Asian World Film Festival Dedicated to Helping Foreign Films with their Awards Aspirations and Global Recognition Partners with ArcLight Cinema & iPic Theaters
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 08, 2015 -- As the first-ever festival dedicated to helping foreign films with Golden Globe, Oscar® and awards season recognition, the Asian World Film Festival (AWFF) has now partnered with ArcLight Cinema’s newest location in the heart of downtown Culver City serving as the home for the Festival and the luxury iPic Theaters in Westwood. The Festival will take place October 27-November 2, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. The program, which will screen each film once at both cinemas, will consist of select foreign language films that have been officially submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) as their country’s Oscar® hopeful and those submitted to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and brings the best of a broad selection of Asian World cinema to Los Angeles in order to draw greater recognition to the region's wealth of filmmakers.
“The strategic partnership with mainstream theaters like the ArcLight Cinema Culver City and iPic Theater Westwood gives the Asian World Film Festival the opportunity to expand our audience and introduce foreign films to their filmgoers,” said Emmy and multiple award-winning director and AWFF Executive Festival Director Georges Chamchoum. “With their ideal locations near the heart of historic film studios in Culver City and the famed Westside neighborhood near Beverly Hills, AWFF hopes to attract the coveted Oscar® and Golden Globe voters for these filmmakers.”
AWFF, founded by Kurmanjan Datka Queen of the Mountains director Sadyk Sher-Niyaz, has been specifically designed to take place between when Oscar® submissions are due and when awards season is in full-swing with its distinct vision allowing filmmakers to have the unique chance to be guided through the challenging awards season, showcasing their foreign films submitted to the Academy for Oscar® consideration, The HFPA for Golden Globe consideration and all Guilds for enhanced exposure, media attention and recognition. The HFPA will recognize these screenings as the required official screening for their members.
“As a foreign filmmaker from Kyrgyzstan, strengthening ties and helping to foster cross-cultural collaboration between Hollywood and the booming Asian filmmaking industry is the festival’s main goal. I understand first-hand what invaluable tools these awards are and that is why we created this Asian World Film Festival,” said Sher-Niyaz.
Known for their luxury movie going experience, including reclining leather seats & in-theater dining and cocktails, the iPic Theater will screen each film and serve as the location of the daily festival panels. The theater’s Tanzy Restaurant will also host cocktail parties from the festival sponsors for the late night social hours during the Festival.
“Stemming from TheWrap’s foreign screening series last year, the iPic also has a built-in audience that is the specific target for our filmmakers vying for Oscar® and award season consideration,” said Chamchoum.
Along with Chamchoum, AWFF has indie film PR pro Nadine Jolson as Director of Communications and producer Lani Netter as the Festival’s Director of Development and Philanthropy.
AWFF will open with a red carpet awards gala on Monday, October 26, recognizing celebrities and well-known foreign talent and filmmakers who have been major contributors throughout the Asian world film community, followed by seven days of films at iPic and ArcLight with the closing night Festival Awards presented along with the closing night film on Monday, November 2. Throughout the week there will also be expert panels on subjects like film financing, distribution, PR, marketing and awards campaigns, editing for a global audience and more to be announced.
Films that will be accepted by the Festival include those from the 50 countries recognized by the Academy and Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Priority will be given to those in the Best Foreign Language Film categories at the 88th Academy Awards and 73rd Golden Globes. In rare cases, the Asian World Film Festival will consider other outstanding films that are not in contention for the Oscars® or Golden Globes, but which have received critical acclaim on the international film festival circuit. More detailed guidelines are available at http://www.asianworldfilmfest.org/submissions.
With TheWrap as the official media partner, the prizes given out are of significant value to enhance the awards campaign and will feature top prizes for Best Film, Jury Selection and Audience awards including TheWrap’s Awards Special Screening Series and full page ads in the Foreign Film and OscarWrap issues valued at over $50,000.
Media Contact: Desirae Vivian 310 989-8944, Email: des(dot)jolsoncreative(at)gmail(dot)com. Nadine Jolson 310 614-3214 jolsoncreativePRgroup(at)gmail(dot)com
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About the Asian World Film Festival
We Champion, Recognize and Unite Through Cinema. The Asian World Film Festival (AWFF) brings the best of a broad selection of Asian World cinema to Los Angeles in order to draw greater recognition to the region's wealth of filmmakers, strengthening ties between the Asian and Hollywood film industries. Uniting through cross-cultural collaboration, our festival champions films from 48 countries across Asia spanning from Turkey to Japan and Russia to India. All films that participate in the Festival will have a unique chance to be guided through the challenging awards season, showcasing their foreign films to the Oscar® Academy, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and all Guilds for enhanced exposure, media attention and awards consideration. AWFF is a non-profit organization under Aitysh USA. http://www.AsianWorldFilmFest.org
Nadine Jolson, JOLSON CREATIVE PR, +1 (310) 614-3214, [email protected]
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