This year’s Asian World Film Festival will open with a Korean movie and close with a Chinese one.

The festival, scheduled for Nov. 8-17, will open with Um Tae-hwa’s post-apocalyptic film “Concrete Utopia” (Korea) and close with Wuershan’s classic mythology movie “Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms” (China).

The festival will comprise 10 days of screenings of official submissions for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards Show, critically acclaimed and commercially successful fare as well as content from emerging filmmakers — all with a connection to Asia.

STARS COLLECTIVE

The festival’s 2023 edition will be a collaborative effort with Stars Collective, an artist incubator community and pioneer in cross-medium content innovation. Stars Collective was founded by Peter Luo (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “Midway,” “Marshall,” “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”), who is also CEO of Starlight Media. Both AWFF and Stars Collective say they are committed to cultivating emerging Asian filmmaking talent and to pushing the boundaries of storytelling.

The festival will also include activities, exhibitions, summits and parties – many in collaboration with the Stars Collective – that will highlight Asian talent and the cross-cultural pollination of Asian artistry, ideas and themes.

JURY LINEUP

The AWFF has also announced this year’s main competition jury lineup. It includes:

• Chinese producer, director, financier and industry mogul Han Sanping, will take the helm as Jury President.
• British film and television director Jon Amiel,
• Oscar-winning film producer Donna Gilgliotti,
• Hollywood producer and executive Paula Wagner and
• Kazakhstani film critic and reporter Nurgul (Nora) Zhunussova.

Additional jury members will be announced in the near future.

“Asian storytellers continue to make an indelible stamp on the art and business of filmmaking,’” said AWFF Executive Director Georges Chamchoum. “This November, the AWFF will showcase Asian content destined to make significant contributions to the craft, to the box office and to streaming services around the world.”

BRUCE LEE FOUNDATION PARTNERSHIP

In addition, AWFF will continue its partnership with the Bruce Lee Foundation and bestow a 2023 Bruce Lee Award to honor an individual who has demonstrated excellence within the martial arts industry.

The festival itself brings the very best of a broad selection of Asian World Cinema to Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.A. to draw greater recognition to the region’s wealth of filmmakers and strengthen ties between the Asian and Hollywood film industries. Uniting through cross-cultural collaboration, the Festival champions films from over 50 countries across Asia, spanning from Turkey to Japan and from Russia to India and South-East Asia.

You can follow the AWFF on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.

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