THE FESTIVAL
Pramana Asian Film Festival is an independent festival and community event in Calabria, Southern Italy.
The third edition will take place in the town of Reggio Calabria, March 27-29, 2024 at CineTeatro Metropolitano. All events will be free admission for the public.
The festival will select short and feature films from the Asian continent, with the aim of spreading its cultural richness through the language of cinema.
The idea behind the program was born from our passion for Eastern cinema and culture, together with the awareness that, in Southern Italy, Asia is often object of misunderstandings, stereotypes and prejudices that don’t do justice to its richness.
The differences between the many Asian countries are deep and complex. However, they are too often observed through Western critical perspectives. We want to offer a film program able to narrate Asia from the point of view of those who directly experience it, to stimulate the interest to explore the stories and the traditions from these countries.
For this reason, we intend to select enjoyable movies, able to put together quality, creativity and accessibility. We refuse the idea of an elitist art house cinema, dedicated only to experts and small groups of film enthusiasts but unable to communicate with the general public.
We want to reach especially those who are not used to this type of initiatives and are not familiar with these cultural contents.
SUBMISSION CATEGORIES AND AWARDS
The films admitted in the Official Selection will compete for the following prizes:
– BEST ASIAN SHORT FILM
– BEST ASIAN FEATURE FILM
– AUDIENCE AWARD
The winner of the first two prizes will get a unique trophy specially made by Nicola Tripodi, an artist based in Reggio Calabria who crafts clay works taking inspiration from Calabrian rituals and folklore.
The artist uses traditional techniques, shaping “terracotta” by hand and creating colors with methods dating back at least two millennia.
In this way, we establish an exchange of culture through artistic practices and creativity between our local artist and the participating filmmakers.
The trophy will be sent to the address indicated by the filmmaker at the festival’s expenses.
RULES AND TERMS
1. FILMS REQUIREMENTS
a. You can submit both short and feature films, no limits of duration.
b. There’s no limit of genre and format. We don’t like censorship and we don’t care about repressing the creativity of artists in the name of audience sensibility.
c. The films must be produced from the year 2019.
d. The production country of the films needs must be part of the Asian continent. Asian films in co-production with countries from other continents are accepted.
Here’s the list of the countries that we can include in the selection:
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen.
e. All the films, to be considered, must contain English subtitles.
f. We don’t require the status of premiere. We accept films that have been screened in other festivals.
2. SELECTION PROCESS
a. The films must be submitted exclusively through FilmFreeway platform. Any other processes won’t be taken into consideration.
b. The films will be watched by the festival programming team, who will publicly announce the official selection by the 1st of March 2024. The programmers decision is unquestionable and it represents the result of personal preferences. We don’t intend to express in any way a judgement on the quality of the work.
c. The festival will communicate the result to the selected filmmakers through an email to the address indicated on FilmFreeway submission.
3. MATERIALS
The selected filmmakers/distributors must send the following materials:
a. A clean copy (with no subtitles) in H264 format.
b. English subtitles file (.srt) or list of dialogues in English.
c. We won’t accept any file on physical support, and we won’t give back eventual hard drives/pen drives/DVDs.
4. SCREENING
a. The screenings will be on the days 27, 28 and 29 March 2024 in Reggio Calabria (Southern Italy), at Cine Teatro Metropolitano, an historical 120 seats theater in the city center.
b. We won’t recognize screening rights for the selected films. The festival is a non-profit event with free entrance, which won’t speculate in any way on the works of other people.
c. The films will be screened in original language with Italian and English subtitles.
d. The festival will prepare the subtitles files, professionally translated from English or Korean. The srt. file will be sent for free to the film authors.
5. CONSENT
a. The festival reserves the right to use a short extract, a frame and the poster of the selected films exclusively for the promotion of the event.
b. Submission fees won’t be refunded. Once the title has been registered through the platform, we will consider it submitted.
c. By submitting a film, the individual or the organization declare to accept the festival rules and allows the public screening of the work exclusively during the 3 days of the event (27, 28 & 29 March 2024). The film won’t be spread in any way outside the festival.
6. INFORMATION
For any doubt or demand, please contact us at: info@pramana.it
