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First Post
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- First Post
78th Festival de Cannes: Who won what at the event? Here's the full list of winners
We had celebrities and influencers from all over the world to grace the festival and dazzle at the red carpet. But it's not just about fashion but films too read more The 78th Festival de Cannes that began from May 13 was a festival filled with razzmatazz. We had celebrities and influencers from all over the world to grace the festival and dazzle at the red carpet. But it's not just about fashion but films too. It is more about who made what than who wore what. Here's the list of winners for this year: Feature Films Palme d'or UN SIMPLE ACCIDENT Jafar PANAHI Grand Prix AFFEKSJONSVERDI (SENTIMENTAL VALUE) Joachim TRIER STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Joint Jury Prize SIRT Oliver LAXE SOUND OF FALLING Mascha SCHILINSKI Best Director Kleber MENDONÇA FILHO for O AGENTE SECRETO (THE SECRET AGENT) Best Screenplay Jean-Pierre DARDENNE & Luc DARDENNE for JEUNES MÈRES Best performance by an actress Nadia MELLITI in LA PETITE DERNIÈRE directed by Hafsia HERZI Best performance by an actor Wagner MOURA in O AGENTE SECRETO (THE SECRET AGENT) directed by Kleber MENDONÇA FILHO Special Award KUANG YE SHI DAI (RESURRECTION) Bi GAN Short Films Palme d'or I'M GLAD YOU'RE DEAD NOW Tawfeek BARHOM Special Mention ALI Adnan AL RAJEEV Un Certain Regard Un Certain Regard Prize LA MISTERIOSA MIRADA DEL FLAMENCO (THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO) Diego CÉSPEDES 1st film Jury Prize UN POETA (A POET) Simón MESA SOTO Best Directing Arab & Tarzan NASSER for Once Upon a Time in Gaza Best Actor Frank DILLANE in Urchin directed by Harris Dickinson Best Actress Cleo DIÁRA in O Riso e a Faca (I Only Rest in the Storm) directed by Pedro Pinho Best Screenplay PILLION Harry LIGHTON 1st film Caméra d'or Caméra d'or Prize THE PRESIDENT'S CAKE Hasan HADI Directors' Fortnight Special Mention MY FATHER'S SHADOW Akinola DAVIES JR Un Certain Regard La Cinef First Prize FIRST SUMMER Heo GAYOUNG KAFA, South Korea Second Prize 12 MOMENTS BEFORE THE FLAG-RAISING CEREMONY QU Zhizheng Beijing Film Academy, China Joint Third Prize GINGER BOY Miki TANAKA ENBU Seminar, Japan WINTER IN MARCH Natalia MIRZOYAN Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia
The Star
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Student-directed Chinese short honored at Cannes Film Festival
CANNES, France, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese short film, 12 Moments Before the Flag-raising Ceremony, directed by Qu Zhizheng of the Beijing Film Academy, has been awarded the Second Prize in the La Cinef section at the 78th Cannes Film Festival. The 16-minute film centers on a student at a Beijing secondary school who, though seen as a "model student" for his role as flag bearer during the school's weekly flag-raising ceremony, begins to question the significance of his position. While the story appears to depict a routine moment in campus life, it probes deeper into the structures of the educational system, unpacking the psychological weight and institutional expectations surrounding such rituals. The First Prize in the La Cinef section was awarded to the South Korean short film First Summer, while the Japanese short Ginger Boy and the Estonian short Winter in March shared the Third Prize. All four winning films were screened following the award ceremony in Cannes, with a special screening scheduled to take place in Paris on June 6. La Cinef, part of the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, is dedicated to showcasing and supporting student films -- whether fiction or animation -- that exhibit emerging talent and creative promise, according to the organizers. This year's La Cinef section featured 16 student films, selected from 2,679 submissions representing 646 film schools around the world.
Asia Times
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Asia Times
New Jia Zhangke film: 20 years of footage to capture a changing China
Chinese independent director Jia Zhangke's new film Caught by the Tides provides a unique vision of China's rapid social transformation in the 21st century. Using a combination of documentary footage and scenes shot by Jia over the past 20 years during the making of his earlier films, Caught by the Tides follows Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao) and her boyfriend, small-time hustler Bin (Li Zhubin). Bin leaves their small town to make his fortune working on the Three Gorges Dam and Qiaoqiao goes to find him, taking her on a journey through the changing landscape of contemporary China. The film registers not only monumental changes, like the building of the dam, but the minutiae of everyday details from changing fashion to altered streetscapes. Jia's film is a quiet and meditative affair that dwells on the passage of time in a fast-paced world. The film not only captures 20 years in a rapidly changing China, but also offers a reflection on Jia's career as a filmmaker. Jia was born in 1970. He grew up in the city of Fenyang, Shanxi province, and came of age during Deng Xiaoping's economic liberalization and 'opening up' of the 1980s. He studied at the Beijing Film Academy before returning home to shoot his first feature Xiao Wu (Pickpocket) in 1997. The films he made in Shanxi – Xiao Wu, Platform (2000) and Unknown Pleasures (2002) – have been dubbed his 'hometown trilogy.' Shanxi is known for its notoriously dangerous coal mining industry. Jia focused on the lives of those left behind by China's 'economic miracle' and life outside of the metropolis. His use of non-actors, preference for street shooting and slow minimalist style set his work apart from commercial Chinese cinema. The second film in the trilogy, Platform, includes a mesmerising performance from Zhao Tao, then an unknown actor who has since starred in all of Jia's later films. Zhao and Jia were married in 2012. Zhao is a key artistic collaborator whose portrayal of strong female protagonists is central to all the director's later work. Jia's international breakthrough came with Still Life (2006), shot in the ancient area of Fengjie on the banks of the Yangtze while cities were being demolished and thousands displaced to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. Working on Still Life confirmed Jia's belief in 'cinema's function as memory' – capturing the present before it disappears. Still Life combined Jia's early realist style with a new surreal approach, including a building taking off and a mysterious flying saucer zooming into the distance. To Jia, this blend of realism and surrealism is essential for portraying China's rapid historical transformation. He says the speed of development in China 'has had an unsettling surreal effect.' To represent this, he has experimented with all the possibilities of cinema blending documentary, fiction, animation, pop music, Chinese opera and digital images to create a stunning body of work. Caught by the Tides continues Jia's experimentation with cinema and history in his most ambitious work to date. Production was influenced by the COVID pandemic, when Jia was unable to start work on a new film. Instead, he began to review footage he and his director of photography Yu Lik-Wai had shot since 2001. Jia describes the process of reviewing the footage as 'like time-travelling' as he returned to the beginning of the 21st century and his youth. The film is partly composed of a collage of documentary footage which Jia and his collaborators spent over two years editing. We see excitement in the streets when Beijing is announced as the host city of the 2008 Olympic Games, before cutting to a montage of young people dancing in strobe-lit underground nightclubs. This kaleidoscope of documentary footage is combined with scenes shot during the making of Jia's earlier films. From this combination of archival footage featuring Jia's regular stars Zhao and Li Zubin, a story emerges about China's rapid change. Jia began work on Caught by the Tides during COVID. MK2 Films As Qiaoqiao guides the viewer through the chaotic transformations taking place in the country, there is something particularly arresting about seeing places and actors change before our very eyes. The final scenes, shot with modern digital cameras, have a sleek and cold aesthetic in contrast to the pixelated early footage. It is in part a reflection of Jia's own melancholic view of historical change in which the past is forgotten, and the everyday lives of ordinary people disappear from view. Yet as a whole, the film suggests cinema can preserve the past and give dignity and beauty to everyday experiences. Caught By the Tides provides viewers with a refreshing glimpse of Chinese life from within. Cinema like Jia's remains in a unique position to promote a more nuanced view of China's complex and ever-evolving history. Thomas Moran, Lecturer in the Department of English, Creative Writing and Film, University of Adelaide This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Festival Favorite Bi Gan Mentored the Dreamy Berlin Coming-of-Age Premiere ‘The Botanist' to Bloom: Watch the Teaser
One of IndieWire's favorite films of 2019 was 'Long Day's Journey Into Night,' Chinese director Bi Gan's genre-bending epic that used 3D and more formally twisting conceits to tell a story of romantic longing and a tryst that leads to a disappearance. While between films, Bi, who is rumored to have his much-anticipated third feature 'Resurrection' premiere at Cannes this year, ended up mentoring a young budding director for their own woozily dreamy portrait, 'The Botanist.' Jing Yi's new film premieres at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival in the Generation Kplus section, and IndieWire shares an exclusive first look below. Here's the synopsis, per the Berlinale's official website: 'In a village in a remote valley on the northern border of Xinjiang, China, a lonely Kazakh boy named Arsin nurses fading memories of his family. He finds solace in the company of plants. The arrival of Meiyu, a Han Chinese girl, is like the discovery of a plant he has never seen before, bringing him comfort and a strange sense of wonder. Together, they grow like two distinct species, rooted in a shared corner of the world, imagining the valley as an endless ocean. But one day, Arsin learns that Meiyu will be moving to Shanghai, which is 4,792 kilometres away – a distance he struggles to comprehend. She is headed to a city where the ocean actually exists. Arsin is left alone to grapple with the quiet shifts in their small, fragile world.' More from IndieWire 'No Other Land' Is Nominated for an Oscar, but in Masafer Yatta, We're Still Being Erased - Opinion How the Editing of 'Conclave' Gives Its Cardinal All the Clues Jing Yi, born in 1994 and raised in Xinjiang, is a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy. His debut feature film 'The Botanist' was selected as an official project at the Asian Project Market 2023, where it won the New Horse Award. The film also received post-production funding from the Doha Film Institute Grants Programme 2024 Spring session. 'The Botanist' premieres on Saturday, February 15. Here's the teaser. Magnify is handling worldwide sales rights. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie The 55 Best LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now
