As the artistic director of IFFAM, Goodridge has steered the event through three highly successful editions, and in this exclusive interview, the Englishman shared with us the highlights of the star-studded programme for the 4th edition of IFFAM, his observations of the film industry in the Chinese-speaking world, and the challenges and opportunities facing the Festival still in its infancy.
Jojo Rabbit was chosen as the opening film for this year’s IFFAM. Can you tell us about how you came to this decision? What is it about this film that makes it significant?
I’ve always loved Taika Waititi’s films. They all have this wonderful, crowd-pleasing quality. But, at first, I was nervous about Jojo Rabbit, because you know, it’s set in Nazi Germany, about a little German boy who is a member of the Hitler Youth and has an imaginary friend – Adolf Hitler. So I just thought, ‘oh my God, this is gonna be in such bad taste’. But Taika is such a clever filmmaker, and it really is a lovely, comedic, funny, moving film. It won the top award at the Toronto International Film Festival, and in London, it got a standing ovation, so I think it will work here as well.
Shape of Water and Green Book, which were screened at the previous two editions of IFFAM, both went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Do you expect to see similar levels of success continue?
I don’t know. We’ve got some films that I think are part of the Academy Awards conversation. For example, Jojo Rabbit, Judy…We’ve got Dark Waters, which is Todd Haynes’ new film starring Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway, and it’s really good. We’ve also got Terrence Malick’s new film, A Hidden Life, which is great. There’s The Lighthouse, with Robert Pattinson and William Defoe, which is also getting the Awards buzz. There are a lot of the English-language American films we are playing, but who knows? You never know. I mean, we didn’t know Shape of Water or Green Book would go on to win…
Could you tell us a bit about the 20th Anniversary Macao Special Presentations projects and initiatives? Have you noticed any changes in the local film industry over the past years?
Every year I come, I speak to my Macau friends and ask, how many Macau productions do we have this year? Are there features coming out of Macau that we can play? And for this edition, it turns out there are five, which is quite a large number for an SAR this size. We felt that because this is the 20th anniversary, it would be appropriate to play them all. And they are all very different, so it’s quite nice.
There isn’t really a film industry in Macau, as far as I can see. And Macau is a very special place. If you look at Hong Kong, that’s a population of seven million people; it’s a place that has its own industry, a tradition of filmmaking. Macau’s never had that. And the films shot here are usually by Hong Kong filmmakers bringing Hong Kong crews. So I think the challenge for the government here is to stimulate the filmmaking community, and build it, not only an infrastructure of people who know how to produce films, and shoot them and edit them and work on them, but directors that are from Macau. And I don’t see why there shouldn’t be a film industry here.
Do you feel IFFAM has had a positive impact on the local film making industry over the past four years?
I hope so. That’s part of our mission, to bring attention to the local filmmakers and bring them into contact with the international industry, so that they feel like they are part of that conversation.
The 4th IFFAM is collaborating with Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) and Shanghai Film Art Academy (SFAA). What can be expected from this partnership?
We have a partnership with SIFF. Last year, they played Yao Chen’s film, Lost, Found. We have an arrangement with them where they choose a film from their festival that they will present here – actually, we chose the film we would like to play here. This year, we are going to play the restored version of Flowers of Shanghai, which is a beautiful classic film by Hou Hsiao-hsien, starring Tony Leung and Carina Lau. The world premiere was in Shanghai.
We are also really excited about our collaboration with the Shanghai Film Art Academy, because they’ve encouraged some of their students to submit shorts to us for our Shorts Competition. There are eight films that we are selecting, from 30 to 40 entries, I think.
This is your third year as the artistic director of IFFAM. What do you see as the most significant developments for the Festival during your time in charge?
I think part of our mission at IFFAM is also about expanding the audience’s appetite for certain types of films. So, we play big crowd-pleasing films like Jojo Rabbit or Better Days or Shaun the Sheep 2, which I’m very excited about. But at the same time, we want to also play more challenging films, and I think I’ve seen the audience respond to that here.
The Cinematheque Passion does amazing work on a year-round basis in terms of bringing different kinds of films to the people of Macau. That’s our challenge. It’s the challenge for everyone in the film business in the whole world, to try and get people away from computer games and televisions, Netflix and all that, and come to the cinema and have a different kind of experience. I think I have noticed that there is a warmer embrace of these kinds of films since the first year.
What is your vision and hope for IFFAM in the future? What advantages do you think it has over other film festivals in the region?
Only to expand it. What we are trying to do is to really be a bridge between China, or Chinese-language films – not just mainland China, but all the Chinese-speaking nations – and the West, be a meeting point for international people with the mainland people.
First and foremost, it’s about creating an event that’s authentic and that feels real to the Macau people, that serves their needs, and that they find stimulating, which is why we don’t want to make it too big. We have 50 films, which is not that big compared to Hong Kong, or Golden Horse, or some other festivals in the region, which have hundreds of films. Busan has some 350 films in Korea. It’s about keeping it relatively contained and boutique.
