Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room and Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection were named as best films at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), which was cancelled due to Covid-19, but went ahead with online judging for its competition sections.
Both films also won best actress in their respective sections – Jin Jing for The Cloud In Her Room in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language), and Mary Twala Mhlongo in the Young Cinema Competition (World) for This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection. Mosese’s film, shot entirely in the director’s native Lesotho, also picked up the FIPRESCI prize.
Liang Ming’s Wisdom Tooth won best director and best actor (Wu Xiaoliang) in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language).
Best director in the Young Cinema Competition (World) went to India’s Pushpendra Singh for The Shepherdess And The Seven Songs. Bakhtiyar Panjeeri won best actor in this section for his performance in Iranian filmmaker Nader Saeivar’s The Alien, while a special mention went to Greek filmmaker Janis Rafa for Kala Azar.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Ree’s The Painter And The Thief won the Firebird Award in the Documentary Competition, while the Jury Prize went to Emmanuel Cappellin’s Once You Know.
HKIFF had been scheduled to take place as a physical festival August 18-31, after being postponed from its usual March/April timing, but was cancelled in late July after Hong Kong was hit by a third wave of Covid-19 infections.
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