Macau international film festival: everything you need to know about the 2017 edition and awards
From award season contender The Florida Project to Portuguese art-house project The Nothing Factory, the event’s new artistic director, Mike Goodridge, has assembled an exciting variety of films that should satisfy all tastes
When the second edition of the International Film Festival & Awards Macao opens on December 8 with the very charming family comedy Paddington 2, most industry veterans, and probably a few of the more perceptive festival goers, would have noticed a slight change of tone in its programme from last year’s.
If the 2016 edition was marred by the sudden and seemingly acrimonious departure of Marco Mueller as festival director less than a month before it opened, the upcoming programme is certainly characterised by the exciting prospect of starting anew under its incoming artistic director, Mike Goodridge.
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“I’ve known Marco for years, but we haven’t really had the conversation,” he tells the Post with a chuckle. “And frankly, that’s not really my priority or focus. I don’t really know what happened last year … but the way I’m looking at this is: I’m starting [this festival] from scratch. That’s sort of the attraction for me.”
Goodridge had been a film journalist and critic before taking the helm of the London-based production, financing and sales company Protagonist Pictures, where he oversaw hit titles such as Hunt for the Wilderpeople, The Lobster , Lady Macbeth and The Florida Project (which is included in the current Macau programme) over his five-year stint as CEO.
“It’s a real opportunity to create a new festival in a place which I think has so much potential. If you think of Cannes or Venice – these are resort places that have set up film festivals so that people would come to them. I thought Macau is a great place to celebrate cinema,” he adds.