Revival of a diverse local film industry and a growing openness to foreign films.
For the past two years, Thai films have enjoyed international recognition for the revival of their national movie industry, distinguished as much by auteur films ("Tropical Malady" – a French co-production, and the first Thai film ever to be selected at Cannes, where it won the Jury Prize in 2004) as highly commercial productions (“Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior,” “The Eye,” “Bangkok Dangerous”). And now it seems that Thailand is opening up to French productions.
Film acquisitions increased from 2 or 3 titles each year until 2003 (for 1 or 2 releases) to more than 15 titles and already 10 releases since the beginning of 2004. The scale of French film distribution nonetheless remains modest (one print), but the interest shown by 3 theaters in downtown Bangkok (the Lido, the Scala and the Siam) as well as the construction of a new theater (the House) and the willingness of distributors to diversify their tastes, have set French films on a positive spiral.
In any case, the results for 2004 will be a decisive factor in distributors’ decisions whether or not to pursue what is only at this stage an “experiment.”
