Keen competition for China’s Best Director of the Year
BEIJING: It’s going to be a very keen competition for the ultimate accolade of Best Director of the Year.
Nominees for this category for the 10th China Film Directors’ Guild Awards include Jia Zhangke, Zhang Yimo, Jiang Wen and Lü Yue.
Lu is a young and promising director Wen Muye, whose Dying to Survive was well received by audiences and critics.
The jury includes the director of the record-breaking film The Wandering Earth Guo Fan, 2019 Golden Bear winner Wang Xiaoshuai and veteran director Yin Li as the head of the panel.
Feng Xiaogang’s Youth was previously named as the best film.
Nominations for best film include Wrath of Silence, Ash is the Purest White, Operation Red Sea, Dying to Survive, A Cool Fish and Shadow.
Wang Hongwei, a director and the head of the Preliminary Jury, said the standard and rules are more important than personal favours since he cannot live up to the efforts of the film industry and people’s trust.
“Our consensus of the selection standard is professionalism, credibility and independence. We want to show people what a good movie looks like in our opinion, or what direction we are going to put efforts in,” Wang said on the ceremony.
Among the five preliminary jury members, three of are newbies.
Director Zhang Dalei, 37, is the youngest preliminary jury member.
“It is an opportunity for me to watch numerous of films and learn from them. To be honest, for me there were much more opportunities of learning than just selecting,” Zhang said at the ceremony.
“This is a cruel and hard work, and it is difficult to be considerate. I hope people can understand us,” said director Li Weiran, another freshman of preliminary jury.
“I will insist to support films that I think is great and trying to balance their professionalism and business success,” said director Guo Fan, member of final judge panels, “as our audiences mature, the quality of the film becomes more and more important.”
Director Feng Xiaogang, also the deputy guild chairman said: “It is the most influential film award for Chinese mainland directors because it is selected by professionals… and I think the CFDG offers a platform for young directors. And what I’m most excited about is that in the last three to five years, a multitude of stylish young directors have appeared.”
The final winners will be announced on Apr 26.