Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021 Announces Full Lineup

The 16th edition of Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) has announced its full lineup. Consisting of 63 selected films in total, it includes 20 World Premieres, 11 International Premieres, and 2 Asian Premieres. Screen programs will run from March 5-14.

Also, Osaka Asian Film Festival Online will run from February 28 to March 20. It will have <Theater OAFF2021>, which will screen 2 classic Taiwanese films selected for this year’s festival, in addition to <Theater ONE>, which will screen 7 films selected from past editions of the festival.

As previously announced, OAFF 2021 will open with the Japan Premiere of Man Lim-chung’s documentary Keep Rolling, an enlightening and entertaining work about the life and career of director Ann Hui. The closing work is the World Premiere of The Asian Angel, the latest from Yuya Ishii. Filmed entirely in Korea with a cast and crew that is 95% Korean, it is a family drama that stars Sosuke Ikematsu, Moon Choi, and Joe Odagiri.

OAFF will host 20 World Premieres with an exciting assortment of stories. Itomichi is the latest work from director Satoko Yokohama, a coming-of-age film rich with the culture of Aomori. Born to be Human is a brave drama about the changes in the life of a high schooler and their parents when they discover the child is intersex. A Rainbow-colored Trip is a short family drama from veteran director Shinji Imaoka. We also have Hotel Iris, the latest from award-winning director Hiroshi Okuhara, is a film based on the same-named novel by Yoko Ogawa. A co-production between Taiwan and Japan, it features an international cast and crew including Masatoshi Nagase and Lee Kang-sheng.

With the Indie Focus section, OAFF continues to support Japanese independent films by hosting 10 works made by innovative and challenging talents. The JAPAN CUTS AWARD will be bestowed by the Japan Society to one Japanese film selected from this section.

In addition to the permanent Competition and Indie Forum sections, OAFF has a strand called “Spotlight” which continues for its second year. Programming director Sozo Teruoka has selected titles that warrant the world’s attention as they suggest new developments in cinema, film thought, and filmmaking talent.

There are other special events that will feature contemporary films from Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan, the country from which OAFF has sourced two digitally remastered classics that will be screened online via <Theater OAFF2021>. One of these is Gwan Gung Vs. Aliens, a rare Taiwanese tokusatsu movie from the 60s. Once thought lost, it was recently rediscovered by Pang Ho-cheung who gave it a digital restoration so that audiences can rediscover its crazy mash-up of Chinese religion and Martian madness.

For more details, visit the festival website.