Editor

The most anticipated awards of the Taipei Film Festival 2011, the Audience’s Choice Award, Special Mentions, the Special Jury Prize and the Grand Prize of the International New Talent Competition were announced on July 30 after long deliberations made by the five jury members, chaired by Tony Rayns.  The jury members were CHUNG Mong-Hong from Taiwan, Tony RAYNS from Britain, XIE Fei from China, YEH Jufeng from Taiwan and ZEZE Takahisa from Japan.
 
The Grand Prize with a cash award of NT$600000 for director, was awarded to Familiar Grounds, directed by Stéphane Lafleur from Quebec in Canada. A splendid dark comedy, with themes and visuals which are equally inventive, which says that you can outwit fate (and even buck the treacherous Canadian winter weather) if you find a way to work out your domestic and familial problems. The jury loved the way the humor accrues from small and precise details, and the skillful knitting together of disparate motifs and images.

The Special Jury Prize with a cash award of NT$300000 went to LIVE! , directed by Yury Bykov from Russia. The multi-talented young director (he not only wrote and directed but also composed the music) gives us an existential fable about life and death which is fully grounded in real people and places … and in real and immediate moral choices. Made with limited resources, the film transcends all limitations to deliver a concise and very powerful vision of humanity at its extreme.
You Are The Apple Of My Eye, directed by Giddens from Taiwan, won the Audience’s Choice Award this year. You Are the Apple of My Eye is an adaptation of Giddens's autobiography, about his high school life devoted to romantic pursuits of girls in the campus, joined by his four best pals. Besides making movies, Giddens is a renowned author who published his first best selling book online and kept publishing books in amazing speed ever since.
 
Outbound, directed by Bogdan George Apetri from Romania, was one of the winners of the Special Mentions. This very powerful film from the Romanian New Wave marks the arrival of a director of exceptional talent. Outbound describes a cruel and brutal situation, but with a special sensitivity to its woman protagonist, with real emotion, and with a knockout ending.  FATHER, directed by José María de Orbe from Spain, shared the honor with Outbound in the same category. Compared to usual narrative films, the story of this film lies not in the film but within the audience's mind.
 

Taipei Film Festival 2011
International New Talent Competition Winners
 
GRAND PRIZE
 FAMILIAR GROUNDS　∕　STÉPHANE LAFLEUR
 
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
 LIVE!　∕　YURY BYKOV
 
SPECIAL MENTIONS
 OUTBOUND　∕　BOGDAN GEORGE APETRI
 
SPECIAL MENTIONS
 FATHER　∕　JOSÉ MARÍA DE ORBE
 
AUDIENCE’S CHOICE AWARD
 YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE　∕　GIDDENS
 

The jury was chaired by Tony Rayns, and the jury members were, in alphabetical order:  
‧ CHUNG Mong-Hong from Taiwan
‧ Tony RAYNS from Britain
‧ XIE Fei from China
‧ YEH Jufeng from Taiwan
‧ ZEZE Takahisa from Japan
 
GRAND PRIZE FAMILIAR GROUNDS　∕　STÉPHANE LAFLEUR
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE LIVE!　∕　YURY BYKOV
SPECIAL MENTIONS OUTBOUND　∕　BOGDAN GEORGE APETRI
SPECIAL MENTIONS FATHER　∕　JOSÉ MARÍA DE ORBE
AUDIENCE’S CHOICE AWARD YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE　∕　GIDDEN