The Thai beach town of Pattaya, which is typically more known for other sorts of entertainment, will host the first Pattaya Film Festival from June 15 to 19.
The Thai Film Archive, which also serves as the festival’s programmer, and Pattaya City, designated areas for sustainable tourism administration (DASTA), are working together to stage the event.
Over 20 international film titles, both recent and vintage, as well as a kids’ program, will be included in the event.
At the Mahatai Pattaya Convention Center, the SF Cinema Marina, and the outdoor screen on North Pattaya’s beach, all movies will be shown without charge.
The festival is a part of a long-term initiative to advertise Pattaya as a City of Film within the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. The festival wants to increase the seaside town’s cultural diversity and expose viewers to a wide range of films. The promotion of Pattaya as a destination for filming is another goal, according to the event’s organizers.
Seven recent movies that have not yet been released in Thailand will compete for a $5,000 first prize in an international competition.
The “cinema multiverse” area features a variety of vintage and modern movies that have only ever been seen in Bangkok and not Pattaya. The films “Return to Seoul,” “Aftersun,” and “Blue Again,” along with “Casablanca,” “The Wizard of Oz,” and “Superman,” are among the highlights.
In honor of Pride Month, the ‘Pattaya Movie on the Beach’ section will offer a mix of Thai and foreign films as well as ones that use Pattaya as a setting. Among the choices are “The Last Song,” the most well-known Thai movie about cabaret singers, and “Sai Lor Fah,” an action movie from Thailand with a Pattaya setting.
Eight Thai documentary projects will be featured in a “Documentary Pitch” workshop where they will be mentored by international experts like Alice Agneskirchner from Germany, Jewel Maranan from the Philippines, and Stefano Centini from Italy and Taiwan. There will be two awards offered, each worth 100,000 baht and THB200,000.
Shin Su-won, a female Korean filmmaker, will offer a masterclass and have two of her films, “Passenger#3” and “Hommage,” screened as part of the festival.
