome, the District of Rome, the Lazio Region, the collaboration of institutions like the Cinema Foundation for Rome, the Cinema House in Rome, Rai Cinema, Rome Chamber of Commerce, Promoroma and the support of sponsors like: Acea S.p.A., Fastweb S.p.A., Poste Italiane S.p.A., Lottomatica S.p.A., Japan Foundation, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific, Thai Airways, and the support of many Cultural Institutes and Embassies of Asian countries.
From its first edition to today Asiaticafilmmediale reached and passed the 100,000th presences, consolidating its relationship with a constantly increasing audience. During its ten editions Asiaticafilmmediale invited in Rome more than 200 directors, producers, actors and writers from many Asian countries :
Azerbaijan Bangladesh, China, Japan, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Kazakhistan, Kirghizistan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Syria, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Tagikistan, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekhistan, Vietnam; many famous directors, Goutam Ghose, Govind Nihalani, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Ketan Mehta, Ismail Merchant, Nandita Das, Sooni Tarapovala, Anurag Kashyap from India, Lou Ye, Wang Chao, Xu Xing from China, Kyoshi Kurosawa, Yoichi Sai, Tadao Sato from Japan, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Majid Majidi, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Simin Motamedarya, Reza Mir Karimi, Bahaman Kiarostami, Asghar Farhadi from Iran, Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Adita Assarat from Thailand, Garin Nugroho, Rizi Riza from Indonesia, Ernest Abdyaparov, Marat Sarulu from Kirghizistan, Rustem Abdrashov from Kazakhistan.
During these ten editions the event presented more than 500 movies, feature films and documentaries, mostly recent productions and all subtitled in Italian. The festival alternated screenings of films by young directors, with projections of important masterpieces and films by internationally acclaimed directors in the attempt of giving a significant and extensive outlook on extremely different cinematographic traditions.
Almost all films screened have been Italian, or even European, previews. The Audience Award and the City of Rome Award have been assigned during every edition. In 2005 two new international City of Rome Awards were introduced: Best feature film and Best Documentary. Two distinct juries were formed thanks to the collaboration of celebrated Italian personalities, among which directors Gianni Amelio, Francesca Comencini, Peter Del Monte, writer Lidia Ravera, philosopher Angelo Marramao, producer Renzo Rossellini, artist Luigi Ontani, journalists Concita De Gregorio and Nico Garrone. In the same year a section Cinema and Literature was introduced with the contribution of important personalities like Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi and Italian author Dacia Maraini. Since last year it has been introduced Asia di Carta (Asia on Paper), a new show dedicated to promoting awareness of publications about Asia edited in Italy. Ultimately the 2007 edition saw the participation of the Netpac Award’s jury, a praiseworthy international organization strongly dedicated to developing Asian cinema.
The Festival has hosted many special events that have broadened the audience which now includes both European and Asian productive worlds:
* Focus on: films and documentaries on a large metropolises, through time, with rare material from the main Asian film libraries (Kolkata, Tehran, Tokyo, Shanghai, Manila);
* Italy/Europe versus Asia: the most authoritative European documentarists take a look at the Asian world: authors like Bernardo Bertolucci, Joris Ivens, Werner Herzog, Silvano Agosti, Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi;
* Tribute: a selection of the most representative and significant works of major Asian directors, among which Girish Kasarawalli, Rithy Panh, Garin Nugroho, Yoichi Sai, Majid Majidi, Kenji Mizoguchi;
* Asiatica’s encounters, meetings and round tables: discussions on crucial themes on the relationship with Asia;
* Performances of influential Asian musicians: like the one held in 2006 by Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and in 2008 by Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad Qawwal;
* Photographic and Fine Arts exhibitions: like the one organized in 2009, by Susetta Bozzi “In Asia”, in 2008 by Raghu Rai on Dalai Lama “ Tibet in exile” and in 2007, with the "To Ladakh" collection by Marco Tirelli.
Through the years, the Festival has runned collaborations with Universitā di Roma Tre, Universitā La Sapienza, Cineteca di Bologna, British film Institute, National Film Archive of Iran, National Film Archive of India (Pune), Directorate of Film Festival and many international film festival: : “Festival dei Popoli”, Florence; “River to River”, Florence; “Sguardi Altrove”, Milan; “Hai visto mai?”, Siena; “Cinčmas d’Asie”, Vesoul; “Cinčma du Reel”, Paris; “Festival Fribourg”, Fribourg; “CineManila”, Manila; “Osian’s Cinefan”, New Delhi; “China Indipendent Film Festival”, Nanjing; “Beijing Indipendent Film Festival”, Beijing; “Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma”, Rome. The Festival also offers directors, producers and Asian distributors a key opportunity to reach important arrangements on international sale rights and co-productions. |
