Taiwanese filmmaker Chang Rong-ji’s (張榮吉) movie Touch of the Light (逆光飛翔) has won the KNN Movie Award (Audience Award) at the 17th Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, according to the festival’s final report released online yesterday.
The movie was the only Taiwanese film to win an award at the annual South Korean event. The two other nominated Taiwanese films were Together (甜‧秘密) by Hsu Chao-jen (許肇任) and Go Grandriders (不老騎士) by Hua Tien-hao (華天灝).
Although the movie did not win the New Currents Award, for which it was nominated, it won audiences’ hearts.
New Currents Award winners were 36 from Thailand and Kayan from Lebanon and Canada.
The KNN Movie Award by the KNN Foundation goes to a film from the New Currents section selected by audiences, and carries a US$20,000 award for the director.
“I’m more than happy that the film breaks language and culture barriers,” Chang said before the award ceremony.
Shooting a film is just like having a child, said Chang, whose wife gave a birth to a girl on Oct. 11. The director added that the award is also a great gift for his newborn.
The director said he will celebrate upon his return to Taiwan before beginning work on a film featuring adolescence issues.
Based on a true story, Touch of the Light is about a girl who dreams of becoming a dancer and develops a friendship with a blind musician.
The movie won the Audience Choice Award and the Best Actress Award at the 14th Taipei Film Awards, and was nominated for the categories of Best New Director and Best Actress at the 49th Golden Horse Film Festival. It was also submitted for the 85th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
The Busan festival, which started on Oct. 4, ended yesterday, with 304 films screened, according to the official Web site.
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