From April 7 to 15, 2026, the Cinema Farnese was transformed into a window open onto Asia, hosting the twenty-third edition of the Asian Film Festival Rome 2026. Not just a showcase, but a passage: thirty-six films, twelve countries, infinite human trajectories intertwining on screen, offering a vivid, pulsating взгляд on the contemporary Far East.
In this suspended space between images and silences, the awards did not feel like mere recognitions, but rather points of arrival for stories that managed to leave a mark.
Standing out above all was Girl, the directorial debut of Shu Qi, which won Best Film. A work that we at Amor-K chose to spotlight from the very beginning of the festival, immediately recognizing its strength and excellence: not only in its direction, but in its overall visual construction, from evocative locations to intense performances, and a costume design capable of restoring both identity and time.
It is a film that does not merely tell the story of late-1980s Taiwan, but breathes it, allowing it to emerge slowly, transforming time and space into living, almost tangible presences. Here, history does not remain in the background: it observes, accompanies, and, with discretion, guides the viewer into an experience that becomes memory, atmosphere, perception.
Different, yet equally powerful, is the vision of Ryan Machado, awarded Best Director for Raging. His cinema moves like an irregular current, capable of crossing both physical and inner territories, pushing into those areas of the soul that often remain in shadow. It is a narrative that does not ask permission, but overwhelms.
Among the faces that linger most vividly is that of Prapamonton Eiamchan in Human Resource. Her performance, awarded Best Actress, is built on restraint: few gestures, held-back gazes, a presence that does not shout, but weighs. Within that silence settle harsh themes such as labor, the body, and power, conveyed with a force that needs no words.
Alongside her, Piseth Chhun, Best Actor for Becoming Human, crafts a performance that seems to inhabit another dimension. His body becomes language, a bridge between reality and metaphor, between the individual and collective transformation. It is as if the screen opens up, making space for something deeper, almost invisible.
Originality, meanwhile, chose not to have a single voice. Two Voices into an Echo by Kim Kyung-rae and Siapa Dia by Garin Nugroho share the recognition as two opposing yet complementary poles. The former is intimate, rarefied, built on what remains when love dissolves; the latter is a visual, theatrical, almost musical flow, where cinema becomes body and politics, dance and reflection.
A different, younger perspective comes from the Special Mention by the UNINT student jury, awarded to Love on Trial by Kōji Fukada. A film that delves into the contradictions of the idol world, where love becomes a rule to break or obey, and identity is shaped in the fragile balance between authenticity and system.
The Newcomers section, meanwhile, moves between memory and loss with Falling into Silence by Yuto Shimizu. Here, grief is not only pain, but transformation: fireworks become fleeting, luminous images, symbols of a catharsis that arrives suddenly, at the moment you least expect it.
Finally, in the brief yet intense form of the short film, Something Blue by Jinsui Song leaves a visual and emotional imprint that is difficult to ignore. A narrative that moves between trauma and perception, where sound and image intertwine until they become experience.
Thus, this edition of the festival comes to a close: not with an ending, but with a trace. A constellation of stories that continue to vibrate beyond the screen, reminding us that cinema, when it is authentic, does not merely present itself, but remains indelibly in our memory as a unique and innovative experience.
