‘Uncle’ and ‘Atlantis’ take home top prizes at Tokyo festival

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‘Jojo Rabbit’ to open Macao Fest & Awards

LOS ANGELES, Nov 5, (RTRS): “Uncle”, Danish director Frelle Petersen’s drama about a young woman’s life on a small farm with her disabled uncle, was awarded the Tokyo Grand Prix at the closing ceremony Tuesday of the 32nd Tokyo International Film Festival. Shot in rural Denmark with real-life farmer Peter Hansen Tygesen playing the title role, the film had its world premiere in the Japanese capital.

Winner of the second-place Special Jury Prize was “Atlantis”, Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s near-future drama.

Iran’s Saeed Roustaee was named Best Director for his thriller “6.5”. Navid Mohammadzadeh’s performance in the film earned him the Best Actor trophy.

The Best Actress award went to Nadia Tereszhiewicz for her performance in Dominik Moll’s “Only the Animals”. The film also scooped the Audience Award.

The Best Screenplay prize went to Shin Adachi’s “A Beloved Wife”, one of two Japanese films in the competition, while Chinese director Wang Rui was on hand to accept the Best Artistic Contribution award, which went to “Chaogtu With Sarula”.

In the Asian Future section for films by up-and-coming Asian directors, the Best Film award went to “Summer Night” (China) and the Japan Foundation Asia Center’s The Spirit of Asia prize to “Old Men Never Die” (Iran).

In the Japanese Cinema Splash section for Japanese indie films, the Best Film was Tatsuya Mori’s documentary “I – Documentary of the Journalist”, while Hirobumi Watanabe scooped Best Director honors for “Cry”.

Finally, the Tokyo Gemstone Award for new talents went to Josefine Frida, Sairi Ito, Riru Yoshina and Yui Sakuma. The previously announced Lifetime Achievement awardees are actor Tatsuya Nakadai and director Nobuhiko Obayashi.

Held this year from Oct 28 to Nov 5, the Tokyo festival recorded 65,211 admissions to 180 films, slightly down from last year, when 187 films were screened.

Also:

LOS ANGELES: Taika Waititi’s provocative Nazi comedy “Jojo Rabbit” has been set as the opening night gala screening at the fourth edition of the International Film Festival & Awards Macao.

The festival packs together a competition section that includes recent festival favorites Gitanjali Rao’s animation “Bombay Rose”, and barely fictionalize modern-day slavery drama “Buoyancy”, by Rodd Rathjen, alongside gala screenings of “Shaun The Sheep 2: Farmageddon”, and Japan’s “Dance With Me” by Shinobu Yaguchi.

A strong Chinese presence includes “Better Days” by Derek Tsang; Cannes Critics Week film “Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains” by Gu Xiaogang; “To Live To Sing” by Johnny Ma; and Singaporean director Anthony Chen’s “Wet Season”.

The World Panorama strand films by celebrated directors, includes “The Invisible Life Of Euridice Gusmao”, winner of Un Certain Regard, “Little Joe”, for which Emily Beecham won best actress in Cannes, and “Proxima”, for which director Alice Winocour won special prize of the jury at San Sebastian. It also includes ore Chinese titles, Lou Ye’s “Saturday Fiction”, Diao Yinan’s “Wild Goose Lake” and Pema Tseden’s “Balloon”.

The competition is worth a generous $60,000 first prize. The jury selecting the winners includes Peter Chan Ho-sun, executive Ellen Eliasoph, actress Dian Sastrowardoyo, director Midi Z, and actor Tom Cullen.

The festival will run from Thursday Dec 5 until Tuesday Dec 10, 2019. Its accompanying film project market and industry conference series runs Dec 6-8.

“I am especially pleased that there are five new Macao features in the program in this special anniversary year,” said the IFFAM’s artistic director Mike Goodridge. After a period of Portuguese, colonial rule, Macau returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1999. The five are: ensemble film “Years of Macao”; “Ina and the Blue Tiger Sauna”, by Antonio Caetano de Faria; “Let’s Sing”, by Keo Lou; “Patio of Illusion”, by Chen Shangshi; and “String Of Sorrow”, by Oliver Fa.

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