YAYA

Supot(tl)

After refusing a ritual circumcision intended to usher him into manhood, Rene-boy (10), tries alternate methods to remove this mark of cowardice.

My Parents are Strict(tl)

Amanda page stars as the tightly guarded daughter of a zany but loving couple. Played by Chiquito and Elizabeth Ramsey in this comedy of errors. She can't go out on dates, she can't attend parties, and even if she's allowed to, her parents have to go along. Then she meets the man of her dreams, played in the movie by. Gary Estrada, and when he starts to court her, her overprotective parents come running to guard her. Will she be able to pull the trick that will keep her parents from aborting the romance of her lifetime?

My Little Bossings(tl)

Torky is a bookkeeper working for Baba a millionaire cash management specialist. Because of some conflict in her business that puts her life in danger, Baba entrusts the safety of her son Justin to Torky who takes him home to meet his daughter Ice and Ching the street urchin that the latter took under her wing. Given that Justin is not particularly fond of Torky, how all four of them would get along under one roof becomes the focus of the story.

A Tomato Tragedy(en)

In southern Italy, stateless migrants pick the tomatoes the rest of the world will taste. But what about these workers’ European dreams? Will they be ground to a pulp? Our canned tomatoes are picked by migrant workers who have come to southern Italy to realise their dream of Europe. However, they never get beyond the tomato fields. This documentary shows how the tomato broaches a broader issue. Will the pickers keep believing in their dream, or fight against a Europe where others reap the sweet rewards of their disillusion?

Hong Kong Fooey(en)

HongAFI nominated director, Charlie Hill-Smith’s first documentary, is a telling insight into the complexities that face modern China. In 1997 the most free market city of earth was consumed by the last great communist state, but who is China? What is China? Travel from Hong Kong to Beijing to Tibet to grab a warts and all snap shot of the Middle Kingdom as it rises to become the great power of the twenty first century.

La Vie sans Brahim(fr)

Kwai Shing West Estate(xx)

A homage to the social housing architecture that is so atypical of Hong Kong - especially the Kwai Shing West Estate. About half of the population lives in such building complexes, where one experiences a strong sense of loneliness. The neighborhoods are the scene of modern living conditions, but also of social protests, which have been punishable by life imprisonment in Hong Kong since 2020 due to a new law.

Curiosity, Adventure and Love(tl)

One woman’s journey through a century of love, war and discovery. Curiosity, Adventure & Love is a the story of a woman raised by fate to go boldly where few young women of her time and upbringing would go, into the arms of chance and life. A young American woman leaves her country and all security behind, to begin an adventure in the Philippines that would witness the birth of a nation, a cruel war and Occupation and reconstruction. Jessie is a striking personality, somewhere between Scarlett O’Hara and Amelia Earhart, who knew no boundaries and flew far ahead of her times, without regard to sex or society. Her story of a century well-lived is both rich and one that should restore our faith in our own humanity.

Lai Man-wai: Father of Hong Kong Cinema(cn)

In the life of Mr. Lai Man-wai, he had seen the most turbulent times of recent Chinese history. From the fall of the Qing Dynasty to the founding of the Republic, from the Sino-Japanese War to the founding of the People’s Republic. With a patriotic spirit, he joined the revolution and used the theatre to promote the revolutionary course. For a ‘stronger China’, and ‘education for all’, he chose film as his life long goal and career. Lai was more than the father of Hong Kong cinema was; he was also one of the pioneers of the Chinese cinema. He made Hong Kong’s first short fiction film ‘Zhuangzi Tests His Wife’. He opened the first Chinese owned cinema, the New World Cinema, in Hong Kong…. In the several decades, Lai had devoted his life and fortune in writing this glorious inaugural chapter in early Chinese film history. The technical enhancement, the introduction of foreign techniques and equipment were all part of his contribution to the Chinese cinema.

Ang Sikreto ng Piso(tl)

It is inspired by actual events on the smuggling of the Philippine peso coin in 2006.

Aberdeen(cn)

The extended Cheng family, which, like Aberdeen harbor’s Chinese namesake, represents today’s Little Hong Kong and its myriad of contradictions between traditions and modernity; superstitions and materialism; family and individuality.

Seven Sacks of Rice(tl)

Dreaming of a better life, Balong counts the sacks of rice they have left, the money they need, and the little moments that led to an inevitable departure that will leave them all affected.

Three Words to Forever(tl)

Three generations of a family get together for the 25th anniversary of Rick and Cristy while their daughter Tin appears clueless that her parents no longer sleep on the same bed.

Fishball Revolution(en)

An asylum seeker from Hong Kong builds a new life for himself in Glasgow, using his passion for street food to maintain his cultural identity.

Ikaw ang Pag-ibig(tl)

Evangeline spends most of her time working late, editing TV commercials. Her work doesn’t leave her much time to spend with her boyfriend Joey or their son. In spite of having a family, she mostly keeps to herself, enjoying her independence. But when her priest brother Johnny is diagnosed with cancer, she’s suddenly called on to be a possible bone marrow donor. As her dysfunctional family starts to gather around the ailing Johnny, Evangeline is forced to come face to face with her failings.

Yellowing(cn)

The turmoil that has overtaken Hong Kong since its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 has spawned a new generation of young, passionately committed activist filmmakers; they want to tell Hong Kong's story with Hong Kong voices. And the best indie documentary to have emerged so far from the HKSAR is this year's Yellowing, by Chan Tze Woon, a 29-year-old with degrees in policy studies and film production. Hong Kong's fraught, tense relationship with its mainland Chinese overseers came to a head with the Umbrella Movement of 2014. A crowd of protesters stormed Civic Square on September 27. The next day police shocked most residents of the HKSAR by attacking the growing crowds with volleys of tear gas, whereupon a wide cross section of Hong Kongers occupied the streets in several areas and stayed for almost 6 weeks. Chan took his camera on the streets for 67 days during these events.

Trip to Asia: The Quest for Harmony(de)

Journey with the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic and their conductor Sir Simon Rattle on a breakneck concert tour of six metropolises across Asia: Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo. Their artistic triumph onstage belies a dynamic and dramatic life backstage. The orchestra is a closed society that observes its own laws and traditions, and in the words of one of its musicians is, “an island, a democratic microcosm – almost without precedent in the music world - whose social structure and cohesion is not only founded on a common love for music but also informed by competition, compulsion and the pressure to perform to a high pitch of excellence... .” Never before has the Berlin Philharmonic allowed such intimate and exclusive access into its private world.

Tanging Yaman(tl)

Three siblings Danny, Art and Grace are now well settled with their respective families, in widely contrasting lifestyles. The one common thing that binds them loosely together is the love that their mother Dolores "Loleng" Rosales holds for all of them and her grandchildren, albeit expressed in varying ways and degrees, but always equally nurturing and self-giving. Much as they are held together by her, they are in turn separated by physical distance and the sad legacy left behind by their deceased, erstwhile strong-willed, patriarchal father.

Mangsee dynamite(en)

In the Philippines, the reefs, coasts and islets of the island of Palawan, the Straits of Balabak and the Sula Sea are amongst the richest in biodiversity on Earth. Some scientists claim that the entire submarine wildlife of the Pacific originated from this area. The coral is magnificent and the protected sites offer an incomparable vision of marine life to scuba divers from all over the world. However, since the end of the Second World War, Philippine fishermen have been fishing with dynamite all over the coral reefs of this marine Wild West. Today, far from diminishing, this form of fishing has taken on industrial dimensions and 50% of the coral has been destroyed, turning this underwater Eden into arid desert…

Migrant Dreams(en)

When Umi and Dwipa left Indonesia to work in an Ontario greenhouse as part of Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program, they hoped the jobs would provide the opportunity and income for a better life. They didn't expect that fixers and false promises would lead to deception and exploitation. Sadly, their story is not uncommon. Min Sook Lee continues to speak truth to power with her commitment to providing a voice to the silenced, fulfilling documentary's capacity as a powerful tool for social change.

Scooby-Doo! and the Robots(en)

3 robot-themed episodes from various Scooby-Doo series. First stop is Cyber Gulch, where the Mystery, Inc. gang must solve the riddle of the man-a-trons or get terminated in Go West, Young Scoob. En route to Florida, Freddy runs into a real Monster Truck at a championship stock car race in Gentlemen, Start Your Monsters. Buckle up for a roller-coaster ride of fun and fear in Foul Play in Funland when the gang discovers a fully operated amusement park...with nobody in it! Will they find the phantom in the Hall of Mirrors? Stay tuned for more escapades with Scooby-Doo - and watch out for those robots!

Dune(hu)

Sounds as witnesses. They blurr into memories, half-dreams, it is undecided if they are real or not. A fluctuation between imagination and reality.

The Spy Who Loved Me(en)

Russian and British submarines with nuclear missiles on board both vanish from sight without a trace. England and Russia both blame each other as James Bond tries to solve the riddle of the disappearing ships. But the KGB also has an agent on the case.

Viva! Django(it)

Django is on the trail of some renegade outlaws who raped and killed his wife. En route, he rescues a horse thief from an impromptu hanging. He discovers the man knows who committed the murder. The men team up and head west for revenge.

Box(fr)

Gasping for Air(tl)

When his sister disappears after leaving their home in hopes of singing stardom, Luis tracks her down and discovers the grim reality of her whereabouts.

Re-Kill(en)

Five years after a zombie outbreak, the men and women of R-Division hunt down and destroy the undead. When they see signs of a second outbreak, they fear humanity may not survive.

Re/cycle(en)

With input from actor and writer Jan Hlobil, director and cinematographer Rene Smaal presents a film in the true surrealist tradition, in the sense that only 'found' elements were used, and that it defies interpretation based on ordinary cause-and-effect time sequence.

Salon Kitty(it)

Kitty runs a brothel in Nazi Germany where the soldiers come to "relax". Recording devices have been installed in each room by a power hungry army official who plans to use the information to blackmail Hitler and gain power himself. A girl named Margherita discovers the little ploy and with Kitty's help plans to take on the dangerous task of exposing the conspiracy.

Dodes'ka-den(ja)

This film follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate as their circumstances are, each of them—the homeless father and son envisioning their dream house; the young woman abused by her uncle; the boy who imagines himself a trolley conductor—finds reasons to carry on.

The Human Voice(en)

A woman watches time passing next to the suitcases of her ex-lover (who is supposed to come pick them up but never arrives) and a restless dog who doesn't understand that his master has abandoned him.

Who's That Knocking at My Door(en)

A Catholic New Yorker falls in love with a girl and wants to marry her, but he struggles to accept her past and what it means for their future.

Potevo rimanere offeso!(it)

Live stage recording of the stand-up comedy show, with sketches and videos of old skits from 'Mai dire Gol'.

WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko(en)

Set in an alternate WWI reality where a senseless war rages on, two soldiers on opposite sides of the conflict play a joyful game of chess. A heroic carrier pigeon delivers the soldiers' chess moves over the battlefield as the fighting escalates. Neither soldier knows his opponent as the game and the war builds to its climatic final move. Whoever wins the game, one thing is for certain: there are no winners in war.

Mister Roberts(en)

Mr. Roberts is a Navy officer who's yearning for battle but is stuck in the backwaters of World War II on a non-commissioned ship run by the bullying Captain Morton.

Daaaaaalí!(fr)

A young French journalist repeatedly meets iconic surrealist artist Salvador Dalí for a documentary project that never came to be.

Black Venus(fr)

The true story of Saartje Baartman, a black South African worker who moves to London with her master in the early 19th century. Although she dreams of being an artist, once in Europe she is exploited as a sideshow attraction due to her large buttocks and genitalia.

Gamera vs. Barugon(ja)

Gamera escapes from his rocket enclosure and makes his way back to Earth as a giant opal from New Guinea is brought back to Japan. The opal is discovered to have been an egg that births a new monster called Barugon. The creature attacks the city of Osaka by emitting a destructive rainbow ray from his back, along with a freezing spray capable of incapacitating Gamera.

Box(ro)

Box is a story of two people who meet at a crossroad. Two different destinies, two different lives, face to face in a game of sweat, blood and tears. Rafael (19) is a young boxer who dreams to conquer the world; Cristina (33) is a single mother who lost her balance. Two lives; one running very close to the earth, the other trying to fly high up, too high.