The five-member jury headed by Michael Cimino also presented a Special Jury Prize to Aida Begic's Bosnian drama Snow and its Discovery Award to local director Hur Jin-ho's melodrama Happiness.
The Audience Choice award was given to Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai's police thriller Mad Detective. The award was presented by Hong Kong-based actress Charlie Young, the only big-name celebrity attending the closing ceremony.
Festival organisers claim ticket sales of 62,596, filling 83.5% of the approximately 75,000 available seats. While this represents a 5% increase on the percentage of tickets sold last year, screening rooms were smaller this year and ticket sales level.
The hottest selling tickets at the nine-day festival were for the final cut of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, part of a tribute to visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumball at the event that primarily celebrates classic films of the past.
While CHIFFS is one of the richest festivals in Asia, event still has the feeling of a small festival with just 36 international guests in attendance. A large portion of the festival's budget is allocated to marketing and promotional events.
The closing night ceremony had just one political speech from the Mayor of Jung-gu, whose district of Seoul financed half of the festival's official $4m budget. He announced that the third edition of the festival would begin on September 3, 2009.
No comments yet