The Far East Film Festival has announced that Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing and Japanese actor Koji Yakusho will each receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 28th edition of the film festival, which will be held from April 24th to May 2nd in Udine, Italy.
Fan Bingbing will star in the FEFF competition film “Mother Bhumi” directed by Malaysian director Chong Keet Aung. Koji Yakusho, who won the Best Actor Award at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival for Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” and has had an overwhelming presence in the Japanese film industry for 40 years, will be the subject of a career retrospective titled “Koji Yakusho: The Perfect Role,” organized in partnership with the Japan Cultural Institute in Rome and the Japan Foundation. Seven films will be screened in Udine, including “The Thirteen Assassins”, “The Dandelion”, “The Eel”, “Perfect Days”, “Blood of the Wolf”, “Under the Blue Sky” and “The Woodcutter and the Rain”, followed by five films touring to Rome.
This year, the 28th edition, features 76 films selected from 12 countries and regions, consisting of 52 titles entered in competition and 24 titles outside of competition. The lineup includes 8 world premieres, 18 international premieres, 22 European premieres and 20 Italian premieres. The closing film will be released on April 8th.
The festival will open on April 24 with Anthony Chen’s Singaporean family drama We Are All Strangers, with leading actress Yeo Yang Yang scheduled to attend the premiere at Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine. The film entered competition at the Berlin International Film Festival and opened the Hong Kong International Film Festival. In addition, two Singapore films, Gek Priscilla Ang’s Ah Girl and Michael Kam’s The Old Man and His Car, mark the first time that three Singapore films will be featured in the same FEFF edition.
Vietnam has emerged as a particular focus of the 2026 lineup, including Leung Le’s historical drama “Kai Nam Yin,” Ham Tran’s action film “The Hijack,” Bui Tac Chuen’s war film “Tunnel: Sun in the Dark,” and Phan Gia Nhat Linh’s remake of the cult Japanese film “One Cut of the Dead,” “Blood Moon Light 8,” which will be screened on the festival’s closing night. Before the audience award announcement.
Director Lee Sang-il’s “National Treasure,” a film adaptation of Shuichi Yoshida’s novel of the same name, will receive a special price at this event, and the director will also be attending the Eudine screening. The film is Japan’s entry into the Oscars category and has emerged as the country’s highest-grossing live-action film of all time, and will be released in Italian cinemas on April 30th under the Tucker Film umbrella. Lee’s early film “Hula Girl,” which premiered at FEFF 20 years ago, will also be shown in a new 4K restoration.
Korean films are represented by Jang Hang-joon’s period drama blockbuster “The King’s Watcher,” which has become the country’s biggest hit in history, and leading actor Yoo Hae-jin is confirmed to be attending. “Seoul Guardians,” a documentary depicting South Korea’s declaration of martial law on December 3, 2024, will be the first documentary to be submitted to the festival’s competition section. Three animated titles will also enter the competition for the first time: Hong Kong’s “Another World,” Hong Kong-Taiwan co-production “A Mighty Adventure,” and Japan’s “The Last Blossom.”
Japanese actor and producer Megumi will be returning to FEFF for the Japan Night event and the world premiere of Fujiko, a female-led drama she co-produced and stars in.
This issue also introduces a new section, Vertical Stories, curated by FEFF consultant Roger Garcia, which explores microdrama as both an art form and a new industrial system.
The audience alone will decide the three Audience Award winners: Golden Mulberry, Silver Mulberry and Crystal Mulberry. Two expert judges will award the White Mulberry Award for Best Feature Film and the Mulberry Award for Best Original Screenplay among the 12 competition titles. The Best Feature Jury consists of Hong Kong director Mabel Chan, Hong Kong producer and distributor Jeffrey Chan, and Hong Kong-based producer and consultant Michael Warner.
FEFF 28 – Full lineup
competition
China
“Summer jet lag” (Yan Kunao)
“Rinka Rinka” (Kandurung)
“Shadow’s Edge” (Larry Yang)
“Take Off” (Peng Fei)
“An Unexpected Family” (Li Taiyang)
“A Writer’s Odyssey 2” (Lu Yan)
Hong Kong
“Another World” (Tommy Ng)
“A Mighty Adventure” (Tou Yuen)
“The Measure of Love” (Kung Siuping)
“Night King” (Jack Ng)
“Road to Vendetta” (Nyo Kuyin)
“Snowman on a Sunny Day” (Philip Yong)
“Someone Like Me” (Tam Wai Ching)
“Unidentified Murder Case” (Kwok Kar-hei, Jack Lee)
“We are nothing” (Herman Yau)
Indonesia
“Dopamine” (Teddy Soelia Atmaja)
“Ghost in the Cell” (Joko Anwar)
Japan
“5 Centimeters per Second” (Yoshiyuki Okuyama)
“90 meters” (Shun Nakagawa)
“All Greens” (Koyamata Takashi)
“Fujiko” (Taichi Kimura)
“The Last Blossom” (Baku Kinoshita)
“Love Sickness” (Ryuichi Hiroki)
“Suzuki = Bakudan” (Akira Nagai)
“Tiger” (Anshul Chauhan)
“Unchained” (Keisuke Yoshida)
Malaysia
“Fox King” (Woo Min Jin)
“Mother Bhoomi” (Chong Keat Aung)
Philippines
“Filipinana” (Rafael Manuel)
“Midnight Girls” (Irene Villamor)
Singapore
“Ah Girl” (An Geck Geck Priscilla)
“The Old Man and His Car” (Michael Kamm)
“We Are All Strangers” (Anthony Chen) – Opening video
South Korea
“King’s Watcher” (Jang Han-joon)
“My Name” (Jeon Ji-young)
“Number One” (Kim Taeyeon)
“Once upon a time we were us” (Kim Do-young)
“Guardians of the Soul” (Kim Jung-woo, Kim Si-wan, Cho Cheol-young)
“World of Love” (Yoon Ga-eun)
Taiwan
“Deep Quiet Room” (Takashi Agarwood)
“The Story of the Fog” (Chen Yushun)
“I blew out the candles before making a wish” (Qiao Huiwan, Hu Qingyen)
“Kung Fu” (Giddens Coe)
“Sunshine Female Choir” (Gavin Lin)
Thailand
“Gohan” (Chayanop Boonprakob, Baz Poonpiliya, Atta Hemwady)
“The Last Shot” (Putipong Nakthong)
“Ta Leh: The Exorcist” (Taweewat Wangsa)
Vietnam
“Blood Moon Light 8” (Phan Gia Nhat Lin)
“Hijacked” (Ham Tran)
“Kai Namin” (Leon Le)
“Tunnel: Sun in the Dark” (Bui Tac Chuen)
Closing film: Scheduled to be announced on April 8th
Not eligible for competition
Koji Yakusho: Perfect role
“Thirteen Assassins” (Takashi Miike, Japan 2010)
“Lone Wolf’s Blood” (Kazuya Shiraishi, Japan 2018)
“Eel” (Shohei Imamura, Japan 1997)
“Perfect Days” (Wim Wenders, Japan/Germany, 2023)
“Dandelion” (Juzo Itami, Japan 1985/4K 2022)
“Under the Open Sky” (Miwa Nishikawa, Japan 2020)
“The Woodcutter and the Rain” (Shuichi Okita, Japan, 2011)
Special screening
“Ciao UFO” (Patrick Leung, Hong Kong 2019/2026)
“To My 19-Year-Old Self” (Mabel Chan, Hong Kong, 2022)
“Kukbo” (Lee Sang-il, Japan, 2025)
“Tokyo Taxi” (Yoji Yamada, Japan 2025)
documentary
“Mr. Kim is going to the movie theater” (Kim Dong-ho, South Korea, 2025)
“Ozu Diary” (Daniel Lime, USA, 2025)
restored classic
“Cageman” (Jacob Chan, Hong Kong 1992/4K 2026)
“Love Massacre” (Patrick Tam, Hong Kong 1981/4K 2025)
“Gamera” (Noriaki Yuasa, Japan 1965/4K 2025)
“Hula Girl” (Lee Sang-il, Japan 2006/4K 2025)
“Chils and Mans” (Park Kwang Soo, Korea 1988/2K 2014)
“Push! Push!” (Park Cheol Soo, South Korea 1997/4K 2026)
“In the Wink of an Eye” (Mike de Leon, Philippines 1981/4K 2023)
“Macho Dancer” (Lino Brocka, Philippines 1988/4K 2023)
“Connected by Fate” (Wan Zhen, Taiwan 1998/2K 2025)
“Good Neighbors” (Li Hsing, Taiwan 1962/2K 2026)
“Love never stops” (Xiao Lohui, Taiwan 1962/2K 2026)
