The 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF45) today announced 14 Firebird Award and FIPRESCI Prize winners, including The Day is Over, The Wasteland, Mr. Bachmann and His Class and Motorcyclist's Happiness Won't Fit Into His Suit.
In naming QI Rui's The Day is Over Best Film of this year's Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language), the jury praised it for “aptly portraying contemporary society's lack of care for the young generation and the subsequent impact on the development of their personal values”. In the same section, Summer Blur garnered two awards – Best Director for HAN Shuai for his “impressive ability in portraying the characters' psyche” and Best Actress for HUANG Tian for “intelligently guiding the audience into the tender inner world of a young girl”. The Best Actor Award went to Wuhai's HUANG Xuan, who “brilliantly exhibits the anguish and torment experienced by a man on the brink of crisis”.
In the Young Cinema Competition (World), the jury named Ahmad BAHRAMI's The Wasteland Best Film for its “well-weighed metaphor of a state of the country (political, ecological, social)”. Playing a doomed factory supervisor in the same film, Ali BAGHERI won Best Actor for his “naturalistic acting and solid facial texture”. Looking for Venera confirmed the potential of female filmmakers from Kosovo by winning the section's remaining awards. Norika SEFA took Best Director for “displaying great sensitivity and delicacy in the mise-en-scène”. For her convincing performance as an intelligent teenager who struggles to define her own identity, Kosovare KRANIQI received the Best Actress award.
In the Documentary Competition, the jury unanimously awarded the Firebird Award to Mr. Bachmann and His Class by German director Maria SPETH, commending it for “picking out individual lives from vastly different backgrounds and showing how they can be transformed”. Kurdish filmmaker Hogir HIRORI took the Jury Prize for Sabaya, a powerful documentary that illustrates a brutal world of war, extremism, and gender oppression.
The jury picked Motorcyclist's Happiness Won't Fit Into His Suit by Mexican filmmaker Gabriel HERRERA as the winner in the Firebird Award Short Film Competition. The Jury Prize went to Russian filmmaker Sasha SVIRSKY's Vadim on a Walk, while Emetjan MEMET's Blessed Winter received a Special Mention.
This year's FIPRESCI Prize went to CHONG Keat-aun's The Story of Southern Islet. The film received a commendation from the jury for “its creative portrayal of spirituality in an increasingly ungodly world”.
The award recipients share their thoughts and reaction in specially-prepared videos recordings, which can be accessed through HKIFFS's official website www.hkiff.org.hk
