28 Feb – Another annual film event has to be postponed following the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Earlier today, the Udine Far East Film Festival (FEFF22) announced that it will not be holding its 22nd edition this 24 April to 2 May as originally scheduled.
"In view of the health situation in Northern Italy, the Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche di Udine has agreed, together with the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and the Comune di Udine, to postpone the twenty-second edition of the Far East Film Festival until the beginning of summer," according to a statement posted on the film festival's official website. The film festival will now be held from 26 June to 4 July 2020. Meanwhile, Focus Asia will be held from 29 June to 1 July and the 12th edition of Asia-Europe co-production workshop Ties That Bind has also confirmed its new dates, 28 June to 2 July, along with the brand-new section Far East in Progress, the first and only European platform dedicated to Asian films in post-production. There will also be a double tribute to Filipino actor-director Eddie Garcia (the Kirk Douglas of Southeast Asia) and to the eccentric cinema of the director and composer Watanabe brothers, Hirobumi and Yuji. The decision to postpone this year's FEFF comes after more coronavirus cases were reported in Italy. In the latest news from NPR, the Italian Ministry of Health said that the number of cases in the country spiked by more than 50% in just 24 hours. It currently stands at 650 confirmed cases with 17 deaths, the most of any country outside South Korea and China, the latter where the virus was first identified last December.