PEDICAB Wins Best Film, HUANG Bo Takes Honor of Best Actor

On the evening of June 25, the Golden Goblet Awarding Ceremony of 20th Shanghai International Film Festival was held at the Shanghai Grand Theater. The Jury President of the Golden Goblet Awards Cristian MUNGIU, together with other Jury Members, was present and announced the winners of each award from three competitions and 24 nominations.

In the end, the award for the Best Feature Film went to the Philippine production PEDICAB; YELLOW, from Iran, won the Best Actress and Jury Grand Prix; KHARMS, the coproduction of Russia, Lithuania and Macedonia, received the awards for Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography; HUANG Bo took the honor of Best Actor for the suspense and crime film THE CONFORMIST.

Nearly 40 cast & crew at scene

Hundreds of filmmakers sparkle on red carpet 

Before the awarding ceremony, the red carpet taking place outside the Shanghai Grand Theater was star-stubbed again. The main cast of the closing film EXPLOSION, featuring DUAN Yihong, YU Nan, WANG Jingchun and CHENG Rongshen walked on the carpet first. Then, the representatives of 24 films competing for the three main categories and 10 Golden Goblet Awards showed up in turn, receiving the cheers and acclaims from the media and fans. Besides that, Athena CHU, HUANG Zheng, Vanness WU, Yuen WAH, GONG Hanlin and a number of filmmakers stepped on the red carpet to introduce and promote the 15 new films under production or to be released soon, including ONCE AGAIN, PILI BACK, MY KITCHEN LOVER and LOVE AT 18°N. As the foreign friends of SIFF, the US actress Milla JOVOVICH, renowned for her performance in RESIDENT EVIL, the UK director Paul ANDERSON, etc. also appeared at the closing ceremony to show their support.

PEDICAB wins Best Film

YELLOW and KHARMS receive double affirmative

Compared with the film production powers like Iran, Japan and Italy, Philippine production seems to be less familiar to the Chinese audience. However, the Philippine film PEDICAB, during its screening as a competing work for the Festival, has moved a large number of audience with its genuine emotions and novel narration. After taking the most prestigious award that night, the director Paolo VILLALUNA was somehow shocked and nearly burst into tears because of the excitement. In the interview, Paolo admitted: “The award means a lot to me. I feel like I was in heave. It’s incredible.” 

PEDICAB

Compared with film background and director’s experience, the Jury has paid closer attention to the work itself. The Jury President MUNGIU said frankly in an interview: “Selecting Best Film is always the hardest, for other categories have prominent and separate considering criteria. Yet every jury member had his or her own opinion on Best Film, so there was a lot of argument during the process. Fortunately, we finally reached consensus and basically every member’s requirement has been satisfied.”

YELLOW

At the same night, YELLOW and KHARMS were also big winners. The highly-expected Iranian film YELLOW took the two important awards of Best Actress and Jury Grand Prix, while KHARMS, the coproduction of Russia, Lithuania and Macedonia, received the awards for Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

KHARMS

Suspense and crime film remounts throne

HUANG Bo awarded Best Actor

For the domestic audience, the most eye-catching scene was undoubtedly when the widely known film star HUANG Bo taking over the award for Best Actor for his performance in the Chinese film THE CONFORMIST. As we all know, COCK AND BULL which helped LIU Ye win the same award last year, as well as THE DEAD END producing three co-winners for Best Actor the year before last year, belonged to the genre of suspense and crime.

At the awarding ceremony, CAO Baoping, the Jury Member and the director of THE DEAD END and DUAN Yihong, the main actor of THE DEAD END gave the award to HUANG Bo, who replied with both humor and solemnity when taking the trophy: “We never lack beauty, but the eyes to find beauty. The heavy trophy makes me understand, there is no future in performing comedies.” For the recent two years, from BATTLE OF MEMORIES to THE CONFORMIST, HUANG Bo has gradually separated himself from the comedian pattern which is known well by the audience, and started to try different characters and performing styles. For the Jury’s recognition, HUANG was quite delighted, but he wouldn’t give up comedy – the genre he was most adept at, and said in the interview: “Though comedies are hard to play and comedians are hard to be awarded, I love this field and would like to attempt different approaches. We all say there are one hundred Hamlets in one hundred people’s minds, and I will work hard to play these one hundred Hamlets with varied methods and features.”

Rainbow Chamber Singers presents CITY OF FILM for 20th SIFF

“Predestined Person” tells romantic story of light and shadow

This year is the 20th anniversary of Shanghai International Film Festival. At this special moment, the Festival hold a featured event named “Look for Predestined Person of SIFF”, and many people who have special bonds with SIFF appeared on the stage of the ceremony.

The Shanghai Rainbow Chamber Singers also presented its latest single CITY OF FILM – a song specially created for SIFF, to the audience. The couple, LIU Weiran and ZHU Jingyin, who knew each other through SIFF also shared their romantic story interwoven by light and shadow. Now, the two watch 10-15 films together during the Festival every year, to enrich their leisure time and broaden their minds. The earnest affection for films and the Shanghai International Film Festival touched the hearts of all the filmmakers present.