Asian New Talent Award Upgraded for Quick Promotion of Newcomers

The Asian New Talent Award of the Shanghai International Film Festival will be fully upgraded for this year\'s 18^th SIFF. It will be the only professional award in Asia that adopts a “nomination system” to recognize new talents. Established for over a decade, the award last year set a target of promoting “Asian, Chinese and New Talent” features in movies.
Movies eligible to sign up for the six awards of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography include the first two works of Asian directors, actors screenwriters, and cinematographers. The works should have been be produced after January 1, 2014 and be no less than 70 minutes in length, released or not.

Foster new talents for Asian film industry
Shanghai International Film Festival has been dedicated to nurturing fresh talent for the industry with its structured system of Mobile SIFF (video), Pitch and Catch (film incubation), and Asian New Talent Award. Established in 2004, the Asian New Talent Award has encouraged a large number of Asian cinema newcomers. Many young directors have graduated from the awards to be acknowledged for their skills and to gain film industry prominence. They include Ning Hao, Pema Tseden, and Gao Shuqun from mainland China, Lin Shuyu from Taiwan, Hassan Yektapanah from Iran, and Bhawani from Indonesia, among others..
In recent years, the movie industry has been evolving. The older generation of directors, like Zhang Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang, no longer produce many works and are declining in popularity with young audiences. So it is inevitable that new directors step up to take their place. In 2014, as many as 16 movies out of all 36 domestic films with a box office of over 100 million yuan were made by younger directors born in the 60s and 70s. Meanwhile, young idols like Yang Mi, Chen Xiao, Kris Wu, Lu Han are very popular on the screen. These young filmmakers and actors generate notable box office returns but also have highly prominent reputations.
To discover more Asian film new talents and bring more new faces to the industry,  Shanghai International Film Festival has announced that the Asian New Talent Award this year will be fully upgraded. Six award categories have been introduced, each with five nomination awards. The jury will decide on Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography. Previously, the only two award winners were selected by the jury from 10 short-listed movies. The new move is an attempt to look for the brightest new talents and new works in Asia.

Increased prominence due to prizes and dialogue
To ease the funding difficulties experienced by new talents and to facilitate project launches, the SIFF organization committee will award a prize of 150,000 yuan to winners of the Best Picture and Best Director categories. The other four winners will receive 50,000 yuan. In addition, the committee will also invite all nominated film directors, actors, screenwriters, photographers and film crews to take part in the Nomination Award Reception on the eve of the awards ceremony. Each nominated individual will be given a nomination certificate by renowned filmmakers and members of the organizing committee. They also will be interviewed by the media. This is an effort to expand the category\'s influence and provide a platform for discussion between the talents and industry leaders and institutions.
It is worth mentioning that the awards ceremony for Asian New Talent will also be fully upgraded as a unique SIFF gala event and platform to introduce Asian film new talents to the world. The Asian New Talent Award ceremony will be held on June 19 this year.