Thank you for participating in the 18th Five Flavours Festival!
The 18th edition of the Five Flavours Asian Film Festival has ended. Under the auspices of the Wood Dragon, we soared through the skies of Tokyo, marvelled at Stanley Kwan's works, and heightened our environmental awareness. We now invite you to participate in a post-festival survey to help us create an even better event in the coming years.
Thank you for spending your time with us! You watched Five Flavours films in Warsaw cinemas and from the comfort of your homes, filling November with enthusiasm, lively discussions in cinemas and on the Five Flavours - Cinema of Asia group, vibrant festival energy, and unforgettable moments. We witnessed your extraordinary passion, which endured until the very end of the festival. It is heartening to see the Five Flavours community grow each year, with an ever-increasing number of Asian cinema enthusiasts in Poland!
The viewing statistics have once again exceeded our expectations - they are truly impressive! Festival films were watched approximately 35,000 times, with over 10,000 viewers attending cinemas and nearly 25,000 online views. Home screenings often involve more than just one viewer, so we know the actual number of people watching festival films is significantly higher. We are delighted that this year's statistics confirm a steadily growing interest in Asian cultures; we might even call it an explosion in the popularity of Asian cinema.
Five Flavours remains a hybrid festival – we are committed to making Asian cinema as widely accessible as possible while preserving the event’s cinematic essence. This year’s programme featured six sections, culminating with a Polish accent with “Entropy” and special screenings that appeared as unplanned surprises. Altogether, we presented 42 films in cinemas and 33 on the festival’s VOD platform. Warsaw was a home for creators from Asia and Asian cinema enthusiasts, who came to select the winning films of our competition. The cinemas hosted both talks with filmmakers and debates on film criticism, literature and Asian cuisine. We are thrilled by this growing collaboration with individuals exploring Asian contexts across various fields, not limited to cinema. We also recorded podcasts and online interviews with creators, which remain available even after the festival.
The Dragon takes flight, slowly seeking its nest – it will patiently await its awakening. With it, we have completed the lunar cycle, but we do not yet know who or what will become the new patron of next year’s festival. While we wait, we warmly invite you to the 19th edition – it is sure to be extraordinary.
Winners of the festival
This year's New Asian Cinema competition belonged to Southeast Asia! By the decision of the International People's Jury, the Grand Prix of the 18th edition of Five Flavours this year went to a film from Indonesia - Riar Rizaldi's “Monisme”. The honourable mention of the 18th edition, in turn, went to Chee Sum Chia, for the Malaysian “Oasis of Now”.
Additional materials are available all year round
Every year at Five Flavours, we prepare extensive supplementary materials in collaboration with our partners and patrons. These resources aim to provide valuable insights and deepen the context of the films featured in the programme. On the festival website, you can find numerous articles and podcasts, as well as 10 video interviews with outstanding filmmakers from this year’s edition – including conversations with Stanley Kwan and Shinya Tsukamoto!
Essays, interviews, podcastse/a>
We would like to thank the partners and sponsors of the festival
The 18th Five Flavours Asian Film Festival would not have been possible without the financial support of the following institutions: the City of Warsaw, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Polish Film Institute, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Berlin, Create HK, the HK Film Development Fund, the Ministry of Culture Taiwan, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office Prague, and the Japan Foundation.
We would also like to extend our heartfelt thanks to our partners and patrons, who supported us in organising the event and ensuring its visibility in urban spaces and the media.
Our partners are: Kinoteka, Muranów Cinema, Pracownia Szumu.
Our media patrons are: Zwierciadło, K MAG, Wyborcza.pl, Wysokie Obcasy, MINT, Filmweb, Onet, Filmawka, Pełna Sala.
Acknowledgements: Fundacja Kultura bez Barier, Fundacja Kino Dostępne, Fundacja Obserwatorium, Festiwal Kamera Akcja, Kabak, Amondo, Tajfuny, Linh Nguyen, Asia Travel.
