Filmmakers and critics say that Thailand’s annual film awards show has closed the door on art house cinema by enacting rules that disqualify them from even being nominated.
The Suphannahong National Film Awards has come under fire for rules requiring that any film vying for a Golden Swan must have shown at cinemas in five provinces – Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chonburi, Nakhon Ratchasima, and Nakhon Si Thammarat.
The criteria also require eligible films to sell at least 50,000 tickets, equivalent to about THB5 million to THB7 million in box office revenue. Though these rules were enacted just before the pandemic in 2019, their impact became an issue when filmmakers realized a number of artistically important films wouldn’t make the cut this year.
Among them was Anatomy of Time, an internationally acclaimed time-shifting drama which chronicles a woman from rural…
