Indonesia’s Edwin to receive New Talent Award at AFAs

Edwin is currently attending the Berlin film festival where his second feature, Postcards From The Zoo, is screening in competition. His first feature, Blind Pig Who Wants To Fly, played widely on the festival circuit and won several awards including the FIPRESCI prize at Rotterdam.

He is the third recipient of the award following Japan’s Ishii Yuya in 2008 and Taiwan’s Wei Te-Sheng in 2010. The award was initiated at the second AFAs in 2008, to commemorate the renowned Taiwan filmmaker Edward Yang, who passed away in 2007.

The AFAs are organised by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFFS), which also organises the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) and the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF).

This year’s AFAs will be held on March 19 at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, which also marks the first day of Filmart (March 19-22).

After the Berlinale, Postcards From The Zoo will compete for the Firebird Awards for Young Cinema at HKIFF (March 21-April 5).

“The aim of the award is, of course, to encourage emerging talents from the region,” said HKIFFS executive director Roger Garcia.

“We are very happy to find in Edwin a most deserving recipient of the award. His approach to cinema and eternal human issues is at once lyrical, dreamlike, magical, and I’m almost tempted to say mythical. I venture that we are witnessing an auteur in the making, hopefully the evolution of a world class filmmaker.”