Asian New Talent Award shortlist announced

Six films have been shortlisted for the top film prize at this year's Asian New Talent Awards, which are part of the on-going Shanghai International Film Festival.

Ning Hao, Jury President for this year's Asian New Talent Award, speaks to the media at the Shanghai International Film Festival, June 17, 2019. [Photo: siff.com]

Chinese director Ning Hao heads the jury for this year's New Talent Award, he said "all members of the jury have agreed that personal creative vision, style and aesthetics would be the important criteria to evaluate works presented by young filmmakers."

Three of the six films shortlisted for this year's Asian New Talent film prize are from China.

Jury member Philip Cheah, coordinator of the Hanoi International Film Festival, said each of the films up for the top prize deserves recognition.

"We only see the famous big-budget blockbuster films. But from my experience watching the Asian New Talent Award competition films: there's a whole sector of young talents which we don't know the names of, but the thing is that their films are really very good. So the real challenge now is to bring all sorts of Chinese films to any festival around the world. It needn't be big A-list festivals and it can even be a smaller regional festival," said Cheah.

Actress Tan Zhuo speaks at a media event at the Shanghai International Film Festival, June 17, 2019. [Photo: siff.com]

The Chinese films up for the Asian New Talent Award include Teng Congcong's "Send Me to the Clouds," "The Fourth Wall" by Zhang Chong and "To Live to Sing," directed by Ma Nan.

The other nominees include Iranian feature "The Graveless" by director Mostafa Sayari, Japanese director Yuko Hakota's "Blue Hour" and Indian director Akshay Indikar's "Trijya-Radius."

The awards will be handed out on June 21st.