Shanghai Talent award goes to India's Kshay

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Festival News

Kshay क्षय (2011) by Indian film-maker Karan GOUR (pictured left) took the prize for best film this weekend at the Shanghai International Film Festival 上海國際電影節's Asian New Talent Awards.

The competition is open to first and second time directors.

The main and final prize of the evening, for best director, went to China's PENG Lei 彭磊 for youth drama Follow Follow 樂隊 (2011). Earlier in the evening, Jessey TSANG 曾翠珊 from Hong Kong won the jury prize for Big Blue Lake 大藍湖 (2011).

Kshay (aka Corrode), the tale of an ordinary housewife's growing and dangerous obsession with a religious icon, has been on the festival circuit for much of the last year, with appearances in competition in Dubai, and other prize-winning runs at the South Asian International Film Festival in New York and the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. It went on theatrical release in India last week (15 June) through PVR Pictures Ltd.

The best film and best director prizes are both worth $23,800 (RMB150,000), while the special jury prize is worth the same in post-production services from Technicolor. Receiving the award, Tsang's producer Teresa KWONG 鄺珮詩 said the money would benefit the documentary that the director is currently shooting. Gour's team claimed that their prize money exceeded the entire budget of their black-and-white psychological drama.

The awards were made by a jury composed of Iranian director-screenwriter Amir NADERI, Chinese director CAI Shangjun 蔡尚君, South Korean critic CHUNG Sung-il 정성일, Japanese director Sabu サブ and Chinese actress XU Fan 徐帆.

The main competition prizes – Golden Goblet Awards – will be announced on Sunday (24 June) evening by an international jury headed by France's Jean-Jacques ANNAUD.

 
Earlier in the week the festival's project market Pitch and Catch named its winners.

The Most Promising Project for Investment was The Dragon Angel by director Ning Ying; the most creative project was The Hero Of My Grandfather by Deng Ke, a tale of war veterans squabbling over the relocation of a tomb. Dragon Angel, which weighs in with a hefty budget of $11.5 million is a live action film which mixes in elements of animation in the story of a boy trying to save a Beijing courtyard from redevelopment. Both were awarded $15,700 (RMB100,000).

Other Pitch And Catch winners were Taiwanese filmmaker Lin Shuyu with Her Second Wedding, which won the BesTV award; Li Yang with To Kill A Demon, which picked up the KO award of post-production services from China's KO Media; and Zhang Meng who received the TSFG award worth $23,800 (RMB150,000) of post-production services from Technicolor for Tattoo.

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