The largest annual exhibition of East Asian films outside Asia is internationally recognized as one of the most significant in the world, and attracts a strong list of filmmakers, distributors, film critics and scholars each year.
This ongoing major focus highlights the cutting-edge from South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Begun in 1985, the series addresses the continued excellence in East Asian cinema, Vancouver's key geographic situation, its unique ethnic mix, and the initiatives being taken at all government levels to enhance economic and cultural ties between Western Canada and the Pacific Rim. Programmed by British film scholar and critic Tony Rayns and Shelly Kraicer, a respected scholar of Chinese cinema now living in Beijing.
Dragons & Tigers Award
For the fifteenth year running, the Festival is pleased to offer the Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema to a new director from the Asia-Pacific region. It is given to a creative and innovative film, made early in the director's career, which has not yet won significant international recognition. Once again, we're hugely grateful to Brad Birarda for continuing to sponsor this award, and the series as a whole.
This year's jury will consider a line-up of eight films, listed below. The prize - which will include a $10,000 award to the director - was be announced before the 7:00 p.m. screening of Hansel and Gretel in Granville 7 on Thursday, October 2.
“The eight films we watched were not all perfect, and probably none of them was a masterpiece. But we enjoyed all of them in different ways, and found in each of them signs of great energy and talent.”
We want to single out two particularly strong films for Special Mentions:
The main character is disturbing, yet unexpectedly fascinating. Taken with naturalistic performances from the entire cast, this is a strangely moving film.
For its use of an incredible location, and the very clever way it combines elements of documentary with fiction.
This year's Dragons and Tigers Award goes to:
Perfect Life by Ms Emily TANG from Hong Kong/China.
For the way it captures the harshness of Chinese reality through its fictional protagonist, and for the subtlety of its wonderfully free storytelling.”
Perfect Life will be screened again on Friday, October 3 at 3:45pm at Vancity Theatre.
The Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema is presented by
BRAD BIRARDA.
