Nominees of the Asian New Talent Award Meet the Press

The Asian New Talent Award ceremony will take place on Friday, June 19. Pic by Wu Kai

Sonthar Gyal, director of River, a film nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress, said that the Asian New Talent Award is a platform for young directors and they shouldn’t be influenced by capital.

“When directors are controlled by capital, they can’t calm down and make good films, so I think the Asian New Talent Award should emphasize on personality rather than capital,” he said.

Japanese director and scriptwriter Momoko Ando’s film 0.5mm is nominated for Best Film, Best Director and Best Scriptwriter. The story is about a caretaker named Yamagishi Sawa, which is portrayed by the director’s sister Sakura Ando. Ando wrote the novel 0.5mm first, and then made it into a film.

“At the beginning when I was writing the novel, I did have my sister in my head. So that probably I could say it’s completely my sister as herself, but also completely different from herself,” she said.

Chinese director Xiang Guoqiang adapted Lu Nei’s novel into the film Young Love Lost, a story about a young apprentice in factory.

“The novel has many fans, which was a surprise for us. And we also feel the pressure of satisfying the fans of the novel with the adapted film,” Xiang said.

Indonesian director and scriptwriter Eddie Cahyono’s film SITI is nominated for Best Scriptwriter and Best Cinematographer.

“At first when I made the film, I asked myself for who I am living. For my friends, my family or myself? So in this way I made SITI,” he said.

Lü Jianmin, producer of Wolf Warrior, the hot action war film directed and played by Wu Jing, said that it’s a good thing for young directors to have films with good box office.

“The young directors can be more confident with good box office performance, and the audience will recognize good films,” Lü said.

The Asian New Talent Award ceremony will take place on Friday, June 19.