Wonderful Town, Apichatpong's human rights short in Tokyo lineup

The full program for the Tokyo International Film Festival has been announced and among the titles in the Winds of Asia-Middle East program is Aditya Assarat's romantic drama Wonderful Town. It's among the nominees for Best Asian-Middle Eastern Film Award. Tokyo is in addition to other upcoming screenings for Wonderful Town that include fests in Helsinki, Bangkok, Vancouver and London.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is among 11 filmmakers whose works are compiled for the 35-minute Stories on Human Rights, which was created for the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Other directors are Sergei Bodrov, Bram Shouw, Zhangke Jia, Saman Salour, Armagan Ballantyne, Marina Abramovic, Daniela Thomas, Walter Salles, Francesco Jodice and Idrissa Ouedraog. It's part of the Natural TIFF supported by Toyota program that reflects the Tokyo International Film Festival's embracing of "green" culture and environmental awareness.

Stories on Human Rights also looks to be a shorter compilation of the entire project, which involves 22 filmmakers and video artists and will premiere on December 10 - the actual 60th anniversary date of the declaration's signing - in New York, Paris and other cities.

Getting back to the Winds of Asia-Middle East program, I want to list all 20 nominees for the Best Asian-Middle Eastern Film Award.

• Crossing, directed by Kim Tae-kyun
• Milky Way Liberation Front, directed by Yoon Seong-ho
• Mozart Town, directed by Jeon Kyu-hwan
• The Sun Also Rises, directed by Jiang Wen
• A Tale of Two Donkeys (World Premiere), directed by Li Dawei
• Trivial Matters, directed by Pang Ho-cheung
• The Way We Are, directed by Ann Hui
• Winds of September, directed by Tom Shu-Yu Lin
• Beautiful Crazy (International Premiere), directed by Lee Chi Yuarn
• The Convert, directed by Yasmin Ahmad
• Flower in the Pocket, directed by Liew Seng Tat
• My Magic, directed by Eric Khoo
• Wonderful Town, directed by Aditya Assarat
• Blink, directed by Ronaldo M. Bertubin
• Chakde! India, directed by Shimit Amin
• The Wall, directed by Mohammad Ali, Talebi
• Summer Book, directed by Seyfi Teoman
• My Marlon and Brando, directed by Huseyin Karabey
• Caramel, directed by Nadine Labaki
• Laila’s Birthday, directed by M. Rashid Masharawi

Why yes, there's apparently another film called The Convert (Muallaf), not to be confused with the Thai documentary about a Buddhist woman's conversion.

There's also retrospectives of Korean director Kim Ki-yeong and Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi, as well as a screening of A Decade of Love, an anthology of nine films by 10 directors on the first decade since the Hong Kong handover.

The Tokyo International Film Festival runs from October 18 to 26.

(Via Jason Gray, Screen Daily, Variety)