Last night the 17th Annual Dragons and Tigers Award for Young Cinema was presented at the Granville 7 VISA Screening Room, as part of Vancouver International Film Festival. The house was packed in anticipation of both the award winner as well as that evening’s screening of Feng Xiaogang’s Aftershock.
The jury included three acclaimed directors: South Korea’s Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Mother), Quebec’s Denis Côté (Curling), and China’s Jia Zhangke, a former Dragons & Tigers winner for 1998’s Xiao Wu.
There were eight nominees for this year’s award:
Don’t Be Afraid, Bi! from Vietnam (Phan Dang Di, director)
End of Animal from South Korea (Jo Sunghee, director)
Good Morning to the World! (Sekai Good Morning! ) from Japan (Hirohara Satoru, director)
Icarus Under the Sun from Japan (Abe Saori & Takahashi Nazuki, directors)
Insects in the Backyard from Thailand (Thanwarin Sukaphisit, director)
Kimu; The Strange Dance from South Korea (Park Donghyun, director)
Rumination from China (Xu Ruotao, director) and
Sandcastle from Singapore (Boo Junfeng, director)
I watched the young Japanese director’s face beam as his name was called. At age 23, Hirohara Satoru definitely fits into the category of Young Cinematographer!
Here’s a few photos as taken from the stage, and later from the press conference. He received a beautiful glass award and $10,000 cash. Congratulations, Hirohara!
[Hirohara Satoru]
[Thanwarin Sukaphisit, director, Insects in the Backyard]
[Hirohara Satoru and Thanwarin Sukaphisit]
The film will receive an encore screening on Saturday, October 9 at 1 pm at the Pacific Cinémathèque.
