Andrew Ahn’s “The Wedding Banquet,” a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 rom-com starring Bowen Yang and Lily Gladstone, will open this year’s BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival.
The film, which is world premiering Monday night at Sundance Film Festival, will have its international debut on March 19 at London’s BFI Southbank with Ahn in attendance.
According to a press release, “The Wedding Banquet” is a “joyful comedy of errors about a chosen family navigating the disasters and delights of family expectations, queerness and cultural identity.”
The plot description reads: “Angela and her partner Lee have been unlucky with their IVF treatments, but can’t afford to pay for another round. Meanwhile their friend Min, the closeted scion of a multinational corporate empire, has plenty of family money but a soon-to-expire student visa. When his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris rejects his proposal, Min makes the offer to Angela instead: a green card marriage in exchange for funding Lee’s IVF. But their plans to quietly elope are upended when Min’s skeptical grandmother flies in from Korea unannounced, insisting on an all-out wedding extravaganza.”
Alongside Yang and Gladstone, “The Wedding Banquet” also stars Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-Chan, Joan Chen and Youn Yuh-Jung. The film is co-written by Ahn and James Schamus, who co-wrote the original 1993 script. Producers include Schamus, Anita Gou, Joe Pirro and Caroline Clark.
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“I’m incredibly excited for ‘The Wedding Banquet’ to have its international premiere at BFI Flare, a festival that celebrates and cultivates queer talent,” Ahn said in a statement. “I’m honored to be a part of a cinema legacy that includes filmmakers like Amrou Al-Kadhi and Hong Khaou. I’ve fallen in love with London on my many previous visits, so it feels fitting to bring this love story to the city.”
The full BFI Flare program will be revealed on Feb. 18.