Love of Siam in Southeast Asia competition at Bangkok Int'l

Competition titles for the Bangkok International Film Festival have been leaked, with last year's acclaimed family drama The Love of Siam among the nine-film Southeast Asia competition slate.

Also revealed is the new Made in Thailand program, which spotlights two "foreign" films set in Thailand -- British director Thomas Clay's avant-garde look at Bangkok's red-light district, Soi Cowboy, and Children of Darkness, a Japanese docudrama starring Aoi Miyazaki, about the Bangkok underworld of child sex slaves and organ trafficking.

More Thai films will be seen in the non-competition Thai Panorama section.

And there will be a non-competition Southeast Asian Panorama section, which reflects the aim of the organizers to make the Bangkok International a hub for the region's films. Among the films to look forward to are the Malaysian horror Histeria by James Lee and Slingshot by Brillante Mendoza. Both Lee and Mendoza also have films in the competition, Lee with Breathing in Mud and Mendoza with Serbis.

The festival's website offers a sneak preview of a few more titles.

The main international competition is filled with titles by younger, up-and-coming directors. This sort of takes a page from the playbook of the rival World Film Festival of Bangkok's Harvest of Talents competition, which honors edgy emerging arthouse talents.

Here's the list of competition titles at the Bangkok International Film Festival:

International Competition

• The Elite Squad (Brazil)
• Jay (Philippines)
• Frozen (India)
• Those Three (Iran)
• Autumn (Turkey)
• The Shaft (China)
• Rumba (Belgium)
• Alice in the Land (Chile)
• Parking (Taiwan)
• PVC-1 (Colombia)

Southeast Asia Competition

• Serbis (Philippines)
• The Little Heart (Vietnam)
• The Photograph (Indonesia)
• Days of Turquoise Sky (Malaysia)
• Breathing In Mud (Malaysia)
• The Love of Siam (Thailand)
• 12 Lotus (Singapore)
• Now Showing (Philippines)
• Years When I Was A Child Outside (Philippines)

See also:

• Mission redemption (Bangkok Post, cache)
• Programme highlights (Bangkok Post, cache)

(Via Screen Daily)