2023.09.07
The 25th SIWFF Award Winners
The 25th SIWFF Award Winners
Discovery
Best Feature: Family Time (Tia KOUVO)
Special Jury Prize: Sister, What Grows Where Land Is Sick?
(Franciska ELIASSEN)
Best Director: Tótem (Lila AVILÉS)
Special Mention: Until Branches Bend (Sophie JARVIS)
Jury’s Comment
At
the Discovery section screening the
first or second film of female directors from around the world, this year too,
we were able to enjoy the pleasure of 'discovering' new talents who create
their identity as women and their external relationships with their perception
and language. The diverse range of works-including documentaries and feature
films, bold genre attempts, and experimental works that explore the video
itself- makes it difficult to group them into one specific trend, which is
thought to be a reflection of the directors' wide-ranging concerns and
interests about the world and media. Nevertheless, if one must point out a
notable trend, more works than ever depict family and the various internal and
external concerns and conflicts that derive from it. Perhaps we have been
forced to look back and inquire into the most primal relationships because of
the time of disconnection that has completely changed our way of life over the
past few years.
As
much fun as there was, the process of selecting the award-winning work among
the twelve was more fierce than ever. We had various and earnest discussions
about each film and the work each judge supported. The intense consideration
process led to a heated debate over the inspiration one would expect from good
films. Although the judges' opinions were not unanimous, it was a process where
they listened to each other and learned a lot from others and the movies in the
process of selecting each film. We hope to see the following films of female
directors that we have newly discovered and learned about through this
screening through the SIWFF in the future.
Discovery
Jury of
Finals
MO Eunyoung, Soda Jerk,
LEE Jeong-hyang
Best Feature: Family Time (Tia KOUVO)
Behind
the seemingly peaceful appearance of a family gathering at the table for the
first time in a long time to spend Christmas together, the film portrays
long-standing conflicts and pain, problems of care, and a profound reflection
on the love-hate existence of a family that cannot be broken up. The movie
conveyed the universal resonance that we cannot help but experience as we live
in relationships. Just as soup gets tastier the more you keep stirring it, Family Time is a work in which the power
of a movie can be felt as time passes. This work will be more powerful tomorrow
than today.
Special Jury Prize: Sister, What Grows Where Land Is Sick?
(Franciska ELIASSEN)
How
fully can we understand the universe as a whole person? Sister, What Grows Where Land Is Sick? depicts the inner journey of
a younger sister who discovers the other side of the world's closest yet most
unfamiliar being through poetic and dreamy images. We, the judges, send our
support to the journey of this film, which created its universe unknown to the
world amidst the despair of an ununderstood being and the contrast between
devastated nature.
Best Director: Tótem (Lila AVILÉS)
The
Best Director award goes to a work that the jurors felt was an incredibly
confident and striking film. What stood out about Tótem was the layered perspective and the way that it was unafraid
to present relationships in all their inherent complexity and messiness. Told
largely through the eyes of a child, the film wrestles with themes of
mortality, kinship and care. Despite the presence of death throughout the film,
it is never bleak. Despite the point of view of a child, it is never naive.
Asian Shorts
Grand Prize: Fly Me to the Sea (Rox Kexin LI)
Excellence Prize: When the Whistle Sounded (HSIEH Li-Ling)
BNP Paribas Excellence Prize: Teleporting (KWON Ohyeon, NAM Arum,
TANZAWA Chifumi, NOKA Nana)
Audience Prize: Bug (MYOUNG Sejin)
Jury’s Comment
This
year's twenty films that made it to the finals of the Asian Shorts brilliantly portrayed the pain and anger that Asian
women face and the solidarity and vitality to overcome it in their own ways.
Despite the ongoing violence against them, the women firmly state their will
through quiet but determined recitations in their respective places. Through
the works, we met working women, women who love, care, and relate, women who
look into old wounds, and women who protect themselves from the oppression of the
state, patriarchy, and heterocentrism.
Some
films surprised us with new perspectives and unique format attempts. Some works
showed the ability to produce unexpected waves while dealing with familiar
themes. Jumping Club, Spasm, and Bride Stone successfully described the humiliation and absurdity of
a patriarchal society. Films like Muse
and Jiwon and Yulia vividly portrayed
women accepting their identity as lesbians.
Through
twenty films, we, three judges, were able to say goodbye to the helplessness
brought on by the isolation of the pandemic and gain energy to leap forward
toward the world once again. We want to take this opportunity to express
endless gratitude to twenty movies.
Asian Shorts of Finals
KIM Soo-jung, OK Ja-yeon, WADA-MARCIANO Mitsuyo
Grand Prize: Fly Me to the Sea (Rox Kexin LI)
Fly Me to the Sea, created by director Rox
Kexin Li, has what it takes to stand out from the rest of the competition.
Despite being a short film, the film has an excellent narrative structure, a
wealth of skillful character development, and above all, the charm of the muted
mis-en-scène captured by the excellent camera work. The charm of Fly Me to the Sea is reminiscent of the
works of Jia Zhangke, a filmmaker who represents The Six Generation in the
history of Chinese cinema. However, Rox Kexin Li does not merely emulate Jia
Zhangke, but succeeds in giving a poverty-stricken, fading woman (protagonist
Hao) an arresting radiance and strength. Hao, dressed as a mermaid, seems to
express the beauty and hope inherent in all human beings, as she swims in a
run-down, old aquarium. All I can say is that a wonderful newcomer has emerged
once again from the P.R.C. cinema world.
Excellence Prize: When the Whistle Sounded (HSIEH Li-Ling)
This
film is like a new breeze from Taiwan. The director, Hsieh Li-Ling, and the
screenwriter, Chen Ying-Ju, co-wrote the scenario. The film is a political
statement by the two women through cinema: the political conflict between the
P.R.C. and Taiwan is represented as the suppression and/or self-censorship
towards the opening event by the female students with a Taiwanese flag and
military rifles. The film retains a look at the macro world’s politics from the
micro world of the girls. Their final protesting performance is outstanding,
and it gives the audience hope for peace.
BNP Paribas Excellence Prize: Teleporting (KWON Ohyeon, NAM Arum,
TANZAWA Chifumi, NOKA Nana)
Teleporting is a work that stirred
hearts through the tireless and dashing fight of four Korean and Japanese women
who did not let go of unity even during the pandemic. We were able to discover
another possibility and hope that we so desperately wanted to portray in the
scene where overcoming physical disconnection and inviting each other's
characters to a place of violence using virtual reality. We are sure the
audience wants to take a proof shot at the wit and ambitious spirit of the
female directors who left us in tears.
I-Teens
Grand Prize: Differentiation (KWON Yeha)
Excellence Prize: Your Liberation (PARK Hyejin)
Jury’s Comment
Each
of the five films screened at the I-Teens
this year featured the unique colors of teenage female directors. At the same
time, we, the judges, think that the common denominator was that they
persistently tried to capture society from the gaze of teenagers in a creative
format. We felt the director's affection for the characters in each movie, and
we fell in love with them, too.
The
protagonists in the five movies all grow knowingly or unknowingly. It was
impressive that the common keyword “growth” was told by combining genres such
as thriller, romance, and documentary with new subjects. Also, we enjoyed
watching films that well incorporated the bubbly ideas and humor that only
teenagers can have.
It
was a moment for us to realize that even the same teenagers had a variety of
topics they wanted to speak to the world. We recognize there is no barrier to
being a teenager, and we look forward to the movies they will make as they gain
more experience. It took much work to determine the superiority of the works
while judging. However, the process was a significant driving force for us
movie-loving teenagers, and it proved that we are all very persistent people.
It was an honor for us to share the world as seen by teenage female directors
through films and to be able to judge them.
I-Teens
Jury
KIM
Rana, KIM Siyeon, LEE Suhyeon, JUNG Chae-en
Grand Prize: Differentiation (KWON Yeha)
The
main character of Differentiation,
Ah-jeong, prepares a special funeral with her mother. She feels genuine
affection for Gyeong-suk, who has been liberated from the title of mother. Each
cut was composed with a narrative, using the story unfolding from Ah-jeong's
perspective and the metaphor of flowers. We believe the unfamiliar sense of
accepting separation due to death and feeling love was well delivered to the
audience. The funeral takes place in the house where loved ones were gathered.
We hope to see the fruition of everything the director loves in movies in the
future.
Excellence Prize: Your Liberation (PARK Hyejin)
Your Liberation is a work in which you
can feel the power of the war experience in everyday life that does not stop
with the director but extends to her grandfather and us. The movie captures the
conversation between the director and grandfather about the war simply and
honestly, and the cry for liberation to the world leaves a lasting impression.
It is impressive that the film is driven by interviews with people around the
director who experienced the Vietnam War similarly and her relationship with
his grandfather. We applaud the director for asking the audience what
liberation is with the war from the perspective of a teenager.
