狐狸视频

U of T producers set to make their Cannes debut with two films

Weijie Lai and聽Elizabeth Wijaya are co-founders of the development and production company E&W Films and teach in U of T Mississauga's department of visual studies
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Weijie Lai, left, and Elizabeth Wijaya, right, have two films premiering at this year鈥檚 Cannes Film Festival (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

The 狐狸视频鈥檚 Elizabeth Wijaya and Weijie Lai are headed to the French Riviera to see not one, but two films debut at Cannes.   

The two scholars 鈥 Wijaya is an assistant professor in U of T Mississauga鈥檚 department of visual studies, Lai is a Cinema Studies instructor 鈥 co-founded the company, E&W Films, that led the production of Mongrel, which is set to premiere as part of the Director鈥檚 Fortnight, an independent section that runs in parallel to theCannes Film Festival and is organized by the French Directors鈥 Guild. 

The film, which marks the feature debut of co-directors Chiang Wei Liang and You Qiao Yin, tells the story of Oom, an undocumented migrant who works as a caregiver in the mountains of rural Taiwan.

Meanwhile, director Tr瓢啤ng Minh鈥疩u媒鈥檚 Vi峄噒 and Nam will compete in Cannes鈥 Un Certain Regard category, which is dedicated to non-traditional stories and styles. The film, also produced by E&W, follows two lovers, one from the north and the other from the south, on a mission that explores the dreams and trauma of the southeast Asian country鈥檚 children. 

鈥淚 would say both films this year are heavy, but they have very distinct artistic visions,鈥 Wijaya says. 鈥淲ith everything we work on under E&W Films, we look out for that sense of directorial vision or artistic voice.鈥 

Main character Oom is seen at a hospital dirty and bruised
A still from the movie Mongrel (Image courtesy E&W Films)

Wijaya and Lai met in an undergraduate philosophy and film course at the National University of Singapore. They launched E&W Films for practical reasons: they needed somewhere to hold funds while raising money to make Lai鈥檚 thesis film project. Later, E&W Films produced a short project for an undergraduate schoolmate: director Kirsten Tan. Next, the pair moved on to produce Tan鈥檚 debut feature Pop Aye, which won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Fast forward to today and E&W Films now has more than a dozen productions under its belt.  

Wijaya generally defines her roles as development, strategy and co-ordination while Lai is more hands-on, helping facilitate everything from ideation and scripting to fundraising, production, sales and distribution. 

Main characters Nam and Vi峄噒 touch hands standing on the shore of a beach
A still from the film Vi峄噒 and Nam (image courtesy Epicmedia Productions Inc.)

The couple鈥檚 dedication to film media, as well as their teaching and scholarship, has enriched U of T Mississauga鈥檚 department of visual studies, where they鈥檝e built the UTM Asian Short Film Collection (accessible to anyone with a U of T library account) and organized the UTM DVS filmmaker-in-residence program, which has welcomed international talents such as Davy Chou, Pimpaka Towira and Anocha Suwichakornpong to campus for workshops, lectures and screenings.  

Two projects currently in development by E&W Films have also received U of T Mississauga funding: an eco-horror project directed by Gogularaajan Rajendran was awarded the Black, Indigenous, and/or Racialized Scholar Research Grant, and The Sea is Calm Tonight by filmmaker L锚 B岷 was given seed support by the Research and Scholarly Activity Fund. 

The opportunity presented by the Cannes鈥 platform is enormous, the producers say.

鈥淚t's the biggest international market in terms of the number of attendees,鈥 Lai says. 鈥淭he most number of critics internationally are there. The most number of distributors are there and sales agents and things like that 鈥 So if you're there, in theory, more people will watch your film.鈥 

While E&W Films has had a presence at the festival for years, this is the first time its work is set to be screened at Cannes.  

鈥淚 think I鈥檓 excited just to see the first reactions,鈥 Wijaya says.  

Lai, too, says he鈥檚 looking forward to the experience.

鈥淏y the time we get to the world premi猫re, you've seen the film so many times that you鈥檙e actually bored stiff,鈥 he says. 鈥淏ut for some reason, when you're sitting there with a fresh audience during the world premi猫re 鈥 the feeling is always different. You feel the energy of the audience, and fingers crossed the energy is good.鈥

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