The festival presented the image of the next edition and the main novelties of this years programme at a press conference held on Saturday, February 24th, at Espai ETC in Vic with Susagna Roura (Councillor for Culture and Museums, Coexistence and Security of the City Council of Vic), Javier Orduña (Director of the Confucious Institute in Barcelona), Marc Carol (Vicepresident of Vic Comerç) and Quim Crusellas (Director of the Asian Summer Film Festival).

From this years edition, the main axis of the festival will no longer be a specific country. The screenings and activities will revolve around a theme, a thread that will go across all the different sections and that will inspire the image of the festival. In the 2018 edition, the theme will be sports in Asian commercial cinema. The tribute to Asian countries will be kept at Les Nits a la Bassa, which is the place where every night the themed dinner and the open air film take place and they will continue to be dedicated to a specific country.

Stephen Chow, Guest of Honor

For its 15th anniversary, the festival will pay homage to Stephen Chow, the most outstanding director in Hong Kong and China nowadays. As well as screening the first film that was ever shown at la Bassa dels Hermanos in the inaugural edition of the Asian Summer Film Festival in 2004, which was Shaolin Soccer (Stephen Chow, 2001), it will launch the new book of the FesNits publishing catalogue: Stephen Show! The Stephen Chow show film. The spectators will also be able to enjoy a collection of Asian films that have sport as the protagonist with the retrospective Fit Asia.

New Collaborators

The event adds new players to the work that is carried out regularly with local associations and local companies: the Vic Comerç association, with the participation of the Art School of Vic, will turn the streets near the Bassa dels Hermanos into a perfect Chinatown setting and a Vic Comerç card will be offered to guests, accredited spectators and Nitòmans that will have advantages in participating stores in Vic. Promotions and activities will be organised by both Vic Comerç and the Asian Summer Film Festival.

There is also a new collaborating company: Cervesa del Montseny. This handcrafted beer, a local company, will create a special edition for the festival: the Nitòmana.

During the month before the festival, the Més Nits programme will once again fill the Cultural Community Centres of Vic and other venues with workshops and activities. And, in collaboration with the Local Cooperation Council of Vic, the festival programme will also include a series of documentary films about social issues followed by a panel discussion with experts.

Supporting Young Catalan Filmmakers

The Asian Summer Film Festival maintains its commitment with the young cinematographic creation in Catalonia and announced at the press conference the completion of Meiying MG-01, a new short film by Adrià Guxens. The festival is an associated co-producer of the project and will also accompany it in its international promotion. The work by Guxens, who presented his short film Bittersweet Memories in Vic in 2016, is characterised by his dreamlike character and inspired by Oriental aesthetics and culture.

Qiu Qiu and the Chinese New Year

The director of the festival, Quim Crusellas, also presented the image of Festival Nits 2018: Qiu Qiu (pronounced 'txiou txiou'), which means 'ball' in Chinese. It’s an illustration by the artist Xevi Domínguez