Asian New Talent Awards Were Announced Yesterday

□By Liza Li(Shanghai Daily)

Iranian film 13 by director Hooman Seyedi won the Best Film at the Asian New Talent Award ceremony yesterday.

The film follows the story of a 13-year-old boy called Bemani who’s troubled by the divorce of his parents. He then met a girl named Sami and her two friends by chance and the four got into big troubles.

“It’s the effort of a team,” Seyedi said.

The Best Director award went to Momoko Ando for 0.5mm. The jury spoke highly of her outstanding way to tell a unique and original story that resonates in today’s world.

“This film I actually made with my family. I wrote the novel first, then the script, and my sister is the actress and my father is my producer. Thank you so much for my family,” she said.

Eddie Cahyono won the Best Scriptwriter award for the film SITI.

The Best Actress award went to the nine-year-old Yangchen Lhamo for the film River directed by Sonthar Gyal.

Sean Huang won the Best Actor for his performance in (Sex) Appeal, a film by director Wang Weiming.

Ali Tabrizi from 13 won the Best Cinematographer award.

The international jury panel of this year’s Asian New Talent Award includes Korean director Kim Han-min, who is also the jury president, China Taiwan director and scriptwriter Yee Chih-yen, French producer Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, Malaysian actress Angelica Lee and Chinese actor Huang Xuan.