Category: BEST FEATURE FILM ARFF Paris 2023

Original Film Title: つ。

Director’s Name: Ü Inose

Writer’s Name: Ü Inose

Producer: Toru Kasahara, Morio Amagi, Seigo Furuta, Toko Kumamoto, Brian Masato Kobo

Country of Origin: Japan

Country of Filming: Japan

Language: Japanese

Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes 13 seconds

Film Description:

“TSU”is a coming-of-age story centered on Yuki, a high school student living in rural Japan.

As his graduation date looms, expectations transform into frustrations. As the pressure from his challenging university entrance exams and complicated relationship with his family reaches a breaking point, he runs away from it all into the mountains where he finds an independent
collective of people who have been living off of the grid for years.

As Yuki sheds the trappings of his old life and gains wild new experiences, he learns a valuable lesson: it is only after you have lost everything that you are free to do anything. By emptying himself of the expectations others have placed upon him, Yuki is able to take his first steps into a new life.

Unlike similar stories, Yuki doesn’t win anything. He doesn’t have a magnificent triumph. He runs away, gets hurt, and loses more and more until there is nothing left to lose. It is at that moment that he finds true independence. It is at his lowest point that he opens himself up to the greatest change. He can do anything and become anyone.

Original Film Title: Phoenix Incident

Director’s Name: Keith Arem

Writer’s Name: Keith Arem

Producer: Adam Lawson

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour 26 minutes

Film Description:

From Keith Arem (Award Winning Talent Director of Call of Duty & Titanfall), an investigation into the March 13th, 1997 disappearance of four Arizona men exposes a military cover-up of the largest UFO sighting in North America.

BASED ON TRUE EVENTS.
Thursday March 13th, 1997 marks the date of the Phoenix Lights, the largest mass UFO sighting in US History. The night of the incident, four Phoenix residents vanished in the Estrella Mountain National Park, south of Phoenix, becoming the longest unresolved missing person’s case in Arizona history.

Original Film Title: Balagam

Director’s Name: Venu Yeldandi

Writer’s Name: Venu Yeldandi

Producer: Harshith Reddy, Hanshitha Reddy

Country of Origin: India

Country of Filming: India

Language: Telugu

Runtime: 2 hours 8 minutes

Film Description:

Komurayya, an old man living in a Telangana (India) village, is a jovial figure who wakes up early in the morning, greets everyone and works on his farm. He has three children – two sons, Aillaya and Mogilayya and a daughter, Lakshmi. But his family is no longer the same. His grandson Saayilu, a bright but self-centered youngster, decides to get married to clear his debts with the dowry he gets. Komurayya’s death just before the engagement changes the course of his life and the family members, rattling some skeletons in the closet. The family’s post funeral pinda (riceball) ritual, attended by the whole village, shows that the old man’s soul is unsatisfied with something when the crows refrain from eating the offerings. Will the family sort out their differences, figure out the old man’s wishes and free the departed soul?

Original Film Title: The Godfather Buck

Director’s Name: Thomas J. Churchill

Writer’s Name: Frederick Keeve

Producer: Frederick Keeve, Thomas J. Churchill

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes 26 seconds

Film Description:

Two brothers, who meet once a year at a cabin in the
woods in Big Bear to hunt white-tailed deer for a week, uncover
hidden family secrets and lies when their stepbrother drops by for
an evening, changing the lives of the brothers forever.