International Film Festival & Awards – Macau | Goodridge announced as artistic director of fledgling festival

IFFAM artistic director Mike Goodridge (left) and talent ambassador Miriam Yeung attended Friday’s event

Mike Goodridge will serve as the artistic director of the second edition of the International Film Festival & Awards – Macau (IFFAM), it was announced at a “kick-off ceremony” arranged by the IFFAM Organizing Committee, on Friday.

The 2nd IFFAM will be held from December 8 to 14 this year with the theme, “A New Avenue to the World of Films”.

The new artistic director will take the helm from Macau Government Tourism Office’s  director Helena de Senna Fernandes, who stepped in last year after the sudden and controversial departure of renowned film director and festival planner Marco Müller.

“Our plan is to cook up a feast of world cinema in this unique destination,” said Goodridge, according to entertainment news website Deadline Hollywood. “We want to shine a bright spotlight on young first and second time filmmakers and really work hard to establish Macau as a meeting point for the industry from East to West.”

Goodridge has served as the chief executive officer of Protagonist Pictures, a film finance, production and sales company, for the past five years. Prior to that, he worked as a journalist for almost 20 years, including being the overall brand editor of Screen International from 2009 to 2012.

He has been behind the programming of the Kinoscope section at the Sarajevo Film Festival since 2011 and has also served as a jury member at more than 25 film festivals, including in Sundance, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Seattle and Los Angeles.

This year, pan-Asian film producer and festival consultant Lorna Tee will return as the head of festival management. Hong Kong actress and singer, Miriam Yeung, has been appointed as the festival’s talent ambassador.

“With a new, international professional team on board this year, the organizing committee hopes to deliver a high quality and fresh new event through innovative means,” said Senna Fernandes, who is also the president of the IFFAM Organizing Committee.

The upcoming festival will feature an international advisory board comprised of five non-Macau film experts, namely Chinese film director Huang Jianxin, American film producer Michael J. Werner, Korean producer Oh Jung wan, Hong Kong producer and distribution expert Nansun Shi and Portuguese producer Luís Urbano.

This year will see the introduction of several new features and “gastronomic elements,” according to a press release issued by the IFFAM Organizing Committee, with the aim of “elevating the recognition of the festival, as well as expanding the audience group.”

At the same time, several of last year’s features are set to return, including Flying Daggers, a selection of six films “representing the latest style of genre cinema in Asia,” and Crossfire, six genre films selected by three Asian and three non-Asian master filmmakers. DB