Some of the finest film-making talent from across Asia have been honored at the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) as the Asian New Talent awards ceremony took place in the east China metropolis on Thursday.
Five of the 11 nominated films were awarded after thorough and in-depth discussions by a six-member jury panel chaired by Chinese director Cao Baoping, who had himself earned a prize at the 2006 edition of the Asian New Talent awards for his solo directorial feature "Trouble Makers".
This year's award-winning features include Chinese drama "Friday, Funfair", which scooped the best film, and the Indian production "In the Name of Fire", which won best director and best actor, while the best actress award went to the star of "Bird of a Different Feather", another hard-hitting film from India.
Two other Chinese films were recognized, with the best cinematography prize going to the suspenseful film "Habitat", and the best screen-writing award going to "Fishbone", a family-focussed drama.
Now into its 26th edition, the SIFF continues to focus on the discovery of new talent in film-making with the Asian New Talent competition playing a vital role.
This year marks the 20th edition of the new talents competition following its launch in 2004 to create a dedicated platform for showcasing directorial debuts and nurturing up-and-coming film-making talent from Asia.
"The competition promotes exchanges between new directors from China and other countries. I think they can draw inspirations from each other. This explains the significance of the Asian New Talent awards. Other domestic film festivals may not be able to achieve that," said Cao.
Founded in 1993, the SIFF is seen as a prestigious global event for the film industry. This year's edition is scheduled to run from June 14 to 23.
Shanghai Int'l Film Festival champions rising stars of Asian film-making
