Daniyar Salamat’s The Divorce was the first film from Kazakhstan to win the best film prize at the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF)’s Golden Goblet Awards. It also secured the best actress award for Omarova Amira.
The 1920s-set film revolves around a husband and wife who are in a relationship crisis, while depicting the social realities that repress the role of women.
The jury praised the film for “the sophisticated form of its story which mixes comedy, farce and tragedy and moves fluidly from public sphere to the intimate relationship of a couple in crisis” and for “the filmmaker’s ability to create a feeling of innocence which radiates his film and its characters”, achieving “a rare quality in today’s cinema”.
The jury was led by Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung who presented the award on stage to Salamat. The Kazakhtani director from Central Asia has previously directed 2005’s Zhyoshya and 2008’s Together With My Father.
The jury grand prix was handed out to Mariano Gonzalez’s Adult, an Argentine film that “reveals with urgency, tension and truth, the social degradation of a country from the eyes of a teenager who must understand how to deal with adults”, while the best director award went to Georgia-Russia production Snowflakes In My Yard’s Bakur Bakuradze for constructing “a beautiful film about an endearing and touching person-character going through an existential crisis, while giving us clues about the very process of a film director”.
Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming was named best actor for Wei Shujun’s Don’t Worry, Be Happy, for which he put on 15kg of weight to play a mentally challenged man living with his mother until she is diagnosed with cancer. Two further Chinese films were recognized at the Golden Goblet Awards: Gu Changwei’s Hedgehog and Guan Hu’s A Man And A Woman took best screenplay and best cinematography respectively.
At the 26th SIFF, a total of eight awards from the main competition of the Golden Goblet Awards were given out at the Shanghai Grand Theatre on June 22. Among the award presenters were Chinese animation director Bu Sifan, Chinese singer Zhou Bichang, Chinese actress Zhou Xun, Chinese actor-director Da Peng, Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka-Fai and Chinese director Cao Baoping.
A separate Golden Goblet Awards ceremony for the 20th Asian New Talent competition took place on June 20 at Crowne Plaza Shanghai, with Zeng Zhi’s Friday, Funfair from China winning best film, and Abhilash Sharma’s In The Name Of Fire from India winning best director and best actor for Satya Ranjan.
Full list of winners below
Main competition
Best Feature Film
The Divorce (Kazakhstan)
Dir. Daniyar Salamat
Jury Grand Prix
Adult (Argentina)
Dir. Mariano Gonzalez
Best Director
Bakur Bakuradze for Snowflakes In My Yard (Georgia/Russia)
Best Actor
Huang Xiaoming in Don’t Worry, Be Happy (China)
Best Actress
Omarova Amira in The Divorce (Kazakhstan)
Best Screenplay
Zheng Zhi, Guo Fangfang, Gu Changwei for The Hedgehog (China)
Best Cinematography
Zhang Ying for A Man And A Woman (China, Hong Kong)
Outstanding Artistic Achievement
The Wasteman (Iran)
Dir. Ahmad Bahram
Best Documentary Film
Ms. Hu’s Garden (China)
Dir. Pan Zhiqi
Best Animation Film
The Colors Within (Japan)
Dir. Naoko Yamada
Best Live Action Short Film
The Event Horizen (Israel)
Dir. Shira Geffen
Best Animated Short Film
Kill The Horse (China)
Dir. Guo Xiaoruo
Asian new talent competition
Best Film
Friday, Funfair (China)
Dir. Zeng Zhi
Best Director
Abhilash Sharma for In The Name Of Fire (India)
Best Actor
Satya Ranjan in In The Name Of Fire (India)
Best Actress
Jayashiri in Bird Of A Different Feather (India)
Best Script Writer
Zhang Xuyu for Fishbone (China)
Best Cinematography
Huang Shaohui for Habitat (China)
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