The Taiwan International Documentary Festival came to a close yesterday, awarding Maria Ramos of the Netherlands the prize for best film in the international competition for her film Justice.
Ramos won the top honors and NT$300,000 at the ceremony in Taipei for her film that looks at the lives of people moving through Brazil's court system.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
The Jury Award in the international competition went to Eyal Sivan and Audrey Maurion of Germany and France, respectively, for their film I Love You All, a piece about a high-ranking officer in East Germany's secret police force who reflects on two decades of service to the state just as the regime is collapsing.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Sharing the festival's Exceptional Film Prize in the international competition were Jerusalem My Love by Jeppe Rode and Flashback by Latvian director Herz Frank.
Winning NT$200,000 and the top prize in the Asian film competition category was Tunska Pansittivorakul for his humorous film titled Happy Berry, which follows a group of young people in Bangkok who open a fashion store and struggle to achieve their unlikely dreams of stardom.
In the Taiwan documentary competition, Farewell, 1999 (再會吧 1999) by Wu Ching-yi (吳靜怡) shared top honors with Let it Be (無米樂) by Cres Yen (顏蘭權). The Jury Award in the category was given to Lee Jong-wang (李中旺) for Radio Mihu (部落之音), a film about an Aboriginal village's slow reconstruction following the 921 earthquake in 1999.
The Exceptional Film Prize in the category was awarded to Michelle Chu (
This year's biennial received over 1,000 submissions, a two-fold increase over the number of submissions to the last festival. Over 120 films were selected for screening, with 70 films taking part in the festival's three compeitition categories.
The festival opened and closed with works by documentary and film luminaries Naomi Kawase, Werner Herzog and Agnes Varda.
The winners of the Fourth Taiwan
International Documentary Festival :
International Competition:
First Prize: Justice, by Maria Ramos
Jury Award: I Love You All by Eyal Sivan and Audrey Maurion
Exceptional Film Prize: Jerusalem My Love by Jeppe Rode and Flashback by Herz Frank
Asian Vision Competition:
First Prize: Happy Berry by Tunska Pansittivorakul
Image-Taiwan Award:
First Prize: Farewell, 1999 (
Jury Award: Radio Mihu (
Exceptional Film Prize: Someone Else's Shinjuku East (
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