Hong Kong movies Time Still Turns the Pages (年少日記) and Fly Me to the Moon (但願人長久) won the Golden Horse Audience Choice Award and FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Prize respectively, award organizers said on Friday.
Time Still Turns the Pages, directed by Nick Cheuk (卓亦謙), beat four other films shortlisted for the noncompetition award decided by 483 movie fans from Hualien, Hsinchu and Tainan.
The fans had two days to screen the five films and choose a winner, the film festival’s Web site said.
Photo: CNA
Also shortlisted were Stonewalling (石門), Marry My Dead Body (關於我和鬼變成家人的那件事), Eye of the Storm (疫起) and Snow in Midsummer (五月雪).
Cheuk, who brought to the ceremony a hippo doll featured in the movie, said the result exceeded his wildest dreams, because the film, which focuses on the everyday pressures of life and a child dealing with sadness, can be difficult for audiences to discuss.
Meanwhile, the critics’ choice award winner, Fly Me to the Moon, directed by Sasha Chuk (祝紫嫣), tells the story of two sisters from China’s Hunan Province trying to adjust to their new lives with their parents in Hong Kong.
Photo: CNA
The film on Wednesday also won the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema Award.
In the FIPRESCI Prize category, the movie was up against Time Still Turns the Pages, This Woman (這個女人) and Love Is a Gun (愛是一把槍).
Fly Me to the Moon was chosen based on a decision by Taiwanese film researcher Wang Chun-chi (王君琦), Italian curator Paolo Bertolin and Malaysian film critic Kalash Nanda Kumar, the Golden Horse Web site said.
The FIPRESCI Prize, which aims to promote film as art and young upcoming filmmakers, is awarded at international and other major film festivals. The federation is an international non-governmental organization comprising professional film critics and journalists from around the world.
Chuk said it was an honor to receive the same award as Hu Bo (胡波), the late director of An Elephant Sitting Still (大象席地而坐), referring to her winning the prize as a “dream comes true.”
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