Masoumi and Gao grab Golden Goblets

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Festival News

The 15th Shanghai International Film Festival 上海國際電影節 (16-24 June) closed on Sunday evening with the presentation of the Golden Goblet Awards at the Shanghai Grand Theatre in the centre of the city.

Khosro Masoumi's The Bear from Iran took the top prize at the glamorous awards ceremony. It was the second time that the director had won the main prize in Shanghai; in 2004, his Tradition of Lover Killing (Rasm-e ashegh-koshi) also won best film.

Presenting best film, jury president Jean-Jacques ANNAUD said that there were too many good films for the limited number of prizes. He verbally gave two unofficial special mentions to Spain's Chrysalis and China's Falling Flowers 蕭紅, films that he said had impressed the jury.

Many of the winners were present in Shanghai to receive their awards, in contrast to some previous years. It was perhaps a sign of the increased budget of this year's festival following greater support from local governmental organisations. The budget of this year's edition is believed to be approximately US$4 million.

Both local nominated films won prizes, GAO Qunshu 高群書's Beijing Blues 神探亨特張 for best director and Falling Flowers for best cinematography. Gao (pictured centre) congratulated the non-professional cast of his police drama, drawing particular attention to leading actor ZHANG Lixian 張立憲 who was in the audience.

Seventeen films competed at the nine-day festival including four from Asia, Bijukumar DAMODARAN's Colour of Sky ആകാശത്തിന്റെ നിറം from India, UCHIDA Kenji 内田けんじ's Key of Life 鍵泥棒のメソッド from Japan, and, from China, Beijing Blues and HUO Jianqi 霍建起's Falling Flowers.

Stars on the red carpet included China's SONG Jia 宋佳, Xiao Shen Yang 小瀋陽, LI Xiaoran 李小冉 and HUANG Lu 黃璐, Hong Kong's Cecilia CHEUNG 張柏芝 and Kara HUI 惠英紅, Taiwan's Van FAN 范逸臣 and Morris RONG 戎祥 and South Korea's NO Min-u 노민우 and HAN Ga-in 한가인 | 韓佳人.

Han is the star of the closing film, romantic drama LEE Yong-joo 이용주 | 李勇周's Architecture 101 건축학개론.

 
2012 GOLDEN GOBLET AWARDS

• Best Film: Bear; dir. Khosro Masoumi [Iran]
• Jury Prize: For the Love of God; dir. Micheline Lanctôt [Canada]
• Best Director: Gao Qunshu for Beijing Blues [China]
• Best Actor: Vladas Bagdonas for The Conductor [Russia]
• Best Actress: Ursula Pruneda for The Dream of Lu [Mexico]
• Best Screenplay: Uchida Kenji for Key of Life [Japan]
• Best Cinematography: Shi Luan for Falling Flowers [China]
• Best Music: Avshalom Caspi for Chrysalis [Spain]

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