Industry | Motion pictures, television production |
---|---|
Founded | 2006 |
Headquarters | Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
Key people | Matthew Robinson (executive producer and owner) Millan Lov (head of production) |
Products | Films, television programs |
Website | www |
Khmer Mekong Films (KMF) is a major Cambodian film and television production company based in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. Founded by Matthew Robinson, a former director and executive producer of the BBC television series Byker Grove and EastEnders , KMF aims to help develop the Cambodian film industry, which was left moribund after the country was devastated by the Cambodian Civil War (1967–75), the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–79) and occupation by Vietnam (1979–89).
Khmer Mekong Films grew out of the team created and trained by the BBC in 2004 to make a 100-episode TV drama about HIV for Cambodian television. Taste of Life was funded by the UK government through the Department for International Development and managed by the BBC World Service Trust. With funding finished in 2006, producer Matthew Robinson stayed in Cambodia to form KMF with the Taste of Life Khmer production team. [1]
KMF has produced dozens of television dramas, documentaries, information films, educational films, television commercials and public service TV spots. [2] The company has also produced nine Cambodian cinema films, Staying Single When (2007), Vanished (2009), Palace of Dreams (2010), the three-part Day in the Country (2015-2019), Price of Love (2016), King Selfie (2017), Fear (2018), Move Out (2019) and 360 Degrees (2019). A tenth movie, Dance Till You Drop, had to be abandoned halfway through shooting in March 2020 due to the dangers to cast and crew of COVID-19.
Year | Title | Release date(s) |
---|---|---|
2007 | Staying Single When | March 2007 |
2009 | Vanished | September 2009 |
2010 | Palace of Dreams | August 2010 |
2015-2019 | Day in the Country | TBA |
2016 | Price of Love | April 2016 |
2017 | King Selfie | May 2018 |
2018 | Fear | May 2019 |
2019 | Move Out | December 2019 |
2022 | 360 Degrees | 4 August 2022 |
In 2015/16 the first part of Day in the Country won a number of awards at four international film festivals: Hollywood International Moving Pictures Film Festival; Los Angeles International Film Festival; New York City Indie Film Awards (including 'Best Actor' and second Best Foreign Feature Film); and the Canada International Film Festival. In 2015 at the fourth Cambodian National Film Festival, Vanished won an award for 'Second Best Film' as well as 'Best Sound'. In 2016 Price of Love won four awards at the Hollywood International Moving Pictures Film Festival. In 2017 at the fifth Cambodian National Film Festival, Price of Love won four top awards including 'Best Film', 'Best Actress' and 'Best Production'.
Phnom Penh is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, industrial, and cultural centre. Before Phnom Penh became capital city, Oudong was the capital of the country.
Articles related to Cambodia and Cambodian culture include:
Cambodian cuisine combines the culinary traditions of many different ethnic groups in Cambodia, an important subset of which is Khmer cuisine, the nearly-two-thousand-year-old culinary tradition of the majority Khmer people. Over centuries, Cambodian cuisine has incorporated elements of Indian, Chinese, Portuguese and French cuisine, and due to some of these shared influences and mutual interaction, it has many similarities with the cuisines of Central Thailand, and Southern Vietnam and to a lesser extent also Central Vietnam, Northeastern Thailand and Laos.
Matthew Robinson is a British-Cambodian television and film executive producer, producer, director and writer. After graduating from Cambridge University. he directed many episodes of popular British television dramas and soap operas in the 1970s and 1980s. He became the first producer of the series Byker Grove (1989–1997), and was also made the executive producer of EastEnders (1998–2000).
Rithy Panh is a Cambodian documentary film director and screenwriter.
Cinema in Cambodia began in the 1950s, and many films were being screened in theaters throughout the country by the 1960s, which are regarded as the "golden age". After a near-disappearance during the Khmer Rouge regime, competition from video and television has meant that the Cambodian film industry is a small one.
Media in Cambodia is largely unregulated and includes radio, television and print media outlets. Private sector companies have moved into the media sector, which represents a change from years of state-run broadcasting and publishing.
Neak Loeung is a busy commercial town in Prey Veng Province, Cambodia. Located on the Mekong and astride National Highway number 1, it is the commune centre for Neak Leung commune and the capital of Peam Ror District. The town can be reached by car ferry from Kampong Phnum in Kandal Province or by boat along the Mekong river.
Staying Single When, released in Cambodia's main cinema, 'Kirirom' in March 2007 and premiered on CTN, Cambodia's most popular TV channel, in October 2007, is a 100-minute romantic comedy from the production company Khmer Mekong Films (KMF).
Heart Talk is a 2008 Khmer horror film, a second film produced by Khmer Mekong Films after the successful of 2007's romantic comedy Staying Single When and a television series, the Taste of Life. It is directed by UK director Bill Broomfield and Cambodian young director, Tom Som and written by British novelist and screenwriter with much personal experience of Cambodia, Matt Baylis, but translated into Khmer script by Kiri Roat.
Horror films in Cambodia, first popular in the 1970s, have received renewed attention in Cambodian film making since the resurgence of the local industry in 2003. Horror is one of three popular genres into which most Cambodian films can be loosely grouped, the other two being period pieces and melodrama/romantic drama. The fledgling Cambodian industry of the mid 2000s looked to capitalize on the world-wide popularity of Japanese horror films which have heavily influenced Cambodian horror films. Common themes are ghost or spirit hauntings, possession, folk mythology and revenge by supernatural means. The storytelling takes a slower pace than Western horror and relies on suspense, a pervasive sense of doom and dread, and psychologically disturbing events and situations. Unlike its Japanese counterparts however, many Cambodian horror films also feature over the top gore as seen in Western horror.
Vanished is a 2009 Cambodian thriller film directed by Tom Som and starring Saray Sakana and Chea Vannarith. Set in the capital city, Phnom Penh, the movie tells a contemporary murder story. The two main themes deal with trust and the independence of young people in a rigidly hierarchical society.
Enemies of the People is a 2009 British-Cambodian documentary film written and directed by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath. The film depicts the 10-year quest of co-director Sambath to find truth and closure in the Killing Fields of Cambodia. The film features interviews of former Khmer Rouge officials from the most senior surviving leader to the men and women who slit throats during the regime of Democratic Kampuchea between 1975 and 1979.
Christ the King Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Phnom Penh, was a 19th-century French Gothic revival church that served as the cathedral of the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh. It was located in the Russei Keo District of the city on Monivong Boulevard.
Christopher Minko is an Australian musician and co-founder of the Phnom Penh-based Delta blues group called Krom. Living in Cambodia since 1996, Minko is also the founder and Secretary General of the Cambodian National Volleyball League (Disabled) NGO, also known as CNVLD.
The Missing Picture is a 2013 Cambodian-French documentary film directed by Rithy Panh about the Khmer Rouge. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where it won the top prize. It was also screened in the World Cinema section at the 2013 Cinemanila International Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize. It won Best Documentary at the 21st Lumières Awards and was nominated for Best Documentary Film at the 41st César Awards as well as for Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards.
Davy Chou is a Cambodian-French filmmaker. He has written, directed and produced several films. Chou made his feature length debut with Diamond Island (2016) and made his follow-up with the film Return to Seoul (2022).
Red Wedding is a 2012 documentary film co-directed by Lida Chan and Guillaume Suon, which portrays a victim of forced marriage under the Khmer Rouge regime.
Youk Chhang is the executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) and a survivor of the Khmer Rouge's killing fields. He became DC-Cam's leader in 1995, when the center was founded as a field office of Yale University’s Cambodian Genocide Program to conduct research, training and documentation relating to the Khmer Rouge regime. Chhang continued to run the center after its inception as an independent Cambodian non-governmental organization in 1997 and is currently building on DC-Cam's work to establish the Sleuk Rith Institute, a permanent hub for genocide studies in Asia, based in Phnom Penh.
The Bophana Center is an audiovisual center located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The center is dedicated to restoring, protecting and enhancing the Cambodian audiovisual heritage.