Beijing Film Festival closes, bestowing "Luka" Best Film

The crew of film “Mr. No Problem” at the closing ceremony of the Beijing International Film Festival [Photo: sinaimg.cn]

The 7th Beijing International Film Festival closed on Sunday, with winners of 10 Tiantan Awards released.

Chinese film "Mr. No Problem," an adaptation based on a 1943 novel by Lao She, won the Best Screen Play and the Best Actor.

The film is the maiden work of director Mei Feng, who also served as the playwright.

Mei said he learned a lot when creating the script.

"Mr. Lao She was a master in modern history of Chinese literature. I was under pressure to adapt the work of such a master: How to be loyal to the original story while be creative. Lao She has very unique angles and insightful opinions in literature writing on the society and human nature. We've got a lot."

Georgian film "Luka" grabbed the highest honor of the Best Feature Film at the closing ceremony.

Directed by George Barabadze, the movie depicts how Luka's mother and grandmother looked for his body after the man was killed on the battlefield. The film reflects on a war's damage on people's lives.

Another Georgian film "House of Others" won the Best Cinematography and the Best Director awards.

The Best Actress went to Iranian performer Golab Adineh, who led the cast in film "The Sis."

The awards winners stood out from 15 films. The jurly was led by Danish film legend Bille August, and joined by Chinese actress Jiang Wenli, Hong Kong director Mabel Cheung, and producer Paolo del Brocco.

The Beijing Film Festival is only seven years old. But Chris Dodd, chief of the Motion Picture Association of America, says the festival is a symbol of the development of the movie industry in China.

"Today's festival is a reflection of China's place as a global leader in creativity and innovation. The annual tickets sales in 2009 were 6 billion RMB. Equally impressive, in 2016, the Chinese population went to the movies 1.4 billion times. That's more than United State and Canada combined."

The organizer of the festival says they define the event as a seeker of new film makers.