(China Daily) For the first time in the 13-year history of the annual Beijing International Film Festival, two outstanding actresses - Antonia Zegers from Chile and Line Renaud in France - jointly received the Tiantan Award for Best Leading Actress, one of the ceremony's most highly regarded honors.
The 10 awards, selected from 15 contending films shortlisted from 1,488 titles from 93 countries and regions, were unveiled on Saturday night in Beijing.
When Chilean actress Zegers won the award for vividly portraying a devastated mother in The Punishment, the 94-year-old Renaud became the best actress category's co-winner for her superb acting skills in the French movie Driving Madeleine.
The Punishment, a coproduction by Chile and Argentina which explores the psychology of motherhood, took home the Best Feature Film award.
Mexican filmmaker Lila Aviles won the Best Director award for Totem, a Mexico-Demark-France coproduction which tells a family's unlikely gathering from the eyes of a seven-year-old child. One of the movie's cast members, Montserrat Maranon, won the award for Best Supporting Actress.
Sweeping a total of five awards, The Shadowless Tower – a Chinese movie inspired from Beijing's historic White Pagoda – soared as one of the biggest winners, with its cast members Xin Baiqing and Tian Zhuangzhuang respectively taking home the best actor and best supporting actor awards.
Xin said he found it hard to believe the movie, a quietly narrated arthouse flick, could win so much fancy from the jury panel. This movie marks his second-time collaboration with director Zhang Lyu after the 2022 Yanagawa, Xin expressed his hope that the award-winning movie will perform well in the market upon its release later this year.
Director Zhang, who also wrote the movie and received the best screenplay award, surprisingly said: "On my way to the film festival's award ceremony, a friend asked me 'Which phase in the making of this movie did you like the most?' Honestly, I least enjoyed the period while writing the script, which was a one-person 'battle' to fight against loneliness and isolation," said Zhang.
He said that it was the participation of other major creators that helped him shake off his sense of loneliness, adding that he believes the honor should belong to all of his fellow cast and crew members.
Iconic director Zhang Yimou, who has won more than 500 awards domestically and overseas during his filmmaking career which spans nearly four decades, received a lifetime achievement award at the festival.
"We have always been working hard to promote and publicize Chinese film culture. I was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy at the age of 28 and directed my first film Red Sorghum at the age of 38. It has been around 40 years since then. On the path of making films, I am still learning and consider myself a young person," said Zhang, emotionally.
Reciting a famous line from the poem Man Jiang Hong (Full River Red) written by the renowned general Yue Fei during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), which also served as the inspiration for his highest-grossing film of the same title, Zhang encouraged young talent to value their time and pursue their dreams.
Source: By Xu Fan | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2023-04-29 22:22
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