The 7th Beijing International Film Festival ended on Sunday with “Luka,” a movie from Georgia, winning the Best Feature Film award at the closing ceremony. The movie, directed by George Barabadze, is a reflection on the damage wrought by the war on the lives of people. In the movie, the mother and grandmother of Luka look for his body after he was killed on the battlefield.
Other Winners
“House of Others,” another Georgian film, bagged the Best Cinematography and Best Director awards. The director of the movie is Rusudan Glurjidze.
China Plus reported that other winners of the 10th Tiantan Awards include “Mr. No Problem,” a Chinese movie. Based on an adaptation of a 1943 novel by Lao She, the film won the Best Screen Play award and the Best Actor award.
Mei Feng doubled as the movie’s director and playwright. He shared that he was under pressure when he adapted the novel of Lao She, considered a master in the modern history of Chinese literature. The challenge he had to overcome was to be creative while being loyal to the original story. Mei Feng pointed out that Lao She has very unique angles and insightful opinions in literature writing on society and human nature.
The Iranian movie, “The Sis,” won for Golab Adineh the Best Actress award. The movie is about Tala and Ati, a mother and daughter who lived together for many years, but they reach the point of having to separate, Tehran Times reported.
The winners were chosen from 15 movies by a jury led by Bille August, a renowned Danish filmmaker. The jury’s members include Jiang Wenli, a Chinese actress, Mabel Cheung, a Hong Kong director, and Paolo del Brocco, a movie producer.
Symbol of China’s Movie Industry’s Development
Although the Beijing Film Festival is only on its seventh year, it symbolizes the development of China’s movie industry, Chris Dodd, chief of the Motion Picture Association of America, said.
The Beijing Film Festival is only seven years old. But Dodd said the festival is a symbol of the development of the movie industry in China. “Today's festival is a reflection of China's place as a global leader in creativity and innovation. The annual tickets sales in 2009 were 6 billion RMB. Equally impressive, in 2016, the Chinese population went to the movies 1.4 billion times. That's more than United State and Canada combined,” Dodd added.