Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival 2015

Overview

It’s film festival time in Brisbane, and yes, a busy calendar of cultural-orientated movie offerings means that could be true on any given weekend; however the period spanning November 19 to 29 stands out. It belongs to the city’s major cinema celebration — and while the Brisbane International Film Festival is no more, the replacement that is the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival has been trying to pick up some of the slack since 2014, at least when it comes to movies from its area of interest.

In its second year, the 11-day event presents an 83-feature program from a lineup of 102 films in total, complete with 33 Australian premieres and 23 Queensland premieres. Highlighting the movie-making prowess of the Asia Pacific region is its focus, covering 42 countries and showcasing 34 movies that have earned nominations at the forthcoming Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Indeed, from festival circuit hits to retrospective screenings of restored classics feature — and including a program of virtual reality shorts, too — BAPFF's 2015 selection serves up a bustling bunch of screen fare for cinema fans. As always, the most difficult part isn't rushing between the event's five venues (Palace Barracks, GOMA, New Farm Cinemas, Griffith Film School and The Courier-Mail Piazza), or fighting film festival fatigue when you're in the thick of BAPFF craziness, but trying to pick which flicks to go along to.