‘The Way We Talk’, ‘Family Matters’ Take Top Awards At NYAFF
The Way We Talk, from Hong Kong director Adam Wong, scooped the Audience Award at this year’s New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), while the Uncaged Award for Best Feature Film went to Family Matters from Taiwan’s Pan Ke-Yin.
Starring Marco Ng, Neo Chau and Chung Suet Ying, The Way We Talk follows three twentysomething friends as they navigate various levels of deafness. The film resonated with NYAFF audiences for its “powerful portrayal of language, connection, and inclusion”. At last year’s NYAFF, the Audience Award went to Thai drama How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies.
Family Matters was praised by the Uncaged jury for its “non-chronological biography of a family told from four perspectives, employing smart editing to delicately layer themes of shame and secrecy.”
The Uncaged Award is designed to honour risk-taking filmmakers who have not yet received international accolades or are still under the radar,
Two films in NYAFF competition received Special Jury Awards: Ash Mayfair’s Skin Of Youth, about a transgender woman saving for gender-affirming surgery in 1990s Saigon, and Xu Lei’s Green Wave, about a struggling scriptwriter’s relationship with his recently widowed father.
Jury member Chin Han Ng lauded Skin Of Youth for its “courageous exploration of identity and the power of love that defies societal expectations.” The jury cited Green Wave’s “heartwarming and intimate conversation between a father and son, visually captivating and darkly funny through deft and often surreal storytelling.”
NYAFF’s Shorts Showcase gave awards to three films: Good Mourning, directed by Japan’s Nina Tsuji; Sammi Who Can Detach His Body Parts, by Indonesian filmmaker Rein Maychaelson; and Finding The Rainbow, directed by Korea’s Hwanga Yang.
The festival ran July 11 to 27 with guests including Lisa Lu, Ekin Cheng, Japanese director Toshiaki Toyoda and rising actress Natalie Hsu. It wrapped with a closing night presentation of Flower Girl, from the Philippines’ Fatrick Tabada, about a transphobic sanitary napkin endorser who insults the wrong person in the rest room and ends up losing her vagina.
