Following its recent win at the Taipei film festival, Leon Dai’s No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti won the grand prize at Japan’s Skip City International D-Cinema Festival (July 10-20).

Filmed in black and white, the second feature from Taiwanese filmmaker Dai is based on a true incident about a man who was unable to register as his young daughter’s father due to her mother already being married to someone else when she abandoned her at birth. It recently won four prizes including best film at the Taipei Film Festival.

Skip City feature competition jury head Mataichiro Yamamoto said: “The decision was unanimous. The jury members were very excited to talk about this film.” The prize came with a $63,400 (Y6m) cash award from festival sponsor Sony. Dai, also a well-known actor, made his feature debut with box office hit Twenty Something Taipei in 2002.

The best director prize and $21,134 (Y2m) went to Jean-Stephane Sauvaire’s hard-hitting France-Belgium co-production Johnny Mad Dog. Mexican filmmaker Mariana Chenillo’s debut feature Nora’s Will took best screenplay, while Darko Lungulov’s Here And There was awarded the special jury prize at its Asian premiere. Each received $10,565 (Y1m).

The newly-created Skip City award was bestowed on Kazuya Shiraishi’s debut feature Lost Paradise In Tokyo. The prize offers $10,565 and post-production backing for the director’s next feature. As reported on Screendaily.com last month, the prize and the domestic features category were established to support local filmmakers.

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