Lina Wang’s A First Farewell and Ivan Salatic’s You Have The Night won the top prizes at this year’s Firebird Awards at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF).
A First Farewell won the Firebird Award in the first ever Chinese-language Young Cinema Competition, while You Have The Night was presented with the same prize in the ‘World’ category of the awards.
Xu Zhenhao’s Give Me A Ride won two awards in the Chinese-language competition, for best director and best actor for Dang Yu’s performance, while Huang Yao won best actress for The Crossing.
Best director in the World competition went to Bas Devos for Hellhole, while Gustav Lindh took best actor for Queen Of Hearts and Martina Apostolova won best actress for Irina.
Chinese filmmaker Jiang Wen headed the jury for the Chinese-language competition, while French critic Michel Ciment presided over the World competition jury.
This year’s FIPRESCI Prize went to Indian director Ridham Janve’s The Golden-Laden Sheep And The Sacred Mountain, which was filmed in the Gaddi language using non-professional actors.
HKIFF 2019 FIREBIRD AWARDS:
Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language)
Firebird Award: A First Farewell, dir: Lina Wang
Best Director: Give Me A Ride, Xu Zhenhao
Best Actor: Give Me A Ride, Deng Yu
Best Actress: The Crossing, Huang Yao
Young Cinema Competition (World)
Firebird Award: You Have The Night, dir: Ivan Salatic
Best Director: Hellhole, Bas Devos
Best Actor: Queen Of Hearts, Gustav Lindh
Best Actress: Irina, Martina Apostolova
Documentary Competition
Firebird Award: Midnight Family, dir: Luke Lorentzen
Jury Prize: Advocate, Rachel Leah JONES, Philippe Bellaiche
Short Film Competition
Firebird Award: All These Creatures, Charles Williams
Jury Prize: The Call, Anca Damian
FIPRESCI Prize
The Golden-Laden Sheep And The Sacred Mountain, dir: Ridham Janve