To expand its reach across the world as the organizer of the premier film awards for Asian cinema, the Hong Kong-based Asian Film Awards Academy has launched a flagship roadshow program aimed at presenting films in Asian cinema-themed film festivals around the world.

The Asian Cinerama sidebar includes past AFA-nominated films and films featuring AFA-nominated/winning talents. After running a sidebar at recently-wrapped Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, the AFA brings the AC to the Five Flavours Film Festival in Warsaw, sponsored by Create Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Film Development Fund.

As most of the AFA-nominated films from 2017 had already received theatrical release in Hong Kong, the HKAFF AC program entirely features films by past nominees and winners, including Pop Aye (edited by AFA recipient, editor Lee Chatametikool), Bollywood thriller Mom (featuring AFA winner Nawazuddin Siddiqui), and Before We Vanish (散歩する侵略者) (directed previous winner Kiyoshi Kurosawa).

On the other hand, because of the lack of availability of even mainstream Asian films in Poland, the films in Five Flavours’ AC program are actually nominees from this year’s awards and are being shown to local audiences for the first time.

The six-film sidebar at Five Flavours includes Taiwan’s Godspeed (一路順風), nominated for best film, best actor, and best composer, Japan’s A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (リップヴァンウィンクルの花嫁), nominated for best actress and best production design, and South Korea’s The Age of Shadows (밀정), nominated for best film, best cinematographer, and best composer.

As the Asian Cinerama expands to other festival, it serves as a useful and comprehensive overview at the key films coming out of the region that year.

Asia in Cinema is a media partner of this year’s Five Flavours Film Festival