Vietnamese Film The Third Wife Screens at Asian Cinema at Carthage Film Festival (JCC)

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Winner of Eight International Awards

Vietnamese Film The Third Wife Screens at Asian Cinema at Carthage Film Festival (JCC)


Vietnamese feature film The Third Wife by director Ash Mayfair,winner of eight awards, will take part in the 30th Carthage Film Festival (JCC) (October 26-November 2), within its Asian Cinema section. MAD Solutions, the film's distributor, releases the film's official poster simultaneously with its screening at the JCC. The film is set to hit movie theaters soon.

First launched in 1961, the Carthage Film Festival is the oldest event of its kind in the African continent and the Arab World. This year, the festival will screen a roster of 170 films from 60 countries in its different sections, with a total of 44 feature and documentary films from 40 countries including nine Arab countries participating in its Official Competition.

In 19th century rural Vietnam, 14-year-old May becomes the third wife of wealthy land-owner Hung. Soon she learns that she can only gain status by asserting herself as a woman who can give birth to a male child. May's hope to change her status turns into a real and tantalizing possibility when she gets pregnant. Faced with forbidden love and its devastating consequences, May finally comes to an understanding of the brutal truth: the options available to her are few and far between.

The Third Wife screened at many international film festivals and won eight awards, including the Youth Jury Award COMUNDO at the Fribourg International Film Festival, NETPAC Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, Best Artistic Contribution at the Cairo International Film Festival, Best Film at the Kolkata International Film Festival, a Special Mention at the Milan International Film Festival, Special Jury Award at the Minsk International Film Festival "Listapad", Gold Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival, and the TVE - Another Look Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

The film also screened at the São Paulo International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, Warsaw International Film Festival, Frauen Film Tage - Vienna International Women's Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, San Diego Asian Film Festival, and the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

The Third Wife received a grant from the Spike Lee Film Production Fund in 2014. The film was listed on the NYU Purple List 2015 for the best screenplays submitted by NYU graduate film students. The filmalso won the Grand Prix at the Autumn Meeting Lab 2015 in Vietnam and the Best Film Award for a non-Hong Kong project at the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum 2016.

Vietnamese filmmaker Ash Mayfair holds an MFA in Filmmaking from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her directing credits include the short films, The Silver Man, Sam, and Walking the Dead that got selected at multiple international film festivals. The Third Wife is her feature film directorial debut.

Screening Times of The Third Wife at the Carthage Film Festival (JCC)

Sunday, October 27, 3:30 PM, at Le Palace
Monday, October 28, 5:00 PM, at Ibn Rachiq
Tuesday, October 29, 3:00 PM, at MAD'ART
Thursday, October 31, 8:45 PM, at Le Mondial