News:
Filipino Films Win Top Asian Hotshots Berlin Filmfest 2009 Awards
Filipino filmmakers Francis Xavier Pasion and Mark Reyes win top Asian Hotshots Berlin Filmfest 2009 awards besting other films in competition from Japan, China, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and India.
Best Feature film
First Prize
Jay
Philippines 2008
Francis Xavier Pasion
96 min
JAY is the story about the brutal murder of a gay school teacher and the background of this case. Told as a grim, incisive satire and textbook of the corruptive and manipulative mechanisms of mass media. In the same way it is a mediation on the ways in which the third world is produced everyday as a spectavle and audiences who prefer their entertainment to be as crazy as their lived reality. What is reality? How is it constructed? And in whose interest?
Francis X. Pasion graduated at the Ateneo de Manila. He worked as a soap opera writer for TV abd directed award-winning short films. Shocking experiences coming wiht his assignment as headwriter and producer foa a public service program inspired him to write the screenplay of JAY.
and
Salawati
Singapore 2008
Marc X Grigoroff
82 min
A 12-year old Malay girl sees her family safe haven disrupted because of her brother's swimming accident. Over the course of the film, Salawati's story and the truth about her brother's tragic death slowly emerge. Emotionally gripping, deep and convincingly told, Salawati questions our human faith, and explores the mutual dilemmas of a multi-cultural society.
US-born Marc X Grigoroff, now a Singapore PR, has been active in commercial and corporate as well as TV and stage productions, winning numerous awards in advertising. Salawati is his directorial first, based on a real event.
Second Prize
Invisible Children
Singapore 2008
Brian Gothong Tan
85 min
Episodes of the everyday, mischievous and refreshing, Invisible Children gives a humorously poignant picture of family, work and private life in present-day Singapore. With remarkable assuredness and a genuine sense of subversiveness, Brian Tan in his debut feature brings to light some of the unanswered yearnings inherent in a streamlined society.
Best Short film
First Prize
God Only Knows
Philippines/USA 2008
Mark Reyes
17 min
A heart-gripping story from the slums: forced by economic circumstances a mother has to look for foster parents or her infant son. However, paradise expected in the first world can easily mean hell too.
Second Prize
Hoolahoop Soundings
Indonesia 2008
Edwin
7 min
A girl hula-hoops to let her phone sex customers hear the noise - a remake of Joel Coen's graduate film in college.
Manfred Durniok Prize
Die Legende Von Shiva and Parvati
Germany/India 2008
Krishna Saraswati
85 min
Tracing back the ancient Indian legend of Shiva and Parvati, this movie recounts a powerful lovestory written by life, which takes us from a small German village into the rough landscape of the Himalayas. Far away from the beach towns populated by hippies, a young Western woman meets an Indian ascetic and falls in love with him. 30 years later their son seeks their traces. A story that is far more than an exotic portrayal.
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