Editor

In the space of five years, the Barcelona Asian Film Festival-BAFF has
become a unique, pioneering festival of its kind in Spain. In addition,
spectator numbers have risen from 3,000 to 10,000, a fact which, together
with the growing interest in the festival shown by the media, organisations
and institutions, has all served to increase expectations about BAFF in Asian
countries.

This year, the 6th Barcelona Asian Film Festival / BAFF (which will run
for 9 days from 30th April to 7th May 2004) will be put on thanks to the
support and contributions from the following institutions:
Casa Asia, Fundació Caixa de Catalunya, Centre Cultural Contemporània de
Barcelona, Institut de Cultura - Ajuntament de Barcelona, the Indian
Embassy in Madrid and Cine Maldà.

This year a number of new features have been introduced that will extend the
scope of the festival on national and international levels.
In this year's festival, nine films produced in Asia in the last year (all of
which will be receiving their Spanish premieres at BAFF) will be competing
for the Golden Durian award. This 6,000 € prize, courtesy of Casa Asia, is
to go towards financing the winning director’s next production. An
international jury will select the best film from all of the works nominated
for this section. Last year’s winner of the Golden Durian was the film from
Tajikistan Farishtay Kifti Rost/Angel on the Right, which was directed
by Djamshed Usmonov.

This prize is another attractive feature that will encourage novelty and
improve programming in the Official Section. The films that will be
competing this year have been selected for their daring, their originality,
and their aesthetic or radical commitment. As well as the Golden Durian,
the traditional Audience Award will also be given.
This festival premieres the best cinema produced in Asian countries during
the last year, as well as presenting retrospectives on particular directors
and countries; there is also a section devoted to showing a selection of the
best Asian films that have been screened at other international festivals.
II Festival Structure
5 Projection Venues
• CCCB: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB)
Hall: Anime Space
Auditorium
• Cine Maldà: The Official Selection in the CINEAMBIGÚ
• Auditori Caixa de Catalunya/La Pedrera.
• Cine Comedia.
6 Sections
• Official Competition: Selection of films in the competition.
• Asian Selection: Selection of films that represent the best in recent
productions from Eastern Asia.
• Guest Country: Taiwan.
• Retrospective.
• Bollywood.
• Anime Space: Selection of Manga films.
• D-Cinema: New digital cinema.