A film adaptation of the Chinese Kun Opera "A Dream of the Red Mansion" bagged three awards at the 12th Monaco International Film Festival held on Sunday in the country's administrative area of Monte Carlo, according to Women of China.
Directed by Gong Yingtian, the film won the festival's top award, Best Film Angel Award, the first time a Chinese film was accorded the honor.
The adaptation, which was also chosen to open the festival on Dec. 4, also won Best Original Music and Best Costume Design.
The eponymously titled film is adapted from renowned Chinese writer Cao Xueqin's 18th-century epic, which is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels.
Also known as "Dream of the Red Chamber" and "The Story of the Stone," the opera is considered a Chinese literature masterpiece and the highest point of the country's storytelling.
Gong's adaptation was hailed by the festival officials as a fine melding of the traditional and the modern.
"The Kun Opera film, 'A Dream of the Red Mansions,' uses modern film technique to perfectly fuse the over 600-year-old Chinese Kun Opera with the Chinese classic 'A Dream of the Red Mansions,' written 200 years ago," said Zeudi Araya Cristaldi, the jury president of the festival.
The four-day film festival showcased 16 films and 10 screenplays from filmmakers from all over the world.