Thailand, known as the Land of Smiles, will host the World Comedy Film Festival, the first in Asia this April, following the success of the Bangkok International Film Festival, in an effort to position Thailand as the film industry hub of Asia and also to help boost the country’s tourism industry. In recent years, Thailand has gained worldwide attention as Asia’s prime international filming location. Quite a number of Hollywood films have been filmed in Thailand including Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, The Beach starring Leonardo Di Caprio, and Oliver Stone’s Alexander.

“The success of the Bangkok International Film Festival that we have been organizing over the past six years has certainly helped in putting Thailand on the international film map,” commented Mrs. Phornsiri Manoharn, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), which played a major role in founding the Bangkok international film event.

TAT will be sponsoring the event under the helm of the Federation of National Film Association of Thailand. The film event, which will feature more than 50 comedy films, will run from 23 – 29 April, 2009, at Siam Paragon Cineplex and SF World Cinema at CentralWorld.

Laughter’s Beyond Frontier will be the theme of the maiden comedy film festival in Bangkok, with an international array of films from such countries as the USA, UK, Italy, France, Germany, South Africa, Poland and Asian movies from Iran, Kazhakstan, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, China, Taiwan, as well as the host country Thailand.

“Everybody is aware that Thailand has long been known as the Land of Smiles. Laughter and a smile symbolize happiness and fun. They are the two easiest things that people can give to one another. And these two are universal feelings – they can be easily shared with other people regardless of nationality or language barrier. Because of that, we decided to have for our theme this year Laughter’s Beyond Frontier,” said Mr. Jaruek Kaljaruek, President of the Federation. “And there is no better place to organize Asia’s first World Comedy Film Festival than in the Land of Smiles,” he added. The film fest will feature 20 films from the World Cinema category, 20 movies from Asian Cinema, and 10 Thai comedies plus 5 classics. For more information about the event, log on to www.thailandworldcomedyfilm.com.

There are currently three major international comedy film festivals in the world: in Montreal, Melbourne and Berlin. However, most of the films selected for showing are from Europe and North America. Thailand’s counterpart will be the one with films from around the globe with a heavy focus on Asia. Apart from boosting the country’s tourism industry, the organizing committee hopes that Thailand will be regaining its once renowned status as Asia’s leading film shooting location. Last year, Thailand welcomed the crew and stars of the movie ‘ Shanghai’ when the movie was shot here using many Thai provinces as the setting of Shanghai in the 1940s. The film will be released this year with an impressive cast that includes John Cusack, Chinese mainland actress Gong Li, and Hong Kong veteran actor Chow Yun-Fat.

Contact information:
International Public Relation Division
Tourism Authority of Thailand

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