Two directors share VIFF’S Best New Director award
The directors of films from France and the Philippines have been named the winners of Vancouver International Film Festival’s inaugural Best New Director award.
The award goes to Axelle Ropert, who directed Miss and the Doctors (France), described by the jury in a news release as a “beautifully realized romantic drama, intelligent and full of love for all its characters.”
It also has been awarded to Mikhail Red, director of Rekorder (Philippines), which is described as an “ambitious, urgent and passionate film about the underside of contemporary urban life.”
Special mention went to director Marcelo Tobar with Asteroid (Mexico), a “complex portrait of a sibling relationship that builds to a brave and resonant conclusion.”
The winners were announced before a special presentation screening of Shira Piven’s Welcome To Me (U.S.A.) at the Playhouse on Thursday.
The other nominees were: Daniel Rodriguez, who directed Womb (Peru); Gabriel Mascaro with August Winds (Brazil); Chienn Hsiang with Exit (Taiwan); Suzuki Yohei with Ow (Japan); Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson with Paris of the North (Iceland); Andri Cung with The Sun, Moon and the Hurricane (Indonesia); Alex Johnson with Two Step (U.S.A.); and Richie Adams with Una Vida: A Fable of Music and the Mind (U.S.A.)
The prize will be awarded annually to a first or second-time international director for a creative and innovative film that has not yet won significant international recognition. The competition flows directly from VIFF’s 20-year history of offering the Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema.
VIFF said it’s pleased to continue to help launch the careers of some the world’s most deserving and promising young directors.
Sitting on the jury for this new award was Ben Gibson, director of degree programs at Australia’s National Film School; Kim Linekin, CBC Radio’s national pop culture columnist and chairwoman of the Vancouver Film Critics Circle; and Roland Smith, called the “godfather of repertory cinema” by The Montreal Gazette.