Rithy Lomorpich, filmmaker and founder of the Plerng Kob arts-based social enterprise, was selected to participate in Talents Tokyo 2022, a talent building and networking event for the film industry. The event is running in Tokyo from October 31 to November 5.

The event features 15 talented and energetic young directors and filmmakers from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The young filmmakers will exchange knowledge with each other, and will have the opportunity to meet with four leading figures of the film industry –Singaporean director Anthony Chen, Thai-Hong Kong filmmaker Raymond Phathanavirangoon, Chinese sales expert Xie Meng and Florian Weghorn, a German curator of film festivals. The four luminaries will share their years of experience with the emerging stars.

Lomorpich, a young director, said from Tokyo that she was happy to be there, and very excited to have been selected to participate.

She said that each of the participants is in the process of developing a feature film. It was hoped that the Talents Tokyo event – with its expert guests – would provide the additional guidance the young filmmakers needed to ensure successful, high quality productions.

“By joining Talents Tokyo, I think I am closer to further developing my second feature film. I have the chance to connect with overseas producer networks here – which means I am that much closer to gaining financial support for the movie. I think it is about time I produced my second feature. My first &Young Love&, was released in 2018.

She reiterated what an honour it was to be the only Cambodian filmmaker who was selected for this year’s event. The director hoped to come away with a wide range of overseas connections, from producers, directors, film distributors to investors in the industry.

“Cambodia really needs cooperation from overseas because the film market in the Kingdom remains small. Without extensive cooperation with overseas stakeholders with specific skills, it will be very difficult to move the Kingdom’s film industry forward,”” she said.

“Cambodia has a lot of interesting stories to offer to audiences around the world, especially those who have never visited. I believe that the style of Cambodian films is different from other countries’ films. We should be getting them out to international audiences so that foreign moviegoers learn more about what we do here,” she added.

She said that when she returns home she intends to share all that he has learned with the workers in the Cambodian film industry, so that they will be able to apply it to the future work they do. She hopes this will move the industry closer to its goal of global recognition.